NYPD says it's tracking online radicalization after failed Gracie Mansion attack

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ☁️ Cloudy and cooler, highs in the mid 50s.

It's Friday in New York City, where police say the Pennsylvania teens charged with trying to ignite explosives outside Gracie Mansion earlier this month expressed their support for the Islamic State.

According to prosecutors, one of the teens explicitly said he'd watched ISIS propaganda on his phone.

Experts on security and terrorism say the incident will likely spur more police surveillance on the web, especially surrounding young people.

But the NYPD and civil liberty advocates both acknowledge the importance of letting people engage in free speech online.

Here's how online surveillance could potentially be used — within legal bounds — to deter attacks.

And here's what else is happening:

• President Donald Trump's war in Iran is, in a roundabout way, driving up asphalt prices — and thus complicating New York City's war on potholes.
• New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said "geopolitical trends" could hinder the next round of Wall Street bonuses — thus complicating New York City's future tax-and-spend plans.
• Rockaway residents woke up yesterday to the putrid smell of the state's first recorded dead whale of the year.
• The City Council yesterday passed two watered-down bills aimed at increasing NYPD oversight of protests outside of religious institutions and educational sites.
• The family of a man who died in custody Wednesday after jail officials said he had a medical episode on Rikers Island says he had no urgent health issues when he arrived at the troubled jail complex.
• Three heirs to the Bic pen and disposable razor empire say one of their family's beloved Renaissance paintings was stolen and has since wound up in the collection of a Chilean billionaire. Did the chauffeur do it?

• The green dye that seeped into a creek in Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island this week via a sanitation department flush test confirms it: Poop and pee from a park bathroom are leaking into the creek.
• MTA express bus riders with disabilities have long complained that bus operators don't know how to work the wheelchair lifts. In response, NYC Transit said it'll increase driver training.
• BTS fans said they were traumatized by the "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon's" convoluted process this week for selecting audience members, which led to a bunch of them not getting to see the K-pop group perform.
• Meet a guy who won $1 million in the lottery but still insists on living in a Jane Hotel single-room-occupancy unit.
• Here's what Naomi Wolf has been saying about the "weather" in Flatbush.
• Sturgill Simpson snagged the No. 3 spot on the Billboard albums chart this week with his only-available-as-a-hard copy "Mutiny After Midnight."
• [SPOILER] "How ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ Ends"