New Paid Sick Leave Rules Go into Effect Citywide

Businesses in the city with five or more employees must now provide workers with at least five paid sick days as part of a new bill recently approved by the City Council that supporters say is a victory for workers rights. NY1′s Rocco Vertuccio filed the following report.

The morning rush for java at Dandy Espresso on Madison Avenue was a busy one Tuesday. Owner Albert Wu opened up in February and says the cold winter made it a tough go at first.

“The bad weather definitely prevented a lot of people from coming and noticing that we were here,” Wu said.

Just as things are picking up, Wu’s place is one of those impacted by the new paid sick leave law, approved by the City Council in February and signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio last month. It lets an estimated half million additional workers start building up time toward up to five paid sick days a year.

Wu employs seven people, and says while the plan is well intentioned, he doesn’t see it working in a city where small businesses face sky high operating costs.

“It’s definitely going to be more paperwork for me and my manager and it’s going to be more time invested into the store in terms of working hours for us and also we are going to have to be paying for employees that are on a sick day while we are working their shifts,” Wu said.

For employees like chef and assistant manager Juan Vital, the new rules have more of an upside. He is a a husband and father of two children.

“Before I used to think about it: If I’m going to get sick, and I’m not going to show up to work, I am get fired or I’m not going to get that extra money. Now there is going to be something better,” Vital said.

However, Vital admits this could be a burden on his boss. Manager Dave Hinckley agrees that the plan is good for employees but wonders how it will affect their bottom line.

“I came from a family where you work for everything so it’s expected if you don’t work you don’t get paid. That’s the way I was brought up,” Hinckley said.

Despite his doubts about the law’s effectiveness, Wu still says he is going to comply with it 100 percent.

“The only thing we can so is hope for the best. And that’s it,” Wu said.

Impacted businesses have six penalty-free months to adhere to the guidelines. Meanwhile, the city and business groups are reaching out to spread the word about the new law.

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Port Authority looks to build bus terminal addition

The Port Authority wants to build a huge addition to its Hell’s Kitchen bus terminal, a plan that would make life easier for bus commuters and people who have to navigate the streets near the existing facility.

The new terminal – called the Galvin Plaza Bus Annex – would be built on an empty lot the authority already owns on West 39th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, DNAinfo reported.

The PA has applied for a federal grant to pay for $ 230 million of the $ 400 million expansion, which would speed up service for the thousands of bus commuters who use the terminal every day.

The addition would be connected to both the Lincoln Tunnel and the main PA terminal, which would take scores of buses off clogged streets in the neighborhood.

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Man punches woman for skipping drive-thru line

U.S

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 8:18 AM

He’s not lovin’ it!

This senior driver got serious McRoad Rage when a woman skipped the drive-thru line for food.

Howard Carl Wilson was allegedly caught on camera punching the passenger of the impatient car in the face.

Cops claim the 68-year-old freaked out after the vehicle drove around his truck at a Winter Haven, Fla., McDonald’s at 11:20 p.m. Saturday night.

Thinking he was being cut up, Wilson got out to confront the vehicle’s occupants.

Opening up the passenger door, he allegedly started yelling racial slurs and curse words at Brittani Thomas.

And at one point, footage purportedly shows him punching her through the open window.

Winter Haven Police Dept. Howard Carl Wilson, of Winter Haven, Fla., admitted to getting into a confrontation with a female passenger in another car at a McDonald’s drive-thru. WPTV Video recorded by a third customer shows Wilson standing at the open door on Brittani Thomas’ side of the vehicle. WPTV Wilson allegedly punched Thomas because the vehicle she was riding in cut in front of his at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

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The person filming the altercation recorded Wilson’s license plate and contacted cops, reports WPTV.

Officers turned up at his home and Wilson initially claimed he was only out and at the car for 15 seconds.

But when showed the clip, he admitted the situation was much more than he’d recalled and that he felt “It was like a road rage incident.”

Wilson was arrested and charged with simple battery. Booked at the Polk County Jail, he was released soon after.

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Lawmakers Hold Hearing on Sandy Rebuilding Program

This past weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled his team to head up Hurricane Sandy recovery, and on Monday, a key initiative in the city’s rebuilding plan was ripped apart by the City Council, though the mayor’s new housing recovery chief is promising changes. NY1′s Courtney Gross filed the following report.

It was a tough first day on the job for the city’s new housing recovery czar. As she was sitting in the front row of a City Council hearing, a few feet away, Hurricane Sandy victims slammed her new office’s slow response.

“Not one homeowner received benefits from Build it Back as it stands today,” said David Winn of the Seagirt Civic Association.

“Build it Back has been a total disaster,” said one resident.

Amy Peterson was just appointed on Saturday by Mayor Bill de Blasio. She faces one of the biggest challenges in the city’s recovery from Hurricane Sandy: making Build it Back actually work.

“There’s a number of things,” she said. “The one is cutting the red tape. The steps have already started with that, and we’re going to continue with that.”

Build it Back is a city program for Hurricane Sandy-affected homeowners to get repairs, rebuild devastated homes or get reimbursed for work already done. It has been drowning in delays.

“In short, while some of these delays were the result of complex federal requirements, some were self-inflicted. Mistakes were made,” Peterson said.

It’s been 10 months since Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched the program. Just three homeowners have received reimbursement checks.

“A hundred thousand was sent out last week, and we expect, we have about 800,000 committed,” Peterson said.

Just six homes are under construction. The city is churning through 22,000 applications.

“The fact that consultants are getting paid faster than property owners and residents is really unacceptable,” said City Councilman Mark Treyger of Brooklyn.

“$ 1.4 billion going to Build it Back, 70 people staff, March 31, two days on the job, one house being built in the Rockaways. Completely unacceptable,” said City Councilman Eric Ulrich of Queens.

City officials say that the program is still $ 1 billion short, which means that some New Yorkers with higher incomes may never get their repairs through Build it Back. Officials are hopeful that they will receive more cash from Washington.

As for now, there is no concrete timeline for when these repairs will be completed.

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Unstable Structure Forces Evacuation of Gala for Theater Company

A gala for a theater company took a dramatic turn in Manhattan Monday when the building had to be evacuated.

The company was having its annual gala in an event space on the Lower East Side Monday when the balcony and support beams buckled and cracked.

The New York City Fire Department cleared the building, evacuating almost 500 people.

The Department of Buildings inspected and placed an order to vacate.

No one was injured.

“We heard a horrible crack and some shouts, and then everything changed suddenly,” said Sam Pinkleton, the event’s director.

“It could’ve been a lot of serious injuries,” said Deputy Chief Jim Hodgens of the FDNY. “We were very fortunate that we were on the scene. We investigated, and again, a potential disaster was averted.”

“The most important thing, obviously, is that the fire department did what they had to do, got people out and everybody’s safe,” said Cynthia Flowers, executive director of SoHo Rep. “But it’s just disappointing for us because it’s such an important night for us and such a celebration for the company.

SoHo Rep, which was hosting the event, continued part of the gala outside.

The group said it will try to hold the fundraiser again.

It wants to raise $ 250,000.

The building, a former synagogue, dates from the 1840s.

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More charges expected against beautician in butt-slay case

Manhattan prosecutors are expected to bring more charges Tuesday against an unlicensed beautician accused of killing a client with an illegal buttocks injection now that new victims have come forward, sources said.

Tamira Mobley, 28, is charged with manslaughter and felony assault for pumping silicone into Tamara Blaine’s rear end at the hourly rate Liberty Inn Hotel last summer.

At least two more victims claim they sustained injuries after paying the phony cosmetologist discounted rates for aesthetic procedures, according to a source close to the investigation.

Prosecutors are also expected to ask Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber to increase Mobley’s bail in light of the new charges, the sources said.

She was sprung from jail March 28 after her family posted $ 100,000 bond, court records state.

Mobley met Blaine, a single mom from Queens, at the Meatpacking District hotel in July.

Blaine lost consciousness after the injection and appeared to suffer a seizure before she died, authorities said.

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EXCLUSIVE: Father-son work as cops at NYPD’s 109th Precinct

Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News Father-and-son NYPD Officers Leo and Justin Charbrut now work together out of the 109th Precinct in Flushing, Queens.

It’s a family business at the 109th Precinct.

Officer Leo Charbrut has spent most of his 31 years on the force at the Flushing command, and now his rookie son, Justin, also works there.

The elder Charbrut, 61, is the traffic safety officer and works the day shift. His contact with Justin, 27, who works patrol, is limited to the brief time when he’s packing up for the day and his son is arriving for the 4 p.m. to midnight shift.

Still, the two talk often – son asking dad for advice about his specialty, filling out accident reports and working to drive down vehicular and pedestrian deaths, dad asking his son computer-related questions.

“One hand washes the other,” the father says in his typically understated fashion.

The son, equally reserved, says he loves the job’s variety.

“Every day is enjoyable,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re going to encounter and that makes it more enjoyable.

Justin said he remembers visiting the precinct as a kid and asking his dad about his day at work, though Leo Charbrut said he made sure not to pressure his son to join the force.

“He chooses his own path,” Leo said. “He wanted to become a cop.”

Theoretically, a third Charbrut, Michael, 23, who has less than a year on the force and works overnight as an Operation Impact officer in a different Queens command, could wind up in the 109th Precinct.

Leo also has two daughters. One’s a nurse. But the other, Jessica, 14, has been talking about joining the club.

Capt. Tommy Ng, the precinct’s second-in-command, says the father, the most senior officer there, is an expert and what he does and his attention to detail is sure to rub off on Justin.

“It’s a pretty cool thing,” he said. “I’ve never seen it. I’ve seen a husband and wife, but never a father and son in the same command.”

The NYPD said such an arrangement is not unprecedented – and is not discouraged – so long as the family members work different shifts.

That’s a rule that appears to date to the 1973 ambush shooting of two brothers — officers Carlo and Vincent Imperato of the Brownsville’s 73rd Precinct — as they approached a car they suspected was about to be stolen.

Two gunman opened fire, striking Carlo in the shoulder and his brother in the arm.

Vincent Imperato managed to squeeze off two shots as Carlo drove their bullet-ridden patrol car to Brookdale Hospital.

Vincent, 73, lives on Staten Island, Carlo, 69, who lives in New Jersey, told the News he had asked his supervisors to let his brother work with him when he transferred into the precinct so he could show him the ropes in the tough neighborhood.

The shooting is never far from his thoughts, he said.

“We were just lucky, really,” he said. “It wasn’t our time to go. But I think often about it.

“It’s something you don’t forget.”

rparascandola@nydailynews.com

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