Central/Mid Queens News

• Breaking

Four days before the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney, Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) suddenly dropped out of the race Friday morning and threw his weight to Borough President Melinda Katz.

On Thursday, May 23, the fifth-graders at PS 174Q, The William Sidney Mount School in Rego Park, enjoyed a wonderful experience at Citi Field on Education Day. Not only did they watch the Mets game, but before the game began, they had so much fun on the field level catching free T-shirts, seeing Mr. G from Channel 11 News and even seeing their teachers on the Jumbo Tron!

There was beautiful weather on June 9 for the Austin Street Fair, and attendees had a great time to match.

Clockwise from top right, members of Bartlett Contemporaries perform everything from bebop to hip-hop at the fair for the music lovers in the audience; several members of the FDNY take in the fair; Rego Park sisters Alyssa and Riley have fun on the slide; no fair is complete without sizzling grills for hungry customers; 7-month-old Alex and his mother, Donna, take in the sights and sounds of the fair; and Mary Jasper of Forest Hills brings along a couple of feathered friends to greet the crowd.

Two East Elmhurst men are facing charges for allegedly selling thousands of untaxed cigarettes from businesses in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan announced last week.

The main defendant, 44-year-old Mohammed Khan of 78th Street, was arraigned on a complaint charging him with second- and fourth-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, violation of tax law cigarette and tobacco products tax, endangering the welfare of a child and possession or transportation of untaxed cigarettes with intent to sell.

• Featured

Ending 16 years as the head of the Catholic Church in Queens and Brooklyn, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio last week submitted his resignation after reaching age 75, as required by church law.

“I remember the words of Archbishop Thomas A. Boland who ordained me a priest for the Archdiocese of Newark when it came time for him to submit his resignation in the early 1970s,” DiMarzio said in an open letter published last week in The Tablet, the diocese’s official newspaper, explaining his imminent retirement.

A group of building owners and renters in Astoria — some related by blood and marriage, others who played together on the same soccer club teams — were sued on Wednesday for operating a “network” that booked more than 60,000 guests since 2015.

Thirteen people named in the suit filed by the city’s Office of Special Enforcement regularly advertised 210 different units — from houses to rooms in apartments, mostly in Astoria — on services like Air BnB, the suit alleges.

Mayor de Blasio, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), Council Finance Chairman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and members of the City Council announced an agreement last Friday for an approximately $92.8 billion budget.

“The Fiscal Year 2020 Adopted Budget creates greater fairness for all New Yorkers,” de Blasio said. “We’ve reached an agreement that promises to create a pathway to pay parity for our early childhood education providers to address recruitment and retention issues, expands services that prevent unnecessary detention and fights the widespread national attack on access to abortion care.”

Borough President Melinda Katz has unveiled her $65 million in fiscal year 2020 discretionary fund allocations for 80 capital projects throughout the borough. Here is a list of the programs to be funded.