Free Republic

Commuters have often said Penn Station stinks. Not like this. A sewage leak from 2 Penn Plaza sent sewer water raining down on the Long Island Rail Road concourse Wednesday morning, an MTA spokesman confirmed.

Rev. Khader El-Yateem, the first Palestinian-American to run for the City Council seat representing Bay Ridge, appears to be shaking up the race for more reasons than just the historic nature of his candidacy, according to political observers, who said he is making notable efforts to differentiate himself from the rest of the Democratic field. El-Yateem told members of the South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance at a forum the group held on April 18 that he was confident he could get Republicans to cross over and vote for him in the general election in November.

There are a lot of interesting stories making their way into the headlines of local-for those of us living in New York City-news. Critically, a dispute has emerged between Mayor Bill De Blasio and City Council Speaker Viverito, who wants to continue to provide violent, criminal aliens with publicly-funded attorneys. This is the plan originally supported by De Blasio before the absurdity of this position was highlighted by current mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis. This division once again demonstrates the lengths open borders advocates will go to defend illegal immigration, regardless of the human cost. Ms. Viverito isn’t the only member...

Located in the Manhattan’s East Village, the anti-Trump resistance now has a chic “protest-themed” place to seek adult libation. A small, intimate venue done up in brown and blue, Coup is an up-to-the-minute watering hole owned and operated by liberals who claim everyone is welcome, but whose sole purpose is to appeal to progressives who have a strong aversion to President Trump and his policies. “A coup, or more formally, a coup d’état, is generally defined as a seizure of a state by members of the military, or other figures high-up in a national government,” which makes one wonder how...

Parishioners at a New York City chapel that sheltered 9/11 first responders are praying for a miracle to save it from falling victim itself to the prosperity of its resurgent neighborhood. St. Joseph’s Chapel is living on archdiocese subsidies after the rent for the relatively small space tripled in 2014 to $264,000 a year. “If it should disappear and become a Gap or something — nothing against Gap, but it’s really not OK,” said Justine Cuccia, 55, a leader of the effort to save the tiny Roman Catholic chapel, part of the oldest Catholic parish in the state. St. Joseph’s...

Shortened title. Full title: NYC Democratic City Council Candidate Runs Hate Campaign, Cites ‘Ethnic Cleansing, Greedy Jewish Landlords’ While the United States has been observing a week devoted to marking the loss of millions of Jews and other nationals during the Nazi Holocaust in World War II, a Democratic candidate for the New York City Council is campaigning on a message of anti-Semitism and hate. In the most recent video footage uploaded by Thomas Lopez-Pierre, his campaign message on YouTube blames “greedy Jewish landlords” and “Donald Trump” for the problems in the seventh district on the upper West Side of...

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that New York City would offer free, full-day preschool to all 3-year-olds within four years, saying that he was building on the success of the city’s prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds and that it was time to go further.

BRONX — Building on his success of Pre-K for all of the city’s 4-year-olds, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday a plan to provide free “full day” pre-K for all of the city’s 3 year-olds by 2021. The program — called “3K for All” — will ramp up starting this September with roughly 11,000 children attending the city’s EarlyLearn programs, which serve the city’s low-income working families. In September 2018, about 2,000 3-year-olds in two of the city’s poorest school districts — South Bronx’s District 7 and Ocean Hill/Brownsville’s District 23 — will be part of the program. Two more...

Seeking to double down on an effort — expanding early childhood education — for which he has been widely praised, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan on Monday to offer free, full-day prekindergarten to 3-year-olds. Four years ago, Mr. de Blasio made an ambitious proposal to provide publicly funded prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds the centerpiece of his mayoral campaign. His plan called for more than tripling the number of available seats, to 70,000, within two years. Although some expected there would be significant bumps in the rollout, it went relatively smoothly. It is too soon to say whether the...

The nation’s largest municipal jail guard union sued New York City on Friday, saying recent sweeping changes in city’s jails have empowered violent inmates and endangered correction officers. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court alleged violence in city jails has increased 18 percent since the city instituted changes to how guards perform their work following a rash of alarming reports about the abuse of prisoners, particularly at the city’s main Rikers Island jail complex, where as many as 10,000 inmates are housed. The city and its officials have “created a substantial and imminent risk that Correction Officers will continue to...

The letters were sent to officials in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, New York City and Sacramento, Calif., as well as Cook County, Ill. These municipalities were identified in a Justice Department inspector general’s report last year as potentially out of compliance with the requirements. Friday’s letter asks the cities to send documentation that they are in compliance by the end of June.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that cigarette prices in the city would go up $2.50 to $13 which, de Blasio bragged, would be "the highest price in the country." . . . Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who introduced the bill to create the licensing requirement for e-cigarette retailers, described the proposal as "a major step to limit the use of e-cigarettes, which are dangerous nicotine delivery systems that can lead to nicotine and potentially drug addiction."

The media were thrilled when a statue of a defiant little girl was placed opposite Arturo Di Modica’s famous “Charging Bull” on Wall Street. To the networks, it became a “symbol,” a “sensation” and female empowerment. “Symbols spoke volumes,” NBC Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent Anne Thompson said of the statue “facing down Wall Street’s famous bull,” on March 8. The networks didn’t seem to mind that “Fearless Girl” was really a clever corporate advertisement for “SHE” — an exchange traded fund offered by State Street Global Advisors. Fortune reported that until April 2, a plaque at the girl’s feet read...

MANHATTAN — The death of the pioneering judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam has been deemed "suspicious" by investigators who are seeking more information, NYPD officials said Wednesday. Abdus-Salaam, who was the first African-American woman to sit on New York state's highest court, was found dead in the Hudson River near West 132nd Street about 1:45 p.m. on April 12, officials said. “There's no apparent trauma to her body. We don't believe she was in the water a long time,” the NYPD's Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at the time. But in the ensuing week, few answers emerged. Investigators said Wednesday morning...

Pedro Hernandez, the bodega clerk convicted for the 1979 murder of New York first-grader Etan Patz was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison, CNN reports. Hernandez, 56, was convicted of kidnapping and murder in February, nearly 40 years after the six-year-old disappeared on May 25, 1979. Etan left home to walk to a school bus stop and was not seen again. In the early 1980s, his photo appeared on milk cartons across the country, the first time the method was used to try to locate missing children. Hernandez was previously tried for the same charges in...

A student at a private Muslim school in Queens, New York called the Boston Marathon bombers Jews, a former teacher says. The New York Post reported Sunday that Nina Kossman, a former English teacher at the Razi School in Woodside, asked her students at one time: “Do you know what happens when people start hating each other for their differences?” One student replied, “My parents said they [the Boston bombers] were bad people. They were Jews.” […] “I was shocked,” said Koss­man. Kossman was removed from the private religious school last month after she told students the Adam and Eve...

A day after Mayor de Blasio criticized Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue as an ode to “unfettered capitalism,” Gov. Cuomo said “I never found it particularly offensive.” “I’ve gone past it many times,” Cuomo told reporters at the governor’s mansion, where he hosted an Easter egg roll Saturday.

A mob of Penn Station travelers fled the transit hub in hysteria after Amtrak police officers used a stun gun on a man. The busy Penn Station was already a mad house from a NJ Transit train that stalled in a tunnel, backing up service for more than two hours ahead of the Friday rush on a holiday weekend. By 6:30 p.m., shortly after the stalled train was taken to Penn Station, riders stampeded away from the site where the man was hit with the stun gun. Luggage food and clothes were strewn across the floor.

A pioneering judge, who became the first Muslim woman in US history to serve on the bench, was found dead Wednesday — washed up on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River, sources said. Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 65, was discovered floating in the water near 132nd Street and Hudson Parkway at around 1:45 p.m., according to police sources. Witnesses had spotted her fully clothed body and called 911, cops said.

New York City can destroy personal documents associated with its municipal identification program, a judge ruled Friday in a victory for city officials who have sought to protect cardholders from possible deportation. Republican state Assembly members Ronald Castorina Jr. and Nicole Malliotakis filed a lawsuit in December seeking to prevent the destruction of documents, such as copies of foreign passports, used to verify a person’s identity to obtain the IDNYC card. Justice Philip G. Minardo of State Supreme Court on Staten Island ruled against the lawmakers but issued a stay Friday until April 17, pending an appeal. …