BSR_p004

HRR06152017

4 JUNE 16 – JUNE 22, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP CITY WARNS OF IMMIGRANTCENTERED SCAM Immigrants have been warned to stay clear of a new scam. Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Lorelei Salas has issued a warning about the “10-Year Visa Scam,” in which alleged immigration service providers are telling immigrants, through word-of-mouth and deceptive advertising, that they can obtain a visa or green card if they’ve lived in the U.S. for 10 years. What scammers fail to disclose, said Salas, is that, as part of the process for obtaining a green card or visa based on residency, applicants must first enter deportation proceedings – just one of many requirements that officials say aren’t easy to fulfill. For more information or for free legal help with citizenship applications, call 311 and say “citizenship appointment” or call the NYCitizenship Hotline at 1-212-514-4277. ALLEGED BUSHWICK GANG MEMBERS INDICTED Twelve alleged Brooklyn gang members have been indicted. The defendants, who range in age from 17 to 26, are alleged to be members of a Bushwick-based street gang called "True Bosses Only," or “TBO,” whose purported territory extends approximately between Broadway and Wyckoff Avenue, and Cooper and Madison Streets. Charges include conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and weapons possession in connection with 10 separate shootings that left seven people injured. The indictment further alleges that members of TBO have feuded with three other violent street gangs – “Elm Street Piru,” “Loot Gang” and “900 Gang” – which allegedly operate near TBO territory. The criminal activity is said to have stemmed largely out of a struggle for geographical control as well as an alleged desire to retaliate for prior shootings. LOCAL POL’S BILL AIDING ISIS GENOCIDE VICTIMS PASSES HOUSE The House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 6 passed a bill – co-sponsored by local Congressmember Dan Donovan – supporting religious minorities affected by ISIS’ acts of genocide in Iraq and Syria by providing vital assistance to survivors and improving the system for investigating and prosecuting those behind the attacks. Donovan last year introduced legislation that would allow the U.S. to use funds seized from ISIS to help reconstruct Middle East communities affected by the terror organization. Last year, the United States declared ISIS atrocities against Christians, Yazidis and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East genocide. —Meaghan McGoldrick BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photo by Helen Klein A sinkhole opened up on 77th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues on the evening of Monday, June 12. Sinkhole opens on 77th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues BY HELEN KLEIN [email protected] A sinkhole approximately three feet in diameter, smack in the middle of the roadway, shut down 77th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues on the evening of Monday, June 12. According to one resident of the block, the sinkhole began as a depression in the middle of the street and quickly opened up, as neighbors gathered in the dusk to catch up with each other and watch the youngsters playing. "It took under an hour. We were out here and we could hear the cars hitting something," she reported. "It was just a small depression but it kept getting bigger and bigger." By 8 p.m., a police car was stationed at the side of the sinkhole closer to Fifth Avenue, where a temporary barricade had been put up to prevent traffic from coming down the block. Adjacent to the sinkhole was an additional barricade. While many Bay Ridge blocks have had to cope with sudden sinkholes — such as one five years ago on 79th Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues that was caused by a damaged sewer pipe, and another mammoth one that same summer on 92nd Street between Third Avenue and Ridge Boulevard that nearly swallowed cars — this is the first sinkhole that the block has experienced, according to one longtime resident, who said that she thought the burst of hot weather might have had something to do with it. In addition, she told this paper that the street gets "a lot of illegal truck traffic" since it's the only street between Bay Ridge Parkway and 86th Street that goes through to Seventh Avenue, providing access to the Staten Island-bound Gowanus Expressway and the Verrazano Bridge beyond. "It's just volume and heat," she opined. By press time, the Department of Environmental Protection had not responded to a request for comment.


HRR06152017
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