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It’s Monday. Happy April Fools’ Day! Be careful of news that’s too good to be true.

Weather: This week starts cool but dry. Today will reach the upper 40s, and tomorrow the low 50s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until April 18 (Holy Thursday).

Driving in Manhattan? Pay up.

Plastic bags? Banned.

Cash bail? Mostly banned.

Million-dollar homes? Taxed more.

Life for New Yorkers is likely to change in ways big and small thanks to the state’s $175 billion budget, which the Legislature and Governor Cuomo agreed to early Sunday.

In addition to fiscal policies, a raft of nonmonetary policies were inserted into the budget, usually as bargaining chips to win the support of reluctant lawmakers. Albany’s veterans refer to the hefty deal as “the big ugly.”

[After weeks of intraparty bickering, lawmakers made a deal on the state budget.]

One topic left out of the budget? Marijuana. Mr. Cuomo had vowed to legalize the drug, but stakeholders were unable to reach an agreement before today’s budget deadline. A similar deal collapsed in New Jersey.

Here’s what else you need to know about New York’s budget:

Plastic bags from stores will be banned.

Starting next March, the state will ban most stores from giving customers single-use plastic bags.

Supporters say the law will help the environment. Counties can also add a 5-cent fee on paper bags to further encourage people to carry reusable bags.

Exemptions will exist for takeout food, deli meat and newspapers. Garment bags and trash bags sold in bulk will also be exempt.

Congestion pricing will take effect below 60th Street in Manhattan.

New York is poised to be the first American city to charge this type of toll. The fee is likely to be more than $10 for cars and about $25 for trucks, starting in 2021. The tolls are expected to raise billions of dollars for the subways and other regional transportation needs.

Cars with E-ZPass technology will be charged automatically for entering the zone. Drivers without E-ZPass will be sent a bill.

Cash bail will be eliminated for most misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes.

Critics have said that requiring people charged with crimes to pay cash to avoid incarceration while awaiting trial is tantamount to locking up innocent people because they are poor.

The state also plans to give defendants speedier access to evidence that prosecutors may use against them in court.

Buyers of some New York City homes will be hit with higher taxes.

Legislators initially wanted to tax owners of pieds-à-terre, luxury homes that are not primary residences. This fee would have been collected every year.

But after a push by the real estate industry, lawmakers replaced the idea with an increase to two one-time levies in New York City, the “mansion tax” for million-dollar homes and the transfer tax when it applies to multimillion-dollar homes.

The taxes would be charged when a home is sold. Combined, the tax rate would top out at 4.15 percent on the sale of properties worth $25 million or more.

From The Times

DNA from 360 black men was collected to solve the murder of a Queens jogger, defense lawyers said.

Nurses strike in New York: The threat has increased over “safe staffing” levels.

“Palestine does not exist,” a Jewish councilman said. Now he may be punished.

Woodstock stage: This man says he has it.

[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]

The mini crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

Customers and workers in a Brooklyn bodega saved a teenager who entered their store chased by men with a knife. [Daily News]

The Hells Angels want to move their East Village headquarters because “we’re being harassed by the yuppies,” one member said. [New York Post]

Luna Park on Coney Island is opening on Saturday. [Time Out]

So is Smorgasburg, a weekly open-air food market in Williamsburg. [Gothamist]

Coming up today

The Strand bookstore in Manhattan hosts a poetry reading with Ysabel Gonzalez, Michelle Chen and Tamara Zbrizher. 7 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]

A panel reflects on the legacy of the Stonewall rebellion and the L.G.B.T. rights movement at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

The photographer Jess T. Dugan discusses the themes of her work, including identity and representation, at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [Free with R.S.V.P.]

— Elisha Brown

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: A friendly robot competition

A spacecraft built by private companies and capable of carrying astronauts completed its first trip to and from orbit last month, although without a crew.

Man first landed on the moon 50 years ago this July.

Another “Star Wars” installment is coming in December.

Space travel is in vogue, which may help explain why a robotics competition chose “Destination: Deep Space” as its theme.

The New York City regional round of the FIRST Robots Competition for high schoolers is this weekend at the Armory in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Winners will compete at the world championship in Detroit.

Weeks ago, students began building robots from starter kits sent to them by the competition’s organizers. To score points at the tournament, the robots must complete various tasks.

This year, the main task is to put large orange balls into baskets throughout a field about the size of a volleyball court. Or, as the competition’s website describes it: “The alliances must gather as many cargo pods as possible and prepare their spaceships before the next sandstorm arrives.”

In each round, robots from three schools form a team. Two teams compete per round. By the end of the tournament, schools will go from collaborating to competing and back to collaborating.

Norm Sutaria, the director of community engagement for the regional competition, said John Dewey High School, which made it to the championships last year, is a powerhouse. Queens Technical High is “a strong, dominant force,” he added, and Stuyvesant High has a competitive team.

Frederick Douglass Academy is a leader in the region, Mr. Sutaria continued. And the all-girls team from the Bronx High School of Science, called the Iron Maidens, is “very strong.”

Attendees can visit the pit, where they can talk to students and inspect the robots up close. There’s also a live feed for watching the competition.

The event, Mr. Sutaria said, is about “kids building robots but also robots building kids.” Students “learn the hard technical skills, but then that’s also wrapped around the social, emotional learning piece, and teamwork and collaboration, and giving and taking feedback.”

“It’s essentially being competitive, yet kind,” he added. “This is much more of robots cooperating together, not heavy-duty, sort of kill-the-other-robot type of competition.”

It’s Monday — Don’t let robots control you.

Metropolitan Diary: 50th and Sixth

Dear Diary:

I lost my wallet in Midtown early one morning. At around 1 p.m. that day, I got a call from a man who said he had found it.

Although he didn’t speak English very well, he managed to tell me that he worked from 3 a.m. to noon delivering propane to coffee carts from Midtown to the financial district and that he hadn’t been able to call me until he got home to Queens. He apologized for opening my wallet to find my business card.

He told me he would leave the wallet at a coffee cart on 50th Street and Sixth Avenue, where I would be able to pick it up the next day any time after 3 a.m. I asked him to put it in a bag, so that it wasn’t obvious it was a wallet.

Despite everything I said, he wouldn’t let me send him anything to thank him. I asked his name several times, and he told me several times, but I couldn’t understand him. When I asked him to spell it, that didn’t work either. After we hung up, I received a simple text: just his first name.

At 5:45 a.m. the next day I got a text with a photo of the cart where he had left the wallet (there were two carts on the block, and he didn’t want me to be confused). When I got there, my wallet was in a plastic bag, and inside the bag was a silver gift bag and a card with my name and his.

Before I could call him, he called me to ask if I had picked up my wallet. Again, he refused to agree to let me do anything for him. He said he was happy I had gotten my wallet back. That was more than enough for him.

— Alice Martell

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