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Court Protects ESRT's Lease Terms for Pacifica's Non-Profit WBAI Radio in NYC - Denies "Unconscionability" Motion
Pacifica National Board to Meet Thursday Night to Decide on Next Steps.
WASHINGTON
A Manhattan, NY court sided today with Empire State Realty Trust in what critics described as "price gouging" against the small, non-profit radio station, Pacifica's WBAI. In the ESRT lawsuit against Pacifica for unpaid tower rent at the Empire State Building, Judge Lebovits denied WBAI's motion for "unconscionability", and gave ESRT a summary judgment of $1.8 plus million, plus attorney's fees. The latest invoice from ESRT was for $2.4 million, including fees up till last month. Pacifica's national board of directors will meet Thursday night to decide the next steps for the station.
"All stations should continue doing what they are doing - bringing great news, music, and public affairs that the other stations won't let you hear," stated Bill Crosier, Interim Executive Director of the Pacifica Foundation. "There's going to be some pain involved to come up with the money for the judgement, but we will get through it."
In a statement to staff, Crosier said, "We do have some options, but they are more limited now, and none are easy."
The judge, in effect, ruled that it was not price gouging, when he denied Pacifica's unconscionability motion.
The lawsuit was a classic "David vs Goliath" standoff with Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT). The company, owner of the Empire State Building, was accused of price-gouging the local non-profit radio station with a lease having monthly fees that increase at more than four times the rate of inflation. The lease was renewed in 2005 with terms that were significantly worse than the previous lease, after the Twin Towers and the antennas for all the broadcasters there were destroyed on 9/11/01, leaving radio and TV stations with few options for antenna space, and giving the Empire State Building a near-monopoly for stations to deal with.
The standoff also compelled Mrs. Patricia Perry, an 85-year-old mother who lost her son on 9/11, to start a petition that accused the company of profiteering off of the tragedy. Her petition urged the realty company to negotiate in good faith with WBAI.
"This station has always been one of the feelings of pride of our city and beyond - providing a platform for our local elected officials and NYC's best and brightest. For decades, WBAI has fearlessly served the public with independent news, music, and public affairs that other stations won't let you hear. My son did not risk his life for you and Empire State Realty Trust to profit from it. It is not the New York Way."
The summary judgment leaves the 68-year-old radio network, which owns five broadcast licenses in New York, Washington DC, Houson and Northern and Southern California, along with a valuable historical audio archive, with a challenge in figuring out how to satisfy the multimillion dollar real estate firm.
The 15-year lease signed in 2005 does not expire until 2020 and has raised antenna rental costs by 9% a year for the last 12 years. The rent is currently set at more than half a million dollars annually or approximately 4 times the current market rent for Midtown Manhattan antenna rentals. Pacifica Radio's WBAI had housed its transmitter at the Empire State Building since 1966.
The full text of Ms, Perry's petition can be read below.
Dear Mr. Malkin,
My son, police officer John W. Perry, was killed on 9/11/2001 while attempting to save a woman's life when the South Tower collapsed on him and countless others that horrific day. The pain and impact of 9/11 were felt by local businesses and people throughout the New York City area. One of those impacts was that your property, the Empire State Building, became one of the few places for local TV and Radio to transmit from since all antennas on the Twin Towers were destroyed.
One of those stations, Pacifica's WBAI, has been part of the fabric of our great city for decades and now is on the verge of shutting down because you continue to price gouge and take advantage of the station by repeatedly jacking up the monthly lease payments. You took advantage of this when WBAI's antenna tower lease was renewed in 2005 by making the license fees under the lease increase by more than four times the rate of inflation. That is unconscionable.
WBAI management went to Empire State Realty Trust three years ago, asking that you accept the market rate for antenna tower leases because WBAI could not afford the large annual increase in payments in the lease, but never got an answer.
Please negotiate in good faith with WBAI and stop price gouging this small non-profit - be fair and reasonable. Let them out of their lease, release them from the obligation to keep paying increasingly exorbitant fees, and don't force them to pay additional late fees and legal fees because they have not been able to keep up with the unfair lease payments.
This station has always been one of the feelings of pride of our city and beyond - providing a platform for our local elected officials and NYC's best and brightest. For decades, WBAI has fearlessly served the public with independent news, music, and public affairs that other stations won't let you hear.
My son did not risk his life for you and Empire State Realty Trust to profit off of it. It is not the New York Way.
Sincerely, Patricia J. Perry, Seaford, New York
Started in 1946 by conscientious objector Lew Hill, Pacifica's storied history includes impounded program tapes for a 1954 on-air discussion of marijuana, broadcasting the Seymour Hersh revelations of the My Lai massacre, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan, going to jail rather than turning over the Patty Hearst tapes to the FBI, and Supreme Court cases. Those cases include the 1984 decision that noncommercial broadcasters have the constitutional right to editorialize, and the Seven Dirty Words ruling following George Carlin's incendiary performances on WBAI. The Pacifica Foundation operates noncommercial radio stations in five major metropolitan areas, and syndicates content to over 220 affiliates. It invented listener-sponsored radio.
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In Yet Another Industry Handout, Trump EPA 'Just Took a Sledgehammer' to Coal Ash Rules
"Ultimately, if this rule is finalized, human health will suffer, and taxpayers will be left with the cost of cleaning up their rivers and drinking water."
Apr 09, 2026
Amid mounting calls for the removal of US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, the EPA chief on Thursday announced proposed changes to coal ash rules, which critics blasted as another gift to polluters at the expense of public health.
Officially called coal combustion residuals (CCR), "coal ash—the toxic byproduct of burning coal—contains hazardous pollutants, including arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, lead, radium, and selenium, which are linked to serious health harms such as cancer, heart disease, and brain damage, among other lasting impacts," noted the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Specifically, as The Associated Press reported, the EPA "proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater near some coal ash sites, rolling back rules forcing the cleanup of entire coal properties instead of just places where ash was dumped. The revisions would also make it easier to reuse coal ash for other purposes."
While Zeldin claimed the "commonsense changes to the CCR regulations reflect EPA's commitment to restoring American energy dominance, strengthening cooperative federalism, and accommodating unique circumstances at certain CCR facilities," Environmental Protection Network's Marc Boom responded that "letting companies avoid cleaning up waste sites that may be leaching toxic metals into groundwater and nearby waterways, while weakening protections and accountability, is not common sense."
"EPA's top priority should be protecting people's health, not sacrificing it for corporate expediency," argued Boom, senior director of public affairs at the group, which is made up of former agency staff. "EPA may call these safeguards 'impractical,' but anyone living downstream of coal ash sites holding thousands of tons of waste knows that requiring cleanup and monitoring is a necessary and basic standard."
NRDC senior attorney Becky Hammer called the pending rollback just "the latest in a long, long, line of Trump administration giveaways to fossil fuels industries," which have also included repealing EPA rules that targeted chemical pollution from coal-fired power plants, declaring a national energy emergency, and scrapping the 2009 "endangerment finding" that underpins all federal climate regulations.
Other advocacy organizations were similarly critical of Thursday's announcement. Daniel Estrin, Waterkeeper Alliance's general counsel and legal director, pointed out that "coal ash is contaminating water at nearly every active and retired coal plant in the US."
"By gutting these safeguards, EPA is abandoning its duty to protect impacted communities by allowing preventable contamination of our rivers, lakes, streams, and groundwater," he said. "The longer the coal industry is allowed to delay closing and cleaning up its toxic waste sites, the more difficult and costly it becomes to fix the damage. By failing to enforce the law, EPA is letting polluters continue harming people and wildlife without accountability."
Like Estrin and Hammer, Earthjustice senior counsel Lisa Evans framed that proposal as "yet another handout to the coal power industry at the expense of our health, water, and wallets," and warned of the dangers of delaying closure and cleanup. She said that "ultimately, if this rule is finalized, human health will suffer, and taxpayers will be left with the cost of cleaning up their rivers and drinking water."
Although "the Trump administration just took a sledgehammer to the health protections in place for toxic coal pollution," Evans added, "Earthjustice has successfully defended these safeguards in court and will do so again."
Nick Torrey, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has secured commitments to clean up over 270 million tons of coal ash in US communities, similarly said that "doing the bidding of industrial polluters instead of protecting ordinary families and clean water is shameful, but we are ready to keep fighting against coal ash pollution."
"Letting coal-burning utilities set the agenda has been a disaster for communities across the South, resulting in coal ash spills and hundreds of families forced to live on bottled water for years under the threat of coal ash pollution," Torrey highlighted. "The Trump administration and coal ash polluters want to take us back to the bad old days of arsenic, lead, and mercury from coal ash contaminating our water."
In addition to facing a flurry of lawsuits over policies prioritizing the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry—whose campaign cash helped President Donald Trump return to the White House last year—the administration has recently been hit with demands to remove Zeldin from more than 160 advocacy groups and nearly 300 health experts.
"This EPA's actions to put polluters first, at the expense of our health, are dangerous and will be deadly," states the health experts' open letter, organized and released Thursday by the Climate Action Campaign. "Administrator Zeldin has abandoned his sworn duty and must be held accountable for his agenda."
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“America’s small businesses, workers, and families are really feeling pain at the pump—all thanks to Trump’s illegal war on Iran,” the Massachusetts Democrat said.
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An analysis published Thursday by the office of US Sen. Ed Markey estimates that the average American motorist will pay nearly $1,100 extra for gasoline in 2026 due to President Donald Trump's war of choice on Iran.
"The data highlights a worsening affordability crisis, with the average American family facing an annual increase of $1,096 this year if gas prices remain at $4.14 per gallon—a shocking increase of $1.16 per gallon since Trump launched his war on Iran in February," Markey's (D-Mass.) office said.
"These numbers are likely an underestimate," the analysis notes. "Many analysts predict gasoline prices will rise higher without a permanent end to the war. Instead of investing in energy independence, Trump has done everything in his power to destroy American-made affordable clean energy... and double down on the fossil fuels that are now skyrocketing in price."
"As Americans pay more at the pump, fossil fuel industry executives profit," Markey's office said. "During Trump’s first year in office, the five largest oil companies—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and BP—made more than $75 billion dollars in profits."
Fossil fuel interests spent $445 million to help elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024. And while some Big Oil executives are reportedly upset that the ceasefire agreement with Iran apparently includes Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz and the power to charge tolls to tankers passing through the vital waterway, industry executives sold a reported $1.4 billion in shares before and during the war that they may subsequently buy back during market dips fueled by the volatility caused by Trump's actions.
“America’s small businesses, workers, and families are really feeling pain at the pump—all thanks to Trump’s illegal war on Iran," Markey, the ranking member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, said in a statement introducing the analysis. "Instead of delivering real relief to the American people, Trump is doubling down on his reckless economic policies, which are only driving up energy prices, enriching his oil and gas buddies, and worsening the affordability crisis for everyone else."
“In uncertain times like these, gas prices go up like a rocket but come down like a feather," he added. "This administration must get serious about alleviating the crisis he alone created, or risk further throttling families’ finances and putting even more pain on Main Street.”
A Pew Research Center survey published earlier this week revealed that gas prices are Americans' biggest concern about the Iran War, with 69% worried about higher fuel costs. By comparison, 61% said they were concerned about sending ground troops to invade Iran, 59% fretted over high casualties among US troops, and 56% said they fear a terror attack on the United States.
This isn't the first time that Markey has shined a spotlight on the economic harm to American families caused by the actions of a president who campaigned upon core promises of lower consumer prices—including gasoline—and no new wars. Last month, Markey asked the Bureau of Labor Statistics to “immediately undertake and publish a comprehensive analysis of the likely consumer price impacts” of the war over the next 6-12 months.
Our nation is at a moral crossroads.Trump asked Congress for over 1 trillion to fund the Department of Defense and his war of choice. To get it, MAGA Republicans want to defund childcare. Healthcare. Education. I won't stand for that.
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— Ed Markey (@edmarkey.bsky.social) April 9, 2026 at 3:31 PM
Markey's analysis came on the same day that the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies published a report estimating that the average American taxpayer gave $4,000 to the federal government last year “for militarism and its support systems."
That cost is likely to rise even further if Congress approves Trump's request for a record $1.5 trillion US military budget for the next fiscal year.
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'Nightmare for Civilians': Israel Inflicts 1,400+ Casualties on Lebanon War's Deadliest Day
"Civilians in Lebanon are already paying an unbearable price with children, health workers, and journalists amongst those killed—the latest attacks will only escalate this devastating human toll," said one campaigner.
Apr 09, 2026
Humanitarian campaigners, civil rights defenders, and progressive members of Congress were among those calling on the Trump administration to pressure Israel to stop bombing Lebanon after Israeli airstrikes killed or wounded more than 1,400 people—many of them civilians—on Wednesday.
In what Amnesty International called an "unprecedented escalation," the Israel Defense Forces said it carried out the “largest coordinated wave of strikes” of its renewed war on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Around 100 sites in the country were bombed in one 10-minute period alone in what the IDF dubbedr "Operation Eternal Darkness."
Lebanese officials said that at least 303 people were killed and 1,165 others wounded by Israeli strikes on Wednesday, the deadliest day of attacks since Israel resumed bombardment of Lebanon and likely since it started bombing its northern neighbor after the Hamas-led Palestinian attack of October 7, 2023.
While Lebanese authorities do not break down casualties according to combatant status, officials and residents of the capital city of Beirut said that civilians were the main victims of Wednesday's bombings, which targeted apartment towers and other civilian structures in numerous densely populated urban areas.
One witness, a woman named Fatima, told Amnesty International what she saw in the immediate aftermath of an IDF strike on a building across the street from her home in Beirut's Salim Salam neighborhood.
“It was apocalyptic," she said. "Bodies on the ground. Blood everywhere. I saw countless wounded adults and children. I walked further but it was the same scene in the other neighborhoods too. I did not know where to go. I just walked aimlessly trying to get as far as possible. It was a nightmare.”
Dr. Firass Abiad, a surgeon and wformer Lebanese health minister, told The Guardian that American University of Beirut Medical College, where he works, received about 70 patients at the same time, a situation he said was intentionally caused by Israel "to flood the health system."
“There was a 90-year-old who I just left a bit ago. He passed away from his wounds," he said. "There was nothing we could do. These are civilians who, without any warning, their whole apartment building was flattened. So you can imagine the severity of injuries that we’re getting.”
Shaden Fakih, a 24-year-old calisthenics trainer, described trying to find his friend who was inside a building when it was bombed. He couldn't locate his friend, but he was seen carrying an elderly woman from the rubble.
"There’s no Hezbollah here, the Israelis are just getting happy when they bomb people, it’s not about Hezbollah," Fakih said in an interview with The Guardian. “Just stop bombing us. If you want to kill Hezbollah, go for it, but don’t kill civilians, because you’re creating anger in us against Israel and we will have to act like Hezbollah just to defend our country. But I don’t want to do that, I just want to live in peace."
“It’s been the worst day since the war started," he added. "And what I’m most sad about is that my pretty Lebanon, our beautiful Lebanon, soon it will all be brought down to the ground.”
As Common Dreams reported, Israeli strikes have wiped out entire families in Lebanon and Iran. In Gaza, more than 2,700 families have been erased from the civil registry.
Responding to Wednesday's attacks, Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa regional director Heba Morayef said that “just hours after the world cautiously welcomed news of a US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, in Lebanon the nightmare for civilians has become more terrifying."
“Even before today’s attack... more than 1,500 people had been killed and over a million people displaced from their homes across the country," Morayef continued, referring to Israel's bombardment of Lebanon after Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones southward in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing.
"Civilians in Lebanon are already paying an unbearable price with children, health workers, and journalists amongst those killed—the latest attacks will only escalate this devastating human toll," Morayef added. "These attacks are a reminder that states must immediately halt the transfer of arms and weapons to Israel given the overriding risk that they will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law."
The Washington, DC-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement late Wednesday, “Once again, Israel’s genocidal government is trying to derail a ceasefire and ensure peace does not succeed by slaughtering innocent civilians."
"The Trump administration must stop them from carrying out this brutal plan," the group added. "Israel has demonstrated time and again that it cannot be trusted to abide by peace agreements. It is time for our government to cut all support for Israel’s atrocities.“
These and other groups, as well as governments in the Mideast and beyond, and US progressives, are demanding that Lebanon be included in the ceasefire. Although Israel agreed to the truce, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—asserts that the deal does not include Lebanon.
Iran categorically rejects Israel's claim and is using its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz to pressure Israel to reconsider its stance.
Some US progressives called for President Donald Trump to pressure Israel to stop attacking Lebanon, and for a suspension of American arms transfers to the IDF.
"It is unconscionable we continue to provide aid to Israel as they continue to murder civilians and violate international law in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said Thursday on Bluesky. "No more money to Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime."
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