Midday News: Trump Administration Freezes $18 Billion for NYC Transit Projects, NJ Teen Charged in Fatal SUV Attack, and Naval Academy Records Scandal Shakes...

Title: Midday News: Trump Administration Freezes $18 Billion for NYC Transit Projects, NJ Teen Charged in Fatal SUV Attack, and Naval Academy Records Scandal Shakes NJ Governor’s Race

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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Thursday, October 2nd. Here's the midday news from Verónica Del Valle.

Verónica Del Valle: The Trump administration is clawing back millions of dollars in money meant for some of the New York City region's signature transportation projects. The federal government is putting a hold on about $18 billion worth of funding set to help make the Hudson River Gateway tunnel and Second Avenue Subway extension a reality. WNYC's transportation reporter Stephen Nessen says the White House is citing the state's diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements as the reason.

Stephen Nessen: New York State does require that many public works projects set aside funding for minority and women-owned businesses, and the Trump administration argues that that is unconstitutional.

Verónica Del Valle: Work is already underway on both the Second Avenue Subway and Gateway Tunnel. A teenager from New Jersey faces murder charges after police say he intentionally drove an SUV into two teenage girls on bikes this week, killing them both. The Union County prosecutor's office says he hit the duo as they rode e-bikes in Cranford. Authorities say the alleged attacker is a minor from nearby Garwood. Local officials are identifying the two victims as Isabella Sanis and Maria Neotis, both 17 years old.

Delta Air Lines officials say one person was hurt after two regional jets clipped each other's wings at LaGuardia Airport last night. The airline says a plane leaving New York for Roanoke, Virginia, hit a plane arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, in a low-speed collision. One flight attendant was taken to a local hospital, but Delta says no passengers are reporting injuries.

65 and partly sunny right now. Today, sunny, a perfect fall day, 66 degrees outside with some light wind. Tonight, mostly clear, lows in the mid-50s.

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Janae Pierre: Stick around. There's more to come.

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Michael: For WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. A scandal is stirring up the race to be the next governor of New Jersey. Last week, records on Congressmember Mikie Sherrill's time at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis were improperly released by the National Archives. Sherrill is blaming her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, and the Trump administration. WNYC's Mike Hayes covers the race for governor in New Jersey, and Mike joins us now. Mike, welcome. Give us an overview of what's taking place here.

Mike: Hey, Michael. Thanks for having me. We're going on a week, Michael, from when this news broke, and this story doesn't appear to be going away. Let's bring everybody up to speed here. Last week, CBS News reported that unredacted records of Mikie Sherrill's time in the Naval Academy were released to an ally of the Ciattarelli campaign. Now, stunningly, those records contained her Social Security number, home address, even her parents' address.

Now, the records were released, as you said, Michael, by the National Archives. That's the federal body that maintains records for all service members. The archives were quick to admit that it messed up releasing this info and apologized to Sherrill, but Mikie Sherrill told me at a campaign event this week she wants a criminal investigation into the release of her records. Now, there is going to be some further investigation here. The inspector general for the National Archives said an investigation is underway into how this mistake occurred.

Michael: You said an ally of the Ciattarelli campaign got these records. Who is this person, and what's their connection to the candidate, Ciattarelli?

Mike: The person connected to Ciattarelli who got the records is Nick De Gregorio. He's a former Marine who once unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New Jersey as a Republican. Now, De Gregorio says he made the records request on his own after a Ciattarelli campaign consultant asked him to dig into Sherrill's history. Ciattarelli's campaign says they had nothing to do with obtaining these records.

In fact, their attorneys, Michael, are threatening a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill and her campaign over the suggestion that they were part of any conspiracy to smear her with the unredacted documents. Instead, Ciattarelli wants to talk about something else having to do with Mikie Sherrill and the Navy, the fact that she didn't walk in her 1994 graduation.

Michael: Explain to us what's going on with Mikie Sherrill's absence from her graduation.

Mike: It just keeps getting more and more complicated. A day before the scandal broke with the CBS report on Sherrill's personal information gang release, the New Jersey Globe reported that it obtained a copy of the program from the 1994 Naval Academy grad ceremony that showed Sherrill's name was missing from the program. Now, Sherrill put out a statement saying that she wasn't allowed to walk at the graduation because she failed to turn in fellow students who were caught cheating on an exam.

Now, we should stress that Sherrill has said she was not implicated in the cheating scandal herself. She just said she didn't tell on anybody, but the Ciattarelli campaign is calling her involvement in the scandal stunning and deeply disturbing. I was at a Ciattarelli event yesterday in Camden, Michael. There, he doubled down on a call for Sherrill to release her disciplinary records.

Jack Ciattarelli: She's telling us that she was punished because she wouldn't turn in fellow classmates. I'm not so sure that's true, but the way to prove it's true is by releasing her disciplinary records.

Mike: Sherrill's not saying that she's going to do that. Instead, she's calling on Ciattarelli's campaign to return the files with her personal information.

Michael: What's the public response been to all this, Mike?

Mike: One group, Michael, that's particularly unhappy about Sherrill's personal information coming out, are some veterans like her. At a Sherrill campaign event earlier this week, I saw two veterans go up to her and tell her how sorry they felt for her. As for what's happened with this cheating scandal, here's what one of those vets, his name's Robert Mallick, an army veteran from Cape May, told me at the event.

Robert Mallick: She did nothing wrong. The only thing she didn't do is turn her fellow soldiers in. That's something that veterans hold very dear: that you support your fellow soldiers.

Mike: Sherrill's Navy Academy classmates have also been defending her in the press, but the question here, Michael, is whose campaign comes out most damaged from all this? Ciattarelli is trying to draw voters' attention to Sherrill's record at the Navy Academy, but given that these records contain personal info, they weren't supposed to be released, and Mikie Sherrill seems like she's going to keep talking about and blaming the Trump administration and Republicans for this, there's a chance this could end up backfiring on the Ciattarelli campaign.

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Michael: WNYC's Mike Hayes. Mike, thank you.

Mike: Thanks for having me.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC.

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Janae Pierre: Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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