NYC NOW - January 29, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams joins a chorus of elected officials criticizing the NYPD's recent stop of Councilmember Yusef Salaam. Also, New York City’s American Museum of Natural History is closing two halls featuring Native American objects for being “severely outdated” and containing culturally sensitive items. Plus, the Department of Justice is out with its findings regarding former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo after his resignation in 2021 after a string of sexual harassment allegations. WNYC’s Sean Carlson sat with Albany reporter Jon Campbell on Friday of last week, to help break down the findings. Finally, WNYC’s Precious Fondren reports on a Lower East Side bookstore that does weekly Narcan training and hands out free overdose prevention kits but is now facing eviction.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, January 29th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams is joining a chorus of elected officials criticizing the NYPD's recent stop of council member Yusef Salam. Police stopped Salam as he was driving in Harlem Friday night. They said later they did so because his car had illegally tented women. and release body camera footage from the stop. On New York One this morning, the council speaker weighed in on the incident.

The bottom line to me and what I got out of this, and I watched the video also, was that he was never told why he was stopped. He was never told why he was pulled over. The information came out afterwards. Under the law, police are not required to provide a reason for a stop. It's intensifying the debate between Mayor Eric Adams and the council over a bill, requiring police to report all investigatory encounters with civilians. though it does not apply to traffic stops.

The Council is set to override Adams veto of the bill tomorrow. New York City's American Museum of Natural History is closing two halls featuring Native American objects. Last week, the museum's president told staff about the weekend closures, saying the exhibits are, quote, severely outdated and contain culturally sensitive items. Nancy Crable, visiting from Wichita, Kansas, told NPR it's interesting to see the artistry of these pieces and learn more about the culture, but... Yet these items were apparently stolen or ended up in hands that weren't Native American, and they should be returned.

The Manhattan Institution is the latest museum to cover up or remove Native American exhibits to comply with recently revamped federal regulations dealing with the display of indigenous human remains and cultural items. It's 39 degrees right now, mostly cloudy this afternoon, and near steady temperatures around 40, 32 overnight. This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. The United States Department of Justice is out with findings regarding former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo resigned in the summer of 2021 after a string of sexual harassment allegations. Joining us now is WDNYC's John Campbell, who covers Albany to break down the DOJ's findings. John, remind us what exactly happened a few years ago and why this governor who was pretty powerful ultimately resigned. Powerful is exactly the right way to put it. Andrew Cuomo first came into office in 2011, and over the next decade, he would go on to amass really a huge amount of power in New York. You can see it at the Moynihan train hall,

which he helped usher through, and he helped pave the way for the new Kuski-Usko Bridge and the new Tappan Z Bridge. But he really, really rose to new heights when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. You probably remember his daily press conferences. They were broadcast to this national audience. All of that really,

quickly came tumbling down in the summer of 2021. He started facing accusations that he fostered this toxic work environment and multiple state employees accused him of sexual harassment. It all ended in August of 2021. That's when Attorney General Letitia James, the state attorney general, she released an investigation that concluded he sexually harassed 11 women. He pretty quickly resigned after that and now we're two years later. He's still fighting with the AG's office, trying to uncover some of the underlying documents related to that report. And with Cuomo's departure, his lieutenant governor at the time Kathy Hockel stepped in. She's since one reelection.

We're going to get back to the current governor in a minute. But tell us how and when did the DOJ pro begin in all of this? It happened in August of 2021, and it's all based on Title VII of the federal civil rights law. That's the law that prevents workplaces from discriminating on race or color or sex. And just before Andrew Cuomo stepped down, DOJ stepped in and launched a Title VII investigation. And we really didn't hear much of anything about that until earlier today. That's when the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn announced that DOJ had reached a settlement with current Governor Hokel's office. And that settlement, it's largely based on the steps Hockel's office is taking to root out sexual harassment in the future.

but it also included this brief summary of DOJ's findings when it comes to former Governor Cuomo's conduct. Okay, yeah, let's get to the heart of the matter. What did they find? And how is this different than anything that we knew before? For one thing, the Justice Department found Cuomo subjected 13 female state employees to a, quote, sexually hostile work environment. That's actually two more women than Attorney General James' report. found. And the state report only had nine state employees. This is 13 state employees. The other big piece of this is DOJ's findings show that Cuomo's senior staff retaliated against four of the women. I should say DOJ found that Cuomo's senior staff retaliated

against four of the women. We should also note, too, this is based on a very brief summary. It's only a few paragraphs long in this nine-page broader settlement. It really only includes the top line findings, it doesn't get into the more substantive details or any identifying details whatsoever. Have we heard anything from Governor Cuomo's camp about this? We have. They are not happy. Rita Gleven is Andrew Cuomo's attorney.

She continues to say that the former governor never sexually harassed anyone. Cuomo himself says the same thing. And she's chalking all of this up to politics. Cuomo himself wasn't party to this settlement. This is between DOJ and Governor Hockel's office. And Glaven says DOJ never reached out to Cuomo about it. So they're kind of questioning the thoroughness of the investigation. We should note, too, Cuomo, like we said before,

is still litigating the State Attorney General's report, too. He recently sued to try to get many of the documents and the investigative materials that make up the basis of the report. And he's also facing civil lawsuits from three of his accusers, all of those cases are still pending in court. In about 10 seconds here, John, what's the Hockel administration doing right now? They're committing to a lot of different new harassment protections, including a new system, to bring in an outside firm to investigate complaints against the governor and top staff.

WNYC's John Campbell. John, thanks so much. Thank you, Sean. Michael Hill, Blue Stockings Cooperative Bookstore on the Lower East Side doesn't just sell books. It hosts weekly Narcan trainings and hands-out free overdose prevention kits. Since 2021, it's been part of New York State's opioid overdose prevention program, and now it's facing eviction. WNYC's precious fondren takes a look at why a community bookstore is dividing the community. When a heat wave hit the city last summer, workers at Blue Stockings passed out water, cups of ice,

to those who needed it. And when people need socks, underwear, and other toiletries, they can get them for free at blue stockings. Many locals praise the store for all it does for the community. But others say it's degraded the neighborhood since workers started giving out Narcan in 2021. Medine and Salaco has been living on the Lower East Side since 1997. She says she's been scared by what she describes

as an increase in the neighborhood's homeless population and open drug use. They would just stand there and hang, and we witnessed a lot of exchange of needles, a lot of shooting up, a lot of stuff like that. Last month, the store announced on Instagram that it was facing eviction. Owners of the bookstore would not comment on the eviction reports. The store's landlord says Blue Stockings is creating dangerous conditions for residential tenants and improperly using the space as a medical facility. A petition started in May to oppose the store's participation in the opioid overdose prevention program now has 67 signatures.

Blue Stocking supporters say the bookstore fills a need in social services at a time when deaths from drug overdoses have reached a record high in New York City. Saloni Balman is a former Blue Stockings worker. Blue Stockings is an exceptional place that has allowed people to feel seen and given people a third space in a city that is rapidly becoming so privatized that there is nowhere to go. Balman says people who oppose the store should, redirect their energy to those who hold power, including Mayor Eric Adams and the city council.

You should be blowing up their phones and asking them why there is nowhere for these people to go. It's a bigger struggle than let's check down the queer bookstore. Brandon DeL Pozo is a professor at Brown University who was in the NYPD for about 20 years. He says cities across the country are struggling with how to handle homelessness and safe drug use. What we're seeing happen at this bookstore is a problem. It's usually lurked in alleyways in the shadows and behind closed doors really being brought out in the light to one location. For now, the store is open. For how long, remains to be seen. Precious Fondren, WNYC News.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening. Thank you.