And The Walls May Come Tumbling Down

Your safety may be at risk:

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating whether the leading concrete testing company in the New York area, which has been hired to measure and analyze the strength of the concrete poured at some of the biggest construction projects in the city, failed to do some tests and falsified others.

The investigation has uncovered problems with tests the company conducted on concrete poured over the last 18 months at the new Yankee Stadium site in the Bronx and the foundation of the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, along with as many as a dozen other large projects.

Man Made Fatal Wall Collapse

Putting money before safety was on the mind of this loser:

Abraham Hertzberg, a licensed engineer has been charged with filing fraudulent plans with the Department of Buildings in connection with a Brooklyn construction site where a day laborer died in March when earth and debris collapsed on him.

The charges come one week after the owner of the site was indicted on manslaughter charges, and at a time when the authorities are placing intense scrutiny on construction safety following a string of deadly accidents at building sites.

Is This Possible?

Car-free streets:

New York City will close off to traffic a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street on three consecutive Saturdays, giving New Yorkers to a chance to explore and enjoy “car-free recreation corridors” — well, for six hours a stretch, at least.

The route will run from Lower Manhattan to East 72nd Street via Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue. Major crosstown routes — including Chambers, Canal, East Houston, 14th, 23rd and 59th Streets — will remain open to traffic. Buses that ride along the 6.9-mile route will be rerouted during the street closings — which have been scheduled for Aug. 9, 16, and 23, from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m.

New York Tries To Save Benefits For Workers

State officials say they may have to create a $200 million emergency fund to finance workers’ compensation benefits for thousands of injured New Yorkers because 12 trusts that provided insurance to their employers have failed financially.

The self-insured trusts provide workers’ compensation insurance to groups of small- to medium-size employers in the same industry, and the failure of so many of them in recent months has sparked fears of a cutoff in benefits to thousands of injured workers. It has also generated criticism that the State Workers’ Compensation Board was lax in regulating the trusts. There are 50 group trusts remaining in the state that provide insurance to more than 20,000 businesses with a total of about 500,000 employees.

Study Says Police Need More Weapons Training

Don't shoot until you read this:

Police recruits as well as veterans require more dynamic and frequent firearms training, according to a study of the New York Police Department’s shooting habits released on Monday.

The study, by the Rand Corporation, was commissioned in January 2007, about seven weeks after an unarmed Queens man, Sean Bell, died in a hail of 50 police bullets. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at the time that questions about the department’s effectiveness and training required an independent look at its tactics.

Rand researchers tried to tackle the phenomenon known as “reflexive shooting” or contagious shooting in which one officers’ gunshots spur a fusillade of bullets by others.

Reform Groups Angry At Patterson

There are always those who are quick to criticize:

The government reform groups were already angry enough with Gov. David A. Paterson. At a news conference on Wednesday, they accused him of abandoning the reform platform on which he had campaigned alongside Eliot Spitzer, in 2006.

They said he had walked away from new campaign contribution limits, lobbying reforms, redistricting measures and steps to make the notoriously reform-resistant state government more open.

But not long before the event ended, a reporter held up his BlackBerry to reveal that Mr. Paterson had issued a fresh announcement about what he called a historic overhaul of state campaign finance laws.

The Political Future Of Mayor Bloomberg

Voters may feel that enough is enough. One should not make a career out of an elected position. Mayor Bloomberg, however, is weighing his options:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his senior advisers have been exploring strategies that would allow him to remain in political life, including undertaking a campaign to overturn the city’s term limits law or making a bid for governor.

Mr. Bloomberg, as part of that effort, commissioned a poll recently to determine whether city voters would be open to lifting the term limits law, which forces him and other elected city officials from office after two four-year terms. The poll found that even as voters approved of his performance as mayor, they would strongly oppose any attempt to undo the limits. Voters were receptive to the idea of a Bloomberg candidacy for governor, however.