WHITE PLAINS WESTCHESTER DAILY NEWS SERVICE VISITS SINCE 2000 A.D. 25TH YEARl REPORTING THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW News Service Since 2000 A.D. 2026 WILL BE OUR 26TH YEAR OF COVERING WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA . 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. The WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER. TELEVISION: "White Plains Week" News Roundup, 7:30 EDT FRI, 7 EDT MON & the incisive "People to Be Heard" Interview Program 8PM EDT THURS, 7 PM EDT SAT on FIOS CH 45 THROUGHOUT WESTCHESTER AND, ALTICE OPTIMUM WHITE PLAINS CH 1300 Fighting for Truth, Justice and the American Way. TOP 10 VISITORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD :1. USA. 2.BRAZIL3.VIET NAM 4. CHINA 5. JAPAN 6.UK. 7.CANADA. 8.INDIA. 9.AUSTRALIA 10.IRELAND 11.GERMANY 12..ARGENTINA 13.BANGLADESH 14.RUSSIA. 15.NEWZEALAND. 16. FRANCE. 17.MEXICO. 18.UKRAINE. 19.SOUTH AFVRICA. 20. IRAQ.
Today Periods of rain. High near 53. Southeast wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tonight –Rain continues. Cloudy, with a low around 39. North wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible
.Friday: Rain continues. 50 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Northwest wind 11 to 14 mph. (Forecast, National Weather Service)
A Titanic Lifeboat approaching The Carpathia, a rescue ship, 109 years ago this morning
WPCNR MILESTONES. By John F. Bailey. (Mr. Bailey runs this column every year at this time, and sadly nothing changes) April 14-15, 2021
She began her voyage, four days ago, 109 years ago, April 10, 1912.
She carried over 2,200 passengers and crew and was the largest ocean liner of her time ever built.
They were the rich and famous, the poor and hopeful.
She was guaranteed unsinkable.
Her owners, the White Star Line, wanted to set a new speed record for crossing the Atlantic.
Her captain had been warned the northerly course would take it through an iceberg field.
On April 13, sailing under a crisp clear,calm starlit sky at 11:40 PM after an evening of partying aboard ship, prior to arrival in New York today, the ship sideswiped an iceberg.
She was the Titanic.
She was the ship of dreams.
Today, she is the ship of nightmares as her hundreds of passengers from all walks of life perished together in the ruthless sea. The cold fateful, unforgiving frigid indifferent eternity of the sea.
The Titanic’s fate was a lesson that changed maritime laws.
Two and a half hours after the iceberg collision the Titantic sank at 2:20 A.M., early the morning of April 15, (this morning) on that night to remember.
This is an excerpt from the testimony of a survivor, Emily Maria Borie Ryerson watching from a lifeboat desperately trying to row away from the suction of the sinking ship, at the 1912 U.S. Senate SubCommittee Hearing on the Titanic sinking:
“The order was given to pull away. Then they rowed off—the sailors, the women, anyone – but made little progress; there was a confusion of orders; we rowed toward the stern, someone shouted something about a gangway, and no one seemed to know what to do. Barrels and (deck) chairs were being thrown overboard.
“Then suddenly, when we (in the lifeboat) still seemed very near, we saw the ship was sinking rapidly. I was still in the bow of the boat with my daughter and turned to see the great ship take a plunge toward the bow, the two forward funnels seemed to lean and then she seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife, and as the bow went under, the lights went out; the stern stood up for several minutes, black against the stars, and then that, too, plunged down and there was no sound for what seemed like hours, and then began the cries for help of people drowning all around us, which seemed to go on forever.”
Dorothy Gibson, the silent screen actress and survivor – from her testimony before the committee—observed from a lifeboat– in an excerpt from her testimony before the same committee, said:
“Suddenly there was a wild coming together of voices from the direction of the ship of the ship and we noticed an unusual commotion among the people huddled about the railing. Then the awful thing happened, the thing that will remain in my memory until the day I die.
The Titanic seemed to lurch slightly more to the side and then the fore. A minute, or probably two minutes, later she sank her nose into the ocean, swayed for a few minutes and disappeared, leaving nothing behind her on the face of the sea but a swirl of water, bobbing heads and lifeboats that were threatened by the suction of the waters.”
The Titanic’s fate was traced to the negligence and reckless disregard of the risk of sailing at 22 knots through an icefield, and 16 lifeboats for 2,200 persons, insufficient number of lifeboats.
In recent years, analysis of the hull plates recovered from the wreck of the ship on the ocean floor indicated a faulty, economical brittle bolt selection in constructing the hull.
The White Star Line owner J. Bruce Ismay, onboard that night, callously saved his own life by slipping into a lifeboat.
Ismay in a statement, denied telling the Captain of the Titanic to set a new speed record and denied telling the Captain to increase the ship speed in the ice field region. Also said he just happened to be near a lifeboat about to be lowered and no more women and children around to board, and that was why he got into the lifeboat.
So much for corporate responsibility and guilt of any kind, even then.
Not much has changed in corporate world over the 109 years since this night and morning to remember.
Industrial moguls continue unaccountable and pay little price for their self-serving decisions which kill thousands with foreknowledge.
“Who knew?” is not an excuse. You knew is the answer.
Steroids. The 737. Opioids. Covid denial. Thalidimide denial. Arms dealing.
Crimes against humanity just for profit cannot be condoned when they are created by naive design, gambling everything will be all right, when it creates appalling deaths of thousands of innocents.
Perpetual rationalizations of inhumanities to men and women live on in infamy.
Saying sorry is not enough.
Expressing regrets and and sending thoughts and prayers going out to victims by the decision makers who made the reckless decisions is so easy. It does not absolve.
The atrocities of man’s inhumanity and selfish self aggrandizement to their fellow men and women should never be forgotten.
WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. From the Office of Congressman Mondaire Jones of the 37th. april 14, 2021:
This week, Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post underscoring the urgent need to pass the For The People Act in light of voter suppression bills being introduced in state houses across the country.
Jones is a leading champion for the For The People Act, also known as H.R. 1, and helped to pass the bill in the House last month.
The full text of the op-ed can be found below and here:
The Washington Post: Opinion: Now is the time for a Third Reconstruction — abolishing Jim Crow once and for all
By Rep. Mondaire Jones
April 12, 2021
“White supremacists are closer to restoring Jim Crow than at any time in memory. They are staging an assault on the right to vote: reducing early voting, restricting registration and reversing the rollout of voting by mail. We all know why: They need to entrench their diminishing hold on power by disenfranchising voters of color.
As a member of the most diverse Congress in U.S. history and one of the first openly gay Black members of Congress, I know that we are closer to building a true, multiracial democracy than ever before. But twice before in our nation’s history, we have tried to build a multiracial democracy. And twice before, white supremacists have devised ways to disenfranchise people of color.
In 1870, during Reconstruction, Congress adopted the 15th Amendment, outlawed disenfranchisement on the basis of race and created the Justice Department in part to empower Black voters.
But white supremacists soon got around that. If they couldn’t disenfranchise on the basis of race, they would disenfranchise people like me using proxies for race.
They required voters to pass arbitrary “literacy tests,” then denied Black citizens access to education. They required voters to pay poll taxes, then plundered Black communities. They barred people convicted of crimes from voting, then invented new crimes and found Black people guilty of them. And they killed whomever they had to in order to overthrow multiracial state governments.
These strategies led millions of Black Americans, including my grandparents, to flee the Jim Crow South in search of freedom. After North Carolina reelected George Henry White to Congress in 1898, the South would not elect another Black American to Congress until 1972, when Texas elected Barbara Jordan to the House and Georgia elected Andrew Young to the same body.
In 1965, during what many call the Second Reconstruction, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which renewed our democracy’s opposition to racial discrimination. The law enacted real protections to safeguard voting rights for Black people across the South for the first time. And it restored the Justice Department to its original primary role of ensuring that we were not systematically denied the right to vote.
But in recent years, a far-right majority on the Supreme Court has enabled white supremacists to circumvent the Voting Rights Act, striking down the strongest protections — as in Shelby County v. Holder — and weakening others.
We now find ourselves at a crossroads. For the first time in 10 years, the Democratic Party controls Congress and the White House. Building a multiracial democracy will not be easy. But if we do not act now, it may soon be impossible.
Now is the time for a Third Reconstruction — one that abolishes Jim Crow once and for all. That means making voting as easy as possible for everyone, by establishing automatic voter registration, protecting our voter rolls from purges, and ensuring universally accessible ballots for seniors, people with disabilities and anyone else who needs an accommodation. That means restoring that right to the 5.2 million people, disproportionately Black and brown, who have been disenfranchised because of felony convictions.
Second, we must end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. That’s the distorting system that has evolved to permit politicians to choose their voters rather than voters to choose their politicians. Congress’s power to right this wrong is beyond dispute. As even Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Supreme Court in 2013, the Constitution’s elections clause gives Congress the “authority to provide a complete code for congressional elections.” Until we end partisan gerrymandering, a declining White minority will wield it to deny communities of color the representation they deserve — packing them into safe districts to waste their votes or spreading them out to diffuse their power. Meanwhile, QAnon conspiracy theorists will continue coasting to victory in general elections after prevailing in Republican primaries. These are distortions of our democracy.
Third, we must end the pernicious power of Big Money, which converts the racial wealth gap into a political power gap. An under-told truth of our politics is that the donor class often anoints the candidates who make it on the ballot. That donor class is overwhelmingly White and conservative. And that big-money gatekeeping disproportionately excludes candidates of color, who rely more on small donations.
Public campaign financing would amplify the voices of communities of color. The For the People Act, commonly known as H.R.1 or S.1, would match every dollar donated up to $200 with $6 raised from penalties on corporations that have broken the law. A $50 donation would become a $350 donation. In New York City, a limited, small-donor matching program has already fostered more representative donors and candidates for city offices.
This transformation of our democracy will not happen overnight. But Congress can bring us closer than ever before by passing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — uncompromised. If we squander this opportunity, future generations will not — and should not — forgive us.”
Today A 20 percent chance of showers after 2pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 70. Calm wind becoming southwest 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight Showers likely, mainly between 2am and 5am, then rain likely after 5am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 48. East wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Thursday Rain. High near 53. East wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. (National Weather Service)
FIRST DOSE Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic at Westchester Community College has appointments available TODAY, APRIL 13. Open to NYS residents 18 years of age or older. The Moderna vaccine will be given. Reserve your appointment here https://health.westchestergov.com/
WPCNR THE POWER STORY.From Consolidated Edison Customer News. April 13, 2021:
Con Edison, obviously reacting to the ESCO marketing season that has resulted in an onslaught of mailings and hard sell phone calls promoting inexpensive green energy rates guaranteeing rates that are not true and have “caveats” the telephone salespersons do not tell you about, even when asked, has issued this warning in its Customer News insert newsletter with this month’s bill:
Real Con Edison employees wear a photo ID. They will give you their supervisor’s name and ask you to call 1-800-75-CONED to verify your identity.
Scammers can make it look like Con Edison is calling you on your Caller I.D.
If you ever receive a call asking for payment or other personal information (on your bill, what you pay, for example, a call this reporter has received often) related to your account, hang up and call us: 1-800-75-CONED. We would never demand payment via a prepaid debit card, gift card, bitcoin, Cash App or any digital wallet app like Venmo.
Don’t pay online unless you are certain you’re using Con Edison’s automated payment system. Con Edison payments can only be made through conEd.com and conEd.com/GuestPayment.
We do not charge for the installation of smart meters.
Report scams to your local police department.
Learn more about common scams at conEd.com/ScamAlert.
Some common phone scams are:
Pretend to be from Con Edison.
They may even manipulate your caller ID to display Con Edison’s name.
Threaten to turn off your power or gas within an hour.
Demand immediate payment—often by prepaid debit card.
From this reporter’s personal experience, independent energy companies known as ESCOS, each year attempt to switch Con Ed customers to their own ESCO power supply by offering you guaranteed rates or green rates lower than your present ESCO or if you are still getting both electricity and delivery of it (the Con Ed delivery charge). The ESCOS say their rate is lower, say it is guaranteed and ask you what your current con ed rate is. When you query them about how long the rate is guaranteed, I have had the ESCO sales people hangup. If you call their number, you are essentially accepting a switch. The ESCO mailings are also deceptive, trying to switch you by deceptively telling you to switch to green power, new low guaranteed rate. Do not do that. It switches your electricity supply provider.
Today Partly sunny, with a high near 62. North wind 6 to 8 mph.
Tonight Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Wednesday A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 65. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.(National Weather Service Forecast)
WPCNR PLAYLAND GO-ROUND.From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. April 12, 2021:
The Board of Legislators, by a vote of 13-4, approved a bankruptcy court settlement with Standard Amusements regarding the management of Playland.
The settlement was negotiated by the County and Standard, the terms of which were previously approved by the bankruptcy court.
The agreement gives the County significantly improved terms compared with the 2016 agreement, which had become the subject of the dispute in Standard’s bankruptcy reorganization filing.
Under the settlement, Standard will invest millions more in rides and food and other improvements at Playland than under the 2016 agreement. (Editor’s Note: The County will invest approximately $120 Million in restoration of Playland infrastructure: the collonades, swimming pool, bathouse, upgrades to operating systems, more than double the County’s original Standard-County deal, rejected by the present administration as not paying the county enough of the profits.)
The settlement also gives the County significant new oversight over Standard’s operation of the park — controls that were not in the 2016 agreement. These new oversight powers include the power to review and approve Standard’s construction plans, approval of new rides, new and more specific financial reporting requirements for Standard, and County approval of an annual operating plan for the park, among others.
The settlement contains new terms under which Standard can assign the contract to another company.
The County will now have the ability to object to an assignment, and there are new requirements that any company that might take on the contract must have years of amusement park management experience and demonstrated financial wherewithal.
There are also improved financial terms for the County. Under the 2016 agreement, the County shared only in Standard’s net profit and only after Standard recouped its capital investment. Under the settlement, the County will be paid from the beginning out of gross revenue over $12 million. The County also will receive an annual fee starting at $300,000 in 2022, increasing to $400,000 in 2023 with annual adjustments thereafter.
In addition, under the settlement, if Standard fails to generate at least $12 million in gross revenue per year for four straight years, the County may terminate the contract.
The settlement also heads off expensive litigation in the future by hiring a commercial arbitrator, to be agreed to and paid for by both parties, to resolve disputes.
The settlement preserves crucial protections for workers. Any County workers at Playland now, not hired by Standard, or who do not want to work for Standard, will continue to be employed elsewhere by the Parks Department. Standard is committing to continuing to hire a diverse slate of young seasonal workers during the summer as well as older workers.
Chairman Ben Boykin (D- White Plains, Scarsdale, Harrison) said,
“The choice we faced in this vote was not between our theoretical best agreement or no agreement at all. Our choice was between voting to approve this settlement, or voting not to approve this settlement and allowing Standard to assume the original contract in bankruptcy court. In approving this settlement, we are voting to give the County much better financial terms, more oversight over Standard’s work and operations at Playland, and more outside investment from Standard in this park which is a jewel in the crown of our Parks Department. Thanks are due to County Attorney John Nonna and his staff, our outside attorneys, Parks Department Commissioner Kathy O’Connor and First Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaglia, and the chairs of our committees, especially Law and Major Contracts Chair Nancy Barr, and Budget and Appropriations Chair Catherine Borgia for their outstanding work in getting us to this improved place for County taxpayers and residents.”
” There are currently an estimated 301 active cases in our City, down 46 from a week ago. Over the last 7 days we are averaging 20 new cases per day. The state has estimated that 28.4% of Westchester County residents are now fully vaccinated, 42.8% have received at least one shot. Progress!
Individuals 18 and over are eligible for any one of the three authorized vaccines. 16 and 17 year olds can only receive the Pfizer vaccine at this time. Younger children are not yet eligible, although Pfizer has applied for authorization to vaccinate children at age 12 and above. All three vaccines authorized for use in the United States are safe and effective.
There are a number of ways to obtain a vaccination appointment.
● Check vaccinefinder.org for local pharmacies, clinics, and other locations that have received doses of the vaccine and schedule your appointment online or call the provider directly for an appointment. VaccineFinder was developed by Boston Children’s Hospital with support from the CDC.
● Check the State website, ny.gov/GetVaccinated for appointments at state–run vaccination sites. Check the site regularly, as new appointments become available throughout the day.
● Go to Health.Westchestergov.com, to check availability and schedule an appointment at the County-run vaccine clinic located at Westchester Community College.
● For those who need assistance securing an appointment, call our White Plains COVID Angels at (914) 422-1378 between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.
It remains critical that we all double down on the common sense safety measures that have proven effective: Continue to wear a mask when you are within 6 ft. of others and practice social distancing. It is vital that we continue to take these precautions to give the vaccines a chance to get ahead of the virus.
We are at the turning point, now is not the time to slip backwards!
Our next call is on Monday, April 19th. Until then remember, we’re standing together by staying apart.
Actualmente hay un estimado de 301 casos activos en nuestra ciudad, 46 menos que hace una semana. Durante los últimos 7 días, hemos tenido un promedio de 20 casos nuevos por día. El estado estima que el 28,4% de los residentes del condado de Westchester ya están vacunados y el 42,8% ha recibido al menos una inyección. ¡Qué gran progreso!
Las personas mayores de 18 años ya llenan los requisitos para recibir cualquiera de las tres vacunas autorizadas. Los jóvenes de 16 y 17 años solo pueden recibir la vacuna Pfizer en este momento. Los niños más pequeños aún no pueden ser vacunados, aunque Pfizer ha solicitado autorización para vacunar a niños a partir de los 12 años. Las tres vacunas autorizadas para su uso en los Estados Unidos son seguras y eficaces.
Hay varias formas de obtener una cita de vacunación.
● Visite vaccinefinder.org para averiguar que farmacias, clínicas y otros lugares locales han recibido dosis de la vacuna y haga su cita en línea o llame al proveedor directamente para programar una cita. VaccineFinder fue desarrollado por el hospital de niños de Boston con el apoyo de la CDC.
● Visite el sitio web del estado, ny.gov/GetVaccinated para hacer una cita en los sitios de vacunación administrados por el estado. Visite el sitio con regularidad, ya que se añaden nuevas citas regularmente.
● Visite Health.Westchestergov.com para ver si hay citas disponibles en el Westchester Community College.
Aquellos que necesitan ayuda para hacer una cita, pueden llamar a nuestros Ángeles COVID de White Plains al (914) 422-1378 entre las 8:00 am y las 6:00 pm.
Aun es fundamental que pongamos en práctica las medidas de seguridad de sentido común que han demostrado ser efectivas: continúe usando una mascarilla cuando esté a 6 pies de otras personas y practique el distanciamiento social. Es vital que sigamos tomando estas precauciones para que las vacunas tengan tiempo de adelantarse al virus. Estamos en el punto de inflexión, ¡ahora no es el momento de retroceder!
Nuestra próxima llamada es el lunes 19 de abril. Hasta entonces, y recuerde que estamos más juntos manteniéndonos más se
WPCNR CORONAVIRUS MONITOR. By John F. Bailey. April 12, 2021:
Westchester vaccinations of the covid vaccine may be having a impact on number of new Covid cases per day in Westchester County.
As more vaccinations are given every day, new covid infections in the county through Saturday are down a full percentage from the close-to-over 4% infection rate averaged the last two months.
Westchester’s consistently close to 4% Covid has lowered five straight days pending reconciled Saturday and Sunday figures by both the New York State Covid Tracker Workbook and the Westchester County County Covid-19 Tracker.
The state Saturday figures comparison of positive cases to number tested has the Westchester infection rate lowering to .02 % (2/10ths of 1% — of those tested, 123,838.) The Westchester chart reported only 10,200 tested with 290 testing positive or 2.8% Today the state corrected the number of tests its Covid Tracker reported Saturday (128,838) to reflect the Westchester numbers of 10,200 tested with 290 testing positive, 2.8%. The original Westchester County computer-linked Covid Tracker was correct.
This is still big time turnaround despite Sunday Westchester tests showing 3.7% infections (on 6,944 tests administered, 254 infections.
The dramatic sustained decline in infection rate is significant.
Westchester had 4 straight days of 3% on the nose infection rates going into Saturday.
The county infection is now averaging under 3% through Saturday sitting on 2.8%. If the state really did 123,838 tests Saturday bravo because the 290 infections in Westchester Saturday that the state reported lowers the county infection rate to just about zero. But that would mean the state did ten times the usual number of tests (12,000) the are the average number of high end testing figures when tests are ramped up. But the trend is still down.
In today’s Covid briefing by County Executive George Latimer, said hospitalizations were dropping.
In a week the hospitalizations dropped from 230 2 weeks ago to 209 and now are at 192 hospitalized, down 28 in 2 weeks .
WPCNR thinks that new infections numbers that could (with a 4.3% hospitalization rate) be averaging close to a hundred hospitalizations or more a week, are not being hospitalized near that 4.3% rate or suffering as seriously from Covid to require hospitalization.
Mr. Latimer said the vaccinations records from the state show 280,207 Westchester citizens have had both shots and 418,642 (43%) have yet to get their second. (The vaccination figures updated from the state vaccine tracker.)
Mr. Latimer said “We are closing in on 50% of the county population being fully vaccinated.”
WPCNR estimates that the county could hit that number by the first week in May and be 75% vaccinated by the middle of May, or possibly sooner.
If the county facilitiees continued to vaccinate the 418, 642 who had already had one shot at 13,000 a day rate over the next 33 days that would get all 418,642 with one shot fully vaccinated. The bottom line at that pace is 698,849 completely vaccinated by May 15, working out to 72% of the county population (967,912).
The greater number of people vaccinated is having the expected effect of protecting more of Westchester from the disease and the new variant B-1-1-1-7.
