Results tagged “newyork”

It's getting increasingly difficult to hide from the tax man in New York State, thanks to improved automation, more efficient use of third-party data and tougher disclosure laws. Tax revenue obtained through "enforcement actions" has increased 40 percent during the past six months, bringing in an extra $185 million, and crushing some small businesses along the way. In fact, the Empire State is getting so good at shaking down taxpayers that one analyst tells the Times other states "envy" New York!

One of the staunchest opponents to same-sex marriage is a Bronx state senator with two gay brothers, a gay grandchild, and a gay chief counsel. Democrat Ruben Diaz, Sr., a Pentecostal minister, has been a die hard foe of any bill that would legalize gay marriage in New York State, despite his supposedly convivial relationship with many homosexuals. "I love them. I love them," says Díaz, who grew up one of 17 children in Puerto Rico. "But I don’t believe in what they are doing."

Some "hidden rich people" were recently profiled by the New York Post, and now we regret not considering a different career path. A limo driver, for instance, makes $250,000 a year/up to $20,000 a day driving around celebrities. A personal trainer pulls in $300 an hour and between $200,000 and $250,000 a year, and Soho dog walker Eddie Bimonte earns about $4,000 a month, $230 a day. "My job is to make sure they pee and poop," he explains. "I love it when they poop!"

The author of the new book Save the Deli has declared that LA has better Jewish delis than NYC, but he only says such hurtful things because he wants to see New York do better. We haven't read David Sax's heretical book, but the LA Times did, and of course they're gloating over there, because Sax says, "The [delis] that are most inspiring, the ones that people cling to, the ones that people enshrine for years and years are the traditional Jewish delis. And Los Angeles just happens to have more of them than any city I've been to." How can that be?!

In December, Governor Paterson floated the idea of an 18% tax non-diet soft drinks, as part of a plan to close the $3 billion budget gap and perhaps influence New Yorkers to choose healthier beverages. Then the beverage industry opened up a can of whoop-ass, and Paterson backed off, explaining that "often publicity is as important as legislation." Now, perhaps inspired by a 3 cent tax on soda being considered in Washington, Paterson has revived his own soda tax dreams.

Allen Weber says he went to Pittsburgh last month to photograph the street protests at the G20 summit, but police say he behaved like just another anarchist. According to Pittsburgh police Officer Brian Nicholas, Weber was one of hundreds of demonstrators gathered in a plaza on the evening of September 24th, after police had ordered everyone to disperse. Nicholas was in the front seat of an armored SWAT truck, and he dropped a smoke grenade from the truck, about 15 feet from the crowd.

This morning Rep. Anthony Weiner met former New York Lieutenant Governor (and current insane person) Betsy McCaughey on MSNBC's Morning Meeting to debate yell about health care. Though Weiner and McCuaghey had their moments, most of the horn-locking happened between her and host Dylan Ratigan, who would not stop demanding she answer his question: How do you get insurance companies to compete instead of monopolizing markets with antitrust exemptions. Or, as Ratigan puts it, how do we "put an end to corporate communism?" Skip ahead to the four minute mark, when the fireworks get started.

On November 1st, a new law banning texting or using electronic devices like iPods and laptops while driving goes into effect in New York State. But Senator Chuck Schumer announced yesterday at one of his patented Sunday press conferences that he's pushing for a nationwide ban on texting. Schumer cited data showing that text-messaging while driving has resulted in almost 100 teen deaths over the last five years in the city and on Long Island.

After a two year study, a commission evaluating the State Liquor Authority has concluded that the SLA is highly dysfunctional. It's no shocker; the SLA has been mired in scandal forever, with investigations into alleged bribery and questionable favors doled out by the Governor to the top commissioners. In May, SLA chairman Daniel Boyle was ousted, weeks after the SLA Harlem office was raided by investigators on orders from the state Inspector General.

The real New York Post (not the far superior, global warming hoax edition) is reporting that the NYPD has cracked down on illegal bike rental vendors. Apparently, you need to be licensed to rent out bicycles, but some illicit pedal pushers have been running their businesses from the sidewalks around Central Park.

There's bad news and slightly less bad news in the unemployment data for August, released yesterday at a grim press conference held by Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, and state labor commissioner M. Patricia Smith. First, the bad news, if you're the kind of person who likes prosperity and abundance: The city’s unemployment rate rose from 9.5 percent in July to 10.3 percent in August, its highest level since May 1993. NYC's unemployment rate is now well above the national rate of 9.7 percent, and more than 415,000 residents are jobless. Paterson told reporters that Ben Bernanke's recent Pollyannaish pronouncement about the national recession being over "doesn’t apply to us."

The Marijuana Policy Project [MPP] has produced two new TV ads for media markets in key New York Senate districts. The commercials feature patients who have benefited from medical marijuana, but you won't see them here in NYC, because uptight Eisenhower-era local affiliates of ABC, CBS and Fox have declined to broadcast them. Because reefer drives people into homicidal rages, or something! However, one local network, WNBC, has bravely accepted the group's money and is showing the spots, which includes testimonials from radical freaks like Conservative Party member Joel Peacock of Buffalo, who suffers from chronic pain as the result of an accident. In the ad, he says, "It took away the pain. It took away the nausea. I didn't have stomach cramps. I slept. It just did everything my medicine doesn't do. Please, ask your senator to have compassion." Whatever, hippie! In 2007, the state assembly passed a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but it never made it through the Senate. Watch the ads below:

One day after city health commissioner Dr. Thomas A. Farley revealed his intention to expand the city's smoking ban to parks and beaches, something terrifying happened: We woke up this morning to find ourselves in complete agreement with conservative NY Post demagogue Andrea Peyser. Obviously, this means that we were wrong in supporting the ban and ought to start smoking Lucky Strikes at once. Peyser opines:

Visiting the beach or the park should no longer require an oxygen mask. If one wants to smoke, there are places to freely enjoy that activity. Like China... The idea won't sit well with the pathologically addicted few who continue to force innocent citizens to unwillingly breathe their poisons. But this is a scenario whose time has come... Few things are more aggravating and disgusting than being forced to swallow fumes emitted by a mother, father, grandpa or stalker whose bond with nicotine prevents them from stepping outside the city's precious, toddler-filled recreation areas in order to slowly kill themselves.

This week's New York includes an expansive feature on marijuana use in NYC, written by Mark Jacobson, a self-described pothead who first turned on in Alley Pond Park, Queens. Maybe we're just really stoned, but this article is waaaay long, so let's, um, break it up:

Many know New York native Gaius Charles as star running back Brian "Smash" Williams in the hit high school football series Friday Night Lights. But Public Theater audiences are about to know him as the Duke of Venice, star potentate of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, in William Shakespeare's Othello. This hotly anticipated production, directed by minimalist avant-garde opera and theater director Peter Sellars, electrified Vienna earlier this summer and makes its American debut on Saturday, for 23 performances only. The cast also includes the reliable and potentially riveting match-up of John Ortiz as Othello and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Iago—and that probably has something to do with why the run is almost sold out. During rehearsals last week Gaius spoke with us about Sellars's production, what the play means for contemporary audiences, and the odds of returning to Friday Night Lights for a cameo.

A couple from New York became the first wed in Vermont as the state's same-sex marriage law went into effect after midnight. WPTZ reports, "Bill Slimback and Bob Sullivan waited 17 years before finally tying the knot in a midnight ceremony at a lodge in Duxbury... Slimback said he and Sullivan -- who are from Whitehall, N.Y. -- have long wanted to cement their relationship by marriage. Since they can't legally marry in New York, they chose to have their wedding in Vermont." Aw. Gay marriage, supported by NY Governor David Paterson, has been put on the back burner by the State Senate. In brighter news, Ben & Jerry's is now offering Hubby Hubby-a temporary renaming of Chubby Hubby to honor Vermont's decision.

New York taxpayers will soon become the first in the nation to pay women to donate their eggs for stem cell research. The plan was approved last month by the Empire State Stem Cell Board, which helps administer the state's $600 million allocation for 11 years of stem-cell studies. Starting next year, donors will be paid at least $5,000 and up to $10,000 for their eggs. And even women with health problems which would normally exclude them from egg donation will get a piece of the action because researchers want to study the genetics of various diseases. The process involves hormone injections, producing more eggs per cycle than would be considered normal and retrieval with anesthesia—all of which makes bioethicists like Debra Mathews uncomfortable. Mathews tells AP, "We don't really have good data on the risks. You're asking women to undergo this unknown risk for unknown benefit." But donors like Hanqi Miao know of one nice benefit; she's being paid $5,000 to donate her eggs at a fertility center and asks, "Who doesn't want money in your hand?"

Thornton Wilder's groundbreaking 1938 play Our Town has been almost irreparably scarred by unbearably earnest high school drama club productions over the years. So it came as a bit of a surprise that Chicago director David Cromer—who won an OBIE for his rather sensational adaptation of The Adding Machine last season—would be reviving this old relic here in New York. But since opening Off Broadway all the way back in March, the production, night after night, has been eradicating any misconceptions that Our Town is just a hokey, Norman Rockwell Hallmark card to small town America.

If you haven't yet seen Andrew Bird live, then you've got a pretty easy decision to make regarding your Thursday night plans: He'll be performing at Radio City Music Hall with his stellar three-piece band, and tickets are still on sale! Of course, if you've already had the Andrew Bird live experience, there's no deciding necessary: to see him once is to be blown away and left wanting more, so you've already got tickets burning a hole in your pocket. We've pretty much exhausted all our superlatives when it comes to Bird, whose voice, violin, guitar, glockenspiel, and virtuoso whistling combine—often simultaneously—to create a sublime, almost unclassifiable pop-Americana soundscape. His most recent album, Noble Beast, is just further proof that Bird's compositional gifts are an embarrassment of riches; but the only proof you'll need, should you remain unconvinced, will be presented in its entirety Thursday night at Radio City, Q.E.D.

              

Click on the images above for details on 13 other sweet spots for al fresco drinking, including the Extreme WOW (Presidential) Suites in Midtown East, Ortine in Prospect Heights, Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg, T.B.D. in Greenpoint, Studio Square in Long Island City, The Diamond in Greenpoint, LIC Bar in Long Island City, Nita Nita in Williamsburg, Huckleberry Bar in East Williamsburg, The Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, Vutera in Williamsburg, 5 Ninth in the Meatpacking District, and The Brooklyn Ice House in Red Hook.

Outspoken Nigerian dissident and afrobeat trailblazer Fela Kuti was beaten and arrested hundreds of times during his turbulent life, which came to an end in 1997 due to AIDS-related complications. Several years after his death, Femi and Yeni Kuti, his eldest son and daughter, opened a performance venue and cultural center in Lagos called the New Afrika Shrine, a living tribute to their father and his famous commune-nightclub-recording studio, which was burned down by the Nigerian army. Femi, who has since taken up the afrobeat torch, performs with his band Positive Force often at the New Afrika Shrine, which has become a refuge for politically active youths and a source for information in defense against the AIDS.

"Helloooo, this is Dr. Maya Angelou calling. Tell me something: Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?" This was the question posed by the Pulitzer prize-winning poet over the phone to State Senator Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat who opposes same-sex marriage. It wasn't a pre-recorded robocall; it was actually Angelou, and at first Huntley thought it was a joke, telling the Times, "I said, ‘What?’ I heard the voice, and I said: ‘My God. It is her.’ And that was that."

[UPDATE BELOW] You do know that if gay marriage becomes legal in New York, your children will be instantly turned gay by their crusading queer teachers, right? And according to this eye-opening new TV commercial, "it's not just kids who face consequences. The rights of people who believe marriage means a man and a woman will no longer matter. We’ll have to accept gay marriage whether we like it or not." Oppressed straight couples, Albany will never respect your rights if you don't stand up now!

             

Click on the stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Summer Hours, The Brothers Bloom, Revue, Big Man Japan, Alcatraz, The Big Shot-Caller, Anaglyph Tom (Tom With Puffy Cheeks), Jerichow, Management, Manhattan, Full Metal Jacket, and a benefit sneak preview of Sam Mendes's Away We Go, co-written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida.

Sorry, poor elderly, disabled and/or blind legal residents of New York State; the Court of Appeals has ruled that you're still limited to $352 a month in public aid, about half of what lower courts ruled you should get. Of course, since many of you have died since lawyers filed the class action lawsuit in 2004, Tuesday's decision might not matter much. But thousands of poor legal immigrants desperate for public assistance are shattered by the 5-2 ruling, which held that the state had no duty to fill in for a federal program that ended benefits to most disabled legal immigrants in 1996. Since the early '50s, legal NY residents who fell on hard times were entitled to a higher level of aid if they were elderly, blind or disabled, but when D.C. took over the program in the '70s, the state supplemented the benefit to reach the higher level it had set earlier. That's over now. The NY Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance applauded the ruling, saying it could save the state and local governments $100-270 million. But in a strongly worded dissent, two judges wrote that "the majority today has turned its back on the history of New York’s commitment to protect its most fragile and vulnerable populations."

Placing your phone number on the federal "Do Not Call" list was supposed to be the end of unwanted sales calls, but the government's war on telemarketing seems to be going about as well as the war on drugs. But here comes the cavalry! Senator Chuck Schumer says he's "had enough"—after getting a robocall about fraudulent car warranty renewals during a health care meeting on Capitol Hill last week, he held a Sunday press conference to demand a Federal Trade Commission investigation into the businesses behind the calls.

If you're considering quitting smoking, you've got just one more day to take advantage of the Health Department's annual nicotine replacement therapy program, which hooks up aspiring quitters with free nicotine patches, gum, and advice on how to kick the coffin nails. The DOH reports that last year’s program prompted 30,000 New Yorkers to call 311 for help quitting smoking, and a new survey says the city has reached its lowest rate of smoking on record (15.8%), with less than 1 million adult smokers in the city—350,000 fewer than in 2002. Health experts credit the decline to skyrocketing cigarette taxes, bans on smoking in many public places, and a growing realization that lung cancer and tracheotomies just aren't that cool. However, a recent report from the CDC warned that adolescents are still particularly vulnerable to cigarettes' charms and have the toughtest time quitting. And a study published last month contends that non-smoking New Yorkers still suffer from second-hand smoke exposure to a "shocking" degree.

The director of the famed Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band stepped down last month after an investigation suggested that he may have had a sexual relationship with a teenage band member. A report [pdf] released yesterday alleges, among other things, that 31-year-old Tyrone Brown went shopping at Victoria's Secret with the 17-year-old female student (called "Student A" in the report); shared connecting hotel rooms with Student A during a band trip to Bermuda; was frequently seen with Student A "flirting, holding hands, and hugging"; and exchanged some 2,999 text messages with her in one month back in the summer of '08—with a cell phone he bought for her without her mother's knowledge.

          

Click on the film stills above for more on this weekend's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Ice People, The Limits of Control, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Revanche, The Merry Gentleman, Battle for Terra, I Can See You, Eldorado, and 200 Motels. And this is also the last weekend for The Tribeca Film Festival, which just announced this year's winners.

The final two Balducci's locations in Manhattan closed on Sunday after a heart-wrenching week of discounts, with customers reportedly bursting into tears and even yelling at the staff. One employee tells the Times, "The customers kept asking, 'Where are we going for lunch?' But what I want to know is, where are we going for jobs?" See, that's not Chelsea Pepper's problem; the 24-year-old customer was so totally distraught to find the Chelsea location picked clean on Sunday: "It’s saddest thing ever!" Others like Barbara Colasanti think the expensive gourmet chain—started by Italian immigrant Louis Balducci in 1946—only has itself to blame: "They priced themselves out of the market, it was hubris... Do you really need chipotle raspberry finishing sauce? What is finishing sauce? People don’t need all this stuff. It’s a lesson." It's unclear what fate awaits the spaces formerly occupied by Balducci's, but the Voice reports that stores in other locations have been sold to an investor group, and D.C.'s lone Balducci's will close at the end of June.