Staten Island is the borough most struggling with prescription pill abuse, according to new city data.

The borough experienced the largest increase of prescription pill-related deaths in recent years, the Health Department reported Tuesday.

Citywide, between 2005 and 2011, overdose deaths from painkillers shot up by 65 percent.

But in Staten Island, painkiller overdose deaths increased a whopping 261 percent during the same time frame, data showed.

“Prescription opioid painkillers are out of control in our borough and taking far too many of our loved ones,” borough president James Molinaro said.

In the five boroughs, 220 people died in 2011, according to the city, including 40 Staten Island residents.

Between 2008 and 2011, the Health Department added, the number of painkiller prescriptions filled increased by 31 percent, and oxycodone accounted for more than half of those prescriptions. The largest increase in users was among New Yorkers ages 25 to 34, according to city data.

Earlier this year, the Mayor’s Task Force on Prescription Painkiller Abuse suggested that emergency rooms should no longer hand out prescriptions for pills like oxycodone.

About 20 hospitals adopted this recommendation, according to the city.

The NYPD has also added GPS trackers to bottles in case pharmacies are robbed.

The city plans two conferences in June for Staten Island doctors and dentists next month to address addiction.

“Prescription opioids can be dangerous drugs,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said. “They are chemically and biologically very similar to heroin and, like heroin, can lead to addiction and fatal overdose.”

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Joseph Szczesny’s modest Staten Island home was inundated when Superstorm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast in October.

Now six months later, the 63-year-old bridge repairman and his fiance are all but alone in their Oakwood Beach neighborhood on the borough’s flood-prone Atlantic seafront. And they have had enough.

“If you stay, you’re rolling the dice,” Szczesny said, over coffee and a cigarette at his tidy kitchen’s table in late March. “And I don’t feel lucky.”

Szczesny and nearly all of his neighbors have volunteered to sell their homes to New York State under a $400 million program spearheaded by Governor Andrew Cuomo. So far $171 million has been approved. The first-term Democrat hopes to take more than 1,000 high-risk properties off the market and reduce the state’s future storm liability.

For those who qualify, the plan could pay them 100 percent of their property’s pre-storm value, a price most could never hope to achieve in the post-Sandy open market given the extensive damage many homes suffered and the prohibitively expensive flood insurance premiums potential buyers would face.

The program, among the most ambitious post-disaster property buyouts ever pursued, is one element of Cuomo’s bid to fortify New York against future natural disasters after Sandy effectively shut down the U.S. financial capital, flooding subway tunnels, spurring gasoline shortages, crippling the power supply and leaving thousands homeless for months.

“There are some parcels that Mother Nature owns,” Cuomo said in his state of the state address. “She may only visit once every few years, but she owns the parcel and when she comes to visit, she visits.”

With a reelection campaign looming next year and widespread views that he has ambitions beyond New York, it is vital that Cuomo be seen as delivering on his Sandy-recovery agenda.

CUOMO’S SANDY PLAN

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which Cuomo headed under President Bill Clinton, green lighted the first chunk of block grants that can be used for the buy-out program. The money comes from the $50 billion Sandy relief package Congress approved earlier this year.

The focus of New York’s proposal – which piggybacks on an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency program – is on substantially damaged homes in so-called V-Zones, some of the highest-risk areas on FEMA flood maps. Homeowners would get the full, fair-market pre-storm value for their property.

Those lots could not be redeveloped. Instead, they would be left as a natural buffer zone to protect against future storms.

Money from FEMA’s hazard mitigation grant program pays for 75 percent of those buyouts. The remaining 25 percent must come from local government sources – and after Sandy, that is likely to be the just-approved HUD funding.

Some homeowners may get up to 15 percent enhanced buyout payments – if they relocate in the same county or agree to move with a group of their neighbors, for example.

Separately, New York can also use HUD block grant money to buy homes inside the 500-year floodplain – but at their post-storm value. However, because they wouldn’t be purchased under FEMA’s program, the land could be redeveloped.

Cuomo wants to spend up to about $400 million on the buyout plan, his office has said. The average, unweighted median home value across Brooklyn, Long Island and Staten Island, the areas targeted for the program, is about $479,000.

Not all homeowners who have expressed interest will qualify, and some may ultimately decide to stay put. In the end, New York officials expect up to 1,500 homeowners could be bought out.

Next door in New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has said the state should use $250 million to buy about 1,000 properties. But there is no funding set aside for buyouts in Christie’s plan, approved last week, for how to use New Jersey’s first $1.8 billion chunk of HUD block grant money.

NOT SO FAST

Post-disaster buyouts are not new. FEMA has helped fund the purchase of more than 40,000 properties over the past decade, but the average transaction takes 12-to-18 months to close and large-scale purchases in a pricey market like New York’s are rare.

The Cuomo administration is hoping to complete its buyouts in just six-to-nine months, meaning transactions would close this summer, according to an administration official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the program.

But it could be much longer, if the experience of upstate residents washed out by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 is any guide.

Three hundred miles north from Oakwood Beach in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, dozens of property owners signed up for buyouts after Irene and Lee left the tiny hamlet of Jay a shambles. Twenty months later, just over half of them qualified for buyouts and not one has received a check.

The buyouts after Irene and Lee “have taken too long and involve too much red tape,” said Peter Cutler, a spokesman for New York State’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

“We have been working with the state of New York to help them streamline the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program,” a FEMA spokesman said in response.

STATEN ISLAND WOES

Oakwood Beach, has long been a tight-knit, working-class community, where people watched out for each other and children played in the streets. While less than 20 miles south of bustling Manhattan, it is a world apart, built next to a national park and surrounded by wetlands. It is a flood-prone area.

A 1992 nor’easter flooded the community badly, leaving several feet of water in the streets, according to resident Tina Downer.

Neighbors formed a flood victims group that pushed to build a berm themselves, but they were not allowed. They wanted a levy system, or for the creek to be dredged regularly as it used to be. They wanted the replacement of a flood gate or seawall, both of which had been destroyed over the years and never repaired, they said.

Eventually, they got “emergency” berm repair that took eight years to build, they said.

But the community’s organization back then is likely to pay off now. Buyout programs work faster when whole neighborhoods are united in their desire to sell and when local governments communicate well with state and federal officials.

“I believe that ours is going to be historic in terms of timing,” Downer said. More than 185 homeowners in a roughly four-block radius of Oakwood Beach are pinning their hopes on Cuomo’s promises.

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The post Jane’s Walks appeared first on Metro.us.

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

Those were the words of Jane Jacobs, the visionary urban planning activist who once wrote a treatise declaring “Downtown is for People.”

Jacobs went to bat against former Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, chairing a committee to stop Moses’ plan to build an expressway through Washington Square Park and the West Village.

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  Jane’s Walks

Jacobs’ legacy continues to resonate with New Yorkers today: in the comments section of a new YouTube video by anti-Spectra-Pipeline group Occupy the Pipeline, one commenter notes that the intended West Village gas pipeline will run alongside a toddler playground in Hudson River Park and laments, “What would Jane Jacobs do?”

This Saturday would have been Jacobs’ 97th birthday, and New Yorkers are invited to take to her beloved city streets for the Municipal Arts Society’s annual Jane’s Walks.

MAS is offering 100 free walks and bike rides that will allow community residents to explore their neighborhoods and examine and discuss what does and doesn’t “work” from every angle: from housing issues to immigrant rights to LGBT experience and more.

After half a lifetime of civic activism in New York City, Jacobs moved her draft-age sons to Toronto in 1968. She continued to be active in civic life there, and the first Jane’s Walk happened in Toronto in 2007, a year after her death in 2006. A group of Jacobs’ friends were looking for a way to memorialize her, and while ideas of a namesake park or street were floated, it was ultimately decided that the most fitting tribute to Jacobs would be “something that involved a lot of people and was active, and particularly that gave people a chance to get out and experience their neighborhood,” explained one of those friends, Mary Rowe.

Rowe, Managing Director at the Municipal Arts Society, noted that while Jacobs split her life between two major cities with a lot in common — New York and Toronto are both major waterfront cities with large immigrant communities, vibrant neighborhoods, and significant financial centers — and loved them both, all of her books are set in New York.

“Even when she was living in Toronto, she still set her books in New York,” Rowe said, noting that the books contained “lots and lots of lively conversation between characters.”

“She said she had to set those in New York because Canadians were too polite,” Rowe quipped.

Rowe marveled at the range of walks planned for this year, and explained an important aspect of the walks is that there is no real “leader”: they’re “hosted” by community residents. Rowe has hosted walks in three different cities, Toronto, New York, and New Orleans, and said that “invariably there are people in the group that point something out that nobody’s heard of.”

On one walk in Toronto, she recalled, they had stopped to discuss a seemingly out of place tree in the neighborhood, only to be approached by a woman nearby who explained that was “her tree”: she had been caring for it for 25 years.

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Volunteers running relief tents for Staten Island residents still struggling from the effects of Superstorm Sandy have been ordered by the Parks Department to relocate so the beaches can be readied for the summer reason, DNAinfo reports.

The five-tent complex, known as the Cedar Grove Community Hub, has reportedly been given three weeks to find a new base of operations.

They are currently set up at the entrance to New Dorp Beach, which the Parks Department wants to have open by Memorial Day.

Donna Graziano, the hub’s organizer, objected to the order, questioning the department’s understanding of local residents’ priorities.

“There are a lot of residents that don’t care about the park,” Graziano said. “They don’t have their homes.”

According to Graziano, no other location is large enough for all five tents, which have been steadily providing food, clothing, supplies and warmth to locals, some of whom reportedly still don’t have functional kitchens.

Tara Kiernan, spokeswoman for Parks Department, says the department is not only concerned with beach access but also needs to carry out work “to provide temporary emergency protective measures for the adjacent upland communities.”

She has advised the hub to coordinate with local nonprofits and community organizers to find a new home.

Andy Cush at Animal New York wondered if perhaps better problem-solving could be done.

“I’ve not been to the Cedar Grove hub, but there must be a compromise somewhere,” he said. “Can’t parks workers and beachgoers simply walk around the relief center on their way to the shore?”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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The state is trying to get rid of $12 billion.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is on a mission to find the owners of $12 billion in unclaimed money.

And $52 million of that is on Staten Island, DiNapli said Thursday in a trip to the Staten Island Zoo, where he delivered a check for $4,764 in unclaimed funds.

The money is free to claim, but it has been difficult to locate the owners, DiNapoli said.

The cash comes from inactive accounts that banks, insurance companies and other businesses are required by law to surrender to the state.

These unclaimed funds are held by the comptroller’s office until people can prove they are entitled to the cash.

To see if you are one of the people entitled to the $12 billion pool of cash, click here. 

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Police are looking for a woman who robbed at least eight different people over the span of two months in Queens and Staten Island.

Cops say Rehana Hussain, 43, targets mostly women as they are shopping, often taking their wallet or purse when the victim is distracted.

On Jan. 20, the suspect stole a wallet from a woman who was waiting at the cash register inside a Century 21 department store on Junction Boulevard in Queens. The thief struck again later the same day inside Shine Beauty Salon in Astoria where she stole from a victim’s handbag while it was left unattended.

The most recent incident occurred on Feb. 28 inside a Marshall’s store at 34-27 48th St. in Queens. The victim said she left her purse in a shopping cart unattended and noticed it was missing when she returned.

She has also targeted victims inside a Panera Bread, a DSW shoe store and Costco.

The suspect’s last known address is 143-48 41st Ave. in Flushing, Queens.

Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers’ website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577.

The post Cops seek thief targeting shoppers appeared first on Metro.us.

Six months after superstorm Sandy wrecked havoc on the city’s waterfronts, officials insist all beaches will be ready by Memorial Day, but some New Yorkers aren’t sure.

Firefighter Bradach Walsh, a regular surfer out at the Rockaways, said that July 4th “sounds way more realistic… if at all this summer.”

Walsh was speaking specifically of the concession area of the Rockaways, where all that remains of the boardwalk in many places are concrete pillars.

And according to Parks Enforcement Patrol union leader Joe Puleo, Staten Island beaches are a mess: a PEP officer recently ended up with a nail through his foot while on patrol at Midland Beach.

There is so much sharp detritus on the beach that their vehicles are frequently getting flat tires, a Midland Beach PEP officer reported.

The officer expressed doubts that the beaches could be ready in time.

“A lot of people are questioning it,” the officer said. “There’s a lot of construction going on, that’s for sure.”

The Parks Department insisted the beaches will be ready for swimmers on Saturday, May 25, but allowed that things won’t be back to normal right away, warning to expect “multiple service changes at each beach.”

“Some services that may have been in place before the storm are not going to be ready by beach opening because they were so heavily damaged,” Parks Department spokesperson Tara Kiernan said. “Some comfort stations had to be demolished and we’re looking at putting modulars in their place.”

After Hurricane Irene, there was a 93 percent increase in closing and advisory days for New York state beaches, according to reports from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

2011 saw 1,841 closing and advisory days, up from 956 in 2010.

The NRDC report said storm water runoff was the cause of contamination about 88 percent of the time in 2011.

Coney Island’s Luna Park, scheduled to open a week before Easter every year, was up and running this weekend, despite the amusement park needing its entire electrical system replaced.

Rockaway Beach Surf Club continues to fight for recovery

Concerned that donations and outreach have waned as time has passed, the Rockaway Beach Surf Club has partnered with Pop Up Yoga NYC on a monthlong series of non-profit yoga classes — all proceeds have gone to purchasing supplies and tools for beach re-building efforts.

The partnership wraps up with a party at Modca Cafe at 103 N. 3rd Street in Williamsburg on Wednesday. After a 7:30 p.m. yoga class, the afterparty will kick off around 8:30 p.m., and the winners of raffle prizes donated by local vendors will be announced at 9:30 p.m.

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Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota has been racking up support from GOP lawmakers throughout the boroughs, just days after former Gov. George Pataki endorsed rival candidate and supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.

The GOP delegation of the City Council came out for Lhota on Tuesday.

Councilman Dan Halloran said, “No incoming mayor will have had as much experience upon entering office as Joe Lhota does right now,” and Councilman Eric Ulrich based his endorsement on the belief that Lhota’s “hands-on approach and common sense ideas” are right for his middle-class constituents in Queens.

Councilman Vincent Ignizo pointed to the specific case of Fresh Kills Landfill, crediting Lhota with fulfilling then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s promise to close it.

The fourth member of the delegation, Staten Island councilman Jimmy Oddo, said simply that Lhota is “by far the superior candidate in the Republican primary.”

Bronx County GOP Chairman Jay Savino and the executive committee of the Bronx County Republican Committee have also placed their support behind Lhota, after a Monday night meeting that Savino said “provided [us] an opportunity to learn more about Joe on a variety of topics.”

“An open and honest exchange” apparently proved to the committee members that Lhota’s “proven leadership, in and outside of government, is exactly what New York City needs.”

Last week, two hours after former candidate Tom Allon dropped out of the race, reporters crashed a lunch Allon and Lhota were having in Midtown.

Lhota and Allon denied the lunch signaled an endorsement by Allon, calling the timing of the apparently long-standing meeting “happenstance.”

But Allon did credit Lhota with much of his decision to drop out.

“One of the reasons I felt comfortable jumping out of the race is because I knew Joe jumped in,” Allon said. “I feel that voters have a good choice now.”

When asked if he would be willing to offer Allon a spot in his potential administration as Catsimatidis had, Lhota responded, “It’s illegal to do that.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post Lhota rounds up GOP support from pols citywide appeared first on Metro.us.

The man wanted for the killing of a Staten Island mother while she was on vacation in Istanbul earlier this year made his confession to police Monday and described his brutal actions in detail.

Sarai Sierra, 33, was taking pictures near railroad tracks on Jan. 21 when she encountered the accused killer, a vagrant known as Ziya T. The suspect tried to kiss Sierra, but she hit him with her cell phone, causing his nose to bleed, The New York Post reports. Angered by her action, Ziya T. then punched Sierra and sent her rolling down an embankment.

The Staten Island wife and mother of two tried to fight off her killer for 30 minutes. At one point, she hit him with a rock. Ziya T. then picked up a rock and hit her in the head multiple times. He left her to die.

The suspect returned the next day, covered her body and discarded her belongings. He later fled to Syria but recently decided to turn himself in because he knew authorities were closing in.

Turkish investigators have linked DNA from Ziya T’s relatives to matter from under Sierra’s fingernails, the Post reports.

Sierra had left for Turkey on Jan. 7. Her body was found on Feb. 2.

The post Sarai Sierra’s killer describes SI mother’s final moments appeared first on Metro.us.

A woman has been arrested and charged with murder after police found her boyfriend shot to death in their Staten Island home on Sunday.

Police discovered the body of Christopher Bonafede, 39, around Sunday evening at 471 Ridgewood Ave. in the Arden Heights section of Staten Island. Bonafede had a gunshot wound to his head, police said.

Lisa McQuade, 38, was taken into custody. She has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

McQuade reportedly turned herself into police officers at Port Authority Bus Terminal after riding aimlessly on the subway for a few hours, according to the New York Post. She told police that her boyfriend had been beating her for a long time.

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Public advocate and 2013 mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio released a report today looking at an increase in fines against smaller businesses, which he says is overly burdening lower-incomes business owners in the outer bouroughs.

The report details an uptick in fines due to more frequent inspections, and suggests the increase was intended to compensation for a decrease in City revenues due to the recent recession.

According to de Blasio, the inspections disproportionately targeted certain boroughs and neighborhoods over others.

The agencies de Blasio’s report looked at most closely are the Department of Consumer Affairs  and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He said for the DOHMH between 2010 and 2012 there was a 55 percent increase in inspection visits and a 73 percent increase in violations issued. For the DCA, his report apparently found a 66 percent increase in inspections and a 102 percent increase in revenue from fines.

Both agencies apparently increased annual fine revenue by a combined $50 million, according to the report.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Cops say a Staten Island man stabbed his estranged wife to death Monday.

According to cops, around 3:40 p.m. Monday afternoon, police responded to an assault on Country Drive North in Staten Island.

They said they found a 44-year-old woman, identified as Ilona Ganzha, stabbed multiple times. She was declared dead on the scene, cops said.

A man, 44, was also found with apparently self-inflicted stab wounds, police said, and responders took him to the hospital in critical condition.

Police said today they arrested Adiljan Anarbaev, 44, and charged him with murder and criminal possession of a gun.

According to a law enforcement source, Ganzha and Anarbaev had been married but were separated.

She had a restraining order against him through October, the source said.

Police said Anarbaev violated the restraining order, showing up at the home, where they argued about finances and the pending divorce. Her son saw Anarbaev stabbing his mother, police said, and he ran to a nearby police precinct to get help.

Danielle Tcholakian contributed reporting.

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter: @reporteralison

Follow Metro New York on Twitter: @MetroNewYork

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A 22-year-old girl who appears as a “Blue Fairy” in an amateur music video that glorifies prescription drug abuse was among a group of 32 people arrested in a large narcotics bust on Staten Island this week, police said.

Sharissa Turk and 31 others between the ages of 18 and 54, have been arrested in an NYPD narcotics operation that found hundreds pills of Oxycodone, Vicodin and Xanax, as well as 250 grams of cocaine and 209 glassines of heroin.

Turk appears in the YouTube music video entitled “My World is Blue”, which features scenes such as people dancing inside Duane Reade and singing about drug use and culture on Staten Island.

The “Blue Fairy” sold Oxycodone to an undercover cop on three separate occasions. She was arrested at the gift store Edible Arrangements where she works on Wednesday and charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance. She was arraigned in Staten Island Criminal Court on Thursday.

Police also recovered a loaded 380-caliber semi-automatic pistol at the home of one of the suspects on Figurea Avenue.

Brian Piscopo, 29, also sold three firearms to undercover cops in two separate occasions last year.

The post YouTube ‘Blue Fairy’ and others caught in Staten Island drug bust appeared first on Metro.us.

New York City has unfinished business, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said today.

In his last State of the City address, he vowed to finish many projects undertaken during his 12 years as mayor, like the High Line, and launching some new ones, like curbside car chargers.

He spoke at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which opened in September and has hosted Jay-Z concerts as well as the Brooklyn Nets season.

Bloomberg said he would pack his remaining 320 days, including today, which was not only Valentine’s Day but also his birthday.

“We have unfinished business,” he said. “Our goal is not to spend the year cutting ribbons.”

He promised to finalize construction on the 7 train extension, which will go all the way to 34th Street and 11th Avenue in the planned Hudson Yards development.

Another of his projects, the High Line, will also be finished as the third part is finalized.

Also on the list? The Ferris wheel planned for the Staten Island shore, which he announced last year, and bringing Major League Soccer back to the city.

And he said he wants to ban Styrofoam packaging from stores and restaurants, like the kind found in many to-go boxes.

In another new proposal, Bloomberg suggested a pilot program for curbside vehicle charges that could fill up vehicles in 30 minutes.

He tackled a few crime topics, including marijuana arrests. The mayor said that starting next month, anyone arrested for having a small amount of marijuana will no longer be held overnight.

Alfredo Carrasquillo of VOCAL-NY said the announcement was a “step in the right direction.”

“Mayor Bloomberg stopped defending the indefensible and now recognizes that we cannot afford to criminalize youth of color for carrying small amounts of marijuana,” he said.

But Carrasquillo, who told Metro about spending two days in jail after a police stop and arrest for marijuana, said stop-and-frisk is a part of the problem, as many are found with marijuana during such stops.

During his address, Bloomberg defended the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk program.

“I understand that innocent people don’t like to be stopped,” he said. “But innocent people don’t like to be shot and killed, either.”

Uptown Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito expressed disappointment at the mayor’s vigorous stop-and-frisk defense, but she said the marijuana statements were “step in the right direction.”

“This policy shift is greatly encouraging,” she said in a statement.

And Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams applauded the decline in the incarceration rates that Bloomberg pointed out, but otherwise blasted his leadership.

“The use of spin and selective statistics cannot distract us from the reality that this mayor, for whatever personal reason, has time and again refused to chart a new course for New York City,” he said.

The post Mayor Michael Bloomberg vows more lenient marijuana policy in State of the City appeared first on Metro.us.

One homeowner stated that his tax bill will increase by $200 since the city claims his property value has gone up by nearly $80,000.

But residents say they are shocked because it is obvious that property values have fallen, and many homes are still far from being repaired.

Councilman Michael Nelson of Brooklyn called the increases “heartless” and believes the city must address the situation.

Property owners in other areas who also saw extensive damage from the storm, including Coney Island, Staten Island and the Rockaways, told the Post that they have also received tax hikes.

Homeowners have until March 15 to appeal to the city Tax Commission.

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A gun buyback at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in Staten Island on Saturday brought in 55 firearms, police reported. Two were loaded, and two had the serial numbers scratched off.

One of the weapons was an SKS .762 caliber assault rifle with a 30-round magazine. Governor Cuomo’s recent gun legislation regulated magazines to a maximum of seven rounds.

47 of the 55 weapons were handguns. Some city politicians, including Councilwoman Letitia James, have been calling for legislation focusing on handgun regulation, arguing that handguns are the city’s major problem. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly recently noted that only two percent of arrests for illegal firearms involve assault weapons, while 60 percent of the city’s murders are committed using handguns.

The NYPD’s gun buy back program has taken in over 8,100 firearms since it started in 2008. The program is completely anonymous; people turning in guns will not be asked to show identification or permits.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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As the body of a Staten Island wife and mother who was killed while traveling alone in Turkey was flown back home on Thursday, the circumstances surrounding her tragic death remain a mystery.

Sarai Sierra was found brutally beaten and killed last Saturday near ancient walls in Istanbul, after she never made it on her flight home on Jan. 21. At least 24 people have been questioned and subjected to DNA tests, but no arrests have been made, according to The Daily News.

Reports that Sierra had a sexual encounter with a Turkish man two days before her body was found, but prosecutors say they are not concerned with it.

A wake has been scheduled for Valentine’s Day, on the 15th anniversary of the day her husband, Steven, proposed to her. The funeral will be held the next day.

The post Body of Staten Island mom Sarai Sierra is returned home appeared first on Metro.us.

The body of a mother killed while traveling abroad in Turkey will be flown home tomorrow.

Sarai Sierra, 33, will be flown out of Turkey Thursday, according to the Daily News.

Her husband and brother flew to the country themselves when she never arrived for her flight home.

Her body was found this weekend. She had suffered a blow to the head.

Police are still trying to find her bag, which had her cell phone and iPad, according to the Daily News.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed to Metro that the agency is conducting an investigation into Sierra’s case.

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The total killed in one of the biggest storms to hit the United States jumped by a third on Thursday, to 98. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water on Monday.

Among the dead in Staten Island were two brothers, aged 2 and 4, who were swept from their mother’s arms after her car stalled in rising flood waters. Their bodies were found near each other in a marshy area on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island on Friday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored.

Scenes of angry storm victims could complicate matters for politicians, from President Barack Obama just four days before the general election, to governors and mayors in the most heavily populated region in the United States. Obama so far has received praise for his handling of Sandy.

“They forgot about us,” said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighborhood as having been “annihilated.” “And (Mayor Michael) Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on!”

Citing the boost it brings to the city’s economy, New York Mayor Bloomberg decided to hold the world’s largest marathon on Sunday, as scheduled.

Adding to heated tempers, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut drivers were also confronting a shortage of gasoline. Even before dawn on Friday, long lines of cars snaked around gasoline stations around the area, and police were in place at many spots to keep the peace between furious, frustrated drivers.

In one instance, a man was charged in the New York City borough of Queens with threatening another driver with a gun after he tried to cut in on a line of cars waiting for gas.

COLDER WEATHER AHEAD

Forecasts for colder temperatures only added to the tension, since many in New Jersey and elsewhere have been using fuel-powered generators to run lights and heaters while waiting for utilities to repair downed power lines.

At a Hess Station on late Thursday night in Fairfield, New Jersey, people waited more than three hours to fill-up their cars and gas cans. Four police officers directed traffic.

“This is a pretty apocalyptic situation. How far do we have to go to get gas – Tennessee?” said Ricardo Meehleib, 30, as he waited in line.

While power was expected to be returned throughout Manhattan by Saturday, it could be another week or more in suburbs and more distant towns along the coast. About 4.5 million homes and businesses in 15 U.S. states remain without power.

Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg’s decision to proceed with the marathon on Sunday, vowing the event – which attracts more than 40,000 runners – would not divert any resources storm victims.

“If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream,” New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account.

Staten Island, which lies across New York Harbor from lower Manhattan, is home to about 500,000 residents, many blue-collar workers whose families have lived there for generations.

In New Jersey, where at least 13 people were killed, entire neighborhoods in oceanside towns were swallowed by seawater and much of the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed.

“There’s nothing more precious to people than their homes. Those are where their families are, their memories and possessions of their lives, and there’s also a sense of safety to home,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said.

“That sense of safety was violated with water rushing into people’s homes at an enormous rate of speed and people having to literally swim, climb, jump for their lives,” he said.

COSTLY CATASTROPHE

The financial cost of the storm promised to be staggering. Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast.

At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe ever, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

In blacked-out New York City neighborhoods, some residents complained about a lack of police and expressed fears about crime. Some were also concerned about traffic safety.

“People feel safe during the day but as soon as the sun sets, people are extremely scared. The fact that Guardian Angels are on the streets trying to restore law just shows how out of control the situation is in lower Manhattan,” said Wolfgang Ban, a restaurant owner in Manhattan’s Alphabet City neighborhood.

The Guardian Angels are a group of anti-crime volunteers.

Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades.

The presidential campaign has returned to full swing after being on hold for several days because of the storm. Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney head of next Tuesday’s election, appeared to gain politically from his disaster relief performance.

Christie, a vocal Romney supporter, praised Obama, and Bloomberg, a political independent, endorsed Obama on Thursday.

The post Scope of Sandy’s devastation widens, death toll in NYC rises to 40 appeared first on Metro.us.

Officials were searching for the boys, identified by the Daily News as Connor Moore, 4, and Brandon Moore, 2, in a marshy area near Father Capodanno Blvd. Wednesday afternoon.

Their mother, Glenda Moore, told police her SUV became submerged in water before she got out of the vehicle with her two small children and tried to make it to higher ground.

A wave crashed into the family, ripping the boys from their mother’s grasp. Moore reportedly clung to a tree for her life and was forced spend the rest of the night trapped by the storm on a doorstep.

Hurricane Sandy has claimed at least 37 lives in the New York City area, Mayor Bloomberg said. At least 15 deaths have been reported on Staten Island.

The post UPDATE: Bodies found of two Staten Island boys missing after Hurricane Sandy appeared first on Metro.us.

Felicia Garcia, a freshman at Tottenville High School, tweeted, “I cant, im done, I give up” just two days before she threw herself in front of an oncoming train at the Huguenot station of the Staten Island Railroad, as several classmates helplessly watched in horror.

Garcia was reportedly suffering torment after two senior football players bragged about having sex with her to others at their school. The New York Daily News reports school officials caught wind of the gossip and set up a mediation session Wednesday with Garcia and one of the boys, who denied bullying her.

After the meeting, Garcia reportedly bumped into the other 17-year-old classmate with whom she had sex and the two had a confrontation, though the details of the conversation are unknown.

Shortly after, Garcia committed suicide. Police are questioning her classmates and looking through social media sites to find out exactly what happened to Garcia.

Tumblr users have created posts in her memory and called for a stop to bullying.

“How many more have to die before we stop? We are all to blame for this. It does not matter if you know her or not, we are responsible,” the site states.

The post Felicia Garcia: Staten Island teen commits suicide appeared first on Metro.us.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Cummings died after she threw herself in front of a city bus in December.

Police sources told the New York Post yesterday that, after speaking with the girl’s close friends and family members, they found no evidence that she was tormented in the days leading up to her death.
But Amanda’s uncle, Keith Cummings, told Metro he doesn’t believe it and doubts the police even looked at his niece’s cell phone.

After Amanda’s death, her phone held vicious text messages from other girls at her school, as well as from her former 19-year-old boyfriend, Keith said.

Cummings said classmates tormented his niece, a sophomore at New Dorp High School, after she started dating the older teen.

“There were kids outside her school that said she was bullied every day,” Cummings said. “I don’t think they would make up that stuff.”

Cummings said Amanda’s mother, Cecile Weber, also believes her daughter was bullied before her death.

Keith said Amanda was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment after she made suicidal comments in 2009.

A childhood friend of Amanda’s, 15-year-old Tyler Musante, said she never mentioned being bullied to him.

“I wouldn’t have expected that from her,” Musante said. “She was always the one to cheer us up.”

The post NYPD: Amanda Cummings’ suicide not a result of bullying appeared first on Metro.us.

“I want names. I want to know who these kids were,” Amanda’s uncle, Keith Cummings told Metro yesterday. “It’s not right we had to lose my niece over this. It was years of torment she went through.”
Cummings, a Staten Island sophomore, died from injuries she sustained after she jumped in front of a bus on Dec. 27, said the NYPD.

According to Keith Cummings, a suicide note Amanda was carrying when she died read that she was unable to live after recently breaking up with a 19-year-old man.

Cummings said his niece’s cell phone held threatening text messages she had received from both the 19-year-old and from other girls at her school, warning her to stay away from him.

Keith said he wants to report those who bullied Amanda to police.

“I want charges filed. I want something that’s going to give them torment in their life like my niece had,” Cummings said. “I want justice.”

A sister’s request

Cummings’ sister, Dawn Weber, wrote a message on Amanda’s Facebook wall yesterday, asking for information:

“As a sister, a mother, and a human being with a beating heart that is broken, i am begging you kids, anyone with any concrete proof of bullying toward my sister, please let me know. Please. I need witnesses willing to step forward to make legal statements.” 

Grieving mother lashes out

In addition to asking people to come forward with the names of Cummings’ alleged bullies, her mother, CeCe Weber, also lashed out yesterday on her daughter’s Facebook wall. “This is to all you evil son of a b****** that picked on, talked about and threatened my baby, I HOPE YOU DIE and I HOPE YOU SUFFER,” read her post.

A call for awareness

Vivian Rosario, a Manhattan mom to an 11-year-old, said the news of Cummings’ death struck a chord with her after reading about it in yesterday’s Metro. She was so moved she wants to organize a march or rally against bullying in an effort to prevent other teens from committing suicide.

“Enough is enough,” Rosario said. “It starts at home. It’s about raising your child to empathize and be respectful.”

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter @CassieatMetro.

The post Family of Amanda Cummings vows legal fight appeared first on Metro.us.

“I want names. I want to know who these kids were,” said Amanda’s uncle, Keith Cummings. “It’s not right we had to lose my niece over this. It was years of torment she went through.”

Cummings, a sophomore at New Dorp High School in Staten Island, died Monday from injuries she sustained after a witness reported seeing her jump in front of a bus on December 27, according to the NYPD.

According to Keith Cummings, a suicide note Amanda was carrying when she died read that she was unable to live after recently breaking up with a 19-year-old man.

Cummings said his niece’s cell phone held threatening text messages she had received from both the 19-year-old and from other girls at her school, warning her to stay away from him.

On Amanda’s Facebook profile, her family members lashed out at her bullies and called for those who know their names to step forward and reveal information.

Cumming’s sister, Dawn Weber, wrote a message on Amanda’s wall this morning asking for information:

“AS A SISTER, A MOTHER, AND A HUMAN BEING WITH A BEATING HEART THAT IS BROKEN, I AM BEGGING YOU KIDS, ANYONE WITH ANY CONCRETE PROOF OF BULLYING TOWARD MY SISTER, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. PLEASE. I NEED WITNESSES WILLING TO STEP FORWARD TO MAKE LEGAL STATEMENTS [sic].”

Amanda’s mother, CeCe Weber, also wrote on the wall earlier on Wednesday:

“This is to all you evil son of a bitches that picked on, talked about
and threatened my baby, I HOPE YOU DIE and I HOPE YOU SUFFER.”

Keith Cummings told Metro he wants statutory rape charges filed against the 19-year-old his niece had been seeing.

Today, he said he wants to report others who bullied Amanda to police.

“I want some charges filed. I want something that’s going to give them torment in their life like my niece had,” Cummings said. “I want justice.”

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter @CassieatMetro

The post Amanda Cummings: Family of bullied teen calls for justice appeared first on Metro.us.

Amanda Cummings, 15, died Monday at Staten Island University Hospital from injuries she sustained after a witness reported seeing her jump in front of a bus on Dec. 27.

She was clutching a suicide note when she was struck, according to the NYPD.

Her uncle, Keith Cummings, told Metro that the New Dorp High School sophomore had been bullied since the sixth grade.

The most recent incidents, according to Cummings, involved a group of female students who sent his niece vicious text messages after she became involved with a 19-year-old.

“They were threatening her to stay away from him,” Cummings said about the bullying Amanda endured. “There is no doubt in my mind that it played a role.”

“I want him charged with statutory rape,” he fumed about the 19-year-old male.

The NYPD said yesterday that Cummings’ death is still under investigation, but no criminality is suspected.

Family defends teen on Facebook

Diane Manfredi Cummings, Keith’s wife and Amanda Cummings’ aunt, lashed out at bullies through a message she posted on the teen’s Facebook page.

“Ive been reading some disturbing things on here about how Amanda was bullied…  for the girls that bullied her you should be ashamed of yourselves.. it makes you a very sad person..A very special girl was taken from her family way to soon.. So when you decide to bully the next girl remember Amamda,” the text read.

Another friend wrote, “What some people write on your wall is so disrespectful .. dnt pay any mind to them.” 

High school in shock

Students at New Dorp High School were shocked to learn of Cummings’ death Monday. The Department of Education told Metro there is a crisis team at the school for students and staff members to get grief counseling. 

Who was Amanda?

Those who knew the teen described her as a happy, outgoing person who spent a lot of time with her circle of friends. She would spend hours doing her hair and makeup, said her uncle, and loved experimenting with new looks.

Tyler Musante, 15, a childhood friend of Cummings, said he was shocked to learn that her death was a possible suicide.

“I wouldn’t have expected that from her,” he said. “Whenever she was with us, she seemed so strong emotionally. She was always the one to cheer us up.”

Musante said Cummings never mentioned being bullied to him. 

Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter @CassieatMetro

The post Family: Bullies drove Amanda Cummings to her death appeared first on Metro.us.

Amanda Cummings, a sophomore at New Dorp High School, was holding a suicide note and a witness reported seeing her jump in front of a bus near Hylan Boulevard by Hunter Avenue, according to the NYPD. Her uncle, Kenneth Cummings, told the Staten Island Advance that she had been bullied by other female students in the months leading up to her death.

Her Facebook profile is flooded with messages of support and grief from her friends and family members, who describe Cummings as an outgoing, talented girl.

“Ive been reading some disturbing things on here about how Amanda was bullied for those who truley loved her this isnt towards you for the girls that bullied her you should be ashamed of yourselves,” wrote Amanda’s aunt, Diane Manfredi Cummings. “Does it make you tough to bully other girls? Does it make you smarter or better ? maybe you should think upon your actions and the impac it has on other people and how actions and words hurt (sic).”

Another Facebook user registered as Marianna Macaroni wrote, “What some people write on your wall is so disrespectful baby .. dnt pay any mind to them (sic).”

A memorial blog features photos and stories about the teen. It is set up to accept donations for the cost of her funeral, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday at St. Ann’s Church in Dongan Hills.

The post Staten Island teen dies after she was hit by bus appeared first on Metro.us.

The inaugural Richmond County Craft Beer Fest will feature samples from two dozen of the region’s top craft breweries (including Sixpoint, Kelso, Brooklyn Brewery and Blue Point), as well as beer-focused bites from Staten Island eateries. Visitors will even be able to taste the goods of fellow NYC beer geeks participating in the event’s homebrew competition, which boasts a $1,000 top prize.

But Staten Island wasn’t always so beer-savvy. Island restaurateur Ken Tirado — owner of Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn, which will be serving German pulled pork roast with dark beer-caraway sauce at the festival — has witnessed the trend toward craft beer firsthand, though he admits it’s taken “a really, really long time” for New Yorkers to actively seek out specialty brews. “When I opened Adobe Blues [in New Brighton] 19 years ago, it was very easy to have the largest beer selection on Staten Island because all of the places just had Budweiser, Heineken and Molson,” he says. “Now I can put 10 different pumpkin beers on my beer list and sell them out.”

Worth the ferry ride

For those wary of a trek to Staten Island — even in the name of great beer and food! — organizers have taken care to make the festival accessible while showcasing the revitalization of the St. George neighborhood. The event will be held at the borough’s scenic Richmond County Bank Ballpark, home of the Staten Island Yankees, which sits on the shores of the harbor. “Just walk off the boat and the stadium’s right there,” says Tirado. “We wanted a vehicle to show tourists and non-Islanders that there are exciting things to do [in Staten Island], especially in St. George.”

The post Views and craft brews just a ferry ride away appeared first on Metro.us.

Construction workers Edward Tyler, 26, and Wendell Amaker, 48, both of New Jersey, found themselves submerged in a nightmare on Staten Island.

The two had been moving supplies for renovations at the former Staten Island Hotel when the elevator sunk to the bottom floor and stopped responding. That’s when water  from the flooded basement began leaking in through the locked doors.

“We thought we were dead,” Tyler told the New York Daily News. “I literally thought I was going to die.”

After frantically calling 911, the men finally reached rescuers, but could not give them an exact address, only an intersection. When the FDNY tried to call them back, their phones were already underwater.

“They dialed 911 15 times, but couldn’t get a signal,” Amaker’s wife, Debra Williams, told Metro.

“As we walked in, we heard people screaming,” said Ladder 86’s Captain James Melvin. “The water was up to their necks.”

Melvin and his men immediately cut power to the elevator and began to pry open the top hatch to rescue the pair. The FDNY team put a ladder through the top of the opening and down into the mix of rain and sewage water.

“There was no way they were getting out themselves,” Melvin said. “A couple more hours, they could have drowned. The water was semi-sewage.”

The men were brought to the nearby station house for a hot shower.

Williams was relieved after her husband’s ordeal. “I gave him a big hug,” she said.

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro.

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According to Metro’s analysis of the Department of Health’s data, 73 percent of Staten Island’s graded restaurants earned an “A” — higher than the citywide average of 69 percent.

Abdul says she pays attention to grades, but she also thinks there might be holes in the system.

Restaurant owners and industry experts say the methodology is unfair.

“This system causes small-business owners anxiety, fear and sleepless nights,” said Andrew Rigie, of the New York Restaurant Association. “A ‘B’ or a ‘C’ can mislead the public. If a restaurant is safe enough to serve the public, it should not be punished.”

The health department’s one-year program has also been marred by news of bribery allegations. In February, Jacob Isakov, the 26-year-old owner of Gan Eden restaurant on West 47th Street, was arrested when he attempted to bribe a DOH inspector with $100 for a favorable grade.

“There’s a game being played behind the letters,” Jason Stevens, the owner of reBar in DUMBO, said. “I’ve never bribed an inspector — which is obvious, because I’ve never gotten an ‘A.’”

Follow Emily Anne Epstein on Twitter @EmilyatMetro

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