By MELODY CHAN
Jacqueline Brettschneider, a 21-year-old Marine Park resident, reached out to her friends ahead of the Nov. 8 election and reminded them to vote.
To convince those who were reluctant to vote, she warned them about the possibility that Donald Trump might win.
“I’m going to wake you up to vote,” she says she told one friend. “No way am I having Trump in the White House.”
On the morning of Election Day, she sent out reminders again through text messaging because she thought Hillary Clinton had a better chance to win if her friends voted.
“It’s super important that young people vote,” she said.
Brettschneider is among those who believe young voters, ages 18 to 29, impacted the election’s results. Although the race came down to Clinton and Trump, nearly 1 in 10 young voters voted for third-party candidates or wrote in their own candidate, according to the Brookings Institution. In addition, this age bracket is known for its low turnout.
“Relatively low voter turnout is kind of an ongoing issue for young voters,” said Alexander Reichl, a professor in the political science department at Queens College.
This year, an estimated 24 million people under the age of 29 voted in the general election, according to NPR.org. The young voters made up one-fifth of the electorate.
Yet, there are 69.2 million eligible voters in the 18-to-34-year-old group. As the youngest members of the Millennial generation turned 18 to vote in this year’s election, the bloc is now comparable in size to the estimated 69.7 million Baby Boomer voters in the United States. Thus, it is often said that Millennials have the ability to impact the result of the election.
“There were some debates about voting for principals versus voting for what was more practical,” Reichl said. “But some people just couldn’t stomach Clinton. There are different attitudes on why and how you should vote” between older and younger voters .
Turnout is a significant factor in understanding the clout of the Millennial vote. When Millennials had a record-breaking 50 percent turnout in the 2008 election, they were surpassed by more than 60 percent turnout among Generation X voters, ages 36 to 51, and 70 percent of Baby Boomers.
The turnout rate is even lower among younger those aged 18 to 24. Only 38 percent cast a vote for president in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Vivian Mok, 22, of Bensonhurst, believes Millennials have the power to impact elections if they try.
“Millennials have a greater voice because they are more tech savvy and annoyingly more persistent,” Mok said. “They have a louder voice and the ability to spread the words further… as long as they’re not too lazy to do so.”
However, Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus who taught at Hunter College in the political science department, said, “Voting is something of a habit and people take a while to develop the habit.”
Moreover, he said the low turnout can be the result of “less inspiring” candidates.
This year, 55 percent of young voters, ages 18 to 29, voted for Hillary Clinton, according to the exit polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool.
While Clinton beat Trump in a landslide among young adults, with a 55 percent to 37 percent margin, she received fewer votes than President Barack Obama did in the 2008 and 2012 presidential election. Obama had a 60 percent–36 percent advantage over opponent Mitt Romney in 2012 and in 2008, he had a 66 percent–32 percent over opponent John McCain.
Even during the Democratic primary in 2008, Millennial voters preferred Obama over Clinton by a margin of 58 percent to 38 percent, according to exit polls. Clinton also lost the Millennial votes to Bernie Sanders during this year’s Democratic primary, 83 percent to 16 percent.
“Obama and Bernie come across as leaders who wanted a better life for everyone while Clinton seems more like a politician who will sway whichever way to get her more votes,” said Paige Chen, 22, of Bensonhurst, who did not vote in the primary election.
“I honestly believed Bernie Sanders would’ve won without my vote,” she said. “However, once I learned he was no longer a candidate, I became desperate for Hillary to win.”
Chen said she “learned to always vote, despite how worthless one vote can seem, hopefully others have learned the same lesson and not take their rights for granted, as well as, learn that we failed as a country because we failed to do our part as individuals.”
Meanwhile, one-third of young voters supported Trump. The number exceeded what pre-election polls suggested. Still, it was the fourth-lowest turnout by the group for a GOP nominee since 1972, according to The Brookings Institution.
It also reported 32 percent of Trump’s young supporters were excited about having him as a president while only 18 percent of Clinton’s expressed excitement.
Jessica Peru, 26, of Flatbush, voted for Trump.
“He is the best!” she said. “Being nice doesn’t take you anywhere in life. We need someone strict like Donald.”
This year, there was an obvious decline in Democratic advantage among the youngest voters, under the age of 29.
Chen said people who voted for third-party candidates or wrote in their own votes simply negated or wasted their own efforts because they should have known it came down to Clinton and Trump.
“There were some debates about voting for principals versus voting for what was more practical,” Reichl said. “But some people just couldn’t stomach Clinton. There are different attitudes on why and how you should vote” [between older and younger voters .
“Millennials were either not voting or voting in a way that kind of rejected the system all together,” he added.
Wuraola Sonubi, 21, of East New York, said he didn’t vote this election because he didn’t like any of the candidates.
“The kinds of patterns that you see now will carry on,” Reichl said, “but there are some forces pushing and pulling so we don’t know what will happen down the road until things play out.”
In addition, Sherrill said Clinton’s use of celebrity endorsements don’t matter as much as other things do.
“A celebrity appearance can draw a crowd to a rally because they want to hear a performance or see a celebrity but I’m not sure how much that generated the actual turnout,” he said.
Sanna Chen, 22, of the Lower East Side in Manhatan said celebrity endorsements do not make a difference for her.
“At the end of the day, the celebrities are not the ones fighting for my rights and making political changes,” she said. “I would hope it doesn’t matter for other Millennial as well and that they can make up their mind and choose a candidate base on what they stand for.”
Moreover, she said she did a lot of research on the candidates before she voted and got most of her election news from news media and word of mouth.
“Hopefully those that didn’t vote will understand how much weight their votes had on this election and vote for the next ones,” she added.
Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Depicts 2012 election in Calgary, Canada.
By ISAAC MONTEROSE
Police arrested a 28-year-old North Carolina man in Washington on Sunday after he allegedly pointed a firearm at an employee of Comet Ping Pong, a local restaurant that was the subject of fake news reports about a purported sex trafficking ring.
The suspect, Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury, N.C., allegedly fired the gun into the floor after an employee and several of the restaurant’s patrons fled, according to police.
After receiving a call at 2:58 p.m., police arrived and arrested Welch without incident and said they recovered two firearms inside the establishment. They also recovered another firearm from the suspect’s vehicle. No one was hurt.
According to a press release, police say that the suspect told them that he came to the pizza restaurant to investigate “Pizza Gate,” which the police described as a “fictitious online conspiracy theory.”
“Pizza Gate” is a debunked conspiracy theory claiming that the Comet restaurant was involved in a pedophile sex trafficking ring with Hillary Clinton and John Podesta, the former chairman of her 2016 presidential campaign. Although repeatedly proven untrue, the conspiracy theory is still pushed in online communities connected to the white supremacist movement.
“Tonight, we are deeply grateful to the local law enforcement officers who responded swiftly to our call,” James Alefantis, the owner of Comet Ping Pong, said in a statement. “Thanks to their good work, I am confident that we will continue to operate safely and securely, as we have for the past decade.” He said the allegations that his restaurant was involved in a pedophile sex trafficking ring were “malicious” and “utterly false.”
“What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences,” he said. “I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away.”
According to police, the shooting is under investigation. They ask that anyone who may have information regarding the shooting call them at 202-727-9099. The police can also be reached via a text tip line by messaging 50411.
By ROBERT TAUB
The New York Junior Tennis and Learning organization held its annual award luncheon Thursday where two of their legendary contributors were honored for growing the game of tennis in the New York City area.
Hall of Fame Coach Nick Bollettieri and former New York Mayor David Dinkins both received the NYJTL Lifetime Achievement Award in a rousing two-hour ceremony.
“He (Bollettieri) stands for everything this organization is about, he’s been involved in this organization all the way back to Arthur (Ashe), to kids and all that it means,” said Ken Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Tennis Channel. “He’s the man who in many ways has defined modern elite coaching and his record for building developing champions is going to last longer than the pyramids.”
Bollettieri is renowned in the tennis community and around the United States for teaching the game, the invention of the Bollettieri Academy and for having coached some of the best players both male and female over the past 40 plus years including Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova.
“My wife Cindy said, ‘Nick please wear a shirt today,'” said a joking Bollettieri. “Normally my wardrobe is just a pair of shorts.”
The 85-year-old Bollettieri soaked in the atmosphere as he thanked all the people on his journey.
Along with congratulating his fellow honoree David Dinkins, Bollettieri told the story about him and Arthur Ashe starting the Ashe Voluntary Program in Newark, New Jersey after Ashe asked him at the French Open, “Nick, what are we going to do about the thousands of boys and girls that will never strike a ball?” to which he replied, “Don’t worry about it, Arthur, I’ll take care of it”.
“Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this luncheon, that has one mission, to make sure this program continues in one direction with no detours,” Bollettieti said.
After an thrilling speech by Bollettieri and a quick auction, legendary tennis player and womens’ activist Billie Jean King introduced the former mayor.
King recalled playing tennis with Dinkins and his 40 down the line shot with her standing at the net, and her being unhappy while Dinkins smiled ear to ear. “He’s the reason that we have the U.S. Open where it is today,” King said.
In 1990, Dinkins persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to have special takeoff procedures for La Guardia Airport during the U.S. Open. In 1978, he shepherded the move of the Open from Forest Hills to Corona Park.
“I’ll never forget when that happened, and look what it has evolved into,” King added.
In 1993, there were talks of the U.S. Open being moved out of the city, but that didn’t come to fruition as Dinkins signed a 90-year lease to keep the event in New York.
“Everytime that we go out to the Open, I always thank you for making it possible to keep it here in our beloved city,” she said.
A small tribute video was shown in appreciation of Dinkins and when he took to the podium, he joked about checking the time knowing that the ceremony had gone past its limit.
“Boy that’s pretty damn good,” Dinkins said when he was notified he was going to be receiving the lifetime achievment award along with Bollettieri. “This is really a very special honor for me.”
Dinkins spoke highly of his good friend Skip Hartman who was the founder of the NYJTL and of the earlier days of when the organization started.
“It it such a pleasure for me. I make the observation that nobody but anybody gets anywhere along, somebody always stands on someone’s shoulders,” Dinkins said emotionally.
Two students, Christina Hyunn and Brandon Torres received the 2016 NYJTL Leadership award. Hyunn. 15 is a sophmore at Bronx High School of Science, while Torres, 14 has been a member of NYJTL’s Co-op City Program.
Photo of Nick Bollettieri
By LINDA KRESTANOVA
After failing to fix hundreds of violations in their buildings, two landlords will not receive rent the city pays for tenants on public assistance, Public Advocate Letitia James announced on Thursday.
The rent would be withheld until the violations, which include mice and cockroach infestations, are cured.
After being warned of this potential result in May, six out of eight landlords responsible for “The Dirty Dozen,” 12 buildings with a sum of 2,081 violations, fixed up 76 percent of what needed improvement. The 1,194 cleared violations included broken windows, mold and leaks. The buildings house over 1,000 tenants.
The remaining two buildings and their landlords are being hit with the Spiegel Law, which has not been used since the 1980s.
The state law, passed in 1962, states that if conditions of a building prove dangerous to the health and safety of its tenants, the Human Resources Administration can halt rent assistance payments. With activating provisions of the law, the city will withhold up to $5,000 a month from the landlords.
Tenants cannot be evicted while the rent is withheld. The goal, according to James, is to prevent intentional neglect and planned evictions by the landlords, who “basically set up conditions so that individuals would leave their apartment.”
One of the buildings, 541 W. 150th St., run by its landlord Jay Weiss, has 155 violations, 59 of which are considered “immediately hazardous.” Keith Allan, who has been living in the building for 10 years, said that its conditions have a “profound effect on a person’s existence.”
“You can’t have people over,” Allen said. “You’re worried a piece of the ceiling might fall on their head.”
Agron Berisha, the landlord of 20 W. 190th St., has 84 violation throughout his building, 19 of which are deemed “hazardous.”
Should the landlords remain unresponsive, further action includes seeking penalties in court or appointing a qualified third-party administrator to manage the properties.
Photo by Linda Krestanova
By PAUL FRANGIPANE
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine stressed the importance of science knowledge on Thursday, in the wake of the presidential election, which has sparked concern by scientists over the perception that the new administration would defund some science research funding.
The American Museum of Natural History held a conference to present a report on science literacy, a knowledge of basic facts as well as an understanding of how scientists work, how they use their research and how science exists as a social process that can be valuable to individuals. Noah Feinstein, a writer of the report gave an overview to a filled audience.
“If people knew more science they would, A, like science more, and B, make better personal and civic decisions,” he said after a long pause and looked at the audience that resulted in a large laugh from the crowd of mostly scientists and educators.
Some of the scientific community has concerns that a Trump Administration would threaten to eliminate climate change research. The scientists cite a Guardian article on Nov. 23 conjecturing that the Trump team would shift funds from such research to deep pace exploration.
“Obviously something is not working,” Sheila Jasanoff, professor of science and technology studies at Harvard Kennedy School said. She contended that there were many ways that political institutions shape science knowledge.
“If we’re doing democracy well, we will also be doing science well,” she asserted. Concerning the election, she said that people do not always vote in their best interests. “Many of us may have wanted different results confronting us in January that the ones that we’re going to see,” she said.
Throughout his campaign, Trump branded climate change “a hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese. He later switched gears, telling the New York Times on Nov. 23 that he had an open mind about it. In March there were 182 climate deniers in the Congress, according to a research from the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Bruce Lewenstein, professor of science communications at Cornell University said that politics shape what we know about the world, citing Nasa’s creation as a Cold War product. According to Lewenstein, scientists need to understand cultural context, why a person could possess science knowledge but act in the opposite way.
“We need to take a look at our own lives…we have a lot of reasons for eating what we do, taking the medicine that we do, voting the way that we do and knowing what we know about science is only one of those reasons,” Feinstein said. According to Feinstein, there is a battle between knowledge and attitude, and attitude is often driven by worldview and culture that override knowledge of facts.
Photo by Paul Frangipane
By ANDREA AUSTIN
The message was clear at the dedication of the New York City AIDS Memorial Park Thursday: that the fight to end AIDS would continue to move forward in New York, regardless of any future policies under President-elect Donald Trump.
Remember, reflect, renew is the theme of the memorial, which was dedicated at an event co-hosted by the End AIDS NY 2020 coalition, a partnership of more than 60 organizations together with the city and state health departments and the city AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle in Manhattan, the first significant public space dedicated to the AIDS epidemic here. Over 100,000 New Yorkers have died from AIDS, and many of them were treated across the street from the memorial at the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, which housed the first and largest AIDS ward on the East Coast.
“Our dream was to create a memorial for remembrance of lives lost, but also a community gathering spot where personal stories and constraints could be shared, a living memorial,”said Paul Kelterborn, co-founder of the memorial. “I hope that it serves that purpose as a reminder, a tool for education, a place for gathering, and a hope for the future.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio and other public officials spoke of the great strides New York has made in combatting HIV and AIDS and the importance of remembering the AIDS crisis. “This is one of those moments where you have to reflect, you have to feel emotionally the history that we’re here to commemorate,” said de Blasio.
“We will not allow the names on this wall to go in vain. We have to pay tribute to them,” said Alphonso David, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief counsel. “We cannot remain silent. And I can tell you, the governor is not going to remain silent, he’s gonna push, regardless of who’s in the white house and we will end AIDS.” Cuomo introduced a three-point plan in July 2014 to reduce the number of new HIV infections to 750 from roughly 3,000 in 2020 and established the Ending the Epidemic Task Force.
Demetre C. Daskalakis, Assistant Commissioner of New York City’s Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, outlined the future of the AIDS prevention plan and introduced New York’s HIV status neutral prevention and treatment cycle. “This is a whole new framework,”said Daskalakis. “The person living with HIV and the individual at risk who’s on PrEP are from our perspective indistinguishable. The divide ends here.” PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, combined with the use of condoms, makes it nearly impossible to contract HIV.
Councilman Corey Johnson, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive at 23-years-old, spoke passionately about the importance of taking care of one another, especially now “with this illegitimate man being our president.”
“Silence equals death,” said Johnson, ‘we will not be silenced, we will not normalize him, or the people who he’s putting in charge of government. We will continue to take care of ourselves, our community, poor people, muslims, LGBT people, people with HIV and AIDS, women, Jewish people. We will stand up together. That’s what this movement was about, that’s what this crisis is about, and that’s what we will continue to do moving forward,”
By RICHARD ANDERSON
New York State Senator Jeff Klein announced on Thursday that he would soon introduce legislation to create a grading system for school cafeteria cleanliness, citing inspections that found “stomach-turning” conditions.
The legislation comes as result of an investigation secret inspections were conducted by the city Department of Health that found the number of violations increased by 17 percent from fiscal year 2013-2014 to fiscal year 2015-2016. In the findings lunch inspectors gave out 442 violations for mice related activity at 320 different school cafeterias. In one instance inspectors found 400 mice droppings at one visit to Sixth Avenue Elementary School in Manhattan, Klein said in a press conference
The legislation announced by Senator Klein and the Independent Democratic Conference would have school cafeterias graded A through C based on the cleanliness. From the findings 31 school’s cafeterias would have received C’s which is a failing grade. Senator Klein also wrote the law that grades restaurants in New York City.
“It seems a little bit odd that if we have grading systems for restaurants to protect the public, its common sense that we have a grading system for our school’s cafeterias” Parents Union President Mona Davids said.
“I believe it’s just as important that the young people especially the parents who bring their young people to school, know how clean or how dirty their school lunch cafeteria is” Senator Klein said.
Schools that fail to improve their grades won’t be penalized with the legislation but encouraged to clean up their act. “I think it forces the cafeteria to clean up their act I don’t think there any excuse to have a C at a cafeteria,” Davids said.
By JOSEPH DE LA CRUZ
The rooftops of the Queens-Bridge Houses in Long Island City got a make-over that was completed six months ahead of schedule, Shola Olatoye, the New York City Housing Authority CEO, announced on Thursday at a press conference.
“Overall this work will help improve what’s the conditions in our residents’ apartments,” Olatoye said. “And help to save the authority resources that we can invest back into our buildings.”
It cost $87 million to renovate all 26 buildings with 354,000 sq. ft. of new roofing in the housing complex- the oldest and largest public housing development in the nation.
“Thanks to Mayor de Blasio’s unprecedented investment in comprehensive roof replacement and facade repairs across NYCHA, Queensbridge residents will see a healthier, cleaner community, with fewer leaks and improved quality of life,” she added.
De Blasio’s office funded $60 million of the cost, with the remaining $27 million coming from the federal government.
Five miles of parapet walls and metal guardrails were replaced on the perimeter of each roof as well as 76,000 sq. ft. of exterior brick wall- all in an effort to end a large number of roof leaks.
“These are critical issues that our residents often have to wrestle with,” she said. “This work could not have happened without our NYCHA project manager Christian Delamonte.”
It’s been 50 years since the last time the roofs on any of the buildings were fixed, Olatoye said.
“As we work to preserve public housing for this generation and next, we’re strengthening our buildings with top-to-bottom upgrades — literally,” Olatoye said.
Olatoye took reporters on a tour to one of the renovated rooftops. The roof was covered in white cap sheets that sat on top of its concrete.
A drainage pipe sits in the middle to divert rain water off the buildings surface- a measure used to avoid leaks.
By RENEE SAFF & SOPHIE DWECK
In a rare market-manipulation bench trial that began in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday, lawyers accused the founder of a futures trading firm of injecting electronic bids in the eleventh hour of the trading day, an allegedly illegal maneuver to drive up the price of their trades.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission contends that Donald Wilson Jr, the founder and executives of DRW Investments LLC, used artificial bidding during 15-minute settlement windows to raise the price of interest-rate swap futures, or as the CFTC likes to call it, “banging the close.” These allegations stem from an interest-rate contract in 2010 and 2011.
In the past, civil suits like this have been settled outside of court, but Wilson, known on the street as an aggressive high-tech trader, decided to fight it. . Not since 2008 has such a case gone to trial and in that case a jury verdict of manipulation was overturned on appeal.
CFTC lawyer, Daniel Ullman, said that DRW kept injecting bids into the exchange knowing there would be no buyers or market participators wanting to trade, and to raise the settlement price so they can profit from it in return.
During a cross examination of DRW employee Brian Vander Luitgaren, the prosecutor indicated that for 94 days and in 496 contracts, DRW would only inject electronic bids to influence the settlement prices.
“There were days where DRW only placed bids during the settlement periods,” he said.
Ullman brought up emails that Vander Luitgaren sent to colleagues about injecting bids. In some of the emails, he referred to potential buyers as “suckers.” On top of that, there were no trades or transactions that went through for nine-months.
The U.S. District Judge Richard J. Sullivan appeared to begin getting irritated.
“It didn’t dawn on you that maybe this was foolish because no wants to take the short on this?” he asked. “Did you ever think to yourself this might not be the best use of my time?”
According to Wilson’s lawyer, Jonathan Cogan, DRW made an “insightful observation” and “did their homework,” and noticed that their fair share price for the futures contract was higher than what it was stated to be. He added that the only reason for the increase was to attract buyers and get people to do transactions.
“Its [DRW] bids were real bids,” he said. “They’re happy to transact, they want to transact.”
“We were hoping to enter trades at profitable levels each and every day,” Vander Luitgaren told the defense attorney.
Judge Sullivan will decide the outcome of the lawsuit without a jury.
If Wilson is found guilty, he could pay more than $100 million and face a possibility of a lifetime trading ban.
By MARK SULEYMANOV
The New York City Campaign Finance Board voted on Thursday that former congressman Anthony Weiner’s campaign must pay almost $65,000 in fines for misuse of campaign funds, some of which went toward the phone service on which he was known to sext women.
During his 2013 failed run for mayor, Weiner, 52, used $2,308 off his funds for personal use; $1,539.04 towards dry cleaning and the rest to pay his mobile service
The 2013 campaign was derailed when it was revealed that Weiner – who left congress in 2011 amid his sexting revelations – continued to sext under the pseudonym Carlos Danger. He failed to secure the nomination after receiving less than five percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Most recently, it was revealed that Weiner sexted a 15-year-old girl with his four-year-old son asleep in bed next to him.
Weiner’s estranged wife – and top Hillary Clinton aide – Huma Abedin separated from him after the most recent scandal. He returned to New York last week after spending a month at a ranch in Nashville in an attempt to wean off his life-altering habits.
Weiner received $1.6 million in taxpayer funds in 2013 and currently has $195,000 of those funds left – which he must return, the board decided.
