PUBLIC SAFETY: Adams said he planned to call his counterpart in the small town of Uvalde, Texas as it reels from a mass shooting in the Robb Elementary School last week. “I’m going to call him today, because this is a mayor’s battle — mayors are being impacted by that and here in New York we saw just last week two guns outside a school,” Adams, a former police captain, said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning.
He said city officials recently discovered loaded guns carried into schools in the backpacks of two teen boys on consecutive days. Adams also said the NYPD has seized 2,900 guns from city streets this year, which he called an “unimaginable” number. (By comparison, the department snatched more than 6,000 weapons throughout 2021.) During much of the interview, Adams reiterated his talking points on violence in the city he inherited five months ago: He lamented federal inaction on gun control, obliquely blamed those who support criminal justice reforms he believes have exacerbated the problem and warned again of the upcoming Supreme Court opinion on New York’s concealed carry law. “Open carry is a crisis. Can you imagine being on the 4 train and then someone openly carrying a firearm?” he said. At the same time, the mayor said shootings dropped 30 percent in April. Now his young mayoralty, which he has staked on public safety, faces the test of curbing violence during the summer, when crime typically spikes. — Sally Goldenberg ELECTION WATCH: Bill de Blasio isn't impressed by a recent poll from Emerson College which found that 77 percent of voters in the newly redrawn 10th Congressional District are undecided, while Rep. Mondaire Jones won 7 percent of respondents, 6 percent went with the former mayor and 5 percent backed state Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou. “I am not obsessed with polling. Polling has usually said I’m not going to make it and somehow I do,” de Blasio said in an interview late last week. “What came through clear in that poll is that it’s a wide open situation. It’s anyone’s ball game,” he said. “There’s plenty of possibility.” De Blasio, who plans to campaign on issues such as opening more overdose prevention centers and ending the Covid era, said he wants to “reconnect with people” in the race. “This is about earning it and winning it and showing how much I want to serve,” de Blasio said. — Amanda Eisenberg TWO YEARS FOR MAYORAL CONTROL: State lawmakers are set to vote this week to extend mayoral control of city schools for two years — a blow to Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who sought a lengthier timeline. State Senator John Liu (D-Queens), who heads the Senate’s New York City Education Committee, told POLITICO this morning that lawmakers will vote on two pieces of legislation — one that extends mayoral control as well as a companion bill that reduces class sizes. “The major thrust of the bills would be that mayoral control is extended for two years but with significant strengthening of parental input,” he said. The mayoral control bill calls for increasing the number of PEP members from 15 to 23 — 13 mayoral appointees, five borough president appointees and five members appointed by community education councils, one from each borough. It also proposes a one-year term for panel members and that the commissioner of the state Education Department contract with an institute of higher education to assist with reviewing and assessing mayoral control. The companion bill would restrict class sizes to 20 students in kindergarten through third grade, 23 students for fourth through eighth grade and 25 students in high school classes. Last week, Assembly leadership and members of the education committee gave a presentation to the New York City Assembly delegation calling for a three-year extension of mayoral control , an independent commission to review mayoral control, fixed terms for mayoral appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy, the Department of Education's governing body, and three additional members on the panel. — Madina Touré GUN CONTROL: Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs gained national attention last week when he came out in support of an assault weapons ban and a proposal to raise the age for firearms purchases to 21. State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy — who, like Jacobs, lives in suburban Buffalo — isn’t exactly enthused about Jacobs' position. “I was very surprised by Congressman Jacob’s surprise announcement,” Langworthy said outside the state Capitol today. “I think everybody was caught very flat-footed by his adopting the Democrat position on gun control.” Jacobs is planning to run for a new congressional district that most closely resembles the Southern Tier seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Tom Reed. Will Republicans support him in advance of any potential primary? “I’ve had a lot of conversations with Congressman Jacobs in the last weekend and we’re going to see where this is at the end of the week,” Langworthy said. — Bill Mahoney HEALTH CARE: New York has distributed more than 81.7 million over-the-counter Covid-19 tests to schools, nursing homes, local governments, adult–care facilities, the New York City Housing Authority and non-profits since December 2021, Hochul announced today. Of the 100 million-plus total tests procured by the state, about 20 million have been stockpiled. — Shannon Young GAMBLING: New data released today shows again how successful New York’s mobile sports wagering has been — for the state’s coffers, perhaps not for bettors. Since it started in January, New York has collected $263 million in taxes from online sports betting, by far the most in the nation, Hochul said. — Joseph Spector GOT MILK? A group of advocates and mainly Republicans lawmakers rallied outside the Capitol today for a bill that would allow New York schools to provide whole milk and 2 percent milk — which is prohibited by the federal government. The bill is unlikely to pass, in part because it would require the Attorney General’s Office to sue if the federal government punishes the state for lifting the ban. But Assemblyman Chris Tague (R-Schoharie) said, “Nourished students are successful students.” — Joseph Spector | 
