Yonkers Tribune

Read The Westchester Guardian - August 4, 2011 Edition

Read The Westchester Guardian - August 4, 2011 edition

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Financial Times Report Obama Announces Deal on US Debt Limit

President Barack Obama announced on Sunday night that US Congressional leaders had reached and agreement on a tentative deal that would extend the debt ceiling and avoid a US default, ahead of the opening of Asian markets.  He said there was a framework in place to cut spending and guarantee further deficit-reduction steps to “end the crisis that Washington imposed on America”. He said that the process had “been messy and taken far too long,” leaving him concerned about the impact on business confidence and consumer confidence. The president gave assurances that the deficit cutting “won’t be a drag on a fragile economy”.  http://link.ft.com/r/S4XZQQ/AM5UFH/69ASY/EWM9D3/C44RNJ/YT/h?a1=2011&a2=7&a3=31

 

 

Eye on Theatre: Not Up To Gold Standard By JOHN SIMON

<<The Silver Tassie by Sean O Casey, Photos by and courtesy of Stephanie Berger

As the old joke has it, what do you get when you crossbreed a Mafioso and a semiologist? An offer you cannot understand. That’s what I felt at Ireland’s Druid Theatre Company’s offering of Sean O’Casey’s The Silver Tassie at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival. The Hibernian brogue is thick enough to be cut with a buzzsaw, and my brain couldn’t negotiate more than ten percent of it. This despite the fact that I reread the play a couple of days before.

New York Civic Suffer Little Children By HENRY J. STERN

Mattingly Leaves ACS, Presided Over Tragedies but Reformed the Agency.

Judge Richter is Successor.

John B. Mattingly is retiring as Commissioner of the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) after seven years in the trenches. At the age of 66, he will return to the child welfare foundation he headed in Baltimore.

His departure is in striking contrast to Jay Walder's jumping ship after 21 months at the MTA to take a far more lucrative position running a railroad in the Orient. Yet Walder may have performed a service by his surprise exit. His manner had alienated many of the people he had to deal with, and the financial chasm between receipts and expenditures had only widened, although through no fault of Walder's.

Yonkers Federation Of Teachers Denounce the False and Inflammatory Statements Made by Yonkers Mayor Amicone Regarding Judge Giacomo’s Recent Court Ruling

YONKERS, NY -- Yonkers Federation of Teachers President Pat Puleo said, “As usual Mayor Amicone has his facts wrong. The teachers union had little to nothing to do with the recent court ruling; the issue was between Office of Inspector General Dan Schorr and the YFT Welfare Fund. The Welfare Fund is a totally separate entity from the union. The YFT Welfare Fund is comprised of teacher representatives, administrator representatives, and a representative of the Yonkers Board of Education Trustee. [Editor’s Note: The Yonkers Board of Education Trustee is an appointment made by Mayor Phil Amicone.]

Analysis: Yonkers Mayor Amicone Continues to Play the Blame Game By HEZI ARIS

Yonkers Mayor Amicone addressed Assemblymen Mike Spano. J. Gary Pretlow, and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins by letter admonishing them with regard to their letter of July 21, 2011, to Governor Andrew Cuomo, in which they requested discretionary funding for pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) and sports programs to benefit the Yonkers Public School District. Mayor Amicone admonished the three most prominent members of the Albany Delegation in his letter o them dated July 25, 2011

Mayor Amicone's seething verbal dressing down of the Albany Delegation asserts that Yonkers Board of Education (YBoE) Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio informed him that neither he nor the Board of Education Trustees, appointed to the board by Mayor Amicone, were consulted prior to the Albany Delegation addressing Governor Cuomo. Mayor Amicone’s tirade grew to greater heights of termerity when Mayor Amicone suggested the Albany Delegation is ignorant of the needed resources required by the YPS. His harangue continued when he stated further that he has implored them to comprehend that the YPS are desperately in need of and deserving to receive a fair share of education funding. Mayor Amicone escalated his contention that the Albany Delegation had acted on their own rather than having acted in unison and by his implied direction, especially in their communication with Governor Cuomo.

 

Turner Demand of President Obama: 'Stop Paying Palestinian Terrorist Salaries'

New York, NY -- Businessman and congressional candidate Bob Turner (R-C, NY-9) today demanded that the Obama Administration stop paying the salaries of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons. The issue is reported in today's Jerusalem Post.

The jailed terrorists are being paid an aggregate $5 million per month by the Palestinian Authority, which is given the money by the U.S. government, the report says. Mr. Turner said that the $5 million in monthly US payments should be halted immediately.

Astorino Meets HUD Secretary Donovan on Ruling in Westchester’s Housing Settlement

WASHINGTON, DC – Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino met in Washington D.C. today with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan. Following the meeting, he met with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Reps. Nan Hayworth and Nita Lowey.

Here is a statement he issued:

Ed Koch Commentary: Potpourri - Death Penalty, Medical Marijuana, Easing Up on Bankers, and Taxes By ED KOCH

The death penalty was recently the subject of a Times op ed by David R. Dow, entitled “Death Penalty, Still Racist And Arbitrary.”  In a letter to the editor, James A. Dueholm wrote in response, “David R. Dow attacks capital punishment on its statistical bias against minorities.  Death penalty opponents have brought arbitrariness upon themselves.”  The writer pointed out state laws were enacted to assure fairness and equal treatment by “assur[ing] that a first degree murderer would die regardless of the race of the victim or defendant.”

However, the writer went on to point out, “A closely divided Supreme Court with the hearty concurrence of those who now complain about the arbitrary nature of capital punishment struck down these laws making discretion an inescapable part of the process.”  The reference is to the requirement allowing defendants to present to the jury any and all mitigating circumstances in hearings following a finding of guilt.

Mayor Amicone’s Statement Over NYS Supreme Court Ruling Demanding Yonkers Federation of Teachers Comply with Inspector General’s Subpoena

Yonkers, NY -- The following is an official statement by Mayor Phil Amicone regarding the ruling issued on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, by Judge William J. Giacomo of the New York State Supreme Court ordering the Yonkers Federation of Teachers (YFT) Welfare Fund to comply with the Yonkers Inspector General subpoena for documents by this Friday, July 29 at Noon.

Norway's Terrorism in Context By DANIEL PIPES

Published with express permission by the author and replicated herein; first published in the National Review Online on July 27, 2011.

http://www.danielpipes.org/10007/norway-terrorism-in-context

Scandinavia may look idyllic from a distance, what with royal families and prime ministers almost without security, but it has endured its fair share of violence, from the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme to two school massacres in one year in Finland, one killing eight, the other ten. Anders Behring Breivik's rampage, in other words, was hardly unprecedented.

Eye on Theatre: Fancy Footwork By JOHN SIMON

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cast of All New People (left), Zach Braff (center), and John Simon (right).

When the two plastic scrim panels that serve as curtains for The Second Stage’s All New People separate, Charlie, a barefoot man in pajamas is standing on a stool with a noose around his neck made of an extension cord attached to the ceiling. He hesitates, then reaching to a nearby table, grabs a cigarette and lights it. So Zach Braff’s (center) comedy earns the first of many laughs.

Stephen Cerrato On the Level with Narog and Aris

NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Stephen Cerrato, Yonkers City Council candidate vying to represent the 5^th District is Richard Narog’s and Hezi Aris’ guest this Tuesday, July 26, 2011, on the On the Level radio show heard on the WVOX-1460 AM radio dial and on audio and visual streaming technology worldwide at www.WVOX.com from 10 – 11 a.m.

Ed Koch Commentary: A Statement of Endorsement of Bob Turner for the 9th Congressional District (July 25, 2011) By ED KOCH

I am here this morning to suggest that the contested race in the 9^th Congressional District be turned into a referendum that will allow the voters of this district, the largest Jewish district in the country, to register a protest against the positions of President Obama and the Republican leadership on a number of key issues.

President Obama, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have failed the American public in several ways.  Two issues come readily to mind. 

One is jobs.  Not a single law that would provide jobs in our country has been adopted.   We are now suffering from a 9.2 percent unemployment rate.  Both parties have failed miserably to address this vitally important issue. 

Integrity in Journalism By HEZI ARIS

The empire built under the aegis of News Corporation’s media mogul Rupert Murdoch has come under governmental scrutiny cajoled to fever pitch by public disgust over recent allegations of phone hacking and corruption allegations by News of the World, a national English tabloid shuttered in the past few weeks. The populist, celebrity focused newspaper began publishing in 1843. Shutting the publication down could not relieve News Corporation from the unsatiated feeding frenzy that had come about. Arrest of its former executive editor and editor came to pass.  Staff, working for the present British government and Scotland Yard, once connected with News Corporation, has also stepped down amid demand for in depth investigations. The public outcry heard in the British Isles resonated among law enforcement in the United States. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inquiry has been said by an anonymous source at the Associated Press to have begun.  Demanding an FBI inquiry is US Congressional Representative Peter King. Allegations that the now defunct News of the World operation attempted to hack into the voicemails of 9/11 victims and their families, has shocked the sensibilities of many people. At issue for every community, international, national, statewide, or local, is the same. Can the public trust the media to deliver the news, unfettered by competing interests, and still maintain an ability to discern and navigate the boundaries of decorum? What are those parameters, and do they change and fluctuate in demeanor from one community to another?