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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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Ex-Officials, Watchdogs Rip Trump Effort to 'Bully' IRS Into Giving Him $10 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars
"Our government should be accountable to the people, not the whims of a power-hungry executive," said one Common Cause campaigner.
Feb 05, 2026
Less than a week after a court filing revealed that President Donald Trump is suing his own Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns during his first term, former federal officials and watchdog groups on Thursday called out his attempt to abuse "powerful tools for holding government accountable."
The legal group Democracy Forward filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Common Cause, the Project On Government Oversight, ex-IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, and Kathryn Keneally and Gilbert Rothenberg, who both held leadership roles in the US Department of Justice's Tax Division.
"This case is extraordinary because the president controls both sides of the litigation, which raises the prospect of collusive litigation tactics," states the amicus brief. "Collusive litigation threatens the integrity of the judicial process by risking the court's entanglement in an illegitimate proceeding. And although the complaint has significant defects—it was filed too late, against the wrong party, and for an unsupported and excessive sum of damages—the conflicts of interest make it uncertain whether the Department of Justice will zealously defend the public fisc in the same way that it has against other plaintiffs claiming damages for related events."
"To maintain the integrity of the judicial process in the face of these highly irregular circumstances, the court should consider exercising its inherent judicial authority to proactively manage this case from the outset," argued the former officials and groups, known as amici. Specifically, they said:
- First, the court should consider issuing an order for the parties: to show cause why this court has jurisdiction over this case, to explain how they will address the fundamental conflict-of-interest problems with this case, to show why this case should not be stayed until after President Trump leaves office, and to show why the unjustified $10 billion damage figure should not be stricken from the pleadings;
- Second, the court should consider appointing amici who have expertise on issues of tax law and separation-of-powers issues to present fulsome legal arguments on all future issues that arise in this case; and
- Third, the court should consider allowing participation of those amici in hearings.
"To treat this case like business as usual," the coalition declared, "would threaten the integrity of the justice system and the important taxpayer and privacy protections at the heart of this case."
In a statement about the new filing in the Southern District of Florida, Abigail Bellows, Common Cause's senior policy director for anti-corruption and accountability, stressed that "we are watching a president attempt to bully the IRS into giving him billions of our taxpayer dollars."
"Our government should be accountable to the people, not the whims of a power-hungry executive," Bellows said. "We urge the court to take steps to promote judicial integrity and protect the public interest."
President Trump has made $4 billion since his second inauguration. And now, he's suing the Treasury Department and IRS for $10 billion more in "damages."So we're filing a brief urging the court to reject President Trump’s scheme and protect taxpayers.
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— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) February 5, 2026 at 5:37 PM
In addition to representing the amici in this case, Democracy Forward has launched various other lawsuits against Trump and his administration, which have faced sweeping allegations of corruption since the president returned to power a year ago.
According to an analysis published by the New York Times editorial board last month, on the one-year anniversary of his second inauguration, Trump and his family enriched themselves to the tune of at least $1.4 billion during the first year of his second term—largely through investment in cryptocurrencies, though he's also secured settlements from tech and media companies.
Various other members of the second Trump administration have also been accused of corruption and conflicts of interest, and as the Times separately revealed in December, many rich and powerful contributors Trump's post-election fundraising haul have received corporate-friendly regulatory changes, dropped enforcement cases, government contracts, and even pardons.
"The president's corruption continues, this time in an attempt to take $10 billion dollars of the taxpayers' money, which threatens to make a mockery out of our justice system," said Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman. "Not only does the president's baseless case have significant legal defects, but there are colossal conflicts of interest at play."
"We thank these experts for raising these serious concerns about how President Trump is seeking to further illegally line his own pockets at the public’s expense and our brief urges the court to exercise its power to ensure the matter is not one-sided."
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Global Sumud Flotilla Announces Spring Mission to 'Break the Illegal Blockade of Gaza'
Organizers say they're "mobilizing thousands from over 100 countries in a coordinated, nonviolent response to genocide, siege, mass starvation, and the destruction of civilian life in Gaza."
Feb 05, 2026
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla—the largest-ever activist effort to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by sea—said Thursday that they will launch a new and bigger mission next month to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian exclave, whose people have suffered from 28 months of genocidal Israeli war and siege.
Global Sumud Flotilla called its spring 2026 mission, which is scheduled to depart from Barcelona on March 29, "a historic escalation in civilian-led maritime action to break the illegal blockade of Gaza."
"We are sailing again this year. This time, we're sailing with more boats, and more activists... and we are determined to break this illegal siege on Gaza and show the world that the peace talks are not really peace talks, but the further colonization of Palestinian territories," organizer Yasmin Acar told South African Broadcasting Corporation News Radio. "We will not stop until the siege is broken."
Global Sumud Flotilla said: "A primary focus of the 2026 mission is the deployment of a specialized medical fleet. Carrying more than 1,000 healthcare professionals and stocked with lifesaving medicines and equipment, this fleet aims to stabilize Gaza's healthcare system and support the efforts of local medical teams who have endured two years of genocide."
Like most of Gaza, the strip's healthcare infrastructure is in ruins after deliberate targeting of medical facilities and workers by Israeli forces.
Mandla Mandela, grandson of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and a past flotilla participant, called the new effort "cause... for those that want to rise and stand for justice and dignity for all."
Last summer, dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from over 40 nations took part in the last Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic—as it attempted to run Israel’s naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to the starving people of Gaza amid Israel's genocidal war and siege on the people of the coastal strip.
Israeli forces intercepted and seized the flotilla vessels in international waters in early October, arresting all aboard the boats and temporarily jailing them in Israel, where some including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said they were physically and psychologically abused by their captors.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has made numerous attempts to break Israel's blockade by sea, all of which ended in more or less the same way. In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
“We may not have reached Gaza physically," flotilla activist Susan Abdallah told Al Jazeera Thursday, but "we have reached the people in Gaza."
"They know that we care, that we will not stop at anything until we actually break the siege," she added.
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Bernie Sanders' 7 Policies to Defeat Trump and Secure a Better Future for All
"It is not good enough just to be critical of Trump and his destructive policies. We must bring forth a positive vision that will improve the lives of ordinary Americans."
Feb 05, 2026
While taking aim at the oligarchs behind companies including Walmart and the Washington Post this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders also laid out his vision for how to not only "reverse America's decline" under President Donald Trump, but also "create an economy that works for working people and not just billionaires, a vibrant democracy, and a foreign policy based on international law."
In a Guardian op-ed on Thursday, Sanders (I-Vt.) addressed issues ranging from healthcare and housing to nutrition, schooling, and transportation, pointing out that "85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, our life expectancy is lower than most wealthy nations, and we have a massive shortage" in health professionals.
The median home price has soared above $400,000, and over 20 million US households spend more than half of their incomes on housing. The senator noted that "as a result of corporate agriculture and the greed of the food and beverage industry, many of our kids are addicted to ultra-processed foods, and we have the highest rate of obesity and diabetes of any major country on Earth."
The United States also "ranks well behind its peers in overall educational attainment, our childcare system is broken, and millions of our young people are unable to afford a college education," wrote Sanders, a leader in the Senate Democratic Caucus who twice sought the party's presidential nomination. "Our public transportation and rail systems lag far behind most other developed countries, and millions of people spend hours a day in traffic jams."
"The decline we are seeing in our country is not just in economics. Our political system is corrupt, dominated by an extremely greedy billionaire class that is able to buy and sell politicians," he stressed. "Even more troubling, our country is rapidly descending into authoritarianism under an unstable, narcissistic leader who wants more and more power for himself."
"Trump is usurping the powers of Congress, attacking the courts, intimidating the media, threatening universities, and prosecuting and arresting his political opponents," Sanders flagged. He also renewed criticism of "Trump's domestic army," US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for "acting in outrageous and unconstitutional ways," from Maine to Minnesota, where federal agents have recently killed two citizens.
At this difficult moment in American history, we must be honest with ourselves:Our nation, once the envy of the world, is now in profound decline. For the sake of our children and future generations, we must reverse course.
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— Senator Bernie Sanders (@sanders.senate.gov) February 5, 2026 at 12:42 PM
Sanders' response to the chaos and fear of Trump's second term is to advocate for "building a national grassroots movement that fights for the needs of the American working class," which he said can be done "by bringing people together—Black, white, Latino, Asian, gay and straight—around an agenda that takes on the greed of the oligarchs and is based on the foundation of economic, social, racial, and environmental justice."
Detailing his key policy priorities, the senator wrote:
- We must create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and preventing billionaires from buying elections;
- Whether the Democratic establishment likes it or not, we must guarantee healthcare as a human right through Medicare for All;
- We must build millions of affordable homes and apartments and give our younger generation the opportunity to own a home of their own;
- We must make public colleges, universities, trade schools, and medical schools tuition-free and have the best childcare and public school system in the entire world;
- We must expand social security and bring back traditional pension plans so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity;
- We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage and guarantee every worker the right to join a union; and
- We must demand that the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America pay their fair share in taxes.
Sanders isn't alone in arguing that "it is not good enough just to be critical of Trump and his destructive policies. We must bring forth a positive vision that will improve the lives of ordinary Americans." That that was also a lesson from democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's campaign, which the senator said "has given us the roadmap."
"Starting at just 1% in the polls, Mamdani had the guts to take on the Democratic establishment, the Republican, establishment, and the oligarchs. And he won by organizing a grassroots campaign of more than 90,000 volunteers knocking on doors behind a strong progressive agenda," wrote Sanders, who campaigned for and swore in the city's new mayor.
Mamdani made headlines on Thursday for his Nation piece endorsing Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's reelection campaign. The mayor wrote that although he and Hochul have "real differences, particularly when it comes to taxation of the wealthiest, at a moment defined by profound income inequality," they also delivered a "historic win together," in the form of a universal childcare program for the city.
"At its best, the Democratic Party has been a big tent not because it avoids conflict but because it channels conflict toward progress," Mamdani added. "A party united not by conformity but by a commitment to structural change—and to the work required to achieve it."
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