TIMES, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015 • 22 Honor Slain Cops In Street Renaming Bill Bravest and Strongest and he deserves to be recognized and remembered by our city.” The dead-end block of Suydam Street off Cypress Avenue in Ridgewood, near the Grover Cleveland High School athletic field, will be renamed Ann Maggio Way. The long time Ridgewood resident, who died in July 2013, was a teacher at the former St. Aloysius School and served as the president of Citizens for a Better Ridgewood. Maggio was also a member of Community Board 5, president of the Suydam Street Block Association and a member of the Onderdonk Civic Association’s board of directors. City Council Member Antonio Reynoso sponsored the honor in Maggio’s memory. Turning to Sunnyside, the block of 46th Street between Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue—near the famed Sunnyside Arch—will be renamed Luke Adams way, honoring the long-time reporter and photographer for the Woodside Herald and participant in the Gateway Restoration Project. Adams, who died last November, was an active member of the Sunnyside-Woodside Lions Club, who bestowed upon him the inaugural Sunnysider of the Year award in 2011. The accolade was later renamed after him. He is also credited for creating the first comprehensive website regarding Sunnyside. City Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer sponsored the renaming request for Adams. Other street renamings in the bill include the following: • The block of 74th Avenue between 175th Street and Utopia Parkway in Fresh Meadows will honor Bishop Ignatius Catanello Way. Ordained in 1966, he served as an assistant pastor at St. Rita’s in Long Island City, St. Helen’s in Howard Beach, St. Ann’s in Flushing and Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge. Among his many achievements, he was honored by St. John’s University with the President’s Medal in 1975, and again in 1989 with an honorary doctorate of law. Catanello, who died in March 2013, was also involved with include parish and ecumenical ministry, drug rehabilitation counseling and leadership in clergy associations. City Council Member Rory Lancman sponsored the renaming. • The intersection of 108th Street and Park Lane South in Richmond Hill will be dubbed Jack Maple Place, honoring the NYPD’s former deputy commissioner for crime control strategies. Serving during Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s first tenure in the mid-1990s, Maple is credited for creating CompStat, which keeps track of NYPD arrests and crimes reported. His innovation was honored by the Ford Foundation and has been adopted in other cities across the country. Maple, who grew up in Richmond Hill, died in August 2001. City Council Member Eric Ulrich sponsored the honor. • Finally, the block of 56th Street between Woodside Avenue and Skillman Avenue in Woodside will be renamed Alice Cardona Way, honoring a leader in the Puerto Rican and Latino communities who advocated for minority rights, women’s rights and bilingual education. Cardona, who died in November 2011, was the first Latina to receive the Susan B. Anthony Prize, in 1983 by the National Organization for Women. From 1983 to 1995 she served as the assistant director of the New York State Division for Women. She also fought against HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and domestic violence. Van Bramer requested the street renaming for Cardona. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 7- Nolan Seeks To Be Speaker people of the State of New York. They deserve nothing less.” In the wake of his arrest last Thursday, Silver maintained his innocence and vowed to continue serving in government. Over the weekend, however, it became apparent that his support base was quickly eroding, as numerous Assembly Democrats reportedly called for him to step down as speaker. Before ultimately agreeing on Tuesday night, Jan. 27, to resign the speakership, Silver and his colleagues were reportedly considering an agreement in which a group of three to five veteran Assembly members would lead the chamber by committee. Published reports mentioned Nolan as one of the possible members of that ad-hoc power-sharing panel. Citing political insiders, the New York Observer reported last Friday, Jan. 23, that the Queens County Democratic Party was also leading an effort to drum up support for Nolan as the Assembly’s next speaker. Silver, meanwhile, stated he would remain in Albany representing his lower Manhattan district pending the outcome of the case against him. ‘The greedy art of self-reward’ U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, representing New York’s Southern District, accused Silver of practicing “the greedy art of secret self-reward ... with particular cleverness and cynicism.” According to the indictment, Silver—a 20-term incumbent who has led the Assembly since 1994—allegedly worked with a Manhattan doctor specializing in asbestos-related health cases to refer patients to the law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg, where Silver served as a part-time counsel. As a result, the speaker reportedly gained $3 million in related legal fees. In exchange for steering patients to the firm, Bharara noted, Silver allegedly used his political influence to steer more than $500,000 in state grants to a medical research facility where the asbestos doctor worked. Those funds reportedly came from a secret, unitemized fund that Silver maintained. Additionally, law enforcement sources said, Silver allegedly steered some of New York City’s biggest real estate developers with another law firm to which he was affiliated. This firm, Bharara noted, specialized in real estate tax law and was operated by one of Silver’s former counsels. The indictment charged that Silver allegedly received $700,000 in legal fees from developers he directed to the firm and—in exchange for these payments—used his political influence to craft legislation favorable to landlords. In both schemes, Bharara stated, Silver performed no actual legal work for the firms. “As today’s charges make clear, the show-me-the-money culture of Albany has been perpetuated and promoted at the very top of the political food chain,” Bharara said during a press conference last Thursday afternoon. “Politicians are supposed to be on the people’s payroll, not on secret retainer to wealthy special interests they do favors for. These charges go to the very core of what ails Albany—a lack of transparency, lack of accountability and lack of principle joined with an overabundance of greed, cronyism and self-dealing.” “We hold our elected representatives to the highest standards and expect them to act in the best interest of their constituents,” added FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Richard Frankel. “In good faith, we trust they will do so while defending the fundamental tenets of the legal system. But as we are reminded today, those who make the laws don’t have the right to break the laws.” Silver was charged with honest services fraud, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, extortion under color of official right and conspiracy to commit extortion. He faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted on each count. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Howard S. Master, Carrie H. Cohen, Andrew D. Goldstein and James McDonald of the U.S. Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit are prosecuting the case. -CONTINUED FROM PG. 6- New York May Be On Brink Of Ed. Funding Fight -CONTINUED FROM PG. 10- The suit was settled 14 years later when the state agreed to provide $5.5 billion in new aid over a four-year period. But amid the national economic crisis, education funds were frozen in 2009. Reductions in state aid toward public education, the AQE claims, resulted in “the loss of almost 40,000 educators and other staff” and curtailed various programs including art, music and summer school. Economic disparities are evident in graduation rates, the AQE noted. While 92 percent of students in the “wealthiest school districts” graduated in the 2013-14 school year, just 66 percent of students in the poorest districts advanced to higher education. Less funding for schools in poorer districts amounts to a brain drain, the AQE charged, as the schools are incapable of competing for the best teachers or principals. They reportedly also lose out on technological and academic advancements. “As the parent of a public school student, I know our children need more state funding to keep the promise of public schools as a fair opportunity for all children to succeed,” Nolan said in a statement last Tuesday, Jan. 20, two days prior to Cuomo’s State of the State address. “The promise of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity must be kept. Our state’s constitution demands it.” “This is an urgent need to rectify the staggering inequities between our wealthy and poor school districts, which is now at an all-time high,” added Billy Easton, the AQE’s executive director. “It’s time that Governor Cuomo steps up and supports our public schools and to put a stop to his anti-public education rhetoric.” In his State of the State address, Cuomo acknowledged that New York State’s education system is in dire need of reform, but argued that money alone will not close the education gap between rich and poor students. “The education industry’s cry that more money will solve the problem is false,” Cuomo said. “Money without reform only grows the bureaucracy. It does not improve performance.” The governor pointed out that the state spends about $8,000 on average per public school student, and $4,000 more on students in high-needs districts. In the Buffalo School District— which was described as “failing”—the state spends an average of $16,000 per student. “We have been putting more money into this system every year for a decade and it hasn’t changed,” Cuomo said. He voiced his support for a State Education Department proposal to allow private, nonprofit entities to take over schools that demonstrate three consecutive years of failed performance. “We’ll turn each school into a community school and develop a management overhaul plan,” Cuomo said. He also called for adding 100 new charter schools in New York City and extending mayoral control over the city’s Department of Education. SShhoopp LLooccaallllyy!! SSuuppppoorrtt YYoouurr NNeeiigghhbboorrhhoooodd MMeerrcchhaannttss!!
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