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Here are the top stories in Queens today:

1. FDNY EMS Lieutenant Alison Russo-Elling was fatally stabbed in Astoria on Thursday afternoon in an attack New York City’s fire commissioner described the attack as “barbaric and completely unprovoked.” The 61-year-old medic, a 24-year veteran of the FDNY was a few steps away from Station 49 in Astoria, where she worked, when an emotionally disturbed man approached her and stabbed her multiple times in the neck. She was rushed to Mount Sinai Queens in critical condition where she died. Russo-Elling is the second EMS worker to die in the line of duty in the last five years. The suspect, Peter Zisopoulos, 34, was arrested.

ABC 7 News ; New York Daily News

Correction: The suspect was misidentified in an earlier version of this digest.

2. City officials along with elected and community leaders from western Queens cut the ribbon on Thursday on a new bus lanes along the corridor from Queens Plaza North to Hoyt Avenue North. The construction on the 1.7-mile stretch of roadway, known locally as “The Speedway” because motorists use it to avoid paying the toll on the Triborough Bridge, improves not only pedestrian safety, but also bus service that was slow and unreliable. The new priority lanes provide service to 29,000 riders along three different routes — the Q66, Q69, and Q100. “Finding ways to improve bus service is key to providing faster, more reliable transit options for all of our borough’s residents, no matter what their ZIP Code or socioeconomic status may be,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “The 21st Street Bus Priority Project will vastly improve bus service in western Queens, while also enhancing safety for all who use 21st Street.”

Queens Courier ; New York Daily News

3. The Department of Education announced a policy change on Thursday that will greater emphasize top performing students within the lottery system admissions process. Schools Chancellor David Banks outlined the new system wherein eighth-graders in the top fifteen percent of their middle schools, or with a GPA of 90 or above, will be given first priority to access screened schools. Banks also said that by fall 2024 three new schools would be opened for accelerated learning, including one in southeast Queens. The new policy is a contentious one with some asserting that admissions screens are unjust, and limit students’ access to quality schools, while others claim the new system makes it easier for families to find the right school for their child.

Queens Chronicle ; The New York Times

4. A Queens man will spend the next year in federal prison for stuffing over 600 protected turtles into socks and shipping them to China via Hong Kong in 2017 and 2018. Chu Sen Guan, 33, and his brother, Chu Wei Guan, 35, sent the turtles overseas by stuffing them into tight socks so their legs and head wouldn’t move, and then wrapping the socks tightly with tape. According to the prosecutor, the packing process was a “two-person operation” because it’s extremely difficult to bundle the turtles. Unsurprisingly, many turtles did not survive the abusive five-to six-day journey with no air, food, or water. While the turtles — including the Eastern box turtle and the Florida box turtle — sell for as little as $125 in the U.S., but go for up to $2,000 each in China.

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