New York
Read the Newest Menendez Indictment
IS EG Halal is Used to Fund Bribe Payments
31. After financially benefitting from IS EG Halal’s monopoly status as the sole halal certifier, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, at times with the assistance of FRED DAIBES and JOSE URIBE, the defendants, provided payments in furtherance of the scheme.
32. For example, in or about July 2019, after the mortgage company for the residence of NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, initiated foreclosure proceedings, WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, caused IS EG Halal to pay $23,568.54 to the company that held NADINE MENENDEZ’s mortgage to bring NADINE MENENDEZ’s mortgage current. HANA made this payment following a series of discussions with NADINE MENENDEZ, as well as JOSE URIBE and FRED DAIBES, the defendants, about various options for bringing the mortgage current. When at one point URIBE responded to NADINE MENENDEZ that HANA might balk at the amount required to bring the mortgage current, NADINE MENENDEZ replied, in part, “When I feel comfortable and plan the trip to Egypt he [i.e., HANA] will be more powerful than the president of Egypt.” Thereafter, URIBE and HANA worked to facilitate the payments, and ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, continued taking actions to assist HANA and Egypt, including those discussed below.
33. A few months later, in or about September 2019, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, texted FRED DAIBES, the defendant, complaining that WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendant, had not paid her what he owed her. DAIBES replied to NADINE MENENDEZ, “Nadine I personally gave Bob a check for September.”
34. Several days later, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” the defendant, texted ROBERT MENENDEZ, the defendant, to complain that WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” and FRED DAIBES, the defendants, had not made payments, writing, “I am s000000 upset,” stating that HANA had not left her an envelope, and remarking, “I thought Fred
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new video loaded: New York City Nurses Go on Strike
transcript
transcript
New York City Nurses Go on Strike
Nearly 15,000 nurses at major New York City hospitals went on strike on Monday, demanding more robust staffing levels, higher pay and better safety precautions.
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Chanting: “If we don’t get it — shut it down! “How can we as nurses be inside taking care of patients when we don’t have health care? We need to have good health care so we stay strong, so we can go in there day after day. Nursing is a 24/7 job. We don’t get a break. We’re there to take care of these patients, and that’s what we’re going to do. But we need the health care to do that.” “All parties must return immediately to the negotiating table and not leave. They must bargain in good faith.” “That’s right.” “And they must arrive at a deal that is satisfactory to all, that allows the nurses who work in this city to live in this city.”
By Meg Felling
January 12, 2026
new video loaded: Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
transcript
transcript
Hochul and Mamdani Announce Plan for Universal Child Care
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a plan on Thursday to vastly expand free and low-cost child care for families across the state in the coming years and add programs for 2-year-olds.
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“Today, we’re working together with the mayor at this incredible place to announce the first major steps to make child care universal — truly universal — here in New York City, transforming the lives of children and parents all across the state.” “We will build on the city’s existing three-K program, and say, no longer will a family in Flatbush be offered a seat, but have to find out that seat is in Astoria. We will add seats in the neighborhoods where demand has not been met. This will be felt by expanded subsidies for tens of thousands of additional families. It will be felt when parents look at their bank accounts at the end of the year, and see that they have saved more than $20,000 per child.” “And today, I’m proud to announce that New York State is paying the full cost to launch 2-care. For the first time — universal daycare for 2-year-olds, as proposed by Mayor Mamdani. We’re not just paying for one year of the program. We don’t usually go one year out in our budget, but just to let you know how serious we are, we’re taking the unprecedented step to not just commit for the 2027 budget, which I’m working on right now, but also the following year as well to show you we’re in this for the long haul.”
By Meg Felling
January 8, 2026
A new mayor, a fresh start — you know the drill. There are as many ideas out there for how Zohran Mamdani can now improve New York’s urban environment as there are New Yorkers.
I canvassed a few dozen planners, architects, academics, community leaders, neighborhood organizers, developers, housing and transit experts and former city government officials. I gave them no budgets or time lines. They gave me a mayoral to-do list of ideas big, small, familiar, deep in the weeds, fanciful and timely.
What follows is a small selection, with some kibitzing by me. You can vote “love it” or “skip it” below and help determine the ranking of priorities. Feel free to leave eye rolls and alternative proposals in the comments section.
Check back in the coming days to see how the ranking has changed and we will let you know the ultimate results on Jan. 13.
1
Create many thousands more affordable housing units by converting some of the city’s public golf courses into mixed income developments, with garden allotments and wetlands.
2
Deck over Robert Moses’s Cross Bronx Expressway and create a spectacular new park.
3
Devise a network of dedicated lanes for e-bikes and electric scooters so they will endanger fewer bicyclists and pedestrians.
4
Pedestrianize Lower Manhattan. Not even 10 percent of people there arrive by car.
5
Build more mental health crisis centers citywide.
6
Provide more clean, safe public pay toilets that don’t cost taxpayers $1 million apiece.
7
Convert more coastline into spongy marshes, akin to what exists at Hunter’s Point South Park in Queens, to mitigate rising seas and floods.
8
Dedicate more of the city budget to public libraries and parks, the lifeblood of many neighborhoods, crucial to public health and climate resilience. The city devotes barely 2 percent of its funds to them now.
9
Follow through on the Adams administration’s $400 million makeover of once-glamorous Fifth Avenue from Central Park South to Bryant Park, with wider sidewalks, reduced lanes of traffic, and more trees, restaurants, bikes and pedestrian-friendly stretches.
10
Do away with free street parking and enforce parking placard rules. New York’s curbside real estate is priceless public land, and only a small fraction of residents own cars.
11
Open the soaring vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge to create shops, restaurants, a farmers’ market and public library in nascent Gotham Park.
13
Persuade Google, JPMorgan or some other city-vested megacorporation to help improve the acoustics as well as Wi-Fi in subways, along the lines of Citibank sponsoring Citi Bikes.
14
Overhaul freight deliveries to get more 18-wheelers off city streets, free up traffic, reduce noise, improve public safety and streamline supply chains.
15
Rein in City Hall bureaucracy around new construction. The city’s Department of Design and Construction is full of good people but a longtime hot mess at completing public projects.
16
Convert more streets and intersections into public plazas and pocket parks. Like the pedestrianization of parts of Broadway, this Bloomberg-era initiative has proved to be good for businesses and neighborhoods.
17
Stop playing Russian roulette with a crumbling highway and repair the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway before it collapses.
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