Why New York City has a vaccine extortion mandate and why they don't give a shit about city workers

This entirely debunks the mayor's office claims that this guy wasn't close to Adams. If anything, looks like Baugh was one of Adams closest advisors to keep the city worker vaccine mandate going for absolutely no sane reason. Makes me wonder if Baugh worked on de Blasio's team that started this city policy failure that has crippled municipalities.

Vaccine extortion mandates continue for city workers but ends for private sector workers a week before Election Day

 

NY Daily News

The city’s coronavirus vaccine mandates for private sector workers and student athletes are ending, but the inoculation requirement for municipal workers will remain — at least for the time being.

Mayor Adams announced the rollback Tuesday at a City Hall press conference, stressing the need for New Yorkers to get their COVID booster shots.

Implemented by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the private sector and student mandates have been in effect since late last year.

The workforce rule, which was the first of its kind in the country when rolled out by de Blasio in December, required that all private sector employees in the city be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That mandate will sunset on Nov. 1.

The second policy, which mandated high school students be vaccinated to engage in sports and other extracurricular activities, ended Tuesday.

Adams attempted to temper his announcement with another message: that New Yorkers should get new booster shots aimed at protecting against highly transmissible COVID variants. To reinforce that, he got his second booster shot from the city’s Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in front of a roomful of reporters.

“It is time to move on to the next level of fortifying our city,” Adams said. “It’s imperative to send the right message and lead by example as I’m doing today by getting my booster shot.”

Adams framed the rescinding of the mandates as providing more “flexibility” to parents and businesses regarding vaccines.

He noted that his shot Tuesday is just the first step in a new citywide digital and print vaccination campaign to encourage booster shots.

But even as Adams and Vasan announced the new campaign and the end of the two mandates, they struggled to explain the rationale behind enacting the one rollback while continuing to keep in place the mandate that city employees must be vaccinated — a contentious rule that led to workers being fired, lawsuits and political protests.

“We’re in a steady phase of pivot and shift,” the mayor said when asked if he plans to peel back the mandate on city workers. “We do things. We roll things out slowly. Right now, that is not on the radar for us.”

When asked how he can justify his decision, Adams said: “I don’t think anything dealing with COVID makes sense, and there’s no logical pathway of [what] one can do  You make the decisions based on how to keep our city safe, how to keep our employees operating.”

Vasan responded that it’s important to not view “any of these decisions in isolation.”

“They’re all connected,” he said, referring to the city’s COVID policies. “We’re looking at all of our policies and thinking about a glide path towards normal, whatever the new normal looks like.”

Keeping the city worker vaccine extortion mandate, which looks like it's indefinite, is brazen discrimination and these two assholes are blatantly telling the public not to question it because they are not smart enough to comprehend while doing the worst gaslighting about justifying this policy that has done major damage to city services. And they did this hours after President Biden said the pandemic was over. When will the press finally question why this farcical unscientific mandate is allowed to continue and who is benefiting off it?

 

Jury still didn't buy the excuses of Skelos and son

From the NY Post:

Ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was convicted Tuesday on eight counts of bribery, extortion and conspiracy. The jury agreed he used his power to muscle companies into providing his son Adam (also convicted) with $300,000 worth of no-show and low-show jobs.

It was the second guilty verdict for the pair, whose earlier convictions were overturned based on a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the definition of official corruption. And it took place next door to the courtroom where Alain Kaloyeros, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic-development czar, was convicted of bid-rigging just last week.

Since March, juries also have convicted Cuomo’s right-hand man, Joe Percoco, of soliciting and accepting bribes, as well as former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — Skelos’ fellow member of the “three men in a room” who controlled Albany — of corruptly abusing his office.

Looks like Albany’s swamp is finally being drained, one corrupt official at a time.

Though there was nothing new in the charges, the verdict was a fresh rebuke to the state capital’s culture of corruption — and its continued refusal to enact meaningful ethics reform.

Preet nails Cuomo donors

From The Buffalo News:

A massive pay-to-play scheme involving alleged bid rigging of state contracts involving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money was outlined by federal prosecutors Thursday in a case that targets longtime advisers and major donors of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s case alleges bribery, extortion and tax evasion. It also muddies a picture of ethical cleanliness that Cuomo has sought to portray of his administration since taking office in 2011.

Bharara, the prosecutor who has brought high-profile and successful cases against a lineup of state legislators, said Albany’s plague of corruption has now touched the executive branch of government.

“I really do hope that there’s a trial in this case so all New Yorkers can see in gory detail what their state government has been up to,” Bharara said in unveiling the Justice Department’s case against nine people, including Cuomo advisers Joseph Percoco and Todd R. Howe, and Alain E. Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

Louis P. Ciminelli, the Buffalo developer who is chairman and CEO of LPCiminelli, also is accused in the pay-to-play scheme. But allegations stretch across the state

Dean is done

From the Queens Chronicle:

Less than two weeks after former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver was convicted on bribery charges, his state Senate contemporary, former Majority Leader Dean Skelos, was found guilty of corruption on Friday.

The 67-year-old Skelos and his 33-year-old son, Adam, were convicted in Federal District Court on all charges, which included three counts of extortion under color of official right, two counts of soliciting bribes in connection with a federal program and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.

The father-son duo are facing up to 130 years in prison, according to reports, and will be sentenced early next year.

The elder Skelos allegedly used his position to get money into the pockets of his son. Among the allegations made by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are that Dean Skelos got a developer dependent on him for tax breaks to give Adam Skelos $20,000, and an environmental technology company seeking to do business with the state to give him $10,000 a month.

"The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement, "how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?"

Big mob bust (with Viagra!)

From the NY Post:

Manhattan prosecutors today announced a big blow against the Bonanno crime family: the indictment on enterprise corruption charges of seven crew members, including jailed Donnie Brasco-era gangster and alleged underboss Nicholas "Nicky" Santora.

Two leaders of Teamsters Local 917, which handles liquor store and parking lot employees, were additionally indicted for allegedly helping the Bonannos gain loansharking and book-making footholds among members.

They are the local's president, Nicholas Bernhard, and shop steward Scott O'Neill, of Howard Beach.

Investigators had pulled an illegal, loaded gun from under the pillow of Bernhard's Congers, NY, bed when search warrants were executed on the suspects in February, a source told The Post.

Additional illegal firearms had been seized at that time from Bernhard's home and from that of alleged soldier Anthony "Skinny" Santoro, including a Tech-9 pulled from a stash of guns in Santoro's Staten Island house.

"Many mistakenly believe that the mob has disappeared entirely except when you watch HBO," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., told reporters.

"Whatever name it's called, the Mafia, La Cosa Nostra, the Mob, this indictment demonstrates that organized crime is still operating in New York City and still has its hooks in the labor movement," Vance said in announcing the fruits of a two-year joint investigation by his office and the NYPD Organized Crime Control Bureau and Organized Crime Investigation Unit.

The top enterprise corruption charge against the nine men includes pattern acts involving the traditional mob mainstays: loansharking, offshore gambling, extortion, union corruption and weapons possession.

But in a nod to more modern tastes, the gangsters allegedly also dabbled in the distribution of Viagra, Cialis and the suburban party drug Oxycodone.

The Sunset Diner in Greenpoint and the Jackson Hole Diner in Queens were favorite meeting spots, a source said.

GOP members charge extortion

From the NY Post:

City Councilman Eric Ulrich is demanding an investigation into claims that Queens GOP leaders milked candidates “for financial gain.”

His call comes amid mounting criticism of the county party from prominent Republicans, including former Rep. Rick Lazio, Rep. Bob Turner and ex-Councilman and party honcho Thomas Ognibene.

“The District Attorney’s Office or the US Attorney’s Office should look into these issues because they’re deeply troubling,” Ulrich said. “These con artists have been playing this game for far too long.”

Several Queens Republican sources said it’s commonly known that if candidates want the party’s nomination, they’ll have to pay — whether it’s in the form of hefty contributions to the party or fees to the party’s consultants.

One high-ranking Republican familiar with the allegations against the Queens GOP leadership said Ragusa is a “decent guy” but has surrounded himself with “operatives who make a living off this.”

Congressman Turner said he was dismayed when the Queens leadership delayed his nomination last year for the special vote arising from the Anthony Weiner sext scandal.

“They were hesitant, and it cost us two weeks of campaigning for what every other political professional thought was a no-brainer,” he said. “Their reasons for doing it were suspect.”

Turner said he was approached by Jay Golub, a consultant for Queens political candidates.

“I think his play was that I could clear up the nomination process by using him,” Turner recalled. “The conversation didn’t last long . . . I didn’t like where it was going.”

Golub said he was “just trying to help Bob.”

“I was never hired by the Turner campaign,” he said.

Mobsters busted for human smuggling

From NY1:

Immigration and law enforcement officials have arrested and charged 20 people, including five Queens residents and three Brooklyn residents, in connection with a human trafficking operation that allegedly brought women from Russia and Eastern Europe and forced them to dance in various strip clubs in the city.

The charges, which were unveiled today at Federal Plaza in Downtown Manhattan, allege that four members of the Gambino crime family and three members of the Bonnano crime family worked with Russian collaborators to bring the victimized women into the country on work and travel visas.

Once the women were brought into the country, they were forced to work as exotic dancers.

Visa rules forbid employment in adult entertainment.

Authorities conducted raids for evidence early this morning at clubs where the women were allegedly forced to strip, including Cheetah's Gentlemen's Club on 43rd Street in Midtown and Gallagher's in Long Island City, Queens.

Other women were forced to marry men in Binghamton, N.Y.

The 20 defendants are facing varying charges, including visa fraud, marriage fraud, racketeering, extortion and transporting, harboring and inducing the entry of illegal aliens.

Bribery and extortion in the housing industry

From the Daily News:

A Brooklyn man was sentenced to seven to 21 years in prison Tuesday for posing as an inspector to extort tens of thousands of dollars from city construction sites.

Anthony Lewis, 42, was convicted of enterprise corruption this year for the ruse in which he and a co-defendant visited job sites in hardhats with "Committee on Contract Compliance" stenciled on them.

If their victims balked at handing over cash, the duo called in fake complaints to city agencies.

From the NY Times:

The official in charge of construction at the city agency that helps build moderately-priced housing — the largest municipal developer of such housing in the nation — was arrested early Thursday on federal racketeering conspiracy and bribery charges along with six developers, two of them lawyers, according to court papers.

The charges accuse the official, Wendell B. Walters, assistant commissioner for new construction for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, of transforming the agency into a racketeering enterprise along with one of the developers, Stevenson Dunn, officials said.

The indictment in the case charges that Mr. Walters took approximately $600,000 in bribes and kickbacks on about $22 million in moderately priced housing projects overseen by the housing preservation department in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn between 2002 and 2011, officials said.

Photo from NY Post.

Queens organized crime ring busted

From the Times Newsweekly:

Three Queens men were among 16 individuals named in a federal indictment for their alleged roles in an international drug trafficking and sales ring, it was announced.

Federal law enforcement agents identified the Queens residents as 44- year-old Skender Cakoni, 35-yearold Nazih Nasser and 33-year-old Gentian Nikolli, who were taken into custody by members of the Joint Organized Crime Task Force, which includes agents from the NYPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

All of the indicted defendants were variously charged with kidnapping, narcotics trafficking, robbery and firearms possession, according to Preet Bharaha, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who announced the indictment last Tuesday, June 8.

According to the indictment unsealed last week in federal court, the Queens defendants and others named in the indictment were reputed members of the Krasniqi Organization, a racketeering enterprise allegedly engaged in kidnapping, narcotics trafficking, extortion, robbery, and the interstate transportation of stolen goods.

Federal law enforcement sources said the Krasniqi Organization was led by brothers Bruno and Saimir Krasniqi, and operated in New York, Michigan, and Connecticut, among other locations. The Krasniqi Organization reportedly sought to enrich its members through various criminal schemes, including the trafficking of marijuana and used firearms and threats of violence to protect its power and territory, as well as to instill fear among rival drug dealers and victims.

In total, the Krasniqi Organization and their co-conspirators— including Cakoni, Nasser and Nikolli—are charged with having trafficked and distributed more than 100 kilograms of marijuana from 2003 through 2007.

Additionally, the alleged members of the Krasniqi Organization reportedly engaged in robberies and kidnappings. Specifically, on or about June 2005, after obtaining a multi-kilogram load of marijuana from one of the Krasniqi Organization’s marijuana suppliers (CC-1) and one of the co-defendants, several other members of the Krasniqi Organization allegedly used guns and threats of violence to rob CC-1 and the suspect of the marijuana and the marijuana proceeds. Subsequently, the Krasniqi brothers and other coconspirators kidnapped another rival drug dealer at gunpoint.

In addition to these charges, other members of the narcotics conspiracy are charged with firearms offenses. Specifically, after members of the Krasniqi Organization robbed CC-1 and one of the indicted suspects of marijuana and the proceeds of marijuana trafficking, the robbed suspect along with Cakoni and others obtained firearms to protect their narcotics business and attempted to violently retaliate for the robbery of narcotics by members of the Krasniqi Organization.

DOT inspector charged with accepting bribes

From Fox 5:

A city Department of Transportation inspector faces charges of trying to shakedown employees of two businesses in order to look the other way about alleged sidewalk violations.

Kenrick Forde, 48, of Jamaica, Queens, was charged with grand larceny by extortion, bribe receiving, official misconduct, attempted grand larceny by extortion, attempted bribe receiving, according to the Department of Investigation.

Authorities busted Forde after the owner of a service garage in Brooklyn called cops to say that the inspector wanted a $50 bribe in other to drop a possible $450 summons for a vehicle parked on a sidewalk outside the business.

The owner of the garage directed his employee to give money to Forde in view of the security camera.

Mob infiltrated ground zero

NEW YORK (AP) -- Eight people linked to the Colombo organized crime family have been charged in a federal case involving bribery and extortion at the World Trade Center site.

An indictment unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn alleges that a mob-controlled trucking company paid kickbacks to win a subcontract with a demolition company working at ground zero. Prosecutors also say the defendants threatened employees with the demolition company when it failed to pay on time.

Wiretaps captured one defendant saying the employees were "shakin' in their boots over us."

Authorities say the case is part of an aggressive campaign to bring down the Colombos. In 2007, former acting boss Alphonse Persico Jr. was convicted of murder in aid of racketeering.

Councilman Larry Seabrook indicted by the Feds

From The Wonkster:

Councilmember Larry Seabrook, who served in the state Assembly and just started his third term at the City Council, is being charged with money laundering, extortion and fraud, according to an indictment released today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.

Some of the charges directly stem from the City Council’s slush fund scandal — which brought down former Councilmember Miguel Martinez last year.

But they also go beyond that.

According to the indictment, Seabrook also solicited payments from a Bronx subcontractor competing for a boiler contract for the new Yankee Stadium and subsequently used the payments for personal expenses.

Beyond that, the indictment alleges Seabrook directed more than $2.5 million in the City Council’s discretionary funding to nonprofits he in fact controlled. Seabrook negotiated office space for the groups (which was reported in the Times last year) and often made decisions for the groups, the indictment states.

Through these nonprofits, Seabrook paid “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to his girlfriend, sisters, nephews and brother in consulting fees. At the same time, these groups fell far short of meeting goals laid out in the council’s discretionary funding initiatives.

Did Bruce Ratner bribe Yonkers council member?

From the Daily News:

Developer Bruce Ratner's company agreed to hire the cousin of a former Yonkers councilwoman if the pol dropped her opposition to one of his major projects, prosecutors and other sources say.

The stunning conflict emerged in the indictment Wednesday of Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and her cousin Zehy Jereis, a former Yonkers official.

Annabi, Jereis and a local lawyer were hit with multiple charges, brought by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, in a bribery and extortion scheme.

Ratner confirmed that his firm, Forest City Ratner, was the "Developer No. 2" named in the indictment. The project at issue was a huge residential/commercial project in Yonkers called Ridge Hill.

Annabi opposed Ratner's project. Then, in June 2006, Jereis was introduced to unnamed reps of Developer No. 2 who promised to arrange a meeting with Annabi, the indictment states.

After Jereis and Annabi met with Forest City reps at a Brooklyn restaurant, Jereis asked Forest City to give him a job, the indictment and sources state.

The potential quid pro quo emerged in a June 28, 2006, "agreement in principle" in which Developer No. 2 "agreed to give Jereis a job sometime after Annabi formally voted in favor of the Ridge Hill project," the indictment alleged.

Two weeks later, Annabi switched her vote. In October 2006, Developer No. 2 signed a contract hiring Jereis as a "real estate consultant" for $60,000 at $5,000 a month.

At no time during these meetings and agreements with Jereis did Ratner go to the FBI, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Ratner is the developer of the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and The New York Times office building in Manhattan. Neither he nor his employees were charged in the indictment.

Why not?

Two-Ton Tony's chat with McLaughlin

From the Village Voice:

Seminerio told McLaughlin about how he had secretly become his own lobbyist, getting thousands of dollars in fees from hospitals to push Albany bureaucrats for favors. Fortunately for history, McLaughlin was recording the discussions in an effort to gain leniency for his own crimes (he got ten years anyway).

"We don't have no contracts we have handshakes," Seminerio says as they sip coffee on September 28 at the Atlantic Diner in Richmond Hill.

McLaughlin salutes his companion's initiative: "Take your wallets there," he says.

"Take your wallets there!" responds Seminerio.

The duo commiserated again on November 15.

Seminerio: Think of what I'm saying to you. What the fuck does it mean that we're elected officials? It doesn't mean shit.

McLaughlin: It's true.

AS: Who was that guy you replaced?

BM: That's true. You almost forget after awhile.

AS: Who was the guy that you replaced?

BM: I guess Doug Prescott was in there in the beginning.

AS: But who the fuck even remembers?

BM: Yeah.

AS: Who remembers anyone? Tell me one good thing he did for anybody. And he must have did a lot of good things.

Photo from the Daily News

Mystery surrounds woman's murder

From 1010WINS:

Police on Thursday were investigating whether a woman found beaten to death in her SUV was killed in a botched extortion plot from her native China.

Chao Ru Xie was found Monday slumped between the seats of her family's vehicle in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, miles from its home. Her husband reported an unauthorized use of the SUV on July 1. It's unclear when the wife last was seen.

The husband told police the family received a call from China demanding money. Investigators have been unable to verify the information.

The victim moved from China about a decade ago, and police said she ran a type of homegrown lottery in Manhattan's Chinatown.

Avella fights for small businesses

Vote for Tony Avella for mayor and hear him speak up as he always has for the people of New York City. Listen as I interview him and see him stand in solidarity with small businesses owners.


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