Tenants group demands rent be cancelled outside cancer patient's home

 

 Sunnyside Post

Long-time Queens Assembly Member Catherine Nolan has disclosed that she is recovering from cancer surgery.

Nolan, who has represented the 37th Assembly District since 1985, said that she has undergone surgery and is now recuperating at home.

She did not reveal what type of cancer she has – nor the extent of the cancer – but said it will require further treatment.

“I want to announce that I am home recovering from surgery and will be following it with chemotherapy,” Nolan said in a statement Thursday.

Nolan, whose district covers Long Island City, Sunnyside, Ridgewood and parts of Astoria, said that her illness has not affected her work and she will continue to serve her constituents.

“I have been able to fully participate and vote in the Assembly’s legislative session via zoom,” she said, adding that issues like paid family leave, workers’ rights, education and health care are at the front of her agenda.

“I am fortunate to have a great medical team, a loving family, and a very dedicated staff,” Nolan said.

 

Maybe the Ridgewood Tenants Union should have rethought this considering how bad the optics are to scream in front of Nolan's house while she's recovering from a potentially terminal disease, especially since not one of these sign holding gentrifiers against gentrification is in danger of eviction as per their own words.... 

 Then again, they aren't known for their intelligence. More for their blatant racism. - QC

Quite peculiar that RTU's organizer suddenly got camera shy. Even more peculiar is that this activist group seems to get smaller and smaller. Smells very fishy. - JQ

Former Council Member Tom Ognibene has passed away

From the Queens Chronicle:

Thomas Ognibene, one of the borough's most active and recognizable Republican fixtures over the last two decades, died on Monday after a battle with cancer at the age of 72.

Ognibene was first elected to the City Council in 1992, where he served the 30th District, encompassing southwest Queens neighborhoods such as Maspeth, Glendale, Ridgewood, Woodhaven and Middle Village, where he lived with his wife, Margaret, from 1986 until his death.

The politician also served as the legislative body's minority leader from 1994 until 2001, when term limits forced his departure from the City Council.

If it wasn't for Tom Ognibene, working class Queens would not have Elmhurst Park or the Stockholm Street historic district. He wasn't your typical politician.

Artificial turf may cause childhood cancer

From CBS 2:

CBS2 first reported last January on concerns over artificial turf playing fields being a potential danger to kids.

Now in a CBS2 investigation, Carolyn Gusoff has found these fields may be linked to a growing number of cancer cases in young athletes.

Experts said the bad things in question include a number of chemicals.

“We know some of these chemicals do cause cancer,” said Dr. Robert Cohen of Northwestern Medicine.

Now, the issue is building steam — from New Jersey to Long Island and even New York City, where there are hundreds of similar fields.

“These are many years that children are playing on this surface, and they’re growing up on this surface, and now, we’re seeing throughout the country these cancer clusters,” said New York City Parks Advocates President Geoffrey Croft.

Croft said he has been petitioning the city to remove the 200-plus crumb rubber fields currently in local parks.

But the Synthetic Turf Council, which represents the companies that make the fields, insists the substance is safe. They cited 60 studies.

One of the studies cited was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which examined four crumb rubber fields in 2009 and found that harmful chemicals were “below levels of concern.”

But Long Island U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said the EPA study is in adequate.

“Common sense tells us that four fields is not an adequate sample in an entire country,” he said.

Israel insisted that the agency should do more testing.

“The only way we’re going to know whether these fields are truly safe or unsafe is for the EPA to get its act together, and update the study, and let the American people know so that they can make their own judgments,” Israel said.

In a statement, the EPA acknowledged its original study was limited, and that more testing needs to be done. But the agency did not commit to doing it.

Artificial turf may be unhealthy

From the Daily News:

It may be time to take a closer look at the artificial turf your kids play on.

An NBC News investigation into the fake grass raises the possibility that it leads to cancer, especially those of the blood.

Seattle soccer coach Amy Griffin has made a list of 38 U.S. soccer players who have been diagnosed with cancer, 34 of them goalies who have constant contact with artificial turf. Though no research has said the material causes the disease, Griffin believes the black crumbs made of synthetic fibers and old tire bits that get kicked up by regular play can get into players' bodies and be carcinogenic. Turf fields can get hotter than outside temperatures, too, causing concern that byproducts can seep into the air.

"I've coached for 26, 27 years," she told NBC News. "My first 15 years, I never heard anything about this. All of a sudden it seems to be a stream of kids (getting sick)."

The fake grass isn't just on soccer fields — it's also the surface for thousands of playgrounds, schools, parks and stadiums throughout the country. Officials like that it's cheaper than grass to maintain and can hold up year-round.

NBC's investigation did not come to a definitive conclusion that the material was safe, but did add fuel to the fire.

The Synthetic Turf Council, however, says that the evidence so far says it's perfectly fine.

Meanwhile, Forbes reports that the cost of maintaining artificial turf is actually higher than maintaining natural grass and purported cost savings are all a big scam.

Is the Parks Dept killing us?

From NBC:

An environmental study found a chemical used by the city's parks department as an herbicide is also associated with lymphoma and breast cancer, prompting fears it could put kids at risk. Stacey Bell has more.

All about Vito

From the Daily News:

Embattled Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez is facing a major new health crisis, he told the Daily News.

Already fighting cancer, Lopez said doctors have found two new growths on his brain and are trying to determine if those growths are cancerous.

Doctors are looking for a way to do a biopsy without opening the veteran assemblyman’s skull, he said.

From the Daily News:

Assemblyman Vito Lopez refused to testify before a state ethics commission probing allegations of his pervy behavior because of a related criminal probe, a source close to Lopez told the Daily News.

The source insists Lopez did not testify before the Joint Commission on Public Ethics at the urging of his lawyer because the interviews were being done in conjunction with the criminal probe by Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.

The source said Lopez’s lawyer told the ethics commission that the assemblyman would “come in and talk to JCOPE only, but they said ‘no.’”

From the NY Post:

Under fire for sex-harassment charges, State Assemblyman Vito Lopez is planning a political strategy session with allies next week that could propel him toward a run for City Council — or retirement by the end of the year.

At the state Capitol yesterday to vote on the new state budget, the ex-Brooklyn Democratic boss — who is battling thyroid cancer and two new growths on the brain — strongly hinted he’ll either run for City Council in November or retire from the Assembly by the end of the year.

“It is increasingly more difficult for me to travel back and forth to Albany,” said Lopez (right), facing ethics and criminal investigations into allegations that he sexually harassed female Assembly aides last year.

“In the last eight months, I’ve gotten pneumonia twice,” Lopez said in the Assembly. “I’m continuing to have cancer-related problems, and I find it extremely difficult to sustain even another year here.”

Bloomberg: Going senile or just an asshole?

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg practiced his version of verbal jujitsu Wednesday, mangling a greeting to Muslim leaders at a Ramadan gathering with "shalom alaikum."

Hizzoner was shooting for "salaam alaikum" - the traditional Arabic "peace to you" greeting.

"He just got a little confused," one witness said.

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday defended the federal decision not to cover cancer-stricken 9/11 first responders under the $2.7 billion Zadroga Act, even as the city's top cop blasted the ruling.

"You don't mess with science," Bloomberg said testily when asked by reporters about the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's ruling Tuesday that there isn't a clear link between World Trade Center dust and cancer.

"And the standards that science requires are very different than the standards that politics require," Bloomberg went on.

Is Rikers Island hazardous to health?

From Fox 5:

Is Rikers Island making people sick? Five corrections officers are suing New York City claiming that after decades of work at the jail -which sits on top of a former landfill- they are suffering from cancer.

Good Day New York spoke with Officers Jacqueline Bede and Vanessa Parks and their attorney, Seth Harris of the Burns & Harris Law Firm.

"Too many of us are coming down with cancer. Too many of us are retiring with cancer and too many of us are dying before our 20 year retirement," said Parks, 51, who has colon cancer.

"The smell, makes me nauseous. All day, it's a terrible smell," said Bede, 49, who has uterine cancer.

The City denies that Rikers Island is causing cancer.

"The corrections officer union did a study a few years ago because of so many complaints by constituents. Many are sick from methane gas that is leaking through the soil. Rikers Island is a landfill. It's where we used to get rid of garbage. They tried to put in a methane gas barrier 20 years ago that isn't working because the alarms keep going off. In the 90s, they did a study to appease the workers but they never tested the soil," said Harris.

Sleazy Vito update

Vito says he has cancer again.

He helped get a dirty judge elected as a delegate to the judicial convention.

And he got a building super fired for supporting a rival to Vito's pick for a council seat.

The City and State are investigating his not-for-profits.

The Feds are also looking into them.

Mayor Bloomberg tried to distance himself from the scandal. Nice try, pal.

Mary Immaculate to become cancer center?

From Crains:

Backers of a hugely expensive proposed proton beam cancer treatment facility in Jamaica, Queens, are pinning their hopes of winning the necessary state approvals on ties to several powerful local politicians.

Currently the New York State Department of Health is reviewing three competing proposals for a proton beam facility in the area, including two in New York City.

Proton beam technology allows radiation to be emitted in precisely focused cancer-killing doses, but the cost of building and equipping such a facility is more than $200 million. The cost is so prohibitive that currently there are only eight such centers in the U.S.

The leading contender is a consortium of several of the city's leading hospitals: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Beth Israel Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian. They are pitching a $227 million facility proposed for West 57th Street in Manhattan. The hospitals will provide some equity, with additional financing arranged by their partner 21st Century Oncology, a national developer and operator of about 100 radiation therapy centers.

A second contender is Vassar Brothers Medical Center, which hopes to join with New York-Presbyterian to open a $201 million proton-beam center upstate in Fishkill, N.Y.

A $273 million center proposed for the former site of Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens is the most controversial of the three, in part because of its heavy reliance on political muscle to carry the day. Officially known as The Proton Therapy Cancer Center of New York, or TPTCC NY, its backers are negotiating with the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System and SUNY Downstate Medical Center about a clinical affiliation with the proposed center.

But against overwhelming competition from its Manhattan rival, the consortium of New York's most prestigious medical centers, the Queens project ranks as the distinct underdog in the race for approval.

To improve its odds, TPTCC NY has enlisted the aid of three politicians. For openers, TPTCC NY is behind a Senate bill (S8419), sponsored by Sen. Majority Leader John Sampson of Brooklyn, that would make the state approve more than one of the three projects. Referred to the Senate rules committee on June 30, the bill reads “the operation of more than one demonstration site in a large city will better allow the Department of Health to test the efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of proton beam therapy. Furthermore, estimated demand for such services exceeds maximum capacity for a single site.”

The Queens project has other politicians on its side. Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Ed Towns are supporting a controversial plan to help it raise capital. Its backers filed a request with the Department of Homeland Security to raise $250 million using the federal EB 5 foreign investment program. Under the proposal, 500 foreign investors will each put up $500,000, and as a result, if all conditions are met, will get permanent U.S. residency in return.

Last month, Mr. Schumer wrote a letter to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in support of this proposal "to raise $250 million of foreign investment to construct a much-needed groundbreaking cancer treatment facility in New York City that will create an estimated 2,800 jobs and save countless American lives."

Queens has highest late-stage breast cancer rate in the country

From Queens Rules:

Queens has the highest rate of late-stage breast cancer detection in the nation, due to a variety of reasons. It stands at 33 percent versus the national average of 12 percent, according to the Queens Cancer Center. Now a grassroots effort called HealthLink is mobilizing survivors like Harris to reach out in laundry rooms and libraries across the borough to screen women in time.

As well as screening in mobile buses and vans that are parked in well-traveled corners, the group does outreach in the 12 of the borough’s 62 libraries, working in seven languages.

While HealthLink claims to have helped some 2597 women since last year, many barriers remain, such as routine poverty and lack of primary care. Medical facilities such as St. John’s and Mary Immaculate Hospitals have closed, leaving a big gap for treatment. Then there’s a general lack of information about screening options and slashed state budgets. This past April, for example, the New York state government shrank the Cancer Services Program’s budget to $21 million from $29 million the year before. This program helps provide uninsured women access to screenings and treatments.

On top of all these factors, healthcare challenges affect Queens’ large immigration population. Nearly half of the borough’s roughly 2.2 million residents are foreign- born from over 100 different countries. This means that language, a distrust of Western medicine and the fear of deportation can discourage immigrants from seeking help.

One thing they forgot to mention... Maybe we should stop building schools and apartment buildings on toxic land.