Readers: Religion is no excuse not to vaccinate!
Albany politicians passed a package
of bills repealing the religious
exemption for vaccines on June 13,
amid a measles outbreak that has
swept through Brooklyn’s Orthodox
Jewish communities and infected
almost 1,000 people statewide.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the
bills from both legislative chambers
into law, which will require
children across the state to get vaccinated
against a slate of illnesses
before they can attend schools at
all levels from day care to high
school, in order to stem the ongoing
epidemic caused by a spread of
fear-mongering and false information,
according to one of the legislation’s
lead sponsors.
“New York is at the center of the
worst measles outbreak in over a
quarter of a century,” Assemblyman
Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx) said
in a statement. “This outbreak has
spread because misinformation
and irresponsible rhetoric has
scared people away from vaccinating
their children. We need to end
the nonmedical exemptions so preventable
diseases will not spread
in New York again.”
Readers shared their thoughts
online:
Good! No more hiding behind
“god” so you can put others at risk.
Next, take away their tax exempt status.
Local from Here
Democrat Assembly person Helene
Weinstein voted along with Republican
Simcha Felder in favor of
spreading measles in our borough .
She almost always votes the way the
orthodox Jewish community tells
her too, just like Felder. She is far
from being an independent legislator.
Henry Finkelstein
from Sheepshead Bay
I really don’t get it. With this current
measles “outbreak/epidemic”
the DOH did not allow religious exemptions
for MMR and all children
not vaccinated against the measles
were excluded from school, regardless
of the religious exemption. Why
then do they think this bill will “stop
the epidemic in its tracks”?
Truth from NY
Religious people who attend services
are happier, healthier and live
longer. Treyvon
New lease agreement!
Political bigwigs are celebrating
a landmark agreement to
strengthen the state’s rent laws,
which will affect more than 2.5
million city dwellers.
The agreement — which would
limit the ability of landlords to jack
up rent, eliminate the deregulation
of many apartments, and make the
new rent laws permanent — is a
historic victory for tenants in New
York, according to the leaders of
both state legislative chambers.
“These reforms give New Yorkers
the strongest tenant protections
in history. For too long, power has
been tilted in favor of landlords and
these measures fi nally restore equity
and extend protections to tenants
across the state,” Senate Majority
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins
and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
said in a joint statement on June 11.
The agreement — offi cially
called the Housing Stability and
Tenant Protection Act — is expected
to pass both chambers and
be signed by the governor before
June 15, when the current iteration
of the rent laws are set to expire.
Readers were divided online:
Congratulations! Your victory
consists of living in decrepit buildings,
that will not be repaired or improved
until sanity returns to Albany
and Gracie Mansion.
Local from Here
Of greater import: Aiden’s discovered
the thesaurus! And we have a
candidate for replacing honcho. Bigwig.
Have you considered Overlords?
Just a thought. K from ArKady
so now landlords wont spend a
penny to upgrade or improve properties
since they wont be able to get
paid fo it. tenants will suffer because
they wont get improved buildings or
apartments! as Forrest Gump said,
stupid is as stupid does
Hbs from Midwood
Hopefully the various NYS Courts,
or if need be the Federal Courts, will
throw out the most reckless of these
(NEW) rent-stabilization rules and
regulations? For example, no apartment
vacancy allowance what-so-ever.
Retroactively changing legal MCI-allowances
and rent increases. Or having
NO economically viable incentive
to rent the apartments that oddly
COURIER L 50 IFE, JUNE 21–27, 2019 PS
have a”legal rent”— that is higher
than the “market rent.” I highly doubt
that even most of the politicians who
signed onto this legislation really believe
that it-will make our city more
(RENT) affordable? Quite frankly,
may we publicly stockade all these
NYS politicians if there are NOT considerably
fewer NYC’ers-paying more
than one-third, 50-percent, or even
more than this in about three or fi veyears
from today? Hopefully yes.
SCR from Realityville
Many apartments aren’t rented
in the market in the fi rst place here.
Owners choose not to be under the
thumb of the predator city and state.
Better to rent to relatives, or to keep
the extra space for yourself and your
own family. That’s the only way not
to lose control of your own property.
Van Lingle Mungo
from Red Hook
Hammered Out!
A former long-time Brooklyn
civic leader was found not guilty
on June 14 of using bogus documents
to give himself a pay-raise
from the city of more than $16,000.
Craig Hammerman, the longtime
District Manager of Community
Board 6 — which stretches
from Park Slope to Red Hook — was
facing seven years behind bars for
using two colleagues’ signatures
to grant himself multiple salary
bumps over a three-year stretch.
The jury accepted Hammerman’s
defense that, because he had
been authorized to use the signatures
for community board business,
he was allowed to use them
for raise-requests, which included
signing off on four letters to the
city, between May 2015 and October
2017, to increase his salary
from $105,180 to $121,931.
“I believed I had the authority
to act on my own,” Hammerman
told the jury on June 11. “I didn’t
think I had to ask.”
Some readers weren’t too happy
about it, others were thrilled:
Of course he got off. They are all
crooks! Tricia from PPW
I completely agree with Local.
From my vantage point I get to see
many people doing supposed community
service activities for basically
a heir own pocketbook. Craig did
his job excellently for many years,
it seems he made some enemies who
ultimately ended his career of public
service. This particular paper sensationalized
his cases, basically deeming
him guilty before trial, which
didn’t help. George Fiala
from Red Hook
This post must be posted for the
sake of democracy. I said it before
and I’ll say it again! That man is a
local hero! I love this guy!!! He has
been vindicated! Not Guilty! Free at
last, free at last. We shall overcome!
Trump 2020 (in prison)!!!
Local from Here
Having authorization and it being
technically passing the “legal”
threshold does not make his anything
other than a unethical scumbag.
Tyler from PPS
A complete miscarriage of justice
here... Shame on those twelve jurors
Naked Hiker
from Downtown Brooklyn
Using others’ signatures on certain
documents after consulting with
the individuals in question in writing
is one thing. Using others’ facsimile
signatures to request or support
one’s own salary increase is clearly
illegal. Besides and to my knowledge,
salaries and salary increases are set
by the city. ujh
from Westchester County
Automate the vote!
As an activist and student, I care
about automatic voter registration
being funded because it ensures that
more people are registered to vote!
AVR will increase the number of voters
registered. By having more citizens
registered to vote, more people
can have the opportunity to participate
in the government and make
their voices heard. In order to ensure
that AVR can be implemented for the
upcoming elections, the state budget
for this year must included dedicated
funding for automatic voter registration.
The State must provide dedicated
funding to counties to cover start-up
costs and ensure seamless implementation.
AVR has been working well everywhere
it’s been implemented, and
it’s time for New York to join the list of
states who are modernizing the election
infrastructure. Having more people
registered to vote will strengthen
our democracy and political system,
so implementing AVR will facilitate
this endeavor by boosting the number
of registered voters and amplifying
the voices of the American people.
I’d like to urge for a continued support
and active advocacy to get automatic
voter registration passed before the
end of session in June. Jolle Simeu
Crown Heights
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