Many pages in this Fox Television Stations, Inc. web site feature links to other sites, some of which are operated by companies unrelated to Fox Television Stations, Inc. Fox Television Stations, Inc. has no control over the content or availability of any linked site. TM and (c) 2009 Fox Television Stations, Inc., and its related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication, or distribution in any form is expressly prohibited. |
Blog Posts With the Most Comments
Double-Dipping Firefighter?
Growing up watching "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched," I learned that if you have magical powers you can be in two places at once.
Based on the paperwork we obtained, it appears the firefighter in our investigation was in two places at the same time.
Taxpayers were paying him to be a Deputy Chief in North Hudson Regional but time sheets at the Bergen County Fire Academy show him working for them on the very same days he is on duty at North Hudson. There are three possible explanations:
1. Sloppy Paperwork: He claims the Fire Academy was adding hours to his time sheets for extra work he did on a special project. He was pointing the finger at the Academy's bookkeeping procedures.
2. Double Dipping: Getting paid from two sources at once without any reasonable explanation. This could become a criminal matter.
3. Magical Powers: I think Jeannie used to "Blink" and Samantha used to "Twitch" her nose to be in two places at once.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
John
The Vanishing Husband
This story generated a lot of buzz within the station. It's one of those things that people will probably be talking about for a few days. To most, it might be amazing that a guy and his family would suffer through all of this because a guy caught riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. However, I ran this one by a lot of cops and a lot of people in the system and they say this type of stuff happens a lot.
Is it right that the NYPD is involved in this petty stuff in the first place? Most people and most cops from the "old school" would say the whole thing should never have happened. Why in the world even bother to stop a guy for riding his bike on the sidewalk?
Things have changed, these days police respond to orders from supervisors who may be responding to complaints from the community to go after certain infractions. The so called "quality of life" issues, that if left unchecked could lead to chaos. Once the stop was made and the guy didn't have I.D. it set up a scenario where the cops went by the book and arrested him.
Throughout the whole process, cops are told to use their "discretion." Just like any other profession, you have nice cops, cops that bust your chops, cops who assume everyone is a dirt bag, and cops who just want to kiss the boss's butt and go home. There is no evidence whatsoever that this guy gave the cops a hard time.
I'd love to hear your opinion.
John
>WATCH MY REPORT
DEP Party
The public ultimately owns the city cars, so I would like you to make a decision on the following:
If a DEP employee came up to you and asked if it's OK to take an official New York City-owned car to this retirement party, knowing there would be alcohol at the party, what would you tell that employee?
Before you answer, please read the following materials we've posted for you:
>RELEVANT PORTION OF CITY CAR POLICY
>DECEMBER 2008 E-MAIL TO DEP EMPLOYEES
>NEW DEP CAR POLICY (COVERS TAKING HOME A DEP CAR)
Like I said, you're the boss, so I'd love to hear from you. There is no right or wrong answer.
John
MTA Car
Little things can lead to bigger things. We started out on this story with a tip that a garage on Greenwich St. in lower Manhattan had several MTA cars in it.
The tipster wanted to know how much the parking was costing the taxpayers. While checking things out, we noticed that some MTA employee (who turned out to be Joseph Smith, the MTA bus boss) got a weird chauffeured ride a few blocks to work one morning. It was enough to keep us watching.
The next time we went down to the garage, we saw the guy who give Smith a ride, take Smith's official car on a one hour journey to fill it with gas. We thought it was odd that the same agency that seems obsessed with telling us to take mass transit was practicing some rather bizarre and seemingly wasteful uses of an official MTA car.
Then we saw Smith take his official car, park it in the taxi stand, and have a beer at a bar.
Probably the most interesting outcome of all this is Smith's own admission that taking his buses around town is sometimes not the most efficient way to do things.
As for the parking garage, it's owned by the MTA. The MTA leases it out and makes money on it, so the original tip was off -- but it led us to other stuff.
There are signs in the subways that ask us to report waste and inefficiency in the MTA. We were just doing our civic duty with this one.
I'd love to hear from you.
Battling Windmills
The fictional character Don Quixote fought windmills because he imagined that they were ferocious giants. We tried real hard to find out if the fear of the car wash windmill/wind turbine is based on reality or fiction. We tried to talk to Dr. Alan Bess, who was arrested for making internet threats against the car wash, he had no comment. He referred us to his attorney. His attorney, Walter Faust Esq. is a neighbor of his who has also spoken out against the car wash windmill. He never retuned our phone calls.
The mayor of Wayne, Christopher Vergano, has spoken out against the windmill, too: “When you look out your back door, you don’t want to look at a nuclear power plant, you don’t want to look at a wind turbine,” We went to the mayor’s office, he wasn’t in. We got his cell phone number and left two messages, he never called back, we went to his house, he wasn’t home. We called the mayor’s office again and we were referred to Township Zoning Director John Szabo. He never returned our calls.
There is a phenomenon out there known as “Wind Turbine Syndrome.” You can Google it and come up with all kinds of stuff. It is up to the scientists and doctors to determine if any of these problems are real and if they meet the true, unbiased test of long term medical research. The jury seems to be out on that one.
UPDATE:
The day after our story aired, Wayne’s Mayor, Christopher Vergano, did call me. He said he couldn’t comment on anything due to the pending lawsuit and that the Township is looking at their current wind turbine ordinance which bans the turbines within 1,640 feet of a residential area, a school or day care center.
I’d like to hear from you.
John
WATCH THE REPORT
Bill Collector
There sure is something absurd about a bill collector who owes so much money you have to send a bill collector after him!
After watching my latest story, you might be wondering why this guy hasn't been arrested. It seems that each and every case where he stiffed people on money was more or less handled as a business matter or a civil matter.
If someone could link many of the cases together and prove a "pattern of fraud" then he could face criminal charges.
It takes a lot of work and a lot of victims getting together to make that happen.
I'd love to hear your opinion!
John
Access-A-Ride Questions
The truly disabled by law are required to have equal access to most things so that they can live as normal a life as possible. At great expense, the MTA has tried to design buses, subways and trains to accommodate the disabled.
Access-A-Ride comes into play for people who cannot take a bus or subway for all or some of their trips. Those who qualify are provided with door to door service that costs them the normal $2.25 fare but costs the public a total of $66 a trip.
Based on what I've looked into, the MTA has done a fantastic job of trying to make this work. Federal law requires the MTA to provide this service, and the agency has contracted with private providers to coordinate an extremely complex system of picking people up and dropping them off when they request a ride.
The number of people using Access-A-Ride keeps increasing dramatically each year, and the cost to run the program is approaching half billion dollars a year.
The advocates for the disabled community are among the most vocal and politically active in the city. They rightfully speak up if the think they are being denied access. However, this puts the MTA under great political pressure not to make waves or offend anyone. It's a tough position to be in considering the agency has a disastrous financial mess on their hands.
There are two ways to tighten things up:
This is a touchy subject and we'd love to hear from you.
Wild & Rowdy On LIRR
So I went out east and pulled up to the station to see what the 8:28 was all about. Can I tell you -- it was scary! Even buying a ticket on the platform was tough because people in line were totally out of control. They were yelling, pushing, some passed out. I even had to dodge piles of vomit.
VIEW THE STORY
I wound up meeting a local cab driver and asked him about the scene. He told me people actually get naked in his cab on the way to the train. He didn't seem to mind that, but was disgusted when some of them were throwing up in the back seat.
The cops there were very helpful because every time we turned on the camera to shoot, people started jumping in front and screaming.
The one good thing is that these people are choosing to take the train instead of drive. The MTA cops beefed up security there: they ride the train to try to separate the party people from the Sunday regulars. But when I was on the train, it seemed like a very tough job to do. You can't lock people down in their seats, and don't even ask me about the bathrooms.
The LIRR and the MTA seem to be doing their best, but I'd like to know what you think. Do you think they could do more? Should regular commuters be forced into this frat party on the train? What about little kids who get exposed to it all?
I'd love to read what you think!
The Sergeant's Special Parking
All I can say is this one is weird. An NYPD sergeant gets to park his old covered-up Cadillac in a city-owned lot designed for official police vehicles?
The NYPD has not commented at all, but you can be sure they are looking into this one. It is extremely rare for another cop (even retired) to go on record against a fellow officer, so my guess is there is more brewing behind the scenes then we know about at this point.
Breast-Feeding Controversy
There's no question that breast feeding is one of the healthiest things you can do for your baby. Not to mention, the law in New York State says women have the right to breast feed in public.
But there are lots of people who get very uncomfortable about it.
It seems that's what started the whole thing at this café.
The mother says she was booted out for feeding her baby girl, but the cafe says that's not how it all went down.
They say they just asked her to cover up and never told her to leave.
After you hear both sides, we want to know where you stand.
Who do you think is right: The café or the mother? And what do you think about breast feeding in public?
It's a tricky thing for lots of moms, especially the ones who work full time! I have two young kids and I nursed both of them -- but I never did it in public. I just never felt comfortable. I would pump instead. I could even pump and drive at the same time on my way to work! How's that for multitasking?
And most of my friends did or do the same thing. But there are lots of women who feel differently about it. What do you think?
The Bay Ridge Wall
How would you feel if your neighbor put up a huge wall two inches from your house? What would you do about it?
Here's the catch: Unless there's some immediate threat to health and safety, the city can't come on the property and tear down the wall. So conceivably, the wall could stay up forever.
Your thoughts?
John
Cop Quota
We all know that there are quotas or "performance goals" for police officers when it comes to writing tickets. How many you have to write in a given time period depends on your exact role with the department. This time around we've uncovered a "mini quota" where a certain supervisor won't let a cop go home early unless he writes "X" amount of tickets.
I guess the good news here is that the NYPD has done such a good job cleaning up crime, ticket writing has become an obsession for certain supervisors. The bad news is that the public is the target of expensive tickets that they wouldn't normally get. I'd love to hear from you… your comments are anonymous and it's a good time for cops and the public to vent.
John
Traffic Agent Games
We know for sure that a traffic agent or a cop shouldn't be playing games while on duty. Even if it's the guy's break he shouldn't be seen in the police car playing video games or whatever he was fiddling with on his PSP.
The NYPD has been mum on this investigation, but insiders tell me the punishment can range from a slap on the wrist to a more intense investigation into exactly what this guy does while on duty. If indeed he was in the car and playing games for two hours as the guy in our story alleges he could be the target of a full-blown investigation into his ticket writing habits.
In addition to the pictures, the other questionable item is the "missing mirror" ticket. I talked to several police sources; many of them were on the job for more than 20 years. Most of them said they never wrote a missing mirror ticket and called it a baloney ticket (but they didn't use the word "baloney" they used a word describing something you wouldn't normally put in a sandwich). Curiously, the mirror was on the van when we saw it, and it didn't look like it was replaced.
I'd love to hear your opinion and especially would like to hear from traffic agents. They get a lot of flak on the street and in the media and deserve to have their voices heard anonymously on my blog.
Dumping Miss Daisy
Is the dumping of a tame house cat into the woods just an isolated case or is it part of a larger problem at Jersey City Animal Control? Why would Officers John Ross Jr. and Aaron Jordan, who admitted dumping Daisy, have done so?
Ross reportedly told the cat's owner he's been doing this for years and this is the policy when it comes to handling feral cats. But Daisy was not a feral cat. She's tame and had rarely been out of the house before.
Even feral cats are supposed to be spayed or neutered when they're picked up, according to Joe Frank, the director of Animal Control. Should Frank be the one to conduct the investigation?
By the way, if Daisy were wearing a collar with an identification tag, none of this would have happened. I'm told most house cats do not wear collars or ID tags, but perhaps that should change.
What are your thoughts on the dumping of Miss Daisy?
>WATCH MY STORY
Controversial Questionnaire
A controversial questionnaire distributed in a NYC public school has some parents up in arms, saying the whole thing is blatantly racist and the schools principal, Dr. Claudia Moore Hamilton should be fired.
The questionnaire was distributed at PS 96M and was only meant for educators within the school, but it soon made its way to angry parents and Fox 5 News. It’s now sparked a full blown Department of Education investigation.
The 1 page questionnaire includes 8 questions and deals with disruptive or problem students, but what has some parents so furious is that it asks educators to enter the number of disruptive/problem students according to race, in three categories: Black, Hispanic and Other.
While the city investigates, parents are demanding the school’s principal be fired.
>CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FORM AND VOTE IN THE POLL ON WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO THE PRINCIPAL
>CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE UPDATE TO THE STORY (THE PRINCIPAL APOLOGIZED)
Judges Rushed?
Most people don't fight parking tickets -- they either know they deserve a ticket (most people do) or they just don't want to deal with the drama of fighting a ticket -- so they pay.
There are also people who get a ticket, they know they deserve it, and they try to weasel out of it with some cockamamie story. I have no patience for people like that, just shut up and pay the ticket.
The problem is that a certain percentage of tickets are wrong and some are outright bogus.
Now, some people might say: "Oh it's just a parking ticket what's the big deal?" Well, the big deal is you've been charged with breaking the law. Many tickets exceed $100 these days, so your legal rights become very important.
Many judges have come to us claiming they are being rushed through these hearings, and the public is getting screwed. City officials say they are just trying to make things more efficient.
I'd love to hear your opinion.
John
Fox 5 Investigation: Pups for
In April 2008, Fox 5’s John Deutzman confronted a charity called Hope For A Cure (“HFAC”) at their annual Pups for Parkinson’s dog walk at Belmont Lake State Park. The charity had claimed that 100% of all donations were used for Parkinson’s research, but it wasn’t true.
After their true spending patterns were revealed, HFAC was closed and its Officers & Board members disbanded … but not for long. The Executive Director & the Secretary, along with at least 1 volunteer, recently reappeared with a new identity. They formed a new charity, and now call themselves “Pups for Parkinson’s Disease, Inc.” -- and they're having another dog walk!
The charity’s name is new, but everything else seems unchanged: It’s the same people in charge, same spokesdog (Baylee Cravotta), same logo, same Pups for Parkinson’s dog walk at the same L.I. park on April 19, 2009. Their website seeks online donations, but (as of this date) they still provide no disclosure - not even an address, phone number or names of officers & directors.
And, they still claim that 100% of all donations will be used for Parkinson’s research.
If you think this is an April Fools’ joke, think again. Just visit their new website: www.pupsforparkinsonsinc.org
So that’s my update on Deutzman’s excellent investigative report. His video serves as a great reminder about why people should check-out charities before donating. For example, Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) is a helpful website to assist you in identifying charities that deserve your support.
Unfortunately, it’s way too easy for just about anybody to get tax-exempt status and get away with doing little of anything charitable. To paraphrase an old saying: Let the donor beware.
Mystery Plates
Whether it is murder or a parking violation, it's awful to be accused of something you didn't do. In this case the guy's car hasn't left his garage in years and the plates are still in the wrapper in his New Jersey home. But somehow he got tickets not once but twice in Manhattan. Oh, by the way, the victim here is also a cop.
Instead of being concerned that there is someone running around with counterfeit plates or there's some fishy ticket writing out there, the system makes an innocent victim go through hell. The mentality of the judges in the scenario is absurd. They are making the assumption that the guy is up to something. He provides them with evidence that his car is a black Camaro not a blue Suburban but they want more proof… Huh?
In order to request more evidence or rule guilty, the judges would have to believe that this guy was switching plates on cars (a crime). But as esteemed officers of the court, they didn't report the "crime" they conjured up in their minds; they just kept on busting the guy's tail.
Since this was a New Jersey plate, the registration cannot be scanned with the so called "accurate" scanners. The plate is manually entered on the ticket along with other information. Many of the judges do not even know that the "accurate" can be manually overridden. They assume that since it's a scanned ticket that it has to be the right car… Wrong.
The State Supreme court (re: parking tickets) has ruled that unless a respondent's argument is not "patently incredible" or "obviously a lie" the burden of proof shifts back to the city. In this case the guy had a very solid argument. But the standard of proof here seems to be "Guilty until proven innocent beyond and above any reasonable doubt."
I'd love to hear from you.
Billboard Goes To Far?
A Calvin Klein billboard in SOHO raised ire but getting plenty of free publicity. It featured several young people in a sexy pose. Not everyone is happy about the giant ad above their streets. What do you think?
UPDATE: The billboard has been replaced with another sexy image.
What do you think of all this? Was the original image OK or inapprorpiate? Is the new ad any better or more of the same?
Leave a comment and let us know.
State Spending
The simple scoop is that as New Yorkers face a dire economic crisis, their legislators in Albany are spending more money just to run their offices and do business.
The State Comptroller's Website has fantastic information:
>OPENBOOKNEWYORK.COM
You can do your own investigations on all types of state agencies to see what they are spending.
As always, I'd like to hear from you too.
John