NYC NOW - Midday News: City Council to Vote on Transgender Patient Protections, Bad Bunny Ticket Scams, Public School Student in Immigration Detention, and NYC Mayoral Race Heats Up

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

The New York City Council is expected to vote this Thursday on a pair of bills aimed at expanding protections for transgender patients in city hospitals. Meanwhile, state Attorney General Letitia James is warning fans about a rise in fake Bad Bunny ticket sales ahead of the singer’s upcoming shows. Also, city officials say another public school student is in immigration detention after being taken into custody at an immigration hearing. Plus, in this week’s politics segment, more on the fiery New York City Mayoral Race.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, August 14th. Here's the midday news. I'm Stephen Nesson. The New York City Council is expected to vote today on two bills to increase protections for transgender patients at hospitals across the city. One measure would require public signs about patients' rights, including that they'd be addressed by the name, and pronoun they prefer. The other requires staff training for treating trans and gender non-conforming patients be documented. Public advocate, Jamani Williams, introduced both bills. It was enough so people can feel seen and protect it in a scary time, but also loose enough

so people can make you work for their particular hospital. Mayor Adams' office says it appreciates the bill's intent. His office didn't say. whether he'd signed them into law. New York State's Attorney General is warning that there are some bad Bad Bunny tickets being sold online. WNYC's Veronica Del Valle has the story. Bad Bunny's concert residency in Puerto Rico

is attracting crowds from all over the world. But A.G. Letitia James says her office is seeing an increase in complaints from New Yorkers who traveled to the island just to discover their concert tickets were fake. She's suggesting that people exhibit extreme caution when trying to buy tickets. That means try to buy from an official reseller, avoid paying with cash or a wire transfer, and be wary of ticket prices that are too good to be true.

James' offices, people who are sold fake or invalid tickets can file a complaint with her staff online. New York City officials say another public school student is in immigration detention after federal agents took him into custody at an immigration hearing. Schools Chancellor, Melissa Avilos Ramos says a team assists migrants in public schools is working to connect his family with legal support. Mayor Adams' office says it's gathering more information about the case and is considering potential legal action. City Council member Lincoln Wrestler of Brooklyn is identifying the student as Mamadu Magdhar Diallo. He's at least the third local public school student detained by immigration agents this year. U.S. immigration officials haven't responded to a request for comment.

Up next, our weekly politics segment. That's after the break. Now it's time for politics brief, our weekly segment where we break down the news out of City Hall and across New York State. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo is running for mayor and is trying to flip the script in his campaign for City Hall. Meanwhile, the current governor, Kathy Hochel, is under renewed pressure to raise taxes on the rich. To explain it all, WNYC's Sean Carlson spoke with reporters, Jimmy Veelk, and Elizabeth Kim. All right, Liz, we're going to start with you.

We saw Andrew Cuomo taking more shots at Zaron Mamdani over the weekend. We'll remind listeners that Mamdani decisively beat Cuomo in June's Democratic primary. Now Cuomo is challenging him as an independent candidate in a crowded field. It also includes the incumbent mayor Eric Adams, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Leva, and attorney Jim Walden. Momdani is a Democratic socialist, but now Cuomo is targeting him for living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Western Queens. What's going on here? So Cuomo was pointing out that as an assembly member, Momdani makes $145,000, $100,000 a year.

And he's arguing that someone who makes that much money shouldn't be living in a rent-stabilized apartment. Now, Mamdani has said that he lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in Astoria, where he pays $2,300 a month for a one-bedroom. Now, he found that apartment on Street Easy when he was making love. less money when he was working as a foreclosure expert. But regardless, it's fine. There's no income restriction for this particular type of apartment that Momdani lives in. But Cuomo's making an issue out of it. He's saying that Mamdani, because he makes that much money, shouldn't be living in rent-stabilized housing. And he made this proposal, he called it Zoran's Law, in which he says would prohibit landlords from leasing their vacant units to the quote-unquote wealth.

Yeah, and Liz, I'm curious, how was that received? You know, Cuomo, when he was governor, he presided over several rounds of renewing the rent laws of these rent stabilization laws, including in 2019 when sort of Democrats had power in the state legislature, and they wrote the renewal and kind of cut him out of the process until he signed the law. And I think that bill actually ended this provision, which would have allowed people to lose their rent stabilized department if they made too much money. money. Right. I think what we've seen in this mayoral race is what former governor Cuomo did as governor is completely a separate issue from how he's running as a mayoral candidate, although his record as governor, I think, is fair game for critics and his rivals to talk about. But on this issue, it struck a nerve. You know, Cuomo is considered, was considered an ally to big real estate. And it struck a nerve because New Yorkers have very strong feelings about their rent.

It's incredibly challenging to find an affordable apartment in this city. And it's raising questions like, who deserves an affordable apartment? And it's also reviving a policy issue around means testing or whether or not there should be some kind of income restrictions or, you know, they call them income recertifications for these types of. apartments. What does this say about the race in this moment? So Mamdani is the frontrunner. He is also the Democratic mayoral nominee. That means he gets all the scrutiny. It also means that he is seeking to build a broader coalition right now. And that would include establishment Democrats, business leaders. These are people who might be considered uncomfortable bedfellows for Democratic socialist. So what's interesting is, well, as we watch him campaign in the general and try to

build this bigger tent, the question becomes, can he retain the key parts of his campaign, his relatability to voters, his social media charm, his ability to sort of pivot quickly and control the narrative, all these things that helped him win the primary. Can he kind of keep that so-called magic? Yeah. So it's interesting. is that we see this kind of new posture coming from Andrew Cuomo, right? So he was very much the frontrunner, as you said. He's the overdog, and he has been in all of his elections. You know, it's kind of like watching the Yankees play Little League team or like the Buffalo Bills play the Jets. Okay. Wow. I don't know if I could say that on air.

I'm a Giants fan. So, but to see Cuomo in this insurgent role is just really striking because it's not his usual posture. And that's that he does seem to have landed like a few a few blows here. Absolutely. Yeah. Where is Mayor Adams in all of this? Well, he's trying

to focus on his record. He is the incumbent, and so he does have the ability to point to certain accomplishments. You know, this week he pointed to data, which

showed that reading scores for public school students have improved. He's also touting that his administration got more than 3,500 homeless people, street homeless people

into the shelter since he took office. So, but one thing that happened today was, which was kind of interesting and a little, I think, puzzling to some political observers is he got an endorsement. He got the endorsement of former Governor David Patterson. Now, the reason why it's a little bit puzzling is because it's an about face for Patterson. Patterson Beck Cuomo in the primary, who of course, you know, lost in an embarrassing upset. Here's Patterson talking about how he felt Cuomo's campaign just didn't anticipate Mom Donnie well enough. And I don't think that when that challenge was coming in the last weeks, that he was addressing it and was as present as I thought he should have been during the campaign.

He is still a candidate in this race. But my choice is Eric Adams. Adams is, of course, polling in the single digits. It's, you know, Patterson had previously called on Cuomo and Adams to agree to this consolidation pact, where one of them would drop out based on a poll that would be taken in the fall. But he now says that that was an idea just to generate conversation and no one appears to be taking him up on it. Well, while we're on the topic of governors, Jimmy, let's talk about the current one. Kathy Hochle is going to face a big budget deficit coming up and we're already starting to hear some rumblings about what that budget is going to look like. Yeah, it's a very big deficit, Sean.

it's $34 billion, billion with a B over the next few years. And that could get even worse when we see the results of the new federal legislation that's taken effect. There's already pressure on Governor Kathy Hogle to raise taxes. We're going to see how that goes. She's resisted that. Earlier today, she had kind of a stark message while speaking at the New York City Financial Control Board meeting about tough times ahead. You can't promise the same level of state aid if Washington pulls funding out from under us. But we can be clear-eyed about the risks, plan for the future, and work together.

So, you know, the governor has to come up with a budget by mid-January. And we're already seeing people talk and progressives talk about raising taxes on the wealthy. I was actually at a rally today in Fully Square where Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who Hockel picked as a running mate, but is now challenging her in the Democratic primary. He joined that call. And he took up the mantle. We have a responsibility to actually tax the ultra wealthy and big corporations. I'm tired.

I'm so tired of my fellow Democrats talking about we're worried about the rich leaving our state. So, yeah, Hokka said she doesn't want to raise taxes, but we'll see what's going to happen. So, Jimmy, there's a lot of pressure on her. Do you think she's going to have to yield? You know, Mamdani also wants to tax the wealthy. Yeah, that's the thing. So she'll be facing pressure from progressives in New York City, assuming if Mondani does win the mayor's race,

he'll have a very big bully pulpit. So it's something we're going to be watching going on next year. Well, only certain things in life are death taxes and debates about taxes. Am I right? Well, that was WDN.YC's Elizabethal Kim, in Manhattan, Jimmy Vealkind. Both in Manhattan, we should say. Thanks so much, my friends. Thanks, Sean.

Thanks, Sean. 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. I'm Stephen Nesson. We'll be back this evening.