BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

The Staten Island Advance reported yesterday on two brothers arrested for operating a local medical supply business which scammed insurers for millions.

Aleksandr Finkelshteyn and Robert Finkelshteyn are accused of submitting fraudulent bills to firms that carry no-fault policies for items such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, iron lungs and oxygen tents.

The Finkelshteyns allegedly set up fake wholesale companies, then acted as a retailer which would buy equipment that never came. The pair worked out of the offices of Alrof, Inc. which, until it closed in July, was located at 2515 65th Street between Dahill Road and McDonald Avenue.

From silive.com:

No goods were delivered that corresponded to the items on the bills and the prices listed were 10 to 15 times higher than what the merchandise typically cost, the complaint alleges. Click Here For More Details On This Dishonest Duo

John C. Liu at a party in September (Michael Appleton for NY Times)

According to yesterday’s New York Times, reporters found some glaring irregularities in City Comptroller John Liu’s election campaign – including apparently illegal fundraising practices.

The Times investigation consisted of canvassing the homes and businesses of people listed as donors to Liu’s campaign.

Some of the two dozen irregularities found include individuals who deny ever contributing, say others contributed for them, or seemed to not exist at all. There were several instances where reporters reviewed paperwork for multiple people which were all written in the same person’s handwriting.

One of those interviewed was Zhong Qun Tan, a garment worker from Gravesend, whose donor card listed her as a carpenter for a Queens construction company she had never heard of.

From the Times:

Two people who described attending banquets in which Mr. Liu appeared and posed for photos said that company executives who support him provided donations in the names of those in attendance.

In addition, Mr. Liu is not complying with some basic campaign finance laws: To protect against so-called straw donors, the city requires that donor cards submitted with campaign contributions be filled out only by the person making the donation. In numerous instances in Mr. Liu’s campaign, one person appears to have filled out cards for multiple donors. Continue Reading »

[UPDATE 10/14/11] A reader confirmed yesterday that the library is still open. We’re guessing they just hung the sign to give everyone a heads up about it closing on November 4.

Reader Grace O. happened by the above sign, which was posted on the gate of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Ryder Branch yesterday.

According to Brooklyn Public Library’s website, the library is expected to reopen December 12, after receiving technological upgrading – including some do-it-yourself checkout scanners.

Curiously, the website also says the library isn’t supposed to close until November 4.

Anyone know if they will be losing staff?

The 2nd Annual Coney Island Children’s Halloween Parade is just a little over two weeks away.

The festivities, which include a costume contest, will take place Saturday, October 29, beginning at 1 p.m. The parade starts at Peggy O’Neill’s on Surf Avenue and West 17th Street in MCU Park and proceeds to the New York Aquarium at West 8th Street.

Both children and adults are encouraged to wear costumes. All little ones that would like to participate must be accompanied by an adult.

Parade marchers should also arrive early to register at 11:30 a.m.

The day’s events are brought to you by Councilman Domenic Recchia.

For more information, please call (877) 712-6639

City Councilman Domenic Recchia represents Council District 47, which includes Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, as well as part of Bensonhurst. He also serves as Chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee

Rep. Michael Grimm (from house.gov)

Rep. Michael Grimm has endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination and many of Grimm’s Tea Party supporters, some of whom have already criticized him for betraying their ultra conservative principles, are steaming mad.

Romney getting Grimm, who was elected as a darling of the right, to back him is quite an accomplishment for the Massachusetts governor.

Because of Romney’s more liberal record – including state mandated health insurance similar to President Obama’s own health care plan – he is widely considered unsalable to Tea Party true believers.

From RTTNews.com:

“The single most thing this country is starving for is leadership – leadership that is reinforced with the right balance of private sector and executive experience,” Grimm said in a statement. “Governor Romney epitomizes that balance, making him the right candidate to lead America during these tough times.”

In declining to support Tea Party-backed candidates such as Texas governor Rick Perry, Minnesota rep Michele Bachmann or Georgia businessman Herman Cain, Grimm said he thought Romney had the best chance to beat President Barack Obama in next year’s election – and that was more important than any political posturing.

Grimm’s show of support would be Romney’s first from an official who was elected with Tea Party approval.

The move has the possibility of enlisting more support for Romney from the Tea Party movement, as well as further alienating Grimm from his own base.

In what may be a sign of things to come, the movement’s local leadership is reportedly not taking this lying down.

According to RTT, several rallies have been planned, with at least one materializing, in protest of Grimm’s choice for prez.

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm represents New York’s 13th Congressional District, which includes all of Staten Island. In Brooklyn, the 13th District includes parts of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Gravesend.

For decades, Bensonhurst held the reputation of a place where, for better or worse, ‘justice’ was often meted out in the street.

While the uglier side of that reality has moved to Staten Island slowly faded away over the years, fortunately the sense of community that stems from neighbors looking out for one another has not.

According to the New York Post, a man who was stabbed while stopping a thief from driving away with his neighbors truck, still made sure the bandit left in handcuffs.

From the Post:

Michael Sterlacci, 33, of Bensonhurst, caught John Stanzione, 51, in his neighbor’s Ford Explorer at around 1 a.m. Monday, sources said.

While Sterlacci’s stab wound gushed blood, he kept after the crook and held him for police.

Do you consider the anti-corporate sentiment of the Occupy Wall Street protests, as well as growing discontent about the widening gap between rich and poor to be a form of class warfare?

In the above video, posted on YouTube by CongressmanNadler, Rep. Jerrold Nadler spins the label back around at Congressional Republicans during an appearance on MSNBC, accusing them of “tax warfare” against the middle and working class.

What say you?

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler represents New York’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, SoHo, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, the Financial District and Battery Park City. In Brooklyn, the 8th District includes parts of Borough Park, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach and Seagate.

Father Knickerbocker, representing New York City, proposes to Miss Brooklyn (Image provided by Michael Miscione via nurcnews.blogspot.com)

Not everyone was happy about Brooklyn’s consolidation into greater New York City in 1898.

To many newspapers, civic leaders and proud residents, it was ‘the great mistake of ’98′ – when Brooklyn would forever lose its identity as an independent city.

According to Vincent La Marca, Historian Michael Miscione will give a free talk, including great illustrations like the one above, on the struggle to create the five borough behemoth we know today as NYC, on Tuesday, October 25.

The lecture will take place at the New Utrecht Reformed Church’s parish house at 7:30 p.m.

Miscione is the Borough Historian for Manhattan, as well as the producer of a documentary on Brooklyn’s merger with the rest of New York City.

The New Utrecht Reformed Church is located on 18th Avenue between 83rd Street and 84th Street. For more information on the church’s history, please visit Historic New Utrecht.org

[Update 2:15 p.m.] The hearing on Calko Medical Center’s parking spots is NOT today. As it says on the flier, the meeting will be NEXT Tuesday, October 18. 2011 at 2:00 pm. We apologize for any inconvenience this error may have caused.

The Calko Medical Center, which is currently being built on Bay Parkway and 60th Street, continues to draw the ire of residents and elected officials alike.

Back in August, we reported on the developer’s plans to reduce the number of parking spaces, as well as the civic backlash it had begun to create in this already parking spot-deprived neighborhood.

Parishioners at Saint Athanasius had organized a bus to lower Manhattan, in order to make their presence felt at a hearing on the parking changes.

Then in September, we told you about how City Councilman David Greenfield had come out against the proposal, which would decrease the amount of parking in the facility by nearly half.

According to fliers posted around the neighborhood, there will be another BSA hearing on the changes to Calko’s parking capacity today next Tuesday at 40 Rector Street in Manhattan, at around 2:00 p.m.

Also, a protest in front of the medical center is apparently being planned for this Thursday, October 13, at 2:30 p.m.

Bensonhurst Bean and Sheepshead Bites will be undergoing technical upgrades over the holiday weekend. Most readers should not see any change in their browser, but in some cases, or in the occasion that we hit an unexpected bump, the site may go down at intervals throughout the holiday weekend.

The updates involve moving our files and databases to faster systers with upgraded technology and higher capacity. For readers this should mean a faster browsing experience and swifter navigation of the site’s pages, delivering a better user experience overall. However, we will not be updating over the three-day holiday weekend. In the event that we need to report breaking news, we will do so using the various other platforms that carry our content. Please be sure to subscribe to one or all of the following to keep informed as we make our transition: