News, developments: Monday, July 17, 2023

MAN ARRESTED FOR VANDALIZING STATE SENATOR’S OFFICE IN ACTIONS CAUGHT ON VIDEO

DYKER HEIGHTS – A man has been arrested in connection with Friday’s vandalism to state Sen. Iwen Chu’s district office in Dyker Heights, Gothamist reports, and he has since been identified as Mo Hu, a 42-year-old Asian man. He was arrested on video surveillance that shows him throwing a group of bricks at the District 17 office, shattering a window. No one was injured and only staff were in the office at the time. Police, who are still investigating Mo Hu’s cell phone, arrested him on Friday night; faces felony charges.

A Democrat, Sen. Chu defeated Republican Vito Bella last year for the seat, which covers Sunset Park, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Kensington. She and her staff will be working remotely for now.

✰✰✰

WITHOUT GILLIBRAND TO PRESENT BILL BANNING GHOST GUNS

STATEwide – New legislation to combat the proliferation of ghost guns is the topic of a news conference that U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is scheduled to give Monday afternoon, July 17, at the Association of detectives. Ghost guns are untraceable firearms assembled from components purchased online or made by 3D printers, allowing unlicensed people such as domestic abusers and violent criminals to produce them. Joining her and Detective Squad Chairman Paul DiGiacomo were NYPD Inspector Courtney Nilan; Sam Levy, senior attorney for Everytown for Gun Safety; the families of murdered teenagers Angellyh Yambo and Julian Oliveros; and other gun safety advocates.

US state legislatures have passed a number of gun laws; A federal judge this past weekend ruled Oregon’s voter-approved law banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring a permit constitutional.

✰✰✰

BROOKLYN BOOK BODEGA ORGANS FREE FAMILY LITERACY WORKSHOPS

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD —The Brooklyn Book Bodega is reaching out to NYCHA families with a season of free family literacy workshops starting this fall. The Family Literacy Workshops, organized specifically for NYCHA housing residents with at least one child from newborn to age five, will convene groups to meet for one hour each month on one Saturday from September through June. Participants will engage in the community, learn from expert child educators and practice literacy habits with their child/children, and families will receive 10 free books and a literacy kit each month.

Brooklyn Bodega, based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, is on a mission to build families’ libraries and foster community among readers. Founded in 2019, Brooklyn Book Bodega has distributed, according to its website, 277,117 books to 81,143 readers.

✰✰✰

CARROLL: URGENT GOV. HOCHUL to sign flood bill

ALBANY – Assemblyman Robert Carroll (Park Slope, Midwood) is asking constituents to call Gov. Kathy Hochul and urge her to sign his flood disclosure requirements legislation for the sale of homes. In New York State, sellers must inform a potential buyer if the property is in a designated floodplain and if it has previously flooded. However, the state currently allows sellers to opt out by paying the buyer $500, a small price to pay for such valuable information as heavy rains increasingly cause billions of dollars in damage to floods

Carroll’s bill closes that loophole and requires full disclosure of flood risk information. “Encourage the governor to sign the bill immediately by calling her at 518-474-8390,” Carroll said in a statement.

✰✰✰

PHOTO CLEARS PHOTO IN POSSIBLE HATE CRIME

CROWN HEIGHTS – Police are searching for a man suspected of a possible hate crime that took place last month in Crown Heights. On June 13 at 10 a.m., a 51-year-old woman was walking in front of 252 Empire Boulevard, the site of a kosher restaurant, when a man walking from the opposite direction allegedly tripped her without provoking her. The woman suffered bruises and abrasions to her hands and knees and was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, police said. The man, described as in his 40s, with a dark complexion and thin build, was last seen wearing glasses, a Nike baseball cap, a blue T-shirt, black shorts and black sneakers. He was observed entering the Sterling Street/Nostrand Avenue subway station.

According to the AMNY, the victim was wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at Photo: NYPD.

✰✰✰

STUDENT LOAN BORROWERS WILL GET A MORE ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF PAYMENTS THAT QUALIFY FOR FORGIVENESS

NATIONWIDE: The U.S. Department of Education will begin immediately notifying more than 804,000 borrowers who have a total of $39 billion in federal student loans that will be automatically paid off in the coming weeks. the White House announced on Friday, July 14. The upcoming downloads are the result of solutions the Biden-Harris Administration has implemented to ensure that all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify for forgiveness under loan-based repayment income (IDR plans). These fixes are part of the department’s commitment to addressing historic failures in the administration of the federal student loan program. Borrowers are eligible for forgiveness if they have accumulated the equivalent of 20 or 25 years of qualifying months.

In total, the Biden-Harris administration has approved more than $116.6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers. This is a different component of the loan forgiveness of the recent Supreme Court decision that declared the Biden plan unconstitutional and involves much older loans.

✰✰✰

REP. MALLIOTAKIS PRAISES FORMER COLLEAGUE FOR WORK OF ZADROGA’S ORIGINAL 9/11 SURVIVORS’ LAW

ACROSS THE NATION – Former Brooklyn Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-11) made a joint, bipartisan visit to the World Trade Center Health Program Clinic on Richmond Rd. in Staten Island to advance the Survivors Health Care Financing Fix Act of September 11, 2023; this bipartisan legislation addresses the impending funding shortfall for the World Trade Center (WTC) health care program. Malliotakis is an original co-sponsor of the Survivors Health Care Financing Fix Act of 11 September 2023, which would help keep the clinic open. He credits Maloney for his work to enact the original James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010. Maloney had served North Brooklyn in Congress for 30 years, from 2013 to 2023, in two different districts.

“Carolyn Maloney was the leader in establishing Zadroga in 2010 and I look forward to carrying that mantle to ensure our heroes continue to receive the attention they deserve,” said Malliotakis.

✰✰✰

IN MEMORIAM: EVELYN WITKIN’S GENETIC RESEARCH INCLUDED 16 YEARS AT SUNY DOWNSTATE

FLATBUSH — Evelyn M. Witkin, the geneticist who discovered the process by which DNA is repaired, and worked on his research for a time at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, died on July 8 at the age of 102. His research and discovery led to major advances in the treatment of cancer and genetic defects. Dr. Witkin was working in a laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor during her time as a graduate student at Columbia University when she discovered that some of the bacteria in a and Coli experiment had survived. It was after his stay in Cold Spring Harbor that Dra. Witkins conducted research at SUNY Downstate, where he worked from 1955 to 1971 before moving to Rutgers. Dr. Witkin and another geneticist, Stephen J. Elledge, won the 2015 Albert Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research, which is the highest honor in the medical sciences after the Nobel Prize.

The son of Dr. Witkins, Joseph, is both an emergency physician and a founding member of the doo-wop singing group Sha Na Na, which evolved from the Columbia Kingsmen. A website dedicated to him identifies him as a proud Brooklynite.

✰✰✰

LOCAL DEALS, SELECT PROPERTIES HOST FREE NARCAN BUSINESS TRAINING

NORTHERN CROWN HEIGHTS —Businesses in Brooklyn Community Board (District) 2 can participate in a free Narcan training event this week at Basquiat’s Bottle that several BIDS and local elected officials are hosting. The event, which will take place on Wednesday, July 19 and is aimed at local business owners, operators, their management and staff, will focus on providing lifesaving skills to combat opioid overdoses in public establishments. The Myrtle Ave Business Improvement District (BID), FAB Fulton BID, Phoenix House, City Councilor Chi Ossé and Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest helped organize the event, for which businesses can be registered via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/narcan-training-for-businesses-tickets-675513187127)

Narcan (Naloxone ® ) is an FDA-approved nasal spray drug that can be used in emergency situations to reverse opioid overdoses, but it has risks unless administered correctly.

Source link