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By KURTIS RATTAY

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday flatly accused the leader of the National Rifle Association of being responsible for the shooting deaths of students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, responding to NRA head Wayne LaPierre’s earlier criticism of him and other Democratic leaders.

“My answer to Wayne LaPierre is you are one of the people responsible for this massacre and all the massacres before,” de Blasio said.

At a City Hall press conference announcing that J. Phillip Thompson would be the new Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives beginning next month, the mayor swiftly shifted attention to gun safety regulations, the NRA and active shooter preparedness at middle and high schools.

“The leaders of the NRA are in league with the gun industry and it’s not just a political question here, this is a question of profit,” the mayor said. “We have to understand at this point in history the NRA is the problem.”

De Blasio also found it “stunning” that NRA leadership expressed no penitence in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which left 17 dead on Valentine’s Day, and reignited the gun debate.

Earlier at a Conservative Political Action Conference at the National Harbor in Maryland LaPierre had said, “Their (Democratic politicians’) goal is to eliminate the second amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms,”

De Blasio also announced initiatives to combat school shootings and prepare city students for an active shooter. Middle and high schools will have safety drills four times a year. Additionally, all middle and high schools will undergo random weapon scanning “for at least a day,” while some schools will have them regularly.

“If ever there is an indication that there is something wrong, it’s that we have to teach our young people to get ready for a mass shooting,” de Blasio said.

The mayor’s announcing safety preparedness and random screenings comes after President Trump recommended arming teachers as a measure to deter school shootings.

“The president doesn’t know anything about public schools,” de Blasio said. “I have no reason to believe he went to a public school or his kids went to a public school. There is nothing more terrifying than putting more guns in our children’s schools.”

New York City high schoolers are also following the trend of students acting to demand gun reform by planning a walkout for March 14. Participating students had de Blasio’s respect, he said.

“If I was a high school student today I would be walking out, there is no question about it,” he said. “The current leadership in Washington has not protected our young people and they have every right to stand up.”

For Mayor de Blasio, the Florida shooting has a different tone from the Sandy Hook elementary shooting.

“The difference in Florida is these students are older,” he said. “They can speak for themselves now and they have. They have their own voices and they’re not waiting on anyone else.”

Photo of mayor by Kurtis Rattay

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By JEREMY MYRTHIL A group of welfare activists attacked Governor Cuomo’s proposed budget cuts to  city child welfare agencies on Thursday, saying that they would “devastate the lives of children and families”. Led by Stephanie Gendell, associate executive director for Citizens’ Committee for Children’s policy and advocacy, dozens of rally-goers crowded the steps of City Hall chanting their frustrations against the proposed budget cuts. Gendell provided context to those chants, stating that $129 million in State child welfare funding for New York would be cut in 2019 if the Cuomo budget passes. “New York City children are New Yorkers, too”, Gendell said, referring to the State’s protective and preventive service agencies that were established to aid tens of thousands of children a year. Those agencies would experience severe budget cuts, the activists said. According to a press release written by ACS Commissioner David A. Hansell, 50 percent of the child welfare funding and 45 percent of funds for preventive programs such as family counseling and substance abuse treatment. A number of speakers – child welfare activists who are associated with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services – emphasized the impact it could have on the children receiving these services. Wayne Ho, President and CEO of the Chinese-American Planning Council, indicated that the estimated $129 million budget cut could “devastate families”, as it would stymie finances for preventive services. Ho also suggested the State remove the cap on child welfare. New York City Council member Stephen Levin said that child welfare aid was “essential funding” that provides the city with the necessary resources to provide children with outreach and protection. “Children should not be put in the middle of politics”, Councilman Jumaane Williams said. “It doesn’t seem progressive at all,” Williams added, “at a time where we’re trying to prove how progressive we are.”

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By RYAN THAXTON

Borough President Eric Adams welcomed students, teachers, and activists to Borough Hall on Thursday to map Brooklyn’s plans to join the March For Our Lives movement and coordinate participation in the nationwide student walkouts scheduled for March 14 to protest school gun violence.

This support includes providing buses to shuttle Brooklynites to Washington, D.C. on March, 24 to attend the national March For Our Lives and cooperation with any marches planned that day in Brooklyn.

The March For Our Lives movement is organized by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members at the school on Feb. 14 and has quickly been taken up by students and activists across the nation.

The Borough President vowed to “do the navigating [he] needs to do to make these young people’s voices heard. The ideas here are amazing.”

Adams called on Brooklyn schools to set an example for the rest of the city. “We are the largest borough of Brooklyn, so we’re the big brother of the city,” he said. “The other boroughs are going to absorb into what we’re doing here.”

Adams suggested Prospect Park as a convening space for the March, 14 walkout. “Central Park does not allow demonstrations of this magnitude,” he  said. “That’s fine for them. Prospect Park, we do. And we are going to call the rally to be here in Brooklyn right here in Prospect Park.”

Many students called for more civics classes and emotional support to make students feel more comfortable in schools. “We have to reshift the department of education,” Adams said in response. “Not only must our children be academically smart, they must be emotionally intelligent.”

Adams also advised students on how to engage with their elected leaders and suggested schools attempt to register as many high school seniors eligible to vote as possible. “No elected official is going to hear you if you don’t have a ballot in your hand,” warned Adams.

However, Adams also noted that the actions taken by young people in response to the Parkland shooting “has sent shivers through the entire legislation process. They all understand now, the jig is up!”

Photo by Ryan Thaxton

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BY JASMINE PERALTA

City Councilman Costa Constantinides and DOT Queens Commissioner Nicole Garcia announced on Thursday the opening of three mid-block pedestrian crossings on Steinway Street in Queens, hoping to increase safety in the traffic clogged area.

In 2017  Constantinides launched a study of the area see how the area could be made into a safer after an increase in traffic incidents and neighborhood complaints.

“Steinway Street is the commercial beating heart of this community for as long as anyone can remember the name Astoria,” he told reporters in a news briefing on the street.

Constaninides echoed the concerns and complaints from shoppers and residents  about the dangers they face to save time crossing the street.

Since Steinway Street is a commercial avenue during the day and a club scene at night, the mid-block crosswalks were designed to decrease the number of hit-and-run accidents of pedestrians who tended to cross mid-street to save time.

In a report by DNAinfo, in 2016, 38 people- including 11 pedestrians were injured in traffic incidents along the area of Steinway Street. One incident was reported as a hit-and-run leaving a 45-year-old man dead, in the intersection of 30^th road and 21^st street.

“It’s four-tenths of a mile from one traffic light to another,” said Constantinides.

In the coming weeks, the three-new mid-block crosswalks will be located from Steinway street through Broadway and 31^st street.

Constantinides and Garcia, both Astoria natives, called the move only ‘phase one’, in making Steinway street safer.

Photo of Councilman Constantinides by Jasmine Peralta

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By DYLAN CAMPBELL

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said on Thursday that New York’s recovery from the economic ruin of the 1970’s gave him hope for the future of Puerto Rico.

“New York City went through a similar crisis during the 1970s: its population was declining, the economy was in a five-year recession, and the city had literally run out of money to pay its employees and could not borrow in the debt,” said Dodley at a press briefing on Thursday. “While Puerto Rico’s path to prosperity will not look exactly like that of New York or other cities, history can provide valuable lesson, as well as hope for a better future.”

Like New York City in the 1970’s, Puerto Rico has been facing an economic downturn since 2006, was barred from borrowing more money and struggling with a depleting workforce and failing infrastructure. Their struggles were only worsened by two category five hurricanes in August and September of 2017.

“Hurricanes Irma and Maria did immense damage to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, severely exacerbating what were already very difficult economic conditions,” said Dudley.

The full extent of the damage and the time it will take for repairs was unknown.   Puerto Rico has still not be returned to full power and the amount of property damage and jobs  and population lost are still “uncertain.”

After Maria and Irma hit Puerto Rico people migrated to the mainland United States to escape the destruction while tourism halted. According to the presentation, 150,000 people have left Puerto Rico including tourists that have not been replaced. The Bank’s research officer, Jason Bram, said the question wasn’t if people will relocate but “the question is how many.”

Of the top five worst natural disasters for local job loss, post-Maria ranks fifth with 4.2 percent job loss. Bram said that these numbers may be underestimated because the stats do not include those that work-off-the-books and those who still have their jobs, but have had hours cut or lost tips.

According to Dodley, the island has hope in its bilingual workforce, access to the U.S. mainland, its multinational corporations and the opportunity to “start from scratch” with its energy source, with an “emphasis on renewable energy.”

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By RADHIKA VISWANATHAN

A young woman charged with killing her newborn infant was sentenced to 16 years in state prison on Thursday, marking the end of what the prosecution called a “really troubling case.”

Tiona Rodriguez, 21, walked into the Manhattan courtroom wearing prison khakis, round and thick glasses, and a large, silver cross dangling from her necklace. Simply shaking her head when Judge Thomas Farber asked if she had any words, she accepted her negotiated sentence: 16 years of incarceration plus five years under supervision.

“I don’t think anything more needs to be said on the record,” Farber said, referring to the widely publicized case, which began in 2015. “This is a horribly sad and tragic case.”

Rodriguez, who initially faced life in prison, agreed to a plea bargain that reduced the murder charge  to

first-degree manslaughter. One of the most damning pieces of evidence was a text message that Rodriguez sent to a friend describing her plan to dispose of the tiny body: “dig a hole, put it somewhere, lol, then we go eat IHOP.”

The case received widespread media coverage due to its grisly details; in 2013, the then-17-year old mother, suspected of shoplifting from the Victoria’s Secret store in Herald Square, was stopped by a security guard. The guard found the shoplifted clothing in her bag—along with a dead newborn boy.

As the case unfolded, details about Rodriguez’s life revealed a troubled teenager who first got pregnant at 14 years old. A year after giving birth to her son, who is now four years old, she got pregnant again. It is still not clear what happened to her second child. The murdered baby was Rodriguez’s third pregnancy, all of which she struggled to keep hidden from her family.

She gave birth to the baby in her friend’s bathtub in October 2013 and killed him soon after, said the indictment. The cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation.

Rodriguez’s sole surviving child is currently living with her mother in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

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By DYLAN CAMPBELL

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña deplored Wednesday’s school shooting in Florida as “too normal” while on Thursday touring the Queens Vocational and Technical High School in honor of Career Exploration Month.

The Chancellor visited the Queens school to announce that 346 high schools, up from 253 in the prior year, are participating in Career Exploration Month, and visit with the school’s diverse students focused on technical skills. But the conversation shifted from the initiative to inspire students’ careers to how to protect their futures. In the context carnage in Broward County, another on a growing list,  the question of what is being done to keep this violence from happening in New York City schools arose.

“Words cannot describe when you hear about another tragedy in one of our schools and to me this is really a wake-up call to the nation in terms of what we are going to do,” said Fariña. “But I really want to use this an opportunity to also reassure parents that in New York City we have done everything possible to mitigate that this doesn’t happen in our schools.”

The Chancellor added that all school principles and safety staff must review their safety guidelines and have a safety drill before March 15.

She said all safety officers are trained for an active shooter situation and principles also have instructions on how to handle active shooter scenarios.  She said the schools encourage a “see something, do something” policy that urges students to anonymously report warning signs in a reasonable way and trying to educate families about how to get information in an emergency.

Fariña cited Stuyvesant High School’s ability to lockdown and notify parents within minutes  during the recent terrorist attack in New York City where a rented Home Depot truck tore through lower Manhattan, injuring over a dozen. Two staff and two students were among the injured.

But in this climate of fear, she warned of making a scary situation even worse.

Fariña said she didn’t want the drills and preparation to add to the tension, but to “deescalate the fear.” She encouraged parents to bring the discussion of school shootings into the home.

She urged parents to “reassure the children that [we are] working with the NYPD … New York City schools are safe.”

“Encourage your children to talk about their fears and concerns and try to alleviate that across the dining room table,” she said. “This is not the time to escalate issues but to really try to have reasonable discussions with families to the degree that you can be reasonable given the tragedy that is.”

Fariña expressed hope that this incident and many others would finally ignite change.

“It is something, honestly, we as a country have to start looking at much more seriously because it’s become almost a point of it’s too normal and it’s gotta stop being normal, business as usual,” she said.

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By RADHIKA VISWANATHAN

We are your friends.

That’s the message that some New York State politicians want to convey to their immigrant constituents.

“The immigrant community is under attack [due to] policies emanating from the federal government,” said Bronx Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda, at a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Thursday. “It seems like the current president wants to blame all the evils and wrongs that are happening in this country on immigrants.”

The assemblyman, along with other politicians and immigrant advocate groups, announced his sponsorship of three bills that would get Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take his support of undocumented immigrants to the next level.

“It is up to us as leaders that represent large portions of immigrant communities to fight back and make sure that our immigrants, our dreamers, our DACA recipients, our TPS (Temporary Protected Service) recipients receive protection under the law,” Sepulveda said.

In January, Cuomo passed executive orders allowing all New Yorkers to remain eligible for Medicaid regardless of immigration status. In addition, the state’s budget for 2019 also includes a DREAM Act, which would open the Excelsior scholarship to undocumented students. The newly proposed bills are designed to make these changes permanent state law and include a provision to allow undocumented New Yorkers to keep their drivers’ licenses.

The passage of this legislation is critical for undocumented New Yorkers because DACA was set to expire in 17 days.

“We are asking our colleagues in the senate and the assembly to vote for the bill… to push for these three pieces of legislation that our immigrant community needs,” said State Senator Marisol Alcantara. “That would send a strong message nationally that New York is an immigrant town and that we support immigrants.”

The assembly members were joined by immigrant advocate groups such as the Bronx Defenders, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

Sinny Feliz, who works for the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, is a DACA recipients and a student at Hunter College; she said she would benefit most from the bill that would open the Excelsior scholarship to DACA recipients.

“I pay out of pocket for everything,” Feliz said of higher education. “It’s like a hole in your pocket. So this would greatly improve access to education.”

Statistics from the American Immigration Council, show that undocumented immigrants make up 17 percent of immigrants and 3.9 percent of the total population in New York State.

“New York is so different from any other state,” Feliz said. “From personal experiences, we have a whole soup of people from everywhere, so these bills are really important for New York. We have to set an example.”

This push in the New York State government comes on the heels of a similar effort on the federal stage; a bipartisan group of senators have been working on the passage of a “clean” DREAM act, which would allow for a path to citizenship as well as include provisions to improve border security. It remains uncertain whether the act would pass muster with the president.

“[President Donald Trump’s] administration may feel that they can strike fear into the hearts of immigrants and their children,” said Claudia Calhoon, the director of health policy at the New York Immigration Coalition. “But in New York, we’re going to hold the line on the gains that we have won over many, many decades.”

Photo by Radhika Viswanathan

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