NYC NOW - Morning Headlines: Mayor Adams Distances Himself From Consultant, New Jersey Bans Cigarettes From Beaches, and Pride March Starts This Weekend

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

WNYC’s Clayton Guse reports that the head of Public Appeal has been accused and charged with assault and strangling his girlfriend. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, officials are using a twenty-foot inflatable cigarette to alert the public that smoking is not allowed on public beaches. Finally, the LGBTQ community is preparing for the annual parade to celebrate Pride Week.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. Mayor Adams is formally launching his re-election campaign today, but WNYC's Clayton Gooser reports the campaign already is distancing itself from a consultant facing charges of domestic abuse. Mayor Adams needed help collecting signatures to get him on the ballot as an independent in this November's election. So we hired a firm called Public Appeal, which was run by political fixer Trent Poole for $175,000. When he was hired, Poole had already been accused in charge of assaulting and strangling his girlfriend in the luxury Soho Grand Hotel. Poole has pleaded not guilty.

Adams' campaign says the mayor had no idea of the assault charges until they were flagged by WNYC. Poole is the latest Adams associate to face criminal charges or high-profile investigation. A spokesperson says the campaign has terminated all dealings with the consultant. No buts on the beach. That's the message from New Jersey officials at the start of peak beach season in Asbury Park all day to day. They're displaying an inflatable 20-foot-long cigarette on a flatbed truck with beach chairs in an umbrella. The makeshift beach aims to draw attention to the state's smoking ban at public beaches and parks. Those laws have been in place since 2018.

The group Clean Ocean Actions 2017 Beach Sweep counted 29,000 cigarette butts, more than 1,100 lighters, and 1,900 cigarette packs, and 7,100 cigar tips. So it's been a problem. Fines for violators started $250 for a first offense. Pride weekend is just a couple days away with the main event on Sunday. The Pride March for Manhattan will head down from 5th Avenue in 26. Street into the West Village. On Saturday evening, the event known as the NYC Dike March will kick off in Bryant Park at 5. Ornizers call it a protest march, not a parade, and welcome anyone regardless of sex or gender as long as they identify as a dike. You can find a roundup of lots

of pride weekend activities, plus a list of all street closures to be aware of on our news site, Gothamist. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast.