Results tagged “rocklandcounty”

Dominic Carter, NY1's senior political reporter and host of "Inside City Hall," appeared in Rockland Family Court, denying charges that he repeatedly assaulted his wife. And Marilyn Carter also told the judge that her husband did not beat her—actually, she says, it was a day laborer whose name she doesn't know.

According to the NY Post, NY1 senior political reporter and host of "Inside City Hall" Dominic Carter is due in Rockland County Family Court, because his wife had repeatedly accused him of "punching, choking and kicking her in their suburban home... Cops were called to the Carters' Rockland County house four times in the last two years for domestic disputes, police records show."

As if taking the stand was not difficult enough for a woman who accuses her father, a rabbi, of molesting her for years, yesterday she had to face him as he cross-examined her at the trial—Rabbi Israel Weingarten is representing himself.

Spotted: The Jonas Brothers were at a mall yesterday seeing a movie. But it wasn't just any movie—it was their movie, The Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience, which opened Friday and will give you plenty to roll your eyes about when it comes in as the weekend box office's Number One movie in a few hours. And it wasn't just any mall—rather, it was a surprise appearance at their mall, as in the mall that they grew up going to, the Palisades Center, just across the Tappan Zee Bridge in Nyack. The JoBros said that they often went to movies at the Palisades "so the fact that we're coming back here is really, really, really cool." We're not exactly sure why they'd travel from their hometown in Wyckoff, New Jersey to a mall that's three times the distance to the nearby Garden State Plaza (where TJB:T3DE is playing once an hour.) But who are we to question the trustworthiness promise rung teenage pop stars?

On Tuesday, Kola, a one-year-old pit bull mix, had successfully chased away a burglar who attempted to break into her family's New City, NY home. When her owners came home, they discovered a "window was broken" and "muddy footprints in the house." Nothing was taken but Kola, who was rescued from a dog-fighting ring and adopted by the Rosen family earlier this year, was missing! And the Rosens were especially worried since Kola has an infected leg and needs medication. Last night, the pup surfaced in NJ. Someone found her tied to a pole at a Costco and took her to a shelter, where Mitch Rosen ID'd her and took her home.

In case there has been any ambiguity up until this point, Michael Mele is not a nice person. One of his employees at the Quizno's he manages in Orange County recounted to the Post today about how her boss berated her, screaming into the phone at her for revealing to police where he lived when they came by investigating the disappearance of Laura Garza.

Should forcing a black student to have their legs and feet bound and crawl under classroom desks be part of a lesson plan? Apparently that's what Rockland County middle school teacher Eileen Bernstein did last month to simulate what it was like on a slave ship. However, one student (whose family descended from slaves) who didn't volunteer but had to demonstrate anyway was extremely distraught. According to the Daily News, Bernstein apologized to the girl and her mother, but said she had done the demonstration before. A superintendent added, "We don't want to discourage creativity. But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset." But the girl's mother, Christine Shand, isn't convinced; she told WCBS 2, "There are other ways to demonstrate slavery. There's movies, you don't actually have to grab two kids and like put shackles on them."

Yesterday state officials announced that they have chosen to forgo plans to repair the Tappan Zee Bridge and instead intend to build an entirely new one. The new bridge would also include new a new commuter rail line to link up with Metro North and high-speed bus lanes at a total cost of $16 billion.

Henry Logue made almost $100,000 in salary and overtime last year, but continued to live in a paint shed at state-run Rockland Psychiatric Center, according to the Journal News. Apparently he had been living there for three years--even registering his car there--all while his wife lived in a home 3 miles away.

The man accused of pretending to be a Park Avenue gynecologist apparently had an accomplice. The Daily News reports that, according to sources, Monsey resident Zalman Silber "tricked one woman into undergoing a pelvic exam by saying his friend, the Rockland County police officer, was a doctor who made house calls." Sources also say the cop ended up conducting the exam in Silber's house--with Silber watching.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A police impersonation on Ocean Parkway and Quentin in Brooklyn, a car vs. Pathmark at 107th Avenue at 105th Street in Queens, and an evidence search at 13 East 12th Street.
• The new report cards for public schools may mean principals will be fired and schools closed.
• A stop work order didn't stop a construction crew from tearing up the building where Gertel's once stood on Hester Street.
• Giuliani sticks up for his pal, embattled former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik: "if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape."
• A Rockland County church isn't very forgiving to the homeless man who broke in to call sex hotlines.
• Speaking of sex, the National Organization for Women's NYC chapter succeeding in getting New York magazine to stop running sex ads in the back of the magazine. It was really convenient, since New York says they were thinking of getting rid of them some time anyway.
• Was the poker heist that left one player dead an inside job? The victim's friend thinks yes.
• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn would prefer to reform the St. Patrick's Day Parade to tout inclusion, versus green beer.

We've all heard how 3,000 surveillance cameras, not to mention at least a hundred license plate readers, will be installed in downtown Manhattan, as part of the city's ring-of-steel like security initiative to prevent terrorist attacks. But the NYPD also announced that radiation detectors will be put into place as far as 50 miles from the city to help identify dirty bombs.

(No matter what your mode of conveyance, we hope your Memorial Day Weekend is an excellent one and that you ride or drive safely. We will be here, offering fresh content throughout the weekend.)

A cold front is pressing down upon us from the north. The line of rain accompanying the front stretches from Albany to Scranton and should hit the city by mid-afternoon. Beware! Showers and perhaps a thunderstorm will produce locally heavy rains and gusty winds. We may even see a bit of hail. Most of the rain will be out of here by seven or eight this evening, but the chance of showers will linger until midnight.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the sixth and last Sunday of Lent and the beginning of the Holy Week. It also means that churches are packed, which is probably why a brother and sister tried to rob a Brooklyn church yesterday. Juan and Carmen Sierra were arrested after ushers saw them trying to steal $1,000 from a collection plate.

Yesterday, Victor Han, a 35-year-old Staten Island man, pleaded guilty to child endangerment at a Rockland County court. He also admitted that he knew his wife was thinking about suicide when he got out of the car and that she might put their children at danger.

The Staten Island husband charged with promoting his wife suicide death at Bear Mountain a few weeks ago was released from a Rockland County psychiatric hospital yesterday. Victor Han, whom authorities had described as "despondent" after his wife drove off the side of a cliff in their minivan before his eyes, was forced to go under observation after making bail. Han is charged with not only promoting his wife Hejin's suicide, but also reckless endangerment and child endangerment as their young children were strapped in the minivan. His money problems and news that he had a mistress prompted questions about Han's actions as well.

More and more questions are being asked about the circumstances of Staten Island resident Hejin Han's suicide plunge in a minivan at Bear Mountain. Han's husband Victor, who watched as the van fell with their two young daughters in the back, had been charged with promoting suicide, two counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of endangering a child (both daughters managed to survive, as they were wearing their seatbelts). He was granted bail by a Rockland County jail, telling him, "I still have two children. I got to see this through." While Han told the police that Hejin implied she would commit suicide at Bear Mountain if they went there, now it turns out that Han may have had a mistress. State police questioned Tiana Yin, who met Han at one job and then went to work for the company he formed. According to The Journal News, Yin said, "He is frustrated in a way that his wife doesn't understand that he wants to establish and stabilize his business so that he can spend the time with kids."

A jury was selected for the trial of Nicholas Minucci, who was charged with a bias attack after beating a black man in Howard Beach last June. The jury includes four whites, four blacks, three Hispanics, and one Asian, but more interesting is how the jury was selected and how the defense seems to be approaching the trial. Prosecutors charged Minucci with a hate crime because he said, "What up n-----" during his attack on Glenn Moore (Moore suffered a fractured skull from the beating administered by Minucci and his friends in the middle of the night). The NY Times says Minucci's defense "is expected to suggest that a young man growing up in a mixed neighborhood in New York City uses 'the N word' as a matter of course and that the word no longer carries the racially charged overtones it has historically." The defense asked potential jurors if they were offended by the "n word" while prosecutors asked the jury pool if they listened to rap music. Minucci's mother Maria said the trial was a way for the Queens DA to get publicity and said of the word of the day, "Every kid in the neighborhood uses it. It doesn't mean the same thing anymore. They all say it all day long, no matter what race. They all grow up saying it now... All of Nick's friends — black, white, Spanish, Chinese — they all use the word. You should hear when they talk on the phone to him in jail. "

There's an interesting Metro article about the NY Masons, who convened to see a new Grand Master elevated. Basically, the Masons want people to spruce up their image for the 21st century.

“We’ve been too sheltered,” said Bidnick, a 52-year-old Brooklynite who now lives in Rockland County. “People think we’re strange with our aprons and rituals.”

Continue reading "Masons Just Wanna Be Understood"

Looks like St. Brigid was just the beginning...

After nearly two inches of rain since Monday night, and four inches of snow at Gothamist's Rockland County office, our local weather has turned quiescent. This morning's sun should give way to clouds later in the day and possibly rain tonight into tomorrow. The rain shouldn't amount to much and will be out of here by tomorrow afternoon. The weather through the weekend looks unremarkable, near normal temperatures and no precipitation. It should be sunny and in the 30s when the Giants kick-off on Sunday afternoon.

Ooh, we love a revenge plot: The Observer looks at how Mayor Bloomberg's annoyance with State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver may play out during his second term. Silver infamously blocked the Mayor's quixotic (yes, now we say quixotic) plan to bring a stadium to the West Side railyards (and some might say that failed plan helped sink the city's Olympic bid) and pundits wonder if the Mayor is out for blood. Bloomberg has been talking about brining back the commuter tax, which was repealed in 1999 by Silver and marks a "low point" in his career. The Observer explains that Silver pushed through the elimination in hopes of winning a senate seat in Rockland County against the Republicans, but the Dems lost anyway. Funnily enough, in 2002, Silver had said he'd be willing to reinstate the commuter tax, if only to give NYC that annual $500 million back. In 2003, Gotham Gazette offered that Silver played a "short-sighted" political game with the epeal, which benefitted upstate voters instead of, oh, the voters in his own downtown Manhattan district!

There was a Seinfeld episode about a circumcision: Season 5's The Bris.

The National Weather Service forecast uses the word drizzle five times to describe the weather between now and Thursday. AccuWeather expects less drizzle, only using it once, but does foresee rain and rain showers. The reason for our Seattle-like weather this week? For much of the next few days the wind will be blowing in from over the ocean.

Seems like a crazy fish made its way to Rockland County: Apparently, at the New Square Fish Market, a carp started to talk in Hebrew. Besides the fact that this article is an excuse for Corey Kilgannon to use Yiddish, it reveals that the Hasidic community is trying to understand what this really means.