UFT, STATEN ISLAND BOROUGH PRESIDENT SUE MTA OVER CONGESTION PRICING PLAN
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — THE UNITED FEDERATION OF TEACHERS AND STATEN ISLAND BOROUGH PRESIDENT VITO FOSSELLA FILED A LAWSUIT IN FEDERAL COURT IN DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN ON THURSDAY, Jan. 4, to forestall the MTA’S congestion pricing plan, reviews the Daily News. The go well with alleges that federal regulators upfront authorized the MTA’s plan to toll automobiles getting into Midtown and decrease Manhattan with out weighing the “human environmental impact.” The plaintiffs declare that the congestion pricing plan, which is able to rate drivers $15 for getting into the Manhattan central enterprise district between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. — spanning the hours many lecturers will have to trip to college — will punish lecturers, firefighters and different town staff who trip to Manhattan for his or her jobs. Moreover, no exception has but been made for the varsity buses that shipping scholars.
Thursday’s lawsuit is the primary introduced in a New York-based federal courtroom. New Jersey is bringing identical, dual felony demanding situations in line with the environmental evaluation.
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FORUM AIMS TO BUILD TECH CAREERS FOR BROOKLYNITES
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — THE CREATION OF TECH CAREERS FOR BROOKLYNITES IS THE TOPIC OF POLICY FORUM happening subsequent Thursday, Jan. 11, with the Center for an Urban Future. The discussion board, titled “Helping More Brooklyn Residents Access Tech Careers,” and held from 8 a.m. to ten:45 a.m. at NYU Tandon’s Pfizer Auditorium, will center of attention at the alternative for Brooklynites to extend get admission to to tech careers right here. Brooklyn-based leaders, together with Borough President Antonio Reynoso and several other elected officers, will talk about the borough’s tech training and coaching ecosystem, and read about the extra movements that policymakers, employers, educators and staff practitioners can take to position extra Brooklynites at the trail to technology-powered careers.
Educators and tech leaders taking part within the discussion board will come with Reuben Ogbonna, Executive Director of The Marcy Lab School; Kayon Pryce, Founding Principal, of the Brooklyn STEAM Center on the Navy Yard; Evin F. Robinson, Co-Founder & President of America On Tech; and Michael Zigman, President & CEO of NYC FIRST.
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AARP HONORS DR. TIM LAW, FOUNDER OF CHINESE SOCIAL SERVICES CENTER
BENSONHURST — DR. TIM LAW, THE FOUNDER OF THE CHINESE AMERICAN SOCIAL SERVICES CENTER (124 AVENUE O) WAS RECENTLY AWARDED THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED PERSONS (AARP’s) Andrus Award, which acknowledges outstanding volunteer efforts at the a part of people elderly 50 and older. Assemblyman William Colton (D-47), who nominated Dr. Law for the award, introduced it to the honoree. The award, he stated, “Is given to community leaders who have played an important role in helping the community. That certainly describes Dr. Law, who has been a force for good in southwest Brooklyn since emigrating to the United States from China in 1968. Colton, whose district encompasses Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights and Gravesend, said, “Over the years, Dr. Law has been involved in so many facets of the community, from education to organizing voter registration drives to food giveaways to speaking out on behalf of the immigrant community.”
AARP mentioned, “Dr. Law has supported AARP’s vision and purpose because of his ability to ensure every person is treated equally with dignity and respect.”
Photo courtesy of the Office of Assemblymember William Colton
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VIDEO: COPS RESCUE A MAN WHO FELL ONTO TRACKS AT CARROLL ST. SUBWAY STATION
CARROLL GARDENS — TWO ALERT NYPD POLICE OFFICERS RESCUED A MAN who fell onto the subway tracks on the Carroll Street station in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn on Dec. 26. Officers Desmond Mohan and Kenly Garcia of the 76th Precinct have been patrolling the station after they noticed a 50-year-old guy fall onto the tracks. They ran to haul him safely again onto the platform, and he used to be handled by way of EMS on the scene, in line with the Daily Mail, the place a bodycam video of the rescue may also be noticed.
Amazingly, this rescue got here simply two months after Mohan and Garcia labored with the NYPD harbor unit to rescue a 20-year-old girl trapped underneath a Brooklyn pier.
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TRINITARIOS STREET GANG MEMBERS CHARGED IN FEDERAL COURT HERE
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT WAS FILED TODAY IN FEDERAL COURT IN BROOKLYN CHARGING MEMBERS OF THE TRINITARIOS STREET GANG — two of them Brooklynites —with a string of violent crimes together with more than one shootings and armed carjackings between November 2022 and February 2023. The defendants have been up to now arrested and shall be arraigned at the superseding indictment at a later date. Defendants Amaury Guzmán, age 24, and Ian Diez (sometimes called “Gallina”), age 19, are each recognized as being from Brooklyn, however no neighborhoods have been specified. The crimes, which came about in Queens and New Jersey, integrated a homicide, shootings and two armed carjackings.
If convicted, Guzmán and Jonathan Rodríguez of Queens are going through as much as a lifestyles sentence; whilst Diez faces as much as 15 years. The fourth defendant, Ruffi Fernández (sometimes called “Mojatoto”), of Staten Island faces twenty years in jail.
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VIRTUAL INFO SESSION ON PROPOSED ‘CITY OF YES FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY’
CITYWIDE — THE NYC DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING WILL BE HOSTING A VIRTUAL INFORMATION SESSION to respond to “frequently asked questions” about Mayor Eric Adams’s “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” proposal, on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 11 a.m. by the use of Zoom. City of Yes for Economic Opportunity, the second one of Adams’ 3 City of Yes zoning tasks, “would support small businesses and entrepreneurs, revitalize commercial corridors, boost growing industries, and bolster the city’s industrial sector,” DCP Director Dan Garodnick stated in a liberate Wednesday. The FAQs shall be voiced by way of DCP visitors Kevin Guscott, Special Projects Manager for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; Rafael Espinal, Exec. Dir. of the Freelancers Union; and Laura Rothrock, president of Long Island City Partnership. RSVP here.
Four neighborhood forums have voted in improve of the debatable, business-friendly proposal, and 4 have voted to disapprove. The City Planning Commission will dangle a public listening to on Jan. 24, adopted by way of a vote within the spring.
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COMPTROLLER LANDER: IMMIGRANTS A BIG PLUS TO NYC ECONOMY
CITYWIDE — NYC COMPTROLLER BRAD LANDER DEBUNKED RISING ANTI-IMMIGRANT RHETORIC on Thursday by way of freeing a truth sheet detailing the various financial contributions immigrants and asylum-seekers make to the NYC financial system. Not simplest are immigrant New Yorkers much more likely to be hired, however they’re additionally much more likely to start out a enterprise, and give a contribution billions of dollars via taxes and spending, Lander stated. In 2021, immigrant New Yorkers paid $61 billion bucks in taxes and constituted $138 billion bucks in spending energy; undocumented immigrants contributed $18.6 billion in federal source of revenue taxes and $12.2 billion in state and native taxes. Immigrants additionally lend a hand town make amends for citizens shifting out, Lander stated.
Historically, New York City has skilled a lot upper immigration numbers than it’s experiencing these days, Lander stated. In simply sooner or later in 1907, over 11,000 immigrants entered New York City via Ellis Island. Today town welcomes as much as 600 migrants an afternoon in search of refuge.
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CITY COUNCILMEMBERS URGE ELECTIONS BOARD TO OMIT TRUMP’S NAME FROM BALLOT
CITYWIDE — AS REPUBLICAN FRONTRUNNER DONALD TRUMP ASKED THE U.S. SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN COLORADO’S 14TH AMENDMENT RULING WITHOUT REVIEW, a majority of City Councilmembers right here in New York have known as at the State Board Of Elections to fail to remember his identify from the 2024 presidential number one and basic election ballots, Gothamist reported on Wednesday, Jan. 3. The 29 Councilmembers, all Democrats, signed the letter. Together they assert that Trump, who misplaced his 2020 reelection bid to Joe Biden however is lately the Republican frontrunner, is ineligible to carry place of job underneath Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution “because he engaged in and aided an insurrection against the United States after swearing to uphold the Constitution as the nation’s president.” The New York Times, additionally, revealed an research pronouncing that 33 states have noticed formal demanding situations to former President Trump.
The 4 state Board of Elections commissioners are frivolously divided between the 2 main political events.
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HOCHUL: EXPECT WINTRY MIX OF RAIN/SNOW IN NYC OVER WEEKEND
CITYWIDE — GOV. KATHY HOCHUL TOLD NEW YORK CITY RESIDENTS TO PREP for a wintry mixture of both rain, rainy snow or a few of every this weekend. While the hurricane’s actual trajectory isn’t but nailed down, the forecast predicts a big coastal climate gadget will hit a lot of the state starting past due Saturday and proceeding into Sunday, with 3 to eight inches of snow upstate and a mixture of snow and rain within the New York City Metro Area.
For a list of climate indicators and forecasts, consult with the National Weather Service website.
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HOCHUL TEARS MUSCLE DOING HEAVY LIFTING — 80 POUNDS!
UPSTATE — ‘PRETTY DAMN GOOD’: Gov. Kathy Hochul used to be dressed in a white sling all through an tournament upstate on Wednesday to talk about her Back to Basics plan to enhance studying talent in New York, a part of her 2024 State of the State. When requested in regards to the sling, she published she had torn her pectoral muscle lifting 80-pound weights within the fitness center an afternoon previous, in line with the New York Daily News by the use of Yahoo. “You don’t think 80 pounds of weightlifting is pretty damn good for someone my age?” Hochul, 65, laughed. “I’ll be fine.”
Hochul stated she is going to introduce regulation that guarantees evidence-based perfect practices to teach reading are used during New York. She can even suggest $10 million in state investments to coach 20,000 lecturers.
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MEDICAL BILLER CHARGED WITH 27 FELONY COUNTS IN THEFT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION FUNDS
BROOKLYN AND STATEWIDE — A MEDICAL BILLING FIRM OWNER WHO PROVIDED SERVICES TO A BROOKLYN ORTHOPEDIC PRACTICE HAS BEEN ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH STEALING MORE THAN $1 MILLION, Attorney General Letitia James introduced on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 3. Amrish Patel, 61, of Monroe Township, New Jersey, is accused of stealing greater than $1 million that used to be meant to be paid immediately to medical doctors who equipped hospital therapy to injured staff underneath the New York State Workers’ Compensation Law. Patel, who equipped billing products and services to a Brooklyn-based orthopedic surgical procedure observe, allegedly submitted falsified declare paperwork to the New York State Insurance Fund, bilking a minimum of $1.1 million in staff’ reimbursement reimbursements for himself.
Patel and his two firms, Medlink Services, Inc. and Medlink Partners, LLC (in combination, Medlink), have been charged with 27 prison counts for the thefts they allegedly dedicated over seven years from January 2012 via January 2019.
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COURT ST. ‘R’ TRAIN STATION COMPLETELY ‘RE-NEW-VATED’
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — THE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY HAS WRAPPED UP its top-to-bottom “Re-NEW-vation” of the Court Street R teach subway station in Brooklyn Heights, the company introduced Wednesday. The Re-NEW-vation program provides dingy stations entire structural and aesthetic renovations. The paintings at Court Street integrated changing wall tiles, updating lighting fixtures to LED, repaving concrete, changing old-fashioned signage and scrubbing blank subway globes. Workers additionally scrapped and repainted all of the station. Court Street marked the 53rd and ultimate station to be re-NEW-vated in 2023, beating MTA’s objective of fifty a 12 months.
Local officers together with state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and Councilmember Lincoln Restler stated they have been extremely joyful with the cleanup. “I appreciate the MTA’s work in making that happen for all who use the Court St. Station, and I look forward to enjoying the fruits of their labor myself,” Gounardes stated.
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