Uber vs. trial lawyers: How NY Gov. Hochul’s insurance plan set off a lobbying arms race

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Mostly sunny, highs in the upper 50s.

It's Friday in New York City, where car insurance is not cheap.

In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing two proposals that would limit how much money and under what circumstances insurance companies have to pay out after car crashes.

Hochul and other supporters of the changes — including small business owners, seniors and ride-hail giant Uber — say the changes would ultimately lower insurance bills.

But detractors — including the state's trial lawyers, who are spending big money to fight the proposals — say the changes would strip away crash victims' rights.

Here's where the fight stands heading into Albany's final budget negotiations. 

And here's what else is happening:

• It's going to be really nice out this weekend ... and then get cold again on Monday.
• Construction on a two-way bike path along Ocean Avenue next to Prospect Park is slated to begin today.
• Police said they'll charge a driver involved in a chaotic crash that killed a cyclist and injured several other people in Harlem last night, just steps from the famous Apollo Theater.
• A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Trump administration can't enforce a policy aimed at stopping hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to children and teens.
• Police said an 18-year-old Queens man was arrested after he allegedly stabbed a woman at an East Elmhurst bus stop and then tried to flee to Peru days later.
• A Suffolk County prosecutor whose license was suspended for hiding evidence in multiple cases is eying a return to law. A group of law professors wants him disbarred.
• Dylan Contreras, the Bronx high school student who was just released after being detained by federal immigration authorities for 10 months, spoke publicly yesterday, urging support for the tens of thousands of immigrants still in detention.
• New York is suing the Trump administration over its rollback of the country's fuel efficiency standard for vehicles.

• The price of regular gas topped $5 a gallon this week at the Mobil on West 96th Street.
• If advanced hotel booking data is any indication, the World Cup isn't bringing a tourism boost to the city this summer.
• Peter Chatzky, a wealthy tech executive and Democratic politician who's trying to unseat Republican Mike Lawler in a Hudson Valley congressional district, has a long history of crude and sexist social media posts.
• The New York Post interviewed some restaurant owners who said Mayor Mamdani's left-wing tax policies aren't scaring them away from New York City.
• The pitch to rename a Colts Neck, New Jersey, elementary school after Donald Trump is dead.
• Spring could use fall's publicist.
• Iced Tea Madness.