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News 12 Staff

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Welcome back to power and politics. And joining us now is Maury Litwak, the executive director of the Teach Coalition. It's an advocacy group for Jewish schools across New York. Maury. Well, thank you so much for being with us. It's great to be here. I appreciate you having me. Absolutely. Especially on the heels of this charge that you recently led to secure extra funding for what's called the non public school Safety Equipment grant program. It had $45 million in funding. You wanted to double that, ultimately $70 million was secured in the state budget. So a significant boost. Why did you think that was needed right now? I think that if you speak to parents, uh the number one thing they'll tell you is that the safety of their Children is paramount and for so many public school parents, they think about that. But what I think New Yorkers don't think about is all the not public school parents uh who worry about that. Think about that on unfortunately, not just a weekly basis, but more often than not a daily basis. And that's especially true when it comes to Jewish parents and parents of Muslim students as well. The these parents are very worried because there's been a rise in anti Semitism, there's been a rise in Islamophobia and because of that, it's really created an environment where unfortunately, um parents sending their kids to these schools are worried about their safety and the state has an obligation. It's really uh the obligation of uh of any elected official, any government body is to protect its citizens. And that goes not just for public school students, for, but for nonpublic school students. And that's why there's been a historic investment in funding for them. But unfortunately, this year, we looked at this and we said it needs to be significantly more. We were talking to uh uh Islamic schools, we're talking to Jewish schools, we're talking to Catholic schools and saying this number has to go up. So we were very proud, I think sometimes, you know, the show with power and politics and your viewers sometimes say, oh, it's politics, what can politics do? Well, politics can people together. And that's what happened, happened this year where you saw Jewish and Islamic and Catholic uh Catholics all joined together and saying we need more funding for this program. Provide safety for all students. Yeah, good to see some common ground there and then something to be accomplished from it with that funding now secured. What's next? How can students at private schools expect to feel the effects of this? So the program is a, is a per pupil allocation. So depending on how large uh the school is, there's gonna be an application period that's gonna be open later in the year. And we as an organization are going to be spreading that message to Jewish student to, I'm sorry to Jewish schools and to uh Islamic schools and to Catholic schools and, and to Christian schools and to every institution we can provide because we find again, regardless of religious denomination, this is something that concerns parents. And we want to make sure that every single one of those dollars is not, uh, um, sort of left and that every child is included in this. So there's going to be an application period later on and we are encouraging any of your viewers, they can reach out to my organization. We want to help them, them apply for that funding and get that funding. Definitely still in the early stages here. But any idea what kind of security equipment this funding will help pay for. So that, that's a great question and it's, it's really, I think a host of things that parents are concerned about, which is cameras and guards and, um, boards and things that are, are both seen and unseen that when you're dropping your child off to school, you want to make sure that there's that sort of totality of security. We shouldn't be in this situation. But because we are in a situation where it requires more security funding. Uh We want it to be something that, that schools can sort of make the best choice of. And that's what we advocated for and that's what our elected officials uh fought for. And we're very grateful and I just want to shout out um uh dep the deputy leader, Senator Genes for leading this fight in the Senate and the State. Uh And we're just very grateful for elected officials like that who heard this and said schools need that flexibility in order to um to figure out what works best for their schools, their smaller schools, their bigger schools. And really there is that sort of flexibility in the funding. Uh a very large list, the state gives you to apply for. Speaking of politicians, any other steps that you think law uh lawmakers rather need to take right now to be securing the safety of our students safety is not a safety, should be a bipartisan issue. We really should never hear in the headlines that um Republicans or Democrats are fighting over safety. And we're very proud of what happened here in the legislature where this was a bipartisan issue. Uh But we're going to be uh continuing to make our voices heard on this. I think it's a very powerful and I hope you would agree when Jewish and Catholic uh and Islamic voices join together and we want to continue to see that coalition advocate in the public space. Absolutely always good to see a unified front among many different groups. Maury Litwak. Thank you so much for the time and for the perspective here on power and politics. We appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity and politics can do amazing things when people work together. A wonderful message to end on. Thanks so much Brooklyn in the spotlight for presidential politics, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy came to downtown Brooklyn. The presidential hopeful was at Hannah House on Adams Street this week to make a major announcement. He says he now has enough signatures to get on the ballot in New York state. This November he so called on President Joe Biden to agree to a no spoiler pledge that would essentially require the candidate who polls the lowest before the election to drop out of the race. So far. Kennedy is officially on the ballot in three states. He says he has enough signatures to be on the ballot. In seven more new resources were announced in the state budget this week to combat obstacles and health concerns for people giving birth in our state. The governor says the new legislation and funding will make it easier for families to receive doula referrals without needing to go to a doctor first are also being encouraged to avoid unnecessary C sections. And the governor addressed a big concern in recent years, maternal mental health, specifically postpartum depression. According to the CDC, one in five pregnancy related deaths are due to mental health conditions. That's why we're launching specialized training for counselors on the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline. So they know what to say. So they're culturally competent. They understand also what's going on physically, mentally. And this will connect women in mental health distress with compassionate care and referrals to important sources. The CDC released new data that shows us maternal mortality rates are down, but the maternal death rate for black women in 2022 was still higher than for any other group. Speaking of the governor, we've got an exclusive interview with her coming up right here on power and politics. Next.

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Governor Kathy Hochul discussing her plan to bring down the number of retail thefts in the state. This week news twelve's Kurt Semer speaking with her exclusively. I don't know why they're doing it now, but I want them to stop Governor Kathy Hole on the island to issue a warning. She wants to end the surge in retail theft and she got a look at some of the crimes that happened at this. Lindenhurst Bola Market and other locations across our region. Employees assaulted cashiers, threatened with knives and with guns, people stuffing bags with food and items right off the shelf and running right out the door is creating a culture of fear that we will not tolerate. We're going to shut these operations down and restore stability and the chaos that is happening in stores like this, not just Long Island, but all over the state of New York and as these incidents increase so does people's concern over their own safety. It worried me a little bit and I try to be careful when I'm going inside a store, but for now we haven't, I haven't seen nothing yet. President and Ceo of Bola Market. Harry Singh tells me these incidents really started to pick up after the pandemic. He says the governor's action is a good first step but more can be done. We got to get this build forms state that we need to get crime to be taken care of. We can't have people just walk away by hurting an employee stealing the theft. The number of recidivists because I changed the bail laws has dropped dramatically. Those are people who keep cycling in and out of the system without the consequences I believe they deserve. So we have put a major focus there. The governor says that her five point plan included in the state budget increases penalties for assaulting a retail worker, providing money for cameras for smaller businesses and allows prosecutors to combine thefts when people steal from different stores. Meanwhile, two new pieces of legislation were signed into law for EMTS and paramedics. Intro 126 requires all EMTS who are providing emergency medical services, wear body armor and intro. 127 provides de escalation and self defense training for Emts once every three years. Here's the sponsor of those two bills on why this is needed. Now, this is one of those pieces of legislation that we wish we wouldn't have to uh pass or that we wouldn't have the need to implement. Um, there is no other job title in the city of New York that has saw this scale of increases in attacks on members uh as members of the EMT Corp, uh and EMT supervisors and paramedics. Those two bills passed unanimously with bipartisan support and that is all for this week on power and politics right here on News. 12. Thanks for watching.

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