It's Thursday in New York, where state law bans most gifts to public officials if the value exceeds $15.
But there's an exception for food and drink at "widely attended events," one of which was Queens Day: A party near the Capitol where restaurants from Jamaica to College Point handed out arepas, cheesesteaks and desserts to lawmakers who were there to chow down — and listen to what lobbyists and sponsors, including the Hard Rock at Metropolitan Park casino, had to say.
"The whole idea, of course, is to rub elbows with lawmakers and to ingratiate yourself with someone because somewhere down the road, maybe this session, maybe next session, you're going to be asking for a favor," said policy analyst Blair Horner.
Amtrak said the fire that disrupted train service at Penn Station for two days last week was caused by a piece of equipment that fell off one of its brand-new NextGen Acela trains.
World Cup ticket prices are dropping. (The average ticket price for the eight New York-New Jersey games is $2,790, according to SeatPick.com.)
The 44th annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade is expected to go on this summer after its budget got a $20,000 boost from the Brooklyn borough president's discretionary fund.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers agreed to include an extension of an expired tax break program to cover the sprawling River Ring housing complex in Brooklyn.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said additional officers and the restructuring in the Bronx is needed because the workload placed on officers in the borough has grown.
“If you're tired of being broke, watching TV, watching us in these trucks, watching where we are, hit us up and we'll get you there," David Borukhov told his 45,000 followers on Instagram as he hopped out of an unlicensed tow truck earlier this month.
