New York State has recognized marriages between two men or two women since 2008 but now one State Senator from Brooklyn is trying to end that —just as the fight to bring marriage equality is heating back up in Albany. Republican Senator Martin Golden says his proposed legislation isn’t about the current fight going on, rather it is “a message to the people of the state of New York that there’s at least some normalcy within this great state , the Empire State, and in the state Senate.” [ more › ]
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New Legislation Would Void Out-Of-State Gay Marriages In NY
Wildlife advocates say that Albany’s failure to enact laws against bear poaching and the sale of bear gallbladders and bile has drawn the hunters to the state. Bear gallbladders are generally sold to Asia or to Asian communities in the US for use in traditional medicines, but the New York State Assembly recently introduced a bill to ban the “possession, sale, barter, offer, purchase, transportation, delivery, or receipt of bear gallbladder, bile, or any product, item, or substance containing, or labeled or advertised as containing, bear gallbladders or bile.” Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said , “Frankly it is embarrassing when New York State lags behind other states.” [ more › ]
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Bear Gallbladder Poachers Lured To New York By Lack Of Laws
While the rape cop trial has garnered lots of publicity as more and more details have been revealed during the last couple weeks of the trial, a different rape case which hasn’t been given much publicity has quietly come to a close. An elite FDNY paramedic, who was accused of raping a drunken 15-year-old he had offered to help “sober up,” pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child, and will avoid jail time as a result. [ more › ]
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FDNY Paramedic Accused Of Rape Avoids Jail Time
The Real Estate Board of New York has asked the Bloomberg administration to consider a real estate tax cap of 20 percent for buildings no longer eligible for the 421-a tax-abatement program , warning that if property taxes keep rising, landlords will make “affordable” units market-rate in order to keep up. But according to Bloomberg , “Our property taxes in New York City happen to be very low compared to the rest of the state.” Not for long ? [ more › ]
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Bloomberg Says Our Property Taxes Are Just Fine
The members of Community Board 1 may have voted unanimously against concerts on Williamsburg’s waterfront, but they are still going to happen this summer thanks to a little contract that was already signed by the OSA and the State Parks Department. That isn’t stopping that CB1 crew from yammering on about the nuisance the shows create, however. According to the Brooklyn Paper , the locals want the concerts to produce less noise, and less trash. [ more › ]
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Williamsburg Locals Still Want Concert-Going Kids Off Their Lawn!
TSA screeners are instructed to keep their eyes peeled for people who are “very arrogant and expresses contempt against airport passenger procedures,” according to the TSA’s list of roughly 70 “behavioral indicators” obtained by CNN . In an interesting think-piece on American security theater, CNN finds that—shocker—some of the TSA’s methods are unsound . Like the one where they expect the bad guys to call attention to themselves by acting like boorish jerks who hate the very screeners they’re trying to tiptoe past. [ more › ]
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Pro Terrorist Tip: Hide Your Contempt For The TSA Screening
Let’s not let the news that Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 voted (symbolically?) against the concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront overshadow the other distressing development that emerged from last night’s meeting: the locals are poised to go through with this moratorium on new liquor licenses in north Brooklyn. And unlike the State Parks Department, the SLA has a history of doing the community boards’ bidding. [ more › ]
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North Brooklyn Liquor License Moratorium Looms
As they’ve advertised, the Karsan design for the city’s ” Taxi of Tomorrow ” competition is the only design that is wheelchair accessible . And if a new bill from the State Assembly gets passed, it could end up being the only car in the running. The new bill , drafted by Assemblyman Micah Kellner (D-Manhattan), would require all cabs on the streets after October 1st, 2014 to be wheelchair accessible. Kellner said, “Everyone accuses the state Legislature of being dysfunctional, but what is truly dysfunctional is the fact that the mayor and the City Council have had 11 years to make New York City’s taxi fleet 100% accessible, and they have done next to nothing.” [ more › ]
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New Bill Could Make Wheelchair Cab The Taxi Of Tomorrow
A Brooklyn man allegedly strangled and killed his girlfriend during an argument in their Sunset Park apartment, while their 7-year-old daughter and other relatives were sleeping. Daniel Elias fled the apartment and told his aunt to have someone check on girlfriend Cynthia Lopez. Elias’s sister, who was in the apartment, ended up finding the 29-year-old woman “lying face up in her bed, unconscious.” [ more › ]
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Man Arrested For Allegedly Strangling Girlfriend To Death
Today’s end-of-day links: the State Senate holds a hearing on Muslim “radicalization,” the Haggadah gets a makeover, voodoo gets popular, and more. Follow Gothamist on Twitter and like us on Facebook for the latest on what’s getting knit-bombed . [ more › ]
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Extra, Extra: State Senate Holds Hearing On Terrorism And Islam