Free Republic

A political action committee backing former state Sen. Michael Johnston of Denver for the Democratic nod for governor has received another $1 million dollars from Michael Bloomberg, bringing the wealthy former New York mayor’s total donations to the committee to $2 million. ... The $1 million contribution was the largest that any campaign committee received in the most recent reporting period from May 31 to June 13, according to the secretary of state’s office’s TRACER campaign finance system. Second on the list: another $750,000 from fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder to his gubernatorial campaign, bringing his total...

An American Legion post in Park Slope has been ordered to remove a bench — with the US flag painted on it — from outside its veterans club. The city’s Department of Transportation issued a “notice of encroachment/order” last week to the American Legion Sixth Memorial Post No. 1833 on 5th Avenue near 6th Street regarding the patriotic bench built around the base of a tree outside of the establishment. The notice, obtained by The Post, says that the “unauthorized bench” is “encroaching on city sidewalk” and orders the legion to remove within 30 days or face a possible fine....

. Cardinal Timothy Dolan blasted the Trump administration’s policy of separating kids from their parents on Friday night, calling it “un-American and unbiblical.” The White House got into holy hot water this week when Attorney General Jeff Sessions and press secretary Sander Huckabee Sanders both referenced scripture to claim the administration has the moral authority to forcibly take kids away from parents if they cross the southern border illegally. “I mean, that’s just unjust. That’s un-American and unbiblical,” Dolan, leader of New York City’s 2.8 million Catholics, told CNN on Friday night. Sessions specifically cited the Apostle Paul who in...

The 17,000 individuals named in the NYPD’s gang registry are 99 percent black or Latino, Chief of Detectives Dermot F. Shea revealed this week, according to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Shea, testifying Wednesday before the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety, was talking publicly for the first time about one of the department’s most popular crime-fighting tools. He said the database is 65 percent African Americans, 24 percent non-white Hispanics, and 10 percent black Hispanics. He said the average age of those included is 27 and that 1,460 of those listed are younger than 18.

Rats prefer the neighborhoods of Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Bedford-Stuyvesant — and they really like to party in the summer, a new study shows. Citywide, the rat population grew about 10 percent from 2016 to 2017 based on complaints filed to 311, the RentHop study released on Tuesday shows.

Robert De Niro had a simple introduction to Bruce Springsteen’s Tony performance. “I just want to say one thing — F— Trump,” De Niro said. “It’s no longer down with Trump. It’s f— Trump.” More to come…

Diamond and Silk take it to the streets on Watters' World. First stop Harlem New York. "Do you feel like you are winning?"

It must be an election year. (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s always an election year these days.) Having apparently solved all of the other problems plaguing the Big Apple, Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the stump this weekend to announce that there would be a change to birth certificates issued by New York City. From now on, new parents won’t be bothered by any confusing questions about gender at the hospital after their new bundle of joy comes into the world. If their new baby is born with either a penis or a vagina but they’re still...

New York City law enforcement ignored 440 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detainer notices in the last three months according to a report posted June 4 at the Center for Immigration Studies. According to the ICE report, from January to mid-April of 2018, ICE called on the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and New York Department of Corrections (NYDOC) to ready these hundreds of detainees but received no response from city authorities. Also, 40 of the detainees, after authorities released them from custody, committed additional crimes and were arrested again. ICE listed several examples of who New York...

De Blasio wants to scrap admissions testing for elite high schools Mayor de Blasio unveiled a plan Saturday to boost black and Latino enrollment at the city’s eight specialized high schools — and he wants to scrap admissions tests outright. In an op-ed for education-news site Chalkbeat, de Blasio announced that 20 percent of seats at those eight schools would be reserved for low-income applicants. Kids in the Department of Education’s Discovery Program who score just below the admissions cut-off would be given one of those saved seats, according to the plan. De Blasio said he will fight to eventually...

Chick-fil-A to develop into nation’s third-largest quick meals restaurant Chick-fil-A is cashing in. A brand new 2017 gross sales report exhibits the king of hen is rolling within the dough and is way exceeding its rival quick meals chains like McDonald’s and KFC. Look out, world. New Yorkers have found that their metropolis has 4 Chick-fil-A eating places – together with the world’s largest. Phrase bought out final week in a New Yorker journal article titled “Chick-fil-A’s creepy infiltration of New York Metropolis.” The creator is Dan Piepenbring, described as being from Brooklyn....

The phenomenon is based on a design for Manhattan outlined in "The Commissioners' Plan of 1811" for a rectilinear grid, or "gridiron" of straight streets and avenues that intersect one another at right angles. This design runs from north of Houston Street in Lower Manhattan to just south of 155th Street in Upper Manhattan. Most cross streets in between were arranged in a regular right-angled grid that was tilted 29 degrees east of true north to roughly replicate the angle of the island of Manhattan. And because of this 29-degree tilt in the grid, the magic moment of the setting...

Qatari former diplomat claims Michael Cohen asked him for a fee of $1 million for his services amid a conversation about a potential Qatari investment in U.S. infrastructure. Washington D.C. is abuzz with speculation of a new Trump - Qatar scandal this week, after photos were posted on Twitter Sunday by attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing porn star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer. The photos show Ahmed al-Rumaihi, a former Qatari diplomat in the United States and the current head of Qatar Investments - a division of the world’s...

Two months after she was injured and her 4-year-old daughter was killed in a car crash, Broadway star, Ruthie Ann Miles, has lost her unborn child, a baby girl due this month. “At the time of the crash Ruthie was pregnant and was severely injured,” Miles’ family lawyer, Ben Rubinowitz, told the NY Daily News. “This past Friday Ruthie and Jonathan lost their baby, Sophia Rosemary Wong Blumenstein,” continued the statement. “The pain suffered by Ruthie and Jonathan is nearly impossible to fathom.” In March, two children, including Miles’ daughter, Abigail Blumenstein, were killed after a driver allegedly struck them...

<p>New York’s “progressive” pols are again going to bat for deep-pocketed special-interest groups against little guys trying to make a few extra bucks — Airbnb hosts.</p> <p>A City Council bill would force the apartment-sharing service to turn over the names and addresses of all its New York City hosts so officials can crack down on units with “violations” — even when those breaches have nothing to do with their Airbnb listing.</p>

Washington - The Democratic National Committee is eyeing eight American cities for its 2020 Democratic National Convention, a party official tells CNN. The DNC sent requests for proposals to a host of cities and received responses from eight: Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; Denver; Houston; Miami Beach; Milwaukee; New York; and San Francisco. "The DNC sent the original letters of interest to a broad list of cities that have traditionally been able to meet the preliminary requirements for serving as a host," the official said. "We expect the entire selection process to play out over the next year."

Iranian dissident Mansoor Osanloo, the exiled former head of the bus driver’s union in Tehran, was savagely attacked on Tuesday, May 1, while traveling on a PATH train into New York City, and left for dead. Multiple assailants sprayed him with a corrosive chemical, then clubbed him in the back of the neck with what appears to have been a tire iron. He lay in a coma for several days and required 17 stitches in his neck. I spoke with Osanloo on Monday, not long after he awoke from a coma. “I don’t remember anything,” he said. “But you can...

Getting from point A to point B should, theoretically, be a relatively simple task. But in order to travel, the transportation infrastructure needs to be in place and up to par. Across the state, major projects are underway to repair and update that infrastructure so that New Yorkers can get where they need to go – whether that’s through the air, over land or over water. Though some may be on track to be completed while others wallow in planning, here are five major projects underway that should make it easier for New Yorkers to get around.Gov. Mario M. Cuomo...

There’s been yet another development in the Fight for Fifteen, this time coming to us from the Big Apple. With great fanfare, the Democrats in New York City (and in the state government as well) have been trying to outdo each other this election cycle by jacking up the minimum wage. Recent legislative moves brought the city to the point where they’ve had six minimum wage increases in two years. As you might imagine, this has been particularly tough on the restaurant and bar business. The city is quickly making some eateries essentially unprofitable unless they increase their menu...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday evening that the city would push a plan to open so-called safe injection sites for heroin users, part of an effort to reduce an epidemic of deadly drug overdoses across the city. The facilities, also known as overdose prevention centers, provide drug users with access to clean needles and space to inject drugs. They are overseen by staff trained to use the overdose-reversing antidote naloxone and suggest addiction treatment options for illicit drug users.