Mayor DeBlasio said NYC would start implementing checkpoints across the five boroughs to help enforce Gov. Cuomo’s quarantine order for travelers from viral hotspots, citing the ongoing national COVID threat. The measure announced Wednesday is the first significant effort by NYC specifically to help enforce the 14-day quarantine for travelers from 34 states and Puerto Rico. In revealing it, de Blasio said the state was “absolutely right” to impose the travel restriction in the first place. Cuomo announced it in late June. STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. (AP)

Facebook has agreed to lease the former main United States Postal Service in New York City. The company rented all of the office space in the James A. Farley Building in Midtown Manhattan which is 107-year-old and has 730,000 square feet, The New York Times reported Monday. Facebook now has 2.2 million square feet of office space in the city, all of which is located on Manhattan’s West Side between Pennsylvania Ave and the Hudson River. Apple, Amazon and Google all lease space in the same area. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement that this investment “ fortifies New York as an international center of innovation.” Facebook’s office space at Farley and Hudson Yards could allow the company to move another 8,500 workers to the city.

The coronavirus pandemic’s far-reaching effects on New Jersey’s finances have begun taking a toll on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which oversees both roadways, posted the latest financial data for the first half of the year recently, painting a bleak picture: Traffic on the Turnpike was down 30% through June, with revenues down 27%; for the Parkway, toll transactions fell 26%, and revenue was down about 27%. “Traffic and toll revenue decreased entirely due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authority’s financial statement said. Despite the downturn, the authority and transportation experts sounded an optimistic note about the remainder of the year.

Kanye West withdrew his petition to appear as a presidential candidate on New Jersey’s ballot, according to an email chain between a judge and what appears to be the rapper’s campaign email address. In email correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, an unidentified person writing from a Kanye 2020 address tells Administrative Law Judge Gail Cookson that West is dropping his effort to appear on New Jersey’s ballot. “At this time, Kanye 2020 has no further option than to regrettably withdraw from New Jersey and cease further efforts to place Mr. West’s name on the New Jersey ballot,” the Kanye 2020 email said late Monday. Cookson replied Tuesday, accepting the withdrawal.

A federal judge sided with the challenger in a tight New York City Democratic congressional primary and ruled that at least 1,000 disputed ballots should be counted. The ruling late Monday by Judge Analisa Torres comes six weeks after the June 23 primary for the seat long held by Rep. Carolyn Maloney. It will likely not affect the outcome, since Maloney is leading her closest challenger, Suraj Patel, by some 3,700 votes. But it highlights problems with a race that President Donald Trump suggested Monday should be scrapped and done over again. “They are six weeks into it now and they have no clue what’s going on, and I think I can say right here and now, you have to rerun that race because it’s a mess,” Trump said at a White House briefing.

Yeshiva Kayitz Kingston (YKK) in Pennsylvania suffered some serious flooding due to Tropical Storm Isaias. Incredible footage shows multiple feet of water flooding the campgrounds. The camp owners tell YWN that everyone is Boruch Hashem in a safe location and not in any danger whatsoever. The camp is in Pennsylvania this year. (Normally in Kingston NY). A notice from the camp was sent to the parents which read: Dear Parents,  As you may have heard, camp experienced some flooding today to the lower level sports fields.  B”H the storm has passed and all campers and staff are safe. Camp is continuing on schedule as usual.  Thank you STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status.

Kelyn Yanez used to clean homes during the day and wait tables at night in the Houston area before the coronavirus. But the mother of three lost both jobs in March because of the pandemic and now is facing eviction. The Honduran immigrant got help from a local church to pay part of July’s rent but was still hundreds of dollars short and is now awaiting a three-day notice to vacate the apartment where she lives with her children. She has no idea how she will meet her August rent. “Right now, I have nothing,” said Yanez, who briefly got her bar job back when the establishment reopened, but lost it again when she and her 4-year-old daughter contracted the virus in June and had to quarantine. The apartment owners “don’t care if you’re sick, if you’re not well. Nobody cares here.

Heavy rains were falling Tuesday across New Jersey as Tropical Storm Isaias roared to the north, leaving behind power outages and reports of tornadoes. A state of emergency remained in effect and Gov. Phil Murphy said during a briefing the western part of the state would likely get the most rain while the strongest winds would hit the shore. A trained spotter saw an apparent tornado in the Cape May County community of Strathmere, the National Weather Service Said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or damage, although some trees were reportedly knocked down. One video showed trees down from the tornado on the garden State Parkway near Exit 23. The state’s utilities were reporting 28,905 homes and businesses were without electricity.

NYC health commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot resigned on Tuesday in protest over her “deep disappointment” with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and effort to keep it under control. Part of her resignation letter reads: “I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been,” She added, “Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work.

A person was just killed by a falling tree in Queens. Sources tell YWN that Queens Hatzolah responded to Smedley Street and 84th Avenue at 1:00PM for reports of a tree down on a vehicle. Arriving Paramedics found the person pinned inside the vehicle, and in traumatic arrest. Tragically, the person was pronounced dead on the scene. There were numerous other victims reportedly injured. The scene was not safe, and Hatzolah was reporting “trees falling everywhere”. Listen to the Hatzolah radio recording below: STAY WITH YWN WHATSAPP FOR BREAKING UPDATES IN LIVE TIME!  YWN WHATSAPP STATUS UPDATES: CLICK HERE to join the YWN WhatsApp Status. YWN WHATSAPP GROUPS: CLICK HERE to be dded to an official YWN WhatsApp Group. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)