Regional Briefs – October 20, 2014

Homeless Man Vandalizes Brooklyn’s 9/11 Memorial

NEW YORK – A homeless man was arrested on Saturday after a video captured him smearing white paint on a memorial in Coney Island to the police officers and firefighters who died in the 9/11 attacks, the New York Post reported. Elliot Baez appeared to single out the portrait of Officer Moira Smith, the only female NYPD officer who died on Sept. 11.

MTA’s First Chairman, William Ronan, Dies at 101

NEW YORK – William J. Ronan, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s first chairman, died Wednesday. He was 101. He led the agency for six years after his 1965 appointment by then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Under his term, the MTA began ambitious construction projects, including the (still unfinished) Second Avenue Subway.

Cost Per NYC Inmate Nearly at $100,000

NEW YORK – The taxpayer cost of jailing a New York City inmate jumped 42 percent since 2007 as levels of violence continue to rise, Comptroller Scott Stringer says in a new report, jumping from $67,565 in 2007 to $96,232. The figures far surpass other big city jail systems.

There were 470 infractions for fighting per 1,000 average daily inmates in 2007. That number this year is 774, a 65 percent jump.

De Blasio Rents Out His Brooklyn Home

NEW YORK – Mayor Bill de Blasio has rented out his Park Slope, Brooklyn, home, receiving their asking price of $4,975 a month from the first couple who saw the three-bedroom property, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unidentified tenants signed a one-year lease.

Media Station: Cuomo Interview Nixed Over Ground Rule

ALBANY – A Rochester station said its interview with Gov. Andrew Cuomo was abruptly canceled when they wanted to ask him about more than his new memoir, WHAM reported. The publishers arranged the interview for Wednesday night, but a Cuomo aide later called, asking the station to only ask questions about the memoir. When the station refused, the interview was canceled.

This article appeared in print in the October 20th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.