Free Republic

The day after Pervez Siddiqui’s adult day care center was raided by the FBI last year, the pharmacist headed to a fundraiser for Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the home of the top adviser on Medicaid affairs in the Pakistani-American community. Ijaz Ahmad, 50, a Pakistani-American cardiologist and healthcare entrepreneur with a sprawling home in Nassau County, advises his fellow countrymen on setting up community healthcare facilities, which rake in tens of millions in Medicaid cash. He also introduces them to the city’s most powerful lawmakers at his 10,000 square foot residence in Old Westbury, according to a source in the...

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul is once again stamping her feet, accusing federal immigration authorities of overreach for allegedly planning to expand detention facilities in upstate New York. In a letter to US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Hochul is demanding answers from ICE about a rumored lease on a warehouse in the Hudson Valley near Newburgh, as well as plans to expand detention capacity at federal facilities in Rochester and Batavia. “New Yorkers, like all Americans, deserve honest answers about what their federal government is doing in their communities. And I demand your department provide that transparency,”...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) is putting sanctuary priorities ahead of public safety, this time by dangling technology upgrade grants in front of local police agencies—but only if they agree to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Hochul, speaking in Long Island earlier in the week, explained that $75 million of a total $100 million in grants would be tied directly to compliance with the state’s “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act." The act, passed by the state legislature in May, effectively pressures sheriffs and departments to keep their hands off helping ICE with raids and detentions by ending 287(g)...

This week in Mullin v. Doe, a 6-3 majority of the US Supreme Court ruled that the temporary protected status granted to immigrants from Haiti in 2010 could be discontinued by the Trump Administration. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito asserted that "a temporary status initiated by a previous administration can be terminated by a later administration if it determines that the conditions justifying the original decision have changed. In this case, the temporary protection was initiated due to an earthquake in Haiti." In her dissenting opinion, Justice Elena argued that "the original temporary protection order was put in...

Gov. Kathy Hochul has quietly extended a pilot program providing free healthcare to sex workers – with taxpayers footing the nearly $2.5 million bill. The state Health Department in 2023 awarded $1 million in public funds to two contractors as part of Hochul’s plan to help the “world’s oldest profession,” but new documents reviewed by The Post show the program extending through June 2028, with $1.5 million more in costs. Under the initiative, sex workers in NYC and the Buffalo area will continue to receive primary, sexual, behavioral, and dental care. Critics bashed the hooker healthcare program — which was...

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a major surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into New York City, escalating a growing confrontation with Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Trump border czar Tom Homan revealed Monday that the administration has already drawn up an operational plan and warned Hochul before she signed legislation late last month restricting ICE activities and banning masked immigration agents in New York. "You're going to see more ICE than you've ever seen in New York City, and it's coming," Homan said, according to Bloomberg. "I just reviewed an operational plan....

Mom’s not the word. New York state Democrats passed a bill to erase words like “mother” and “father” from Family Court Law — in the latest gender-neutral rewriting in the state’s official records. “Mother” would be replaced with “gestating parent” while “father” becomes “non-gestating parent” and “paternity” proceedings would become “parentage” proceedings under the woke bill that was rammed through both houses of the state legislature this week. A “putative father” in paternity proceedings would now be defined as “an alleged parent” under the bill, which was sponsored by liberals Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) and...

On social media Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy identified the driver as 48-year-old Jing Dong, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who received his CDL from New York State. Duffy said Dong does not speak English.

Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to dunk on President Trump over his New York Knicks fandom — but ended up throwing up a brick instead. The Democratic governor inadvertently showed she wasn’t exactly bleeding orange and blue when she misstated the team’s most recent championship in an embarrassing self-own when a reporter asked her what she thought of the GOP leader saying he was a lifelong Knicks fan.ages “I’d ask him to name the starting lineup from the 1993 championship team and see how he does,” Hochul said at an unrelated press conference in the Big Apple. The Knicks last won...

ALBANY — Lawmakers voted to enshrine New York’s sanctuary state status into law Thursday, imposing a sweeping ban on cooperation between local law enforcement and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sprawling legislative package, pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, not only handcuffs cops from partnering with federal immigration authorities, but also bars ICE agents from most public places like hospitals and parks, and prevents them from wearing masks. The measure, which was significantly ratcheted up from Hochul’s original proposal that largely only went after specific localities, like Nassau County, that have cooperation deals dubbed “287-g agreements” with the feds. The...

A federal appellate court ruled that New York’s law banning firearms carrying under a so-called “vampire rule” violated the Second Amendment. Shortly after the Supreme Court struck down New York’s discretionary system for issuing concealed carry permits, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation enacting numerous restrictions on carrying firearms after convening a special session of the state Legislature. A majority of the three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that a provision requiring private property owners to post signs allowing concealed carry was unconstitutional. FPC WIN! The Second Circuit has struck...

A controversial new tax on second homes in New York City was quietly lowered from $5 million to a “market value” of $1 million — increasing the number of homeowners who will get squeezed as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s never-ending budget negotiations. Hochul’s office finally released details of her and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new tax on second homes in New York City to the New York Times Thursday, the latest concession to the Democratic socialist mayor and his liberal followers on a tax-hike crusade they say will target the rich. The so-called “pied-a-terre” tax would apply to second homes...

MANHATTAN — The State of New York has graciously offered to allow American hantavirus patients to stay in any of their local nursing homes. With seventeen Americans being ordered into quarantine due to hantavirus exposure, Governor Hochul immediately called to request the patients be housed as close as possible to elderly, infirm New Yorkers. "We are following the science," announced Governor Hochul. "While red states languish, New York will once again lead the way in pandemic preparation by securing all infected patients inside nursing homes. We know from experience how to trap a virus inside the buildings which contain...

Let’s make a deal – or not. Gov. Kathy Hochul bungled the announcement of a deal on New York’s long-delayed budget Thursday — as state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie shot down her claims that top Democrats reached an agreement. The budget drama unfolded after Hochul announced the supposed agreement at 9 a.m., releasing the spending plan’s top lines. Roughly two hours later, however, Heastie effectively called the governor a liar. “There’s no budget deal. There’s no deal,” the Bronx Democrat said. “I’m not conferencing anything else until I know what the financial picture is.” Heastie said he walked out of...

New York sanctuary politicians are determined to release an illegal alien arsonist who killed multiple people in order to stick it to Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mexican national Roman Amatitla randomly selected an NYC apartment building to set ablaze on March 16. He injured seven people and killed four, including a toddler. Now he faces eight counts of second-degree murder and first-degree arson, according to the New York Post. The local authorities ought to be handing the illegal alien over to ICE, but they refuse to do so. Democrats have become so fanatical in their opposition to federal...

Federal prosecutors are investigating a New York City Council member and an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul in connection to charges against leaders of a homeless shelter nonprofit accused of stealing more than $1 million. The councilmember and the aide are sisters. Feds probing Farah and Debbie Louis City Council member Farah Louis and her sister, Debbie Louis, who serves as the governor's assistant secretary of New York City governmental affairs, have not been charged, but prosecutors are also looking into whether they accepted bribes related to the alleged scheme. Sources told CBS News New York political reporter Marcia Kramer...

Fox News personality Jesse Watters questioned the "emotional maturity" of women and said, "I hope there's not a female president in my lifetime" during an episode of his show. The comments came following an exclusive interview with MS NOW in which Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi asserted that the American people have long been more prepared for a female president than Congress was for a female speaker, but that she didn’t believe that at 86 years old, it would happen in her lifetime. “Well, Nancy says there will not be a female president in her lifetime, and I say thank god,”...

ALBANY– Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly negotiating a possible deal with one of New York’s top labor leaders to allow public workers from teachers to nurses hired after 2014 to retire at 55, sources said. The age is currently 62 for those hired in the past 14 years. The potential fat pork deal pact would involve more than a billion dollars in sweetening pensions for the unionized public employees. Legislative leaders are being kept in the wings of the talks – which could be wed into the state budget package and lead to taxpayers footing billions – with Hochul dealing...

Governor Kathy Hochul’s once-commanding lead over Republican Bruce Blakeman has eroded by half in three months, collapsing from 26 points in January to just 13 points, according to the latest Siena Research Institute poll. The result marked a 7-point tightening from February, as independents shifted toward Blakeman even as Hochul’s favorability and job approval ratings held steady. […] The state has not elected a Republican governor since 2002, but the Siena poll showed movement toward Blakeman for the second consecutive month, signaling potential vulnerability for Hochul if the trend persists into the budget season and broader campaign. …

A Brooklyn Council member, her sister — an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul — and the husband of a Democratic state Assembly member are being investigated by federal prosecutors looking into whether they took bribes to help a migrant shelter provider that has received $200 million in city contracts, according to a report. Democratic Councilwoman Farah Louis and her sister, Debbie Louis, who served as Hochul’s assistant secretary of New York City intergovernmental affairs, were named in a search warrant obtained by the Associated Press seeking evidence for possible criminal violations. Edu Hermelyn, the husband of state Assembly Member and...