Episode 54: October 24-30, 2021

October 24-30, 2021

Good afternoon, I’m Dennis Futoryan, and this is the 25th hour, helping you remember everything that happened beyond the 24/7 news cycle. Now, in this week’s episode for the week of October 24-30, 2021, Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa had their final debate ahead of next week’s election, cops, firefighters, and sanitation workers are protesting vaccine mandates by not working, State Attorney General Letitia James officially announces her run for Governor, and Biden lands in Europe without an infrastructure proposal voted on in Congress. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

De Blasio

• COVID
  • Ever since Pfizer’s vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds was approved, de Blasio said that the City will begin giving out vaccines for that age group within days. 
  • NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea implored the police force to get their vaccinations by November 2nd, the deadline imposed by the Mayor. At least 73% of the force got one shot. The PBA sued against the mandate in court, saying the City should have kept the option for cops to get weekly tests, but were also recently shot down by Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Lizette Colon, who said that cops must get their shots in order to keep getting paid. Thousands of municipal workers, including cops, firefighters, and sanitation workers, protested against the mandate this week, chanting “We Will Not Comply.” The week has also seen what agencies are calling a “limited work action,” where Sanitation workers aren’t picking up garbage on their routes and a good number of firefighters have called out sick, forcing the closure of a few firehouses throughout the City. Agency heads released statements decrying the moves while union heads denied anything coordinated was going on. De Blasio said that days off for sanitation workers were cancelled, and workers are being called in on Sundays to particularly pick up mounds of trash left in Staten Island. 
  • Despite the protests, a huge number of municipal workers went to get their vaccines in droves ahead of the deadline, with more than 15k employees getting their shots last week. 33k workers were told to stay home on Monday.
• Elections
  • Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa faced off in their final debate before Election Day, with the main highlights being the sheer unremarkable nature of the thing. Sliwa did, however, weirdly question the citizenship of one of Adams’ biggest surrogates, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez’s citizenship, even though Ydanis is an American.
  • Sliwa would get hit by a cab days later, breaking his arm in the fall. He’s already out and about and is expected to make a recovery.
  • Eric Adams picked up the official endorsements of the Governor Kathy Hochul and Senator Chuck Schumer at a rally this week.
  • The City’s activist groups are at odds over the five proposals that are set to be on the ballot, ranging from redistricting to increasing the financial jurisdiction of the city’s Civil Court. In particular, Common Cause NY and the state League of Women Voters are split over Proposition 1, which would seek to put redistricting decisions into the hands of the Legislature rather than an Independent Redistricting Commission. 
• School
  • School enrollment numbers came out, showing that 938k students are enrolled in public schools, down from 955k last year. Last year’s decline was worse at 4.7%, and charter school enrollment increased 3.2% this year.
• Crime
  • Drivers with fake license plates are getting an increasing number of tickets by the NYPD, ever since the police department started cracking down on unsafe driving.
  • The Manhattan DA’s office has charged the former bursar for the City College of New York for stealing $500k in student checks and using them for trips to Italy and Aruba, as well as for purchasing luxury items.
• Environment:
  • You may remember we had a Nor’Easter at the start of the week. The City was blanketed by rain for a little while, while the Governor announced a state of emergency. At least here in the City, it was much ado about nothing. In the Northeast generally, however, the storm left 600k without power.
  • The federal Environmental Protection Agency has announced a civil rights investigation into a natural gas pipeline project in Brooklyn that has been the subject of environmental racism accusations. The EPA said it’ll look into whether the state Department of Environmental Conservation violated the law by not considering an environmental review of National Grid’s North Brooklyn pipeline project.
• Development:
  • Those waiting for a monument for the late Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm will still have to hold their breath, as the design process resumed after a COVID slog, but an ETA for the monument isn’t forthcoming soon.
  • The Trump Organization keeps sticking their nose up at the de Blasio administration for taking their golf course contract for Ferry Point, after news was released showing one contractor was turned down because the City refused to legally shield the contractor from being sued by the former President.
  • A bike storage pod may be incoming at Grand Central, and 10k new bike racks, according to the MTA.
  • The MTA also announced a pilot program that would convert single-ride Metrocard passes to unlimited rides if riders spend enough money, called “fare capping.”
  • De Blasio and Parks Commissioner Gabrielle Fialkoff announced a $425m infusion of funding for the City’s parks this week, with the money being used for renovation or for the parks to be rebuilt.

Council

• Queens Councilman Bob Holden filed an ethics complaint against Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz this week after Cruz cursed Holden out. Why, do you ask? During a Council committee hearing two weeks ago, Cruz testified that hospitals “allegedly” save lives because patients get billed thousands of dollars, while Holden pushed back on the assertion. 
• In this week’s drag news, City Councilmembers Jimmy Van Bramer, Carlos Menchaca, and Ben Kallos introduced a bill that would allow the City’s nightlife czar to appoint a “drag laureate,” who would oversee the City’s drag performance industry. 
• South Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan had to point out that he was just an intern at Advanced Equities, a venture capital firm that has just seen itself shut down for misleading investors. Brannan is vying for the Council Speaker position, which will be voted on by fellow members in secret.

Hochul

• COVID
  • The 2nd Circuit Court of APpeals struck down a temporary injunction against implementing a vaccine mandate against state health care workers without a religious exemption this week. Workers with medical exemptions can still opt out of the vaccine.
• Elections
  • It's official: State Attorney General Letitia James has announced her run for Governor of New York on Friday. James’ run was highly anticipated, setting up a battle between her and the current Governor Kathy Hochul, who took over from Andrew Cuomo after he resigned in disgrace for sexual assault allegations and scandals related to his handling of the COVID pandemic. James said that she has the experience and vision for the job, and would focus on jobs, healthcare, the environment, affordable housing, and schools.
  • And although he’s still acting coy about it, note the sarcasm, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams filed official paperwork to run for Governor as he runs for re-election for his current seat. We recently interviewed Williams, so make sure to hear that on our website. 
  • Former gubernatorial candidate and current law professor Zephyr Teachout fulfilled her promise to run for Attorney General if Letitia James announces a gubernatorial run by filing paperwork showing her intention to run for the position. 
• Economy:
  • The state’s pension fund has pulled $111m in investments into Ben & Jerry’s for the company’s announcement that it wouldn’t sell its ice cream in the occupied territories in Israel.
  • The Governor has tapped two business leaders to take up influential spots in the state’s Empire State Development Corp. Kevin Law, the former CEO of the Long Island Association, a business group, will serve as Board Chairman, and Hope Knight, the CEO of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. of Queens, will serve as the CEO of Empire State.
• School
  • The State Education Department said that it’s not releasing numbers about last year’s statewide assessments for third-eighth graders because of the inconsistent data collected thanks to the pandemic. 
  • Students who may have been exposed to COVID should remain in school and avoid quarantining by doing daily rapid COVID tests, according to the Health Department in new guidance. 
• Crime
  • State trooper Christopher Baldner was charged with murder, manslaughter and reckless endangerment stemming from a December 2020 incident in which Baldner rammed his police cruiser into 11-year old Monica Goods’ overturned vehicle, containing her entire family, and killing Goods. Goods’ car flipped over after Baldner pepper sprayed the inside of her car, leading Goods’ father to speed off, and flip over once Baldner hit the Goods car a second time. 
  • With the decrease of incarcerated people in New York, Governor Hochul said that instead of closing down prisons, she’s going to convert them to facilities that help those with substance abuse issues. 
  • And speaking of former Governor Cuomo, he was charged this week in Albany for groping his former aide, Brittany Commisso in the Executive Mansion, one of the 11 or so sexual assault allegations against him. The criminal complaint said that Cuomo groped his aide to gratify his sexual desires. Meanwhile, Rita Glavin, Cuomo’s lawyer, denied the allegations and said the complaint was “politics,” and not “professional law enforcement.” The Albany County DA’s office later said that it hadn’t coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office before the complaint was filed. Cuomo will be seen taking his mugshot next month.
  • Hochul signed a series of bills aimed at cracking down on gun violence. The bills would go after so-called ghost guns, manufactured with 3D-printed parts.
  • The Governor also vetoed a number of bills, including one that would have allowed special education providers to keep leftover federal PPP loan money.
• Conflicts of interest:
  • Hochul’s administration released a series of memos that detailed how the Governor and Lt. Governor are going to handle recusing themselves from work that can involve potential conflicts of interest, including Hochul’s husband, who serves as Executive VP and General Counsel of hospitality company Delaware North, which has a lot of business with the state.
• Development
• Transportation
• Sports:
  • The Governor vetoed a bill that would have let married horse jockeys ride in the same race, rationalizing that even before there was a gaming commission, racing tracks prevented married jockeys from racing together for betting reasons. 
• Erie
  • When Erie County lawmaker Betty Jean Grant started recording a Facebook Live video inside a polling place, she probably thought nothing of it. But now, the Erie County DAs office is looking into the episode for alleged voter intimidation, as the video shows Grant watching a voter in a wheelchair cast their vote with the help of another woman, with Grant calling the conduct illegal.
  • Elsewhere in Erie, Executive Mark Poloncarz won’t give those wanting more information on negotiations for a new Buffalo Bills stadium any news, as Poloncarz said he wouldn’t be meeting with the Legislature to talk about the deal.
• Nassau:
  • The legislature in Nassau County may be Republican but there weren’t enough to override Executive Laura Curran’s vetoes on her $3.5b budget proposal this week, clearing the budget’s way out of the legislative chamber, and is now going to the Nassau Interim Finance Authority for approval. According to Newsday, “Curran's 2022 budget plan would boost public safety spending by $45 million, adding 70 positions to the police and probation departments, the sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies, and also plans to cut $70 million in county property taxes.”
• Buffalo:
  • Despite losing the primary and losing a lawsuit that would have provided access to the ballot, incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown’s write-in campaign has him ahead of Democratic Socialist India Walton by 17 points, according to an Emerson College poll.

State Legislature

State Judiciary

• Eric Garner case:
  • Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards shot down a request by Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr to call the Department Advocate’s Office, which prosecutes internal disciplinary cases, to testify about how it handled Officer Daniel Pantaleo’s disciplinary charges after he put Eric Garner in a chokehold, killing him. The request was made after NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Internal Affairs Joseph Reznick testified he doesn’t know how the case was handled after it was given to the Department Advocate. It’s not clear why Judge Edwards denied the request. Carr is represented by Alvin Bragg, who has a general election next week hoping to become the next Manhattan DA after already winning the Democratic primary.

Biden

Domestic

• COVID:
  • Dr. Fauci and Rand Paul are at it again. After Senator Paul said Dr. Fauci should be fired for allegedly lying to the public about the National Institutes of Health funding what’s called “gain of function” research in Wuhan, China, ground zero for COVID, Fauci said he completely disagrees with Paul, and said that it is “molecularly impossible” that the type of research caused COVID. 
  • In one of the largest clinical trials testing the effect of antidepressants against COVID, the drug fluvoxamine significantly reduced the chance of hospitalization for those who were infected with COVID. 
  • The FDA approved Pfizer’s vaccine for children ages 5-11, greenlighting vaccinations for 28 million kids. The CDC is expected to give a final sign of approval on November 2nd. In the meantime, Moderna released trial data showing their vaccine is safe and effective for kids 6-11, with the company saying it’ll submit the data to the FDA for approval.
  • Vaccinated foreign travelers will have to follow new rules starting November 8th, letting in fully vaccinated adults into the country as long as they show proof of a FDA or WHO-approved vaccination before boarding their flights, as well as a negative COVID test three days out from their flight. Kids under 18 are exempt from the vaccination requirement but will have to show a negative test.
• Health:
  • The FDA also gave out more warnings to patients who seek breast implants, with the agency issuing orders for manufacturers and surgeons to give patients warnings about the procedure’s complications, such as rupture and potentially even cancer. The agency’s guidance comes after years of activist outcry of the side effects of breast implants.
• Infrastructure:
  • Negotiations continue for the human infrastructure bill that’s part of the President’s Build Back Better agenda, with Biden inviting moderate Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to his house in Delaware. One important policy to Democrats, paid parental leave, is set to be eliminated if Manchin has his way, with Health Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand having cornered Manchin on the Senate chamber to get him to change his mind. Other sticking points in the negotiations are expanded Medicare benefits, including dental and vision, negotiating lower drug prices, a tax on billionaires, and certain climate change provisions. Later in the week, Biden announced that a framework has been reached on a $1.75m human infrastructure proposal, which Manchin signaled he would vote for. The House was supposed to vote on the proposal, but progressives delayed the plan, asking for actual legislative text. 
• Immigration:
  • After a federal judge ordered it, the Biden administration relaunched the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy which forces asylum seekers into the US to wait for their cases to be processed in Mexico, which critics have derided as inhumane and possibly against international refugee law. Although the law has kept more people out, according to a memo by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, he said that there are better ways to handle asylum applications that won’t come at such a human cost. 
  • Internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows that ICE arrests dropped after Biden began his administration, with 72k arrests being made in fiscal year 2021, half of the total arrests made during Trump’s tenure.
• Economy:
  • The US economy slowed last quarter to an annual 2% rate, according to the Commerce Department, with economists having predicted a 2.8% rate, as spending drags because of the Delta variant.
  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that inflation will get better by the middle or end of next year, citing the shock of COVID to the economy. 
• Charleston:
  • The Department of Justice has settled a lawsuit with the families of those shot in a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. The families of the nine victims sued the FBI, claiming the agency negligently allowed the shooter to purchase a gun when their background check system failed to prevent its purchase because the shooter’s felony conviction didn’t come up. The families of the victims will receive $63m while survivors will get $25m.
• Drug overdoses:
  • Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services Secretary, announced a new strategy to prevent drug overdoses, which would limit unnecessary prescriptions, expand treatment based on other medications, give addicts support, and distribute clean needles to prevent more harm. A recent HHS report said that the number of overdose deaths in the US neared 100,000 a year.

Foreign

• G20:
  • The President went off on his foreign trip, first to Rome for the G20 summit, named for the top 20 economies in the world, before going off to Glasgow for the COP26 environmental summit. Biden was hoping to land in Europe with his infrastructure deal already in the final stages but it wasn’t close to a deal yet. In Rome, Biden met with Pope Francis, where the two reportedly talked about the pandemic and how to help the poor. Answering a reporter’s question whether the topic of abortion came up, Biden said the Pope told him that he is a “good Catholic” and that he should keep receiving communion. There is currently a debate within Catholic circles whether Biden should keep receiving the bread and wine that are used as Jesus’ body in a service called Communion, for being pro-choice. Then, Biden met with French President Emmanual Macron, weeks after a rare diplomatic row between the two countries since the US announced a deal to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia to counter China, despite Australia already having a deal with France which isn’t going to happen now. Biden said the way the deal had gone about was “clumsy”, “wasn’t done with a lot of grace”, and was now hoping to get the relationship between the US and France back on track. The leaders of the G20 also supported a 15% global minimum tax on corporations to prevent tax havens, discussed climate change, and announced plans to globally coordinate against any potential future pandemic. 
• Iran:
  • Ali Bagheri Kani, the new Iranian negotiator of the nuclear deal, said that the country is going to come back for talks on how to renew the nuclear deal struck in 2015 to limit Iran’s nuclear capacity in exchange for sanctions relief that Trump pulled out of during his Presidency. Kani said Iran agrees to restart talks by the end of November.
• China:
  • Despite saying that their hypersonic missiles were actually just satellites, General Mark Milley called China’s missile tests a Sputnik moment, referring to when the Soviet Union launched their first missile before precipitating an arms race. Milley’s comments showed that American officials were surprised at the Chinese capability.
• Sudan:
  • The US has halted foreign aid to Sudan after the country’s military leaders suspended the civilian government, took their Prime Minister to an undisclosed location, and announced military rule in what observers call a coup. Sudanese protests overthrew the former ruler Omar al-Bashir two years ago, setting up a transitional government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdock.
• Afghanistan:
  • Biden announced a new program on Monday that would let private citizens sponsor Afghan refugees, trying to supplement the weak resettlement response after the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban. “Sponsor circles” can be formed by groups of people to provide housing, food, and clothing, with companies like Airbnb also participating. 

Congress

House

• More and more members of Congress are reporting their stock sales and purchases at a delayed rate, arguably violating the STOCK Act. Democratic Representative Suzan DelBene disclosed, 6 weeks after the fact, her husband’s sale of $5 to $25m of Microsoft stock. 
• Republican Representative from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger, who has found himself alongside Liz Cheney to be the biggest thorns in former President Trump’s side when he voted to impeach Trump and then later join the January 6th Commission, announced that he is not going to run for re-election. Kinzinger cited the intense partisanship that has grinded Congress to a halt. He would also have to face a tough primary against another Republican Congressman, Darin LaHood, after their districts were redrawn by the Illinois legislature.
• Kinzinger isn’t the real issue for Democrats, as they continue to retire in waves ahead of the ‘22 midterms. The latest and 14th Democrat to go is Rep. Anthony Brown, who opted to run in his state of Maryland’s attorney general race.
• Two organizers of the rally that immediately precipitated the January 6th insurrection told lawmakers in the January 6th Committee that a number of lawmakers were intimately involved with Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and with the rally before the riot. Organizers told Rolling Stone magazine that Republicans Majorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Briggs, and Louie Gohmert and their top staff participated in conversations.

Senate

• The leaders of YouTube, Snap, and TikTok were all questioned at a Senate hearing this past week regarding how the companies handle data privacy, negative posts, and how their algorithms push kids to inappropriate content. Despite the leaders saying they take child safety seriously, Senate staff said they were able to access inappropriate content easily when they made teenage profiles.

Federal Courts

• The Supreme Court decided to let a vaccine mandate against Maine health care workers stay in place on Friday. A majority of the justices didn’t issue a majority opinion for the emergency ruling, but concurrences by Justices Barrett and Kavanaugh say the Court shouldn’t block the ruling without oral arguments, and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented, citing the lack of religious exemptions.
• The Court also announced it is going to take up a case that could potentially stop the EPA from limiting greenhouse gases from power plants. 
• DC District Court judge Beryl Howell admonished the Department of Justice for what she called as “schizophrenic” prosecution of January 6th rioters after she sentenced one rioter, Jack Griffith, to three years in jail for his role in the event. Howell said that the way the DOJ sought plea deals with some rioters go against the message that the DOJ is saying at the same time, that January 6th was the worst attack on our democracy, while at the same time it was seeking deals with those who characterized their presence as merely trespassing on government property.
• A federal civil trial has started in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was the sight of a “Unite the Right” rally involving chants of “Jews will not replace us” by neo-Nazis before seeing the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer when she was hit by a car driven by one of the neo-Nazis. The plaintiffs in the case are accusing the rally organizers of planning for the rally to become violent, while the defendants are saying that any violence was borne from self-defense.

National

• COVID
• Facebook:
  • The biggest social media site, Facebook, is now Meta, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who announced the rebranding in a video. The move is being done in the midst of back-to-back scandals criticizing the company as being dismissive of pushing extremist views on users and shunning the safety of kids using the platform. The whistleblower responsible for this latest round of criticism against Facebook, Frances Haugen, testified in front of UK lawmakers this past week, saying that Facebook perpetuates hate speech.
• Capital punishment
  • One of the first prisoners to undergo capital punishment ever since Oklahoma ended a moratorium on lethal injections ended up throwing up and seizing after being given a sedative during their execution. One of the most frequent criticisms of lethal injections are the ways prisoners have side effects from the lethal drugs, but the state’s prison director, Scott Crow, said those side effects are normal.
• Fetty Wap:
  • The rapper Fetty Wap was arrested in New York this week for allegedly being part of a drug ring. 
• Rust:
  • Investigators looking into the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin when he was given a hot gun said that Hutchins was killed by a lead bullet, which was one of the 500 rounds of ammunition seized from the Rust movie set. Assistant Director Dave Hall handed the gun to Baldwin and said it was a cold, or unloaded, gun, and when Baldwin rehearsed a certain shooting maneuver, the gun discharged, shooting Hutchins and director Joel Souza, who survived.

And that’s it for this week’s show of THE 25TH HOUR, helping you stay on top of the 24/7 news cycle. Don’t forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts, share us with your friends, and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You can email your tips and suggestions at the25thhournews@gmail.com and become a Patron today for as low as $2 a month to support the show at patreon.com/the25thhournews! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.