A federal judge rebuffed Donald Trump’s efforts to block New York’s $9 Manhattan congestion charge, ruling the Department of Transportation could not arbitrarily overrule federally approved state law. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority argued, successfully, that its case had more legs than the city’s gridlocked traffic. With London and Stockholm already on board, America’s lone experiment in toll-induced circulation gets to drive on—at least until the next legal jam.
New York City in brief
Top five stories in the five boroughs today
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has revived New York’s $14.4bn plan to deck over Sunnyside Yard in Queens, pitching the colossal housing venture to a perhaps unlikely partner, President Donald Trump. The 2020 master plan—stalled by Covid and the site’s perpetual tangle of tracks—promises 12,000 affordable homes if federal funds, Amtrak’s land, and political will converge; third time’s apparently the overbuild charm.
New York’s 123,000 recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits—including homeless people, seniors, and veterans—now face new federal work requirements, courtesy of a Trump administration push that brushed aside years of local exemptions. City officials, scrambling with nonprofits to avoid a surge in food insecurity, promise outreach and exemptions galore, lest Manhattan’s breadlines upstage its brunch queues come June.
Judge Lewis Liman—himself a Trump appointee—ruled that the former president lacks authority to ax New York’s congestion pricing, leaving Manhattan’s car toll intact and the MTA in the driver’s seat. The Biden administration’s 2024 agreement lets only the city nix the scheme, which has cut traffic and pollution. Trump’s bluster met a 149-page speed bump; for now, the cameras—and the tolls—keep rolling.
The US Department of Justice plans to sue Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration over the $11 billion overhaul of New York’s Medicaid homecare scheme, after emails suggested state officials and Public Partnerships LLC cozied up before awarding it a lucrative contract. 1199SEIU, the influential health union, backs the revamp, though everyone else appears entitled to a second opinion, if not a subpoena.