The Champlain Hudson Power Express, the new $8 billion Canadian hydro line supposed to insulate New York City from blackouts during heat emergencies, tripped offline Wednesday morning on its very first day under contract with the state, yanking roughly 1,250 megawatts of supply as the heat index cracked 105°F, the line came back online Thursday afternoon [51].
02
Mayor Mamdani announced $34.2 million for a public portal of 9/11 air-quality documents in the new budget, but on the same day his lawyers filed to dismiss a lawsuit seeking those records, arguing the mayor's office purged its 2001 email accounts; Speaker Menin's team didn't even know about the $34.2 million when he shook her hand [30].
03
NYC recorded all-time lows in shootings and murders in the first half of 2026: 322 shootings and 122 murders, beating records from 2018 and 2017 respectively, while the share of shooting suspects under 18 rose to 22% [94].
04
The 2026 HOPE count found 4,991 people sleeping on streets, in subways, or in parks, a decade-high, and an 11% jump from last year, even as more than 82,000 New Yorkers sleep in shelters every night [80].
05
Twelve utilization-review nurses at Montefiore's three Bronx campuses received layoff notices with a July 12 termination date; the union says the work will go to AI software, four months after the hospital's 41-day strike ended [78].
The Champlain Hudson Power Express, an $8 billion transmission line built to carry 1,250 megawatts of Canadian hydropower into New York City, went offline Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m. on its first official day under contract with the state, staying down until Thursday afternoon as the heat index broke 105°F across the five boroughs and Central Park hit 100°F for the first time in more than a decade [51][131]. The failure pulled away roughly 20% of the city's power supply at the worst moment, forcing grid managers to issue conservation warnings and cut power to parts of Riverdale [51][79]. Meanwhile, The City Reporter found Amazon delivery drivers in Flushing were logging routes of 257 packages in the 102°F heat index Thursday, and New York's HEAP free air conditioner program had already closed June 5, the earliest the cooling fund has ever run out, weeks before the first heat wave hit [50][29].
“We're definitely tight... We're watching and in touch with Hydro-Québec to make sure and see the progress they're making bringing that line back in because it will be hugely beneficial.”
Kevin Lanahan, VP of external affairs, NYISO · [51]
“I don't have words to describe how horrible it is.”
$8 billioncost of the Champlain Hudson Power Express; at full capacity it can power about a million homes [51]
1,250 megawattsthe line's full capacity, roughly 20% of the city's typical supply [51]
257 packagesLuc Rene's Thursday delivery load in a 102°F heat index, after Amazon said it would reduce routes [50]
18,500 householdsexpected to benefit from HEAP cooling this year, down from 20,984 in 2025; the program closed June 5 [29]
WatchFriday is forecast to be the hottest day of the wave, with the actual temperature expected to reach 101°F; Hydro-Québec says the line is back online, and grid operators say it will be "hugely beneficial", this is its first real test [51][131]. ---
FromThe City ReporterCrain's New YorkGothamistNew York Focus
Mamdani's 9/11 Pledge Met His Own Lawyers
The mayor funded the 9/11 files, and his lawyers moved to kill the lawsuit for them the same day.
Mayor Mamdani put $34.2 million into the new budget for a public portal of 9/11 air-quality documents, with the first records due before September's 25th anniversary, a surprise to Speaker Menin's finance team, who NY1 reports weren't told about the allocation when Mamdani shook Menin's hand to seal the deal [30]. On the same June 30 day he made the pledge, his corporation counsel's office filed a motion to dismiss the only active lawsuit seeking those same documents, arguing the mayor's office has no 2001 records because the city's email system doesn't retain accounts of former employees who left before January 1, 2002 [30]. Separately, the DOI received $4 million to complete its own inquiry into what the city knew about post-9/11 air quality, one-ninth the portal budget, for the same underlying records [30].
“New Yorkers who have become sick have had to fight for information that should have been theirs from the very beginning.”
$34.2 millionfor the public 9/11 records portal [30]
$4 millionfor DOI's investigation into what the city knew, one-ninth the portal budget for the same records [30]
68 boxesof DEP materials that turned up after the agency spent months insisting it had none [30]
10extensions the mayor's office requested before telling pro-bono lawyer Andy Carboy it had no relevant 2001 documents [30]
The thread
2023Carboy filed FOIL requests for 9/11 air-quality records; the DEP denied having any, then eventually produced 68 boxes worth of materials [30]
Mar 2026After 10 extensions, the mayor's office told Carboy it had no 2001 emails; he later found a key city liability memo in the UT Austin library [30]
Jun 30, 2026Mamdani announced the $34.2M portal at the budget handshake; within hours, his lawyers filed to dismiss Carboy's lawsuit [30]
TodayThe DOI's $4M inquiry, the office Brewer and other council members say they actually trust, continues [30]
WatchWhether a state Supreme Court justice lets Carboy's lawsuit survive the dismissal motion, and whether DOI's investigation turns up 2001 records that agencies have continued to deny exist [30]. ---
FromPolitics | Spectrum News NY1
Montefiore Is Firing 12 Nurses. It Won't Say What Replaces Them
Four months after the 41-day strike, the replacements arrived: software.
Montefiore Medical Center sent layoff notices to 12 utilization-review nurses across its three Bronx campuses, Moses, Einstein, and Weiler, on May 28, with a July 12 termination date, four months after a 41-day strike over staffing and pay, the Bronx Times reports [78]. The nurses say their jobs will go to Datavant, an Arizona information technology company that recently agreed to pay $900 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over a data breach that potentially exposed patients' names, Social Security numbers, and health records [78]. Montefiore called the technology a "nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process," denied any connection to Palantir, and would not confirm or deny that layoff notices went out [78].
“When AI becomes the only basis for these decisions, our patients can fall through the cracks.”
Marilyn Shuler, utilization-review nurse, Montefiore; 39 years at the hospital · [78]
“If they're able to get away with this, with these 12 nurses, they're gonna keep doing it over and over again in every possible area.”
12utilization-review nurses laid off across Montefiore's three Bronx campuses [78]
$900 millionDatavant's settlement in a data breach lawsuit potentially exposing patient data [78]
41 daysthe nurses' strike that ended earlier this year, just months before these notices went out [78]
July 12termination date in the layoff letters [78]
The thread
Jan 12, 2026NYSNA nurses began a 41-day strike at Montefiore over staffing ratios and pay [78]
May 28, 202612 nurses received letters: "I deeply regret to inform you that your position will be eliminated 45 days from the date of this letter" [78]
Jul 1, 2026Bronx elected officials held a virtual press conference demanding Montefiore stop; Council Member Aldebol said the hospital is "disrespecting the nurses, disrespecting the union and disrespecting the contract" [78]
TodayJuly 12 termination date approaches with no response from Montefiore management [78]
WatchJuly 12, when the layoffs take effect, and whether NYSNA files a contract grievance that could halt or reverse them [78].
FromBronx Times
Around the Boroughs
Queens/Manhattan: Three primary races head to manual recount beginning July 10: Assembly District 30 in Woodside and Jackson Heights (Patrick Martinez leads Shamsul Haque by two votes), Assembly District 66 covering the West Village and parts of Tribeca, and a Republican state Senate primary in Borough Park and Midwood [32].
Manhattan: ICE has continued arresting immigrants at the federal courthouse on Varick Street despite court orders barring courthouse arrests, a new lawsuit alleges; the arrests occurred at the Manhattan immigration court [3].
Brooklyn: Days after the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's authority to wind down Temporary Protected Status for some immigrant groups, Haitian New Yorkers in Little Haiti are asking what comes next for the roughly 200,000 Haitians who held TPS [4][54].
NYC-wide: Rep. Tom Suozzi launched a "capitalist" counter-movement to Mamdani's coalition two days after Mamdani's endorsed slate swept primaries, holding a Zoom press conference announcing a "Promise to America" whose first principle reads "We are capitalist, not socialist" [82].
Brooklyn: Red Hook Pool closed for the second consecutive summer after its filtration plant flooded two days before the July 27 opening, motors and equipment were damaged, leaving residents to travel more than a mile to the next nearest pool while the heat index topped 100°F; the recreation center itself had to temporarily close Thursday due to indoor heat [95].
Staten Island: The Staten Island Ferry shuts down from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and again from 8 to 10 p.m. on July 4 to make way for 48 Navy vessels sailing up the Hudson for Sail4th 250; the MTA is adding express buses on SIM routes [85].
Manhattan: A Tibetan protester fatally set himself on fire outside the United Nations building in Midtown while carrying a Tibetan flag, the Post reports [65].
Brooklyn: Ground broke this week on a $550 million, 50-story tower at 205 Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights, on the site of the old Brooklyn Dodgers headquarters where Jackie Robinson signed; at 672 feet it will be Brooklyn's third-tallest building, with a jazz club, 46 condos starting at $5.9 million, and 90 rentals [93].
Manhattan: Two Russian social media climbers who got engaged at the top of the Empire State Building antenna after breaking through locked security doors were released Thursday on supervised release; they kissed before going down the 4/5 stairs at City Hall [83].
Manhattan: The city is investigating a possible Legionnaires' disease outbreak linked to two Upper East Side neighborhoods [60].
NYC-wide: The Knicks' championship run gave city bars and restaurants a larger economic boost than any sports event in recent memory, a NYC Hospitality Alliance survey found [124].
Bronx: District 16 Council Member Althea Stevens cast the lone "no" vote on Mamdani's $126 billion budget, writing that her district, among the city's poorest, received smaller investments than wealthier districts: "Equity means directing resources where the needs are greatest" [77].
Queens: Rockaway Beach temporarily closed Thursday afternoon after multiple confirmed bull shark sightings off the Queens coast, the Parks Department shut the beach for an hour, then reopened it at 3:30 p.m. after the last drone sighting cleared [36].
Brooklyn: The new city budget preserved NYCBenefits, an $11.7 million program that helps low-income New Yorkers navigate SNAP, Medicaid, and other public benefits [1].
Only in New York
Ellen Hart, a Jamaica, Queens native who was crowned Miss Subways in 1959 at age 18 while still a student at Jamaica High School, turned 85 this week and celebrated at her restaurant, Ellen's Stardust Diner on Broadway, surrounded by five other former Miss Subways, a singing waitstaff, and a proclamation from Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal declaring June 30 "Ellen's Stardust Diner Appreciation Day." Hart sang "America the Beautiful" at the party. The Miss Subways contest ran from 1941 to 1976, plastering its winners' portraits on every subway car in the system, and became the country's first racially integrated beauty pageant, the program ended that year because the city ran out of money. The contest is 85 years old. So is Hart. In New York, that counts as a coincidence worth a cake [41].
