WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER TOPS 5 MILLION VISITS IN A YEAR! 5,566,746 VISITS IN ONE YEAR BY 1,769,260 VISITORS 7,631 VISITORS A DAY! IN AUGUST, 247,700 VISITORS MADE 684,903 VISITS (22,830 DAILY)

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” CITY OF WHITE PLAINS OPENS ITS 2^ND HOLIDAY MARKET IN 2 WEEKS  ON SUNDAY DECEMBER 5 FOR 15 CONSECUTIVE DAYS 11 AM TO 7 PM EVERY DAY DECEMBER 5TH THROUGH DECEMBER 19TH. THE MARKET WILL BE LOCATED ON COURT STREET BETWEEN MAIN STREET AND MARTINE AVENUE. THIS WAS HUGELY SUCCESSFUL LAST DECEMBER WITH 40 VENDERS AND THIS YEAR IT HAS GROWN TO 62 ARTISANAL VENDORS FROM AROUND THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY REGION. ORNAMENTS, HAND PAINTED GLASS, JEWELRY, POTTERY, AND OTHER ART, KNITS, AFRICAN AND TIBETAN PRODUCTS, BATH PRODUCTS, OILS, VINEGARS, HOME ACCESSORIES, ABORIGINAL TOWELS AND SILKS, NESTING DOLLS. I PICKED OUT SEVERAL GIFTS FOR BRENDA STARR LAST YEAR. THERE’S PLENTY OF PARKING ON THE COURT STREET MUNICIPAL LOT AND THE GALLERIA.

SPEAKING OF GIFTING EXPERIENCE, SANTA IS HOLDING COURT IN  THE NEWLY MADEOVER NEW WESTCHESTER MALL. THE MALL NEW LOOK AND THE DEBUT OF UPSCALE PURVEYORS OF  HIGH FASHION AND TASTES FOR PERSONS OF INTEREST, KIDS, TWEENS AND HIPSTERS, AND CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY,  INCLUDE “MY SUIT,” “BO CONCEPT DESIGN,” “HOPE AND HENRY” FOR KIDS, “DIRECT KICKS,” “OCCITANE EN PROVENCE,” “BONOBOS,” “CHIC BOUTIQUE,” AN UNSCALE GOWNS SHOWCASE, AND “NEAHAUS,”A CHOCOLATIER FROM BELGIUM HAS REPLACED LADY GODIVA. “ARITZIA,”  AND  “MADSWELL”  AND “MY SHEIK WARDROBE”ARE  OUTSTANDING NEW LOOK WOMENS FASHIONS FOR WINTER AND GOING OUT.  JUST SOME OF THE NEW SURPRISES YOU MR. AND MS. AND MRS. WESTCHESTER CAN CHECKOUT AT THE NEW WESTCHESTER MALL.

MASKING AND SOCIAL DISTANCING WILL CONTINUE IN THE WHITE PLAINS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT INTO JANUARY, THE WHITE PLAINS SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, DR. JOSEPH RICCA SAID IN A LIVE BRIEFING MONDAY. HE SAID THAT THANKS TO WESTCHESTER COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT 500 WHITE PLAINS UNDER 12 STUDENTS VACCINATED WITH THE FIRST SHOT OF THE CHILD DOSE OF PHISER VACCINE

RICCA ANNOUNCED ANOTHER VACCINATION SESSION FOR 5-TO 12s WOULD TAKE PLACE NOVEMBER 27 AT POST ROAD SCHOOL.  HE SAID THE STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT HAS NOT DECLARED TAKING THE VACCINE MANDATORY THAT IT WAS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL PARENT OR GUARDIAN TO DECIDE FOR THEIR CHILD. THE 9 SCHOOLS HAVE 2,000 UNDER 12S TO GO.

ON THE SUBJECT OF MASKING, HE REPORTED THAT THE STATE ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS HAS ASKED THE NEW YORK STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT WHAT PROTOCOLS OR STANDARDS IN CONTROLLING COVID HAVE TO BE DEMONSTRATED TO ELIMINATE MASKING IN SCHOOLS. SO FAR THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT HAS NOT ISSUED THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT HAVE TO BE MET TO DROP MASKS IN SCHOOLS REQUIREMENTS COULD EASE OR ELIMINATE MASKING IN THE SCHOOLS.

OUR LISTENERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT WESTCHESTER COUNTY NEW INFECTIONS DOUBLED LAST WEEK AND THE MID-HUDSON REGION THE OTHER SIX COUNTYIES COMBINED WITH NASSAU AND SUFFOLK COUNTIES– NEW COVID CASES NOW ARE EXPERIENCING THE SAME NUMBERS IN NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS AS THE FIVE BUREAUS OF NEW YORK CITY. ON SUNDAY, WESTCHESTER ORANGE DUTCHESS ULSTER PUTNAM, ROCKLAND SULLIVAN AND NASSAU AND SUFFOLK COUNTIES TOTALED 1,287 NEW CASES. ALL 5 BOROUGHS  OF NEW YORK CITY  HAD 1,307— THE CASE COUNT SEPARATING THE CITY AND THE 9 SUBURBAN COUNTIES IS ONLY 20 CASES APART.

IT WAS THE FIRST TIME IN 6 DAYS THAT THE 9 SUBURBAN COUNTIES WERE NOT LEADING NEW YORK CITY IN CASES. IF TRAVELING. IT’S OUT THERE BIG TIME , IF VISITING BEWARE.

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WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT By John F. Bailey. (reprinted from November, 2001) UPDATED. November 22, 2021:

Someone made a big mistake again this year. The papers on November 22nd had no reference to the day John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. Today.

Three gunshots on November 22 at 1 in the afternoon just about an hour and a half ago in Dallas, Texas murdered President John F. Kennedy.

Today is the day in Dallas 58 years ago on Friday afternoon when President John F. Kennedy was shot riding in his motorcade in front of the Texas Book Depository Building.

November 22,  1963. A most unfortunate coincidence that someone should have noticed.

Fifty-eight years ago today at about midday eastern standard time, President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.

When I heard the news, I was heading up the steps of  Gray Chapel at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. It was sobering news. Then within the hour it was reported that the President was dead, and the search was on for potential suspects.

It was the first time in my life a national event had ever affected me.

Persons in their mid-70s can probably remember exactly what they were doing when they heard that electrifying news.

Disbelief. Concern. Sadness. Grieg. Nothing you could do about it.

Who would shoot the President?  How could they? The President no matter who he was was revered and respected at that time — not ridiculed, mocked, vilified, and criticised for his every move as President Biden is today.

President Kennedy’s popularity was ebbing at that time in 1963.

The public was initially inspired by the vision of Camelot and the likable, energetic young president.

However, by the time he was assassinated, President Kennedy was coming under harsh criticism for his foreign policy and his inability to move an agenda through congress. (Sound familiar?)

He was pushed around by congressional heavyweights — eerily not too much different from our President today, who today pushes congress members to pass voting rights and immigration reform and is blocked blocked blocked by congressmen and senators who know better.

When Kennedy was shot, the American public, even those who disagreed with his politics and considered him in over his head in the presidency, were stunned by grief and horror.

Nothing had happened like that in America since 1901 when President William McKinley was assassinated.

An entire nation reflected in guilt for a week as the three television networks showed 24 hours a day assassination and funeral coverage. Walter Cronkite shed a tear on camera when he reported Kennedy was dead. No commentator would think about reacting in glee on the air as they do now at Biden presidential defeats.

And please, no congressional personality would ever show video of himself cutting the throat of a fellow member of congress. That throat slitter guy needs to be thrown out of congress or at least arrested for threatening Congresswoman Alexandria Castro Cortez.

Does this mean in today’s law, threatening the life of a member of congress is not a crime or at least a menacing charge???? Please.

Until the Trade Center Horror in 2001, this nation had not experienced anything on that national scale of reaction to an event.(With the exceptions of the Detroit riots in 1967 and anti-Viet Nam War protests.)

Were we a more sensitive nation then? More sensitive to what killing actually is? I wonder. In the fast-moving sensationalism of news ambulance and shootings chasers today, would the same sensitivity be there today? No. And it’s not!

Or, have we been hardened to violence, and do we now see violence as more of an acceptable solution to problems than to be avoided at all costs? Yes, we do. And we have an an ex-“president” who came out supporting a vigilante teen with an AK-47 who gunned down unarmed people in Kenosha Wiconsin as protecting himself. That takes my breath away. And whose Ak-47 was it? His? His parents? Very key question.

It seems so. With disgruntled, overly sensitive misfits just taking guns and shooting innocent people and they get acquitted on self-defense?

I remember how Americans sat mesmerized in front of their televisions as the Kennedy goodbye played out.

I remember, too how Kennedy’s death swiftly paved the way for the landmark Civil Rights act of 1965, legislated by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. That legislation, without Kennedy’s assassination would probably never have been passed. I believe it passed because of collective guilt over Kennedy’s demise.

For 58 years, politicians, when their charisma is measured, have always been compared to Mr. Kennedy.

However, charisma does not get things done any more and it has lost its lustre as being a good thing.

Charisma and popularity does not make for change by itself.

The last four years we have seen the downside of charisma without compassion and thought.

It is nice but it achieves nothing unless you have some good solid ideas, management skills, and are willing to work hard for it. And compromise for the greater good. There are not people in congress both houses, who do that today.

Even, then, as a recent Kennedyesque President, with a license to use charisma, Barack Obama found out, it may not happen.

However, the political rancor and hysterical hatred of our President  Obama that was expressed in the Republican debates, on talk radio and by candidates who should know better back in 2016, created an atmosphere of disrespect for then President Obama and the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton exceeded even that aimed at George W. Bush.

The lack of respect for President Biden today and hatred of Democrats has created an atmosphere that is far more dangerous for the President and the country  than we can ever tell.

Mr. Trump, the former “president” polarized the nation into two warring camps with unprecedented name-calling, purely nasty, hurtful policies towards minorities and immigrants, bragging about the right to molest women, and supporting womanizers in his administration, and planned takeaways of health care, and blatant giveaways to robber barons on poshly appointed carpatted crags in concrete canyons reminiscent of the cruel British aristocracies.

The toxicity against the Presidents, both Obama, President Trump (though much is of Mr. Trump’s own immaturity and inability to manage) and now the pathological vilification of President Biden has been inflamed

Mr. Trump’s whining about the election being rigged is reckless and immature. Poor Little Rich Boy’as whining. No presidential candidate has ever acted this way before. But people bought it. They stormed the capitol with Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign in the last 14 days of the worst American Presidency ever.

Mr. Trump is a winner again from above to stealing a solid grip on the title of “Worst American President” from Richard Nixon, Andrew Johnson, both George Bushes, and Bill Clinton.

The job of the nation is to make sure they do not bring Mr. Trump to finish wrecking the nation in 2024.

Al Gore when he lost the 2000 election did not, to my memory come out and call for revolution.

Mitt Romney’s petulance in 2012 at his defeat by President Obama started a tradition of losing ungracefully.

Voters saw right through this Mitt “Guy Smiley” of a candidate they in their guts knew the phony he was. Voters were not as astute in 2016.

Romney’s comments to his donors, were echoed by  Michael Steele’s statement about Emperor Obama and his “reign of lawlessness” is exactly the sort of talk that paved the way for the Republican campaign of hatred in 2016. It was irresponsible of Romney and Steele.

A losing Presidential candidate has one job, unite behind the new leader. Romney is the only President in my memory ever to have not — until the Little Rich Boy with the forked tongue.

The Republicans’ inability to compromise has stalled the nation on recovery, immigration, health care…you name the issue, the Republican Party has stalled progress in their frantic effort to roll back the clock to the turn of the 20th century. (1899-1900) when white and rich were right. Robber barons, oil tycoons, industrialists, bankers, ruled the roost.–until the great Teddy Roosevelt broke up Standard oil, forced the banks to support the economy and supported the union movement.

Now we have a misguided America think that the rich will help them thanks to the self-rights movement.

We should always remember The Republicans’ whining. Bullies always whine. Fixers always are sore losers.

Ideas and rhetoric are one thing, but to vilify President Obama on the scale of what we heard in 2016 was irresponsible. Because it was listened to by persons across the country who suddenly got the “OK” from Republican candidates and “leaders” that it was ok to hate, to blame America’s problems on immigrants, and trade policies, and ignore science.

When educated leaders in congress endorse the policies of hate and punishment people can be OK with that? Leaders are giving people license to hate and hurt, discriminate, exploit, kill and build up themselves at the expense of others.

5 years ago the American people elected a President who did just that. Just that.

So when you sit down to turkey Thursday give a thought to be thankful for a nation that once did not rise up in arms whenever a leader is elected that a portion of the populace does not like. (Yet and yet, many did on January 6 this year, at the urging of that “president.”)

Be thankful that the American people once spoke and felt as one, and hopefully will learn to do so again even though we disagree.

I hope so.

They must.

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STATEMENT FROM KYLE BRAGG ON THE KYLE RITTENHOUSE VERDICT

“This isn’t justice, this is just racism. 
 
“Once again, our two-tiered justice system shows its ugly face.

It’s sickening that a seventeen year old who killed two people is being lionized as some hero by those who are comforted by the status quo and who wield power through systems of white supremacy.

What’s most concerning is that this ruling represents a frightening future – a world where white vigilantes can act with impunity, put others in danger, and then shoot to kill, while claiming self-defense from threats they caused themselves.

We cannot become a country where people are encouraged to resort to violence to resolve political disputes.

We cannot allow our society to fall to a place where we see Kyle Rittenhouse copycats – be it in the streets or in the halls of power. 
 
“I extend my deepest condolences to – yes – the victims of Kyle Rittenhouse and their families. And let us keep up the fight for them and all Americans who, no matter their skin color, or religion, or beliefs, deserve full justice under the law.”

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“Getting the booster is a critical way to protect ourselves and our loved ones that goes hand in hand with washing our hands and wearing a mask,” Governor Hochul said. “80 percent of New York’s adults are vaccinated, but COVID-19 is surging in regions with lower vaccination rates. If you remain unvaccinated, get vaccinated. Get your children vaccinated. If you’ve had your vaccination, get your booster. Take every precaution necessary to keep your community safe as we head into the holiday season.”

 
Today’s data is summarized briefly below:

·         Test Results Reported – 207,467

·         Total Positive – 7,558
·         Percent Positive – 3.64%

·         7-Day Average Percent Positive – 3.68%
·         Patient Hospitalization – 2,164 (+24)
·         Patients Newly Admitted – 351
·         Patients in ICU – 424 (+4)
·         Patients in ICU with Intubation – 219 (+4)
·         Total Discharges – 212,602 (+305)
·         New deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS – 33
·         Total deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS – 46,165

The Health Electronic Response Data System is a NYS DOH data source that collects confirmed daily death data as reported by hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities only.
·         Total deaths reported to and compiled by the CDC – 58,789
This daily COVID-19 provisional death certificate data reported by NYS DOH and NYC to the CDC includes those who died in any location, including hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, at home, in hospice and other settings.
·         Total vaccine doses administered – 28,868,533
·         Total vaccine doses administered over past 24 hours – 129,085
·         Total vaccine doses administered over past 7 days – 689,644
·         Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose – 85.2%
·         Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series – 77.8%
·         Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) – 89.5%
·         Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series (CDC) – 80.1%
·         Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose – 73.2%
·         Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series – 65.9%
·         Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) – 76.5%
·         Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series (CDC) – 67.8%

 Each region’s 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:  

 
Each New York City borough’s 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:  

 
Yesterday, 7,558 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 in New York State, bringing the total to 2,633,987. A geographic breakdown is as follows:  

 
Yesterday, 33 New Yorkers died due to COVID-19, bringing the total compiled through HERDS to 46,165. A geographic breakdown is as follows, by county of residence:  

 
All New York State mass vaccination sites are open to eligible New Yorkers aged 12 years and older for walk-in vaccination on a first-come, first-serve basis, with 10 sites open to eligible New Yorkers aged 5 and older. People who would prefer to schedule an appointment at a state-run mass vaccination site can do so on the Am I Eligible App or by calling 1-833-NYS-4-VAX. People may also contact their local health department, pharmacy, doctor or hospital to schedule appointments where vaccines are available, or visit vaccines.gov to find information on vaccine appointments near them.

New Yorkers looking to schedule vaccine appointments for 5-11-year-old children are encouraged to contact their child’s pediatrician, family physician, county health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), rural health centers, or pharmacies that may be administering the vaccine for this age group. Parents and guardians can visit vaccines.gov, text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby locations. Make sure that the provider offers the Pfizer-BioNTechCOVID-19 vaccine, as the other COVID-19 vaccines are not yet authorized for this age group.

Visit our new website for parents and guardians for new information, frequently asked questions and answers, and resources specifically designed for parents and guardians of this age group. 

Yesterday, 32,889 New Yorkers received their first vaccine dose, and 12,373 completed their vaccine series. A geographic breakdown of New Yorkers who have been vaccinated by region is as follows: 

The COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker Dashboard is available to update New Yorkers on the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. The New York State Department of Health requires vaccinating facilities to report all COVID-19 vaccine administration data within 24 hours; the vaccine administration data on the dashboard is updated daily to reflect the most up-to-date metrics in the state’s vaccination effort. New York State Department of Health-reported data from NYSIIS and CIR differs slightly from federally-reported data, which is inclusive of federally-administered doses and other minor differences. Both numbers are included in the release above. 

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FOLLOW-UP: DR. RICCA TOLD WPCNR THIS AFTERNOON MORE OPPORTUNTIIES FOR WHITE PLAINS 5-12’s TO BE VACCINATED ARE COMING UP. DR. RICCA SAID:

“Yes, there is a great deal of parent/guardian request for vaccination opportunity. Those that are not interested need not participate. While we don’t know what the ultimate percentage will be, we continue to see high interest in the opportunities. Another one will be forthcoming on Saturday, November 27^th (it’s not been announced yet.)“