The powerful and long-serving speaker of New York's state assembly was arrested by the FBI after turning himself in to authorities last week. Silver, who had been in the state Assembly representing Manhatta in 65th Assembly district since 1976, is also a practicing attorney and close political ally of New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio. Siver's income from the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg had long been the subject of criticism. US Attorney Preet Bharara accused Silver of collecting more than $3 million in bribes and kickbacks that were disguised as referral fees.
In a criminal complaint, authorities said Silver abused his power and “obtained about $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position.”
The arrest sent shock waves through New York’s Capitol as a new legislative session began, and it came just a day after Silver shared the stage with Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his State of the State address.
As speaker of the Democrat-controlled Assembly, Silver is one of the most influential people in New York state government. Along with the Senate majority leader and the governor, he plays a major role in creating state budgets, laws and policies in a system long-criticized in Albany as “three men in a room.”
In July 2013, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced the formation of the Moreland Commission to examine New York's weak campaign finance laws and investigate any wrongdoing or suspicious activities among state lawmakers. A few short months after the Commission released their preliminary findings, Cuomo abruptly announced that he was shutting down the Moreland Commission. Some observers believe that any further investigating by the Moreland Commission would've brought to light incriminating information against Cuomo's donors or political allies.
Although Cuomo shut down the Moreland Commission less than halfway into its stated 18-month lifespan, the US Attorney's office was requesting documents from them back in May 2014.
The shirt joins a specially made coin awarded to a CIA operative after the mission and a brick from Bin Laden's compound that go on display at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum this week. The coin was struck after the successful completion of the Abbotabad raid and was reportedly issued to the participating SEALs and an agent known as Maya, who was the basis of the main character portrayed in the 2012 movie Zero Dark Thirty.
"The death of Osama bin Laden is a huge part of the history, and we have an absolute obligation to tell it," National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum President Joe Daniels said Saturday. The display, he said, "allows millions of visitors the chance to recognize the extraordinary bravery of the men and women who sacrifice so much for this country at home and abroad."
The uniform shirt, tan with camouflage sleeves and an American flag patch on the right shoulder — stars forward to invoke the historical role of a flag-bearer leading a charge into battle — belonged to a now-retired member of SEAL Team Six, which put an end to the long manhunt for the world's most wanted terrorist. The garment "connects us in a powerful and immediate way to that operation," Museum Director Alice Greenwald said.
The red, white and blue coin was made to commemorate its conclusion. The coin bears the date — May 1, 2011, in U.S. time — on one side and a red "X'' on the other.
Opened to the public in May, this would mark the first time that the September 11th Museum is open on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. A memorial for the people killed in the September 11th attacks was opened in 2012.
Even before the museum opened, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) petitioned the museum to edit a video presentation on Al Qaeda, urging them to remove phrases like 'jihad' and 'radical islam' from the presentation. The museum's board reportedly declined any such edit.
Gosh- where would anybody POSSIBLY get the farfetched idea that gun-control advocates are wealthy, out-of-touch, super-liberal busybody east coast elitists who hold vast swaths of the United States outside of Manhattan in utter contempt and disdain?
At least until somebody like former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg opens his mouth in a Rolling Stone interview.
The former New York City mayor said he was “sorry” about the recalls of two Democratic state senators last year over the state legislature’s passage of gun control laws, but said the districts in the recall races were so “rural” that “I don’t think there’s roads.”
“In Colorado, we got a law passed. The NRA went after two or three state senators in a part of Colorado where I don’t think there’s roads,” said Mr. Bloomberg in the interview with Rolling Stone published online this week.
“It’s as far rural as you can get,” said Mr. Bloomberg. “And, yes, they lost recall elections. I’m sorry for that. We tried to help ‘em. But the bottom line is, the law is on the books, and being enforced. You can get depressed about the progress, but on the other hand, you’re saving a lot of lives.”
The districts in question for last year's recall campaigns were in Colorado Springs and Pueblo- Colorado's second and seventh largest cities, respectively. State Senate president John Morse of Colorado's 11th State Senate district in El Paso county and state senator Angela Giron of the 3rd state senate district in Pueblo county- both Democrats- were successfully recalled by voters in their district just months after passing stricter gun control laws that limited magazine size and required a background check for all transfers of firearms [even among neighbors and relatives- NANESB!].
While no Manhattan, Colorado Springs is Colorado's 2nd largest city and is located some 75 miles south of Denver on Interstate 25. The city of roughly 400,000 is home to the United States Air Force Academy, the US Army's Ft Carson, the US Olympic Training Center and the Colorado Springs Sky Soxx- the Rockies AAA affiliate.
A little further south on I-25, Pueblo was once a key steel producing town and to this day remains an important rail town- not only for the southern terminus of the Joint Line which was once shared by the Rio Grande and Santa Fe, but also the FRA's Transportation Technology Center in which track, ballast, carbodies, rail, freight cars and locomotives undergo testing before being put into service.
The September 2013 recall election was the first of its kind in the state of Colorado and the threat of a 3rd recall against democrat state senator Evie Hudak of suburban Denver forced her to resign in November 2013 so that the Democrats could appoint her replacement instead of the party risking its slim majority in the Colorado state senate on a recall election.
Hudak also gained the ire of gun owners and rape survivors when she told rape victim Amanda Collins, who was testifying before the Colorado state senate in support of concealed carry on campus, that a gun wouldn't have spared Collins from her ordeal and she most likely would've been disarmed and killed by her rapist.
More damning is that the article comes a few days after Democrat governor John Hickenlooper- who signed the sweeping gun control bill into law last year- met with Colorado's sheriffs last month, claiming that his office was in no way influenced by Bloomberg's gun control campaign. Initially, 55 of Colorado's 64 county sheriffs sued the Hickenlooper administration on the grounds that the magazine limit was unconstitutional and other provisions in the state laws were unenforceable- however, that suit was thrown out in November 2013 after a judge ruled the sheriffs couldn't sue the state while in office. Still, the judge left an opening for the sheriffs who were term limited to file suit against the state individually upon entering their final term.
As for Bloomberg's comments, both governor Hickenlooper and US Sen Mark Udall sought to distance themselves from the former mayor's comments while their Republican opponents jumped on Bloomberg's comments to portray the incumbents as more in touch with wealthy billionaire New York liberals than Coloradans.
What began as a temporary visual arts program a few months after the deadly terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan has evolved into an annual tradition that makes its mark on the Gotham skyline each year in early September.
Beginning in March 2002, the New York Municipal Art Society uses a total of 88 powerful searchlights pointed skyward placed adjacent to the World Trade Center site- even in the bright lights of New York City, the Tribute in Light manages to stand out. The lights are visible from Staten Island and across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
Interestingly, the Tribute in Light was supposed to be a temporary project with each year supposedly being it's last. However, the Municipal Art Society has been invited back to erect the searchlights each year- although with work on the new World Trade Center buildings progressing, it's entirely likely that the Tribute in Light will be crowded out by the newer structures and September 11th Memorial over the next few years.
If you're a writer for one of the late-night TV talk shows, there's just not other way to put this: Anthony Weiner is simply the gift that keeps on giving.
It was two years ago that then-Congressman Anthony Weiner had resigned in disgrace after admitting to sending lewd photographs of himself to women on social networking sites like twitter and then lying about it to a media that seemed ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. The announcement took place shortly after conservative blogger and publisher Andrew Breitbart co-opted Weiner's press conference.
Since then, Weiner and his allies in the Democrat party who thought his political prospects could be salvaged began rehabilitating his image, with an emphasis on his wife- former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. His former District- NY-9- went Republican in a special election before it was redistricted out of existence. Less than two years later, Weiner's name kept coming up as a potential candidate for Mayor of New York- as though the original Weiner-gate had never taken place to begin with.
After a couple of fairly puffball interviews where Weiner contritely claimed he had learned his lesson and was going to a better husband and father from here on out, the Weiner for Mayor talk moved beyond punchlines and double entendre and into reality. However, the rollout of the Weiner for Mayor Campaign website was not without problems after Pittsburgh's skyline was used on the page instead of New York City's.
The woman claims on the blog that she first started talking online with Weiner in July 2012 and it became intense by August 2012, when he offered to find a Chicago condo where they could meet up.
She also alleges that they had phone sex and that they exchanged nude photos of each other. She claims she received photos from Weiner of his penis sent from a Yahoo email account under the “Carlos Danger” name. The purported image was later posted on TheDirty.com.
Weiner released a written statement on Tuesday afternoon, which he read again at the press conference,admitting to additional raunchy conversations.
UPDATE: 3/8- Almost as soon as I finish the first draft, Pan Am suffers not one, but TWO derailments.
Thirteen tank cars loaded with crude oil derailed near Mattawamkeag, ME on Thursday. Despite the fact that the cars have a 31,000 gallon capacity, officials said that just 3 gallons were spilled in the derailment. Officials cite the tank car's sturdy design along with the slow track speed through the area for the relative lack of damage.
The Pan Am Railways tanker cars, which were among 15 that derailed on the 96-car train, went off the tracks near Route 2 and the Winn town line about 5 a.m. Thursday. No injuries were reported. Thirteen of the 15 cars tipped over but none ruptured, said Pan Am Railways Executive Vice President Cynthia Scarano.
Scarano described the oil spill as that which typically accumulates around the two hatches atop the tank when tanks are filled or emptied. About a gallon of oil came from three overturned tankers, Mattawamkeag Fire Chief Robert Powers said.
“Three gallons — that’s amazing [when you] have the cars laying on their sides, a couple of them in trees,” Powers said. “They’ve built the rail cars to sustain derailment. We are very thankful that that’s where we are at right now.”
Maine Department of Environmental Protection crews and a private contractor will be working with Pan Am to transfer oil from the 13 tankers to 20 smaller tankers. The work likely will continue for two or three days, said department spokeswoman Samantha Warren, who said the spill could have been “disastrous.”
Workers emptied the first car at about 9:15 p.m. The offloading went well, but the work “will be delicate,” she said.
“There are still hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil in derailed cars within sight of the Penobscot River,” Warren added, joining a chorus of voices from the state Legislature and environmentalist community that called the accident’s lack of environmental damage a miracle.
Scarano said a severe leak into the river was never very likely. The train was on a stretch of track from Waterville to Canada that is rated Class 1, which means suitable for traffic moving no faster than 10 mph.
The Federal Railroad Administration investigation of the accident is continuing, but it appears that the train was moving no faster than the speed limit. Firefighters said train workers told them it was traveling 8 mph when the derailment occurred.
A slow speed would be logical, Scarano said, given that the train was approaching a switch in town. Its cargo was to be transferred to New Brunswick Southern Railway for eventual arrival at a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick. She said the train had three engines pulling it.
A Pan Am train was heading north on Thursday when eight cars filled with coal derailed before the Nashua River and the Bridge Street Crossing. None of the cars rolled over. The cars are leaning, and there was no spillage, the Nashua Fire Department said.
Fire officials said about 100 feet of track were damaged, as well as parts of the steel bridge’s wooden decking. Pan Am crews towed away the remaining cars to reopen the Bridge Street Crossing.
No injuries were reported at either derailment.
Looking more like a scene from the Pacific Northwest, a trio of big GE's idle in the siding with empty grain train AYRJ [AYer, MA to Rotterdam Jct, NY] as eastbound freight MOED [MOhawk Yard, Schenectady, NY to East Deerfield, MA] blasts through North Adams, MA with a pair of leased former BNSF SD40-2s on the point on February 22, 2013. Gary Schermerhorn photo
PAN AM- Thanks to an increase in traffic, Pan Am Railways is finding itself short on motive power and has been leasing SD40-2s from Helm Leasing and maximizing their use of run-through power from BNSF and CSX. The 10 Helm Leasing SD40s join some 21 SD40s that Pan Am acquired back in 2010.
The loaners are still painted in BNSF and Burlington Northern colors, some of them blending in seamlessly with the newer BNSF power that has been appearing on the unit oil trains between the CSX interchange in Rotterdam Jct, NY and the New Brunswick Southern at Mattawamkeag, ME as well as unit grain trains to the Cargill mill in Ayer, MA.
OTHER PAN AM NEWS- An Icelandic shipping company has signed a contract with the Maine Port Authority to begin operating out of Maine's largest seaport, Maine governor Paul LePage announced in February. The firm, Eimskip, also announced that they would partner with Pan Am Rail to provide cost effective access to markets across North America and that the Portland location would shave off travel time between North America and Europe.
Eimskip will open a warehouse in Portland and begin providing biweekly cargo service at the end of March, replacing the company's container operation in Norfolk, Va., according to Eimskip's website.
The company is moving to Maine's largest commercial port in order to shorten travel time between North America and Europe.
Eimskip also will partner with Pan Am Railways to offer cost-competitive access to other North American markets, according to the governor's news release.
LePage met with representatives of Eimskip and Pan Am Railways in January to discuss the new service.
“Maine’s economy will be strengthened by this new service and accessibility to markets,” LePage said in the release. “Maine produces some of the best products in the world and this investment by Eimskip is a testament to that quality."
Eimskip President and CEO Gylfi Sigfusson said, "PanAm has been very helpful working with us to make this possible and we believe that our work together is critical for success moving forward."
Details about the contract, the number of jobs to be created and the location of the warehouse will be announced Wednesday at a 10 a.m. news conference at the terminal on Commercial Street.
Portland has been without contracted cargo service for nearly a year, after the New York-based American Feeder Lines suspended operations and closed in April 2012, citing a lack of volume and loss of private investment.
At the time, the terminal was in the midst of a $5 milion, federally funded renovation and expansion that was completed last summer. The Maine Port Authority lost $200,000 it had loaned to the company. Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia, had made similar investments.
In 2011, Eimskip added a new route to its shipping system, connecting North America to northern Norway, according to the company's website. The new shipping route has opened new markets for Eimskip customers in the North Atlantic.
"The port is well equipped to handle the operation and has been renovated during recent years," according to Eimskip's website. "Eimskip will operate a warehouse and an office in Portland and the terminal is equipped with 150 (refrigeration) plugs, a 100 ton mobile crane and other equipment required to serve Eimskip and its customers."
Eimskip will continue to receive smaller shipments in Norfolk and New York.
Maine's agricultural, forest and seafood industries will benefit from the expanded service, providing new opportunities for growth in Canada and Europe, Maine officials said.
The service will call on Portland every 14 days and give Maine businesses direct import-export access to eastern Canadian and European markets.
Access to these markets may result in both larger freight volumes and access to previously cost-prohibitive markets for importers, exporters and manufacturers.
Although traffic in oil, grain and clay slurry has picked up in recent years, intermodal service hasn't been Pan Am's strong suit. In early 2011, Pan Am innagurated triweekly intermodal service between eatern Massachusetts and Halifax, NS with New Brunswick Southern called the Bluenose.
NEW YORK CITY- Manhattan's Grand Central Station is turning 100 this year. The cavernous station originally was a meeting point from trains from the New York and Hudson River Railroad, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway and the New York and Harlem Railroad.
The actual 100th anniversary took place on February 1st with ceremonies and tours with ongoing exhibits throughout the year. Some of the restaurants in Grand Central got into the spirit of things by offering 1913 prices on some of their meals.
The landmark terminal fell into disrepair in the late 1960s with the bankruptcy of the New York Central. In 1968, NYC successor Penn Central announced plans to demolish Grand Central to make way for a skyscraper. The proposals drew opposition from a number of New Yorkers, including former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis. Prior to the Penn Central's unveiling, New York City's Landmarks Comission designated Grand Central a landmark, meaning that Penn Central was unable to secure permission to demolish Grand Central [the matter went before the supreme court in 1978 with the justices ruling in favor of the city- NANESB!]. By 1994, the Penn Central's Corporate successor, American Financial Group, reached an agreement with New York's Metropolitan Transit Agency to lease Grand Central for more than 200 years- the MTA's Metro North is turning 30 this year.
Despite the fact that Grand Central hasn't seen regularly scheduled long-distance passenger service since 1991, recent timetables show more than 280 trains departing from the New York landmark on any given weekday. New York's MTA operates commuter trains north to the Hudson River Valley and western Connecticut out of Grand Central while Long Island Railroad, NJ Transit and Amtrak operate out of Penn Station.
A full schedule of this year's events and exhibitions is available at the Grand Central's Centennial website.
BNSF- I'm about a year behind schedule with this, but I thought it would still be worth pointing out. The Burlington Northern-Santa Fe handled a rather unique cargo in April of 2012 that was destined for the Arizona capital of Phoenix. That cargo was actually the barrel from the USS Arizona, one of four battleships sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, HI on Dec 7th, 1941. More than 1100 sailors were killed when the ship's magazine exploded and to this day, the site of the sunken Pennsylvania-class battleship remains a memorial site.
One of the guns from the USS Arizona was being refurbished on the mainland at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack and during wartime, was refitted on the USS Nevada during WWII. The 67-foot long gun was transported on a special-purpose flatcar from Virginia and joins one of the guns from the USS Missouri- the battleship on which the Japanese formally surrendered to the USA in Tokyo Harbor in 1945- heralding the end of World War II. The Navy reportedly refused the Arizona Capitol Museum's initial request for the barrel from the Arizona but offered them one from the Missouri instead before relenting.
Both guns will be on display at the Wesley Bolin plaza as part of the Arizona Capitol Museum in Phoenix and are on permanant loan from the US Navy.
Twin Cities Western GP39-2 #2300 is seen leading a short freight across the Minnesota/South Dakota state line and over BNSF trackage rights at Big Stone City, SD in January 2013. The train is enroute to the TC&W's newly acquired Sisseton-Milbank Railroad in Milbank, SD. Jeremiah Rindal photo
TWIN CITIES & WESTERN- South Dakota's 37-mile Sisseton-Milbank railroad joined the Twin Cities & Western fold as of last summer. The line between the two South Dakota towns its named after went through a number of operators since the Milwaukee Road's 1982 bankruptcy, including the Milwaukee Road, Dakota Rail and Sisseton Southern. However, the Sisseton-Milbank has been in operation since 1989, interchanging with the BNSF at Milbank, SD.
Between the Twin Cities & Western and affiliated railroads Red River Valley & Western and Minnesota Prairie Line, the TC&W system has more than 800 route miles of track throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. The Sisseton-Millbank is connected to the rest of the TC&W system thanks to trackage rights over BNSF between Milbak, SD and Appleton, MN and represents the TC&W's first foray into South Dakota. Power for the Sisseton-Milbank is a pair of EMD endcab switchers while the TC&W fleet uses a number of Caterpillar re-engined EMDs as well as some EMD end-cab switchers and Geeps.
Chicago, Ft Wayne & Eastern SD40T-2 #3316 is seen leading former BNSF GP50# 4023 with symbol freight FWWA [Fort Wayne- WArsaw, IN] at Arcola, IN on March 7th. The CFW&E is one of many former Rail America properties that Genesee & Wyoming has wasted no time in applying their corporate image on. Matt Weldon photo
RAIL AMERICA- It seems as though the Genesee & Wyoming wasted little time in putting their mark on former Rail America properties. In addition to locomotives on the Chicago, Ft Wayne and Eastern, Connecticut Southern and Indiana & Ohio visitors to Rail America's website are redirected to the Genesee & Wyoming homepage.
The first Rail America locomotive to appear in GWI colors was Central Railroad of Indiana RP20B Genset #2001, which was actually in orange and black before the merger was finalized at the end of December. The former Rail America genset was repainted at Norfolk Southern's Juniata shops in Altoona, PA at the beginning of December 2012. Some other locomotives from Rail America lines to appear in the GWI ornage and black include Chicago, Ft Wayne & Eastern SD40T-2 #3316, repainted at Ohio Central's Morgan Run shops at the end of January [the previously independent Ohio Central was purchased by GWI in 2008- NANESB!] and Connecticut Southern GP38 #2201 which was repainted in New England Central's St Albans, VT shops in the first week of March.
Born to Polish immigrants in the Bronx in 1924, Koch grew up in Newark and was drafted into the Army in 1943, serving as a combat infantryman and earning two Battle Stars with the 104th Infantry Division in France.
After the war, Koch enrolled in NYU's School of Law, recieving his degree in 1948 and going into practice the following year. By the early 1960s, Koch was interested in seeking political office, unsuccuessfully running against an incumbent Democrat for State Assembly in 1962. However, he would serve two years on the New York City Council before successfully running for congress in 1968.
During his time in Congress in the early 1970s, the New York Democrat described himself as transitioning from a liberal to what he called a "liberal with common sense" after hearing a number of complaints from his constituents over proposals from then-mayor John Lindsay- including a ham-fisted attempt to place a 3000-person public housing project in a middle class Queens neighborhood. In 1973, Koch resigned from Congress to run for mayor of New York, but didn't even last through the Democrat primaries.
However, by 1975 New York City had to lay off a number of NYPD officers among other city employees- causing an uptick in street crime accompanying a decline in services. In July 1977, there was a citywide blackout- criminals took advantage of the power outage and an NYPD short on manpower and embarked on a looting and arson spree. In response, Koch positioned himself as a 'Law and Order' candidate and was elected mayor of New York City in 1978.
The city's fortunes gradually began to turn around under Koch and in 1981, he was re-elected in a landslide, running on both the Democrat and Republican Party lines. The following year he briefly entered the race for governor but lost to primary challenger Mario Cuomo.
In 1985, Koch ran for a 3rd term and won by a margin of 78%. However, his third term was also wracked by scandals within City Hall and health problems after suffering a stroke in his office in 1987. During the 1988 Presidential primary, Mayor Koch publicly fueded with Democrat candidate Jesse Jackson. Some speculated this feud with Jackson angered black voters and led to his downfall in the 1989 mayoral election, where he lost to challenger David Dinkins.
After his three terms as mayor, Koch remained in the public eye appearing as a judge on The People's Court and hosting his own radio talk show in the 1990s. More recently, he appeared in a weekly online video segment called Mayor At The Movies as well as appearing as himself in cameos on a number of TV series and films such as The Muppets Take Manhattan and Saturday Night Live.
He also remained involved in politics and would often cross party lines to endorse Republican candidates like George Pataki, Rudy Gulliani, George W Bush and Bob Turner. The former mayor was also something of a foreign-police hawk and staunchly pro-Israel.
In a 2010 forum, Koch said he felt the highlight of his time as mayor was during a 1980 transit strike when he felt the need to do something brash and public.
He strode down to the Brooklyn Bridge to encourage commuters who were forced to walk to work instead of jumping aboard subway trains and buses.
"I began to yell, 'Walk over the bridge! Walk over the bridge! We're not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!' And people began to applaud," the famously combative, acid-tongued politician recalled at a 2012 forum.
His success in rallying New Yorkers in the face of the strike was, he said, his biggest personal achievement as mayor. And it was a display that was quintessentially Koch, who rescued the city from near-financial ruin during a three-term City Hall run in which he embodied New York chutzpah for the rest of the world.
A lifelong bachelor with no known romantic partners, Koch's sexual orientation was the subject of rumor and speculation. During the 1980s, Koch signed off on gay rights ordinances approved by the city council. When pressed on the issue, Koch famously stated “My answer to questions on this subject is simply, ‘Fuck off.’ There have to be some private matters left.”
Koch was survived by his sister, Pat Thaler, and many grandnieces and grandnephews. He will be buried in a plot in the Trinity Church cemetary- his headstone will reportedly have an inscription that were the last words of journalist Daniel Pearl- a US Journalist who was murdered on videotape by Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan in 2002:
“My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.”
After increasing public criticism, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced the cancellation of the 2012 New York City Marathon. This is the first cancellation in the history of the marathon and reverses an earlier decision from the mayor's office to hold the event despite diverting valuable city resources from assisting in the cleanup in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Bloomberg, who as late as Friday afternoon insisted the world's largest marathon should go on as scheduled Sunday, changed course shortly afterward amid intensifying opposition from the city comptroller, the Manhattan borough president and sanitation workers unhappy they had volunteered to help storm victims but were assigned to the race instead. The mayor said he would not want "a cloud to hang over the race or its participants."
We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event — even one as meaningful as this — to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track," Bloomberg said.
No one can say they are truly shocked at the cancellation, but what can be shocking is the announcement so close to the race. Participants might have been able to delay flights, change bookings and released hotel space to people without shelter after power outages. Bloomberg has a little egg on his face after relentlessly insisting the race will go on all last week, only to reverse his decision a day and a half before the race, when most participants are already in the city. The suddenness of it all forced runners to deal with an unexpected twist, what to do with no race?
Many New Yorkers had pointed out that if the marathon went on as scheduled would've diverted much-needed police, fire and public works resources from parts of the city. The on-again-off-again decision-making for the Marathon isn't the only post-Sandy decision that Bloomberg has been criticized for.
Mayor Bloomberg has snubbed Borough President Markowitz’s impassioned plea to bring the National Guard to Hurricane Sandy-scarred Brooklyn — arguing that approving the Beep’s request would be a waste of federal manpower and turn the borough into a police state.
“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”
Markowitz demanded the National Guard’s help just an hour before Bloomberg’s press conference, claiming that the NYPD and FDNY are “brave — but overwhelmed” by all the challenges Sandy brought when it visited the borough on Monday night: flooding, power outages, and looting.
“All of our resources have been stretched to the limit,” Markowitz said. “In the name of public safety we need to send more National Guard personnel into Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, and any other locations.”
Mayor Bloomberg has snubbed Borough President Markowitz’s impassioned plea to bring the National Guard to Hurricane Sandy-scarred Brooklyn — arguing that approving the Beep’s request would be a waste of federal manpower and turn the borough into a police state.
“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”
Markowitz demanded the National Guard’s help just an hour before Bloomberg’s press conference, claiming that the NYPD and FDNY are “brave — but overwhelmed” by all the challenges Sandy brought when it visited the borough on Monday night: flooding, power outages, and looting.
“All of our resources have been stretched to the limit,” Markowitz said. “In the name of public safety we need to send more National Guard personnel into Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, and any other locations.”
Flooding in downtown Norfolk, VA ahead of Hurricane Sandy's arrival on Sunday night. Martin Cornick photo via twitter.
A 'perfect' storm which weather forecasters say is actually a Categroy 1 Hurricane colliding with two smaller storms is set to hit the East Coast beginning late Sunday. While Hurricane Sandy has weakened somewhat after earlier sideswiping Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Cuba last week,
Hurrican Sandy reportedly had winds in excess of 110 MPH and a well-defined eyewall more than 20 miles in diameter by the time it had made landfall on the eastern end of Cuba on October 25th. Although it weakened from a Category 2 to a category 1 Hurricane
Projected path of Hurricane Sandy, dubbed 'FrankenStorm' after it was forecast that it would merge with two other storm systems
Announcement warning of service shutdown at the Long Island RR station in Hicksville, NY. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Public safety employees and utility workers have been warned that they should expect to be working extra shifts over the next several days and in the Big Apple, both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will be closed on Monday. The Statue of Liberty was slated to re-open to the public this weekend after undergoing a series of renovations, but the official re-open date has been pushed back in anticipation of Sandy's impact in the mid-Atlantic region. Not surprisingly, in addition to commuter rail, Sandy/Frankenstorm has already snarled air service throughout the Mid Atlantic region as thousands of flights have been cancelled. On Sunday, Amtrak announced cancellation of passenger service on the northeast corridor north of New York City while service on the Northeast Corridor between new York and Washignton DC is expected to grind to a halt effective Monday.
Sandy is also affecting the upcoming presidential election with both camps cancelling or postponing campaign stops in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
Forecasters anticipate that Sandy/Frankenstorm will move inland in a similar trajectory to Hurrican/Tropical Storm Irene in late August 2011. Vermont and portions of upstate New York were particularly hard-hit, with heavily damaged roads, rail lines and bridges leaving villages in the Green Mountain state isolated from the rest of new England for as long as two weeks.
Breaking Bad- Not just for Albuquerque high school chemistry teachers anymore!
NEW MEXICO: In a development that seemed like all it was missing was Agent Hank Schrader, the Albuquerque, NM office of the DEA announced a series of arrests in New Mexico stemming from an alleged marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine distribution network that included an Albuquerque fireman and two pecan farmers in Southern New Mexico.
[A]uthorities arrested nine people, including the owners of a southern New Mexico pecan farm, in connection with a trafficking and money laundering ring that involved cocaine and heroin.
Prosecutors said the owners and operators of Pettit Farms and Nursery in Anthony, N.M., and their two sons were among those arrested Thursday. They were identified as Oscar Portillo Sr., his wife Sandra Portillo and sons Matthew Portillo and Oscar Portillo Jr.
According to a 24-count indictment, the farm was used as a place to store and sell drugs.
A team of federal, state and local law enforcement officers arrested the defendants Thursday and executed four search warrants, including one at the farm and three others at residences in El Paso, Texas.
Federal prosecutors said the Portillos allegedly sold drugs to an undercover agent on five separate occasions.
The indictment claims the couple asked the undercover agent to pay for the drugs with money orders which they subsequently cashed and deposited into bank accounts in the name of the farm. The agent was provided with invoices asserting that the agent had purchased pecan trees.
Officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration said the investigation targeted a ring that agents believed was responsible for the transportation of cocaine and marijuana shipments from Chihuahua, Mexico, to the U.S.
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque firefighter charged as part of a ring dealing drugs and laundering money with connections to a Mexican drug cartel will stay behind bars until he goes to trial
Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Steve Chavez last week along with 10 others in a major drug trafficking and money laundering operation.
The indictment alleges Chavez's role included shuffling nearly $350,000 in drug money in and out of bank accounts over several weeks last summer.
The feds searched his home where they said they found several loaded guns in the attic. They also reported finding an Uzi-style gun in Chavez's car along with an ounce of cocaine.
The feds added Chavez was dealing because he tested negative for drugs.
The judge said he was concerned about the drugs and types of guns found.
He was also worried that Chavez and other defendants had been spying on DEA at their offices.
A DEA agent testified Tuesday that Chavez talked about that after he was taken in for questioning
Chavez's alleged double-life brings to mind the fictitious Walter White from the AMC TV show Breaking Bad. In that series, Bryan Cranston portrays a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque who begins cooking methamphetamine with one of his former students as a quick means of leaving money behind for his family after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Mexican officials say members of an army special forces unit fatally shot a high-ranking aide to the country's most-wanted drug dealer in a gunfight in the northern state of Durango.
Army spokesman Gen. Ricardo Trevilla said Monday Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia was responsible for the operations of Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel in Durango and part of the neighboring state of Chihuahua.
The army says Sarabia is know as "The Architect," and was named to the role after the December arrest of his brother Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, or "The Engineer."
Sinaloa gunmen traded fire with troops during the operation to arrest Luis Cabrera Sarabia on Friday. One of the gunmen was slain and 11 others were captured. Four soldiers were hurt in the gunfight.
Guzman, who remains at large, also landed near the top the Forbes magazine 'Wealthiest People in the World' list.
Mass grave in Tamaulipas being unearthed last year.
TAMAULIPAS: Police in northern Mexico have arrested a member of Los Zetas who had reportedly confessed to murdering nearly 75 people in the northeastern state. Officials said the arrest was made on January 20, but authorities waited more than a week to make the announcement while details of Enrique Elizondo Flores' confession were being corroborated.
Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said that Elizondo also admitted to killing at least 36 passengers who were pulled off of buses at gunpoint by masked gunmen last year.
Domene said the 35-year-old suspect told investigators he had been working in the area at least three years and that he was in charge of killing members of the rival Gulf drug cartel heading to the towns of Cerralvo and General Trevino. He and other gunmen last January began pulling passengers off of buses as they arrived at Cerralvo's bus station, Domene said.
They are among at least 92 bus passengers that the Zetas are accused of killing in three attacks in January and March 2011. Many the victims were originally from the central state of Guanajuato and had arrived in Cerralvo from the border city of Reynosa, Domene said.
Elizondo distinguished himself ``for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims,'' Domene said.
Last year, Mexican investigators unearthed mass graves near the town of San Fernando, Tamaulipas containing more than 190 bodies- many of them identified as passengers pulled off of buses travelling through Tamaulipas between January and April 2011. Prosecutors say a motive for the mass abductions and killings remains unclear, although they believe that some of the abductions were an attempt to forcibly recruit new members by the Zetas.
A number of police officers from the town of San Fernando were also arrested on suspicion that they were working for the Zetas and complicit in the mass abductions and killings.
The probe came to light after it was learned prosecutors asked transportation officials to keep track of when the officials entered or left the country and advise the Federal prosecutors office of their activities. One airport official in Tamaulipas reportedly overstepped his authority and drafted a memo instructing that the targets of the investigation not be allowed to leave the country.
Although the Attorney General's office declined to name the specific individuals under investigation, three former governors of the state of Tamaulipas came forward and told the media they believed they were the ones under scrutiny.
Eugenio Hernandez, who left office in 2010, told local media he did not know why he was under investigation, and denied any links to organized crime.
Tomas Yarrington, whose term ended in 2004, wrote in a Twitter account linked to his website that he had learned he had been named in the case, and said he hoped authorities would explain why.
Manuel Cavazos, who left office in 1999, called the investigation "suspicious ... coming in an election campaign," and suggested it might have political overtones. He denied any wrongdoing.
All the former governors are members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which held Mexico's presidency for 71 years until President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party won the 2000 presidential elections.
The PRI's de-facto presidential candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, currently leads in polls ahead of the July 1 elections.
Cavazos said "it would not be the first time that law enforcement has been used for political purposes, that has been done since 2000."
Cavazos is running for a seat in the Senate, and Pena Nieto was scheduled to visit Tamaulipas on Feb. 2, according to the PRI
In 2009, Federal officials arrested 12 mayors and 23 other public officials in the western state of Michoacan and charged them with protecting the La Familia cartel. All 35 were later acquited and released.
TEXAS: A Baytown, TX man received an 8-year Federal Prison sentence after being found guilty of selling weapons to the Zetas cartel, including an AK-47 variant that was recovered from the scene of the Feb 15th 2011 killing of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement Officer Jaime Zapata in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Manuel Gomez Barba, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty. Barba admitting that he had an intermediary buy the gun from a Beaumont pawn shop, and he had the serial number obliterated before it was sneaked south of the border.
According to the plea agreement in Houston, Barba recruited "straw purchasers" to buy Century Arms WASR-10 semi-automatic rifles.
Buyers would hand the guns to Barba, who told them they would not be traced back to them because serial numbers were being removed. Barba was not able to legally purchase the guns because he was under deferred adjudication for felony drug charges in Harris County.
It was not disclosed if the rifles that Barba illegally sent to Mexico were part of the BATF's ill-advised Operation Fast & Furious, which involved field-level agents being ordered to let the weapons 'walk' to Mexico while under surveillance.
Vikram Datta, 51, an immigrant from India who started his perfume business in Manhattan, showed no emotion as the sentence was meted out by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
“The defendant has shown little or no contrition,” said Kaplan, who also ordered Datta to forfeit property and $40 million.
A jury found Datta guilty of using his La Versailles Fragance company to launder narcotics proceeds for the Sinaola Cartel.
“This was a successful businessman taking in a ludicrous amount of cash, tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, a day,” said prosecutor Peter Skinner.
Datta laundered Sinaloa drug money through what is known as the Black Market Peso Exchange, which became a favorite of Colombian cartels and traffickers beginning in the 1980s.
Even before the ascendancy of Pablo Escobar and the Colombian cartels, the Black Market Peso Exchange had been around for decades as a way to circumvent Colombian taxes and controls on foreign currency. Buying and selling dollars at the state-run banks in Colombia meant inviting several unwelcome questions on how those dollars were obtained or how they would be spent. The majority of the Colombian cartels' drugs were purchased in dollars, while the higher-ranking members of the cartels preferred to remain in Colombia- thus needing to conduct most business with Colombian pesos- the cartels and drug traffickers needed to find a way around these controls.
The cartels would eventually start selling the US Dollar-denominated drug money to various black market peso brokers at a discount. The broker would then take the dollars to a wholesaler in the USA and purchase quantities of electronics, appliances, cigarettes, liquor or luxury goods and import them to Colombia for the cartels. After the peso broker gets a cut for arranging the purchase and shipment of goods, the cartels then sell off the items at a slight markup in pesos, effectively laundering their drug proceeds and giving them the pesos they need to continue doing business in Colombia.
While Mexico doesn't have the strict control on foreign currencies that Colombia does, the cartels have adapted the methods of the Black Market Peso Exchange to launder their drug money.
Datta’s illegal transactions started slowly but quickly increased, court documents indicate. Transcripts from wiretaps over the next six months, which were admitted at trial, indicate that Datta accepted a $40,000 infusion to one of his stores in California and later agreed to wire $100,000 to customers in New York. According to court documents, over the course of a two-year government sting, he and other co-conspirators deposited more than $25 million of American currency in dozens of bank accounts.
At one point, prosecutors said, Datta told an undercover agent, posing as a perfume vendor, that his business was “just washing the whole money.” In a conversation that he had with the agent in New York in December 2010, captured on wiretap, Datta said that “a lot of cash is coming to me” and that he was “90 percent sure” that it was “all Sinaloa money.”
Datta was arrested in New York City in January 2011 while on his way to meet with the undercover agent. So far, 29 people have been charged in the Black Market Peso Exchange investigation- 20 have been convicted.
At least 70 protesters from the 'Occupy Wall Street protests were arrested by NYPD officers in the early morning hours of Tuesday as they moved to clear the park of squatters.
At around 1 AM, officers began circulating bulletins from Brookfield Property Management- owners of Zucotti Park- asking that those camped out on the property begin gathering up their personal items and leave.
Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner Kelly and Brookfield property management [NYSE: BPO] decided that after weeks of unsanitary conditions, assaults, noise complaints and rapes that the park should be cleared of the demonstrators. As soon as the police removed the last of the holdouts (some of whom had chained themselves to trees) New York City sanitation workers began moving through the park cleaning up tents, garbage and other belongings left behind.
Over the weekend, police in Portland, OR acting on orders from mayor Sam Adams, dismantled two campsites for #OccupyPortland in Chapman and Lownsdale Squares, resulting in one officer injured by a projectile and one protester arrested. By ( AM on Sunday Morning, both parks had been cleared of the occupiers and tents.
Over in the nation's Capital, an Idaho man suspected of firing at the White House reportedly spent time with #OccupyDC protesters. After the White House was peppered with rounds from an AK-style rifle (President Obama was en route to Hawaii for an economic summit), the rifle was found in an abandoned car shortly afterwards.
Pennsylvania state Police arrested the suspected gunman, 21 year old Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho, at a hotel a few hundred miles away in Indiana, PA. Ortega-Hernandez reportedly had prior convictions for domestic abuse, drug possession and assault.
Williamstown, MA looking more like a Christmas card thanHalloween this weekend. AP Photo
Much of the northeast and mid-Atlantic region was socked by an unusually early snowstorm this weekend, knocking down tree branches, shutting down schools, airports or highways and leaving millions without electricity. Some officials say that it could be up to a week before electricity is fully restored in some areas.
From West Virginia to Maine, residents were digging themselves out from as many as 32 inches of snow in some places. Governors throughout the region declared a state of emergency as utility crews and personell worked to restore power, open up roadways and remove falled tree limbs.
In Connecticut, Governor Malloy ordered 900 cots and food brought to Hartford's stranded travellers at Bradley International Airport. Travellers on a Jet Blue flight that was diverted from Newark to Bradley International were stranded on the tarmac for nearly 7 hours with no food, water or functioning bathrooms. Firefighters and paramedics came on board to treat a parapalegic who had trouble with the circulation in his legs before the remaining passengers were eventually bussed to the terminal.
In New York City, Central Park was closed after a woman was injured from being hit by a falling tree limb. Crews have been working to chip the fallen trees and reopen the park in time for the New York City marathon, despite as little as one inch falling on Manhattan. However, the snow was wet and heavy and many of the trees were thought to have been weakened from Tropical Storm Irene passing through in late August.
Also in may 2010, a 21 year old unemployed woman named Roshonara Choudharay who said she was inspired by al-Awlaki's online sermons and articles stabbed Labour MP Stephen Timms at the Beckton Globe library.
Beginning in 2000, al-Awlaki preached in a San Diego area mosque where he met two parishoners who were later identified as Khalid al-Midar and Nawaf al-Hamzi- two of the 9/11 hijackers. The following year, al-Awlaki moved to northern Virginia before heading back to Yemen by way of London in 2002. From Yemen's tribal controlled hinterlands, al-Awlaki delivered sermons and oversaw recruitment for Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninusla, escaping a similar attempt on his life in May of this year.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 crashing in a field in Shanksville, PA after passengers fought with hijackers to retake the aircraft.
It seems difficult to believe that some kids in grade school at the time of the attacks are now old enough to go to college or join the military
The terrorist assault on the United States were preceded by an attack on Afghan Mujaheddin leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, viewed by the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies as the last cohesive group standing in the way of the Taliban taking complete control of Afghanistan. Two days prior to th 9/11 attacks, the veteran Afghan fighter was killed by two suicide bombers posing as a camera crew preparing to interview him.
Massoud's death in a nation wracked by more than two decades of conflict half a world away made little, if any, news in the USA at the time. However, the Taliban's ascendancy to power and their autocratic, fundamentalist rule was very disconcerting to anybody that was even paying the slightest bit of attention.
I distinctly remember a conversation with my father about a week before the 9/11 attacks. My grandfather was from the generation that could remember exactly where they were when they heard that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. My father was from the generation that could remember what they were doing when they got the news when President Kennedy was shot. So what did that leave my generation? The space shuttle Challenger disaster? The Oklahoma City bombing?
When I went to bed the night of September 10th, 2001, my biggest concern was that I had wasted a few hours watching a rather mediocre Monday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos and New York Giants. As I mentioned last year, that all changed in the bloodiest possible manner in less than 12 hours.
And lest we forget, this is how news of the atrocity was met among the parts of the Arab Street.
Although I was several states away and literally slept through the attacks, I was in New York City several weeks after the attacks. From a distance, the Manhattan skyline looked fractured and vacant without the two iconic towers there. I felt compelled to go and see what I could of Ground Zero for myself.
Washington DC Area Firefighters try to get inferno at Pentagon under control after Flight 77 struck the building.
It seemed pretty nondescript up close- acres of debris with floodlights glaring down on the recovery site for volunteers and workers as the days got shorter. The site was surrounded by some barriers and chain link fences, many of them adorned with faded 'MISSING' posters, wilted bouquets and burned out votive candles. One of the fliers struck me as especially poignant- it was from a bagpipe player who was offering his services for free for funerals of those killed in the attacks. Even if only a fraction of the victims loved ones took him up on his offer, the piper who put up the flier would've been quite busy.
On the way to and from the barrier around Ground Zero, one could see smoke lazily drifting up from grates along the sidewalk a few blocks away. Failing to appreciate the enormity of the original WTC site, it eventually dawned on me that these were smaller, isolated fires that had been smoldering underground since the twin towers collapsed. The sickly-sweet smell from the vents was mixed in with the smell of peanuts from a streetside vendor at one corner.
9/11 Tributes Past- Tribute in Light
Even across town from Ground Zero, the walkway into Grand Central station had a massive bulletin board with 'MISSING' posters- this time they were protected from the elements. The City that Never Sleeps had managed to brush itself off and resume a semblance of normalcy, but there was an almost palpable undercurrent of sorrow and uncertainty to go with the stoicism.
[Please note that I'm not trying to make this all about "me me me", just attempting to relate my firsthand but extremely limited experiences pertaining to 9/11 -NANESB!]
I mentioned this last year, but it bears repeating for as long as my fingers can find the keyboard. It's also important to avoid sugar-coating the events of September 11, 2001, such as many in the entertainment industry referring to it in neutral terms like 'tragedy' or 'disaster'. No doubt the end result is tragic, but the Towers didn't collapse in a stiff breeze. The Pentagon didn't get that chunk torn out of due to a ruptured water main. Flight 93 didn't crash in a field in Western Pennsylvania because a bird got sucked into the engine. These were calculated, meticulously planned acts of mass murder by muslim extremists- to gloss over that or say otherwise is a piss-poor attempt at re-writing history.
This is what so many mean when they say 'NEVER FORGET'.
On the plus side, this will be the first anniversary of September 11th without Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden (may he rot in hell), who was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on his Pakistani compound in May.
The first responders are not invited to this year's September 11 memorial ceremony at ground zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office confirmed Monday.
It's a painful insult for many of the approximately 3,000 men and women who risked their lives, limbs and lungs on that monumental day, puncturing another hole in a still searing wound.
In a statement, Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the commemoration ceremony is for the victims' families.
"While we are again focused on accommodating victims' family members, given the space constraints, we're working to find ways to recognize and honor first responders, and other groups, at different places and times," Brent said.
But first responder John Feal, founder of an advocacy group for the police officers, firefighters, civilian volunteers and others who worked at ground zero, assailed Brent's response, saying Bloomberg "lives in his own world."
"The best of the best that this country offered 10 years ago are being neglected and denied their rightful place," Feal said.
Denise Villamia, a first responder who worked at ground zero for several months, cried over the phone as she recalled her "totally heartbroken" reaction to the news that she could not attend the memorial service.
"I'm crying because it's really a big betrayal on the part of the city, to rob me from my way to pay homage and to find that comfort and healing," she said. "I feel that I have been robbed of my way to pay tribute."
In addition to the victims' families, several politicians, including two presidents, are expected to be in attendance
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF prior to his weekend arrest for sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York, was released on $1 million bail and will be electronically monitored as well as being under watch by armed guards around the clock a New York judge has ruled on Firday.
Stauss-Kahn, who was considered by many to be a challenger to current French president Nicholas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections, was arrested NY Port Authority officers at JFK International airport while on board a Paris-bound flight before it departed from JFK International.
According to the NYPD, a hotel maid entered Strauss-Khan's suite on the 28th floor of Manhattan's Sofitel hotel thinking it was vacant. It was there that the 62 year old Strauss-Khan chased her down and pulled her into another bedroom in his suite before sexually assaulting her. The IMF head apparently left in such a hurry that he left his cell phone and a number of personal items behind at the scene after the victim had escaped and called 911. Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF head earlier in the week (some members of the Brazil-Russia-China-India bloc are hoping the new IMF head coupld be replaces with somebody from one of the aforementioned nations).
The Real Estate Board of New York claims that rules dating back to when the International Union of Operating Engineers Locals 14 and 15 were controlled by the Colombo and Genovese crime families in the last decade. Among the affected projects are the Freedom Tower, the nearby transit hub, the 9/11 memorial and surrounding streetwork.
Contractor and union sources confirmed that the eight tower cranes at the WTC site guarantee a bonanza for Local 14 operating engineers and the Local 15 specialists who fix them.
On one day in mid-March, for example, contractors said 56 of 204 Local 14 and Local 15 employees on site held no-work jobs.
The board compiled the statistics in the runup to contract talks with the operating engineers and all the city's construction unions, which start next month.
Many of the jobs are vestiges of an era in which the Colombo and Genovese crime families controlled Locals 14 and 15. Local 14 has been under a federal monitor since 2009.
One example is the full-time Local 14 "master mechanics" the contractor must hire whenever five pieces of heavy equipment or three tower cranes are in use.
With a $135,000 base salary, a master mechanic can make a staggering $405,000 a year with overtime that's guaranteed by six-day, 12- to 16-hour-a-day schedules. Welfare benefits, insurance and other costs hike the annual bill to $700,000 for that one mechanic.
It's a ridiculous requirement, REBNY says, because the manufacturer or crane owner does the repairs, not the contractor's master mechanics.
Instead, they are glorified shop stewards, a part-time job in most unions. With three required on site a day, that should cost about $6.3 million through 2013, the board says.
Master mechanic Carl Carrara Sr., identified as a Genovese associate, was charged in a 2003 racketeering conspiracy as the mob's point man in a no-show scam at the Museum of Modern Art.
He and six other master mechanics pleaded guilty that year in two cases that put much of Local 14 and 15's leadership behind bars.
Local 15 demands a similar piece of the action via "®maintenance engineers." They're required on site full time when a master mechanic is there and three major pieces of equipment are operating in case any machines need fixing.
"There is nothing for these guys to do," a World Trade Center construction supervisor said. Eliminating that requirement would save $7.5 million over three years at Ground Zero, REBNY says.
Then there's the Local 15 position of "crane oiler," a relic from the days when equipment needed frequent lubrication. An oiler is required on site when any tower crane is in use.
Today, the oiler simply fires up the crane at the start of work. With overtime, he can earn more than $100,000 a year.
And there's Local 14's "stationary equipment operator," with one assigned to each compressor, welding machine and spray fireproofer in use. With overtime, they pull down about $110,000 a year, REBNY estimated.
A World Trade Center construction supervisor who asked not to be identified said technology has reduced the job to two simple functions: "They turn the machine on in the morning and turn it off at night," the supervisor said. "They are basically non-essential."
REBNY wants the city to loosen the union's influence over who gets licensed to operate heavy machinery.
Now, only operators with city licenses can work here, and applicants must train with city crane operators - virtually all union workers. That gives the two locals a stranglehold on major projects.
"Locals 14 and 15 have the hammer. They have the power to shut down a job," said Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, which wants to be able to hire nationally licensed crane operators.
