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Showing posts from November, 2023

Lavine, Hewlett rabbi and Pilip join Blakeman-Poser squabble over Hamas attack on Israel

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  Bruce Blakeman First Nassau County Executive, a Republican, demanded the resignation of Hofstra University President Susan Poser because she did not explicitly condemn the Oct. 7 Hamas murder and mutiliation of more than 1,000 Israeli civilans, including babies, teenagers women and the elderly. Poser instead in a statement said, "There is a complex history and conflicting views about the causal underpinnings of the current crisis." Not enough, Blakeman insisted, "This is not the time for fence sitting and hand wringing. Dr. Poser should have been clear and strong in her condemnation of Hamas without equivocation," he wrote to Hofstra's Board of Trustees Susan Poser  For the past several days Blakeman, who is Jewish, has been all over the news on television and radio repeating his anger over Poser's position.     So Glen Cove Assembly. Charles Lavine, a Democrat who enjoys publicity, issued a rather lengthy press release, attacking Republican Blakeman

Blakeman calls for Poser resignation for not condeming Hamas attack on Israel

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After the barbaric and savage massacre of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 by the terrorist group Hamas, Hofstra University President Susan Poser issued the following statement on Oct. 9. Though she calls the attack "horrific and brutal" as well as describes the hostage taking as "unspeakable organized violence," she doesn't actually condemn Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip along Israel's border.  Strong supporters of Israel believe Hamas must be condemned. And then Poser issued this statement on Oct. 18. In it she says, "There is a complex history and conflicting views about the causal underpinnings of the current crisis." Again, she doesn't condemn the Hamas attack. Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is among the strong supporters of Israel who took took offense at Poser's statements. He sent off this letter to the Hofstra Board of Trustees, demanding her ouster. Blakeman wrote,  "This is not the time fo

County lawyers: Las Vegas Sands can walk away after three years

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                                                                                       Oh no. Here we go again. It's been more than 30 years that county officials have talked about redeveloping the outmoded, money-losing Nassau Coliseum. But nothing of note ever happened or changed. Every proposal was shot down or failed because of its own questionable financing. Earlier this year, Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman brought in the Las Vegas Sands, Inc. with a plan to develop a casino, hotel and resort on the 72-acres of deteriorating blacktop around the Coliseum in Uniondale. The Sands would immediately pay the county $54 million with millions more to surrounding communities, promoters said. Eventually, the county would reap billions, officials said. After the legislature in May voted 17-1 to approve the transfer of the existing Coliseum lease to the Sands, the Sands delivered $54 million to Nassau. Opponents -- mainly Garden City and nearby Hostra University -- objected t

Nassau Democrats favored casino, until a judge nullified the lease they approved

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Nassau Democrats have been chortling behind the scenes after a state judge threw out the county's 99-year lease with Las Vegas Sands to develop a $5 billion entertainment center/casino/resort at the outdated and always financially failing Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. Yes, Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman, supported by all 12 Republican members of the Nassau County legislature, pushed hard for the casino project, which is estimated to bring in millions of dollars in revenues to the county and surrounding communities. Yes, it's satisfying when political rivals fall on their face. But Democrats are forgetting most all of them voted for the casino project. Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) recused himself because his wife works at one of the businesses impacted by the HUB development. That left six of the seven Nassau Democrats to cast votes on the project. Only Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton voted no.  But her negative vote was not prompted by the reasons that A

CSEA awarded millions in covid comp time, but how much?

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                                                                                  After a two year wait, an arbitrator has decided that Nassau County's Civil Service Employee Association members who reported to the office during the Covid pandemic shutdown between March 16 and June 26 in 2020 are indeed due "covid compensatory time" pay. The 30-page decision, however, does not specify how much they will get -- though talk is the total amount due the union is somewhere between $24 million and $30 million.  If so, that is just a fraction of the more than $127 million CSEA members claimed they were due after all the "essential" employees' in-office work time was counted by the county comptroller two years ago. This blog reported it at the time. https://liuncoverednews.blogspot.com/2021/10/nassau-county-employees-owed-nearly-150.html Political appointees, who reported $18.4 million in overtime compensatory time, are out of luck. They are not covered by the CSEA