Singer and Actress, Lena Horne, Dead at 92

Legendary jazz singer Lena Horne, who starred in 'Cabin in the Sky' in 1943, died Sunday. She was 92. Horne died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Gloria Chin. Chin would not release any other details. Her death was announced by her son-in-law, Kevin Buckley. Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley.

In the 1940s, Horne was one of the first black performers hired to sing with a major white band, the first to play the Copacabana nightclub and among a handful with a Hollywood contract. In 1943, MGM Studios loaned her to 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Selina Rogers in the all-black movie musical 'Stormy Weather.' Her rendition of the title song became a major hit and her signature piece.

"I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn't work for places that kept us out ... it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world," she said in Brian Lanker's book, 'I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America.'

Horne was at home vocally with a wide musical range, from blues and jazz to the sophistication of Rodgers and Hart in songs like 'The Lady Is a Tramp' and 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.'

By the mid-1950s, Horne -- who in 1947 married composer and musical director Lennie Hayton in a secret wedding in Paris, because interracial marriages were illegal in California -- left Hollywood, "bitter," she said, "at the whole Hollywood system," and went on to tremendous success as a stage actress and consummate jazz singer, PEOPLE reports.

In her first big Broadway success, as the star of 'Jamaica' in 1957, reviewer Richard Watts Jr. called her "one of the incomparable performers of our time." Songwriter Buddy de Sylva dubbed her "the best female singer of songs."

Lena Horne Photos

AP

10 photos

In an April 30, 1981 file photo singer Lena Horne is shown in a Broadway production 'Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music' in New York. More photos >>

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Lena Horne Photos

In an April 30, 1981 file photo singer Lena Horne is shown in a Broadway production 'Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music' in New York. More photos >>

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Lena Horne Photos

** RETRANSMISSION FOR IMPROVED TONING ** FILE -- This is a March 29, 1993 file photo of singer-actress Lena Horne at the 65th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/file)

Lena Horne Photos

(FILES) Undated filed photos taken in the 50s shows Lena Horne (Lena Mary Calhoun Horne ), US actress and Jazz singer, born in 1917 in New York. Jazz singer Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio, died late May 09, 2010 at the age of 92, according to The New York Times. AFP PHOTO/FILES (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)

Lena Horne Photos

File -- In a March 1954 file photo singer Lena Horne performs at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo)

Lena Horne Photos

file -- In an April 30, 1981 file photo singer Lena Horne is shown in a Broadway production "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music" in New York. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/file)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- In a March 7, 1982 file photo Grammy Award winner Lena Horne, center, is flanked by record producer Quincy Jones, left, holding his Grammy, and Dan Morgenstern, of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, as she displays her award, and the record that earned it, in New York. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm/file)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- In an Oct. 12, 1955 file photo singer and actress Lena Horne and her husband Lennie Hayton are photographed in their hotel room at the Savoy in London, England. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/FILE)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- This is a March 29, 1993 file photo of singer-actress Lena Horne at the 65th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, Calif. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/file)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- In a June 23, 1997 file photo Ginny Mancini, left, and Lena Horne, center, hold the Ella Award which was given to Horne, on Monday, June 23, 1997, during the Society of Singers' Lena Horne 80th Birthday Gala in New York. At right is Liza Minnelli. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/Aubrey Reuben/file)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- This is a June 1995 file portrait of singer and actress Lena Horne. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/File)

Lena Horne Photos

FILE -- This is a April 7, 1994 file photo of singer-actress in New York City. Singer Lena Horne, who broke racial barriers as a Hollywood and Broadway star famed for her velvety rendition of "Stormy Weather," has died at age 92. (AP Photo/Garth Vaughan/file)

Lena Horne Photos

By the 1960s, Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. Horne also spoke at a rally that same year with another civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, just days before his assassination.

In the last decades of her life, she rode a new wave of popularity as a revered icon of American popular music. Her 1981 one-woman Broadway show, 'Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music,' won a special Tony Award.

Widowed in 1971, Horne moved to New York City and continued her stage and concert work and even did the occasional movie role, including that of Diana Ross's fairy godmother in the 1978 'The Wiz.'

Horne's other roles included 'I Dood It,' a Red Skelton comedy, 'Thousands Cheer' and 'Swing Fever,' all in 1943; 'Broadway Rhythm' in 1944; and 'Ziegfeld Follies' in 1946.

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Lena Horne, May 9: Legendary jazz singer and actress, Lena Horne died Sunday. She was 92. Horne died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman. Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley.

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Lynn Redgrave, May 2: The third member of the Redgrave acting dynasty to die in a year, Lynn passed away at her Manhattan apartment at age 67 of as-yet unannounced causes. The 'Georgy Girl' star's niece, Natasha Richardson, died a year ago and her older brother Corin, succumbed to illness a month ago.

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Where's Bloomberg? »

May 8, 2010 6:00 PM 7 Comments

By Adam Lisberg

First came the firefighters and the ambulances. Then came the Transportation Department honchos. Then came the politicians, all the way up to Gov. Paterson.

Everyone rushed to Staten Island this morning to deal with the wreckage and the injuries from the latest ferry crash -- everyone, that is, except Mayor Bloomberg.

"The mayor is monitoring the city response," spokesman Jason Post said. Post didn't say where he was monitoring it from, repeating the canned line from the past nine years that Bloomberg's personal time is, well, personal.

He pointed out that Bloomberg didn't make a personal appearance during the last major ferry crash with injuries, in July 2009, and the proper authorities seemed to respond just fine. As Bloomberg would surely point out if he were in front of a microphone today, his job is to hire people who can handle a ferry crash, not to fix it himself.

But the mayor's absence, while Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and the governor fielded questions, highlighted the inscrutable nature of the billionaire's private schedule.

His fondness for Bermuda weekends is well-known. As the owner of a private jet, he was able to celebrate last fall's election victory with an off-the-schedule dinner in Paris. And he has events in London and Berlin on Tuesday, so perhaps he headed there a bit early to check on his rowhouse on Cadogan Square in London.

Whatever the reason, Bloomberg's absence let Paterson fill a leadership void for the cameras, just as the two men are feuding over budget cuts. It created a great opportunity later in the afternoon too, as Paterson suddenly added a 6 p.m. event on his public schedule to "greet New Yorkers" at the corner where a failed car bomb paralyzed Times Square a week earlier.

Click through for the other citywide leaders' reaction.

“Obviously there should be an investigation because even though there were not any serious injuries, it’s something we want to avoid in the future,” Paterson told reporters at the scene. Later, the official city update went out under Sadik-Khan's name, not Bloomberg's

Controller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill deBlasio said they do not know where Bloomberg is. Nor does City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s staff. Liu, a frequent critic of Bloomberg, was fine with this.

“I haven’t been in contact with the mayor or his staff. Nor would I expect to be. The DOT commissioner was handing it. I don’t know what constrained the mayor,” Liu told the DN City Hall Bureau's Kathleen Lucadamo.

As the former head of City Council’s Transportation Committee, who held countless hearings on the 2003 ferry crash and last summer's as well, Liu was more troubled to hear another boat accident occurred.

“One incident can be isolated. Two in a row,” he said, noting this one and the one last summer were due to mechanical woes, “begs more questions.”

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Seattle Detective Apologizes for Racial Epithet

Hugh Collins

AOL News

(May 8) -- A Seattle police officer offered a tearful apology after being caught on camera kicking an innocent man and using a racial epithet.

The video shows a group of officers standing around three men who are lying on the ground. Seattle Police Detective Shandy Cobane shouts, "I'm going to beat the [expletive] Mexican [expletive] out of you homey! You feel me?"

Cobane later kicks the man in the head and another cop kicks him in the hand.

The detective sobbed as he gave a news conference on Friday to apologize to the Latino community, his colleagues and the city of Seattle, The Seattle Times reported.

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"I know my words cut deep and were very hurtful," Cobane said. "Please know that I am truly, truly sorry."

The video was shot by a freelance videographer at around 2 a.m. on April 17.

The incident in question took place as officers were investigating an armed robbery in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood. The 911 call reporting the crime had described the suspects as Hispanic.

The man attacked was not involved in the robbery. After officers let him go, the freelance videographer asked the unidentified man why he had been beaten.

"I don't know. They knocked me down and kicked me in the head," he responded.

Cobane and another officer have been placed on administrative leave. The city's police department is carrying out an internal investigation, according to the Times.

Seattle police learned of the event a few days after the incident, and launched the investigation soon after, according to the AP.

Cobane, a 15-year veteran of the police force, said he never imagined he would "do anything to bring such notoriety to my department. Sadly, I did."

Dozens Hurt as Staten Island Ferry Hits Terminal

Hugh Collins

AOL News

(May 8) – A Staten Island ferry boat crashed into the ferry terminal this morning, injuring dozens of people, New York police said.

The boat accelerated as it approached the terminal, then crashed, eyewitness Alex Gonzalez told CNN.

The accident occurred around 9:25 a.m., CNN reported. Authorities said 252 passengers and 18 crew members were on board.

Robert Mecea, AP

Emergency personnel lift a person into an ambulance at the St. George Ferry Terminal in the Staten Island borough of New York, Saturday, after a ferry boat struck a pier.

"It was chaos, pandemonium," Gonzalez said. "There were a lot of people hurt."

Between three and five people were injured seriously, a Coast Guard spokesman told The New York Times.

The boat was the Andrew J. Barberi, the same boat that crashed in 2003, killing 11 people and injuring dozens, according to The New York Post.

The boat may have crashed because of an engine malfunction as it approached the terminal.

"From what I'm told, when it was put into reverse thrust, it didn't engage," Paul J. Browne, a New York Police Department spokesman told The Times. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flames rise and black smoke coming out of the back of the boat, according to CNN.

The boat crashed in 2003 after the pilot, Richard Smith, lost consciousness at the helm because he had been taking pain medication, The Post reported.

Smith fled the scene and later tried to commit suicide at his Staten Island home. He eventually pled guilty to 11 counts of seamen's manslaughter.

The Barberi was recommissioned at a cost of nearly $9 million and put back in service after the accident, The Times reported.

The Staten Island Ferry transports 60,000 people between Staten Island and Manhattan on weekdays.

Obama and Political Color Blindness – Not!

Jerry Krase (May 7, 2010)

Jerry Krase

Racist toys such as this "Jolly N----- Dentist" mechanical bank were common in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I keep it around with some more and less celebratory artifacts to remind myself of how far we have come... or perhaps not.

Readers of i-italy have long been interested in the fortunes of Barack Obama. Here is an unfortunate update (to which a couple of unfortunately Italian Americans have contributed). With black and/or white, ying and/or yang, left and/or right and everyone in between looking at the current President of the United States of America though colored glasses, it is hardly necessary to invoke philosophical metaphors such as Occam's Razor for answering simple questions about race in American society today, or even the late great state of Arizona for that matter.

Someone asked me the other day if I really thought that the Republican Party’s lockstep opposition to virtually anything proposed by Obama has anything to do with race so I decided to use 14th century English logician, theologian, and Franciscan friar William of Occam's razor to make my case in the affirmative. Occam’s razor is a meta-theoretical principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem) and thereof the simplest solution is usually the correct one. In other words, does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle? Is Too Tall Jones too tall? Do bears relieve themselves in the woods?

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Does Sarah Palin look great in leather even when standing next to an oh so pathetically pandering one time maverick John McCain before a crowd of Tea Partyniks? Occam would agree that if from coast to coast the words “race” and “Obama” seem inseparable, then they are so.

Occam would need only a dull blade for David Paul Kuhn in the Los Angeles Times who noted that Democrats are losing White men. And an even duller one for New York GOP governor hopeful Carl Paladino who is under fire for sending out racist, trashy e-mails. According to Celeste Katz and Kenneth Lovett at the Daily News the renegade sent a string of racist and smutty e-mails to pals and associates ranging from screeds against Barack to videos of naked ladies, as well as racist rants, hard-core porn and a video clip involving bestiality. In one, an African tribal dance is labeled an "Obama inauguration rehearsal."

Paladino has also offended recently elected New York State Senator Diane Savino who didn't find "Guido" offensive re: "Jersey Shore" but she drew the line with "dago." Evidently Carl used the term in a 2008 interview with The Buffalo News. To Savino the fact that Paladino (along with un/announced gubernatorial candidates Rick Lazio and Andrew Cuomo) is Italian-American is especially galling. "If I wanted to watch Italian Americans act like buffoons, I'd watch 'Jersey Shore,'" Savino said. "I don't want to see it in the governor's mansion...I was appalled when I saw that. And you know what's even more appalling? Nobody else seems appalled. Where's the outrage?"

Let’s be real. Even the more and less rabid of the right-wing media know it when there is an 800 pound gorilla in the room and have no problem calling a spade a spade when the kettle is black. Take for example, syndicated right-leaning Pilipino-American pundit of color Michele Malkin, who Wikipedia claims went home crying to her mother when children called her a racist name. Mom, allegedly, comforted her saying “everyone has prejudice” for which she has been “eternally grateful.” No doubt because it informs her columns that claim, among other things reactionary, that the Left faked the racism, harassment, and violence against them by Tea Party activists such as shouting “nigger” at Black House Democrats.

Of course not everyone who is against Barack Hussein is so because of his brownness. I may be a racist, or not, but have been livid about many of his in/actions since taking office. From my point of view, the best thing about him so far is that he is, at least, half Black, which to me is a major step in the correct direction despite his putting down that he is all-Black (but not ‘Negro’) on the 2010 Census form. His action by the way, also greatly disturbed the non-racist right, which prefers his racial ambiguity.

Even rabid rightist are worried about the “appearance” of racism and have been increasing the visibility of a few persons of color in their generally colorless midst. In “A Mighty Pale Tea” Charles M. Blow (assumedly a person of some color) tells of his visit to a Dallas Tea Party rally where he first thought “Wow! This is much more diverse than the rallies I’ve seen on television.” Then realized that he was looking at stadium workers…” when he “approached the gate and was asked, “Are you working tonight?” He went because it was supposed to be especially diverse. “The speakers included a black doctor who bashed Democrats for crying racism, a Hispanic immigrant who said that she had never received a single government entitlement and a Vietnamese immigrant who said that the Tea Party leader was God. It felt like a bizarre spoof of a 1980s Benetton ad.” The audience scene was a dffrent stroke: “with the exception of a few minorities like the young black man who carried a sign that read ‘Quit calling me a racist.’”

Not to be outdone, Tommy Christopher, wrote “O’Reilly Proves Tea Party Is Not All White With ‘Paid’ Black Tea Party Activist” It seems that on his Factor program Bill examined charges of monochromic Tea Parties by interviewing black conservative author of The Big Black Lie, Kevin Jackson, who speaks and promotes his book at Tea Party events all around the country admitted getting paid to show up in his naturally Blackface at the rallies, where he sees no evidence of racism. When O’Reilly asked where all the black Tea Partiers were, Jackson said Blacks are “not really politically charged,” just after saying that Black congressmen were slaves to Nancy Pelosi’s ‘Massuh.’

In the same vein of man biting dog story, Jennifer Steinhauer in The New York Times remarked that Obama’s election has had the unanticipated consequence of “at least 32 African-Americans running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction.” This despite the Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s honest answer to “Why should an African-American vote Republican?” The GOP’s highest-ranking African American told 200 DePaul University students "You really don't have a reason to, to be honest -- we haven't done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True." (9)

Studies clearly show that racism is a product of ignorance. I teach that racism is simply stupidity. One might ask therefore what fuels the ignorance (stupidity) so much in evidence at Tea Party rallies. Brian Stelter provides some clues. Fox is their favorite news source according to a New York Times-CBS News poll. 63% of Tea Party supporters get most of their TV news from Fox vs only 23% of other misinformed Americans. (The survey did not include readers of The New York Post or the Wall Street Journal.) Stelter also reported that “Fox Canceled Hannity’s Attendance at Tea Party’s Tax Day Rally in Cincinnati.” Fox News executives said they canceled it because they didn’t know Tea Party organizers were raising money based on his coming to the rally. “But Mr. Hannity’s producers at Fox were aware for months that tickets were being sold, said Chris Littleton, the president of the Cincinnati Tea Party, a nonprofit group. And Mr. Hannity mentioned the sales on his TV show a week ago.” Fox is a unit of the News Corporation, whose chief executive is Rupert Murdoch.

Even Republican Party controlled public education is getting back into the racism act since Obama moved into the once pristine “White” House. As to “Southern Discomfort,” Jon Meacham in a New York Times op ed noted that Virginia governor Robert McDonnell issued a proclamation declaring April as “Confederate History Month” to celebrate those “who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth” and to foster understanding of “the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.” The Republican governor at first did not mention slavery because he “focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.” Meacham concluded that “Whitewashing the war is one way for the right — alienated, anxious and angry about the president, health care reform and all manner of threats, mostly imaginary — to express its unease with the Age of Obama, disguising hate as heritage.” I should note that Virginia is hardly the only Republican state attempting to put more right-wing conservative stamps on public education. The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum reported that historians criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, because many of the changes are inaccurate. The changes define what textbooks must include and what teachers must cover. “The curriculum plays down the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers, questions the separation of church and state, and claims that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Communists during the Cold War.”

Scientists tell us that it is hard to control our emotions from showing up on our faces. So seeing anti-Obamaism might be as easy as looking at the face of John Boehner who leads the Republican minority in the House of Representatives when he stands near the man or perhaps the loose lips of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. when the same man said at his 2010 State of the Union address:

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. (Applause.) I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. (Applause.) They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.

Finally, on the Black side of the equation we have to consider whether Obama also suffers from expectations of being the ultimate Race Man. According to Mark Anthony Neal (re: Denzel Washington), “’Race Man’ is a term that describes black men of stature and integrity who represented the best that African Americans had to offer in the face of Jim Crow segregation. It has lost some of its resonance in a post-civil rights world, but it remains an unspoken measure of commitment to uplifting the race. Race men inspire pride; their work, their actions and their speech represent excellence instead of evoking shame and embarrassment.” With black and/or white, ying and/or yang, left and/or right and everyone in between looking at the current President of the United States of America though colored glasses, it is hardly necessary to invoke philosophical metaphors for answering simple questions about race in American society today, or even the late great state of Arizona for that matter.

African-Americans anti-immigrant politics Barack Obama race and politics

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32BJ Endorses Senator Schneiderman For NYS Attorney General

Video by Rafael Martínez Alequín



Service Employees International Union 32BJ, made its first endorsement at City Hall in the 2010 State races. They endorses State Senator Eric Schdeiderman, one of several candidates seeking the office of attorney general, now held by Andrew Cuomo, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for State Governor.

Hector Figueroa, Secretary Treasurer of 32BJ, called the absent 32BJ President Mike Fishman a "champion of the working class" and a strong advocate against corruption." (Mr. Fishman was in Washington attending the election for the union International President.) When I asked what he thinks of the Cuomo's corruption investigation in Albany, Senator Schneiderman said I expect and I intend to take over the investigation in January. I called on Senator Espada to step-down as majority leader of the senate. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, another candidate for Attorney General, also called for Espada to step-down as majority Leader.

New York's Quality Of Life About To Suffer

By GARY BAUMGARTEN
Paltalk News Network

NEW YORK - Forget about terrorism. The real threat to New York City is a degrading of the quality of life. And no where will this decline be felt more than on the subway system.

The MTA says the cuts are necessary - due to a $400 million budget gap.

Where will the cuts occur?

Some subways will be cut. Resulting in more crowded rides.

Custodial workers will be laid off. Resulting in dirtier stations and trains.

And announcers will be pink slipped. So that people who feel stranded on station platforms won't be given any indication of how long they need to wait for a train to come.

The MTA is not alone in facing cuts. Thousands of teachers may be laid off. Senior centers may be closed. Fire protection could be reduced. All because Albany has failed to pass a state appropriations bill for New York.

As one politician said, this is like President Gerald Ford telling New York City to drop dead.

But the most obvious and immediate decline in the quality of life will be on the subways. Average subway ridership last year was more than 5 million daily. Those riders weren't just New Yorkers. Tourists rely on the subway system to get around as well.

Tourists returned to New York following the 9/11 attacks. They didn't miss a beat after Saturday's attempted car bombing. But if you really want to convince visitors to stay away, offer them an unpleasant, dirty, crowded subway system. Once the word about that gets out, you can count of tourism to decline.

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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/2867006903/


The report may be re-published but only in its entirety. Talk to Gary 5 PM weekdays on News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network. Just go to www.paltalknewsnetwork.com and click on the Join the Chat button. There is no charge.

Political gesture by Phoenix Suns, a rarity in sports

Wild Ride for Teen Who Sold SUV to Car Bomb Suspect

Terence Neilan AOL News

(May 4) -- Peggy Colas went from soooo happy to soooo crazy after she learned that the man who'd bought her SUV was the Times Square car bomb suspect.

"OMG! I had a crazy day. ... It's official. I have bad luck. SMH I hope they find that bastard," she posted on her Facebook page late Sunday.

Just days before, the 19-year-old college student from Bridgeport, Conn., was ecstatic after she collected $1,300 in $100 bills from the man authorities believe was Faisal Shahzad. "I'm sooo happy I got a new car :)," her Facebook posting on April 28 read.

Brigitte Stelzer, Splash News

Peggy Colas, here at her Connecticut home, sold her Nissan Pathfinder to a man authorities believe was Faisal Shahzad.

Shahzad, a Bridgeport resident who once lived about 20 minutes away from Colas in Shelton, Conn., was arrested late Monday at Kennedy Airport aboard a flight that was just about to take off for Dubai, authorities said. An explosive planted on the Nissan Pathfinder he bought from Colas over the Internet failed to go off.

The SUV was traced to Colas on Sunday, and her family told the New York Post that the "For Sale" sign on it had been taken away by the police in a search for fingerprints.

Colas, who was questioned by the police on Monday, refused to comment to the Post when she came home, the newspaper reported, saying only, "How do you know I sold the car?"

Her mother said, "My daughter's nervous. She doesn't want this guy coming after her."

The Pakistan-born Shahzad is expected to be charged in federal court in Manhattan today.

"We anticipate charging him with an act of terrorism transcending national borders, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, using a destructive device during the commission of another crime, as well as assorted explosives charges," Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in Washington this afternoon.

A former neighbor of Shahzad's in Shelton said Shahzad and his wife, Huma Mian, lived in the two-story colonial house for three years, spoke little English and mostly kept to themselves. Neighbor Brenda Thurman told The New York Times that Shahzad moved out in May 2009 and his wife about a month later.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press quoted Pakistani intelligence officials as saying that several people have been detained by authorities in Pakistan in connection with the attempted bombing.

Times Square Terrorism Suspect Sings: With OUT Torture

Timer on failed explosive device


By GARY BAUMGARTEN
Paltalk News Network

NEW YORK - There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the attempt to blow up a car bomb in Times Square Saturday evening. Some things in the investigation went right, some things went wrong. Mainly, because the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, was captured, they went right.

But there's one overriding lesson we should pay very close attention to. Shahzad is singing. And he wasn't even tortured.

Not only that, but to the horror of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Pete King (R-NY), he was actually read his Miranda rights before they questioned him.

We'll have no flashback images of Dick Cheney telling us that we got important information that saved American's lives through water boarding in this case. Nor will the case conjure up images of fictional federal counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer beating a suspect into confessing.

From what's been reported thus far, we know that Shahzad admitted his involvement. He said he acted alone (though the feds aren't necessarily taking his word on that one.) He said it was in retaliation for U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan. (Shahzad, a U.S. citizen, was born in Pakistan). And he told investigators that he received training in Pakistan.

Just like the case of the Christmas Eve airplane underwear bomber, shortly after the FBI admitted it followed the law and read Shahzad his rights, a chorus of protest was heard from politicians and pundits who thought that was just wrong. (The accused underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, sang, too, even after he was read his rights.)

These are folks who claim that it's necessary to violate the rights of terrorism suspects in order to protect us from those who would strip our rights away from us. And they can't even see the folly in their argument - one that they - not only proffer with straight faces - but with enhanced degrees of righteous indignation.

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Richard (Little Ricky) Izquierdo Arroyo throws temper tantrum on Facebook

Bob Kappstatter

Tuesday, May 4th 2010, 4:00 AM

Richard (Little Ricky) Izquierdo Arroyo threw a nasty little snit fit on Facebook recently.

Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo's grandson/chief of staff and Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo's nephew, Little Ricky is due for sentencing in federal court June 25 on a guilty plea of stealing 200Gs from a nonprofit. The group is linked to the Arroyos' South Bronx fiefdom, around which the feds have been sniffin'.

We won't ID his target, who's in a wheelchair recovering from a stroke, but here's Ricky's syntactically challenged run-on rant:

"You don't know as much as you think you do, you read papers whose only concern is sensationalism and selling their rags. For sure you don't know me. My aunt never funded my agency that is the garbage the papers write, however its not true. Seems like the truth really doesn't matter. So you are a has been with lots of time on your hands to pass judgment. Which hand do you type with? Aren't you crippled? You should spend your time on more important things like writing a will, funeral planning, etc."

Ricky faces a year in Chez Fed - unless the judge decides maybe the 10-year max might convince him to talk to prosecutors about Granny and Aunty.

Jose challengers

Community lawyer and former cop Sergio Villaverde is going after Assemblyman Jose Rivera's Fordham/Kingsbridge seat, but while his Ben Franklin Reform Dem Club can campaign for him, it can't endorse him.

As Dem Party Boss in 2002, Jose gerrymandered district lines so the club, on the south side of W. 231st St., sits just outside his 78th Assembly District.

Riverdale Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz wants to squash rumors he put Villaverde up to challenging Jose. "He's his own person," said Jeff, adding: "and a person of substance." (wink, wink, nod, nod)

Meanwhile, ex-state Sen. Efrain Gonzalez's son Carlos is reported challenging Jose for his district leader's job there.

There's grumbling in the Gonzalez camp that Jose just didn't do enough with organization muscle to help save Efrain from the Pedro Espada steamroller.

Efrain, it must be pointed out, was also under indictment at the time, charged with stealing state funding. He's now awaiting sentencing.

So, is Jose vulnerable?

Depends on whether he can make some kind of peace with Dem Boss Carl Heastie. If not, he could be in trouble.

"County did some polling when it was challenging [ex-City Councilwoman] Maria Baez," said one partycrat, "and the one with worse numbers than her was Jose Rivera."

Wabbit Hunter

We hear some boro Dems are a bit leery should challenger Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter pull a Joan of Arc and topple Pedro Espada's political reign.

The problem is her ties (she's an executive board member) to the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, a big force in the battle to kill the Kingsbridge Armory mall deal, with Pilgrim-Hunter their point person.

The group's roots are in radical Saul Alinsky's community organizing school of agitation, confrontation and exaggeration for the greater glory.

A number of pols have told us privately they may have to live with the NWBCCC, but they'd hate to see it empowered any more than it already is.

Green Tea

And speaking of Pilgrim-Hunter, seems she has the borough's nascent Green Party seeing red.

Green Party leader John Reynolds says he and party members "earlier this year repeatedly attempted to contact" her or her supporters to discuss putting her name on the Green Party line or supporting her against the Wascally Wabbit. They finally gave up.

Meanwhile, Anthony Melé, 51, a Rockland-based businessman and Tea Party organizer there, says he's challenging 11-term/ Bronx, Westchester, Rockland Rep. Eliot Engel.

Justice delayed

West Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro, being challenged by District Leader Hector Ramirez, has been waiting over a year for Bronx DA Rob Johnson to either indict him or clear his name on perjury charges.

With serious campaign time just about here, Johnson could find himself accused of playing Bronx politics (Heaven forbid!) if he doesn't move soon on the investigation.

Castro testified in a civil suit that he didn't know a half dozen of his relatives were registered to vote using his one-bedroom apartment as their address.

Nelson told us he's confident there's no case there.

Johnson's spokesman, Steven (No Comment) Reed, as usual, had no comment.

Tippecanoe and Ollie, too

What is this fascination Riverdale Councilman Ollie Koppell has for swimming in the Bronx River?

He keeps falling out of his canoe, as happened last Saturday when his canoe hit rough waters at the annual Bronx River Flotilla.

Musical precincts

With crime spiking, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly moved a bunch of commanders around the city last week, but the boro moves were long in the works.

Inspector Kevin Harrington moved from the 4-6 in Morris Heights to adjutant of borough HQ, while Deputy Inspector Tim Bugge (Boo-zhay) swung from Morrisania's 4-2 into the 4-6. Capt. John Bloch from the Bronx Impact Response Team takes the 4-2.

Mosh pit

Bedford Parkers Erin and Lou Cicalese of the fun Boogie Downer (boogiedowner.blogspot.com), forming Friends of Mosholu to advocate for Mosholu Parkway - "The Great Lawn of the Bronx," which connects Van Cortlandt Park to Bronx Park and the Botanical Garden.

Mike Bloomberg: Where's the Love for the Alert Street Vendors?

Times Square Bomb Scare

Mike Bloomberg: Where's the Love for the Alert Street Vendors?

By Steven Thrasher
Monday, May. 3 2010 @ 10:50AM

​Given how we treat our street vendors in this city (you know, like, ticketing them for taking a piss), this shouldn't be a a big surprise. Mayor Bloomberg treated Officer Wayne Rhatigan, who first responded to the Times Square bomb scare, to a nice steak dinner last night.

But missing from the festivities were the first people to actually respond to the explosive filled vehicle, before they alerted authorities. Street vendors Lance Orton and Duane Jackson were "inspecting the SUV when they heard several 'pops' that sounded like firecrackers before seeing streams of smoke."

The duo were not present with Rhatigan at the mayor's table at Blue Fin. Granted, Orton doesn't seem to want much attention, but his fans want to see him treated right.

So what did outraged vendy-lovers do? They started a Facebook page.

Think the Mayor should "Take the Hero Street Vendors to Dinner?" ? Click
here.

Video May Hold Clues in Times Square Bomb Scare

Michelle Ruiz Contributor

(May 2) -- New York law enforcement officials are analyzing surveillance videos in an attempt to determine who is responsible for the crude car bomb left in Times Square Saturday night, forcing the evacuation of thousands milling in the city's bustling tourist hub.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the failed bomb attempt on an Islamist Web site, saying it was avenging the deaths of two leaders, "al-Baghdadi and al-Mahajer and Muslim martyrs."

A CBS News report citing Pakistani intelligence officials downplayed the statement.

"There is no credible way to prove that the Taliban have this kind of capacity to attempt such an attack in the heart of the United States," a Pakistani intelligence told CBS News on condition of anonymity.

No suspects were in custody in the wake of the incident, but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government has pledged its assistance to New York in what it perceives to be an act of attempted terrorism.

No suspects were in custody in the wake of the incident, but Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government has pledged its assistance to New York in what it perceives to be an act of attempted terrorism.

"We're taking this very seriously," Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union." "We're treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack."

In appearances on Sunday morning political talk shows, Napolitano said officials recovered forensic evidence, including fingerprints, from the green Nissan sport utility vehicle found packed with three propane tanks, fireworks, two 5-gallon containers of gasoline, two clocks with batteries and electrical wire.

A T-shirt vendor named Lance Orton alerted police to the smoking vehicle parked with its engine running on 45th street in the heart of Times Square at approximately 6:30pm, according to the New York Times. After a mounted officer smelled gun powder on the car, a cluster of patrolling officers began evacuating the city's busy theater district as police and bomb squad members arrived on the scene.

At a 2 a.m. news conference in Times Square, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called the bomb "amateurish" but potentially dangerous.

Seth Wenig, AP

T-shirt vendor Duane Jackson was one of the first people to alert police to the suspicious vehicle.

"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

Police said the bomb had begun detonating but malfunctioned.

"I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said the S.U.V was being "thoroughly checked for prints, hairs and fibers" as investigators attempt to gather additional surveillance footage from businesses who were closed Saturday night. Kelly said there was video showing the S.U.V driving west on 45th street before parking between 7th and 8th avenues. Because of the vehicle's tinted windows, Kelly said it could be difficult to identify a driver or any passengers.

"We have no idea who did this or why," Bloomberg said, adding that based on current video surveillance, authorities "couldn't detect who was in the vehicle, how many were in the vehicle and what was in the vehicle."

CBS News quoted an anonymous law enforcement source as saying there is video showing someone exiting the vehicle left near the Broadway theater that houses Disney's "The Lion King." Officials said they had no reports of anyone seen running from the vehicle, according to The Associated Press.

"The full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism," Gov. Paterson said in a statement.

Napolitano told ABC News' Jake Tapper that there is no evidence that the crude bomb attempt was part of a larger plot, saying it does not appear to be "anything other than a one-off" attempt.

Orton, a Vietnam veteran and longtime Times Square t-shirt vendor, is being hailed as a hero for alerting police to the smoking vehicle. After a tip from Orton, Officer Watne Rhatigan approached the S.U.V., later saying he heard a popping sound coming from inside.

"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," Rhatigan told the Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."

The bomb squad disabled the explosives after surveying the interior of the vehicle with the help of a "remote-controlled robot arm." In addition to explosives, they found a "box within a box" in the car, a 2X2X4 black gun locker, according to Kelly.

The bomb scare heightened the usual hubbub of Times Square on Saturday night, with onlookers crowding against police barricades to gawk at the mass of ambulances, fire trucks, police vans and armed officers at the scene. Some Broadway show times were delayed by 30 minutes but were reported to proceed without cancellation.

"It's a whole different kind of show," Tay Heniser, a tourist from Seattle told the Times. "It's almost the equivalent of a $150 show."

Orton was still lingering in Times Square early Sunday morning, brushing off reporters questioning him about the incident.

"See something, say something," he told the Times, quoting a popular Manhattan Transit Authority poster that urges subway riders to report suspicious activity.

Filed under: Nation, Crime, Top Stories

BLOW WHISTLE HERE

The controversy surrounding Senator Pedro Espada continues to swirl. YFP is offering a forum where anyone past and/or present can comment on the Senator. All identities will be protected.

Commentary may be made in Spanish or English.

DN Editorial Spins for Quinn Covering Her Ass

by Gary Tilzer

About a month go Public Advocate de Blasio can up with a plan for his former council members to list on the Internet all the applications from the groups requesting member items funds Quinn To De Blasio: Thanks, But No Thanks! Today's DN editorial thanking the speaker for coming up with her own website after turning down de Blasio site makes little mention of what drove the speaker to come up with the site. The DN should not only explained how the speaker had little choice considering her office has been under federal investigation for over a year over her use of the slush fund. The DN editorial also did not mention the councilmembers who have gone to jail, under indictment or investigation. * Chris cleans up: Council Speaker Quinn to let sun shine on slush funds


About a month go Public Advocate de Blasio can up with a plan for his former council members to list on the Internet all the applications from the groups requesting member items funds Quinn To De Blasio: Thanks, But No Thanks! Today's DN editorial thanking the speaker for coming up with her own website after turning down de Blasio site makes little mention of what drove the speaker to come up with the site. The DN should not only explained how the speaker had little choice considering her office has been under federal investigation for over a year over her use of the slush fund. The DN editorial also did not mention the councilmembers who have gone to jail, under indictment or investigation. * Chris cleans up: Council Speaker Quinn to let sun shine on slush funds

Mike In The News: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

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April 30th, 2010 1:23 AM

By Michael Moore / TIME

The 2010 TIME 100

When Brazilians first elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President in 2002, the country's robber barons nervously checked the fuel gauges on their private jets. They had turned Brazil into one of the most inequitable places on earth, and now it looked like payback time. Lula, 64, was a genuine son of Latin America's working class — in fact, a founding member of the Workers' Party — who'd once been jailed for leading a strike.

By the time Lula finally won the presidency, after three failed attempts, he was a familiar figure in Brazilian national life. But what led him to politics in the first place? Was it his personal knowledge of how hard many Brazilians must work just to get by? Being forced to leave school after fifth grade to support his family? Working as a shoeshine boy? Losing part of a finger in a factory accident?

No, it was when, at age 25, he watched his wife Maria die during the eighth month of her pregnancy, along with their child, because they couldn't afford decent medical care.

There's a lesson here for the world's billionaires: let people have good health care, and they'll cause much less trouble for you.

And here's a lesson for the rest of us: the great irony of Lula's presidency — he was elected to a second term in 2006 and will serve through this year — is that even as he tries to propel Brazil into the First World with government social programs like Fome Zero (Zero Starvation), designed to end hunger, and with plans to improve the education available to members of Brazil's working class, the U.S. looks more like the old Third World every day.

What Lula wants for Brazil is what we used to call the American Dream. We in the U.S., by contrast, where the richest 1% now own more financial wealth than the bottom 95% combined, are living in a society that is fast becoming more like Brazil.

Moore's latest film is Capitalism: A Love Story

Bud Selig should move 2011 MLB All-Star Game out of Arizona if new immigration law isn't stopped

Web Exclusive

Mike Lupica

Thursday, April 29th 2010, 11:02 AM

Ghanbari/AP

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig might have to take a stand against Arizona's immigration law by moving the 2011 MLB All-Star Game.

York/AP

If Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer wants her state to host an All-Star Game ...

Moore/Getty

... she might have to listen to public outcry.

Take our Poll

MLB All-Star Boycott

Should Major League Baseball move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona because of the new immigration law?

	Yes, this is an issue that transcends sports
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• Serrano: Yank All-Star Game from Arizona

Arizona's idiotic new immigration law does not officially go into effect until August, 90 days after the current legislative session ends in that state. That means for the next three months, a big new sport in this country will be watching big politicians try to run away from this issue, starting with the President of the United States. Maybe all of them are waiting for the whole thing to end up in front of the Supreme Court.

In the short run, however, the only way to stop a political hustler like Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer is for other politicians in her state - and that ought to start with Sen. John McCain - to come to their senses about a bad law that invites racial profiling even though Brewer insists it will not.

And if it can't be stopped, if it does go into effect three months from now, then Major League Baseball ought to announce that a sport in which 30% of the players are Hispanic will not hold the 2011 All-Star Game at Chase Field in Phoenix.

There is nothing that needs to be done in the moment, other than issue the warning. But if both Democrats and Republicans really are going to run from this until after the November elections, trying to appease the white voters who love Gov. Jan Brewer and somehow not scare off the Hispanic vote at the same time, Commissioner Bud Selig - who owns a home in Arizona - has a chance to be better than all of them.

Selig has a perfect right to say that if the law stands, then the All-Star Game goes somewhere else.

"Major League Baseball needs to revisit the issue of whether the All-Star Game, one of America's greatest exports to Latin America, should be played in a state that doesn't show any respect to Latinos," Jose Serrano (D-Bronx) said to the Daily News' Juan Gonzalez the other day.

There is a historical precedent to all this, of course, and it involves another dim-bulb governor of Arizona and voters who backed his play. The governor was the late Evan Mecham, who decided that Martin Luther King Day had been "illegally certified" as a national holiday, and refused to acknowledge it as such in his state. Mecham, by the way, would be impeached and removed from office a year later, the impeachment charges against him including obstruction and misuse of government funds.

Another Arizona political legend.

Legislation to establish the King holiday in Arizona was passed by the Arizona legislature in 1989, but opponents managed to create a ballot initiative the next year. It was voted down. And after it was, the National Football League pulled the 1993 Super Bowl from Arizona, what was to be the first Super Bowl in the history of the state, and moved it to the Rose Bowl.

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