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If you know anyone who might like this newsletter, send it to them. If this was sent to you by someone else, subscribe here — it's free!  Dear New Yorkers, As Mayor Eric Adams 2021 campaign comes under increasing federal scrutiny, there’s one name that hasn’t popped up yet: Winnie Greco.  Greco, an effusive and understatedly powerful member of Adams’s inner circle, is the mayor’s Director of Asian Affairs. And, she was an “Honorary Ambassador to the Brooklyn Borough President” when Adams held the office from 2014 to 2021. She has also been Adams’ longtime link to growing Asian communities — from whom she demanded donations for Gracie Mansion access and pressured a city employee to work on her own home, campaign supporters tell THE CITY. One source who made allegations against Greco is a former tech worker and Adams campaign volunteer — who says he was asked to do work on Greco’s personal home in addition to his official duties.  The second source is a business executive who alleges that Greco pressed him for a $10,000 donation as the price of admission to a government event with Adams at Gracie Mansion — and that the check be made out to a nonprofit Greco founded a decade earlier to construct an ornamental Chinese-themed “Friendship Archway” in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park in partnership with a Beijing borough government. (Adams has championed the project relentlessly; it still doesn’t exist.)  The allegations, made in detailed interviews over the past two months, raise new questions about whether one of Adams’s most trusted advisers and biggest fundraisers has potentially violated city ethics rules. Read more here. Weather scoop by New York Metro Weather Wednesday's Weather Rating: 7/10. Our streak of crisp late-fall weather continues. Frosty this morning, but warming up into the lower 50s once again this afternoon. Plenty of sunshine is expected with a light breeze. The vibes are pretty good out there! Our Other Top Story The controversial principal of P.S. 398 in Queens did not inform parents on the day that a student brought a kitchen knife to school and told other kids he intended to use it to attack a fellow second-grader, parents say. The principal, Erica Ureña-Thus, waited three days before notifying the school community about “an incident of a sharp kitchen object” — while telling them that “nothing untoward was found.” She then took an additional two days to speak with the school’s parents about it. The incident — which was the main topic of discussion at a meeting of the District 30 Community Education Monday night — has spurred more than a thousand parents and supporters to sign a petition to remove Ureña-Thus. Reporter’s Notebook   City Hall Lawyer Says FBI Probe Isn’t About Mayor Mayor Eric Adams’ chief counsel said Tuesday that he does not appear to be the target of a federal investigation that is reportedly zeroing in on donations to his 2021 campaign and the Turkish government. “There’s no indication that I’ve seen that the mayor is a target,” Lisa Zornberg, City Hall’s chief counsel, said at the mayor’s weekly “off-topic” news conference. Nevertheless, Adams has retained a criminal defense attorney in the wake of the FBI raiding the home of his top fundraiser from his mayoral campaign. During the Tuesday press briefing, the mayor repeatedly dodged questions about the federal inquiry, deferring to Zornberg — who refused to say if any other members of the administration or Adams campaign had their communication devices seized by investigators, as his were last week.  "All I'm willing to tell you, all I'm willing to say is, first of all we're fully cooperative, we've been proactively cooperative," Zornberg said. "Following proactive contact with the investigators, they determined that access to the mayor's devices was … advisable and we of course complied." Check out THE CITY’s explainer to read up on the developing federal investigation.  — Greg B. Smith Things To Do Here’s what’s going on around the city this week. Thursday, Nov. 16: Kelp Cultivation in NYC, a half-day conference about ecological restoration in New York Harbor. Tickets from $23.18 (sliding scale available), 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Pratt Institute Research Yard in Brooklyn. Thursday, Nov. 16: Cara Fitzpatrick with Wesley Morris: “The Death of Public School,” a discussion about the Pulitzer-winning Chalkbeat editor’s new book. Free from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in Manhattan, and online via Zoom.  Saturday, Nov. 18: Queens Botanical Garden birding event with NYC Audubon. Tickets $8-10 (includes garden admission) from 9:30-10:30 a.m. THE KICKER: Flaco, the beloved European eagle-owl who escaped the Central Park Zoo earlier this year, has apparently ended his downtown search for a mate and gone back to the park. His journey through the East Village and Lower East Side in recent days inspired sympathy, and the occasional poem. Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Wednesday. Love, THE CITY P.S. Love THE CITY? Our nonprofit newsroom runs on support from readers like you. Donate here.

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