“Selling one of our highest priced homes just as we’re officially launching the building demonstrates the appeal of Jade 8 and the level of confidence buyers are already expressing in this unique new residential building,” said Warren Lewis president Aroza Sanjana.

Located at 186 8^th Street, the project’s features include two-bedroom condos each with a private balcony, large one-bedroom garden duplexes as well as three-bedroom penthouse duplexes. Costing between $725,000 and $1.15 million, the homes are 905-1,475 square feet. They are advertised as being ‘green,’ and feature fresh air filtration systems, LED lighting and energy-efficient appliances, as well as Loewen additions.

“The combination of dramatic living spaces, upscale finishes and appointments, advanced energy-efficient systems and materials, and a limited offering which translates to a more intimate lifestyle and a quicker-sell-out, is already proving to be a winning formula.”

We all know that people in Brooklyn have a lot of spirit – but this doctor takes the cake.  Internist Dr. Clifford Cohen, 90, has been practicing medicine for more than half a century.  He was briefly sidetracked recently when he needed to undergo a heart valve implant in November, but an innovative procedure saved him.

The Beginning of the Issues

It all began last October when Lillian, Dr. Cohen’s wife, found him gasping for breath early one morning and couldn’t wake him.  Considered too sick for open heart surgery for his condition, called aortic stenosis, Dr. Cohen had few options.

That is, until surgeons recently developed the life-saving implant technique used on Dr. Cohen.  The Food and Drug Administration actually accepted this new technique for commercial use just two days before offering it to Dr. Cohen. He became the first in the United States to receive the transcatheter aortic heart valve implant.

Breakthrough Surgery

The breakthrough surgery was performed by Dr. Martin Leon, Dr. Susheel Kodali and Dr. Mathew Williams at the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center in Washington Heights.  As Dr. Lean said,

“For us, it’s extraordinarily emotional to take someone at that stage of his life and career and restore him so he can practice medicine again.”

And, of course, that’s exactly what Dr. Cohen has done, getting back at work four weeks after the surgery! As his daughter, Susan, explained, “In a matter of hours, we were walking him around.”

Back in Business

He is now back in business, seeing patients four days a week at his Sheepshead Bay office on Ocean Avenue.  As Dr. Cohen explained, “As far as my patients knew I strained my back and was out for a few weeks.”

His family is thrilled by the new procedure.  Son, Andrew of Oceanside L.I. who recovered from his own quadruple bypass said,

“This less invasive procedure has worked wonders.”

Daughter Barbara Waldorf adds, “He’s young beyond his years.”

Isn’t that the truth!

Bed-Stuy engineer and New York Jedi Academy founder Flynn Michael is currently searching the galaxy of New York for his stolen light saber.  

The New York Jedi Academy is a school for Jedi apprentices, where they can learn how to use their light sabers in flashy, martial-arts-inspired duels. Michael had a $400 light saber custom-made last year, only to have it stolen at Project Parlor sometime before 2 a.m.

The Brooklyn Paper reported the robbery back in September, quoting Jedi Master Michael as saying: “Who steals somebody’s light saber? I finally got my uber custom saber, and then some jerk walks out with it. I guess that’s the joke- some Jedi I turned out to be.”

Michael claims that he caught the thief on a bar security camera, and even came face to face with the man a few months later. The suspected Sith denied allegations, however, and Michael is convinced the police will be little help in the saber recovery mission.

“I’m waiting for his conscience to get him,” Michael said. “We’re teaching people how to be heroes, and I need it back.”

Flyers have been posted throughout the district, calling on the public to battle the Dark Side and give Michael a new hope by keeping an eye out for the phantom menace and his missing saber.

“I think the girls that came back, there was probably (the thought of) ‘Do I want to come back because we are going to lose this year?’ That went through some of their minds,” Ferragatta said. “Coming back this year with their own determination to win has brought them this far.”

“This far” has been quite a feat. The Bobcats completely turned themselves around, going from winless to undefeated (12-0) in a single year, climbing from worst to first place in the Quinebaug Valley Junior Conference Large Division.

Now, Brooklyn, No. 1 seed, will face 4^th seed Woodstock. Ferragatta said: “We had in seventh grade a good group of girls that I knew as eighth-graders would perform exceptionally well. And this has pretty much come to fruition.”

Meg Bianchi is the point guard for the Brooklyn team. Coach Amanda Sorel said: “She’s a standout to me because…to have that kind of control and also to confidently switch hands… A lot of players are one-hand dominant, and if you can drive that one-hand dominant, and if you can drive that one hand to the sideline they are in trouble.”

Bushwick Community High School

Bushwick Community High School is fighting for its right to stay open and to service kids in need.  This is a “transfer” school on Palmetto Street that helps 420 students who have exhausted most other options.  They are now facing the possibility of being temporarily closed and having half of the teachers fired after they’ve appeared on the Education Dept.’s list that includes 33 city schools called “persistently low-achieving.”

The plan if the proposal goes through would include temporarily shutting down the school and overhauling the staff at the 33 targeted locations.  This is part of the mayor’s plan to get $58 million in federal grant money.

Begging Mayor Bloomberg for Change

In a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, the teachers wrote,

“Taking such a step would recklessly intensify a process which is already being misapplied to our school and would be a mistake with dire consequences for the young people of New York City who are at risk.”

Spokesman Frank Thomas for the Education Department said that, "Students who are missing credits deserve all the help we can offer, and we believe that proposing the Turnaround model for this school is an opportunity to ensure that students get the high quality instruction and program they need to complete their high school education.”

Conflicting Interests

Aaron Boyle, a teacher at the Bushwick Community High School, argued that new accountability system is interfering with helping the students. As he said, “We as a transfer school have a very specific mission and we’ve always sought to support that mission. The penalty coming out of this current accountability system is getting in the way of the work that helps struggling students.”

Pictures of Christina Rubino by Helayne Seidman

Teachers appear to have more job security than anyone else in the history of the world.  Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe just welcomed Christine Rubino back to the classroom – after an administrative decision was rendered to fire the disgusting teacher from PS 203 in Flatlands.

Facebook Posting

Posting comments on Facebook about how her unruly students should drown, Rubino wasn’t quiet about her opinions. On June 23, 2010, for instance, she wrote,

“After today, I’m thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders. I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn!”

Not only were her comments disturbing, but their timing was terribly offensive.  The day before her post, a 12 year old Harlem girl drowned on a school trip at the Long Island beach.

Judge Ruling

Judge Jaffe, however, said that since Rubino’s comments were made outside of the school building and after hours, they aren’t grounds for getting her fired.  And, the judge continued, he saw no evidence that she actually meant to harm the students herself or that her cruel words “affected her ability to teach.”

The judge even dismissed Rubino’s obstruction of evidence, as she had a friend lie and claim ownership over the comments made about kids. 

Heading Back to the Classroom?

Rubino, who makes $78,885 a year, can now get her job back.  The department may, however, appeal the decision.  Rubino’s lawyer, Bryan Glass, sounded a bit high and mighty, said, "A simple warning to Ms. Rubino about her mistake would have sufficed, and it would not have been repeated. Perhaps in this time of scarce resources, the substantial time and money on this case could be better allocated by the DOE supporting its teachers in the classroom rather than demonizing and punishing its staff."

Perhaps the time and money should be spent finding better teachers – ones who don’t long for a way to kill their students.

The video was launched by two Brooklyn business groups in support of a Center for Urban Sciences and Progress, with hopes that it would spread rapidly throughout social media sites like Twitter and reach the necessary authorities.

“Reusing this eyesore as an academic campus of the future is a brilliant move and would position the borough and the city to create thousands of jobs for future generations,” said Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Borough President.

Tucker Reed, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership president added “We are unified like never before, and we urge the Bloomberg administration, our leaders in Albany to whom the MTA is accountable and NYU to come together and get this done.”

Penelope Morales (on left) with friend

When someone is in need, Brooklyn comes to the rescue. At least that’s what Penelope Morales is hoping will, ultimately, happen. Morales, 27, grew up in the Farragut Houses and went to Public School 307.

Finding the Co-Pay

Battling leukemia,  she is now trying to pull together the co-payment that she needs for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.  Morales left Brooklyn in 2009 to live in Orlando, Florida for its milder climate.  She is supposed to have the operation in April, but she is having trouble finding the $6000 that she needs to pay UnitedHealthCare for the transplant. 

Commendably, she refused to go on Medicaid while living in New York, saying

“When I was in New York, the doctor told me to go on Medicaid. I was like ‘no.’ I work forty hours a week. I won’t let this stop me.”

Raising Money Together

Now, people from near and far are trying to help Morales to have a fighting chance.  Her relatives have started a nationwide call for assistance. As her mom, Marie Morales, frankly explains, “Without the operation, she is going to die.”

And this is where Public School 307 is stepping in. The cheerleading coach, Tracy Dickerson, who trained Penelope Morales, is having her current team pitch in.  As she said, “I haven’t been able to sleep. I keep thinking what I can do.”

They are joining the team to raise money for Morales. And they sure hope that it will be enough.

The artwork, which shows a kind of ‘Google Doodle,’ shows two cameras replacing the famous letter ‘o’s to smash the internet empire’s new privacy policies and search result modifications. Google’s changes last week have sparked riots and complaints throughout the nation.

The new program will merge all previous privacy policies of its products into one, compiling every individual’s information in a single spot and sharing it with other Google services. Lawmakers, tech lovers and the Google-using nation are in a muted uproar with concerns for their online privacy.

“People are upset for two reasons. The first is that Google is just now making this new use of data explicit, and the second is that there is no way to opt out and still use any Google service,” said Dan Olds of the Gabriel Consulting Group. “It’s not that Google is collecting more information. It’s that they’re combining information from all of their various products and services and using it to laser-target ads at users. I think that some users and privacy advocates are looking at this as a slippery slope.”

When Spike Lee makes a new project, he doesn’t just make it – he breathes it. Last summer, Lee quietly filmed his latest movie set in the Red Hook Houses of Brooklyn.  Using Brooklyn’s largest housing project as his backdrop, he spent 19 days there filming the story of a boy’s adventures.

Residence Speak

And it’s always telling to see what residences of a neighborhood being portrayed in films have to say about it. While Sundance Film Festival slammed Lee for his unrealistic portrayal of the city complex, residents are singing his praises.

As tenant association President Lillian Marshall said,

“The people of Red Hook have changed. You can come here and leave your door unlocked to go the store. We are a community.”

Crime Rate Changes Dramatically

And the crime rates do tell that story.  Since 2005, the crime rate for the 3000 apartments has dropped 40%. Louisa Miranda, who rented out her living room for Lee’s production crew, said,

“Just because we live in this community doesn’t mean we are gangsters. We are hardworking people trying to raise our kids right.”

Spike Lee didn’t just jump in and jump out of the Red Hook Houses project. Residents say that he actually spent six months talking to residents about their day-to-day lives before filming there for 19 days.

A Telling History

Certainly, the Red Hook Houses have a history.  Two decades ago, Public School 15 Principal Patrick Daly was killed when he came there looking for a student who was late to class. Then, in the year 2000, the city started the Red Hook Community Justice Center which hosts a vast array of programs including GED classes. In 2005, the NYPD actually opened a stationhouse right on the property of the Red Hook Houses. And since then, residents say, they have been telling a different story.

As Red Hook Court Judge Alex Calabrese said,

“Red Hook is fabulous. It’s a neighborhood on the rise.”

And that’s just what Spike Lee tried to capture with his latest endeavor.