It's the Brian Laris show on WNYC.

Good morning, everyone.

On today's show, Graham Wood from the Atlantic, who writes about the Middle East,

on reasons for both concern and

paradoxical optimism, as he quotes a well-known Palestinian saying to him, on what comes next

for Israelis and Palestinians. And we'll look at the layoffs and then on layoffs at the

Centers for Disease Control the last few days, with a focus particularly on their publication

that's the main source of data in the United States on what makes people ill or kills them in this

country. Does the Trump administration, after having at least temporarily, laid off most of the

staff from that publication, really not want to keep track of that. But we begin

with our 30 issues and 30 days election series. Issue 17 today closing Rikers Island or not

closing Rikers Island as an emerging issue in the New York City mayoral race. Closing it by 2027,

if you don't know, is the law. But Curtis Slewa has always said keep it open.

And now Andrew Cuomo wants to keep a jail there too. We'll hear clips of all three candidates' arguments.

But here's the one that made news first. It's Cuomo last Wednesday.

We should rebuild new state-of-the-art jails on Rikers Island, provide free bus service,

and use those existing sites for housing and commercial development. So Cuomo last week, calling

to scrap the construction of four borough-based jails, one in each borough except Staten Island,

is the plan, use those sites for housing and build a new jail on Rikers Island instead.

We'll hear more from Cuomo, plus Mamdani and Sliwa as we go.

And we'll do this 30-issue segment a little differently from our other recent ones.

You know, we've been mostly having explainers or

...