Extra Time: Air quality alert; landmark Supreme Court rulings
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- In this edition of 'Eyewitness News Extra Time,' we begin with another air quality across our region as we head into a major holiday weekend and public pools across the Tri-State begin to open.
Friday's air quality in New York City reached unhealthy levels for the sixth time this year. For comparison, the total number of unhealthy air quality days last year was zero in the city.
At one point on Friday, New York City ranked second worst in air quality out of all the major cities in the world.
With the poor air quality, New Jersey's Park Service is alerting visitors that beaches may be temporarily closed for swimming. The haze lingered over the Jersey Shore on Friday, but that hasn't stopped people from heading to the beach and boardwalk at Point Pleasant Beach.
The borough's mayor says the shore offers a needed break.
Dry and hopefully smoke-free weather is expected to return Tuesday morning just in time for the Fourth of July.
But the bad air forced Stamford to postpone Friday night's fireworks to July 7.
Here are the other major headlines from Friday's show:
Landmark Supreme Court decisions
The conservative justices handed down two more landmark decisions on Friday.
The first ruling dealt a blow to LGBTQ protections with the court siding with a web designer who said she had a first amendment right to refuse service to same-sex marriages. The second was a rejection of President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. The Biden administration intended to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt, but as it stands now, borrowers will have to restart paying their federal student loan bills in October. The president addressed the nation Friday afternoon promising that his fight to bring debt relief to millions of Americans is nowhere near over.
Santos appears in court
Prosecutors said they have more than 80,000 pages of evidence against U.S. Rep. George Santos during a court hearing on Friday. Santos appeared in court for the first time since pleading not guilty last month to charges that he duped donors, stole from his campaign, collected fraudulent unemployment benefits, and lied to Congress about being a millionaire.
You can watch 'Eyewitness News Extra Time' live Monday-Friday at 6:30 p.m. on ABC7NY.com or our ABC7NY app on Roku, FireTV, Apple TV and Android TV.
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
