Saturday, April 15, 2017

Governor Cuomo Hosts Easter at the Executive Masion


Source: NYGovCuomo

Alt-Right Ringleader Mike Cernovich Threatens to Drop ‘Motherlode’ If Steve Bannon Is Ousted


The Pizzagate conspiracy theorist claims to have a cache of dirty secrets that he’s willing to deploy.

By Ben Collins

A week after President Donald Trump began to publicly distance himself from White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, alt-right ringleader Mike Cernovich threatened to release a “motherlode” of stories that could “destroy marriages” if Bannon is formally let go from the administration.

Cernovich made the claims that he’d release a series of “scoops” if Bannon is officially pushed out of the White House on an eleven-minute, self-recorded Periscope Thursday night.

“If they get rid of Bannon, you know what’s gonna happen? The motherlode. If Bannon is removed, there are gonna be divorces, because I know about the mistresses, the sugar babies, the drugs, the pill popping, the orgies. I know everything,” said Cernovich.

“If they go after Bannon, the mother of all stories is gonna drop, and we’re just gonna destroy marriages, relationships—it’s gonna get personal.”

The Daily Beast reached out to Cernovich, asking who he meant by “they” and if he had documentation for the claims. He was on InfoWars’ radio show and livestream most of Friday afternoon, and did not respond at press time.

Alt-right leaders have spent the week pushing a #KeepBannon hashtag on Twitter, less than a week after a #FireKushner hashtag prominently amplified by Cernovich became the No. 1 trend in the United States on Twitter.

The hashtags refer to the falling out between Bannon and Jared Kushner that played out through planted quotes in websites like Breitbart, where Bannon previously worked as its CEO, after Trump’s son-in-law began to take over more responsibilities inside the Trump White House. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Daily Beast 

Conflict Can Break Out on Korean Peninsula Any Moment: China

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi


China has warned that “conflict could break out at any moment” on the Korean Peninsula, as North Korea and the United States increasingly seem headed for a potential military confrontation.

Speaking on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also said there would be “no winner” in a potential war, and that the party that triggered conflict would “pay the price.”

“Dialogue is the only possible solution,” he said during a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault in Beijing.

Tensions between North Korea and the US have significantly ratcheted up over the past weeks. The US has been concerned by North Korea’s nuclear tests, which Pyongyang believes act as deterrence against a potential invasion by the US or South Korea.

The US has deployed a strike group, including a large aircraft carrier, to the Korean Peninsula, and North Korea has said it is ready for war.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday that North Korea was a problem that “will be taken care of.” 

Click here for the full article.

Source: PressTV-China

Senators Blame Washington for Restrictions on Food Aid for Famine Victims

BIDI BIDI CAMP, Uganda — As President Donald Trump seeks to cut foreign aid under the slogan of "America First," two U.S. senators are proposing making American food assistance more efficient after meeting with victims of South Sudan's famine and civil war.

Following a visit to the world's largest refugee settlement in northern Uganda with the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware told The Associated Press on Saturday that the U.S. "can deliver more food aid at less cost" through foreign food aid reform.

The United States spent roughly $2.8 billon in foreign food aid last year and is the world's largest provider of humanitarian assistance. But current regulations require most food aid to be grown in the U.S. and shipped under an American flag.

Protesters March in DC to Demand Trump Reveal Tax Records


Source: Ruptly TV

Governor Cuomo at the 2017 New York International Auto Show


This video was published on YouTube on April 15, 2017. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo today delivered remarks at the opening of the 2017 New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center in New York City, where nearly 1,000 of the latest cutting-edge cars, trucks and motorcycles were on display. 

At the event, the Governor reminded New Yorkers of the new $70 million electric car rebate and outreach initiative and encouraged clean and non-polluting electric car use to help reduce carbon emissions across the state. 

All 30 electric vehicles available for purchase or lease in New York are being showcased at the New York Auto Show.

Source: NYGovCuomo

Friday, April 14, 2017

Trump Administration Won’t Release Logs of Visitors to the White House


President Trump had previously criticized the Obama administration for a lack of transparency

By Sam Levine

The Trump administration will not make its records of visitors to the White House available to the public, Time and The Washington Post reported Friday.  

The decision is a departure from the Obama administration, which did release the logs. Michael Dubke, the White House communications director, told Time that the White House’s decision was made out of concern for national security and privacy, and to protect President Donald Trump’s ability to discreetly seek counsel.

Citing “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually,” the White House said in a statement that it would “disclose Secret Service logs as outlined under the Freedom of Information Act.” 

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Huffington Post

Leon Panetta: Dangerous to Take Preemptive Strike on North Korea



North Korea Warns It 'Will Go To War' If Provoked by U.S.


 

President Trump's Weekly Address


President Trump Meets with the I-85 Bridge First Responders


This video was published on YouTube on April 13, 2017.

'Flashback Friday': Hiroshima: Dropping The Bomb


This video was published on YouTube on March 14, 2017. 

Hear first-hand accounts from the air and ground, re-telling every memory from the day the world first witnessed the horrors of atomic warfare. 
 
Source: BBCWorldwide

“Women's Cause is One and Universal”




On May 18, 1893, Anna Julia Cooper delivered an address at the World's Congress of Representative Women then meeting in Chicago. Cooper’s speech to this predominately white audience described the progress of African American women since slavery. Cooper in many ways epitomized that progress. Born into slavery in North Carolina in 1858, she earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oberlin and in 1925 at that age of 67 she received a PhD at the Sorbonne in Paris. Cooper spent much of her career at an instructor of Latin and mathematics at M Street (later Dunbar) High School in Washington, D.C. She died in 1964. Cooper’s speech appears below.


The higher fruits of civilization cannot be extemporized; neither can they be developed normally, in the brief space of thirty years. It requires the long and painful growth of generations. Yet all through the darkest period of the colored women's oppression in this country her yet unwritten history is full of heroic struggle, a struggle against fearful and overwhelming odds that often ended in a horrible death, to maintain and protect that which woman holds dearer than life. The painful, patient, and silent toil of mothers to gain a free simple title to the bodies of their daughters, the despairing fight, as of an entrapped tigress, to keep hallowed their own persons, would furnish material for epics. That more went down under the flood than stemmed the current is not extraordinary. The majority of our women are not heroines but I do not know that a majority of any race of women are heroines. It is enough for me to know that while in the eyes of the highest tribunal in America she was deemed no more than a chattel, an irresponsible thing, a dull block, to be drawn hither or thither at the volition of an owner, the Afro American woman maintained ideals of womanhood unshamed by any ever conceived. Resting or fermenting in untutored minds, such ideals could not claim a hearing at the bar of the nation. The white woman could least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman, doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent. I speak for the colored women of the South, because it is there that the millions of blacks in this country have watered the soil with blood and tears, and it is there too that the colored woman of America has made her characteristic history, and there her destiny evolving. Since emancipation the movement has been at times confused and stormy, so that we could not always tell whether we were going forward or groping in a circle. We hardly knew what we ought to emphasize, whether education or wealth, or civil freedom and recognition. We were utterly destitute.

Click here for the full speech.

Source: BlackPast.org

Trailblazers in Black History: Lucy Diggs Slowe


Lucy Diggs Slowe was one of the original sixteen founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the first sorority founded by African-American women. She was one of the nine original founders of the sorority in 1908 at Howard University. Her legacy of Alpha Kappa Alpha has continued to generate social capital for over 100 years. Transcending the era's limits, Lucy Slowe was a woman of many "firsts".

In 1922, Slowe was appointed the first Dean of Women at Howard University. She continued as a college administrator at Howard for 15 years, service ended by her death. In addition, Slowe created and led two professional associations to support college administrators. In her leadership as an educator and college administrator, Slowe created important social capital.

Slowe was also a tennis champion, winning the national title of the American Tennis Association's first tournament in 1917, the first African-American woman to win a major sports title. 

Additional information is available here

Source: Wikipedia

Actor-Turned-Philanthropist Laurence Fishburne Receives UNICEF Award


Working diligently for the last four decades on stage and screen has transformed Laurence Fishburne into a citizen of the world.

The Academy Award-nominated performer has been a UNICEF Global Ambassador since 1996, participating in several mission trips throughout Africa to raise awareness on issues affecting children. This spring he was awarded the Global Philanthropist Award from UNICEF USA.

"When I came into my adulthood I recognized how fortunate I was to be doing what I loved to do," Fishburne told NBCBLK. "I created a larger-than-life profile that that put me in a position to speak out about things that mattered to me."

The versatile dramatist — synonymous with his performances in "Boyz N the Hood," "What's Love Got to Do With It," "Deep Cover," "Akeelah and the Bee," "The Matrix, and most recently "Blackish" — vividly remembered watching young actors in the Soul Buddyz Club in South Africa perform educational plays. The morality plays illustrated how to prevent the widespread of HIV/AIDS. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBCBLK 

Nigeria Hoping to 'Bring Back Our Girls' Three Years After Abduction


Hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in the spring of 2014 remain missing and Nigerians are fighting to keep their memories alive and bring them home.

Rallies to Demand Trump's Taxes on April 15


Trump Effect: Dems Shatter Fundraising Records

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $31 million in the first three months of the year, setting a record for the group's typically sluggish early cash chase.

"Our record-breaking fundraising is a clear reflection of the urgency that people have towards fighting back against a reckless Republican agenda, including ongoing efforts to rip apart the Affordable Care Act," said DCCC spokesman Tyler Law. "The massive amount of small-dollar, online donations — much of which came from first-time donors — provides another clear sign that the grassroots energy is behind House Democrats this cycle."

The haul was fueled by a surge in online contributions, including 121,000 new donors, according to the campaign arm of House Democrats.

It's the latest evidence that antipathy toward President Donald Trump is a boon for Democratic fundraising efforts. 

Click here for the full article. 

Wisconsin Fugitive Joseph Jakubowski Is Captured

The Wisconsin fugitive accused of stealing more than a dozen guns and mailing a conspiracy-laced manifesto to President Donald Trump was captured early Friday following a 10-day manhunt, police said.

Joseph Jakubowski, 32, was caught at a farm in southern Wisconsin after police responded to a report of a suspicious person, according to the Vernon County Sheriff's Office. A man found at the property on Thursday night appeared to match the description of Jakubowski, who apparently had been camping at the site and refused to leave when asked by someone earlier, police said.

Authorities set up a perimeter around the area and finally made contact with the suspect before 6 a.m. CT (7 a.m. ET). He was taken into custody and positively identified as Jakubowski, the Rock County Sheriff's Office said. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: NBC News 

Justice Department Withdraws Lawsuit Over HB2 ‘Bathroom Bill’

The U.S. Department of Justice will no longer battle with the state of North Carolina over its policies regarding transgender residents.

On Friday morning, the Justice Department and attorneys for North Carolina filed a joint notice of dismissal at the U.S. District Court in North Carolina, stating in the document they were withdrawing both cases "in light of the passage" of House Bill 142, the bill that replaced the controversial House Bill 2 (better known as HB2). 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News 

2 Police Officers Fired After Videos Show Them Beating Suspect in Georgia


Cross-Burnings Still a ‘Tool of Fear’ Used by Racists

 
By Bill Morlin

Cross-burnings to instill fear in black Americans are not just footnotes in history books, but a continuing reality in the 21st Century, as a Florida hate-crime case illustrates.

On Halloween of 2012, a 6-foot wooden cross was set on fire in the front yard of an interracial couple—a black man and a white woman—living in Port Richey, a suburb of Tampa, Florida.

The man previously had received death threats and was called a “nigger” and assaulted—at one point beaten unconscious, court documents say.

The perpetrators, the documents say, hoped the cross burning—a hallmark of the Ku Klux Klan—would instill fear and drive the couple from their neighborhood.

A senior Justice Department official called the incident a “violent act of hate.”

Five years later, after Pasco County sheriff’s detective and FBI agents interviewed “dozens of witnesses in an exhaustive investigation,” three suspects have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to “threaten, intimidate, and interfere with the interracial couple’s enjoyment of their housing rights.”

The case became protracted when a cooperating witness—the man who provided the wood to build the cross—suddenly died in June 2015. Another complication came when one of the suspects provided a false alibi during the course of the FBI investigation, court documents disclose.

On the eve of going to trial, William A. Dennis, 56, of Port Richey, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, April 4 in U.S. District Court in Tampa to the federal conspiracy charge.

Two other co-conspirators, Thomas H. Sigler, III, 45, and Pascual Carlos Pietri, 55, both of Port Richey, previously pleaded guilty to the same charge. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Southern Poverty Law Center

Turkey Referendum: Polls Give Narrow Lead for 'Yes'


Source: euronews (in English)

French Judges Push for Le Pen to Be Stripped of Immunity


Source: euronews (in English)

Russia, Iran, Syria Denounce US 'Act of Aggression'


Source: euronews (in English)

'We Honour to the Highest Degree' DPRK and the Cult of Kim


Source: euronews (in English)

Evacuation Begins of Four Besieged Towns in Syria


Source: euronews (in English)

North Korea Accuses US as China Warns of Conflict 'At Any Moment'


Source: euronews (in English)

Mayor de Blasio Makes an Announcement About the Cornerstone Program


Source: NYC Mayor's Office

New York Is Considering 'Genetic Stop And Frisk' DNA Testing Policy




A State panel of scientists is considering a controversial DNA testing policy that would allow police to investigate the relatives of New Yorkers whose DNA closely matches DNA recovered from a crime scene.

The 'familial searching' method got a strong endorsement from the Queens District Attorney last summer, when police failed to find an exact match for DNA recovered from Karina Vetrano, a Queens woman who was murdered while out on a jog in Howard Beach. "This technology has proven effective at generating important DNA investigative leads in cold cases," said Queens DA Richard Brown. "We have an obligation to use every means at our disposal to identify the murderer."

But legal services organizations have countered that a board of scientists is not qualified to approve a method with serious implications for how New York polices low-income communities of color. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: Gothamist (via The Empire Report) 

Highest-Paid Local Hospital Exec Left New York-Presbyterian Amid Scandal

 Former New York-Presbyterian president Dr. Robert E. Kelly


The top-paid New York hospital executive in 2015 wasn't a CEO of one of the city's large academic medical centers. It was Dr. Robert E. Kelly, the former president of New York–Presbyterian, who resigned in part due to an extramarital affair. 

Kelly later acknowledged the indiscretion while vying for the top job at Memorial Healthcare System, a large public provider in South Florida, according to the Sun Sentinel. He said the affair did not involve an NYP employee. Kelly, who was one of two finalists for the Florida job, was not selected.

In September 2015 Kelly resigned abruptly from the health system, which removed his biography and name from its website with no explanation. An NYP spokeswoman told Crain's at the time that he had left "for personal reasons."

Despite working for the system only eight months, he was the highest-paid executive in 2015, earning $6.36 million, including $3.47 million in severance, according to the Crain's list of the top-earning executives in the metro area.

Click here for the full article.

Source: Crain's New York Business (via The Empire Report) 

Mike Tyson Thanks Gov. Chris Christie for Work on Prisoner Re-Entry

 
At a prisoner re-entry conference in Jersey City on Thursday, boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson jokingly asked Gov. Christie to talk to President Trump about pardoning him. It appears Tyson was referring to an audio recording from 1992 in which Trump said Tyson, who had been convicted of rape, shouldn't get jail time. The exchange between Christie and Tyson was pretty awkward. At the conference, the boxer gave the governor a champion's belt for his work on prisoner re-entry. 

Click here for video. 

Source: NBC News 4 NY (via The Empire Report)

The Cuomo College Fiasco

 
By David Brooks

Donald Trump sets the bar very high, but the award for the worst public policy idea of the year goes to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo presides over a state with a rich diversity of educational institutions. But he also presides over a state, like all states, where many students don’t complete college and where many are unprepared for the information economy. For example, fewer than half of the African-American and Hispanic students in New York public colleges graduate within six years.

Cuomo could have done many things to improve New York’s higher ed system. He could have poured all available money into the Tuition Assistance Program, which is directed at poorer students. He could have spent more to help students become academically ready for college, which is the biggest barrier to graduation. He could have done more to help students pay room and board expenses. He could have massively improved overstretched mental health services. He could have massively improved career counseling.

But in 2016 Bernie Sanders made a big splash on the campaign trail with a plan to make college “free.” So Cuomo proposed and on Wednesday signed legislation to make tuition free at New York public colleges for anybody coming from a family making no more than $100,000 a year, with the cap rising to $125,000 in 2019.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The New York Times (via The Empire Report)  

3,500 NYers Tell Cuomo: Don’t Turn Albany into Oilbany!


Albany – More than 3,500 New Yorkers submitted a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo requesting that his administration reject two fossil fuel infrastructure proposals that could turn Albany into “Oilbany,” making the capital city a global focal point of transshipped crude oil.

These projects – the Pilgrim Pipelines and Global Companies LLC’s desired expansion of the oil heating facility at the Port of Albany – would jeopardize small communities and waterways, harm our climate, and further compromise air quality, putting residents of communities like the South End of Albany in harm’s way.

The letter reads, in part, “An oil heating facility at the Port of Albany and the Pilgrim Pipelines both serve one purpose: moving crude oil through our communities and off to the global market as quickly as possible. The weight of these two proposals cannot be ignored, as the pipelines and the port are part of a grand scheme we can easily call “Oilbany.” Simply put, approval would stake the state capital's role as a global oil shipping hub for years to come.”

The continued build-out of New York’s fossil fuel infrastructure would also render it nearly impossible for Governor Cuomo to achieve his climate and clean energy goals, which include generating half of New York’s electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2030, and ending the use of fossil fuels entirely in less than 33 years.

Conor Bambrick, air & energy director at Environmental Advocates of New York said, “Governor Cuomo has the opportunity to establish New York as a clean energy hub – something taking on even greater importance due to reckless decisions we are witnessing from the Trump Administration. Allowing Big Oil to build-out more fossil fuel infrastructure would be a step backwards, lining up with the Trump doctrine. These projects are dangerous to their core. They hurt people and communities. We strongly encourage Governor Cuomo to build upon his promise of a New York that is fossil fuel-free by rejecting all plans to turn Albany into Oilbany.”

Dr. Dorcey Applyrs, Albany Common Councilmember for the First Ward said, “Residents in Albany's South End have been fighting for their right to breathe clean air. Pollution from oil transport, vehicle traffic and other sources continue to have a negative impact on the community's health. For example, asthma rates are the highest among children and adults that call the South End home, compared to other parts of the city and state. The long-term health impacts have not been studied and are unknown. In a unified voice, we say NO to additional oil related projects that compound the environmental injustices experienced by our community.”

Dominick Calsolaro, former Albany Common Councilmember, and member of People of Albany United for Safe Energy (PAUSE) said, “The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will soon be conducting a year-long air quality study in Albany's South End, including measuring benzene levels in the vicinity of both Global's facility and the Port. A resident-initiated health survey showed that almost half of the households in the Ezra Prentice Homes have at least one person suffering from asthma. So, it would be foolish for New York State to allow Global to construct an oil heating facility to make it easier for them to transload the filthiest petroleum product available, Alberta tar sands oil. Furthermore, it would be an outright affront to the residents of Ezra for the State to approve the Pilgrim Pipelines, leading to an increase in the amount of crude oil coming through the Port that is already negatively affecting the health of this Environmental Injustice community. It is past time to put people above profits.”

The proposed Pilgrim Pipelines would likely carry Bakken shale crude oil 170 miles from Albany to New Jersey, and refined products would return, traversing more than 200 state-regulated waterbodies and crossing the Hudson River twice. Bakken crude has already flowed through Albany in bomb trains and is particularly volatile, and will put communities and water at direct risk. The project is currently under environmental review by the DEC following determination of several environmental impacts.
The expansion of the oil heating facility at the Port of Albany would facilitate the transport of the dirtiest and most climate-intensive fossil fuels on the planet – Canadian tar sands oil – on the Hudson River. Tar sands oil is heavier than common crude, making it virtually impossible to clean up if it spills into a waterbody. The expansion would also increase dangerous oil train traffic through New York State. An environmental review remains ongoing after a controversial 2013 ruling by the DEC that initially deemed the project to have “no” negative environmental impacts – a ruling reversed in 2015.

In light of the Trump Administration’s devastating federal climate rollbacks, including dismantling the Clean Power Plan, approving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline projects, and proposing staggering cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is now up to states like New York to protect the environment and public health. Governor Cuomo’s ambitious goal of generating half of the state’s energy from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2030 is a significant step towards a cleaner future, and cannot be accomplished by furthering fossil fuel infrastructure in New York. 

Source: Environmental Advocates of New York

Thursday, April 13, 2017

US Considers Possible Strike to Stop North Korea Nuke Test


An NBC News Exclusive

U.S. Drops 'Mother of All Bombs' on ISIS Target in Afghanistan


The Tillerson Meetings and the State of U.S.-Russia Relations


Georgetown University’s Angela Stent discusses U.S.-Russia relations after Secretary of State Tillerson’s meetings in Moscow Wednesday. 

Source: C-SPAN

Pervez Musharraf Remarks on Counterterrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy


The former Pakistan president spoke about counterterrorism strategies and current U.S. foreign policy

Click here for video.

Source: C-SPAN

Malala Yousafzai Address to the Canadian Parliament


Human rights advocate Malala Yousafzai addressed a joint session of the Canadian Parliament. She talked about her work as an advocate for the education of girls. She praised Canada’s refugee policies and the nations’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his support for incoming immigrants. Before her address to lawmakers, Ms. Yousafzai was bestowed with honorary Canadian citizenship, only the sixth such person to ever receive that recognition.

Click here for video.

Source: C-SPAN

President Trump Holds a Joint Press Conference with Secretary General Stoltenberg


This video was published on YouTube on April 12, 2017.

The Power of the Pen: Bills Signed Into Law



On Thursday, April 13, 2017, the President signed into law:

H.J.Res. 67, which nullifies the Department of Labor's rule on Savings Arrangements Established by Qualified State Political Subdivisions for Non-Governmental Employees.

H.J.Res. 43, which nullifies the Department of Health and Human Services rule prohibiting recipients of Title X grants for the provision of family planning services from excluding a subgrantee from participating for reasons other than its ability to provide Title X services. 

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary

Meet the 28 Graduates of the NY State Park Police Academy


Governor Andrew Cuomo today congratulated 28 graduates from the 14th Basic School of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Police Academy. The 28 recruits completed a six-month residential training program at the State Park Police Academy in Rensselaerville, Albany County. Training consisted of classroom education in criminal procedure law, penal law, vehicle and traffic law, park and recreation law, criminal investigations and a host of other police related topics. In addition, the recruits received hands-on training in firearms, first response, snowmobile operation, ATV operation, bicycle patrol, emergency vehicle operation and a wide variety of other law enforcement related topics.

"The members of the New York State Park Police are dedicated professionals who apply their specialized training to serve and protect New Yorkers at our natural treasures and across the state," Governor Cuomo said. "On behalf of all New Yorkers, I offer my congratulations to these graduates and their families."

"State Park Police are crucial to a safe and welcoming State Park system," said State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey. "Whether working amidst dense crowds at Jones Beach, or searching vast wilderness areas upstate or at Harriman or Letchworth in cold and snow, or keeping our youth safe at our large concert venues – State Park Police provide professional and friendly assistance and lifesaving services throughout all year round."

"Congratulations to our new State Park police officers," said State Parks Director of Park Police David Herrick. "Their training has prepared them for a challenging and rewarding career – protecting New York State’s system of parks and historic sites and the millions of people who visit them. I look forward to working with the new officers to provide an essential public service to the people of New York State."

The following graduates received special recognition awards:

· Officer Robert J. Farruggia of Ronkonkoma, NY, the recipient of the Leadership Award
· Officer Sean C. Harrigan of Canastota, NY, the recipient of the Academic Achievement Award
· Officer Jesse J. Caprotti of Malta, NY, the recipient of the Physical Fitness Award
· Officer Kyle F. Curry of Lowville, NY, the recipient of the Firearms Proficiency Award

The new officers will be assigned to regional commands throughout the state. They will begin a 10-week field training program where they will receive supervised training from senior officers, followed by assignment to patrol responsibilities.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation administers 180 parks and 36 state historic sites, which attract over 65 million visitors each year. For more information about state parks and historic sites in New York, please visit www.nysparks.com.

Names, hometowns and regional assignments of the graduating class appear below:

GRADUATE
HOMETOWN
INITIAL ASSIGNMENT
DISTRICT
ZONE
Officer Jordan P. Baschnagel
Saugerties NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Patrick M. Bastine
Holland, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Dale A. Beckmann
Oyster Bay, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Collin R. Brousseau
Philmont, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Jesse J. Caprotti
Malta, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Kyle F. Curry
Lowville, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Spencer M. DeWolfe
Elma, NY
Western
Niagara
Officer Alex DiSanto
New Hyde Park, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Anthony M. DiTomasso
East Meadow, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Luke M. Dolezel
Otego, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City
Officer Robert J. Farruggia
Ronkonkoma, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Derek J. Hanna
Malone, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Sean C. Harrigan
Canastota, NY
Mid-State
Central
Officer Andrew L. Jarmusz
Alden, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City
Officer Ashtin L. Jarmusz
Alden, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer William W. Johnson
Johnstown, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Christopher S. Kearney
Malta, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City
Officer Lee S. Lurie
Ballston Spa, NY
Long Island/Metro
Long Island
Officer Nicholas M. Mehlrose
Wingdale, NY
Hudson Valley
Taconic
Officer Matthew J. Militello
Depew, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Mark R. Montanaro
Carmel, NY
Hudson Valley
Taconic
Officer Michael R. Petrino
Tonawanda, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Antonino P Restivo
Islip Terrace, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City
Officer Vladimir Ryskin
East Amherst, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City
Officer Russell J. Sircable
Greenville, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Ashley N. Stanley
Glens Falls, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Eric J. Thayer
Ellenville, NY
Hudson Valley
Palisades
Officer Scott C. Westfall
Copake, NY
Long Island/Metro
New York City

Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 

"From The G-Man" and "The G-Man Interviews" congratulate the graduates