George Santos, holding on to his 15 minutes

Good morning. It's Tuesday. Today we'll find out where former Rep. George Santos is expected to arrive this morning. We also get details on a city plan to eliminate up to $2 billion in unpaid medical debt for as many as 500,000 people..

“I'm still here — I'm still relevant,” said former Rep. George Santos TV presenter Piers Morgan said last week. “People still want to talk to me. People still want to hear what I have to say.”

This morning, the people who want to hear from Santos are federal prosecutors and a judge. Joseph Murray, who has represented Santos in previous court hearings, will speak on his behalf two new lawyers.

The occasion is a status conference that Judge Joanna Seybert has called to discuss the case, in which Santos faces 23 charges ranging from identity theft to wire fraud. Last month, prosecutors announced in a court filing that they were in the early stages of settlement negotiations “with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial.” Santos has pleaded not guilty.

The two sides have proposed an agenda for the status conference, including a schedule for pretrial motions. Prosecutors said Monday they were willing to give Santos' lawyers about 6,000 pages of documents, in addition to the four batches of material they turned over last year.

Unlike some disgraced former officials, Santos has not gone into hiding in the seven weeks since he was expelled from the House of Representatives. While he still plays a major role on late-night talk shows, he has recorded personalized videos through the platform Cameo.

Santos read posts requested by Cameo users for a fee — initially $75, but as he became a breakout attraction the price rose to $400, then $500 and even, according to a comment on Cameo, $800. Santos said he paid the equivalent of his $174,000 congressional salary in the first week after being expelled from the House of Representatives, a claim he assured a television interviewer was “actually factual.”

Our critic Amanda Hess wrote that Santos “plods through condolences and congratulations” in videos that she called “tedious and flat,” but Santos' efforts received attention. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made fun of him, making up bizarre requests for Santos to read without saying they were from him. Santos read them dutifully.

Rising prices mean what goes up can come down, and Santos' fee on Cameo has dropped to $350. But he keeps customers happy: 94 percent of his reviews are in the five-star category.

Yet the fame is fleeting and Santos has an innate understanding of what might be called the attention economy. He may have decided that he would have better luck extending his fifteen minutes if he focused on what had worked for him in the past: politics.

Last week he posted on X about the Iowa caucuses. Last weekend, he called Rep. Anthony D'Esposito a “sanctimonious schlub.” D'Esposito is a fellow Republican from Long Island who, along with Rep. Nick LaLota, led the effort to kick Santos out of the House of Representatives.

Santos also attended and posted from a session on the Upper East Side hosted by the right-wing advocacy group Moms for Liberty. “All the love in the room,” he wrote on Mother Jones reported that after about 45 minutes he “slipped out of the room” and said he had dinner.

In the appearance with Morgan, who tried to press Santos on why he had lied “so blatantly so many times,” Santos said he “didn't have the freedom to speak about certain things.” He cited contractual obligations for a documentary from a filmmaker who pays Santos an “archival fee” for things like photos and videos.

And referring to the Justice Department, Santos added: “I have a whole process ahead of me with the DOJ, so it would be stupid, it would be unwise and I wouldn't do myself any favors.” He faces a prison sentence of 22 years.

Weather

Chance of freezing rain during the day, with a chance of rain that will continue into the evening. Expect mild winds all day, with temperatures in the low 30s.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until February 9 (New Year's Eve).

The latest New York news

Mayor Eric Adams announced the city would spend $18 million to buy and then eliminate unpaid medical debt in a program that officials hope will benefit as many as 500,000 people.

The mayor outlined a partnership with a nonprofit that buys unpaid patient debt from hospitals at deep discounts and then forgives the balances. Hospital systems and commercial debt buyers are often willing to sell medical debt for pennies on the dollar. The city's $18 million could eliminate more than $2 billion in unpaid medical bills, city officials said.

“You're not just holding your breath when you go into a hospital or doctor's office and waiting for a diagnosis,” Adams said, “you're holding your breath when you see the bill and what it costs, especially for low-income people. New Yorkers.”

The effort comes not quite six weeks after Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation preventing healthcare professionals and ambulance services from reporting a person's medical debt to credit institutions.

Officials said the city would cooperate with it RIP Medical Debtwhich says it has relieved more than $10.4 billion in medical debt for more than 7.1 million families and individuals over the past nine years.

New Yorkers with overdue hospital care bills do not need to apply for the program – RIP will choose the people whose debts will be eliminated. Daniel Lempert, a spokesman for RIP Medical Debt, said it looks for patients whose unpaid medical bills are at least 5 percent of their annual household income, or patients in households with incomes below four times the federal poverty level — which is $31,200 for a family of four.

Some nonprofit hospital systems in New York are suing patients for unpaid medical bills. The mayor called medical debt “the leading cause of bankruptcy” because “it affects your credit score, it affects your ability to buy a home” – and even the chances of getting a job if potential employers check credit scores of applicants.

METROPOLITAN diary

Angel

Dear Diary:

I lived on the Upper West Side in the 1980s. I worked from home and alternate parking gave my day structure. Every other day I would get up, double park my 1974 Dodge Dart at 9am, return home and then come back and move it to a legal spot.

One Thursday I got up at 9am and couldn't find my car keys and couldn't remember where I parked the Dart. I rushed out to the street and saw that the cars on the block that had not been moved already had tickets. Mine wasn't one of them.

As I walked past the double-parked cars across the street, I saw the Dart. I was confused. When did I move it? I still didn't have my keys. The car was locked and they were not in it.

I saw a note on the windshield: See Angel, the mechanic at the Broadway Hotel.

At the hotel I found Angel among a group of men talking outside. He said he had seen me in the neighborhood and noticed two days earlier that I had left my keys in the ignition.

Not wanting the car to be stolen, he took the keys and left the note. When I came out late that morning, he moved the car so it wouldn't get a ticket.

– Bob Botfeld

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send your entries here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB

PS Here is today's Mini crossword And Game competition. You can find all our puzzles here.

Geordon Wollner, Grace Ashford and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com.

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