Results tagged “puertorico”

The FBI's longest wanted fugitive was arrested at JFK yesterday, where he had arrived from Cuba after spending more than four decades outside the feds' grasp. Louis Armando Peña Soltren, 66, was arrested at the same airport where his crime originated: On November 24th, 1968 he left the airport with two accomplices on a Pan Am 707 bound for Puerto Rico. During the flight they forced their way into the plane's cabin and ordered the crew to fly to Havana, threatening them with guns and knives quaintly smuggled on board in a diaper bag.

       

Anywhere between hundreds of thousands to over a million revelers cheered on yesterday's Puerto Rican Day Parade along Fifth Avenue. Some told NY1, "Puerto Rican is one, we all are one, It's the pride of all Puerto Ricans in New York and in the island," and "Nobody understands how proud we are to be from Puerto Rico. Just to show that is an honor."

Senator Hillary Clinton won the Puerto Rico primary with about two-thirds of the votes over Senator Barack Obama. However, there was low voter turnout in what was considered an expected victory for Clinton, who campaigned vigorously on the island.

When Staten Island Mall shoppers saw a mother beating her 3-year-old son Tuesday afternoon, some followed her to "make sure she didn't leave," reports the Staten Island Advance. Eventually, the police arrested 33-year-old Yesenia Hausler with felony assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

THEATER: The salty, electric dynamo that is Elaine Stritch shows no sign of waning – about to turn 83-years-young, the show biz legend has kicked off 2008 with a reprise of her Tony-winning cabaret show. Backed by a six-piece band and performed in two acts for a dining audience at the newly restored Café Carlyle, Elaine Stritch at Liberty, co-written with the New Yorker’s John Lahr, is a hilarious, old-fashioned ride through star-studded post-war Broadway, bursting with stories from her roles in such legendary productions as Company, Bus Stop, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Times raves: “Every story in her arsenal of seamlessly stitched personal anecdotes is illustrated with body language that erupts like lightning out of words spoken in the gravelly voice of a tough old dame with a tender heart. Because she has the gift of gab, this loudmouthed life of the party could go on forever.” It’s an expensive night, but worth it. Dining reservations are almost booked through the end of the run on Jan 19th, but they do accept walk-ins for the bar seating. – John Del Signore

SHOP: Tonight head to Dumbo for an “Evening of Cheer,” where three neighborhood events coordinated by the Dumbo Improvement District will be taking place. "The night’s events combine Dumbo’s monthly cultural event, First Thursdays, with extended shopping hours and promotions by local retailers and the illumination of the Empire Stores in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park by famed lighting designer Brendon Boyd." 6pm // Various location details here EVENT: Tonight some experts gather around to celebrate...

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? We're definitely setting our DVR to record The Martha Stewart Show. She’s got a three great New York Italian chefs on today: Odetta Fada of San Domenico, Lidia Bastianich of Felidia and Del Posto, and pastry chef Gina DePalma of Babbo. On Tuesday she’s got cookbook editor Judith Jones, and on Wednesday, New Orleans chef Susan Spicer (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). But the prime time highlight might be a...

Irene Boland, the co-author of Wind the World Over, works in the sustainability office of the EPA. Her office covers Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) helps people pursue green living through their built environment. You can find out more about her office at the EPA on their website. Irene resides in Brooklyn, "under the BQE." How did you and your co-author, Vanessa Kellogg come up with the...

The man who breached security at JFK Airport on Tuesday, after entering the restricted areas by walking through the exit lane near security screening and caused two terminals to be evacuated as the TSA and other authorities searched for him, was arrested yesterday in Albany. Authorities say that William Contreras Ramos, who managed to board his plane to the state capitol, had a 4-inch razor in his carry-on bag and was charged with carrying a concealed weapon onto a plane.

The Giants are heading south to play Atlanta this evening and the Falcons won't have their star quarterback, after Michael Vick was caught running a dogfighting ring out of his Virginia home. It turns out that New York City might be the nation's dogfighting capital though. The New York Post reported yesterday that Bronx resident Ralph Reyes runs an unlicensed kennel out of the basement of a residential walk-up building on Valentine Ave. That's where he allegedly breeds and supplies American Pit Bull Terriers for fights to the death.

With the notable exception of Brooklyn, the Outer Boroughs are a veritable wasteland when it comes, to bánh mí, or Vietnamese sandwiches. Despite repeated forays, we've yet to find any decent versions in Queens. Those that do exist are served in restaurants, and every bánh mí fiend worth his Sriracha knows that restaurants never serve a good Vietnamese sandwich; it's simply not in their best interests to sell $3.00 entrees. As with many sandwiches, the best bánh mí are found in mom and pop delis. We like to think that these refreshing sandwiches are at their best at delis because those joints specialize in bánh mí and little else.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial roof collapse on Union St. in Brooklyn, a person under a train at Coney Island and Brighton Beach Aves. in Brooklyn, and a slashing at Dyckman St. and Broadway in Manhattan.
• Artie Fufkin speaks! Paul Schaffer, who was the musical director of the Blues Brothers, keyboardist for Bill Murray's lounge singer character on SNL, and the bandleader for David Letterman's "The World's Most Dangerous Band" since 1982, is publishing his memoirs. Yeah!
• A local moving company is converting a number of its trucks from diesel to biodiesel fuel in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
• The producer of a Broadway show called "My First Time" is employing a mindreader to determine who gets free tickets to the show. Recipients must affirm via a psychic they are virgins.
• A 17-year-old was shot several times in the head as he lay in bed in the middle of the afternoon while visiting relatives in the Bronx.
• Juana Yolfo is a Spanish-speaking 106-year-old woman who was born in Puerto Rico before moving to Brooklyn and then settling in the Lower East Side more than 40 years ago. She's celebrating her birthday this week after more than 50 years as a NYC resident.
• Al Sharpton as Apollo Creed? The reverend is getting in shape to pummel Giuliani if there's any hope the latter's electoral prospects brighten.
• Carroll Gardens parents are in a huff about youthful neighborhood ruffians, who are disrespectul to adults and unmindful of younger children as they engage in shenanigans and otherwise behave like hooligans.

Fifth Avenue was packed with revelers and performers during the 50th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. Celebrities, like "King" Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, were out in force, as were the politicians, including Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senator Charles Schumer, Representative Jose Serrano, and Puerto Rico governor Anibal Acevedo-Villa.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade is supposed to draw 2.8 million spectators to 5th Ave. in Manhattan this Sunday, making it one of the most popular annual parades in New York City. It's the 50th occurrence, so expect lots of enthusiasm from marchers, who will be heading north from 44th St. to 86th St. and entertained by Parade King Ricky Martin.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

When a judge threatens you with contempt when you don't show up for your own client's trial, one would think you'd try to get into court to explain yourself. But after not showing up for client Paul Cortez's murder trial on Monday, attorney Laura Miranda still did not appear yesterday, even after Justice Carol Berkman threatened her with a $1,000 fine and/or contempt. So Berkman fined her $1,000, found her in contempt, and questioned her motives.

an excuse to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman, who then said, "I'm supposed to believe this" and later "I'll have [Miranda] arrested."

A day after the Daily News reported that City College had allowed a campus center to be named after two controversial figures on its cover, complete with scorching editorial criticizing the school, City College's chancellor Matthew Goldstein had the sign taken down. The center was called the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Community Center. Guillermo Morales was a radical for Puerto Rico's independence and made bombs, including one that killed four people at Fraunces Tavern in 1975. His fingers blown off while making a bomb, but he escaped from Bellevue to Mexico and now lives in Cuba. Shakur, born Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Liberation Army. In 1973, she killed NJ State trooper Wayne Foerster, she escaped from prison in 1979, headed to Cuba and now goes by Assata Shakur. There is still a $1 million reward for her capture.

The New York Times takes a close look at the Essex Street Market, a Lower East Side institution that's been doing business since 1940. Although the market was only 60 percent full five years ago, its low rent and the steadily increasing income stream of many in the neighborhood have led to a rejuvenation. But not everyone who walks in the door is a LES trust fund hipster with extra cash to spare. Saxelby Cheesemongers is one of several merchants who advertises their acceptance of E.B.T. cards -- the electronic replacement for food stamps. The market is a shopping mecca for all in the community, and has not become unwelcome to those who have been shopping there for decades just to cater to the influx of wealthier residents:

While the market has welcomed purveyors like Ms. Saxelby, it has not given itself over entirely to epicurean gentrification. The indoor stalls are a good place to encounter yautia, a root vegetable that looks like the love child of a soup can and a coconut. One morning last week Maria Maldonado was buying some to make spicy fried cakes. The 40 pounds of banana leaves in her cart would wrap pasteles, a sort of Puerto Rican tamale filled with pork shoulder and olives and popular at Christmastime.

Continue reading "To Market, To Market -- Essex Street Style"

Former president Bill Clinton remarked upon his neighbor Peggy Perez-Olivo's death. Perez-Olivo and her husband Carlos were shot in their car on a Westchester road last weekend. Police are still looking for a gunman, but Carlos Perez-Olivo, a recently disbarred lawyer, has been questioned as well (police have called his account an "unusual sounding" incident).

If you were wondering how former mayor Rudy Giuliani feels after the thumpin' the Republicans took last week, wonder no more, because he's been facing it with the same, stubborn Rudy-vision that we all remember from his NYC mayoral years. The NY Times was on the scenefor a speech Giuliani made:

In his first public comments about last week’s Democratic sweep of Congress, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City, who is a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said on Sunday that he did not view the election as a major rebuke to his party. But he said that Republicans “have to go back to your principles in figuring out how you react to something like this.”

Continue reading "Rudy, Denial is a River in Egypt"

There's an interesting story and graphic (above) in the Post today about public school teachers. Though the city has been attempting to hire more minority teachers, very few minorites are teaching students. Over 71% of public school students are black or Hispanic, but only 33% of the teachers are black or Hispanic. And recruitment of black and Hispanic teachers has dropped in the past years. Why is this a problem? Well, a 2004 National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force study finding: "Students of color tend to perform better – academically, personally and socially – when taught by teachers from their own ethnic groups."

We know a lot of things have changed at Sesame Street since it ruled our world completely. You know, there's this segment called Elmo's World that focuses on the breakout monster Elmo, his goldfish Dorothy, and things like rhyming in his apartment. But it's a different world when smack is being smuggled in boxs of "Sing with Elmo" (an Elmo Boom Box!). The Bronx DA's office announced that authorities had busted a drug ring smuggling heroin, cocaine, and marijuana across the country. The drugs originated from Puerto Rico, and 103 grams of black tar heroin was found in a "Sing with Elmo" box that was shipped via UPS.

We know the scene so well. Friends sitting around, looking bored, perhaps stranded in some dark train station, and then Barcardi (rum) shows up. The group is almost instantaneously transported to a tropical paradise, clad with buxom blondes in bikinis and a steel drum band. The party has begun. We’ve seen the commercial too many times and maybe even threw a bash or two, making Captain Morgan our guest of honor. There is no question that rum has earned somewhat of a reputation as the party animal of liquors – the bottle behind the bar with the lampshade on its head. But what if we were to tell you there is another side to rum – a serious, complex and even deep side? Would you believe that while it can be a central component to a fun, flirty cocktail – rum could also be a rich, intense spirit? There is a whole other side to rum that most of us never see. But with just a little shift in perspective, it’s clear that rum can be business up front AND party in the back. Maybe even the mullet of liquors.

- The FBI is still weighing whether to press charges

- A flight to Puerto Rico had to return to JFK after two passangers started throwing punches.

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.

Could a "World" Baseball Classic really be called that without one of the world's best baseball nations? Probably not, which is why it's great to hear that Cuba will be playing in the inaugural WBC. President Bush, former owner of the Texas Rangers, stepped in to help solve the issue. Each team that plays in the tournament is guaranteed 1% of the net profit with escalating amounts as they advance and any winnings Cuba would receive would be in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. Any proceeds that Cuba would get is going to be donated to Katrina victims directly by Major League Baseball. Gothamist wonders what the over/under is on Cuban defections during the tournament. The Times notes that the Cubans travel with extra security (more security than players!) to international games to prevent defections. Is there a Vegas line on this? We're going to go with ± 3.5.

Cesar Rodriguez, the man who beat his stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown, sparking a citywide investigation into children welfare services and lobbying for children's murder cases to require the death penalty, jailhouse interviews saying Brown was trouble and essentially deserved to be beaten. He said:

"I would hold her up to the mirror and make her look at herself and I would say, 'Do you really want to live like this? Look at yourself. Talk to yourself. How do you feel about yourself?'"