Nonprofit connects formerly incarcerated with new careers
29-year-old Zarravon Quarry from Flatbush says that at the age of 16, his trouble with the law began.
More Local News
The death of a very close friend moved him to change his life. It wasn't easy, but Quarry had a powerful drive and a new ally.
Thanks to a city and a nonprofit, Quarry says changing his life.
The Hope Program aligned him with a program called Bike Path run by Bike NY. It's a 3-week training program for previously justice-involved people over 18 to become certified Bike Mechanics for Citi Bike.
Ken Podziba, the president and CEO of Bike New York, says it gives them a second chance and gives them a job right away with Citi Bike. A win-win, maintaining the city bike fleet and offering a fresh to a stable career.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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The Hill
39 minutes ago
- The Hill
Man charged with building, placing homemade IEDs in NYC
A New York man was indicted on Tuesday, accused by federal prosecutors of building and placing homemade improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at two apartment buildings and on the Williamsburg Bridge subway track. Michael Gann, 55, is accused of assembling a total of seven IEDs using the precursor chemicals, cardboard tubes and fuses in June. One of the devices contained approximately 30 grams of explosive powder, which amounts to 600 times the legal limit for fireworks, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said in a press release. Prosecutors also said Gann stored at least four shotgun shells on the residential rooftops in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, which he intended to combine with one or more of the IEDs. The release made no mention of motive. Gann faces charges of attempted destruction of property by means of explosives; transportation of explosive materials and unlawful possession of destructive devices, the release states. 'The safety of New Yorkers is paramount. As alleged, Michael Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo, and threw one onto the subway tracks — putting countless lives at risk,' United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton said in a statement. 'Thanks to swift work by our law enforcement partners, no one was harmed. That vigilance assuredly prevented a tragedy in New York,' he added. FBI Director Kash Patel lauded the work undertaken by the New York Field Office. 'The FBI's mission is clear: protect Americans before harm is done. Proud of our agents, @NewYorkFBI and our partners in New York for dismantling this IED plot and protecting innocent lives,' Patel wrote in a Tuesday statement on X. 'Anyone who threatens Americans with terror will be hunted down and brought to justice,' he added.
New York Times
9 hours ago
- New York Times
Etan Patz's Case Haunted New York. It's Still Not Over.
Good morning. It's Wednesday. Today we'll take a closer look at the appellate court decision that put the case of Etan Patz back in the spotlight, 46 years after he disappeared. We'll also get details on why telephone calls from inmates in New York's state prisons will soon be free. The 51 pages of the appellate court decision that put the Etan Patz case back in the spotlight are dry and legalistic, as appellate court decisions usually are. The judges made no mention of the fact that, as a former assistant district attorney put it after the decision was released on Monday, the Patz case was 'a watershed moment, almost a loss-of-innocence moment for the city.' The court overturned the conviction of Pedro Hernandez, who worked at a bodega near where Etan's school bus stopped every morning. The trial, in 2017, was his second; the jury in his first, in 2015, had deadlocked. The guilty verdict was not followed by a collective sigh of relief — perhaps because so much time had passed, perhaps it did not return things to the way they had been before Etan vanished, perhaps because it did not provide meaningful closure to a case that had haunted New York for so long. The year Etan disappeared, 1979, was a long time ago. As my colleague Michael Wilson noted, Etan, a first grader then, would be 52 years old now. New York has lived under six mayors and the nation under eight presidents since he disappeared. For New Yorkers who lived in the city in 1979, there is no forgetting the Patz case, and for those who have grown up since Etan disappeared, there is no escaping how their lives were shaped when a boy finally got a 'yes' to a question many children ask and ask again. The question was, Could he walk to the bus stop by himself? Was he old enough, big enough, city-savvy enough? The city was rougher then. There were 1,700 homicides in 1979, or an average of 4.75 a day. Last year, there were 377. 'The whole city was rethinking, really, what it had begun to assume about neighborhoods,' said Louise Mirrer, the president of New York Historical. 'The main event for parents at the time,' she added, was that those who had decided that the city was a place where they could bring up their children — 'and where they didn't have to worry about them all the time' — were 'shaken.' People wanted to believe that they could still trust their neighbors, Mirrer said. Not just the people across the hall or downstairs in your own building, but the people a child would pass on the way to a bus stop a couple of blocks away. The professor and author Jonathan Haidt told my colleague Michael Wilson that Etan's disappearance and the death of Adam Walsh, a 6-year-old who was abducted and killed in Florida two years later, had 'changed the way we raise kids' in a way that was 'very damaging to human development.' Over the years, there were reminders that kept the case in the public's mind. In 1985, an electronic screen at Broadway and 47th Street showed a photograph of Etan twice an hour. 'Last seen 5-25-79,' the caption said. 'Still missing.' It is possible to forget that the bodega where Hernandez worked was a seedy place, as one man in the neighborhood said in a story I wrote in 2012. He said that you sensed 'a distinctly hostile feeling' as soon as you walked in. The word on the street was that cockfighting went on in the basement, he said. Hernandez later moved to South Jersey and was living there when, the appeals court said, his brother-in-law 'called police with a tip about rumors that Hernandez was involved in the disappearance of Patz.' Until that moment, the appellate ruling said, 'Hernandez's life was quiet and arrest-free,' although Judge Guido Calabresi, writing for the court, noted that Hernandez 'had a documented history of mental illnesses.' Calabresi also wrote that Hernandez has a low IQ. The appeals court said the trial judge's answer to a jury note during the deliberations in 2017 had been 'clearly wrong' and 'manifestly prejudicial.' Hernandez has been serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. It is now up to the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, to decide whether to try him again. Weather Expect sunshine with temperatures in the mid-80s. For tonight, it will be partly cloudy with temperatures in the low 70s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 3 (Tisha B'Av). The latest Metro news Shelters turn away pets: Many New Yorkers have been taking pets to shelters because they can no longer afford to keep them. The shelters, which have had to double up animals in some kennels and crates, will in many cases no longer take in cats, dogs and other pets. Ocasio-Cortez's campaign office is vandalized: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Bronx campaign office was defaced with a message citing the war in Gaza. The vandalism occurred days after she voted against an amendment that would have cut funding for Israel's defense capabilities. Arson charges for a pro-Palestinian activist: The federal authorities said that the man, Jakhi McCray, had sneaked into a Brooklyn parking lot last month and set fire to 10 police vehicles. After he was released on bail worth $300,000, he was taken to Manhattan Criminal Court to be arraigned on state charges related to a protest he had attended. Video shows overcrowded ICE holding cell in Manhattan: Immigrants have complained about unsanitary conditions in the facility at 26 Federal Plaza. On Tuesday, new video footage offered the first glimpse inside one of the four cells in Lower Manhattan. State prisoners' phone calls will soon be free People incarcerated in state prisons in New York are allowed three free calls a week, each lasting no more than 15 minutes. Each call beyond those three costs 2.4 cents a minute to numbers in the United States and territories like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Starting next month, all of the calls will be free. Five other states and New York City already have similar policies. The change in New York State comes after negotiations between the state agency that runs the prisons, the Department of Corrections and Community Services, and the company that provides its telephone service, Securus Technologies. The state will pay Securus 1.5 cents a minute for each call, which the department described as one of the lowest rates in the country. The change will ease the financial burden for inmates' families and friends. Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that seeks to dismantle the prison industry, said that New York families spend more than $13 million each year contacting their loved ones behind bars. The costs fall disproportionately on Black and brown women, according to the group. 'It's a win-win for everyone,' Ms. Tylek said. 'For families, incarcerated people, correctional officers and public safety.' METROPOLITAN diary Supermoon Dear Diary: I was walking down a street on the Upper East Side one fall weeknight, lost in some personal problem, when I heard a voice shout, 'Stop!' The voice, it turned out, belonged to a small, older woman in a maroon coat. 'Back up and look up,' she said. I did as I was told. The several steps back I took brought me out from under an awning so that suddenly I could see the moon, big and brilliant, hanging over the street. I hadn't noticed just how bright a night it was. 'It's a supermoon,' the woman said. 'I heard about it on the radio. NPR. I just had to come out and see it.' 'And,' she continued, pointing the pint container in her hand heavenward, 'why wouldn't I get myself some ice cream, too?' 'It's wonderful,' I said, and we stood right there, listening to the happy clatter from a nearby Italian restaurant and admiring the supermoon together. — Sarah Skinner Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Francis Mateo and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@ Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
New York Post
12 hours ago
- New York Post
Manhattan bomb plot foiled as feds charge NY man with building, stashing IEDs across city
A New York man is facing federal charges after allegedly building and stashing homemade bombs across Manhattan, including on active subway tracks and residential rooftops. Michael Gann, 55, of Inwood, was charged Tuesday with manufacturing at least seven improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using chemicals he bought online, according to US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton. Advertisement 'The safety of New Yorkers is paramount,' said Clayton. 'As alleged, Michael Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo, and threw one onto the subway tracks—putting countless lives at risk. Thanks to swift work by our law enforcement partners, no one was harmed. That vigilance assuredly prevented a tragedy in New York,' Clayton said in a statement. Authorities say Gann's alleged actions included throwing an IED onto the Williamsburg Bridge subway tracks and hoarding explosives, some with shotgun shells, above Manhattan apartment buildings. He was arrested June 5 with another device on him, officials said. On Instagram on the same day, Gann reportedly posted, 'Who wants me to go out to play like no tomorrow?' 4 Michael Gann, 55, of Inwood, was charged Tuesday with manufacturing at least seven improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using chemicals he bought online. US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York 4 Gann captured on camera allegedly placing an IED on a rooftop in New York City. US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York Advertisement 4 An explosive device thrown on the tracks of a subway station on the Williamsburg Bridge. US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York 4 A stash of the homemade bombs discovered by officials. US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York FBI Assistant Director Christopher Raia credited the 'swift partnership' between agencies for stopping Gann before he could inflict harm. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the coordinated effort 'intervened before he caused any harm.' Advertisement 'This defendant allegedly stockpiled homemade explosives and traveled to New York City with these deadly devices,' Tisch said in the release. 'He threw one of these devices onto an active subway track and stored others on the rooftop of a residential building, but because of the skilled investigative work and swift response from the NYPD and our partners, we were able to intervene before he caused any harm.' The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney's National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant US Attorneys Jonathan L. Bodansky, Michael D. Lockard, and Chelsea L. Scism, and Special Assistant US Attorney Julie Isaacson are in charge of the prosecution. Gann is charged with one count of attempted destruction of property by means of explosives (mandatory minimum five years, maximum 20), one count of transportation of explosive materials (maximum 10), and one count of unlawful possession of destructive devices (maximum 10). Sentencing will be determined by a judge.
