Friday, February 5, 2010
What should I do in my trip to New York city?
Girl, 12, handcuffed, hauled out of school for scribbling on desk
New York CityNEW YORK – A New York City middle-school student was arrested and handcuffed for scribbling on her desk, media reports say.
The New York Daily News reports 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez used a lime-green erasable marker to scribble "Lex was here 2/1/10" on her desk Monday at Junior High School 190 in Queens. She also doodled "I love my friends Abby and Faith" and a smiley face while waiting for her Spanish teacher to hand out homework.
Gonzalez was hauled out of school in handcuffs and taken to the police precinct across the street. Gonzalez's mother, Moraima Tamacho, says her daughter was released several hours after she was brought to a police station.
"I started crying, like, a lot," Gonzalez told the newspaper. "I made two little doodles. ... It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary."
While Gonzalez received eight hours of community service for the incident, city officials admit the arrest "shouldn't have happened."
"Even when we're asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary," police spokesman Paul Browne said.
Gonzalez a book report and an essay on what she's learned from the experience.
New York can also be pretty funny for the lighter side of New York B)
Click to visit the location of the original New York picture only since New York images aren't the fastest to find!Was this picture of New York is worthy of being posted?
Places to visit between Philadelphia and New York city?
Thursday, February 4, 2010
What is the cheapest way to travel from california to new york?
Why the 9/11 trial belongs in New York: This made me feel disheartened
New York CityEditor's note: Karen Greenberg is the executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University, where Peter Bergen is a research fellow. Bergen is also CNN's national security analyst and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
New York City (CNN) -- Obama administration officials, apparently bowing to political pressure, said over the weekend they are considering moving the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused operational commander of the 9/11 attacks, out of New York City.
The objections to holding it in New York seem reasonable: The financial cost to the city and the fear that the trial might inspire a lone bomber or even an organized al Qaeda attack.
Certainly, holding Mohammed's trial over many months and even years in the congested streets of Lower Manhattan will damage the local economy. But the fix for this could be straightforward: Move the trial to one of the many other courthouses in the five boroughs, or to Governor's Island, which is within sight of the crater where the World Trade Center once stood.
As to fears of bringing on another attack, putting Mohammed on trial in New York doesn't make the city any bigger a target than it already is, because -- guess what -- New York already is the No. 1 target for jihadist militants. It has been so for almost two decades, since the first Trade Center attack in 1993, which was followed by the averted plots to blow up the Holland Tunnel and other Manhattan landmarks and the 9/11 attacks themselves. Since then, there has been a plot to blow up the Herald Square subway station and alleged attempts to bomb fuel tanks at JFK airport and synagogues in the Bronx.
The unconvincing objections about the costs of holding the trial and the heightened terror threat that comes with it are also trumped by the larger public good from putting Mohammed on trial in New York City.
A sense of justice for the 9/11 families. Let's begin with the most human of concerns: the 9/11 families. Watching justice take place can play an incalculable role in the healing process. As Susan F. Hirsch, who lost her husband in al Qaeda's attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania in 1998, has said, there is no substitute for watching those who carried out the attacks face the charges against them.
Justice meted out in New York City would be the most accessible way for the 9/11 families to witness the trial.
Restoring the power of the rule of law and the criminal justice system. The courts in New York are unusually well-prepared to try Mohammed. Although the federal courts in general have a strong conviction record in trying terrorism crimes, New York's federal courts have won a 100 percent conviction rate on terrorism trials.
Before 9/11 as well, New York courts successfully prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for life the likes of the "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman; the al Qaeda bombers who launched the attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; and the plotters of the first Trade Center attack five years earlier.
And New York City is now preparing for the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an al Qaeda member allegedly involved in the 1998 embassies bombings who, unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, has been living in prison in the city for nearly eight months, without incident.
Confidence in our security apparatus. Most important of all, perhaps, is that the fearfulness of New York authorities feeds a sense of learned insecurity that has dominated the U.S. since 9/11. By contrast, the American military families posted to Guantanamo Bay chose to stay when they learned that suspects who they legitimately believed were the worst of the worst terrorists would be imprisoned there. They did this because they trusted U.S. troops to protect them.
The backing down of the Obama administration on holding Mohammed's trial in New York City signals weakness and fear. Rather than facing our enemies by showing confidence in ourselves as a nation that knows how to protect itself, our government leaders have let us know that they do not trust our institutions to protect us, an idea that should be intolerable to Americans.
Some New York politicians are perpetuating these fears. They apparently do not trust our city police or our federal law enforcement officials to be able to keep residents safe during the trial. Whatever the financial cost of the trial, which according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be roughly $200 million per year -- far less than the $1 billion per week that the war in Afghanistan is costing -- the most important goal should be restoring to New Yorkers the sense of security they once had and now deserve.
The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Peter Bergen and Karen Greenberg.
Doug Kerr's take on life is awesome: New York State Route 443 (New York) :-)
Here's the original source just because it's the polite thing to do.Can't somebody describe another point of view?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Why isn't there a bridge from London England to New York ?
New York has not vanished BNY Mellon Acquires PNC Administration Unit
New YorkBank of New York Mellon said Tuesday it was buying an administration business from PNC Financial Services, vaulting the bank into the top ranks of hedge fund administrative firms.
BNY Mellon is buying PNC Global Investment Servicing for $2.3 billion, the bank said in a statement. The deal includes the purchase of $1.6 billion in stock and repayment of PNC Global debt.
BNY expects to raise between $700 million and $800 million as part of the deal. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of the year.
The deal will add $855 billion in assets under administration to BNY’s coffers.
The acquisition will secure BNY in one of the top slots among the largest administrators for hedge funds and funds-of-funds. According to the Q2 2009 HFN Fund of Funds Administrator Survey, BNY had about $199 billion in hedge fund firms’ assets under administration, while PNC had about $77 billion as of June 30.
The new combination would leave only Citco Fund Services and State Street Alternative Investment Solutions in the same size category as BNY when it came to providing services to hedge funds.
Backcountry campsites in the lower hudson valley new york area?
Words - snapshot you should like
Holly Northrop describes it the best:6th Avenue, New York City | camera: Holga 120N | film: Arista 400
It's nice to include the source just because it might be useful}!
Was this pic of New York City was worth seeing?
What are some really good restaurants in New York City?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Disappointing New York news: Bank of New York to Buy PNC Unit for $2.3 Billion
New YorkBank of New York Mellon said Tuesday that it would buy the global investment servicing unit of the PNC Financial Services Group for $2.31 billion in cash, bolstering its back-end offerings for fund managers and financial advisers.
The deal is likely to help PNC pay back some of the billions in government bailout money it still holds.
It will also bolster Bank of New York’s services for big institutional clients and brokers, adding $855 billion in assets under administration and giving it a bigger presence in alternative fund assets and in Europe.
“This acquisition significantly strengthens our service offering and market share with asset managers and financial advisers, while delivering attractive returns to our shareholders,” Robert P. Kelly, Bank of New York’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We expect the transaction to accelerate our growth, deliver economies of scale and strengthen our leadership position for asset servicing and Pershing.”
One of the stronger firms to emerge from the financial crisis, Bank of New York serves mostly corporations as a custodian of assets.
Bank of New York said the acquisition price includes the purchase of about $1.57 billion of stock and the repayment of PNC intercompany debt. Bank of New York also plans to sell about $800 million in new shares to help pay for the deal.
The global investment servicing unit, based in Wilmington, Del., has about 4,500 employees. Its chief executive, Stephen M. Wynne, will remain with the business, reporting to Bank of New York’s co-heads of asset servicing, Tim Kearney and Jim Palermo.
Go to Bank of New York Press Release »
Tuesday's madness New Yorkers unite against hosting 9/11 trials
New York CityNEW YORK (Reuters) - Discordant New Yorkers accustomed to squabbling over the smallest matters of civic interest are suddenly in agreement about the trials of the accused September 11 plotters. Nobody wants them here.
U.S.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder had hoped to orchestrate a grand gesture by trying suspected mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants in federal court in downtown Manhattan.
Symbolically, the civilian trials would be a few blocks from where the World Trade Center's twin towers collapsed in 2001 after hijackers crashed airliners into them, and in the same neighborhood where lives were upended by the tragedy and health harmed by breathing in smoke, ash and dust.
But that plan is being challenged by a groundswell of opposition in New York City and from conservative politicians in Washington who want the White House to retreat. The Justice Department conceded last week it was searching for alternative sites.
Alarmed by a security plan that would snarl traffic and disrupt commerce, the largest city in the United States has resorted to a common argument from middle America: Not in my back yard.
"The local community got (the opposition) going. But real estate interests, the local community and elected officials came together at the same time. It's amazing," said Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.
By moving the trials from military to civilian court next to the site of the attacks, the Obama administration has tried to show the U.S. justice system prevailing over al Qaeda threats. The security costs of holding the trials in New York City, though, was pegged at more than $200 million a year.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly unveiled a restrictive security plan in January that shocked residents, business and real estate companies in the surrounding areas, which include tourist attractions such as Wall Street, Chinatown and the Brooklyn Bridge.
"It's one thing to agree in the abstract, it's another to see what it really means. As the police commissioner started showing the security plans, I think people realized it's not just dollars and cents, it's the impact on the community," said Liz Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance business improvement district.
Both the police commissioner and the downtown business interests had access to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who once declared it was fitting that the September 11 suspects face justice in New York, but last week reversed course and said he would rather the trials be held elsewhere.
PUGNACIOUS CITY COMES TOGETHER
This diverse and chaotic city -- one that routinely brands itself as the greatest metropolis in the world -- can be very pugnacious; an oversized billboard or an out-of-place hot dog stand can provoke passionate civic debate. Now it is unified.
"It's a great example of the community coming together. Everyone who could be impacted took a look in an organized manner. That's why the decision makers listened. That's what politics is all about," Berger said.
As New York gradually emerges from the global financial crisis, businesses and residents say the trials are an unfair additional burden.
"While there's part of me as a New Yorker that says 'Bring it on,' you have to be smart sometimes," Stringer said.
Manhattanites who feared turning the heart of downtown into a bunker found allies in the U.S. Senate, where a conservative group of senators plan to introduce legislation on Tuesday that would bar federal funding for prosecuting the September 11 suspects in a civilian court.
As critics of Obama's national security policy, they have pushed for trying them in a military court.
"It was a snowball gaining a lot of support," said Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. "This will have dramatic repercussions wherever it may take place. You need to listen to the local community and not just decide out of an office at the White House."
(Additional reporting by Edith Honan; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
Startling New York City article - 2 Dems Support Bill to Axe Funding of Civilian Terrorist Trials
New York CityTrying the 9/11 co-conspirators, including Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed, in federal, civilian court just got a bit harder. Support for trying these men in New York City has been dwindling, and some reports indicate the site has been scrapped, though the Administration contends NYC is still a viable option.
Now legislation has resurfaced that would shut off funding for civilian trials altogether, only this time it has Democratic support. Sens. Jim Webb, D-VA, and Blanche Lincoln, D-AR, have joined the fight to deny the funds, making it harder for such trials to continue.
On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, an Army Reserves JAG officer, will be joined by Lincoln (Webb could attend, says a spokeswoman, but he might be stuck in hearings) and his usual group of colleagues on national security matters, Sens. Joe Lieberman, a self-styled 'Independent Democrat", and John McCain, R-AZ, to unveil their bill. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, a co-sponsor, will also attend.
A Graham spokesman says the senators "will offer it as an amendment to the first thing we can get it on." It is unclear what the next piece of legislation will be to hit the floor, but Democrats are pulling together a jobs bill that they hope to bring to the floor in the coming days.
A Reid spokesman declined comment.
As a former Navy secretary and key member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Webb is a crucial vote of support for the bill.
But neither he nor Lincoln are surprise comers to the legislation. Both voted with Republicans for a similar Graham-McCain-Lieberman measure last year that failed after 54 Democrats voted to kill it. Sens Mark Pryor, D-AR, and Maria Cantwell, D-WA, voted, at the time, in support of the measure, as well.
And Webb, along with Lincoln, who is facing a difficult re-election in 2010, signed onto a recent letter with the same group to "strongly urge" Attorney General Eric Holder to "reconsider your decision to try (KSM) and the other alleged conspirators in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The attacks of 9/11 were acts of war, and those who planned and carried out those attacks are war criminals."
The senators warn in the letter that holding trials in New York, or another city like Washington, DC, or in Northern Virginia, where a previous terrorist trial was held, brings an "increased risk of terrorist attacks." The group makes clear that they favor enemy combatants being tried in military commissions.
"Given the risks and costs, it is far more logical, cost-effective, and strategically wise to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the military commissions that Congress and the President have now established for that very purpose," the senators said to Holder.
All of this comes in the wake of the Christmas Day bomber, the so-called "underwear bomber," being mirandized after less than an hour in U.S. custody. Many senators, regardless of party, decried that decision.
The bipartisan group would still seem to be short of the votes needed to defeat a motion to "table" or kill the legislation, however, should Democratic leaders choose to employ the same procedure they did last year, but with the election of Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who is expected to be seated next week, there is momentum that could imperil the Administration’s intentions.
Brown made clear in his acceptance speech in January that he does not support civilian trials for alleged terrorists. Brown cried to a cheering crowd, "Our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation. They do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. Let me make it very, very, very clear: they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in war time...In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.”
The President's budget, released Monday, has a $200 million terrorist trial fund, originally requested by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, according to a senior Democratic aide, when the trials were to take place in New York City.
New York State Route 17C - rofl New York City photo of the month!
It's polite to include the site where this picture came from just in case it might be useful}.What do you think of that?
What spiders should i be afraid of on long island new york?
Find the truth all about New York City here - White House: No decision yet on moving 9/11 trial
New York CityWashington (CNN) -- No decision has been made on whether to change the current plan to hold the September 11 terrorist attack trial in a civilian court in lower Manhattan, White House officials said Sunday.
Last week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other politicians expressed concern over the costs and disruption of holding the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices at a New York City courthouse.
David Axelrod, the senior adviser to President Obama, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that Obama believes the trial should take place in a criminal court instead of before a military commission, as permitted for some terrorism suspects.
However, Axelrod and Gibbs acknowledged that Obama and the Justice Department were considering moving the trial from New York City.
"We've made no decisions on that yet," Axelrod said on the NBC program "Meet the Press." Gibbs, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," also said the location of the trial was under discussion, but he expressed certainty that Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks, "is going to meet justice and he's going to meet his maker."
Gibbs and Axelrod criticized Republican opposition to the plan to hold the trial in a criminal court, saying no one complained when the previous administration of Republican President George W. Bush put terrorism suspects such as "shoe bomber" Richard Reid on trial in U.S. criminal courts.
"Now we have a Democratic president and suddenly we hear these protests," Axelrod said. "What has changed between now and then that would cause people to reverse positions?"
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told the CNN program that the Bush administration was wrong to hold terrorism trials on U.S. soil. Instead, trials for dangerous terrorism suspects should be held by military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility where they currently are held, McConnell said.
Obama intends to shut down the Guantanamo facility by transferring the roughly 200 suspects to the United States to stand trial or face indefinite detention, or to third countries. McConnell said Sunday he would fight that plan by trying to withhold federal spending for it.
"'I think that will be done on a bipartisan basis," McConnell said of congressional opposition, adding that "whatever domestic support they had for this is totally collapsing."
White House officials say the decision about any possible alternate sites to try Mohammed and the others will come from the Justice Department.
New York police estimated that the cost to the city would be more than $200 million per year in what could be a multi-year trial and that more than 2,000 checkpoints would need to be installed around Lower Manhattan. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said additional protection would have to be deployed for the city, not just "the core area of Manhattan."
Bloomberg initially supported the move, saying "it is fitting that 9/11 suspects face justice near the World Trade Center site where so many New Yorkers were murdered."
However, Bloomberg used different rhetoric last week when asked about a community agency's proposals to relocate the trial, saying he would prefer the trial be held elsewhere, perhaps at a military base where it would be easier and cheaper to provide security.
"It's going to cost an awful lot of money and disturb a lot of people," Bloomberg said.
On Thursday, several New York Democratic politicians urged the Obama administration to thoroughly re-examine locating the trial in downtown Manhattan.
Julie Menin, chairwoman of a city community advisory agency, proposed four alternative locations for the trial within the Southern District of New York: Governors Island, Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the Bureau of Prisons jail complex at FCI Otisville. The latter three are in Orange County, New York, less than an hour from New York City, county executive Edward Diana told CNN.
Diana thinks the trials should not be held anywhere in New York, and definitely not in Orange County, which lost 44 residents in the terror attacks, he said.
"I've contacted my legal department and I'll tell you I'll do whatever it takes to stop those trials from coming here, even if it means closing down our roads," Diana said. "I'll sue the federal government if need be."
Diana said he'd be worried about the safety of Orange County residents if the trial comes there. Diana, who shot down an offer from Newburgh to host the proceedings in their new courthouse, said the suspects should not be tried in civilian courts.
But Newburgh Mayor Nick Valentine said the boost in media presence and police funding during the trial would help his "very poor, very urban" city. Newburgh's new $22 million courthouse is safe and has "every security you could want," Valentine said.
An alternate proposal at the West Point location has not been fully reviewed. A West Point spokesman said no one has officially requested a review of demands for such a trial, which would require in-depth study of legal and security concerns.
U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Dean Boyd said the Justice Department "can safely prosecute this case in the Southern District of New York while minimizing disruptions to the community to the greatest extent possible, consistent with security needs."
New York Gov. David Paterson will meet with the U.S. Marshal Service on Monday to discuss possible 9/11 trial locations in the state, Paterson spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein told CNN.
CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Keep The 9/11 Trials In New York
New York CityWith the news that the Obama administration is considering moving the trials of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al-Qaida terrorists away from New York City, America's leaders need to be careful not to hand al-Qaida a victory that it failed to achieve on 9/11. The terrorist group's aim on 9/11 was not just to inflict death and destruction. Just as importantly, it sought to show that "America the superpower" was really a vulnerable, superficial and scared nation.
Al-Qaida's propaganda portrayed America as a stack of cards that would collapse after it was attacked. And after 9/11, America's enemies gleefully predicted a likely decline. The pro-Syrian Lebanese daily Assafir wrote that: "No one can yet predict whether the cataclysm in New York will lead to the fall of the American empire, or vanquish the world order that America dictated until 8:45, 11 September. All signs are that the day of reckoning is near."
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But on 9/11 America showed al-Qaida that the image it had of America was wrong. Rather than fleeing New York, Americans from all over the country flocked to the Big Apple to help the rescue efforts. New Yorkers showed a resolve that was admired across the world. Contrary to al-Qaida's predictions, Americans didn't buckle under the terrorist group's pressure.
Instead they joined the military, and Congress voted to take the war to al-Qaida in Afghanistan. New Yorkers and Americans vowed to rebuild the country and not to let al-Qaida change what the U.S. stands for in the world. America sent a message that it was not a house of cards but a nation of steel. In terms of propaganda value against al-Qaida, America's reaction was priceless.
Fast-forward to the present. Nine years after 9/11, as we're finally preparing to try some of those responsible for 9/11, the Obama administration on Friday asked the Justice Department to come up with alternative venues to New York City--the location it had originally decided on. This rethinking came at the urging of senior senators, and of New York officials concerned that the trial could go on for a long time and cost the city close to $1 billion in security and associated costs.
The concerns that prompted the calls for rethinking the location are legitimate. As New York City (and the country) works to pull itself out of an economic downturn, the financial and security burden these trials will place on New York is likely to be huge. Originally the location and the format (whether federal courts or military commissions), didn't matter as much as the fact that the U.S. finally began prosecuting the terrorists. Americans have waited long enough to see them face justice.
But once a decision was made by Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2009 to have the trials in federal courts in New York, financial and security concerns from New York City's perspective should no longer have been the only consideration. What also must be considered is the bigger picture of America's asymmetrical war against al-Qaida. And the reality is that changing the location of the trials, unless handled correctly, may hand al-Qaida a propaganda victory.
The message that al-Qaida may try to sell is that New York is still intimidated by the terrorist group nine years after the attacks. While previously terrorists including Ramzi Yousef and al-Qaida members who were part of the East Africa Embassy bombings were tried in New York City, today the U.S. looks afraid. It looks frightened of how al-Qaida might retaliate in New York to score political points (as if they are waiting for a trial to launch an attack). Nine years after firefighters rushed into the collapsing towers as people ran out--vividly demonstrating the heroism that defined America on that day--al-Qaida can try to claim that America is projecting cowardice.
The way the administration could diffuse such an accusation would be to change the location of the trials to another location within the Southern District of New York. Attorney General Eric Holder originally declared in November that the trials would take place in the Southern District--because that's where the biggest terrorist attack of 9/11 took place. The main federal court of the Southern District is in downtown Manhattan. And that's where everyone has assumed the administration meant the trial to be held.
But parts of upstate New York are in the Southern District. Newburgh, for example, where Stewart Air Base is situated, falls in the district. Indeed that's why terrorists such as Ramzi Yousef were flown into Stewart Air Base when they were brought to the U.S. for trial, as they had to be tried in the venue where they landed. (Both of New York City's main airports, La Guardia and John F. Kennedy, are in the Eastern District of New York and so couldn't be used.)
The administration needs to explain to the world that its commitment to trying the terrorists in the Southern District has not changed. The reality is that the powerful symbolism of the terrorists being prosecuted where they committed their crime--in the Southern District of New York--still stands. By saying this, the administration won't unwittingly give Osama Bin Laden any new footage for al-Qaida's next propaganda video. In the asymmetrical war against al-Qaida, America can still have the upper hand.
Daniel Freedman is director of policy analysis and communications at the Soufan Group, a strategic consultancy.
Read more Forbes opinions here.