Eastern/Southeast Queens News

The bill mandating that companies in the city with more than 15 employees eventually provide paid sick leave is awaiting a promised mayoral veto — and an expected override of that veto by the City Council.

The bill passed last Wednesday 45-3, more than enough to nullify the veto promised by Mayor Bloomberg, if members stick to their positions.

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted on Tuesday to have a public hearing on an application to designate Jamaica High School a city landmark.

No date has been set for the hearing, according to a spokeswoman for the commission.

Motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of death in the United States today. Each year, nearly 2.5 million Americans are treated in hospital emergency departments as a result of an MVA. While the numbers are staggering, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Trauma Team is dedicated to decreasing the number of these preventable injuries through education, research and community outreach.

Jamaica Hospital operates a Level 1 Trauma Center, the highest designation to treat critically injured patients. Last year, Jamaica Hospital’s ERtreated more than 500 patients injured as a result of motor vehicle accidents and the staffwants to offer the following tip to our community on how to avoid serious injury:

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.

Former state Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica), who agreed to wear a wire for the FBI in 2012 as state and federal prosecutors closed in on her, is scheduled to be sentenced today on a wire-fraud charge in federal court in Brooklyn.

The disgraced former senator provided “evidence useful to law enforcement” during conversations she had with three elected officials while wearing an FBI wire in July and August of 2012, all after she was cornered by the bureau and federal prosecutors for her role in siphoning money from “a bogus nonprofit.”

• 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.

A group that began seven months ago with a few people venting their complaints while eating at the Terrace Diner has evolved into a neighborhood movement, a force dedicated to making the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority work for the residents of Northeast Queens to alleviate the noise and pollution from planes flying out of LaGuardia airport.

Approximately 200 people with similar frustrations attended the first Queens Quiet Skies community education meting on May 2 in the Bayside High School auditorium. While planes rumbled overhead, leaders and experts presented residents with legal and technical information and encouraged them to get more involved.