The City Council is currently drafting a bill to extend the deadline to close Rikers and replace it with four borough-based jails

Governor Kathy Hochul declined to commute the sentence of any of the more than 1,000 people in New York’s prisons who applied for clemency when she granted half a dozen pardons on Friday, angering advocates who say the governor has all but abandoned her promise to reform the state’s clemency process.

Former community board chair and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams returned to her home turf in Southeast Queens on Thursday – now as a candidate for lieutenant governor. 

Officials are pouring more than $8 million dollars into three projects to help prevent water from pouring into Queens’ streets.

The World’s Borough has had its blue and white, flower-adorned flag unofficially representing the county since 1913. It’s a beautiful but rogue banner with no legal legitimacy behind it. But that may soon change.

The two Brooklyn men responsible for the staged Belt Parkway car crash that went viral last year are heading to prison after admitting they orchestrated a series of similar fake accidents as part of an insurance fraud scheme.

In each of the last two years, the city has seen thousands of public defenders walk off the job threatening to upend the city’s court system. It could very well become a reoccurring trend unless the city finds a solution.

Fans celebrating in bars with loose connections to the country they were supporting, chance subway encounters between rivals on a Queens N train and jubilant celebrations on Steinway Street and outside of historic clubhouses.

A 41-year-old man who had been held on Rikers Island for over two years was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning.

Federal agents can no longer use New York police or jails to help detain immigrants after two new laws banning local municipalities from cooperating with federal immigration agents went into effect.

“Community-based alternatives to incarceration and post-release reentry programs are proving every day that public safety and decarceration are not competing goals.”

“Families are being presented with a false choice: Send your children to a brand-new, $92 million facility, or continue using an aging building that has been allowed to deteriorate.”

“With the mayoral elections coming up, it's important that we seek out representatives who will do right by their constituents and abolish Rikers once and for all. “

The Oklahoma-based Williams Transco company is proposing a pipeline through lower Hudson Harbor again. New York first rejected this pipeline in 2020, and now we must do it again. What’s good for a Tulsa gas company is terrible for Queens’ health and our wallets.

“For a corporate center that hosts more than a thousand employees every day — including staff at the Department of Corrections, Skanska, numerous firms and the headquarters of the Queens Chamber of Commerce — this change is more than an inconvenience. It is a step backward for our borough’s economy.”

“Metropolitan Park is a project that has been shaped by the people who live here. A steadfast partner of the community and Elmcor, Metropolitan Park has been intentional with its support for putting the community first. “