Weather
Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
[2] service operates in two sections: 1. Between Flatbush Av and Chambers St 2. Between Wakefield-241 St and Chambers St and via the [1] to/from South Ferry
In the Bronx, Woodlawn-bound [4] skips Burnside Av
No [6] between Hunts Point Av and 125 St
In Queens, Flushing-bound [7] skips 52 St and 69 St All trains at Woodside-61 St board from the Manhattan-bound platform
[A] trains are running with delays in both directions while we address a signal problem near Rockaway Blvd.
In Manhattan, uptown [E] skips Spring St and 23 St
In the Bronx, no [D] at Norwood-205 St
In Brooklyn, no [L] between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs and Broadway Junction
No [N] between Queensboro Plaza, Queens and Times Sq-42 St, Manhattan
A citywide reading surge evaporated in a single year, and nobody in charge can say why.

NYC's 2026 state exams showed reading proficiency for grades 3-8 fell 6 points to 50.3%, wiping out most of last year's 7-point gain, with third-grade proficiency dropping nearly 14 points to 44.2% [90][89]. The swing comes three years into NYC Reads, the mandated phonics curriculum that replaced two decades of school-by-school "balanced literacy," and testing experts say a reversal this sharp is unusual enough to warrant checking the test itself [89]. UFT President Michael Mulgrew threatened to pull the union's support for NYC Reads over the rollout [93]. Chancellor Kamar Samuels is doubling down anyway [90].
“The Department of Ed. is completely incompetent and irresponsible in its implementation, and we are not going to stand by.”
“This kind of big increase followed by a big decrease is surprising.”
“We are going to double down on that next year with our NYC Reads program, which is evidence and research-based.”


The city's tax on second homes worth $5 million-plus keeps mailing bills even as three lawsuits try to stop it.

An appellate judge cleared Mayor Mamdani's pied-à-terre tax to keep rolling out through August, staying a Staten Island judge's Monday order that had blocked it over the city's error-prone notice list of 900,000 property owners [21]. City lawyers argued the halt would "derail" a levy now projected to raise $1 billion a year for the budget [21][22]. President Trump, who would owe the tax on his roughly $6 million-assessed Trump Tower penthouse, posted on Truth Social that he is exploring a federal block, El Diario NY reports [6]. Landlord attorney Randy Mastro is fighting the tax and the separate rent freeze in parallel Staten Island suits [6].

Six years after the city outlawed chokeholds, a jury finally convicted an officer for using one.

A Bronx jury convicted NYPD Officer Omar Habib of second-degree strangulation and using a banned chokehold on Lord Nyamaah during a 2023 arrest, the first conviction under the city's post-George Floyd chokehold ban [37]. Body-camera footage showed Habib holding the chokehold long enough that Nyamaah lost consciousness, and a doctor testified it takes seven seconds of continuous pressure to do that [37]. The NYPD fired Habib, whose record already included six lawsuits that cost the city $854,000 to settle [37][29]. He was ordered held at Rikers Island until sentencing [29].
“What'd you do, bro" ... "I'm done.”
“Why are you choking me?”
“This verdict is just further proof of a grim reality: every second police officers spend on this job puts them at risk of criminal prosecution.”


On Aug. 22, Fergus Farrell will step onto the Brooklyn Bridge and start walking to Santa Monica, nearly 3,000 miles away, eight years after a ruptured disk left him paralyzed from the ribs down with a doctor's estimate of a 5 percent chance he'd ever walk again [100]. He's planning about 37.5 miles a day for 75 days to raise money for spinal-injury research, and his three kids will be there to see him off before their own school year starts. "I feel very privileged that I can put one foot in front of another," he said [100].