It looks increasingly likely that City Comptroller Scott Stringer will challenge Bill de Blasio in next year’s mayoral primary election. Like many other politicians, Stringer views the half dozen investigations into de Blasio’s fundraising as an opportunity to challenge the mayor. But with $1 million in his campaign fund, the former Manhattan borough president seems the most likely to take advantage of de Blasio’s scandals. Stringer has been quietly assembling a campaign team, but sources close to him say he’s waiting to see how the investigations turn out, and whether they continue to hurt de Blasio’s poll numbers. (New York Magazine)
If you made it through yesterday’s subway commute without witnessing a harrowing rescue, consider yourself lucky. Trains struck two different straphangers yesterday, and a third needed rescuing after leaving her toddler on a platform and climbing onto the tracks. One of the riders was a woman whose legs were severed by a southbound 3 train in the West Village around 10:40 last night. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition. Just a half hour before and a block away, a man’s leg was wedged between a platform and an E train after he jumped onto the tracks and failed to scramble back to the platform before the train arrived. He was also brought to Bellevue, although his injuries were not life threatening. Earlier in the day, a woman seen arguing with a man left her toddler on the 125th Street Metro-North platform and climbed onto the train tracks to retrieve him. Nearby MTA police quickly followed her and took her into custody. (New York Daily News)
There’s been an increase in anti-gay calls and terror threats to the NYPD since last weekend’s terror attack in Orlando, and the NYPD is taking action. Police won’t say how many threats they’re investigating, but they expect to make arrests before Pride Week, which starts at the end of the month. This week, anti-gay notes were left on the windshields of parked cars in Hell’s Kitchen, a man threatened to shoot up a Bushwick gay bar and a caller who declared allegiance to ISIS told an employee at a Midtown restaurant he was going to “kill you all.” (DNAinfo)
A “tracker” hired by the state Democratic Party to keep tabs on a Republican congressional candidate was canned for taking his job much too far. Yougourthen Ayouni was fired after Phil Oliva filed a harassment incident report claiming the Democratic operative and “freelance model” peered in the windows of his home in Somers. Campaigns typically hire trackers to film rival candidates, but the filming is usually limited to public appearances. (New York Post)
Shomrim, Hasidic neighborhood patrols, have protected heavily Jewish areas of Brooklyn since the 1970s, but many locals questions their tactics and their chummy relationship with local police. The private security force has recently been accused of vigilante violence. (New York Times)
