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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications (Edited) June 1, 2023:
Westchester County Executive George Latimer has signed into law a bill creating the Office of Housing Counsel located within the Department of Social Services which will provide free legal counsel to individuals in housing matters involving eviction.
Latimer said: “Housing is a necessity. Plain and simple. This legislation will help Westchester residents who are facing hardships remain in their homes, easing the burden on our social services and lowering the number of our neighbors facing a crisis in their living situations. I commend the Board of Legislators for their work on this trailblazing legislation here in Westchester.”
According to the 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, New York State has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, with 92,000 New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. Even worse, in a 2016 report by Stout Risius Ross, a staggering 1.2 million households are behind on rent and landlords are actively trying to evict more than 236,000 tenants statewide. According to the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, 220,000 evictions are pending in New York courts, including town, village, and justice courts.
Currently, low-income tenants in Westchester County do not have guaranteed access to legal counsel in eviction proceedings.
Across the state an overwhelming majority of landlords are represented during eviction proceedings, whereas most tenants are not.
According to the Westchester County Right to Counsel Coalition (“WCRTCC”), in normal years, when more than 10,000 eviction proceedings are filed in Westchester County Courts, 93% of landlords are represented by counsel, while only 7% of tenants have attorneys. Programs that provide legal counsel at no cost to low income tenants, have proven to be very successful at preventing evictions and protecting tenants’ rights
This legislation will establish an Office of Housing Counsel within the County Department of Social Services for establishment of a County-wide program to provide access to legal services for income-eligible tenants and occupants. Meaning, a person whose household income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or 60% of the County Average Medium Income who has legal standing in a covered proceeding.
A covered proceeding is any proceeding in any court in the County or any administrative agency administering housing programs which involves:
· the eviction of a covered individual,
· challenges to rent increases based upon a landlord’s failure to provide proper notice,
· maintaining or restoring a covered individual’s occupancy of a residential rental premises,
· possession of a residential premises for the non-payment of rent or a holdover; restoration or maintenance of essential services, and
· a proceeding which would result in the termination of tenancy, rental subsidy, or other rental assistance.
The legal services provided to covered individuals pursuant to this program will be at no cost to the clients. Additionally, community engagement and education to inform tenants of their ability to access legal counsel will be undertaken to help residents learn about this important program.
This legislation will establish an Office of Housing Counsel within the County Department of Social Services for establishment of a county-wide program to provide access to legal services for income-eligible tenants and occupants. Meaning, a person whose household income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or 60 percent of the county Average Medium Income who has legal standing in a covered proceeding.
The legal services provided to covered individuals pursuant to this program will be at no cost to the clients. Additionally, community engagement and education to inform tenants of their ability to access legal counsel will be undertaken to help residents learn about this important program.
The measure passed the Board of Legislators unanimously.
Board of Legislators Chairman Vedat Gashi said: “At the Board of Legislators, we are always looking for ways to improve the lives of the residents of Westchester. This legislation does just that. I thank my colleagues on the Board for their diligent work, the County Executive and his staff for their efforts to bring this to fruition and I look forward to working with the dedicated County staff on its implementation.”
Legislator Catherine Borgia said: “This law sets a gold standard for access to housing counsel. Once the office is in operation, tenants will have access to brief legal representation or full legal representation on a host of housing matters, including eviction proceedings, landlord’s failure to provide proper notice of rent increase, maintaining or restoring essential services to the tenant, among others. Even before the pandemic, it was obvious that housing costs were too high, causing economic strain for Westchester families and harming local economies. In 2019, I spent time in several local courts and I saw how unrepresented tenants were outmatched in court. The end of the pandemic-era eviction moratorium has created a huge jump in eviction proceedings, increasing risk of homelessness for families already struggling with high costs.”
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By DR. KATELYN JETELINA (Reprinted with permission)
Last week I was invited to the Nobel Prize Summit on information integrity at the National Academy of Science.
I’ve attended quite a few of these types of events lately—discussions on mis- and disinformation’s impact on truth, trust, and hope. I keep noticing the same themes bubbling up. Here are a few thoughts.
Truth is now debatable.
The major challenge in scientific communication is that the truth is now networked by peers.
Because of this, disinformation and misinformation are eroding public trust in science, becoming a threat to the planet, and costing lives.
But it goes beyond a pandemic—climate change, routine vaccinations, gun violence, reproductive health. Everyone—the private sector, government, researchers, and communities nationally and internationally—is rightfully worried.
The problems are just getting started.
Before AI, false news spread 6 times faster than the truth on social media.
AI will accelerate the speed, reach, complexity, and innovation of disinformation.
It will create more effective content that plays on human emotion and, thus, goes viral and changes human behavior.
A prime example emerged last week when an AI-generated image displayed an explosion at the Pentagon, which impacted the stock market.
AI will diminish safety for those of us on the front lines of communication, too.
AI-generated deep fakes will make it impossible to discern what is true and what is not true.
The threats and smear campaigns will only get worse. For example, the president of another country shared fake porn pictures of a reporter covering an important story.
What is trustworthy? And who is trustworthy? These questions are going to get more difficult to answer with time.
There is a lot of talk about the problem. There is a lot of doom and gloom from leadership.
I don’t think this is useful.
We know what to do, but I’m getting increasingly frustrated with inaction. We need to coordinate and mount a proactive and reactive response to address the biosecurity that it is:
There is really fantastic work being done on the ground by volunteers, trusted messengers, and entrepreneurs in both of these spaces. But the support is suboptimal—to say the least—casting doubt on the sustainability.
There is a lot of finger-pointing.
Everyone thinks someone else should be doing something. And, of those who are doing something, little of their work is supported. Institutions are needed for the long-term solution:
We have a problem and we are moving at a snail’s pace—on the backs of effective volunteers who find themselves shouting for support into the abyss.
We aren’t helpless, but inaction is hindering progress.
Government, private industry, academic institutions—just do something. That’s how we move toward truth, trust, and hope.
Love, YLE
“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, data scientist, wife. During the day she works at a nonpartisan health policy think tank and is a senior scientific consultant to a number of organizations, including the CDC. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below:
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71 PATIENTS HOSPITALIZED FOR SERIOUS COVID AT WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL IN MAY—60% OF TOTAL ROOM ADMISSIONS.
WPCNR COVID SURVEILLANCE. Statistics from NY Covid Health Department. Observation & Analysis by John F. Bailey. May 30, 2023.
The daily covid positives in Westchester County based on positive lab verified results per 100,000 population numbered 156 through Saturday May 27. The week of May 21 through May 27 marked the 6th straight week since the week of April 9 to 15 (when Westchester reported 228 new cases) that the county has averaged a stubborn slow decline in covid cases from 288 down to 156 last week, a 11% decline in 6 weeks.
The average new daily cases per week has averaged 174 cases a week , a total of 1,045 across Westchester the last 6 weeks. Every week 174 new cases were reported in Westchester.
At White Plains, at White Plains Hospital Medical Center, the hospitalizations of persons seriously ill with covid requiring rooms at the hospital have averaged 60% of all persons admitted to hospital beds through the first 29 days of may (71 coved patient admissions to rooms of 119 admitted, 60%). The covid admissions to rooms amount to 11 of 28 hospitalizations last week, a decline from the previous week. This is a reminder that if you have not gotten fully vaccinated and your two boosters, you might want to get up to date. Covid is out there. It is stubbornly hanging on.
As readers of this column know, only daily cases lab verified are being reported by the Covid Tracker. This means the total cases of positives out there on any given day is not known (not verified because there is no trace testing, no admonition to have antigen tests reported for verification by a lab).
The ability to project covid spread into the summer is hard to tell. Well, the daily cases per 100,000 in Westchester the last month work out when multiplied by Westchester County population of 1,004,000 we can tell you how the disease will spread, whether it will grow, remain the same or diminish.
Through May, it diminished but now seems to be reducing in infections and is plateau at 175 a month.
Last week the new infections were at 2.3 a day per 100,000 population for 7 days. Multiply that by 10.04 ( 1,004,000 Westchester population) that works out to 23 new cases a day. That means 161 new infections were the potential new covid cases last week based on the population. If the 2.3 daily rate continues, and you multiply that by 4 weeks the month of June may see 2,584 infections of actual infections. But wait!
The 2,584 infections expected from this artificially low positive 2.3 daily cases per 100,000 are verified.
Who knows who will go in and get lab-tested?
Last June the “Anything Goes” lack of enforcement of covid infections was instituted by the state legislature that took away the Governor’s powers in 2021to declare a health emergency gave the covid disease a 5th wave. In June of 2022, 9,632 infections (lab verified) that was based on actual test positives were recorded, which climbed to over 10,000 new covid infections. Totals of new covid cases daily average 300 a day for the month of June last year.
Will this Summer Spread happen again? The vaccines have steadily lowered the number of covid cases the last 11 months.
We have no way of knowing how many persons will be out there in June carrying covid and not getting positive antigen tests verified by a lab test, and how sick they will get.
If you go by projecting the present 2.3 daily infection rate, the daily infections not counted by verification of antigen tests, could be a very low number of the daily infections (lab tested) continue to decline. If the daily rate goes up, will they go up another 3,000 perhaps?
The only way to prevent getting covid if the June mystery covid carriers multiply and start growing to last year’s levels, is to complete your vaccine series and the boosters. And mask more. Very few were masked when I was out in public over the weekend.
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WHITE PLAINS VETERANS LEAD THE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE THIS MORNING.
WHITE PLAINS COMMON COUNCIL AND REPRESNTATIVES, STEPPING SMARTLY (FROM LEFT) JUSTIN BRASCH, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS JOSEPH RICCA, COUNCILWOMAN NADINE HUNT-ROBINSON, CONGRESSMAN JAMAAL BOWMAN, COUNCILMAN JOHN MARTIN, COUNTY LEGISLATOR BEN BOYKIN, COUNCILWOMAN JENNIFER PUJA AND MAYOR THOMAS ROACH
THE PARADE STARED PRECISELY AT 10 A.M.. ONE OF THE LONGER PARADES IN RECENT YEARS.
MAYOR ROACH PRESENTED THE DECEASED VETERAN HONOREE AWARD TO THEODORE J LEE, JR., WHOSE DAUGHTER (Center) ACCEPTED THE AWARD FOR HER FATHER. MAYOR ROACH CALLED HIM A PERSON WHO ALWAYS MADE YOU SMILE AND A WONDERFUL CITIZEN OF WHITE PLAINS. HIS DAUGHTER IS THE 4TH GENERATION MEMBER TO RUN THE LEE FUNERAL HOME.
Veteranss Robert “Bob” Wynn, U.S Marines; Stephen Wallfish, Army, Jewish War Veterans Post #191 , and Dan Griffin, Army, American Legion Post 135 read the names of the 66 White Plains Citizens who have died in United States Wars in service to their country, dating back to the American Revolution.
THE MAYOR HONORED THE GRAND MARSHALL OF THE PARADE, CHARLES MEBANE, SR. OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE. THE MAYOR SAID SAID MR. MEBANE AID HE WAS A ELEANOR ROOSEVELT AND HARRY TRUMAN SOLDIER, WHO SERVED WITH THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, AND WAS DISCHARGED IN 1951. HE RETURNED TO WHITE PLAINS AND BECAME A BARBER, WHERE MAYOR SAID THAT WHILE MOST BARBERSHOPS TALKED THE SPORTS SCORES MR. MAGRANE TALKED TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO CAME IN ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE. TR. MAGRANE (IN NATTY TAN CAP), REMARED ” PEOPLE ASK HOW I’M FEELING, I SAY SOMETIMES I DON’T FEEL GOOD, BUT IT’S BETTER THAN NOT FEELING AT ALL.”
In closing remarks, Mayor Tom Roach, said “On this beautiful Memorial Day, we are so grateful to the last measure of devotion these veterans gave to their country.” He said that he is correspondence with a member of the city council in Kyiv, Ukraine. He reflected how when school closes here it is because of weather, but the council member’s city is under seige. The Mayor said we in this country are fortunate to be safe from the forces that would threaten our safety and sense of peace. He said we have the sacrifice of our veterans who have died fighting for freedom to thank for our security today.
After placement of wreaths, Cynthia Kauffman, Daughters of Liberty read Flanders Fields
A RIFLE SALUTE TO THE DEPARTED VETERANS BY THE FIRING SQUAD AND COLOR GUARD, AMERICAN LEGION POST #135 ECHOED ACROSS THE SILENT CEMETARY GROUNDS.
TAPS WAS PERFORMED BY PETER GASIEWICZ, MARINE INFANTRY VETERAN, BUGLES ACROSS AMERICA
The White Plains High School Marching Band performed great marches all the way to the Rural Cemetery, entertaing folks lining North Broadway including a stirring National Anthem, and the Drum Corps kept groups, scout packs, The Rotary and civic groups in step.
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JENETTE GISBERT OF VOLUNTEER NEW YORK ON THE WESTCHESTER NEED FOR VOLUNTEERS NOW
JENETTE GISBERT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VOLUNTEERNEWYORK WATCH HER “PEOPLE TO BE HEARD” INTERVIEW ON www.wpcommunitymedia.org
CURRENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED BY ORGANIZATIONS LISTED BELOW CLICK ON TITLE OF ORGANIZATION TO VOLUNTEER, MORE INFORMATION:
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WPCNR GRILLMAN GAZETTE. By The Grillin Gourmet. ReInternetted from The CitizeNetReporter Archives of the Ancient Past. April , 2018:
No matter whether you’re a New York Liberal, a Michigan Wolverine, A Trump supporter, A Desantisman, BIDENET or California free spirit, there’s still one phenomenon the country still believes in AND IS SOLIDLY ALL IN– the American grill.
Thanks to the chimney charcoal starter and its glowing orange coals, the backyard American barbeque DNA macho in the amateur chef was inordinately delayed by the coldest WETTEST spring in memory.
But today its 71 degrees in White Plains New York USA, CLIMBING TO 77 WABCCCCCC DEGREES. The immortal deejay Big Dan Ingram is telling you to “Roll Your Bod,”Beach and the grill is READY!
Steak was raised outside!
It was born to be cooked outside.
The outdoor charcoal grilled steak puts the steakhouse in its place!
In this griller’s opinion, outdoor grilling proves once again to be superior to the overpriced artificial-tasting steak.
Sleek decor and atmosphere cannot duplicate backyard origins. The economy may be slogging, your home equity shrinking, but take heart even the hobo can grill! It’s part of American DNA. It’s Democracy!
To do real steak right , you have to do it outside on charcoal.
The instinct of generations of the American backyard grilling tradition passed up from the cave, enjoyed at Valley Forge. Lewis and Clark bit into venison discovering the Northwest.
Cowboys sunk teeth into rare beef around chuck wagons on the prairie and up from the Southland , barbecue inbred and passed on from American father to American son – cutting across nationality and station – gives you real steak – not $100 technology enhanced cuts.
Flaming charcoal makes steak a living thing in your mouth!
Why go out for dinner when you can tap your inner griller and say I can cook steak better!
The difference is the air, the smoke, the way marinade just drips down into the coals and gets into the meat. It’s chemistry, Americans!
What is it about the American Grillman that’s so special that his or hers backyard cuts beat the insider professionals’ inflation-friendly ostentatious steaks?
It’s the unique chemistry of being American and believing in the charcoal flames. The campfire. The Longbranch saloon.
On Memorial Day weekend, it’s a must. On Independence Day Weekend, it’s not July 4 unless you’re grillin’. On Labor Day, if you’re not workin’, you’re grillin’.
There’s just something about the searing intensity of glowing charcoal combining mystically with the testosterone and instinctual synergy between red meat and the dedicated outdoor griller – it beats in taste, juiciness and texture the contrived technology of the most expensive restaurant equipment.
No matter how tasty the megabuck meat is in the swank sticker shock steak palaces of the expense accounters, there’s always that artificial packaged taste that betrays the indoor steak. The butter softness. The soft crust of the black topped surface of the indoor steak just does not have the nubile grizzled roughhewn ruggedflamed reluctant yield of the outdoor one-on-one grilled steak that fights your bicuspids with spirit, and sealed in juiciness.
The Chimney Starter the Secret.
Pour in a helping of those ultimate black beauties, Kingsford charcoal briquettes into the chimney top.
Fifteen minutes before the wife has the sides ready, take a wooden match to the aperatures in the base of the starter and light up the edges of the newsprint. Within 10-15 minutes you’ve got coals a firey orange red. You’re ready to outcook the pros.
After the Griller’s wife has marinated the meat – the bone trimmed Porterhouse is sizzzzzzzlllllllllling in the caressing deep searing heat of glowing orange briquettes – 4 minutes a side in 400 degree heat and deft turning and surgical “rareness checks” – the seasoned grilling caballero simply has a feel for the meat – passed genetically down from generations of American grillers.
The combination of cauldron, flavored steel grill rods and perfect flames creates the grillmark “brand” lets you know just by looking at the cut, you’re going to get the natural taste of the backyard steak – No one can do a great cut like you can!
As any redblooded American Grillman will tell you when doing a steak – you can’t deliver a steak by manual or instructions.
You have to feel the meat. Feel it cook. You just know its time. Hearty smoke promising juicy meat that melts in your mouth creates an experience only the grillman or GrillGal knows.
Every cut is not the same.
Each deserves a surgeon’s attention to cooking timing and detail. And surgical checks are necessary.
The American Grillman becomes one with the meat. With eye and knowledge of the hue of red – you just know by instinct when she’s done.
Cooking is slowed down by moving the meats to the side off the heat to keep the American beauties warm
With the wife’s deft presentation, sweet potato fries, corn pudding, fresh beans and mushrooms the Grillman’s natural art creates the taste of traditional American 3-Day Weekend.
Get those grills handy and ready to fire up to get that taste of American unity once again.
When you’re over the grill, you’re King of the Hill.