Results tagged “dominicanrepublic”

It took all of two days for reporters to track down just who Alex Rodrgiuez's steroid-supplying cousin was. It wasn't too difficult for ESPN to find Yuri (pronounced "Judy") Sucart because a source tells them, "He's been following Rodriguez around for years telling anyone and everyone that he was Alex's cousin, friend, and 'personal manager.'"

Just now, Representative Charles Rangel, who is also the chairman of the House's Ways and Means Committee, gave a press conference to discuss his rent-stabilized apartments, forgetting to pay taxes on rental income on his villa in the Dominican Republic, and using Congressional letterhead to solicit donations for a City College center named after him. With his homespun wisdom and bowtie, Rangel claimed ignorance about the rental income situation in the D.R. (he said he called for more info, but they kept talking Spanish!), blamed the Republicans in Congress for being overly partisan and said he'll weather through it.

Representative Charles Rangel's Dominican Republic villa continues to be scrutinized as it's now reported the interest on his mortgage was waived. This comes a day after his lawyer also revealed the powerful Chairman of the House's Ways and Means Committee did not report $75,000 in rental income (over the past 20 years) from the villa.

What a week for Representative Charles Rangel! On Sunday, the House's Ways and Means Committee was on the cover of the NY Post, which said rental income from his Dominican Republic villa was not reported to the IRS in 2006 and 2007. Today, he's back on the front page...but this time, it's the NY Times which says he failed to report $75,000 in income since 1988 from that very villa!

After the NY Post's cover story wondering about rental income from Representative Charles Rangel's Dominican Republic villa, a GOP group weighs in. Rangel's villa, which sits on a resort, has been rented out to hotel guests, but he hasn't reported rental income in the past two years (his chief of staff suggested Rangel may be a shareholder at the resort and put money back into the resort--but Rangel's tax returns don't mention that). The National Republican Congressional Committee now tells the Post, "Charlie Rangel is a fan of authoring massive tax hikes just as long as he doesn't have to pay them." And Representative Peter King (R-Nassau County) said, "Did he report the rental income or not? If he didn't, he'll have to explain why. I'm sure it will be investigated."

Ever since the NY Times reported that Representative Charles Rangel had four rent-stabilized apartments--three for living quarters and one for an office--his real-estate holdings have been scrutinized. Now the NY Post puts a dozing Rangel on its cover for a story about his vacation property in the Dominican Republic.

Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez, as well as the Mets organization, made statements about the video of Martinez appearing at a cockfighting event in the Dominican Republic.

From Pedro Martinez: "I understand that people are upset, but this is part of our Dominican culture and is legal in the Dominican Republic. I was invited by my idol Juan Marichal to attend the event as a spectator, not as a participant."

Continue reading "Pedro, Mets Speak Out on Cockfighting Video"

A video showing Mets star pitcher Pedro Martinez at a cockfight in the Dominican Republican briefly surfaced online, outraging some people. Cockfighting is a popular - and legal - sport in the Dominican Republic, but it's illegal in almost all of the United States.

We already covered the Super Bowl half time show alternatives, but what if you're not a football fan or your team didn’t make it? What if you don’t want to sit through a football game to watch commercials or if you hate Joe Buck and Troy Aikman? Well, don’t worry, there are some television alternatives for you if you don’t want to watch either the game or the countless hours of pre-game shows.

Yesterday, people gathered for the sixth anniversary of the fatal American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Belle Harbor, Queens. It was the second deadlist aviation crash in U.S. history, with 265 victims. Mayor Bloomberg led the ceremony, saying, "Once again, we have come together to remember all of them, and to share the sorrow that all of us feel." On November 12, 2001, the Dominican Republic-bound plane had taken off from JFK Airport; turbulent air...

It's a tie! Last month managed to tie 1947 as the warmest October in the 150+ years of Central Park weather observations. The last time the park had a record warm month was February 2002. The difference between sharing the record warm October with 1947 and breaking that old record was as small as could be. If the high or low temperature for any day last month been one degree higher October 2007 would have held the record outright.

Queens prosecutors announced yesterday that a teenager acting as a drug mule was arrested at JFK airport on Tuesday. Anthony Cruz, 16, was stopped by customs officials as he arrived on an American Airlines flight from Santiago in the Dominican Republic. X-rays of his body revealed 80 balloons of heroin with a total weight of 988 grams (nearly 1 kilo and more than 2 pounds). According to officials, the heroin was worth $500,000.

We were tempted this morning to throw up a pretty sky photo from the Gothamist Contribute pool and not write anything because there's not much weather to discuss. The week is starting out cool but will get warmer. By Thursday we should be seeing maximum temperatures in the upper-70s to around 80 degrees as the high pressure system that will dominate the weather this week moves further eastward. Skies are expected to stay mostly clear through the weekend and probably well into next week.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large sinkhole on Nostrand Ave. and Quincy St. in Brooklyn, a large fight on Park Ave. and 129th St. in Manhattan, and a water rescue at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island.
• The Daily Show is giving the green screen that is used to fake remote segments a rest and actually sending correspondent Rob Riggle to Iraq to file reports for the satircal news show.
• This Morningside Heights dive bar, popular with trivia contestants and Jeopardy! fans, days are numbered due to an expired lease. What is the Night Cafe?
• The man who robbed a bank on East 23rd St. yesterday made his getaway by ducking into the nearby Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and stripping off his jacket to reveal a set of green surgical scrubs and blending into the crowd.
• Families are suing the city of New York for running the Pelham Bay Landfill, which they say is responsible for an epidemic of cancer in their neighborhood.
• Marcos Diaz waded into the water yesterday afternoon at the beginning of an attempt to swim around Manhattan two times. The 60-mile effort is being made to raise funds for children with leukemia in the Dominican Republic.
• If you think dressing dogs in raincoats or sweaters is ridiculous, you really should not click through to this Daily News slideshow of a canine fashion show.
• The New York Times reflects on the appeal of walking in the city. We wrote about walking for the thrill of it earlier this week. Do you have a city walk that stands out as being particularly enjoyable?

Maybe there is good reason to try to stay off Forbes' list of 400 wealthiest people. The Manhattan DA's office charged a 24-year-old Russian national with an elaborate identity ring that targeted rich Americans.

Your overstuffed kitchen drawer of take-out menus is minuscule compared to the menus Daniel Rayas collected over a four month period. Newsday has a fantastic profile of the Texan grandfather who moved to New York City to help care for his newborn granddaughter and found a flexible part-time job that has taken him all over the city. Looking to make some money to pay for room and board, Rayas responded to an ad on Craigslist offering cash for collected menus. It was placed by online eatery guide Allmenus.com, and they put him to work immediately, offering $2 per menu collected.

The two teams open with a home-at home-at home series (Brooklyn, Staten Island, Brooklyn) before getting the rest of their season started. Standing room tickets for tonight's game at Keyspan are still available. A cursory check for tickets at tomorrow's game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark showed that they were sold out.

The police are reportedly looking for three to four suspects wanted in the fatal robbery of a Queens bodega owner on Monday. Bolivar Cruz (pictured) died on Tuesday after being shot in the head by robbers suspected of holding up over 15 other bodegas in Queens over the past few months. The robbers managed to steal $300 from Cruz's store.

Give him the shiny blue National League jacket, spangled with every team logo, not the Mets jacket. Sure, he'd use police barricades as planks to scale the fence at Shea, but he was there to root for players -- Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Juan Marichal -- not the home team. Too tight a circle. Too small an o.

Last night, a bodega owner in Queens was shot in the face during an attempted robbery. Bolivar Cruz, father of seven, is now in critical condition, and police suspect that the robbery might be connected to another robbery - and to many others in the area.

Yesterday morning, Mayor Bloomberg dedicated a memorial for American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed on November 12, 2001 in Belle Harbor, Queens. The Dominican Republic-bound plane had taken off from JFK Airport; turbulent air led the co-pilot to use the rudder to keep the plane up, but the rudder broke off. All 260 people on board - 251 passengers and 9 crew members - were killed when the plane crashed into the quiet residential neighborhood. Five people on the ground were also killed. Many of the plane's passengers were from Washington Heights and Astoria.

Last month, it was revealed the Department of Education was investigating claims that teacher Johnny Cuevas vacationed with a student during spring break - and that school officials at A. Philip Randolph School tried to cover it up. Now it turns out that while Cuevas has been investigated, he was chatting up a 16 year old student online. From the Daily News:

While Cuevas was under investigation for the trip, he allegedly started contacting a 16-year-old from the school.

Continue reading ""Spring Break" Teacher Also Approached 16 Year Old Student "

-Atlanta 102 New York 92: The Knicks missed a great chance to open the season at 2-0. Facing an Atlanta team that only managed to win 26 games last year. New York turned the ball over 17 times and never got the big basket they needed to make it a game.

They say that the best way to learn a language is by immersion, but what about a Spanish teacher who may have taken a student on a getaway to the Dominican Republic? The Daily News reveals that the Department of Education is investigating a teacher of doing just that - and the allegations are spurred by a fellow teacher who was staying at the same hotel. Apparently the teacher who saw teacher Johnny Cuevas and student Alenny Mercado told the principal of Harlem's A.Philip Randolph High School about the sighting last year. In fact, Principal Maurice Collins was told twice. Collins spoke to Cuevas, who denied the incident, in May 2005, but the principal didn't make a report. From the Daily News:

Collins told Cuevas Jan. 4 not to tell school investigators about that May meeting, fearing he would get in trouble for not making a report, Cuevas said in a notarized statement to investigators.

Continue reading "Spring Break with Teacher?"

Two teenagers were arrested in connection to 11 year old Genesis Regalado's death on a Queens street Monday night. Genesis had been playing at a fire hydrant across from her house with other people when Jeffrey Matista allegedly fired at another teenager but shot Genesis in the head. The Post says a gang war over turf prompted the shooting - the 99th Street Gang versus the Calloway Street Boys. The Daily News says Matista and members of a rival gang had argued at a Chinese restaurant, and when the rival gang members sat near the fire hydrant to eat, Matista opened fire. Illoy Espinal, who had argued with Matista, told the Daily News the spat was "over something stupid. They was just grilling us and talking s--t. When someone's grilling you, you tell them, 'What the f--k you looking at?' We told them, 'You want to do this, do it like a man. Do it one and one.' I didn't pay attention to them. They were 15- and 16-year-old kids."

This was the type of game the Yankees hope they can play in October. Crisp pitching and some timely hitting resulted in a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays Wednesday to bring the Yankees back to .500.

Say it ain't so! The United States has been eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. Great news for George Steinbrenner, bad news for US baseball. Last night in Anaheim (or Los Angeles as the Angels would have you call it), Mexico defeated the US, 2-1. In the loss, the US team only managed three hits off 8 Mexican pitchers. If you're scoring at home, that's a single by Junior Griffey, a double by Chipper Jones and another double by Jeff Francoeur. The loss put the United states at 1-2 in 2nd round play and in a three-way tie with Mexico and Japan. But the same International Baseball Federation rules that put the US into the 2nd round, sent Japan to the semi-finals where they will play South Korea. Cuba will play the Dominican Republic in the other semi-final matchup.

It’s a good thing they put the mercy rule into the WBC because if they hadn’t, the U.S. would probably still be hitting. Fired up from their defeat at the hands of Canada, the U.S. squad demolished South Africa 17-0 in a game that was shortened to five innings. Ken Griffey exploded for two homers and seven RBI’s while Roger Clemens gave up 1 hit while striking out six over 4 1/3 innings.

Major League Baseball announced the 60-man US World Baseball Classic roster yesterday with several players on the Mets and Yankees named as possible team members. The US list includes Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets have Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner and David Wright on the US players listed. While the 60-person list is a list of players that can play in the tournament, the eventual roster must be trimmed to 30 players the day before tournament play.

On November 12, 2001, as New York was still reeling from 9/11, American Airlines Flight 587 to the Dominican Republic took off and then crashed into the Rockaways. The crash killed all 260 people aboard the plane and five people on the ground. Yesterday, nearly four years later, the city released six proposals for a memorial. The proposals were selected out of 68 that were submitted. Two things about the memorial are certain: it will be located on Beach 116th Street and the Boardwalk (about a mile from where the plane crashed) and it will contain a list of all of the names who died. Other than that, the proposals are striking in their differences and similarities. One contains a bell tower that would ring at 9:16 a.m. every day (the time the plane crashed), one incorporates a platform that rises over the boardwalk, one has all of the names listed on two giant tilted arcs (not to be confused with Richard Serra's infamous "Tilted Arc") and one includes a sort of limestone chapel. None of them seem particularly tacky. A final design should be picked by early October, groundbreaking is slated for later this fall and the if all goes well then the memorial should be completed by fall 2006.