PA Williams To Launch Gun Violence Awareness Month
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams alongside a coalition of elected officials, gun control advocates, and violence interrupters will host the annual event to kick off Gun Violence Awareness Month today.
Former Crown Heights Assemblyman Karim Camara introduced June as Gun Violence Awareness Month in 2012 as a statewide initiative to bring attention to the issue.
Gun Violence Awareness Month will include a number of events aimed at raising awareness of and finding solutions to the epidemic of gun violence in New York City and around the country.
The event is slated for 12-noon, today, June 3, at 1 Centre Street Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
Rosenthal Calls For Special Investigation Into Bronx Student Suicide
Councilmember Helen Rosenthal (D-Central Park, Lincoln Square) alongside City Council member Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn) are calling on the city to probe the death of a Bronx student who committed suicide earlier this year following months of bullying.
Mya Vizcarrondo-Rios jumped to her death back in February after she was relentlessly bullied at school for five months and sexually assaulted on the day of her death. While school administrators repeatedly ignored her cries for help and never told her mom and dad about her torment, a new lawsuit by her parents alleges, according to the New York Daily News.
School was still in session on Feb. 28, 2018, when Mya Vizcarrondo-Rios’ broken body was found on the ground 34 stories from the rooftop of the apartment building in which she lived.
“Her death could have been prevented. If NYC Department of Education (DOE) administrators and staff had responded properly, and addressed her concerns, this child’s promising future could have been fulfilled. The Mayor and DOE must answer for this tragedy and deliver accountability, so that when young people speak out about the harassment and/or violence that they are enduring, it is fully and properly addressed,” read a joint statement.
“That is why we are calling for a formal investigation by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the NYC School District to find out what went wrong here, hold everyone responsible accountable and demand that the findings are reported to the City Council Committees on Education and Women,” continued the statement.
Niou Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Day in Albany
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D-Chinatown, Financial District, Battery Park City, LES) alongside Assemblymember Ron Kim (D-Queens) and State Senator John Liu (D-Queens) held the 2019 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Day Celebration in Albany last week.
The three Asian American legislators heralded the opportunity to host a joint chamber event honoring the culture and heritage of New York’s vibrant, fast-growing Asian American and Pacific Islander population.
This year, they had the opportunity to recognize three unique honorees: Jin Kyu Park, a student at Harvard University and the very first Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient to receive the Rhodes Scholarship; Havana Rose Liu, founder of Tiny Breast and a lifelong advocate for women’s rights, breast cancer awareness, and female empowerment; and Red Canary Song, a organization dedicated to helping vulnerable and exploited New Yorkers, particularly migrant workers prosecuted for sex work and potential human trafficking victims.
These three honorees were each awarded with a joint proclamation from the Assembly celebrating their outstanding achievements.
“It is an incredible honor to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with my community members and colleagues up in Albany. Asian-Americans are often erased and marginalized in topics like immigration, poverty, women’s rights, or media and film. In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we recognize leaders from our community who spread awareness on the difficult challenges Asian Pacific Americans face and the many contributions our community makes to our state,” said Niou.
Schumer: New Yorkers Paying For Lighting-Speed Internet & Getting A Snail’s Pace Of Speed
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) yesterday singled out specific New York data that shows slow internet speed is likely plaguing roughly 4.7 million New Yorkers in the City and Long Island alone.
Schumer, today, said that a recent report by Microsoft calls into question the way by which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports on broadband coverage, collects the information that delivers the data, and regulates broadband provider’s advertising of internet speeds.
Schumer is urging the FCC and providers to take corrective action that ensures accurate reporting and better coverage, which translates into fairer price.
“While we live in an era of faster and faster, the reality of internet speed across New York is that it may move more like molasses than lighting,” said Schumer.
Schumer is urging the FCC to conduct a thorough review into the huge disparity between the provider-supplied data and the data generated by specific households and their internet devices via this study. Specifically, Schumer is calling into question federal policy that allows providers to account for areas where they are not actually providing service.
“The FCC needs to account for the massive disparity in reported speeds and the real frustration of many New Yorkers who are at a net loss all around when their internet service is slow, possibly paying for speeds that are not as advertised and losing out on their own productivity. The bottom line here is that if this is a problem in New York City, then this is a real issue across America,” Schumer added.
