Central/Mid Queens News

The mayor’s preliminary budget released on May 3 proposes to cut about $47 million from the Department of Cultural Affairs, the city agency that funds public and nonprofit cultural programs.

So the dance begins; these will not be the final numbers.

Hiram Monserrate, a former state senator and city councilman from western Queens, pleaded guilty on Friday to funneling more than $100,000 intended for a nonprofit to help fund his failed bid for the state Senate in 2006, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Monserrate, 44, who was elected to the state Senate in 2008 and then ousted in early 2010 after being convicted of misdemeanor assault for dragging his bleeding girlfriend through his apartment building in Jackson Heights, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges of conspiracy and mail fraud. He faces two years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 14, prosecutors said.

David Rosen, the former CEO of MediSys Health Network, a nonprofit corporation that runs Jamaica Hospital and Flushing Hospital Medical Center, was sentenced Monday to three years in prison by a Manhattan federal court for bribery.

Rosen, 64, of upstate Harrison will also spend two years under supervised release following his prison term, and is required to pay a $500 special assessment fee.

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The cost of tap water, which has been rising year after year after year, will go up 7 percent in fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1. The city considers that an accomplishment because it had initially projected water rates would go up 9.3 percent.

Water rates have been skyrocketing every year since fiscal 2007, often at double digits. Critics say the sharp increases are effectively tax hikes, given the necessity of water, putting the lie to the mayor’s frequent boasts that he keeps taxes down.

Kevin Czartoryski, a retired detective for the NYPD, was one of many first responders who risked his life to save others on 9/11.

As a consequence of his heroism, he contracted 9/11-related lung disease and succumbed to his sickness at 46 in December 2010. In a tribute to him, the southeast corner of 59th Road and 60th Street near his home in Maspeth was named in his honor last Sunday.

City officials, civic leaders and residents cheered the reopening of the Forest Park greenhouse on Monday, five years after renovations began at the facility built in 1905.

Parks Department officials said the greenhouse is expected to grow about 250,000 plants annually —up from 200,000 five years ago. The perennials, annuals and tropical plants will be shipped to parks and other green spaces across the borough, and throughout the city.

The ladies who lunch came to tea in full regalia this past Sunday as the Richmond Hill Historical Society held a special event at the Center at Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Though no passengers from the doomed liner are known to be among the 80,000 individuals buried at the cemetery, there is a connection that was explained by Carl Ballenas, historian for both the Society and the Friends of Maple Grove, a nonprofit organization which sponsored the event.

Her handshake is firm, as is her gaze.

“Hi, I’m Tiffeny,” she says in a calm voice. The 22-year-old could be any typical girl in her age range. But she is not. Three months ago, Tiffeny gave birth to a baby girl so underdeveloped and addicted by opioids that the doctors had to detox her and perform brain surgery. This is all because Tiffeny has been an opioid addict since she was 16.