"Penn Station renovation to be restarted" by Deepti Hajela Associated Press January 07, 2016
NEW YORK — Calling the nation’s busiest train station ‘‘dark’’ and ‘‘ugly,’’ Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced a restart of the long sought-after overhaul of Penn Station, a project that could cost up to $3 billion and include improvements like bringing natural light into the congested maze underneath Madison Square Garden.
He said a request for proposals from developers for the Pennsylvania Station project would go out this week, with responses due in 90 days and work to get started on an expedited basis.
‘‘Penn Station is un-New York,’’ said Cuomo, a Democrat. ‘‘It is dark. It is constrained. It is ugly.’’
Penn Station, in Manhattan, handles more than 650,000 passengers daily on Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and New Jersey Transit lines. Plans to overhaul it, including efforts to connect it via underground passages to a massive redeveloped main post office across the street to improve passenger access, have been have been called for and talked about for years.
The post office project, turning the James A. Farley Post Office into the Moynihan Station, named for the late US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has had developers Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust attached to it for a decade. The Cuomo administration said that agreement had been severed but the developers could re-bid.
A Related spokeswoman applauded the governor’s focus on the revitalization of Penn Station and Moynihan Station.
‘‘The redevelopment will transform the nation’s busiest train station into a modern commuter hub and a gateway befitting the greatest city in the world,’’ spokeswoman Joanna Rose said. ‘‘We continue to passionately believe in the project and look forward to reviewing the materials.’’
A representative for Vornado declined to comment.
Cuomo said a number of alternatives would be considered for the Penn Station renovation, such as constructing large entrances along either of the avenues it sits between, putting new entrances at corners, or renovating the interior without changing the exterior. One of those alternatives would require moving the theater attached to the Garden.
--more--"
Next stop, Mexico:
"Actor Sean Penn provides a lengthy account of how he met the elusive criminal, known as Shorty, and said elaborate measures were taken to shield his whereabouts. Penn wrote he tried to protect his communications by using disposable phones, encryption, and anonymous e-mail addresses. He reportedly spent seven hours with Guzmán and did follow-up interviews by phone and video."
He thinks he was hiding from the all-seeing electric eye?
"‘El Chapo’ interview raises questions on ethics and judgment" by Hillel Italie Associated Press January 11, 2016
NEW YORK — Sean Penn’s long and often rambling essay, widely mocked on social media, raised questions of ethics and judgment, namely whether Penn should have met secretly with one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives and whether the actor crossed the line by giving notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzmán approval over the article before it was published.
Another issue is whether Penn trivialized Guzmán’s murderous past by asking him such questions as ‘‘Do you have any dreams?’’ and ‘‘If you could change the world, would you?’’
It's what is done to mass-murdering war criminals like Obummer and Bush after they leave office. Why has no one snatched and jailed them?
A Rolling Stone spokeswoman did not immediately return requests for comment.
Penn’s story ran nine months after Rolling Stone retracted its discredited story about a gang rape at a fraternity party at the University of Virginia.
I rolled through that like a stone, and it was some $weet pu$$y.
The magazine was strongly criticized for relying too strongly on the account of the alleged victim and failing to carry out basic fact-checking. It is being sued for tens of millions of dollars by the fraternity, former frat members, and a university administrator.
An attempt to destroy the magazine because of the outstanding reporting of Matt Taibbi regarding Wall Street?
Writing for Rolling Stone, Penn acknowledged Guzmán was granted prior approval over the article (Guzmán requested no changes, according to the actor), a violation of the commonly held rules of journalistic integrity.
‘‘Allowing any source control over a story’s content is inexcusable. The practice of pre-approval discredits the entire story — whether the subject requests changes or not,’’ Andrew Seaman, chairman of the ethics committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, said in a blog titled ‘‘Rolling Stone Gathers No Accolades.’’
Unless it's a government handout that needs to be put in the agenda-pushing mouthpiece known as the propaganda pre$$.
Related: Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Oh, there is one ca$e where they can excu$e it.
Kind of explains not only their current existence, but their focus as well.
‘‘The writer, who in this case is an actor and activist, may write the story in a more favorable light and omit unflattering facts in an attempt to not be rejected,’’ he said.
What's the big deal? Happens all the time in my pre$$.
Penn, an Oscar-winning actor, has had news-making encounters in other countries. In 2002, as the United States was threatening war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Penn visited the country.
He was pilloried, but I was a supporter back then. I opposed that war. Protested it beforehand, in fact. Imagine my distress when I later found that the guy who played Joe Wilson is a controlled opposition fraud -- as are all celebrity, it seems, as well as those in the privileged classes.
Rolling Stone has long mixed aggressive investigative and political reporting with coverage of rock stars and other celebrities. Former staff writers such as Greil Marcus and Jim DeRagotis have accused publisher Jann Wenner of allowing undue input from interview subjects or interfering with music reviews he found too negative.
‘‘It’s unfortunately in keeping with Jann’s tendency to ignore professional scruples in an effort to curry favor with celebrities,’’ said Robert Draper, a correspondent for GQ and author of ‘‘Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History,’’ said of the Guzmán story.
--more--"
"Penn dismissed criticism over his interview with the fugitive in a brief e-mail exchange."
Related: Sean Penn: Secret Agent Man & El Chapo
That's where my respect for him died.
