Good morning. It\u2019s Thursday. Today we\u2019ll find out about a newborn in a closely watched nest of peregrine falcons in Lower Manhattan. We\u2019ll also get details on a lawsuit accusing Coinbase and Gemini Titan of running illegal gambling operations with their online prediction platforms.<\/p>\n
As birth announcements go, this one is short on details.<\/p>\n
Is the newborn a boy or a girl? (Unclear.)<\/p>\n
When, exactly, did it enter the world? (Don\u2019t know that, either.)<\/p>\n
Have the parents chosen a name? (Or that.)<\/p>\n
But birders who have been watching a video feed from a certain nest in Lower Manhattan do know that the newborn is the first peregrine falcon to hatch there in several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so unexpected,\u201d said David Barrett, a birder who runs the Manhattan Bird Alert account on X. He posted about the birth on April 18, when he noticed the little bird on the Falcon Cam<\/a> feed from the office building where the nest occupies a setback 14 stories up.<\/p>\n The little bird has already taken its first steps, or tried to, said Matthew Wills, an amateur birder from Brooklyn who said he had been alerted to the birth by a friend \u201cwho spends much more time watching\u201d Falcon Cam than he does. The hatchling is still so young that it \u201ctotters and falls,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Barrett said he had seen at least one other egg when the mother stood up and stretched. And Scott Bridgwood, the vice president of operations for the company that owns the building, said he hoped that \u201cwe have more than one.\u201d<\/p>\n He said this as he all but apologized for the somewhat fuzzy look of the video feed. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that the lens got dirty and we can\u2019t get out there to clean it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to interfere with the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n The cleaning of the camera \u2014 and the banding of the eyas (that\u2019s what a baby falcon is called) \u2014 will be left to Christopher Nadareski, a research scientist with the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection. He said he would visit the nest in a couple of weeks, wearing protective gloves, a helmet and a jacket that \u201cusually protects me from the talons going through, so my back doesn\u2019t get all bloodied up.\u201d<\/p>\n Peregrine falcons are listed as an endangered species in New York State after being all but wiped out by pesticide residue in the prey they captured and ate. But they have made a comeback: There are at least 35 pairs in the city, according to Nadareski. Peregrine falcons now nest on the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, as well as the Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan, the MetLife Building in Midtown and Riverside Church in Morningside Heights.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not a nest-building species \u2014 you\u2019re not going to have them picking up sticks to build a nest,\u201d he said. Nadareski has worked with building owners and managers to set up nests in many of the places they now call home, including 55 Water Street, the building with Falcon Cam.<\/p>\n Other peregrine falcons have occupied that nest over the years. A pair known as Jack and Jjaie debuted in 1999, when the first camera was installed. By 2008 Jack and Jjaie were gone, and the nest was taken over by a pair named Jasper and Jubilee. By 2019, a different pair known as Frank and Adele lived there.<\/p>\n But about the bird that hatched last week: Will it have a sibling?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m guessing the other eggs will not hatch,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cIf they did, it would have to be soon, and the odds seem to be against it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024 and again last year, birders saw eggs in the nest but no hatchlings. Last year the female falcon stayed on the eggs for \u201cwell over two months,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was almost too depressing to talk about,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cI gave up looking. It was just so sad that the mother falcon felt an instinctual need to stay on the eggs when they had gone past the date when the species gives up.\u201d He said he had assumed that the falcon parents at 55 Water Street were \u201cstill healthy enough to hunt\u201d but probably too old to produce offspring.<\/p>\n Wills said he did not know who these parents were \u2014 a new mate with a bird that had nested there before, perhaps, or possibly a new pair.<\/p>\n If the other eggs hatch, \u201cthat would be really exciting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Then comes life in the big city. \u201cFor raptors, the number you usually hear is 1 out of 3 makes it to their first birthday,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is tough, but New York is a great place for peregrines because there\u2019s a lot of food \u2014 specifically, pigeons.\u201d<\/p>\n Weather<\/p>\n Expect sunny skies and temperatures near 70. At night, temperatures will drop near 51.<\/p>\n ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING<\/p>\n In effect until May 14 (Solemnity of the Ascension).<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n \u201cA.I. gives us places to go we haven\u2019t gone.\u201d \u2014 Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank America, on opportunities presented<\/a> by artificial intelligence, which has eliminated 1,000 jobs and boosted the bank\u2019s profit.<\/p>\n The latest New York news<\/p>\n Coinbase and Gemini accused of running illegal gambling operations<\/p>\n \u201cGambling by another name is still gambling,\u201d the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said as she accused two cryptocurrency giants<\/a> of illegally running unlicensed gambling operations by expanding into online prediction markets.<\/p>\n Prediction markets \u201care just illegal gambling operations,\u201d she said, because they allow users to bet on events as varied as sports, entertainment and politics. But she said that neither company \u2014 Coinbase or Gemini Titan \u2014 was licensed by the New York State Gaming Commission.<\/p>\n The lawsuits, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, also say that the two companies allow people as young as 18 to open accounts, even though the legal gambling age in New York is 21.<\/p>\n My colleague Hurubie Meko writes that James\u2019s lawsuits against Coinbase and Gemini Titan touched on two prime issues for states: the rise of online gambling and the world of cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n For years, crypto has been promoted as a way to free money from government regulation and restraints. At the same time, many states have legalized online sports gambling and casino games in a race to collect billions<\/a> of dollars in tax revenue.<\/p>\n James\u2019s lawsuit accused the two companies of attempting \u201cto avoid the legal and financial consequences\u201d of New York\u2019s gambling regulations. The lawsuit said that licensed casinos and mobile sports betting operations are taxed at a rate of approximately 51 percent of gross revenues.<\/p>\n Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at Coinbase, said on X that \u201cprediction markets are federally regulated national exchanges.\u201d He added that \u201cCoinbase will continue to fight for the federal oversight of these markets that Congress intended.\u201d He said that the matter was proceeding in New York federal court. Gemini did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n METROPOLITAN diary<\/p>\n Nice coat<\/p>\n Dear Diary:<\/p>\n It was freezing out, and I needed groceries. I grabbed the warmest thing in the closet, my boyfriend\u2019s camel-hair coat.<\/p>\n I rode the elevator down in the Lower East Side building with another woman.<\/p>\n \u201cI like your coat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n I thanked her and said that it belonged to my boyfriend.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t keep the boyfriend,\u201d she replied, \u201ckeep the coat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Colleen Flynn<\/p>\n Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here<\/a> and read more Metropolitan Diary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. It\u2019s Thursday. 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