By Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com, news-photos-features.com
An Illinois woman who came to New York City expressly for the TD 5 Boro Bike Tour on Sunday, May 3, 2026, was gleeful, saying “you get to see New York in a way you never would otherwise.”
So true. That first burst through the arch, up 6th Avenue through Greenwich Village, up to Radio City Music Hall, then into Central Park, and through Harlem, with Cheerleaders and bands greeting you at each section, is so thrilling.
You would never get to ride down the FDR Highway, through tunnels (a surreal experience), over the Queensborough (59th Street) Bridge, seeing the famous Manhattan skyline on one side, and the iconic Silvercup Bakery sign on the other, then some of the most spectacular scenes of the ride as you ride the downward spiral from the bridge into Queens, and through neighborhoods in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
It is absolutely thrilling to have all the traffic rerouted for us, so we can ride 40 miles of New York City roads car-free – taking over the FDR, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Verrazano Bridge. You feel this awesome sense of power and importance (not to mention Mayor Zohran Mamdani made history as the first sitting mayor to ride the whole tour, but every year evokes such a sense of empowerment).
What you see is the spirit, the diversity, the vitality of New York City – especially the diversity – a brilliant tapestry. The artful, the whimsical, the humor, the compassion.
It is important to know, too, that hundreds and hundreds of these riders are riding to support a charity. NY State Senator John Liu, riding for Live on NY, which promotes organ donation, pointed to the number of charities supported by the ride. The TD 5 Boro Bike tour is the largest charity bike ride in the world.
The experience completes after the finish line just at the end of the Verrazano Bridge, at Fort Wadsworth (where we each get medals – this isn’t a race, it’s a tour and a shared community experience). But we’re not done! Then we ride four miles further along Staten Island’s waterfront to the ferry, with more beautiful scenes (if you have time, visit Alice Austen’s historic house – she was an important photographer), climaxing with a ride on the Staten Island ferry that makes you feel like you are really cruising somewhere (try to get a position at the front of the boat so you can see the views, especially of the Statue of Liberty).
For many of us (the ride draws as many as 32,000 from all over the country and all over the world), we are still not done, but get to bike on the Hudson River Greenway one of the most beautiful recreational trails anywhere. There is so much along this gorgeous trail (which btw is the southernmost portion of New York’s Empire State Trail that extends all the way up to Canada) – you see the Freedom Tower looming over the skyline (if you have time, veer off and visit the World Trade Center 9/11 memorial park), stunning parks, playgrounds (a new one has a massive whale you climb through), even a sand beach, restaurants, and the incomparable City Islands park, a destination of its own). If you ride further north, you get to the Intrepid Air & Sea Museum (there’s a space shuttle you can visit, and a submarine!) and up to the George Washington Bridge. But I cut off at 34th street, enroute to Penn Station for the train ride to Long Island, where I chalk up a total of 50 miles for the day.
We all finish so impressed with how extremely organized the bike tour is – with some 1500 volunteers who so cheerfully direct traffic, stop traffic to allow pedestrians to cross (putting their own selves in danger), hand out snacks, and are on hand to help with emergencies.
“For one day, the streets of this great city belong to cyclists. Whether this is your first ride or your 20th, you are part of a tradition that celebrates the joy, freedom and community that cycling brings to our lives,” Bike New York President & CEO Ken Podziba, stated. “From the excitement at the start to the moment you cross the finish line, the ride offers countless opportunities to create lasting memories-with friends, family, fellow riders and the city itself.
“The TD Five Boro Bike Tour is more than just an unforgettable journey through all five boroughs. It is the only opportunity each year to experience New York City from the seat of a bicycle – traveling through its streets, highways, bridges and neighborhoods without cars, while riding alongside thousands of fellow cyclists from across the country and around the world.”
Mike Flynn, NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner, stated, ”A ride like this will change the way a person thinks about New York City. On this rare occasion, bike bells and the cheers of cyclists replace honking cars, and exhaust fumes that typically choke some of our most beautiful public spaces. Every year, the TD Five Boro Bike Tour gives cyclists a rare chance to ride New York City’s most iconic routes, from Wall Street to the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, car free… nothing compares to 40 miles of car-free streets.”
This year’s ride was historic since it is the first time the sitting mayor – Mayor Zohran Mamdani – actually joined the ride – a remarkable show of support (some people reported seeing him on the route).
Mayor Mamdani praised those who have “brought back the love of cycling across our city,” and credited NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn for “partnering to make it easier to be a cyclist in New York City and to find cycling across the five boroughs. I’m so excited to being here with all of you.”
Mayor Mamdani stated, “New Yorkers deserve to be safe no matter how they commute – whether they bike, use mass transit, walk or drive, Our administration is committed to delivering genuine street safety by advancing critical projects, including implementing parking protected bike lanes and upgrading or redesigning existing infrastructure to support cyclists. Bike New York advances our mission by offering free bike education.
“Every year its cycling tour across the five boroughs, the largest charitable ride in the world, gives tens of thousands d of participants the chance to exercise and explore new corners of our global metropolis while raising funds for a variety of nonprofit groups. I applaud everyone associated with this energetic event for their efforts to advocate for our cycling community and encourage active lifestyles. Together, we will keep our streets accessible and secure for all.”
The mayor set off, flanked by Bike New York President & CEO Ken Podziba, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, NYC DoT Commissioner Mike Flynn, State Senator John Liu, and NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura.
Here are more photo highlights from the 2026 TD Five Boro Bike Tour:
Bike New York’s mission is to empower New Yorkers to transform their lives and their communities through bicycling and advocate for more safe cycling routes. “Our vision is to increase ridership, to empower youth to lead healthy, productive lives, to remove barriers to cycling, and to advocate for and expand services to reach more New Yorkers.”
The proceeds from the Bike Tour fund programs that transform lives through bicycling – from workforce development initiatives that train justice-involved New Yorkers for careers in the bike industry, to the largest free bike education program of its kind in the world that help thousands of people each year learn to ride safely and confidently. The tour also helps advance Bike New York’s advocacy efforts to create safer, more equitable streets with more space for bicyclists and pedestrians.
In addition to the TD Five Boro Bike Tour, other popular programs include the Twin Lights Ride, the Discover Hudson Valley Ride, and local rides (see: https://www.bike.nyc/events/)
Bike New York also offers an innovative Recycle-a-Bicycle program, averaging 1,800 salvaged bicycles a year, diverting 45,000 pounds of waste from NYC’s landfills. The bikes, that begin as donations, are sold fully refurbished, with proceeds from sales and full service repairs directly supporting its education programs.
Bike New York’s Bike Path Program trains previously justice-involved individuals to become certified Bike Mechanics for Motivate, the operator of Citi Bike, the nation’s most extensive bike-share program, with 33,000 bikes and over 1,800 stations across metro NYC. Bike Path is a 3-week training program where mechanics are trained to repair regular bikes and Citi Bike’s electric and traditional bicycle fleets. In 2024 the program trained and saw 45 people be hired as Bike Mechanics at Motivate. The Bike Path Bike Mechanic Training & Employment Program has a 98% job placement rate. One of those “graduates” of the program, now an ambassador, addressed the riders.
Thousands strong came out for a rally in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, and march support unions, workers and the ideals of a pluralistic, diverse society – one of 3,000 May Day actions nationwide, a continuation of the anti-Trump resistance movements. More than an annual demonstration for union, workers’ rights and economic justice, the protests manifested ire against the Iran War and ICE, the attacks on civil and voting rights, protecting immigrants, making the rich pay their fair share of taxes and themes of the No Kings/Hands Off! Movements.
No War. No ICE. No Billionaires, read the banners behind the speakers.
The headliner was undoubtedly Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Union strong is more than a slogan it is a practice of solidarity,” he declared, standing under the famous Washington Square arch.
“Workers have won the rights that are taken for granted today – 40 hour week, the weekend, overtime pay, minimum wage, social security workplace safety standards – these have all been won by the people before us.
“Yet we know those rights are not inevitable. We have to work together to not just protect them, but to advance that same agenda,” Mamdani said. “Our city hall is committed to doing all we can to put working people right at the heart of that agenda.”
Among the actions – not words – his administration has taken within the first 100 days:
Delivered millions of dollars to workers in small businesses ripped off by mega corporations
Appointed the first deputy mayor for economic justice, Julie Su
Stood alongside nurses on the picket line
“And it is why we continue to fight for those – deliver universal childcare, faster buses, cheaper groceries, protecting from ICE and yes, working to tax the wealthiest and most profitable corporations in New York City.”
He added, “We know that one of the best ways to uplift worker power is to stand with our unions. A union town is union strong. Union strong is more than just a slogan it is a practice of solidarity.
“Today we will show what solidarity means, a people united, organized cannot be defeated,” Mamdani declared to cheers.
More than 60 unions and organizations, including NYC Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, New York Immigration Coalition, participated in what is International Workers’ Day, which was one of some 3,000 across the country.
Protecting immigrants against the Trump Administration’s cruel policies was a strong theme, with several calling for the state to pass Governor Kathy Hochul’s New York for All legislation, establishing protections from federal authorities.
The May Day Strong protest represented union workers across a spectrum including teamsters, teachers, health workers, construction workers, musicians, stage and film workers, hospitality and gaming workers.
Notably, though despite being at the doorstep of New York University, the preponderance of people attending the rally were seniors. Among them, 98-year old World War II Navy veteran Arthur A. Wasserman and 87-year old Kathleen Hager, who expressed concern that in their lifetime, they have never felt the country at such risk.
Here are photo highlights from the May Day Strong rally and march in New York City:
The “Cost of Blakeman” tour through New York State launched here in Nassau County, Long Island, on the steps of the Executive Building where Bruce Blakeman presides as County Executive, by the people “who know Blakeman best.”
They gathered to expose Blakeman’s record as County Executive – or the lack of it – and how he has prioritized appeasing Trump above working to benefit constituents.
“No one knows better than us how important it is to keep him away as far as possible from Governor’s mansion,” declared Jay Jacobs, state and county Democratic Committee chair. “We are taking this message across New York State because we know his record.”
“He has made the county less safe, more expensive for all, in hopes of making Trump happy.”
Blakeman backed Trump’s tariffs and downplays price hikes as a result of the tariffs and the Iran War, and raising property taxes indirectly because, despite his campaign promise, has done nothing to fix assessment system.
Jacobs accused Blakeman of abusing power by creating an armed private militia.
Blakeman has taken to opposing anything that Governor Hochul has proposed, from reforming the bail system to be more just (disregarding the changes to insure violent and repeat offenders are not released), to addressing the crisis in affordable housing, to her gun violence prevention legislation after the Supreme Court knocked down New York’s 100-year old gun control law, to challenging congestion pricing in New York City to improve air quality, reduce traffic and raise necessary funds for capital improvements to mass transit.
When Trump pulled billions from appropriated funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project (hinting the money would be restored if New York renamed Penn Station for him), Blakeman didn’t
When Trump pulled millions of federal spending for local law enforcement and community violence prevention programs, Blakeman refused to a lift finger, but Hochul got the money back.
Under Blakeman – who interestingly has always made crime his Number One campaign issue – violent crime has gone up, spiked to the highest levels in decades, Jacobs said, “and excuses too”, despite violent crime rates dropping across the state and nation.
“Nassau declared ‘America’s safest suburb’ was bestowed on Blakeman’s predecessor, Democrat Laura Curran,” he noted.
But under Blakeman, Nassau County Police Department is lower in numbers, detective ranks lower (though pay has been significantly increased).
Blakeman has diverted County detectives to work with ICE for deportation, rather than focus on keeping us safe, and holds a press photo op every time alleged gang members are arrested (most recently, touting that 9 out of 35 people arrested were gang members). He has claimed the county arrested 2,000 criminal migrants, without noting that they were not adjudicated as guilty of crime. Among them, a long-time Great Neck resident, Tomas Orellana, who for years ran the railroad station café, a father of eight who the community is rallying around to provide support, while he was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana where it is difficult for him to obtain legal counsel.
Trump and the Republicans tax bill caused 500,000 New Yorkers to lose healthcare, and as governor, Blakeman has indicated he wants to further gut Medicaid and New York health care, while Hochul has been working to expand access to health care.
“He won’t disagree with Trump privately or publicly, ever. He finds new ways to praise Trump. He couldn’t even condemn Trump for bashing the Pope.
“His entire record is that he has done absolutely nothing…We need a governor who works for us, not to keep Trump happy. Hochul has been laser focused on her Affordability Agenda” – for example, working to build affordable housing, lower car insurance rates, provide child care, and give residents a Trump tariffs rebate. She has fought to claw back the federal funds – such as halting construction of the Hudson Gateway Tunnel and offshore wind projects that are nearing completion – that Trump unilaterally rescinded out of pique or to extort the state to enact his policies. Hochul is laser focused on her Affordability agenda.
“Hochul will make sure that Blakeman adds to his long, long track record of losing elections at every level,” Jacobs declared.
Adrienne Adams, former speaker of the New York City Council who is running with Hochul as Lt. Governor, also accused Blakeman of being 100% MAGA, costing families money while putting safety at risk.
He’s not just supporting Trump, he is promising to enact similar policies at the same level.
Trump stripped 500,000 New Yorkers of healthcare and Blakeman promises further cuts.
Blakeman supports tariffs that hurt New Yorkers while Hochul is demanding refunds to keep money in your pocket.
She is fighting for ICE accountability while Blakeman is fighting for a private MAGA militia [mimicking the unaccountable ICE agents].
He saw Trump go after New York for public safety, infrastructure, child care funds. “But from Blakeman only crickets. He’s not fighting back like Hochul.
He promises Trump-style leadership as governor. “New Yorkers know exactly what that means – and they want no part.
They want a governor to stand up for them. Hochul takes on trump and wins.
“Hochul is getting results, she has the receipts.”
The choice is a governor who fights for you or a MAGA politician who follows trump.
Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whittonnoted, “The past 4 years I’ve had the distinct challenge of trying to work with Blakeman. [His tenure is defined by] headlines, photo ops and political ambition. You don’t see the executive unless there is a camera.”
Democrats, who are relegated to a minority by gerrymandered districting by the Republican Supermajority, have put forward legislation to cap the gas tax, establish a 311 system to reduce pressure on 911, which she said, Blakeman ignored.
Terry Clark of Moms Demand Action, part of Everytown which advocates for gun violence prevention, railed against one of Blakeman’s pet achievements, the creation of a private militia.
“A private militia poses danger to law enforcement, neighborhoods, creates confusion, undermines trust, puts communities at risk. There should be no reason to guess who is charge, who is trained. When lines blurred, violence escalates. It is a matter of accountability and public trust. We deserve to know who the trained professionals are.”
Blakeman has argued for the need for his militia in the event of some emergency. But she noted, “we already have community response teams” who are trained for such emergencies.
“When lives are on line, clarity saves lives, confusion costs lives.”
Blakeman has a knee jerk response to anything that Hochul and the Democrats do. When the Supreme Court overturned New York’s 100-year old gun control law, he came out against Hochul’s newly crafted gun violence prevention law.
“The priorities are never about Nassau County, always about Bruce Blakeman,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “From the start, he has been more interested in auditioning for a role in the Trump administration” so has cheered tariffs, ICE enforcement, and has hosted Education Secretary Linda McMahon at Massapequa high school in decrying a state mandate to replace disrespectful (and inaccurate) Native American mascots at Nassau County schools, and recently hosted Treasury Secretary Bessent for a business roundtable.
“Blakeman has spent four years chasing attention rather than results,” DeRiggi-Whittonsaid.
Nearly half of the reserves have been spent down, she said, asserting wasteful spending and cronyism, like the millions of dollars handed to outside legal services.
Instead of spending the opioid settlement funds on programs, Blakeman has used the interest revenue to avoid having to raise taxes “while programs are desperately in need of funding,” she said.
The Nassau University Medical Center crisis was so severe – financial mismanagement leading to a massive $1.4 billion deficit, executive corruption allegations, and FBI scrutiny over diverted Medicaid funds – Governor Hochul and the state legislature executed a hostile takeover of the hospital’s board, clashing with Blakeman.
“I don’t see how Blakeman helps people. He is loyal to Trump, even after his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ gutted health care, by $2 trillion, said John Sabo, a healthcare worker and 1199 SEIU delegate who said “the hospital where I work is the hospital where I was born.”
“As a health care worker, I see workers laid off, hospitals closing, health care premiums shooting up so that people pay more or don’t have. To what end? To line the pockets of billionaires, give money for ICE to terrorize neighborhoods and conduct warrantless searches, detaining on a whim, mothers and children. If you just look like a targeted group, you can be detained.
“Blakeman is loyal to Trump, not to people at health risk or who fear ICE will detain, or workers who have to work two jobs to get by. We can do better. Vote right in November.”
Blakeman’s push for the Sands casino project despite community opposition (which Sands ultimately withdrew), and push away of a proposed NYU Langone complex lost the county $7 billion in economic opportunity, DeRiggi-Whittonasserted.
Another example: Blakeman diverted $15 million in tourism promotion funding, taking $5 million for a television ad campaign in places like Oklahoma which promoted himself, and took $10 million the county had paid for years to the professional tourism marketing organization, Discover Long Island, awarding the tourism promotion contract instead to a home-based brand marketer with no experience or connections in tourism marketing.
While Long Island experienced a boom in tourism in 2024, generating $945 million in local and state tax revenue, and a record $7.9 billion in total spending, it was Suffolk County, not Nassau that accounted for the vast majority of the increase, while Nassau actually had a decline. Since Nassau County withdrew from Discover Long Island and redirected its $1 million annual tourism contract to the private marketing firm, Nassau’s tourism receipts declined by 0.4% in 2024, while neighboring Suffolk County experienced a 7% increase. Additionally, the split cost the region $500,000 in annual matching funds from New York State’s “I LOVE NY” program.
Blakeman has taken no action to boost economic development or invest in infrastructure to boost the county’s climate resilience, or address the epidemic of traffic accidents and deaths. What improvements and projects that have been underway have mostly been funded by the state, through such programs as Downtown Revitalization Initiative, grants through the state’s Environmental and Climate bonds, and Department of Transportation grant programs, and while his Comptroller (and possible successor Elaine Phillips) recently attacked state Democrats for sending $9.6 billion to Albany while receiving $4.8 billion in State funding, it is questionable whether the County ever applied for grants.
Partisanship, cronyism and self-service define Blakeman’s tenure.
“Now Blakeman wants to run the state. His arrogance is only matched by [incompetence]. Hochul’s leadership is dedicated to serving all – not just political allies and cronies – and governing seriously,” DeRiggi-Whitton stated.
Bruce Blakeman took only two questions during his hastily called presser to rebut the rally speakers, but refused to answer a question about his economic development accomplishments and how much he has invested out of the nearly billion dollars held in reserve – the interest revenue used to avoid raising taxes – but indicated that he would bring the policies from the county to the state.
He blamed high utility costs on Hochul – not on Trump attempting to cancel wind power projects nearing completion – while mimicking trump’s claim of “clean energy scam”, and vowed to overturn bans on drilling in the Marcellus shale. (Note: consumer’s problem isn’t a lack of availability of fossil fuel, because the cost is set on world market. The USA already produces more than it consumes and has become the #1 exporter.)
He complained about the county sending billions more to state than the county receives back, but there is a question about whether the county has bothered to seek grants for infrastructure, water projects, climate resilience and mitigation, or road safety.
Meanwhile, Blakeman did not bother to show up for an announcement by Governor Kathy Hochul of $150 million in state funding toward a $430 million New York BioGenesis Park, a world-leading specialized cell and gene therapy innovation hub located in Lake Succes (actually telling the Governor never to set foot in Nassau again) and immediately walked out of a ceremony before Hochul appeared to announce the completion of a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant in Westbury.
Instead of offering any economic development achievements, he derided Hochul that the budget has been late for the fifth time.
He stressed as his major accomplishment removing 2,000 undocumented migrants, who he claimed were criminal rapists, gang members, gun traffickers (though it is unclear how they were adjudicated, since there are local groups that have monitored how people are being snatched off the street).
“We are the most overtaxed, overregulated state in the United States, 49 out of 50 in economic development, utility costs are 70% higher thanb the national average,” he claimed. “Hochul has made us less affordable, less safe,” despite data that shows the state’s crime rate declining.
“The last 4 years we have had budgets on time, surplus without raising tax. I cancelled the $150 million tax increase put in by my predecessor, and got 7 bond upgrades.
As for the unspent opioid funds that are being used to avoid needing to raise taxes, he claimed he would not do what Hochul does, throw money at programs and also uses the opioid fund interest to balance the budget.
When asked if the voters who put Republicans in power nationally and in Nassau County, are “losing faith” because of pocket book issues, tariffs, the Iran War, Blakeman explained away affordability problems using a phrase that mimics Trump, “The issue is with Hochul and green energy. She has been governor for four years and we have less affordable utility rates. Why aren’t we drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation, one of the largest reserves? That will cut utility costs.
“I would end green energy scam, open Marcellus Shale to drilling,” Blakeman stated.
Asked about the Trump tariffs impacting what New Yorkers spend, Blakeman pivoted to again attack Hochul for increasing energy costs for New Yorkers. (Actually, the increases in New York are being felt nationally, largely due to increased demand from new data centers, advanced manufacturing, and residential electrification, as well as some added fees to fund the transition to clean renewable energy and meet carbon-emission targets, but Trump sought to cancel clean energy projects which will increase supply and lower utility rates, and it is unlikely that Blakeman, if governor, would move forward with the state’s Clean Energy programs.)
As for “international affairs” – the war with Iran which has caused global energy shortage, price hikes and is threatening global recession – Blakeman mouthed the Trump administration line, saying “If in 9/11 they were willing to take out 3000 New Yorkers, if they had a nuke, they would take out 3 million. They hate Americans and have no respect for human life. I am in favor of the Iran War if it ensures Iran will not get a nuke.”
This provided another example of how Blakeman falls into line, recalling when he hosted a rally and blasted President Biden for not expelling Russians from their compound at Glen Cove, Long Island, held a photo op in which he gave Ukrainians a proclamation, but no longer supports providing aid to Ukraine to push out Russia in keeping with Trump favoring Putin.
Local Save Kings Point Park activists worry that New York State legislators will try to slip through alienation legislation to take 2 ½ acres of parkland for a private parking lot, in the dead of night in June, just before the end of the Legislature’s session
An estimated 200 people gathered under cloudy skies on Sunday, April 19, to protest the taking of 7 ½ acres of old-growth forest and wetlands in a 173-acre preserve that for decades has been a public park – an astonishing number considering the population of the Great Neck, New York, peninsula.
The taking of the land in two separate but related moves – 2 ½ acres for a 397-space private parking lot and private pool to serve a massive, four-story United Mashadi Jewish Community of America (UMJCA) center and five acres for a Village of Kings Point public works facility which is said to also include a bunker for Kings Point residents to seek emergency shelter – smacks of secret dealings among elected officials of the Village of Great Neck, the Village of Kings Point, and the Great Neck Park District, along with the state representatives Senator Jack Martins and Assemblyman Daniel J. Norber (both Republicans).
The 173-acre Kings Point Park is in the Manhasset Bay Watershed, 90% is protected wetlands, and the largest remaining pristine forest and wetlands on the Great Neck peninsula. A public parkland for the past 90 years managed by the Great Neck Park District under a lease arrangement with the Village of Kings Point, its wetlands, trees and forest help protect the peninsula from storm surges and flooding. Its creek feeds into Manhasset Bay. The Peninsula, which depends on sole source aquifer for drinking water, has been under threat of saltwater intrusion.
The “alienation” of the 2 ½ acres – requiring the state Legislature and Governor’s approval – was initially passed by the state Senate literally in the dead of night at the end of last year’s state Legislative session but as a result of an outcry by activists, the legislation never made it out of committee in the Assembly.
Subsequently, the community, aided with pro-bono legal representation, filed an Article 78 arguing the required SEQRA (State Environment Quality Review Act) process was inadequate. After the lawsuit was filed, the Village of Kings Point eventually withdrew the request for alienation.
However, quietly, still without public hearings or transparency, the village of Kings Point hired an environmental consultant, and the community is worried they will try again to slip legislation through in the dead of night before the end of this year’s legislative session in June.
Save Kings Point Park activists gathered on the grassy section adjacent to the basketball courts and playground, maintenance building and bathrooms, park parking lot and the opening to wooded trails through old-growth forest, beside a creek – all of which will be paved over for the parking lot. It is likely that the ballfields will also have to be paved over to replace the lost parking area.
The Great Neck Park District – which leases Kings Point Park from the Village at a cost of $350,000 a year, an increase from $35,000 a year in the prior lease – will then have to spend millions of dollars (actually $15 million in capital expense in the village of Kings Point including $10 million in Kings Point Park is required under the terms of the latest lease agreement) in order to build new playground, maintenance building, bathrooms and parking lot. This will likely require the loss of a major picnic area and the ballfields, at minimum, though the park district has yet to offer an actual plan.
“This is our public park, It is not for sale or for trade with private entities,” declared Nancy Sherman, one of the leaders of Save Kings Point Park group. “Kings Point Park is 90% protected wetland – they can’t build on wetlands. This has been enabled by elected officials of Village of Kings Point and Great Neck Park District, working together to make this happen. This is not about religion. If permitted, they will take public parkland, cut down hundreds of trees, destroy wildlife habitat, flora, disturb bird migration.”
Building a structure of this size – it is one of the biggest on the entire Great Neck Peninsula – required many variances from the Village of Great Neck, including for insufficient on-site parking. It would have required 200 parking spots but the variance allowed the building to have only 77 on-site because the UMJCA claimed they had two other facilities along Steamboat Road and would provide shuttle services.
While the UMJCA never publicly stated they would eventually seek 2 ½ acres from the Village of Kings Point and Kings Point Park, 2018 maps show that was the plan all along.
“So use the shuttle [as promised] and do not take any parkland,” Sherman told the gathering. “You would think Park District commissioners who are supposed to be stewards, would stand up and fight, but they are in cahoots, not standing up to protect our parks.”
Jody Kass Finkel, a leader of Concerned Citizens of NY03, the group that successfully forced the ouster of fraudster George Santos from Congress, pointed to the failure to comply with New York State’s SEQRA. SEQRA requires public hearings and transparency before going forward with legislation to take the parkland if there is significant impact. But because both Great Neck and Kings Point villages each made itself the lead agency for the building and the alienation and declared the projects would have no significant impact, they were able to skirt the public hearings required under SEQRA.
But no one believes these projects will not have significant impact. The concern is that the village of Kings Point will again deny transparency and public hearings, Kass Finkel said.
In January 2025 the village of Kings Point and UJCMA filed for permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to use 2 ½ acres of the protected land for a parking lot, as a possible end run.
Robert Lincoln, who had served as Great Neck Park District commissioner for decades, said “the 2 ½ acres is more than just what we see, because what they are displacing has to go somewhere – the playground, the trail where people run, walk, cross-country ski will be cut off. Other areas will be affected because of alienation – the ballfield will probably become the park’s parking lot and maintenance building, so youth and adult programs will be affected. The picnic area, the biggest in Kings Point with running water, bathrooms, used by major organizations, will probably be displaced so more acres of woods will be lost. So there is a lot more to lose than just parking lot.
“This board of commissioners is different [from when Lincoln served]. We worked hard for transparency and open communication. There are lots of fingerprints on the daggers. It’s making me sick. We worked hard to make things better.”
Tina Bickerstaff, a certified professional geologist and Great Neck resident, pointed to the importance of Kings Point Park to the environmental health of the Peninsula and Manhasset Bay.
“It’s not just about having grass and greenspace. We need a healthy ecosystem to filter contaminants, slow erosion, and combat increased frequency of storms…We can’t continue making snap decisions without thinking about the future consequences.”
Dan Capruso, a Great Neck resident who successfully prevented the Village of Kings Point from alienating parts of Kings Point Park before, asserted, “The Village of Kings Point owns it but it is a public trust and the village is responsible to hold it for the people.”
During a walk on some of the Kings Point Park trails that will be destroyed if the parking lot is built and the village of Kings Point takes five acres for a public works building and emergency shelter (some are calling a bunker), ornithologist Stefan Perrault pointed to critically imperiled plant communities, native plant and old growth forest that would be destroyed or disrupted, and the ecosystem they support.
“There are not many of these forests left. There is not a lot of diversity but it is special because 90% is covered by imperiled plant community.” He points to 160 year old Beech tree, a 200-year-old Oak that can grow to 100 feet and Tulip trees that grow to 120 feet (a race to reach the top for sunlight), Carolina Silverbell tree that is native, but rare.
He notes that there has not much done to protect what is there – to address the invasives, and the Beech leaf disease that is threatening all the Beech trees on Long Island (it causes defoliation, eventually killing the tree after 10-15 years), the algae bloom on the stagnant creek (some is benign but some is toxic), but instead has been fixated on building new structures and facilities, like new fields and a bike trail through the park.
“Once you replace soil, the plant community is done.”
Jody Kass Finkel again challenged the village for lack of transparency in its effort to take parkland for other purposes.
“State Law requires an official investigation into the impacts of decision making – SEQRA – if a project might have significant impact. It triggers intensive investigation, wider responsibility to engage the local community, and requires transparency.”
She accused the villages of illegally segmenting the two projects – first approving the building, then alienating the 2 ½ acres – in order to avoid public engagement.
“The Villages of Kings Point and Great Neck, the Great Neck Park District and Senator Jack Martins and Assemblyman Daniel Norber tried to hide it, sneak it through last June. They are starting again and still hiding. They don’t tell us the scope, cumulative impact, or about flooding that might be caused. CCNY03 FOILed, but they ignored us. We are fighting back,” Kass Finkel said.
“It’s illegal to segment the environmental review of the impacts from this over-sized UMJCA building from the environmental review of the impacts of the parkland alienation proposed to accommodate their on-site parking needs. By chopping it up, they’re trying to claim that there’s no significant impact so they can avoid public hearings. The 2018 maps show they were always planning to build a parking lot on parkland.
“They will likely try to ram this through again in the middle of the night in June, with the hope that by hiding the impacts as long as possible, it will be fast-tracked just before the Legislature adjourns so the community won’t be able to fight it. It’s outrageous behavior by public officials who are supposed to be serving our community, not hiding their actions from us. We must continue to show up to prevent them from doing this,” Kass Finkel declared.
Making another stab at commonsense, reasonable governance, Congressmen Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) have offered bipartisan legislation to break the impasse that has led to the longest government shutdown, caused extraordinary difficulty for Homeland Security federal workers, for travelers, left the country vulnerable after climate disaster and emergencies and exposed the nation to terror attacks at a time of war. House Speaker Mike Johnson, doing Trump’s bidding, refused to take up the compromise bill that was passed by the Senate by unanimous consent, prolonging the national misery, while Trump tried to make himself the White Knight by paying TSA (but not the others). The Coast Guard, FEMA, and counter-terrorism agents remain unpaid after more than 40 days – Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
Washington, D.C.—Today, Congressmen Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) unveiled their Reforming ICE and Protecting America Act, bipartisan legislation to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Fiscal Year 2026 while enacting targeted, enforceable reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The legislation comes after weeks of deadlock in Washington over immigration enforcement, during which no serious proposal emerged that both kept DHS fully funded and delivered real ICE reform.
The Reforming ICE and Protecting America Act meets both imperatives: fully funding DHS while bringing ICE in line with the standards of every other law enforcement agency in the United States.
“Government should never be brought to a standstill—certainly not when homeland security is on the line and the consequences are borne by TSA agents, Coast Guard servicemembers, FEMA personnel, frontline DHS employees, and the American people. This debate began with a legitimate call for real ICE reform, yet after weeks of political deadlock, no serious solution emerged. The right course was clear from the start: keep the Department of Homeland Security fully funded and confront the problem before us with real reform. That is precisely what this bill does. It is time to do what should have been done from the beginning: govern, reform, and protect,” said Fitzpatrick.
“The American people are fed up. The chaos at our airports was awful, the Department of Homeland Security has not been fully funded during these very dangerous times, and the people are demanding that ICE live up to the standards of all other federal law enforcement. They are sick and tired of the endless blame game and they are demanding that we work together to solve the very real problems we face,” said Suozzi. “This legislation cuts through the dysfunction. It’s rooted in common sense; let’s fund DHS, keep our country safe, and hammer out real reforms of ICE.”
Drawing on Fitzpatrick’s more than 15 years as an FBI Special Agent and Suozzi’s experience overseeing the nation’s 11th largest police department as Nassau County Executive, the legislation was developed with direct input from federal law enforcement officials and in consultation with Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus and Senate partners, including the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Reforming ICE and Protecting America Act would:
Fully fund DHS for FY26 and keep the Department operational across its core security, disaster response, and public safety missions.
Bring ICE in line with standardized law enforcement policies through body cameras, a limitation on masks, visible identification, standardized uniforms and training, and independent investigations of officer-involved shootings.
Focus enforcement where it belongs—on violent offenders and the most serious threats to public safety.
Protect due process and prevent abuse through probable-cause and warrant requirements in key enforcement contexts, including protections against the knowing detention of U.S. citizens without probable cause.
Establish clear guardrails for sensitive locations by limiting civil immigration enforcement at schools, health care facilities, places of worship, polling places on election day, childcare facilities, and private home residences absent a warrant, except in exigent circumstances.
Protect law enforcement personnel and their families by strengthening penalties for doxxing and expanding protections for sensitive personal information.
Ensures CBP remains focused on its intended mission: securing the border.
Last week, Fitzpatrick and Suozzi announced they were developing a bipartisan path to fully fund DHS while advancing real ICE reform. The bill introduced today is the product of that effort.
Watch the Congressmen talk about their efforts here and here.
More than 100,000 gathered in New York City – they were among at least eight million nationwide at a record 3,300+ protest events in big cities and small hamlets in all 50 states, participating in the nationwide No Kings 3, the largest single day peaceful protest in America’s 250 years since achieving independence from monarchy.
What was remarkable as people crowded together for the slow, mile-long march down Seventh Avenue was how polite, kind, good humored everyone was.
There was joyfulness, a sense of release that comes after waking each day depressed and awaiting the inevitable three-punches-to-the-gut that occur with the latest outrage and offense inflicted by this deranged, demented dictator wannabe sociopath and his enablers.
There was the comfort of joining together in community and mutual commiseration, reinforcing the sanity of opposing this corrupt administration, that in just 15 months, has managed to overturn and upend every value that America was founded upon. Living with the feeling of having your world turned upside down, like being tossed into the Red Queen’s domain of Alice in Wonderland. More than one carried a sign saying, “Make Orwell Fiction Again.”.
Each of the three No Kings protests and the “Hands Off” protest before, has been larger than the one before as the grievances pile up and are layered on.
This, No Kings 3, brought out at least an additional one million – more than 8 million people in 3,200+ No Kings events – by adding the anti-war layer. No money for healthcare, but $200 billion ($1 billion a day) for an illegal, unprovoked war that seems only to serve his Big Oil donors and his buddies Putin and Netanyahu. (Meanwhile, he continues to undermine Ukraine, actually giving Putin a new lease on life to wage his war despite aiding Iran against the US, while insulting Zelensky who has tried to help the US combat Iranian drones). In the process, Trump has undermined our alliances – NATO, the European Union – already fraying with his unhinged tariff policy, threats to take over Greenland, Panama, now Cuba (“I can do anything I want”), and unleashing the war against Iran without so much as a heads-up for the allies he now chides as “cowards”.
Meanwhile, he is letting the nuclear testing treaty lapse and announcing new testing, only reinforcing recognition by North Korea and Iran and anyone else of the necessity of having a nuclear weapon as the only real deterrent against this new imperialism by a leader of a former superpower with ambitions of being not just a dictator, but Emperor. Rather than America as the Superpower and the beacon of democracy for the world, Trump has turned USA into America Alone, a pariah.
His tariff policy had already undermined the US economy which (no surprise) was the strongest on the planet (thanks to Biden’s policies getting us out of a deadly pandemic, restoring supply chains and domestic manufacturing), re-triggering inflation. But now, the Iran War is triggering a global oil and food crisis of historic proportions. Trump’s reaction? “Hormuz doesn’t affect us. Doesn’t concern us. I don’t care.” But he has taken to calling it the “Strait of Trump.”
The climate action people were out in force, recognizing that everything this corrupt administration has done has been to force the US off the track to clean, renewable energy and back into dependency on dirty fossil fuel (and back into wars for oil) – not just rescinding the tax credits, but actually trying to shut down wind power projects already well under construction. Most recently, he has turned the Environmental Protection Administration into a misnomer, unilaterally repealing the “Endangerment Finding,” basically saying they don’t care how many people will sicken or die because of air or water pollution, contract cancer from chemical toxins, or the health, economic and geopolitical impacts of global warming that will produce some 200 million climate refugees due to sea level rise, drought and famine.
The Epstein files and Trump’s unaccountability seem also to have inspired many first-time protesters, pushed to the breaking point of “enough is enough.”
But probably what pushed many more over the edge in the growing list of unconstitutional, illegal actions was embroiling the United States (and the world) in an illegal, endless war without any discussion, let along authorization of Congress or collaboration with allies or even an explanation (that makes sense) to Americans. In fact, the administration deceived the Congress and betrayed the Iranians who mediators said were making progress in good faith negotiations. Trump blithely said that Cuba was next on his hit list (after Venezuela and Iran, a war he has already become “bored” with (“I can do anything I want”).
If the first No Kings had much to do about yielding over to the oligarchs, the Trump Crime Syndicate’s Putin-style kleptocracy has become obvious, as Trump has managed to personally profit by over $1 billion in just this first year, his family enterprise billions of dollars more. They don’t even hide it, with their cybercurrency scams, the boys’ “new” drone factories getting federal contracts, their donors getting 2 and 3x the market rate to purchase warehouses to detain migrants, terrified children (without due process) in inhumane conditions that mass murderers on death row don’t experience.
Add on the obvious efforts at voter suppression, purging voter rolls, likely election subversion, and extorting Congress to pass his SAVE Act which will disenfranchise millions of women, minorities, disabled, homeless and the most vulnerable most in need of salvation from this tyrannical kleptocracy, because, as he admits, he and his enablers are desperate to keep power to prevent Democrats from taking control of Congress and impeaching him for an unprecedented third time and holding his cabinet of criminals accountable)
As several posters wrote: “All my outrage can’t fit on this sign.”
In all, those waving the placards that say “No Kings since 1776,” are right to be concerned. This is an inflection point. In just this brief time, Trump and his thugs have pushed America back before the 1960s (the Golden Age toward civil and human rights and the first glimmer of a true democracy), before the 1860s (they are re-writing history to make slavery a noble endeavor).
“This regime has used threats, intimidation, and a constant deluge of atrocities to heighten fear and cynicism so that the American people would not fight back as it shreds our Constitution, disappears our neighbors, steals from us, and turns our country into a pariah rogue state,” write Indivisible co-directors leaders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin.
“But the people are fighting back — and in larger numbers than ever before. We can now estimate that at least 8 million people protested today, making this the largest protest in US history. That means that over a million new people joined us this time around — and we’re hearing stories from all over of people who didn’t just attend their first No Kings protest — they attended their first-ever protest.”
Organizers point to the building of a movement that goes beyond showing up on a day and waving a sign.
Now they point to continuing to build the grassroots infrastructure to overcome the voter suppression and election subversion aimed at preventing an overthrow of MAGA rule, and retake at least the one “co-equal” branch of government and make it do its job of checks-and-balances and oversight of a corrupt administration.
Despite bringing the protests to their doorsteps (rather than concentrating protest in Washington DC when the lawmakers are not even there), clearly, the Republicans in Congress are more fearful of Trump (who has taken control of the war chest) than they are of their voters, smug in their confidence in their voter suppression, gerrymandering, election subversion will keep them in their jobs.
In this 250th anniversary year of the beginning of the march toward a “more perfect union,” we are either looking at a revived “We the People” revolution or the restoration of rule by a deranged, demented tyrant.
Some 400 organizations coalesced to support the No Kings protests including Indivisible, Moveon, ACLU, May Day Strong, 50501,
“Because here is the truth: No single day—not even the largest day of protest in U.S. history—stops authoritarianism. What stops authoritarianism is what comes after the march. The sustained organizing. The community building. The first-time marcher who felt something shift in them yesterday but doesn’t know where to go,” says Moveon.org.
Indivisible, which has spearheaded the No Kings events, announced nationwide organizing meetings to welcome protesters into ongoing political organizing. “We’ll be launching nationwide community meetings — hosted by protest organizers and attendees — to help people politically awakened by No Kings get involved with sustained local actions around ICE monitoring, election protection, and noncooperation. They’ll be a great way to connect folks with Indivisible groups and existing networks and foster new groups and leadership building.
Gearing up for a national day of economic disruption on May Day. “We always say mass mobilizations are just one tactic. Economic disruption is another tactic. And it’s most successful when you’ve done the work to build a large, broad-based coalition of folks ready for higher-level actions. So now, the ground is laid for May Day Strong’s national day of ‘No school, no work, no shopping’ to put the oligarchs enabling Trump’s power grabs on notice.”
What may be the largest protest in Nassau County history, an estimated 5,000 turned out for the No Kings protest in front of the steps to the Supreme Court building in Mineola, one of 16 No Kings protests on Long Island.
“It feels so good to be doing something,” said Roseanna, a Bellmore resident but originally from Italy, who was attending her first protest.
“We refuse to remain silent as our neighbors are arrested without cause or due process by masked men and then held in detention centers under inhumane conditions and as communities are terrorized and families torn apart,” the organizers, Engage Long Island, Show Up Long Island and Long Island Network for Change, declared, laying out the mounting grievances against Trump and his administration.
“We raise our voices against an administration that has ripped healthcare coverage away from millions of Americans, gutted disease research funding and environmental protections and has given unqualified individuals the power to make critical recommendations and place the health of our children in peril. We protest the administration’s rolling back of women’s rights and voting rights. We speak out against a war declared unconstitutionally, placing the lives of our military personnel at risk without first making the case to the American people; A war that is costing one billion dollars every day to wage while oil prices surge for families already struggling with soaring prices. Civil liberties are weakening, constitutional checks and balances are faltering and we are experiencing a significant and rapid decline in democratic norms. We the People will continue to stand up and speak out to save our democracy.
“As the president continues to push the limits of his power towards authoritarianism, We the People say loudly and clearly that this country belongs to us; the Power of the People is greater than the people in power,” declared organizer Halle Brenner-Perles.
The rally served to protest the escalating signs of authoritarianism being displayed by this President and his administration, the organizers explained. “More and more people are coming to understand the nature of this threat to our democracy and they are showing up in greater numbers than ever, here on Long Island and across the country,” and looking for ways to express their outrage and frustration, to show support for one another, and cultivate the movement to end the march to authoritarianism.
“The No Kings movement can’t be stopped,” said Civil rights attorney Fred Brewington. “Make America what it should be, not what they have turned it into. We need to take back America. When we take over Congress, make him the impotent person he is.”
After October’s No Kings protests drew 7 million in the biggest single day of peaceful protest in US history, Trump claimed the No Kings protests were small, ineffective, the protesters “wacked out.”
Since October, things have only gotten worse – cruel, masked ICE thugs killing civilians Renee Good and Alex Pretti in the street, children separated and kept in horrific conditions, a war costing $1 billion a day; 2 million who can’t afford health care. “We are here for hope, for the nation and the world we want for our families,” said Engage Long Island organizer Halle Brenner-Perles, lauding the Nassau County high school students who conducted ICE Out walkouts. “The power of people is always stronger than the people in power. Take back America, make it better than ever before. Because that’s what peaceful protesters do.”
Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief, Vice President Long Island, Queens Brooklyn Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics and candidate for Suffolk County Legislature, knows what it means to push back. She joined the lawsuit against “Health” Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. to overturn his revised vaccination standards for children and won.
“I worry for the future. This government can’t pass common sense gun laws when guns are the #1 killer of children. Trump dabbled with authoritarianism last year, this year, embracing at a new level.”
He is arresting and detaining people without due process. Family separation 2.0 – children are afraid their parent will not be home when they come home from school. Americans shot point blank. In the most Orwellian fashion, Noem called Good a domestic terrorist and Alex Pretti a would-be assassin.
The administration deports parents without letting them take their children as young as 2 months old with them, yet US citizen children are being deported against the wishes of their parents, – including a child with brain cancer, she said. Some 4,000 children have been imprisoned since January 2025, hundreds detained without their parents. Parents have been taken from 11,000 children and placed in detention facilities far away. Parents afraid to take their child to health visits.
“Does any of that make us greater, safer? “Enough of disregarding basic human rights. The power of people is stronger than people in power.”
The gathering also served to collect food for local pantries (2,400 pounds were collected at the last No Kings rally, this one collected 4600 pounds – more than two tons! – and $1300 in cash), and for voter registration.
The Mineola Rally was organized together by Engage Long Island, Show Up Long Island and Long Island Network for Change. The League of Women Voters of Huntington is a co-sponsor.
Proposal Would Fix Chaos at American Airports, Mandate ICE Standards Consistent with Other Federal Agencies, Target Enforcement on “Worst of the Worst”
Senate Democrats have tried 10 times to pass legislation to fully fund TSA so the officers could get paid and relieve the abominable lines at airport security, to fully fund FEMA, the Coast Guard, and cybersecurity, more important than ever in light of heightened terror threats since Trump’s unprovoked, illegal Iran War. But each time, Republicans have blocked it.
Think of it. When Americans are most vulnerable, Trump and the Republicans are willing to let national security collapse in order to continue to allow ICE illegally detain, arrest, incarcerate in inhumane concentration camps, without any accountability.
And now, when Republicans are ready to say “uncle,” Trump has told them he does not want them to work with Democrats. Think of it – that’s more than half the country that he doesn’t care about, especially since his approval rating is now around 36%.
What is more, since he came up with the brilliant idea (like a paper clip!), which actually came from a woman calling in to a talk show, to install the ICE thugs at airports, under the pretense of relieving the burdens of the TSA agents who remain on the job despite not being paid in a month, he has actually fallen in love with the fact that the ICE agents aren’t helping relieve travelers’ misery at all (in fact, they are like SCABs in a union action), but are in place to continue extra-judicial, unconstitutional arrests, detentions, deportations.
Trump has also tied passing any new legislation to the Congress passing his SAVE Act, whose singular purpose is to suppress voting by disenfranchising potentially millions of women, Blacks, seniors, college students, and anyone else who tends to vote for Democrats. So Trump has little incentive to adopt this legislation proposed by Congressmen Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). But good try, guys.
Meanwhile, I’m sick of people blaming Democrats or “Congress,” instead of putting the blame for the chaos, confusion, misery, suffering, and impending collapse of our economy, democracy, national security by Trump and his Republican enablers. –Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
Washington, D.C.— Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) announced that they are working on bipartisan legislation to immediately re-open the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) while advancing commonsense reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
At a moment when Washington remains deadlocked, the Suozzi-Fitzpatrick effort offers a serious bipartisan path to restore full DHS operations while pairing that action with targeted reforms to improve public trust and strengthen accountability within ICE.
“People are standing in long lines at our airports, TSA agents are not getting paid, FEMA is going unfunded, and Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated that instead of solving problems, politicians in Washington are pointing fingers. Congressman Fitzpatrick and I are trying to cut through the dysfunction, isolate the problem areas where negotiations have stalled, and work together to get things done,” said Congressman Suozzi.“Ultimately, ICE is a law enforcement agency that needs to be held to the same professional standards as every other law enforcement agency in the United States. Unfortunately, ICE has been operating in a fashion I believe is illegal and immoral. It’s not a radical idea to ask them to answer to the same safety and transparency requirements as every other police officer and federal agent in the country.
“Protecting the American people is among the first obligations of government, and that means ensuring the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded and fully operational. It also means ensuring that those entrusted with enforcing the law operate under clear, consistent standards that preserve public trust. I have long believed that, at its core, law enforcement is a social contract built on trust on both ends. This effort would restore DHS operations, reinforce clear and uniform standards across federal law enforcement, and keep enforcement focused on the most serious threats to public safety. That is how we restore the mission, strengthen enforcement, and renew public confidence in the institutions charged with protecting the American people,” said Congressman Fitzpatrick.
The proposed reforms are being developed to fully restore DHS operations while establishing ICE standards consistent with those of other law enforcement agencies. In shaping this effort, the Congressmen have engaged directly with federal law enforcement officials, while drawing on Congressman Fitzpatrick’s more than 15 years as an FBI Agent and Congressman Suozzi’s experience overseeing the nation’s 11th largest police department as Nassau County Executive.
The legislation would require that all federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, are held to the same high standards and policies as it pertains to training requirements, the use of body cameras, independent investigation of use-of-force at scenes, clear outer identification of the agency engaged in the enforcement action, cooperation with local law enforcement, and a prohibition of masks during enforcement actions coupled with tougher penalties for doxxing. It would also lay out stronger warrant requirements and rules governing activity in sensitive locations to ensure enforcement resources are focused on the “worst of the worst.”
Last week, the Senate failed to advance DHS funding for the fifth time, extending a stalemate that has left the Department unfunded since February 13 and is taking a serious toll on TSA staffing, airport operations, and DHS’s ability to fully carry out its mission. At the same time, the deadlock has made clear that any durable solution must not only reopen DHS, but also address the need for credible, commonsense reforms that strengthen accountability within ICE.
(Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg)
Back to 1965 – before the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Fair Housing Act. You name it. That’s the finding of the latest Democracy Report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, which concludes that the USA’s “democratic backsliding is unprecedented.”
Democratic backsliding is now happening in well-established democracies. Democracy in the USA is deteriorating at unprecedented speed, and media and journalists are increasingly targeted across the world. This, and more, is reported in the latest Democracy Report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg. “The U.S. democracy is currently in a much faster deterioration process than any other democracy in modern times. Within only one year, the USA’s score on the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index has declined by 24 percent, while its world rank dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations.” – Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
Nearly a quarter of the world’s nations are going through democratic backsliding, or autocratization, in 2025, and six out of the ten new autocratizing countries identified in the 2026 Democracy Report are in Europe and North America. Among them are large and influential countries like Italy, the United Kingdom and the USA, according to the report authored by a team led by Professor Staffan I Lindberg at the V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
“The fact that many populous and economically powerful countries are autocratizing is especially worrying. Several of these countries have the economic and political weight to reshape international organizations, norms, and trade, effectively reshaping the global order. I think we are already seeing the effect of that,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
Three major trends in democratic backsliding
The report finds three clear patterns in the current trend of democratic backsliding. The first one is the democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies; the second is significant reversals and often breakdown of democracy in countries that successfully democratized during the late 20th and early 21st centuries; and thirdly, the deepening of autocracy in already autocratic states.
Freedom of Expression, a core aspect of democracy, shows the most drastic global decline, and is the most common target among autocratizing leaders over the past 25 years.
“The second most common target are the liberal aspects of democracy, like rule of law, and checks and balances that prevent the abuse of powers, which are deteriorating in a worrying number of countries. For example, rule of law is deteriorating in 22 countries, including the USA,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
Democracy in the USA deteriorating at unprecedented scale and speed
The U.S. democracy is currently in a much faster deterioration process than any other democracy in modern times. Within only one year, the USA’s score on the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index has declined by 24 percent, while its world rank dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations.
The liberal aspects of democracy show the largest decline in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term can be summarized as a rapid concentration of powers in the presidency, according to the report.
“The current U.S. administration has been undercutting institutionalized checks and balances, politicizing civil service and oversight bodies, and intimidating the judiciary, alongside attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties, and dissenting voices,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
Since election specific indicators are only evaluated during national election years, there has not been a change in those indicators in 2025 for the U.S.
“The 2026 American midterm elections will be a critical test for the quality of elections, and democracy, in the United States. If election indicators also decline, the U.S. will fall even further,” says lead author Professor Staffan I Lindberg.
Trump Action Tracker
The report finds that since returning to office, Trump has had 2651 instances of Actions & Statements that Echo Authoritarian Regimes:
-704 Directly Undermining Democracy
-459 Weakening Civil Rights
-689 Suppressing Dissent
-172 “Hollowing the State”
(V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg)
The democratizers
On a more positive note, the report shows that 18 nations worldwide (10 percent) are currently democratizing, with large countries such as Brazil and Poland continuing their democratization processes. In the majority of these countries, media freedom is improved. Botswana, Guatemala, and Mauritius are the three new democratizing countries identified in the 2025 data.
The repeal of Roe v. Wade by the ultra-right majority Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022 not only overturned women’s ability to control their own body, decide their own future, even save their own life, but the next phase, endowing a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus with personhood, essentially strips women of their personhood, altogether.
Women are not just second-class citizens, without the right to self-determination as a man is entitled to, women are mere brood mares, a slave of to the state, not much different than a beast of burden, without any rights at all – not the right to life, due process, equal protection, privacy, cruel and unusual punishment.
And the SAVE Act will make it difficult for women to regain their rights, their personhood by putting up discriminatory barriers to voting.
“Didn’t we already fight these battles?” one asked at a recent ReachOut America-Long Island meeting hosting Lynn M. Paltrow, the founder and former executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (now Pregnancy Justice), now a leader of The Beacon for Democracy, who has been fighting these same battles since the 1960s.
In 13 states with absolute abortion bans, women no longer have the same protection under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 to keep their sensitive health information private from vigilantes, bounty hunters, spurned partners or prosecutors who are arresting women for using abortion medication and even women who have suffered a miscarriage.
Women who are on the brink of death, suffering in pain, or losing their ability to ever have a baby, no longer have the same right to Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), mandating care, or for that matter, the same protection against cruel and unusual punishment as a mass murderer awaiting capital punishment.
And to make sure a woman has no ability to obtain reproductive health care, they are prosecuting doctors, nurses, healthcare workers – even those out of state where abortion care is legal.
The result is to create “maternity deserts” – places that no longer have doctors, healthworkers, too afraid of prosecution for providing care – and a rise in maternal and infant mortality. So much for “pro-life.”
Even when abortion was theoretically protected under the Constitution, states built barriers to access – requiring abortion clinics to meet unnecessary standards, allowing protesters to intimidate patients and healthworkers, even forcing pregnant women to undergo invasive probes and to look at the image of the fetus in their womb to shame her into abandoning her intention to abort. You would think that would violate the 4th amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches.
Or how about banning doctors from giving factual information about reproductive health – a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech?
Texas and Alabama are among the states that are trying to ban pregnant women from traveling out of state to places like New York State, even prosecuting family members who might provide aid. It doesn’t matter, as the Justice Department is now arguing, that the Constitution protects the right to travel across state lines and engage in conduct that is lawful where it is performed and that states cannot prevent third parties from assisting others in exercising that right. Florida was monitoring girl athletes’ menstrual cycles.
There’s a Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that went into effect in 2023 (thanks Biden-Harris) that requires employers to give reasonable accommodation to pregnant women, but Texas has decided it can ignore it.
And none of these have anything to do with “protecting life” (if that were true, these same people wouldn’t be blocking gun control even preventing doctors from inquiring whether parents store their gun safely, despite the fact gun violence is the greatest killer of children). Rather, it is about controlling, disenfranchising, disempowering and dehumanizing women.
“Abortion laws were a way of controlling women without seeming to. But abortion is about a medical procedure and ending pregnancy,” said Lynn M. Paltrow, an attorney and activist on behalf of reproductive justice, who has been fighting for reproductive justice since the 1960s/before Roe.
Indeed, while the anti-abortionists like to portray women seeing reproductive care are Jezebels, wanton or promiscuous women (no mention of those who are raped or victims of incest), six in 10 are already mothers and half have two or more children. As Paltrow noted, women seek abortion care for many different, personal reasons including not being able to afford more children or having health issues that would be compromised by pregnancy. Also, one in four pregnancies result in miscarriage, which requires a procedure, dilation and curettage (D&C), that falls under the same definition (and ban) as “abortion,” while 80 percent of pregnancy deaths are preventable, according to the CDC.
The United States, already with the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality of any high-income country due to the lack of universal health care, is seeing these rates surge in states that have total or near total bans on abortion. And yet, the number of abortions is not going down – only access to prenatal care and to legal, safe abortions.
Right wingers use abortion to rally the Christian Right, waving the banner of “pro-life.” Reproductive Rights activists made a mistake by framing the issue as the right to abortion rather than a woman’s human rights, Paltrow maintained – an echo of Hillary Clinton’s famous speech in Beijing 30 years ago, “Women’s rights are human rights,” the First Lady declared.
“The movement tends to narrow everything down to abortion rights but the issue is not defending particular medical procedure, it’s about defending the people who sometimes need to have the procedure as a full, whole person…Abortion laws were a way of controlling women without seeming to. But abortion is about a medical procedure and ending pregnancy,” said Paltrow.
But the most serious an assault on women’s rights, freedom, liberty and self-determination is the Religious Right’s crusade to establish the personhood of an embryo, fetus – essentially giving this entity, that cannot exist on its own, more rights than the mother whose own “personhood” becomes irrelevant.
Since the embryo or fetus cannot speak for itself, this gives the state authority and power over the woman – making her nothing more than a breeder cow or literally a slave of the state. (You would think this would violate 13th amendment, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”)
She notes that personhood – or citizenship – according to the Constitution’s post-Civil War amendments, applies to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
You would think that equal protection and due process would apply to the mother (and should have been used to establish Roe v. Wade, instead of the right to privacy), but if an embryo or fetus has “personhood rights”, the woman does not.
A Catholic judge ruled that the expectant mother “has placed herself in a special class of persons who are bringing another person into existence. I submit a woman who carries a child to viability is in fact a member of a unique category of persons.”
What does “a unique category of persons” mean in practical terms? Fewer rights, no bodily autonomy.
Persons in this “unique category,” Paltrow said, lose their right to life, liberty, freedom of religion, due process of law (procedural), bodily integrity (medical decision making), privacy in medical information, privacy in reproductive decision making, being free of unreasonable searches and seizures and being free of cruel and unusual punishment, their right to reasonable bail, counsel, right to parent, right to equal protection of the law (race and sex), right to freedom of speech and conscience, as well as human rights more broadly.
In other words, a slave of the state.
What does that mean? It gives the state, the authorities, some nasty neighbor the ability to prosecute a woman for her behavior during pregnancy – if she has a glass of wine, uses marijuana, smokes a cigarette, goes skiing, even drives a car or falls down the stairs – while women are forced by the state to come to the brink of death or lose their future futility without receiving health care.
Between 1973 (the year Roe v. Wade was decided), up to 2005 (32 years), there were 413 arrests of women who miscarried. Between 2006 and 2022 (17 years), there were 1387 arrests – that is three times the incidents in less than twice the time interval. But in just the two years since 2024, the year Dobbs overturned Roe, there have already been 412 arrests of women who miscarried – a number equal to the 32 years.
Among those prosecuted: a woman who fell down steps while pregnant, went to the hospital for treatment, was reported and arrested on her way home to her two other children, for attempted feticide.
Paltrow provided some horrifying examples from cases she fought:
Pamela Rae Steward Monson had a baby that died shortly after birth. She was arrested for medical neglect – not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery, not getting prenatal care early enough. And when she did go to the doctor, everything the doctor told her became a weapon against her. Ultimately, she was found to be at fault because “she subjected herself to the rigors of sexual intercourse.”
Though Paltrow won the case (it was featured on “Nightline,”) “it launched hundreds of cases because prosecutors saw arresting a woman for something she did or did not do during pregnancy as a way of getting on TV.”
Another case involved Angela Carter, who had survived childhood bone cancer but had lost a leg. But after she was pregnant, she found a tumor the size of a football. “She wanted to live, so wanted to have the chemo or surgery that would save her life, even if it posed a risk to the fetus” Paltrow related. Instead, her desires were ignored and a judge – who never met her – appointed a lawyer to represent the interests of the fetus and ruled that she would have to undergo a Caesarean section to remove the 25-week old fetus – which in those days, had little chance of survival – even though the operation could kill Angela. Though she refused the C-section, the judge ordered it anyway. The baby lived two hours then died; Angela lived two days, then died.
In 2008, Jennifer Jorgensen, a Long Islander, was pregnant when she was involved in an automobile crash that killed two others. She was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and manslaughter, and though the baby was born alive, the prosecutor couldn’t convict her for anything but her behavior while pregnant that caused the accident. “They couldn’t convict her for the two who died, but violating her special obligation to unborn child.”
But this is New York State. Patrow’s group, National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Pregnancy Justice, filed an amicus brief in state Supreme Court arguing that there is no state law that says a woman can be held criminally liable for something she did or didn’t do while pregnant.
In a 2011 case (Dray v. Staten Island University Hospital), a Northwell Hospital had a secret policy allowing a doctor to overrule a mother’s decision if the doctor felt the fetus was at risk. That led to a woman being given a c-section against her will.
Since then, New York has passed an Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution, outlawing discrimination on the basis of sex, pregnancy, or pregnancy outcome. “Abortion can’t be banned in New York State and women cannot be held criminally liable for doing something in pregnancy that somebody else doesn’t like.”
In contrast, 80% of arrests and prosecution of pregnant women that NAPW documented come from states that have passed abortion bans, like Mississippi and Texas.
“Blaming women is particularly cruel because, thanks largely to the abortion bans, there are now ‘maternity care deserts’. Since August 2023, more than 5.6 million women live in counties with no or limited access to maternity care services.
“They have nowhere to go because doctors don’t want to be in a state where they can be prosecuted for addressing a woman’s pregnancy crisis.”
Not surprisingly, the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality of any high-income nation, and the rates of maternal and infant mortality are highest in states with abortion bans.
“Over 80 percent of those deaths are preventable. MAGA wants to lock up women as murderers – South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma are proposing to make homicide laws applicable to women who have abortions.”
A Nebraska teenager who had a medicinal abortion was sentenced to 90 days in jail. A Texas woman, Mallori Patrice Strait, 33, was arrested (the charge was abuse of a corpse) and spent nearly five months in jail after a December 19, 2024, incident where she experienced a miscarriage in a Whataburger bathroom in Converse, Texas. (The charge was later overturned for lack of evidence, but still.)
“If fetuses are declared children, they will be covered under criminal law,” she notes, citing a case where a woman who had a cocaine addiction, gave birth, and was convicted of delivery of drugs to a minor through her umbilical cord.
There is also renewed effort to extend abortion bans to banning contraception as murder.
If the “pre-born” have personhood and a right to life, “we lose our right to life.”
“The push to have fetus as person – fetal rights – is an argument based on fantasy that fertilized egg, embryo, fetus inside woman’s body are really outside” and have more constitutional rights than any person (including mother).
Instead, “make [reproductive justice] a conversation about our personhood, our experience, someone who needs to be treated with a right to healthcare.”
Feeling empowered to deny a woman’s personhood, though, goes back to the fact this country was founded on the notion that one could own and control people (slavery). After being shipped to America, slave women were raped – forced reproduction was a primary way slaveholders made money – producing more slaves to sell, she said.
“We need to change the conversation [from abortion] to personhood… We win when we make argument that this isn’t just about abortion, it is about women being recognized as people.”
The nearly 50 years of legal abortion made a huge difference for women – their lives were better, maternal and infant mortality went down.
Before even before 1973 when abortion was illegal, as many as 12 million were having illegal abortions – “a form of mass civil disobedience.”
Before Roe, she said, 20-25 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion.
Today, post Dobbs, despite the bans, the number of abortions has actually increased – because there is safe, effective medication and groups organized to get it – a post-Roe abortion “underground railroad”. (Actually, more than 50 percent of abortions are through medication and not that gruesome surgical procedure the anti-abortionists love to display.)
“Research shows restricting reproductive freedoms does not lead to fewer abortions- abortion bans only make abortion dangerous as people turn to unregulated back alley procedures. Maternal, infant mortality rise especially in marginalized communities.”
How ironic that other countries have seen a green wave of abortion rights. Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries and territories – many Catholic conservative countries like Ireland – liberalized their abortion laws.
(After Dobbs, France amended its Constitution to make sure women would have their reproductive rights. “The rights of women are reversible — you are never sure to have really won,” said Geneviève Fraisse, a French feminist philosopher. “The proof is in the United States.”)
Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) just this month (Women’s History Month) introduced legislation in the Senate that would revoke FDA approval of mifepristone and make it illegal to distribute nationwide. The bill builds on legislation Hawley introduced last year that targeted mifepristone access through the mail.
The Mississippi House and Senate voted to advance House Bill 1613 that creates criminal penalties for anyone who manufactures, sells, distributes, dispenses, or prescribes medication abortion, including mifepristone and misoprostol. House Bill 1613 takes Mississippi’s already extreme abortion ban a step further by seeking to criminalize any manufacturer or provider of abortion medication, punishing any violation of this law with up to 10 years in prison, and empowering the state’s attorney general to sue people for violating the law and to recover monetary damages. (Wouldn’t you love this kind of penalty for manufacturers of assault weapons that are used in mass murder?)
Last year, Texas initiated legal action against New York doctor Maggie Carpenter for mailing mifepristone to a Texas resident, marking a major legal test of state abortion bans vs. shield laws. New York officials refused to enforce the $100,000 judgment due to state shield laws. (So just imagine if a Republican, like Bruce Blakeman, defeats Kathy Hochul for governor.)
So, with 60 percent of Americans saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases (38% say it should be legal) and 55 percent supporting medication abortion, to succeed in nationalizing abortion bans and dehumanizing women, they have to strip or suppress voting rights – fundamental to protecting every other right – especially by women, a majority of whom consistently vote Democrat.
The SAVE Act would require every American citizen to show a passport or birth certificate and government ID with the same name to vote. While 146 MILLION Americans do not have a passport (which is expensive, and is akin to charging a poll tax in the Jim Crow days; also passports take weeks to get, Trump has shut down thousands of places that issued them, are valid for 10 years during which a person could get married/divorced/remarried), 69 MILLION women do not have a valid birth certificate due to surname changes -a clear violation of 19th Amendment, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Under the SAVE Act, with exception of NY, WA, VT, Mi, MN, your RealID driver’s license would not be acceptable proof of US citizenship; the birth certificate will not be proof of citizenship if the name does not match; a marriage license will not be acceptable proof of the change of name from the birth certificate and RealID, a woman would have to have her name legally changed. And while already registered women might feel secure, the act would allow purges of voters without notification and time to correct any error.
And just as there is more control over a woman’s uterus than an assault weapon, the same party that blocks universal background checks or any regulation of gun ownership when “gun” or “firearm” is NEVER used in the Constitution (“arms”, which in 1781 meant any weapon worn on the body, is used once), but “vote” and “voting” is used 37 times in the Constitution, in order to set up a government “by the People, for the People,” it will be easier to buy an assault weapon than to vote.
Come out March 28 for the third No Kings protests.
This would be the third No Kings protest – each one bigger than the last, with ever more grievances to protest (ICE/deportations, military in the streets, launching wars without Congress, suppressing free press, public education, free speech, voting rights, environment and climate destruction).
But what is disturbing is that Women’s Rights have kind of receded into a background (it was more prevalent at the earlier Hands Off! Protests).
On March 28, bring Women’s Rights back to the forefront.
Go to www.nokings.org to find a protest to join. So far, close to 3,000 protests are planned.
