A young woman has died and six other people were wounded in a shooting at an apartment building in Brooklyn that followed an earlier shooting near a Sweet 16 birthday party, police said. The first shooting happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday in the East New York neighborhood and left a 17-year-old boy wounded in the leg, New York Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Kemper said during a news conference. It wasn’t known what prompted that shooting. The second shooting took place about 11:15 p.m. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, and police said it’s believed to be related to the first shooting. A 20-year-old woman was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

On Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio predicted the entire city was heading for an orange zone designation as early as next week. This followed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press conference the day before where he said parts of Staten Island were headed into a red zone. That means schools, indoor dining, salons and gyms would all close. There would also be capacity limits inside houses of worship. Mayor de Blasio said that the city will be working to reopen schools, even as it heads towards the orange zone. Governor Cuomo also said parts of Upper Manhattan and Long Island are likely to advance to a yellow zone. The test positivity rate in the focus areas under NY's Micro-Cluster strategy is 4.48%. The statewide positivity rate excluding these focus areas is 2.73%.

The following is an unedited article Associated Press about the now international news story regarding the massive Satmar wedding that was recently held in Williamsburg. (YWN published an article earlier Sunday after NY Governor Cuomo slammed the wedding in his daily press conference, and after it was reported as far away as Australian TV.) Cuomo: Massive Orthodox wedding in Brooklyn ‘disrespectful’ A Brooklyn synagogue should be investigated over reports that it hosted a secret wedding with thousands of unmasked guests earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday. “If that happened, it was a blatant disregard of the law,” Cuomo said during a briefing in New York City. “It’s illegal.

Prosecutors in New York say they will seek the death penalty against a mid-level leader of the notorious MS-13 street gang accused in a string of brutal slayings. According to a new federal court filing, the Justice Department has given authorization to bring a capital punishment case against Jairo Saenz. There was no immediate response on Saturday to a message seeking comment from Saenz’s attorney. The 24-year-old Saenz was second in command of a gang clique based in central Long Island, court papers say. He’s charged in connection with seven murders, including those of two girls who were attacked with a machete and baseball bats as they walked through their suburban neighborhood.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that “Staten Island is a serious problem” and that parts of the borough could become an orange or red zone “this week.” “Unless they dramatically change the trajectory of the infection rate, this week they will go into those zones,” Cuomo said at a briefing. “Staten Island is a serious problem,” the governor said. “Staten Island is also a problem in terms of overburdening hospitals, and we’re running into a hospital capacity issue on Staten Island that we have to be dealing with over these next few days.” To reach an orange zone in New York City, an area would have to hit a 3% positivity rate on a seven-day average and stay at that level for 10 days. The percentage for a red zone designation is a seven-day average of 4% for 10 days. (Source: 1010WINS)

NY Governor Cuomo blasted a recent “very secret” Satmar wedding which had around 7,500 people in attendance after the NY Post published the details. “If that happened, it was a blatant disregard of the law, it’s illegal, and was also disrespectful to the people on New York”, Cuomo said. “My information is that NYC is investigating the incident, they should investigate, and if 7,000 people were at a wedding, I’m sure they will be able to figure it out, and we will bring the full consequence of legal action to bear”. Cuomo’s response came after the top story on the NY Post website on Motzei Shabbos reported about the wedding for grandchild of the Satmar Rebbe, HaRav Aharon Teitelbaum – reportedly attended by 7,500 people. The Post blasted Satmar for not adhering to COVID-19 restrictions.

The iconic Rockefeller Center ice-skating rink is set to open in a limited way on time for the holidays. The sunken rink located in midtown Manhattan will begin welcoming skaters Saturday afternoon as part of a tradition going back to the 1930s, according to the Rockefeller Center webside. The rink is operating at a reduced capacity, with skate time limited to 50 minutes. Masks are required as a futher pandemic safety measure. The website says there’s legend that the rink was inspired by “a Depression-era skate salesman who demonstrated his product by skating on the frozen water of the Rockefeller Center fountain.” It officially opened as a “skating pond” in 1936. It was supposed by temporary but became so popular it became a permanent fixture for the holiday season. (AP)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to soon receive an International Emmy award for his once-daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that killed tens of thousands of New Yorkers this spring. The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, whose members include media and entertainment figures from over 60 countries and 500 companies, announced Friday it plans to present the award to the Democratic governor in a live-streamed show Monday. International Academy President & CEO Bruce L. Paisner said Cuomo is being honored with the academy’s Founders Award for using his briefings to inform and calm the public. Previous recipients include former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and director Steven Spielberg.

Renewing restrictions on indoor dining in New York City amid surging coronavirus infections could deal a crippling financial blow to restaurants and their workers and should come with financial support, an industry group said Friday. The NYC Hospitality Alliance made the plea as Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he expected the state to impose restrictions in the city around the first week of December that would limit restaurants to outdoor dining. The alliance had not seen any contact tracing data showing that indoor dining, which resumed this fall under tight restrictions, is causing recent infections, executive director Andrew Rigie said.

A western New York letter carrier is accused of dumping piles of mail from his route in the woods. Sean Barrett of Sanborn pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to delaying or destroying mail. Police received a report of mail next to a trail in the Niagara County village of Youngstown Oct. 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo said in a news release. Authorities retrieved three mail bins and two garbage bags containing a total of 1,314 first-class, certified, and standard mailings, including a blank election ballot. Six days later, authorities returned to find 28 bundles of advertisements in the same area. Barrett has worked for the United States Postal Service since 2016. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted. (AP)