Morning Headlines: Mayor Adams Says Biden Told Him to “Be a Good Democrat” on Conservative Talk Show, New Cancer Center for Queens, and Rare Corpse Flower Bl...

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC NOW, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, January 22nd. Here's the Morning Headlines from David Furst.

David Furst: Mayor Adams says former President Joe Biden and his aides told him to "be a good Democrat" when he complained that migrants were hurting the city. Adams made the declaration in an online interview with conservative former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson.

Mayor Adams: One of his aides told me that, "Listen, this is like a Goldstone. It'll pass."

David Furst: Reached for comment, a former spokesman for Biden says he's reviewing the mayor's comments. Adams, who is facing federal corruption charges, tells Carlson that he was politically targeted by prosecutors for his criticism of Biden's handling of the crisis. The interview aired after Adams accepted a last minute invite to attend Trump's inauguration. Trump has said he would consider pardoning the mayor.

A new cancer center is coming to Queens, thanks to a New York state program designed to upgrade so called safety-net hospitals. WNYC's Caroline Lewis reports.

Caroline Lewis: The state is dedicating up to $188 million to the cancer center, which is one piece of a new clinical partnership between Jamaica Hospital in Queens and Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. It's one of seven projects funded so far through the state's Safety Net Hospital Transformation Program. The program was launched with $800 million in last year's state budget, and Governor Kathy Hochul already wants to expand it. She included another billion dollars for the program in her executive budget proposal. Hochul says it's part of a broader effort to support the state's financially struggling hospitals.

David Furst: A very large and very rare flower is getting ready to stink up a section of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It's a type of corpse flower that blooms once every 2 to 10 years. The unfurling of the petals comes with a rotten odor. Eric Schaller studies the species of plants at Dartmouth College and says the stench serves a purpose.

Eric Schaller: Oh, they do smell bad. What they're doing is they smell like rotting flesh so as to attract their pollinators. The native pollinators are probably carrion beetles, which basically eat dead flesh.

David Furst: Well, be prepared. The Botanic Garden says the plant could start blooming by the end of this week. The event will only last a few days. You can check out the plant during the Garden's opening hours, Tuesday through Sunday, from 10:00 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon.

12 degrees right now. Sunny today with a high of 21. This is WNYC.

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 afternoon.

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