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The recent spate of arrests and criminal investigations involving public officials has ensnared a high percentage of minorities in the state Legislature, leading some in the community to ask if black and Hispanic lawmakers are being targeted. State Sen. James Sanders (D-Jamaica) decided last week that the question of conspiracy or corruption was far better-suited for an open, frank and free-wheeling debate before nearly 200 people at the Black Spectrum Theatre in Roy Wilkins Park in Jamaica.
posted: May 16
Government,
Crime
If published reports are right, state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) and seven others were taped in former Sen. Shirley Huntley’s home either at the request of the FBI, or at Huntley’s recommendation to the bureau.
In an interview following Huntley’s sentencing to prison last week, Peralta said he is at a loss to explain why either would consider him a possible target for a corruption probe.
The comprehensive immigration reform bill that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is co-sponsoring would put millions of immigrants on the path to citizenship and would specifically benefit the Asians here, he said.
“We have a great Asian community and I am a great fan of immigration because it adds to the greatness of New York and the greatness of our country,” Schumer said during a phone press conference Friday.
The new executive officer of the 103rd Precinct said crime statistics — particularly those involving guns — are headed in the right direction on Tuesday at the monthly meeting of the precinct’s Community Council.
“Year to date we have had five shootings; last year at this time the precinct had 16,” Capt. James Fey said. “In those incidents there have been six shooting victims. We had 19 in the same period last year.
An appellate court has overturned a ruling by Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis that states the city is practicing deliberate discrimination against minority applicants for the FDNY.
Published reports also said Garaufis has been barred from sitting on a retrial to address the matter.
The New York City Water Board voted on Friday, as expected, to increase water rates by 5.6 percent for the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
The average annual water bill for a single-family home will increase from $939 per year to $991. The average increase for a unit in a multifamily dwelling will go up from $610 to $644.
Famed choreographer and Jamaica native Brice D. Vick has guided the candied heels of Ashanti, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera. But his ambition goes beyond bold-faced names and music videos. Now he’s hoping to put a step in the moves of kids with the founding of Hip-Hop 4 Health Plus, a DVD dance program he hopes will help kids get and stay healthy.
The 29-year-old kicked off HH4H+ with a party and fundraiser on Saturday, May 4 in Fresh Meadows, with over 300 kids in tow and a bevy of dancers and talent to help.
A fund has been created for the family of D'aja Robinson, the 14-year old who was shot and killed on a Q6 bus Saturday night in Jamaica. Local rapper and author QueenzFlip started the fund after learning that Robinson was a fan of his work. He received Facebook messages from Robinson's family members informing him about Saturday's tragedy shortly after it happened.
A St. Albans man who engaged in a one-hour felony spree in February 2010 was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison last week on charges that included the attempted murder of a police officer.
Darius Lowery, 25, was one of two men convicted in March in connection with a rampage that went through three precincts and involved a stolen car, a home invasion robbery, an armed street robbery and shots fired at officers Steven Betts and Shawn Phillips during a brief but wild car chase.
The NYPD has issued a silver alert for a missing 79-year-old Laurelton man and is seeking the public’s assistance in locating him.
Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday morning that A train subway service will be restored to the Rockaways on May 30, just over seven months after Hurricane Sandy destroyed tracks across Jamaica Bay and seriously damaged two stations.
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.
A Jamaica man faces 25 years to life in prison following his conviction in a 2008 murder resulting from a dispute between two men over who controlled a 14-year-old prostitute.
Brandon King, 26, of 116th Street, was convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon on May 8, following a two-week trial, for shooting an unarmed man five times. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak on June 5.
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.
Ten people have been indicted on 82 counts in an alleged auto theft ring that targeted four well-known Queens auto dealerships, according to District Attorney Richard Brown.
The suspects are accused of stealing vehicles from the four dealerships in Queens and one more in Brooklyn over the course of three months and allegedly selling one of the cars to a defendant who planned to send it overseas on a container ship.
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:
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.
The New York City Water Board voted on Friday, as expected, to increase water rates by 5.6 percent for the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
The average annual water bill for a single-family home will increase from $939 per year to $991. The average increase for a unit in a multifamily dwelling will go up from $610 to $644.
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.
The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation has reached an agreement with a Long Island real estate developer on a project that is slated to bring “a big-box retail store” and a 500-space parking garage to 168th Street.
The Blumenfeld Development Group has worked on numerous projects in the city, including the transformation of the old Bulova Watch Co. complex on Astoria Boulevard in East Elmhurst into a corporate office center.
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.”
The names of six Democratic state senators and a city councilman from Southeast Queens were among those contained Wednesday on a list of people who had their conversations with then-state Senator Shirley Huntley recorded by an FBI listening device in 2012.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on Wednesday on the names, contained in a sentencing letter connected to Huntley’s case, or U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein’s order to unseal the letter.
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.
Elected officials, members of the public and Queens Library employees gathered Tuesday on the steps of the Flushing Library to decry a $29.6 million fiscal buzzsaw in the mayor’s proposed budget looming over the institution.
The gathering starts what has become something of an annual cut-then-rescue ritual inspired every year by Mayor Bloomberg’s budget. Inevitably, hizzoner puts out dollar figures that cause lawmakers to use terms like “unacceptable” and “draconian.”
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