NYC NOW - Midday News: Legal Battle Around Mahmoud Khalil Continues, New Jersey Fights Public Health Cuts, and a Poetry Month Challenge

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Lawyers for detained Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil return to court as the Trump administration pushes to deport him. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy vows legal action as the White House moves to cut $350 million in federal public health funding. Plus, with April around the corner, WNYC kicks off its National Poetry Month challenge. Morning Edition producers Verónica Del Valle and Amanda Rozon explain how listeners can take part.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, March 28th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Lawyers representing the Tane Columbia University graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, returned to court today as they try to stop the Trump administration from deporting him. Khalil himself will not appear at the New York, New Jersey, federal court. since he remains at an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

The Trump administration is fighting to have its legal battle with Khalil moved to Louisiana. The White House wants to deport Kalil because it argues his presence and the country threatened foreign policy interests. Kalea was born in Syria but is a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen. New Jersey's governor is speaking out as the White House prepares to cut another $350 million in federal fundering to the state. Governor Phil Murphy says that, is to support local and statewide public health programs aimed at preventing the spread of disease

and combating the opioid addiction. In a post on social media, Murphy said New Jersey will do, quote, everything we can to restore this funding, including taking legal action. The cuts are part of the Trump administration's pullback of federal funds for public health departments and organizations across the country. Now, in a statement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said, quote, HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago. 56 and mostly sunny in the city now, partly sunny today and 65 tomorrow, mostly sunny, 81 and gusty.

This is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. National Poetry Month is just days away. It is a tradition here. every April on Morning Edition to issue a listener challenge and play your poems on the air. Joining us now to set out this year's game plan or WNIC Morning Edition producers,

Veronica Del Baye and Amanda Roseon. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you, Michael. Good morning. Good morning, Michael. So for some time now, we've stuck with one theme for the entire month. We wanted to mix things up a little bit this time. Who once revealed this year's theme?

How about you, Amanda? So we're going with Literary. genres. We've picked memoir, history, science fiction, and fantasy, and mystery. Okay, so you want poems about books? Is that right? No, but we want you to engage with what a genre does. By that, we want a history poem, a sci-fi poem, or a fantasy poem, but not necessarily a poem about a sci-fi book, if that makes sense. And, Veronica, you thought of this theme. What made you think genres? So I, for one, am at my most creative when I'm thinking about the books I'm reading, but we said no book reports.

We don't want poems about books, so we removed it by a step. We want you to take inspiration from your literary travels when you're submitting, but take it in whatever direction you feel inspired by. All right, let's start with history. Amanda, let's start with that. Yes, this is the one I'm most excited about. We're looking for poems inspired by historical events. It could be something that did actually happen. or it could be historic fiction, you can make it up. Poems inspired by historical happenings.

And bonus points, if you keep it local, that can be your city, your block, or wherever you are, the choice is yours. And, Veronica, I think we're going to get a lot of entries for this one. Sci-fi and fantasy in one week? Yes, yes. We know they are two different genres, but we're putting them together in one week because they're both kind of imaginative. Take us to a different world or put a riff on what's happening in this one. The choice is yours. Next is mystery. I hope we got at least one poem about Scooby-Doo, Amanda. You know, I had to go there.

So the future can be a mystery and sometimes the present can be a mystery as well and sometimes the past. So maybe a poem speculating about what may come next or you can challenge yourself and take a stab at solving a mystery that already exists or even make up your own mystery and solve that one. No, Veronica, it's not April yet, but let's get this started. What's the first theme? So for week one of Poetry Month, we want to start our journey through literary themes with some reflection. It's memoir time. We want you to reflect on your own life or maybe someone else's life and just really get in

your head or someone else's. You have a few days of a head start listeners because today is still March 28th, but we want your poems starting now. You do not need to wait until April 1st to send us poetry. So let's get this going. Okay, morning edition producers, Amanda Roseone and Veronica Del Valle. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Our first theme is memoir, and it's not too soon as you heard Veronica say there. Send us your poem and a voice memo at your voice at WNYC.org. Reflect on your life or the lives of others. Again, the theme is memoir to your voice at WNYC.org. Make sure to tell us your name and where you're calling from. And we're going to say this. Thank you.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. 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 soon.