Free Republic

Judge Frank P. Nervo on Tuesday issued a temporary stay on Bill de Blasio's vaccine mandate for city employees De Blasio's order was issued on October 20, and all city employees - except uniformed correction officers - had until October 29 to get their first dose Staff were given a $500 bonus for getting vaccinated: if they refused, they were placed on unpaid leave The mandate applied to 160,500 city workers, of whom 71 per cent had already been vaccinated Last month reports suggested that 9,000 city workers, representing 5.6pc of the work force, were put on leave for failing...

New York City's notoriously incompetent election officials have not finished tabulating the votes in the June 22 Democratic primary, with its novel ranked choice voting system. But the first choices of voters -- minus some 124,000 absentees -- nevertheless reveal some important things about the differences between different segments of the Democratic coalition in America's largest city. These initial results were a clear repudiation of the term-limited left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio. Coming in first was Brooklyn borough president and former New York Police Department cop Eric Adams with 31.7%, well ahead of top de Blasio aide Maya Wiley, with...

NEW YORK - As things are slowly re-opening here in New York City, 80,000 city employees are expected to return to the office on Monday. But not everyone is happy to go back. "It is disgusting how the mayor and city agencies have been treating city workers and using us as a pawn to bring back New York City," a city employee, who didn't want to give her name, said. Some city employees say the buildings are not safe and claim they haven't been told what safety protocols are in place. But Mayor Bill de Blasio said it is safe...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo took time to take a swipe at Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City during a press briefing Wednesday where he repeatedly apologized over sexual harassment accusations leveled against him by three women. Cuomo’s attacks came after days of fierce criticism from Hizzoner over the embattled three-term executive’s treatment of young women — including staffers — and admissions that state health officials refused to release the complete tally of coronavirus deaths linked to nursing homes for months.

Why does a mayor’s wife need a staff at all, complete with a $70,000 a year videographer? Good question, but apparently that’s the current setup in New York City, which should surprise no one. The Daily Mail has released some details on Chirlane McCray’s setup and it’s pretty astonishing. Not only does she have 14 people on her “staff,” the taxpayers are on the hook for about $2,000,000 as a result. Bill de Blasio’s unelected wife has been branded a ‘disgrace’ for having a staff of 14 costing New York City $2 million, including a $70,000 videographer who filmed her...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday that the city’s schools will not be fully open until a vaccine is available. He also stated that a decision on even a partial reopening wouldn’t happen until at least September, making a limited return to class then highly unlikely. The move would constitute the most aggressive step yet the city has taken in preventing students from returning to normal classes. It comes in sharp contrast to plans from de Blasio just two weeks ago when the mayor previously promised a schedule wherein schools would be open...

FEMA guidelines stipulate that states are to be the first line of defense in emergencies and are expected to respond accordingly: Local governments are the first line of defense against emergencies and disasters and are primarily responsible for managing the response to and recovery from those events. At the local government level, the primary responsibility for protecting citizens belongs to local elected officials such as mayors, city councils, and boards of commissioners. When a local government receives warning that an emergency could be imminent, its first priority is to alert and warn citizens and take whatever actions are needed to...

New York City transportation authorities have inflicted lots of bike lanes on locations where they are particularly inappropriate. But for sneering, arrogant disregard — make that contempt — for the surroundings, none can equal the plan for a “protected” bike lane along Midtown’s Sixth Avenue from West 35th Street to Central Park South this year. . . . . [T]he Sixth Avenue lane raises the bar for malicious streetscape tampering. A bike lane right on the doorsteps of Manhattan’s most vital office towers seems willfully spiteful — a thumb in the eye of profit-making capitalism with a slap at the...

NYC Mayor leaves flight first so he can go on 'The View' New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) forced his fellow plane passengers to wait on the tarmac while he and his campaign team deboarded on Thursday so the mayor could make an appearance on The View. De Blasio flew into LaGuardia Airport from Detroit, where he participated in Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate alongside former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) and seven other candidates. The New York Post reported de Blasio made Delta passengers wait for 10 minutes on the tarmac after their...

Probably not the headline you want to run in the first full week of your presidential campaign. ... Fix the subways? Bill de Blasio can’t even fix the potholes. Fix the potholes? He can’t even keep the rats at bay. I suppose he could fill the potholes with the rats. De Blasio’s presidential quest would on the surface appear to be a bit of a curiosity given that after considerable pressing of flesh in Iowa and New Hampshire he remains at 0 percent in the polls. Where do you go with that? “If I work hard, I think I can...

Bill de Blasio’s first interview as a presidential candidate was marred on Thursday by protesters chanting “Liar!” and “Can’t run the city! Can’t run the country!” throughout the live segment. The mayor appeared on “Good Morning America” to plug his ambitions for the White House — but was greeted by some 60 demonstrators outside the Times Square studio. As the chants cut through George Stephanopoulos’ questions, de Blasio downplayed the debacle as “a little serenade.”

One of the architects of Mayor Bill de Blasio's housing plan is living well at the taxpayer's expense... Anita Laremont, the executive director of the Department of City Planning, as one of four civil servants raking in more than $300,000 this fiscal year thanks to special permission to receive both a public paycheck and public-pension payments. Waivers granted under Section 211 of New York's Retirement and Social Security Law are supposed to allow the state and local governments to attract and retain employees younger than 65 ... the real number of high-earning double-dippers may be considerably greater because waivers are...

John Edwards once spoke of “two Americas,” one “for all of those people who have lived the American dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans, everybody else who struggle to make ends meet every single day”. One is reminded of this by New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s full-throated shouting of “socialism for all” from the rooftops of buildings whose height his politburo would determine and whose rents and occupants his commissars would control.Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his "socialistic impulse" in describing an ideal world where New York City government has control over all...

They are the schools Mayor de Blasio doesn’t mention. At 32 city elementary and middle schools, the average English-math proficiency rate on state exams has not exceeded 10 percent of students for four years in a row. Seventeen of these schools — which enroll nearly 10,000 kids — have been part of the mayor’s signature Renewal program, which has spent $582 million on teacher training, social services and an extra hour a day of instruction. Four did so poorly that the city Department of Education closed them in June. ... Families for Excellent Schools, a pro-charter-school group that analyzed the test...

Says New York will take 'matters into our own hands'! New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that his city would uphold the Paris climate change accords, even if President Donald Trump's administration announced it would not. The United States agreed to the Paris climate agreement during the final year of the Obama administration. Former President Barack Obama issued an executive order in September 2016 formally entering the agreement and promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17.89 percent. But administration sources reported Wednesday that Trump would soon announce his intention to withdraw from the agreement. The White...

While pandering in New York City, Hillary Clinton joined NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio in a poor effort at a humorous skit: Hillary Clinton performed in a racially tinged skit at an annual New York City press dinner as the controversy surrounding former president Bill Clinton’s defense of his wife’s “superpredator” remark continues to swirl. Clinton took the stage for a surprise appearance at Saturday’s Inner Circle Dinner and proceeded to needle Mayor Bill de Blasio for his belated endorsement. "I just have to say thanks for the endorsement, Bill. Took you long enough,” Clinton told her former campaign manager. “Sorry,...

Has Bill de Blasio gone bonkers? The mayor chose to give voice to the rage he and his people have felt over the past month because they think Gov. Cuomo’s budget and policy negotiations with the state Legislature were designed to disempower de Blasio. Which is certainly true. De Blasio wanted to be given control over the city’s schools for the balance of his term; he got it for only a year. He didn’t want new charter schools; he got 25 more shoved down his throat.

Mayor de Blasio lit Gov. Cuomo up Tuesday with a double-barreled blast of political payback. In stunningly frank language, the mayor accused the governor of deliberately thwarting his Albany agenda out of political pique and revenge — and hurting New Yorkers in the process. Hours before leaving on a vacation out West, de Blasio called reporters into his office and spoke calmly in a calculated decision to take off the gloves and reveal the “frenemies” were really enemies.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, unleashing months of frustration on Tuesday, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo undermined his Albany agenda and wasn’t focused on New York City residents but instead cared about “deal making” and “revenge.” Mr. de Blasio said he expected more retribution from the governor, a fellow Democrat, for expressing his views Tuesday afternoon, but he said he was prepared to handle it. Mr. de Blasio also said the governor had been disappointing since the mayor endorsed him last year for re-election. ... Melissa DeRosa, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Mr. Cuomo wished the mayor well on his coming...

How do you fix a failing high school? Change the grades. Under pressure to boost student achievement, the state-designated “out of time” Automotive HS in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, has resorted to rigging Regents exam scores. The failing scores of five students who took the Regents in January were switched to passing scores of 65 or higher on their transcripts, the city Department of Education has confirmed. One junior saw his scores upped to pass two exams required for graduation — Living Environment (biology) and algebra — even though he had failed both classes. The student insisted he deserved a break on...