Facebook Shares Continue to Drop
Facebook’s shares dropped nearly 10 percent on Tuesday, May 29 and, according to analysts, there’s nothing stopping it from falling even lower than its current price of $28.84. Predictions for what the stock will do are all over the place, with some investors believing Facebook’s shares will reach as high as $65 by January 2014 and others saying it’ll fall to $5 by then.
More than 360,000 options contracts changed hands so far, and more than half of them were bets that Facebook’s shares would continue to lose value. According to Scott Sweet at the IPO Boutique, a research firm, shares will continue to drop until investigations by NASDAQ and the Securities and Exchange Commission conclude whether anything improper occurred related to Facebook’s botched IPO. Reports circulated that some analysts at Morgan Stanley, the leading underwriter for Facebook’s IPO, had tipped off favored clients with warnings about Facebook’s growth in the future. Morgan Stanley denied doing anything wrong.
Discrimination Suit Against Suffern Tossed
A federal court reversed a decision on Wednesday, May 23 and dismissed retired Suffern police officer Robert B. Arena’s $15 million civil rights lawsuit against Suffern. Arena sued Suffern in 2009 for refusing to pay him fringe benefits under the village’s police contract after his line-of-duty disability retirement. His lawsuit made the argument of gender discrimination, stating that Suffern officials paid the same benefits to a female officer who retired on disability.
In a 12-page decision, U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton reversed his decision that the town was responsible. Eginton dismissed the lawsuit, finding the village not responsible for the then labor lawyer, John O’Reilly, who failed to file the proper legal papers.
Haverstraw Woman Wronged, Sues Over False DWI Charge
Dayna Lynch of Haverstraw is suing her hometown for $1.5 million after she acquitted on charges of drunk driving. Video showed she was never the driver of the vehicle and she accuses police of violating her civil rights by pursuing a malicious prosecution. According to the complaint, in May 2012 Lynch was in the passenger seat of a car at a gas station on Route 9W when officers arrested her and charged her with driving while intoxicated, unattended motor vehicle and driving with a blood-alcohol content of greater than 0.08 percent.
The case was dismissed three months after she was arrested, when the video surfaced that clearly showed her boyfriend had been the driver. In the process of getting the case dismissed and clearing her name Lynch spent $5,000. A hearing for the case will take place in early June.
Food Poisoning Source Discovered at Monastery
At a Mother’s Day event on May 13 at The Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent about 150 people became sick with food poisoning. According to health officials, there was a staphylococcus aureus bacterium in several of the food samples. This bacterium is usually found on the skin and noses of about 25 percent of healthy people and animals. But when ingested, the toxins can cause food poisoning. Symptoms can occur from 30 minutes to six hours after ingesting. Everyone who got sick from the food, including five people who were hospitalized, has since recovered.
New Superintendent for Clarkstown
The Clarkstown School Board announced Tuesday, May 29 that it would hire Dr. J. Thomas Morton, a New Jersey educator, as the superintendent. The board will meet Monday, June 4 to formally hire Morton and finalize the agreement. He is set to begin working on July 1.
“We will be pleased to introduce Dr. Morton to the community at that time. We encourage all members to attend,” said Doug Katz, the school board’s president.
Morton was superintendent of the Sparta Township Public School District for 10 years. Of the semi-finalists for the position, he was the unanimous choice. He is filing the position held by Margaret Keller-Cogan. Residents are hopefully that this new superintendent and three newly brought on board members will help the school district. The past months have been unsettling with board members fighting, lawsuits, petitions and investigations.
Two Former Yankees Charged with Touching Children
Chad Curtis and Rosendo “Rusty” Torres, two former Yankee players, are accused of inappropriately touching children. Curtis is being investigated for inappropriately touching four students at a Michigan high school. Curtis, 43, played the outfield during two championship seasons with the Bronx Bombers. He works as a volunteer in the weight room at Lakewood High School. He was scheduled to become the school’s head football coach in the fall. No charges have been filed and Curtis denied the allegations.
Torres, a retired Yankee benchwarmer, was arrested for allegedly inappropriately touching an 8-year-old girl he was coaching. Torres, 63, was employed as a youth baseball coach for the Town of Oyster Bay and in his van is where the incidents occurred, according to law enforcement officials. The town suspending him upon hearing about the arrest. But neighbors were in shock, saying what a wonderful guy he was.
Men Cook for the Nyack Center
The Nyack Center hosts its 11th annual Men Cooking event from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 10 at the corner of South Broadway and Depew Avenue. Orangetown Supervisor Andy Stewart will be the celebrity chef. There will be a variety of dishes prepared by more than 70 professional and amateur chefs from the area. Tickets are $20 per adult and $10 per child. For more information or to purchase tickets call Kim Cross, the Nyack Center’s executive director, at 845-358-2600 or email info@nyackcenter.org.
New Yorkers Soon to be Protected from Telemarketing
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced Tuesday, May 29 an agreement to pass legislation that will better protect New Yorkers from intrusive telemarketing. It would prohibit all telemarketers from delivering prerecorded messages via telephone calls to customers unless the recipient gave express consent.
“More and more New Yorkers are receiving unwanted phone calls from telemarketing companies, causing an unwanted and unnecessary disturbance,” Cuomo said. “The legislation is designed to ensure that telemarketers only target individuals who have chosen to receive promotional messages, and New York consumers and phone owners are no longer subject to harassing and annoying marketing offers.”
Currently, any telemarketing company licensed outside New York is able to harass New York consumers. The company is handed a small fine, but they can continue to do business in the state. Under the new proposal, all telemarketers will be required to register with the Department of State, which will have the authority to revoke or suspend the registration if the company does not comply. In addition, fines will be harsher then they were.
New York did enact a Do Not Call law in 2000, which protected consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. More than 13 million phone numbers have been placed on the Do-Not-Call registry. However, since 2009, the Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection has received almost 5,000 complaints about Do Not Call.
The legislation will take effect 90 days after it becomes law.
Hackensack Man Punctured His Own Intestines
Wayne Carter of Hackensack is in critical condition at Hackensack University Medical Center’s intensive care unit after he punctured his small intestine, sliced a major stomach artery and threw his intestines at police. Carter, 43, was already emotionally disturbed when police arrived on the scene. He was waving around a large knife and a hammer. He would not calm down and continued to thrash at the police. The officers called the Bergen County SWAT team, which disarmed the man by using beanbag projectiles.
“His intestines were literally hanging out,” said one police officer. Carter’s records show a history of violence including arrests for aggravated assault to police, resisting arrest, making threats and disorderly conduct.
Hillcrest Woman Sets Mattress on Fire
Valery Jean-Pierre was arrested on Sunday, May 27 for intentionally setting her mattress on fire during a domestic dispute, according to police. Police and Hillcrest Fire Department crews responded to the call. Jean-Pierre, 29, is charged with third-degree arson and third-degree criminal mischief, both felonies, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. The fire was small and only caused minor smoke damage, but her children were in the house when she lite the fire, according to police. No one was injured.
Shred Personal Papers at Town Hall
The Orangetown Town Clerk’s Office is hosting a community day for shredding papers from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on June 9 at the Town Hall parking lot, 26 Orangeburg Road. Proof of residence is required to get in and shred your papers. The Town Clerk’s office will also be open to issue licenses, including: marriage licenses, handicap permits, hunting or fishing licenses and dog licenses.
Nyack Man Sentenced for Manslaughter
John Desir was sentenced Wednesday, May 30 for jabbing Wykeme Corker in the neck with a broken beer bottle and severing a vein, causing him to die shortly after. A feud had been going on between the two men, and a night of drinking escalated the situation. The fight occurred on June 25 outside a Nyack bar. Corker, 33, knocked Desir, 28, to the ground, where Desir used the jagged edge of a beer bottle to cut Corker’s neck.
Corker walked away, got in a taxi and was taken to the Nyack Hospital, where he died. A Rockland grand jury charged Desir with second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 15-25 years to life in prison. Desir tried to argue self-defense, according to his lawyer. Desir felt justified hitting Corker, who had a violent history, with the bottle. Corker spent more than 12 years in state prison for stabbing a man to death during a fight in 1999 and was paroled last March. In addition, Desir believed he had jabbed Corker in the shoulder, not the neck.
According to Corker’s relatives, he was trying to turn his life around before he was killed. He had started working for the New York State Thruway Authority in West Nyack.
Strange but True: Two Men Set on Fire and Shot at Pregnant Woman
It’s been a wild week for wacky crimes in the U.S.A.
Just a few days after 31-year-old Rudy Eugene was shot dead by Miami Police for “eating” the face of another man, the Detroit Police had their own animalistic crisis to deal with. Two men were arrested on Tuesday, May 29 after they allegedly attempted to terminate a pregnancy by attacking Latonya Bowman, setting her on fire and shooting her in the back. Their efforts failed and she gave birth three days after the abduction.
One of the accused men, Jamal Rashard Rogers, was the woman’s former boyfriend and the father of the child. The other accused was his roommate Antonio Valentine Mathis. Rogers and Mathis both pled not guilty to charges of assault with intent to murder, unlawful imprisonment and conspiracy to commit homicide. Rogers told Bowman he wanted nothing to do with his child once it was born. At one point, however, Bowman said he wanted to reconcile. He is expecting a child with another woman as well.
There is videotape evidence of Mathis buying gloves, tape and rope at Home Depot just hours before the incident. When Bowman and Rogers returned from the movies, her eyes and mouth were taped shut and her hands were bound. She was then driven out of town where she was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. She was shot at twice and when one hit her upper back she played dead. She managed to make it to a gas station and call her mother. She went into labor three weeks early.
Timelines: May 31, 2012 added by dskriloff on
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