United States Senator Charles Schumer and U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey came to the Hugh Doyle Senior Center on January 10 to hold a press conference about senior benefits and health insurance reform. Schumer alluded to Lowey's years in Congress since l980 and continued by saying some of the greatest concerns of seniors in their eighties and nineties was the cost of prescription drugs. Enacted in 2004, the prescription drug plan included a "donut hole" which has consumed many senior's savings. A Kaiser Foundation study found 15% of seniors stopped taking their medications regularly when they reached this donut hole, either by taking the medications every other day or not taking them. This new benefit covers $500 for donut hole coverage starting January 1, 2011,
Read moreNeW Rochelle Police, responding to a 911 call at 345 Main Street, found a two year old child dead in an apartment in a building near the corner of Main Street and Echo Avenue. The parents had previously been under investigation by Child Protective Services and the child has been removed from home only to be returned several months ago.
The father told police the child his his head while jumping on the couch. Police labeled the incident "suspicious".
New Rochelle police had the area locked down for several hours awaiting the Westchester County Medical Examiner.
UPDATE: Capt. Joseph Schaller told Talk of the Sound that he is hoping the New Rochelle police department will hear back later today on the cause of death.
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Read moreIn the December 13 issue of the Westchester Guardian
Read moreTalk of the Sound has confirmed that the Westchester County District Attorney has expanded their investigation of the City of New Rochelle Department of Public Works to include the City's Department of Parks and Recreation. After receiving a tip that Fevang was keeping a boat at the New Rochelle Marina, investigators from the DA's office inspected the boat and called upon Harbor Master Salvatore "Sal" Gugliara.
DA Spokesperson Lucian Chalfen declined to comment on the investigation of the New Rochelle Marina citing the ongoing investigation.
Read moreEmergency responders are converging on the waters off New Rochelle near the New York Athletic Club where initial reports are that two boats collided sending people into the water. There are unconfirmed reporters that two boats capsized. Westchester County Police are sending a helicopter to the scene.
UPDATE: People are now out of the water. Another boat came over and rescued people in the water. The boat is bringing to the people to the Glen Island dock. No information whether anyone is missing. New Rochelle Harbor Patrol is now responding to the scene.
UPDATE: New Rochelle Harbor Patrol is standing down as all people are accounted for.
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Read moreCongresswoman Nita Lowey (NY-18) released the following statement on today's shooting in Arizona involving Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:
Read moreMy thoughts and prayers are with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family, staff, and constituents following today’s act of senseless violence in Arizona. I am heartsick about the fatalities and injuries resulting from this unconscionable attack. It is all the more tragic that she was targeted while working on behalf of her constituents.
Gabby Giffords is a warm and spirited woman and a dedicated and hardworking representative. I pray for her and for all the victims of today’s attack.
In the heated and at times overheated process of proposing, debating, amending, and passing a budget for Westchester County, most attention has centered on funding this program or that; keeping or eliminating one budget line or another.
Unfortunately, what was lost in the clutter of that debate is that the real challenge for all elected officials now and for the future, must be that of making government smaller.
Literally.
Taxpayers can no longer afford the superstructure of government and all the costs associated with it, that has been constructed in Westchester County’s case.
Westchester residents are the most heavily taxed in the nation and the relief they demand, and deserve, will not come solely from trimming around the edges of budgets and plucking out one cost or another.
Tax relief, meaningful tax relief, will come only from making fundamental structural changes to the model of government and by reducing spending in smart, future-oriented ways.
Read moreThe purpose of this article is not to say that there have been no benefits whatsoever to the development of New Roc City, Trump Plaza or the Avalons and other projects. There have been some benefits.
The purpose of this article is to give critics of the Idoni-Bramson vision for New Rochelle a language with which to articulate their opposition to specific completed projects, a reason to celebrate the demise of LeCount Square and the apparent demise of the Echo Bay Project and a basis upon which to demand a true, full cost-benefit analysis of imagined future projects like the Main Street Corridor and David's Island. It is not to be "against virtually everything" to demand that any proposed tax-payer funded government intervention in our local economy is made to consider the "unseen" costs of the projects, the possible unintended consequences of a project and be based upon an independent, verifiable cost-benefit analysis that is then used as a benchmark to check and recheck progress on a particular project at each phase in the development.
Talk of the Sound asks what a 19th century French economist and political philosopher can teach us today about men like Noam Bramson, Tim Idoni, Louis Capppelli and the Ratner Family.
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