NYC NOW - November 2, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Uber and Lyft drivers in New York are set to get hundreds of millions in back pay as part of a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General's Office. Also, New York City is getting $280-thousand dollars to expand a vaping prevention program in public schools. Finally, A local Republican-led effort to expel George Santos has failed. It's the second time the embattled Santos has survived an attempt to kick him out of the chamber. WNYC’s senior politics reporter Brigid Bergin joins our own Michael Hill to unpack what this all means.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, November 2nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Uber and lift drivers in New York are about to get hundreds of millions of dollars in back pay. WNMEC's John Campbell reports about the settlements with the New York Attorney General's office. Attorney General Letitia James says the two ride share companies, companies will pay a combined $328 million to settle state investigations into their pay practices.

The AG's office says Uber and Lyft illegally withheld sales tax and certain fees from their driver's pay over the course of several years, fees that were supposed to be paid by passengers. Now, those drivers will be entitled to back pay, but they'll have to file a claim. James says the companies will also be required to provide paid sick leave for drivers statewide. New York City is getting $280,000 to expand a vaping prevention program in public schools. Chris Osorio is the dean at Eastside Community High School in Manhattan. He says schools have largely treated vaping as a disciplinary issue, but he says the e-cigarettes issue sorely needs education. I don't have to preach to you about this how overworked teachers are already.

So any support from the city where there is a curriculum that is already built, that we can tweak if need be, would be super, super helpful. Catch My Breath is in partnership with a nonprofit that will train 180 teachers on the curriculum. 46 with sunshine now, sunny and 49 for a hot day with a light wind, clear in chilly once again tonight, down near 40 in the city, tomorrow Sunday and 56, and it looks like a rain-free weekend, Saturday and Sunday, partly sunny and 61. George Santos, will continue to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for the foreseeable future.

A local Republican-led effort to expel Santos was torpedoed late last night by Santos's house colleagues. It's the second time the embattled Santos has survived an attempt to kick him out of the chamber. Join us now to unpack what this all means is WNYC's senior politics reporter Bridget Burgin. So Bridget, it was Representative Anthony Di Esposito who drafted this measure that would have expelled Santos. He too, of course, is a Republican who represents Long Island. But most Republicans and some Democrats did not go along with this resolution. Would you tell us more about how the vote went down? Sure. So the measure was voted down to 13 to 179, largely down party lines. Two dozen Republicans actually crossed party lines to vote in favor of expelling Santos and

31 Democrats sided with Republicans to block the expulsion. It needed a two-thirds majority. to pass. Here's a little bit of Representative De Esposito making his case on the House floor for why he introduced the expulsion measure in the first place. All you have to do is look at the lies and deceptions in the resolution and details of the indictments, multiple indictments, to see that Mr. Santos is a stain on this institution and not fit to serve his constituents in the House of Representatives. He went on to point out that the guilty plea that Santos's campaign treasurer entered Nancy Marks. She was accused of conspiring with him to help commit several of the campaign finance-related crimes.

He also mentioned the recent update from the Bipartisan Health Ethics Committee, which is investigating Santos, that indicated that they are wrapping up their work and expect to have a recommendation for next steps on or before November 17th. after it failed, Di Esposito said he was disappointed, but also hopeful that the upcoming report from that ethics committee will confirm the allegations and the indictments. And Michael, keep in mind, ultimately, we're approaching the next election cycle. And Santos is just, he's bad news for Republicans. So part of this was all about some of the most vulnerable members getting themselves on the record against him. Santos survives in the House another day, but still is facing nearly two dozen campaign-related fraud charges.

He pleaded not guilty, of course, and his trial is slated to begin in September. How was Santos responding to the news, and what did he have to say last night? Well, before the vote, he took to the floor to defend himself. He accused his colleagues of trying to capitalize on the cases against him to boost fundraising and they're standing among people who oppose him. He argued that they couldn't be pro-constitution if they were denying him his right to do process. And he warned that voting for this resolution before he's been convicted could say, set a really dangerous precedent. There have only been five members of the House who have been

expelled. Two of them were convicted of crimes and three of them were traitors during the Civil War. But this is what Santos said during the debate yesterday. I hope that the House will understand the scope of this vote and have the courage to do what is right, not what is politically expedient. I stand firmly in my innocence and my passion to represent the people of New York's third district as the voters would have, if the voters would continue to have me. Now, Michael, after the vote failed, Santos went on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a lot of responses. The first post he made has since been deleted, and it showed a picture of him with a crown, superimposed over a picture of the house, and then the message, if you come

for me, you best not miss, superimposed over the photo. So a little bit of gloating. He also went on to say that this was a victory for the Constitution. And A for Bravado, I would say. We focus a lot on Santos and his status in the House because he represents parts of Long Island and Queens. But a number of the representatives pushing to Al Santos are from listeners districts as well, such as Diazpizito, who we mentioned earlier and Nick La Lolauda, as well as a number of Democrats.

How are they responding to the news? And might there be political fallout for any of them in the next year's election, with Santos still facing criminal charges? Yeah, I mean, New York Republicans and Democrats know that Santos is a problem. For Republicans, he's a liability, and for Democrats, he's a target. In a somewhat unusual move yesterday, during that floor debate, Santos actually yielded time to Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman, who took to the floor debate, and he used that time to call for Santos to be expelled, but really also to attack Republican members who he said

were essentially late to the party who should have been pushing for Santos's ouster back in May when Democrats originally had introduced a motion that would have done that. In terms of the fallout, I think, you know, this is going to be something that haunts all of these folks into the next election cycle. Now that Santos has survived a second attempt to expel them from the chamber, what happens now? Well, I mentioned that bipartisan health ethics committee report. They are wrapping things up, they put out a statement saying they've contacted 40 witnesses, reviewed 170,000 pages of documents, issued 37 subpoena. So a lot of work there. They're going to announce their next steps on or before November 17th. That could include recommending sanctions that

include reprimand or even expulsion. They still would need to be voted on by the House. And that would mean about 77 Republicans joining with all the Democrats if Democrats all supported. If that report substantiates the findings of some of these indictments, there is also a chance that some of those Democrats who were reluctant to expel him before he'd been convicted might reconsider it. That whole idea of precedent was a big issue during the debate. And of course, the criminal case against Santos is ongoing. There's a status conference in December. The trial's set to start next September right before the election. And so this will continue to be a shadow over some of these members, if Santos is still in office. He says he's running again. At this point,

it doesn't seem like he has a very strong base. He's got some folks who want to primary him, but a lot to watch between now and next September. Indeed. I wonder if some Democrats want to leave Santos around as a political pinata. I wonder about that. Exactly. Double in my C's Bridgett, Bergen, who's been following everything going on with George Santos. Bridget, thank you so much. Thanks, Michael. 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.

We'll be back this evening.