NYC NOW - August 13, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is investigating a police shooting in Newark that left a man and two officers injured Monday night. Meanwhile, a state judge ruled that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions. Plus, researchers are testing new methods to control the spread of spotted lanternflies in the state. WNYC’s Rosemary Misdary reports on potential solutions. Finally, the first-ever Fanatics Fest, a convention dedicated to sports, is coming to the Javits Center this weekend.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. The New Jersey Attorney General's office says they're investigating a police shooting in Newark that left a man and two others injured Monday night. According to the AG's office, police were detaining a man in the passenger seat of a reportedly stolen SUV when the driver came out of a nearby store and got behind the wheel. Authorities say the officers also tried to detain the driver and one of them shot him during the ensuing struggle. The names of those involved have not been released. A judge says independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions. That means the documents he needs to appear on the ballot in the state are invalidated.

The ruling came Monday after a short trial in state court. It's expected to be appealed. If upheld, it could open the door to challenges in other states where Kennedy used the New York address to gather signatures. The lawsuit is backed by Democrat-aligned PAC. It argues Kennedy actually lives in California. with his wife, actor Cheryl Hines. Kennedy argued during the trial that the move is only temporary and he has a residence in his home state.

Spotted lanternflies can be a summertime nuisance for many New Yorkers. Now researchers are testing out new methods to control the invasive insect. We'll have more on that after the break. Spotted lanternflies are an invasive species in New York and they're still spreading through the state, despite officials pleased to squash them on site. But a solution, could be in the works. WNIC's Rosemary Misdury has been speaking to researchers testing out new

methods to control the invasive insight. Remind us why spotted lanternflies are so bad that you're supposed to just squish them if you see them. Well, first, these lantern flies are everywhere. And if you haven't seen one, I'm just going to take a minute to describe them very quickly. They're about an inch long and a half an inch wide. They have yellow abdomens and black stripes. Their forewings are brown or gray with black spots, and their hind wings are fire engine red and have black spots on them. So they're quite colorful and full of patterns, and they're originally from China. But the reason why these beautiful bugs are such a pestilence is because they have spread as far as Lake Erie, Long Island, and the Finger Lakes, where all of the state's vineyards are. Grape vines are at risk, and New York is the third largest winemaker in the country, making about 30 million gallons per year.

We also make concord grapes for jams, juice, and Manashevitz, and New York is a major producer. I spoke to Kelly Hoover, who's an entomology professor at Penn State University, and she explains the risk for grapevines. They feed heavily on grapevines, especially the adults, and they sap the tree of all of its flumes. are as much of it as they can get. Vines can die from winter mortality because they don't have enough energy to get through the winter. They also love stone fruit trees,

but their all-time favorite tree is the tree of heaven, which there are many in New York City. They don't seem hard to kill. I think I've squished a couple of them in the last week or so. So why have them been so difficult to control? spotted lanternflies are always on the move. They never stay in one place too long,

And they are amazing hitchhikers. They get into cars and trains and on people and just travel. And the females can lay up to 100 eggs per year. And you have to completely crush the eggs in order to kill them. But they also lay them up really high up in the tree where it's very difficult to get to them. And they don't have any significant predators here. So is there any hope, Rosemary, of stopping them? We're still at the stomping solution phase, but the USDA researchers are looking for a more reliable solution.

In China, believe it or not, spotted lanternflies are not a problem. They have natural predators. So researchers are studying what would happen if they brought one of these predators over, and they've been testing this fingernail-sized Chinese wasp called the dry-inid wasp. It uses its front legs to hold down a young spotted lanternfly and feed on it, while it also lays eggs under the lantern fly's wings. These eggs then eat the lantern fly, which is still alive, slowly from the inside out, and then kills it, and then protrudes out of the carcass, dumps it, spins a cocoon, and finishes its development. These dry-nid wasps are about 60% effective at destroying juvenile spotted lanternflies in China. But they're still at the early testing phases, and it's years off from reality.

But it's promising because in the lab, these wasps seem to only go after spotted lantern flies. And the predators that they have tested up until this point in the USDA labs, they got scrapped because they would go after more than just spotted lantern flies. So they're looking for a predator that will only go after the spotted lantern flies. But they're not just using predators. One researcher I spoke to, Julie Urban from Penn State University, she's the lead scientist on this project where they have noticed that spotted lanternflies will congregate on one or two or just a couple trees of the same species

and leave the other trees untouched. And they're trying to figure out what is it about those specific trees that attract the lanternfly? And what they're hoping to do is they want to create a booby-trap tree using red maples, which is another favorite of spotted lanternflies. I spoke to the researcher and she compared this strategy to making a little bit of spotted. a deadly food truck for lanternflies. We're trying to always build a better mouse trap for lanternfly.

If we had a tree that was a really good trap, that you could inject with an insecticide and put it next to a vineyard and pull the lanternfly off the grapevine, have them feed on these super attractive. You know, we call it like a food truck. Have them go to our food truck trees. And then you're pulling the lanternflies away from the economically important host. And this is very much in the theoretical phase.

So what can we do in the meantime about lantern flies? Well, the DEC is asking New Yorkers to continue to stop on them on site. But if you have trees on your property, you can check for eggs and use a putty scraper to crush them. You can also put a sticky flytrap paper around the tree trunk, and that will trap them from advancing up the trunk to lay eggs. But also check your vehicle before. you travel so that you're not spreading spotted lanternflies to another destination. That was W&MIC's Rosemary Misdury talking with my colleague, Michael Hill. What if there was something like Comic-Con for sports?

Well, there is. Fanatics Fest is coming to the Javitt Center this week. The first-ever Fanatics Fest will feature photo ops, autograph signings, panels, and events for more than 60 athletes and stars. Among them are NFL greats Tom Brady and the Manning Brothers, and hoop stars like Kevin Durant and Jalen Brunson. Baseball legends Big Poppy, David Ortiz, and Derek Jeter are also expected, plus appearances and talks by Jay-Z, Travis Scott, and filmmaker Spike Lee. An exhibition floor of collectors will have more than 350 vendors and dealers of sports memorabilia.

Fanatics Fest starts Friday. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow. Thank you.