Monserrate Unfit To Serve: Committee

The special committee investigating the conviction of Sen. Hiram Monserrate recommended Wednesday that the New York State Senate sanction its colleague, with some members suggesting that the Senate vote to expel first and, should that fail, to censure him and strip him of privileges.

Monserrate (D-Corona) immediately issued a statement saying that he would sue to block the Senate from acting on the recommendations of the committee. Former NYCLU President Normal Siegel had spoken with Monserrate Tuesday night in advance of the release of the report about possibly helping defend the Senator.

Queens Haitians Hold Their Breath

With lines of communication down across Haiti and thousands of expatriates sitting on pins and needles in Queens and in the rest of New York City, elected officials and community groups are doing what they can to pitch in and help following Tuesday’s catastrophic earthquake.

For Elsie Saint Louis Accilien, the last few days have been unbearable. As executive director of Haitian-Americans United for Progress in Cambria Heights, she said her office has had to field hundreds of calls from local residents unable to get in touch with friends and family back in their homeland. As a Haitian who just came back from the annual New Years and Haitian Independence celebration, Accilien is clearly distraught.

“We are not hearing much from the island,” Accilien said. “We have been receiving calls and giving out whatever information we have. We need to make sure that we are giving proper direction and information to the community.”

Plum Lulus At Stake As Council Sets Up

Though the ink may have dried on the signed oaths of office that the new Council members from Queens took on Jan. 1, the pen is still in the inkwell with no official list yet made to name the chairmen and members of the various Council committees.

The chairmen of the committees, which cover a range of aspects of City life from public safety to education and land use, receive a stipend for their work – often considered political payout for loyalty to the Speaker.

No GOP Invitations To Boro ‘Unity’ Party

The “United and Merry Holiday Celebration” was organized by Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Corona), but the invitation additionally listed fellow Assemblymen Jeffrion Aubry (D-East Elmhurst) and Michael DenDekker (D-Jackson Heights), as well as Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-Corona) and Councilman-elect Danny Dromm.

In addition, it also bore the names of all of the elected Democratic District Leaders for Peralta’s district.

The party was sponsored by two non-profit entities, and the invitation carried Peralta’s District Office phone number for an RSVP. A Peralta spokesman explained that the party was intended for the whole community and that Assembly members are barred from using taxpayer funds for public parties. However, non-profit groups are permitted to fund such parties. Since Peralta is permitted to attach his name to such parties, and it was for the community, listing his office phone number was permissible.

Assemblyman Calls Story ‘Dirty Trick’

In June 2004, Assemblyman Jose Peralta (D-Corona) secured a $125,000 grant to create the Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development, an organization designed to be the clearinghouse for ACCION, NY, a micro-loan organization established to help seed business in low-income areas, as well as other local banks.

The agency was an apparent success; in November 2005 the group was awarded $250,000 in a federal appropriations bill earmark from Sen. Chuck Schumer and U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Jackson Heights). “This federal funding is a shot in the arm for the economy in the Corona-Elmhurst district and will help fledgling businesses mature into vibrant enterprises,” Schumer said at the time. “The Corona-Elmhurst Center for Economic Development is instrumental in revitalizing the community’s economy, and, with this money, it will lead the charge in training and financing local businesses.”

An article in the Daily News this week, however, attempted to paint the Assemblyman’s relationship with the agency in a negative light. The agency reduced its operations in 2006 when its executive director fell ill, and by 2007 the funds previously earmarked for the agency were frozen pending a restructuring of the organization, according to a statement issued Thursday by Peralta.

Make Tracks To Sidetracks

There are very few places in Queens where you can stop in for a good drink and hang out with your buddies – and where you can sit down to a great fine dining meal. The lounge-restaurant hybrid is a relatively new feature dotting our streets, but one that underwent an overhaul 17 months ago is showing that the impossible can be done – and well – on both ends.

Sidetracks Restaurant and Lounge transformed itself in June 2007 from a well-known place to get a good quick meal to a place where the food is now as good and contemporary as the lounge that occupies a large chunk of the space.

Leather chairs, geometric design features and great lighting set the mood in this location just off the 7 train in Sunnyside. The two-sided bar in the center serves as a divider for the space, with the lounge on one side and the restaurant on the other. Sliding into a both last Saturday night, we got the feeling that we were going to dig in to something … well … more. More that what we’ve seen in other places. A more diverse menu. More reason to come back.

Our expectations were more than met.

Three Boro Council Seats Go To GOP

When the dust settled from a busy Election Day, change had come to Queens – three Republicans won the opportunity to represent the borough in City Hall.

A young man from Ozone Park who won a special election earlier this year kept his post; a Chinese immigrant businessman from Flushing won victory in a Democratic district; and a Pagan ex-cop and attorney from Whitestone who endured probing questions about his faith stood tall as the new Republican triumvirate of Queens.

Eric Ulrich, Peter Koo and Dan Halloran will be three out of the five representatives of the GOP in the City Council; the other two are from Staten Island. During his victory speech at his Bell Boulevard headquarters, Halloran asked rhetorically, “And who do you think the next Council Minority Leader will be?” leading to chants of “Dan’s our man!”

Get Great Grub To Go

This week, I made a discovery. My wife had been craving Buffalo wings for a week now, and I didn’t feel like cooking, so I decided to do some research – it seems that there aren’t that many places in Western Queens that specialize in these tasty, bite-sized morsels.

Flipping through the internet I stumbled across New Texas Fried Chicken in Ridgewood and decided to head out and pick up dinner for the family.

Inside, the place is covered with pictures of the food, with fried chicken, Buffalo wings, sandwiches, cheese steak and other specialties lining the walls. The menu is a mish-mash of all sorts of temptations, from Peach Cobbler to family-sized meals of chicken and sides. I made my choices, paid the man, and drove the 10 minutes home, hoping that the food would stay hot and that it would meet the hype I had seen.

I was not disappointed on either count.

E-Day Nears – Candidates Make Last Push, Before Nov. 3 General Election

The war chests are filled; the mailers are flying; and in some cases the heated tones of party rhetoric are getting louder as the candidates running for City Council in Queens make the last efforts for winning over the voters.

Queens is a largely Democratic county, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of Republicans who would be pleased to add to – or at least maintain – their numbers in the Council.

District 19

Kevin Kim, a three-year staffer for U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman’s (D-Bayside) Community Affairs Unit is taking on Dan Halloran, a former cop, bar owner and prosecutor who is currently a lawyer in Mineola.

The race has seen its share of sensationalism, as Halloran’s role in his self-described “pagan” faith has been brought into question, with his campaign refusing to answer questions regarding the effect that role may have on his legislative agenda.

Halloran, whose campaign said he resigned from the NYPD in 1991 because they would not grant him leave for a pagan holiday, has refused to answer any questions about his leadership role since the story was first broken in September.

Pagan ‘King’ Has Council GOP Nod

Dan Halloran, the Republican candidate for City Council facing primary winner Kevin Kim in the 19th District, already has a leadership role in a vast community that very few people know about – or understand.

Halloran is the “First Atheling,” or King, of Normandy, a branch of the Theod faith of pre-Christian Heathen religions assembled in the Greater New York area. A group of dedicated fellow pagans swear their allegiance to him through oaths of fidelity, allowing luck from a series of ancient gods – specifically the “Norse” or “Germanic” gods Odin, Tyr and Freyr – to pass through the King to his kinsmen.

“It is our hope to reconstruct the pre-Christian religion of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European peoples, within a cultural framework and community environment,” Halloran – who in many circumstances surrounding his religion goes by his ancestral name O’Halloran – wrote on his tribe’s Web site.