NYC NOW - April 12, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Governor Hochul and state lawmakers continue to struggle to reach a deal on the state budget, which is now 12 days late. WNYC’s Jon Campbell has more. Meanwhile, acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su is praising the work of local community organizations, such as the Harlem-based group ‘African Communities Together,’ for connecting migrants to job opportunities. Plus, a group of Atlantic City casino workers is suing New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, hoping to end a long-standing carveout in state law that lets casinos allow smoking on the gambling floor even though it’s banned in most businesses. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with casino dealers Pete Naccarelli and Lamont White, who co-founded the group ‘Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Harmful Effects,’ or CEASE, to learn more about their lawsuit. Finally, in celebration of National Poetry Month, we hear from Paul Pesante, a longtime conductor on Metro-North’s Hudson Line known to riders for his rhyming announcements.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, April 12th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Governor Kathy Hokel and New York State lawmakers continue to struggle to reach a deal on the state budget, which is now more than a week old. WNIC's John Campbell reports it's a return to the way things used to be in Albany. Former Governor David Patterson remembers his first state budget back in 1986 when he was a state senator from Harlem. That year we passed the budget on April 5th and they wrote about it in the newspapers as if we had set the capital on fire or something.

It was like the worst thing you could ever do. Late budgets have been a regular occurrence since then, save for when Andrew Cuomo was governor and he prioritized the April 1st deadline. Governor Hockel has missed the mark each year since taking office in 2021. want, but she says a good budget is more important than an on-time one. New York State budget now 12 days late. Hockel is expected to sign a short-term budget extension after the State Assembly passes it later today. Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Sue is praising the work of local community organizations, such as the Harlem-based group, African communities together, for connecting migrants to job opportunities.

Sue came to the city yesterday. She says grassroots organizations already are helping migrants and other new immigrants get on their feet. We need to build on the assets that already exist, connect them so that when somebody comes and needs a job, right, needs to be connected, that we have an ecosystem in place to make that happen. Sue's visit comes as local and state lawmakers continue to press Congress and the Biden administration to expedite. work permits for asylum seekers. Stay close. There's more after the break. A group of casino workers in Atlantic City is suing, New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy,

hoping to end a long-standing carve-out in state law that lets casinos allow smoking on the gambling floor, even though it's banned in virtually every other business. Joining us now are Pete Naccarelli and Lamont White. They're both casino dealers and co-founders of the group casino employees against smoking's harmful effects, or cease. They filed a lawsuit with the United Auto Workers, one of the unions representing casino workers in the seaside resort. Pete, for those that don't know, can you just explain the indoor smoke ban that's been in

effect everywhere in New Jersey except for casinos and why that was even allowed in the first place? Sure. In 2006, the Smoked Reair Act was enacted in New Jersey, which banned smoking from every indoor area except for casinos. And since then, smoking has been banned from parks, zoos, beaches, boardwalks, pretty much anywhere you can think of stadiums, but they still allow smoking in casinos. And that's what we're fighting against. Lamont, can you tell us more about your group Cs?

How did you form and what do you do? We formed because they brought smoking back after almost a year of being smoke free for the pandemic. On July the 4th, 2021, they brought smoking back, and me, Pete, and Nicole, our other co-founder, decided to get together and try to do something about getting rid of the smoke. In about a month before the smoking came back, one of our coworkers, Nicole spoke out at a rally before CIS was formed. We had nothing. Well, Pete and I saw how passionate he was speaking on our behalf, and it kind of lit a spark under us, and the three of us formed the group. And not long after that, we got picked up by A&R Americans for non-smokers' rights. And since then, we've been fighting this fight for like three years, trying to get the bills moved into legislature.

We just thought it was the right thing to do. So we started a Facebook page, and within two weeks, we had a thousand. thousand members, if you can't smoke on the beach, why would you be able to smoke three feet away from a human being? So, Lamont, when you say that the smoking was banning casinos, that was during and because of the pandemic, right? Yes, during COVID. Can you tell us how the smoke exemption has affected you personally? And have you or your colleagues suffered any health consequences from it? All of us have a respiratory problem.

Some people have more serious problems. I personally know people that never smoked in their life that passed away from lung cancer. Pete, the smoke ban in New Jersey, like you said, went into effect in April of 2006. Why filed this lawsuit now? Like Lamont said, we've been together for three years as cease. But casino workers have been trying to do this the right way since 2006, going through the legislature. And it's a slow process. And it's tough to get through.

You've got to get the right people in there. You have to have the right Senate President, the right head of the assembly. You have to get the right votes, the amount of support. And it's tough. And we had enough. You know, we're still trying to fight it through the legislature and we still want to get the bill passed. But this is just another angle that we can use. We'll do anything to get smoking out of the casinos.

We have to deal with this eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. And every day we go in and have to breathe smoke is another day that we have a chance to get sick. We're fighting for our lives. Pete, why do you think it's continually failed to advance through the legislature? I mean, the legislature is a place that's not necessarily run on the up and up all the time. There's money behind it and power behind it, the big tobacco companies and money from them, the money from the casinos fighting us. And, I mean, we've had over half the legislature. We've had all the votes we needed in every committee and every side of the legislature, everything we needed.

but when the votes come up, all of a sudden the night before two or three people back out. And we understand why, because they're getting pressured by other forces. And it's something that we've had to fight for a long time. Now, with this lawsuit, we don't have to fight that anymore. This is a constitutional issue that's going to be decided by a judge on whether we're being treated fairly. There's no backdoor deals. There's no money from politicians. This is just a fair trial.

Governor Murphy constantly points to his advocacy of labor unions, but this lawsuit is against him, right? So how do you see Murphy? Do you see him as an ally or an obstacle? Well, the fact remains we'll find out because Murphy keeps saying that he will sign the bill when it gets to his desk. Well, now he doesn't even have to sign a bill. He just has to sign an order of concession and say, we're not going to fight this lawsuit. It's the same thing.

So either he's going to use the taxpayers' money to fight the health of the workers in his state, or he's going to sign an order of concession, which won't cause the taxpayer. payers assent and it will do exactly what he said he would do, which would sign the bill. It's the exact same thing. So we'll see if he's been truthful or if he's been lying this whole time. We should note that the Casino Association of New Jersey declined to comment on the lawsuit to us for this interview. That was Pete Naccarelli and Lamont White, who are co-founders of the group Casino employees against smoking's harmful effects or cease, who filed the lawsuit with United Auto Workers. Thanks to you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you, Shaw.

It's National Poetry Month. Here on WNYC, we celebrate by inviting local poets right on the air here from across the five boroughs and the region to share their work. Paul Posante is a longtime conductor on Metro North's Hudson line. He's known to write it for his clever rhyming announcements, and he joins us now. Paul, of course, poems don't have to take on a rhyming format, but they often do. What got you rhyming on the job? You know, it was by chance, actually. It started simply as what I called on my own the Feats Off the Seats Campaign,

because that is one of the most problematic issues that passengers actually ask us to address with other passengers about placing their feet on the seat. And then I played it back in my house, like, feet on the seat. So I decided to play around and do feats off the seats. And then I just decided to push it into an announcement. And this was like 2018, 2019 or so. And then just slowly I started realizing there's many other parts of this, you know, what we announce, what we have to say, that I can actually rhyme.

And that's a good way to get the people's attention. And believe me, it just completely snowballed from there. And now I can just rhyme just about everything that needs to be covered on board the train. Paul, give us an example, please. Here's the one that gets everybody's attention. It seems to be the one that everybody loves the most. If the next stop is yours, be happy, go bonkers. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be arriving in Yonkers.

Without further ado, arriving at Yonker Station on track number two. The next and final stop, Croton Harmon Station, is the end of our journey, our destination. All cars have available door will open on the platform for track number four. At upstairs and over to track number three, 705. trade a Poughkeepsie. That's great. What kind of reaction do you get from riders, Paul? People actually, you could hear them laughing and commenting out loud.

So they'll come right up to me, whether it's at the end in Grand Central, Croton Harmon, you know, wherever I'm going on the train or wherever they're getting a day will come up to me and say, oh, my God, that is awesome. You know, they tell you how much it makes their day, makes the train ride more pleasant. And we, you know, part of our job is information to the passenger. You know, when you listen to the automated systems, and you listen to the way things were done, you know, just to, this is the train of Grand Central next time, Yonkis. You know, you want to get people to listen. Paul, I'm wondering, is I listen to this?

Do you think there are some riders who actually want to know your schedule, want to ride the train that you're going to be on? In fact, just within like the last week or so I have some people come and say, you know, we ride this train now just to hear you. love it. It makes our ride in in the morning. I'm like, wow. I'm like, listen, I'm, I'm just a man doing the job. That's how I look. I'm just a man doing the job and doing what I'm supposed to do. And you know what? If you put in, you get back. And believe me, I put in and I'm more than getting back from it in all, all positive ways. Our guest has been Paul Pissante, the rhyming, longtime Metro North conductor. Paul, thank you so much. I am the rhymingest conducted that they'll ever be.

P.A. Paul, best rhymer in history. Publicy fans, join us in the Green Space on Friday, April 19th at 7 in the evening for live poetry. We've invited some of our favorite local poets to share their work in front of a live audience. Tickets are pay as you wish. You can reserve yours right now at WNYC.org slash the Greenspace. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday. three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be back this evening.