Good Morning, Brooklyn: Thursday, June 9, 2022

June 9, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CHARGED IN MULTIPLE DEATHS IN CAR RACE: An 18-year-old Brooklyn man has been indicted for criminally negligent homicide and related charges in connection with a deadly car crash that took place when two cars collided while racing on an abandoned runway. Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez identified the defendant as Tamirlan Abylknov, 18, of Homecrest, Brooklyn, who was arraigned yesterday before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Craig Walker, and charged with three counts of criminally negligent homicide and other counts, in the deaths of 16-year-old driver of one of the vehicles, his 18-year-old girlfriend and her 11-year-old brother.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on July 11, 2020, at approximately 8 p.m., the defendant and a group of friends were on North 40th Runway in Floyd Bennet Field, a decommissioned airfield that is open to the public as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

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CONGRESS FIGHTS FOR ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE LAW: “It is not okay that mass murder has become a way of life in the United States of America,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-08/Eastern Brooklyn), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a member of the Judiciary Committee, who spoke on the Floor of the House before voting for comprehensive anti-gun violence legislation (H.R. 7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act). Among other protections, the bill would raise the lawful age to purchase a semiautomatic centerfire rifle from 18 to 21 years old, establish a new federal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of large capacity magazines, (with exceptions for certain law enforcement uses), allow state and local governments to compensate individuals who surrender large capacity magazines through a buyback program, list bump stocks (like machineguns) under the National Firearms Act, and statutorily ban the manufacture, sale, or possession of bump stocks for civilian use.

The bill would also ensure that ghost guns are subject to existing federal firearm regulation by amending the definition of “firearm” to include gun kits and partial receivers and changing the definition of “manufacturing firearms” to include assembling firearms using 3D printing.

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LANDMARK RULING ON EDUCATIONAL NEGLECT: The State Education Department (SED) and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) abdicated their agency responsibilities by failing to investigate whether a Brooklyn yeshiva is complying with the New York Education Law by providing its students with a secular education that is “substantially equivalent” to the education offered at Brooklyn public schools, ruled New York State Supreme Court Justice Adam W. Silverman. The ruling stems from a 2019 petition that plaintiff Beatrice Weber filed against Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem alleging that the school failed to provide her eight-year-old son with secular classes mandated by the law, and that the DOE should order the school to do so.

Wednesday’s ruling made history for Ms. Weber and the court which, for the first time in New York history, held that a parent can sue the state and city agencies, and the yeshiva, arguing lack of adequate secular education, and that the agencies’ inability to complete its investigation required judicial intervention and immediate injunctive relief.

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STREET SURVEYING WITHIN COMMUNITY BOARD 18: The needs assessment and surveying work being conducted along Flatlands Avenue and Avenue L will be the topic of a guest presentation at Community Board 18’s next board meeting on Wednesday, June 29. Saloni Sharma, Senior Director of Neighborhood Economic Development at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; and Gabriel Cirio, Program Manager for the SBS Avenue NYC Grant Program, will provide a brief presentation on the project.

Although many of Brooklyn’s Community Boards have continued holding hybrid meetings, this event will take place in-person only, starting at 7 p.m., outdoors at the John Malone Center on Bergen Ave.

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DOCUMENTARY ON BROOKLYN PRODUCER JOE PAPP: “Joe Papp in Five Acts,” a popular documentary on Brooklyn’s indomitable, feisty, streetwise champion of the arts, will be shown on June 22, at Bushwick Inlet Park on Kent Avenue, as part of NYC Parks Arts, Culture, and Fun programming. The 8:30 p.m. screening features the life of Papp, founder of The Public Theater and Free Shakespeare in the Park, as well as the producer of groundbreaking plays, like Hair, A Chorus Line, and for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.

Papp believed great art was for everyone, not just a privileged few, and recognized the role artists could play in building a more democratic, inclusive society.

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WILLIAMSBURG CELEBRATES PUERTO RICAN CULTURE: The Moore Street Market (La Marqueta de Williamsburg) and the Graham Avenue Business Improvement District are co-hosting a pre-celebration of Puerto Rican Day this Saturday, June 11, and in anticipation of the June 12 citywide observance. City Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-34/Williamsburg and Bushwick) is also sponsoring the event, which will feature music by the New York Combo Salsa Band.

NYC/Economic Development Corporation, NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and Boricua College also co-sponsor the festival, running from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday.

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STREET REDESIGNS: New York City is on track to complete more than 100 safe street redesigns —including two in Brooklyn this year, 2022, with projects located in historically underserved communities and many near schools. City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, announced yesterday. The Brooklyn locations are Chauncey Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Linden Boulevard and Atkins Avenue in East New York.

One of the projects — on Amsterdam and Saint Nicholas avenues between West 188th Street and Fort George Avenue — was led by Northern Manhattan high school students participating in the ‘I Challenge Myself’ afterschool program, in collaboration with DOT.

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VATICAN BANK POSTS LOWER REVENUES FOR 2021: The Vatican Bank, officially known as the Institute for Religious Works, seemingly reflects Pope Francis’ vision for Catholicism as a “poor church for the poor,” as its 2021 annual shows a financial decline. The report, which was released on Tuesday, June 7, announced that it made a net profit of 18.1 million euros (about $19.3 million) last year, a significant decrease from the 36.4 million euros it netted in 2020, but which Vatican officials defended as an able effort in difficult times.

While the report showed that two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the war in Ukraine, put a strain on the church’s finances, the bank also highlighted its successes, particularly the 2021 report by Moneyval, the European anti-money-laundering entity, which gave the institution a good rating.

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IPS NEWS: RESOLUTION FOR NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY EDUCATION MONTH: U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-9/Flatbush/East Flatbush), chair of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection & Innovation Subcommittee joined with U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) introduced a resolution to designate June as National Cybersecurity Education Month. The resolution aims to educate Americans on the essential role of cybersecurity education and to support federal, state, and local efforts.

“When it comes to cybersecurity, knowledge equates to safety and security. Through National Cybersecurity Education Month, we will further our federal commitment towards educating the American people on the best practices to protect their personal information online from any threat that may arise long into the future,” said Rep. Clarke.

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IPS NEWS: MUSLIM POLITICAL GROUP ENDORSES GOV. HOCHUL: Emgage PAC New York Metro has endorsed Governor Kathy Hochul for Governor of New York. The Muslim advocacy group noted that Gov. Hochul had hosted the first historic Governor’s Iftar in Albany during Ramadan, during which she issued a proclamation that recognizes the month of Ramadan. Last month, Gov. Hochul appointed Zainab Chaudhry as a Judge to the New York State Court of Claims, making her the first Muslim woman to gain an appointment — which the State Senate confirmed last week — for this position.

Emgage also compared Gov. Hochul’s record with that of her predecessor, claiming that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo had failed to visit mosques or work with the Muslim community on its needs.

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IPS NEWS: REP. MALONEY INVESTIGATING FOREIGN GIFTS TO TRUMP: Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-12/northern Brooklyn) chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, is seeking documents and information on former President Trump’s apparent failure to account for gifts from foreign government officials while in office, as required by the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act. Public reporting indicates that President Trump accepted multiple gifts from foreign sources in 2020, yet these gifts do not appear on the State Department’s list of foreign gifts as required by law.

On April 11, 2022, the State Department revealed that it could not fully account for the foreign gifts Trump Administration officials received during the final year of the Trump Administration. The State Department noted that during the Trump Administration, the Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol failed to obtain a list of foreign gifts received in 2020 from the White House.

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IPS NEWS: MALONEY: PASS SAVE OUR STAGES EXTENSION ACT: Ahead of the upcoming Tony Awards, U.S. Rep Carolyn B. Maloney (D-12/northern Brooklyn and Manhattan) and representatives of arts institutions and organizations rallied, calling for passage of the Save Our Stages Extension Act. The Save Our Stages Extension Act was introduced in the House of Representatives in September 2021 and would extend the last day that SVOG recipients may use grant funds from December 31, 2021 to March 11, 2023.

Originally signed into law in December 2020 The Save Our Stages Act provided Shuttered Venue Operators Grants (SVOG) to eligible movie theaters, live venue operators, talent representatives, and performing arts organizations equal to 45% of their 2019 gross earnings with a maximum of $10 million in funding.