In this episode of What's Going On, we listened to a high energy rally led by retired FDNY EMT Marianne Pizzitola, of New York City Organization of Public Service Employees cheering on Council Member Chris Marte (D-Manhattan) and Council Member Frank Marano (R-Staten Island). The duo described their bi-partisan push to codify in municipal law protecting retirees health benefits.
Under the de Blasio and Adams administrations the city and some of the city’s biggest public unions attempted to shift retirees to predatory Medicare Advantage to realize what they said were $600 million in cost savings.
The grassroots retired civil servant group won several rounds in court and have gone on to offer support to similarly situated public sector retirees across the country.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is dismissing multiple press reports about deteriorating conditions on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln which left its home port of San Diego in November, and wa slater sent to the Middle East as part of the US war of choice on Iran and has not been able to make a Port of Call in more than 240 days, a modern day record for consecutive time at sea.
This has meant Lincoln is running short of basic supplies and is at risk for basic systems failing that keep the water on board safe to drink.
The prolonged time at sea is reportedly taking a toll on the mental health and morale of the 5,000 crew members it takes to run the aircraft carrier. The Guardian said Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times cited interviews with active duty sailors and military families confirming instances of crew members literally jumping off the ship, alongside accounts of exhaustion and declining morale.
These reports follow on multiple news accounts that the US-Israeli war of choice with Iran has now nearly exhausted the inventory of critical munitions like air defense missiles.
Meanwhile, CNN reports that last month ICE set a new one month record for immigration arrests hit 46,000. ICE has announced plans to purchase $20 million in gloves that will permit agents to deliver electric shocks to the people they are arresting which the manufacturer asserts will "de-escalate encounters" with the people being arrested.
In this WGO episode Bob also shared his reporter's notebook from a press conference held in Morristown on Wednesday hosted by Rep. Robert Menendez and Rep. Analilia Mejia that included House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries which focused on the ongoing human rights abuses going on at GEO’s Delaney Hall, the private 1,000 bed jail in Newark where ICE detainees are held.
Rep. Bob Menendez told Bob about the way that GEO and ICE keep Delaney Hall detainees in shackles even while they are being treated at the hospital. The Hudson County House member blasted the Trump administration for its complete failure to provide basic healthcare to detainees to such a degree that in some cases “it really amounts to torture.”
Bob also speaks with Evans Belony, whose cousin Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, died last December after he was abducted by ICE and taken to Delaney Hall. Belony described his cousin, who was from Haiti, as a “gentle and generous giant.”
Brutus’s family still has no answers and has hired a law firm to get them. Over the last few weeks two more Delaney detainees perished while in custody.
In hour two we shared Mayor Mamdani Q and A had up in the Bronx where he was announcing a new bus project. The off-topic portion gets a lot into the current surge the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is experiencing.
We also had a great conversation with Todd Maisel, one of New York City’s most successful breaking news photographers about the NYPD’s shift to encrypting real time police radio traffic leaving the press and the public in the dark. Todd describes how legislation passed by the last City Council for better transparency was undermined by last minute revisions and the way the NYPD implemented it.
Todd, a 9/11 first responder who documented 9/11 and its aftermath, added his voice in support of the full release of the thousands of documents held back by the city from that period, something Mayor Mamdani has committed to.
At the time, the US EPA falsely claimed the post 9/11 air was “safe to breathe.” It was not. According to the Victims’ Compensation Fund, it has paid out well over 8,000 death benefit claims. Close to 3,000 people died the day of the attack.
We also squeezed in time to check in with some young New Jersey activists who marched through downtown Summit yesterday to tell Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-7) to stop taking money from AI companies and return the $7,000 donation he took from Peter Thiel, the billionaire behind Palantir.
