Women make policy not coffee!
That was the rallying cry of a movement led by former English professor Lilia Melani 35 years ago.
“I wanted to transform the whole system!” said, Melani on Thursday, at the commemoration of the new exhibition in the Brooklyn College library, The Women in the Archives for her role in the history and legacy of the class action lawsuit, Melani et al. v. The Board of Higher Education.
The exhibit highlights archival collections of documents, photos, and flyers giving a glimpse of activism on campus created 35 years ago by (or) about women who are alumni of Brooklyn College. Melani is featured in the exhibition as a tribute for her work in the CUNY Women’s Coalition and their action in the class action lawsuit, which fought against the discrimination of women in CUNY for getting paid $1,800 less than men in equal positions.
Ten years later in 1983, Federal Judge, Lee P. Gagliardi ruled a, $7,500,000 settlement to be given any women who applied or were employed by CUNY. A portion of the settlement was also set too be given to the Women’s Development and Research Fund.
Melani and the 25 other women who were apart of the Women’s Collation, not only minimized the pay gap between men and women in CUNY but, also advocated for the creation of a women’s center, childcare centers, and a Women’s Studies degree program.
On March 24, 1990, the CUNY Women Students Bill of Rights and the Demands of Women Students of the City University of New York was created to provide an institutional environment free from bias against sex in all New York City campuses.
Both documents are also on display at the exhibit.
Among the changes the Women’s Coalition made, Melani pointed out that there is still, “more to be done. There are a lot of underlying systematic things that have to be changed.”
The exhibition honors the victory of the class action and the changes the CUNY Women’s Coalition has created in history for all the women (employees and students) in the CUNY system.
Melani concluded, “We work together as women. We are women together.”
Photo of Prof. Melani by Jasmine Peralta.
By ALAIN GAILLARD
New York City Public advocate Leititia James urged Congress on Thursday to accelerate the relief efforts that would better help the embattled island of Puerto Rico and better help evacuees living in the United States after hurricane Maria devastated the island last year.
“Puerto Rico does not need short-term loans from congress,” James said at a press conference organized by evacuee families, community organizations and elected officials to announce a march in Washington DC on March 20. “Privatization is not the answer. Puerto Rico needs a long-term comprehensive aid package that would put the environmental workers in front and at the center.”
James deplored the slow and inefficient response after Hurricane Maria hit the island six months ago, compared to the intervention in other states such as Texas and Florida hit also by Maria. “A recent report shows that three out of five residents who have applied for FEMA money to repair their homes have not yet received assistance,” she said. “Citizens of Florida and Texas who were devastated by hurricanes around the same time don’t have that problem; the question is why. All we are demanding is fair and equal treatment.”
Displaced and living in a hotel in Brooklyn, New York, with her two daughters (1 and 3 years old) since December 29, Daiza Aponte explained in Spanish, with the help of a translator, how stressful her situation is: “One of my daughters has chronic asthma; I have to travel from Brooklyn to the Bronx to get her medication,” she said, adding that the perception in Puerto Rico is that the city of New York is providing housing to evacuees.
According to James, citing data, “The Puerto Rican government estimates that 2000 residents will leave the island by the end of the year. CUNY Center for Puerto Rico study estimates that 1100 Puerto Ricans have settled in New York six months since the hurricane,” she said.
Photo by Alain Gaillard
By KURTIS RATTAY
Eleven-year-old Christopher Lane will never forget the day his mother picked him up from school with tears in her eyes—the day 20 children and six adults were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. That’s part of the reason Christopher plans to join New York City’s “March for Our Lives,” one of several nation-wide protests set for March 24.
“Today those innocent children of gun violence from Sandy Hook Elementary would have been my age,” Christopher said Thursday on the steps of City Hall. “But because a crazed person had access to a weapon of war, those children never got the chance to see today.”
The nation-wide marches and school walk-outs organized by student activists and parents fed up with gun violence come after the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, which left 15 students and two teachers dead. Presumably, the Florida shooting was the last straw for the nation’s anti-gun activists.
“We demand that they pass a law banning assault weapons and the sale of high-capacity magazines and closing the loopholes on background checks that allow dangerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to purchase firearms to slip through the cracks,” Christopher said.
New York’s “March for Our Lives” will meet on West 72nd street and Central Park West at 10 a.m., before marching south to 43rd street, said a Columbia Law student helping organize the event. The march will end with a rally led by students and anti-gun activists who have survived gun violence, he said. Organizers expect a turnout of about 30,000.
“School safety is not a political issue,” March for Our Lives NYC said on Facebook. “There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing, and growing.”
New York City high schoolers also acted to demand gun reform by joining the nation-wide school walkouts on Wednesday—exactly one month after Parkland students fled bullets from an AR-15. The city’s participating students have the respect of Mayor Bill de Blasi0
“If I was a high school student today I would be walking out, there is no question about it,” said de Blasio at a press conference last month. “The current leadership in Washington has not protected our young people and they have every right to stand up.”
March for Our Lives thanked city for accommodating the event, and the police department for helping with security.
“I’m marching in honor of the lives lost not just in Newtown, not just in Parkland, Orlando, Las Vegas or Sutherland Springs,” Christopher said. “I’m marching for the effect of gun violence on America.”
Photo of Christopher Lane by Kurtis Rattay
By JEREMY MYRTHIL
PBA President Patrick J. Lynch and the widow of a police officer slain 46 years ago demanded on Thursday that the state parole board be fired after the panel voted recently to release the killer who had been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
“To let this animal on the streets is disgraceful,” Lynch said at a press conference at PBA Manhattan headquarters
The “animal” in question was Herman Bell, now 70, who as a member of the 1970’s militant group Black Liberation Army targeted cops as foils of a oppressive government and made a fake distress call in Harlem before assassinating police officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones on May 21st, 1971. Bell had two accomplices, one of whom died in prison while the other is still behind bars.
After showcasing good behavior in prison following his arrest and after seven appeals to the State Parole Board Bell gained the right to his liberty; he may be freed as soon as April.
“They were assassinated only because they wore the blue uniform,” said Diane Piagentini, the widow, standing beside Lynch and other police union members. She also said the proposed release “put a bull’s-eye on every cop in the city” and that he would be freed “to kill again’.
Earlier this week, the parole board sent a letter to Mr. Bell crediting him with showing remorse for the murders and taking into account his age, clean disciplinary history,and “sturdy network of supporters.”
But Lynch and others discredited his expression of remorse and decried social media campaigns that they said portrayed the killer as some kind of political “folk hero“.
“We believe that the members who made this horrible decision have not only betrayed the trust of al the line of duty police families,” the widow said, ” but have also failed in their duty to protect the citizens of this state.”
Lynch added that he was “sickened” by the move and that board commissioners Otis Cruse and Carol Shapiro have “lost their souls.”
Various Twitter accounts have expressed satisfaction in Bell’s release; some calling him a “respected elder” and others a “political prisoner”.
The family of Waverly Jones was not present at the press conference, but a letter sent by that officer’s son expressed forgiveness for Mr. Bell “killing his father.”
“To deny him parole again,” the letter said, “would cause us pain as we are reminded of the painful episode each time he appears before the board.”
Both Mr. Lynch and Ms. Piagentini demanded that Bell’s release be reversed, and both requested that New York citizens become more vocal in making that a reality.
“If the public speaks,” Lynch said, “anything is possible.”
BY DYLAN CAMPBELL
Representatives of the city’s emergency workers borrowed a page from the late Rodney Dangerfield’s playbook when they complained to City Council members on Thursday: “We get no respect!”
“We are not given that treatment of respect,” griped Vincent Variale, president of the EMS officer’s union at a preliminary budget hearing of the Committee on Fire and Emergency Services at City Hall, arguing that emergency workers were not only poorly paid but also lacked such basic tools as GPS technology, locker rooms and leadership staffing.
Variale’s beefs were backed up by the testimony of Michael Greco, Vice President of the Uniformed EMT’s Paramedics and Inspectors who said that their co-workers were forced to use papers maps, work for less pay and change in rooms with people of the opposite sex.
“They love this job but they don’t feel as appreciated as they appreciate the job,” said Greco about his co-workers, adding that the working conditions make it hard to retain employees.
Variale said that while a recent fire department report cited a seven percent attrition rate, the numbers were even higher because it didn’t consider workers who had moved on to become firefighters. He said the attrition rate was closer to 15 percent.
Virale said that EMS workers are considered civilian employees instead of uniformed employees, which means they get paid less than firefighters.
“The message is, don’t work for this company,” said Variale.
Greco said he had “5,000 members who can’t afford to live in the city they serve.”
Though fire department’s representatives had testified earlier that technology had improved and had embraced the 21st century “proudfully” by installing a mobile navigation system in ambulances, Variale countered that the technology wasn’t up to snuff.
Variale contended that paramedics had to use their phones to navigate and are blamed when they arrive late to a scene. He said up-to-date GPS systems would “significantly help address the response times.”
and Greco said these concerns are not shown in the preliminary budget and that the 321 million allocated in total is significantly less than they need.
Greco said that these needs were not reflected in the proposed budget, which would require a dramatic “reevaluation in hundreds of millions of dollars… to make EMS a vital service for this city.”
Councilman Fernando Cabrera declared he was “baffled” by what he had heard and called for a study of these conditions and needs.
By THUYA KYAW
A key eyewitness in the trial of the alleged gunman accused of murdering in broad daylight a Queens imam and his assistant failed to identify the defendant on Thursday — instead pointing to a random man in the courtroom.
Juan Salcedo, the fourth witness of the day called to the the stand by deputy prosecutor Peter Lomp, was testifying about how he saw a black Chevy Trailblazer purportedly being driven by the defendant Oscar Morel as it hit a cyclist on Aug. 13, 2016, the afternoon of the killing. The witness further testified that he followed the car after the incident to write down the plate number which the evidence shows matched Morel’s. He identified the driver as a person of either Hispanic or Indian background.
However, when he was asked to point him out in the courtroom, he selected instead a random white man sitting in a front row who looked like nothing like the defendant .
Everybody in the courtroom seemed surprised and confused by the mistaken identification, especially the bespectacled spectator who was Identified as the killer.
Morel, 37, of East New York, is accused of killing Imam Maulama Aknojee and assistant Thara Uddin in the vicinity of the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid Mosque shortly after afternoon prayers, an incident that shocked the city the raised the specter of an anti-Muslim hate crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his defense in the opening statement accused the police of planting the murder weapon in his apartment.
After the witness’s mistaken identification the judge adjourned the trial till Friday.
By JEREMY MYRTHIL & KURTIS RATTAY
Jurors in the federal corruption trial of a former top aide of Gov. Andrew Cuomo continued deliberations on Thursday in what appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to reach agreement after the panelists earlier had declared themselves sharply deadlocked.
“The only thing we seem to agree on is that we cannot agree,” said one juror in a note to Judge Valerie Caproni on Tuesday.
The defendant Joseph Percoco, whom the late Mario Cuomo once dubbed his “third son”, was accused of cutting sweetheart deals with state business executives in exchange for over $300,000 in bribes.
After over seven weeks of trial and seven days of deliberation in U.S. District Court, many jurors voiced frustration and fatigue. Three jurors, in fact, have pleaded with the judge to excuse them from service. Their requests were denied.
The jury interrupted their consultations to ask the judge to provide the transcript of the entire trial surprised the courtroom
“Logistically,” Caproni said, “it will be very time consuming, measured in days, to get you the entire transcripts.”
The request was denied.
The case last month was thrown into turmoil when the star witness Todd Howe, a former Albany lobbyist who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to eight felonies, was arrested in the midst of the trial after he admitted on the witness stand that he had scammed a credit card company in violation of his plea agreement, which required him to avoid further criminal acts.
The jurors who asked to be excused cited childcare and personal issues when explaining why they “physically and emotionally cannot do this anymore.”
She recently delivered an Allen charge – an instruction given by a court to a deadlocked jury to encourage it to continue deliberating until it reaches a verdict. She added that she was “incredibly sympathetic” to their plights.
The jury was excused early and was scheduled to continue deliberating Friday.
By JASMINE PERALTA
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and Senator Martin J. Golden on Thursday blasted Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to tax internet sales, which was expected to collect state and local taxes on at least $100 million in purchases made by New Yorkers.
“New York needs to keep its sticky fingers out of the digital cookie jar!” Golden said at a press conference in Brooklyn.
Cuomo’s recent budget proposal includes a sales tax on internet purchases on items sold through such digital marketplaces as Amazon and eBay.
Malliotakis branded the idea as a “cash-grab, looking to nickel and dime our residents” and the creation of a “big-brother situation” that would invade privacy of New Yorkers.
The language being used in this legislation would require these online marketplaces to provide a list of all the New York residents who have purchased items utilizing those marketplaces to insure that New Yorkers are paying for their services,” she added.
“Enough is enough!”, Senator Golden also emphasized that this internet sales tax will push away these major digital marketplaces from investing in the state of New York, calling the proposal immature.
Senator Golden also asked how dropping a multi-million dollar tax bomb would benefit hard-working New Yorkers?
“Now the government wants a piece of the pie by taking online consumers and businesses,” he said. “This tax will send a message to these digital companies that New York is closed for business.”
In 2012, Business Insider reported, 27 million items were sold on Cyber Monday, 306 items per second.
Golden said that marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay have created an economically convenient and efficient way of shopping. Amazon in particular, he continued, has expanded beyond the virtual world and has created a physical store in Seattle and was looking to bring a store in Brooklyn, and creating warehouses in Staten Island. But the internet sales tax proposal might kill the idea, he contended.
“We need to make New York a state where digital marketplaces are nurtured, and protected to insure the economic prosperity,” Golden said. “We need to not do this tax, nor the rest of the taxes, this governor has proposed.”
Photo of Assemblywoman Mallitakis & Senator Golden by Jasmine Peralta
