By Ruth Brown
New York, your justice has been served—now would you like fries with that? A state appeals court has upheld the New York Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s soda ban, finding that the prohibition on vendors selling 16-ounce-plus sugary drinks “violated the state principle of separation… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Health
The chief spokesman for the New York Police Department on big stories such as the failed 2010 Times Square car-bombing has landed a job at the University of Notre Dame.
Paul Browne was named Thursday as the university’s vice president for public affairs. He’ll start Aug. 19.
Browne has been the voice of the nation’s largest police department for more than a decade. He’s also been a close adviser to police Commissioner Raymond Kelly during a period of record declines in serious crime and when the NYPD was criticized for its secret surveillance of Muslims, a program detailed in a series of stories by The Associated Press.
Critics have accused Browne of duplicity in his defense of the program. But Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have called him tireless and trustworthy.
Notre Dame’s president say Browne is highly qualified.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
NEW YORK — Anti-smoking advocates and health experts hailed proposals from Mayor Michael Bloomberg that would keep cigarettes out of sight in New York City stores, while tobacco companies and smokers called it an overreach.
The ban, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S., is aimed at discouraging young people from smoking.
Filed under: Retail, Tobacco, Consumer Protection, Products, Stores, Spending
By JENNIFER PELTZ and MEGHAN BARR
NEW YORK — Anti-smoking advocates and health experts hailed proposals from Mayor Michael Bloomberg that would keep cigarettes out of sight in New York City stores, while tobacco companies and smokers called it an overreach.
The ban, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S., is aimed at discouraging young people from smoking.
Keeping cigarettes under wraps could help, anti-smoking advocates say, citing studies that link exposure to smoking with starting it. Shops from corner stores to supermarkets would have to keep tobacco products in cabinets, drawers, under the counter, behind a curtain or in other concealed spots. Officials also want to stop shops from taking cigarette coupons and honoring discounts, and are proposing a minimum price for cigarettes, though it’s below what the going rate is in much of the city now.
While some of the research focuses on cigarette advertising, an English study of 11-to-15-year-olds published last month in the journal Tobacco Control found that simply noticing tobacco products on display every time a youth visited a shop raised the odds he or she would at least try smoking by threefold, compared to peers who never noticed the products.
“What’s exciting about this [New York City proposal] is that this is the most comprehensive set of tobacco-control regulations that affect stores or the retail outlets,” said Kurt Ribisi, a professor of public health and cancer prevention specialist at the University of North Carolina. Moreover, cigarettes’ visibility can trigger impulse buys by smokers who are trying to quit, he and city officials say.
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, other anti-smoking groups and several City Council members applauded Bloomberg’s announcement, made at a Queens hospital on Monday. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who largely controls what goes to a vote, said through her office that she “supports the goal of these bills” but noted they would get a full review.
The ban on displaying cigarettes follows similar laws in Iceland, Canada, England and Ireland, but it would be the first such measure in the U.S. It’s aimed at discouraging young people from smoking. According to the Rockland County Times, the Village of Haverstraw in Rockland County passed such a ban last April, but rescinded it four months later because it couldn’t afford to fight a lawsuit brought by tobacco companies and convenience stores.
“Such displays suggest that smoking is a normal activity,” Bloomberg said. “And they invite young people to experiment with tobacco.”
But smokers and cigarette sellers said the measure was overreaching.
“I don’t disagree that smoking itself …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Over the past 24 hours, it’s become clear that the surest way to draw attention to a story about soda laws is to include the word “Bloomberg” in the headline.
Exhibit A is the clamorous public reaction to a federal judge’s decision to strike down Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s restrictions on the sizes of sugar-sweetened beverages that can be sold in New York City — a day before the restrictions were to take effect. Even Sarah Palin weighed in on the ruling. (She called it a “victory for liberty-loving soda drinkers.”)
The “Bloomberg” label also drew eyeballs to the Mississippi Senate‘s passage of a law preventing towns and cities from limiting soda sizes or mandating calorie counts in restaurants. Once SB 2687 was dubbed the “Anti-Bloomberg Bill,” it was hailed (and vilified) as a defiant reaction to New York City‘s paternalism regarding soda.
A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s administration from banning New York City restaurants and other venues from selling large sugary drinks, a major defeat for the mayor who has made public a health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure at City Hall.
By Neal Colgrass 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Reuters
Filed under: Breaking News
NEW YORK, Feb 19 (Reuters) – A judge on Monday invalidated New York City‘s plan to ban large sugary drinks from restaurants and other eateries, one day before the new law was to take effect.
State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling in Manhattan ruled the new regulation was “arbitrary and capricious” and declared it invalid, after the American Beverage Association and other business groups had sued the city challenging the ban.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had touted the ban as a way to reduce obesity. But beverage manufacturers and business groups had called the law an illegal overreach that would infringe upon consumers’ personal liberty. (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Gary Hill)
The first court appearance for Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and onetime propagandist unfolded at a Manhattan courthouse Friday without the fuss over security that the Obama administration encountered three years ago over its plan to hold a civilian trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
There were no signs of unusual police activity around the court complex as lawyers for defendant Sulaiman Abu Ghaith entered a “not guilty” plea on his behalf. Public officials who had warned in 2009 that Mohammed’s very presence in New York would put civilians at risk said they didn’t have the same fears this time around.
“Times have changed,” said Michael Balboni, a top domestic security adviser to two New York governors.
Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida’s ability to launch a strike in the U.S. is greatly diminished. Other terror trials have proven the city can handle security with minimal cost and disruption. And in any case, Abu Ghaith was known as a “functionary” in the al-Qaida network, rather than a leader, and as such was far less likely to inspire reaction from bin Laden’s followers, said Balboni, New York‘s former deputy secretary of public safety.
“The NYPD is more than capable of locking down Foley Square and making sure they can protect anything going on there,” he said, referring to the part of the city where the trial is taking place.
New York City had a solid track record for handling major terrorism trials until the effort to bring Mohammed to justice collapsed amid opposition to his presence on U.S. soil. The thrust of that debate was over whether al-Qaida figures were more properly tried in a military court, but security challenges also loomed as a factor.
At the time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he planned to spend $200 million a year on extra security for the trial, which Obama ultimately moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly drew up a plan that would have created a “frozen zone” in vital business districts, involving thousands of extra officers and checkpoints for inspecting vehicles.
Since then, prosecutions of less infamous terror figures have quietly resumed in New York.
Three Queens men were prosecuted for plotting to bomb New York City’s subway system. An Egyptian preacher extradited from Great Britain is awaiting trial on charges that he conspired to set up a terrorist training camp and helped abduct American tourists …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Leaders of a school bus drivers’ union are ending their monthlong strike in New York City.
Some 8,000 bus drivers and aides walked off the job Jan. 16. The union announced Friday that service will resume Wednesday when schools reopen following a mid-winter recess. The strike has affected tens of thousands of schoolchildren, including many disabled students.
Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union went on strike over job protection issues.
The strike ended a day after five Democratic mayoral candidates sent a letter to the union asking drivers to return to work. The candidates said that, if elected, they will revisit the job security issue.
Union leaders say they’re confident they can work on a deal when Mayor Michael Bloomberg is out of office.
The monthlong school bus strike that affected tens of thousands of children in the nation’s largest school district ended Friday, after union leaders were assured by prospective New York City mayoral candidates that their concerns would be heard after this year’s election.
Leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union said service for New York City schools would resume Wednesday, after classes resume after the President Day holiday.
Some 8,000 bus drivers and aides walked off the job Jan. 16 over job protection issues. Local 1181 of the ATU wanted the city to include protections for current employees in future contracts with bus companies, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a court ruling prohibited the city from doing so.
“Though our strike has been suspended, the principles that we fight for remain pressing issues that the city will have to address,” said local union president Michael Cordiello.
The school bus strike was the first in the city since 1979. About 5,000 of the city’s 7,700 routes were affected.
Just 152,000 of New York City‘s 1.1 million public schoolchildren ride yellow school buses but the cost of busing students has risen from $100 million in 1979 to $1.1 billion today.
On Thursday, five Democrats vying for the nomination to succeed Bloomberg as mayor next year sent the union a letter asking drivers to return to work. The candidates called on the bus drivers “to return to their jobs and continue the battle in other ways.”
The candidates — City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Comptroller John Liu, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson and former Councilman Sal Albanese — said that if elected they will revisit the job security issue.
Larry Hanley, the union’s international president, said in a statement Friday that he was encouraged by the letter. “We view this request to suspend the current strike as an earnest effort on behalf of the city, its children and its workers,” Hanley said. “I will be discussing options this afternoon and evening with the leaders and members of Local 1181.”
The strike’s end was a victory for Bloomberg, who insisted that the city must seek new bus contracts to cut costs. Bloomberg and schools Chancellor Dennis Wolcott praised the decision Friday.
“We appreciate the hard work our bus drivers and matrons do and we welcome them back to the job,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “In the city’s entire history, the special interests have never had less power than they do today, and the end of this strike reflects the fact that when we say we put children first, we mean it.”
Union leaders said they were “dismayed” by the Bloomberg administration, which didn’t help bring the strike to a close.
The strike has affected more than 100,000 schoolchildren, many of them disabled. Parents and students said Friday they would welcome the walkout’s end.
Gwendolyn Hamilton was recruited to ferry two of her grandchildren to different schools on Staten Island. “I’ll be so glad it’s over, you don’t know,” Hamilton said, flashing a broad smile.
Her grandson Tyshon Ellzy transferred to Public School 20 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Mark Russell 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
New York City’s long-serving medical examiner is retiring.
Dr. Charles Hirsch was appointed in 1989 by then-Mayor Ed Koch, who recently died.
The 75-year-old has investigated thousands of deaths, from the 2001 World Trade Center attack to the 1990 flash fire at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx that killed 87 people.
The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/12rSwZs ) says a recent illness prevented Hirsch from speaking about his retirement this week.
In a statement Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Hirsch “a visionary and dedicated public servant whose work earned him world renown.”
Dr. Barbara Sampson, Hirsch’s longtime deputy, succeeds him as acting chief medical examiner.
Hirsch oversaw major advancements in DNA identification and mass-fatality response operations. His quest to identify the nearly 20,000 body parts collected after 9/11 continues.
___
Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Deborah L. Jacobs, Forbes Staff Friends, family and politicians crowded Temple Emanu-El in New York City today for the funeral of Edward I. Koch, the three-term mayor of New York, who died Feb.1 at 88. In a eulogy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg reflected on the enormous changes Koch wrought as mayor from 1978 to 1989, rescuing the city from economic decline. Former President Bill Clinton remembered him as a good friend.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
A deadline has passed for New York City and a union representing the city’s 75,000 teachers to agree on a teacher evaluation plan, putting the city at risk of losing up to $450 million in state aid and grants.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted a midnight Thursday deadline for a plan — required from each of the state’s nearly 700 school districts — was firm.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the union “unilaterally walked away” from negotiations early Thursday, while United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew blames Bloomberg for the impasse.
The city stands to lose $250 million in state aid and $200 million in grants. That’s a small percentage of the city Department of Education’s $19.7 billion operating budget, but the loss would be felt.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
More than 8,000 New York City school bus drivers and matrons went on strike over job protection Wednesday morning, leaving some 152,000 students, many disabled, trying to find other ways to get to school.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the strike started at 6 a.m. Wednesday. About 100 bus drivers and bus matrons were assembled on picket lines in the Queens section of the city.
Most of the city’s roughly 1.1 million public school students take public transportation or walk to school.
Those who rely on the buses include 54,000 special education students and others who live far from schools or transportation.
Parents have made plans to use subways, carpools and other alternatives.
The city has put its contracts with private bus companies up for bid, aiming to cut costs. The Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union says drivers could suddenly lose their jobs when contracts expire in June.
With the strike looming, city school officials had announced plans to distribute transit cards to students who could take buses and subways and to reimburse parents who would have to drive or take taxis.
“We are going to get our children to school,” Walcott said Tuesday.
To do that, some parents had pieced together a patchwork of plans, such as a driving one child to one school and arranging a carpool to take a sibling to another school.
The union announced Monday it would strike amid a complicated dispute.
The city doesn’t directly hire the bus drivers and matrons, who work for private companies that have city contracts. The workers make an average of about $35,000 a year, with a driver starting at $14 an hour and potentially making as much as $29 an hour over time, according to union President Michael Cordiello.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the city must seek competitive bids to save money.
The union sought job protections for current drivers in the new contracts. The city said that the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has barred it from including such provisions because of competitive bidding laws; the union said that’s not so.
“How is it illegal to provide the most experienced drivers and matrons in the school buses?” Cordiello asked Tuesday.
The contracts expire June 30.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The president of the union representing New York City school bus drivers says a strike will start Wednesday morning.
Michael Cordiello of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union says more than 8,000 bus drivers and matrons will be taking part.
The strike will affect about 152,000 New York City public school students.
The city wants to cut transportation costs and has put bus contracts with private bus companies up for bid. The union representing the drivers is decrying the lack of employee protections, saying drivers could suddenly lose their jobs once their contracts are up in June.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city has contingency plans, including students getting free MetroCards for mass transit. Families of special needs students would be reimbursed for private transportation.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The president of the union representing New York City school bus drivers says a strike will start Wednesday morning.
Michael Cordiello of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union says more than 8,000 bus drivers and matrons will be taking part.
The strike will affect about 152,000 New York City public school students.
The city wants to cut transportation costs and has put bus contracts with private bus companies up for bid. The union representing the drivers is decrying the lack of employee protections, saying drivers could suddenly lose their jobs once their contracts are up in June.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city has contingency plans, including students getting free MetroCards for mass transit. Families of special needs students would be reimbursed for private transportation.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Google is now offering free public Wi-Fi access to New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood in partnership with the Chelsea Improvement Group, a local nonprofit. The project is the largest unified Wi-Fi network in the city.
The free Wi-Fi connection is available in public places such as Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park and Gansevoort Plaza. The neighborhood spans Gansevoort Street and 19 Street from Eighth Avenue to the West Side Highway. To access the network, you must log in with a Google account.
The network will cover the more than 2,000 residents of the public Fulton Houses housing units, stores and other businesses, as well as local schools totaling some 5,000 students. Signal for the service, however, is unlikely to work inside many apartments in the area because of their architecture.
Google and city officials hope the service will help attract more technology companies and start-ups in the area, as the cluster of tech firms in Manhattan is now dubbed Silicon Alley. “New York is determined to become the world’s leading digital city, and universal access to high-speed Internet is one the core building blocks of that vision,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
