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Report: NY’s Sloan Kettering Violated Policies on Financial Conflicts of Interest

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An outside review appears to indicate that top management at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center violated policies on financial conflicts of interest more than once, according to the New York Times. Photo Credit: mskcc.org

An outside review appears to indicate that top management at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center violated policies on financial conflicts of interest more than once, according to the New York Times.

Those actions helped create “a culture in which profits appeared to take precedence over research and patient care,” the Times said.

The report’s findings come in the wake of several months during which rumors about the top brass’s connections to drug and health care companies.

The report “It concluded that officials frequently violated or skirted their own policies; that hospital leaders’ ties to companies were likely considered on an ad hoc basis rather than through rigorous vetting; and that researchers were often unaware that some senior executives had financial stakes in the outcomes of their studies,” the Times noted.

The external review was carried out by the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. Researchers conducting studies were often unaware of the connected financial stakes held by leadership, the report said.

Last week, Memorial Sloan Kettering said it had put in place brand new policies and procedures regarding its employees’ financial relationships with outside companies, ProPublica and the Times reported

The new policy requires “the creation of a board committee to focus on overseeing conflicts,” according to the web site fiercehealthcare.com. It also requires the hospital to disclose financial interests of faculty and researchers on its website.

“MSK previously barred senior executives from serving on the boards’ of for-profit health- or life sciences-related companies. It also blocked MSK board members from investing in or serving as a board member of an MSK spinoff,” the web site reported. “The response comes months after it was revealed multiple executives held financial ties to drug and health care companies. That also prompted the resignation of the chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, José Baselga, M.D., who failed to disclose millions of dollars he was paid by drug and healthcare companies in dozens of research articles published in recent years.”

“The controversial revelations coming out of Memorial Sloan Kettering have also had an impact on other high profile cancer institutions,” suggested endpts.com, “including the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center — both of whose executives sit on corporate boards — and are reassessing their norms related to financial ties, according to NYT/ProPublica.”

The publication HealthLeaders told its readers that there are three primary takeaways: first, that “an independent audit concluded that Sloan Kettering officials frequently violated or skirted their own policies.” Second, that the hospital leaders’ ties to companies “were likely considered on an ad hoc basis rather than through vetting.” And third, researchers “were often unaware that some senior executives had financial stakes in the outcomes of their studies.”

Cuomo: Private Sector Loses Confidence that Gov’t Will Support Biz Community

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Spooked by New York’s loss of Amazon's Long Island City headquarters, those in the private sector have lost confidence in the effectiveness of government to support the business community. Photo Credit: 6sqft.com

Businesses in New York are frightened that their legislators will sell them down the river, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Spooked by New York’s loss of Amazon’s Long Island City headquarters, those in the private sector have lost confidence in the effectiveness of government to support the business community.

Cuomo made these comments while speaking to civic leaders and businesspeople. He added that more companies who would have been ripe for economic development arrangements with New York may now opt out of them.

“It cost us 25,000 jobs, and it also cost us credibility,” said the governor to attendees of the Association for a Better New York. “I can’t tell you how many businesses that I’m trying to bring to New York now say to me, Am I going to get Amazoned? Are they going to do to me what they did to Amazon, where we had a full agreement, and an agreement signed, and then it became a political hot potato because some politicians thought they could score political points?”

Cuomo made a point to verbally savage Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who made public her feeling that the $3 billion incentive package offered to Amazon — including $2.5 billion in tax relief from the city and state and a $500 million construction grant — would be better spent on schools and in-city transportation.

“‘We’re going to give Amazon $3 billion.’ Why would we give Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world, $3 billion? We didn’t give Amazon anything,” Cuomo said. “It was a lie. It was just a lie. It was political, it was just political. You can’t reason with people who don’t want to reason. It was just knee-jerk politics, and ‘Amazon is rich’ and ‘We’re anti-corporate’ and ‘We’re anti–rich people.'”

Turning his attention to the Public Authorities Control Board, Cuomo referred to “the threat to use the state approval process, and politicize the state approval process, to stop Amazon. They’re just supposed to look at the numbers to make sure that that authority can pay for the debt. What they did is they said ‘We’re going to use that position to politically stop the project because we don’t like the project.’ That was a threat to violate the law.”

Clearly, Cuomo’s rage over the loss of Amazon’s HQ shows no signs of petering out. Back in February, he took aim at fellow Democrats, calling the internet retailer’s rejection the “greatest tragedy” he has seen since he’s been in government.

His colleagues wasted no time returning fire. Senate majority spokesman Michael Murphy put out a public statement calling it “unfortunate that Governor Cuomo is once again failing to accept any responsibility for this failed deal. The Governor should spend less time with baseless attacks and attempts to divide Democrats and more time fixing his flawed economic development process so we can move forward and help business and the community thrive.”

‘Rise Up Ocean County’ Anti-Semitic Facebook Page Threatens Lakewood Jews

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"We need to get rid of them like Hitler did," read one Facebook Post from the group Rise Up Ocean County. The page says it is against overdevelopment, but state officials think it’s a thin veil for anti-Semitism. PHOTO CREDIT: Shutterstock

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal wants Facebook to take a look at a threatening page that Grewal’s office said poses a danger to Orthodox Jews in the Lakewood area, the Asbury Park Press reports.

The Facebook page in question is called Rise Up Ocean County and has been around since at least last year. Off the bat, officials across the county identified the group as being anti-Semitic, which is made pretty clear when you go beyond the group’s claim that members just want to prevent the over-development of property in Lakewood and throughout all of Ocean County.

Facebook has been okay with letting this page stand despite the anti-Semitic messaging, and that’s why some state officials started to show worry and wrote to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg about how there is a page that is being used to further “negative stereotypes and conspiracy theories about Orthodox Jews.”

The state attorney general said “Far too often, we have seen how hateful comments can escalate to hateful conduct” He added “Our Division on Civil Rights is committed to fighting this rising tide of hate, and we’ll continue taking proactive steps to make New Jersey a more welcoming community for people of all backgrounds and faiths.”

Division of Civil Rights Director Rachel Wainer Apter was one of the writers of the letter and showed some examples of what kind of rhetoric was being shared on this supposedly benign page.

“We need to get rid of them like Hitler did,” one post said, referring to the Orthodox Jews.

“I live on the edge of Toms River and Lakewood and the gang war has begun. I have my mac11 loaded,” another post claimed, showing why this page is more than just anti-Semitic and is actually a threat to the community. Apter did not ask for Facebook to do anything specifically but does want to make sure that something is done in order to protect the Jews of Ocean County from this violent vitriol.

The Facebook page isn’t just some obscure place where a few people hang out on the internet every so often. About 10,000 people follow the page, and the identities of the administrators are unknown.

The Asbury Park Press explained how “In February, after page administrators twisted the words of an infamous quote decrying complacency among Germans that allowed the Holocaust and the genocide of millions of Jews, the Lakewood Township Committee and Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders issued resolutions condemning Rise Up Ocean County. Rise Up Ocean County also apologized for misusing the quote.”

Lakewood has become a hot spot for Orthodox Jews in recent years, especially as prices in places like New York become unworkable. With the growing population of Orthodox Jews has unfortunately come a rise in hatred against them. New Jersey is home to a surprising number of hate groups, especially in the more isolated and desolate areas of the state, like areas more inland of Toms River and Lakewood like in the Pinelands.

Ocasio-Cortez Blames Judge Jeanine for Death Threat Against Rep. Omar

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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, blamed Judge Jeanine Pirro on Sunday, who hosts Fox News' "Justice with Judge Jeanine," for death threats against anti-Semitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, blamed Judge Jeanine Pirro on Sunday, who hosts Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” for death threats against anti-Semitic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who has recently been criticized in New York for the city losing a proposal from Amazon to bring 25,000 new high-paying jobs, linked remarks made by Judge Pirro about hijabs conflicting with the U.S. Constitution, to the criminal case against a New York man who was arrested for threatening to kill Rep. Omar.

“Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday evening on Twitter, quoting a tweet from CNN with a link to the story.

“Folks who imply we’re “bad” for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language,” she added. “Talk policy, not personal.”

Last month on her weekly cable news show, “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” Ms. Pirro questioned whether Rep. Omar’s hijab, a Muslim religious garment, is “antithetical to the United States Constitution.”

Fox News Channel suspended Ms. Pirro for two weeks.

Representative Omar has previously come under fire for making anti-Semitic remarks and invoking centuries-old anti-semitic tropes.

She accused Jewish Americans of having a “dual loyalty” to both the U.S. and Israel and said that support for the Jewish state was “all about the benjamins.”

Patrick W. Carlineo, the New York man charged with threatening to kill Rep. Omar, asked one of her staff members if she works “for the Muslim Brotherhood,” according to a criminal complaint released Saturday by federal prosecutors in the Western District of New York.

“Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s a (expletive) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull,” Mr. Carlineo said during a phone call to Rep. Omar’s office last month.

On Saturday, at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas, President Donald Trump said that Rep. Omar “doesn’t like Israel.”

“Special thanks to Representative Omar of Minnesota,” Mr. Trump said, jokingly. “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel. I forgot. I’m so sorry.”

After the phone call, Rep. Omar’s office referred the incident to the U.S. Capitol Police, who coordinated with the FBI in their investigation.

Mr. Carlineo is being detained pending a court hearing on Apr. 10, 2019 at 10:30 a.m. in front of U.S. District Judge Marian W. Payson.

“The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty,” the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of New York, said in a statement.

NY’s Governors Island to be Serviced with 400 Passenger Ferry for Weekend Use

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The Trust for Governors Island said that it will begin operating the 400-passenger ferry, Governors 1, this June. The 132 foot-long, 40 foot-wide vessel, built for the trust by Blount Boats, has 800-horsepower engines and was designed as a double-ended steel monohull with one deck for passengers, according to a spokeswoman for the trust. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The fleet of ferries servicing Governors Island has just doubled in size – to two.

The Trust for Governors Island said that it will begin operating the 400-passenger ferry, Governors 1, this June. The 132 foot-long, 40 foot-wide vessel, built for the trust by Blount Boats, has 800-horsepower engines and was designed as a double-ended steel monohull with one deck for passengers, according to a spokeswoman for the trust.

The ferry will initially deploy on weekends only, increasing the frequency of service to the island from twice to three times an hour, and carrying an additional 1,000 passengers per hour.

“During summer weekends the trust has been ferrying more than 1,200 passengers and vehicles between Manhattan and Governors Island; a second route between the island and Brooklyn will continue to be operated by a contractor,” reported Crain’s New York Business. The primary route for the new vessel will be between the Soissons Dock on the north tip of Governors Island and Battery Maritime Building at 10 South St. in Lower Manhattan.

“We have ambitious goals to make Governors Island a year-round hub for learning, innovation, arts and culture with an extraordinary car-free park that’s open, accessible and activated all four seasons,” said Michael Samuelian, president and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island, in a statement. “The state-of-the-art vessel will not just improve service to our growing visitor population, but it will greatly enhance access for our current and future tenants.”

Just last week, the Trust announced its six-month public season along with its full lineup of programming and activities. Beginning May 1, New Yorkers and visitors alike are invited to enjoy the Island’s open space with unparalleled views of New York Harbor, car-free recreational activities and an expansive calendar of events and public programs just a quick ferry ride from Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.

This year, Governors Island will be open daily from May 1 to October 31, with extended late-night hours every Friday and Saturday between Memorial and Labor Day. Ferries will be free for all visitors during the first week of the season, Wednesday, May 1 to Sunday, May 5, it said.

“We’re excited to kick off another season for New Yorkers to experience the culture and natural beauty of Governors Island,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “With a new ferry and extended hours, more New Yorkers will be able to enjoy the Island than ever before.”

“Governors Island continues to bring an easy and affordable escape to all New Yorkers right in the heart of the city,” added Samuelian. “We’re proud to continue to expand access to this Island oasis with the arrival of our brand-new ferry and even more evening hours this season. With new and improved dining options and even more cultural and educational partners from across the city, we are adding more and more amenities to complement the Island’s amazing views and vibrant park.”

Columbia U Professor Thinks Israel and Islamic State Are Mirror Images

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Columbia University has a professor who made his feelings about Israel known publicly. He used the social media account to equate Israel and the Islamic State. PHOTO CREDIT: Shutterstock

A Columbia University professor made some very disturbing comments on Facebook when he said that the only difference between Israel and the Islamic State is that there are pro-Israel supporters who will always defend at all costs the Jewish state’s “terrorist cause.”

Hamid Dabashi, a professor in the university’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, wrote this post that was upsetting enough to cause an uproar on the campus, according to Vos Iz Neais News.

The “murderous thugs” of the jihadist group “conquered parts of Syria and declared a ‘caliphate,’” Dabashi said through his Facebook account. “Their ISRAELI counterparts meanwhile conquered parts of Syria and declared it part of their Zionist settler colony,” the post continued.

He also went on to say: “The only difference: ISIS does not have a platoon of clean shaven and well coiffured [sic] columnists at the New York Times propagating the cause of the terrorist outfit as the Zionists columnists do on a regular basis.”

Students Supporting Israel’s Columbia chapter spoke out against the comparison by saying in a statement “This kind of utterly despicable and repugnant statement is not to be expected from a tenured faculty holder in an Ivy League institution.”

Across the pond in the United Kingdom, there is also a problem of anti-Semitism, especially after the revelation that the candidate running for the National Union of Students’ executive committee also made the same false equivocation.

Columbia has had its fair share of problems for Jewish students and faculty recently. A Jewish professor was the target of anti-Semitic vandalism a few months ago. She walked into her office to discover two red swastikas and the slur “Yid” spray painted on the walls.

Elizabeth Midlarsky, 77, has taught and researched the Holocaust at the Columbia Teachers College for nearly three decades.

She told CNN that she “almost passed out” when she discovered the graffiti and “was so shaky, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.” Her shock and fear were so great that fellow staff members had to escort her home.

Midlarsky was similarly targeted in 2007, when she began publishing Holocaust research and took part in protests against an invitation to give a speech by Columbia to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, following his calls for Israel’s total destruction.

She reported that her office door was painted with a swastika that year, and that she received hate mail.

CNN reported that at the time, then Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman joined Midlarsky at a student-organized protest, saying, “We stand with our students, who have said ‘enough’ to hate crimes, and in this particular case, to a vicious swastika.”

The school also received criticism when a student felt threatened and bothered by students belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine. She also faulted the school for not doing its job to keep her safe. Ofir Dayan, the student facing this problem, is from Israel and was even an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, The New York Post reported. She told the newspaper that even all of her experience back home and with the IDF wasn’t adequate in getting her ready for what she would experience up in Manhattan at Columbia.

Schumer Seeks Fed Funds to Stop Smuggling of Fentanyl Through JFK Airport

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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday that he wants Congress to appropriate funding to stop the smuggling of fentanyl — a deadly drug — through John F. Kennedy Airport. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday that he wants Congress to appropriate funding to stop the smuggling of fentanyl — a deadly drug — through John F. Kennedy Airport.

Mr. Schumer said that he wants at least one-third of the $16 million sum requested by President Donald Trump in the next budget to strengthen opioid detection at airports nationwide — sent to JFK.

“A lot of the Chinese fentanyl is sent through the mail. And where does most of it arrive? At the largest international mail-processing airport in the country — at Kennedy,” Mr. Schumer said Sunday at a Manhattan post office. “Then if it’s not detected it’s sent to various post offices where the drug dealers pick it up, lace the pills — the heroin, the other things — with deadly fentanyl. And you know the horror of the results.”

“Last year, more young people died of fentanyl than car accidents or anything else,” Mr. Schumer added. “So the bottom line is we’ve got to put a stamp ‘return to sender’ when deadly fentanyl arrives at JFK.”

“JFK should be our firewall in preventing fentanyl from being sent to the whole New York metropolitan area and the whole Northeast,” the New York Senator added. “We can’t do this too soon. Every day there’s more fentanyl coming in.”

An increasing number of blacks and Hispanics are dying from fatal overdoses on fentanyl, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Non-Hispanic whites still have the most fentanyl overdoses, while the rate which Blacks have died from fentanyl overdoses has increased over 100 percent per year as of late.

From 2013 to 2016, fentanyl-related overdose deaths doubled each year, “rising at an exponential rate,” according to Merianne R. Spencer, the author of a CDC study released last month.

Fentanyl-related deaths from 2013 to 2016 increased on average 113 percent per year, according to Mrs. Spencer.

Jon DeLena, the Special Agent in Charge at the Drug Enforcement Agency’s New England Office, told NPR recently that one kilogram of fentanyl can be laced with other ingredients to make six to eight sellable kilograms of narcotics.

“I mean, imagine that business model,” Mr. DeLena said to one NPR reporter. “If you went to any small-business owner and said, ‘Hey, I have a way to make your product eight times the product that you have now,’ there’s a tremendous windfall in there.”

Drug dealers possibly could be adding fentanyl to cocaine and methamphetamine purposely to get their clients addicted to fentanyl, one expert told NPR.

“That’s something we have to consider,” said David Kelley, the Deputy Director of the New England High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. “The fact that we’ve had instances where it’s been present with different drugs leads one to believe that could be a possibility.”

NYC Dwellings Are Subject to the Highest Property Taxes in the Nation

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A report released by Comptroller Scott Stringer uses data from Crunchbase – a private company that tracks venture capital worldwide – to measure New York City’s standing among the world’s twenty largest global venture capital markets from 2008 to 2017. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

An annual property tax analysis by ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), shows that single-family houses in New York City and its suburbs paid an overall average of $9,700 in 2018.

That was the highest among totals in metropolitan areas nationwide with populations of 2 million or more. San Francisco and Boston came in second and third, respectively

Westchester County, which boasts big-ticket towns like Scarsdale and Bronxville, led the way, with an average bill of $17,392. In 2017, that number was lower, at $17,179, but still above the new $10,000 limit on federal deductions for state and local levies. Following it, said ATTOM, were nearby Rockland County ($12,925) and Marin County in Northern California ($12,242).

Among the more than 87 million U.S. single family homes taken into account, property taxes levied on single family homes in 2018 totaled $304.6 billion, up 4 percent from $293.4 billion in 2017 and an average of $3,498 per home — an effective tax rate of 1.16 percent, according to ATTOM.

States with the highest effective property tax rates were New Jersey (2.25 percent), Illinois (2.22 percent), Texas (2.18 percent), Vermont (2.16 percent), and Connecticut (2.02 percent), ATTOM noted. Other states in the top 10 for highest effective property tax rates were New Hampshire (1.99 percent), New York (1.86 percent), Pennsylvania (1.79 percent), Ohio (1.69 percent), and Wisconsin (1.58 percent).

“Property taxes levied on homeowners rose again in 2018 across most of the country,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer for ATTOM Data Solutions. “While many states across the country have imposed caps on how much taxes can go up, which probably contributed to a slower increase in 2018 versus 2017. There are still many factors at play that can contribute to local property tax hikes, and without major changes in the way a community runs public services, tax rates must rise to pay for them.”

Among 219 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest effective property tax rates were Binghamton, New York (3.19 percent); Syracuse, New York (2.89 percent); Rochester, New York (2.88 percent); Rockford, Illinois (2.83 percent); and Atlantic City, New Jersey (2.74 percent).

Among 1,408 U.S. counties with at least 10,000 single family homes, those with the highest average property taxes on single-family homes were largely located in the greater New York metro area, led by Westchester County, New York ($17,392); Rockland County, New York ($12,925); Marin County, California ($12,242); Essex County, New Jersey ($12,161); and Bergen County, New Jersey ($11,771).

NYC’s Economy Benefits from Global Boom in Venture Capital Investment

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Among the more than 87 million U.S. single family homes taken into account, property taxes levied on single family homes in 2018 totaled $304.6 billion, up 4 percent from $293.4 billion in 2017 and an average of $3,498 per home — an effective tax rate of 1.16 percent, according to ATTOM. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

New York City’s economy continues to benefit from the global boom in venture capital investment, according to a new analysis from the New York City Comptroller’s office.

A report released by Comptroller Stringer uses data from Crunchbase – a private company that tracks venture capital worldwide – to measure New York City’s standing among the world’s twenty largest global venture capital markets from 2008 to 2017.

The analysis demonstrates New York City’s continuing ability to attract venture capital investment as well as the breadth and diversity of businesses that attract venture capital – including many well-established sectors, the comptroller’s office said in a release.

The analysis shows New York was one of the top five global destinations for venture capital dollars in 2017. The number of venture capital deals in the city grew by 256 percent, and the amounts invested by 439 percent, since 2008.

The analysis also detailed venture capital’s impact on the New York City economy, as venture capital flows to a wide range of businesses in and outside of the city’s legacy industries of finance, advertising, media, and culture that support roughly 355,000 jobs – building on the city’s existing economic foundations to modernize and reshape the way those industries will do business in the 21st century.

“New York City is the home of innovation and it’s only right that people look to us when they want to invest in technology and business. Our economy works best when people with big ideas can get the financial support and expertise that they need to grow – and that’s what our report shows,” said Stringer in the release. “We have to make sure that all New Yorkers with the idea, talent, and drive have access to new capital and networks, because venture capital doesn’t just go to internet start-ups. To keep building a true five-borough economy for the 21st Century, we need to make sure that New York provides the opportunity and space to grow for everyone, and keep investing in diverse, local talent.”

Venture capital is a type of investment often sought by start-up companies with high growth potential but limited prospects of obtaining traditional bank loans or other types of financing. In exchange for funds, companies provide an ownership stake to investors, who also may take on a management role, with a goal of helping the company expand and succeed, ensuring the investor can profit when they exit the agreement.

As venture capital investments have exploded globally, New York City has held its own. Companies headquartered in the City raised the fifth largest sum of venture capital dollars in 2017 compared to global cities. Only companies headquartered in Beijing, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Shanghai raised more.

Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to Get Modern Makeover

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The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, or BQE, has long been known as the world’s largest parking lot. But that may be about to change. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, or BQE, has long been known as the world’s largest parking lot. But that may be about to change.

Built by Robert Moses in the 1950s, it is an iconic piece of New York City infrastructure that has accommodated car and truck traffic for more than 60 years.

“As the triple cantilever structure along Brooklyn Heights shows signs of corrosion and aging, New York City has taken on the challenge of repairing the roadway, spanning from Sands Street in Dumbo to Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill,” reads a press release on the web site of Big-Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a Copenhagen, New York and London based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors.

“Constrained by limitations of working within Department of Transportation jurisdiction, official proposals so far have been limited to rebuilding similar conditions, aging roadways replaced by new roadways, temporary and permanent, which would continue to act as barriers between the Brooklyn community and its waterfront,” the release continues.

Inspired by the opportunity to work in our own backyard, BIG notes, it has developed an integrated proposal dubbed BQP, how to turn the Brooklyn Queens Expressway into a Brooklyn-Queens Park, while still accommodating significant vehicle flows along the Route.

“Construction of an at-grade roadway along Furman Street and Brooklyn Bridge Park, covered with a simple deck structure, is the first step of a waterfront transphormation,” says BIG. “This deck provides a platform for adding significant new Parkland along an underused Corridor, while connecting Brooklyn Heights to Brooklyn Bridge Park with a preserved or reconstructed Cliffside, crisscrossed by ramp ways, greenery, and the park amenities.”

Local park access is accommodated on a meandering parkway, while space is created for a potential spur of the BQX light rail line.

The deck structure extends South to Atlantic Avenue, where it creates a new crossing and urban nexus, and the beginnings of a linear park which could even truly connect DUMBO to Red Hook.

“The simple structural approach, and one-time construction of the new roadway, create a more feasible and less costly solution for reconstruction of the BQE, while delivering far more benefits to the community,” notes BIG in the release. “The result is a condition more reminiscent of Brooklyn Heights historical conditions, where city and river interfaced seamlessly, prior to construction of the highway.

“With this proposal,” BIG noted, “we hope to build on the great work already being undertaken by many to think proactively about the problem, and look forward to working with the Brooklyn community to find the best solutions for the BQE future!”

King Of Wall Street Apartment Listing Drops In Price

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Once the king of Wall Street, now the late John Gutfreund’s wife is trying to sell a prized property. It started at over $100 million but has since come down. PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Delgado/Wikimedia Commons

From $120 million to about $59 million, this property owned by Susan Guttfreund, who was married to the “King of Wall Street,” has gone from sky-high to just normally high.

Serena Boardman at Sotheby’s International made a change to the apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue by decreasing the asking price to $59 million, according to StreetEasy. The decline represents a dip from the last offer of $68 million. The Real Deal reports that Boardman is co-listing the property with Larry Kaiser of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties.

After Gutfreund’s husband died in 2016, she listed the apartment at the astonishing price of $120 million, making it to the most expensive listing in the city at that time.

“The home is very formal, traditional and European. It makes no sense for how people live today,” a broker said to the New York Post in 2017, “It needs as much of a gut renovation as you could possibly do. It’s perfectly nice for a tea party but it is way too dated.”

Anyone who buys the property will want to bring over some guests because there are 22 rooms and views of Central Park. A total of seven bathrooms and seven bedrooms gives guests or a whole family plenty of elegance and privacy. The Real Deal describes the property designed by Rosario Candela back during the 1930s as being done in the “eighteenth century style, with parquet de Versailles flooring and hand carved moldings.”

The Jewish Voice has reported on declining prices on some prime real estate. The New York Post’s Christopher Cameron took time to analyze the situation, and reported that “many of the old-guard Good Buildings have seen better days. After floundering on the market since 2012, a spacious two-bedroom apartment seeking $2.3 million at 550 Park failed to find a buyer, despite a 36 percent price decrease. Luxury co-ops, once the most stable block of inventory in New York, have seen their prices fall 20 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to top real-estate appraiser Jonathan Miller.”

At 740 Park, Cameron chronicled, “ceaseless publicity, a fire and a crumbling facade have driven choosy oligarchs elsewhere. Susan Gutfreund, the owner of the best apartment in 834 Fifth (widely considered Fifth Avenue’s foremost), can’t find a buyer for her 22-room, 12,000-square-foot duplex. Its asking price is down from $120 million to $68 million. River House was reduced to allowing actress Uma Thurman to purchase a 12-room spread at an $8.5 million discount.”

Recently built luxury condos with tasteful design elements and vastly superior amenities have displaced many of the old guard. “What’s more, condos don’t have intrusive co-op boards, which dissect an applicant’s financials to an embarrassing degree,” the Post noted. “Now the trader who wants to live in his business rival’s building doesn’t have to pull his pants down to get in.”

DeBlasio & Landlords Seek $173M Real Estate Deal Despite Conflicts Of Interest

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Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The city looks to close a $173 million deal to purchase 17 buildings this week for the purpose of turning them into affordable housing. The idea sounds good until you find out that there could be financial conflicts of interest and issues with transparency, the Real Deal reports.

The Real Deal explains how “The de Blasio administration opted to buy the buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx two years ago from the Podolsky brothers, two landlords with a long record of violations who are currently under federal investigation for tax fraud. And the lawyer who represented them in the portfolio sale to the city is Frank Carone, is a longtime de Blasio ally and fundraiser.”

According to the New York Times, the buildings had an estimated value of $50 million, but a private appraiser put that price at almost $100 million higher for all the properties, at $143 million. The Real Deal reports that the excuse city officials used was that prices increased during negotiations.

It gets murkier though because Carone gave $5,000 of contributions for the political action committee backing the mayor for a possible run at president. De Blasio and Carone stressed that this real estate deal has not come up in conversations between them before.

City comptroller Scott Stringer last month tried to get the appraisals, but he was stonewalled by a city policy of not giving out information that could alter future negotiations.

The mayor’s press secretary, Eric Phillips, said de Blasio’s ties to Carone have no impact on the deal.

“This deal is about improving and securing affordable homes for 2,000 people,” Phillips said in a written statement. “The personal political activity of one of the many lawyers involved never entered into the equation.”

“They’ve never spoken about any details of the deal,” he said about the mayor and Carone.

The mayor has also been busy touring the country as he considers a presidential run. He was asked recently some questions such as what his position on reparations is.

“There’s no question that the issue of reparations has to be taken seriously,” de Blasio said. “I do believe the way to do it is to form a very public commission and say, ‘What is the way to address this problem once and for all?’”

At the event, de Blasio said that there needs to be a larger “discussion about income inequality and oppression of other groups including Latinos, Native Americans, Asian and women.”

“I think we’re going to need something bigger even in a way, broader even in a way, then some of the ideas that have been put out there,” de Blasio said. “I think a program of actual redistribution which includes much heavier taxes on the wealthy.”

“The ultimate resolution has to be profoundly economic,” de Blasio added.

Carl Icahn Sold his Stake in Lyft to George Soros Before its IPO

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is backpedaling on his forays into the ride-sharing industry. Instead, he’s cashing out as Lyft goes public. Photo Credit: Lyft

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn was not really involved in the uneven first days of ride-sharing and tech company Lyft going public, and that was because he reportedly sold off the 2.7 percent stake he had in Lyft. While Lyft and Uber had been expected for some time now to go public, one of the bigger questions has always been how these companies, whose investors have effectively been subsidizing rides at a loss, will start turning a profit.

Reports do not disclose how much Icahn could have made from selling his stake, but the bigger picture is that Icahn, a famous investor, saw the temporary liquidation of assets to be more worthwhile than a long-term investment in a company that is supposedly part of the transportation future.

The company did start off with something to cheer about, and maybe Icahn had some moments of pause as he saw the stock go up to a high of 21 percent of the IPO price. Since that high last Friday, the company’s stock price has not done much.

Icahn originally got involved with Lyft when he purchased $100 million worth of Lyft shares in 2015, according to the New York Post. The Wall Street Journal suggests that his stake would be worth about $550 million with Lyft just at the IPO price of $72 a share.

Jonathan Christodoro, a former managing director of Icahn Capital LP who was on Lyft’s board until last month, connected Icahn with Soros, which was worth about $550 million at the IPO price, according to the WSJ report.

It was not clear what price Soros paid for the stake, the WSJ said.

According to a report on the New York Business Journal web site, Lyft went public at a price of $72 a share, which valued the company at $24 billion. Shares rose as high as $88.60, but since then they’ve fallen.

Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green rang the Nasdaq opening bell remotely last Friday from a downtown Los Angeles warehouse in a ceremony attended by Lyft drivers, employees and their families, according to the NYBJ report.

Icahn didn’t give a reason for his sale of his Lyft stake but was reportedly unhappy that Zimmer and Green were given super-voting shares that gave them outsized voting power at the company.

Icahn had Christodoro sitting on the Lyft board as his representative, but Christodoro left the board last month and Icahn declined to replace him on the board. Christodoro has a $900,000 stake in the company, the Journal reported, and he attended the Lyft IPO ceremony in Los Angeles.

“We’re just at the beginning of moving from a world based on car ownership to a world based on transportation as a service built around people. After more than one billion rides, we’re able to look forward to a world we’ve long imagined,” Zimmer and Green said at the IPO event in Los Angeles, adding “we’re just getting started on how we’ll continue to invest in our local communities.”

New Yorkers Rescue Ephemeral Artifacts from City History; Items to be Resold

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One shop, Urban Archaeology in Tribeca, sells pendant lights from the old JFK airport, which at one time was called Idlewild Airport, for $750 as well as chandeliers from Roseland Ballroom for $5,500. Photo Credit: 6sqft.com

The average New Yorker may have a vast appreciation for the city’s history, but outside of conversation, very few would set out to rescue the city’s artifacts.

One shop, Urban Archaeology in Tribeca, sells pendant lights from the old JFK airport, which at one time was called Idlewild Airport, for $750 as well as chandeliers from Roseland Ballroom for $5,500.

“It’s great to not lose parts of our past,” Gil Shapiro, the founder of Urban Archaeology, told the New York Post. “It really pisses me off when people don’t care about history.”

One couple based in Chelsea, Rolan and Irene Shnayder, purchased their condominium in 2017 in part because it had a 1907 marble-laced fireplace in the living room that was salvaged from the Plaza Hotel.

“It was a really sentimental piece for us,” Mrs. Shnayder told The Post.

The previous owner of The Shnayders unit purchased the historic fireplace through Olde Good Things, an antiques company, which salvages the fireplace during the Plaza’s renovation in 2005.

Mrs. Shnayder said that she and her husband “painted the wall [behind the piece] black, to make the white mantel really pop.”

Mrs. Shnayder said that her husband passed away several weeks ago from pancreatic cancer and that before his death, they would attend various formal events at the Plaza hotel.

53-year-old Scott Ewalt, who is a DJ, told the Post that he starting collecting Signage in Times Square during the early ’90s, while Rudy Giuliani was New York’s mayor.

“I started collecting because I was rescuing a part of culture that was disappearing,” Mr. Ewalt told The Post.

Mr. Ewalt told The Post that in the 90s, he purchased signage from two Times Square theaters for $500 each.

“I started asking all the adult businesses [for their signs],” Mr. Ewalt said. “I particularly love anything that’s hand-painted.”

“I like things that have led a life already, more than things that are brand new,” he said.

Another man, Joe Jeffreys, a theater studies professor at NYU, said that he purchased a sign by a nightclub on E. 4th Street between Bowery and Second Ave.

“I knew that [sign] had to be in my life,” Mr. Jeffreys told The Post. “I offered the guy [taking it down] $100 or something and walked it home.”

Mr. Jeffreys said that the purchase was the start of a lifelong collection.

“It resonates, it has an aura,” Mr. Jeffreys said.

He said that he likes to light up the fluorescent sign, which says Club 82, as often as he can.

“I kind of use it as a night light,” Mr. Jeffreys said. “It is a beacon to me.”

Brazilian Prez Bolsonaro Says He Has Not Changed His Mind About Moving Embassy to J’slm

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview with a local radio station on Monday that he had not changed his mind about the relocation of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, though he did not provide a timeline for the move. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tells local radio station he hasn’t changed his mind about relocating Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview with a local radio station on Monday that he had not changed his mind about the relocation of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, though he did not provide a timeline for the move.

Bolsonaro, who visited Israel last week, announced that Brazil would be opening a trade office with diplomatic status in Jerusalem but did not say the embassy would be relocated from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital.

Bolsonaro announced after his election that he intended to uphold his campaign promise and move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem.

Before his arrival in Israel, the Brazilian president fueled speculation that his government might renege on his campaign promise to move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, after he told local reporters his government might open a “business office” in Jerusalem.

In announcing the trade office in Jerusalem, Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araujo, said the move would not come in place of the promised embassy move – but would be the first step towards an embassy relocation.

Arab leaders have condemned Bolsonaro’s plan to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem and have pressured him not to go through with it.

The Arab League recently warned Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) envoy to Brazil warned recently that moving Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be an “attack” on Palestinian people and a breach of international law.

Last week Bolsonaro visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall, standing right by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has quickly become one of the new Brazilian president’s closest allies. Bolsonaro’s visit makes the South American leader the very first head of state to ever appear side by side with an Israeli prime minister at the Western Wall. His visit to the holy site has been interpreted as a tacit endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem and its environs.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the occasion marked the first time that a current state head went to the site with an Israeli prime minister A7 reports.

Bolsonaro’s visit follows a similar one by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from a few weeks ago, which was also an occasion for being the first time a top American visited the wall with an Israeli prime minister. As a few other nations follow America in backing Israel’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital, Bolsonaro keeps showing that he is also on board with making sure his nation does everything in its power to show it stands strongly with Israel under all circumstances.

Bolsonaro has talked before about why he supports Israel so much, saying a Christian pilgrimage to the Jordan River from a couple of years ago left a lasting impression.

             (INN)

Israeli Victim’s Family Outraged Terrorist Won’t Get Death Penalty

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Family and friends attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Ronen Lubarsky at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, May 27, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Although the terrorist who killed First Sergeant Lubarsky was convicted of murder, Lubarsky’s family is angry he won’t receive the death penalty.

The Hamas supporter who killed First Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky with a marble slab during an IDF mission in an Arab village near Ramallah last May was found guilty by an Israeli military court on Sunday.

“The military court in Judea (the West Bank) convicted the terrorist Islam Yousef Abu Hamid on charges of murdering soldier Ronen Lubarsky,” the Army said in a statement.

Abu Hamid had dropped a 40-pound marble slab onto First Sergeant Lubarsky’s head in an attempt to interfere with an arrest mission the IDF was carrying out in the village of al-Amari.

First Sergeant Lubarsky died in the hospital two days later from his wounds. Abu Hamid was caught a few weeks later and confessed.

Arik Lubarsky, Ronen’s brother, reacted to the conviction by demanding the death penalty.

“The time has come for the Military Advocate General to demand that the lowly terrorist be sentenced to death,” he said, “and we will not demand less than that. If necessary, I will be the one who will be happy to carry out the sentence.”

“It is a shame that instead of executing the terrorists, the State of Israel is conducting negotiations with them in the prisons. When the first terrorist will be hung in the city square, it will prevent further terror attacks,” Mr. Lubarsky said.

Lubarsky’s family had boycotted the trial, calling it a “farce” specifically because according to their lawyer, Maurice Hirsch, it was set up so that Abu Hamid would not receive the death penalty.

Hirsch expressed mixed feelings at the trial’s end.

“Even though we can only express satisfaction with the conviction of Ronen’s vile murderer, the fact that the political echelon and the Military Advocate General’s Office did not see fit to seek the death penalty constitutes a serious blow to deterrence,” he said. “The time has come to change the policy on the death penalty, in order to prevent the next murder.”

In December, the IDF destroyed the family home of Abu Hamid after the High Court rejected a petition to limit the destruction to only two floors of the house.

However, as revealed in a detailed report in January by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, none other than PA President Mahmoud Abbas immediately ordered the rebuilding of Abu Hamid’s home at Palestinian Authority expense.

Abu Hamid is a known Hamas supporter, having spent five years, from 2004 to 2009, in prison for his terrorist activities. He also has brothers who are currently jailed for terrorism offenses, including murder.

            (WIN)