New York City

The Washington Post reports: A man who set himself on fire across the street from the Manhattan courthouse where former president Donald Trump is facing a criminal hush money trial died Friday evening, New York City police confirmed early Saturday. The man walked into Collect Pond Park around 1:30 p.m., removed several pamphlets from his backpack and tossed them on …

The New York Times reports: Nearly three years after a series of suicides shut down the Vessel, the 150-foot-tall centerpiece of the Hudson Yards complex in Manhattan, the project’s developer said on Friday that it would reopen this year with new safety measures. The beehive-shaped sculpture, with a labyrinth of about 2,500 steps and 80 landings, opened in 2019, along …

Gothamist reports: Mayor Eric Adams, who called package theft a “New York nightmare,” pledged to end it on Wednesday by opening parcel storage lockers at seven locations throughout the city. “We want to send a message to the porch pirates that your days are over of sailing away with our packages,” the mayor said, noting that 90,000 packages are reported …

 The New York Post reports: The NYPD is unleashing barnacles to battle parking pirates. The department this week said it will begin using “windshield boots” — a 17-pound device that attaches to a vehicle’s windshield like a barnacle and remains there until a scofflaw pays their tickets — on illegally parked trucks. The contraption is also known as a Barnacle …

The New York Daily News reports: Monday’s solar eclipse had a knock-down, drag-out fight with Friday’s NYC-area earthquake — in a wild Saturday Night Live Weekend Update sketch that found the comic side of both headline-making phenomena. Cast member Marcello Hernández dressed up as the earthquake — complete with a hat featuring city landmarks — and had it out with …

The New York Times reports: Aftershocks continued throughout the day Friday, including one that measured 4.0 just before 6 p.m. and that was felt widely across New York and Jersey. Aftershocks would likely “continue for several days and even a week,” said Kishor S. Jaiswal, a research structural engineer with the United States Geological Survey. There is also a small …

Gothamist reports: Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said on Tuesday that the event will be the biggest to date, with drivers getting the boot from sections of 53 streets between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. That’s up from 30 car-free streets during last year’s event. Major areas where cars will be banned include Broadway in Manhattan from …

Gothamist reports: The NYPD plans to test metal detectors equipped with artificial intelligence technology in subway stations in a move to keep guns out of New York City’s transit system, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Tuesday. “This is our Sputnik moment,” Adams said at a news conference at Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan. “Like when Kennedy said we’re going …

The New York Times reports: New tolls to drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan — including $15 for most passenger cars — were officially approved on Wednesday by an 11-1 vote of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Nearly all the toll readers have been installed, and will automatically charge drivers for entering the designated congestion zone at …

The New York Daily News reports: A former police colleague of New York City Mayor Eric Adams claims in a bombshell new lawsuit alleging sexual assault that he exposed himself to her and demanded she perform oral sex on him in exchange for help with a job issue more than three decades ago. The accuser, Lorna Beach-Mathura, first came forward …

Gothamist reports: A new boots-on-the-ground survey from Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office found more than twice as many illicit cannabis shops operating on the Upper West Side as in late 2022, the last time her staff canvassed the area. Brewer is one of city government’s biggest crusaders against NYC’s unlicensed cannabis shops, and the informal headcount comes as city and state …

Gothamist reports: Hundreds of new books featuring characters of color and LGBTQ+ themes were found by the trash at a Staten Island elementary school, outraging some parents and sparking an education department investigation. Gothamist obtained photos from a Brooklyn book lover that showed boxes of kids’ books left with the garbage at PS 55, known as the Henry Boehm School. …

The New York Daily News reports: FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh apologized Sunday for booing and taunts state Attorney General Letitia James received from pro-Trump members of the crowd at a recent promotion ceremony. “On behalf of the New York City Fire Department, I’m sorry,” the commissioner said Sunday. At last week’s ceremony, members of the crowd booed as James took …

Gothamist reports: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to deploy the National Guard and state police to check bags on New York City’s subway system was immediately met with concerns that it was more rooted in politics than public safety. Then Hochul said as much on TV. “I’m also going to demonstrate that Democrats fight crime as well,” she said during an …

The New York Times reports: The New York Police Department robot sat motionless like a sad Wall-E on Friday morning, gathering dust inside an empty storefront within New York City’s busiest subway station. No longer were its cameras scanning straphangers traversing Times Square. No longer were subway riders pressing its help button, if ever they had. New York City has …

The City reports: Three contributors to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign recounted in interviews in the past month how they — and in two cases their spouses — were reimbursed for a total of more than $10,000 in donations by hotel and construction executives in violation of state law. The interviews came during a joint investigation by THE CITY, …

Gothamist reports: The Cannabis Control Board will vote on regulations that would let New Yorkers who are at least 21 years old cultivate up to six mature plants — meaning they have visible buds — and six immature plants per residence. Home cultivators would be able to keep up to 5 pounds of flower that’s been trimmed from those plants, …

Gothamist reports: Commuters will notice something a little different the next time they’re at the 191st Street subway station in Manhattan. The Washington Heights stop now has platform barriers. It’s the first of four to get the new technology as part of a platform safety pilot program that could spread to the rest of the city. “It’s still in an …

The City reports: The MTA plans to explore “biometric” technology to prevent break-ins to off-limits areas of subway trains, the head of New York City Transit told THE CITY — but in the meantime, will tweak existing locks. Richard Davey said security devices that recognize unique physical characteristics are among the potential long-term defenses being considered to keep vandals from …

Gothamist reports: The state alleged that midwife Jeannette Breen falsified the immunization records for about 1,500 children statewide at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Breen was penalized $300,000 and permanently barred from administering vaccines reportable to the state, officials said. The state said the fabrications included records of vaccines for polio, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella, but excluded …