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District 51

Joseph C. Borelli

Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights, New Springville-Willowbrook-Bulls Head-Travis, Freshkills Park (North), Oakwood-Richmondtown, Great Kills-Eltingville, Arden Heights-Rossville, Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Woodrow, Tottenville-Charleston, Freshkills Park (South), Great Kills Park

Published April 11, 2024, 7:35 p.m. ET

By Haley Brown

FDNY Emergency Medical Services workers will have access to body armor and special training as part of legislation passed Thursday by the City Council to address an increase in attacks on first responders.

The pair of bills, authored by Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, would require the FDNY to provide EMTs and paramedics with bullet- and stab-proof armored vests along with self-defense and de-escalation training.

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Published March 20, 2024, 12:30 p.m. ET

By Craig McCarthy, Emily Crane, and Carl Campanile

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has drawn outrage for claiming that giving each of the tens of thousands of migrants pouring into the Big Apple free legal representation could net billions in economic benefits for New York state.

Lander’s office said in a report that coughing up individual lawyers to rep migrants could prevent roughly 53,000 asylum seekers from being deported across the Empire State — resulting in an estimated net benefit of $8.4 billion for local, state and federal governments.

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Published March 12, 2024, 7:16 p.m. ET

By Joe Borelli

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber is determined to see congestion pricing through. Stephen Yang

John Samuelsen, president of the 155,000-member Transit Workers of America, is blasting the latest version of congestion pricing for failing to improve express bus service to the outer-boroughs.

He’s right.

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Published Feb. 28, 2024, 5:37 p.m. ET

By Aneeta Bhole

The Democrat-controlled New York City Council has been blasted as “out of touch” by local Republicans for swatting down Mayor Eric Adams’ call to change the Big Apple’s sanctuary policy in order to more easily deport migrants accused of crimes.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Wednesday called Hizzoner’s suggestion “harmful” and said lawmakers were not planning on making any modifications to the law.

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Published Feb. 14, 2024, 5:33 p.m. ET

By Joe Borelli

Congestion pricing cameras set up in Manhattan. Christopher Sadowski

Turn on the news, and you are bound to hear any one of a number of congestion pricing’s most sycophantic promoters telling us we must look to our sister city across the pond to see the fruits of its implementation.

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Published Feb. 4, 2024, 8:10 p.m. ET

By Carl Campanile

Eighteen elected officials have joined a federal lawsuit by the teachers union aimed at blocking the controversial new $15 congestion pricing toll to enter Midtown Manhattan.

More than half the plaintiffs are Democrats whose fellow party members approved the law greenlighting congestion pricing in 2019.

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Published Feb. 3, 2024, 9:49 a.m. ET

By Rich Calder and Matthew Sedacca

Manhattan DA Alvin was blasted for trying to throw the book at two New Yorkers who bought fake COVID-19 vaccine cards. REUTERS

A judge blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for trying to throw the book at two New Yorkers who bought fake COVID-19 vaccine cards — despite routinely going easy on others charged with far more serious crimes. 

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By Haley Brown and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon Published Jan. 28, 2024 Updated Jan. 28, 2024, 4:10 p.m. ET

Mayor Eric Adams took a crew of City Council members on police patrol over the weekend in his much-publicized bid to kill a controversial cop bill.

At least eight Big Apple lawmakers donned bullet-proof vests for a Saturday night ride-along with cops in Harlem and the Bronx — with Adams hoping to sway at least two council members to flip their votes and squash the proposed “How Many Stops” 

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Published: Jan. 27, 2024, 4:59 p.m.

By Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Borough President Vito Fossella announced Friday an updated complaint in his federal court case against New York’s congestion pricing plan — likening it to one of Staten Island’s greatest environmental disasters.

Fossella brought the lawsuit earlier this month with the United Federation of Teachers, led by Staten Islander Michael Mulgrew and a host of the city’s public school teachers.

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Published Jan. 25, 2024, 7:34 p.m. ET

By Joe Borelli

Mayor Eric Adams vetoed two bills last week, including the How Many Stops Act. AP

In the classic prison film “Papillon,” when inmate Henri Charrière refuses to tell guards who helped him smuggle coconuts into jail, the warden punishes him by cutting his rations in half and confining him to a lightless cell the size of broom closet for six months.

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