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    New Jersey Can Show How to Take On Public Sector Strikes

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    Democrats have long blanched when public-sector unions threaten to strike and hold the economy for ransom. But with New Jersey Transit train engineers walking off the job on Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy can show the nation how blue states can resist that threat. Don’t panic, just say, “Let them strike,” and demonstrate resilience.With New York’s help, New Jersey can reduce the impact of the strike.New Jersey starts with an advantage: As of 2024, nearly three-quarters of New Jersey Transit’s weekday trips were on buses and light rail, which continue to operate. Most commuters who travel into Manhattan from New Jersey arrive on a bus and New Jersey is adding bus service to mitigate the strike’s impact. A private bus company, Boxcar, is also giving customers more options.Governor Murphy should also push car-pooling, with the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, who could implement a two- or three-passenger minimum for vehicles entering Lower and Midtown Manhattan from New Jersey if traffic grows too heavy. New York’s four-and-a-half-month-old congestion-pricing program is already a good reason for workers to car pool and save money.Governor Hochul should resist calls to suspend the congestion charge during the strike.Transit worker walkouts can have devastating consequences for the area economy. In 1966, the Transport Workers Union’s 12-day strike against subways cost New York more than half a billion dollars ($5 billion in today’s dollars) in lost wages and business.The strike transformed the brand-new administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay from fresh to exhausted.The political terror of transit strikes levies long-term costs. For decades, elected officials have allowed various unions to use the threat of a strike to protect pay and work practices that perennially push up the cost of providing transit.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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      16 Are Hospitalized After Smoke Fills an Upper Manhattan Subway Station

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      Investigators believe the smoke was caused by a moving train striking an object on the tracks, officials said.Sixteen people were hospitalized on Tuesday after a subway train hit an object on the tracks at an Upper Manhattan station, causing a fire that filled the station with smoke, according to fire and transit officials.A total of 18 people sustained what fire officials described as minor injuries. Two declined medical attention, officials said. The conditions of those who were hospitalized were not immediately clear Tuesday night.The episode occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the 191st Street station at St. Nicholas Avenue in the Fort George neighborhood, officials said. The fire was brought under control within an hour, they said.Service was temporarily suspended on the No. 1 line between 145th and Dyckman Streets as a result of the fire, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.By Tuesday evening, workers had replaced a rail damaged by the fire, and trains were running in both directions with delays, officials said.The 191st Street station is 173 feet, or roughly 17 stories, below St. Nicholas Avenue, making it the deepest station in New York City’s subway system. Riders enter and exit via either elevators to St. Nicholas or a 1,000-foot-long tunnel that runs to Broadway. More

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      Woman Gives Birth to Baby Girl on NYC Subway

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      A 25-year-old woman from Florida gave birth on a W train in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning. She had been missing since last summer, her sister said.A 25-year-old Florida woman who had been missing for months was found on Wednesday under dramatic circumstances, after she gave birth on a subway train rumbling beneath the streets of Manhattan.The woman, Jenny Saint Pierre of Hallandale Beach, Fla., had been reported missing to her hometown police in September. Her family, who made the report, said they had not seen her since last summer. On Wednesday, a law enforcement official identified her as the woman who gave birth on a southbound W train in Midtown shortly before noon.A police spokesman said the mother and the baby, a girl, had been brought to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Ms. Saint Pierre’s older sister, Stephania Saint Pierre, confirmed the mother’s identity after seeing a video of the newborn’s first moments that was shared on social media on Wednesday.“Oh, my God, look at her little face!” Stephania said in a phone interview from her home in Texas as she watched the video. She recognized her sister’s pink duffel bag on a subway seat and heard her voice as another passenger lifted the infant. “Oh, my God, I am going to cry! That’s my first niece!”Stephania, who knew her sister was pregnant, was surprised to learn that she was in New York City and said she did not know why she had gone there.Jenny Saint Pierre, right, with her sister Stephania. The two had not seen each other in months when Stephania learned that her sister had given birth in New York.via Stephania Saint PierreWe 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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      Daniel Penny’s Defense Shifts Focus From Choke to Sickle Cell and Drug Use

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      Lawyers for Daniel Penny, who is accused of choking Jordan Neely to death, called an expert who argued that a combination of factors led to Mr. Neely’s death.Jordan Neely, a Black man who died after he was choked in a subway car last year, had the sickle cell trait, a genetic condition that can affect blood cells and overwhelmingly occurs in Black people. Whether Mr. Neely knew that he had the trait is unclear. But since his death, it has become a point of contention for lawyers.Prosecutors have said that Daniel Penny, who is on trial for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide because he put Mr. Neely in a chokehold, restrained Mr. Neely for about six minutes, cutting off his airway. When Mr. Neely tried to break free, the pressure of Mr. Penny’s chokehold increased, prosecutors said.But Mr. Penny’s lawyers have centered their case on convincing the jurors that Mr. Neely’s death was not caused by the chokehold and that it is impossible to know how much pressure Mr. Penny was exerting. Before they rested their case on Friday, the defense argued that Mr. Neely’s schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana use and misshapen blood cells led to his death. People with the sickle cell trait typically do not have many, if any, sickle-shaped cells or experience symptoms, but blood slides from Mr. Neely’s autopsy shared at the trial showed misshapen cells at the time of his death.Now that both the defense and the prosecution have made their cases, each side will present closing arguments to the 12 jurors and four alternates. The judge presiding over the case, Maxwell Wiley, has decided that closing arguments will not happen until after Thanksgiving.Here is what to know about the defense’s case for Mr. Penny.The Role of Sickle Cell TraitThe medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, determined that Mr. Neely died from “compression of the neck,” and held firm to her findings through three days of testimony. However, an expert Mr. Penny’s legal team called to testify, Dr. Satish Chundru, rebutted that.Dr. Chundru, a forensic pathologist, said Mr. Neely died from “combined effects.”“Sickle cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint and the synthetic marijuana,” he listed for jurors. He argued that Mr. Penny had struggled with Mr. Neely but had not choked him to death.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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      Will NYC Revive Congestion Pricing After Trump’s Victory?

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      Gov. Kathy Hochul, facing pressure from supporters of the contentious tolling plan, is said to be exploring options for adopting it in some form.Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York is exploring options for reviving a congestion pricing plan for New York City before President-elect Donald J. Trump has a chance to kill it, according to four people familiar with the matter.Ms. Hochul’s move to salvage the contentious plan comes as she faces pressure from various corners, including a group that represents transit riders and is planning to start an advertising blitz on Monday in support of the tolling program.The plan that Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, is now exploring differs slightly from the one she halted in June. She is trying to satisfy opponents who had complained about the $15 congestion-pricing toll that most motorists would have had to pay as well as supporters who want to reduce car traffic and fund mass transit improvements.The governor has talked to federal officials about the possibility of a $9 toll and about whether such a change might require the lengthy, involved process of additional environmental review, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member familiar with the matter. The discussions were first reported by Politico.Mr. Trump, a Republican, has said he opposes congestion pricing, and his victory on Tuesday has apparently pushed Ms. Hochul to try to find a compromise.“The timing is everything,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, the riders’ group that is planning the ad blitz. If congestion pricing has not started by January, he added “it’s very unlikely it would start.”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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      Daniel Penny’s Lawyers Will Ask to Throw Out Chokehold Charge in N.Y.C. Subway Death Case

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      Mr. Penny’s subway-car struggle with a homeless man, Jordan Neely, ended in death. On Thursday, his lawyers will also ask a judge to exclude video of Mr. Penny discussing the encounter.Minutes after a subway rider named Daniel Penny choked Jordan Neely in a train car in May 2023, Mr. Penny stood inside the Broadway-Lafayette Street station in Manhattan telling officers, “I just put him out.”Mr. Penny was recorded on body-worn camera explaining to officers that Mr. Neely, a homeless man, had entered an F train and thrown his possessions on the ground, and that he was “was very aggressive, going crazy.”“He’s like: ‘I’m ready to go to prison for life. I’m ready to die, I’m ready to die,’” Mr. Penny told an officer, according to court filings from prosecutors. “And I was standing behind him. I think I might have just put him in a choke, put him down. We just went to the ground. He was trying to roll up. I had him pretty good. I was in the Marine Corps.”Last year, Mr. Penny, who is from Long Island, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and jury selection for his trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 21. In a hearing on Thursday, lawyers for Mr. Penny asked a judge to suppress the comments he made to officers at the subway station and later at a precinct house, and to dismiss the indictment against him.When the video of the encounter spread online last year, it reverberated through the nation. The chokehold was captured in a four-minute video that showed Mr. Penny with his arms around Mr. Neely’s neck and his legs wrapped around his body. Mr. Neely struggled against Mr. Penny’s restraint as two other men stepped in to hold him down.Mr. Penny cooperated with officers who came to the scene and arrested him after Mr. Neely died, even going back to the Fifth Precinct to speak with them, his lawyers said in court filings. However, his statements followed what they argued was an illegal arrest.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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      N.Y.P.D. Understated Woman’s Wound in Subway Shooting, Lawyer Says

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      Kerry Gahalal, who was struck when officers shot a knife-wielding man at a Brooklyn station, was not simply “grazed” as officials said, according to a lawyer for the woman’s family.A 26-year-old woman who was wounded when New York City police officers shot a knife-wielding man at a Brooklyn subway station was not “grazed” by gunfire as officials have said, according to a lawyer for her family. Instead, the lawyer said on Saturday, she has a bullet lodged in her leg and is unable to walk.The woman, Kerry Gahalal, was one of two bystanders to be struck when the officers shot the man, Derrell Mickles, during a confrontation last Sunday at the Sutter Avenue L train station in the Brownsville neighborhood. The other bystander, Gregory Delpeche, was in critical condition on Friday.The contention that police officials had minimized the severity of Ms. Gahalal’s injury came a day after the Police Department released video footage of the episode that appeared unlikely to end questions about whether the officers had acted appropriately under the circumstances.The shooting is being examined by the department’s Force Investigation Division and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. Police leaders and Mayor Eric Adams have said that the use of force was justified because Mr. Mickles had threatened officers with a weapon. Critics say it was a dangerous escalation of what had begun as an effort to enforce the minor offense of fare evasion.Ms. Gahalal turned 26 the day before the shooting and was taking the subway to Manhattan with her husband for a celebratory dinner when the L train they were on stopped at the Sutter Avenue station, the lawyer for her family, Joel Levine, said.Discussing the shooting, in which Mr. Mickles and an officer were also wounded, Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of department, said at a police news conference last Sunday that a male bystander (Mr. Delpeche) had been struck in the head and that a female bystander (Ms. Gahalal) had been “grazed.”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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      NYPD Officials Defend Shooting on Brooklyn Subway That Wounded Bystanders

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      “We are not perfect,” said John Chell, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, as protesters gathered in Union Square.New York City police leaders said Wednesday evening that officers had done the best they could when they shot a man wielding a knife, also hitting a fellow officer and two bystanders — including one who suffered a grave head wound.Police officials said that in the “next couple of days” they would release body-worn camera footage captured by the officers who fired their weapons Sunday at the man they said had the knife, Derell Mickles, 37. He was hit in the stomach and is expected to recover.Also shot was Gregory Delpeche, a 49-year-old hospital administrator who was on his way to work and in an adjacent car when officers firing struck him in the head. He was in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman was grazed by a bullet, the police said. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is investigating the actions of the officers.John Chell, the chief of patrol, said that despite those injuries, the officers had acted according to the department’s guidelines, which allow officers to use deadly force when they believe their lives are in danger.“We are not perfect and every situation is not the same,” he said. “This is a fast-moving, fast-paced and a stressful situation, and we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of the people on that train.”The shootings were the violent culmination of a confrontation that started after Mr. Mickles twice evaded the fare to get into the Sutter Avenue L train station in Brooklyn, the police said. The officers’ response has set off criticism that the police are being too aggressive when trying to stop fare evaders and has led to demonstrations, including one Wednesday night in Manhattan.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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      Officer and 3 Others Injured by Police Gunfire in Subway Station Clash

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      When officers shot a man wielding a knife on a platform in Brooklyn, an officer and two bystanders were also hit, the police said. One bystander was in critical condition.A late-summer afternoon at an elevated subway station in Brooklyn exploded in chaos on Sunday as a police officer, a disturbed man armed with a knife and two bystanders were struck by police gunfire, the police said.The officer was struck below his armpit and was in stable condition on Sunday night, the police said. The man with the knife was struck several times and was also in stable condition. A 49-year-old male bystander was struck in the head and was in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman, also a bystander, was grazed by a bullet and was stable. The shooting occurred just after 3 p.m. at the Sutter Avenue stop on the border of East New York and Brownsville.Two officers saw a man enter the station without paying and followed him up the stairs, said Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey at a news conference on Sunday evening.“The officers are asking him to take his hands out of his pockets,” Chief Maddrey said. “They become aware that he has a knife in his pocket. The male basically challenges the officers: ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me.’”A Manhattan-bound L train entered the station, and the man darted inside an open door. The two officers followed and fired their Tasers, but neither device was effective in subduing the man, Chief Maddrey said.The man returned to the platform. “He’s advancing on one of the officers with his knife,” and both officers fired their handguns, Chief Maddrey said. The man went down, and the fallout of the shooting quickly revealed itself. One officer and two bystanders had also been struck.“I don’t like to use that term ‘friendly fire,’ but absolutely we believe at this time that our officers were the only ones who discharged weapons,” Chief Maddrey said. “Everyone that was struck this afternoon, we believe, was by our officers.”The newly appointed interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlon spoke briefly to reporters. It was Mr. Donlon’s first emergency response since he was appointed three days earlier, after the resignation of Commissioner Edward A. Caban, whose phone was recently seized in a federal investigation with a scope that remains unclear.“It’s a dangerous job, and today is another reminder of that,” Mr. Donlon said. “Right now we are grateful that our officer will be OK.”Mayor Eric Adams also briefly addressed reporters, citing the danger posed by the man with the knife, “a person with over 20 arrests, a real career criminal.”The daytime shooting rattled neighbors who regularly use the Sutter Avenue subway stop. Arlene Alfred, 74, was passing the station when she heard the booming shots. “Like echoes,” she said. “The noise, with the train coming in, with the gunshots.”Ms. Alfred lives a block away and has lived in Brownsville for 32 years.“Anything could happen, any time, any day,” she said. “I’m always going up and down those stairs. I said to myself, Thank you, Jesus, I wasn’t in the train.”Olivia Bensimon More