New York State is still waiting on $400 million from the federal government to open applications for its energy assistance program this winter. In the meantime, officials are urging residents in need to check their eligibility for another state initiative that secures a monthly utility discount for low-income households.

(Adi Talwar/City Limits)

While the federal government has been back open for nearly two weeks, New York State is still waiting on $400 million from the Trump administration to open applications for its home energy assistance program this winter, known as HEAP.

In the meantime, officials are urging residents in need to check their eligibility for another state initiative that secures monthly utility discounts for low-income households.

The New York Energy Assistance Program (EAP) provides the discounts for households that earn below a certain income threshold—what officials say can save participants up to $500 per year.

To be eligible, applicants must prove their participation in one of several public benefit programs, including SNAP, Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid and federal public housing assistance (a full list can be found here). They’re also eligible if they’re enrolled in the Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, which is based on income (a family of four can earn up to $6,680 a month, or $80,165 annually, and qualify).

Beginning in 2026, families can be eligible for EAP even without participating in another benefits program as long as they meet the income requirements, which will also expand next year to those earning up to the Area Median Income for New York City, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office.

Last year, around 1 million households across the state benefited from monthly EAP discounts, but an additional 1.5 million are estimated to be eligible and haven’t applied, according to the governor.

“We’re not leaving people out in the cold and letting bills escalate,” Hochul said during a press conference last week. “I want to urge all eligible households to sign up for the programs we have here in New York.”

Meanwhile, the governor says the state is still waiting on federal funds to open applications for HEAP, which is distinct from EAP and provides direct payments toward participants’ utility bills. The amount varies—maxing out at $996—based on income, household size, heating source, and if the household contains a vulnerable member (a child under 6, adult 60 or older, or residents who are permanently disabled).

Nearly 1 million New York City households received HEAP assistance last winter. It was supposed to open applications for this season on Nov. 3, but enrollment was delayed thanks to the federal government shutdown—and remains on hold despite the government reopening earlier this month.

Hochul says the Trump administration has yet to release the $400 million that funds New York’s HEAP. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the funding, did not return City Limits’ request for comment.

But the federal agency informed states that funding would be dispersed by the end of the month, according to Hochul’s office. If that’s the case, the state expects to open HEAP applications the first week of December.

“Governor Hochul continues to demand the immediate release of these federal funds, while also helping enroll more New Yorkers in state programs for monthly energy discounts and ensuring that vulnerable households don’t lose access to heat,” Spokesperson Ken Lovett said in a statement.

The delay comes as New Yorkers’ utility bills are going up: both National Grid and Con Edison recently approved multi-year rate hikes for customers in the five boroughs.

A report last year from the climate policy think tank Switchbox found that one of every four New York residents is “energy burdened,” meaning they spend at least 6 percent of their income on utility bills. In the Bronx, 34 percent of households are energy burdened, among the highest of any New York county, the report found.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The post Struggling to Afford Heating Bills? See If You Qualify For This NYS Discount appeared first on City Limits.

ICE said Wednesday that a man arrested by agents Tuesday in a St. Paul neighborhood entered the U.S. illegally from Honduras.

Victor Molina Rodriguez was previously removed from the U.S., has a “rap sheet” that includes domestic abuse and disorderly conduct and illegally re-entered the United States, according to a statement from a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.

Tuesday’s arrest drew nearly 200 constitutional observers and protesters to the 600 block of East Rose Avenue in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. There were confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. Federal law enforcement and St. Paul police officers responded with pepper spray; St. Paul police also deployed projectiles.

“During the arrest, a U.S. citizen weaponized their vehicle and rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle,” Wednesday’s DHS statement said. “The attacker fled on foot, but was later apprehended by law enforcement.”

Police “disrupted a peaceful observation,” said Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz, Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center co-founder and executive director, on Wednesday. “No one was threatening HSI and law enforcement agents.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many people ICE arrested on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Suazo’s family members, standing against the wall, listen as Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz talks about Suazo’s arrest. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The family of Jeffrey Suazo gave a statement Wednesday saying he also was detained Tuesday. His family came to the U.S. fleeing persecution in Honduras, a community organizer said.

“A simple man, 26 years old, hard working and humble,” Suazo’s family said in a statement read by Ligeralde Quiroz. “On Nov. 25, Jeffrey was on his way to work and saw that there was ICE activity. Jeffrey fled out of fear — fear of never seeing his partner, his family, fear of being taken away from his loved ones.”

“They want to blame Jeffrey for something he didn’t do that was part of what was happening,” the statement continued. “No one deserves to live the trauma that Jeffrey and the family have experienced. Children and a pregnant woman spent five hours under threats, humiliation by HSI agents, mockery and invasion of property, because, yes, they were able to get in without a warrant.”

Called in back-up

DHS said in Wednesday’s statement that a large number of people, who they referred to as “rioters,” arrived and they called in back-up “to help secure the scene.”

St. Paul has a separation ordinance that says city employees are not authorized to enforce federal immigration policies, and Police Chief Axel Henry said Tuesday the city’s officers had not violated it.

“I understand that our public is greatly frustrated by these issues, but be clear, the St. Paul police officers are not doing immigration enforcement, but we do have a responsibility to make sure that laws aren’t broken in our city,” he said in a statement.

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St. Paul city council members, legislators and community members expressed anger about the involvement of St. Paul police and their use of chemical munitions and projectiles.

DHS said in its statement that people on the scene “continued to ignore law enforcement commands and aggressively advanced on law enforcement. ICE used their training and deployed crowd control measures for the safety of the public and law enforcement.”

“Our officers are facing a 1,150% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, abusers and gang members,” the statement continued. “Secretary Noem’s message to the rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. … And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

By JAMES POLLARD

NEW YORK (AP) — MacKenzie Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women and most influential philanthropists, is now known for her “no strings attached” surprise grantmaking. But, as a Princeton University sophomore, she learned what it was like to be on the receiving end of generosity.

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Facing the prospect of dropping out if she couldn’t come up with $1,000, Scott was crying when her roommate, Jeannie Tarkenton, found her and got her dad to loan Scott the money.

“I would have given MacKenzie my left kidney,” Tarkenton told the Associated Press recently. “Like, that’s just what you do for friends.”

Today, Scott’s net worth is around $34 billion, according to Forbes. In October, Scott wrote that Tarkenton’s act is among the many personal kindnesses she has considered as she has donated more than $19 billion of the wealth she amassed mostly through Amazon shares as part of her 2019 divorce from company founder Jeff Bezos. And when Tarkenton started Funding U, a lending company that offers last-gap, merit-based loans to low-income students without co-signers, Scott said she jumped at the chance to help.

A quarter century passed between the end of their sophomore year and Funding U’s creation, a period when Tarkenton realized just how many more students were being pushed into her former roommate’s position by the rising cost of college. That Scott took an interest in her old friend’s mission to help economically disadvantaged students finance school is unsurprising. Her unusual gifts — which she rarely discusses or discloses outside of essays and a database on her website, Yield Giving — tend to focus on issues of equity, higher education and economic security.

But the revelation of Scott’s Funding U support offers a new glimpse into her investments. Scott wrote last year that she would invest in “mission-aligned ventures” led by “undercapitalized groups” that focus on “for-profit solutions” to the challenges that her philanthropy seeks to address. However, this is among the few confirmed publicly.

“She’s looking for innovative ways to create opportunity for those that don’t have it,” said Marybeth Gasman, who runs Rutgers’ Center for Minority Serving Institutions and follows Scott’s donations. “I have to say, as somebody who went to school on a Pell Grant and who came from an extremely low-income family, that’s really meaningful.”

Amplifying impact

Scott, in many ways, resembled the exact students that Funding U seeks to serve. Tarkenton recalled the undergraduate Scott as a “hardworking student with very good grades” who was “highly focused” and had already been accepted into a competitive program.

Her lending company plugs those sorts of details — student transcripts and internship experiences, for example— into an algorithm that determines the likelihood applicants will complete college, get a job and make enough money to pay back the loan.

Tarkenton suggested that this formula is fairer — and more predictive — than existing criteria that determine loan eligibility based on the credit histories of students or their co-signers.

Scott provides most of the “junior debt” they use to reduce the risk for larger investments from banks such as Goldman Sachs, according to Tarkenton. She is among a handful of philanthropists who provide 30 cents for every dollar that Funding U loans. These funders lend at concessionary rates, meaning they make less money back than the market suggests they should and wait a longer period of time to recoup the money.

Funding U gets the other 70% from banks, who support them to comply with federal laws aimed at preventing anti-poor discrimination by requiring banks to make loans that benefit their communities.

“I wanted to combine capital from people who were participating in this because they cared about the underlying person,” Tarkenton said, “and also, knowing that scale of philanthropy wasn’t quite big enough, bring to the table some sort of market solution alongside that capital.”

A philanthropic endeavor?

Tarkenton is clear: the endeavor isn’t philanthropic. Funding U is a company, after all, and Scott will eventually get her money back — just as she repaid Tarkenton’s informal loan all those years ago at Princeton.

But the approach represents a model that Scott’s former roommate thinks more philanthropists should embrace. Tarkenton said there’s more space for the likes of Scott to “bring a spirit of investment” that serves a “greater good” but isn’t purely charitable.

“I think philanthropists can get a little messier and do more with their money,” Tarkenton said. “I’m all about pushing philanthropists in a very aligned way.”

It’s why she started Funding U. Working at an Atlanta-based adult literacy nonprofit, Tarkenton said she noticed persistent disparities in degree completion rates based on socioeconomic status. She found the problem too big for philanthropy to solve. But the need was too small for most market players to care about addressing, she said.

Scott described the Funding U loans as “generosity- and gratitude-powered” in an Oct. 15 essay about the ripple effects of kindness.

Panorama founder Gabrielle Fitzgerald, whose social impact nonprofit tracks Scott’s giving, said the investment is “very consistent with her approach to ensuring students have access to higher education.” She said many funders see impact investing as a critical part of their giving portfolios.

“It shows that she’s using all the tools at her disposal to pursue her goals,” Fitzgerald said.

And the full circle impact of Tarkenton’s college-era loan?

“It’s a really lovely story in a time when we’re not seeing a lot of kindness and generosity,” Fitzgerald added. “And just a reminder that helping your fellow humans is both a good thing to do at the time and something that could have a massive impact down the road.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Cade and Hunter Tyson, a pair of 6-foot-7 brothers, have reached some impressive heights on a wide variety of basketball courts.

Cade is having a strong start to his senior season with the Gophers men’s basketball team; the transfer wing leads the Big Ten Conference in scoring through six games. His older brother Hunter surged in his last year at Clemson and became a second-round pick in the 2023 NBA draft; the small forward now comes off the bench for the Denver Nuggets.

Yet a piece of both wishes they were just kids again, playing one-on-one in North Carolina.

Their first hoop was nothing more than iron rim fastened to a five-foot wooden post stuck out in their grass yard. No frills, not even a backboard. “Very Carolina of us,” Hunter recalled.

When in elementary school, the boys, along with their sister Laikyn, received a quality half-court set-up, complete with glass backboard and a big, flat concrete slab. At the time, it was a world-class court.

“I wish I could get that time back,” Cade told the Pioneer Press while on his new home court, Williams Arena, in October.

“Looking back, I miss those days, man,” Hunter said before a Timberwolves-Nuggets game at Target Center in November.

While they fondly look back on their youth, it sounded like combat training.

“Fouling the heck out of each other,” Hunter recalled.

Their father Jonathan served as referee. Well, sort of. “I would use that terminology lightly,” he said in an interview. “I would just keep them from hurting each other. I would let them pretty much go at it.”

Through the fog of time, Cade, who is three years younger, remembers it being a bit more one-sided.

“My brother liked to throw some elbows in the paint a little bit,” he said. “… But looking back, it made me tougher.”

Cade has needed that durability.

When Hunter was getting his first taste as an NBA rookie in 2023-24, Cade was riding high in his sophomore season at Belmont, shooting 46% from 3-point range and averaging 16.2 points a game.

With a big frame and smooth shooting stroke, Cade was highly ranked target in the NCAA transfer portal that spring and picked traditional powerhouse North Carolina.

Growing up south of Charlotte in the town of Monroe, Hunter was a Tar Heels fan, while Cade said he didn’t have a “dream school.” UNC did have an influence on him, however, as a family photo shows Cade decked out in Carolina blue while playing on that concrete slab.

But last season in Chapel Hill was a struggle for Cade: He played only eight minutes per game, 29% from deep and averaged 2.6 points across 31 contests.

“We tried to keep him from getting discouraged,” Jonathan said. “There were times where he was discouraged. I mean, I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were all discouraged.”

But Jonathan tried to remind Cade of what he could control, showing up to work every day. One message: “The biggest thing you need to understand is (UNC guard) Seth Trimble is one of the best defenders in the country. You’re practicing against him every single day. … You need to develop your offensive game.”

Cade hit the transfer portal again and landed at Minnesota. While it’s only a small sample size, his 21.3 points-per-game average sits No. 1 in the Big Ten and 14th in the nation going into games Wednesday night. He is showing signs of being a three-way scorer: from behind the arc, at the rim and from the foul line.

Tyson can continue to build on that hot start when Minnesota (4-2) plays Stanford (4-1) in the Acrisure Series at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in Palm Desert, Calif.

Gophers head coach Niko Medved knows what a competitive household looks like; he had two younger brothers while growing up in Roseville.

“It’s wanting to beat your brothers more than anything,” Medved said. “I think for Cade, being in those (younger brother) shoes really, really helped him grow. Cade has an unbelievable work ethic and he’s very competitive, but he’s also got great discipline.”

The Gophers honored Tyson for scoring 1,000 career points before the 7 p.m. tipoff against Chicago State on Nov. 18, and Tyson showed his commitment by being one of the first players onto The Barn court before 5 p.m.

“He obviously built great habits growing up,” Medved said. “His dad was a coach. His brother was a terrific player. It’s been in his blood and in his culture. … I think so many of those habits have been ingrained in him. He’s just so fun to coach every day.”

Jonathan Tyson played at Wingate and his coaching career led to plenty of gym access for his kids. They also attended a variety of games, from high school to college and to the Charlotte Hornets.

But letting ’em play on that variety of courts was primarily about having them “figure it out. Developing the competitive spirit was really the big idea.”

Jonathan now serves as the Chief of School Performance for the Union County Public Schools, a district with 53 schools and 41,000 students. He also wanted his children, including high school volleyball player Laikyn, to gain the nuances of sports.

“Soft skills that they could learn, being a good teammate, working with others, by being competitive, by practicing and preparing to be your personal best,” Jonathan said.

The NBA was not the goal for his sons. They also played baseball growing up and didn’t start playing hoops on the traveling circuit at young ages.

“I was just hoping (Hunter would) get an opportunity to go to college,” Jonathan said. “And to be quite candid, help us financially, so he could go to college (on scholarship), so neither he nor I nor our family would be in a great deal of debt.”

When Cade struggled at UNC last season, his NBA older bro was there to help.

“It was a tough year for him last year, but (it was) the way he worked super hard this summer,” Hunter said. “Last year, (I was) just trying to encourage him. He always kept his faith and kept working hard and just knew it was a short storm that he would eventually get out of.”

Mother Torri said her boys were competitive off the court, too, including in the Chutes and Ladders board game. But while Jonathan was “definitely pretty tough” on the boys, Torri would be there to “remind them of the softer side.”

“We are so blessed,” Torri said. “It’s not just all the success that you see, but all the stuff people don’t see. The ugliness of social media can be pretty hard, so seeing them overcome that in the mental aspect of the game. That is what I’m more proud of.”

Pioneer Press reporter Jace Frederick contributed to this story. 

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