Free Republic

What with a depression and a war and federal quotas, the great waves of the tired, poor and huddled had dried to a trickle, and in the late 1940s there was a full generation of New Yorkers quite unaccustomed to immigrants. It was at this moment that the city suddenly found itself overwhelmed by the largest influx of human beings in 40 years. They came from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico catastrophically overpopulated, desperately impoverished, devastated by decades of sugar company plantationism. All at once there were many thousands of them in the city, where it was said a...

Just when you thought all the possible microaggression scenarios humanly possible had been called out, more pop up. The latest offensives to avoid come courtesy of The New School, a private university in New York City. It has published an extensive list of “microinsults,” “microassaults” and “microinvalidations” to avoid, including ones specific to academia, like this one: “Seats in the classroom / auditorium / office are too small for many people.” Additional “academic setting” micros on The New School’s list include “food sold in the cafeteria does not include options for those with limited food budgets,” “being called ‘overly sensitive’...

A schoolgirl prank gone gruesomely wrong left an 11-year-old Bronx girl hospitalized with severe facial burns — and her rage-filled mom bent on revenge. Relatives of hospitalized Jamoneisha Merritt called Thursday for arrests in the scalding of the girl at her friend’s Bronx apartment. The victim’s mother Ebony Merritt appeared outside the home of Shernett Panton and her 12-year-old daughter Aniya Grant Stuart, spewing obscenities and threats. “I’m going to cut your face, you f---ing b---h!” Merritt screamed at Panton. “I’m going to burn your f---ing house down! You let this happen to my daughter!”

A U.S. House member called the National Rifle Association and one of its chief spokeswomen a threat to national security. Rep. Kathleen Rice, New York Democrat, appeared to be responding to NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch noting that Philando Castile was in possession of marijuana when police shot the motorist dead. According to her next tweet five minutes later, that makes the NRA a “domestic security threat.” “I’m just going to say it. #NRA & @DLoesch are quickly becoming domestic security threats under President Trump. We can’t ignore that,” Ms. Rice said.

Eighty feet below the streets of lower Manhattan, a Federal Reserve vault protected by armed guards contains about 6,200 tons of gold. Or doesn’t. The Fed tells visitors its basement vault holds the world’s biggest official gold stash and values it at $240 billion to $260 billion. But “no one at all can be sure the gold is really there except Fed employees with access,” said Ronan Manly, a precious-metals analyst at gold dealer BullionStar in Singapore. If it is all there, he said, the central bank has “never in its history provided any proof.” Mr. Manly is among gold...

In a single morning, courts on Wednesday threw out more than 640,000 warrants for New Yorkers ticketed for minor offenses years ago. The move — requested by prosecutors and hailed by the mayor — marks a sweeping step in city officials’ efforts to promote what they see as a more fair and workable approach to low-level offenses. But one of the city’s five district attorneys said the dismissals sent a problematic signal about law-breaking. […] The warrants date back a decade or longer and stem from summonses for nonviolent, small-scale offenses such as littering, open-container drinking, being in a park...

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, migrants who came to the U.S. from across the globe — Syria, Congo, Haiti, elsewhere — arrive here where Roxham Road dead-ends so they can walk into Canada, hoping its policies will give them the security they believe the political climate in the United States does not. “In Trump’s country, they want to put us back to our country,” said Lena Gunja, a 10-year-old from Congo, who until this week had been living in Portland, Maine. She was traveling with her mother, father and younger sister. “So we don’t want that to...

Hungry rodents are apparently menacing parents, nannies and babies on the Upper West Side. There are about 2 million rats in New York City, and some have settled in Central Park and Riverside Park.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio treated his staffers poorly and often bullied them with harsh threats if they did not meet his demands, according to newly revealed emails. "What do I need to get you guys to follow a direct order? Do you need to experience consequences?" he threatened in one 2015 email, according to the New York Post. "I'm not raising this again: fix it, or I will [have] no choice but to find a way to penalize people. Not my preference, but I won't have my instructions ignored," he added. The emails show de Blasio blowing...

Have a gun license? Plan to bring your gun to my hometown? Don't. Mean New York authorities will make your life miserable. Patricia Jordan and her daughter flew here from her home state of Georgia. She wanted her gun nearby for protection. Jordan obeyed all the Transportation Security Administration's rules: She put her gun in a locked TSA-approved case with its bullets separate. She informed the airline that she had a gun. The airline had no problem with that. In New York City, she kept the gun locked in her hotel room. She never needed it, but her daughter told...

On Tuesday, New York magazine published an essay by a 24-year-old law student who recently paddleboarded around Manhattan for the first time. “I signed up for the race because I thought it sounded cool,” writes our participant. “Of course, when I asked around, everyone said it was really hard and I’d better start training.” The smugness, the entitlement, the painfully obvious observation — one might wonder: Who cares? Until you look at the byline and realize: Oh, of course. Another Kennedy foisted upon us. Our diarist is none other than Jack Schlossberg, grandson of JFK, son of Caroline, accomplishment-free save...

NEW YORK -- Federal agents say they seized 20 pounds of fentanyl and heroin in an Aug. 4 raid of an apartment building in New York City's Upper West Side neighborhood, across the street from Central Park, reports CBS New York. The drugs are valued at more than $3 million, according to investigators.  Drug Enforcement Administration Special-Agent-in-Charge James Hunt said that much fentanyl could prove deadly to a large population if handled improperly. Fentanyl: What you need to know about the deadly opioid "Twenty pounds of fentanyl in its purest form is potent enough to kill half the population of...

The City of Chicago is engaged in a legal battle against the Trump administration over the Justice Department’s policies towards sanctuary cities, and they’ve hired a firm that’s quite familiar with the President. Well, his family, anyway. The city is being represented by the law firm WilmerHale, with one of the attorneys on the case being Jamie Gorelick. Yup, the same Gorelick who up until recently was representing Jared Kushner in the Russia investigation, and still serves as his counsel (and Ivanka Trump‘s) for issues including security clearance and ethics compliance. Gorelick also served as Deputy Attorney General under President...

Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke is vowing to fight the U.S. Army’s refusal to change streets named after Confederate generals at a New York base.

Bergdorf Goodman. Tiffany & Company. Louis Vuitton. Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is to shopping what Broadway is to theater, defined by the marquee names that for decades have occupied some of New York City’s most prized real estate. But lately, the avenue’s glittery window displays have been changing more quickly, as retailers have streamed in and out. Tourism has slowed while online shopping has sped up, making it harder for companies to justify the cavernous spaces and sky-high rents along the shopping strip.

It was a girls' day out for Hillary Clinton as she and two friends shopped along New York's Madison Avenue on Saturday. The former first lady was dressed in a navy blue ensemble, along with black flats, as she laughed and walked on the city streets with her gal pals. Flanked by three walking Secret Service agents and two Secret Service vehicles behind, Hillary was greeted by members of the public who seemingly showed support, taking selfies and giving hugs. The former Secretary of State stopped into Kate Spade, Asprey and a stationary store before getting into her car and...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday proposed raising taxes for the wealthiest New Yorkers to increase funding for the city's deteriorating subway system. His plan, an increase in the tax rate on an individual's income above $500,000 to 4.41 percent from 3.876 percent, would also fund half-price bus and subway rides for up to 800,000 of the city's poorest residents, he said. De Blasio, a Democrat, said his plan would raise an additional $700 million in 2018 for the subway and bus system, and that the additional revenue could be used to borrow more funding even sooner....

The Republican majority leader of New York's state Senate has come clean about his struggle with alcohol dependency. Long Island state Senator John J. Flanagan, 56, said in a statement on Sunday that he had completed an alcohol rehab program, drawing a supportive response from colleagues in both parties. 'Alcohol was becoming a crutch to deal with pressure I was under related to my responsibilities as Majority Leader of the New York State Senate,' Flanagan said in the four-paragraph statement in response to inquiries from Newsday. Flanagan said he 'took control of the situation and sought immediate help so I...

ALBANY — Actress Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda on “Sex and the City,” may want a new role as Ms. Big. Nixon is said to be one of several Democrats in New York mulling a potential Democratic primary challenge to Gov. Cuomo in 2018. “She’d be a fantastic candidate,” said Billy Easton, executive director of the teachers union-supported Alliance for Quality Education. Easton has worked with Nixon on state education issues. Nixon, whose potential run was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, has frequently been an activist on state and city issues, particularly pertaining to public education.

Derek Dalton the VP/General Manager said: "We made a very difficult strategic decision to opt out of the final year of Kevin's contract. We thank Kevin for the many years of service to WHEC-TV and the Rochester community"