March 8, 2012 - WestchesterGuardian.com

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Vol. VI, No. X
Westchester’s Most Influential Weekly
Raging Lawsuits in
Yorktown
Thursday, March 8, 2012,,,,$1.00
SHERIF AWAD
Capturing Neverland, Page 5
ABBY LUBY
Transformer Trouble Again,
Page7
Dr. EVAN LEVINE.
Emergency Rooms, Page 10
The Writer’s Collection
The Hill, Page 14
By ABBY LUBY, Page 22
Injudicious Justice
By ABBY LUBY, Page 9
Yonkers Corruption Trial
By HEZI ARIS, Page 22
WWW.WESTCHESTERGUARDIAN.COM
JOHN SIMON
O’Neill’s First Pulitzer, Page 18
MARY C. MARVIN
I Didn’t Know That!, Page 20
Dr. ED U. CATOR
Mindless Talk and Chatter,
Page 24
SALOME THOMPSON
Overlooked Epidemic, Page 24
History ................................................................................................10
Every Monday is special. On Monday, February 20th, Krystal Wade, a celebrated participant in http://
Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12
www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal Wade is a mother of three who works fifty miles
from home and writes in her “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,” her debut novel has been accepted for publication
Spoof....................................................................................................13
and should be available in 2012. Not far behind is her second novel, “Wilde’s Army.” How does she do it?
Sports Scene .......................................................................................13
Tune in and find out.
Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................13
Writers Collection.............................................................................14
Co-hosts Richard Narog and Hezi Aris will relish the dissection of all things politics on Tuesday, February
Page 2Books...................................................................................................16
THE WESTCHESTER
GUARDIAN 21st. Yonkers City THURSDAY,
March
FEBRUARY
23,
20128, 2012
Page 3
THE WESTcHESTER
GUARDiAn
CouncilTHURSDAY
President
Chuck
Lesnick
will share his perspective from the august inner
sanctum
of
the
City
Council
Chambers
on
Wednesday,
February
22nd.
Stephen
Cerrato,
Esq.,
will
share
Transportation...................................................................................17
his political insight on Thursday, February 23rd. Friday, February 24th has yet to be filled. It may be a propiGovernment Section ............................................................................17
RADIO
tious
day to sum up what transpired throughout the week. A sort of BlogTalk Radio version of That Was
Of Albany
Significance
Correspondent ....................................................................17
The Week That Was (TWTWTW).
Mayor Marvin’s Column .................................................................18
For those who cannot join us live, consider listening to the show by way of an MP3 download, or on
Community
Section................................................................................3
Section
...............................................................................4
Government
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demand. Within 15 minutes of a show’s ending, you can find the segment in our archive that you may link
Calendar................................................................................................3
Business
................................................................................................4
OpEd
Section
.........................................................................................23
to using the hyperlink provided in the opening paragraph.
Creative
Disruption.
.
...........................................................................4
Calendar
...............................................................................................4
Ed
Koch Commentary.....................................................................23
Westchester On the Level is usually heard from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon on the Internet:
Cultural
Perspective............................................................................5
The
entire archive is available and maintained for your perusal.
The easiest
to find aofparticular
Charityto..................................................................................................5
http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOntheLevel.
Because
of theway
importance
a Federalinterview
court case
Letters
the Editor ..........................................................................24
Energy Issues........................................................................................6
is
to
search
Google,
or
any
other
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engine,
for
the
subject
matter
or
the
name
of
the
interviewee.
purporting
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and
bribery
allegations,
programming
with
be
suspended
for
the
week
of March 5 For
to 9,
Contest
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Weir
Only
Human
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History...................................................................................................7
example,
search
Google,
Yahoo,
AOL
Search
for
Westchester
On
the
Level,
Blog
Talk
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2012.
Richard
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of
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show.
Creative
Disruption
............................................................................6
Legal
Notices
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Westchester On the Level is heard from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 12 Noon
Legal.......................................................................................................9
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Movie
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Richard Narog and Hezi Aris are your co-hosts. In the week beginning February 20th and ending on
People...................................................................................................12
February 24th, we have an exciting entourage of guests.
Health
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Safety....................................................................................................12
The
Westchester
Guardian
is a weekly
newspaper
devoted
to the
unbiased reporting
History
................................................................................................10
Sports....................................................................................................13
Every
Monday
is special.
On Monday,
February
20th, Krystal
Wade,
a celebrated
participantofinevents
http://Thur
Page
26 and
The
WesTchesTer
Guardian
developments
that
are
newsworthy
and
significant
to
readers
living
in,
and/or
employed
in,
Writers
Collection.............................................................................14
Ed Koch Movie Review ...................................................................12
www.TheWritersCollection.com is our guest. Krystal Wade is a mother of three who works
fifty miles
Westchester
County.
The
Guardian
will
strive
to
report
fairly,
and
objectively,
reliable
informaWestchester’s
Most
Influential
Weekly
Books.
.
..................................................................................................16
from home and writes in her “spare time.” “Wilde’s Fire,” her debut novel has been accepted for publication
Spoof....................................................................................................13
tion without
Our“Wilde’
first duty
will beHow
to thedoes
PEOPLE’S
SportsScene.
and should be available in 2012.
Not far favor
behindoriscompromise.
her second novel,
s Army.”
she do it?
Sports Scene........................................................................................17
.......................................................................................13
RIGHT
TO
KNOW,
by
the
exposure
of
truth,
without
fear
or
hesitation,
CLASSIFIED
ADS
Technology.
.
........................................................................................18
Tune
in
and
find
out.
Najah’s Corner ...................................................................................13
no matter where the pursuit may lead, in the finest tradition of FREEDOM
Guardian News Corp.
Eye
On Theatre.
..................................................................................18
Writers
Collection.............................................................................14
Co-hosts Richard Narog and Hezi
willPRESS.
relish the dissectionOffice
of all things
politics
on Tuesday, February
Space
AvailableOFAris
THE
Government
Section.............................................................................20
P.O. Box 8
21st. Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick will share
perspective
from
the august inner
Books...................................................................................................16
Primehis
Location,
Yorktown
Heights
Mayor Marvin’sNew
Column..................................................................20
Rochelle,
New
York
10801
sanctum
of
the
City
Council
Chambers
on
Wednesday,
February
22nd.
Stephen
Cerrato,
Esq., will and
share
1,000
Sq.
Ft.:
$1800.
Contact
Wilca:
914.632.1230
The
Guardian
will
cover
news
and
events
relevant
to
residents
Transportation
...................................................................................17
Economic Development.
..................................................................20
his
political
insight
on
Thursday,
February
23rd.
Friday,
February
24th
has
yet
to
be
filled.
It
may
be
a
propibusinesses
all
over
Westchester
County.
As
a
weekly,
rather
than
Government
Section
............................................................................17
Prime
- Westchester
County
Campaign Trail.
..................................................................................21
Sam
Zherka
, Publisher & President
tious day to sum up what transpired
throughout
week.
A sort
of BlogTalk
Radio
version
of That
Was
focusing
on the the
immediacy
ofRetail
delivery
more
associated
with
daily
Albany
....................................................................17
Best Location in Yorktown Heights
Funding.Correspondent
...............................................................................................21
The
Week
That
Was
(TWTWTW).
journals,
we
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broader,
more
[email protected]
1100 Sq. Ft. Store $3100; 1266 Sq. Ft. store $2800 and 450 Sq. Ft.
Mayor
Marvin’s Column .................................................................18
Legal.....................................................................................................22
hensive,
chronological
step-by-step
accounting
events,
enlightened
For those who cannot join us live,
consider
listening to
the show by
way
anofMP3
download,
or on
Storeof$1200.
Government
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Legislation...........................................................................................23
with
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Hezi Aris, Editor-in-Chief & Vice President
Suitable
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type
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Contact
Wilca:
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demand.
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s
ending,
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archive
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may
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OpEd
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Permits.................................................................................................24
to
using
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provided
in
the
opening
paragraph.
[email protected]
From amongst journalism’s classic
key-words:
who, what, when,
OpEd
Section.
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Ed Koch
Commentary.....................................................................23
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THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN
CALENDAR
News & Notes from Northern Westchester
By MARK JEFFERS
Everyone is Irish these next
few weeks, so grab yourself a
corn beef and cabbage, have a
taste of Harp and keep those
Irish eyes a smiling by checking out this week’s “News
and Notes…”
One of my favorite events celebrating
the Green… is coming up, the 22nd annual St.
Patrick’s Day Parade sponsored by the Ancient
Order of the Hibernians; Division 16 will start
along Main Street in Mount Kisco on March
10th. All of my daughters have marched in this
great community affair. This year will feature
over 60 participants, including fife and drum
corps, military bands, Irish step dancers, fire
trucks, marching bands, youth groups, antique
cars and community associations.
You probably can’t go wrong with something called “A Friendly Gathering 2012, A
Night of Irish Food, Song and Laughter,” this is
happening on March 10th at the Kearnery Gym
in White Plains with proceeds benefiting the
RDC Center for Counseling & Human Development.
Here’s some Irish fun for the youngsters, St,
Patrick’s Day Crafts for pre-schoolers and their
parents on March 14th at the Pound Ridge Library.
The Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund is
honoring Lyndall Boal, a long time beloved social worker at Seven Bridges and Robert E, Bell
middle schools.
The next meeting of the middle school
book group, In-Between Pages will be held at
the Bedford Hills Free Library on March 14th,
author Sheela Chari will discuss her book “Vanished.”
A Joint Conference of the American Lung
Association in New York, POW’R Against
Tobacco, the American Cancer Society and
Westchester Community College in Valhalla
will be held at the college on March 8th. The
conference will feature Ty Patterson, Director
of the National Center for Tobacco Policy, who
will discuss how to involve students, faculty and
administration in sustaining and maintaining a
successful tobacco free campus policy.
Local farmer Nick Mancini, an expert in
organic gardening will lecture on “Growing Edibles in Containers,” at the Pound Ridge Library
on March 13th, I better attend, the last thing I
grew in a container was a mold…
Congratulations to the Village of Pleasantville as the village just celebrated its 47th birthday!
The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls is
currently running JP Miller’s brilliant, drama and
love story “Days of Wine and Roses,” through
March 25th.
Shirley Ann Tabatneck’s Psychic Fair happens the first Sunday of the month at the Elks
Club in White Plains, and of course, they all
ready know if you will be attending…
The Westchester Jewish Film Festival will
be held at the Jacobs Burns Film Center April
11 – May 1, give them a call at 914-773-7663
for details.
This sounds like a ton of fun… Rickie Broff
will share her favorite museum stories and museum trips and then following the talk, kids will
be able to create their own museums…all this at
the Katonah Museum on March 10th.
Having taught two daughters to drive, I
highly recommend this workshop, “Safe Behind
the Wheel: A Parent Teen Workshop,” being
held on March 21st at the White Plains Library.
Here’s an item from my wife’s rumor mill…
the town of Bedford is thinking of purchasing
the Bedford Hills train station building from the
MTA, if they do I hope they put in some good
coffee and snacks for us weary commuters…
The new Westchester Destination Guide
for 2012 is now available.The 60-page magazine,
the official tourism and travel guide to Westchester County, printed annually, can be picked
up free by calling 914-995-8500.
Bedford’s very own Rooney Mara looked
stunning on the red carpet at the Academy
Awards, we hear she is going to work on the
sequel to her lead role in “The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo.”
There certainly are a number of celebrities
that live up here in northern Westchester, and
are often very generous with their time to help
raise funds for many different worthwhile charities…hats off to these folks who enjoy living
here as much as you and I… 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.
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A maximum of one submission per month may be accepted.
THURSDAY March 8, 2012
Page 3
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Page 4
CREATIVE DISRUPTION
Interlude
By JOHN F. McMULLEN
As we move through our analysis of the impact of technology
on everything we do, destroying
age-old ways of doing things,
while often opening the doors to
new opportunities, we must note
the factor that impacts industries
across the board – marketing, law enforcement,
manufacturing, science, education, politics, government, and on-and-on – Data! Never before
in history have we had so much data available to
use and misuse.
It has been written that, if we use the variable “X” to indicate all the data developed by
humans from the beginnings of time until the
inauguration of Barack Obama, that “10X” has
been developed since then. Although it is also
estimated that over 50% of that data is redundant or spam, it is still an awful lot of data! There
is census data, scientific data, economic data,
marketing data, credit data, sports data --- data
about every possible thing – and constantly increasing personal data about us.
It is the personal data that constantly attracts our attention. We read and perhaps worry
about the amount of data that Google and / or
Facebook has on each of us and how it may be
used. Some are concerned about government
surveillance; others are bothered by the collection of information about our purchasing habits
by stores and credit card companies; others think
that medical data collected by doctors, hospitals
and insurance companies may somehow be used
against them. In short, data is a big deal!
How did this explosion of data occur?
Obviously, computers were the original prime
component. No longer was information simply
typed to paper and kept in articles, journals and
books. With computers, it was stored and could
be modified, refined, and / or built upon. The advent of the Internet added another dimension;
now it could be transported, collaborated on, and
made available worldwide.
A very important factor was constant breakthroughs in storage technology. Storage devices
have gotten bigger in capacity, smaller in size,
and much less expensive. In the less than 50 years
of microcomputer use, storage devices have gone
from cassette tape to “floppy diskette” to lowcapacity fixed disks to high-capacity fixed disks
– and the cost keeps coming down.
A case in point -- in 1980, I purchased my
first fixed disk for a microcomputer, a 10 million
character (byte) Corvus. It cost me $5,500. I now
have trillion-byte fixed disks and, as we can see
from the following table, the cost has shrunk
geometrically:
The two terabyte (TB) disk sitting next to
my MacBook cost around $200. If prices per
megabyte had remained at 1980 levels, it would
have cost over $1 million! Additionally, I have 16
Continual Decreasing Cost of Storage
Unit
Capacity
1MB
1,000,000
10 Million Byte Drive
1GB
1TB
Cost in 1980
10,000,000
1,000,000,000
$5,500.00
1,000,000,000,000
billion bytes (GB) on a chain around my neck.
The 16GB USB drive weighs about an ounce
while my 10MB Corvus drive in 1980 must
have weighed 15 pounds; it was heavier than the
computers it serviced.
It is important that storage capacity keeps
increasing because the data universe is now
doubling every two years – EVERY TWO
YEARS! This doubling puts more demands
not only on our storage capacity but also on our
communications channels and, most important,
on the software tools that collect, extract, combine, and analyze this data.
I have used the terms “data” and “information” rather interchangeably so far – actually
they are quite different. Data is the raw material – numbers, pictures, etc. while Information
is data that has been shaped into a form that is
understandable and useful to human beings. It
is the task of the computer scientist to develop
tools and algorithms, which will constantly make
the masses of data more useful to human beings.
While we are generally happy (or at least
not troubled) by the fact that our orthopedist’s
report goes immediately via computer link to
our internist; that Amazon immediately makes
us aware of a new book by a favorite author or a
new accessory for our Kindle Fire; that CVS and
Best Buy are telling about bonuses due us from
our shopping; and Apple and / or Microsoft are
ready to download new versions of the operating system, we certainly do not like the idea of
purchases of X-rated movies or sex toys or very
expensive devices or jewelry that are kept in our
homes being gathered by some service out there.
We don’t really like the idea of surveillance cameras all throughout our cities. We would certainly
not like being denied employment, a promotion
or a mortgage because of intemperate postings
on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler about a politician, a company, or an annoying neighbor. We
would definitely not like the idea that a government agency had collected all of such information about us in one place – They can’t do that,
can they??
No, they, meaning the government, can’t
gather such information --- BUT – as is pointed
out in the very comprehensive 2005 book, “No
Place to Hide”, by Washington Post investigative reporter Robert O’Harrow, private firms are
not restricted by law from gathering this information and putting it together – and then selling
it to government agencies.
We each have many digital identifiers – Social Security Number; Credit Card Numbers;
Home and Cell Phone Numbers; Supermarket,
Drug Store, and Box Store Bonus Programs;
Cost at 1980 Prices
$550,000
$550,000,000
$550,000,000,000
Insurance Policies; Auto Registrations and
Driver’s Licenses; etc. (and as Facial Recognition
becomes more refined, the TV show, “Person
of Interest” won’t seem as far fetched) -- and
these identifiers are cross-referenced to build a
demographic picture of us (or, at least attempt
to – if you go to the web service, Spokeo.com,
and look up yourself or friends, you’ll find that
it is far from accurate – but much better than it
was 2 years ago).
Two recent New York Times articles, “The
Age of Big Data” by Steve Lohr (http://www.
nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/bigdatas-impact-in-the-world.html) and Charles
Duhigg’s “How Companies Learn Your Secrets” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/
magazine/shopping-habits.html), take us inside
the world of those trying to find out all about
us. Lohr’s piece focuses on “Big Data” itself and
the vast research efforts going on to be able to
glean more quality information from it by such
entities as The United Nations, IBM, WalMart,
Match.com, The Federal Reserve, and Kohl’s. In
the corporate world, just a little edge in this area
could mean multi-million dollars in sales while
government entities can provide either better
service or better surveillance.
The Duligg piece, on the other hand, goes
into one firm, Target’s mission of finding everything possible about clients and potential
clients -- not only what you buy and /or return
but where you live, your income level, when you
buy – and what’s going on in your lives when
you do. New baby? New House? Child away to
College?, etc. – and, once you are in its system, it
will purchase demographic information to supplant what it already has. Duligg writes “Target
can buy data about your ethnicity, job history,
the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared
bankruptcy or gotten divorced, the year you
bought (or lost) your house, where you went to
college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee,
paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political
leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and
the number of cars you own.” – all this information can be found somewhere and, as written
above, can also be sold to government agencies.
What can we do about this?
The obvious first step is to realize what you
are doing when you sign up for a new service of
any type? How much information do you have
to give to obtain the service? Is it worth it?
The next thing to consider is does this
subject really concern you. Some see the loss
of privacy as inevitable. Computer scientist /
science fiction writer David Brin, in his 1999
Actual 2012 Prices
$1
$100
book, “The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And
Freedom?” sees no end to cameras and computer
monitoring so he wants us to be able to monitor
those monitoring us. We should be able to have
cameras inside of those locations monitoring us
– and we should know everyone who has our information and what they may do with it.
If we are concerned and wish to do what
we can to slow or curtail these practices, we can
bring pressure on Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
to be totally transparent as to who has access to
our data. It’s not the other members of the network who concern us; it’s rather the advertisers’
– what are they getting for their dollars – information about us.
We can bring pressure on our lawmakers to
put tight restrictions on re-selling of our personal
information. We must, however, be careful about
bringing lawmakers anything to do with the Internet or Social Networking. The proposed cure
is often worse than the disease.
We can join the Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF” – www.eff.org) and / or the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”
-- http://epic.org/). Both organizations understand the issues and are very effective in bringing reasonable solutions to problems before the
appropriate legislative bodies.
As we educate ourselves on these issues, we
might also consider the following paragraph
from Lohr’s “The Age of Big Data” article, “A
report last year by the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the consulting firm,
projected that the United States needs 140,000
to 190,000 more workers with “deep analytical” expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate
managers, whether retrained or hired.” There is
opportunity, as well as pitfalls, connected with
the data explosion.
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.
Page 5
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Capturing Neverland
By SHERIF AWAD
Lebanese born Sara Khazemsince the age of nine,
always had a video camera in her hands recording
everything around her.
But, at that time, she did
not take art that seriously.
When she moved with
her family to the United States in 2001, Sara
began taking art classes in drawing, painting
and sculpture in California. When she was
given a still camera as a gift from one of her
mentors, she discovered that she could better express her ideas, thoughts and feelings
through digital photography. Traveling to and
She wanted to particularly help the kids.
She began the project last July. She brought
her concept into fruition through a proj-
Surrender by Ramadan
Waiting for the Sun by Dina.
Sara Khazem.
fro to the Middle East, particularly her homeland, Sara, then 24, tended to focus on underprivileged communities. Her photos captured
the nomadic Bedouins who still reside in Lebanon, and street children from Syria.
who was illustrated in Disney’s cartoons and
cinema. Basically, I wanted the young children
to appreciate their lives; grownups appreciate
them more when they see their photos. When
I was explaining to the children the meaning
of “Neverland,” they would all be smiling. I
guess they fully understood what it means.
ect she called “Capturing Neverland.” It was
about getting children to be sensitive to their
environment and to express their hearts and
mind about themselves and their environment
through photography. By engaging in this task,
the kids developed skill sets and enhanced
self-esteem. Sara recognized it would be these
kids, among others, who would mature and
maintain residence in the neighborhoods she
found them. They would become part of the
same community in the years ahead.
It was a challenge because Sara did not
have a background in social work and never
dealt with street children. Nevertheless, she
was undeterred. She flew to Egypt and spent
ten days working with orphans, whose age
ranged between eight and twelve, on a workshop that teaches them basic photography
techniques. The young children’s photos were
exhibited in Egypt and are soon to be exhibited in the United States.
AWAD: We know from Peter Pan’s story
that “Neverland” is the place for eternal childhood. Why did you choose this name for your
project.
KHAZEM: “Capturing” is obviously
about taking photos and “Neverland” is a
Dangerous by Mohamed.
name that kids can relate to. It is about dreams
and fantastic adventures related to Peter Pan
Opening by Basma.
AWAD: How did you conceptualize and
bring your project to reality?
KHAZEM: I started creating this website featuring a mission and a goal of my project. And because I did not have the resources
to realize it, I asked people I know to donate.
Mostly they were artists, actors or filmmakers who are familiar with the struggle of rising
Middle Eastern artists starting from scratch.
I guess my passion was convincing enough of
them to reach out to help me. I then started
to search the Internet to locate an Egyptian
based shelter or organization to choose the
children for inclusion in the project. The shelter or organization would house kids who
would likely be more qualified and communicative than raw street children. I decided to
Continued on page 6
Page 6
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Capturing Neverland
Continued from page 5
contact Hope Village in Cairo because it had
usually used art as a methodology to educate
and rehabilitate children. By December, I had
the necessary funds to secure my travel arrangements and the necessary equipment to
come to Egypt and make it real.
AWAD: How did you choose the children? What was your process to communicate
and to teach them?
KHAZEM: I interviewed about 24 boys
and 7 girls using my video camera. It was
more of a chat that I would later review rather
than anything else. I did not tell them what
I wanted them to do. After reviewing the
interviews, I finally chose 7 boys and 3 girls,
because the latter were less receptive.
The first few days were about teaching
them basics like composition and framing using some disposable cameras. Then I started
to show them how to capture live shots by
making them act inside the frames in order to
create a good image. I also taught them how
the concept of a photo is altered when someone’s figure is cropped or when a photographer points at a subject from a certain angle.
In the days that followed, the children started
to use digital cameras to shoot photos during
field trips to the old market of Khan Alkhalili
and to the Pyramids where I gave them the
freedom to shoot whatever they liked as long
as their photos “can tell a story.”
After I showed them some of my photos
in addition to other photographer’s work, they
slowly started to develop their own style. For
instance, one child, Islam is his name, started
to mostly shoot portraits. During the ten-day
course, we reviewed and chose their best photos when we returned to the village. The children were very competitive. I also made them
name their pictures and taught them how to
explain to others why they chose such names.
I also tutored them on how to write their
own notes in some kind of daily journal. It
was something they really loved because they
never did that before. I guess children easily
related to me because my age is closer to their
age and I did not act like an instructor.
AWAD: What did you notice about their
respective character?
KHAZEM: They were talking to me
about everything but were most discrete about
their background or how they ended up in the
Village. They are also ver clever, street smart,
and full of life, but some of them were shy approaching subjects; they were reluctant to approach people. One day, I went to see them
after we finished the course only to be surprised by their talents in putting on a show of
dancing and singing for me! They really appreciate each other; calling each other, “brother” or “sister,” and calling grown-ups, “mum”
or “dad.” This was one of the most important
aspects of the project; in essence, the project
lessened the fear adults had in accepting these
children because the kids’ approach of adults
was not threatening. I met people my age who
were fearful of these young children.
AWAD: What about the final photos
that had been chosen for the exhibition?
KHAZEM: The kids took hundreds of
pictures but one of them, Ramadan, was the
most talented and he now dreams of becoming a photographer when he grows up. Eight
of his photos will be featured among the
Sara Khazem with the children.
thirty pieces that comprise the exhibit. I can
say all the photos have great composition and
aesthetics. Most of the people who have seen
them so far cannot believe they were really
taken by young children.
AWAD: You were planning to leave by
the end of January but you decided to stay in
Egypt.
KHAZEM: I bought a roundtrip ticket
because I was planning to make the exhibit
and to return to the States thereafter. But I
decided to stay in Egypt a longer time to work
on other projects or to start “Capturing Nev-
erland” all over again. Like the children, the
country is vibrant and people are passionate
about everything. I guess Egypt stimulates my
senses in every way.
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).
ENERGY ISSUES
Indian Point Suffers Transformer Troubles Again
By ABBY LUBY
BUCHANAN, NY -- To avert
a transformer explosion at Indian
Point, like the two previous explosions over a year ago, Entergy
decided to take the Unit 3 reactor off the grid last week because
of transformer problems. The plant was back
on line after a 36 hour, unplanned shut down.
Entergy, the owner of Indian Point, announced
that there was no release of radioactivity and no
threat to workers or the public.
Officials here at the nuclear power plant had
detected an increase in combustible gases such as
carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which are needed
to run the transformer, and which, if ignored, can
be the catalyst for igniting a fire. Transformers
take electricity generated by the plant - some
22,500 volts - and step up that voltage to a
level needed to feed the electrical grid (typically
215,000 to 500,000 volts). Highly flammable
A new transformer being delivered to the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, in New Jersey, in 2008.
oil, used to cool the transformers, has to be carefully monitored because mixing the oil with high
voltage can cause the transformer to blow up. An
option to using oil is the more expensive nitroglycerine.
Transformer problems at Indian Point are
nothing new. A transformer exploded at Indian
Point Unit 2 in November 2010, prompting
Entergy to shut down the reactor for 17 days.
A month later the 30-year-old transformer at
Unit 3 exploded, closing that reactor for almost
a month. In 2007 a transformer fire caused an
automatic shut down of Unit 3.
“Plant workers monitor the condition of the
oil, such as the temperature, salinity, contamination,” said David Lochbaum of the Union
of Concerned Scientists. “When problems are
detected, one can either remove the transformer
from service and fix the problem before it gets
worse, or wait until the transformer blows up.”
When Entergy took Unit 3 offline last
week, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the
transformer would be swapped out for another
auxiliary transformer.
Continued on page 7
ENERGY ISSUES
Indian Point Suffers Transformer Troubles Again
“Our Senior Resident Inspector assigned
to Indian Point 3 was at the plant overnight to
monitor the downpower and the company’s approach to dealing with the auxiliary transformer
issue.The inspector did not identify any immediate safety concerns. We will continue to follow
the situation and assess repair activities associated with the transformer.”
Unplanned shutdowns lower a plant’s safety
rating if there are more than three unplanned
shutdowns within a year.
Because the reactor was not taken offline,
this occurrence would not count as a shutdown.
It will, however, count as a hit against the plant’s
Performance Indicator for Unplanned Power
Changes per 7,000 Critical Hours.
Unit 3 had been online generating electricity for 327 continuous days prior to last week.
Unit 2 is at full power and has been online for 44
continuous days.
The two working reactors are capable of
pumping out about 2,000 megawatts of electricity. According to records from Con Edison,
the utility company who sells electricity to New
York City and Westchester County, the region
uses 9,000 to 13,000 megawatts of electricity daily, depending on the weather. The 2,000
megawatts produced by Indian Point is about
15% to 22% of the daily region demands. Entergy has claimed that Indian Point provides up
to 40% of the region’s electricity needs, which it
does when the demand falls to 5,000 megawatts.
Usage usually drops on Sunday mornings in the
spring and fall between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. when
the city is asleep, offices are shut down, and air
conditioners are off. Those off-peak times of less
usage happens about 12 times a year.
Entergy has applied to renew their operating license to run Indian Point for another 20
years. One license expires next year, the other in
2015.
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/.
HISTORY
The Golden Age of Hudson Valley
Brickmaking, 2 The Brickmaking Process
By ROBERT SCOTT
As a business venture, brickmaking was financially extremely risky. Partnerships
were formed easily and dissolved quickly. Fortunes were
made and lost.
Brickmaking was also a
seasonal business that shut down for the winter
when the ground became frozen. Wages were
low, and the physical labor involved was arduous.
Many brickyard workers found winter employment cutting ice in the area’s many lakes and
ponds, and hauling it to ice houses for storage
and later use.
A brickyard was labor intensive, and dependent on immigrants and itinerants for its work-
Prior to burning in the kiln, molded bricks were
dried on racks in open-sided storage buildings
that protected them from damaging rainfall.
Kilns for burning bricks were massive, Note the
openings at the base in which fires were lit to
provide the high temperatures needed.
ers. Owners of brickyards supplied housing to
many of their laborers.
So isolated was the brickmaking community on Croton Point that the Underhill brickyard
built a school for the children of its brickyard
workers.
Clay and sand banks could suddenly peter
out. Warm, dry weather was necessary for the
initial drying of bricks--but the weather could
be unpredictable and capricious.
Overproduction in this highly competitive
industry was common. The price of bricks was
dictated by the state of the economy, the amount
of new construction and the annual production
of bricks.
Continued on page 8
Page 7
Page 8
HISTORY
The Golden Age of Hudson Valley Brickmaking, 2
Extracting the Clay
Bricks were made by what was called the
“soft mud process.” Early brickmakers laboriously dug the clay for bricks by hand. (The steam
shovel was not invented until 1879.) Fortune
smiled on any brickyard whose clay deposit was
overlain by sand, another necessary brick ingredient.
Clay and sand were transported in wheelbarrows or horse-drawn carts to the tempering pit and mixed with water. The mixture was
then kneaded by being trod upon by oxen until
it reached the proper consistency. Later, tempering was done in horse-driven or steam-powered
pug mills.
To achieve more thorough burning of the
heavy Hudson River clays, powdered anthracite
coal dust (called “culm”) was added. This also
saved fuel by reducing the burning time.
After being properly tempered, the clay
mixture was removed from the pit or pug mill
and delivered to the molding table.
Constructed of locally produced Underhill bricks,
brick-lined wine cellars on Croton Point are
being restored to their original condition.
Bricks slid easily from molds because their
sides had been coated with fine sand. The empty
molds were then returned to the molding table
to be refilled.
Drying the Bricks
At the roofed-over hacking area, the bricks
were laid out to dry. After two days, they were
turned over. At this stage, rough handling could
easily damage a brick.
While the bricks were still moist, young boys
used special tools called “edgers” to straighten the
edges of the bricks. After four days of drying in
warm weather, the bricks were sufficiently hard
to allow them to be stood on one side with a
finger’s width between them to continue drying.
After another two weeks of drying, the bricks
were ready to be moved to the kiln shed.
Building and Firing the Kiln
Interwasser (“Between the waters”), the
Underhill mansion, no longer stands at the
southern tip of Croton Point In the years before
the Underhill properties were purchased by
Westchester County in 1923, picknicking was
popular, as seen in this picture postcard.
Molding the Bricks
The assistant brick molder, also called a “clot
molder,” would prepare a lump of clay and pass it
to the brick molder. The latter, the key worker in
the brickmaking process, was the star of the team.
Highly skilled, the brick molder would take the
clay and “dash” it into the already-sanded mold,
making sure that the corners were filled.
Any excess clay mixture was removed from
the top of the mold with a “strike”--a flat board
kept soaking in water--and reused.
Molds could make one, two, four or six
bricks at a time. Smaller capacity molds had the
advantage that a child could carry them. Child
labor was common in brickyards.
Hardwoods--cherry, beech or maple--were
used in making the open-topped rectangular
molds that were often reinforced with iron straps
to prevent excessive wear.
The next worker in the team would take
the mold from the molding table and move it
by flatbed wheelbarrow to a leveled and carefully
swept “hacking” (drying) area.
A temporary kiln was constructed of
“green” (raw) bricks, stacked 54 bricks high, with
“arches”--apertures in which fuel was placed--at
the base. Wood was used until the supply of local
trees was exhausted, and then coal was substituted. Several hundred thousand to a million bricks
could make up a kiln.
Even with the drying that had taken place,
the unburned bricks still contained about 15%
water, so fires were kept low at first to complete
the drying process. Too much heat applied too
soon could cause bricks to explode.
Steam would issue from the top of the kiln.
Old-time brickmakers called this “water smoke.”
After the water had been driven off and it was
safe to increase the heat, the temperature of the
kiln was raised slowly until it reached 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.
It took a knowledgeable and experienced
brickmaker to know when the fire holes should
be bricked over and the heat allowed to dissipate
slowly. Burning the bricks took about a week.
Another week was needed to allow them to cool
before the kiln could be taken apart.
Sorting the Bricks
Bricks closest to the fires received an unwanted glaze deposited on their surfaces from
wood ash or vaporized sand that dropped in the
fires and was vaporized. Such bricks could still be
sold for use in the interior courses of walls.
A boardinghouse and store for workers, one-room schoolhouse, and three-story brick barn from the
Underhill brickyard community still stand on Croton Point.
rectangular aperture could make 100,000 bricks
Bricks that were overburned or cracked or
a day. The extruded column was then cut into
warped were designated as “lammies” or “clinbricks by a wire cutter similar to a hard-boiled
kers” and sold for use in garden walls or footegg slicer. Tunnel-type dryers and kilns were also
paths.
introduced.
Bricks making up the outer walls of the kiln
After the building boom that followed the
were always less properly cured. Called “lightwar, builders in the 1960’s decided that Hudson
hards,” these were put aside to be used to cover
Valley brick was too porous. The cost of added
the outer walls of the next kiln and then daubed
ingredients to overcome the porosity problem
with mud to seal it.
made it impossible for Hudson Valley brickMarketable bricks were transported to
makers to compete.
docks at the river’s edge. In the early days they
Today, shale is the preferred raw material,
were loaded on sloops, but barges holding from
and most of the country’s bricks come from the
300,000 to 500,000 bricks later supplanted
South and the Midwest. Only one brickyard
sloops for the trip to New York City’s docks.
making molded bricks survived in the Hudson
Twelfth Avenue and 52nd Street became the site
Valley--the Powell & Minnock Brick Works at
of an informal brick market, a gathering place for
Coeymans, about a dozen miles south of Albany.
the city’s building materials dealers.
This company ceased operations in 2001.
Decline and Fall
The visitor to the sites of previous riverside
By the turn of the 20th century, some 120
brickmaking operations between Croton and
brickyards, employing between eight and ten
Peekskill will find little to show that this chapter
thousand workers, were producing over a billion
in Westchester’s industrial history was once writbricks a year in the Hudson Valley--more than
ten here. The harsh outlines of gouged-out clay
any other part of the world.
and sand pits have softened and merged with
A quarter-century later most of the brickthe landscape. Never intended to be permanent,
yards in Westchester and Rockland counties
brickyard buildings have long since disappeared.
closed, having depleted the banks of clay and
A diligent searcher may scuff up a few discarded
sand along the river. Moreover, these brickyards
imperfect bricks. With luck, their brands may be
had not modernized or mechanized their brickidentifiable.
making. Except for machines to mix the clay
Tangible proof of the area’s prodigality with
and pack the molds, much of the work had still
its natural resources, however, can be found miles
involved manual labor.
to the south in New York City. From humble
Brickyards upriver around Beacon, Newtenements and millionaires’ mansions to soaring
burgh and Kingston managed to hang on longer,
skyscrapers, thousands of sturdy brick buildings
thanks to abundant reserves of clay and the instill stand, their bricks mute testimony to the
troduction of machine methods. Despite modgolden age of brickmaking in the Hudson Valley.
ernization, many of these brickyards succumbed
Robert Scott is a semi-retired book publisher and an
during the Depression, and only a few survived
avid local historian. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson,
the Second World War.
N.Y.
Other brickmaking methods had supplanted the soft mud process. A steam-driven
machine that forced a stiffer mixture through a
Page 9
LEGAL
Injudicious Justice? Part 2
By ABBY LUBY
Last week’s story was about two
New York State Supreme Court
judges allegedly favoring a New
Rochelle condo board where the
Chief Clerk of the 9th Judicial
District, Nancy Mangold, is a
resident. (Mangold lives with her
partner Jerry Cohen, who is one of the plaintiffs).
The two embattled Greencroft Condominium
boards, Greencroft 1 (Mangold’s board) and
Greencroft 2, have appeared in the courtrooms
of Judge William Giacomo and Judge Joan
Lefkowtiz. Initially, the 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.
(Of note, last week when this newspaper
came out with the first installment of this story,
sources reported that all of The Westchester
Guardian boxes in New Rochelle had been
emptied early in the day).
The arguments on either side are about arbitration, dues owed to Greencroft Homeowner’s
Association (HOA), questionable capital expenditures by the HOA and the alleged fraudulent
Board elections by Greencroft 1.
Judge Lefkowitz has consistently denied arbitration, a ruling that would keep the case in the
courts where the outcome is usually controlled.
Arbitration is usually recommended because it’s
a transparent process that cuts legal costs and,
according to the American Arbitration Association that oversees the process, each side can
choose their own arbitrators.
In her February 14, 2012 order, Judge
Lefkowitz ruled against arbitration citing a fictitious order of January 23, 2012 – an order that
was never issued. (The court’s on-line docket
(https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ verifies
that no such order exists). Also, records show
that the request for arbitration wasn’t made until February 17, after the February 14 order. Not
only did Lefkowitz pre-rule on something that
wasn’t asked for, but she based her rule on a nonexistent order she never made.
Five days after The Westchester Guardian
tried to contact Judge Lefkowitz regarding the
Greencroft case, Greencroft 2 attorney Saul Fellus, received a letter from Judge Lefkowitz’s law
secretary, James Fine, stating that the February
14 order was “vacated” and said, citing the January 23 ruling, was an error. Lefkowitz apparently
“reissued” a new order dated February 24, 2012.
Re-adjusting dates seems to be a repeated
occurrence by Judge Lefkowitz and her staff.
When Greencroft 2 resident Robin Pastorana
sued her own board, the board hired Robert
Corini, an attorney based in New Rochelle.
Corini, who would hand off the case in part
to an attorney whose fee would be covered by
Greencroft 2 insurance, noticed a discrepancy in
new materials filed with Judge Lefkowtiz after
the case had been adjourned. Administrative
court rules state that if a case is adjourned, no
new matters could be raised or filed.
Not only was the petition accepted by Judge
Lefkowitz after the case had been adjourned
to February 10, 2012, but the petition was filed
January 23, the same day Corini received an
email from Lefkowitz’s part clerk Robert Arena,
confirming the February 10 adjournment date.
The January 23 filing date was recorded on the
e-court on line system.
“Judge Lefkowitz doesn’t follow that [administrative] rule,” said Lefkowitz’s law clerk
James Fine to Corini when asked about the state
rule. Fine was responding to a letter Corini wrote
the judge: “My client and I are incapable of understanding what occurred here,” Corini wrote,
requesting an explanation. When Corini asked
Fine if he could to reply to the new information
by the plaintiff, known as a sur-reply, Fine told
him Judge Lefkowitz “never allows sur-replies.”
Two days after Fine’s call, the e-court filing date
for the plaintiff was changed again from January
23 to January 27, 2012.
Westchester law prohibits altering a petition once it is submitted to the court. “Names
on those petitions were gathered under false pretenses,” said Howard Mandelbaum, Treasurer of
Greencroft 2. “Some people were strong-armed
to sign, other people asked to have their names
removed and then, for some reason, asked to
have their names added back. Judge Lefkowitz
allowed this. She approved and back dated the
original order to make it look clean.”
When part clerk Arena was asked by The
Westchester Guardian about the backdating, his
brief email reply affirmed that motions were decided upon even though there was an adjournment. “The dates you see reflect past motion
dates. Motions are decided on the submission of
papers only.”
The Greencroft 1 board was dogged in
their attempts to get Greencroft 2 disqualified
for not paying what they considered back dues
to the HOA. Greencroft 2 attorney Fellus got a
decision from the Appellate Division after Judge
Giacomo failed to specify how much members
should pay. An August 3, 2011 order of Appellate Division ordered the sum to be $35,000.00,
which was subsequently paid. But Greencroft 1
board upped their demand and wanted $80,800
as an outstanding amount due. Judge Lefkowitz
refused to recognize the Appellate Division’s
Continued on page 10
Page 10
LEGAL
Injudicious Justice?
decision and in a November 7, 2011 order, she
agreed to the higher sum of $80,800.
Although Greencroft 2 paid the $35,000,
the ired board of Greencroft 1 sued to disqualify
Greencroft 2 from the HOA board, made up
of five members from each building. According
to Mandelbaum, Greencroft 1 held an HOA
election in September, 2011, without notifying
Greencroft 2 members; Greencroft 1 “voted
themselves into office.” A motion was made to
declare the election invalid but Judge Lefkowitz, in a February 14, 2012 ruling, declared that
the election was valid and that Greencroft 2
was disqualified which, she stated in her ruling, was why they weren’t notified. Greencroft 1
then demanded that back dues be paid directly
to the HOA. Attorney for HOA, Jack Malley
of Smith Buss & Jacobs in Yonkers, handed in
a motion personally to Judge Lefkowitz to rule
on collection of dues. The judge, who decided to
immediately hear arguments from both sides,
called Fellus on the phone foregoing the required 24-hour notice. According to Fellus, three
of his requests for a court reporter to be present
were denied by the judge who then told Fellus
she was ready to proceed “with or without him.”
So far, Mandelbaum said he perceives the
judicial decisions as unfair and biased.
“They [Greencroft 1 and Judge Lefkowitz]
are in lock-step with each other and it bothers
me tremendously. We offered Greencroft 1 three
dates where we could look at the books; and
what did they do? They got a lawyer and sued us.
In all honesty, it’s all so cartoonish.”
Correction: “The Law Office of Saul Fellus
is a solo practice which rents offices from but is
not otherwise affiliated with Bisogno & Meyerson, LLP”
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/.
MEDICINE
What Your Doctor Won’t (or Can’t) Tell You—Emergency Rooms
By Dr. EVAN LEVINE
Walk into an Emergency
Room on a busy day. The doctors are generally very good,
but they are overwhelmed,
and there are patients perched
in every nook and cranny.
Patients are stuffed into hallways and corners
(sometimes while they are lying on gurneys.)
Three or four patients may be placed in a space
with room for one; curtains obscure monitors
that should be carefully attended. Patients, some
of whom haven’t taken, or brought with them,
their accustomed medications, and who came in
hours ago, may sit or lie there, and not be seen for
many hours. A terrified woman in the throes of
a heart attack is placed next to a demented and
screaming patient, with feces dripping from her
stretcher.
More doctors and nurses could be called in,
but why do that? It is not as though an Emergency Room is a restaurant, where people can get
up and leave. But even in an Emergency Room
patients sometimes do decide to get up and
leave, despite it possibly being decidedly dangerous to do so. The morale of the staff deteriorates;
good and caring doctors become zombies simply
hoping to make it home and somehow put what
they’ve experienced and seen out of their minds.
Hospital administrators sometimes show
up for a moment to do what administrators do.
They instruct harried physicians to admit anyone
they can. Other administrators run to hospital
floors to press other doctors and nurses to discharge anyone they can -- so the ER can admit
more new patients to -- keep the money machine
rolling.
Beyond the, penny-wise, pound-foolish,
tactic of hospitals not adding doctors or nurses
to an ER that may be being besieged by twice or
even three times the normal amount of patients,
administrators often decline to interest themselves in listening to complaints or to concerns
from their own personnel.
Interviews with a variety of doctors and
nurses reveals the same thing: Nurses, because
they have a union, are able to present grievances to administrations, but too often, they just
get turned down; doctors who have no union,
and knowing that if they complain they will be
smeared by bottom-line-obsessed administrators, just swallow-it and try, sometimes against
all odds, to do their jobs.
In a malpractice suit, a doctor was sued for
allegedly harming a patient through lack of attention. The malpractice attorney asked why the
patient hadn’t been seen often enough. Appar-
ently the doctor’s response, explaining that the
ER was dangerously overcrowded and understaffed, was met by the inevitable question from
the plaintiff ’s attorney; “Did you document in
your note that the ER was overcrowded and understaffed, or did you complain that the ER was
overcrowded or understaffed.” And again, because doctors are instructed never to document
anything that may make a hospital look liable,
the answer had to be, “No.”
While it is the doctors and nurses who seem
to be on the receiving end of much of the blame
for poor Emergency Room care, it is not at all
uncommon that it is the administrators, the ones
who sit in their glamorous offices and count the
beans, who are responsible.
Imagine any other business, like a restaurant,
for example, being run the way most emergency
rooms are run. Imagine twice the usual numbers
of patrons showing up, and some being forced to
wait outside for hours, while others are escorted
to tables occupied by complete strangers. In order to try to maximize profits, the size of the staff
is not modified to adapt to the need – time after
time.
My guess is that the restaurant would go
broke, unless they were the only one in town
-- and in that case, I’d bet a lot of people would
just stay home and make their own dinners. But
in the real world, as with any rational business,
the owners would hire more staff, build a bigger
space, and prosper.
In the world of Emergency Rooms, however, reality is turned on its head. Here, because
there are times when the ER is not full, and
times when it is exploding with three times the
normal load of patients, no extra staff are hired,
no more space is provided, and because patrons
have little alternative, they wait, and wait, and
wait, inside and outside the ER. Having interviewed and observed many patients and doctors
over the years, I’ve seen first hand what goes on
when too many patients encounter too few doctors; it becomes the most chaotic and among the
most dangerous parts of our healthcare system.
One way to fix this mess is to create the only
incentive a hospital and its administrators will
appreciate; make it very costly for hospitals who
leave patients in their ER for a prolonged period
of time and create guidelines that require all ERs
to have a minimum ratio of doctors to patients (
much like child care centers have ).
If it costs the hospital money, when they
leave patients in the ER for long periods of time,
then they will find a way to fix this mess. Hospitals could open up clinics or urgent care centers
(or cooperate with urgent care centers in
2 column
Get Noticed
Legal Notices, Advertise Today
914-562-0834
[email protected]
MEDICINE
What Your Doctor Won’t (or Can’t) Tell You—Emergency Rooms
their neighborhood) near the hospital that can
see non-emergent cases, ERs can actually divert
patients to other hospitals when their hospital is
too full to adequately treat patients, administrators can call in more doctors when some threshold is reached where a patient to doctor ratio is
just too high to safely care for patients.
As I finish writing this I feel hopeless. With
the members of congress immune to any personal emergency room saga, since they have a
free VIP pass when it comes to their healthcare,
I cannot imagine that any part of our broken
health-not-care system will be fixed.
Evan S. Levine, MD FACC is the author of “What
Your Doctor Won’t (or Can’t) Tell You” and a practicing cardiologist in Westchester and The Bronx. He is
a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Levine can be reached at
914-237-1332 or direct mailto:[email protected].
Page 11
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MOVIE REVIEW
Ed Koch Movie Reviews
By Edward I. Koch
of a cabal of Mexican drug lords and Jihadists
who want to bring the U.S. down with acts of
terror. The special force team of Seals is assigned
the mission of rescuing a female member of the
C.I.A. who has been kidnapped and is being
tortured. The shooting and all rescue scenes are
done with great excitement and accompanied by
lots of pyrotechnics.
We owe a lot to these special forces, and
when I saw the film, the audience indicated
that sentiment as well. They stayed for the credit
crawl, and in my conversations with some viewers, they made it clear that they love the Seals
and enjoyed the film.
Movie Review:
“Act of Valor” (+)
The film is a mishmash of fiction and actual situations in which the U.S. Navy Seals participated.
In her New York Times review, Jeannette Catsoulis puts the movie down stating that the cast
members are real Seals who are not very good
actors and the script is “a concocted narrative.”
It is all true. Nevertheless, the movie is exciting and well worth seeing. A major reason is
due to the tremendous success of the Seals in
storming Osama bin Laden’s home in Pakistan.
They killed him and later buried his body at sea,
all with no casualties to the Seals. We know the
dangers the Seals overcame in that situation and
that there are certainly many other incidents in
which they were involved of which we are not
yet aware.
The script takes us to the Philippines,
Mexico and other places in the world in pursuit
Movie Review:
“Rampart” (-)
The story is about a rogue L.A. cop, Dave Brown
(Woody Harrelson), who admittedly is a bigot.
He doesn’t limit his blind hatred to Hispanics
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Page 12
MOVIE REVIEW
Movie Review: “Rampart” (-)
who inhabit his poverty-stricken beat. When investigated by the police department’s head of internal affairs, (Sigourney Weaver), Brown states,
“I hate all people equally.”
That quote reminded me of a statement I
heard Sonny Carson (a black racist) make years
ago at City Hall here in New York City. When
accused of being an anti-Semite he said, “I don’t
just hate Jews. I hate all white people.”
Harrelson does an excellent job portraying
the tough, grumpy, sometimes incomprehensible, twice married, father of two girls. He lives
with his two former wives, (Cynthia Nixon and
Anne Heche), and the two daughters he fathered, one with each of the women. The talent-
ed cast also includes Ice Cube (an internal affairs
investigator), Robin Wright (a wealthy woman
with whom Brown is involved), and Steve Buscemi in a relatively small role.
I love cops-and-robbers movies, but this
picture had no robbers. It was dominated by
one rogue cop. Notwithstanding the terrific acting, the film is too disjointed and doesn’t work.
Woody Harrelson devotees, however, will abso-
lutely love it. It is really a one-man show and a
tour de force by him.
Visit the Mayor at the Movies to learn more: http://
www.mayorkoch.com/.
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.
PEOPLE
“Fordham Golf 2012 and Beyond” Honors Mamaroneck’s Paul Dillon
Mamaroneck, NY Actor and HBO’s Entourage
star Kevin Dillon made the coast-to-coast flight
from California to New York to join a packed
house at the prestigious Links Club on Wednesday night, February 29, to pay tribute to beloved
Fordham University Golf Coach and his dad,
Paul Dillon. The Dillon clan hails from Mamaroneck, NY, in Westchester County.
(L-R): Fordham alumnus Tom Humphrey
generously hosted a tribute dinner for Fordham
Golf Coach Paul Dillon (center), pictured with his
son Kevin, star of HBO’s Entourage, at the Links
Club in New York City on February 29.
Two distinguished Fordham alum, Tom
Humphrey (FCRH ’82), and his wife Cynthia
Humphrey (FCRH ’83), generously underwrote
the celebration and tribute to the dedicated
service of coach Dillon, also renowned as a
portrait artist whose celebrated works hang
in golf course clubhouses across America and
Ireland, not to mention in the homes of every
senior that he has graduated. Family members
also on hand were Paul’s wife of 60 years Mary
Ellen, and sons Paul Jr., Timmy and Brian (actor son Matt was in Toronto filming his latest
flick, and daughter Kate Scholz, were unable to
attend).
The Humphrey’s 16 year old son Theo
Humphrey attends Rye Country Day, and is
ranked 24th in the nation among the class of
2014 high school golfers.
Fordham’s own “entourage” included Vice
President of Student Affairs Jeff Gray, executive
director of athletics Frank McLaughlin, members of the board of trustees Mike Cosgrove and
John Wilcha, and alumnus Tom Nolan, a se-
NAJAH’S CORNER
Two Faced By NAJAH MUHAMMAD
What I feared the most has manifest
A friend betrayed me
The friend I thought to be my best
It took me over as I frolicked in the bliss of ignorance
Crept on top of me while I was sleeping
A shadow I thought to have my back
Pushing me forth
Past the misery of the world; past the things that I lack
A true friend I had perceived, though I stand rightfully deceived
A foe instead
A shock indeed
I had been growing successfully though this makes it hard to proceed
One minute we had everything under control, now the world is rotating at its fullest speed
To me you once were true
I have to admit that with you in my way I will never be free
But how can I stop my enemy from getting close when my enemy is me?
Najah Muhammad is a 17-year-old senior in high school. She plans to attend college next year majoring
in communications.
Fordham University Golf Coach Paul Dillon, center, is flanked by four of his five sons Paul, Jr., actor and
Entourage star Kevin, Timmy and Brian at the prestigious Links Club in New York City on Wednesday
night, February 29, at a tribute and fundraiser for Fordham Golf.
nior VP at Ralph Lauren. Rev. Fr. Patrick Ryan,
S.J. gave the invocation. Student golfer Devon
O’Rourke spoke on behalf of the team, and presented Coach Dillon with his award.
WFAN Radio’s Rich Ackerman was
Master of Ceremonies, and Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist Dave Anderson was keynote
speaker, reflecting on great golfers past and
present.
Paul Dillon’s most amazing record at Fordham: in 17 years as head coach, every player has
earned his degree from the university, and that’s
100 percent.
In heartfelt remarks, with the entire present
golf team on hand, former player John Cesarz,
now a member of the President’s Counsel, had
a riveted audience choking back tears: “Paul
Dillon has encouraged us to be the best we can
be, to believe in ourselves and to never give up…
he exemplifies the best of the Jesuit tradition of
“homines pro aliis” – a man or woman for others.
He lives this by example. His generosity of spirit,
the life lessons you have taught us will endure
long past your coaching days… You have helped
mold boys into men.”
Photos by Chris Taggart, with courtesy provided by
Fordham University.
SAFETY
Keeping Guns off Campus from North Salem
By RICH MONETTI
One of effect of the numerous mass shootings in the 1990’s,
such as the tragedy at Columbine
was a rise in state laws that allowed people to carry concealed
weapons. “The gun lobby was
emboldened by these victories,” says North Salem’s Andy Pelosi, and he’s made it his mission to
wage an effective counter campaign on the newest front of the nation’s gun control debate. With
Virginia Tech fresh in minds of the gun lobby,
says the nonprofit founder of Gun Free Kids
and its Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus,
“There is now a movement to allow weapons on
campus.”
2011 saw 20 states introduce legislation to
nullify the bans most colleges have on guns. In
turn, Oregon, Mississippi and Wisconsin have
gone on to lift university bans on firearms.“These
are setbacks,” he says, but his efforts have 12,000
individuals and 280 colleges signed on in the
face of an organization called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. “The NRA will not
Page 13
SAFETY
Keeping Guns off Campus from North Salem
necessarily identify itself with it, he says, “but the
funding is coming from somewhere.”
He emerged on the scene of this debate 13
years ago by just being someone who had been
active in various causes. “I started doing volunteer work with New Yorkers Against Gun
Violence,” he says, and four years ago began Gun
Free Kids.
As a result, he’s off to lobby legislatures in
obvious hot spots like Arizona and Texas. Closer
to home, New Hampshire occupies a large part
of the campaign’s current focus as a concealed
carry bill has been introduced in the house. In
response, administrations from the five state colleges have lent their support to the campaign,
but creating a coalition across faculty, alumni,
parents and activist citizen groups is the new strategy. “New Hampshire is our test case on
this,” he says. Otherwise, encompassed within
the initiative is getting the word out that the gun
lobby is trying to wrestle control from the universities who for the most part do not want guns
on campus, he says. Campus security personnel
are also on the same page with administrators.
One of the reasons, according to an April
2007 article in The Christian Science Monitor,
is if there are multiple shooters on the scene, how
will security be able to distinguish who poses the
threat. “Not only might the wrong people get
shot but it will take longer to get the incident
under control,” he says.
Of course, the argument is made over and
over that one person carrying could have averted
the carnage at crime scenes like Virginia Tech.
He begs to differ from someone who was
there and was shot four times. “It all happened so
fast that it would have been impossible to return
fire,” he relays the firsthand account.
At the same time, law enforcement statistics
he points to show that trained officers only hit
their targets 20% of the time in actual incidents..
“So you’re expecting people with far less training
to take somebody down in a spur of the moment
situation,” he says.
Furthermore, he believes gun proliferation
doesn’t equal deterrence. The majority of incidents that happen take place off campus, where
controls on guns are much weaker,” he says.
Add guns to the abundance of alcohol and
the slightly advanced stage of adolescence that
proliferates college life, and the mix could be
deadly. “There are so many possible unintended
consequences,” he says.
Nonetheless, there are about 25 colleges that
do allow guns on campus. For details, he directs
concerned parents and students to ArmedCampuses.org. Otherwise, he hopes students can
lend their voice and are ready to be counted. “We’re trying to connect with as many students
as possible in order to fight back,” he concludes.
http://www.keepgunsoffcampus.org/
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.
SPORTS
Historic New York Daily News Golden Gloves to be
Contested at Empire City Casino at Yonkers
YONKERS, NY -- The iconic New York
Daily News Golden Gloves returns to
Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway for the second straight year. The
2012 semi-finals of the fabled amateur
boxing tournament will be hosted on the
Casino’s fourth floor, it was announced
jointly by Casino President Timothy
J. Rooney and Daily News Senior Vice
President John Campi.
General Admission tickets will be
priced at $25; senior citizens, college
students (with proper ID) and children under 14 priced at $15. For more
information logo onto www.nydailynews.
com/Golden Gloves; or call Brian Adams at the Daily News at 212-210-1908
([email protected]) or Clare Galterio
at Empire City at 914-457-2609, (crgalterio@
yonkersraceway.com). Doors open at 6:15 PM,
and first bell is at 7:30 PM sharp. Tickets will be
sold at the door only on fight night.
Last year, for the first time in the storied history of Yonkers Raceway, hundreds
of fans flocked to the raceway to attend the
Golden Gloves. The oldest and most esteemed
amateur event in the U.S.A., celebrating its
85th anniversary this season, has produced
generations of legendary boxers including Sugar
Ray Robinson, Emile Griffith, Floyd Patterson,
Riddick Bowe, Gerry Cooney, Mark Breland,
Jose Torres, and Zab Judah.
Yonkers Raceway first opened its doors in
1899, and in over 100 years of its history has
been the home to harness racing’s Triple Crown
events such as the Yonkers Trot, Cane Pace
and Messenger Stakes, as well as such premier
stakes races as the Art Rooney Pace. Profes-
AM to 4:00 AM For more information call
914.968.4200 or log onto www.empirecitycasino.com.
sional boxing had been held in the Old Glory
Horse Pavilion, and many major fights shown
on closed circuit television. But the Daily News
Golden Gloves, the most elite Golden Gloves
tournament in the country for 85 years, became
a “first-time starter” in 2011.
“We are delighted to again bring the Daily
News Golden Gloves to Yonkers Raceway,”
said Rooney. “Two New York institutions are
teaming for a spectacular evening of boxing for
fight fans.”
“It will be another historic night for the
Daily News Golden Gloves,” said Campi. “Our
rich history grows even richer, and we are looking forward to making the return of the Golden
Gloves another memorable night at the casino.
Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway
is located at 810 Yonkers Avenue (at Central
Avenue) in Yonkers, New York, Westchester
County, (I-87 to Exit 2). Empire City Casino
is open seven days a week, every day from 9:00
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
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in
THE TOPIC OF THE WEEK: THE HILL
The Hill
The Hill
THURSDAY MARCH 8, 2012
The Wr ters Collection
http://www.TheWritersCollection.com
Stephen Woodfin
t
(h
Stephen Woodfin is an
attorney/author who has
written five legal thrillers.
He blogs on Venture
Galleries (http://venturegalleries.
com/author/stephenwoodfin
)
ply wanted to know the truth about the fire
and thunder that lit up the skies of Aurora.
He would either prove that a man from outer
space had crashed into the hill on Judge Proctor’s farmstead, or he would separate fact from
fiction and leave the myth to wither and die
away like the sunflowers that huddled between the shale and limestone scars of a barren earth.
The metal detector hummed with the
enthusiasm of a bored bumblebee. In the
distance, just on the far side of the turn in
the road, Aurora lay dying. Or maybe it was
already gone.
Aurora had been built back in the 1870s
on a promise. Some day the railroad would
be headed its way. So fifteen businesses and
a few more than 450 good, honest, hardworking farmers and merchants settled down
around the trading post. The Dallas, Pacific &
Southwest Railroad even charted and graded a
right-of-way through the little town. But, alas,
twenty people suddenly died from a strange
disease that would later be diagnosed as spotted fever, and the railroad, just as suddenly,
abandoned its plans to link Aurora with the
rest of Texas. The town squared its shoulders
and grew in spite of being shunned.
In 1897, the quiet streets of Aurora were
echoing the gossip and rumors about those
“strange and mysterious airships” that had
been seen in the skies above Forney, Tioga,
Mansfield, and Waxahachie. Some said with
quivering lips that the silver ship were at least
two hundred feet long. Some couldn’t forget
the powerful headlights that beamed down
from their snub noses. Others reported that
two gasoline engines turned the propellers
that kept each craft aloft. A few even swore
that the vessels were piloted by creatures who
wore blue sailor suits. And one claimed that
three beings climbed down from a ship, sang
Nearer My God to Thee, and passed out temperance tracts. Repeated once, passed on twice
and printed in a God-fearing newspaper heralded any gossip as gospel.
Aurora was undaunted. The town’s three
hundred good, honest, hard-working farmers
and merchants didn’t pay any attention at all
to such wild tales, regarding them only as the
frenzied results of alcoholic tongues or maybe
religious hysteria.
They went to bed on the night of April
16, and at three minutes past dawn the next
morning, a silver cigar-shaped vessel appeared
above the southern horizon. It didn’t stay long,
lasting only until it hovered at last beside those
rusty, complaining blades of Judge Proctor’s
windmill.
Dr. Krause opened the yellowed clipping
and again read the account that S. E. Hayden,
an Aurora cotton buyer, had written seventy
years ago for a Dallas newspaper: About 6
o’clock this morning, the early risers of Aurora were
astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship
which has been sailing throughout the country. It
sailed directly over the public square and when it
reached the north part of town collided with the
tower of Judge Proctor’s windmill and went to
pieces with a terrific explosion scattering debris
over several acres of ground, wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge’s
flower garden.
The pilot of the ship is supposed to
have been the only one on board, and while
his remains are badly disfigured, enough of
the original has been picked up to show that
he was not an inhabitant of this world. T. J.
Weems, the U.S. Signal Service Officer at this
place and an authority on astronomy gave it
as his opinion that he (the pilot) was a native
of Mars.
Papers found on his person – evidently
the records of his travels – are written in some
unknown hieroglyphics, and cannot be deciphered. The ship was too badly wrecked to
form conclusions as to the construction or
motive power … The pilot’s funeral will take
place tomorrow.
For the next several years, there was gossip that the fragmented metal had been suddenly and unceremoniously confiscated by the
military and never returned. Maybe. Probably.
Probably not. It sounded reasonable anyway.
Maybe those left with empty hands should
have asked the military to sign a document or
something.Then again, those wearing starched
uniforms and possessing starched faces did not
look as though they would have been willing
to sign anything. They just took the scattered
pieces from the wreckage and left. No hello.
No goodbyes. No good riddance. Nothing at
all.
So Dr. Krause stood on the hill, the mute
witness to the crash, and gazed out across the
shale and limestone rise as the earth began to
bite off the sun. He had heard the words of the
unbelievers. Judge Proctor never even owned a
windmill, some said. T. J. Weems, the so-called
authority on astronomy, was nothing more
than a blacksmith.
Yet the rumor persisted that the remains
of the man from outer space had been given
a Christian burial in the community cemetery.
And there at the foot of an unknown grave
he had found a hand-hewn marker with no
name. Instead, it had been carved with the
outline of a cigar-shaped object, maybe even
a flying machine.
All day, Dr. Krause had scoured the hill
with his metal detector, searching for remnants of the mysterious airship. Some believed
it came from outer space. Some didn’t. Dr.
Alfred Krause could only base his scientific
judgment on the merit of those antique relics that he himself had uncovered among the
rocks and shale and Yellow Stone wildflowers.
And he walked back down from the
lonely and mysterious hill of Aurora with old
stove lids, horse bridle rings, and a 1932 license
plate. If there was anything else, the hill kept
it quiet.
A different topic is addressed weekly on www.
TheWritersCollection.com. Each participant author, as well, as guest bloggers, are encouraged to
write on the chosen topic. The intriguing aspect of
each of their efforts is that by infusing their specific mood and / or genre, we can better appreciate
the complexity, frivolity, or seriousness of the issue
they are challenged to distill for all our readers to
celebrate, critique, or be cajoled to delve in the joy
of writing.
At 30
polic , e
after m
a 3
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
af
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
e
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
BOOKS
The Retired (Try To) Strike Back
Chapter 41 – The TV Interview
By ALLAN LUKS
Myron has been waiting
alone in the TV station’s
waiting area—and then
recognizes the show’s host,
Frank, a tall man, especially
compared to Myron’s height,
who quickly enters the room
and gives Myron a strong
handshake and large smile.
Myron notices the heavy makeup on his
face, no visible age lines, while Myron let the
makeup person just do a few light pats, wanting
to look natural. Had heavy makeup become a
natural face to Frank? Myron wonders.
“Your candidacy wants to be a model for seniors becoming public leaders to help the country. It’s an interesting idea to look at today. And
don’t forget, I’m a senior too. So let’s get into
the studio.”
In the very large and cold studio, the sound
technician quickly puts a small mike on Myron’s
jacket, as he sits across from Frank, no other
props. The bright overhead lights come on, the
cameraman says he’s ready, and Frank welcomes
Myron to Voters’ Voice and then asks, “You and
your opponent disagree on a number of major
issues, like housing, schools, crime. How do you
explain who’s right?”
“I’ve said in all my interviews,” replies Myron, “that candidates should not say they have
the right answers—although I know candidates
believe they need to say they do—but instead
state what they think are the better choices at
the present time. And, most important, then
add that, if elected, they’re ready to work to find
compromise choices to break the present freeze
in our government where no one wants to cooperate. Problem is today’s politicians have made
voters believe there’s only one answer for an issue
so they can’t change their position and little gets
done.”
“Can a candidate win with a not-sure-whatwill-happen platform? Your opponent, in her
interview with me yesterday and in her TV campaign commercial, emphasizes that real leadership is being an advocate for the right position
and not compromising.”
“At my age I’ve learned what’s considered
right to do constantly changes. With my own
family, after I’m gone, what I want to leave them
with are not specific answers about how to live
life but the feeling that they have the ability to
find answers—if our family stays united. Society,
to me, as a senior candidate, follows the rules of
the family.”
Frank holds eye contact with Myron, who
isn’t sure if this stare is to let viewers know if
Frank’s supportive of his family thinking or finds
it too far from professional political reasoning.
“Let’s go to the question of the shortage of
organ donors in this nation,” says Frank. “I’ve
read about the death of your long-time friend
because he couldn’t get a liver transplant in time
and you’re putting this issue at the top of your
agenda—“
Myron suddenly sees on a studio monitor
behind the camera words under his name: “He’d
Make You Feel Guilty If You’re Not An Organ
Donor—“
“ . . . and if elected, even though it’d go beyond your City Council role, you’d be calling on
all seniors, throughout the country, to register
now as organ donors when they die. If enough
do, you believe the majority of the rest of the
population will feel uncomfortable unless they
also register. But is it the role of an elected official to make people feel guilty?”
Myron tries to think of a response: My organ donor idea isn’t based on spreading guilt but
a feeling of cooperation. But to again discuss a
need for a stronger family sense—I’ll sound like I
understand society through only one viewpoint.
Which sounds too limited for voters. Although
isn’t that what I really believe?
Myron stays quiet, hoping to resemble the
experienced politicians who when interviewed
don’t reply at times to show that the answer to
the last question is obvious. But as a first-time
candidate, is his silence confusing viewers--?
“Seniors have so many experiences, which
produce their special viewpoints, I agree,” says
Frank. “But I believe the public recognizes in
which areas these views can be helpful. That’s
why they have me here, I guess,” and Frank
smiles—
“Maybe guilt in society and a strong family feeling in society are linked,” Myron suddenly
manages. “If a society doesn’t have one it’s more
likely to have the other.”
Frank nods though not really to Myron, as
he says, “I’ve really enjoyed today’s interview but
time is about gone,” and Myron listens to Frank
describe tomorrow’s guest.
Myron leaves the building and walks out
into the crowded street and sees passersby pausing to look at the TV station’s large headquarters. No one recognizes him—he’s just in a City
Council race, but still a few could be voters from
his district.
Myron watches them continuing to stop
and admire the headquarters. He thinks about
their need to feel better connected in order to
have a society that produces more programs to
help them, and their need to have the support of
seniors as public leaders who naturally want to
spread this feeling. He wonders if more people
knew this, and knew who he was, would they
just continue passing by, pausing only to look at
the TV station’s headquarters?
Allan Luks is anationally recognized social works
leader and advocate for volunteerism. He is currently
a visiting professor at Fordham university, where he
teaches several courses in nonprofit leadership.Learn
more at http://allanluks.com. Direct email to allan@
allanluks.com.
No Guarantees: One Man’s Road Through the Darkness of Depression
Chapter 27 – Being and Nothingness
By BOB MARRONE
Up until now I have focused on
those aspects of my anxiety / depression characterized by strange,
horror inducing symptoms,
agitation filled obsessions and
intense self-loathing. Together,
they are one aspect, let’s call this fire, of the two
headed beast that is, for many, how depression is
experienced. The other, and for some this is the
primary way they suffer, is the absolute vacancy
of internal life, hope, motivation and energy. Let’s
call this darkness. I experienced some of this, bit
by bit, leading up to that April night when it all
mushroomed. I had begun to lose interest in
things; my work, sex, reading and so forth.
But, now, following the first few months
of the illness and in the midst of my worsening
condition, something more profound was going on deep inside my soul. It was as if someone
had attached a vacuum cleaner to my body and
sucked out all of the life force, feeling and drive. I
could not feel myself to such an extent that I felt
I would implode. It was a feeling so unsettling
that it induced a different kind of anxiety, if indeed you could call it that. I wanted to pace, but I
had no real energy to pace. I felt myself withdraw
to such an extent that eye contact with others
was near impossible, and I learned, I think, what
it was that extremely shy persons must feel when
approached by another; or what the roach must
feel when someone turns on a light in a completely dark room. My instinct, some powerful
inner drive, was to curl into a fetal position. I felt
naked, alone and empty.
These moments would inevitably take either
of two paths. One was a slowly building anxiety attack that culminated in full-fledged panic
fixation. The odd thing is that in episodes of this
type, I would actually welcome the post anxiety
phase, even in the presence of newborn obsessions, because they left me with at least the energy generated by fear. So great had my deficits
become, so low had my expectations evolved,
that I was grateful to feel anything.
The other outcome, which soon became an
underlying, coexisting state along with all the
anxiety fire, was the certain conviction that my
condition, indeed my life, was irretrievably lost.
How, I thought, can I get well when the very
thing I need to get back to normal, my brain / my
mind, could no longer be trusted? How, I won-
dered further, could a man of so little account, so
little character… a coward and a punk… overcome something so nightmarish and surreal?
My abilities as a writer are inadequate to
the task of explaining hopelessness on such a
scale. All I can offer is this: That my life was over
was certain and without question. I knew… it
was not something that I thought, or believed,
or surmised, or assessed… that I was finished. I
‘knew’ that I would never be free of what was
now constant torment.
A summary of my life at that time: I could
not sleep and when I did, there were nightmares.
When I awakened, I was greeted by sleep paralysis or the more common curse of “early
morning awakening,” a circumstance in which
anxiety kept me from returning to sleep and
then ushered in the demons of the day. I could
not concentrate, relax, read, watch TV, eat or sit
still. I was agoraphobic, claustrophobic, manic
and fearful of meeting people. I was experiencing perpetual obsessions about my failures in life
and as a human being, and was endlessly unable
to stop the mental self abuse and mantra of calling myself a coward, again, again and again. I
weighed 129 pounds, down from the 172 when
this started, and lived on a diet of cigarettes and
Instant Breakfast drinks.
I also ‘knew’ that I was supposed to kill myself. I know it sounds odd. It is odd to write about
this all these years later. But that is what I believed. The thought itself petrified me, as much
as it was yet another symptom, a symptom I
did not recognize at the time. It was kind of the
ultimate hypochondria. When I was obsessing,
the tangled and circuitous web that is depression
ended up with my obsessing about depression
itself, along with all its frills. Thus, here I was
obsessed with killing myself, or believing I was
supposed to.
As a result of all of these things, as well as an
instinct I suspect is a survival mechanism to help
us escape reality, I was losing my sense of self and
descending into an almost trancelike state. It is
an icy cold place. It is a state of mind in which, at
least for me, one learns that we are indeed alone
in this world: alone, isolated, vulnerable and infantile. There is nothing that anyone can say or
do, nor is there anything that you yourself can do
to change the feeling or establish a meaningful
connection with the outside world.
BOOKS
No Guarantees: One Man’s Road Through the
Darkness of Depression
Only sheer will, the minimalist abilities to
put one foot in front of the other and to breathe,
got me through, and to the point where I could
keep my next appointment with John Casarino.
And it was on that day, described in chapter one,
that I learned the most important lesson of my
life; that there are no guarantees.
It was time for choices. I had to decide
whether to kill myself, or not; to accept my lot,
or not; to commit myself to years of therapy
with no assurance that I would get better or
even emerge only somewhat broken, or not. The
biggest decision I had to make was whether to
commit to this psychiatrist who was to tell me
years later, correctly so, that he determined early
on that I would benefit best by hanging on by
my fingernails. Those first months were hard.
Our time together, the patient doctor relation-
ship, was not warm; indeed it was almost distant,
at times contentious. I wanted sympathy and
encouragement, not guidance and compartmentalization. I wanted a mother and a father, not
someone who placed the responsibility on me. I
wanted someone to tell me it would all be okay,
not that I had to work and be patient.
But something about him and his cool focus and commitment said that he was the right
person. That decision saved my life, or at minimum, allowed me later on to live a wonderfully
fulfilling one. This, the birth of my daughter and
a chance trip to the house of an uncle, were the
small but fortunate lifelines that would begin the
long and painful road to recovery.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
- RICHARD MARINO, MD
EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
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.
K
SPORTSSCENE
Sports Scene
By MARK JEFFERS
Welcome to this week’s
action packed edition of
“Sports Scene,” where we
take a look at the sports results here in Westchester
County…
Let’s start off this week
on the slopes…where New
Rochelle freshman Jonathan
Yudell finished 14th in the State Skiing Championships in the slalom and then took 20th spot
in the giant slalom.
Turning from snow to ice, sure sounds
funny since we’ve had none
this winter, in high school
ice hockey Section 1
Division 1 Championship game, it was Suffern beating Eastchester/
Tuckahoe 6 to 1 for their
third straight state crown.
In the Division II title
game; it was Pelham skating by Scarsdale by the final score of 3-2.
Congratulations and good
luck to Friedrich Eder as he has been
named the new general manager for Brynwood Golf & Country Club in Armonk.
It’s been quite a year for the Iona Gaels;
they just clinched the regular season Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title...and their nation leading assist leader guard Scott Machado
has won the MAAC player of the year award,
great job Scott! I’m thinking the New Rochelle
based Gaels might even get an at-large bid to
the March Madness Dance, if they don’t just
win the MAAC Championship playoffs this
week…stay tuned.
Three cheers go out to the Realbuto Brothers of Somers as Brian and Dylan both came
home state champions at the 2012 New York
State Public State High School Athletic Association Wrestling Championships at the Times
Union Center in Albany.
Let’s head to the County Center in White
Plains for some high school hoops results, Irvington defeated Kennedy in the Class B girls
semi-finals 56-35 and in the other semi-final
game Blind Brook edged Dobbs Ferry 69-66 in
overtime.
On the boys’ side, it was the top seeded
Tuckahoe Tigers crushing Haldane 70 to 44
in Class C semi-final action. Hamden Hall just
got by Rye Country Day 64-63 to
capture the Fairchester Athletic
Association Championship.
In track and field, good
luck to White Plains junior
Thomas “Primetime” Johnson as he heads to the
State finals in the long
jump and the triple
jump and to Lexus Harney of Mount Vernon who
will run in the hurdles at the
state championships.
The Westchester Hawks AAU
basketball tryouts are being held March 10
– 11 at Hooperstown in Mt. Vernon, call 917682-4200 for more information.
Super Bowl MVP and New York Giants
QB Eli Manning will return as spokesman for
Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s 35th Annual Golf
Classic to be held June 10th and 11th at the
Mount Kisco Country Club. I have attended
AFFILIATED WITH THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL
HOME OF THE COCHRAN SCHOOL OF NURSING
914.964.4DOC | RiversideHealth.org
967 North Broadway | Yonkers | NY | 10701
©2011 St. John’s Riverside Hospital | All Rights Reserved.
Page 17
Page 18
SPORTSSCENE
Sports Scene
this event in the past, it is top notch, for a good
cause, and hanging out with Eli is not so bad
either…
And you don’t want to miss Westchester’s
ladies Roller Derby team, Suburban Brawl in
action, as they take on New Hampshire’s Skate
Free or Die All-Stars. Last time around, The
Brawl took the All-Stars to task, 254 - 21, but
the All-Stars have been working hard & will
be looking for revenge. Catch all the action on
March 31st at the Yonkers P.A.L.
Don’t forget to stop by the Westchester
County Center for the Westchester Golf Show
March 10 and 11 and catch us on “The Clubhouse” sports radio show both days noon to 2pm.
NY State Championships are happening,
good luck to all our Westchester participants...
see you next week.
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.
Mark Jeffers successfully spearheaded the launch of
MAR$AR Sports & Entertainment LLC in 2008.
TECHNOLOGY
Give a Green Light to Backup Camera Rules
By LARRY M. ELKIN
Sometimes, you just can’t find
a good government regulator
when you need one.
I have been among those
complaining that the Obama
administration seems determined to micromanage everything that moves,
but I have to admit I was wrong. Just as the
administration seemed on the verge of issuing
a regulation that makes absolute sense for both
economic and safety reasons, it has backed off.
If this seems hard to understand, remember
that this is an election year. President Obama is
fighting to carry Michigan and other Midwestern states, and the federal government continues
to hold a big stake in two of the three U.S.-based
auto makers. Against that backdrop, it is not so
surprising that Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood this week put the brakes on rules that
would soon require rearview video camera systems on new cars and trucks.
LaHood told lawmakers his department
needs more time to gather and analyze data
before proceeding with the new regulation. “I
believe it is important to allot additional time to
ensure that the final rule is appropriate and the
underlying analysis is robust,” he explained in a
letter on Tuesday.
The regulation was supposed to be announced this week, despite opposition from
automakers, who argued that visibility could be
improved with better mirrors and that requiring
a video system would be too expensive (about
$160 to $200 per vehicle, according to The New
York Times). Regulators countered that “95 to
112 deaths and as many as 8,374 injuries could
be avoided each year by eliminating the wide
blind spot behind a vehicle.”
A 2008 federal law called for the Transportation Department to issue its rule on rear
visibility standards by February 2011. Last year
the department gave itself another 12 months.
Now a statement issued by LaHood’s office
has promised a rule by the end of 2012, some
22 months after the original deadline (and, not
inconsequentially, after the upcoming election).
Nearly half of all new cars already have
backup cameras. Just like other safety features,
from antilock brakes to stability systems, they
will eventually make their way into most cars
on the road, even without a federal mandate,
because of a combination of consumer demand
and automakers’ fears of liability suits.
But sometimes car makers need a nudge.
Their arguments against requiring backup
cameras today are the same ones that were
leveled against mandating seat belts and padded dashboards when I was growing up in the
1960s. Back then, a lot of kids died when they
rode alongside their parents and were hurled
into metal dashboards during relatively minor
collisions. Today, it’s hard to even imagine a car
without seat belts. We had a similar debate in the
1980s and 1990s about requiring air bags. Now
cars without frontal airbags are rare, as they have
been required in new vehicles since 1999.
Automakers argue that extra-wide side
mirrors, the cheaper alternative to rear cameras,
would be equally effective in increasing rear visibility. That makes no sense. It is implausible
that a side mirror could effectively match a rearmounted camera coupled with an audible alert
to warn a driver of a child sitting immediately
behind a vehicle.
In addition, those wide mirrors will tend
to get bashed into garage doorways and other
obstacles unless drivers keep them folded flat
against the side of the car. You can’t see anything
at all out of a folded mirror.
Safety ought to come standard in every car.
Vehicles purchased off dealers’ lots a couple of
years from now will be the “new” used cars families of modest means purchase a decade later.
Those families will have kids, too, and they’ll
need just as much protection. Technology has
made backup cameras practical and affordable
on every new vehicle. For the price of some silly
dealer-provided “extra” such as undercoating or
nitrogen-filled tires, we can save kids’ lives, not to
mention a few bumpers, and prevent thousands
of injuries.
Yet when we finally need a government
regulator to act the part, he decides instead to act
like the very worst example of an American auto
executive. That’s disappointing, but it does not
come as a shock when the government and the
automakers are one and the same.
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.
EYE ON THEATRE
O’Neill’s First Pulitzer
By JOHN SIMON
A curious playwright, Eugene
O’Neill. His early plays, now
seldom performed, are gripping; his last ones, terrific.
In between, there is trouble.
It’s like a middle-aged man
whose chest and hips are in
good shape, but in the waist there is middleaged spread. Those central plays, with a couple
of notable exceptions, tend to be overstuffed
and flabbily verbose, in a language variously
inadequate to their ambitious matter.
But what about the early ones? Several
are about the sea and merchant ships, such as
young Eugene worked on. But there is also,
for example, “The Straw,” a highly effective
tearjerker set in a pulmonary sanatorium. And
there is “Beyond the Horizon,” now laudably
mounted by The Irish Repertory Theatre. It,
too, contains the autobiographical lung disease from which young O’Neill suffered, and
which makes its final affecting appearance
in O’Neill’s supreme ultimate masterwork,
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
Do not be put off by some unfavorable reviews of this 1920 Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Today’s reviewers cannot deal with naturalism
and poeticism; they show off their putative
modernity by favoring weird avant-gardism,
and their supposititious enlightenment, by
fervidly plugging minority playwrights.
Wrenn Schmidt and Lucas Hall.
EYE ON THEATRE
Page 19
Rdg Plyhs Westchester Guardian_Layout 1 2
THE RIDGEFIELD
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Wrenn Schmidt.
“Beyond the Horizon” is a typically youthful work in which heightened realism borders
on melodrama, and love of poetry leads to
almost baroque poeticism. But those features,
properly understood, have their appeal--like,
in their different way, Kipling’s novels and stories about youths. The thing O’Neill arguably
lacked is a stronger sense of humor, although
here the character of Mrs. Atkins, the infuriating mother-in-law, does have her garishly
comic aspect.
This is the story of Robert Mayo, a young
Massachusetts farm boy with scant use for
farming. Instead, his head is in the clouds of
Edwardian and Georgian poetry; a passage
from his volume of poems by Arthur Symons
is reproachfully read out by brother Andy,
who, like their dour father, is single-mindedly
devoted to farming.
Robert, Andy and Ruth, the daughter from the neighboring Atkins farm, have
grown up as affectionate comrades. Shy Andy
never spoke his secret love for Ruth, nor did
Robert, or Ruth that for him. On the eve of
Robert’s departure for the South Seas on the
ship of Captain Dick Scott, an uncle, Ruth
confesses her love to the young man. Overwhelmed, Robert decides to stay and marry
her. Heartbroken, Andy chooses to escape by
taking Robert’s place, though he has no love
of the sea and the world beyond the horizon.
When, after some years, Andy returns
in naval uniform, he finds the Mayo farm in
dangerous decline through Robert’s mismanagement, and Ruth and Robert’s marriage
turned sour through dissimilarity. There is
trouble with widow Atkins, a plaguing scold,
and with hired help quitting for too deferred
salary. Andy, who seems to have gotten over
Ruth, helps out financially, though he intends
to return to Argentina for what looks like a
lucrative business venture.
Johanna Lesiter, Wrenn Schmidt, Patricia Conolly and Aimee Laurence.
So much for the story, which turns proConnolly is perfect as Mrs. Atkins, and little
gressively more tragic, even as the language
Aimee Laurence is savvy beyond her age as
becomes more succinct and powerful. Menconflicted daughter Mary. John Thomas Waite
tion must be made also of little Mary, the tiny
is good as the Captain, though perhaps not
daughter of infighting parents, of Ruth’s now
different enough later as a medical specialist.
unrequited longing for Andy, and of brotherly
But if Robert has every right to his cough,
love as the only kind that remains mutual.
the audience with which I attended was not
This sizable and somewhat prolix play
entitled to its profuse coughing. This deeply
demands the fine production it gets under
moving play--especially in its last, riveting
Ciaran O’Reilly’s sound direction. First let me
phase—deserves better than that.
recommend Hugh Landwehr’s apt setting,
Photos by and courtesy of Carol Rosegg.
which bears striking resemblance to Edvard
John Simon has written for over 50 years on theMunch’s famous painting, “The Scream,” only
atre, film, literature, music and fine arts for the
without the screaming figure. The flamingly
Hudson Review, New Leader, New Criterion,
colorful and fiercely striated background corNational Review,New York Magazine, Opera
roborates the anguished proceedings, what
with Brian Nason’s canny lighting modifying
News, Weekly Standard, Broadway.com and
colors in keeping with the darkening plot.
Bloomberg News. Mr. Simon holds a PhD from
Lucas Hall’s haunted Robert gets better
Harvard University in Comparative Literature
and better as his life deteriorates and his longand has taught at MIT, Harvard University,
ing for the world beyond the farm increases.
Bard College and Marymount Manhattan ColRod Brogan is unfailingly fine as the decent
lege.
Andy, and there is solid work from David
Sitler and Johanna Leister as the older Mayo
To learn more, visit the JohnSimon-Uncensored.
couple. Wrenn Schmidt is a flawless Ruth,
com
whose descent into misery and eventual souldeath she immaculately conveys. Patricia
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Page 20
TREES
Spring is in the Air or they will be replaced free of charge.
Arbor Day Foundation members also receive a subscription to Arbor Day, the Foundation’s bimonthly publication, and The Tree Book,
which contains information about tree planting
and care.
To become a member of the Foundation
and receive the free trees, send a $10 contribution to TEN FREE DOGWOOD TREES,
Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410, by March 30, 2012. Or
join online at arborday.org/March.
Join the Arbor Day Foundation in March and Receive 10 Free Trees
The Arbor Day Foundation is making it easier
for everyone to celebrate the arrival of spring
through planting trees.
Join the Arbor Day Foundation in March
2012 and receive 10 free white flowering dogwood trees.
“White flowering dogwoods will add yearround beauty to your home and neighborhood,”
said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder
of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Dogwoods have
showy spring flowers, scarlet autumn foliage and
red berries that will attract songbirds all winter.”
The free trees are part of the nonprofit
Foundation’s Trees for America campaign.
The trees will be shipped postpaid at the
right time for planting, between March 1 and
May 31, with enclosed planting instructions.
The 6- to 12-inch trees are guaranteed to grow
GovernmentSection
MAYOR Marvin’s COLUMN
“I Didn’t Know That!”
By MARY C. MARVIN
As I approach my 7th anniversary
as Mayor, not a day goes by that I
do not learn something new about
the operations of our Village. That
is what keeps the job so stimulating and me on my toes.
Since the last month my column has been
quite dour bringing to mind the Saturday Night
Live character, “Debbie the Downer.” I thought a
change of pace was in order.
The following were knowledge bits that for
me evoked an “I did not know that” and hope it
will do the same for you. It is also a great cache
of information should we ever have a Bronxville
Jeopardy.
I am the Village’s 36th Mayor and the fourth
woman. Marcia Lee was the first female Mayor
taking office in 1977. The first 17 Mayors were
called Presidents of the Village and a photo is only
hung in Village Hall upon one’s retirement.
There are 1,114 parking meters throughout
the Village, which generated $1,101,560.45 in
revenues in the last fiscal year.
Last fiscal year,our Parking Enforcement Officers issued 29,858 tickets generating $786,928
in ticket revenue. Believe it or not, this number
GOVERNMENT
has decreased in recent years due to our attempt to
have a gentler more merchant sensitive approach.
Several high school students shared a very
valid idea with me. They felt `a la the Bronxville
School Foundation’s Donate a Brick Program
that they had more than donated a brick to the
Village Hall renovation project via their traffic ticket contributions and the bricks should be
named accordingly!
Last fiscal year, the Village Police Department issued Vehicle and Traffic tickets that generated $246,895 as reported by our Court, for
which the Village retained 52.7% or $116,680.84.
The remaining amount of money is forwarded to
the State government.
Last year, the Village issued 153 Paddle Tennis permits, which generated $35,507, and 122
Tennis Permits that produced $24,424 in revenue.
There are 1,678 parcels of property that
make-up the geographic boundaries of the Village. Of that number, 1,595 are classified as
taxable and are responsible for the Village and
School tax levies ($7,912,956 and $38,261,184
respectively for 2011/2012).
There are 192 fire hydrants located within
the Village and maintained by United Water at
a cost to the Village of $84,245. Quite unfairly,
the entire cost of hydrant maintenance fees legally
falls on only the taxpaying entities. The cost is not
included as a user fee in water bills which would
spread the cost out to all water users, not just taxpayers.
As a Registrar of Vital Statistics for Lawrence Hospital, the Village issued 3,068 birth
certificates and 2,980 death certificates during
calendar year 2011.
Our police cars are turned over after approximately 100,000 miles due to major wear and
tear caused by 24/7 operation. Due to heavy usage, major repairs such as new transmissions and
engines are often needed at this juncture making
it more cost effective to sell the cars at auction
slightly before this threshold.
Our police officers wear Kevlar vests at all
times while in uniform. The vests need to be
replaced every five years as Kevlar deteriorates
with age. Our officers also carry Glock .40 caliber handguns and train at least twice per year to
maintain proficiency.
Approximately 1,400 properties have alarm
permits at a cost of $50 yearly.
Village Hall has geo-thermal heating and
cooling which has proven cost and energy efficient. Two dozen wells were dug on the Village
Hall lawn. Water from these wells is circulated
throughout the building to water cooled heat
pumps, which cool the building in the summer
and heat it in the winter through a series of 18
pumps located throughout Village Hall.
The Village has no County roads and only
one State owned road – Route 22 – which was
built by the State with no storm sewers or drainage system.
Scout Field is actually County owned property, over 90% of which is in the cities of Mount
Vernon and Yonkers. The Village of Bronxville’s
boundary only extends several feet adjacent to
Alden Place.
Each year the Village purchases approximately 700 tons of salt under a State contract for
approximately $53/ton. We have to place our order
a full year in advance and estimate need. The salt
is trucked in from a depot in Port Newark where
it arrives on barges from throughout the country.
The Village has 65 full time employees including all police, Department of Public Works
and library staff as well as a coterie of part-time
staff. Part-time staffers are paid anywhere between $10 and $14 per hour.
The Village is an interesting place and the
Mayor’s chair offers a great perspective of all
things great and small that come together to create the Village of Bronxville.
operation to ending at 2 a.m. He expressed concern about a cabaret’s outdoor area where people
can congregate and disturb residential neighborhoods. The main use of a cabaret establishment
in Councilman’s Tarantino’s view should be the
restaurant. However, it was Councilwoman
Shari Rackman who appeared the most displeased with the proposed change. She did
not like the 2 a.m. closing time for the cabarets
and felt such establishments should be allowed
in residential neighborhoods. In her view, if a
restaurant can’t survive without the cabaret, a
cabaret would enhance the business.
One resident, Vince Malfetano, had questioned why an established Pelham Road restaurant and bar did not seek a cabaret license before
they opened a short time ago. He reiterated,
“Why would you invest upwards of a million
dollars or so in renovations? Why didn’t they
seek approval before they opened the cabaret? He continued, “Why doesn’t the City Council
have an ethics law which would prevent the taking of campaign contributions from developers that come before the Council?” A neighbor
living very close to the restaurant, Adeline Doria,
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].
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
City Council Decisions in New Rochelle
By PEGGY GODFREY
New Rochelle’s vision of economic development has been
reflected in discussion and in
several resolutions that were
revealed in February. Councilmembers were not asked
to vote on an MOU (memorandum of understanding) for the highly dense
Albanese proposal for the downtown because
information was still necessary for making an
intelligent decision. Discussion at the February
21 City Council meeting focused on two items: the Cabaret License proposal; and bonding for
the design for the new City Yard on Beechwood
Avenue. Councilman Ivar Hyden explained that the
cabaret license proposal would limit a restaurant’s
Page 21
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
City Council in New Rochelle
reinforced the general feeling that she was not
against these businesses provided they are run
properly. However, when a business encroaches
on a neighborhood, the residents are faced with
the consequences: “Our home values will be
destroyed. We have enough in the south end.” Thomas Lang, another resident in the area and
member of the Residence Park Neighborhood
Association, took exception to the way the restaurant has a cabaret without a cabaret license. He
totally supports the proposed Council legislation. Another resident had a sharper reply to Rack-
man’s comments by suggesting a cabaret be built
in the ample parking lot next to Cosi’s on Quaker
Ridge Road. But it was the approval of the $600,000
bonding to create a design for a new City Yard facility at Beechwood Avenue that has set off a rash
of citizen complaints. The sole City Council dissenter, Councilman Lou Trangucci, maintained
his previous opinion that this money should not be allotted until Forest City Residential, the developer who has an MOU on the present City Yard
for development, has presented a development
plan for this area. Councilman Al Tarantino who
originally wanted to table the bonding until Forest
City Residential presented their plan, clarified af-
ter the meeting that he had voted in favor because
originally, several years ago, the design plan was
estimated at a cost of $2.5 million dollars and this
new estimate is so much lower. The cost of moving the City Yard was originally projected at over
$25 million, but in these hard economic times the
cost has been diminished to $13 million. While deplorable conditions at the present City Yard are cited as reasons for the move,
there is plenty of evidence residents do not agree. One who did not want to be named cited the
high cost of remediating the pollution at the
present City Yard that is now being considered. Others have complained about the access streets
for the new City Yard, calling them inadequate. Warming trucks inside a new garage, instead of
the open area that is being used now, is seen as
a positive move by City officials, but they neglect
to mention how starting trucks inside the proposed garage will contribute to air pollution and
possibly require large fans to remove the polluted
air. Analyzing this City Yard vote in relation to a
person’s finances, Lorraine Pierce stated, “Interest rates may be low. However, if you don’t have
enough revenue to meet your payments you don’t
then go ahead and spend the money. If your credit is maxed out you don’t go ahead and buy a car
or house because interest rates are low. It defies
logic as does this bonding for the design phase of
a new City Yard.”
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Labor Backs Mayer
SEIU 1199, 32BJ, and Local 704 Rally for Shelley Mayer
YONKERS, NY -- Shelley Mayer, candidate for
State Assembly, last week received the endorsement of the major unions representing hundreds
of thousands of workers affiliated with SEIU:
1199 United Healthcare Workers East, 32BJ
Property Service Workers, and Local 704 Civil
Service Employees of Yonkers.
Mayer is running for the 93rd Assembly District in a March 20th special election.
“Healthcare and hospital workers spend
their lives caring for our families and loved ones
when they are elderly or ill. They depend on allies like Shelley Mayer who understand the health
care system to make sure that our hospitals and
nursing homes can survive these tough times, and
that health care workers are treated fairly. Shelley Mayer has the legislative experience and the
health care experience we need in Albany. We are
confident she will be a strong progressive voice
for health care in Albany,” said Kevin Finnegan,
Political Director, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare
Workers East.
For over seven years, Mayer was Vice President of Government and Community Affairs at
Continuum Health Partners, one of New York
City’s largest teaching hospital systems.
“Shelley Mayer has a record of advocating
for the rights of everyday, working New Yorkers,
“ said John Santos, Hudson Valley Regional Director for 32BJ. “We are committed to supporting
candidates like Shelley who will make New York
a state that works for working people”
“We need Shelley Mayer in Albany fighting
for Yonkers librarians, clerical inspectors, and civil
service workers. Shelley has a long track record of
supporting working people, and the experience
to get things done, which is why we’re proud to
support her,” said Dominick Savarese, President
of Local 704.
“I am proud to stand up for the rights of
working families who represent the core of our
communities. New York cannot grow without
growing the middle class too, which means good
jobs, fair pay, and long-term economic growth.
We need someone who understands these issues
and won’t back down from a fight, that’s why I’m
running for State Assembly,” said Shelley Mayer.
FUNDING
Republican Plan to Save Underfunded
Childcare Subsidy Program
By SHEILA MARCOTTE and
MICHAEL SMITH
WHITE PLAINS, NY – We, Legislator
Sheila Marcotte
(R-Eastchester)
and
Legislator
Michael Smith (RMt. Pleasant), have
crafted a plan that
would immediately
help fund Westchester County’s child care subsidy program. The program as currently funded
is expected to run out of its appropriated funding
this summer.
Republican Legislators are proposing a budget
amendment to transfer more than a million dollars that was placed into a slush fund created by
the Democrats in the 2012 county budget. The
slush fund is comprised of budget lines that are
not dedicated to any specific program or entity.
The slush fund budget lines carry vague titles like
BoL-Youth and Education, BoL-Environment,
BoL-Advocacy and BoL-Arts and Culture.
County Executive Rob Astorino vetoed the
slush fund budget lines with Republican Legislators voting to uphold the vetoes for well over
Shelley Mayer stands with supporters from 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, 32BJ Property
Service Workers, and Local 704 Civil Service Employees of Yonkers.
Westchester
Regional
Conference On
The Establishment of “Tobacco-Free” College Campuses
A Joint Conference of the
American Lung Association in New York, POW’R Against Tobacco,
The American Cancer Society and Westchester Community College.
Thursday, March 8, 2012 from 2-5PM
Westchester Community College
75 Grasslands Rd. Valhalla, NY
The “Classroom Building”, Lecture Hall: Room C-200
Featured Speaker Ty Patterson, Director National Center for Tobacco Policy
Nationally acclaimed expert on transition to “Tobacco-Free College Campuses. Ty will discuss:
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+RZWRLQYROYHVWXGHQWVIDFXOW\DQGDGPLQLVWUDWLRQLQ
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3OHDVH56930DXUHHQ.HQQH\(PDLOPNHQQH\#DODRUJ
Page 22
FUNDING
Republican Plan to Save Underfunded Childcare Subsidy Program
a million dollars in spending of “pork.” Legislators Marcotte and Smith call for those funds to
be transferred through a budget amendment to
the Department of Social Services to provide
the funding to continue the childcare subsidy
program.
In the proposed 2012 budget plan presented to the Board of Legislators, the family share
portion of the childcare costs was established at
35%. The Democrats on the Board of Legislators changed that amount to 20% without fully
understanding the fiscal impact of their decision.
DSS Commissioner Kevin McGuire told the
Budget Committee during his Department’s
presentation that by reducing from 35% to 20%,
the parent share portion for the daycare program,
it would not be properly funded. The amount of
money that the Democrats appropriated for the
program in their budget will now run out of
money this summer.
Legislator Marcotte is a member of the
Budget and Appropriations Committee. “It is
very clear that the warnings we heard from the
Department of Social Services in December
were well founded.” Marcotte said. “The million or so dollars that the Democrats set aside
to spend on pork could go a long way to help-
ing make up the shortfall of this underfunded
program.” Marcotte concluded, “As a working
mother of four, I understand that childcare is a
significant expense. This is not a question about
the merit of this important program, it is a question of simple mathematics. As currently funded
and at the current contribution level from those
that use the program, it will not be sustainable
beyond this summer. It’s time for the Democrats
to transfer their million dollar slush fund to the
hard working families of Westchester County.”
Freshman Legislator Michael Smith, who
sits on the Community Services Committee
said, “I understand that the approximately $6
a day increase in the family share rate that was
proposed in the County Executive’s budget is a
hardship for the families that we serve, but it was
critically essential to keep the program solvent
and to allow us to help the optimum number of
families.” Smith went on to say, “As a member of
the Community Services Committee, I and my
fellow Legislators on the committee are dedicated to ensuring that those in need in Westchester
are given the support they deserve to go to work
each day and know that their children are being
cared for in safe and affordable child care programs. Good intentions, however, do not pay our
childcare providers. We have to provide actual
dollars to keep social services programs operational.These children should not be held hostage
by political partisanship.”
Court Justice Joseph Alessandro, Jeff Buss, Esq.,
of the Yonkers law firm of Smith, Buss & Jacobs
LLP, Sam Zherka, publisher of The Westchester
Guardian, and Delfim Heusler, publisher of the
online Yonkers Insider.
The integrity expressed in words would soon
dissipate due to a lack of deeds and vitriole and
infighting among the “reformers.” Before the exchange of any money took place, Mssrs Zherka
and Heusler excised themselves from further involvement with the Westchester Integrity Committee.
The unexpressed tenets of the Westchester
Integrity Committee was to cause the collapse of
Dr. Cavallo’s hold on the Westchester Independence Party so that those who maintained their
political challenge and focus could wrestle control
of the reigns of power from Dr Cavallo and deliver the party to Senator Nick Spano. But that
was hush hush.
Mr Mangone admitted in court that he
asked Milio Management through son Franco
Milio, and with full knowledge of founder and
father to Franco, Antonio Milio, that cash was
required to satisfy the alleged desire of Sandy Annabi and Zehy Jereis to develop the Longfellow
Junior High School, Walgreens, School 6 properties as “designated developers” for their behalf.
Mr Antonio Milio, who delivered four rubber band bundled stacks of $100 bills amounting
to $10,000 per bundle, to Mr Mangone, then an
attorney, instead used some of the money he garnered, that from the Milio’s, from gambling wins,
from client payments made in cash and never reported, but divided among the law firm’s partners,
and client escrow accounts, intended to thwart
the Westchester County Independence Party
from being overthrown by Dr Sayegh winning a
challenge against Dr Cavallo. Before an intended
$10,000 cash payment could be given to “bribe”
and dissuade the Westchester integrity Committee to discontinue their challenge, Dr Sayegh
dropped out of the race. Dr Sayegh was played by
Nader Sayegh who was engaged in getting petitions for placing the Westchester integrity Committee in contention to challenge Dr Cavallo’s
Westchester Independence Party. The petitions
garnered where chanllenged and found to be
fraudulent and were disallowed. Recognizing Dr. Sayegh was no longer a viable threat, Mr Mangone figured he could pay off
Mr Khader $5,000, though it was said in those
days to have been as much as $15,000. Nevertheless, Mr Mangone gave Mr Khader $5,000 in
cash, and kept the balance for himself.
The $5,000 payment received by Mr Khader
would unravel the supposedly close-knit political
wannabees of the Westchester integrity Committee. Each individual, to some degree or another,
were obsessed with accusing each other of theft
of the money they expected to share equally. Mr
Mangone got most of the cash and Mr Khader
some of it, and Senator Nick Spano lost the political challenge to Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the
present incumbent senator of the district.
LEGAL
Yonkers Corruption Trial
Mangone Reveals the Lack of Integrity in the Westchester Integrity Committee
By HEZI ARIS
Cash Exchanged;
Feathers Ruffled;
A New Political Reality
NEW YORK, NY and
YONKERS, NY -- Anthony
Mangone, the one-time attorney, disbarred since the Spring
of 2011, took to the witness stand in Judge Colleen McMahon’s courtroom today as part of the
government’s alleged charges of corruption and
bribery against defendants Sandy Annabi, former
Yonkers City Councilwoman, and Zehy Jereis,
former Yonkers Republican Chairman. Of the
many issues covered in the early interrogation of
Mr Mangone by Anthony Siano, Mr Jereis’ legal counsel, was the episode in which in the year
2006, then Senator Nick Spano was running as
the incumbent for New York State Senate against
Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Senator Nick Spano needed to gain the support of minor party lines in order to enhance his
chances for winning in a New York State Senate
District that was regarded to have an overwhelming roster of registered voters who saw themselves
more closely affiliated with the Democratic Party
line. The only way to reign in the imbalance of
voters registered to the one party, was for then
Senator Nick Spano to seek support from the
other minority party lines. He sought out the
Conservative Party, the Independence Party, the
Working Families Party, the Right to Life party,
and any other party lines that may have existed.
As the election campaign efforts from every facet of the political spectrum would heat
up, it was recognized that forces involved in the
Westchester County Independence Party were
undergoing internal strife. An internal hierarchy
of protagonists were plotting a coup d’état in order
to wrestle the party chair, Dr. Giulio Cavallo, from
continuing to maintain political control.
The “mutineers,” who considered themselves reformers to the alleged “corruption” of
Dr Cavallo, coalesced around the well-known,
and well-respected educator Nader Sayegh, in a
reorganization effort that had the likes of John
Khader, owner of Top Class Limousine, Joseph Spezio III, a Yonkers developer, Michael
Gianatasio, one-time candidate challenging Suzie Oppenheimer in a NYS Senate race, Steven
Sacripanti, an ally who had been Administrative
Judge Francis Nicolai’s principal court reporter,
Dyalma Vasquez, a political supporter and confidante, Irma Drace, secretary to State Supreme
Raging Lawsuits in Yorktown
By ABBY LUBY
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS,
NY -- Long time Yorktown adversaries Bill LaPierre and Yorktown Highway Superintendent
Eric DiBartolo will face off in
the courtroom. After a 15-year
feud, both parties have formally filed lawsuits
against one another claiming personal and public wrongdoings.
The Westchester Guardian has been covering issues concerning DiBartolo since February,
2011. Bill LaPierre, owner of the Clark Funeral
Home in Yorktown, has for years been compiling
what he claims is evidence of what he believes is
DiBartolo’s allegedly dishonest business deals
that he claims illegally used taxpayer monies.
Last year, LaPierre, and his friend Fred Gulitz,
are said to have allegedly slandered DiBartolo
at a few town board meetings. DeBartolo sued
both Gulitz and LaPierre on defamation of
character but the suit was dismissed on a statute
of limitations technicality.
DiBartolo has now hired a new attorney,
Superintendent Eric DiBartolo in his office.
Amy Bellantoni of The Bellantoni Law Firm in
Scarsdale. Bellantoni has renewed the lawsuit.
“We filed a complaint for defamation and
served Mr LaPierre and Mr Gulitz on February
1st,” said Bellantoni. “Instead of answering that
complaint, Mr LaPierre filed a SLAPP lawsuit –
the sole purpose being to harass and maliciously
injure Mr. DiBartolo and to take away from the
false and defamatory statements Mr LaPierre
made about Mr DiBartolo and another town
worker. It has no basis in fact,” emphasized Ms
Bellantoni. (SLAPP is designated a Strategic
Lawsuit Against Public Participation and is
generally used to censor, intimidate, and silence
Page 23
LEGAL
Raging Lawsuits in Yorktown
critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal
defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition).
DiBartolo has worked for the town since
1989 when he first started as a laborer for the
Yorktown Parks and Recreation Department. In
1995 the then highway superintendent retired
and DiBartolo was approached by the Republican Party to run for the job. Today, after 20 plus
years of working for the town, DiBartolo has not
only built up his department but at one point he
took on a second post, Director of Labor, where
he headed up multiple departments with a total
of 147 employees under his watch, a powerful
position he held for over two years. DiBartolo
has garnered admiration from employees and
town residents over many years but has angered
many, as well.
DiBartolo’s lawsuit claims that he suffered
from defamation by LaPierre, irreparable injury
to his professional reputation, emotional upset,
stress, public humiliation and public embarrassment, among other claims
Representing LaPierre is attorney David
Wright of Yorktown who counters that as a public and elected official, DiBartolo is suing taxpay-
ers who have expressed their opinion. “The fact
that those opinions were critical doesn’t make it
defamation. Why should people who want to
express themselves at a town board meeting fear
that they are exposing themselves, as citizens, to
a lawsuit?”
Wright said he had papers served not only
on DiBartolo, but to Envirostar and Yorktown
Funeral Home. In March, 2009, Yorktown town
officials were informed that DiBartolo hired
Envirostar – a company owned by DiBartolo’s
brother Frank, (now deceased) to clean up contaminated soil. The job, which cost the town
$73,000, was never formally put out to bid and
the town approved the payment retroactively. LaPierre also believes that DiBartolo allegedly
partnered with the owner of the Yorktown Funeral Home, which opened in January, 2011, as
retaliation, and to compete with LaPierre’s Clark
Funeral Home, which used to be the sole funeral
home in Yorktown.
In December, 2010, LaPierre took out two
full page ads in the Yorktown Examiner condemning DiBartolo for fraudulent practices. The
dispute escalated and regularly surfaced at town
board meetings where LaPierre alleged that DiBartolo falsified paperwork for purchases, fudged
time sheets and accepted political favors from
contractors hired by the highway department.
(L-R)- Bill LaPierre, Fred Gulitz, Stephan
Gardner.
Last year, LaPierre pleaded his case to State
Comptroller DiNapoli’s Office to investigate
alleged corrupt financial practices in Yorktown,
specifically implicating the town comptroller,
Joan Goldberg and DiBartolo. In the resulting
audit report by the State Comptroller the state
never clearly cited DiBartolo as carrying out
fraudulent actions but said,“…we were unable to
ascertain whether the Superintendent received a
direct or indirect monetary or material benefit
as a result of the contracts with the Town.” The
report, which can only make recommendations
and not take legal action, went on to say “Nonetheless, to avoid even an appearance of self-interest or partiality, the Superintendent should have
recused himself from any involvement he may
have had in transactions with this corporation.”
“Mr. LaPierre’s lawsuit is based on the audit
report,” said Bellantoni. “The audit report has a
lot of accusations but no clear evidence.”
Even though the state made recommendations on corrective actions that involved DiBartolo, the town never did. Wright contends
that LaPierre’s lawsuit is a legal action similar to
one that the town should have taken long ago.
The lawsuit is following a little known municipal
law where a tax payer can bring a lawsuit in the
name of the municipality if someone from the
town has wrongfully used town funds.
“This is a procedure that is a tax payer’s
right,” said Wright. “If we do recover monies
from DeBartolo and Envirostar, I can be reimbursed for legal fees and the rest goes back to the
town. The good part is this suit is not going to
cost the town a penny.”
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/.
LEGISLATION
Senate Passes Klein’s Legislation to Ban Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages
ALBANY, NY -- The State Senate today
passed legislation by Senator Jeffrey D. Klein,
(The Bronx / Westchester), that would have
New York formally ban the sale of caffeinated
alcoholic beverages.
The legislation, (S.3889A), was introduced
as a response to the public health danger posed
by Four Loko and similar super-sweetened beverages that mixed high levels of alcohol with caffeine and other stimulants. Under this measure,
selling this product would be an E felony punishable by 1 to 3 years in prison.
The FDA has deemed the addition of caffeine to high alcohol flavored malt beverages as
“unsafe.” As a result, the four companies that
manufactured these caffeinated alcoholic beverages agreed to stop selling them in New York.
However, during the last year, reports
emerged that these products were still being
sold in some New York City convenience stores.
Additionally, the recent death of a 13-year-old
Maryland teen who has reportedly consumed
Four Loko, highlights the danger that this type
of caffeinated alcopop poses.
Additionally, Phusion Projects, the makers
of Four Loko, said it would seek to resume these
sales if “emerging science, regulatory developments or other relevant changes in circumstances arise,” or if other companies start to sell similar
caffeinated alcoholic beverages.
“It’s clear that we need more than a simple
gentlemen’s agreement to keep these dangerous
beverage off the shelves and out of the reach of
minors in New York,” Senator Klein said. “My
legislation will accomplish this goal and, once
on for all shut the door to these products in this
state.”
Research has shown that these high alcohol flavored malt beverages (FMBs), are most
popular with underage drinkers. According to
the Johns Hopkins Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, which submitted testimony to
an April 2011 committee hearing that Senator
Klein, as Chairman of the Senate Alcoholism &
Drug Abuse, held on this topic:
• 78% of current 8th grade drinkers drank FMBs
in the past 30 days;
• 71% of current 10th grade drinkers drank
FMBs in the past 30 days;
• 65% of current 12th grade drinkers drank
FMBs in the past 30 days;
• 42% of current drinkers, age 19 to 30, drank
FMBs in the past 30 days.
A link to the report can be found
here: http://www.nysenate.gov/files/pdfs/
FMB%20Plelim%20Report%20Final.pdf. If made law, New York would join five other
states with an outright ban of caffeinated malt
beverages. The bill is pending in the Assembly.
Page 24
PERMITS
Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club’s Building Permit Revoked
Last Thursday evening the Village’s (Zoning)
Board of Appeals revoked the Mamaroneck Beach
& Yacht Club’s Building Permit for seasonal housing.
Previously the Board of Appeals had found that
the site plan used for the approvals was found not
to be in compliance with the Village’s Zoning Code.
The action by the Board of Appeals was on an
appeal by the Shore Acres Property Owners
Association and the Bennett Golub family.This
matter is also being litigated and has not been
determined.
On a separate Appeal having to do with the
Village’s changing of the Zoning Map to include the ½+ acres that Mamaroneck Beach and
OP EDSection
Yacht Club claims they own and which the Sate
of NY says that the State owns, the Board of
Appeals took the position that they do not have
jurisdiction on this matter. Mamaroneck Beach
& Yacht Club has made an application to NYS
Office of General Services (NYSOGS) to purchase the ½+ acres and that application, which
The Annoying ERT Buzz of Mindless Talk and Chatter
By DR. ED U. CATOR
It’s that time again in the City of Yonkers; when
a new mayor, Mike Spano, decides to tackle a
long standing issue, the Board of Education, also
a campaign highlight, by forming a 15 member
committee to “study” the problem. I thought, as
did many other Yonkers residents, that the new
Spano regime at City Hall had already devised a
game plan to hit the ground running. So much
for new beginnings.
Mayor Mike Spano just announced his new
“crew” on TV. Yes, Spano referred to these selected volunteers by using the term “crew.” One
would have thought a brand new gang formed
in Yonkers. The mayor called this group his
Education Redesign Team (ERT). The chosen
15, along with the mayor’s special assistant on
education will help guide Mayor Mike Spano
through several phases of Yonkers Board of Education (YBoE) reform. This first phase is to be
completed by June 2012.
Not only are there no Trustees of the Yonkers Board of Education, or members of the
Yonkers Federation of Teachers (YFT) on this
committee, but nearly half of the appointees are
directly connected to the mayor’s brother, Nick
Spano, and politically compliant. The remaining
members all have entanglements; either through
relatives or the gravy train of government dollars,
which sustain their respective enterprises.
The ERT is entrusted with a two-phase
mission. It is to deliver on a “heavy” agenda al-
ready articulated by the mayor; and tasked to
do so within 90 to 100 days. Yet it has no discernable funding stream or staff. There is no one
on the ERT who can or will dedicate the time
necessary for such a bold task. Personal responsibilities will allow for only “bull” sessions to demonstrate public attendance.
This idea was first pursed by former Yonkers
Mayor Terry Zaleski and has been an on-going
concept since by other administrations for a total
of 20 years. The irony here is that Terry Zaleski
was, like Mike Spano, a former New York State
Assemblyman who would each in turn become
Mayors of Yonkers. What is it that this ERT
“crew” will do now that two decades of City
Hill – Board of Education interaction has not
been able to accomplish with many of the same
people involved?
Yonkersites believed Mayor Mike Spano
had some plan to present regarding the YBoE?
Yet, here we are, entering the third month of this
administration, and all there is to show is a new
committee.
How is it Yonkers Superintendent Bernard
Pierorazio “appears” to be in the mix, yet there is
not one Trustee? Is it not the Trustees who are
responsible for overseeing the Yonkers Board of
Education; and no one else? Are they cooperating? And if so, why do you need a new “crew”
called ERT? Upon some reflection, is it a stretch
to imagine that had these same ideas and concepts worked over 20 years of talking about them
with three previous mayors and just as many superintendents it would have been implemented
by now? How many administrations has Pier-
orazio been through?
The options are clear, the way to facilitate
the issues revolving about the Yonkers Board of
Education is to either take over the YBoE, putting it directly under mayoral control, or have
the Trustees held responsible for their actions
or inactions. As its presently conceptualized, the
Trustees can await the ERT report and do absolutely nothing once they receive it. City Hall,
the mayor, the City Council, and the Educational Redesign Team can all do the dance of the
Bumble Bee and all we will ever hear; is the buzz.
By the time ERT completes phase 1, the
2012-2013 budget will be in print. By the second phase, and the mayor’s team of ERT participants will have evolved and the 2013-2014
Budget will be in print. We will thereafter be at
the 2014-2015 Budget and at the end of Mayor
Spano’s term.
There are no guarantees; only promises. The
turn around time is too short for studying and
distilling such a complex system. This is all about
repositioning old ideas with no new analysis as
to whether it will work or not.
Unfortunately, this committee method is
a legislative stall or cover, or both. Without cooperation of the Yonkers Board of Education
Trustees or the YFT/CSEA, the ERT will not
be able to negotiate any solutions. Stop with the
dress rehearsal! Get people with real insight,
brainstorm the issues, and avoid feel-good committee placements.
is being opposed by numerous environmental
groups including The Nature Conservancy,
Federated Conservationists of Westchester
County, Audubon New York and the New
York League of Conservation Voters as well
as individuals within the Village, the State and
elsewhere, is still pending before the NYSOGS.
Sexual Assault an
Overlooked Epidemic
in the Church, Part II
By SALOME THOMPSON
Given most churches’ nonchalant attitude towards sexual assault, innocent lives have been
ruined at it’s cruel hands; and if it were to be
calculated, would surmount that of Mass Murderers Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler combined.
The invisibility and subtleness of sexual assault
has contributed to the moral decay in society.
This massacre can be attributed to the misdirection and misguidance from the authoritarian
figures within most churches. Their unearned
privilege permits them access to innocent, defenseless children and the brainwashed parents
who unknowingly volunteer their children to be
harmed. Unable to deal or cope with the trauma
and atrocity of sexual assault, innocent victims, as
adults, indulge in self destructive behaviors and
display somatic disorders such as: drug & alcohol
addiction, prostitution, anxiety, depression, eating disorder, sleeping disorder, difficulty learning, suicide, the contraction and spread of STD
and HIV. Despite the carnage of sexual assault,
most churches continue to turn a “blind eye” to
the epidemic. The panacea for sexual assault is
to pray, regurgitate and distort scriptures and do
NOTHING. Very little emphasis is placed on
practical problem solving solutions, instead, the
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Green Revolution
Ah, the electric car. The
greening of America. Green
jobs.The antidote to high gas
prices. I am so excited I just
can’t wait to get behind the wheel. It will be the
panacea for all our environmental problems. It will
create massive green jobs and end our dependence
on foreign oil. I will be laughing as I pass by each
gas station. My own green car will be sitting quietly in the garage plugged into my very own magic
green plug. Pure environmental perfection. But, as
Kermit the Frog says “It’s not easy being green”.
We don’t want the facts to get in the way of being green. The fact is that right now 45% of the
electricity produced in the U.S. comes from coal.
If we begin to produce and use more electric cars
where is all that electricity going to come from?
In addition, I would like to hear a scientific discussion comparing the efficiencies of burning oil
in a car as opposed to burning oil to produce the
electricity for the car. If we don’t burn the oil to
produce the electricity, then will it be more coal,
natural gas, nuclear or a nice green dam? After
we have done that analysis then we need to create an energy policy that will help produce all that
electricity. That should be the starting point of the
discussion before we put the green carts before the
green horses.
Sincerely,
Gary Ajello, Esq.
Yorktown, NY
Page 25
OPED
Sexual Assault an Overlooked Epidemic in the Church, Part II
members or parishioners are given the hope and
assurance that the perpetrator will be punished
and judged when Jesus returns. This ambiguous
and imbecile approach to problem solving has
perpetuated the incessant cycle of this depravity.
The unearned privilege given to authority
figures within the hierarchy of the Church, has
seemingly exonerated them of the responsibility
and accountability for their actions. If a member
of society commits a crime of sexual assault and
it is reported to law enforcement, there will be
a consequence for the perpetrator’s action. Most
Churches exonerate protagonists of authority and church members of being responsible
for their actions without any consequence and
rehabilitation. The excuse given and learned for
helplessness is blamed on sin. Authority figures within many churches often use guile and
bullying tactics to discourage members or pa-
rishioners from reporting sexual assault to law
enforcement officials. The common tactics used
are bribery and dogmatic and cataclysmic theology. The frightened and dis-empowered victims
succumb to the deceit, facing insidious trauma
after trauma.
Most figures of authority within the church
are not trained Clinicians or Psychotherapist,
yet they make decisions that have altered the
lives of innocent victims. They often discourage members from seeking counseling services
outside the Church as a way of concealing crime
being committed against the innocent. It’s very
disheartening that greater value is placed on the
money received from tithe and offering, than on
that of human life.
The carnage of sexual assault by cruel hands
of the church have derailed and imperiled the
lives of countless. As we have seen their unorthodox and harmful practices have served to
diminish the vulnerable and defenseless among
us. More needs to be done to hold the Church
accountable for their past actions.
NEW YORK CIVIC
Apathy is Dangerous
Deputy Mayor Holloway Tells Columbia Students to Keep Government Focused on Environment
By HENRY J. STERN
At a February 23 speech at Columbia University’s School of
International and Public Affairs,
Deputy Mayor for Operations Caswell Holloway described his role in
the administration and highlighted, among his
many tasks, the expansion of green infrastructure and how to treat the one billion gallons of
wastewater the city produces daily. While the
entire talk by Holloway, who previously served
in the Bloomberg Administration as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, is well worth your while
to watch on YouTube, we refer you specifically
to the final question of the evening, which we
posed to Deputy Mayor Holloway at 1 hour, 9
minutes, and 47 seconds into the talk.
The transcript of the ensuing exchange is
posted below:
Henry Stern: The city has elections every
four years and what assurance is there that the
next administration will have the attitude that
this one did? I’ve been through a dozen DEP
commissioners in my time in city government;
some of them are better, some of them are worse.
In my opinion this is the golden age for your
agency, but they are often followed by brass ages
or stone ages. So where do you go from here
after somebody cuts a deal with the Brooklyn
district leader not to put a facility in their neighborhood? Caswell Holloway: Well, I think that
this is probably the most important question of
rd
the moment: how do we ensure - and by the
way there’s a lot I haven’t talked about here as
far as public safety and education and all of those
things and they are critically important, and it
is a balancing of resources, but this question of
how do we ensure that this stuff - it’s very easy
to undo things, cut deals, pay lip service to something and then go do something else. I think the
only way that that is going to be avoided is if the
next mayor, our successors and then even their
successors, know that it’s not going to be politically tenable to stop or backtrack on this and it’s
fundamentally a political question.
“The technology is there, the brainpower is
there, the possibility of making the investments
- and by the way in most cases - and this is what
I focused on; whether its green infrastructure or
recycling, the economics case is there to make
these investments and in this time that’s probably the most important argument to make
because dollars are scarce - but unless there is
sustained action and unless it becomes something - the candidates in the upcoming election
have to be asked point blank and address “what
are you going to do to continue this or that?” then I think you’re right, I think it’s a huge risk
and that’s why apathy, I think, is really dangerous and that’s why maybe we are - I would say
right now in a fairly good place, even though I
wouldn’t characterize things as good, certainly
financially, but don’t be complacent, don’t think
that because the way things are and because the
focus of the administration is what it is that that’s
the way it’s always been.
“The city hasn’t always had historically
low crime, we haven’t always had control of the
schools and we certainly haven’t always had what
some people think of as a fairly enlightened public policy toward these issues: looking at these investments as good economics as well. That just
means get involved and be engaged and listen to
what the candidates are saying because it’s going to be very easy if there’s only...there’s going
to be...you can be assured there’s going to be a
small, narrow group of people who have a fairly
narrow set of interests who are going to be very,
very engaged in who the next mayor is.The question is: will you be engaged? Does that include
you? It should. I think that it’s fundamentally a
political question. Henry Stern: Yes. And for example, in the last administration I was free to go
to schools throughout the country and hire the
finest young people we were able to reach and try
to persuade them to go into city government and
many of them did. The most prominent: Deputy
Mayor Skyler, who came before your advent, but
even he was very helpful because he was the one
who got you to come back into government after
you’d been in the private sector for a little while.
But it’s an attitude, it’s the idea, that this is possible, that these are wonderful places to work, if
you’re doing a good job, that this is the most important public business that can be undertaken
and you almost need a campaign to get people
to do it because I don’t think you’re going to
have anybody in this election who is going to be
spending $100 million in order to get the most
qualified candidates to run for any office.
Deputy Mayor Holloway is absolutely
correct. Apathy is the greatest danger we face.
Elections have far greater consequences than we
often credit them with. Whoever will be our next
Mayor will select the leadership and chart the direction of every department of our government
for the next four years. The choice of Mayor is
not just between personalities and platitudes - as
the media often seems to suggest; at its core, the
choice is between policies and philosophy.
This is not a choice to be taken lightly. What
is at risk is not just the future progress of our city,
but the very real possibility of regression in many
areas where the city simply cannot afford to fall
backwards.
Henry J. Stern writes as StarQuest. Direct email to
him at [email protected]. Peruse Mr. Stern’s
writing at New York Civic.
Page 26
The WesTchesTer Guardian
ThursdaY, FeBruarY
23, 2012March 8, 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
Prime Retail - Westchester County
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
THE PARENT(s) AND COMMITMENT OF GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODY OF THE CHILD FOR THE
PURPOSES OF ADOPTION, EVEN IF THE PARENT(s) WERE NOT NAMED AS RESPONDENTS IN
THE CHILD NEGLECT OR ABUSE PROCEEDING.
A NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REQUEST TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT CUSTODY OF THE CHILD AND TO SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THE CHILD.
BY ORDER OF THE FAMILY COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
TO THE ABOVE-NAMED RESPONDENT(S) WHO RESIDE(S) OR IS FOUND AT [specify
address(es)]:
Last known addresses: TIFFANY RAY: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701
Last known addresses: KENNETH THOMAS: 24 Garfield Street, #3, Yonkers, NY 10701
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.
YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear before this Court at Yonkers Family Court
located at 53 So. Broadway, Yonkers, New York, on the 28th day of March, 2012 at 2;15 pm in the
afternoon of said day to answer the petition and to show cause why said child should not be
adjudicated to be a neglected child and why you should not be dealt with in accordance with the
provisions of Article 10 of the Family Court Act.
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE, that you have the right to be represented by a lawyer, 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
Get
Get Noticed
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Office Space AvailablePrime Location, Yorktown
Heights
914-562-0834
Prime Retail - Westchester
County
Contact Wilca: 914.632.1230
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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.
1250 PELHAM PARKWAY SOUTH,
LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec.
of State (SSNY) 1/23/2012. Office
in Westchester Co. SSNY design.
Agent of LLC upon whom process
may be served. SSNY shall mail
copy of The LLC 20 Black Hawk
Rd. Scarsdale, NY 10583. 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,
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.
The LLC 698 Saw Mill River RD
Ardsley, NY 10502. Purpose: Any
lawful activity.
NEWBOLD HOLDINGS LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State
of The LLC 305 North Ave. New
Rochelle, NY 10801. Purpose:
NUDGE CAPITAL LLC Articles
of C/O Patricia G Micek Esq 2180
Boston Post Rd. Larchmont, NY
10538. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
NEWBOLD LOT LLC Articles
of The LLC 305 North Ave. 1st Fl.
New Rochelle, NY 10801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
BLUE TARGET LLC Articles
(SSNY) 11/30/2011. Office in
mail copy of C/O Julio Alberto
Garcia 119 E. Hartsdale Ave. Apt.
4C Hartsdale, NY 10530. Purpose:
HAMMER TIME HANDYMAN,
of State (SSNY) 12/2/2011. Office in Westchester Co. SSNY
design. Agent of LLC upon whom
shall mail copy of The LLC 45 Virginia Lane Thornwood, NY 10594.
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.
WEINER, LLP Articles of Org. filed
NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 12/6/2011.
Office in Westchester Co. SSNY
design. Agent of LLP upon whom
shall mail copy of The LLP 660
White Plains Rd. Tarrytown, NY
10591. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Principal Office: 660 White
Plains Rd. Tarrytown, NY 10591
EQUIDYNE HOLDINGS LIMITED
LIABILITY COMPANY Articles
of Leslie Hughes 2005 Palmer
Ave. #134 Larchmont, NY 10538.
Purpose: Any lawful activity
MERCER 111, LLC Articles of Org.
10/25/07. Office in Westchester
Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC
upon whom process may be
The LLC 199 Lafayette St. New
York, NY 10012. Purpose: Any
lawful activity.
Page 28
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