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THE LEDE: Happy Thursday! Pamela Harris is sentenced to six months in prison, more BQE rehab ideas are suggested, and Marty Golden calls Andrew Gounardes a “martian.” Plus, Jumaane Williams eyes the NYC public advocate position, a Boerum Hill couple creates a horrific Halloween scene, and an alcohol-free speakeasy comes to Williamsburg. Finally, Brooklyn gets its first dedicated comedy club, a New England gangster is locked up in Sunset Park, and Montero’s in Brooklyn Heights is named one of the best dive bars in America.  
 
IMPRINT: Actress Nicole Kidman and activist Ai-jen Poo pose in white on the most recent cover of New York Magazine.

 
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The Rundown
 

~BQE PROMENADE PLAN HAS BROOKLYN HEIGHTS IN UPROAR, ALTERNATE IDEAS BEING EXPLORED: Alternate ideas are cropping up to save the Promenade from being replaced by a six-lane highway during the reconstruction of the BQE. These include one that would reroute the highway to the west of the current BQE, over the eastern section of Brooklyn Bridge Park; another that would reroute the BQE over Atlantic Avenue to Boerum Place; a tunnel approach; and a temporary halt of tolls over the Verrazzano Bridge to lead traffic elsewhere. No matter the outcome, the proposed destruction of the Promenade, even if temporary, has united Brooklyn Heights like no other issue. (via Brooklyn Eagle)i
 
~ASSEMBLYMEMBER PAMELA HARRIS GETS 6 MONTHS IN PRISON FOR STEALING $70,000: Former Assemblymember Pamela Harris initially faced up to 30 years in prison, but a Brooklyn federal court judge decided to give her just six months in prison instead. After she serves that time in federal prison, Harris, 58, who represented southern Brooklyn, will also be subject to three years of supervised release, will serve 400 hours of community service and will pay back all of what she stole. She pled guilty in June to stealing $45,600 from the nonprofit she ran, the Coney Island Generation Gap, and $24,800 from FEMA following Hurricane Sandy, and also for inducing witnesses to lie to the FBI.(via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~GOLDEN AIMS ‘MARTIAN’ BARB AT GOUNARDES AT BAY RIDGE DEBATE: State Sen. Marty Golden exclaimed, “I feel like I’m dealing with a Martian from Mars here,” in a debate with Democratic challenger Andrew Gounardes in Bay Ridge on Tuesday. While they disagreed on almost every issue they discussed, this particular remark came after Gounardes said he supported a new city law adding a third-gender option on birth certificates. “Ladies and gentlemen, male-female. Birth certificate … Very simple,” said Golden. Gounardes countered that it shouldn’t make any difference to “anyone in this room” what people choose to call themselves. (Daily News via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~JUMAANE WILLIAMS EYES NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE POSITION:Councilmember Jumaane Williams, who was closely defeated by incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul in last month’s Democratic primary, has now set his sights on becoming New York City public advocate. If Letitia James, the city’s current public advocate and another Brooklynite, wins her race in November to become New York attorney general, as expected, she will leave her current position by the end of 2018. A special election would then be held to fill the public advocate’s seat.  (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~BOERUM HILL COUPLE STAGES HORRIFIC PUMPKIN DENTIST HALLOWEEN TABLEAU: Save yourself a trip to the dentist this Halloween by visiting Bergen Street, between Bond and Nevins streets, because it’s not just human dentists warning kids about the tooth-related dangers of candy. A couple in Boerum Hill, who each year create a tableau of horror using figures made of pumpkins, have upped the ante this year by tapping into reality, creating a full-on dentist chair nightmare scene. The demonic looking tooth-puller, comprised, in snowman fashion, of three pumpkins piled on top of each other, dentist coat covered in blood, gleefully hoists a marshmallow tooth into the air. (Gothamist via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~ALCOHOL-FREE BAR COMES TO WILLIAMSBURG FOR FOUR DAYS: Listen Bar, a new pop-up speakeasy in Williamsburg, is unlike most watering holes — there’s no alcohol. “It’s a market that’s really underserved,” said Listen Bar founder Lorelei Bandrovschi, a former advertising copywriter. The Wall Street Journal said Listen Bar taps into a “growing anti-alcohol movement.” The bar at 109 S. Sixth St. serves many alcohol-free drinks such as the Time Travel, which features a mix of spices and smoked honey; andThomas Henry’s Slim Tonic, a boutique tonic water. (WSJ via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~FORMER EAST VILLAGE COMEDY CLUB NOW SUCCESSFUL IN BROOKLYN: The couple who operated the Eastville Comedy Club as a below-ground nightspot in the East Village for 10 years has moved the club to a location near Barclays Center. Now, say Marko and Tia Elgart, many of the same people who supported the club in Manhattan now frequent its new location at 487 Atlantic Ave. The club hosts anywhere from one to four shows nightly. “The East Village was a place where you walked around never knowing what cool or artistic bar, restaurant or shop you’d stumbleupon,” Marko said. “Brooklyn has now become that kind of place.” (BKLYNER via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~FORMER NEW ENGLAND MOB BOSS IS NOW AT SUNSET PARK JAIL:Former New England crime boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme is now in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn following his life sentence last month for the 1993 murder of a South Boston club owner. The detention center, on the Sunset Park waterfront, is often used as a way station for federal inmates awaiting transfer to a big-time federal prison. Salemme and codefendant Paul Weadick were sentenced to life in prison in September after being convicted of killing Steven DiSarro, a 43-year-old father of five, to keep him from cooperating with the FBI. (Boston Globe via Brooklyn Eagle)

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___________________Bulletin Board__________________
 

Andrew Gounardes, who is running for the NYS Senate in Southern Brooklyn against Marty Golden, supports policies to allow convicted felons – including cop killers released by Governor Cuomo’s parole board – to vote while on parole. Senator Golden has always, and will always, speak up for commonsense values and neighborhood priorities, and will always oppose reckless policies that endanger our communities. On Nov. 6, vote to re-elect Marty Golden. Learn more at www.martygolden.org.   

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Staff Picks:   
 

LONG READ: “Could an Ex-Convict Become an Attorney?” (via NYT Magazine)
 
PODCAST: Elizabeth Kolbert, author and staff writer at The New Yorker, says “we’re going in absolutely the wrong direction” with climate change.(via Longform)
 
HUMOR: From seizing 136 snakes from a San Antonio home, to a great-grandmother killing an alligator, here are 12 absurd things that happened in Texas recently. (via Texas Monthly)
 
DRINK: Here are the 33 best dive bars in America, including Montero’s in Brooklyn Heights. (via Thrillist)

  
  
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NATIONAL BULLETIN: “To Kill a Mockingbird” is selected as America’s most beloved novel…Suspicious packages are sent to CNN, the Clintons and theObamas…And Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops will now receive$250,000 for every additional win. (via AP, CNN and USA Today)            
 
FOREIGN FLASH: The Titanic II could set sail as soon as 2022…Doctors in Montreal will prescribe visits to art museums…And a new Pokemon Go-like game allows kids to collect saints. (via CNN, National Observer and Crux Now) 
 
 

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ROYAL WATCH: “Kate Middleton Just Received an Extremely Important Honor from the Queen” (via Harper’s Bazaar)

 
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BROOKLYN TONIGHT     
 

12:00PM – 2:00PM — How Voter Suppression Is Damaging Our Democracy with Carol Anderson at The Greene Space. Details.
 
1:00PM — From Fanny Mendelssohn to Kaija Saariaho: Two Centuries of Women Composers at Graduate Center, CUNY. Details.
 
4:30PM – 6:30PM — Marta Gutman Presents: Segregated by Design in New Orleans at Graduate Center, CUNY. Details.
 
5:00PM – 7:00PM — Repatriation and Restorative Justice: From Native American Remains and Sacred Objects to Nazi Art Theft at Queensborough Community College. Details.
 
6:30PM — Panel: Understanding Human Trafficking as It Impacts New York at New York Society for Ethical Culture. Details.
 
6:30PM — Winston Churchill and the Jews at Temple Emanu-El. Details.
 
6:30PM – 8:30PM — Dark Matter: A Comedy Show About True Love and Hypothetical Particles at Caveat. Details.
 
7:00PM — Illustrating Harry Potter with Mary GrandPré, Brian Selznickand David Saylor at New-York Historical Society. Details.
 
7:00PM — A Conversation with Frederick Wiseman at Museum of the Moving Image. Details.
 
7:00PM – 9:00PM — Jews, Politics and the 2018 Midterm Elections at Center for Jewish History. Details.  
 
8:00PM – 10:00PM — The 10 Minute Set at The Cobra Club. Details.
     
 
 

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EAGLE SPORTS: Charles Wang graduated from Brooklyn Tech High School in 1962, but his love affair with our fair borough and his alma mater resumed long after he went on to become the billionaire owner of the NHL’s New York Islanders. In 2001, Wang, along with former New York Giants co-owner Robert Tisch and the Take the Field Foundation, helped transform a vacant lot into a fully functional and since-renovated football field for the Brooklyn Tech Engineers. Here’s more on Wang’s legacy. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

 
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MILESTONES
 
Happy birthday to Ciara, Brian Kerwin, Bobby Knight, Midori, Katy Perry, Helen Reddy, Craig Robinson, Marion Ross and Anne Tyler!
 
Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at[email protected].

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