(Long Island, NY) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today issued a warning for state agencies and businesses to be on the lookout for a scam involving phony invoices that have been sent across New York State. The mailings, from a California-based company called UST, appear to be a bills for telecom maintenance, but none of the recipients of these letters ever solicited or did business with the company. The invoices request payment for Telecom Maintenance Agreements in the sum of $425.
 
“Agencies and schools need to be aware that these mailers are nothing but slick attempts to defraud public entities of taxpayer dollars,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “My office will stand ready to pursue individuals who use deceptive practices and schemes to divert taxpayer dollars from their intended destination.”
 
To date, invoices have been mailed to the following state agencies: Department of Environmental Conservation, Department of Transportation, Canal Corporation, Office of General Services and Office of the Attorney General.  In addition, the Attorney General’s office has learned invoices were sent to several school districts (Indian River, Alexandria Central, Carthage, Copenhagen, Hermon Dekalb, Watertown) and the City of Auburn Police Department.
 
Attorney General Schneiderman’s office has sent a cease and desist letter to the company stating:
 
“This solicitation is deceptive and has the capacity to mislead the recipients of this invoice, potentially resulting in payments to UST for services that were neither ordered nor received. UST’s conduct violates New York State General Business Law § 349, which prohibits deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any business, trade or commerce or in the furnishing of any service in New York State.”

If you have an unresolved issue or believe you have been misled by this business, you can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office at: 1-800-771-7755 or contact the Better Business Bureau at: www.bbb.org.
 
To see the invoice sent to various entities click here: http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/press-releases/2012/UST-Invoices.pdf.
 
For a full copy of the cease and desist letter click on link: http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/press-releases/2012/UST-cease-and-desist-ltr.pdf.

(Long Island, NY) The Most Reverend William Murphy, bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, will preside on Sunday,

May 27, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at the Solemn Celebration of the Eucharist inaugurating Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church (168 Hill Street, Southampton, New York, 11968) in Southampton to the honor of minor basilica.

The Mass will be televised live on Telecare (Cablevision Channel 29/137 and Verizon FiOS TV Channel 296) beginning at 10:30 AM with a preview program.

Concelebrating the Mass with Bishop Murphy will be Rev. Msgr. Jeffrey Madley, pastor of the Basilica Parish of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

“I thought it would be a mark of recognition to the Catholics of the East End to have a parish with a distinguished history and a church building of remarkable beauty well supported by a congregation of faith receive this title,” said Bishop Murphy.  I believe it adds distinction to the Church on the East End as well as a recognition in which the parishioners can take pride and it will become more and more a place of pilgrimage with people from all over the island and beyond joining the parishioners in prayer and in the celebration of Mass.”

“Basilica” is a Greek term meaning the palace of a king.  Basil means king, a basilica is his palace.  From the IV century, the term, by extension, came to refer specifically to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the pope.  Thus the word retains two meanings today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.  Churches honored with the title basilica belong to two classes, major and minor.  There are four major basilicas in Rome (Saint Peter’s, Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major, and Saint Paul Outside the Walls) and 72 minor basilicas in the United States, in addition to more than 1500 other minor basilicas throughout the world.

Pope Benedict XVI announced the designation of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary as a minor basilica in December 2011.  The designation, in addition to expressing in a significant way the union of the local Church with the Chair of Peter, brings a number of privileges with it.  A basilica church is entitled to display the Coat of Arms of Vatican City on its façade and the crossed keys of Saint Peter on all its furnishings and liturgical appointments.

A basilica is granted three traditional emblems of honor.  The first is called the Ombrellina – umbrella – symbolizing the overshadowing presence of God and protection found in the Church.  To understand the symbolism of the Ombrellina we have to remember that only a Pope can designate a church a basilica and, when he does, that church becomes in a way his church.  It is from then on a papal church. 

Another emblem is the “tintinnabulum”, a bell mounted on a post.  In the past, the miniature bell in the basilica symbolized the calling of the people to greet the approaching Pope.  In modern times it reminds people to “ring out” the goodness and the glory of God.

The third privilege of a basilica is the right to display the papal insignia of the keys of Saint Peter on the façade of the building and on its own coat of arms.  That coat of arms in vivid colors should have a prominent place in the church.

About The Diocese of Rockville Centre
The Diocese of Rockville Centre (www.drvc.org) was formed in 1957 and covers 1,198 square miles in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  The diocese serves approximately 1,737,498 baptized Catholics (total population in both counties is approximately 3.4 million).  There are 134 parishes (1 campus parish) in 115 towns.  In 2010, 16,318 baptisms, 16,296 confirmations, 17,123 First Holy Communions and 4,773 marriages took place in the diocese.  There are 18,496 students in Catholic elementary schools; 12,328 students in Catholic high schools and 3,500 students in higher institutions.  There are 53 Catholic elementary schools (49 parish or regional and 4 private), 10 high schools (3 diocesan, 2 parish and 5 private) and one Catholic college in the diocese.  Catholic Health Services (CHS) of Long Island is comprised of six hospitals, three nursing homes, a regional home care and hospice network, and a community-based agency for persons with special needs.  More than 17,500 employees and 4,600 credentialed physicians work within the CHS system.   In 2010, Catholic Charities assisted more than 53,500 individuals who are poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged on Long Island.  (05/12).

• Photography and poetry will on display at the Quogue Library from June 2 through June 30, 2012, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, June 9, from 3 PM to 5 PM. The Quogue Library is located at 90 Quogue Street in Quogue, NY.
• All other media will be on display at the East End Arts Gallery, from June 8 through July 13, 2012, with an Opening Reception on Friday, June 8 from 5 PM to 7 PM. During this opening, gentle, friendly rescue dogs provided by the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation will be on hand (and on leash) to greet visitors in hopes for adoption.  The East End Arts’ Gallery is located at 133 East Main Street in Riverhead, NY.

How will guest jurors Richard Demato and Harriet Sawyer select the work? “We look for quality, originality and execution of technique – art that speaks to us and provokes thought,” comment Richard Demato and Harriet Sawyer.
 
There are a variety of ways for artists to approach this subject. Anatole France’s comments suggest one view: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened”, while Nora Ephron has some different feelings: “You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets”. East End Arts’ Gallery will be accepting original works in all media the week of May 29. All entries will be received at the East End Arts Gallery. Photography and poetry entries will be juried independently from all other media. For entry information and complete drop-off schedule, visit: http://eastendarts.org/TEMPfiles2012/ANIMALSprospectus.pdf.
 
The “Best in Show” winner will be one of several artists who will participate in the East End Arts Gallery’s Winners’ Show in the Fall of 2013. First, Second, Third Place, and Honorable Mentions will also be awarded.
 
The Animals Shows are one of six juried shows of 2012, under the umbrella theme of “Life as Art”. For the full 2012 Gallery Schedule and more details, visit http://eastendarts.org/gallery/PDF/2012GALLERYSched.pdf.
 
For more information, contact Gallery Director Jane Kirkwood at 631-727-0900 or gallery@eastendarts.org.
 
East End Arts, established in 1972, is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit arts organization, and operates a School of the Arts, an Art Gallery, and presents a variety of events and programs to promote the arts year-round. Proceeds from all events, sales, classes, donations, and memberships benefit the mission of bringing the arts to everyone and inspiring communities through service, advocacy and education.

(Great Neck, NY) Doris L. Martin, Partner/Director at Garfunkel Wild, P.C. (GW), was today named to Long Island Business News’ Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business at a gala awards dinner at the Crest Hollow Country Club.  Launched in 2000, the award recognizes the significant contributions of women professionals throughout Long Island.  Awardees are selected by a panel of business and community leaders based on the nominee’s business acumen, mentoring and community involvement.

Ms. Martin currently heads the GW Personal Services and Estate Planning Practice Group and the Tax Practice Group.  After joining the firm in 1994, she was made partner in 1998 and was recently made a director.  She also co-chairs the Discharge Planning, Patient Rights and Elder Law Practice Group.  Ms. Martin has extensive experience advising clients on estate planning, administration, litigation, charitable giving, elder law, tax-exempt organizations and qualified retirement plans.

Since joining the firm, her practice has encompassed all aspects of estate planning, including wills, revocable trusts, charitable trusts, insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, family limited partnerships, retirement plans and asset protection. Ms. Martin, who has a particular expertise in estate planning for physicians, also handles all aspects of estate and trust administration, including probate post-mortem planning and estate tax returns, Medicaid and elder law planning, and the establishment and operation of tax-exempt organizations.

Prior to joining GW, Ms. Martin was an associate in the Trusts and Estates Departments of Rogers and Wells, LLP in NYC and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, LLP in NYC.

Committed to the welfare of others, especially children, Ms. Martin served several terms as a Board Member for North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center, a mental health services provider for children and families, providing counsel on critical issues facing the guidance center.  She helped found the Tender Loving Care Foundation, an organization devoted to improving the experience of parents with children in neonatal intensive care units.  She also donates her time/expertise to the Douglaston/Little Neck Historical Society where she is a member of the Board of Directors.  Ms. Martin was also past secretary of the Bar Association of the City of New York’s Trusts, Estates and Surrogate Courts Committee.

Ms. Martin has been published in key trade journals, such as the New York Law Journal  and speaks and writes frequently on estate planning and healthcare decision making. She was profiled in Newsday in an “Ask the Expert” column about healthcare decision making and was also featured in New York Super Lawyers/Metro edition in 2011.   Ms. Martin holds an A.B., cum laude, from Smith College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Founded in 1980, Garfunkel Wild, P.C. (GW) maintains one of the most active health care practices in the Northeast, while also providing services to many non-health-related clients.  Always at the forefront of Federal and State developments, GW meets a full range of needs including strategic planning, complex transactions, exempt and taxable financing, white collar defense, litigation, fraud and abuse, estate planning, elder law, tax issues, real estate, licensing, capital formation, EPA/environmental issues, health information technology, privacy & security and bankruptcy.  GW maintains offices in Great Neck, NY; Hackensack, NJ; and Stamford, CT.  For more information, visit www.garfunkelwild.com.

(Long Island, NY) Today marked the public launch of a major new statewide campaign, Educate NY Now!  The purpose of the 12-month campaign is to address the growing education crisis in New York State’s public schools.  Educate NY Now! unifies parents, educators, administrators, unions, school board members, community organizations, education advocates and others statewide around a broad-based campaign to demand that our state government fulfills New York’s constitutional obligation to provide all students with a quality education.  The campaign will organize a series of activities to highlight the issues that Governor Cuomo and state legislators must address to put New York State back on a path to providing every student with a “sound, basic education” as required by the state constitution.

State policies have undermined educational quality in communities all across New York due to cuts in teacher and staff positions, college Advance Placement courses, career and technical education, afterschool programs, sports, tutoring, pre- kindergarten, kindergarten and more.  This erosion of the quality of education is the result of policies enacted in Albany and has led the State’s Commissioner of Education to warn that schools face “educational insolvency.”  A statewide media teleconference call held today to announce the campaign’s goals and agenda.

The campaign will enable local school communities to put a human face on how Albany’s policies are hurting schools.  The campaign brings together a broad cross-section of New Yorkers to organize local press conferences and other events to educate the public and dramatize the unfolding educational crisis, meet with legislators and state leaders, and participate in unified advocacy activities in Albany.

“Public education has a rich history as a vehicle for economic mobility and social justice in New York State.  Sadly, that promise is endangered today for tens of thousands of students by regressive state funding policies that threaten to both economically and educationally bankrupt schools in our lowest wealth communities.  Educate NY Now is a diverse coalition that shares one common goal – educational equity and opportunity for all of New York’s children.  I look forward to working with coalition members and others in the fight for educational excellence,” said Mike Glover, Genesee Valley BOCES Superintendent.

“This coalition will add strength to the voice of parents and community members who, like the education community, are gravely concerned about the deep cuts to their schools over the last three years and the undemocratic tax cap that is stifling their ability to provide students with the programs and services they need,” said Andrew Pallotta, NYSUT Executive Vice President.

“Public education is the key to building a strong economy. When we look to a region of the state to encourage business to expand, we first look to the school system. What programs are offered?  What opportunities are present to advance our youth and ultimately our future economic power?  The state drastically cutting and limiting its commitment to classroom funding is part of a pattern of starving regions of the state including ours. We demand change in the direction that leadership is taking our state. Our children deserve equal opportunities for quality educational programs and extracurricular activities, no matter where they live,” said Doug Wyant, Superintendent of Schools, Hornell City School District.

“Polls show New Yorkers agree that Albany is taking our state’s schools in the wrong direction, this coalition is designed to give voice to the vast majority of New Yorkers who want all our students to have quality public schools and to receive the ‘sound, basic education’ that is their constitutional right.  New York State has been steadily passing the burden down to local taxpayers but cutting its share of classroom funding, the state has to shoulder up its fair share for our kids,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education. 

“The common ground we stand on feels a lot like quick sand,” said Robert K. Libby, Cohoes Superintendent. “The erosion of state aid to low-wealth districts like Cohoes is threatening to rob a generation of students of the kind of education they deserve. I am hopeful this collaborative, year-round effort will serve as a reminder of the importance of equity in education and can ultimately make a difference for our students now and in the years to come.”

“New York ranks 44th in the nation in education funding equity, according to a 2011 Rutgers University study. The massive cuts in 2011-12 and 2012-13 education aid have exacerbated this spending gap between poor and wealthy districts and relegate our neediest children to underfunded schools. Small city school districts, with their needier student populations and lower property wealth, rely most heavily on state aid for providing core educational services. Thus, these unprecedented cuts to education funding have dealt a heavy blow to already ailing schools. The Educate NY Now! campaign calls for prompt solutions: Our children suffer an irretrievable loss each year that they are denied their right to basic educational opportunities,” said Robert Biggerstaff, Executive Director of the NYS Association of Small City School Districts.

“My children attend public school in Yonkers. My older child had an excellent experience with pre-kindergarten which helped him succeed in school. This year, pre-kindergarten for my younger child is only half day. Pre-kindergarten in Yonkers has been proven to increase high school graduation by 13% to 15%.  This devastating cut in children’s opportunity to succeed is the result of the misguided education policies coming out of Albany that are hurting our schools. According to the NY State Constitution, my children are guaranteed a ‘sound, basic education.’   That is why I am joining with parents, teachers, school leaders and communities all working together in this campaign that will make sure Albany fixes the problems it has created,” said Lekia Hill, Parent, Yonkers CSD.

• Dispose of the propane tanks first. The tanks must be “discharged,” or emptied, before they can be disposed of. Do not empty the tank by letting the gas escape through the valve; it is dangerous and bad for the environment. Many propane and BBQ grill retailers accept old tanks.
• Never store propane tanks inside a building. It is not only dangerous, it is also illegal.
• Once the tank has been disposed of, the rest of the grill can be recycled. Clean off any grease from the plastic and metal parts before recycling, as grease — like propane — can be flammable.
• Burn off the rest of the charcoal bricks in the grill. This can be done by simply leaving the grill alight until all of the bricks are gone. When disposing of the coals, wait until they have cooled down. Close the cover to avoid exposure to the heat, which would lead to burns. You can let them cool overnight or, for a quicker solution, pour sand over them. When the risk of fire has passed, dispose of properly in a non-combustible container.
• If you must dispose of the ashes before they are completely cold, place the ashes in heavy-duty aluminum foil and completely soak with cold water before placing them in a non-combustible container. Placing them in any other receptacle may cause a fire, especially if the receptacle contains flammable or combustible material.

“It is important that the gas tanks that are brought to Gershow Recycling are fully emptied,” said Elliot Gershowitz, Vice President, Gershow Recycling. “The contents are under pressure and, if they are not properly discharged, it can result in a fire, serious injury or death. We accept propane gas grills, but we ask that people properly discharge the tanks before bringing them to be recycled.”
 
Gershow Recycling has eight locations in the Long Island and metropolitan New York area: Brooklyn, New Hyde Park, Valley Stream, Freeport, Lindenhurst, Huntington Station, Bay Shore and Medford. For more information, call (631) 289-6188 or visit www.gershow.com.

Started in 1964 by Sam Gershowitz, Gershow Recycling began as a two man operation with a tractor and trailer, a boom truck and the first portable car flattener. Now with the second generation carrying on the legacy, Gershow generates over 750 jobs, contributing millions of dollars to the local economy, while helping to preserve Long Island’s environment. Gershow Recycling takes aluminum, brass, copper, steel, cast iron, appliances, cars and vehicles. In keeping with its philosophy of “Conserving the Future by Recycling the Past,” Gershow Recycling purchases scrap metal that would have otherwise wound up in local landfills, and turns them into high-quality scrap products for recycling. The company produces both ferrous and non-ferrous products.

Founded in 1939, WMHO is a not-for-profit corporation that develops and fosters community enrichment through cultural and educational experiences.  WMHO accomplishes this by enhancing and interpreting its historic and environmentally sensitive properties and by utilizing state-of-the-art technology. For more information, please visit www.wmho.org.