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SEPT 11—A MORNING TO REMEMBER

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WPCNR LAKE STREET WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA. By John f. Bailey:

It was a beautiful morning today.

Like the morning 23 years ago when events made this day, September 11, a day of infamy like Pearl Harbor changed the world and this country forever.

It is the day when the city holds the Community Gathering of Remembrance  of 9/11 in Liberty Park.

No one needs pictures to remember that day or needs to watch television replays.

Those who saw the World Center towers fall into rubble like my wife, and I who could not watch the television reports, but listened to the radio reports of the dying of  thousands on the site and haunting lives of thousands more since that day, remember it every day

In White Plains New York  USA , we lost 6 of those thousands  of innocent victims

 

They are because they will always be our citizens, Sharon Balkcom, Marisa Dinardo, Hemanth Kumar Putter, Joe Riverso, Gregory Rodriguez and Linda Sheehan immortalized in this memorial where wreaths were placed by Mayor Thomas Roach and the Common Couuncil as they do every year this day.

Christine Mann, Cellist began the sensitive prelude music with melancholy mellow notes of sensitive quietly comforting strains across the little glen by the beautiful lake,  one of the melodies was Yesterday

Ms Mann’s artistry created a just right atmosphere of loss, strength and courage to go on that is the legacy of 9/11

 

Phylisha Villanueva, Poet Laureate of Westchester County read a masterpiece of a narrative poem written about that morning 23 years ago that moved the gathering by her striking word pictures of emotions and anguish and message

She began reciting,  that beautiful still morning like today’s  “A day I will never forget,” images sharply depicting the plane hitting the 24th floor and her father getting out then having to go back the next day.

Images and feelings of that day were movingly created: Workers in the building who stayed behind, throwing themselves out of the building “ twisting and turning, looking like Superman,” and “ a couple holding hands” as  they leapt together. Workmen going back every day for three years, and ending with no truer legacy of 9/11, that we “are made stronger than strong,” the last words of this epic: “Be Brave. Be Brave Be Brave”

Mayor Thomas Roach in his Welcome & Reflections observed that today  was the nicest day of the summer, cool an beautiful as the day of 9-11. Mayor got right to the point: “Seeing the horror, I thought it is  a call to make things better, and what will we do to make things better for the world and  a little bit better for other people.” The Mayor also saluted the police and fire personnel attending the Rembrance since ”they serve to make things better for people every day.”

I felt that this was one of the most evocative of the spirit positivity of rememberance of this sad day as I have see.

The ceremony will be rebroadcast on www.wpcommunitymedia.org.

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Alex Philippidis Remembers 9/11: HELPING THE HEROES THE LEGACY

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WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT. From Alex Philippidis of Genome Web Daily News, Mary Ann Leibert, Inc.  September 11, 2016:

Editor’s Note:

Alex, well-known local reporter around Westchester County for the last 38 years sent along his remembrance of what happened after the Twin Towers fell this day, 23 years ago today: 

Two weeks after 9/11, I wrote this article sharing this story of something good that came from something evil… No link to this story exists any more, so I copy it in its entirety below:

Helping the heroes

From: Westchester County Business Journal, Oct. 1, 2001

“The World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a living representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his belief in the cooperation of men, and through this cooperation, his ability to find greatness.” – Minoru Yamasaki, architect of the Twin Towers

Nearly three weeks have passed, but the memories are as fresh as ever for Jay Martino and 50 of his colleagues about the hell they witnessed at Ground Zero of the terrorist attacks that leveled the World Trade Center.

“It’s an unimaginable site of destruction. You search your mind to come up with the right verbiage, the right adjectives. How can I describe what I saw? It’s a horrific scene,” said Martino, a general superintendent with Granite/Halmar Construction Co. of Mount Vernon.

Martino, head of the Masons & Concrete Contractors Association of Hudson Valley Inc., led a team of workers who answered their industry’s call to send volunteers and heavy machines to the tons of wreckage that comprised the Twin Towers and five smaller buildings.

Granite/Halmar was among dozens of construction contractors in and around Westchester that sent resources to the World Trade Center in response to a memo distributed to all 650 members of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) of Westchester and Hudson Valley Inc. of Tarrytown.

Yonkers Contracting Co., which helped build the World Trade Center in the 1970s, donated 100 trucks to the rescue effort, while Tilcon New York Inc. of West Nyack and four subcontractors donated equipment and personnel from their 21 quarry and asphalt facilities in New York and New Jersey.

“I think more than any other industry, construction contractors and workers comprehend the enormity of the task at hand because we understand the magnitude of what it takes to create such magnificent structures and buildings,” said Ross J. Pepe, CIC president.

“Everyone in our industry has a deep and new-found appreciation of the ironworkers, operating engineers, laborers, Teamsters and other union workers now at the site as the world watches these guys on TV doing a job that nobody would ever want to do.”

The World Trade Center took half a decade to build, but only two hours for terrorists to level in the series of attacks that shook the world on Sept. 11.

County construction industry responds
The following day when CIC asked for volunteers, hundreds answered the call. Fifty of them came from Granite/Halmar, which had hired them for its many projects under construction – such as the new international arrivals terminal and an expansion of the British Airways terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“They said they needed cutoff saws, tools, oxygen tanks, manpower. So I put the call out to all of our foreman asking if any of them would volunteer,” Martino recalled “We loaded a half-dozen pickup trucks with oxygen and acetylene gas tanks, plus dust masks, goggles, safety glasses.”

The Granite/Halmar men joined other CIC member companies in assembling at Yonkers Raceway, then following a state police escort south to lower Manhattan. Authorities have divided the area in and around the World Trade Center into four zones, each overseen by a construction contractor: AMEC p.l.c.; Tully Construction Inc.; a joint venture of Turner Construction and Plaza Materials Inc.; and Bovis Lend Lease and two subcontractors, Grace Industries Inc. and Gateway.

Granite/Halmar entered the site working for AMEC, which controls the northwest zone of the recovery area, Granite/Halmar had worked for AMEC at the Kennedy airport projects.

“We hooked up with a firefighter, a captain. He escorted us to ground zero. Right away we went to work with the firemen. They were elated to see us. They had nothing. They had no cutoff saws we could see. They had one set of torches. They were working their way through the pile of rubble with picks and shovels. Everything was done by hand,” Martino said.

“We were cutting steel into pieces. We took everything we could handle and loaded it into 5-gallon barrels, then kept passing them on down the line,” Martino said. “We worked till late in the evening, 11 or 12 o’clock at night.

“It was just amazing, the amount of debris and structural steel there was around. You stood on steel beams that had just collapsed. You’d look at the steel and it was completely clean.

There was no concrete to be found. You didn’t see any chunks of concrete. The fire was so great the concrete had disintegrated.
“You’d see bits and pieces of carpet, and every once in a while, there would be a bumper to a vehicle. You stood on the steel beams which had collapsed,” Martino said.

Not once during their time at Ground Zero did Martino or his men spot any bodies, or any parts of bodies.

“I was not looking forward to anything like that. I was looking to help and I would have gone anywhere I was told to go. But I kept wondering. What would I do if I saw something? How would I react?”

An especially welcome sight, Martino said, was the hundreds of volunteers who catered to weary rescuers: “Every time you turned around, you heard. Do you need something to drink? Do you want something to eat? They had buckets of water and Gatorade. They had Power Bars.”

Just three years ago Martino and workers from GraniteHalmar’s predecessor, Halmar Builders of New York Inc., transformed the drab exterior public space outside the World Trade Center into World Trade Center Plaza, a public plaza complete with granite pavement and landscaped areas.

Looking at a poster-sized photo of the plaza outside his office, Martino paused. “I feel funny seeing the pictures of it now.”

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SEPTEMBER 10—LEGISLATOR BENJAMIN BOYKIN APPOINTED PRESIDENT OF NEW YORK ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES

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en Español

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I am excited to share with you, today, the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) has appointed me as its new President for the 2024-2025 year term.

NYSAC serves as the united voice of our counties, committed to educate, advocate, represent and serve our constituents. It also plays a vital role in identifying and addressing issues that impact our counties.

Click here to view my acceptance speech.

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SEPT 11– WHITE PLAINS 9-11 Remembrance Ceremony 8:30 A.M.

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Please join us for the CWP annual September 11 Remembrance Ceremony

Sept 11 Monument dedicated to WP residents

 

The ceremony will include a message from Mayor Roach, a wreath laying and placement of flower bouquets by members of the White Plains Common Council, and a moment of silence to reflect on this day.

Residents are invited to join us for this special ceremony.

Please call the Department of Recreation and Parks at 914.422.1336 if you have questions regarding accessibility

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DOES EVERYONE REALLY NEED VACINATIONS?

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YOUR LOCAL EPIDEMIOLOGIST EXPLAINS THIS WEEK’S HEALTH ISSUES

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WHITE PLAINS WEEK–THE SEPT 6 REPORT–SEE IT MONDAY AT 7 ON FIOS CH 45, WPOPTIMUM CH 76

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THE WHITE PLAINS URBAN RENEWAL MOVE TO EMINENT DOMAIN PROPERTIES AGAIN ON EAST POST ROAD

A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST ATTEMPT BY THE CITY TO ACQUIRE PROPERTIES 8 YEARS AGO

 

THE NEW PROPOSAL

HEAD OF FREELANCERS UNION ON THE NEW LAW THAT GIVES FREELANCERS DIRECT ACCESS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL WHO WILL TELL CLIENTS WITHOLDING PAY TO PAY IN 30 DAYS AND DOUBLE THE PAYMENT SEE THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT WWW.WPCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

EUGENE DEBS THE LABOR CRUSADER, TEDDY ROOSEVELT THE TRUST BUSTER AND GROVER CLEVELAND’S ROLE IN ESTABLISHING LABOR DAY AFTER THE PULLMAN STRIKE MASSACRE BY FEDERAL TROOPS

THE COVID SURGE IN THE MED-HUDSON REGION CASES DECLINE FOR THIRD STRAIT WEEK, HOSPITALIZATIONS GROWING, DISEASE NOT CAUSING AS MUCH ILLNESS. MORE CASES THAN A YEAR AGO IN AUGUST

 

LIBERTY PARK 9-11 REMEMBRANCE SEPTEMBER 11.

JOHN BAILEY AND THE NEWS

EVERY WEEK ON WHITE PLAINS WEEK

SINCE 2001 A.D. 24TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

SEE THIS WEEK’S REPORT AT

www.wpcommunitymedia.org

COUNTY REMEMBRANCE 

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PEOPLE TO BE HEARD REPORT: THE FREELANCE IS NOT FREE LAW WHAT IT DOES SATURDAY AT 7 PM ON FIOS CH 45 AND WP OPTIMUM CH 76 AND RIGHT NOW ON WWW.WPCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

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JOHN BAILEY INTERVIEWS RAFAEL ESPINAL OF THE FREELANCERS UNION ON

WHAT COMPANIES HAVE TO DO NOW.

HOW THEIR FINES DOUBLE IF THEY FAIL TO PAY A FREE LANCER WITHIN 30 DAYS

THE CONTRACTS THEY HAVE TO PUT INTO EFFECT.

THE THOUSANDS OF FREE LANCE ARTISTS, WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS PREVIOUSLY VICTIMIZED BY UNSCRUPULOUS COMPANIES

THE IMPACT OF THE NEW LAW

TONIGHT AT 8

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HACHETTE VS INTERNET DECISION IMPACT: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE LOSES APPEAL, COPYRIGHT UPHELDRESTRICTING RIGHT TO COPY BOOKS THEY OWN

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. From WikIpedia. September 5, 2024:

 

Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 20-cv-4160 (JGK), 2023 WL 2623787 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), is a case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the Internet Archive, a registered library, committed copyright infringement by scanning and lending complete copies of books through controlled digital lending mechanisms.

Stemming from the creation of the National Emergency Library (NEL) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing companies Hachette Book GroupPenguin Random HouseHarperCollins, and Wiley alleged that the Internet Archive’s Open Library and National Emergency Library facilitated copyright infringement.

The case primarily concerns the fair use of controlled digital lending (CDL) of complete copies of certain books.

The case does not concern the display of short passages, limited page views, search results, books out of copyright or out of print, or books without an ebook version currently for sale.[1]

On March 25, 2023, the court ruled on the case.[2]

In August 2023, the parties reached a negotiated judgment, including a permanent injunction barring the Internet Archive from lending complete copies through CDL of some of the plaintiffs’ books.[3]

The Internet Archive appealed the decision but it was upheld by the appellate court in September 2024.

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