Front Line Voices 10-29-25
Former New York State Supreme Court Judge Kathryn Freed breaks down the controversial ballot questions that New York City voters have to ponder.
Palestinians in Gaza have experienced the deadliest 24 hours since the start of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect three weeks ago.
At City Hall, the New York City Council is set to pass a resolution in support of the CWA News Guild journalists who are trying to get a fair contract from the paper’s owner Alden Global Capital, a predatory hedge fund that acquired the paper in 2021. Since Alden’s purchase of the Daily News, it has faced severe cuts. Its staff has been slashed, its printing plant and offices sold for $90 million, and its newsroom cut to just 65 journalists to cover a city of 8.5 million.
News Briefs
At least 104 people were killed by the Israeli military in strikes across Gaza on late Tuesday and today, including at least 46 children, according to medical sources.
This adds to dozens of ceasefire violations. Israel said by noon it was returning to the ceasefire. It said it hit more than 30 targets in the strip claiming the targets were “terrorists in command positions within terror organizations.” More residential buildings were flattened by the Israeli bombs and at least 18 members of the same family in central Gaza, including children, parents, and grandparents, were among the victims. Civil defense teams once again had to use small tools and their hands to dig in the rubble of bombed areas to search for survivors and the dead. Several tents belonging to displaced Palestinian families were also targeted.
After our headlines we heard from Raed Jarrar, Advocacy Director at DAWN.
Government Shutdown
A shortage of air traffic controllers caused flight disruptions Monday around the country as controllers braced for their first full missing paycheck during the federal government shutdown. The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing-related delays on Monday afternoon averaging about 20 minutes at the airport in Dallas and 40 minutes at both Newark and Austin airports. Last week U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted travelers would start to see more flights delayed and canceled as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the shutdown, which is nearing the one-month mark. During the weekend, Duffy appeared on Fox News and said more controllers were calling in sick as money worries compound the stress of an already challenging job. Most controllers are continuing to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown. Some U.S. airports have stepped in to provide food donations and other support for federal aviation employees working without pay, including controllers and TSA agents, according to the Associated Press.
ICE Leadership Shake-Up
The Trump administration is reassigning at least half the top leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices around the country in a major shake-up of the agency responsible for carrying out the president’s vision for mass deportations, reports the Associated Press.
The shake-up involves 12 ICE field office directors who are being reassigned. The officers run the network of field offices around the country responsible for immigration enforcement. Half are to be replaced by existing or retired Customs and Border Protection staff, while the other half would be replaced by ICE officers. The changes were initiated by the Homeland Security Department. The cities include Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington. There are 25 such field offices, so the changes represent half the department’s leadership carrying out the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement plan, which has seen major deployment of law enforcement in major American cities, thousands of arrests and deportations. CBP has carried out some of the most controversial crackdowns, including a recent raid in Chicago where officers rappelled down onto a building in an apartment complex from a helicopter. Border Patrol agents have also popped out of a moving truck, chased after people, and conducted patrols through downtown Chicago.
Trump’s so-called “big beautiful wall” act allocated $75 billion in supplemental funding over four years, nearly tripling ICE’s annual budget and distributing it among key areas such as detention (allocated $45 billion), expansion of the immigration detention system, and funds to build new detention centers. About $30 billion was set aside for enforcement and removal operations, including hiring 10,000 new agents, $14.4 billion for removal transportation, and up to $50,000 in signing bonuses and other incentives for new ICE recruits. The total funding for ICE was over $170 billion — the highest for any federal law-enforcement agency in U.S. history.
