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• Cold Case Killer Faces Mother at Sentencing

  01 Mar 2018 by journalism / No Comments

  By ALAIN GAILLARD

  The defendant who pleaded guilty two days ago to the horrifying 2008 murder of a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison in Queens Supreme Court Thursday, concluding a difficult case that had baffled detectives for almost a decade.

  Rashon Venable, 25, was escorted into the Queens courtroom by two policemen, his hands cuffed behind his back and holding a manila envelope containing a sheet of paper with a few words of apology he would later read to victim Sabrina Matthews’s family members and friends present in the courtroom.

  “Why did you do that to me? You took away my baby. I miss my baby, I miss her voice,” said the victim’s mother, Sherida Matthews with tears in her eyes, as she was given permission to say a few words to her daughter’s killer. “Do you know what she could have accomplished? She wanted to be a teacher and a doctor.”

  On Nov. 9, 2008, Sabrina’s father found the lifeless body of his half-naked daughter in a pool of blood with her throat slashed in the bedroom of her Cambria Heights home. It took investigators eight years to finally match the DNA from Sabrina’s crime scene to Venable’s DNA on file from a sexual assault he committed in Pennsylvania in 2009, on his 17th birthday. Venable was arrested on Nov. 7, 2016.

  “All I can say, I have regrets and remorse for my action eight years ago,” said Venable. “An innocent life has been lost because of my action. I am sorry for your loss. I will try to be a better person than I was in 2008.”

  Judge Kenneth Holder spurned the killer’s apology, saying that he was one of the most violent people to ever stand in his courtroom. “What is stunning,” the judge continued, “is that you say she was your friend. She made you angry and that is why you killed her.”

  Speaking to journalists after the sentencing, the mother also rejected out of hand the killer’s apology. “This guy was born criminal,” she said. “It is a good thing he is behind bars, so he won’t be able to kill other young girls,” she said.

   

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• BC Vending Machines Still Sell Unhealthy Snacks

  22 May 2017 by journalism / No Comments

  Student Nikki Orozova relies on vending machines at Brooklyn College for afternoon snacks. (Michelle Cummings)

  By MICHELLE CUMMINGS

  It’s noon and you’ve been on campus for an hour. You didn’t eat lunch because you woke up late and did not have time to stop on the way.  Now, you’re trapped in class on an empty stomach until the 2:15 p.m. break. There is a vending machine just down the hall, fully stocked with goodies to tide you over. When the break finally arrives you make your selection and then horror of horrors, it gets stuck. The little spiral holding your item didn’t turn enough for the product to drop.

  Alas, another student faces up to the afternoon rush for sugar.

  For all the discussion on campus about good health and nutrition, colleges continue to sell snacks to students that are too high in sugar and salt, and don’t seem especially eager to provide healthy alternatives. Larger sizes for soda allow for higher prices, of course, and although bottled water is also offered, its price is similarly high.  Options matter.

  Researchers at Boston University recently published a study that shows excess sugar, especially from sugary drinks, can cause brain damage.  According to the study, titled “Sugary Beverage Intake and Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in the Community,” soda is linked to brain shrinkage.

  The most recent research from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) suggests that people who drink sugary beverages frequently are more likely to have poorer memory, smaller overall brain volume and a significantly smaller hippocampus, an area of the brain linked to learning and memory.

  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American consumes 39 teaspoons of sugar per day, three pounds per week and up to 13 pounds in one month.  That’s 155 pounds per year, much of it in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, sports drinks, iced tea and energy drinks.  The American Heart Association recommends no more than nine teaspoons of sugar for men and six teaspoons for women per day.

  On third floor of Boylan Hall, the Georgian-style building that houses Brooklyn College’s administration and many classrooms, the Pepsi vending machine is filled with 20-ounce bottles of sugary drinks.  The Grape Crush has 71 grams of sugar, or about twice what experts say should be the maximum daily intake for men, and three times that for women. The Mountain Dew has 77 grams. Further down in the display, there are iced teas and juices that have less sugar – 33 grams for Brisk – but still well beyond anything that can be called healthy.

  Sugar makes life sweeter.  However, added sugar provides essentially no nutritional value.  So, what is the difference between good and bad sugar?  The American Heart Association defines healthy as naturally occurring “good sugar found in fruits and veggies.”  When coupled with fiber, phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals, sugar is a great source of energy.  Bad sugar is characterized by empty calories.

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines healthy:

  • Fewer calories (less than 40 for snacks and cereals, less than 150 for candy)
  • Limited added sugar (less than 5 grams)
  • Lower fat (less than 3 grams per serving)
  • Healthier fats
  • No trans fats
  • No artificial colors or flavors
  • Lower sodium (less than 140 milligrams per serving)

  Empty calories in beverages and highly processed, packaged products is what you’ll find hiding in vending machines on most college campuses.  The lack of healthy snacks is cause for concerns for some.

  “Sugary snacks are not conducive to a learning environment,” said Maxinee Black-Arias, dean of nursing at the Manhattan-based Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences.

  Offering convenient and nutritious options is no small task.  Students have very little time between classes to stop by a cafeteria. Since hunger interferes with concentration, vending machines often save the day.

  Some students would like more culturally relevant choices. Amber Ferrin, a junior at Brooklyn College, prefers plantain chips to potato chips.  Ferrin is also concerned about price.  Ferrin said, “75 cents for a tiny bag with like five chips in it versus a $2 larger bag with mostly air.  Really?  We need a happy medium.”

  “There are no real choices in the vending machines, just junk,” said Black-Arias.  “As leaders and proponents of health we must model better eating habits.  Providing students with convenient, healthier food options shows we value nutrition and student’s overall health.”

  But some options are available, said Joe Gallopini, director of food service at Metropolitan Food Services at Brooklyn College. “We offer healthy items like nuts, but they don’t sell nearly as well as candy and chips,” he said. Gallopini says that for some, vending machines often become the go-to snack source and that the choices made are not always the healthiest.  “People who rely on vending machines are not the same people concerned about healthy snacks,” he said. “These are two very different consumers.”

  Excess sugar consumption is linked to higher risk of heart disease.  As national intake has increased, so have obesity levels.  The Centers for Disease Control reportsthere are 86 million pre-diabetics in America and 29 million living with Type 2 diabetes.  “The biggest problem we face today is overweight people. It is especially true for young adults. Gen X and Gen Y are the unhealthiest generations of young people and will likely tax the healthcare system with future obesity-related illness,” Black-Arias says.

  According to the Healthy CUNY 2011 report, the consensus was that all would like to see healthier options in campus vending machines.  Improvement such as snacks and chips that had been reformulated to have fewer calories, less saturated and trans fat, and/or salt were made. “In the past we have tried carrying healthier snacks like pop-corn, nuts, Nature Valley granola bars and Wheat Thins after the students complained, but then the product didn’t move,” said Gallopini.

  About two years ago, students started a petition calling for healthier options in the vending machines at Brooklyn College.  “Students need to know the power they have when they voice their frustrations collectively,” Diedra Brisco, Brooklyn College journalism major and senior, said. “There is strength in numbers.”

  Metropolitan Food Service manages 100 standard vending machines on Brooklyn College campus. FastCorp Vending provides ice cream vending machines.  What they do not have is a refrigerated machine that stocks healthier alternatives.  Nutritious snack options such as fruit cups, hummus, cheese, Greek yogurt, kefir, chocolate covered nuts and organically dried fruit require refrigeration.

  Demand for a healthier version of the vending machine may be met with surprising receptivity. Gallopini said that to change the vending machine options to add healthier snacks, “Just ask, we’ll stock it.”  He said Metropolitan is open to brand-specific products and suggestions compatible with the current machines on the Brooklyn College campus.

  One of the biggest challenges is meeting the needs of everyone. According to Carl Jeff of Vendrite, it is possible to offer students healthier snack choices without sacrificing convenience or taste.  “The future of vending may rest in micro markets,” he said. “Reimagine a commissary-type micro market as an opportunity to effect significant change in the daily lives of most on the go students.”

  Micro markets are a new food service option.  Fair trade snacks, unsweetened beverages and fresh fruit are available 24/7 in a self-service system at Virginia Science and Tech.

  Trips to the vending machines are inevitable.  Can they be made healthier?  In a study, published in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health in 2014, researchers conducted an experiment with 200 college students. Scientists replaced high-sugar, salt and fat snacks sold in two campus vending machines with healthier options to find out how students responded.  The results suggest students who were aware of the healthier snack choices were excited to have alternatives. Promoting healthier choices did not affect sales.

  “Students will consume what is available,” Black-Arias said. “ If we can influence this behavior with better choices, we can consider that winning.”

   

   

   

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  From NY, a Treasure Returns to Mexico’s Jewish Community

  02 Mar 2017 by journalism / No Comments

  By LINDA KRESTANOVA

  The national debate over immigration was inescapable at the closing ceremony of New-York Historical Society’s exhibit commemorating the first Jewish Americans as a 16th-century manuscript written by a persecuted Jew became a symbol of solidarity between the United States and Mexico.

  The manuscript, written in colonial Mexico, had been lost for over eight decades and was found earlier this year in Manhattan. After being a part of the exhibit titled “The First Jewish Americans: Freedom and Culture in the New World,” it will now be returning to Mexico, “where it belongs,” said Ambassador Diego Gómez Pickering, Mexico’s consul general in New York.

  “It’s coming back to the Mexican Jewish community,” Pickering said at Tuesday’s ceremony, “and it’s going across the border, a border that, in culture and understanding, will never be closed.”

  Pickering was met with enthusiastic applause from everyone there to celebrate the early immigrants, who had fled from Europe and established communities in both North and South America.

  The artifact, considered the earliest surviving worship account of coming to the New World, is the diary of Luis de Carvajal the Younger, a Jewish man who lived in New Spain (now Mexico). To avoid punishment imposed by the Inquisition, which followed believers to the New World, De Carvajal claimed to be Catholic. In 1590, his true faith was discovered and he was captured. During his imprisonment, he began writing his memoir, which largely focused on his faith.

  De Carvajal was ultimately burned at the stake, along with other members of his family. His manuscript was saved and found its way to Mexico’s National Archives, only to mysteriously disappear in the 1930s.

  New York City became a part of the narrative when Leonard Milberg, a New Yorker and collector of Judaica, came across the manuscript in a catalog at Swann Galleries in Manhattan. Thanks to Milberg, experts studied the artifact and confirmed its authenticity. After financing the purchase, Milberg made a deal with Pickering: the manuscript would return to Mexico after a being a part of the exhibit in New York.

  “We value the effort and dedication to build bridges between the Mexican and the Latino communities and the Jewish community here in New York City,” Pickering said of Milberg and the groups that collaborated with the museum, including AJC NY, part of a global Jewish advocacy group.

  The exhibit was a celebration of the men and women who sought freedom in the New World. As a result, there were many allusions to current anti-immigration sentiment in a room filled with rare paintings, portraits, maps, books and artifacts that showed a world of different cultures and traditions coming together in a new land.

  “America, as is often said, is a nation of immigrants,” Louise Mirrer, president and chief executive officer of the New-York Historical Society, said during the ceremony. “And these days, we cannot say that enough.”

  The exhibit runs through March 12.

  Photo: Diego Gómez Pickering, Mexico’s consul general in New York, hails the return of an important historical manuscript to Mexico. (Linda Krestanova)

   

   

   

   

   

   

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  Castro Death Opens New Debate over Cuba

  14 Dec 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By ALEXANDRA SEMENOVA

  A viral Facebook video posted last Saturday by Ivis Suarez of Miami Lakes, Florida shows her  abuela, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, as she is overwhelmed with tears on receiving the news that Fidel Castro has died.

  “Not even Alzheimer’s could take away the emotions my abuela Ata felt when she found out that monster had died!” Suarez wrote in the post, which was seen by over 400,000. “Thanks to her, my family is in this country today.”

  Castro’s death aroused strong feelings, pro and con: In New York some people placed flowers at the Cuban consulate in Midtown Manhattan.

  But when the partying, for some, and grieving, for others, are said and done, a bigger question, remains: What will Castro’s death mean for U.S. relations with the island nation at a time when President-elect Donald Trump takes office?

  “The big question mark is Trump,” said Ron Howell, a professor at Brooklyn College and a journalist who covered Cuba for Newsday. “I think younger Cubans will make a difference because they largely want to see an opening.”

  Castro’s death on Nov. 25 quickly ignited political debate in the United States.

  “I hope we don’t see Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lining up to lionize a murderous tyrant and thug,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is Cuban American, told ABC News. “If you wouldn’t go to Pol Pot’s funeral or Stalin’s funeral or Mao’s funeral because they were murderous communist dictators then you shouldn’t be doing what Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau are doing, which is celebrating Fidel Castro, a murderous communist dictator.”

  Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for offering sympathy upon Castro’s death, calling his remarks a “parody.”

  Trump followed.

  “The world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades,” Trump said in a statement following Castro’s death. “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights.”

  During his campaign, Trump criticized “concessions” made to Cuba’s Communist government and threatened to void Obama’s U.S.-Cuba Bilateral Commission, a plan that was resurfaced by Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus when he told Fox News that Trump stands by his intention to negate the deal.

  Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, bolstered the president-elect’s statement, tweeting “I called @RealDonaldTrump to let him know that the State of Florida will help his administration to support a pro-democracy movement in Cuba.”

  Florida holds 67 percent of the nation’s 1.2 million eligible voters of Cuban descent,  many of whom live in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, according to Pew Research Center.

  Despite a 2014  Pew Research Center survey that found Cuban American registered voters have shifted toward the Democratic Party for over a decade, more than 54 percent of Cuban Americans voted for Trump, National Election Pool exit poll data showed. The number was almost double the 26 percent of non-Cuban Hispanic voters who supported Trump in the 2016 race.

  This number is higher than the 47 percent who supported Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 race, according to the exit poll.

  “The generally more conservative you are, the more you did not like Fidel Castro,” said Howell, who reported on Cuba for three decades and met Castro when he invited journalists to the Presidential Palace in Havana in 2001.

  Studies show that while older Cuban Americans are strongly Republican, there is a divide between them and younger voters.

  According to a study done by Pew Research in 2013, 56 percent of Cuban Americans aged 18 to 49 identified with or leaned toward the Democratic Party compared to 39 percent of those 50 years and older.

  “The future, I think, is in young people who want to preserve the achievements of the revolution, but also want to engage in more cooperative forms of governance and production,” according to Professor Alan Aja, professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College.

  According to Aja, the Cuban government has long prepared for Castro’s death and a transfer of power well beyond his “more moderate” but equally aging brother.

  “The paternalistic model of the revolution does not work for them but neither does free market capitalism because they know how much inequality it yields in the U.S. for their familial loved ones and in other Caribbean nations,” Aja said. “Contrary to our ‘exceptionalist’ thinking in the U.S. that we’re the only ones that matter, or know better, the Cuban government is self-aware and strategic.”

   

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• City Jails Struggle to House Young Inmates

  10 Nov 2016 by journalism / No Comments

   

  By SHANECE McGREGOR

  In December 2014, Punitive segregation, also referred to as solitary confinement, was  abolished for adolescent inmates ages 16 to 17, in the New York City jails.

  On  Oct. 11, the city Department of Corrections moved to end  punitive segregation for young adults aged 19 through 21 years old.

  In some ways this is a big leap for the Corrections Department, given studies that found solitary confinement along with harsh treatment often worsens inmates’ conditions and leads to higher rates of suicide than the general prison population.

  The experience of isolation makes it more difficult for inmates to interact with others once they are released from solitary. Mental health deteriorates — causing a greater likelihood of  violent behavior.

  But on the other hand, according to the Correction Officers Benevolent Association website, “It Also Reduces Staff/Inmate Physical Confrontations, And Injuries To both Parties.”

  Punitive segregation was the topic of an Oct. 11 hearing before the New York City Board of Correction,  a nine-person  board with authority to oversee the jail system.

  Its members sat at a long table on a stage as the Correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, stood at a  podium below the stage. Several of his aides joined him. According to the board’s website, its job is to regulate “conditions of confinement and correctional health and mental health care” as well as to advance “improvement and change toward smaller, safer, fairer, and more humane jails.”

  At the hearing, the board discussed a dizzying number of new and revised programs aimed at solving the problem of how best to treat adolescents confined on Rikers Island.

  The board had to decide whether to issue variances – exceptions, basically, that the city Corrections Department requested to depart from previous decisions about how the jails should be run.

  The first measure considered was the city’s request to extend the new-ish Enhanced Supervision Housing program, which involved mingling young adults with adults in special units for violent inmates.

  Is that a good idea?

  One board member, Bryanne Hamill, a former Family Court judge, said the problem was that this program was originally intended only as a tool for adults, not the young adults who were also in it. .

  Before that, there were two other programs created as tools to work with young adults as an alternative to punitive segregation:  Transitional Repair Unit and Second Chance Housing. These programs were designed to encourage better behavior. Later came Secure, which was needed to house the more violent adolescents..

  So when an inmate would commit a heinous act such as a slashing, he would immediately be sent to Secure.

  Under the Enhanced Supervision Housing program, there would not be solitary confinement, but greater supervision of trouble-prone adult inmates, 19 and older. Many were skeptical about extending this new program — originally it was supposed to be temporary.

  Ponte wanted the board to let him create a separate unit for inmates 18 to 21. That would get the younger inmates away from the adult inmates, but it also brought 18-year-olds into Enhanced Supervision.

  According to the Corrections Department, keeping closer tabs on the inmates would help to prevent problems before they occurred.

  The board soon approved the variances, but member Bryanne Hamill made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the decision.

  One problem she raised had to do with the fact that in the Enhanced Supervision Housing, inmates get seven hours outside the cell to interact with the staff and other inmates – better than solitary, but only half of what inmates in the general population get.

  Hamill said the inmates in the unit were as a result forced to compromise either their educational or their social time – a choice between picking up a deck of cards or a book. She attempted to add a condition that three hours of school time not be deducted from adolescents’ seven hours out of cell time. But that was negated as the variances passed.

  Hamill packed her things and before walking off stage announced her resignation as chair of the Correction Department’s Adolescent and Young Adult Advisory Board.

  Hamill wasn’t the only one concerned about these new programs.  Those who worked within the facility like Kelsey De Avila, the jail services social worker with Brooklyn Defender Services, expressed her concerns about “restrictive units sprouting up through out the department.”  She said that the Corrections Department is continuing the use of solitary confinement methods for young adults within these new units.  She urged the board to not only refuse the variance but to keep a closer eye on what is going on within the units.

  Dale Wilker of the Legal Aid Society also was against the variance for similar reasons. He said that school hours should not be deducted from the seven-hour time outside the cell – and warned that the Corrections Department seemed to be repeating mistakes it had made with punitive segregation.

  Nevertheless there are some who believe it is necessary for safety.

  Albert Craig, a correctional officer for 20 years and an agent for the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, which represents over 8,000 correction officers,  spoke out.

  He said that the new variances need to be improved because the jails are nowhere close to safe.  His ringing voice left a strong impression.

  “You are violating your charter and it’s not true when you say you hear our complaint,” he said.

  Craig complained that every time he has come to a Correction Board hearing, he heard correction officers depicted “as criminals who beat kids up.”

  Craig said that actually, the officers were the ones would console the inmates whenever dangerous events took place. He blamed the board for the jails’ conditions.

  With a look of sorrow he dove into the story of his brother who died in the Brooklyn House , and then the story of Kalief Brown. Kalief was was arrested at the age of 16, on charges of robbery, and imprisoned without conviction for three years.

  “It’s not our fault,” he said. “We wanted him to go but your peers kept him there.”

  Craig said that not only would judges continuously postpone hearings, but also the bails were too high, forcing people who were not convicted to stay in jail for extended periods of time. In many ways you can say Albert is right. According to city data, from 2003 to 2012, the average length of stay for a detainee has steadily risen.

   

   

   

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  Elephant Ivory Peddlers Indicted

  22 Sep 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By ROBERT TAUB

  Two store owners, a salesperson, and an antique business were indicted on two counts for selling and distributing elephant ivory, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr. announced in a press conference at The Manhattan Family Justice Center Thursday morning.

  Irving Morano, 46, Samuel Morano, 48, Victor Zilberman, 62, and the Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques Inc. were all charged felonies in Manhattan Supreme Court. Prosecutors found that all the illegal items estimated a total price of more than $4.5 million, the largest seizure of illegal elephant ivory in the state’s history, Vance said.

  The Morano brothers have been in the business of selling elephant ivory articles and carvings since at least 2007, court documents said. Under the New York State Environmental Law, it is illegal to sell, or offer for sale, elephant ivory unless the seller has been granted a license from the Department of Environmental Conservation. That law was enacted with new restrictions in 2014.

  “I’m outraged,” Vance Jr. said standing before a table full of illegal ivory products. “I can’t believe in our city that we have stores that are profiting from ivory.”

  The elephant population has been steadily declining 30 percent in recent years, down to just 350,000 now. Experts say. Vance Jr. added that from 2010 to 2012, 100,000 elephants were slaughtered in Africa to fuel the illegal ivory trade. The illegal trade of wildlife is worth an estimated $7 billion dollars to $23 billion annually, according to a report done by Interpol and the United Nations.

  New York has remained one of the world markets for elephant ivory, according to Vance. “I think we need to send a message that those who commit wildlife crime not in their jurisdiction need to know that there will be no market for them in New York City,” he said.

  “The people that are poaching elephants for ivory are not trying to make ends meet,” said Basil Seggos, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. “They are not simple individuals, not trying to make a quick buck; these are criminal syndicates who deploy very sophisticated armies out in the field using automatic weapons, chainsaws, and other devices who are doing battle with government forces.”

  John Calvelli, the Vice President for Public Affairs at the Wildlife Conservation Society commended those people who are working to have a zero tolerance for illegal elephant ivory sales.

  “New York State was one of the first states to ban ivory sales and it is clear our officials are serious about enforcing this law which is designed to ensure Africa’s elephants do not go extinct.”

  Photo by Robert Taub

   

   

   

   

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• Accused Slasher May Not Attend Own Trial

  21 Apr 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By RENEE BEYDA

  A Bronx man accused of slashing a 24-year-old woman in Lower Manhattan in early January will not have to be present in the courtroom during his trial, unless necessary, ruled Judge Michael Obus on Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

  Kari Bazemore, 41, who authorities claim called his victim, Amanda Morris, a “white bitch” is said to be mentally ill, according to his family, and was off his meds during the time of the slashing. He has been linked to three other violent attacks since September 2015.

  Bazemore’s family said that he was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and has been in and out of mental institutions for the past five years.

  The defendant’s sister, Dana Brazemore explained that her brother had been showing signs of mental illness for the past 15 years, and was even hospitalized for six months with medication at Bellevue Hospital. Without his medication, Brazemore would act very aggressively.

  Brazemore, who has been arrested a total of 32 times in New York since 1990, allegedly slashed Morris’ face with a blade as she walked to Whole Foods in Chelsea on Jan. 6 around 6:00 a.m.

  Morris stumbled into a Malibu Diner for help, where police were notified. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital where she received seven stitches on her lip and nose. She was released that day.

  The entire incident was caught on a nearby surveillance camera, and Bazemore was arrested later that day for assault when he was recognized from the video.

   

   

   

   

   

   

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  Obama’s Legacy in Black & White

  18 Apr 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By KECIAH BAILEY

  At the National Action Network’s 25th anniversary convention on Thursday, former senior adviser to President Barak Obama, David Axelrod, and Rev. Al Sharpton discussed the future of the Obama legacy before a mostly African American audience.

  Both men have been long time supporters of President Obama. Sharpton, Obama’s longtime ally on race relations, coined himself a friend of the president at the convention while Axelrod has served as chief strategist for both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and as senior his adviser from 2009 – 2011.

  “For the first time in American history you will see a white president succeeding a black president – but this is deeper than race,” Sharpton said. “This is about where they will drive the ship of the state.

  “Will they turn it back on the track of Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. or will they continue on the track that Obama has given us? That is what is at stake.” Sharpton continued.

  In response Axelrod said, “Because Obama has been such a consequential president, the election following him is consequential and it’s a matter of whether the things he has done and the progress he has made will continue or will it be rolled back.”

  Axelrod highlighted the Affordable Care Act as one of Obama’s most significant achievements, one that be says millions of Americans cannot afford to be without. He reflected back to a time when as a young reporter, his daughter’s medical condition left him with thousands of dollars in medical bills and not enough insurance to cover them.

  “In March 2010 when the bill was finally passed I sobbed because I knew other families would not have to go through what my family had gone through,” he recalled.

  Axelrod said because of Obama’s determination, 20 million Americans now have medical insurance, many of them African Americans, and there are health clinics everywhere now serving people who probably would not be alive today.

  “If there is a Republican president, there will be a Republican congress and a real effort to unwind everything that has been done over the last eight years,” Axelrod said.

  He expressed concern that the two key republican candidates, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, would most certainly overturn Obama’s efforts.

  “We know that Cruz has been the most determined opponent of the president’s policies in the Senate” he noted. “It was Cruz who led the government shutdown at the start of Obamacare in 2013.

  Axelrod said it was hard to predict what a Trump presidency would look like. However, throughout Trump’s campaign he has been very adamant about immediately repealing Obamacare as soon as he takes office if he wins the presidency.

  “It’s really Obama’s legacy that’s on the ballot,” Axelrod said.

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  Bernie Wows Sharpton Group

  14 Apr 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By REZA MALEK, SEAN EGAN & KECIAH BAILEY

  Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders warmed up for his crucial Brooklyn debate with Hillary Clinton on Thursday with a rousing speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network where he received an enthusiastic reception.

  The Vermont senator quickly struck a theme that was designed to appeal to his mostly African-American audience.

  “You would have thought that after all that we have gone through as a country to make sure that people have the right to vote, regardless of the color of their skin,” said Sanders referring to the attacks on voting rights in certain states.

  The enthusiastic reception for Democratic candidate contrasted sharply with the one given to  Clinton who had a tepid reception the night before.

  “They are passing laws restricting right to vote, making it harder for people to vote,” he added, ” poor people, old people, people of color. That is moving exactly the wrong way.”

  After winning eight of the last nine primaries, Sanders is pinning his hopes on an upset win in New York on Tuesday. He has 696 fewer delegates than Clinton and the state has 247 delegates up for grabs.

  Sharpton’s National Action Network is regarded as a strong platform for Democratic candidates to reach African-American voters. Sharpton, however, has yet to endorse a candidate.

   

  “If you want to beat Donald Trump, you’re looking at the strongest democratic candidate to do that,” said Sanders to loud applause.

  “I need your help on Tuesday,” he concuded. “Let us have this great state join so many others that say ‘we are going to go forward with a political revolution’. We’re going to have a government representing g all of us, not just the one percent.”

  Photo by Keciah Bailey

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  City College Thief Gets an “F” from the Judge

  14 Apr 2016 by journalism / No Comments

  By INEZ SHARABY & LA QUINTA CLARK

  The woman who was fired from her City College job after she used her position to change her failing grade to an ‘A’ and stole money from a student, was sentenced to prison on Thursday for these two counts.

  Shalanda Tolbert, 40, who was a student at the CUNY campus while working in the registrar’s office had been convicted of stealing of another student’s wallet containing $1,400.

  One student found the wallet in the office and turned it in to Tolbert for safe- keeping. When grad student, Magdalena Algarin, came into the registrar’s office looking for her wallet, Tolbert told her, “It would be a shame if somebody took it,” the indictment alleged.

  Tolbert was caught on surveillance camera placing the wallet behind her computer screen and was then seen taking the wallet to an area where there were no cameras where prosecutors said she stole the money.

  Tolbert was also convicted for changing one of her grades from an ‘F’ to an ‘A.’

  Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer sentenced Tolbert to 1 ½ to 3 years for the theft of the wallet and 2 to 4 years for her changed grade, to be served concurrently.

  Dwyer recommended that the prisoner undergo the so-called Shock Incarceration Program, requiring approval by the Department of Corrections. The program is designed to shorten the offender’s sentence consists of strict, military style discipline, unquestioning obedience to orders, and highly structured days filled with drills and hard work.

  The prosecution opposed the move.

  “Someone who is a lifelong felon, starting after she graduated high school should not be recommended for the shock incarceration program,” said the Assistant DA on the case.

  In 2005, Tolbert was convicted of identity theft and grand larceny and was arrested four times on theft-related charges. She was released in June 2008, according to state records. Tolbert’s yellow sheet dates back 15 years, and includes seven felonies and two misdemeanor arrests.

  Tolbert said she wasn’t aware that her previous convictions would be held against her in this case.

  Dwyer told Tolbert, “I recommend that you stop your criminal actions. You are ruining your life.”

  Tolbert’s defense attorney, Evan Rock, said that the program was better than getting a longer prison sentence and that he was hopeful that she will be accepted, to which Tolbert agreed.

  Tolbert was taken to jail where she awaits the Department of Corrections’ decision.

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