In 2018: 1.1 Million Pages Viewed. 117,063 Unique Visitors Make 29,700 Visits a Month. 321 Visits a Day. 2,028,191 Hits NoBots, The White Plains Daily News Service Since 2000 A.D. John F. Bailey, Editor (914) 997-1607 wpcnr@aol.com Cell: 914-673-4054. News Politics Personalities Neighborhoods Schools Finance Real Estate Commentary Reviews Policy Correspondence Poetry Philosophy Photojournalism Arts. TV: White Plains Week 7:30 FRI, 7 MON & People to Be Heard 8PM THURS, 7 PM SAT on FIOS CH 45, ALTICE CH 76 "Fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way. EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From the NYS Department of Taxation & Finance. November 4, 2019:
White Plains had a great first three months of its 2019-20 fiscal year, with sales tax receipts up 7.6% over July, August, September 2018 (when $12,213,869 was collected) .
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance reported White Plains received $13,141,676 being reported collected the last three months (7.6% more than a year ago.) September 2019 generated $5,337,424 in sales taxes for the city compared to $4,160,181 collected in September 2018.
Westchester County which saw sales tax receipts go up 4% in August thanks in part to its 1% increase in sales tax, saw the September handle slump to only a .7% increase. With October, November and December to come, the county, if it receives the same sales tax handle as it did in 2018 with generate $580,399,260 in sales tax receipts. In 2018, the county collected $550,562,481.
HALLOWEEN SURPRISE: The colorful little sign is not an early holiday decoration–it’s the only warning you have not to run the chaotic Bryant Avenue and North Street intersection and get caught on camera with a red light violation. WPCNR noted this Saturday morning. Watch out at school dropoffs and on rush hours where everyone tries to beat this light.Drivers approaching a green light will be saying their prayers as the red light camera (alongside the telephone pole) is watching you.
WPCNR TRAFFICA.By John F. Bailey, UPDATED NOVEMBER 3, 2019:
A Red Light Surveillance Camera has been installed at the troublesome intersection of North Street and Bryant Avenue, shown above.
It is one of 6 new installations scheduled according to the city to be in operation in November . Besides the Bryant and North Red Light Camera, such surveillance devices (that take a picture of motorists caught in the intersection when the light changes from yellow to red), other new locations are to be looked for at:
Hamilton Avenue and Cottage Place (in the downtown)
Mamaroneck Avenue and Ridgeway (in the southend)
Tarrytown Road at Central Avenue (a key intersection gateway at the County Center)
In October, the following locations were planned to be activated and now be live at this time:
Westchester Avenue at South Kensico Avenue (Westbound gateway to the city)
South Lex Avenue and Maple Avenue (popular cut through to Bryant Avenue
Lockdown False Alarm caused bumper to bumper traffic on North Street and onlookers and parents gathering to pick up their students.Photo by WPCNR
WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS.From the White Plains Department of Public Safety and the White Plains City School District. October 31, 2019:
The White Plains Department of Public Safety received an unscheduled lockdown notification from White Plains High School this afternoon. The Police Department responded in force pursuant to plan.
The Police Department is cleared the building. There is no indication as to why the lockdown notification was sent. There are no injuries at the school.
The Police Department is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the lockdown notification. At this time it appears to be a computer error. Due to the police activity surrounding the clearance of the lockdown, there was a delay in dismissal.
Once the lockdown was lifted buses transported students home on their usual routes, and parents were notified they could pick up their children at the Bryant Baptist Church parking lot.
Dr. Joseph Ricca, White Plains Superintendent of Schools released this statement’:
At approximately 1:55PM, the White Plains High School’s lockdown alarm system was triggered for unknown reasons and the building immediately implemented the lockdown protocol. Police responded to the campus and quickly cleared the building. Further investigation revealed the lockdown alarm system was activated due to a system malfunction. Occupants of the building were released from lockdown at 3:30 PM. An investigation into the cause of the malfunction is already underway.
The White Plains City School District (WPCSD) continually conducts drills of both lockdown and other protocols. Our staff and students are well trained are to be commended for responding to the alarm in calm and proficient manner. We would also like to thank the White Plains Police Department for their prompt response and outstanding assistance in managing this incident. We are grateful to all.
We know how any unusual event in our schools can be a source of anxiety for parents and guardians. While the initial natural reaction in an unusual event may be to rush to your child’s school, parents are encouraged not to respond to the school and wait for specific instructions from the district.
This allows both our staff and emergency response partners to investigate and manage the incident promptly and effectively. Managing a large volume of parents arriving at the school only delays our ability to mitigate the incident and return to normal operations. The district has detailed emergency plans for a wide-range of emergency situations, which are practiced on a regular basis. Thank you for your understanding.
As you know, the WPCSD takes the safety of all students and staff very seriously and recognizes the need to be timely and transparent regarding incidents that may impact our school community. We will always act out of an abundance of caution to ensure all our students and staff are safe both inside and out of our buildings.
We apologize to our students, staff and parents for any unnecessary stress this alarm malfunction may have caused. We are committed to thoroughly investigating the cause of the malfunction to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
Thank you for all your patience and understanding.
WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Chairman of Westchester County Board of Legislators Benjamin Boykin. October 31, 2019:
I’m proud to say that Westchester County’s Safe Leave Law is now in effect.
The law, which passed the Board of Legislators in April with unanimous bi-partisan support, took effect October 30.
Now, victims of domestic violence are entitled to take up to 40 hours of paid leave to attend or testify in court proceedings related to their situations, to move from an abuser’s residence, or to confer with lawyers or other advisers.
This law protects people when they are at their most vulnerable, because domestic violence survivors should not have to choose between their safety and their jobs or incomes.
The County’s Human Rights Commission has prepared helpful guides in English and in Spanish for workers and for employers to explain the new law as well as model employee notices in English and in Spanish for employers to distribute. Please visit https://humanrights.westchestergov.com/resources/westchester-s-safe-time-leave-law where you can link to the documents.
WPCNR BOOKMARKS.By John F. Bailey OCTOBER 30, 2019:
WPCNR has noted that the White Plains Public Library attracts today’s big name authors when they are having a new “Best Seller” is coming out. It’s a must stop.
This year is no exception because the library will host Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City(2003), and the blockbuster In the Garden ofBeasts (2011) –a scathing eye-opening book on how the American State Department ignored the plight of German Jews in the 1930s even when their own ambassador to Berlin reported fearlessly on the march to the holocaust.
Mr. Larson specializes in “You Are There” impeccably researched and sourced from real documents and letters creating riveting narratives that keep you forging ahead as he covers an historical event as a journalist would, but he reads like a novel. He delivers blunt insights on how historical events that alter and illuminated our time . His most recent book was Dead Wake (2015), which examined the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 told from documentation from both sides.
This spring the White Plains Public Library will present Mr. Larson at their annual Gala on March 14, 2020 as the featured author.
Mr. Larson’s new book that you can acquire by attending the spring Library Gala is about Winston Churchill. Given the circumstances Mr. Larson has rounded up in the three books I mentioned earlier I cannot wait to see how approaches Mr. Churchill.
Thriller aficianados, history buffs and damn good read enthusiasts are advised to keep March 14 in mind. Look for the official invitation for one of the best galas going and this year will be most interesting.
WPCNR BOOKMARKS.By Savannah Jacobson, from the Columbia School of Journalism. Oct. 29, 2019:
Alberto Cairo is on a mission to improve how journalists use charts.
“Visualizations, charts can be incredibly powerful at exploring data,” he told me recently. They can also be powerful as tools for communicating information to news readers. “If you know how to use them well,” Cairo added. To his endless frustration, too many reporters do not.
In his new book, How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information, Cairo, who is the Knight Chair in visual journalism at the University of Miami, aims to dispel the myth of objectivity, and the air of truthfulness, that has been undeservedly awarded to numbers.
A chart, he said, is a “visual argument” that is only as strong as the data on which it’s based. To tell a reliable story with a chart requires an understanding of its data—what it consists of, how it was gathered, who it might leave out.
“We journalists are mediators,” Cairo explained. “Mediators between science and complexity, and the general public.”
Throughout the book, Cairo breaks down common mistakes journalists make.
First up: assuming that correlation indicates causation. To demonstrate why that’s wrong, Cairo produces a chart, using data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations, showing that cigarette consumption by country is positively correlated with life expectancy.
“I have seen graphics like that described by journalists—including myself because most of these things are mistakes that I have made myself— describing this kind of chart as ‘the more we smoke, the longer we live,’” he told me. But in reality, he writes, “a chart only shows what it shows, and nothing else” (emphasis his).
Cairo then breaks the data down further, with fifteen more charts, grouping countries by income and region. Ultimately, he shows, the original chart cannot prove anything definitive—it can merely point to a pattern.
His step-by-step instructions, at risk of becoming dry, are livened up with humor (a data point about the glam rock band Poison has no place in a chart about heavy metal, he argues).
“I try to do it in a way that could be used as a template by translators, communicators, journalists, to do the same thing,” he told me.
When journalists are wrong, Cairo warns, there can be serious repercussions. A town in danger of storm damage, for instance, may fail to take proper precautions because a broadcaster misinterpreted a graph.
Just look at Hurricane Dorian projections: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration relies on a graphic—called the cone of uncertainty—to explain potential paths for major storms and, during Dorian coverage, many reporters interpreted the cone graphic as showing the entirety of the storm’s wrath.
That left out a lot of possibilities. “I have seen TV newscasters explaining this map wrong and it drives me crazy,” Cairo said. “Like saying, ‘Oh you’re outside of the cone, you may not be in danger.’ Well that’s actually not true.”
Cairo doesn’t want to put journalists off charts, and he has ideas about how to produce them effectively.
When news outlets design their own graphics, Cairo suggests, they should introduce a “me-layer” into the design. Why was the New York Times’ dialect map so popular? “Because people see themselves in the data,” he writes. “And they see their families in the data, and they can compare the way they talk with how other people talk.”
Perhaps most important, Cairo writes, reporters shouldn’t assume that visuals serve as a substitute for words. Sometimes, a lengthy explanation is what’s required. At the same time, when reporters are trying to make a point, they need to just spit it out:
“If you really want to emphasize something, emphasize it,” he said. “So people will not miss it. If there’s a particular pattern, or a particular data point or a particular fact that should not be missed, just show it.”
And when all else fails, ask a data scientist. “You need to basically give them whatever it is that you’re writing,” Cairo advised, “and very openly say, ‘please destroy it.’”
Below, more on Cairo and how journalists use visual data:A chart with dubious political categorizations of media outlets, and reportedly being taught in media literacy classes, spread around the internet this week.
Good news: you can ignore it.
“The main reason this chart is so deceptive,” Cairo writes on his blog, “is that it compares things that aren’t comparable. Come on, Breitbart or The Federalist rags at the same level of ‘bias’ as Vox? The Washington Examiner at the same level as NPR? Those aren’t equal. Neither in terms of trustworthiness, nor in terms of ideological bias.”
“His book reminds readers not to infer too much from a chart, especially when it shows them what they already wanted to see,” The Economist writes in a review of Cairo’s book, noting that he has sent a copy to the White House.
You are cordially invited to attend the 243rd Anniversary Commemoration of the Battle of White Plains on Sunday, October 27, 2019 at the Jacob Purdy House National Historic Site (Washington’s Headquarters) located at 60 Park Avenue, White Plains, NY 10603.
Revolutionary camp featuring American, British and Loyalist regiments, crafts people, and Native American culture will open at 10 a.m in Jacob Purdy Park. Commemoration ceremony begins at 1 p.m. sharp, and the Jacob Purdy House will be open to the public immediately thereafter. As usual, admission and refreshments are FREE!
Can’t get to the polls on Election Day? No problem. This year you can vote from Saturday October 26 through Sunday November 3
Early Voting for White Plains Residents will be at Westchester County Board Elections; 25 Quarropas St. White Plains
The Board of Elections polling place will be open for Early Voting on:
Saturday, October 26, Sunday October 27, 12 P.M. to 5 P.M. Monday, October 28 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. Tuesday, October 29 12 P.M. to 8 P.M. Wednesday, October 30 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. Thursday, October 31 12 P.M. to 8 P.M. Friday, November 1, 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. Saturday, November 2, Sunday November 3 12 P.M. to 5 P.M.
On Election Day, Tuesday November 5, you must vote at your regular polling place when polls will be open 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
If you take advantage of Early Voting you may not vote on Election Day For more information Westchester County Board of Elections (914) 995-5700 citizenparticipation.westchestergov.com
