Rochester News Edition of Continental Newstime
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* Governor's Office News Briefs ... Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announces that, beginning January 1, companies in New York City that employ 11 or more workers will be required to pay them a minimum wage of $15 an hour, companies that employ 10 or fewer workers in New York City are required to pay a minimum wage of $13.50, and companies in Monroe County and most other counties of the state are obligated to pay a minimum wage of $11.10; the Cuomo Administration adds that people who work 40 or more hours per week should not be living in poverty, but, rather, should receive wages they can live on. The Governor announces, as well, that the Rochester non-profit organization, Action for a Better Community is due to receive $543,700 of a $3.1-million seven-community grant disbursement to fund New York’s street outreach program, called SNUG [“guns” spelled backwards], which works to deal with upticks in street and gang violence. Earlier, in 2018, about $1.6 million was furnished for work in four communities, including Albany and Syracuse, to discourage retaliation and gun violence following shootings and to further save lives by engaging high-risk youth in constructive programs and services. This time, beside supporting this initiative in Rochester, money will support this work in Buffalo, Troy, Poughkeepsie, Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and the Bronx. Lieutenant-Governor Kathy Hochul says that SNUG is just one of the state’s gun-safety measures designed to keep children and families safe and to nurture the quality of life of the state’s residents. Started in 2009, SNUG funding in 2019 is projected to be about $220,000 more than in 2018, with $4.78 million scheduled to be invested by the State Division of Criminal Justice Services, in this best-practices, evidence-based approach to public safety. The State Division of Criminal Justice Services, which is concerned with law-enforcement training, conducts oversight of probation and community correction programs, maintains fingerprint files and criminal-history data, helps oversee the state’s DNA databank, administers federal and state criminal-justice money, and has custody of the state’s Sex Offender Registry, sponsors the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative and receives backing from the National Network for Safe Communities in this effort. Moreover, the Division of Criminal Justice Services reports that the results of the GIVE initiative have been that shooting incidents declined 11 percent within communities conducting SNUG programs during the first 11 months of 2018 compared to last year, and the number of shooting incidents is also lower compared to the five-year average. Meantime, firearm-related homicides in these communities are down 5 percent compared to the five-year average. Indeed, delivering his third inaugural address as Governor, Cuomo pledged, during a speech on Ellis Island, to strengthen gun laws and to reform the criminal-justice system further and to otherwise offer the state legislature a progressive agenda, which he says will include voting reform, health-care protections, and the legalization of marijuana. He likewise promised that New York State will light the way for the nation through the federal-government shutdown, just as the Statue of Liberty lights the way into America. Referencing the 1964 race riot in Rochester, he asserted that New York State overcomes like and other challenges. Making comparisons to
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Trump Administration policies, he asserted that New York State did not build walls when the country’s infrastructure was decaying, but built “new bridges and airports, roads, and a mass transit system that allowed growth.” Then, too, the Governor stated that New York countered the Trump Administration's limitation of the tax deduction for state and local tax payments by suing and by instituting the “most progressive tax code in its history.” At the same time, Cuomo allowed that Ellis Island is “where Frederick Trump arrived from Germany whose grandson would become the President of the United States.” Just yesterday, the Governor provided an update on NaturalizeNY, too, noting that the public-private partnership, which encourages eligible immigrants in the state to seek citizenship by furnishing vouchers covering naturalization fees, interfaced, during 2018, with 6,100 individuals, introducing 4,700 to the federal fee-waiver program and offering naturalization-fee vouchers to more than half of the eligible lottery applicants from around the globe.
* State Legislative News Briefs ... Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, commenting on Tish James becoming the first African-American woman to hold state-wide office and taking the oath of office as state Attorney-General, observed, “As the People's Lawyer, I am confident that she will be a champion for progress and equality, and will defend the Constitutional rights of all New Yorkers.” Later this month, on January 23 at 11 AM, the Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, over which Steve Englebright presides, has scheduled a public hearing on recycling in the Roosevelt Hearing Room C, on the Second Floor of the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
* County Government News Briefs ... Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo informs that, beside helping the Rochester Red Wings to obtain part of the $3 million in funding necessary for upgrades to the community facility of Frontier Field, specifically a $550,000 grant from Empire State Development, the County has approved spending of $4.35 million in past capital improvements and $950,000 in current capital improvements for Frontier Field, these relating to core and shell, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and site work. The County and the Rochester Red Wings seek other state investment to fund the rest of the $3-million price tag not covered by the Empire State Development grant, and the upgrades will not only contribute to job creation and an improved quality of life for County residents, according to Ms. Dinolfo, but enhance fan experience through addition of a 2,200-square-foot kids area, a 360-degree concourse, a beer-and-wine garden, and an enlarged party and concert space. In addition, the County Executive informs that Monroe County is one of only 34 communities across the nation selected to host the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds & Air Combat Command F-22 Raptor Jet Demo, and the Rochester International Airshow will feature the Thunderbirds the weekend of August 24-25, 2019, with tickets now on sale. Meanwhile, the County Legislature has Committee meetings scheduled for January 14 and 15, and the President of the Legislature, Dr. Joe Carbone, informs that the 2019 County budget strengthens Child Protective Services and provides for substantial improvements to Seneca Park Zoo, while lowering the property-tax rate 10 cents to $8.89 per $1,000 of taxable value.
* City Government News Briefs … The City Council's Finance Committee plans to meet in Council Chambers on January 10 for the purposes of appropriating Firefighters' Insurance Funds and to authorize an amended agreement with Legal Med, LLC for expert-witness services. The Neighborhood & Business Development Committee, in turn, is due to meet at 4:10 PM in the same location to review findings concerning the acquisition of property to establish a new Goodman Section office for the Police Department and a new Neighborhood Service Center for the City's Southeast Quadrant; and at 4:35 PM the Committee of the Whole Council is set to consider amendment of the City Charter to create a Police Accountability Board.
* School District News Briefs … The Board of Education, led by President Van Henri White, held its 2019 Organizational Meeting for the election of its officers [Clerk, Treasurer, Purchasing Agent, and Claims Auditor, among others] yesterday in Conference Room 3A at 131 W. Broad Street and next meets on January 24 at 6:30 PM at the same location for a Business Meeting, at which it will receive Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams' report and, among other business, consider a proposed non-resident tuition-payment policy.
* Weather ... The National Weather Service reports that current conditions at the Greater Rochester International Airport are overcast, as of 4:54 PM, with the temperature, 33 degrees Fahrenheit; the relative humidity, 70 percent; winds out of the west at 6 miles per hour; the barometric pressure, 29.95 inches; the dewpoint, 24 degrees; the visibility, 10 miles; and the wind chill, 27 degrees. The forecast for tonight calls for gradual clearing, southwest wind of 9 to 15 miles per hour, and a low temperature of 31 degrees. Tomorrow is expected to be sunny, with southwest wind of 5 to 10 miles per hour becoming light and westerly in the afternoon and with a daily high temperature of 48 degrees; Friday night is expected to be mostly clear, with light and variable wind and with a low temperature of 32 degrees.
* Sports ... The Amerks, coming off their 5-4 victory over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers yesterday and leading the Eastern Conference of the American Hockey League's North Division by 2 points, next play tomorrow, when they visit the Laval Rocket for a 7:30 PM game.
MovieTalk: By Leslie Rigoulot
Windtalkers and Enigma: The War of Codes (Reprinted and Condensed)
Looking for an old-fashioned mystery? Enigma is it. Looking for a World War II drama that may bring Nick Cage renown? That would be Windtalkers. In Enigma, the good guys are trying to break the recently-changed Nazi code, just as a supply convoy leaves the U.S. In Windtalkers, the Navajos are providing a code that the Japanese can't break. Starring Dougray Scott looking like warmed-over K-rations, Enigma's hero is a man not just on the verge of a breakdown, but recovering from one. The stress of code-breaking and a lost love have pushed the war hero over the edge. But the super-secret Bletchley Park lot need him, so he is recalled to put his "thinking machine" and resources to work.
Now, here is the real enigma that you will only see if you watch the credits and if you watch the crowd scenes very closely. Mick Jagger is one of Enigma's Executive Producers. And Lorne Michaels, of Saturday Night Live, is the other. And how strange is it that Hong Kong director John Woo would be directing a war movie starring Canadian native (can't really say native American, can I?) Adam Beach and Italian-American Nicolas Cage. Weird worlds collide.
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VOLUME V NUMBER 1 JANUARY 3, 2019
of Continental Newstime newsmagazine
Rochester News Edition
Continental Features/Continental News Service
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