Thursday’s Headlines: Dog Day Afternoon Edition

Wow, we really pissed off our friends rivals at the NY Post yesterday!

To explain: Our headlines digest yesterday suggested that neither the Post nor the News had published pictures of the actual Russian dogs that will be deported back to the motherland after being discovered at JFK Airport. The News ran a cute picture from Shutterstock, and we assumed the Post did the same because the lead image in its story (see the top of this article) wasn’t captioned and a second photo in the story wasn’t fully clear.

Well, we got calls on Wednesday from our beloved former friends at the Tabloid of Record that, indeed, the inset photo was indeed one of the actual dogs: a Doberman puppy named Ataka Rajana Aura Victory.

So as we say in the business, “Streetsblog regrets the error.”

Whew. OK, now to the other news of the day:

• Nice scoop by The City: As we predicted, the MTA’s fare evasion numbers are way off.
• More reason (beyond only Sarah Cooper) to love TikTok: Here are two cops being jerks about the subway mask rule (NYDN, Gothamist), though the Post found a way to defend the cops.
• There was plenty of coverage of the expansion of the city’s al fresco dining program (Streetsblog, NYDN, NY Post, amNY). Meanwhile, restaurants can now tack on a surcharge to cover COVID-era costs (NY Post, WSJ)
• Be afraid. Be very afraid of the NYPD’s cozy relationship with President Trump. (Gothamist)
• The MTA’s OMNY fare collection system is now in place in all Manhattan subway stations, following The Bronx and Staten Island. Brooklyn and Queens are next. The Mass Transit coverage however, only had one sentence about the payment system’s Achilles heel: It can’t do anything but pay-per-ride until it’s installed everywhere by 2021.
• Here’s a first: A community paper praising a speed camera system! (Bronx Times)
• Transportation for America is organizing a tweetstorm today urging Congress to provide $32 billion in emergency funding for transit agencies. Tweet at your federal representatives — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is @senatemajldr) using the hashtag #SaveTransit.