Wall Street

Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) released a campaign ad attacking Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, his Democratic opponent in Pennsylvania's competitive House race, calling her and her allies "full of baloney." Bresnahan touted his vote to ban congressional stock trading and noted he does not personally trade stocks, contrasting this with Cognetti's past work for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.

The exchange follows Cognetti campaign ads accusing Bresnahan of making roughly 600 stock trades this year, including timing sales and purchases around tariffs, military contracts, and crypto-related votes. Democrats have also highlighted trades tied to a data center development. Bresnahan's campaign has called those characterizations false, saying he relies on a financial adviser and has taken steps toward a trading ban. Bresnahan also criticized Cognetti's record on taxes, teacher layoffs, and police funding while on the Scranton School Board and as mayor. Some Scranton officials and residents have separately criticized Cognetti for being less engaged locally while campaigning for Congress. Polls show a narrow Cognetti lead in the race.

A draft report from two New York City agencies estimates the city must build about 700,000 new housing units over the next 10 years to meet demand — nearly double the pace of the past 15 years combined. The figure stems from a 2023 local law requiring the city to set five-year neighborhood housing growth targets. Planners put the current shortage at roughly 290,000 units, projected to grow by another 410,000.

Meeting that target would require a far faster construction pace than recent years, even with Mayor Zohran Mamdani's pledged $22 billion for 200,000 affordable units. The strategy aims to spread new construction more evenly, pushing "low-growth" neighborhoods — including single-family areas and denser ones like the Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Greenwich Village — to add more housing through zoning changes and financing support. Experts are divided on feasibility, and even success might not fully ease record-high median rents of $5,000 in Manhattan and $4,500 in Brooklyn.