Kerry’s folly

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 4:00 AM

Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS Way off base.

Wednesday, not with a bang but a whimper, came the deadline of the Obama administration’s push for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

If anything can be salvaged from the wreckage of this ill-designed, naive, misbegotten adventure, it must begin with a profoundly humbled President and secretary of state.

If, that is, John Kerry lasts long enough in the job to correct course — having just undermined trust with an outrageous remark about Israel.

Kerry, who throughout the talks placed disproportionate pressure on the Jewish state without forcing the Palestinian side to make meaningful concessions in return, jumped the shark Monday by warning that Israel may well become “an apartheid state” if it fails to heed his counsel.

Meaning, according to the United States’ chief diplomat, the most open and democratic nation in that part of the world is this close to becoming a deserved global pariah.

Then came understandable outrage, and a predictable quasi-apology from Kerry about how he would choose a different word if he could “rewind the tape.”

Too late. Too damaging. Too revealing.

The question now is whether President Obama will step in to impose reason on his secretary.

He might want to remind Kerry of his own view of the subject in 2008: “Injecting a term like ‘apartheid’ into the discussion doesn’t advance” the goal of peace. “It’s emotionally loaded, historically inaccurate, and it’s not what I believe.”

NY Daily News- Top Stories

http://ift.tt/1iGT0Ta

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

New crossing guard for dangerous Queens intersection

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 2:00 AM

Farriella, Christie M,, Freelanc The city removed a crossing guard from the busy intersection at Horace Harding Expressway and Junction Blvd. years ago. But after some petitioning from the community, the NYPD will reinstate the safety help by early June.

Rego Park can cross this safety measure off its list.

The NYPD will finally reinstate a crossing guard at an unsafe Rego Park intersection near an elementary school as part of its “Vision Zero” plan, The News has learned.

“There’s simply no substitute for the direct, hands-on traffic control and help that a crossing guard provides,” said state Sen. Jose Peralta, who has been lobbying for help at Horace Harding Expressway and Junction Blvd. since 2012.

The intersection — the closest major crossway near Public School 206 — drew the ire of the school’s principal, who penned a letter in February seeking a review of the site.

The intersection saw 24 injuries between August 2011 and February 2014, according to Transportation Alternatives.

A spokesman from Peralta’s office said the new crossing guard would be hired by early June.

erosenberg@nydailynews.com

Yahoo Local News – New York Daily News

http://ift.tt/1hU39Xv

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

Reputed mobster ‘cannoli king’ sexually harassed waitress: suit

A Little Italy waitress is taking on a reputed soldier in the Gambino crime family, accusing him of trying to stuff more than cannolis at his famous eatery.

Angela Henderson, 27, says in a Manhattan federal court lawsuit that ex-boss John “Baby John” Delutro — known as the “Cannoli King” of Little Italy — sexually harassed her at his Caffe Palermo on Mulberry Street.

“She must be a tough broad to file a suit against Baby John,” quipped a law-enforcement source, noting that Delutro’s dad, Anthony “Tony West” Delutro, also was a reputed Gambino soldier.

“Like father, like son. They were the Mulberry Street Mafia — just very bad guys.”

John Delutro — who was imprisoned on narcotics raps in the 1980s by then-US Attorney Rudy Giuliani — demanded that Henderson go out with him and made rude comments to her, including that he “liked her ass,” according to the documents filed Tuesday.

“Delutro asked [Henderson] out on romantic dates on numerous occasions beginning soon after plaintiff began working” for him in February 2012, the papers state.

Henderson told Delutro, 59, that “not only was she not interested in his sexual advances but that she only wished to work in a peaceful environment,” the papers say.

Henderson also alleges that Delutro tried to work her to death at the restaurant — which caters to celeb clients such as Danny DeVito — while ripping her off.

He forced her to toil 11-hour shifts seven days a week for several months, with no overtime, the suit states.

He allegedly fired her in March, using her request to change her work schedule so she could attend school as an excuse.

Henderson, who lives in The Bronx, is seeking damages for unpaid wages, emotional distress and mental anguish.

Delutro, reached by The Post by phone Tuesday, said, “I fired her.”

“I can’t talk to you. You have to speak to my attorney,’’ he added.

When asked for his lawyer’s name, he hung up.

In 1984, Delutro was busted along with 19 other reputed wiseguys for allegedly running a $ 230 million heroin and cocaine ring.

Delutro was convicted on narcotics charges and sent to federal prison for nine years.

Upon his release, he was placed on parole supervision, which he violated in 2000 by discussing drug deals caught on federal wiretaps with a mob associate in the Caffe Palermo.

He was shipped back to prison for three more years.

Yahoo Local News – New York Post

http://ift.tt/R1kWX5

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

Melissa Mark-Viverito proposes Council rule changes

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 12:01 AM

Julia Xanthos/New York Daily News City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on Tuesday introduced sweeping changes to the Council’s rules.

With a verbal swipe at her predecessor, City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito on Tuesday introduced sweeping changes to the Council’s rules that would clip her own wings.

Under the change, each Council members will receive the same annual allocation for so-called “member items,” discretionary spending doled out to local non-profit groups.

Members in poorer districts will receive an additional allocation of up to 25%.

The changes will “take the politics out of member items,” ending a system used by Council speakers to slash the funding of members who defied them, Mark Viverito said, criticizing her predecessor, Christine Quinn.

“I know first hand what it is to suffer under rules that make no sense,” added Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx), who saw his funding cut after clashing with Quinn on issues like letting churches use public school space.

“I was penalized. It actually wasn’t me who got penalized, it was the constituents,” he said. “It was kind of a divide and conquer approach.”

Xanthos Julia Freelance NYDN/Xanthos Julia Freelance NYDN Mark-Viverito took a verbal swipe at her predecessor, Christine Quinn.

Other rules changes will require city officials to swear to tell the truth before testifying at the Council, and prohibit booting a committee chair from his or her post without a two-thirds vote.

The new rules will also create an independent unit outside the speaker’s office to draft bills.

Mayor de Blasio campaigned on abolishing member items altogether, but has made no public move to strip them out of this year’s budget.

Mark-Viverito said she’d fight to keep the money. “I’ve been a very, very strong defender…of the discretionary allocations. We see it as a reinvestment of taxpayer dollars in our districts,” she said.

Yahoo Local News – New York Daily News

http://ift.tt/1framEb

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

NBA Commissioner Bans Clippers Owner Over Racist Comments

National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday addressed a sea of reporters in Midtown where he formally banned LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling “for life” over racist comments Sterling allegedly made on tape.

Silver also says Sterling faces a $ 2.5 million fine, the maximum amount allowed under NBA rules, and will actively urge the league’s Board of Governors to force a sale of the team.

Silver says the fine will be donated to “organizations dedicated to anti-discrimination and tolerance efforts.”

Sterling’s ban from the league and the Clippers goes into effect immediately.

The league has been trying to verify that Sterling’s voice is the one heard on recordings released by Deadspin.com and TMZ.

On the clips, a man believed to be Sterling is heard questioning his girlfriend’s association with minorities, and telling her not to bring anyone who is black to any games.

Meanwhile, several companies including Mercedes-Benz, Virgin America Airlines, and Carmax have pulled their sponsorships of the Clippers over the controversy.

The NAACP also says it will no longer honor Sterling with a lifetime achievement award next month.

NEWS – NY1

http://ift.tt/1iB2JWa

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

De Blasio aide Emma Wolfe eyed in party-favor probe

Politics

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 12:15 AM

Updated: Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 12:15 AM

Marcus Santos// New York Daily News Roger Bennett Adler sent a letter in September to Emma Wolfe, de Blasio’s director of intergovernmental affairs, asking for a sitdown, according to sources.

The special investigator in charge of a two-year-old investigation into the Working Families Party wants to speak to one of Mayor de Blasio’s top aides.

Roger Bennett Adler sent a letter in September to Emma Wolfe, de Blasio’s director of intergovernmental affairs, asking for a sitdown, according to sources.

Wolfe’s lawyers have spoken with prosecutors, but no date has been set, sources said.

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News The investigation is examining whether the party’s now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services, gave cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates.

The investigation is examining whether the party’s now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services, gave cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates, giving them an unfair advantage in elections.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that investigators were looking to talk to Wolfe, a former field director for Working Families. The progressive party backed de Blasio for mayor.

NY Daily News- Top Stories

http://ift.tt/1iAXkhW

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1

Columbia student reveals secret life as a male gigolo

Duke may have a porn star — but Columbia has its very own male escort.

A strapping Columbia University student stepped forward to reveal a secret life as a male gigolo — who offers wealthy New York women the “boyfriend experience.”

In a steamy tell-all, penned in the Columbia Lion, the ivy leaguer dished about “dates” that often include dinners and sex in hotel rooms for $ 300 an hour.

His clients range from a kinky lady who paid him to pop balloons in the bedroom — to a mom who simply wanted his company at a Justin Bieber concert, which she attended with her daughters.

“I’m a Prince Charming…I remind middle-aged women of that popular guy they liked in high school,” the student dished in the campus paper, anonymously.

“The trick is to talk them into leaving the lights on [during sex] and then spend the whole time telling them how great they look, even if it isn’t true. That’s how you get big tips and regulars,” he wrote.

After he rakes in the cash, he sends it home to his big Catholic family in Colombia, he explained.

One woman paid him $ 15,000 to sunbathe with her in Tuscany; others wanted to play with sex toys or go on double-dates.

Most of his clients are neglected wives, divorced moms and shy gals, he wrote.

The gentleman of the night isn’t particularly proud of the “gig” — but it has its perks, he dished.

“I come from the kind of lower-middle-class, traditionally Catholic family that has ten million kids. As well as it pays, I’m not exactly looking for my baby siblings to dream of growing up and making it big as an escort,” he admitted.

“But f–k it, if I can get paid $ 15,000 to spend a December week lounging on a beach in Tuscany instead of freezing my ass off in New York, I’m going to do it,” he wrote.

The most common request amongst clients is a four-hour date with sex for $ 1,200, plus the cost of dinner and a hotel room, he said.

He declined through the paper’s editor, Sean Augustine-Obi, to speak to The Post.

“He has stated before, though, that his situation is in no way unique, even at Columbia,” Augustine-Obi said via e-mail.

Augustine-Obi added, “Plenty of college-aged students look for alternative sources of income, especially with the economic downturn and rising student loan debt. There have even been sites such as Seeking Arrangement that aim to connect these students with wealthier ‘sugar daddies’ and ‘mommies.’”

Prior to his first-person essay, the campus paper offers a disclaimer: “We verified the author’s background, and though he wishes to remain anonymous, he is in fact a male escort who attends class at Columbia like any of us.”

Yahoo Local News – New York Post

http://ift.tt/1iAEmYI

via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1