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Trump Fires Secret Service Director, Picks James Murray as Replacement

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Secret Service Director Randolph Alles stepped down from his position Monday less than a day after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned.

Secret Service Director Randolph Alles stepped down from his position Monday less than a day after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned.

Alles, who reports to the DHS Secretary, was reportedly told last month he would be asked to depart, according to ABC News.

“United States Secret Service director Randolph ‘Tex’ Alles has done a great job at the agency over the last two years, and the President is thankful for his over 40 years of service to the country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

“Mr. Alles will be leaving shortly and President Trump has selected James M. Murray, a career member of the [United States Secret Service], to take over as director beginning in May.”

President Trump called Ms. Nielsen to the White House over her failure to reduce the number of migrants both entering the country unlawfully and those requesting asylum at ports of entry. The president essentially said to Ms. Nielsen, “Why should I keep you?” said one administration official.

“Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen will be leaving her position, and I would like to thank her for her service. I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs, and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary of @DHSgov,” Mr. Trump tweeted around 5 p.m. on Sunday.

The president announced later announced that Kevin K. McAleenan, the Customs, and Border Protection commission, would become his Acting Homeland Security secretary.

“I hereby resign from the position of Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effective April 7th, 2018 (sic),” Ms. Nielsen said in her resignation letter. “Despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, I have determined that it is the right time for me to step aside.”

“I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse,” she continued. “Our country – and the men and women of DHS – deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Francis Cissna and Office of the General Counsel’s John Mitnick are also expected to leave the department soon.

“By the end of the week, more than half of the department’s agency heads could be gone with the positions vacant or with acting [personnel],” one official told ABC News.

The decision to remove Alles was reportedly unrelated to an incident last week in which a Chinese national was arrested after entering Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while in possession of electronics which included a malware-infected thumb drive.

“Secret Service has done a fantastic job from Day 1. Very happy with them,” Trump said after the Mar-a-Lago incident.

Alles previously led Air and Marine Operations for Customs and Border Protection, and he is a 35-year Marine Corps veteran.

            (Washington Free Beacon)

Judge Refuses Bond for Terror Suspect in Foiled Maryland Plot

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Federal prosecutors argued in a court appearance Tuesday that there are no conditions under which 28-year-old Rondell Henry could be freed and be assured of returning for future court appearances, and that he represents a threat to the community.

A man in the state of Maryland, accused in an alleged Islamic State-inspired terror plot to run down pedestrians with a truck, has been ordered held without bond.

Federal prosecutors argued in a court appearance Tuesday that there are no conditions under which 28-year-old Rondell Henry could be freed and be assured of returning for future court appearances, and that he represents a threat to the community.

Prosecutors allege Henry stole a truck from a suburban Washington shopping mall last month and drove around looking for terror targets.

After failing to breach security at Dulles International Airport, Henry is accused of driving to the National Harbor in Maryland — a Potomac River walkway lined with shops and restaurants, highly popular with tourists. But in the court filing, prosecutors say Henry did not find a large enough crowd for his desired act and decided to wait until later.

Police arrested Henry the next morning after he climbed out of a docked boat in which he hid all night and jumped over a security fence.

The government says Henry planned to drive the stolen truck over pedestrians. He allegedly told police, “I was just going to keep driving and driving and driving. I wasn’t going to stop.”

Prosecutors allege Henry was inspired by the 2016 IS truck attack in Nice, France, that killed 86 people.

They say Henry has a “hatred for those who do not practice the Muslim faith” and wanted to emulate those he saw in videos beheading civilians and fighting overseas.

Stolen truck

In its criminal complaint, the government said that on March 26, the Alexandria Police Department in Virginia received a report about a leased U-Haul truck that was stolen from a nearby mall.

The driver who rented the truck initially reported seeing a man in a blue BMW follow the U-Haul off Interstate 395 and park in a space near the U-Haul at the mall. When police arrived at the mall, they found the BMW still parked there and discovered it was registered to Henry.

A day later, the stolen U-Haul was found in National Harbor, a bustling development along the Potomac in Maryland across from Alexandria, Virginia, that features bars and restaurants, shops, a Ferris wheel, a luxury hotel and residential apartments.

Video surveillance showed Henry parking and getting out of the truck. He was arrested the next day.

Prosecutors say that Henry has harbored “hatred” for those who do not practice the Muslim faith and was allegedly inspired by videos he watched of foreign terrorists.

Specifically, they said he was inspired by the 2016 terrorist attack in Nice, France, in which a man drove a truck at high speed into crowds, killing 86 people, and for which Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Henry “walked off his job in Germantown, Maryland, in the middle of the day, determined to walk down the extremist path,” the government alleged in court papers.

“Recognizing that his older four-door sedan would not cause the catastrophic damage that he desired, the defendant drove around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area looking for a larger vehicle to steal.”

            (VOA News)

NYers Believe DeBlasio’s Chances of Becoming Prez are ‘Slim to None’

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New Yorkers apparently believe that Mayor Bill de Blasio has two chances to become president of the United States: slim and none. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

New Yorkers apparently believe that Mayor Bill de Blasio has two chances to become president of the United States: slim and none.

And slim just left town.

A new Quinnipiac University poll had to have burned the mayor: approximately 76 percent of respondents recommended that he give up his dream of living in the White House. Only 18 percent, less than one in five, thought he should continue.

From March 27–April 1, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,077 New York City voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points, including the design effect.

“The latest rejection came as the mayor planned a fundraiser in Boston on Friday for his federal political-action committee, followed by a trip Saturday to Nevada, the third state to vote in the Democratic presidential nominating contest,” the New York Post reported.

“Mayor Bill de Blasio’s flirtation with a 2020 White House bid is prompting a rare moment of unity among New Yorkers. Three-quarters of them say, ‘Mr. Mayor: Don’t do it,’” Quinnipiac polling analyst Mary Snow told the newspaper.

Those same New Yorkers felt New York would suffer if de Blasio continued campaigning for the presidency, by a 47-32 percent margin. Just 42 percent of voters gave a thumbs up to his performance as mayor; 44 percent had the opposite opinion.

“Mayor Bill de Blasio’s flirtation with a 2020 White House bid is prompting a rare moment of unity among New Yorkers. Three-quarters of them say, ‘Mr. Mayor: Don’t do it,'” said Mary Snow, polling analyst for the Quinnipiac University Poll. “As New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray’s mental health program comes under scrutiny, she too is getting an anemic job approval rating similar to Mayor de Blasio’s score.”

“Another New Yorker in the national spotlight, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is proving less polarizing on her home turf of New York City. She only represents one district in the city, but slightly more than half of New Yorkers approve of the job she’s doing,” Snow said.

Politico was just as direct, noting, “Some say the 2020 field, a dozen-strong and growing, leaves no room for de Blasio, who’s long struggled to fashion a national persona comparable with past leaders of the country’s largest city, like Rudy Giuliani or Michael Bloomberg. Many note that he has too many glaring, unresolved problems at home. Others say the never-truly-popular de Blasio, whom a top Hillary Clinton backer once called “insufferable,” lacks charisma.”

The news site continued, “The idea of a de Blasio candidacy is “f—-ing insane,” said one former aide, laughing out loud. Another self-described friend of the mayor called the idea “idiotic.”

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.”