Governor Hochul Announces New Online Resource Center for New York's Continued Expansion of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

 

New Website Shows How National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program Funding Can Be Used Across New York State

Website Survey Will Help State Department of Transportation Develop New York's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan 

National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program Funding Supports Fast Charging Along Designated EV Alternative Fuel Corridors

 Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the launch of New York's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program website. The newly launched website provides additional background on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding program, and includes a short survey to collect user feedback in order to assist the State in the development of its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan that will advance New York's nation-leading climate agenda. The website also allows visitors to sign up for alerts as more information on the development of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program becomes available. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program provides dedicated funding to states to support the strategic deployment of electric vehicle Level 3 Direct Current Fast Charging infrastructure and establish an interconnected network for reliable charging.

"We cannot sufficiently reduce our carbon footprint unless we keep expanding our electric vehicle infrastructure, but thanks to the efforts of President Biden, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand and our Congressional Delegation, who fought for the creation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, we have additional resources to help us reach our climate goals," Governor Hochul said. "Expanding our electrical vehicle capabilities is a key part of my administration's ongoing efforts to reduce the impact of climate change across New York State. This new online tool will not only help educate the public on the future of electric vehicle charging, but will give us additional data to plan the next phase of New York's transportation electric charging network development."

New York's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan will be developed by the New York State Department of Transportation in collaboration with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. A public meeting on New York's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan development will be announced by NYSDOT. More information is available here.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said, "A strategic plan for the continued development of EV infrastructure is paramount to achieving an environmentally sound and reliable transportation system across New York State. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program gives us a great framework to collect data which we can use to inform where we need to increase the number of fast-charging stations along our roads, so we can continue to invest in GHG reduction and build our way towards a greener economy."

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, "New Yorkers across the State can play an important role in providing input on where EV chargers should be located as we continue building out infrastructure that makes it easier for more clean vehicles to hit the roads in our communities. This new resource will facilitate the flow of information and provide important data for our National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program to ensure we continue to reduce emissions and transition to a healthier, low carbon, clean energy future."

National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure is a federal fund source newly created under the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that became law in November 2021. The initial emphasis of the program is on making available publicly accessible Direct Current Fast Charging for passenger EVs at intervals of no more than 50 miles apart within 1 travel mile of the designated corridors, with an emphasis on locations near Interstate highway exits.

New York is expected to receive $175 million over five years. Before funding can be spent, the New York State Department of Transportation must submit a National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Infrastructure Deployment Plan that describes how the funding will be used to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation by August 1.

In early 2022, Governor Hochul announced more than $12 million was added to the State's Drive Clean Rebate program to help consumers save up to $2,000 on the purchase of an electric vehicle and $2.7 million awarded to local governments to purchase electric vehicles and install zero-emission charging/fueling stations for public use to address climate change and build healthier communities. Together, the consumer rebate program and the grants awarded to 49 community-based projects total $14.7 million to advance the State's efforts to achieve New York's ambitious Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent by 2050.

State Senator Gustavo Rivera - Meet me at Poe Park tomorrow!

 

Meet me at Poe Park tomorrow at 11AM for free COVID-19 tests and smoke alarms thanks to the Red Cross of Greater New York. Acompáñame mañana en Poe Park a las 11 a.m. para recibir pruebas de COVID-19 e inscribirse para un detector de humo gratuito, gracias a la Cruz Roja.

Van Nest Memorial Day Remembrance

As is the tradition, the Van Nest Memorial Remembrance begins a short time after the Peace Plaza Memorial Day Remembrance ends so people can attend one and then the other. Then Councilman Ritchie Torres refurbished the Van Nest Memorial, flagpole, and the playground next to it. The names of area veterans who passed away are on the memorial. More names are added each year as the veterans pass away.  

After a small parade around the Van Nest Memorial, East Bronx Historian Richard Vitacco gave a brief history of the Memorial and said this year's special veteran was Sergeant Vincent Serrano of the 23rd Artillery Group Vietnam who was killed in action March 26th 1967. Twelve pairs of carnations One white and one red were dropped by the monument for the twelve veterans from the area who passed away this year. 

Bronx Borough President Vanesa Gibson was on hand as was Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, and Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance President Bernadette Ferrara, all who spoke with each saying that this was a day for remembering those who gave their lives so we could be here to honor them. 

The large crowd of people marched around the Van Nest War Memorial through the streets of Van Nest.

Rich Vitacco speaks as veterans Earl Manard Jr, and Richardo Garcia are on either side holding plaques of Sergeant Serrano.

Bronx Borough President Vanesa Gibson speaks about her grueling five month in office, but we pay tribute to our veterans today on Memorial Day.

Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez speaks about giving veteran the services they need.

L - R, Earl Manard Jr., Bernadette Ferrara, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Rich Vitacco, and Richardo Garcia.

Lev Tahor Operatives Convicted At Trial Of Kidnapping Offenses

 

Mordechay Malka and Matityau Malka Convicted of Scheme to Kidnap 14-Year-Old Girl and 12-Year-Old Boy From Their Mother

 Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced that MORDECHAY MALKA and MATITYAU MALKA were convicted in White Plains federal court of kidnapping following a three-week jury trial.  The defendants, members of an extremist Jewish sect called Lev Tahor, participated in a scheme to kidnap a 14-year-old girl (“Minor-1”) and a 12-year-old boy (“Minor-2”) from their mother in Woodridge, New York in December 2018.  The kidnappers then smuggled the children across the U.S. border to Mexico, where they reunited Minor-1 with her adult “husband,” who she had religiously “married” when she was 13 years old.  After the children were recovered and returned to their mother, the defendants and their co-conspirators tried to kidnap the children a second time in March 2019.  Two co-conspirators, Nachman Helbrans and Mayer Rosner, were previously convicted of kidnapping and sexual exploitation charges in connection with this case after an October 2021 trial and have each been sentenced to 12 years in prison. 

According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment, other court filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

MORDECHAY MALKA and MATITYAU MALKA are U.S. citizens and members of Lev Tahor, an extremist Jewish sect that has been located in several different jurisdictions, including New York, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala.  In or about October 2018, the mother of Minor-1 and Minor-2 escaped from Lev Tahor’s compound in Guatemala and arrived in the United States in early November 2018.  Also in November 2018, a Brooklyn family court granted her sole custody of the children and prohibited the children’s father, a leader within Lev Tahor, from communicating with the children.

After the mother fled and settled in New York with her children, MORDECHAY MALKA and other Lev Tahor members devised a plan to return Minor-1 and Minor-2 to the Lev Tahor community.  Then, in December 2018, the kidnappers took the children in the middle of the night from a home in upstate New York and transported them through various states and, eventually, to Mexico.  MORDECHAY MALKA and his co-conspirators used disguises, aliases, drop phones, fake travel documents, an encrypted application, and a secret pact to execute on their kidnapping plan.  At the time of the kidnapping, Lev Tahor leadership was seeking asylum for the entire Lev Tahor community in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Following a three-week search involving hundreds of local, federal, and international law enforcement officers, Minor-1 and Minor-2 were recovered in Mexico and returned to their mother in New York. 

Then, in March 2019, members of Lev Tahor again tried to kidnap the children.  The leader of Lev Tahor, Nachman Helbrans, attempted another kidnapping of the children while incarcerated in Westchester, New York.  MATITYAU MALKA acted as the operative on the ground to execute the attempted kidnapping.

MORDECHAY MALKA, 27, of Guatemala, and MATITAU MALKA, 30, of Guatemala, were convicted of one count of conspiring to commit international parental kidnapping, to unlawfully use a means of identification, and to enter by false pretenses the secure area of an airport, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.  MORDECHAY MALKA was also convicted of two counts of international parental kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count.  MATITYAU MALKA was also convicted of one count of attempted international parental kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each count. 

The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI, United States Customs and Border Protection, the Department of State, the Transportation Security Administration, the New York State Police, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department, the Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office, the Village of Spring Valley Police Department, Special Agents with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and our law enforcement partners in Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, and Israel.

Statement From Governor Kathy Hochul on Passage of Legislation Creating The New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust

 

"This is a major win for New Yorkers who call NYCHA home. This legislation has the power to unlock additional federal funding and lead to billions of dollars in renovations — after decades of federal disinvestment — and provide for critical improvements at developments across the city. My administration has been working closely with City Hall, community groups, and local leaders to find real solutions to deliver support to NYCHA residents. The revised legislation that passed ensures there is increased resident feedback and input, giving residents at each development the power to opt in or reject participating in this program, and I am confident this process of engagement and collaboration will continue now that the bill has passed. I am grateful to Mayor Adams, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie and our legislative and advocate partners for collaborating on this crucial legislation and look forward to signing it into law."

AlessandraBiaggi.com - Really quick

 

Friends — we’ll be quick. Here’s why:

This is going to be a very fast campaign. Election Day is just 82 days away. Even faster if you count early voting.

That means we have 82 days to get our message about why Alessandra is the best candidate in this race out to as many voters as possible.

82 days to knock as many doors and make as many calls as we possibly can.

82 days to mobilize, organize, and win.

Doing that is going to take a lot of resources, especially when our opponent has the entire corporate establishment and political machine in New York and Washington behind him.

There’s a tremendous amount of work ahead of us, and Alessandra can’t do it alone.

We don’t want to wake up on the morning of August 24 — the day after the primary — and be left wondering if there was anything more we could have done to defeat Sean Patrick Maloney.

Let’s leave it all out on the field.

Thanks,

Team Biaggi

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE'S STATEMENT TO BEGIN GUN VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH

 

 "This year, Gun Violence Awareness Month begins as this uniquely American epidemic is dominant in our headlines and our hearts, in the wake of several mass shootings in the last weeks. At the same time, that violence and the devastation it delivers is not confined to these high profile attacks. Over Memorial Day weekend, nearly as many people were shot in our city alone as had their lives stolen in Buffalo and Uvalde. We are aware of gun violence, we are hurting, we are grieving, and across the country, we are in desperate need of solutions.

"While we push for change on a federal level, against the NRA and its active and implicated allies, we can enact change in New York City and State today. Funding gun violence prevention, especially at its root causes, is essential in the last days of the state legislative session and in the coming city budget, and the state must strengthen existing programs such as red flag laws while also passing new legislation including microstamping.

"There are no excuses, and no time to delay. It’s time to move from awareness to action."

Attorney General James Reaches Agreement with Verizon to Prevent Legionnaires’ Disease

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today that she has reached an agreement with Verizon to ensure that the company takes swift and comprehensive action to prevent the spread of Legionnaires’ disease in New York state. Legionnaires’ disease is often deadly and can be spread by poorly monitored or operated building cooling towers. An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that since 2017, there were at least 225 alleged violations of city and state laws at 45 of Verizon’s cooling tower locations throughout the state, with the company failing to conduct testing, address positive test results, and clean and inspect the cooling towers by required deadlines. As part of the agreement, Verizon will adopt official policies and procedures to ensure full, ongoing compliance with the law and pay a $118,000 penalty for the violations, which will be used by OAG to address the health impacts of air pollution.

“Legionnaires’ disease remains a deadly presence in areas across our state, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color,” said Attorney General James. “It is essential that companies such as Verizon are taking the necessary actions to avoid the spread of this preventable and lethal disease. This agreement will protect New Yorkers' public health and slow the spread of Legionnaires' disease.”

Legionnaires’ disease is a harmful form of pneumonia that is contracted by inhaling water droplets that contain Legionella bacteria. Symptoms of the disease include cough, shortness of breath, high fever, and muscle aches, and presents greatest risk for people 50 years of age or older, current or former smokers, and those with a chronic lung disease or compromised immune systems. Rooftop cooling towers, which are part of some buildings’ cooling systems, are considered a significant source of public exposure to Legionnaires’ disease. If not maintained and monitored properly, they can provide an ideal environment for the growth of Legionella and can expose and infect nearby communities due to the mist of water emitted into the air.

Between 200 and 800 cases of Legionnaires’ disease are diagnosed in New York state each year, although the actual number of infections may be higher as many go undiagnosed or unreported. New York City has seen a series of lethal outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in recent months, with 24 people infected in the Bronx, leading to two confirmed deaths and several hospitalizations. The Bronx previously experienced an outbreak in 2015 that sickened 120 people and led to at least 12 deaths. Following the 2015 outbreak, both the state and city adopted laws designed to prevent Legionella growth in cooling towers and required building owners to adhere to a suite of safety, maintenance, and reporting requirements related to their cooling towers, with civil penalties for non-compliance. 

In 2019, OAG began an investigation into several owners of cooling towers in New York state, including Verizon, that appeared to have significant gaps in reporting requirements under state law. The investigation revealed that since 2017, approximately 225 alleged violations of state and city cooling tower laws had occurred at approximately 45 buildings throughout New York state with cooling towers owned by Verizon. The company maintains and manages its cooling towers within the state through contractors and vendors. The violations identified at Verizon-owned buildings included alleged failures to timely test water samples from cooling towers for Legionella and other bacteria, failures to properly take corrective action in response to positive test results, and failures to timely complete cleaning, disinfection, and inspection of cooling towers. The OAG found several causes for the alleged violations, including disorganized accountability, communication and tracking failures, and a lack of central policies and procedures within the company. 

Under the agreement, Verizon must establish a range of practices and procedures that will increase accountability and tracking, including:

• Ensuring that building managers, whether Verizon employees or third-party contractors, report to and are accountable to environmental health and safety compliance personnel with regard to cooling tower compliance responsibilities;
• Maintaining a centralized tracking system for cooling tower compliance deadlines, including corrective action deadlines as they may arise;
• Notifying senior Verizon management about any violation at a cooling tower, or when any laboratory report is received showing Legionella or other bacteria test results above specified concentrations; and
• Performing an annual audit for compliance with these policies and procedures.

Additionally, the agreement requires Verizon to pay a penalty of $118,000 to be used by OAG to fund projects that prevent, abate, mitigate, or control air pollution or its health impacts.

The OAG’s investigation into other cooling tower owners in New York state for compliance with anti-Legionnaires’ disease laws is ongoing.