Elections

A new report calls for public education and closing of legal loopholes to keep the public safe.The NewsAs more states have legalized the sale of cannabis, a fractured and inconsistent legal framework has emerged across the country that has prioritized sales income and tax revenue over public health, a new report finds.The report, issued Thursday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, describes an “urgent need for a coordinated public health response.” The academies, a nonprofit advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists, said that such a response should include a federally led campaign to educate parents, children and others about the risks of a drug that is increasingly potent.Among the other suggestions, the report also calls for a lifting of research restrictions on cannabis. In recent years, many claims have been made about the medicinal and other health effects of the drug but often without substantiation from science.Even as a patchwork of laws and regulations have emerged, the potency of cannabis products has surged.Cindy Schultz for The New York TimesPotencyCurrently 24 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories have legalized the sale of cannabis for recreational use, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. In 13 other states, cannabis is legal for medicinal use.Even as a patchwork of laws and regulations have emerged, the potency of cannabis products has surged, as measured by the growing concentration of THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. The rapid increases have left the public unaware of the health risks, particularly to young people, pregnant women and seniors, according to Yasmin Hurd, director of the Addiction Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine and the vice chair of the committee that issued the latest report.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a detective running from his past in a murder mystery that is mostly a stiff slog to get through.When it comes to the modern murder mysteries that truly love the genre — the ones that don’t so much subvert but wholeheartedly lean into the familiar tropes of your favorite cheap detective novel — there’s a fine line separating the good and the not-so-good. Not only a properly calibrated twist, but a sense of wit and a legible directorial imagination is what distinguishes, say, your “Knives Out” and “A Haunting in Venice” from a film like “Killer Heat.”The latter, directed by Philippe Lacôte, has the starter elements that might equate to a romp of a detective movie: a hard-drinking private investigator character running from his past, a screenplay based on a short story by the celebrated crime novelist Jo Nesbo. But this film has none of the charm, tension or cinematic energy to elevate those ingredients into a greater sum.It mostly wants to rely instead on brooding, overwrought narration from Nick Bali (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an American expat detective who has landed on Crete to investigate the death of Leo Vardakis (Richard Madden), a member of a wealthy family that controls the island. Penelope (Shailene Woodley), the wife of Leo’s twin brother, Elias, has secretly hired Nick, suspicious of the actual circumstances that led to Leo’s death from a mysterious rock climbing accident. Soon, relationship secrets, along with Nick’s own personal past of betrayal, come to light.The twists and pedestrian dramatics are a stiff slog to get to, and Gordon-Levitt’s once innate charisma has vanished altogether here; his cheap P.I. outfit itself seems to be wearing him more than the other way around. Perhaps that’s the point “Killer Heat” wants to make about a cynical detective who’s just going through the motions. Yet, inadvertently, that ethos has swallowed the film itself.Killer HeatRated R for language, some sexual content, nudity and violence. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Amazon Prime Video. More

a.
wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343;
b.
soliciting, accepting, and receiving a campaign contribution by a foreign
national, in violation of Title 52, United States Code, Section 30121(a)(2); and
52.
C,
bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B).
It was a part and object of the conspiracy that ERIC ADAMS, the defendant, and
others known and unknown, knowingly having devised and intending to devise a scheme and
artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent
pretenses, representations, and promises, would and did transmit and cause to be transmitted by
means of wire, radio, and television communication in interstate and foreign commerce, writings,
signs, signals, pictures, and sounds, for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice, in
violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343.
53.
It was further a part and object of the conspiracy that ERIC ADAMS, the defendant,
and others known and unknown, would and did knowingly and willfully solicit, accept, and
receive, directly and indirectly, a contribution and donation from a foreign national, and express
and implied promises to make a contribution and donation, in connection with a local election, to
wit, mayoral elections in the City of New York, aggregating $25,000 and more in a calendar year,
in violation of Title 52, United States Code, Sections 30121(a)(2) and 30109(d)(1)(A)(i).
54.
It was further a part and object of the conspiracy that ERIC ADAMS, the defendant,
being an agent of a local government, to wit, the City of New York, which, in a one-year period,
received benefits in excess of $10,000 under a federal program involving a grant, contract, subsidy,
loan, guarantee, insurance, and other form of federal assistance, corruptly solicited and demanded
for the benefit of a person, and accepted and agreed to accept, a thing of value from a person,
intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with business, a transaction, and a series
50 More

The pieces of paper taped to mailboxes and front doors on Wednesday carried a stark warning: “You must evacuate your mobile home by tomorrow morning due to Hurricane Helene.”The Twin City mobile home complex in St. Petersburg was buzzing with activity Wednesday evening as people responded to the warning, which wasn’t much of a surprise to residents because their neighborhood has become increasingly prone to flooding over the last few years. Many were lifting cars onto concrete blocks, packing up their pets and preparing to leave the complex of tidy, pastel-colored homes.But some planned to stay. Ryann Ivins, 59, walked his dog, Dexter, during a break in the rain. Helene’s approach made him nervous, he said, because last August, Hurricane Idalia brought hip-high water into the complex and inside his home. He recalled carrying Dexter, who can’t swim, through the floodwaters to higher ground at 4 a.m.That storm cost him baby pictures of both himself and his children, as well as photos of the hot-rod cars he had built over the years. “It’s like half my life got erased,” he said.A few months ago, he moved into a new trailer in the same complex. He bought brand new furniture for his two children, ages 10 and 11. Now, he’s worried about what Helene could do. So while he intends to stay through the storm to keep an eye on his belongings, he is taking other precautions.“I already got my kids out of there,” he said. “I moved all my stuff up. And pray. That’s about all I can do at this point.”He said he’ll go on living at Twin City as long as he can stand the rising waters.“It was real nice for a while,” he said. “Then, all of a sudden, it started to flood.” More

Now that Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted, his path to re-election in New York is likely to become much more difficult.Mr. Adams is running for a second term in a competitive Democratic primary next June. Already, four prominent Democrats have entered the race, arguing that Mr. Adams is a poor manager and has not addressed the city’s affordability crisis. And even more challengers may enter the race.So far, the field includes Brad Lander, the city’s left-leaning comptroller who recently pledged to end street homelessness for severely mentally ill people, and Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who has focused on affordable housing and whose 2021 mayoral campaign was derailed by allegations of sexual misconduct.There is also Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is proposing free “universal after-school” programs, and Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who has focused on affordability and is friendly with unions.Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens who is weighing entering the race, wants to stop rent increases that have taken place under Mr. Adams. And former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after facing a series of sexual harassment allegations, is also considering running, and has focused this year on combating antisemitism.If Mr. Adams resigns, the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor and might run for the job on a permanent basis. Mr. Williams is a left-leaning former City Council member from Brooklyn who has been a fierce critic of Mr. Adams, assailing the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy.Mr. Adams’s approval rating was already dismal before his indictment. In a Quinnipiac poll taken last December, only 28 percent of New Yorkers approved of the job he was doing — the lowest rating for any New York City mayor in a Quinnipiac survey since it began polling the city in 1996.Mr. Adams, a former police officer who ran for mayor on a public safety message, won by a slim margin in the 2021 Democratic primary. He beat his closest challenger, Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, by roughly 7,200 votes. More

Eric L. Adams, a retired police captain who was elected as New York City’s 110th mayor nearly three years ago on a promise to rein in crime, has been indicted following a federal corruption investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said.The indictment remained sealed on Wednesday night, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face. But the federal investigation has focused at least in part on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.When the indictment is made public, Mr. Adams will become the first New York City mayor to face a federal charge while in office.The indictment promised to reverberate across the nation’s largest city and beyond, plunging Mr. Adams’s embattled administration further into chaos just months before he is set to face challengers in a hotly contested mayoral primary.And, if it contains allegations of conspiring to commit crimes with foreign nationals, it will have landed on the same week that the city was playing host to leaders from across the world at the United Nations General Assembly, including Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.In a statement, Mr. Adams said he had done nothing wrong.“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said. “If I am charged, I am innocent, and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Even before news of Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment was made public on Wednesday, prominent elected officials had already called for his resignation, most notably Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But after the news of the mayor’s indictment, the calls for his resignation promptly surged. Mr. Adams is not required to resign.Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who is among the Democrats running against Mr. Adams in next year’s Democratic primary, said on Wednesday night that the mayor needed to “resign for the good of the city,” repeating a line used by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.“There is simply zero chance that the wheels of government will move forward from this full steam ahead,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “Instead, we are left with a broken down train wreck of a municipal government.”Brad Lander, the current New York City comptroller, who is also running for mayor, echoed the sentiment.“Mayor Adams, like all New Yorkers, deserves due process, the presumption of innocence, and his day in court,” he wrote on X. “However, it is clear that defending himself against serious federal charges will require a significant amount of the time and attention needed to govern this great city. The most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.”Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is also running for mayor against Mr. Adams, joined the chorus. “We need a leader who is fully focused, without distraction, on the enormous challenges we face — from housing affordability to public safety,” Mr. Myrie wrote on X. “A mayor under the weight of a serious indictment can no longer do that — and today I am calling on him to resign.”Councilman Shekar Krishnan, who represents a district in Queens, said Mr. Adams “will absolutely be unable to lead from inside a courtroom. He must resign.”State Senator John Liu, another Queens Democrat, said New Yorkers “need a mayor who is able to devote full time and full energy to putting the city on the right track, including recruitment and retention of top leadership for the city.” He added: “Mayor Adams is simply unable to do that for the foreseeable future and therefore, for the good of all New Yorkers, must resign immediately.”Other elected officials who have called for Mr. Adams to step down include State Senators Gustavo Rivera, Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport; City Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán and Alexa Avilés; and Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Phara Souffrant Forrest. More

The charges against Mayor Eric Adams stem from a broad public corruption investigation that began in 2021 and examined whether the mayor and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government that year to receive illegal foreign donations.Additionally, the federal inquiry examined whether Mr. Adams pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise building for the Turkish consulate despite safety concerns. Agents also investigated valuable flight upgrades they believe the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.It’s one of several federal corruption investigations that have ensnared Mr. Adams’s administration. Here are some key events that led up to the indictment of the mayor:Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the home of the chief fund-raiser to Mayor Eric Adams.Federal agents raided the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, a recent college graduate who had been in charge of Mr. Adams’s fund-raising operation when he ran for mayor in 2021. Ms. Suggs was 23 years old when the mayor picked her for the job, and many Democratic officials who worked in fund-raising were shocked that he had chosen someone for the role with so little professional experience.The agents seized three iPhones and two laptop computers from Ms. Suggs’s home; they also took papers and other evidence, including something agents identified as a “manila folder labeled Eric Adams,” as well as seven “contribution card binders” and other materials, according to the search warrant documents.Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the homes of an aide in the mayor’s international affairs office and a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on his transition team.Investigators also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in Mr. Adams’s international affairs office, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on his transition team, according to people familiar with the matter.Ms. Abbasova was the mayor’s longtime liaison to the Turkish community when Mr. Adams was Brooklyn borough president. Mr. Öcal was the general manager of the New York office of Turkish Airlines until early 2022.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More