NEW YORK — Advice to New York City employees who wish to stay employed: Do not ask a welfare recipient to watch your beloved pet ferret.
A caseworker at the Human Resources Administration was fired after doing just that, the city’s Conflict of Interest Board said Tuesday. It was the latest episode in a long line of municipal controversies wrought by the misunderstood mammal.
The caseworker, Kempe Hope, exploited his position by soliciting a paid ferret-sitting session from a person whose benefits he was overseeing, the board found. It was a lesson learned too late for Hope, who discovered that of all the political pests that can vex public servants, the ferret often leaves the harshest bite.
After banning pet ferrets in 1999, then-mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani became so incensed about the animals that he called a ferret advocate deranged. “This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness,’’ Giuliani said in an extended rant on his radio program in 2000, later cited by political opponents as an example of unhinged behavior by the mayor. (Ferrets are cousins of the weasel.)
Hey, Rudy, who told you the WTC was going to collapse on 9/11, and why did you destroy a crime scene?
A former Massachusetts governor, William F. Weld, earned praise and mockery when he insisted his state not be ‘‘immune to the discreet charm of the domestic ferret.’’ And as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to legalize ferret ownership. He called the measure flawed, but added: ‘‘I love ferrets. I co-starred with a ferret in ‘Kindergarten Cop.’ ’’
Efforts to reach Hope were unsuccessful. But the pet care that he requested would probably have been taxing for the sitter. “Things happen very quickly with ferrets,’’ said David Guthartz, executive president of New York Ferret’s Rights Advocacy, and the man whose love for the animal prompted Giuliani’s radio rant. Proper care, he said, requires vigilance: ‘‘We don’t own them. They own us.’’
--more--"
What else the Globe has given us these last months:
"Guilty plea in boy’s murder in NYC; Ghastly death of 8-year-old stunned city" by Mosi Secret | New York Times, August 10, 2012
NEW YORK — Levi Aron pleaded guilty Thursday to killing Leiby Kletzky, the 8-year-old boy from the insular Hasidic community of Borough Park, Brooklyn, whose disappearance while walking home from camp and the ghastly discovery of his dismembered remains transfixed New York City last summer.
Aron, 36, arrived in Brooklyn Supreme Court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, a skullcap, and a full beard. In a subdued tone he responded to a series of prepared questions from the judge about the crime, speaking in one-word answers but offering no additional details or emotional response.
The plea deal with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, to a charge of second-degree murder and another for kidnapping, will send Aron to prison for at least 40 years. It brings to a close an unusually ghastly case that stoked parents’ fears about allowing their children to walk the city’s streets alone and forced residents of Borough Park, one of the city’s safest neighborhoods, to confront violence that they had seen before only from afar.
Lawyers for Aron, who has a history of mental illness and had faced a life sentence, had considered using an insanity defense if the case went to trial. Judge Neil Firetog told Aron on Thursday that ‘‘a defense of not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect would not be a viable defense.’’
Leiby’s parents, who pushed for the plea agreement to avoid a trial where they would relive the horrors of their son’s death, did not attend the hearing. Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has served as a family spokesman, read a statement on their behalf that said they were eager to have the case conclude and did not wish to be contacted by journalists.
On July 11, 2011, just days before his birthday, Leiby was allowed to walk partway home alone from day camp for the first time. Though he had practiced the seven-block route with his parents, during his first effort alone that day he lost his way. He stopped to ask a stranger for help, a random encounter that would lead to his death.
The stranger was Aron, a clerk at a nearby hardware supply store. Aron offered to drive Leiby to the Judaica bookstore Leiby was looking for, but instead took Leiby to a wedding in Rockland County, north of the city, and later to his attic apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn.
After Leiby’s parents raised the alarm about the missing boy, thousands of volunteers from the Hasidic community and others took to the streets, putting up posters seeking information and offering a reward. Using helicopters and officers on foot and in cars, the police joined in the search.
Aron told the courtroom that the intensity of the search effort caused him to panic. He smothered the boy with a towel and then cut up his body, apparently for easier disposal. The city medical examiner’s office determined that Aron had also drugged Leiby.
A day and a half after the boy’s disappearance, the police found surveillance video that led them to Aron’s home.
--more--"
Why not give the guy concrete galoshes instead?
"Wounded bystanders in N.Y. all hit by police; Injuries came as officers killed man near Empire State" by Tom Hays and Verena Dobnik | Associated Press, August 26, 2012
NEW YORK — All nine people wounded during a dramatic confrontation between police and a gunman outside the Empire State Building were struck by bullets fired by the two officers, police said Saturday, citing ballistics evidence.
The veteran patrolmen who opened fire on the suit-wearing gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, had only an instant to react when he whirled and pointed a .45-caliber pistol as they approached him from behind on a busy sidewalk.
Officer Craig Matthews shot seven times. Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times, police said. Neither had ever fired their weapons before on a patrol.
The volley of gunfire felled Johnson in just a few seconds and wounded nine other people.
In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn’t clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of wounded, but based on ballistic and other evidence, ‘‘it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police,’’ Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters on Saturday at a community event in Harlem.
He reiterated that the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullets wounds in the chest, arms, and legs.
‘‘I believe it was handled well,’’ Kelly said.
The officers confronted Johnson as he walked, casually, down the street after gunning down a former co-worker on the sidewalk outside the office they once shared. The shooting happened at 9 a.m., as the neighborhood bustled with people arriving for work.
The gunman and his victim, Steve Ercolino, had a history of workplace squabbles before Johnson was laid off from their company, Hazan Import Corp., a year ago. At one point, the two men had grappled in an elevator....
After shooting Ercolino, Johnson, an eccentric T-shirt designer and avid bird-watcher who wore a suit every day, even when photographing hawks in Central Park, walked away as if nothing had happened....
--more--"
The veteran patrolmen who opened fire on the suit-wearing gunman, Jeffrey Johnson, had only an instant to react when he whirled and pointed a .45-caliber pistol as they approached him from behind on a busy sidewalk.
Officer Craig Matthews shot seven times. Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times, police said. Neither had ever fired their weapons before on a patrol.
The volley of gunfire felled Johnson in just a few seconds and wounded nine other people.
In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn’t clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of wounded, but based on ballistic and other evidence, ‘‘it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police,’’ Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters on Saturday at a community event in Harlem.
He reiterated that the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullets wounds in the chest, arms, and legs.
‘‘I believe it was handled well,’’ Kelly said.
The officers confronted Johnson as he walked, casually, down the street after gunning down a former co-worker on the sidewalk outside the office they once shared. The shooting happened at 9 a.m., as the neighborhood bustled with people arriving for work.
The gunman and his victim, Steve Ercolino, had a history of workplace squabbles before Johnson was laid off from their company, Hazan Import Corp., a year ago. At one point, the two men had grappled in an elevator....
After shooting Ercolino, Johnson, an eccentric T-shirt designer and avid bird-watcher who wore a suit every day, even when photographing hawks in Central Park, walked away as if nothing had happened....
--more--"
Related:
"As he approached the two officers in front of the Empire State Building, Johnson took out his gun ‘‘and tried to shoot the cops and kill the cops,’’ Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told reporters at the scene.
The officers’ bullets struck Johnson at least seven times.
One security video clearly shows the encounter.
“It’s great video — you see him drawing on the cops, you see the whole thing,’’ a law enforcement official said. ‘‘The cops had no choice.’’
Uh-huh.
Related: N.Y. police shot knife-wielding man 12 times
UPDATE: NC woman sues NYPD over Empire State shooting
I'm getting hungry as it is getting close to lunch time:
"NYC officer arrested in kidnap plot" Associated Press, October 26, 2012
NEW YORK — A city police officer was charged Thursday with leading a ghoulish double life by using a law enforcement database and fetish chat rooms to dream up a plot to torture women and then cook and eat their body parts.
Gilberto Valle, 28, left a trail of e-mails, instant messages, and computer files detailing the bizarre cannibalism scheme, according to a criminal complaint, which identified two women as Victim 1 and Victim 2.
I just lost my appetite.
He catalogued at least 100 women on his computer, federal investigators said, but there was no information that anyone was harmed.
One document found on his computer was titled ‘‘Abducting and Cooking (Victim 1): A Blueprint,’’ according to the complaint. The file also had the woman’s birth date and other personal information and a list of materials — a car, chloroform, and rope.
‘‘I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus . . . cook her over low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,’’ Valle allegedly wrote in one exchange in July, the complaint says.
In other online conversations, investigators said, Valle talked about the mechanics of fitting the woman’s body into an oven (her legs would have to be bent).
The woman told the FBI she knew Valle and met him for lunch in July, but that’s as far as it went.
The officer’s estranged wife had alerted authorities to his online activity, triggering the investigation that led to his arrest by the FBI on Wednesday, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
--more--"
"NYC cannibalism case tests lines of fantasy; Man talked about eating women" by Tom Hays | Associated Press, October 27, 2012
NEW YORK — In Internet chats as breezy as they were bizarre, a police officer accused of plotting to kidnap and eat as many as 100 women was once cautioned not to be wasteful when cooking a victim because ‘‘there is nearly 75 pounds of food there.’’
But no one was ever actually harmed in Gilberto Valle’s alleged plot, let alone eaten. And a defense attorney says the officer was merely engaging in harmless Internet fantasy.
Where exactly the line is drawn between bizarre talk and a true plot has emerged as the key question in a case that has shocked even the most jaded New Yorkers.
Indeed, experts say many people have a compulsion to create horrific scenarios about cannibalism, and that the Internet allows them to indulge in their dark side anonymously and — usually — safely.
Oh, so this is some sort of agenda-pushing psy-op censorship.
‘‘There is a big difference between discussing, and even fantasizing, about this type of activity and actually carrying it out,’’ said Jeffrey Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College. ‘‘Not all the people who fantasize about it will go on to carry it out.’’
One website called ‘‘Devoured’’ — devoted to a fetish called ‘‘vore”— is almost comical in its approach, saying it’s ‘‘where everyone’s on the menu.’’
The site defines ‘‘vore’’ as a sexual interest that ‘‘occurs from the idea of being eaten whole and alive, eating another alive, or watching this process.’’
Now I want to vomit.
***********************
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment Friday on a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Valle is a six-year NYPD veteran, a college graduate, and father of an infant child.
At a bail hearing on Thursday, defense attorney Julia Gatto argued that he never posed a threat. Charges of kidnapping with the intent to murder are overblown, she said.
Her client ‘‘at worst is someone who has sexual fantasies about people he knows and he talks about it on the Internet, but not act on it,’’ she said.
I'm sure the ladies are really flattered.
--more--"
Related: Zombies now part of Red Cross readiness
Yeah, it's all a big joke.
At least the NYPD stopped spying on Muslims -- in New Jersey!
UPDATE: NC woman sues NYPD over Empire State shooting
I'm getting hungry as it is getting close to lunch time:
"NYC officer arrested in kidnap plot" Associated Press, October 26, 2012
NEW YORK — A city police officer was charged Thursday with leading a ghoulish double life by using a law enforcement database and fetish chat rooms to dream up a plot to torture women and then cook and eat their body parts.
Gilberto Valle, 28, left a trail of e-mails, instant messages, and computer files detailing the bizarre cannibalism scheme, according to a criminal complaint, which identified two women as Victim 1 and Victim 2.
I just lost my appetite.
He catalogued at least 100 women on his computer, federal investigators said, but there was no information that anyone was harmed.
One document found on his computer was titled ‘‘Abducting and Cooking (Victim 1): A Blueprint,’’ according to the complaint. The file also had the woman’s birth date and other personal information and a list of materials — a car, chloroform, and rope.
‘‘I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus . . . cook her over low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,’’ Valle allegedly wrote in one exchange in July, the complaint says.
In other online conversations, investigators said, Valle talked about the mechanics of fitting the woman’s body into an oven (her legs would have to be bent).
The woman told the FBI she knew Valle and met him for lunch in July, but that’s as far as it went.
The officer’s estranged wife had alerted authorities to his online activity, triggering the investigation that led to his arrest by the FBI on Wednesday, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
--more--"
"NYC cannibalism case tests lines of fantasy; Man talked about eating women" by Tom Hays | Associated Press, October 27, 2012
NEW YORK — In Internet chats as breezy as they were bizarre, a police officer accused of plotting to kidnap and eat as many as 100 women was once cautioned not to be wasteful when cooking a victim because ‘‘there is nearly 75 pounds of food there.’’
But no one was ever actually harmed in Gilberto Valle’s alleged plot, let alone eaten. And a defense attorney says the officer was merely engaging in harmless Internet fantasy.
Where exactly the line is drawn between bizarre talk and a true plot has emerged as the key question in a case that has shocked even the most jaded New Yorkers.
Indeed, experts say many people have a compulsion to create horrific scenarios about cannibalism, and that the Internet allows them to indulge in their dark side anonymously and — usually — safely.
Oh, so this is some sort of agenda-pushing psy-op censorship.
‘‘There is a big difference between discussing, and even fantasizing, about this type of activity and actually carrying it out,’’ said Jeffrey Parsons, a psychologist at Hunter College. ‘‘Not all the people who fantasize about it will go on to carry it out.’’
One website called ‘‘Devoured’’ — devoted to a fetish called ‘‘vore”— is almost comical in its approach, saying it’s ‘‘where everyone’s on the menu.’’
The site defines ‘‘vore’’ as a sexual interest that ‘‘occurs from the idea of being eaten whole and alive, eating another alive, or watching this process.’’
Now I want to vomit.
***********************
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment Friday on a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Valle is a six-year NYPD veteran, a college graduate, and father of an infant child.
At a bail hearing on Thursday, defense attorney Julia Gatto argued that he never posed a threat. Charges of kidnapping with the intent to murder are overblown, she said.
Her client ‘‘at worst is someone who has sexual fantasies about people he knows and he talks about it on the Internet, but not act on it,’’ she said.
I'm sure the ladies are really flattered.
--more--"
Related: Zombies now part of Red Cross readiness
Yeah, it's all a big joke.
At least the NYPD stopped spying on Muslims -- in New Jersey!
Also see: New York City police stops drop dramatically following criticism
Nobody likes a police state.
"No jail for mechanic in deadly NYC crane collapse" by Jennifer Peltz | Associated Press, August 08, 2012
NEW YORK — The only person to admit to a crime in either of two deadly 2008 construction crane collapses was spared jail Tuesday, under a plea deal that two slain men’s relatives scorned as an injustice.
Mechanic Tibor Varganyi arranged what authorities called a penny-pinching, shoddy repair to a crucial component of a 200-foot-tall crane. It snapped apart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in May 2008.
Sewer company worker Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, was working on the ground below the crane; he was pulled from the wreckage and died at a hospital. Crane operator Donald C. Leo, 30, died after nearly being decapitated. He was due to be married about three weeks later....
But that was no comfort to the relatives, still outraged at the April acquittal of Varganyi’s boss, crane owner James Lomma....
--more--"
Looks like I'm stuck in traffic, so....
"Carnival ride fatally hits man in New York" by Associated Press, September 03, 2012
NEW YORK — A spinning amusement ride whirled into a worker’s head and killed him as he stood underneath it at a carnival on New York’s Long Island, police and festival organizers said Sunday.
A few weeks into his job with ride owner Zorlenzan Amusements, Michael Austin, 22, ducked under the Scat ride Saturday evening at the Feast of Mother Cabrini festival in Brentwood, said Suffolk County police and his employer. Austin was apparently trying to take care of something related to the ride’s music, they said. When he stood up, the ride, which features spinning baskets on a rotating arm, hit him and knocked him to the ground, police said....
--more--"
Starting to move now:
"Teen sticks head out of bus and dies
NEW YORK — A teenager headed to a sweet 16 party was killed after he stuck his head out of the emergency hatch of a double-decker bus and hit the underside of a highway overpass, authorities said. The accident followed the warnings of a security guard on the bus who said he told the teens repeatedly not to open the hatch (AP)."
"N.Y. teen’s death on party bus called warning to others" by Associated Press, September 03, 2012
NEW YORK — Officials say a fatal accident this weekend involving a rented party bus carrying dozens of teenagers should be a warning to passengers of the dangers of opening emergency hatches.
A teen was killed when he poked his head through a hatch that had been opened on a double-decker bus.
Daniel Fernandez, 16, was fatally struck when the bus went under an overpass, authorities said.
Teenagers jubilantly sticking their heads through the roofs of stretch limousines is a familiar scene on city streets and in movies. A bigger version of that is the rented party bus, which can pack in more guests.
Party buses can be two stories high, offering such amenities as strobe lights and satellite TV. Renting such buses ‘‘is what kids call fun nowadays,’’ said Emily Darocha of the Silver Star Limousine company.
But such trips also carry more risk, Darocha said. ‘‘No matter how many times you tell clients this is an emergency exit — it’s written on the glass — they still open it,’’ she said. “It happens all the time.’’
In addition to the driver, a security guard was on board the bus Fernandez was riding that was taking the teens from New York City to a sweet 16 party in New Jersey. Design Limousines of New York, which operated the double-decker bus, did not return calls seeking comment on whether other chaperones were on board.
--more--"
Odd that this headless theme comes near Halloween.
Maybe you kids best stay at home:
"Killing of children, allegedly by nanny, stuns neighborhood; Many question just how secure their families are" Associated Press, October 27, 2012
NEW YORK — The nightmarish case of a nanny accused of stabbing to death two children in her care stunned the family’s well-to-do neighborhood and caused legions of parents to wonder how well they know who is watching their kids.
The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, lay in critical condition Friday with what police said were self-inflicted knife wounds, and investigators were unable to question her, in part because she was still breathing with the help of a tube.
Her motive and mental state remained a mystery, authorities said, and no charges were filed.
On Thursday evening, the children’s mother, Marina Krim, took her 3-year-old daughter home from a swim lesson to find her other youngsters, ages 2 and 6, dying of knife wounds in the bathtub of their Upper West Side apartment near Central Park. Ortega then turned the blade on herself, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the investigation has yet to reveal anything amiss in the household before the slayings.
Police were looking into whether Ortega, a 50-year-old naturalized US citizen who had worked for the family for two years, had recently sought psychiatric help.
Detectives were searching her home in Washington Heights, a working-class neighborhood north of where she worked and near Harlem.
If there was tension between the nanny and the Krims, it didn’t show on a Web journal kept by the children’s mother. Marina Krim spoke lovingly in one entry about traveling to the Dominican Republic last February to stay for several days at the home of Ortega’s sister.
‘‘We met Josie’s amazing familia!!! And the Dominican Republic is a wonderful country!!’’ she wrote.
Pictures posted on the blog showed the two families posing together for a happy photo, with Ortega hugging the 3-year-old, Nessie, their cheeks pressed together.
Marina Krim, whose husband, Kevin Krim, is a CNBC digital media executive, wrote that Ortega’s family had nicknamed little Nessie ‘‘Rapida y Furiosa,’’ (or Fast and Furious), for her exuberance and energy.
There are tens of thousands of nannies working in New York City, but reports of serious violence by caregivers against children are exceedingly rare. Parents are accused of killing their own children with far more frequency.
More common are stories about nannies like Brunilda Tirado, who threw her body over a stroller to protect a baby from falling debris during a building collapse in the same Manhattan neighborhood in 2005. She suffered a broken arm and other injuries.
The slayings will undoubtedly prompt many parents hiring a nanny to check references more thoroughly and swallow hard over the possibility that they might unknowingly hire a person who would do their child harm.
‘‘For working parents this is a nightmare. Every mother I know is asking today, ‘How do I go back to work?’’’ said Denise Albert, who has two young children and lives a few blocks from the site of the tragedy.
--more--"
UPDATE: Market Watch still runs story of $43 trillion lawsuit against US banks after CNBC erases their version following murder of CNBC executive's children.
"Now following the original CNBC link takes you to a blank page, even though some of the comments on that original article remain (UPDATE: comments have been erased as well). Here the story takes a dark turn! It turns out that Kevin Krim, the father of the two children stabbed to death, allegedly by the Nanny, is SVP and General Manager, CNBC Digital! And shortly after the murder of the children, CNBC pulled down the story regarding the lawsuit against the banks! How long will the story remain at Marketwatch before it is "Orwellized?" Are the children of the executives at Marketwatch even now in danger? As a side note, the official story regarding the murders is that the nanny stabbed the children, then tried to slash her own throat. Suicide by cutting ones own throat is extremely rare, less than one percent of all suicides, and is primarily committed by men with military experience. Women committing suicide by slashing their own throat is almost unheard of! While the corporate-owned media is proclaiming the "rush to judgement" guilt of the nanny (who has survived but cannot yet speak) she has not actually been charged yet, nor is there any apparent motive for the nanny to have done such a thing." -- Wake the Flock Up
Nothing is ever as it appears in the AmeriKan media.
At least the city is looking out for the kids:
"NYC health board approves large-soda ban; Sugary beverages bigger than 16 oz. cannot be sold" by Michael M. Grynbaum | New York Times, September 14, 2012
NEW YORK — Seeking to combat rising obesity rates, the New York City Board of Health approved a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, street carts, and movie theaters on Thursday, enacting the first such restriction in the country.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who proposed the measure, celebrated its passage on Twitter. ‘‘NYC’s new sugary drink policy is the single biggest step any gov’t has taken to curb obesity,’’ he wrote. ‘‘It will help save lives.’’
Related:
"Researchers calculated the body mass index - a standard measurement of size.... There is growing debate about the accuracy of the standard method of calculating whether someone is overweight.... the system would put nearly half of NBA players in the overweight category"
While not encouraging the consumption of soda, I'm bubbling over at the endless, agenda-pushing lies.
Also see: Limits on sugary drinks backed by research
Sorry, but I'm already full up on hypocrisy and the Boston Globe.
The measure, unless blocked by a judge, will take effect in six months. The health board vote was the only regulatory approval it needed to become binding in the city, but the US soft-drink industry has strongly opposed the plan and vowed this week to try to fight the measure by other means, possibly in the courts.
‘‘This is not the end,’’ Eliot Hoff, a spokesman for New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, an industry-financed group opposed to the soda sales restrictions, said in an e-mail moments after the vote. ‘‘We are exploring legal options, and all other avenues available to us.’’
The plan is a marquee initiative of the Bloomberg administration, which is known for introducing ambitious — and, some say, overreaching — public health policies, including a ban on smoking in bars and the posting of calorie counts on chain restaurant menus.
Related: Morning-after pills available at 13 N.Y. schools
But they can't get a soda.
The soda measure would bar the sale of sweetened drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces, smaller than the size of a common soda bottle. It would affect a range of popular sweetened beverages, including energy drinks, presweetened iced teas, and common brands of nondiet soda.
The restrictions would not affect fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; no-calorie diet sodas would not be affected, but establishments with self-service drink fountains, like many fast-food restaurants, would not be allowed to stock cups larger than 16 ounces.
Only establishments that receive inspection grades from the health department would have to obey the rules, a group that includes movie theaters and stadium concession stands. Convenience stores, including 7-Eleven with its king-size ‘‘Big Gulp’’ drinks, would be exempt, along with vending machines and some newsstands.
The health board, whose members were appointed by the mayor, voted 8-0, with one abstention, to approve the measure. The member who abstained, Sixto R. Caro, is a former president of the Spanish American Medical Dental Society of New York who was appointed by Bloomberg in 2002. He expressed concern before the vote about the financial impact of the proposal on some small businesses.
And you can start with the fat-assed ruling-class elites and their political puppets who never seem to want for a meal.
Bloomberg has said the plan does not limit consumers’ choices because there is no restriction on the number of drinks they can purchase.
Oh, so you will just have to BUY ANOTHER ONE, huh?
The soft-drink industry, which has spent more than $1 million on a public-relations campaign opposing the plan, argues that the policy restricts consumers’ freedom to buy beverages as they see fit.
Honestly, that was the first thing I thought of after reading the first paragraph. So much for freedom.
Bloomberg has made curbing obesity a top goal for his administration, citing higher rates of diabetes and fatalities among the city’s more overweight neighborhoods. More than half of adult New Yorkers are obese or overweight, according to the city’s health department.
Opinion among other city lawmakers is mixed. Several City Council members, including many members of the council’s minority caucus, said the plan would adversely affect small businesses, particularly in poorer neighborhoods. A resolution against the plan has been circulated in the City Council, but the speaker, Christine C. Quinn, has not put the measure to a vote.
Six in 10 residents said they thought the plan was a bad idea in a recent poll by The New York Times. But advocates have argued that public opinion on health measures can change over time.
Yeah, but who listens to them in the age of AmeriKan democracy?
Pamela Brier, the president of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and a member of the health board, said she recognized that ‘‘there a lot of unhappy people’’ who oppose the plan. But she praised the health department for the proposal, saying that New Yorkers would adjust to the smaller sizes. ‘‘Over time, it does become the new norm,’’ she said.
--more--"
That ought to help you wash down the rest of these articles:
New York City seeks to toss hospitals’ junk food
It's worse than school food.
Lap dances are taxable, not art, N.Y. court rules
Now I need some Viagra.
Refusal to host gay event brings suit in N.Y.
New York woman slain before wedding
Also see: Man held in New York bomb plot
No need to be alarmed. Just another FBI frame-up of some pathetic patsy, as evidenced by it's page A13 placement and the resulting lack of MSM coverage. Even they seem to be catching on to it all.
Statue of Liberty reopens on 126th birthday Sunday
If I find any more articles as I sift through the three months worth of Boston Globes I may or may not update.
UPDATE:
"Bloomberg backing marriage push
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg is poised to spend $500,000 of his personal fortune on gay marriage campaigns in Maine, Minnesota, and Washington state, he said Monday, following up on a major political spending push the billionaire businessman-turned-politician announced last week.
Bloomberg already had established himself as an outspoken, and generous, supporter of same-sex marriage. He unveiled a $250,000 contribution to a Maryland gay marriage effort earlier this month and has backed four New York Republican senators who crossed party lines to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the state last year.
Monday’s move deepened Bloomberg’s involvement in the issue outside New York, and it reflected his vow to give at least $10 million by Election Day to moderate candidates and to ballot initiatives supporting gay marriage and other issues around the country.
‘‘Marriage equality is the next big step in America’s long march of freedom,’’ Bloomberg said in a statement Monday....
Yeah, never you mind the spying, etc.
--more--"
UPDATE:
"Bloomberg backing marriage push
NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg is poised to spend $500,000 of his personal fortune on gay marriage campaigns in Maine, Minnesota, and Washington state, he said Monday, following up on a major political spending push the billionaire businessman-turned-politician announced last week.
Bloomberg already had established himself as an outspoken, and generous, supporter of same-sex marriage. He unveiled a $250,000 contribution to a Maryland gay marriage effort earlier this month and has backed four New York Republican senators who crossed party lines to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the state last year.
Monday’s move deepened Bloomberg’s involvement in the issue outside New York, and it reflected his vow to give at least $10 million by Election Day to moderate candidates and to ballot initiatives supporting gay marriage and other issues around the country.
‘‘Marriage equality is the next big step in America’s long march of freedom,’’ Bloomberg said in a statement Monday....
Yeah, never you mind the spying, etc.
--more--"
