New York City has unveiled plans to patch up the crumbling Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which ferries some 130,000 vehicles a day and stands as a monument to the urban planning enthusiasms of Robert Moses. We’re promised more community input, fewer e…
Reports of a Trump-brokered 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, with Kirill Dmitriev and Yuri Ushakov negotiating on Russia’s side, mark a creative if patchy new chapter in wartime diplomacy. The plan—no NATO, no Donbas—envisions Trump chairing a “Peace Council,” though thorny details abound and Moscow treats it as just a starting bid. Evidently, peace proposals proliferate when clarity, and consensus, remain scarce commodities.
Queens will finally gain its first major Holocaust memorial, as Mayor Eric Adams and Borough President Donovan Richards have pledged $4 million to create a commemorative garden at Borough Hall, with state lawmakers eyeing another $2 million. The project, three years in the making, will break ground just as Adams departs—ensuring his legacy, if not his administration, bears deeper roots in remembrance.
New York is again testing candidates for coveted public service gigs, with fresh rounds of state exams offering hopefuls from Manhattan to Albany their shot at stable employment and a decent pension. Applicants must navigate the usual bureaucratic obstacle course—requests for forms and phone calls—proving that in the Empire State, the rite of public service entry remains as much paperwork as promise.
NYPD are seeking two men, both in their early twenties, after a late-night drag racing meet in Malba, Queens spun into chaos: some 50 cars, a torched vehicle, and a brawl that left residents Blake and Melissa Ferrer battered after confronting the crowd. Police, following several 911 calls and an unhurried response, now promise more patrols; we think a few speed bumps, literal or otherwise, would not go amiss.
WhatsApp will ban generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot from its platform as of January 2026, citing new business API rules that favour customer service bots over general-purpose assistants. The move—possibly a gambit for Meta to privilege its own AI assistant—will force would-be Turing test enthusiasts to look elsewhere for lively WhatsApp banter, at least until another workaround materialises.
After a violent late-night car meetup on 141st Street left Queens’ Malba district shaken and one couple hospitalized, City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino secured a verbal promise from the local transportation chief for much-requested speed bumps. Whether such physical persuasion will pacify racing, fireworks, and street brawls has locals skeptical—though in New York, even the pace of reform often needs some slowing down.
We learn the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation in Queens has burned nearly $1 million fighting concerts at Forest Hills Stadium, leaving some 4,000 neighbors short on income—and patience. Critics gripe the board exceeded budgets behind residents’ backs, prompting talk of a “hostile takeover” at the next election. Meanwhile, lawyers, not music fans, seem to be the real beneficiaries—an encore nobody asked for.
After a Brooklyn man allegedly stabbed a fellow E train passenger at Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer for objecting to his loud phone call, authorities charged Johnny Wood, 50, with attempted murder and related offenses; police arrested him in Brooklyn days later. The victim, 54, sustained broken ribs and a stab wound but survived—reminding us, yet again, that New York’s public transit is rarely dull, if not always tranquil.
