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Skeptics question health-care savings at teachers union

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 02 Mei 2014 | 17.08

The mammoth, nine-year teachers-union contract will be paid for by trimming $1 billion in medical costs, claimed Mayor de Blasio.

Yet budget watchdogs said the plan needs a check-up.

City Hall officials insist the savings can be achieved without asking teachers to contribute more dollars ­toward their health care — by centralizing aspects like prescription drugs and conducting audits.

The city would save $3.4 billion over four years if all the unions agree to the modest changes for the ­entire municipal work force, the mayor said.

But Carol Kellermann of the Citizens Budget Commission said de Blasio let the United Federation of Teachers off the hook.

"The health-cost-savings part leaves a lot to be ­desired," she said.

"The city should have gotten 25 percent of the cost of the premiums from the workers. That would have been $1 billion a year," she said.

De Blasio said he was "very confident we can achieve these savings," before admitting that no concessions were obtained from the UFT work force to cover medical costs.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Local politician: Casino boss accused of incest should be axed

His idea of family isn't welcome upstate.

Casino creep Michael Treanor — who was outed by The Post for being accused of sexually assaulting his own sister — should be axed as the face of a $420  million casino proposal at the former Nevele Resort in the Catskills, a ­local politician demanded Thursday.

Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, who had previously stood behind the plan, wants Nevele to win a casino license to boost the struggling local economy but without Treanor, 48, as the face and CEO of the project.

Treanor's management firm, Claremont Partners, plunked down $1 million last week to apply for one of the four state casino licenses for which 22 companies are competing.

"The story we have seen is both shocking and appalling to our community," Hein said in a statement about The Post's report on the alleged assault against his sibling.

"The entire Nevele management team needs to answer for this and immediately and completely disassociate from anyone who compromises this valuable project."

Just last month, the Ulster County Legislature voted 22-0 in support of the application to restore the resort.

New York State Gaming Commission representative Lee Park said the board will evaluate all aspects of an application for a casino ­license, including "the background, character and fitness of the principals."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

De Blasio, teachers union strike deal offering charter reforms

If you can't beat charter schools, join 'em.

The nine-year deal hammered out between the teachers union and Mayor de Blasio on Thursday includes a surprise plan to exempt 200 regular city public schools — 10 percent — from union and Department of Education rules.

Those are the same rules from which charter schools are exempt, a policy supporters say allows charters to flourish with longer school days, a focus on teacher merit instead of seniority, and other innovations.

The new flexibility is an admission by both the mayor and the union that the charter-school model works — after years of bashing the popular alternative schools.

Charter-school advocates took the move by the mayor and the United Federation of Teachers as the sincerest form of flattery.

"By emulating some of the best practices to come out of the charter-school movement, the administration continues to evolve on charters and recognize their important place in the city's educational landscape," said Jenny Sedlis, executive director of the advocacy group StudentsFirstNY.

"I would hope that they keep looking to the best charters for ideas of how to improve the entire system."

Asked about the similarities with charters, de Blasio said the main goal of the initiative was to get bureaucracy out of the way of creative approaches to education.

"What this says is, if you get an agreement at the school level . . . the last thing that should happen is to have either chancellor's regulations or UFT work rules stand in the way of innovation that everyone agrees on," he said.

Among other changes, the deal:

n Makes it easier to get rid of pervy teachers by expanding the definition of sexual misconduct to include inappropriate touching and texting.

n Seeks to reward and retain the best teachers by giving them bonus pay of between $5,000 and $20,000, in some cases for taking on additional duties.

n Keeps the 1,200 educators who have been shed from shrinking or closing schools working as roving substitutes — but provides new ammo to cut them loose if they perform poorly.

n Reduces the number of criteria for evaluating teachers from 22 to eight.

The long-awaited agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the rank-and-file, will give UFT members the equivalent of 4 percent retroactive hikes for 2010 and 2011 paid out across a number of years. Teachers are then set to get a $1,000 payment for 2012, followed by 1 percent annual raises from 2013 through 2015.

The pay hikes ramp up toward the end of the contract, to 1.5 percent in 2016, 2.5 percent in 2017 and 3 percent in 2018 — the final year of the deal.

In return, the union agreed to yet-to-be-determined cost-saving measures on health care, such as centralized drug purchases, that administration officials put at $1.3 billion. With the deal set to cost $5.5 billion through Fiscal Year 2018, the net cost would be $4.2 billion when factoring in the health savings, officials said.

That excludes payments for the retroactive raises, and for which administration officials couldn't provide a price tag.

They said the mayor would identify more savings connected to the UFT contract in next week's executive budget release.

"This agreement will be a gateway to great progress in our schools system," said de Blasio, who hailed the deal as "historic."

His negotiating partner, UFT President Michael Mulgrew, drew a sharp contrast between the tone of the current administration and the former one under ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"We're talking about ideas that are based on what makes sense inside a classroom, versus what makes sense in a sound bite in a political atmosphere," Mulgrew said.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Teachers relieved but not thrilled with new contract details

Teachers were underwhelmed by raises in the new union contract announced Thursday by Mayor de Blasio and their union — and worried about concessions over evaluations and merit pay.

Among the lingering uncertainties were how officials would dole out potential ­bonus pay ranging between $5,000 and $20,000.

"There would have to be some very fair, concrete, black-and-white requirements as to what constitutes a $20,000 bonus teacher because that's a little bit of a sticky situation," said Jaclyn Roberts, a photography teacher at the HS of Art and Design in Manhattan, who expressed concerns about favoritism.

Instructors also wanted to know more about the procedures to remove teachers for disciplinary infractions.

"I expected more from Bill de Blasio," said Dennis Maragliano, a special-ed teacher at PS 77 in Brooklyn.

"At this point, we just have to take what was offered."

Alice Ressner, a teacher at PS 321 in de Blasio's Park Slope, Brooklyn, neighborhood, complained that the negotiations reeked of cynical politics.

"It almost seems like a game," she said. "[The union] makes it seem like it's so difficult to negotiate given the constraints in which de Blasio is working. He's probably ­doing the best he can."

Other teachers were relieved that they finally have a contract after working nearly five years without one.

"I'm glad they finally reached a deal with a cost-of-living increase," said Urban Assembly Gateway School guidance counselor Jeff Makris.

But he added, "I can't say this is a new deal that would change the face of urban education, but at least it's something."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Daily Blotter

Brooklyn

Cops are looking for the subway rider who allegedly snatched an iPad from a fellow straphanger in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The thief fled the Queens-bound A train ­after the grab-and-go at the Nostrand Avenue ­station at 3:20 p.m. on March 30, cops said.

He snatched the tablet right before the train doors closed and ran from station, ­authorities said.

He is believed to be about 20 years old, ­5-foot-10 and 150 pounds.

The man may have taken valuables from a cubicle in a Midwood medical office, cops said.

The man entered the office on East 14th Street near Kings Highway at 6:50 p.m. Sunday, cops said.

Soon after, a staff member reported that $40 and keys were missing from the cubicle, cops added.

The suspect is believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s.


Manhattan

A woman who entered a man's East Side apartment was choked until she passed out, choked again when she regained consciousness and then raped, authorities said.

Paul Grossman, 31, attacked the woman in his East 52nd Street apartment between First and Second avenues at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, a Criminal Court complaint charges.

The victim, described as an acquaintance, contacted police, and Grossman was charged with rape, kidnapping, sexual abuse and strangulation, documents state.

A serial burglar hit more than a dozen offices from Hell's Kitchen to Tribeca before being apprehended, authorities said.

John Wilkins, 49, was seen on video entering buildings from West 36th to West 39th streets, along Madison Avenue and downtown on White Street, a Criminal Court complaint charges.

Footage showed him frequently walking out with more than he had carried in during a spree that began on Jan. 17 and lasted until April 18, records state.

The prolific thief made off with cash, iPads, electronics, bags and other valuables, court documents state.


Queens

Two creeps tried to ­abduct four girls in two ­incidents in Queens Village, cops said.

The suspects, believed to be in their late teens, followed an 11-year-old girl walking home near 111th Avenue and 208th Street, a few blocks from the Renaissance Middle School, at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

They pulled up in a dark-green SUV and a man in the passenger seat, wearing a ski mask, jumped out and began speaking to the child, cops said.

But the plucky girl fled and the would-be abductors fled in the vehicle, police added.

Soon after, a 10-year-old girl and two 11-year-old girls noticed they were being followed by a green Jeep Cherokee bearing New York state license plates containing the digits "74," cops said.

They saw a driver hand a gun to the passenger, who then pulled a mask over his face and ­approached the children, cops added.

The girls fled and hid behind a parked car, and the armed creeps circled back before driving off, police said.


Staten Island

Cops say the man used a stolen credit card to buy gas in Bulls Head.

He was seen on surveillance video making the nefarious purchase at 7 p.m. last Friday, police said.

He fled in a silver sedan, authorities said.

Cops are looking for a man who allegedly snatched a woman's purse in a Bulls Head supermarket.

The 44-year-old victim had her handbag in her shopping cart in the Stop & Shop on Richmond Avenue at about 3:45 p.m. on April 11 when he grabbed it and ran, police said.

He fled in a green Ford van bearing New York plates, according to law-enforcement authorities.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukraine detains Russian military attaché for spying

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 01 Mei 2014 | 17.08

Ukraine said on Thursday it had detained Russia's military attaché to Kiev on suspicion of spying and ordered him to leave, as the ex-Soviet republic wrestles with an armed uprising it says is orchestrated by Moscow.

In a statement, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the unnamed diplomat was detained on Wednesday while undertaking "intelligence activities".

Ukraine accuses Russia of orchestrating the fall of towns and cities across its industrial east to pro-Russian separatists over the past month, spearheaded by well-organized gunmen in masks and military fatigues.

Russia denies having any part in the rebellion, but has warned it reserves the right to intervene to protect ethnic Russians – following its annexation of Crimea in late March – and has massed tens of thousands of troops on its western frontier with Ukraine.

"The military-naval attaché of the embassy of the Russian Federation in Ukraine is declared persona non grata in connection with his actions, which are not in accordance with his diplomatic status," the ministry said.

The diplomat was ordered to leave, though the statement mentioned no deadline. There was no immediate response from Moscow, which like Kiev is observing the May 1 holiday.

Ukraine's pro-Western leaders conceded on Wednesday they were "helpless" to counter the fall of government buildings and police stations to the separatists in the Donbass coal and steel belt of eastern Ukraine, source of around a third of the country's industrial output.

Provocations

Having seized key buildings in the capital of the easternmost province, Luhansk, on Tuesday, gunmen took control at dawn on Wednesday in the nearby towns of Horlivka and Alchevsk.

In Donetsk, the biggest city to fall, mainly Russian-speaking separatists have declared a "People's Republic of Donetsk" and called a referendum on secession for May 11, threatening to undercut a planned presidential election in Ukraine two weeks later.

Ukraine hopes the presidential poll will help restore order after five months of civil turmoil that saw Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich toppled after street protests and gun battles in central Kiev, and Russia's subsequent annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

Pro-Western authorities that took power with Yanukovich's ouster accuse Russia of planning to disrupt the presidential election, create instability and frustrate the new government's hopes of Western integration.

Overnight, the state security guard, responsible for securing key government sites and officials, carried out a small drill in central Kiev. Four armored personnel carriers trundled through the streets to parliament, where several dozen troops took position as if responding to a threat.

The guard's commander, Valery Galetey, said they were training for possible "provocations" during the May 25 election.

On Tuesday, Oleksander Turchinov, Ukraine's acting president, said the armed forces were on full alert for a Russian invasion.

That prompted a return volley from Moscow, where the Foreign Ministry demanded that Kiev "immediately ceases the bellicose rhetoric, which is aimed at intimidating its own population."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hondo playing Rockie

Ventura put Hondo on the highway to heaven Wednesday night, helping hurl the Royals to a victory that trimmed the deficit to 615 saberhagens. As for his Oriole action, it was rinsed for a second straight night.

Thursday: Mr. Aitch will go against Big Bart in an attempt to shrink the deficit — 10 units on the Rockies to pound Colon.


Speaking of the Metamucils, they have posted a so-called "Legends Letter" on Meta.com that they asked fans to sign as a show of loyalty to the their plucky little band of overachievers. Fans should do that right after the Wilponzies sign a letter pledging not to cripple the team's finances again by doing business with any financial schemers

Caught with the deadliest catch: Florida State's Famous Jameis Winston is on the hook for stealing crab legs from a grocery store. Word is Winston, who claims he "forgot" to pay (that seems fishy), is on that new see-food diet — see food and steal it … The Heisman winner was issued only a misdemeanor citation for his shellfish act because of a special Leon County program for those who commit "minor, non-violent non-sexual offenses."

Whew, lucky for Lamest Jameis he hasn't been involved in any sexual offenses!


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Brooklyn teachers balk at ‘Common Core’ test

Now teachers are opting out of Common Core.

Prospect Heights International HS teachers in Brooklyn are refusing to administer an English Language Arts test Thursday because they believe it is useless to their non-native-English-speaking students.

The test, which is tied to new teacher evaluations, is given at the start of the school year and near the end to measure student performance.

But Prospect Heights teachers, whose school is largely filled with immigrants who have yet to master English, said nearly all of their students scored zeros on the fall exam.

"I had students tell me they felt like they were failures. I had students cry during the exam," said ninth-grade English teacher Emily Wendlake.

Twenty-six of the school's 30 teachers sent a letter to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña urging her to drop the test for the city's immigrant students still learning English.

School leaders said they will still administer the test.


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Real-estate family tangled in prickly divorce

A real-life "war of the Roses" is raging between two Manhattan real-estate honchos, complete with accusations of e-mail spying, corporate freeze-outs and big-money retaliation.

The family feud, being waged in both divorce and civil courts, pits Marshall Rose, of the Georgetown Company, against his soon-to-be-ex-son-in-law, former city Planning Commissioner Joseph Rose.

The Yale- and Harvard-schooled Joseph had married Marshall's daughter, Wendi, a willowy brunette who by coincidence already shared Joseph's last name, back in 1996.

Candice Bergen and Marshall RosePhoto: Startraks Photo

The two had a storybook marriage at first — much like in the 1989 Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner divorce comedy, "The War of the Roses." There was a wedding at the sumptuous East Hampton manse of Marshall and his second wife, actress Candice Bergen. Soon followed two beautiful kids, Joseph and Wendi's own multimillion-dollar Hamptons "cottage" and dinners on the charity circuit.

Joseph served under Mayor Rudy Giuliani from 1993 through 2001 and then went to work for Marshall's Madison Avenue real-estate company.

According to Joseph's Manhattan Supreme Court civil suit filed Wednesday, Marshall, 77, at first welcomed Joseph, 54, with open arms "because of [Joseph's] noteworthy experience, exceptional credentials and comprehensive contacts in the real-estate ­industry."

But in 2010, Joseph and Wendi separated, with divorce claims and counterclaims — rumored to be ugly — exchanged this year. And Marshall, the suit claims, schemed to make his son-in-law's life a living hell.

"Rather than seeking to promote the financial interests of the company, [Marshall] Rose used the company as a vehicle to settle his own personal and familial scores" with his son-in-law, the suit says.

In the suit, Joseph says Marshall exacted retribution for Joseph leaving Wendi, freezing Joseph out of the Georgetown Company, which has had a hand in some of the city's most iconic properties — including Frank Gehry's InterActiveCorp building in Chelsea and the restoration of the main branch of the New York Public Library.

The father-in-law and other partners have reduced Joe's stake in the company from 21 percent to only .01 percent, along with cutting him out of a $19.5 million Four Seasons development in Washington, DC, and yanking his private office, support staff and health insurance, Joe contends in the suit.

Marshall also "intentionally disseminated" Joseph's personal and business e-mails "for use by Rose's daughter and her reps in divorce-settlement negotiations," the suit claims.

"We are saddened that Joseph Rose seeks to entangle his soon-to-be ex-father-in-law and the business that Marshall Rose built over 40 years in an unrelated divorce," Georgetown Company spokesman Davidson Goldin responded in a statement.

Wendi's attorney, Alton Abramowitz, told The Post, "My client would like to state clearly that this is a private matter as far as she is concerned. She and hopefully her husband are trying to do their best to bring this to a fair and amicable resolution that will protect their children and themselves."


17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Section of Park Avenue designated historic district

Section of Park Avenue designated historic district | New York Post
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May 1, 2014 | 6:04am

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A new historic district will stretch from 79th Street to 91st Street along the wide residential boulevard on Park Ave. Photo: Shutterstock

New York City has a new designated historic district.

The landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday approved the Park Avenue Historic District.

It extends from 79th Street to 91st Street along the wide residential boulevard.

The section consists mostly of stately rows of apartment buildings 12 to 17 stories high constructed in the 1910s and 1920s. Two churches and early 20th century mansions are included.

A neighborhood preservation group, the Carnegie Hill Neighbors, tells the Wall Street Journal that the designation will protect some sites from the threat of demolition.

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