Brooklyn dry cleaners hand sew and distribute face masks for free
Brooklyn’s La Dry Cleaners, 130 Union Street, has been making and giving out face masks for free throughout the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, pandemic.
Lily La and Tony Trinh, the store’s owners of nearly 30 years and a married couple with three children said that they decided to hand-make the masks when their store was closed down due to New York on Pause rather than just stay home and do nothing.
“That’s one way for us to say thanks America,” La said. “We came here with bare hands, we raised our three kids, go to college. This is one way for us to say thanks.”
The couple has sewn and distributed 2,000 or so masks to their community so far and pass them out to people from a distance, using their son’s lacrosse stick to hand them out.
While the masks are free, they don’t turn down tips or free fabric that some people offer then in exchange for the personal protective equipment.
This act of kindness becomes even more meaningful when it’s remembered that the family no longer has a source of income with their store, located in the Columbia Waterfront District, closed down.
They explained that because they are currently so tight on money, they are down to eating one meal a day — and that their son has actually lost around 15 pounds because of it.
Despite this hardship, La and Trinh refuse to ask for money in exchange for their masks.
“It’s a love letter to the community,” recipient of a mask David White said.
According to the New York State Department of Health, there have been 14,828 statewide COVID-19 deaths as of Tuesday.
According to the New York City Department of Health, there are 134,874 confirmed cases, 35,746 hospitalizations, 9,562 confirmed deaths and 4,865 probable deaths due to coronavirus as of 1 p.m. today.
Read more about this in this article: Eyewitness News
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge dies of coronavirus at age 66
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice and former City Councilmember Noach Dear died on Sunday of coronavirus at the age of 66.
Dear was known to be an advocate for the Orthodox Jewish community in his district both as a politician and as a judge, though was also infamous for his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.
“He genuinely cared about little people and really worked to make sure that in a city of eight and a half million people that people didn’t fall through the cracks and they didn’t get hurt by the justice system or the legislative system when he was a member of the City Council,” Met Council CEO David Greenfield said.
He worked in the court since the early 2000s and previously represented the 44th council district encompassing Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Midwood and Ocean Parkway.
“He had a fighting spirit and always put his constituents first,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote in a Tweet about Dear.
Read more about this in this article: KCP
Queens Borough Hall to host virtual vigil to commemorate lives lost to coronavirus
credit: Wasted Time R, Wikimedia Commons
The Queens Borough Hall will be holding a virtual interfaith vigil today at 5 p.m. to commemorate all of the Queens residents who died from coronavirus and to celebrate the frontline workers who are putting their lives at risk to work everyday.
It will be streamed live at queensbp.org for anyone who would like to participate.
The Office of the Queens Borough President organized this even in conjunction with several local community, political and religious leaders.
Some of the religious leaders who will be in attendance include Father Joseph Fonti of The Church of St. Mel, Imam Shamsi Ali of the Jamaica Muslim Center, Rabbi Mark Kaiserman of The Reform Temple of Forest Hills, Dr. Uma Mysorekar of the Hindu Temple Society of North America and Venerable Youwang Shih of the International Buddhist Progress Society.
Read more about this in this article: QCP
Three Queens men busted for price gouging M3 face masks
Three Queens men were arrested on Friday for price gouging face masks on the same day that New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it mandatory for all New Yorkers to wear a face mask whenever they are out in public.
They were busted by an undercover member of the New York Police Department’s Financial Crimes Task Force after posting a Craigslist offer for 1,000 masks at 10 times their normal price.
Instead of $1 per mask, they cost $10 per mask, for a whopping total of $10,000. The police officer met up with the three men — Yuriy Borukhov, 33, Maisey Khovasov, 23, and Michael Borukhov, 23 Yuriy Borukhov, 33, Maisey Khovasov, 23, and Michael Borukhov, 23 — posing as a buyer.
They each received desk-appearance tickets and are set to appear in court on Aug. 15. Back on March 16, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection made it illegal to price gouge any medical product that could help with the coronavirus.
“We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Thousands of people have died and medical workers do not have enough personal protection equipment to do their jobs safely,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Sadly, these three men allegedly thought about pocketing a profit as a result of the coronavirus outbreak by price gouging.”
Read more about this in this article: QCP
