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.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. From the New York State Education Department. August 16, 2021:

The New York State Education Department Commissioner, Betty Rosa in a memorandum last week announced with the Health Department of New York State turning over school opening policy to individual school districts, that the State Education Department would take over that responsibiliy. Here is the Commissioner’s announcement:

Dear Parents and Families,

As we continue to confront the unique challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is committed to the health and safety of students, educators, families, and communities. This week, NYSED issued a Health and Safety Guide to aid schools and districts as they prepare for the 2021-2022 school year. The guide is a result of close collaboration with a wide variety of stakeholders at the local, state, and national levels to enable New York’s schools to continue to safely educate their students this fall. The guide is available on NYSED’s Back to School web page. The overall goals for the 2021-2022 school year are to keep students and staff healthy and safe, be responsive to student needs, and maximize in-person teaching and learning. The guide describes important considerations and strategies for schools and districts to manage the risks for students and staff from COVID-19 while supporting robust and engaging learning experiences for students. We are proceeding with the understanding that the recommendations put forth in this guide are based on the best health and safety information available to us at this time. As the start of the school year grows nearer and then gets underway, NYSED will be mindful of the many uncertainties faced statewide. We will continuously monitor the situation, and the guide will be updated as public health conditions change. To help ease the burden on schools and districts, federal funding is available to support a safe return to school. The U.S. Department of Education recently announced its approval of New York’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) State Plan and released the remaining $3 billion of New York’s $8.9 billion total ARP ESSER funds. The funds will be used to help meet the vast array of additional needs brought about by COVID-19, including the safe opening and operation of schools this September. With input from stakeholders, we have developed a plan to best disperse these funds to benefit all students. In addition, NYSED recently announced that more than $6.2 million in federal funds are available to help libraries and other cultural institutions across the state address the digital divide, increase access to the state’s cultural history, and expand student access to digital learning materials. These funds will support collaborative efforts to find real and sustainable solutions to address the digital divide in New York State. This significant investment represents meaningful progress in achieving our vision of digital equity and inclusion for students and families. Our libraries will continue to develop bold, creative, and critical ways to serve communities. The State Library, State Museum, and State Archives will also use $700,000 to improve and expand access to the Office of Cultural Education’s services for all New Yorkers through a range of collaborative initiatives. These initiatives include: supporting the implementation of collaborative digital inclusion solutions statewide; conducting a broadband infrastructure needs assessment for New York’s small and rural public libraries; creating a diversity, equity, and inclusion framework and toolkit for libraries, museums, and cultural institutions; making core collections from the State Library, State Archives, and State Museum available online for increased public access; developing collaborative online Museum exhibits; and expanding New York’s online summer reading program tools. I appreciate all you do to support your schools and communities. Please continue to check our COVID-19 web page, our Back to School web page, and our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) frequently for all the latest updates. Sincerely, Betty A. Rosa Commissioner

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Writing on Twitter, Robert Astorino, seeking Republican Candidacy for NY Governor in 2022, charged on his Twitter account Friday that at least two days of arrivals of illegal immigrants have been flown into Westchester County Airport for resettlement:

“Hundreds of undocumented immigrants from crisis at southern border flown into Westchester Co. Airport each of last several nights. Why was this a secret? Where are they being resettled? Who is paying? Have they been tested for COVID?”

Christine Sculti, Republican Candidate for Westchester County Executive this fall issued this statement on the matter late Sunday night:

Social media has been abuzz with reports that plane loads of undocumented immigrants from the southern border have been flown into Westchester County Airport – a county facility – on multiple occasions, all in the dead of the night and all without the community being notified.

Westchester residents are demanding transparency from their leaders and rightly asking, what did George Latimer know and when did he know it?

Today,(Sunday) George Latimer finally admitted that he was notified at least two days ago that the federal government would begin flying persons who entered the United States illegally into Westchester County Airport.  Latimer only admitted to having received advance notice when pressed by an eruption of reports on social media that this was happening.

George Latimer’s preposterous claim that he only knew about the flights for 48 hours is completely implausible and defies common sense.  Worse are his attempts to claim the valid concerns of residents are driven by ideology and politics.  Our concerns are driven by public safety and public health.  While I am not privy to all of the details that the County Executive has, and I do not claim to have all the facts, I am requesting answers to the following questions:

1)      How is it possible that you are unaware and uninformed of what is going on in your own airport that you are in charge of?

2)      Would the federal government have chosen Westchester as a destination had George Latimer not made Westchester a Sanctuary County?

3)      Were any non-Sanctuary jurisdictions included in this program?

4)      If it is indeed true that you knew about the flights for “only” 48 hours, why did you choose not to notify Westchester residents?

5)      What questions did you pose to the federal government upon being informed?

6)      Would you have ever notified Westchester residents had social media not exploded with the reports?

7)      How many flights, containing how many passengers, have flown into your county airport without you knowing anything about it?

8)      Are there any future flights scheduled?

9)      What is the vaccination status of the passengers?

10)   Did your Westchester County Department of Health conduct Covid screenings on all arriving passengers?

11)   What precautions has your Westchester County Department of Health and airport officials taken with the incoming passengers, given that we are undergoing a spike in Covid cases and the Delta variant continues to spread?

12)   Do flight manifests exist, as we need to know if any of the passengers pose a safety risk for residents?

13)   Has your Westchester County Department of Public Safety done background checks on all incoming passengers to be aware of possible criminal backgrounds?

14)   Do you support these flights – filled with passengers who are very likely unvaccinated – coming into your airport?

15)   Do you want the passengers placed in our communities and in our schools, regardless of criminal records or vaccination status?

Westchester residents deserve reassurances from their county and federal governments as to the immunization status and screening for criminal pasts of these individuals.  We are also entitled to know which communities will be responsible for supporting them while the immigration administrative and judicial processes unfold. 

A pandemic is not the time for experiments in social engineering promoted by the radical left through Sanctuary jurisdictions like Westchester.  Westchester residents deserve transparency and have a right to answers to all of these questions – and more.  The time has come for George Latimer to be held accountable to his residents.”

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS MONITOR. From the NY Workbook Covid-19 Tracker with comment by John F. Bailey.:

The New York Workbook Covid-Tracker reported a slow down in covid postives the last three days Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, reporting 228 infections Wednesday, a 2.9% infection rate of 7,779 Tests conducted Wednesday; a total of 202 new covid infections Thursday (2.8 % infections of 7,313 tested in the county, and on Friday the number of new infections dropped below 200 new persons infected a day with 186 testing positive (2.4% of 7,630 tested).

The three combined daily totals for August 11, 12 and 13 reflect the new infections though slowly slowing at 616 cases the last three days, which could mean in 14 days 4,312 new infections in Westchester in addition to the potential 8.407 new cases theat may result from the 1,201 infections from Wednesday August 4 to Wednesday August 11.

Westchester will be dealing with 12,700 new cases by September 1 as school and holidays open up if the predicted County spread rate per new infectee turns out to be correct

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS BULLETIN. News and Comment From New York State Covid Tracker. By John F. Bailey August 12, 2021:

Yesterday Westchester County tested  7,779 residents for Covid and saw new infections climb from 215 Tuesday to 228 yesterday.

The infection rate yesterday declined which is a false positive,  because the tested number was higher, but at this rate, the infections the last 7 days  from August 4 through yesterday August 11 will create a super spreader disaster Labor Day Week.

Here’s the math.

In 14 days (approximately August 25 just a week before the next big summer weekend and subsequent religious holidays), the 1,420 new infections during the last week, each will infect 7 others or have already been infecting others up until the day they tested positive.

This new Delta variant and covid-19 combination 1-2 Covid wave  created by the “it’s over” attitude of the July 4^th weekend is turning into a viral tsunami.

That’s what the exponential numbers of spread dynamics tells me.

Hitting a consistent over 200  new infections each day the 228 tested positive yesterday will pass the variant or the covid 19 to 7 other persons. By August 25—14 days 1,596 new infections could appear from the contacts made by the 228 August 11 positives alone for covid until yesterday.

If you take into account all 1,420 new infections in Westchester the last 7 days aggregate of them could produce 10,000 new infections by August 25 to September 1. They will have without knowing it already will have spread disease wherever they have gone or whomever they were with—brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, friends, acquaintances for two weeks not knowing they themselves were sick and carriers of this deadly of all plagues ever.

The decisions as to what to do have to made now.

The decisions about safe opening of schools have to be made now as New Jersey’s Governor did Monday.

New York’s Health Commissioner has said it is up to the schools how they open: No oversight, no analysis by the state

The decisions cannot be what people want or consider convenient or “normal.”

The decisions cannot be decided in general consensus in town meetings, town halls or listening opportunities to gather what people think we should do.

The last time we were spreading infections in Westchester at 10,000 a week or even close to it  was on January 1, 2021 when Westchester had 1,000 positives on a New Year’s week.

That takes my breath away.

Because if every positive now out there has interacted with 7 people, what the unfortunate 1,420 will generate the last 7 days may generate 9,996 new positives.

I truly hope I am wrong but that is just the simple, very hard uncompromising math.