After Jane Havens learned about the severe job layoffs planned for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, she immediately reached out to her congressperson.

As the manager of Calamity Jane’s Firearms and Fine Shoes in Hudson Falls, Havens wanted to tell Representative Elise Stefanik that she opposed the US Justice Department’s firing of all of its trained ATF inspectors as part of President Donald Trump’s budget-cutting agenda.

Writing on behalf of her family, which operated a John Deere dealership for 35 years before opening its Washington County gun shop in 2016, Havens told Stefanik, “This does not help us or the industry. We do not support this,” and asked for her concerns to be forwarded to the DOJ.

Since its inception more than 50 years ago, the ATF has enforced federal laws relating to the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms in the US. Though the agency has been consistently underfunded, it has been able to monitor about 4.5 percent of licensed gun dealers throughout the country — but that may soon change.

Now, the ATF’s budget will be slashed by more than a quarter, or $418 million, pending congressional approval this fall. As part of that reduction, 541 of the ATF’s more than 800 industry investigators — who ensure compliance among licensed dealers by inspecting their records and inventories and looking for evidence of trafficking — will lose their jobs.

The move will decrease the ATF's “capacity to regulate the firearms and explosives industries by approximately 40%,” according to the DOJ’s 2026 budget summary.

Last December, Kyra Assibey-Bonsu realized that her stream of work as a freelance audio producer was “puttering out.”

She went to file for unemployment with the state, only to find that she was signing up for a new job: trying to reach the agency that was supposed to help her access the benefit.

Assibey-Bonsu, who lives in Brooklyn, was unsure about her eligibility, so she tried to contact the New York state Department of Labor by calling the help line advertised on the department’s website.

“It was so maddening,” Assibey-Bonsu told New York Focus. “It was always like, ‘Sorry, we don’t have enough agents to speak to you. Please try back later.’ I tried 9 am, I tried 11 am, I tried 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 — it doesn’t matter the time of day.” She couldn’t reach anyone.

Thousands of New Yorkers a week apply for unemployment benefits through the state Department of Labor, which assesses eligibility and makes payments. For many people, it’s a smooth process that can be completed online. But that’s not always the case.

As negotiations over President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” came down to the wire last week, renewable energy developers were holding their breath. Until the eleventh hour, it looked like Congress was ready to make good on Trump’s promise of “terminating” key subsidies for wind and solar virtually overnight.

In the end, the industry breathed a small sigh of relief after the Senate reached a compromise that would, at least in principle, give new projects a slim window to go ahead. Under the final law, wind and solar projects that begin construction by July 4 of next year are eligible for the full federal tax credits. Halfway through that window, a new requirement kicks in: Projects that begin construction after January 1, 2026, can only keep the tax credits if they follow restrictions on the use of Chinese materials.

That could still upend New York’s renewable energy transition.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was slated to attend an event in Queens next week featuring a prominent far-right Hindu activist, according to the event’s organizers, before withdrawing yesterday, a day after New York Focus sent inquiries about his attendance.

The event, a dinner at an Indian cultural center in Fresh Meadows, Queens, will feature Indian Hindu nationalist activist Kajal Shingala, whose speeches frequently feature calls for violence against Muslims in India and boycotts of non-Hindu businesses.

“She is one of the most prolific Hindu far-right orators,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, who runs an organization tracking hate speech in India that has catalogued dozens of Shingala’s speeches. “She has been at the forefront of promoting anti-Muslim, anti-Christian hate, bigotry, and speeches that incite violence.”

A spokesperson for Adams, Zachary Nosanchuk, said that while Adams’s attendance at the event was requested by organizers, “he never planned to attend and it was never on the Mayor’s public schedule.”

Harshad Patel, president of the Gujarati Samaj of New York, which is hosting the dinner, and other event organizers told New York Focus that the mayor’s team had confirmed his attendance.