Exclusive from me — Daniel Moraff, one of the political operatives behind Graham Platner's rise and fall, has been accused of sexual assault. Full story here:

Exclusive: Political operative behind Graham Platner's rise accused of sexual assault

A spokesperson for Daniel Moraff said: “Any suggestion that he committed a criminal offence is false and without foundation."

thehandbasket.co

Reminder: I’ll be on NewsNation at 10:40 p.m. with conservative commentator Katie Pavlich to respond to last night’s special episode on DSA. www.newsnationnow.com/news-nation-...

NewsNation Live

Listen: NewsNation broadcast audio

newsnationnow.com

You might have heard about this weekend's internal fight within DSA over its process to endorse a 2028 presidential candidate. I tried to explain exactly what's happening: www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

DSA debates how to debate AOC presidential endorsement

Explaining the latest fight roiling the Democratic Socialists of America

cityandstateny.com

I see Elon Musk's attempt to turn X into an AI-based news aggregator are going well.

In what is becoming a stressful annual routine, Microsoft has decided to lay off thousands, including MANY of us at Bethesda Games Studios. With over 10k developers already cut from previous rounds, those at the top have deemed that insufficient in fixing their mistakes.

SCOOP: Darializa Avila Chevalier is dating Mayor Mamdani's top lawyer Ramzi Kassem. The political power couple met 7 years ago while organizing against ICE and quietly began dating in 2023. www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...

Darializa Avila Chevalier is dating Mamdani’s lawyer Ramzi Kassem

The congressional primary winner and the mayor’s top legal adviser have been quietly dating since 2023.

cityandstateny.com

Catch me on WBAI soon talking about last week's DSA primary victories and the NYC budget! Tune in here: wbai.org/listen-live/

Following last week's primary victories, Mayor Mamdani has been hailed as a kingmaker and political boss. But he isn't really building his own political machine. He's working with his comrades in NYC-DSA to build a movement. Welcome to Tammamdani Hall.

The rise of Tammamdani Hall

How Zohran Mamdani (and DSA) built a political machine that just can’t lose.

cityandstateny.com

Democratic New York City Council members are meeting right now for a "virtual conference" (i.e. a Zoom call) to discuss the budget. Members were told they're not allowed to record the call and must keep their cameras on for the full duration of the call.

Peter Sterne@petersterne.com · last mo.

The NYC budget is due tomorrow, but Mayor Mamdani and the City Council are at an impasse. www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2026/...

The NYC budget is due tomorrow, but Mayor Mamdani and the City Council are at an impasse. www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2026/...

Menin delays budget handshake, pressing Mamdani on rental voucher expansion

The City Council is serious about dropping this lawsuit and putting hundreds of millions more toward an already expensive program.

cityandstateny.com

The NYC budget is due tomorrow, but the Mayor Mamdani and the City Council are at an impasse. www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2026/...

Menin delays budget handshake, pressing Mamdani on rental voucher expansion

The City Council is serious about dropping this lawsuit and putting hundreds of millions more toward an already expensive program.

cityandstateny.com

"Welcome to Kansas City, where Ecuador has struggled to score against Curaçao." Meanwhile, across town, Samantha was also struggling with curaçao, and she, too, was trying to score

New Yorkers rejected the racist, Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani and followed it up by rejecting the same attacks against Darializa Avila Chevalier. Bravo!

also not lost on me that as democratic socialists are winning some elections, a new red scare targeting anarchists, antifascists, and their allies is digging in hard, and today handed down 30, 50, and 100 year prison sentences to activists and organizers

Next year, I will be represented by DSA members (and people I know personally) at every level of government: New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Assembly Member Diana Moreno, State Senator Aber Kawas and Rep. Claire Valdez.

Guess what? I’m going to be back on WBAI previewing tonight’s primaries in a few minutes! Tune in live here: www.wbai.org/listen-live/

Mt Sinai and NYU Langone should absolutely be prohibited from marching in NYC pride. www.them.us/story/nyc-pr...

Grand Marshals Demand NYC Pride Shut Out Hospitals That Abandoned Trans Kids

They are calling on Heritage of Pride to stand with trans youth and block hospitals, including NYU Langone Health and Mount Sinai, from participating.

them.us

incredible stuff from Jessica Ramos, the "progressive" state Senator who endorsed Cuomo for mayor and is about to lose her seat www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202... @cityandstateny.bsky.social

A (former?) senior adviser to Rep. Adriano Espaillat has been spreading racist and Islamophobic conspiracy theories about his challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier on Spanish-language media, claiming that she and Mayor Mamdani want to replace Dominicans in NYC with Muslims and Haitians.

Espaillat senior adviser made racist and Islamophobic comments about congressional challenger

The Congress member condemned the comments from Rusking Pimentel, who said that Darializa Avila Chevalier wants to replace Dominican New Yorkers with Muslims and Haitians.

cityandstateny.com

Today is Election Day in NYC! Polls close at 9 p.m. I'll be on WBAI in 10 minutes to preview tonight's primary elections. Listen live here: wbai.org/listen-live/ And keep up to date with City & State's election liveblog here: www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

“A group of unpaid interns in the New York City Council launched a campaign this week to pressure the council to pay all of its interns – and one intern spearheading the campaign was abruptly fired shortly after.” www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202... @petersterne.com

NYC Council intern fired after launching campaign to pay interns

Mina Farahmand was working for Manhattan Council Member Harvey Epstein – until she wasn’t.

cityandstateny.com

I’m about to go on PIX11 to discuss Brad Lander’s primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman. Tune in here: pix11.com/LIVE/

PIX11+ Livestream

PIX11+ Livestream Schedule Watch live PIX11 News broadcasts and the latest PIX11+ shows. For additional TV programming information, click here.

pix11.com

First reported by @petersterne.com.

This screenshot is from City & State’s Heard Around Town newsletter. To get more exclusive stories like that delivered to your inbox twice a week, subscribe to Heard Around Town here: www.cityandstateny.com/heard-around... It’s just $17/mo, or maybe less if you DM me for a discount.

Heard Around Town

City & State is the premier multimedia news organization dedicated to covering New York and Pennsylvania's local and state politics and policy.

cityandstateny.com

Josh Arnon@josharnon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Thanks @petersterne.com for covering Neurodivergent Socialists’ event for @yuhline.bsky.social, and thank you to all who came!

Mayor Mamdani and AOC have collectively endorsed almost all of the NYC-DSA slate – but they’re mostly not endorsing the same candidates. Here’s my analysis of the socialist standard-bearers’ NYC endorsements so far: www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Mamdani and AOC endorse DSA legislative candidates – but not the same ones

The two popular socialists's complementary endorsements let (almost) everyone put a famous face on their flyers.

cityandstateny.com

“In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire job was to listen to volunteers. Most of the people they fired were union organizers” medium.com/@jakeorlowit...

Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Playbook Has Come for Wikipedia

TLDR: In ten days last month, the Wikimedia Foundation fired the longtime lead developer of MediaWiki and disbanded the team whose entire…

medium.com

Workers at TheGamer say site's new pay-per-session contract is 'heartbreaking' aftermath.site/the-gamer-valn...

On Thursday evening Valnet issued new contracts to writers at TheGamer instituting a minimum article viewership threshold for payment. Most writers already have pay tied to article performance, but this new system would mean that if a piece didn't get X number of clicks you wouldn't be paid for it.

WIRED got a copy of a New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau report that has a curious term for opposition to AI development and data centers: "anti-tech violent extremist activity." Great reporting here on how law enforcement is tracking big tech opponents www.wired.com/story/us-law...

US Law Enforcement Warns of ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’ as AI Hatred Grows

As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their back yards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.

wired.com