Free Republic

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...

They’re running up the bill. Bronx residents in state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s district decried spiking utility bills Monday — as the state Legislature pushes back on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s cost-saving bid to delay New York’s controversial climate law mandates. The complaints come as lawmakers, led by Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, are poised to split with Hochul over her push to delay the climate law, as well as to reform car insurance — two major sticking points in state budget talks. “Anything that you pay less is better for everybody,” said Francisco Perez, 36, a Baychester resident...

As New York City's filthy commie mayor struggles to fill a $5.4 billion budget gap with a massive soak-the-rich-then-soak-them-some-more tax hike, trillion-dollar asset management fund Apollo Global Management says it will open a secondary headquarters in Florida or Texas. "Apollo expects most of its future hiring to be in the second hub rather than Manhattan," according to the New York Post, surprising literally no one."The reality is that you can’t propose budget after budget that vilifies employees and then be surprised when they decide to go somewhere else," Partnership for New York City CEO Steve Fulop told the paper."New York...

Why They Lie About ‘Jewish Terrorists’. From the West Bank to New York City, anything to distract from the obvious and looming threat of Muslim violence. By Liel Leibovitz. March 29, 2026 Jewish extremist terrorism is out of control. “A man linked to pro-Israel terrorist group” was charged “in a plot to assassinate” pro-Hamas activist Nerdeen Kiswani, The New York Times reported on Friday. Mayor Zohran Mamdani was "outraged" by the news. In a post on X, Mamdani placed the alleged plot in context of “an alarming rise in threats and violence across the country targeting Palestinian human rights advocates.”...

Lefties turned out in droves for Sunday’s “Tax the Rich” rally featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders in The Bronx — but Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to show face as he walks a tightrope with Gov. Hochul over taxes. At least 1,000 people filled Lehman College’s sprawling performing arts center, where Sanders (I-Vt.) spent nearly an hour pushing his own proposal targeting the wealthy. “A few years ago, it was estimated that Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive, paid an effective tax rate of less than 3.3%, while the average truck driver in America paid an effective tax rate of 8.4%,” Bernie...

“Viva la revolución 2.0!” A CUNY Cuba conference in Midtown devolved into an anti-US hatefest, with far-left speakers deriding the “evil empire” as the “No. 1 terrorist in the world” — urging comrades to “speed up” its demise “in every way possible.” But radicals attending the Action Conference for US-Cuba Normalization on March 14, including elected officials, ex-Black Liberation Army members, and reps from the Democratic Socialists of America, spoke glowingly about the 1959 Cuban Revolution as they demanded Uncle Sam lift its embargo and remove Cuba from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list. “Washington is not strong. It is...

Comptroller Mark Levine said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to draw down $1.2 billion in reserves to balance the budget could make things even worse for taxpayers when it’s time to cook up next year’s spending plan. “You do not want to be draining the reserves when the economy is otherwise good,” Levine said Sunday on CBS 2 New York’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer.” Raiding $1.2 billion next year and $2.6 billion over the next two years as the Mamdani administration plans would leave the city flatfooted if the economy goes south. “It’s going to leave us more vulnerable next...

A teen thug allegedly admitted to police that he knew he “was guilty” of slashing a Queens mom of three on her way to work after cops showed him a surveillance video of the vicious attack, according to prosecutors. Luis Emmanuel Valencia Ponce, 18, allegedly aired the stunning admission of guilt to detectives after police showed him footage of Lisette Ramales being stabbed at an East Elmhurst bus stop on Monday morning, Assistant District Attorney Isabelle Dudek told the courtroom during his arraignment at Queens Criminal Court late Thursday. “If I’m being honest with you, I don’t remember running towards...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Thursday he will sign an executive order to create the Office of Community Safety (OCS), a step toward his vision of public safety that prioritizes support and prevention rather than policing and penalization. The office, housed within the mayor’s office, will oversee multiple existing public safety programs and signify a major step in building out Mamdani's $1.1 billion Department of Community Safety. The announcement comes after Mamdani pledged to revise the city's police response in non-criminal emergencies, including mental health crises.

Yes, I am going to say it-Zohran Mamdani’s wife, the First Lady of New York City, Rama Duwaji is a Jew-hating, terrorist lover. “Sure, Lisa”, you say. “Tell us something we did not yet know”. Rama, 28 year-old wife of Mayor Zohran Mamdani who is already under fire for social media posts calling Hamas’ mass raping of Israeli women a “hoax“. Side bar: does she really live with him at Gracie Mansion? Zohran was spotted at the gay bars on Halloween. Word on the street was that he was, uh, “campaigning“… The mayor said his wife’s views should not be...

An immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a former New York City Council employee federal officials said in January was an undocumented immigrant with a prior assault arrest. City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the deportation ruling on Wednesday, condemning it as a "miscarriage of justice and wholly deplorable" and pledging to fight back by filing an appeal. Two months ago, Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, 53, was detained during an immigration appointment and was identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a Venezuelan "criminal illegal alien" who overstayed his visa. Federal officials said despite having no work...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, celebrated Palestinian terrorists in a flurry of resurfaced social media posts she made as a teenager and in her early 20s, a shocking new report said.

Someone should do a wellness check on The New York Times. Looks like its journos read the portents wrong — AGAIN — on another one of its apocalyptic prognostications on the economic consequences of President Donald Trump taking out the Islamist regime in Iran. Times business reporter Emmett Lindner nonsensically tried to dig up the corpse of the 1970s oil price shock following the Yom Kippur War as a comparative case study to what is transpiring around the Persian Gulf as Israel and the U.S. decimate Iran’s war machine. “Echoes of the ’70s in What’s Now the Largest Oil Shock...

A graffiti message reading “Kill a Jew, go to heaven” was found over the weekend on a bike trail in New York City’s Riverside Park. The sprayed sentence was discovered on a large stone along the trail between 97th Street and 105th Street, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a major hub of the Jewish community. The Combat Antisemitism Movement, a global coalition of pro-Jewish groups, tweeted that it was “a direct public call for violence against Jews.” The nonprofit added, “Last month alone, 28 antisemitic incidents were reported in New York.” U.S.-based organization StopAntisemitism also responded to...

Anti-Zionist activists accuse Israel supporters of eating babies and raping children, shout ‘death to America,’ wave terrorist flags NEW YORK — Anti-Zionist protesters chanted for terrorist groups, accused Israel’s supporters of eating babies and raping children, and chanted for death to Israel and the US at a protest for Al Quds Day in New York City on Friday.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing to reduce the state’s estate tax exemption threshold by nearly 90%, from over $7 million to $750,000, while raising the top estate tax rate from 16% to 50%. The proposal appeared in a memo circulated by Mamdani’s office to state lawmakers negotiating the state budget. New York Focus first reported the memo. Mamdani is confronting a $5.4 billion city budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and is seeking assistance from the state legislature to generate revenue to address the shortfall. The memo included nearly a dozen potential revenue-raising ideas....

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, created artwork for an essay book compiled by an anti-Israel activist who has described Jewish people as “vampires,” “demons” and “ghouls” – and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. Duwaji, a Syrian American artist and first lady of New York City, drew the lead graphic for “A Trail of Soap,” an essay published by Susan Abulhawa in the Slow Factory’s latest issue of “Everything Is Political” magazine, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Thursday. Abulhawa is a staunch critic of Israel and has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation...

Catch-and-release is succeeding…or failing spectacularly in New York City depending on your perspective. Thanks to Democrat control in Gotham and Albany, the latest horror show demonstrates how the people who voted for soft-on-crime politicians are getting exactly what they voted for, good and hard. Our latest poster child for ending progressive “catch and release” is Damon Johnson, 47, a one-man crime spree. He’s racked up a jaw-dropping 131 prior arrests in New York City since his first bust back in 1995 And those are just the crimes the cops caught him (allegedly) committing. Yet thanks to Team Soros prosecutors and...

I don't care if you call me "Islamophobic." I don't care if I am Islamophobic. Call me whatever you need to, but holy halal, Batman, what fresh hell is this? I'll tell you what it is: It's the Islamist mayor of the erstwhile greatest city on the face of the Earth, turning the people's seat of power into a Muslim stronghold, much as he is turning the Big Apple into a sharia-friendly s**thole. On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Mamdani hosted an iftar — the meal at which Muslims stuff their faces after fasting through the daylight hours during Ramadan...

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama declared "the enemy is inside the gates" when sharing a post on X that juxtaposed a photo of the September 11, 2001, terror attack on the Twin Towers with an image of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The post Tuberville shared was from an account called "End Wokeness," which included a message that read, "Less than 25 years apart." The image appears to show Mamdani hosting a Ramadan Iftar event at city hall, based on an Instagram post from an account called "muslimnews" that includes video footage which matches up with the image...