Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, February 3rd. Here's the midday news. I'm Janae Pierre. Flu cases are skyrocketing in New York City with this year's numbers surging well past peaks in previous years. The city's health department says there were over 23,000 confirmed cases of influenza as of January 25, the latest date for which data is available. That was 4% higher than the week prior.

Officials say New Yorkers 6 months and older should get vaccinated against the flu this season, if they haven't already. They say it's important for those who are at higher risk of severe, severe illness, such as young children, older adults, and pregnant people. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says President Trump's attempt to freeze federal funding could gut critical programs across the state.

Kirsten Gillibrand: Everything from law enforcement, firefighters, emergency response to infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, disaster relief, nutrition programs, child care, public schools, all are sustained every day by federal investments.

Janae Pierre: A pair of federal judges have temporarily halted the funding freeze ordered by the federal Office of Management and Budget last week. The Trump administration says they're still reviewing government spending. Gillibrand says she's unsure what the President will do next, but she argues he's directly targeting New Yorkers who rely on federally subsidized programs.

New Jersey ferry commuters can rejoice today. It's the first day of expanded rush hour ferry service between Central Jersey and Manhattan. The New York Waterway ferry will now take commuters from South Amboy in the Garden State to Pier 11 off of Wall Street. This adds to existing ferry stops at Brookfield Place and in midtown off of West 39th Street. Stay close, there's more after the break.

Local leaders from around the state are heading to Albany this week for what's known as 10 Cup Day. It's the day when municipal officials can appear before a joint state legislative budget hearing to make requests. Mayors from places like Syracuse, Buffalo, and, of course, New York City are all on the schedule. My colleague Tiffany Hansen spoke to WNYC's Albany reporter Jon Campbell to learn more.

Tiffany Hansen: All right, so Governor Hochul unveiled her $250 billion state budget proposal last month. That proposal does not include everything that some of these mayors might hope for, including Mayor Adams, right?

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. As far as we know, Mayor Adams will be there. He's on the list of people who requested to testify, and he's really the headline attraction. We don't know exactly what he's going to be looking for, but we can be sure it'll include more state money for the city in various forms. In past years, the Mayor has used his testimony to push for things like funding for migrant shelters and for public safety. This year, we already know the state is splitting the cost of putting police officers on every subway train overnight.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see the Mayor push for changes to the state's criminal justice laws, as he has in the past. The NYPD commissioner has been speaking out recently about the need to get tougher on repeat offenders. That could require changes to the state's bail reform laws. I'd expect to see the Mayor carry that mantle on Tuesday.

Tiffany Hansen: All right, well, Jon, mayors aren't the only ones who are looking for additional funding. MTA Chair Janno Lieber is expected in Albany later this week as well. With all of the projected income from congestion pricing, one might wonder what he could possibly be looking for at this point. I guess the follow up is, is he likely to get it?

Jon Campbell: Well, that's really the thing, Tiffany, that $9 toll on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th street is funding the MTA's last construction program. Now state leaders need to come up with billions of dollars more for the next construction program, which is a whole bunch of upgrades and repairs to the MTA's infrastructure over the coming years, a lot of it in rough shape.

Janno Lieber is going to be facing a lot of questions about that program and how much money he'll need to implement it. The governor's budget proposal, which you mentioned, does acknowledge the need for more money, but doesn't really have a specific proposal to make that happen. It's going to have to be some sort of recurring tax or fee, but whether that's a new fee or a hiking a current one, that remains to be seen.

By the way, there's another question here, too, Tiffany, and that is, how much money can the NCAA expect from President Trump's administration? That huge question mark, particularly as the President is weighing the possibility of putting a stop to congestion price.

Tiffany Hansen: Well, we've been talking about this budget hearing. We've been talking about Governor Hochul's proposed budget. Jon, just remind us what the steps are to actually get to a finalized budget, and, I guess, when will we see that final budget?

Jon Campbell: We're in the middle of budget hearings now. There will be more in the coming days, coming weeks. After that, the Senate and the assembly will put out their own proposals. From there, it's up to Governor Hochul and legislative leaders to actually negotiate the thing. The budget is due before the start of the state's fiscal year on April 1, but it is often late and likely will be this year as well.

Tiffany Hansen: All right. President Trump announced sweeping tariffs against Canada, Mexico, China. I guess I'm wondering if you think all sorts of goods coming into New York from Canada could be affected. Are we likely to see a slowdown in imports? I wonder if the state has any recourse against any of this.

Jon Campbell: Well, Tiffany, New York is a border state, so it's definitely going to cause some problems in New York. There's about $22 billion in Canadian imports across the state each year, that's according to the Canadian Consulate general in New York, who, by the way, is scheduled to make a trip to Albany, too. That covers everything from metals to cars to natural gas, oil. It really, at this point, remains to be seen if New York itself has any sort of recourse. Governor Hochul put out a statement late Friday night taking Republicans to task for these tariffs. She says it could boost electricity costs and building costs since a lot of builders rely on Canadian lumber.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC reporter Jon Campbell in conversation with my colleague, Tiffany Hansen. A month after police say four people opened fire outside a nightclub in Jamaica, Queens injuring 10 teenagers, police have made no arrests. The New Year's Day mass shooting was the third outside the Amazura nightclub in about a year. WNYC's Charles Lane looked into this and he joins me now. Charles, remind us what happened the day of the shooting.

Charles Lane: This club, Amazura, it's in Jamaica right next to the LIRR station there. It was a posthumous birthday celebration held for Tae'arion Mungo. Mungo was a 16-year-old who was shot and killed near his home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, last year, according to police. Investigators say that both the shooting of Mungo and the Amazura shooting on New Year's Day, they were related to a gang feud that they have linked to as many as seven separate shootings in northern Brooklyn.

Police say that Mungo's family had tried to book several other venues in Brooklyn for this celebration, but that they were turned away. They booked online at Amazura, and one of the club employees told me that no one ever told the club that Mungo was murdered. Now because of this, according to Amazura, notice of the event was never passed along to police.

Janae Pierre: This wasn't Amazura's only shooting recently, right?

Charles Lane: No, there were three shootings over the last year. The first one was in 2024, so a year ago, where someone was shot in the stomach, according to police. Then in April of 2024, there was another shooting where someone shot the owner in the ear and another person in the leg. Police haven't made any arrests on that one. After this April shooting, the city started a formal process meant to improve security at Amazura. The club was supposed to send a list of all events ahead of time to police. Then police would screen them for potential problems.

We don't know exactly what NYPD was screening for, but according to the club and according to police, after that screening, NYPD would then decide how many officers to station outside the club, or possibly tell Amazura to not host the event. According to the chief of Queens Patrol Bureau South, he said that had he known about the party and the relationship with this gang feud, he would have told the club that it's in their best interest not to host this celebration.

This probation process happened in April of 2024, but none of the protocols were followed for this birthday wake celebration on New Year's Day, so cops weren't there to either prevent something from happening or responding if something did. This is problematic. I talked to someone who was there that night, who was waiting on line to get into the party. His name is Jamere Bruno, and he happens to be an off duty EMT. Here's what he told me.

Jamere Bruno: The first EMS, I'd probably say, oh, man, 11, 12, maybe even 13 minutes from when I called 911. Yes, it was very scary, honestly. It was very scary.

Charles Lane: Bruno said that one of his patients that night was shot multiple times in the leg and losing lots of blood. Bruno said that if he wasn't there, she probably would not have survived.

Janae Pierre: To recap here, Charles, one shooting happened last January of 2024. Months later, a second shooting in April, and that led to some type of probation, which didn't stop that third shooting that happened on New Year's Day. What happens next?

Charles Lane: The club appears to be getting another chance at this probation process. After the New Year's Day mass shooting, the mayor's office, NYPD, and the club owners, they all met to figure out what went wrong and they came up with a plan identical to the previous plan, which is Amazura is supposed to provide a list of events ahead of time so that police can screen them.

Janae Pierre: Do we know where police are in their investigation? Also, what has Amazura said about all of this?

Charles Lane: NYPD didn't officially respond. We had to piece information together from public comments that officials made at community meetings. They said that the system that they had put in place failed because the club didn't follow the protocol that the city set up. They said the investigators are working hard and that they uncovered a car with New Jersey plates and that there was some physical evidence in the car, but they haven't said anything more than that. Police did release images of the four shooters, but that did not result in any tips coming in, according to police.

Amazura's owners, they didn't respond to multiple messages, but I did talk to an employee and they said that the entire club was surprised at the shooting, and that they had no reason to suspect violence because it was booked as a wake and not as a party. The employee also questioned why they were being held responsible for shooting that happened outside the club. He compared it to, if there was a shooting outside Madison Square Garden, would they be responsible for that shooting?

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Charles Lane. Thanks so much, Charles.

Charles Lane: No, thank you.

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. 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. See you this evening.

 

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