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No one covers the city like the Daily News. For more than a century, New York’s Hometown Newspaper has been your eyes and ears — and your voice. Do you have a story you think we should tell? Call us at (212) 210-NEWS or email us at news@nydailynews.com. This is your paper, and we are committed to covering the issues that matter to you. Here are some of our top stories from the past week:
Wrong way: The white headmaster of a Long Island Catholic school resigned Wednesday after The News exclusively reported he forced a Black child to kneel down and apologize to a teacher. John Holian (inset), former head of St. Martin de Porres Marianist school in Uniondale, told the 11-year-old boy’s mother it was an “African way” to say sorry that he learned from the Nigerian father of a former student. “Once he started mentioning this African family, that’s when it just clicked
... this is not normal procedure,” said
Trisha Paul, the boy’s mother. Paul, who is Haitian-American, is still waiting for an apology from the school.
High time: Recreational marijuana could be legal in New York as soon as this week. Legislators and Gov. Cuomo’s office reached a deal to legitimize pot on Wednesday. People older than 21 will be allowed to have 3 ounces of marijuana for personal use under the plan. With that can come licensed dispensaries and potential home delivery. The legislation could bring in about $350 million a year in revenue for the state, budget officials said.
Reform ready: Get ready for a kinder, gentler NYPD. The City Council on Thursday passed several sweeping police reform bills. The legislation would strip police brass of final say in certain disciplinary cases, makes it easier to sue cops for improper searches and excessive force, and makes the department track the race and ethnicity of motorists pulled over
in traffic stops. The Council also backed a resolution to require all new NYPD officers to live in the city.
Jail jabbering: The city Correction Department brushed off serious concerns about wrongfully recorded calls between inmates and legal advisers for months, The News reported Monday. Public defenders raised the alarm over the communications in March 2020, according to records and new testimony. The department only asked the city contractor that maintains the jail system’s phones, Securus Technologies Inc., to do an audit in December. Two audits revealed more than 1,500 confidential calls with Bronx and Brooklyn defendants were mistakenly recorded. At least some of those calls wound up in the hands of prosecutors.