NYC NOW - March 12, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

New Jersey Congress member Andy Kim has won another Democratic convention where members are allowed to vote in secret for a U.S Senate candidate. Meanwhile, former New York Mets and Yankees star Daryl Strawberry says he's recovering from a heart attack. Also, starting now, eligible New Yorkers can file their taxes for free with help from the state through the new program called "File Your State Taxes." Plus, the 9th season of the Queens Night Market in Flushing Meadows is just over a month away, where the $5 and $6 cap on food will remain. Finally, some New Jersey lawmakers are looking to scale back legislation on the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), one of the most powerful tools journalists and the public have to find out what the government is up to in the state. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with Terrence McDonald, editor of the New Jersey Monitor to hear a little more about how the law is used and how it could change.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, March 12th. Here's the midday news for Michael Hill. New Jersey Congressmember Andy Kim has won another Democratic Party convention where the members are allowed to vote in secret for a U.S. Senate candidate. WN.YC's Nancy Solomon, reports. Congressman Andy Kim received 62% of the vote among delegates to Mercer County's Democratic

Convention with First Lady Tammy Murphy receiving 29%. It was a convention unlike most in New Jersey. The chair of the committee didn't make an endorsement, pressure her members, or slip in any last-minute rule change to benefit a candidate. Murphy had hoped to reach 40% of the vote because Mercer County awards endorsements to all candidates who meet that threshold. The battle for endorsements is expected to have a large impact on the primary outcome in June because they determine which candidate gets preferential placement on the ballot. Former New York Mets and Yankee star Daryl Strawberry says he's recovering from a heart attack. The retired baseball slugger posted a photo to social media from his hospital bed,

thanking the medical teams he says saved his life. Strawberry turned 62 today. He helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, and then went on to win championships for the Yankees in the 90s. Starting today, New Yorkers can file their taxes for free with help from the state. Governor Hockel's office says a new program called File Your State Taxes is launching under partnership with the Nonprofit Code for America. The program will allow eligible residents to file their state taxes at no cost

after filing the federal taxes through the IRS's new direct file pilot program. Generally, the programs will be open to those claiming the standard deduction with certain sources of income. The Queen's night market is coming back to flushing medals for its ninth season, and opening night is just more than a month away. The market will be free and open to the public on its usual Saturday nights starting April 27th. Organizers say the $5 and $6 price tag cap on food will remain for at least another year, thanks to renewed funding. What's different this year, the market will open an hour earlier,

starting at 4 in the afternoon, to reduce crowding, and will feature even more vendors. 56 and sunny right now, sunshine today, in a high of 66. It'll be gusty, not nearly as windy as it was yesterday. And then tomorrow's sunny and 68 Thursday, more sunshine and a high of 67. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson.

If you've ever read a news story about a government official in New Jersey getting a big paycheck when they retire, or seen body cam footage of a violent police encounter, that's often because of a law in New Jersey called Oprah. The Open Public Records Act is one of the most powerful tools journalists and the public have to finding out what government is up to in the Garden State. But some lawmakers say Oprah has fallen behind the Times and is being abused, legislation to significantly scale it back appears to be on the fast track. Terrence McDonald is the editor of the New Jersey Monitor and whose website in the Garden State. He joins us now to tell us a little more about how the law is used and how it could change. Hey, Terrence.

Hey, how are you? So I give you a couple of broad examples, but can you tell us some of the ways that journalists or even the general public for that matter have used Oprah in the past? Sure. For example, reporters like myself have used it for anything from finding out what certain public officials are paid to. finding out like we did last year what kind of subpoenas New Jersey was granting in order to access baby DNA in order to connect criminal suspects to their baby's DNA. Now, you didn't mince words in an editorial about the new law the other day. You called it a disaster. What are some of the changes it would make to how public records work in New Jersey? So a few of the things that I think

are bad is it would expand the definition of privacy by, giving clerks more leeway to withhold records if they feel that they may result in harassment of someone. They would restrict access to public officials' emails. It would bar the release of metadata, which is just some information on an electronic document that tells you when and where it was created but has been used by reporters to expose all sorts of malfeasance. And it would shift legal costs away from public entities if they lose public records disputes in court. Yeah, why has that last part been important to people seeking government records? Because if I request a document from, say, the city of Newark, and they deny it, and I take

them to court and I win, right now, Oprah requires them to pay my legal costs. And the idea is to discourage public entities from engaging in lengthy legal battles to shield public documents. What the new bill would do if it becomes law is it would just say that I, as the winning party, may be entitled to legal fees. And what this would do is this would really discourage lawyers from taking these cases. And that would really give public agencies an advantage because they know that if they deny a record, then the person, the requester is less likely to take the dispute to court. Okay. So we know all these ways that Oprah is important to journalists and people who care about transparency.

But some lawmakers also say it is becoming a serious privacy concern, especially with data farms that scoop up people's info. They say local officials are getting inundated with records of requests that they can't keep up with. How do lawmakers say they would address those concerns? Well, they say they're going to respond to those concerns by restricting how often commercial requesters can use Oprah to get public documents and by barring the sale of data that they received from Oprah, which is part of this new bill.

Now, a Senate and Assembly Committee both had hearings today. From what we understand, they certainly got an earful from journalists and community groups, other members of the public who say that this new law goes too far. What happens next in this process? So what happens next is I think the Senate Budget Committee is still hearing this bill, so they would have to approve it and then would go to, I believe, one other committee, at least the Assembly Budget Committee, before it goes before the Senate. the floor of the Assembly and the Senate for their vote. But my understanding is legislative leadership

wants this bill done. So I would expect those votes to happen potentially in the next month. Do they have the support to pass it? It sure seems like they do. There was hours, there were hours of testimony in front of the Assembly Committee that was hearing it and it passed. I expect it will pass the Senate budget hearing too. They really want to do this. Terrence McDonald is is editor-in-chief of the New Jersey Monitor. Terrence, thanks for joining. All things considered. Great. Thank you. 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. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.