THE NYC COUNCIL issued a statement on Tuesday blasting Mayor Eric Adams for bypassing the lawmaking process in placing four out of six

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A Brooklyn man was arrested last week by a detective from the Queens Special Victims Squad who joined in a forcible touching investigation out of the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood.

Kadeem Laguerre, 27, of East 15th Street in Bensonhurst, was arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and charged with first-degree sexual abuse for spitting on a 12-year-old girl who was walking near the intersection of 71st Street and 54th Avenue in Maspeth just after 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20.

Laguerre allegedly ran off after groping the young girl, police said. EMS responded to the scene and transported the victim to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.

Laguerre was arraigned Friday in Queens Criminal Court, where he was additionally charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He allegedly spat on her hair, neck, and chest and then touched her face and buttocks with his hands repeatedly, according to the criminal complaint. The incident was caught on video surveillance

After he was arrested by Queens SVU, Laguerre was shown a still photo from the video surveillance and allegedly told the detective, “This is me, on my way to work,” according to the complaint.

The Queens District Attorney’s Office requested $20,000 bail during his arraignment before Judge Maria Gonzalez. She set bail at $7,000 cash and $15,000 bond.

The DA’s Office and Queens SUV are still investigating the case and have specially trained professionals who can speak to young victims in a safe environment. Anyone who may have had any type of contact with Kadeem Laguerre can contact the NYPD’s Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-646-267-RAPE (7273). The NYPD is asking any other victims to come forward by calling the NYPD’s Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-646-610-7273.

Anyone with information regarding this ongoing investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.

Through Sept. 22, the 104th Precinct has reported 27 sex crimes so far in 2024, 21 fewer than the 48 reported at the same point last year, a decline of 50.9%, according to the most recent CompStat report.

Губернатор Хочул отметила вторую годовщину расширения политики обеспечения языкового доступа в штате Нью-Йорк и открытия Управления языкового доступа в Управлении общих служб штата Нью-Йорк. Государственные […]

Last week, the City Planning Commission listened to the voices of countless New Yorkers and said ‘yes’ to the “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” — the most pro-housing changes in the history of the city’s zoning code. New Yorkers cannot afford to wait any longer for affordable housing. With a 1.4 percent vacancy rate and the rent being too damn high, families are getting priced out left and right.

To deliver the affordable housing New Yorkers need and deserve, every level of government has a role to play. Our administration and the state came together to meet this generational crisis head-on, and now, the City Council has their moment in front of them. I urge councilmembers to join New Yorkers in supporting this proposal and building a future that’s more affordable for working-class families, that provides peace of mind for older adults who want to age in place, and that allows our young people to live comfortably in the greatest city on the globe. That starts with them saying ‘yes’ to this once-in-a-generation housing proposal.

New Yorkers from every corner of our city are joining us in saying ‘yes.’ From housing advocates and labor to clergy and New Yorkers who were on the verge of homelessness, everyday people see the importance of advancing bold ideas and big solutions to this current crisis. The proposal also received favorable recommendations from Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.  

The numbers show that these proposals are widely popular. A new poll found that 72 percent of voters approved of the City of Yes when it was explained to them. And when New Yorkers hear the facts about of City of Yes, they leave saying “yes” to the proposal. This is why it is critical for all New Yorkers to spread the word about the proposal in houses of worship, their workplace, or wherever you may go.

We hope every councilmember will take this opportunity to join New Yorkers in saying ‘yes’ to our City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal, and help us build a future that is more affordable for working families, veterans, families, immigrants, and older adults. We have already done so much good work together on housing, and I know we can continue to do even more.

Affordable housing has been a day one priority of our administration and we have the track record to show it. We have had back-to-back record-breaking years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing, committed a record $26 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan, and successfully advocated for several new tools in Albany to build faster, more affordable housing — to name a few of our wins. Together, with all these wins and City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, we are striving to achieve our moonshot goal of 500,000 new homes by 2032.

Every new home in our city means more jobs, lower rents, a stronger economy, and a better future for all New Yorkers. I look forward to working together to build our way out of this housing crisis and to open the doors of opportunity to the next generation of New Yorkers.

When Limor “Ladyada” Fried founded Adafruit a decade ago, she was just a bored college student. While creating small electronics during what she described as “deep procrastination” on her MIT thesis, Fried never envisioned the multimillion-dollar Brooklyn-based business she would soon lead.

Fried started posting blogs and videos about her creations, from a personal mp3 player to engineering her own synthesizer, and viewers asked for build-kits to recreate the projects. She started working in a small warehouse in Queens to help people realize their passion for engineering and electronics, but the business soon outgrew it. She named her business Adafruit, inspired by her online moniker “Ladyada” — an homage to computer science pioneer Ada Lovelace.

“I was in between things, and I wanted freedom,” Fried said. “So I thought, ‘I’ll just try this. I’ll make more kits and see where it goes.’ There was no plan.”

Fried’s spontaneous decision has grown into a company that sells hundreds of products, ranging from circuit boards to robotics tools, designed to spark curiosity and excitement in creators of all ages. Adafruit’s lessons include projects like a touch-sensitive unicorn horn that changes colors, an LED-powered disco tie that adds a pop of brightness to any outfit, and illuminated flowers that never wilt. For Fried, engineering has always been about the magical moment when the pieces come together to create something worth treasuring.

“The first thing I built was a little handheld player, kind of like a Game Boy, but a DIY version,” she said. “And it only lasted for 45 minutes, but it worked. I was surprised, I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that actually worked!’ I still have it in a box.”

As Adafruit grew, Fried was forced to make several pivotal decisions. Despite not having formal business training, she chose to keep the company entirely bootstrapped, allowing her to maintain integrity for her customers. She also continues to manufacture solely in New York City, giving her flexibility over the designs she wants to create and freedom to try new ideas.

“The best thing about running your own business is you get to be your own boss,” said Fried, who recently debuted a new facility at Industry City. “If you want to design a product or work on something and you feel like it’s the right thing, you get to make that decision. And also, of course, you get to see the people who work for you flourish and move up in their careers.”

As a result of her leadership, Adafruit became one of the country’s top 20 manufacturing companies and the first in the city. Fried herself has been named a White House Champion of Change and was the first female engineer to be featured on the cover of WIRED Magazine.

“I think one of the best things about being like a woman owning a business is that you can take advantage of some people underestimating your ability, because when they underestimate you, they’re not paying attention to what you’re doing,” she said. “And so you can move faster because you don’t have as many eyes on you.”

Fried recalls that when engineering first gained popularity, it was difficult to enter the field due to the high cost of parts and limited access to knowledge. Today, with free software available online and companies like Adafruit offering affordable materials, the industry is thriving. With greater accessibility, people can take bigger risks on projects they know might fail, all for the sake of learning.

“If people think you’re gonna fail, then it’s like, cool, you have the freedom to succeed or fail — you win either way,” she said.