It's Friday in New York City, where Bleecker Street Grocery, the deli pictured above, doesn't bother selling highly-taxed cigarettes — only cans of Zyn, which go for a relatively modest $10.99 each.
But if Gov. Kathy Hochul extends the state’s 75% tax on cigarettes to alternative nicotine products, as she's proposed, Bleecker Street Grocery said it would raise its Zyn prices to at least $19 a can.
Such a move, according to business groups, would simply boost criminal activity and street-level Zyn sales.
“Everything, when you put a tax on it, goes to the black market, and the local business will lose its customer,” said store clerk John Rani.
Flu cases in New York City have dropped considerably, though health officials caution that flu season is far from over.
A man claiming to be an FBI agent showed up at a Brooklyn jail with a barbecue fork and a pizza cutter and tried to freeLuigi Mangione on Wednesday night, according to law enforcement officials.
Those lovely sheets of ice do, unfortunately, pose a hazard to commercial ships, which is why the Coast Guard is using icebreaking tug boats to break it up.
U.S. Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen, both representing parts of Long Island, ended last week by backing more funding for the Department of Homeland Security. They started this week with strong rebukes against the arm of the Trump Administration.
The mayor said his administration needs more time to expand a housing voucher program he championed on the campaign trail, citing New York City's looming budget shortfall.
