Good morning. It's Wednesday. We'll find out about a program to give donated bicycles to asylum seekers who are new to New York. We'll also look at the sentencing of Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. |
 | | Kenan Vanderstoop, a mechanic at Bike New York's Recycle-a-Bicycle shop.Tae Kim |
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Bike New York will give away bicycles. Not new ones, but donated used bikes that have been refurbished by its Recycle-a-Bicycle shop. They will go to asylum seekers and other immigrants who have recently arrived in New York. |
The goal is to provide an inexpensive, convenient and car-free way for them to access jobs and services around the city as they try to settle in. "They can't go on subways and buses — it's too expensive" if they arrived with little money, said Kenneth Podziba, the president and chief executive of Bike New York. "A bicycle will give them the freedom to see the whole entire city." |
Bike New York knows that bicycles can be stolen in New York, so with help from the lock manufacturer Kryptonite, Bike New York will tell the recipients of the bicycles: You get a lock! You get a lock! |
Bike New York will teach the recipients how to ride if needed, with instructions in their native languages, Podziba said. It will also teach the rules of the road and provide free maintenance at Recycle-a-Bicycle "until they get back on their feet," he said. |
"We believe that there is this transformational power of cycling that will not only support their resettlement and integration but will help them thrive," Podziba said. "Once they can look for employment, bikes will help them get to their employment and get to job interviews. Maybe they have family who've also come but don't live in the same area where they are. They could visit them. Right now it's an uphill battle for them. We just want to make things easier." |
Podziba said the size of the giveaway would depend on how many bicycles Bike New York collects in the next few weeks. He is seeking donations of bikes whose owners can do without them. He also wants building managers to empty out storage rooms where bicycles often languish long after their owners have moved away. |
Bikes can be donated from Thursday through Feb. 2 at three Manhattan locations of the bicycle-rental company Unlimited Biking; at Recycle-a-Bicycle at 858 Fulton Street in Brooklyn; and at a city warehouse at 66-26 Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, Queens. |
Once refurbished, the bicycles will be distributed by the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, working with community organizations. |
Manuel Castro, the commissioner of immigrant affairs, said on Tuesday that 38,700 asylum seekers had arrived since last spring and that 26,100 remained in emergency shelters. Many new arrivals were sent on buses, a political stratagem by Republican governors in Texas and Arizona to capitalize on outrage over record crossings at the southern border and what they saw as a need for tighter security there. |
"So many people have arrived that any effort — in this case, collection of bikes — helps," Castro said. "Yes, there's compassion fatigue because this is an ongoing crisis. But you're seeing new efforts this come up because people in New York want to be helpful in a difficult situation. We're not going to stand by and see people suffer. That's the big picture here." |
Expect increasing clouds, with temperatures near the low 40s. At night, it's mostly cloudy, with temps in the upper 30s. |
In effect until Monday (Martin Luther King's Birthday). |
 | | Cindy Schultz for The New York Times |
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- Nurses on strike, day 2: More than 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center returned to the picket lines.
- Saipov trial: The trial of Sayfullo Saipov — the man accused of driving a truck along a Hudson River bike path in 2017, killing eight people and wounding more than a dozen others in the name of the Islamic State — could continue for months.
- Brooklyn judge resigns: Judge Harriet Thompson of Brooklyn Surrogate's Court, who was accused of making racist and homophobic remarks about court workers, fellow judges and others, will retire as of March 1.
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Five months in jail for longtime Trump executive |
 | | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images |
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For decades, Allen Weisselberg was a loyal lieutenant to Donald Trump and his family's company. The perks included leased Mercedes-Benzes and an apartment on the Upper West Side. |
Weisselberg will spend up to five months about five miles from there, at the Rikers Island jail complex. He was sentenced on Tuesday for his role in the tax fraud scheme that led to the conviction of Trump Organization last year. The company, which was convicted on the 17 counts it was charged with, will be sentenced on Friday. It faces penalties of up to $1.6 million. |
Weisselberg, who was the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, had faced years in prison until he agreed to a plea deal and testified as the prosecution's star witness. On Tuesday, Justice Juan Merchan said that if he had not promised the five-month sentence when he accepted the plea deal, he would have imposed a significantly longer sentence. "The entire case was driven by greed," Merchan said. |
The sentencing was the latest step in a precipitous fall for Weisselberg, whose ties to the Trumps have become tenuous. The Trump Organization parted ways with him as of Tuesday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He had been on paid leave and received an annual bonus for 2022, and is expected to be given a severance package. |
The Trump Organization has good reason not to alienate him. His testimony helped prosecutors win the conviction of the company, but Weisselberg has refused to turn against Trump himself in the Manhattan district attorney's investigation of the former president. Weisselberg's perspective could help as investigators look into Trump's role in hush-money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. |
One Saturday this past summer, three friends and I decided to make our first-ever pilgrimage to Barney Greengrass. |
We had just begun to discuss our ordering strategy excitedly when I felt a tap on my shoulder. |
It was the woman at the table next to us, and she was visibly irritated. |
"Will you girls please quiet down?" she grumbled. "Your voices are so loud I can hardly hear myself think." |
She turned back around and began to poke angrily at her tuna salad. |
My friends and I exchanged glances and continued our conversation at stage-whisper level. |
Toward the end of our meal, one of us remembered that the restaurant did not take credit cards. I volunteered to run across the street to an A.T.M., but before I could get up from my seat, I felt another tap on my shoulder. |
It was the shusher again. She reached into her purse, pulled out a crisp $100 bill and pressed it into my hands. |
"For quieting down," she said. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
| Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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