US District Judge Brian Cogan did not make accused drug lord “El Chapo’s” lawyers feel reassured about their eventual compensation at Monday’s Brooklyn hearing. When the hearing commenced Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was seen waving to his wife and twin daughters, who were viewing the proceedings from the second row of the public seating in the courtroom. The judge then informed Guzman and his lawyers that the government could not promise that the drug lord’s assets would not be seized, thus depriving the lawyers of their compensation. El Chapo, who has twice staged dramatic prison breaks in Mexico, is being tried in Brooklyn for heading up a multi-billion-dollar international drug trafficking ring which carried out multiple murders and kidnappings. He was extradited from Mexico in January, and has been held in solitary confinement in a prison in lower Manhattan. His lawyers are worried that if the government seizes Guzman’s money, there will be nothing left to pay them. Among Guzman lawyers is Jeff Lichtman, who was able to successfully defend the son of mafia scion John Gotti. The government has said it wants to collect $14 billion in drug money from El Chapo. Guzman’s lawyers argued that they want to alleviate the taxpayer’s burden of having to pay the public defenders the court would appoint, but only if they know in advance they will be compensated. After the hearing and Judge Cogan’s ruling, Lichtman said he still wanted to find a way to defend his client, who pleaded not guilty to charges of running a drug trafficking cartel that laundered billions of dollars and committed murder and kidnapping. The hearing lasted 15 minutes during which El Chapo turned to look at his family several times, with clear emotion in his face. He is scheduled to spend some time with his family for the first time in seven months this...
read more
In the 1840s two army soldiers who later fought for the South were stationed at Fort Hamilton, twenty years before the eruption of the bloody US Civil War. Those soldiers later became Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, among the most famous of the military men who fought on the side of the Confederacy. After the war was won by the North, the streets were named after these important generals in an act of reconciliation, according to an army spokesperson. But now four Brooklyn lawmakers, Representatives Yvette Clarke, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries are calling for the street names to be changed. They say they took their inspiration from the city of New Orleans, who took down statues of Lee and other Confederate officers in their city. “These monuments are deeply offensive to the hundreds of thousands of Brooklyn residents and members of the armed forces stationed at Fort Hamilton whose ancestors Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson fought to hold in slavery,” Clarke said. “For too many years, the United States has refused to reckon with that history. I commend the city of New Orleans for initiating this important and often difficult work. I will continue to petition the Department of the Army to contribute to that effort.” The army, however, had refused the request, saying that the streets were named after Jackson and Lee “in the spirit of reconciliation” and that they were honored as individuals and not as the representatives of any “particular cause or ideology.” “After over a century, any effort to rename memorializations on Fort Hamilton would be controversial and divisive,” acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Diane Randon wrote in a letter responding to the lawmakers’ pleas. Clarke says she is not going to give up so easily, retorting that “‘reconciliation’ was actually complicity by the North and the South to ignore the interests of African-Americans and enforce white supremacy, effectively denying the result of the Civil War for generations.” “We are still living...
read more
Brooklyn honored one of its own last week when Councilman Robert Cornegy officiated at a ceremony naming a Bedford-Stuyvesant basketball court after rap singer B.I.G. The courts are within the boundaries of the Crispus Attucks Playground at Fulton Street and Classon Avenue. Their official name is, “Christopher “Biggie” Wallace Courts,” and makes good on a promise Cornegy made to the rapper’s mother, Voletta Wallace, at the time her son was killed, in order to honor him and his memory. “The feeling is surreal,” Cornegy said during the ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday. The basketball courts are part and parcel of a larger Parks Department renovation which cost the city $2.5 million and took five years. In addition to the refurbished basketball courts, the part now boasts better handball courts, a spanking new playground, and a completely overhauled safety surface. There is also a new set of stairs and beautiful landscaping all around the playground. Christopher Wallace was a frequent visitor to the park before he became famous with a few hit songs such as “Juicy,” “Big Poppa” and “What’s Beef?” Wallace had a history of dealing drugs and his songs are full of violent language, but his mother has been working hard to change his ultimate legacy, especially by creating the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation. “(His mother) changed the acronym for B.I.G. to stand for books instead of guns,” Cornegy said. “We’re in the process of redoing libraries providing books for young kids in school and that was her commitment.” Wallace was murdered in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997 in a drive-by shooting. No one has ever been charged with the...
read more
As recently reported in the news, Renault development driver Oliver Rowland is going to get his first chance to drive with Formula 1 at Assen next month. He is currently third in the Formula 2 championship standings and he’s going to drive Renault’s 2012 Lotus F1 car. Watch for Rowland on August 5th during the Gamma Racing Days event at Assen. As Rowland said about the news, “It’s a really exciting time for me to drive Renault’s F1 car in front of 100,000 people in Holland…I see this as a step in the right direction to achieving my dream of driving in Formula 1.” Certainly, this news is interesting for Formula One fans around the world. Two such fans are reported to have come together out of their love of Formula One. News sources report that supermodel Naomi Campbell and Chairman of Philip Morris International Louis C. Camilleri have started dating. Naomi is incredibly private about her dating life, but many sources have seen then together and report that they met over their mutual love of Formula One. Camilleri was born in Egypt and speaks English, Italian, German and French. He’s a father of three and is...
read more
Mounting problems have revealed the decaying state of the vast New York City subway system, a system that in many ways is the circulatory system keeping the city alive. The most recent incident involved a derailment near the Brighton Beach station at around 9am last Friday. Luckily no injuries were reported when one set of wheels on the second car fell off the rails. Another train came to collect the passengers, but service was seriously disrupted on the B and Q lines during the busy morning commute hours. This derailment came on the heels of June’s incident in Manhattan which caused injuries to over 20 people. Other system malfunctions have interfered with service or caused harm, such as signal problems in Manhattan, a fire on the subway tracks in upper Manhattan, sending nine people to the hospital, and a train in Queens with mechanical issues. Interim director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Veronique Hakim, said that the Brooklyn derailment was being investigated, but it was not immediately clear what caused the incident. There were about 135 people on board, considered a “light load” for the train. Ms. Hakim apologized for Friday’s incident: “We are sorry this occurred this morning,” Ms. Hakim said. Who is actually responsible for the general upkeep of the subway system seems to be unclear. Joseph J. Lhota, chairman of the MTA, urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to make the necessary repairs to the aging system. Mr. Lhota said he has an emergency proposal to be released soon, saying that the city and the state must take responsibility and provide the funding for the repairs. Mr. Lhota agrees with Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who admonished the New York mayor for not taking responsibility for the subway system that is owned by the city. Transit authority supporters have a different view, saying that the Governor needs to take responsibility, since he controls the MTA by selecting the chairman and involving himself more and more in the agency’s...
read more
