Free Republic

Ex-Streets and Sanitation boss Sanchez gets 2 1/2 years in prisonBy NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter Feb 4, 2011 06:10PM The federal sentencing hearing Thursday of ex-Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez meant 2 1/2-years in prison for the onetime city official. It prompted opinions over this week’s disaster on Lake Shore Drive as well as a hiring scheme that has gone on in the city for decades. But it also did something else. It ended a seven-year run of federal prosecutions into city hall that began with the Hired Truck scandal in 2004. Sanchez was the very last defendant...

Blizzard Bungling Sanitation Bosses Were Harvard-TrainedBy Ben Yakas in News on January 13, 2011 1:30 PM People have been extra riled up and angry at the Sanitation Department over their underwhelming performance cleaning up snow and trash after the Blizzageddon a few weeks back. But maybe people have been too hard on them—after all, it's not like they went to Harvard or anything! Except, they did: several top sanitation officials who are being investigated for the alleged slowdown were sent to Harvard for training—and it was paid for courtesy of taxpayers. Ten sanitation bosses were sent to Harvard for "management...

Last week NY city sanitation union employees were told by their supervisors to keep away from some of the major arteries of traffic in order to cause havoc during the snow storm because they wanted to make a statement about their disagreement over budget cuts. So along with other tragedies, Sanitation Union workers are directly responsible for the death of a 22 year old college students new born baby.Well, now we have video evidence that proves the workers laid down on the job. Some slept like the sanitation worker in the photo to the left. Others were spotted in...

This has been one of the big causes of Fox New Radio host John Gibson, and may I say with good reason. Charges were made last week that NYC Sanitation workers staged a slowdown during the blizzard, leaving streets unplowed and generally causing chaos. That investigation continues now with video obtained by our sister station in NYC, CBS 2, as the evidence continues to mount that union supervisors orchestrated the slowdown as a protest to proposed salary and labor cuts. Is it time to outlaw public worker unions? Two videos for you. First up the original charge made by New...

From the New York Times on Thursday, in an item put together with the help of a half-dozen Times reporters ("Inaction and Delays by New York as Storm Bore Down"): ... Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, said the problems late Sunday (during the initial stages of the northeast snowstorm -- Ed.) underscored how the city could not rely on outside contractors to help with snow removal and other jobs in such storms, particularly during a holiday weekend. “You can never count on the privates, because they don’t have to show up,” he said. “What obligation do they...

A group of on-duty Sanitation supervisors is under investigation for allegedly buying booze and chilling in their cozy department car for hours Monday night after the blizzard stranded a bus and three snowplows blocks away. The city Department of Investigation is probing the incident after witnesses said four snow blowers blew off their duties to get blitzed, buying two six-packs of beer from a Brooklyn bodega. The workers then walked five blocks to their car, which was in 20 inches of snow in the middle of 18th at McDonald avenues near the F train entrance, passing the stuck bus and...

Report: NYC Sanitation Supervisors Ignored Duties to Drink Alcohol During BlizzardPublished January 02, 2011 New York Post Instead of plowing, they got plowed. A group of New York City Sanitation supervisors is under investigation for allegedly buying booze and chilling in their cozy department car for hours Monday night after the blizzard stranded a bus and three snowplows blocks away. The city's Department of Investigation is probing the incident after witnesses said four snow blowers blew off their duties to get blitzed, buying two six-packs of beer from a Brooklyn bodega. The workers then walked five blocks to their car,...

Bloomberg Takes Blame for Response to Snowstorm By PATRICK McGEEHAN Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg accepted responsibility Wednesday for the city’s response to a crippling snowstorm, pledging to have every street plowed by morning and then to figure out why his administration’s clean-up efforts were inadequate. Speaking at a hardware store in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, Mr. Bloomberg said he was “extremely dissatisfied” with the performance of the city’s emergency management system. He said the response was “a lot worse” than after other recent snowstorms and was not as efficient as “the city has a right to...

New York City sanitation bosses think they've got it so bad that they intentionally delayed snow-removal, according to the NY Post.So how bad have they got it? City workers enjoyed steady employment through the recession, killer benefits and a generous pension package. Then there's the pay. 315 sanitation workers earned over $100,000 in 2009, according to SeeThroughNY. The top guy, John Doherty, earned $205,180.There are also perks that come with the job.

I’m not sure how much faith you can put in reports from anonymous New York City Sanitation Department employees who met with a city councilman yesterday, but you might as well read about it. They say the “message” sent – supported and encouraged by management - was in retaliation for demotions, attrition and budget cuts. Obviously, clearing upwards of 20 inches (or more) of snow from New York City is a pretty big task. Where do you put the stuff? From what I understand, they need to use dump trucks to move it out of the city. That said, a...

MUTHANNA PROVINCE -- Iraqi and U.S. Forces recently completed three construction projects here, providing residents with six new electrical power transformers, a new pedestrian bridge and a school with a working sanitation system. U.S. State Department Provincial Reconstruction Teams help U.S. forces improve the stability of provincial governments by helping them address the needs of their communities, to include rebuilding infrastructure damaged by years of conflict. U.S. forces, working with the provincial governments, have constantly been building new structures and facilities that will bring a positive change to the people of Iraq, said Maj. Scott Vance, civil affairs officer, 3rd...

The UK Department of Health recently announced that it would loosen hygiene rules for Muslim and Sikh doctors and nurses. From now on, Muslim female staff will not need to wash their hands before procedures as it compromises their modesty. Instead, they will have the admittedly less sanitary option of wearing disposable plastic over-sleeves. Acknowledging the danger of microbes and death, a Department of Health spokesman said, “The guidance is intended to . . . balance infection control measures with cultural beliefs.” But, believe it or not, from a culturist perspective, the death of some patients is not the main...

Ty Brann likes the neighborly feel of his local hardware store. The fourth-generation Ventura County resident and small business owner has been going to the B & B Do it Center on Mobile Avenue in Camarillo for many years. His company, Kastle Kare, does pest control, landscaping and plant care, and he’s a B & B regular. So when he learned the county had told B & B it could no longer put out its usual box of doughnuts and coffee pot for the morning customers, Brann was taken aback. Poll Should coffee and doughnuts be considered food service? Yes...

5/18/2009 - BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- As soon as the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team arrived in the Panjshir Valley in November 2008, they noticed a need for a more sanitary way of disposing of contaminated needles. "We saw that they were using cardboard boxes and buckets for [sharps] disposal. We also observed needles laying all over the ground," said Tech. Sgt. James Bailey, a PRT medic from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. To solve this problem, Sergeant Bailey and Tech. Sgt. Alfred Greene, a medic deployed from Shaw AFB, S.C., met with the Panjshir director of Public Health to...

An Eastern Baghdad local leader answers questions from the Iraqi media about 20 waste sanitation trucks turned over to the government of Iraq during a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Loyalty, Feb. 25. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. FOB LOYALTY — Twenty waste sanitation trucks were turned over to the Government of Iraq during a ceremony here, Feb. 25.The new trucks, used for sewage maintenance and repair, give the Iraqis additional capacity to work out sanitation problems in eastern Baghdad, said Conrad Tribble, the chief of the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team with the 3rd Brigade...

HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought. The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output. CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country. "It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young...

The political tug-of-war over New Orleans' 2009 budget continued Monday as Mayor Ray Nagin announced he will make cuts in the level of sanitation services in the French Quarter next week despite steps taken by the City Council to preserve the "Disneylike" cleaning that has won raves from locals and visitors since it debuted two years ago. To head off what he said would be a $7.5 million budget shortfall, Nagin said he has ordered SDT Waste & Debris Services to stop providing mechanical street and sidewalk sweeping and flushing in the city's premier tourist district beginning Feb. 1. At...

The Sab al Bour City Surface Developer explains to a market owner his obligation while maintaining the Government of Iraq issued trash can outside of his establishment in Sab al Bour, northwest of Baghdad, Jan. 13, 2009. Photo by Sgt. Robert Marin, 25th Infantry Division. SAB AL BOUR — Cleaning up the streets here is a priority for the city. To help get the mission done, local Iraqi Police, along with Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers, helped sanitation workers distribute trash cans along two of the busiest market streets here, Jan. 13 - 14. A total of 500 trash cans were signed...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wash your hands, folks, especially you ladies. A new study found that women have a greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do. And everybody has more types of bacteria than the researchers expected to find. "One thing that really is astonishing is the variability between individuals, and also between hands on the same individual," said University of Colorado biochemistry assistant professor Rob Knight, a co-author of the paper. "The sheer number of bacteria species detected on the hands of the study participants was a big surprise, and so was the greater diversity of bacteria...

In what's been referred to as a black hat and bearded version of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Bobby Sands political prisoner movements, Old Order Amish activists are rallying behind Andy Swartzentruber, who is facing persecution from Pennsylvania's extreme sanitation police.Swartzentruber was asked by the sewage enforcers not to deposit human sewage near his home and farm.Proper human waste disposal, according to Jacob Crapzengruber, chairman of the Free-eth Swartzentruber Committee Agin' Sewage Imperialism and Poop Hubris, is contrary to the Old Amish sect's strict religious practice of self-denial and annoying neighbors.