THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Maya Leggat, 2010 White Plains High Graduate, 21, Identified as Woman Pushed onto Tracks

Posted on September 27, 2013 by John Bailey

MAYA LEGGAT: WOMAN INJURED WHEN PUSHED INTO THE WAY OF A NORTHBOUND METRO NORTH TRAIN WEDNESDAY . Photo from Goodgle

WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From The Daily News. September 27, 2013:

The woman pushed onto the Metro North northbound train track at the White Plains Railroad Station Wednesday has survived being hit by a northbound out of service train after a homeless man identified as Howard Mickens of a White Plains homeless shelter allegedly pushed her onto the tracks after she refused to give him money, according to The Daily News.

Reporter Tracy Robbins reports Maya Leggat, 21, a graduate of White Plains High School is in Westchester County Medical Center, suffering from severed fingers and a mangled leg. Mickens was arraigned in City Court Thursday and charged with attempted murder. He returns to court October 25.

County Installs New Cost Controls at Admissions Points After Discovery of Skimming

Posted on September 27, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. September 26, 2013:

As a result of a multi-department effort that led to the arrests of part-time employees for stealing the receipts of county parking operations, a new system of controls has been put in place to prevent this type of theft in the future.

The Parks Department assisted detectives from the Department of Public Safety in the year-long investigation that led to the indictment of three former hourly Parks employees and the arrests of 12 others. The thefts occurred between 2009 and 2012 and involved employees pocketing money from patrons for monthly parking permits and MetroCards and then falsifying records to cover their crimes.

County Executive Robert P. Astorino said he was disgusted that employees would steal from Westchester County taxpayers. “This is a violation of the public’s trust,” he said. “As soon as allegations surfaced, I made sure the county moved quickly to find out the full extent of the problem and take the steps necessary to prevent it from happening again. Theft in any form cannot be tolerated and we must always be vigilant to prevent it.”

Parks Commissioner Kathleen O’Connor, whose department oversees the county’s parking operations, said the implementation of new controls began over a year ago, but were not disclosed publicly until now to prevent tipping off those involved in the scheme.

“Now that the criminal investigation has concluded, we can report that changes have already been made to strengthen our internal controls,” she said. “These individuals were able – at least for a while – to get around the checks and balances. We have revamped the system to address these weaknesses. We can’t prevent every theft, but we can make criminal acts more difficult to commit and easier to detect and that is what our new controls are designed to do.”

Public Safety Commissioner George N. Longworth thanked the Parks Department for its cooperation over the course of the investigation and praised the work of Detectives Edward Kelch and George Ruiz of the General Investigations Unit.

“These detectives reviewed thousands of documents and conducted a detailed investigation to identify the extent of this fraud,” Longworth said. “We believe that all persons who were criminally responsible have been identified and formally charged.”

O’Connor said that all of the employees who were implicated in the fraud were terminated following their arrests.

O’Connor said that changes made by the Parks Department include:

Appointing a new parking supervisor;
Requiring the financial staff assigned to the County Center to report directly to the Administrative Division at Parks Department headquarters;
Limiting the number of parking permits distributed at any one time to the parking office staff that handles sales to the public;
Installing security cameras in parking offices and booths, and
Installing a new point-of-sale system with increased controls and reporting.

MTA UPDATE ON Woman Picked Up and Thrown in Front of Onrushing Metro NorthTrain at White Plains Railroad Station. Survives with Serious Injuries

Posted on September 25, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. By John F. Bailey. SPECIAL TO WPCNR FROM M.ANDERS, METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY POLICE COMMUNICATIONS September 25, 2013 UPDATED 6:28 P.M.E.D.T. UPDATED 6:30 A.M., September 26, 2013:

The Journal News reported overnight that a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman has identified the alleged suspect in the pushing of a young woman in front of a train at White Plains Wednesday morning.

He is Howard J. Mickens of White Plains, a resident of a White Plains homeless shelter and he has been charged with Attempted Murder. The News reported MTA spokesman Salvatore Anders as describing Mickens as having been arrested 11 times, and 5 of the arrests were for alleged violent felonies.

The victim, the spokesperson said, was hospitalized with serious leg trauma.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police issued WPCNR this description of the 11 AM incident at the White Plains Train Station when a man identified as Milkens pushed (witnesses said “he picked up and threw”) the woman in front of a train:

“At 11:05 a.m., a 21-year-old White Plains woman was standing on the (island) platform at the White Plains train station. According to multiple witnesses, she was pushed to the tracks and struck by an empty, (not in service) northbound train.

Two witnesses chased the man (identified this morning as Mickens) and he was quickly arrested by MTA Police at the station. (THE WITNESSES HAVE NOT BEEN IDENTIFIED, ACCORDING TO M. ANDERS AS OF 6:30 P.M.)

The woman (victim), a Hunter College student on her way into Manhattan, was taken alive to Westchester Medical Center.

Before the ambulance arrived, an MTA Police officer climbed down to the tracks to assist the woman and calm her down. She was conscious and talking to police.

Harlem Line train service was disrupted for about an hour. Four trains were affected, two northbound and two southbound.

Because of the incident and because of track work in the Scarsdale/Hartsdale area, two northbound trains were terminated at Crestwood, the 10:25 a.m. local out of Grand Central and the 10:55 a.m. local out of Grand Central. The train that was terminated at Crestwood was turned and provided southbound service out of Crestwood.

Two southbound trains also were held at North White Plains, the 10:38 out of Southeast. 10:13 out of Southeast .

Normal Harlem Line service resumed at noon.”

Asked about MTA police presence at Westchester stations. Ms. Anders wrote in a statement, “We had officers at the station because of the bus diversion from the New Haven line . We patrol all stations, but do not have fixed posts at each of our 121 stations. MTAPD has about 650 officers to cover 5,000 square miles.”

The man identified as the suspect who threw the victim upon the northbound tracks, was reported by a vendor at the station as a regular loiterer around the elevated Metro North train station in White Plains.

White Plains Commissioner of Public Safety David Chong issued this statement to WPCNR:

“This investigation and case is being handled by the MTA Police as it is their
jurisdiction. The woman appears to have survived the incident although she has
some serious injuries. The suspect is in custody and will be processed and
charged by the MTA Police. We assisted the MTA Police in the rescue of the
woman and the apprehension of the suspect.”

Enter AnneMarie Encarnacao for White Plains Common Council.

Posted on September 25, 2013 by John Bailey

AnneMarie Encanarcao Candidate for Common Council

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2013. From the AnneMarie Encarnacao Campaign. September 25, 2013:

AnneMarie is a lifelong resident of White Plains for 46 years and has lived in 5 different neighborhoods throughout the city: Prospect Park, Soundview, Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, and now The Highlands. She and her husband Rui have been married for 26 years and have two adult children, Ashley and Rui, who attended White Plains Public Schools K-12.

AnneMarie is a licensed insurance and real estate broker in downtown White Plains. Actually, her insurance company is in the Republican Headquarters, thus ultimately leading her to run for Common Council.

Her exact words were “I want to run for Common Council because instead of complaining, I want to get involved!” So that is exactly what she did.

AnneMarie went out in her neighborhood/district and got signatures to get her name on the ballot for Common Council along with her fellow team members, Cass Cibelli who is running for Mayor and Claudia Murphy who is also running for Common Council.

The Encarnarcoas: Daughter Ashley, Son Rui, Anne-Marie Encanarcao, and husband Rui

As a middle class working family, Rui and AnneMarie have seen their real estate taxes double in the 13 years they have lived in their same home in the Highlands! This is one of AnneMarie’s biggest concerns, taxes. She realizes through her career as a Realtor that senior citizens in the city can’t afford to live in their homes any longer because of the ever increasing taxes. She would like to see a City Senior STAR for them to help alleviate the high taxes to try and keep them in their homes!

Another concern of AnneMarie as a lifelong citizen was the two large Open Spaces that were made available to the city over the last decade that would have benefitted all White Plains residents, young and old!

Both were voted down by some of the present common council members and the mayor! One was NY Hospital’s proposal to give the city an abundant amount of acres for a “Central Park” including playing fields! The other was Ridgeway Country Club that the city passed on buying. It should/could have been White Plains’ “Lake Isle” as in Eastchester that is a money making venue for that city and a club for its residents.

As a Realtor in White Plains, AnneMarie has seen the effect that the sale of the (Ridgeway) club to The French American School of New York has had on the real estate values of the homes in Gedney Farms. They have lost anywhere upwards of $200,000 each, which is approximately a 20%+ decrease, whereas other areas in the city have only saw half that or less.

AnneMarie is a kind hearted person and would help anyone she meets. She now wants to expand that by running for Common Council and helping her city and its residents. She knows exactly how they feel because she has been one of those citizens and is ready to listen, act, and try to make changes to the way business is done in the city.

The city has been at a stalemate and some of the decisions that have been made were not really the most beneficial to the residents. AnneMarie feels the residents have been cheated out of useful, family, green space that would have been used by all, young and old!