NYC NOW - July 15, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here’s all the local news you need to start your day: Elected officials and faith leaders gathered at City Hall on Sunday to condemn the normalization of political violence following Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. WNYC’s Charles Lane reports. Meanwhile, some New York City public library branches opened for Sunday service for the first time in almost eight months after the new city budget restored much of their funding. Plus, New York City lawmakers are preparing to launch a free swimming program to prevent drownings after the recent deaths of four teenagers at public beaches in the city.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, July 15th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. Elected officials and faith leaders are coming together after Saturday's assassination attempt on former President Trump. They spoke in the City Hall Rotunda yesterday to condemn what they said was a normalization of political violence. W.N.C. Charles Lane, reports. The event was organized by Reverend Al Sharpton, who said he texted Mayor Eric Adams and

City Council Minority Leader Joe Borrelli, saying they had to come together to denounce normalized violence. All of us have different roles. All of us do things differently, but none of us should be silent in the face of the climate that we're looking at now. Adams faulted social media, which he said drew young people to, quote, dark places by rewarding them for extremes and hate. He said, for him, going back and forth on political banter is in his rearview mirror. Remember tonight at 10, here live special coverage of primetime speeches at the Republican National Convention with analysis from NPR on AMA 20 or live stream it at WNIC.org. Book lovers have a story to tell. Yesterday was the first Sunday in almost eight months when some New York City Public Library branches were actually open.

The new city budget restores much of the library's funding after City Hall. had ordered some cuts. New York Public Library President Tony Mark says they'll open more branches on Sundays next month. We just need a few weeks to be hiring people and reassigning people and getting this to work. It's one of the reasons why we don't like budget cuts because it keeps us from being able to invest and have the staff ready. Now we can do all that again. It's a great day. Mark says public pressure helped get City Council and the mayor to reverse the cuts to the libraries. New York City lawmakers are preparing to launch a new free swimming program in hopes of preventing drownings. The program comes after the recent drownings of

four teenagers at public beaches in the city. City Council Parks Committee Chair Shaker Krishnan is scheduled to stand with other elected leaders this afternoon at four at the Garden School Pool in Jackson Heights to unveil the program dubbed Wave Makers. Officials say it will target communities that lack access to pools. The group will also be calling on City Hall to invest more into water safety by extending beach showers and lifeguard shifts, hiring Red Cross and YMCA certified lifeguards, and scheduling more city parks certification tests. 75 with a few showers now, a heat advisory till tomorrow night. More showers this morning than the chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms,

mostly sunny 95 at the Rio Field 99. Ouch, it's hot. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three-time a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this afternoon.