“A former Brooklyn, N.Y., lawyer has pleaded guilty to fleecing millions of dollars from guardianship accounts he oversaw for incapacitated seniors and children. … at least 16 court examiners who oversaw Rondos [Steven T. Rondos] had signed off on his reports without detecting any red flags.” [NYLJ]
Posts Tagged ‘NYC’
New York City cracks down on bake sales in schools
The new regulations have 
drawn considerable negative comment from New York Times readers, and cartoonist/commentator Roz Chast doesn’t seem to hold them in very high regard either.
Only indirectly related — but also pointing up the unlikelihood of getting anything particularly tasty to eat in a Gotham public school environment 
— it seems that raw meat is not allowed in NYC school cafeteria kitchens, because it “poses too much of a food-handling challenge” [NYT again]
MTA vs. freelance publishers
T-shirts tweaking San Francisco transit? “Like so many things, it’s all fun and games, until you get sued” — in this case, a threat of suit from New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority. [SF Weekly] And the MTA has dropped its claims against Greenwich, Ct. blogger Chris Schoenfeld (“Station Stops“), who puts out an iPhone app providing train schedule information [Greenwich Time]
NYC to ban smoking in parks and beaches?
Even the NYT detects libertarian objections among Gothamites to the city’s latest paternalistic scheme. More: Jacob Sullum; William Saletan (ban based on “cultural contamination” rather than actual physical risk) and followup (science of outdoor secondhand smoke).
NYC: tobacco shops can’t give away coffee
The Barclay Rex smoking shop must seek a permit as a “food establishment” even if it gives away the brew for free, the city says [Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”] Readers wonder (h/t Jeff Stier) whether the city is also going to start picking on car dealerships, bookshops and even police stations that offer free coffee, a question to which I think we know the answer.
Assistant principal’s swine flu death
It’s New York City’s fault, say the survivors of Mitchell Wiener in a new lawsuit over Gotham’s allegedly inadequate response to the H1N1 virus [WCBS]. More: Katie Drummond, True/Slant; Michael Falino, WatchBlog.
“It’s part of the vernacular of being a lawyer.”
To “neutralize”, “eliminate”, “destroy” or “kill” a hostile witness. [NYLJ, Gothamist] More on Robert Simels trial: NY Post, NYDN, Greenfield.
12-year-old’s slide injury to cost Little League $125K
Staten Island, N.Y.: Little League Baseball Inc. and the New Springville Little League have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle Jean Gonzalez’s suit charging that negligent coaching and the use of a stationary base were responsible for her son Martin’s knee injury, incurred while sliding into second base. Two coaches were named personally in the lawsuit. “The defendants countered that Martin had been taught the proper sliding technique, and the bases used, detachable ‘Soft-Touch’ ‘pop-up’ bags, were compliant with all safety standards” and considered safer than the alternative design. The family’s lawyer was Alan C. Glassman of Brooklyn. [Staten Island Advance; our earlier coverage]
Playground safety mat overheating, cont’d
As we noted around this time last summer, New York City “has spent large sums installing black rubber safety mats beneath the equipment on its 1,000 playgrounds, but the mats get hot in the summer, and some kids are suffering burns which have resulted in lawsuits.” Now the city is raising eyebrows in one such lawsuit by countersuing the grandmother of a toddler (at the time) burned on a mat. [WCBS via Reddit] On defendants’ tactic of dragging all possibly negligent parties into a suit, see Aug. 4.
Wall Street “Bull” sculpture
The sculptor of the artwork on prominent public display in New York’s financial district sues a book publisher and authors who used a photo of it on their cover [John Carney, Business Insider]