Tension grow between pedicab operators and horse carriage drivers... NYC study on homeless students show how it effects their education... Rent increase 40% over 3 months in prime NYC neighborhoods.

0:00Local people, local stories, this is the all local from 1010 wins. I'm Susan Richard and here are today's top local stories. Amid the fight over carriage horses in New York City, New Tension between those drivers and petty cabs, and apparently that got physical. Early last week claims that a petty cab driver assaulted a horse carriage operator at 59th and 6th, fighting over a potential customer. You should be able to go to work, right, and do your job without being sucker punched by somebody who's not even supposed to be there. In fact, the NYPD had to be called in and according to horse carriage union shop steward Christina Hansen also last week, a petty caber collided with a horse carriage and then threatened the driver. All of that is going on because they're trying to get our customers because otherwise people wouldn't ride in the tricycle. They come here for the horses. She says designated horse carriage zones in the park must be protected and the petty cabers need to get out of the way. Glenn Shock, 1010 wins, 92-3 FM, here outside Central Park.

1:04The Prospect Park Alliance says they used feedback from the NYC Bird Alliance and the Brooklyn Bird Club and coming up with their design, but some bird watchers in Brooklyn say the nearly $38 million plan for new children's playground in Garden could lead to the local extinction of already declining numbers of some birds who fly this way annually. On a spring migration day, up to 100 species of birds could be in Prospect Park. Bird or Tom Stevenson says it's essential for them. Large numbers of birds require shelter and food and Prospect Park and Central Park are really the key places. Plants for a new kids area and a picnic lawn have him a little concerned. Any place where you're going to bring in more people is usually not so good for birds. Especially the ones that use the ground to eat. They're a lot of unknowns. One is what are the kids going to do to the habitat in general. He does like that the project includes removing non-native species and installing a pollinator garden. Macros in Berks, 1010 wins, 92-3 FM.

2:05We know that roughly 154,000 school kids in New York City are homeless. Now we're getting a clearer picture of how that impacts their education. Jennifer Pringle is the project director for the nonprofit Advocates Ford Children. The brief also showed that one in five students in shelter transferred schools at least once mid-year. And so you can just imagine for a young person who's just lost their housing now. They're also losing their connection to their teacher. Their peers. 63% are chronically absent, missing one out of every 10 school days, and that impacts how well they do in class. They're the third to eighth graders for the statewide test scores, only 33% of students who were homeless, scored proficient on those English language arts statewide exams. When asked about this, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services said they're working to tackle the absenteeism issue by placing families near schools. Pringle's group is calling on the mayor to convene an interagency initiative to address

3:08this issue. Well, nothing like rents going up 40% in just three months. A new data analysis by the real estate firm West Egg Development found that's the case in certain neighborhoods in the city, the Upper East, Upper West, and Park Slow. Affordability is an age-as-old issue for young families in New York City, but the recent rent spike for a three-bedroom seemed astronomical to Tom who lives in Lincoln Square. I mean, I don't understand how a family for a three-bedroom apartment could afford $14,000 enough. That seems like a lot. And according to William, who moved to the Upper West side to be closer to his grand child. They have a one-bedroom. You know, one-in-a-half, you know, the dining area, I call the mega-the-converting into a small bedroom with an aquarium to kind of separate from the living room. So they are stuck. Three-bedroom apartments on the Upper East side are $12,500 in your 71% jump from the end of last year. Marla Diamond, 1010 wins on 92-3 FAB on the Upper West side. A child survives a fall from a first-floor fire escape in Maurizania after climbing out

4:09a third-floor window. Luckily, he is expected to be okay. Andy Santana lives down the block. Devastating to him. I'm shocked for words. Landlords across the city are required to have window guards inside of apartments that children 10 years old are younger, live in. Katie Santana pointing out this window that doesn't have window guards, but does lead to a fire escape. I've seen a lot of windows before without guards. You wonder if this children is number not? Police say this five-year-old boy is in Harlem hospital recovering from his injuries. Mary Lynn Buckley, 1010 wins on 92-3 FAB in Maurizania. April is Animal Cruelty Prevention Month. The New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer is out with new legislation aimed at preventing animal abuse. It's called the Protect Our Pets Act. This should be a federal crime if you abandon or endanger an animal. Obviously, in an airport, going across state lines or in a federal park. My new legislation will do just that and it will crack down on people who abuse their

5:10animals. That's not all. I also have another piece of legislation called the FBI Animal Cruelty Task Force Act, which actually creates a specialized task force at the FBI to investigate and build cases, targeted at severe acts of animal abuse, so that we've got law enforcement at the FBI focused on doing everything we can to stop this abuse. Gottheimer tells 1010 wins, he thinks fellow lawmakers are going to get behind this. These bills sometimes take time, but this is the kind of bill when you get the reaction to it. When you say, like, you're going to abuse an animal, you're going to pay the price. You got a lot of my colleagues saying, yeah, let's do that. That's exactly the kind of legislation we should be getting behind. Gottheimer to unveil the legislation at 11 this morning at Woof Dog Park in Westwood. That's alongside animal rescuers and elected officials from Bergen County. A wrongful death lawsuit has now been filed against Rex Heurman, the suspect, and the Gilgo Beach murders. Benjamin Torres is the son of victim Valerie Mack. His suit also names Heurman's ex-wife and daughter, accusing them of being complicit.

6:13He's seeking damages, including profits from a documentary about the case that aired on Peacock. Heurman meantime is tomorrow expected to plead guilty in the case.