NYC NOW - August 8 2023, Midday News

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

The National Weather Service warns of high-risk rip currents at all New York City beaches and Long Island's South Shore today. Meanwhile, a judge has temporarily halted New York's issuance of new retail cannabis licenses through its CAURD program after a lawsuit from four veterans who say they were shut out of the process. Also in New Jersey, efforts to make education more comprehensive, including an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, face opposition. Last week, the state Board of Education narrowly passed new equity rules about gender education. Reporter Nikita Biryukov of the New Jersey Monitor has been following the story.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, August 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. If you're planning on visiting a New York City beach today, stay out of the water. The National Weather Service says there's a higher risk for life-threatening rip currents at all city beaches and Long Island's entire south shore. the weather services meteorologist Dave Riddell says wind, waves, and weather are causing the phenomena. We're looking at surf heights of four to five feet through the afternoon, and essentially what we're getting is, you know, this is a result of some kind of strong winds and some swell, ocean swell out ahead of a frontal system that's passing through the area this morning. Wardell says the rip current risk is expected to taper off later this afternoon, meaning tomorrow should be a much better beach day.

swimmers who do find themselves caught in a ripkorn should stay calm, swim parallel to the shoreline, and try to flag down help. In other news, a judge says New York State must temporarily stop issuing new retail weed licenses through its program for people marijuana prohibition had adversely impacted. The decision comes after four veterans sued saying they were shut out of the licensing process. Under state law, service-disabled veterans are given priority in the state. application process. But the four vets claim the current licensing program called Card. Unfairly favors those with the prior marijuana-related conviction. The suit alleges the State Office of Cannabis Management

in New York usurbed legislative authority when it developed these requirements. A judge with her arguments on this on Friday. Seventy-nine with clouds out there right now. Slim chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms today, mostly cloudy and 80. It'll be gusty. And then tomorrow's sunny and up near 90. It'll be hot. Once again, 79 right now. New Jersey policymakers have been working for years to make education more comprehensive with an LGBT-inclusive curriculum and sex ed standards that discuss gender identity at earlier grades. But they've been seeing pushback from parents, from local school boards, and from conservative lawmakers, all who accuse the state of usurping parents' role in deciding what's

appropriate for their children. The latest debate came just last week when the State Board of Education narrowly passed a new set of equity rules dealing with gender in the classroom. Nikita Biryukov reported on the vote for the New Jersey Monitor and joins us now. Nikita, welcome to Morning Edition. Thanks for having me, Michael. You're welcome. Let's start off by explaining to our audience, just what do these new equity rules do? So these new rules replace gendered language in the state's administrative code, and they also remove references to two. sexes or both sexes, including on some sections in sports. Now, to be clear, a separate body sets the rules for interscholastic sports, and these changes won't require districts allow

trans students, for example, to participate in sports in a way that aligns with their gender identity. Also, in this plan, equity replaces equality. The state says it's meant to encourage schools to teach to individual students' needs, while detractors suggest it could lead to an unequal distribution of school resources. They also require that districts that segregate sex ed classes do so based on gender identity instead of based on sex. Now, there was one school board member who said that he does not believe in transgender people. That's right. Board member Andrew Mulvahill, while discussing these changes, said that, you know, there are people that believe that students can be trans. Essentially a boy or a girl can say that they feel that they were a person of the other sex

or of the other gender. He said that he does not ascribe to that belief and that he believes that these students have some sort of mental health issue that they need some sort of help with. Nikita, I have to ask, when he made this statement, I imagine it was in public, did board members, anybody else on the board react to this? So these are conversations that have been going on in front of the board for quite some time. I'll say the board members are familiar with their fellow member's views. There was a small crowd in attendance, from what I could gather, all of whom opposed these changes. I can't quite recall, but I think he might have gotten some applause from them on that. Now, this was a close vote. Are we seeing this kind of tension in general over issues

of sexual identity and gender equity in New Jersey schools? It has increasingly been an issue in New Jersey politics. We've had the Attorney General sue some districts over local policies that would require districts notify parents if their child seeks a name change or seeks to be referred to by genders other than those that were assigned to them at birth. Separately, we've had some districts try to go against state learning standards or require in state law that calls for education on LGBT people's contributions to history and society. And certainly, we've seen some activity around local school world races on this issue. What do the education officials who supported last week's changes say about,

why they're important. The main thing they've said is these changes just bring New Jersey into compliance with other state and federal laws, like New Jersey's law against discrimination, for example. But they also point to rising rates of biased crimes and the mental health issues that LGBT face at disproportionate rates. They say that these changes will ensure those students get the thorough and efficient education the state constitution requires. So what happens next? When do these new rules go into effect? So the changes themselves are already active, but it might be a bit before we see any sorts of effects from them. For example, the rules require that schools draft were called comprehensive equity plans, which are essentially blueprints to get rid of discrimination within

their districts. They have to draft those plans every three years, so we might not see some of those plans for a little while. Some board members did raise the possibility of reexamining these rules in the short term, but others expressed out that there'd be any changes before the board is required to regularly update them seven years from now. I would also expect that you'll hear more about this issue, the closer we get to November. Nikita Biryakov is a reporter with the New Jersey Monitor. Nikita, thank you so much. Thanks again, Michael.

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