This blog is not affiliated or endorsed, by Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, subject to the New York Freedom
of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
never resigned or apologized for helping murder Nassau OTB, a public benefit corporation, not a politician benefit corporation. The Nassau OTB Race Palace and delusions of slot machines were absurd.
Pass the peanuts and book 'em on Air______________ before Preet targets 'em all. Nassau OTB has failed to serve the bettors of Nassau County and the workers of all or no political persuasions who have worked, WORKED there.
Dec 9, 2014 - Korean Air Executive Resigns After Nutty Flight Delay ... “I apologize to our customers for causing a stir,” Ms. Cho said Tuesday in a prepared statement. .... flight from Haneda airport in Japan to Seoul Korea on Korean Air.
IN BRIEF - OTB Appointment Draws Criticism - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/.../in-brief-otb-appointment-draws...
The New York Times
Dec 22, 2002 - The former legislator, Patrick Williams, a Democrat,
resigned his ... resources at the Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting
Corporation at a salary of $87,500 ... ''But he committed a felony --
filing false applications and documents ...
GILLUM v. NASSAU DOWNS REGIONAL OFF TRACK ...
https://casetext.com/.../gillum-v-nassau-downs-regional-off-track-betting
NASSAU DOWNS REGIONAL OFF TRACK BETTING, 357 F. Supp.2d 564 ..... as an
employed prior federal felony offender is Patrick Williams, a person
who, ...
Democrats in Oyster Bay call for Frederick Ippolito to be fired ...
www.newsday.com/long-island/.../democrats-in-oyster-bay-call-...
Newsday
Updated March 23, 2015 10:07 PM ... Oyster Bay Commissioner of Planning
and Development Frederick Ippolito at an Oyster Bay Town Board meeting,
Feb.
PETER J. CREEDON JR
CREEDON & SILL PC
24 WOODBINE AVE STE 14
NORTHPORT, NY 11768-2878
United States
(Suffolk County)
(631) 656-9220
E-mail Address:
Year Admitted in NY: 1983
Appellate Division
Department of Admission: 2
Law School: SUFFOLK
Registration Status: Due to reregister within 30 days of birthday
Next Registration: May 2015
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI is
Associate Professor in the field 12E2 (IUS/21, Comparative Public Law)
in the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Perugia.He was
researcher in Public Law at the same Faculty (2006-2007), and previously
Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law in the Faculty of Law of the
University La Sapienza, Rome (2004-2006), and PhD in “Theory of the
State and comparative political Institutions” (Cycle XIV – 2003).
In 1998, he won the annual Graduation prize by “Primo Levi Foundation”.
He is member of the Board of the Doctorate in Public Law (Università
di Perugia) and professor of Italian and comparative constitutional law
in the Master Program of the Institute for Defense Studies (I.A.S.D). He
is component of the Working Group “Section Constitutional Law”, chaired
by Prof. Jean Massot and Prof. Philippe Lauvaux, the “Societe’ de
Legislation Comparee”.
Since 2011 he is lecturer at the School of Government of LUISS
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI
Health
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI is
Associate Professor in the field 12E2 (IUS/21, Comparative Public Law)
in the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Perugia.He was
researcher in Public Law at the same Faculty (2006-2007), and previously
Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law in the Faculty of Law of the
University La Sapienza, Rome (2004-2006), and PhD in “Theory of the
State and comparative political Institutions” (Cycle XIV – 2003).
In 1998, he won the annual Graduation prize by “Primo Levi Foundation”.
He is member of the Board of the Doctorate in Public Law (Università
di Perugia) and professor of Italian and comparative constitutional law
in the Master Program of the Institute for Defense Studies (I.A.S.D). He
is component of the Working Group “Section Constitutional Law”, chaired
by Prof. Jean Massot and Prof. Philippe Lauvaux, the “Societe’ de
Legislation Comparee”.
Since 2011 he is lecturer at the School of Government of LUISS
In Italy, Plans for an Easter Blessing Yield a Lawsuit for a Public School
TO LAWYER(S) IN ITALY. HELP IS ON THE WAY FOR BETTORS AND SOME OTB EMPLOYEES AND A PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION THAT DOES NOT WANT TO END UP LIKE NYC OTB, BANKRUPT.
In Italy, Plans for an Easter Blessing Yield a Lawsuit for a Public School
Photo
Monica Fontanelli, a school board member in Bologna, Italy, said a court should have authority over the religious ritual.Credit
Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
BOLOGNA,
Italy — The 16 board members of Giosuè Carducci Elementary School took
their seats, chatting amicably, until the agenda turned to Easter. The
board had already agreed to let a Roman Catholic priest offer a blessing
at their public school. Now the questions involved setting the date and
whether to hold the prayer in the gym.
And the matter of the lawsuit.
“I
am absolutely against this motion,” declared Monica Fontanelli, a board
member, who accused the majority of trying to pre-empt the Thursday
court hearing by setting the blessing for an earlier date. “It is wrong
that this board is not waiting for the decision of the administrative
court.”
Yet
others quickly countered that most of the school’s students were
Catholic, and that the rights of the majority mattered, too. “I support
holding it in the garden so that even passers-by get a blessing!”
offered one board member, jokingly.
No country in the world is more synonymous with Catholicism than Italy,
where the overwhelming majority of the population is baptized as
Catholics, and where the pope lives in a city-state surrounded by the
heart of Rome.
Photo
Angela Giardino, mother of a student at the Giosuè Carducci school in Bologna, Italy, opposes the plan for a blessing.Credit
Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
In
Bologna, like so many of Italy’s ancient cities, the history and
landscape are intertwined with Catholicism. A statue of the city’s
patron saint, Petronius, rises between the city’s two medieval towers.
Catholic churches are scattered throughout a city center known for its
elegant sidewalks shaded by porticoes.
Yet
here, as elsewhere in Italy, Catholicism has long been in retreat.
Attendance at Mass has fallen sharply over the decades as many Italians
became either nonpracticing or nonbelievers.
The
case over the blessing at the school is part of a continuing debate in
Italy over where exactly the church-state boundary lies. A similar case
arose at the same school years ago when the issue was whether a priest
could offer an Easter prayer in a classroom during school hours. A local
court prohibited the prayers.
This
time, the prayers are voluntary and, while still held on school
grounds, timed for shortly after the closing bell of classes. A group of
parents and teachers filed a legal action, arguing that the prayers are
unconstitutional.
Supporters
of the voluntary prayers say they fall within the latitude that Italy
allows for the church. Italy is a secular state but has a special treaty
with the Vatican, which provides that public schools offer an hour of voluntary weekly religious instruction, coordinated by local dioceses.
“The
majority of teachers and students in public schools are Catholics,”
said the Rev. Vittorio Zoboli, one of the priests who made the requests
to hold prayers. “So they are happy to have this.”
Even
as church attendance declines, the influence of the church on politics
and public life remains significant — and has been upheld in Italian and
European courts.
In 2011, the European Court for Human Rights overturned its own earlier decision
and ruled that state schools in Europe could hang crucifixes in
classrooms, concluding that they were “an essentially passive symbol
whose influence on pupils was not comparable to that of didactic speech
or participation in religious activities.”
That second ruling came after an uproar in Italy when the crucifixes were initially banned.
The
latest prayer controversy in Bologna emerged after priests began their
Lenten ritual of canvassing their parishes, carrying supplies of
consecrated water, in order to offer Easter blessings to shops, offices
and individual homes.
“There are many people who have never been to church — but they are happy to have their houses blessed!” Father Zoboli said.
Yet
a group of parents and teachers was not happy about blessing Giosuè
Carducci Elementary and two other schools in the same district. Angela
Giardino, a mother of a Carducci student, said she sent an email to all
the parents of her child’s classmates, trying to stir a discussion,
warning that the prayer infringed on the rights of non-Catholics and
could violate the Constitution.
“No
one answered me,” said Ms. Giardino, who added that she did not oppose
religion or anyone’s right to practice it (or their right to receive a
blessing) — only where it is conducted.
“Everything has a place, and the school is not the place for these blessings,” she said.
European countries delineate the church-state split in different ways. France is famous for its laïcité, a strict division that largely forbids religious expression in the public sphere.
“In
Italy, it is different,” said Francesco Clementi, a constitutional law
expert at Perugia University. “We do not have religion in the state, but
we have tradition and relationships that link the Italian Republic with
the Catholic Church.”
Many
Italian schools have nativity scenes around Christmas or hold
assemblies to sing Christmas songs. The argument is that these rituals
are part of the cultural legacy of Italy, a point contested by staunch
secularists.
“Is
it fair that everyone has to see this, even if some students are
Muslims, Buddhist or atheists?” asked Adele Orioli, legal adviser to
Italy’s Union of Atheists and Rationalistic Agnostics.
The Rev. Raffaelle Buono, who oversees religious education in the Bologna schools, disagreed.
“What
do you mean by this term ‘laity’?” he asked. “Two words: inclusive and
exclusive. The French way of understanding laity is to exclude. You have
to ban every religious symbol. In Italy, by tradition, we understand
laity as inclusive. You have to put value on your ‘belongings,’
including your religious ‘belongings.’”
He added: “It is not a matter of faith. It is a matter of belonging to a tradition.”
In
Bologna, the prayer controversy quickly rippled into local newspapers
and stirred anger on social media against the complainants. Some said
that liberals were willing to make special accommodations to Muslims but
not Catholics. Others warned that stripping schools of Christian
rituals would open society to an Islamic invasion.
The
March 12 school board meeting at Carducci Elementary was also
contentious. The board had selected March 20, 21 and 28 for prayers at
Carducci and the two other schools in the district. With anger boiling
over, the board voted for the dates.
“The
debate was heated because there is a lot of hatred against anything
that has to do with religion,” said Giovanni Prodi, 43, the board
chairman, after the meeting. “I am a practicing Catholic. I think it is a
good thing.”
The
court hearing will be held Thursday, and Italy’s association of
atheists and agnostics is also a party to the case. “We are defending
the laity of the state and of public schools,” Ms. Orioli said.
No
matter what the court decides, the decision’s impact will come. The
prayers were held at all three district schools last Friday and
Saturday. The prayer scheduled for this Saturday, two days after the
court hearing, has been canceled.
Dear H.E. Most Reverend Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano:
I am an employee of Nassau OTB, a New York public benefit corporation,
that closes on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday in
preference to the same holy days observed by members of the Eastern
Orthodox Church on different Sundays. NY Const Art 1, Sec 3 precludes
the State of New York from such religious preference. I am not a
Christian and believe that people should be able to freely choose their
days of work, prayer and/or betting on horses at Nassau OTB, a public
benefit corporation. The New York State Lottery is open every day of the
year and the slot machines in NY are open every day of the year. I would
like to be able to work on days that others may observe as days of
prayer. I acknowledge that the US is a Christian nation and the only
religious holiday on the US federal calendar is Christmas.
Would the Church express its opinion on this matter to its member
Governor Andrew Cuomo who is my Governor and charged with seeing that
the laws of the State of NY are "faithfully" executed?
My contact information is set forth below along with a background
article. More background material is available upon request.
Sincerely yours,
Jackson Leeds
Nassau OTB Cashier
1528 Kenneth Avenue
Baldwin, NY 11510-1601
(516)223-8407 (home)
> LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called
shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm
Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days,
even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a
Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some
irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re
not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of
Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the
Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or
not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday
alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and
Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New
York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5
million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI
clementi
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI
Health
FRANCESCO CLEMENTI is Associate Professor in the field 12E2 (IUS/21,
Comparative Public Law) in the Faculty of Political Sciences, University
of Perugia.He was researcher in Public Law at the same Faculty
(2006-2007), and previously Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law in
the Faculty of Law of the University La Sapienza, Rome (2004-2006), and
PhD in “Theory of the State and comparative political Institutions”
(Cycle XIV – 2003).
In 1998, he won the annual Graduation prize by “Primo Levi Foundation”.
He is member of the Board of the Doctorate in Public Law (Università di
Perugia) and professor of Italian and comparative constitutional law in
the Master Program of the Institute for Defense Studies (I.A.S.D). He is
component of the Working Group “Section Constitutional Law”, chaired by
Prof. Jean Massot and Prof. Philippe Lauvaux, the “Societe’ de
Legislation Comparee”.
Since 2011 he is lecturer at the School of Government of LUISS
I am looking to discuss BCG and its uses with one of your "errand boys" AKA and Esq or the like.
You will note that BCG is safe, effective and widely available for a variety of purposes. Thanks to the federal government et al, it is not widely available in the US. Perhaps one of your suffers from an autoimmune disease and like myself has a personal interest in good science and art. See also faustmanlab.org and pubmed.org faustman dl, and pubmed.org ristori + BCG.
My dead friend, author of the The Lancet p.106 Jan. 14, 1978 treated a wide variety of "veterans" at Fort Hamilton and was offered employment at St Vincents Hospital in Manhattan which his moronic wife told him to decline.
The article in the NY Times offers an errand boy's perspective on the use of old age and drugs, but the University of Rome Neurology Dep't et al shows you another avenue of approach.
Before Judges, the Godfathers Become Sick Old Grandfathers
Photo
Thomas DiFiore, center, after he was taken into custody by the authorities in January 2014.Credit
Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
Not
long ago, Thomas DiFiore cut an intimidating figure. For a time, he was
the highest-ranking member of the Bonanno organized crime family not
behind bars, despite a long record of arrests on charges of kidnapping,
assault, promoting gambling and extortion. Even at 70, Mr. DiFiore did
not seem to falter when challenging another aging Bonanno leader in 2013
for more than his share of a loan payment, according to prosecutors’
account of a government wiretap.
“ ‘Without
me,’ ” the other leader, Vincent Asaro, recalled Mr. DiFiore telling
him, “ ‘you wouldn’t a got nothing.’ ” Mr. Asaro, whose words were being
recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Mr. DiFiore made a
former Bonanno boss “look like St. Anthony.”
Yet
now, as he faces sentencing for federal unlawful debt-collection
conspiracy, Mr. DiFiore’s swagger has given way to a shuffle, and he is
talking about insulin and statins rather than payback.
He
is one of the “oldfellas,” Mafiosi whose lives of crime seem to have
succumbed as much to the ravages of age as to the relentlessness of
federal prosecutors. In courtrooms, they can be found displaying
catheter bags or discussing the state of their kidneys in hopes that a
judge will agree to a short sentence.
Photo
Vincent Asaro, a reputed leader of the Bonanno crime family, in Manhattan in 2014.Credit
Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency
Many
of these geriatric gangsters have been sentenced in Federal District
Court in Brooklyn, which covers the key territory of Brooklyn, Queens,
Staten Island and Long Island inhabited by New York’s five major
organized crime families.
Mr.
DiFiore, 71, who is to be sentenced in Brooklyn on Tuesday, has
outlined his drug regimen for the court: Lantus insulin shots every 12
hours; atorvastatin for cholesterol in the morning; amlodipine and
lisinopril for blood pressure; and one 325-milligram aspirin a day.
As
members of the Mafia seek to avoid lengthy prison terms, informers are
becoming more common, said Belle Chen, assistant special agent in charge
of organized crime for the F.B.I.’s New York field office.
The
prospect that these turncoats will face violent retaliation has
dwindled, experts say, because of both the protection afforded by the
witness-protection program and the increasing likelihood that a
participant in any such retaliation could wind up helping the
authorities himself. “There are too many potential cooperators these
days,” Ms. Chen said.
This
dynamic has allowed investigators to target decades-old crimes and
aging Mafia leaders, as has the federal racketeering act, under which
old offenses can yield fresh indictments.
As
a result, the federal courthouse in Brooklyn has been filled in recent
years with tales from an era when the Mafia loomed larger than it does
today, when it was linked to conspicuous acts of criminality like the 1978 Lufthansa heist at Kennedy International Airport — a $6 million armed robbery in which Mr. Asaro, 80, is scheduled to go on trial this fall.
Just this month, federal agents arrested
reputed Mafia members and associates in their 60s and 70s connected to
the New Jersey-based crime family long thought to have inspired “The
Sopranos,” the HBO drama that featured its share of aging mobsters.
Given
the age of the some of these defendants, court can occasionally sound
less like a legal forum and more like a hospital admissions ward.
Photo
Thomas Gioeli, a reputed Colombo family boss, in Manhattan in 2008.Credit
Louis Lanzano/Associated Press
Consider Bartolomeo Vernace, who was 65 when he was sentenced last year
in the 1981 killings of two owners of a Queens bar in a dispute over a
spilled drink. Like Mr. DiFiore, Mr. Vernace had detailed his
prescriptions for the judge: diltiazem, Accupril, Norvasc, Crestor,
Zetia, Actos, Plavix and Amaryl.
Prosecutors
have grown familiar with such litanies, and have contended that some
defendants appear to be exaggerating their medical problems in bids for
leniency.
Nicky
Rizzo, a Colombo family soldier who was 86 when he was sentenced for
racketeering conspiracy in 2013, said his health conditions included bad
hearing, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, poor blood circulation in one
leg, 20 medications a day and a need to use a pump with a catheter for
urination.
“He
stands in the bathroom for five-, ten-, 15-minute time period, he
attempts to urinate,” said his lawyer, Joseph Mure Jr. Mr. Rizzo lifted
his pant leg to show the catheter and urinary drainage bag to the judge.
Prosecutor
Allon Lifshitz responded that Mr. Rizzo’s “behavior in court today,
shuffling in from the back and the purported inability to hear, and the
groaning, should get zero weight.” He added, “It’s a joke.”
Judge
Kiyo A. Matsumoto, citing Mr. Rizzo’s health and age, sentenced him to
six months in prison, compared to the year and a half to two years
sought by prosecutors.
Some
judges have questioned the aging defendants’ conditions. Judge
Matsumoto, for instance, sentenced Colombo family member Richard Fusco
to just four months in prison for extortion conspiracy after he listed
ailments that included kidney failure, hearing loss and early-onset
Alzheimer’s disease, though reporters observed that his condition seemed to improve dramatically after he left court.
Frank Sinatra, standing, second from left, with friends, including Colombo family member Richard Fusco, seated, in 1976.Credit
Associated Press
Thomas
Gioeli, a Colombo family member convicted of racketeering conspiracy
charges, detailed his health woes at his sentencing last year: back
problems, a cardiac episode, diabetes and arthritis. The formerly
fearsome mobster was also, literally, toothless.
“I
have no teeth,” Mr. Gioeli told the court during his case. “I can’t
chew my food. I’m choking more frequently. My back is out, my hips are
out, my knee pops out.”
Just 61 when he was sentenced, Mr. Gioeli was “a very old 61 years,” his lawyer, Adam D. Perlmutter, argued.
“These
medical conditions are not feigned, they are real,” Judge Brian M.
Cogan said. Nonetheless, he sentenced Mr. Gioeli to almost 19 years in
prison, saying that the federal prisons system offered decent medical
care.
Whether prisons can in fact adequately handle aged and sick inmates is a question that many lawyers and defendants have raised.
Mr.
Perlmutter, Mr. Gioeli’s lawyer, complained that the staff at
Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Mr. Gioeli was held,
had not refilled his prescriptions.
The
lawyer representing Dennis DeLucia, a Colombo family captain sentenced
in 2013 to 34 months in prison for racketeering crimes at age 70,
pointed out that a year had passed since a dentist at the Metropolitan
Detention Center had recommended that Mr. DeLucia have a tooth removed.
As
Mr. DiFiore said while pleading guilty in October, “My health has
spiraled downhill, but I’m happy to say I am alive in spite of the
stellar medical treatment that I have received at M.D.C.”
Prosecutors
have said that the federal prisons do have good medical facilities.
Though they concede that Mr. DiFiore’s health is relevant to the
sentence he will receive on Tuesday, they are asking for a prison term
of roughly two years, as recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.
And
while Mr. DiFiore’s age may have contributed to his health problems,
prosecutors suggest it worked to his advantage as well, with his many
years in crime earning him “formidable” power and profits.
OPEN ON 1ST PALM SUNDAY, OTB RAKES IN $2M - NY ...
www.nydailynews.com/.../open-1st-palm-sunday-otb-rakes-2m-...
Daily News
Apr 14, 2003 - OPEN ON 1ST PALM SUNDAY, OTB RAKES IN $2M. BY Jerry Bossert ... Casey also said NYCOTB may open on Easter Sunday.
OTB FACES HAND SLAP OVER PALM - NY Daily News
www.nydailynews.com/.../otb-faces-hand-slap-palm-article-1.66...
Daily News
Apr 16, 2003 - ... OVER PALM. BY Jerry Bossert ... Aqueduct was also
closed on Palm Sunday, but OTB thrived on action from around the
country. "We are ...
Comments by openOTBonPalmSunday - The Daily Gazette
www.dailygazette.com/.../openOTBonPalmSunday/co...
The Daily Gazette
Feb 11, 2009 - From: OTB seeks to allow Palm Sunday betting ... By JERRY
BOSSERT DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER. Monday, April 14th 2003, 7:24AM.the right to work and/or bet without the Catholic Church imposing its religious preference upon non believers and infidels is abridged. The Feds launch an investigation of Andrew Cuomo son of the famous lawyer Mario Cuomo for closing Nassau OTB, a politician benefit corporation, on Roman Catholic Holy Days in preference to the same Greek Orthodox Holy Days observed on a different calendar day. If taxes are not paid in Greece why should they be paid in NY?
Nassau OTB employees and bettors need to be able to bet at Nassau OTB any day of the year that they wish just like the New York State Lottery and the New York Slot Machines.
No one lives forever and Nassau OTB may yet prove that it is no bettor than NYC OTB. Bankrupt.
At least NYC OTB opened the doors when bettors wanted to bet. Working for money, praying for money, evading taxes, all honest activities depending on your location?
HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.
Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called
shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close
on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm
Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days,
even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a
Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some
irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re
not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of
Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm
Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the
Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or
not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday
alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and
Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New
York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5
million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Oyster Bay Commissioner of Planning
and Development Frederick Ippolito at an Oyster Bay Town Board meeting
on Feb. 3, 2015. Photo Credit: Newsday / Ted
Phillips
Town
of Oyster Bay building and planning Commissioner Frederick Ippolito was
charged Friday with six counts of income tax evasion after "willfully"
failing to report more than $2 million in consulting fees from a Nassau
paving company and a family trust, federal prosecutors said.
Ippolito, 76, of Syosset, pleaded not guilty in U.S.
District Court in Central Islip and was released on $20,000 bond. He
left the courthouse without comment. If convicted, he faces a maximum
sentence of 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each
count.
Ippolito allegedly failed to report income from Carlo
Lizza & Sons Paving Inc., of Old Bethpage -- a firm that has worked
for the town, Nassau County, the state and is on the competitive bid
list for New York City's Department of Design and Construction, records
show.
He also allegedly failed to report income from the Lizza
Family Trust. A woman answering the phone at the Lizza company Friday
said, "We don't have a comment" and hung up.
Town Supervisor John Venditto did not return repeated
requests for comment, but town spokeswoman Marta Kane said the town had
"no comment."
Ippolito appeared in court Friday afternoon. The commissioner, who has had poor health in recent months, walked with a cane.
Magistrate Judge A. Kathleen Tomlinson summarized the charges and asked Ippolito to enter his plea.
"I'm not guilty, your honor," Ippolito said.
The prosecution did not ask for a bond, but Tomlinson said
she was "not comfortable releasing him on his own recognizance" and set
an unsecured bond. Tomlinson ordered him to surrender his passport, if
he can find it, and not to leave the jurisdiction without special
permission. He is scheduled to return to court on April 8.
Ippolito was informed of the charges Thursday and
surrendered to federal officials at the IRS office in Bethpage early
Friday, said his Williston Park-based attorney, Anthony Capetola. "We're
going to vigorously defend the charges," Capetola said. He said he had
not discussed the charges with his client.
Ippolito listed income from the Lizza sources in his 2014
financial disclosure form to the town, covering the previous year. Town
officials redacted the amount of income in those forms that were
provided in response to a Freedom of Information Law request.
Carlo Lizza & Sons has contributed $51,650 to various
election campaigns and committees since 1999, state campaign finance
records show. Most of the contributions were made to Republicans,
including Venditto, though the company contributed to candidates from
both parties.
Anthony Santino, spokesman for the Nassau County
Republican Committee -- of which Ippolito and Capetola are vice chairmen
-- declined to comment.
Ippolito has been a controversial figure as commissioner.
He is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the owner of shuttered
restaurant Café Al Dente in Oyster Bay. He was recently sued for
allegedly denying building permits to a woman who said she refused his
sexual advances.
John Capobianco, spokesman for the Oyster Bay Democrats,
said the federal charges were "the tip of the iceberg. We've been
sounding the alarm bells for years about the nepotism and the potential
corruption in the town, and finally it has come to light the stuff that
we have been talking about."
Capetola said the charges were not related to Ippolito's work with the town.
The charges resulted from an investigation by the criminal
division of the Internal Revenue Service, which found that from 2008 to
2013, Ippolito, "together with others," did not report income from the
paving company and family trust on tax returns, prosecutors said.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York Loretta E. Lynch, did not specify who else was
involved. It alleged that Ippolito evaded taxes by "willfully failing to
report it [income] on his personal tax returns" or on the returns of
"entities he controlled."
Those include CAI Associates Ltd., a consulting and
snow-removal business, of which Ippolito serves as president,
authorities said. The snow removal business, which operates under the
name National Snow Removal, has a contract with the Syosset Public
Library.
Unrelated case Last year a state appellate court upheld a lower-court
ruling that Ippolito was personally liable for back taxes owed by
Christiano's restaurant.
Ippolito worked as town building and planning commissioner
from 1978 to 1987. He then worked for Lizza & Sons, court records
show, before returning to the town in 2009. Town records show he was
paid $129,473 in 2013.
The U.S. Justice Department delivered a subpoena to the
town last year for Ippolito's financial disclosure form, sources said.
The subpoena did not seek any information relating to town planning
department business, they said. Federal officials have declined to
comment on the subpoena.
Last week, in an unrelated case, a state Department of
Transportation spokesman said Ippolito did not violate a state-issued
permit by storing boats on unpaved state property. That investigation
was prompted by complaints from Massapequa resident Robert Ripp, whom
the town prosecuted for storing his boat on unpaved property at his
home, a misdemeanor.
-- With Robert Kessler
OTB OPEN ON PALM SUNDAY | New York Post
nypost.com/2003/04/13/otb-open-on-palm-sunday/
New York Post
Apr 13, 2003 - For the first time in history, New York City Off-Track
Betting announced yesterday it plans to open today, Palm Sunday, to
accept wagers, ...
CORAL
GABLES, Fla. — He arrived a few minutes early — no entourage, just his
wife and daughter — and, sweating through a polo shirt in the hot
morning sun, settled quietly into the 14th row at the Church of the
Little Flower.
A
bit of a murmur, and the occasional “Morning, Governor,” passed through
the Spanish Renaissance-style church, with its manicured grounds and
towering palms, as worshipers recognized their most famous neighbor, Jeb Bush.
He held hands with the other worshipers during the Lord’s Prayer, sang
along to “I Am the Bread of Life” and knelt after receiving communion.
“It
gives me a serenity, and allows me to think clearer,” Mr. Bush said as
he exited the tile-roof church here on a recent Sunday, exchanging
greetings and, with the ease of a longtime politician, acquiescing to
the occasional photo. “It’s made me a better person.”
Twenty
years after Mr. Bush converted to Catholicism, the religion of his
wife, following a difficult and unsuccessful political campaign that had
put a strain on his marriage, his faith has become a central element of
the way he shapes his life and frames his views on public policy. And
now, as he explores a bid for the presidency, his religion has become a
focal point of early appeals to evangelical activists, who are
particularly important in a Republican primary that is often dominated
by religious voters.
Photo
Jeb Bush, then the governor
of Florida, praying before a cabinet meeting in 2000 in Tallahassee. “It
gives me a serenity, and allows me to think clearer,” he said of his
religion.Credit
Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
He differed from his church, significantly and openly, over capital punishment; the state executed 21 prisoners
on his watch, the most under any Florida governor since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976. But he has won praise from Catholic
officials for his welcoming tone toward immigrants and his relatively
centrist positions on education — two issues in which he is at odds with
the right wing of his party.
“As
a public leader, one’s faith should guide you,” Mr. Bush said in Italy
in 2009, explaining his attitude about the relationship between religion
and politics at a conference associated with Communion and Liberation, a conservative Catholic lay movement.
“In
the United States, many people think you need to keep your faith, put
it in a security box, if you’re an elected official — put it in a safety
deposit box until you finish your service as a public servant and then
you can go get it back,” he added. “I never felt that was appropriate.”
“You hear people say, ‘I don’t want to impose my faith,’ ” Mr. Bush told the newspaper The Florida Catholic days after leaving office in 2007. “Well, it’s not an imposition of faith. It’s who you are.”
The
son and brother of Protestant presidents, Mr. Bush, if elected, would
be the nation’s second Catholic president. Sometimes, he carries a rosary in his pocket and fingers its beads at moments of crisis. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and has retweeted Pope Francis. He was part of the American delegation
to the installation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, and during his
travels in the United States he sometimes attends Mass in local
churches.
Mr. Bush is not the first Catholic in his family. His great-grandfather George Herbert Walker was a Jesuit-educated Roman Catholic who married a Presbyterian.
Jeb
Bush, who was baptized in the Episcopal Church, began his journey to
Catholicism inadvertently when, as a high school exchange student in
Mexico, he met and fell in love with Columba Garnica Gallo. She is a
committed Catholic, despite having felt poorly treated by other Catholics
when her parents divorced. When the Bushes married, in 1974 (he was 21,
and she was 20), it was at the Catholic student center at the
University of Texas.
“Jeb
did not express any particular interest in converting at the time, but
he was aware of her responsibility to share her faith with her
children,” said the Rev. Charles J. Brunick, a Paulist priest who
officiated at the couple’s wedding.
Jeb
and Columba Bush raised their three children as Catholics, and Mr. Bush
went to Mass with his family. “It played an important part in our
lives,” he said by email.
D.
Michael McCarron, who at the time was the executive director of the
Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, recalled seeing Mr. Bush with
his wife during a Mass in Tallahassee in the late 1980s, when Mr. Bush
was Florida’s secretary of commerce. “At the time he was not a Catholic,
and I was struck by the fact that he would not take communion, which is
appropriate, and I just observed him kneeling and praying,” Mr.
McCarron said.
In
1994, Mr. Bush ran unsuccessfully for governor, employing language that
some viewed as mean-spirited, in part because of a comment suggesting
that he did not see a role for government in helping African-Americans,
and in part because of an ad he ran criticizing the incumbent governor for what he said was slow action on executing the murderer of a 10-year-old.
After
his defeat, he acknowledged that his marriage was experiencing some
stress and said he was going to take some time to regroup. During that
period, he began the formal process of becoming a Catholic, taking
classes at Epiphany Parish in South Miami.
“His
knowledge of the Bible was better than mine, and I was a cradle
Catholic,” said Dolores D. Holler, who at the time was an active
Epiphany parishioner and was assigned to help Mr. Bush as a sponsor
during the conversion process. “On Sunday afternoons he rode a bike to
church to go to Mass, and when it got really hot, he’d say, ‘Dee, could
you take me home?’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah, throw the bike in the trunk.’ ”
Mr.
Bush was officially received into the Catholic Church at the Easter
vigil of 1995, making a profession of faith and being anointed with oil
before receiving communion for the first time as a Catholic.
“I
had decided to convert after my campaign for governor, win or lose,” he
wrote in a 2003 email to a second grader in Texas who was working on a
school project about famous American Catholics. “My wife is Catholic and
we always went to Mass, so she was my principal motivation.”
He
has also suggested that concerns about the Episcopal Church, which has
moved steadily to the left on social issues and liturgical matters,
played a role in his decision.
Photo
Pope Benedict XVI greeting
Mr. Bush in 2005 in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. Mr. Bush
converted to Catholicism 20 years ago.Credit
L'Osservatore Romano, via Associated Press
“I
love the sacraments of the Catholic Church, the timeless nature of the
message of the Catholic Church, the fact that the Catholic Church
believes in, and acts on, absolute truth as its foundational principle
and doesn’t move with the tides of modern times, as my former religion
did,” he said in the speech in Italy in 2009. (Asked by email recently
what his concerns were, he said only: “I loved the absolute nature of
the Catholic Church. It resonated with me.”)
Mr. Bush’s second campaign for governor, in 1998, was characterized by modulated language; he trumpeted a newfound compassion, and won.
“His
campaign was still very conservative, but much more moderate in tone —
clearly, he had a different perspective,” said Matthew T. Corrigan, a
political scientist at the University of North Florida and the author of
a biography of Mr. Bush. “If you look at his policy positions, you can
see a strong connection to his new faith.”
As
governor, Mr. Bush turned to Catholic ritual at crucial moments. In
2004, he attended Mass in Pensacola after the area was hit by Hurricane
Ivan. In Tallahassee, he would at times join a group of state employees
who prayed the rosary on Mondays in a Capitol chapel, and he went to
Mass at Blessed Sacrament, a parish near the Governor’s Mansion.
“Initially,
we were surprised that he was Catholic,” said the Rev. John V.
O’Sullivan, who was the pastor of Blessed Sacrament during Mr. Bush’s
tenure as governor. “There was no standing on ceremony — he was very
open and friendly. And he seems to be devout.”
The
bishops who led Florida’s seven Catholic dioceses met annually with Mr.
Bush, often opening their gatherings with prayer. Each year, the
bishops would try to convince Mr. Bush that the death penalty should be
ended in Florida, and each year they failed.
Photo
Dolores D. Holler was assigned to help Mr. Bush as a sponsor during his conversion to Catholicism.Credit
Ty Wright for The New York Times
“Anybody
could see he was a devout Catholic — he was new to the Catholic faith
and took his faith seriously,” said Bishop John H. Ricard, who oversaw
the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese when Mr. Bush was governor. “He
approached the whole thing, especially the death penalty, with
seriousness and respect, but we just agreed we would disagree. We were
firm in our position, but I think he was sincere about his.”
At
one point, the bishops urged Mr. Bush to reject a plan to install wire
mesh screening around the cells of death row inmates to prevent them
from throwing objects; the bishops thought the measure was cruel. The
governor rejected their assessment.
“I
appreciate the Catholic Conference’s sincere commitment to advancing
public policy that complies with the teachings of our Lord,” the
governor wrote in an email to Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg.
“I hope you know that I try to do the same. When we seldom disagree, it
makes me very, very uncomfortable. Having said that, I will continue to
do what I think is right.”
Those
disputes notwithstanding, Mr. Bush has received praise from Catholic
leaders. Last year, he visited New York to help raise money for Catholic
schools, attended Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and won plaudits from
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, who interviewed Mr. Bush on his radio
program and then talked about him on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
“I
like Jeb Bush a lot,” Cardinal Dolan said in the television appearance.
“I especially appreciate the priority he gives to education and
immigration.”
Mr.
Bush is now courting Protestant leaders as well, presenting himself as a
man of faith who understands the concerns of religious voters. Last
spring, he hosted Russell Moore, a prominent Southern Baptist, in Coral
Gables, welcoming him to his office, having lunch with him, giving him a
tour and even driving him to the airport.
“He
talked quite openly about his own faith journey, and we talked about C.
S. Lewis, whose writings are significant in both of our lives,” Mr.
Moore said.
“Some
candidates feel that they have to talk about this, so they prep up to
do so, and then do so in an inauthentic and pandering sort of way,” he
added. “He seemed very confident in where he stands personally in terms
of his faith, and it was a very easy conversation for him.”
Correction: March 17, 2015
An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the religious
journey of former President George H.W. Bush. He was raised in the
Episcopal Church, and his wife, Barbara, was raised in the Presbyterian
Church; they were married in the Presbyterian Church, but have attended
Episcopal churches for decades. Mr. Bush did not join the Episcopal
Church of his wife.
Oyster Bay Commissioner of Planning
and Development Frederick Ippolito at an Oyster Bay Town Board meeting
on Feb. 3, 2015. Photo Credit: Newsday / Ted
Phillips
