March 1, 2012 - WestchesterGuardian.com

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Vol. VI, No. VIII
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Thursday, March 1, 2012,,,,$1.00
Omar Sharif
Page 6
Cyber War - Version
2012
Page 8
Conflict Journalism
Page 11
Ghosts
Page 14
Leaving On a Jet
Plane
Page 18
Driving Licentious
By ABBY LUBY, page 13
Page 19
The Cuomo Whip
THE hezitorial
A Cry for Blood
By HEZI ARIS, page 22
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
Page 20
Always Follow the
Money,
Page 25
Page 2
THE WESTCHESTER
GUARDIAN
THE WESTcHESTER
GUARDiAn
Of Significance
Community Section................................................................................4
Section ...............................................................................4
Business.................................................................................................4
Business ................................................................................................4
Calendar................................................................................................4
Calendar ...............................................................................................4
Creative
Disruption.............................................................................5
Charity ..................................................................................................5
Contest ..................................................................................................6
Cultural
Perspective............................................................................6
Creative
Disruption
............................................................................6
Cyber
Security.
.....................................................................................8
Education
.............................................................................................7
Health.
....................................................................................................9
Fashion..................................................................................................8
History.................................................................................................10
Fitness....................................................................................................9
In
Memorium.....................................................................................11
Health
Music....................................................................................................10
..................................................................................................12
History
................................................................................................10
Spoof.....................................................................................................13
Ed
Koch
Movie
Review ...................................................................12
Investigation.
.......................................................................................13
Spoof
....................................................................................................13
Writers Collection.............................................................................14
Sports.Scene
.......................................................................................13
Books.
..................................................................................................16
Najah’s
Corner
...................................................................................13
Legal Investigation.
............................................................................17
Writers Collection.............................................................................14
Travel....................................................................................................17
Books...................................................................................................16
Eye On Theatre...................................................................................19
Transportation...................................................................................17
Government Section.............................................................................20
Government Section ............................................................................17
Albany Correspondent
Correspondent.....................................................................20
Albany
....................................................................17
Mayor Marvin’s
Marvin’s Column
Column..................................................................20
Mayor
.................................................................18
French On Rye.
...................................................................................21
Government
.......................................................................................19
OpEd Section
Section..........................................................................................23
.........................................................................................22
OpEd
Hezitorial.
.
...........................................................................................22
Ed Koch Commentary.....................................................................23
Ed Koch
Letters
toCommentary.....................................................................23
the Editor ..........................................................................24
Weir Only Human
Human.............................................................................25
............................................................................25
Legal Notices
Notices...........................................................................................26
..........................................................................................26
THURSDAY
MARCH
THURSDAY,
FEBRUARY
23, 20121, 2012
Page 3
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Westchester On the Level with Narog
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weekbeginning
beginningFebruary
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InInthetheweek
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wewe
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February
24th,
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27th,Krystal
Philip Wade,
Catshill,a acelebrated
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www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Mr
Krystal
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whoatworks
fiftyofmiles
18 months
he returned
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s Fire,”
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out. Narog and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, FebRichard
ruary 28th.Richard Narog and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, February
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21st.The
Yonkers
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guest City
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March
1st. Esq., will share
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Mission Statement
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
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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.
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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,
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
THURSDAY MARCH 1, 2012
Page 3
CommunitySection
When was the last time
BUSINESS
you dealt with
Governor Cuomo Announces Pepsico and Theo Müller Choose Lexington Capital Associates?
NYS To Launch their Joint Venture into Yogurt Business
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that
PepsiCo, the world’s second largest snack and
beverage company, and Theo Müller Gmbh,
Germany’s largest privately owned dairy business, have chosen New York as the site for their
first yogurt producing facility in the United
States. Through the joint venture Wave LLC,
the companies will invest $206 million and create 186 new manufacturing and support jobs to
operate its state-of-the-art facility at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, in Batavia.
“This project demonstrates that leading international companies like PepsiCo and Müller
see New York as a premier place to invest and the
natural choice for their first venture into the yogurt business. With over $200 million in private
investment and nearly 200 new jobs, this opportunity is another strong boost to the region’s
growing dairy industry,” Governor Cuomo said.
New York State, through Empire State Development, will provide the company with $3.3
million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits, as
well as $1 million from NYS Homes & Community Renewal and a $10 million NYS Investment Tax Credit. Genesee County will also
provide an estimated $12 million in sales and
property tax savings.
Wave considered other locations both in
and outside of New York State for the facility.
After a thorough evaluation, including an assessment of access to dairy resources, water supply
and distribution routes to key markets, the company chose the Genesee Valley Agri-Business
Park in Batavia, New York. While the facility is
being developed over two years, Wave may import Müller products in order to establish a foothold in the fast-growing U.S. yogurt business.
Empire State Development President,
CEO & Commissioner Kenneth Adams said,
“New York is working hard to be a global leader
in the kind of high-growth manufacturing that
has critical economic development and job creating potential. Wave is a strong example of our
work and the leadership of Governor Cuomo
paying off in the form of new jobs and significant private investment from a leading overseas
company that will have a resounding impact on
the local economy.”
PepsiCo’s investment continues a strong
recent trend of major yogurt producers opening
manufacturing facilities in New York. The state
currently has 29 yogurt plants, which employ
more than 2,000 people and produced a total of
530 million pounds of yogurt in 2011—a 43%
increase from 2010 and more than double 2008
levels. In 2011, Governor Cuomo announced
major investments by two of the nation’s largest
yogurt producers- Chobani and FAGE, Inc., in-
creasing the companies’ production capacity and
creating hundreds of new jobs in New York.
New York State is the nation’s leader in the
production of the wildly popular Greek-style
yogurt. Producing Greek yogurt requires approximately three times the amount of milk than
traditional yogurt, making the industry a major
economic driver for dairy farmers across New
York State. In 2011, more than 1.166 billion
pounds of milk was used for yogurt production.
This is comparable to the milk production of 500
average-size dairy farms in New York State (115
cows/farm).
Western New York in particular has benefited from the yogurt boom. The 15-county
area of Western New York accounts for approximately 40% of the state’s total milk production,
with Wyoming County serving as the leading
milk producing county in the State. By locating
in Batavia, PepsiCo joins a number of other major yogurt manufacturers taking advantage of the
region’s existing infrastructure available for dairy
processing including the Genesee Valley AgriBusiness Park.
For more information, visit www.pepsico.
com.
Theo Müller is Germany’s largest privatelyowned dairy business employing 4,700 throughout Europe and Israel with sales of about 2.2
billion Euros. Theo Müller Gmbh produces a
line of six different premium yogurts, including
the leading yogurt brand in the U.K. “Müller
Corner.”
Wave LLC is a new joint venture between
PepsiCo and Müller.
With over 50 years experience, Lexington Capital Associates
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Phone (914) 632-1230 fax (914) 633-0806
Page 4
CALENDAR
News & Notes from Northern Westchester
By MARK JEFFERS
Welcome to the Lenten
season, I promise to give
up ice cream, do more
nice things for folks and of
course continue enjoying
“News and Notes…”
Family University is
presenting an important program, “Help
Your Child Develop Bullyproofing Skills for
a Lifetime,” with Joel Haber, Ph.D., at the Katonah Village Library on March 9th, call 914234-3227 for details.
Up in Yorktown Heights at Hilltop Hanover Farm on March 3rd, it’s bread making
time and trust me nothing tastes better than
freshly made bread, add a little butter and enjoy!
The gang over at the NY Grand Prix in
Mount Kisco are hosting a program we all
should look at, “How to Put More Green in
your Business,” both cash and ecologically
speaking, presented by Katonah Chamber of
Commerce on March 7th.
Here’s your chance to jumpstart Spring…
cleaning, that is!
The Wellness Day Committee invites
you to drop off all saleable items to Fox Lane
High School during the week of March 6th
to March 9th for the sixth annual Tag Sale
set for March 10th and 11th in the large café
at the Fox Lane High School. So bring the
following items: Household goods, clothing,
costume jewelry, bikes, books, toys (no used
stuffed animals please!), etc. PLEASE: only
items in good condition.
My voice is more bass, but I will definitely
be heading to the White Plains Performing
Arts Center to see Ken Ludwig’s presentation
of “Lend Me A Tenor,” March 9th through
March 18th.
The 2012 Scholars Lecture Series continues at the John Jay Homestead with Charles
Rappleye’s “Robert Norris: Financier of the
American Revolution,” on March 7th.
Hocus-Pocus… here’s a “tricky” lecture,
“Magical,” presented by local author and magician Margaret Steele will be loaded with
photos and colorful magical posters at the
Field Library in Peekskill on March 3rd.
WFAS radio our home for “The Clubhouse,” is hosting its 2nd annual Listener Appreciation Party at the Westchester Broadway
Theatre on March 22nd, sounds like a fun time,
2 column
hope to see you there…
The Fort Hill Players present “National
Pastime,” (no it’s not reading this column…),
but a comedy grand slam featuring baseball,
radio and romance playing at the Rochambeau School in White Plains March 18th to
24th.
Our friends at the Community Center
of Northern Westchester are still looking for
warm clothing for men, women and children.
The weather can still be cold in the months
ahead. As you can imagine, warm jackets are
brought in and taken very quickly. Sweaters,
sweat shirts, heavy jeans, pants, scarves, hats,
boots and shoes are all needed. As always, the
Center wants to thank the community for
their continued support.
What has more than 5,200 of these held
throughout the United States every year with
four million participants? And, it’s considered
the largest non-profit activity in the world and
this summer Lewisboro will be hosting one
for the first time (no not my birthday party!).
The answer is…The Relay for Life, a cancerprevention fundraiser, is a unique event that
takes place overnight. The one is Lewisboro
will be held June 22nd to 23rd at the John Jay
High School track field. It will be the 14th
Relay for Life event in Westchester County.
On the night of the event, each team is assigned an area where it set up camp. An opening ceremony, where participants celebrate
Photographs of Ireland Featured at Yonkers Riverfront Art Gallery
By SUSAN THALER
YONKERS, NY --The Yonkers Public Library Foundation is proud to present, “’Tis More
Than Just Green,” a photographic exhibit of Ireland and its people.The exhibit features works by
fourteen photographers. These stunning images
capture the beauty, spirit and history of Ireland
and the Irish. The exhibit will open to the public on Saturday, March 3, and will run through
survivors and caregivers, is held and survivors
walk an opening lap. Caregivers then walk
a lap with their survivors. At sundown, the
Relay for Life features a luminaire ceremony,
where candles are placed in paper bags, and
held by participants who line the track with
them. The candles can be purchased for $10 to
honor someone who died of cancer.
We all know that I am pretty “sappy,” so
this event is a favorite of mine… the Sugarhouse Chat at the Trailside Nature Museum
at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation on
March 10th, the museum staff will be on hand
to show how sap turns into maple syrup.
March is here which means spring is just
around the corner, so as you start your spring
cleaning, please drop off any good condition
clothing to the many area organizations or
bins that will gladly accept your donation for
folks who could really use them… see you next
week.
Mark Jeffers successfully spearheaded the launch
of MAR$AR Sports & Entertainment LLC in
2008. As president he has seen rapid growth of
the company with the signing of numerous clients.
He resides in Bedford Hills, New York, with his
wife Sarah, and three daughters, Kate, Amanda,
and Claire.
1 column
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Saturday, March 31, in the Art Gallery at the
Yonkers Riverfront Library.
Yonkers Riverfront Library is located at
One Larkin Center in downtown Yonkers,
across from the Yonkers station on MetroNorth’s Hudson Line. For directions and library
hours, please visit the library’s website at www.
ypl.org. Parking is available in the nearby Buena
Vista Parking Garage. Riverfront Library is
handicapped accessible.
914-562-0834
[email protected]
Page 5
CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
Education
By JOHN F. McMULLEN
Since the beginning of verbal
communication, it has been the
role of one generation to pass
the knowledge it has acquired
down to the next generation, so
that the learned material does
not have to be re-learned all over
again. As civilizations grew, passing on this information has become more and more the province
of professional “teachers” who concentrate on
particular topics of their expertise – and then, as
education expanded to more and more people,
the constant striving for new methodologies
-- new ways of teaching as well as new ways of
distribution – began and continues to this day.
As part of the search for new ways of imparting information, teachers looked for ways to
bring students who could not be brought into a
classroom (which came to be known as “Same
Time, Same Place”) into the process. The first
known occurrence of this was a 1728 advertisement in the Boston Gazette by a teacher named
Caleb Phillips, seeking students for a Short
Hand course with lessons to be “sent weekly”
(this method of imparting information is called
“Different Time, Different Place”). With the
development of postal services in the 1800’s,
modern “Distance Education” began, with the
most known provider a teacher of Short Hand,
Isaac Pitman.
Soon thereafter, traditional colleges and universities got into the act. The University of London, tracing its program to 1858, claims to be
the first university to provide distance education
courses (its program, now known as the “University of London International Programmes,”
continues to this day, providing graduate, undergraduate and diploma courses from The London
School of Economics and other schools). By the
end of the nineteenth century, the University
of Chicago and Columbia University were engaged in distance education in the United States.
The type of distance education utilized
throughout the majority of the 20th Century
was known as “Correspondence Courses,” in
which the student received through the mail
either a complete course or individual lessons
with homework assignments which would be
returned to the instructor when completed. At
the end of the course, the student would either
go to a testing center to take an examination on
the “honor system” or simply receive credit for
completing the course. Many well known US
universities had such programs and some, such
as the University of Maryland, worked in conjunction with the US Military which provided
courses to service men throughout the world.
I took such a course, while a civilian employee of the Department of Defense in the
early 1960s. It was an “Introduction To Data
Processing” course, encompassing both the
relatively new use of electronic computers and
the older “electrical accounting machines,” developed at the Department of the Army’s Fort
Benjamin Harrison educational facility in Indiana, and, while comprehensive, was not very useful to someone already working in the field. It
was good reference material but the turnaround
was too slow for someone able to work on the
material only in spurts.
It was actually not my first exposure to
distance education. From 1957 through 1982,
CBS, in conjunction with New York University
(“NYU”), broadcast “Sunrise Semester” (in the
summer, called “Summer Semester”) at 6AM
Eastern US time each weekday.The courses covered a wide range of subjects and could be simply
watched by any viewer or taken for actual NYU
credit by signing up and paying a fee.
It soon became obvious as computers and
telecommunications became more ubiquitous
throughout both colleges and the business
world that these systems could be used for business education as well as traditional courses.
In the mid-1970’s, I had occasion, as an officer of a Control Data subsidiary, to utilize the
first “generalized computer assisted instruction
system,” “PLATO” (“Programmed Logic for
Automated Teaching Operations”). PLATO
was at the University of Illinois as a teaching device for its students and was assumed by
Control Data, which provided the machines
that the system ran on. The training that I took
provided introductory material and then asked
a series of multiple-choice questions. If the answer provided was correct, the system went on
to the next question; if incorrect, it explained the
correct answer. Although rudimentary by today’s
standards, PLATO generated excitement as to
where computer assisted educated might go as
it did provide forums, message boards, online
testing, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging,
remote screen sharing, multi-player games, and
other components that became staples of later
robust systems.
PLATO and other systems of that time
required access to terminals connected to large
(“Mainframe”) systems, mandating that the
large majority of users would have to be on a
campus or at work in an office and their connection was dedicated to the educational system
to which they were connected. The reach of
educational systems grew dramatically with the
introduction in 1981 by Ira Fuchs at the City
University of New York (“CUNY”) and Graydon Freeman at Yale University of “BITNET”
(“Because It’s There Network”, later referred
to as “Because It’s Time Network”). Running
initially only on IBM mainframe systems and
later also on Digital Equipment Corporations’
VAX systems, BITNET brought together, at its
high point in 1991, 3,000 nodes at almost 500
educational institutions worldwide. It provided
e-mail connections throughout the network and
“mailing lists” (primarily through “LISTSERV”
mailing list servers), allowing users to join lists
for over 10,000 subjects and obtain and share
information.
BITNET’s popularity dipped as personal
computers came into wider use and the Internet
spread rapidly, bringing with it “File Transfer”
(“ftp”), “Gopher” file searching, and, eventually,
the “World Wide Web. Its users were integrated
seamlessly into the Internet.
Parallel to the improvements in technology and communications was the development
of new methods of online education. In the
early days of computer networking, game players immersed in the world of the “Dungeons
and Dragons” board game developed online
platforms for interactive game playing called
“MUDs” (first called “Multi-User Dungeons”
and then, as more uses were found for them,
“Multi-User Domains”). The first MUD had
been developed at Essex University in the UK
in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw (and later by Richard Bertie) and was connected to the Internet
in 1980, becoming the first Internet multiplayer
on-line role-playing game.
Soon there were hundreds of MUDs
throughout the world and their pervasiveness
led researchers at Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center (“PARC”) to develop an “Object-Oriented” multi-user platform called a “Multi-User
Dimension Object-Oriented” (“MOO”). The
first one, Lambda MOO, was developed by
Paval Curtis in 1990 and was an instant success attracting over 1,000 users. Curtis provided
the “LambaCore” (the programs at the heart of
Lambda) to those wishing to build their own
MOOs and two, both created in 1993, “Media
MOO” (created at MIT’s Media Lab by Amy
Bruckman) and “Diversity University” (created
by University of Houston Graduate Sociologist
student Jeanne McWhorter) became the premier educational MOOs.
The benefits of the Lambda core included
the ability for users to build their own educational tools and share them with others. At Diversity
University, for instance, Professor Tom Danford
of West Virginia Northern Community College built a science lab and taught microbiology
classes; Albert Einstein neuroscientist Priscilla
Purnick modeled a brain and taught neuroscience courses; Marist College Professor Sherry
Dingman led a group of high school students
in the development of the environment of the
Gilgamesh legend; and others developed tools
for lectures, slide presentations, and simulations.
In 1995, I taught the first interactive online
Continued on page 6
Page 6
CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
Education
Continued from page 5
course at Marist College, a graduate capstone
course in Information Systems using the Diversity Universe platform. Students employed by
IBM and about to complete the Marist program
were transferred throughout the country as part
of an IBM re-organization and, rather than have
them try to find a course that would combine the
elements of their Marist program, we set up an
online section of the course. I met with students
“at Diversity University” every Sunday from
11AM to 2PM (“Same Time, Different Place”)
and we completed the program, with them only
having to come to the campus for a final conference and paper presentation.
Although MOOs were successful in educational use, they were “text-based” only and faded
away as the World Wide Web became more
popular and web-based platforms developed
for education, such as “Blackboard”, “ANGEL”,
“Moodle”, and “Sakai” came into use. Each of
these systems provides facilities for all of the
features originally conceived as components of
PLATO (forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, multi-player games, etc.) as
well as the ability to link to web sites and contain
videos, graphics, word processing, and presentation files. More and more, these systems are
utilized not only for distance education courses
but also to support in-classroom courses as well
as “blended courses” (a combination of distance
and in-classroom courses).
Students and faculty when presented with
the idea of “on-line courses” often seem to think
that they will be “easier” for both. I have taught
both and I actually find them to be greater work.
As a professor, I miss the ability to “see” whether
students are getting it and knowing when I have
to go deeper into a subject – so I must go deeper
in all subjects, giving more material (web links,
videos, documents, etc.) and provide more assessment tools (quizzes, homework, research papers, etc.). Students have more work and require
more discipline as they do not have set hours for
classroom attendance and are left to their owntime management skills, often lacking (it is for
this reason that many colleges have minimum
GPA requirements for taking on-line courses.).
One enhanced educational tool came with
the advent of “Second Life”, a Graphic-based
Virtual Reality platform – a “graphic MOO on
Steroids” which educational institutions such
as Princeton, NYU, Marist, Monroe College,
Ohio University, Emory University, MIT, USC,
Purchase College, and Notre Dame flocked to.
Although Second Life did not reach the commercial success to which it aspired, the educational experimentation goes on.
Another recent development is the placing, at no charge, curriculum on-line by colleges.
MIT has been at the forefront of this effort and,
as professors from around the world share and
use such material, the overall quality of all courses should improve.
As I look back in my relatively short involvement with education, it is obvious that there has
been mind-boggling development and, as with
everything, development should continue to
grow exponentially.
Creative Disruption is a continuing series
examining the impact of constantly accelerating technology on the world around us. These
changers normally happen under our personal
radar until we find that the world as we knew
it is no more.
John F. McMullen has been involved in technology
for over 40 years and has written about it for major
publications. He may be found on Facebook and his
current non-technical writing, a novel, “The Inwood
Book” and “New & Collected Poems by johnmac the
bard” are available on Amazon. He is a professor at
Purchase College and has previously taught at Monroe College, Marist College and the New School For
Social Research.
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Omar Sharif
ties upon my behalf because I had a big head
(laughter). I remember she was hard on me for
my sake because she wanted me to become the
best young man in town. She first took me to
French schools where I didn’t learn any English,
the language I relied on later in my international
career. At the time I turned eleven, I remember
becoming a very fat boy because I was addicted
to cakes. Seeking more discipline, my mother
moved me to a British school where, in addition
to learning the English language, I started to act
in school plays as soon as I turned thirteen.
By SHERIF AWAD
Omar Sharif is a legend.
We grew up watching him
sharing the screen with
great stars like Jean PaulBelmondo, Gregory Peck,
and beautiful vedettes
like Sofia Loren and Julie Christie. On Egyptian
television, we re-discovered his first black and
white films with beautiful actresses like Soad
Hosni, Faten Hama, his wife and perhaps his
greatest love. Over the years, Omar Sharif has
never lost his simple, yet charming presence; his
tranquil voice and surprising openness. Sometimes he gets too serious while throwing a sarcastic comment over one of his memoirs.
After starring in more than 20 films in
Egyptian cinema, Omar Sharif made a spec-
Lawrence of Arabia.
Omar Sharif with Julie Christie in Dr. Zhivago.
tacular entrance into movie history when he cowho goes undercover as the Coptic Morcos to
starred in David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia
hide from hunting extremists only to befriend a
(1962), alongside an international cast that inpriest going through the same dilemma.
cluded Peter O’Toole, Anthony Quinn and Alec
What follows is an exclusive interview in
Guinness. His role as Sherif Ali granted a double
Doha, Qatar.
Golden Globe win for Best Actor Drama and
AWAD: What can you tell us about your
Best Supporting Actor, an Oscar nomination
early years growing up in Alexandria?
and another starring role with Lean in yet another all-time epic Doctor Zhivago (1965).
From film, to theatre and television, Omar Sharif
became the most famous Egyptian star with an
international career that spanned half a century.
He worked with the best filmmakers (and, as he
put it, sometimes the worst), the most beautiful
leading ladies and travelled all over the world becoming an art ambassador representing Egypt.
Long years of agony and likewise ecstasy; he was
seeming praised as much as he was confronted
Hassan & Morcos.
with epithets originating from within his homeland. Nevertheless, Sharif returned to Egypt to
elevate his personal artistic craft to the demands
SHARIF: At you know, I was born in the
of contemporary local cinema and television. He
downtown neighborhood of Cleopatra Elmade an impressive starring role versus Egyptian
Hamamat, near Seidy Gaber Station in Alexstar Adel Imam in Hassan & Morcos where he
andria. My mother played a major role in my
played the religious Muslim Sheikh Mahmoud
life although I was told she had many difficul-
Omar Sharif in Venice with the stars of ElMosafer.
AWAD: It was noted that your first roles in
Egyptian cinema were colorful, varying in complexity from comedies like Ishaaet Hob (Rumor
of Love-1961), to drama (Naguib Mahfouz’s
Bedaya We Nehaya), and romance (Nahir ElHob). How did you manage to land such a variety of roles?
SHARIF: I think, I did, because of my
looks; I was a jeune premier who got cast in
more than twenty-five Egyptian films during
the golden age of cinema. Some films I did for
their good scripts, others I only signed along the
dotted lines when I needed extra cash. And to
tell you the truth, I still follow this criterion
Continued on page 7
Page 7
Omar Sharif
until now. Between then and now, I had responsibilities and families to support. I raised my
own son Tarek and Nadia, the daughter of my
ex-wife Faten Hamam, and my grandsons along
the years. I remember that, before I travelled
abroad, my biggest paycheck was three hundred
Egyptian Pounds per picture compared to Five
Thousand for Hamama. My longtime friend
Ahmed Ramzy and our contemporaries, like
Shokry Sarhan were used to be paid the same
amount. Others like Abdel-Halim Hafez, who
a singer/actor, was offered more than Hamama.
In those days, we didn’t have a shooting script.
The director and the screenwriter used to arrive
at 13:00 hours (1:00 p.m.) to write the lines we
would use in our scenes. Then, we used to arrive
at the studio at 14:00 hours (2:00 p.m.) to learn
our lines, with the assistant director, and to shoot
everything in one take.
AWAD: Afterwards you landed your first
international role as Sheikh Sherif Ali Ben El
Kharish in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). How did
this role come your way?
SHARIF: At that time, Sir David Lean, the
film’s great British director, was starting to lose
hope in finding a professional actor with Middle
Eastern looks who could also speaks English fluently. After his assistant casting director brought
him all the profile photos of Egyptian leading
men of that decade, Lean picked up mine and,
after verifying I spoke the language, flew me over
to London where I did a camera test to land the
role of Sherif Ali.
Sir David Lean was more of a father figure
to me and he treated me like I was his own son.
I remember that, before the film wrapped up, he
said to me: ‘Omar, once Lawrence of Arabia is
Monsieur Ibrahim.
released, you’ll become an international star. So
don’t accept another role of an Arab riding a
camel, and always try to thoroughly refresh your
image. Try to accept films that will push your career forward and not films that will rely on your
name to achieve success.’ But of course, I didn’t
follow up on those words of wisdom throughout
my long career. I believe circumstances are sometimes stronger than we may hope to be. Nevertheless, I was a very hard worker and used to go
on my shooting day-offs to watch other great
actors. I worked with the likes of Peter O’Toole
and Alec Guinness to absorb their methodology
in acting and to learn their techniques on how to
inhabit a character.
AWAD: We grew up hearing the story
about your being criticized in the Arab Press
about starring with and kissing Barbara Streisand in the movie Funny Girl back in the sixties.
SHARIF: Yes, because when we started
to shoot Funny Girl, the 1967 War ignited
between Egypt and Israel and it was as if I got
caught between two fires. In the United States,
the Jewish community started to say that I was
using my payments from Hollywood Studios to
help Nasser fight Israel. While back in the Arab
world, they were saying I was working with a
Jewish actress. But let me tell you something
from an insider’s perspective, the whole film
industry, not only the American one, is mostly
controlled by people of Jewish origins. Attacks
against me began when journalists from Time
magazine and Newsweek began questioning me
about what I thought was the reason for the attacks from my own people. My reply was simple
and straightforward; I told them I was only
doing a musical comedy, not a political drama!
Moreover, I told them that I follow a certain
code: When I decide to kiss a girl, I never ask her
about her nationality or her religion.
AWAD: It is noted from the 1970s until the
early 1980s that you didn’t appear in Egyptian
Continued on page 8
Standing up for our schools and families
Fighting for good paying jobs
Charting a new course for Yonkers
Paid for by Friends of Shelley Mayer
Page 8
Omar Sharif
films because you focused on your international
work in Europe and America. Thereafter, you had
frequent starring roles on Egyptian TV, films like
Ayoub (1983), with Fouad El-Mohandes, then
in El-Aragoz (1989), with Mervat Amin, and
El-Mowaten Masri (1991), with Ezzat El-Alaily.
SHARIF: After I finished Lawrence, I
found myself committed to several international
films, but I returned to Egypt, once in 1965, to
star in El-Mamalik (The Mamluks), as a favor
for my producer Helmy Rafla and director Atef
Salem who, at that time, was launching the career
of a young girl that became his wife- now known
as the star, Nabila Ebeid. Afterwards, it was difficult to go back and forth because we, Egyptians,
needed to have an exit visa from Mogama el-Tahrir to travel abroad. As for actors, we used to be
called artistes, in Egyptian slang, and we needed
an additional Certificate of Good Conduct issued
in our favor from an office located on Kasr ElNile Street. I remember that Fatin Hamama and
I used to stand in a long line to get that piece of
paper. Ironically, in the end, and after many officicials gave us a hard time, we were given approximately EGL20 (Egyptian Pounds) as our
allowable travel expenses! I decided not to come
back to Egypt until this bureaucracy faded away.
Although many nationalities were offered to me,
I never abrogated my Egyptian passport. Then,
perhaps ten years later, I met President Anwar
Sadat at a party held at the White House during
Gerard Ford’s presidency. I remember that Sadat
took me in his arms and, with his deep voice, invited me to his own son’s wedding in Egypt. So
I began to return, and to accept film offers from
Egyptian producers once again.
AWAD: Another great moment in your film
career was receiving the Cesar of Best Actor for
your role as the title character of Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran (2003), a film that re-
flects the tolerance between two religions over the
friendship between your character and a young
Jewish boy.
SHARIF: Monsieur Ibrahim made me return to stand before his camera after a hiatus of
two years hiatus. I did not expect to find any picture or role that would compel my return. While
I was on vacation in Cairo, I had achance to read
the script which moved me because the theme
interested me. I am open reverent of all religions;
what I liked about the story was the incidental
friendship between human beings. It didn’t matter that the boy was Jewish and Ibrahim was
Muslim; what mattered to me was the exchange
of trust and understanding that grew between the
two of them.
AWAD: Your role in Hassan & Morkos
seemed like a continuation to those thematic elements.The movie reflected religious bigotry in Egypt
through the eyes of those two friends and their families.Before Hassan & Morkos,had the idea of casting
you alongside Adel Imam ever surfaced?
SHARIF: I guess not because filmmakers
always thought of me as a serious dramatic actor although I love comedy more than any other
genre. I once starred in a farcical, theatrical play
on the London stage which lasted for over fifteen months. But when he got the screenplay of
Hassan & Morkos, Imam looked for an equal, an
equivalent, with whom he could share the screen.
So his actor son Mohamed Imam, who co-starred
told him: “Why don’t we call Omar Sharif?” And
so he reached my friend Inas Bakr who called my
chauffeur (Because I don’t carry a cell phone). Finally, we reached each other and he invited me to
his home at 1:00 o’clock in the morning. After a
brief discussion, I said, ‘Yes,’ and never asked how
much Good News, the film’s production company, would pay me.
AWAD: The TV serial Hanan We Hanin
(Tenderness and Desire) by your longtime friend
Inas Bakr, didn’t achieve the expected reception
among viewers on Egyptian TV.
SHARIF: Hanan We Hanin was a fiction-
alized retelling of my own life story. It was about
how I was longing for Egypt in the 1970s and
how I was wishing to come back but couldn’t.
When I was in Europe, I used to invite my Alexandrian friends from different Greek Jewish
origins, and I recited my favorite poems by Salah
Jahin in a corner house I referred to as the Egyptian corner. Back to your question, I think the
serial was too “soft” for today’s audience who are
exposed to an overdose of melodrama and violence. But now, viewers are rediscovering it in its
reruns on terrestrial channels. I think Inas did a
good job in writing and directing the serial. It also
afforded us a chance to share the screen again with
my longtime friend Ahmed Ramzy, after fifty
years after Ayamna El-Helwa.
AWAD: Since you have become honorary
president of the Cairo Film Festival, your improvised words during the opening nights touched
Egyptians and foreign guests alike.
SHARIF: I was first asked to become the festival president when Saad Wahba passed away back
in 1997. A few years later, I did an interview for the
Egyptian magazine, El-Kawakeb, mentioning that
we should move the festival outside of the crowded
capital to Luxor, Sharm El-Sheikh or even Thebes.
So one journalist took the final sentence and re-worded it in such a way as to give the impression I wanted
Israel to attend the festival.Then Mohamed Saad,the
chief editor of El-Kawakeb at that time, wrote a big
article against me in the opening column of a special
issue he created to discredit me. When they offered
me the honorary presidency,I couldn’t refuse because I
never say no to a demand related to my country Egypt.
I appeared on stage facing the spotlight without having prepared anything beforehand and I let the words
flow from my heart.
AWAD:You have been in more than a hundred
films that span half-a-century. How do you define
stardom after such an impressive career achievement?
SHARIF: It’s a mystery and a bit of luck.
I was lucky that my parents didn’t get a divorce
and my mother took care of me. When I wanted
to become a professional actor, I never started in
small roles. Youssef Chahine offered me the starring role Siraa Fil-Wadi (The Blazing Sun-1954)
opposite Faten Hamam, an epic that was selected
to represent Egypt in competition at the Cannes
Film Festival. When I worked in Lawrence of
Arabia, my first international role, I got an Oscar
nomination and a double Golden Globe win. You
know, I never asked for all of this; it just landed
in my lap. I am now 77 and still do good starring
roles which are more difficult to find for actors in
my age.
AWAD: You also shared the screen with
most beautiful stars. What is beauty for Omar
Sharif?
SHARIF: To you the truth, if the Mona Lisa
hung on my wall, I would get easily bored looking
at it every day. I never fell in love with gorgeous
women. I worship a smart woman with whom I
may enjoy a good conversation while listening to
good music. I never believed in love at first sight;
neither in life or in the movies.
AWAD: What do we next expect from
Omar Sharif?
SHARIF: A man of my age doesn’t think of
the past because it brings nostalgicly sad memories and neither the future because he doesn’t control it. I only think of today and tomorrow and not
the day after tomorrow. In France, I shot a drama
called J’ai Oublié de Te Dire (I forgot to Tell You),
where I play an old man suffering from Alzheimer with writer-director Laurent Vinas-Raymond.
Then in Egypt, El-Mosafer (The Traveler), by
Egyptian filmmaker Ahmed Maher was recently
released. I play the older version of Khaled ElNabawy’s character, an Egyptian whose journey
spans over the last century.
where a successful attack could have massive public impact.
I can hear the snickering of the cyber hackers,
safe in their faraway homes. They are not waiting
for the Congress to pass a bill.
I believe the FBI has it right when the FBI
Director Robert Mueller stated in front of the
Congress, “Threats from cyber-espionage computer crime and attacks on critical infrastructure
will surpass terrorism as the number one threat
facing the US”.
The National Intelligence Director James
Clapper, “The cyber threat is one of the most
challenging ones we face, among state actors
we’re particular concerned about entities within
China and Russia conducting intrusions into U.S.
Computer networks and stealing US data. And
the growing role that non-state actors are playing
in cyberspace is a great example of the easy access
to potential disruptive and even lethal technology
and know-how by such groups. US officials es-
timate there are 60,000 new malicious computer
programs identified each day.”
How serious is this threat? With all the layered security controls that banks and credit unions
are putting in place, a 2011 survey revealed more
than 75 percent of surveyed financial institutions
said they discovered fraud only after their customers notified them. Institutions have continued to grapple with fraud threats linked to card
skimming, corporate account takeover, (http://
blumshapiro.com/kbarticle/corporate-account-take-over-the-latest-cyber-crime) , wire
transfer fraud (http://news.cnet.com/830127080_3-20057978-245.html) , identity theft,
and third party breaches like credit card number
thefts at the point-of-sale cash register breaches
that hit last summer, especially affecting Michaels’
Arts & Crafts store chain (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/05/michaels-creditcard-brea_n_858231.html)
Continued on page 9
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Sherif Awad is a film/video
critic and curator. He is the film editor of Egypt Today Magazine, and the artistic director for both the
Alexandria Film Festival, in Egypt, and the Arab
Rotterdam Festival, in The Netherlands. He also
contributes to Variety, in the United States, and Variety Arabia, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
CYBER SECURITY MATTERS
Cyber War - Version 2012
By ALAN HEYMAN
Senate Majority Leader, Harry
Reid, D-Nev.: “Malicious cyberactivity poses one of the most
profound threats to our nation;
yet, our government currently
lacks a framework with which
to confront this threat. To put it candidly, we are
playing catch up in an increasing costly and potentially deadly, game”
The proposed answer is the new “Cybersecurity Act of 2012” - The bipartisan bill introduced
in the Senate during the week of February 16,
2012, with chief sponsors of the bill being; Sen.
Susan Collins, R-Maine, Sen. Joseph Lieberman,
ID-Conn., Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. and
Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif.
Sen. Collins stated: “The threat is not just
to our national security, but also to our economic
well-being”.
With these warnings, this bill as with all cyber-security legislation in the past faces an uphill
climb. The legislation is three years in the making
and follows many cyber-security bills introduced
in the past year. Who can forget the controversial
”Stop Online Privacy Act” (SOPA), and the unprecedented public backlash with Internet companies using the power of the Internet to voice
opposition causing many Senators to rethink the
goals of the lobbyists, attempting to protect big
media interests by putting the policing actions on
Internet companies, without a clear definition of
responsibilities and legalities.
The bill places the Department of Homeland
Security at the forefront to assess the risks and
vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures, such as
electrical and nuclear power grids, water systems,
and telephone and data communication systems,
Page 9
CYBER SECURITY MATTERS
Cyber War - Version 2012
and Zappos from Megaupload of Anonymous
(http://www.frost.com/c/10443/blog/blogdisplay.do?id=1286346) or the massive California gas pump credit card number skimming
attacks http://knowledgebase.findlaw.com/
kb/2011/Aug/405132.html (stealing card
numbers remotely).
The proposed bill will force US Companies
operating critical infrastructures to better defend
their networks against cyber-attacks and to collect and share data crossing their networks with
federal authorities.The bill is designed to streamline data security processes and to improve the
ability for companies to share information about
data threats within their industries. Public interest organizations want to ensure that legislation
limits the amount of personal data to which the
government will gain access.
After several attempts at passing cyber-security related legislation, lawmakers are playing
it safe this time around. This measure would stop
short of giving the President “kill switch” powers
to limit or shut down web traffic in the event of
an emergency as a previous version had.
Companies that are selected under the
critical infrastructure classification clause
in the Senate bill would have the ability to
implement their own cyber-security technology. The bill would prohibit the government
from regulating the design or the technology used by these companies. The measure
would also redefine some roles of federal
agencies and amend the Federal Information
Security Management Act (2003-FISMA)
regulations from being compliance focused
to security focused. The FISMA act requires
federal agencies to develop, document, and
implement an agency-wide program to provide security for the information systems
that support the operations and assets of the
agency, including those provided or managed
by another agency, contractor, or other source.
FISMA has brought attention within
the federal government to Cybersecurity and
explicitly emphasized a “risk-based policy
for cost-effective security.” FISMA requires
agency program officials, chief information
officers, and federal auditors to conduct annual reviews of the agency’s information security program and report the results to Office
of Management and Budget (OMB).
The “risk-based policy for cost-effective
security” is a growing trend within state legislations also. This will change the focus of a company from a compliance or paperwork answer to
a security technology emphasis.
The crafting of the proposed bill is not completed, with many parties and interest groups still
to be heard. As the bill stands now, it would not
only exempt companies from existing privacy
laws, but also bar the public including watchdog
organizations and academics from obtaining information collected under the law through the
Freedom of Information Act. The bill also calls
for organizations in the private and public sector
to share data about cyber-threats including personal data, said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney
of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a San
Francisco nonprofit digital rights group. Further,
Tien said the way the law is written, the government can gain access to data it otherwise would
not have, even if the companies involved did not
want to share that information.
Others are concerned that the bill permits
the government to use the threatened information that will be shared, to prosecute any crime
or is in reality another new surveillance “big
brother” program. Those experts believe the bill
should require the information shared with the
government for cyber-security purposes is used
only for cyber-security.
I wonder what the cyber hackers here and
in foreign countries think about all this. Regardless of their thoughts, we must be concerned
with their actions and deeds. The Congress
must move forward with a comprehensive intelligently crafted bill and not another bill with
more complex cyber-regulations and compliance mandates that would drive up costs while
causing the misallocation of limited business
resources without necessarily increasing security.
Mr. Alan Heyman, ([email protected]) is Managing Director of Cyber Security Auditors & Administrators LLC (CSA2) and a principal of Xanadu
Security Services, LTD, (XS2). More than 25 years
in the data communication world, having started
one of the first Internet based Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) companies in the late 80’s. Mr. Heyman is growing CSA2 on a national scale focusing
on Cyber Security issues, Reputation Management
systems and auditing compliance requirements in the
healthcare industry.
HEALTH
The Tree House in Mt Kisco Helps Children and Parents Cope with Tragedy
By RICH MONETTI
In the course of being kids, the
expressions are the same – even
in the face of tragedy. “They often look like they are doing Ok
because they have to be kids first,”
says Patricia Duff of the Bereavement Center of Westchester, so it follows that
the true effects of losing a parent or sibling
shouldn’t be looked for on the face of a grieving
child.
Mired in feelings like guilt, anger and regret,
which are typically frowned upon in daily life,
children reflectively repress them and later in life
they can return in the form of mental illness, according to Ms. Duff, an RN who has been in the
field of hospice and bereavement for 28 years. At
the Tree House, she says, they learn that all those
feeling are acceptable.
Under the umbrella of the Bereavement
Center and begun 16 years ago, the Tree House
is set up to bring young families together in a
forum structured toward children. “When they
come to us, they have to feel safe in the group
before they will talk,” she says.
So every other Thursday, families come to
The Presbyterian Church of Mt. Kisco at 605
Millwood Road, start off with a pizza dinner and
then break down into groups based on age. “The
kids start their group with an opening circle
where they may share their story, their feelings,
their worries and their memories, she says.
At the same time, the Tree House realizes
that kids cannot just sit and talk for 90 minutes.
They may play feelings bingo or a musical chairs
game that follows a theme geared toward bereavement. On the other hand, she says, “If we
feel they just need to play – we let them play.”
All in all, the atmosphere lets them move
in stark contrast to the way they instinctively
precede in school. Knowingly in the minority,
letting others in on their pain is not the norm.
“Kids want to be like everybody else at school
so they don’t want to show their emotions,” she
says.
That could possibly be the case in some
homes but even if families are open, a similar
silence could emerge without outside intervention. “A lot of kids worry about their surviving
parent or guardian so often they will not want to
talk about it for fear that it will upset the parent,”
she says.
With that said, the Tree House helps provide parents the tools they need to move forward
with their kids, but the feelings of adults aren’t
left out either. This gives them one place where
they can go, see other young families and realize they aren’t the only ones going through this,
she says.
In turn, the healing is not simply the shortest
distance between two points but a circular journey
without endpoints. Not only do you receive help
but you give help and that’s a wonderful feeling to
be able to help another young parent by sharing
what has worked for you, she says.
Continued on page 10
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Robert
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Page 10
HEALTH
The Tree House in Mt Kisco Helps Children and Parents Cope with Tragedy
In other words, she adds, “It makes you feel
more normal in an abnormal situation,” and the
proof is in the members who return as volunteers to take their turn as group leaders at the
Tree House.
Nonetheless, the children taking part in this
process at the Tree House are much more the
exception to the rule. “We’re not reaching every
kid that this is happening to by any stretch of the
imagination,” she says. Currently, with only 38
families enrolled in Mt. Kisco, she’s sadly right
but hopes that can change.
For more info www.thebereavementcenter.org/ or
call 961 2818 x 317
Rich Monetti lives in Somers. He’s been a freelance writer in Westchester since 2003 and works
part time in the after school program at Mt. Kisco
Childcare. You can find more of his stories at www.
rmonetti.blogspot.com.
HISTORY
The Golden Age of Hudson Valley Brickmaking, 1: An Industry Is Born
By ROBERT SCOTT
In the first decade of the 20th
century, the Hudson Valley
was the largest brick-producing region in the world.
The Hudson Valley produced more than a billion
bricks a year, accounting for
10% of total U.S. brick pro-
site shore, he crossed over to Haverstraw, where
he leased land and established a brickyard.
With its more abundant supplies of clay, the
west bank of the Hudson eventually surpassed
the east bank in production. Nevertheless, for
75 years after 1850 a busy brickmaking industry
flourished in Westchester in the area between
Croton and Peekskill.
Early Westchester Brickyards
duction.
By the turn of the present century, the last
surviving brickyard closed, and the once mighty
molded-brick industry of the Hudson Valley
was no more.
This is the story of that now-forgotten
chapter of local history.
The invention of the steam shovel made clay
extraction easier.This scene is at the W. A. Underhill
Brickyard Company’ s site on Croton Point.
A City’s Need for Bricks
Clay for bricks was extracted by digging and then
hauling it to the brickyard in small hopper cars
over temporary narrow-gauge tracks.
Brickmaking Comes to the New World
Babylonians and Egyptians made bricks,
the oldest manufactured building material, as
early as 4000 B.C. For centuries, bricks were
sun-dried. Around 1000 B.C. someone discovered that they could be hardened by fire. Since
then, every civilization has burnt bricks.
Dutch and English colonists brought with
them the brickmaking skills of the mother country. Small deposits of clay were everywhere in the
new land, and it was not unusual for bricks to be
made at building sites.
In the construction of the John Jay homestead in Katonah, for example, bricks were made
from clay dug and burned at the site. At the Van
Cortlandt Manor in Croton, demonstrations of
how molded bricks were made in Colonial times
are occasionally given.
The father of Hudson Valley commercial
brickmaking was an Englishman with brickmaking experience, James Wood. Arriving in
Westchester in 1801 at age 28, he set up a brickyard at Sing Sing and then at George’s Island.
Upon learning of vast clay deposits on the oppo-
panic of 1837
Some 55 million locally-manufactured
bricks would be consumed in building this engineering marvel. But five years would elapse
before water would begin to flow to the city.
Another solution to New York’s increased
threat of fire was to erect fire-resistant buildings-and to construct them of brick.
During the first half of the 19th century,
New York grew faster than any other American
city to become the principal metropolis of the
nation. By mid-century its population was more
than a half-million inhabitants.
Fires were the dreaded hazard in cities,
where closely packed houses were constructed of
wood, and fireplaces were used for cooking and
heating.
Small fires inevitably spread to become conflagrations of disastrous proportions involving
whole sections of a city.
In 1835, the need for an adequate supply of
water in New York was underscored when the
city suffered one of the worst disasters in its history. The great fire of December 17th wiped out
many buildings that had survived an earlier fire
of 1776 when the British seized the city during
the Revolution.
Before the conflagration was extinguished,
it leveled 20 blocks, destroyed 674 buildings, 530
of which were warehouses or housed commercial
establishments. Estimates of property loss ranged
between twenty and forty million dollars. Some
1500 merchants were ruined, and nearly all of the
city’s fire insurance companies went bankrupt.
An adequate supply of water was one solution to the city’s fire problem. Actual construction of the Croton Aqueduct would not begin
until two years late, in the midst of the financial
One early brickyard was between Verplanck
Point and Montrose Point, at Green’s Cove,
named for Isaac Green, a settler from Vermont.
In 1833 or 1834, Green began to manufacture
bricks on land leased from Joshua T. Jones.
In 1837, William A. Underhill began making bricks on land owned by his father, Robert
Underhill, on Croton Point.
Extensive deposits of clay and sand were
discovered on Verplanck Point, and it became
the center of the early brickmaking industry in
Cortlandt. An early brickyard operator was William Bleakley, former town supervisor of Cortlandt and later sheriff of Westchester County.
plified Greek Revival style are seemingly frozen
in time.
In 1836, John Henry and nine other investors purchased Verplanck Point with the intention of establishing a village to rival Peekskill.
Theirs was an ambitious plan for small lots along
37 numbered streets and six named avenues
(Water, Hudson, Highland, Broadway, Westchester, and Union).
The expected population never materialized, however, and only eleven streets and four
avenues were cut through. In 1866, Henry sold
much of his land to the Hudson River Brick
Manufacturing Company. Initially, this company did not engage in brick manufacture but
leased land to others.
Dr. Richard T. Underhill, a physician and
brother of William A. Underhill, had no interest
in brickmaking. He grew grapes on his estate on
Croton Point and made prize-winning wines.
His vintages were stored in brick-lined vaults still
visible there.
Brickmaking in 1884
Two bricks showing marks used by the
W.A.Underhill Brickyard Company: WAU and
IXL (“I excel”).
According to the N.Y. State Census of
1855, 37 brickyards employing more than a
thousand workers were operating in the town
of Cortlandt. The only other brickyard in Westchester was located near Sing Sing in the town
of Mount Pleasant and employed 16 men.
One legacy of the intensive brickmaking on
Verplanck Point is the community of Verplanck
itself. Still remarkably intact, it is a veritable architectural museum. Its brick public buildings
and modest brick homes and row houses in sim-
Because brickmaking was an unglamorous
industry requiring comparatively little capital or
equipment, few records have survived. We get a
glimpse of its extent in Cortlandt in 1884 from
J. Thomas Scharf ’s two-volume Westchester
County history.
On Verplanck Point ten brickyards employed 425 men and manufactured 400,000
bricks daily. Frank A. Timoney leased three
yards and employed 150 men. Patrick King also
operated three yards employing 125 men. Adam
Fisher’s yard (50 men, Thomas Vaughey’s yard
(25 men) and John Morton’s two yards (75 men)
were all leased.
One of Morton’s yards manufactured what
was described as “Croton front brick,” priced at
$10-12 a thousand. The other made “common
brick,” priced at $6 a thousand.
Page 11
GOVERNMENT
The Golden Age of Hudson Valley Brickmaking, 1: An Industry Is Born
At Green’s Cove, between Verplanck Point
and Montrose Point, were the brickyards of
Cyrus Travis, then the town supervisor of Cortlandt, and O’Brien & McConnon, each employing 50 men.
On Montrose Point was the brickyard of
James D. Avery, with 30 men. Farther south
were two brickyards operated by Orrin Frost
with 100 men. On George’s Island were three
leased brickyards, employing 130 men.Two were
operated by Tompkins & Bellefeuille and the
third by Edward Bellefeuille.
At Crugers, John Peach Cruger owned two
brickyards employing 70 men; one was leased to
Adam Fisher.
Croton Landing had two brickyards. The
northern, smaller yard was operated by Schuyler
Hamilton of Ossining and employed 30 men.
To the south was the yard of the George D.
Arthur Company, owned by Francis Larkin and
Marcus L. Cobb, both of Ossining, with 50 men.
Croton Point had two yards--one made
60,000 Croton front bricks a day and another
turned out enameled bricks for tiling and wainscoting.
Westchester Brick Brands
Early brickmakers occasionally scratched
their initials in their bricks, but by the 1880’s
templates were used to enable uniform marks to
be made. Eventually, rectangular wooden plates
were fixed inside the molds at the bottom. These
produced an indentation in each brick called a
“frog” in which brickyards’ names or initials appeared in raised relief.
The frog not only yielded a lighter brick but
also conserved raw material. It also made for a
better bond between bricks laid with mortar.
Builders soon recognized brands whose quality
was consistent and bought such bricks.
Most Westchester brands are easily identifiable by their names, but some initials can
pose a problem. Verplanck yards: CC (Charles
Carman); K&L (King and Lynch); O&McC
(O’Brien & McConnon); PO (Patrick O’Brien).
Crugers yards: LHL (L.H. Lynch); L&O
(Lynch & O’Brien). Croton and Croton Point
yards: CPB Co (Croton Point Brick Company);
EF (Eugene Frost); JM (John Morton); WAU
(W.A. Underhill).
Bricks of the Anchor Brick Company of
Croton were distinguishable by an anchor embossed in the frog. Some W.A. Underhill bricks
displayed the letters IXL (“I excel”).
Despite their size and weight, and the difficulty of exhibiting them, collectors eagerly seek
examples of brick brands. The Brick Museum in
Haverstraw, N.Y., has exhibits tracing the history
of brickmaking in the Hudson Valley, and is well
worth a visit.
Saigon fell while we were in college. Though
I never aspired to be a war correspondent, I suppose I would have gone abroad had the situation presented itself early in my career. I focused
instead on covering government, politics and
law while I got my M.B.A. Just around the time
Colvin found her calling as a British-based correspondent, I decided to leave daily journalism to
become a financial adviser (which is a different
sort of fact-gathering and reporting process), start
a business and get married and have a family.
I never met Colvin, but from the passion in
her last interview with CNN and her final report
for the Sunday Times, I’m pretty certain that she
would make the same choices again. She knew
the risks she was taking, and she died doing
something that I believe she felt duty-bound to
do. She wanted to bring the story of Homs to
the world, and she did, in her life and through
her death.
Robert Scott is a semi-retired book publisher and an
avid local historian. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson,
N.Y. In next week’s issue of The Westchester Guardian, he describes the steps in the brickmaking process.
IN MEMORIUM
Conflict Journalism
By LARRY M. ELKIN
As my rental car crawled through
Los Angeles rush hour traffic
Tuesday evening, I tuned the satellite radio to CNN and listened
to Anderson Cooper interview
Marie Colvin, an Americanborn reporter for London’s Sunday Times who slipped into the besieged Syrian
city of Homs.
By the time I awoke on Wednesday morning Colvin was dead, along with a French photojournalist.They were reportedly killed, and two
other reporters were wounded, when a Syrian
government shell struck a house that was being
used by the small cadre of foreign reporters defying Syrian restrictions on coverage in the conflict
zone. The BBC, which also interviewed Colvin
on Tuesday, said more shells landed in the building’s garden as survivors tried to flee the bombing, but it is impossible to know whether the
journalists were specifically targeted or whether
they were merely victims of the violence they
were covering.
The Sunday Times released Colvin’s final
story outside its pay wall following her death.
She described a harrowing journey into Homs
on an undisclosed smuggling route, escorted by
the lightly armed Free Syrian Army, consisting
mainly of defectors from Bashar Assad’s regime.
“Inevitably,” she wrote, “the Syrian army opened
fire.” She described coming under fire again as
she was driven through dark and empty streets.
“As we passed an open stretch of road, a Syrian
army unit fired on the car again with machine
guns and launched a rocket-propelled grenade.
We sped into a row of abandoned buildings for
cover.”
Colvin’s last interviews with CNN and
the BBC focused on a 2-year-old boy who was
struck, along with his father, by shrapnel from
a government shell. The father survived. The
child arrived at an ill-equipped clinic gasping for
breath, with a gaping wound in his chest. The
clinic’s staff, consisting of one medical doctor
and one dentist, could do nothing but watch as
the little boy died.
Like many journalists reporting from war
zones, Colvin made no pretense of being impartial in the clash between the Assad regime
and the rebellion, which began nearly a year
ago as peaceful calls for democratic change but
has steadily devolved into violent repression and
scattered resistance, including recent suicide
bombings in Damascus.
It must be difficult to be impartial when one
side tries to protect you, even for its own purposes, while the other side shoots at you.
Colvin was under no illusions as to why the
Syrian rebels risked so much to bring her and
her colleagues to Homs. She was an experienced
war reporter who had spent two decades with
the Sunday Times; she lost an eye while covering civil war in Sri Lanka in 2001. Colvin knew
that the rebels want the world to see the carnage
in places like Homs in hopes that it will bring
help for their cause. She openly sympathized
with that goal.
In her story Tuesday she quoted United
Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who
said last week, “We see neighborhoods shelled
indiscriminately, hospitals used as torture centers, children as young as 10 years old killed and
abused. We see almost certainly crimes against
humanity.”Then Colvin added her own observation: “Yet the international community has not
come to the aid of the innocent caught in this
hell.”
War reporters make choices and take risks
that most of us don’t. The paths that Colvin and
I took in life reflect those choices. She was about
a year older than me and grew up on Long Island, N.Y., at the same time I was raised in the
Bronx. We were both drawn to journalism in the
Vietnam and Watergate era, when reporting the
news seemed like one of the most worthwhile
things a young person could do in life without
first having to pass a course in organic chemistry.
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Page 12
IN MEMORIUM
Conflict Journalism
Rémi Ochlik, a French photojournalist
who was only 28, was also killed Wednesday.
The death of someone so young hits harder. It
is especially disturbing for me because I have
my own young journalist who is just about to
graduate from college. I don’t know where her
future choices will lead her, and I can’t be certain
– much as I want to be – that she will always be
safe. But I know where she’s coming from, even
if I can’t know or control exactly where she is going.
Conflict journalists are a breed apart. Either
out of altruism or bravado or ambition, or most
likely a combination of all of the above, they put
themselves in harm’s way. Too often, they pay a
high price. But they have to do what they have
to do.
Deepest condolences to the families of Marie
Colvin and Rémi Ochlik, and best wishes for
a speedy recovery to British photographer Paul
Conroy, who illustrated Colvin’s stories from
Syria, and French journalist Edith Bouvier of Le
Figaro. They were injured, apparently quite seriously in Bouvier’s case, in Wednesday’s shelling.
And thank you to all the news people who risk
their lives so the rest of us can safely know what
is happening around us.
Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, is president of Palisades Hudson Financial Group a fee-only financial
planning firm headquartered in Scarsdale, NY.
The firm offers estate planning, insurance consulting, trust planning, cross-border planning, business
valuation, family office and business management,
executive financial planning, and tax services. Its
sister firm, Palisades Hudson Asset Management,
is an independent investment advisor with about
$950 million under management. Branch offices
are in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Website:www.
palisadeshudson.com.
MUSIC
THE SOUNDS Anson Funderburgh, Big Joe Maher, Kevin
OFBLUE McKendree & Steve Mackey
By Bob Putignano
A four night in a row consecutive treat on this
year’s edition of Delbert McClinton’s Sandy
Beach Cruise was watching and listening to
Anson Funderburgh, Big Joe Maher, Kevin
McKendree and Steve Mackey jam and perform
smartly. After recovering from his cancer treatment (he’s now five year cancer free,) Funderburgh has never sounded better. Rhythm section
mates; McKendree (keys) and Mackey (bass) are
also part of Delbert’s tour de force band. Plus Joe
Maher drummed and sang regally as this finely
honed unit dazzled everyone in the room night
after night. For me this was a nightly ritual that
I eagerly looked forward to that followed some
of other strong performances by great artists that
appeared on the cruise. I might add that there
weren’t any lightweights as the likes of Marcia
Ball, Jimmy Hall, Lee Roy Parnell, Joe Ely, the
McCrary Sisters, Teresa James, Seth Walker,
Gary Nicholson, Nick Connolly, Eric Lindell,
Wayne Toups & Zydecajun, as well as Delbert
and others were also part of the seven days of
hardy partying.
Maher told me that some of his favorite
songs performed included chestnuts like “Confessin’ the Blues,” “Evangeline,” “What the Hell
Were You Thinking,” “Nothing But Trouble,”
“Lets Get High,” Big Long Buick,” “Someday,”
“Who Will the Next Fool Be,” and “Lets Go
Jumpin’.” A lot of these tunes were like a fresh
walk down memory lane, but were executed in
such a way that allowed each and every musician
to imprint their own signature sounds on each
instrument. I would also like to add that (like
some good musicians) these gentlemen not only
had strong chops, they also knew how to listen
to each other, allowing them to intuitively play
off riffs, which not only raised the bar to near
perfection, it also made for top-shelf jamming.
Bassist Steve Mackey told me: “This band
is without a doubt the most swinging group of
musicians I have ever played with. I have not
Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beach Cruise January, 2012 - www.Delbert.com.
Kevin McKendree.
Anson Funderburgh (front) and Joe Maher.
learned about nuance and depth of groove like
that since I was first learning my instrument.
Joe Maher is a master; and his gigs during SBC
cruise week are the highlight for me.”
Kevin McKendree was quoted as saying;
“It’s always my favorite gig on Delbert’s cruise,
playing with Big Joe. I don’t get to play with him
nearly as often as I would like, so I’m grateful
Delbert has been booking him every year. Big
Joe and The Dynaflows was the first professional
band I was ever in, this took place back before it
was legal for me to work in clubs. I consider him
to be my musical father”.
McKendree also told me that this band had
so much fun on the cruise this year, so much so
that there are plans to go into studio to record,
how cool would that be?
Finally Funderburgh summarized the four
piece band performances, by opining: “I think
the world of Big Joe, he is a great drummer &
a wonderful singer. I’ve known Joe for years,
from back in the ‘80’s, where I also used Kevin
in a project I did with Sam Myers back in the
‘90’s.” Funderburgh went on to say; “I also loved
the way Maher sang; “I Hear You Knocking,”
that old New Orleans song by Lazy Lester, it’s
a shuffle with a low down sound that I’d never
heard Big Joe sing like before. “
Funderburgh is also getting busy again, as
he also mentioned that he is going on the road
with Kim Wilson, not as a member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, but as Anson Funderburgh
& the Rockets featuring Kim Wilson in Europe,
and they have done other gigs in the states last
year too. Maher is also on the comeback trail, as
he just started recording recently for Severn Records again, checkout his 2011 “You Can’t Keep
a Big Man Down,” by Big Joe and the Dynaflows which is a very strong recording.
With Funderburgh and Maher back on the
recent mend, plus their being coupled with the
superlative backing of McKendree and MackeyI (as well as you) should be looking forward to
the tunes they’ll be putting down at McKendree’s recording studio in Tennessee. Stay tuned,
and let’s hope their collaborative recording
comes out real soon!
Last but not least, rumor has it that next
years 2013 Delbert McClinton Sandy Beach
cruise might be the final edition. If you have
never attended this cruise, know that I highly
recommend it, so if you can make it next year.
Come on down and join the festivities, as you
will not be disappointed. Details at: www.Delbert.com & 1-800-Delbert.
Bob Putignano www.SoundsofBlue.com
THE SPOOF
Page 13
PEOPLE
Baby Porcupine Irwin: First Interview and Wish List Commissioner David Chong Honored as 2012 Year of The
By GAIL FARRELLY
He’s a YouTube sensation -the baby porcupine in Pennsylvania trying to eat from a
coffee cup. But he’s not a happy
camper.
In his first interview, he
told all, including why he’s furious with the media and what’s on his wish list.
He denies being drunk when the video was
taken. He says he has taken “the pledge” and
drinks no alcohol at all. “How would YOU like
being filmed in the morning, before you’ve even
had your coffee?” he asked the reporter. Irwin
signed no legal papers either giving permission
for him to be filmed or permitting the release of
the video to the world. “My rights were violated,
and I plan to sue,” Irwin revealed. “My self-esteem has been damaged, and I don’t intend to
stand for it.”
On a more positive note, Irwin revealed his
wish list. He’d like privacy while he’s eating, his
food served on a big plate (rather than in a cup),
an entertainment agent to handle his career, a
complete body waxing (since he lives in a rescue
wildlife center, he feels he has no need of what he
calls “all those pesky quills”). Furthermore, he’d
like a new name. Something like George, Brad,
Ashton -- whatever. With a sigh, he said, “Just
about any name would have more pizzazz than
Irwin.”
“Stories of humans bullying each other always seem to in the news,” baby Irwin points out,
continuing, “but there should be more publicity
about humans bullying animals.”
Out of the mouths of babes.............
Learn more about The Farrelly Sisters Authors:
http://www.farrellysistersonline.
com/ on the Internet.
INVESTIGATION
David Chong (center), White Plains Public Safety Commissioner and a Berkeley College faculty member,
Justice Studies – Criminal Justice, School of Professional Studies, was recently honored as the 2012 Year
of the Dragon Person of the Year by the New York Police Department (NYPD) Asian Jade Society. Mrs.
Patricia Chong, and Thomas Roach, White Plains Mayor, stand by his side. The NYPD Asian Jade Society
was established in 1980 to promote a diverse police department and to champion the cause of Asian law
enforcement personnel.
Injudicious Justice?
By ABBY LUBY
Two New York State Supreme
Court judges have allegedly
shown favoritism while bending administrative court rules in
a highly contentious legal battle
between two factions at the Greencroft Condominium complex in New Rochelle, New York.
Several motions, now in front of Judge Joan
Lefkowtiz, are disputes between two Greencroft
boards of Condominium 1 and Condominium
2. The Greencroft Homeowners Association,
made up of five members from each condo, is
also part of the litigation.
The original case was heard by Judge William Giacomo, who, in July, 2011, had to recuse
himself for an inappropriate, private conversation with one of the condo owners. After July,
the cases were transferred to Judge Lefkowitz.
So far the majority of decisions by Judges
Giacomo and Lefkowitz have sided with board
members of Greencroft Board 1. According to
records obtained by The Westchester Guardian, the
tenant roster of Greencroft 1 lists Nancy Mangold as a resident. Mangold is the Chief Clerk of
the 9th Judicial District who wields a great deal
of administrative power in the courts, where this
case is being heard. Mangold resides in Greencroft 1 with her partner, Jerry Cohen, who is part
of the current litigation.
Seeking Giacomo’s recusal because of the
possible clubby connection with Mangold was
Greencroft 2 attorney Saul Fellus of Bisogno &
Meyerson, L.L.P., in Brooklyn, New York. Fellus’
February 2011 letter to Giacomo sought to have
Dragon Person of the Year by the NYPD Asian Jade Society
the judge recuse himself based on his working
relationship with Mangold because her “offices
are in the same building as your chambers” and
“given her years of service in Court Administration and prominent position, Your honor
may well be acquainted with Ms. Mangold.”
Giacomo curtly denied Fellus’ request saying his
“relationship with Ms. Mangold is strictly on a
professional level….”
The board of Mangold’s building, Greencroft 1, has repeatedly sued Greencroft 2 who
protested certain issues. At the crux of the litigations - questionable capital expenditures by the
Homeowner’s Association, the barring of access
to condo financial records by Greencroft 1, and
fraudulent Board elections and questionable
assessments on apartments, also by Greencroft
1. When Greencroft 2 voiced their objections,
Greencroft 1 sought remedy by the courts,
ratcheting up the list of lawsuits against Greencroft 2. As defendants, Greencroft 2 has never
counter-sued Greencroft 1.
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THE TOPIC OF THE WEEK: Ghosts
Guardian Angels of the
Plantation
Ghosts
Soul Of My Soul
The Wr ters Collection
http://www.TheWritersCollection.com
Stephen Woodfin
forms. Come on guys, I came back to wait for
you because you’ve earned your day of rest.’
There was a whispered breeze of snow falling
on the field but not a footprint to be seen when
the old friends began their climb.
http://www.independentauthornetwork.
com/paul-anthony.html
http://paulanthonys.blogspot.com/
Jack
By PHILIP CATSHILL
A tale in rhyme I offer you
But every word of it is true
And it is fitting in a way
Fifty years this very day
Since Jack, Jack passed our way
Truth I tell you so stifle the yawn
But in the cottage where I was born
With its timber beams and inglenook
Wattle daub and all that muck
Lived if that’s the word to hack
A ghost our mom said was Jack
And every night it would seem
He would creak on every beam
And tread the boards on upper floor
Descend the stair fling back the door
But Jack could only make us laugh
Whipping the ashes in the hearth
And rattle the handle on the old front door
That was never opened anymore
We always called it the living room
Even when shrouded in mournful gloom
On rusted hinges they forced the door
And the creak echoed on upper floor
As John, our brother in his coffin lay
Led the procession out that way
Believe this tale of a ghost called Jack
From that day to this he has not been back
In memory of John
Born 10th August 1949
Died 27th January 1962
http://philipcatshill.webplus.net /
Ghost
By Caleb Pirtle III
He came back to the pine forests and red clay
hills of East Texas to bury the ghosts that had
trailed after him every waking hour, and mostly
when he was asleep, for the past forty-six years,
seven months, and sixteen days. He had not
lost track of the time. He could never forget the
moment. He heard the cries even now.
Time and space, and mostly the miles, had
not dimmed them.
His muscles jerked slightly, and he felt far
older than he was as he drove down crooked
little highway 323 from Overton to New
London. He dreaded what he would find.
About the time he left one dying little town, he
reached the other.
The afternoon was quiet. And gray, much
as it had been forty-six years, seven months, and
sixteen days ago. Skies overcast. It looked like
rain.
His was the only car on the road.
It had once been so different.
The name on his paycheck had been Travis
Flowers, but a lot of names were lost, misplaced,
thrown away, and forgotten in the oilfield. He
had taken the train to East Texas in the autumn
of 1933, trying desperately to escape the Great
Depression, on his way to anyplace that had a
job and paid him enough to buy all of the white
bread, bologna, and cigarettes he wanted.
They were drilling oil wells in East Texas.
And Travis could drill oil wells.
Never had.
But he knew he could.
Travis had worked his way from roustabout to roughneck long before the spring of
1937, and he had married once, lost a baby, and
then put his wife on a bus back home to Holly
Springs, Mississippi. He thought she would
come back. She never did, and, after awhile, her
letters, if there were any, no longer found their
way to either the oilfield or Overton.
He parked beside the New London
School. He thought he would never see it
again. It looked so bright, so new. Not even the
past forty-seven years had been able to age it or
stain the bricks. Travis shook his head. The last
time he saw it, the school lay in ruin.
And still he heard the cries.
The rubble was gone.
The cries had not left him.
The afternoon of March 17, 1937, had
been unusually cold, and an uncomfortable rain
peppered the ground around Travis Flowers.
The well was in. The flow had been controlled.
The slush pit was full. Not much left to do but
pack up his tools and go on home.
The time had clicked down to three-thirty.
He knew. He had checked his watch. Didn’t
know why, but he had checked it all the same.
Inside the school, just beyond the clearing in
the pines, children were beginning to line up
in their classrooms, waiting for the final bell to
dismiss them.
Five minutes. That was all they needed.
Such a short time.
It became eternity.
As Travis Flowers leaned against the rig on
the platform, while he was rolling a cigarette in
the rain, the school exploded.
Suddenly.
And without warning.
For years, he later learned, the school had
been heated by raw natural gas, piped straight
from the oilfield. No one knew why, but a leak
began spilling fumes into a darkened basement.
No one could smell it. No one knew it was
there. And no one would ever know for sure
what ignited it. That’s what hurt worse. Plain
and simple, no one knew.
But for one frightening, grieving moment,
all Travis knew was that the sky before him had
turned black with smoke and debris and ragged
bricks falling to the ground. The day became a
shroud of leaded gray in the midst of a chilled
rain, and the walls of the school came tumbling
down.
Travis knew that the sound must have
been deafening, but all he heard was silence.
Nothing.
The day was ending.
The world was ending.
In silence.
Then came the cries. And he would never
be the same again.
Travis Flowers was one of the first to reach
the burned-out hull of a school dead and dying.
He heard someone say, “There was a spark, a
flash, and then it was gone.”
All gone.
Around him, almost three hundred students and teachers lay beneath mounds of rubble. Like Travis Flowers, oilfield workers were
leaving their jobs and rushing to the pile of
twisted metal and shattered bricks. Some were
searching for their own children. Others were
simply searching for life, any sign of it. Travis
could hear men cursing. And praying. And one
was no different from the other. The shattered
walls of New London became a wailing wall.
He pushed away metal and wood and
bricks and carried child after child to an Ideal
bread truck. The driver had thrown the bread
onto the ground and turned his truck into a rescue vehicle. Bodies were limp and broken. He
hugged them. He held them tightly. He kissed
them. He brushed dirt and blood from their
faces. Only the ones crying had hope, and so
few of them were crying.
Day became night, and night became
morning, and Travis no longer felt the rain. He
was too tired to lift another brick, but still he
stayed, crawling through the debris, praying
t
(h
Stephen Woodfin is an
attorney/author who has
written five legal thrillers.
He blogs on Venture
Galleries (http://venturegalleries.
com/author/stephenwoodfin
)
At 30
polic , e
after m
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Philip Catshill
At 30, I had a massive stroke.
18 months later, I returned
to work as a policeman.
My career ended after
a 2nd stroke so I took up
painting. Now, after a 3rd stroke, I
write!
p
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Jack Durish
Jack Durish was born in
Baltimore, Maryland, in
1943. He is a soldier and a
J
sailor, a decorated veteran
an
of Vietnam, a husband,
Ve
father, and grandfather. Jack is the
author of Rebels on the Mountain, available at all eBook retailers, and a blogger at
JackDurish.com, TheWritersCollection.com,
Cale
and VentureGalleries.com.
b
scree
n
South
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Caleb Pirtle, III
Caleb Pirtle III is the author
of more than 55 published
books, the screenwriter for
three made for TV movies,
and a former travel editor
of Southern Living Magazine
A mo
t
time her o
". Krystal Wade
A mother of three who
works fifty miles from home
and writes in her ”spare
time” Krystal’s debut
novel “Wilde’s Fire”
has
been accepted for publication
and should be available in 2012
A m
time
"
Page 16
GOVERNMENT
The Writers Collection
that another life remained and he could find it.
Mothers stood hollow-eyed in the cold
rain, hoping that missing sons or daughters,
listed among the living, would still be alive. Tired
workers knew that at any minute they might roll
aside a stone and look upon the lifeless body of
their own child.
In the sparse light of an early day, Travis
stumbled across a blackboard, and upon it, in a
childish scrawl, someone had written the lesson
of the day: “Oil and Natural Gas are East Texas’
greatest mineral blessing. Without them this
school would not be here, and none of us would
be here learning our lessons.”
Travis erased the words with his sleeve, and
the rain washed away the chalk dust. Around
him was a hurt that would not heal.
Forty-seven years, seven months, and sixteen days later, he walked across the campus and
watched the children at play.
He was surrounded by laughter.
All he heard were the cries.
The sun cut sharply through the pines.
All he felt was the rain.
Travis Flowers had come back to the pine
forests and red clay hills of East Texas to bury the
ghosts of his past.
Forty-seven years, seven months, and sixteen days later, he drove away at dark.
He was not alone.
The ghosts rode with him.
And the muted silence of the cries were almost more than he could stand, and they sounded a lot like his own.
Kenny: Roz and me, it was only when we heard
that maybe you and Mimi, but nothing really
happened between us, believe me, please. “No
finale is ever complete in summing up a play,”
Myron remembers Kenny often saying.
Kenny’s son motions to Myron, and as he
walks to the front of the chapel, he again talks silently and quickly to Kenny: Oh, Kenny, Kenny,
how could they not find a liver donor for you?
You, the most handsome and charming, the actor,
the high school literature teacher whose students
loved you. Instead, suddenly people are watching
me, a short, retired, boring actuary run for City
Council.
Myron now looks around the crowded chapel. He finally pulls a magazine page from the
inside of his jacket. “At funeral services, often a
speaker will quote an authority because he feels
incompetent to capture the recognition deserved
by the deceased’s work.”
Myron pauses, puts on his glasses. He blinks
because of the wetness in his eyes. “Poets are
known for their descriptive powers and this is a
quote from a former United States Poet Laureate, one of the nation’s top poets, as he enters his
eighties and thinks about how the public sees
older persons.”
Myron stares at the page, his glasses now resembling a wet windshield, and then reads: “Old
people are a separate form of life. They can be
pleasant, they can be annoying--but most impor-
tant they are permanently other.”
Myron looks at the crowded chapel. “Kenny
wanted to wipe away this view. He believed seniors needed to seize the center stage of society,
become public leaders, and then people would see
seniors not as the other who belongs silently on
the sidelines but as a group who feels the pressure
to act soon and can help break the country’s dolittle polarization.”
Myron’s words come faster but not sure of
them, feeling as if Kenny is watching him, seeing
but not seeing the faces in the chapel, “But Kenny,
you’re the actor, not me. I don’t know if I can be
successful at center stage. I don’t feel like a senior
trying to win a City Council election, but more
like a child in a big room who’s being stared at.
The child’s scared and crying a little. He’s not sure
what he’s supposed to do. And more and more
people are watching and the child’s crying more,
and he still isn’t sure what to do-- Oh, Kenny,
Kenny, for you, for me, for our group, for all seniors trying to suddenly be center stage and not
sure what to do, except we know it’s our finale,
and as you used to say,‘the finale always comes too
soon for an actor--‘”
Myron’s words suddenly stop but his tears
don’t, tears visible beneath his glasses. Everyone in
the chapel sees them. A reporter too? The other
now on center stage, knowing the finale comes
soon.
BOOKS
THE
RETIRED
(TRY
TO)
STRIKE
BACK
Chapter 40 - Suddenly
By Allan Luks
As Myron and Mimi enter
the funeral hall’s crowded
lobby, Bob quickly comes over
and leads them away from the
entrance. Mimi says she’ll
meet them in the chapel.
“I’ve been waiting for you to arrive,” says Bob,
in a hurried, low voice to Myron. “All the friends
in our group are being asked to speak. I want to
make sure you don’t cry when it’s your turn. There
could be a reporter here, yes, at a funeral. I know
the media from my years in advertising. Kenny
would want you to have my advice. Remember,
no tears--voters want strong candidates, not sympathetic ones.”
Myron waits. “Your eyes are red.”
“I’m not the candidate for the City Council.
Your race against Mary Ellen is attracting publicity. The media has given it a tag line: The Old vs.
The Young. They’ve summed it up in six words so
it’s interesting to the public. There could easily be
a reporter here. Now, go into the chapel, be seen.
Roz said she wants our group to sit in front. Their
son from California will call each of us up, and he’s
calling you last.”
The service begins and Kenny’s son rises at
the front. He is tall and handsome like Kenny,
and he introduces Bob first.
Bob describes Kenny’s long amateur acting
career, and how Kenny always believed that his
last performance might lead to a professional acting opportunity. “It never happened but he never
gave up. Kenny also was part of our group of
friends who are supporting a senior to run in one
of the City Council races. It initially was Kenny’s
idea. If successful, the campaign can encourage
other seniors to take on different public leadership roles and show how the retired have qualities,
such as needing to make things happen now, that
can help unify society. I feel Kenny waiting to see
what happens.”
Bob looks up for a moment, and then returns
to his seat.
When Mimi gives her remarks, Myron
stares at his wife’s eyes to somehow see how much
Kenny is in them—had they had a relationship as
was often been hinted? — but her eyes just appear
red and wet.
Myron closes his eyes and silently explains to
No Guarantees: One Man’s Road Through the Darkness of Depression
Chapter 26 – Yet Another Demon
By BOB MARRONE
One feature of accepting the way
I had to live my life, at least for a
while, was that of unsatisfying,
sweaty, restless sleep filled with
frequently disturbed and vivid
dreams. I would wake up exhausted yet mercifully, for a brief
moment, clueless. Within a couple of minutes
an initial vague sense of dread would serve as the
reminder that I was in the midst of this unrelenting crisis. It’s funny, as I think back, how I used
to say to myself that, on any given morning, if I
could just forget yesterday I could go back to living a normal life. The reality was that the very
processes of remembering the horrors of the day
before served to bring them all right back; more
uncontrollable than the previous day.
I struggled to find a way to function, and
learned over time that as the hours of the day
wore on I gained more psychic strength to deal
with the obsessions a little bit better, if not the
other symptoms. Of course this was not always
the case. A fresh series of panic attacks could well
throw me into a tailspin and introduce new and
more painful obsessions. My goal was simply to
survive the day.
Somewhere along those first few months a
new and withering symptom filled what was, up
until then, a brief moment of respite.
The vivid dreams and nightmares usually
took place in the later stages of my sleep cycle,
close to morning. What I remember about this
first bout with the new phenomena is that faceless
creatures, energy charged and hateful, were crawl-
ing and floating at high speed along the floor of
my bedroom and climbing up the side of my bed.
They moved quickly, almost apparition like, the
way you see entities lurch from place to place in
the movies. An internal sense told me that this
was a nightmare and that I had to shake myself
awake. I did. The demons were no more, my fear
left and I moved to open my eyes and turn my
head so as to more fully awaken.
I could not move. I could not open my eyes,
move my head, kick my feet or turn my body. The
harder I tried the more difficult it became. The
still harder I tried; I began once again to panic. It
was horrifying beyond description. After several
attempts to move something, I forced myself to
relax, wait and not fight it. Ultimately, I snapped
out of it, freed from my prison of paralysis.
The condition is called Sleep Paralysis. Dur-
ing sleep there is a part of your brain that paralyzes
your voluntary movements at certain points of the
REM sleep cycle. Here is the basic Wikipedia
description, which, while detailed, is not overly
arcane:
“Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling
asleep or during awakening. The falling asleep
type is called hynagogic, or predormital, sleep paralysis. When it occurs upon awakening (as mine
did), it is called hypnopompic, or post dormital
paralysis. In this instance the person becomes
aware before the REM cycle is complete. The
paralysis can last from several seconds to several
minutes, and in some cases hours. As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, eye movement is
still possible during the episodes. In addition, the
paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations, perceived deafening high noises and
an acute sense of danger.”
The literature continues to describe studies
about how the horror of the condition has been
associated with what victims thought to be every
Page 17
GOVERNMENT
No Guarantees: One Man’s Road Through the Darkness of Depression
thing from alien abductions to flashbacks of child
abuse and ghostly encounters. I had none of these
notions. But it has to be said that these episodes,
which I endured scores of times, were one of the
most devastating and surreal agonies I have ever
experience in my life, including the other insults
incurred during my years with depression. And,
as I have pointed out, its addition to the 24-hour
torment that was my day, left me with no break or
escape whatsoever.
This reality drove me to the thoughts of suicide coinciding with the first chapter of this book,
but that very well may have saved my life; and cer-
tainly kept my life from being less than fulfilling,
as it might have been, by virtue of a pampered, less
useful cure.
I often think about this dichotomy when I
consider the fates of people like Howard Hughes,
Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson. Their experiences had their own dichotomy, a corollary to mine
really,that ultimately ruined,or shortened their lives.
With no self pity, I tell you that there was no
peace to be had for me. Not during sleep, not when
medicated, not at work, not in repose. Nor could
I enjoy a book, a movie or the company of others;
not for a long time. My only way out was to find
a way to live with it and work through it. I cannot
tell you that I would not have stayed in bed all day
if doing so would have abated the pain and agitated
self-hate. I cannot tell you that I would not have
over medicated had I thought it would give me a
moment’s peace. Further, I did not have the means
to take off from work or buy illicit drugs.
Another factor was my upbringing and the
double edged sword that was my environment. A
man did not do drugs or quit. And he especially
did not walk away from a child. As you will learn
later on, one of my greatest sources of courage,
if that is the right word, was the presence of my
daughter Christine, in the crib. There was no way,
after the life I had led and the failure of men as
presentation of orders to show cause for signature.”
Although the transcript indicates that Judge
Giacomo initially told McGrath “Well, it is really improper for me to hear you when the other
side is not here,” he nonetheless continued to
listen, filling a total of 13 pages of the 50-page
court transcript. Greencroft 2 attorney Fellus, in
a second letter requesting Giacomo’s recusal because of the Ex-Parte communication, refers to
McGrath as an “adversary of my clients.”
Judge Giacomo not only carried on a
lengthy chat with McGrath, but he neglected to
disclose the private meeting, only to be discovered when the transcript became public ten days
later. The transcript also reveals that Giacomo
improperly raised issues with McGrath she
herself didn’t bring up, such as the homeowner
board’s voting stalemate. Giacomo gives McGrath unsolicited advice to “either add another
board member so you don’t have a five/five tie,
you can have a six to five vote and it seems to me
that that kind of drastic change to the operating
agreement would have to be voted on by all the
unit owner, so that might be a way to do it….”
The impropriety of Ex-Parte by a judge is
seen as unethical judicial behavior and considered a violation by the Commission on Judicial
Conduct. But such verbal exchanges usually go
unquestioned by the legal community. Debra
Cohen, attorney and adjunct professor at Pace
Law School, said that generally, for a legal system to work, people have to be able to feel confident in its integrity. “We rely on the judge to
strictly adhere to the rules of conduct that make
their impartiality above question. Even in situations where there may be well meaning informal
communications from the bench, they can lead
to unease on the part of one party or the other.”
Judge Giacomo claimed that his Ex-Parte
communication was “held in open court and
on the record and in no way was Ex-Parte.” He
then recused himself “in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” after which, on July
28, 2011, he proceeded to issue decisions on the
Greencroft case that had been pending for six
months.
The judge also sidestepped the issue of at-
torney Sher’s conflict of interest claiming it was
“rendered moot by Mr. Sher’s agreement to
withdraw as counsel.” Judge Giacomo gave Greencroft 2 one week to pay the back dues.
According to Greencroft 2 Board President
Mandelbaum, Giacomo neglected to specify the
exact amount to be paid by Greencroft 2 so they
could avoid disqualification from the HOA.
“The rulings were egregious,” said Mandelbaum. “It seems funny that he waited to the last
minute to make these decisions, recuse himself
and leave on vacation.”
Fellus sought the opinion of the Appellate
Division for clarification on how much Greencroft 2 owed. In an August 3, 2011 order of
Appellate Division, Justice Miller set the sum
of Association dues at $35,000.00 - which was
subsequently paid.
But at that point, the Greencroft 1 board
was demanding $80,800 as an outstanding
amount due. The case by that time had been
transferred to Judge Lefkowitz who countered
the Appellate Division’s decision and in a November 7, 2011 order, she agreed to the higher
sum of $80,800.
fathers all around me, that I would not be a good
provider and father to my daughter.
As for the famous men I mentioned above.
Mr. Hughes could afford to buy an entire hotel
and cut deals with the government to escape his
respective fears of germs and nuclear fallout. The
hangers on of Elvis and Michael Jackson made it
easy for the two of them to buy their way out of
their conflicts and fears. It is strange, but my good
fortune would prove to be that I had the benefit of
few options other than getting well.
Bob Marrone is the host of the Good Morning Westchester with Bob Marrone, heard from Monday to
Friday, from 6 – 8:30 a.m., on WVOX-1460 AM.
INVESTIGATION
Injudicious Justice?
Among the most contentious issue was that
of long time attorney for the Greencroft Homeowner’s Association (HOA), Ronald Sher of
Himmelfarb & Sher LLP. Based in White
Plains, New York, who concurrently advised not
only Greencroft 1 and 2 boards, but the Greencroft Homeowner’s Association (HOA). Sher,
who specializes in counseling condominium and
coop boards, was hired by Greencroft 1 long before Greencroft 2 was built.
When Greencroft 2 decided to hold back
their HOA dues until they could assess how the
monies were being used, Greencroft 1 sued the
HOA board members from Greencroft 2 for
their unpaid dues. According to Greencroft 2
board President Howard Mandelbaum, when
the two boards became adversarial, in a startling
conflict of interest, “Sher went along with Greencroft 1, even though he still represented the
HOA. We raised the issue about being fairly
represented.”
Sher was officially fired by the board of
Greencroft 2 but he remained attorney of the
HOA until Greencroft 2 sought to have him
disqualified, an issue that they hoped would be
addressed by Judge Giacomo.
It took Judge Giacomo six months before
he issued a decision. However, in July, 2011, court
transcripts revealed that Judge Giacomo had a
private conversation with Greencroft 2 resident
Rosa McGrath who seemed to oppose her own
board’s actions. The conversation took place after
the hearing ended in an empty courtroom except
for the court reporter who continued recording.
This type of conversation is known as
an “Ex-Parte communication” which just six
months earlier in January, 2011, Judge Giacomo posted his own ruling on ex parte communications on the court web site, http://
www.nycourts.gov/courts/9jd/PartRules/
PR_WJGiacomo_0II0311.pdf. Here Giacomo
states “Ex-Parte communications are strictly
prohibited except upon the consent of all counsel, or with respect to scheduling matters or the
Greencroft 2 attorney Fellus claims that
the litigation has unquestionably been on an
unlevel playing field. “The high number of “irregularities” hints that undue influence behind
the scenes is at work. We saw a shocking collapse of the adversarial system in the Greencroft
1 faction’s effort to “disqualify” my clients from
holding their offices on the Greencroft Homeowner’s Association Board of Managers which
was a piece of litigation in which attorney Ronald A. Sher was counsel for both plaintiff and
defendant. Mr. Sher’s conflict of interest did not
bother Justice Giacomo, and Justice Lefkowitz
has allowed the Greencroft 1 plaintiffs to build
on that foundation.”
Read Part 2 in the next edition of The Westchester Guardian.
Abby Luby is a Westchester based, freelance journalist who writes local news, about environmental issues, art, entertainment and food. Her debut novel,
“Nuclear Romance” was recently published. Visit the
book’s website, http://nuclearromance.word- press.
com/.
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Page 18
LEGAL INVESTIGATION
Rye’s Multitude of Unresolved Problems Snowball Under the French/Pickup Administration
By RAY TARTAGLIONE
Why are local health and safety
codes so difficult to master in
Rye?
Last June Rye City Mayor
Dough French brought forth to
the residents of Rye a so-called
“solution” for the health, safety and sewage codes,
long ignored out on Hen Island. Hen Island is
located at the gateway to Rye’s environmentally
sensitive Marshlands Conservancy and Milton Harbor. City Manager Scott Pickup, under Mayor French’s direction, announced that
Composting Toilets would be mandated for all
residential cottages out on Hen Island and if
they were installed, the City would be satisfied
that the sanitary sewer violations on the islands
would be mitigated.
However, after our environmental group
www.HEALtheHARBOR.com
pointed
out that these composting systems would be
ineffective without the necessary continuous
electric service long missing out on Hen Island,
the Mayor and City manager mysteriously and
adamantly refused to change their position.
Why would Mayor French refuse to enforce
public sanitary sewage and safety codes, if his
true concerns were to protect the citizens of Rye?
So Heal the Harbor decided to inquire about
just that question. And what we uncovered was
shocking, and would forever challenge the public
creditability of these top three Rye City officials.
Item 1 - Mayor French’s Personal
Approach to Building Code Compliance
Heal the Harbor started digging in Rye’s
public records. First we uncovered that the May-
or was the proud owner of a rental home at 13
Richard Place that had been secretly improved
and renovated without any permits, inspections
or tax assessments as required by law. Mssrs.
French, Pickup, and Ms. Wilson initially claimed
there were no violations of city law or that any
work that was done when Mayor French was in
the 3rd grade. However, after a period of public
denunciation by them of our research efforts,
and then the subsequent release of a local independent investigatory film entitled “13 Richard
Place” showing the denied violations in fact existed, the Rye City Building Department issued
additional building violations to the Mayor on
December 23, 2011. Heal the Harbor followed
these up by requesting on January 25th that the
Rye City Building Department investigate the
fact that Mayor French apparently installed a
completely new heating system at 13 Richard
Place - including a conversion from fuel oil to
natural gas fired system – with all work conducted again without any permits or approvals.
Item 2 – Mayor French’s Personal
Approach to Tax Code Compliance
While investigating Mayor French’s building code violations we discovered that Rye’s
Mayor was illegally receiving a STAR tax exemption on his personal income producing
rental property (13 Richard Place) while at the
same time he was taking the same tax exemption on his primary home at 46 Meadow Place
in Rye. After Heal The Harbor exposed our
findings; Mayor French claimed ignorance of
the situation but records show he was made fully
aware of the fact 8 months prior to our revelation. Mr. French was subsequently forced to pay
over $16,000 in retroactive taxes and penalties to
the Westchester County taxing authority.
Item 3 – Referral to the Ethics Board, the
Punt, the Do-Over and the Ensuing Outcry
Because of items 1 and 2 above, Mayor
French, City Manager Pickup and City Attorney Wilson were referred to the City of Rye
Board of Ethics. That committee met initially
and quickly dismissed the complaint over standing and jurisdiction matters. By virtue of that
dismissal (known locally as “The Punt”) the
Board and the implicated officials were confronted with a sharp public outcry due to the
perception that the process was a superficial attempt to ignore the issues.
So, in an effort to once again fool the general public about the true nature of the violations,
Mayor French requested that his handpicked
Deputy Mayor Peter Jovanovich re- issue a newly framed ethics complaint back to the Board of
Ethics. At this session, City Manager Pickup
and City Attorney Wilson released a factually
and inaccurate composed “timeline” of events
to the members. This subsequently FOILed
timeline is so misleading and contains substantially vast omissions that it can only be seen a last
ditch effort to once again protect Mayor French,
Mr. Pickup and Ms. Wilson against charges of
wrongdoing and preferential treatment. This
almost farcical second go round or “Do Over”
went over worse with the public than the first
time and led to other council members questioning the sincerity of the process, its lack of
transparency, it’s apparent and factual conflicts
of interest and thus the need for an immediate
independent investigation as provided for in the
Rye City Code. The Mayor then publically and
heatedly questioned the motives of other sitting
council members and a verbal donnybrook broke
out live on Rye TV.
Item 4 – Former Rye High Track Star
and Current Rye City Employee Blows
the Whistle on Repeated Lies to Public
Speaking of Rye TV, the above items were
soon eclipsed after Andrew Dapolite, a Rye City
Cable TV employee and Rye native stepped
forward to expose City Manager Pickup and
Dapolite’s direct supervisor Nicole Levitsky for
jointly deceiving the City Council about the
existence of a recording of a contentious public
meeting with members of the Rye City Fire
Department. In a formal private letter to the
City Council, Dapolite claimed Mr. Pickup and
Ms. Levitsky conspired to deceive the Rye City
Council into believing that the meeting was not
recorded - when secretly in fact it was. Levitsky
was quoted by Dapolite in his letter as saying
“Part of the job is bullshitting people at Council
meetings.” Astonishingly, only a few days after it
was delivered to the City Council, Dapolite’s private letter was leaked to The Rye Record – which
happens to be owned by Deputy Mayor Peter
Jovanovich’s wife. Dapolite stated “It was never
his intension to release the letter to the public.”
Dapolite has requested a separate investigation
into the actions of both City Manager Pickup
and Cable TV coordinator Levitsky. As of this
writing this matter is still awaiting City Council
action. We’ll bring you up to date as these stories
evolve.
Ray Tartaglione is the head of www.HEALtheHARBOR.com.
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
152 Minutes to Paradise
Paradise: Nearer Than You Think
Flying to the Bahamas is a Breeze
By BARBARA BARTON SLOANE
For the perfect (and quick) escape from the cold, JetBlue
has recently launched the only
international flight out of New
York’s Westchester County
Airport (HPN) with daily nonstop service to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS). I had
the pleasure of experiencing this flight and was
thrilled to find that it took just 2 ½ hours or 152
comfortable and happy minutes to arrive at my
destination. I happen to be a big fan of JetBlue. I
love everything from their smooth leather seats,
the two-across seating conformation, and especially the great movies and TV channels, which
make the time fly. For this white-knuckle flyer,
that’s a particularly meaningful reward.
Fish embraced by a sea rod, Bahamas, courtesy of
Lonely Planet.
Sunset on Paradise Island, Bahamas, courtesy of
Sloane Travel Photography.
Local Lady and her home, Bahamas, courtesy of
Lonely Planet.
This get-away involved yet another pleasure:
my hotel was at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. Inspired by the lost city of Atlantis,
it is an unbelievable playground built for couples,
families and friends. Atlantis delivers everything
you need on a grand scale from world-class dining, entertainment, a children’s club, a casino, and
splendid accommodations. From Aquaventure’s
mind-racing water slides to the Mandara Spa’s
rejuvenating treatments and high-end boutique
shopping, it’s all here. There are 3,700 (gulp!)
guest rooms and suites in six hotels on the property, comprised of the Royal Towers, the Coral
Towers, the Beach Tower, Cove Atlantis, Reef
Atlantis and the Harborside Resort.
I stayed at Cove Atlantis which sits atop two
of the most beautiful beaches in the world and
is replete with stunning water features. It seems
as though the mesmerizing sound of water continually surrounds you – splashing, splattering,
Page 19
LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
152 Minutes to Paradise
coursing and gurgling in waterfalls, pools and
meandering rivers – and all of this set in this hotel’s balmy, open-air lobby! My room overlooked
the ocean and as it was on a high floor, I could
see almost forever, including most of the Atlantis
property – a scene so overwhelming that I was
drawn to the balcony several times a day. At
dawn, the property looked pink and gold, in the
evening purple and mauve, and late at night, the
millions of lights of Atlantis sparkled in the dark.
Riding the Rapids
Amazing activities abound at Atlantis and
one that I enjoyed was plunging into the Lazy
River Ride. We floated gently along a quarter
mile “river” in large tubes and it was tranquil and
relaxing – until it wasn’t. Unexpectedly, our lazy
river spilled into another waterway called The
Current and we were propelled along lush, tropical foliage amid roiling water, rolling waves and
extreme rapids powered by master blaster technology. Short of genuine white water rafting, for
my part, this ride fit the bill quite adequately.
Making a Smooth Acquaintance
Paradise Island has a host of adorable resident Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins and, to me,
the Dolphin Cay Shallow Water Interaction
sounded good (read safe): shallow water interaction - just my speed. And it was! We waded into
waist-deep water to meet our dolphin friend
“Hercules,” a 14-year-old, very lively guy just
itching to show us his tricks. He did a swim-by
at breakneck speed, another swim-by flipping
his tail up and down crazily and splashing water in our faces, leaping straight up in the air to
unbelievable heights, and finally settling down to
allow us to stroke his ultra-smooth, rubbery body
and to put our arms around him and engage in a
friendly kiss – or two or three.
Beguiling Bahamas
Nassau, Bahamas is comfortable and easy. I
found that I had an instant sense of belonging and
my departure from everyday life led to my arrival
at an extraordinary destination. The Bahamian
people are friendly and welcoming, and there is, at
once, a feeling of international glamour and tropical ease, accompanied by the freedom to do everything or nothing at all. Leaving the Bahamas was
hard, but returning will be as smooth and slick as
Hercules – thanks to JetBlue and their nonstops
from the Westchester Airport.
If You Go:
JetBlue Airlines
www.JetBlue.com
Bahamas information
www.bahamas.com/nassau
Atlantis Resort
www.atlantis.com
Travel Editor Barbara Barton Sloane is constantly
globe-hopping to share her unique experiences with
our readers; from the exotic to the sublime. As Beauty
/ Fashion Editor she keeps us informed on the capricious and engaging fashion and beauty scene.
EYE ON THEATRE
Driving Licentious
Michael Bodeen.
The chorus parts are serviceably taken by
Kevin Cahoon, Jennifer Regan, and Marnie
Schulenburg, although it is hard for young Ms.
Schulenburg to do the Grandmother, and Ms.
Regan may overdo restraint in portraying Peck’s
forgiving wife. Watching this production is like
observing some guests at a dinner party flagrantly
misbehaving: one does not approve, but cannot
help being fascinated.
By JOHN SIMON
As I read my review of the
original 90s production of
Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned
to Drive,” it strikes me that the
current revival at the Second
Stage Theatre may be somewhat changed. But memory
plays tricks—mine is a virtuoso trickster—and it
may just be the quality of the production that has
changed. In any case, the play about a pedophile,
Uncle Peck, and his niece by marriage, Li’l Bit, is
still both interesting and unsatisfactory.
The most striking aspect, though not its best,
is the freewheeling treatment of time. Like a manhandled car, it sputters between drive and reverse
and goes neither fully forward nor fully backward
(like the recently revived musical “Merrily We
Roll Along”). As I wrote at the time, it indulges
in much gear-shifting and frequent stops, catching Li’l Bit at various ages between 11 and 35 in
seemingly no particular order. Though this may
give it avant-garde cachet, it makes it even harder
for us to care about the two principal characters,
who are not all that sympathetic to begin with.
Even more provocative, although not particularly involving, is the introduction of three other
actors Vogel labels Male Greek Chorus, Female
Greek Chorus, and Teenage Greek Chorus, the
nomenclature implying that she views the play as
a Greek tragedy, a view the rest of us, with the best
intentions, cannot share. In fact, this trio, whose
members also assume diverse individual roles—
most notably Uncle Peck’s wife and Li’l Bit’s
mother and grandparents—cannot escape coming across most of the time as caricatures, which
further unbalances the proceedings.
The solicitude with which Peck teaches the
underage girl to drive is not without interest, in
that it blends instruction with seduction, challenging us to note how good mixes with bad.That
the girl proves, until the big reversal in the end, a
rather willing victim, in a seduction consummated
Kevin Cahoon, Marine Schulenburg, Norbert
Leo Butz as Uncle Peck, Jennifer Regan and
Elizabeth Reaser as Li’l Bit in How I Learned
to Drive.
(if that is the right term) fully clothed, also elicits
speculation from the audience.
But other things are too puzzling. For instance, a scene in which, while Lil’Bit sleeps stage
right, Peck, stage left, patiently teaches an unseen
little boy how to fish for pompano. This may be
intended to show Peck’s good side, but instead
tends to have us wondering what strange dreams
Li’l Bit is having.
Even more troubling for those of us who remember the original production is how much superior it was.The girl was the incomparable Mary
Louis Parker, arguably the American actress who
best melds physical beauty with histrionic talent;
and Peck was played by David Morse, who seamlessly fused the caring and the ominous.
Now we have Norbert Leo Butz, one of our
very best actors, as Peck, well enough done yet
somehow actorish, making certain transitions too
emphatic, too calculated, not wholly natural. This
is the sort of thing that defies easy description, and
can be fully felt only in the viewing.
As for Elizabeth Reaser, I get something
tough and forbidding in her physical appearance,
which her performance that trowels on every
known cliché of juvenile behavior does not mitigate. She does, however, possess the requisite big
bosom in incontrovertible abundance. What may
be less evident is the wisdom of Kate Whoriskey’s
direction; she overloads the caricatural aspect of
the chorus, turning Greeks into geeks.
Jennifer Regan, Elizabeth Reaser as Li’l Bit and
Marine Schulenburg in How I Learned to Drive.
Derek McLane replicates the set of the original production: a pleasant landscape with rows of
rather delicate street lights lining the sides and
a bucolic backdrop, with bits of needed props
boldly carried onstage. Jenny Mannis’s costumes
are idiomatic, but the gifted Peter Kaczorowski’s
lighting does get out of hand in one scene with
a fanciful polka-dot effect. Discreet background
music is exemplarily devised by Rob Milburn and
TICKET PRICES INCLUDE
A COMPLETE MEAL & SHOW
Photos by and courtesy of Jenny Anderson / © Broadway.com.
John Simon has written for over 50 years on theatre,
film, literature, music and fine arts for the Hudson
Review, New Leader, New Criterion, National
Review,New York Magazine, Opera News, Weekly
Standard, Broadway.com and Bloomberg News.
Mr. Simon holds a PhD from Harvard University
in Comparative Literature and has taught at MIT,
Harvard University, Bard College and Marymount
Manhattan College.
To learn more, visit the JohnSimon-Uncensored.com
THE NEW GERSHWIN MUSICAL
“I GOT RHYTHM” • “SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME”
“LET’S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF” • “EMBRACEABLE YOU”
ON STAGE THRU MARCH 25
Westchester Broadway Theatre Group
WBT_theatre
IRISH MUSIC,
LAUGHTER, SONG
AND DANCE!
Comic NOEL V. GINNITY
plus Irish entertainers!
TUES., MARCH 6
MATINEE & EVENING SHOW
Page 20
GovernmentSection
THE ALBANY CORRESPONDENT
Pensions and Redistricting and the Cuomo Whip
By CARLOS GONZALEZ
ALBANY, NY -- A key battle
is shaping up in the Capitol and
it’s over pension benefits for new
government workers.
Though the Senate and Assembly are on mid-winter break
until Wednesday, Cuomo reminded reporters of his vow to enact a new pension tier that would provide less generous benefits
to new employees.
Cuomo insisted that pension reform must be
part of the state budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year,
which starts April 1.
The effort to curb rising pension costs for
state and local governments pits Cuomo squarely
against special interests.
“You have special interests that give a lot of
money to politicians in Albany,” Cuomo said
Thursday. “This is them saying to the politicians,
‘We want you to do this for us.’I’m saying to them,
‘I want you to do this for the taxpayers.”’
Unions and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli,
who oversees the state’s $140 billion pension fund,
have protested the changes. Cuomo said the issue
could force a government shutdown if pension reform isn’t agreed to by the time the budget is due.
Now we’ve seen a near government shutdown before. It came close under the Paterson
administration.
Danny Donohue, president of the Civil
GOVERNMENT
Take the Metro North Survey
Service Employees Association, chimed in. He
accused the governor of trying to attack the
middle class. He said the average pension for the
265,000-member union is about $19,000.
Donohue’s comments bear merit. If Cuomo
wants to stop pension abuse, it shouldn’t come at
the expense of those earning a small pension in
retirement.
“Anybody making $100,000 from a pension
is abusing the system,” Donohue said. “Anybody
making between $13,000 and $19,000 is not.”
Cuomo is proposing a new Tier VI pension
level that would increase contributions from 3
percent of a new employee’s salary to as much as 6
percent. The retirement age would increase from
62 to 65.
The governor would also exclude overtime
and other lump-sum payments from an employee’s final average salary -- cracking down on
the pension padding. His plan is estimated to save
governments outside of New York City $83 billion over 30 years.
Perhaps the most controversial component
from all of this would be to create a 401k-type
option for new employees. DiNapoli has warned
that the pension system shouldn’t be moved that
route. He said it would add costs to employees and
add financial risk for retirees.
“I stand firmly behind my position that defined contribution plans are not adequate for retirement security for public or private workers,”
MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN
The Metro North Survey is only accessible online. What’s your opinion?The hyperlink
is:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/
mem/?ad=91&sh=story&story=46370
George Latimer, NYS Assemblyman, represents the communities in the 91st A.D.
REDISTRICTING WHIPPING
Cuomo’s not happy with the legislature. On
Thursday, February 23rd, he unleashed a teethgrinding attack on state lawmakers, just stopping
short of calling them hypocrites for their approach
to redistricting.
Cuomo fumed that he has had enough of
what he called the “political theater” surrounding
the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative district
boundaries.
The whipping was mostly at Senate Democrats for a letter first reported Thursday by the
New York Daily News in which the minority
urged him to veto the redistricting proposals created by the majorities in both chambers.
I am pleased to share good
news on two fronts regarding
the health of Village finances.
The first concerns our
efforts to “rehabilitate” the
Village’s fund balance to an
optimal level as explained in
the Village’s financial statements for the fiscal
year ended May 31, 2011. Our audit was prepared by O’Connor Davies Munns & Dobbins
of Harrison, NY, and is available for inspection
at Village Hall.
The second piece of “good news” came from
Moody’s Investor Services, which after careful
review has certified the Village of Bronxville as
an Aaa rated entity, the highest we can attain.
Neighboring Scarsdale comes to mind as one of
the few other Villages with this distinction.
Much of our good fortune is thanks to
the dedication of our Treasurer’s staff, with the
collaboration of our volunteer Village Finance
Senate Democrats state they have enough
votes to protect Cuomo’s veto should Senate Republicans attempt an override.
Nevertheless, an irritated Cuomo questioned
why his fellow Dems didn’t manage to pass an
independently crafted redistricting bill during the
two years they held a majority in the chamber.
“Because they were in power,” Cuomo said.
He also asked why the Senate Democrats
have not exerted more pressure on their “buddies”
in the Democrat-controlled Assembly to refrain
from passing redistricting models that are not independently drawn.
“You want me to veto the bill?” Cuomo said
bitterly. “Don’t pass the bill.”
The problem we see with all of this is that it’s
obvious the Senate Democrats have enough votes
to protect a veto.
So why the letter and why release it to the
press? To grandstand, I suppose. Why wouldn’t
Senate Minority Leader John Sampson walk into
Cuomo’s office and keep such strategies internal
until necessary?
We don’t know. After Cuomo’s whipping,
many are ducking from commenting.
“Indirectly, the letter may have been considered a slap in the face to the governor, who in
return slapped them back with two hands,” said
a former senior staffer to the Senate Democrats.
Share your thoughts with Carlos Gonzalez, The
Albany Correspondent, by directing email to [email protected].
GOVERNMENT
Resuscitated Fund Balance and Aaa Bond Rating
By MARY C. MARVIN
By GEORGE LATIMER
DiNapoli said in a statement last week.
Donohue said a 401k system could lead to
deficits in the pension system. New employees
would be contributing to their own 401k and not
to the state, potentially leaving a hole for current
retirees.
Cuomo said a 401k system would be optional for new employees and a small component
of the pension savings.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon / Yonkers, said the state has yet to realize the
benefits of Tier V -- a pension plan adopted in
2009 that lessened benefits for new public employees.That plan was expected to save $35 billion
over 30 years.
“We’re still trying to see if Tier V is working right. I think we should tread slowly on this,”
Pretlow said.
Well said, Pretlow.
Committee chaired by Deputy Mayor, Bob Underhill. Other members of this august body include Don Gogel, Louis Parks, Leighton Welch,
Ed Forst and Trustee Donald Gray. Resident
Mary Hoch was just recently appointed to
round out the committee.
At the Finance Committee’s recent meeting, the auditor led a line by line discussion of the
financial performance of Village government for
the financial year ended May 31, 2011.
The Trustees and I believe it is imperative to
have fresh, astute and impartial eyes review our
fiscal decision-making. Outside resident experts
bring a perspective that is often different from
that of the elected officials and staff who are immersed in it at a micro level.
As an overview, the Trustees and I completed two consecutive years of producing a budget
that did not raise property tax levies. Due to the
very precarious financial times, in addition to
the back- to- back 0% tax levy increases, we also
chose to suspend financing on a capital improvement program.
Though we believed this austerity program
to be both prudent and necessary, it did put
a strain on our fund balance. In order to reach
the 0% tax levy increases, while at the same time
absorbing State unfunded mandates equating to
an approximately 4% tax increase, we had to dip
deeply into reserves.
Though both the Finance Committee and
the auditors appreciated the frugality, they urged
us going forward to concentrate on finding additional revenue sources and cost savings to shore
up our fund balance, as the amount in fund balance is a major driver in bond rating determination.
We heeded their advice and took a hard
look at every budget line item and Village service levels.
Our single largest initiative was a decision
to change healthcare providers for both Village
employees and retirees.The switch from our selfinsurance POMCO plan to the New York State
Empire Health Program helped bring our fund
balance back from $1,626,263 to the current
level of $2,147,178 or 15.8% of our current
MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN
Page 21
GOVERNMENT
Resuscitated Fund Balance and Aaa Bond Rating
total budget. As a guidepost to maintaining our
Aaa bond rating fund balance should remain in
the range of 14% to 24% of a yearly total budget. Unfortunately, the aggregate savings of approximately $520,915 last year was the result of
finding several “one shot” infusions of cash that
will not be repeated. It was by no means a surplus, rather a replenishment of a depleted fund
balance to prove to our rating agencies that the
Village is run well.
The healthy fund balance dovetails with our
second piece of positive financial news.
After several years of funding a meager or
no capital improvement plan, the Trustees and I
thought it advantageous to create a capital fund
for infrastructure repairs, given the unusually inexpensive cost of borrowing money at this juncture. We also need to pave more streets, upgrade
the Department of Public Works equipment
and rotate police cars. We are also designating a significant amount of capital funding for
a flood mitigation program. As a result, at the
October 2011 Board of Trustees meeting we ap-
proved a capital improvement program totaling
$2,450,000. This amount was added to our current outstanding debt of $1,225,000 and rolled
together to be put up for a bond sale.
Prior to any bond sale, the Village is interviewed by a prominent rating agency to determine a rate. Obviously, the better the rating and
the less indication of risk results in a lower interest rate for borrowing. After a thorough scrutiny
of our finances, Moody’s awarded us the coveted
triple A bond rating, allowing us to take advantage of the lowest possible interest rates.
Due to the economic climate coupled with
crushing New York State unfunded mandates,
Village’s have become fragile financial entities that required careful stewardship to remain
afloat. I thank my fellow Trustees, the Village
Finance Committee and our professional staff
for their constant vigilance. Prudence, frugality and careful planning will continue to be our
guideposts as we begin to tackle the 2012-2013
Village budget.
will review over the next few months.
the Police union whose contract expired at the
end of 2008.
Mary C. Marvin is the mayor of the Village of
Bronxville, New York. If you have a suggestion or
comment, consider directing your perspective by
email to: [email protected].
FRENCH ON RYE
City Council Updates
Transfer Tax Consideration
A Decaying Infrastructure May Lead to a November Bond Referendum
By DOUGLAS FRENCH
behind the Bowman Avenue spillway.
Just as the Rye City School District is grappling with its long-term
planning issues and an expanding student enrollment, the City
Government is also facing major
capital needs with a crumbling
infrastructure to include roads, sidewalks, sewers,
storm drains and flood mitigation needs. By City
Charter, any public referendum on City matters
must be held on Election Day and so the City is
targeting Election Day 2012 as a potential date
to go out for bond. The City is in dire need of
making repairs and improvements to the infrastructure that has been neglected for quite some
time. Should the Council decide to move to a
bond vote, the Council is in full agreement that
only critical projects tied to the general safety and
well-being of the public should be included. An
initial rough estimate would range the total cost of
the bond from $5M to $10M in projects depending on the assessment the Council has asked to be
conducted and reviewed with the public over the
next 6 months. The key project for flood mitigation would be the expansion of the Upper Pond
There are three phases the City is undertaking in its review of the organization of the Fire
Department. The first is a legislative step as the
Council has set a date for February 29th for a
public hearing on a change to the City Charter
for the Board of Wardens and the volunteer firemen to report to and work in conjunction with
the City Manager as opposed to the relationship
now whereby the City Manager is only advisory
to the Board of Wardens. This is an important
step in creating greater organizational alignment
with the career firemen and volunteers who currently have separate reporting structures. This follows a year of discussions with key stakeholders to
include the Fire Chiefs, volunteers, career personnel, and the Board of Wardens. The second phase
is an interim transition plan with the mandated
retirement of the Fire Inspector and how best the
City can maintain those services. The last phase
is to determine the best long-term organization
design, which could include a Director of Public
Safety or other possible scenarios that Council
Public Hearing on Organizational
Alignment of the Rye Fire Department
The City continues to look at many ways to
offset property taxes while maintaining the level
of services and facilities that keep the quality of
life and property values high in Rye. One item
for consideration is to seek from New York State
home rule authority for a transfer tax on the sale
of real estate of 1% on all cash sales of homes
that are over $1M. It is estimated that there were
$65M in home sales with that criteria in 2011.
Currently the City receives 1% on mortgage
taxes but nothing on all cash sales, which is a
growing trend, and other Cities in Westchester
have the tax in place.
Funding for the Rye Free Reading Room
Labor Negotiations
As part of its annual Inter-Municipal
Agreement with the Rye Free Reading Room
to contribute $1,080,000 to furnish library services, the City requested last year that it also
assist in labor negotiations for the library. The
labor agreement between the library and the
Communication Workers of America expired
at the end of 2011. The City’s agreement with
its Fire union has been expired since the end of
2009 and the City is currently in arbitration with
Appointments Made to the Newly
Formed Rye Flood Committee
At the last Council meeting, I appointed
the following individuals who were confirmed
by the Council to serve on the newly formed
committee: Rafael Elias-Linero (Chair), Larry
Lehman (Vice-Chair), Annette Guarino,
Dean Neely, Richard Mecca, Bernie Althoff,
and Holly Kennedy. The role of the flood committee is to advise the Council and assist the
City in the implementation of the City’s flood
mitigation plan, to educate residents on personal
flood mitigation measures, to monitor land-use
development upstream and surrounding areas
and study their impact on storm-water as well
as to look at potential legislation and funding
options. The City’s first flood mitigation project,
the Bowman Sluice Gate should be going out
for bid in March now that all permits, approvals,
funding and Inter-Municipal Agreements have
been secured.
For more information on these matters, visit the City
of Rye Website at www.ryeny.gov or contact me,
your City Council members or the City Manager.
The next City Council meeting is scheduled for February 29th. Douglas French is themayor of the Town
of Rye: [email protected]
GOVERNMENT
Addressing Rye Inspector Eckman Over Rye Mayor French’s 13 Richard Place Home
By RAY TARTAGLIONE
On January 25th, I requested the
Building Department investigate
the installation of a new heating system at Mayor French’s 13
Richard Place rental property.
According to the mayor’s documentation he installed a new
heating system between 1995 and 1997. According to responses from my recent (Freedom
of Information Law) FOIL requests, no permits
were issued by the City of Rye relative to that
installation. Although I did receive an immedi-
ate response from inspector Dianni specifically
addressing the oil tank, as of this date, I have not
received a response from the building Department referencing the non-permitted installation
of the new heating system and addressing my
complaint. If you could please advise as to where
my compliant presently stands in the process.
A review of Mayor Douglas French’s recently released 1992 MLS listing sheet linked
below, http://www.myrye.com/2012RyeCityGo
vernmentOther/1992HomeListing.pdf, displays
his rental property, located at 13 Richard Place,
Rye, NY 10580, had an oil fuel / hot water heating system in 1992 which is consistent with the
city’s assessorís records. However, the mayor’s
most recent MLS listing sheet from 2011 linked
below, http://healtheharbor.com/french/MLSlisting-French.pdf, reflects that the home’s heating system has been changed to a gas fuel / hot
air system with no permits or approvals for such
work found in building department records that I
have recently foiled.
This would seem to be an apparent violation
of Building Code Chapter 68-12(C), which states
in part,“No alteration in existing oil or gas heating
installation, HVAC or an electrical installation,
for which a permit has been issued, shall be made
without the inspection and approval of the Build-
ing Inspector.”
At this time I would formally request a
Building Department investigation into the
above. I would also request the Building Department investigate the removal, disposal, filling or
remediation of the oil tank at the same location
for the aforementioned fuel oil system. Please be
advised I have forwarded this e-mail to Mr. Edward Moore at The Department of Environmental Conservation Region 3 for their oversight and
involvement.
This would seem to be an apparent violation
of Building Code 98-70 which states “Tanks
Page 22
GOVERNMENT
Addressing Rye Inspector Eckman
Over Rye Mayor French’s 13
Richard Place Home
Yonkers City Clerk Joan Deierlein to Retire
abandoned by replacement or otherwise shall be
removed, or, upon approval of the Board of Fire
Wardens, their lines may be disconnected and
capped and the tanks filled with sand. Tanks not
to be used for a period not to exceed one year or
more shall be filled with water and lines capped.”
I would respectfully request a return response
after a determination has been made of the above.
Thanking you in advance for your efforts.
YONKERS, NY -- Yonkers
Tribune / The Westchester Guardian sources have
learned Yonkers City Clerk
Joan Deierlein (Republican)
will step down after approximately four decades as
a civil servant; two decades of which are as a
city clerk.
Her departure leaves Deputy Clerk Vincent Spano (Conservative) the only person in
the Clerk’s Office with experience.
The Yonkers City Clerk’s Office permits
Learn more about Ray Tartaglione at the
www.HEALtheHARBOR.com Website, and
view the following: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=xKM6N1Nj27s
By HEZI ARIS
representation from a maximum of three political appointees with the three largest vote
getting parties permitted to designate one
qualified individual.
One should expect a Democratic nominee and a Republican nominee to be entered
for consideration by the Yonkers City Council
membership.
On the Democratic side of the equation
the YT / WG are hearing that Symra Brandon, Yonkers Democratic City Committee
Chair, Patricia McDow, recently term-limited Yonkers City Council Majority Leader,
and Rachelle “Rocky” Richard, Yonkers City
Council President Chuck Lesnick’s Chief of
Staff. are in serious contention.
On the Republican side of the equation,
the name of former Yonkers City Councilwoman (6th District) is regarded a favorite
contender, as is David Tubiolo, son of Justin
Tubiolo, 9th Ward GOP Leader.
With the Democrats holding the majority, it is likely the Democratic nominee,
once designated, would accede to Yonkers
City Clerk. Protocol would have the present
Deputy Clerk, Vincent Spano, moved to 1st
Deputy Clerk, and the Republican, accede to
2nd Deputy Clerk.
OpEdSection
Praised for Pledging to Enact Term Limits Legislation for Congress
By MARK ROSEN
Term limits is a concept whose
time has come. It is only fitting to underscore this message
during this President’s Day
weekend, when our greatest
Presidents exemplified the concept of serving
the public good over narrow, special interests.
Over the years, we have seen an erosion of
the concept of the citizen legislator, with career politicians now ensconced in Congress.
The incentive structure has gotten all twisted
with self-created incumbency advantage
mixed with an obscene set of perks, including
exorbitant pension and health care benefits
not available to the average citizen, causing
a condition where few are willing to take on
the real and hard problems. A dysfunctional
Congress is the end result.
I publicly commit to achieving passage
of a term limits amendment and put my
personal reputation on the line to assisting
in leading and seeing passage of that amendment. Passage of a term limit amendment
is directly related to driving an effective,
pro-growth agenda, which is my top priority when I am elected to Congress. Career
Congresspersons are so worried about reelection and so beholden to narrow special
interests that they fail to lead and drive real,
creative and effective solutions for the issues
that matter--such as growth and prosperity
for Americans. That kind of work is hard and
doesn’t grab the big headlines like various
symbolic issues that career politicians glom
onto to drive wedges between voters and
grab a headline or two. Bottom line, governing for the public good is hard, unglamorous
work and requires perseverance and moral
courage. Sometimes doing the right thing
for the public good requires taking political
risk. Many people enter Congress with good
intentions of doing good works, but somehow many forget why they entered. The only
lasting result from the continuous reelection
politics and making of false, unsustainable
promises is a mountain of debt to be passed
onto our children. Term limits will cut the
incentive structure cord to a career in Congress so Congresspersons can focus on what
matters, take risk, and do the right thing for
our children and grandchildren.
“While I believe Congresswoman Nita
Lowey is a well-meaning public servant, she
is also a career politician, currently in her
24th year in Congress, who has not provided
leadership in delivering creative and effective solutions for the challenges of our time.
We have significant challenges in economic
growth, jobs, spending, debt, tax policy,
regulatory overreach, education, energy and
healthcare. More of the same, ever-expanding spending on current programs without
that surrounded the Forest City Ratner for
bringing about the Ridge Hill Development is telling.
While many in the media have drawn
the conclusion that both Ms Annabi and
Mr Jereis are guilty of corruption, among
other charges, the Yonkers Tribune / The
Westchester Guardian have not. The facts
have yet to be fully presented. The government is still in the process of making their
case. It is not yet completed. The defendants
have not had their turn at fully responding
to the charges promulgated against them. It
would be irresponsible to steer toward one
possible conclusion over another. Yet a cry
for blood is heard throughout many sectors
of the city.
The lust for blood intensifies with greater passion after one witness or another utters an expression of so-called “fact.” Why
should any community be so quick to cry for
blood when many years have elapsed since
after these alleged situations happened? Are
the witnesses now being called rewriting
structural changes and effective solutions
can only lead to an unsustainable safety
net, a continually anemic economy, and an
unforgiveable debt load and less promising
future for our children. We need leadership
and solutions, not more of the same career
maintenance.
While I support term limits, I have
also made clear to USTL that I do not believe three terms per member of the House
of Representatives is the correct number of
terms. I believe four or five terms is a better time frame. Six years is not enough. But,
if a Congressperson cannot contribute substantially within a time frame of eight to ten
years, they never will.
Editor’s Note: Mark Rosen was praised by
U.S. Term Limits (USTL) Organization
(http://www.ustl.org/) for his pledge to enact
term limits for Congress in order to restore citizen legislators and eliminate career politicians.
Learn more: Mark Rosen for Congress –
www.MarkRosenForCongress.com.
hezitorial
A Cry for Blood
By HEZI ARIS
The federal corruption
trial of former Yonkers City
Council Majority Leader
Sandy Annabi and former
Yonkers GOP Chairman
Zehy Jereis with regard to
the political shenanigans
the “facts” and why have they been silent in
their telling of the “truth” all these years?
In the case of Ms Annabi having
changed her initial non-support of the
Ridge Hill Development project to eventually casting the deciding vote to move it
ahead, let’s look at what transpired so far,
assuming the “facts” are on target.
Forest City Ratner (FCR), having
been incapable of persuading enough Yonkers City Councilmembers to endorse the
Page 23
hezitorial
A Cry for Blood
project, are now labeled and recognized as
political manipulators who incorporated
lobbyists who were alleged to cajole or coerce their target, in this case, Ms Annabi, to
have her capitulate to endorsing their project by casting her vote for the project.
Among the allegations are Mr Jereis’
professed infatuation with Ms Annabi and
his being approached by FCR and other
lobbyists to direct Ms Annabi’s attention
to resolve to endorse the Ridge Hill Development project. Only a man, would believe
another man, that he has sway over the conduct of a woman. Ask a woman that, and
she will laugh in your face. The reality is
that every woman, just as every man, can be
reasoned with; most people are not manipulated. To imply otherwise besmirches those
who suggest it.
For FCR to devise a plot that would
undermine the Yonkers City Council by
extorting a vote with bribes of money and
jewelry, among other so-called “benefits,” is
outrageous, no matter who the conduits to
this ploy were. Why is FCR, the developer
that may be regarded as too big to not get
their way be afforded “rights” outside the
parameters expected of all individuals and
corporations that are permitted access to the
representatives of The People?
Why does the system we have created
nationally, not just here in Yonkers, be per-
mitted to continue unabated in its ability to
allegedly “corrupt” elected officials? Why are
lobbyists permitted access and favor when
they are presumed to only be permitted
to give expression and voice to the project
they promote? Can any project be presumed
valuable to a community if every aspect of
the project is not met? Does society suffer
flawed projects by permitting developers
access to those in government expected to
speak for the public good? The physical imprint of a project must be judged, as well as
the financial investment, and the return on
investment validated. Nowhere should lobbyists, special interests, or political agendas
be permitted to intrude. What should or
should not be is the reality whose world we
inhabit. It seems little is as we thought.
On the face of it, we expect a fair and
level playing field. We expect developers
to be open with the facts and we expect
elected government officials, and the surrogates under their charge, to scrutinize
facts and proceed when everything has been
verified. Reality is different. In Yonkers and
elsewhere, heads are often turned by the assumed clout of politicians, lobbyists, elected
officials, and those that can afford to pay for
someone’s dinner, purchase them a car, or
adorn them with jewelry.
Will the “facts,” as they are “told,” redefine the manner by which society accepts
these processes? Is the task of changing the
methodology and the people permitted access be curtailed to bring the process in line
with what may be accepted as a ”norm” we
can abide? Do we begrudge these two defendants because of their youth, ethnicity,
religion, success, or cerebral prowess?
Why is former Yonkers Mayor Phil
Amicone not on the witness list? Didn’t the
“buck stop” at his office? Didn’t he bring
the likes of FCR, Melio Management, and
Capelli Enterprises to Yonkers? Aren’t they
“his” boys?
Will Phil Amicone answer for all the
corruption surrounding his tenure in office? He had his hand in everything that
transpired over 16 years of governance. He
is getting off without a word. He is not on
the list of expected people to testify before
the federal court.
The reality is that it is easy to focus
on Ms Annabi and Mr Jereis because they
seem too weak and too inconsequential to
matter if they are thrown in as sacrificial
lambs to those who scream for their hide.
Judge as you please while reflecting that
many will be burned at the stake to deflect
attention from the likes of former Mayor
Phil Amicone who created a distorted environment and culture within Yonkers City
Hall, which was, and still retains much of
the corruption that is spoken about but to
which little attention will be paid. There is
simply too much to cover up and protect.
I pray that the construct, tenets, and
regimentation of the law, as it is decreed for
us to abide by will be a comforting overlay
to the common sensibilities of The People
for which the court will rule.
Until then, I will believe that the two
defendants are innocent. Should they be
found otherwise, I will submit to a reality
that does not wish to delve into the complexity of this “mess,” because it is easier to
make a show of those we shunned for what
I believe are the wrong reasons. The verdict
they receive will give wider berth to those
too big to tackle and diminish the value of
those caught in the backroom connivances.
Those that plot will continue to have their
way unabated; the rest of us will be singed
by their greed and lawlessness.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Please submit your Letter to the Editor electronically, that is by directing
email to [email protected] Please confine your writing to between
350 and 500 words. Your name, address, and telephone contact is
requested for verification purpose only. A Letter to the Editor will be
accepted at the editor’s discretion when space permits.
A maximum of one submission per month may be accepted.
ED KOCH COMMENTARY
Mugging in Paradise
By EDWARD I. KOCH
Justice Stephen Breyer, a
member of the liberal wing
of the U.S. Supreme Court,
has a vacation home on the
Caribbean paradise island
nation of Saint Kitts and
Nevis in the West Indies.
Last week the Times reported: “Justice
Breyer was in his vacation home with his
wife, Joanna, and guests when [a] man entered the home around 9 p.m. The man took
about $1,000 in cash and fled.”
I read elsewhere that the man was armed
with a machete and that the Justice and his
wife were playing bridge with guests.
The incident recalled for me the time I
was running for mayor of New York City.
The year was 1977. Crime was rampant at
the time in the city as opposed to today.
New York City now is probably the safest
big city in America with the lowest crime
rate in the country for big cities. One of the
street jokes back in the bad old days was
that a conservative was a liberal who had
just been mugged.
One night during the 1977 mayoral
campaign, I was scheduled to address a
group of senior citizens in the Bronx at
about 8:00 p.m. I was running late, as often
happens in every political campaign, and arrived closer to 10:00 p.m. I was aware that
the audience had waited for me, and I was
worried about their getting home safely. I
said in my opening remarks, “Ladies and
Gentlemen. We all know what the major issue is in this campaign. It is crime. A judge
I know who was recently mugged called a
press conference after the mugging and said
to the reporters, ‘This mugging of me will in
no way affect my decisions in matters of this
kind.’” An elderly lady immediately stood
up in the back of the room and said, “Then
mug him again.”
In those few words, she summed up
the outrage that most citizens felt. They resented the lack of common sense they saw
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Page 24
ED KOCH COMMENTARY
Mugging in Paradise
in those Continued from page charged with
the obligation of protecting the public, and
they felt as though they were often prisoners in their own homes, and nobody cared.
Ultimately, as a result of elections, government did get the message, and those
committing crimes of violence began to
be treated much more severely. Mandatory
sentencing laws were enacted taking discretion away from judges, and longer sentences
were imposed by the legislature.
Today, crime no longer the number one
issue on people’s minds, pressure has been
building to reduce sentences and eliminate
mandatory minimums imposed for many
violent crimes. Some editorial writers and
opinion makers criticize the U.S. for putting
so many people in prisons.
I believe it is those mandatory minimums that have been most responsible
for the reduction in violent crimes. Many
criminals are recidivists and two-thirds will
commit new crimes or engage in parole violations and be back in prison within three
years after their release. So keeping criminals sentenced for crimes of violence for
as long as is reasonably possible in prison
makes sense to me.
Nevertheless, I do believe that we have
gone much too far in our efforts to punish
the non-violent criminals by mandating
very long sentences for those who use hard
drugs – cocaine, heroin and meth – but who
are not involved in violent crime. I support
the efforts – successful in some states – to
reduce those sentences. I also believe that
we should allow the sealing of some criminal files of those who served their prison
time and are released. Where there was no
violence involved in their crime, and they
perform obligations such as getting their
General Equivalency Diploma (G.E.D.)
and stay out of trouble for 5 years, I support legislation that would seal their records so they can respond lawfully with a
“no” to the job application question, “Have
you ever been convicted of a crime?” Some
states already do this, e.g., New Jersey, Ohio,
Florida, Massachusetts and Washington,
D.C., and more should. Regrettably, New
York does not.
Young men who have non-violent criminal records find it very hard to obtain jobs
even in good economic times, let alone during recessions. And they find it harder to get
married because of their inability to support
a family. Their lack of family support leads
to recidivism.
It will be interesting to see whether and
how Justice Breyer’s judicial decisions are
impacted by the trauma of being threatened
by a machete wielding robber.
long-held doctrine that the U.S. must be
prepared to fight in two separate regions simultaneously. The possibility of a large scale
conflict with a powerful adversary such as
China or Russia apparently has been rejected.
The President also advocates a unilateral
and unprecedented 80% reduction of atomic
warheads. This would place the U.S. in a distant third place, behind Russia with its 6,000
warheads and on a par with China, leaving
America vulnerable to ongoing intimidation
from either of these powers as well as outright nuclear blackmail.
The proposal lowers U.S. nuclear strength
to 1950 levels. Strategically, this means that a
first strike by an adversary could easily wipe
out our arsenal, leaving the nation with no
choice but surrender.
As the President attempts to enact his
plan, Russia continues an ambitious military
modernization program. MILPLEX reports
that China will double its announced military budget within the next five years. North
Korea and Iran are also moving swiftly ahead
with their nuclear weapons programs.
In a bizarre twist, The Obama budget
also cuts funds from Homeland Security,
while increasing aid to Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt.
Last week, a group of military experts
assembled by former Assistant Secretary of
Defense Frank Gaffney noted that while the
proposed defense cuts will slash our military
capability, civilian DOD personnel will not
be affected. In other words, the fat will be
spared while muscle is cut.
In the past, proposals to substantially
reduce our national security posture would
face stiff Republican opposition. This year,
the Republican Party is diverted by a fierce
presidential primary battle, and it is being influenced by a small group of isolationists led
by Ron Paul.
The end result of this proposed reduction
to military spending may well cost far more
than it actually saves. The impact of 100,000
low paid soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen
returning home with very few available jobs
will produce more expense in unemployment checks and related benefits than will
be saved. The fragile industrial base may not
recover from the loss of military contracts.
Numerous contractors and subcontractors
will be forced out of business, destroying the
recession-proof tax revenue and jobs they
produce. Many of these businesses will close
forever, meaning that future administrations
would be powerless to undo the harm this
reckless attack on our safety would produce.
Historians remind us that it was the
pre-World War Two defense buildup that
actually began to end the Great Depression.
Gambling with our national safety is a poor
bet at any time; doing so in an era of economic crisis is even worse.
The Honorable Edward Irving Koch served as
a member of member of Congress from New
York State from 1969 through 1977, and New
York City as its 105th Mayor from 1978 to
1989.
OPED
Indefensible Decisions
By FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
Revenue-starved
Westchester County will lose up
to $18,002,128 in federal
spending in the coming years
as a result of the President’s
defense-related
decisions.
As a whole, New York State
could lose up to 27,000 jobs.
Although Defense spending accounts for
only 20% of the federal budget, The White
House has targeted the armed forces (which
have basically been deprived of adequate
supplies of new equipment since the end of
the Reagan era) to take 50% of all spending
cuts. It has also been leaked that a radical and
unilateral reduction in our nuclear defense
posture is being considered.
In his budget, Obama has rejected the
Contact Frank Vernuccio by directing email to:
[email protected].
THIS IS THE
FACE OF
A PERSON
AFFECTED BY
STROKE.
Whether the stroke is your own
or that of a friend, parent, child,
spouse or loved one, your life is
affected. So learn the warning signs
and call 9-1-1 immediately if you
or someone else experiences them.
Call 1-800-4STROKE or visit www.strokeassociation.org
Page 25
WEIR ONLY HUMAN
Weir Only Human
Always Follow the Money!
By BOB WEIR
It’s been said that all politics is local, meaning that a
politician’s success is directly
related to his ability to understand the issues of most
importance to his constituents, and to the best of his ability, carry out
their wishes. If the politician has principles,
carrying out those wishes is a no-brainer.
But, suppose the voters elected a congressman, mayor, sheriff, or other authority figure that had an “open mind” when it came
to making deals with wealthy companies
that swooped down over the local community with business projects that posed
severe discomfort, or potential hazard to
the residents? Big companies have big
checking accounts, hence are capable of
making significant contributions to campaign treasuries. Of course, the ethical
elected official will not be influenced one
iota by those who seek to buy the power
of his office. Nevertheless, he’s unlikely
to turn down those “donations” that don’t
seem to have any strings attached (at least
no strings he’d admit to).
Yet, you’d have to ask yourself why a
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company, or an individual, with business or
personal interests in the area would spend
money on someone who isn’t viewed as
sympathetic to their concerns. The answer
is; they wouldn’t. The problem we face in
selecting the best people to govern us is
the fact that running for office can be expensive. In some campaigns, the amount
of money spent is obscene. It’s a sad commentary on our culture that so many people are manipulated by political ads that
distort reality and send voters to the polls
with a twisted view of the candidates. One
way to change this exercise in mind manipulation is to level the playing field by
taking big money out of politics. Another
way is for the voters to be made aware of
whom the money donors are, and make
a judgment on the candidate’s credibility
based on whom he accepts money from.
No reasonable person objects to wealthy
people buying mansions, yachts, sports
cars, etc., those are retail items. However,
everyone should object to wealthy people
buying elections.
We often hear pundits talking about
money as a form of free speech. That’s utter nonsense (no pun intended)! If money
equals free speech, then it must be painfully evident that most Americans have
very limited access to that Constitutionprovided right, when compared to the
deep-pocketed fat-cats on Wall Street and
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K-Street. The same goes for voters in local
communities who may find themselves being influenced by well-financed campaigns
and ethically-challenged candidates who
have little compunction about filling their
treasuries with ill-gotten gains. Therefore,
if the voice of the people is to have any
meaning, it’s important that voters know
who’s contributing money to candidates
on every level of government. A gambler
will bet a bundle on a horse because he expects a significant return if it wins. Sadly,
the same often happens in political campaigns.
Example: suppose candidates A and
B are on opposite sides when it comes to
zoning changes in their city. If candidate A
is on record for supporting those changes
and has received large donations from a
business concern that seeks to build retail
stores in an area that is not zoned for them,
it seems obvious that the money is being
spent to buy access to the candidate’s vote.
Keep in mind; if it was a development favored by the local residents, there would
be no need to stuff the campaign coffers of
candidates who also favored the planned
projects. Hence, when large sums of cash
are injected into the contest, it’s usually
because of an attempt to thwart the will of
the people. In order to do so, voters must
be persuaded into believing that their best
interests are being served by the new ad-
ditions to their surrounding environment.
Very often, that persuasion comes from
advertising that promises increased revenue that would lessen the tax burden on
residents. What’s often left out of equation
is the fact that any revenue gained would
be more than offset by additional city services that would be required if said project
was built.
In the final analysis, we elect people
to represent us equally, not to favor those
who spend the most money putting them
in office. One way to deal with this usurpation of democracy is to allow voters to follow the money by requiring that campaign
contributions be reported publicly within
48 hours of receipt. When a voter goes to
the polls he/she should know which candidates are already bought and paid for.
Bob Weir is a veteran of 20 years with the
New York Police Dept. (NYPD), ten of which
were performed in plainclothes undercover assignments. Bob began a writing career about
12 years ago and had his first book published
in 1999. Bob went on to write and publish a
total of seven novels, “Murder in Black and
White,” “City to Die For,” “Powers that Be,”
“Ruthie’s Kids,” “Deadly to Love,” “Short Stories of Life and Death,” and “Out of Sight.”
He also became a syndicated columnist under
the title “Weir Only Human.”
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Page 26
The WesTchesTer Guardian
ThursdaY, FeBruarY
23, 2012MARCH 1, 2012
THURSDAY
L
E G A LNOTICES
NOTICE
LEGAL
CLASSIFIED ADS
Office Space Available-
Prime Location, Yorktown Heights
1,000 Sq. Ft.: $1800. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230
1100 Sq. Ft. Store $3100; 1266 Sq. Ft. store $2800 and 450 Sq. Ft.
Store $1200.
Suitable for any type of business. Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230
HELP WANTED
A non profit Performing Arts Center is seeking two job positions- 1) Director of Development- FT-must have a background in development or experience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experience working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Manager- must have a
good knowledge of computers/software/ticketing systems, duties include
overseeing all box office, concessions, movie staffing, day of show lobby
staffing such as Merchandise seller, bar sales. Must be familiar with POS
system and willing to organize concessions. Full time plus hours. Call (203)
438-5795 and ask for Julie or Allison
FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER
In the Matter of ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE
SUMMONS AND INQUEST NOTICE
Chelsea Thomas (d.o.b. 7/14/94),
A Child Under 21 Years of Age
Dkt Nos. NN-10514/15/16-10/12C
Adjudicated to be Neglected by
NN-2695/96-10/12B
FU No.: 22303
Tiffany Ray and Kenneth Thomas,
Respondents.
X
NOTICE: PLACEMENT OF YOUR CHILD IN FOSTER CARE MAY RESULT IN YOUR LOSS OF YOUR
RIGHTS TO YOUR CHILD. IF YOUR CHILD STAYS IN FOSTER CARE FOR 15 OF THE MOST RECENT
22 MONTHS, THE AGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED BY LAW TO FILE A PETITION TO TERMINATE
YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE
CHILD FOR THE PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, AND MAY FILE BEFORE THE END OF THE 15-MONTH
PERIOD.
UPON GOOD CAUSE, THE COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE NON-RESPONSENT PARENT(s) SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A RESPONDENT; IF
THE COURT DETERMINES THE CHILD SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HIS/HER HOME, THE
COURT MAY ORDER AN INVESTIGATION TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE NON-RESPONDENT
PARENT(s) SHOULD BE SUITABLE CUSTODIANS FOR THE CHILD; IF THE CHILD IS PLACED AND
REMAINS IN FOSTER CARE FOR FIFTEEN OF THE MOST RECENT TWENTY-TWO MONTHS, THE
AGENCY MAY BE REQUIRED TO FILE A PETITION FOR TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS OF
Page
26PARENT(s) AND COMMITMENTThe
WesTchesTerAND
Guardian
THE
OF GUARDIANSHIP
CUSTODY OF THE CHILD FOR THE Thurs
PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, EVEN IF THE PARENT(s) WERE NOT NAMED AS RESPONDENTS IN
THE CHILD NEGLECT OR ABUSE PROCEEDING.
CLASSIFIED
ADS CUSA NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST
TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT
TODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD.
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Last known addresses: KENNETH THOMAS: 24Suitable
Garfield
Yonkers,Contact
NY 10701
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of business.
Wilca: 914.632.1230
An Order to Show Cause under Article 10 of the Family Court Act having been filed with this Court
seeking to modify the placement for the above-named child.
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A non profit Performing Arts Center is seeking two job positions- 1) DirecDevelopmentFT-must
development
or expeYOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONEDtortoofappear
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rience fundraising, knowledge of what development entails and experilocated at 53 So. Broadway, Yonkers, New York,
on the 28th day of March, 2012 at 2;15 pm in the
ence working with sponsors/donors; 2) Operations Manager- must have a
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to show
cause why said child should
beinclude
knowledge
of computers/software/ticketing
systems,not
duties
adjudicated to be a neglected child and whyoverseeing
you should
notoffice,
be dealt
with inmovie
accordance
with
the lobby
all box
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of show
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provisions of Article 10 of the Family Court Act.
system and willing to organize concessions. Full time plus hours. Call (203)
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and ask
for the
Julieright
or Allison
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE,
that you
have
to be represented by a law-
yer, and if the Court finds you are unable to pay for a lawyer, you have the right to have a lawyer
assigned by the Court.
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, that if you fail to appear at the time and place
noted above, the Court will hear and determine the petition as provided by law.
Dated: January 30, 2012
BY ORDER OF THE COURT
CLERK1 column
OF THE COURT
2 column
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Notice of Formation The Development Team of NY LLC Arts. of
Org. filed with SSNY 1/20/2012.
Off. Loc.: Westchester Cnty.
SSNY designated as agent of LLC
whom process may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to: c/o
The LLC, P.O. Box 305, Lincolndale, NY 10540. Purpose: all lawful activities.
JPANY, LLC Articles of Org.
filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY)
12/21/2011. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of
LLC upon whom process may be
served. SSNY shall mail copy of
C/O Stern Keiser & Panken, LLP
1025 Westchester Ave. Ste. 305
White Plains, NY 10604. Purpose:
Any lawful activity.
THE FARM FOODIE, LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of
State (SSNY) 11/28/2011. Office
in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC upon whom
process may be served. SSNY
shall mail copy of process C/O
Stern Keiser & Panken, LLP 1025
Westchester Ave. Ste. 305 White
Plains, NY 10604. Purpose: Any
lawful activity.
ALBERT E. ALEXANDER ENTERPRISES, LLC Articles of Org.
C/O Stern Keiser & Panken, LLP
Ste. 305 1025 Westchester Ave.
White Plains, NY 10604. Purpose:
Any lawful activity.”
GEORGIO FAMILY LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP II Articles of Org.
C/O Patricia G. Micek Esq. 2180
Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY
10538. Purpose: Any lawful activity
BIG JAY’S DISTRIBUTORS LLC
Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of
State (SSNY) 10/25/2011. Office in
Westchester Co. SSNY design.
Agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall
mail copy of C/O John P. Recchia
201 Tarrytown Rd. White Plains,
NY 10607. Purpose: Any lawful
activity.
Page 27
LEGAL NOTICE
SIGNATURE PUBLIC RELATIONS,
LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec.
of State (SSNY) 10/27/2011. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY
design. Agent of LLC upon whom
shall mail copy of process C/O
Randal B. Hayes 101 Ellwood
Ave. 1E Mt. Vernon, NY 10552.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
GEORGIO FAMILY III LLC Articles
of Org. filed NY Sec. of State
(SSNY) 12/5/2011. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY design. Agent
of LLC upon whom process may
be served. SSNY shall mail copy
of process C/O Patricia G. Micek,
Esq. 2180 Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY 10538. Purpose: Any
lawful activity.
GHMT PROPERTIES LLC Articles
(SSNY) 12/27/2011. Office in
mail copy of The LLC 1053 Main
St. Peekskill, NY 10566. Purpose:
B8 ENTERPRISE LLC Articles
of process Justin Jaikaran 9
Holly St. Yonkers, NY 10704. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
RUN DOG RUN LLC Articles
of Alexandra Ginnel 211 Green
Ln. Bedford Hills, NY 10507. Purpose: Any lawful activity
CHANCC LLC Articles of Org.
5/26/100. Office in Westchester
Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC
upon whom process may be
The LLC 698 Saw Mill River RD
Ardsley, NY 10502. Purpose: Any
lawful activity.
INTERVIEW CHIEF, LLC Articles
agent of LLC upon whom process
may be served. SSNY shall mail
copy of process 27 Barker Ave.
Ste. 1005, White Plains, NY 10601.
NEWBOLD HOLDINGS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State
of The LLC 305 North Ave. New
Rochelle, NY 10801. Purpose:
1250 PELHAM PARKWAY SOUTH,
shall mail copy of The LLC 20
Black Hawk Rd. Scarsdale, NY
10583. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation MommyN-Me of Shrub Oak LLC Arts. of
Org. filed with SSNY 2/21/2012.
Off. Loc.: Westchester Cnty.
SSNY designated as agent of LLC
whom process may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to: c/o
The LLC, P.O. Box 305, Lincolndale, NY 10540. Purpose: all lawful activities.
NUDGE CAPITAL LLC Articles
of C/O Patricia G Micek Esq 2180
Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY
10538. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
WEINER, LLP Articles of Org.
LLP upon whom process may be
The LLP 660 White Plains Rd. Tarrytown, NY 10591. Purpose: Any
lawful activity. Principal Office:
660 White Plains Rd. Tarrytown,
NY 10591
NEWBOLD LOT LLC Articles
of The LLC 305 North Ave. 1st Fl.
New Rochelle, NY 10801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
BLUE TARGET LLC Articles
mail copy of C/O Julio Alberto
Garcia 119 E. Hartsdale Ave. Apt.
4C Hartsdale, NY 10530. Purpose:
HAMMER TIME HANDYMAN,
shall mail copy of The LLC 45 Virginia Lane Thornwood, NY 10594.
Page 28
Voyages of Prinsendam
for 835 fortunate guests
Oceanview staterooms for price of an Inside. With over 135 years of sailing experience, Holland America Line
provides a premium cruise vacation that is also an exceptional value. You’ll enjoy longer days in port and return each
day to your spacious stateroom, gourmet meals and top-notch entertainment in an atmosphere of timeless elegance.
Bordeaux Explorer
Norway & British Isles
14 nights, Jun 26 - Jul 10, 2012
ms Prinsendam | Offer #1205210
Exclusive $100 onboard credit*
$
MM - Inside
Stateroom
H - Oceanview
Stateroom
$
per person*
per person*
2,299
2,299
Iberian Explorer
14 nights, Aug 8 - 22, 2012
BC - Verandah
Stateroom
$
3,699
per person*
12 nights, Sep 5 - 17, 2012
$
M - Inside
Stateroom
H - Oceanview
Stateroom
$
per person*
per person*
2,399
2,399
AB - Verandah
Stateroom
$
4,499
per person*
$
M - Inside
Stateroom
1,999
per person*
G - Oceanview
Stateroom
$
1,999
per person*
AB - Verandah
Stateroom
$
3,499
per person*
Spacious, mid-sized ships with a sophisticated ambiance • Warm, intuitive style of service from academy-trained professionals
Sophisticated cuisine prepared by master chefs • Inspired activities, engaging enrichment and diverse evening options
Culinary Arts Center presented by Food & Wine magazine • Explorations Café, powered by The New York Times
Graybar Building - New York
420 Lexington Ave, Suite 1603
pisabrothers.com
800.729.7472
[email protected]
*Fares are per person, cruise only, based on double occupancy, and include non-discountable amounts. Government Fees & Taxes are additional. Value of shipboard credit is for two guests. Fuel supplement has been suspended. Holland America Line reserves the right to reinstate the fuel supplement for all guests at up to $9 per
person per day if the NYMEX oil price exceeds $70 per barrel. Ship’s Registry: The Netherlands. Pisa Brothers strongly recommends the purchase of travel insurance. We reserve the right to correct errors and omissions. For complete terms and conditions contact Pisa Brothers.

March 1, 2012 - WestchesterGuardian.com

Transcription

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