Some 180,000 New Yorkers risk losing food stamps as new federal work rules come into force under Donald Trump’s domestic policy overhaul; city social workers are racing to help beneficiaries find employment or face losing their safety net. Adjusting…
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul this week unveiled an initial rollout of free child care seats for two-year-olds in four New York City boroughs—Staten Island, as ever, sits out—while Albany lawmakers rehearse their familiar skirmish over whether taxing the rich might somehow fund such largesse. Meanwhile, a Queens councilwoman’s social media antics keep the city’s ethics committee in regular employment.
After one of New York’s chilliest winters in years, energy bills have scaled new heights, with gas use breaking records in February and prices doubling since last year. Utility spokespeople at Con Edison and National Grid assure us the pain is simply a pass-through: higher commodity costs, not their fault, land squarely on customers—leaving everyone a bit more enlightened, and considerably less warm, about supply charges.
A New York appeals court has struck down a state law forbidding landlords from rejecting tenants who pay rent with federal Section 8 vouchers, ruling it unconstitutional—a setback for housing advocates who hoped Albany might narrow the city’s stubborn affordability gap by legal fiat. For now, landlords need no longer pretend rent-paying sources are none of their concern, at least within the vague bounds of “property rights.”
Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who rode a “freeze the rent” pledge to victory in New York City—where renters outnumber owners by a robust 69 percent—now faces the formidable arithmetic of governing. Landlords, unenthused by chilly rent sums, counter that such vows risk unbalancing budgets and discouraging upkeep. As ever, New York’s real estate math proves both unforgiving and immune to wishful thinking.
Letitia James, New York’s attorney-general, leads a 21-state coalition in suing Donald Trump over his latest tariffs, enacted via a never-before-stretched clause in the 1974 Trade Act. Critics claim the president is using creative legal footwork to raise consumer costs and test constitutional limits. The group seeks $13.5bn for New York alone—though we suspect the only real winners here may be billable hours.
New York and two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its latest 10% import tariffs—soon to rise to 15%—arguing in the Court of International Trade that the president is misapplying Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. While Americans await clarity on refunds for $100bn in now-overruled tariffs, we note that “temporary” measures do seem to linger, sometimes like an unwanted dinner guest.
New York’s mission to decarbonise has produced an electrifying conundrum: despite a 20% drop in U.S. CO2 emissions since 2007 and a shift from coal to cheaper natural gas, the state’s wager on pricey offshore wind—costing 2.6 times more than onshore—now signals household electricity bills rising by up to $4,000 annually. Even Governor Hochul’s team admits this “well-intentioned” plan may need an affordable rethink—who’d have guessed?
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, cut from notably unmayoral cloth, dashed to Washington for a secretive rendezvous with President Trump, returning with smiles and a possible $21 billion federal pledge for 12,000 affordable homes in Queens. He also scored points for diplomacy by smoothing ties with Governor Hochul—though his knack for mixing sharp demands with flattery suggests New York politics may never be quite as straightforward as his slogans.
