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Photograph of Canstruction by Idle Type on Flickr

From the Gothamist Newsmap: A confined space rescue at 81st St & Amsterdam Ave in Manhattan, an attempted carjacking on Palo Alto St in Queens, and a bank robbery at 3rd Ave & 71st St in Brooklyn.
Terrorists, allegedly looking for Britons and Americans, have killed dozens at numerous sites in Mumbai, the business capital of India, and taken hostages at two luxury hotels. The situation is ongoing.
A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted a woman, who is accused of using a fake MySpace account to bully her daughter's former friend, of misdemeanor charges. She was not convicted of a felony.
The tradition of companies giving their employees free turkeys for Thanksgiving is in decline, but some still do, like Five Star Electric, whose president hands out the birds out himself.
A Staten Island man was charged with vehicular manslaughter and DWI after crashing his car into a Staten Island Expressway guardrail yesterday afternoon, killing his business partner who was ejected from the car.
The new commanding officer of the Suffolk County police precinct is Hispanic, but he's not fluent in Spanish.
Former MSNBC news head Dan Abrams tries to explain to Gawker why his venture, a PR firm whose employees would include journalists, bloggers, etc., is conflict-free. More on this from the Observer.
President-elect Obama and his family handed out food to the needy in Chicago today.
And we wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoy the holiday--and we'll be posting tomorrow and throughout the weekend.

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By Jen Chung in Miscellaneous on November 26, 2008 6:59 PM

Comments [rss]

cucarachita

@snoopy, whatever you meant, your comment about stuffing a language down throats is ridiculous. Spanish is a very current, applicable language. I'm a semi-fluent hispanic myself, and I think it's ridiculous that my mother stopped speaking spanish to me as a child in an attempt to 'not look like an puerto rican immigrant."

Yes, my hispanic mother is bigot and a snob, against non-Ecuadorian hispanics! who'd a thunk it? and yet she's not the only one out there who don't want to me mistaken for another branch of hispanics who they deem less worthy than their own! Which is why it's a little weird to just put any old hispanic in a position of authority in a bid to gain sympathy.

It's always beneficial to know a second language, whether it's Spanish, French, or Mandarin... whatever. So if you can have it for free, due to your parents' speaking it, it's nothing to sneeze at.

Personally, I took French in HS. Which is why I'm only semi-fluent in spanish.

Snoopy

Jen, you were more than clear. I just find it strange that "semi-Hispanics"? are needed to fill in spots dictated by those that think they need those spots filled by same. I have quite a few friends that are Hispanic and were born "off island" and they are embarrassed by this token bullshit of needing a native born Hispanic to do a job just based on their origins.

Don't get me started with Rangel.

Kevin Walsh

>>>The tradition of companies giving their employees free turkeys for Thanksgiving is in decline

My company used to but now we get $20 King Kullen gift cards.

www.forgotten-ny.com

tsol

Effective border control would soothe racial tensions better.

Jen Chung

@Snoopy--I should have been clearer--Suffolk County is where the Ecuadorian immigrant was killed in an apparent hate crime, and the hiring was a move to help soothe racial tensions between the large Hispanic (and immigrant) community with whites.

Snoopy

At last check I don't believe B Obama is fluent in Swahili either.

But then again there are isolated groups that live in Willieburg that think speaking a language that was popular in the late middle ages is the only language.

Snoopy

WOW! An Hispanic who is not fluent in Spanish. WTF. Give credit to the man and his parents that they didn't stuff the old country's language down his throat. This is America and at last check I believe the common language here, and for most advanced countries is English. BRAVO to the good man to understand that.