Alongside the terrible news, this was really a hell of a week for Zohran Mamdani, who has already advanced the core campaign promise of free, universal child care, among other forms of progress for New Yorkers. I wrote that up for today's On Tap: prospect.org/2026/01/09/m...

Lively scene at the IBEW Local 25 hall on Long Island, where Hochul, union leaders, enviro groups rallied with several hundred workers in support of offshore wind. IBEW’s Kevin Casey: “If there’s any politicians in the back there that don’t support it, don’t call me up to support your reelection”

State of the State scooplet: Hochul is putting $3.75 billion over the next five years into water infrastructure, in part to build sewers on Long Island. That’s up from $500m/year currently. “I said, I wanna go big…. My team presented some numbers and I said, Let's add some more zeros.”

The climate stuff is all really notable but also don't want it to get lost that these are some of the other institutions that were deemed "contrary to the interests of the United States"

A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.

New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, speaking yesterday to Spectrum News, suggested he is open to rolling back the state’s landmark climate law, echoing Governor Hochul’s position that the law is too costly to achieve, particularly with Trump in office. A few highlights (edited to fit here):

Last week, we published a story detailing ICE's strategy for recruiting new officers, including targeting "gun rights" supporters and geo-fencing ads around gun shows. Ex-ICE director told me: “That mentality you’re fostering tends to inculcate in people a certain aggressiveness" wapo.st/3Ngmo9C

After a white county in South Carolina rejected a data center, developers have sets their sights on a Black community for a proposed data center complex the size of 1,200 football fields

“I thought I was going to clean up racing,” one racetrack owner told @sammellins.bsky.social. “But now I think nobody cares.”

Big, important story on how New York has turned a blind eye to illicit drugs in harness racing. nysfocus.com/2026/01/07/h...

On X, a senior U.S. Justice Department official is promoting a post that praises colonization as “one of the greatest things that ever happened to the backwards parts of the world.”👇

Reached out to the White House and the Pentagon to ask what they know about the death toll of their strikes in Venezuela. The White House referred us to the Pentagon. And the Pentagon referred us to the White House.

Uh… are all those helicopters over Brooklyn… for Maduro?

The kidnapping of Maduro inaugurates a highly dangerous era of U.S. empire that for perhaps the first time in an era of mass media is not pretending to be anything other than a violent, extractive enterprise of domination.

The US produces >13 mn barrels of oil per day. Venezuela produces <1 million bpd There's a global oil glut i.e. lower prices. That's bad for US producers, who need higher prices to break even. Hard to imagine they're eager to make big new investments in an unstable place w/ decrepit infrastructure

It sounds like the Bay Area Air Quality Managment District is on track to end the installation of new fossil fuel burning residential hot water and space heating systems in 2027 and 2029 respectively. www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/a-new-...

Thank you for supporting us in 2025! Until midnight, your donation will be matched and tripled. We'll see you next year! nysfocus.com/donate

Eric Adams is going to use cryptocurrency to fight antisemitism. Eric Adams is going to use samurai swords to fight food waste. Eric Adams is going to use 100 rubber duckies to fight prostate cancer. I would believe literally any combo of words hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-s...

Very happy to see this funding boost for Empower+, which I’ve been pushing hard for. The program helps low- and moderate-income households make energy efficiency improvements that permanently reduce energy bills, with benefits for the climate & public health.

NEW: New York’s flagship energy efficiency program, Empower+, is back on track with a major boost from a regional cap and trade program. The new funding reverses steep cuts that New York Focus first reported over the summer. nysfocus.com/2025/12/23/e...

warren buffett on utilities from his berkshire hathaway 2023 annual letter

🎅 New York’s flagship energy efficiency program, Empower+, is back on track with a major boost from the regional cap and trade program RGGI. A rare example of NY strengthening its climate commitments this year (alongside other states), and putting the revenue right to work

NEW: For the first time since she took office in 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul won’t be taking a stack of unsigned bills with her into the Christmas holiday. She's moved quickly by vetoing more bills than usual. We moved quickly to round them up for you:

The state, represented by the office of Attorney General Letitia James, plans to ask judges to dismiss up to 500 prison sexual assault cases filed against it under the Adult Survivors Act, Hell Gate and New York Focus have learned. nysfocus.com/2025/12/22/p...

⚠️ The Trump admin has halted construction on five East Coast offshore wind farms, including Empire and Sunrise in NY and Vineyard in MA, which is already supplying power. Looks like Trump’s most aggressive move yet to stop offshore wind. TBD whether it will hold up any better in court.

NEW: New York adopted rules at the end of last year meant to protect smaller wetlands from development, nearly doubling the amount of state-protected land. But bureaucratic hurdles have added months to the permitting process as solar developers race to qualify for federal subsidies.

⚠️ It’s official! New York has repealed the “100-foot rule” subsidy for new gas hookups, joining five other states that have ended similar subsidies. Statement from Hochul:

tired: “renewable energy” wired: “Energy Abundance, Diversity, and Reliability”

Update: New York pension fund trustees on Wednesday tabled Comptroller Brad Lander’s proposal to rebid a contract with BlackRock, leaving the potential $42 billion move up to his successor. nysfocus.com/2025/12/15/b...

The U.S. wind industry, which Trump has tried persistently to derail, installed 36% more capacity this year than it did last year, and is expected to continue to rise through 2027. Much of this capacity was ordered in the Biden years.

EXCLUSIVE: the Working Families Party is putting out a recruitment call for people opposed to data centers in their communities to run for local office the recruitment effort comes just 2 days after Bernie Sanders called for a moratorium on data center construction

NEW: Hochul is poised to veto a bill that could save New York’s LLC Transparency Act — which she signed two years ago — from new rules by the Trump administration. nysfocus.com/2025/12/17/l...

The most promising “bipartisan” permitting reform deal — the SPEED Act — seems to be falling apart after Mike Johnson added language capitulating to offshore wind opponents American Clean Power has now pulled their support for the bill and moderate Dems seem like they’ll jump ship

do leaders of the top investigative newsroom in the country not understand what makes their journalism valuable??????

Another US airstrike in Somalia happened yesterday, near Kismayo. AFRICOM released no casualty figures or other information beyond saying it "targeted" al-Shabaab. This is by my count the 87th strike or series of strikes announced by AFRICOM this year, by far the most ever in a year in Somalia.

... www.njspotlightnews.org/video/propan...

NEW: Outgoing NYC Comptroller Brad Lander wants the city pension funds to pull $42 billion from BlackRock over climate concerns. This Wednesday is their last chance to take action before his term runs out. nysfocus.com/2025/12/15/b...

Fascinating stuff happening here. Full segment: share.google/b5C7bJTSgMwi...

Read the story: nysfocus.com/2025/12/01/n...

NEW: The murder of Robert Brooks was an Attica moment, arguably leading to more scrutiny and more tumult than New York prisons have seen since September 1971, writes @chrisgelardi.bsky.social. nysfocus.com/2025/12/10/d...

The bill to repeal the “100-foot rule” subsidizing gas line hookups is now officially on Gov. Hochul’s desk, along with almost every other 2025 bill still outstanding. She has until just before Christmas to sign or veto. Worth remembering this is a policy Hochul herself proposed in 2022!

NEW: The state will replace the company providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands of home care workers next year. The move comes after a series of New York Focus stories found that the company was offering shoddy coverage. nysfocus.com/2025/12/09/n...

Proud to have worked with @chrisgelardi.bsky.social and Sydney Umstead on this important story for @nysfocus.bsky.social about visitors being denied visits with loved ones in NY state prisons after scanners pick up objects like tampons: nysfocus.com/2025/12/06/d...

In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)" news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

trump’s executive order banning wind permits has been ruled illegal @bloomberg.com

⚠️ On Friday night, Gov. Hochul issued her biggest yet round of vetoes for the year — almost 50 bills, including four utility-related ones. The biggest would have created an Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate. She vetoed it in 2021 and has also 3x vetoed a different bill with similar aims

Read and share our position statement, and join us in our fight for #NewsNotSlop! cnnu.org

The news industry has been critical of federal efforts to prevent the regulation of AI. Now, we’re fighting to ensure that AI is regulated in our newsrooms. Sign the NewsGuild-CWA’s petition on AI here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/st...