Regional Briefs – June 24, 2015

Public Schools to Close For Chinese New Year

NEW YORK – New York City public schools will recognize the Chinese New Year as a secular holiday and will close their doors, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. The state Legislature is also moving toward mandating the holiday. A sixth of the city’s 1.1 million public school students are of Asian descent.

Toddler Suffers Head Injuries After Fall From Window

TRENTON – A two-year-old girl is in a Philadelphia hospital after falling from a window Monday night and suffering a skull fracture and bleeding on the brain, NJ.com reported. Family members woke up in middle of the night and couldn’t find the girl. A neighbor found her on the sidewalk around 1 a.m.

Sizzling Summer Heat Blankets NYC Area

NEW YORK – Summer has wasted little time heating things up around New York City. But showers and thunderstorms are expected to cool things down before Tuesday is over. A heat advisory was in effect for most of the day, with temperatures in the mid-90s combining with humidity to make it feel hotter, the National Weather Service reported.

NYC to Pay $6.25 Million to Man Cleared in 1989 Killing

NEW YORK – New York City on Tuesday agreed to pay $6.25 million to a man who spent nearly 25 years in prison before being exonerated in a 1989 killing that happened while he was vacationing at Disney World. Jonathan Fleming’s lawyers say it will let him build a new life.

Buffalo City Lawmakers Rename ‘Squaw Island’

BUFFALO – Buffalo’s Common Council voted on Tuesday to rename an island in the Niagara River because the current name has been called racist to Native Americans, the Associated Press reported. Squaw Island is now Unity Island. Seneca originally called it Divided Island before European explorers renamed it in 1679.

Low Compliance for NY Gun Law

ALBANY – Registration data shows that few gun owners have complied with the requirement to register firearms reclassified as assault weapons under New York’s two-year-old gun law, the Associated Press reported. Only 23,847 people registered 44,485 firearms while Gov. Andrew Cuomo estimated New Yorkers owned one million such guns.

Albany Looking for NY Sites For Weather Detection System

ALBANY – Researchers are trying to identify sites around New York state for a new high-resolution weather detection system. The New York State Mesonet will have 125 interconnected surface stations conceived of by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to provide more accurate weather data than private forecasters.

This article appeared in print on page 22 of the June 24th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.