Regional Briefs – July 1, 2019

Police: Fewer Killings in New York City in First Half of ‘19

NEW YORK (AP) – New York City is on pace for its lowest homicide total in decades after ending the first half of the year with 21 fewer killings than in the same span in 2018.

Police statistics show there were 135 homicides through June 30. That’s down from 156 tallied in the same span last year. Shootings tend to spike during the summer months, but as of right now the city is on track to have 272 killings.

That would be the lowest number since 1951.

New Jersey School Won’t Sell Music College To Chinese Firm

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. (AP) – A New Jersey university says it won’t go through with a $40 million deal to sell its music college to a Chinese company. Lawrenceville-based Rider University instead will operate Westminster Choir College in Princeton for the 2019-2020 school year, then integrate the college into its main campus in the fall of 2020.

Rider had signed a purchase and sale agreement with Kaiwen Education in June 2018. But the university announced Monday that the two sides had mutually agreed to not extend the agreement and instead will explore an “alternative relationship” between the two entities.

New York GOP Taps New Leader

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Republicans in New York have picked a new state chairman as they seek to recover from a series of recent political and legislative defeats.

Meeting in Albany on Monday, state party leaders formally tapped Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy to replace outgoing chairman Ed Cox, whom some Republicans had blamed for recent election losses.

Cox, who is former President Richard Nixon’s son-in-law, had led the state party since 2009.

NY Gov. Cuomo Orders Probe Into Facebook’s Advertising Platform

(Reuters) – NY Governor Andrew& Cuomo& on Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Financial Services to investigate reports that state-regulated advertisers were using Facebook Inc.’s advertising platform in a discriminatory manner. This is the second investigation that the state governor has ordered into the social media company this year.