One week after the mayor signed the NYPD accountability package into law, protesters in Flushing marched to defund and demilitarize the police, claiming the legislation is not nearly enough.

“It’s definitely mostly for appearance. It’s the same thing with the budget change where they moved $1 billion from the police but they didn’t do anything we asked for,” John Almonte, founder of the recently established NYC Injustice Fighters, said July 23. Almonte created the organization in an effort to increase Queens’ participation in the Black Lives Matter movement, which he said had been lacking compared to efforts in other areas of the city. “They were just trying to make it seem like they were doing good, but it’s definitely not done. As people have been saying, this is not a moment, it’s a movement.” Read more

Many residents in Queens are at risk of starving, but more than 30 boxes of emergency meals were left on the side of an underpass in Middle Village Monday.

The boxes were piled on top of each other along a wall near the Queens Midtown Expressway. A sticker on the boxes labeled GetFood NYC said the boxes were packed July 26 and were to be delivered by July 31. Read more

The state Senate and Assembly unanimously passed legislation aimed at preventing domestic abusers from harassing their victims through remotely controlled technology.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows) and Sen.Jamaal Bailey (D-Bronx), aims to protect domestic violence survivors by allowing for restraining orders that prohibit an abuser or harasser from controlling “smart” devices in a domestic abuse survivor’s home, vehicle or other property. Many smart devices, such as security locks, thermostats, doorbells, speakers, sprinklers, cameras and lighting, can be controlled through an app on a smartphone via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and can be used by abusers as a tool for harassment. Read more

After receiving the most votes in a nationwide poll, Flushing Town Hall won a $20,000 grant to maintain its virtual education programming for children.

CIT Group administered the Acts of Caring online poll, which called on users to vote for one of 10 nonprofits that could benefit from additional funding. Each organization featured in the poll received a $10,000 grant from the bank holding company, but the winning organization’s grant was doubled at the end of voting. Read more

It ain’t over.

With apologies to Yogi Berra, the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District between 14-term incumbent Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn) and Suraj Patel entered its second month last week, and was scheduled for a federal court hearing on Wednesday as Patel is challenging the rejection of numerous paper ballots. Read more

The city’s 73 business improvement districts, along with the five borough chambers of commerce and other city and state associations, have proposed a nine-point plan aimed at helping small businesses survive the economic hardships of the pandemic and revive their communities.

The call to action, addressed to Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), was released July 21 and calls for the officials to take adequate steps to reinforce a sentiment so often shared by the officials: “Small businesses are the heart and soul of our communities and the backbone of our economy.” Read more

In a growing field to replace Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), two more candidates are in the race: David Aronov and Edwin Wong. The two join Evan Boccardi, Eliseo Labayen, Sharon Levy and Lynn Schulman.

Koslowitz will be term-limited at the end of 2021. Read more

Some residents at the Bland Houses in Flushing got their cooking gas restored after months of waiting, but some are still holding out five months later.

Two gas lines at the New York City Housing Authority complex were interrupted to address a broken gas cock in one building and a gas leak in another, affecting 20 total apartments. Both service interruptions affect cooking gas only and were unrelated to heat or hot water service. Read more

A Forest Hills man was indicted last Friday for defrauding a pharmaceutical manufacturer, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced.

Arkadiy Khaimov, 37, allegedly submitted approximately $6.9 million in fraudulent claims under a reimbursement program. Read more

With the clock ticking down to Aug. 1, U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans spent Wednesday blaming each other for the failure, as of the Chronicle’s deadline, to reach an accord on supplemental unemployment support for about 30 million Americans.

Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are supporting the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions, or HEROES, Act, a $3 trillion package passed by the Democrat-led House of Representatives in May. Read more

New York City Transit on Monday morning unveiled the long-awaited elevators at the Astoria Boulevard elevated subway station that serves the N and W lines.

Astoria Boulevard, opened in 1917, is the 117th station to be made accessible out of 472 under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the 20th in Queens. Read more

Haron Hargrave has always believed that sports brings people together.

“It doesn’t matter who’s on the court with me,” he said. “I don’t care what color you are. We all have a common goal and that’s to win, to unite and come together for the ‘W.’” Read more

Franklin Diaz of Corona never admitted he was sick, so his daughter knew he was in bad shape when he called her at 8 a.m. on April 11 and told her he was taking himself to the hospital. Franklin, who had underlying heart conditions and a blood disorder, was having difficulty breathing, but was certain he just had an extreme case of the common cold. Twenty minutes after Claudia hung up the phone, a doctor from NewYork-Presbyterian Queens called her back to tell her they were admitting her father into the emergency room with a case of pneumonia. Not long after, it was determined that Franklin had COVID-19.

“I spoke to him every morning as much as he could ... the third day I said, ‘How are you doing?’ but he said he was tired, ‘I got to go,’ and he hung up,” Claudia said of the moments before her 68-year-old father was put on a ventilator. Claudia, who lives in Florida, relied on FaceTime and telephone calls to stay updated with her sick father from thousands of miles away. “Not knowing what could happen, him being by himself, having that space between both of us was nerve-racking. My connection to him was the phone, and now I have nothing.” Read more

While the food insecurity of the COVID crisis has spurred the creation of mutual aid groups and food distributions across the city, in Queens one provider stands out among the rest.

The Richmond Hill-based River Fund, a nonprofit whose mission is to fight hunger, homelessness and poverty across New York City, distributed 5.2 million pounds of groceries in the first 16 weeks of its COVID operations. Read more