Central/Mid Queens News

Among the items needed are:

shaving cream and men’s and women’s razors, feminine hygiene products and deodorant for men and women;

The last section of the spire atop 1 World Trade Center — the building once officially known, and still often referred to, as the Freedom Tower — was installed last Friday, marking the building’s official height of 1,776 feet, which pays homage to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The top of the mast was placed just after 8 a.m. Friday morning.

The $3.8 billion skyscraper can be seen from nearly every neighborhood in Queens. It returns the title of the city’s tallest to Lower Manhattan for the first time since 9/11 and stands next to the former site of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, which were destroyed that day by terrorists, killing 2,606 people, including more than 200 from Queens.

• Breaking

The New York Post is reporting that former State Senator Shirley Huntley has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison in federal court in Brooklyn on a corruption-related charge.

Huntley, 74, pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud in connection with the embezzlement of nearly $88,000 from a phony nonprofit organization.

• Featured

City Comptroller John Liu continues to run for mayor as if confident he can overcome the embarrassment of a campaign finance scandal that could send one of his top former aides and a contributor to prison for decades.

How much impact the case will have is an open question. But according to two political science experts in Queens, the Liu campaign faces multiple challenges arising from the convictions last week of Jia “Jenny” Hou, his former treasurer, and Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, a fundraising “bundler,” who secured donations from other parties that then went to the campaign.

• Featured

Drivers who chug along the Grand Central, just as it breaks away from the Jackie Robinson, can’t help but notice the massive construction project at the Kew Gardens Interchange, the series of ramps and roads at the confluence of the Grand Central Parkway, the Van Wyck Expressway, the Jackie Robinson Parkway, Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike.

With the summer months approaching, the state Department of Transportation is confident traffic will lighten, making for an easier commute, but with the project going on for over a year now, there is some skepticism over the outcome this transportation hub makeover will have.

Sorry, park advocates, the Major League Soccer stadium planned for Flushing Meadows is a done deal. And, some of you same folks will lament the fact that the Ridgewood Theatre will never be a performance venue again. Lastly, you fans of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) will be disappointed to learn she will not be the next mayor of New York.

These were all revelations made to this writer on Tuesday. Do I have a crystal ball? No. (After all, I was liking Curtis Sliwa’s pick in the Kentucky Derby until the darn horse scratched at the last minute). No, what I had was a conversation with Queens’ own celebrity psychic, Jesse Bravo.

Throughout the city, crime has generally continued to decline, but in Forest Hills, the burglary hits just keep on coming and residents have become concerned.

“I just feel like there is a little less of a police presence in the area,” one resident said at a public safety meeting hosted by the 112th Precinct Monday. “I know there’s undercover cops but I feel like when I was younger or even in 2000, 2005, there was more of a presence and with all of these burglaries, I think we should be seeing more police cars around the area.”

The performing arts are alive at PS 174 in Rego Park, which is one of just five schools in the city selected this year to do a Disney Musicals In Schools production of “The Jungle Book.”

The community is invited to see the children put on the show, an adaptation geared toward young performers, on three dates this month. The students will also do a closed performance at the Minskoff Theatre in Manhattan.