NYC NOW - November 12, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

A 7-year-old girl is recovering after being shot in Harlem on Monday. Two teenagers are in police custody awaiting charges. Meanwhile, New York City residential buildings with nine or fewer units are now required to use secure containers for trash pickup. Plus, the New York Times tech workers’ union is ending its weeklong strike. Finally, President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. WNYC’s Jon Campbell has more.

NYC, Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, November 12th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A seven-year-old girl is recovering after being shot yesterday in Harlem. Police say it happened just before three in the afternoon at West 100 to 45th Street in Bradhurst Street near Jackie Robinson Park. Two teens, 17 and 19 years old, are in police custody, and the NYPD says charges are pending against them.

The girl was rushed to a hospital, and she remains in stable condition. New rules that aim to get piles of smelly trash bags off New York City sidewalks take effect today. Residential buildings with nine or fewer units now have to set out their garbage in containers with secure lids for trash pickup. For now, property owners and managers can buy official city bins, or use any secure bin that's 55 gallons or less. But starting in June 2026, all properties will need to have the official NYC bins. The sanitation department says buildings that don't comply will initially receive written warnings. Come January 2nd, the city will begin issuing fines starting at $50.

The New York Times Tech Workers Union is ending its week-long strike. The New York Times Tech Guild says workers will return to work today, although without a contract with management, the Gill's strike hobbled some of the newspaper's online products, including the famous presidential needle over Election Day, and in the following days, a New York Times spokesperson says the company looks forward to continuing to work with Tech Gill to reach a fair contract.

53 and sunny now, relatively dry forecast. That red flag warning mean conditions are still dry, windy, low humidity, and ripe for fires and fire spreading. Sonny and 56 today. Stay close. There's more after the break. President-elect Trump is calling on New Yorkers to have major roles in his second administration. Former New York Congress member from Long Island, Lee Zeldon, has been nominated to become the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. Trump is promising, quote, fair and.

and swift deregulatory decisions from Zeldon that he says will boost business while maintaining environmental standards. WNMIC's John Campbell has covered Zeldon and he joins us now. Hey, John Trump has said he will work to immediately dismantle landmark climate regulations put in place by the Biden administration. What does Zeldon's record as a lawmaker? What does it suggest so far about that? Well, Lee Zeldon was a lawmaker both in Congress and in the state Senate. He was in Congress from 2015 to 23 and he was in the State Senate from 2011 to 2014. He's got something of a mixed record on the environment. I mean, when he was in Congress, he was part of a bipartisan group that actually pushed back on President Trump's plan to drill for gas and oil offshore.

He signed on to this letter with Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, the New York Democratic senators to ask for New York to be exempt from that and particularly long eyes. island, Lee Zeldon's home, to be exempt from that offshore drilling push. But he's also, over the years, both in Congress and in the state Senate, gotten pretty bad grades from environmental organizations that regularly grade lawmakers on their environmental votes. And one of those was in 2011 when he first got into the state Senate, environmental advocates action gave him their, quote, oil slick award, which they give to the, the, worst senator on the environment every year. He got that because he was trying to repeal the MTA payroll tax, which was at the time and still helped pay for the MTA. Zeldon ran for governor in 2022, losing to Kathy Hockel. How did he campaign drown around environmental issues then?

Yeah, you're right. And he lost to Kathy Hockel, but only by five and a half points or so in a deep blue state like New York. and he is generally credited with having a solid run in a deep blue state. But on environmental issues, the big one that he campaigned on was fracking, fracking for natural gas. I mean, New York banned high volume fracking in 2014 under then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. And the state sits above the Marcellus shale, which is this gas dense rock formation

about a mile underneath the southern tier in New York. And he wanted to open that up. to fracking. That was his big push on gas production and the energy during his gubernatorial run. That's something that environmental groups really do not like. That's something that they pushed very hard for that ban in New York. So that's where one of the many areas where he's conflicted with some of New York's environmental organizations. John, less than a minute to go here, but I have to ask you this. There's been some reporting that Governor Hockel might be considering a move forward on congestion pricing before Trump takes office in

January. Do you anticipate Zeldon being the supportive efforts to make New York greener? Well, I certainly don't anticipate him being a supporter of congestion pricing because Donald Trump has made clear that he does not support congestion pricing. So, you know, Governor Hockel has suggested that she might want to get something in place by the end of the year or at least put forward her plan by the end of the year. And that might be a lower toll. But I do not anticipate Lee Zeldon supporting that. That said, there could be some other areas where he also conflicts with New York. That's something we're going to have to remain to be seen.

WNIC is John Campbell talking about the nomination of Lee Zeldon as EPA Administrator. Thanks, John. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast.

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