Eastchester: Man Charged with Murder in Fatal Gas Explosion at NYCHA’s Boston Secor Houses

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced Wednesday, Feb. 25, that a man has been charged with second-degree murder, burglary, assault and other related charges for allegedly instigating an early morning gas leak in a NYCHA apartment building in the Eastchester section of The Bronx which resulted in an explosion and fire that killed a tenant and caused dozens of other tenants to be evacuated at the height of the year’s first major snowstorm. Read our initial coverage of the fire, click here.  

Twenty-Two City Council Members Call on State to Give City Power to Tax Millionaires

Twenty-two members, a minority, of the New York City Council’s 51 member-body released a joint statement on Wednesday, Feb. 25, calling on the State legislature and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pass the Fair Share Act, legislation they say would grant New York City the authority to enact a 2% income tax increase on millionaires.  

UPDATE Inquiring Photographer: Thoughts on Accountability over the “Epstein Files”

This week, we asked readers for their opinions on the “Epstein Files” and if they believe anyone else will be held accountable for sex crimes or for assisting Jeffrey Epstein with the sex crimes he perpetrated. It’s been widely reported that Epstein died in custody in 2019 as he awaited his trial on sex trafficking charges. He was convicted a decade earlier and spent 13 months in a county jail, which included a work-release program, for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

To Balance the Budget, Mamdani Details Two Paths – Tax the Rich or Let the Middle Class Fund the Gap

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Preliminary Budget on Tuesday, Feb. 17, outlining the scope of what was described as a fiscal crisis he said he inherited from the prior administration. The mayor presented two paths forward to balance the budget (a legal requirement): raise revenue from the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations and end the drain of City resources to the State, or have working and middle-class New Yorkers fund the gap.