Good Morning, Brooklyn: Tuesday, August 23, 2022

August 23, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Share this:

BROOKLYN NATIVE DR. FAUCI ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT,: SERVED 7 PRESIDENTS OF BOTH PARTIES: Dr. Anthony Fauci, born and raised in Brooklyn, announced his retirement on Monday to take effect at the end of this year. The son of a Columbia University-trained, Dyker Heights pharmacy owner, Dr. Fauci has served under seven Republican and Democratic Presidents during his career, beginning with Ronald Reagan, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 under President George W. Bush.

Current President Joe Biden wrote, “When it came time to build a team to lead our COVID-19 response – in fact, in one of my first calls as President-elect – I immediately asked Dr. Fauci to extend his service as my Chief Medical Advisor to deal with the COVID-19 crisis our nation faced…His commitment to the work is unwavering, and he does it with an unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity.

✰✰✰

MORE PRAISE FOR DR. FAUCI: The president of the American Medical Association also praised Dr. Fauci, who plans to retire at the end of 2022. Jack Resneck Jr., M.D., wrote, “For more than 50 years, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been a strong and steady voice for science- and data-driven responses to some of the biggest public health challenges of our time. Through the HIV/AIDS crisis, Ebola, Zika, and nearly three years of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Dr. Fauci has not only provided sage advice and counsel to presidents of both parties, but he smartly leveraged modern media to deliver clear and direct guidance and information to the American people.”

Dr. Resneck added, “Over his decades of work, Dr. Fauci has protected patients, saved lives, and, through simple human actions like hugging the Dallas nurse who survived Ebola, destigmatized the disease.”

✰✰✰

COLTON DENOUNCES VANDALISM OF HOLOCAUST MONUMENT: Assemblymember William Colton was scheduled to hold a press conference yesterday afternoon to condemn the act of vandalism on the Holocaust Monument in Sheepshead Bay. The monument, on West End Avenue, pays tribute to the European nations that were victims of the Nazis, with those countries’ names engraved on each slab of concrete at the base of the monument. Assemblymember Colton’s office reported to several news outlets that vulgar language and drawings were handwritten on the monument, allegedly in the Ukrainian language, on the memorial’s Russian slab.

“Such an act at a renowned Holocaust Memorial is highly offensive to Holocaust survivors and to all in the community. It is a criminal act and I am demanding a full investigation leading to the arrest and prosecution, to the full extent of the law, of those responsible,” said Colton.

✰✰✰

ASSAILANTS SOUGHT IN KINGS PLAZA ATTACK: Police are seeking individuals believed to be connected to an assault that took place last Saturday at the Kings Plaza Mall, within the 63 Precinct. The NYPD is seeking the public’s help in identifying the men pictured walking. During the incident, which took place around 6 p.m., the pictured individuals approached their 36-year-old male victim and, unprovoked, punched him in the face, causing serious physical injury. EMS responded and transported the aided male to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in stable condition. The individuals fled the mall to parts unknown.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

Police are seeking these two males in connection with an attack at Kings Plaza Shopping Center.
Photo: NYPD

✰✰✰

FEDREAL GRANT WILL EXPAND NYC’S GREENWAY NETWORK: New York City has received a $7.25 million federal grant to plan for a major expansion of the greenway network across the five boroughs, with a focus on historically underserved, lower-income communities that lack access to affordable transportation and job opportunities, Mayor Adams announced yesterday. The funding comes from a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant and will be used to develop a comprehensive vision plan to fill critical gaps in the city’s greenway network, improve cyclist and pedestrian safety with improved infrastructure, and enhance quality of life with green transportation options and greater waterfront access.

The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), the Parks Department (NYC Parks), and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) prepared the grant application.

✰✰✰

CANNABIS NYC AIMS TO SUPPORT GROWING INDUSTRY: Monday saw the launch of Cannabis NYC, a first-of-its-kind initiative and suite of services to support the equitable growth of the cannabis industry in New York City — a key pillar of Mayor Eric Adams’ Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery. Cannabis NYC will support cannabis entrepreneurs and their workers as the industry develops. The initiative will work with industry stakeholders to create good jobs, successful small businesses, and sustainable economic opportunities, while also addressing the harms of cannabis prohibition.

The expected size of New York City’s emerging regulated adult-use cannabis will be historic, with estimates of up to $1.3 billion in sales by 2023, and between 19,000-24,000 jobs created over the next three years.

✰✰✰

COALITION SEEKS TO PROTECT TRIBAL FAMILIES: New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a bipartisan coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Haaland v. Brackeen, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a challenge to longstanding protections guaranteed to Native American children, their families, and communities under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The coalition highlights in the amicus brief, United States’ long history of inequitable removals of Native American children and reiterates the states’ fundamental interest in standing up for the well-being of children in state child-custody.

In 1978, Congress enacted ICWA to combat states and private parties that were initiating child-custody proceedings which removed Native American children from their parents and placed them in non-tribal adoptive and foster homes. The current amicus brief, citing many legal precedents, argues that, because ICWA concerns the very survival of tribal communities, Congress had not exceeded its powers when enacting the statute.

✰✰✰

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY’S BOOK PRIZE LONG LIST RELEASED: Brooklyn Public Library has released the longlists (24 titles) for its 2022 Brooklyn Book Prize for fiction and nonfiction/poetry. Brooklyn figures prominently in several of the fiction selections.

The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize was first established in collaboration with the Brooklyn Eagles, a group of young and engaged Brooklynites who are passionate about the Brooklyn Public Library and work to engage new patrons. The shortlist nominees will be announced this fall with the final winners announced in November.

✰✰✰

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHTS: Bank of America announces the return of its Small Business Spotlight offering four New York City-based minority-owned small businesses an opportunity to showcase their products in a free booth at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park, open October 28, 2022 to January 2, 2023. Selected businesses will showcase their products at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park for two weeks each. Booth rent and basic build-out of the shop (floor, slat walls, counter and display shelves, as well as lighting and heaters, if needed) will be provided and assembled through support from the bank.

Businesses with annual revenues of $1 million or less, can apply online by midnight on Sunday, September 18, 2022, via https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJvGl7JoxV44WwDssll1qKohVNzG8pVx8DffEvYANdNDcIkw/viewform

✰✰✰

YOUTH AMBASSADORS CHOSEN FOR THIS ELECTION CYCLE: Nineteen young leaders, three of them from Brooklyn, have been selected for the 2022 NYC Votes Youth Ambassadors program, announced the NYC Campaign Finance Board on Monday. The ambassadors, who range from 14-19 years ago, will serve as voting experts in their communities and organize voter mobilization events during the 2022 election season. The 2022 class of Youth Ambassadors includes Brooklynites Emely Romano, 16, attending East Side Community High School; Shaima Alnadesh, 15, attending Urban Assembly School of Leadership and Empowerment; and Jessica Isibor, 15, attending Bedford Academy High School

The Ambassadors will visit educational sites and hear from guest speakers to learn about how local government works and how to advocate for their communities on key issues; and, as their capstone projects, will participate in voter participation research for the CFB’s Voter Analysis Report.

VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT FOR THIS YEAR’S DAFFODIL PROJECT: New Yorkers for Parks has launched this year’s Daffodil Project, the city’s largest annual volunteer program, which brings together volunteers across New York City to plant daffodils as a living memorial to honor New Yorkers lost to 9/11 and COVID-19. Since the Daffodil Project’s inception in 2001, over 400,000 volunteers have planted more than 9 million daffodil bulbs.

Registration for volunteers opened today, and New Yorkers looking to participate in this year’s distribution can sign-up here. Distribution of the daffodils will take place in all five boroughs, with the Brooklyn event held at Prospect Park Plaza West on Sunday, October 23, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.