Latest news with #NewYork-area
NZ Herald
17-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
United Airlines profits dip but company says world getting ‘less uncertain'
United Airlines has reported a drop in second-quarter profits on higher costs and predicted a rise in travel as geopolitical worries ease. The carrier, which was forced to scale back operations at its New York-area hub for part of the quarter because of air traffic control problems, said it saw
Business Times
16-07-2025
- Business
- Business Times
United Airlines profits dip but says Newark has rebounded
[NEW YORK] United Airlines reported a drop in second-quarter profits on Wednesday on higher costs and predicted a rise in travel as geopolitical worries ease. The carrier, which was forced to scale back operations at its New York-area hub for part of the quarter due to air traffic control problems, said it saw an increase in bookings in early July and attributed the improvement to 'less geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.' While revenues edged up 1.7 per cent in the first quarter to US$15.2 billion compared with the year-ago period, profits fell 26.4 per cent to US$973 million. United had higher salary costs compared with the year-ago period. The carrier also accounted for US$561 million in one-time costs in connection with a tentative labour agreement with its flight attendants union. United pointed to a turnaround in its performance at Newark, New Jersey after problems with the airport's air traffic operation led to delays and flight cancellations throughout much of May. The airline was forced to cancel many flights per day after an April 28 equipment outage resulted in Newark's air traffic controllers losing radar and communications with planes for 90 seconds. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Following that incident, US air officials slowed traffic during this period due to insufficient staffing. But United has pointed to improved performance at Newark following moves by US officials to replace some outdated equipment. United's operation at Newark 'led all other major airlines in on-time performance and lowest seat cancellation rate at all New York City area airports,' United said in its press release. United plans to resume service between its Newark hub and Tel Aviv, Israel on July 21 after suspending service due to the Iran-Israel war. 'United saw a positive shift in demand beginning in early July, and, like 2024, anticipates another inflection in industry supply in mid-August,' said United CEO Scott Kirby. 'The world is less uncertain today than it was during the first six months of 2025 and that gives us confidence about a strong finish to the year.' United projected full-year 2025 profits of between US$9 and US$11 per share. Those figures are about US$2 above the range of its 'recessionary environment' forecast from April, but about US$2.50 per share below the 'stable environment' projection. Shares of United fell 1.5 per cent in after-hours trading. AFP
USA Today
04-07-2025
- USA Today
'Sick to my stomach': New York golf course suffers severe damage from vandals
A New York-area golf club is recovering from vandals tearing up some of its fairways and greens. The private club Skenandoa Club, located in Clinton, New York, posted several photos of the severe damage done to the golf course, with tire marks all over. "I'm literally sick to my stomach," says the post written by owner Michael Intartaglia. And you can see why. The damage occurred on the eight green and ninth hole tee, fairway and bunker. One of the golf club's Facebook followers crunched some numbers on what the potential repair bill might look like: Estimated Total Damage Range: The vandals drove a large vehicle sometime late Tuesday/early Wednesday this week. The mostly private course does accept some public play Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday.
Reuters
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
NYC legal aid union defeats lawsuit by Jewish lawyers over Israel criticisms
June 30 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday dismissed, opens new taba lawsuit brought by two Jewish lawyers working for New York's Legal Aid Society who said they should not be forced to pay dues to their union after it accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing and genocide" in Gaza. Arnold Levine and Allen Popper alleged in their lawsuit that their constitutional rights were violated by being required to pay dues to support advocacy they opposed by state-supported organizations. But U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel said that the union and Legal Aid Society are private entities that are not subject to the attorneys' civil rights claims. The U.S. Supreme Court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "have repeatedly concluded that public defenders, legal aid societies, and other legal-services providers that rely on public funding do not perform traditional public functions that make them state actors for section 1983 purposes," Castel said in his ruling. Castel also dismissed the lawyers' claims against New York City, finding that the city played no role in hiring Levine and Popper or in the drafting of a December 2023 resolution by the local chapter of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys that criticized Israeli "apartheid" and called for a ceasefire. "We are pleased that in dismissing the complaint, the court agreed with our position that it had no merit," said Twyla Carter, the attorney-in-chief and chief executive officer at the Legal Aid Society. Jeffrey Schwab of the conservative Liberty Justice Center, which represented Levine and Popper, said they plan to appeal. "Our clients who serve New York City as public defenders should not be forced to join or pay a union — especially one that advocates for points of view they find deeply offensive — as a condition of their job," Schwab said in a statement. Spokespersons for the ALAA and the New York City Law Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ALAA is an affiliate of the United Auto Workers union that represents about 2,700 lawyers working for New York-area groups, including The Legal Aid Society, that represent indigent defendants. New York City contracts with Legal Aid and other groups for those services. In the lawsuit, Levine said he had sought to stop paying dues to the union because of what he perceived as antisemitism by its leadership. ALAA informed Levine that while he could opt out of union membership, he was required to pay so-called agency fees to fund collective bargaining. The ALAA's resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza prompted another lawsuit brought by other union members who said they were retaliated against for opposing it. Those lawyers, who work at the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, slammed the resolution as being "objectively antisemitic." That lawsuit, filed by Ilana Kopmar, Diane Clarke and Isaac Altman, is still pending in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.
The Intercept
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Intercept
PBS Station Wipes Drag and Trans Content After DOGE Outcry
The New York-area PBS station WNET has scrubbed its archives of at least three educational TV episodes that discuss transgender identity and drag expression, The Intercept has learned, as Congress and the Trump administration target public broadcasters with attempts to strip their funding. The station's educational program 'Let's Learn' became an object of ire for the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency this spring over the 2021 episode 'The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish,' in which the drag queen and children's author Lil Miss Hot Mess sings about drag performance to the tune of 'The Wheels on the Bus.' The subcommittee's chair, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., opened the 'Anti-American Airwaves' hearing in March by claiming that 'PBS News is not just left-leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical, left positions like featuring a drag queen on the show' and calling Lil Miss Hot Mess a 'child predator' and a 'monster.' Far from defending the programming, PBS CEO Paula Kerger distanced the broadcaster from the show. 'The drag queen was actually not on any of our kids' shows,' she said, claiming the episode made it to the PBS website by mistake and had already been removed. PBS followed up with a letter that said it had 'removed all remaining references to the Episode' online on March 26, 2025. But it wasn't just PBS: The New York member station that produces 'Let's Learn' — which had stood by the episode under scrutiny in previous years — then quietly removed the episode across its platforms, according to an Intercept analysis. WNET also erased two other episodes about a children's book featuring a a transgender protagonist, the analysis shows. WNET did not respond to requests for comment. A PBS spokesperson reiterated Kerger's claim that the episode was uploaded by mistake and said its removal was unrelated to the current political climate, but did not respond to questions about why over 250 other 'Let's Learn' episodes are still available for viewing on the official PBS website. Public broadcasting was an object of U.S. conservative wrath for decades before the Trump administration. But as the current government has intensified its attacks, PBS has engaged in other recent examples of self-censorship. PBS removed a scene in which Art Spiegelman discusses an anti-Trump cartoon from a documentary about the artist, and it pulled a gaming documentary with transgender themes from planned syndication — then relisted it after The Atlantic asked about the deletion. But the erasure of WNET's programming on drag and transgender culture shows the effects reaching a local level, where the station that produced the episodes elected to take them down — despite previously having defended them. After premiering in the spring of 2021, 'The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish' quickly garnered social media outrage and news coverage. Following the first round of backlash, WNET added a disclaimer on its YouTube channel and the 'Let's Learn' website, noting that the series is 'not funded or distributed by PBS.' But at the time, WNET defended the episode, telling Fox News that Let's Learn 'strives to incorporate themes that explore diversity and promote inclusivity, which are relevant to education and society. Drag is a performance art that can inspire creative thinking and the questioning of stereotypes.' The outrage didn't go away: Two years later, Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt explicitly mentioned the episode when he vetoed a bill to extend funding for his state's PBS station. Despite all the attention, WNET continued to make the episode available — until this year. An Intercept analysis showed that following the DOGE hearing, WNET quietly removed all mentions of the episode across its platforms. The original episode page now displays a generic error message, reading 'Oops! The page you are looking for was not found.' 'The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish' no longer appears in a list of episode titles, and the video is listed as private on the WNET Education YouTube channel. WNET also instructed search engines not to list the episode's old webpage. Aside from removing 'The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish,' WNET has additionally removed at least two more 'Let's Learn' episodes, The Intercept has found. In the November 2020 episode 'Max and the Talent Show,' author Kyle Lukoff reads his book of the same name. The story concerns a white transgender boy named Max who helps his Black male friend Steven prepare for a talent show and 'find the perfect gown, shoes, cape, and tiara,' according to the School Library Journal. The journal calls the book 'an excellent choice as an early reader with an LGBTQIA+ theme.' WNET removed that episode and another, called 'Brain and Same Both Have Long 'A.'' That hourlong episode also features 'Max and the Talent Show,' which students read in order to 'practice sounds with the long 'a.'' Although it has been erased from PBS and WNET platforms, 'The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish' can still be viewed via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
