DETROIT — Patrick Kane smiled. The wait was over.

Kane became the highest-scoring United States-born player in NHL history, passing former North Stars great Mike Modano with an assist for his 1,375th point on Thursday night for the Detroit Red Wings against the Washington Capitals.

“It’s nice to have it over with in some ways and worry about the rest of the season,” Kane said after Washington’s 4-3 shootout win.

Kane passed the puck from the boards to Alex DeBrincat in the left circle, and DeBrincat set up Ben Chiarot for a tying goal from the point midway through the second period.

Kane flashed a grin and hugged Chiarot.

He was surrounded by teammates, including those who emptied the bench to join a brief celebration. As Kane skated away, the spotlight was put on him and he raised his stick to acknowledge the crowd while appearing to be on the verge of tears.

His likeness was shown on the videoboards at Little Caesars Arena with an American flag in the background and the number 1,375.

Modano who works for the Wild in an advisory capacity, held the mark for 18-plus years. Kane reached the milestone a couple of months after turning 37, while Modano was 40 when he scored a goal to register point No. 1,374, passing St. Paul native Phil Housley.

“I knew at an early age in your career you would be the one chasing this number down and here we are,” Modano said in a prerecorded message played on the videoboards. “Continue on and make this number harder for the next guy.”

Kane has been one of the faces of American hockey since getting taken with the first pick in the 2007 draft by Chicago. He helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup three times from 2010-15 as a co-headliner of one of the most successful runs since the league’s salary cap era began in ’05.

“When you think of USA Hockey, he’s one of the first players that comes to mind, if not the first player,” fellow American Jack Eichel said. “Such a great representation of USA Hockey and us Americans — something for a lot of the guys that came after him to strive to be, myself included.”

U.S.-born defenseman Charlie McAvoy recalled watching Kane on those long runs “do stuff that at the time people didn’t do.”

“His type of player just transcends now, when back then there wasn’t anybody that was really doing that,” McAvoy said. “He changed the game of hockey. He’s an absolute legend. And it’s great that he’s an American.”

Earlier this month, Kane became the 50th player and fifth American to score 500 goals, following Keith Tkachuk, Jeremy Roenick and Joe Mullen. Brett Hull, a dual citizen who was born in Canada and played internationally for the U.S., had 741 goals and 1,391 points.

“He’s well on his way to being the best USA player of all time,” countryman Jack Hughes said.

Kane won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2007-08, the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2013 and the Hart Trophy as regular-season MVP in 2015-16, when he also led the league in scoring.

“Such an iconic player, just played with such passion,” said Tage Thompson, a first-time U.S. Olympian this year. “Very enthusiastic, loved scoring goals, loved making plays.”

Kane’s slick hands more than made up for him being on the smaller side at 5-foot-10 and under 180 pounds.

“He’s maybe got the best highlight reel of all time,” Hughes said. “Just as a kid, you watch all of his videos and everything, and you’re like, that’s the guy you want to be just because of how skilled he is.”

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By ERIC TUCKER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday released many more records from its investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with the rich and powerful.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents in the latest Epstein disclosure. The files, posted to the department’s website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release of documents in December.

They were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that requires the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all of the files, the Justice Department said it tasked hundreds of lawyers with reviewing the records to determine what needs to be redacted, or blacked out, to protect the identities of victims of sexual abuse.

The number of documents subject to review has ballooned to 5.2 million, including duplicates, the department said.

The Justice Department released tens of thousands of pages of documents just before Christmas, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs and court records. Many of them were either already public or heavily blacked out.

Those records included previously released flight logs showing that Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet in the 1990s, before they had a falling out, and several photographs of former President Bill Clinton. Neither Trump, a Republican, nor Clinton, a Democrat, has been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and both have said they had no knowledge he was abusing underage girls.

Also released last month were transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who said they were paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.

Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

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In 2008 and 2009, Epstein served jail time in Florida after pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. At the time, investigators had gathered evidence that Epstein had sexually abused underage girls at his home in Palm Beach, but the U.S. attorney’s office agreed not to prosecute him in exchange for his guilty plea to lesser state charges.

In 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Maxwell, a British socialite, of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of his underage victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence at a prison camp in Texas, after being moved there from a federal prison in Florida. She denies any wrongdoing.

U.S. prosecutors never charged anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse of girls, but one of his victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, accused him in lawsuits of having arranged for her to have sexual encounters at age 17 and 18 with numerous politicians, business titans, noted academics and others, all of whom denied her allegations.

Among the people she accused was Britain’s Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after the scandal led to him being stripped of his royal titles. Andrew denied having sex with Giuffre but settled her lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia last year at age 41.

Tucker and Richer reported from Washington.

Follow the AP’s coverage of Jeffrey Epstein at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.

Council progressives had hoped they could convince fellow lawmakers to override former Mayor Adams’ veto and pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act. But new Speaker Menin, who abstained from voting on COPA last year, declined to call it for an override vote, effectively killing it—for now.

New Council Speaker Julie Menin kicking off Thursday’s stated meeting, where lawmakers override a number of Eric Adams’ vetos, but let others stand. (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)

A lot can change in a month.

A social housing bill that would give community groups first dibs on buying certain residential buildings was unceremoniously vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams—one of 20 bills he struck down on his last day in office.

Since then, Mayor Zohran Mamdani was inaugurated, five new members joined the City Council and Julie Menin became its new speaker.

Council progressives had hoped they could convince a new Council to override the former mayor’s veto and pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA. Mamdani backed the bill, while real estate groups were strongly opposed.

But the mood shifted late in the game this week. Legal issues reportedly scared off some supporters. New Speaker Menin, who abstained from voting on COPA last year, declined to call it for an override vote, effectively killing it.

Councilmember Sandy Nurse, COPA’s sponsor, expressed disappointment with the defeat of a bill she said was the Council Progressive Caucus’s top priority.

Supporters say it would give mission-driven groups, including community land trusts, a leg up against deep-pocketed real estate speculators in the city’s competitive housing market. The amended version of the bill passed by lawmakers in December applied specifically to buildings in physical distress or where affordable rent requirements are expiring. 

“Our good faith effort to create a targeted, legally-sound preservation tool was met with a well-funded misinformation campaign from the most powerful real estate interests in the city,” Nurse told City Limits in a statement.

But the bill faced intense opposition from real estate groups, who said it unfairly favors nonprofits at the expense of private property owners. Ann Korchak, who represents the group Small Property Owners of New York, previously called COPA, “government-engineered interference in private free-market transactions.”

Lawmakers said they would reintroduce COPA later this year. 

The Council also declined to override a veto on a bill from Bronx Councilmember Eric Dinowitz that would have mandated at least 25 percent of units in new affordable housing be two-bedrooms, and 15 percent be three-bedrooms.

But lawmakers voted to override vetoes on two other housing bills: one that mandates minimums for homeownership units, and another that requires the city to finance a minimum percentage of units priced for “very low” or “extremely low” income households (up to $43,740 and $72,900 for a family of three, respectively). 

All three bills passed in December with a supermajority of support. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Mayor Mamdani were opposed to all three, which they say would cost $600 million dollars a year or result in more than 3,275 fewer affordable units overall.

Speaker Menin’s office did not respond to requests for comment about why some bills advanced but not others. But a spokesperson told City & State earlier this week that the bills didn’t have the votes to override a mayoral veto, which requires a supermajority.

Dinowitz said he would work with HPD and City Hall on a new version later this year.

“It’s absolutely a crisis that we are not building enough family-sized units,” said Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. “Shelters are inundated with families and children.”

He said that while his bill would not have affected the current affordable housing pipeline, there were concerns that it would change how newly constructed buildings would be designed.

Here’s what else happened this week —

ICYMI, from City Limits: 

Mayor Mamdani is pushing to tax the rich to pay for his ambitious affordability agenda. City Limits spoke to experts and advocates about what that might look like. One takeaway? A pied-à-terre tax—targeting New Yorkers with multimillion-dollar second homes—isn’t high on progressives’ priorities list, as it wouldn’t raise enough revenue to make the political fight worthwhile. 

Amid frigid temperatures, New Yorkers lodged 26,000 311 complaints about lack of heat or hot water over the last week, the most in a seven-day period since 2018. City Limits’ reporter Patrick Spauster spoke to WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show about what landlords are required to provide, and what tenants can do if their heat isn’t working. 

New York approved a massive new casino project for Queens. Supporters say it’ll create 25 acres of new green space on what’s currently a parking spot. But opponents say the entire 50-acre site should be used as a climate resilient park to help curb flooding in the low-lying area, which is hemmed in by Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek. 

State lawmakers should pass the Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power Act (ASAP Act), which would “double New York’s rooftop and community solar goal, and cut red tape to lower the costs of getting community solar connected to the grid” argues op-ed author Kate Selden of the nonprofit Solar One.

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms: 

The City spoke to unhoused New Yorkers living outside this week despite the frigid temperatures. One man said the shelter system wouldn’t allow him to enter with his cat, while others said they preferred to avoid the conditions and strict rules at some shelter facilities. 

Voters last fall approved changes to the city’s land use approval process that gives borough presidents a bigger role. Gothamist examines how they might wield their new power. 

The New York Times covers the trial of Randy Rodriguez Santos, who is accused of killing four homeless men in Chinatown in 2019, an attack that drew renewed attention to the dangers unhoused New Yorkers face. 

More towns in upstate New York are opting into Good Cause Eviction protections, Shelterforce reports.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Patrick@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org.

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Council Lets Eric Adams’ COPA Veto Stand, and What Else Happened this Week in Housing appeared first on City Limits.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK, AP Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kevin Warsh has sought the job of Federal Reserve chair, off and on, since President Donald Trump first considered him for the position nearly a decade ago. Now that he is in line for the position, the enormity of the challenge ahead of him is clear.

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Trump names former Federal Reserve official Warsh as the next Fed chair to replace Powell

To be effective, Warsh must gain the trust of at least three constituencies: the committee of Federal Reserve officials whose votes he will have to win to change interest rates; the financial markets, which can undermine his efforts to reduce borrowing costs if they think he is acting politically; and not least Trump, a former real estate developer with an exquisite sense of just how much difference a cut or increase in interest rates can make for those with large debts, whether they are businesses, households or a government.

“He has to thread that needle,” said Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago and former head of India’s central bank. “If you are seen as too pliable to the administration, you lose the support of the members of the (Fed), you become ineffective in creating consensus.”

Yet if he alienates the White House, Rajan said, Warsh runs the risk of putting the Fed back in the White House’s sights. Under Trump, the current chair Jerome Powell has come under relentless fire for not cutting interest rates as quickly as the president would like, and is now under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. Powell has called the investigation a pretext to force him to lower rates.

Warsh may also face a bumpy confirmation process in the Senate, where two Republicans have already said they will oppose his nomination unless the criminal investigation is resolved. One of them, Thom Tillis from North Carolina, is on the banking committee, and could prevent that panel from approving the nomination if he and all Democrats vote against it. Tillis repeated Friday that he would oppose Warsh until the Justice Department investigation is resolved.

And Democratic Sen. Mark Warner from Virginia, who is also on the committee, said: “It is difficult to trust that any chair of the Federal Reserve selected by this president will be able to act with the independence required of the position, knowing that this administration will levy charges against any leader who makes interest rate decisions based on facts and the needs of our economy rather than Trump’s personal preferences.”

And there may be even more drama ahead: Powell, as part of the Fed’s complex structure, could remain on the Fed’s governing board, as well as its rate-setting committee, even after his term as chair ends in May. That would leave Warsh facing a situation no Fed chair has dealt with in 80 years: A former chair potentially acting as a counterweight to the new leader of the Fed.

Demonstrating some independence from the White House will likely be Warsh’s biggest challenge. Alan Blinder, a former Fed vice chair, said that most important unknown is what promises Trump extracted from Warsh in return for nominating him to lead the U.S. central bank. The Princeton University economist said he worries about the private conversations between Trump and Warsh about what Fed policy needed to be.

“We all know Donald Trump — he wants a loyalty pledge of some kind,” Blinder said. “I hope Kevin Warsh didn’t give one.”

Blinder said that Warsh does have experience with markets and monetary policy, which are good preparation for the job. But, more importantly, Warsh is a people person who has the skills to influence other Fed officials when debating policy.

“The one thing he has in abundance is personal and diplomatic skills,” Blinder said. “He knows how to get along with people. He’s expert at that. He’s very likable.”

Don Kohn, a former Federal Reserve governor whose term overlapped with Warsh’s, said Warsh “is very smart — both intellectually and in his ability to read the room.”

“He understands how important it is that the Fed’s decisions be based on a longer-term view” of the Fed’s goals of stable prices and maximum employment, “rather than the short-term objectives of whomever happens to be in the White House,” Kohn said.