New York Amsterdam News October 2-8, 2025 by AmsterdamNews

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Adams drops out of race and remaining candidates immediately begin taking jabs

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

It took just a couple of days after Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the 2025 campaign before the remaining candidates began targeting each other. While the race

may have become more focused, it is no less scurrilous.

“Zohran Mamdani is a hypocrite who will do anything and say anything in a cynical attempt to fool voters,” former Gov. Andrew Cuomo Spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement to the press. “Despite his prom-

ise, he won’t apologize for calling the NYPD racist for years, he won’t ever give a clear answer about his past campaign pledge to decriminalize prostitution and he’s not being straight on how he funds his campaign. It’s a pattern, but fortunately New Yorkers are smart and they can smell a phoney a mile away.”

Not one to skip a counterpunch, Queens assemblymember Zohran Mamdani released his response on Tuesday:

“We know that what billionaires and Csuite executives are once again trying to buy their way out of is a city that working people can actually afford — a city where the concerns of those people will be at the forefront and at the heart of our politics. New York City deserves better than yet another mayor bought by billionaires, better than someone who would rather spend time in a private club than out here with the public,” said Mamdani, who also released his latest campaign ad.

Adams, 65, the second Black man to hold the position in the city’s history, officially quit after a turbulent single term and a lackluster performance against the other candidates. He was running for re-election as an independent candidate against Democratic nominee Mamdani, and fellow independent candidate Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

NJ gubernatorial forum focuses on Black concerns, but candidates had different approaches

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

New Jersey’s two leading gubernatorial candidates sparred at a recent forum where they came to discuss topics important to the Black community, but while one seemed to have an understanding of the community, the other seemed tone-deaf, according to one attendee.

More than 100 people registered to attend the inaugural Salvation and Social Justice (SandSJ) gubernatorial forum on September 18, which featured New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former Assemblymember Jack Ciattarelli. According to a recent Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey, the two candidates are in a close race. SandSJ’s event brought the candidates before the state’s Black religious leaders to discuss issues specific to the community.

Led by Pastor Weldon McWilliams IV, Ph.D., the forum was SandSJ’s first gubernatorial event specifically designed to cater to Black clergy. An estimated 70% to 80% of attendees were clergy members. Organizers chose not to record the event, saying they wanted to encourage total honesty from the candidates. However, in the weeks MAIL

Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at D9 Harlem Votes coalition’s 2025 NYC Mayoral Candidates Forum in May 2025; former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on campaign trail.

(L-R: Harry Watson photo; Cuomo campaign photo) SandSJ’s

Mayoral hopefuls tackle issues facing Black women in Harlem showdown

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News staff writer

In New York City mayoral races, Black women are a demographic that rarely gets much specific focus, but that changed for at least a night during a forum in Harlem on September 29 at the Apollo Stages at the Victoria Theater.

The three remaining major candidates in the race chatted with NY1’s Cheryl Wills about how their policy platforms pertain to Black women. Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo took turns sitting down one by one in Harlem during the event, held by the Links, Incorporated, a long-respected organization whose membership consists of influential Black women.

All three maintained they would stand up to President Donald Trump and discussed affordability in 20-minute intervals. Mayor Eric Adams was scheduled to appear, but ended his re-election campaign a day before the event.

Sliwa went first, highlighting his relationship with the city while maintaining he would not bow out of the election. He reflected on engaging with Black New Yorkers through his role in founding the Guardian Angels and living in Brownsville, as well as through his first of many wives when he married Koren Drayton, a Black woman from the Virgin Islands he once likened to Black Panther Angela Davis in appearance. As the Republi-

can candidate, Sliwa fielded questions about his party’s pressure on the city, pointing to how Trump “dissed” him last month over his well-documented love of cats.

“Let the people vote on November 4 who they choose for mayor,” said Sliwa. “No billionaires, no politicians are going to choose the mayor. You the people are going to choose the mayor. And if I happen to lose, I stay, I improve. I’m not going to flee to Florida like Cuomo.”

Wills pushed back against Sliwa’s assumption of characterizing Black women’s issues as solely working-class concerns to be solved by vocational training. She pointed to mass layoffs of Black women in the professional spaces. “I wouldn’t declare myself to be omnipotent and knowledgeable of all issues that affect Black women,” said Sliwa in his closing statement, “but I certainly have ears wide open because of my experiences and there will always be a place to have conversation with me.”

Mamdani commended Adams for filling his administration with Black women despite his criticism of the current mayor. The Democratic candidate and de facto frontrunner enjoyed the biggest crowd support and promised to protect diversity in New York City, with plans to implement Black studies better in public schools and pushing for increasing competition for contract bids among minority- and women-owned enterprises (M/WBES).

“Whether they’re talking about African American history or they’re talking about us

turning our back on New Yorkers who are our neighbors, we are going to make it very clear this is unacceptable,” said Mamdani, “and we are not actually going to take their violation of the law as something that is legal.”

The assemblymember spent his closing statements thanking Black women for their support and pointed to the achievements of prominent Black women allies like Attorney General Letitia James, Rep. Yvette Clark of Brooklyn, and Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies CEO Jennifer Jones Austin. “These are so many of the women

See MAYORAL on page 25

Sunset Park activists respond to BATWorks hub with banner protest

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

A grassroots organization is at odds with a new development in Sunset Park, and the issue has even come to what’s in the air above it.

The advocacy group UPROSE wanted to fly a banner in protest over the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)’s unveiling of Brooklyn Army Terminal’s new BATWorks Climate Innovation Hub. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight restrictions delayed their scheduled flyover on September 25 because President Trump was in the area, but the flyover did take off on September 27. It gave UPROSE a chance to broadcast its concerns with the $100 million development’s plans for the community.

Tethered to the tail of a small plane circling above Sunset Park’s industrial area, their banner carried the message “DON’T SELL OUT SUNSET PARK — GO #GRID @ BAT.”

The banner expressed UPROSE’s frustration with how BATWorks appeared to have been developed without real community input on potential climate solutions, despite the project’s impact on local residents.

“The threat of what the New York City Economic Development Corporation just did to Red Hook and wants to do now to

Sunset Park is to bring corporations to use public spaces that should be committed and dedicated to building for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience,”

Elizabeth Yeampierre, UPROSE executive director, told the AmNews. “They should be using the industrial waterfront to build for our climate future and to build and create green jobs for our community.

“Instead, they are bringing in these little incubators that are not run or owned by our community, but create an economic resource for the privileged who will come and take our spaces,” Yeampierre continued. “You saw that in the Brooklyn Navy Yard: You go and look at those incubators, very few are owned and run by Black and Brown people, and they want to do that here, and they’re moving quickly. They moved quickly because they wanted to get in under the election, which is what Andrew Kimball at EDC is trying to do.”

Kimball, NYCEDC’s president & CEO, has been tasked with finding ways to repurpose the city’s old industrial areas and turn them into spaces for modern green tech jobs. He is widely lauded for transforming Downtown Brooklyn’s Navy Yard and Sunset Park’s Industry City. Yeampierre believes that Kimball’s vision for BATWorks might follow a similar path: “So they call it innovation, and … for us, their definition of innovation is our definition

of displacement.”

In 2019, UPROSE released a draft of a Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) plan for Sunset Park, a work it had commissioned from the Collective for Community Culture and Environment. “There is a plan,” Yeampierre noted. “It’s really important for you to know that there is an operational plan to decarbonize Sunset Park and

manufacturing to the industrial waterfront. It’s not like we’re saying no to change; we’re saying there is this plan that took 10 years for the community to develop [that] would transform our industrial waterfront into a green reindustrialization.

“That green reindustrialization would turn the largest significant maritime area in New

See SUNSET PARK on page 25

bring green

NY1’s Cherly Wills (left) sits down with Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (right) at Victoria Theater. (Tandy Lau photo)

Plane with banner warning that BATWorks will sell out the community flies over Sunset Park during Climate Week on September 27, 2025. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Climate Justice Alliance)

Is statehood the answer to protect D.C. from MAGA? Mayor says yes

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

For more than 200 years, the District of Columbia has been designated as a federal district and not a state, but in light of recent events, Black Washington, D.C., elected officials are pushing even harder for statehood as a method of protecting their community’s sovereignty from federal overreach by the White House.

President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to take control of D.C.’s police force in August, which is allowed in the U.S. Constitution for up to 30 days, due to the city’s designation.

“One byproduct of when we have some national attention is our fellow Americans realize that we’re not just like them,” said Washington’s Mayor Muriel Bowser at the opening of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference last week.

“Even though we’re full-blooded Americans, even though we pay taxes, even though we go to war, and even though we’re right here, a stone’s throw from the capital, our congresswoman doesn’t have a vote, and we have no representation in this city. We are the definition of being taxed without being represented.”

Never about ‘public safety’

Under the guise of lowering crime and homelessness in a Black-led city, troops have mostly been patrolling train stations and tourist-heavy areas of the capital. They made more than 2,100 arrests in the first few weeks, and immigration arrests by masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents spiked, according to the Associated Press. Bowser has given some credit to the federal deployment for a drop in crime, including an 87% decline in carjackings, said the AP.

However, that has not slowed her advocacy for statehood on behalf of D.C. At the conference, she said that coming into 2025, the city was the “fastest-growing jurisdiction in the nation,” student enrollment and achievement was up, and violent crime was already down by 35%.

“This is a place that is beautiful, clean, and safe; where people want to live and raise their children. That is the real D.C.,” said Bowser. “[But] we’re not represented, we are also not fully autonomous, because the president of the United States, by law, by our own home rule charter, can take us over for almost no reason.”

History

Article I, Section 8, Clause 17of the U.S. Constitution — known as the “District Clause” — dictates that the “Seat of the Government” be on federal land under

Congress, and not controlled by any single state. Maryland and Virginia ceded land to create the District in 1790. Technically, the language of the Constitution states that the seat size should “not exceed ten miles square.” In 1846, Congress redefined D.C.’s borders, returning part of it to Virginia (now Arlington and Alexandria counties).

The DC Home Rule Act was passed in 1973 to give residents of D.C. some semblance of local governance. This means D.C. is similar to other states, but its government can’t make and enforce laws, create its own agencies, have autonomy over its court and prison system, or operate without interference from the federal level. D.C. also has no voting power in either Congress or the U.S. Senate. Regardless, residents still have to pay federal income taxes, serve in the military, and participate on juries, etc.

The city has had an elected mayor since 1974 — Walter E. Washington was the first — and also elects its City Council.

In 2016, Bowser and the New Columbia Statehood Commission completed a referendum that imagined the “State of Washington, D.C.” with its own state constitution and new borderlines. The proposed state map had the National Capital Service Area, a two-mile stretch for federal buildings, that would be the “seat” of the federal gov-

ernment as defined in the Constitution. This would include institutions like the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and National Mall.

The closest D.C. has gotten to statehood so far was in 2020, when the House of Representatives introduced the Washington, DC Admission Act (H.R.51).

Creating a police state

For locals, D.C.’s home rule is one of the most significant pieces of legislation that is under attack from the Trump administration with the introduction of the District of Columbia Home Rule Improvement Act this September.

“They’re passing bills to take away our Attorney General. They’re threatening to take away our home rule, which [allows] us to elect our own leadership — our mayor, our council, and beyond — so we need you guys to contact your senators, contact your congressmembers, make D.C the 51st state or at the very least, allow us to have local governance, because we deserve to govern ourselves,” said Congressmember Dr. Adeoye I. Yakubu Owolewa at a panel at a CBC conference mixer. “We deserve to pass laws. We deserve to have a full budget without [people] in the way.”

Other bills that are affecting D.C.’s abili-

ty to self-govern include District of Columbia Electronic Transmittal of Legislation Act (H.R. 2693); Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act (H.R. 5103), which removes “graffiti” and restores certain monuments; and the DC Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safer Act (DC CRIMES or H.R. 4922). The D.C. Crimes Act, in particular, prohibits “progressive soft-on-crime sentencing policy,” lowers D.C.’s definition of a “youth” from under 25 years old to under 18, and removes the ability of judges to sentence youth offenders below the mandatory minimum.

Other far-right Republican proposed bills have been drafted but not yet introduced, like the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act, which requires pre-trial jail time for defendants charged with crimes of violence and for those with cash bail. More bills in the works also aim to change sentencing times for crimes, repeal laws that give youth offenders under 18 a second chance with an expunged conviction record, criminalize homelessness, remove officers and union reps from the police complaints board, take away the police union’s bargaining power, and change judicial courts and attorney general nominations.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (center) with Congressmember Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn (center right) at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) 54th Annual Legislative Conference with local electeds and community leaders at Sycamore & Oak cultural center on September 25. (Ariama C. Long photo)

Antoine Noble’s passion for basketball is giving kids a chance to say ‘We Got Next’

Black New Yorker

By JASON PONTEROTTO

Special to the AmNews

Growing up in Harlem, Antoine Noble says basketball was everything to him. He played through high school at the Frederick Douglass Academy and went on to receive a scholarship to play at Keuka College, which is about an hour southeast of Rochester, but a knee injury forced him to go into the business side of sports. As a basketball aficionado with a love of his community, he had an interest in youth development and giving back to kids.

After graduating from SUNY Delhi in 2012, he and his friends began organizing free tournaments for the kids in Harlem at Riverbank State Park. Providing an opportunity for kids to have a free and safe space to help them to stay away from trouble has been central to Noble’s work in his professional career and came out of a need he noticed in the community, compared to his upbringing.

“I wanted it to be available to beginners and people who have been playing, because most of the time, beginners shy away if the skill level was too high,” said Noble, 36.

In 2020, he and his three fellow board members developed We Got Next (WGX), a nonprofit providing youth in underserved areas of NYC a free and safe space to play sports and develop both life skills and academics. Noble serves as CEO. Although it was open to all kids ages 6–18, he said his team wanted to focus on the kids who never would have the opportunities to play otherwise.

“I wanted to really focus on those kids that never made teams and never had the opportunity to play organized sports, because there are so many kids that can make a basketball team,” Noble said. “I wanted to make sure that they still had somewhere to go as well, so that they didn’t just end up being in the streets or turned away.”

The program operates out of several schools and community centers, primarily serving students in the South Bronx and Harlem. Noble’s group also made sure the program would be completely free because basketball tournaments and other after-school programs often require parents to pay.

“For these five years that we’ve been in business, no kid has had to pay for anything, and that’s really unheard of when it comes to sports in New York these days, but we have kept everything free,” Noble said. Kids also receive lunch during the Saturday sessions hosted by the nonprofit.

The program focuses on three “M’s”: mindfulness, in which they take kids through meditation before a basketball session; movement through the sports helping them build teamwork and camaraderie; and matriculation, in which they focus on encouraging academic performance. Students can participate in clinics and also try out to join the official WGX

Boys and Girls teams.

In 2022, the She Got Next initiative came out of WGX. It allowed more young girls to become involved in the program. Beginning that year, girls’ teams formed for the first time.

“Our girl clinics for She Got Next were averaging about 20 to 30 girls on a nightly [basis] and we had girls coming all the way to the Bronx from Brooklyn to participate in this, because there weren’t too many opportunities out there for them to do these kinds of things,” Noble said.

“For us, just seeing some of those girls still come in the program and they’re in high school now, it’s a testament to them wanting a safe place to be and to continue playing, and even some of them that didn’t want to continue to play, they come and they help out,” he continued.

In 2021, WGX began expanding to other sports and activities, including flag

End of Year Tips to Purchase Your Dream Vehicle

As we near the holiday season, you may be looking to treat yourself to those set of wheels you’ve been eyeing, or perhaps it’s time to purchase your loved one their dream car. In today’s financial climate, managing your vehicle costs efficiently is key, as it could help you save money and limit potential headaches down the road. Here are some helpful tips to finally make that purchase for your (or a loved one’s) dream vehicle this holiday season:

1. Set your holiday budget, and stick to it. There are a variety of different expenses that come with getting a car – the purchase cost, insurance, maintenance and fuel being a few of them. Knowing how much you can afford, especially if you plan to pay for it over time, is key to avoiding a car bill that stretches your finances. Look for access to different budgeting tools and tips that can help you save for your purchase.

2. Look for the best holiday deals. Like many other items, vehicles have a price cycle; the end of the year tends to be when you can find a better deal, as dealers may need to meet quotas or clear out inventory. Generally, make sure you are considering multiple vehicles and shopping around at several dealerships to get the best price.

3. Test drive the vehicle to make sure it fits your needs. This is your time to see how the vehicle looks and feels, try out the interior systems and figure out if the vehicle fits your needs. Schedule test drive appointments to ensure the car you want is still available, ideally a few in the same day or week to keep your impressions fresh in your mind. It’s also helpful to simulate your daily driving conditions as much as possible, such as bringing any car seats or equipment you may have in your car daily. After your test drive, you can ask about the car’s warranty and fuel and maintenance requirements, as well as the possibility of getting an extended test drive or bringing the car to your own mechanic for a second opinion.

4. Determine whether you are financing or

leasing. There are benefits of both a lease and a loan. With a loan, there is no milage limit and you are free to customize and change the car as you see fit. After completing your finance payments, you own it. Leases typically have lower upfront costs than loan payments, and at the end of the term you can return, purchase or trade the vehicle in. But keep in mind that most leases have a mileage limit, so it might not be the best option if you travel often.

5. How to know if an electric vehicle is right for you. With so many major manufacturers building EVs, there are more options than ever before. However, cost, maintenance, range and charging logistics are all key factors to consider. For maintenance, EVs typically require less maintenance than traditional cars. EV batteries tend to be covered by 8-10 year warranties (outlasting the amount of time most people own their cars) but EV tires degrade faster due to the weight of the battery. And just as gas prices vary, so do electricity costs – based on your location, your driving style and the size of your battery.

The median range of an EV with a fully charged battery is roughly 250 miles, but that number depends on the make and model as well as other factors like weather, traffic conditions and driving style. And when it comes to charging infrastructure, some cities and states may have more charging stations than others. Make sure to plan your trip ahead of time and map your route.

Be sure to do your homework first before making that big purchase. There are many tools available that can help you plan for costs in addition to the vehicle loan or lease payments, such as sales taxes, registration fees, and insurance— which can vary depending on the car make, model and even the color. For instance, using a car payment calculator can help estimate your monthly car payment for different scenarios, by inputting the ballpark amount you’d like to finance along with some other basic info.

For more auto budgeting tools and tips, visit autofinance.chase.com.

For informational/educational purposes only: Views and strategies described in this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third party products, services, or other content.

Antoine Noble with students during an afterschool basketball clinic at Accion Academy in the South Bronx. (Courtesy Antione Noble)

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In-custody deaths: Risk remains high for vulnerable detainees in NYC’s jail system

Why public defenders are calling out loss of life and demanding NYPD custody reform

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News staff reporter

The death of Kalief Browder in 2023 infamously sparked sweeping criminal justice reforms to prevent low-level charges from ending in death sentences.

Accused of stealing a backpack but never convicted, the Bronx-born youth entered Rikers Island at 16 and spent three years of pre-trial detention facing hellish conditions, including solitary confinement and jail violence. Browder refused to plead guilty, but his family could not afford his bail. He took his life roughly a year after his release when a judge finally dropped his charges.

Despite rollbacks and Republican attacks, bail reform laws enacted in 2020 still largely prevent the city from detaining people arrested for and accused of low-level and nonviolent crimes on Rikers Island due to their bank account the way Browder was. Yet, New Yorkers continue dying in custody while facing minor charges — now before they see a judge. According to the NYPD, nine people died in police custody this year, which occurs after an arrest and before arraignment when a judge reads suspects their charges.

In August, Christopher Nieves, 46, and Musa Cetin, 29, each died in holding cells

while awaiting arraignment. Both men faced minor charges. Nieves was accused of shoplifting food from a Brooklyn Whole Foods store and died from a health condition; Cetin was reportedly brought in for missing registration issues with his pedicab after a previous violation.

“The thought of Christopher suffering while waiting to receive medical treatment for hours in a jail cell, before he passed away, breaks my heart,” said Candice Nieves, sister of Christopher Nieves in a statement. “No matter the misconceptions about my brother, his life mattered and he didn’t deserve to die! The system failed him! He was my baby brother and I loved him dearly. I wish I could have been there to wrap my arms around him during his last moments, so he could have felt he was loved and cared for. Instead, he died on the jail cell floor, ignored and alone.”

The heads of five public defense offices called on Mayor Eric Adams, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to address conditions in police lockups in a letter provided to the Amsterdam News this past week. Their demands follow nine deaths in NYPD custody this year. The letter was signed by Juval Scott, Bronx Defenders executive director; Tina Luongo, Legal Aid Society attorney-in-charge; Piyali Basak, Neighbor-

hood Defender Service managing director; Stan Germán, New York County Defender Services executive director; and Lisa Schreibersdorf, Brooklyn Defender Services executive director. It provided a 10-point plan for how the city could reduce fatalities of New Yorkers detained by police after arrests and before arraignments.

“As the city’s public defenders, we are horrified that people arrested are at risk of dying in our city precincts and the central booking spaces in our courthouses,” they wrote. “We voice our collective demand that New York City take concrete steps to address the crisis of deaths taking place in police custody, including when individuals are arrested and awaiting arraignment.”

Their first demands were for the administration to “recognize the crisis of in-custody deaths and end broken windows policing,” as well as ending custodial arrests for low-level offenses. Under Tisch, the NYPD began deploying quality-of-life teams to police against non-emergency local disturbances from loud dirt bikes to homeless encampments. Advocates tie the strategy to “broken windows policing” to tackle visible signs of disorder to prevent the spread of crime often, a disproven strategy employed under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

In fact, Legal Aid Society Director of Special Litigation Meghna Philip believes the

low-level arrests may violate the law. In 2020, statewide legislation went into effect, mandating police issue desk appearance tickets for most low-level charges like misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies. As a result, most people facing minor charges should be allowed to return to arraignments on their own without police bringing them into custody, although custodial arrests for outstanding warrants, like Cetin’s, remain lawful.

“They’re violating a mandate by the legislature that they should be issuing appearance tickets in almost every low-level [arrest],” said Philip. “They’re violating the constitutional rights of people — they’re arresting people, holding them in these dangerous conditions, holding them at courthouses, and it’s resulting in death.”

Other demands included staffing nonNYPD EMTs at courthouses, increasing oversight by allowing City Council members to inspect lock-ups, and initiating probes into whether officers are trained in identifying potential suicidal behaviors from people in custody, as well as an investigation from the NYC Department of Investigation’s Office of the Inspector General-NYPD (OIG-NYPD).

The public defense heads also asked to increase officer accountability when a person See IN-CUSTODY DEATHS on page 29

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams speaks during a rally calling for reform in police custody. (Tandy Lau photo)

Council approves reentry-based supportive housing project despite objections from Adams and local rep

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff Reporter

On Sept. 25, the New York City Council approved NYC Health + Hospitals’ Just Home proposal for a supportive housing complex on the Jacobi Medical Center campus in the Bronx’s Morris Park. The vote came after several setbacks, including the election of Republican Council Member Kristy Marmorato, who opposes the project, and the Adams administration’s withdrawal of support just weeks earlier.

“Expanding access to safe, stable, and affordable homes for New Yorkers, especially those with past involvement in the justice system and complex medical needs, is critical to public safety and confronting the housing crisis,” said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. “By approving Just Home on the campus of Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, the Council is once again demonstrating leadership on housing with action and fulfilling our strong commitment to evidencebased public safety solutions.”

Operated by nonprofit Fortune Society, the Just Home project offers 83 entirely affordable housing units including 58 studios for supportive housing dedicated to previously incarcerated individuals dealing with homelessness. Another 24 units are reserved for the NYC Housing Connect portal. All will be leased under a rent-stabilized rate.

The proposal stems from a model based on Castle Gardens, a recognizable West Harlem supportive housing building off Riverside Drive. The development offers 63 supportive housing units for formerly incarcerated individuals, 50 units for the broader West Harlem community, and one for the building’s superintendent. Built in 2002, Castle Gardens also offers a programming space for Manhattan Community Board 9 and operates as a polling center on election days while offering weekly food distribution and hosting back-to-school health fairs. Fortune Society President and CEO Stanley Richards hopes to bring such an approach to Morris Park.

“This model comes out of decades of ev-

idence that shows supportive housing reduces utilization of hospitalizations and provides stability for some of this country’s most vulnerable people,” said Richards in a phone interview. “What Just Home will focus on is a subset of the population who are homeless and have complex medical needs and cycle between emergency room and hospitalization stays and shelters. The shelters are not equipped to deal with the medical needs of the population that Just Home will serve.”

Proponents, including many City Council members, view supportive housing as a key solution to some of the city’s most pressing social challenges. The model provides chronically unhoused individuals with permanent, affordable housing in dedicated developments that also offer services such as medical care and addiction recovery.

To be clear, supportive housing does not exist specifically for formerly incarcerated people — in fact, prison and jail time often disqualifies otherwise eligible unhoused New Yorkers, prompting City Council to pass a law to count time spent behind bars toward minimum requirements. In fact, the opponents of Just Home largely oppose the specific intentions to house formerlyincarcerated individuals rather than the construction of supportive or affordable housing.

However, criminalization and housing remain inextricably linked. Returning citizens face higher rates of homelessness and unhoused people are more likely to be arrested. And housing is shown to significantly decrease recidivism.

Despite overwhelming City Council support, Just Home faced opposition from the project’s own backyard. Marmorato campaigned on opposing such development, upsetting incumbent Marjorie Velázquez in 2023, a little over a year after the project was initially proposed. The council’s vote departs from the traditional deference for the local rep on land use issues. Her office did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

While Marmorato’s opposition remained apparent, Richards believed the Adams

administration supported the project for years through Fortune Society’s communications with H+H and NYC Housing Preservation & Development, the city agency providing the supportive housing program loan. But on Sept. 24, a day before the council vote, Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro penned a letter to Speaker Adams against approving the project.

He expressed Mayor Adams’ opposition, which remains exclusive to the Just Home component of housing formerly incarcerated individuals due to Marmorato’s resistance and local backlash among Morris Park residents. The Deputy Mayor added that the administration would go forward with such a project to specifically house formerly incarcerated individuals at another location at Brooklyn’s Broadway Junction, pointing to local councilmember Sandy Nurse’s support for the project. After the vote, Mastro provided a statement lambasting the council’s decision.

“It took the Council nearly two years even to hold a hearing on this authorizing resolution, and now they want to rush it through when it relates to a deal that it knows will no longer happen,” said Mastro. “Moreover, as the most pro-housing administration in the city’s history, we have now presented to

the Council a plan that will have more local elected and community buy-in that creates three times the supportive and affordable housing, and twice the Just Home units, as originally contemplated at the Jacobi Hospital site that is opposed by the local Councilmember and overwhelmingly opposed by the community there.”

Richards hopes Fortune Society’s track record will speak for itself for those concerned about Just Home. The service provider dates back to 1967 and served more than 18,000 people last year. More than half of Fortune Society’s staff are formerly incarcerated, including Richards himself.

“Supportive housing in our communities doesn’t make our communities less safe,” he said. “They make them more safe when we provide stability, wrap around services [and] housing that recognizes the dignity of everyone’s humanity. We all benefit from that and so Just Home is going to provide that kind of stability for people who have far too long been isolated, demonized [and have] been characterized by the record they have.

“It’s time for us as a country, but particularly as a city, to not see the worst in any of us, but to see who we could be and strive to put together the resources and support necessary for people to live that life.”

Just Home mock up in Morris Park. (Courtesy of Fortune Society)

¡Presente, Assata, Presente!

By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews

The name Assata Shakur is enshrined in the Student Center at The City College of New York (CCNY), where it is combined with that of Puerto Rican Activist Guillermo Morales. Her presence was felt even after she left the campus, not too far from my office and classroom. In her memoir, “Assata: An Autobiography,” however, she explained that she learned more from one night with fellow Panthers Dhoruba BinWahad, Jamal Joseph, and Michael “Cetewayo” Tabor than she did in a semester at the college.

The freedom fighter — wanted by the FBI but celebrated by her people and others everywhere — died on Thursday at 78, according to an announcement by the Cuban government. She died in Havana of health complications and advanced age, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated. She had been living in exile in Cuba since escaping from jail in 1979, having been convicted and imprisoned for the killing of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973. Upon her arrival in the island nation that she came to love, she was granted political asylum and quickly identified with the land and the people, who welcomed her with open arms.

Born Joanne Deborah Byron (Chesimard)

on Jul. 16, 1947, in Flushing, Queens, she grew up in New York City and Wilmington, NC. Her parents divorced when she was a baby, and she was raised by her grandmother and, particularly, her aunt, Evelyn Williams, the legal scholar who later served as her attorney. After attending the Borough of Manhattan Community College and City College, from which she never graduated, her life took a tumultuous, radical turn as a member of the Black Panther Party and subsequently the Black Liberation Army (BLA).

Despite her birth name, most of the world came to know her as Assata Olugbala Shakur, an identity she adopted that was part Swahili, Yoruba, and Arabic, translating to “she who struggles,” “savior,” and “thankful one.”

Testament

In her memoir, “Assata: An Autobiography (1987),” she provides riveting context, beginning with this declaration: “I am a Black revolutionary, and that makes me a part of the Black Liberation Army,” she wrote. “The pigs (police) have used their newspapers and TVs to paint the Black Liberation Army as vicious, brutal, mad-dog criminals. They have called us gangsters as [they did] John Dillinger and Ma Barker. It should be clear, it must be clear to anyone who can think, see, or hear, that we are victims…”

She continued by noting that “the real criminals are… Nixon and his crime partners [who] have murdered hundreds of Third World brothers and sisters in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa.” She then observed that “we did not murder Martin Luther King [Jr.], Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, George Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney, and countless other[s]...”

This kind of background was a far cry from her early years in Wilmington, when, as she stated, “I was supposed to be a child version of a goodwill ambassador out to prove that Black people were not stupid or dirty or smelly or uncultured.”

Conversely, another one of her attorneys, Lennox Hinds, whom she met in 1973, recalled her interrogation in the foreword to her memoir: “...she lay in the hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while state, local, and federal police attempted to question her.”

But before these moments of intense interrogation, there was a story — one that stands as a testament to who Assata was as a woman and a hero.

In the autobiography, with a cinematic quality, a mixture of flashbacks and foreshadowing, Hinds does a masterful job filling in the blanks and connecting the drama of her life. He explained that Assata, Sundiata Acoli, and Zayd Malik Shakur were trav-

eling south on the New Jersey Turnpike in a white Pontiac when they were stopped by a state trooper. The trooper spotted the car because of a defective taillight and followed the trio for a couple of miles.

Suddenly, as Assata recounted, “there were lights and sirens. Zayd was dead...The car spun around me. In the background I could hear what sounded like gunfire. But I was fading and dreaming,” she vaguely recalled. She said she was in and out of consciousness, only hearing the words “Is she dead yet?”

Thus began her horrendous encounter with law enforcement officers, something she compared to a terrible nightmare. Things became even more convoluted when she learned she had been charged with the murder of the New Jersey trooper. Most critical in the litany of charges against Assata was one that asserted she “unlawfully and illegally and forcibly take from the person of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster a .38 caliber revolver by violence, to wit, by shooting, and slaying and killing the same...in violation” of New Jersey law.

“Half the charges, I don’t even understand,” Assata said at the time. She interrupted the proceedings: “I don’t have a lawyer. I would like to have a lawyer.” She was ignored, and the trial proceedings resumed.

Assata! Why she was more than a freedom fighter

By DHORUBA BIN-WAHAD

Of course, the loss of my comrade, friend, and sistah, Assata Shakur, is a very emotional occasion for all who loved and respected her. However, I won’t be reduced to one-liner reflections of her passing. This is because it sheds light on this historical moment in which Black people and all African peoples find themselves.

There is a very deep and significant reason why Assata found refuge and protection in Cuba, and how she was able to live her life in relative freedom rather than languish in a racist American gulag.

It was Cuba that always supported the radical and militant Black struggle against the self-proclaimed democratic republic of the United States. Once a Latin American colony seized from imperialist Spain and ruled by American stooges, Cuba was a brothel for American gangsters, and its people, the majority of whom were of African ancestry, led by Fidel Castro, who overthrew this despotic American arrangement. But unlike Haiti, the Cuban Revolution was never reversed by U.S. military intervention, and so the U.S. put in place an economic embargo of Cuba, which remains to this day.

All during the decades of the 50s, ’60s, ’70s, and through today, Cuba has supported African struggles for freedom, independence, and development. Cuba gave refuge to those of us forced into exile by the machi-

nations of the FBI/CIA/COINTELPRO campaigns. Kwame Ture, Eldridge Cleaver, and dozens of persecuted Black activists have passed through Cuba fleeing racist American government repression.

Assata’s passing in Cuba, therefore, was a living testimony to this history. It should cause everyone opposed to the current racist raids carried out against Latin American migrants by ICE and the federal government

to recognize that U.S. immigration policy to make America white again has everything to do with white America’s socio-cultural DNA as a European settler state. White supremacist domination at home and abroad has everything to do with Black people in the U.S. –– the default scapegoats and victims of American jingoistic white skin privilege and political rule of the rich. Assata was our freedom fighter. A soldier

in the Black Liberation Army, a member of the original Black Panther Party, when it defended the existential integrity of the Black community. She was a stalwart in our resistance to state-sanctioned murder of Black people by the white militias in blue costumes. She’s our 20th-century Sojourner Truth. Our anti-Imperialist Harriet Tubman in a protracted war imposed on African people since 1619.

We need not get it twisted and compare mourning the demise of a racist punk like Charlie Kirk with honoring the spirit of Assata Shakur or Martin Luther King Jr. Black People have been at war with the white supremacist state since the 15th century, and Assata was a generational soldier in this ongoing war against the very notion of Black freedom and humanity.

So don’t ask whether Assata was “guilty” or “innocent” of shooting an armed agent of a state that reviles our very existence as a people. Assata was guilty of being a freedom fighter, but she was innocent of collaborating with enemies of Black freedom dreams. Long live the Spirit of Assata Shakur!

Dhoruba Bin-Wahad is an author, activist, educator, and former leader of New York’s Black Panther Party chapter. He co-founded the Black Liberation Army with Assata Shakur and several others. With Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal, he authored “Still Black, Still Strong” in 1993.

Dhoruba Bin-Wahad with Assata Shakur in Cuba, 1991. (Photo courtesy, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad)

See ASSATA on page 31

Assata Shakur: An open letter to the media (1998)

Editor’s Note: In 1998, Assata Shakur, who had been living in Cuba for 14 years, penned a note to the Black and progressive press in response to the New Jersey State Police calling on Pope John Paul II to intervene with the Cuban government to have her extradited to back to the United States. She called for the progressive media to speak the truth about persecution of political prisoners, asking them to be the “voice of the voiceless.” The New York Amsterdam News ran her letter alongside other Black papers.

My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20thcentury escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government’s policy toward people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the Black liberation movement, the student rights movement and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969, the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of Black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.

In 1978, my case was one of many brought before the United Nations Organization in a petition filed by the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, exposing the existence of political prisoners in the United States, their political persecution and the cruel and inhuman treatment they receive in U.S. prisons. According to the report: “The FBI and the New York Police Department in particular charged and accused Assata Shakur of participating in attacks on law enforcement personnel and widely circulated such charges and accusations among police agencies and units. The FBI and the NYPD further charged her as being a leader of the Black Liberation Army, which the government and its respective agencies described as an organization engaged in the shooting of police officers.

“This description of the Black Liberation Army and the accusation of Assata Shakur’s relationship to it was widely circulated by government agents among police agencies and units. As a result of these activities by the government, Ms. Shakur became a hunted person; posters in police precincts and banks described her as being involved in serious criminal activities; she was highlighted on

the FBI’s most wanted list; and to police at all levels, she became a ‘shoot-to-kill’ target.”

I was falsely accused in six different “criminal cases,” and in all six of these cases, I was eventually acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted or that the charges were dismissed did not mean that I received justice in the courts. That was certainly not the case. It only meant that the “evidence” presented against me was so flimsy and false that my innocence became evident. This political persecution was part and parcel of the government’s policy of eliminating political opponents by charging them with crimes and arresting them with no regard for the factual basis of such charges.

May 2, 1973, I, along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a “faulty tail light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State Trooper James Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because we were Black and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun, pointed it at us and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied, and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, then once again from the back.

Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, State Trooper Werner Foerster was killed, and even though Harper admitted that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest friend and comrade, and charged in the death of Foerster. Never in my life have I felt such grief. Shakur had vowed to protect me and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life trying to protect both me and Acoli. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper

Divine Nine News Sorority Spotlight: Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

In this edition of The Divine Nine News, we recognize the enduring legacy of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., which was founded by seven visionary women at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Nov. 12, 1922.

The founders united to form the sorority and now, more than a century later, their vision continues to flourish through sisterhood, scholarship, and service locally, nationally, and internationally. With more than 100,000 members, the sorority has 500 chapters in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Germany, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

The organization is currently led by Marica T. Harris, the 26th international grand basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. As the International President, Harris leads more than 100,000 members within 500 chapters worldwide and serves as the Chair of the sorority’s Board of Directors. According to her sorority’s website, Harris was

The 26th International Grand Basileus of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. is Mrs. Marica T. Harris. As the International President, Harris leads more than 100,000 members and serves as the Chair of the sorority’s Board of Directors.

instrumental in expanding their global footprint in Ghana, Belize, and Tokyo.

Their slogan, “Greater Service, Greater Progress!” exemplifies their collective focus on making a difference in the lives of members as well as individuals and families in the communities they serve.

Of the four sororities in the Divine Nine, Sigma Gamma Rho is the only one that was established on a predominantly white institution. Well respected as change agents, their community outreach includes a range of programmes, including the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority National Education Fund, Inc. (NEF), Operation BigBookBag (yes, that’s all one word), Women’s Wellness Initiative, Project Cradle Care, Annual Youth Symposium, and Swim 1922.

For more information about Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. and their noteworthy membership, visit:sgrho1922.org.

KAYLYN KENDALL DINES, MBA

Pictured here is the dynamic shield of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., an international sorority established by seven women in 1922 at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photos courtesy of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.)

Assata Shakur in Havana (NJ State Police photo)

Union Matters

Trump admin government shutdown’s firing threats challenged in court

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging that the president’s threats to fire large numbers of federal employees if the federal government shuts down on October 1.

In their lawsuit, the unions argue that Trump’s threats of mass firings both punish and traumatize federal workers.

Normally, “excepted” federal employees continue working without pay until government funding is restored during shutdowns, while “non-excepted” employees are furloughed and receive back pay at a later date.

In the lawsuit, the unions claim that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), led by Russ Vought, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), led by Scott Kupor, have broken federal law by encouraging the dismissal of federal employees if “congressional Democrats” do not accept the Trump administration’s budget proposals and the government shuts down.

The Associated Press reported that the OMB told agencies to “consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse next week, [are] not otherwise funded, and [are] ‘not consistent with the President’s priorities.’” It’s a move that is seen as an attempt to have the funding crisis help push the administration’s priorities, such as funding Customs

and Border Protection work and cutting programs frequently used in Democratdominant states.

“Announcing plans to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal employees simply because Congress and the administration are at odds on funding the government past the end of the fiscal year is not only illegal –– it’s immoral and unconscionable,” said Everett Kelley, AFGE national presi-

dent. “Federal employees dedicate their careers to public service — more than a third are military veterans — and the contempt being shown them by this administration is appalling.”

AFSCME President Lee Saunders tied the administration’s actions to a broader political blueprint. “The Trump administration is once again breaking the law to push its extreme Project 2025 agenda, illegally tar-

MTA holds Bus Operator recruitment day

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO Amsterdam News Staff

The MTA will host a career fair on Saturday, October 11, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Zerega Bus Maintenance and Training Facility (750 Zerega Avenue in the Bronx) for those interested in becoming bus operators.

An interested applicant should bring a driver’s license and proof of a commercial driver’s license or permit. Candidates must pass a drug screening to qualify as bus operators.

Employee benefits include health insurance, a pension plan, paid vacation time, and opportunities for career advancement and promotion. Once hired, employees are subject to random drug and alcohol tests, including for marijuana, during their employment.

For more details about the event and MTA bus operator job requirements, visit careers.mta.org.

geting federal workers with threats of mass firings due to the federal government shutdown,” he stated.

The unions contend that the plan violates laws governing shutdowns, including the Anti-Deficiency Act, and strips employees of their right to back pay. If the mass firings take place, Saunders warned, essential employees who “keep our skies safe for travel, our food supply secure, and our communities protected will lose their jobs.”

The governmental budget dispute centers on the Democrats’ desire to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit subsidies, which were introduced during the pandemic and are set to expire at the end of 2025. Congressional Democrats argue that not extending the credits could lead to higher insurance premiums and even the loss of health coverage for millions of lowand middle-income households.

“The Trump administration’s threats to engage in mass firings of federal employees … to gain political advantage and carry out its agenda to dismantle the federal government are in direct contravention of the laws that govern federal government shutdowns,” said Stacey Leyton of Altshuler Berzon LLP, legal counsel for the unions. “The administration must act within the constraints of applicable law, and we will ask the federal courts to hold them accountable to that obligation.”

The unions are asking the federal courts to declare that the OMB unlawfully exceeded its statutory authority in ordering the shutdown firings and to invalidate any agency actions taken under this order.

Democratic Rep. Adriano Espailat speaks during a news conference of the government shutdown on Americans' health care at the Capitol in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP photo)

MTA Bus Company recruitment flyer

Lt. Col. George E. Hardy, youngest Tuskegee Airman, dies at 100

By CHARLOTTE KRAMON Associated Press/Report for America

Lt. Col. George Hardy, the youngest fighter pilot of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black military pilots, has died. He was 100.

Hardy was the last surviving combat pilot of the Tuskegee Airmen who went overseas. He died last week, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc.

“His legacy is one of courage, resilience, tremendous skill and dogged perseverance against racism, prejudice and other evils,” Tuskegee Airmen Inc. said in a Facebook post.

Born in Philadelphia, Hardy was a dedicated student who dreamed of becoming an engineer and never planned on joining the military. He was intrigued after his brother joined the U.S. Navy, but still pursued a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in systems engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute, according to the National WWII museum.

“It wasn’t until 1941 when the Army started opening the door for us to be pilots and whatnot. And we walked through the door and had a great opportunity, and we took advantage of it,” Hardy told AVI-8, an “aviation-inspired” watch manufacturer, in an interview.

Before World War II, Black Americans were not allowed to serve in the Air Force. But in 1941, the Tuskegee Airmen unit was established by the U.S. Army Air Corps as the 99th Pursuit Squadron based at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The military pilots served in a segregated World War II unit, and their all-Black 332nd Fighter Group had one of the lowest loss records of all the bomber escorts in the war.

Several white leaders in the U.S. Army Air Forces tried to prevent Black pilots from combat duty and banned them from using their club spaces, spurring civil disobedience from Tuskegee Airmen.

Hardy was commissioned as a second lieutenant at 19 and flew his first combat mission before he had ever driven a car, he told AVI. He ultimately completed 21 World War II missions and also served in the Korean War and Vietnam War.

Brian Smith, president and CEO of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, described Hardy as a “humble man” with a passion for aviation. He was passionate about encouraging young people to become pilots, and up until recent years, he often attended air shows, Smith said.

“We always talked about the racism in World War II, but we also celebrated the progress America and the world has made in accepting people of color,” Smith added.

The Tuskegee Airmen were spotlighted in a 1995 HBO film, “The Tuskegee Airmen,” and a 2012 feature film, “Red Tails.” The men are commemorated in several states year each year as a part of Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day, usually on the fourth Thursday of March.

Amid President Donald Trump’s attempts to purge federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Air Force removed training courses with videos of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, in January. They later restored them after bipartisan criticism.

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Tuskegee Airman Lt. Col. George Hardy at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh Wis. in 2019 (Wikimedia Commons)

In hindsight, Adams’ ironic exit is almost Shakespearean

Like Shakespeare’s “Othello,” Mayor Eric Adams can claim he did “the state some service, and they know’d it.”

That service might include his living up to his pledge to make the city safer with a reduced number of shootings, increased housing, much cleaner streets, and promising to always serve his country. These accomplishments, however, for too many New Yorkers, are overshadowed by his failures — the circle of corruption that proved too circumscribing or tempting to quell, his refusal to accept a welter of foreign and straw donations, and most disturbing of all, his acquiescing to the lure and insidious impulses of Donald Trump.

As the city’s second elected Black mayor, he patterned himself after David Dinkins — prophetically right down to being a one-term office holder. But as we often say, all comparisons are odious. Adams possessed his own set of tempestuousness, where on the one hand, we will cherish his civil rights commitments during a time when he was an officer, when he marched with us against the overwrought police behavior.

On the other hand, we were troubled by his inability to keep his own precious and well-meaning counsel.

On too many occasions, we found him succumbing and taking the bait of people who did not have the best intentions for him or his administration.

Some of the charges against him fall on the scale of less than ignominious, and he was never convicted of any wrongdoing, though he could have made wiser decisions about choosing his associates and team members.

But that’s water over the dam, and we know you can never step in the same river twice. So, what’s to be done with this bedeviled public servant, and what is ahead for one who professed such visionary prospects?

Of course, we wish him well. Unlike Othello, he did not have a scheming Iago — though some might argue there were worthy counterparts. There was no Desdemona, though elements of manipulation and deception were present; no Cassio, but a few loyal subordinates stood by him.

Adams’ end is nowhere as tragic and fatal as Othello’s, who took his own life, but we wonder how many times it took for him to finally step aside after repeatedly shooting himself in the foot.

Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content! Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars that make ambition virtue! O, farewell!

Mayor Eric Adams holds a roundtable on gun violence at Our Children’s Foundation in Harlem on Sunday, January 2, 2022 (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Gardasil works in preventing HPV, but misinformation works harder to spread it

By AYESHA KHAN

In the quiet that follows a routine pediatric check-up, a single word, “vaccines,” can suddenly change the energy in the air. Where vaccines were once a common part of childhood, they have become something parents scrutinize, debate, and sometimes outright resist. The shift is palpable, and it is increasingly showing up in clinic rooms every day.

As a medical student training in New York City, I am constantly struck by a paradox: we live in one of the most medically advanced cities in the world, yet basic tools for disease prevention remain underused. Few examples illustrate this better than the HPV vaccine.

The HPV vaccine is one of the most powerful cancer-prevention measures ever developed. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common infection that can lead to cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile, and throat cancers. Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, protects against the most dangerous HPV strains and has been in use for nearly two decades. Studies have found that in countries with strong vaccine rollouts — like Australia, Sweden, and the UK — cervical cancer rates among young women have plummeted by as much as 87%. In the U.S., HPV infections from cancercausing strains dropped 88% among teen girls after the vaccine became available, with herd immunity extending protection even to those who were unvaccinated.

Elinor R. Tatum: Publisher and Editor in Chief

Madison Gray: Executive & Investigative Editor

Damaso Reyes: Editor at Large

Kristin Fayne-Mulroy: Managing Editor

Cyril Josh Barker: Digital Editor

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett: Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Advertising

Wilbert A. Tatum (1984-2009): Chairman of the Board, CEO and Publisher Emeritus

This is a public health success story. And yet, in the United States, its promise is being undercut by hesitation and stigma.

Here in New York City, one in four adolescents has not completed their HPV vaccination series. Nationwide, Black and Hispanic adolescents often lead in HPV vaccine initiation, but dramatic gaps remain in

completion rates — for example, one health system found completion among Black females at just 28.7%, compared to 49.5% among Asian patients.

These disparities echo in New York State data, where Hispanic and Black young people have higher initiation rates but still lag in completing the series.

This gap translates into real harm. In New York City, research found that women living in the lowest-income neighborhoods, mostly Black and Hispanic communities, face cervical cancer rates about 73% higher than those in wealthier areas. Across New York State, Black and Hispanic women are also more likely to get and die from cervical cancer than white women. The underuse of the HPV vaccine is not just a medical issue — it is an equity issue.

In my clinical rotations, I’ve seen parents hesitate or outright refuse HPV vaccination for their children. Dr. Ilana Stein, a Bronx pediatrician, has noticed the same trend. “Vaccine hesitancy among parents has definitely been increasing over the years,” she told me. “In my opinion, this is largely due to misinformation about vaccines and vaccine safety being presented on social media platforms and even misinformation being spread by our current government.”

National political rhetoric has only added fuel to the fire. Figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now leads the Department of Health and Human Services, have spent years spreading debunked claims about Gardasil, calling it “dangerous” and “defective.” When misinformation comes from both fringe social media accounts and the highest levels of government, the result is confusion and mistrust.

One of the persistent myths brought up in clinic visits is that the HPV vaccine encourages risky sexual activity. This misconception has been disproven

repeatedly, with research showing no link between vaccination and earlier or riskier sexual behavior. But stigma runs deep. Dr. Stein often reframes the conversation. “I try to counsel parents that the HPV vaccine is a cancer prevention vaccine. Not only does it prevent cervical and vaginal cancers, but also anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers.” In her experience, this shift in framing often helps parents see the vaccine for what it really is, a shield against cancer, not a commentary on their child’s future choices.

Every unvaccinated child increases the risk of cancers that cost millions to treat in safetynet hospitals. Misinformation is creating a two-tiered system; some kids are protected, while others are left exposed. While NYC lags, countries like Australia and Sweden are on track to nearly eliminate cervical cancer through high vaccination coverage, proving that this is a solvable problem.

But there is hope. Studies show that when pediatricians strongly recommend the HPV vaccine, up to 90% of parents eventually agree to vaccinate. Community-centered education campaigns, school-based health programs, and culturally tailored outreach can also close gaps in access and trust. In a city like New York, with its wealth of public health expertise, we have the tools to make that happen.

The story of Gardasil is simple; it works. The tragedy is that misinformation has worked harder. As we face the rise in vaccine skepticism, it is up to clinicians, researchers, and communities to plainly tell the truth. New York City must lead the way in ensuring that this life-saving protection reaches every child, in every neighborhood.

Ayesha Khan is a third-year medical student at the CUNY School of Medicine.

Homelessness returns to Depression-era levels. Time for a New Deal 2.0

By Dr. ANTOINE LOVELL

The number of people experiencing homelessness in New York City has reached unprecedented levels since the Great Depression. On average in July 2025, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, 104,000 people slept in city shelters on a given night, the highest number recorded. Thousands more people are unsheltered while living on subway cars, in parks, or in parked vehicles. If we consider the tens of thousands who are doubled up with family members or friends, the number of New Yorkers experiencing unstable housing is likely in excess of 350,000 (Coalition for the Homeless, 2025).

This is not just a local tragedy; it is a national crisis. However, responses continue to be modest, piecemeal, and reactive. If we are serious about dignity and equity, it is time for a New Deal 2.0; a bold, large-scale program to be adopted and financed for housing, build social supports, and develop innovation within all sectors.

The reasons for this crisis are well chronicled. New York City’s vacancy rate for affordable housing is less than 1%. In the last several decades, the city has lost more than one million affordable units. Rent has risen

to astronomical heights while wages for low-income workers have stagnated, leaving households only one crisis away from eviction. Families enter shelters primarily for eviction, overcrowding, and domestic violence, while unsheltered adults wrestle with untreated mental illness, substance use, and/or chronic disability.

The racial disparities are alarming. While Black residents are less than one-third of the city’s population, 56% of shelter heads of households are Black, 32% Latino, and 7% are white. Homelessness is far more than just poverty; it is the predictable result of discriminatory housing policies, disinvestment, and systemic racism.

This is a vast-scale challenge that cannot be tackled through incremental fixes. Building more shelter beds and providing temporary vouchers are band-aids, not cures. We need to prevent homelessness when it starts, tackle root causes, and support longterm housing stability. Normal business operations will not work when the 21st century realities of climate displacement and shifts in the labor market shift the landscape.

A New Deal 2.0 would begin with a massive investment in profoundly affordable housing, comparable in mag-

nitude to the infrastructure projects from the 1930s. Federal and state governments must fund the construction and preservation of permanent, subsidized units, and cities must convert vacant land and currently under-utilized buildings to housing. Effective tenant protections, community land trusts, and “right of first refusal” laws would protect residents from gentrification and displacement.

Housing must be considered a human right. Extended housing vouchers that actually keep up with market rent and a legal basis for extremely low-income households are necessary. Universal eviction prevention, with legal aid, mediation, and emergency rental assistance, would help families avoid becoming homeless in the first place. Wraparound supports, including mental health care, addiction treatment, job training, and child care, should be integrated into housing, utilizing the “housing first” model that has already been tested and proven successful across the country.

Innovations across sectors need to be part of the solution. Cities should accept modular and prefabricated housing, adaptive reuse (i.e., buildings that were office spaces are transformed

O.J. Simpson was acquitted 30 years ago, but there is a stark contrast between then and now

By CARL E. DOUGLAS

Thirty years ago, when the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial was announced, half the nation exhaled in relief and the other half gasped in disbelief. I was there, a member of the defense team many dubbed the “Dream Team.” I remember vividly the polarized emotions that followed. But I also remember something else — something we have since lost: a respect for the rule of law. Back then, as contentious and polarizing as the Simpson case was, our nation’s leadership set a tone of restraint and respect. President Bill Clinton, who almost certainly disagreed with the jury’s decision, did not attack the jurors, question their intelligence, or undermine their legitimacy. He did not label the verdict a miscarriage of justice. He respected the process, and in doing so, set an example for the country. No one was shot in the streets because of the O.J. verdict. There were no uprisings or riots. There were no political leaders pouring gasoline on the fire of public anger. People disagreed — strongly — but then they moved

on. Our democracy held firm, not because the trial was universally accepted, but because our leaders respected the system and the public followed their lead.

That is what troubles me most about where we are today. The polarization of 1995 pales in comparison to the division we see now. Social media has turned every courtroom into a national battleground, and political leaders too often seize upon moments of controversy to inflame, not to calm.

Were the Simpson trial to happen in 2025, I fear the outcome would be far darker. Today, we live in a climate where even former FBI directors are prosecuted in apparent acts of political vindictiveness. Our leaders denigrate jurors, prosecutors, and judges when verdicts or rulings don’t go their way.

The rule of law — the bedrock of our democracy — has been dragged into partisan warfare. That should alarm us far more than a single high-profile verdict ever could.

The Simpson case was, in many ways, the perfect storm: race, celebrity, sex, and mystery, all wrapped up in

a televised spectacle. America couldn’t look away. We love to see our heroes rise, and perhaps we love even more to watch them fall. That’s why the trial captivated the world. Even so, when the dust settled, Americans accepted the jury’s decision, however grudgingly. Our country was stronger for it.

Thirty years later, I can’t say the same about our democracy. The Simpson verdict tested America’s nerves and America passed that test. Today, I’m not sure we would.

That, I hope, is what we remember on this anniversary: not just the case itself, but how we as a country responded to it — with respect, with restraint, and with an understanding that our system of justice, imperfect as it is, only works if we all agree to uphold it.

Because if we lose that, we lose far more than any one trial.

Carl E. Douglas is an award-winning civil rights attorney and founding partner of Douglas / Hicks Law who served on O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team,” helping secure his acquittal in 1995.

To survive, embracing solidarity despite our differences is essential

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

As we attempt to survive this current political moment, it is essential that we build coalitions with others and think of ways we can use common bonds to help fight oppression. There are so many different groups in this country who could and should be working together. In a land of perceived scarce resources, it is quite easy for groups to view one another as competition and unworthy of resource sharing. Stereotypes and misunderstandings continue to plague various racial and ethnic communities. If we are ever to survive this current regime, we must look beyond grievances and think of ways, large and small, to build meaningful relationships.

Let’s not be naïve; there are still hurt feelings from how some Latinos and Asian Americans voted in the 2024 election, especially after hearing the promises and vitriol of the Republican Party. Sadly, choices have consequences and we are now all suffering from the policies being implemented by the president, his party, and his entire administration.

I was reminded of the beauty and the power of coalitions and remembering shared histories after seeing the play “Mexodus” at Audible’s Minetta Theatre. It has been a long time since I have seen that much musical talent on stage. The 90-minute production was created and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson and was a mélange of song, rapping, acting, and a brilliant display of talent and friendship on stage.

“Mexodus” essentially reimagines two men meeting on the Underground Railroad as an enslaved man flees south to Mexico for his

freedom. I wish I could describe the various emotions I felt while listening to songs that reminded me of Negro spirituals, Mexican ballads, dope hip hop rap battles, and a mix of instruments that made me downright jealous thinking of all the times I quit music lessons. The play has a lot going on, but the underlying message was thus: if we are to survive this moment, just as our ancestors survived past trials and tribulations, we must rely on one another and think past assumptions and stereotypes. Although some groups are being targeted more than others in this particular moment, we would be naïve to think that the oppressive and racist and cruel tactics will only affect immigrants and undocumented people. We would be naïve to think that Black Americans won’t be used as pawns to exclude others before the tactics are then turned on the group. We must not forget the unimaginable level of racism and cruelty that have occurred on this land and what we must do to make sure those presently burgeoning tactics are stopped. If you want to treat yourself to a night of uplifting music, acting, instruments, and hope, go see “Mexodus” at 18 Minetta Lane, New York, NY 10012, in Greenwich Village, running through October 18th.

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.

See UNHOUSED on page 27

Caribbean Update

Guyanese educator facing deportation, plans to fight

By BERT WILKINSON Special to the AmNews

The Guyana-born educator, arrested by masked ICE agents in Iowa last week, has not only championed a stellar academic career in the U.S. but was on his way to becoming a high-ranking police officer back home before migrating to the U.S. at the close of the 1990s.

Ian Andre Roberts, 54, the public schools superintendent of one of the state’s largest districts, remained in an ICE detention facility at the start of the week while his attorneys, state education officials, and agents battled to determine whether he would be deported as suggested by immigration officials.

Family members, including his elder brother, Colin, in Barbados, are adamant that Roberts will win his battle with ICE as “he has never been living illegally in the States. As far as we know, he is a citizen.”

ICE says his visa has long expired.

ICE has said that they have a final deportation order to send Roberts, with his PhD in education, back to his native Guyana,

where he had served as a police cadet officer, working in several departments, including immigration, criminal investigations, and the narcotics branch, before he headed to the US in 1999 on a student visa. The school district appears to be standing behind him for now, allowing him to fight his battles while on paid administrative leave.

Senior retired police officers like former Chief Winston Felix and former Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe vividly and fondly recall the years Roberts spent working alongside them in the Guyana police force.

By the time he enlisted in the early ‘90s, Roberts had been identified for accelerated promotion due to his athletic and academic prowess,

having attended the University of Guyana while he was a junior rank.

“We had sent him on the standard military officer’s course, and after graduation, he came back to the police. He served for a few years and then left. He was not dismissed or dishonorably discharged at all. He just moved on. He was a good, promising, and disciplined man who had worked in several police departments, including immigration,” said Slowe, who admitted to being saddened by news of his troubles with US immigration.

Felix said he identified Roberts’ future leadership promise. “I had been in contact with him while he was in the US. He had wanted to return after his studies, but did not. He was a cadet officer identified for future leadership in the force. I remember him well. He gave us no trouble. I hope things work out for him,” he said.

ICE agents said that he is the victim of a targeted operation aimed at ridding the country of illegal aliens. ICE Agents stated that he had abandoned the school-is-

Major Immigration Changes You Need To Know

FELICIA PERSAUD

IMMIGRATION KORNER

If you thought U.S. immigration policy had reached its peak drama, think again. In just a matter of days, the administration has dropped three major changes that will affect immigrants, employers, and even citizens-to-be. Here’s what you need to know:

1: $100,000 H-1B Visa Petitions

In a stunning move, on September 19, the President of the United States announced that H-1B visa petitions will now cost a staggering $100,000 each. The H-1B, for those who may not know, is a temporary visa category that allows U.S. employers to hire highly educated foreign professionals to work in specialty occupations that require at least a bachelor’s degree. Jobs in fields like engineering, mathematics, technology, and medical sciences often qualify. Typically, an H-1B is valid for three years and can be extended to a max-

imum of six. The president’s proclamation, which took effect almost immediately on Sept. 21, 2025, sent hundreds of thousands of working professionals, employers, and immigration attorneys scrambling.

Employers will now be required to pay a one-time $100,000 fee per new petition — a shocking leap from the previous $2,000 to $5,000 fee, depending on company size. According to the American Immigration Council (AIC), the annual statutory cap is 65,000 visas, with 20,000 more available for those holding a U.S. master’s degree or higher. For FY 2025, the cap was reached on Dec. 2, 2024, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducted two rounds of selections to reach 135,137 beneficiaries after fewer petitions were submitted than expected.

The economic ripple effects will be felt nationwide. From FY 2017 to FY 2022, the New York City metro area led the nation with 372,100 H-1B petition approvals — about 15% of all approvals. San Jose, San Francisco, and Dallas followed. Be-

tween FY 2010 and FY 2019, eight major biotech firms involved in COVID-19 vaccine development, including Moderna, Gilead, and Johnson & Johnson, hired over 3,300 scientists through the H-1B program. Many medical doctors on the pandemic’s front lines also came on H-1B visas, AIC said. Big Tech will be hit particularly hard. Amazon was the largest H-1B sponsor in FY 2025, employing over 10,000 visa holders, followed by Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, Cognizant, JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart. Indians dominate the program, making up more than 70% of recipients, with China in second at about 12%. In 2023, the median salary for new H-1B hires was $94,000 — far short of the new petition fee.

2: Changes To The U.S. Citizenship Test

Meanwhile, on September 18, DHS and USCIS announced changes to the naturalization civics test. Immigrants who file for naturalization on or after Oct. 20, 2025, will take the new 2025 version, which USCIS says better reflects congres-

sued vehicle and ran when they approached him — he was apprehended shortly after. Agents also say that at the time of his arrest, the longtime gun owner and deer hunter was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash, and a hunting knife.

As a talented 400- and 800meter runner, Roberts had made the qualifying times for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but did not medal, representing the Guyana national team.

He became the Des Moines school system’s superintendent in 2023, overseeing around 30,000 students and about 5,000 employees. Officials say they had no reason to believe that he was an illegal immigrant, as he did indicate on documents that he was indeed a US citizen. Background checks conducted by private contractors and the FBI also appear not to show any negatives, even though Roberts has admitted to a misdemeanor, unlawful possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle after a day of deer hunting in Pennsylvania. He paid the $100 fine.

sional intent and restores integrity to the naturalization process.

Changes include stricter reviews of disability exceptions, guidance for officers to weigh positive contributions to society in determining “good moral character,” and the resumption of neighborhood investigations to verify eligibility. The agency also clarified that unlawful voting, unlawful voter registration, and false claims to citizenship will bar applicants from naturalization.

3: Suspension Of TPS For Syrians

Finally, on September 19, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syria. “This is what restoring sanity to America’s immigration system looks like,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, adding that Syria’s conditions no longer justify protected status.

Syrians — many of whom have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade — now have 60 days to depart voluntarily back to a country that is unstable, lacks jobs, and where violence, including kidnap-

ping, is still a major issue. Many of these immigrants are sending back money to help relatives in their home country who have no economic means of sustaining themselves. Now DHS is offering a CBP Home app “self-deportation” option that includes a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus, and possible future immigration opportunities. After the deadline, remaining Syrians will face arrest, deportation, and a permanent ban on returning to the U.S.

The Bottom Line

These sweeping changes will reshape U.S. immigration policy — and lives. Whether it’s the sky-high cost of an H-1B, a tougher citizenship test, or the end of TPS protections, one thing is clear: the immigration landscape just got even more challenging for immigrants, employers, and advocates alike.

Felicia J. Persaud is the founder and publisher of NewsAmericasNow. com, the only daily newswire and digital platform dedicated exclusively to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news across the Americas.

Dr. Ian Roberts (Photo via Des Moines Public Schools)

Jamaica native deported by DHS and imprisoned in Eswatini repatriated to home country

By EMMA DELAHANTY Special to the AmNews

A New York man who was deported two months ago from the U.S. to Eswatini has now returned to his native Jamaica, where he has not lived since childhood.

The deportation of Orville Isaac Etoria, 62, was carried out under the Trump administration’s “third-country deportation policy,” which means that undocumented immigrants could be deported to other countries, rather than their country of origin.

Etoria served 25 years in prison after being convicted of fatally shooting a man in Brooklyn, according to The New York Times. But through the Hudson Link program and Mercy College, he was able to study and received a bachelor’s degree in prison. He had also begun a Master’s Degree program with Union Theological Seminary.

However, in 2009, he was stripped of his legal permanent resident status while still serving his prison term when an immigration judge issued a final order of removal, leaving him without documented status in the United States. When he was released in 2021, he was

able to stay in the country if he checked in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regularly, which he had done.

After serving time and finishing his parole, he walked free in New York and worked as a case manager at a men’s shelter, according to The Legal Aid Society.

Earlier in 2025, ICE required that he obtain a passport from Jamaica, which the nation issued to him. But rather than allow him to pursue a path to citizenship, Etoria was detained during his yearly check-in and deported to Eswatini, a nation in Southern Africa, which he has no ties and has ever lived in. He was imprisoned there for two and a half months with no criminal charge.

The Department of Homeland Security cited a June Supreme Court decision, which allowed the deportation of people they deem to be “criminal illegal aliens,” which is how they described Etoria and four other men deported with him. The Eswatini government repatriated Etoria to Jamaica on September 28 with the assistance of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, Thabile Mdluli, an Eswatini government spokesperson, told the Associated Press in a statement.

“We are relieved that Mr. Etoria is finally free after enduring over two months of unlawful imprisonment in Eswatini without access to counsel,” said Mia Unger, staff attorney in the Immigrant Justice Team at The Legal Aid Society. “His illegal deportation to Eswatini should never have happened when he was in possession of a valid Jamaican passport.”

“Moreover,” Unger continued, “his incarceration in a maximum-security prison without charge, coupled with intentional efforts to prevent him from accessing legal counsel over the past several weeks, is deeply troubling. Mr. Etoria now begins the difficult process of readjusting to life in his country of birth, Jamaica, after nearly five decades living in the United States.”

Lawmakers call for Haitian‑led policies and economic opportunities amid serious challenges in U.S. and Haiti

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Haiti is at a critical juncture in its history with, deepening security issues, the collapse of public institutions and local government, and a surge in forced deportations from the U.S. Concerned political officials and leaders from the Haitian diaspora led a conversation last week at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., to review public and private sector solutions to Haiti’s humanitarian crisis.

“The conversation about Haiti no longer is a conversation about aid and how unfortunate Haiti is,” said Rev. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, a fierce advocate for Haiti at the federal level in the U.S. “The conversation about Haiti now is how do we get it up to its level of brilliance and economic vitality? The conversation about Haiti now is how do we actually have a governance system that’s not just for today, but is sustainable for tomorrow? How do we help the children of Haiti actually arise and fight corruption?”

Cherfilus-McCormick said the Trump administration had effectively closed the Haitian Affairs Office in the State Department, but she and her colleagues in government were able to get it reopened. This ensures that funds and loans are available for local entrepreneurs looking to start businesses in Haiti and stimulate

the economy, she said.

“I want a Haitian-led solution 100%, but, a Haitian-led solution does not absolve the international community of what they have to do to recompense Haiti,” said Cherfilus-McCormick. “Everything you have stolen must be returned. Every place you

Congressmember Sheila CherfilusMcCormick (at podium) and Haitian rapper and singer Wyclef Jean (right) at Haiti Forward panel at CBC last week.

Congressmember Gregory Meeks spoke at Haiti Forward panel during Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) conference in D.C. on Thursday, September 25. (Ariama C. Long photos)

Orville Etoria (Margaret McKen/The Legal Aid Society photo)

Sat, Oct 11 @ 7PM

Comic Tacarra Williams sets the stage ablaze from the moment she takes the mic, with a fearless voice for every woman. tacarra williams

sleeping beauty

The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine Sat, Oct 25 @ 3PM

The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine returns to NJPAC with Sleeping Beauty, a bright and colorful ballet for all ages.

Oct 27 @ 7:30PM

Join us for an unforgettable evening of music, memories and magic with the one and only Ms. Diana Ross! diana ross

christmas with christian mcbride big band through spoken word represent! social justice

Nov 20 @ 8PM

Celebrate hip hop and poetry with Chuck D, Rakim, Slick Rick, Raina Simone, DJ Spinna, Tyehimba Jess and the Nuyorican Poets Café Slam Team

with special guests Andra Day, José James and Ledisi Fri, Nov 21 @ 8PM

The GRAMMY®-winning, 17-piece jazz ensemble kicks into high gear with an inspired lineup of special guests.

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Live in Concert

Fri, Dec 19 @ 8PM Sat, Dec 20 @ 8PM

Twelve-time GRAMMY®-winning gospel artist CeCe Winans lights up the holidays with joyful music.

Arts & Entertainment

New book is a visual love letter to local record stores

By ROBERT GERHARDT Special to the AmNews

When I was in college in the midto-late 1990s, when I would be home for school breaks at my parents’ house in the suburbs of Philadelphia, I worked here and there at a small, independent music shop known as Rock Palace. It wasn’t a big store, mainly dealing with new and used CDs in those days. If you’ve ever seen the movie “High Fidelity,” you understand the vibe of the place, though we weren’t nearly as funny, and had longer hair.

In the back of the shop, there was a small record section that we would sometimes add some bands’ limited- release albums to, though they were rare at the time. And once or twice a month, someone would come in with a box or two of records they were trying to unload that they had found at their parents’ house when they were moving. But vinyl was not that big of a seller. And in the early 2000s, Rock Palace went under as streaming and digital downloads took over.

But how times have changed. Vinyl is back, and in a big way.

In their new book “Vinyl NYC: 33 1/3 of the Best Record Stores Across All Five Boroughs,” husband and wife architectural and interior photographers James and Karla Murray explore New York City’s iconic record shops from across all five boroughs. The book weaves together Murrays’ signature electric exteriors, intimate interiors, environmental portraits, and a wealth of visual details along with texts on proprietors and their shops penned by music journalist and critic Hattie Lindert.

“It felt very timely because even though stores have closed, there’s been a recent resurgence of vinyl record shops,” Karla tells me over the phone. “This felt like the perfect time to bring people’s awareness that they exist, and they’re really important to the community. I mean, not just the vinyl community, but the community of New York City, the music community in general.”

Music has always been an escape for the Murrays, and they have a long history of collecting vinyl themselves, spending many

hours digging through record shops all over the city for that perfect find. They wanted to bring attention to both the old and new spaces in New York.

“We can associate different songs, different albums, the artists, with just different things that have happened in our life over the years or where we were

at a particular moment when we first heard a song, whether it was on the radio or when we were in a store and something was playing,” Karla recalls. “Because that’s another reason we always say ‘Oh, go into a record store.’ Because we always tell people, if you’re wearing headphones, take them off when you go in. Listen to what

cords in Greenwich Village, which has been preserving punk history since 1992. And then there is VP Records, which opened in Jamaica, Queens in 1979 and is home to a record label that is the most prominent independent reggae imprint in the world. New spaces, like Blue-Sun in Williamsburg, Rebel Rouser in Bushwick, and Manhattan45 in the East Village are newer spaces.

And they are more than just record shops.

“They’re super important. So many places are not just record shops. They’re really like ad hoc community centers, Karla explains. “A lot of the owners go above and beyond the call of duty as a record store owner. In that they gather collections for people who are in need. They think whether they need clothing or they need food, they’ll do that. They’ll open up the space for performers, for local musicians, or just for people in the neighborhood to hang out and sing along to the music. We’ve met lots of people, just by hanging out at the stores.”

Black Star Vinyl in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, is one example. Originally started as Halsey & Lewis in 2017, the shop was forced to rapidly relocate in 2021 when owners Martin Brewer and Sonya Farrell found out that their landlord had plans for the building. With donations totaling $35,000 gathered with the help of city councilmen Chi Ossé, Brewer and Farrell were able to move the shop, and rename it Black Star Vinyl, a tribute to Marcus Garvey’s shipping company Black Star Line.

they’re playing on the decks because you might discover something that you will end up loving that you never heard before.”

The book includes places like Casa Amadeo, the oldest continuously occupied Latin music store, which first opened in the Longwood section of the Bronx in 1941. There is Generation Re-

The shop also uses mutual aid as one of its bedrock principles. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brewer and Farrell, while the store was still called Halsey & Lewis, organized #ShareTheHealth, bringing together friends and store regulars to collect and donate masks, sanitary items, and other basic necessities to local homeless shelters.

But while many of these shops are important to both the community that frequents them and the neighborhood where they reside, they also need people to

A-1 Record Shop, 439 East 6th Street, East Village, Manhattan. (Photo © James T. & Karla L. Murray, 2025)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Record Store

Continued from page 17

come and shop. That is how they stay in business, are able to give back, and grow the community that surrounds them.

“Enjoy the dig. We really hope that our book helps others discover these places and visit them, because if we want them to stay in business for many more years to come, they need customers, and not just people shopping online,” Karla and James tell me. “That’s

fine if that’s all you can do, but get out from behind the computer. Every record store owner, I will say, really 100%, appreciates and really likes it better when somebody can come in.”

Vinyl NYC: 33 1/3 of the Best Record Stores Across All Five Boroughs is published by Prestel and can be purchased at penguinrandomhouseretail.com. More of Murray’s work can be seen on their website at jamesandkarlamurray.com, which also has links to their social media accounts.

Captured Record Shop, 718 Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Legacy, 247 Water Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn. (Photos © James T. & Karla L. Murray, 2025)

James and Karla Murray with their dog Hudson at A-1 Record Shop, 439 East 6th Street, East Village, Manhattan.

Generation Records, 210 Thompson Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

Miguel Angel “Mike” Amadeo, owner, Casa Amadeo, 786 Prospect Avenue, Longwood, the Bronx. (Photos © James T. & Karla L. Murray, 2025)

Pat Chin a.k.a. Miss Pat, co-founder, VP Records, 170-19 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, Queens.

Martin Brewer, co-owner, Black Star Vinyl, 480A Madison Street, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

September 2025 Dance Calendar

By CHARMAINE PATRICIA WARREN Special to the AmNews

As part of the Powerhouse International festival curated by David Binder at Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Oct. 28-30, the Brussels-based Choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana draws upon her Madagascan origins and diasporic experience to tell the story she longed to hear as a child in “Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna.” The title translates from Malagasy to “comparison, transference, and rivalry” — a conversation between bodies, histories, and sounds. Ratisifandrihana’s cast rounds out with Guitarist Joël Rabesolo, and Performers Audrey Merilus and Stanley Ollivier, who meld dance, music, and storytelling. “The piece reflects their entangled histories — rooted in Madagascar, Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, and shaped by life in France and Belgium, where they all live today. Voices, gestures, and rhythms overlap, reminding us that bodies, like words, hold memory, and sometimes speak what can’t be said,” according to the release. The performance is co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival. For more information, visit allianceny.org.

STILL RUNNING:

Sept. 16-Oct. 12: New York City Ballet continues their season at the David H. Koch Theater, including the premiere of a new work by former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Resident Choreographer, Jamar Roberts, Justin Peck’s “Heatscape,” Ulysses Dove’s “Red Angels,” Peter Martins’ “Zakouski,” and Gianna Reisen’s “Signs,” and so much more. For more information, visit nycballet.com.

ALSO THIS MONTH:

Oct. 2-4: At Danspace, Elliot Reed’s “Profanity Only Upsets the Living,” “a solo that celebrates the gift of mourning — the universal yet profoundly isolating experience,” will premiere, notes the release. For more information, visit danspaceproject.org.

Oct. 8-9: As part of BAM’s Next Wave season at the nearby venue, Roulette, the genre-defying Zimbabwean Artist, Nora Chipaumire, will transform Roulette into a Zimbabwean shabini — an informal house-based bar — where music, movement, and memory collide in a bold act of resistance in “Dambudzo.” Titled after the Shona word for ‘trouble,’ “Dambudzo” combines sound, painting, sculpture, and performance inspired by radical African thinkers such as Dambudzo Marechera, Steve Biko, and Ngũg wa Thiong’o. For more information, visit bam.org.

Oct. 9-11: Kinetic Light, the disability arts company, under Founder and Artistic Director Alice Sheppard, Founding Member Laurel Lawson, and Collaborating Art-

ists Tatiana Cholewa and Kayla Hamilton, will offer the world premiere of its newest work, “The Next TiMes” at New York Live Arts. For more information, visit newyorklivearts.org

Oct. 14-19: The Limón Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater as part of the company’s 80 history with the restaging of Limón’s 1942 solo “Chaconne and The Emperor Jones (1956),” plus the world premiere of Mexican Choreographer Diego Vega Solorza’s “Jamelgos.” For more information, visit joyce.org

Oct. 15-Oct. 17: At New York Live Arts, Wanjiru Kamuyu will premiere “Fragmented Shadows.” “Grounded in epigenetic and psychosomatic research, Kamuyu offers voice and light to embodied legacies of inherited and personal suffering. She asks, How can we use the body as a site of liberation, a site of healing?” according to the release.

These performances are part of L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival, and co-presented with New York Live Arts. For more information, visit lallianceny.org.

Oct. 15-Nov. 1: At the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, this season for the American Ballet Theatre includes the final performance of Misty Copeland, the first

Black female Principal Dancer in the Company’s 85-year history (Oct. 22), the world premiere of “Juliano Nunes’ Have We Met?!” (Oct. 29), plus Twyla Tharp’s “Sextet,” Michel Fokine’s “Les Sylphides,” Antony Tudor’s “Gala Performance,” and Agnes de Mille’s “Rodeo.” For more information, visit abt.org

Oct. 16-18: Symara Sarai brings “The LOVE piece,” a new evening-length solo engaging in a love study; exploring ideas around romantic love, first love, and self-love. For more information, visit danspaceproject.org.

Oct. 16-19: The Ballerina Tiler Peck returns to New York City Center in “Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends,” an encore presentation of the program she curated for the inaugural Artists at the Center. The show features Peck alongside India Bradley, Chun Wai Chan, Michelle Dorrance, Jovani Furlan, Christopher Grant, Lex Ishimoto, Brooklyn Mack, Aaron Marcellus, Roman Mejia, Jillian Meyers, Mira Nadon, Quinn Starner, Byron Tittle, and Penelope Wendtlandt. On the program are works by William Forsythe, Peck, Alonzo King, and a collaboration between Peck and Tap Dancer Michelle Dorrance. For more information, visit ycitycenter.org.

Oct. 17-18: Continuing the “Women Move

the World” season at The 92nd Street Y, the Harkness Mainstage Series 2025/26 season will present YY DANCE COMPANY in the world premiere of “Elsewhere,” “the final chapter in the trilogy that explores the mystery of our existence and of the world we all share by Chinese American Choreographer Yue Yin Blending Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan dance with contemporary movement,” notes the release. For more information, visit https://www.92ny.org/ culture-arts/school-of-the-arts/dance/ performances

Oct. 25: The work-in-development series, “DraftWork” at Danspace curated by Choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones since the ’90s, will feature Annie Wang and Dorchel Haqq. DraftWork is free, open to all, and followed by questions and conversation between the artists, curator, and audience. For more information, visit https:// danspaceproject.org/calendar/

Oct 28-Nov 1: Compagnie Dyptik, as part of L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival at The Joyce, will offer the North American premiere of “Le Grand Bal,” a “ … hypnotic work that blends modern and hip hop dance styles into a frenetic dance fever,” according to the release. For more information, visit https://lallianceny.org/ event/le-grand-bal/

Soa Ratsifandrihana’s “Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna” (3 num @Harilay Rabenjamina photo)

Finding home in the heart: ‘Love, Brooklyn’

By MARK WINSTON GRIFFITH Special to the AmNews

“‘All of the above’ is not an answer.” Such is the love advice issued by the monogamously married, but restless Alan (Roy Wood Jr.) to his best friend, Roger (Andre Holland), the central character in “Love, Brooklyn,” directed by Rachael Abigail Holder and written by Paul Zimmerman. Alan’s words come as a gentle scolding to Roger, a writer living in Bedford-Stuyvesant who is a part of a situationship triangle with two women. Like a diner reviewing a menu, Roger can’t (or won’t) settle on a main course, and this brain fog extends to his work: He’s on a publishing deadline and can’t move beyond his writer’s block long enough to capture his mixed emotions about

gentrified Brooklyn.

It’s not entirely clear if Roger is in love with his ex-girlfriend Casey (Nicole Beharie) and/or the booty-calling Nicole (DeWanda Wise), a recently widowed single mother, but he is at least hung up on them. And, though the film suggests that these two women are in transitional moments of their own and don’t know what they want long enough to give Roger clear signals, it soon becomes clear that Roger is as unsure as they are. They may be playing him, but homeboy is playing himself.

These three Black and Lovelies stroll through parks and museums and flash disarming smiles, but a lot of the flirtatious play that is supposed to pass as chemistry feels unconvincing. On the other hand, in a cinematic world that traffics casually in formulaic heterosexual

relationships, it’s refreshing to see over-thirty-five-year-olds blurring the lines of intimacy and friendship without inevitably working up a head of steam toward marriage. Alan and his wife are the obligatory married couple tossed into the story as a point of contrast, but ultimately, Roger, Casey, and Nicole are, despite their profound loneliness, quite settled in their single status. Owing more to the strong performances of Beharie and Wise than the writing, we find a sufficient amount of emotional nuance between them, but only Nicole is provided a backstory that explains why she is so commitment-averse. To say the streets of Brooklyn are a singular character in the film, or that the central love affair in the movie is between the filmmaker and the borough, names the obvious. Anyone who knows cen-

tral Brooklyn will find themselves playing “name that landmark” as the camera wistfully follows Roger on his bike down the streets of the neighborhoods surrounding BedStuy. This purposeful and selective scan of brownstone architecture, as well as scenes of comfortable cafes and tastefully furnished interiors, represents a tunnel vision that serves to affirm all that is so charming about brownstone Brooklyn. Holder’s loving and tender varnish on buppie life is reminiscent of neo-soul romantic comedies like “Strictly Business,” “Boomerang,” and “Love Jones” that were produced in the nineties to provide a counter-narrative to the white romance and material success dominating the big screen at the time.

“Love, Brooklyn” is not only a cultural throwback, but the way

it references gentrification in historically Black Brooklyn feels a bit late to the conversation. It’s so… 2015. Like most treatments of generational displacement and neighborhood change you find in popular culture, Roger has only the most superficial of insights to offer, while being oblivious to how he is a driver and agent of the “new” Brooklyn himself.

“Love, Brooklyn” is on a limited run in theaters, but audiences were treated to free screenings in the park in Brooklyn this summer as well. This is where this earnest and reverential film can be best appreciated, sitting shoulder to shoulder with your long-term and recently arrived neighbors alike, in Brower, Von King, Fort Greene, or Lincoln Terrace Parks, surrounded by the beauty and contradictions of this hallowed ground.

(L-R) Andre Holland and DeWanda Wise in “Love, Brooklyn” (Greenwich Entertainment photo)

Morris-Jumel Mansion: Celebrating 260 years of an all-American treasure

By MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS

Special to the AmNews

“What is the reason why,” I asked my learned friend Dr. Rae Alexander Minter, “so many African Americans visit plantation houses down South?’ “It’s the same reason we go to the Hamilton Grange or to Mount Morris [the Morris-Jumel Mansion between 160-162nd Streets on Jumel Terrace]. We want to see what the ancestors did. And ironically, we respect these places, knowing full well, without our people’s toil and talent, they would not exist!”

A convivial crowd, a couple hundred strong, recently gathered for an evening of festivity and fundraising to benefit Manhattan’s oldest surviving house and most entrancing museum, the 260-year-old Morris-Jumel Mansion. The gala was held at the equally historic Shabazz Center, in the lobby and upstairs at the former Audubon Ballroom and Theater (designed by Charles Lamb, 1912, built by William “20th Century” Fox), the sacred space where Malcolm X was slain. The museum itself has been a hallowed host to all manner of American history. Built by British army officer Col. Rodger Morris from a design created by his ar-

chitect-cousin, the neo-Palladian, temple-fronted edifice was erected with the help of enslaved labor and from slave-generated profits, some 11 years before our nation’s founding. A measure of Morris’ wealth came from his wife, the heiress Mary Philipse. After they fled advancing American forces, for a couple of months, their stately house served as George Washington’s headquarters, following his victo-

ry at the Battle of Harlem Heights at the start of the War of Independence. Each year, the George Washington Dinner commemorates the 1790 banquet held at the mansion by the first President and his wife, at the close of his first term, for Cabinet members. The party included Vice President John Adams and his wife Abigail, Thomas Jefferson, and Eliza and Alexander Hamilton.

The mansion was acquired next

Washington’s day, the dinner’s caterer, Norma Jean Darden, served roasted Cornish Game hens with wild rice and tart cherry sauce. Owned by the city, but operated by a private foundation, the Morris-Jumel Mansion is currently undergoing an ambitious external restoration, befitting so significant a national treasure.

During Madame Jumel’s widowhood, it provided a refuge for Anne Northup and her children with Solomon Northup, the victim of the harrowing “12 Years a Slave” saga. Renowned for her culinary skills, during part of the time of her husband’s ordeal, Mrs. Northup worked here as a cook. Evolving the skill of Anne Northup and tastes popular in

Two highly notable women were honored at the 2025 George Washington Dinner. Unfortunately, the recipient of the Morris-Jumel Mansion Community Service Award — none other than incomparable jazz pianist Marjorie Eliot — was unable to attend. Among music lovers worldwide, since 1993, Eliot has become renowned for hosting Sunday concerts with supper in her living room at the legendary Rodger Morris apartment house at 555 Edgecombe Avenue (Count Basie, Marian Bruce, Canada Lee, and Paul Robeson all once lived here).

Giulietta Fiore, the Executive Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City, received the Morris-Jumel Mansion Excellence in Preservation Award. From start to finish, the HHT is playing a key role partnering in the long-awaited mansion restoration, to bring back the true ambiance of American history.

Ms. Jean Garrett in front of Malcolm X sculpture by Gabriel Koren

Wayne Benjamin, MJM Co-Secretary, Historic House Trust Executive Director, and dinner honoree Giulietta Fiore, Ms. Johanna Garcia, and State Senator Robert Jackson

by Haitian Revolution refugee, Stephen Jumel, and his American wife Eliza.

Built in 1765, Manhattan’s 260-year-old, oldest surviving house is a city-owned landmark undergoing an extensive multimillion-dollar restoration. (Library of Congress / Public domain photo)

Whether over wine or during a delicious meal, guests enjoyed a delightful time. (Michael Henry Adams photos)

Legendary composer Abdullah Ibrahim to celebrate 91st birthday at Jazz at Lincoln Center Oct. 3-4

By JOHNNY KNOLLWOOD

Special

to the AmNews

South African composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, previously known as Dollar Brand, will celebrate his 91st birthday with career-spanning performances at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 3-4. The composer, who was central to the development of Cape Jazz, a subgenre of jazz that developed in Cape Town and fuses traditional African rhythms with American jazz improvisation and danceable pop sensibilities, will perform solo, and lead multiple full band incarnations that includes his four horn septet, Ekaya, and feature guest musicians like NEA Jazz Master Terrence Blanchard, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, and bassist Cecil McBee. “I feel blessed,” Ibrahim told the New York Amsterdam News in an exclusive interview from Germany, via Zoom.

Ibrahim has helped expand the jazz language, over his storied 75-year career, by directly connecting the genre that developed in New York City to its roots on “The Continent.” Ibrahim has been involved with monumental figures in the genre, famously impressing Duke Ellington at a performance in Zurich in 1963. “We played one song for him, and the next day I took the train to Paris – he recorded us,” Ibrahim said to AmNews “That was the same weekend he did this amazing, iconic concert in Paris.”

In the wake of South African apartheid,

Ibrahim travelled to New York City where he remained for over 30 years, living at the Chelsea Hotel, studying at Julliard, and starting a family that includes his daughter and underground rapper Jean Grae. During a visit home in 1974, Ibrahim recorded the composition “Mannenburg,” which many have identified as central to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa due to its frequent use at rallies and protests. “Man-

nenburg was never a protest song,” Ibrahim explained. He recalled working with horn players Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen who he described as “young musicians,” interested in American pop, which converged with Ibrahim’s interest in traditional African music at the time. On a break from recording compositions, Ibrahim had prepared for an upcoming release, he came upon a grand piano, which he mod-

ified by adding tacks to the pitched strings that are struck by hammers within the piano’s mechanism, creating a unique, “metallic” sound. “We asked the piano ‘what you got? Give me something,’” remembered Ibrahim as he began humming the melody of the tune. “I don’t know where it came from,” he laughed. “We realized wait –– something had happened. We played it for about 17 minutes –– the engineer was hip, he recorded it.” Ibrahim described how the development and release of the song coincided with the Soweto uprising of the 1970s, which involved mass protests of the education system in South Africa based on racial discrimination. “The country was up in flames,” said Ibrahim. “We realized then we had captured a moment.” Ibrahim recalled a little record shop that played the song over their speakers as the spark that propelled the song into the ears of millions. “It caught on, and the people decided that it was a song of liberation.”

Despite Ibrahim’s groundbreaking contributions to jazz and art within a political landscape, the composer isn’t too keen on messaging. “I don’t belong to any organization…I don’t even belong to a football club,” he laughed. “We play music for everybody…What our quest is, is every note we play has to be with utmost sincerity.”

You can get tickets for Abdullah Ibrahim’s upcoming performances at the JALC website at jazz.org.

Abdullah Ibrahim at the stage of the University Aula. The concert was part of the Oslo Jazzfestival in Norway and took place on 16. August 2016. (Photo by Tore Sætre is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.)

South African pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim (pictured here during a recent online interview with the AmNews) will celebrate his 91st birthday with a set of concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center October 3-4. (Johnny Knollwood photo)

Jazz Notes: A look back at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Fest

I was about to make my first visit to the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), one of the major free jazz festivals in the country. However, there was some anxiety on my part regarding the ride down to Pittsburgh on the Jazz Train. This writer was never about group travel and activities.

To my pleasant surprise, the jazz patrons were comfortably seated in one car, making it very easy to meet delightful jazz fans from North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Boston. They all had made their way to New York City’s Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station, to board the Jazz Train that stopped for fans in Newark, NJ and Philadelphia. Pianist, Composer, and Big Band Leader Orrin Evans coordinates the Jazz Train and its various fun activities. There were performances by Recording Artist Ember, on Evans’ independent label Imani Records, and impromptu songs by Vocalists and Co-hosts of WBGO Jazz Radio, Lezlie Harrison and MultiGrammy winner Janis Siegel. It proved to be an enjoyable journey and having the creator of PIJF, Janis Burley, aboard was definitely a plus.

The PIJF opened with its only paid (sold-out) event, a celebration to honor Pittsburgh’s own jazz icon George Benson, featuring South African Guitarist and Singer Jonathan Butler and Guitarist [artist in residence] Dan Wilson, held at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC). It was my first time seeing Wilson perform and realized that being my first time was my loss. He plays with the swift dexterity of Wes Montgomery and from there, he’s swinging in his own creativity (check out his album Things Eternal (2023). He and Butler are both devout fans and proteges of Benson. “He told me to have my own thing and I took that to heart,” said Butler. The two came together on Benson’s “Affirmation,” “Down Here on the Ground,” and “My Latin Brother.” They were the dynamic duo with Butler inserting his South African rhythms and unique accented vocals to the mix. “A prophet has been honored tonight in his

hometown,” said Butler. Mayor Ed Gainey accentuated the evening by presenting festival founder and President/CEO of AWAACC Janis Burley with a proclamation stating, “When you miss out on jazz, you miss out on the legacy of this country. Thank you for putting Pittsburgh and jazz back on the map…”

After the concert, patrons were treated to a Taste of Jazz Party (delicious tastings from Pittsburgh’s noted restaurants) and a fiery jam session that featured Pittsburgh legend tenor Saxophonist and Composer Kenny Blake with Pianist Theron Brown and Drummer Brian Edwards. Ironically, I wasn’t aware of these cats, but that’s why I came to PIJF for a new experience. “I’m not local, I just live here,” said Blake. “I am a functioning musician in this territory.” Blake, who graduated from Columbia University with five CDs to his credit, demonstrated his reputation as a hard bop jazz soulster with hittin’ R&B riffs. The next day, under a bright late-summer sun, glowing faces alternated between two stages (prominently erected on Liberty Avenue at each end of the block serving as bookends to the August Wilson African American Cultural Center). Black culture is embedded in the foundation of live black music, how apropos. Vendors scurrying, public radio in need of help, food trucks from vegan to soul food, and sushi catering to long hungry lines. Los Angeles native Michael Mayo made his debut at PIJF. He offered sparkling originals like “About Your Love,” along with daring covers of such difficult tunes as “Speak No Evil” and “Four.” He went solo with just his trusty looper and audience participation on “I Didn’t Know What Time Was.” His vocals are warm and blissful like a refreshing summer rainstorm. His latest CD is “Fly” (Mack Avenue Music). Look out, the all-female band Be’la Dona came with pulsating jump up and shout Go Go, music nonstop pumping funk, baby. The nine-piece ensemble included two keyboards and two drums for a fuller sound. A unit for 18 years, Drummer Sha’Won shared her all-girl band idea with good friend Sweet Cherie, who loved it, and here we are. The band members hail from the D.C., Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area. To date, Be’la Dona has released three singles.

This year, PIJF highlighted a lost history in jazz but also acknowledged and recognized Leon Hefflin, Sr., a great Black trailblazer in business and entrepreneurship. Hefflin started, funded, and produced the first large outdoor jazz festival, the Cavalcade of Jazz, in Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field. It took place annually every summer from 1945 to 1958, featuring some of the greatest names in jazz, including Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, and The International Sweethearts of Rhythm.

Hefflin’s granddaughter, Deborah Swan, curated an exhibition of Cavalcade memorabilia and presented an insightful discussion on the history of her grandfather and his Cavalcade of Jazz. She just completed her book “The Impresario: Leon Hefflin and the World’s First Annual Jazz Festival” to be released on October 25 with a book launch and celebration in Los Angeles. To reserve your copy, email hefflinlegacy@gmail.com.

Ironically, Swan’s book and research changed jazz history that until this point had been etched in stone. Both Norman Granz and George Wein have been acknowledged as the premier impresarios of jazz. But with Swan’s newly researched book, her grandfather’s name and contribution will NOW have to be acknowledged in any conversation (printed or otherwise) related to jazz impresarios. What, really, you sure? The most anticipated act of the festival was Keith David, the well-versed, distinguished actor with over 400 roles to his credit on stage, screen,

Times.” A riotous standing ovation forced her into an encore with her all-female trio of Pianist Carmen Staaf, Bassist Hannah Marks, and Cajon Drummer Shirazette Tinnin. They broke into a high velocity rendition of “Compared to What” followed by yet another crazed standing ovation. The younger generation of established Vocalists, Jazzmeia Horn and Ekep Nkwelle, who delighted audiences earlier, were present to see the NEA Jazz Master at work. Even David was on hand for the now historic performance of her debut PIJF appearance.

television, voice-acting work, and interactive media.

“It’s [a] long dream of mine to record a jazz album and perform it live,” said David. Dressed in a light-colored suit and white dress shirt with open collar, he was ready to get down performing such traveled standards as Nat King Cole’s “Blue Gardenia,” “Be Mine Tonight,” “Rio De Janeiro Blues,” “No Regrets,” and “Here’s to Life.” His rendition was heartfelt. He sang a few Cole standards but I would like to hear him add some Sammy Davis, Jr. to his repertoire; there is just a touch of Sammy in his voice. David has an incredible stage presence, a bold tenor that easily demands attention, as Richard Pryor said, “the brother has finesse.” He pulls you into each song with a jaunty introduction similar to cats like Grady Tate, Nat, Lou Rawls, Bobby Short, and Sinatra. His soon-tobe-released debut jazz album was produced by Grammy-winning producer Brian Bacchus.

David mentioned on stage he has made a full 360-degree circle in his career, having debuted in Pittsburgh at AWAACC in August Wilson’s plays “Seven Guitars” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater walked on stage to a furious standing ovation. She noted her set was a social commentary on today’s political situation. She roared on Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam” (and she sang every word of it), heartstrings popped on Billy Taylor’s “I Wish I Knew How it Feels to be Free,” and Roberta Flack’s “Tryin

Every seat was taken, every space on the sidewalk was occupied as Christone “Kingfish” Ingram laid down his blues gospel that has been captivating audiences since his teen years. The 26-year-old Clarksdale, Mississippi native, blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter is bringing a new audience and younger generation to the blues. The Grammy Awardwinner known as Kingfish is revitalizing the sound of blues with his own experiences, having been mentored by the great blues guitarists and singers Buddy Guy and Bobby Rush. His latest album is entitled “Hard Road.”

The festival’s finale featured Singer-Songwriter Bilal, known for his falsetto high notes that dance in avant-garde and futurist soul. With seven albums released to critical acclaim, he reflects the inventiveness of Prince, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, and Miles Griffith. Like his confident predecessors, he offers no excuses or attempts to describe his music to those not hip enough to get it. Throughout his show, a group of young people, perhaps in their 20s-30s, were absorbed in every song, singing along and dancing. At the end of his intriguing performance, most of the audience had disappeared. There are many feasible reasons, but perhaps they couldn’t follow his artistic excursion.

Music isn’t a cookie-cutter manufactured product; it is creativity, inventive concepts that shake the foundation of normality, extending the boundaries of socalled jazz in all directions. Burley, during her 15 years at the helm of PIJF, has demonstrated her commitment to introducing creative cross-genre artists to Pittsburgh, giving them a prominent platform to express themselves. Look forward to next year’s PIJF and the Jazz Train.

Dee Dee Bridgewater (Joey Kennedy photo)

who have shown what it actually looks like to have the courage to fight and to have the courage to win.”

Cuomo closed the show to polite applause and a thinner crowd. The ex-governor highlighted his long resumé and claimed his administration was the most diverse in New York State history, promising his mayoral administration would be the most diverse in New York City history. He also pointed to his experience with founding service provider Help USA and chairing the homeless commission under David Dinkins’s administration, which would help tackle the city’s homelessness, while his time as Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary would address issues with aging NYCHA developments.

“We should be the battleground that withstands this Trumpian wave that is sweeping across this country,” said Cuomo. “And let him come with his demands and we won’t go. And let us make that case and let us show this country the right way to govern and live together and accept one another.”

During his closing remarks, Cuomo memorialized the late Hazel Dukes, who served as president of the NAACP New York State Conference. “She used to call me her white son,” he recalled. “Only Hazel could say that. I don’t think anyone could say Hazel said anything politically incorrect.”

Sunset Park

York City into a model that can be replicated across the country. We can’t just continue to have these industrial areas harming us and displacing the communities that live here.”

In a statement to the AmNews, an NYCEDC spokesperson said they were disappointed with the protest, claiming the organization shares many values with UPROSE regarding the need for climate innovation and the green economy.

“NYCEDC celebrated the release of UPROSE’s Grid 2.0 Plan in 2023 and has since engaged them in several productive discussions, including around our climate innovation RFP launched in March 2024 and the unveiling of BATWorks in May 2025,” the statement said. “We share many values with UPROSE about the critical need for climate innovation and the potential of the green economy, and have partnered with them on several key initiatives ––from the installation of Sunset Park Solar this past summer to building the nation’s largest offshore wind port at the South

Brooklyn Marine Terminal.”

The spokesperson added that, “It is disappointing to see this display as we continue working in good faith toward our shared goals. While the proposal UPROSE submitted in response to the 2024 RFP was withdrawn, we remain committed to collaborating with UPROSE and other stakeholders across Sunset Park on BATWorks programming and ensuring an equitable transition to a green economy for all New Yorkers.”

Push for community inclusion

The BATWorks development is designed to create “green collar” and innovative climate technology jobs, but UPROSE argues that the project’s creation sidelined the voices and needs of the local predominantly Black and Brown community.

Five companies were announced as part of the BATWorks pilot program for emerging climate technology companies.

According to a recent NYCEDC press release, they will be encouraged to “test their products in a live built environment and ultimately grow their business and impact throughout the five boroughs to confront the climate crisis. Piloting technology ranges

from biobased building materials to EV charging station retrofits.”

UPROSE’s Yeampierre criticized the city’s approach. She argued that public spaces along the industrial waterfront should be used to promote climate adaptation, mitigation, and community resilience, instead of being handed over to external corporations and incubators that may not serve the needs of Sunset Park residents.

UPROSE specifically pointed out the participation in the project by companies like the Cambridge Innovation Center. “While the project is being pitched as an opportunity for growth, it raises serious concerns for nearby communities, particularly those living in Sunset Park who are already dealing with environmental and land-use pressures,” noted Ahmad Perez UPROSE’s infrastructure coordinator. “The Cambridge Innovation Center, a member of the selected consortium, has driven up property values and displaced residents in areas of operation — including Philadelphia.

“Despite several conversations with senior leadership at EDC and other land-use experts, there is still little clarity on how BATWorks

will affect housing, affordability, and the potential for displacement. The community deserves a transparent process, yet most of the information made public has focused on developer priorities rather than resident needs.”

NYCEDC countered that it has been monitoring gentrification in New York City by using the Department of City Planning’s Equitable Development Data Explorer tool. Although Sunset Park has a high risk of future displacement, they note that there has been no displacement in the neighborhood over the past decade. Since business hubs, rather than new housing units, are being proposed for the area, “we are confident BATWorks will not add to displacement pressure in Sunset Park.”

Yeampierre warned that without long-term investment in community well-being, large-scale developments ultimately harm working-class neighborhoods.

“The BATWorks plan reflects a top-down model that sidelines frontline leadership and accelerates displacement,” she insisted. “New York City cannot build its climate future on the backs of communities most impacted by environmental injustice.”

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Education

Trump administration cancels NYC magnet school funding over transgender student policies

By ALEX ZIMMERMAN Chalkbeat New York

The Trump administration is canceling millions of dollars in magnet school grant funding after New York City officials missed a Tuesday deadline to overhaul their policies regarding transgender students.

At stake is $36 million that city officials expected to flow to several schools over the next three fiscal years, beginning on October 1, through the U.S. Department of Education’s Magnet School Assistance Program. Funding for school districts in Chicago and Fairfax, VA, was also canceled.

New York City intended to use the magnet school grants on several campuses to foster “a more racially diverse population through unique thematic programs which offer early college access coupled with career pathways and a strategic, aggressive, and targeted approach to outreach and recruitment,” according to the grant applications.

The episode represents one of the first known examples of the Trump administration canceling funding for New York City’s public schools as a result of the federal government’s contested interpretation of civil rights laws. Since taking office, Trump has waged an aggressive push to roll back protections for transgender people and has targeted several school districts.

Federal officials informed the city’s Education Department on September 16 that the funding was in jeopardy because they were “deeply concerned” with city policies that allow transgender students to participate in sports and use bathrooms and other school facilities in line with their gender identity. The U.S. Department of Education contended that the policies violate Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding.

Shortly after last week’s funding threat, Mayor Eric Adams began railing against the city’s policies on transgender students in interviews and public appearances, drawing fierce backlash from state education officials and civil rights advocates who noted that the city’s policies are rooted in state law and city guidelines.

The mayor’s desire to change city policy to line up with the federal government’s demands raises fresh questions about his ties to the Trump administration, which has reportedly considered offering him a job. Earlier in the year, the Justice Department pressed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams. (An Adams

(Pexels/Anton Massalov)

spokesperson previously denied that a potential job offer played any role in the mayor’s recent criticisms of the city’s policies on trans students.)

Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, said in a statement that “the mayor and president are making trans and gender non-conforming kids less safe” and suggested the mayor was angling for a job in the Trump administration.

“I don’t know which is more disgraceful — the Trump administration ripping funding away from students’ educations in order to further its own transphobic agenda, or Mayor Adams feeding that bigotry and wishing he could rewrite it into our laws,” Williams wrote.

The letter from the federal Department of Education gave the city until September 19 to agree to its demands — including adopting “biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” — or appeal.

The city Education Department’s top lawyer requested 30 days to consider whether to appeal the decision and requested more information about why the federal government was targeting a specific

grant for magnet schools. She also indicated the federal government had “deprived the [city] of the procedures and due process required by federal regulations.”

But federal officials gave the city until Tuesday evening, just one week after their initial letter, to agree to the Trump administration’s demands — a deadline the city Education Department did not meet. They claimed the tight timeline was necessary because the federal government must certify compliance with civil rights laws before the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30.

Department of Education spokesperson Julie Hartman said the funding was canceled because of policies that “blatantly discriminate against students based on race and sex.” She added that “parents have every right to expect an excellent education — not ideological indoctrination masquerading as ‘inclusive’ policy.”

“If the federal government pulls this funding, that means canceled courses and shrinking enrichment,” Lyle wrote. “That’s a consequence our city can’t afford and our students don’t deserve.”

Adams’ Spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus accused the federal government of “defunding our children’s education” to extract policy concessions.

“While Mayor Adams may not agree with every rule or policy, we will always stand up to protect critical resources for our city’s 1 million students,” she wrote. “We are reviewing all of our options here — including litigation — to safeguard these important resources for our children.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

New York City Education Department Spokesperson Jenna Lyle said officials are “deeply disappointed” that the federal government denied their request for more time to consider an appeal. She said the funding supports afterschool programs, specialized curricula, and summer learning opportunities that would affect about 8,500 students in underserved communities.

Continued from page 5

football, kickball, soccer, and dance and step classes. Beyond sports, other programs focus on academic enrichment, in which speakers and volunteers teach courses on STEM and other fields. They also have a barber and cosmetology mentoring program. In the summer, students in WGX can participate in the program with the opportunity to travel and take part in tournaments. The boys’ team reached the USA Basketball Open in Indiana in 2022, placing fourth.

Today, WGX serves up to 120 kids and partners with schools in the Bronx and Harlem such as New Design Middle School and Accion Academy, and community centers like the Sonia Sotomayor Center, to deliver the programming after school and on Saturdays. They serve as contractors for

Unhoused

Continued from page 13

into housing), and green standards around construction. Social enterprises can begin to employ formerly homeless individuals in home building, energy retrofitting, and maintenance support. Public-private partnerships should be considered alongside strict oversight to help unlock capital at scale. A national homelessness data platform could measure shelter use, unsheltered counts, and housing outcomes in real time to measure transparency and accountability.

Equity must be at the forefront. Investment should happen in communities that were the most harmed by redlining, segregation, and disinvestment. Reparative approaches, community land trusts, and direct subsidies can rebuild neighborhoods that were robbed of that wealth by racist policy. New Deal 2.0 needs to have an eye toward those populations who still suffer the most: Black and brown families, survivors of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and those who have gotten out of jail are at the top of those lists. At the same time, the design of any housing should incorporate climate resilience and readiness as extreme weather and natural disasters drive more and more families from their homes.

The implications of such a mobilization would be moral and economic. Multiple studies show that stable housing provides necessary cost savings in healthcare, policing, and emergency services. For every dollar spent on homelessness pre-

the spaces, but are looking to expand in the New York Department of Youth and Development and become their own after-school program.

Noble now works with WGX fulltime and is actively working to build more partnerships with Department of Education schools, charter schools, and sponsors, and raise funds through donations and grants. In the past, they’ve received awards from companies such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Whole Foods. They are looking to raise $100,000 to invest in the organization, including paying for programs, food, and equipment for students, as well as paying coaches and staff.

Noble said they are looking to “stay the course” to continue to build out WGX.

To find more information about WGX or to give support, visit their website at wegotnextsports.org.

vention, a multiplicative amount is saved downstream. And clearly, the economic costs are one source of justification, but the moral responsibility is clear: in one of the wealthiest nations of all time, allowing homelessness to rise to Great Depression levels is a national shame.

New York City and other cities must lead the way and test innovative methods and push federal and state leaders to commit to this needed scale of change. Community-based organizations, religious leaders, and those with lived experiences must be involved in any policy formulation and oversight, and decisionmaking. For too long, those who are most impacted directly by homelessness have been divorced from decision-making; in New Deal 2.0, that has to be made right.

The crisis of homelessness affects each of the other major issues we face in America: inequality, healthcare, racial justice, and climate change. It is not ancillary; it is central. If we do not act, the human costs and social harms will only increase. But if we summon the vision and resolve for a New Deal 2.0, we will have recovered dignity, empowered democracy, and built a more equitable and resilient nation.

If America can mobilize for roads, dams, and bridges, we can and need to mobilize for homes. Let a New Deal 2.0 be the legacy of our time.

Dr. Antoine Lovell is a member of the Research Council for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. His work focuses on housing, homelessness, and equity, with a commitment to advancing innovative solutions that center the voices of those most affected.

Health

Amid confusion over U.S. vaccine recommendations, states try to ‘restore trust’

By CÉLINE GOUNDER KFF Health News

When the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met last week, confusion filled the room.

Members admitted they didn’t know what they were voting on, first rejecting a combined measles-mumps-rubella-chickenpox vaccine for young toddlers, then voting to keep it funded minutes later. The next day, they reversed themselves on the funding.

Now Jim O’Neill, the deputy health and human services secretary and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s acting director (a lawyer, not a doctor), must sign off. The panel’s recommendations matter because insurers and federal programs rely on them, but they are not binding. States can follow the recommendations, or not.

In the West, California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii have joined forces in the West Coast Health Alliance. Their first move was to issue joint recommendations on COVID, flu, and RSV vaccines, going further than ACIP.

“Public health should never be a patchwork of politics,” said Sejal Hathi, Oregon’s state health director.

California’s health director, Erica Pan, described the goal as “demonstrating unity around science and values” while reducing public confusion.

The bloc is also exploring coordinated lab testing, data sharing, and even group purchasing. “Our intent is to restore trust in science and safeguard people’s freedom to protect themselves and their families without endless barriers,” Hathi said.

In the Northeast, New York and its neighbors created the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul called it a rebuke to Washington, D.C.’s retreat from science.

“Every resident will have access to the COVID vaccine, no exceptions,” she said in a statement.

The group has already gone beyond vaccines. After the CDC disbanded its infection-control advisory body, the Northeast states created their own return-to-work rules. Work groups now span vaccines, labs, emergency preparedness, and surveillance.

“Infectious diseases don’t respect borders,” said Connecticut’s health commissioner, Manisha Juthani. “We had to move in the same direction to protect our residents.”

The two blocs are in regular contact. “We communicate every day,” Hathi said.

“We can’t just sit by while federal agencies are hollowed out,” said acting New York City health commissioner Michelle Morse. “Public health is local, and we have to act like it.”

State leaders describe their coalitions as

“You would think emerging from a pandemic, we would be embracing public health, but the federal government was heading in the opposite direction,” said James McDonald, New York state health commissioner.

Massachusetts commissioner Robbie Goldstein added: “The federal government has historically been the entity that held us all together. In January of this year, that tradition seemed to be going away.”

Boston University law professor Matt Motta summarized the dilemma: “States are taking matters into their own hands, sometimes to expand access to vaccines, sometimes to roll it back. That’s technically how the system works, but it risks inefficiency and confusion.”

Public health law has long tilted toward the states.

“If there was a public health issue, we’d say it’s for the states,” said Wendy Parmet of the Northeastern University School of Law. States have mandated vaccines since the 1800s. Federal agencies can approve vaccines and fund programs, but they cannot force mandates except in very specific circumstances (e.g., federal employees).

agreed with Parmet: “Public health authority resides primarily with the states. Recommendations are recommendations.”

ACIP’s votes matter for coverage rules and insurance mandates, but states are free to diverge.

That divergence is already widening. Florida, led by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, is moving to eliminate childhood vaccine requirements — a first-in-the-nation step. Georgetown Law’s Larry Gostin warned this could reopen century-old battles dating to Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), when the Supreme Court upheld state vaccine mandates for public safety.

Health leaders warn that competing systems risk causing confusion and costing lives. “Federal silence creates a vacuum, and states either step up together or splinter apart,” Hathi said.

Pan added that “without federal credibility, we’re left improvising.”

McDonald cautioned that partisan divides could grow sharper.

And Morse said that “blue and red states could each go their own way, leaving the public even more divided.”

Gostin put it bluntly: “That risks confu-

(Pexels/Kaboompics)

sion, inefficiency, and ultimately lives.”

This state-by-state tug-of-war is not new. In the 1800s, local boards of health fought cholera with sewers and sanitation when federal authority was absent. In the 1950s, states organized mass polio clinics, with uneven uptake until federal funding smoothed disparities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump White House response coordinator Deborah Birx saw firsthand the limits of federal power. She visited 44 states, urging governors to adopt masks, closures, and vaccines.

“I was trying to get them to tailor responses to their populations, not just follow generic federal guidance,” she later recalled. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that states are “laboratories of democracy,” where leaders could test out new ideas without putting the whole country at risk. But diseases don’t follow state lines. A virus that starts in Tallahassee could spread to Times Square by the next morning. Today, states have become laboratories of public health. Each state is experimenting — some expanding protections, others cutting them back. And those choices could, for better or worse, affect us all.

filling a vacuum left by Washington, D.C.

UC Law-San Francisco’s Dorit Reiss

In-custody deaths

Continued from page 6

dies in police custody. They called for allowing the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the city’s independent NYPD oversight agency, to kick off their own investigations after a death, rather than waiting for a family member or friend to file a complaint. They also asked to amend the department’s disciplinary matrix to make failing to provide medical assistance a fireable offense in the event a successful CCRB prosecution is approved by the police commissioner.

Basak told the AmNews that the letter happened organically because public defense organizations across the city frequently communicated with each other and were long aware of the issues in custody.

“What we can visibly see is people being held for hours on end,” said Basak by phone. “Oftentimes, they have a mental health issue … if you have any underlying mental health or substance abuse or medical issues, it’s naturally going to be exacerbated by those conditions of confined cells and the number of people in the cells.”

On Monday, September 22, advocates and electeds took to City Hall, calling for implementation of the 10-point plan delineated in the letter. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, and councilmembers Tiffany Caban and Lincoln Ressler spoke in support.

“As a Jewish New Yorker, we have a saying:

If you destroy a single life, it’s as though you have destroyed [an entire] world, so on its own, Christopher [Nieve’s] loss is a loss of a world [and] is a tragedy, accountability would be necessary,” said Lander. “Care and compassion would be necessary, but we’re not just talking about one incident right now.”

“I’m so sorry [for] the families,” added Williams. “Sorry is not enough, because a family member is not here, and we have to remember behind the names of people who were loved, their communities, they were family members, they were neighbors, they were friends, and they’re not coming back because they may have stolen some food.”

Caban, a former public defender herself, reflected on her past role. “You get really self-conscious about sounding like a broken record up here, but what we’re talking about is lives, so on its own, Christopher [Nieve’s] loss is a loss of a world [and] is a tragedy,” she said. “Accountability would be necessary. When I look at the public defenders behind me and the folks from Freedom Agenda and the Jails Action Coalition, there is nobody better equipped to tell us what the path forward looks like.”

The NYPD pointed to improvements from 2024, when 14 people died in police custody year-to-date.“It is important to note that the term ’death in-custody’ does not necessarily mean the death was caused as a result of police action,” said a police spokesperson. “Death in custody situations may occur anywhere (e.g., at the scene of an in-

cident, at a hospital, at a police facility, or in a courthouse awaiting arraignment), and death may occur due to intervening circumstances beyond police control.

“Such intervening circumstances include medical crises such as heart attack or stroke; suicides; drug-related deaths from substances taken or ingested prior to custody.”

At least one demand from the letter will be realized: After the rally, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael

Gerber revealed the OIG-NYPD will issue a report on the custody deaths.

“While we welcome the Inspector General’s decision to investigate, accountability cannot end there,” said Philip in a later statement. “The City must confront the NYPD’s unlawful reliance on custodial arrests for low-level offenses, its failure to provide medical and mental health care, and the unsafe and inhumane conditions in precincts and courthouses.”

Legal Aid attorney Frances Grail-Bingham (left) and Candice Nieves (right), sister of Christopher Nieves. (Tandy Lau photo)

Rally calls for end to veterans’ poverty

By ARIAMA C. LONG Amsterdam News Staff

Assemblymember Landon Dais is making a statewide push to end poverty among veterans, especially among Black and Brown veterans, who are more prone to experience homelessness and unemployment after their service.

The Veterans Data Central (VDC) estimates that there are more than 600,000 veterans in New York State, based on data from 2019 to 2023. About 8% of the state’s veterans live in poverty and 5% are unemployed, according to the VDC. There are about 67,000 Black veterans in the state, which is about 11% of the state’s veteran population, said VDC.

This year, the Trump administration made federal cuts to jobs in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Veterans Crisis Line, as well as to veteran benefits like food assistance and Medicaid.

“In the grand scheme of things, 65% of veterans are doing very well, but the other 35% are struggling,” said Dais, whose father was a veteran. “Mental health issues, PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), houselessness … [If] we can solve some issues, that means that’s helping quality of life

issues, that is making our streets safer and cleaner, and it’s also making sure those who served our country are in a more secure place.”

Black veterans experience higher rates of discrimination and bias during their time in the armed forces, and aren’t promoted to higher rankings as often as their white counterparts, according to the Black Veterans Project. They also face stark racial disparities relating to veterans’ homelessness, joblessness, and mental health services.

Dais said his aim is to raise awareness about poverty among veterans to secure a budget increase for veteran resources to about $50 million per year. He has also introduced several bills to address these issues, such as Bill A6504, which would create a veteran career assistance program in the SUNY and CUNY school systems; Bill A6503, which would establish a database of resources for vets; and Bill A8089, which creates a service member law book.

“I salute all of the men and women in our military, and thank you for all your incredible service. Know that we appreciate you for all [that] you sacrifice,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. “Know that it is an incredible sacrifice to give of yourself to defend our country, our democracy, our freedom, our liberty, everything

we are afforded as Americans. We do it on the backs of our veterans. We say, thank you, thank you, thank you. We can never thank our veterans enough.”

In terms of service era, the VDC reported that a majority of New York’s World War II and Korean War veterans are dwindling. The average age for Gulf War veterans is now 50 and for Vietnam veterans is 71. Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are typically 30 and older.

“It’s important that we conquer poverty in the veteran community because it’s only conducive to bringing good social morale into the country,” said Veteran Action Now Founder Kevin C. Meggett, who served during the first Gulf War in 1991. He was disappointed that more of the mayoral candidates running in this year’s race to replace current Mayor Eric Adams didn’t launch a platform that addressed veterans’ issues.

“This is about veterans, this is about our families, this is making sure that a nation that claims to be grateful does its part to make sure that we can come home in peace [and] be able to stand up and take care of our families and live our lives with a degree of dignity,” said Navy Veteran Thomas Sheppard, a former elected member on the city’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP).

Dais held a “End Veteran Poverty” com-

munity event and resource fair in Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx on September 30, in partnership with the National Association for Black Veterans (NABVETS), Veterans Action Now, Arc of Justice, Essen Health Care, Bronx Treatment Center, Black Vets for Social Justice, National Action Network, and Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee Steve Stern.

The resource fair also provided on-site health screenings, access to fresh food with free Health Bucks, voter registration, and educational opportunities for veterans with Fordham University and Lehman College.

“We’re shown that education is a power to do things. Confidence is the first thing that they instill in us, but then they give us education and skills after that to go along with it, and that encourages a lot of us to go in and achieve a higher education,” said Army veteran Jordan Folk. “The Soldier for Life program, when you leave [military service], encourages you to go to college. I would highly recommend people to take this step.”

A Midwest native, Folk worked as a signals and intelligence analyst post-9/11. He finished his service bid in 2020 and decided to attend Fordham through its Yellow Ribbon program, which is supported by Post-9/11 GI Bill (PGIB) funding or Chapter 33.

Assemblymember Landon Dais advocates for ending veteran poverty on Tuesday, September 30, 2025. (Ariama C. Long photos)

Veteran Thomas Sheppard speaks about ending veteran poverty.

From left to right: Veteran activist Steven Colon (left), Veteran Action Now Founder Kevin C. Meggett (center), and Assemblymember Landon Dais (right) on stage at Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx on September 30.

Dais holds “end veteran poverty” community event at Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx on Tuesday, September 30.

from page 8

Part of her defense was the fact that she was shot several times herself and was thus incapacitated and unable to kill anyone. She recounted portions of this scenario during an appearance on Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now.”

“I was captured in New Jersey in 1973, after being shot with both arms held in the air, and then shot again from the back. I was left on the ground to die, and when I did not, I was taken to a local hospital where I was threatened, beaten, and tortured. In 1977, I was convicted in a trial that can only be described as a legal lynching.”

“In 1979,” she continued. “‘I was able to escape with the aid of some of my comrades. I saw this as a necessary step, not only because I was innocent of the charges against me, but because I knew that in the racist legal system in the United States, I would receive no justice. I was also afraid that I would be murdered in prison.’ Five years later, she fled to Cuba and was grant-

ed political asylum by Fidel Castro.”

Freedom Song

The details of her escape are not disclosed, in keeping with her notion of a cimarrón — a Spanish term which refers to a runaway slave, as she called herself. Nor is it clear how she became pregnant during her incarceration ordeal and later gave birth to a daughter, Kakuya. Among the things she was willing to discuss was her time in Cuba, which unfolds beautifully in the documentary “Eyes of the Rainbow,” by Gloria Rolando in 1997.

There are scenes of the lush tropical setting that surprised Assata, much like the African culture, particularly the music and dance; there are also several scenes of women who resembled her swirling rhythmically to a drum choir.

Even as she was peacefully sequestered in Cuba, the U.S. government continued to seek her arrest, making her the first woman placed on the New Jersey State Police “Most Wanted List” and later adding a $2 million reward for her capture. The Amsterdam News joined a global campaign declaring

“Hands off Assata” in 2005. In 2013, she was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.

But the terrorist designation was too weak to define Assata.

Upon learning of her transition, Bin-Wa-

had wrote: “Assata was Our Freedom Fighter. A Soldier in the BLA, a Member of the Original Black Panther Party when it defended the existential integrity of the Black Community. She was a stalwart in our Resistance to State-sanctioned murder of Black people by the Police and white militias in Blue costumes. She’s our 20th century Sojourner Truth. Our anti-Imperialist Harriet Tubman in a protracted war imposed on African people since 1619.”

Her final words in her autobiography typified her revolutionary commitment, her defiance of racism, imperialism, and the quest for total liberation.

“How much we had gone through. Our fight had started on a slave ship years before we were born,” she wrote. “Venceremos (we shall overcome), my favorite word in Spanish, crossed my mind. Ten million people had stood up to the monster. Ten million people, only ninety miles away. We were here together in their land, my small family, holding each other after so long. There was no doubt about it, our people would one day be free. The cowboys and bandits didn’t own the world.”

Continued from page 9

Foerster was found under Shakur’s leg, Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths.

Neither Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial. We were both convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey Police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted by an allwhite jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison.

In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, who were also extremely fearful for my life.

The U.S. Senate’s 1976 Church Commission report on intelligence operations inside the U.S. revealed, “The FBI has attempted covertly to influence the public’s perception of persons and organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press, either anonymously or through ‘friendly’ news contacts.” This same policy is evidently still very much in effect today.

Dec. 24, 1997, New Jersey called a press conference to announce that New Jersey State Police had written a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to intervene on their behalf and to aid in having me extradited back to New Jersey. The New Jersey State Police refused to make their letter public. Knowing that they had probably totally distorted the facts and attempted to get the pope to do the devil’s work in the name of religion, I decided to write the pope to inform him about the reality of “justice” for Black people in the state of New Jersey and in the United States.

In January of 1998, during the pope’s visit to

Cuba, I agreed to do an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza around my letter to the pope, about my experiences in the New Jersey court system and about the changes I saw in the United States and its treatment of Black people in the past 25 years. I agreed to do this interview because I saw this secret letter to the pope as a vicious, vulgar, publicity maneuver on the part of New Jersey State Police and as a cynical attempt to manipulate the pope. I have lived in Cuba for many years and was completely out of touch with the sensationalist, dishonest nature of the established media today. It is worse today than it was 30 years ago.

After years of being victimized by the “establishment” media, it was naive of me to hope that I might finally get the opportunity to tell “my side of the story.” Instead of an interview with me, what took place was a “staged media event” in three parts, full of distortions, inaccuracies, and outright lies. NBC purposely misrepresented the facts. Not only did NBC spend thousands of dollars promoting this “exclusive interview series” on NBC, they also spent a great deal of money advertising this “exclusive interview” on Black radio stations and also placed notices in local newspapers.

Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have a voice. Black people and poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression, and very little freedom of the press. The Black press and the progressive media have historically played an essential role in the struggle for social justice. We need to continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets that help educate our people and our children, and not annihilate their minds. I am only one woman.

I own no TV stations, radio stations, or newspapers. But I feel that people need to be educated as to what is going on and to understand the connection between the news media and the instruments of repression in Amerika. All I

have is my voice, my spirit, and the will to tell the truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black media, those of you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in true freedom, to publish this statement and let people know what is happening. We have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless. Free all political prisoners. I send you love and revolutionary greetings from Cuba, one of the largest, most resistant, and most courageous “palenques” (Maroon camps) that has ever existed on the face of this planet.

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Notice of Qualification of BLACKSTONE ABF ASSOCIATES L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/12/25. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/07/25. Princ. office of LP: 345 Park Ave., 31st Fl., NY, NY 10154. NYS fictitious name: BLACKSTONE ABF ASSOCIATES GP, L.P. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Formation of NEW YORK DENTAL COLLABORATIVE, LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/22/2025. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail process to Arti Jagirdar, 17 W. 24th St., Floor 2, New York, NY 10010. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

MORETTI PROPERTY VENTURES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/13/2025 Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: Katzner Law Group 1407 BROADWAY RM 4002 , NEW YORK, NY, 10018. Purpose: Any lawful act.

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Brittany Anne Consulting LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on June 12, 2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 152 E 84th St, Apt 5I, New York, NY 10028. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Quite Puzzling LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/28/25. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 30 West St 24 C, New York, NY 10004 Purpose: Any lawful act.

SUPREME COURT ‑ COUNTY OF NEW YORK.

OLYMPIC TOWER CONDO MINIUM BY ITS BOARD OF MANAGERS, Plaintiff ‑against‑ TAITAC CORP., et al Defen dant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated September 3, 2025 and entered on September 4, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Court house, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on Wednesday, Octo ber 29, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, ly ing and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, the Unit known as Apartment No. 35G known as and by the street address number 641 Fifth Ave nue. Together with an undivided .2213396% interest in the Com mon Elements. Block: 1287 Lot: 1111

Said premises known as 641 FIFTH AVENUE, INIT 35G, NEW YORK, NY

Approximate amount of lien $43,233.60 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 159804/2024.

JEFFREY R. MILLER, ESQ., Referee

Schwartz Sladkus Reich Green berg Atlas LLP Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 444 Madison Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022

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SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. VERONICA NKOSI, ANDREA B. THWALA and BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF HC SUITES OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., Defts. - Index # 850096/2021. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated September 3, 2025, I will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the NY County Courthouse located 60 Centre Street, NY, NY on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.0450946335738578% tenant in common interest in the timeshare known as Phase I of HNY CLUB SUITES located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York. Approximate amount of judgment is $73,631.96 plus costs and interest as of June 6, 2025. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Allison M. Furman, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

NYC Sunergy Services LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/04/25. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 228 Park Ave S, New York, NY, 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF ALEXANDER ALLANA GROUP LLC.

Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/09/2025.

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1540 York Avenue, Apt 4L, New York, NY 10028. Dissolution date: None.

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Notice of Qualification of PATRIOT HYDRO FUNDING, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/22/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/27/22. Princ. office of LLC: 1700 Broadway, 35th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK.

57TH ST. VACATION OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., BY AND THROUGH ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Plaintiff -againstJOAN BAFALOUKAS, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated August 27, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on October 22, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, being an undivided ownership interest as tenant-incommon with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, NY. Together with an appurtenant undivided .009864% common interest percentage. This is a foreclosure on ownership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008 as CFRN # 2008000426142 as recorded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1009 and Lot 37.

Said premises known as 102 WEST 57TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10019

Approximate amount of lien $16,962.73 plus interest & costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale.

Index Number 850161/2023.

DORON LEIBY, ESQ., Referee DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590

DLG# 39125

{* AMSTERDAM*}

Notice of Qualification of RBC MUNICIPAL CAPITAL, LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/17/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/02/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps. - John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Barbary Collective LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/12/25. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 447 Broadway #3000, NY, NY 10013. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT ‑ COUNTY OF NEW YORK. HNY CLUB SUITES OWNERS ASSOCIATION INC., Plain tiff ‑against‑ JULIE A. BRIT TAIN, MARK L. BRITTAIN, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated July 7, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Court house, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 15, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. premises being an undivided ownership interest as tenant‑in‑common with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY; known as The NYH Condominium. Together with an appurtenant undivided 1.4182% in common interest percentage. This is a foreclosure on own ership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 27, 2003 and November 3, 2003 as CFRN # 2003000442512 as re corded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1006 and Lot 1303. Said premises known as 1335 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, UNIT HU2, NEW YORK, NY 10019

Approximate amount of lien $20,954.60 plus interest & costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 850094/2023. PAUL R. SKLAR, ESQ., Refer ee

DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590 DLG# 39206 {* AMSTERDAM*}

NOTICE OF FORMATION UNDERCOVER MOH LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/16/25. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Nicole Lefkowitz, 25 Water St., Apt. 744, New York, NY 10004.

Notice of Formation of JC8687 LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/14/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Martin D. Hauptman, Esq., c/o Mandelbaum Barrett PC, 3 Becker Farm Rd., Ste. 105, Roseland, NJ 07068. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , NYCTL 1998-2 Trust and the Bank of New York Mellon as Collateral Agent and Custodian , Plaintiff, vs . Katherine Mosley , ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion dated October 18, 2023 and duly entered on November 28, 2023 and an Order Appointing Substitute Referee dated May 20, 2024 and duly entered on May 21, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 15, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., all that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block 2011 and Lot 23. Said premises may also be known as 125 West 142 Street, New York, NY.

Approximate amount of judgment is $100,111.55 plus interest and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index #154723/2022.

Jeffrey R. Miller, Esq., Referee

The Law Office of Thomas P. Malone, PLLC, 60 East 42nd Street, Suite 553, New York, New York 10165, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A. SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE, INC., Plaintiff AGAINST DOUGLAS E. SEWER, INDIVIDUALLY AND SURVIVING JOINT TENANT OF JOSEPH K. SEWER, ET AL., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered May 1, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 81 West 119 Street, New York, NY 10026. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the City, County and State of New York, Block 1718 Lot 108. Approximate amount of judgment $1,333,945.21 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850001/2010. Christy M. Demelfi, Esq., Referee Gross Polowy, LLC 1775 Wehrle Drive Williamsville, NY 14221 00-161915 87004

Manor Of Collective LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/05/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 13 Saint Marks Place Apt 9F, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Etico Managment LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/29/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 211 Thomspon Street APT 2E, New York, NY 10012. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF New York , CAPITAL ONE, N.A., Plaintiff, vs. KENNETH LAUB, ET AL., Defendant (s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered on October 11, 2022, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at ROOM 130 OF THE NEW YORK COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 60 CENTRE STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007 on October 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 163 EAST 64TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10065 F/K/A 10021. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County, City and State of New York, Block: 1399 , Lot: 25. Approximate amount of judgment is $10,653,559.26 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 159315/2017. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee, the Mortgagee's attorney, or the Referee.

DORON A. LEIBY, Esq., Referee

Roach & Lin, P.C., 6851 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 185, Syosset, New York 11791, Attorneys for Plaintiff

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK U.S. BANK NA, SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE TO BANK OF AMERICA, NA, SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO LASALLE BANK NA, AS TRUSTEE, ON BEHALF OF THE HOLDERS OF THE WAMU MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007- HY7, Plaintiff AGAINST TERRE SIEPSER SIMPSON A/K/A TERRE S. SIMPSON A/K/A TERRE SIMPSON A/K/A TERRE SIEPSE-SIMPSON; ET AL., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered August 4, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on November 5, 2025 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 106 Central Park South, Unit 3B, New York, NY 10019. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County, and State of New York, Block: 1011 Lot: 4089. Approximate amount of judgment $1,863,650.44 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850164/2023. Allison Furman, Esq., Referee Fein, Such & Crane, LLP 28 East Main Street Rochester, NY 14614 SPSNC846 87302

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK. VALLEY NATIONAL BANK, successor by merger to Bank Leumi USA, Plaintiff, v. W29 534 HIGHLINE OWNERS LLC, et al., Defendants. Index No. 850126/2024

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale granted herein on July 24, 2025, I the undersigned, the Referee in said Judgment named, will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the Supreme Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY of the County of NEW YORK, State of New York on October 15, 2025 at 2:15 pm of that day, the premises directed by said Judgment to be sold and therein described as follows:

Said premises being known as and by street address 534 WEST 29TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10001

Block 700 Lot 53

Said premises are sold subject to the terms and conditions of the filed Judgment and the Terms of Sale. Approximate amount of Judgment $19,193,780.55.

Dated: Garden City, New York September 2, 2025

MARK L. McKEW, ESQ., Referee

Adam E. Mikolay, P.C. Of Counsel to LANCE FALOW, ESQ.

Attorney for Plaintiff’s Assignee HIGHLINE HEIGHTS LLC

400 Garden City Plaza Suite 405 Garden City, New York 11530 (516) 222-2050

Notice of Formation of RBEC1 DEVELOPER, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/28/25. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, Fl. 72, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RBF1 DEVELOPER, LLC

Notice of Formation of ROSEMOND PROPERTIES LLC

LEGAL NOTICE OF POST PONEMENT OF SALE SUPREME COURT ‑ COUNTY OF NEW YORK. HC SUITES OWNERS AS SOCIATION, INC., Plaintiff ‑against‑ MIJUNG LYNN LIND, AS PROPOSED PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN A. LIND, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated June 3, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Court house, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 15, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. premises being an undivided ownership inter est as tenant‑in‑common with other owners in the Timeshare Unit in the building located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY; known as The NYH Condominium. Together with an appurtenant undivided 1.7341% in common interest percentage.

This is a foreclosure on own ership interest in a timeshare unit, a studio penthouse on a floating use basis every year, in accordance with and subject to declarations. Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions dated October 27, 2003 and November 3, 2003 as CFRN # 2003000442512 as re corded in the Office of the City Register, County, City and State of New York. The Timeshare Unit is also designated as Block 1006 and Lot 1302. Said premises known as 1335 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS, UNIT HU3, NEW YORK, NY 10019

Approximate amount of lien $23,557.30 plus interest & costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 850466/2023.

PAUL R. SKLAR, ESQ., Refer ee DRUCKMAN LAW GROUP PLLC

Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 242 Drexel Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590

DLG# 39212

The above sale, originally scheduled for September 17, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. has been postponed. The new sale date has been rescheduled for Octo ber 15, 2025 at the same time and place.

PAUL R. SKLAR, ESQ., Refer ee. {* AMSTERDAM*}

Notice of Qualification of NothingBetter Health Group, PLLC. Application for authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/5/2025. Office Location: NY County. PLLC formed in Virginia (VA) on 5/4/2025. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 10304 Eaton Pl., Ste 100, Fairfax, VA 22030. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of VSM NY WAREHOUSE LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 8/26/2025. Office location: New York County.

CATEGORY: Ltd Liability Company, NY: New York AD Number:

NOTICE OF FORMATION of VSM NY WAREHOUSE LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 8/26/2025. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to DANIEL MCCARTHY, GENERAL COUNSEL, VILLAGE SUPER MARKET, INC., 733 MOUNTAIN AVENUE SPRINGFIELD, NJ, 07081, USA. Purpose: any lawful act.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK

HSBC BANK USA, -against-

KAREN KENNEY A/K/A KAREN KENNY, ET AL.

NOTICE OF SALE

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of New York on July 14, 2022 , wherein HSBC BANK USA is the Plaintiff and KAREN KENNEY A/K/A KAREN KENNY , ET AL., are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the NEW YORK COUNTY CIVIL SUPREME COURTHOUSE, 60 CENTRE STREET, ROOM 130, NEW YORK, NY 10007, on October 15, 2025 at 2:15PM, the premises known as 144 WEST 123RD STREET , NEW YORK , NY 10027 ; tax map identification 1907-53 ; and description:

ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN, COUNTY, CITY AND STATE OF N.Y. . . .

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 810040/2012 . Elaine Shay , Esq., as Referee . Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC, 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310 , Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES.

NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that a license, number #NA-0340-25129320 for Beer, Wine &Amp; Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer, Wine &Amp; Liquor at retail in a Restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 621 Hudson St, , New York, NY 10014, New York County for on premises consumption. Cleo Restaurant LLC , Cleo Restaurant LLC

upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 228 Park Ave S #117123, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/08/25. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 195 Fenimore St., Brooklyn, NY 11225. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company

GASS LLC, Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 06/03/2025. Office Location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 523 West 152 nd Street #42 New York, New York 10031 US. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYC laws.

SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF NEW YORK. ONESTONE LENDING LLC, Plaintiff -against- ALTA OPERATIONS, LLC, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated November 17, 2023 and entered on November 27, 2023 , I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street New York, NY on October 22, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County and State of New York, known as The Tower Unit 10A in the building known as "One Riverside Park Condominium" together with an undivided 0.3653% interest in the common elements. Block: 1171 Lot: 2508. Said premises known as 50 RIVERSIDE BOULEVARD, UNIT 10A, NEW YORK, NY 10069. Approximate amount of lien $1,027,596.74 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. Index Number 850198/2020. JERRY MEROLA, ESQ., Referee. The Camporeale Law Group PLLC, Attorney(s) for Plaintiff, 585 Stewart Avenue, 770, Garden City, NY 11530

{* AMSTERDAM*}

SUPREME COURT-NEW YORK COUNTY- HILTON RESORTS CORP., Pltf. v. DAVID F. HURWITT as Administrator of the Estates of DAVID F. HURWITT and SUSAN HURWITT, Defts. - Index # 850288/2024. Pursuant to Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale dated September 8, 2025, I will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, at 2:15 pm, an interest of an undivided 0.01972800000% and an interest of an undivided 0.00986400000% tenants in common interests in the timeshare known as 57TH STREET VACATION SUITES located at 102 West 57th Street, New York, NY. Approximate amount of judgment is $16,637.91 plus costs and interest as of June 27, 2025. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale which includes annual maintenance fees and charges. Paul Sklar, Esq., Referee. Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston, & Zimet LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 341 Conklin Street, Farmingdale, NY.

Notice of Formation of LIMA TOWERS DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/13/25. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 6 Greene St., Ste. 500, NY, NY 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: To control the funds used to fund costs for acquisition and renovation of Lima Towers.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT. NEW YORK COUNTY. USALLIANCE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION BY MERGER WITH NEW YORK METRO FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, Pltf. vs., UNKNOWN HEIRS AT LAW OF JAMES MCCASKILL A/K/A JAMES MC CASKILL, HIS NEXT OF KIN, DISTRIBUTEES, EXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATORS, TRUSTEES, DEVISEES, LEGATEES, ASSIGNEES, LIENORS, CEDITORS, AND SUCCESSORS IN INTEREST, AND GENERALLY ALL PERSONS HAVING OR CLAIMING, UNDER, BY OR THROUGH SAID DEFENDANT WHO MAY BE DECEASED, BY PURCHASE, INHERITANCE, LIEN OR OTHERWISE, ANY RIGHT TITLE OR INTEREST IN AND TO THE PREMISES DESCRIBED IN THE COMPLAINT HEREIN, ALL OF WHOM AND WHOSE NAMES AND PLACES OF RESIDENCE ARE UNKNOWN TO THE PLAINTIFF AND CANNOT AFTER DILIGENT INQUIRY BE ASCERTAINED, et al Deft. Index #850257/2022. Pursuant to judgment of foreclosure and sale entered August 12, 2024, I will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 29, 2025 at 2:15 p.m. prem. k/a 61 West 126 th Street, New York, NY 10027 a/k/a Block 1724, Lot 11. Approximate amount of judgment is $180,402.84 plus cost and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale and the right of the United States of America to redeem within 120 days from the date of sale as provided by law. CHRISTY M. DEMELFI, Referee., MARGOLIN, WEINREB & NIERER, LLP., Attys. for Pltf., 575 Underhill Blvd., Suite 224, Syosset, NY. #102541

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY IN ITS CAPACITY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR CASCADE FUNDING MORTGAGE TRUST 2018-RM2, Plaintiff AGAINST DONALD ELFE, ET AL., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered February 6, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Courthouse in Room 130, located at 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM, premises known as 245 West 123rd Street, New York, NY 10027. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, Block 1929, Lot 12. Approximate amount of judgment $1,344,814.70 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #850007/2020. Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee Gross Polowy, LLC 1775 Wehrle Drive Williamsville, NY 14221 19-004389 86196

Z&L 66, LLC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on June 22, 2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 235 W 56TH ST, APT 29G, New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of Levittown SL OpCo LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/17/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/04/25. Princ. office of LLC: 745 Fifth Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10151. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Levittown SL PropCo LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/17/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/04/25. Princ. office of LLC: 745 Fifth Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10151. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of STEAMBOAT PROP ACQUISITION PARTNERS LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/09/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/06/25. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Michael Spizzuco, Esq., Brach Eichler L.L.C., 101 Eisenhower Pkwy., Roseland, NJ 07068. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of BLACKSTONE ABF ASSOCIATES L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/12/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/07/25. Princ. office of LLC: 345 Park Ave., 31st Fl., NY, NY 10154. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of LESLIE-LOHMAN HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/16/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, c/o Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, Attn: Christopher Rizzo, Esq., 28 Liberty St. - 41st Fl., NY, NY 10005. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK , Mary Djurasevic , Plaintiff, vs . Marcy Ellin Boucher, a/k/a Marcy Ellen Boucher, a/k/a Marcy E. Boucher a/k/a Marcy Boucher ET AL. , Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion dated January 30 , 2025, and duly entered May 21, 2025 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the New York County Supreme Court, Room 130, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY on October 29, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 406 West 25 th Street, New York, N.Y. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of New York, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 722 and Lot 45. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 850003/2024.

Approximate amount of judgment is $5,298,632.71, together with interest and costs.

Jeffrey R. Miller, Esq., Referee

Law Offices of Morrison Cohen LLP, Joaquin Ezcurra, Esq., 909 Third Avenue, 27 th Floor, New York, NY 10022-4784, (212) 735-8600

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB, not in its individual capacity but solely as Owner Trustee of CSMC 2018SP3 Trust, Plaintiff AGAINST Sreeram Mallikarjun; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered April 23, 2025, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction in room 130 at the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on November 5, 2025, at 2:15PM, premises known as 350 West 42nd Street Apartment 53C, New York, NY 10036. The Condominium Unit (the "Unit") in the premises known as Orion Condominium and by the street number 350 West 42nd Street, Borough of Manhattan, City, County and State of New York, Block 1032 Lot 1484. Approximate amount of judgment $1,206,958.02 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 850224/2021. Doron Leiby, Esq., Referee LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792 Dated: September 23, 2025 87371

Notice of Qualification of CASIMIR TECHNOLOGY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/04/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/04/25. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Attn: Moritz Hilf, Vibrant Capital Partners, 350 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10017. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Corp. Dept., Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of CVTB LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/12/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/06/25. Princ. office of LLC: 100 Causeway St., Ste. 1120, Boston, MA 02114. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of GO LIC ADVISORY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/09/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/07/25. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

AUTEUR DE VERITE LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/10/2025 . Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 136 W 129TH ST APT 3F, NEW YORK, NY, 10027. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of MILES ON HUDSON, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/16/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/25/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of MONTICELLOAM FUNDING SH-95, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/28/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/26/25. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Engaging in and exercising all powers permitted to a limited liability company formed under the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act.

Notice of Qualification of FIFTH AVENUE REAL ASSETS 7 LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/08/25. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/23/25. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., John G. Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

AERO ENGINEERING PLLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/09/2025. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 1 New Mill Road, Smithtown, NY, 11787. Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF SALE

SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NEW YORK, 2 Cap Investments, LLC , Plaintiff, vs. Frog Investments, LLC, ET AL ., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale and Decision + Order on Motion duly entered on August 9, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 130 of the New York County Courthouse, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007 on October 8, 2025 at 2:15 p.m., premises known as 321 West 110th Street, No. 7A a/k/a 321 Cathedral Parkway, Unit No. 7A, New York, NY 10026. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Manhattan, County of New York, City and State of New York, Block 1423 and Lot 1846. Approximate amount of judgment is $2,931,375.00 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale Index #850074/2022.

Allison M. Furman, Esq., Referee

Underweiser & Underweiser LLP, One Barker Avenue, Second Floor, White Plains, New York 10601, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Notice of formation of Catalyst 48 LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/21/25. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Erica Leone, 280 Park Ave S NY,NY 10010. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Florihana Realty LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on August 23, 2025. Office location: Richmond County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 626 New Dorp Lane, Staten Island, NY 10306. Purpose: Lessor of real estate.

NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that a license, number NA-0240-25129412 for Beer, Cider, Liqour And/ Or Wine has been applied for by the undersigned to sell Beer, Cider, Liqour And/ Or Wine at retail in a Restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 213 EAST BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY, 10002, USA, NEW YORK County for on premises consumption. TIP TARA THAI, TATA KITCHEN LLC

NOTICE OF FORMATION of VITRUVIAN MAN ENTERPRISES, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/22/2025. Office location: NY county. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 177 Duane Street, #6 New York, NY 10013. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of AHRENS CREATIVE LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/22/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 333 W. 56th St., Penthouse A N, NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Ya Habibi LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/12/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 24-15 Queens Plaza North 6B, New York, NY 11101. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Mind Share Therapy LCSW PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 8/14/2025. Office location: New York County.

SSNY

10001 Purpose: Any lawful act.

HEXAGON INVESTORS LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/11/25. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Shivam Agarwal, 959 1st Avenue, Apartment 8P, New York, NY 10022, which also serves as the Registered Agent address. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. Metamechanics Architecture PLLC. 6/24/2025. New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. 236 West 27th St Suite 1303, New York, New York 10001. 236 West 27th St Suite 1303, New York, New York 10001. Architecture.

Notice of Formation of Reese Peters Design LLC.

Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 09/05/2025.

Office Location: New York, NY.

SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: 184 Franklin St Apt 5 New York NY 10013.

Purpose: To engage in any lawful act or activity permitted under the laws of the State of New York.

Management: The LLC is managed by Members.

Notice is hereby given that a license, serial #NA-0340-25103028 for beer, wine & liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine & liquor at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 994 Columbus Ave., New York, NY 10025 for on-premises consumption; Limone LLC

Palisade Acquisition III, LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/1/2025. Office: Bronx County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: The LLC, 225 Crossways Park Dr, Woodbury, NY 11797. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE is hereby given that a license, number NA-0370-24135212 for liquor, wine, beer & cider has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor, wine, beer & cider at retail in a bar/tavern under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 4371 3rd Ave; Bronx, NY 10457 in Bronx County for on premises consumption. Zion Restaurant and Lounge Corp d/b/a Zion Restaurant and Lounge

PRIMEROS NORTH AMERICA LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/24/25. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o David M. Glanstein, Esq., Glanstein LLP, 711 Third Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of WUNGOO HOLDINGS LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/22/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 300 E 64th St., Apt. 27C, NY, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Clean It Up Pest Control, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/11/2025. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail to: 620 Malcolm X Blvd, Apt 12M, New York, NY 10037. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Crystal Venning Law PLLC (TX PLLC; formed 4/26/22). App. for Auth. filed 7/15/25 w/ SSNY to transact NY Cty. SSNY desig. svc. of proc. agent; mail: 125 Park Ave, 25th Fl, NY, NY 10017. TX off.: 440 Louisiana St, Ste 900, Houston, TX 77002. PLLC Cert. w/ TX SOS, P.O. Box 13697, Austin, TX 78711. Any lawful purpose.

of Formation of ANNIE'S NEW YORK LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/12/25. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of AP CREDIT SOLUTIONS HOLDINGS (AIV) II, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/08/25. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/26/24. Princ. office of LP: Attn: General Counsel, 9 W. 57th St., 43rd Fl., NY, NY 10019. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with The Secy. of State of the State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Adams drops out

from page 2

“Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my re-election campaign. The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign,” Adams said in a curated video post on X this Sunday, September 28. “I hope in time New Yorkers will see this city thrived under our leadership.”

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the National Action Network in 1991,” said Sharpton.

this summer, he pivoted to posting trendy short videos and content that would be more fit for a twenty-something TikTok influencer, in an effort to mimic Mamdani’s online success.

Adams indictment

Continued from page 4

His polling numbers were still at the back of the pack, and at one point, trailing behind Sliwa at 9% in a Siena University/ New York Times poll.

“He has been a friend of NAN year in and year out since, especially over the last almost four years he led City Hall. NAN remains focused on continuing our work of making New York City safe, livable, and prosperous for Black and Brown communities,” he continued.

“Republican healthcare crisis and funding the government” to avoid a shutdown soon.

Beginning in 2023, Adams and his administration had been under intense federal scrutiny. Federal prosecutors were quietly investigating him and his “inner circle” because of alleged fraud in his 2021 mayoral campaign. A slew of Adams’ top officials and agency heads abruptly resigned from their positions over several months. Adams was finally indicted in 2024 on a five-count felony charge. However, after cosying up to Republicans and President Donald Trump, a federal judge moved to dismiss his corruption case

Throughout it all, Adams doggedly refused to resign.

Even though he had successfully beaten his corruption charges, the controversy put a significant dent on his chances of winning the Democratic primary in June 2025. Mamdani, popular amongst younger voters in the Five Boroughs with a message that addressed the high cost of living in New York, pulled off an upset and took the primary, leaving both Cuomo and Adams contemplating

In a surprise move, Adams decided to abandon the primary and run in the general election as an Independent –– a last-ditch effort to save his mayoralty

With his volunteers working hard to get out the vote in various communities, Adams still had a much less noticeable presence on the campaign trail. On his social media platforms

Despite rumors that he was dropping out of the running to take a federal job in Trump’s administration for the last few weeks, Adams had maintained that he wouldn’t publicly end his campaign. This came after The New York Times revealed that Trump had conspired with Cuomo ahead of the mayoral election set for this November.

The race now focuses primarily on Mamdani and Cuomo — who have the support of billionairefunded Super PACs and is backed by a number of people who are fearful of having a Democratic Socialist running the city. According to a Sept. 23 Suffolk University poll, Cuomo comes in 20 percentage points behind Mamdani, leaving the Queens state assemblymember with the momentum in the race.

Reactions to the withdrawal

Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights activist and founder of the National Action Network (NAN), has been a longtime mentor and colleague of Adams. He was recently seen leading the 56th Annual African American Day Parade in Harlem, an event from which Adams was noticeably absent this year.

“Mayor Adams informed me earlier today that he would not seek re-election, and I told him I respected his decision, wished him nothing but the best, and said I was honored his last interview before this announcement was with me on PoliticsNation. We have been friends for nearly 35 years, and he helped us establish

In response to the breaking news that Adams dropped out of the race for mayor, Mamdani said in a statement that “Trump and his billionaire donors” might be able to influence Adams and Cuomo, but they would not dictate the election. “New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another,” said Mamdani. “On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of.”

Cuomo said, in a statement, that Adams hadn’t made an “easy” choice, but he believed that he was sincerely “putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition. We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them.”

He then went on to praise Adams as a native New Yorker with a successful rags-to-riches story.

Daniel Kurzyna, a spokesperson for Sliwa, lauded the Guardian Angels founder as the only candidate who could now defeat Mamdani in the mayoral race. “Our team, our resources, and our funding are unmatched. Most importantly, we have the best solutions to help working people afford to stay in New York City and feel safe.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has so far not endorsed Mamdani for mayor as the Democratic nominee and received backlash for it. In a brief statement, he called Adams courageous for his years of public service as a New York police officer and elected official. He said his focus will be on addressing the

Brooklyn Party Boss and Assemblymember Rodynese Bichotte Hermelyn had previously backed Cuomo for mayor and then Mamdani after his primary win. She thanked Adams for his service and wished him well. “Now we continue to turn the page in uniting behind our Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, and electing bold leadership that centers affordability, equity, and justice,” said Hermelyn.

Following in Dinkins’ footsteps

The only other Black person to have held the responsibility of running New York City was the late Mayor David Dinkins, who was elected in 1989 and also served one controversial term before losing to Rudy Giuliani four years later. Another Republican, Michael Bloomberg, was elected in 2001, though he became an Independent in 2007.

Despite facing heated criticism during his term over a violent protest that broke out between Jewish and Black communities in Brooklyn and the Central Park Five case, Dinkins is often remembered favorably in hindsight for his policies on community safety. Early in his first year as mayor, like Dinkins, Adams was already facing rumors of being a one-term leader.

Even Sharpton drew sharp comparisons between the two in a 2024 op-ed.

“Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to drop out of the race will make this a tighter mayoral election and gives Cuomo a fighting chance as we face a pivotal turning point while our city is under attack by President Trump,” said James Christopher, who owns and runs a political consultancy.

“However, Adams has essentially been forced to make this difficult decision, and New Yorkers across the political spectrum are certainly not cheering as our incumbent Mayor is forced to follow Dinkins’ footsteps as a one-term Black Mayor.”

NJ gubernatorial forum

after the forum, Rev. Dr. Charles F. Boyer, SandSJ co-founder and executive director, discussed with the AmNews what took place at the forum.

SandSJ’s forum was a unique opportunity for Black clergy to speak with the candidates vying for New Jersey’s highest office, Boyer said. Ciattarelli attended in person, while Sherrill joined virtually from Washington, D.C., where she had been delayed because she had to cast a vote in Congress.

Both candidates met separately with the crowd, answering several rounds of pre-submitted questions before sharing their visions for the state. A Q&A session followed, allowing attendees to question the candidates directly. The clergy in attendance were given sheets of paper so that they could take notes throughout the event.

The forum’s questions centered on topics important to New Jersey’s Black community, such as housing and affordable housing policies; Black maternal health; community-led public safety initiatives; police use of force and accountability; segregation concerns, particularly in education; and threats from MAGA, white nationalism, and attacks on Black history. New Jersey’s Black population, which numbers 1.2 million,

is about 13% of the state’s overall population. Most live in urban areas like Newark, Jersey City, and Trenton.

“Jack Ciattarelli really came in and said some things that certainly were offensive to folks,” Rev. Boyer said as he talked about the forum. “He certainly had policy issues that were not connecting ... I just think that there was a vast chasm between his lived experience and ours.”

Boyer said Ciattarelli offered several well-thought-out answers that showed he’d really thought about the issues, but his policy stances and remarks drew significant pushback. He spoke about efforts to roll back the Mount Laurel doctrine, affordable housing, and reducing police accountability measures, such as not requiring officers to fill out force reports unless they discharge a weapon –– a stance that is seen as dangerous, given that New Jersey police use force against Black people at three times the rate of white people. Some of the clergy noted that Ciattarelli spoke about “taking the handcuffs off” police while showing little knowledge of community street teams and violence interrupters. When asked about his response to MAGA and the increase in white nationalism, Ciattarelli mostly evaded the

question, Boyer said. Instead, he praised President Donald Trump’s achievements. He also drew widespread criticism with his answer regarding attacks on Black history, like when he claimed that Columbus Day was “the first civil rights holiday,” a remark that was broadly interpreted as insulting –– organizers believe that moment “lost the room” for him.

Ciattarelli may have come to a forum designed for Black clergy expecting to meet a very conservative crowd, Boyer said: “He brought up, at least four or five times, biological males competing in women’s sports, so I think there are a couple of things: One, there are several churches, Black churches, that he’s been at. And he’s probably said these things and had his talking points for Black people in those spaces, but he’s not been challenged in those spaces or asked any questions that have any depth to them.

“I think in some conservative Black spaces, super-conservative Black spaces, the transgender issue may connect,” Boyer continued, “but he hadn’t really been in front of, I think, a significant sampling of the Black church. I think he was doing his ‘greatest hits’ based [on] his limited interaction. Ciattarelli himself acknowledged the intensity in the room, because at one point he even said out loud, ‘Wow, this is a tough crowd.’”

Sherrill, despite a lukewarm initial reception, also appeared well-prepared and offered thoughtful answers

U.S. and Haiti

Continued from page 15

have hurt the country must be healed.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke briefly about attending the funeral for Haiti’s 58th president, Jovenel Moïse, who was assassinated in July 2021 in Haiti. Artist and philosopher Joverlein Moïse, son of the late Haitian president, also attended the panel.

“They came and whispered in our ears that gangs were starting to gather,” said Meeks, recalling Moïse’s service. “We then heard gunshots in the distance … What upsets me is the fact that somebody is organizing this, and organizing these gangs with impunity — and many of them come back and forth to the United States of America. We know weapons and guns are not manufactured in Haiti.”

Meeks said that legislation for Haiti, like the HOPE/HELP Act (H.R. 1625) and the L’Ouverture Economic Development Plan for Haiti Act of 2025 (H.R.1114), would go a long way toward improving trade programs with Haiti and stabilize their supply chains for economic growth.

Other CBC panelists included Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Katherine Due -

that earned her respect, said Boyer. She spoke about working with faith-based organizations to develop affordable housing, supporting Black-led birth initiatives, and increasing resources for young people in schools to address the school-to-prison pipeline.

When asked what she had already done for the Black community, a question posed to both candidates, Sherrill pointed to her work as a U.S. attorney and prosecutor, mentioning her re-entry initiatives and efforts to adopt a more compassionate approach to Black communities, acknowledging issues like disproportionate sentencing and targeting of Black communities. She also mentioned her involvement with Bethel A.M.E. Church in Morristown and her efforts in flood mitigation.

“She was able to provide some substance in her work,” Boyer noted, adding that Sherill seemed to have a clear vision for working with Black communities, although he added that her subsequent Yes vote on the House resolution regarding Charlie Kirk was disappointing.

SandSJ plans to host more forums over the next few months to help promote civic engagement. The organization’s next event, the fourth installment of the “Statewide Meeting for the Black Agenda,” will take place on October 8, 2025, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at St. John’s Baptist Church (525 Bramhall Avenue, Jersey City, N.J.).

holm, Kreyol Essence Co-Founder and CEO Yve Car Momprousse, Kreyól Essence COO & Co-Founder Stéphane Jean-Baptiste, Banj Founder Marc Alain Boucicault, and Haitian rapper and singer Wyclef Jean. They discussed their role in creating a Haitian private sector for job creation, community protection, and regional economic support, and the critical need for stable electricity and internet infrastructure for the island.

Jean is currently a consultant for Google AI Deepmind; chief music officer of OpenWav, an AI-powered music platform; a Global Citizen NOW Ambassador, and an avid supporter of youth robotics groups in Haiti through the Educáre Ayiti organization.

“You can’t have an investment in Haiti without having the most qualified people in Haiti running it. [It] is very important as we embark on investments to understand that,” said Jean. “With Haiti, we have a big chance. Half of the population is a youth population. Think about that. You have an entire workforce that’s present. At my age, I sponsor things that I feel are going to move us forward as a nation … I realize that if we feed and we look and we scout talent, then that one becomes you.”

In the new era of NIL, Charlie Ward seeks to build an HBCU powerhouse

By TONY PAIGE Special to the AmNews

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 was published in last week’s edition)

“It’s all about recruiting, getting outstanding football players,” noted soon-to-be 85-year-old former Florida A&M University (FAMU) head football coach Billy Joe, who talks like he’s 50 but laughs like he’s 30. “You do that and quite frankly, you’re going to be a winner.”

Joe didn’t get to play in Super Bowl III versus the Baltimore Colts because he was injured. Still, he used his bauble to impress recruits. “I always wore my Super Bowl ring and let the players try it on,” stated Joe, the AFL Rookie-ofthe-Year (1963) with the Denver Broncos. “Their fathers and mothers also tried it on.”

One new wrinkle of college coaching is the new world order of the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness). College athletes can now earn money from their likenesses on a t-shirt and the like. That’s something Charlie Ward, the exKnick, Heisman Trophy, winner and newly installed basketball coach at FAMU, is going to have to deal with.

“Through the NIL space, some people are just taking the best deal, right?” he declared. “They’re burning bridges to go get what they call the ‘biggest bag.’ Which is not a good mindset long term because it’s the microwave revolu-

tion.” Everyone wants it now, but building a team takes patience. Ward’s Rattler offense will be “free flowing based around our personnel,” while his defense has always been a focus and is always going to be something that you can hang your hat on if you’re

going to win consistently.”

Last year’s squad was 14-17. Ward started thinking about coaching when he retired from the NBA after 11 years, following the 2004-05 season playing for Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy. He was the starting point guard when the Knicks made their last trip to the NBA Finals –– under Van Gundy –– in 1999. Ward became an assistant coach under Van Gundy (“He opened the door for me.”), and he has never forgotten that. Van Gundy went from being his coach to “my boss” to a mentor.

“We’re connected at the hip because of long-term relationships that were built,” exclaimed Ward, as he and wife Tonja are the parents of Caleb (25), Hope (22), and Joshua (16). Ward turned down the NFL when he learned he wouldn’t be drafted in the first round. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, but basketball is his calling. Could an NBA gig be in the future? “That’s not a long-term goal for me,” he admitted. “I am enjoying where I am. I coached high school basketball for seven years at one place. I like to try to stay in one place because just like

the guys who are searching for the ‘biggest bag,’ it can become who you are, and you don’t get the most out of where you are.”

Overall, he spent 17 years coaching high school and captured a Class 3A state title at Tallahassee’s Florida High School in 2022. Ward knows exactly where he is now, though in 2018, he had a mini stroke, which put everything in perspective.

“I do believe mine was caused by stress and me eating different things that I probably shouldn’t have,” he revealed. Ward is in good health now and takes care of his body with a little extra help. “Everything you go through is part of God’s plan for your life,” said Ward.

As he starts his first year as the head coach, Ward marvels at where he is right now. “We were out on the recruiting trail, and we’re in the same room as some of the Power 4 schools,” recalled Ward. “I was just thinking, in the movies, how the Power 4 coaches that you recognize are in the movie recruiting players. I joked to my coaches that we’re in the same room as the Alabamas. I tell them that we’re in the movie.

“That’s all you can ask for.”

Turnovers and penalties continue to plague the 0-4 New York Jets

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

The Jets have carried over a damaging trend from last season into this one: beating themselves. They led the league in penalties a year ago, averaging 8.06 per game and totaling 137 infractions for 1,134 yards — all three the worst marks in the NFL.

They compounded their excessive penalties by ranking 29th in the 32-team NFL in turnover margin at -1.3. On Monday, in a 27-21 road loss to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets committed three turnovers and were flagged 13 times for 101 yards. The result: an 0-4 start, while generously helping the Dolphins secure their first win of the 2025 regular season.

“Very disappointing, very disappointing,” bemoaned the Jets’ first-year head coach Aaron Glenn after the defeat. There is no way you can win any game with 13 penalties and three turnovers. Giveaways in the form of a fumble by running back Braelon Allen at the Dolphins 1-yard line with 3:06

left in the first quarter with Miami up 3-0 was followed by a fumble by quarterback Justin Fields on 3rd and 5 from the Dolphins 36 yards line with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter trailing 10-0.

Down 10-3 to start the second half, kick returner Isaiah Williams coughed up the rock on the first play of the third quarter and Miami possessed the ball on the Jets 36-yard line. The consequence was a six-play touchdown drive by the Dolphins to take a 17-3 advantage.

The Jets go into Week 5 this Sunday at home at MetLife Stadium versus the Dallas Cowboys (1 p.m.) tied for second in the league with the Minnesota Vikings with seven turnovers (four teams have eight) and at -7 are at the bottom in turnover differential.

The 1-3 Giants’ first win of the season came on Sunday at MetLife versus the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers in the highly anticipated starting debut of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart. But the 21-18 victory was marred by star second-

year wide receiver Malik Nabers tearing the ACL in his right knee in the second quarter on a deep pass down the right sideline from Dart. Nabers will be out for the remainder of this season.

“We’ll have a tremendous amount of support for him and his family.

That’s obviously a tough loss for

“He’s one of our better players. I think one of the better players at his position in the league,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll regarding Nabers on Monday.

our football team, but we’ll regroup, and we’ll get the guys ready to play that are here and be as good as we can be.”

Ex-Knick Charlie Ward understands the challenges of building a college basketball program in the era of name, image, and likeness (NIL). (Florida A&M Athletics photo)

The Giants will play the 0-4 New Orleans Saints on the road this Sunday at 1 p.m.

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn has a look of frustration watching his team fall to 0-4 after a 27-21 road loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday night. (AP Photo/Doug Murray)

Is Terence Crawford the best of his era after defeating Canelo Alvarez?

By DERREL JOHNSON Special to the AmNews

Terence Crawford understood he was chasing immortality when he stepped into the ring to face Canelo Alvarez. His opponent, the 35-yearold Alvarez, a native of Mexico, who is considered an all-time great and many contend is the best his country has ever produced, wasn’t Crawford’s most daunting adversary. At 37 (he turned 38 on September 28, two weeks after the match), Crawford was battling a more formidable foe –– legacy.

The Omaha, Nebraska-born and bred Crawford has held 18 separate major world championships in five weight classes and is the second male ever to be an undisputed world champion in three weight classes in the four-belt era. But an argument can be made as to whether he is the best of his generation, and in conversations as to being equal to or better than immortals such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and his contemporary Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Thus, moving up in weight classes, two divisions and 14 pounds to be exact, and by defeating Alvarez (39-3-2) by a 115-113, 116-112, and 115-113 unanimous decision on September 15, in front of 70,482 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas,

the conversation of placing him with those legends is appropriate. With the win, Crawford’s resume now reads undisputed champion in the junior welterweight, welterweight, and super middleweight divisions and five-division strap holder composed of the lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight, light middleweight, and super middleweight classes. Given this historic achievement, where does Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) rank amongst the recent greats? In evaluating his legacy, it’s essential to note that Crawford’s two biggest fights have occurred in the last

26 months, with his win over Alvarez and his destruction of then-undefeated champion Errol Spence Jr. in late July 2023. Crawford has experienced a career similar to that of the undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who was a long-time cruiserweight title holder before moving up to heavyweight, taking higher-profile fights in 2021, and twice defeating both Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. A combination of his promoters’ inability to close the deal on huge fights and opponents’ fear of a clash with Crawford left him out of megafights that others secured

throughout their careers. Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) was with promoter Top Rank at the same time as Crawford, but left and fought welterweights Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman in 2019 instead of Crawford. The latter won his first welterweight title in June 2018 when he defeated Jeff Horn, who upset Pacquiao in July 2017. It would appear that the Filipino icon ducked, Crawford. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs), regarded by many as the best boxer of this century, is an obvious comparison to Crawford. The biggest difference in the pro-

Emmett Howell begins a new coaching chapter at York College

By TYRESE ALLEYNE-DAVIS Special to the AmNews

There’s no better feeling than being deeply rooted in your community that you have served. For York College’s new women’s head coach, Emmett Howell, this new chapter in his story is a culmination of all the dedication he brings to so many student-athletes, whom he mentors and coaches, teaching them the many valuable lessons that the game of basketball can give anybody on and off the court.

I first met Coach Howell, also known by many as Coach “Chip,” last summer as he led the youth basketball players of the Bello Youth Sports with his team, taking part in the Be A Community Educator (B.A.C.E) basketball tournament at Roy Wilkins Park in Jamaica, Queens. From the moment I saw Coach Howell passionately coaching on the sideline, it was evident that his love for nurturing the future of

files of the two is that Mayweather fought the best of his era, including Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, a young Alvarez, and Pacquiao. His fight with Pacquiao in 2015 was the highestgrossing combat sports event of all time (over $600 million).

After their fight, both Crawford and Alvarez were asked about comparisons to Mayweather. “ I think Crawford is way better than Floyd Mayweather, ” Álvarez (623-2, 39 KOs) said at the post-fight news conference.

“Listen, Floyd was the greatest of his era, I’m the greatest of my era, ain’t no need to compare me to Floyd or Floyd to me,” Crawford said at the post-fight press conference.

Sports, in general, and boxing, in particular, are about comparing greats from different eras and debating which boxer would win, such as Muhammad Ali versus Mike Tyson. After convincingly defeating Alvarez, we will compare and debate the preeminence for many years.

Jaron Ennis (34-0 30 KOs), who trained and sparred with Alvarez in preparation for his clash with Crawford, will make his super-welterweight debut next Saturday, October 11, versus Angolan Uisma Lima (14-1 10 KOs) at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

young athletes comes from a genuine place.

Before being appointed to his new head coaching position at York College, Coach Howell was an assistant coach at Queensborough Community College, serving as an assistant with the men’s basketball team for 12 years, where the Tigers saw CUNYAC playoff

appearances, with the program winning the 2022–2023 CUNYAC men’s championship. Howell also played a big part in transforming former Queensborough player Williams Guzman into an elite scorer and CUNYAC All-Region Second Team nominee. Through his training with Coach Howell, Guzman earned an athletic schol-

arship to Queens College.

Coach Howell’s dedication and strong advocacy for youth athletics also led him to create his own program. In 2010, he founded Learn The Game, a Queensbased basketball development initiative that has served as a training ground for athletes across youth, high school, and

college levels. As CEO and head trainer, Howell has overseen everything from skill development and team coaching to scheduling and operations, further solidifying his reputation as both a mentor and a builder of opportunities for young players.

Coach Howell shared what it feels like to start this new journey at York College, personally and professionally: “This means the world to me. To be given a chance to cultivate a program that has great ties to the community. We, as a coaching staff, are elated for this opportunity.”

When leaders like Coach Emmett Howell guide young people toward a positive path — fostering leadership, community, and excellence through basketball — everyone in the community takes notice. Today, Coach Howell reaches even more athletes, sharing his love, passion, and purpose while developing the game at York College, one student-athlete at a time.

Terence Crawford (left) elevated his standing in boxing history with a September 15 victory over Canelo Alvarez at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Veteran CUNY coach Emmett Howell will now lead the York College women’s program. (York College Athletics)

Leaders in women’s sports share their wisdom at Game Changers conference

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

The annual Game Changers conference, held last week in New York City, celebrated its 15th class of honorees. Leaders in sports came from around the country to discuss today’s progress and the journey still to come in women’s sports. During the panel, Top of the Agenda: The Trends and Storylines You Should Be Watching, Kim Damron, president of Learfield’s Sports Properties Division, discussed issues around name, image and likeness (NIL) in college sports, including which companies and situations are considered appropriate. “The only one that’s not really approved right now by the NCAA is jersey patches,” she said.

Moderator Abraham Madkour, publisher and executive editor of Sports Business Journal, asked the panelists what has most contributed to the rise of women’s sports. “I would probably say access and

exposure,” said Danita Johnson, president of business operations at D.C. United. “The fact that you can turn it on and see it — before, you couldn’t even get to it. And the fact that it’s become part of the everyday conversation has been one of the reasons it’s continued to rise.”

The panelists noted that student-athletes having their own platforms on social media has been a huge driver, and women have used their creativity to build their brands. “I credit the athletes with building their own fan base,” said Amina Bulman, CRO of

Boston Legacy FC. Damron added that female student-athletes telling authentic stories has created genuine excitement.

Madkour also sat down with Val Ackerman for Fireside Chat: Legacy, Leadership and Redefining the Landscape of Sports. She

reflected on her career journey — from law school to the NBA, to launching the WNBA, and, since 2013, serving as commissioner of the Big East Conference.

Ackerman said, “Society has changed. I think [the WNBA was] ahead of its time in the way we were positioning the league and the way we were speaking about the power of women … There were naysayers around many corners, but we kept at it … The payout now, it’s great to see.”

Today, Ackerman is focused on issues in college sports, notably the impact of NIL and revenue sharing. “It’s very hard right now to draft a five-year plan, but it really is on the backs of the [athletic directors] to deal with their athletes, this changing model, the revenue sharing, the fundraising that’s needed in order to do the revenue sharing and the normal pressures of the job,” she said. “I tip my hat to ADs all around the country because they’re dealing with a lot.”

Former Skater Zoia Birmingham shares her story in a poignant film

By LOIS ELFMAN

Special to the AmNews

British Ice Skating recently posted a short film on YouTube (“Zoia Birmingham: My Story,” https://youtu.be/6BBI ynfFtkQ?si=LpbuoQuDTUzrd Hz8) featuring former competitive Ice Dancer Zoia Birmingham in which the now skating coach shares both her love of the sport as well as her painful experiences. Early in the film, she recalls the time she won a competition and when she went to take the top step on the medal podium, someone insisted she step down because there was no way she had placed first. Only when a world-renowned coach spoke up on her behalf did she ascend the top step.

“That’s why I think it’s so important to step up and not sit in the corner and hide,” said Birmingham, still stung by the memory years later.

WNBA Finals

Continued from page 40

“I know it won’t change if we don’t step up.”

Connecting with the U.S.based Diversify Ice, founded by Joel Savary, has been a huge motivator for Birmingham, who coaches skating in London. There are few Black coaches in England, so the camaraderie of others in the sport uplifts her and pushes her forward. “Diversify Ice, they’re so supportive and caring,” she said. After her time as a competitive ice dancer, Birmingham had some professional skating opportunities, notably partnering with Soccer Star David Seaman on the BBC show “Strictly Ice Dancing,” which aired in the mid-2000s. She also has acting and hosting experience, which combined with her coaching skills, brought her and her partner to victory. “I thought, ‘Black children are going to see me win,’” she said.

The film came about after

she met Videographer/Skating Coach Daniel Linden, who videos skaters through his company The Ice Capture. He suggested making a film about Birmingham’s story, which they could then leverage to get sponsorship for similar projects. “I really like finding stories from people [that are underrepresented] and bringing them to the forefront. Let little brown children see that there’s not just me,” said Birmingham. She took the idea to British Ice Skating, where Executive Andrew Hibberd was particularly supportive. “It’s the right time,” Birmingham said. While doing coaching work for ITV’s “Dancing on Ice” in 2020, she met Trisha Goddard, a high-profile Black TV host. “When I met her, I learned… that I can’t hide in the corner,” said Birmingham. “I want to stand up, be counted, get in British Ice Skating and help them shake it up.”

Game 1 of the best-of-seven series will begin tomorrow (8 p.m., ESPN) in Las Vegas. A’ja Wilson of the Aces was named MVP for a record fourth time. Naz Hillmon of the Atlanta Dream received Sixth Player of the Year. Wilson and the Lynx’s Alanna Smith are Co-Defensive Players of the Year. Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase was named Coach of the Year, a first for the coach of an expansion team. Dream general manager Dan Padover is the WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year. The Seattle Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike has been named the recipient of the

ship Award, the first player in league history to win the award four times. Dallas Wings guard Paige

is the Rookie of the Year.

Kim Perrot Sportsman

Bueckers

Ice dancer Zoia Birmingham, pictured training a student, is featured in a new short film, “Zoia Birmingham: My Story” on YouTube. (Photo courtesy of Zoia Birmingham)

Val Ackerman (c) with the coaches of the Big East at 2024 Big East Basketball Media Day. (Lois Elfman photo)

Sports

The Yankees and Mets have their loyal supporters questioning their fandom

By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor

The look on the faces of many of the announced crowd of 47,027 that packed Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Tuesday night to witness Game 1 of the best-of-three Major League Baseball wildcard series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox was as expressive as if they had articulated their emotions in thousands of words.

The 3-1 Yankees loss put the home team on the brink of elimination when they hosted the Red Sox in Game 2 last night (Wednesday). The Yankees ended the regular season with a 94-68 record, tied with the 94-68 Toronto Blue Jays for the best record in the American League East. But the Blue Jays held the tiebreaker, so instead of the Yankees having an opening round bye, they were matched with their longtime nemesis as a wildcard.

The Red Sox finished third in the AL East at 89-73 and came into the Bronx unnerved. Game 1 was the 2,324th time the Yankees and Red

Sox have played each other, dating back to their first meeting in 1903 when the Yankees were named the Highlanders, and it was another gut-wrenching defeat as Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet, a top candidate for this season’s AL Cy Young award, retired 17 consecutive batters and went 7 2/3 innings.

The game ended with irony, drama, and symmetry as former Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, then sat down designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (strikeout), second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (fly out to right field), and centerfielder Trent Grisham (strikeout) in succession to settle the matter.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone and right fielder Aaron Judge are the two Yankees under the most scrutiny. Judge, who had another Hall of Fame regular season, leading MLB in batting average (.331) and OPS (1.1440), with 53 homers and 114 RBI, was 2-4 with a strikeout in Game 1. Boone, who has managed the Yankees since 2018,

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge loses a grip on his bat after striking out in the sixth inning on Tuesday in a 3-1 loss in Game 1 of his club’s wildcard series versus the Boston Red Sox. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II photo)

was intensely criticized for removing starter Max Fried, one of the best in the sport, after he held the Red Sox to just one run and four hits in 6 1/3 innings and 102 pitches, for reliever Luke Weaver, who immediately gave up two runs in the top of the seventh. Conversely, Red Sox manag-

er Alex Cora stayed with Crochet through 117 pitches before calling on Chapman.

“They pressured him pretty good in the fourth, fifth, sixth ––you know they had a couple of base runners each inning. I felt like he kind of cruised through the first few, and obviously he ends up

pitching great, but I felt he had to work pretty hard…”

The Mets, with a chance to earn a wildcard berth with a win on Sunday, were shut out 4-0 by the Miami Marlins to conclude one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history with a record of 83-79.

The Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces set to battle in the WNBA Finals

By LOIS ELFMAN Special to the AmNews

At the post-game press conference following the Phoenix Mercury’s 86–81 win over the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA semi-finals — advancing the Mercury to the sixth Finals in team history (winning in 2007, ’09 and ’14) — Lynx guard Kayla McBride was in tears.

The Lynx headed into Sunday’s game at a decided disadvantage. Star player Napheesa Collier was sidelined with a foot injury sustained in game three, and head coach Cheryl Reeve was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected from game three and criticizing the officiating.

“You just want it for the people around you,” said McBride. “You want it for the people that grind with you every single day — good days, bad days, bus rides, locker

Las Vegas

Aces center

A’ja Wilson (22) and Aces guard Chelsea Gray (12) celebrate a trip to the WNBA Finals after the Aces defeated the Indiana Fever in Game 5 of their semifinals series on Tuesday. (AP Photo/John Locher)

room. …It’s never about anything else but each other.”

One can only hope the powers-that-be pay careful attention to McBride’s words when deciding what to offer the WNBA players in the collec -

tive bargaining. Talented athletes have sacrificed, shown up, and given their hearts and souls for the league for 29 seasons.

the Las Vegas Aces and Indiana Fever. Playing without its star, Caitlin Clark, and a whole bunch of other injured players, the Fever stepped up like it was 2015, when the franchise reached the finals, losing to the Lynx. On Tuesday evening, in one of the league’s best-ever semifinal games, the Las Vegas Aces denied the Fever another trip to the finals.

The Aces’ A’ja Wilson, putting herself with the best who have ever played the game, scored 35 points to carry the Aces to a 107-98 win. The Aces will be making their fourth finals appearance in the last six years.

Yes, the NBA and the investors are looking for a return, but at this moment of popularity for women’s basketball, it is time to pay the players what they’re worth.

The extensive talent in this league was clear in the incredible play between

New York Amsterdam News October 2-8, 2025

IN-CUSTODY DEATHS:

DIRECTORY

Adams drops out of race and remaining candidates immediately begin taking jabs

NJ gubernatorial forum focuses on Black concerns, but candidates had different approaches

Mayoral hopefuls tackle issues facing Black women in Harlem showdown

Sunset Park activists respond to BATWorks hub with banner protest

Is statehood the answer to protect D.C. from MAGA? Mayor says yes

History

Creating a police state

Antoine Noble’s passion for basketball is giving kids a chance to say ‘We Got Next’

Black New Yorker

Special to the AmNews

End of Year Tips to Purchase Your Dream Vehicle

In-custody deaths: Risk remains high for vulnerable detainees in NYC’s jail system

Why public defenders are calling out loss of life and demanding NYPD custody reform

Council approves reentry-based supportive housing project despite objections from Adams and local rep

¡Presente, Assata, Presente!

Testament

Assata! Why she was more than a freedom fighter

Assata Shakur: An open letter to the media (1998)

Divine Nine News Sorority Spotlight: Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

Union Matters

Trump admin government shutdown’s firing threats challenged in court

MTA holds Bus Operator recruitment day

Lt. Col. George E. Hardy, youngest Tuskegee Airman, dies at 100

In hindsight, Adams’ ironic exit is almost Shakespearean

Gardasil works in preventing HPV, but misinformation works harder to spread it

Homelessness returns to Depression-era levels. Time for a New Deal 2.0

CHRISTINA GREER, PH.D.

Caribbean Update

Guyanese educator facing deportation, plans to fight

Major Immigration Changes You Need To Know

FELICIA PERSAUD

IMMIGRATION KORNER

1: $100,000 H-1B Visa Petitions

2: Changes To The U.S. Citizenship Test

3: Suspension Of TPS For Syrians

The Bottom Line

Jamaica native deported by DHS and imprisoned in Eswatini repatriated to home country

Lawmakers call for Haitian‑led policies and economic opportunities amid serious challenges in U.S. and Haiti

Arts & Entertainment

New book is a visual love letter to local record stores

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Record Store

September 2025 Dance Calendar

STILL RUNNING:

Finding home in the heart: ‘Love, Brooklyn’

Morris-Jumel Mansion: Celebrating 260 years of an all-American treasure

Legendary composer Abdullah Ibrahim to celebrate 91st birthday at Jazz at Lincoln Center Oct. 3-4

Special

Jazz Notes: A look back at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Fest

Sunset Park

Push for community inclusion

Support

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Education

Trump administration cancels NYC magnet school funding over transgender student policies

Unhoused

Health

Amid confusion over U.S. vaccine recommendations, states try to ‘restore trust’

In-custody deaths

Rally calls for end to veterans’ poverty

Freedom Song

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Adams drops out

Adams indictment

Following in Dinkins’ footsteps

NJ gubernatorial forum

U.S. and Haiti

In the new era of NIL, Charlie Ward seeks to build an HBCU powerhouse

Turnovers and penalties continue to plague the 0-4 New York Jets

Is Terence Crawford the best of his era after defeating Canelo Alvarez?