Tag: new york

Former senior policy advisor to Barack Obama’s White House who flew from New York to Britain to ‘rape a nine-year-old girl’ is jailed for 11 years

A former advisor to the US government who flew to the UK to rape a girl whom he believed to be a nine-year-old child has been jailed for 11-and-a-half years. 

International investment banker Rahamim Shy, 47, travelled to Bedfordshire from New York in February 2024 to have sex with the girl following more than a month of planning.

This followed correspondence with an individual describing herself as ‘Debbie’, the girl’s grandmother.

However, unbeknown to Shy, the girl did not exist and ‘Debbie’ was in fact an undercover officer with Bedfordshire Police.

Using an online forum and later messaging apps, Shy described in acute detail the disturbing acts he wanted to do to the girl and that he was fully prepared to travel to England to do so.

He described the girl’s age of nine as a ‘tad late’ to start sexual activity, and that it was an ‘honour’ to be considered ‘her first’.

Shy ultimately did travel to England on February 23 2024 via Gatwick Airport before driving to Bedford where he met the undercover officer and was promptly arrested.

Before his trial, the defence argued that Shy was in the USA at the time of the messaging, therefore was jurisdictionally exempt from prosecution. 

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Robbery Suspect Freed by Weak Judge — in 30 Min He Sex Assaults 3 Women and 2 Girls: Police

One day after a trip through what NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch calls the “revolving door of our criminal justice system,” a man charged with robbery was accused of groping and grabbing five women.

Jason Ayala, 31, was charged with two counts of robbery after allegedly attacking a 61-year-old man and a 51-year-old man on Jan. 12 and then stealing a cell phone from one of them, the New York Post reported on Saturday.

Although the second-degree robbery charges are among those where bail can be set, Judge Robert Rosenthal, appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, put Ayala on the street.

But as the Post told the tale, Ayala was free to do as he pleased, which led him to a public housing project where he began a 30-minute spree that started with him allegedly grabbing the buttocks of a 14-year-old girl in the lobby of the building.

After a walk to a different project, Ayala was accused of grabbing the buttocks of a 35-year-old woman.

Fifteen minutes after the first offense, he had returned to the first housing project. A 49-year-old woman was slapped on the buttocks, with Ayala being accused of the deed.

Five minutes later, Ayala was accused of touching the crotch of a 12-year-old girl and her 32-year-old mother as they rode an elevator.

The mom of the 14-year-old called police, who hauled off Ayala.

“The next day, the day after he was arraigned on the earlier robbery arrest, he victimized five additional females in Manhattan,” Tisch said.

“All of the arrests were for forcibly touching intimate parts and endangerment. He shouldn’t have been out on our streets the next day doing that,” she added.

Earlier this month, Tisch said in a statement that “we must stop the revolving door of our criminal justice system that has allowed too many violent and repeat criminals back onto our streets.”

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NY coffers hit new high from marijuana tax receipts: ‘It’s extraordinary’

New York’s coffers are starting to get a financial high from marijuana sales after a slow start.

The Empire State is expected to generate $161.8 million in tax revenues from its legal weed business for the fiscal year ending March 31 — or four times what it raked in last year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget released last week also projects generating $248 million in revenue from the state-licensed cannabis industry for the next fiscal year running from April 1 to March 31, 2026.

That’s a lot of green — up from $43.3 million raised in 2022-2023 amid a fitful rollout of the program.

State budget officials predict the revenues will then grow to $339 million in FY 2027, $363 million in 2028 and $374 million by 2029, based on expansion of the legal market.

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Report: Rules May Tighten as 100 NYC Teachers Accused of ‘Inappropriate’ Relationships with Students

Officials in New York City may finally take action after 100 educators were accused of having “inappropriate” relationships with students, according to a report.

Records show that dozens of teachers have been accused of the interactions with students that sometimes have allegedly been sexual in nature, the New York Post reported on Saturday.

“Thirty-two more cases of educators and other school staffers engaged in improper communications with kids were substantiated by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation — boosting the total to at least 121 cases from 2018 to 2024, up from 89 tallied in May, according to reports released to The Post,” the outlet said.

Special Commissioner Anastasia Coleman has pushed hard for the city’s Department of Education (DOE) to bar employees from contacting the young people via personal phone numbers, online, and through apps. She recommended over 50 times for leaders to take such action, but the DOE apparently answered with a rejection.

However, the department has told the Post it may begin a crackdown.

Social media users were quick to share their thoughts on the Post‘s article, one user writing, “Seriously, what is happening? How has this gotten so incredibly out of hand and allowed to go on?”

“This is absolutely disgusting. Every level of leadership should be held responsible,” another person commented.

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NYC Mayor Eric Adams Claims When He Complained About Illegals to Biden Admin, He Was Told to ‘Be a Good Democrat’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson and made some revealing statements.

Adams suggests that he believes he was targeted for investigation for speaking out about the border crisis and the problems it created for New York City.

He says that he had more than one meeting with Biden administration officials, including Joe Biden himself, and that after voicing his concerns, he was told by at least one person that he should ‘be a good Democrat.’

It just goes to show how little the Biden administration cared about this issue.

The Daily Mail has more details:

Tucker Carlson stunned as NYC mayor Eric Adams reveals the outrageous five-word warning Biden gave him

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Joe Biden’s shocking response to his demands that the White House do something about the migrant crisis was to keep quite and ‘be a good Democrat, Eric.’

The embattled ‘sanctuary city’ mayor claimed Biden’s reaction to the crisis that has wrecked havoc on his city was just one of many reasons the Democrat Party ‘left me and it left working class people’ in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Adams, who was indicted by Biden’s Justice Department in September on bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy charges, as well as for allegedly soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, spoke of his frustration with how the saga unfolded.

‘We have Venezuelan gang leaders that were coming to the city creating crimes,’ Adams said, which led to his asking Biden for help the condescending answer he received.

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Teen heroes who turned in alleged subway fire killer are blocked from receiving $10K NYPD reward on technicality, families say: ‘Such B.S.’

This makes no cents.

The teen heroes who nabbed subway arson killer Sebastian Zapeta-Calil have been denied the $10,000 reward promised by the NYPD — allegedly because they called the wrong phone number to report it, The Post has learned.

The trio of eagle-eyed high school basketball players — who spotted the firebug on a Queens-bound F train hours after he allegedly burned a woman to death — were told by the reward administrators that they were ineligible for the cash because they called 911 to report their sighting instead of the Crimes Stoppers tip line.

“I think it’s such B.S. that you have to call this exact number. Most people call 911,” the father of one of the boys, Navid, told The Post.

“[Getting the money] is not why they did it, but it would be nice. This was a heinous crime and this man was caught right away because of them.”

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New York Proposes Doing Background Checks on Anyone Buying a 3D Printer

The New York legislature is in the early stages of considering a bill that would require people buying certain kinds of 3D printers to pass a background check.

State Assembly Bill A2228 says that “any retailer of a three-dimensional printer sold in this state which is capable of printing a firearm, or any components of a firearm, is required and authorized to request and receive criminal history information.”

The state would then have 15 days to root through the buyer’s information, look for weapons charges or other disqualifying criminal history, and make a decision. This would, in effect, mean that anyone buying a 3D printer capable of printing any piece of a firearm (which is quite a few 3D printers) would have to pass a criminal background check.

We live in a world where anyone with access to some 3D printers, the right digital documents, and some practical knowledge can print and assemble an untraceable handgun. It’s likely that Luigi Mangione, the assassin of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, used a 3D-printed Glock-style handgun to hit his target. Governments across the world have struggled with how to handle the problem of widespread, home-printed, unregistered firearms spreading across the planet on demand.

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AT&T kills home Internet service in NY over law requiring $15 or $20 plans

AT&T has stopped offering its 5G home Internet service in New York instead of complying with a new state law that requires ISPs to offer $15 or $20 plans to people with low incomes.

The decision was reported yesterday by CNET and confirmed by AT&T in a statement provided to Ars today. “While we are committed to providing reliable and affordable Internet service to customers across the country, New York’s broadband law imposes harmful rate regulations that make it uneconomical for AT&T to invest in and expand our broadband infrastructure in the state,” AT&T said. “As a result, effective January 15, 2025, we will no longer be able to offer AT&T Internet Air, our fixed-wireless Internet service, to New York customers.”

New York started enforcing its Affordable Broadband Act yesterday after a legal battle of nearly four years. Broadband lobby groups convinced a federal judge to block the law in 2021, but a US appeals court reversed the ruling in April 2024, and the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case last month.

The law requires ISPs with over 20,000 customers in New York to offer $15 broadband plans with download speeds of at least 25Mbps, or $20-per-month service with 200Mbps speeds. The plans only have to be offered to households that meet income eligibility requirements, such as qualifying for the National School Lunch Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or Medicaid.

AT&T’s Internet Air was launched in some areas in 2023 and is now available in nearly every US state. The standard price for Internet Air is $60 a month plus taxes and fees, or $47 when bundled with an eligible mobile service. Nationwide, AT&T said it added 135,000 Internet Air customers in the most recent quarter.

AT&T has pitched Internet Air as a long-term replacement for DSL Internet in areas where it doesn’t plan to build fiber. AT&T has said it won’t build fiber home Internet in over half of its wireline footprint and will focus its fiber builds on more densely populated areas.

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Judge Merchan tries to defend himself after Trump sentencing — but he and Bragg are responsible for this monster

On Friday, the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump saw one of the most impassioned defense arguments given at such a hearing in years … from the judge himself.

Acting Justice Juan Merchan admitted that the case was “unique and remarkable” but insisted that “once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique, and extraordinary than the other 32 cases in this courthouse.”

If so, that is a damning indictment of the entire New York court system. Merchan allowed a dead misdemeanor to be resuscitated by allowing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to effectively prosecute declined federal offenses.

He allowed a jury to convict Trump without any agreement, let alone unanimity, on what actually occurred in the case.

Merchan ruled that the jury did not have to agree on why Trump committed an alleged offense in describing settlement costs as legal costs.

Neither the defendant nor the public will ever know what the jury ultimately found in its verdict.

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Democrat Former New York State Senator Lectures Residents Struggling to Afford New Congestion Pricing: “Get Over it”

Democrat former New York state Senator Alessandra Biaggi doesn’t think much of residents struggling with the economic reality of the city’s congestion toll.

The newly implemented pricing includes a $9 congestion toll on vehicles entering Manhattan, which Democrats claim will reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality by encouraging the use of public transportation.

The toll, which went into effect on January 5, 2025, applies to vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak hours—5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. Off-peak hours see a reduced toll of $2.25.

The toll is collected electronically via E-ZPass or by billing vehicles based on license plate recognition. Certain routes, such as the FDR Drive and West Side Highway, are exempt from the toll, provided vehicles remain on these roads and do not enter the city street grid.

One NYC resident took to X to explain how the toll is personally impacting him. Biaggi responded by lecturing the man to ‘get over it.’

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