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As a hot NY Summer comes to a close, and students of all ages are getting back to school next week, the City's educators are facing unexpected challenges. Expanding the city's Pre-K and 3-K programs has been one of Zohran Mamdani's signature issues since he first ran for mayor. However, the non-profit organizations that are the backbone of the city's early childhood education system are scrambling to stay afloat as the city has yet to deliver the advance payments required by law that make it possible for them to cover their initial operating expenses. We'll speak with Fariha Rahman, the City&State reporter who broke the story and the heads of two pre-K schools that are scrambling to get ready for the new school year. In our second segment, we speak to the Indy's very own contributing author, Theodore Hamm on a stunning update on a murder case he has followed for years and what it says about the Brooklyn DA's office's shady history of false convictions against innocent New Yorkers.

As a hot NY Summer comes to a close, and students of all ages are getting back to school next week, the City's educators are facing unexpected challenges. Expanding the city's Pre-K and 3-K programs has been one of Zohran Mamdani's signature issues since he first ran for mayor. However, the non-profit organizations that are the backbone of the city's early childhood education system are scrambling to stay afloat as the city has yet to deliver the advance payments required by law that make it possible for them to cover their initial operating expenses. We'll speak with Fariha Rahman, the City&State reporter who broke the story and the heads of two pre-K schools that are scrambling to get ready for the new school year.

We speak to the Indy's very own contributing author, Theodore Hamm on a stunning update on a murder case he has followed for years and what it says about the Brooklyn DA's office's shady history of false convictions against innocent New Yorkers.

In the first segment, we take a look at how gov. Kathy Hochul is helping trillionaire tech bro Elon Musk expand his empire. Journalist, Luke Goldstein published an article in the Lever titled, "Elon Musk's Banking Empire Just Got Gov. Hochul's Blessing". The Indypendent's Allie Tutich sits with Goldstein to unpack what all of this means for Musk and for us. In our second  and third segment, Editor and Chief of the Indypendent, John Tarleton goes out to the field this episode to report on Day 5 of the 'New York fights AI Data Centers Tour'. The tour has been led by state senator Kristin Gonzalez, Food and Water Watch and New York Renews. They vehemently oppose the expansion of data centers across New York State. The tour comes at a moment when data centers are burgeoning across the country. We hear from Senator Gonzalez, a Democratic Socialist who chairs the state senates internet and technology committee. John also speaks with a grassroots activist in Orangeburg who is leading the charge against a second large data center in their town.

In the first segment, we take a look at how gov. Kathy Hochul is helping trillionaire tech bro Elon Musk expand his empire. Journalist, Luke Goldstein published an article in the Lever titled, "Elon Musk's Banking Empire Just Got Gov. Hochul's Blessing". The Indypendent sits with Goldstein to unpack what all of this means for Musk and for us.

Editor in Chief of the Indypendent, John Tarleton goes out to the field this episode to report on Day 5 of the 'New York fights AI Data Centers Tour'. The tour has been led by state senator Kristin Gonzalez, Food and Water Watch and New York Renews. They vehemently oppose the expansion of data centers across New York State. The tour comes at a moment when data centers are burgeoning across the country. We hear from Senator Gonzalez, a Democratic Socialist who chairs the state senates internet and technology committee. This data center will impact Lake Tappan, a source of drinking water for residents statewide. Lots to unpack here.

Editor in Chief of the Indypendent, John Tarleton, reports from Orangeburg, New York, a frontline community resisting the prospect of a second data center being built in their town. John reports from Data One, the first Data Center polluting the beautiful lake Tappan. We learn how this data center will have far reaching affects, hurting people beyond the local community. John speaks to grassroots activists fighting the good fight.

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In our first segment, we speak to State Senator Kristen Gonzalez who is a former tech worker, a democratic socialist, the youngest member of the New York State Senate and she chairs its Internet and Technology Committee. Since first being elected in 2022, she has championed legislation to rein in the excesses of Big Tech companies. In June, she played a key role in shepherding data center moratorium legislation through the Senate and was present when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order last week for a one-year data center moratorium, the first of its kind in the United States. In this interview, we discussed the moratorium and the many questions it raises. In our second segment we speak to longtime Indy contributor, Theodore Hamm about NYC's Public Pools. In the summer of 1936, New York City opened 11 large outdoor swimming pools across the city that each could hold upwards of 1,000 bathers. It was the height of the New Deal with ambitious public works projects being carried out across the country. FDR's administration provided the resources and here in New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia got the job done. Ninety years later, these pools still serve NYC's working class well and are being celebrated by the Mamdani administration.

State Senator Kristen Gonzalez is a former tech worker, a democratic socialist, the youngest member of the New York State Senate and she chairs its Internet and Technology Committee. Since first being elected in 2022, she has championed legislation to rein in the excesses of Big Tech companies. In June, she played a key role in shepherding data center moratorium legislation through the Senate and was present when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order last week for a one-year data center moratorium, the first of its kind in the United States. In this interview, we discussed the moratorium and the many questions it raises.

In the summer of 1936, New York City opened 11 large outdoor swimming pools across the city that each could hold upwards of 1,000 bathers. It was the height of the New Deal with ambitious public works projects being carried out across the country. FDR's administration provided the resources and here in New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia got the job done. Ninety years later, these pools still serve NYC's working class well and are being celebrated by the Mamdani administration.

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In the first segment, we spoke with Anna Yoney and Ivano TK of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-UAW Local 4100 about their battle to win a new union contract from Columbia University that improves pay, working conditions, child care and provides more protections for international postdocs. Following a sizzling 4th of July weekend, we talked with Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha is a democratic socialist from the Mid-Hudson Valley. She has long been a champion of of rapidly expanding New York's public system to accelerate the buildout of renewable energy sources. We spoke with her following a 4th of July weekend heat wave that roasted much of the East Coast and knocked out service to thousands of Con Ed customers in Queens.

We spoke with Anna Yoney and Ivano TK of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-UAW Local 4100 about their battle to win a new union contract from Columbia University that improves pay, working conditions, child care and provides more protections for international postdocs.

Following a sizzling 4th of July weekend, we talked with Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha is a democratic socialist from the Mid-Hudson Valley. She has long been a champion of of rapidly expanding New York's public system to accelerate the buildout of renewable energy sources. We spoke with her following a 4th of July weekend heat wave that roasted much of the East Coast and knocked out service to thousands of Con Ed customers in Queens.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menim reached a handshake agreement earlier today on a $125.8 billion annual city budget. In our first segment, we spoke with Peter Sterne of City & State about key details in the deal including the expansion of a controversial rental assistance program backed by the Council and opposed by the Mayor. A recent Supreme Court ruling gave the Trump administration the greenlight to strip 350,000 Haitian immigrants of the Temporary Protected Status they received after a 2010 earthquake leveled Haiti and left more than 300,000 people dead. In our second segment we spoke with Phara Souffrant Forrest, the daughter of Haitian immigrant parents and a democratic socialist who represents a heavily Haitian State Assembly in Central Brooklyn about how the Haitian community is responding to this crisis as well as Haiti's history from being the only nation founded through a successful revolt of enslaved persons to the crippling impact of French and U.S. imperialism on Haiti's development.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menim reached a handshake agreement earlier today on a $125.8 billion annual city budget. We spoke with Peter Sterne of City & State about key details in the deal including the expansion of a controversial rental assistance program backed by the Council and opposed by the Mayor.

A recent Supreme Court ruling gave the Trump administration the greenlight to strip 350,000 Haitian immigrants of the Temporary Protected Status they received after a 2010 earthquake leveled Haiti and left more than 300,000 people dead. The Indypendent News Hour spoke with Phara Souffrant Forrest, the daughter of Haitian immigrant parents and a democratic socialist who represents a heavily Haitian State Assembly in Central Brooklyn about how the Haitian community is responding to this crisis as well as Haiti's history from being the only nation founded through a successful revolt of enslaved persons to the crippling impact of French and U.S. imperialism on Haiti's development.

Indypendent Editor-in-Chief John Tarleton was interviewed by Scott Harris of WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut about New York City DSA's sweeping election victories in the June 23 Democratic primaries and how democratic socialists are rapidly gaining ground across the country. A shorter version of this 24-minute interview was syndicated on 70 radio stations across the country on Counterpoint's sister show Between The Lines.

New York City DSA won 9 of 10 races, including two congressional seats, in the June 23 Democratic primary, sending shock waves through the national Democratic Party establishment.

The Indypendent News Hour's John Tarleton and WBAI's Jenna Flanagan co-hosted four hours of election night coverage that featured the voices of historians, political analysts and grassroots organizers on a historic night that saw democratic socialists win blow-out victories across the city.

As voters went to the polls in the waning hours of the June 23 Democratic primary, we spoke with Indypendent Contributing Editor Nicholas Powers, Peter Sterne of City & State Magazine and with voters in West Harlem where democratic socialists were challenging an incumbent Congressmember and their incumbent State Assemblymember.

It's been a long time coming.

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Eon Huntley is a retail worker, union activist, former PTA president and democratic socialist. He is running against a pro-corporate incumbent in Assembly District 56 (Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights) on Zohran Mamdani's affordability agenda. Huntley's friend and ally Jabari Brisport is running hard for his fourth term in the New York State Senate in an overlapping Central Brooklyn district. We caught up with both of them on Tuesday for a live interview from their shared campaign headquarters on Tompkins Avenue in the heart of Bed-Stuy. Susan Schnall and Trevor Howard are both members of Veterans For Peace who are calling on present-day U.S. soldiers and national guardsman to be ready to disobey unlawful orders from the Trump regime.

Eon Huntley is a retail worker, union activist, former PTA president and democratic socialist. He is running against a pro-corporate incumbent in Assembly District 56 (Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights) on Zohran Mamdani's affordability agenda. Huntley's friend and ally Jabari Brisport is running hard for his fourth term in the New York State Senate in an overlapping Central Brooklyn district. We caught up with both of them on Tuesday for a live interview from their shared campaign headquarters on Tompkins Avenue in the heart of Bed-Stuy.

Susan Schnall and Trevor Howard are both members of Veterans For Peace who are calling on present-day U.S. soldiers and national guardsman to be ready to disobey unlawful orders from the Trump regime.

In our first segment, The Indypendent's John Tarleton caught with Assemblymember Claire Valdez while she was campaigning to represent New York's 7th congressional district which spans North Brooklyn and Western Queens. Valdez has the endorsement of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and is widely considered to be the favorite in a race. Topics discussed include Valdez's background as a low-wage worker and union organizer, her history with New York City DSA, her thoughts on New York nativism, how much she would like to cut the Pentagon budget by, whether she would oppose making Hakeem Jeffries the next Democratic Speaker and what it means to her to identify as a democratic socialist. In our second segment, we talked to progressive organizers on the events they're bringing us this summer. The Trump administration is set to kick off a so-called “America 250 celebration” with a massive MAGA Rally called the 'Great American State Fair'—but so many of the musical guests backed out over its ties to Trump that it's unclear if it will still happen or who will perform, except of course for Trump himself. Meanwhile, progressive organizers, including Linda Sarsour, are moving forward with other plans. On June 27, there will be a massive mobilization in DC organized by a coalition called NEXT 250 to host events that stand for democracy, dignity, equality, truth, and collective freedom. New Yorkers will also have a chance to revisit New York City's history on June 19 & 20 at Reclamation Day: A Reunion of Hope pulled together by BLIS (Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty). We spoke with Trevor Smith of BLIS about the Reclamation Day event which will be held at 25 Kent Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The Indypendent's John Tarleton caught up on Sunday with Assemblymember Claire Valdez while she was campaigning to represent New York's 7th congressional district which spans North Brooklyn and Western Queens. Valdez has the endorsement of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and is widely considered to be the favorite in a race that also includes Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Queens City Councilmember Julie Won. Topics discussed in this interview include Valdez's background as a low-wage worker and union organizer, her history with New York City DSA, her thoughts on New York nativism, how much she would like to cut the Pentagon budget by, whether she would oppose making Hakeem Jeffries the next Democratic Speaker and what it means to her to identify as a democratic socialist.

The Trump administration is set to kick off a so-called “America 250 celebration” with a massive MAGA Rally called the 'Great American State Fair'—but so many of the musical guests backed out over its ties to Trump that it's unclear if it will still happen or who will perform, except of course for Trump himself. Meanwhile, progressive organizers, including Linda Sarsour, are moving forward with other plans. On June 27, there will be a massive mobilization in DC organized by a coalition called NEXT 250 to host events that stand for democracy, dignity, equality, truth, and collective freedom. New Yorkers will also have a chance to revisit New York City's history on June 19 & 20 at Reclamation Day: A Reunion of Hope pulled together by BLIS (Black Liberation Indigenous Sovereignty). We spoke with Trevor Smith of BLIS about the Reclamation Day event which will be held at 25 Kent Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In this week's Indypendent News Hour, we speak with Dan Kaminsky of Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine about the upcoming vote by PSFC members on whether to boycott goods produced in Israel and the Occupied Territories. We also talk to Conrad Blackburn, a public defender, union organizer and democratic socialist running for Assembly District 70 in Central and West Harlem against the heir to a local political dynasty and get a live report from two New Jersey activists, Paula Rogovan and Terri Seuss, stationed outside Delaney Hall in Newark, the site over the Memorial Day weekend of protests inside the ICE facility by immigrant detainees and outside by their supporters.

The Park Slope Food Coop is the largest food coop in the country and one of the oldest. It has had a social mission since its founding in 1973 and has previously backed over 20 consumer boycotts including ones against products from apartheid South Africa and in support of the national boycott against California table grapes led by the United Farm Workers. For the past 17 years, pro-Palestine members of the coop have tried to get the Coop to boycott produced in Israel and its Occupied Territories. They have encountered many obstacles, including anti-boycott members who insist the Coop is just a grocery store and not a place for political activism. Tonight members will finally have a chance to vote on this measure and make their voice heard. Joining us to discuss this more is Dan Kaminsky of Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine.

We get a live report from two New Jersey activists, Paula Rogovan and Terri Seuss, stationed outside Delaney Hall in Newark, the site over the Memorial Day weekend of protests inside the ICE facility by immigrant detainees and outside by their supporters.

We speak with Conrad Blackburn, a public defender, union organizer and democratic socialist running for Assembly District 70 in Harlem. Blackburn says the Harlem political establishment is out of touch with the needs of the community and is more concerned with catering to wealthy special interests which Blackburn says are on track to spend more than $2 million to defeat his campaign against Assembly District 70 incumbent Jordan Wright, son of Keith L.T. Wright who held the same Assembly seat from 1993 to 2016 before becoming Chair of the Manhattan Democratic Party.

Emily Gallagher, a democratic socialist from Brooklyn first elected to the State Assembly in 2020, discusses how Gov. Hochul has used her disproportionate power to break the legislative process for deciding on the states roughly $265 billion annual budget to push regressive legislation that has nothing to do with the budget and how this mess can be fixed if the legislature can find the courage to take on the governor. Reneé Feltz discusses her epic cover story for the May print edition of The Indypendent titled “Trash Revolution: NYC Dumps Throwaway Culture for Sanitation Overhaul. Will It Succeed?”

What is or is not in New York State's roughly $265 billion annual budget affects every facet of life—education, health care, public transit, parks, public safety, the budgets of cities and towns large and small and so much more. By law, the budget was supposed to be completed by April 1. Six weeks later, negotiations between Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and State Senate President Andrea Stewart-Cousins continues to drag on. We spoke with Assembly member Emily Gallagher, a democratic socialist from Brooklyn first elected to the State Assembly in 2020, about how Gov. Hochul has used her disproportionate power to break the budget process to push regressive legislation that has nothing to do with the budget and how this mess can be fixed if the legislature can find the courage to take on the governor.

In the second half of our show, we spoke with Reneé Feltz about her epic cover story for the May print edition of The Indypendent titled “Trash Revolution: NYC Dumps Throwaway Culture for Sanitation Overhaul. Will It Succeed?” We were also joined by Clarisa Alayeto, a South Bronx activist who has fought to clean up her community for decades and is featured in Renee's cover story.

In the first half of our May 5 show, we spoke with movement journalist Talia Jane and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso about the chaos that rocked Bushwick late Saturday night when ICE and NYPD clashed outside Wyckoff Hospital with protesters trying to prevent ICE from taking away an immigrant they had arrested and injured earlier that night. Mayor Zohran Mamdani says that the NYPD did not collaborate with ICE. Some of his supporters believe otherwise. In the second half of the show we spoke with David Orkin. He's an immigrant workers' rights attorney at Make the Road New York. He's running for Assembly District 38 in Queens as a democratic socialist who wants to bring the struggle against ICE and oligarchy into the state legislature. His opponent is one of former Mayor Eric Adams's most notorious allies.

Local journalist Talia Jane covers social movements here in the city and has reported extensively on police brutality against protesters. They covered Saturday night's confrontation between ICE/NYPD and protesters trying to prevent the abduction of Nigerian immigrant Chidozie Wilson Okeke.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso says the fear generated by ICE's violent appearance on Saturday night at the Wyckoff Hospital is spreading throughout the heavily immigrant community of Bushwick.

In the second half of our show, we spoke with David Orkin. He is an immigrant workers' rights attorney at Make the Road New York. He's running for Assembly District 38 in Queens as a democratic socialist who wants to bring the struggle against ICE and oligarchy into the state legislature. His opponent, Jennifer Rajkumar, is one of former Mayor Eric Adams's most notorious allies.

April 28, 2026: Peter Sterne Joins Us for Political Updates and Joseph Mogul Talks About The Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard Movement by The Indypendent

Peter Sterne from City & State, joins us for another enriching conversation on upcoming elections, mayoral updates and political happenings.