By ALAIN GAILLARD
Standing in front of the stove in her kitchen, Marie Melodin, 85, her face wrinkled from age, was putting the last touches on a soup that would be her first meal of the day at around 3 p.m. With her hands shaking due to Parkinson’s disease, she said that her home care aide does not visit on weekends, so she has to fix herself something to eat.
Melodin lives in a two-bedroom apartment building in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and has been retired for more than 20 years. She explained that the $200 she receives monthly from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, does not last the whole month.
“Every time friends come here and see that I need something, they buy it for me,” she said.
She added that she stopped taking food donations from the community health center she used to visit once a week. “They gave me food, such as cereals, I don’t like,” she said. “I don’t like the fact that they are giving me what they want. I am not a kid; I should be able to ask for what I want.”
She has never received help from any of the organizations fighting hunger in New York, such as Citymeals on Wheels, which delivers food to elderly people. She does not even know how to contact them. “No one told me where to go,” she said. “I will ask the nurse when she comes to visit next time.”
According to the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, Melodin is among the 20 percent of the city’s elderly who are facing hunger at a time when President Donald Trump wants to slash funding for many government agencies, which could impact anti-hunger programs.
Margarette Purvis, president and chief executive officer of Food Bank for New York City, echoed this concern in a statement released on the organization’s website.
“This ‘America First’ budget will deepen and intensify the everyday struggles of poor and vulnerable Americans. We can anticipate that need for emergency food—already insufficient to meet existing demand at local food pantries and soup kitchens—will only increase,” she said. “This budget blueprint . . . also eliminates key resources that help many charities on the front lines operate efficiently and effectively, such as AmeriCorps and the VISTA program.”
After Trump released his budget proposal, many people feared that programs such as Citymeals on Wheels would be crippled. But Beth Shapiro, executive director of Citymeals on Wheels, scrambled to reassure recipients that their meals on supported through the city’s Department for the Aging as part of a public-private partnership. They are not provided by the federal government, and “thus are not currently at risk of being defunded,” she said.
With the proposed Trump budget, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which finances many charities fighting hunger in New York, would experience a 13 percent budget cut that would be slightly more than $6 billion.
Shapiro explained that since the budget outline needs congressional approval and lacks many details about individual agencies, it is still unclear how this overall cut would affect most Older American Act programs.
She also said that Citymeals on Wheels relies on the generosity of its board of directors, the City of New York, sponsors, and other designated donations to cover administrative costs.
Helping to fight hunger among older people since 1981 in New York City, Citymeals on Wheels helps feed 18,000 homebound seniors by delivering meals to their doorsteps all year round.
When Melodin was told that Citymeals of Wheels would deliver food to her doorstep, she was surprised and said, “Having food delivered to my doorstep is very good. It is getting harder and harder for me to walk.”
By ISAAC MONTEROSE
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman and fellow Democratic legislators recently unveiled legislation to require any presidential and vice presidential candidate to publicly release the last five years of their tax returns no later than 50 days before the general election in order to appear on the state ballot.
They called the bill Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public Act (also known as the T.R.U.M.P. Act) at a press conference on the steps of City Hall.
Hoylman said that the name was not coincidental.
“It did take a very long time to come up with that acronym,” he said wryly.
If a candidate fails to produce the returns to the New York State Board of Elections in time then they’re disqualified from the ballot, a press release said. The board would also have 10 days to publicly make the returns available on its website after receiving them. The bill was first introduced by the senator in December.
A resolution for the bill has been co-signed by 28 City Council Members and similar laws have been introduced in 23 other states. Several of those states, such as Tennessee and Arizona, are deeply Republican. It also calls on the state legislature and the governor to sign the bill into law. Hoylman mentioned that he filed a motion for committee consideration on the T.R.U.M.P. Act in order to allow an “up or down vote” on the bill in the New York State Senate Election Committee.
“We live in a deliberative democracy,” Hoylman said. “In order for our democracy to function, voters need to be both educated and informed. Well, they can’t be informed if a candidate hides information from them and that’s exactly what happened in last year’s election.”
Hoylman also criticized President Trump’s refusal, both throughout the campaign and after his victory, to release his tax returns and called it “egregious” because Trump is subject to conflict of interest laws unlike the “elected officials standing here or those [in] the building behind me or those in Washington.” He added that Trump was breaking a 40-year tradition by not being forthcoming with his tax returns.
Hoylman alleged that the president owed money to Russian oligarchs, to the Mercer family (who were Republican donors who supported Trump’s campaign) and even to the Chinese.
“Bottom line is that voters need to have that information to end these conspiracy theories and to be able to vote intelligently for their candidate,” he argued. Using a poll from Public Policy Polling, Hoylman also argued that 61 percent of voters wanted Trump to release his tax returns and that 61 percent of voters also supported his specific type of legislation.
“As a famous saying goes by a Republican president: ‘Trust but verify,’” said Hoylman, referring to the famous quote from former president Ronald Reagan.
Hoylman’s fellow Democrats expressed supported for the bill with City Council Member Andrew Cohen describing it as “a tremendous opportunity to impact not only New York State but really the national debate about this issue that has obviously gotten a lot of press.” Cohen said that New Yorkers felt “so strongly about this issue” and were “offended by the lack of transparency” in last year’s presidential election. Similarly, City Council Member Mark Levine said he was pleased to lend his support to the bill and described the issue of Trump not disclosing his tax returns as a “dangerous obfuscation and a compromise of the public trust.”
“I’m so proud that the work of Senator Hoylman has ignited a national movement,” Levine said.
Photo depicting (left to right) Cohen, Holyman & Levine by Isaac Monterose
By DEREK NORMAN
Professional gambler Billy Walters has yet to fold as closing arguments of the insider trading case finished in Manhattan Federal court Thursday, sending the jury to deliberate.
Looking for a flush, the defense spent the better portion of two and a half hours relentlessly smearing the credibility of the government’s star witness, Tom Davis, the former chairman of Dean Foods, one of the largest dairy distributors in the nation. Davis, who is facing lesser-charges after agreeing to provide testimony against Walters, has admitted to tipping Walters with insider information, as well as instances of cheating on his wife, lying to authorities and stealing from his own charities.
“You know blinders for horse racing… the kind they use so the horse can stay on track?” asked defense attorney Barry Berke to the jurors. “Well the prosecution kept these blinders on so that you would not see some things.”
Berke resurfaced many government exhibits and times throughout the trial where cracks appeared in the government’s argument. The “bat phone,” or burner cell which according to Davis, was given by Walters to discuss incriminating information, was brought back into question and stressed that it was actually used for extramarital affairs. And again, the phone records were displayed, highlighting all calls made between Walters and his brokers, which according to the defense were “cherry picked.” All the purportedly questionable evidence provided by prosecution, was referred to by Berke as “like putty, the kind you use to patch holes in the wall.”
Phil Mickelson, the champion golfer who made over $48 million in 2012 alone, was brought back into conversation as the defense presented his credentials and net worth, asking the jury why a man who has that much money would go into risky trades to pay a debt? “It makes no sense. This I would call putty,” said Berke.
“Mr. Walter’s may not be as educated as some of the Wall Street guys, but he learned a few things,” said Berke of Walter’s ability to play the stock market. “This was a gambler’s play. He goes all in. A lot of times, you don’t know what the deal is. But if it goes through, it’s good and if not, it’s bad. That’s always the gamble that Walters plays.”
The prosecution was given half an hour of rebuttal before the long trial was finally left to be shouldered by the jury alone. Stepping up to the lectern, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman, hastily tried to sway the jury one last time, as he resurrected government exhibits and attempted to rebut the defense.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you’re not gonna like Mr. Davis,” said Goldman. “He’s morally corrupt, he’s a womanizer and he stole money from a charity he ran. But how do you know that? Tom Davis told you that because he could not hold on to his lies anymore.”
“Billy Walters found his cash cow in Tom Davis,” continued Goldman. “And he milked it for all it’s worth.”
After the prosecutors called, throwing their last chips into the pot, the judge formally charged the jury. They went were sent into deliberation just before the end of the day, as both teams and the defendant must now await the verdict. There is an old gambling saying that goes, “eat your betting money, but don’t bet your eating money.” Soon the Las Vegas professional gambler will find out if he’s hit the jackpot or ate his last bet.
“The stakes are high, but there’s only one verdict to be reached,” preached Berke to the jury. “It’s all or nothing.”
By JESSICA MARQUEZ
The New York City Council Committee on Parks and Recreation on Thursday called upon state agencies to support completion of the Hudson River Greenway, a pedestrian walkway connecting Lower Manhattan to the border of Westchester County,
The project remains half done, now extending from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan to the George Washington Bridge in Upper Manhattan.
“The Hudson River Greenway and the wonderful riverfront access afforded to all Manhattanites is non-existent to the residents of the Bronx,” said Bronx Councilman Cohen. “I am proud to support this resolution at the New York City Council and strongly support a continuous Hudson River Greenway.”
He added: “On a personal note, my colleagues do know how often I use the Manhattan portion of the Greenway with my bike, so it would be great I could actually go from Riverdale straight down to City Hall.”
Also in attendance at the hearing were Cliff Stanton, Greenway Director of the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Van Cortlandt Development Corporation (KRVC) and Rosemary Ginty, Vice Chair Community Board Aide of the Bronx. Both were in favor and expressed their support of the Greenway extension.
“Community Board 8 wholeheartedly supports an all river Hudson River Greenway,” said Rosemary Ginty, vice-chairwoman of the board. “We even established a special Greenway community as part of the community board to work through the many issues so that we can get to an all River Greenway.”
Cliff Stanton of the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Van Cortlandt Development Corp. echoed the sentiments.
“KRVC has collected over 2,000 individual signatures and over 50 local businesses and instructions supporting the Greenway,” Stanton said.
Stanton added his group promotes the Greenway by staging the Riverdale Riverfest, which gives “thousands of local residents and visitors each year a rare opportunity to recreate along the banks of the majestic Hudson River waterfront”, something that the residents of Riverdale and the Bronx are denied access to.
Proposals to extend the gap to the Westchester border have been stymied because the train tracks used by Metro-North and Amtrak in Riverdale run close to the water, making pedestrian access perilous.
By DEIDRA BRISCO
Rockefeller Center is best known for its holiday musical featuring the 80 high-kicking Rockettes but on Thursday the theater was filled with 4,000 high-achieving students celebrating “youth empowerment”.
Dubbed WE Day, the first-time New York City event was an international charity celebrating volunteer efforts of students from 200 tristate area schools. To attend students must earn tickets not buy them. Ways in which students can earn tickets is through fundraising causes and charities they choose.
“WE Day requires students to be agents of change.We want the youth to know their place in the world and how to better it,” said co-founder Craig Kielburger
Students like Suswana Chowdhury, now 20, has been in the program since 2010. She said she learned of it when the group sponsored her school’s talent show. Through WE Villages Chowdury worked on clean water projects in Haiti and Ecuador and now plans to work in India.
“Clean water is important because the people have to walk long distances to get fresh water, she said, “so making clean water available to them is making them more healthy. Because of issues with Clean water, the kids there can’t go to school. When we provide clean water, the kids can then go to school because they won’t have worry about going to get water for their families.”
Kielburger added that 80 percent of the alumni continue to do charity work after finishing the program. Suswana fit the pattern, citing that she would continue charity work within social justice, as she already writes opinion pieces, educates others and wants to continue on a global level with WE Villages.
“I want to increase diversity of South Asian women in the media,” she said. “If casted, they are casted as stereotypes or if they are casted as role models they are given white names. Like my name is Suswana why cant a character be named by an authentic name?”
Dr. Martin Luther King III, founder of Realizing the Dream, said that his agenda was to combat poverty, racism, and violence. King, a speaker at WE Day expressed awe in WE schools “empowering children to better America and literally roll up their sleeves.”
“
By ANDRES RODRIGUEZ
After spending the night camped out at the Wells Fargo branch between Grand and Broome streets in SoHo, protesters marched down Broadway on Thursday and made their way to the steps of City Hall. The disheveled group of indigenous people and their supporters found cover from the rain under the portico, their high spirits seemingly undamped by the gloomy weather.
A unified chant of Mni Wiconi, “Water is life” in Lakota, resounded on the neo-classical columns of the stately building as a coalition of indigenous organizations and allies once again called for Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Controller Scott Stringer to divest millions of dollars from Wells Fargo in response to its funding of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Rick Chavallo, of the American Indian Community House, made a speech about the history of corporate greed.
“They’re extracting again.,” he said. “They’re coming to our land, violating our treaties, violating our sovereignty, assaulting Mother Earth. For what ? For profit, for greed, for money. It’s always about that.”
Robert Barrero of the International Indian Treaty Council criticized de Blasio and Stringer. “Are you [de Blasio and Stringer] a Trump supporter?” he said, likening de Blasio’s and Stinger’s alleged inaction to the president’s rollback on environmental legislation and destruction of environmental protections and policies.
Both de Blasio and Stringer have denounced the construction of the pipeline. De Blasio released a letter on Feb 17 to Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan expressing concern over the banks involvement in the pipeline. Stringer organized a March briefing for global investors with tribe chairmen to apply pressure on the institutions that have involvement in the pipelines, according to press reports.
But these don’t seem to be enough for the activists, who demand divesting from Wells Fargo and the other 17 financial institutions known to be invested in the pipelines; such as TD Bank, Citi, Chase and Bank of America.
New York City currently has more than $700 million pension fund investments and other business ties with Wells Fargo.
Jessica Roff of the Catskill Mountainkeepers focused on the pipeline project happening on the East Coast, spanning between New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The project, Algonquin Incremental Market, is run by Spectre Energy, a Houston-based company, and calls for replacing the 26-inch pipeline to one measuring 42 inches. The proposed plan, which crosses nearly 200 waterways in its path, has caused concern among many environmentalists and activists.
Roff summed up the situation, involving the recent merger of Spectre Energy and Canadian-based company, Enbridge, which she said holds a minority stake in the pipeline worth $1.5 billion. She touched on the dangers of the expansion project, which routes the 42-inch high pressure pipeline across Indian Point power plant land, which is controversial in itself.
Roff concludes that this is all happening for one reason: “The thing is, obviously, all of this expansion happens, why? Because of money.”
By BRIAN BONILLA
At the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Passover Seder, students showed that the best way to fight religious intolerance is with unity.
On Thursday, more than 75 Catholic, Muslim and Jewish middle school students from four New York City schools came together to experience a traditional Passover Seder and learn about each other’s holiday traditions. The annual event is a way for young minds to learn about other faiths and how to be tolerant of other religions.
“We’re all Human first,” said Aminata Camara a sixth grade teacher for the Islamic Cultural Center. “This shows that we can all come together as one. We can all put our differences aside, especially these times with a lot of stigma and misunderstandings in the media about certain faith groups.”
The voices and laughter of students filled the room as they interacted with each other. They sat at tables with students from other faiths and worked on drawings that expressed the similarities between each religion represented. After some of the drawings were presented everyone broke matzo bread and shared a traditional Passover Seder meal which included fish, vegetables, and bitter herbs.
“So many students live in a bubble they live in their own world around their family, religion. their friends,” said Evan Bernstein, the director of the ADL in New York City. “This is one of those opportunities for them to break out of their bubble.”
One student who understands this is Ben, an eighth grade student at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan.
“I go to a Jewish school and it’s not every day I get to meet people from other religions,” he said. “Now if I meet someone who isn’t Jewish I’ll have more of a background behind them instead of being completely oblivious to other religions.”
This event comes at a time where cases against Trump’s travel ban, which targeted people of Islamic faith, are ongoing and interfaith tensions are high. Maybe something can be learned from these kids.
Photo by Brian Bonilla.
By STEVEN FERRARO
The Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council unveiled a new policy agenda on Thursday including more immigrant rights and climate change reform to help battle effects on the city on proposals by the Trump Administration.
The highly idealistic agenda amounted to a battle plan against the avowed policies of President Donald Trump.
Referred to as the “18 for ‘18”, the Caucus presented 18 policy changes on the steps of City Hall, ranging from reducing homelessness to the eventual closing of the Rikers’s Island jail. The leaders vowed to fight for New York to remain as a sanctuary city and supported the right to counsel for immigrants facing possible deportation.
The council members present, including Ben Kallos, Donovan Richards, Stephen Levin, Brad Lander and Antonio Reynoso focused on these issues some two months after President Trump’s executive orders clogged the borders and allowed aggressive deportation.
The group has also decided to push back on President Trump’s climate change stance by working to require big buildings in the city to become “greener” and searching for new ways to reduce emissions.
Local activist Phoebe Chung said that New York alone “produce[s] more emissions than 100 countries in the world.” The policies were designed to counter President Trump’s plans to cut EPA funding in order to increase the military’s budget.
The group also planned to tackle strained relations between communities and police. With the help of Communities United for Police Reform, the council is looking to help strengthen the bond between officer and civilian by supporting the Right to Know Act, requiring police officers to identify themselves and the reason for any interaction, and obtain informed consent before searches, according to the executive summary of the rally.
The council members also suggested that all officers carry cards with them at all times with their full names and contact information as well as teach the people in their patrol neighborhoods rights that people may not be aware of during police interactions.
By ISAAC MONTEROSE
Several LIU-Brooklyn faculty members and labor union representatives rallied near the campus on Thursday demanding a new contract for both part-time and full-time faculty of the 110-year-old university.
“If the administration has $4.2 million to spend on a racquet ball facility on Long Island,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, “then it has enough money to make sure that the backbone of what happens in Brooklyn gets funded.”
In a speech that got the crowd of dozens cheering, Weingarten praised and thanked the LIU students who supported the faculty’s efforts and mentioned off-handedly how she described university president Kimberly Cline as “Trumpian”.
The Long Island University Faculty Federation, a union representing campus faculty, has demanded equal pay for both LIU-Brooklyn and LIU Post (a satellite campus in Brookville, New York), an end to benefits cuts and better treatment of adjunct professors. A report showed that the minimum salaries at the Brooklyn campus averaged $10, 000 to $15,000 less than the Post campus.
Many of the faculty and students condemned the university’s actions in the negotiations. The administration’s stance was called “a war on education” by Professor Michael Pelias, who teaches philosophy at the university.
Carlos Jesus Calzadilla, an LIU freshman and president of the Young Progressives of America campus organization, announced a boycott of all LIU merchandise until the administration agreed to the contract that the faculty wanted.
Emily Drabinski, coordinator of library instruction and secretary of the union said that the current contract “represents an attack on our part-time employees, the most vulnerable section of our faculty.” Drabinski also said that Cline wanted to cut a benefit trust fund for the health insurance costs for a group of part-time faculty and also wanted the right to videotape the lectures of full-time faculty.
“When we came back to work in September, we came back to work very unsure of our contract, very unsure of our future,” said Jessica Rosenberg, an LIU professor and president of their union. “We still don’t have a contract. Fourteen months of bargaining has gone basically nowhere. We stand united and we stand strong and we need a future.”
Rosenberg is referring to a lockout the administration committed back in September that barred the 400-member faculty union from campus.
Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY and English professor at the CUNY Graduate Center said that “the idea of further impoverishing adjuncts is an abomination.”
However, the administration asserted that their current proposal was beneficial for the faculty and it was described as a “fair offer” in a statement from LIU spokesman Jon Schneider.
According to the statement, with the university’s current proposal, full-time faculty members currently receive an average compensation package of $133,951 and, with the university’s double-digit increase proposal, the package would increase to $155,664 by the end of the contract.
The statement also said that the offer allows the university to remain at an “affordable” price for its students and included “an unprecedented capping of tuition increases at two percent or less through 2020.”
Their proposal would also preserve the benefits package, includes an 11 percent pension match, a “Cadillac” value health plan with low levels of contributions and full tuition remission.
“We hope the union will carefully consider and vote on the contract that will give them double-digit raises while ensuring the University has the resources to provide an affordable, world-class education to students,” the statement said. “In the meantime, current contract remains in place for the next two months and we remain available to meet anytime.”
Additionally, the statement said: “Adjuncts at LIU Brooklyn currently are amongst the highest-compensated in the New York area, with rates that exceed not only those at LIU Post, but also at St. John’s, Pace and Hofstra. These rates would be increased for existing adjuncts under the proposed contract. The University’s proposals also reaffirm the commitment to adjuncts by offering, for the first time, the opportunity for multi-year appointments, providing additional job security and guaranteed salary increases for adjunct faculty. The fund you refer to is not used by the majority of adjuncts, and that is something we are looking to discontinue as part of a contract which features double-digit raises for faculty.”
The contract extension that was agreed to between both sides in August ends on May 31st.
Photo of Randi Weingarten by Isaac Monterose
By ASHLEY MATOS
The motion to overturn the guilty verdict against Etan Patz’s killer on the grounds of jury contamination was denied by Justice Maxwell Wiley on Thursday.
This motion came after the conviction in light of evidence that jurors may have been influenced by the presence of jurors from Pedro Hernandez’s first trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Hernandez was convicted on Feb. 14 for the kidnapping and murder of six-year-old Etan Patz in 1979.
“We’ve finally got justice for our son,” said Stan Patz, Etan’s father.
The first trial that took place in 2012 ended in a mistrial after one juror, Adam Sirois, refused to vote guilty. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t support the Patz family, it just means that I support justice,” said Sirois.
Sirois said he believed that the case would be successfully appealed and go to a third trial.
“I hope for a different judge,” Sirois added. “I hope for a different venue if possible; I hope we get a fair trial. I don’t think the past few trials have been fair.”
Sirois said that he believes the real killer was convicted child molester Jose Ramos who had a connection to the Patz family even though Ramos had been cleared of the charges in 2016 after Hernandez’s confession, which the defense argued was unreliable due to Hernandez’s mental instability and low IQ.
Hernandez’s sentencing was scheduled to take place on Apr. 18.
Photo of Stan Patz by Ashley Matos.
