Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, January 7, 2022

January 7, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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IPS NEWS: REIMBURSING HOSPITALS FOR COVID CARE EXPENSES: NYC Health + Hospitals has received an additional FEMA reimbursement of $924 million, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, announced yesterday, alongside Mayor Eric Adams and Congressmember Ritchie Torrest. This reimbursement , which follows the $266 million previously allocated to H+H early last year and which brings the total reimbursement to $1.19 billion, will cover staffing, equipment and patient care efforts that were necessary during the surge of COVID-19 cases in NYC.

The receipt of this reimbursement will help to stabilize the finances of the 11hospital health systems.

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HISTORY OF ICONIC BRIDGE’S CONSTRUCTION: An author talk with Green-Wood Cemetery historian Jeff Richman on his book, “Building the Brooklyn Bridge: An Illustrated History” is being presented next Thursday through the New York City Department of Records & Information Services/Municipal Archives. While many books have been published about the iconic landmark, Richman focuses on the actual construction, through 253 superb nineteenth-century images he has gathered, including engineering drawings, photographs, stereographs (seen in 3D using a viewer), woodcuts and colored lithographs. Register via Eventbrite for the January 13 virtual talk via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-the-brooklyn-bridge-an-illustrated-history-tickets-218053171907

Richman specially created 44 anaglyphs―3D images generated from stereographs―offering the reader the immersive experience of being at the construction site in the late nineteenth century.

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BROOKLYN STORE SELLS WINNING POWERBALL TICKET: A Stuyvesant Heights store sold a winning second-prize Powerball drawing Wednesday, with a guaranteed worth of $1,000,107.00. Patchen Gourmet Grill Corp. at 139 Patchen Ave. sold the ticket, as did another retailer in Ridgewood, Queens. The winning numbers for the Powerball games are drawn from a field of one to 69. The red Power Ball is drawn from a separate field of one to 26.

The New York Lottery is considered to be the North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.59 billion in fiscal year 2020-21 to help support education in New York State. According to the New York Lottery’s most recent annual report, the required allocation for the Lottery Aid to Education in fiscal year 2021 was more than the required allocation of the previous year by $213.9 million, or 6.3%.

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HOW NOT TO CLEAR SNOW: As New York City prepared for another snowstorm on Thursday, the Department of Sanitation issued an alert reminding property owners, including restaurants, that pushing snow into the curbs and bike lanes is both dangerous and illegal. Property owners may not move snow from sidewalks into bike lanes, and may not block sidewalks, as these actions impede safe snow-clearing operations.

Snow may be moved against the building, to the curb line, or areas on private property. Sidewalks should be passable for all pedestrians, including a minimum 4-foot clear path, where possible.

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ORDERED REOPENING OF ASSISTANCE PORTAL: The State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance has been ordered to reopen the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) web portal within three business days or by tomorrow, or Tuesday, Jan. 11 at the latest. This mandate is the result of a court ruling in Hidalgo v. New York (OTDA), a class action lawsuit that the Legal Aid Society brought last month. The Supreme Court, New York County, ordered OTDA to resume accepting applications which will afford the new applicants a stay of any eviction proceedings against them.

The lawsuit argued that OTDA’s refusal as of Nov. 15, 2021 to accept further ERAP applications despite a pending request to the federal government for additional funds, was arbitrary, capricious, beyond the scope of their authority under the ERAP statute.

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CHANGE THOSE ONLINE PASSWORDS: Attorney General Letitia James has alerted 17 well-known companies to “Credential Stuffing” cyberattacks impacting more than 1.1 million consumers. She also released a “Business Guide for Credential Stuffing Attacks” that details the attacks — which involve repeated, automated attempts to access online accounts using usernames and passwords stolen from other online services — and recommends how businesses can protect themselves.

Credential stuffing has quickly become one of the top attack vectors online. But because users tend to reuse the same passwords across multiple online services, cybercriminals find ways to use passwords stolen from one company for other online accounts.

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TRANSPORTATION ART: Artists and designers are invited to propose mural designs as part of the Department of Transportation’s 2022 Barrier Beautification Initiative. DOT Art, a project that commissions the installation of temporary mural and design treatments along concrete barriers that protect bike lanes and pedestrian walkways throughout New York City, will select up to five sites as priority Barrier Beautification locations this year. A commission of up to $10,000 (site and design dependent) will be awarded to selected artists to cover all direct project costs.

All inquiries regarding the Barrier Beautification Request for Proposals should be sent to [email protected], with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, February 13.

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ART COLLECTION RETURNS TO BROOKLYN MUSEUM: The Brooklyn Museum presents “Monet to Morisot: The Real and Imagined in European Art,” in a new thematic reinstallation of the Museum’s renowned holdings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century holdings. Opening Feb. 4, the reinstallation features nearly ninety important paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. This presentation explores both the profound and ongoing influence of modern European art, and why the art historical canon itself is a site of tension.

Many of these works are on view together in Brooklyn for the first time since 2016, when they began touring the United States and Asia in the acclaimed exhibition, “French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850–1950.”

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CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR BROOKLYN PARISHIONER: Sean Conaboy, a member of St. Michael Catholic Church in Sunset Park, last year saved a woman from a knife-wielding attacker on a Manhattan subway platform. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced recently that Conaboy is one of 17 winners to be awarded a Carnegie Medal, along with a $5,500 grant.

The Carnegie Medal, established by industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1904, is given to individuals throughout the U.S. and Canada who face danger while saving or attempting to save others. Over its 117-year history, the commission has awarded a total of $43 million.

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IPS NEWS: INVESTIGATING LAB THAT BILLED FOR FREE TESTS: A COVID testing lab with Brooklyn locations that was billing patients for the free tests is under investigation through the State Attorney General’s Office. Attorney General Letitia James received reports that CareCube, a primary care provider with 20 locations in four boroughs including Brooklyn, wrongfully billed New Yorkers for rapid and PCR coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) tests. COVID-19 testing is free at test sites run by New York state, and patients are encouraged to check with test sites operated by their local governments for additional free testing options.

AG James advises New Yorkers who have been overcharged to file a complaint with her office.

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IPS NEWS: ELECTED LEADERS RALLY TO PROTECT DEMOCRACY: State Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie (D-Central Brooklyn) joined Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and other New York elected officials, labor and faith leaders on January 6 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Capitol insurrection and to recommit themselves to defending democracy and protecting voting rights. “The threat to voting rights is a threat not only to our democracy but to our economy,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, warning that the “threat persists and grows every day as state legislatures pass voting right restrictions, as disinformation goes unchecked on social media, and as corporations bankroll lawmakers and organizations that seek to undermine our democracy.”

Lander added, “New York can and must lead in restoring confidence in our democratic system, broadening its benefits, and giving people a stake in a shared future.”

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IPS NEWS: SALUTING MILITARY WHO DEFEND CONSTITUTION: Also commemorating the one-year Capitol insurrection anniversary, former Congressmember and combat veteran Max Rose, along with local military veterans, hosted a press conference yesterday outside the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn. “We are here today, not to ask for remembrance or hold a vigil,” said Rose. “We are here today to call on our elected officials to safeguard our democracy and defend the constitution that I, and the veterans behind me, swore to protect.” Commending military personnel, Mr. Rose said, “You know, I signed up for the Army, right here at Fort Hamilton, twelve years ago. For the first time, I swore an oath stating that I would “protect and defend the constitution of the United States.” I did it again 9 years later as a member of Congress.”

Rose is the former congressmember for New York’s 11th Congressional District, which is currently made up of Staten Island and parts of Southern Brooklyn. He served in the war in Afghanistan, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service. After Congress, Rose served as a Senior Adviser to the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.

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IPS NEWS: PROTESTING AGAINST REP. MALLIOTAKIS: A cross section of organizations representing progressive voters, working people and communities of color joined together on the anniversary of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to condemn Rep. Nicole Malliotakis for voting to reject the results of the 2020 election just hours after violent protesters besieged the U.S Capitol demanding just that. More than 75 grassroots community activists and community leaders gathered outside Malliotakis’ offices in Brooklyn and Staten Island to peacefully demonstrate opposition to Malliotakis’ efforts to reject the results of the 2020 election, oppose a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and validate debunked claims of fraud following the election.

Organizers were bolstered by new polling released today by Data for Progress which showed that a majority of voters in New York’s 11th District not only overwhelmingly disapprove of the insurrection, but also disapprove of her siding with the insurrectionists. Malliotakis will again face her predecessor and opponent, Democrat Max Rose, in this year’s Congressional elections.