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    Bánh by Lauren Offers Pandan Coffee Cakes, Fried Sesame Balls and More

    Veerays will serve tandoori food, Son del North has Northern Mexico-style burritos and more restaurant news.OpeningBánh by LaurenThe pastry chef Lauren Tran has put down roots in an airy corner bakery and cafe in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge. She had baked at Gramercy Tavern until the pandemic, then began selling bánh (a general term in Vietnamese for cake) from home and at pop-ups. Now she’s turning out multilayered chiffon cakes, macarons, pandan coffee cakes, fried sesame rice balls filled with coconut and mung beans, and savory Chinese sausage, Cheddar and chive scones, many distinctively but subtly conveying Southeast Asian flavors, inspired by her Vietnamese heritage. A sleek quartz counter, an open kitchen and marble-topped tables define the space. Sidewalk seats are coming. (Opens Saturday)42 Market Street (Madison Street), Two Bridges, 646-360-3325, banhbylauren.com. VeeraysIn 2020, the chef Hemant Mathur opened Veeray da Dhaba, an East Village restaurant modeled after a Punjabi truck stop. Now his chef de cuisine, Binder Saini, and their partner Sonny Solomon have this fancier Indian restaurant offering tandoori food, often with game meats and contemporary interpretations. Highlights include curried tandoori pheasant, duck vindaloo with coconut rice, and slow-cooked bone-in goat with whole spices. The dining room has a plush, vintage look. (Monday)213 East 45th Street, 646-429-8398, veerays.com. Son del NorthHere, the Tijuana native Annisha Garcia offers the style of burritos that are typical of Northern Mexico. Made in Sonora, the flour tortillas are stuffed with choices of carne asada, cheese and beans, shrimp and more in a quick-serve setting. (Thursday)177 Orchard Street (Stanton Street), sondelnorth.com. Conwell Coffee HallStevan KeaneA financial district office tower built in 1929 for Conwell Life and Trust became residential decades ago. Now this cafe and cocktail bar, open to the public, has been installed in its restored marble-paved lobby with lavish Art Deco features, including a dynamic industrial-style mural by Eric Diehl, a contemporary artist. Coffees and breakfast items like croissants are followed by soups, salads and assorted toasts for lunch. Cocktails and bar snacks are served until 9 p.m. The chefs devising food and drinks are Jonah Reider and Pascal le Seach.6 Hanover Street (Beaver Street), 646-412-5956, conwellcoffeehall.com. Perle Wine BarIntimate elegance defines this adjunct to Marian’s, a new American restaurant by the chef Christian Rowan, who was at Eleven Madison Park, Bouley and Nomad. European and New World wines by the glass and bottle are listed to pair with seafood-focused items like raw bar selections, crudos and toasts. There’s a marble bar and outdoor seating.22 Greenwich Avenue (West 10th Street), 646-370-3371 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

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    How Electric Car Batteries Might Aid the Grid (and Win Over Drivers)

    Automakers are exploring energy storage as a way to help utilities and save customers money, turning an expensive component into an industry asset.Electric cars are more expensive than gasoline models largely because batteries cost so much. But new technology could turn those pricey devices into an asset, giving owners benefits like reduced utility bills, lower lease payments or free parking.Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW and other automakers are exploring how electric-car batteries could be used to store excess renewable energy to help utilities deal with fluctuations in supply and demand for power. Automakers would make money by serving as intermediaries between car owners and power suppliers.Millions of cars could be thought of as a huge energy system that, for the first time, will be connected to another enormous energy system, the electrical grid, said Matthias Preindl, an associate professor of power electronic systems at Columbia University.“We’re just at the starting point,” Dr. Preindl said. “They will interact more in the future, and they can potentially support one another — or stress one another.”A large flat screen on the wall of the Munich offices of the Mobility House, a firm whose investors include Mercedes-Benz and Renault, illustrates one way that carmakers could profit while helping to stabilize the grid.The graphs and numbers on the screen provide a real-time picture of a European energy market where investors and utilities buy and sell electricity. The price changes from minute to minute as supply and demand surge or ebb.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

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    For Trump, a Deflating Blow, and Then a Bounce Back

    A day after Donald J. Trump left the courthouse shellshocked, he emerged on his home turf revitalized and railing against his rivals.The Donald J. Trump who emerged from a drab courtroom in Lower Manhattan yesterday afternoon did so glumly, shuffling into the hallway to speak for less than two minutes. He seemed, like much of the nation, to be still absorbing the gut punch of his conviction on 34 felony charges.That was Desultory Donald.Nineteen hours later, it was a different Donald J. Trump who held forth for 33 minutes from a lectern in the lobby of the tower that bears his name. He’d slept on it, and things turned out not to be all bad, he seemed to suggest. “Let me give you the good news,” he said, picking up a piece of paper to read out the campaign’s boffo fund-raising numbers since the verdict came down ($39 million in 10 hours, he said).“Does anybody read The Daily Mail?” he asked at one point. It had apparently published a new poll that “has Trump up six points in the last 12 hours,” he chirped. “Who thought this could happen?”Americans were still processing the jolting news of Mr. Trump’s conviction on Friday. But Mr. Trump himself, a candidate of unusual personality and sometimes impenetrable psyche, seemed to be willing himself forward, moving from downcast to defiant within a day.It helped that he was back in his marble bunker, surrounded by creature comforts. Eric and Lara Trump, his son and daughter-in-law, stood behind a red velvet rope with dozens of supporters (many of whom work in the building). Employees at the Gucci store in the building’s lobby pressed their faces against the glass pane, agog at the spectacle. Secret Service agents pushed their fingers into their earpieces. New York City police officers milled around in their caps and starched white shirts. A doorman in a three-piece suit and a bow tie watched with interest. A forest of cameras and lighting rigs pointed toward Mr. Trump.Outside, a “Trump or Death 2024” flag, roughly the size of a Honda Civic, billowed in front of the Prada store across the avenue.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

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    New York City Truckers Aim to Challenge Congestion Pricing Policy

    The industry that moves nearly 90 percent of goods within the city is suing to challenge the policy, claiming it unfairly burdens their business.With a month left before drivers start being charged to enter Midtown and downtown Manhattan under New York City’s congestion pricing plan, a new group of challengers is joining a crowded field of critics: truckers.The Trucking Association of New York, a trade group representing a wide range of delivery companies, filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to delay the policy, claiming that it would unfairly charge vans and trucks that enter the new tolling zone as much as $36 per trip during peak hours. That cost, the group says, could soon be passed on to local businesses and consumers.“We’re not pushing back on the overall program,” Kendra Hems, the group’s president, said. “It’s simply the way that trucks are being targeted.” The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan.The congestion pricing plan, scheduled to start June 30, will charge fees to most vehicles entering Manhattan on or below 60th Street. Passenger vehicles entering the zone will be charged up to $15 once a day, with some exceptions. Commercial trucks will be charged $24 or $36 per entry, depending on the size of the vehicle and the time of day.Transit leaders have already built in a 75 percent discount on tolls during off-peak hours, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. on weekends. But Ms. Hems said that was inadequate, because customers often dictate that deliveries must be made during daytime shifts. The trucking association is seeking lower or less frequent tolls.The program has already raised the ire of critics including the governor of New Jersey, a teachers’ union, the Staten Island borough president and some residents of Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan. With this latest complaint, eight lawsuits challenging the rollout have been filed.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

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    Exploring the World Beyond Queens

    Shariff Bukari, 25, gravitated toward math and science as a child. One of his dream careers was paleontology, which combined his love for dinosaurs with the hands-on work of combing through artifacts. His parents nurtured his curiosity, encouraging him to read books and newspapers. They yearned to give him more opportunities to explore his passions beyond their life in Queens.That wasn’t always easy when both parents worked late shifts. So when a neighbor told his parents about the Fresh Air Fund’s Career Awareness Program, in which children attend camp during the summer and participate in career training sessions during the school year, they filled out an application for him.Mr. Bukari’s parents treasured the time they spent outdoors growing up in Ghana and hoped that their children, who didn’t have the same access to natural escapes in New York City, could discover the joy of swimming in lakes, too.Mr. Bukari was 12 when he spent his first summer in upstate New York, at the Fresh Air Fund’s Camp Mariah. Leaving home for the first time made him feel more mature and aware of how big the world was. Being at camp “raised my eagerness to want to do more things on my own,” he says.He remembers the rush of trying each new summer camp activity: building campfires, jumping into the water, listening for the birds in the trees. But what left the most lasting impact was the career training part of the program, which gave him a new perspective on his ambitions and interests.One day, dancers arrived to talk about their training and the cultures they drew from in their choreography. The creativity and physical demands of the job impressed him, but Mr. Bukari wrestled with the idea of pursuing dance. Hearing people talk about the details of their careers, “you really get to understand and decide whether it’s something you can see yourself doing or not,” he explained. Ultimately, he set dance aside.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

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    Medicaid Funding Would Expand Psychiatric Beds Under New Bill

    A Democrat and a Republican from New York will introduce the “Michelle Go Act,” named after a woman who was killed when a mentally ill homeless man pushed her in front of a subway train.As the nation faces a growing mental health crisis among people who are homeless, a bipartisan bill being introduced in Congress on Thursday may substantially increase the number of psychiatric beds covered by Medicaid.Proponents of the bill say that it will help address a severe shortage of psychiatric hospital beds and spur the construction of new beds and new facilities.The bill is sponsored by the unlikely-seeming New York City congressional duo of Dan Goldman, a liberal Democrat, and Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican Trump loyalist, along with Representatives Tony Cárdenas, Democrat of California, and Gus Bilirakis, a Florida Republican. Mr. Goldman is the lead author of the bill, the Michelle Go Act, named after the woman who was fatally pushed in front of a subway train in New York in 2022 by a man with schizophrenia, who had spent decades rotating from hospital to jail to street.Under current law, for people age 21 to 64, Medicaid covers stays in dedicated psychiatric hospitals only if they have 16 or fewer beds. The Michelle Go Act would raise the threshold to 36 beds.Mr. Goldman said in an interview that the legislation would “not only provide for significantly more beds for long-term mental health care but has the potential to increase the ability for those who cannot afford mental health care to get the treatment they need.”Mr. Goldman has said that he would have liked to remove the cap on hospital size altogether — one estimate put the cost at $33 billion over 10 years. But he said that the more modest measure was necessary to win support on both sides of the aisle.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

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    Amtrak and NJ Transit Trains Suspended Because of Fallen Wires at Penn Station

    Fallen electrical wires in New Jersey brought Amtrak and New Jersey Transit service to a halt on the Northeast Corridor, leaving travelers stranded, according to transit agencies.Train service along the Northeast Corridor south of New York City ground to a halt Wednesday evening because of fallen overhead power cables in Kearny, N.J., stranding commuters and travelers on trains and at stations as far south as Washington.The power outage disrupted service between New York and Newark, starting at 5:05 p.m. and the backups cascaded down the corridor that is the main line between New York and Washington. Some trains bound for Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, America’s busiest rail hub, terminated in Philadelphia, where passengers were left to find alternate transportation, said Jason Abrams, a spokesman for Amtrak.At 10:05 p.m., hundreds of people rushed the entryway of track 11 at Penn Station, where a train to Trenton was boarding nearly four-and-a-half hours behind schedule.At about 10:30 p.m., Mr. Abrams said trains were running again south of Penn Station. By 11 p.m., he said, northbound service had also resumed. But it was not clear if service would be fully restored before the Thursday morning rush.Sheydline Moise, 23, was shuffling forward in the crowd. She’d left work to catch a 6:27 p.m. train home toward Woodbridge, N.J., and had been waiting at the station ever since. At one point, she boarded a train for about 20 minutes, only for authorities to tell passengers to disembark, she said.“I almost started to cry,” Ms. Moise said, adding that Uber was quoting a fare of nearly $200. “This has been a super long night,” she said, sounding exasperated. “I’m definitely calling off tomorrow.”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

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    Mayor Adams Fills a Key Commission With Allies and Donors

    Mayor Eric Adams named 13 people to a prominent city commission that could remake city government. Most are loyalists or have ties to his inner circle.Mayor Eric Adams has long valued loyalty, keeping his allies close as he rose through New York City’s political ranks to become mayor, and rewarding them with top administration jobs.So this week, as the mayor quickly sought to fill out a powerful commission that could reshape city government, possibly for generations to come, he predictably turned to a cadre heavy on loyalists.Roughly half are campaign donors, three are lobbyists with business before the city, and several are longtime allies, including three women who publicly defended the mayor after he was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit still making its way through the court system.The roster of the Charter Revision Commission was released on Wednesday, just 24 hours after Mr. Adams announced he was creating one. The move may foil an effort by the New York City Council to exert more control over the mayor’s high-level appointments. And although the announcement came as a surprise, the mayor’s spokesman said the commission has long been in the making.“Today marks a significant step forward towards enhancing transparency, responsiveness in city government, and further civic engagement as we appoint all 13 dedicated members of the Charter Revision Commission,” the mayor said in a statement.The formation of the commission and its members outraged some civic leaders and the New York City Council.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