The Raw Yonkers Newsfeed (12/22/17)

2 hurt in possible chemical explosion at Yonkers bakery

WABC-TV 6h ago

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2 hurt in apparent explosion, fire at Yonkers bakery workshop

News 12 Westchester 8h ago

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Two Suffer Severe Chemical Burns At Yonkers Bakery

Yonkers Daily Voice 8h ago

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Cuomo signs controversial bill over Yonkers fire fund

The Journal News | LoHud.com 14h ago

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Yonkers man pleads for return of stolen dog

News 12 Westchester 6h ago

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Teen killed in apparent road rage hit and run

WABC-TV Dec 21, 2017

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Woman fatally struck by car in Yonkers

News 12 Westchester Dec 20, 2017

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Police: Yonkers man who intentionally hit teen with car charged with manslaughter

News 12 Westchester Dec 21, 2017

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Cuomo signs off on Yonkers schools construction bill; funding challenges persist

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 20, 2017

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Yonkers unveils final plan for new downtown firehouse

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 21, 2017

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Man indicted in fatal Yonkers restaurant stabbing

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 21, 2017

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Yonkers man gets 20 years for fatally beating 2-year-old son

News 12 Westchester Dec 20, 2017

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Yonkers man charged with running down, killing teen - MidHudsonNews.com

Mid-Hudson News 15h ago

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Yonkers police looking for missing teen

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 19, 2017

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COMMUNITY UPDATE

News | City of Yonkers, NY

yonkersny.gov Dec 21, 2017

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Police: Yonkers man charged with manslaughter after hitting teen with car

News 12 Hudson Valley Dec 21, 2017

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Sound Shore UJA volunteers help in hurricane recovery

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 21, 2017

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SUNY Purchase moving Yonkers programs to The PowerLab

The Journal News | LoHud.com Dec 21, 2017

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Yonkers parents call for AC at schools amid multimillion-dollar expansions

News 12 Westchester Dec 20, 2017

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'Sexually Violent' Offender Reports Move Within Yonkers

Yonkers Daily Voice Dec 19, 2017

LET'S TALK DIRT: Yonkers Office Cleaning (914) 697 - 0767

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http://abmgreenclean.com/index.php/category/yonkers-ny/

O'Keefe Loses Donor for Hiding Criminal Record

Lachlan Markay, The Daily Beast: Conservative provocateur James O'Keefe's failure to disclose his criminal conviction to state regulators has resulted in the loss of a major donor to his group, Project Veritas.

The Chisholm Foundation told The Daily Beast in an email Monday that it "recently learned that Project Veritas was de-registered as a charity in Mississippi ... Irrespective of other possible concerns, the Chisholm Foundation will not be supporting Project Veritas in the future because it does not meet this basic standard." 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/james-okeefe-donor-flees-over-failure-to-disclose-criminal-record

Blockchain Project Helps Homeless New Yorkers

Three thousand homeless people in New York are about to receive a special holiday gift: a free smartphone that allows them to manage their digital identity, access shelters and food pantries, and make use of financial services. The initiative, which uses blockchain technology, may be the first time a distributed computer ledger has been employed to help a homeless population. The project comes from Blockchain for Change, a New York City startup that has developed a mobile app called Fummi that's preloaded on the phone. It has teamed up with Life Wireless, which provides phones to low-income groups using federal subsidies. Also involved are NYC service providers like Urban Pathways, Part of the Solution (POTS), Hakook, and the Robin Hood Foundation.

Life Wireless is distributing the phones, starting in the Bronx. The service groups create the blockchain identities for individuals. Once on the system, they can then open an account, receive money, and track their activity. For instance, the app shows when someone has checked into a shelter, how much they paid for showers, haircuts, and clothes, and their available balance. Fummi aims to be one-stop-shop for all the services the homeless use regularly.

Blockchain for Change has two big purposes. The first is to help the homeless access services they are entitled to, and at discounted prices. More than 60,000 people spend the night in shelters in New York alone, and many don't currently have digital identities, cofounder Calvin Bradley tells Fast Company. That restricts access to financial services and government programs, where identity needs to be authenticated.

The app includes a digital wallet that can hold both dollars and a cryptocurrency created for the project called Change Coin. When users sign up for Fummi (currently only on Android) they get 30 Change Coins free of charge. They can get more coins as they buy services through the platform, meet financial goals, refer friends, or take part in peer-to-peer lending programs. The coins can be redeemed for more talk-time and data on the phone. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/40500978/this-new-blockchain-project-gives-homeless-new-yorkers-a-digital-identity

Police Arrest Man 62 Times for Trespassing at Work

Suppose you were a clerk at a convenience store and the police arrested you there 62 times on one charge: trespassing. You read that right. Arrested multiple times for trespassing while at your place of employment. What's going on? Well, that's what Miami Gardens, Fla., store owner Alex Saleh is trying to figure out.

One of the employees at his store, 207 Quickstop, Earl Sampson, has been stopped and questioned 258 times, searched more than 100 times and arrested and tossed in jail countless times, the Miami Herald reports.According to Saleh, Sampson, other employees and even his customers have been repeatedly stopped and frisked by Miami Gardens police, sometimes as often as three times a day.

Most of them, the Herald reports, are like Sampson. In two words: poor and black.

Saleh couldn't take the constant harassment anymore and ended up installing 15 video cameras in his store -- not to protect himself from criminals, but from the police.

What these videos reveal is shocking, the Herald reports. 

https://www.theroot.com/miami-gardens-police-arrested-a-man-62-times-for-trespa-1790899021

Saudis End 35-Year Ban on Movie Theaters Saudi Arabia announced on Monday it will allow movie theaters to open in the conservative kingdom next year, for the first time in more than 35 years, in the latest social push by the country's young crown prince. It's a stark reversal in a country where movie theaters were shut down in the 1980s during a wave of ultraconservatism in the country. Many of Saudi Arabia's clerics view Western movies and even Arabic films made in Egypt and Lebanon as sinful.

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday it will allow movie theaters to open in the conservative kingdom next year, for the first time in more than 35 years, in the latest social push by the country's young crown prince.

It's a stark reversal in a country where movie theaters were shut down in the 1980s during a wave of ultraconservatism in the country.

Many of Saudi Arabia's clerics view Western movies and even Arabic films made in Egypt and Lebanon as sinful.

Many Saudis took to Twitter to express their joy at the news, posting images of buckets of movie theater popcorn and moving graphics of people dancing, fainting, and crying.

"It's spectacular news. We are in a state of shock," said Saudi actor and producer, Hisham Fageeh.

Men aren't supposed to see a woman's arm or head, let alone her breast. This will keep censors very busy.

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2017/1211/After-35-year-ban-movie-theaters-allowed-once-again-in-Saudi-Arabia

Puerto Rico Has Received $0 in Hurricane Relief

 Over two months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island's government still hasn't received any of the $4.9 billion of short-term loans promised in the storm aid package Congress passed at the end of October. Puerto Rico's government has requested $94 billion in federal aid, only a portion of which has been granted.

Members of Congress have raised concerns over how the island's government will steward billions in federal money. In what appeared to be an attempt to reassure Washington, Governor Ricardo Rossello said last month that he was giving Federal Emergency Management Agency unprecedented power to pre-approve relief spending.

Officially, 64 people died in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria. But The New York Times estimated that as many as 1,052 people died in the 42 days following the hurricane's landfall because of the storm. They determined that by comparing death levels during those days in a typical year to the spike witnessed after the natural disaster struck. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/puerto-rico-still-waiting-for-4-9-billion-from-u-s-treasury

Westchester Couty Executive Elect George Latimer’s Transition Team Subcommittees Announce Hearing Schedule

Following organizational meetings held as part of his Transition Team planning, County Executive-elect George Latimer (D-Rye) has announced the public hearing schedule for each of the six subcommittees.

“These hearings are another step in ensuring input from residents and stakeholders in Westchester,” Latimer said. “They are a crucial step in my transition – gathering information that will be utilized so that we all move Westchester forward together,” he added.

Committee	Meeting Date/Time	Location*
Criminal Justice	12-13-17 - 6:00 pm	White Plains Library
Health and Mental Health	12-13-17 - 7:00 pm	Yonkers Riverfront Library
Social Services and Human Rights	12-14-17 - 6:00 pm	White Plains Library
Administrative Services	12-18-17 - 6:00 pm	Mamaroneck Library
Economic Development	12-19-17 - 6:00 pm	Mt. Kisco Public Library
Operational Services	12-19-17 – 7:00 pm	White Plains Library

The hearings are open to the public. Speakers at these hearing will be limited to three minutes apiece. Written comments can be submitted directly to the committees, by e-mailing them to LatimerTransition2017@gmail.com, in lieu of appearing at the hearings.

The Transition Team, led by County Legislator Ken Jenkins and former County Legislator and Pleasantville Mayor John Nonna, will utilize the information gathered from these hearings to help County Executive-elect Latimer chart a plan moving forward.

The transition process is expected to continue into January.

*NOTE: The addresses for the hearing sites are below:

• Mount Kisco Public Library, 100 East Main Street, Mount Kisco, NY 10549
• Yonkers Public Library - Riverfront, 1 Larkin Center, Yonkers, NY 10701
• White Plains Library, 100 Martine Ave, White Plains, NY 10601
• Mamaroneck Public Library, 136 Prospect Ave, Mamaroneck, NY 10543

TECH CRUNCH: Say Goodbye to Your Social Security Number

Eyeing more secure alternatives to Social Security numbers, lawmakers in the U.S. are looking abroad. The Senate Commerce Committee questioned former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Verizon chief privacy officer Karen Zacharia and both the current and former CEOs of Equifax on how to protect consumers against major data breaches.

The consensus was that Social Security numbers have got to go. Rounding out the panel, Entrust Datacard president and CEO Todd Wilkinson offered some context and insight about why the U.S. should indeed move away from Social Security numbers -- a step that the witnesses unanimously agreed was necessary if not wholly sufficient to protect consumers moving forward, in light of the Equifax hack. 

"Over 145 million Americans' insecure identities are now forever at risk, and they have limited ability to protect themselves," Wilkinson said. "A key question for this committee to consider is: What do we do now given these identities are forever compromised?"

Social Security numbers are a privacy nightmare. While a consumer who gets hacked can replace credit card numbers and other account details, a Social Security number is relatively permanent, linked to a real identity throughout a person's lifespan. In the hearing,

Wilkinson and many of the senators present argued that the U.S. needs to move to a dynamic system of personal identity, one designed with digital security in mind -- a stark contrast with an inflexible legacy system that dates back to the 1930s.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/are-social-security-numbers-going-away/

BBC - Selling Cake Mix: Psychology And Marketing

Cake mixes were introduced in the 1920s and boomed in the 1950s, but sales soon leveled off. BBC reports, "The sales numbers gradually plateaued. Most home cooks were still making their cakes from scratch, and the product had reached everyone it was going to reach.

Even if some people had decided any cake was better than no cake, the persistent sense that something soulless about cake from a box kept many others from embracing it. As they tried to work through this, a man named Ernest Dichter came into the picture.

He was a psychologist and marketing consultant, now known as one of the founders of modern consumer behaviour studies and a pioneer of focus groups."
BBC continues, "Dichter told the cake companies the answer was to take the eggs out of the mix and put them back into the hands of the baker. The problem was that the women who were making the cakes didn't feel emotionally invested enough just adding water, he said. Eggs would make it feel more like baking." 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171027-the-magic-cakes-that-come-from-a-packet

New York Court Gave Every Detained Immigrant a Lawyer

Omar Siagha has been in the US for 52 years.

He's a legal permanent resident with three children.

He'd never been to prison, he says, before he was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention -- faced with the loss of his green card for a misdemeanor.

His brother tried to seek out lawyers who could help Siagha, but all they offered, in his words, were "high numbers and no hope" -- no guarantee, in other words, that they'd be able to get him out of detention for all the money they were charging.

Then he met lawyers from Brooklyn Defender Services -- part of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, an effort to guarantee legal representation for detained immigrants.

They demanded only one thing of him, he recalls: "Omar, you've got to tell us the truth."

But Siagha's access to a lawyer in immigration court is the exception.

There's no right to counsel in immigration court, which is part of the executive branch rather than the judiciary.

Often, an immigrant's only shot at legal assistance before they're marched in front of a judge is the pro bono or legal aid clinic that happens to have attorneys at that courthouse.

Those clinics have such limited resources that they try to select only the cases they think have the best shot of winning -- which can be extremely difficult to ascertain in a 15-minute interview.

But advocates and local governments are trying to make cases like Siagha's the rule, not the exception.

Soon, every eligible immigrant who gets detained in one of a dozen cities -- including New York, Chicago, Oakland, California, and Atlanta -- will have access to a lawyer to help fight their immigration court case. 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/9/16623906/immigration-court-lawyer

How to Hire Fake Friends and Family

Money may not be able to buy love, but here in Japan, it can certainly buy the appearance of love -- and appearance, as the dapper Ishii Yuichi insists, is everything.

As a man whose business involves becoming other people, Yuichi would know.

The handsome and charming 36-year-old is on call to be your best friend, your husband, your father, or even a mourner at your funeral. His 8-year-old company, Family Romance, provides professional actors to fill any role in the personal lives of clients.

With a burgeoning staff of 800 or so actors, ranging from infants to the elderly, the organization prides itself on being able to provide a surrogate for almost any conceivable situation.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/11/paying-for-fake-friends-and-family/545060/

REASON.COM: Is Silicon Valley Building Infrastructure for a Police State?

Zach Weissmueller, Reason: Silicon Valley firms are building surveillance and profiling tools to help government agents make sense of the massive amount of information available on social media and in publicly accessible data sets.

Are they using cutting-edge technologies to keep Americans safe, or laying the groundwork for a police state?

Edward Hasbrouck of the nonprofit Identity Project says this technology enables the government to violate civil liberties without necessary checks on its power. He compares it to the Berlin Wall.

"By building checkpoints -- by building the control mechanisms," Hasbrouck says, "we're already putting into place the infrastructure for those who will abuse them in the future."

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/10/is-silicon-valley-building-the-infrastru

FOCUS ON LORRAINE LOPEZ; Internet Radio Spokesperson Wants To 'Break Bread And Smash Stigma' Of Being HIV Positive

YONKERS GAL"S HIV ACTIVISM: You Don't Have To Be Afraid Of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

CUP CAKE CUTIE BOUTIQUE: At 8 S 6th Avenue In Mt Vernon Lorraine Lopez Is Willing To Sweetly Talk About AIDS Prevention To Whoever Will Listen

SPREADING THE WORD: #LorraineLopez implored people to take precautions against HIV. #LorraineLopez say,''In my family, we didn't listen" 

NEW YORK TIMES REPORTED: Our Towns; AIDS In The Backyard, Heads In The Sand 

....When the county health commissioner, suggested a needle exchange program to combat the spread of the virus by drug users, he met a resounding silence from Yonkers officials. This, in a city with 30 percent of the county's 3,457 AIDS cases.

And when Westchester's largest AIDS service provider, wanted to open offices and a walk-in center in downtown Yonkers, he said, he was given the runaround and gave up.....

.....Lorraine Lopez, a special assistant to Mayor John Spencer and a former City Council member, said she asked the local AIDS advisory group to brief the Council during her tenure, but most members, representing districts outside southwest Yonkers, seemed unmoved.

''They gave them the courtesy, but they didn't do anything,'' Lorraine Lopez said. ''There was almost a sense that this doesn't happen in my backyard. But it does.''

If some officials look the other way, so do some people at risk. At a youth rally for World AIDS Day on Monday, Loraine Lopez implored the audience to take precautions. ''In my family, we didn't listen,'' she said......

....It would be unfair to say Yonkers shrugs off its AIDS burden. There are medical and housing programs for infected people, some subsidized by the city, as well as educational programs.

But there is a sense here, as elsewhere, that the crisis has passed since drugs made a fatal illness merely chronic, even as the disease becomes more concentrated among women, minority residents and intravenous drug users.

''We're starting all over again,'' said Charles G. Lief, president of the Greyston Foundation, which treats AIDS patients here, ''but the country is kind of exhausted with it.''

Perhaps that explains why Yonkers seems to be trying to keep #AIDS in its place.

Asked about the ban on social service agencies in the re-emerging downtown, #IanKipp, who runs the downtown business improvement district, said, ''Our experience has been that these uses are detrimental for redevelopment.'.... 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/nyregion/our-towns-aids-in-backyard-heads-in-sand.html