Queens Local News - Queens Weekly News Reports NYC

Important Reports and Information, You'll Not Find Much of on Billionaire TV News

May 7, 2026 v. Opened 9.27.25 / Billionaire Press NYC Billionaire TV News / NYC Politics / New York City News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

'TV News' is a misnomer, as these days they do little reporting about the important news stories of the day. Instead they allow themselves to be led around by top government officials, who use them to distract their viewing audiences from what's really going on in government, by spinning tales of nonsense - like the United Nations escalator conspiracy, the Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Ohio, and the like.

Billionaire controlled Network TV News no longer appears to be generally staffed by competent, dedicated, truth-seeking newspeople, but instead by teleprompter reading actors and models. TV News whittles away their audiences' precious time by showing them what seem the same repetitive police crime videos and social media accident videos. Billionaire Network TV News is also guilty of broadcasting long-winded weather reports [do they really think people need to spend ten minutes to find out what the temperature, wind, humidity and precipitation will be tomorrow?]. They sprinkle the crime, accident and weather reporting with cleverly disguised advertorials for their corral of signed celebrities, their TV syndicated or related shows, and their licensed music and movies, which they present as the news.

So, in the interest of community service, we've decided to provide our audience with short reports, with links to sources we find reliable, of the important stories we think are not well covered, or not properly covered by billionaire TV News - if covered at all. We hope you'll appreciate our efforts to inform you. And if you do, please spread the word, so that your friends and family will start migrating their news consumption from billionaire TV News to the web. It's worth noting that the six TV Network News organizations are controlled by billionaires, family and their friends; and they're using TV News and sometimes their other shows, to manipulate voters' perceptions,

This is not your parents or grandparents TV News, which ended sometime around Walter Cronkite's retirement in the early 1980's when TV News reliably informed Americans about the real news stories of the day. At that time TV News was reporting stories that were were important to know and understand as participants in our democracy, in order to stay informed of issues so that we the people, and the representatives we selected, would collectively and communally address them.

We've started this news section in late September / early October 2025 and had been updating weekly until about mid November 2025, when we hit some capacity road blocks. It's mid April 2026, and we're embarking on this effort again, hoping that the remedies we put in place over the winter, will enable us to continue, uninterrupted, going forward.

This begins the local news feed _ 5.7.26

• CLICK here to read the rest of our November _ Queens News Local Reports NYC.

Queens News - Queens Local News _ Weekly Reports

May 7, 2026 / Billionaire Press NYC Billionaire TV News / NYC Politics / New York City News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

*** What Follows was posted Week Ending 4.17.26 & updated 5.7.26 - we're working up to a more robust news offfering. Please stay tuned.

Is former NYC Mayor, Crypto King Eric Adams, Plotting to Flee his Alleged Crimes by Fleeing the U.S.?

Coming Soon.

Trump's Flim Flam Man Tax Breaks - Parade Candy in Exchange for a 2nd Mortgage on American's Homes / Futures via $3.5 TRILLION more in Federal Government Debt

Coming before the Midterms.

Mayor Mamdani's First 100 days - April 13, 2026

* Here's Lookin' at You, Kid

Mamdani Talks about the First 100 Days & the Next 1360 to Come

April 13, 2026 / Queens Neighborhood News & History NYC / Queens News NYC / Queens Politics Government & Media NYC / News Analysis & Opinion / Queens Buzz NYC.

Late Sunday afternoon I headed over to the Knockdown Center, located off Flushing Avenue in Maspeth. Maspeth is a neighborhood located on the Brooklyn / Queens border, and a bit of an outpost in a transportation desert, where some of NYC's manufacturing, warehouses and distribution centers are located.

I was on my way to Mayor Mamdani's Press Conference / public speech, where he planned to talk about his first 100 days in office as the Mayor of NYC.

In the photo at right, stand NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and surprise honorary guest, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, at the press event held by the Mayor's Office on Sunday, April 12, 2026 in Maspeth, NYC.

Truly Great Leaders are Humble, Respectful, Determined & Learn-ed

Mamdani is a Muslim American and Sanders is a Jewish American. And one of the things that I find most interesting, is that these two - instead of fighting each other - they have teamed up, in an effort to try to solve some of the real significant problems facing New York City and America. This is the approach America has taken in the past, and hopefully will return to taking in the future.

Happily, but also sadly, both men are exceptions - to the kind of weak, weak-minded, and apparently corrupt leadership, that we currently have in the federal government, and that up until a bit more than three months ago, we also had in NYC City Hall.

Thankfully, Mamdani and Sanders are not exceptions to the kind of high quality leadership America has had in the past. We've been fortunate to have had intelligent, selfless leadership, but that didn't happen on its own. In the past American voters were diligent and wise enough to choose good leaders, because they invested the time in making the right choices, and also made the right choices in selecting the information sources they relied upon to obtain their voting information. The making of intelligent decisions by the American electorate, gradually slipped away over the past 60 years, as TV increasingly became the dominant source of Americans' news, and thus also their voting information. It's been a long slippery slope, with nasty fiscal and other consquences, that has brought us to the state of the City and Union today.

Prior to the arrival of TV News, American voters read the newspapers, run by lots of different people, espousing many different points of view, which the electorate discussed amongst themselves, prior to voting. Thus Americans, back in the day, elected and were led by, wise and caring leaders, representing an an increasingly diverse population, which is what had made America a great nation. Perhaps we're on the cusp of a resurgence of that sort of informed electorate decision making, as voters migrate their news consumption from billionaire TV news to the numerous, varied information sources on the web. Currently just five to six billionaires control the corporations broadcasting TV news.

Later this week I'm going to take you into the Mayor's 100 Day Press Conference, and give you a closer look at things, beyond the shallow billionaire TV News reports and / or the dishonest headlines you may have already seen, if you read billionaire R. Murdoch's NY Post. The NY Post is easily one of the most dishonest newspapers in both NYC & the USA*, as Rupert Murdoch uses it to manipulate voters' perceptions, so that they vote for his favored candidates [like Trump], who will give Murdoch and other billionaires huge tax breaks, funded by debt dumped on your children, grandchildren, and future generations, while simultaneously cutting government services, like education and healthcare, to boot. This is not just thoroughly un-American, it's morally and ethically reprehensible.

Stay tuned, and in the meantime have a nice week.

* This assessment is based on my observations of the NY Post from 2016 - 2026.

Special Election Begins April 18, 2026 in District 3 in Manhattan

Special Election Underway in NYC City Council District 3

April 18 & 19, 2026 / Manhattan Neighborhoods & History NYC / Manhattan Politics & Government / Manhattan News NYC / Manhattan Buzz NYC / News Analysis & Opinion.

On Saturday morning, April 18, 2026, I headed over to Chelsea to attend an electioneering event hosted by one of the special election NYC council candidates for District 3.  Her name is Layla Law-Gisiko.

In the photo above or at right, Layla Law-Gisiko, candidate for NYC Council District 3, is shown speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally in Chelsea.  Early voting has already started and ends Sunday, and the special election day is Tuesday, April 28, 2026. If you found this informative, please share. If you live in NYC council District 3 - here's a link to find your poll place / obtain NYC voting information.

How I Met and Got to Know Layla Law-Gisiko

I had electronically met [meaning via emails and zoom conferences] Layla about three years ago, while covering Eric Adams' and the real estate development corporations' City of Yes legislation. We got to know each other a bit while the City of Yes made its way through the legislative process, rolling back decades of New Yorkers' urban activism, which had placed guide rails on developers and developments in NYC.

Layla and I exchanged information, and Manhattan Buzz posted some of her research and perspectives on things to help keep people informed. Manhattan Buzz also filed its own reports about some of Layla's informative conferences related to the City of Yes, as well as posting our own / additional reports about what was in the 1,000 plus page developer crafted legislation.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on the candidates running for the District 3 NYC Council Special Election. 

Mamdani Inauguration Day - January 1, 2026

Mamdani Mayoral Inauguration Day, as Seen from the Nosebleeds

The Bitter Cold didn't Nip the Warmth of Our New Mayor on his Big Day

January 1, 2026 / Manhattan Neighborhoods & History NYC / Queens News NYC / Queens Politics Government & Media NYC / Queens Buzz NYC.

I'll be the first to admit that the photos shown herein, aren't likely to win any awards. But I never take photographs or write reports to win awards. I take and write them to share with our readers what's going on in our fair city, as seen by one of their own - a fellow member of the plebeian citizenry of NYC. And I also report on things, with an eye toward posterity.

In the photo at right, Zohran Mamdani and Rama Duwaji are shown walking out of City Hall and onto the steps of the political public stage on January 1, 2026. Mamdani was inaugurated privately, earlier in the day, by NYS Attorney General Letitia James. And he would be inaugurated again, cermoniously, by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, about an hour after this photo was taken.

As I was freezing my buns off in the bitter cold outside of City Hall, waiting for Mamdani to appear and give his speech, my thoughts matched the chilly bitterness of the season. The biting 20 mph+ wind gusts & the well below freezing temperatures, didn't thaw out my anger, as some long-winded speakers seemed to ignore the fact that this was Zohran's day - not theirs. And that those of us in attendance, had been waiting outside on the open streets of south Manhattan, with the biting winds coming in from the harbor, for hours.

Eventually my camera succumbed to the cold, as my battery, having been fully charged earlier this morning died. Thankfully, it was after I got a couple of photos of our new Mayor and his wife. I interpreted the battery dying, as god's invisible message, giving me permission to go home, before I froze to death.

In the photo above or at right you can see a number of well known, former and current, NYC and NYS government officials. Starting from the first row in the lower left corner, wearing a green coat is Governor Kathy Hochul, to her right is NYS Attorney General Letitia James, fashionably dressed in a camel-colored coat wearing a beret, to her right is U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in a dark coat and to her right are U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and his wife. Above and just right of Sanders is former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is standing to the right of former Mayor Adams [his head is buried underneath a newsie cap] and his friend, Tracey Collins. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, who did not endorse Mamdani, is on Adams' left.

I shambled to the subway station at City Hall, passing through the garrison of NYPD officers who were also enduring the piercing winds, and numbing and bone chilling cold. They seemed better dressed than I for the weather, as I'd not attended such a frigid, hours-long, outdoor event, since the January 5, 1985 NFL Playoff game between the NY Giants and Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago.

Today, at City Hall in NYC, it was 27 degrees, with 14 - 16 mph wind gusts, and a wind chill temperature that ranged from 8 - 18 degrees. As I had no cap, and nothing to break the wind from coming through my jacket and jersey, my arms and legs started shivering continuously, before I decided to go home.

On the subway my fingers and toes began to thaw. At first there was some pain as the blood started circulating through them, bringing back the warmth they had recently lost. The same thawing began to come over me mentally, as I pondered my own life on the ride home, as I thought about our new Mayor.

Zohran Mamdani's Inauguration Speech January 1, 2026 in Fotos

One of the things that struck me is that as Zohran is an immigrant, who was born on the other side of the world in Uganda, in Africa; he doesn't just see himself in the context of us 8.5 million New Yorkers who live here, nor does he limit his view of us collectively to the 342 million Americans we are, but rather sees us as a plantery whole of 8.3 billion Earthlings, of which NYC represents 1/10th of 1% of the planet population.

What Mamdani had to say and some context for it follows.

• CLICK here to view the rest of our report on the Inauguration of Zohan Mamdani at City Hall in NYC on January 1, 2026 including photos.

* Did the NYS Gaming Commission Make a Mockery of the Law?

NYS Gaming Commission to Make Final Vote on NYC Casinos Today

December 15, 2025 / NYC Issues / NYC Business / Queens News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz.

With the exception of the headline and paragraph update below, the rest of this was posted before the NYS Gaming Commission vote noted above. This report represents an important back story about how TV news and NYC and NYS government officials failed their communities. It's also a report about what appears to be letting a predatory fox into the community chicken coop.

Update _ All 3 Downstate NYC Casinos Approved by NYS

Update 12.15.25 Post Vote. The NYS casino licenses approved include Ballys in the Bronx, an expansion of Resorts World Casino in Queens, and Steve SAC Capital Cohen's Metropolitan Park at Flushing Meadows Corona Park [see story below].

Resumption of original report.

Today at 1 pm, the NYS Gaming Commission is expected to vote on the final approvals of NYS casino licenses in New York City. Bally's in the Bronx and Metropolitan Park licenses will be voted upon. The final vote, according to a Spectrum News report today, is to address the following, " ... The commission is expected to ratify the board's recommendation Monday after one final review of each applicant's ethical and financial qualifications before issuing the licenses ...".

In the photo above or at right you can see community members trying to make their voices heard in the Corona neighborhood in Queens. The protesters oppose the Metropolitan Park Casino planned which will, in essence takeover some of the parkland in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. But you won't hear about this on the corporate billionaire TV News Networks, because they appear to be protecting the interests of one of their own, by not reporting this to the community.

Nowhere in Spectrum New reports did I find any discussion of Steve Cohen's SAC Capital being involved in the largest insider trading scandal in modern history involving a hedge fund. Steve Cohen named the firm he founded, SAC Capital, after himself - Steve A. Cohen. The firm was fined $1.8 BILLION. Cohen himself was not found guilty in the courts, but journalists covering the story believed that he had fostered a 'culture of corruption'. Based on how the NY Mets ball club has conducted itself since Cohen took over - that description may also apply to them.

Apparently Ethics Don't Seem to Matter Anymore - Just $$$

So, will the NYS Gaming Commission, make a mockery of the importance of ethical considerations, in the disposition of gaming licenses, by awarding Steve Cohen a license? Given how corrupt our municipal [Adams] and state governments [Cuomo √ | Hochul ?] appear to have functioned recently, I'll bet they don't give a damn. But we'll find out later today.

Here are a few related links. The third link will take you to a report by NY Magazine goes to the heart of the possible motivating forces behind the actions of campaign funded government officials, the fourth link is a very short video discussing how Steve Cohen appeared to dodge conviction in the courts, and the fifth link is to an earlier report on the back story we did on Steve SAC Capital Cohen's 'Black Edge'.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on NYS Gaming Commission seems to Ignore Ethics Section of the Law in Approving Steve SAC Capital Cohen's Metropolitan Park Casino in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens NYC.

How did Steve Cohen's Casino License Bid Get this Far?

Did Billionaire Network TV News, Ignore Cohen's SAC Capital Insider Trading History, in Order to Enable the Fellow Billionaire to Keep Gaming Us & the System?

December 1, 2025 / NYC Business / NYC Politics & Government / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

SAC [Steve A. Cohen] Capital

Pleads Guilty to the Largest Insider Trading Scandal in Modern History

The short story on Steve Cohen is that in 1992 he founded a company that operated a number of hedge funds. He was so proud of it, that he put his name on it - SAC Capital - which is short for Steve A. Cohen Capital. Fast forward less than 20 years to 2010 and the SEC is investigating SAC Capital associates for insider trading. Fast forward another three years and SAC Capital has paid $1.8 billion and has pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges. It's one of the biggest insider trading scandals in modern history and the largest involving a hedge fund.

For details on the Steven A. Cohen Capital Insider Trading case see -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.A.C._Capital_Advisors

Did Cohen Foster a Culture of Corruption at SAC?

Cohen himself never personally pleaded guilty, in part because it's difficult to prove scienter - which is a legal term for intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. But that said, the Steve A. Cohen Capital firm, was founded by and run by Cohen for 20 years. And one of Cohen's high school chums, Michael Steinberg, became one of SAC's most senior portfolio managers. Steinberg was cited by one of his analysts, Horvath, as essentially telling Horvath to seek out non-public information, that they could trade on, which in essence is insider trading.

And while the Steven A. Cohen Capital firm says they take compliance with regulations seriously, a report by American University Business Law Review notes that SAC refused to give them even one example of its refusal to hire someone because of compliance concerns. On the other hand, the Steven A. Cohen Capital firm did hire people, such as Richard S. Lee, who was known to be a risk, as he had just been fired by a Chicago firm for altering his holdings in their accounting system on his first day on the job. Even SAC Capital Legal had reportedly advised against hiring him. Lee eventually ended up as one of the firm's employees who was convicted.

For further details on Cohen's alleged malfeasance use the following links.

https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1071&context=aublr

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hedge-fund-manager-steven-cohen-settles-with-commodities-agency

• CLICK here for the rest of the story, including Cohen's management of the NY Mets - How did Steve Cohen of SAC Capital get Awarded a License for Metropolitan Park Casino Queens?

Stay Tuned. More & More Expansive Updates coming soon.

SHORTS / NWS / POLS

Federal Leadership in Washington Continues to Fail the American Public

November 2, 2025 / NYC Politics / New York City News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

House Republican Speaker Johnson closes Congress' doors so he doesn't have to swear in the new Congresswoman from Arizona, and deal with a majority bipartisan vote to open the Epstein files to the public.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Thune keeps submitting the same bill for a vote over and over and over again [13x] getting the same result. That is the definition of insanity.

Trump flies overseas where both America's friends and foes appear to humor / deal with him like a child.

About the only thing the Republican leadership doesn't seem to be doing, is trying to find a working compromise, with the Democrats, to end the government shutdown.

TV News won't tell you this, because they don't know how to contextualize the news. But Republicans control all three branches of government and the courts. So, how some 40% of Americans can blame the Democrats for the shutdown is beyond me - except to say that they must be pretty damned ignorant not to know that. And that they must be relying on news sources operated by Murdoch or other dishonest billionaires [Elon Musk?] who are hoodwinking them.

This ends the local news feed _ 11.2.25

• CLICK here to read the rest of our November _ Queens News Updates 2025.

SNAP BENEFITS - UPDATE COMING AS EVENTS UNFOLD

Use These Links to See News in All Five Boroughs NYC

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Use These Links to See News in NYC in Prior Months

• CLICK here to read the rest of our November _ Queens News Updates 2025.