WNYC News

Winter is not done with us yet. We have blizzard warnings in effect in New York and New Jersey and officials are warning that it might be even worse than last month's historic storm.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill joins Weekend Edition host David Furst for an update. 

Kenneth Luna’s family said he died doing something he enjoyed: walking through the park near his Bronx home to clear his mind.

On Jan. 28, the 29-year-old left the apartment he shared with his mother on Brook Avenue in Mott Haven and walked three blocks to St. Mary’s Park, according to his younger sister Maria Luna. Temperatures in New York City felt like 10 degrees that night, and Maria Luna said she suspected that her brother had been drinking.

Had it not been dangerously cold outside, she said, Kenneth Luna might have made it home alive.

But he had lain somewhere in the park and did not get up. First responders found him the next morning after a passerby called 911, Maria Luna said, and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“He wasn’t homeless,” she told Gothamist on Wednesday. “Maybe there was no one around to help him.”

City Hall officials released Luna’s name on Tuesday as part of a list of 18 deaths in public places during the recent period of frigid weather that first gripped the city on Jan. 19. He is one of the youngest people on the list so far, which includes previously unreported names of several others who were also discovered dead across the city.

A former employee at a now-defunct Brooklyn day care has been arrested and charged with forcibly dragging a toddler and swiping a broom across a child’s face, police said.

Lindsay Olibrice, 24, was arrested on Feb. 17 and charged with acting in a manner that is injurious to a child and harassment while she worked at the Eva Crèche Day Care Center in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. The day care closed Jan. 2.

Olibrice’s attorney did not respond to calls, texts or emails seeking comment. Olibrice could not be reached for comment. She pleaded not guilty in court this week.

The arrest comes more than a month after another employee began texting parents videos they say showed their children being physically mistreated inside the day care center. Gothamist previously reported on the videos, which were recorded by that employee who reported the incidents to the city.

Mayor Mamdani's first preliminary budget is raising questions about the administration's public safety agenda for New York City. WNYC's Charles Lane has been digging into the numbers. Speaking with Weekend Edition host David Furst, he breaks down the headline takeaways from the public safety side of the budget.

If there’s one thing New Yorkers can bond over, it’s rat sightings across the city. Former Mayor Eric Adams oversaw reforms that he called a “trash revolution," which mainly involved getting piles of trash bags off city sidewalks and into bins. And this did seem to make a difference. There has been a drop of reported rat sightings. 

Bobby Corrigan, a long time city rodent biologist, talked with WNYC's David Furst about the rodent we all live alongside in the city. 

Commissioner Stanley Richards took over this week as the new head of New York City's Department of Correction. He's the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the city's jails. He spoke with WNYC Morning Edition host Michael Hill about his plans for Rikers, dealing with the corrections officers' union, and working alongside the newly appointed remediation manager. 

New Yorkers are enraged over the amount of canine feces on city streets and sidewalks. Residents have reported just under 1,000 complaints about dog waste this year, an 81% increase from the same period in 2025, according to 311 data. Councilmember Shahana Hanif called the phenomenon a public health hazard, and her colleague in the city council, Chi Ossé, posted a fiery and profane rant on social media after stepping in dog poop on his way to work at City Hall. Ossé joined WNYC host Michael Hill to discuss ways to mitigate the problem. Then Joshua Goodman, Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Sanitation, joined to discuss which of those ideas is actually feasible.

Spring — and the bounty of spring produce — is still weeks away. But vendors at New York City's greenmarkets are still working hard to keep their stands full with staples like sausage during the dead of winter.

Amelia Tarpey, Program and Publicity Manager for GrowNYC Greenmarkets, says depending on what kind of meat it's made of, sausage can cost between $8.50 and $15 per pound at local greenmarkets.

Another example of the havoc the recent cold snap caused in New York City: Major crimes reported on the subway system rose 17% during the first five weeks of the year, according to NYPD data.

New York’s DMV has stopped issuing commercial driver licenses to many immigrants following an order from the Trump administration – a move unions say has major implications for the MTA and school bus service.