WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

Hits: 0

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. Interview with Dennis Power By John F. Bailey. July 8. 2005: Dennis Power, Democrat Candidate for Mayor, on the first day back from being discharged from White Plains Hospital Center for treatment of an undisclosed minor ailment, called Thursday for a city wide review of municipal parking garage security in an exclusive interview with the CitizeNetReporter.

 

Power, (who fought for and helped establish the Post Road Open Arms Shelter in White Plains fifteen years ago), told WPCNR the murder in The Galleria was not a homeless problem, but a communications problem.

 

DENNIS POWER (shown last month in his Mayoral kickoff) took Mayor Joseph Delfino to task for his statement of last week on The Galleria Muder where the Mayor threatened to sue the county for dropping off  homeless persons to wander in White Plains during the day. Power suggested that Public Safety Commissioner Dr. Frank Straub and County Public Safety Commissioner Tom Belfiore meet to discuss measures and improvements in monitoring releases of the homeless into the community that might be taken to help people feel safer. Photo, WPCNR News Archive

 

Power also proposed beefing up police presence in the municipal garages and enhanced technology and adding monitoring staff to renew public confidence in the city’s garages.

 

Here is Mr. Power’s answers to a series of questions posed by WPCNR regarding The Galleria murder of a White Plains citizen last week. Police have arrested and charged a homeless man, Phillip Grant  who is a Level 3 sex offender, with the crime.

 

 

WPCNR: What is your reaction to last week’s crime?

 

POWER: My overall reaction is  the slaying of Concetta Russell-Carriero is such a horrible tragedy. My feelings go out to her family and friends. I’m concerned about the safety of all our residents who come to White Plains every day to work and shop. I don’t think we can turn the clock back on what happened but I think as far as the city government goes we have to work in consort to make sure we prevent this from ever happening again. I think we need to work real decisively to restore the public’s confidence in our ability to provide a safe environment to work and live.

 

         I think the (Mayor’s) knee jerk reaction of just saying it’s just all tied together to the homeless is incorrect. We (the Mayor) are talking about suing the county government to prevent the people from coming in here. We’re talking about a horrible crime committed by a former felon.

 

        It is not a homeless problem per se, that’s the situation as I see it. We have problems at the state level with the high risk offenders and how they’re treated and released. We need to be talking with our assembly people to get their version of the bill dealing with civil confinement. We need to press them (the assembly people) as a city government to be working at the state level. We need to be working responsibly on how we can resolve what is basically a statewide problem it is not tied to homeless people being dropped off in the city (by the county).

 

WPCNR: Do you think homeless persons dropped off (by the county) should be registered (with police or a homeless shelter) when they are dropped off?

 

POWER: Right now we have in place through the county government, we have a lot of systems in place to help people and to deal with people. This policy of picking off and dropping off, as you know originated back in the late 80s. There’s a lot of people in government who know why it was done, why this safety valve was put in place. You talk about people dying in the streets – those things were happening you know back then.

 

         It was also understanding, dealing with the escalating homeless problem, getting people away from the neighborhoods and the downtowns and give them a safe place (overnight) to go, as opposed to letting them just wander around.

 

          We’re talking about a major problem around the country. We’re talking about people’s rights. There are thousands of success cases in Westchester County alone in terms  of helping people and getting them as contributing members of society.

 

             So when you’re talking about, can we just box, cordon off and secure and prevent people from being here when we have all these services and programs and jobs and so forth here, in the major cities, I think the answer is no.

 

             I think maybe what we could do though, a more responsive way would be to have our Public Safety Director, Frank Straub, sitting and dealing with Public Safety Commissioner at the County Level, Tom Belfiore, maybe getting the two of those law professionals with years of experience, maybe sit down ways of improving safety and security. I’d rather county and city government, and especially top level officials talking. have them talking amicably over a table about ways of what can be done, possibly there can be some improvements so that people could feel safe.

 

WPCNR: What kind of improvements?

 

POWER: I think if we get people working together, I think we can up with some ways of monitoring, working together, come up with some ideas. This policy (of picking homeless up and dropping them back in the city in the morning) has been in place a long long time. You’re talking about thousands of people. We can’t force everyone to accept services, we can make them available.

 

WPCNR: Do you think we should have a place where homeless persons who are dropped off who have no place to go except to wander around malls,  sitting on stoops begging, which I have seen them do in the last week. I’ve been panhandled twice in the last week. Do you think we should have a homeless center during the day for these people to go?

 

POWER: I think we ought to be very careful. You don’t want White Plains being a magnet for everything. We have over the course of the years established some incredibly good programs, Open Arms and Samaritan House,  where they are doing the kind of thing you’re talking about. But if we also have to have that ( day dropin sort of facility)here you’re talking about as well, I don’t know if we need to be establishing another dropin kind of place down here.  I’m not the last answer on that.

 

WPCNR: Do you feel the security in the municipal garages needs looking at,  improvement?

 

POWER: There is no question in my mind. We need in my opinion a total review in terms of security in municipal garages. The safety and security for everyone using the garages is paramount, everyone who uses them. I think we have to take whatever measures, we need to make sure the people are safe. Right now , public confidence has to be restored.

 

          People have been talking about more police patrols. The police do a fantastic job, a phenomenal job (now), but you know, maybe we need more around. Maybe people need to see police more visible at all levels. A number of these things have happened at the high levels in the parking permitted areas.

 

           As far as technology and cameras go. There were a heck of a lot of cameras when the Galleria was first opened.

 

WPCNR: I’ve been told the cameras there are basically to monitor the traffic alleys.

 

POWER: What I was going to get to, which is your point, is you’ve got the elevators and other areas. You need the safety people to take a careful look at the comings and goings, and what are the patterns, and where do cameras need to be, where they need to be installed. We’re talking about modern day technology.

          We need to be putting resources to bear in the physical presence of people, police around, as well as surveillance.

          And,  the other thing too, you know, John, if you drive in there (municipal garages) and watch the staffing of the security areas where cameras are monitored, and how many jobs people have to be doing at the same time time.

 

WPCNR: They don’t watch the monitors.

 

POWER: Yeah, and it’s not the fault of the people (garage office staff), if they’re doing multitasks there are a lot of monitors there, and they also have to be giving out change, collecting fines, and lots of other things, they work hard. But how many things can people do (and still be checking the monitors)?

 

        In this review, we have to really look at the number of people who are being utilized to kind of back up a little bit more secure system. I’m sure we can come up with more creative suggestions.

 

        I think that’s where White Plains attention really needs to be on safety and security in the garages and the streets here.

 

         The city is so dependent on the sales tax revenue coming from the retail stores and also the revenue generated from those parking meters and fines, it is incumbent on the city government to make sure the residents use them.

 

WPCNR: Use them.

 

POWER: Exactly, John that they use the garages in order to shop and do things. Not just the garages downtown but all the garages throughout the city, they even have this new garage at Mamaroneck and Bryant. It’s big. It’s all about safety.

 

              People really don’t feel safe. They’re driving them over in vans to doctor’s offices. People won’t allow their kids to go certain places, they only will drop off their kids at certain places in front of doors and places. We also don’t know what has been going on in the garages. I think we need to be looking and seeing what has been going on in the garages.

 

WPCNR: It is my understanding from police sources there is not a high number of serious incidents in the garages. There’s not a lot that really happens in the garages.

 

POWER:  All I’m saying is we have to look at the total picture.

Hits: 0

 

WPCNR PRESS BOX. Special to WPCNR from Jen Carlo. July 7, 2005: The New York Juggernaut proved successful in their first away game of the 2005 season with a comeback win over the fourth place New England Riptide on a rainy Wednesday night in Lowell.  The Nauts swept the Texas Thunder four straight last weekend all come-from-behinders.

 Peaches James picked up her league leading ninth win of the season, behind the clutch hitting of Nauts RBI leader Ryan Realmuto, who hit the game winner in the team’s late inning victory over the New England Riptide.  Olympic Gold Medalist Natasha Watley led the way for the Nauts with two hits, two runs, two walks and one RBI, as well as right fielder Trena Peel, who blasted a stand-up-triple and notched two RBI on the evening.  Danielle Henderson pitched a solid game for the Riptide, including 14 strikeouts, but it wasn’t enough as the Nauts fought back to score eight runs in the seventh inning en route to a 9-2 victory.

Ryan Realmuto Rips the Tide. File Photo, Courtesy NY Juggernaut

 

New York got on the board in the top of the second inning with a signature two out rally.  Trena Peel hit a hard line drive to center field to start things off for the Nauts.  Three pitches later, left fielder Kim Ogee sliced a ball down the left field line for a stand-up-double.  With runners on second and third, Bay Shore native Jaclyn Pasquerella took the first pitch she saw from Henderson to right field, registering an RBI.  Pasquerella stole second base before Natasha Watley walked to load the bases for Carri Leto.  With a 2-2 count, Leto struck out swinging on an outside pitch to end the scoring for New York. 

 

New York’s defense in the bottom of the second stopped the Riptide’s scoring threat.  Left fielder Ashley Moore reached first base on a fielding error by Pasquerella and then stole second base.  With one out, shortstop Stephanie Best hit a double off the left field wall. Chelsea Spencer quickly picked up the ball and threw a rocket to Pasquerella at the third base bag, who dove and slapped the tag on Moore who was rounding third base, keeping the Juggernaut lead at 1-0.

 

The Riptide struck back in the bottom of the fourth inning, as former Juggernaut and current USA National Team player Kellie Wilkerson took a 3-1 pitch deep over the right field wall to tie the game up at one a piece.  James successfully induced Anderson and Moore to strikeout to end the inning.

 

The Nauts were retired in the top of the fifth by Henderson, who recorded her eighth, ninth and tenth strikeout of the night.  The Riptide then led off the top of the fifth with a walk to shortstop Best.  James came on strong and retired the next two batters with strikeouts, her fifth and sixth respectively.  With two outs, Sarah Jewett hit a triple to deep center over Ogee’s head, scoring Best from first base and giving the Riptide the edge 2-1.  Angus flied out to right field to end the inning.

Chelsea Spencer, who has been successful in starting many late inning Juggernaut comebacks, was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the sixth inning. Peel then took the count to 3-2 and fouled off five pitches before striking out, although Spencer stole second base on the play.  Ogee popped up to left field and Pasquerella popped up to the shortstop to end the Juggernaut scoring chances in the sixth.

 James put two runners on board with walks after striking out Iancin and retiring Anderson with a fly out to left field.  With two outs, Stephanie Best hit a hard ground ball to Watley’s forehand, but the shortstop misplayed the ball and all the runner’s advanced safely. With the bases load and two outs, center fielder Jen Scavone was called out looking on strikes, Scavone’s third strikeout of the night.

The Big 7th.

The Nauts final chance to score in the top of the seventh was led by Natasha Watley.  Watley, hitting .480 as a lead off, drew a walk on a 3-2 count.  Leto perfectly executed a sacrifice bunt, but an error by Henderson pulled Wilkerson off the bag and Leto was called safe.  A wild pitch advanced both runners before Leah Nelson grounded out to the third baseman.  With one out, Ryan Realmuto hit a scorching line drive that chalked the left field foul line.  Her double scored the decisive two runs to put the Juggernaut ahead 3-2. 

 Laura Taylor went in to pitch hit for Cox, who had three strikeouts, and sent the ball straight up the middle, advancing Realmuto to third base.  Peel then drilled a ball to left center field for a stand-up-triple, earning 2 RBIs on the blast. Ogee and Pasquerella reached on consecutive errors as the Nauts batted around the lineup.  Watley hit an RBI line drive to center field, increasing the Juggernaut lead to 8-2.  Two pitches later, Leto hit a stand-up-triple, scoring Watley from second base which proved to be the last run of the game.  Henderson was pulled after 14 strikeouts and three errors, and was relieved by Casey Hunter who retired Leah Nelson.  The eight run Juggernaut seventh included five hits, four of which went for extra bases, six RBI, and three Riptide errors.

 

New England stranded two runners in the seventh, but a lineup error proved to end the game for the Tide.  With two outs, Lindsay Angus hit a single to start the rally. Lisa Iancin then hit a shot to Natasha Watley, which would have been scored an error as Iancin reached first, but an erroneous uniform number on the official lineup card automatically called her out and ended the game.

 

The New York Juggernaut continues their series against New England on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. The Nauts return home to Hofstra University Softball Stadium on Wednesday, July13th as they host the Venezuelan National Team.  For tickets or for more information, please call 516-485-0141 or visit the Juggernaut online at www.nynjjuggernaut.com.

 

FINAL SCORE

Score by Innings                                   R  H  E

New York Juggernaut…..010 000 8 –  9   9   2

New England Riptide  ….000 110 0 –  2   4   5

WP-Peaches James (9-2)

LP-Danielle Henderson

Hits: 0

WPCNR NEWS COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. July 6, 2005, UPDATED July 11, 2005: Has anyone noticed the slow motion coup unfolding in this land?

 

It began with the growth of Fox News with its ludicrous slogan. “We report. You decide.” Fox News spawned a slew of commentators attacking the “liberal media” as being anti-Bush and too liberal and not reporting in a fair manner on the Reagan-Bush presidencies. Paralleling the growth of Fox News was rightwing talk radio, the demagogues poking fun and chastising liberal figures for their alleged hypocrisy, and cheerleading for Republican Conservative administrations, politicos and policies  in a way no network anchor on CBS News ever would, and wrapping it all in a love for America that they claim liberals do not display.

 

The latest manifestation of “The Creeping Coup” happened yestersay when Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, was jailed for not divulging her source on the CIA agent-outing story.

 

.

On the print side, large conglomerates have purchased newspapers in city after city, and consolidated them, turning out the same paper to serve entire regions. It’s cheap. You need less staff. Only trouble is you get a lot less reporting.

 

 One of the results of the newspaper buyups is a gutting of local news reporting by knowledgeable reporters, and communities that do not receive detailed coverage of what their governments are doing from people who live in the community. The one-medium towns and cities receive a slanted view of the news, and whatever news suits the political leanings and connections of the media czar in control of that newspaper.

 

Meanwhile governments, congresspersons and department heads hire entire staffs of taxpayer expense to produce reams of  news releases to spin their side of the story.

 

Propaganda, managing the news,

Ignoring stories,  Harassing Reporters.

 

The rabble rousing, the nationalism, the militarism of rightwing radio and television, the shameless fact-bereft promotion of right wing politics in America today are right out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and we quote the infamous Hitler directly:

 

The first task of propaganda is the winning of the people for the future organization; the first task of the organization is the winning of people for the continuation of propaganda. The second task of propaganda is the destruction of the existing condition and the permeation of this condition with the new doctrine, while the second task of the organization must be the fight for power, so that by it it will achieve the final success of the doctrine.

 

One America Less Voices. No watchdogs.

 

As right wing talk radio grew nationally, aided by the gobbling of independent radio stations by media giants like Infinity Broadcasting, another insidious thing developed: syndicated radio. Drive through America today and all radio sounds the same thanks to syndication. Just try and find a local newscast that is not a rip-and-read operation. There are no independent radio news gathering departments in the satellite radio stations in Westchester that I know of. The only radio station that programs local commentary is WVOX in New Rochelle, and praise God for Bill O’Shaughnessy (the owner of VOX).

 

The real scary thing is that when I am in Buffalo or Providence, or Harrisburg, or Charlotte, the radio shows feature the same commentators you hear in New York. Local radio is no more. Perhaps the only local radio to be found is in the local baseball broadcasts. Even NPR is essentially a syndication.

 

The result of this wave of one-voice-for-all-America radio spawned by the syndication, communications conglomerate collecting of radio, is that all America is beginning to think alike as never before. We never used to be that way. More than ever, we hear talk about one America. America wants this. America is behind this, etc.

 

Destruction of the news-gathering media.

The Getting of Reporters. Leak No More.

 

The examples of discrediting of newsmen and news commentators are numerous: the setup of Dan Rather comes to mind. On a more local level the continued harassment of reporters by  a certain local Administration comes to mind.  But the media thugs and boy propagandists in the pathetic media fumblers in governments and press offices everywhere have to be cheered by this week’s Supreme Court decision on revealing news sources.

 

The Supreme Court ducking the Miller-Cooper case, which lets stand a ruling holding the two reporters in contempt for refusing to reveal their sources, may mean reporters have to reveal their sources in legal proceedings – is perhaps the most devastating blow against free reporting and investigation of government or business – in the history of the courts. The Supreme Court is willingly going along with the dismantling of the  Constitution one right at a time. Freedom of the Press is in Amendment Number 1.

 

Why is protection of sources important? Obvious. Sources tell you things out of the goodness of their hearts that the powerful don’t want known. They often work for companies and governments and organizations that would fire them or take reprisals if they knew who the leaker was.

 

Watergate would not have been uncovered without a source. The Pentagon Papers would not have been published without a source — and the Supreme Court protected Daniel Elsberg, the man who furnished those documents to The New York Times.

 

In light of the Supreme Court rufusal to take up the Miller- Cooper cases this week, whistle blowers are no longer protected.

 

Irritated Politicians and Power Obcessed Bureaucrats Have Got to Love It.

 

The chilling effect of this decision means it will be much more difficult to get government officials to leak information about not so good things to a reporter.  Hence, less investigative reporting will be done.

 

The Machiavellian  jailing of Judith Miller of The New York Times  for not revealing her source on the CIA agent outing (when she did not even write the story), comes little more than one year to the day when White Plains resident Elena Sassower was thrown in the slammer for “Disruption of Congress,” that gang of  rich fools who stand idly by to aid the coup’s bidding.

 

Release those disturbed Level 3 Sex Offenders, Let The White Collar Crooks Free

Slap those enemies of the state, those #$%^&@#* Reporters in Jail.

 

The trend these days is letting violent disturbed people out of prison,  allowing massive corporate fraud perps to walk scot-free, and putting reporters like Ms. Miller and whistle blowers like Elena Sassower in jail straightaway.

 

And for all of you who like to think Ms. Sassower “had it coming,” wait until they do what they did to Judith Miller and Elena Sassower, to you.

 

Are our priorities about who gets out of jail and who goes in just a little out of whack?

 

 

Congress needs more disrupting. They need to wake up and smell the rot.

 

Who will be the first Senator and Congressperson to introduce a bill to amend the U.S. Constitution to correct this egregious Supreme Court decision?    Remember the oath, ladies and gentlemen of congress when you swore to uphold the Constitution? Let me refresh your memory, Ladies and Gentlemen of congress, and you geniuses on the U.S. Supreme Court about what the First Amendment says:

 

Amendment I

 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Anyone in the State Legislature Ready to stand up for the

Karen Silwoods, Daniel Pearls, and Dan Rathers of the World?

 

A New York State Assemblyperson or a New York State Senator should call for a special session of the legislature expressly for the purpose of introducing and passing a new New York State Law that upholds the right of the press to protect its sources, and forbids courts in New York State to jail journalists for refusing to reveal sources or methods used to gather news.  Let us put states’ rights to a test. (WPCNR has since learned that New York State does have a law protecting journalists from having to reveal sources, perhaps it should be strengthened?)

 

For the United States Supreme Court to rule that a reporter must reveal their source or go to jail on the day after after July 4 is a national disgrace.

 

How Did Adolf Hitler Think the Press Should be Handled?

 

The principles (Articles) of the National Socialist Movement in Germany in Mein Kampf  number 25. Article 23 (of 25 Articles of  the National Socialist Movement) is entitled with chilling bluntness: Regulations are needed to govern the press.

 

The writers of the Introduction to Mein Kampf  surveyed the media of the Germany of 1938 and write in a footnote that as of 1938 (five years after Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany), the press was tightly controlled:

 

The Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture) embraces all the seven agencies of “culture” – authorship, the press, the radio, the movie, music, the arts, authors, musicians, and artists. Virtually all these endeavors have been subject to the control of Dr. Goebbels, but recently some of his authority has been delegated to others. The press and the radio are completely subordinated (gleichgeschaltet). In Berlin, the shrinkage in the newspaper field is more and more startling, now that the Tageblatt and the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung have merged and the Germania has ceased publication.

 

Old Vienna landmarks – the Tagblatt, the Neue Freie Presse, and the Reichspost – have disappeared. The holocaust (of newspapers) in the provinces is comparable. Radio broadcasting has become an unadorned propaganda instrument.

 

 

That could be talking about The Standard Star, The Tarrytown Daily News,  and The Item.

 

The creeping coup of the takeover of America is going by the book.

 

 

Hits: 0

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. July 5, 2005: Hidden deep in the backup material  on the Common Council agenda tonight, are the details on the city certriorari settlement with Bloomingdale’s. The refund the city will pay Bloomingdales for tax years extending from 1995-96 through 2004-2005 is $200,000 more than WPCNR predicted in our analysis of the school district certiorari payment. The Common Council will be asked to vote tonight to approve a settlement payable to Bloomingdales of $627,386. The School District approved their certiorari payment to Bloomingdale’s of $1.7 million when they met last month.

The Bloomingdale’s property was assessed at $2, 250,000 in 2004-05, and the city has agreed to lower that assessment $950,000 to $1,300,000, resulting in a refund of $111,729.50 for 2004-05 and a payment of $116,897.50 in 2005-06.

Hits: 0

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. July 4, 2005: Grace Church Community Center is in the process of exploring options for relocating its homeless women housed at the annex, according to Susan Tedesco, Interim Team Chair/Controller. In a statement to WPCNR, Ms. Tedesco writes: