New York, U.S.A. — President Barack Obama announced a renewed commitment by the U.S. government to fight human trafficking through the Partnership for Freedom: Innovation Awards to Stop Human Trafficking, a public-private initiative led by Humanity United, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, with support from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative. The Partnership for freedom will fund innovative solutions to improve care for survivors of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

“Trafficking survivors all too often face obstacles in accessing the comprehensive services they need to rebuild their lives,” Humanity United CEO Randy Newcomb said. “While federally-funded efforts to assist trafficking survivors have laid a strong foundation, there is still so much to be done. We can and must do better to find evidence-based models to effectively support survivors, and this initiative is a step in that direction.”

Humanity United, a foundation established by philanthropists Pierre and Pam Omidyar that is dedicated to building peace and advancing human freedom, is joining together with the federal government and with founding support from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative to establish a $6 million challenge award.

The challenge will call upon local communities to develop collaborative and comprehensive solutions to human trafficking survivor care that can be evaluated and expanded nationally and internationally through federal policies and programs. ”We are honored to support the public-private Partnership for Freedom,” said Dina Habib Powell, president of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. “By bringing together the corporate, governmental and nonprofit sectors to fund and scale practical solutions, we believe this initiative can have a real impact in the lives of trafficking survivors.”

Purpose of the commitment

Over the next few months, Humanity United will convene leading researchers, stakeholders, community organizations and government officials to help design and administer the award. The initial round of the award, to launch in 2013, will support the most innovative approaches in three areas:

• sustainable housing and shelter solutions for all types of trafficking survivors
• comprehensive care and case management for survivors who are minors
• law enforcement engagement with survivors

The federal government, along with private donors such as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, will commit financial resources and technical expertise to support the award, and will offer evaluation services to determine which approaches are proven to work. The goal will be to identify promising ideas and solutions at the local and community level that can later be nationally scaled and internationally replicated.

The Partnership for Freedom will consist of three levels of support aimed at innovation, evaluation and scale:

• Community Conversation Grants will be awarded to encourage dialogue and activate local coordination.
• Challenge Grants will be awarded to innovative community-level initiatives with the most promise of being scaled.
• Scale will be achieved by pairing challenge grant winners with evaluators to identify which innovations can be expanded nationally and internationally through federal policies, practices and funding.

Community Conversation Grants

Recognizing that not all communities have existing expertise to design these innovations, Community Conversation Grants will enable a series of local stakeholder convenings to explore and establish a coordinated response to meet the needs of trafficking victims in communities around the country.

Challenge Grants

Challenge Grants will support solutions that address major challenges to survivor assistance. Paired with third-party evaluations, Challenge Grant recipients will help to build the body of knowledge for what works for survivors.

In addition to the Community Conversation Grants and Challenge Grants, the Partnership for Freedom will pair grant winners with academic researchers and program evaluators to build an evidence base of the most effective approaches. These projects will be coordinated with existing federal government efforts in order to fill key gaps in knowledge and practice, and to maximize the potential for these approaches to inform future policies and programs.

To ensure widespread commitment to this effort, an advisory board composed of a variety of stakeholders including prominent leaders in the field, advocates, senior law enforcement officials and survivors will be established to help inform the award criteria and selection process, and determine the award parameters.

Background of the proposal

Human trafficking has been identified as the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that human trafficking generates $32 billion annually. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), at any given moment more than 20 million people are trapped in slave-like conditions around the world. While Humanity United and many others continue to work on the root causes of this global phenomenon, this initiative will address much-needed efforts to help those who are survivors of human trafficking.

Image Courtesy of  pennstatelive

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New York, U.S.A. — Every Labor Day, millions of Americans hit the road for one “last” summer weekend, and 2012 will be no different according to INRIX, the leading provider of traffic information. Through in-depth analysis of recent traffic patterns in New York City, INRIX predicts that New York, the fourth-most congested city in the U.S. and Bridgeport, CT, the fifth-most congested city, will take the first and third spots, respectively, for the worst cities for weekend road-trippers.

“Between Bridgeport being a ‘gateway’ between New England and the Mid-Atlantic, and recent trends and increases in consumer spending indicating that travelers will not fear gas prices, we’re predicting major delays as travelers leave town for Labor Day,” said Jim Bak, INRIX Director of Community Relations. “Best bet is to leave before lunchtime or wait for the evening, if you’re planning to get out on Friday. Travelers thinking they’ll avoid traffic by waiting for Saturday to depart will have better luck if they get on the road right after breakfast.”

Key insights from INRIX’s New York metro area research include:

• Traffic will start to build in New York City at lunchtime on Friday, August 31, and will continue to get worse into the evening, peaking between 4 and 5 p.m., with traffic in Bridgeport getting heavy thereafter and congestion remaining until at least 7 p.m.
• Travelers moving between New York and Bridgeport or beyond should plan to depart after 8 p.m. on Friday 31, or wait until Saturday 1 morning and hit the road before lunchtime.
• New Yorkers in search of a beach will be better heading south to the Jersey Shore than north toward The Hamptons: despite the closer proximity of northern beaches, the trip to Atlantic Citycan be up to two hours shorter.
• Gamblers beware!  Travel between Bridgeport and Mashantucket, home of the Foxwoods Casino, will move at 41mph or slower during peak holiday weekend travel times.

New York City’s unique geography will ensure that all travelers trying to get to or from the City can expect additional delays at bridge and tunnel crossings: the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, which connect the Bronx to Queens, will see delays of at least 30 minutes, and the George Washington Bridge and Cross Bronx Expressway, already strained by slow-downs caused by construction on the Alexander Hamilton Bridge, will be under additional stress—as will the alternative routes nearby.

Given the expected increase in the number of holiday travelers, combined with ongoing road construction and unexpected delays due to accidents and other incidents, Bak advises travelers to use free tools like the INRIX Traffic app, to help ease drivers’ getaway trips with up-to-the-minute information about traffic conditions and travel times.

Image Courtesy of  Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

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Following the mass shootings first in Aurora, Colorado and then at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, the shooting outside the Empire State Building in New York marks the third mass shooting this summer in the United States. The incident occurred at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, near New York’s most famous skyscraper.

Just after 9AM, local time, a gunman opened fire in the street near the Empire State Building. According to the New York Post, two men who were coworkers started arguing in the street during the morning rush. They began fighting on the pavement when one of them drew a gun and shot the other fatally in the head, after striking him three times. The shooter then put his gun in his black bag and walked away from the scene.

A local construction worker, Chris Ogden, saw the gunman opening fire and then informed officers near the Empire State Building. New York Police Department arrived at the scene within a few minutes after receiving the emergency call. The New York Police Department officers, who were on foot, confronted the gunman who turned to his gun and fired at them. One of the officers killed the gunman in the confrontation. Police later confirmed that the gunman had indeed been shot dead.

Counting the shooter, there were a total of two deaths at the scene and nine more people were injured — four women and five men. Some of them may have been shot accidentally by officers, but they have all been taken to a number of hospitals in the city and fortunately none of them were seriously wounded. They are all expected to recover quickly.

The FBI has confirmed that the shooting was not terrorist-related. The incident was nothing more than a workplace dispute, but still caused a sense of panic in the city of New York, whose inhabiters have lived through all too familiar scenes in the past.

Police commissioner Ray Kelly identified the shooter as Jeffrey Johnson, aged 53. Johnson shot his 41-year-old former manager using a 45 caliber semiautomatic handgun. The shooter was a Hazan Imports employee for the last six years, designing women’s accessories and clothes and he had been fired from his job about a year ago as part of downsizing in the company. While the incident took place near the the Empire State Building, the landmark was not otherwise connected to the shooting.

New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, one of America’s biggest gun law reform advocates, said that “soothing words are nice, but maybe it is time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it,” expressing his discontent for both President Obama and his republican rival Mitt Romney.

Image Courtesy of   chrisinphilly5448

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New York, U.S.A. — In an effort to reduce vehicle air pollution, Duane Reade, in partnership with Mission Electric, is turning to New Yorkers to determine which of its stores should be served solely by electric trucks. New Yorkers can vote for locations they feel should receive 100% electric delivery via an interactive map (nyc.missionelectric.org) launched by Mission Electric, a non-profit and city government social engagement campaign focused on enhancing electric vehicle transportation.

Based on the campaign results, the two leading stores will be going electric, with five more pre-selected stores to follow in later months. Participants in the campaign will be entered in a contest to win Duane Reade ”green” gift baskets and gift cards. Combined, more than 30 stores have been identified as electric truck ready in the 4 boroughs boroughs of Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

To reduce the impact of air pollution originating from vehicle deliveries, Duane Reade has purchased 14 new Smith Electric trucks that will replace almost 25% of the company’s truck fleet. The partnership with Mission Electric will reduce Duane Reade’s total green house gas impact by about 20 percent. That is the equivalent of removing over 1,000 vehicles’ tailpipe emissions from New York’s streets. Because the new trucks do not require combustion, their operation is almost silent, reducing noise levels from overnight deliveries.

“Partnering with Mission Electric is an important component of our effort to be green,” said Michael Fowles, Fleet Manager of Duane Reade. “This exciting project is an excellent way for us to get our stores and our customers involved in the process of a cleaner future. It fosters true engagement around common urban challenges of air pollution, noise, and congestion. Through this program we can more easily work together to continue to make NYC such a wonderful place to live and visit.”

“New Yorkers live in the fast lane, and this partnership will help them also take the green lane,” said David Bragdon, Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. “The City’s own municipal fleet is the second-largest public sector fleet in the nation, after the Federal Government’s, but it is important for the private sector to do its part too. Duane Reade’s investment in electric vehicles will help meet our ambitious PlaNYC goal of reducing NYC’s green house gas emissions. We’re pleased to work with all the partners in the Mission Electric campaign to drive forward to a greener, cleaner city.”

“Electric transportation isn’t the future it’s the present, and we want to ensure that everyone has a say on how this new technology unfolds,” said Christina Ficicchia, Executive Director of NYC and Lower Hudson Valley Clean Cities Coalition. “NYCLHVCC is excited to be Mission Electric’s founding partner and we hope that more businesses follow the example set by Duane Reade and the City of New York to get cleaner vehicles on the streets. We encourage New Yorkers to log on, vote and steer the way towards an electric future.”

About Duane Reade

Founded in 1960, Duane Reade is the largest drug store chain in New York City. In keeping with the company’s brand vision of New York Living Made Easy, Duane Reade provides New Yorkers with prescriptions, health products and services, beauty products and services, food and convenience items for daily life in the City…everything for “How I Feel”, “How I Look”, and “What I Need Now.” The company operates 250+ stores throughout the metropolitan New York region. Duane Reade is part of the Walgreens family of companies, the nation’s largest drugstore chain with more than 7,800 stores in all 50 states, theDistrict of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

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New York, U.S.A. – A recent clinical trial conducted by The Institute for Music and Brain Science at Harvard University on the positive effects of music on Parkinson’s disease has received substantial support from science activist, Jeffrey Epstein and his foundation, The Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation. The study was conducted with the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The trial evaluated the effects of ambient music on a group of Parkinson’s patients with severe to mild symptoms. Specifically, the study looked at visuomotor integration, rapid alternating movements (RAM’s) and gait. Twenty trials per category were conducted and measured in milliseconds. The music had a strong metrical rhythm and medium tempos confined to a range of 128 to 192 beats per minute.

Control test conditions of patients were either silence or asymmetrical instrumental music. The results were encouraging: in the visuomotor tests, 40% of those with mild Parkinson’s were significantly faster with ambient music. In the RAM tests, 83% of those with moderate Parkinson’s showed faster results. In the gait tests, 25% of those with moderate Parkinson’s showed faster and larger strides.

“The results are remarkable,” Jeffrey Epstein asserted. “More studies need to be done to show that music improves motor coordination. However, these studies highlight how areas in the auditory cortex are affected, providing a road map for how to duplicate the stimulus and enhance it.”

The Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation is a long-standing supporter of science research at Harvard University. In 2003, it gave a $30 million grant to Harvard to establish the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which studies evolutionary biology from a mathematical point of view.

Founded by Dr. Mark Tramo, the Institute for Music and Brain Science seeks to advance knowledge about the neurological impact of music and to combat neurological and other diseases using music as a lens into the brain and as a rehabilitator.

Dr. Tramo is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Attending Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the recipient of numerous awards for original research on the effects of music on the brain.

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Serial Killer Rodney Alcala, a California resident, who brutally murdered two women in the 1970s was sent to New York this past week to face his long overdue trial.

Alcala pleaded ‘not guilty’ to murders in both the first and second degrees in the killings of 23-year-old New York beauties Flight Attendant Cornelia Crilley and Researcher Ellen Hover back in the 1970s.

According to law enforcement sources, Crilley was found on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 1971 and had been brutally raped and then strangled with her own pantyhose. Hover, was last seen on July 15, 1977, when she didn’t show up for a photo shoot according to her personal calendar. The photographer she was supposed to shoot with was a man known by the name of “John Berger.” It was later found out that Alcala used that name as an alias. Hover’s body was found a year later near the Rockefeller Estate, a place well known for Alcala taking women for photo shoots.

However, these two are not the only ones to fall victims to Alcala.

Alcala, who is a former photographer and got his nickname from being a contestant on the once popular show, the “Dating Game,” has been held in a California prison facing the death penalty after he was charged with murdering four women and one 12-year-old girl in Los Angeles back in the 1970s.

After Alcala was convicted nearly thirty years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department found dozens of pictures of women and children that had been stashed in a storage locker that Alcala had rented.

Things started to come together piece by piece once the New York Police Department caught word of Alcala’s killing sprees in California. They then started to consider him a suspect of the slaying of three New York City women (including Crilley and Hover) once it was found out that at the time of those murders, Alcala was a resident of NYC. There was little information to go on, but a case for the women was opened in 2003 with Alcala as the lead suspect.

“These cases were built one brick at a time, as each new lead brought us closer to where we are today,” Dist. Atty. Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said at the time, according to the Associated Press. He said he hoped that the belated action “brings a small measure of peace to the families and friends who have spent decades searching for answers, and justice.”

Alcala’s next date in court is set for October 30, 2012.

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New York, U.S.A. – ‘This the season of hand-holding, hugging and kissing – and, of course, public displays of affection. Studies show that Americans feel and show more love and affection for one another during the summer months. So, timed to the start of Summer 2012, NIVEA has partnered with Grammy-Award winning recording artist Ne-Yo, television talk show host Wendy Williams and NIVEA Ambassadors Bill and Giuliana Rancic to expand the year-long NIVEA Million Moments of Touch movement and celebrate National PDA Day on June 20 – not coincidentally the first day of summer.

As part of the celebration, NIVEA will host a series of events in New York, Los Angeles and nine other cities across the country to encourage couples to get out in the open and show their affection for one another.

“It’s a fact that our fast-paced, 21st century living has affected our romantic relationships: we text more than we hug; we video chat more than we hold hands; we touch our phones more than we touch each other. NIVEA wants to change that,” said Magnus Jonsson, Vice President of Marketing, NIVEA.”NIVEA understands the power of touch, which is why every product we develop keeps touch in mind. We’re thrilled to partner with Ne-Yo, Wendy and Bill & Giuliana to help us amplify our Million Moments of Touch campaign and establish National PDA Day as a key date for couples everywhere.”

Starting off in New York City, couples will be invited to Herald Square for a “coffee and a cuddle” themed “morning date,” hosted by Williams. The Rancic’s will join Williams for fun PDA Day-themed games before the trio introduces an exclusive concert by music sensation Ne-Yo, who will be performing tracks from his new album R.E.D. — which stands for “Realizing Every Dream” – out this September.

To help spread the PDA Day message from coast-to-coast, the group will leave Herald Square after Ne-Yo’s performance and fly immediately to Los Angeles, where Bill, Giuliana and Wendy will be on-hand at The Grove for another Ne-Yo concert and a romantic “table-for-two” PDA celebration.

“It is brilliant of NIVEA to celebrate National PDA Day,” said Williams.  ”It’s a shame that we as a society have gotten so engrossed in electronics that we have forgotten common decency and the simplicities of life. The art of old-fashioned talking and touching is lost. Hopefully today will remind us how wonderful PDA is.”

The Rancic’s agree, “Between work, travel and preparing for our new baby – we’re often challenged with getting out and having time for just us. But, we always try to make time to go on little dates at least once or twice a month – especially in the summer. We love that NIVEA is helping couples everywhere rekindle and reconnect through PDA.”

Additionally, in nine cities across the country, NIVEA will send its PDA Day Patrols to invite couples to celebrate PDA Day and experience fun outdoor promotions, NIVEA products and date night giveaways. Those cities include: Columbus, OH; Chicago, IL; Seattle WA; Austin, TX; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Atlanta, GA; Phoenix, AZ; San Francisco, CA and Oklahoma City, OK.

A recent study conducted for NIVEA by Dr. Kory Floyd, Professor of Human Communications at Arizona State University, revealed that all relationships, especially romantic ones, greatly benefit from regular displays of affection. Nearly half (43%) of Americans polled said they are more likely to display PDA during the summer because more skin is showing. In addition, Americans go on more dates during the summer than any other season.

NIVEA has always understood and valued that power of touch and that is why NIVEA products help consumers be ready to touch and be touched – providing touchably-smooth skin and kissably-soft lips. NIVEA is proud to lead the movement for a more affectionate society by celebrating National PDA Day, encouraging everyone to share a kiss, hug and hold hands out in the open and to set the tone for a summer of romance with a loved one.

Image Courtesy of  Ne-Yo

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New York, U.S.A. – It happens to millions of people around the world every day: two people see each other or meet whilst going about their daily business, maybe at the bus stop, or they sit next to each other on a plane, but for whatever reason, despite the mutual attraction, they didn’t get around to asking the other for their contact details. In some cases, they didn’t even spark up a conversation due to unfavorable circumstances or just plain shyness.

In this modern digital age where social media is part of our everyday life, it is possible to contact nearly anyone instantly; but it does beg the question, how do you find someone you wished you had talked to, or did talk to but didn’t get their details, when all you have is circumstances in common? The founders of BlewMyChance.com believe they have the answer to this question, and can match any two people who may be looking for each other, giving hope to millions.

BlewMyChance.com makes it possible for anyone who has experienced such a missing connection or lost opportunity to find the person again based purely on these circumstances. This is achieved by either searching the site for unique identifiers pertaining to the way they saw or met the respective person. If the search draws a blank, they can leave a message called a “pebble message,” complete with photo, describing their version of events. This pebble message is then thrown on the virtual beach for the other to find.

The site is free and lends itself well to people on the move, especially for people taking the same flight. It is, however, ideal for anyone in any situation. “It is extremely exciting and rewarding enabling people to have a second chance,” said Peter Watkin, a spokesman for BlewMyChance.com. “People spend a fortune, not to mention hundreds of hours, trying to find that perfect person on dating websites, and it’s amazing if they do; but to be able to find and have a second chance with the person they have never really stopped thinking about since the moment they saw or met them is fantastic, and potentially life changing.”

The site is very aesthetic and easy to navigate; however, its key to success is its search capabilities. For example, trying to find someone in New York could be like looking for a needle in a haystack; however, because BlewMyChance.com makes it possible to search for any item(s) unique to a particular situation from any section of text entered, meaning that the person searching will always be able to find any message meant for them. One of the sayings at BlewMyChance.com is “you type it, they will find it.” The site concept is a truly magical twist on the online dating scene.

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New York, U.S.A. - Two things immediately come to mind this time of year – baseball and iced coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts, America’s all-day, everyday stop for coffee and baked goods, has all your bases covered this summer season. New York Mets Manager Terry Collins and New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi will be featured in a two month campaign in the New York Metro area to promote Dunkin’ Donuts Caramel, Mocha and the new Mocha Almond Iced Coffee flavors.

Dunkin’ Donuts will showcase both managers through a multi-tiered promotional campaign. Collins and Girardi will be featured in the television and radio campaign, “Fuels Any Series,” which will spotlight the friendly rivalry between both managers, with Collins promoting Mocha Iced Coffee and Girardi promoting Caramel Iced Coffee.

Additionally, the managers’ likeness will be prominently displayed in Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants throughout the New York Metro area, including store standees, door decals and in-store POP. The “Fuels Any Series” campaign will also be leveraged through Dunkin’ Donuts’ various social media channels during the promotion.

“It is an honor for Dunkin’ Donuts to partner with both Terry Collins and Joe Girardi for this exciting promotion. Dunkin’ Donuts has a long standing relationship with both the Yankees and Mets and this partnership will be a fantastic way to highlight Dunkin’ Donuts’ leadership in the iced coffee category,” saidRuss Romeo, Field Marketing Director for Dunkin’ Brands in the Mid-Atlantic Region. “Whether you are a Yankees fan or a Mets fan, Dunkin’ Donuts is sure to fuel your summer!”

Collins was named the 20th manager in Mets history on November 23, 2010 and has led the Mets to a 31-25 record this season. He first joined the Mets in 2010 as a Minor League Field Coordinator overseeing all on-field aspects of the Mets’ Minor League Spring Training, mini camps and Fall Instructional League. Collins previously spent six years as a major-league manager leading the Anaheim Angels and Houston Astros to winning records and second place finishes.

Girardi became manager of the Yankees in 2008, and led the team to their 27th World Championship in 2009. Girardi led the Yankees to the post-season the past three years, and currently has the Yankees near the top of the American League East with a 30-24 record. During his playing career, Girardi spent 15 seasons as a catcher in the big leagues, winning three World Championships with the Yankees (1996, 1998 and 1999).

Dunkin’ Donuts has been at the forefront in developing an innovative process for brewing iced coffee, which has set the standard for the industry. The unique process, called double brewing, uses twice the amount of coffee when making the beverage to achieve consistent flavor and freshness that are never compromised at the expense of serving it cold. The result is a smooth, rich taste sensation–iced coffee that is never bitter or watered down.

Image Courtesy  of  jason aron / Shutterstock.com

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Chicago, U.S.A. – Just ahead of a major U.S. Senate vote on the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to clean up mercury and other toxic air pollutants, a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report shows that the 25 worst coal-fired power plants account for more than half of the dangerous mercury pollution emitted by the total of 144 electricity generation facilities in the Great Lakes region. The report also finds that almost 90 percent of the toxic emissions could be eliminated with off-the-shelf technologies.

According to ”Poisoning the Great Lakes: Mercury Emissions from Coal-Fired Power Plants In the Great Lakes Region,” Ohio emits the largest amount of mercury from coal-fired power plants (21 percent of the total in the Great Lakes region), followed closely by Pennsylvania (20 percent) and Indiana (16 percent). The remaining five states in the region rank as follows: Michigan (14 percent); Illinois (11 percent); Wisconsin (9.5 percent); Minnesota (6.5 percent); and New York (2 percent). Plants from outside the region also contribute to mercury pollution in the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes region’s five worst coal-fired power plants for mercury pollution are: Shawville (Clearfield County, PA); Monroe (Monroe County, MI); Homer City (Indiana County, PA); Cardinal (Jefferson County, OH); and Sherburne County (Sherburne County, MN). (See the complete list below of the worst 25.) A dozen power plants in Ohio and Indiana – owned in whole or part by American Electric Power — accounted for 19 percent of all mercury emitted in 2010 from the total of 144 coal-fired power plants in the region.

U.S. Senator James Inhofe, R-OK, recently filed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to void health standards reducing mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants and to permanently block EPA from re-issuing similar safeguards.

Thomas Cmar, attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council office in Chicago, said: ”Mercury is a dangerous brain poison that doesn’t belong in our Great Lakes. It puts the health of kids and pregnant women at risk and adds an unwelcome danger to eating what our fishermen catch. That’s why it is so important that we support the EPA’s standards to reduce mercury pollution by holding polluters accountable. Even more critical is that every single U.S. Senator from the region stand up for the Lakes by rejecting reckless attempts to derail the long overdue Clean Air Act updates that can help tame this problem.”

Cindy Copeland, report author and formerly with the EPA Air Program, said: “Mercury is poisoning the Great Lakes and the three states – Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania – that impose no rules are by far the worst offenders. Airborne mercury from coal-fired power plants in the Great Lakes Region harms our health, and the benefits of reducing mercury emissions are well worth the cost. With a reduction of health costs to the economy at up to $90 billion, it is hard to say no to this.”

In the Great Lakes region, there are more than 144 coal-fired power plants which pumped over 13,000 pounds of mercury into the air in 2010. Mercury pollution from these plants’ region accounts for close to 25 percent of the nation’s total. The Great Lakes region is comprised of the five Great Lakes (Erie,Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Superior) and the eight surrounding states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin).

Eating poisoned fish is the primary cause of mercury poisoning of humans. Mercury is a neurotoxin that harms the brain, heart, central nervous system, kidneys, lungs, and immune system. Young children and developing fetuses are most at risk, and can suffer developmental problems from mercury poisoning.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued nationwide rules to require coal-fired power plants to limit airborne mercury emissions and other toxic air pollutants by 2015. The technologies to meet the EPA’s mercury limits are widely available and effective.

Based on projected reductions in fine particulate emissions due to the combined benefits of various air toxic pollution controls, the EPA has projected that the benefits of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) far outweigh the costs of pollution controls. The health benefits of the MATS are projected to be worth $37 to $90 billion in 2016 alone. The EPA has projected that the majority of the benefits would be reaped in the eastern United States, including the Great Lakes region.

Mercury emitted into the air from coal-fired power plants is by far the leading man-made source of mercury reaching the Great Lakes and the lakes, rivers, and streams of the Great Lakes region. This report lists the top 25 mercury emitting plants in the region. Mercury pollution from plants outside the region also contributes to the overall quantity of mercury found in the Great Lakes. When coal is burned to produce electricity, mercury is emitted into the air. The EPA estimates that coal-fired power plants are the largest man-made source of mercury pollution, accounting for 50 percent of mercury air emissions in the United States.

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced his support for legalizing small amounts of marijuana. This decision comes only two months after he denied legalizing medical marijuana. His reasoning is not because he has changed his opinion about the drug itself but because he believes one of the biggest problems for police and prosecutors is that the laws are inconsistent and police officers are wasting their time arresting people for small amounts of cannabis. The greatest challenge in creating and passing this legislation will be the Republican majority in the New York Senate.

Beginning in 1977 the New York law stated that carrying twenty-five grams or less of marijuana is not a violation as long as the individual is a first-time offender. However, having the drug out in public is still a crime, including if it is removed from a pocket during a police search. By decriminalizing small amounts individuals will be able to possess these amounts, even if they are searched by the police. The maximum penalty would be a $100 fine.

In 2011 there were 50,000 arrests made in New York for twenty-five grams or less of marijuana. According to Cuomo this is costly for the taxpayer. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. also points out that there is a great human cost too. “The human costs to each defendant charged with a misdemeanor are serious. The simple and fair change proposed by Governor Cuomo will help us redirect significant resources to the most violent criminals and serious crime problems, and, frankly, it is the right thing to do.”

The change in policy on marijuana will also alleviate some of the charges that New York’s laws are racially prejudiced. Eighty-two percent of those arrested in 2011 for small amounts of marijuana were black or Hispanic. Many believe that this statistic demonstrates how the current marijuana policy in tandem with the New York ‘stop-and-frisk’ law are racially biased and demonstrates that police are racially profiling individuals.

New York City prosecutors and the Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly support Cuomo’s declaration. Cuomo’s proposal is very similar to a directive Mayor Bloomberg has given to the New York Police Department.

Other states are also attempting to change their policies on marijuana. Colorado will have legalization as a ballot initiative in November. Rhode Island will be discussing a bill similar to that suggested by Cuomo. The main difference between what Cuomo has proposed and what Rhode Island will try to pass is that Rhode Island would require minors found in possession of the drug to complete a drug awareness program and community service.

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Brooklyn, U.S.A. -  Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of Kingsborough Community College, announced that Matilda Raffa Cuomo, former first lady of New York, will deliver the commencement address at the college’s 47th commencement ceremony. Mrs. Cuomo and Mario Cuomo, the 52nd governor of New York, will receive the President’s Medal. The graduation will be held on campus, 2001 Oriental Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY, Tuesday, June 12, at 11 a.m.

As first lady of New York, Mrs. Cuomo was dedicated to service. She diligently worked full time as a volunteer with state and elected officials, as well as community leaders, to establish programs to prevent child abuse, strengthen families, promote adoption for foster care children and prevent school dropout. She is the founder of “Mentoring USA,” an organization that has provided supportive mentors to more than 5,000 children. Mrs. Cuomo has been described as the most active first lady in New York’s history.

“We are honored that Mrs. Cuomo will deliver Kingsborough’s commencement address,” said Dr. Peruggi. “She is an inspirational and dynamic leader whom I have admired for many years. She recognized the necessity for broad range support and mentorship for young people in need across the state and graciously fulfilled it. Her dedication to education and community service is unparalleled and is a model for our Kingsborough students. I am extraordinarily pleased to award her and Former Governor Cuomo the President’s Medal in recognition of their devotion and commitment to serving the people of New York State.”

The Class of 2012 valedictorian is Nelli Sidorova. Ms. Sidorova, 27, is a native of Russia, a business major and has a perfect GPA of 4.00. She has been actively involved in the Honors Program, served as an Honors representative and has been a leader in a number of Business Clubs and activities.

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Registered nurses at a Manhattan Veterans Affairs hospital failed to notice a patient had become disconnected from a cardiac monitor until after his heart had stopped and he could not be revived, according to a report Monday from the VA inspector general.

The incident from last June was the second such death at the hospital involving a patient connected to a monitor in a six-month period. The first, along with two earlier deaths at a Denver VA hospital, raised questions about nursing competency in the VA system, ProPublica reported last month.

The deaths also prompted a broader review of skills and training of VA nurses. Only half of 29 VA facilities surveyed by the inspector general in a recent report had adequately documented that their nurses had skills to perform their duties. Even though some nurses “did not demonstrate competency in one or more required skills,” the government report stated, there was no evidence of retraining.

Monday’s report documents the June 2011 death of patient in his 80s at the Manhattan campus of the VA’s New York Harbor Healthcare System. The man had undergone several heart procedures and needed to have his vital signs continuously monitored, the report said.

On his fifth day at the hospital, monitor records show that an alarm indicated a problem with the device or the patient. But there is no evidence nurses were aware of the alarm until the man was discovered unresponsive an hour and a half later. He was declared dead shortly afterward, the report said.

“The patient’s telemetry status was not effectively monitored at the time of his death due to a lack of awareness of the disconnected lead,” inspectors concluded.

Registered nurses assigned to telemetry units typically place cardiac leads, set parameters for the monitors tracking each patient, verify heart rhythms and take appropriate actions if there is an irregularity. They also enter progress notes and inform doctors of any changes.

Ironically, federal inspectors were in the hospital the same month to investigate the first death, which occurred in a different monitoring unit in January 2011.

During that investigation, the inspectors discovered nurses at the hospital didn’t understand how the monitors even worked. None of those interviewed could accurately explain what would happen if a patient became disconnected from a cardiac monitor.

Inspectors also found no evidence that the nurses’ competence had been checked. Records showed that one of the patient’s nurses had last received training on the monitors 13 years earlier, according the October 2011. The report recommended sweeping changes and retraining, which the hospital agreed to implement.

IG inspectors were not notified of the second death at the Manhattan facility until someone complained in November 2011, five months after the alarm was missed and the patient died.

The latest report does not recommend any additional changes or training at the hospital because “managers have made significant progress” after the first report.

In a response to the inspector general, the hospital acknowledged receipt of the report and said it concurred with the document. A spokeswoman for the VA in Washington didn’t immediately respond to our requests for comment.

by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, ProPublica, May 15, 2012, 3:06 p.m.

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NEW YORK, US – One of underground rock’s most unusual stories of the 1970s, the tale of an obscure debut LP by a Detroit singer-songwriter named Rodriguez becoming a source of hope and inspiration to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, is the basis for the thought-provoking new film, Searching For Sugar Man.

The original motion picture soundtrack album will be available starting July 24, 2012 through Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The vinyl version of the soundtrack will be released by Light In The Attic Records.

Searching For Sugar Man, a Red Box Films & Passion Pictures Production in association with Canfield Pictures & The Documentary Company, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, premiered in New York on April 24, 2012 at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 27, 2012 and will open in other markets throughout the month of August.

Directed by Malik Bendjelloul, Searching For Sugar Man tells a story that begins with the 1970 release of Rodriguez’s debut album, Cold Fact. In its Reissues Of The Year tally for 2008, Rolling Stone magazine called the album “A remarkable artifact of Michigan hippie soul by singer-songwriter Sixto Diaz Rodriguez.” The soundtrack album on Legacy will compile tracks from Cold Fact and its follow-up LP of 1971, Coming From Reality, reissued to critical acclaim in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Celebrated Motor City producers Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore discovered Rodriguez in the late 1960s in a local bar and were struck by his Dylanesque songwriting. A charismatic and mysterious artist behind his shades, Rodriguez had built a strong local following, a true folk hero in the purest sense.

Cold Fact was a fusion of gritty funk with “street-tough lyricism and psychedelic folk arrangements,” in the words of Doug Freeman of the Austin Chronicle. The album’s politically-charged “topical lyrics and druggy avant-garde arrangements” “folk-soul weirdness” and “lysergic gutter poetry” were unique even in the ’70s.

Nevertheless, the album did not succeed commercially, and despite the release of a second LP, Rodriguez drifted into obscurity. Rumors of his fate were widely and wildly exaggerated, ranging from reports of escalating depression to a sensationally gruesome suicide onstage, involving self-immolation.

Meanwhile, the LP had made its way around the world to South Africa, where it was banned by a repressive government. Copies were bootlegged and circulated, and Rodriguez inadvertently became the soundtrack of an emerging liberal African youth, whose resistance movement adopted Cold Fact as its rallying cry. Over the next two decades, Rodriguez became a household name in the country, where the number of copies of Cold Fact would have earned it platinum sales status.

Both sides of the story, Rodriguez’s life in Detroit and the subsequent impact of his music in the smoldering Apartheid era, pre-Nelson Mandela, proved fascinating to Stockholm-based documentary filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul. His subjects have included Kraftwerk, Bjork, Sting, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2, Kylie Minogue, Prince, and others.

His short documentary films for Swedish Television’s international cultural weekly show Kobra became the basis for such films as Men Who Stare At Goats (George Clooney) and The Terminal (Tom Hanks). The evolution of the financing, production, and filming of Searching For Sugar Man is as fascinating and complex as the life of Rodriguez himself.

“I describe myself as ‘musico-politico’,” Rodriguez said recently. “I was born and bred in Detroit, four blocks from the city center. Back then, I was influenced by the urban sounds that were going on around me all the time. Music is art and art is a cultural force. As far as my work from Detroit comparing to the South African Apartheid, the similarities echo. The placards of the 1970s in the United States read things like: We Want Jobs and Stop the War – I was looking at the music from a working class.

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New York, U.S.A. – Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign founded by Christy Turlington Burns to increase education and support for the global reduction of maternal mortality, and CHI&Partners, an international advertising agency based in New York, have launched No Mothers Day, a groundbreaking social issue campaign designed to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.

The cornerstone of the campaign is a social issue film that features moms encouraging other moms to join in solidarity by disappearing on May 13, 2012 Mother’s Day. No phone calls. No emails. No social media. No gifts. This unified action is meant to demonstrate the hole that a woman leaves in the world when she dies in pregnancy and childbirth.

In leading a movement to forego Mother’s Day this year, the two organizations hope to bring more attention to the global issue of maternal mortality so that more mothers are here to celebrate in years to come. The film was directed by filmmaker, Ed Burns.

“Being able to do good work for a good cause so you can truly make a difference is a fantastic opportunity,” said Victoria Davies, Managing Partner at CHI&Partners. “No Mothers Day is an idea that could only be championed by Christy and Every Mother Counts – and forces us to think about a world without mothers on the one day when people should be thinking about mothers the most”.

The film features mothers between the ages of 24-80 expressing the belief that together, “our silence will speak the loudest, for all mothers.” Some of the high profile mothers featured in the film includes, Christy Turlington Burns, Jennifer Connelly, Kelly Rutherford, Ann Curry, Blythe Danner, Debra Messing, Dayle Haddon, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Heather Armstrong (Dooce).

“We hope this film becomes a pivotal moment in getting people to stop and think about maternal health on a much larger scale,” said Christy Turlington Burns, founder, Every Mother Counts. “Nearly 360,000 women die every year from largely preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and 90 percent of those deaths are preventable. Once people know the facts, they will want to do what they can and come to us to find ways to engage.”

Turlington Burns founded Every Mother Counts as a campaign to support her first documentary, No Woman, No Cry, about the global state of maternal health, and to increase awareness about the hundreds of thousands of girls and women who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.

The campaign was so well received and the demand for continued engagement so strong that EMC has evolved into an organization to help individuals, companies and organizations find their own voice on maternal health and join a growing community of advocates.

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New York, U.S.A. – Carnegie Mellon, Hult International Business School and NYU Abu Dhabi were honored for their commitment to eradicating poverty at the Hult Global Case Challenge in New York City, hosted by Hult International Business and the Clinton Global Initiative.

The three winning teams beat thousands of students from the world’s best business schools for a US$1 millioncash grant and
were honored by President Bill Clinton.

Started three years ago by Hult graduate Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Global Case Challenge is the largest and most respected initiative of its kind. Harnessing the power of crowd sourcing, the Hult Global Case Challenge attracted students from 350 colleges and universities to provide solutions to the real challenges facing three NGOs. These are Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing; SolarAid, which brings renewable energy to impoverished communities; and One Laptop Per Child, which provides low-cost computers to children.

A panel of high-profile judges including: Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, Unilever Chairman Michael Treschow, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond, and the CEOs of the three NGOs, selected the winners in education, housing and energy.

Education               

Winner: Carnegie Mellon

To help One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) put 10 million laptops in the hands of children worldwide in the nextfive years, the Carnegie
Mellon team presented an innovative approach to ensure streamlined laptopdeployment and to create a global brand for the
NGO ’ s open-source software.

“The Hult Global Case Challenge has provided us with many ideas to address the challenge of scaling OLPC to enable learning for the world’s poorest children,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of the One Laptop per Child Association. “We appreciate the creativity, passion and effort of all the student teams around the world who participated in the competition.”

Housing

Winner: Hult International Business School

Habitat for Humanity has a mission to provide homes for 50 million people within the next 10 years.
Hult ’s winning solution focuses on harnessing the intelligence of those at the bottom of the pyramid andequipping them to
solve their own problems.

“Hult’s Global Case Challenge is good news for everyone involved,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity. “Students have the opportunity to solve real-world challenges, and organizations like Habitat benefit — not only from the prize money used to implement the winning proposal, but also from the ideas that emerge from crowdsourcing and the relationships that we develop with tomorrow’s business leaders.”

Energy

Winner: NYU Abu Dhabi

Many Africans still rely on kerosene lamps. NYU Abu Dhabi ’ s solution focuses on creating a network ofentrepreneurs and
technicians who will sell and fix solar lamps in a sustainable way.

Speaking in support of the winning team’s solution, SolarAid CEO Steve Andrews said: “Our goal is to eradicate the kerosene lamp from Africa by the end of this decade. That’s simply a huge challenge, which will only be possible with massive innovation. Having the top students from around the world competing to come up with great ideas for how we will do this is an extraordinary boost. It’s already changing the way we think and work.”

Ahmad Ashkar, the founder and CEO of the Hult Global Case Challenge, said: “This initiative aims to revolutionize how we think about the world’s most pressing social challenges. With US$1 million in seed capital, students from all over the world have a chance to establish social enterprises that achieve real results.”

Congratulating the winning teams, Hult President Dr Stephen Hodges added: “The Hult Global Case Challenge is an important part of Hult’s push to encourage social entrepreneurship among talented students, whichever country they come from. Through this visionary kind of crowd sourcing we’re giving NGOs access to a wealth of new ideas and perspectives that help them grow stronger.”

Image Courtesy of  Jose Gil / Shutterstock.com

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CADVA is teaming up with NYU Operation Dreamcatchers for an empowerment session with an art exhibit depicting domestic violence: ”Taking Domestic Violence Beyond the Social and Traditional Expectations of the Caribbean-American Community.”

It’s Part I in this series themed: ”REFLECTIONS; FACES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE .”This interactive session was embraced by other Caribbean Communities recently featuring the work of renounced Guyanese Artist, Carl Anderson.

February 25, 2012 marked the historic launching of  CADVA, INC. in Orlando, Florida, USA. Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness is a registered organization in the State of Florida, United States.

CADVA’s Goal: Leave a legacy and a roadmap behind for any one person who thinks he or she cannot make a difference.

CADVA’s Vision: “When Victims have no more strength, CADVA will be their strength. When they have been silenced, CADVA will be their voice. When they have been made to feel worthless, CADVA will transform them into priceless gems”

Work began long before the formal launch under Break the Silence, Say No to Violence, a message coined by Dianne Madray. This organization encourages, facilitates and teaches those having knowledge of abuse to speak up through the processes of empowerment, how to react when witnessing abuse and taking each peculiar circumstance into consideration. CADVA guides victims to make choices best suited for their own particular circumstances. CADVA brings ‘grass roots’ open discussion sessions to targeted communities.

CADVA was founded by a survivor, Sukree Boodram, author of Breakout: Surviving Abuse and Alcoholism. This is My Story. See more on her story at: www.sukreeboodram.com.

Launch venue as follows:

Location: 
The Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South
Room 914
NYC, NY 10012
April 9, 2012 6-8pm

Event Organizer: 
Melissa Bhikham 347-837-1010
mab718@nyu.edu
New York University
Founder & President, NYU Operation Dreamcatchers

CADVA launched in Orlando, Florida and Guyana, South America this year.  Refer to www.cadva.org for more information and how to help support Caribbean-American first Domestic Violence Organization.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Email:           help@cadva.org
US Phone#:  (407)-404-0331 Sukree Boodram, Founder and President
US Phone#:  (917)-399-5764 Dianne Madray, Chief Operations Officer/Program Director
Website:       www.cadva.org
Facebook:    CADVA (Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness)
Twitter:         CADVA

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The descendant of a survivor of the Titanic will travel from England to America to share letters and photographs of her great-grandmother, who was a women’s rights advocate and journalist and wrote an account of her rescue.

As part of the centennial observance of the sinking of the Titanic, Rosemary Gillham of Hertfordshire, will visit Norwalk for an exhibit at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum titled Epic Voyage: The Extraordinary Life of Titanic Survivor Helen Churchill Candee, and will bring her great-grandmother’s papers. The exhibit runs from April 25 to October 14,2012.

“My great-grandmother has always been an inspiration for me,” said Gillham. “She was 53 when she traveled on the Titanic, and that tragic evening was just one night in a long and very full life. She had already achieved a huge amount and went on to travel and write extensively.”

Candee was in Europe when a family crisis forced her to return to America aboard the Titanic on its inaugural voyage to New York, when it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank, resulting in the death of 1,517 people.

She fractured her ankle as she boarded Lifeboat 6 with the ‘Unsinkable’ Molly Brown. Afterwards, she recuperated at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, where she received get-well letters from friends, including First Lady Helen Taft. She was interviewed by the Washington Herald and wrote an account of her rescue for Collier’s Weekly.

Candee, who attended school in Norwalk and published her first book, How Women May Earn a Living, in 1900, wrote for National Geographic, Atlantic Monthly and the Ladies’ Home Journal. She was an organizer in the “Votes for Women” rally in Washington. She became one of the first interior decorators and worked for President Theodore Roosevelt.

During World War I, she volunteered with the Red Cross in Italy and continued to write. Her work, Angkor the Magnificent, is considered the first study of the Khmer temple.

To kick off the exhibit April 21, Dr. Stephen Coan, President and CEO of Sea Research Foundation, will talk about the legacy of the Titanic and be joined on video by ocean explorer Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic in 1985. Portions of Mystic Aquarium’s new exhibit, “Titanic – 12,450 Feet Below,” will be displayed at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

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The “TV Land Awards 2012,” honoring classic television, film and music icons, will return to New York City and be hosted by Kelly Ripa (nationally syndicated talk show “LIVE! With Kelly”), it was announced on March 5 by Larry W. Jones, president, TV Land. Ripa previously hosted the show in 2007.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the awards show will honor powerhouse songstress Aretha Franklin with the Music Icon Award and will be held at the Lexington Avenue Armory at Gramercy Park on Saturday, April 14th. The “TV Land Awards 2012″ will air on Sunday, April 29th at 9:00pm ET/PT. More honorees will be announced in coming weeks.

“We are ecstatic to welcome back Kelly as she reprises her role as host of the ‘TV Land Awards’ this year for our 10th annual celebration,” said Jones.  “Her energy, enthusiasm and love of television make her the perfect person to lead the evening on the occasion of our 10th Anniversary.”

The successful “TV Land Awards” has scored a decade of success including the record-breaking numbers from the “TV Land Awards 2011,” which attracted over 2 million viewers for its premiere telecast. The star-studded special, which was held last year in New York City for the very first time, was the highest rated “TV Land Awards” show since 2004 across all key demos and posted double-digit gains in rating and delivery over preceding shows.

The “TV Land Awards” pays tribute to classic and contemporary luminaries of television, music and movies. The 90-minute telecast will feature exhilarating musical performances and will reunite some of the most iconic celebrity TV casts.

Previous honorees include Regis Philbin, Michael J. Fox, John Travolta, Bill Cosby, Mike Myers, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Garry Marshall, the cast of “Glee,” “Desperate Housewives” and the hilarious sitcoms “Cheers,” “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” “The Facts of Life,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Bosom Buddies,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “M*A*S*H*.”

Past presenters include Academy Award-winner Halle Berry, Barbara Walters, Justin Timberlake, Ray Romano, Steve Carell, Billy Crystal, Sharon Stone, Robin Williams and Academy Award-nomineeRobert Downey, Jr., to name a few. Past musical performers include Liza Minnelli, Stevie Wonder, Blondie, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson and Lionel Richie.

Michael Levitt (“Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List,” “Billboard Music Awards,” “Scream Awards”) is executive producer; Five-time Emmy Award-winning Glenn Weiss is director (“Primetime Emmy Awards,” “BET Awards,” “The Tony Awards”); Greg Sills serves as supervising producer (“VH1 Rock Honors,” “The Teen Choice Awards,” “Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards”) and TV Land’s Larry W. Jonesand Casey Patterson are executive producers. Tim Bruno is executive in charge of production for TV Land.

TV Land and all related logos and titles are trademarks of Viacom International.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/cupcakestacie/

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In July 2004, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided over a celebratory signing ceremony at City Hall for a new law that banned the NYPD from racial or religious profiling. Advocates gushed. The mayor hailed the new law.

“Racial profiling will not be tolerated in our city,” Bloomberg declared after reading the law’s definition of racial profiling, which includes religion. “New York City is home to 8 million people of every race, ethnicity and religion from all over the world.”

Fast-forward to the present, and the NYPD has come under fire for spying on the Muslim community in the city and beyond, including using informants to prepare reports on political speech at mosques and dispatching undercover officers to map Muslim-owned businesses in Newark, N.J.

The activities seem to counter at least the spirit of the law. So, why hasn’t there been an investigation or enforcement?

The answer may lie in the text of the law itself, which experts say is vaguely worded and lacks a clear enforcement mechanism. Further, there appears to be little political will among city and state officials and prosecutors to go after the NYPD over profiling.

“The racial profiling law, to me, does not appear to be worth the paper it’s written on,” says Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor who is now a professor of police studies at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

O’Donnell and others point to the section of the law defining profiling. Here it is:

an act of a member of the force of the police department or other law enforcement officer that relies on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin as the determinative factor in initiating law enforcement action against an individual, rather than an individual’s behavior or other information or circumstances that links a person or persons of a particular race, ethnicity, religion or national origin to suspected unlawful activity.

Those two bold-face phrases are at the heart of the matter. The law does not define either phrase. “The word ‘determinative’ – what does that actually mean?” asks O’Donnell.

“The devil is in the details, and it all boils down to how we define profiling,” says Udi Ofer, advocacy director at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Right now, the definition is very weak. ”

That may be by design. The original version of the bill drafted by the city council defined racial profiling somewhat differently — it focused on the NYPD’s practice of “stop and frisk,” and it outlined specific penalties. Officers could have their leave reduced, be ordered to do community service, and be suspended or fired for violating the law. But the final version was watered down, reportedly following objections by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The measure was “reduced from a toughly worded proposal several pages long to a single paragraph,” the Associated Press noted at the time.

“Unless there’s an explicit enforcement provision, it’s difficult to enforce laws,” Ofer says. On Wednesday, City Councilman Jumaane Williams introduced a tougher anti-profiling bill, which outlines how victims of profiling can sue the city.

The city and state officials who might investigate have so far declined to do so or aren’t commenting.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last week said he would not to look into the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims, citing ”significant legal and investigative obstacles.” Asked by ProPublica about potential violations of the 2004 law, the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to comment. The office of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, which plays a watchdog role for city residents, also declined to comment on the surveillance of Muslims by the NYPD.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder did say this week that the Justice Department is beginning to review whether to investigate possible civil rights violations by the NYPD.

The 2004 anti-profiling law has apparently not yet come up in court, so there is no precedent that might offer clarity on its phrasing. “The 2004 law, as far I know, has never been used in terms of someone claiming in court that it’s been violated,” Ofer says.

As we noted earlier this week, the NYPD’s activity also raises questions about potential constitutional violations and other rules that govern police investigations.

Bloomberg’s office and the NYPD did not respond to requests for comment. The mayor recently maintained that the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims is “legal” and “constitutional,” though he has not repeated his earlier claim that the NYPD merely follows threats and leads, and does not consider religion.

by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, March 2, 2012, 12:53 p.m.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/americanprogress/

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In a decision that could set a national precedent for how local governments can regulate gas drilling, a New York state court on Wednesday, February 22, ruled for the first time that towns have the right to ban drilling despite a state regulation asserting they cannot.

At issue was a zoning law in Dryden, a township adjacent to Ithaca and the Cornell University campus, where drilling companies have leased some 22,000 acres for drilling. In August, Dryden’s town board passed a zoning law that prohibits gas drilling within town limits. The next month, Denver-based Anschutz Exploration Corp. sued the town, saying the ban was illegal because state law trumped the municipal rules.

 As Anschutz noted, New York law promotes the development of oil and gas resources in the state. State Supreme Court Justice Phillip Rumsey addressed this point in his decision, writing: “Nowhere in legislative history provided to the court is there any suggestion that the Legislature intended — as argued by Anschutz — to encourage the maximum ultimate recovery of oil and gas regardless of other considerations, or to preempt local zoning authority.”

The Dryden case is merely the latest in a string of similar conflicts arising from Colorado to Pennsylvania that pit local communities against state oil and gas laws. It is common for local governments to zone industrial or commercial land, or to institute ordinances for noise or traffic. When it comes to the development of natural resources like oil and gas, the industry contends that local government shouldn’t make those decisions.

In New York, the controversy over state regulation of fracking has been brewing for years. In 2008, New York effectively put drilling on hold while it launched an environmental analysis of fracking, a process that uses a mix of highly pressurized water, sand and other chemicals to crack the earth deep underground. This is the first ruling on an industry effort to use the mineral extraction law to get around local bans.

In addition to the environmental and health concerns over fracking, which we’ve covered in depth, a fundamental issue has been the rights of localities against state or federal laws. According to Eric Goldstein, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, the right of local governments to determine their own land use has been guaranteed by the Constitution for over a century.

“The argument is simple,” said Goldstein. “New York state laws shouldn’t override the authority of local governments to protect their constituents.”

In New York, two very similarly worded laws govern the regulation of mining and oil and gas drilling. The oil and gas provision gives the state the power to “regulate the development, production and utilization of natural resources of oil and gas.” The town of Dryden argued that it was not trying to regulate fracking but merely trying to protect its citizens and property.

It pointed out that courts have allowed towns to ban mining, and said Dryden should be allowed to do the same for fracking. The justice seemed to agree, concluding that the state’s oil and gas laws don’t prohibit localities from barring drilling.

Anschutz’s lawyer, Thomas West, said he was not sure whether the company would appeal the decision. Even if it does so, said Joseph Heath, an environmental attorney in New York, Tuesday’s win could help set a precedent for other communities. Despite the threat of similar lawsuits from a major corporation, local fracking bans and moratoriums have continued to grow in the last few years. ”People are now concentrating on local governments because that’s the best form of protection against fracking,” said Heath.

Such protection is unlikely to come from the states, as New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation has already deferred to the courts. When ProPublica interviewed the commissioner last year, asked him specifically about the potential for conflict between local municipalities and states. He said it was likely “that the courts will need to decide these issues in a lawsuit between the town and the drilling company, not the state.” Now, it looks as if at least one court has decided.

“[The Dryden case] is an important indicator of how those battles are likely to play out,” said the NRDC’s Goldstein, “although it’s not the final word.”

by Lena Groeger, ProPublica, Feb. 22, 2012, 5:51 p.m.

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Delta Air Lines now offers in-flight Wi-Fi service on all Delta Shuttle flights between New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Boston Logan and Washington National and on all Delta Shuttle flights between LaGuardia and Chicago O’Hare.

Delta operates the world’s largest Wi-Fi-equipped fleet of aircraft and by this summer more than 800 Delta aircraft, including more than 250 two-class regional jets, will be equipped with in-flight Wi-Fi service. More than 550 mainline aircraft are already Wi-Fi-equipped.

Delta is the first carrier to deploy Wi-Fi across its entire mainline and two-class regional fleet. When Wi-Fi installations on regional jets are complete, more than 400,000 Delta customers on more than 3,000 daily flights will have in-flight connectivity on a fleet that already makes up nearly half of the world’s Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft.

“Wi-Fi offers travelers the flexibility and tools to stay connected at 30,000 feet, enabling them to send email or finish a presentation before they reach their destination,” said Gail Grimmett, Delta’s senior vice president - New York. “We are thrilled that Wi-Fi is now available to our Delta Shuttle customers as it’s a perfect complement to other Shuttle amenities including free morning coffee and newspapers.”

Delta was named last month as the “Top Tech-Friendly U.S. Airline” by PCWorld magazine for its airport recharging stations, in-flight Wi-Fi on more domestic flights than any other carrier and smartphone apps with innovative features such as baggage tracking and airport check-in. The magazine also highlighted Delta’s 24-hour customer service via Twitter from @DeltaAssist, as well as the ability to book tickets directly from Facebook.

Delta also offers Delta Connect, its in-flight Wi-Fi portal, for access to real-time travel information, free news content from The Wall Street Journal and People magazine, exclusive shopping deals and entertainment options.

Delta’s Wi-Fi investments are the latest in the airline’s previously announced plan to spend $2 billion improving its products, services and facilities. As part of that goal, Delta is participating in a $1.2 billion project to expand Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport to create a modern overseas gateway.

When completed in spring 2013, the terminal will feature nine new gates, a state-of-the-art baggage screening system and one of the largest Delta Sky Clubs in the system. Delta also will spend more than $100 million to renovate Terminals C and D at LaGuardia after it takes over certain landing rights there from US Airways next month. Delta will add 100 new flights and 28 new destinations to become the leading carrier in New York by mid-July.

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The Levi’s brand launched its first ever global collection during New York Fashion Week at SoHo’s landmark Mercer 82 event space on February 15, 2012 afternoon. During the event— a hybrid between custom-made vignettes featuring pinnacle products from the line and a runway show— the Levi’s brand showcased the key looks from its Fall/Winter 2012 collection.

“Levi’s has always been about embracing the energy and events of our time. Today, fashion is more democratic and accessible than ever, making New York Fashion Week the perfect moment in time for the Levi’s brand to launch our first global collection,” said Len Peltier, Global Vice President of Creative Direction.

The Levi’s Fall/Winter 2012 collection is based on a more refined and tailored look, for both men and women. The designs were inspired by the idea of craftsmanship, honesty and authenticity – honoring tradition while defying convention, redefining the norm and re-crafting and re-creating iconic Levi’s styles.

The Presentation

The Levi’s presentation at New York Fashion Week was inspired by the ritual of “getting dressed.” The ritual of dressing for the task ahead is as old as humanity, and it is something that Levi’s has always intuitively understood.

Levi’s jeans found their original market among hardworking miners and pioneers who were carving a new nation. Levi’s products are still the first choice for modern pioneers: the artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and activists who are all working to realize their own, unique vision of the future. What they choose to wear every day is a display of how they want to carry themselves and their ambitions forward.

Through a series of vignettes, taking the form of sculptural installations and representing the consumer’s personal space, lifestyle and style, guests were guided through an art gallery-like space in which key looks from the collection were showcased. This was followed by a runway show showcasing the entire collection.

The Collection

Steeped in the authenticity and craftsmanship that the brand is known for, the collection is built around classic and refined styles with sharp clean aesthetics, which have been tailored to perfection.

The key trend for men this season is the tapered look, for a great flattering fit that sits just below the waist, is slouchy on the top and has a slim tailored leg.

For women, the key look for the season is the Bootcut Skinny, which the Levi’s brand has completely reinvented. No longer your mother’s bootcut denim, this season will see the launch of this new take on a classic – a sexy, modern skinny fit making you forever think differently about the bootcut.

As part of Levi Strauss & Co.’s profits through principles approach, sustainability is embedded throughout the collection with the use of Water<Less techniques and sustainable finishes playing a prominent role this season.

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U.S. courts are showing increasing hostility toward Chevron and its CEO John Watson over the company’s $18 billion Ecuador liability as the oil giant’s plan to quash the landmark case continues to falter in the hands of American law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, said representatives of the Amazon indigenous groups who offered an analysis of the 18-year case to its shareholders and industry analysts.

Leaders of the indigenous groups in Ecuador – who last year won the largest environmental court case in history — are presenting their analysis because Watson misled company shareholders about the case in an earnings call last Friday.  Watson failed to disclose his own conflict of interest in that he was a key Chevron executive who drove the purchase of Texaco in 2001 without properly vetting the company for its massive Ecuador liability, said Karen Hinton, the U.S. spokesperson for the Ecuadorians.

In the earnings call, Watson charged that the Ecuador case is part of an elaborate “fraud” to extort money from Chevron — a false statement that directly contradicts court findings based on scientific evidence, including evidence provided by Chevron itself, said Hinton.

“Watson uses rhetoric as a device to hide his failed leadership on the Ecuador case,” said Hinton.  “His comments about the Ecuador liability on the earnings call were misleading and should be treated with extreme skepticism by shareholders.”

For a more accurate analysis of the risks facing the Ecuador case than that Chevron is making in its quarterly calls or in its disclosures to the SEC, Hinton said shareholders should reference a report on the Ecuador case by Simon Billeness and Sanford Lewis that was published in May of last year prior to the company’s annual meeting. Both point out risks that Chevron has not completely disclosed, including the likelihood of standard collection actions against Chevron assets in various countries that are critical to the company’s operations.

Watson’s comments on the earnings call omitted key information that has emerged recently, as follows:

After eight-year trial, the Ecuador court in February 2011 found the company liable and imposed damages of $18 billion. The court found Chevron itself proved the company discharged billions of gallons of toxic waste into the environment, decimating indigenous groups and poisoning rivers and streams that local inhabitants rely on for drinking water.

On January 3, an Ecuador appellate court affirmed the trial court judgment and blasted Chevron for its “abuse of the judicial process” in Ecuador by filing frivolous motions and threatening a judge with jail time.  The court also upheld a punitive damages sanction against the company.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York last week rejected a Chevron attempt to seek a worldwide injunction blocking the Ecuadorians from enforcing their judgment, essentially nullifying the centerpiece of the U.S. component of the oil giant’s legal strategy.

Chevron’s lead outside law firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, has created even greater risk for Chevron shareholders by bungling key aspects of the litigation.

Since the firm took over the matter in 2009, Chevron lost the underlying case;  lost at the appellate level; lost a motion to attach  assets of the Ecuadorians in the U.S.; seen its plan to block enforcement overturned by the U.S. federal appellate court; and been exposed to potential criminal liability for trying to bribe Ecuador’s government.

Documents recently obtained via U.S. discovery actions shows that Chevron engaged in extensive acts of corruption and fraud in Ecuador.  Chevron doctored soil samples to mislead the Ecuador court and used a secret lab to hide evidence of toxic contamination; paid $2.2 million in hush money to a man who threatened to expose the company’s corruption in the Ecuador trial; tried to entrap an Ecuadorian judge with secret video recordings, and used U.S.-based experts to lie to the Ecuador court about the company’s deceptive field sampling.

U.S. and Ecuadorian courts have sanctioned Chevron for the use of unethical litigation practices done at the behest of Gibson Dunn and its lead partner, Randy Mastro.  Several U.S. and Ecuadorian judges sanctioned Chevron for harassing witnesses, filing a frivolous lawsuit, and abusing the judicial process.

Recognizing it could not win the lawsuit on the merits, Chevron recently tried to bribe Ecuador’s government with a “donation” to an environmental project in exchange for the “settlement” of the legal case without the involvement of the plaintiffs, according to sources within Ecuador’s government. Chevron never denied the reports of the attempted bribe, which might violate criminal laws in both Ecuador and the U.S.

Chevron also suffered a major setback in a U.S. federal appellate court in Philadelphia when Mastro was harshly criticized for seeking the case file of an American lawyer who represented the Ecuadorians.  The panel unanimously overturned a trial court order secured by Mastro.

Chevron faces potential criminal and civil liability for orchestrating a video scandal to entrap the Ecuador trial judge in a trumped-up bribery scandal.  Several lawyers working for Chevron, including Robert Middlestadt of Jones Day, have been deposed or face potential depositions in the matter.

One of Gibson Dunn’s investigators on the Ecuador matter, San Anson, was caught trying to pay an American journalist to spy on the plaintiffs.

The Gibson Dunn strategy also includes fomenting open conflict between Chevron and Ecuador’s government, a tact considered grossly impolitic for an oil major.  Chevron is already facing likely criminal charges in Brazil – a country with enormous reserves coveted by the company — for lying about its recent spill off the coast of Rio province.

Mastro, the mastermind of Chevron’s increasingly shaky legal strategy, was laughed at as he was unable to answer basic questions posed by the New York appellate panel that issued its order last week.  One judge even asked whether Chevron’s legal expenditures on the case was a good use of shareholder money.

Hinton said shareholders needed full information to be able to understand the risks facing the company.

“With these numerous setbacks over the last several months, it is even more apparent that John Watson and Gibson Dunn have brought Chevron’s shareholders to the edge of the proverbial cliff,” said Hinton.

“No matter what Watson does, Chevron simply cannot change the fact its horrific contamination in Ecuador is visible to the naked eye and has been confirmed by journalists and courts the world over,” she added.  “The evidence is so overwhelming that no amount of trickery can save the day for Chevron at this point.

“It is also becoming increasingly obvious that Gibson Dunn has sold Chevron’s management a bill of goods for which it has charged hundreds of millions of dollars over the last two years,” added Hinton.  “If this management team doesn’t monitor the situation more carefully, some additional and very unpleasant consequences for the company’s shareholders could be in store.”

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Blue Ivy Carter was born among the lavish extravagance that could only be the product of the second richest celebrity couple in the world, parents Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z (Shawn) Carter. Her arrival in Lennox Hill Hospital was enshrouded by partitions and restrictions in the neonatal unit.

There were covered maternity windows, and the security cameras were reportedly taped over. Some parents who were present on that same night are angry, because they were restricted access from their newborn babies as a result of the extra security measures. A man was separated from his wife and daughter for three hours, for reasons unknown to them.

Even the State Health Department was interested in the accounts of disruption to all of the other hospital patients. The spokeswoman for Lennox Hill, Ann Silverman, said the hospital received “no formal complaint” about security measures. She stated that, “The security plan was designed not to limit access to patient care areas.”

According to accounts, one guard went to far as to tell concerned parents that the extra security in the maternity ward was due to hazardous materials. The special treatment given to Blue Ivy was not singular to her parents, nor to Lennox Hill Hospital. Rather, executive suites are popping up all over the country, in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, among others.

The services that accompany these accommodations can include gourmet food, butlers, and in the case of Blue and parents, four flat screens in the delivery room. According to the New York Times, health care specialists say this is part of an international competition for wealthy patients, who have no problem with shelling out the money for these services. The idea in part of the hospitals is that this money will trickle down through the system an benefit the ‘regular’ patients.

As we witness the amount of growing amenities for those who are able to pay for them, the government is scaling back hospital reimbursement, in an attempt to streamline the health care system, and make it more equal, as well as affordable.

The same hospitals with special accommodations have crowded emergency rooms filled with long wait times and uncertainty. According to the Times, many New York hospital rooms are still at double occupancy, even as single occupancy is becoming the national standard. The extra space is optimal for infection control, as well as for quicker recovery time. The higher standard, though, appears to be reserved for those who can afford to pay for it.

Wealth can also serve as a target for fund-raising within a hospital. In a presentation posted online, titled “Grateful Patient Basics,” by a company called Blackbaud, fundraisers are urged to send hospital admissions lists to the development center in order to determine a patient’s wealth.

They are urged to do so shortly within admission to the hospital, preferably within hours. Hospitals are encouraged to make haste with a potential donor in their midst, with more visits from hospital staff, as well as special efforts to make the patient as comfortable as possible.

This would indicate that for those who are uninterested in becoming donors, wealth can also be a crutch in the healthcare industry. Although they may be made to feel more welcome during the hospital stay, it is not out of a gesture of selfless kindness. They too are placed in a position of disadvantage, albeit a different one, as someone who has to wait for hours before they are even called to triage, uncertain when they too will feel some measure of relief.

There is an unquestionable gap in the way patients are treated in hospitals. Those who can, pay for hotel accommodations in an institution where space is limited and precious. Their money is welcome, as is the possibility of future donations.

All others must languish in the emergency room, until a space is made in a double-occupancy hospital room.

Dylan Armajani / Shutterstock.com

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By the end of 2011, over 10,000 New York State healthcare providers had enrolled into a federally subsidized program that will help them transition from paper to electronic medical records, continuing the effort to improve the quality and coordination of care for all patients across the state. Federal and state data has long shown that health information technologies measurably improve healthcare and reduce its cost.

Called Regional Extension Centers, the program instructs doctors and nurses how to implement EMRs and teaches them how to achieve the federally defined “Meaningful Use” of them, which qualifies them for reimbursements. The program supports mainly primary care providers and small practices, who often struggle with the transition.
New York has two entities that administer REC programs throughout the state. The New York City Health Department, through its NYC REACH program, covers the five boroughs. The New York eHealth Collaborative, a federally designated public private partnership, oversees the rest of the state including Long Island.

Both entities created individualized programs while working closely together on shared goals. By the end of 2011, the REC programs combined had enrolled well over 10,000 providers, with each REC meeting its goal (NYeC goal: 5,107; NYC REACH goal: 4,543).

“Ten thousand is a big number, and we’re proud to have worked closely with our partners at NYC REACH to achieve it.  Of course, enrollment is just the first step, and now we are focused on helping all of these providers reach the Meaningful Use of these technologies.  That’s what will really help providers and their patients,” said Paul Wilder, director of the NYeC REC.

“In New York City, we’ve seen how health IT can help doctors. EMRs let them see which patients are falling through gaps in our health system and help practices set priorities to improve population health,” said Jesse Singer, DO, Assistant Commissioner at the NYC Health Department. “We are excited to help more doctors understand how to use data to improve the lives of their patients.”

“As a physician in a small practice, I can say I greatly appreciate what the NYeC REC has done for us,” noted Eugene Heslin, MD, owner of Bridge Street Family Medicine in Saugerties, NY. Dr. Heslin is also on the NYeC board of directors. “I’m excited to say that all five physicians in our practice have just attested to Meaningful Use.”

“Our practice made the decision to become a member of the REC in 2010.  Although we had successfully integrated EMR in 2006, as a busy OB-GYN practice, we realized that any resource we could tap to expedite achieving Meaningful Use would be a wonderful time management tool and stress reducer,” said Louise West, Practice Administrator at Myrtle Street Obstetrics & Gynecology, PC in Saratoga Springs, NY.

“In March of 2011, our practice was among the first in New York State to achieve Meaningful Use.  I would recommend membership to any practice wishing to achieve Meaningful Use, regardless of their current EMR status.”

“I am proud to be working closely with the extension center,” said Sumir Sahgal, MD, of Essen Medical Associates in the South Bronx. The practice has been working with the NYC Health Department during every step of EMR adoption, and now delivers state-of-the-art care to patients in one of the most underserved areas in the state.

“With more and more organizations adopting EMRs, I am looking forward to even more connectivity and having a full picture of my patients’ health at my fingertips.”

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The year was 1912 and Woodrow  Wilson was president.  Jim Thorpe won Olympic gold in the decathlon and pentathlon events at Stockholm, Sweden.  New Mexico became the 47th state in January followed a month later by Arizona completing the contiguous United States.  In April, RMS Titanic came to rest on the Atlantic Ocean floor at a depth of over 12,500 feet.

On assembly lines pioneered by Henry Ford, roughly 50,000 utilitarian Model T Touring Cars would be cranked out in 1912 — at a cost to eager buyers of $690.  While some Americans today annually spend that amount and more on coffee, $690 was a small fortune in 1912, resulting in the creation of a new class of criminal − the car thief.

The theft of three Chalmers brand automobiles from the streets of Chicago in the summer of 1912 led to the creation of the Automobile Protective and Information Bureau (APIB) under the leadership of Fred J. Sauter, whose employer, Boston Insurance Company, insured one of the vehicles.  Two different insurance companies covered the other vehicles.

Sauter recognized the efficiency in collaborating with the other companies rather than individually pursuing leads to recover the vehicles. Moreover, by casting his new organization as the bridge between insurers and law enforcement he established the model that exists to this day.

Recognizing Sauter’s success, several other organizations attempted to replicate APIB only to cause confusion among insurers and law enforcement as to which organization was the single point of contact for information.

All of that was solved in 1927 when the various groups were consolidated into the National Automobile Theft Bureau (NATB).  Fred Sauter was elected as NATB’s chairman and held that position until he retired in 1962.  Over the years, NATB built a reputation—unparalleled to this day—as the only organization whose special agent investigators define the term “subject matter experts” when discussing stolen vehicle identification.

NATB agents were routinely requested to find hidden vehicle identification numbers (VINs) or to “raise” identification numbers that had been removed by auto thieves attempting to hide the true identity of a stolen vehicle.

In 1992, NATB merged with the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute (ICPI) to form the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).  The merger combined the vehicle investigation expertise of the NATB with the insurance fraud prevention knowledge of ICPI and established NICB as the premier not-for-profit insurance crime investigation company.

In recent years, vehicle theft has declined, due to better anti-theft technology and law enforcement efforts, and many of the professional thieves have moved on to more insidious and lucrative kinds of insurance crimes — such as medical fraud and cargo theft.  And NICB, while maintaining its core mission of vehicle recovery, has also taken a lead role in combating these crimes.

When NICB questionable claims’ analysis showed a dramatic increase in medical fraud associated with auto policies, NICB established, in 2002, its first Major Medical Fraud Task Force (MMFTF) operations in south Florida and New York City.  Consisting of dedicated NICB special agents and analytical resources, these task forces also work closely with law enforcement and insurance company special investigation unit personnel.

The task force environment puts those resources together where communication, cooperation, collaboration and coordination are easily and effectively accomplished.  The result is a more coordinated and comprehensive attack on the most egregious kinds of medical fraud occurring within the task force’s jurisdiction.

The MMFTF model has been so successful that it has been replicated in Houston, Los Angeles,Washington, D.C., Edison, New Jersey (serving the Philadelphia and Delaware areas) and a secondFlorida task force was recently added in Tampa where Florida’s no-fault law enables auto policy medical fraud to thrive.

Every day millions of tons of merchandise are shipped by truck, train, rail and plane to destinations all across the nation.  While most arrive without incident, a growing number of shipments are stolen in transit by organized groups or individuals eager to make a fast dollar by selling the items through an established network of illicit brokers with direct access to black markets.  In response to this increasing commercial criminal activity, in 2006, NICB and the Marion County, Florida sheriff’s department established the National Cargo Theft Task Force.

“Insurance crime is causing billions of dollars in economic harm to the nation, the insurance industry and to individual consumers every year,” said NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle.  ”The schemes have evolved and have become more complex, but there is one constant through the ages; someone is getting something to which they are not entitled and for which all of us must pay.

“While the Chalmers automobile that was a popular theft target on the streets of Chicago a century ago may not have survived, NICB has not only survived, but has evolved into an organization that its 1,100 member companies and its law enforcement partners across the country can be proud to support.”

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The New York Giants repeated a comeback victory, similar to their 2008 Superbowl championship game, against the New England Patriots, scoring the final minutes to win 24-20 on Sunday.

There were no scoring drives in the first half of the game; however, the Giants where able to take the lead off a 22-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes, then a rushing touchdown from Brandon Jacobs a minute later, giving them a 10 point lead. Stephen Gostkowski was able to get the Patriots on the board with a 32-yard field goal with five minutes left in the quarter, making the score 10-3.

Five minutes into the fourth quarter, Tom Brady through the tying 5-yard pass to Aaron Hernandez for the Patriots’ first touchdown of the game. The Patriots took the lead in the third quarter off a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, making the score 13-10.

The final three minutes of the game was where all the action and tension was. Eli Manning took charge in an 85-yard streak of plays that ended with a 10-yard pass to Mario Manningham and a lead for the Giants. Brady responded by leading nine plays downfield for 64-yards, finishing up with a 14 yard pass to Rob Gronkowski, which gave the Patriots a 20-17 lead with a minute left in the game.

But a minute was all Manning needed to get the ball downfield in eight plays, and thanks to a 20-yard pass interference call on Patriots safety Sergio Brown that left the ball spotted on the one-yard line, a touchdown pass to Jake Ballard finished the game with the Giants winning 24-20.

The Giants (6-2) travel to California to face the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday, while the New England Patriots (5-3) travel to New Jersey to face the New York Jets.

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Tower Heist, starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Tea Leoni, lifts the curtain on the inner workings of a luxury high-rise and what it takes to keep hundreds of New York City’s wealthiest denizens satisfied. The residence managers for several high-profile hotels provided the filmmakers and the writers with insider tips about their experiences in overseeing top-drawer residences.

Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson recalls: “It was informative, to say the least, to speak with the people who work in these buildings. I interviewed everyone from doormen to housekeepers to building managers.  There’s a whole underworld to the New York building scene that exists in the basements that most people are unaware of. They make it all possible, and you just never see it. It’s fascinating.”

Almost every aspect of establishing Manhattan as the backdrop for Tower Heist’s action hinged on the filmmakers’ ability to execute some of the bigger set pieces conceived in the script. From the über-exclusive wealthy enclaves of Park Avenue to the working class neighborhoods in Queens, the crew needed to evoke the distinctive personalities of the city in a creative way.

Production designer Kristi Zea, who previously collaborated with the movie’s director Brett Ratner on The Family Man and Red Dragon — and most recently designed the luxuriously singular look for Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps — was the hands-on choice to visualize the diverse and complex production design.

Her extensive experience, particularly when it came to creating something as opulent as the character of Shaw’s penthouse apartment, was helpful in satisfying a multitude of requirements of Mark Russell’s visual effects department and Steve Kirshoff’s special effects team.

A tour of some of Manhattan’s most upscale hotels and high-rise residences helped to determine the scope of the fictitious building where the majority of the film was set. For the grand interior set of The Tower lobby, Zea ended up using an amalgam of what she observed on the tour, elevating the look and scale to create a sumptuously sophisticated design.

Ultimately, a sprawling top-floor apartment in the Trump International Hotel & Tower — located at Central Park West in bustling Columbus Circle — served as the model for the set of Shaw’s opulent penthouse. Zea recalls: “The inspiration was an empty apartment that was half a floor and had a staggering 180-degree view of Manhattan.

We were able to match up the walls of the building, but then what we did on the inside was all up to us. We had a blast with it.” With the cooperation of Donald Trump, who allowed the production access to several of his high-end properties, the filmmakers were able to incorporate true luxury locales in the film.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City was used to film exteriors, including portions of the re-creation of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a sprawling foot and car chase sequence that had the main- and second-unit teams winding along Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.

Ratner explains about lensing here: “That’s what’s so great about shooting in New York City. Every direction you put the camera, you have something special, whether it is an interesting face or a building or a landscape. When you point the camera in any direction, you have amazing visuals.”

Tea Leoni sums the cast’s thoughts on the scale of the production: “I can’t believe the city of New York gave us Columbus Circle for this scene. We had cars speeding and crashing through the streets. It’s a crazy scene with so much going on.”

Trump even offered up the rare opportunity to lens in the spacious underground parking garage and service center of the lavish Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The real-estate mogul made a point of visiting the set during a break from taping his television series, The Celebrity Apprentice, several floors up to see how Ratner and the cast were faring.

A key element to envisioning the sophisticated penthouse apartment was assembling a status-affirming art collection. Ratner, himself an avowed art lover, had specific artists and pieces in mind for the film. Zea knew of Ratner’s dabbling in this world, so she elevated the design aesthetic to reflect his passion for it.

Occasionally, Ratner would place a call or send an e-mail to cut through mountains of red tape required to include reproductions of pedigreed world-class artwork. To evoke the tastes of a savvy art collector, Zea went with a modern-classic design approach, punctuated with important multimedia art.

She explains: “These days, it seems wealthy people want to have wall power. They want to have art on their walls that means something and shows people, just like a car, that ‘I’m rich, I’m smart and I know what I’m doing.’” Reproduction works from masters, including Pablo Picasso, Francesco Clemente, Richard Prince, Francis Bacon, Ed Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, Alberto Giacometti and Andy Warhol, fill Shaw’s penthouse set.

Says Grazer of the final art choices they amassed for filming: “It’s a shame that someone as dishonorable as Arthur Shaw is allowed to be surrounded by this much beauty.”

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Saturday, hundreds of protesters who have gathered in New York’s Zuccotti Park since September 17 marched through the streets. Over 700 protesters, including some members of the media, were arrested as Occupy Wall Street protesters blocked the Brooklyn Bridge, snarling traffic.

Police zip tied protesters and loaded them into city buses to transport them to police stations. The protesters received tickets and were released. The protests, which have been harshly criticized by much of American media for being unorganized without demands, are gaining traction.

The protests are spreading throughout the United States like wildfire. Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco all have their own protests taking shape. On Wednesday, college students are organizing a mass student walkout on what is being deemed America’s “Day of Rage.”

On Sunday, Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate economist and professor at Columbia University, visited the large group. During his informal teach-in, Stiglitz points out that New York City does not allow the use of a megaphone or microphone without a permit. “The fact that you are not allowed to use a megaphone on a Sunday is outrageous,” Stiglitz says.

“We have too many regulations stopping democracy, and not enough regulations stopping Wall Street from misbehaving.” Despite the growing noise from protesters, most politicians, including the President, have been silent on the discontent. White House spokesperson Jay Carney was asked on Monday about the president’s reaction to the protests.

“I’m sure he’s aware of it because he follows the news,” Carney said of Obama’s familiarity with the movement, during a briefing. “To the extent that people are frustrated with the economic situation, we understand.” The movement is getting some more support. Mainstream media devoted more serious news time to the protests, even interviewing some leaders of the group on Monday.

Union workers from all over the country are supporting the cause and plan to take part in a march with Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday. The New York City bus drivers, who helped to transport the arrested protesters to police stations, stated they would not help out with any future arrests.

Workhouse Publicity, a Chelsea-based public relations firm, sent unsolicited emails to members of Occupy Wall Street offering to spread the word about the ongoing protests, The New York Daily News reports.

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