Fecal bacteria ‘rampant’ on New York sidewalks, researchers find

Co-author advises taking off your shoes at the door after studying dog poop on Upper East Side

Researchers at New York’s Marymount College have published a study that, in its essence, attempts to establish how much dog poop footwear carries into the homes of New Yorkers on the affluent Upper East Side.

The study, released to the Indoor and Built Environment journal, concludes there’s a strong argument for leaving your outside shoes at the door – or risk tracking fecal bacteria around the house.

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Rats! New York mayor fined $300 over rodents at Brooklyn property

Eric Adams gets split decision while spokesman says: ‘One decision is clear, however: the mayor still hates rats’

In the latest round of his long battle against rats, the New York mayor, Eric Adams, scored a split decision on Tuesday when a hearing officer dismissed one summons while upholding another citing Adams for not doing enough to keep rodents at bay at his Brooklyn townhouse.

Adams was fined $300. A spokesperson, Fabien Levy, said the mayor was “grateful” one summons was dismissed and would consider his options about the second.

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George Santos: puppy theft charge news follows Romney’s ‘sick puppy’ barb

Republican at centre of string of scandals was charged in Pennsylvania with theft over purchase of puppies in 2017

The New York Republican congressman George Santos, who is at the centre of a bizarre string of scandals and who the Utah senator Mitt Romney this week called a “sick puppy”, was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017 – over a purchase of “puppies”.

The scandal, reported by Politico, is not Santos’s first involving dogs and his charity, Friends of Pets United. A New Jersey veteran alleges Santos raised money for an operation for his dog, then absconded with the money.

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‘Finch-smuggling kingpin’ sentenced to prison for bird trafficking into US

Insaf Ali smuggled songbirds in hair curlers from Guyana to New York when JFK airport authorities discovered the ruse

A man who repeatedly admitted scheming to smuggle finches from Guyana into New York for birdsong competitions was sentenced on Thursday to a year and a day in prison.

It was Insaf Ali’s second time being sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court for a crime related to bird trafficking, and he vowed it would be his last.

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Woman who poisoned lookalike with cheesecake to steal identity convicted

Woman found guilty of trying to kill 35-year-old woman with cake laced with powerful sedative and then stealing her passport

A New York City woman accused of feeding poisoned cheesecake to her lookalike in a bid to steal the other woman’s identity has been convicted of attempted murder, prosecutors said Thursday.

Viktoria Nasyrova, 47, was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday of trying to kill 35-year-old Olga Tsvyk with cheesecake laced with a powerful sedative and then stealing her passport and other valuables in August 2016, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz said in a news release.

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George Santos is a ‘sociopath’, fellow New York Republican congressman says

Nick LaLota is one of a growing number of people from both parties to call on Santos to quit over made-up résumé and investigations

George Santos is a “sociopath” who thrives on negative attention, another New York Republican congressman said.

“He’s a sociopath,” Nick LaLota told CNN on Wednesday, after Santos’s confrontation with Mitt Romney at Joe Biden’s State of the Union address made headlines the night before.

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Flaco the owl flees New York Central Park zoo after enclosure vandalized

Eurasian eagle owl spotted in midtown since escape as zoo staff try to lure Flaco back by leaving food out for him

A Eurasian eagle owl named Flaco escaped New York’s Central Park zoo on Thursday night after his enclosure was vandalized and is still on the loose in Manhattan.

Flaco was spotted at different times since fleeing by various onlookers, once on a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue, across from the Plaza Hotel, and perched on trees around Central Park.

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New York woman found breathing at funeral home after being declared dead

The 82-year-old was pronounced dead at a Long Island nursing home, only to be discovered alive and then taken to a hospital

An 82-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a New York nursing home only to be found breathing three hours later at the funeral home where she had been taken, authorities said.

It was the second time in about a month something of the sort has happened in the US, according to officials.

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North-east arctic blast sets record -108F wind chill on New Hampshire summit

Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills dropped as low as -45 to -50F across the rest of the region

Arctic air in the US north-east on Saturday brought dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills including a record-setting -108F (-78C) on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Authorities in Massachusetts took the unusual step of keeping the South Station transit hub open so homeless people had a place to sleep. High winds brought down a tree branch on a car in western Massachusetts, killing an infant.

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Trump pleads the fifth more than 400 times in fraud deposition, video shows

Former president repeatedly invokes constitutional right against self-incrimination in New York footage from late last summer

Video released on Tuesday showed Donald Trump answering questions from the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, in a deposition in a civil fraud case late last summer.

Questioned about his financial affairs, the former president repeatedly invoked his fifth-amendment right against self-incrimination – part of a refusal to answer he repeated more than 400 times.

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Trump says in video ‘anyone in my position not taking the fifth would be an absolute fool’ – live

FBI agents conducted a voluntary search of an office formerly used by Joe Biden in Washington DC after classified materials were discovered there, CBS News reports.

The search of the Penn Biden Center was carried out with Biden’s agreement in November of last year, after the secret documents dating from Biden’s time as vice president under Barack Obama were first discovered. The search was not publicly announced, and CBS News cited two sources familiar with the investigation in reporting it.

Santos hired Charles Lovett as his chief of staff. Lovett served as Santos’s campaign manager and worked for six months as a field organizer for the Ohio Republican Party, according to LegiStorm. He also served as political director for Ohio Republican Josh Mandel’s unsuccessful primary bid for Senate. He has not worked on the Hill previously. Viswanag Burra, Santos’s operations director, spent less than a year as special operations director for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and recently worked as executive secretary for the New York Young Republican Club.

His communications director, Naysa Woomer, appears to have the most Hill experience. She worked for three Republican members between 2014 and 2018 before moving to Massachusetts to be the communications director for the state Republican Party and then as a communications specialist for the state Department of Revenue.

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New York City police seek gunman in subway shooting that injured one

A man was shot in the torso shortly after 1am Saturday morning after a dispute and taken to the hospital

New York City police are searching for a gunman who shot a man on a subway in the Chinatown neighborhood.

The victim, 34, was shot early Saturday morning shortly after 1am while riding the train on the N line, reported the New York Times.

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‘We’re tired of being beaten’: protesters across US call for justice for Tyre Nichols

After video of the brutal beating was released, people gathered to decry the violence and abuse of power

  • This article contains video depicting physical violence

Protests took place in multiple US cities late Friday after police released footage of Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating at the hands of Memphis police.

The video released late Friday shows several Memphis officers kicking Nichols repeatedly in the head, punching him in the face, and hitting him with a baton.

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Islamic extremist who killed eight people on New York bike path convicted

Sayfullo Saipov, who drove a truck down a popular bike path in 2017, could face the death penalty

An Islamic extremist who killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path was convicted on Thursday of 28 federal crimes and could face the death penalty.

Sayfullo Saipov bowed his head as he heard the verdict in the trial for an attack that prosecutors said was inspired by his reverence for the Islamic State militant group. Saipov was tried in a Manhattan courtroom just a few blocks from where the attack ended.

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Mexico’s ex-security chief took ‘millions in bribes’ from cartel, US court hears

Trial begins in Brooklyn court for Genaro García Luna, who is accused of protecting the violent Sinaloa cartel

The trial of a former top Mexican law enforcement official got under way in a Brooklyn court on Monday, one of the most significant drug trafficking cases since the prosecution of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán more than four years ago.

Genaro García Luna, who ran Mexico’s version of the FBI before being appointed to lead the country’s security ministry – and therefore its war on drug trafficking groups – is accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for granting protection to the violent Sinaloa cartel.

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Delight as dolphins spotted in New York’s Bronx River

Encouraging sign for river that suffered as dumping ground for waste from nearby factories

Dolphins have been spotted frolicking in New York City’s Bronx River, an encouraging sign of the improving health of a waterway that was for many years befouled as a sewer for industrial waste.

A pair of dolphins was seen gliding through the river’s waters on Monday, the New York City parks department confirmed, near a small park in the city’s Bronx borough. The Bronx river rises north of New York City and cuts through the Bronx before terminating in the East River, the estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

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George Santos denies reports that he competed as drag queen in Brazil

New York Republican under pressure over fabrications about his career, past and alleged criminal behaviour

George Santos on Thursday tweeted an angry denial that he competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants 15 years ago, claims made by acquaintances that have highlighted the contrast between the Republican congressman’s past actions and now staunchly conservative views.

The New Yorker, who says he is gay, dismissed the story as an “obsession” by the media, which he insisted, without irony, “continues to make outrageous claims about my life”.

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Investigation after near collision of two planes at New York’s JFK airport

Federal Aviation Administration looks into close call on Friday evening between American Airlines and Delta aircrafts

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a close call at JFK international airport on Friday evening in which two planes nearly collided on the runway.

The incident took place between a Delta Air Lines aircraft bound for the Dominican Republic and an American Airlines flight.

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Eric Adams says New York City doesn’t have ‘room’ to host more migrants

Mayor says city’s strained care system can’t handle influx and blames government for lack of coordination during El Paso visit

In an unprecedented visit by a New York City mayor to the Mexico border, Eric Adams said his city doesn’t have enough “room” to host more migrants in its strained care system.

He made his remarks on Sunday at a news conference during his trip to El Paso, Texas, the first visit of its kind by a New York mayor, after an ongoing crisis sparked by the controversial decision of some Republican governors in the south to send migrants to mostly Democratic-administered municipalities around the US.

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George Santos a ‘bad guy’ who did ‘bad things’ but should not be forced out, top Republican says

New York congressman’s résumé is largely fiction and campaign finance questions abide but support is vital for speaker McCarthy

The New York Republican congressman George Santos, whose résumé has been shown to be largely fictional, whose campaign finances are the subject of increasing scrutiny and who is under local, federal and international investigation, is a “bad guy” who has done “really bad” things, the new House oversight committee chairman said on Sunday.

But Santos should not be forced to quit, James Comer said.

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