June 24, 2025

reasons for hope and some genuine good news!

Dear friends,

It appears that Mamdani may actually win the Democratic Primary! Mamdani has tapped into the deep desire to make the city affordable and welcoming to everyone. He has run an incredibly positive campaign.

Here’s a comprehensive list of reasons NOT to rank Cuomo.

If you have not yet voted, today is the day. Polls are open until 9 PM.

Mahmoud Khalil was released from ICE detention and returned to NYC this weekend to be with his family. In remarks outside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Khalil said:

“This is just the beginning of the end—the beginning of the end of the US complicity and the genocide in Gaza, the US unconditional support to the genocidal state of Israel and to Columbia’s complicity in Israel’s crimes,” he said. He also praised student protesters as “our moral compass,” and thanked them for their courage.

Khalil vowed to continue to speak out for the rights of Palestinians.

Photograph by John Trotter

World Central Kitchen is back in action, cooking in Gaza. Support their work!

There’s a shaky ceasefire in place between Israel and Iran. It’s always a good day to hope for peace.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the administration violated the law by trying to cut the Institute of Museum and Library Services; libraries must be funded.

The GAO ruling was a response to legal challenges from states, librarians and other opponents.

The accountability office, an arm of Congress that keeps watch over the nation’s spending, concluded that the library agency ultimately “ceased performing” its functions after the president’s directive, and withheld funding that lawmakers had previously appropriated to carry out its mission.

Please modify the existing text of the quick action below by adding the three lines at the top of of this section!

Tell Congress that they must restore funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This action is from Every Library.

Beginning in 2026, a new law in Maine guarantees the state minimum wage of $14.65 for farmworkers.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has been using the levers of state power to fight back against Trump’s war on American cities.

Giannoulias’s office initiated legislation that passed two years ago to prohibit the use of automatic license plate readers to track people seeking abortion or sought by immigration authorities.

[W]e're seeing law enforcement agencies outside of Illinois weaponizing this technology against our most vulnerable citizens, including those who are immigrants that are here legally, that are protected under Illinois law, and women seeking legal health care. So I'm proud of our legislation. We stepped up. We shut off any kind of ability for 46 different law enforcement agencies to track this information.

Giannoulias is hopeful that other states will legislate similar protections.

Erez Reuveni, a lawyer who was dismissed from Trump’s DOJ, has filed a whistle-blower complaint alleging that Emil Bove told subordinates he was willing to ignore court orders to fulfill the president’s aggressive deportation campaign.

Reuveni left the DOJ in April after almost 15 years of service. Trump has nominated Bove, a senior official in the deputy attorney general’s office, to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove will be questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow.

Tell the Senate to reject Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment to the US Court of Appeals! This quick action is from People For the American Way.

If your Senator sits on the Judiciary Committee, you should call them and have a word.

The Georgia Supreme Court invalidated several rules including requiring hand-counting of ballots and requiring photo ID for mail ballot drop-offs. The unanimous ruling found that the State Election Board exceeded its authority and intruded on legislative powers.

The Rhode Island legislature passed a bill to allow all registered voters to sign up for the permanent mail ballot application list, so that they will automatically receive a mail ballot application for each election.

A federal judge ruled that Trump’s dismissal of three Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission was unlawful, clearing the way for the nation’s product safety regulators to return to work.

The commission is an independent federal agency tasked with monitoring the safety of thousands of consumer products, from fireworks to household chemicals to coffee makers. In the past month alone, the commission recalled dozens of products, including mini fridges, heated blankets, children’s toys, and air conditioners, for reasons ranging from fire risks to choking hazards.

This is one of the many things that government can do for us that we cannot reasonably do for ourselves.

The Supreme Court ruled in Martin v. US that people victimized by wrong-house raids can sue federal law enforcement agents. The attorney from the Institute for Justice, which represented the Martin family, observed that

“the court’s decision today acknowledged how far the circuit courts have strayed from the purpose of the Federal Tort Claims Act, which is to ensure remedies to the victims of federal harms — intentional and negligent alike.”

Our rights are protections from excessive government. We are fighting for government that serves the people without abusing its power.

Five months in, NYC’s congestion pricing is cutting traffic Manhattan, the Bronx, Bergen County, NJ and elsewhere!

New research from the Regional Plan Association shows that the $9 peak toll to drive into Manhattan below 59th Street has created cascading benefits across the metropolitan area — a change from when drivers were sitting on the road going nowhere.

Doomsayers believed that the traffic would be diverted to surrounding areas, but according to the Regional Plan Association, more people are choosing public transit.

In an astonishing reversal, Adams backed off the plan to make the switch to Medicare Advantage for NYC retirees.

This happened after the New York State's Court of Appeals ruled against city retirees who had sought to block an effort by Mayor Eric Adams' administration to move them onto a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan.

I guess Adams is still hoping to be reelected in the fall. Here, I will prognosticate: it’s not gonna happen.

I’m taking a long weekend. Back on Monday!

with love,

L