New York State Senator Kevin S. Parker
"Mock Duck Spicy Bamboo at Am-Thai Chili Basil Kitchen [vegan] - The mock duck is amazing at this tiny restaurant, a stone's throw from Green-Wood Cemetery. The texture is fibrous, dense, and dark, just like real duck, and stir-fried with green beans and bamboo shoots in a mellow coconut-milk sauce -- You just can't beat it."Am-Thai Chili Basil Kitchen
Veronica Guzman, co-president of the PTA at P.S. 230 (pictured above), has been named Citizen of the Week by New York City Councilmember Brad Lander's office. Congratulations on a well-deserved honor, Veronica!"This week, our office is pleased to honor Veronica Guzman, whose contributions to PS 230 and the Kensington community have touched many lives in significant ways. Her commitment to helping children and their families makes her our choice for Citizen of the Week. Ms. Guzman strives to help parents be involved in their kids’ education, as she believes that good values, morals, and education start with parents at home and continue at school.
As PS 230’s PTA co-President, she represents the parents of the students and is their voice in the school community. Despite all of the work that being PTA co-President entails, her work at PS 230 goes above and beyond, affecting children’s lives in countless ways. She founded the Gallery Night event, where the students’ artwork is auctioned and sold to raise funds for library books. She also organizes parents to help translate parent-teacher conferences with parents who do not speak English. She is also a part of the PS 230 Brooklyn Children’s Theatre, an after school musical theater program dedicated to fostering creativity, self-expression and teamwork through performance art. She was recently honored with a certificate of recognition from Senator Velmanette Montgomery as well as an Outstanding Service Award from the Department of Education for outstanding service and dedication to the children of PS 230.
Ms. Guzman has a particular passion for working with kids with special needs. She wants to make sure that they find the right teaching and learning environment. Her goal is to collaborate with schools to identify children’s specific needs and provide each individual with the assistance they deserve. She is also a part of the Title One committee, which examines the effectiveness of assessment for disadvantaged children, as well as the impact of using standardized testing as a means of assessing schools and individual teachers and the research on alternative forms of assessing student performance.
Before being involved with PS 230, Ms. Guzman collected toys to donate to kids with leukemia at the New York Methodist Hospital and collected blankets for the homeless. Ms. Guzman and her son also founded a non-profit organization called Stand by Me to help others in any way they could. Stand by Me has taken her to courtrooms, hospitals, clinics, high schools and immigration offices, and through the organization she’s translated letters for people who cannot speak English and taught kids how to help their parents file taxes without overpaying. Currently, she is working on a project with her daughter and a special team of volunteers to prepare our community’s schools and local hospitals to help kids with the mental and emotional issues.
Ms. Guzman immigrated to the United States from Mexico with her parents, who always told her that they had traveled to this country for a better life and so that they could make education a strong priority. She graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico with a B.A. in Child Development/Child Studies, received a certificate in Culinary Arts from the Institute of Culinary Arts, and is a certified nutritionist from the Allied Health Institute. Ms. Guzman has worked as a chef for the Spence School in Manhattan and as a catering chef at the Clever Company. Ms. Guzman’s goal, to help every child in her community have access to the best education and care that is possible, is an extension on her parents’ (now realized) hopes for her. Ms. Guzman’s story, of an immigrant who finds success in the United States and then works to help others, is a quintessentially American one."
Sean Casey Animal Rescue is located in the Kensington section of Brooklyn, NY. I reside a block away and volunteer to walk the dogs as much as I possibly can. They have a great staff and really give lots of love to all the animals which need it.
Elaine and I adopted our beautiful dog, Kelly, this past January. Kelly was struck by a truck in the Bronx in July, 2009 and Sean Casey took her and immediately brought her to the animal hospital across the street from us for about 2 months; they tried to save her back leg but couldn't so unfortunately, they amputated it.
She was then returned to Sean and stayed at the rescue for another 3 months until we made her part of our family. If it weren't for the generous donations the rescue receives, Sean wouldn't have been able to care for Kelly the way he and his staff did. They gave her love and nurtured her to bring her back from not only to better health but took the fear she suffered from her horrific accident. We thank them for introducing us to sweet Kelly who is loved by all of us at home. We couldn't imagine our daily life without her so this is why I would like to try and raise much needed funds for them.
These animals at Sean Casey need food, shelter, meds and other equipment/items. I have taken on the mission to organize a benefit and accepted the generosity of Dance/Freestyle artists to perform. DJ’s to spin and have other industry professionals help out any way they can. Some have committed to donating CD’s, posters, etc. along with their time to sing on behalf of Sean Casey Animal Rescue. I wanted to prove that the music industry cares!
So please come down and support SEAN CASEY ANIMAL RESCUE.
Community Board 12 voted tonight to approve the rezoning application for Culver Estates, shown in gray in the map above. Two board members voted against approving the application. Three other board members recused themselves from voting "because they have an interest" in the project.
June 21, 2010
Recent announcements to cut school-based budgets by 4% or more (approximately $300 million) will devastate and destabilize our public school system. These cuts are in addition to prior budget cuts to New York City's public schools that amounted to an additional 8% since January 2008 (approximately $600 million).
Teachers, parents, and concerned New Yorkers urge you to reconsider the school-based cuts and review the central administrative spending more closely, specifically the proposed spending on new positions at the Department of Education headquarters; private, no-bid contracts; standardized testing; accountability measures that don’t provide accurate results; and new teacher recruitment.
Please do not take more money from our classrooms. This will lead to larger class sizes, elimination of course offerings, and fewer enrichment programs in our schools.
I strongly urge you to reconsider the target of your cuts and spending. Find other alternatives. Protect our public schools and public school teachers and the strength of our local communities.
Do not play politics with our children.
Make education your priority.
Fully fund our public schools.
Yours truly,
A top-ranked borough commander caught a petty crook red-handed after the suspect broke into a van in Kensington, authorities said.
Angel Plaza, 45, was jiggling door handles of parked cars along Caton Avenue near East Fourth Street at 10:30 a.m. Monday when Deputy Inspector John Argenziano, commanding officer of the 78th Precinct, spotted him, sources said.
The commander, on patrol in an unmarked car, followed Plaza to Fort Hamilton Parkway and Dahill Road, where the suspect climbed into a van, sources said.
Argenziano and Lt. Michael Fargo grabbed the crook climbing out of the vehicle in possession of a stolen GPS, authorities said.
He was charged with petit larceny, said a spokesman for DA Charles Hynes.
