Green Church Bulletin: Walls and Cornices

State Assembly Proposes Fracking Public Health Impact Study

Environmental and health groups praised the New York State Assembly for including funds in its budget proposal last week for an independent study of the public health impacts of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in New York.

Hundreds of doctors, as well as health organizations and environmental advocates, have criticized the state's Department of Environmental Conservation for failing to include a comprehensive study of the public health impacts in its environmental review of fracking.

The DEC's environmental review is the only thing standing between the gas drilling industry and the state's Marcellus Shale outcrop.  Fracking-friendly Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his DEC Commissioner Joe Martens are pushing to issue fracking regulations within the next few months.

The Assembly would allocate $100,000 for a study by SUNY, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention model.

The SUNY study would incorporate other states' research into fracking's impacts, and how much those impacts will cost the New York State, health insurance companies, employers, and the healthcare system; as well as outlining long-term health monitoring.

Assembly Member Barbara Lifton, the Ithaca Democrat who proposed the study, said it could answer many of the questions New Yorkers have about fracking's impact on their health.

The State Senate has no corresponding proposal.

The Medical Society of the State of New York has called for a moratorium on fracking until it has some hard science to rely on.  New York's county medical societies are concerned that the state has ignored the public health issue.

The DEC said it had considered the public health impacts of fracking, but all it's really done is draft regulations it hopes will prevent drilling accidents and exposure to toxic substances.  It has not done an extensive, in-depth health study like the one the Assembly would fund.

The Natural Resources Defense Council praised the Assembly for its leadership in going after the hard science we need to make informed, responsible decisions about the highly controversial, high-risk fracking process. 

The article from Huffpost.

Have You Seen Hurricane?

Hurricane is a 9-year old microchipped male who weighs about 25 pounds.

He was lost on Wednesday, March 14 near the intersection of 72nd and 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge.

If you've seen him, call 347-525-3860 or 917-692-3373.

A cash reward is offered for his safe return.

Gounardes: Golden Raided Transit Lockbox

Democrat Andrew Gounardes, running for Republican State Senator Marty Golden's seat, faulted Golden and his fellow Republicans for a plan to cut capital financing for public transit by $770 million.

Just last year, Golden sponsored "transit lockbox" legislation to protect transit funding from being raided.

Now, Gounardes said, it's Golden dipping into the funds that could have been used to restore the B37 and weekend express buses and improve service on the underserved N and R lines.

Goundardes sees abandonment in Golden's reversing his "lock box" rhetoric to side with upstate Republican colleagues like John DeFrancisco, who quipped "We don't have too many MTA trains going to Syracuse."

It's time, Gounardes said, for Golden to decide who he's representing.

More from Streetsblog.

Park Slope Facility Where Phillips Died Never Licensed

Relatives of retired Brooklyn civil court judge John Phillips, who died at the Prospect Park Residence in 2008, are suing the facility for wrongful death.

It allegedly failed to provide the diabetic Phillips with a prescribed diet or give him regular insulin injections, contributing to his death.

The family alleges that the judge was confined at the facility against his will for 8 months, being allowed to leave only for a few doctor's appointments.

According to court documents, developer Haysha Deitsch and partners, although they bought the facility in 2006, didn't apply for a license to operate an assisted living facility until 2009, after Phillips' death.

The Prospect Park Residence, according to the State Department of Health, is still unlicensed, having failed, since 2009, to complete its licensing application.

It nevertheless advertises a secure residential program for dementia patients, which requires a higher level of care -- and licensing -- than assisted living. Visitors have reported seeing bed-ridden dementia patients at the facility without nursing care.

Judge Phillips was declared incompetent in 2001 and placed in a series of institutions. His court-appointed guardians moved him to the Park Slope Residence over the objections of his family, who had asked Supreme Court Justice Michael Pesce to place Phillips in the Flatbush home of family friend Vinett Robunson.

Robunson battled with the staff at the facility over what they were feeding Phillips, not knowing it was unlicensed.

The Park Slope Residence, according to its lawyer, was only Phillips' "landlord", and was court-ordered to restrict his visitors.

How many landlords lock down their tenants?

The article from the Daily News.

Viking Fest 2012

The Scandinavian East Coast Museum will host its 2012 Viking Fest at Owl’s Head (Bliss) Park, on Saturday, May 19 from Noon to 5:00 PM. (Enter at 68th Street and Narrows Avenue.)

Features will include an appearance by the half-size Viking ship replica The Norseman and crew; re-enacters Historic Arms and the Society for Creative Anachronism, presenting hands-on educational displays and interactive learning activities, and live demonstrations of Medieval armor, weapons and battle techniques.

Also featured will be dance and musical performance from Scandinavia and from countries to which the intrepid Vikings sailed, from Irish pipers and step dancers to Polish folk dancers to Middle Eastern percussionists.

Each year, Viking Fest features a visiting band from Norway.  This year's guest band, sponsored by the 17th of May Committee, will be Birkenes Hornmusikk, from Birkeland in Aust Agder, Norway.  Their 45-minute performance is scheduled to begin at Noon.

There will also be games, rides, and Scandinavian food and crafts for sale.

Admission is free.

Call 718-748-5950 for more information.

For more about the Scandinavian East Coast Museum, visit the website.

Fort Hamilton High School Among Those Investigated by the DOE

Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge is one of nine city high schools under investigation by the Department of Education for irregularities in grading Regents examinations and awarding course credits.

According to the DOE, hundreds of students citywide have been allowed to graduate without meeting basic requirements.

A yearlong audit by the DOE's auditor general found problems at 55 of the 60 high schools reviewed.  In addition to improperly-graded Regents exams, the DOE said that schools had graduated students who failed to meet credit and testing requirements, given credit for work not done, and not properly accounted for transferred students.

Of the 9,582 students graduated from the 60 audited high schools in 2010, the 292 who hadn't met basic requirements will keep their diplomas, DOE said.

The audit was triggered in part by reports that a high number of students got the exact minimum score needed to pass the Regents exam.

The case has been transferred to the city’s office of the special commissioner of investigation for schools.

The DOE plans to reverse its longstanding practice of having Regents exams graded by the student's teacher. It will also retrain all of the principals in New York City's remaining 450 public high schools, to familiarize them with graduation requirements.

The indicators bear out what critics of data-driven accountability for schools predicted would happen: that making test scores and graduation rates the bottom line would lead teachers and administrators bend the rules to generate the numbers they need.

Like Compstat.

The DOE will privatize school audits, and is creating software to prevent school administrators from graduating students who fail to meet minimum course credits and test scores.

The article from the New York Times.

Astroland Co-Founder Jerry Albert Passes

Jerry Albert, who co-founded the Coney Island History Project in 2004 with his wife Carol Hill, was a passionate Coney Island booster.

The Albert family's romance with Coney Island began when Jerry's father, Dewey Albert, bought the derelict Feltmans Restaurant property as a favor to Nathan Handwerker (of Nathan's Famous). Handwerker wanted to move his restaurant to the 3-acre Feltmans site.

The legend goes that the hot dog was invented somewhere within the borders of that site.

When the deal fell through and Dewey was left with the property, he turned to his son Jerry for help.

Jerry, who grew up building boats in Sea Gate, at the West End of Coney Island, welcomed his father's challenge and came up with the idea for a space-age-theme park called Astroland:  "A Journey to the 21st Century".

The fading Coney Island of the early 1960s desperately needed the lift it got from Astroland. When other businesses were closing, Jerry Albert, recognizing the potential of the amusement zone, went on an international quest for the newest, most exciting rides for his park.

Teamed with West Coast Disney ride builder Arrow Development, Albert created the signature rides that made Astroland unique.

Three million dollars later in 1964, Astroland opened with the first-ever versions of the Water Flume, Mercury Capsule Sky Ride, Deep Sea Diving Bells, and Moon Rocket.

The centerpiece of Albert's audacious new amusement park was the futuristic Astrotower with its circular observation car, called "The Big Bagel in the Sky".

Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project, credits Albert's investment and belief in Coney Island with keeping it afloat for nearly 50 years.

It was Albert who saved and restored the landmark Cyclone Roller Coaster.

After he developed Parkinson's disease, Albert turned park operations over to his wife, Carol Hill, who ran it during its last decade.

Donations many be sent in Albert's memory to the American Parkinson Association,135 Parkinson Ave., Staten Island, New York 10305.

Source:  Coney Island History Project.

The obituary from the New York Times.

More from Amusing the Zillion.