| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Andrew Yang makes it official today: He is running for New York City mayor. As our Sally Goldenberg reports , the former Democratic presidential candidate will launch his campaign with the promise of cash payments — a local version of his universal basic income proposal — to half a million New Yorkers. His plan would pay city residents living in poverty between $2,000 and $5,000 per year. "We need to realize Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a guaranteed minimum income and get cash into the hands of people who need it most," Yang says in his launch video , directed by Darren Aronofsky and featuring a cameo by Rep. Ritchie Torres. Yang has had a bit of a rocky rollout even before entering the race, after Sally revealed that he skipped town at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hunkering down in his home in New Paltz. His rivals quickly pounced . For many voters, the memory of constant sirens and refrigerated trucks full of bodies is fresh, and they'll have to weigh whether a candidate who opted out of that experience is the right one to lead the city back from its crisis. Coupled with the fact that he has skipped out on voting in recent mayoral elections, Yang may need to focus some early campaign energy on proving his commitment to the five boroughs. He'll have a full agenda doing just that on day one, with stops in four boroughs, starting in Morningside Heights, where he first lived when he moved to the city 25 years ago. He's got lunch with Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and a walking tour with Assemblymember Latrice Walker in Brownsville, followed by an NY1 appearance with Errol Louis and a virtual town hall. And in case you doubt he has lofty ambitions? "Maybe we can even save the Knicks," he says. IT'S THURSDAY, and the sitting president of the United States has been impeached a second time. But as the vote tally — and the floor speeches — indicate, his hold on the Republican party has only loosened ever so slightly. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S ANDREW? Delivering State of the State, Pt. IV virtually from Albany. WHERE'S BILL? Speaking at the EDC Public Health Convening. PROGRAMMING NOTE: New York Playbook will not publish on Monday, Jan. 18. We'll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 19. Please continue to follow POLITICO New York. ABOVE THE FOLD: "NEW YORK CITY will terminate business contracts with President Donald Trump after last week's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. 'I'm here to announce that the city of New York is severing all contracts with the Trump Organization,' de Blasio said in an interview on MSNBC. De Blasio said the Trump Organization earns about $17 million a year in profits from its contracts to run two ice skating rinks and a carousel in Central Park as well as a golf course in the Bronx. The city can legally terminate a contract if the leadership of a company is engaged in criminal activity, the Democratic mayor said." Associated Press's Karen Matthews BUT WAIT: Mayor Bill de Blasio made waves Wednesday morning when he announced the city would sever four contracts with the Trump Organization — but three of those were already set to expire in April ... For the contracts at the Central Park carousel and the Wollman and Lasker skating rinks, the termination comes only a few months at most before the deals expired on their own. The city had a $2.5 million, 10-year contract for the carousel, which expires on April 9, according to the document reviewed by POLITICO. The contract between the city and the Trump Organization for the two skating rinks it has run since 2001 was set to expire on April 30...The city is likely to have a bigger legal fight over the $6.15 million, 20-year contract with the Trump Organization to manage the 18-hole golf course in the Bronx, which is set to expire on April 30, 2032. POLITICO's Amanda Eisenberg | | | | HAPPENING TODAY - THE COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT: What are the logistical challenges facing the coronavirus immunization campaign? Who is overseeing the process and working to overcome obstacles to ensure that vulnerable groups have access to the vaccine? Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion on the outgoing Trump administration's plan to prioritize lower-income, rural, and communities of color for vaccine distribution and what the Biden administration can do to streamline plans and fill in any gaps. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "THE HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS UK variant of the coronavirus has been detected in two New York City residents — one of whom recently traveled to the United Kingdom, Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed Wednesday. Twelve cases of the strain have been identified, and de Blasio said two of those cases involve the Big Apple residents, marking the first known cases in the city. One of the patients is in Queens, the other Manhattan, a state spokesman later told The Post. De Blasio noted that the city's Test and Trace Corps 'is engaged' with those two individuals. The mayor, speaking during his daily City Hall press briefing, again urged the federal government to enact an immediate travel ban from the UK to the US." New York Post's Nolan Hicks and Natalie Musumeci MAYA WILEY, a former City Hall attorney and MSNBC legal analyst, has met the critical threshold to receive taxpayer-backed matching funds for her mayoral campaign, she announced Wednesday morning. Wiley said she has raised more than $715,000 thus far from at least 7,000 donors — $280,000 of which can be matched 8-to-1 through a publicly-funded campaign system. She anticipates her haul will qualify her for at least $2 million from the city's Campaign Finance Board, which will release details of the filings later this week. POLITICO's Sally Goldenberg and Joe Anuta "WHILE TEACHERS across New York City raced to sign up for coronavirus vaccines this week, it could be many months before schools are able to ramp up in-person instruction significantly, public health experts said. Many variables remain in play: how quickly teachers get shots, whether studies show that vaccinated people can still spread the virus, and what it will take to contain a new, potentially more contagious coronavirus variant, which has now been found locally. How fast parents will feel comfortable sending their children back to school buildings also remains unclear." Chalkbeat's Alex Zimmerman FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Nine prosecutors from around the country are endorsing Lucy Lang for Manhattan district attorney. Jackson County, Mo., prosecutor Jean Peters Baker; Ramsey County, Mo., County Attorney John Choi; Mississippi 16th Circuit Court District Attorney Scott Colom; Nashville, Tenn., District Attorney Glenn Funk; St. Louis, Mo., Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner; Chittenden County, Vt., State's Attorney Sarah Fair George; Denver District Attorney Beth McCann; Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Alabama District Attorney Lynneice O. Washington; and Bernalillo County, N.M., District Attorney Raúl Torrez are backing her campaign. Lang, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, called them "leading progressive prosecutors across the country who are on the front lines of the criminal justice reform movement." FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: More than a dozen of the city's leaders in the African community and clergy gathered on the steps of the Bronx Municipal Building to endorse Eric Adams for mayor. Bronx activist and religious leader Shiekh Drammeh; African Union Day Foundation President Gbenga Gbengus Subair; United Gambian Association Chairman Alhadji Ebu Cham; African Immigrants Commission of NY & CT Chairman Mory Koyate; Bronx Clergy Task Force Chairman and Bishop Angelo Rosario; Keymama Foundation Founder Catherine Kojo;, TBS New Direction Chairman Marion Frampton; I am My Community, Inc. Chairman Darnes Kborn Rivers; Mother Association Keita Organization Founder Khady Diaby; See Us Rise Above President Al Quattlebaum; Islamic Cultural Center of North America Executive Director Shireena Drammeh; Robert Fields Jackson; African Imams Council Chairman Imam Souleymane Konate; Senegalese Association President Sadio Barry; and Latino Muslims of New York President Tusha Diaz are backing his campaign. "The only negative thing about Eric Adams is he's from Brooklyn," Sheikh Drammeh said jokingly. | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "WHAT HAPPENS when thousands — maybe even millions — of people suffering through a global pandemic all try to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment at once? New York just found out . A wave of newly eligible vaccine-seekers barraged New York's online system with traffic on Monday and Tuesday, leading thousands to successfully book a vaccine but many others to get hit with error messages or timed-out websites as they attempted to complete a form or make a reservation. Those who tried to schedule an appointment via the state's phone hotline didn't have much luck either: A recorded message Tuesday afternoon asked callers to try again later, citing high call volume. Others reported spending hours on hold, getting abruptly disconnected — or both. Pharmacies and county health departments were left exasperated, too. Their phone numbers were listed in the state's online system, leaving them to field thousands of phone calls despite many of them not yet having any vaccines available for the general public. "'I sat at my computer and checked every few minutes,' said David Bowen, 50, a Pittsford resident who tried to schedule an appointment from his octogenarian mother. 'When it did go live, I got 80% of the way through and it froze. It just got overrun, probably because other people were trying to do the same thing.'" USA Today Network's Jon Campbell, David Robinson, Sarah Taddeo — "...as the state expands vaccine eligibility to more essential employees, not every court system staffer has been allowed access to the potentially life-saving doses. New rules issued by the state Health Department Tuesday explicitly allow court officers to get the vaccine, but the eligibility of other employees — like clerks, court attorneys, court reporters or judges — remains open to interpretation." Queens Daily Eagle's David Brand "AFTER a summertime slowdown, the coronavirus cut a deadly trail through New York nursing homes in December , killing more than 200 residents statewide in each of the last three weeks of the month, according to federal data. Covid-19 killed thousands of New York nursing-home residents in the earliest months of the pandemic, before the death toll plunged to an average of about 16 a week from July through October, according to data the homes submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. State officials and nursing-home operators say they hope the latest surge in deaths will be knocked down by the vaccination campaign currently under way, and most residents are clamoring for the shots. But at some facilities, less than half of staff members have said they want to be vaccinated, said Stephen Hanse, president of the New York State Health Facilities Association, which represents nursing homes. 'There needs to be better education' about the value of vaccinations, he said, because some workers distrust government regulators or want to wait to see the effects of doses on others before rolling up their sleeves." Wall Street Journal's Leslie Brody and Tom McGinty — The Cuomo administration is again refusing to disclose the total number of deaths at nursing homes, according to a watchdog group. GOV. ANDREW CUOMO wants new transmission projects that would bring renewable energy to New York City to be a key part of the state's economy as it recovers from the pandemic. Cuomo spoke about the economic importance of new renewable energy projects, clean energy manufacturing, transmission and worker training during his third State of the State address on Wednesday. He highlighted awards for onshore wind and solar projects, part of an annual state solicitation for those projects, and new investments in offshore wind ports and projects… The governor also announced a new state solicitation for three transmission lines, all running from different parts of the state to culminate in New York City. They will be optimized with battery storage, Cuomo said. Getting renewable energy from upstate New York and Canada is seen as a key challenge to achieve the state's goals. The upstate energy mix is far cleaner than downstate, which relies primarily on fossil fuels. POLITICO's Marie J. French — NOTE from the reporter: This is the latest iteration of Cuomo's focus on transmission , which is a long-stalled part of his clean energy efforts going back to 2012. The governor announced that several projects already in the permitting process would begin construction in 2021, years after they were first proposed. "GROUPS representing freelance artists and musicians facing dire straits due to the COVID pandemic are panning Gov. Cuomo's plan to revitalize New York's art scene by holding star-studded 'pop-up shows' across the state. The Freelancers Union, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, the League of Independent Theater and the Music Workers Alliance are calling on the governor to instead raise taxes on the wealthy and create a new Works Progress Administration that could support artists and help get them back to work. 'New York's performing artists don't need livestream concerts and comedy shows — we need you to end tax breaks for the wealthy and fund our state so we can survive,' the groups wrote in a letter sent to Cuomo." Daily News' Denis Slattery "A STATE Supreme Court justice has granted more than 80 restaurants in the Rochester and Buffalo areas the right to resume indoor dining in their establishments . Judge Henry Nowak granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by those restaurants against the state. Those establishments involved with the suit, which are in orange designated micro-cluster zones, can reopen their doors under yellow zone restrictions. The judge rejected a number of the petitioners' arguments against the state for an injunction, including that in allowing the governor to continue to issue executive orders, the state was violating the Constitution's separation of powers. However, the court could not find any evidence that state had any rational basis to designate parts of Erie County an orange zone. Judge Nowak actually complimented the micro-cluster strategy, calling it 'ingenious' in concept. In practice though, he said it was entirely dependent on how the state identified clusters." Spectrum's Ryan Whalen #UpstateAmerica: Twenty-three years after the town supervisor of Mentz fled the state to avoid prison time, he's shown up in Ohio . The backstory? "A ragtag odyssey involving a girlfriend along for the ride, two aliases, a trailer hide-out on a farm linked to one of Ohio's grisliest recent crimes and an existence built on selling old golf balls and other assorted junk." | | | | KEEP UP WITH THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WITH TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: It was a dark week in American history, and a new administration will have to pick up the pieces. Transition Playbook brings you inside the last days of this crucial transfer of power, tracking the latest from President-elect Biden and his growing administration. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter breaks big news and analyzes the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
| | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | | 
ST LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 09: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sits on stage during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. This is the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the November 8th election. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) | Win McNamee/Getty Images | THE LOCAL TAKE: "A QUEENS-BORN real estate developer made history Wednesday when he became the first U.S. president ever impeached twice by the House of Representatives . Donald Trump, a 74-year-old lame duck Republican, is accused of inciting a lethal mob of far-right supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in order to prevent Congress from certifying the results of his resounding loss in the November 2020 election. President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, recorded 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. With Trump's encouragement, Confederate-flag bearing white supremacists and fascist agitators besieged the Capitol, threatening to kill Vice President Mike Pence, breaking into lawmakers' offices, stealing public property and smearing feces on the wall. The attack left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer beaten by rioters. Ten Republican members of Congress joined the Democratic majority in voting to impeach the Jamaica Estates native for the second time." Queens Daily Eagle's David Brand — "Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, Onondaga County, broke from party ranks to support the second impeachment of Trump, which the House of Representatives approved in a 232-197 vote Wednesday. The six other Republican House members from New York voted against the impeachment, while all the 19 Democratic congressmembers voted in favor. There is one open seat because of an undecided race in central New York." USA Today Network's Joseph Spector — Rep. Jerry Nadler showed up to impeach the President carrying a Zabar's bag containing a babka and a copy of the Constitution. (No, the short story doesn't clarify what kind of babka it was. To keep the peace, we will assume it was chocolate.) "DONALD TRUMP'S children are exiting New York just as the city and other businesses cancel contracts with the Trump Organization following the riot at the Capitol. The latest to leave the city is Donald Trump Jr., The Post can report exclusively. Trump Jr., 43, will be moving to Florida — following in the footsteps of his little sister — with gal pal Kimberly Guilfoyle, 51, in tow. 'There is no way they can stay in New York. They'd be tortured in the streets,' said a source close to the family." New York Post's Jennifer Gould "A QUEENS MAN who told federal agents he wanted to join the far-right Proud Boys group was charged with a weapons offense on Wednesday after messages he posted on social media around the time of the Capitol riot raised alarms, according to prosecutors and court documents. The man, Eduard Florea, had been detained late Tuesday after a search of his home turned up an arsenal of over 1,000 rounds of rifle ammunition, two dozen shotgun rounds, 75 military-style combat knives, two hatchets and two swords, prosecutors said. No gun was found. The arrest of Mr. Florea, a 40-year-old software engineer, came amid an intensifying nationwide manhunt for those who broke into the U.S. Capitol last week as part of a violent rampage by supporters of President Trump who wanted to overturn the election results." New York Times' Ed Shanahan and Nicole Hong | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The MTA worker who participated in the breaching of the Capitol was released on $10,000 bond and required to surrender his shotgun and hunting knife. — Ten employees in the Queens district attorney's office have tested positive for the coronavirus. — New York Attorney General Tish James is "closely monitoring" threats against the state Capitol in Albany. — School districts will be limited to a 1.23% hike in the property tax levy this year, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced. — City Comptroller Scott Stringer said the city should do more to help small businesses apply for the latest round of PPP loans. — The city has yet to officially make Juneteenth a holiday for city workers despite a promise by de Blasio. — Rescue groups are having more trouble saving dogs from overseas during the pandemic. — More New Yorkers are riding the city sightseeing buses normally packed with tourists. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Susan Glasser, New Yorker staff writer, CNN global affairs analyst and former Editor of POLITICO … Shepard Smith is 57 … Maureen Dowd … Bill Plante is 83 … Frank Raines is 72 … Ben Koltun, senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors ... Ellen Wulfhorst, chief correspondent for the Americas at the Thomson Reuters Foundation … Doug Michelman, president of the Sprint 1Million Project Foundation … Margaret Chadbourn … WaPo's Jen Liberto … Eric Alterman is 61 MEDIAWATCH — "CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times are among the news organizations that President Trump has falsely labeled 'fake news.' And now articles based on reporting from the four outlets are no longer welcome at Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, according to three journalists who work there." New York Times' Katie Robertson | | REAL ESTATE | | "THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA just got another seat at the table where New York state housing laws are decided. Sen. Jabari Brisport, a newly elected Democrat from Crown Heights, was named to the Senate's Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development. Housing bills must typically be passed by the panel to come up for a vote on the Senate floor. Brisport, a public school teacher who ousted incumbent Sen. Tremaine Wright with the support of the DSA, campaigned on canceling rent, raising taxes on the wealthy, funding public housing, enacting a blanket eviction moratorium and passing statewide rent control. Such a moratorium was enacted in January, and progressive lawmakers have continued to push for the rest of that legislative wishlist." The Real Deal's Georgia Kromrei "FROM NEW YORK to San Francisco, urbanites have escaped to bucolic second homes and found a deeper connection to the nature that surrounds them. While some might miss the culture and socializing of their past lives, others have developed a sort of reverse snobbery, celebrating their inner hicks, switching up their Porsches for Ford Broncos and expressing pity for wretches who breathe fouler air. They take pride in their chicken coops, check in with their landscapers as if they were stockbrokers, and have that same gleam in their eyes that Eddie Arnold had as he traded in his suit for overalls in the TV show 'Green Acres.' "Dan Gasby, widower of lifestyle guru Barbara Smith, who, along with his wife, ran the B. Smith brand, has turned his back on his glamorous Manhattan lifestyle in favor of chopping firewood on his East Hampton, N.Y., property. Mr. Gasby, 66, first bought the modern seven-bedroom, 6½-bath property, now valued at over $5 million, in 2017. After the pandemic he moved there full time. He likes to roam the 10 acres, on which he has created a dog run for his three Italian mastiffs and a mile-long jogging path. 'I had two penthouses in Manhattan but I don't miss it,' he said. 'The last time I went back the only thing I could see were ambulances and people walking around like the living dead. It made me realize how lucky I am to be living in a place where I get to see deer, hawks and rabbits.' Wall Street Journal's Beth Landman
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