NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Elderly Woman Charged with Nursing Home Murder Could Have Dementia, Council Agrees with Judge’s Decision to Block Adams From Allowing ICE at Rikers, Large Trash Bins Come to Brooklyn, and Water Main Breaks Bring Headaches to New Jersey

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Prosecutors say 95-year-old Galina Smirnova, who’s charged for killing her roommate at a Brooklyn nursing home, has dementia. Also, the New York City Council is celebrating a judge's recent decision barring Mayor Eric Adams from allowing immigration officers on Rikers Island. Plus, New York City continues its push to eliminate piles of trash from sidewalks. And finally, multiple water main breaks have occurred in New Jersey this summer leading to boil water advisories and affecting some streets. Dr. Daniel Van Abs, expert on water resource management, explains some of the causes.

An elderly woman charged with murder could have dementia. The New York City Council agrees with a judge's decision to block Mayor Adams from allowing ice on Rikers Island. Large trash bins will soon take over some parking spaces in Brooklyn. And water main breaks bring headaches to New Jersey. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Junae Pierre. We're learning more about the 95-year-old woman who allegedly murdered her room. at a Brooklyn nursing home using the leg of a wheelchair.

Prosecutors say Galena Smyrnova fatally attacked 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Nina Krafstov in their room at the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Coney Island. They say a nursing assistant found Kraftstaff bloody and unconscious and Smernova washing her hands in the bathroom with blood on her gown and legs. Smernova appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court in a wheelchair Wednesday with her left handcuffed to one of the armrests. She listened quietly to the proceedings through a headset as an interpreter translated for her. Prosecutors say she has dementia, but her lawyer asked the judge to hold off on ordering a psychiatric exam until the defense can gather more information.

The New York City Council is celebrating a judge's recent decision barring Mayor Eric Adams from allowing immigration officers on Rikers Island. Counsel Speaker Adrian Adams explains why. When residents of our city or any locality are afraid of cooperating with local law enforcement to report crime and seek help or visit hospitals and clinics when they're sick, communities are indeed less safe and less healthy. A judge ruled that the bid to return immigration officers to Rikers was null and void due to a, quote, impermissible appearance of a conflict of interest. New York City is continuing its push to eliminate piles of trash from sidewalks. It's a big new move from the sanitation department. Here's WMYC's Liam quickly with more. It's been two years since the city began installing large containers and parking spaces

throughout sections of Upper Manhattan for residents to use to toss their garbage. The sanitation department is calling them empire bins, and now they're planning to bring them to Brooklyn. Acting Sanitation Commissioner Javier Lohan says schools in Fort Green will get the bins this fall. Next year, they'll be put on streets in front of residents. residential buildings in the area. Every building with more than 30 units will receive at least one empire bin for their trash. And every building with 10 to 30 units will have a choice. They can have one of these empire bins or they can use smaller wheeling bins for their trash. Officials want the

bins rolled out throughout the city, but they say that will take years to achieve. Multiple water main breaks have occurred in New Jersey this summer, leading to boil water advisories and affecting some streets. After the break, we explained what's causing the issue. Stay close. Last month, Passaic County had at least three water main breaks. One, early in the month, affected about 200,000 people and left customers without water for six days, and then with a long-standing boil water advisory. And then just this week in Hoboken, customers suffered through their third water break in two weeks, triggering a boil water advisory for part of Hudson County and leaving local officials spearheading water distribution efforts. But the looming question here is why does this keep happening? The age of a water system has a tremendous amount to do with whether the line breaks, when they break, how frequently they break. That's Dr. Daniel Van Abbs, an expert on water resource management. He adds that New Jersey is an old state with lots of old infrastructure.

And unfortunately, with old systems, old pipelines, These are fragile in many ways. And so when one breaks, that tends to cause problems in the area. So you will get clusters of breaks, and that's fairly common in the systems. The oldest systems are in New Jersey's urban areas. Van Ab says those systems were put in place decades ago when the now urban areas were thriving industrial centers with lots of economic activity going on. They were the bright spots of a very rural agricultural state.

now they're not. These are areas where you have concentrations of poverty and you have very limited resources in many cases. So the burden of maintaining these systems seems much heavier now than it would have been when these cities were in their heyday. And Van App says that creates a real problem because affordability is a major issue in New Jersey. In terms of what can be done about the water main breaks, Van App says local and state officials have to do a better job of maintaining its systems more frequently, which takes money and asset management planning. It's something that takes every month, every year, forever, because as you're cleaning up and fixing

some things, other things are getting older. So it's a constant process, and we have not been as successful as we really need to be in terms of maintaining and keeping up on our systems. New Jersey has relied on funding from the federal government and the state's revolving fund to repair or replace pipes. Plus, there's the state's infrastructure bank, known as the New Jersey Water Bank. It's a partnership with the state's Department of Environmental Protection. And they've been putting a ton of money out into the communities, loan forgiveness, and low-interest loans, but it's still not been enough. And eventually somebody has to pay it all back. Much of the burden winds up going to customers. That's inevitable. The latest boil water

advisory in Holboken was lifted early Wednesday after a water main break affected parts of the city. But Van Abbe says the advisories should always be taken seriously because of possible impurities in the water. Bacteria is the number one health concern of drinking water supplies. There are all sorts of other things that we talk about, P-FOS and so on, but the number one thing is bacterial contamination because that's the thing that can make you sick that day. So the boil water order is to kill the bacteria. That's its sole purpose.

Dr. Daniel Van Abs is a former professor at Rutgers University and an expert on water resource management. Back in New York City, environmental regulators say an asphalt recycling center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, will have to pay over $100,000 in fines and redesign their facility to reduce toxic fumes. The site is called Green Asphalt. And some neighborhood residents say it emits a smell of burning tires that causes migraines and difficulty breathing. Thomas Matusus lives nearby, and he spoke about it at a community meeting. Every time we go outside, our ice tear, our mounts taste fuel plant, and our lungs hurt. We know where it's coming from, sir.

Company leaders told the crowd at the meeting they were there to work with the community. Green asphalt has until December 11th to double its first. smokestack height. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.