Mayor Bill de Blasio urged on Friday that New York City’s private businesses require their workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and signaled that he would introduce similar measures for hundreds of thousands of municipal employees. The mayor’s comments came just days after he announced that all employees in the public hospital system would have to either receive a virus vaccine or submit to weekly testing. The move reflected growing concern that New York, like much of the United States, is on the verge of another wave of the pandemic. In just a few weeks, case counts in the city have tripled, to more than 650 a day on average, while inoculation rates have leveled off. “If people want freedom, if people want jobs, if people want to live again, we have got to get more people vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasio said on Friday during a weekly radio appearance on WNYC. “And obviously it’s time for whatever mandates we can achieve.” “I’m calling upon all New York City … [Read more...]
New York City Marriage Bureau Resumes In-Person Weddings By Appointment Only
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — New York City continues to reopen, even with COVID cases on the rise . On Friday, the city’s marriage bureau resumed in-person weddings, CBS2’s Natalie Duddridge reported. READ MORE: Judge Rules Mayor De Blasio, Former NYPD Commissioner Will Not Have To Take Stand In Inquiry Into Eric Garner's Death There’s excitement and nervousness in the air as couples get ready to tie the knot. Starting Friday, couples can once again get married and get a marriage license in person in New York City. But, appointments are necessary and masks must be worn during the ceremonies. Tali Agai and Kyle Eisenman were overjoyed when they booked an appointment to get their marriage license just in time for their wedding this weekend. “Today was the first and only date in a person we could actually get a license,” Eisenman said. “Online was backed up for months and months,” said Agai. “We met a long time ago, years and years, and we got engaged in 2019. We are … [Read more...]
The Case for Masking Up Again Indoors in New York City
On Wednesday afternoon, Mark Levine, the New York City Council member and likely the next Manhattan borough president, met me on a busy corner of Broadway, a few blocks from his apartment, in Washington Heights. He had invited me to his neighborhood for a tour and a conversation about mask use in the city. “How is it in there?” he said, jerking his head toward a bodega behind me. He meant mask-wise. We walked in to find out. Inside, a half-dozen people were browsing the cold drinks. A few were masked up, a few had masks across their chins, and some went maskless. Levine, masked, grabbed a bottle of water and made small talk in Arabic with a guy working the register–Levine calls himself a language buff—then walked back out into the afternoon. “I’d say there’s now fifty per cent mask wearing in bodegas, on a good day,” he said. This, for Levine, was bad news. Levine, who is fifty-two and sports a tidy salt-and-pepper beard, has spent almost eight years on the City Council, where he is … [Read more...]
Fully Self-Driving Cars Being Tested On Streets Of New York City
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Fully self-driving cars are now being tested on New York City streets. Two Ford Fusion models were specially customized by Mobileye, an Israeli firm owned by Intel. READ MORE: Judge Rules Mayor De Blasio, Former NYPD Commissioner Will Not Have To Take Stand In Inquiry Into Eric Garner's Death The company received a special permit allowing its test drivers to keep their hands fully off the steering wheel while the cars drive themselves. READ MORE: Infant Girl, Mother Injured When Car Crashes Into Yonkers Store The city allowed it after reviewing the results of Mobileye’s testing in other crowded cities, like Tokyo, Tel Aviv and Detroit. MORE NEWS: 2 Abandoned Black Swans Rescued On Long Island This story first appeared July 22, 2021. … [Read more...]
In New York, Power of DNA Spurs Call to Abolish Statute of Limitations for Rape
It was his eyes. She was flipping through a newspaper, and suddenly his eyes were staring at her from a police photograph in the crime pages. Even before she read the headline, she felt shock. Then nausea. "The way he came at me with that knife, I can't forget those eyes," she said, recalling the stranger who climbed through her Manhattan apartment window one night in late 1972 and raped her. The man's photograph, published last April, brought it all back in an instant for Stefanie Aubry, the victim. It brought back her agonizing decision to submit silently so he would not harm her two young daughters, asleep in the same room. It revived her furious anger -- even though the crime happened more than three decades ago. Ms. Aubry learned from news accounts that the man's name was Fletcher A. Worrell and that he was accused, based on DNA evidence, of a strikingly similar rape in the same area of Manhattan just seven months after her attack. Certain that he was the one who had … [Read more...]
New York gun rights case before Supreme Court with massive consequences
Today, only eight states including New York are “may issue” for gun carry permits — meaning government officials “may issue” permits to applicants but are not required to (and hardly ever) do so. Litigation over what the Second Amendment means and requires is mostly limited to those states who are ruled by mega-cities. A law-abiding citizen who passes a background check in those states is still subject to a discretionary and random government decision about whether that person has “proper cause” to carry a firearm for self-defense. That means New Yorkers must distinguish themselves from their fellow citizens and be rationed a constitutional right by bureaucrats. In New York, gun licenses are restricted, expensive and the process is riddled with politics and bribery , making licenses inaccessible to most. This led to the judicial saga now before the U.S. Supreme Court of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA) v. Corlett and a fundamental question for the Court … [Read more...]
