vol 3 no 34 march 26 09.indd

Transcription

VOL. III NO. XXXIV
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
Citizens Outraged By
Racist Police Brutality
This Week...
The Advocate:
Meaning Of News12’s DA Poll, p5
On The National Scene:
Americans - More Equal Than Others?, p8
Jeffrey Deskovic:
What Second Look Program
Should Look Like, p20
westchesterguardianonline.com
DA Janet DiFiore
Commissioner David Chong
Photos: Richard Blassberg
Court Report,
pg 3
Call For Corrupt , Incompetent
DA & Police Comm. To Resign
Tony Castro Steps
Up To The Plate
In Our Opinion, page 4
PAGE 2
THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Catherine Wilson, Bureau Chief
A Cynical Gathering in Yonkers
On Wednesday, March 18th,
New York State Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo held a community meeting in Yonkers for local
residents to discuss their concerns. Such community outreach
efforts help our leaders hear what
is on the minds of their constituents. That is, if those leaders actually attend the outreach meetings that they set up. As it was,
on March 18th, Andrew Cuomo
was nowhere to be found in Yonkers!
The excuse proffered by the
Deputy staff was that “Andrew
Cuomo is working on the AIG
bonus issue and is heavily involved, right now, in trying to get
that money back. And that’s the
truth!”, a statement that brought
the loud applause intended from
the two-hundred plus members
of the audience. The plethora of
The Advocate:
news cameras at the rear of the
auditorium capturing the event
however, could not notice that
the local politicians had been
savvy enough to provide a full
audience by inviting several local high schools to attend. Given
that the event was held in the
middle of a work day, and the
relative youth of those attending,
the politicians had skillfully seen
to it that there would not be too
many individuals attending who
would ask probing questions of
the representatives on hand.
Indeed, since the representatives present included Westchester County Executive Andrew
Spano, and Yonkers Mayor Phil
Amicone, it would be difficult
for a wary citizen, fearful of retribution, to step forward with
complaints of either the County
or Yonkers government. The
purposely full audience also removed any hope of privacy that
such a citizen would desire. The
community “outreach” session
in Yonkers, therefore, appeared
to this reporter’s observations to
be really just another media opportunity for the politicians involved.
During the introductory remarks, the deputy staff denoted
the various responsibilities of the
Attorney General’s Office, among
them, “To fight corporate fraud
and abuse,” and, “To fight for
the little guys”. The applauding
youthful audience did not pick
up on the fact that had the AG’s
Office been doing their job all
along, they would have caught
the corruption of Madoff and
AIG long before now and would
not be currently faced with the
embarrassing task of begging for
the taxpayers’ money back!
No one on the AG’s staff mentioned the legislative loopholes
that were put into place by New
York State in September of last
year to initiate the bailout of AIG.
In an interview with Fox Business
News last September, Gov. Paterson explained the actions of the
State’s Insurance Department:
“Because its (AIG) headquarters is in New York City, it comes
under the regulation in our State
Insurance Department. So our
Superintendent of Insurance authorized that AIG could borrow
from its subsidiary corporations
and could access their own assets
and use them as collateral to create liquidity cash which is what
they actually need. And they can
do that to the tune of twenty billion dollars.
Continued on pg. 16
Index
The Meaning Of News12’s DA Voter Poll .........................................................5
Classified ......................................................................................................... 26
Community Calendar ..........................................................................22, 23
The Court Report:
Parents File Suit In Federal Court Against Yonkers, Mt. Vernon Police ..........3, 6, 7
Design Inspirations:
“Confident vs. Confused” .....................................................................................8, 9
Horoscope:
Shimmering Stars, March 26 - April 1 .........................................................14, 15
In Our Opinion:
Tony Castro For DA: It Can’t Happen Too Soon! .............................................4
Jeff Deskovic:
What A Second Look Program Should Look Like ............................................. 20, 21
Northern Westchester:
2 William Street, Suite 406
White Plains, NY 10601
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Publisher:
Guardian News Corp.
Sam Zherka, President
Editor-in-Chief:
Guardian News Corp.
Richard Blassberg, Vice President
[email protected]
Graphic Designer/Newspaper & Advertising Design:
John Tufts
A Cynical Gathering In Yonkers ...............................................................2, 16, 17
Editorial: 914.328.3096 • F. 914.328.3824 • [email protected]
Advertising: 914.576.1481 • F. 914.633.0806 • [email protected]
Americans - More Equal Than Others? ............................................................10, 11
Published Every Thursday
On The National Scene:
Our Readers Respond: ................................................................................ 4, 13
This Week in History: March 26 - April 1 ............................................24, 25
www.westchesterguardianonline.com
PAGE Parents File Suit In Federal Court On
Behalf Of Children Brutalized By
Mount Vernon And Yonkers Police
Last Wednesday, March 18,
Civil Rights Attorney Jonathan
Lovett, accompanied by parents of
three boys, all African-American,
ages 12, 13 and 13, as well as the
12-year-old himself, held a press
conference on the Mount Vernon
City Hall Plaza opposite Police
Headquarters to announce the filing of a $6 million federal lawsuit.
The suit filed specifically against
14-year-veteran Mount Vernon Police Sergeant Michael Marcucilli and
several unnamed police officers from
both the Mount Vernon and Yonkers
Police Departments, as well as each of
those cities, alleges violations of both
the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and
42 U.S.C. Section 1985, carried out
against each of the three boys as well
as the mother of one of the boys.
With respect to the three young
boys, the complaint charges that on
February 28, 2009, Sergeant Marcucilli and Mount Vernon and Yonkers police officers, including a K-9
handler and his dog, responded to
an alarm at the A.B. Davis Middle
School on Gramatan Ave., Mount
Vernon. Having arrived at the scene,
the complaint further alleges that
they observed the three young boys
and “agreed to collectively beat and/
or otherwise physically abuse and
verbally intimidate them because of
their race and/or skin color.”
Specifically, the complaint alleges one boy, the 12-year-old, was
shouted to with, “Where are you going, nigger?”, was punched several
times in the face, and ordered, “Shut
up, nigger” when he told the officer
beating him and pushing his face
into the dirt, “I’m only 12 years old.
Why are you doing this to me?” It
is further alleged that he was handcuffed behind and struck repeatedly
with a metal baton on the left side of
his head, causing a serious injury to
his left ear requiring 19 stitches and
more than two hours of surgery to
stop the bleeding.
The boy’s father declared, “You
are not going to beat my son like
a piece of meat.” Demanding the
badges of the officers involved, he
said, “Nobody deserves to be beaten
like that. This is unacceptable.”
The boy’s mother explained to
reporters how the police lied to her
about how he was injured, trying
to say that her son had fallen down
stairs. She told of telephone harassment from the Mount Vernon Police
and of their coming around her house
to intimidate her and her family.
The mother of a second boy, a
Mount Vernon schoolteacher, was,
herself, the target of harassment and
police brutality by the same Sergeant
Marcucilli several weeks before the
incident involving the three boys.
Following a bogus traffic stop, she
reportedly was pulled from her car
and beaten with a metal baton, inflicting serious bruises to her leg.
Her 13-year-old son was choked
by his sweatshirt from behind for “an
extended period of time, placing him
in fear that he might suffer an asthma
attack and die,” and causing a serious
welt on his neck. Police lied about the
nature of his injury as well.
The third boy, also 13 years old,
was bitten and repeatedly mauled
by the police dog called in with his
handler from the Yonkers Police Department K-9 Unit, “while he was
on the ground helpless.” At the same
moment, he was beaten with a baton
and told, “Get your fat black ass up.”
Attorney Jonathan Lovett told
the media and press, “Juries in federal court are smart, and they know
racism when they see it.” Asked about
the District Attorney, Janet DiFiore,
and her statement that she was going to investigate the incident, Lovett
declared, “For her to claim that she is
going to investigate is ludicrous, given that my clients are charged with
felonies. She ought to dismiss all of
the charges against these children.”
Damon K. Jones, executive director of the Westchester chapter of
the National Black Police Association told reporters, “This is normal
activity in the Westchester community.” He called for the resignation of
DA Janet Difiore and Police Commissioner David Chong.
Reverend W. Franklyn Richardson expressed his outrage at what
had been done to the three young
boys and one of their mothers, declaring, with respect to the police officers involved, “Call us nigger, beat
up our children; and, we pay you?”
Asked by this reporter if he intended to go to the district attorney about
the incident, Richardson responded
that he had already spoken with DiFiore the day before. Apparently he
took little comfort from what she may
have said as he was still very angry and
outraged. Richardson concluded his
remarks, predicting and threatening,
“The People will march in the streets
over racist police brutality.”
Continued on page 6
PAGE THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
In Our Opinion...
W
Tony Castro For DA: It Can’t Happen Too Soon!
e were very pleased that Tony Castro, a man who, in the last election for
Westchester DA, was nominated by acclamation of nearly 1,000 Democrats at the party convention at the County Center, announced last Thursday,
March 19th, that he will be running for District Attorney once again. His decision was most unselfish in light of the fact that Reggie LaFayette, Party Chair,
and several party “insiders” had attempted to persuade him to accept a nomination for judge; of course, by way of perpetuating the counterfeit Democrat,
Janet DiFiore’s, grip on the Office.
In announcing his candidacy, Castro said he had been considering the run for
several months. In fact, more than 250 friends and supporters from all political
persuasions, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, Working Family and the
Independence Party, a coalition of concerned leaders including several party
chairs, had attended a fundraising event organized by
Friends Of Tony Castro back on October 23rd of last
year. The event had raised over $100,000.
Castro told reporters that he realized he had to run for
District Attorney when one of his supporters, a Democratic district leader in Mount Vernon, Sam Rivers, was
threatened with bodily harm by a spokesman for Janet
DiFiore and her supporters for having introduced Tony
to several of his Democratic constituents. A reporter
questioned Castro about a statement released by Party
Chairman LaFayette to the effect that the Executive
Committee had indicated their support for the present
incumbents. Castro responded, as pertained to DA DiFiore, “Their support
was premature.”
We would tend to agree with Castro given the fact that the announcement
came weeks before he entered the race. Furthermore, the Executive Committee consisting of a tiny fraction of the County’s Democratic Committeepersons, and less than a drop in the bucket of all registered Democrats, are clearly
not rank-and-file, and, for the most part, have ties, financial and otherwise, to
the Spano Administration which has been promoting Janet DiFiore for their
own nefarious reasons from before the last election.
We are pleased with Tony Castro’s decision because it means that, at last, Westchester may have a real public servant, not a politician, for District Attorney.
We are confident that Tony Castro will restore law and order; put an end to
prosecutorial misconduct, and work tirelessly, and cooperatively, with police
departments throughout the County to restore their reputation and productivity and that of the District Attorney’s Office, as well as public respect for law
enforcement.
Once again, News12 must be recognized for performing a true public service
last Thursday by making their Question Of The Day, “At this point, who would
you vote for as Westchester DA?” The results were not surprising to us.
• Janet DiFiore (D): 18%
• Tony Castro (D): 55%
• Dan Shorr (R): 27%
The results speak for themselves. The People of Westchester will not be fooled
by a counterfeit again, nor will she steal another election.
Our Readers Respond...
A Missive From An Appreciative Reader
Dear Editor:
Thank you for the open format, honesty and diverse
topics your paper brings to the public. Each week’s issue is entertaining and informative. The World Traveler
transports the readers through the culture, landscape, and
color of our Earth’s travel destinations. Shelley Ackerman
relates an impressively accurate reading of the heavens in
her weekly horoscopes for Shimmering Stars. Dr. Maria
Munoz Kantha’s sensitive wisdom provides accessible solutions for difficult relationship issues and good advice for
creating family accord. Her column has been missed in
recent issues, for Vicki Mayfield’s writing style and humor
added light-hearted views on serious social issues.
No contributing writer, however, has offered more
to The Westchester Guardian than Jeffrey Deskovic. Mr.
Deskovic writes with determination, tempered by modest
strength, while exposing the many corrupt and heinous
practices of the judicial system in this country. Mr. Deskovic reveals an inner spirit and core value that distinguished him from the average man, for most men crack
and fall when they experience such desolation. His mother
would be very proud of her son.
The judicial policies of this country have long promoted self-serving interest rather than the well-being of its
citizens. The Westchester Guardian presents the full spectrum of judicial activity in news coverage, exposing the
tyrannical years of Jeanine Pirro, Garcia’s abuse of power
and the issue of wrongful convictions.
The occasional light-giving powers also show themselves in your pages, mainly through the legacy of Judge
Charles Brieant. The honorable judge stood as a rare pillar
of integrity within the Federal Judicial System. The divisions made in the New York Federal Court became law
and set a national precedence. Policy-makers often come
under influence of fraudulence, bribery and exploitation.
Perhaps that is why Judge Brieant was quoted in the New
York Times as referring to the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals as the “Second Circus.”
Judge Brieant’s magnificent decision to overturn the
jury verdict in the Paul Cote case was a rare move and a
noble deed. The prosecutors corner, under the direction of
Garcia and Dunne, has attacked the Judge’s decision with
relentless ferocity. The “Second Circus” has followed suit.
The Cote case fell from the hands of the fair and just
Judge Brieant after his recent death. Judge Karas has inherited the volatile responsibility to decide the fate of Officer
Cote (and his family). Judge Karas will need the wisdom
of King Solomon and the strength of Excalibur to follow in
Judge Brieant’s footsteps, and balance the scales of justice.
Keep up the good work. Freedom of the Press is a preContinued on pg. 13
PAGE 5
The Meaning Of News12’s DA Voter Poll
Good Ole Honest Abe Had It Right
It was Abraham Lincoln
who said, “You can fool some
of the People all of the time,
and all of the People some of
the time; but you can’t fool all
of the People all of the time.”
Hats off, as they would say in
Honest Abe’s time, to News12 for,
once again, running a Question Of
The Day poll that clearly revealed
the preferences of Westchester’s
voters with respect to who should
be the next district attorney of
their county. Granted, it is not a
purely scientific pole. However,
999 participants, essentially voting
in privacy, and taking the time and
trouble to do so, surely represents
a meaningful sample and a profound commentary, particularly
on the performance of the incumbent DA.
The Question Of The Day
asked, “At this point, who would
you vote for as Westchester DA?”
The results were as follows:
Janet DiFiore (D): 183, 18%
Tony Castro (D): 546, 55%
Dan Schorr (R): 270 27%
There is no other way to interpret these results than to recognize
that more than 80 percent of Westchester residents reject the person
who currently occupies the District Attorney’s Office, and would
prefer either Democrat Tony Castro or Republican Dan Schorr.
Despite the power, exposure, and
advantages of holding the Office
for more than three years, Janet
DiFiore is the choice of fewer than
1 out of 5 potential voters.
Let’s be fair in our analysis.
Leaving personality and other factors aside, this outcome is a referendum on Janet DiFiore’s performance in office. The People clearly
understand that
law and
order, the
administraiton of
criminal
justice,
and safety of families, not
to mention
the morale
and reputation and activity of many
of the County’s
police
agencies
have all suffered terribly under Janet DiFiore. She has brought out the
worst in people and the People
know it.
You simply can not run a DA’s
Office the way she has; prosecuting victims of rogue, violent, cops
and get away with it. You can not
view a videotape such as the one
in the Irma Marquez incident and
then not only fail to deal with the
offending officer, but also proceed
to prosecute the innocent, falsely
charged, severely injured civilian
victim. And, the real problem is
that Marquez is but one of dozens
of such cases, over the last three
years, on DiFiore’s watch.
So much for the negative implications of the poll. With respect
to the two individuals, viewers and
potential voters do prefer, we must
firstly congratulate Dan Schorr,
a newcomer to
the world
of district
attorney
elections,
for
his
showing of
27 percent.
Dan, a former assistant
DA,
has
been
running unofficially for
the better part
of a year now
and has conducted
a clean, constructive
campaign. Running as a
Republican, he understands
the uphill battle that party registrations pose for him in Westchester. We wish him well, and look
forward to following his activities.
Then, there is Tony Castro,
whose first campaign in 2001
against Jeanine Pirro, we had the
privilege of directing. He went
from somebody hardly anybody
knew in August, despite the tragic
events of September 11, to coming within fewer than six points of
winning. As Mike Edelman once
confessed with candor in the pri-
vacy of an elevator in the County
Courthouse, “With two more
weeks Tony might have won.”
Tony Castro’s performance in
the News12 poll was remarkable
given that he officially announced
his candidacy at 11am on the day
it was conducted. By capturing 55
percent of the votes, more than
three times that of the incumbent,
his reputation, his character, and
his desireability and experience as
a former prosecutor for 14 years
in The Bronx, are apparently most
appreciated and sought after, more
than ever, following three disastrous years under Janet DiFiore’s
mismanagement of the District
Attorney’s Office.
For the past eight years, Castro
has been engaged in law practice
here in Westchester, mostly criminal defense. He has gotten a good
look at criminal justice in our
County, and surrounding counties, from both sides, Prosecution
and Defense, for more than 22
years. He is well-liked and highly
respected by judges and prosecutors all over the downstate area;
and, in fact, supervised many of
today’s top assistant DAs throughout the 9th Judicial District.
Castro’s popularity in the
courts is unquestionably a reflection of his decency and fundamental honesty and fairness in all
of his dealings; characteristics the
People of Westchester realize, perhaps more than ever, are required
from their next district attorney. ■
PAGE THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
Court Report, continued from pg. 3
PAGE Court Report, continued from previous page
Mount Vernon Mayor Young And
Police Commissioner Chong Offer No
Comfort, No Assurances To Outraged Citizens
Immediately following
the press conference held by
the parents of three young
African-American boys savaged and racially attacked
by a combined task force
of Mount Vernon and Yonkers police, Mount Vernon
Mayor Clinton I. Young and
Police Commissioner David Chong held a press conference of their own in the
Mayor’s Chambers.
Mayor Young got off on the
wrong foot, declaring, “If the
purpose of bringing a lawsuit
is to divide this City, that will
not be accomplished.” He then
attempted to appear to be on
the right side of the issue, saying, “Even the mere allegation
of excessive force is troubling to
me.”
Young then made an effort to
reassure the media and, in turn,
the citizens of the Mount Vernon community that the Mount
Vernon Police Department’s Internal Investigation Unit, and
the District Attorney’s Public
Integrity Unit, would produce
the truth and see to it that any
wrongdoers were dealt with.
Police
Commissioner
Photos: Richard Blassberg
Embattled Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton address the media and press
Police Commissioner David Chong follows, offering little reassurance
Chong followed the Mayor, also
attempting to calm the outrage
and the anger brought on by the
racial and violent character of
the excessive punishment meted
out by his police officers acting
in concert with Yonkers police
officers, in a scenario very reminiscent of Selma, Alabama in the
early 60s. Given the description
of what had been done to three
young boys, all that was missing
were the pressure hoses. Chong
also emphasized that the DA’s
Office was investigating.
When the Mayor once again
spoke, he attempted to urge the
children and their parents to cooperate with the District Attorney. At that point, this reporter
asked the Mayor, “How can you
and Commissioner Chong expect people to feel confident
about the District Attorney’s
involvement in light of her repeated history of prosecuting
victims of police brutality as in
the Irma Marquez and Rui Florim cases, and many others not
so well known?”
The Mayor could not respond directly, and instead,
indicated that he preferred to
concentrate on “the elements of
the Mount Vernon case.” n
PAGE 8
Veronica Imperatrice
“Confident vs. Confused”
There is nothing more frustrating than being uninformed
when having to shop for home
furnishings. Every business has
its own language, so why not
learn some of the language of
interior design? Once you have
a sense of confidence YOU will
be in CONTROL, not at the
mercy of the seller.
When it comes to upholstery, you will be surprised to
discover just how many seating
possibilities there are, and more
importantly how furniture is actually made. I know that we can
easily get caught up in “what
looks good”, but let’s not forget,
all that glitters is not gold!
SOFAS: They come in many
sizes and shapes, which include
a mix of woods, leathers and
fabric. Often they will be featured in a fabric that the buyer
selected. Depending on where
you shop, and what you can afford, the choices you will have
will vary. You can purchase ‘as
is’ to ‘custom’. You will get what
you pay for.
The comfort of the seating
should be a concern, one that
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you can test by sitting and asking some key questions. The insert of a cushion is the CORE;
be sure to find out if you can
change the insert to either a
softer or firmer fill. There will
be a slight surcharge, but it will
be well worth it. The cost should
come second to comfort.
Next, always look at all sides
of the sofa, loveseat, or chair.
You may be placing this item
against a wall at this time, but
you may rearrange your layout
in the future and choose to float
an item off a wall, so all sides
should look perfect, and finished.
Pay attention to details; does
this item have a skirt, or bun
feet, or band at its base? Every
time you decide on a change be
sure you see that it was written
down correctly. Ask and re-ask
about the dimensions, not only
the length, but the depth and
height of every item. Often a
sofa will give the height that includes the back pillows, but for
the sake of delivering and fitting
an item in your room, remember unless the back pillows are
attached, they can be removed
lowering the back height.
Some sofas will feature what
is called a T-cushion, in appearance the left and right cushion
can flip and exchange with one
another, the center cushion can
only be turned over. It’s a good
idea to do this form of rotation
a couple of times a year, it allows
for the wear and tear to be equal
in appearance on all cushions.
The “T” cushion is easy to identify because the arm of the sofa
will be set back, rather than to
extend to the front of the sofa.
This is a very handsome look, a
bit more traditional, than contemporary
You might like the look of a
single cushion sofa, one with or
without back cushions. A tight
back sofa is one without back
cushions. It could still feature
toss pillows for additional style
and comfort. Everything that is
featured
in a full
size sofa
can usually be
duplicated in a
loveseat.
Keep in
m i n d
that your loveseat will cost almost the same as your sofa. It is
a very desirable item, but limited in accommodating more
than two.
If you are looking for as
much seating as possible and
you have the space, then perhaps a sectional might be the
answer. They are wonderful in
a family room, less desirable in
a living room. Again, ask when
considering a sectional be sure
all of the components are finished on all sides, and they interlock. This is very important if
you might have to separate the
pieces in the future.
So let’s recap, dimensions,
comfort, construction, cushions
and detail are some of the concerns you should have before
you shop. The money you spend
today has never in my lifetime
meant so much. So be a smart
consumer, don’t settle, select.
The other category of furniture is known as case goods.
This will cover the woods for
all rooms. Don’t be surprised
or disappointed in discovering
that most of the furniture you
see today will be both woodland, some veneer. The cost of
the item is not going to make a
difference. In order for the surface of a wooden table or top of
a dresser to have the appearance
it does,
it most
likely
w i l l
have a
veneer
surface.
T h i s
will allow for
detailing and inlay that wood
alone cannot do.
The way furniture is treated
today, you will be very satisfied with most of what you see.
Keep in mind you can choose
the wood and stain in some selections. Don’t be locked into
“everything must be mahogany,
or cherry” for example. Having
items that complement one another will do more for any room
than having everything match.
Keep an eye out for the way
drawers are constructed, English
Dovetailing, and wooden interiors. Also check out the hardware being used, ask if you have
a choice, the more you know
the better. Again, a part of today’s world is that not all of the
furniture will be made here in
the U.S.A. So you must decide,
abroad or here? By the way, who
manufactured the car you drive?
Enjoy the shopping experience; you will enjoy it more if
this article helped. n
PAGE Demand Tax Cuts Now!
Westchester Tea Party
Attend these pre-rally Meetings
Monday April 6, 2009
Ciao Restaurant
7pm-8:30pm
5-7 John Albanese Place
Eastchester, NY
Tuesday April 7, 2009
Juliano’s
6:30-8:30pm
700 Main Street
New Rochelle, NY
Wednesday April 8, 2009
Royal Regency Hotel
6:30pm-8:30pm
185 Tuckahoe Road
Yonkers, NY
Thursday April 9, 2009
Galitos
6:30pm-8:30pm
29 Elm Street
Mt. Vernon, NY
Monday April 13, 2009
Colonial Terrace
6:30pm-8:30pm
119 Oregon Road
Cortlandt Manor, NY
Tuesday April 14, 2009
Yorktown Elks Lodge
7pm-8:30pm
590 Waverly Road
Yorktown, NY
Friday, April 17, 2009
Crowne Plaza
6:30-8:30pm
66 Hale Avenue
White Plains
PAGE 10
On The National Scene
Fred Polvere
Americans – More Equal than Others?
“We do not torture.” - President
George W. Bush (May 7, 2005)
“I was taken out of my cell and
one of the interrogators wrapped a
towel around my neck, they then
used it to swing me around and
smash me repeatedly against the
hard walls of the room. I was also
repeatedly slapped in the face.
“I was then put into the tall
black box for what I think was
about one and a half to two hours.
The box was totally black on the inside as well as the outside.... They
put a cloth or cover over the outside
of the box to cut out the light and
restrict my air supply. It was difficult to breathe. When I was let out
of the box I saw that one of the walls
of the room had been covered with
plywood sheeting. From now on it
was against this wall that I was then
smashed with the towel around my
neck. I think that the plywood was
put there to provide some absorption of the impact of my body. The
interrogators realized that smashing me against the hard wall would
probably quickly result in physical
injury.” – Abu Zubaydah.
“I do want to -- you know, I
firmly reject the word ‘torture.’… I
have put in place procedures that
will enable the professionals to
better learn the intentions of
Al Qaeda, for example.” President George W. Bush
(January 7, 2009)
“We had these trained
interrogators who were
sent to his location to use
the enhanced techniques as
necessary to get him to open
up, and to report some threat
information.... These
enhanced techniques included
everything from
what was called
an
attention
shake, where you grab the person
by their lapels and shake them, all
the way up to the other end, which
is waterboarding.” - John Kiriakou,
leader of the CIA team that captured Abu Zubaydah.
In February 2007, the Interna-
tional Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) filed a report titled “ICRC
Report on the Treatment of Fourteen ‘High Value Detainees’ in CIA
Custody.” The report documents
abuse and torture by CIA interrogators. The report,
which had been kept
secret, was obtained
by Mark Danner, a
journalist and author
specializing in foreign
affairs. In the April
9, 2009 issue of the
New York Review of Books,
Danner writes
a gripping and
sickening account of the
“e n h a n c e d
t e c h n i qu e s”
which were deemed lawful by the
Bush White House, abetted by its
stooges at the Department of Justice. (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22530)
Danner’s main points:
“1. Beginning in the spring of
2002 the United States government
began to torture prisoners. This
torture, approved by the President
of the United States and monitored
in its daily unfolding by senior officials, including the nation’s highest law enforcement officer, clearly
violated major treaty obligations
of the United States, including the
Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, as well as
United States law.
“2. The most senior officers
of the US government, President George W. Bush first among
them, repeatedly and explicitly
lied about this, both in reports to
international institutions and directly to the public. The President
lied about it in news conferences,
interviews, and, most explicitly,
in speeches expressly intended to
set out the administration’s policy
on interrogation before the people
who had elected him.
“3. The US Congress, already
in possession of a great deal of information about the torture conducted by the administration—
which had been covered widely in
the press, and had been briefed, at
least in part, from the outset to a
select few of its members—passed
the Military Commissions Act of
2006 and in so doing attempted
to protect those responsible from
criminal penalty under the War
Crimes Act.
“4. Democrats,
who could have
filibustered the bill,
declined to do so
— a decision that
had much to do
with the proximity of the midterm
elections, in the
run-up to which, they feared, the torture, we freely chose to become
President and his Republican allies the caricature they made of us.”
The New York Times published
might gain advantage by accusing
an excerpt of Danner’s column on
them of ‘coddling terrorists.’...
its Op-Ed page
“5. The poMarch 14, 2009
litical damage
but other than
to the United
that, it has gotStates’ reputaten little covertion, and to the
age in the media.
‘soft power’ of its
That is to be exConstitutional
pected. The puand democratic
sillanimous press
ideals, has been,
would rather rant
though difficult
about Michelle
to quantify, vast
Obama’s biceps
and enduring.
than deal with an
In a war that is
uncomfortable
essentially an inissue.
surgency fought
I wonder if
on a worldwide
the
American
scale—which is
Mark Danner
public
agrees
to say, a political
war, in which the attitudes and al- with the neo-conservatives who
legiances of young Muslims are the feel that American Exceptionalism
critical target of opportunity—the means that anything we do is virUnited States’ decision to use tor- tuous. If not, we deserve a better
ture has resulted in an enormous press. If so, God Save America.
NB: All 14 suspects reported
self-administered defeat, undermining liberal sympathizers of the the same techniques to the ICRC,
United States and convincing oth- despite having been kept separated
ers that the country is exactly as its before their testimony. Other deenemies paint it: a ruthless impe- tainees who were found innocent
rial power determined to suppress and released gave the same acand abuse Muslims. By choosing to counts of their treatment. ■
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
PAGE 11
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PAGE 12
SAVE OUR HOMES
TAX
CUTS NOW!
g
n
i
r
B
g
a
B
a
e
T
A
Join The Fight!
Come Out To The
Saturday, April 25th 12pm
County Office Building
148 Martine Ave., White Plains
Civic and Business Leaders and Community Activists who
wish to speak at the Rally please contact:
[email protected]
To Volunteer, or to place a sign on your property or business, please call
914-632-1230
Readers Respond, continued from page 4
cious right and privilege.
Lily Rock
Philadelphia
Re: Paul Cote
Dear Editor,
I have been following the Paul
Cote story for years now. What
seems very interesting to me is that
this case still lingers on. It raises the
question could there be any other
motives in the continued prosecution/percussion of this man who
has already been punished by society for what many think was never
a crime?
I ask the question, is it now time
to appoint an independent investigator to look into the motives, methods and goals of further legal action
against a man who has lost so much
and paid such a price already? And at
what financial burden to the taxpayers will this continued persecution
of a man who has already served his
time be? I believe these are the questions that need to be answered.
Francine Uomoleale-Mauro
East Northport, NY
Reader Questions
New Rochelle IDAs
Dear Editor:
Residents should be aware of
the second annual report on Industrial Development Agencies
(IDAs) by the State Comptroller
Thomas DiNapoli. He promises
greater “transparency and accountability to measure the value
PAGE 13
nancial times why hasn’t this IDA money. It is the County’s, and a lot
made all the projects which were other of people’s, cash cow.
of IDAs.” The report states the granted benefits accountable? I
Joshua Askew
City of New Rochelle had nearly urge the New Rochelle IDA to
Mount Vernon N.Y
$57 million in projects, and their make this information public. Flood Mitigation Relief
rank in cost per job is the third
Peggy Godfrey,
Dear Editor:
highest in the state at $26,077 per
New Rochelle
The different Village of Mamajob created for an estimated 310
Reader Bemoans County’s
roneck neighborhood associations
jobs. This cost per job is about six
Waste Of Money
who are committed to seeking
times higher than the state average
action on flood mitigation since
of $4,527 and many more times
Dear Editor:
the state median cost per job of
Hello. My name is Joshua the last disastrous 2007 flood are
$1,288.
Askew. I came to the first meeting enthusiastic and optimistic to the
DiNapoli’s report states that on abolishing county government. positive news of Federal and State
job figures are “based upon esti- I was quoted in the Journal News funds now available to the Village
mates made by the IDAs and often saying that social services was the of Mamaroneck to take immediate
are not verified.” Improvements biggest hustle to taxpayers. That action.
It is through our dedicated
have been made to address some statement has caused me a lot of
public
Servants, Assemblyman
issues. For example, IDAs will trouble.
not be able to revise employment
The County is now is retaliat- George Latimer, who has helped
goal data. IDAs will now be able to ing against me for that statement. secure a New York State Economic
recoup benefits given if the project I have always seen county govern- Development Corporation $1.2
does not create the promised num- ment as a big waste of tax dollars million dollar Capital Projects
ber of jobs and maintain its reten- and I have been advocating against grant, of which $400,000 is eartion goals. Amounts of PILOT it on my own in the City of Mount marked for the Village of Mama(payments in lieu of taxes) actually Vernon with no help from any- roneck for flood mitigation and
Congresswoman Nita Lowey who
paid and how much the developer one.
had agreed to pay will be required
If you want abolish county announced community fundto determine if the terms of the fi- government, you have to start with ing totaling $8,286,367, including
nancial agreement are being met. the DSS. If not, you are wasting a $500,000 for sewer improvements
IDAs must now also report “esti- lot of time. Your tax dollars are to mitigate flooding in the Village
mated salary” for all jobs, whether used to pay for the making of an of Mamaroneck.
While we are all awaiting the
newly created or retained.
underclass.
Here in New Rochelle the
There are a lot of so called non- conclusion of the Army Corps of
IDA benefits for the expansion of profit organizations that would not Engineers to finish their invesNew Roc to add two new retailers survive if our tax dollars did not tigations, which at best will be
may be suitable for reevaluation pay for them. If you do not believe available in 2012, and realistically
based on the latest improvements what I am saying, go to the City of closer to 2016, it is now the time
in IDA procedures. Residents Mount Vernon and ask the people for the Village officials to act expehave lost the use of an ice skating that are on Welfare how they are ditiously to secure and implement
rink but see no retail construction being treated. Ask them to show programs that are well known and
taking place. In these troubling fi- you their yearly budget sheets and previously identified to be executyou will see the thousands of dol- ed in order to give relief to future
lars being spent, more money than flooding conditions.
Our community is certainly
most of us make in a year and they
thankful for the follow up to promhave no control over that money.
It’s the biggest hustle ever; the ises made two years ago by many
DSS is the problem and there is no politicians and at least our Asoversight on how they spend your semblyman and Congresswoman
have come through for the Village.
We invite our readers’ comments. Letters
It helps restore the confidence of
should be no more than 500 words in length,
the residents that something will
and may be edited for length and clarity.
finally happen.
Please email your letters to editor@WestchesNorman S. Rosenblum
ter Guardian.com. For verification purposes
we ask you include your address and a dayMamaroneck
time phone number.
PAGE 14
Shelley Ackerman
March 26 - April 1
Mercury and Venus Embrace Aries New Moon;
Let The Sunshine In: “Hair” Returns To Broadway
By Shelley L. Ackerman
The Sabian symbol for this
Aries New Moon (at 6 degrees
and 7 minutes of Aries) describes
a “Man expressing himself in two
worlds at once”:
I can’t help but think of President Barack Obama on Jay
Leno’s show, using the casual forum to impart some very important and relevant basics about
the economy and what his role is
as President.
Aries (March 21-April 19): Often, the Aries persona vacillates
between two distinct types; On one
end of the spectrum, there’s the
adorable, selfish, petulant, willful,
and energetic ‘baby’ who, by the
sheer force of his (or her) will, gets
his way with no awareness about
who they’ve hurt in the process. On
the other end, there’s the dynamic
trailblazer with enough bravado,
heart, and wisdom to tear down
one wall of Jericho after another
while changing the world for the
better. As weary as you may be, on
this New Moon, you must decide
where you stand and who you want
to be: The next 12 months could be
the most dynamic year of your life.
Taurus (April 20-May 20):
Though it seems as if you’ve been
waiting in the wings in an uncom-
So what if he goofed slightly with his comment about the
Special Olympics? This man is
beyond brilliant and has gone
where no US president has ever
gone before, at least not in my
lifetime. He is not only doing his
damndest to straighten this mess
out, but he is using television to
educate the masses about what’s
at stake and what they need to
know to go forward more empowered and aware than before.
He is the first 99.44% no-BS
president we’ve ever had, and
shucks, I’m impressed.
On this New Moon, we all
need to operate effectively on
more than one cylinder, and
need to express ourselves clearly
and effectively not only where we
are easily understood, but where
‘they don’t speak our language.’ I
think the most valuable lesson at
hand, has to do with how much
stronger we all are, when truth is
part of the equation.
Along those lines, “Hair”,
the groundbreaking revolutionary musical about the Fall of
1967 (which originally opened
on April 29, 1968 on Broadway)
comes back to the Great White
Way on March 31st. So much of
what was first introduced back
then has become part of our culture. I will be there next Tuesday
with my pal author James Rado
to revel in the Age of Aquarius.
Let the Sunshine in indeed!
fortable agitated state of suspension
for weeks, there’s more going on
for you than meets the eye: True,
Taurus does have a hard time believing what he or she cannot see,
feel, taste, smell or touch, but you’ll
just have to believe that all of this
undetectable movement on what
spiritual types refer to as the ‘inner
planes’ is necessary before the visible changes can manifest. Think of
this period as the beginning of the
8th month of a pregnancy, and know
that your weeks of discomfort will
not have been in vain.
your gift of agility, you’re more capable than anyone to quickly pull
various individuals and factions
together as needed. Get clear on
what your vision is and why it’s
important- these days, all of us
must revisit and clarify our mission
statements. If you can give yourself
a good reason to wake up in the
morning and tackle what’s before
you, getting everyone else on board
is a no-brainer.
period not as a punishment, but as
an opportunity. No one is immune
to what’s happening in the world,
and a game of musical chairs can be
fun if played with the right attitude.
On the 31st, a moody afternoon
gives way to a beautiful evening.
Gemini (May 21-June 21): If you
don’t “Got the teamwork to make
the dream work” now’s the time to
regroup and gather up the troops.
The Aries New Moon in your 11th
house of community is conjoined
by your clever ruler, Mercury. With
Cancer (June 22-July 22): Careerwise, playing it safe is no guarantee
that the status quo will go on uninterrupted, so on this New Moon,
you may as well take a leap of faith
and go for what you really want
professionally. Getting un-stuck is
never easy, but sinking further into
a fear-induced paralysis is no longer
a choice either. Think if this time
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22): The fiery
New Moon in your 9th house of
philosophy, foreign affairs, and legalities presents you with an opportunity for shameless self promotion and it couldn’t happen to
a better person or come at a better
time. So come on out of retirement,
why don’t you, and blow your own
horn. Just make sure that you know
what you’re talking about. If there’s
something you need to brush up
on, sign up for that class immediately, and while you’re at it, take a
look at your ‘Life’s To- Do’ list (the
one that’s collecting dust) and see if about getting paid for having fun: A
you can check an entrée or two off pain-free nine to five (or whatever
your hours of employment are) is
sooner rather than later.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): When exactly the way things are meant to
This week’s New Moon in your
push comes to shove, you’re so ca- be.
th
pable of action, it isn’t even funny. 6 house of health, habits, and daily
This week’s New Moon in Aries routine, is conjoined by Venus-ret(in your 8th house) is sandwiched rograde. It’s time to recommit to
between your ruler, Mercury, and your health and to fall in love all
Venus, which has lots to say about over again with what you do for
who and what you love and how a living, or start ‘dating’ someone
you go about bringing those dollars else! And though in this economy,
in. The intense burn in your house many are of the mind to grin and
of banks and other people’s money bear it, that’s just not you: You gotta
doesn’t have to be a wrenching feel the love or fuggetaboutit!
dark night of the soul, but it should
motivate you to go after what belongs to you and/or to transform all
of your bad money habits and destructive sexual-addiction behavior
in one fell swoop.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23): This New
Moon is a biggie; It conjoins Venus
(your ruler) in your 7th house of
partnership and contractual agreements. And while you long for love
and commitment personally and
professionally, you can’t sign on to
any situation that lacks integrity,
fairness, and mutual respect. The
good news is, that through these
hard economic times, we’re learning to think much more clearly than
we did before and to feel entitled
to ask uncomfortable questions to
get to the truth of any situation. If
something doesn’t feel right, speak
up and (gently) demand clarification, you’re entitled.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
In order to inspire others, you
must first be inspired yourself. This
week’s New Moon should do the
trick: it’s in your 5th house of fun,
games, speculation and romance
and a time-out along those lines
will do wonders. Astrologer Caroline Casey reminds that in every
culture, games teach philosophy.
Through losing oneself in a game
or sport or creative endeavor with
rules, we relearn the basic laws of
the universe and can better apply
them to our advantage in all situations. Luck comes from a child or
a romantic interest from your past
who wants to repay a favor.
sloppy can have dire consequences.
Encourage a family member to be
brave and go for something they
really want. Your support means
more than you know.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The
fiery New Moon in your 3rd house
of neighbors, siblings, and communication has you taking some
bold chances in the way you express yourself and it all works in
your favor. Speak now or forever
hold your peace! The funny thing
is, that instead of being met with
criticism and scorn, your bravado
is experienced as a welcome breath
of fresh air. Who knew? One word
of caution- don’t inadvertently burn
someone who’s a little
more sensitive
than usual.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): The
New Moon in your 2nd house of finance could be just the break you’re
looking for: And though it may not
arrive with all the glitz and glamour
that you’d expect, please do not look
this gift horse in the mouth. You’re
better than anyone at picking up
discarded pieces of this, that, and
the other thing and putting them
all together in a unique way. Keep
that in mind and apply that skill
to everything including ideas that
cross your path this week. Think
of yourself as the ultimate closer
and a clean-up crew that finds (and
keeps) the jewels that others have
foolishly left behind. ■
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan 19):
Sometimes the stars can be more
literal than symbolic, and so on this
fiery new Moon in your 4th house
of home, family, and real estate,
be careful about any fire hazards
Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): When or wiring in your living quarters.
you love your job, it doesn’t feel like Wherever water and fire meet
work. But you needn’t feel guilty (bathroom, kitchen, etc) being
This Week’s Planets- Times are EDT:
March 26: Moon enters Aries @ 1:03 am, New Moon @12:06 pm
March 27: Moon V/C @ 10:17 pm, Mercury square Pluto @ 8:15 am. Sun conjunct Venus @ 3:24 pm
March 28: Moon enters Taurus @ 6:09 am, Mercury conj Venus @ 10:31 pm
March 30: Moon V/C @ 2:01 am, enters Gemini @ 9:36 am, Sun conjunct Mercury @ 11:30 pm
April 1: Moon V/C @ 5:03 am, enters Cancer @ 12:30 pm
Moon V/C = Void of Course, a time of disconnect best for spiritual not earthly pursuits
PAGE 15
Aries New Moon
March 26, 2009, 12:06pm EDT
New York, N.Y.
Solarfire Chart courtesy of Astrolabe
PAGE 16
Gathering In Yonkers, continued from page 2
Secondarily, it opened the
door by regulation and by law
so now the federal government
can put a deal together for some
of the other private investment
banks. They want someone to put
up $580 billion dollars and that’s
a prohibitive number but if it can
be done, then perhaps AIG can
be rescued”.
In other words, New York State
was the legislative body that set up
the mechanism for the AIG rescue
package to begin with! So where
was Andrew Cuomo and his staff
last September? Why didn’t they
make sure that the initial funds
borrowed by AIG could not be
used for staff bonuses? Any funds
issued by banks or governments
can be earmarked for specific uses;
governments and corporations restrict the grants they give to nonprofits for limited uses and banks
earmark loans they make to individuals and businesses; a car loan
may only be used to buy a car, a
mortgage may only be used for a
house, etc. So why didn’t Andrew
Cuomo demand that any funds
issued to AIG through New York
State legislation or government
bailouts could only be used for
certain limited business activities?
Why didn’t he earmark the
taxpayers’ funds and specifically
prohibit their use for executive
bonuses? Why didn’t he ward
off this debacle when he had the
opportunity last September? As
State Attorney General, Cuomo
had the authority and responsibility to review any legislative changes affecting the state’s insurance
regulations.
So why did Andrew Cuomo
allow the legal loophole for AIG
to be set up by the New York State
insurance commissioner and
Vincent E. D’Agnillo
& Associates, Inc.
Commercial R.E. Financing
Below-market rates
on the following
property types:
• Office Buildings
• Underlying Coops
• Apartment Buildings
• Mixed Use
– Res. & Comm.
Licensed Real Estate Brokers
Vincent E. D’Agnillo, Pres.
T. 718-997-1085
F. 718-997-6229
Albany to begin with? Could
it have anything to do with the
$547,629 of campaign contributions by AIG to New York State
legislators, among them Senator Steward, head of the Insurance Committee in Albany, and
Governor Paterson? AIG has
shared the wealth over the years
with a variety of New York State
politicians and political players
among them George Pataki, Eliot
Spitzer, and Nick Spano, ex-New
York State Senator from Yonkers.
The deputy staff explained to
the attendees, “The Attorney General’s staff find fraud and abuse
everywhere,” and “We investigate
those issues”. They assured the
attendees, “We are here to right
those wrongs”. But in a session
involving labor and immigration
rights, the AG’s staff had no answers at all for several issues the
Guardian posed to them.
First and foremost among the
concerns of local residents are the
extraordinarily high county, local,
and school taxes they pay. Several
districts are facing double-digit
increases in their school taxes for
the 2009/2010 school year. However, when questioning those in-
creases, the residents are told that
up to 90% of the expenses in local
school budgets are due to contractual expenses, the teachers and
union contracts, that cannot be altered, an excuse that now sounds
remarkably similar to the one
being offered by AIG executives.
They have the taxpayers’ money
and are using the law as a weapon to refuse to give it back, even
though what they received with
that money is over and above what
a reasonable individual should expect to receive.
Local residents have a right to
investigate if their school district
contracts have any extraordinary
benefits that the unions should
now give back in these difficult
times.
The Guardian asked the AG
staff if they investigated union
contracts for possible irregularities and how a taxpayer could
obtain a copy of all current and
pending contracts. The response
from Alphonso David, an AG
Deputy Bureau Chief, “There is
no area of law that governs the
union contracts!”
According to the Attorney
General’s office, an office that
claims to “fight corruption wherever it is found” and to be on “the
side of the little guy”, they do not
investigate labor contracts in New
York State at all, contracts that
now make up almost 90% of some
of our local budgets! The AG’s office conducts no review of these
contracts for legal compliance,
no audit of these contracts to assure that all monies provided to
the unions by taxpayers are being
spent for the purposes for which
they were intended, and no investigations of unions for conflicts of
interest and other legal and ethical
violations.
David also told the Guardian
that there was nowhere in New
York State where a concerned
citizen could go to even be able to
review a union contract. “If the
local municipality refuses to give
this to you under a FOIL request”,
David said, “There is nothing we
can do”. The only suggestion David had for local residents was
“To talk to your legislators to have
them change the law and provide
access.”
In this budget season, the
Guardian is therefore asking all
school districts to provide copies of
all contractual agreements affecting their budgets, union, food service, suppliers, etc., along with lineby-line financial analyses of what
each item in the contract costs the
local taxpayers so they can vote on
what can be eliminated or amended. No taxpayer should be asked
to make what amounts to a blind
vote in this economy. As our current President has said, “It’s time
for open government”. The taxpayers deserve full access to the
opened books and all contractual
obligations of their school districts, their towns, and our County government. And the Attorney
General’s office should be prepared
to back up that access with legal
force.
At the Attorney General’s
event, the Guardian approached
Westchester County Executive
Andrew Spano and inquired
what cutbacks and union concessions the County government was
making to alleviate the economic
stress on local residents. Spano
sidestepped the issue by answering, “All I am doing is making
sure that you get lower taxes;
I cut millions out of last year’s
budget”. When this reporter reminded Spano that that savings
was primarily the result of shifting expenditures into future years
he simply responded, “There was
no shifting. We’re the only AAA
County in the entire state”.
When we pressed the point
and asked “Why should ablebodied individuals be allowed to
retire at age 55 on full pensions
at taxpayers’ expense?” Spano acknowledged, “This has to come
from the state”. However, he argued, “The workers have agreed
not to get a raise next year,” not
noting that the contractual raises
are only 3% to 4% of their base
salaries compared to the 12% to
15%, or more, annual contributions to their pensions. Taxpayer
groups have calculated that shifting government employees from
taxpayer-subsidized pensions to
a personally funded 401K plan
would save billions in New York
State alone, yet no politician has
been brave enough so far to demand such a change.
When this reporter pressed
the issue of union concessions
with Spano he responded, “You
set me up!” Spano insisted that
“we [County government] are not
your problem. It’s not the County
taxes that are the problem”. This
reporter noted that most residents
could not afford local taxes to begin with and now that they are trying to recover their lost retirement
savings they need a reduction on
those taxes. Spano responded, “I
hear your frustration. But these
are issues for Albany. I asked for
givebacks and I got it. We are the
only County in the state that got
a reduction in healthcare costs.”
This reporter noted that many
local residents pay for their own
health costs in full. “Why should
they then be expected to also subsidize the health insurance of not
only the government workers but
also their spouses and children
as well? They don’t work for the
government and they’re not our
families so why are we paying for
them?” Spano acknowledged the
frustration this reporter expressed
on behalf of the many local residents the Guardian has spoken to
on this issue. However, he noted
“this is out of my hands”.
Andrew Cuomo’s session in
Yonkers did reveal several things,
however:
1. No one in the AG’s office
fights corporate corruption until after the fact, and even then,
only when the cameras are rolling;
there are no upfront audits and investigations;
2. No one investigates union
contracts at all, or conducts audits
of the billions being spent by New
York State unions; the unions are
not being held accountable at all;
3. Taxpayers have zero rights
to obtain, audit, or review any of
the local, school district, County,
or State contracts affecting their
budgets and tax dollars or be provided with information of pending contracts or contracts being
offered to unions and suppliers;
4. County government deflects
all questions on contractual issues
to the State and the State deflects
PAGE 17
them back saying “it’s not our job”;
5. The AG’s office spent hundreds of tax dollars on printed materials that almost no one touched,
materials that are all available on
the websites so they did not need
to be printed out at all;
6. The political players know how
to make an auditorium look good for
the cameras and how to manipulate
the makeup of the attendees
There was one bright point at
this session. The AG’s office, unlike the New York State Courts,
at least had the good manners to
provide coffee and refreshments
for the attendees, correctly sensing that sitting through several
hours of political discussions required significant doses of caffeine!
But even that gesture served
to highlight the current economic difficulties some of our local
residents are facing. At the end
of the event, an elderly woman
approached the AG’s staff to beg
permission to take home one unopened container of milk. Sadly,
she fell in her attempt to approach
the staff. When this reporter
came to her aid and heard her
plea, I cleared the entire table of
leftovers for her. But anyone who
could really aid her in her plight
was no longer around; once the
cameras left, the politicians and
their staffs beat a hasty retreat.
They never saw the impact of
our economy unfolding on our residents in their own backyard. They
never witnessed the degradation
of an elegant elderly woman being
reduced to begging for permission
to take home a lousy $1 container
of milk. Our leaders were probably
in too much of a hurry to get to
the $200 dinners at their next fund
raising event, undoubtedly paid for
and hosted by the next round of
AIG wannabes. n
PAGE 18
Press Release
Statement From Senate
Majority Leader Malcolm A.
Smith Re: MTA Financing
“The MTA needs to change its ways. Claiming that they cannot collect payroll taxes
in a timely fashion under their current system is just another excuse to avoid making the
changes the MTA desperately requires. If we structure payroll taxes like we do withholding taxes, the MTA can get the funds they need immediately.
These are difficult times which demand a different approach, one the MTA seems
unwilling to make, even if it results in drastic fare hikes for millions of straphangers. Our
proposal to have tax collection retroactively applied to the beginning of the tax year is
not without precedent. In 2003, when the State imposed the temporary PIT surcharge, it
was enacted in April of that year. In order to collect the full years’ surcharge, withholding
tables were adjusted to encompass the retroactive portion of the tax. This not only proves
our payroll tax proposal could work, but once again shows the MTA’s inability to change
the way it conducts business, even when that business is failing.
The MTA has also claimed that our math relating to bus subsidies was wrong. However, what they neglected to mention is that our numbers were based on how the MTA
presented them to us. Our mistake was taking the MTA at their word after years of shaky
finances and secret records.
The bottom line is if we want an efficient and effective MTA, we need real change
now.”
PAGE 19
PAGE 20
What A Second Look Program
Should Look Like
As I have written previously,
and will doubtless reiterate in
the future, District Attorneys
and prosecutors wield a great
deal of power. Their actual mandate is to seek justice. That involves not simply winning convictions, but also helping to free
the wrongfully convicted as well
as preventing further wrongful
convictions.
There have been, of course,
many shameful instances in
which prosecutors have prevented DNA tests and/or fought
against claims of innocence despite compelling evidence, in an
all-out effort to uphold all convictions, wrongful or otherwise,
no matter what. Similarly, have
been numerous instances of
praiseworthy behavior, as when
prosecutors have agreed to a
reversal of charges based upon
evidence of innocence that has
been brought forward, or have
agreed to DNA testing.
However, as positive as those
instances are, having a Second
Look Program within the district
attorney’s office, one which will
proactively go through old cases
searching for wrongful convictions, is infinitely better. There
are many reasons why this is
true. One of them is the fact that
often poor defendants who cannot afford private attorneys do
not get adequate investigation.
Additionally, once a defendant’s
appeal has been turned down
by the Court Of Appeals, which
routinely does not agree to hear
meritorious cases, the State is no
longer obligated to provide free
representation.
Although the federal courts
are able to appoint counsel for
the poor, they often do not do so.
Hence the need for the reviewing
of cases even without prompting
from a defense attorney.
Some months ago in this
newspaper I wrote a two-part
series entitled “We Need Second
Look Programs In The Prosecutor’s Office”. I will now examine
how I believe such a program
could and should operate. Before getting into the details, I
think it would be instructive to
look at the program that Dallas
District Attorney Craig Watkins
has pioneered, and which he has
named the “Conviction Integrity
Unit.”
In order to create the unit,
Watkins first had to obtain funding. He went before the Dallas
County Commissioners seeking it. Two of the five members
opposed Watkins, arguing that
the unit would place the District Attorney’s Office in the role
of defense counsel, and that the
oversight was not necessary.
In a 3-2 vote, Watkins got
some funding, but not all that
he had asked for. The funding
was only enough to enable him
to hire two attorneys, one investigator, and one secretary. To
make up for the lack of funding,
he collaborated with The Texas
Innocence Project, and has law
student interns, working with
paid staff, reviewing cases. They
are currently reviewing more
than 400 cases in which his
predecessor denied prior testing. There are eight cases awaiting test results. Under Watkins’
watch, five people have thus far
been cleared based upon DNA. I
present those cases:
• Charles Chatman was
cleared on Jan. 3, 2007 after serving 27 years for Rape. He was
convicted when he was 20 years
old, and is now 47. The cause
of his wrongful conviction was
misidentification having been
picked out of a photo array.
After earlier tests proved inconclusive, Chatman recently
agreed to Y-STR testing, an advanced form of DNA testing that
can determine a profile from a
small sample. The risk was that
this final test could have consumed the last of the biological
evidence in the case. However, it
proved to be the right decision
as the profile proved that another man committed the rape for
which Chatman was serving a
99-year sentence.
• Larry Fuller served 19½
years out of a 50 year sentence
for Sexual Assault based on a
misidentification. Initially the
victim stated that she could not
identify her assailant because
the room was barely lit and the
crime took place about an hour
before sunrise. A week after the
crime the police, nonetheless,
asked her to make an identification.
After viewing one photo array she said that Fuller, “looks
like the guy,” but that she could
not be sure. After being shown a
second array she then said that
she was sure it was him. Additionally, a serological test was
performed on semen collected
from a rape kit. Fuller was serologically included in that he
was a non-secretor, and the
blood type of the rape kit fluid
matched the victim’s own blood
type. Therefore, serological testing did not exclude Fuller, but it
also did not identify him as the
perpetrator.
At trial, however, a prosecutor inaccurately summed up the
scientific testimony by saying it
placed Mr. Fuller among 20 percent of the male population that
could have committed the crime.
Mr. Fuller first contacted the
Innocence Project in the mid1990s. A 2003 DNA test was inconclusive, but a 2006 test ruled
him out as the assailant, and he
was released.
• Greg Wallis served 17 years
out of 50 years for Burglary of a
Habitation with the Intent To
Commit Sexual Assault. The victim gave a description to police
but, without any leads, the crime
went unsolved.
After four months police circulated a flier about the attack in
a local jail. An inmate told the
Irving police that Gregory Wallis had a tattoo similar to the
description given by the victim.
The victim subsequently chose
Wallis out of a photo array.
Wallis and his wife testified
that they were together at the
time of the crime, but he was
convicted anyway. A 2005 DNA
test could not entirely rule out
Mr. Wallis as the rapist. A second test in 2006 proved that Mr.
Wallis was not responsible for
the attack
• Andrew Gossett served 7
years out of 50 years in prison
in the 1999 Sexual Assault of a
Dallas woman. He came under
suspicion based on his matching
the general description given;
followed by an erroneous pointing out of him in a photo array.
He had been seeking DNA
testing in 2001, but the thenDistrict Attorney prevented
him. In 2006, with Watkins in
office, tests showed that he was
innocent.
• James Giles was convicted
of Aggravated Rape. He served
10 years in prison, and 14 years
on parole as a registered sex offender. The female victim identified a photo of him.
A month after the crime, a
Crime Stoppers tip led police to
include James Curtis Giles in a
lineup, and the victim identified
him as one of the three rapists.
Neither a male victim, nor
another eyewitness, identified
James Curtis Giles in a lineup
or at trial. James Curtis Giles,
at 29, was a decade older than
the description of the perpetrators, and he had two prominent
gold teeth which the victim also
didn’t mention.
His alibi was that he had
eaten dinner with his wife and
afterwards went home and went
to bed early.
Documents now show that
evidence indicating the identity
of the actual perpetrators, including a man named James Earl
Giles, was available to prosecutors before trial and was withheld from defense attorneys for
James Curtis Giles. In 1984, one
of the attackers, Stanley Bryant,
pled guilty. He said he committed the crime with a man named
“James” and a man named “Michael.” The next year, Bryant
signed an affidavit that James
Curtis Giles was not the “James”
who participated in this crime.
While in prison, James Curtis Giles met a man who lived
near the victims and had called
Crime Stoppers during the investigation of the crime and told
them that one of the perpetrators
was named “James Giles.” The informant said he had learned that
a different person, James Earl
Giles, was the alleged attacker.
Since 1991, both the informant and James Curtis Giles
have said that the wrong James
Giles was convicted of this rape.
James Curtis Giles served 10
years of his sentence before he
was paroled in 2001.
Some Thoughts Regarding
A Second Look Program.
Clearly, the approach DA
Watkins utilizes works well.
The everyday nuts and bolts
of it, however, are not known.
Also unspecified is how the
program operates in non-DNA
cases. Lacking those details and
therefore having to reinvent the
wheel somewhat, I will share
some thoughts regarding ways
in which a Second Look Program
might actually work.
Firstly, everybody who works
in that program would first have
to be thoroughly educated as
to the many causes of wrongful convictions. It is essential to
insure the fact that in reviewing
cases, they would know exactly
what to look for. The book Actual
Innocence, by Jim Dwyer, which
lists the many different causes of
wrongful convictions along with
at least one example for each,
would be required reading.
I would require a written test
featuring essay questions about
each possible cause together with
at least one case as an example.
Personnel would need to be familiar with false confessions,
misidentifications, junk science,
incentivized witnessing, inept
defense attorneys, and prosecutorial misconduct of all kinds.
It goes without saying, although I will say it here, that
anybody who had previously
been
involved
in prosecutorial
misconduct, or a
deliberate ‘looking the other way’
while it went on,
would not be allowed to work in
the project.
PAGE 21
In terms of funding, the district attorney would need to go
to appropriate governing bodies
in their jurisdiction, either the
county legislature or state legislature, and lobby for money to
hire full time staff, as DA Watkins did. Additionally, unnecessary personnel in other departments would be removed and
those salaries appropriated for
project staff.
Beyond that, further personnel could be obtained through a
variety of ways without increasing costs, including partnering
with an innocence project and/
or law school. The law school
option is desireable because it
would attract students by offering the experience as an internship, preferably a paid one.
As with every other division
within a District Attorney’s office,
there would of course be a supervisor responsible for overseeing
the unit, who should receive, at
a minimum, weekly progress reports so as to hold everybody
accountable. The supervisors,
themselves, should have to explain what was going on.
Additionally, anybody working in the unit must be free to
go to the district attorney, themselves, with any issue about the
unit, so as to avoid the kind of
blind obedience to authority
even when ordered to do something unethical as has often gone
on in district attorneys’ offices.
PAGE 22
ongoing
• Free tax assistance through
Tax Counseling for the Elderly
program and Volunteer Income
Tax Assistance will be offered at the
Community Gallery of the New Rochelle Public Library, One Library
Plaza, New Rochelle through April
14. Volunteer counselors assist participants on a first-come, first-served
basis. Bring whatever tax-related
materials are needed to complete
returns. Tax forms will be provided.
Info: 914.632.7878 x34.
Through March 31:
• The New Rochelle Public Library, One Library Plaza, New Rochelle, in conjunction with the New
Rochelle Council on the Arts, is
presenting an exhibition profiling
several celebrated female artists who
had distinct ties to New Rochelle.
Actresses Lillian Gish and Claire
Trevor, modern dance pioneer and
anthropologist Pearl Primus, are
among the women who are being
presented through archival photographs and vintage memorabilia.
Free. On view in the library’s Lumen
Winter Gallery during regular library hours. Info: 914.632.7878 x34.
Throughout April
The Riverfront Library, One
Larkin Center, Yonkers, will host an
exhibition, Shades, by lead pencil
and watercolor artist Drew Macko
during the month of April. Shades is
original artwork in black and white,
using a single lead pencil while capturing the detail of historical landmarks, stills and portraits. Prints of
the original artwork are individually
hand-painted with a splash of watercolor. Free. Info/hrs: 914.337.1500.
Through April 2:
• New Rochelle’s Women of the
Arts: An Historical Perspective. This
exhibition profiles the artistic lives
of New Rochelle women who made
their mark on history by creating,
Events for publication in our calendar are free and open to all.
Listings must be submitted at least two (2) weeks in advance.
Email listings to: [email protected], att: John.
For info call 914.328.3096.
performing or writing. There will be
a reception on Sun., March 8 from
4-7pm. Free. Lumen Winter Gallery,
New Rochelle Public Library, One
Library Plaza, New Rochelle. Info:
914.632.7878 x34.
Beginning April 4
The 29th annual Dermot Gale
Award Show, sponsored by the New
Rochelle Art Association, will be featured in the Lumen Winter Gallery
of the New Rochelle Public Library,
One Library Plaza, New Rochelle
from April 4 - 24, during regular library hours. The show is open to all
exhibiting members of the Association, and a cash prize will be awarded
to the best two-dimensional work in
the show. A prize will also be awarded for best in show, and ribbons will
be awarded for outstanding entries
in all media. Info: 914.632.7878 x34.
Thru June 17:
• Music And Merriment. Interactive stories and songs for children
ages 1-1/2 to 4. Free. Wednesdays,
9:30am; 11am. Crestwood Library,
16 Thompson St., Yonkers. Info:
914.337.1500 x360.
Thurs., March 26
The New Rochelle Public Library, One Library Plaza, New Rochelle, will be showing the 1944
film Murder My Sweet, featuring
New Rochelle actress Claire Trevor,
referred to as the “Queen of Film
Noir”. The series is part of a monthlong focus, New Rochelle Women of
the Arts: An Historical and Contemporary Perspective, with a centerpiece exhibit in the library’s Lumen
Winter Gallery. Free. 7pm in the
library’s Ossie Davis Theater. Info:
914.632.7878 x34.
Sat., March 28
• Nature Bingo. Pick up your
Nature Bingo card and take a walk
as we look for many of the creatures
which inhabit the park. Various prizes will be awarded. Co-sponsored by
the Friends of Read Wildlife Sanctuary, Inc. Free. 10am, Read Sanctuary,
Playland Park, Playland Parkway,
Rye. Info: 914.967.8720.
• Spring Adventures For Kids:
Arrowheads & Adzes: Flintknapping Workshop. Learn to transform
lumps of stone into elegant Native
American tools. Part of the Lenape
Lifeways hosted by archaeologist Susan Dublin. Free. 1pm, Croton Point
Nature Center, Croton Point Park,
Croton Point Ave., Croton-on-Hudson. Info: 914.862.5297.
• Rock And Roll. Join us as we
look at how rocks tell stories of the
earth’s formation and shape. Clay
making will show how the American
Indians made pottery. Please wear
old clothes as this is a messy activity.
Pre-registration required. Free. 1pm,
Lenoir Preserve, Dudley St., Yonkers.
Info/registration: 914.968.5851.
• The Mystery Of The Missing
Exhibit. One of our exhibits has
gone missing. Pick up a map and
the first clue to see if you can solve
the “whodunit” mystery. There will
be three difficulty levels for various
age groups. Prizes will be awarded.
Co-sponsored by the Friends of
Read Wildlife Sanctuary, Inc. Free.
2pm, Read Sanctuary, Playland
Park, Playland Parkway, Rye. Info:
914.967.8720.
Sun., March 29
• Farm Fun. Join the farm staff
as they explain the animals that live
on the farm. Play games and enjoy
other activities. Free. 1-3pm, Muscoot Farm, Rt. 100, Somers. Info:
914.864.7282.
Free Teen Singing Lessons
• Riverfront Library will offer free Singing Lessons for Teens
with a professional singer who will teach basic vocal techniques.
Classes will be held on Thursdays, April 2, 9, 16 and 23, from 4:306pm in the library’s Auditorium, One Larkin Center, Yonkers. All
singing styles are welcome. All participants MUST sign of up for
the classes in advance as space is limited. Free three-hour parking
is available in the nearby Buena Vista Garage. For info/registration call 914.375.7966.
Spring Art Show
• The 5th annual spring art show, Matters Of The Heart: Supporting
Creative Aging Through The Arts, co-sponsored by the Greenburgh Arts
& Culture Committee and the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation, will
be at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Ave., Greenburgh from March
27 through May 6. The show may be viewed Mon. - Fri. from 9am-5pm.
Admission is free.
An opening reception will be held on Sunday, March 29 from 24pm. Handicapped guests will be admitted at 1pm. For information call
914.993.1500.
Mon., March 30
and protect one of our country’s
greatest resources. Meet at the nature center. Free. 6:30pm, Croton
Point Nature Center, Croton Point
Park, Croton Point Ave., Croton-onHudson. Info: 914.862.5297.
• Wonderful Women Without
Kids will be holding their monthly
meeting from 7-9pm in the 3rd
Floor Meeting Room at the Grinton
I. Will Public Library, 1500 Central Park Ave., Yonkers. Any age,
straight or gay welcome. Info/RSVP:
• Homework Helper. After914.320.8627.
school homework help with a certified teacher when Yonkers schools
are in session. Grades 1-6. Mon.
• Downtown Music at Grace’s thru Thurs. Free. 4-6pm, Grinton I.
Noonday Getaway Series will pres- Will Library, 1500 Central Park Ave.,
ent Music From The Conservatory, Yonkers. Info: 914.337-1500 x306.
a harpsichord recital by Jean New• Homework Help. The New
ton performing the English Suite of
Rochelle Public Library offers free
J.S. Bach and sonatas of Domenico
homework help, grades 1-6, Mon.
Scarlatti. Free. 12:10-12:40pm,
thru Thurs. when school is in sesGrace Church, Mamaroneck Ave.
sion. 3:30-5pm. Info: 914.632.7878.
@ Main St., White Plains. Info:
• Homework Help. The Mama914.949.0384.
roneck Public Library offers Teacher
• Hudson River Ferry Sloop
In The Library, when school is in
Meeting And Potluck. Share the
session, Mon. & Thurs. only. Free.
beauty of the river with a non-profit
3:30-6pm, 102 Mamaroneck Ave.,
environmental sailing organization
Mamaroneck. Info: 914.698.1250.
that inspires people to appreciate
Homework Help
Wed., April 1
Health/Support Groups
• Ovarian & Gynecological Cancer Support Group. Offered by Support Connection, a nonprofit organization that provides free support
services to people affected by breast and ovarian cancer. The group is
led by a trained peer facilitator. PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
Meets 2nd Thursday each month through Dec. 30, 2007 at 7PM at Putnam Hospital. Free. For info/registration: 914.962.6402. www.supportconnection.org.
• Psychotherapeutic Support Groups. Victims Assistance Services
is offering ongoing psychotherapeutic support groups to victims of
crime. They include: Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Homicide
Survivors Support Group (every 2nd Wed. of the month), and a Sexual Assault Survivors Group (TBA). All groups are ongoing and have
no end date. Free. Wednesdays 6-7:30pm, 2269 Saw Mill River Road,
Building #3, Elmsford. Info: 914.345.3113
• Breast Cancer Support Groups. Breast cancer support groups are
offered once, twice or four times per month, by Support Connection,
Inc. Facilitated by trained peer counselors who have experienced breast
cancer. Groups for young women, women in treatment, women with
recurrence, and all survivors. PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
Free to women with breast cancer. Meets various days and times, Yorktown & Carmel locations. www.supportconnection.org
• Cancer Support Group: Meets Mondays, 1– 2pm, Dickstein Cancer Treatment Center, 2-4 Longview Ave., White Plains. Info/registration: 914.681.2701.
up and coming
Thurs., April 2
The New Rochelle Public Library’s new series of International
Film Classics will begin with the
showing of the 1963 Japanese film
High and Low, directed by Akira
Kurosawa. Free; $2 donation suggested. 7pm at the library, One Library Plaza, New Rochelle. Info:
914.632.7878 x34.
PAGE 23
Sat., April 4
New Rochelle’s 2nd Annual Daffodil Festival will kick off at the New
Rochelle Public Library, One Library
Plaza, New Rochelle with an array of
take-home daffodil crafts for children in pre K through grade 5 at
12:30pm. The Daffy Daffodil Family Concert will be held at 2:30pm
in the library’s Ossie Davis Theater.
Free. Info: 914.632.7878 x34.
Around The County
Croton-on-Hudson: Van Cortlandt Manor - 18th and 19th century estate known for elegant antique furnishings and gardens. Was
home of the Van Cortlandt family. Tours, special events and demonstrations. Hrs: 10am-5pm daily (except Tues.), April-Dec. 10am-5pm
Sat. & Sun., Jan.-March. Admission. South Riverside Ave. (just off Rt.
9). 914.631.8200.
Ossining Historical Museum - 19th and 20th century decorative
arts, costumes and Indian artifacts, as well as a Victorian dollhouse. The
program features permanent and rotating exhibits. Hrs: 2-4pm Mon.,
Wed., Fri. and by app’t. Donation. 196 Croton Ave. 914.941.0001.
Peekskill: Peekskill Museum - Clothing from the 18th through
20th century, furnishings, decorative arts, tools and products from local foundries. Hrs: 2-4pm Sat., Sun. and holidays, March through Dec.
and by app’t. Donation. 124 Union Ave. 914.737.6130.
Sleepy Hollow: Philipsburg Manor, Upper Mills - Early 18th
century farm owned by the Philipse family; includes a fully furnished
Dutch-style manor house, barn and a restored gristmill, gardens, reception center, gift shop and orientation film. Special events throughout the year. 10am-5pm daily April-Dec.; 10am-5pm Sat. & Sun.,
Jan.-March. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission. Route 9. 914.631.8200.
Tarrytown: Sunnyside - 1835 Romantic/Dutch Colonial Revival-style estate once occupied by author Washington Irving. Tours, an
orientation film, demonstrations, special events, gift shop. 10am–5pm
daily, April – Dec.. Admission. West Sunnyside Lane. 914.631.8200.
Yonkers: Hudson River Museum - A cultural complex which
displays changing exhibitions from its permanent collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art. The Museum combines
elements of art, history and science. The modern wing houses The Red
Grooms Gift Shop and the Museum Cafe. Weekly Sun. Family Programs and workshops for families, bi-weekly Seniors and the Arts programs, tours by appt. and many special events. Hrs: May-Sep.: Wed.Sun. 12-5pm, Fri. 12-9pm. Admission. 914.963.4550.
PAGE 24
This Week In History: March 26 - April 1
By John Leo Tufts, Jr.
Washington, D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival
March 27, 1912 - First Lady Helen Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese
ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River,
near the Jefferson Memorial. The event marked the Japanese government’s gift of 3,020 cherry
trees to the United States government. The trees, the second batch sent after the first shipment
of 2,000 trees had fallen prey to disease, came from a famous collection located on the bank
of the Arakawa River in Adachi Ward, a suburb of Tokyo. The trees were planted along
Washington’s Tidal Basin, in East Potomac Park, and on the White House grounds.
Commodore Matthew Perry Signs Trade Treaty With Japan
March 31, 1854 - American Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the
United States government, met with the Japanese government and signed the Treaty of
Kanagawa. The treaty opened the Japanese ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American
trade, and permitted the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. In July 1853 Perry, in
command of four ships, had sailed into Tokyo Bay with letters from U.S. President Millard
Fillmore. Japanese officials, for a time, refused to speak with Perry, but they ultimately
accepted the letters, making the United States the first Western nation to establish relations
with Japan since the country had been declared closed to foreigners in 1683. Japanese
diplomats visited Washington, D.C. in April 1860, the first to visit a foreign power.
March 26
1953 - American medical researcher
Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he
successfully tested a vaccine against
poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the
crippling disease of polio. In the first
decades of the 20th century, treatments
against the disease were limited to
quarantines, and the iron lung, a metal,
coffin-like device that aided respiration.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
himself partially paralyzed by polio,
was instrumental in raising funds for
polio-related research. In 1954 clinical
trials using the Salk vaccine and a
placebo was begun on nearly two million
American schoolchildren. By 1955 it
was announced the vaccine was effective
and safe, and a nationwide inoculation
campaign began. New cases dropped
to under 6,000 in 1957. Dr. Salk was
awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1977.
1979 - Egyptian President Anwar
el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin signed a formal peace
treaty ending three decades of hostilities
between Egypt and Israel and establishing
diplomatic and commercial ties. The
groundwork for the treaty had been
laid seven months earlier, in September
1978, through negotiations between
Sadat, Begin and U.S. President Jimmy
Carter, at Camp David, Maryland. Both
Sadat and Begin were jointly awared
the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace and, for
Sadat’s efforts, Egypt was suspended from
the Arab League. On October 6, 1981,
Muslim extremists assassinated Sadat
in Cairo; the peace process, however,
continued and, in 1982, Egypt and Israel
formally established diplomatic relations.
March 27
1775 - Thomas Jefferson was elected
to the Second Continental Congress. He
established himself with the publication
of his paper A Summary View of the
Rights of British America and Drafts and
Notes on the Virginia Constitution. He
was chosen by the committee formed to
draft the Declaration of Independence to
write a draft of the document. The draft,
A Declaration by the Representatives in
General Congress Assembled, was formally
adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776
under the revised title, Declaration of
Independence. Jefferson was 33 years old
at its writing.
March 28
1774 - British Parliament enacted the
Coercive Acts in response to the Boston
Tea Party and other acts of destruction
of British property in the Colonies.
The Acts, which further infuriated the
colonists, consisted of the Boston Port
Act, which closed the port until damages
from the Tea Party were paid; The
Massachusetts Government Act, which
restricted Massachusett’s democratic
town meetings and turned the governor’s
council into an appointed body; The
Administration of Justice Act, which made
British officials immune to criminal
prosecution in Massachusetts; The
Quartering Act, which required colonists
to house and quarter British troops on
demand, including in their private homes
as a last resort. Parliament hoped the Acts
would cut Boston and New England off
from the rest of the colonies and prevent
a unified resistance to British rule. It
served to force the other colonies to come
to the city’s defense by sending supplies
and forming their own Provincial
Congresses to discuss British misrule
and mobilize resistance to the crown.
The First Continental Congress met in
Philadelphia in September 1774 to begin
formulating an organized resistance to
British rule in America.
1979 - The failing of a pressure valve in
the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island,
located on the banks of the Susquehanna
River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
triggered the worst accident in the U.S.
nuclear power industry. Built in 1974,
the nuclear power plant was lauded for
generating affordable and reliable energy
during energy crises. The valve failure
released radioactive gases throughout the
plant, though the radiation levels were
not immediately life-threatening. Slightly
increased levels of radiation were detected
nearby, and Governor Dick Thornburg
advised pregnant women and pre-schoolaged children, within a five-mile area, to
evacuate. As a result of the accident, no
new nuclear power plants were built.
1776 - One of the greatest western
pathfinders of the 18th century, Juan
Bautista de Anza, arrived at the future
site of San Francisco with 247 colonists.
Born and raised in Mexico, Anza joined
the army at 17, becoming a captain seven
years later. In 1772 he made his first
major exploratory mission northwest to
the Pacific Coast, establishing overland
connections between the Mexican state
of Sonora and northern California.
He was then commissioned by the
Mexican viceroy to return to California
and establish a permanent settlement
along the Pacific coast at San Francisco
Bay. He returned with the colonists and
established a presidio on the tip of San
Francisco Peninsula. Six months later a
Spanish Franciscan priest established a
mission near the presidio. The settlement
remained isolated until the 1830s when
the United States realized the commercial
potential of the harbor. By 1852,
following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s
Fort, San Francisco was home to more
than 36,000 people.
March 29
1865 - Union troops, under the
commander of General Ulysses S.
Grant moved against Confederate
trenches around Petersburg, Virginia,
signaling the final campaign of the Civil
War. Confederate forces under General
Robert E. Lee, outnumbered by the
Union forces, were forced to evacuate
the city and head west. The 55,000-man
force had tried four days earlier to split
the Union lines when they attacked
Fort Stedman, a Union stronghold. The
attack was repulsed. Grant sent 12,000
men past the Confederates’ left flank and
threatened to cut off Lee’s escape route.
On March 27 Union forces struck at
Five Forks, defeating the Confederates.
By April 9, with his forces in retreat and
under pursuit by the Union’s Army of the
Potomac, Lee surrendered his army at
Appomattox Court House.
1973 - Two months following
the signing of the Vietnam peace
agreement the last U.S. combat troops
left South Vietnam as Hanoi freed its
remaining American war prisoners.
Some 7,000 Department of Defense
civilian employees remained behind to
help South Vietnam in what appeared
to a continuing war with the North.
Representatives of the United States,
North and South Vietnam and the
Vietcong signed a peace agreement in
January, 1973 which ended direct U.S.
military involvement in the Vietnam
War. Key provisions included a ceasefire agreement, withdrawal of American
forces, release of prisoners of war and
the reunification of North and South
Vietnam through peaceful means. The
Saigon government would remain in
place until new elections were held, and
North Vietnamese forces were not to
advance further or be reinforced. Before
the last American troops had withdrawn,
however, the communists violated the
cease-fire and by early 1974 full-scale
war had resumed. On April 30, 1975 the
last Americans were airlifted out of the
country as Saigon fell to the communists.
March 30
1775 - In a move to keep the New
England colonies dependent upon
the British, King George III formally
endorsed the New England Restraining
Act. The Act required the New England
colonies to trade exclusively with Great
Britain. Additionally, colonists were
banned from fishing in the North
Atlantic. At the same time the British
prime minister, Frederick, Lord North,
introduced the Conciliatory Proposition
which promised that no colony that
met its share of imperial defenses and
paid royal officials’ salaries, of their own
accord, would be taxed. This measure
was designed to concede to the colonists’
demand they be allowed to provide
needed funds on a voluntary basis,
eliminating the need for Parliament to
demand money through taxes. However,
North had already ordered General
Thomas Gage to Concord, Massachusetts
with orders to destroy armaments
stockpiled there and take John Hancock
and Samuel Adams into custody. The
military action that resulted led to the
beginning of the American Revolution.
1867 - United States Secretary of State
William H. Seward signed a treaty with
Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7
million. Sale of the territory by Czarist
Russia had first been proposed to the
United States during the presidency of
James Buchanan, but negotiations were
halted with the outbreak of the Civil War.
Following the war Seward, who supported
territorial expansion, had difficulty in
making the case for the purchase before
the Senate, which ratified the treaty by a
one-vote margin on April 9, 1867.
1870 - The 15th Amendment to the
Constitution, granting African-American
men the right to vote, was formally
adopted following its ratification by
three-fourths of the states. Thomas
Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New
Jersey, was the first African-American to
vote under its authority. Hiram Rhoades
Revels, from Natchez, Mississippi,
became the first African-American to
sit in Congress. By the late 1870s, the
Southern state governments nullified the
15th Amendment, stripping Southern
African-Americans of the right to vote.
It would be nearly a century before the
nation would again establish equal rights
for African-Americans in the South.
March 31
1889 - The Eiffel Tower was dedicated
in Paris in a ceremony presided over
by Gustave Eiffel, the tower’s designer.
The 984-foot tower was the winner of
a design competition for a monument
to be built on the Champ-de-Mars in
central Paris which would be featured in
an international exposition celebrating
the 100th anniversary of the French
Revolution. Eiffel, whose design won
out over more than 100 designs, was
a noted bridge builder and master of
metal construction who designed the
framework of the Statue of Liberty. The
tower consists of an iron framework
supported on four masonry piers.
Platforms with observation decks are
at three levels. Glass-cage elevators,
designed by Otis Elevator Company,
ascend the piers on a curve. In early May
1889 the Paris International Exposition
opened with the tower serving as the
entrance gateway to the giant fair.
April 1
1700 - The annual tradition of
April Fool’s Day was popularized by
English pranksters. The origins of the
day, celebrated for several centuries by
different cultures, still remains a mystery.
There is speculation that it dates back
to 1582 when France switched from
the Julian calendar to the Gregorian
calendar which changed the start of the
New Year from April 1 to January 1.
PAGE 25
People who were slow to get the news
or didn’t recognize the beginning of the
year had changed had paper fish placed
on their backs and were referred to as
poisson d’avril (April fish), symbolizing
young, easily caught fish and a gullible
person. It is also tied to the ancient
festival of Hilaria, celebrated in Rome
at the end of March and involved people
dressing up in disguises. April Fools’ Day
spread throughout Britain in the 18th
century.
1945 - Combat troops of the United
States 10th Army, commanded by
General Simon B. Buckner, Jr., landed
on the southwest coast of the Japanese
island of Okinawa, 350 miles south of the
Japanese home island of Kyushu. It was
decided to seize the island and use it as a
base of operations for the army ground
and air forces for a planned invasion of
Japan. More than 1,300 ships converged
on the island and put ashore 50,000
combat troops, who fought against
nearly 120,000 Japanese army, militia
and labor troops, under the command of
Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima.
The Japanese staged a desperate defense
of the island which included suicide
Kamikaze air attacks. By the time the
island was secured more than 50,000
American and 117,000 Japanese lost their
lives.
• BACHELOR & BACHELORETTE PARTIES
• TABLESIDE DANCING
• PRIVATE VIP ROOMS
• 100S OF TOP FEMALE ENTERTAINERS
• NEW YORK’S PREMIER GENTLEMEN’S CABA-
PAGE 26
The Westchester Guardian
Mission Statement
The Westchester Guardian is a weekly newspaper devoted to the unbiased reporting of events and developments
that are newsworthy and significant to readers living in, and/
or employed in, Westchester County. The Guardian will
strive to report fairly, and objectively, reliable information
without favor or compromise. Our first duty will be to the
People’s Right To Know, by the exposure of truth,
without fear or hesitation, no matter where the pursuit may
lead, in the finest tradition of Freedom Of The Press.
The Guardian will cover news and events relevant to
residents and businesses all over Westchester County. As a
weekly, rather than focusing on the immediacy of delivery
more associated with daily journals, we will instead seek to
provide the broader, more comprehensive, chronological
step-by-step accounting of events, enlightened with analysis,
where appropriate.
From amongst journalism’s classic key-words: who,
what, when, where, why, and how, the why and how will
drive our pursuit. We will use our more abundant time, and
our resources, to get past the initial ‘spin’ and ‘damage control’ often characteristic of immediate news releases, to reach
the very heart of the matter: the truth. We will take our readers to a point of understanding and insight which cannot be
obtained elsewhere.
To succeed, we must recognize from the outset that
bigger is not necessarily better. And, furthermore, we will
acknowledge that we cannot be all things to all readers. We
must carefully balance the presentation of relevant, hardhitting, Westchester news and commentary, with features
and columns useful in daily living and employment in, and
around, the county. We must stay trim and flexible if we are
to succeed.
CLASSIFIED
For Rent
office space for rent
Prime Ossining loc - Rt. 9.
950 sq. ft. & 500 sq. ft.
917.363.4366
Investment Property
Unimproved
Mount Vernon - Commercial
bldg lot, 9500 sq. ft. Corner
bldg. Apts with stores. Must sell.
$875K. Make offer.
914.632.1230
LEGAL NOTICE
Pets
Free: 2 Yorkshire puppies
need re-homing. They are
AKC home raised. Vaccine
+ health Guaranteed. If interested please contact me at
[email protected].
Time Share
Berkshire Resort
2BR 2 Bath +Kit.Condo Pool near Tanglewood, Theaters
& Museums Sleeps 6 Avail
Wk 28: July 10-17 09 $1950: 508.240.3937
Situation Wanted
Exper. child care worker offering day care M-F 7:30A-7P.
Lic • CPR • First Aid Former
Nanny X 15 yrs 914.636.0474
LEGAL NOTICE
Notice of Qualification of Sloane
Square Partners, LLC Authority
filed with Secy. of State of NY
(SSNY) on 11/17/2008. Office
location: Westchester Co. LLC
formed in Delaware (DE) on
11/13/2008. SSNY designated as
agent of LLC upon whom process
against it may be served. SSNY
shall mail process to The LLC 23
Black Birch Lane Scarsdale, NY
10583. DE address of LLC: 3500
South DuPont Highway Dover,
DE 19901. Arts. Of Org. filed with
DE Secy. of State, PO Box 898
Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: any
lawful activity.
SALES
Our mission:
health care for all New Yorkers
and a successful career for you.
At Fidelis Care NY, we know that hiring the best people is important to our successful delivery of
quality healthcare. We offer Medicaid, Child Health Plus & Family Health Plus to over 420,000
members in 42 counties. Now we are expanding our Medicare Advantage program into 22 new
counties spanning Central New York, the Capital Region, Hudson Valley, Westchester, Rockland
County, the 5 boroughs and Long Island. The Medicare program is an important opportunity for
Fidelis Care to grow its mission and to be part of a continuum of quality, affordable healthcare
services for members of all ages. Due to this anticipated growth, we have a number of openings for
qualified, highly motivated individuals in our marketing division.
MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE
You will increase awareness and sales of Fidelis products by presenting Fidelis product lines (Medicaid,
CHP and/or FHP) according to state regulations and county protocols to potential consumers;
evaluating their eligibility for enrollment; and assisting with the enrollment forms. You must meet
minimum performance standards in both quality and quantity. College degree preferred, 1-3 years exp
& strong customer svc skills req’d. Bilingual skills preferred. Must have the ability to lift 50lbs.
MEDICARE SALES REPRESENTATIVE
You will increase awareness and sales of the Medicare product by educating potential members
about the product, benefits & application process. You will follow-up, call/visit, and collect info for
the submission of applications; seek new venues to promote Fidelis and identify new members.
BA/BS, a min of 1 year direct health care insurance sales exp and active NYS Health/Life Insurance
lic reqd. Medicare sales exp and strong customer svc skills also nec. Bilingual skills pref. Must have
the ability to lift 50lbs.
All positions will service an assigned territory.
NYS Drivers license & car also necessary.
We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits. To apply, email your
resume with cover letter and salary requirements to:
[email protected]. Fax to: 718-896-5742 - Attn: HR. For more
information visit us online at www.fideliscare.org
EOE.
LEGAL NOTICE
Moosie Realty, LLC Articles of
Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY)
10/28/2008. Office in Westchester
Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC
upon whom process may be
served. SSNY shall mail copy of
process to THE LLC 55 Water Mill
Lane P.O. Box 376 Great Neck,
NY 11021. Purpose: Any lawful
activity.
LEGAL NOTICE
Articles of Organization were filed with
the Secretary of State of New York on
12/10/08. Office location: Westchester
County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY
shall mail process a copy of process
to: MEMORIES FOREVER, LLC, 405
Tarrytown Rd., #1586, White Plains, NY
10607. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
PAGE 27
PAGE 28

vol 3 no 34 march 26 09.indd

Transcription

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