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      Judge Finds Flaws in New York City’s Cannabis Enforcement Efforts

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      The city has appealed the judge’s ruling in favor of a convenience store in Queens that could have broader implications for enforcement.A state judge has ordered New York City to allow a convenience store in Queens to reopen after it was accused of selling cannabis illegally, a decision that could significantly affect the city’s effort to wipe out thousands of unlicensed sellers.The city quickly appealed the ruling issued Wednesday by Justice Kevin J. Kerrigan. He found that the city sheriff’s office had no legal reason to keep the store at 35-12 Bell Boulevard padlocked because the underlying summons had been dismissed after the city could not prove it had delivered it to the right person. The sheriff’s office issued the summons during an inspection in June, charging the store with selling cannabis without a license.After the summons was dismissed on procedural grounds, that should have been the end to the case, Justice Kerrigan wrote in his decision.Instead, the hearing officer, a lawyer who assumes the role of a judge in the case, went on to recommend that the sheriff’s office keep the business closed because she believed illegal activity was taking place at the store. She also concluded that she did not need to determine whether the illegal activity was more than minimal in making her recommendation, he said.The sheriff’s office accepted the hearing officer’s recommendations. The hearing officer’s guidance was wrong, Justice Kerrigan ruled.The series of decisions, he wrote, resulted in “a clear violation of due process under the 1aw.”“The court acknowledges that the unlicensed sale of cannabis within the City of New York represents an enormous public health concern,” he added. “However, summarily shuttering businesses prior to taking the necessary steps to determine whether a violation has occurred stands against the cornerstone of American democracy and procedural due process.”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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      Columbia President Nemat Shafik Resigns After Israel-Hamas War Turmoil

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      Nemat Shafik is the third Ivy League president to resign in the wake of turbulent congressional appearances and strife connected to the Israel-Hamas war. Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, resigned on Wednesday after months of far-reaching fury over her handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and questions over her management of a bitterly divided campus.She was the third leader of an Ivy League university to resign in about eight months following maligned appearances before Congress about antisemitism on their campuses.Dr. Shafik, an economist who spent much of her career in London, said in a letter to the Columbia community that while she felt the campus had made progress in some important areas, it had also been a period of turmoil “where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” wrote Dr. Shafik, who goes by the name Minouche. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”She added that her resignation was effective immediately, and that she would be taking a job with Britain’s foreign secretary to lead a review of the government’s approach to international development.The university’s board of trustees named Dr. Katrina A. Armstrong, a medical doctor who has been the chief executive of Columbia’s medical center and dean of its medical school since 2022, as the interim president. The board did not immediately announce a timeline for appointing a permanent leader.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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      An Artist Faces Climate Disaster With Hard Data and Ancient Wisdom

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      Research meets poetry in Imani Jacqueline Brown’s exploration of oil extraction and its consequences for her native New Orleans — and for the planet.Every Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the members of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang emerge onto the streets of the Tremé neighborhood in a dawn ritual that dates back more than 200 years. Clad in black-and-white skeleton suits and ornamented papier-mâché masks, they wake the city to the sound of drums and bells summoning the ancestors.Their ritual carries deep significance, even lessons for the whole planet, said the artist and activist Imani Jacqueline Brown, who filmed the procession this year. “They’re breaching the divide between the world of the spirits and the world of the living,” she said. “They are singing to us that we’ve got to live today because tomorrow we might die.”Brown, 36, grew up in New Orleans; she now lives in London, a member of the research and visual investigations group Forensic Architecture. An exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture in Manhattan through Aug. 31 combines her research chops with the poetry and spirituality that she sees in the grass-roots culture in her hometown.Les Cenelles, a contemporary string ensemble from New Orleans, performed at the opening of Brown’s show, in late June.via Imani Jacqueline Brown, Storefront for Art and Architecture; Hatnim LeeThe show, titled “Gulf,” is written with a strike-through and pronounced “Strike Gulf.” Its central focus is the impact of the oil and gas industry on South Louisiana. But the more sources Brown mines — including core samples of deep-sea drilling by geologists in the Gulf of Mexico and archives of oil boycott campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, along with her own footage from New Orleans — the broader the scope of her project becomes. It reaches back into geological time while linking to the climate emergency today.The resulting works bring some welcome lyricism to the field of “research art.” The exhibition includes a video installation in which the Skull and Bone Gang procession, bathed in bluish light, is overlaid on footage she made at the city’s aquarium, where sharks and rays float around a model of an offshore rig in a display about the Gulf of Mexico that is sponsored by oil corporations.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 Expected to Name Robert Tucker as New Fire Commissioner

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      Mr. Tucker will succeed Laura Kavanagh as leader of the Fire Department of New York City. A longtime supporter of the department, he has worked for 25 years in law enforcement and private security.Mayor Eric Adams is expected to name Robert S. Tucker as the new commissioner of the New York Fire Department, making him the 35th person to lead the agency, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.Mr. Adams is expected to make the announcement at a news conference on Monday.Mr. Tucker will take over leadership of the department from Laura Kavanagh, who stepped down last week after announcing in July that she would resign. Joseph Pfeifer, who served as first deputy commissioner under Ms. Kavanagh, briefly served as acting commissioner after her departure.As commissioner, Mr. Tucker will oversee a department of 17,000 employees, including firefighters and emergency medical workers.The appointment of Mr. Tucker was first reported by The Daily News on Sunday night.Like his predecessor, Mr. Tucker has never been a member of a fire company. He has, however, maintained longtime connections to the Fire Department and to law enforcement circles in the region.Mr. Tucker is on the board of directors of the FDNY Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the department. He also serves on the board of trustees for the New York City Police Foundation and as a police board commissioner for the Westchester County Police Department. Mr. Tucker was appointed in late 2021 to serve on Mr. Adams’s mayoral transition team, working on the Public Safety and Justice Committee.Mr. Tucker’s appointment is “a good thing” for the department, said Daniel A. Nigro, who served as fire commissioner for eight years before retiring in February 2022. Mr. Nigro, reached by phone Saturday in anticipation of Mr. Adams’s announcement, said he got to know Mr. Tucker through the FDNY Foundation and that he was a “highly intelligent” person who “knows his way around New York.”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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      Adams Blocks Law That Bans Solitary Confinement in New York Jails

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      Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in New York City jails and suspended parts of a law banning solitary confinement, a day before it was to take effect.Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency in New York City jails on Saturday and issued an executive order that blocked key parts of a local law that would have banned solitary confinement in the jails.The order, one of three Mr. Adams issued on Saturday that pertained to the jails, was an unusual step that came only one day before the law was set to go into effect. It was the latest move in a protracted battle over the legislation between the City Council and the mayor, a former police captain who ran for office on a public safety message. After Mr. Adams vetoed the bill in January, arguing that it would make jail staff and detainees less safe, the Council issued a rare override of his veto.The law would have banned solitary confinement for detainees who were accused of breaking jail rules, beyond a four-hour “de-escalation period” during an emergency. It would also have limited the use of handcuffs or shackles to restrain detainees riding in Correction Department vehicles.“The Department of Correction has been laser focused on reducing violence in our jails to protect both the people in our care and correctional staff who boldly serve our city,” Amaris Cockfield, a City Hall spokeswoman, said in a statement, noting that the federal monitor who oversees the jails had raised concerns about the law.The state of emergency is expected to remain in effect for 30 days, though Mr. Adams can extend it for additional 30-day periods. He has declared states of emergency before, including in response to the migrant crisis and the outbreak of monkeypox, but Ms. Cockfield noted that the mayor has never before issued an emergency executive order in response to newly passed legislation.It was unclear on Sunday what steps the Council would take in response. Emergency executive orders can only be challenged through the court system. But the mayor’s actions were attacked by elected officials who had backed the bill, including Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, who called the decision an “abuse of power.”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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      A Weapons Scanner Arrives in the Subway. Adams Says It Isn’t Optional.

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      Mayor Eric Adams announced that a new scanner would search for guns on the subway. Riders who refuse to be scanned, he said, will not be allowed to enter the system.Mayor Eric Adams announced the start of a contentious new plan to put a gun-detecting scanner in the subway on Friday and warned that New Yorkers who refused to be scanned would be kicked out of the system.Mr. Adams highlighted the scanner inside the busy Fulton Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, arguing that the technology would help make the subway safer.“Many New Yorkers will be familiar with this type of technology — it’s not new, and it’s being used in big cities across the country,” Mr. Adams said, noting that scanners were already being used at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Citi Field.A new pilot program will involve one scanner that will be moved to different stations over the next 30 days, city officials said. Mr. Adams said it would not cost the city any money.Civil rights groups immediately called the scanners unconstitutional and said they were preparing to take legal action.“New Yorkers did not consent to give up their rights or be N.Y.P.D. guinea pigs for overhyped and error-prone surveillance tech,” said a joint statement from the Legal Aid Society and the New York Civil Liberties Union. “We are prepared to protect the right of all subway riders to be free from N.Y.P.D. intrusion and harassment.”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 Billy Joel Fans, a New York Night to Remember

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      Thousands of people piled into Madison Square Garden on Thursday to hear Billy Joel glide from rock song to soulful blues in the final show of his long residency at the arena.Lori Umbrino saw her first Billy Joel concert at Shea Stadium in Queens in 1990. More than three decades later, she stood with her two children outside Madison Square Garden on Thursday evening, each wearing a T-shirt from the singer’s concerts across the years.“We’ve been there with him along the journey,” said Ms. Umbrino, 51, whose shirt was from Mr. Joel’s 100th concert at Madison Square Garden on July 18, 2018, designated Billy Joel Day in New York State.That journey has led them back to Madison Square Garden, where Mr. Joel was performing the 150th and final show of his 10-year residency there.The milestone — and, for some, the devastating misunderstanding that Mr. Joel was retiring — drew veterans of his shows, first-timers, families and singles from around the city and the country. Thousands of people piled into the Garden to hear Mr. Joel glide from rock song to soulful blues.Stuart Stephenson sat outside the arena at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, blowing into his melodica, fingering the keys to play “New York State of Mind” and “Uptown Girl.” Fans and commuters streamed by, hawkers sold T-concert shirts, and drivers planted their hands on their horns.Mr. Stephenson saw a news segment on Thursday morning about Mr. Joel’s concert, and thinking the Piano Man was closing his Steinway for good, he rushed into Midtown.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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      Proposed Charter Revision Hints at Mayor Adams’s Spat With City Council

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      New York City voters will most likely be confronted in November with a referendum that may dilute the City Council’s power on public safety issues.Earlier this year, at a small meeting at City Hall between Mayor Eric Adams and leaders of an anti-crime group, two attendees complained about a New York City Council bill requiring the police to document more interactions with the public. They suggested that the mayor convene a charter revision commission to lessen the likelihood of similar legislation passing again.Three weeks later, the mayor formed the commission, tapping several of the community leaders and other loyalists to serve on it.On Tuesday, that commission did exactly what it set out to do.The commission proposed hampering the City Council’s ability to pass legislation affecting the public safety operations of the Police Department, the Department of Correction and the Fire Department.The proposed amendment to the City Charter, which is effectively the city’s constitution, would force the City Council to wait 45 days, instead of the current three days, to hold hearings on proposed public safety legislation once it is announced. After those hearings, the Council would have to wait at least another 50 days before voting on the matter. State law currently requires the Council to wait seven days after a bill is finalized before voting on it, according to a Council spokesman.Should the commission approve the proposed referendum on Thursday, as it almost certainly will, city residents will have the opportunity to vote on it in November.Thanks to the complicated mechanics governing ballot referendums, the mayor’s proposal is expected to push off the ballot a City Council proposal designed to limit the mayor’s power — a result that the Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, does not believe was accidental.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