Only 14 New York City businesses have been fined for violating Mayor Bill de Blasio’s indoor vaccine mandate, according to a new report. The city handed out $1,000 fines to those businesses and warned another 6,760 so far, the New York Post reported Saturday. Inspectors has reportedly checked in on a total of 27,500 businesses since it began enforcing the mandate on Sept. 13. The rules allow for inspectors to issue a warning for first-time violators before handing out a $1,000 fine. Repeat offenders will face $2,000 for a second violation and $5,000 for every one after. The mandate requires proof of vaccination to enter city establishments like restaurants, gyms and cultural centers like theaters and museums.

A passenger aboard a Republic Airways flight from Indianapolis was taken into custody on the tarmac of LaGuardia Airport, shortly after the plane touched down Saturday afternoon. Authorities said another passenger had reported the man acting suspiciously and erratically, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency landing and halting the airplane on the taxiway short of its intended gate around 3 p.m. “This was in response to reports by passengers of suspicious and erratic behavior by a fellow passenger,” said Thomas Topousis, the spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. Video posted on social media showed a man spread-eagled face down on the runway asphalt as a pair of emergency personnel knelt beside him.

Gas prices are continuing their unseasonal rise in New Jersey and across the nation and remain more than $1 per gallon higher than they were a year ago. AAA Mid-Atlantic says the average price of a gallon of regular gas in New Jersey on Friday was $3.25, up three cents from a week ago. Drivers were paying an average of $2.28 a gallon a year ago at this time. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.26, up seven cents from last week. Drivers were paying $2.19 a gallon on average a year ago at this time. Analysts say the price rise in New Jersey comes despite a recent drop in the gas tax.

New York City’s police department placed the embattled former head of its sergeants union on modified assignment Wednesday, stripping him of his gun and shield, a day after federal agents raided the union’s office and his home. Ed Mullins resigned Tuesday night as the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association at the urging of its executive board, hours after FBI agents were seen carrying boxes out of the union’s Manhattan headquarters. Agents also searched Mullins’ home in Port Washington, Long Island. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday that the NYPD’s internal affairs bureau, which has been probing Mullins’ fiery tweets and other activity, was working with the FBI on the investigation that led to Tuesday’s searches.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “misused” NYPD resources for personal benefit when he ordered members of his security detail to move his daughter, Chiara de Blasio, from her Brooklyn apartment to Gracie Mansion, a new report from the city’s Depart of Investigation found. The same investigation also determined the city spent $319,794 for the members of Mayor de Blasio’s security detail to travel on his presidential campaign trips. The mayor has not reimbursed the city for these expenses, either personally or through his campaign, reflecting what the repot called “a use of NYPD resources for political purposes.” DOI also found that, during these campaign trips, members of the security detail occasionally transported de Blasio’s campaign staffers while driving the mayor.

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s choices to lead the federal prosecutors’ offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The confirmation late Tuesday of Damian Williams as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan marks the first time the office will be led by a Black person. Breon Peace, who is also Black, will become U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. Both offices have been involved in high-profile prosecutions. The Southern District handled the 2018 prosecution of Michael Cohen, at one time the personal lawyer of former President Donald Trump, on campaign finance violations and other charges. The Eastern District prosecuted singer R.

A domestic violence suspect killed himself Wednesday during a standoff with New York City police, officials said. Officers found the man dead in a Manhattan apartment of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head, NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said. He did not identify the man by name. Warrant squad officers had gone to the fifth-floor apartment in Harlem around 8:30 a.m. to serve an arrest warrant on the man, who was also being looked at as a possible suspect in a homicide, Harrison said. The man pulled a gun and started shooting, and one of the officers returned fire, Harrison said. None of the officers was hit. It wasn’t clear if any of the officer’s bullets struck the man. The officers then retreated and called for backup, Harrison said.

A historic Hatzolah Ambulance that was used to carry the Aron of the late Posek Hador, Hagaon HaRav Moshe Feinstein ZT”L, has been moved to Brooklyn. The Lower East Side Hatzolah ambulance was seen in the iconic photo taken at the massive Levaya, when tens of thousands walked behind the Aron, as it headed to JFK Airport. The same ambulance was used to transport Rav Moshe to the hospital, when he reportedly uttered his final words “Ich hub mer nisht kein koach” (I have no more strength). Earlier this week, the ambulance was towed to Superior Collision on Coney Island Avenue, where Hatzolah volunteer Nussy Josephy is working on restoring the ambulance, which had been sitting in a parking lot in the Lower East Side for nearly 35 years.

Former presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang is leaving the Democratic Party, he announced this week. Yang said in a Medium post that he changed his voting registration from “Democrat” to “Independent” on Monday after being a registered Democrat for 20 years. “I have at this point dozens of friends and confidantes who are entrenched in the Democratic Party. I’ve been a Democrat my entire adult life,” Yang wrote in “Breaking up with the Democratic Party.” “And yet, I’m confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing.” Yang blasted a “stuck” political system, and polarization that is worse than ever. He called for a combination of open primaries and ranked-choice voting, as practical steps toward improving that system.

Federal agents raided the offices Tuesday of a New York City police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Long Island home of its bombastic leader, who has clashed with city officials over his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics. FBI spokesperson Martin Feely said agents were “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation.” Agents were seen carrying boxes out of the union’s Manhattan headquarters and loading them into a van. The FBI also searched union president Ed Mullins’ home in Port Washington, Long Island, Feely said. Mullins resigned as the union’s president Tuesday night, according to a message the union’s board sent to members. The board said he did so at its urging.

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