NY News Update: Cassie's mother testifies

This is the Fox 5 News Block

Cassie's mom takes the stand in the Sean Diddy Combs trial, detailing how she says she paid off the hip-hop star over a sex tape threat

And lawmakers appear set to pass a significant new piece of crypto legislation. We're going to break down what stablecoins are

and how the Genius Act would regulate this important segment of the market

Good afternoon. Thanks for being with us. I'm Steve Lacey. Welcome to the News Block. Let's get to those stories in just a moment

But first, let's take a live look outside right now on an absolutely gorgeous afternoon

Plenty of sunshine. Let's bring in meteorologist Audrey Pente for a look at the forecast

And I guess the deal is enjoy it while it lasts, right? That is true, Steve. It sure looks nice outside everyone's window right now

We have a mixed sky out there. Lots of sunshine with some clouds decorating it from time to time

Temperature is a little bit cooler than what we experienced over the last couple of days. We're at 66 in Central Park, same number in Islip

It's 58 out in East Hampton. And up to the north, we have 63 in Poughkeepsie and 58 up in Monticello

All of these temperatures are a little bit cooler than they were at this time yesterday. And our winds, they were a little more blustery earlier this morning

but now they seem to be lightening up just a bit here. We're still a little breezy in Islip and in White Plains

Same thing up in Poughkeepsie. And we could have gusts as high as 20, 25 miles per hour as we move along through the afternoon

Not much is happening on the radar just yet. We have plenty of sunshine. It will stay that way for the rest of the afternoon here

And tonight, we'll start to see the clouds begin to increase across the region. They're coming in ahead of our next rainmaker, which is edging its way into the screen

But that rain doesn't get here until tomorrow. So expect temperatures tonight to drop into the 50s

We'll talk more about the rain coming up. Steve. All right. Thanks, Audrey. Democratic Representative LaMonica MacGyver has been charged with assault

The charges stem from the incident at Delaney Hall. You can see MacGyver in the red blazer

The DOJ accusing MacGyver of assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement

MacGyver denies any wrongdoing. a group of officials were attempting to inspect the ICE detention facility

Things then escalated when officers told Mayor Ross Baraka he was trespassing and arrested him

Charges against Baraka, though, have since been dropped. A former male escort takes the stand in the sex trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Combs

testifying about late-night parties with Combs and his longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura

Fox 5's Richard G. Kovas live outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan with details coming out of court right now

Richard. Steve, four witnesses so far today, and one is still on the stand

But the last witness to wrap up testimony was, as you mentioned, that male escort, Sheree Hayes

who claims he performed for Sean Diddy Combs with Cassie Ventura, and that it was a lot of pressure participating in those so-called free golfs

Hayes describing the multiple encounters he had with Ventura in New York City hotel rooms

while Combs watched the male escort, who Ventura has called the punisher

testified about the encounters that he says had Ventura performing at the direction of Combs

Hayes did say, though, that he never sensed any discomfort with Ventura, nor did he see any violence

Hayes is the third witness on the stand today This morning a former personal assistant to Combs became emotional describing being hired in 2007 David James talked about stocking hotel rooms with drugs condoms and baby oil and testified that Combs was using drugs every day

Then it was Cassie Ventura's mother, Regina, who also took the stand for a short time, revealing that Combs reached out to her

demanding $20,000 to recoup money he spent on her daughter. Regina Ventura took out a home equity loan to pay Combs the money so he wouldn't release a sex tape of her daughter

Regina Ventura's attorney speaking outside court following that testimony. Well, obviously she's expecting a child very soon, any day

And so she's looking forward to giving birth to a healthy child and moving on

and hopefully not having to relive this anymore and forgetting about it

So the fourth witness on the stand right now for testimony is Special Agent Gerard Gannon

He was the special agent in charge on the day that Sean Diddy Combs' West Coast home was raided back in March of last year

It'll be interesting to hear what he has to say. The last part of his testimony was saying why special agents broke through the front gate of that home

saying it was the most effective way to raid the home. And those are the precautions they take when entering and raiding homes or anything that they're trying to follow there, Steve

Very well. All right, Richard, we appreciate it. Thanks. The trains are running again after engineers reached an agreement with NJ Transit, thus ending a strike that began last Friday

Vox Fire's Haley Fixler tells us why that's not only good news for commuters. Everything is back on track with New Jersey Transit, and it's a big relief for a lot of commuters

Also welcoming news is we've learned that there is not going to be a fare bump in addition to that already scheduled 3 percent increase scheduled for July

So a lot of people are happy about that. Here's what else officials have to tell us

The union wanted fare wages. We wanted to make sure the taxpayers weren't impacted, not just this year, but in the out year

We're told there was not going to be an impact on taxpayers, even though union workers, they are getting pay raises

President and CEO Chris Colori said that those were big sticking points for when him and Governor Phil Murphy negotiated the deal with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trade Men over the weekend

They say they believe this deal is fiscally responsible. Now, reports also indicate there are going to be some changes made on work rules and benefits

Officials say they did whatever they could, within reason, to reach an agreement as quickly as possible

because they knew this strike was a big impact to hundreds of thousands of daily commuters

A lot of people, they had a rough time getting to work during the strike, both Friday and Monday

It was actually a lot of trouble. I actually can't drive myself

So commuting on the train is really just essential for me to get into work

SO ON FRIDAY I HUBRED THAT VERY ROUGH IT GOES FROM SPENDING LIKE OR TO THE TRAIN TO NOW SPENDING 40 DOLLARS ON You know it goes from spending like you know four or five dollars to train to now spending 40 plus dollars on a new birth All right So here what happens next The union going to look over this agreement over the next week or two

They'll approve it. And then it goes to the New Jersey Transit Board, who will then vote on it on June 11th

New Jersey officials say that they are hopeful and confident that this deal will go through

In Newark, Penn Station, Haley Fixler, back to you. All right. And we'll be right back

Are you ready for the ultimate entertainment experience? Spectrum is bringing together the streaming apps you love

Plus, live TV for sports, entertainment, and news. All in one place, across your devices

So no matter when or where you are, it's all here. Spectrum

Welcome back. Pro-crypto lawmakers appear poised for a major legislative win as a piece of stablecoin legislation known as the Genius Act appears set to become law

Joining me now to break down exactly what stablecoins are and how critical they are not only for the crypto economy, but also potentially the continued dominance of the U.S. dollar is Jared Dicker from The Churning Group

Jared, thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having me

All right, let's start at the start. Walk us through exactly what stablecoins are

Yeah, so I'd say a very simple definition of stablecoins is that it's a type of digital money

that stays stable. It's on the blockchain. So there's a lot of commentary around the fact that

our cryptocurrency is volatile and how do you know that they maintain the same peg

The beauty of stablecoins is that it's one-to-one with an asset. So in the case of

what was voted on yesterday with the Genius Act, but how we talk about it more broadly is that

it's pegged one-to-one to the dollar. So you can use it everywhere, global commerce, you know

opportunities are endless. Yeah. And it's great news for the government, right? Because all of

these stable coins, which tend to be backed by the dollar, have to buy U.S. treasuries

Exactly. Exactly. So all these need to be pegged one-to-one. And in that case

the assets being held on hand need to be able to prove that those dollars are pegged one-to-one

So today, a lot of that, I think there's 250 billion in circulation is pegged to mostly both Tether and Circle buying treasuries

Yeah, those are the two big ones, right? And, you know, on the flip side, they're massively profitable for the issuer, right

Because they get to pocket the interest from the treasuries. Exactly. Exactly. And it's insanely valuable for, you know, the exposure of the dollar

because effectively, by having it pegged one to one and having more countries outside the U.S

taking advantage of it, it's just strengthening the value of the dollar and effectively becoming the global currency is the U.S. dollar

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. Now, the critics of this bill, including Senator Warren

they fear the potential of someday having to have a bailout in the case that the issuers don actually have all the treasuries on hand that they say they do How much of a concern is that for you do you think

Yeah, so I think it's actually very timely, because that's why I think there's such a huge desire

to get both the Genius Act passed through and the Stable Act passed through in the House

because by getting these passed through and having a framework for regulation

then there are rules around the fact that there needs to be treasuries on hand to peg one-to-one

There's consumer protections. So there is a major desire to have this sort of federal oversight

especially within people in crypto who are pushing this, but outside as well

which should solve these problems and allow this to be more widely used and safe

Right. Basically, if the U.S. doesn't do it, they're arguing some other country will. All

right. Jared, we appreciate it. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much. All right. Well, the USS New York is on its way to the Big Apple for Fleet Week

The battleship departed Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia yesterday. Fleet Week kicks off with a parade of ships tomorrow where participating vessels will sail down the Hudson River and dock in Hell's Kitchen

USS New York will dock at Pier 88. The public can get a tour of the ship Friday and Saturday

What a glorious day for that. Let's take another look outside. Go to Audrey for a look at the forecast

You did mention it. Beautiful sunshine, but it really felt more like a gorgeous early April day than the middle of May

Agreed, Steve. Agreed. We definitely needed an extra layer, too, as you head out this morning or headed out this morning because it was a little chilly out there

But now the sun has come through. Temperatures have warmed up nicely into the mid 60s. And we are a little bit below normal for this time of year

Plenty of sunshine now. We still have some clouds kind of creeping their way in here. They're on the outer fringe of a system that is bringing wet weather across the Ohio Valley right now

It's also going to be producing some severe weather across the Tennessee Valley as a part of this cold front here

And this is all headed in our direction. So as it begins to move eastward, we're going to start to see the clouds increase on our sky cover

That really starts to happen tonight. The rain will hold off until tomorrow morning

Right around the morning commute is when we'll start to see rounds of rain begin to work into the region here

And we're going to stay unsettled for the next couple of days. So you have to keep your umbrella handy, it looks like, for tomorrow as well as into Thursday

But not today. We're expecting plenty of sunshine to give away to some clouds towards the afternoon

Temperature is very nice, mostly in the middle to upper 60s. That is a little bit below normal, but very comfortable

We're nice and dry out there. And then tonight comes comes cool across parts of the region

We'll be in the 40s off to the north and west here. 54 in the city and the clouds will be thickening up ahead of that rain that gets here for tomorrow

Just in time for the morning commute, probably around 7, 8 o'clock. We'll start to see rain pushing into the region

It will be steady by lunchtime. We'll see it kind of taper off for a period of time by the afternoon tomorrow and then pick up again as we go into Thursday

Temperatures also take a tumble, too. We're only in the middle to upper 50s for our high temperatures for Wednesday and Thursday

but then we'll slowly recover as we get closer to the Memorial Day holiday, which will be sunny with a high of 73

Well, the spring's been a slow burn. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks, Audrey. And that's your News Block for now

I'm Steve Lacey. Thanks for joining us. Tune in to the 5 o'clock news on Fox 5 and right here on Fox Local

for all the news as it develops throughout the day. We'll see you back here tomorrow