Keep corrupt, dishonest Andrew Cuomo from office, warns FDNY battalion chief whose parents died during pandemic
UFOA Board of Directors,
As you debate the difficult and complex decision of candidate endorsements, I wanted to express to my opposition to Andrew Cuomo's candidacy, or any attempt by him to return to public office.
Disgraced former Gov. Cuomo is corrupt, dishonest and uses well-known intimidation tactics to get his way, which is something my family and I have never bowed to. Let me explain.
During the pandemic of 2020, we were all given direct orders to lock down and do everything we could to stay away from the Covid-19 virus.
While we were in quarantine, we could no longer visit, nor care for, my elderly parents who were in separate care facilities.
My father, Mickey, a retired member of the FDNY and the UFA, was in a nursing home rehab facility, while my mother, Dolores, had just moved to an assisted living facility in a double room waiting for her husband of almost 60 years to get well enough to join her.
The illnesses that brought them to care facilities could not have come at a worse time. My parents died within 2-1/2 weeks of each other, and they died alone.
At the time, we had no idea that our former governor had issued a directive on March 25, 2020 to flood New York's senior facilities with over 9,000 Covid patients — a decision that we believe could have killed my parents.
We are not angry simply because an order was issued doing a chaotic and confusing time.
We are angry for the reasons the March 25 order was sent out, which was designed to be in the best interests of healthcare executives and not in the best interest of an aging population with compromised immune systems.
These decisions were based on politics and exacting control on the population, as opposed to science and public benefit.
For instance, the USS Comfort and the Javits Center stayed virtually empty during the crisis, while hospitals were packed with Covid patients well beyond capacity. No satisfactory answer was ever given.
Cuomo had us all fooled — beginning with his version of fireside chats. His daily pep talks were watched by the whole country and he did not see it as an opportunity to truly lead in crisis, but to set up his next political leap.
We found out that in the middle of the pandemic, he was writing his so-called leadership book, and on the public dime. With death tolls spiking, Cuomo thought the best use of his time and staff resources was self-aggrandizement.
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Keep corrupt, dishonest Cuomo from office, warns FDNY battalion chief whose parents died during pandemic
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This was not the only devastating leadership mistake that Andrew Cuomo made with his executive powers. He shut down businesses and churches, and kept our children out of school for over a year.
He mandated that our responders get vaccinated or be fired even though all of these brave men and women risked their lives and their health in the beginning of the pandemic. Many of them had already contracted Covid and had natural immunity.
I must add, in the spirit of full disclosure, that I filed a complaint in March 2023 (Newman v. Cuomo), as lead plaintiff, on behalf of my family in Brooklyn federal court against Andrew Cuomo.
I would also like to remind you that Cuomo left office in disgrace during serious sexual misconduct allegations, but his star was falling well before that thanks to some very vocal family members of nursing home victims, of whom my sister and wife are well known.
As an active battalion chief with 29 years of service to the FDNY, I hope that my letter will make you think twice before endorsing a man that does not care about the FDNY, its members, nor the residents of New York City. Do not be intimidated by him.
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
News Analysis: Newsom's decision to fight fire with fire could have profound political consequences
Deep in the badlands of defeat, Democrats have soul-searched about what went wrong last November, tinkered with a thousand-plus thinkpieces and desperately cast for a strategy to reboot their stalled-out party. Amid the noise, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently championed an unlikely game plan: Forget the high road, fight fire with fire and embrace the very tactics that virtue-minded Democrats have long decried. Could the dark art of political gerrymandering be the thing that saves democracy from Trump's increasingly authoritarian impulses? That's essentially the pitch Newsom is making to California voters with his audacious new special election campaign. As Texas Democrats dig in to block a Republican-led redistricting push and Trump muscles to consolidate power wherever he can, Newsom wants to redraw California's own congressional districts to favor Democrats. His goal: counter Trump's drive for more GOP House seats with a power play of his own. It's a boundary-pushing gamble that will undoubtedly supercharge Newsom's political star in the short-term. The long-game glory could be even grander, but only if he pulls it off. A ballot-box flop would be brutal for both Newsom and his party. The charismatic California governor is termed out of office in 2026 and has made no secret of his 2028 presidential ambitions. But the distinct scent of his home state will be hard to completely slough off in parts of the country where California is synonymous with loony lefties, business-killing regulation and an out-of-control homelessness crisis. To say nothing of Newsom's ill-fated dinner at an elite Napa restaurant in violation of COVID-19 protocols — a misstep that energized a failed recall attempt and still haunts the governor's national reputation. The redistricting gambit is the kind of big play that could redefine how voters across the country see Newsom. The strategy could be a boon for Newsom's 2028 ambitions during a moment when Democrats are hungry for leaders, said Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio. But it's also a massive roll of the dice for both Newsom and the state he leads. 'It's great politics for him if this passes,' Maviglio said. 'If it fails, he's dead in the water.' The path forward — which could determine control of Congress in 2026 — is hardly a straight shot. The 'Election Rigging Response Act,' as Newsom has named his ballot measure, would temporarily scrap the congressional districts enacted by the state's voter-approved independent redistricting commission. Under the proposal, Democrats could pick up five seats currently held by Republicans while bolstering vulnerable Democratic incumbent Reps. Adam Gray, Josh Harder, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min, which would save the party millions of dollars in costly reelection fights. But first the Democratic-led state Legislature must vote to place the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot and then it must be approved by voters. If passed, the initiative would have a 'trigger,' meaning the redrawn map would not take effect unless Texas or another GOP-led state moved forward with its own gerrymandering effort. 'I think what Governor Newsom and other Democrats are doing here is exactly the right thing we need to do,' Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said Thursday. 'We're not bringing a pencil to a knife fight. We're going to bring a bazooka to a knife fight, right? This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party,' Martin said, adding that they shouldn't be the only ones playing by a set of rules that no longer exist. For Democrats like Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who appeared alongside Newsom to kick off the effort, there is 'some heartbreak' to temporarily shelving their commitment to independent redistricting. But she and others were clear-eyed about the need to stop a president 'willing to rig the election midstream,' she said. Friedman said she was hearing overwhelmingly positive reactions to the proposal from all kinds of Democratic groups on the ground. 'The response that I get is, 'Finally, we're fighting. We have a way to fight back that's tangible,'' Friedman recounted. Still, despite the state's Democratic voter registration advantage, victory for the ballot measure will hardly be assured. California voters have twice rallied for independent redistricting at the ballot box in the last two decades and many may struggle to abandon those beliefs. A POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll found that voters prefer keeping an independent panel in place to draw district lines by a nearly two-to-one margin, and that independent redistricting is broadly popular in the state. (Newsom's press office argued that the poll was poorly worded, since it asked about getting rid of the independent commission altogether and permanently returning line-drawing power to the legislators, rather than just temporarily scrapping their work for several cycles until the independent commission next draws new lines.) California voters should not expect to see a special election campaign focused on the minutia of reconfiguring the state's congressional districts, however. While many opponents will likely attack the change as undercutting the will of California voters, who overwhelmingly supported weeding politics out of the redistricting process, bank on Newsom casting the campaign as a referendum on Trump and his devious effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress. Newsom employed a similar strategy when he demolished the Republican-led recall campaign against him in 2021, which the governor portrayed as a 'life and death' battle against 'Trumpism' and far-right anti-vaccine and antiabortion activists. Among California's Democratic-heavy electorate, that message proved to be extremely effective. 'Wake up, America,' Newsom said Thursday at a Los Angeles rally launching the campaign for the redistricting measure. 'Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assault. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health, his war against the American people.' Kevin Liao, a Democratic strategist who has worked on national and statewide campaigns, said his D.C. and California-based political group chats had been blowing up in recent days with texts about the moment Newsom was creating for himself. Much of Liao's group chat fodder has involved the output of Newsom's digital team, which has elevated trolling to an art form on its official @GovPressOffice account on the social media site X. The missives have largely mimicked the president's own social media patois, with hyperbole, petty insults and a heavy reliance on the 'caps lock' key. 'DONALD IS FINISHED — HE IS NO LONGER 'HOT.' FIRST THE HANDS (SO TINY) AND NOW ME — GAVIN C. NEWSOM — HAVE TAKEN AWAY HIS 'STEP,' ' one of the posts read last week, dutifully reposted by the governor himself. Some messages have also ended with Newsom's initials (a riff on Trump's signature 'DJT' signoff) and sprinkled in key Trumpian callbacks, like the phrase 'Liberation Day,' or a doctored Time Magazine cover with Newsom's smiling mien. The account has garnered 150,000 new followers since the beginning of the month. Shortly after Trump took office in January, Newsom walked a fine line between criticizing the president and his policies and being more diplomatic, especially after the California wildfires — in hopes of appealing to any semblance of compassion and presidential responsibility Trump possessed. Newsom had spent the first months of the new administration trying to reshape the California-vs.-Trump narrative that dominated the president's first term and move away from his party's prior 'resistance' brand. Those conciliatory overtures coincided with Newsom's embrace of a more ecumenical posture, hosting MAGA leaders on his podcast and taking a position on transgender athletes' participation in women's sports that contradicted the Democratic orthodoxy. Newsom insisted that he engaged in those conversations to better understand political views that diverged from his own, especially after Trump's victory in November. However, there was the unmistakable whiff of an ambitious politician trying to broaden his national appeal by inching away from his reputation as a West Coast liberal. Newsom's reluctance to readopt the Trump resistance mantle ended after the president sent California National Guard troops into Los Angeles amid immigration sweeps and ensuing protests in June. Those actions revealed Trump's unchecked vindictiveness and abject lack of morals and honor, Newsom said. Of late, Newsom has defended the juvenile tone of his press aides' posts mocking Trump's own all-caps screeds, and questioned why critics would excoriate his parody and not the president's own unhinged social media utterances. 'If you've got issues with what I'm putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he's putting out as president,' Newsom said last week. 'So to the extent it's gotten some attention, I'm pleased.' In an attention-deficit economy where standing out is half the battle, the posts sparkle with unapologetic swagger. And they make clear that Newsom is in on the joke. 'To a certain set of folks who operated under the old rules, this could be seen as, 'Wow, this is really outlandish.' But I think they are making the calculation that Democrats want folks that are going to play under this new set of rules that Trump has established,' Liao said. At a moment when the Democratic party is still occupied with post-defeat recriminations and what's-next vision boarding, Newsom has emerged from the bog with something resembling a plan. And he's betting the house on his deep-blue state's willingness to fight fire with fire. Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Laura Nelson contributed to this report.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
School struggle to solve chronic absenteeism problem since pandemic
Schools are struggling to get chronic absenteeism to pre-pandemic levels, five years after it spiked during COVID-19. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more than 10 percent of school days. Pockets of hope can be seen around the country, as some school districts have managed to get a handle on it. But experts say it could still be a long road until national success is achieved. During the height of the pandemic, national chronic absenteeism rates jumped to almost 30 percent from 15 percent, according to Attendance Works. Since then, chronic absenteeism has slowly declined but remains far from pre-pandemic levels. While data is still emerging from the 2024-2025 school year, the 2023-2024 academic year saw chronic absenteeism rates of around 25 percent. 'I believe that states and schools and school district leaders are working very hard to curb their attendance rates, and I believe that it takes a lot longer to address some of these things. But that doesn't mean that we should throw in the towel,' said Carl Felton, policy analyst on the P-12 team at EdTrust. 'I think that we have to continue to be consistent about setting clear attendance definitions, be consistent about supporting schools and leaders to make sure that they have the resources and strategic partnerships to support them with addressing chronic absenteeism,' he added. High rates of chronic absenteeism lead to poor academic and social outcomes, along with financial consequences for some schools. Attendance Works, a leading nonprofit aiming to fix chronic absenteeism, released a report showing the increase in data collection and transparency among states on this issue in recent years. It found 21 states have set tangible goals for their fight to keep kids in the classroom. Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works, pointed to multiple reasons chronic absenteeism becomes an issue, such student aversion to attending because of problems like bad grades, teenagers not engaged with the lesson plans or other students in meaningful ways, barriers like illness or home problems and misconceptions about missing school. It is important, Chang notes, for schools to address issues at the beginning of the academic year to 'help kids feel connected, help them feel engaged, make sure that there isn't anything pushing them out of school and create positive school climates.' 'It also makes kids and families more willing to share when they're experiencing a barrier so they can get resources to address it and makes them more likely to trust school staff when they're sharing information,' she added. Strategies deployed throughout the country have included better messaging systems to parents and students, changes in curriculum to keep students more engaged and overcoming barriers such as better access to transportation to school. Forty percent of school leaders put combatting chronic absenteeism into their top three most pressing issues for the last school year, according to RAND, a research nonprofit. The issue has persisted, especially in urban areas, which RAND found were five to six times more likely to see extreme chronic absenteeism rates. And one of the difficulties addressing the issues is some parents and students do not see the problem with it. RAND found one-quarter of students do not see chronic absenteeism as a big deal. 'The other thing that they're doing is tailoring approaches by the age group of students. So, districts are saying for younger students, the key here is about building habits for students and families, to build up feelings about the importance of being in person at school,' said Melissa Diliberti, lead author of the RAND survey. 'And then, as students get older, districts are kind of switching away to focusing […] more on engagement,' she added. 'One of the reasons that older kids might be less likely or more likely to miss school is that they don't feel as engaged at school.' While the situation seems dire, most experts said they believe schools will be able to recover to their pre-pandemic levels, albeit slowly. Attendance Works propped up Virginia and Colorado as two states that have successfully worked to combat chronic absenteeism. Virginia's chronic absenteeism rate rose to 20 percent during the height of the pandemic but is already down to 15 percent, pointing to local collaboration with everyone from bus drivers to principals, investments in tutoring and reading, and creating new messaging systems for parents and students regarding absences. Schools have 'to keep pushing through' and 'get more intentional and strategic,' Chang said. 'But the fact that you aren't quite seeing as quick reductions as you might have in the beginning shouldn't be a sign … don't feel discouraged about that, feel motivated about it, because it's a call that we have to do even deeper problem solving,' she added.
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘Is it the dying kind?'
Still, O must have sensed something was wrong. Usually calm and even-keeled, O started having sudden bursts of frenzy. His teacher, aware of my diagnosis, wasn't surprised to hear about his new behavior at home. She gently suggested that honesty — framed in a way he could understand — might help ease his anxiety. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Maybe the teacher was right, but how the hell do I do that? O loves Band-Aids — maybe I could start there. He was thrilled when I showed him the ones from my chemo shots and IVs — even more so when I brought a few special ones home just for him. On the days I was pumped so full of steroids I thought I might molt, we turned the jittery energy into epic Nerf baseball games in the living room. Now that I had begun letting him into the story, O's anxious edge faded, and he settled back into himself. That gave me the courage — if you can call it that — to finally say the dreaded c-word. I slipped it into the middle of a game of Sorry! like it was just another move. I'm not sure exactly how I said it. I was nervous — the only time I'd ever felt that way talking to O — and the words came out awkwardly. I do remember that what I said didn't seem to register. 'Cancer' meant nothing to him. Mine was his first. I wondered how much of my circumstances he was absorbing. Life, at least for him, seemed to have returned to normal. Then, one night while I was tucking him in, O, who was a master at avoiding uncomfortable conversations, surprised me by asking, 'Why do you go to so many doctors now?' We talked about how, even though I looked and felt mostly fine, my body couldn't fight off bugs as well as his and that I needed a lot of doctor visits to help me get better. I asked what he thought about wearing a mask at school, especially during sick season. My shy, COVID-era kiddo — who already had used a mask as a shield — started wearing one again without hesitation. That only made me feel worse. O rarely mentioned my illness, but then one day, he told my wife about the special breakfast he was planning to make me when I was 'all done with chemo.' She softly clarified that I might never be off chemo, even if the doses get lower. 'Why?' O asked. 'To keep the cancer levels down.' 'Papa has cancer?' 'Yes, of course. You knew that.' For a moment, he said nothing. Then his face brightened with a smile feigning revelation. 'Oh yeah.' 'Do you remember what it's called?' 'Muh-muh something.' 'Multiple myeloma.' A long pause. 'Is it the dying kind of cancer?' Somewhere along the way, O had learned that cancer could mean dying. We had never talked about that part. Another longer pause. My wife, not knowing how to respond, said, 'Well, the medicine Papa's getting is working really well.' He said nothing, and for the rest of the evening he played with unusual intensity, forcing laughter — the kind that seemed meant to drown out whatever else was there. I wondered if the perfect book could help. O treasures his books. But none of the ones I could find about illness felt right. If anything, I feared they'd make him feel worse. So, in a burst of steroid-fueled arrogance, I decided to write one myself, a story where the father actually said all the right things. I rewrote obsessively, dreaming about blue whales (O loves whales) in New York City subways. Finally, I landed on a story I believed would work for him. But the magic for O was in a physical book itself — choosing one from the library, getting lost in the illustrations, finding the perfect spot for it on his shelf. I later learned, though, that it might be a year or two before the book I was writing would be published. By then, O might not even care about whales. Then again, what if O was actually doing fine? Aren't kids supposed to be resilient? Yes, he now wore a mask to school, and we couldn't go on our beloved weekend subway adventures anymore. And I could no longer be his sick buddy when he was having tough nights. But he adjusted so quickly — maybe he just thought this was normal now that he was 6. Recently, O revealed that he'd been concocting a grand imaginary scheme to trap his mom. It started with a birdcage and escalated into locking her at the top of a tall tower with no door and no stairs. Then he decided he'd give her medicine to 'make her a little sick' and might need to build a coffin in case something went wrong. 'I am not sure I like this game,' my wife said. O, who'd presented his plan with good humor and without a hint of malice, said, 'I already made a plan in my calendar.' Maybe I should hold off on reading more Brothers Grimm to him, but I suspect it's his way of working through some complex feelings. On my next designated steroid day, I started writing a new book for O based on his wild scheme. If he could go into an imaginary world to control sickness and death, so could I. Through this circus of Nerf baseball and Band-Aids and tales of whales and birdcages, I had been so focused on how I would tell O that I had lost sight of what I was actually trying to say. I wrote this piece to try and figure it out. If this were an after-school special, I'd probably realize that all I really wanted to tell him was that I love him and I just had to find the right way to do it. Or that I had more to learn from him than he did from me. That is not where this landed, though. I finally know what I've been trying to say all along, but how the hell do I tell him I'm sorry?
