Latest news with #KathyHochul
CBS News
12 hours ago
- Climate
- CBS News
Excessive heat ahead for NYC area. 1st heat wave of 2025 expected next week.
The New York City area is expected to be hit with extreme heat over the next several days. Summer officially arrives Friday night, and it's coming in with a vengeance. The humidity makes a return this weekend, as temperatures start to climb for what could be the first heat wave of the year. Some areas are on track to hit 100 degrees early next week. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is scheduled to hold a briefing at 9 a.m. regarding the heat, and she is expected to talk more about the state's Essential Plan Cooling Program, which ensures eligible New Yorkers have access to free air conditioners. You can watch the governor's remarks streaming live on CBS News New York, in the video player above. How to beat the heat around NYC New York City beaches are open with lifeguards on duty, but pools aren't scheduled to open until next week, once school is out for the summer. Officials warn the heat can be dangerous, and it's best to limit time outside, especially midday. Stay in the shade as much as possible, and drink plenty of water. Remember, these recommendations apply to pets, too. Those without air conditioning are encouraged to visit one of the city's cooling centers. CLICK HERE to find one near you. The heat comes after strong storms swept through on Thursday night, causing severe damage in some parts of the area. A teenage boy was also struck by lightning near 101st Street and East Drive in Central Park. Police said they found him conscious and sitting up against a fence. He was taken to a hospital with neck injuries.
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Elon Musk taking New York state to court over hate speech law
Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against the state of New York, arguing that its new anti- hate speech law aimed at social media companies is unconstitutional. The X owner has taken exception to the Stop Hiding Hate Act, otherwise known as Bill S895B, arguing in the suit that it violates basic free speech rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law in December, requiring tech firms to publish their terms of service and file regular reports outlining the steps they have taken to moderate extreme content, hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful material being shared on their platforms. It finally came into effect this week, but Musk is contesting its stipulations on the basis that they would require X to reveal 'highly sensitive information' about its practices, also opposing its potential $15,000 per violation per day fines. The Act was authored by New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and State Assemblymember Grace Lee, in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League, to compel tech giants to take greater accountability for disturbing content hosted and shared across their networks. The authors dismissed the objections raised in X 's suit and called it an attempt to 'use the First Amendment as a shield against providing New Yorkers with much-needed transparency.' Hoylman-Sigal and Lee reportedly rejected an approach from Musk's company last year to discuss the bill and suggest amendments, saying they did not believe it was acting in good faith and would only seek to weaken its provisions. 'Now more than ever, with the rise in political violence and threats emanating from the spread of hate speech and disinformation by President Trump and Elon Musk, New Yorkers deserve to know what social media companies like X are doing (or not doing) to stop the spread of hatred and misinformation on their platform,' the duo said this week. X has also launched a legal challenge against an equivalent law in California, an approach consistent with Musk's efforts to reduce content moderation on X, formerly Twitter, since he acquired the company in 2022. As The Guardian has noted, while Musk styles himself as a 'free speech absolutist,' he has a track record of using his platform to attack media outlets that report unfavorably about his activities. Most recently, he has rebuked The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal for reporting on his alleged drug use while working alongside President Donald Trump in the White House. This relationship recently came to a spectacularly acrimonious end, with the two billionaires trading insults on X and Truth Social, respectively.
Economist
a day ago
- Politics
- Economist
Democrats could do a lot better with the power they hold
THE VIDEO of Brad Lander getting slammed against a wall and arrested by federal immigration agents shocked New Yorkers, who are not easily shocked. On June 17th the mild-mannered city comptroller had been attempting to escort a migrant through a federal building in Manhattan as agents tried to detain the man. 'It's bullshit,' said Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York, of Mr Lander's arrest. It came a week before a crowded Democratic primary for New York City mayor, in which the city comptroller is a candidate. The arrest may well help his campaign, but it marked yet another skirmish over immigration with Donald Trump's administration. It is just the latest escalation in a confrontation with cities and states that did not vote for the president, on a topic where the public supports him most.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
New York mayoral candidate arrested by Ice: ‘Trump is looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear'
As New York city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was hauled away by masked Ice agents on Tuesday, all he could think about was whether there was anything more he could do for the man he was trying to help, an immigrant New Yorker named Edgardo. Both men ended up detained, but unlike Edgardo's, Lander's ordeal was over after a few hours. By the time New York governor Katy Hochul marched him out of the courthouse – after proclaiming, of his arrest: 'This is bullshit' – videos and photos of the officers manhandling him had gone viral. The arrest of yet another elected official prompted widespread condemnation of another sign of the US's steady slide into authoritarianism. A host of New York politicians, along with a swelling crowd of angry New Yorkers, awaited Lander outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. (Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and mayoral race frontrunner, was a notable absence, though he did condemn the arrest.) 'I wasn't surprised there were a lot of folks outside angry both about the violations of the rights of immigrants and about Trump's efforts to undermine democracy,' Lander told the Guardian in an interview. 'The Trump administration has been very clear that they are looking to stoke conflict, weaponize fear, and undermine democracy, and here they are doing it,' he added. Lander was 'just fine', he told the crowd. He had lost a button in the commotion. But he would sleep in his bed and while no charges against him were filed, he would have had access to a lawyer if they had been. 'But Edgardo will sleep in an Ice detention facility God knows where tonight,' he said. 'He has been stripped of his due process rights in a country that is supposed to be founded on equal justice under law.' A day after the ordeal, Lander said he had no updates on Edgardo, a Spanish-speaking immigrant whom Lander had met just before they were both detained. Lander had been accompanying Edgardo as part of an organized effort to shield immigrants from agents who have been increasingly stalking them for arrest when they appear for their regularly scheduled court hearings. On Tuesday, the group watching proceedings at the court included four rabbis, in addition to Lander, his wife Meg Barnette, and other advocates. He's been showing up, he says, because people in the immigration court system are otherwise unprotected. 'This is one of the rights violations of this system,' he said. 'All these people in it with no lawyers and really no one, no advocates, no one looking out for them.' With early voting well under way and election day less than a week away, the New York City mayoral race is heating up – and Wednesday's arrest has significantly raised the visibility of Lander, a well-respected, long-time New York politician who has nonetheless struggled to gain recognition in what is largely a race between Cuomo and leftist Zohran Mamdani. (Mamdani rushed to the courthouse on Wednesday as soon as news of Lander's arrest broke.) Lander, who like Mamdani is pitching a progressive vision for a more affordable city, is also running on his years-long experience with city government and his bridge-building skills. Lander is the third Democratic politician recently detained by Department of Homeland Security officials in connection with Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. In this distinction, he joins the California senator Alex Padilla, recently handcuffed and forcibly removed from a DHS press conference, and Newark mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested while protesting outside an immigration detention center in New Jersey last month. Lander sees in the targeting of outspoken Democratic politicians the fulfillment of the Trump administration's promise to 'liberate' cities such as Los Angeles and New York. He said it was 'strange' to find himself a casualty of the administration's crackdown. 'But unfortunately not that strange, as Trump has named New York City on the list of places where they are planning to both ratchet up immigration enforcement and put pressure on elected officials.' In recent weeks Ice agents have been ordered to ramp up arrests, even without warrants. In a video of Lander's arrest, he is heard asking Ice agents multiple times for a warrant – which they do not produce – before telling them, as they place him in handcuffs, that they 'don't have the authority to arrest US citizens asking for a judicial warrant'. The Ice agents who arrested him knew he was an elected official, Lander said. He tried to learn more about them while he was detained. 'I asked a few questions just to understand who they were,' he said. They were also immigrants – one a Pakistani Muslim resident of Brooklyn, the other an Indo-Guyanese man from Queens. 'I asked about their shifts. I hear that Ice agents are working a lot of hours right now,' he said. 'Brad's arrest was shocking – not in the violence, not in the lawlessness, because we've seen this directed at immigrants and citizens profiled as immigrants – but in the decision from Ice to inflict that violence on a sitting elected citywide official,' said Sophie Ellman-Golan, an organizer with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, of which Lander has been a member for decades. Along with JFREJ, he has been working with Immigrant Act, another advocacy group, in shifts to accompany immigrants to court hearings. Lander has gained some momentum after challenging Cuomo during a recent mayoral debate and cross-endorsing fellow progressive Mamdani. But he consistently polled in third place in the race, well behind the other two. Lander called out the current mayor – Eric Adams, who offered little sympathy – of having 'sold out our city' through corruption. He said Cuomo 'made no effort whatsoever to reach out to most New Yorkers' and that he and Mamdani cross-endorsed one another 'because we fundamentally agree that Andrew Cuomo is utterly unfit to be mayor of this city'. He cited Cuomo's hesitation when he was asked in a recent debate whether he had visited a mosque. 'He has nothing to say to Muslim New Yorkers,' said Lander. 'He is an abusive bully who doesn't even love New York City and is just in it for himself.' While some of his supporters criticised him over the Mamdani endorsement – largely due to Mamdani's openly pro-Palestinian views – Lander said that here was 'an enormous outpouring of goodwill for it'. 'It really did prompt a sense of, 'Oh, politics could be not just about individuals looking out for themselves, but trying to build something broader that would build a more aspirational vision for the city, and help people come together around it.' 'Obviously, I am putting my case out for why I will be the best mayor of New York City,' he said, citing recent endorsements as a sign his campaign is surging. But, he added, he also hoped to promote a politics 'that's trying to bring people together across divides, and in this case, having one Jewish New Yorker and one Muslim New Yorker cross-endorse in that way offers a hopeful project'. 'Whoever wins, I intend to continue to pursue that hopeful politics.'
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Bally's clears hurdle to bid on casino license at former Bronx Trump golf course site
Bally's cleared a major hurdle to bid on obtaining a gaming license to open a casino next to its golf course at Ferry Point in The Bronx. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed off after the state Legislature passed a measure on June 13 that repurposes property designated as parkland there for use as a casino and other property — a move that came days before a deadline to bid for a license. 'We are very thankful that we will have the opportunity to continue to engage Bronx community, elected and small business leaders to talk about our vision for the largest economic development project in the history of the Bronx,' said Bally's chairman Soo Kim. Bally's has cleared a significant hurdle to obtain a gaming license to open the casino next to its golf course in The Bronx. Brigitte Stelzer 'Creating thousands of jobs with this project is a win-win for the Bronx and NYC.' Bally's needed the parkland alienation done to bid on one of up to three casino licenses in or around New York City, with applications due June 27. Ball's acquired the lease for the Trumps Link golf course in 2023 — now called Bally's Golf Links at Ferry Point. The firm hopes to build a 500,000-square-foot casino on the Bronx site by its golf course along with a 500-room hotel with a spa and meeting space, retail shops, a 2,000-seat event center and two parking garages with capacity for up to 4,660 vehicles. In a statement, Bally's chairman, Soo Kim, said he is thankful that the state Legislature is helping the Bronx community in what could be seen as the largest economic development project in the borough. Bally's Corporation The state Senate and Assembly acted after getting 'home rule' authorization from the City Council. But Bally's still needs the council to approve other zoning changes as part of the Uniformed Land Use Review Procedure. It won't be a slam dunk. Bronx Community Board 10 voted against the zoning change to accomodate a casino 29 to 5. Bronx Democrats back the project. But Councilwoman Kristy Marmarato, a Republican whose district includes Bally's Golf Link at Ferry Point, opposes it. Some Democrats are not happy that the Trump Organization could receive an additional $115 million if Bally's is awarded a casino license for the premises, under the lease deal between the two companies.
