Happy Tuesday in New York, where maybe our ghosts are just the mayors we leave behind.
Yesterday was moving day for Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, First Lady Rama Duwaji. They ditched their one-bedroom apartment in Astoria for the mayor’s traditional residence at Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, a change that comes with at least one nuisance: a spectral roommate.
The ghost of Gracie Mansion was first publicly identified by Mayor Eric Adams, who confirmed that he had seen objects moving on their own and heard incorporeal footsteps in the night. “I don’t care what anyone says, there are ghosts in there, man,” the former mayor told Yankees announcers while sitting in the booth at Yankee Stadium. “Listen, they’re creeping around.” The mansion may not appear on the official list of haunted residences kept by NYC Ghost Tours, but there is no doubt that it fits the bill for a prototypical ghost home.
Mamdani, for his part, did not seem overly bothered by the ghost. “I haven’t yet met the ghost or heard from the ghost,” the mayor told reporters. “One thing that we will change is we will be installing a few bidets into Gracie Mansion.”
Eric Adams told reporters that he left the ghost behind for its new tenants. He also placed a note for his successor in the Mansion, which Mamdani seemed surprised to hear. “Did he say where he left it? I guess I’ll go looking for it.”
It seems Mamdani will have to battle at least one ghost, the same one that haunts his office at City Hall: the ghost of the Adams administration.
A New York City Council staffer was detained by ICE on Monday, while attending what Council Speaker Julie Menin described as a routine immigration hearing at a federal office in Bethpage, Long Island.
Menin said the staffer, a Venezuelan national who works as a data analyst in the Council’s central staff, had legal authorization to remain in the country through October and no prior arrests. Multiple other Council members have demanded the staffer’s release.
Bojangles, a fast-casual chain famous for its chicken and biscuits, opened its first New York location in East Flatbush at 5910 Church Ave. yesterday, Jan. 12.
Girl Scouts from the five boroughs kicked off the 2026 cookie season with a rally and day of activities at Barclays Center on Sunday. The cookie-selling season begins Jan. 15 in NYC.
Police arrested a woman accused of launching an antisemitic attack on a 26-year-old Orthodox Jewish father who was walking with his wife and four children. The woman reportedly shouted, “I’m gonna kill you Jews,” before punching the father in the head and stomach.
The NYC Department of Sanitation is looking for artists — professional, amateur and aspiring — to transform a 46,000-pound collection vehicle into a work of art through the Trucks of Art program.
The Dallas Mavericks got to show off first overall pick Cooper Flagg on Monday night, while also handing the Brooklyn Nets a fourth consecutive defeat.
Our World In Photos
Photo: Adam Gray/AP
MINNEAPOLIS — Note subtle finger (ICE agent’s left hand) offered toward the camera: A protester is detained by Federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
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Taxidermy comes to life in Brooklyn
Wunderkammer is an annual taxidermy showcase in Brooklyn. Photo by Luis Suar
Few New Yorkers would expect to find a thriving taxidermy scene under their noses, yet taxidermy is taking on a life of its own in Brooklyn.
The ancient and often misunderstood practice of preserving dead animals has evolved and thrived through events, workshops and internationally acclaimed artists based in the city. Local artists combat the taboo around taxidermy in classic New Yorker fashion: they create community.
🔎 Today’s legislation
State Senate Democrats advanced a package of election bills on Monday aimed at strengthening voter protections, safeguarding election workers and tightening rules against voter intimidation and foreign-influenced political spending.
The legislation, spearheaded by state Senator Kristen Gonzalez, chair of the Senate Elections Committee, if passed, would increase penalties for voter suppression, prohibit harassment or doxxing of election officials, require standardized training for election commissioners and allow portable early-voting polling sites. Another bill would move New York’s presidential primary to Super Tuesday.
“Democracy works best when every New Yorker can participate freely, safely, and without fear of intimidation,” said Gonzalez to the press on Monday.
“As Chair of the Elections Committee, I’m proud that this legislative package strengthens election integrity by expanding accessibility, protecting voters and election workers, and confronting the growing threats of political violence and foreign influence.”
Republican lawmakers criticized the bill, calling it political ‘pageantry’ rather than real reform.
“Find me somebody who cannot vote under the current laws that we have in place,” state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, of Niagara County, said to WSKG. “It’s partisan electioneering masqueraded as election policy,” he continued.
Supporters said the legislation package responds to rising threats against election workers nationwide. Many members of the GOP previously argued that some proposals could increase administrative burdens for local boards of elections.
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Cartoon Sketchbook
By Dave Whamond
For the Road
In memoriam: Nonprofit organization Bay Ridge Cares will host an event celebrating the life of its founding board member, Teri Brennan, who died Oct. 16, 2025. “Teri Brennan believed deeply in the power of community, and this celebration gives us a chance to come together in the same spirit she lived every day,” said Bay Ridge Cares President Karen Tadross. See more information on the celebration at brooklyneagle.com.
Happy Birthday to entrepreneur and one-time mayoral candidate, Andrew Yang.
On This Day in 1936, the Eagle reported, “Women in Iran have always played a very important part in both the economic and political life of the country, even if they have not been in evidence socially. They have always enjoyed a much better position than many of their sisters in Europe.”
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