The Web according to Samuel Rubenfeld, a journalist published in The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, Dow Jones Newswires, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram, The Hill, Village Voice, Newsday, Times of Middle Country and my alma mater's campus newspaper, The Hofstra Chronicle.
I'm 24 and living in Astoria, Queens. I listen to a ton of music and read a lot about politics, public policy, the news media and the future of journalism. I also am a big fan of the Knicks, Jets and Mets. Expect a heavy dose of things to read. • Ask me anything
Samuel Rubenfeld's Tumblr
I'm 24 and living in Astoria, Queens. I listen to a ton of music and read a lot about politics, public policy, the news media and the future of journalism. I also am a big fan of the Knicks, Jets and Mets. Expect a heavy dose of things to read. • Ask me anything
Samuel Rubenfeld's Tumblr
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[Javin] James claims after he yelled at the [NYPD], they tried to make sure he would not talk about what he saw. He says they came up to his apartment and broke his door in.
“When they surrounded me and looked at me with gloves on, I knew what was going to happen. I just had time to pull my glasses off. And by the time I did that, it was ‘boom’ [with a punch]. I did [put up my hands] like that to shield my face immediately. I tried to protect my face,” said James. “I’m shielding my face and this is exposed. He uses his right leg and stomps me here.”
James says then he was threatened.
“Forcibly told me, now tell me, ‘What you saw? Tell me if you saw anything. Tell me if you saw anything,’” said James. “So I said, ‘No,’ because of fear.”
”— Eyewitness To Bronx Police Beating Claims The Officers Then Went After Him - NY1.com (via 6h057)
(via 6h057)
![pantslessprogressive:
“Of New York’s more than 40,000 homeless people in shelters — enough to fill the stands at Citi Field — about three-quarters now belong to families like the Lewises and are cloaked in a deceptive, superficial normalcy. They do not sleep outside or on cots on armory floors. By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones. Many get up each morning and leave the shelter to go to work or to school. Their hardships — poverty, unemployment, a marathon commute — exist out of sight.
Underlying this transition is a cascade of events, both economic and political. For the past three years, city officials say, 30 percent of New Yorkers seeking shelter have done so because of evictions, many connected to the financial crisis. (Domestic violence and overcrowding were other chief reasons.) At the same time, a disagreement over money between city and state officials last spring led to the cessation of a rent-subsidy program designed to shift the homeless from shelters into apartments. For the first time in 30 years, there is no city policy in place to help move the homeless into permanent homes.
Ms. Lewis, a health care aide, was evicted last month from her home in Far Rockaway, Queens. She was working full time for Able Health Care Services of New York, making about $500 a week tending to an autistic man. In August, because of cuts in Medicaid, her hours were reduced by half. Six weeks ago, she separated from her husband, Gregory Pitters, a maintenance man, who, before he lost his own job, earned $600 a week. On top of this, the $1,000 rent subsidy Ms. Lewis was receiving from the city, through the now-defunct program Advantage, ran out. Her apartment, a small two-bedroom, rented for $1,200 a month. She now makes $210 a week. She owes her landlord $4,280. The problem was mathematical, she said: ‘I can’t afford the rent.’ […]
At 40,000 people, New York’s shelter population is higher than it has ever been. (In 2001, when it hit 25,000, the city’s commissioner of homeless services was quoted in The New York Times as calling it “a temporary crisis.”) On any given night, 6,000 homeless men and 2,000 homeless women bed down in facilities for single people, and an additional 15,000 parents and 17,000 children sleep in family shelters. Then there are the individuals living on the streets whom the city counted last week in its annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. (The numbers will be available in March.)” - Alan Feuer
Homeless Families, Cloaked in Normality](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyxf73pDHi1qzr73ro1_500.jpg)
“Of New York’s more than 40,000 homeless people in shelters — enough to fill the stands at Citi Field — about three-quarters now belong to families like the Lewises and are cloaked in a deceptive, superficial normalcy. They do not sleep outside or on cots on armory floors. By and large, their shoes are good; some have smartphones. Many get up each morning and leave the shelter to go to work or to school. Their hardships — poverty, unemployment, a marathon commute — exist out of sight.
Underlying this transition is a cascade of events, both economic and political. For the past three years, city officials say, 30 percent of New Yorkers seeking shelter have done so because of evictions, many connected to the financial crisis. (Domestic violence and overcrowding were other chief reasons.) At the same time, a disagreement over money between city and state officials last spring led to the cessation of a rent-subsidy program designed to shift the homeless from shelters into apartments. For the first time in 30 years, there is no city policy in place to help move the homeless into permanent homes.
Ms. Lewis, a health care aide, was evicted last month from her home in Far Rockaway, Queens. She was working full time for Able Health Care Services of New York, making about $500 a week tending to an autistic man. In August, because of cuts in Medicaid, her hours were reduced by half. Six weeks ago, she separated from her husband, Gregory Pitters, a maintenance man, who, before he lost his own job, earned $600 a week. On top of this, the $1,000 rent subsidy Ms. Lewis was receiving from the city, through the now-defunct program Advantage, ran out. Her apartment, a small two-bedroom, rented for $1,200 a month. She now makes $210 a week. She owes her landlord $4,280. The problem was mathematical, she said: ‘I can’t afford the rent.’ […]
At 40,000 people, New York’s shelter population is higher than it has ever been. (In 2001, when it hit 25,000, the city’s commissioner of homeless services was quoted in The New York Times as calling it “a temporary crisis.”) On any given night, 6,000 homeless men and 2,000 homeless women bed down in facilities for single people, and an additional 15,000 parents and 17,000 children sleep in family shelters. Then there are the individuals living on the streets whom the city counted last week in its annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. (The numbers will be available in March.)” - Alan Feuer
Can’t get enough of this dangass album lately.
Listened to this on the way home tonight.
Night Birds, at The Acheron, Brooklyn, NY (Taken with instagram)
“Russian researchers in Antarctica are on the verge of piercing a hole through two miles of ice into an ancient lake, untouched by the light of day for some 20 million years.”
— 20 Million Years Later, Russians Work To Drill Into Lake : NPR
American football in India? Believe it — India’s first professional American-style football league, funded by a long list of Indian and US investors — including former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka, and former Green Bay Packers linebacker Brandon O’Neil Chillar — will officially kick-off in November.
Kevin Dieball, one of the league’s investors, said India’s booming economy means football has huge potential there — even though cricket has been India’s sport of choice since the British Raj.
(Photo: The Elite Football League of India holds training in Pune, India. By Sindya N. Bhanoo, PRI’s The World.)
Yangon Rock City: Burmese Band Struggles To Raise Cash Amid Sanctions - Corruption Currents - WSJ
So, this is probably the coolest story I’ve ever been able to work on.
It’s hard enough out there for a band to break out of the crowd. It’s harder if the band can’t put out a record because of sanctions.
MTN Group To Probe A Rival’s Bribery Claim - Corruption Currents - WSJ
South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. said Friday it’s investigating a claim made by Turkey’s largest mobile-phone operator that it bribed its way to getting a contract in Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Shares of MTN fell on the news. According to MTN, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetlera AS accused the company of approaching Pretoria to support Iran’s nuclear power development program in 2005, and that MTN paid bribes to an Iranian and a South African government official between 2004 and 2005 to get a license to operate in Iran.
MTN has a 49% stake in Iran’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, Irancell, with the government as its partner, the Journal reported. Last week, MTN shook off calls from a powerful U.S. lobby group, United Against Nuclear Iran, for it to leave the country.
![capitalnewyork:
NEW YORK IS IN DANGER, UNDERWATER: A panel of climate change researchers and scientists say that New York City’s sea level will rise as much as two to five inches in the 2020s, and reach the double digits as early as the 2050s. “I think it’s not understood how serious the situation will be in coastal areas and what the costs will be to society at large,” Professor Klaus Jacob of Columbia’s Earth Institute, a member of the panel, said in an interview. “This will go into any urban area that’s on the coast into tens of billions of dollars.” [Read more]](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lytmum4FqM1qc0o3ko1_400.png)
NEW YORK IS IN DANGER, UNDERWATER: A panel of climate change researchers and scientists say that New York City’s sea level will rise as much as two to five inches in the 2020s, and reach the double digits as early as the 2050s. “I think it’s not understood how serious the situation will be in coastal areas and what the costs will be to society at large,” Professor Klaus Jacob of Columbia’s Earth Institute, a member of the panel, said in an interview. “This will go into any urban area that’s on the coast into tens of billions of dollars.” [Read more]
This week marks the ten year anniversary of the death of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent in South Asia, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002.
Read through the Wall Street Journal’s commemorative round-up of articles here. (Hat tip to Capital New York’s tumblr).
Here is an archived selection of some of Pearl’s front page stories.
The Who - I Can See For Miles
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think if you switch around some production priorities, this could be an MC5 song.
