News, politics, commentary, and cultural reporting with a New York perspective.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Obama Marriage Equality Reaction
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Single Payer Healthcare Lobby Day
Private health insurance is eating us alive. We need single payer in New York State.
Assemblyman Dick Gottfried and State Senator Tom Duane are introducing a new-and-improved single payer bill. Join doctors, nurses and patients across the state in advocating for a truly universal and affordable health care system for New York !
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
May Day Die-In St. Vincent's Hospital
#MayDay: Parts 1 and 2 : Die-In @ St. Vincent's Hospital
On May Day Healthcare for the 99% and members of the community participated in a March, Speak-Out, and Die-In protesting St. Vincent's Hospital being closed and replaced by condos.
Die-In : Part 1
Die-In : Part 2
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
May Day Protest St. Vincent's Hospital
May Day Protest At O'Toole Building (St. Vincent's)
Members of Demand a Hospital and Healthcare for the 99%, an official working group of Occupy Wall Street, staged a picket, an OWS-style “speak-out,” and a “DIE IN” to draw attention to “A COMMUNITY WITHOUT A HOSPITAL” at the former St. Vincent’s Hospital’s O’Toole Building at 30 Seventh Avenue (between 12th and 13th Streets) on May Day from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Community groups cite the closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital as a public health crisis. The closing of the hospital has left more than a million residents, guests, and tourists on Manhattan’s Lower West Side without either a full service hospital or a Level 1 Trauma Center. Doctors, nurses, and patients will picket and stage a die-in to symbolize those who will die without access to necessary healthcare in the U.S.
While New York City, New York State, and the Medicaid Redesign Team make budget cuts to healthcare and close more and more hospitals, activists question why real estate developers and healthcare corporations can make large profits. In the face of public healthcare budget cuts and irresponsible and dangerous hospital closings, activists are organizing around the idea that a truly universal, single-payer healthcare system is the only viable option that will provide healthcare for all.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Dalida's Concert at Carnegie Hall
DALIDA at Carnegie Hall in New York (29.11.1978)
Photographs and video of Dalida in New York City, with excerpts of one of her most amazing concerts abroad, on November 29, 1978, when she performed in concert at Carnegie Hall.
Dalida sera toujours dans nos coeurs.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Trayvon Martin March For Justice
Media Contact : Carlene Pinto : (212) 870-6854 or cpinto@theriversdiechurchny.org
RELIGIOUS LEADERS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ORGANIZE
MARCH FOR JUSTICE ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN HARLEM
(New York, NY - April 12, 2012) —On Friday, April 13, 2012 at 5 p.m., the Mission & Social Justice Department of the Riverside Church of New York along with the Carry on Community Development Corporation of Convent Ave. Baptist Church will march for Justice through Harlem for Trayvon Martin and all the victims of racial profiling. The march is scheduled to begin at West 120th Street & Claremont Avenue and end at Convent Ave. & West 144th Street.
Event Date : Friday, April 13, 2012
Begin Time : 5 p.m.
Meeting Place : West 120th Street & Claremont Avenue
While our nation has awakened to the February 26th murder of Trayvon Martin, his case is but one example of a long-standing civil and human rights crisis that plagues our nation's history. This long-standing civil rights crisis has in this current period heightened the racism that institutionally cripples our society and our communities of color.
Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida, by a Neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman who pursued, confronted, and shot the 17-year-old who was unarmed. After weeks of doubt, Zimmerman was finally charged with Second Degree Murder by a Special Prosecutor. Zimmerman is expected to assert an affirmative defense under a controversial Florida law known as "Stand Your Ground."
“We will march for justice for Trayvon Martin, march for all of the victims of racial profiling, and march for the lives lost to an unjust, racialized system. We will march to never forget the names of the lives lost” said The Reverend Emery Ailes from the Prison Ministry at Convent Ave. Baptist Church.
March organizers call on all community organizations and churches to join the march tomorrow with hooded sweatshirts and posters of support. New Yorkers are encouraged to lend your voice to those who have been silenced -- and to use mass media to spread the word! -- that Trayvon Martin, Ramarley Graham, Danroy Henry, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and the numerous others that have lost their lives will never be forgotten.
The Riverside Church of New York along with the Carry on Community Development Corporation at Convent Ave. Baptist Church invite all members of the faith community as well as the Harlem and New York City communities to join the march as we continue to call attention to the injustices which affect all of us, our children, and our futures.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
George Zimmerman Information Document
Read the "Information Document" filed in the case of State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman
Special Prosecutor Angela B. Corey filed an Information document in the case of Trayvon Martin's murder case. The document brings charges of Second Degree Murder against the defendant George Zimmerman. The Information document was signed on Prosecutor Corey's behalf by Bernardo de la Rionda, the designated Assistant State Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit in the State of Florida.
Seminole County Court: George Zimmerman Information DocumentSupreme Court Healthcare Transcripts
March 28: Supreme Court Hearing Transcript - Department of Health and Human Servs. v. Florida
March 27, 2012: Transcript from the Supreme Court's hearing on Department of Health and Human Servs. v. Florida.
March 27: Supreme Court Hearing Transcript - Department of Health and Human Servs. v. Florida
March 26, 2012: Transcript from the Supreme Court's hearing on Department of Health and Human Servs. v. Florida.
March 26: Supreme Court Hearing Transcript - Department of Health and Human Servs. v. Florida
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Doctor Leaves America Over Its Broken Healthcare System
Because of the broken healthcare system in America, Dr. Carol Paris has decided to move her medical practice from Maryland to New Zealand. In this video, she tells us why.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Who is Stephen Berger ?
Who is Stephen Berger ?
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has set out to cut Medicare and Medicaid reïmbursements in the New York State budget by empowering Stephen Berger, the chairman of a private investment firm, to close entire hospitals in Brooklyn.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Abdo Nahmod, EMS Chief, Won't Release EMS Statistics
Call New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn at : (212) 564-7757 and ask her to demand that NYC EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod publicly release ambulance response and transit times for the Lower West Side of Manhattan. Ever since Speaker Quinn approved the Rudin family's billion dollar luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital, the community has feared that it would take more time for ambulances to respond to 911 emergency calls and to transport sick or dying people to the nearest hospital. We need to know what the EMS statistics are now that St. Vincent's has been closed.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Michael Dowling Andrew Cuomo Medicaid Cuts
The New York Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) is a 27-member body charged with cutting $2.85 billion from the state's Medicaid budget, so that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would not look like the bad guy.
In 2011, the MRT was scheduled to meet for 2 full days and have 4 days for consumers, advocates and other stakeholders to review proposals and offer feedback.
The team, however, decided that they could skip this process and push forward a vote to approve the package 4 days early. Effectively ignoring the voices and opinions of all those not on the team.