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)
WPCNR CORONAVIRUS 6 MONTH UPDATE. (ADDITIONAL LOCAL INFO ADDED 2:50 PM EDT ) August 17, 2020:
Governor Cuomo stressed today New York is opening schools but that is “how” schools reopen that must be addressed with parents and teachers. Without their cooperation and buying into to school district plans, if they keep children home and teachers are not confident of their safety and stay home “you have no schools,” the governor said.
Here is a clip from the governor’s statements today about the school reopenings:
GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO NEWS CONFERENCE THIS MORNING ON THE SCHOOLS
He outlined how gyms can reopen. He sharply criticized cities and towns across the state for not enforcing restaurant and bar rules stating 66 violations were issued across the state.
MICHELLE SCHOENFELD of the White Plains City School District told WPCNR the White Plains has already had the first of three such meetings last Friday and plans on two more.
The second such forum is tomorrow Tuesday with links and time to come. She said the third and final will take place Friday. (Time and link to come). The district calls these meetings “Virtual Community Forums on Zoom.”
He reported yesterday the state infection rate dropped to to
point 7 %, the lowest it has been since the covid epidemic began in the state. “New
Yorkers did what couldn’t be done.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer issued the following statement on the Con Edison performance in response to Tropical Storm Isaiaa power outages in Westchester County Friday.
“Con Edison’s performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias was grossly deficient. The Governor, the New York State Public Service Commission, elected officials of both parties at every level and the customers themselves all recognize that failure.
Con Ed was simply not ready- a repeat of March 2018 – to provide the necessary manpower to cut and clear wires and to restore power in a timely fashion.
It cannot be acceptable to take a week or more to fully restore power, and in this case, from a storm that was not of the magnitude of Hurricane Irene or Superstorm Sandy.
This tells us the utility is simply not staffed up to handle storms; it tells us the profitability of the company is based on carrying staff insufficient to handle any significant weather incident.
“Westchester residents have time and again been underserved precisely in the moment when they most need that service. They need and deserve a service provider that outs service to the public ahead of any other consideration.
“Now, it is up to the State to use its regulatory authority to right this wrong, and mandate that the utility provide sufficient manpower and equipment that can, during the next hurricane, bring speedy relief to Westchester residents.”
WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2020. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators. August 16, 2020:
Expanded early voting hours; a multimedia campaign to encourage early voting; multi-lingual video instructions for how to vote absentee; changes in procedures to increase the number of available workers; drop boxes for returning absentee ballots; necessary voting equipment; and information-sharing partnerships with community organizations — these are just some of the recommendations for improving voting this November contained in a newly issued report from the Board of Legislators’ Election Information Gathering Task Force.
The Task Force was created by Board Chairman Ben Boykin in response to voting challenges that emerged during the June 23 primary elections.
The Task Force is co-chaired by Legislators Catherine Borgia and Vedat Gashi. The other Task Force members are Vice Chair Alfreda Williams and Majority Leader MaryJane Shimsky. The Task Force gathered information from more than 100 public comments and committee meetings with voter advocates and the Westchester County Board of Elections Commissioners.
The 21-page report details some of the things that went right and some of the things that went wrong during the June primaries, as election officials dealt with unprecedented events relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Challenges included multiple State changes to deadlines and absentee voting procedures, difficulty in recruiting and training poll workers, and changes in the availability of many regularly used polling locations.
Other recommendations in the report include technology investments to help streamline opening and recording of mailed ballots and improvements to the Board of Elections website.
Taskforce Co-Chair Catherine Borgia said, “The Board of Elections faced an extremely difficult set of circumstances in June because of COVID. We have to assume the situation will be similar this fall, but voter turnout will be much higher. Although the Board of Elections has the sole power and responsibility over the conduct of elections, we hope the information and recommendations we’ve assembled will be helpful to the BOE. The Board of Legislators stands ready to be a partner to the BOE in making sure voters in Westchester have the greatest possible access this fall.”
Taskforce Co-Chair Vedat Gashi said, “The impact of the pandemic on the June primaries was something no one could have been fully prepared for. However, we still have more than 10 weeks before early voting begins in the general election and the experiences of the June primaries to learn from. This report pulls together what we’ve learned since June and I hope the information and recommendations will be valuable to the Board of Elections going forward.”
WPCNR MEDIA GO-ROUND. From Paul Feiner, Town Supervisor of Greenburgh NY, USA:
Dr. Ed Zuckerberg, father of Facebook’s Mark and Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark speak to Greenburgh Summer student interns
Randi: “Be nice to your brother-you never know if he’ll become a billionaire and hire you.”
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, grew up in the village of Dobbs Ferry (part of Greenburgh). His father, Dr. Ed Zuckerberg was a well respected Dentist in the community. His sister, Randi, was asked by her brother to serve as DIrector of Market Development and spokesperson for Facebook during Facebook’s early years. Ed Zuckerberg and his daughter, Randi, spent almost an hour and forty minutes this past week talking with Greenburgh summer interns.
Dr. Zuckerberg spends the initial portion of the discussion talking about how his children his grew up with technology and were exposed to computers early on. Dr. Zuckerberg’s fascination with technology and computers probably enriched Mark’s interest in computers, programming, messaging. Some call Dr. Zuckerberg “the father of Facebook.”
Randi Zuckerberg talks to the student interns about being the sister of the founder of Facebook. “Be nice to your brother. You never know if he’ll become a billionaire and hire you.” Randi talks about her career in marketing, Broadway- performer and producer (she won a Tony award for producing Hadestown) and also invited Greenburgh students to apply for an exciting opportunity with the Zuckerberg Institute.
The Zuckerberg Institute mentors high school students with exciting visions, helps them become innovators who are ready to change the world. The program teaches students secrets and concepts that have helped entrepreneurs build billion dollar corporations and global initiatives. Town Clerk Judith Beville and I will be speaking with the leadership of the Zuckerberg Institute this week and look forward to partnering with them–providing Greenburgh youth with the chance to become great successes in life.
The 2020 Greenburgh summer internship program is a program organized by Town Clerk Judith Beville, Town Attorney Tim Lewis, Commissioner of Planning Garrett Duquesne and myself. Other nationally known speakers this summer included Hillary Clinton, former United States Secretary of State, First Lady and Senator and David Kaplan, previously with Newsweek and author of NY Times Best Seller: “The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court’s Assault on the Constitution” and Barrett Seaman, former TIME Magazine Correspondent and White House Correspondent. Mr. Seaman is currently with the Hudson Independent. Other officials and community leaders also spoke to the students. The students produced a number of public service announcements during the summer dealing the pedestrian safety, racism, COVID/need to wear masks, the need to participate in the census and much more.
