'Mark Gorton, the anti-vax millionaire donor behind congestion pricing and RFK Jr.''

 The same millionaire donor who dumps cash into pro-congestion-pricing causes is also a major backer of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s campaign and funder of murky causes that peddle anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.

Wealthy hedge-funder Mark Gorton, 57, of Manhattan recently told The Post that he is probably the largest funder of transportation-related causes in the Big Apple centered around getting cars off the streets. He is a major proponent of the recently paused congestion-pricing scheme to toll drivers $15 for entering Manhattan below 60th Street.

“I’d had this vision of a livable city where people get around by transit and bike and the private car is very very limited,” Gorton said after attending a pro-congestion-pricing rally Saturday.

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Deep-pocketed financier Mark Gorton is behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign — and pro-public-transit initiatives such as Manhattan’s embattled congestion pricing plan.Erik Thomas/NY Post

Gorton — the founder of LimeWire, a onetime file-sharing service that now specializes in AI-generated music — is the majority supporter and founder of OpenPlans, which is the parent of StreetsBlog.

Now the current CEO of Tower Research Capital, a hedge fund, Gorton also has contributed to the Riders Alliance and ReInvent Albany.

Both groups have joined in on rallies against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “indefinite pause” of the congestion toll in recent weeks and are part of a larger coalition working with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander that is threatening to sue to force the state to move forward with the plan.

“When I started doing this, almost no one was saying it. You were a real freak if you went up at your community board and said, ‘I think we should have fewer cars in the neighborhood,'” said Gorton, touting his 25-year record of advocating for transportation causes. “People looked at you like you are a Commie or something, like it was just not done.”

He said that these days, he hangs out with bike activists over stuck-up Wall Street types.

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Gorton is an outspoken supporter of transportation causes centered around getting cars off of Big Apple streets.X/Mark Gorton

Gorton also spreads his fortune to causes well outside the mainstream, including pumping millions of dollars into RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign and anti-vaccine advocacy groups.

Gorton maintains his conspiratorial beliefs that vaccines cause autism, the motive behind President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was covered up, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a psychological operation to expand digital censorship.

“I saw that there was an opportunity to fight the pharmaceutical health side of the deep state and the forces of corporate capture because such a large civic response had been activated over the course of the pandemic,” Gorton said.

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RFK Jr. has advocated against vaccines, as has Gorton.Getty Images

He said his advocacy against vaccines drew him to RFK Jr., who has taken the same stance.

Gorton considers the exiled Kennedy and independent presidential candidate a friend and “kindred spirit” over their collective questioning of the JFK assassination, too.

The well-heeled donor is co-chair of a multimillion-dollar super PAC — American Values 2024 — the main group supporting RFK Jr.’s campaign, and he served as Kennedy’s interim campaign manager at one point.

John Kaehny, executive Director of Reinvent Albany, which advocates on behalf of good government causes, calls Gorton a “mad scientist” but stresses that there’s no animus between the LimeWire founder’s work with RFK Jr. and Reinvent’s focus, especially on congestion pricing.

“We don’t agree with Mark Gorton on everything, but on congestion pricing, we do,” Kaehny told The Post. “His other presidential sentiments, feelings, support is really not at all part of our conversation with him. It’s just something he does.”

Khaney pointed out that Gorton doesn’t hide his identity when contributing to causes, like some other millionaire types that hide behind donor-advised funds and other shadowy avenues.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/16/us-news/meet-the-anti-vaxx-millionaire-donor-behind-congestion-pricing-and-rfk-jr/

Firefighters cheer Hochul’s congestion plan halt — for safety’s sake

 Gov. Hochul’s pause of congestion pricing was a welcome move for all New Yorkers — but it was crucial for our city’s Bravest, the members of the Fire Department of New York.

Every day, hundreds of firefighters start their shifts at one firehouse, only to be dispatched to another during their tour of duty.

Almost invariably, they must travel to their temporary assignments using their personal vehicles.

New York City’s congestion pricing plan would’ve put an unfair burden on FDNY firefighters, according to Uniformed Firefighters Association president Andrew Ansbro.Paul Martinka

This rapid and unpredictable mobilization is essential to address personnel shortages and ensure that every fire company is fully staffed.

Every New Yorker must be able to count on the FDNY to deliver life-saving services in any emergency.

For these on-the-move firefighters, their personal vehicles are not just a mode of transportation but an extension of the Fire Department itself.

Congestion pricing would have unfairly burdened these brave men and women, charging them a fee simply for doing their jobs. It’s an economic hardship they should never have to bear.

For a firefighter on the job, mass transit is not a viable option.

Our members carry 70 to 80 pounds of gear during every shift — essential equipment for their safety and effectiveness.

Forcing firefighters to carry this protective gear in the subway or on a bus is not only ludicrously impractical, it’s dangerous.

The physical strain alone would hinder firefighters’ ability to respond to crises swiftly and efficiently, putting lives at risk.

Imagine your apartment is on fire, with your family trapped inside.

Would you feel safe knowing some of the responding firefighters had just completed a two-mile hike with a 70-pound pack right before they pulled up to your building?

Aside from the immediate danger, firefighters’ gear is regularly contaminated with toxic materials and cancer-causing carcinogens from e-bike fires, chemical spills and more.

Forcing city firefighters onto public transportation would needlessly expose countless civilians of all ages to the same health risks that we face every day.

All New Yorkers — firefighters included — are already struggling with the high cost of living.

Adding another cost at this moment would be the tipping point, making it even harder to support a family, pay rent, or put food on the table.

And it’s not just firefighters who would have suffered: EMS workers, teachers, health-care professionals and other essential personnel would also feel the squeeze.

The governor’s decision to halt the program is a recognition of these realities and more.

It shows her willingness to engage and respond to the voices of those on the front lines.

Congestion pricing aims to reduce traffic and pollution — laudable goals we all support.

At the same time, all New Yorkers need to know that every effort is being made to improve public safety in the transit system — and that everyone is paying their fair share to use it.

It seems that every day another New Yorker is getting slashed on a platform, punched in the face or pushed onto the tracks.

The congestion-pricing plan made us feel like we were going to be taxed for the safety of using our own cars, not that we’d be paying for a better transit system — and New Yorkers don’t want to be treated like schmucks.

I am hopeful the governor’s pause will lead to a permanent reevaluation of congestion pricing.

The price tag is too high, and the plan is unlikely to achieve its goals without significant changes.

Moving forward, we should engage in a more deliberate approach that includes all those impacted — not just the loudest in the room.

Gov. Hochul acted on behalf of those who keep our city running. Her call reflects a deep understanding of the complexities involved and the resolve to make tough choices.

Let’s continue working together for solutions that support our essential workers, our economy, and our environment, ensuring a safer and more prosperous future for all New Yorkers.

Andrew Ansbro is president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/16/opinion/firefighters-cheer-hochuls-congestion-plan-halt-for-safetys-sake/

Parents of Westchester County kids against ‘preferred pronouns’ sue school district

 The parents of a group of Westchester County students who don’t want to call their classmates and teachers by their “preferred pronouns’’ is suing the school district on First Amendment grounds.

The federal lawsuit — brought on behalf of three unidentified parents by the right-wing advocacy group “Parents Defending Education” last week — claims the Croton-Harmon School District’s policies “punish students for their speech and compel them to mouth support for the District’s preferred views at all times of day, whether at school or not.

“Nearly a century of Supreme Court precedent makes two things clear: Minor students have the freedom to speak, and students do not abandon this freedom at the schoolhouse gate,” the lawsuit said.

The Croton-Harmon School District in Westchester County is being accused of trampling on some students’ rights to free speech involving issues such as gender ID and gay marriage.Google Maps

“Yet the Croton-Harmon School District, along with its officials and its board of education, has rules and regulations that punish students for engaging in protected speech.

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“These speech codes deter students from expressing views about the political and social issues of the day that are outside the mainstream,” the suit continued. “They disregard decades of precedent.”

The suit, filed in federal court in White Plains, notes the plaintiff parents’ deeply conservative views, which take aim at such issues as gay marriage, surrogate pregnancies, trans people, abortion, Black Lives Matter and immigration.

It says their kids — who share these views — are afraid to talk about such topics because “they fear that sharing their beliefs will be considered ‘harassment’ ” based on the district’s policies against bullying, discrimination and gender-identity discrimination.

“For example, they fear that others will find their views ‘hostile,’ ‘ridiculing,’ or ‘demeaning’ and claim that their views “interfere with” their educational environment or their ‘mental [or] emotional … well-being,’ especially if they share those views repeatedly,” the suit said.

For example, “Parent B’s children wish to use pronouns that are consistent with a teacher’s or classmate’s biological sex rather than their ‘preferred pronouns’ — the pronouns that the classmate or teacher has decided reflects their gender identity,” the suit said.

“Parent B’s children wish to use the biologically accurate pronouns repeatedly and at all times, including inside and outside the classroom, in the classmate’s or teacher’s presence, and when referring to the classmate or teacher outside their presence.”

On Thursday, Croton-Harmon sent a letter to district parents saying that “contrary to what the Parents Defending Education group may assert, we are proud that there is no place in our schools for hurtful and hateful rhetoric.

“We see schools as places where students feel comfortable in, and celebrated for, their own identity and are positioned to make positive contributions to our society,” the letter said.

The lawsuit claims some kids are scared to voice unpopular opinions and could be punished just for speaking out.CHUFSD via panopto

“Speech that is harmful to students, which Parents Defending Education suggests should be permitted in its lawsuit, is not welcome in our schools, and does not align with our beliefs as a school district community.

“We know that this isn’t the first time that our incredible schools have been made targets of political agendas, and we will not allow a lawsuit, or other extraneous political factors, to distract us from the work of making that vision into a reality for all of our students, staff members, and community.”

The lawsuit’s chances at success are unclear.

But public schools have broad power to limit offensive and controversial speech on their campuses, said Bennnett Gershman, a constitutional law professor at Pace University’s Elisabeth Haub School of Law, to the Journal News.

“Schools can always regulate offensive speech,” Gershman said. “The [US] Supreme Court has made very clear that schools can regulate offensive speech. And if schools deem this speech is offensive, the schools can prohibit it.”

Without such limitations, kids would be “growing up in a cacophony of profanity and screaming and yelling,” Gershman said, adding that the courts tend to defer to school authorities when trying to determine exactly what kind of speech is abusive.

https://nypost.com/2024/06/16/us-news/parents-of-westchester-county-kids-against-preferred-pronouns-sue-school-district/