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Gifted & Talented move worries parents
Parents and teachers from a citywide Gifted and Talented program and from its proposed new school buildings criticized a prolonged phaseout period and potential overcrowding at a meeting Tuesday night. Under a new Department of Education proposal, STEM students now at PS 85 will attend K-4 at PS 17 at 28-37 29 St. and then continue 6-8, under the direction of the same principal, at IS 126 at 31-51 21 St. The administration will split its time between the two facilities.
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posted: June 13
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Education
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- N Train suicide in Astoria
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 1:30 pm
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A 31-year-old Astoria man committed suicide by jumping in front of an on coming N train at the elevated Broadway and 31st Street subway station on Tuesday, an officer at the scene said.
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- Bikini bars may get into full disclosure
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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It’s more likely a new law will no longer allow bikini bars to look — on paper — like pubs, sports bars or any other establishment that requires their waiters to wear more than thongs.
The bill to force establishments to note any type of adult entertainment on their State Liquor Authority application passed the state Senate on Tuesday. It passed the Assembly on March 13.
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- VFW renames post after WW II veteran
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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On June 6, 1944, thousands of men stormed the beaches of Normandy, France to shake Europe from the grip of the Third Reich. The attack, known as D-Day, was one of the bloodiest days in World War II and American history.
Rocco Moretto, a young man from Astoria, was among the slew of men who waded from the amphibious boats to land. He was also among the very few from his company to survive the mission.
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- CB 2 votes against 5 Pointz teardown
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 1:45 pm
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It’s a case of art vs. progress, or at least what some see as progress, in the ongoing clash over the proposed construction of two high-rise apartment buildings in the space occupied by the 5 Pointz open-air art exhibit in Long Island City, a hot topic that comprised the majority of the June 6 Community Board 2 meeting.
The complex, an artists’ haven featuring one of the world’s most celebrated collections of legal graffiti, is located on the block between Davis and Crain Sreets, with frontage on Jackson Avenue. It is owned by the Wolkoff family, which hopes to see the demolition begin by the end of the year.
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- Candidates line up for District 22 race
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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The list of candidates running for the District 22 seat occupied by Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) is getting longer.
Last week Constantinos “Gus” Prentzas, Community Board 1 member and small business owner, filed paperwork with the New York City Campaign Finance Board and started collecting signatures to get on the September Democratic primary ballot.
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- Repairs to start in Shady Park
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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On Monday the Parks Department starts repairs to bring Andrews Grove, the Long Island City park nicknamed Shady Park for its former large trees, back to normal.
Hurricane Sandy ripped seven trees from the park’s ground, damaged play equipment and ruined the fence. The monthlong restoration will focus on fixing these features, located on the south side of 49th Avenue between Vernon Boulevard and Fifth Street.
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- Nonprofit helps cool Astoria church
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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Last Wednesday Astoria got a little cooler.
The White Roof Project, a nonprofit that paints flat tar roofs white to combat global warming, transformed its first Queens location — Trinity Lutheran Church on the corner of 37th Street and 31st Avenue in Astoria.
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- Update: Derailment causes LIRR cancellations; more possible Wednesday a.m.
- Updated: June 18, 2013 - 6:02 pm
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Long Island Rail Road commuters are being advised to expect delays and cancellations during Tuesday’s afternoon rush hour as crews repair damage from a derailment inside an East River tunnel on Monday night.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said no one was hurt when the 10-car 5:51 train to Hempstead, LI, had two cars derail while eastbound in the tunnel. Eight switches and roughly 500 feet of track were damaged. The tunnel is one of four owned and operated by Amtrak.
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- Senate unlikely to vote on fracking bill
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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With the Senate session winding down in Albany, and about a thousand bills left to debate, the hydrofracking moratorium bill may not even hit the floor for a vote. Most Queens lawmakers oppose allowing the drilling process in New York State without conclusive scientific evidence that it can be done safely, without contaminating groundwater.
The drilling process known as hydrofracking is used to obtain natural gas from rock formations, such as the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York’s Southern Tier to West Virginia. Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water along with a slurry of sand and about 600 chemicals into a narrow horizontal pipe at high pressure to induce “mini-earthquakes,” which release the natural gas.
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- Mixed Martial Arts still controversial
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 11:00 am
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New York is the only state in which Mixed Martial Arts is banned, and the controversy surrounding the sport is ongoing in Albany.
In response to a bill that would legalize MMA, 35 Assembly Democrats wrote a letter to Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), a longtime opponent of MMA, asking him to hold the line in opposition.
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- Pedals for the medals at Astoria race
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 2:13 pm
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Last Sunday more than 300 children — ages 3 to 11 — hopped on their bikes for the 33rd Annual Children’s Bicycle Race in Astoria Park, one of the city’s oldest and longest running children’s bike races.
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- Bill de Blasio campaign focuses on education
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 11:01 am
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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio minces no words when asked why he is running for mayor and why he feels he is the best choice for the Democratic nomination.
“I am fundamentally dissatisfied with things in the city,” he said last week at a meeting with the editorial board of the Queens Chronicle.
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- U.S. schools chief visits Aviation HS
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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In town to speak to graduates at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made a pit stop in Queens to visit with students and business leaders at Aviation High School and talk about the rising focus on career and technical education.
Noting that CTE schools are of special interest to his boss, President Obama, Duncan said he wanted to learn more about how they are working in the city. Aviation is the third such school he’s visited in New York City, and the first in Queens.
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- Quick hits
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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Queens loses out on new teacher awards
Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott honored 11 teachers from around the city this week as winners of the first “Big Apple Awards” to recognize excellence in education, but none from Queens made the cut. Each winner will receive a $3,500 grant for use in the classroom and will serve as a “Big Apple Ambassador,” advising the city Department of Education.
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- Call her Principal Yih
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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PS 78 kindergartener Avery Yih was the Principal for a Day at her school in Long Island City on June 4.
The job of principal was auctioned off by PS 78’s Parent Teacher Association at its first annual spring fundraiser last month, according to PTA representative Cece Cunningham.
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- Career Day at PS 76
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 6:24 pm
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PS 76 in Long Island City, the William Hallett Magnet School of Health and Wellness, hosted guest speakers from all over the tristate area last Friday for the school’s annual Career Day.
The speakers had the chance to go to four different classrooms to describe what their jobs entail and take questions.As always, the NYPD Highway Patrol volunteered its time to talk to the children.
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- USTA hosts call for US Open singers
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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They came from across the borough on Tuesday afternoon to show their patriotism and win a chance to sing at the upcoming US Open Tennis Tournament at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The United States Tennis Association, the national governing body for tennis in this country and the primary promoter of the sport at every level, held its seventh annual US Open casting call for children hoping to perform at the 2013 event.
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- Mets host blood drive
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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The New York Mets continued a decade-long tradition in joining with the New York Blood Center to host a blood drive last Thursday at Citi Field.
More than 500 donors attended the event, which took place in the stadium’s Caesar’s Club from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a total of 565 pints were collected, according to the NYBC.
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- Other issues take back burner to 5 Pointz
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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Almost all items at the June 6 Community Board 2 meeting were tabled when the public hearing about 5 Pointz, a well-known place for legal graffiti in Long Island City which is facing extinction, ran more than two hours.
The many comments concluded with a recommendation to turn down the request by G & M Realty to the City Planning Commission for a special permit to convert the area to a mixed-use 1,000-housing-units complex [see other story].
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- Free CPR training from FDNY
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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The New York City Fire Department offers free CPR instruction courses to groups of between six and 40 through the FDNY Mobile CPR Training Unit.
Personnel from the FDNY’s EMS Division are available to teach compression-only CPR, as well as the use of automatic external defibrillators, both of which can help save a victim of a heart attack or cardiac arrest.
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- Bird strike diverts plane to JFK
- Posted: June 13, 2013
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A Florida-bound plane was forced to land at JFK Airport Thursday morning after being struck by two birds.
JetBlue Flight 1205 to Fort Myers, Fla. took off from Westchester County Airport in White Plains around 8 a.m. and was struck by the birds over the Long Island Sound.
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- Arne Duncan. U.S. Secretary of Education, visits Aviation High School
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 12:49 pm
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In town to speak to graduates at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made a pit stop in Queens to visit with students and business leaders at Aviation High School and talk about the rising focus on career and technical education.
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- Astorian honored for WW II bravery
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 10:40 am
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In recognition of the great courage under fire he displayed 70 years ago, longtime Astorian Robert Danke was inducted into the state Senate Veterans Hall of Fame on May 21 .
Danke enlisted in the the Navy in June 1942, when he was just 17, and he was sworn in as a sailor on Nov. 11, Armistice Day — just under a year after the United States entered World War II.
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- Calls to put housing ahead of mall at Willets
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 10:40 am
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Housing advocates, state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) and residents of the surrounding neighborhoods chanted “What do we want? Affordable housing!” across the street from Citi Field on Friday, decrying what they considered a lackluster push for it in Willets Point and calling for a new agreement between the city and the development group selected to rejuvenate the Iron Triangle.
“If they put a wrecking ball to 2,000 units of affordable housing to make room for a shopping mall, it would be front-page news and there would be no end to the outrage,” Peralta said. “That’s exactly what’s happening here. It’s just as outrageous. It’s just as unacceptable.”
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- Work could restart on Astoria med facility
- Updated: June 13, 2013 - 10:40 am
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Astoria residents who abut a partially constructed, eight-story medical facility wonder what to do next.
On May 21, the city Board of Standards and Appeals, after delaying the vote twice, decided that the hardship claimed by Pali Realty if it had to deconstruct the structure to fix its error was great enough to warrant granting the firm a waiver.
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