30 The Queens Courier • february 14, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com BY TERENCE M. CULLEN [email protected] Nemo found New York. The city swiftly bounced back after the blizzard dubbed “Nemo” swept through the northeast last weekend. Snow falls, reaching up to 11 inches in the borough, dwindled by noon on Saturday, February 9, and Queens got comparatively less snow than other parts of Long Island, such as Suffolk County. Both LaGuardia and JFK International Airports were reopened on Saturday, according to the Port Authority. The lead up to Nemo had drivers heading to gas stations, supermarkets and hardware stores to prepare for the blizzard. Monica Bell, up from Georgia to visit her children, said she was picking up “the normal necessities,” along with any other snacks she and her kids may want at the Walbaum’s in The Bay Terrace on Friday, February 8. Gas lines were reminiscent of the weeks after Sandy, in which the city suffered a minor gas crisis as the pumps ran dry. On Thursday, February 7, a line at a gas station in Whitestone off Clintonville Street stretched THE COURIER/Photos by Mike DiBartolomeo around the block, but that wasn’t the only location in the tri-state area with significant waits. On The Courier Facebook page some questioned why people would need to get gas since the storm will prevent drivers from hitting the road, but others worried about another situation similar to Sandy. “The lines are getting longer all over,” said Eleni Handras of Bayside. “Think we’ll have a shortage again?” With additional reporting by Maggie Hayes, Anthony O’Reilly, Cristabelle Tumola and Tonia N. Cimino USPS: We deliver for you, not on Saturdays BY ANTHONY O’REILLY [email protected] Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow can stop them, but a massive budget deficit can. The United States Postal Service (USPS) officially announced on Wednesday, February 6 that it will be canceling delivery of first-class mail on Saturdays starting the week of August 5. Packages, express and priority mail will still be delivered on Saturdays. Post offices open on Saturdays will remain so, with delivery to PO boxes continuing. The USPS estimates that it will save $2 billion annually with the cancellation of weekend mail delivery. In a survey “nearly seven out of 10 Americans (70 percent) supported the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the Postal Service to reduce costs in its effort to return the organization to financial stability,” said the agency. Dorota Tylko from Bayside said the cut in service would not affect her everyday life drastically, since she primarily uses the post office to send packages. “I use email for communicating and paying bills,” she said. “It’s not really going to affect me.” Post office spokesperson Congetta Chirichello said the Internet and e-mail are major factors in the recent decrease in the amount of “snail mail” being delivered. “From fiscal year 2001 through the end of 2012, mail volume for this category has declined by almost 23 billion pieces,” she said. “Approximately 42 percent.” Despite these financial concerns, some local politicians are irate over the Postal Service’s decision to axe Saturday delivery. Congressmember Grace Meng and a group of bipartisan House members sent a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahue on Monday, February 11, which said that by ending Saturday delivery, the Postal Service is violating “the clearly-stated intent of Congress for the last three decades to continue six-day delivery.” The letter also charges that it will weaken the Post Office’s business model, and will negatively impact postal employees, companies and consumers who depend on Saturday mail. “Companies that rely on six-day mail delivery may opt to explore private delivery services,” said the letter. “This could very well mean significant mail volume decreases for USPS and further financial hardship. The Postal Service should look to expand rather than limit the scope of its business.” WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA Five busted for selling dangerous counterfeit toys BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA [email protected] They turned lovable children’s characters into safety hazards, all to make a quick buck. Five Queens residents have been charged with selling counterfeit Chinese toys that posed several risks to children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. “They allegedly retooled their operations many times in order to avoid detection, and despite repeated citations by the authorities, they continued to peddle counterfeit toys featuring Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and other popular children’s characters,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. In addition to violating copyright law, the five that were arrested on Wednesday, February 6 are also accused of selling toys with a “high lead content and cheap knock offs with substandard parts that break easily and pose a choking hazard.” These fake versions of toys that also featured other popular children’s characters, such as Winnie the Pooh, Spiderman and Mickey Mouse, were sold, both wholesale and retail, from a storefront and warehouse in Ridgewood, and other locations in Queens and Brooklyn between July 2005 and January 2013. “When it comes to trademark infringement, don’t mess with Mickey or other American icons,” said NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Blizzard is SNOW BIG DEAL for Queens BIDDING FOR BUS ROUTES BY ALEXA ALTMAN [email protected] The first major bid for bus routes in more than 33 years garnered 67 requests from bus companies, clamoring for over 1,100 routes, according to the Department of Education (DOE). Bidding for the contracts ended on Monday, February 11, almost a month into the citywide bus strike. The bids are worth approximately $1 billion over the next five years, according to the DOE. The bidding process, implemented in 2011, resulted in projected savings of $95 million. In December, the DOE issued a Request for Bid (RFB) for 1,110 special education bus route contracts, set to expire on June 30. The new contracts are expected to be in place by the start of the 2013 school year. Drivers from Local 1181 began striking on January 16, fighting to ensure contracts have Employee Protection Provisions (EPP) that state drivers will retain runs, regardless of what company oversees the route. According to published reports, several school bus companies are suing the city to remove EPP for senior workers from existing private bus contracts. The names of the companies have not been released.
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