Winnie Hu

A legal and political battle has erupted over the new $15 fee to drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan.

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to approve a new $15 toll to drive into Manhattan. The plan still faces challenges from six lawsuits before it can begin in June.

Transit officials announced the start of the program, which they have said will ease some of the nation’s worst traffic.

The $15 billion expected from new traffic tolls is earmarked for modernizing old infrastructure but is threatened by a raft of lawsuits.

Their lawsuits argue that the tolling program would shift traffic and pollution to poor and minority neighborhoods and hurt small businesses.

The three cases are among several filed by opponents of the tolling program, which was halted by Gov. Kathy Hochul this month.

New census numbers show the steepest drop in the city’s youngest age group in at least a decade as many families have left to live elsewhere.

At a volunteer-run center, migrants come together across cultures and religions to share flavors from their homelands amid a polarizing crisis. But funding is running low.

A New York judge rejected a motion by lawyers for Gov. Kathy Hochul to dismiss lawsuits challenging her decision to halt the tolling program.

Though the fires are occurring about as frequently as they were last year, fewer are happening inside buildings. And there are signs that new safety measures are having an effect.