Brooklyn Census Workers Fake 10,000 Forms

It is alleged that Alvin Aviles and Sonya Merritt used the Internet and phone books to obtain information to fill out census forms for thousands of homes in Brooklyn. Census workers are paid $25 an hour  to stop at homes and interview occupants. Aviles and Merritt allegedly told their team members to get the information or don’t come back to work. Seven employees left and became whistle blowsers. Aviles, who also worked the 2000 Census says that he was falsely accused for his work at the Brooklyn LCO 2225 Census office.

The forms are being redone and apparently errors have been found in 4000+

 Next time the government decides to do the census, maybe they should ask employees to sign off on a sheet saying they won’t discuss office issues online. (Brooklyn census workers comment on census blog).

Topics: Brooklyn | 1 Comment »

Free Concerts in Brooklyn

Can you believe there are some really good free concerts in Brooklyn? No tickets needed. Just come and party!

Monday Nights at 7:30 pm

Where: Wingate Field in Midwood, Brooklyn  (Between Kingston Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue) 11209

Bring: Chairs (seating is limited)

Subway: the 2 or 5 trains to Winthrop Street – walk 2 blocks

Buses:  B12 or B44

July 19th – Toni Braxton

August 2nd – Salt and Pepper and Naughty by Nature

August 9th – Aretha Franklin (see her for free)

August 16th – Bebe and  Cece

August 23rd – Sean Paul

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Thursday nights at 7:30 pm at Asser Levy Park on Surf Avenue in Brighton Beach/Coney Island

July 22nd – The Beach Boys

July 29th – George Thorogood & the Destroyers

August 12th – Aretha Franklin

August 19th -B52s (Belinda Carlisle too)

Train: D train to the last stop – Stillwell Avenue

Bring chairs because seats fill up fast here.

Topics: Brooklyn | 2 Comments »

Sarah Palin NYC Doesn’t Need Your Views

Sarah Palin was writing about Ground Zero on Twitter today (see below).  Why is Sarah Palin speaking about issues in NYC when she lives in Alaska? Palin doesn’t have a clue about NYC. Palin should stick to speaking to her media attention hog family members, Bristol and Levi.  I was hoping her account was just hacked because no one could be that ridiculous.

They read:

1. “Refudiate,” “misunderestimate,” “wee-wee’d up.” English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it! 
2.    Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing 
3.    Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real

Why did Sarah Palin compare her “Alaskan babble” to Shakespeare? Shakespeare created great words like rant, gloomy, hush and auspicious. The world will not be adopting refudiate anytime soon Palin.

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Kings Bay Medical Care in Bath Beach has a Kickback Room – Medical Fraud

Kings Bay Medical Care located at 3801 Avenue U in Bath Beach, Brooklyn has a kickback room!

Elderly people with Medicare benefits went to the back of Bay Medical Center to receive a $50 kickback in exchange for putting their name on the sign-in sheet so the office could file false claims. In addition many seniors received a $100 bonus for referring other seniors to the program.

The FBI went undercover with wiretaps and saw Bay Medical Care’s kickback room in operation and bugged the center.  The Kickback room had this sign with Russian writing which translates to, “Don’t Gossip. Be on the Lookout.”

Twenty-two from people from New York were charged including eight people from Kings Bay Medical.  They were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud totaling $72 million. One of the patients arrested had 2558 claims over six years totaling $280k.

See the video
This federal medical fraud crackdown charged 22 in NYC and also 72 other people in Florida, Detroit, Baton Rouge and Houston. Workers at the Solstice Wellness Center in Rockaway Park, Queens were also charged in this fraud. Valentine Mushinskya, an 82 year old Ukrainian immigrant was charged for services she never received from Solstice Wellness Center totaling $141K billed to Medicare through 3,774 claims. Mushinskya’s family said she doesn’t know anything about this.

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NYPD Inpector Commits Suicide

New York City Police Department Inspector, Anthony Tria shot himself in his office yesterday afternoon. Tony Tria of Dix Hills worked 26 years on the job for the NYPD. He led the police’s capital construction department from his Fort Totten, Queens office.

Viewing: Sunday and Monday from 2-4 pm and 7-9 pm at Commack Abbey Funeral Home 96 Commack Road ~ Commack, NY

Funeral mass – Tuesday 11:00 am  at St. Matthew’s Church  – 35N. Service Road Dix Hills, NY.

There isn’t a lot of information about his suicide. Something doesn’t seem right. I remembered there was another experienced Police Department  inspector  took her own life. Police Inspector Carmen Lydia Martinez also had an unexplained suicide. News about her passing was very quiet as well.

How does this happen to a young, vibrant man?  Something isn’t right. The news said this morning that there was no suicide note. I can’t imagine how terrible this is for his wife, Beth two daughters and family. *Many prayers*

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Upstairs hallway

We have been decorating the upstairs hallway. When you come up the stairs you see:

The one wall was texturized, but the colors don’t vary so much. There is a skylight overhead allowing the afternoon sun to shine in.

This table is next to the banister.

Again, color variations because of the light.  We’re coming along on this place!

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AutoZone in Bensonhurst Held Up – Hostages – SWAT Team

The AutoZone store located at 1455 – 86th Street was held up today. Two guys and a woman entered the Autozone store. One of the employees triggered the security alarm (possibly because they remembered the from the robbery in May). The police SWAT team was all over 86th Street and 14th Avenue and 15th Avenue.

Everyone gathered around to watch for over an hour and a half because a hostage situation is big news in this part of Brooklyn. Businesses were shut down and customers were asked to leave establishments on the street.

People watching the situation said that four employees were being held hostage in the back. The police closed the street and had their guns drawn. Helicopters filled the air. Finally, one of the suspects came out of the store pretending to be an employee. He was wearing an Autozone t-shirt. The police asked him what the store’s phone number was, but he didn’t know it so he was arrested.  The two other suspected robbers remained in the store.

Later,  people in the area said the four  employees that were taped up and being held hostage were released. The police arrest the other two suspects (a man and a woman) who had water guns (or BB guns).

 See video (suspects are in the video)

This isn’t the first time this Brooklyn Auto Zone has been robbed. At the end of May, it was also robbed.

**JULY 17th ->Brooklyn Peeps have you seen the news that Bay Medical Center was charged with Medical Fraud.

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Rainy Day in Brooklyn

It started out as a rainy, but humid day in Brooklyn. I was cooking, cleaning and organizing.

Then the sun came out and Lee washed the dogs in our $8.00 makeshift dog bath (a pan to mix concrete in available at Home Depot).  This is a friend’s dog who was visiting:

I was too late with the camera to get him with our dogs.

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Painting Secret for New Home Owners

As a new home owner I have bought paint from so many different places. Of course I bought Benjamin Moore paint. I also bought Sherwin-Williams, Martha Stewart, Glidden and Restoration Hardware paint.

Of course I used the new home owner coupons and looked for a discount on paint, but I got tired of spending $30+ on a can of paint only to find that it didn’t look right in my home. I didn’t buy the BM small paint containers for $4 because I didn’t want to waste money and when I purchased the paint, I wanted to start painting.

So what’s the best paint to paint your home? Well I loved the creamy Restoration Hardware paint and I loved Benjamin Moore’s colors. But they aren’t the best in my opinion. Towards the end of my home painting, I found Valspar Contractor’s Paint at Lowe’s.

Now this isn’t the regular Valspar paint and it doesn’t come in as many colors as the regular Valspar paint, but a gallon of Valspar’s Contractor Paint is $14.99.

And the colors are so beautiful. Valspar was able to recreate popular colors at the major paint stores for the Contractor’s paint. We used Vanilla in the hallway and I love how warm and beachy the color  feels.

It is low voc and low odor paint. We found that it had a strong paint smell so I put two drops of vanilla oil in the paint can and mixed it well to cut down on the smell. The paint smell only lingered for one evening.

Yes, it says contractor’s paint and I guess many contractor’s purchase it, but I purchased it too! In both Lowes that I go to, the Contractor’s Paint can be found in the middle back part of the paint section – look for the white cans. I purchased the flat paint because I don’t like shiny walls.

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A Post-It with All I Need to Know

Many years ago when I moved into my first apartment with a friend, my Aunt Ele gave me several household items which I cherish. Among the items was this crystal basket-shaped vase.

My Aunt taped this Post-It to the inside of the vase twelve years ago.

The Post-It reads: “Dear Marlene, This beautiful vase belonged to your great-grandmother Kate. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I always did.  Love, Ele.”

Who would have thought that a little Post-It would contain such a huge message?

We just set up our china closet yesterday.  Today, 7/11 was  my Aunt’s birthday.

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Brooklyn Pool Factory

We went to the Brooklyn Pool Factory today. We’re thinking about getting a pool. I mean it’s something we’ve wanted for awhile, but there are so many choices to make.

The Pool Factory in Brooklyn is located at  50th and 1st Avenue (not too far from Bay Ridge). They were open until 7pm today (Friday)

It’s located in a warehouse type building and there was a lot of parking.

You take the elevator to the third floor. When you first enter, you see the cash registers and the peopl who work there. Then there you see that there are 22 pools set up on this floor. Plus there are displays for pool supplies such as chlorine, shock and many types of pool filters.

How do I decide if we should use chlorine or saltwater?  I read that saltwater feels better to swim in – probably because no one enjoys swallowing chlorine by accident.

And then we need to decide if we want a oval or round pool and which dimensions to get.

They had such pretty pool liners as well.

The people that work at the pool factory were very helpful. Resin pool supports are better, especially if you get a saltwater pool. Some pools can also be partially sunk into the ground so they don’t overwhelm the yard.

We didn’t realize there were so many choices in pool stairs. We like these best, but the pool needs to be big enough to have them.

The pool in the far back was the only one filled with water. It also had a robotic pool vacuum inside that we played around with.

We loved our visit to The Pool Factory in Brooklyn. We don’t know how soon we will be ready to purchase a pool, but we’ll be back when we are.

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Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

If you are reading this, I hope you will sign the petition to stop the stoning of this poor woman. http://freesakineh.org

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has two teenage children who are asking for our help. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was allegedly found to be committing adultery. She was arrested and placed in jail five years ago. Her punishment was to be whipped. Her son stayed with her while she was whipped because he didn’t want her to be alone.

For more information on the story see http://is.gd/djI8v   **Share with friends please**

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