Bag tax revisited

From CBS New York:

It gives new meaning to the four letter word “tote.” New Yorkers will have to shoulder the burden of bringing their own bags to a vast array of supermarkets and department stores — or pay a 10-cent fee for each and every bag — paper or plastic — under sweeping recycling legislation being considered by the city council.

“We could save approximately $10 million a year if we could significantly reduce the amount of plastic shopping bags we use on an annual basis,” Deputy Sanitation Commissioner Ron Gonen said.

Though the $10 million savings means a lot in these tough budget times, the legislation is meant to decrease the burden on landfills and the sanitation system.

Asked to charge consumers the carryout bag fee would be markets and bodegas; street vendors selling fruit, vegetables and general merchandise, and retail stores, including clothing, drug and department stores.

Exempt are restaurants, bags for medication at pharmacies, and liquor stores, Kramer reported.

The exemptions really make no sense. A package of meat bought at a supermarket is likely to leak. A pair of pants purchased at a department store is not.

Corrupt Albany pols seem to like liquor

From The Politicker:

Brooklyn State Senator John Sampson, already facing corruption charges, is facing a new set of allegations from federal prosecutors this afternoon involving lying and a local liquor store.

The U.S. Attorney’s office today announced that Mr. Sampson, who once led the Senate Democrats, is accused of “making false statements to FBI agents about directing members of his Senate staff to take actions to benefit a Brooklyn liquor store in which Sampson secretly held an ownership interest.”

According to prosecutors, Mr. Sampson was recorded hiding his stake in an unnamed liquor store in its license application.

“During a series of telephone calls that were captured on the Sampson Wiretap, the defendant … told the Partners that [his] ownership interest should not be disclosed in the Application” today’s indictment reads.

Mr. Sampson was also recorded instructing an anonymous government staffer to help the store deal with outstanding tax obligations. The senator even appeared to be aware of the potential illegalities involved, telling the staffer to “do it on your own cell phone and do it on your own time.”

He is further accused of lying about these incidents and others when speaking to federal agents.

From the NY Post:

Over whiskey-soaked meetings in Atlantic City hotel suites and pricey New York steakhouses, disgraced Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. merrily sold off the perks of his office for cash, prosecutors said Monday as his corruption trial opened in Brooklyn federal court.

The self-coronated “king of Brownsville” offered up everything from profitable real estate development deals to street carnival permits in exhange for payola, according to the feds.

“This is a case about money and power and how the defendant, William Boyland Jr., abused that power to get money,” assistant US Attorney Robert Capers said.

Despite representing a downtrodden area in dire need of political vision as opposed to vice, Boyland Jr. hungrily sought out personal benefit at the expense of his constituents, Capers said.

“He had the power to bring change to his community,” he said. “But all he wanted to do was get money.”

With his legal fees from a separate Manhattan case piling up, Boyland Jr. demanded $250,000 from an agent posing as a real estate honcho in 2011 and promised access to a distressed property in return, prosecutors said.

The political scion also stuck out his palm to another man posing as a carnival operator who wanted a permit for a Brownsville event, papers state.

The assemblyman even fleeced taxpayers by cashing in expense checks for Albany related business that never took place, prosecutors said.

Donovan Richards rejects bribe

From the Daily News:

A Queens businessman was busted on Friday on charges that he and two associates tried, unsuccessfully, to bribe a City Councilman.

The councilman, who a source identified as Donovan Richards (D-Queens), then immediately reported the bribe attempt to the authorities, leading the trio to get nabbed by the city Department of Investigation in an undercover sting, officials said.

The councilman's "prompt report allowed DOI to investigate swiftly and shut down the scheme," said DOI commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

The bribe attempt allegedly happened earlier this year, when Tarsem Singh ran into opposition for his application for a liquor license, officials said. Richards and community members fought against his proposed North Conduit Ave. liquor store because of its proximity to a high school, said the DOI.

Singh and one of his associates then arranged for a sit-down with the councilman, and attempted to pass him an unspecified amount of cash at the meeting, DOI said. The councilman spurned the advance, which was caught on a security camera, officials said.

After Richards reported the bribe attempt to law-enforcement, a DOI undercover investigator posing as one of his reps reached out to Singh to arrange another sit-down at a Queens diner, officials said.

SLA goofs on liquor license

From DNA Info:

The State Liquor Authority iced a liquor store’s plan to set up shop between two churches in Corona — in violation of state law — after congregants, church officials and local pols raised a furor.

Under the law, liquor stores and bars must be at least 200 feet from churches and schools, but Bao Liquors was looking to open up on 97th Street and Northern Boulevard, a block that is home to four houses of worship.

The application for the store, which moved from its former location at 98th Street, has now been put on hold as the SLA conducts an investigation.

The store sits directly between two churches — the Iglesia Biblica Cristiana and the Levantado Hombres de Valor, which have been open for years — and is on the same block as the Iglesia Adventista Hispana and the Pentecostal Church of Christ.

The store, a former bodega that has not yet opened, immediately drew fire from regular churchgoers when a sign went up last week indicating the shop was becoming a liquor store.

Will vandals strike this mural?

From the Queens Ledger:

When Paola Belotti attended a barbecue that was hosted in the alleyway behind Maspeth Discount Liquors some years back, she was distracted by the graffiti covering the surrounding walls, particularly the atrocities on the back wall of 56-05 69th Street.

After befriending the owner, she volunteered to cover the graffiti and paint a simple picture on the wall, selecting a Tuscan landscape because, as she pointed out, Tuscany is the place that comes to mind when people think of wine.

After painting the landscape, Belotti felt there was too much green in the mural, so she added more details characteristic of the region: cypress trees, vineyards, terracotta pottery, a lemon tree, a little villa in the distance.

“I know Tuscany and I know what looks good in a big space like this,” said the native of Lake Como, Italy. “I have an idea in my mind, but during my work it comes together little by little.”

Belotti, a textile designer by profession, studied fine arts in Italy and paints only as a hobby, but her artistic skill is evident in the detail of her landscape mural. Certain aspects of the picture look almost three-dimensional.

“The colors are like Tuscany and it’s really like this, with the rolling hills,” she said. “Everybody has joked they want to be inside the picture.”

The completion of the mural took Belotti at least two weeks. She realizes all her hard work will have gone to waste if her painting gets defaced, but she remains optimistic.

“Who does graffiti? In some way they are artists too,” said Belotti. “I think when they see something nice, they will respect it…I hope.”

Female bandit caught

From Eyewitness News:

Police in Queens say they have caught the woman who pulled off five robberies since last Friday.

Authorities say 48-year-old Jodi Mendelowitz now faces robbery and weapons charges.

Mendelowitz allegedly used a silver hand-gun as she targeted three liquor stores, a Chinese restaurant and a bank in the Flushing area.

There were no injuries in any of the holdups.

Windfall expected from supermarket liquor sales

From Fox 5:

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) - A Cornell researcher says the state could reap about $22 million a year if grocery stores were permitted to sell wine.

Grocery store wine sales would also benefit wineries in and outside of the state. That's according to Bradley Rickard, an assistant professor of economics who conducted simulation experiments to assess the implications of introducing wine into grocery stores.

Rickard said expanding wine sales to grocery stores would likely lead to a decrease in wine sales by 17 percent to 32 percent in existing liquor stores.

Legislation to legalize grocery store wine sales was defeated in 1984 and 2009 amid heavy opposition from liquor stores. But Rickard said a new bill being discussed would provide compensation to liquor store owners to make up for their expected loss in revenues.