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Scofflaws of New York, rejoice — the City Council has cleared the way for you to litter, loiter and pee in the street to your heart’s content. New legislation dubbed the “Criminal Justice Reform Act” was passed by lawmakers Wednesday, giving miscreants a get-out-of-jail-free card by eliminating the criminal penalties on a raft of quality-of-life crimes.

Commission on Human Rights One's internal, deeply-held sense of one’s gender as male, female, or something else entirely. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. GENDER IDENTITY In New York City, it’s illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity and gender expression in the workplace, in public spaces, and in housing. The NYC Commission on Human Rights is committed to ensuring that transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers are treated with dignity and respect and without threat of discrimination or harassment. External representations of gender as expressed...

This is ridiculous! New York City now recognizes 31 forms of gender dysphoria.PDF file (363KB download) h/t to a New Jersey friend.

The New York Times will offer voluntary buyout packages to members of the newsroom and several business departments at the end of the month, the company announced on Wednesday. In a memo, members of the executive committee, including Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the newspaper’s publisher, and Dean Baquet, its executive editor, said that the buyouts were a part of the company’s larger mandate to build a more digitally focused newsroom, and to reach its stated goal of doubling digital revenue by the year 2020. “These plans will no doubt lead to new initiatives and investments,” the memo said. “At the same...

Individuals living in New York City can choose from a minimum of 31 different gender identities, many of which allow them to fluctuate between some version or combination of male or female identities. Businesses that don’t respect and accommodate an individual’s chosen gender identity risk incurring six-figure fines under rules implemented by the city’s Commission on Human Rights. The list of protected gender identities is available online and includes options such as “gender bender,” “two spirit,” “third sex,” “androgynous,” “gender gifted,” and “pangender.” A city official speaking on background confirmed to The Daily Caller that all of the listed identities...

A Merrill Lynch analyst ate a handful of magic mushrooms in his Manhattan apartment Sunday morning — and then plunged to his death out of his 26th-floor window, police sources said. Alex Lagowitz, 23, was found dead on a third-floor, outdoor patio around 10 a.m. — directly below his bedroom window at Windsor Court on East 31st Street and Lexington Avenue in Murray Hill, the sources said.

A Merrill Lynch analyst ate a handful of magic mushrooms in his Manhattan apartment Sunday morning - and then plunged to his death out of his 26th floor window. Alex Lagowitz, 23, was found dead on a third floor, outdoor patio around 10 a.m. - directly below his bedroom window at Windsor Court on East 31st Street and Lexington Avenue in Murray Hill. It’s still unclear if he purposely jumped or lost his balance and fell out of the window.

Garbage bags could help bring down the Blasio administration. Of many revelations about City Hall’s pay-to-play culture, the case of how New York came to buy a certain brand of trash bags caught the prosecutors' attention . Joseph Dussich, tried for nearly a decade to get the city to buy his Mint-X bags, which he says deter rats and squirrels. But he got the brush-off until he contributed $100,000 to Campaign for One New York, a slush fund de Blasio created. Presto, Dussich got a meeting with the mayor, a trial contract for $15,000, and then a deal worth nearly...

The odds of landing an affordable apartment through the city’s Housing Connect website have gotten so long, they’re now at about 1,000 to 1, officials said Wednesday. Housing Commissioner Vicki Been testified at a City Council budget hearing that 2,628 affordable apartments have become available online so far this year — drawing 2.54 million applications. -snip The number of applications represents a dramatic increase from fiscal 2013, when some 364,000 applications were submitted for just over 2,300 units.

The area surrounding the Stonewall Inn is poised to become the first national monument dedicated to gay rights, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the property will always be a bar. There’s actually nothing in the national monument designation or even the city’s landmark law to prevent New York’s most famous gay bar from someday becoming a coffee shop, a frozen yogurt joint or anything else. […] The space was occupied for years by other businesses, including a bagel shop and a Chinese restaurant, before it reopened as a bar in the 1990s. In Stonewall’s current incarnation, under new owners since...

The head of the city’s sergeants union accused Police Commissioner Bill Bratton of hypocrisy Sunday and called for his resignation. “What I am seeing on a regular basis now in the NYPD lately is, it’s a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude, and this is coming directly from Commissioner Bratton,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said on John Catsimatidis’s radio show on AM 970. […] The union chief complained that everyone in the department was aware of ticket-fixing before that scandal broke and that it was part of the culture — but now that it has...

Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a city-wide boycott of Chick-fil-A last week, and it appears the people of New York have answered that call. The answer is a resounding "no." Both midtown Manhattan locations are reportedly raking it in, with long lunchtime lines that often stretch around the block. Chick-fil-A boycott in New York not getting much traction ... https://t.co/KkYczjfXQf @ChickfilA @toddstarnes pic.twitter.com/Fs0Ogxq01L— Joni Hannigan (@JoniHannigan) May 5, 2016Last week, Mayor de Blasio-- who is currently fending off several state and federal ethics probes -- urged New Yorkers to avoid eating at the politically incorrect eating establishment. "What the...

New York Bars Must Serve Pregnant Women Policymakers in New York have released new guidance which compels bartenders to serve pregnant women alcohol if they ask for it. Published on Friday 6 May by mayor Bill de Blasio and human rights commissioner Carmelyn Malalis, the document aims to precisely state what actions constitute discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy. The purpose of the document is to ensure that pregnant women are not discriminated against by employers and are provided a safe environment to work in. The guidelines read: “Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities...

Police in New York City have identified the individual behind a mysterious tombstone bearing Donald Trump’s name, a new report says. Authorities on Monday said Brian A. Whitely, 33, placed the ominous monument in Central Park late last March, according to The New York Times. The paper on Monday reported that Whitely has not been charged with a crime related to the incident. …

It can be an awkward order for a pregnant woman: A glass of merlot, please. But she is legally entitled to it, according to New York City. For the first time, the city is explicitly prohibiting restaurants and bars from refusing alcoholic drink orders to mothers-to-be, with new guidelines that say doing so would represent discrimination under the city’s Human Rights Law. “While covered entities may attempt to justify certain categorical exclusions based on maternal or fetal safety, using safety as a pretext for discrimination or as a way to reinforce traditional gender norms or stereotypes is unlawful,” the guidance...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Human Rights Commission released Friday new guidelines forcing bartenders in the city to serve pregnant mothers alcohol. The guidelines say discriminatory “stereotypes” about what is in the best interest of the health of the “fetus” are impermissible by law. “Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as a pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions in employment, housing, and public accommodations,” the guidelines state. The new guidelines were issued to clarify...

The Rev. Franklin Graham has strongly condemned Mayor Bill de Blasio's call for a boycott of popular fast-food chain Chick-fil-A, which is opening a new location in the New York City borough of Queens, just because its Christian owners believe in the biblical definition of marriage. "Can you imagine a city where a popular, successful business is singled out and attacked by the mayor who calls for a boycott — all because the business owners let it be known that they operate by Christian principles and believe in God's definition of marriage?" Graham, the president of Samaritan's Purse and Billy...

Hundreds of people carrying photos of loved ones killed by gun violence marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday to rally for stricter gun laws and chanted demands for action. The fourth annual march, held on the eve of Mother’s Day, was organized by the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “We are going to stand up and fight until our last breath because if we lose our children we have nothing left to lose,” said the group’s founder, Shannon Watts. …

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of men, women and children including fashion designer Donna Karan marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday demanding stricter gun laws and offering a litany of violent stories to show why such laws are needed. Held on the eve of Mother's Day, the third annual march from Brooklyn to Manhattan was organized by the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

It's the stuff of mafia lore -- a doomed target thrown into the depths of the ocean, with his feet encased in cement. And yet, on an unseasonably cool morning in Brooklyn, a body with so-called "cement shoes" washed ashore this week, igniting the mystery of who committed the crime, and why. Authorities have identified the body as that of a 28-year-old suspected gang member named Peter Martinez. Martinez was found wrapped in "black plastic bags, his arms were tied behind him, and his feet were submerged in poured concrete," said New York Police Chief of Department Robert Boyce. Martinez'...