Free Republic

A Brooklyn immigrant’s $4 million nest egg is off-limits when she needs it most during her final years because of ineffective court-appointed guardians, her family contends. Aleksandra Chodowiec, 93, arrived in the U.S. from her native Wroclaw in western Poland by herself in 1973 at the age of 43. She worked two jobs, in an envelope factory and cleaning Manhattan offices. In just two years, the industrious Chodowiec saved enough dough to purchase what should have been a golden ticket: a five-story rental building with eight apartments and two commercial units in Greenpoint.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing a New York City tax hike to replace the $15 congestion pricing tolls she indefinitely postponed — a last-minute funding Hail Mary that drew fierce opposition Thursday. Lawmakers and business groups slammed the prospect of a tax increase, especially after Hochul scuttled congestion pricing Wednesday because it would “break the budget” for the working class. “Proposing another tax is an insulting joke that will only exacerbate the affordability crisis that Gov. Hochul pointed to as her reason for killing congestion pricing,” Assemblyman Matt Slater (R-Putnam) told The Post. “The combination of corporate income, payroll and...

Taxpayer funds are reportedly driving the recent job boom in New York City through a 2015 policy change that loosened eligibility Medicaid benefit rules. The revelation suggests that New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ acclaimed credit for creating 300,000 jobs since the pandemic actually results from taxpayers’ subsidy due to a policy change. Almost nearly all the job increases were created in publicly funded home health care, city documents show Manufacturing, construction, and retail sunk below levels in 2020 The rules permit people “eligible for home healthcare services to hire family members or close friends to care for them and...

Former President Donald Trump’s conviction just might have been the missing key in his securing the 2024 election against President Joe Biden. According to a new Quinnipiac University Georgia poll, Trump holds an advantage over Biden (49 - 44 percent) in a head-to-head matchup in the crucial battleground state. Despite the unprecedented move, the conviction against Trump seems to working in his favor— a stark contrast from what the Democratic Party was hoping for when bringing politically motivated charges against him. The survey also revealed that in a six-way hypothetical race that includes other candidates, Trump still leads with 43...

With the arrival of a new, highly contagious fungal infection in NYC, health experts are sharing what you need to know to keep yourself safe. An unidentified NYC man in his 30s was diagnosed with the first US-reported case of Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII, a rare, sexually transmitted form of ringworm. Details of his infection were shared Wednesday in the journal JAMA Dermatology. “The first thing to note is that we do not have evidence this infection is endemic in the US or even widespread in the US,” Dr. Avrom S. Caplan, who led the study of the man’s case,...

The New York City Audubon organization has officially changed its name to NYC Bird Alliance to distance itself from the history of John James Audubon, the 19th century naturalist who was also a slave owner and vocal opponent of abolition. “After a multi-year process to assess the Audubon name and then to choose a new one, on June 5, 2024 the organization’s members voted to approve the new name, NYC Bird Alliance,” a page on the group’s website states, adding separately that “the use of ‘Audubon’ in our name affects our ability to retain and attract staff, board members, supporters,...

A 41-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the arm on a Bronx subway train Wednesday afternoon as it rumbled into the station, authorities said. The victim was knifed in the right arm while on a southbound 2 train at 3 p.m. right before it arrived at the Jackson Avenue 2/5 station in Melrose, according to the NYPD. The wounded man hurried off the train and begged a station agent to call 911, cops said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul ditched the MTA congestion pricing plan indefinitely Wednesday — saying it’s not the right time as New Yorkers face a cost-of-living crisis. Hochul announced plans to delay the $15 toll’s June 30 start date, citing the “undue strain on already stressed New Yorkers” grappling with inflation. “Let’s be real: a $15 charge may not mean a lot to someone who has the means, but it can break the budget of a working- or middle-class household,” she said in a pre-taped video announcement. “It puts the squeeze on the very people who make this city go. “I cannot...

For a politician, nothing concentrates the mind like an upcoming election. New York Governor Kathy Hochul isn't up for reelection this year but she seems to remember the 2022 race in which Republicans flipped three House seats. This year she's trying to avoid that happening again. So this morning she suddenly announced she would do a 180 degree turn on New York's congestion pricing plan.“I have come to the difficult decision that implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences for New Yorkers this time,” Hochul said in a pre-taped statement released to reporters...“Once the congestion pricing...

NYC congestion pricing plan shelved indefinitely The first-in-the-toll nation program was expected to be a financial windfall for the cash-strapped MTA. By Andrew Siff and Jennifer Millman The MTA announced Wednesday it will indefinitely pause its plans to implement a first-in-the-nation congestion pricing system amid concerns about current economic conditions in the city and the pace of midtown Manhattan’s recovery. News 4’s Romney Smith reports. What to Know The MTA is pushing "pause" indefinitely on New York City's first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan, according to an official briefed on the plans. The toll program, years in the making, had been set...

A whopping 20 percent of hotels in New York City have now been converted into migrant shelters as prices for the remaining hotels soar due to demand. Due to the massive influx of migrants, some 16,000 former hotel rooms are now booked, while the room rate for actual hotels is now at an eye-watering $300 a night, the New York Post reported.

Wild surveillance video captures the moment a maniac bashed a Queens bike shop worker over the head with a helmet — before he was stabbed by another man who intervened, according to police. The melee began just before 1 p.m. Monday when the 35-year-old man flew into a rage outside the Fly E-Bike shop on 42nd Street near Broadway in Astoria, authorities said. Footage obtained by The Post captured the moment the brute – who appeared to have been yelling at the 28-year-old worker – suddenly walloped him over the head with the helmet. A second later, another man sprinted...

The chief financial officer of conservative global news outlet The Epoch Times was arrested and charged with leading a yearslong scheme to launder at least $67 million in illicit funds. The alleged scheme by Weidong Guan and others involved cryptocurrency, prepaid debit cards, fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits and stolen personal identification information, according to federal prosecutors. The money laundering scheme caused tens of millions of dollars to be transferred to bank accounts linked the media company, prosecutors alleged.

John Rich is hitting out at Democrats following the guilty verdict in Donald Trump's New York criminal trial, and the country singer's message has gone viral. "Only Communists put their political rivals in jail," Rich, a longtime MAGA supporter wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. The post has since received over 756,000 views. Trump, the first former president to be convicted of criminal charges is due to be sentenced on July 11. The former president was found guilty by a New York jury on Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business documents to hide "hush money" payments to Stormy...

A teenage Venezuelan migrant has been arrested for allegedly shooting two NYPD cops while on a scooter after they tried pulling him over. Police approached Bernardo Raul Castro-Mata, 19, as he drove the illegal vehicle the wrong way down a one-way highway in Queens overnight. He allegedly responded by opening fire on the officers using an unlicensed gun before fleeing on foot at around 1.40am, NYPD said. One officer was struck in the leg while the other sustained a shot to their bulletproof vest. Although Castro-Mata has not previously been arrested in New York City, police believe he is part...

The Trump verdict last Thursday overshadowed a far more disturbing portent for New York: yet another daytime attack in the heart of Times Square, the second in a month, this time a machete assault outside a McDonald’s at 45th and Broadway. New York’s failure to control crime — regular crime, not Trump crime — is slowing its tourism recovery, as new statistics from Broadway’s theater industry show. Like New York overall, Broadway is having a slow rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A masked maniac tried to disrupt Sunday’s Israel Day Parade, taunting marchers and supports with a vile sign reading, “Kill Hostages Now.” The protester, wearing a black mask, black shirt and wearing a Palestinian flag as a cape, was part of a group of anti-Israel demonstrators who faced off with pro-Israeli New Yorkers near the parade route. This year’s Israel Day Parade in New York features numerous family members of hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza on Oct. 7.

A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot at a Brooklyn public-housing project Sunday morning, police said. The victim, who has not been identified, was found with a gunshot wound to the chest after cops responded to a 911 call at the Howard Houses in Brownsville shortly before 10:30 a.m., the NYPD said. The teen was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, cops said.

Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh has named a pastor with no clinical experience to run the FDNY’s counseling services for firefighters and medics struggling with mental-health problems — an appointment that will require the department to hire another licensed supervisor at taxpayer expense to plug the gap. Kavanagh tapped Ann Kansfield, the FDNY’s first female and openly gay chaplain, as chief of the department’s Counseling Services Unit, which runs a staff of psychologists and therapists who conduct screening, assessment and treatment of job candidates and ailing first-responders. Kansfield, 48, whom Kavanagh has called her “spiritual muse” — served as one of...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police said Saturday that they had 34 people in custody following a pro-Palestinian protest at the Brooklyn Museum, which reported damage to some artwork and harassment to security staff by demonstrators. Hundreds of protesters marched to the museum on Friday afternoon, set up tents in the lobby and unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner from the building’s roof before police moved in to make arrests. New York City police officers tackled and punched some protesters during scuffles that broke out in the crowd outside the museum while some demonstrators hurled plastic bottles at officers...