Arun Venugopal

New York, NY —

Opportunity NYC, the city's cash incentives program for low-income families, just added another incentive. Participants get $50 if they sign up for a checking account with one of 8 banks - no fees attached. Bernadine Dalton-Curry of East New York signed up for an account ...

New York, NY —

House speaker Nancy Pelosi toured the World Trade Center site today with Governor Spitzer and elected officials, and praised the progress being made there, six years after the terrorist attacks.

REPORTER: She also met with Mayor Bloomberg, and local Congress members, to discuss their bill to ...

New York, NY —

The reading of the nearly three thousand victims' names is currently a fixture of the annual remembrance of Nine Eleven in New York City....but Mayor Bloomberg is in favor of future mayors changing that, and other aspects of the ceremony.

BLOOMBERG: I don't know what great ...

New York, NY —

Columbia University already owns over half the properties in the area near the Hudson River, between about 125th and 135th Streets. This is the part of Manhattan it wants to remake into a high-tech additional campus.

REPORTER: The planning process is underway, but it's moved past ...

New York, NY —

Columbia University presented its plan to remake a 17 acre area of Harlem to the city planning commission. The ambitious plan met got mixed reviews. WNYC'S Arun Venugopal was there.

The star of the presentation was the Italian celebrity architect Renzo Piano. He laid out his ...

They're not selling candy, not even for a basketball team or to stay out of trouble. No, theater students Peter Vack and Troian Bellisario are raising money on the subway by performing Shakespeare. It's their summer job. They're both theater students at the University of Southern California. They spoke to ...

New York, NY —

Columbia University and an uptown community board have presented two competing visions for the future of West Harlem. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more on the City Planning Commission's review.

REPORTER: Columbia says its proposal will transform what it considers an under-used area into a gleaming, 17 ...

New York, NY —

Governors Jon Corzine and Eliot Spitzer want to make the Port Authority more open to public scrutiny. WNYC'S Arun Venugopal has more.

The Port Authority has a $5 billion annual budget, which it uses to run airports, tunnels and bridges throughout the region. But just how ...

New York, NY —

JP Morgan Chase is latest corporation to move back downtown. It's set to develop a 1.3 million square foot tower on the former site of the Deutsche Bank building, which is currently being torn down. WNYC'S Arun Venugopal has more.

JP Morgan Chase is spending $2 ...

New York, NY —

Con Edison says it's ready for the summer heat. The utility says it's made a number of improvements, especially in Queens and doesn't expect any repeats of last year's blackout. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

Con Ed is on a spending spree. The company is making ...

New York, NY —

Columbia University's proposal to transform a large section of upper Manhattan is about to become official. On Monday, the land-use review process, known as ULURP, is set to begin. But the timing of the announcement has opponents of the plan crying foul. WNYC's Arun Venugopal ...

New York, NY —

Today, the City Council votes on renaming streets across the city after Alvin Ailey, Jerry Orbach and others. But one proposed name change, in honor of controversial black activist Sonny Carson, has been removed from the list. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: Sonny Carson was ...

New York, NY —

The Fire Department is being sued by the US Department of Justice for failing to hire enough blacks and Latinos. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The lawsuit contends that entrance exams administered by the fire department in 1999 and 2002 kept minority recruitment disproportionately low. Just ...

New York, NY —

Emergency contraception, commercially-known as Plan B, is now available in nearly all pharmacies in the city. That's according to a survey commissioned by the City Council. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The survey found that 94% of pharmacies now carry Plan B over the counter, compared ...

New York, NY —

Five years ago, in a village in Pakistan, an event took place that would eventually make news around the world. A tribal council decreed that a woman named Mukhtaran Mai had to be raped multiple times. The sentence was carried out, but instead of staying ...

New York, NY —

It's taken a few thousand years but the journey of the Indian mango to the New World has finally come to an end. The first shipment of USDA approved mangos recently arrived at JFK airport. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more on the excitement the mango's ...

New York, NY —

Danny Boggs, the subway track worker who died last week, was electrocuted. That's according to one official in the Transport Workers Union who’s close to the investigation. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

According to the official, Boggs was struck by a train and lost his arm, ...

New York, NY —

Willets Point, near Shea Stadium, will undergo a major makeover if the city gets its way. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The city is hoping to transform what is currently a bleak industrial zone marked by auto repair shops, into a mixed-use neighborhood with thousands of ...

New York, NY —

Subway workers are mourning the death of one of their own - the second track fatality in less than a week. But track workers say the dangers will continue until management makes some serious changes. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: For some track workers, this ...

New York, NY —

The city's lawyers return to court today to tell a federal judge he was wrong. In February, the judge ruled that a decades-old settlement - part of what's known as the Handschu case - prohibits the police department from filming protests unless they suspect a ...