fpslem

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18960282

In June, Governor Kathy Hochul made the bombshell announcement that she had ordered the MTA to indefinitely pause New York City’s congestion-pricing program, just weeks before it was set to begin. The governor had once been a major proponent of the first-in-the-nation plan to charge fees to drivers traveling at or below 60th Street, but when she announced the pause, she cited concerns about the $15 toll being too much of a financial burden for everyday New Yorkers. This week, Hochul is indicating that a replacement plan could soon be on the horizon.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that Hochul is mulling significant changes to congestion pricing, including a lower toll and potentially adding new exemptions to the fee. A source told the outlet that the governor is considering excluding teachers, police officers, and firefighters who commute from paying the toll. In July, the New York Times reported that state lawmakers, who would have to sign off on a new plan, were pushing for Hochul to consider a lower toll

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In June, Governor Kathy Hochul made the bombshell announcement that she had ordered the MTA to indefinitely pause New York City’s congestion-pricing program, just weeks before it was set to begin. The governor had once been a major proponent of the first-in-the-nation plan to charge fees to drivers traveling at or below 60th Street, but when she announced the pause, she cited concerns about the $15 toll being too much of a financial burden for everyday New Yorkers. This week, Hochul is indicating that a replacement plan could soon be on the horizon.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that Hochul is mulling significant changes to congestion pricing, including a lower toll and potentially adding new exemptions to the fee. A source told the outlet that the governor is considering excluding teachers, police officers, and firefighters who commute from paying the toll. In July, the New York Times reported that state lawmakers, who would have to sign off on a new plan, were pushing for Hochul to consider a lower toll

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MIT leaders describe the experience of not renewing its largest journal contract as overwhelmingly positive. MIT has long tried to avoid vendor lock-in through big deal contracts and, in 2019, maintained individual title-by-title subscriptions to approximately 675 Elsevier titles. In 2020, they took the significant step of canceling the full Elsevier journals contract – all 675 titles – leaving users with immediate access to only pre-2020 backfile content. Since the cancellation, MIT Libraries estimates annual savings at more than 80% of its original spend. This move saves MIT approximately $2 million each year, and the Libraries provide alternative means of access that fulfills most article requests in minutes.

After laying the groundwork with faculty and university administrators, the transition has been relatively seamless with minimal push back from researchers. Most faculty have been supportive of the Libraries in taking a principled stand in line with MIT values and are finding alternative means of access to needed research without an Elsevier subscription. Four years out, the faculty who continue to be most challenged by lack of immediate access are in the life sciences.

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A widely reported finding that the risk of divorce increases when wives fall ill — but not when men do — is invalid, thanks to a short string of mistaken coding that negates the original conclusions, published in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The paper, “In Sickness and in Health? Physical Illness as a Risk Factor for Marital Dissolution in Later Life,” garnered coverage in many news outlets, including The Washington Post, New York magazine’s The Science of Us blog, The Huffington Post, and the UK’s Daily Mail .

But an error in a single line of the coding that analyzed the data means the conclusions in the paper — and all the news stories about those conclusions — are “more nuanced,” according to first author Amelia Karraker, an assistant professor at Iowa State University.

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Booting is on the rise in New York City.

Drivers who don’t pay up for traffic tickets are more likely to have their cars ensnared than they have been at any point since before the pandemic all but shut down enforcement, according to city data.

New Yorkers' vehicles were immobilized 134,945 times in 2023. That’s more than quadruple the number of boots clamped onto wheels throughout the city in 2020, when only 31,379 vehicles were captured by the devices’ metal fangs.

Drivers who fail to pay $350 or more in parking or traffic camera tickets within 100 days of their issuance are subject to booting.

Many booted vehicles get towed away. If their owners don’t retrieve them, the city can sell them at auction.

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Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who was expelled from the House of Representatives after being indicted on 23 federal counts including fraud and misusing campaign funds, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to two of the charges.

The Long Island Republican faces a mandatory two-year minimum sentence after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. But Judge Joanna Seybert estimated the term could range from six to eight years behind bars when he is sentenced on Feb. 7, 2025. Santos also agreed to pay nearly $374,000 in restitution.

Santos had faced trial in September on charges including laundering campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, charging donors' credit cards without their consent, and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed.

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Donald Trump was privately stewing over Brian Kemp earlier this year — long before he unloaded on him at a rally in Atlanta this month — offended by the Georgia governor’s absence from campaign events and fundraisers and other perceived slights.

“What’s the deal with Brian Kemp?” Trump asked companions on a flight back to Florida from a fundraiser held in the swing state in April, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion granted anonymity to describe a private matter. After all, Trump said, he’d “helped him get elected” in a competitive 2018 primary.

Kemp had skipped the fundraiser and a Georgia rally weeks earlier. And just days before, Kemp’s wife, Marty, had told a local television reporter — in a clip that no longer appears on the news station’s website — that she planned to write in her husband’s name for president, rather than vote for Trump.

Trump asked an aide on the plane to print off a copy of the news report. He called the Georgia first lady’s comments “terrible,” and asked others on the flight, including Michael Whatley, chair of the Republican National Committee, how he should respond.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/27137940

A mother whose son was having a seizure in his Tennessee apartment said in a federal lawsuit that police and paramedics subjected the 23-year-old to “inhumane acts of violence” instead of treating him, then covered up their use of deadly force.

The death of Austin Hunter Turner was one of more than 1,000 nationally that an investigation led by The Associated Press identified as happening after police officers used physical force or weapons that were supposed to stop, but not kill, people.

The lawsuit, filed this week in federal court, came after AP reporters shared police body-camera video they had unearthed with Turner’s parents, who didn’t know it existed. That footage made the family doubt the official conclusion that a drug overdose killed their son.

Citing the AP’s reporting and many of the details it disclosed, the lawsuit focused on how officers’ own video contradicted the police version of what happened inside Turner’s small apartment in the northeastern Tennessee city of Bristol.