John Leland

New York

Metro Reporter at The New York Times

Reporter in the Metro section of the New York Times. Author of Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year among the Oldest Old.

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Articles

He Hears Voices in His Head. He Also Helped Win an Election.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | John Leland

He ran a successful political campaign, sometimes from a psych ward, sometimes living on the street. He has found a way to thrive. In a psychiatric ward in Upper Manhattan, Arvind Sooknanan made a plan for his life. He would drop out of high school, take the G.E.D. test and go on to college, be the first in his family to get a degree.
Six dead after private plane crashes in Hudson Valley

2 months ago | spokesman.com | Alyce McFadden |John Leland

A small twin-engine plane crashed in a muddy field Saturday near the town of Copake, New York, killing all six people on board — two surgeons, two of their children and the children’s partners, according to a family member of the victims. The plane, a Mitsubishi MU-2B bound for Columbia County Airport near Hudson, New York, was carrying the three couples en route to a 25th birthday celebration and Passover Seder, according to a statement from a family member.
For These Tesla Owners, a Rough Ride From Status Symbol to 'Swasticar'

Mar 28, 2025 | nytimes.com | John Leland

Fury at Elon Musk emerges as vandalism, protest and buyer's remorse. On the Lower East Side of Manhattan this month, two men spray-painted a red swastika on a parked Tesla Cybertruck. In the borough's meatpacking district, six people sat on the floor of a Tesla showroom and refused to leave, chanting "Elon Musk is unelected, democracy must be protected" before being arrested. In Albany, lawmakers called for New York State's pension fund to unload its 3.5 million shares of Tesla stock.
The Synagogue Massacre That Never Happened

Mar 23, 2025 | nytimes.com | John Leland

Matthew Mahrer as a boy wrote a 25-page book about his grandfather's experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi internment camp. Christopher Brown did favors for the Orthodox rabbi across the street, who needed someone to turn on electrical devices during the Sabbath or Jewish holidays. In November 2022, they were both in free fall. Christopher Brown, then 21, posted on Twitter that he wanted to "shoot up a synagogue and die."Matthew Mahrer helped him get the gun.
Pirate's Booty Founder Attempts a Seaside Coup

Mar 19, 2025 | nytimes.com | John Leland

The little village of Sea Cliff, on Long Island's north shore, re-elected its mayor on Tuesday. For the normally placid small town, the election capped eight turbulent days and seemingly ended a quixotic write-in campaign by a brash snack-food mogul. But elections these days don't always end when they're over.
CUNY Removes Palestinian Studies Job Listing on Hochul’s Orders

Mar 3, 2025 | sun-sentinel.com | John Leland

When Nancy Cantor became president of Hunter College in the fall, she asked faculty, students and staff members what they wanted from the school. One answer was more attention to Palestinian studies. Faculty members began working on possible approaches. They came up with a plan for two tenure-track faculty positions that would cross several departments and began drafting job descriptions.
CUNY Removes Palestinian Studies Job Listing on Hochul's Orders

Feb 27, 2025 | nytimes.com | John Leland

When Nancy Cantor became president of Hunter College last fall, she asked faculty, students and staff what they wanted from the school. One answer was more attention to Palestinian studies. Faculty members began working on possible approaches. They came up with a plan for two tenure-track faculty positions that would cross several departments and began drafting job descriptions.
Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Ecosystem-Scale CO2 Flux Measurements

Jan 9, 2025 | mdpi.com | John Leland |Yujie Liu |Jeffrey Uyekawa |Darby Bergl

5. Results 5.1. Results of 10-Fold Cross-ValidationThe results for fitting each model and testing on each fold of the 10-fold cross-validation experiments are shown in Table 2 (RMSE). The XGBoost model and deep neural network were the only two models with an RMSE less than 2 μmolm−2s−1. The strength of these models suggests that there are non-linearities in the the relationships between the environmental drivers and FCO2.
Ron Eliran, Israeli "Ambassador of Song," Has a Bar Mitzvah at 90

Dec 21, 2024 | nytimes.com | John Leland

In 1947, Ron Eliran's 13th birthday in the British Mandate for Palestine was canceled when authorities called a curfew. Now, 77 years later, he has officially become a man. The ceremony was a surprise to everyone, especially to the guest of honor. Ron Eliran, the Israeli "Ambassador of Song," was getting the bar mitzvah that he never had. He was 90 years old. The place was a Midtown steakhouse. The Christmas wreath on the wall signaled holiday cheer. The rabbi was a radio personality.
A Stroke Paralyzed Jesse Malin. Next Month, He'll Stand Onstage Again.

Nov 21, 2024 | nytimes.com | John Leland

On a September afternoon in his East Village apartment, Jesse Malin was learning to stand up in front of a microphone. He pressed his right hand on his knee and grabbed a mic stand with his left. A physical therapist stood behind him in case he started to fall. He wore a yellow T-shirt emblazoned with a Lion of Judah, a Rasta symbol that gave him inspiration. At the count of three, he lurched forward and up, clinging to the stand for balance. "Let's get me down," he said.