Lifeguard shortage challenges beach safety nationwide.

Leaders of the unions representing lifeguards at city-run beaches and pools in New York City have warned students at the city's lifeguard school about Department of Parks and Recreation bosses. The school has been unofficially run by union brass on the Parks Department payroll for years. The new first deputy commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, has made changes to help boost recruitment in the face of a dire shortage of lifeguards to cover the city’s nearly 100 indoor and outdoor pools, and its 14 miles of beaches, stretches of which are closed for lack of lifeguards. The changes have apparently rattled union leaders, who teach aspiring lifeguards how to work at beaches and pools.