Thursday, December 17, 2009
What are New York City and state sales taxes? How much is added to a restaurant food and service bill? - Made with love
What is the best restuarant in new york city? - Made with love
Some NYC news: Strong health care debate...Climate agreement progress...NYC shooting
NYCWASHINGTON (AP) There is growing unrest among Democrats about sweeping health care legislation party leaders and the White House are backing. Labor leader Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, says the bill has been hijacked by defenders of the insurance industry. That was an apparent reference to two senators, Conn. Independent Joe Lieberman and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson.
COPENHAGEN (AP) Key portions of a climate deal are falling into place at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. would contribute $100 billion a year by 2020. And China has agreed to open its books on carbon emissions to international review.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) The Department of Energy and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert have reach a deal over thousands of drums of low-level radioactive waste from South Carolina. It won't be permanently buried in Utah until stricter state guidelines are put in place. Depleted uranium becomes more radioactive over time.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) A federal civil rights agency investigating possible gender discrimination in college admissions will subpoena data from more than a dozen mid-Atlantic universities. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights wants to determine if some colleges offered men more generous aid packages.
NEW YORK (AP) Police say a gunman shot a man, his son and grandson to death in their Manhattan apartment today. The gunman then fell off a fire escape to his death while fleeing the scene.
In These Times: NYC Transit Workers Hold on to Challenged Raises
NYCTWU Local 100 members protest in New York City. (Photo courtesy of TWULocal100.org)
By Lindsay Beyerstein
New York's transport workers will keep the raises they won in an arbitration deal with the Metropolitan Transit Authority. On Friday, Manhattan Supreme Court judge O. Peter Sherwood rejected the MTA's bid to have the arbitration deal thrown out.
John Samuelson, the incoming president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, called the ruling "a big win for us."
Sherwood found nothing improper or unusual about the arbitration panel's decision (which I reported on for this blog back in August) to give the transport workers a raise in step with raises received by other city workers. TWU workers will get a raise on the order of 11.3%, phased in over the next three years.
It's no secret that city workers' pay rates tend to rise in step. The MTA knew it was hammering out the TWU contract on the heels of pay raises for teachers, garbage collectors, and other New York City workers.
Yet the MTA repeatedly failed to budget for a comparable increase for transport workers. Perhaps officials were overconfident in their own negotiating skills. In any event, the MTA went on to gamble and lose when it submitted its proposal to the arbitration panel. At the end of the day, the panel thought the transit workers put forward a fairer plan.
Regardless, the MTA is now pleading poverty and trying to blame the TWU for its own ineptitude at the bargaining table and in the courts.
The MTA is facing a significant budget shortfall. The agency learned in early December that a controversial new payroll tax that was supposed to add $1 billion to the MTA's budget would bring in $200 million less than expected.
The State Supreme Court ruling comes at a convenient time for the MTA. The transit authority promises to unveil a series of dramatic "doomsday cuts" in service today. Naturally, the transit authority is using the court decision as an opportunity to blame the union while announcing some tough choices that it would have had to make anyway.
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein · government negotiations organized labor · + share/save
New York is the focus John Tortorella fumes as New York Rangers can't muster offense in 2-1 loss to ...
New YorkBY Michael Obernauer
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Originally Published:Wednesday, December 16th 2009, 10:21 PM
Updated: Wednesday, December 16th 2009, 10:21 PM
Dwayne Roloson accused his Islanders earlier in the week of mailing in an effort because they were looking ahead to playing the Rangers. So what exactly were the Rangers looking ahead to Wednesday night, Christmas dinner? Or was it golf in April?
Thirty-three games into the season, the Rangers are on the fast track to oblivion, and they greased the wheels Wednesday night at the Garden in a punchless, passionless and ultimately pointless endeavor, a 2-1 loss to the Islanders in the opener of a pivotal home-and-home between the archrivals. The Rangers lost for the fifth consecutive time and the eighth time in nine games (1-6-2), and if they haven't yet hit rock bottom, there is always the chance of sinking even lower tonight when these teams get together again at the Coliseum.
John Tortorella, fuming after the game, unleashed a profanity-laced tirade over the Rangers' effort and seemed to promise changes for tonight's rematch.
"There has to be something done, and we'll see along the way here, before tomorrow night's game, we'll see where we go with it," Tortorella said. "It's just simply unacceptable how we start that game. And I wish I could give you a ----ing explanation about it; I can't."
Asked what could be done differently tonight, Tortorella said: "Play ----ing harder."
That's about what the Islanders felt they had done following a 7-1 loss to Florida. Roloson made 25 saves last night and came within 55 seconds of his first shutout this season before Enver Lisin's tap-in broke it up with Henrik Lundqvist on the bench. That averted the Rangers' first blanking of the year, even as the goals have come like drips from a busted sink: this was the 17th time in their last 21games that the Rangers have failed to reach three goals, and the 10th time in that span that they have failed to reach two. Technically, Lisin's was the Rangers' first even-strength goal in a span of 231:55, even though it came six skaters against five. "It's unacceptable," said Lundqvist, who gave the Rangers a chance to steal a point. "We're in a really tough spot here, we have to realize that. To play like that in the first period, unacceptable. We all have to look in the mirror right now and see what can we do better to help this team. Because we're not doing enough right now."
Lundqvist, who has started 14 of 15, needs a rest at some point, but can Tortorella gamble on throwing Chad Johnson into this fire tonight for his NHL debut? Shots were 10-1 Isles after 17minutes had been suffered by the grumbling Garden crowd, with the visitors taking the lead for good at 14:25 when the Rangers only hinted at trying to retrieve Mark Streit's red-line dump-in. Wayne Redden's bullfighter defense in behind let Jack Hillen come around the net and fling the puck to the front, where it squirted into the air off Jon Sim's stick and knee, then off Redden's back and over Lundqvist's head. "It's horse---- coverage around the corners, he just brings it around the net; it's just a fluky goal," Tortorella said - and the kind of goal "that we don't get."
Sean Avery was perhaps the only Ranger with much pulse in the early going, but he was a spectator late in the third when Blake Comeau could have cruised a Zamboni in between him and Michael Del Zotto to pot the rebound of Matt Moulson's dump-in slap shot with 3:10 to play. That goal turned out to be the game-winner.
"Home rink against the Islanders, there's no excuse," said Marc Staal. "It's embarrassing."
How is the restaurant 21 in New York City?
Thursdays scandal The City of New York Asks You to Design a Condom Wrapper
NYCAs if to prove once and for all that we are indeed the coolest, most accepting city in the world, NYC has asked its residence to design condom wrappers. If you live in New York and are 17 or older, you can submit a “non-raunchy” design that will replace the colorful NYC-wrapped condoms that spill from the basket attached to your RA’s door. A panel of judges will narrow the selection down to a few finalists, and then residents get to vote for their favorite wrapper online. The winning design will be featured as a “special edition” NYC condom to be unveiled in Fall 2010. It’s a pretty cool contest, and if I possessed any artistic skill at all I’d definitely attempt to create something. Let us know in the comments if you plan on entering. Happy condom designing!
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Tiger Woods' doctor treated Madonna
New YorkNew York (ANI): Tiger Woods’ doctor Dr. Tony Galea had treated Madonna as well, according to sources. The singer is said to have needed Galea's care after falling off her horse in the Hamptons last April.
The Toronto sports-medicine specialist, who was arrested in October after an underling was nabbed at the border with a bag containing human growth hormone, which is banned by most sports leagues, reportedly treated Woods after his knee surgery last year.
Tags: tiger woods, madonna, dr tony galea.
MTA Proposed Cuts
MTA Proposed Cuts
The W line may be eliminated entirely under service cuts proposed by the MTA Finance Committee to be voted on by the agency’s board of directors December 16.
The MTA Finance Committee announced its 2010 budget cuts on December 14, including plans to eliminate subway lines, bus routes and jobs. Among the changes announced are the elimination of the W and Z lines, 21 local bus routes and the shortening of the G and M lines. More than 6,000 non-union workers will receive a ten percent pay cut effective in April 2010. The cuts arose from a $400 million budget loss resulting from a $143 million cut in state funding this year with an additional $49 million in cuts expected next year and a $100 million loss in tax revenue. Another cause for the budget problems is the pay raises which the agency will have to award workers over the next three years.
“These are all direct cuts to scheduled service to the public,” MTA Chief Financial Officer Gary Dellaverson said. “There’s no reason to call them anything other than that.” The agency also announced that it will lay off about 700 workers and will eliminate free MetroCards for students in New York City public schools. Currently about 500,000 school children use the passes to get to school. As a result of the cost cutting plan students will have to pay half price fares starting next year and full fares by 2011. Students are currently eligible based on age and distance from school. The program was once fully funded by the city and state.
“This is very unfair. It will be very, very expensive,” one concerned parent said.
Board members were to vote on the budget Wednesday, December 16. All of these changes could take effect by the middle of next year.
Councilmember James Vacca (D-The Bronx) and Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn (D-Manhattan) on Tuesday joined with leading transportation advocates on the steps of City Hall to urge the MTA board to reject the latest round of service cuts. Vacca and Quinn proposed that the MTA reallocate $140 million of capital funds to close the unexpected gap in its operating budget. Additional funds would come from two sources: more than $90 million in unspent federal money that may be used for operating expenses through a congressionally sanctioned process known as “flex” and roughly $50 million in MTA operating funds that are currently being used to supplement the capital budget for a total of roughly $140 million, approximately $11 million more than the $129 million that staff and service cuts are expected to save.
“If busses and subway services are cut the way the MTA is proposing, we will be creating mass transit deserts throughout New York City, stranding hundreds of thousands of people,” Vacca said. “Once again New Yorkers are paying more and getting less.”
“We normally would not favor using capital funding towards operating expenses,” Quinn said. “Under the circumstances, however, this is the only appropriate action to take.”
The MTA’s decision to hold not a single public hearing for straphangers to voice their opinion on the proposed service cuts is meeting with much criticism and anger.
“Riders have every right to be mad as hell,” Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign said. “This is a real slap in the face. I don’t think they understand how much this shreds the MTA’s credibility.”
Public meetings on the proposed service cuts will be held early next year.
Thursday's shocker - New York Mets reveal Jose Reyes visited Tiger Woods' troubled doctor Tony Galea
New YorkMets shortstop Jose Reyes joined the long list of athletes who have visited Tony Galea's Toronto offices, but unlike many of the doctor's true believers, Reyes says Galea's controversial "blood-spinning" treatment didn't help him.
Reyes, who missed most of the 2009 season after suffering a torn right hamstring tendon, thought the blood-spinning treatment might expedite his return to the lineup. He eventually had surgery to address the injury.
"A lot of people talked about (Galea). I wanted to come back so bad to the field to play, so I say, 'Why not? Let's try this guy and see if he can fix me,'" Reyes said during an interview on WFAN Radio yesterday.
Reyes said the treatment - which Galea also used on embattled golfer Tiger Woods - failed to help him recover. The process - also known as platelet rich plasma therapy or PRP - involves putting a patient's blood in a centrifuge to separate the platelets then injecting the blood back into the patient.
According to Reyes, Galea treated him only with the blood-spinning procedure and did not give him banned performance-enhancing drugs. "No, no, no, nothing like that," said Reyes. "He treat me. I went there. He just did like, PRP treatment for me. It was my own blood."
Galea came under scrutiny after his former assistant, MaryAnne Catalano, was stopped by authorities at the Canadian border Sept. 14 and found to have human growth hormone, Actovegin and "foreign labeled homeopathic drugs" along with Galea's medical bag, according to a criminal complaint and Galea's attorney, Brian Greenspan. Galea's Toronto offices - ISM Health and Fitness and Affinity Health - were also raided by authorities in October.
Catalano admitted she was bringing the drugs into the U.S. for Galea but said that he had no U.S. medical license. Greenspan will appear in a Toronto court tomorrow on behalf of Galea, who faces four charges: criminal conspiracy to import Actovegin to Canada and the U.S., conspiracy to export the drug to the U.S. and smuggling and selling an unapproved drug.
Blood-spinning is legal under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, although in 2010 it will be allowed only for injections into ligaments and tendons, not muscles. Galea has apparently built a large practice around treating athletes with what he says are progressive methods, and word of his approach to healing injuries has quickly spread in the sports world.
Donovan Bailey, the former gold medal-winning Olympic sprinter, told the Daily News that the community of elite athletes and the doctors it uses is close-knit and that Galea is well-respected in those circles.
"I've recommended Tony to many people. He's one of the most prominent doctors in Canada," said Bailey, who added that Galea treated him for a ruptured Achilles in 1999. Some of Galea's other clients include free-agent first baseman Carlos Delgado, Olympic swimmer Dara Torres and NFL quarterback Chris Simms. He is the team doctor for the Toronto Argonauts football team and has worked with the Canadian Olympic Team, top skiers, figure skaters and tennis players.
Many of the "friends" listed on Catalano's Facebook page are former athletes or have ties to the athletic world.
Sgt. Marc LaPorte of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told The News Wednesday night that the RCMP does not know where the drugs Catalano was carrying across the border were going. That part of investigation, he said, is being conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
With Peter Botte
New York Post - Fed task force for 9/11 trial
NYCThe FBI is forming a squad to assist prosecutors in the upcoming New York trials of Sept. 11 terror suspects.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said yesterday the squad will include agents, analysts and other professional support staff with experience working on major trials and investigations.
He says the squad will function as a task force with members from the NYPD, Port Authority Police, FDNY and several other agencies.
Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder announced self-declared 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four accused henchmen will be tried in a court near Ground Zero.
I was completely stunned by: MTA Passes Wide Range of Service Cuts
Nearly every bus, subway and commuter rail rider in New York stands to be affected by a punishing slate of service cuts that was approved on Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is struggling to fill a sudden financial shortfall of more than $400 million.
The plan, which does not include a fare increase in 2010, strips back some of the advances to New York City’s transit system in the past decade — eliciting outrage from the city’s top elected officials and community leaders, some of whom spoke against the plan at the board meeting on Wednesday before the vote was taken.
The cuts would create more crowding on subways and buses, reduce frequency during weekends, late nights and weekday afternoons, and wholly eliminate two minor subway lines, the W and the Z. Service on dozens of bus lines would be reduced or ended, and disabled riders would find it more difficult to get around.
But the most controversial proposal is a plan to phase out free fares for more than half a million students who currently receive free or discounted rides on the transit system. Half the discount would be erased in September 2010, with the rest swept away by September 2011 — an idea that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has labeled “unconscionable.”
The vote was 12-0; one board member, Norman I. Seabrook, was not present, but indicated in a letter to the board that he would have voted against the plan.
Jay H. Walder, the authority’s recently appointed chairman, laid out a frank assessment of the authority’s shortcomings: “In the two months that I’ve been here, it’s apparent to me that we don’t operate in a way that ensures that every taxpayer dollar that we receive is being used as effectively as possible.”
He pledged to undertake a top-to-bottom review of the agency’s finances. “In short, we need to take the place apart,” he said, adding that he regretted that he could not avoid the cuts. “I wish there was a way to do it fast enough to take the things off the table that we’re talking about today; I don’t think we can.”
The elimination of the student discounts attracted a series of furious speeches on Wednesday morning in the fifth-floor boardroom at the authority’s headquarters on Madison Avenue. “You sit here and bring anxieties to young children,” City Councilman Charles Barron said. “What do you want them to do? Jump the turnstiles and turn them into criminals?”
His remarks were greeted by cheers from dozens of protesters attending the meeting.
The authority is attempting to plug a financial shortfall of nearly $400 million that appeared in startlingly quick fashion. Late last month, state legislators cut $143 million out of the authority’s budget; state accountants then determined that a payroll tax dedicated to mass transit financing would produce $100 million less revenue than initially thought. Finally, late last week, a court ruled that the authority must pay significant raises to transit workers, adding tens of millions of dollars in expenses.
Jeffrey A. Kay, a mayoral appointee to the board, denounced state legislators for “pulling out the rug” from the transportation authority.
“They were the ones who put together a deal and said you are fine for the next two years; it was their deal that fell apart,” Mr. Kay said in an angry speech. “The politics has to stop. The public and the riders have to go through this, and they’re caught in the middle of it.”
None of the cuts would take effect until June at the earliest. A fare increase of 7.5 percent is already scheduled for 2011.