City Delays In-Person Learning + WFP Fights for Ballot Line

LOCAL NEWS:

• Just five days before City schools were scheduled to reopen for in-person learning, the Department of Education announced a new plan for staggered reopenings. 
• The Federation for Protestant Welfare Agencies found that federal aid to NYC has dropped by nearly $2 billion since 2010.
• Three years have passed since the State’s Raise the Age legislation took effect, but observers are still reporting racial disparities and an over-reliance on youth detention.
• Rikers Island correction officers regularly disregard COVID-19 safety protocols, according to Legal Aid attorneys.
• City officials opened a COVID-19 testing site exclusive to NYC that is intended to process 40,000 tests per day, reducing the wait for test results to 24-48 hours.
• Governor Phil Murphy struck a deal with New Jersey’s legislature to raise taxes on millionaires in the Garden State. Governor Cuomo has continued his resistance to raise a similar tax on the wealthy in New York.
• In a move that could be a harbinger of layoffs and staff cuts throughout the City, the mayor’s office is furloughing 495 staffers for a week each between October and March.
• City jails are violating rules, passed as part of a 2015 reform, which mandate that 18- to 21-year-old inmates must be separated from the adult population.
• Although most locations in the City’s three library systems are still closed to guests, many New Yorkers still rely on them for free WiFi, leading some to congregate outside of closed branches. 
• Newly public documents show how the Rochester Police Department covered up the death of Daniel Prude, and possibly implicate State Attorney General Tish James’ office in the effort to block body camera footage from the public.

ELECTIONS:

• As a result of new election rules implemented by Governor Cuomo, the Working Families Party will need to win 130,000 votes for the Biden/Harris ticket in New York to preserve its ballot line for the next two years. The New York Times suggests that if WFP were to lose its ballot line, it would cede clout to other left wing organizations like DSA and Justice Democrats. DSA’s Jabari Brisport is supporting the push to save WFP’s ballot line.
• The Indypendent considered the prospects of socialists—both inside and outside of DSA—in next year’s city council election.
• Congressional candidate-elect Jamaal Bowman (NY-16, Bronx) is the latest progressive to endorse Comptroller Scott Stringer for mayor.
• Road to Justice NYC, a new electoral coalition of Make the Road Action, Community Voices Heard Power, and 1199SEIU, released its first set of endorsements for the 2021 City Council cycle. The endorsements include Tiffany Caban in Queens, Amanda Farias in the Bronx, and Jennifer Gutierrez and Crystal Hudson in Brooklyn.
• The New York Times asks: Do New Yorkers want another white mayor?