Results tagged “juangonzalez”

Representative Dennis Kucinich suggested approval for $924 million in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of the new Yankee Stadium could be rescinded, due to some questions about the land's value. He said his probe found "substantial evidence of improprieties and possible fraud by the financial architects of the new Yankees Stadium." Last week, the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez had a column noting the city's assessment of the land worked out to be $275/square foot -- but city assessors previously valued it at $25/square foot. The IRS noted the different valuations ($40 million vs. $204 million) and may investigate further. And speaking of new Yankee Stadium, WCBS 880 went on a tour and took some photos.

The Post and Daily News have a number of editorials and columns about the Deutsche Bank building fire response and fallout. The Post continues to demand FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta's resignation and faulted Mayor Bloomberg for standing by Scoppetta. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez wonders why Bloomberg and Scoppetta have gone into "virtual hiding" and blasts Bloomberg for sending lobbyists to kill "legislation that would force tougher enforcement of safety laws by the city Buildings Department." The News also has an editorial saying that Spitzer must take charge (he "has the muscle to crack heads among the contractors and federal, state and city agencies that have made a perilous hash of the job").

There's nothing like testifying in front of Congress as the Daily News puts you on the front cover and asks you to "come clean" about the post-WTC collapse toxic air in an editorial. Today, Christie Todd Whitman appeared before a Democratic-controlled Congress; the Daily News editorial demanded that former EPA head explain why she and the EPA led New Yorkers to believe the air downtown was safe.

Having fun yet, Governor Spitzer? The new governor slogged through his first Legislative session by having a fight with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno stall many possible deals. Spitzer said that Bruno's was blocking many issues, such as congestion pricing, campaign reform, and expanding the criminal DNA database, because Bruno wanted a half-billion dollar package for capital projects. Spitzer said, "much of [the package], if not most of it, [was] pork. It was dripping fat; it was a horrendous thing to look at."

NYU College Republicans say they are happy with the reaction from their planned "Illegal Immigrant Hunt" at Washington Square Park. They wanted to start a controversy and discussion - and that they did, with hundreds of protesters and more members of the media than actual College Republicans playing the game (by one count, twelve showed up, one signed up). College Republicans president Sarah Chambers told the Washington Square News, "Sometimes, you have to be politically incorrect. Sometimes, you have to be provocative." However, NYU president John Sexton told the NY Times he was disappointed that the group put "sloganeering and trivialization of thought above true debate."

Yesterday, Democracy Now.org showed footage taken from the Air Train station near the club in Jamaica, Queens where Sean Bell and his two friends were shot by police. And the video (link to download MP3) is bananas. One video shows a bullet coming into the station and barely missing a man. Another video shows two Port Authority police officers ducking from the bullets and running. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez, who co-hosts Democracy Now, explained the tape:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, I think one of the things it shows, number one, is that there were a lot more people in danger that night by this shooting, the 50-shot barrage of the police officers at the scene, five cops at the scene, plainclothes and undercover. There had been a report that there had been at least one errant bullet, and I think Graham Weatherspoon -- he was on this show also -- talked about one that went into a home and hit a lamp. But it turns out that this particular bullet that went to the Air Train, which was --

Continue reading "Queens Shooting: Videos from Air Train Station"

Yesterday, the police arrested four people while trying to locate the "fourth man" allegedly at the scene of a fatal police shooting. Marijuana and a loaded gun unconnected to the shooting were seized as well.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/443517p-373548c.html

Times Up is organizing a memorial ride tomorrow night, in memory of Dr. Carl Nacht and Derek Lake. The ride will begin at 6:30PM at the West Side Greenway at 42nd Street (in front of the Intrepid). The ride will stop at West 38th Street, where Nacht was hit by an NYPD tow truck, and then make it way to West Houston and Laguardia Place, where Lake was killed near a construction site. Bring flowers. Update: The memorial ride will also stop at Houston and Broadway, as a tribute to Donna Goodson, a 41 year old who was killed by a truck on Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn on June 5 (the driver apparently didn't see Goodson; no charges were filed).

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow is offering a not-really-but-sorta mea culpa about wanting the transit union to put their pensions on the line during contract negotiations. As you may remember, pensions were the reason why transit workers went ahead with a 60 hour transit strike (new workers would have to contribute more to their pension funds), and it was when Kalikow took the pension out of the contract that the MTA and Transport Workers Union started talking. In various, Kalikow says he misjudged how passionate transit workers would be about their pensions, but doesn't completely apologize for the third ring of hell he helped create, noting that even big companies like GM are being undone by employee pensions. Plus, he says he's still not sure if he's going to recommend that the MTA's executive board ratify the contract. The TWU's members need to approve the contract as well - or else it's back to strapping on the mukluks and trudging to work!

It's Day 2 of the Transit Strike, and New York City's commuters are trying to get back to work, hopefully having learned something from their mistakes yesterday. Like making sure you have four people in a car to enter Manhattan below 96th Street. Or making sure you remembered how to Rollerblade (we saw a couple wipeouts). Or having some pocket change ready to grab another cup of joe from a coffee cart. Newsday has a good, even-handed look at what the strike did yesterday - and what it could mean for today. The story we're most intrigued by, though, is the NY Times' explanation of the MTA's pension demands, namely how the MTA's request for workers to contribute 6% of their salary to pension funds would have only meant an MTA savings of $20 million or less annually. Which is about the amount we think they siphon just by existing. God, we hate the MTA's accounting so much.

So, why did the union reject the MTA's last offer? The MTA was now offering 3% raise increase for year 1 of a 3 year contract, then 4%, and 3.5% for the final year, up 1.5% from last week's offer - which is still much less than what the Transport Workers Union wanted (8% for each of the 3 years), but the TWU had signaled they might agree to it. However, the pensions and benefits were the sticking point, and this was what the MTA was asking for:

The authority dropped its demand to raise the retirement age for a full pension to 62 for new employees, up from 55 for current employees. But the authority proposed that all future transit workers pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions, up from the 2 percent that current workers pay. [Via the NY Times]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent his post-election day basking in his resounding victory, traveling the city (hugging wellwishers, photo ops with kids, buying pastries), promising that he would turn to a career of philanthropy after his second term is over in 2009. And he did work some. The NY Times dives into the voting returns, and says that he "crossed ehtnic barriers" for his win: Estimates say that Bloomberg got about half of the black vote, and about 30% of the Latino vote, giving him a "winning multiethnic coalition," and disproving that minorities always vote as a bloc. (Here are some more numbers from the NY Post.) However, Fernando Ferrer-supporter, the Reverend Al Sharpton, pointed out that many low income neighborhoods voted heavily for Ferrer, showing that there "really are two New Yorks."

Bad news for Fernando Ferrer: He's trailing Mayor Bloomberg by a whopping 31 points according to a Quinnipiac poll. And this poll, unlike earlier ones where Bloomberg enjoyed a 27 point lead, is after fears about the subway terror threat on October 7, which might mean that New Yorkers, despite their grousing, might really love Mayor Bloomberg! The Mayor introduced a new health plan to insure children, which Ferrer's campaign says is the second instance of the Mayor copying Freddy's promises. "Plagiarism," the Ferrer campaign slinged as he campaign with John Kerry on the Lower East Side. More shockingly, it seems that some of the diners at the Harlem International House of Pancakes (where the Mayor previously served diners) when Mayor B got an endorsement from Reverend Calvin Butts were actually Bloomberg volunteers. It's Flapjackgate!

The Village Voice on why the Jets' claims that their bid will bring in minority jobs may be "full of hot air." And the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez on how the MTA's decision to grant Jets the West Side railyards was like watching a sting.

Gothamist has been noticing a lot of features lately about people having crap times navigating the NYC subways, to drive home the point that the MTA's fare hike still doesn't mean service is where it should be; here's one from the Daily News and one from Newsday that details a woman's attempt to find a station attendant because she dropped her purse onto the tracks. And free subways are part of Christopher Brodeur's mayoral platform.

There are, of course, conflicting reports of how many protesters actually were present: United for Peace and Justice said over 400,000, while the NYPD said it was closer to 120,000. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez notes that in the end, Central Park made a guess about the attendance: "Suffice to say, you could toss the entire Republican and Democratic conventions together, and add a day's attendance at the Olympics in Athens, and still not come close to the number of anti-Bush marchers who filled Manhattan yesterday." UPJ organizer Leslie Cagan said, "I think it wildly exceeded our expectations. There's a broad cross-section of this country that is deeply opposed to the Bush agenda. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's something much deeper going on here."