Last month we learned that lobbyists for the gas industry spent $3.2 million in lobbying Albany over the last two years to influence lawmakers regarding the controversial tactic of hydraulic fracturing. Now Common Cause has released a report [ pdf ] detailing that gas companies have contributed $1.34 million to the state’s politicians, including $153,816 to governor Andrew Cuomo. “New Yorkers need to be assured that such a controversial issue will be decided based on merit, not money,” Common Cause’s executive director Susan Lerner tells the Daily News. [ more › ]
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State Pols Received $1.34 Million In Donations From Frack-Happy Gas Companies
Today’s beautiful blue skies are going to give way to a messy weather situation tonight and tomorrow as the high pressure system producing the cloudless sky will soon be knocked out by one-two punch of potent storms. For the rest of the day today we should see mostly sunny skies and a temperature slowly climbing to the mid 40s. [ more › ]
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Rain, Wind And Much Colder Weather On The Way
On Thursday night, an 11-year-old Bronx boy was shot in the stomach by a bullet that came through the door of his second-floor apartment. Today, police said they have arrested 17-year-old suspect Kijana Jenkins, one of the two alleged shooters. He was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment. While his accomplice is still at large, victim Ryan Aguirre is recovering from the incident: “He is doing much better. We’re all still praying for him, but he’s feeling much better,” his mother told the Daily News. [ more › ]
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Suspect Arrested In Shooting Of Bronx 11-Year-Old
According to a Manhattan restauranteur, a camera-shy health inspector fired off a litany of violations as soon as he began documenting the inspection. Bill Koulmentas, the owner of George’s diner in Tribeca, tells the Post that because he pulled out his iPhone to document a visit from a DOH inspector yesterday, the inspector became angry and wrote him up for 65 points worth of violations, and shuttered the restaurant for the first time since September 11, 2001. “They can do anything they want, Koulmentas says. “Something’s out of control here. It’s lies, lies, lies.” [ more › ]
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Diner Owner Claims DOH Shut Him Down For Citizen Journalism
It seems that some fast food cashiers still haven’t learned that it’s always a bad idea to put potentially racist “jokes” in their receipts. Minhee Cho tweeted her receipt from a Harlem Papa John’s last night, writing, “Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn’t ‘lady chinky eyes.’” An assistant manager at the store told us that it was a joke-gone-wrong: “I didn’t think [the cashier] was trying to offend the lady in any type of way, but she did. It wasn’t meant to harm her in any way. But I apologize on behalf of my staff for that.” [ more › ]
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Papa John’s Rings Up Asian Customer As "Lady Chinky Eyes"
What is it about day care centers that seems to bring out the worst in New Yorkers? 54-year-old supervising FDNY safety inspector Carlos Montoya was arrested on Friday for accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes from day care centers. According to Manhattan’s U.S. attorney Preet Bharara [ pdf ], Montoya, who has been a safety inspector since 1993, “was responsible for certifying that day care centers throughout the city complied with fire safety standards,” but “allegedly solicited bribes to look the other way, potentially compromising the safety of the children who attended these centers.” According to the Times, Montoya has been released on $100,000 bond. [ more › ]
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FDNY Inspector Indicted For Accepting Bribes From Day Care Centers
A day after revealing that he would be hit with a wrongful death suit , now it’s believed that Rod Covlin may face murder charges from the Manhattan DA’s office for the death of his estranged wife. Sources tell the Daily News “the Manhattan district attorney’s office will seek murder charges against him before the spring.” [ more › ]
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Manhattan DA May Charge Ex-Trader With 2009 Murder Of Wealth Manager Wife
Don’t call this generation disengaged with the problems facing society: a serious-minded group of Community fans plan to protest the show’s network-imposed, indefinite hiatus in front of NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters tomorrow. “It really hit a chord with me, it struck me as being very unfair that 25,000 Nielsen boxes could keep or kill this beautiful show,” one of the “organizers” of the flash mob tells the Daily News. Isn’t an “organized flash mob” an oxymoron? [ more › ]
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Community Fans To Protest NBC’s Slight In "Flash Mob" Tomorrow
Bad news for lung cancer fans on a fixed income: you’ve got until February 1st to stock up on cheap cigarettes at two local establishments that skirt NYC’s steep taxes. You’ll recall that Island Smokes , a retail tobacco outlet with locations on Staten Island and the Lower East Side, has for some time now exploited a perceived loophole in the city’s cigarette tax law: by requiring smokers to roll their own coffin nails using on-site cigarette stuffing machines, Island Tobacco was able to sell their products as loose tobacco, which is taxed at a lower rate. That is, until fraud investigators took notice. [ more › ]
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City Snuffs Out Cheap Roll Your Own Cigarettes Shops
Angela Jewth is living a parent’s nightmare . Her only son, 9-year-old Jonathan, died Wednesday—nine days after a choking incident at his Bronx school left him clinging to life in the hospital. Now she is getting ready to sue the city to find out why it appears nobody at P.S. 47 knew how to properly clear the healthy boy’s airways of a rogue meatball. ” If something had been done differently, my son would’ve been alive today, ” Jewth told the Daily News. [ more › ]
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9-Yr-Old Bronx Boy Dies After Choking On School Meatballs