NYC NOW - May 15, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Health officials are warning New Yorkers about the first reported cases of a highly contagious skin infection in the United States, a new study shows New York City could save millions if it gets rid of a rule requiring homeless families with children to spend months in a shelter before they can get a housing voucher, New Jersey Transit riders can expect a smoother commute after train delays destabilized the system last week. And finally, Nancy Solomon spends a day with New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin to discuss his unique role and ambitions in office.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, May 15th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Health officials are warning New Yorkers about the first reported cases of a highly contagious skin infection in the USA. A new CDC report links two local cases of ringworm rash to a strain of a fungus, common in South Asia. Genomic sequencing reveals the two people contracted the aggressive infection independently of one another. The CDC warns that could suggest local transmission in the U.S. The particular strain is also resistant to the most common form of treatment, but it is

still treatable. NYC could save millions if it gets rid of a rule requiring homeless families with children to spend months in a shelter before they can get a housing voucher. biggest takeaway from a new study out today from the organization Wynn, which provides shelter and supportive services for unhoused families with children. Here's CEO Christine Quinn. There is no good reason for it. It costs money. It causes more trauma, and it reduces the amount of time people have to look for housing. City Council members introduced a bill that would remove the requirement. The mayor's office says it'll review the report. New Jersey transit riders can expect a smoother commute today after train delays destabilized the system last week. The transit

agency over the weekend says repaired signals on the 112-year-old portal bridge. Officials now say the problems are fixed. Issues with the signal system last week cause widespread delays and cancellations during peak commute hours. 69 and sunny right now, sunny and 78 today with a breeze, clear in 59 tonight. Tomorrow, increasing clouds, the warmest day of the week at 81. high in the 60s the rest of the week. NYC. New Jersey has one of the most powerful attorneys general in the country. Unlike most states, the AG is chosen by the governor,

but once that person is confirmed by the state senate, the governor cannot fire them. And in New Jersey, the office has far-reaching powers. WNYC's Nancy Solomon spent a day with the state's new AG to find out what he wants to do with the job. Matt Platkin has a dilemma. One of the Attorney General's top goals is to reduce the number of people injured or killed by guns in New Jersey. But he also wants to reduce the heavy police presence in black and brown communities,

where much of the gun violence is taking place. All right, why are you sitting so far? Look at something I said. Plattkin is meeting with the top brass of the state police. They're updating him on a two-year-old project that the Attorney General thinks might just be the solution. The state police are analyzing bullet casings from every shooting in New Jersey. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Brennan says that enables them to track crimes committed with the same gun across the state. So very small number of people using a few guns in a lot of incidents.

In 2022, the number of shootings were among the lowest of any year since 2009. Brennan's analysis found that a tiny percentage of the 76th, thousand people arrested in New Jersey, 511, to be exact, were responsible for 1,500 shootings. Plattkin says that's given him new hope about reducing gun violence. Until I saw this data, I never really felt like it could truly be solved. But when you see this and you see 511 individuals driving a huge chunk of it, it's a solvable problem. The first issue Plattkin ever got involved with was when he was a teenager.

He advocated to keep the federal assault weapons ban in 2004, and he's been passionate about reducing gun violence ever since. This is the issue that has motivated me more than anything in my professional life. It makes sense. At 36, Plattkin is a millennial who grew up with school shootings and watched the rise in mass shootings. He's the youngest state attorney general ever confirmed in New Jersey, and he looks even younger and speaks.

quietly. But Chris Perino, a former AG under Chris Christie, says Pletkin is no pushover. For those who think they're going to, you know, intimidate him or try and push him around or, you know, take another train because it's not going to happen. He is tough. Plotkin returned to New Jersey after attending Stanford Law School in 2014 and wanted to get involved in something related to politics or policy. I didn't know anybody in the political world in New Jersey. But through some networking, I ended up meeting Phil Murphy. We had each other at hello, as they say. He wasn't even a candidate. He was just thinking about what he would do when I offered to help. He was the policy guy, and that's where we bonded.

We bonded over the sort of stronger, fair agenda. After becoming governor, Murphy brought Plotkin on as his chief counsel. Plotkin served in that role for nearly three years. He worked on raising the minimum wage and legalizing marijuana. While Chief Counsel, he got tripped up in one controversy. A Murphy campaign volunteer went public with an accusation that a campaign staffer had raped her and that the man had later been hired by the Murphy administration. Good morning. My name is Matthew Platkin, and I serve as Chief Counsel to Governor Murphy. Platton was called before legislative committee and criticized because after the woman told him about the rape, he didn't tell the governor.

He testified that he followed the protocol. That the normal chain of command does not apply when you receive a claim of sexual misconduct in the workplace. He forwarded the complaint to the chief ethics officer and requested an investigation by the Attorney General's office. He was criticized by Republican legislators and in the press. But after Plattkin's first year's attorney general, he's getting positive reviews, not the least from the Reverend Charles Boyer of Social Justice and Salvation. He's a statewide leader and frequent critic of the governor, particularly about police reform. We consider him a great partner.

So he's done a lot in a very short time. He's had a lot of discussions with several of us on the community side. So we feel like we're being informed. We feel like we're having substantive conversations. And everyone, thank you for joining us today on short notice. About a week after I spent the day with him, Placken holds a press conference to announce an indictment, of a Patterson police officer for shooting a black suspect

who was running away. And weeks later, after the fatal police shooting of a Patterson man, Najee C. Brooks, Plattkin took over the entire police department. So something has to change, and it will change, starting now. Earlier this morning,

I exercised my authority as Attorney General and superseded the Patterson Police Department. Community activists are wary, but generally there is support for these moves. Many, like the Reverend Boyer, say they want funding shifted away from law enforcement. The solution to the problem of policing and black communities is not to reform policing. It is to create new community-led structures that do not have police involved. The Attorney General faces another difficult challenge. Transition reports to two governors warned the agency no longer tackled political corruption.

In a report to incoming Governor Chris Christie in 2009, his transition team wrote, The Corruption Unit has been unable to undertake certain high-profile and complex corruption prosecutions because allegedly, attorneys and investigators have feared political reprisal and breaches in confidentiality. It was a very effective system. Maybe too effective. Ed Steer, a former prosecutor and deputy attorney general, helped create the unit that brought down many a corrupt politician in the state. He says there's been a decline in the agency since the early 2000s.

And unfortunately, attorneys general did not rebuild the same high-quality staffs and investigative units. But Stier says he's impressed with the new Attorney General and his knowledge of the agency's history. I'm talking about law enforcement history. I'm talking about organized crime, corruption, county prosecutors, local police departments. Where he acquired that knowledge, I really don't know, but it was surprisingly deep. Stier has been on a mission to restore the agency for the past 20 years. That depends largely on the character of the person at the top, he says, and whether they exercise their power judiciously and fearlessly. He believes Matt Plotkin is the guy who can do it.

Nancy Solomon, 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. More this evening.