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)
CRATERS OPEN UP ON INTERSTATE 80! INFRASTRUCTION QUESTIONS WORRIES FLY! JUST A LITTLE DETAIL AND HEAP BIG DELAYS. WHO KNEW? WHERE’S TRAFFIC AND WEATHER TOGETHER GONE?
ARE THESE BRIDGES AND HIGHWAYS ALL OVER 70 YEARS OLD SAFE? TAKE YOUR PARACHUTE
ADMINSTRATION SAYS COVID WAS “YEARS AGO.” IS IT OVER IN WESTCHESTER. NO THE LATEST PROJECTIONS– VACCINES RESEARCH HALTED.
STATE CONSIDERS REFORM ON DISCLOSURE PROCEDURES. WESTCHESTER D.A. SAYS DISCLOSURE PROCEDURES ARE BROKEN. NO DETAILS ON WHAT THE LEGISLATURE IN NY IS CONSIDERING. CAN WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING OF DOING PERHAPS?
THE STATE BUDGET STORY
ADMINISTRATION IN WASHINGTON TRIES TO CLAW BACK COVID RELIEF NOT SENT
I had a busy week at home in Westchester and the Bronx and am starting three straight weeks of time in Washington, DC.
In DC
I am honored to sit on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and this week we held a shadow meeting with Democratic members about the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Committee Republicans held one hearing earlier this year. But we need many more hearings with USAID staff, which must also include Republican members, to hear about the important work they were doing and how devastating losing this agency has been to vulnerable children and families and the world. You can watch the hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzmY9KWK0xg
I had the pleasure of meeting with multiple constituents and groups from our district including Tracy from Rye who is with the Garden Club of America, students from Yeshiva University, and several members of Hadassah.
This week I also had the honor of meeting rescued hostage Andrei Kozlov. He described his harrowing lived experience, and I reassured him that I will continue to advocate for all of the hostages to be returned as soon as possible. It is unconscionable that they still have not been brought home.
At Home: Westchester and the Bronx
This past weekend, I was joined by over 250 advocates, union members, and seniors for a press conference against the closures of Social Security offices and cuts to staff and services at the Social Security Administration.
More than 10,000 Boomers like me become eligible for Social Security every day. Wait times are already long and will become longer if these cuts and closures go into effect. I have signed onto several letters to the Social Security Administration pushing them to reverse course and not close the White Plains hearing office or other offices around the country. And I have signed onto two bills, the Keeping Our Field Offices Open Act (H.R. 1876) and Protecting Americans Social Security Data Act (H.R. 1877) that will keep offices open and prevent private citizens from accessing sensitive information on the Social Security systems.
Last week I held a virtual roundtable with local 1199 to discuss Medicaid’s vital role for injured workers, seniors, and people with disabilities. The House Republicans’ budget plan includes $880 billion that needs to be cut from Medicare or Medicaid. They have said that the cut will not be to Medicare, so the fear from many is that cut could be all from Medicaid. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 196,000 people in Westchester and the Bronx rely on Medicaid and if this cut becomes law, they could lose their healthcare. I voted against this once and I will vote against it again.
This past weekend, I attended several events in the Bronx, including speaking at the Co-Op City Branch of the NAACP’s monthly general membership meeting.
Speaking of the Bronx, my constituent services team will be in the Bronx for the next stop of our Mobile Office Hours. They will be at Bronx Community Board 10 on Friday, April 11th from 12-4pm.
My casework team had a great time assisting constituents at our first Mobile Office Hours event at the Doles Center in Mt. Vernon on Thursday.
They’re getting READY at the Big Ball Park, as Red Barber called it.
Today the Bronx Bombers return to Yankee StadiUM and play Milwaukee at 1 PM.
In the honor of Opening Day, WPCNR brings back this original celebration of The Day I wrote about why Opening Day is the best day of the year
OPENING DAY
OPENING DAY is better than Christmas Day, When you look out and know they’ll play, Dreary gray or brilliant spring sunray Opening Day means The Big Show is back today.
Decades past, Opening Day for fanatics starved, Eager for sharp crack of ash on horsehide carved; Pennants snapping in northwest winds Top ramparts of inviting walls arches and sculpted friezes wistfully escarped.
Fans lucky to get away with ducats Marvel at flannels sharp whites pristeen, To play in the warm zephyrs in NY blazened caps, Dashing specks of white warmup on the greenest green.
Motor cars pant in traffic jams on the Deegan,Down Yawkey Way, on 35th and Shields or Waveland’s jam. The first glimpse of storied Park, The place where ball is played, where ghosts of Ted, Babe, Duke Mel, Spahnie, Whitey, Mickey, Willie, Yaz, Minnie and Sandy lark.
Pay a fortune to park, pass stogie smoking old menat the same gates for a hundred years,
Now out into the street
You go, aroma of roasting chestnuts, pungent cigars sweet,
Cries of “scorecard heah” “programs,heah” shout out, neath light towers to heaven.
Fans in cap and uniform, little boys and girls gawk in awe hoping to make the AnthemNever seeing such sheer walls, topped with the legend “Game Today 1:30 PM.”
Clutching slim cardboard tix to Section 14 Upper Deck up to the turnstilesFestooned with souvenirs more dear as diamonds, beyond, the lure of endless aisles.
Into press of crowd, grizzled usher,
RIPS YOUR TICKET.
Turnstile turns, clicks, and into the cathedral of ball you goInto the rotunda greeted with magic signs dazzling the senses —UPPER LEVELS SECTIONS 1 to 39, 2 to 40
Hawkers shout –Voices of Flatbush — colorful books in hand
“Yeahhbook heah,” “Dodger Yearbook here,” “Hot dog, heah,” Assail ears! Up ramps you climb to the sign “NEXT HOMESTAND”
Walking the catwalk,sliver of blue is first look of the magic sphere Into the sunlight splaying the vast rake of the mighty stand.
Below are baseball knights of the diamond in white huesCavorting, snapping throws across immaculate red clayAs majestic fungo bats — CRACK! send white spheres soaring to filling bleachers a mile away,Bunting flutters from the deck rails red, white and true blues.
Old Glory furls on highest pole in centerfieldColorful signs deliver the manly flavor of the only real game,GILLETTE To Look Sharp, The Red Sox use Lifeboy, Schaefer It’s A HitHey, Neighbor Have a Gansett, White Owl Cigars, Hit Sign Win Suit
From old friendly walls, to Gladys Gooding on the organComfy old green scoreboard displayToday’s games in the bigs BETTER THAN CNNCHI CLE BOS DET, CHI STL, NY WAS make you king for a day.Two Bits for a scorecard, usher wipes your seat, ballpark fills your heart.
Starters wheel, deal, kicking high on sidelines fueling expectancy
Men in blue, arms folded solemnly conduct the home plate regimenCasey, Ralph , Walter, Joe, Sparky exchange lineup cards and knowingGround rules by heart, go over them for ritual’s sake.Bob Shepard “The Voice of God” speaks “Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to Yankee StadiUM .”
“Please rise for the playing of our national anthem,”Nancy Faust at organ note by note renders baseball’s theme songRising on the breeze, uniting do-rag and ball cap,Fedora, ponytail and bouffant in the spirit of the greatEST game.
Grass is never greener on opening daysStrikes are louder, long drives scream with authority into the alleysBeers with whiter than white high creamy heads,
Taste crisp cold mellow best brew you drink all year
Smashes laser through short in the gap in raucous rallies
Magicians without wands start 6-4-3s, (if you’re scoring at home)
Backhand sure hits losing their caps
“Oh what a play’s “crackle on WGN with “CUBS WIN!”‘S
Jack and Mel, Vince, Red, Curt and Murph , Gussie, Marty, John and Suzyn , Ernie, The Gunner, are back at mikes turning mundane days
Into joy with a ninth inning elixir and “happy recaps”
The Great Pete Rose, The Greatest of them all now eternal “Charlie Hustle” at the Plate,1975 again, Wrigley Field (Photo by John Bailey)
Thunderous ROARS AWARD the 2-out winner again creating big kids’ grins.
STATEMENT ON INCREASING CASE DISMISSALS FOLLOWING 2019 DISCOVERY REFORMS
In January 2020, new, significant changes to New York’s discovery statutes took effect that established shorter timeframes for sharing discoverable material with the defense. The new discovery statute has since been repeatedly amended without addressing its fundamental flaws.
In 2019, before the reforms went into effect, case dismissals in Westchester comprised an 8.7% share of total case dispositions. In 2020, the first year the discovery amendments went into effect, that number climbed to 11.7%.
By 2023, case dismissals comprised 14.6% of all dispositions, and in 2024, that number reached 15.4%.
That means between 2019 and 2024, case dismissal rates in Westchester have nearly doubled. This is attributable, in large part, to the discovery changes that took effect in 2020.
(Please note, statistics for the years 2021 and 2022 have been omitted due to incomplete data collection.)
Because of the new timetables included in the reforms, and the way the law treats belated disclosures, judges are dismissing cases even where discoverable material was withheld inadvertently, or where the delayed disclosure was in no way prejudicial to the defense.
Once a case is dismissed against a criminal defendant, it cannot be retried.
On Monday, DA Cacace was proud to stand alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul, Domestic Violence Bureau Chief Joyce Miller, fellow District Attorneys, advocates and domestic violence survivors in support of overdue reforms to New York’s discovery laws.
DA Cacace released the following statement regarding the broken discovery process:
“The discovery reforms enacted in 2019 have turned the criminal justice system on its head. Survivors of domestic violence trust that if they summon the courage to report their abusers to the police, the system will treat their claims with care and consideration. But the system is no longer holding up its end of this deal.
“In Westchester and statewide, cases are being dismissed on mere technicalities, despite the due diligence and good-faith efforts of prosecutors, because of factors well beyond their control.
“While some of the efforts to modernize New York’s discovery laws were well-intentioned, the current system is no longer sustainable. The stories of victims and survivors being denied justice break my heart and should shock anyone who believes in a fair and efficient criminal justice system. I call upon my counterparts in the New York State Assembly and Senate to include needed improvements to our discovery laws in the upcoming budget.”
