President Trump Announces Key Administration Posts

Today, The President announced his intent to nominate David J. Glawe of Iowa, to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.   

Mr. Glawe is a career member of the Senior Executive Service, currently serving as the Assistant Commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Intelligence. Recently, Mr. Glawe served as acting Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department.  He has more than 24 years of national security and law enforcement experience, including service as Deputy National Intelligence Manager for Threat Finance and Transnational Organized Crime at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as a Counterterrorism Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and as a Federal Agent with the United States Postal Inspection Service. 

Mr. Glawe began his career as a police officer with the Houston Police Department. Mr. Glawe received the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal for his contributions to the U.S. Intelligence Community and his meritorious actions to the betterment of national security. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Northern Iowa and is a graduate of the Senior Managers in Government program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

President Trump also announced the designation of Rear Admiral Robert P. Hayes of Connecticut, to be acting Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.  Rear Admiral Hayes is a 29-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and currently serves as the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Intelligence.

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary 

Applications Being Accepted for the 2017 Carey Gabay Scholarship Program

The State University of New York is now accepting applications for the Carey Gabay Scholarship Program. This scholarship is in honor of Carey Gabay, an attorney and public servant, who was tragically killed as an innocent victim of gun violence in 2015. This program provides full scholarships to five incoming SUNY students who exemplify Carey’s commitment to social justice, leadership, and mentoring, as well as his personal story of succeeding academically despite having an economically disadvantaged background. In September, Governor Cuomo announced the first recipients of the scholarship.

"Carey was an exemplary young man who could have done anything, but decided to dedicate his life to public service," Governor Cuomo said. "It is our hope this scholarship program will empower other talented young people to pursue a career in government and in pursuit of improving the lives of their fellow New Yorkers."

Carey grew up living in public housing and attending public school in the Bronx. After a successful high school career, he went on to graduate from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He had a longstanding commitment to public service and giving back to those around him, and while at Harvard University, he ran to become the president of his undergraduate student body. In recent years, he worked tirelessly in public service, first as an Assistant Counsel to Governor Cuomo and later as First Deputy Counsel for the Empire State Development Corporation.

The Carey Gabay Scholarship Program will annually award full scholarships to five students to attend four-year SUNY colleges beginning in the 2017-18 school year. These scholarships will cover all costs of attendance, including tuition, room and board, college fees, books and supplies, and transportation and personal expenses. Applications are available here and are due on April 15, 2017.

Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

'Such a Time as This', by Rev. Willie Brisco

Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Esther 4:14b 

 

When the WISDOM organization decided that it would forgo its former approach to the Madison Action Day for 2017, no one knew at the time that providence was being fulfilled. As an organization we simply wanted to streamline the message of the day and to give each particular issue the appropriate time and attention it deserved. Who could have imagined that the country would fall into the control of leadership that has proposed and begun to carry out some very oppressive policies?  WISDOM and its affiliates were formed to combat and alert the people of its devastating consequences.

The scripture above is from the Old Testament book of Esther. Esther's uncle Mordecai suggested a providential reason for her becoming queen at this precise time in history; that is, Esther was acting as God's agent in delivering the Jewish people. Esther agreed to intervene with the king on behalf of her people. She fasted for three days in order to seek God's guidance through prayer at this critical juncture. Esther's ability to look beyond her needs saved a multitude.

During this period of Lent many of our faiths make a pledge of repentance, contemplation, and sacrifice. We look beyond our needs in order to identify with and get in concert with the creator. We have an opportunity and a charge to make a statement in Madison on Thursday, March 30th.

As President and member of WISDOM, I strongly ask each of our affiliates and all the membership to pray, meditate, and reflect on building for a powerful gathering. Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

We are still accepting registrations.  Bus transportation is available from many of our affiliate organizations: contact your organizer for details. You can register online here, or download a registration flyer to mail in here.

Flowers of Darkness: Heroin Use in 1970's New York City

Malcolm X: The Last Speech

Hollywood & Race: Fruitvale Station

Source: The Weinstein Company

Trailblazers in Black History: Chuck Berry

Inspiring America: This DJ's Mobile Studio is Getting Kids Behind Mic

YouTube Blocks LGBTQ, Other Videos for ‘Restricted Mode’ Users

 

by Eoghan Macguire

YouTube confirmed Monday that it is not showing "some videos" highlighting LGBTQ issues for users who have opted in to the platform's "Restricted Mode."

Many prominent LGBTQ vloggers and voices took to Twitter over the weekend using #YouTubeIsOverParty and #YouTubeRestricted to highlight concerns that their content was missing or blocked when Restricted Mode is switched on.

Among the content still hidden early Monday in that scenario was a video of a lesbian couple's wedding and a vlog highlighting eight black LGBTQ trailblazers.

Responding to questions about those two videos, a YouTube spokesman told NBC News via email Monday that "some videos that cover subjects like health, politics and sexuality may not appear for users and institutions" that choose to use Restricted Mode. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News

Stephen Hawking: I Fear I May Not Be Welcome in Trump's U.S.

Rezekne, Latvia, Frets About Trump NATO Stance, War With Russia

 

by Alexander Smith

REZEKNE, Latvia — Elina Zujane's hometown is no stranger to war. Now she fears President Donald Trump may spark another.

"Of course we worry about it. Come on, it's our country," says the 21-year-old marketing student while having lunch in her college's gray-walled cafeteria. "If something does go wrong, we are really near to Russia so we will be the first ones to find out." 

Zujane lives in Rezekne, a Latvian town of around 30,000 people that is located just 23 miles from the Russian border.

On the shifting frontier between East and West, Rezekne has served as history's battleground for at least 1,000 years. It has been destroyed and rebuilt by everyone from German knights in the 13th century to the warring Nazis and Russians who flattened it during World War II.

Once part of the Soviet Union, Latvia gained membership of both NATO and the European Union since the turn of the century. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News

Comey Testifies at Hearing on Russia and Wiretapping (Full Coverage)

FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers were among the witnesses at a House Select Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Regarding accusations made by President Trump in his tweets that President Obama wiretapped his New York City Trump Tower residence shortly before the November 2016 presidential election, Mr. Comey told committee members neither he nor his agency has any information to support such claims. He also said no president has the ability to unilaterally order a wiretap, and that such an operation must go through a court process and be ordered by a judge. 

Click here for video.

Source: C-SPAN

Neil Gorsuch Defended Columbia’s So-Called ‘Date-Rape Frat’

 

A Daily Beast Exclusive

During Neil Gorsuch’s time at his beloved Phi Gamma Delta, former members and fellow students accused the frat of degrading women and spiking the punch.

By Brandy Zadrozny

President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil M. Gorsuch, reveled in his identity as an outsider at Columbia University. Through prolific college writings—which will undoubtedly be referred to during this week’s Senate confirmation hearings—the undergraduate became the voice of a swelling ’80s conservative movement, often sounding a lone moderate note for open debate and individualism as he was pitted against what he perceived as a tide of “superficial” campus progressives.

He also really liked his frat.

Following President Trump’s January announcement nominating Gorsuch, the national press revived the 49-year-old’s college essays and editorials in the interest of exploring the past adventures and misadventures of the man who would be Antonin Scalia’s successor. In at least 19 columns published in the Daily Spectator, Columbia’s student-run newspaper, and The Federalist Paper, a conservative broadsheet that Gorsuch co-founded, the future federal appellate judge wrote sneering takedowns of  liberal students on campus and their causes. He also argued for what he saw as unpopular beliefs at the time, including university investments in apartheid South Africa, on-campus military recruitment, a pro-Reagan stance in the Iran-Contra affair, and consistently, for Columbia’s all-male fraternities.

Click here for the full article.

The 25 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers And Traders

 

By Nathan Vardi 

Both a quantitative trading genius and a trader who recently stopped managing client money top Forbes’ list of the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers and traders of 2016. James Simons and Michael Platt each personally made an estimated $1.5 billion last year and the way they did it speaks volumes about where the struggling hedge fund industry is these days.

Simons is chairman of the hedge fund firm he founded, Renaissance Technologies, which manages $36 billion. He continues to benefit from Renaissance’s funds, particularly the secretive Medallion that is not open to outside clients. Renaissance’s biggest hedge fund, the $15 billion Renaissance Institutional Equities fund, was up 21.5% net of fees in 2016.

Simons helped usher in the quantitative trading wave that has been building for decades and is now dominating the hedge fund world, leaving most of the firms that rely primarily on human decision-making in the dust. The majority of the 10 top-earning hedge fund managers and traders of 2016 to a greater or lesser extent use computers and systems-based approaches to trading financial markets.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: Forbes (via The Empire Report) 

Gov. Cuomo Calls Rikers Island ‘Intolerable,’ Suggests Wards Island as New Jail Site

By Erin Durkin

The situation at Rikers Island has become “intolerable” and the site must be closed, Gov. Cuomo said — suggesting Wards Island as a possible location for a jail to help replace it.

Cuomo on Sunday said the city should shut down Rikers and build two to three new jails in its place, giving a more specific road map than he has in past calls to abandon the troubled jail complex.

“Rikers Island is one of those long-term injustices and abuses that every New Yorker should be outraged about — every New Yorker,” he told reporters after an unrelated event in the Bronx. “The situation is intolerable.”

Countering Mayor de Blasio’s claim that closing Rikers is a “noble” idea but all but impossible logistically, he said replacing the facility should not be that hard. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report)

Interest in NYC Real Estate Being Swamped by Russians, TripleMint Data Show

 

By Ali Montag

The never-ending quest for the perfect apartment in New York City could be getting that much tougher, new data suggests, thanks to new competition for scarce supply from other parts of the world—and one surprising country in particular.

Newly released figures from TripleMint, a residential real estate start-up based in New York, points to a shift in the countries most interested in buying into the city's active housing market, which attracts more than its fair share of domestic and international buyers and remains one of the world's priciest.

Over the course of 2015 and 2016, the company tracked the location of visitors on its website hunting for housing, ranking countries by a percentage of total foreign searches for that year, and compared the results. It found the biggest mover was Russia, which jumped from #20 on their top searchers list in 2015, to #2 last year, landing just behind the United Kingdom.

Click here for the full article.

Source: CNBC (via The Empire Report)

As Bills Pile Up, Hoosick Falls Finds No Help in One-House Budgets

 

By Marie J. French

ALBANY — As the governor and legislative leaders wrangle over the state's budget of more than $150 billion, residents of the tiny village of Hoosick Falls are preparing to borrow a million dollars to pay for costs incurred when they discovered that their water supply was poisoned.

One village official, Deputy Mayor Ric DiDonato, made an explicit plea to state and federal help at a meeting several weeks ago. “We cannot fight this on the limited budgets we have in our community,” he said.

But when Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats released their one-house budgets last week, there was no money for Hoosick Falls.

“Isn’t that just awful?” said Michele Baker, a resident of the town of Hoosick who has become an activist on the issue. “There are billions of dollars that are moving right now in the state Capitol on budget items and ... Hoosick Falls needs a drop in the bucket to get itself back on its feet and we’re getting nothing. It’s so disappointing.” 

Click here for the full article.

Source: Politico (via The Empire Report)

Key N.Y. State Senator Slams Mayor de Blasio's Shelter Plan to Build 90 New Homeless Shelters

By Kenneth Lovett

ALBANY — A top state legislative leader says Mayor de Blasio’s plan to build 90 homeless shelters across the city over five years is “a terrible idea.”

“It’s controversial to place five homeless shelters around the city, let alone 90,” said Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who heads a breakaway group of eight Senate Democrats. “You see how people react when you place homeless people in a hotel in their community. It’s going to be outrageous.”

Rather than new shelters, the Bronx Dem is pushing a plan with Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) to create a rent subsidy program to reduce reliance on homeless shelters by making it easier for people to stay in their homes.

Klein’s Senate Independent Democratic Conference and the Assembly Democrats last week included the Home Stability Support program in separate resolutions outlining their respective budget priorities. A new state budget is due by the end of the month.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The New York Daily News (via The Empire Report) 

Five Companies Receive NYS Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Certification

The Office of General Services Commissioner today announced that the following five businesses have recently been certified by the Office of General Services’ (OGS) Division of Service-Disabled Veterans’ Business Development (DSDVBD):  

Resilient Support Services Inc., located in Watervliet, NY, which provides general contracting, electrical/HVAC/high voltage power systems, and support services.

Walker Diving Underwater Construction LLC, located in Hammonton, NJ, which provides marine construction, commercial diving, and underwater construction.

Protek Government Solutions LLC, located in New City, NY, which provides system integration design services for information technology.

HarpData, located in Buffalo, NY, which provides technology consulting services, technology roadmaps, security design and cyber security.

Perimeter Security Inc., located in Bronx, NY, which provides security, patrol, and watch guard services.

The Division was created by Governor Andrew Cuomo in May, 2014 with enactment of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Act. As of march 9, 2017, a total of 307 businesses have been certified.

The Act promotes and encourages participation of SDVOBs in NYS public procurements of public works, commodities, services and technology to foster and advance economic development in the State. More information on the program and the certification process can be found here http://ogs.ny.gov/Core/SDVOBA.asp.

Source: New York State Office of General Services

Extended Call Center Hours for Taxpayers Ahead of Sales Tax Deadline

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today announced that it will extend the hours of its call center today, March 20, to assist taxpayers filing sales tax returns before the midnight deadline. Call center representatives will be available for an additional three hours, until 7:30 p.m. The call center opens weekdays at 8:30 a.m.

The Tax Department expects 80,000 sales tax returns to be filed on March 20 alone, with several thousand submitted within only a few hours of the midnight deadline. The total dollar amount for those returns will most likely exceed $300 million. Taxpayers with questions can call 518-485-2889 for help in filing their returns.

Acting Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Nonie Manion said, “With this surge in sales tax returns expected within 24 hours of the deadline, our staff will be ready to support the needs of New Yorkers working to meet their tax obligations.”

While call center representatives will be available by phone, many questions can be answered on the Tax Department website, www.tax.ny.gov (search: sales tax web file). 

Source: New York State Department of Taxation and Finance

Cuomo on Jimmy Breslin: 'He Was a Journalistic Giant'

 

Click here to listen to Governor Andrew Cuomo's statements on the contributions and life of Jimmy Breslin. 

Source: Press Office, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Why ‘Trump Administration’ Is An Oxymoron

 

By Howard Fineman

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump took the oath of office two months ago, but is not yet running a real presidency. His administration, thus far, largely is playing like a junta that surprised the royal guards and seized the palace ― while still remaining unable to pacify the capital city, let alone inspire the countryside.

The White House is as stately as ever, but there aren’t enough friends outside the (porous) iron fence to make the inhabitants as comfortable as they should be in the first months of a new regime.

Rather, Trump is under siege from pretty much all sides.

Federal courts again are slapping down Trump’s first, signature move: a temporary travel ban on citizens from predominantly Muslim countries that he says harbor “radical Islamic terrorists.”

The joint Trump-GOP effort to “repeal and replace” Obamacare ― another key first promise and response ― is bogged down in multiple internal Republican divisions over everything from spending numbers to philosophy to legislative strategy. 

With growing sharpness and specificity, GOP leaders are joining Democrats in dismissing as flat-out false the president’s repeatedly tweeted charge that former President Barack Obama “tapped” ― or surveilled in any way ― Trump Tower or its owner.

Trump’s new guns-and-no-butter first budget, which would literally take food from the poor and the elderly to give more money to Pentagon contractors, has been greeted with derision by many Republicans, who regard it as less of a blueprint than a political statement too harsh even for the tea party. 

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The Huffington Post

Rep. Schiff: ‘Circumstantial Evidence of Collusion’ Between Trump Campaign, Russia

 

President Trump and Chancellor Merkel Joint Press Conference

President Trump Leads a Roundtable Discussion with US and German Business Leaders

Date of event: March 17, 2017

Famed Reporter and Novelist Jimmy Breslin Dies

Source: Wochit Entertainment