(NEW YORK) — A man and woman were found dead on a walking trail in Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday afternoon, Arkansas State Police said, adding that a suspect is being sought and the deaths are being investigated as a potential double homicide.
Police were called to the area at about 2:40 p.m., according to a press release. The bodies of the 43-year-old man and 41-year-old woman were transported to the Arkansas State Crime Lab, where cause of death will be determined, police said.
“The suspect in their deaths is an unknown white male wearing dark shorts, a dark tank top and weight-lifting type gloves,” police said. “He was seen driving toward a park exit in a black, four-door sedan.”
The suspect’s vehicle may have been “a Mazda with a license plate covered by electrical or duct tape,” police said. That vehicle may have been traveling on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220, police said.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement on social media, saying her office was in close contact with law enforcement and park authorities investigating the deaths.
“We are praying for the family and friends of the victims, and know that law enforcement will not rest until the perpetrator is brought to justice,” she said.
The Israel Defense Forces announced changes Saturday in humanitarian aid procedures in Gaza amid ongoing international pressure as the malnutrition crisis worsens.
The IDF said in a statement that it was taking several actions, including dropping “seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food” at the behest of the Israeli government to “refute the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
In addition to the airdrops, the IDF said it would create a “humanitarian pause in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors” Sunday morning to allow for the passage of aid. The hours and locations of this short “pause” have not yet been announced publicly.
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on Saturday that 127 Palestinians have died from malnutrition since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, 85 of whom were children. Five Palestinians died from malnutrition in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.
Several humanitarian groups have pushed for help and more assistance in the region in the last week, as they say aid workers on the ground are running out of supplies and need help. Repeated deadly shootings around aid distribution centers have killed hundreds, according to the United Nations.
A volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News there are only four stabilization centers for malnutrition in Gaza, and the admission capacity is severely limited due to the overcrowding of facilities.
On Thursday, MSF said 25% of children and pregnant or breastfeeding women screened at clinics in Gaza are malnourished, and cases of severe malnutrition in children under the age of 5 have tripled in just two weeks.
The Israeli government has denied that it is limiting the amount of aid entering Gaza and has claimed Hamas steals aid meant for civilians. Hamas has denied these claims.
Electricity will be provided to a desalination plant, increasing the amount of water available tenfold, according to the IDF.
“The IDF is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas and will continue to operate to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate terrorists in the areas of activity,” the IDF said in a statement.
The IDF reiterated claims from the Israeli government that there is no starvation in the Gaza Strip and it is merely “a false campaign promoted by Hamas.”
“Responsibility for food distribution to the population in Gaza lies with the UN and international aid organizations,” the IDF said in a statement.
Earlier this week, 115 humanitarian groups described in a joint statement the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” and accused the Israeli government of implementing “restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege [that] have created chaos, starvation, and death.”
The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to data released by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
(DENVER, Colo.) — Passengers on an American Airlines flight evacuated onto the runway via emergency slides after the plane aborted its takeoff on the runway in Denver on Saturday. One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, officials said.
American Airlines flight 3023, which was headed to Miami, reported a “possible landing gear incident during departure,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.
Data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows the plane reached a top speed of 127 knots — nearly 150 miles — on the runway before slowing down.
In air traffic control audio obtained from LiveATC.net, the pilot told the controller they were “aborting on the runway.” The controller told the pilot, “You got a lot of smoke.” A moment later, the controller said, “There was some flames, it looks like the smoke’s kind of dying down a bit.”
The FAA said passengers evacuated the plane on the runway and were taken back to the terminal by bus. Video showed passengers evacuating the aircraft on slides.
The flight was operated on a Boeing 737 Max 8. There were 173 passengers and six crew members on board, according to the airline.
Mark Tsurkis, 50, a passenger aboard the flight, told ABC News he heard “a loud boom,” as the plane was about to take off.
“I said, ‘That’s not good,'” Tsurkis said, at which point the plane began to slow down, he said, and passengers could see one of the wheels pass by.
“When the plane stopped about 30 seconds to a minute later, somebody said, ‘Smoke, fire.’ And then a lot of people, of course, started panicking,” Tsurkis said.
According to the Denver International Airport, the plane was met by first responders. The Denver Fire Department said it extinguished a fire on the plane. The airport said six people were evaluated and one was taken to the hospital. The airline said the person transported had minor injuries.
“It’s definitely not a pleasant experience, but we got lucky,” Tsurkis said. “It happened before the plane took off, so [the pilot] was able to slow down before actually going full speed or before flying.”
American Airlines said the passengers will go to Miami on a replacement plane later Saturday, while the original plane will be taken out of service and inspected.
The airline said in a statement, “We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for their experience.”
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Courtesy Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
(TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.) — Authorities in Michigan say a man entered a Walmart in Traverse City on Saturday afternoon armed with a folding knife and stabbed 11 people before being taken into custody.
The attack began unfolding at 4:43 p.m., the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted online.
The victims were being treated at the Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. As of Saturday evening, six of the victims were in critical condition and five were in serious condition, the hospital said in an update online.
At a news conference Saturday evening, Grand Traverse Sheriff Michael Shea said the victims include six males and five females. Authorities have not yet provided the ages of any of the victims.
The suspect has been identified by authorities only as a 42-year-old man.
“We believe he acted alone at this time,” Shea said during the news conference. “There is no information indicating there were additional suspects.”
The sheriff said a deputy arrived at the Walmart within 3 minutes of a 911 call being made about the stabbing and took the suspect into custody. The sheriff also credited “citizen involvement” with apprehending the suspect, who was armed with a folding knife, he said.
“Thankfully no one else was injured,” the sheriff said, adding “11 is 11 too many — but thank God it wasn’t more.”
The sheriff said the suspected appeared to attack the victims at random.
“It appears that these were all random acts,” the sheriff said.
He said the incident began near the checkout area.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement on X that she was monitoring the situation.
“I’m in touch with law enforcement about the horrible news out of Traverse City. Our thoughts are with the victims and the community reeling from this brutal act of violence,” she said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in a statement on social media that FBI personnel were responding to the scene, “to provide any necessary support to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation of the attacks at the Walmart.”
State police asked people to avoid the area as the investigation continues.
In a statement, a Walmart spokesperson said: “Violence like this is unacceptable. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and we’re thankful for the swift action of first responders. We’ll continue working closely with law enforcement during their investigation.”
Traverse City, a city of about 16,000 people, is in northern Michigan, about 150 miles north of Grand Rapids.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — A shooting inside a dorm room at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque early Friday morning left a 14-year-old boy dead and another teen wounded, state police said.
The suspect in the shooting, identified by police as 18-year-old John Fuentes, was taken into custody hours after the shooting during a traffic stop in Los Lunas, New Mexico, about 25 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police said during a news conference Friday evening.
Fuentes was booked on one count of first-degree murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence.
Fuentes made his first court appearance in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court on Saturday morning via Zoom. Fuentes will remain in custody and will be held without bond while his case is pending transfer to the New Mexico District Court. He will be back in court next week.
According to court documents, Fuentes allegedly drove to the UNM campus at around 8 p.m. local time Thursday in a vehicle registered to his father.
Fuentes met up with three other people, one of them being a freshman at UNM, and walked inside the Gila Dorm. The four were allegedly playing video games in a dorm room when the incident occurred, according to court documents.
“At some point, for reasons still being investigated, the suspect began shooting a firearm at the other occupants in the room. The 14-year-old victim was fatally shot while the other occupants, along with the suspect, fled from the room,” state police said in a statement Saturday.
The other person who was wounded in the shooting is 19, according to police, and had injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, the university said earlier.
One of the victims believed Fuentes was on drugs when he shot the 14-year-old victim in the head, killing him, according to court documents. Fuentes allegedly threatened the other two people in the room, shooting one of them in the head as well. Those two were able to escape through a dorm window to seek aid.
Fuentes fled the dorm room and ended up on the first-story roof of the Mesa Vista building, where police say he allegedly smashed multiple windows, injuring himself.
University of New Mexico Police officers responded to an alarm call at the dorm at around 1:30 a.m. local time Friday. Upon arrival, officers found broken windows and blood, according to New Mexico State Police.
University police then received more calls reporting gunshots and another one from a hospital that a 19-year-old male came in with a gunshot wound and said he had been shot at UNM campus, according to state police.
While conducting a sweep of the surrounding buildings, officers found the 14-year-old dead, state police said.
Police said Fuentes left blood stains, a stolen Glock 9 mm handgun, keys and a pair of jeans on the roof he escaped to. He also left a trail of blood stains as he traveled across campus before being picked up by two individuals in a pickup truck at around 1:40 a.m. Friday morning.
Eventually, authorities said they arrested Fuentes in Los Lunas at around 2:30 p.m. local time Friday on Highway 314.
The university initially issued a shelter-in-place, which lasted much of the day. By Friday afternoon local time, the university said there was “still an active crime scene” in the central part of the campus, but that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. The central campus remained closed, the university said.
New Mexico State Rep. Marianna Anaya said new student orientation was underway this week.
“Waking this morning to the news of this act of violence has shaken the entire UNM community,” she said in a statement. “It is especially heartbreaking that this occurred during the time of a new student orientation — a time when students and their families should be filled with hope, excitement, and a sense of possibility.”
She added, “This heartbreaking incident is yet another reminder of the urgent need to address gun violence and historical trauma in our state.”
(WASHINGTON) — An analysis compiled by USAID officials examining more than 150 reported incidents involving the theft or loss of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid in the war-torn Gaza Strip says it failed to find any evidence that Hamas — the militant rulers of the Palestinian enclave — engaged in widespread diversion of assistance, according to a presentation reviewed by ABC News.
The findings of the report appear to undercut the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Hamas has regularly interfered with aid distribution in the past — assertions it has used to justify its support for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and for measures undertaken by Israel to limit the flow of assistance to neighboring Gaza through other pathways.
The GHF — with Israel’s approval and despite rejection from the United Nations — took over most of the aid distribution system in Gaza on May 27, after an 11-week Israeli blockade on all supplies from entering the strip. Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid provided by the U.N. — formerly the main distributor — and others to fund its militant activity — claims which Hamas denies.
Israel has allowed a limited amount of supplies into Gaza since lifting the blockade and, according to an Israeli security official, is “coordinating future airdrops of aid” by foreign countries “that are expected to take place in the coming days.” This comes after a coalition of more than 100 organizations warned this week that “mass starvation” is spreading in Gaza with “supplies now totally depleted.”
USAID officials behind the presentation say they analyzed alleged incidents of fraud, abuse and waste reported between October 2023, when the ongoing Israel-Hamas war began, and last May. It was compiled before the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — once the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian aid — officially ceased independent operations on July 1. The Trump administration canceled more than 80% of the agency’s programs, while the remainder were absorbed by the U.S. Department of State.
USAID officials say their findings indicate that in the majority of cases involving the loss of aid, the perpetrator could not be definitively identified.
The Israel Defense Forces denied the report in a statement to ABC News, saying “not only does the report ignore clear and explicit evidence that Hamas exploits humanitarian aid to sustain its fighting capabilities, it goes so far as to criticize the IDF for routing decisions made specifically to protect humanitarian staff and shipments.”
The IDF added that when it “directs aid deliveries along specific routes, it is based on the operational reality and intelligence assessments, aimed at safeguarding both the aid and the humanitarian actors — precisely the issue the report claims is not being addressed.”
The State Department is also pushing back forcefully on the analysis.
A State Department spokesperson called it “astonishing” that “the media is busy debating whether the masterminds of Oct. 7 are somehow too principled to loot.”
“There is endless video evidence of Hamas looting, not to mention members of the aid-industrial complex who have admitted that looting exists by reporting it as ‘self-distribution,’ in a poor attempt at an aid corruption coverup,” the spokesperson said. “Available intelligence confirms what is reflected in open-source information: that a significant portion of non-GHF aid trucks have been diverted, looted, stolen, or ‘self-distributed.'”
Despite this, the Trump administration — a staunch ally of Israel — has provided no evidence of Hamas carrying out widespread aid diversion to date.
The IDF said it is “making tremendous efforts to enable the safe distribution of humanitarian aid under complex operational conditions.”
The ongoing Gaza war erupted after Hamas led a surprise terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people there and taking 251 others hostage, according to figures from the Israeli government. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 59,000 people in Gaza, according to data released by the strip’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
(NEW YORK) — Scandal-plagued former congressman George Santos reported to federal prison Friday to begin his more than seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to a series of fraudulent schemes after being convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The ex-congressman did not speak with reporters as he entered the facility. However, in the days leading up to his incarceration, Santos had a lot to say.
On Wednesday, Santos posted a clip of Frank Sinatra singing a portion of “My Way,” beginning with the lyrics “…and now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.”
He offered one final, emotional goodbye in an hour-and-a-half long spaces conversation on X Thursday evening.
Santos began the stream by addressing questions on whether he would receive a pardon, saying that only President Donald Trump has the answer.
“The only person that could answer that question is, you know, whoever the President of the United States is — in this case, President Donald Trump.”
At one point, over 800 people were on the call as several of his supporters calling on listeners to sign an effort launched prior to the call asking Trump to pardon Santos.
Santos advised listeners not to follow his example.
“I think that the importance here is for people to understand: make better choices, be smarter than me, that’s for sure,” Santos said.
“I’ve made a string of s— choices in my life and for that, I’m sorry. To those I’ve disappointed, to those I’ve let down, to those that I have caused irreparable damage even, I’m sorry,” Santos said.
The event saw a host of supporters bid goodbye to Santos, including Matt Gaetz’s wife Ginger Gaetz. He said he hosted the call because he had been “curled up in a ball … for the last week” and wanted to do “something normal.”
Santos repeatedly thanked fellow speakers and listeners for their support and, at several points, he became choked up as several friends started to cry during their remarks.
“I love you,” Santos said. “We built common ground through trust and transparency, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.”
Santos, along with some supporters who chimed in, called his sentence unfair.
“Incarceration is not supposed to be a demonic torture or torturous process,” Santos said. “I think a lot of our sentencing in our country tends to be punitive and full of reprisal.”
Santos also criticized the broader criminal justice system.
“There’s something to be said about the prison industrial complex, by the way. They’re selling f—— Twinkies for $5. I mean, they have to be making banging profits,” he said. “I mean, I’m thinking maybe when I get out of prison, I open a prison.”
Santos joked about advice he had gotten about living behind bars, saying he had heard that finding the “biggest person” in prison and beating them up to establish his toughness was not a good idea.
Taking a more serious tone, Santos said he was hoping to teach civics inside the prison and planned to bring a standard white notepad, a Bible his grandmother gave him and a pocket constitution with him.
He also said he had not yet made a decision regarding whether he would keep his social media running throughout his sentence or delete his accounts, but had “spoken to some people who have voluntarily elected” to post on his behalf.
Santos promised to go into and come out of prison in style, saying “I’m surrendering in Ferragamo so I can walk out in Ferragamo.”
Santos said he had learned through the experience the need to be “unapologetically, 100% authentically yourself.”
“I would not change much of what I decided to do with my career, I would just change the how,” he said. “I’m every congressperson and politician’s nightmare because I set such a high standard for transparency and communication.”
Santos ended the call by calling on listeners to come together despite political differences.
“I hope you all keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing, which is keeping each other honest and engaging in very much needed discourse, because we are in a time in our life where we need to come closer as humans and not further,” he said.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Democrats on Friday traveled to California and Illinois for meetings with Democratic governors who have criticized Republicans’ plans to redraw the Texas congressional map to protect the GOP House majority.
The day of meetings with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois comes as Texas Democrats are weighing a walkout from the ongoing special legislative session where redistricting could be considered in Austin – in a bid to obstruct and delay the efforts.
“They’re changing the rules in the middle of the game… this is cheating,” Pritzker said on Friday of the GOP-led effort in Texas. “Everything is on the table.”
Texas state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, told ABC News she was hoping to receive guidance on how to navigate the redistricting situation from Newsom, who has frequently sparred with the Trump administration.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, proclaiming a special legislative session that focused largely on flood relief, included redistricting on the agenda “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
In a letter earlier this month, the Trump Justice Department told Texas that four majority minority districts represented by Democrats needed to be redrawn, citing a recent federal court decision and arguing they were now “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”
President Donald Trump has rubber-stamped the Texas effort, saying he wants his party to pick up five seats if Texas redraws its congressional maps. (States redo their maps every decade with new Census data, and rarely attempt to do so absent a court order mid-decade.)
Taken with Republican-led redistricting efforts in Ohio and other GOP-controlled states, the changes to Texas’ map could help Republicans insulate their fragile House majority from the historic midterm backlash presidents traditionally face from voters.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday suggested his state could revisit its map, which Republicans remade after the 2020 Census, because, in part, of “the way the population has shifted around Florida just since the census was done in 2020 — I think the state is malapportioned.”
In response, Democratic leaders in states like California, Illinois and New Jersey have raised the possibility of revisiting their maps if Texas moves forward, though some states face more legal and constitutional restrictions than Texas to do so.
While there has been speculation that Texas Democrats could interrupt the special session by walking out or breaking quorum, the travels on Friday do not break quorum and members are not framing it as a walkout.
In the state House, Democrats would need 51 members to agree to break quorum, and they’d all risk fines for doing so. The effort, which Democrats have attempted in the past, would be unlikely to do more than delay Republicans’ efforts to redraw the maps.
“I am more than willing to participate in a quorum break,” State Rep. Gina Hinojosa told ABC News on Friday while cautioning that discussion of one is premature.
Some Democrats, who for years have advocated for nonpartisan redistricting, say the party should respond in kind to GOP efforts.
“I think one of the things we can say while maintaining a reform principle is that we believe in an independent commission and independent redistricting, but that should only kick in when Texas agrees to it, or when Florida agrees to it,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
The chair of the Texas redistricting committee, Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, said during a Thursday hearing that “it is prudent and proper” for the committee to deal with items the governor put on the agenda, and that “we have no plans to change any particular district.”
Others are waiting to see if Texas actually moves forward with changes to its map.
“We have to think about what should our response be, and how do we make sure that we have a response that’s actually meeting voters with what they’re hoping for, instead of actually making a system worse for voters,” Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., told ABC News.
Experts have told ABC News that either party could risk backlash from voters or in court, depending on how they redraw their state maps. And efforts to make Democrat-held districts in Texas more friendly to GOP pickup could weaken Republicans’ hold on neighboring red districts.
(NEW YORK) — He proposed free crosstown buses. He pushed for steep tax hikes on the wealthy—including an 18.5% property tax increase— insisting none of his rich friends threatened to leave the city over higher taxes. He championed millions to build supermarkets in long-neglected neighborhoods.
And under his plan, city workers could give privately raised cash to New Yorkers booking dental appointments or keeping their children in school.
These progressive policies, however, are not from New York City’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Experts said they were from Michael Bloomberg, New York’s billionaire former Republican mayor and a prominent supporter of Andrew Cuomo’s run for mayor.
As Mamdani reshapes the city’s political map, some experts told ABC News a striking parallel is emerging. Behind the labels of “socialist” and “technocrat,” both men share aligned goals: taxing the rich during crises, promoting expansive transit ideas, and bold plans to bring fresh food to low-income communities. Still, experts said, even when policies overlap, most New Yorkers do not see them as similar.
They point out many people know Mamdani as an organizer who has posted that capitalism is a form of theft; Bloomberg as a businessman who built a fortune managing the free market that Mamdani is critiquing. Mamdani identifies himself as a democratic socialist and has stated, “I don’t think that we should have billionaires.” Bloomberg is one of the richest people in the world.
Neither Mamdani nor Bloomberg provided statements to ABC News.
Mamdani recently acknowledged in a private meeting with business leaders that he hopes to emulate Bloomberg on a few issues — even as he draws fire from many in the business community, sources familiar told ABC News.
“There’s a resistance from a lot of powerful forces … And it doesn’t have to do with Mamdani’s politics, it has to do with the fact that he doesn’t come from them,” Democratic strategist Peter Feld told ABC News.
Bloomberg spent $8 million backing Cuomo’s failed bid to become the Democratic nominee for mayor.
“If you said which of these things go together, you probably wouldn’t pick Bloomberg and Mamdani,” Christine Quinn, the former city council speaker who helped Bloomberg pass key policies, told ABC News. “But when you peel away at the onion, there’s a lot of similarities.”
Free buses
As early as 2007, Bloomberg spoke about his public transit goals.
During his 2009 re-election campaign, Bloomberg proposed making some Manhattan crosstown buses free of charge. An archived screenshot from his campaign website states, “The MTA should eliminate fare collection…”
At a campaign event, he called the MTA “bloated” and “inefficient.”
The New York Times contrasted observers calling the proposal “radical,” and a Regional Plan Association official saying it “captured people’s imaginations.”
A Mamdani campaign pillar calls for free fares on all bus lines. After piloting a fare-free program on five lines as an assemblymember, Mamdani compared it to Kansas City and Boston’s free programs. Cuomo’s bus plan for mayor includes evaluating the “expansion of a fare-free bus pilot program” that Mamdani championed, and expanding a 50% discount on public transportation for low-income residents.
Regional Plan Association’s Kate Slevin, who served in city government under Bloomberg, said she “can’t remember other mayoral candidates” with a similar plan for free buses. Slevin told ABC News, “When it comes to fares, those are the only two I can remember.”
After Bloomberg won, a transportation website reported he removed the proposal from his website. The plan was never implemented.
Both men faced criticism over feasibility – the MTA controls bus fares.
Mamdani has not publicly highlighted Bloomberg’s old bus proposal, but he’s aware of at least one Bloomberg transportation initiative: in a recent video about expanding dedicated bus lanes, he said, “It’s not a new proposal, Mayor Bloomberg suggested it in 2008.”
Taxing the wealthy
After 9/11, during New York City’s financial crisis, Mayor Bloomberg increased property taxes by 18.5%, short of his original 25% push.
Months later, Bloomberg raised sales and income taxes. Single filers earning over $100,000 were among those impacted.
“[Bloomberg] knew that to make New York livable, you had to raise taxes, and he put that as a priority, rather than to simply cut the budget and vital services,” NYU Professor of Urban Planning and Policy, Mitchell Moss, told ABC News. “Taxes were not a peripheral part of his fiscal policy. They were a central part.”
In a 2007 USC speech, Bloomberg reflected, “As a last resort, we even raised property taxes and income taxes on high-earners,” recalling backlash, saying “raising taxes didn’t make me the most popular…”
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to raise taxes on the wealthy to fix subways, but was not successful.
Mamdani proposes permanent additional 2% tax increases for earners making over $1 million and raising corporate taxes. Bloomberg framed his hikes as temporary, specifically tied to emergencies.
However, even Bloomberg acknowledged that his tax revenue supported broader ambitions.
“Mike Bloomberg raised taxes following 9/11 out of fiscal necessity, not ideology,” Ed Skyler, a senior executive at Citigroup and former deputy mayor for Bloomberg, told ABC News.
At USC, he said increases, “allowed us to close the huge budget deficits, balance the books and continue investing in the future: building new schools, revitalizing old industrial areas, creating the largest affordable housing program in the nation, supporting our cultural institutions, parks, libraries, and universities, and expanding world-wide advertising to attract businesses and tourists.”
Food policy for low-income communities
Under Bloomberg, starting in 2009, dozens of FRESH grocery stores opened. Many are still operating today. The program offered public subsidies to private grocery operators to boost access to fresh food in underserved neighborhoods.
Quinn, then city council speaker and a key player in passing the program, said they always asked: “how do we use the powers of the city of New York to jolt the private sector into action?”
Bloomberg frequently sought to merge public and private efforts—through initiatives like his Green Carts program—which supplied permits for vendors selling fresh produce in “food deserts,” and Health Bucks, which enabled discounted food to be purchased at farmers markets.
Mamdani proposes one municipally owned, nonprofit grocery store in each borough, offering goods at wholesale prices. On “Plain English,” Mamdani said his plan would cost less than FRESH.
CUNY School of Public Health Professor Nevin Cohen said he believes Mamdani’s plan would cost less than Bloomberg’s, too. He wrote a piece titled “Guess What? Government Is Already in the Grocery Business,” mentioning existing markets in Madison and Atlanta.
Mamdani’s idea isn’t new to the city. Former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia created the first public market network and several still remain today. Under Bloomberg, one such market—Essex Market—was rezoned and relocated to a new, modern space.
Cohen said Bloomberg and Mamdani’s plans “are not just similar. They actually had the same underlying goal.”
Cohen said, “Bloomberg very much intervened in the market” and sent an old advertisement of Bloomberg, dressed as a nanny, labeled, “You only thought you lived in the land of the free.”
Quinn also notes that many of Bloomberg’s plans faced resistance, but once implemented, became part of the city’s fabric.
“What is radical on Monday often becomes widespread by Wednesday,” Quinn said.
Neither Cuomo nor Mayor Eric Adams provided statements to ABC News.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — A shooting inside a dorm room at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque early Friday morning left a 14-year-old boy dead and another teen wounded, state police said.
The suspect in the shooting, identified by police as 18-year-old John Fuentes, was taken into custody hours after the shooting during a traffic stop in Los Lunas, New Mexico, about 25 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico State Police said during a news conference Friday evening.
Fuentes is expected to face one count of murder along with additional charges.
According to investigators, several young people were inside the dorm room playing video games when the violence broke out.
The other person who was wounded in the shooting is 19, according to police, and had injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, the university said earlier.
Fuentes remains in state police custody. Authorities said he will be booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County.
The university initially issued a shelter-in-place, which lasted much of the day. By Friday afternoon local time, the university said there was “still an active crime scene” in the central part of the campus, but that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted. The central campus remained closed, the university said.
“Waking this morning to the news of this act of violence has shaken the entire UNM community,” she said in a statement. “It is especially heartbreaking that this occurred during the time of a new student orientation — a time when students and their families should be filled with hope, excitement, and a sense of possibility.”
She added, “This heartbreaking incident is yet another reminder of the urgent need to address gun violence and historical trauma in our state.”
