NY Blog

Judge: Congress Violated Constitution Cutting ACORN Funds

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:25:00 +0000

In December a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funds for ACORN without conducting a formal investigation into the low-income community activist group. At the time, ACORN was still reeling from hidden camera videos which seemed to show ACORN employees advising a pimp and prostitute on tax evasion. These carefully edited videos were eventually found to show no criminality , but ACORN’s funding was never restored. (The group also came under fire because some volunteers had written false names like “Mickey Mouse” on voter registration drives in 2008.) In asking Judge Nina Gershon to reconsider her ruling, the government cited a Dec. 7 report written by a former attorney general for Massachusetts which “reinforces Congress’ purpose in preventing fraud, waste and abuse.” But the AP reports that Judge Gershon ruled again that it was “unmistakable that Congress determined ACORN’s guilt before defunding it.” She said Congress can investigate ACORN but cannot “rely on the negative results of a congressional or executive report as a rationale to impose a broad, punitive funding ban on a specific, named organization.” Specifically, Gershon ruled that the Code of Federal Regulations establishes a formal process for deciding when federal contractors can be suspended or debarred, and “the existence of these regulations militates against the need for draconian, emergency action by Congress.” She then ordered the government to alert federal agencies that they’re now allowed to fund ACORN, which has since dissolved in some cities , including New York, where the group is now performing a similar role as New York Communities for Change . Lawyers for the government are considering appealing the ruling.

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Judge: Congress Violated Constitution Cutting ACORN Funds

Condos Could Be Cut From City-Run Brooklyn Bridge Park

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Since the city assumed control of the unfinished Brooklyn Bridge Park project , there’s a chance the controversial plan to fund park operations by building condos inside the greenspace might be scrapped. The Bloomberg administration has said it will form a committee to investigate other revenue streams that could earn money to cover the estimated $16.1 million maintenance budget, including building stores or charging local homeowners a fee or tax. The Daily News reports that under the new plan for the 85-acre, $350 million park project, local politicians including condo opponent state Sen. Dan Squadron would have the ability to veto housing on parkland. The city take-over—which comes with the promise that Mayor Bloomberg will contribute $55 million to pay for park construction in the next fiscal year—also brought news that the waterfront open space will stay open until 1 a.m. Under city control, the park will also allow bikes and leashed dogs, unlike the nearby state-run Fulton Ferry Park, which is slated to annexed of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Officials hope to open a section of the greenspace within a month, and another portion near Atlantic Avenue this spring. Now that Bloomberg has obtained the Brooklyn Bridge Park project from the state, he’s apparently trying to acquire Governor’s Island. A year ago, the city began negotiating with Albany in an attempt to take-over the cash-strapped weekend destination . According to the Post , the city might spend about $30 million that has been set aside for the delayed Javits Center expansion to obtain the 172-acre island, and Bloomberg is “optimistic” a deal will be made soon.

Identity Thieves Sentenced to at Least Five Years in Prison

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Bronx natives Jasper “Lyte” Grayson and James “Sal” Malloy were sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court today for at least five years and possibly up to a decade in prison for organizing a giant check fraud scheme which netted a minimum of $2 million. With almost a thousand henchmen under their employ, the identity thieves were apprehended last year outside a Bronx bank printing bogus checks with equipment plugged into a cigarette lighter, the Post reports . Along with the help of several corrupt bank tellers, Grayson and Malloy acquired customer information and cancelled checks to better reproduce their counterfeits. After buying account details from the tellers from banks such as TD, HSBC, and Chase, Lyte and Sal hired hundreds of others to cash fake checks for about $2000 each. A spokeswoman from the Manhattan DA’s office tells the Post that eighteen members of the fraud ring were busted last May, and fourteen of them have taken plea deals. The entire setup claimed 500 victims including Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Madison Square Garden, and the NYPD!

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Identity Thieves Sentenced to at Least Five Years in Prison

Immigrant Pardoned By Paterson Called A Role Model

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:50:00 +0000

Days after Governor Paterson pardoned him for crimes he committed as a youth, Qing Hong Wu was released from a NJ immigration facility—without being told about the pardon. The NY Times reports that since Wu had no cash or a cellphone, he walked from the Port Authority to his cousin’s apartment on Spring Street, “It was a great hour. Even though I was tired, I was so happy. I thought immigration made a mistake, so I figured I’d enjoy it before they come and get me.” Wu was sentenced to three years in a reformatory for muggings he committed age 15 with friends; at the time, Judge Michael Correiro, told him that he would stand by him if Wu used his time there to turn his life around. Wu did that, earning his GED there, and later received his Associate’s Degree and became an IT executive. But an application for citizenship (Wu legally immigrated to NYC as a child) and his honest disclosure about his youthful offenses prompted immigration officials to jail him, especially since a 1996 law prohibits judges from taking into account rehabilitation. The Times publicized his plight last month, and as many, including Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. and now-retired Judge Correiro, campaigned for Wu’s pardon. Wu spoke at a press conference, expressing his appreciation for letters of support, the sad situation at the immigration jail (the other detainees included “people with mental health problems, two pre-operative transsexuals, elderly folks that can barely walk”), and his desire to become a citizen. Also, Correiro met Wu for the first time since 1996; the former judge told NY1 , “ This young man has really been a model for other young men who can improve their lives. My only hope is that we can find mechanisms that will help remove the indelible stigma of childhood convictions on young men who can demonstrate, after an appropriate time, that they can lead a good, constructive life.”

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Immigrant Pardoned By Paterson Called A Role Model

Pols Want NYPD To Erase Database Of Innocent People

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:40:00 +0000

from Runs With Scissors’ flickr Councilmembers are pushing the NYPD to abolish a database containing the names of New Yorkers who have been stopped, frisked, and released without charges. With the NYPD stopping and frisking a record number of people last year, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) wrote a letter urging Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to get rid of files on individuals who haven’t been arrested or given summonses, arguing the current policy ” raises significant privacy-right concerns and suggests that these innocent people are more likely to be targeted in future criminal investigations .” According to the Times the councilmembers contend that keeping data on people who haven’t been accused of crimes is hypocritical, considering that individuals who have been exonerated of crimes can have their criminal records sealed. They also want Kelly to explain in what instances police officers are allowed to access the database, the Daily News reports. Although about 85 percent of people on the list have done nothing wrong, the police force has defended its record-keeping claiming it helps detectives conduct investigations. That said, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne acknowledged that the politicians “made some interesting points, which Commissioner Kelly is considering.”

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Pols Want NYPD To Erase Database Of Innocent People

Bronx 5 Train Express Service Halted For Repairs

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:40:00 +0000

East 108th Street Maintenance Facility by Flickr user Triborough The MTA has announced that starting at the end of the month through August 2011, 5 train service in the Bronx will be shut down for the East 180th Street signal modernization project. From March 27th onwards, express riders will have to endure seven more stops between East 180 Street and 3 Ave-149 Street. While the MTA’s website claims that the substantial change in service will only add so much as five minutes to the cumulative commute, exasperated riders anticipate counting an additional thirty minutes into their wait. Riuvelle Soto tells the Post that the train is “always stopping between stations, sometimes for minutes, because they say there’s train traffic ahead of us. That’s going to get worse now.” The 5 train will begin to make all 2 local stops for the next eighteen months while the MTA performs repairs on the 180th Street station. By August of next year, the MTA promises a renovated station along with an upgraded signal system.

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Bronx 5 Train Express Service Halted For Repairs

Breslin Charges $25 "Forkage Fee" to BYO Dessert

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:29:00 +0000

Katie Sokoler /Gothamist Here we are again with another story about a shocked diner who could not believe a restaurant would discourage her from bringing outside food. As usual, the “victim” has her own set of special reasons why she should have been indulged: Rose Levy Beranbaum is a baker/blogger/cookbook author , and she went to The Breslin for lunch after videotaping a cooking segment. So she’s in the industry, as they say, and even offered to share her cake with the hip restaurant’s pastry chef. When the waiter informs her that the pastry chef is out, Beranbaum offers him his own piece. But the “haughty twenty-something server” isn’t so easily bribed, and says, “I don’t do that kind of thing.” Then things gets expensive: He left with his nose in the air and his stride smacking of moral superiority as if to imply that the rest of us were moral misfits. I felt like I was back in the second grade! It was as though a storm cloud had eclipsed the joyful mood of our gathering. Oh! the wait person brought back four forks, pushing them onto the table, but no plates. We started to taste the cake, still set on its plastic wrap “plate,” when he returned with the information that he had reported us to the chef who said we’d have to pay a fee for the forks. I asked him if it was a “forkage fee” and he smiled and said “yes.” I suggested that he might have mentioned that before he brought out the forks. The bill came and that fee for the use of four forks was a shocking $25. In the space on her credit card receipt set aside for gratuity, Beranbaum left her own fork you to the waiter, writing in “cakeage fee” instead of a dollar amount. Suck on that, servant following orders from your boss! [Via Diner's Journal ]

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Breslin Charges $25 "Forkage Fee" to BYO Dessert

Armed Robbers Target Brooklyn Livery Cab Drivers

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:16:00 +0000

Cops are trying to track down two men suspected of mugging at least nine livery cab drivers in Brooklyn since December. In all of the reported robberies, the perps would hail a black cab and tell the driver to bring them to a destination in East Flatbush, often on or around East 35th Street. Once the taxi reached the destination, one of the men would pull out a gun while the other would restrain the driver and take any valuables he could, according to MyFoxNY . The crimes started in late December and occurred as recently as Feb. 21. The thieves struck twice on the night of Jan. 10—with two drivers reporting separate robberies just three minutes apart. The suspects are described as in men their 20s who are between 5′9” and 6′. So far, no injuries have been reported during the robberies, however crooks have stabbed and shot livery cab drivers in stick-ups in recent years. Anyone with information about the crimes can visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text TIP577 to 274637 (CRIMES).

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Armed Robbers Target Brooklyn Livery Cab Drivers

Good Fences? Neighbors React To NJ Grow Houses

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:04:00 +0000

After NJ authorities harvested a $10 million pot bust across five towns, neighbors have been offering up their views on living next to the illegal operation. One man, who lived next to a grow house with over 500 marijuana plants, told the Star-Ledger , “Living here on this block I barely know my neighbors on each side. We don’t have block parties or anything like that, so I’d be shocked if anyone else knew about this either.” Coming soon: DEA-sponsored block parties? NJ Attorney General Paula Dow explained the suspects “selected large houses, frequently in pretty upscale neighborhoods, where the properties are widely spaced and they were not likely to garner direct attention.” Mission accomplished—that is, until one cop happened to be in the area when one of the suspects was burning the unusable parts of the plants in his fireplace. D’oh! Other neighbors told WCBS 2 , “It’s horrible that this is going on in our neighborhood. You can be a neighbor and have no idea of what’s going on,” and “I never smelled a thing, which is even scarier – to know that this was going on without someone knowing.” Well, a few years ago, firefighters found a hydroponic pot farm in a Brooklyn apartment—apparently the neighbors were fine with the smell but got the authorities involved because of a leak.

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Good Fences? Neighbors React To NJ Grow Houses

Woman Fatally Struck By 6 Train

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:49:00 +0000

via polishsausagequeen’s flickr Just before 4 p.m., word came in over the newswire that there was “a person under the train” at East 77th Street and Lexington; soon after it was noted the person was DOA. Now CityRoom reports that a girl was crushed to death between the 6 train and the platform. It’s unclear at this time if her death was accidental—there are conflicting eyewitness reports. Some witnesses say she was playing with kids on the uptown platform when someone pushed her towards the tracks, while others say she jumped. The site has some gruesome details as well, noting “part of the girl’s head and arm were visible between the platform and a door of a car toward the front of the train. Passengers inside the car were screaming.” Currently the MTA’s site notes that there’s a police investigation at the station and trains are running express in both directions from the 42nd Street-Grand Central Station to the 125th Street Station. Expect delays. UPDATE: Authorities now say the deceased was a woman in her 40s.

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Woman Fatally Struck By 6 Train