He stepped down from the online shoe retailer and assisted in revitalizing downtown Las Vegas. He died of injuries suffered in a fire.
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Democrats made historic inroads. But it’s a deeply divided place, and some say a “blood bath” is on the horizon in 2022.
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Lists of names of those the president-elect is said to be considering are flying across Washington, prompting lawmakers and interest groups to raise questions about some top contenders.
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St. Louis, MO (KMOV) — Lockdowns can be lonely; the pandemic has been keeping people away from loved ones and even from finding new love. That’s causing scammers to strike.
Experts say catfishing is on the rise during the COVID-19 crisis. A local Marine says he’s had his identity stolen hundreds of times and he doesn’t want you to be the next victim.
Marine Corps Staff Sergeant David Bickel has a big following on social media.
“I started an Instagram and people like pull-up videos, that’s basically where I am at,” David said.
And now the Farmington, Missouri native has made it part of his job as a recruiter.
“Most of the stuff I post on Instagram has to do with the Marine Corps, because the Marine Corps is the only reason I am here today,” Bickel said.
But while it’s often fun and games, he’s also inundated with the dark side.
“At one point, I had 250 DM’s that I hadn’t opened yet and I would say half of them were people who have been scammed,” Bickel said.
His pictures and videos used create to fake accounts, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even Tinder and Bumble.
Not his own accounts, (he’s happily married, by the way) but criminals looking to take advantage of the vulnerable.
“My mom has probably sent me 30 different accounts on Facebook, that she has reported. And now my wife gets messages asking why she is married to this other person and it’s just a crazy mess,” he said.
News 4 Investigates has told you before about romance scams.
Often women, but men too, who think they’re talking to a new love interest, but it’s a scammer instead, sometimes sending their life savings hanging on hopes.
And if you think it couldn’t happen to you, Bickel says he gets contacted nearly every single day from people blaming him.
“You have no idea, it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Over and over, he receives jealous or confused messages from victims who haven’t even figured it out.
“There was one lady I felt so bad for, I read her DM last week and she was out looking at wedding dresses, because she believed that whenever I got back from this deployment I was on, she was going to get married to me.
Often, he’ll call them apologize and try to correct the record.
“Having to see these women cry and have all this emotion, it wrecks me, it sucks, but the most I can do is report it,” Bickel said, adding he has reported it dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
Assistant US Attorney Tracy Berry says prosecuting these crimes can be tricky.
“The suspect we have may have 50 victims, but there are also three other individuals who are using that same identity,” she said. Prosecutors just put away one local man back in October for five years in prison but another one just pops up in their place.
“We would like to make sure every suspect faces the full wrath of the law, and we are not always able to do that,” said Berry.
The website Social Catfish recently released a study indicating catfishing, as it’s called, is on the rise during the pandemic.
Bickel hopes people will look out for the clear warning signs.
“If there are 15 photos uploaded on the same day, that’s generally going be a scam.”
Some victims have lost tens of thousands of dollars, thinking they were doing something out of the goodness of their heart.
One of the best things you can do if you meet someone online is talk to them over video, not the phone.
With Zoom and FaceTime, there’s no excuse not to see someone’s face.
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The city is already facing a nearly $4 billion budget gap next year, as recovery efforts from the coronavirus are hampered by evidence of a second wave.
Credit…John Taggart for The New York Times
New York City has lost more than 24,000 people to the coronavirus — a devastating toll that could rise substantially as a second wave hits. But the city has also borne an economic cost that continues to grow and threatens its future.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday painted a bleak picture of municipal finances, blaming the pandemic for a nearly $4 billion budget gap projected for the next fiscal year.
Earlier in the year, the problem was a drastic drop in tax revenue, as most economic activity came to a halt. Revenues are still down, but the city is facing the additional burden of billions of dollars in virus-related costs.
Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat in his second and final term, said the city needs another major federal stimulus package to prevent huge layoffs and cuts to city services.
“If there is no stimulus, we’re going to have to make extremely difficult choices,” Mr. de Blasio said.
The city has spent $5.2 billion responding to the pandemic, including paying for ventilators, emergency food assistance, reopening schools and virus testing.
The expenses include $742 million on personal protective equipment; $890 million on hotels for the homeless, medical personnel and people with the virus; $500 million for medical staffing; $149 million for ventilators and $100 million for testing centers, according to a recent report by the city comptroller.
About $2.8 billion of the pandemic costs were covered by the federal government, but the city is responsible for much of the balance.
The city increased its spending by about $767 million in the $92 billion budget the mayor released on Monday. The expenses include:
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$113 million for a program to provide food to struggling New Yorkers, which has distributed more than 140 million meals since March
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$160 million for reopening schools with additional teachers and staffers and providing cleaning supplies and air purifiers
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$7.5 million to respond to an increase in calls seeking mental health support
The city already made drastic cuts earlier this year to trash pickups and traffic enforcement, cuts that many New Yorkers believe are hurting quality of life
Mr. de Blasio said the city was facing a $3.8 billion budget gap next year that could mean more painful reductions in services.
The mayor said the deficit could grow worse if the state, which is facing its own budget crisis, makes funding cuts to local governments.
Mr. de Blasio did not say exactly which services might be cut, but it is likely every department, from sanitation to parks, would face cuts. He said he hoped to avoid this scenario.
“We do not want to reduce services exactly when we’re trying to come back and when people are in such dire need,” the mayor said.
Mr. de Blasio has announced labor agreements that allowed him to avoid laying off 22,000 workers, but budget experts say the move is only a temporary fix.
He has touted $722 million in labor savings that are actually a deferral of money owed to city workers for things such as retroactive pay and retiree benefits.
The agreements with some of the city’s largest unions, including the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and the United Federation of Teachers, pushed contractual payments to the next fiscal year.
The strategy carries risks: Without permanent labor savings, the city will be vulnerable if the budget outlook worsens or a federal stimulus is less than expected.
“Those are not labor savings, those are payment deferrals or kicking can down the road,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of strategy, operations and communications at the Citizens Budget Commission. “In every other fiscal crisis, labor has been able to come to the table to find savings. It’s a critical missing piece of the puzzle.”
When the pandemic struck in March, New York City had record low unemployment and a record number of jobs. Then the city soon lost 900,000 jobs.
Things have slowly improved since then. The unemployment rate, at 20 percent in June, has fallen to slightly more than 13 percent last month.
Tax revenues fell, but not nearly at the rate that was expected: The city received $748 million more than forecast in personal income and business tax revenue and $610 million in bond refinance savings, according to the city comptroller and the Office of Management and Budget.
The city still needs to find additional savings, said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, suggesting that the mayor must look to eliminate inefficiencies, negotiate permanent labor savings and stick to a more rigorous hiring freeze.
James Parrott, an economist with the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School, said that revenue projections were not as dire as predicted because Wall Street and higher- paying jobs have remained relatively consistent throughout the pandemic. He said it made sense for the city to try to avoid layoffs: Employees such as building inspectors are going to be critical to any economic recovery.
“A lot of people are negative about Bill de Blasio these days, but on the budget-handling front he hasn’t done such a bad job,” Mr. Parrott said, then added: “But he’s also been lucky because the revenues keep coming in.”
Mayor de Blasio hopes a Biden administration will help
The mayor has said repeatedly that the city’s future is dependent on receiving a federal stimulus, and he expects that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will improve the city’s outlook.
Without a federal stimulus, Mr. de Blasio said he might have to consider layoffs again. Other concerns have emerged: Business leaders wrote a letter to Mr. de Blasio earlier this year complaining about a rise in shootings and street homelessness. They fear that these problems could drive more residents out of the city and hurt its tax base.
While Congress has stalled on delivering a second stimulus package, Mr. Biden’s team has been pushing for a quick deal.
The city’s economic recovery is at risk, Mr. de Blasio said, just as it is experiencing an uptick in infections serious enough to close public schools.
“As we face the danger of a second wave of Covid, again, there couldn’t be a more important time for a new federal stimulus,” Mr. de Blasio said on Monday. “And it is going to be the difference maker.”
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief, covering politics in New York City. She previously covered the transit beat and breaking news. @emmagf
Jeffery C. Mays is a reporter on the Metro Desk who covers politics with a focus on New York City Hall. A native of Brooklyn, he is a graduate of Columbia University. @JeffCMays
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 24, 2020, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: What the Pandemic Has Cost New York City. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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