BayCurrentsISSUE6

Sheepshead Bay • Brighton Beach • Marine Park • Manhattan Beach • Coney Island • Gravesend • Gerritsen Beach • Mill Basin

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Vol. 7, No. 6, June 21 - July 19, 2011

Fr e e

Rent-a-Recall

The car you rent may be dangerous to drive

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Also Inside:

• Weiner resigns • Suspect arrested in boardwalk shooting • Israel on Nostrand • If your wallet is stolen...

• Twice the Advice • Battle for Brooklyn To advertise call 347.492.4432

Is fracking headed for our water supply? page 4 Page 1

DaviD J. Glenn Publisher Suzanne H. Glenn Editor eric lima Contributing Editor reDracH ProDuctionS Graphic Design & Production WritErs & Contributors i. Friedin Joseph reisman Kerry Donelli Jacqueline Donelli matt lassen Joseph Hayon

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We want to know your concerns, opinions, suggestions, praises, and criticism.

Write to us at: editor@baycurrents.net or LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bay Currents 2966 Avenue U, Suite 108 Brooklyn, NY 11229

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Bay Currents

A ‘Rosa Parks moment’ -- not The ban on smoking in any public park or beach in New York City has taken effect, with the inevitable protests from smokers who feel their civil rights are being violated.

Audrey Silk, founder of the “Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (with the catchy acronym CLASH), staged a Memorial Day “smoke-in” at Brighton Beach, which attracted a small horde of media representatives but only a handful of actual protesters.

She described the “movement” as a “Rosa Parks moment.”

I suppose every protester is entitled to a share of hyperbole, but comparing the “right” to smoke to the fight for human dignity and against racial persecution, is a bit much. Rather than elevate the issue to one of civil rights, it serves to denigrate the actual civil

rights struggle of the 1950s and ’60s.

I will say, though, that the city’s ban on smoking in a wide-open park or beach is itself an example of hyperbole and over-reaction. It’s counter-intuitive, and essentially unsupported by science, that second-hand smoke in open spaces -- especially by the ocean! – could pose any serious health risk to anyone but the smoker.

And there might be an unintended consequence to this particular ban pushed by Mayor Bloomberg. As smokers are left with fewer and fewer places to light up, about the only place they’ll be able to feed their addiction will be in their homes and cars. If they have children, it will mean the kids will be exposed to the poison even more frequently, in closer confines.

If Mr. Bloomberg is really

We will never forget him It has been a year since our friend, colleague, artist and fellow Brooklynite left this Earth. George L. Carde came into the world on July 5, 1951 and left it on July 5, 2010.

I met him in 2006 at the Brooklyn Skyline. It was a fun ride from the start.

We handled production for the paper -- it was always filled with laughter and joy, and we never knew what could happen next.

George had a great creative energy and wanted to make everything visual. He tried his hand at his own paper and design studio three times -- the last venture was Brooklynville based

in Marine Park. We created 12 issues for the community, for a time collaborating with Bay Currents.

George was a great friend and inspiration to us, and we will never forget him.

We know he is looking down on us and smiling.

-- rachel berger

interested in New Yorkers’ health, this latest ban may very well backfire. If he’s interested in the additional revenue from fines (the way the city looks at drivers as ATMs on wheels dispensing everincreasing parking fines), that may not work, either, since agents of the city Parks Department – who, not the police, are supposed to enforce the smoking ban – don’t appear terribly anxious to hand out tickets to people taking a puff on the beach; at the “smoke-in,” where protesters merrily defied the ban, no Parks agents were anywhere in sight.

The ban is simply a bad idea – not because there really is any such thing as “smokers’ rights,” but because from the standpoint of either public health or city revenue, it just won’t work.

Charlotte Bloomberg, mother of mayor, dies at 102

Mayor Bloomberg issued this statement on June 19: “Today, my sister Marjorie and I lost our mother, Charlotte, after an extraordinary 102 years of life. As the center of our family, our mother’s unimpeachable integrity, fierce independence, and constant love were gifts that profoundly shaped our lives and the lives of so many who knew her. Our family recognizes how truly blessed we have been to have her live such a long and full life, and to be able to carry her spirit with us forever.”

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June 21 to July 19, 2011

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Cover Story

Rent-a-Recall

The car you rent may have been recalled for safety problems

By DAVID J. GLENN publisher@baycurrents.net

*Minimum product and accessories purchase of $29.99. Does not apply to gift cards or certificates, same-day or international delivery, shipping & handling, taxes, or third-party hosted products (e.g. wine). Offer expires 11/15/2011.

If, like many others in the city and nation, you and your family are planning to rent a car this summer, you no doubt are assuming that whatever vehicle you choose is safe.

You may want to think again.

The rental car in which you’re placing your kids may have been recalled, but the rental company is giving it to you anyway.

And currently it’s perfectly legal.

They’re not even required to tell you.

Senator Senator Charles Schumer has proposed legislation, to be introduced this summer, to “put car rental companies under the same restrictions that car dealerships operate under, and make it illegal to rent a recalled vehicle to a consumer,” he said in a statement.

“If a car has been recalled, it shouldn’t be sold -- and it shouldn’t be rented,” said a Schumer spokesman.

Schumer’s legislation comes after the American Car Rental Association – made up of 94 car-rental companies including all the major ones --

announced a plan to implement a twotiered recall system that would allow individual companies to determine the seriousness of a recall before deciding whether to take a car out of their fleet until fixed. “That’s unacceptable,” said the Schumer spokesman, adding that this would just be a fox-guardingthe-henhouse arrangement.

“If they would at least be required to tell the customer, that would be a start,” he said. “But if not required, they won’t because they know no one would rent the vehicle.”

“Rental car agencies appear more interested in reaping profit by keeping recalled vehicles on the road then they do with ensuring the safety of the individuals and families who are driving their cars,” Schumer said in a statement.

“We need to make sure all recalled vehicles, no matter the type of defect at issue, are pulled off the road until they’re fixed.”

The legislation would subject rental car companies to the same regulations that prevent car dealers from selling automobiles under recall. “The current lack of federal standards puts New York families who rent cars or share the road with rental car drivers

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at serious risk,” Schumer said, citing a recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing that major rental car companies fail to address safety recall issues for many cars in their fleets before renting their vehicles.

Schumer described a recent tragedy in California to illustrate the dangers: Two sisters, Raechel and Jacquie Houck, rented a Chrysler PT Cruiser from a major rental company. One month before, the car had been recalled because a possible leakage of power steering fluid could cause a fire under the hood. The Houck sisters were killed when their rental car caught fire and slammed into an oncoming semi-tractor trailer.

The victim’s mother, Cally Houck, sued the rental company and was eventually awarded $15 million when the company admitted negligence.

“Under the proposal by the major rental car companies, we sadly could see more easily avoidable tragedies.

We cannot let that happen,” said Schumer.

Requests by Bay Currents for comment from the American Car Rental Association were not returned by press time.

Commemorating the sand, sea, and the beginning of the summer season, the 28th annual Mermaid Parade kicked off in Coney Island on June 18, as residents and visitors dressed up as mermaids, Neptunes and an array of real and mythological sea creatures.

BAY CURRENTS PHOTO / Eric Lima

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As ‘fracking’ moratorium ends, Weiner resigns Communities ask: Who owns the water? from Congress

By ERIC LIMA lima@baycurrents.net Energy companies biting at the bit to drill for natural gas in upstate New York, near the reservoirs supplying New York City’s drinking water, are anxiously waiting to see what happens after July 3 – when the state’s moratorium on hydraulic fractorization, or “fracking,” is lifted.

The process, developed by Haliburton, uses an array of toxic chemicals and copious amounts of water to break up underground rock and release the embedded natural gas. It’s been done in rural areas in six states, including Pennsylvania, and, as we described in a previous issue of Bay Currents, several small communities have reported their water supplies seriously contaminated, with incidents of water from the faucet catching on fire at the light of a match.

Democratic State Senator Tony Avella introduced legislation banning fracking in New York State, and Liz Kreuger, also a Democrat, introduced legislation prohibiting the use of fracking chemicals posing a risk to human health. Democrat Bill Sweeney’s bill requires certain chemicals to be labeled as hazardous rather than treated as standard industrial waste. The oil and gas industry unsurprisingly is opposed to all these bills.

Industry lobbyists reportedly have spent about $3.2 million since 2008 trying to get approval from state legislators – money that’s a tiny fraction of what is estimated to be some $2 trillion worth of natural gas underground in upstate New York.

Josh Fox’s 2009 film “Gasland,” depicting flagrant disregard by the natural gas industry for the health of the communities in the fracking areas, has largely reinvigorated the environmental movement.

At the heart of the matter is the threat to New York City’s drinking water. It comes down to the question: Who owns New York City’s drinking water? Who has the right to sell it or contaminate it? Does the state or the land owner have the right to lease the land near the Susquehanna River, where millions of people in the Northeast get their drinking water?

Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Canada’s largest citizen’s organization, the Council of Canadians, says many municipalities are looking for a way out of the current economic downturn.

“We have to make a distinction between control of local systems, and the decentralization of the right of local peoples, but we don’t want to abdicate the responsibility of governments to provide the law, the protection and the finances,” Barlow said at a conference last April on “Why Nature has Rights” at the City University of New York in conjunction with a similar conference at the United Nations.

“I know a lot of us are living in communities where the federal government has downloaded responsibility to the state and the next-level municipalities without any money, and we are finding a lot of our municipalities

totally strapped for funding and having to turn to the private sector to run water systems, build roads and sewers and so on… [This] is a form of handing off power to corporations.”

So should NYC’s drinking water go to the highest bidder? Can a small community succeed over wealthy corporations that influence – many would say manipulate -- public opinion and public officials? Mari Margil helped the city of Pittsburgh do just that.

Margil works for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), which helps communities and local groups use tools of democracy to fight what they view as encroaching corporate control of society.

She offered some suggestions as to how New York City communities could effectively fight fracking: They “could seek to amend their Home Rule Charter (the city’s local constitution) with a Community Bill of Rights. This would drive these rights into the local constitution – which generally requires a vote of the people of the city to amend the city charter. This means that the city council could not override that vote of the people, thus protecting the Bill of Rights from the political winds,” Margil said.

CELDF says the problem is that the natural world is considered private property in the United States, and so corporations have a right to do whatever they want with it, which includes fracking. The organization compares abuse of ecosystems with the way people abused slaves when slavery was legal and black people were considered private property, or when women were considered the property of their husbands.

Federal statutes limit how much corporations are allowed to pollute, but these laws are made by state legislators who are usually compromised by the very same industries that want to pollute, the CELDF argues.

Take the example cited in “Gasland”: Oil and gas interests were able to get the Energy Task Force, set up by then-Vice President Dick Cheney – who had been a key executive of Halliburton -- to exempt fracking from the rules of the Environmental Protection Agency.

A key problem now, CELDF and other groups point out, is that a recent federal court ruling on campaign spending in effect bestowed “personhood” on corporations. The CELDEF’s Community Bill of Rights strips corporations of such personhood and expands the rights of communities.

To date 14 municipalities in the U.S. have passed local laws declaring that their ecosystems are not private property, but have legally enforceable rights of their own.

As water becomes a scarcer commodity, communities in places like Vermont, Maine and California are denying the right of bottled water companies to drain their rivers and streams, and denying polluters entry.

Natural-gas drilling has landed two rivers on the annual list of the 10 most imperiled U.S. streams: the Susquehanna River in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, which provide fresh water to millions of citizens and businesses, and Wyoming’s Hoback River.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers 2011 1. Susquehanna River (NY, PA, MD) — Threat: Natural

8. Black Warrior River (AL) — Threat: Coal mining

gas extraction

9. St. Croix River (MN, WI) — Threat: Rollback of

2. Bristol Bay (AK) — Threat: Massive copper and gold mine

longstanding protections

3. Roanoke River (VA, NC) — Threat: Uranium mining

10. Ozark National Scenic Riverways (MO) — Threat: Overuse

4. Chicago River (IL) — Threat: Sewage pollution

and poor management

5. Yuba River (CA) — Threat: Hydropower dams 6. Green River (WA) — Threat: Exploratory drilling and mine development 7. Hoback River (WY) — Threat: Natural gas extraction Page 4

special Mention: Mississippi river (Ar, iL, iA, KY, LA, Mn, Ms, Mo, tn, Wi) — threat: outdated flood management Source: www.americanrivers.org

June 21 to July 19, 2011

By DAVID J. GLENN publisher@baycurrnets.net Facing increasing pressure from Democratic as well as Republican colleagues to step down, 9th District Congressman Antony Weiner did so at a crowded news conference Thursday, June 16 at the Council Senior Center on Quentin Road and East 10th Street in Midwood, where he had started his political career in 1991 by announcing his campaign for the City Council.

Thursday's announcement was decidedly different than the one two decades ago.

"Today I'm announcing my resignation from Congress, so my colleagues can get back to work, my neighbors can choose a new representative, and most importantly that my wife and I can continue to heal from the damage I have caused," Weiner said.

Weiner, 46, who was in his seventh term in Congress and had been a predicted frontrunner to succeed Mayor Bloomberg in the 2012 election, first said that he would not resign when he admitted sending lewd photos of himself and sexually charged text messages to young women over Twitter and then lying about it for 10 days.

But as more of the photos and "sexting" became public, calls for his resignation intensified, with even President Obama saying that if he were in Weiner's shoes, he would resign.

When Weiner declared at the senior-center news conference that he would resign, a heckler shouted ”Pervert!" and then hurled sexually insulting questions at him. Weiner ignored the heckler, who turned out to be a writer for radio shock jock Howard Stern.

Weiner said he was proud to have served the people of his BrooklynQueens district who “represent the same middle class story as

mine.” He said he was stepping down so that he could “continue to heal from the damage I have caused.”

Several of the elders at the Council Senior Center -- who seemed happy to get back to the "peace and quite, finally, " as one put it, after the horde of media crews left -- said they were disappointed that Weiner resigned, but that it was inevitable. "It was wrong what he did, and he couldn't keep his mind on his job," said Beatrice Florence Greenberg, 97.

Another Council Senior Center regular, Florence Greenberg, 82 (no relation to Beatrice) said, "I think what he did was stupid, but not a crime. She added that she didn't think he should have resigned, "just like I didn't think [Eliot] Spitzer should have resigned" as governor after admitting he was "Client 9" of prostitutes.

"I'm sorry for the guy," she added about Weiner.

Another of the seniors agreed that Weiner's sexting "was a stupid thing to do," but "it didn't bother me."

Many in Congress apparently were relieved that "Weinergate" would no longer be such a distraction, but they harbored no ill feelings. "There is life after Congress for Anthony Weiner and I hope he devotes himself to repairing the damage he caused to his personal life," said Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey, who attended the congressman's wedding last year to Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Visit us at: www.BayCurrents.net

There were no disputes when the Kings Bay YM-YWHA declared the borders of Israel to be from Avenue U to Avenue V on Nostrand Avenue -- just for a few hours on Sunday, June 12. The Y’s annual “Israel on Nostrand” event featured Israeli music, arts and crafts for the kids, kosher pizza, ice cream and cotton candy, and a petting zoo complete with rabbits, chickens, ducks, a goat, and a large turtle.

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June 21 to July 19, 2011

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Page 7

The Battle for Brooklyn

By ERIC LIMA lima@baycurrents.net For anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of the political system in brooklyn, bay Currents recommends the documentary, Battle for Brooklyn, the true story of a man who fought for eight years to stop his neighborhood from being condemned in order to build the Atlantic Yards sports arena. bay Currents interviewed Daniel Goldstein, who eventually lost the battle – but certainly not for lack of trying. Battle for Brooklyn is showing through Friday, June 24 at Cinema Village on 12th Street and University Drive in Manhattan (Why it’s not screening in brooklyn, is anyone’s guess.)

BAY CURRENTS: How did this all start?

DANIEL GOLDSTEIN: Patti Hagan, an activist and former journalist, did some research and saw a small article about Bruce Ratner interested in buying the Nets. In August of 2003 she saw this and started alerting people in the neighborhood about this and putting up flyers saying, “This Neighborhood Is Condemned”. In the fall of 2003, small meetings started happening, community meetings in churches and elsewhere.

Then, when they announced the thing in December 2003, people within the footprint started organizing, people outside started organizing, we started organizing together, and Develop Don’t Destroy [DDD] was formed in February 2004. It grew from there.

BC: What did Develop Don’t Destroy propose as an alternative project?

GOLDSTEIN: The rail yards are eight acres, that’s a large piece of land. The proper thing to do was for the MTA, to community officials, community boards, community stakeholders, to have meetings to understand what the needs of the neighborhood and broader Brooklyn were -- to create an RFP [request for proposals] to develop the rail yard, then the MTA would pay to platform the rail yard, divide it up into multiple parcels, and put it out to bid for developers. That’s what we wanted and the MTA didn’t do that.

Once the MTA did put out a request for proposal, we found the developer who proposed a project based on the community’s plan, the one we had been developing for a couple of years. One of our core principles was that eminent domain [the power of government to seize and offer “due compensation” for private property for public use] should not be used for a project like this, which meant that we were opposed to the arena for that Page 8

June 21 to July 19, 2011

main reason, because you could not build an arena there without eminent domain. It didn’t fit just within the rail yard, and the plan that we wanted was rather dense, a similar percentage of affordable housing, a similar amount of total units, because it was similar density, but on a piece of land a third this size.

BC: Why did Ratner reject DDD’s alternate plan?

GOLDSTEIN: We suggested they build over the rail yard, which they were doing as well. You shouldn’t use eminent domain just to build a sports arena. Ratner has the malls adjacent to it -- knock those down and build it over there. Ratner actually has the rights to develop two million square feet of buildings over those malls. Why waste that, when he can try and take this land? The question is… why did the arena and all the housing have to go there? There are various times in the last 40 years that the city and state did studies about an arena in Brooklyn and where it should be, and each time the place that was chosen was Coney Island. And there was still land in Coney Island that the city owned to build an arena there. Would people in CI be unhappy about that? Maybe or maybe not, but it would be a great way to bring business to CI in the off-season, and it wouldn’t be in the middle of residents, it would be on the waterfront. We showed how you could do it in the navy yard; how you could do it in CI. But the navy yards never, the city has other plans for it.

Ratner wanted it all in one spot because it’s a great piece of real estate and is adjacent to the real estate he owns already – it’s fantastic for him and the government fall in line for him…I wasn’t promising anything and he was. And there was some money behind his promises and politicians love to say they’re supporting job-creation and affordable housing.

BC: So where is the process at now?

Is it a done deal?

GOLDSTEIN: Now there’s an arena going up, the state seized all the land.

The arena’s going up but the rest of the site is demolished and vacant, and that situation has to change. Several organizations and community officials are going to make an effort to change the political dynamic to say, “Look we can’t let this land sit until Ratner thinks he can build on it, we need to do something else.” What that is, is any other number of options. One would be to go back to the original idea of cutting it up into multiple parcels so it’s more manageable for multiple developers, and then you can build on it. But Ratner right now doesn’t even have a design for a single residential building.

So unless politics change we’re going Visit us at: www.BayCurrents.net

to see an arena, and maybe a building or two and the rest sitting as parking lots for a very long time.

BC: What would DDD like to see done with the land now?

GOLDSTEIN: We lost the eminentdomain fight and the fight against the arena. Now it’s about this gaping hole of dormant land in the center of Brooklyn.

What do we want to see? From the very beginning we told them not to give this land to Ratner because he is going to demolish all the property and let it sit for a long time and that’s a bad situation. No one wanted to listen to us and now that’s the situation. The only choice we have is to tell them to build something there.

We would like to see true affordable housing and real open space as opposed to courtyards for private condos. Open space that would serve the public as opposed to courtyards that would serve the towers they are planning to build.

BC: How did the economic crash of 2008 change the proposed project?

GOLDSTEIN: It put them on the brink of failure, and Ratner had to sell the Nets and half of the arena to Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire, to bail him out. If he didn’t find a buyer he was done, and the reason he needed that money was because of the recession. So it did help us in that respect. Some people may argue that if we had backed off on the lawsuits and he started building earlier and then the recession hit…that might have ruined him.

Maybe that’s true, I don’t know if it would have been better for the neighborhood. It’s

a similar situation now, where you have something demolished, something half built and you can’t move forward. Bruce Ratner said at the groundbreaking and in an interview after, “A year ago I didn’t think we would be here. I thought we were done.” The projections for how much they can sell the condos for are a fantasy now.

So is any of that financially feasible for them now? If it is not, they won’t build until it does become financially feasible.

BC: What advice do you have for neighborhoods going through a similar situation?

GOLDSTEIN: Well, Willets Point is a different kind of neighborhood, it’s industrial and manufacturing and the city is condemning the whole area, destroying thousands of jobs and pushing smallbusiness owners out. I know the guys organizing there and they have to go to court. As long as these fixed political deals are going on where the City Council is not involved, or they’re involved but they’re not going to do anything differently than the mayor would, you have to go to court.

You have to rally public opinion to your side and litigate. If it’s eminent domain, go to court, because some judge in New York State is going to realize that this is not the intention of eminent domain. As far as just dealing with top-down development, life has gone on in Coney Island. You have to organize and try to unite communities and if you can do that you will get politicians on your side and you can get a change, maybe not stopping something, but modifying it to where it’s acceptable.

Around the Bay Smokin’ on the boardwalk About 20 smokers’ rights advocates gathered on the Brighton Beach boardwalk last month to protest the recently enacted smoking ban in the city’s public beaches, parks, boardwalks, and marinas.

“It’s just another day at the beach, friends getting together, in the great outdoors where it can’t possibly hurt anyone,” said Audrey Silk, the founder of Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (C.L.A.S.H.), which organized the “smoke-in.”

Officials “have lied to everybody,” she said while puffing on her favorite brand. “There’s absolutely no scientific evidence that smoking outdoors is hurting anyone. (City Council members] have preferred to rescind our civil liberties rather than walk away. What a tyranny we’re living under now.”

The protestors came from as far as the Bronx to light up on the boardwalk in front of news crews, but no Parks Department agents – who, rather than the police, are assigned to enforce the ban -- were in sight.

Don’t litter!

A group of children prompted by their parents gathered on Friday, June 10 to clean up East 14th Street between Neck Road and Avenue X and to post antilittering signs.

“It’s a labor of love,” said Assemblyman Stephen Cymbrowitz,

who, along with Borough President Marty Markowitz and City Coucilman Michael Nelson awarded certificates to the youngsters.

Authors on board for Brooklyn festival More than 100 national and international authors so far have signed up to participate in the sixth annual Brooklyn Book Festival, to take place Sunday, Sept. 18 in and around Borough Hall and Columbus Park. “Bookend” literary-themed events also return this year, with venues in clubs, parks, bookstores, theaters and libraries across the borough Sept. 15-18.

The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors, including timely and lively panel discussions.

Visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org for updates on author lineup.

Third one’s a charm?

Just as we were all finally getting used to a second area code – 347 – in Brooklyn, we now have a third.

The number 929 just joined the roster of area codes in the boroughs – except Manhattan – and will be assigned to new cell and landline phone numbers. Existing 718 and 347 exchanges will not be affected.

The explosion in cell-phone use created a need for a new area code to accommodate all the new numbers. It’s expected that all 718 and 347 numbers will be used up by next year.

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Page 9

Teen girl killed, 4 wounded in boardwalk shooting

19-year-old man charged with murder, assault A sudden shooting spree on the Brighton Beach boardwalk on Thursday afternoon, June 9 left a teenage girl dead and four others wounded.

On a day when the thermometer reached nearly 100 degrees and public schools were closed for Brooklyn-Queens Day, the beach and boardwalk in Brighton Beach and Coney Island were particularly crowded Police said a gunman starting firing shots into the air, then took aim at the crowd. The teen, identified as Tysha Jones, died soon after being taken to Coney Island hospital.

Another victim was in critical condition Friday afternoon.

“Tysha got killed for enjoying a day at the beach,” a devastated family friend, Glenda Farr, told the Daily News. “She was so excited about graduating from high school and going to college.

“Everyone around here loved her.”

The 16-year-old was a junior at Norman Thomas High School and lived in a Harlem apartment with her mother, Cynthia, her brother and sister, friends said.

Iloune Driver, 19, of East New York, described as a member of a street gang, was arrested on Monday, June 13 and charged with murder and assault. The intended victim was sitting near Tysha on the boardwalk railing, police said.

The shooting set off pandemonium on the crowded boardwalk. “It was chaotic,” said a woman visiting from Queens. “I just jumped onto my kids,” said another woman on the

boardwalk. “We all ducked.”

One of the shots went through a window of a sixth-floor apartment on Brighton 6th Street. “I was sitting on the couch [watching TV] and all of a sudden the noise came out of a clear sky,” a woman in the apartment told the New York Times. “I never dreamt it was a bullet. Never in my whole life.”

“It was a bad combination of guns, heat, beer and angry young men,” a police source told the New York Post, pointing to empty malt-liquor bottles littering the boardwalk.

The weekend after the shooting, the boardwalk and beach were back to normal. “It was like nothing had happened there at all,” reported Bay Currents’ Eric Lima. “People were walking on the boardwalk, going into the cafes and concession stands, and didn’t want to even talk about it.”

Nonetheless, there remains concern in the predominately Russian-American neighborhood, often dubbed “Little Odessa.”

“Of course we’re worried,” said Sergey Kovalyov, a Brighton resident and president of the Russian-American Community Coalition of New York based in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. He said that the crowds on the boardwalk since Memorial Day have swelled dramatically compared to just last year, with many people coming from different parts of the city. The number of undercover and uniformed police on patrol in the area this season should be increased “at least five or six times over,” he said.

Bay elder killed in hit-and-run Milton Levine, a 91-year-old Sheepshead Bay resident, died Thursday afternoon, June 16 after he was struck by a gray Nissan Pathfinder turning onto Nostrand Avenue at Avenue Y and then run over by another car as he lay in the street.

The driver of the second car accidentally ran over Levine as he lay sprawled on the asphalt after the Nissan continued away about 3:30 p.m.

The victim was taken to Lutheran Hospital, where he died two hours later.

“He was probably picking up the doughnuts and bread that they gave him from 7-Eleven,” said a neighbor. Levine would bring the

Milton Levine snacks to to the Shore Park Jewish Center on Avenue Y five times a week; he also volunteered at the Kings Bay Senior Center.

Borough President Marty Markowitz hosted the Spring 2011 Brooklyn Economic Development Summit in the newly renovated Brooklyn Community Room at Borough Hall on June 13. The keynote speaker was Robert Steel, deputy mayor for economic development. Also in attendance were Sean Luckman, Starbucks regional director of operations, and others in Brooklyn’s business community.

Business summit

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Page 10

June 21 to July 19, 2011

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In the Stars

Lonely Worlds

KCC prof, others discover new mineral in ancient meteorite A team of scientists – including a Kingsborough Community College professor – has discovered a mineral, lodged in an ancient meteorite, that had never been identified before.

KCC physics professor Dr. Harold C. Connolly, Jr., and Stuart A. Sweeney Smith, who worked with Connolly at the American Museum of Natural History as a City University of New York undergraduate intern, were

Astronomers have discovered an entire new type of exoplanets (those outside our Solar System) – a vast number of alien worlds the mass of Jupiter floating in space without any known host star.

While some of these exoplanets might be orbiting a star from a very large distance, most of them likely have no parent star at all, scientists say.

A nd, these or phan planets probably out nu mber planets with obvious parent st ars by at least

among the team that discovered “Krotite” in the meteorite found in northwest Africa. The mineral was named for Alexander N. Krot, a cosmo-chemist at the University of Hawaii, in recognition of his significant contributions to the understanding of the solar system.

Connolly and Smith, researching at the Museum, recognized in the meteorite the first rocks to form in the solar system.

50 percent, a new st udy says..

Astronomers have long predicted the existence of such “rogue planets,” but the apparent large number of them was a surprising find.

“Previous observations of bound planets tell us only about planets which are surviving in orbits now,” said study lead author Takahiro Sumi, of Osaka University in Japan.

“However, [these] findings inform us how many planets have formed and scattered out.”

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Page 11

Twice the Advice

By Jacqueline and Kerry Donelli Worried about vaccines Dear twins, Last week I took my baby in for his immunization shots, and now I’m worried sick that he might be autistic! I’m watching him like a hawk, concerned with every move he makes that it’s a sign of autism. Did I do think I made the right choice by giving him his shots? Should I be this worried?

- Fretting that I mad the wrong decision JACQUELINE SAYS: Dear Fretting, The ongoing debate between autism and immunizations seems to never end!

Scientific evidence does not suggest that the mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism, says the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md., and the researcher who originally sounded an alarm over a supposed vaccine-autism connection has been discredited. Some groups claim that a type of mercury called preservative thimerosal is found in certain vaccines and may be responsible for autism. That said, there is no evidence to date that vaccines cause autism. So stop your fretting.

KERRY SAYS: Dear Fretting, The signs of autism in infants include

an inability to communicate verbally and non-verbally, relate to others and the world around them and to think and behave flexibly. If you aren’t detecting these signs I wouldn’t worry.

Making the grade?

Dear twins, Our 17-year-old son is a great athlete, and is probably the most important player on his school’s soccer team. We told him that as long as his grades were good, he could continue. At last week’s PTA Meeting, we discovered that our son had changed two D’s on his report card to B’s. We were astounded and embarrassed that he would do this. Should we take him off the team?

KERRY SAYS: Tell him if he doesn’t get all B’s or better on his next report card then you are pulling him off the team. Period. Let him know that you will confirm his grades with his teacher so he doesn’t pull any fast ones.

And don’t waiver on this.

JACQUELINE SAYS: I disagree with Kerry. It’s way too late for that. You made a deal with your son that he’s to maintain good grades in order to stay on the soccer team and he broke that.

Furthermore, he was dishonest and lied to you about his grades. Yes, you should take your son off the team. Changing D’s to B’s

on report cards is a serious issue. Your son apparently can not handle playing soccer without failing his classes – and lying about it.

Overgrown child Dear twins: My husband has his weekly poker game at our house with his rowdy male friends, and they usually meet on a weeknight.

They are way too loud for the kids to get to sleep, eat everything in the house and drink beer until they’re obliterated. When his friends have left, the house is in total disarray, which I have to clean up, and I never complain about it. Now I, on the other hand, have my bridge club over once a month to play cards, which is very quiet, and my husband acts like an overgrown child by turning up the TV, interrupting our games with questions, eating the hors d’oeuvres, and being a general nuisance, which is both disruptive and humiliating.

When I complain to him about it, he denies it. Twins, what can I do with this inconsiderate, insensitive, overgrown kid?

KERRY SAYS: Dear Pushover, (Need I say more?)

The obnoxious, inconsiderate husband concerns me less than WHY you put up with his behavior in the first place. Did it ever occur to you that you’re a respectable,

honorable person who deserves a husband to treat her, at the very least, with respect and dignity? It’s hard to pretend a sentence or two here and there is going to undo a lifetime of personality traits in which you suffer from low self-esteem and he a self centered brat, but let’s try. Here’s what I’d do. First, give him the benefit of the doubt. Try a sit-down conversation with him where you explain that your home is in not a frat house, nor are you his live-in maid. Explain that if he wants to remain in a healthy, functioning marriage he must live up to his end of the bargain and be a considerate husband -- he is to be quiet and clean up his mess afterwards or bring the party to another house. If being fair and rational doesn’t get through to him, then go to Plan B. Collect all the garbage he left sitting all over the place in one trash bag and dump all of it on his side of the bed.

That should do it.

JACQUELINE SAYS: Dear Doormat Couldn’t have said it better. I’m leaving this one alone.

Have a problem? Maybe the twins can help. Contact them at

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Opinion

A Spiritual Holocaust in America?

by JOSEPH HAYON President, brooklyn tea Party The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof.”

This is the basis of our right to practice and worship according to our religious beliefs. We are told that since the U.S. Constitution is difficult to change, we can never lose our religious freedom. However, while amending the U.S. Constitution would need the votes of more than a thousand state and federal lawmakers, the interpretation of the Constitution can be changed with just five votes of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Court already ruled in 1983 that our religious freedom is limited -- as it should be. Religion that promotes terror, violence and murder should not be protected.

Unfortunately, there are anti-religious groups that believe that Judaism, Christianity and Islam should not be protected if they teach that same-gender marriage is an abomination.

In 1975, Bob Jones University, a Christian organization, enforced a rule to accept only devout Christian students into their school. Their public and private conduct was strictly regulated by the university standards. They had a sincere religious belief that interracial marriage was sinful, and any person that engaged in sinful activities was denied admission to the college. I strongly disagree with the position of Bob Jones University as did many religious Christians and Jews. However, this Supreme Court ruling is what the homosexual agenda is using to eventually force all religious people to accommodate gay marriages.

The Supreme Court ruled: 1) “All charitable trusts, educational or otherwise, are subject to the requirement that the purpose of the trust may not be illegal or contrary to public policy. Based on the national policy to discourage racial discrimination in education, a private school not having a racially nondiscriminatory policy as to students is not charitable within the common law concepts reflected in 26 U.S.C.S. §§170 and 501(c)(3).”

2) “A public charitable use must be consistent with local laws and public policy.”

3) “Whatever may be the rationale for such private schools’ policies, and however sincere the rationale may be, racial discrimination in education is contrary to public policy.”

4) “The Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Const. amend. I is an absolute prohibition against governmental regulation of religious beliefs. The Free Exercise Clause provides substantial protection for lawful conduct grounded in religious belief. However, not all burdens on religion are unconstitutional, and the state may justify a limitation on religious liberty by showing that it is essential to accomplish an overriding governmental interest.”

This ruling took away the tax-exempt status from the college for discriminating based on race. Yet, religious schools still discriminate based on gender and religion and have not lost their tax-exempt status. This could be explained once we fully understand what is “public policy”.

Public policy is an extremely complicated legal term with college courses devoted to this term. After reading many court decisions, I found that public policy tends to be influenced by the current laws. Since the Civil Rights Act provides an exception to religious non-profits to discriminate based on gender and religion, no religious school has violated “public policy” and can still keep their tax exempt status.

The New York State Constitution states: § 3. “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this state to all humankind;… but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state.”

Again, as long as no religious practice is “inconsistent with the peace” or violates public policy, we can wear our religion proudly. The state legislators write laws that end up determining public policy, and if there should be a law passed forcing religious private schools to teach 5 year-old-children to accept, as perfectly moral, the idea of two men dating and marrying, the schools would be forced to teach this, or face

losing tax exempt status for violating public policy.

All of the gay “rights,” including gay “marriage,” and separation of church and state laws are chipping away at our religious freedom with the courts ruling against religion.

In New York, Yeshiva University was forced to provide housing to a non-student lesbian partner.

In New Jersey, a church refusing to rent their wedding facilities to a lesbian couple lost in court. Similarly a New Mexico photographer refusing to provide services to a lesbian couple lost his case in court.

In Tennessee, a public school student lost in court and is prohibited from teaching the Bible during recess.

In Canada, a law passed in 2004 (Bill C-250) that reads in part, “Everyone who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.” An “identifiable group” includes those of particular “sexual orientation There are other incidents where religious people suffered for their beliefs: A New York City taxi driver lost his job because he wouldn’t let two men kiss in the car. In Maine, a social worker almost lost his license for speaking out against same-gender marriage. In Vallejo, California, Mayor Osby Davis was asked to resign in 2009 because he expressed the belief that samegender marriage is sinful. In Brooklyn, a nurse, Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, was forced to participate in a late-term abortion, and Julian Raven was arrested by upstate Elmira police for praying in a public place.

There are many proposed bills in Congress and the state legislatures that will bring a spiritual holocaust.

Same-sex marriage is already legal in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont. New York recognizes these marriages if the pairs move here, and of this writing, the state Senate was one vote shy of legalizing same-sex marriage, already passed by the Assembly.

We are seriously in danger of losing our rights as parents to teach our children; our rights to practice our religion, and our rights as citizens to free speech.

Come study the Torah with us Wednesday evenings

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Kids for Kids We continue with Kids for Kids, periodically showcasing the writings of school students in southern brooklyn . Although the high school we’ve selected this time, Yeshiva ohr Eliezer, is presently in Howard beach, Queens, most of the kids are from our area. the school, which relocated to Howard beach just this year, has a 17-year history of accepting students with a variety of levels of Jewish religious background.

A Spiritual Journey

By Joseph Steinberg This is the story of my Mom, Barbara Scheinberg, who embarked on a spiritual journey.

It resulted in her finding her religious faith, which enabled her to acquire the strength she needed to overcome many life challenges. From her story, I have learned that one must never give up -- a goal can be achieved.

Mom was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, in a friendly, country-like setting. She went through high school with good grades and was all set to begin college. However, because of an unforeseen coincidence and a strong interest in her religious heritage, her life took another turn.

After Mom finished high school, one of her best friends, who was visiting Israel, told her many wonderful things about the country. Setting her original plan for college aside, Mom set out for Israel, all alone, to work on a non-religious kibbutz - shirut liandue. Because she felt such a deep spiritual connection to Israel and Judaism, she remained there for about a year as a volunteer, teaching English to high school students. After that time, she realized that something was still missing in her life.

Returning home to St. Louis, she began her studies at Washington University. After receiving her college degree, she continued on for her Master’s Degree in English. While at the University, she took a Jewish Studies course.

Once she had her degrees, Mom set out for Alaska, where she worked on Kodiak Island in a shrimp factory, after which she hiked all the way from Alaska back to St. Louis. She then

decided to visit Europe and then make Aliyah (“ascension”) to Israel in 1974. As it happened, she arrived in New York a day before her flight was scheduled to leave for Europe. Needing a place to stay, she called her friend, who was married to a rabbi. After an all-night discussion with the rabbi about religion, Mom decided that she was going to find and study in a yeshiva for baale tshuva (returnees to the faith) in Israel.

The rabbi gave her the name of another rabbi in Israel who could help her in her search.

Mom returned to the Holy Land, but on her arrival she realized she had lost the name of the rabbi she was supposed to contact. In Jerusalem on a Friday night, she decided to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) to pray that someone would invite her for Shabbat (the Sabbath). Sure enough, a woman approached her, tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she would like to come to her house for Shabbat.

After the meal – complete with scrumptious foods and joyful singing – her host, Leah Tropper, said to my Mom, “I’d like you to meet someone.” They went downstairs to an apartment where she saw a smiling rabbi sitting at the head of a table full of guests Leah introduced her to Rabbi Asa Wittow. He said, “Barbara, where have you been? I have been waiting for your call. [Apparently, Mom’s friend in New York had called the rabbi to expect her.] You have given 26 years to your body; now it is time to give one year to your soul.”

The next day, the rabbi took Barbara to a yeshiva, where she studied and started on her journey of return.

Not only did the yeshiva help her all through the trek, she had the chance, during a stay in New York, to meet the legendary Rabbi Avigdor Miller, whose writings have helped influence

many secular Jews to return. Through him she met Alvin Scheinberg – who would become my Dad. Mom and her new husband wanted very much to have children, but weren’t able to. They turned to adoption and adopted my brother Avi. In 1996, they adopted me.

It is now my turn to start the journey…

Time is precious: A lesson learned

By Benjamin Abayev

Little did I know that a class assignment to interview an individual of interest, would turn into a very worthy lesson. I chose Mr. Suliman Samehov, 63, of Queens: Q: Where did you grow up? A: I grew up in Uzbekistan in a very quiet city called Katakurgan.

Q: How many children do you have? A: I have three beautiful sons: Yosef, Yoni and Yusuf.

Q: Why do all your children’s names start with the letter Y? A: Because it’s my favorite letter!

Q: What were your life goals and did you accomplish them? A: Yes! I always wanted to open a bakery. After I immigrated to the United States, my goals were to work and earn enough money to open a bakery and accomplish my goal. Thank G-d, after working hard and earning enough money, I was able to open a bakery shop in Queens. I also named the bakery after myself. It’s called “Suliman’s Bakery”.

Q: What type of things do you bake? A: I mainly bake different types of breads and sell them to the public, as well as to various restaurants in the Queens area.

Q: Are you happy with your decision to open up a bread shop or would you prefer to have done something else? A: Honestly, I always wanted to be a Talmud Chacham (Talmudic scholar). I love learning Torah! However, I have a $5,000 mortgage to pay. This is why I encourage my grandchildren to spend their time wisely and not on foolish things. The best years in a person’s life are when you are in school. It is important to learn and accomplish as much as possible then, because no one will give you that precious time back. Time will pass very quickly and those who waste it will regret it greatly.

Q: Do you have any advice you would like to give me? A: YES! As I said: Don’t waste your time. It is very precious. Speaking of time, I have to go.

Where to pick up Bay Currents Here is a sampling of the growing number of locations carrying the only independent newspaper in southern Brooklyn WHAT!? YOU MISSED THE LAST ISSUE OF BAY CURRENTS? Don’t let it happen again!

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Financial Currents Can’t find your wallet? Don’t panic It’s summer, and you’re going to be out more, whether going to the beach, staying in the neighborhood, or crossing state lines.

What do you do if your wallet or purse is lost or stolen?

First, let’s talk about what you do before your wallet is stolen: • Only carry what you need. (Don’t be like my wife, who carries her whole world in her purse, and then panics when she can’t locate it.)

• Make a list of everything in your wallet or purse.

• Make a photocopy of every credit card, front and back.

• Never carry your Social Security card.

• Never carry your passwords or account numbers.

• Keep a list of contact numbers and information available should your wallet be stolen.

• Prepare: Discuss this with your family.

Here are several important steps to take if your wallet or purse is lost or stolen: • Call your credit card companies immediately. Do not completely cancel your account; instead, ask for an “account number change.” Cancelling cards with an outstanding balance, or cancelling a whole set of cards can have a negative impact on your credit score. Also, by cancelling cards, the banks may maximize the interest rate on your outstanding balance. Tell the credit card company that you do not want anything on your credit card report showing “cancelled by consumer.”

• Change your passwords. Passwords should include letters, numbers, and symbols, and should not be common

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words such as your mother’s maiden name or the names or birthdates of your spouse, children or pets. If your keys are missing, change your locks as well. Remember, even if these are recovered, they may have been duplicated.

• File a police report, both in the area in which your wallet disappeared, and in your hometown. Keep copies of the reports for later use.

• Contact the three major credit reporting agencies and ask them to put a fraud alert on your account.

You can contact them at the following numbers and websites: Experian, 888-397-3742 (www.experian.com); TransUnion, 800-680-7289 (www.transunion.com); Equifax, 800-525-6285 (www.equifax.com). If you have a fraud alert on your account, creditors are required to verify your identity, usually by telephone, before issuing new credit in your name.

• Contact the Department of Motor Vehicles. Ask that a flag be put on your license file to make it more difficult for a thief to have a new driver’s license issued in your name.

• Notify your bank that your wallet is missing. You will need a new ATM or debit card and perhaps even a new checking account. You should also call the check verification services so that your checks cannot be used at a merchant’s cash register. The three services are: Telecheck at 800.710.9898 Certegy Inc at 800.770.3792 International Check Services at 800.631.9656 • Check your credit history about two weeks

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after your wallet disappears. You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com or call 877-322-8228 to obtain your free reports. Look under the section labeled “Inquiries” to see if any new credit applications have been made in your name. The twoweek time period would be enough time for thieves to apply for credit, but not enough time for cards to be issued. You should recheck your credit report often in the two to three months after the first review.

When reporting the theft: 1. Keep a record of all conversations – the phone number you called, person you spoke with. Try to speak with supervisors. Make sure you understand what they are saying, or ask for that person’s supervisor.

2. Request a written verification if accounts have been closed. Make a note of the time and date, as well as a confirmation number.

3. Send all correspondence by certified mail, return receipt requested.

4. Keep copies of all correspondence.

Have a great summer -- but be careful and safe!

Tax accountant Joseph Reisman’s practice is at 2751 Coney Island Avenue 718.332.1040

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