Mount Sinai, embroiled in New York’s largest nurses’ strike—with 15,000 walking out—has dismissed claims that patient deaths resulted, insisting its trio of hospitals are fully staffed with over 1,400 replacements and functioning smoothly. Both unio…
From January 2026, sending cash, checks, or money orders abroad from the United States will incur a new 1% federal tax, courtesy of Donald Trump’s latest tax law. While credit cards and digital platforms dodge the levy (but not their own fees), families wiring $79 billion in remittances yearly face higher costs—though the Treasury’s $10 billion windfall might be of some small consolation for those watching both pennies and policy.
Governor Kathy Hochul has rerouted New York’s much-delayed Second Avenue Subway extension, opting to tunnel west along 125th Street through Harlem rather than heading downtown—a plan that would have cost $13.5 billion and soothed a century’s worth of commuter chafing. She argues the $7.5 billion crosstown shift will save money and time, though for those still awaiting a downtown Q, hope appears to be taking the local rather than the express.
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, has urged New York and the nation to require 3D printers to block unlicensed gunmaking, following Governor Kathy Hochul’s push to criminalize sharing blueprints for “ghost guns.” Although Bragg claims such efforts could “blanket the marketplace,” he’ll now need to persuade printer manufacturers and a patchwork of gun lobbyists—none of whom, unsurprisingly, seem eager to press “print” on his proposal.
After a year and a half of legal wrangling, New York City extracted $2.1 million from A&E Real Estate—one of its largest landlords—to resolve more than 4,000 housing code violations and tenant harassment claims affecting 750 renters in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. City Hall trumpets this as the largest settlement by its housing department, while A&E, ever the optimist, calls it “collaboration”—diplomatic phrasing for a costly nudge.
Inspectors from the Coalition for the Homeless report that indoor temperatures at Schwartz Assessment Shelter on Wards Island dropped to a brisk 45°F this month—well below New York City’s legal minimum by some twenty degrees—forcing residents into layered winter gear and impromptu refrigerator duties for their snacks. City officials blame drafty windows, promise repairs, and say things are warming up, though optimism may still require several sweaters.
We note that New Jersey’s attorney general has sued Clark Township, alleging its former mayor, Salvatore Bonaccorso, orchestrated police stops to deter Black and Hispanic drivers—conduct supported by recordings and stop data, though hard to square with the town’s modern aspirations. Despite state oversight since Union County took control of Clark police in 2019, old habits, it seems, are about as tenacious as morning traffic in suburbia.
As Blue Monday, that annual pseudo-scientific nadir, returns to headlines in January 2026, experts quietly retire the slogan in favor of reckoning with plain winter blues—now stoked by chronic stress, economic fog, and those ever-glossy social feeds. Data points instead to humbler remedies: decent sleep, morning sun, a short walk. Apparently, curing gloom requires no equation, influencer, or grand theory—just a little more daylight than despair.
Even Venezuela’s embattled prosecutors, usually preoccupied with Nicolás Maduro’s many legal headaches, have redirected attention to reviewing Jeffrey Epstein files—thanks to America’s dogged scrutiny of the late sex offender’s network. We note Washington’s knack for exporting homework; meanwhile, Venezuelan cases may find themselves lost in bureaucratic limbo, as global interest in Epstein continues to generate more paperwork than actual revelations.
