Monday, August 15, 2016

A.G. Schneiderman Announces Guilty Plea Of The Leader Of A Brooklyn Based Gun Trafficking Ring


Dubbed “Operation Midnight Run,” Joint AG-NYPD Investigation Leads To A Top Count Plea For Lead Defendant Natasha Harris; Harris Will Be Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison
Schneiderman: If You Bring Deadly Illegal Weapons Into Our State, We Will Catch You And Prosecute To The Fullest Extent Of The Law
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced today the top count plea of Natasha Harris for her role as the leader of a high-volume gun trafficking ring. Harris will be sentenced to 15 years in prison. Harris pled guilty to seventeen counts including multiple counts of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the First Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the First Degree. 
“Natasha Harris led a dangerous gun trafficking ring that used Chinatown buses as a method to bring guns into our communities and fuel the epidemic of gun violence,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “Today’s guilty plea sends a clear message– if you bring deadly illegal weapons into our state, we will catch you and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”
The investigation, led by the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit, began in the spring of 2014. The investigation involved a high-volume gun trafficking ring that allegedly funneled firearms from Florida to New York City, often beneath Chinatown buses. According to the 196-count felony indictment the investigative team seized more than 70 illegal guns bought at gun shows in Florida, many of which were then resold in New York for up to four times their original price.
Defendant Octavio Batista was previously sentenced to 12 years in prison. Defendant Michele Cantres was also sentenced to seven years in prison and five years post release supervision.

BRONX BUSINESS CELEBRATES EASCO BOILERS 90 YEAR ANNIVERSARY AS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S ONLY BLACK-OWNED BOILER MANUFACTURERS


  A family-owned and operated institution, Easco Boiler Company is celebrating 90 years of business, with a press conference and open house this Tuesday, August 16th at their headquarters. Leon Eastmond, 89 years old, took the reins of the business from his father in 1948, and has entrusted his grandson Tyren, the fourth generation of the family to manage operations, with the role of COO. Under Tyren’s leadership, the company is focused on expansion, sustainability and deepening community relationships.  

As the country is focused on job creation, especially in disadvantaged communities, Easco is a model for employment policies that strengthen and add value to the community.  The company has paid wages starting at $15 per hour and up, with great benefits, long before advocates began pushing for a $15 minimum wage nationally. Easco also provides job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and has a “scholarship fund” for those who aren’t able to support themselves while learning a new trade. This foresight is based on the family wisdom that well-treated employees craft a better product and contribute to long term growth.

Reflecting on their 90th year in business, Easco patriarch Leon Eastmond noted the need for the city to recommit to helping build and sustain local businesses. “Black and Latino communities The resilient people of the Bronx deserve a fair chance to work, gain skills and reinvest in their community. Our city leaders must stay actively engaged in making sure the policies and procedures of city agencies support a create opportunity for the citizens of our great city.”  

“Easco is a staple in the black community and a model for the nation,” said Tyren Eastmond, “We are committed to the economic advancement of the most vulnerable and the most in need of good jobs. This is the real value of a legacy business like ours, in the Bronx and beyond.”

Many elected and business leaders will be on hand.

Tuesday, August 16th - 11:00 am

Easco Boiler Headquarters 175 Leggett Ave, Bronx, NY 10474

National Recovery Month Event at Gethsemane MBC



ALL ARE WELCOME! TELL A FRIEND BRING A FRIEND

Here at the Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church771 Fairmount Place BronxNY 10460, Rev. Dr. Torrence Robinson, Pastor; we recognize that the month of September is National Recovery Month all over the world. Therefore here at Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church we celebrate by having a program on September 24th 20162:30 pm until 6:30 pm.

Host: The F.O.C.U.S Ministry (Freedom Only Comes Under Surrendering) Substance & Alcohol Abuse and Prevention Support Group. 

Theme: National Recovery Month 2016; coming together recognizing those recovering one day at a time. Sharing experience, strength and hope through Song, Praise, dancing, and; encouragement through the word of God, and so much more. Letting one know we are not alone and we can do this together.

F.O.C.U.S. MINISTRY   
Chairperson: Sister Patty Thrower (718) 710-8729
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all”(Psalm 34:19 KJV).

Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj - Celebrating Mother Teresa Sept. 4, 2016 Battery Park, NYC


Celebrating Mother Teresa
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Battery Park, NYC 

Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj - Adopt an ACC Champion



Animal Care Centers of NYC Celebrates Olympic Spirit With  
Fee-Waived Cat Adoptions!

Bring home one of our 300 little champions today!


 
While the nation cheers on team USA in this year's summer Olympics, Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) is assembling its own roster of champion cats and offering fee-waived adoptions through August 31on all cats over 6 months.
 
"Summer months are the best time to adopt a cat because the selection of available furry felines is at its peak!" says Risa Weinstock, ACC's Executive Director.
"Whether you are looking for one buddy to join you in celebrating the games, or you are putting a team together of feline friends, chances are likely you will find exactly what you are looking for at ACC."
Potential adopters can meet great cats at ACC's three Care Centers, open for adoptions
12pm-8pm Monday through Friday
 10am-6pm Saturday and Sunday
· Manhattan - 326 East 110th Street
·Brooklyn - 2336 Linden Boulevard
·Staten Island - 3139 Veterans Road West
As part of its push to get cats adopted, ACC is also bringing cats to its Mobile Adoption Center events throughout the month of August:
 
August 13, 12-4pm: Petco Gateway Mall, 528 Gateway Drive #4, Brooklyn, NY 11239
 August 14, 12-4pm: Birch Coffee, 866 Hunts Point Ave, Bronx, NY 10474
· August 2012-4pm: Garber Hardware, 710 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10014
August 20, 12-4pm: Petco Riverdale, 193 W 237th St, Bronx, NY
10463
August 21, 12-4pm: Petco Union Square, 860 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
August 27, 12-4pm: Petco Forest Hills, 9111 Metropolitan Avenue, Forest Hills, NY 11374
August 28, 12-4pm: Zoomies NYC, 434 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

ACC is also asking for the public's help to keep cats and kittens out of the shelter during the summer months.
Here are three things you should know:

 
1.If you find a litter of kittens that appear to be healthy and are in safe location like a yard or under a tree, leave them alone and monitor them. Mother cats will often leave their babies for short periods of time and then return.
2. If you find a cat that is sick or injured, call 311 to report it or bring it into the Animal Care Center closest to you. Click here for a list of locations.
3. The shelter is in immediate need of kitten fosters. If you would like to foster, sign up here: or email fosters@nycacc.org and help save a kitten or an entire litter.
 
About Animal Care Centers of NYC
Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC) is one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the country, taking in more than 35,000 animals a year. ACC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that rescues, cares for and finds loving homes for animals throughout the five boroughs. ACC is an open-admissions organization, which means it never turns away any homeless, abandoned, injured or sick animal in need of help, including cats, dogs, rabbits, small mammals, reptiles, birds, farm animals and wildlife. It is the only organization in NYC with this unique responsibility.
 
 Visit www.nycacc.org 
for more information

CEO Of Steel Contractor On World Trade Center Site Convicted At Trial Of Fraud In Connection With Program Designed To Encourage Participation Of Minority And Women-Owned Businesses


CEO’s company, DCM Erectors, also found guilty of fraud

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that LARRY DAVIS, President and Chief Executive Officer of DCM Erectors, Inc. (“DCM”), and DCM itself, were convicted of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to violate the Port Authority’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Program (“M/WBE Program”), which is designed to increase the role of minority and women-owned businesses working on its projects.  DAVIS was convicted after an eight-day jury trial before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska. 
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As the jury found in its guilty verdict today, Larry Davis, the CEO of DCM Erectors, used fraud in connection with nearly a billion dollars of construction contracts on One World Trade Center.  The construction work awarded to Davis came with the obligation to employ minority and women-owned businesses, an obligation that Davis shirked and then lied about.  We cannot allow major public projects – particularly ones on the sacred World Trade Center site – to be built on a foundation of fraud.  By its verdict today, the jury of New Yorkers made clear that it will not.”
According to the Complaint, Indictment and evidence presented at trial:
DCM specialized in steel erection for large construction projects.  Since at least March 1999, DAVIS has owned DCM and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer.  In 2007, DCM was awarded an approximately $256 million contract for work to be performed on One World Trade Center and in 2009, DCM was awarded an approximately $330 million trade contract for work to be performed on the World Trade Center Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Transportation Hub (collectively, the “World Trade Center Project”).
The work to be performed by DCM for the World Trade Center Project included, but was not limited to, structural steel supply and erection, supply and installation of metal decking, drafting and engineering, and surveying.
The Port Authority’s M/WBE Program is designed to ensure that M/WBEs receive work on its projects and applied to the World Trade Center Project.  Pursuant to the M/WBE Program, all contractors, including contractors such as DCM, were obligated to make good faith efforts to enter into subcontracts with M/WBEs, with a goal of 17 percent of the overall contract amount to be given to M/WBEs (12 percent for MBEs and five percent for WBEs).
In order to satisfy the M/WBE Program, DAVIS engaged in a fraudulent scheme in which he caused DCM to claim that certain work was performed by a minority-owned business, Solera/DCM Joint Venture LLC (“Solera/DCM,” and a woman-owned business, GLS Enterprises, Inc. (“GLS”), when, in truth and in fact, DCM itself performed such work or arranged for such work to be performed by other non-M/WBE contractors.
Solera/DCM was a joint venture between DCM and a minority owned business, Solera Construction, Inc. (“Solera”), which was owned by Johnny Garcia, a qualified minority business owner who previously pled guilty for his role in the fraudulent scheme.  Solera/DCM was purportedly owned 60 percent by Solera and 40 percent by DCM. DCM and DAVIS established Solera/DCM as a joint venture majority owned by Solera with the express purpose of using it to satisfy MBE requirements on public construction projects.
From 2009 through 2012, DAVIS caused DCM to misrepresent to the Port Authority that Solera/DCM performed certain work on the World Trade Center Project when, in truth and in fact, the work, including metal decking and steel procurement, was performed by a non-minority contractor or by DCM itself.  To facilitate the fraud, DAVIS directed Solera/DCM to place laborers who worked for a non-minority contractor performing metal decking on Solera/DCM’s payroll and then invoice DCM for such laborers’ time and also created certain invoices and directed Garcia to sign them to make it appear as if Solera/DCM procured steel, when, in truth and in fact, DCM did so.  DCM claimed MBE credit for work purportedly performed by Solera/DCM on the World Trade Center Project.  As part of the fraudulent scheme, DCM paid Garcia a total of at least $2 million ($150,000 in annual salary and additional monthly payments).
The owner of GLS was Gale D’Aloia, who served as GLS’s President and previously pled guilty for her role in the fraudulent scheme.  D’Aloia had been a long-time employee of DCM performing payroll management services for DCM and DAVIS’s related companies (the “Davis Group”).  In 2004, D’Aloia left DCM and began performing the same payroll management services for DCM and the Davis Group through her company, GLS, which she registered as a WBE with the Port Authority. 
From 2009 through 2012, DAVIS and DCM misrepresented to the Port Authority that GLS performed surveying work, and fraudulently claimed WBE credit for GLS’s purported surveying work, on the World Trade Center Project when, in truth and in fact, the surveying work was performed by DCM itself.  To facilitate the fraud, DAVIS directed D’Aloia to place unionized surveyors on GLS’s payroll who had been on DCM’s payroll and then to certify such payroll and also to invoice DCM for the workers even though DCM continued to actually supervise them.  As compensation for engaging in the fraudulent scheme, DAVIS paid GLS up to 10 percent of each week’s total gross payroll for the surveyors, which totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.
DAVIS, 65, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, was convicted of one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  He is scheduled to be sentenced November 15, 2016.
Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Port Authority’s Office of Inspector General; U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; IRS-Criminal Investigation; and DOT-OIG.

Alan Tudyk From Firefly Lands at NYCC


Alan Tudyk from Firelfly lands at NYCC
Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and more on thursday at NYCC! Buy your Thursday tickets now
BookCon at NYCC
The cast and crew of carmillla give an exclusive look at season 3
NYCC presents "Writing and Selling"
 
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buy your thursday tickets before the mailing deadline on august 26 at 11:59 pm EDT

Star Trek Mission New York

Assemblymember Michael Blake - My Brother's Keeper RFPs deadline approaching




The deadlines for the first two My Brother's Keeper Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are coming up soon. New York State's budget has allocated $20 million for My Brother's Keeper programs, and I know the 79th District is brimming with the talent and innovative approaches that the New York State Board of Regents is looking for in applications.  Please check below for additional information about these RFPs. 
 




The State Education Department (SED) is now accepting applications for $9 million in grants for two New York State My Brother’s Keeper Initiatives: the Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC) and the Family and Community Engagement Program.  These grant opportunities are available to develop programs and strategies to help boys and young men of color—and all students—realize their full potential.

In 2014, President Barack Obama established the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Task Force at the federal level. The Task Force was an interagency effort focused on closing and eliminating the opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color so that all young people have the chance to reach their full potential. With the adoption of the 2016–2017 New York State Budget, New York became the first state to accept the President’s challenge and enacted the My Brother’s Keeper initiative into law.  The budget included a $20 million investment in support of the initiative to improve outcomes for boys and young men of color.  Among the programs included in the $20 million investment are TOC and Family and the Family and Community Engagement Program.

Teacher Opportunity Corp (TOC):
The purpose of TOC is to increase the participation rate of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged individuals in teaching careers.  SED seeks to invest $3 million in grant programs to bolster the retention of highly qualified individuals who value equity and reflect the diversity inside and outside of our classrooms, particularly in high-need schools with recurrent teacher shortages.

To be eligible, applicants must be a New York State-located public or independent degree-granting postsecondary institution that offers a teacher preparation program approved by the NY State Education Department.

Successful programs will incorporate proven strategies for teacher retention and best practice, such as providing mentors for new teachers and differentiated instructional techniques.  Applications must be received on or before August 22, 2016.  The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the grants is available at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/compcontracts/16-012-toc/.

Family and Community Engagement Program:
The purpose of the Family and Community Engagement Program is to increase the academic achievement and college and career readiness of boys and young men of color and to develop and sustain effective relationships with families toward the goal of success for all students.  SED will award $6 million in grants for school districts, community-based organizations, and other groups to improve family engagement efforts in local communities.

These efforts could include parent advocacy, incorporating the use of mentors to improve student achievement, or creating outreach material in home languages so families can learn how to enhance school success for their children, beginning at the earliest ages, through high school and beyond.  Applications must be received on or before August 25, 2016.  The RFP for the grants is available at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/compcontracts/16-013-fcep/.

Details on New York’s MBK Initiative can be found here: http://www.nysed.gov/nysmbk.