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Allegations of disturbing practices at Target Stores

It has been alleged that Target Stores – Brooklyn residents may be familiar with the outlet in the Atlantic Center – employ a business model whose labor-cost component relies on most employees working 8 hours or less per week. This makes it very unlikely that they’ll receive overtime, and, if we understand company practices, prevents eligibility for health insurance and other benefits.

If true, this may be what economists call “a race to the bottom,” in which competitors compete to spend less on labor, safety, quality control, in order to obtain or maintain competitive advantages (such as price and profit margin).

In Financial 411: Labor Unions Eye a New Target WNYC’s Financial 411 today reported  those allegations. Link to audio stream – and more complete piece.

We’ve only learned of this in the last few hours; we’ll try to verify or refute the allegations and provide an update tomorrow.

If true, we think it may incumbent upon us as a community to consider shopping elsewhere; the WNYC coverage included a report that one employee fortunate enough to have three shifts per week was still eligible to – and needed – food stamps.

After hearing this report, we had a household discussion about how much we’d’ spent at Target. I’m proud to live in Brooklyn not least because of its historical opposition to slavery. This conduct – again, if true – is not slavery. But they have in common avarice, the bullying of the powerless by the wealthy – and an unhealthy emptiness where one would expect to find a working moral compass.

If any of our readers are familiar with the facts or parties firsthand, we’d like to hear about it in the comments.

Brooklyn D.A. accuses local man of clever extortion attempt

The Office of Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn  (Kings County) District Attorney has indicted Samuel Kellner with an accusation of a rather clever extortion scheme.  The Grand Jury has alleged the following:

Mr. Kellner, aware that Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was facing charges prosecuted by the Kings County District Attorney, induced children to report additional, false allegations against Rabbi Lebovits – and offered to make them go away for $400K.

Consider the position of one formally accused of child molestation; the evidence which supports the accusation has satisfied the prosecutor, a Grand Jury, and at least one judge. There would attach a natural skepticism towards any denial, and credulity – with good reason – towards victims, or (purported) victims who come forward only after  learning that others have made the charge. (Lebovit was, in fact, convicted of the original charges in 2010, and was sentenced to 10 2/3  years to 32 years in jail).

It is, sometimes, difficult for prosecutors to see the possibility that a defendant is, in fact, an innocent person falsely accused. To consider and act upon the hypothesis that a guilty person has been falsely accused is a greater accomplishment, and, we think, a sign of intellectual and moral integrity.

Cuomo expresses reservations about Indian Point

Bob Hennelly of WNYC reports that Governor Cuomo, with NRC 20-year relicensing of Indian Point on its agenda, has Nuclear Power Iconexpressed substantial concern about the inherent risk of Indian Point operation. From Cuomo Reiterates Concerns about Indian Point Nuclear Plant: (Information about the Ramapo fault is below the jump)

Governor Andrew Cuomo said he’s concerned over a report that one of the nuclear reactors at the Indian Point power plant along the Hudson River is on an earthquake fault line, and is checking into the matter.

Cuomo said it was a “surprise” to him that a federal study, first reported on MSNBC, finds Indian Point may be the nuclear plant most susceptible to possible damage from a massive earthquake in the nation.

One of the reactors is built very near an earthquake fault line.     Continued…

The Christie Brand

Don’t Miss The Chris Christie Brand | A Primer on New Jersey’s Biggest Political Star  web-only, November 26, 2010, by Sarah Kate Kramer / Sarah P. Reynolds as part of WNYC’s “It’s a Free Country.” Here’s an excerpt, but the whole article, plus video the two Sarahs have assembled, make it a must-read.

Since New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s win over Democrat Jon Corzine last November, he has emerged as one of the most popular figures of the Republican party, largely for being unafraid to say what’s on his mind.

Christie has girth (he’ll tell you himself) and commands attention in a room with his straight-talk, humor and a fiery nature that has led him to tell off a heckler or two at rallies and town hall meetings. He also seems to take his politics and his position as New Jersey’s governor very seriously. He even has an online shop. Check out the merch.

The Governor’s bold commentary and interaction with his public audience have garnered viral interest as well; he’s become a YouTube star.  At one of his town hall meetings last month, he responded curtly to a teacher’s angry question about cuts to education saying, “if what you want to do is put on a show and giggle every time I talk, then I have no interest in answering your question.” The video has over 760,000 hits.

Many have questioned his tone, but he calls it “honest and refreshing.”  On Meet the Press, Christie responded, “I don’t send smoke signals. They know who I am. They know how I feel about issues.” On Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on November 24, Christie told viewers, ”We inherited a mess and we’re trying to fix it. But I’m having fun along the way.

Bob Hennelly on the trail of Governor Chris Christie

From Chris Christie’s National Platform at Local Town Halls,  by Bob Hennelly, WNYC’s Chief Political Reporter for the Empire and Garden States:

On Wednesday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie goes to Washington to give a high profile speech to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

No doubt the national audience will hear some version of the stump speech that Governor Chris Christie has honed in more than 20 animated town halls that have become YouTube sensations.

The crowds have been building and they come for his bluntness and maybe for his form of roller derby rhetorical slam down.

At the Lincoln Park Park Police Athletic Center on Tuesday, it was standing room only. The media risers were packed with cameras. Governor Christie’s backdrop: a massive American flag.

He told the crowd that New Jersey could no longer afford the benefits it gives its state workers. To drive his point home, he said that as an asthmatic, he paid more for health care when he served as US Attorney than he does now as governor. It is just that self-effacing directness that keeps them coming back for more.

“When I was on the federal plan paying much more in premiums, my copay at the pharmacy when I went to pick up my inhaler was $55,” said Christie. “Since I started working for you,” — think a Lewis Black inflection here — “I’d go to the pharmacy and pick up my inhaler, it is $15.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Photo by Bob Hennelly/WNYC.org

In answer to a question on the impact of President Obama’s health care overhaul, Christie said “Obamacare” would only make the state’s Medicaid funding crisis worse, something the White House disputes.

“You put your finger on the biggest problem with Obamacare, which is Medicaid and what is going to explode — Medicaid costs, which by the way, we share 50 percent of those costs and this year alone in our Medicaid system in New Jersey we have a $1.4 billion dollar deficit.”

When small business woman Shelia Brown got up to ask why Governor Christie had not joined in with the dozens of other states challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act, Christie said he wanted “New Jersey taxpayers to get a free ride for once.” He reasoned why pay lawyers to do what so many others were already doing. He said if the federal courts ultimately declare the law unconstitutional in any state, New Jersey would be the beneficiary of that ruling as well.

Christie is a confident man who thinks he’s having a national impact just a year in office. He says he’s not running for President in 2012, but he projects like a national player.

Link to “Chris Christie’s National Platform at Local Town Halls,” audio via WNYC. For local radio listeners, that’s also 93.9 FM, and AM 820.

 

Doubts about Christie’s Evidence and Reasoning

Governor Christie seems to be contending – as an intermediate premise which is part of a larger argument against public health insurance, that he paid $55 for an inhaler through health insurance provided to him as part of his employment with the United States Department of Justice;  and $15 for what is implied to be an identical inhaler purchased during his employment as Governor of New Jersey.  Conversations with two former Assistant United States Attorneys and an official with Justice Department headquarters and public-health experts all had questions about the Governor’s premises and reasoning

  1. DOJ employees pick from a variety of health plans, and a variety of prescription-medication insurance plans; on some plans, there are co-pays and deductibles -  which would make the first inhaler of the year more expensive.
  2. The price of the medication may have dropped in the interim, quite likely if the patent has run.
  3. The Governor of New Jersey may have a more generous health plan than the average New Jersey state worker.

If Governor Christie uses information and arguments like this, several possible inferences come to mind: first, that he doesn’t think much of the intelligence of his audiences, and second, dishonest argumentation of this sort is, alas, unlikely to do much to slow his ascent. Some people like being fooled, and others, in on the con, like cheering such performers on -  shills, in effect, for those in the audience – the rubes – reaching for their wallets.

We can safely infer that, even on the record, being recorded, he’s not risk-averse. Stay tuned.  If you want to follow Governor Christie’s performance – whether as Ronald Reagan or Icarus it’s too early to tell, subscribe to these WNYC feeds:

Bob Hennelly Feed (Atom)

chris christie Feed (Atom)

 

Firefighter Indicted for Hit-and-Run, “texting while driving,” killing pedestrian

From the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, press release dated December 21st:

Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the indictment of Pat Quagliarello, 39, for speeding and texting on his phone while driving, hitting and killing a pedestrian, Manuel Tzajguachiac.

Quagliarello surrendered today before being arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court on charges including Leaving the Scene of an Incident without Reporting, Criminally Negligent Homicide, Reckless Driving and several traffic violation laws. Bail was set at $50,000. If convicted, he faces a maximum of two-and-a-third to seven years in prison.

On October 10, 2010, at approximately 12:30 AM, Quagliarello was driving eastbound towards the intersection of 65th Street and 20th Avenue at a high rate of speed, according to the indictment. The indictment charges that the defendant, a firefighter, was texting on his cell phone, when he crashed into the pedestrian, who later died. After the collision, the defendant is charged with fleeing the scene, leaving the victim lying in the street.

Search warrants were issued for Quagliarello’s car and home, and the victim’s DNA was found on the defendant’s car, according to the indictment.

On the  face of things, the hit-and-run charge seems quite straightforward – assuming the DNA test is accurate. Proof of texting-while-driving seems more of a challenge.

Whatever the facts and outcome in this particular case we think that vehicular injuries are epidemic in Brooklyn. Criminal prosecutions will, without question, be part of reducing them. But we need to build a social consensus that (1) driving is inherently dangerous; (2) the acceptable number of vehicle-related deaths is none at all.

“Between The Folds” – film screening at NYC Resistor – Thursday 16 December

NYC Resistor is screening Between The  Folds“, a 2010 Peaody-Award winning film , “A documentary exploring the science, art, creativity and ingenuity of many of the world’s best paper folders.” It’s going to be aired on PBS in January 2011 , but the NYC resistor screening this week is free.

Update: apparently the 12/16 screening is fully booked – but NYC Resistor will be screening it again on Monday, January 10, 2011 at 11:00 PM.  See the NYC Resistor Calendar for further details.

NYPD Officer on trial for New Jersey armed robberies

Just learned about this case. If the allegations are true, not only was a NYPD officer committing armed robberies, he was violating the city’s residency rules by living in New Jersey. From NorthJersey.com:

FBI used cellphone data to track suspect in Carlstadt perfume heist
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Last updated: Thursday December 9, 2010, 5:59 PM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
The Record
STAFF WRITER

Using cell phone data, an FBI agent Thursday traced the path that a New York City police officer traveled on the day he allegedly led a band of rogue cops in the armed robbery of a Carlstadt perfume warehouse.  As part of her analysis, FBI Special Agent Theresa Reilly plotted a series of 42 points on a map, based on the locations of cell towers that handled calls from Kelvin L. Jones’ cellphone, to corroborate testimony from several co-conspirators regarding his movements on Feb. 9, the day of the heist. The calls started in the morning in lower Manhattan near the home of one of the robbers, moved to Jersey City, where two of the six box trucks used in the holdup were rented, then on to Carlstadt and Edgewater before ending in Yonkers, N.Y., where Jones resides.

Jones’ cellphone was a pre-paid phone that he purchased without a contract, so there was no subscriber information that could be traced back to him, Reilly said. But Reilly linked the phone number to the defendant though a billing statement from an auto shop where Jones had his BMW 750 serviced, and records from the moving company that he hired when he moved to Yonkers from West New York. Jones had previously lived in the St. Moritz apartment tower overlooking the Hudson River in Edgewater and had a friend who also lived there, the agent said.

The brittle nature of insufficient risk awareness: smash-and-grab on Caton Avenue

We’ve spent nearly a decade in the neighborhood. In that time, few indicators of petty crime. Last night, someone put a brick through our car window and took our GPS. We’d become complacent about leaving the GPS in view. It feels as though something has changed – but perhaps it’s only a matter of our situational awareness becoming more accurate. Either way – not good news.

The car was parked on Caton, which seems to bear heavy vehicle traffic late into the night and early hours. Let’s hope it’s an anomaly and not a leading indicator.

FCC CONFIRMS INVESTIGATION INTO VERIZON WIRELESS’ MYSTERY FEE

Via the FCC ((pdf link to press release here; also .doc format and plain text [i.e. .txt])):

According to Michele Ellison, FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief:

We can confirm reports of an FCC investigation into mystery fees that appeared on Verizon Wireless

bills costing over 15 million Americans tens of millions of dollars. Reportedly, Verizon itself has put the

amount of overcharges at more than fifty million dollars dating back two years.

“The FCC Enforcement Bureau began looking into this matter ten months ago after reports from consumers about these mystery fees. Our role is to protect American consumers and give them a voice. Consumers have a right to receive straight bills and to get straight answers when they question them. “We’re gratified to see Verizon agree to finally repay its customers. But questions remain as to why it took Verizon two years to reimburse its customers and why greater disclosure and other corrective actions did not come much, much sooner. The Enforcement Bureau will continue to explore these issues, including the possibility of additional penalties, to ensure that all companies prioritize the interests of consumers when billing problems occur.

Local company Cell2Get.com successfully challenges mobile phone carrier unfair practices

Brooklyn-based CellToGet.com s   has successfully petitioned the FCC, winning a ruling that unlocking  a mobile phone is entirely legal.  We’ll have more on this after reading the FCC decision.

15 lb. dog mauled and killed by two huskies in Carroll Garden dog run

A 15 lb. dog mauled and killed by two huskies in Carroll Garden dog run on September 27th, according to FIDO. A man and his two huskies, apparently banned and unpopular closer to home, have been going to other runs further and further away.

Alas, our city of eight million has fewer than two dozen animal control officers; I’m afraid it may take some time for the authorities to resolve the matter.

Rock Hackshaw on Charlie Rangel – r8NY.com

Rock Hackshaw has published a lament, a tale of failed promise. It’s about Charles Rangel, war hero, political leader. good guy. Rock’s essay, I suspect, is going to  be reprinted often, and I excerpt it here with some reservation, because I urge readers – whatever district they live in – to read Rock’s entire piece, Oh Charlie! Charlie! So here are excerpts – but read the whole article on Rock Hackshaw’s Blog on Room Eight.

As personalities go, Charlie is as warm a politician as they come. I loved to hear and see him laugh -even when he was squirming. I loved to hear him tell his jokes. There was a time when I found him to be inspiring: so too his sidekicks David Dinkins, Basil Paterson and Percy Sutton. But you cannot analyze these guys, their accomplishments and contributions, without looking at where we are as a community (black) compared to when these guys came along and picked up the reins.

When only 1 in every 40 black males alive graduated from college last year; when one in four black male students graduated from high school in NYC last year; when joblessness in the black community was at record highs last year; when blacks made up nearly half of all murder victims nationwide last year; when black victims of gun violence runs way over the natural demographic; when blacks made up a little more than half of all those incarcerated nationwide last year; when black wealth diminished when compared to whites (since 1980 BTW); when last year it was commonplace to find everyday discrimination in banking, housing, employment, insurance, education, business opportunity, etcetera, etcetera; we as a race (negroes) must step back and evaluate the job being done for us in the legislative and administrative corridors of justice, government, business and power, by our so-called leaders and our elected officials. It is that simple. And it is not about blame: it is about the reality. We have to look at all three levels of government and all three branches too, and evaluate how well certain people are performing in our interest: especially the ones we elect to high positions.

Unfortunately in the politics of most black communities, we throw up personalities more so than true leaders. We create a political class which does quite well for certain individuals, their relatives, friends, cronies, backers and enablers; but not so well for the black masses at large: the people they purport to represent at the highest levels of power. What saves the day for all of us in US society, is that the black masses haven’t been recently mobilized, agitated, politically educated and organized for rebellion and social unrest.

A lot of these black politicians are now wealthy beyond their wildest beliefs (pre-election). Politics in the black community has evolved into a self-aggrandizement exercise. And as the power of the black voting base erodes it will be even harder to address the myriad issues facing our community as we elect less and less blacks to office in the future.

Disclosure: my I worked on Rock’s last campaign, and will do so again.

Brave New World Rep brings “As You Like It” to Prospect Park

 

Brave New World Repertory Theatre

 

This video of the Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s current season was enough to persuade me that I wanted to see their production of As You Like It at the Concert Grove in Prospect Park on July 29, and again on August5th and 12th (all Thursday evenings, from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M).

Brave New World Rep is the same Ditmas-Park based company that did a brilliant production To Kill A Mockingbird on local streets, front yards and balconies in 2005.

They’ve also announced performances of “Halloween One-Acts” for October (details to follow).

 

Hamilton Dog House Summer Celebration and Adoption Event

Sesn Casey Animal Rescue is holding a block party,  summer celebration and adoption event this weekend:

Saturday July 18, 2009 ~ Noon–5:00 p.m.
At Hamilton Dog House, 155 E 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY
(between Caton Ave and Ft Hamilton Pkwy)


Food, drinks, music, prizes & goodies for our 4-legged friends!
Come visit our cuddly adoption pets – maybe even take one home!
For more information, contact Charles Henderson at
(718) 436-5163 or charles.seancaseyanimalrescue@gmail.com,
or click the event title for a mini PDF Poster with all
the info!
Feel free to print it out & spread the word!



Demonstration and free two-week class offer: Sensei Serge Sognonvi and Carmen Sognonvi open Urban Martial Arts School in Ditmas Park

The short version: new martial-arts school has  opened in the neighborhood. Ages 4 and up. Looks pretty good, and if we were in the wagering trade, we’d bet that they give good classes, they’re going to do well, and in the course of that, make a good contribution to our community.

It’s been my experience, for the most part, that certain enterprises have to be a labor of love to sustain themselves, and sometimes profitability (or economic survival) pull against the core work. It’s true of dance companies, theater companies, dog breeders (doing better breeding require more exogamy, and higher costs). It’s often true of martial-arts schools, and many, perhaps most, but certainly not all, martial-arts schools’ quality goes down when the marketing intensity goes up.

I spent the better part of two decades in a dojo in manhattan where the student population never hit 200. The school is gone, but the relationships still exist (and there’s some training, in Japan, in New York, the Caribbean, elsewhere) but not on  six-day a week basis. Senseis  ((Sensei – pronounced SENSE-say – is the japanese term for “teacher, ” and the same characters are used in several Chinese dialects. Here’s a better explanation excerpted from Wikipedia’s entry for “sensei:” “Japanese title used to refer to or address teachers, professors, professionals such as lawyers, CPA and doctors, politicians, clergymen, and other figures of authority.[1] The word is also used to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill: accomplished novelists, sweepstakers, musicians, and artists for example are addressed in this way. The Japanese expression of sensei shares the same characters as the Chinese word, pronounced xi?nsh?ng in Mandarin. Xiansheng is a courtesy title for a man of respected stature. It can also be attached to a man’s name to mean “gentleman” or, more commonly, “mister”. Prior to the development of the modern vernacular, xiansheng was used to address teachers of both genders; this has fallen out of usage in Standard Mandarin, though it is retained in some southern Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka where it still has the meaning “teacher” or “doctor”. In Japanese, sensei is still used to address people of both genders. It is likely both the current Southern Chinese and Japanese usages are more reflective of its Middle Chinese etymology.”)) Serge Sognonvi and Carmen Sognonvi, the husband and wife proprietors of Urban Martial Arts, which I think is probably an exception to the rule. They know how to use the Net, how to make people aware of their  existence, and they’ve got an interesting blog as well. There are some thoughtful posts about bullying which might be of great use to parents, teachers -and great benefit to school-age children.

Their open demonstration/trial class is this Friday evening; here are the details:

FREE MMA Training Workshop
Friday, July 16, 2010 from 7-8 pm
Urban Martial Arts
965 Coney Island Ave (near Newkirk Ave) in Brooklyn, NY 11230

Continued…

Streb Laboratory – new performances, and a new type of production entirely “SLAM Inclusive” – through May 23rd

The Streb Laboratory is back home in is laboratory in Williamsburgh for a few weeks while they work on new material,and revise existing material with the same intensity, elan and infectious enthusiasm. But now mad scientist/super hero Elizabeth Streb has come up with a way to capture some of that infectious energy. Certain performances – dubbed “S.L.A.M.  ((Streb Laboratory for Action Mechanics) Inclusive – are followed by an introductory PopAction class, and an introductory trapeze class. a discussion with Ms. Streb and her amazing cohort of catapulting co-conspirators. All this for an extra $10 over the bargain ticket price of $20.

Ms. Streb is fond of rearranging the artistic universe. With SLAM Inclusive, she’s rearranging the geography of the relationship between artist and audience. Rather than underscoring the difficulty, the inaccessibility of their work, Streb and the company share the pleasure of their craft, demystifying it and removing or at least rearranging the barriers between performer and audience. That may be even more radical than the work itself which, in seven years of watching the company, never fails to move me. I’ve taken classes at SLAM, and had occasion to move the odd chair, usher and sweep up, and there have been times when I’ve seen the same show as many as four times in a weekend. The last performance is always as exciting as the first.

If you’ve never been, go.

Scheduling and ticket information here. The current production, called “Run Up Walls,” will only be around through May 23rd. The company (in addition to SLAM Inclusive, which is new – adding a large class immediately after a performance) also regularly teaches children and adults.

Streb Laboratory for Action Mechanics.

NYPD innovates in statistical manipulation

In a disturbing – but, alas, unsurprising – report in the Times of February 6th, William K. Rashbaum reports that NYPD precincts, in order to revise downwards the value of items reported stolen (making, for instance, a grand larceny – a felony – into a petit or “petty” larceny – a misdemeanor) have resorted to on-line shopping:

More than a hundred retired New York Police Department captains and higher-ranking officers said in a survey that the intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics, according to two criminologists studying the department.

The retired members of the force reported that they were aware over the years of instances of “ethically inappropriate” changes to complaints of crimes in the seven categories measured by the department’s signature CompStat program, according to a summary of the results of the survey and interviews with the researchers who conducted it.

The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.

In interviews with the criminologists, other retired senior officers cited examples of what the researchers believe was a periodic practice among some precinct commanders and supervisors: checking eBay, other Web sites, catalogs or other sources to find prices for items that had been reported stolen that were lower than the value provided by the crime victim. They would then use the lower values to reduce reported grand larcenies — felony thefts valued at more than $1,000, which are recorded as index crimes under CompStat — to misdemeanors, which are not, the researchers said.

Others also said that precinct commanders or aides they dispatched sometimes went to crime scenes to persuade victims not to file complaints or to urge them to change their accounts in ways that could result in the downgrading of offenses to lesser crimes, the researchers said.

Retired Officers Raise Questions on Crime Data in The New York Times

Added to an institutional culture which specifically rewards certain behaviors (arrests made towards the end of a shift, or on days which will require court appearances on scheduled days off tend to generate more overtime payments than other arrests) – it’s not a good recipe for effective law enforcement.

Sugar – lost in Prospect Park in this morning’s snow

Another animal lost today – Sugar went missing in the snow this morning in the Long Meadow near Grand Army Plaza.Contact information available on the FIDO lost animal page.

Sugar - missing from Long Meadow during today's snow

Sugar - missing from Long Meadow during today's snow

Have you seen this cat?

Chunky - missing as of February 10th

Chunky - missing as of February 10th

Chunky, missing as of last night from 226 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn – or more precisely, the back yards on the block bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and Carroll and President Streets. Kathryn Drummer, with whom he normally resides, is very eager to have him back. Please report finding or sighting to her at kadrummer at gmail dot com – or by telephone on (917)   364-6752 (mobile) or on   (718) 636-8976.

Via the “Lost” page of FIDO Brooklyn.


Bad Behavior has blocked 222 access attempts in the last 7 days.