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Brooklyn Today January 11: NYC Sues Five Major Oil Companies Over Climate Change

January 11, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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THE LEDE: Happy Thursday, Brooklyn! A prison guard allegedly rapes an inmate five times in Sunset Park, MTA can’t make up its mind, and we explore some of Red Hook’s priciest home sales. Plus, NYC is suing five oil companies, Iran’s Supreme Leader calls Trump “psychotic,” and Prince Harry andMeghan Markle make their first public appearance of 2018. Finally, an alligator lodges itself in ice, bats’ brains are frying in Australia, and four Republicans running for Congress are convicted criminals.
 
IMPRINT: President Trump eats fast food while watching CNN on the latestcover of New York.

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The Rundown
 

~ELECTRIC VS. DIESEL: MTA CAN’T MAKE UP ITS MIND ON BUS MODELS: As the saying goes, it’s one step forward, two steps back. In this scenario, however, it’s more like one step forward, 30 steps back. The good news is that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA announced on Monday the start of a three-year pilot program for 10 new, all-electric buses, which will reduce emissions and modernize the state’s transit fleet. The bad news, which theBrooklyn Eagle reported last month, is that MTA plans to add 200 diesel buses during the 15-month L-train shutdown. Using “lessons learned” from the pilot program, MTA intends to purchase an additional 60 all-electric buses. “While we are very pleased about the pilot’s resulting addition of 60 zero emission buses, this represents just one percent of the MTA’s bus fleet,” saidKat Fisher, the Sierra Club’s New York Electric Vehicles Initiative Organizer. She added, “With a third of New York City’s emissions coming from the transportation sector … it’s clear New York needs shorter pilots and bigger commitments for clean transportation solutions.” An MTA spokesperson told us that the pilot testing will determine if electric buses are feasible during the L-train closure. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~PRICEY HOME SALES IN RED HOOK: Ka-ching! The rowhouses Sanba Partners have built across the street from Red Hook’s elementary school are selling for big bucks. At the King & Sullivan Red Hook Townhomes, as they’re called, the median price for 2017 house sales was $2.63 million, a December report from PropertyShark.com said. According to city Finance Department records, a sampling of specific transactions includes Murray Butler andMaryanne Butler’s purchase of 84 Sullivan St. for $2,723,818. Also, Andrew Deitchman and Heather Baltz paid $2,698,362 for 121 King St. The addresses of the development’s 22 rowhouses are 109 to 125 King St. and 72 to 84 Sullivan St. Here are several other recent Red Hook property salesthat also caught our eye. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~VICTIM TESTIFIES BROOKLYN PRISON GUARD RAPED HER, THREATENED HER WITH SOLITARY: Gripping a tissue, a woman told a Brooklyn federal court jury and a full audience on Tuesday how she was repeatedly raped by a prison guard at a Sunset Park jail. “He stood me up, put me on the desk, continued to pull my pants down … and he penetrated me,” Maria said of Lt. Carlos Martinez. Martinez, 47, is on trial for allegedly raping the woman five times between Dec. 2015 and April 2016 inside the Metropolitan Detention Center. Maria recalled she was escorted by an officer to Martinez’s office on cleaning duty in Dec. 2015, already uncomfortable with the lieutenant after he previously told her to think about him while masturbating. “What happened after the officer left,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihataasked the woman in court. “Lt. Martinez raped me,” Maria said, choked up through a Spanish interpreter. When asked to elaborate, she explained that while bending down to collect cleaning supplies, Martinez turned around in front of her with his erect penis showing through his pants zipper. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~NYC SUES FIVE MAJOR OIL COMPANIES OVER CLIMATE CHANGE: New York City is suing five major oil companies, claiming they have contributed to global warming. Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city will be seeking billions in the lawsuit to recoup money spent by the city for resiliency efforts related to climate change. The defendants in the city’s federal lawsuit are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. A BP spokesman declined comment. A Shell spokesman said climate change is a complex issue that should not be addressed by the courts. The other three did not immediately comment. The lawsuit follows the city’s announcement that it plans to divest its pension funds from fossil fuel companies. Clara Vondrich of the DivestInvest campaign says hundreds of institutional investors managing assets of over $5.5 trillion have taken their money out of fossil fuels. The American Petroleum Institute has previously said the divestment movement is misguided. (AP via Brooklyn Eagle)

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Staff Picks:   
 

LONG READ: “Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid the Least?” (via NYT Magazine)
 
ANOTHER LONG READ: Retired NBA player Quentin Richardson writes to his younger self: ‘Even though you’re about to go through some real shit, you got the DNA of some motherf***ing go-getters.” (via The Players’ Tribune)
 
PODCAST: Listen to Azmat Khan, an investigative journalist for The New York Times Magazine, speak about what goes into an investigative piece(via Longform)
 
TRAVEL: The New York Times releases its interactive “52 Places to Go in 2018,” and there are some surprises, like Buffalo, New York. (via NYT)

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: Four Republicans running for Congress are convicted criminals…A federal judge tells Trump that he must keep DACA in place…And an alligator in North Carolina strategically lodges itself in ice to survive the cold. (via Huffington Post, NYT and USA Today)
 
FOREIGN FLASH: Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei callsTrump “psychotic“…A 7-year-old girl from Pakistan is raped, murdered and left in the trash…And bats’ brains are frying in Australia from extreme heat.(via NYT, DAWN and USA Today)
  
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 ROYAL WATCH:
 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make their first public appearance of 2018. (via WaPo)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT   
 

9:30AM — Tiny Tot Theater at Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Details.
 
10:30AM — DIY: Blogging 101 at Cypress Hills Library. Details.
 
10:45AM — Lavender Blues Music & Movement at Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Details.
 
11:00AM — Tai Chi at Clarendon Library. Details.
 
11:00AM – 1:00PM — Resume and Career Help at Sunset Park Library.Details.
 
1:00PM — Chinese Brush Painting at Paerdegat Library. Details.
 
1:00PM – 5:00PM — Fake News at Tabla Rasa Gallery. Details.
 
1:00PM – 6:00PM — Everything you do is Perfect at FiveMyles. Details.
 
7:00PM — The Hendrix Project at BRIC House Ballroom. Details.
 
9:00PM — Madame Morbid’s Trolley Tour at North Ninth Street & Driggs Avenue. Details.
 
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 EAGLE SPORTS: The New York Islanders could be skating out of Brooklyn as early as the end of the 2018-19 season, and heading back to their original home at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a couple of years. If, of course, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman deems the since-renovated facility “viable” to host at least a portion of the Islanders’ 41 home games per season. The franchise, which moved into Barclays Center in 2015 with what was then referred to as an “iron-clad, 25-year lease agreement,” is currently waiting for its new arena in Elmont, N.Y., to be built. The finalization of that construction project, which got the green light from Empire State Development last month but has yet to put a shovel in the ground, will likely take several years, leaving the Isles to play out the next two to three seasons here in Brooklyn. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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MILESTONES
 
Happy birthday to Mary J. Blige, Jean Chretien, Ben Crenshaw, Jim Hightower, Naomi Judd, Christine Kaufmann, Phyllis Logan, Amanda Peet, Kailash Satyarthi, Cody Simpson, Grant Tinker and Stanley Tucci!

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