6 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 June 21–27, 2019
City budget a go
Inside the $92.8 billion ‘handshake’ pact
Courtesy of Mayor’s office
BIRD BUST!
Man smuggling fi nches for
Bklyn bird singing contests
U.S. Attorney’s office
BREAKTHROUGH
TECHNOLOGY
RELIEVES BACK PAIN
Local doctor
treats herniated
and bulging discs,
Surgeons perform an estimated
300,000 to 400,000 back surgeries every
year. Annually, neurosurgeons perform
at least 100,000 operations for lumbar
disc disease alone, and orthopedic surgeons
perform a similar number. It is
estimated that between 20% and 40%
of these operations are unsuccessful.
That is why doctors from all over
the country are racing to acquire and
get trained to operate the DRX9000TM,
an FDA approved device that is saving
thousands of Americans suffering from
chronic back pain from going under the
knife.
Dr. Melinda Keller, who treats serious
back pain without surgery explains
how the DRX9000TM works... “Over
10 years ago, NASA began to notice
an unexpected result of space travel:
Astronauts that left with back pain would
come back without it. After investigated
this now phenomenon here’s what they
found: During the anti-gravity state of
the mission there were decompressive
forces on the intervertebral discs and
sciatica,
and serious
lower back pain
back pain was relieved. How? When
you travel through space, the effects
of gravity are removed and you are in
a weightless state. All the pressure is
taken off your spine and discs. Even
better — and this is the key — a negative
pressure is created. This negative
pressure actually sucks the herniated
material back into the disc and allows it
to heal. Thanks to the DRX9000TM, disc
herniation sufferers finally have a nonsurgical
solution.”
The main conditions the DRX9000TM
has documented success with are back
pain, sciatica, herniated and/or bulging
discs (single or multiple), degenerative
disc disease, facet syndromes and a
relapse or failure following back surgery.
Anyone wishing to learn more about
this new FDA approved solution to back
pain or to set up an appointment for a
free consultation call Dr. Keller’s office
at 718-234-6212 or visit Brooklyn Spine
Center, 5911 16th Avenue, Brooklyn,
NY 11204. Brooklynspinecenter.com.
DRX9000TM
WITHOUT
BACK SURGERY
By Bill Parry
Brooklyn Paper
Mayor Bill de Blasio and
City Council Speaker Corey
Johnson reached an early
handshake agreement Friday
on a balanced $92.8 billion
city budget after weeks
of negotiations.
The de Blasio administration
claims its budget protects
the city’s fiscal health
by maintaining record levels
of reserves and a “robust citywide
savings program.”
The agreement includes
funding to place 200 additional
social workers in public
schools and the city is expanding
its commitment to senior
housing by adding $275 million
between 2020 and 2023
with resources that will help
generate an additional 800 affordable
senior homes.
“We’ve reached an agreement
that promises to create a
pathway to pay parity for our
early childhood education providers
to address recruitment
and retention issues, expand
services that prevent unnecessary
detention and fights
the widespread national attack
on access to abortion care,”
de Blasio said. “We’re also
strengthening our support services
is schools by providing
over 200 social workers for
students who need them most,
fulfilling our commitment to
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson
make their handshake agreement in the City Hall
Rotunda Friday afternoon.
senior affordable housing and
putting our new expanded
speed camera into action.”
The City Council and the
de Blasio administration have
jointly funded justice reform
initiatives that address historic
disparities in the justice
system including an expansion
of diversion programs,
such as post-arrest diversion,
supervised release and transitional
housing. In order to
make sure every New Yorker
is counted in the 2020 Census,
the budget provides for outreach
staff and public awareness
campaigns.
The Council was able to
secure increased funding for
parks, increased resources for
libraries, summer youth programs
and trash collection.
“The Council has been focused
on securing a responsible,
equitable budget for all
New Yorker from day one,”
Johnson said. “This budget is
a result of a united Council
fiercely advocating on behalf
of our constituents and prioritizing
initiatives that will benefit
all New Yorkers.”
Johnson added the Council
and the de Blasio administration
will work together
to expand the staffing of the
Office of Hate Crimes.
“We’re accomplishing all
of this while protecting the
city’s fiscal health by increasing
savings and adding $250
million to our already historic
levels of budget reserves,” de
Blasio said. “I want to thank
Council Speaker Corey Johnson,
Finance Chair Daniel
Dromm and the rest of the
City Council for their partnership.”
The budget includes more
than $300 million in new savings,
on top of the $2.5 billion
achieved in the citywide
savings program over 2019
and 2020, reached primarily
through a permanent reduction
of 2,600 city-funded
positions.
The City Council will
have to approve the budget
before the fiscal year begins
July 1.
“The FY 2020 budget is a
progressive and responsible
budget that truly delivers for
all New Yorkers,” City Councilman
Daniel Dromm, Chairman
of the Committee on Finance,
said. “From increases
in funding for our parks and
LGBTQ community services
to an allocation for additional
school social workers, this is
a budget in which we can all
take pride.”
This story first appeared
on QNS.com, one of our
sister publications.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
These caged birds won’t
sing!
A Connecticut man faces
20 years behind bars for allegedly
trying to smuggle dozens
of live finches through John
F. Kennedy International Airport
on Sunday to compete in
Brooklyn bird singing contests,
federal prosecutors said.
The defendant was stopped
by U.S. Customs and Border
Patrol when they discovered
some 34 birds, each hidden inside
individual plastic hair curlers,
which were stashed in his
carry-on bag during a flight
from Guyana to Kennedy Airport
in Queens, according to a
spokesman for the office of the
The defendant hid 34
finches inside plastic
hair curlers.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York.
All of the birds survived
the trip from the South American
country, according law enforcement
sources.
The alleged bird smuggler
told the authorities he planned
to sell the birds at $3,000 a pop
— or about $100,000 for his
full flock — to compete in bird
singing contests that usually
take place in parks and public
areas in Brooklyn and distant
Queens, where judges determine
which avian contestants
have the best singing voices,
according to the feds.
And while the defendant’s
birds won’t be singing any time
soon, he immediately waived
his Miranda rights and admitted
to smuggling the finches
through customs to avoid the
quarantine, telling investigators
he knew what he did was
wrong, but that the money was
worth the risk, according to
the authorities.
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