In an effort to speed up what has been a sluggish rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, New York’s governor threatened Monday to fine hospitals up to $100,000 if they don’t finish their first round of inoculations by the end of the week. Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the threat hours before announcing the discovery of the state’s first known case a new, more contagious variant of the virus. A man in his 60s who works at a jewelry store in Saratoga Springs tested positive for the variant, the governor said. The man has COVID-19 symptoms but is “on the mend,” Cuomo said. The discovery seemed to underscore the need for more urgency in a vaccination campaign that has, so far, moved at a snail’s pace.

The conviction of a Bangladeshi immigrant who set off a pipe bomb attached to his chest in New York City’s busiest subway station was properly returned by a Manhattan jury, a judge said in a decision released Monday. The December 2017 attack by Akayed Ullah, 30, of Brooklyn, fizzled when the bomb barely exploded, burning Ullah but causing mostly minor injuries to others. Judge Richard Sullivan rejected several challenges by Ullah to his November 2018 conviction for the attack in subway tunnels beneath Times Square and the Port Authority bus terminal. Those challenges included a claim that he did not provide support to the Islamic State group. Sullivan said in a decision dated Dec.

A New York City mall was evacuated Monday morning after a hoax device made to look like an explosive was found in a vehicle parked on a ramp in a parking garage, police said. John Miller, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, said police received a 911 call from the Queens Place Mall around 7:30 a.m. describing a vehicle with propane tanks and protruding wires. Police tweeted a photo showing an aerosol-type can, a roll of duct tape, some wires and other items recovered from the vehicle, a black Tesla with Nevada license plate. “The bomb squad has determined that this is a hoax device, which means in their judgment it was set up to appear to be a device,” Miller said. A police spokesperson, Sgt.

A live-in nanny in Flatbush was arrested for shaking a Jewish 3-month-old baby and leaving him with bleeding in his brain, officials said. According to a report from the New York Post, the infants’ parents told investigators that their son threw up all of his formula at their home on East 9th Street and Avenue P after he was given a bottle on Dec 29. The next day, the baby was still sick and his parents brought him to the doctor, believing it was a stomach virus. The infant’s condition did not improve by New Year’s Day, and the doctor advised the parents to have the child checked in the hospital.

Tragedy unfolded in Bensonhurst this morning, when a young child was R”L struck and killed as he arrived to Yeshiva. Sources tell YWN that two children were struck by the vehicle as they were being dropped off at Yeshiva K’Tana of Bensonhurst on 67 Street. Boro Park Hatzolah rushed to the scene, where they found one child in grave condition. Paramedics did all they could to save his life, but were unfortunately unsuccessful. Misaskim was on the scene and dealing with Kavod Hames. The second child was taken to Maimonides Hospital in stable condition. Sources tell YWN that the vehicle had initially left the scene, although it appears he may not have known he had struck the child. He was contacted and returned to the scene. The NYPD is on the scene conducting an investigation.

Former U.S. Rep. Max Rose said Sunday he won’t run for mayor of New York City after all. In a statement, Rose said that he has decided not to enter the race to succeed fellow Democrat Bill de Blasio, who is term limited. Rose ran campaign ads last fall charging de Blasio with being anti-police. Rose added that “across the five boroughs, no one believes that City Hall is on the side of the working class” and said the next mayor “must build a social contract that leaves no one behind.” Rose, a Democrat and Army combat veteran, defeated incumbent Republican Dan Donovan in 2018 to represent a congressional district that includes all of Staten Island and a slice of Brooklyn. He served one term in Congress but lost to state Assembly member Republican Nicole Malliotakis in November.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that he won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine until it’s available for Black, Hispanic and poor communities in his group in New York state. During pre-recorded remarks at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the governor said that “one of our pressing challenges is to make sure that the vaccine is made available fairly.” “I am committed to social and racial justice in the distribution of this vaccine,” Cuomo said. “Race or income will not determine who lives and who dies. And I mean it. And that’s why I say to you today that I want to take the vaccine. I move around a lot and come into contact with many people and I would feel much safer if I took the vaccine.

Officials at the Nassau County jail on Long Island seized drugs or drug paraphernalia from inmates 237 times over a period of less than four years, a Newsday analysis of state records found. The drugs confiscated from inmates at the 1,540-bed jail between 2016 and the summer or 2019 included marijuana, prescription pills, heroin, cocaine and other banned substances. Newsday obtained the reports on contraband seizures from the New York State Commission of Correction through a Freedom of Information Law request. Steve Martin, a lawyer who is a court-appointed monitor of New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, said the data on drug seizures are fairly typical for a correctional facility of the Nassau jail’s size and location.

New York State officials say they have finished work on a 750-mile trail for cyclists, hikers and runners that spans the state. The Empire State Trail is expected to attract 8.6 million residents and tourists a year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this week. The trail, most of which is off road, runs north from New York City through the Hudson and Champlain Valleys to Canada, and from Albany west to Buffalo along the Erie Canal. The project included the creation of more than 180 miles of new off-road trail and also connected 400 miles of previous trails. “There’s no trail like it in the nation,” Cuomo said in a news release.

Attorney General Letitia James is recusing herself from a state investigation into a Brooklyn-based health care network that officials say may have fraudulently obtained COVID vaccines The case was handed to James by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called it possible fraud. Parcare Community Health Network allegedly misrepresented itself on vaccine applications in order to receive 2,300 doses of Moderna’s vaccine, state officials said. James’ office said she is recusing herself from the investigation “to avoid even an appearance of conflict,” according to a statement obtained by the New York Post. James and Parcare CEO Gary Schlesinger have a well-documented friendship going back to James’ days as a City Council member in central Brooklyn.