‘THIS IS VILE, DISGUSTING BEHAVIOR’: New York is weighing whether to regulate mask wearing amid a spate of antisemitic incidents in recent days. Hochul confirmed this afternoon she has spoken with the state Legislature and Mayor Eric Adams’ office about potential action. “People should not be allowed to hide behind a mask to commit crimes,” she said at a news conference touting the latest reduction in shootings between January and May. “There’s obviously a problem here.” She condemned the recent vandalism at the homes of Jewish board members of the Brooklyn Museum, as well as a subway incident in which masked people told “Zionists” to leave the train. Hochul said the “subway is our primary focus” as she grapples with the issue. But she also acknowledged there are complications with limiting where a mask can be worn since people cover their faces for health reasons — a heightened concern following the Covid-19 pandemic — as well as religious and cultural ones. — Nick Reisman STEIN OFF BALLOT: New York’s presidential contest will be a three-candidate race. State Board of Elections officials today blocked every third-party candidate except Robert Kennedy from appearing on the ballot, finding they fell short of local petition requirements. That includes Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who submitted her ballots with much fanfare last month. She declined at the time to say whether she met the minimum of 45,000 signatures, saying “the system is so oppressive” that it makes it impossible to count how many she received. The board tabulated 34,104 signatures. Some of these came in late and were invalidated. Stein also failed to identify electors. “This is very much a predictable consequence of a law that stands in opposition to the urgently felt needs of the American people,” Stein said while zooming into a board meeting from a parked car. The petitioning requirements for third parties were recently increased as part of the deal that led to the creation of the state’s public campaign finance system. “You’re in the right town but the wrong part of the city,” GOP Commissioner Tony Casale told Stein. “You’ve got to go up the hill and talk to the state Legislature. They set the rules, we follow them.” — Bill Mahoney JANNO CAN TALK CASINO MONEY: MTA Chair Janno Lieber can be involved in broad discussions about funding the authority with casino revenues — despite his formal agreement to recuse himself from certain conversations because of his financial stake in one of the bidders. “It is a narrowly targeted and focused recusal, that relates to a specific, very small and minute interest in one property,” an MTA spokesperson told Playbook, noting that it doesn’t preclude Lieber from having conversations about how the MTA would be funded absent congestion pricing. Lieber has a 3 percent stake in the Manhattan bid that Silverstein Properties is pitching to the state to earn a gambling license, the Daily News reported in October. Lieber and the MTA then updated his memo recusing himself from business dealing with Silverstein, where he worked before joining the authority, adding he’d stay out of discussions “specifically and directly involving Silverstein's actual or potential involvement in the Casino Bid.” Now casino boosters in the Legislature are pushing to move up the timeline to award gaming licenses and help plug the budget hole left by Hochul’s indefinite delay of congestion pricing. But the MTA spokesperson said it’s irrelevant — casino revenue is already slated to fund the MTA’s operating budget. Union Leader John Samuelsen, a loud and consistent Lieber critic, conspiratorially suggested on X Thursday that the chair wouldn’t fight for congestion pricing because he could make money on his stake sooner. — Jeff Coltin
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