NYC NOW - September 11, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t appear on New York’s presidential ballot after the state’s top court declined to hear his appeal. Meanwhile, construction has begun on a new mile-and-a-half bike lane in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, one of several planned across the city. Plus, September has been tough month for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, with federal agents raiding the homes of some of his appointed officials in what appears to be separate investigations. WNYC’s Brigid Bergin breaks it all down. Finally, to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we look at the law enforcement officers who have died from 9/11-related illnesses. WNYC’s Michael Hill speaks with Dr. Iris Udasin, medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at Rutgers University, and former Secret Service member and first responder Michael Vaiani, to discuss the long-term health impacts 9/11 survivors are facing and efforts to get them the care they need.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, September 11th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not be on New York's presidential ballot. As WNYC's John Campbell reports, the state's top court declined to hear the former candidate's appeal. Kennedy dropped his independent presidential bid weeks ago, but he was still trying to get on the ballot in the state. he called home for decades.

But the courts ruled Kennedy didn't actually live at the Westchester address he listed on his ballot petitions. He tried to take his case to the state court of appeals, but the seven judge panel didn't have to take it on since the lower court was unanimous. Kennedy also tried to get a federal judge to intervene, but the judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction. The state board of elections will finalize the ballot this week. Work has begun on a new protected bike lane in Bedstay, Brooklyn.

The mile and a half-long bike lane along Bedford Avenue between Dean Street and Flushing Avenue is one of several the city transportation department plans to install across the boroughs. There will also be a new pedestrian island in loading zones. Crews plan to complete the entire redesign by the end of the year. 74 degrees, this is WNYC. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, Michael Hill. It has been a tough month for Mayor Adams and his deputy mayors, his schools chancellor, and his police commissioner.

Those officials were all rated by federal agents in a set of investigations that appear to be separate from other federal investigations into the mayor and his 2021 mayoral campaign. Here to help us make sense of it is WNYC's senior politics reporter Bridget Bergen. Bridget, a lot of territory to cover here, so let's get started. So schools chancellor David Banks and his deputy mayor for public safety, Philip Banks, his brother, had their home searched last week. But tell us more about the third brother under investigation, Terence Banks. Well, Michael, he's Phil and David Banks younger brother. And for years, he was a policy supervisor of it, the MTA. But he left that job last year and started a consulting firm called Pearl Alliance, which said it deals with some pretty major government contractors.

other outlets like the New York Daily News have been scrutinizing why he failed to register as a lobbyist when he should have, because that's essentially it sounds like the work he was trying to do, plus how he started the firm while he was still working for the government. Terence Banks worked for the MTA at one point, but what did he have to do with the Adams campaign? Well, he helped them raise a whole lot of money. He hosted five fundraisers. His brother Phil donated at one of them, and his other brother, David, co-hosted others. Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor and David's partner, was also a co-host. But in total, Terrence Banks helped the Adams campaign earn over $90,000. And that's before matching funds from the campaign finance board.

Now, to be clear, no one in the extended bank's family has been accused of a crime. But you've been digging into some of the details of a campaign finance audit of Mayor Adams' first campaign for mayor. That was in 2021. Tell us by what you found, and what that has to do with Terrence Banks. Well, so of those five events I mentioned, three of them appear totally above board, though Sheena and David Wright did donate more money to the Adams campaign than they should have, had to give some back. But there were two fundraisers that got flagged by the city's campaign finance board in that audit

for failing to file proper documentation. One was a so-called house party. That was back in May 2021. campaign finance records listed as the Shango slash Terry House Party. There's an educator named Dr. Shango Blake who donated to the mayor's campaign, but didn't respond to my calls, text emails yesterday about whether he co-hosted that event. But that fundraiser raised more than $4,000 from 15 donors. That means that the host likely should have been identified as an intermediary.

And that's someone who is raising bundles of donations for a candidate. All House Party hosts who raise or spend more than $500 to host an event like that are supposed to identify themselves as intermediaries. And that's so that we the public know who is trying to influence the candidate. The other event that raised 10 times that amount of money, Michael, it was at a place called the Preserve at Woodlands. It was in August 2021. And now remember, that's after Adams had won the June primary and was favored to where, the general election. That event raised $42,000 from 62 donations, and again, before matching funds. The Campaign Finance Board cited that event as an unreported in-kind donation because the campaign

didn't report who paid for the event and the expenses associated with it. And, you know, at this point, it's still kind of unclear where the event was actually held. There is a high-end housing development in Martha's Vineyard by the same name, the Preservant Woodlands. And the New York Times at that time reported that he was holding fundraisers there. But we did not get an answer from the campaign or from the Campaign Finance Board about the specifics. Now, we've heard from the mayor on some of these investigations, but how has Terence Banks responded? Well, his attorney Tim Sini, who's the former Suffolk County District Attorney and Police Commissioner told the Daily news that federal investigators said he was not the target of their investigation. And Cini was

traveling through Thursday. He has not responded to Gothamist's request for additional comment about these other events. How has the mayor responded, Bridget? Well, you know, his campaign attorney didn't respond to our questions about these fundraising events yesterday. But as we've heard from the mayor, he continues to insist he's going to stay focused. He's going to let the various investigations play out. He doesn't think they've done anything wrong. And quickly, Bridget, just a couple of seconds. And while we're added, what's the later from Deputy Mayor, Phil Banks, Schools Chancellor, David Banks, and Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright? They have all said through either their spokesmen's or, you know, said publicly that they

have done nothing wrong, that they think that they will be cleared, but they're cooperating with investigators. Doublely MEC's Bridget, Bergen, helping us stay on top of everything going on around the Adams administration. Bridget, as always, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On this day in 2001, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan killed nearly 3,000 people and changed New York and the world as we knew it. 23 years out from that day, more law enforcement officers have died from 9-11 related illnesses

than were killed on the day itself. Our next guest has been caring for thousands of first responders who were in and around ground zero that day and the days that followed since 2003. Now she's getting a major recognition for it. Dr. Iris Udison has a professor and medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at Rutgers Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute's Clinical Center. She was presented with the Service Above Self Award from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Foundation

today at the 9-11 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Also joining us is Michael Viani of Wall Township, New Jersey. He's a former member of the Secret Service. a survivor of the attacks. He became a patient at the Rutgers World Trade Center Clinic in 2008. Dr. Uderson, let's start with you. Thank you so much. So 23 years later, there are still people who were in Lower Manhattan that day who might have sicknesses appearing. Now, how often do you get new patients at the clinic and what kinds of ailments are they coming in with? We have several new patients a month. In the beginning, we saw a mainly acute.

respiratory things like asthma and sinus problems. While we do see those problems, they're more chronic and people are being treated for them and hopefully in the most cases we're able to stabilize those conditions. Cancers that we saw were the blood cancers, hematopoetic malignancies, but what's called a solid cancer, something like colon cancer or lung cancer, takes many years to show itself. Also, we saw a lot of acute musculoskeletal problems right away from people that did all kinds of work to rescue other people, going through all kinds of awkward construction material to get to people. What about the mental and emotional impacts of 9-11?

Yes, every year it's traumatic for every month. to think about what happened there. And for those people who are actually there and live through it, it's even worse. Something on television can set them off. Some of whom have gone into treatment right away and other people because people are generally reluctant to take care of themselves. Michael, what made you realize that you needed medical help? I had my cervical spine fused after 9-11 and both shoulders had to be, you know, repaired.

20 years or later, they had told me, hey, there's a good chance you'll have to have that. You'll have to have your spine refused again. So I started to experience some symptoms. And text Dr. Utison and said, hey, I've got some things going on symptom-wise. As she said to me in the office that morning, this is a neurological emergency now. You're going to have to have surgery. And within 24 hours, I was on the table. Michael, what do you say to your fellow Hearst responders who may also be struggling with some kind of sickness related to the 9-11 attacks but might still be hesitant, reluctant to get help? You have to advocate for yourself.

You know, it's worth taking the time to apply and go get seen. I hear the guy say to me last week, he says, you know, Doc, going into a dark alley, getting the bad guy that I can do. going for a colonoscopy of an MRI really scares me. And I wouldn't have done it if you didn't force me to go for it. So Mike knows how I spend a lot of time talking about whatever it is I can talk about to get these guys to go for tests. And because of that, we put Mike back together because if he waited any longer, He would have been in big trouble, but also we found many of these cancers at stages

where you can actually do something about it. Dr. Udison, congratulations on the recognition, and thank you very much. Our guests have been Dr. Iris Uderson, medical director of the World Trade Center, a health program. It's at Rutgers Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute's Clinical Center, and Michael Vionni, a former member of the Secret Service, and a survivor of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th. Thank you, Bill.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. 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. See you this evening.