Big sky over the Hudson. Looking North from Pier I at 70th Street. Photo by Elizabeth See-Tho.
March 27, 2017 Weather: Rain expected, with a high of 62 degrees.
Notices:
Check out a comedy/music benefit show at the West End Lounge and more local events on our calendar.
We hear Isabella’s on Columbus Avenue showed up in the latest episode of Homeland on Sunday.
Sasha Harmon Matthews, the local 12-year-old whose “everyday superhero” drawings have now raised $4940.68 and counting for the ACLU, will be on NBC’s Little Big Shots this Sunday, April 2 at 8 p.m.
News:
The Fourth Universalist Society on 76th and CPW is still reeling from the hateful graffiti it found on its doors, but the reverend was heartened by the community’s response at a rally afterwards. “‘We put out 150 chairs and 150 bulletins,’ Mr. Vogel said, but between 400 and 500 people showed up. ‘We ran out of places to put chairs. This gives us a lot of hope that if there were a crisis situation, those people would answer our call — ‘We have people here. Can you bring a meal by?’ Or, ‘Do you have connections in the legal system that can help in an emergency?'”
A school bus driver was charged with assaulting a 6-year-old boy. “Michael Bradley, 52, a school bus driver who drove students at The Ideal School on the Upper West Side, is accused of putting a 6-year-old boy in a headlock and punching him while on the bus. Bradley is charged with assault, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. Bradley has 14 prior arrests, including one in 2015 for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. He had his license suspended following a separate driving under the influence conviction.” Ideal School says the bus driver was hired by parents through an outside service called Friendly Bus Services. The bus service did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily News. The family has sued the school, the bus company and the driver.
Protestors showed up at State Sen. Marisol Alcantara’s office on Friday, upset at her allegiance to the Republican-aligned Independent Democratic Conference. “Chanting slogans such as ‘Marisol has sold her soul’ and ‘No fake Democrats, take the New York Senate back,’ and holding signs that read ‘Sen. Alcantara We Need You’ and ‘Alcantara Complicite’, the crowd of protesters handed out flyers to passersby and marched in a small circle outside of Alcantara’s district office in Inwood.” Alcantara responded to the protests by touting her progressive views and saying her allegiance with IDC allows her to get more done than if she had aligned with mainline Democrats.
See some photos from Jimmy Breslin’s funeral, held at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.
Thankfully, the 11-year-old girl who went missing on Friday returned home in good health on Sunday.
The story about the bus driver is horrifying. I drive regularly between Westchester and the UWS and I’ve noticed that school bus drivers are often among the most reckless drivers on the roads, often speeding on the most hazardous parts of the Henry Hudson and Saw Mill, routinely cutting off cars, and just generally driving in an unsafe manner.
I realize that the driver in question here was hired by a group of parents and not a bus company, but I really wonder how effectively they are screened when hired in general.
Maybe this is an incomplete description of what happened in Albany, but it was really disturbing. I think Alcantara owes an apology and hope to see her start being able to debate ideas without these tactics.
“The debate over the Independent Democratic Conference’s budget resolution in the Senate on Wednesday took a heated turn when IDC Sen. Marisol Alcantara accused Deputy Minority Leader Mike Gianaris of “white privilege.”
Alcantara was taking issue with Gianaris needling the eight-member IDC, which has worked closely with Senate Republicans over the years, and quoted The Daily News which accused the IDC being in agreement with “Trump Republicans” in the chamber.
In her remarks, Alcantara said Gianaris is a “white man with a degree from Harvard.”
“I would like to know how many times my colleague has been called the n-word or a spic,” she said.
The comments led to an outcry from first Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco and later Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who urged calm in the debate over the resolution.”
from https://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2017/03/alcantara-blasts-gianariss-white-privilege/
I simply don’t understand how someone who ran as a democrat makes a formal alliance with the republicans. Being a member of a party does not mean you necessarily vote with the party, but announcing an alliance? That just seems wrong and inappropriate – and the instant leap to calling everyone who disagrees with them racist is making me more and more suspicious that this is nothing more than a manipulative trick. I believe racism exists – I do not see how it is exhibited by calling upon an elected official to stay with the party they declared themselves party while being elected.