Albany is past its budget deadline with no deal in sight, leaving agencies and programs in planning limbo while the city stares down a $5.4 billion deficit and City Hall and the Council fight openly over whose math holds. The Council is pushing to make buses and subways free for more than a million of the city's poorest riders, a proposal the mayor says does not add up, and the resolution will set what gets protected and what gets cut. And cutting through both is something that cannot be filed under policy: a 7-month-old girl was fatally shot in a stroller in East Williamsburg on Wednesday, with one suspect in custody and another still being sought.

Morning temperatures sit in the mid 40s, with a high near 49F and heavy cloud cover that will keep it feeling raw on platforms and at curbside pickup. The cooler air makes waiting outside slower and less forgiving, especially for anyone transferring or walking longer distances. Tonight drops to around 42F with rain possible in the evening, so expect a wet ride home, slick sidewalks at corners and bus stops, and reduced traction for cyclists and e-bikes after dark.

State budget talks are continuing past the deadline, with lawmakers still split on whether to raise taxes on the wealthy and whether to change laws tied to immigrant protections and environmental policy. The immediate impact is uncertainty that travels outward from Albany: agencies, providers, and local governments are left making staffing and service plans without final numbers or clear policy language, and the longer the delay stretches, the harder it gets to avoid stopgap decisions that can land on residents as slower service and shifting eligibility.

City Hall and the City Council are now openly at odds on how to close the city’s projected $5.4 billion budget deficit over the next two fiscal years. The Council’s plan leans on reestimates of revenue and spending, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani is calling that approach unrealistic and arguing it would force service cuts rather than raise new revenue, as he contrasts it with his own last-resort proposal to raise the city’s property tax rate. The consequence for New Yorkers is that positions are hardening ahead of the final budget, and the resolution will set the terms for what gets protected, what gets trimmed, and what costs get shifted onto households.

Opponents of Steve Cohen’s planned $8 billion Metropolitan Park casino project near Citi Field have filed a lawsuit seeking to revoke the project’s gaming license. The suit argues public hearings violated the state open meetings law and that the state gaming commission failed to consider Cohen’s moral character. Even if the case is described as a long shot, it matters because litigation can slow approvals and timelines, keeping a major Queens development fight in limbo and turning a political contest into a procedural one.

Alternate Side Parking rules are suspended Thursday and Friday for Holy Thursday, Passover, and Good Friday, so drivers can leave cars in place without the usual street-cleaning shuffle, while meters remain in effect. The practical effect is fewer midday moves for car owners and delivery workers who rely on street space, and more competition for spots in neighborhoods where people will park and stay put through two days of suspended cleaning.

City officials unveiled the first 20 electric-hybrid transport refrigeration units at the Hunts Point Produce Market, funded by congestion toll revenue, as part of a plan to replace up to 1,000 diesel units used for cold storage on trucks. For residents around Hunts Point, where respiratory ailments are a major burden, the change is aimed at reducing diesel pollution that has long been part of daily life around the market, with cleaner equipment replacing some of the exhaust that lingers near schools, housing, and sidewalks.

Notices are going out to New Yorkers who could lose health insurance coverage in July under federal measures, with reporting pointing to roughly 500,000 people on the Essential Plan at risk. State officials are pushing a bill intended to prevent that coverage loss, but the letters arriving now create immediate stakes: disrupted coverage can mean delayed appointments, interrupted prescriptions, and new paperwork barriers for people who rely on routine care and for clinics that will have to manage churn.

The planned merger involving NYC Health + Hospitals and Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center has been delayed as parties continue working toward final approval, after pushback from parts of the Orthodox Jewish community. Delays keep governance and service questions unresolved for staff and patients, and they can stall investment and planning even before any operational changes are made at one of Brooklyn’s major medical centers.

The FDA granted speedy approval to Eli Lilly’s weight-loss pill for obesity, a national decision that will quickly show up in New York waiting rooms through demand and prescribing. The near-term consequence for patients is less about whether the pill exists and more about whether their insurance will cover it, how formularies will treat it, and whether cost becomes the deciding factor in who can actually use a newly approved treatment.

The City Council is proposing a major expansion of Fair Fares that would make subway and bus rides free for more than one million New Yorkers living at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. The current program offers discounted rides, and the Council’s proposal would move from half-price to free while expanding the eligible group. One projection estimates the cost at $150 million to $170 million, compared with baseline funding of more than $96 million, and the day-to-day impact for eligible riders is direct: fewer missed shifts and appointments, and fewer moments where a swipe competes with food, rent, or medicine.

The budget fight over how to close the projected deficit is also a fight over who pays if the math does not hold. If gaps are closed through assumptions that fail, the pressure can land later as midyear cuts; if the city raises property taxes, costs can travel through households and in many cases through rents, whether stabilized or market. The public dispute is effectively a warning label on what comes next: either the city finds durable revenue, or services and household costs become the balancing tool.

New York City is opening newer homeless shelters while closing older, deteriorating sites as it reshapes how the system operates amid a continuing homelessness crisis. The financial argument is maintenance versus investment, but the immediate consequence is logistical and personal: closures and relocations can disrupt routines, schools, health care, and case management for people living in shelters, even when the stated goal is improved conditions.

A 7-month-old girl in a stroller was fatally shot in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Wednesday in broad daylight, according to police, and authorities say one suspect is in custody while they search for another. Reporting indicates gunfire from a moped struck the infant, and residents should expect continued police activity and requests for information as the investigation continues.

A jury acquitted Guy Rivera of the top murder charge in the killing of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller and convicted him of manslaughter after a trial that lasted more than three weeks. The outcome will reverberate across police leadership and communities that follow high-profile cases involving officers, but the practical reality today is that the case ends with a conviction below the top count, shaping what comes next at sentencing and in the broader political debate the verdict will feed.

In White Plains, a 65-year-old man, Raymond Elders, has been charged with allegedly lighting off pipe bombs in his neighborhood and menacing neighbors with blasts, and he was arrested early Monday. While outside the five boroughs, it sits inside the region many New Yorkers move through for work and family, and it adds to the running list of public safety incidents that can drive local alerts and neighborhood caution.

NYC parents searching for child care now have a searchable map that includes program hours, locations, and whether free care is available. For families building coverage around work schedules and commutes, the utility is immediate and concrete: fewer calls, faster comparisons, and a clearer path to finding an option before a deadline or a waitlist closes off choices.

Roadway outdoor dining is returning in 2026, but city officials expect it to be a fraction of what existed during the pandemic-era buildout. That smaller footprint will still shape warm-weather routines for diners and workers, and it will keep the recurring neighborhood questions alive about noise, sanitation, and how much curb space should be given to tables versus parking, loading, and moving traffic.

Cherry blossom season is beginning across New York City, with trees starting to bloom in parks and along streets. Even for people who do not plan a trip around peak bloom, it changes the city’s daily backdrop in a way that is easy to feel: more lingering in parks, more long walks, and more stopping on the way home, even when the air is colder than the light suggests.

That’s Today in New York.