Talking Politics
[https://www.youtube.com/live/ocUyV4YiFng?si=gQfqXhUCjuetSwPI]
This week, what's new in the Iranian war, the latest NYPD crime stats on citywide crime but how did the Bronx North Division do, what's former Mayor Eric Adams up to, how big a budget gap will NYC have next year, Anthony has Bishop Cabrera as his guest as Anthony looks for forgiveness, and lots more live Friday at 12 PM, or anytime on YouTube at the link above.
Construction is finished on The Lehman Grand, a ten-story student dormitory at 2530 Grand Concourse in Fordham, The Bronx. Originally designed by Adolf L. Muller of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer and converted by MADDD Equities with Aufgang Architects, the structure yields 184 beds across 73 dormitory units spanning 50,000 square feet. The property is leased by the City University of New York on behalf of Lehman College, according to university board documents, and is located between East 192nd Street and East Fordham Road.
The Art Deco structure was built in three stages between 1932 and 1952, growing from a narrow branch bank into a composition with a 200-foot frontage along the Grand Concourse and culminating in the ten-story office block and a 50-foot clock tower with four faces. The façades are clad in polished Texas pink granite ashlar, red brick, and architectural terra cotta, with the bank’s raised Liberty Head medallions echoed in the tower’s round clock faces.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated both the exterior and the banking hall interior as landmarks in July 1994, and the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 2024. MADDD Equities’ restoration preserved the building’s historic features while adapting the tower for residential use; the banking hall reopened as a Fine Fare supermarket in 2024.
Residential amenities include 58 furnished rooms with private bathrooms and free Wi-Fi, two standalone apartments, a shared kitchen, study and game rooms, on-site laundry, and a third-floor lounge with coworking space. Residents receive a free shuttle to campus, Citi Bike access, and discounts at the Fine Fare below, and monthly overnight parking is available.
Interior fit-out work reached substantial completion in June, and the building will house its first students for the fall 2026 semester. The Lehman Grand name was selected by a campus vote and announced in April.
Construction is underway on The Casanova Residence, a 100-percent affordable residential building at 658-674 Casanova Street in Hunts Point, The Bronx. Designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects and developed by the Doe Fund, the six-story structure will yield 96 supportive and affordable units, as well as on-site services. Thirty-eight homes will be dedicated to affordable housing, while the remaining 58 will be for formerly homeless New Yorkers. The site is located at the southeast corner of Casanova Street and Spofford Avenue, directly south of the Peninsula housing development.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined local leaders and representatives from The Doe Fund for a groundbreaking ceremony on August 3.
Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
The supportive units at Casanova Residences will cater to both individuals and families dealing with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, or disabling medical conditions through the city’s 15/15 Supportive Housing Initiative. Other accessible on-site components for residents will include case management, adult basic education, computer skills training, financial literacy classes, occupational courses, paid work training, job-search preparation, legal referrals, and more.
Amenities will include free broadband internet, a fitness center, a landscaped outdoor space, and dedicated community and service areas operated by the Doe Fund.
The property was formerly occupied by a low-rise commercial structure, but has sat vacant for the last two years.
The Casanova Residence is part of the Mamdani administration’s efforts to combat New York City’s housing crisis through the “Block by Block” initiative and the recently adopted City budget. The Block by Block plan aims to create 200,000 new affordable homes and preserve another 200,000 over the next decade while investing in public housing, strengthening tenant protections, and expanding homeownership opportunities. The City is currently investing $1 billion over the next two fiscal years to create and preserve supportive housing, which is a 60 percent increase over the previous two fiscal years.
An anticipated completion date for Casanova Residence has not been announced.
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Here's this week's edition of the VCJC News and Notes email. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful!
If you require an aliyah or would like to lead services, read from the torah or haftorah, please speak to one of the gabbaim.
Come join us for services and stay to enjoy the kiddush and the company. See the photos below. (Taken by our gentile caretaker on his own initiative.)
Our enhanced kiddush
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phone (718) 884-6105
email: info@vcjewishcenter.org
mail: Van Cortlandt Jewish Center, 3880 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463
in person: Drop off a note at the synagogue office.
Save the date: Kristallnacht observance and lecture, Sunday Nov. 6
The Van Cortlandt Jewish Center will be holding its annual Kristallnacht Commemoration Program with speaker Larry Hartstein. More info to follow.
No cost to attend and no prior experience is needed.
VCJC Merch!
The VCJC is working to build and grow for its next century in Van Cortlandt Village. If you have had a good experience with us or recognize our value to the community, please consider telling the world about it. Go to our Google Business Profile and leave a review. Thanks!
Please help with information about buildings
As part of rebuilding the membership and congregation, the Board of Trustees would like your help. There are a lot of either new or renovated buildings being put up in our catchment area. We would like to seek the cooperation of the owners / developers of those properties in publicizing these opportunities to live near an orthodox synagogue. If you are aware of any of these buildings, please provide what information you can about them. This could include the address, any contact information that might be posted, and any information about the building itself (size, type, etc.). Additionally, if you are aware of vacancies in existing buildings or of houses for sale, please let us know about that as well.
Our mailing address is:
Van Cortlandt Jewish Center
3880 Sedgwick Ave
Bronx, NY 10463
A federal jury convicted a dual U.S.-Ghanaian citizen for his role in a scheme to bribe Ghanaian officials in connection with the development and financing of a multi-million-dollar power plant in Ghana.
“We live in a global economy that American companies must be able to compete in fairly,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This defendant corrupted that fair competition. He abused his position at a world-renowned American investment bank by helping bribe Ghanaian officials, so he and his co-conspirators, including senior executives at a Turkish company, could make money. Today’s conviction makes clear that criminals who undermine our country’s interests by corrupting foreign governments and cutting off fair competition will face the full force of the Department of Justice.”
“This verdict marks another significant victory in this Office’s longstanding commitment to rooting out corruption,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. “The defendant abused his access to high-level foreign government officials and his platform as an investment banker at a prestigious American firm to greedily line his own pockets.”
“Engaging in bribery damages the reputation of businesses and destroys fair competitions,” said Acting Assistant Director Matthew B. Floyd of FBI’s Criminal Division. “Berko intentionally lied to his company to continue his scheme. The FBI will not tolerate dishonesty or corruption from anyone who wishes to disturb the business market.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Asante Kwako Berko, 52, conspired to pay more than $1 million in bribes to multiple Ghanaian government officials in connection with the development and financing of a power plant estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Beginning in December 2014, Berko, a former Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, was responsible for securing and managing a deal between Aksa Enerji, a Turkish energy company and client of Goldman Sachs, and the Republic of Ghana, for the construction and financing of a power plant in Ghana amidst a national energy crisis in the country.
During the scheme, Berko and his co-conspirators paid and conspired to pay bribes to individuals at numerous levels of the Ghanaian government to ensure that the Turkish Energy company won its bid to build and operate the power plant. In April 2015, Berko and the conspirators discussed paying $1 million to the Minister of Power who was responsible for securing key approvals enabling the project to progress.
Bribes were also paid to five Ghanaian officials during an all-expenses-paid trip to Turkey to view equipment for the power plant, during which the officials each received $5,000. After the power plant deal was ratified by the Ghanaian parliament in July 2015, Berko and his co-conspirators emailed about their bribe payments at length. The evidence further detailed tens of thousands of dollars in bribes that Berko had personally paid and for which he was still owed.
To conceal the scheme from Goldman Sachs and others, Berko lied to Goldman’s compliance team that was responsible for vetting the deal and he used his personal, non-official-business email account when talking about the bribes. Berko and his co-conspirators also concealed and laundered the bribe payments using shell companies, sham invoices, nominee account holders and cash withdrawals. Payments in furtherance of the bribery scheme were laundered through U.S. and foreign bank accounts, including several in Berko’s name. Goldman ultimately withdrew from the deal due to corruption concerns.
The jury convicted Berko of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), violating the FCPA, and money laundering conspiracy. Sentencing is set for Nov. 10. He faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI is investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the FBI’s Law Enforcement Attaché in Accra worked with the International Cooperation Unit of the Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana, and Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor, to provide significant assistance to this prosecution. The UK’s National Extradition Unit, the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, the U.S. Embassy in London, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service provided substantial assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of the defendant.
Assistant Chief Katherine Raut of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Senior Trial Attorney Katherine Nielsen of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics, and Forfeiture Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Weigel, Nick M. Axelrod, and Tara McGrath for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.
The Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA and Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA and FEPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-fraud/foreign-corrupt-practices-act.
United States Attorney Moore Capito announced that MWI Veterinary Supply Inc. (MWI) has agreed to pay $100,000 to resolve allegations it failed to identify large oxycodone HCL orders from a Putnam County, West Virginia, veterinarian as suspicious or flag them to authorities, resulting in abuse and probable diversion of these drugs.
MWI, also known as MWI Animal Health, is a global distributor of supplies and pharmaceuticals for the veterinary industry based in Boise, Idaho. As a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registrant authorized to distribute controlled substances, MWI is required under the Controlled Substances Act to design and operate a system to identify suspicious orders of controlled substances and to notify the DEA upon discovering such suspicious orders.
Federal investigators found that MWI’s internal Diversion Control Program policies required a suspicious order to be investigated by MWI’s Diversion Control Team, including documentation for the reason the order was flagged. The internal policy identified oxycodone HCL as a substance “especially susceptible to diversion” that required additional scrutiny. MWI’s internal policy noted that its Suspicious Order Monitoring System “will fail if individuals clear orders without adequate investigation.”
The federal investigation found that between March 8, 2018, and July 10, 2023, MWI filled orders totaling 14,200 dosage units of hydrocodone/acetaminophen at 10 milligrams each, 800 dosage units of oxycodone HCL at 10 milligrams each, and 600 dosage units of oxycodone HCL at 5 milligrams each for Dr. Clara Ann Mason, the Putnam County veterinarian.
These orders were determined to be unusual for a veterinary practice, and amount to more than 16 times the national average for medical practitioners. For the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, Mason ordered substantially more hydrocodone/acetaminophen from MWI than any other individual customer. Mason accounted for all oxycodone HCL dosage units filled by MWI for West Virginia veterinarians in 2022 and 2023.
On September 13, 2022, MWI’s Suspicious Order Monitoring System flagged Mason’s order that day for 300 dosage units of oxycodone HCL at 10 milligrams each. Federal investigators determined than an MWI representative opened the suspicious order for review and released it the next day without substantial investigation. MWI filled nine subsequent orders for oxycodone HCL from Mason, including one for approximately 1,300 pills, without questioning Mason or doing further due diligence.
“DEA registrants like MWI are obligated to uphold the stringent reporting requirements outlined in the Controlled Substances Act; a failure to do so can result in the diversion of medications that have a high potential for abuse, and endanger our communities,” said Jim Scott, Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s Louisville Division, which serves Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. “Hopefully, today’s settlement will serve as a costly reminder that compels MWI to take the threat of drug diversion seriously.”
“The authority to distribute controlled substance requires complete adherence to the law and mandated internal policies to protect our communities against the consequences of diversion and abuse,” Capito said. “This settlement agreement is the result of outstanding work by the Drug Enforcement Administration, our office’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement and Health Care Fraud Investigative Specialist Tyler E. Japhet, and Assistant United States Attorney Gregory P. Neil.”
Capito’s office secured a $956,709 default judgment against Mason on July 31, 2025. United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers ordered Mason to pay the maximum civil penalties, concluding that she ordered thousands of doses of opioids and other drugs, failed to keep these drugs secured, failed to keep track of these drugs, and apparently fabricated records to cover her failures.
Applications for Dairy, Livestock, Specialty Crop and Aquaculture Producers Available
Deadline To Apply for the Tariff Relief Program Is Tuesday, August 11
Governor Kathy Hochul is reminding New York producers that the deadline to apply for the $30 million Agricultural Resiliency Against Tariffs Program is approaching with applications due on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. The program, first announced in Governor Hochul’s 2026 State of the State address, will help offset rising costs and market loss that New York farmers faced in 2025 because of federal tariff policy. Applications for dairy, livestock, specialty crop and aquaculture producers are available here. Farmers are encouraged to begin the application process early to ensure all parts are completed and submitted by the deadline.
“I’m proud that our Agricultural Resiliency Against Tariffs Program will provide much-needed relief to New York’s farmers who feed our communities,” Governor Hochul said. “The program application was created so it could be completed easily and without layers of burdensome paperwork, encouraging farmers to apply for the payment. I remain committed to doing what I can to support our agricultural industry and offset the impact of the Trump administration’s damaging policies.”
With an estimated 20 percent of a farmer’s income on average dependent on export markets of their product, the federal tariffs instituted in 2025 and resulting market instability are creating economic hardship for New York’s agricultural producers. In addition, farmers are facing the escalating costs imposed by tariffs on essential imports like grain, feed and other inputs. More than 80 percent of agrochemical imports and 70 percent of farm machinery imports originate from countries that were subjected to U.S. tariffs, making it difficult for farmers to secure alternative sources.
The Governor’s tariff relief program will provide direct payments of a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $25,000 to eligible producers. Distribution of funds will be determined through two tracks:
Eligible applicants must fill out a general application, provide agricultural sales or milk production data and meet specific criteria, including:
Only complete applications will be considered for payment. The application and detailed instructions on how to apply, including a webinar, are available on the Department’s webpage.
This criminal illegal alien was RELEASED into the country by the Biden Administration
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a criminal illegal alien who had been arrested for carrying multiple Molotov cocktails in Illinois.
According to local reporting, police in Mokena, Illinois arrested Hamed Mohammed Hamed Alsaidi, a criminal illegal alien from Jordan, after he displayed suspicious behavior in the early morning hours of August 1. Police officers first encountered him at a closed gas station, told him he could not be there, and took him to another gas station that was open. He gave the officers an alias of Hakmat Saidi. Later that same morning, he was seen walking in lanes of traffic, after which he was arrested. Officers learned his real name and found EIGHT Molotov cocktails in his possession.
Hamed Mohammed Hamed Alsaidi
Alsaidi now faces charges of felony unlawful possession of a weapon and obstructing identification. His criminal history includes a prior arrest for domestic battery.
ICE lodged a detainer with Will County the same day Alsaidi was arrested. Will County sanctuary politicians refused to honor the detainer and released him on August 2 without notifying ICE, after Will County Judge Theodore Jarz granted Alsaidi a pretrial release. ICE law enforcement arrested Alsaidi on August 4.
“This criminal illegal alien was arrested after he was found to have EIGHT Molotov cocktails in his possession and gave a false name to officers. He now faces charges of unlawful possession of a weapon and obstructing identification,” said a DHS Spokesperson. “Even though ICE lodged a detainer, sanctuary politicians in Will County, Illinois refused to honor it and released him without notifying ICE. Fortunately, thanks to the brave men and women of ICE, we have apprehended him and he remains in ICE custody. Governor J.B. Pritzker and his fellow sanctuary politicians need to stop putting American lives at risk with their reckless, America Last policies.”
Alsaidi illegally entered the United States through California in March 2024. He was then RELEASED into the country by the Biden Administration.
Under Governor Pritzker, Illinois has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime. Some of the recent illegal alien crimes in the sanctuary state include:
