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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NEW YORK — Following the AP calling Mondaire Jones’ victory in NY-17, New York Working Families Party State Director Sochie Nnaemeka today issued the following statement:

“The progressive wins keep rolling in. Mondaire Jones’ decisive victory is yet another signal that New York’s multiracial progressive movement is growing — and here to stay. From the start, Mondaire unapologetically called for transformative policies that all Americans deserve: Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and tuition-free public college. Mondaire is a Black, openly gay man raised by a single mother on food stamps in public housing. He knows firsthand all of the ways that our systems are designed to fail poor and working class Black and brown Americans — and he’s therefore personally invested in transforming them.

“We were proud to stand with Mondaire on the campaign trail, and we look forward to supporting this Working Families Party champion as he brings his transformative vision to Washington. From protests to the polls, New Yorkers are making clear we refuse to settle for the status quo —we want bold, progressive leaders fighting for us in Congress.”

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WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. July 14, 2020: The following is a copy of the online petition referred to in the previous letter submitted to WPCNR which is being circulated to limit areas where 5G mirowave antennas can be installed in the city of White Plains. In March the city approved 5G tower installations in the downtown business area, but fiber optic cables are currently being installed at locations in the Highlands and at Ridgeway and North Street. Here is the petition presentation:

SIGN ON TO PETITION TO WHITE PLAINS MAYOR ROACH AND COMMON COUNCIL MEMBERS PETITION TO THE CITY OF WHITE PLAINS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO ENACT PROTECTIVE AMENDMENTS TO ITS WIRELESS CELL ANTENNA CODE REGARDING 5G WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATION FACILITIES IN RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS. PLEASE FILL OUT YOUR NAME, ADDRESS AND OTHER INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE.

PETITION

Dear Mayor Roach and Council Members Brasch, Hunt-Robinson, Kirkpatrick, Martin, Presser and Puja,

We, the undersigned, petition the City of White Plains to take urgent action to enact protective amendments to its wireless cell antenna code regarding 5G wireless telecommunication facilities in residential neighborhoods. It is imperative to act immediately in order “to promote the safety of life and property.”

We are neighbors from across White Plains. We are all seeking a safe place to live and a decent quality of life for ourselves, our children and our community.

It has come to our attention that the City of White Plains has made a decision to adopt a wireless cell antenna code (law) that is extremely weak on protections and gives free rein to the telecom industry in our City to install powerful 4G/5G wireless antennas in our residential neighborhoods, adjacent to our houses, apartments, schools and play areas.

These cell antennas would expose us, involuntarily, to constant wireless radiation, making our homes and schools and the entire City of White Plains unsafe and diminish our quality of life.

Your most fundamental responsibility as our elected officials is to protect our health and safety, and ensure that the municipality and its residents are appropriately protected. We urge you to take steps to immediately adopt a protective municipal code regarding wireless antennas, and explore every possible legal remedy to amend the recently approved franchise agreement with Verizon Wireless.

We also request the immediate reinstatement of Citizens to Be Heard sessions at all Common Council meetings. The recent elimination of this long held precedent, which can easily be accommodated for meetings held on Zoom, deprives residents of their lawful and constitutionally protected right to express their grievances face to face.

BACKGROUND FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WIRELESS RADIATION ***

Wherever implemented, the rollout of 4G/5G wireless technology requires a dense deployment of cell antennas in local residential neighborhoods on utility poles and lamp posts. There is a large body of peer reviewed science that shows significant biological effects from exposure to wireless radiation, including “clear evidence” of cancer, heart abnormalities, neurological, reproductive and cognitive damage. Our children, pregnant women, the elderly, individuals with implanted medical devices, cardiac and neurological problems are at greater risk from these exposures.

The telecom industry claims that their technology is safe. However, the sworn Senate testimony of the major telecom executives is that they have conducted “no research” on the health effects of 5G wireless technology, and have no plans to do so.

Moreover, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not updated its exposure standards since 1996, which only factor thermal effects but not other biological impacts. The agency continues to refuse to update their wireless radiation exposure standards to reflect the most current scientific research that include biological impacts, despite warnings from other branches of government and from hundreds of medical and public health professionals who have called for a moratorium on the 5G wireless technology rollout and for the FCC to develop rigorous standards for wireless devices and infrastructure.

Installing 4G/5G antennas is not required for public safety, national security or connectivity. Indeed, fiber optic to and through the premises, which telephone customers have financed for decades through rate increases and extra fees on their phone bills, is safer, faster, more secure, more energy efficient and less expensive than wireless connections. The City of White Plains has no business granting telecoms permission to install wireless antennas in our communities in the first place when the telecoms have failed to deliver the fiber optic broadband to and through every house, apartment, and office we consumers were promised and already paid for.

*** Index to the Digest on the Independent Science on the Effect of Wireless Radiation on Human Health
https://www.americansforresponsibletech.org/scientific-studies

*** Cell Towers, Antennas Problematic for Buyers, National Association of Realtors, July 25, 2014:
https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2014/07/25/cell-towers-antennas-problematic-for-buyers

KEY PROVISIONS THAT ARE NEEDED IN THE WHITE PLAINS CODE:

1. A provision to allow installation only in commercial and industrial zones not in or within 1000 feet of residential zones and mixed use zones.

2. A provision to establish an effective setback for installation in commercial and industrial zones with a 1000 foot setback from any of the following:
Residential zones, mixed use zones, schools, daycare facilities, medical
facilities, nursing homes, parks, playgrounds, sports facilities, houses of
worship.

3. A provision authorizing the Town to conduct random, unscheduled and
independent testing of any wireless antennas installation to ensure
compliance with the Federal Communications Commission’s radio frequency radiation guidelines for the general public, to be paid for by the applicant or corporate entity operating the antenna;

4. A provision requiring certification and documentation that any proposed
small cell installation(s) addresses an existing and significant gap in coverage in the service area;

5. A provision requiring photo simulations of the proposed installation(s) from the perspective of any property owner within 250 feet.

6. A provision that all property owners within 250 feet of any proposed
installation(s) have been notified of the filing of an application for a permit within five days of such filing, and that the application, including all related documents, shall be made available for public inspection and copying.

7. A provision requiring proof and documentation that the applicant and
corporate operator of any proposed small cell antenna have obtained
liability insurance which does not include a “pollution” exclusion.

THIS PETITION IS SPONSORED BY 5G ALERT WESTCHESTER.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT 5GAlertW@gmail.com

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE. From the Governor’s Office. July 13, 2020:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced new, data-driven guidance for reopening schools in New York State.

Schools in a region can reopen if that region is in Phase IV of reopening and if its daily infection rate remains below 5 percent or lower using a 14-day average since unPAUSE was lifted.

Schools will close if the regional infection rate rises above 9 percent, using a 7-day average, after August 1.

New York State will make the formula determination during the week of August 1 to 7.

New York State, the Reimagine Education Advisory Council and the Department of Health released finalized guidance and guiding principles for reopening schools today, which are available here.

The DOH and Governor’s Reimagine Council are working closely with the Department of Education as it releases education guidance. Plans to reopen schools are due on July 31.

Topics addressed by state guidance include:

• Masks/PPE
• Social Distancing
• Cohort Structures
• Restructuring Space to Maximize In-Class Instruction
• Transportation
• Food Service
• Aftercare and Extracurriculars
• Screening
• Tracing
• Cleaning and Disinfecting

Governor Cuomo also updated New Yorkers on the state’s progress during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

“Everybody wants to reopen schools, but you only reopen if it’s safe to reopen, and that’s determined by the data. You don’t hold your finger up and feel the wind, you don’t have an inspiration, you don’t have a dream, you don’t have an emotion–look at the data,” Governor Cuomo said.

 “We test more and we have more data than any state. If you have the virus under control, reopen. If you don’t have the virus under control, then you can’t reopen.

We’re not going to use our children as the litmus test and we’re not going to going to put our children in a place where their health is endangered. It’s that simple.

Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do, even in this crazy environment. We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.

What I say to the experts is very simple. I’m making the determination as to whether or not I would send my daughter to school. If it’s safe, I’ll send her. If it’s not safe, I’m not going to send her. And you can determine that by science.”

Today’s data is summarized briefly below:

• Patient Hospitalization – 792 (-9)
• Patients Newly Admitted – 60 (-15)
• Hospital Counties – 31
• Number ICU – 175 (+1)
• Number ICU with Intubation – 103 (+1)
• Total Discharges – 71,643 (+78)
• Deaths – 10
• Total Deaths – 24,989

Of the 51,687 tests conducted in New York State yesterday, 557, or 1.08 percent, were positive. Each region’s percentage of positive tests over the last three days is as follows:

REGION	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Capital Region	1.2%	2.0%	0.9%
Central New York	1.7%	1.1%	1.0%
Finger Lakes	1.0%	0.8%	1.0%
Long Island	1.0%	0.9%	1.5%
Mid-Hudson	0.8%	0.9%	0.8%
Mohawk Valley	0.9%	0.8%	0.8%
New York City	1.0%	1.3%	1.1%
North Country	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%
Southern Tier	1.5%	0.6%	0.9%
Western New York	1.9%	1.0%	1.1%

The Governor also confirmed 557 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 402,263 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 402,263 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County	Total Positive	New Positive
Albany	2,225	6
Allegany	66	0
Broome	827	7
Cattaraugus	138	0
Cayuga	126	0
Chautauqua	171	1
Chemung	148	0
Chenango	169	3
Clinton	109	0
Columbia	487	1
Cortland	59	1
Delaware	92	0
Dutchess	4,280	4
Erie	7,766	24
Essex	51	0
Franklin	36	0
Fulton	265	0
Genesee	250	0
Greene	266	0
Hamilton	6	0
Herkimer	193	1
Jefferson	99	2
Lewis	31	0
Livingston	147	0
Madison	375	1
Monroe	4,200	23
Montgomery	133	1
Nassau	42,354	47
Niagara	1,342	2
NYC	219,301	250
Oneida	1,830	7
Onondaga	3,142	18
Ontario	302	2
Orange	10,841	6
Orleans	287	0
Oswego	222	2
Otsego	89	0
Putnam	1,365	4
Rensselaer	617	1
Rockland	13,719	3
Saratoga	610	8
Schenectady	868	4
Schoharie	62	0
Schuyler	15	0
Seneca	74	0
St. Lawrence	231	1
Steuben	276	2
Suffolk	42,112	84
Sullivan	1,465	0
Tioga	161	0
Tompkins	186	0
Ulster	1,862	3
Warren	280	3
Washington	249	0
Wayne	209	4
Westchester	35,327	30
Wyoming	102	1
Yates	48	0

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE. From Governor Andrew Cuomo. July 13, 2020:

Governor Cuomo announced today with the Mayor of Atlanta, he is sending New York State Testing and Tracing Teams to aid Georgia in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Here is the text of the Governor’s announcement today:

Governor Cuomo: “Anything we can do for you, for the city, we stand ready. We remember how good the people across this country were to us. When we were in the midst of it, I asked for volunteers from across the United States: nurses, doctors to come help in our hospitals…The concept of paying it forward – whatever we can do on any level. We have people who have been through this and actually know and we stand ready. You’re right, keep going, stay strong. The facts will bear out. It’s about saving lives and you’re doing exactly the right thing.”

Cuomo: “We’ll put people who’ve done the testing for us and the contact tracing. We actually worked with Mike Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City. And because nobody knew what a contact tracing program was, and we worked with the former mayor who stepped up and brought Johns Hopkins to the table and we came up with a training program and a whole software program. So I’ll send a team down to Atlanta and they can work with your people and whatever we know and whatever we can share we will do.“

During a press briefing with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State will deploy testing and contact tracing teams to Atlanta as the city continues to experience an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

VIDEO of the Governor’s remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor’s remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

Governor Cuomo: Good morning, everyone. It’s our pleasure to be here this morning in New York City. To my left, we have Dr. James Malatras. He’s been working on, among other things, the school reopening plan. He’s here to talk to us about that today. To my right, Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor. To her right, Rick Cotton, who is the head of the Port Authority. He’s been doing an extraordinary job overall building LaGuardia Airport, first new airport in the United States in 25 years. Re-doing John F. Kennedy Airport. Then if that wasn’t enough, he had to deal with something called COVID, which obviously, impacted the airports. We are so lucky to have him and I want to thank him very much for everything he’s been doing.

This morning, we’re going to be joined by Mayor Bottoms, Mayor of Atlanta, she’s going to join us this morning.

Good morning, how are you, Mayor? I don’t know if we can hear her.

Mayor Bottoms, we’ve been watching you. We’re your neighbors to the North. We’ve been watching you and what you’ve been going through. First, I hope you’re feeling well and I hope your family is feeling well. On top of everything, you have to be dealing with the COVID virus yourself, then you have your hands more than full there. Not only with the COVID virus but the virus of racism and division and what was going on with Mr. Brooks. We just want to tell you, on behalf of New Yorkers, after what we’ve gone through that you are exactly right, Mayor; what you are saying and what you are advocating.

It is no longer a question of theory or a question of politics, we have facts. We have data. We went through it here in New York. We went through it in a worst case scenario. It is about following the data and following the science and taking the precautions and doing what’s right. It is about masks. Masks work. We can tell you that here in New York.

We had the worst spike per capita on the globe and we brought it down. Now you see these other states are going higher than New York. Those masks work. We were the first state to start mandatory masks April 15. All the science now says for sure masks make a big difference. One of the models last week, the IHME model, the Gates funded model that the White House uses, actually projected 40,000 more Americans will die if we don’t have a national mask policy. It’s clear.

We just wanted to tell you that we feel for you. We are all one. We are one community. I applaud your leadership. You really get to see what an elected official is made of when the pressure is on and you have more than risen to the occasion. You’ve been inspiring. They refer to you as a rising star and they are all correct. We are with you.

Anything we can do for you, for the city, we stand ready. We remember how good the people across this country were to us. When we were in the midst of it, I asked for volunteers from across the United States: nurses, doctors to come help in our hospitals. Thirty thousand people volunteered to come to New York in the midst of it and work in our hospitals. It was such an act of generosity and love that was really touching.

We are here for you. The concept of paying it forward – whatever we can do on any level. We have people who have been through this and actually know and we stand ready. You’re right, keep going, stay strong. The facts will bear out. It’s about saving lives and you’re doing exactly the right thing. The numbers are going to show that.

Thank you for taking some time to be with us today. Mayor?

Mayor Bottoms: At the beginning of this pandemic, my charge to my team was simple: God bless the child who’s got his own. I had no idea that we would have to go it alone in so many ways. I thought that it was more geared toward the lack of leadership we have at the federal level, but it has been equally challenging at the statewide level.

My family is an example of what’s happening across this country. We had an asymptomatic child in our home for eight days before we knew that that child was asymptomatic and by that time, my husband and I had contracted COVID. Unnecessarily I would imagine, because we would have taken precautions to protect ourselves.

Thankfully, by the grace of God, we don’t have underlying health conditions and we are all on the mend. My husband is feeling a lot better, but for so many people across this country that is not their story and their outcome is so very different.

In Atlanta, when we saw that we were in a very different place than the Governor’s leadership was taking us, we convened an advisory committee in our city compromised of health experts, small business owners, Fortune 500 representatives, college and universities – it’s just really a representation of our community. They made some very clear recommendations of where we needed to go with reopening with a phased approach.

We had made it into the second phase, but given where we are, I see that capacity is maxed out in some hospitals by the day we’re getting closer to maxing out. The numbers are ticking up. I look at the numbers daily. I have seen numbers that I have not seen since April. As of yesterday afternoon, we were up almost 23 percent over a week period of time. We’re headed in the wrong direction. So the city, we’ve recommended we go back to phase one, which is essentially a stay at home order. Also, we’ve instituted a mask mandate. The benefit of that is one – us taking a very clear position as a city that we recognize that wearing masks helps save lives, but also even in the world’s busiest airport – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – one of our largest job centers, we can also mandate masks there as well. And it’s very simple, unless we have a coordinated approach across this country we are going to continue to unnecessarily watch people die. And what makes it even more frustrating and even more disappointing, we didn’t have to look to Italy, we could look to New York, and you told us very clearly that if we didn’t do things differently in our cities and states we will find ourselves in the same situation that New York was facing, and unfortunately you were correct because throughout the south especially we are getting there in rapid order.

And so I thank you for your leadership. I know that as a city, in the same way New York was able to get to the other side, I know that we will get to the other side but it is going to take us taking responsibility for ourselves and taking actions that look at data and science and not just our opinions.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you very much, Mayor. And you’re right, the unfortunate and really frustrating point here is why did other states have to go through this? I mean, we knew what we were dealing with, New York went down the path before, we lived exactly this. Just learn from what New York did, learn from the numbers, learn from the data. And we knew that if you reopen recklessly the virus was going to take off again. If you’re not doing precautions the virus was going to take off. Now New York’s problem is we have the infection coming from other states back to New York. We’re worried about our infection rate going up because of people coming from other states where the infection rate is higher.

We have a cluster of cases in an upstate county called Rensselaer – people came up from Georgia, they had the virus and they infected New York and then it took off. So, you are on exactly the right track. Anything we can do to help, we’re at a stable period now, we have the virus way down low. We went from the worst infection rate in the country to the best infection rate, the lowest. So, we have a little breathing space here, anything we can do for you that you need, any help on the testing, setting up the testing and the tracing, that is so, so important. And we’ve been through that, so you have an open offer, whatever you need, but we’re also 100 percent behind you. And we wish you Godspeed in your health recovering and we hope that Atlanta under your guidance comes back quickly and anything we can do we stand ready

Mayor Bottoms: Thank you Governor, and that’s exactly what we need assistance with. Testing that gets people results very quickly, and also the contact tracing because we know that’s extremely important for us to help slow the spread. So I appreciate your offer to help and we certainly would be appreciative of that assistance.

Governor Cuomo: Well we can do that. We have, I’ll arrange it with your with your team, but we’ll put people who’ve done the testing for us and the contact tracing. We actually worked with Mike Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City. And because nobody knew what a contact tracing program was, and we worked with the former mayor who stepped up and brought Johns Hopkins to the table and we came up with a training program and a whole software program. So I’ll send a team down to Atlanta and they can work with your people and whatever we know and whatever we can share we will do.

In the meantime, send my regards to the former mayor there who I worked with, send my regards to all the people at the Centennial Park. When I was HUD secretary I did a lot of work in Atlanta, a lot of good work, I have a lot of fond memories. So send my regards to everyone. I’ll get that team together and they’ll come down to Atlanta as soon as it works for you. Thank you for being with us, Mayor.

Mayor Bottoms: Thank you so much Governor. I appreciate it.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you. My pleasure, thanks. Okay. Godspeed to the Mayor.