After All Things

Casino concerns

Dozens of Nassau residents raise environmental concerns over a proposed casino. Connecticut officials discuss the state of the schools. Riverhead will not move forward with agri-tourism plans. And a look at the impact of college admissions without affirmative action.

Duration:: 11m
Broadcast on:: 10 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This election year, we're asking you to set the agenda for what issues candidates discuss. Working with our partners at America Amplified, we have a quick and easy form you can fill out to tell us what you want to know. We'll find out the answer and share it with you, visit wshu.org, click on elections, and tell us how we can help. You're listening to After All Things, WSHU's daily news and culture update from the Long Island Sound region. Dozens of Nassau residents raise environmental concerns over a proposed casino. Connecticut officials discuss the state of the schools. Riverhead will not move forward with an agritourism plan. And a look at the impact of college admissions without affirmative action. Those stories and more are coming up. I'm Sabrina Garone. The Nassau County Legislature heard testimony this week on how a proposed casino in Uniondale could affect the environment. Residents raised concerns about the project's impact on air and water quality. WSHU's Desiree DeOrio reports. The purpose of the hearing was to find out what concerns residents want to see addressed in the state mandated environmental review process. Several dozen residents told the legislature they're concerned about how the $6 billion project by Las Vegas Sands would affect traffic and air pollution, energy consumption, and water quality in the surrounding area. Steve Ralston from Baldwin says the project would be harmful. Our drinking water, while safe, is threatened by overdevelopment, overpumping, and unhealthy runoff in our groundwater. A casino is unnecessary overdevelopment. Supporters say a casino would bring thousands of jobs and boost the local economy. Desiree DeOrio, WSHU News. More than 500,000 students have gone back to school in Connecticut, and state education leaders say they're focused on expanding opportunities this year. WSHU's Molly Ingram has more. The state education department held its annual back to school meeting on Tuesday. This year's theme was a universe of opportunities. Education Commissioner Charlene Russell Tucker says the department is collaborating with universities to give high schoolers the opportunity to earn college credit. We've invested in this focus area via 3.8 million awarded to 89 school districts and 4 million to public and private institutions of higher education through the dual credit expansion grant to increase the percentage of students earning college credit in high school. According to the state, more than half of Connecticut students are children of color, 54,000 are English language learners, and 225,000 qualify for free or reduced lunch. Molly Ingram, WSHU News. The town of Riverhead has decided against agritourism plans. There's a happy medium that has to be found. We have to find a way to preserve it, but we also have to find a way to help the farmers. The town says it plans to form a community focused task force to address the issue of increasing their tax baseline while also protecting farmland. The class of 2028 is the first and almost 50 years to be admitted to college without the use of affirmative action, a look at the local impact of that is coming up. Local support for after all things comes from Hartford HealthCare, the only health system in the Northeast with all its hospitals receiving a grades for safety from the LeapFrog group, the nation's leading independent safety watchdog group, Hartford HealthCare.org IRS will offer tax relief to Connecticut residents impacted by last month's severe flooding homes and businesses in the FEMA declared disaster area can qualify that includes Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties and Suffolk County on Long Island. That surprise hail storm from August in Connecticut has impacted at least four local farms according to the State Department of Agriculture, NBC, Connecticut reports, Govea vineyards in Wallingford has had to cancel their annual harvest events. The state encourages more farmers to report damages as they could qualify for financial aid. Drivers in the town of Hempstead made up for the most school bus camera tickets issued on Long Island last year, Newsday reports more than 140,000 violations were recorded in the town that's 40,000 more than in all of Suffolk County, Lido Beach racked up the most in the town of Hempstead. In the wake of a school shooting in Georgia last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochl is calling for a national red flag law. She says a tougher red flag law in New York over the last two years has led to 20,000 protection orders. The red flag is risen. Go to that person's home, see if there's access to guns, see what they're saying online. Do everything you can to preemptively, proactively prevent violence and the slaughter of innocent citizens, especially our children in schools. The red flag law prevents someone from purchasing or owning a firearm if they're deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Hochl also says she wants a national assault weapons ban. Class of 2028 is the first in almost 50 years to be admitted to college without the use of affirmative action. WSHU's Ada Usenlar has more on the effects of the Supreme Court's decision to remove the admissions tool in 2023. Daniel Patel moved into his first year dorm at the University of Connecticut two weeks ago. I'm making you friends. I'm talking about what I want to do, what my major is. People are mature now. He's happy to be at UConn, but it wasn't his first choice. UConn was my like the last decision possible. I got their full package like the honors STEM scholar, the scholarships. Patel knows UConn's a great school, but this time last year he was perfecting applications for Harvard and Columbia. He wanted to be a part of challenging schools that are also diverse. His family's Indian and he says the lack of diversity at his high school made it hard to connect. He found the application process difficult and the Supreme Court's decision earlier that summer to repeal affirmative action made applying to schools more confusing. Is it really fair to go through this admissions process knowing that affirmative action can't be used for us? Make it make sense. Affirmative action is the consideration of racial identity in the college application process, taking racial background into account when deciding on college admissions had been upheld since the late 70s up until Patel's very application cycle. And when the time came for Patel to open his decision letters around March, nothing. Okay. I was getting like rejections, rejection, rejections, rejections. Patel thinks there's a chance the decision to ban the use of affirmative action affected his chances to get into his reach schools, but he won't know if that's true, at least for a while. That's according to Richard Sugarman, he was the president of a college success program called Hartford Promise throughout the application season. It may be quite early to sort of make those broad and deep conclusions. I think it's a mixed bag in the first year, and I think that shows in some of the results. At Yale University, the percent of African American students in this year's incoming first year class stayed the same without the use of affirmative action. Hispanic or Latino students increased by 1%. UConn student makeup shifted by very little as well. Incoming classes at other schools across the country looked different. Black students at Amherst College in Massachusetts dropped from 11% of the incoming freshmen last year to just 3% this year. Sugarman says no matter what the long-term effects are, losing affirmative action will take a toll on the psyche of marginalized students with fewer resources. I am concerned about students that they will lower their sites. What will this do to students aspirations, expectations, pursuit of dreams, recognition of their own talent? Patel says he was crushed after he was rejected from nearly all the schools he applied to. I feel like getting rejected from so many colleges does something to you psychologically. It makes me question things. Connecticut State Senator Derek Slapp says he's not going to wait for a post affirmative action trend to emerge. He chairs the state's Higher Education Committee. You're going to continue to see a push for addressing legacy admission, but improving access, whether it's at a community college, a four-year college, an elite school, whatever, is something that we all need to be thinking about and all need to be concerned with. Student Angel Patel took the summer to get used to the idea of Yukon, and his perspective changed when he got to campus. Yesterday, I put my name on the mailing list for around 9 to 12 clubs, half pre-med and then half cultural based. It feels so good. The more time that passes, the more he thinks he's exactly where he needs to be. Ada Usenlorn, WSHU News. The latest news from Long Island and Connecticut. Listen on the radio. Stream online at WSHU.org or download the WSHU app. After all, things is supported by Hartford HealthCare. And whether it's news, classical music or podcasts like this one, they're all made possible with support from our listeners. So if you like what you hear, please consider making a donation to our station. All the info on how to do that is there for you on our website, including how to donate an old vehicle. I'm Sabrina Giron. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll speak to you tomorrow. [MUSIC] (upbeat music)