Today, the city announced a $1.7 m settlement w/ Extra Space Storage in suit that alleged false advertising, bait-and-switch pricing, junk fees and wrongful lockouts and auctions. www.nyc.gov/site/dca/new... This comes after a law last year that has the city license self-storage facilities, which...
Mayor Mamdani Secures $1.7 Million from Extra Space for New York City Consumers
DCWP announced a $1.7 million settlement with Extra Space for violations of NYC's Consumer Protection Law.
nyc.gov
An infuriating (& also fascinating) story about EBT theft. It's on the rise! The victims, NY's hungriest people, don't get made whole. There's lots NY state can do to prevent this, but it lags behind other states and far behind commercial banking. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/25/s...
Stolen Food Stamp Funds Leave Thousands Hungry as New York Sleeps on Reforms
Unlike other states, New York hasn’t taken basic anti-fraud measures found in commercial banking — and it doesn’t reimburse the victims.
thecityreporter.nyc
Thank you, @sidneyhillman.bsky.social !
The Sidney Hillman Foundation@sidneyhillman.bsky.social · 4w agoThe July Sidney Award goes to @rosagoldensohn.bsky.social of @thecityreporter.nyc for exposing how organized crime is exploiting obsolete tech to steal hundreds of millions from New York's poorest residents.
In one case, a $237 benefit hit at midnight. At 2:46 a.m., two transactions 300 miles apart cleared the total exactly: $117.18 charged to a shop in Patterson and $119.82 at a supermarket in Potsdam. Both stores were closed at that hour. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/25/s...
Stolen Food Stamp Funds Leave Thousands Hungry as New York Sleeps on Reforms
Unlike other states, New York hasn’t taken basic anti-fraud measures found in commercial banking — and it doesn’t reimburse the victims.
thecityreporter.nyc
Food stamp theft is surging… orchestrated by criminal rings working out of Eastern Europe who siphon about $1 billion/yr from poor Americans. Other states have implemented fraud detection systems & other security measures — but not NY. www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/25/s...
Stolen Food Stamp Funds Leave Thousands Hungry as New York Sleeps on Reforms
Unlike other states, New York hasn’t taken basic anti-fraud measures found in commercial banking — and it doesn’t reimburse the victims.
thecityreporter.nyc
"California has reduced reported food and cash benefit theft by 76% relative to the 2024 peak, the state said. New York, on the other hand, does not even keep data on people losing their benefits to fraud." by @rosagoldensohn.bsky.social www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/06/25/s...
Stolen Food Stamp Funds Leave Thousands Hungry as New York Sleeps on Reforms
Unlike other states, New York hasn’t taken basic anti-fraud measures found in commercial banking — and it doesn’t reimburse the victims.
thecityreporter.nyc
"I’m constantly calculating scenarios of witnessing a neighbor being taken or being stopped and having to show my passport. My child is a Black boy whose voice has completely changed this year. How do I explain that he’s so young?" hammerandhope.org/article/minn...
Minnesota Diary: Notes from a Somali Mother During ICE’s Winter Invasion
A magazine of Black politics and culture
hammerandhope.org
These declines are MASSIVE. And the comparative silence in media coverage is absolutely DAMNING. “Why are ppl always so afraid of crime?” THIS is why. When crime goes up, media trips over itself to report it. Falls to pre-war (!!) levels? Just CRICKETS.
Jeff Asher@jeffasher.bsky.social · 7mo agoI count 10 cities in 2025 that are on track to have the fewest murders since at least 1970. Newark is on pace to have the fewest murders since 1956 (though only have data through Oct this year) and San Francisco is on pace to have the fewest murders since 1942.
So what is the reason the international press is still not in Gaza and why not make it a big story all the time?
Just heartbroken that we all lose Tom Robbins. The greatest teacher, mentor, person a girl could hope to know. The best reporter a city could hope to call its own.
"The population will reach the south of the Strip – and from there, with God's help, move to third countries under President Trump's plan. This is a change in the course of history. Nothing less. That's the essence." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Israeli soldier killed in fighting in northern Gaza Strip
***
haaretz.com
Read this, laid out plainly and with essential context, on starvation in Gaza and why “The outline plan… would be gaming the system, not preventing widespread starvation.” www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ma...
Alex de Waal | Starvation in Gaza
Twice already during this war, the people of Gaza have pulled back from the brink of categorical famine – both times...
lrb.co.uk
Federal Judge Orders Appointment of Rikers Island ‘Remediation Manager’ www.thecity.nyc/2025/05/13/f...
Federal Judge Wants New Manager to Reform Rikers Island
Fourteen years after the filing of a landmark class-action lawsuit over brutality in city jails, a judge has ruled that a third-party should manage the Department of Correction.
thecity.nyc
ICYMI: New York State is currently keeping 404 people in prison simply b/c they have no place to go. That's the only reason they are locked up right now. The state law dictating early releases by DOCCS bars them from being sprung straight into shelters. www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/29/h...
Few Have Left Prison Under Hochul Early-Release Push
Just 151 people have left state incarceration out of hundreds potentially eligible as state grapples with a shortage of correction officers. Housing restrictions are a big reason why.
thecity.nyc
EXCLUSIVE: Two DOGE employees have access to a network used to transmit classified nuclear weapons data and a separate network used by the Department of Defense, sources tell NPR.
DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets
Two DOGE employees have access to a network used to transmit classified nuclear weapons data and a separate network used by the Department of Defense, sources tell NPR.
npr.org
FDA to suspend quality-control program for food testing due to staff cuts
FDA to suspend quality-control program for food testing due to staff cuts
The FDA labs that test food to prevent illness have been affected by wider health and human services staff cuts
theguardian.com
I look at close to 100 stories a week and even more outside of work. I’ve done this ten years. This is among the most horrific things I’ve ever read — testimony from dying children whose access to medicine has been cut off by the Trump administration. www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Haunted by hopelessness: 12 Zambians share their stories as HIV drugs run out
Mothers and children, husbands and wives, doctors, truck drivers and religious leaders are all grappling with the fallout from the sudden U.S. cuts in aid.
npr.org
In September 2021, I interviewed longtime organizer Claudia Muñoz, who was so deeply alarmed by how Operation Lone Star was unfolding in Texas. I’d known her a long time, and I don’t think I’d ever heard her so shaken. I have been revisiting our conversation:
Yeah, maybe prison/imprisoned isn’t even the right word. Does not fully capture the situation here. “Human Rights Watch is not aware of any detainees who have been released from that prison.” www.hrw.org/news/2025/03...
Human Rights Watch declaration on prison conditions in El Salvador for the J.G.G. v. Trump case
I, Juanita Goebertus, declare the following under 28 U.S.C. § 1746, and state that under penalty of perjury the following is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief:
hrw.org
I think the key word is imprisoned in El Salvador, not just deported to El Salvador. It’s not like he’s walking the streets of San Salvador. He and all the others are trapped in a foreign prison, apparently indefinitely.
“Deported to El Salvador” really doesn’t capture what’s taking place at all. They’re locked in a foreign prison, unsentenced, for an unknown length of time—potentially, according to Noem, for life.
"The officers grabbed him and two other boys right at the entrance to our building. One said, ‘No, he’s not the one,’ like they were looking for someone else. But the other said, ‘Take him anyway.’"
ICE Took His Son From Their Bronx Apartment. Now His Son Is In Bukele's Mega-prison In El Salvador
Merwil Gutiérrez had no criminal record when ICE agents detained the 19-year-old outside his home. Now his father, Wilmer, is still searching for answers.
documentedny.com
Nice lil scoop over at @hellgatenyc.com: Cuomo used ChatGPT to write his housing plan, which contains several gibberish sections. The former governor cannot even be bothered to proofread his housing plan or make sure it makes much sense. hellgatenyc.com/andrew-cuomo...
Andrew Cuomo Used ChatGPT For His Housing Plan
The Democratic mayoral frontrunner's "Addressing New York's Housing Crisis" features garbled text and a citation from ChatGPT.
hellgatenyc.com
Eight people in South Sudan, including five children, died on a three-hour walk to seek medical treatment for cholera after US aid cuts forced local health services to close, the UK-based charity Save the Children said reut.rs/3E9kB27
South Sudan cholera patients died walking to clinic after US cut aid, charity says
Eight people in South Sudan, including five children, died on a three-hour walk to seek medical treatment for cholera after U.S. aid cuts forced local health services to close, the UK-based charity Save the Children said on Wednesday.
reut.rs
Food Banks Tighten Their Belts as Federal Cuts Keep Coming. Patrons Don't Know Where Else to Turn www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/09/f... @haidee.bsky.social with a sobering and thorough look at worried food banks around New York City
Food Banks Tighten Their Belts as Federal Cuts Keep Coming. Patrons Don't Know Where Else to Turn
At least 2.5 million pounds of food and produce deliveries to the city have been paused by the federal government, while a program that brought in-state produce to pantry visitors has been axed even a...
thecity.nyc
A paper I always teach my students: An empirical sound model that indicates harsher conditions either have no effect on crime or, quite possibly, make things worse. Harshness is not about safety. It's about cruelty. With the data to show it.
Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · last yr.The idea that prison conditions needed to be harsh to punish crime was always a sick fantasy that eroded our collective rights. Now that due process is *officially* being abandoned, it’s another demonstration that all those supposedly far-left radical ideas were common sense and necessary.
So are they imprisoned for one year? For life? These people whom the US has sent to prison but who are not serving actual sentences? apnews.com/article/el-s...
What to know about El Salvador's mega-prison after Trump sent hundreds of immigrants there
A mega-prison where visitation and education are not allowed became Trump's latest tool in his crackdown on immigration, when hundreds of immigrants facing deportation were transferred there.
apnews.com
“'Gaza is a killing field and civilians are in an endless death loop,' Mr. Guterres said in prepared remarks to journalists at United Nations headquarters in New York." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/w...
Guterres, at U.N., Denounces Israel’s Gaza Aid Blockade
“The floodgates of horror” have been opened for Palestinians since the collapse of the temporary cease-fire, Secretary General António Guterres said.
nytimes.com
