And you thought Queens was bad...

From NBC:

There is a new battle over illegal housing in Rockland County and the mounting pressure by a special task force and hearings ordered by a state senator. The I-Team's Sarah Wallace.

MTA funding going to upstate bobsled track

From NBC:

Winter athletes and their neighbors in the Adirondack Mountains have long praised Albany for funneling subsidies to the upstate Olympic Training Facility. But last year some downstate lawmakers criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo for diverting almost $5 million from the 2016 MTA budget to the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), the quasi-state agency that manages Lake Placid’s Olympic venues.

“The MTA is supposed to be for the mass transit system here in New York City and its surrounding suburbs, and yet millions of dollars were going upstate to finance a ski resort,” said state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria). “It struck a lot of us as odd, especially at a time when the MTA is in a desperate situation. The trains are breaking down. They’re not running on time. Delays are increasing by the day.”

At the time, the Cuomo administration defended sending the $5 million payment to ORDA, saying it was a routine way of reimbursing the state for money the MTA owed to Albany. It’s also worth noting, $5 million is a tiny fraction of the nearly $7 billion Albany sends to the MTA annually.

Still, the cash transfer has given birth to a simple question: should any money intended for the downstate subway tracks go to help fund an upstate bobsled track?

Interesting story about developer and voter fraud

From CBS New York:

The struggle for control of a small town in Sullivan County has drawn the attention of federal agents.

As CBS 2’s Lou Young reported Friday, newcomers have been pitted against longtime residents of the village of Bloomingburg, in what is now a voter fraud investigation.

Some residents of the village at the edge of the Catskills welcomed the FBI agents who poured in on Thursday. One resident took photos as more than 40 agents raided over a dozen locations — the offices and property of developer Shalom Lamm.

“We were hoping to get, you know, things investigated, and maybe it’s finally happening,” said Bloomingburg resident Teek Persuad.

They are worried about a takeover of the village, beginning with Lamm’s controversial townhouse project that is currently under a court challenge. The project would triple the population in the town.

Meanwhile, numerous building renovations started without permits have been ordered stopped, and a series of rental properties also owned by Lamm, have led to a sudden flurry of voter registrations in the last month – right before an election last week.

“You have to be a resident to vote,” said attorney Jonathan Chase. “You don’t vote and then become a resident.

“These people don’t actually live here,” said resident and development Jim O’Shea. “They move in on the weekend, and then they go back to wherever they come from.”

The people whom O’Shea was talking about are all Hasidic or ultra-Orthodox Jews, and critics have said the sudden property purchases and development seem designed to turn Bloomingburg into a religious enclave like some others closer to the city in Rockland County.

An attorney for Lamm acknowledged the voter fraud investigation.

Forest Hills chicken heads for greener pastures

From DNA Info:

Forest Hills has lost its favorite pet to an upstate farm animal sanctuary.
Queeny, a tiny hen named after the borough where she was found, made headlines this summer after running loose on the streets around Station Square.

“She's doing incredibly well,” said Kurt Andernach, 49, the owner of the 16-acre And-Hof-Animal Sanctuary in Catskill, where Queeny has been living. “It’s a big wooded area and there is so much for her to do here.”

Queeny is a small Araucana chicken, according to Andernach. He said the hen is not afraid of big roosters that also reside in the sanctuary.

In fact, he said, Queeny seems to have tamed a group of roosters that he calls the Frat Boys, who were rescued from a crystal meth lab.

Queeny was taken upstate just before Hurricane Sandy hit.