Expired Medications Sold Illegally at Queens Flea Market | NBC New York

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The FDA says it’s illegal, but it’s being sold to anyone right out in the open, and the people doing it don't seem to care that selling illegal and expired medications put lives at risk.

NBCNewYork.com went undercover at the aqueduct flea market in Ozone Park, Queens, where these kind of medications are sold for a steal.

On a bitingly cold Saturday afternoon, the flea market at the Aqueduct Race Track is packed with people buying everything from makeup, old candy, and clothing.

But taking a closer look at the goods being hawked you’ll find a more nefarious lineup of goods -- expired, over-the-counter medications like Robitussin, Claritin, and even children's medications, like Dimetapp.

The expiration dates range anywhere from a few months past the guaranteed safety date to years expired.

Pediatrician Greg Yapalater says the main concern with meds like these is not so much that they are expired, but rather the uncertainty of where they come from – whether they’ve been stored properly or if they’ve been tampered with.

“Buying junk for a dollar is still junk. Buying poison for a dollar is still poison. Why go that route? There are other ways. Go with the generics in the pharmacy. They're always going to be cheaper”, says Yapalater.

To watch video report...click here

News 4 confronted the vendors and asked why they were selling illegal goods and where they got the medications.

In response the reporter and cameraman were called named and screamed at to leave. No one could tell us the origin of the products.

The Flea Market’s managers told News4 the vendor in charge of stand selling the illegal drugs is a man named Pat Flynn.

Flynn denied he was in charge and would not answer questions.

By the time News 4 alerted the Market’s authorities the goods were quickly swept into a box and taken away.

Aqueduct Flea Market says they will revoke Pat Flynn’s permit. The market maintains that it checks twice a day for illegal products being sold. Still customers say they see the stuff being sold every market day – out in the open for anyone to see. State officials assure us that the proper authorities will be by the flea to stop vendors like Flynn from continuing to sell expired meds.

Cops to California Voters: Legalize It! by Charles Davis - Criminal Justice | Change.org

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Listening to the critics, you'd think the only people calling for an end to marijuana prohibition in California were a bunch of deadbeat, dirty stoners -- which, if true, might be cause for concern, as polls show most residents of the state support legalizing the much-maligned weed. But contrary to stereotype, a broad coalition supports Proposition 19, the initiative on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana, from labor unions to law enforcement, with dozens of retired cops and judges lending their support to the argument that it is prohibition -- not pot smoking -- that poses the real threat to society.

"I was basically a drug warrior until I saw what was happening in my own courtroom," James Gray, a retired Orange County Superior Court judge, told reporters on a press call Monday. "And then I started learning, seeing, watching, that the tougher we get with regard to non-violent drug offenses, literally the softer we get with regard to the prosecution of everything else, like robbery, rape and murder. Why? Because we only have so many resources in the criminal justice system."

Gray spoke to mark the release of a letter signed by more than 30 retired law enforcement officials in California voicing support for Proposition 19. Put together by the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the letter blasts the status quo as a boon to organized crime and calls "for new laws that will effectively control and tax cannabis," an effort signers say will dry up one of the leading sources of funding for the increasingly violent Mexican drug cartels.

Indeed, whatever one's views about the drug itself, the war on pot is "not working and it hasn’t reduced the use of marijuana," retired San Jose police chief Joseph McNamara argued on the call. Its illegality, meanwhile, "produces enormous funding for drug cartels and drug gangs and violence," he noted. "The violence is not because people are getting stoned on marijuana. It’s caused by the whole gangster syndrome that exists when you establish criminal prohibition and drive the profits and prices up."

That message -- that pot legalization is less about condoning its use and more about making our communities safer -- is echoed in the letter, addressed to the "Voters of California" and signed by former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, among other notables.

"As criminal justice professionals, we have seen with our own eyes that keeping cannabis illegal damages public safety -- for cannabis consumers and non-consumers alike," the letter says. "If California's voters make the sensible decision to effectively control and tax cannabis this November, it will eliminate illegal marijuana distribution networks, just as ending alcohol prohibition put a stop to violent and corrupting gangsters' control of beer, wine and liquor sales."

The letter's release comes after all nine former heads of the Drug Enforcement Agency -- that is, the former heads of a bureaucracy with a vested interested in maintaining costly drug prohibition, regardless of its failure -- wrote Attorney General Eric Holder last month expressing "grave concern" about Proposition 19 and asking him to suppress the will of California voters should they embrace legalization. (See Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher's response).

"The California proposition is not a close call; it will be a clear conflict with established federal law and in fact will also violate our government's treaty obligations ratified by Congress," the former DEA officials wrote, urging Holder to consider suing the state of California just as the Obama administration has sued Arizona over its controversial immigration law. "We would expect the Department of Justice to act just as swiftly and for the same reason."

Photo Credit: Dauvit Alexander

Still Not Illegal to Film Police: New York Rep. Towns Brings the Issue to Congress by Martin Hill - LA County Libertarian Examiner

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Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns is a 14- term member of the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 10th District. He has a Masters Degree in social work and is an ordained Baptist minister.
 On July 20th, Towns introduced Resolution 298, affirming the public's right to film police. In his press release, Towns briefly referred to an incident in New York where police beat up a man then falsely charged him with a crime; the man was acquitted after videotape of the beating came to light. (Incidentally, that video has been featured on my youtube channel for years, and has almost 200,000 views. See 'Cops beat the hell out of handicapped man, try to frame him').

Towns should be highly commended for introducing this resolution. It should be interesting to see how many Congressmembers support it.. Yours truly has been involved in this issue for some time. My December article Arkansas State Trooper meets videocamera: It's not illegal to film police includes my video of an Arkansas trooper during a brief traffic stop this past January. (it was also featured on PrisonPlanet.com). The article also includes information on three admirable activists who film cops and other government servants: my friend Greg, the Houston man who filmed and shouted at George H.W. Bush in a pizza place late last year; the webmaster of CheckpointUSA, who films warrantless checkpoints to the chagrin of arrogant officers; and Brett Darrow of Missouri, who has a dash camera mounted in his car and who got at least one rogue cop fired after he went on a rampage, making criminal threats against Darrow. I profiled Darrow in my March article The Brett Darrow Case: a hero in our time . And of course you have the video of the power-starved kook slob of a cop who tried, unsuccessfully, of course, to tell me that I couldn't film him. (See It's NOT Illegal to Film Cops. RESIST ILLEGAL ORDERS- EXERT YOUR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS ).

Here is Congressman Town's youtube channel. Below is an excerpt from Town's resolution:

Rep. Towns Moves to Affirm Citizens’ Right to Photograph Police Activity

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY-10) is taking steps to ensure that citizens who videotape suspicious police activity are not improperly prosecuted. Several recent news reports have highlighted instances where police or security personnel have improperly arrested innocent civilians taking photographs and video footage in public. To help raise awareness about the issue, Rep. Towns introduced H.Con.Res 298, a congressional resolution recognizing that the videotaping or photographing of police engaged in potentially abusive activity in a public place should not be prosecuted in State or Federal courts.

“We are all deeply grateful for the law enforcement personnel who protect our communities every day while respecting the rights of individuals,” said Rep. Towns. “With this resolution, we are making it clear that the rights of citizens are balanced with the rights of those who are sent to protect them. Too often innocent civilians have found themselves penalized for exercising their right to document instances of police brutality in public. With this resolution, Congress recognizes every American’s right to record improper law enforcement conduct in public.”

A number of court cases across the country have misinterpreted the intent of wiretapping laws and are incorrectly prosecuting individuals for videotaping police activities in public. H.Con.Res 298 strikes a balance between the rights of police officers to diligently perform their duties and the rights of citizens, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, to peacefully ensure that law enforcement officers are not improperly harming individuals.

Congressman Towns son Darryl C. Towns is a New York State Assembly Member. Darryl recently fought 'to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws' in his state's budget. On his website, he said "Most importantly, those laws failed to curb drug abuse... In these tough economic times, instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year imprisoning non-violent drug offenders, some of this money will now be used more effectively for treatment, education and job creation in our communities."

We are the Drug Policy Alliance: Sting, Soros, Montel and More (& Me)...

The Drug Policy Alliance introduces a new video featuring Sting, George Soros and Montel Williams. Each of them believes that our drug policies must be grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. And each believes that only by working together can we end the failed war on drugs.

Major Gang Take Down in Newburgh - 78 Bloods, Latin Kings Indicted - FBI Press Room

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FBI mobile command posts staged at the armory in Newburgh. In the pre-dawn chill of Newburgh, New York, nearly 600 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers assembled at the armory this morning to prepare for one of the area's largest gang takedowns in recent memory. Indictments were unsealed against 78 members of two violent street gangs—the Bloods and the Latin Kings—and many of the unsuspecting gang members were about to wake up to SWAT teams, handcuffs, and a variety of federal drug charges. FBI agents and law enforcement from numerous agencies attend a 5 a.m. pre-operation briefing. “There are a number of neighborhood gangs in Newburgh, but these two national gangs are responsible for much of the drugs and crime in the city,” said Special Agent Jim Gagliano, who headed a 16-month, FBI-led Safe Streets Task Force investigation that culminated in this morning’s raids. “Today’s arrests will severely disrupt and dismantle both organizations in Newburgh,” Gagliano said. “We are taking most of the local leaders of the Bloods and the Latin Kings off the streets. Some of them will likely be put away for so long they will never return to the city.” Newburgh is located about 70 miles north of Manhattan. For a relatively small city of 29,000 people, it has an unusually large crime problem. When Gagliano arrived there two years ago, Newburgh led the state in per capita homicides, and everyone agreed that drug-related gang violence was at the root of the problem. Gangs at a Glance Approximately one million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active within all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of September 2008. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas. Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of the crime in many communities. Much gang-related crime involves drug trafficking, but gang members engage in a wide variety of criminal activity. The original Bloods were formed in the early 1970s in Los Angeles. Membership nationwide is estimated to be as high as 30,000. The Latin Kings were formed in Chicago in the 1960s. Membership nationally is estimated to be 20,000 to 35,000. Source: National Gang Threat Assessment. The Bureau established the Hudson Valley Safe Streets Task Force in April 2009—which now consists of about 20 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies—and began dual investigations on the two gangs, dubbed Operation Blood Drive and Operation Black Crown. The plan was for the task force’s cooperating witnesses and undercover officers to make small street-level drug buys—mostly crack cocaine—from gang members over a period of time. In all, the task force made nearly 100 drug buys, totaling more than five kilos of crack cocaine. “The majority of these buys were done while we recorded video and audio,” Gagliano said. “Not only did we get the subject’s voice on tape, we also see the exchange.” He added, “In a city as small as Newburgh and as violent—there have already been four homicides this year, all directly related to gang violence—these arrests will have a substantial effect on the crime rate in the city.” After an early-morning briefing, agents and officers fanned out over the city in teams. Those arrested were brought back to the armory for processing and booking. Of the 60 members of the Bloods and 18 members of the Latin Kings who were indicted—some were already in jail on other charges—approximately 61 were in custody by early this afternoon. The sweep also netted four guns and a large amount of cash. The search for those still at large is ongoing. George Venizelos, acting assistant director in charge of our New York Field Office, had nothing but praise for today’s operation and the Safe Streets Task Force. “I have never been involved with a task force that had this many different member agencies who worked so well together,” Venizelos said. “It’s been a terrific partnership, and the proof of our success can be seen in today’s arrests.”

Queens Bar Owner Gunned Down Two 'Good Friends' in Drug Deal, Prosecutors Say by Kevin Deutsch and John Lauinge - NY Daily News

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Nicholas Kiriakakis is jailed on $3 million bail for the execution-style slaying of two Queens pals.

A Queens bar owner facing a double murder rap in New Jersey turned his gun in cold blood on two "good friends" over a drug deal, prosecutors said.

Nicholas Kiriakakis, 25, is jailed on $3 million bail for the execution-style slaying of Queens pals Jonathan Beneduce, 28, and Michael Mirasola, 27.

A Teaneck, N.J., woman found Beneduce's and Mirasola's bullet-riddled bodies inside a still-running Ford Explorer outside her home early Thursday morning.

"We believe this is tied to a drug transaction," Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said, referring to the dead men as "good friends" of Kiriakakis.

NYPD cops nabbed Kiriakakis on Saturday and searched his Queens home and his bar on Bell Blvd. in Bayside.

They found a stun gun and illegal prescription drugs, but it was unclear whether the murder weapon was recovered.

Kiriakakis' neighbors in Auburndale, Queens, said animal-care authorities visited his home several times to check on his two German shepherds.

"He wasn't well-liked on the block," said Janine Menoutis, 31. "He rubbed people the wrong way."

Kiriakakis' bar, Pearl Restaurant and Lounge, had a reputation as a drug-friendly hangout, local merchants and bargoers said.

"All the neighborhood cokeheads go there," said a bartender at neighboring Cue Bar.

"Nick's a good guy and he runs a respected establishment," countered a bar worker.

The Ozone Park Connection - Queens Chronicle

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An Ozone Park resident allegedly tried to stroll past U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers at Kennedy International Airport with over 12 pounds of heroin sewn into his pants.

Heriberto Hidalgo Pulido was stopped by CBP officers on Jan. 11 for a routine baggage inspection after his arrival on a flight from Ecuador. Pulido’s checked bags contained five pairs of pants with unusually thick pockets and seams. A more intrusive inspection of the pants revealed a brown powdery substance concealed within the seams and pockets of the pants, which field tested positive for heroin.

The narcotics seized during this inspection carried a street value over $500,000, and its investigation is ongoing. If convicted, Pulido may face significant jail time.

Richmond Hill - Queens Customers Find White Powder in Their Produce by James Angelos - NYTimes.com

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Banana Country in Richmond Hill. Rob Bennett for The New York Times

WHEN sliced open, fruits and vegetables purchased in the city’s produce stores often yield unexpected discoveries. Usually, those discoveries involve rotten spots or, worse, worms.

But a few weeks ago, the surprise found inside bitter melons bought from Banana Country, a produce store on Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, was little plastic bags filled with white powder.

The first call to police came on March 7, according to Detective Cheryl Crispin, a Police Department spokeswoman. The caller had bought a bitter melon, a green gourd that is grown in the Caribbean, China and elsewhere and is used in the cuisine of the neighborhood’s large West Indian and South Asian populations. The gourd looks like a cucumber, but it has a rough, bumpy surface.

Inside some items purchased at Banana Country, a produce store in Richmond Hill, an unexpected discovery. Rob Bennett for The New York Times

Cutting open the bitter melon, the caller was shocked to find the bags of powder inside. Within a day, the police received two more calls from other Banana Country customers complaining of having found the same thing in their bitter melons; a fourth call came a week or so later.

Soon after the first call, two dozen officers descended on Banana Country, searched the store with dogs and cut open the bitter melons there, according to the store’s owner, Tae Hyun Kil. But, he said, no other bags had been found.

Mr. Kil said that no one from his store had anything to do with the powder, and that he was just as perplexed as everyone else.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Police didn’t give me much information.” But he added, “No problems with bitter melons since then.”

No arrests have been made. Although news reports referred to the white powder as cocaine, the police described the substance only as a white powder.

On a recent afternoon, the sound system at Banana Country was playing pulsing Indian music as a stream of shoppers inspected the produce. The bitter melons lay innocently near squash and eggplants.

A woman wearing a blue head scarf who said she was from Guyana picked up four bitter melons; when thinly sliced, she said, they go very well with a shrimp and rice stir-fry.

“Maybe I should cut them and see what’s inside first,” she said after being told of the recent events. She added, “Hey, that’s a good way to smuggle!”

Although cocaine smuggling is a plausible explanation for the white powder in the bitter melons, whether melons have ever been used as drug “mules” is unclear. The possibility of such a smuggling method did not, however, surprise Paul Gootenberg, a professor of Latin American history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the author of a recent book about the history of the cocaine trade.

“Cocaine smugglers are very sophisticated and versatile,” Professor Gootenberg said. “They are continuously learning new methods.”

But if smugglers were behind the melons in Richmond Hill, it is uncertain how sophisticated they were. Professor Gootenberg added.

“They obviously didn’t get all the melons to the right person,” he said.

Statement from Council Member Elizabeth Crowley on Recent Meeting with DEA...

“I met with members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this week regarding the recent arrests in Middle Village. I am impressed with the scope of the investigation which has showcased the DEA’s ability to work with and lead joint task forces with city, state and federal agencies to bring down a massive drug trafficking operation. The drug bust in Queens started with a small arrest that uncovered a huge, far reaching drug ring. The take away message from the meeting today was: ‘if you see something, say something.’ Over the next few months I will work with the DEA to make sure our community understands the dangers posed by drugs. We will host drug awareness programs for our schools and make sure parents and community members know what to look for and how to report suspicious activity.”

Statements from City Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley on Atlas Mall & the Recent DEA Drug Bust in Middle Village...

Statement from Council Member Crowley on DEA drug bust

March 2, 2009; Queens, NY – Council Member Elizabeth Crowley released this statement:

“I want to congratulate the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for their ongoing efforts to squash the drug trafficking problem in Queens. I am working with the DEA and will continue to provide them with full support from the City Council to ensure that our community and our kids are safe.”

Statement from Council Member Crowley on Atlas Management

March 2, 2009; Queens, NY – Council Member Elizabeth Crowley released this statement:

“I look forward to working with the Mattone Group over the coming weeks to maintain the quality of shops at Atlas Park,” said Council Member Elizabeth Crowley.

"I trust that they will attract and retain stores and restaurants that will help serve as a positive economic engine for our community’s small businesses and local residents.”

Rite Aid? Wrong For Many: Big Chains Knocking Small Pharmacies - Rep Weiner

Out of Business

New Study Shows More than 650 Big Chain Pharmacies Dominate NYC Market; 77 Community Pharmacies Closed Last Year Alone the Result: Changing Neighborhoods, Higher Drug Prices

Big chain pharmacies have muscled out more than 75 mom and pop pharmacies in the last year alone, according to a new study conducted by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens and Brooklyn), a member of the House Commerce Committee. While community pharmacies close, big chain pharmacies have grown to 654 today from 165 in 1990.

Ever wonder whatever happened to your neighborhood pharmacy with its lower prices and personalized service? According to Rep. Weiner's office, hundreds of neighborhood pharmacies are going out of business,only to be replaced by giant pharmacy chains.

Weiner Pharmacy Study

• § 77 neighborhood pharmacies closed in New York City last year alone
• § Chain pharmacies (4 or more stores) have grown to 654, up from 165 in 1990.
• § The largest chains, like Duane Reade, Rite Aid, and CVS, have gobbled up the City's pharmacy market. There are currently 226 Duane Reade stores, 85 Rite Aid stores, 56 Walgreens, and 119 CVS stores in the five boroughs. Supermarkets and other big box stores make up the remaining 83 pharmacies.
• § Neighborhood pharmacies are closing over all the five boroughs: 23 closed in Queens; 22 in Brooklyn; 16 in Manhattan; 12 in the Bronx; and 4 in Staten Island.

The result is higher drug prices for New Yorkers. In fact, the average New York City chain store charged $901.28 for a monthly supply of 10 drugs, while independent stores charge $69 dollars less – costing consumers $828 more a year for a typical suite of drugs.

Rep. Weiner will introduce the Community Pharmacy Fairness Act, which will allow independent pharmacists to jointly negotiate terms and conditions of insurance contracts to better compete with the bargaining power of huge chains.

Rep. Weiner said, "The invasion of the chain pharmacies has overrun our shopping strips. The result: higher prices, less personalized service, and the changing face of our neighborhoods. It's time we gave neighborhood pharmacies some first aid in the fight against Rite Aid."

To categorize pharmacies, Weiner staff used definitions provided by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which defines a neighborhood drug store as comprised of 3 pharmacies or less, and a chain drug store as 4 pharmacies or more (including supermarkets and mass merchants).

NYC Parks Overrun by Hos, Junkies, and Pushers by Rich Calder - New York Post - Part 1

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Drug dens, homeless shantytowns and prostitution are rampant in New York City's parks, a Post investigation found.

Comparing the manicured lawns of Manhattan's Central Park to the barren, rat-infested eyesore of Spring Creek Park in Brooklyn, the disparity is shocking.

While the Bloomberg administration boasts that parks are in better shape than they've been in four decades, an investigation of 70 parks over the last nine months found:

Clusters of homeless living in tents and small shantytowns in 10 parks, including Riverside Park near 148th Street in Manhattan.

Hookers brazenly plying their 24-hour trade, including at Printers Park on Hoe Street in The Bronx.

Areas where junkies shoot up and crack dealers set up shop, including at Fort George Playground in Washington Heights.

An illegal chop shop where stolen vehicles, including a stripped US Defense Dept. sedan, are harvested is thriving in Fresh Creek Nature Preserve in Brooklyn.

And many barren parks covered in weeds up to 12 feet high that are used as illegal dumps for items like abandoned boats and cars, construction debris, containers of hazardous material, opened steel safes, Vegas-style slot machines - and even a discarded tombstone in Dreier-Offerman Park in Brooklyn.

Dreier-Offerman in blue-collar Coney Island is one of the 10 neglected parks in which The Post found makeshift homeless camps. Shantytowns have invaded even Riverside Park, a favorite of nannies and their wards in the moneyed Upper West Side.

The other eight are Highbridge Park and Randalls Island Park in Manhattan; Pelham Bay Park and Soundview Park in the Bronx; Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens; and Spring Creek Park, Fresh Creek Nature Preserve and under the Brighton Beach boardwalk in Brooklyn.

Dreier-Offerman squatter James Henderson, 50, has been living in a tent near Bay 44th Street for more than 10 years and keeps warm by burning cans of Sterno, a fire hazard in the brush.

He uses a rickety old bike to peddle into nearby Bensonhurst to make a few bucks sweeping storefronts, and says he feels "safer living in a park than a homeless shelter" even though he's been robbed at the park.

Just a few blocks east in Dreier-Offerman, some dozen Central and South American day laborers have set up a thriving community with a vegetable garden that includes squash and chili peppers. Their shelter is tents and abandoned cars.

Ecuadorian-born Manny, 30, has called this mini-village his home since he was 15. His pal Victor says the other squatters spend time boozing and getting high.

Flesh peddlers have also moved in at Printers Park in Longwood, where tennis courts fell into disuse in the 1990's. On an October evening, female hookers stood by a hole in a chain-link fence and coaxed customers to follow them to the far side, zigzagging around a junked dining chair, a stereo speaker and a packaging crate.

"The problem is many of our parks have been abandoned by the city, so of course they're going to be a breathing ground for criminal activity," said Croft.

But Benepe painted a rosier picture of the parks system.

"We can't fix the lapses of other administrations overnight," he said, "but there's never been a bigger investment in parks in our city's history."

Benepe also said his department doesn't favor some parts of the city over others, but an analysis of city data tells a vastly different story.

The city spends $10,694 per acre in taxpayer dollars annually to maintain and operate Manhattan parks. The other boroughs fare far worse, with Brooklyn ($10,173) second, followed by Queens ($4,676), The Bronx ($4,198) and Staten Island ($2,104).

But the best parks are usually the ones in elite neighborhoods that supplement their budgets with private dollars raised by well-heeled conservancies or government affiliated entities.

Manhattan's Bryant Park gets $645,833 an acre and Central Park $30,952. The planned Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn Heights is set to get $178,794 an acre when it's built.

The Brooklyn park is in line to have a $15.2 million yearly maintenance budget that would be funded by money raised through the creation of 1,400 controversial high-rise luxury condos to be built in the green space.

Project opponents fighting to keep housing out of the park argue that the budget is too inflated.

For instance, the park is budgeted for 40 sit-down lawnmowers to cover 85 acres while Brooklyn's entire 4,515-acre park system is budgeted for 26 mowers.

Parkland takes up about 14 percent of the city's land mass. And while park funding continued to increase with the rest of the city budget over the past four decades, it certainly didn't rise at the same pace as other departments.

Instead, the city turned to borrowing money to keep its parks system from returning to the nightmare days of the fiscally strapped 1970s.

The city-funded portion of the Parks Department's budget is about half of 1 percent of the city's entire $59 billion budget. In 1960, 1.4 percent of city spending was set aside for parks.

As acres sit in neglect, the city has acquired 468 acres of new parkland since 2002 under Mayor Bloomberg and Benepe, doubling the Parks Department's debt by borrowing $1.5 billion to expand and improve the park system. Up to another $1.8 billion is set to be borrowed for future projects through at least 2012.

The department's biggest recent success stories include reviving parks in Harlem and the once vastly polluted Bronx waterfront, where significant improvements were made to Barretto Point Park, parkland along the Bronx River, Hunts Point Riverside Park and other green space.

But critics say the strategy is flawed and taxpayers would save money in the long term if the city relied more on funds from its general budget to regularly maintain parks.

Besides illegal dumping, among the biggest maintenance problems spotted were the conditions of grass fields and water fountains. Dozens of ball fields lacked grass because they flood regularly from poor drainage or have faulty irrigation systems. Many water fountains didn't work.

Julius Spiegel, the commissioner overseeing Brooklyn's parks, said a big dilemma "is it's a lot easier to get capital money than expense funds" for maintenance repairs.

He said the parks system also relies heavily on City Council members who use discretionary funds set aside for pet projects to fix their local parks.

Among the recent success stories, he said, was a $4 million renovation of Brooklyn's Linden Park funded by Councilman Charles Barron that brought field turf, lights and a professional track to what was once urban blight.

But Mark Rosenthal, president of Local 983 of District Council 37, which represents many of department's rank-and-file employees, said that system is "flawed."

He said council members benefit by having their neighborhood parks fall apart from neglect so they can swoop in and appear like heroes saving them, rather than making sure the city budgets enough money to regularly maintain them.

Benepe said city parks are better managed and have more employees than ever before, but Rosenthal and other union officials disagree.

They said what Benepe calls an 11,200-employee workforce is drastically inflated with part-timers and seasonal employees who lack the training and authority of full-time staff.

In 1970, the Parks Department employed 6,271 full-time workers, but by 2004, the number dropped to 1,842, city records show.

The city's 2008 budget lists 3,891 full-time parks employees, but union officials said that number is deceiving because the department recently began using fuzzy math by counting seasonal employees as full-timers. They said the real total is similar to 2004's numbers, which Benepe called "a lie."

Critics say that among the biggest problems with department staffing is it only employs 239 "parks enforcement patrol" officers or peace officers to cover the 22,828 acres of parkland it oversees. Another 6,256 acres - including highway land, golf courses and zoos - is overseen by other entities.

But even the 239 officers is misleading because 110 of them are privately funded to be stationed at a few elite locations like Battery Park and Hudson River Park in Manhattan.

That leaves the remaining 129 employees to service more than 1,800 parks. Manhattan gets 37 of them, followed by Queens (19), The Bronx (19), Staten Island (17) and Brooklyn (16). Another 21 are assigned to citywide duties.

So, the city heavily relies on hundreds of seasonal uniformed security workers to protect its parks - many hired through a welfare-to-work program - who in some cases aren't even allowed to go into certain sections of parks they're assigned to because of high crime.

Benepe said maintaining law within parks is supposed to be the Police Department's job. But he said "it's hard for us to get the attention of the police when they have to deal with antiterrorism and other serious crime issues."

NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Collins said cops respond "to any conditions in the parks as needed," adding they also address a variety of issues besides felony crime including the homeless, graffiti and vandalism.

Until recently, the city had no system to track park crime except in Central Park, by far the city's most famous and visited park and the only one with its own precinct.

Last year, there were 103 reported crimes in Central Park, a huge drop from 368 in 1990 and 127 in 2001.

Now the NYPD also tracks felony crimes in 20 other of the city's largest parks.

A study by the nonprofit group New Yorkers for Parks found there were 308 felony crimes, including five murders, reported in the 20 parks between April 2006 and September 2007.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens led with 99 felony crimes, followed by Brooklyn's Prospect Park with 57. The Bronx's Van Cortlandt Park saw two homicides.

However, other park advocates say the data is flawed because so much crime goes unreported or isn't tracked - especially misdemeanor crimes like illegal dumping.

Benepe declined to say how many of the city's parks aren't being regularly maintained, but former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern admits the city definitely wrote off some parks a long time ago.

"Some parks are parks in name only, so it becomes an issue of resources. Do you spend money building new ball fields or preventing illegal dumping? Building ball fields is sexier," he said.

Be sure to read the second part of the series tomorrow.

rcalder@nypost.com

NYC Is Asked to Test for Drugs in Water by Colleen Long - The Associated Press:

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The city's drinking water must be tested to determine whether trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are flowing from residents' faucets, City Council members insisted Thursday in an emergency hearing called in response to an Associated Press investigation.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection tests its drinking water for hundreds of contaminants daily but doesn't inspect for pharmaceuticals, despite research showing minute concentrations of 16 drugs or byproducts in its watershed in upstate New York, including medications for infections, seizures and high blood pressure.

As part of its five-month PharmaWater investigation, the AP surveyed 62 major water providers nationwide; pharmaceuticals were detected in the drinking water of 24 of those systems, serving 41 million Americans.

Officials at 34 major water providers, including New York — which has the world's largest unfiltered water supply — said tests have not been conducted.

"To protect health, we need to be informed about what is in our drinking water," said council member James Gennaro, the head of the Environmental Protection Committee, who called the hearing.

Tests that detected pharmaceuticals in the upstate source waters were conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and New York State Department of Health.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the system providing water to 9 million, continues to resist calls for testing, contending there's no regulator-approved test or regimen for detecting pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies.

"It is far too early for DEP to make any predictions about the long-term need for any particular treatment technology as a response to the presence of pharmaceuticals," said Paul Rush, deputy commissioner for water supply.

The agency has a public awareness campaign asking residents near the upstate watersheds not to flush drugs down the toilet but hasn't created a protocol for testing drinking water, Rush said. The DEP also is participating in a city and state roundtable about disposal issues related to pharmaceuticals in water supplies, he said.

But Gennaro said the city cannot wait for the federal government to act and suggested legislation to require testing and to develop a plan to filter the drugs from the water, if necessary.

"At the end of the day, it's not the USGS that has to drink the water, it's not the state (Department of Environmental Conservation) that drinks it up in Albany; we drink the water," he said.

Gennaro and other members of the committee criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health for declining to appear at the hearing.

Though measured in concentrations of parts per billion or trillion, it is unknown how much of the drugs found in the city's watersheds lingers by the time 1.1 billion gallons reaches the city and northern suburbs daily via a century-old network of aqueducts and tunnels.

The drugs reached waterways through human activity along the vast and mainly rural watershed, which stretches almost from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. Human and veterinary medicines are excreted or discarded and eventually enter source waters mostly through residential sewage or farm runoff.

And while these waters are processed at wastewater treatment plants upstate, much of the pharmaceutical residue passes right through, studies show.

As in other cities, human health risks from trace pharmaceuticals are uncertain, since concentrations in New York source waters are way below medical doses and further diluted with fresh water en route to the city.

Though New York does not filter its water, it does disinfect and add chemicals. It also is building a new filtration plant for water from its Croton watershed — its smallest and closest source.

Gennaro also cited studies mentioned in the AP series that indicate traces of pharmaceuticals may be harming fish in New York City's Jamaica Bay, within sight of Manhattan's skyscrapers. Researcher Anne McElroy at Stony Brook University has found feminized male flounder there and has linked them to high levels of the female hormone estrone or other estrogenic chemicals discovered in the waterway.

Happy 10th Birthday Viagra: The Pill That Restored Manliness Celebrates 10th Anniversary

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Ten years ago this month the lives of millions of men and women were changed almost overnight by the advent of a little blue pill -- the first oral treatment for impotence.

Viagra, developed by accident by scientists at Pfizer Laboratories, was first approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration on March 27, 1998.

"Originally, we were testing sildenafil, the active drug in Viagra, as a cardiovascular drug and for its ability to lower blood pressure," said Dr Brian Klee, senior medical director at Pfizer.

"But one thing that was found during those trials is that people didn't want to give the medication back because of the side effect of having erections that were harder, firmer and lasted longer."

Since Viagra went on the market it has been used by 35 million men around the globe, and it took impotence off the taboo list, making it infinitely easier to treat.

Urologists' waiting rooms became busier as news got round that the condition, which was rechristened with a new, scientific name -- erectile dysfunction, or ED -- could be treated with a triangular blue pill.

Previous treatments had involved surgically inserting a prosthesis into the penis, injecting a substance into the male sex organ or using urethral suppositories.

"Viagra brought a lot more people into the office because of the ease of treatment," Dr Irwin Shuman, a urologist of 40 years' experience in Washington, told AFP.

"In the old days, when we didn't have much in the way of treatment, we would do a lot more evaluation, looking for answers as to why somebody had the problem," he said

In one test, men would be observed while sleeping to see if erections occurred.

Men who failed to get the usual five to six erections per night were deemed to have a physical problem, and those who did get nocturnal erections were said to have a psychological problem and were sent to see a sex counsellor.

So Viagra helped move impotence out of the psychological realm and into the world of physical illnesses. "What we have come to understand in the past 10 years is that ED is a vascular disease," said Klee.

"What happens is veins and arteries that deliver and remove blood from the penis are not working the way they should, and Viagra allows those vessels to dilate and increase blood flow to the penis," he said.

Dr Abraham Morgentaler, director of Men's Health Boston, and associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, hailed Viagra as a "benefit to medicine."

But, he added, the drug has not delighted all those who took it.

"There are two truths to Viagra: for those who refill (get a new prescription), it's wonderful and they're happy," Morgentaler told AFP.

"But a lot of people look to Viagra for personal happiness, thinking a hard penis can resolve relationship issues," and they end up disappointed, added the doctor and author of the book "The Viagra Myth."

Some patients say taking Viagra "does not correspond to the way they want to have sex," Morgentaler said.

Viagra works best on an empty stomach or after eating a low-fat meal, the medication's official website says. It kicks in about 30 minutes after being taken, works for four hours, and only with sexual arousal, the website says.

But it's not the answer for everyone. Morgentaler said he had a 78-year-old patient in his office who "didn't like the idea of programming sex. Guys, and often women, too, don't necessarily want to compromise the ideal of sex as something magical, spontaneous, romantic."

Morgentaler also spoke of the darker side of Viagra, which has evolved since it and two other ED treatments became easily available over the Internet.

"It's the use of Viagra by healthy young men who don't need it," he said.

"These young men take a pill whenever they go out ... Maybe because they are inexperienced or shy and Viagra makes them more confident, or maybe because they have inflated ideas about what sex is supposed to be like from seeing Internet porn, which they also have easy access to, and they want to heighten their feelings of masculinity," he said.

"I am concerned -- not that these young men will get addicted physically, but that they will become psychologically dependent on Viagra," said Morgentaler.

"Sex is an entree into a relationship, and most often what we want from a relationship is to be loved for what we are.

"But some of these young men feel they have to take a pill to be acceptable, and I fear they are potentially missing the opportunity to have true emotional connections with a partner, based on reality, not mythology."

Source-AFP

New Drugs in Schools - Please Alert Parents and Educators

This is a new drug known as 'strawberry quick'.

There is a very scary thing going on in the schools right now that we all need to be aware of.

There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks (the candy that sizzles and 'pops' in your mouth). It also smells like strawberry and it is being handed out to kids in school yards. They are calling it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.

Kids are ingesting this thinking that it is candy and being rushed off to the hospital in dire condition. It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange.

Please instruct your children not to accept candy from strangers and even not to accept candy that looks like this from a friend (who may have been given it and believe it is candy) and to take
any that they may have to a teacher, principal, etc. immediately.

Pass this email on to as many people as you can (even if they don't have kids) so that we can raise awareness and hopefully prevent any tragedies from occurring.

Newsday.com: Giuliani's Key Supporters Ensnared in Sex, Drugs by Tom Brune...

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Manchester, N.H. -- Another key supporter of Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani suffered an embarrassment when he admitted the "serious sin" of at one time calling an escort service accused of being a prostitution ring.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who is Giuliani's most prominent Southern conservative supporter, was implicated when the so-called "D.C. Madam" disclosed that his phone number was found among the telephone records of the escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, in a period before he was elected to the Senate in 2004.

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in a statement Monday night. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession ..and marriage counseling."

Vitter's implication in a prostitution ring comes just three days after Giuliani's former state campaign chairman for the crucial primary state of South Carolina was formally arraigned in a federal criminal cocaine-possession indictment.

After a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire yesterday, Giuliani called Vitter's admission a "personal matter" for Vitter. Giuliani also defended his own record of appointing qualified people as mayor of New York, though he conceded some were disappointments.

That two of Giuliani's key Southern supporters have become ensnared in prostitution and drug cases could revive concerns about some of his past New York associates, notably Bernard Kerik. He has pleaded guilty to two state corruption charges for accepting free renovation of his apartment.

This story was supplemented with Associated Press reports.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.