A respected doctor was laid off earlier this month after nearly 40 years at Coney Island Hospital, sparking outrage from former co-workers.
More than 300 doctors and nurses have signed a petition demanding the rehiring of 68-year-old cancer surgeon Dr. Quamer Amirudin, 1010 WINS reports.
The August 7 firing came as a surprise, as Amirudin was let go just as he completed performing surgery.
“Immediately the barcode on my ID card was taken away,” Dr. Amirudin told 1010 WINS. “I couldn’t get on to computers.”
He was one of 12 doctors laid off at Coney Island Hospital, and one in thousands that the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation announced they’re laying off this year. Officials say budget cuts are to blame.
According to 1010 Wins, Amirudin drops in often to visit patients, but has refused work offers elsewhere.
BROOKLYN — Twenty-six businesses and 76 community groups sent letters in support of the restoration of funding for the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, the Bronx Zoo and all Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) members.
In Brooklyn, this also includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, although not the Prospect Park Zoo, which is funded from a different source under the state budget.
These organizations are vital to their communities as they provide jobs and business for local merchants.
More than 56,000 petitions were collected in support of these vital city institutions. Petitioners have flooded the city government to help prevent a 42 percent or $3.9 million cut. These cuts would threaten jobs at cultural institutions around the city and would have a devastating effect to the 114-year-old New York Aquarium in Coney Island, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Bronx Zoo.
“We appreciate each and every petition, letter, and e-mail sent to City Hall on behalf of all the cultural organizations and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium,” said WCS Executive Vice President of Public Affairs John Calvelli. WCS is the parent body for both institutions as well as the Queens and Central Park zoos.
If you believe the aquarium and New York City’s other cultural institutions are worth saving, sign the petition.
The above clip may well go down in the annals of New York State history as the most bizarre moment of gushing hypocrisy to spill forth from that Deepwater Horizon of political corruption known as Albany. In it, State Senator Carl Kruger addresses his peers on the occasion of the 11th appropriation special extender to this year’s budget – passed on June 14.
Kruger, ever the champion of civil service, took the opportunity to remind the senators that service must come before politics. He said, “For these past 10 weeks, this Democratic majority has kept government functioning while the unanimous sentiment of the Republican minority was to close down government. Our obligation was to put service over politics … After all the rhetoric is over, and after all the speeches are made, the fact is the campaigning has to end, and governing has to begin.
“So lets talk for a moment about this extender…”
He then continued to take a fat dump upon his Republican colleagues.
Sheepshead Bay’s representatives to the City Council joined more than 100 advocates on City Hall’s steps yesterday to fight a proposed slash in childcare funding.
City Councilmen Mike Nelson and Lew Fidler were among a slew of Brooklyn’s Council representatives that came out to rally alongside educators, childcare advocates and labor organizers. The group – led by City Councilman David Greenfield – is fighting the elimination of Priority 7 childcare vouchers as well as the closure of 16 ACS-operated daycare centers. The Brooklyn delegation is claiming the cuts disproportionally hurt the most populous borough, since 10 of the 16 centers targeted for closure are in Brooklyn. Additionally, the majority of the more than 1,000 families receiving priority 7 vouchers are Brooklynites.
Priority 7 vouchers assists families who are below the poverty level and are in special need of child care.
“Cuts to daycares and Priority 7 vouchers hurt families, and make parents choose between working to pay for family expenses and their children,” Councilman Fidler told Yeshiva World News.
Advocates say that the cuts will not only put pressure on families, but closures to ACS schools will displace hundreds of students.
The New York State budget is now more than one month late. Timid “leaders” in the state legislature are so afraid to unveil cuts during an election season that we face a $9 billion budget deficit, a figure that’s rapidly increasing as the state continues to take out loans to pay for services until the budget is revealed. And New York City is being forced to submit its own budget in the face of uncertainty, as city administrators haven’t been informed of what funding to expect from the state. (Bloomberg is expecting a $1.3 billion slash in state funds).
At the epicenter of budget negotiations is the Senate Finance Committee chairman – Sheepshead Bay’s State Senator Carl Kruger. For the past month, and before it, Kruger has remained mum about budget discussions. As you can see from the video above, he has shut out even his fellow legislators. Because of his reluctance to add transparency to the process, the public remains in the dark on what funding gaps exist, and what cuts are on the table. As residents and constituents, we’re given no say on where our money will be spent, and we have no opportunity to offer solutions to the inevitable cuts.
Of course, we’ll probably never have that opportunity. Last year, the final proposal was dumped on the public (and the minority party) and a vote on it was scheduled for just hours later. As distance grows between the passed deadline and the vote, the agencies, municipalities, and the leaders that represent them are desperate for any plan at all – a situation Kruger and his crew depend on.
This is thuggish, undemocratic behavior. Open up the budget process, Senator Kruger. If you can’t get the job done on time, then let us have our say.
Over the weekend, gay rights activists marched in front of State Senator Carl Kruger’s Mill Basin home, enraged at the senator’s recent vote against marriage equality in New York State. According to NBC New York, activists called Kruger a “bigot”, and are planning more protests in the coming weeks.
Kruger has defended his vote as a reflection of his constituents’ wishes, not of his own beliefs. He said he considers the Orthodox Jewish community a “bedrock” part of his district. He added, “When it becomes an emotional, gut-wrenching issue, when it cuts through the fabric of traditions and values, then I have my community as the cornerstone of my decision.” (Others say Kruger’s vote was the result of a “chit cashed” by fellow “Amigo” Ruben Diaz.)
What do you think? Should a senator put his constituents’ wishes before his own moral beliefs? Always/Never? And is the Orthodox Jewish community reflective of the the entire district, which includes Bergen Beach, Flatlands, Mill Basin, Sheepshead Bay, and Midwood.
Meanwhile, in other Kruger news, the good senator continues to get slammed for his budget shenangigans and role in the MTA deficit (here and here).
MTA will not raise fares in 2010, but is considering cutting services and staff to close the budget gap
MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder told reporters yesterday that the agency will avoid jacking prices next year, despite a $140 million cut from its budget.
“It is my intent to stay with the schedule of fare hikes that was agreed with the Legislature in May, which does not call for a fare hike in 2010,” he told reporters after a three-hour hearing in Lower Manhattan on the authority’s capital plan. “It is my intent to stay with that.”
Instead, the authority is looking at ways to tighten the belt in-house, and is weighing service cuts, worker layoffs, and maximizing other revenue sources to fill the gap.
Still, Walder says the agency will look to raise fares 7.5 percent in 2011 and 2013, as approved by Legislature.
In the 18th Century, Samuel Johnson said, “If you are idle, be not solitary” – and with those words, as if by magic, the New York State Senate was established; and a whole lot of otherwise idle men were grouped together, to be idle, but not solitary.
With the state facing a $3.2 billion budget gap, little has been accomplished except a continuous ticking-off-the-list of things we can’t do to fix the budget. Why can’t we do them? It’s this senator’s pet project, or that senator’s constituency (or, perhaps, campaign contributor). Meanwhile, New York State is just days away from declaring bankruptcy.
And who’s leading the shenanigans? Sheepshead Bay State Senator Carl Kruger. Continue Reading »
Angered by Governor Paterson’s moves to slash spending in education and healthcare, State Senator Carl Kruger proposed an alternative budget and blasted the governor for wantonly depicting a “doomsday scenario.”
Despite a deficit of more than $3 billion, Mr. Kruger has threatened to block any significant cuts to health care and education, the biggest spending areas in the budget. He has presented his own budget plan, which has startled even Albany veterans for its reliance on one-time maneuvers and financial gimmickry.
…
Where the governor would cut spending, Mr. Kruger and the Senate prefer one-time measures like restructuring the state’s tobacco bonds, a move that would increase New York’s debt burden. Mr. Kruger would also draw from the treasuries of public authorities to a greater degree than the governor and wants to increase gambling hours at gaming facilities.
And Mr. Kruger believes the state should set up a commission to study ways to make government more efficient, a step that could take years to show gains.
Kruger represents parts of Sheepshead Bay, Homecrest, Gravesend, Midwood, Mill Basin, Flatlands, Manhattan Beach, and Bergen Beach. In a power play over the summer, Kruger joined three other Democratic lawmakers and threatened to caucus with the Republicans, putting the Dems at risk of forfeiting their majority. He came out of the play as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and has raised more than $2.1 million for his 2010 reelection bid – far more than any other state legislator.
Yes, it’s shaping up to be a terrible school year, and we’re not even halfway through it. That’s why, over in Manhattan Beach, leaders of the Manhattan Beach Community Group are organizing a letter-writing campaign to the state representatives in order to battle the $686 million mid-year cut. About a third of that, $223 million, is slated specifically for the city’s school system. MBCG writes:
Our children will be losing out again. Please take a moment and call our Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz and ask him to vote against these cuts … Don’t let our children get short changed. Cut the fat. Cut the waste. Leave schools alone. Let our children learn.
We agree. That’s why we’re joining them in asking all of our readers to contact your state senator and state assemblyman. Contact information for representatives in our area are below. If you need to know who represents you, click here. Remind our representatives to protect our children and their education. Tell them hands-off on schools.
