ReportWire

Tag: Manhattan

  • Jerry Seinfeld Accosted By Anti-Israel Protesters In NYC – ‘Nazi Scum!’

    Jerry Seinfeld Accosted By Anti-Israel Protesters In NYC – ‘Nazi Scum!’

    [ad_1]

    Opinion

    Source: FREEDOMNEWS TV – NATIONAL / SCOOTERCASTER YouTube

    The comedian Jerry Seinfeld was berated by anti-Israel protesters as he left an event in New York City on Sunday night, finding himself being accused of being a “genocide supporter” and “Nazi scum!”

    Seinfeld Confronted By Protesters

    The New York Post reported that Seinfeld was accosted as he left a Manhattan event that featured the former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, founder of the Free Press.

    “Genocide supporter, you support genocide,” one protester could be heard yelling at Seinfeld, who attempted to smile and wave as he was led into a vehicle surrounded by officers with the NYPD.

    The protesters continued to scream as Seinfeld’s vehicle drove away, with one of them yelling, “F–k you, you support genocide!”

    “Nazi scum!” other demonstrators shouted, according to Fox News. It should be noted that it could not be more bizarre and nonsensical that Jewish people like Seinfeld are now being referred to as “Nazis.”

    Related: 700 Hollywood Stars Sign Open Letter In Support Of Israel

    Seinfeld Attends Weiss Event – Previously Targeted By Pro-Palestine Protesters

    Seinfeld had just attended an event being held at the 92nd Street Y that was hosting Weiss, who was giving the community center’s annual State of the World Jewry address. Weiss has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, which has made her a frequent target of pro-Palestinian protesters.

    “Protesters were critical of Weiss, a strong supporter of Israel, and tried to connect her to the death of Palestinian professor and poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza in December in an Israeli airstrike,” The Post reported.

    Two of the protesters were arrested outside of her event last night.

    This was not the first time that Seinfeld was targeted by anti-Israel protesters. Back in December, pro-Palestinian demonstrators launched a protest of Seinfeld’s stand-up comedy show outside the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York, accusing him of being “complicit in genocide” over his support for Israel.

    The demonstrators used this protest to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas as well as an end to all U.S. aid to Israel, according to The Daily Orange. They also reportedly slammed House lawmakers for passing a resolution earlier that month that declared anti-Zionism as antisemitism.

    Seinfeld Visits Israel In Solidarity

    Undeterred by this, Seinfeld visited the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Be’er days later as part of solidarity trip to Israel, according to The Times Of Israel. There, Seinfeld and his wife Jessica met with Yuval Hara, whose father was brutally murdered in the Hamas terrorist attack that took place on October 7.

    Haran met with Seinfeld in the ruins of his family home, telling the comedian how much his father loved his eponymous 1990s sitcom “Seinfeld.”

    “When I heard that Seinfeld was coming to the kibbutz, it really moved me,” Haran said. “He is one of the characters that my father really appreciated, and I can’t count the number of times we would sit together and watch ‘Seinfeld.’”

    Related: Hollywood Director Quentin Tarantino Visits IDF Military Base In Israel To Support Troops

    Seinfeld and his wife also met with other survivors of the October Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people across southern Israel and resulted in around 240 hostages being taken.

    At the end of this visit, Seinfeld praised the survivors for how resilient they have been, saying that he is “proud to be an ambassador for spreading the truth throughout the world.”

    Seinfeld is one of the few American celebrities who actually stays quiet about politics, but it’s clear that what’s happening in Israel transcends any kind of politics for him. We hope that he continues to rise above the anti-Israel protesters who are targeting him, and we hope that he continues to publicly stand by Israel!

    Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
    The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”

    An Ivy leaguer, proud conservative millennial, history lover, writer, and lifelong New Englander, James specializes in the intersection of… More about James Conrad

    [ad_2]

    James Conrad

    Source link

  • Police: Man strikes woman in head with baseball bat on Manhattan street

    Police: Man strikes woman in head with baseball bat on Manhattan street

    [ad_1]

    CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) — A man is wanted for a violent attack with a baseball bat in Chelsea.

    Detectives say the man struck a 25-year-old woman on the head as she walked along 7th Avenue two weeks ago.

    It appears the attack was unprovoked.

    The woman suffered a gash on her head along with some bruising.

    The suspect is described as a man with a medium build. He was last seen wearing a black jacket, gray pants, a blue knit hat, and gray sneakers.

    ALSO READ | Man biking to mosque killed in Bronx hit and run

    Kemberly Richardson has more.

    ———-

    * Get Eyewitness News Delivered

    * More Manhattan news

    * Send us a news tip

    * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts

    * Follow us on YouTube

    Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

    Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

    Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    [ad_2]

    WABC

    Source link

  • Mourners leave flowers, letters for Flaco at his favorite tree in Central Park

    Mourners leave flowers, letters for Flaco at his favorite tree in Central Park

    [ad_1]

    UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) — At Flaco’s favorite oak tree in Central Park, many were leaving flowers and letters – it is just a glimpse at how loved he was.

    If only Flaco knew what he meant to New York City.

    Emily Einhorn of the Wild Bird Fund responded to the tragic discovery near West 89th Street on the Upper West Side Friday. An initial evaluation showed the Eurasian Eagle Owl flew into the window of a building and suffered fatal injuries.

    Flaco’s flight to stardom began in February 2023 when someone broke into the Central Park Zoo and freed him.

    He spent the last year out of captivity – roaming New York City, warming hearts and really defying odds – odds stacked so firmly against wildlife in the city.

    The Wild Bird Fund says light pollution at night is part of the problem – some activists are pushing for the city to pass ‘Flaco’s Law’ – anything to prevent the demise of a wild, beautiful creature.

    “Flaco’s loss is a big loss for the city. He was able to capture the imaginations of so many people,” said NYC Audubon Director of Conservation Dr. Dustin Patridge.

    ALSO READ | Newark holds first lottery to pick residents who can buy houses for $1

    Toni Yates has the story.

    ———-

    * Get Eyewitness News Delivered

    * More New York City news

    * Send us a news tip

    * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts

    * Follow us on YouTube

    Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

    Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

    Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    [ad_2]

    WABC

    Source link

  • “Hotel California” lyrics trial reveals Eagles manager cited “God Henley” in phone call

    “Hotel California” lyrics trial reveals Eagles manager cited “God Henley” in phone call

    [ad_1]

    Handwritten “Hotel California” lyrics at center of lawsuit


    Handwritten “Hotel California” lyrics at center of lawsuit

    00:42

    The Eagles’ manager once told their authorized biographer that his book wasn’t getting published because of friction from “a pampered rock star,” according to a recording played in court Thursday.

    “It’s gonna come out when God Henley says it can,” Irving Azoff said in the same years-old phone call, apparently referring to band co-founder Don Henley. “Now it’s up to God.”

    The recording emerged at the criminal trial of three collectibles experts charged with conspiring to hang onto and sell sheets of handwritten, draft lyrics to the megahit “Hotel California” and other Eagles favorites.

    The biographer, Ed Sanders, isn’t charged in the case, but he factors in it because he sold the roughly 100 pages to one of the defendants. Henley and prosecutors contend that the documents were stolen, saying Sanders obtained them from Henley’s home to research the book and was obligated to return them to the Eagles.

    Defendants Edward Kosinski, Craig Inciardi and Glenn Horowitz have pleaded not guilty.

    Hotel California Lyrics-Trial
    Former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, left, memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski, center, and rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz take their places on the defendants’ table in court on Feb. 21, 2024, in New York.

    Mary Altaffer / AP


    The never-published book is a side player in the legal case. But testimony about the book has shed light on the Eagles’ interpersonal dynamics and reputational aims around the time of the group’s 1980 breakup.

    And Thursday offered a behind-the-scenes look at music-business wheeling and dealing, and at the longtime manager whom Henley once called – affectionately – “our Satan.”

    Azoff has been the personal manager of the Eagles, one of the most successful bands in rock history, since about 1973. He’s managed many other big-name musicians, produced the classic 1982 teen comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and was CEO of Ticketmaster for a time.

    In 1979, as the Eagles were closing out the decade that brought them superstardom, they hired Sanders to pen a biography. The writer, who also co-founded the ’60s counterculture rock band the Fugs, had authored a noted book about murderous cult leader Charles Manson.

    “Pampered rock star”

    Azoff testified Wednesday that when Sanders turned in the Eagles manuscript in the early 1980s, Henley and Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey were “very disappointed.” Azoff said he found the draft’s discussion of the Eagles’ breakup “unacceptable” and the band never authorized publication because the book “wasn’t very good.”

    “It didn’t, to me, capture the essence of the joy of the story,” Azoff added on the witness stand Thursday, elaborating about the Eagles “chasing the American dream and how important they were to establishing Southern California as a mecca of music.”

    “Somebody else might have thought it was very good,” he said, but “we didn’t think it was good for the Eagles.”

    Hotel California Lyrics Trial
    Eagles manager Irving Azoff leaves supreme court after testifying, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in New York. 

    Mary Altaffer / AP


    Then one of Kosinski’s lawyers played a recording of Azoff proclaiming he was “phenomenally, absolutely happy” with the book.

    The recording, of a call between Azoff and Sanders, was undated but apparently from the 1980s. The defense said the writer taped it.

    At other points in the call, Azoff indicated that Frey didn’t have a problem with the manuscript and that “deals are done,” but there still was an obstacle.

    “Ed, you’ve been wonderful. The book is gonna come out – it’s just that I have a pampered rock star here,” Azoff said.

    Asked on the witness stand who the “pampered rock star” was, Azoff said: “Probably all of them.”

    “You’d agree that you told Mr. Sanders that the book was going to come out when ‘God Henley’ says it can?” attorney Scott Edelman asked at another point.

    “It was either me or Satan that told him that,” Azoff quipped.

    Henley said in the Eagles’ 1998 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction speech that Azoff “may be Satan, but he’s our Satan.″ Asked during testimony Wednesday about the remark, Azoff shot back: “Have you ever heard of humor, sir?”

    Notwithstanding the taped phone call, Azoff said Thursday that he didn’t remember any publishing deal for the Eagles biography, and he said years of rewriting never produced a book the band was willing to approve.

    “There were a lot of changing positions, but at the end of the day, I believe it was Mr. Frey who pulled the plug,” the manager said. Frey died in 2016.

    Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski are accused of deceiving auction houses, and trying to fend off Henley, by crafting bogus explanations of how Sanders got the documents.

    Horowitz, a rare-book seller who has brokered deals to place major archives at institutions, bought the Eagles lyrics drafts from Sanders for $50,000 in 2005.

    Horowitz later sold them for $65,000 to Inciardi, who was then a rock Hall of Fame curator, and Kosinski, who owns a rock memorabilia auction site.

    After Kosinski’s site offered four pages of the “Hotel California” lyrics in 2012, Henley reported them stolen but ultimately bought them for $8,500. After more sheets from that song and “Life in the Fast Lane” went up for auction in 2014 and 2016, Henley refused to negotiate more buybacks and turned to authorities again, according to prosecutors and Azoff.

    Defense lawyers say Henley gave Sanders the documents. The defense argues that the writer was the rightful owner when he sold them, and so were the defendants once they bought the pages.

    Sanders hasn’t testified, and it appears unlikely he will. He hasn’t responded to a message seeking comment on the case, and emails sent to him bounced back.

    “Hotel California” lyrics and meaning

    Frey and Henley wrote the lyrics to  1976’s “Hotel California” in a Beverly Hills house rented for the purpose, since the tidy Henley’s tendency to pick up after Frey “would drive them crazy” if they worked in their own homes, Azoff testified.

    Henley did most of the writing, he added, with Frey leaning in to make suggestions such as the phrase “Life in the Fast Lane,” which became the title of a hit single.

    In 2016, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King asked Henley about the meaning of “Hotel California.”

    “Well, I always say, it’s a journey from innocence to experience. It’s not really about California; it’s about America,” Henley said. “It’s about the dark underbelly of the American dream. It’s about excess, it’s about narcissism. It’s about the music business. It’s about a lot of different…. It can have a million interpretations.”

    The Grammy-winning song is still a touchstone on classic rock radio and many personal playlists. The entertainment data company Luminate counted more than 220 million streams and 136,000 radio plays of “Hotel California” in the U.S. last year.

    Henley is expected to testify. Defense lawyers have indicated that they plan to question how clearly he remembers his dealings with Sanders and the lyric sheets at a time when the rock star was living “life in the fast lane” himself.

    In 2016, Henley told Gayle King that the band was indeed living that lifestyle in the 1970s.

    “Yeah… Everybody was doing it. It was the ’70s,” Henley said. “It was what everybody was doing, which doesn’t make it right necessarily. And you know, looking back on it, there’s some regrets about that. We probably could have been more productive … although we were pretty productive, considering.”


    Don Felder plays “Hotel California” at the Met

    02:48

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • That $53 Million Debit Card Program For Illegal Aliens In New York City Is Much Worse Than Initially Reported

    That $53 Million Debit Card Program For Illegal Aliens In New York City Is Much Worse Than Initially Reported

    [ad_1]

    Opinion

    Screenshot: NYC Mayor’s Office

    New York City launched a $53 million program to provide pre-paid debit cards to illegal immigrants earlier this month.

    According to an analysis of the contract by the New York Post, the initial number is just a fee for the pilot program, while the contract allows for debit cards to be issued as high as $10,000 per illegal alien at a cost of $2.5 billion annually.

    “One misperception is that the program allows the city to give out just $50 million to migrants,” Post columnist Nicole Gelinas writes.

    Gelinas, a financial analyst and senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy, describes the debit card program as “an open-ended, multibillion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose.”

    “It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no ID check, no restrictions and no fraud control,” she writes.

    RELATED: Illegal Aliens Get $53 Million In Pre-Paid Debit Cards From NYC

    Illegal Immigrant Debit Card Program – $10,000 Each

    While it comes as no surprise that a government program would be more costly than initially estimated, the details of the contract seem to have been presented rather deceptively by New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office.

    When initial reports indicated that the debit card program for illegal immigrants would cost $53 million, the public was outraged, but Adams’ people presented it as a money saver.

    “Not only will this provide families with the ability to purchase fresh food for their culturally relevant diets and the baby supplies of their choosing, but the pilot program is expected to save New York City more than $600,000 per month, or more than $7.2 million annually,” Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said.

    Daily Mail explains that “the $53 million is not the total cost,” but rather, just a fee to the bank for its services.

    “City Hall has actually given itself the flexibility to disburse at least $2.5 billion on the pre-paid debit cards over a year,” it continues.

    The absurdity of the program is in the details.

    RELATED: Shock Video Shows Illegal Immigrants Assault NYPD Officers – They Were Released Without Bail

    NYC Making Them Promise Not To Abuse The Program

    New York City is paying a $53 million fee to implement a program with an “open-ended” contract to disburse at least $2.5 billion on pre-paid debit cards to illegal immigrants over a single year.

    All to save “$7.2 million annually,” according to the Mayor’s office.

    And that’s if the program goes smoothly and there is no fraud. Fortunately, New York City is very serious about eliminating waste and fraud from the program by relying on people who entered the country illegally to essentially pinky swear that they will use the debit cards appropriately.

    To ensure the funds are used properly, recipients must sign an affidavit swearing to use the money only for food and baby supplies or risk being removed from the program.

    In other words, they promise not to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws, despite their entire presence here being an effort to take advantage of unenforced rules and laws.

    Well, at least the city has contracted an experienced bank to run the program and ensure problems are minimized.

    Oh, wait.

    “What kind of experience did MoCaFi (Mobility Capital Finance) bring to this complex endeavor?” Gelinas reports. “None.”

    MoCaFi was given a no-bid contract. The founder of the financial institution previously claimed that the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 inspired him to serve the “underbanked” and “narrow the racial wealth gap.”

    The details of the debit card program for illegal aliens are far worse than initially reported, and certainly won’t dissuade those whom Adams once claimed would “destroy” the city from coming.

    Follow Rusty on X

    Democrat Jamaal Bowman Unveils Congressional ‘Hip Hop Task Force’ To Combat Racial Inequality

    Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
    The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”

    Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox… More about Rusty Weiss

    [ad_2]

    Rusty Weiss

    Source link

  • Loophole allows man to live rent-free for 5 years in landmark New York hotel

    Loophole allows man to live rent-free for 5 years in landmark New York hotel

    [ad_1]

    For five years, a New York City man managed to live rent-free in a landmark Manhattan hotel by exploiting an obscure local housing law.

    But prosecutors this week said Mickey Barreto went too far when he filed paperwork claiming ownership of the entire New Yorker Hotel building — and tried to charge another tenant rent.

    On Wednesday, he was arrested and charged with filing false property records. But Barreto, 48, says he was surprised when police showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment with guns and bullet-proof shields. As far as he is concerned, it should be a civil case, not a criminal one.

    “I said ‘Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend.

    Barreto’s indictment on fraud and criminal contempt charges is just the latest chapter in the years-long legal saga that began when he and his boyfriend paid about $200 to rent one of the more than 1,000 rooms in the towering Art Deco structure built in 1930.

    Barreto says he had just moved to New York from Los Angeles when his boyfriend told him about a loophole that allows occupants of single rooms in buildings constructed before 1969 to demand a six-month lease. Barreto claimed that because he’d paid for a night in the hotel, he counted as a tenant.

    New Yorker Hotel
    The New Yorker Hotel, center, is seen in a 2013 file photo A man who succeeded in using a New York City housing law to live rent-free in the iconic hotel has been charged with fraud after he claimed to own it.

    Peter Morgan / AP


    He asked for a lease and the hotel promptly kicked him out.

    “So I went to court the next day. The judge denied. I appealed to the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal,” Barreto said, adding that at a crucial point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners didn’t show up, allowing him to win by default.

    The judge ordered the hotel to give Baretto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out.

    Manhattan prosecutors acknowledge that the housing court gave Barreto “possession” of his room. But they say he didn’t stop there: In 2019, he uploaded a fake deed to a city website, purporting to transfer ownership of the entire building to himself from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by a self-proclaimed messiah, the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

    Barreto then tried to charge various entities as the owner of the building “including demanding rent from one of the hotel’s tenants, registering the hotel under his name with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for water and sewage payments, and demanding the hotel’s bank transfer its accounts to him,” the prosecutor’s office said in the statement.

    “As alleged, Mickey Barreto repeatedly and fraudulently claimed ownership of one of the City’s most iconic landmarks, the New Yorker Hotel,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

    Located a block from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, the New Yorker has never been among the city’s most glamorous hotels, but it has long been among its largest. Its huge, red “New Yorker” sign makes it an oft-photographed landmark. Inventor Nikola Tesla lived at the hotel for for a decade. NBC broadcasted from the hotel’s Terrace Room. Boxers, including Muhammad Ali, stayed there when they had bouts at the Garden. It closed as a hotel in 1972 and was used for years for church purposes before part of the building reopened as a hotel in 1994.

    The Unification Church sued Barreto in 2019 over the deed claim, including his representations on LinkedIn as the building’s owner. The case is ongoing, but a judge ruled that Barreto can’t portray himself as the owner in the meantime.

    A Unification Church spokesperson declined to comment about his arrest, citing the ongoing civil case.

    In that case, Baretto argued that the judge who gave him “possession” of his room indirectly gave him the entire building because it had never been subdivided.

    “I never intended to commit any fraud. I don’t believe I ever committed any fraud,” Barreto said. “And I never made a penny out of this.”

    Barreto said his legal wrangling is activism aimed at denying profits to the Unification Church. The church, known for conducting mass weddings, has been sued over its recruiting methods and criticized by some over its friendly relationship with North Korea, where Moon was born.

    He said he has never hired a lawyer for the civil cases and has always represented himself. On Wednesday, he secured a criminal defense attorney.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Review: Second Stage Theatre’s ‘The Apiary’: Stinging or Sweet As Honey?

    Review: Second Stage Theatre’s ‘The Apiary’: Stinging or Sweet As Honey?

    [ad_1]

    Carmen M. Herlihy and April Matthis in The Apiary. Joan Marcus

    The Apiary | 1hr 15mins. No intermission. | Second Stage Theatre’s Tony Kiser Theater | 305 West 43rd Street | 212-392-1818

    Science fiction may be a natural fit for movies and TV, where budgets allow CGI world-building and eye-popping F/X, but the genre flourishes in humbler forms of storytelling. Caryl Churchill probed the existential horror behind cloning in A Number and Jordan Harrison walked the uncanny valley with aide-mémoire androids in Marjorie Prime. Where does The Apiary rank among futuristic stage work? In Kate Douglas’s dark farce set a persnickety 22 years from now, bee populations are shrinking (even more) due to climate change. A pair of technicians who run a synthetic apiary think they’ve found a solution. But it’s going to take a lot of human corpses. The scientific stakes are fairly high—Earth is, um, dying—but after 75 minutes of tonal wobble, you may flit from Second Stage Theatre with little to buzz about.

    The Kate Whoriskey–directed production is part of Second Stage’s inaugural Next Stage Festival, which gives emerging playwrights an extra bump of prestige by opening in the institution’s midtown home. A piece such as The Apiary—compact, high in concept but green in execution—would make sense in the more intimate Uptown series on 78th Street, where the offerings are promising if rarely excellent. Douglas aims high by focusing her grim environmental fable through the lens of workplace farce and veering into pathos toward the end, but shiny design and an overqualified cast only highlight its limitations.

    Taylor Schilling and Nimene Wureh in The Apiary. Joan Marcus

    Zora (all-star April Matthis) is a new employee at the apiary where high-strung supervisor Gwen (Taylor Schilling) and earnest woman-child Pilar (Carmen M. Herlihy) feed and study endangered honey bees. (Healthy bee populations mean robust, pollinated crops for humans.) With her PhD in biochemistry and a longstanding admiration for the fuzzy insects, Zora wants to make a difference. First she surrounds the artificial colonies with fake flowers to stimulate activity. No good. When their co-worker Cece (Nimene Wureh) is found dead on the floor one morning (stage four thyroid cancer), everyone is shocked. Then Zora discovers bees hiving in Cece’s torso, and suddenly the queen’s egg-laying goes through the roof. Zora’s hypothesis: “The bees consumed and stored the flesh, like they would pollen. And the queen was breeding like mad in there.” So, behind Gwen’s back, Zora and Pilar begin to recruit women with terminal cases of cancer to donate their mortal coil to science. All of this is played, more or less, for ostensible laughs. When Gwen announces that the Netherlands is shipping five million bees to their lab, Zora and Pilar do the math and start freaking out.

    Occasionally, Douglas cuts to Cece at a support group for cancer patients talking about her mother’s superstitious belief that you must tell bees about all the good and bad happening in your life or they’ll sicken and stop producing honey. (Over the course of the play Wureh portrays three other “volunteers.”) During transitions between scenes, a dancer (Stephanie Crousillat) pops up inside the apiary’s “graveyard”—an enclosed glass area —to writhe and shimmy like a bee. Wearing skintight gray leggings and a gas mask, the lithe and sinewy Crousillat is a macabre but engaging sight. She is also, unfortunately, emblematic of Whoriskey’s tendency to throw ideas against the wall to buck up a sketchy text. 

    April Matthis and Carmen M. Herlihy in The Apiary. Joan Marcus

    The strained black comedy and one-note characters (Zora is controlling; Pilar is naïve; Gwen is selfish) would be forgivable if the world-building were credible or sustained. We get hints the climate is broken and all the research money is going into space exploration, but the latter point is used mostly as a punch line. It’s not remotely believable that Zora and Pilar would find dozens of willing suicides, much less smuggle them past security and keep them in the lab long enough for bees to colonize them. Much is made of the oppressive bosses “upstairs,” (cue actors actually tilting their heads up), but if we’re living in a bureaucratic dystopia, the CCTV is on the fritz.

    It’s a pity, because there is poetry at the center of Douglas’s vision: bees thrive when they feast on dead people. A metonym for the Anthropocene: enfeebled nature can only dance on humanity’s grave. Would-be weighty but disappointingly slight, The Apiary apologizes for its morbid topic with jarring zaniness and a twee last gesture at healing. There are valid ideas zipping through in the air—what constitutes a good death, can we be saved by communal matriarchy—but they lack a solid framework. Too much honey, not enough comb. 

    Buy Tickets Here 

    Review: Second Stage Theatre’s ‘The Apiary’: Stinging or Sweet As Honey?

    [ad_2]

    David Cote

    Source link

  • 31-year-old woman injured after rider on Manhattan subway train throws random object at her

    31-year-old woman injured after rider on Manhattan subway train throws random object at her

    [ad_1]

    LOWER MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — Police are investigating after a woman was struck by a random object while standing on a subway platform in Lower Manhattan Friday.

    A 31-year-old victim was standing on the northbound No. 1 train platform inside the World Trade Center Cortlandt station around 7:15 p.m. when a suspect, riding a northbound train, threw an unknown object at her.

    That object struck the victim in the leg, leaving her injured.

    The victim was taken to NY-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital where she’s expected to survive.

    The male suspect fled on the northbound No. 1 train.

    No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

    ———-

    * Get Eyewitness News Delivered

    * More Manhattan news

    * Send us a news tip

    * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts

    * Follow us on YouTube

    Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

    Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

    Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    [ad_2]

    WABC

    Source link

  • Stolen $100K Chagall painting returned to famed Manhattan art gallery

    Stolen $100K Chagall painting returned to famed Manhattan art gallery

    [ad_1]

    It was a pricey smash-and-grab robbery in the heart of midtown Manhattan that led to a famous work of art being stolen. Many thought the art would be gone forever, but that ended up not being the case.

    The mad dash down Madison Avenue by the painting pilferers was caught on camera in September. Exclusive footage obtained by NBC New York showed the thieves tear through the front window of Carlton Fine Arts and steal a Marc Chagall painting that the owner said at the time was worth up to $100,000.

    “The three major masters of the 20th century were: Picasso, Marc Chagall and John Miro,” owner Charles Saffati said in the aftermath of the robbery.

    Saffati said that the group of thieves parked on 55th Street before one of them walked down a block. He took out a hammer and broke one of the glass front doors, the owner said, before making off with the artwork, entitled Eve — one of only a handful in the world.

    Their getaway attempt wasn’t exactly picture perfect, trying to stuff the pricey piece of art in the backseat of a 1996 Honda Accord that has seen better days while rain came down on the artwork. The car had front passenger side damage and a rear tire missing a hubcap, detectives said.

    The shop has been in business since the 1960s, and its owner was shaken by the heist in the high-end neighborhood. Saffati questioned the detective when he said he would get the piece back and catch the criminals, wondering how it would even be possible.

    Then he got an unexpected phone call from NYPD’s major case squad.

    The search is on for the thieves who stole a work of art from Marc Chagall from a Midtown gallery in the middle of the night.

    “When he called me I thought it was a like a joke. I said this is amazing. This is like winning the lottery,” Saffati said.

    Detective Joseph Metsopulos arrested two of the thieves, but his team is still searching for a third suspect: The man seen on video carrying an umbrella.

    “Anything that happens on Madison Avenue you kind of want to take an interest in. It’s alarming when smash and grabs happen on Madison Avenue,” said De. Metsopulos. “Now there’s a third person still out there and we are hoping the public can view this photo and tell us who he is. Someone is gonna know who this guy is.”

    The Chagall piece was once again on display at the art shop. Saffati said that having a stolen piece of artwork returned was simply priceless.

    “It’s just a happy thing coming back to the gallery. It gives me confidence again,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Marc Santia

    Source link

  • DA Bragg addresses why no bail was sought for suspects in NYPD Times Square attack

    DA Bragg addresses why no bail was sought for suspects in NYPD Times Square attack

    [ad_1]

    Nearly a week after two NYPD officers were injured by a group of attackers in Times Square, the Manhattan district attorney initially dodged questions as to why his office did not seek bail for several of the suspects involved — some of whom have since fled the state, sources previously said.

    District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined early Friday afternoon to answer questions from NBC New York regarding the case and why several migrants accused of assaulting police were released without bond. He did not respond when asked if he thought not requesting bail was a mistake, instead walking past reporters without saying much at all.

    Seemingly caught off-guard by the questions, Bragg offered only one answer: “We’ll speak in court.”

    The Manhattan DA held a news conference to make it clear attacks on police officers will not be tolerated, after dodging reporter questions earlier in the day. News 4’s Melissa Russo reports. 

    The DA was attending a law enforcement conference which reporters were invited to by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has made it clear she disagrees with the decision to let the suspects go free without bail, and has called for the attackers to be deported. Hochul said the problem was not about weak bail laws, but rather the failure to use the laws in place.

    “All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” said Hochul.

    Bragg and Hochul met behind closed doors, but he was noticeably absent when the governor emerged for a news conference with several other district attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester. Hochul confirmed that she discussed the incident with Bragg, adding that she was “confident there will be more charges brought.”

    Hours later, Bragg convened an early evening press conference to try and clarify his position — insisting he would not tolerate attacks on police, following days of criticism and silence from his office.

    “We do not tolerate or accept assaults on police officers. I watched the tape this week, despicable behavior and it sickened me and outraged me,” Bragg said.

    The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. Bragg told reporters he did not request bail because he is proceeding cautiously to ensure they have the proper suspects identified in the case.

    “That is what is required to secure a conviction and get accountability and send the right people to jail. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bragg said, noting that the one who was “deemed to have committed the most serious crimes is currently on Rikers.”

    He also said the office has received more information than it did after Saturday, and he expects to get further information in the next few days. What remains unclear is if Bragg has any hesitation or concerns about whether they have arrested and charged the right suspects, even if they were not held on bail.

    Seven suspects have been arrested for the attack so far, and police officials have said at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held on Rikers.

    Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

    “Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

    Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

    Federal officials said that in many cases, New York officials do not alert them when an undocumented defendant is being released from court or jail. A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said bail was not sought in part because they were still sorting out which defendants committed which acts during the assault.

    An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates”; their next court date in New York was scheduled for March 4.

    Gov. Hochul said suspected attackers will face additional charges in the attack on two NYPD officers. News 4’s Jonathan Dienst reports. 

    Police do not track crime committed by undocumented residents, but arrest records show residents living at 30 of the city’s 200 migrant shelters have been arrested more 1,200 in the last year. City records show the top crimes include petit larceny, assault, grand larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and robbery.

    Former NYPD Chief of Department and current NBC New York consultant Terry Monahan said that while the vast majority of migrants are coming to the U.S. to seek better lives, crime is a growing problem.

    “A lot of times it shows it’s a first arrest for that individual because it’s the first time they’re here. And they’re getting sent right back out on the streets to do it again,” Monahan said.

    Gov. Kathy Hochul has shared harsh words for the migrants arrested.

    “Get them all — send them back,” the Democrat said Thursday. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”

    The lack of consequences for the suspects has sparked police pushback.

    “Why aren’t they in jail right now? They brutally attacked a police officer and a lieutenant. Our criminal justice system is upside down,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

    Details of the Times Square attack

    Authorities say the caught-on-camera brawl erupted as cops tried to break up a group of migrants in front of a shelter on 42nd Street, steps from the New Amsterdam Theatre. Police officials said Thursday that it is believed at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers.

    Multiple law enforcement sources said it all started when a couple of people walked up to the officers and said there was a group being disorderly, causing issues.

    Police went to check it out, and the situation escalated quickly. Video obtained by NBC New York shows the moments before the beatdown, as a police officer and a lieutenant were talking to the group. They put their hands on one person and suddenly, the cops are surrounded. They stumble down 42nd Street, where the officers fall to the ground, before being kicked, stomped and punched in the face and head. 

    Two officers were hurt when chaos erupted outside a migrant shelter in Times Square over the weekend.

    One lieutenant suffered a cut to his face. The other officer has injuries to the side of his body.

    “I’m appalled at this. The city, we have had enough,” said Chell. “The shame of this is they’re trying to keep this city safe, and they get attacked by eight cowards who are kicking them in the face, taking cheap shots.”

    Those arrested have been accused of assault or attempted assault on a police officer and gang assault. Several are charged additionally with obstructing governmental administration.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not commented on whether they will attempt to detain the defendants in this case. Camille Joseph Varlack, the chief of staff for Mayor Adams, said NYC’s sanctuary city status does not prevent police from coordinating with ICE.

    Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

    Violence at migrant shelters has been a burgeoning problem as of late, prompting demands for fresh quality of life initiatives in certain neighborhoods. The city’s largest shelter is on Randall’s Island, where a deadly fight broke out earlier this month. Three people were arraigned Tuesday in that case.

    [ad_2]

    Jonathan Dienst, Melissa Russo and NBC New York Staff

    Source link

  • Protesters scuffle with police during pro-Palestinian march near Columbia University

    Protesters scuffle with police during pro-Palestinian march near Columbia University

    [ad_1]

    A brief scuffle broke out between protesters and NYPD officers during a pro-Palestinian march and protest near Columbia University Friday afternoon.

    Chopper 4 captured video of a group protesters pushing and shoving with police and several people being led away in handcuffs at 119th Street and Amsterdam Ave.

    After the scuffle, the protesters continued on with a march in Morningside Heights.

    Around 5:15 p.m., another scuffle broke out on Broadway near 108th Street and at least one person appeared to be put in the back of a police vehicle by officer.

    Several physical altercations with police broke out during a pro-Palestinian protest and march on Friday afternoon in Morningside Heights.

    No word on any arrests from the NYPD.


    Chopper 4



    [ad_2]

    NBC New York Staff

    Source link

  • Port Authority provides update on plans for new ‘state-of-the-art’ bus terminal

    Port Authority provides update on plans for new ‘state-of-the-art’ bus terminal

    [ad_1]

    MANHATTAN, New York (WABC) — The Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City is getting ready to undergo a major transformation from an outdated and undersized commuter hub, to a state-of-the-art transit facility.

    Port Authority provided an update Thursday afternoon on plans for its long-promised modern bus terminal, a massive multi-billion-dollar project that will have to keep the current transit hub operating for the decade it takes to build on the busy west side of Manhattan.

    “New York City deserves a world-class, state-of-the-art bus terminal,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.

    The bi-state agency said the old terminal will be torn down and rebuilt, with an estimated opening date of 2032 for the new one.

    But before that can happen, a bus storage facility will be built that will handle bus operations in the interim.

    Once the storage facility is built, expected by 2028, bus operations will shift from the current terminal to the bus storage facility while the old terminal is torn down and rebuilt.

    After construction is completed, the Port Authority will give back 3.5 acres as green space for the neighborhood.

    When Port Authority first opened in 1950, it was also described as “state of the art” and “magnificent,” but now, seven decades later, the building is in need of improvements.

    Commuters arrive to leaks, cracks and tears — far from a modern marvel.

    The new bus terminal is expected to have new features like artificial intelligence for bus management, accommodations for future growth and larger buses, bus storage space, which the current terminal doesn’t have, and sustainability components including space for electric buses and chargers, heat recovery reuse and onsite generation of renewable energy.

    “It will reflect world class design,” said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton. “High ceilings, light and airy atmosphere, riveting, appealing, inspiring public art installations.”

    Commuters said they welcome the plan for a new and improved bus terminal.

    “If they’re going to make it better, then sure! I’d love to see it better,” one bus rider said.

    “It’d be nice to start all over again,” another rider said.

    Port Authority will be better, just not anytime soon.

    ———-

    * Get Eyewitness News Delivered

    * More Manhattan news

    * Send us a news tip

    * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts

    * Follow us on YouTube

    Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

    Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

    Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    [ad_2]

    WABC

    Source link

  • ‘The Animal Kingdom’ Review: This Family Therapy Weepie Is a Flat Zoo Story

    ‘The Animal Kingdom’ Review: This Family Therapy Weepie Is a Flat Zoo Story

    [ad_1]

    Clockwise from left: Tasha Lawrence, Uly Schlesinger, David Cromer, Calvin Leon Smith and Lily McInerny in The Animal Kingdom Emilio Madrid

    The Animal Kingdom | 1hr 20mins. No intermission. | Connelly Theater Upstairs | 220 East 4th Street 

    Theater critics and therapists have things in common. Both sit and listen to people talk about themselves, taking notes about telling turns of phrase or behavioral tics. After a session, both study their notes, assessing strengths and weaknesses. The main difference is that critics can’t prescribe; if we could, we’d be snorting Zoloft in the bathroom at intermission. On the plus side, the reviewer’s job is over after filing copy, whereas a shrink’s labor can drag on for years.

    Happily, the road to mental health is only 80 minutes in The Animal Kingdom, an oddly flat and obvious portrait of a family. Set entirely at group sessions, the play orbits around the attempted suicide of college student Sam (Uly Schlesinger), only 21 but with a decade of escalating self-harm under his belt. (Not that he’s allowed a belt in the treatment facility.) Sam and his timid younger sister, Sofia (Lili McInerny), are the products of a broken home. Rita (Tasha Lawrence) and Tim (David Cromer) are several years divorced but prone to glare and snipe.

    The family is (or was) nuclear and their psychodynamics follow the same symmetry. Withholding father uses silence as a weapon; mother fills the void with chatter to deflect and control; daughter follows after father in shut-down taciturnity; and son has inherited extreme depression from the maternal side. All very balanced, all very gendered. Sam is queer, which Rita insultingly implies was caused by the divorce, sending the boy into spasms of screaming rage. Honestly, I wish their problems were more interesting. Far be it from me to contradict the author of Anna Karenina but Leo, baby, are unhappy families really so unique?

    Calvin Leon Smith, David Cromer, and Uly Schlesinger in The Animal Kingdom. Emilio Madrid

    Kindly and soft-spoken therapist Daniel (Calvin Leon Smith) is a model of the mind-healing empath: sensitive eyes, encouraging murmurs, and a soothing ensemble of brown, orange and khaki. He painstakingly draws Sam out of his terrified shell, arms evolving from defensively crossed over chest to wearing shirts that don’t hide the scars. Likewise, each family member gets the chance to confess and process: Tim hugs, Rita sobs, and Sofia admits both anger at Sam and her own brushes with self-violence.

    Apart from giving actors a workout and fragile spectators a good cry, it’s not clear what playwright Ruby Thomas (also an actor) intends to say, except that the talking cure cures. The Animal Kingdom premiered at London’s Hampstead Theatre to admiring notices. Do they not talk about mental health in England? We can’t shut up about our trauma. The cast plays it American with no appreciable loss (or gain) of cultural authenticity, given how deracinated and circumscribed this world is. From the title on down, metaphors derived from nature pepper the script. Sam frequently alludes to examples among critters of self-harm, same-sex attraction, and infanticidal parents. When he notes that his major is in zoology, I dearly wanted Daniel to smack his forehead and say, “No wonder you keep making those annoying comparisons!” Perhaps the playwright wants us to view families as zoos, where beasts are unnaturally confined.

    Calvin Leon Smith and Uly Schlesinger in The Animal Kingdom. Emilio Madrid

    Visually, we never leave the zoo. A two-way mirror covers the upstage area of Wilson Chin’s austere, claustrophobic set, which includes a mint-green rug, gray plastic chairs, and little else. 

    Chalky white illuminates this sterile island from Stacey Derosier’s jumbo hanging light box. Completed by Ricky Reynoso’s just-stylish-enough costumes and sinister transition sounds by Christopher Darbassie, The Animal Kingdom is certainly attractively designed, its accomplished actors emotionally transparent and scrupulous in their vocal and physical “tells.” Director Jack Serio, who favors tasteful, intimate immersions (such as last summer’s site-specific Uncle Vanya) stages the affair cleanly, for better or worse. Given that Sam has long been a danger to himself, the story can resolve one of two ways. Was it bestial of me to thirst for blood?

    Buy Tickets Here 

    ‘The Animal Kingdom’ Review: This Family Therapy Weepie Is a Flat Zoo Story



    [ad_2]

    David Cote

    Source link

  • Driver indicted in Manhattan rampage that hurt ‘Black Panther’ actress, 8 others

    Driver indicted in Manhattan rampage that hurt ‘Black Panther’ actress, 8 others

    [ad_1]

    A 44-year-old New Jersey man has been indicted in connection with a vehicular rampage in Manhattan that injured nine pedestrians, including “Black Panther” stuntwoman Carrie Bernans, and a police officer, on New Year’s Day.

    Mohamed Alaouie is charged with assault, aggravated vehicular assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the frenzy that tore through midtown shortly after the ball drop to ring in 2024.

    According to court documents and on-the-record statements, Alaouie and his girlfriend sitting inside his BMW sedan near Seventh Avenue and West 33rd Street after spending time at a bar earlier in the evening. A bystander notified cops around 1:30 a.m. that Alaouie was attacking the woman, and the officer told Alaouie to put his vehicle in park.

    He instead reversed, allegedly, and drove onto the sidewalk of West 33rd Street, which was full of dozens of people. Court papers say he hit one victim before reentering the roadway and turning north onto Seventh Avenue, which runs southbound. The mother of that victim identified her as Bernans in a social media post. She had been dining outdoors in the crowd at the time of the crash and suffered multiple broken bones and teeth, her family previously said.

    Alaouie drove one block the wrong way before turning onto West 34th Street, with officers in pursuit on foot. He got stuck in traffic and started ramming vehicles in front of and behind him, prosecutors allege. Then he allegedly accelerated and hit a food cart on the sidewalk, which hit three pedestrians and pinned two others underneath it.

    The 44-year-old sped off again, driving onto the sidewalk and westbound on 34th Street, crossing Eighth Avenue and eventually returning to the road between Eighth and Ninth avenues, where he hit several other vehicles, prosecutors say. Alaouie also hit three more pedestrians and one police officer who was trying to stop him on foot.

    His vehicle eventually broke down after crashing into another car and police were able to arrest him. Cocaine was recovered at the scene, and from his pants at the hospital the following day, investigators said.

    Alaouie’s girlfriend was noticeably injured when she jumped out of the vehicle at some point during his spree, prosecutors say. One of the pedestrians was concussed, and another remains in constant pain from injuries to her elbow joint, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

    One of the two victims pinned under the food cart suffered skin and tissue tears from metal on the cart. That individual now needs physical therapy to be able to walk without assistance.

    Attorney information for Alaouie, of Fort Lee, wasn’t immediately available.

    “This defendant allegedly careened through packed sidewalks and streets during the busiest time of the year in midtown,” Bragg said in a statement announcing the indictment Tuesday. “His recklessness endangered the lives of countless New Yorkers and visitors who were ringing in the New Year. I hope the victims can fully recover from their injuries and thank the police officers who were on the scene to apprehend this individual.”

    [ad_2]

    Myles Miller and Jennifer Millman

    Source link

  • Donald Trump Goes From Calm To Indignant In Newly Released Deposition Video Of Civil Fraud Lawsuit

    Donald Trump Goes From Calm To Indignant In Newly Released Deposition Video Of Civil Fraud Lawsuit

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK (AP) — Months before Donald Trump’s defiant turn as a witness at his New York civil fraud trial, the former president came face-to-face with the state attorney general who is suing him when he sat for a deposition last year at her Manhattan office.

    Video made public Friday of the seven-hour, closed-door session last April shows the Republican presidential frontrunner’s demeanor going from calm and cool to indignant — at one point ripping Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit against him as a “disgrace” and “a terrible thing.”

    Sitting with arms folded, an incredulous Trump complained to the state lawyer questioning him that he was being forced to “justify myself to you” after decades of success building a real estate empire that’s now threatened by the court case.

    Trump, who contends James’ lawsuit is part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” was demonstrative from the outset. The video shows him smirking and pouting his lips as the attorney general, a Democrat, introduced herself and told him that she was “committed to a fair and impartial legal process.”

    James’ office released the video Friday in response to requests from media outlets under New York’s Freedom of Information Law. Trump’s lawyers previously posted a transcript of his remarks to the trial docket in August.

    James’ lawsuit accuses Trump, his company and top executives of defrauding banks, insurers and others by inflating his wealth and exaggerating the value of assets on annual financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.

    Judge Arthur Engoron, who will decide the case because a jury is not allowed in this type of lawsuit, has said he hopes to have a ruling by the end of January.

    Friday’s video is a rare chance for the public at large to see Trump as a witness.

    Cameras were not permitted in the courtroom when Trump testified on Nov. 6, nor were they allowed for closing arguments in the case on Jan. 11, where Trump defied the judge and gave a six-minute diatribe after his lawyers spoke.

    Here are the highlights from Trump’s videotaped deposition:

    ‘YOU DON’T HAVE A CASE’

    Telling James and her staff, “you don’t have a case,” Trump insisted the banks she alleges were snookered with lofty valuations suffered no harm, got paid in his deals, and “to this day have no complaints.”

    “Do you know the banks made a lot of money?” Trump asked, previewing his later trial testimony. “Do you know I don’t believe I ever got even a default notice and, even during COVID, the banks were all paid. And yet you’re suing on behalf of banks, I guess. It’s crazy. The whole case is crazy.”

    Banks “want to do business with me because I’m rich,” Trump told James. “But, you know what, they’re petrified to do business because of you.”

    Trump complained New York authorities “spend all their time investigating me, instead of stopping violent crime in the streets.”

    He said they’d put his recently jailed ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg “through hell and back” for dodging taxes on company-paid perks.

    At a previous deposition in the case, in August 2022, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions more than 400 times. He said he did so because he was certain his answers would be used as a basis for criminal charges.

    In this image taken from from video made public by the Office of the New York State Attorney General on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, former President Donald Trump is sworn in for a deposition on April, 13, 2023, where the former president came face-to-face with the New York State Attorney General Letitia James at her Manhattan, New York Office. (Office of the New York State Attorney General via AP)

    DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT

    Trump said he never felt his financial statements “would be taken very seriously,” and that people who did business with him were given ample warning not to trust them.

    Trump described the statements as “a fairly good compilation of properties” rather than a true representation of their value. Some numbers, he noted, were “guesstimates.”

    Trump claimed the statements were mainly for his use, though he conceded financial institutions sometimes asked for them. Even then, he insisted it didn’t matter legally if they were accurate or not, because they came with a disclaimer.

    “I have a clause in there that says, ’Don’t believe the statement. Go out and do your own work,” Trump testified. “You’re supposed to pay no credence to what we say whatsoever.”

    WHAT’S IN A NAME? $10 BILLION

    Trump estimated that his “brand” alone is worth “maybe $10 billion.”

    He called it “the most valuable asset I have” and attributed his political success to the ubiquity of his name and persona.

    “I became president because of the brand, OK,” Trump said. “I became president. I think it’s the hottest brand in the world.”

    ‘MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD’

    After Trump was elected, he put the Trump Organization into a trust overseen by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and longtime finance chief, Weisselberg.

    Trump claimed he did so not because it was required but because he wanted to be a “legitimate president” and avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

    Plus, Trump said, he was busy solving the world’s problems — like preventing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un from launching a nuclear attack.

    “I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives,” Trump testified. “I think you would have nuclear holocaust if I didn’t deal with North Korea. I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren’t elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth.”

    In one of his more animated moments, Trump urged his inquisitors to look right out the window for a view of his 40 Wall Street office tower — just across the street from James’ office where he testified.

    Asked how the building was doing, financially, Trump gestured toward the building with his thumb and answered: “Good. It’s right here. Would you like to see it?”

    “I don’t think we’re allowed to open the windows,” Wallace said.

    “Open the curtain,” Trump suggested, bobbing his head around waiting for someone to oblige.

    “Open the curtain, go ahead,” Trump said. “It’s right here. I just looked out the window.”

    “Can’t open it?” defense lawyer Clifford Robert asked, after a beat.

    “I wouldn’t,” Wallace said.

    ‘BEAUTIFUL’ AND ’INCREDIBLE’

    Trump showed off his knack for superlatives, uttering the words “beautiful” and “incredible” 15 times each and “phenomenal” six times as he described his properties.

    Trump called his Turnberry, Scotland, golf course “one of the most iconic places in the world,” and the renovated villas at his Doral golf resort near Miami “the most beautiful rooms you’ve ever seen.”

    Trump described his 213-acre Seven Springs estate north of New York City as “the greatest house in New York State.”

    His golf courses in Aberdeen, Scotland? “Really incredible.” Jupiter, Florida? “An incredible facility.” Just outside Los Angeles? “An incredible property … an unbelievable property … a phenomenal property that fronts on the ocean.”

    “I don’t want to sell any of them,” Trump testified. “But if I ever sold them — if I ever put some of these things up for sale — I would get numbers that were staggering.”

    He said he could get $1.5 billion for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and maybe $2.5 billion for Doral.

    Trump suggested he could get “a fortune” from the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV golf league for the Turnberry course, a former British Open site.

    “There would be people that would do anything to own Doral. There are people that would do anything to own Turnberry or Mar-a-Lago or … Trump Tower or 40 Wall Street.”

    Follow Sisak at x.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Watch Live: Crowds gather in Times Square on New Year’s Eve to ring in 2024

    Watch Live: Crowds gather in Times Square on New Year’s Eve to ring in 2024

    [ad_1]

    Crowds growing in Times Square ahead of New Year’s Eve ball drop


    Crowds growing in Times Square ahead of New Year’s Eve ball drop

    03:34

    NEW YORK — We’re counting down to New York City’s iconic ball drop on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. 

    Hundreds of thousands people are watching in person, while another billion look on from around the world. 

    Earlier this week, the giant 2024 numerals were hoisted into place atop One Times Square, and the nearly 12,000 pound ball got a bow tie makeover. 

    New Yorkers and tourists alike wrote their wishes for the new year on pieces of confetti that will rain down to ring in the new year, and some also said “good riddance” to things they’d like to leave behind. 

    So how can you join the celebration and watch the ball drop at the stroke of midnight?

    How to watch the ball drop streaming live

    Streaming: Watch our coverage of the countdown on CBS News New York. 


    CBS News New York

    Live

    Watch the Times Square Alliance’s live stream starting at 6 p.m.


    New Year’s Eve 2024 Live From Times Square by
    Times Square NYC on
    YouTube

    Where to watch the ball drop in person

    Join the celebration in Times Square, with the best view on Broadway from 43rd to 50th Street, or along Seventh Avenue up to 59th Street.

    Access points for the viewing areas:

    • 49th Street from 6th & 8th avenues
    • 52nd Street from 6th & 8th avenues
    • 56th Street from 6th & 8th avenues

    See our full guide for the ball drop countdown, with more information on when and where to watch, plus who is performing and how to avoid traffic. 

    CBS New York Team


    wcbs-cbs2-new-york-logo.jpg

    The CBS New York team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSNewYork.com.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Celebrate With These Simple Classic Cocktails

    Celebrate With These Simple Classic Cocktails

    [ad_1]

    it is weekend for the big celebrations – ring out the old and ring in the new!  Men, and especially women, will imbibe with a little something special over the weekend.  Champagne is the drink of choice for a practical historical reason. When bubbles started being bottled and sold to the masses in the 1880s, it was marketed as an aspirational beverage. Most non-nobles could only afford champagne on special occasions, and chose New Year’s Eve as the night to get it to manifest riches and fulfilled aspirations in the year to come.  This year, celebrate with these simple classic cocktails which use your favorite alcohol and add a little extra to the occasion.

    RELATED: What Is California Sober

    Classic Champagne Cocktail

    Find a good bottle and be prepared to have a good time!

    Ingredients

    • 3 ounces brandy
    • 4 ounces of Triple Sec, Cointreau or Grand Marnier
    • 1 bottle champagne or prosecco

    Create

    • Set out four champagne flutes
    • Pour ¾ ounce of brandy into the bottom of each glass.
    • Pour an ounce of Triple Sec or Cointreau into each glass over the brandy. Do not stir.
    • Top up with champagne.

    Use the leftover bubbles to make another round!

    Photo by Flickr user mariobonifacio

    Rose Kennedy

    This cocktail is names after the Jackie Kennedy’s mother in law. The family matriarch was a fan. This cocktail is also the grandmother of the New England highballs family of drinks that includes the Cape Codand the Cosmopolitan.

    Ingredients

    • 2 parts vodka
    • 3 part sparkling water
    • 1 splash cranberry juice

    Create

    Create in a tall or short glass over ice, stir and garnish with a lime wedge

    RELATED: The Most Popular Marijuana Flavors

    .Manhattan

    Nothing says old school sophistication like a Manhattan. Emerging in the 1860s-1870s, the Manhattan is regarded as the first “modern cocktail” due to the inclusion of an aromatised and fortified wine in the shape of vermouth

    ingredients

    • 2 ounces rye whiskey
    • ¾ ounce sweet red vermouth
    • 2 dashes Angostura aromatic bitters

    Create

    Stir all ingredients until chilled, strain, and serve straight up in a martini glass.

    Tequila Sunrise

    The original tequila sunrise contained tequila, crème de cassis, lime juice, and soda water, and was served at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel where it was created 1930s. It has been ragingly popular ever since. Try this simplified classic.

    Ingredients

    • 3 ounces orange juice
    • 1 ½ ounces your favorite tequila
    • ½ ounce grenadine

    Create

    Pour tequila and orange juice in a tall glass over ice, stir briefly to combine. Add grenadine and watch as it sinks.

    As you end one year and bring in a new one, may you enjoy yourself and celebrate.

    [ad_2]

    Amy Hansen

    Source link

  • Rep. Tim Burchett Claims Members Of Congress Have Been Blackmailed Over Jeffrey Epstein Information

    Rep. Tim Burchett Claims Members Of Congress Have Been Blackmailed Over Jeffrey Epstein Information

    [ad_1]

    Opinion

    Screenshot: PalmBeachPost YouTube Video

    Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) made a startling accusation on Thursday, claiming that he believes that members of Congress are “compromised” into not providing public information on notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

    Burchett’s comments came during a discussion with conservative political analyst Benny Johnson.

    The pair were discussing a letter the lawmaker had written to House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) requesting that he subpoena flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane.

    Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) previously pushed to subpoena Epstein’s flight records, but that effort was squashed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), who suggested that there was no public value in the information.

    Epstein, who was convicted of procuring for prostitution a girl below the age of 18 in 2008 and was facing sex trafficking charges until he died, according to authorities by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, was known to have traveled by jet.

    The jet earned the nickname, “Lolita Express.”

    RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy Gets Praise For Promise To Release Epstein Client List: ‘Every Candidate Should Commit To This’

    Have Members Of Congress Been Blackmailed Over Epstein Information?

    At one point during the interview, Burchett is asked in no uncertain terms whether he thinks the information on Epstein’s flight logs is so difficult to obtain due to members of Congress being “compromised.”

    In his questioning, Johnson leaves no room for ambiguity.

    “So you’re saying that right now … there are members of Congress who have been compromised by either special interests or the intelligence community to not give the American public information on Jeffrey Epstein?” Johnson asked.

    “I believe so,” Burchett replied. “One hundred percent.”

    Burchett goes on to slam “unelected bureaucrats” in the intelligence community who have, in his estimation, taken part in other efforts to keep information out of the public square.

    One only has to go back to the Hunter Biden laptop or COVID-19 censorship efforts to see such coverups in action.

    Johnson notes that “many (people) have speculated that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset” who would get famous individuals like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, or the Royal Family, in “compromising positions,” leading to his own personal wealth and power over those people.

    Burchett responded that he viewed Epstein as a “free agent” who would say, “Hey, I’ve got this guy and what will you give me to keep him under wraps?”

    RELATED: Joe Rogan: Epstein Kept That Painting Of Bill Clinton In A Dress To Let Him Know ‘I Got You B****’

    Who Else Has Been Compromised?

    Burchett and Johnson went into further detail about former President Clinton during their discussion of Epstein.

    Clinton had traveled on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” 26 separate times, according to a Fox News analysis, while other analyses of flight logs led to claims of fewer trips. Regardless, there is no denying he traveled on the plane.

    Doug Band, a former top aide to Clinton, made shocking allegations in a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair, including claims that the former president took a trip in 2003 to Epstein’s famed private island.

    Johnson contends that Epstein likely had an “enormous treasure trove of information on Bill Clinton,” and even referenced the oil painting kept by the sex trafficker.

    Epstein kept a disturbing painting depicting Clinton wearing red high heels and a blue dress hanging in his Manhattan townhouse.

    Podcast host Joe Rogan suggested that the painting was kept there as a means to remind Clinton who had the real power.

    “That painting is like: ‘I got you, b****,” Rogan said. “You know he knows about it.”

    “Imagine if I knew some horrible dark secrets about you and you came over to my house and I have a giant painting of you,” he continued. “Right when you walk into the front door of you in a dress and I’m like, ‘Hey buddy.’”

    “Do you think that Jeffrey Epstein was killed because our intelligence agencies were upset that this all happened, were angry that somebody was able to get one over on Bill Clinton?” Johnson asked the Tennessee congressman.

    “I don’t know if it’s our intelligence agencies or not, but somebody of power,” Burchett replied. “You know … there’s always a diversion in these things. You always look at ‘A’ and it’s always ‘A plus three’, somebody further down that list would push out Clinton.”

    “Because Clinton’s just a boob,” he added.

    Burchett even began wading into the notorious Clinton death toll conspiracies, saying it’s openly discussed in a joking matter inside the congressional gym.

    “They (Democrat colleagues) laugh about it,” he said. “About people that have met their demise, that have been close to them (the Clinton’s).”

    What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments section.

    Tucker Carlson: Deep State Working To Keep Trump From Winning ‘Like When They Killed Kennedy’

    Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
    The Political Insider ranks #3 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Political Blogs and Websites.”

    Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox News, Breitbart, and many more.

    FREE NEWS ALERTS

    Subscribe to receive the most important stories delivered straight to your inbox. Your subscription helps protect independent media.



    By subscribing, you agree to receive emails from ThePoliticalInsider.com and that you’ve read and agree to our Privacy policy and to our terms and conditions.

    FREE NEWS ALERTS

    [ad_2]

    Rusty Weiss

    Source link

  • Unfortunately, I Watched My Life With The Walter Boys

    Unfortunately, I Watched My Life With The Walter Boys

    [ad_1]

    Let me just start by saying that I actually hate romance, and I don’t discriminate. I hate romance film, books, and television shows: the tacky plot, the cringe writing, the insufferable characters. But, to be transparent, I watch every single teeny-bopper love triangle show on the market.

    I loved to hate The Summer I Turned Pretty, the adaptation of Jenny Han’s novel starring Lola Tung, Gavin Casalegno, and Christopher Briney in which Belly (Tung) falls in love with not one, but two brothers. It took over the world, having 30 year old women debating the question: Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah?

    The “stuck between two brothers” trope is ever-popular and goes hand-in-hand with the classic Love Triangle. Think The Vampire Diaries, where Elena can’t decide who’s really right for her: Stefan or Damon. Or Twilight’s ever-present battle of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. So when I hear that Netflix has released their dupe of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I figured it would be the same, deliciously terrible media that we all love to consume…

    Except it’s inherently terrible. Originally a Wattpad novel by Ali Novak, My Life With The Walter Boysfollows recent orphan Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez) as she’s forced to move from Manhattan to Silver Falls, Colorado to live with her mom’s best friend (and her plethora of 10 sons) on a ranch.

    Immediately, she’s torn between two boys: Cole, ex-football player who had a full ride to Alabama before he was injured (more on this later), and book nerd Alex, who is shy, soft-spoken, and making a play at Jackie’s heart. It has all the makings of the worst Hallmark film you’ve seen: overworked Manhattan socialite gets lost in small town with lumberjack that teaches her the meaning of Christmas. Except the men of the show are laughable at best.

    Starting with Cole (Noah LaLonde), who absolutely cannot let anyone enjoy a football game without having a tantrum that he can’t play. Seriously, the guy had a breakdown when he learned someone else was wearing his number. So obviously, the clear lack of therapy and emotional comprehension is already a red flag…and to make matters worse he’s still in high school, so he just doesn’t want to play football if you ask me.

    Jackie and Cole

    Netflix

    And then there’s Alex (Ashby Gentry). Hopeless, hopeless Alex. The Jeremiah of the brotherly duo. Poor Alex likes to read in his free time and is clearly the safer option for recently traumatized Jackie Howard. I have minimal problems with Alex in the same way I hate every character in this show, but his behavior offends me the least.

    The show begs the question: what would happen if you combine The Vampire Diaries, The Fosters, The Summer I Turned Pretty…and gave it no plot with bad writing? And don’t you dare blame it on the Wattpad of it all…how could you when it gave us cinematic masterpieces like After?!

    What is normally tolerable about these shows is that they are so simple, and the dialogue is so outrageous, that you physically can’t stop watching these characters ruin their lives. However, all I could think about while watching My Life With The Walter Boysis that every single character needs the heaviest of in-patient therapy.

    Nevertheless, like all incessant annoyances in my life, My Life With The Walter Boys has been renewed for second season. And I guess I’ll have to watch.

    [ad_2]

    Jai Phillips

    Source link

  • Nikola Corp founder gets 4 years prison for exaggerating claims on zero-emission trucks

    Nikola Corp founder gets 4 years prison for exaggerating claims on zero-emission trucks

    [ad_1]

    The founder of Nikola Corp. was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for his conviction for exaggerating claims about his company’s production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, causing investors to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    Trevor Milton learned his fate in Manhattan federal court when Judge Edgardo Ramos announced the sentence, saying he believed that a jury in October 2022 “got it right” when it convicted him. The judge also ordered Milton to pay a $1 million fine.

    “Over the course of many months, you used your considerable social media skills to tout your company in ways that were materially false,” the judge said, noting investors suffered heavy losses. “What you said over and over on different media outlets was wrong.”

    A report from Hindenburg Research back in September 2020 said the company’s success was “an intricate fraud” and based on “an ocean of lies” including showing a truck rolling downhill to give the impression it was cruising on a highway, and stencilling the words “hydrogen electric” on the side of a vehicle that was actually powered by natural gas.

    Soon after the report, Milton resigned, amid allegations of fraud and just two weeks after signing a $2 billion partnership with General Motors. “The focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me,” he said in a 2020  message to Nikola employees regarding his decision to step aside. He added that he would defend himself against accusations that the company made false claims about its vehicles, allegations that the company also rejected.

    Rambling statement

    On Monday, before the sentence was handed down, Milton fought through tears in delivering a half-hour rambling statement portraying some of his actions as heroic at Nikola and his intentions sincere as he sought to produce trucks that would not harm the environment.

    He claimed that big companies in the industry have followed his lead to try to create vehicles that would leave a cleaner environment.

    And he said he didn’t quit his company because of crimes but rather because his wife was dying.

    Milton did not apologize directly to investors or anyone else, but he asked the judge to spare him from prison.

    “I obviously feel awful for all the resources and time this has caused everybody. I don’t think you can feel human without feeling terrible for everyone involved,” he said. “My intent was not to harm others.”

    Milton was convicted of fraud charges after prosecutors portrayed him as a con man after starting his company in a Utah basement six years earlier.

    Judge says many people hurt 

    Called as a government witness, Nikola’s CEO testified that Milton “was prone to exaggeration” in pitching his venture to investors.

    At sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky urged “a significant prison sentence,” though below the 27 years in prison or more that federal sentence guidelines called for. Podolsky said Milton’s numerous statements on social media enabled a company’s founder to solicit “a large number of people over the internet. … to get a large number of people to trust him.”

    He said the crime had harmed a large number of people.

    Defense attorney Marc Mukasey urged no prison time, saying Milton had suffered immensely, leaving him “financially crippled” with private lawsuits and a Securities and Exchange Commission case yet to resolve.

    He said it would be difficult for Milton to find another job and, for his client, “not being able to work is like not being able to breathe.”

    As he left federal court Monday, Milton said he was confident that the appeal of his conviction will succeed.

    “I think we’re going to win it,” he said. “There are potential problems in the case which we outlined in the appeal. I think it’s going to be overturned.”

    Milton resigned in 2020 amid reports of fraud that sent Nikola’s stock prices into a tailspin. Investors suffered heavy losses as reports questioned Milton’s claims that the company had already produced zero-emission 18-wheel trucks.

    The company paid $125 million in 2021 to settle a civil case against it by the SEC. Nikola, which continues to operate from an Arizona headquarters, didn’t admit any wrongdoing.

    [ad_2]

    Source link