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.
By ANDREW HUGHES
New York City taxi drivers showed up in droves to the City Taxi and Limousine Commission’s public hearing in Downtown Manhattan Thursday to air their grievances with what they regarded as unfair wages for cabbies in the era of ride-hailing apps.
Commissioner Meera Joshi oversaw the hearing which heard scores of witnesses from current and former employees.
Angel Fernandez, a former taxi driver, was critical of the continued decline of the street taxi.
“I used to be a taxi driver but when Uber came around and started being competitive I switched so I can give myself a better chance to pay my bills,” said Fernandez. “Uber’s fares were lowered but taxis were not. In no other industry are the expenses rising but the incomes becoming lower.”
Mustafa Alton, a current New York taxi driver, was awe-struck by recent news that a taxi medallion was sold for its lowest value in a decade.
“$241,000?” he said in disbelief. ” The fact that a taxi medallion was sold for that low shows the state of our industry.”
It was only a few years ago that medallions regularly sold for over $1,000,000. In fact, in 2014, an auction for two medallions had a price tag of $2,500,000.
The Commission claims that overall trip numbers have increased in recent years, according to the press release for the event. There were 70,000,000 trips in the fourth quarter of 2016, a 14 percent increase over the same period in 2015. Despite the optimism from the Commission, there was mostly concern expressed by the scores of witnesses.
One was a local celebrity. David Pollack, nicknamed “Taxi Dave,” who hosts his own taxi-themed radio show on WOR-AM (710) which is primarily listened to by yellow cab drivers on Sundays at 8 P.M. Pollack, who wore a smile after receiving some applause as he approached the podium, spoke about how the competition is all but flooding the market and how business for yellow cabs are drowning because of it.
“We all know about Uber, Lyft and these other ride share services,” said Pollack. He continued, “These businesses are easier for consumers and offer more for less money, including knowing who your driver is.”
“These companies are easier to reach and are lowering fares as taxis are raising them.”
Despite the positive picture the Commission is trying to paint, the long-term outlook is grim for the yellow taxi industry. With the rise of Uber and similar companies, it could only be a matter of time before the yellow cab is a relic of the past, transportation experts say.
By JON REMACHE & ISRAEL SALAS-RODRIGUEZ
The commercial airline pilot from Texas who was convicted of possessing child pornography on his iPad was sentenced on Thursday to six months in jail, 10 years’ probation, and having to register as a sex offender in New York as well as anywhere he finds a home or work.
Thomas E. Perkins, 39, of Frisco Texas, turned to his family and smiled as he was escorted out of Queen’s Supreme Court after the sentencing for possessing two child pornography videos.
Queens Justice Richard L. Buchter declared firmly: “The defendant needs to be monitored and programmed, and clearly the defendant has a problem.”
“Every time these videos are viewed the child is exploited. This is an insidious and awful crime,” said Buchter.
Perkins was ordered to pay $1,000 in victim’s fee and a surcharge which was not made public.
Perkins was arrested by law enforcement at JFK Airport in April 2015, when police seized his iPad with five child pornography videos on it. He argued that the videos were already on the device when he purchased the used iPad from a Texas pawn shop two week before his arrest. He claimed prosecutors could not prove the videos were uploaded after he bought it.
The jurors agreed that two of the videos, which featured pre-pubescent girls, were uploaded by Perkins; he was acquitted of possessing the other three videos.
By JESSICA MARQUEZ
Brooklyn may be a borough on the rise but so are rents, according to a recent study by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.
This conclusion and other subjects were the focus of discussion Thursday at a rent board meeting in the David Dinkins Municipal Building.
An internal study, the 2017 Income and Expense Study report, showed that the rising rents from 2014 to 2015 mostly impacted the neighborhoods of Bushwick, East New York/Starett City, and Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Bushwick had a 9.2 percent increase, East New York, 8.6 percent and Williamsburg 7.7 percent.
When Board Director Brian Hoberman mentioned that the rent increase in Bushwick stemmed from gentrification, an audience member shouted, “That’s no lie”.
Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx ranked second, third and fourth in rent boosts.
The board also disclosed that apartment buildings were considered distressed if the operating and maintenance costs of the building was greater than the total income of the residents. More than half of these were mid-size pre-war buildings with 20 to 99 units; about half were located in Manhattan, followed by the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
Hoberman also went over the 2017 Mortgage Survey Report, which reviews organizations that provide loans to multifamily rent-stabilized buildings. The study showed rent increases despite interest rates and service fees reaching record lows.
By LOGAN WILBER
Bronx DA Darcel D. Clark requested $3.7 million from the City Council for prosecutor salaries during a preliminary budget hearing Thursday, in an attempt to retain talented prosecutors and close the salary gap between the Bronx and the other four boroughs.
DA Clark told the Committee on Public Safety at City Hall that the average Bronx DA salary was nearly $8,600 less than the estimated average salaries of the other jurisdictions and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office.
Later testimony showed that gap was even larger as each borough DA recited the average salaries of their assistant; the Bronx was the only one under $100,000 per year, at $86,000. The salary discrepancies had caused a number of attorneys to leave the office for higher paying jobs elsewhere.
“Assistant DAs who love their jobs and are performing good work would like to stay in our office, but are forced to leave so they can earn more money to support their families and help ease the burden of their law school debts,” Clark said.
DA Clark also pointed to successes within her office despite staffing setbacks.
In 2016, she said, her office reduced the backlog of misdemeanor cases from 16,500 to 9,300. The office also reduced the arrest to arraignment time from over 24 hours to 22.
Clark admitted the previous wait time was not acceptable. “We were the worst in the city,” Clark said.
In addition to asking for funding for raises, Clark asked for more staff to streamline the judicial process. Clark said the Vertical Prosecution Model used in the Bronx were helping with cases, but that “Vertical prosecution requires more DAs.”
Vertical prosecution means one prosecutor handles a case from the beginning to have better knowledge of the case, which speeds the process since no files have to be transferred and “helps ADAs and witnesses build an important rapport.”
Not only does the office cover all state crimes in the borough, but ADAs are assigned to the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, which, she said, now handles 163 indictments and 200 pending felony investigations involving inmates and visitors.
Clark said she is asking for no more than her fair share. “The Bronx gets about 20 percent of the city’s funding to istrict attorneys offices, but last year handled nearly 30 percent of the city’s murders, felony assaults and robberies,” she concluded.
In addition to the $3.7 million proposed for salaries, the budget requested by Clark for 2018 is $72,329,599 which is up from $71,616,239 in 2017
By DEREK NORMAN
The prosecution dug deep into phone records of the professional sports gambler who continued to take his chances on trial in Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday.
Billy Walters, the famed Las Vegas sports bettor, was indicted on federal charges of insider trading last May after a four-year investigation by the FBI. Walters is accused of playing the market with his shares of Dean Foods, one of the nation’s largest dairy distributors, after consistently being informed on stock value fluctuation by the former chairmen of the company, Thomas Davis.
Thursday’s court session consisted of the Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Cucinella’s in depth reviewing of phone records between Walters and Davis, which was usually followed by immediate calls from Walters to his brokers, according to court documents.
Taking the stand to testify was an FBI special agent who spent years documenting the phone calls and organizing them according to the time-periods alleged in the indictment.
Most instances presented by prosecutors showed private emails within the Dallas-based food company discussing possible fluctuation in stock value, proceeded by phone calls from Davis to Walters, then Walters to his brokers; all of which occurred before any formal announcement of report by the company.
Walters, as an iconic figure in the sports betting realm, had many connections with famous athletes including champion pro-golfer Phil Mickelson, who was called to testify but refused by invoking his Fifth Amendment right.
Mickelson allegedly owed Walters millions as result of gambling debts, and is being accused of joining Walters’ in inside trades to repay that debt. Mickelson was not charged criminally, but agreed to pay $1 million to government to resolve a civil suit, according to reports.
The courtroom atmosphere was light as Walters confidently smiled and joked with his family and defense counsel. Jurors occasionally cracked jokes as well.
Walters’ attorney enthusiastically cross-examined the agent, pulling up charts that were submitted into evidence and pointing out that there were plenty of missing gaps in the time frames of the phone records. The defense continuously stressed the lack of a record showing Walters’ losses in the stock market.
“You didn’t calculate into the records the fact that there were losses!” said defense attorney Barry Berke, flailing his arms. “There were times the stock went down, my client sold, the stock went up… you just didn’t show that. Maybe because the government didn’t ask you to.”
Berke swiftly ran through slides of phone records showing dates that were not highlighted as he would raise his arm to each exclaiming, “That’s a loss! Another loss!”
“Maybe you just didn’t have a section in your charts to sum up the ‘avoided gains,’” joked Berke, referencing a column in the records where the agent added up the sum total “avoided losses” by Walters’ trades.
Jurors left the courtroom, and Judge Kevin Castel remarked to the defendant directly that Walters does not have to gamble on himself by taking the stand and giving his own testimony, regardless of his attorney’s advice.
“You appear to be an intelligent man, so there is something I need to mention,” said Judge Castel. “The decision to testify or not in a trial, is a decision that your lawyer cannot make for you. It is up to you and you alone. There should be no mistake.”
“Thank you, your honor,” said Walters in his signature southern drawl.
Court adjourned until Monday when the trial was scheduled to continue, as Walters again tries to beat the odds at a new game: the American judicial system.
By ANDREW HUGHES
“Never forget, you are the police. Your job is to keep people safe.”
The words of Commissioner James O’Neill reverberated Thursday at the graduation of over 600 police officers into the nation’s largest police force. The event, held at the theater at Madison Square Garden, saw 646 police recruits officially become members of the New York Police Department.
What resonated even more was the diversity of the class.
“You are people from all over the globe,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. “You represent all that is good about New York City.”
Some 21 percent of the graduating officers were from foreign lands. In addition, 22 percent of the graduating officers were women, including the winner of the mayor’s award as valedictorian for the graduating class, Irena Demophia. Speaking with an accent, she fondly recalled her journey.
“I remember doing hundreds of push-ups and squats in the gym,” she recalled with a laugh. “We endured the physical and tactical training for the job we had, both physically and mentally.”
Diversifying the police force has been a goal for the department, especially in light of the racial tension towards police officers in the past few years. Commissioner O’Neill said he believes the department has made great strides in diversifying the force, though the job was far from done.
““I think that’s something that the NYPD worked really hard at, that we have a true representation of the city. And we’re getting closer and closer to that,” said O’Neill.
“In anything that we’re doing, we’re building up the trust between the police and the community,” O’Neill added. “And I think when we have that diversity, it’s going to happen.”
Thursday’s graduation continues the yearly tradition of staging it at Madison Square Garden. The event has become a yearly tradition at 4 Penn Plaza since its inception in 1968; however, there are any police department graduation ceremonies a year held throughout the city.
By BRIAN BONILLA
Comptroller Scott Stringer on Thursday jumped on the bash-Trump bandwagon already crowded with New York officials.
“On a personal level I think that this President has used his first hundred days to demonstrate crazy,” Stringer said in a charged response to President Trump’s new tax plan.
According to Stringer’s report on the tax plan the average millionaire could see their taxes decrease by more than $200,000.
Not only will there be a break for the wealthy Trump’s plan would also raise taxes for about half of single parents and more than one-third of all taxpayers with incomes between $50,000 and $250,000, he asserted.
He argued that the proposed tax reform would worsen an already critical problem — homelessness
“If people have to pay more in taxes who are already struggling that could put people into homelessness, that can leave people with less money for food, to take care of children,” Stringer said. “This city has an exploding homeless crises, for example. 60,000 people are sleeping in shelters, 24,000 people are children, the last thing we need right now is more trouble from Washington.”
He added that over the past few years, homelessness in the city was the highest since the Great Depression.
“I find it incredible that this guy who comes from NYC, who has major investments here can’t see what his proposal will see on his hometown,” Stringer said.
For more information on Stringer’s report click here
By JON REMACHE
Another one bites the dust as a former Apple employee was sentenced on Thursday to three to nine years in prison after he conducted a identity theft ring teaming up with a dental assistant and others to steal a total of $700,00 of apple products in 2012.
Devon Bazile somberly entered the Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs with little regard for Justice Melissa Jackson, referring to her as, “Miss,” after pleading guilty. He was convicted of second degree grand larceny and his defense attorney was denied the request for a surcharge.
The ringleader of the scheme involving the use of over 250 private records of dental patients obtained through Annie Vuong, the receptionist at the Manhattan dental office, according to court records. Bazile then used the patients’ information to apply for Apple credit and gift cards with the assistance of Apple employees.
The four initially pleaded not guilty when charged with 394 counts of identity theft, grand larceny charges among other charges in a crime spree that lasted nearly a year, according to records.
“Using stolen information to purchase Apple products is one of the most common schemes employed by cybercrime and identity theft rings today,” said Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance when he announced the indictment. “We see in case after case how all it takes is single insider at a company – in this instance, allegedly, a receptionist in a dentists’ office – to set an identity theft ring in motion, which then tries to monetize the stolen information by purchasing Apple goods for resale or personal use.”
