Catskills Hatzolah headquarters in South Fallsburg was the site of a heartwarming event this week, as Rabbi Joel Friedman, a prominent community leader in the Tri-State Area, and the chaplain of Orange Regional Medical Center—used by thousands of families vacationing as well as year- round— dedicated an ambulance of his beloved father, Rabbi Mordechai Friedman, z”l. In attendance were an array of representatives from Hatzolah in nearly every community in New York—Central Hatzolah, Boro Park, Williamsburg, Catskills, Kiryas Yoel, and Monsey—as well as numerous community leaders and askonim.

When Ryan David bought three rental properties back in 2017, he expected the $1,000-a-month he was pocketing after expenses would be regular sources of income well into his retirement years. He also was counting on the rent money from the properties in Dupont, Pennsylvania, to help with the cash flow of his business buying and selling distressed properties, launched early last year. But then the pandemic hit and federal and state authorities imposed moratoriums on evictions. The unpaid rent began to mount. Then, just when he thought the worst was over, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new moratorium, lasting until Oct. 3. A federal judge dismissed a legal challenge to the order last week.

A group of New York City restaurants asked a judge this week to block the city’s latest effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, calling the city’s mandate that customers show proof of vaccination “arbitrary, irrational, unscientific and unlawful.” The group argued that the new rules would severely harm their businesses and livelihood. The city’s proof-of-vaccination edict went into effect Tuesday and requires anyone dining indoors at restaurants, going to museums, attending concerts, working out at a gym or entering many indoor public venues show proof that they have been inoculated against COVID-19.

Lieutenant Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday the state has the authority to mandate masks at schools. Hochul, a Democrat, is set to take office as New York’s first female governor on Aug. 24, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo will resign in the wake of an independent investigation that found he harassed at least 11 women. Her assertion about masks in schools is in contrast to guidance from Cuomo, who earlier this month said he lacks the legal authority to impose mask mandates on his own. “In a matter of days, I’ll be able to say we will have mask mandates,” Hochul said in Queens Wednesday. “I just don’t have that authority at this time, when I’m not going to overstep.” Hochul said that nearly all school leaders and superintendents she’s spoken with support a mask mandate in schools.

A newspaper editor friend of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was hit Wednesday with state cyberstalking charges in New York, seven months after Trump pardoned him in a similar federal case just before leaving office. Manhattan prosecutors accused Ken Kurson, the New York Observer’s editor when it was owned by Kushner, of hacking his wife’s online accounts and sending threatening, harassing messages to several people amid heated divorce proceedings in 2015. Kurson, of South Orange, New Jersey, is charged with eavesdropping and computer trespass, both felonies. At times, prosecutors said, Kurson was monitoring his now ex-wife’s computer activity from his desk at the Observer’s Manhattan offices. Kurson did not enter a plea at his arraignment Wednesday.

Tropical Depression Fred blew into the northeastern U.S. on Wednesday, unleashing heavy rains and threatening to cause mudslides and flash floods in upstate New York after closing highways in the lower Appalachians. Dozens of people were rescued from flooded areas in North Carolina after downpours washed out bridges and swamped homes. Unconfirmed tornados unleashed by the stormy weather already caused damage in places in Georgia and North Carolina on Tuesday as Fred moved north, well inland from the coastal areas that usually bear the brunt of tropical weather. One death was reported in Florida, where authorities said a driver hydroplaned and flipped into a ditch near Panama City.

Rudy Giuliani wants to limit what federal investigators can see on his electronic devices to dates specified on search warrants that resulted in raids on his residence and office, according to a former federal judge appointed to oversee disputes over what criminal prosecutors get to look at. Barbara Jones, a former Manhattan judge, filed a one-page order on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court that invites lawyers on both sides of the dispute to make their legal arguments over the issue by Sept. 8 before a federal judge who appointed her as special master decides the issue. The date-range on the warrants, which remain sealed, was not specified in the order.

In his last days in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday granted clemency to 10 people, among them a man whose unsuccessful campaign for exoneration in a 1998 killing was championed by actor Martin Sheen. Cuomo fully pardoned five people and commuted the sentences of another five, including Jon-Adrian Velazquez. A pardon wipes away a conviction, while a commutation shortens a sentence but lets the conviction stand. Velazquez, 45, has been serving 25 years to life on a murder conviction in the shooting of long-retired police officer Albert Ward. He was killed during a robbery in an underground betting parlor in Harlem. Velazquez and his mother have said he was on the phone with her from his Bronx home at the time.

New York’s first female governor, Kathy Hochul, is set to take office on Tuesday, Aug. 24, at the stroke of midnight. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation from office will be effective at 11:59 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23, Hochul’s spokesperson Haley Viccaro said Tuesday. Details of how the power transfer will take place weren’t immediately available. It’s likely Hochul, the lieutenant governor, will address the public sometime Tuesday for the first time as the state’s new governor. Cuomo had announced Aug. 10 that he would resign from office in 14 days, but didn’t specify exactly when he would step down.

Chris Cuomo told CNN viewers Monday that he wasn’t an adviser to outgoing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, “I’m a brother.” Then he detailed the advice he gave him — including to resign. Both the network and its “CNN Prime Time” host have faced criticism for his interactions with his older brother, who announced last week that he would resign following a state attorney general’s report detailing harassment accusations against him. On Monday, back from vacation for his first day on the air since Andrew Cuomo’s announcement, Chris Cuomo addressed the issues for what he said would be the last time. “I tried to do the right thing and I just want you all to know that,” he said.