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☆ Hecklers Drown Out Trump’s Backers With Cowbells and Whistles
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Donald J. Trump has been joined in recent days by entourages of supporters who watch his prosecution in the morning and then give statements backing him outside the courthouse. On Monday, the daily news conference disintegrated into chaos, when anti-Trump demonstrators and hecklers surrounded the speakers, then effectively silenced them with shouts, whistles and the clanging of a cowbell. Among the speakers on Monday in Collect Pond Park, across Centre Street from the courthouse’s front doors, were Bernard Kerik, New York’s former police commissioner, who was pardoned by Mr. Trump for eight felonies; Kash Patel, a former Trump administration intelligence official involved in his 2024 campaign; and Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican. Mr. Clyde said that “the judge is very one-sided,” and Mr. Patel said that the only person harmed had been the defendant: “That victim is Donald J. Trump.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, entourages, Bernard Kerik, Kash Patel, Andrew Clyde, Clyde, Patel, ” Organizations: Trump, Mr, Georgia Republican Locations: Pond, Bernard Kerik , New, Georgia

☆ Outside the Trump Trial: Sock Puppets, Sex Pills and Smutty Balloons
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The trial of former President Donald J. Trump has drawn the eyes of the world to the dim hallways and dingy courtrooms inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. Outside is New York at its most colorful. Gawkers, demonstrators, politicians and hustlers gather in Collect Pond Park, a square plot of cement and trees across Centre Street from the courthouse’s front doors. Although the crowds have been smaller than the police prepared for, each day has featured someone creating a spectacle. Republican officials have recently used the park to praise the defendant at news conferences.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Locations: Manhattan, New York, Pond

☆ Man Sets Himself on Fire Near Courthouse Where Trump Is on Trial
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Nate Schweber | Matthew Haag | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A man set himself on fire on Friday afternoon near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where jurors were being chosen for the criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump. The man doused himself with accelerant at around 1:35 p.m. in Collect Pond Park, across the street from the courthouse. Onlookers screamed and started to run, and soon, bright orange flames engulfed the man. It was unclear what motivated his action, but he threw leaflets espousing anti-government conspiracy theories into the air before the incident. People rushed to extinguish the fire, but the intensity of the heat could be felt several hundred feet away.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, accelerant Organizations: The New York Fire Department Locations: Lower Manhattan, Pond

☆ Hudson Yards ‘Vessel’ Sculpture Will Reopen With Netting After Suicides
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Hurubie Meko | Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly three years after a series of suicides shut down the Vessel, the 150-foot-tall centerpiece of the Hudson Yards complex in Manhattan, the project’s developer said on Friday that it would reopen this year with new safety measures. The beehive-shaped sculpture, with a labyrinth of about 2,500 steps and 80 landings, opened in 2019, along with much of the rest of Hudson Yards, a gleaming development in Midtown West. Not long after, in February 2020, a 19-year-old, Peter DeSalvo III, died by suicide there. The attraction will reopen once “floor-to-ceiling steel mesh” has been installed on several staircases, said Kathleen Corless, a spokeswoman for Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards. The measure will preserve the “unique experience that has drawn millions of visitors from around the globe,” the company said in a statement.

Persons: Peter DeSalvo III, Kathleen Corless Organizations: Hudson, Related Companies, Hudson Yards Locations: Manhattan, Hudson, Midtown West

A police officer died on Monday after being shot during a traffic stop in Queens, the police and city officials said. The suspected gunman, who was also wounded, was the first to fire his gun on Monday evening during the car stop in Far Rockaway, striking the officer in the torso below his protective vest, Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban said at a news conference at Jamaica Hospital, where the officer was taken. Another officer returned fire, striking the man, who was also taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he is being treated for his injuries, officials said at the news conference. “This is a devastating moment,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who also spoke at the news conference. “We have to bury another cop,” he added.

Persons: Edward A, Caban, ”, Eric Adams Organizations: Jamaica Hospital Locations: Queens, Far Rockaway, Jamaica

☆ Ex-President of Honduras Denies at Trial That He Trafficked Drugs
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Colin Moynihan | Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The former two-term president of Honduras denied in court on Tuesday that he had trafficked narcotics, offered police protection to drug cartels or taken bribes — assertions that have been at the heart of a conspiracy trial taking place in Manhattan. The former president, Juan Orlando Hernández, has been on trial for two weeks in Federal District Court, facing charges that he conspired to import cocaine into the United States. Prosecutors said that he worked with ruthless drug gangs like the Sinaloa Cartel, led by the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo. Government witnesses have included a string of former traffickers from Honduras who testified that they bribed Mr. Hernández in return for promises that he would insulate them from investigations and protect them from extradition to the United States. Dressed in a dark suit with a blue shirt and tie, Mr. Hernández sat up straight during his testimony and sometimes gave long, discursive answers that prompted the judge overseeing the trial to rein him in.

Persons: Juan Orlando Hernández, Joaquín Guzman Loera, Hernández Organizations: Federal, Court, Prosecutors, Chapo Locations: Honduras, Manhattan, United States, Sinaloa, Mexican

☆ On a Single Day, Two Men Are Cleared in Decades-Old Manhattan Murders
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Andy Newman | Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The killings happened eight blocks apart within nine months, near the height of New York City’s crack wars, in a Harlem precinct that was becoming synonymous with police corruption. As of Monday, the two otherwise unrelated murder cases have something else in common: The men who were convicted were exonerated at a Manhattan courthouse. They are the latest in a long string of New Yorkers, overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic, who have had their names cleared after decades in prison. One of the men, Jabar Walker, 49, was convicted of shooting two men in a parked car in 1995 and remained incarcerated even though a man who had testified that he heard Mr. Walker confess recanted in an affidavit.

Persons: Jabar Walker, Walker Locations: York, Harlem, Manhattan, Black

Mr. Santos, a Republican representing parts of Long Island and Queens, has not been charged in connection with Mr. Miele’s efforts. The congressman has said that he was unaware of the ruse, and fired Mr. Miele shortly after learning of it from Republican leadership. Prosecutors accused Mr. Miele of carrying out a fund-raising scheme in the fall of 2021 to aid Mr. Santos’s ultimately successful election campaign for the House. For his efforts, prosecutors say, he was paid 15 percent on whatever he brought in. Mr. Santos is facing 23 of his own felony counts, including wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.

Persons: Santos, Miele, Santos’s, ” Mr, Dan Meyer, Kevin McCarthy, Mr, Joseph Murray Organizations: Republican, New York Times, Prosecutors Locations: Long Island, Queens

☆ Israel-Hamas War Palestinian Deaths Could Exceed the Cited Toll, a U.S. Official Tells Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Michael Crowley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

On the steps of the New York Public Library, demonstrators waved flags and called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. The march in Midtown closed sections of Fifth Avenue before protesters turned onto 34th Street, snarling evening commute traffic. Tensions have risen on college campuses in recent weeks as the debate over the Israel-Hamas war has divided student groups and roiled campus life. Fadi Shuman, a computer science undergraduate who is Palestinian, said he was upset Columbia wasn’t doing more to combat Islamophobia on campus. Credit... Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesLuis Cruz, 19, who traveled to Bryant Park from Staten Island, said he was glad to see students in the crowd.

Persons: ”, Sam Cribben, they’re, Fadi, Mr, Shuman, “, Sandor John, John, The New York Times Luis Cruz, ” Troy Closson, Nate Schweber, Liset Cruz, Erin Nolan Organizations: New York Public Library, Israel, Eighth, The New York Times, Columbia University, Low, Columbia, Bryant, City University of New, Fifth, CUNY, Times, New York Times Locations: Israel, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, Midtown, Bryant Park, Gaza, Palestine, City University of New York, Vietnam, Bryant, Staten Island

Mr. Trump posted a picture of her with Senator Chuck Schumer, accusing her of partisanship and saying she was “running this case against me.”Though the order is limited, Mr. Trump violated it twice in less than a week. Mr. Cohen spent two days on the stand testifying that Mr. Trump had lied about the value of his properties. Mr. Cohen spoke calmly and confidently as he recounted Mr. Trump’s obsession with his net worth. Mr. Cohen said he had not, prompting Mr. Trump and one of his lawyers, Alina Habba, to throw their hands up in victory. Outside the courtroom, Mr. Trump declared that Mr. Cohen had been “proven to be a liar.”Trump took the stand unexpectedly.

Persons: Donald J, Michael D, Cohen, Trump, —, Arthur F, Engoron, Justice Engoron, Allison Greenfield, Chuck Schumer, ”, Cohen —, Trump’s, flustered, Alina Habba, ” Trump, Greenfield, “ Organizations: Mr, ” Locations: Greenfield

In December 1982, four armed men burst into a bodega in Brooklyn serving as a front for marijuana dealing and ordered two men working inside to hand over drugs. The men then shot the clerks, killing one of them, Jairam Gangaram, a 32-year-old father of four girls. Five years later, a jury convicted Detroy Livingston of second degree murder following the testimony of a troubled young woman with an addiction to crack cocaine who claimed to be at the scene. Mr. Livingston, who had rejected a plea deal that would have set him free within 12 years, was sentenced to 25 years to life. On Friday, prosecutors from the office of the Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, agreed that Mr. Livingston’s conviction should be vacated and the charges against him dismissed.

Persons: Jairam, Edward McClean, Detroy Livingston, Livingston, Eric Gonzalez, Livingston’s, Gangaram’s, Karen Dannett Locations: bodega, Brooklyn

☆ Charlie Javice's fraud trial prosecutors must press JP Morgan for more evidence, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Nate Schweber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The judge sided in part with the defense, ordering the government to force JP Morgan to release more evidence. AdvertisementAdvertisementA federal judge on Thursday ruled that prosecutors must compel JP Morgan to find more evidence that could help Charlie Javice, the founder of the financial aid startup Frank, in her defense in her criminal fraud trial. On Thursday, inside U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan, lawyers for Javice and a co-defendant argued for more documents from JP Morgan Chase. AdvertisementAdvertisementMeanwhile, a Delaware judge ruled that JP Morgan Chase is violating a commitment that it made upon acquiring Frank to pay a significant portion of Javice's legal bills. Her lawyers say that JP Morgan Chase owes them $835,000 of the around $3.8 million they have so far charged.

Persons: Charlie Javice, Frank founder's, JP Morgan, —, JP Morgan Chase, Frank, Javice, Alex Spiro, Spiro, Dina McLeod, Alvin K, Hellerstein, Morgan Chase, Judge Hellerstein, Olivier Amar, Sean Buckley Organizations: Service, U.S, Federal, Javice Locations: Manhattan, Delaware

☆ While most workers want a 4-day workweek, other job perks may be an easier way to get flexibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

No-mad | Istock | Getty ImagesThe United Auto Workers union has brought new attention to the idea of a 32-hour workweek as part of its strike demands. A recent Bankrate survey found 81% of full-time workers want a four-day workweek. That goes particularly for younger workers ages 18 to 42, with 83% embracing that work schedule, the personal finance website found. The enthusiasm for a four-day workweek comes as the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many workers to question the so-called "hustle culture" that has defined traditional full-time in-office work. The availability of a formal four-day workweek is still limited, Schweber said.

Persons: Sarah Foster, Z, Foster, it's, Gen Z, Julie Schweber, Schweber Organizations: United Auto Workers, Employers, Employees, Society for Human Resource Management, Finance

☆ Trump’s Populist Pivot
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Susan Milligan | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +10 min

It's not surprising they're trying to bust out of the 2020 Trump coalition, because the 2020 Trump coalition is not sufficient for him to win. Several polls do show him somewhat improved among Black voters. A Quinnipiac University poll in September, for example, showed Trump with 25% support among Black voters. Abortion could be the most difficult pivot for Trump, since he is upsetting activists on both ends of the debate. There is no doubt in our minds who Donald Trump is and who Donald Trump would be if he were ever to return to the presidency."

Persons: There's, Donald Trump, Trump, Roe, ” Trump, Dobbs, Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, Simon Rosenberg, Rosenberg, It's, Howard Schweber, Schweber, Biden, Shawn Fain, Mary Kay Henry, Henry, Debbie Dingell, Hillary Clinton's, Biden –, –, Clinton, Bill Clinton, didn't, – they're, they've, Trump's, Donald Trump Jr, Adrianne, Ryan Stitzlein, Stitzlein, ” Kristen Waggoner Organizations: GOP, Wade, NBC, Florida Gov, Trump, Democratic, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United Auto Workers, Big, Republican, Union, Service Employees International Union, UAW, Black, Quinnipiac University, Pew Research Center, New Journey PAC, Supreme, Alliance Defending Locations: America, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Scranton , Pennsylvania, Shropshire

☆ Gang Member Pleads Guilty in Killing of 2 Long Island Teenagers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Colin Moynihan | Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One night in September 2016, two teenage girls were walking down a street in the Long Island hamlet of Brentwood when they were spotted by four members of MS-13, a violent transnational gang with Salvadoran roots. Federal prosecutors said the MS-13 members had set out that evening in a car looking for rival gang members to kill. When they saw Kayla Cuevas, 16, prosecutors added, they recognized her as someone their gang had designated for death after a series of disputes with MS-13 members on social media and at school. They gave the order to kill Kayla and her 15-year-old friend, Nisa Mickens, prosecutors said. One of the gang members in the car, Enrique Portillo, 19, and two younger members then attacked and killed the girls with baseball bats and a machete, prosecutors said.

Persons: Kayla Cuevas, Alexi Saenz, Kayla, Nisa Mickens, Enrique Portillo, Timothy Sini, Portillo Organizations: Suffolk County Police Locations: Long, Brentwood, Suffolk

But residents also said the area was a place where jobs were hard to come by, drugs were prevalent and encounters with the police could be fraught. On Wednesday evening, Mr. Duprey, 30, was on a motorbike, fleeing narcotics officers who were attempting to arrest him, the police said, when a sergeant, Erik Duran, threw a cooler at him. Mr. Duprey lost control of the bike, hitting a tree and a car before the bike toppled over and he fell to the ground, a surveillance video reviewed by The New York Times shows. On Friday, the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled Mr. Duprey’s death a homicide. In the days since, Mr. Duprey’s family has disputed the Police Department’s account, and protesters have called for criminal charges against the sergeant who threw the cooler.

Persons: Eric Duprey, Duprey, Erik Duran, Duprey’s, Stephanie Keith Organizations: The New York Times, New, Police Locations: Bronx, New York City

Lailing Yu, who lives a block from the crime scene, said she had been horrified when she received a video on her phone of two officers clutching the bloodied children. “I was shocked,” Ms. Yu said, as she stood with others who had gathered outside the five-story brick building where Ms. Zhao, her children and Mr. Ye lived. Arriving at the apartment early in the afternoon, the man found Ms. Zhao and her children lying in pools of blood in the kitchen area and called 911, Ms. Chu said. Mr. Ye’s son was taken to a police precinct, where he remained with his mother, Ms. Chu said. Ms. Zhao’s husband had been sent to Ohio for work and had been trying desperately to return to New York all afternoon, Ms. Chu said.

Persons: Lailing Yu, “, ” Ms, Yu, Zhao, Ye, Chu, Ye’s, Zhao’s Locations: Ohio, New York

Part of the answer can be found at a large church in Long Island City, Queens, the Evangel Christian Center, which the city said accepted nearly 200 people last week who had been in the line outside the Roosevelt Hotel, which has become the main intake center for migrants. Several migrants from the West African nation of Mauritania said Wednesday that they had been moved there from their sidewalk sleeping spots. Mohammed Yerim, a Mauritanian in his mid-20s, said he came directly to the church, bypassing the line outside the hotel, after arriving from Florida. Two emergency lodgings in recreation centers in Brooklyn in McCarren Park and Sunset Park that opened over the weekend are housing about 80 people each. A small number of migrants leave the shelter system each week after finding homes elsewhere.

Persons: Mohammed Yerim, “ Organizations: Evangel Christian Center Locations: Long Island City, Queens, West African, Mauritania, Mauritanian, Florida, Brooklyn, McCarren, Clinton Hill

Mr. Heuermann went on to college at New York Institute of Technology on Long Island to study architectural technology. One of the few neighbors Mr. Heuermann spoke to was Etienne de Villiers, 68, whose immaculately kept house next door stood in keen contrast with Mr. Heuermann’s. Mr. de Villiers said he had only passing conversations with Mr. Heuermann along with a few minor conflicts, like the time he had to tell Mr. Heuermann to stop leering at his wife over the backyard fence while she was sunbathing. Mr. de Villiers watched as Mr. Heuermann seemed to be raising his children to be as isolated as he had been, in the same rundown off-limits house. “He just didn’t want any part of it, he didn’t want any part of sports,” Mr. DeMicoli said.

Persons: Heuermann, Etienne de Villiers, Heuermann’s, de Villiers, leering, Victoria, “, ‘, ’ ”, Johnny McGorey’s, DeMicoli, ”, Mr, Andy Newman Organizations: New York Institute of Technology Locations: Long, Manhattan

Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect charged in the Gilgo Beach serial murder case, kept 279 weapons in his rundown home, most of them in a basement vault big enough to walk into, the authorities said on Tuesday. Mr. Heuermann had lived with his family in the dilapidated one-story house with the unkempt yard on First Avenue in Massapequa Park, N.Y., for years, commuting to his architectural consultancy in Manhattan. As they’ve worked, the house has become something of a tourist attraction for true crime fans and a daily encampment for news crews covering the case. Mr. Heuermann has been charged with killing Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Megan Waterman, 22. He is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

Persons: Rex Heuermann, Heuermann’s, Raymond A, Tierney, Heuermann, they’ve, Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard Locations: Suffolk County, Massapequa Park, N.Y, Manhattan, Gilgo, Shore, Barnes

Scarlett Fascetti approached the dilapidated red house as if it were a shrine. Ms. Fascetti could already reel off details about the killings and had quickly gotten up to speed on the three murder charges against Mr. Heuermann. She knew everything from precisely how 11 bodies had been found along Ocean Parkway to the vehicle Mr. Heuermann had in his driveway. Since his arrest on July 13, hundreds of wide-eyed people from across Long Island and beyond have come each day to the home, about five miles from Gilgo Beach, where Mr. Heuermann lived with his wife and two grown children. They have clustered outside police tape on the edge of his block.

Persons: Scarlett Fascetti, ”, Fascetti, Rex Heuermann, Heuermann Locations: Long, Suffolk County, Shore, Gilgo Beach

At his office near the Empire State Building, Rex Heuermann was a master of the meticulous: a veteran architectural consultant and a self-styled expert at navigating the intricacies of New York City’s building code. At home in Massapequa Park on Long Island, while some neighbors saw Mr. Heuermann as just another commuter in a suit, others found him a figure of menace. “He was somebody you don’t want to approach.”On Friday, Suffolk County prosecutors said that residents of Massapequa Park had a serial killer living in their midst. They accused Mr. Heuermann, 59, of leaving a quarter-mile trail of young women’s bodies on the South Shore of Long Island in what came to be known as the Gilgo Beach Killings. Yet he was so careful in covering his tracks, they said, that it took them nearly 15 years to arrest him.

Persons: Rex Heuermann, Heuermann, ”, Nicholas Ferchaw, Mr Organizations: Foods Locations: York, Massapequa, Long, Suffolk, Shore

☆ Frank founder Charlie Javice gave JP Morgan millions of names and emails for college students she said were customers, but 'it was all fake,' prosecutor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Nate Schweber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Javice is accused of grossly exaggerating the numbers of customers she had before her sale to JP Morgan. After hat after the initial deception to JP Morgan Chase, Javice and Amar pivoted to another, Fergenson said. Javice and Amar presented it all in a spreadsheet to JP Morgan Chase, representing all of the names to be Frank users, Fergenson said. Javice's attorney, Alex Spiro, who has alleged that JP Morgan Chase is retaliating against his client for her exposure of their violating of privacy laws, objected. "The government is just regurgitating to the court JP Morgan Chase's civil lawsuit," he said.

Persons: Frank, Charlie Javice, Javice, JP Morgan, Olivier Amar, JP Morgan Chase, Mr, Amar, Micah F, Fergenson, Morgan Chase, Alvin K, Hellerstein, nodded, —, Alex Spiro, Morgan, Judge Hellerstein Organizations: University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Forbes, Fast Company, of, Securities and Exchange Commission Locations: Manhattan, Pennsylvania, Southern, of New York

☆ The ChatGPT Lawyer Explains Himself
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Benjamin Weiser | Nate Schweber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the court hearing in Manhattan began, the lawyer, Steven A. Schwartz, appeared nervously upbeat, grinning while talking with his legal team. Nearly two hours later, Mr. Schwartz sat slumped, his shoulders drooping and his head rising barely above the back of his chair. At times during the hearing, Mr. Schwartz squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead with his left hand. He repeatedly tried to explain why he did not conduct further research into the cases that ChatGPT had provided to him. “God, I wish I did that, and I didn’t do it,” Mr. Schwartz said, adding that he felt embarrassed, humiliated and deeply remorseful.

Persons: Steven A, Schwartz, Kevin Castel, Peter LoDuca, stammered, ChatGPT, “, ” Mr Organizations: Federal, Court Locations: Manhattan

But for months, Mr. Santos has denied any criminal wrongdoing, even as he has admitted to lying about going to college and working for prestigious Wall Street firms. When he appears before a judge on Wednesday, Mr. Santos will hear the government’s case against him. Shortly thereafter, prosecutors will argue for the terms of release they believe to be appropriate to ensure that Mr. Santos returns to court. It is not yet clear whether Mr. Santos will lodge a plea or if he will be asked to do so in a subsequent hearing. Court records show that Mr. Santos spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name at a store near Rio de Janeiro.

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