The latest articles from WNYC News

In the Rockaways, Elderly Residents Spent Another Cold Night in Queens

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:21:16 -0500

A week after Sandy many elderly residents in Far Rockaway are still without power. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was met with anger when he toured the area over the weekend. Some supplies are trickling in, but elderly residents are cold and worried about the freezing nighttime temperatures.

Water droplets roll down the colorful wallpaper in Arlene Weissberg’s first floor apartment at the Wave Crest Garden apartments in Far Rockaway, Queens. Safety experts all warn against continuously boiling hot water on the stove, but when you’re cold and scared, the warmth is a comfort.

“We’re in a hole, and it's dark and it's cold and it's freezing cold. And it’s so scary at night,” Weissberg said Monday morning.

Her parakeets chirp anxiously, and pop radio streams out of her son’s bedroom. Scott Weissberg is large, 45-years old and mentally retarded. Usually, he’s in an AHRC program during the day, but since the storm, he’s been home. Without TV to calm him down, the radio is all that works, and batteries are running low.

Weissberg’s husband died three years ago, and her friend Star Lindstrom stops by everyday to visit. “It’s a hard thing when you’re alone in the house, we’re like prisoners. At least in jail they tell you things, what’s going on. They know their sentence, we don’t know ours,” Weissberg said.

On Beach Channel Drive, a few miles away, members of the National Guard handed out orange NYC marathon capes lined with fleece, blankets, boxes of MREs, water, packaged junk food and other supplies to residents lining up down the block. Members of Occupy Wall Street movement set up a make shift station and handed out trash bags full of clothes, supplies and food.

At nearby JASA Senior Citizen Housing, two buildings out of five were running on generators for about 12 hours a day, workers there said. One worker there said of the 1,500 low to moderate income tenants, 800 remained. Calls to the JASA office for confirmation were not returned.

(Photo: Darkened hallways at the JASA senior center in Far Rockaway, which is still without power on Nov. 5, 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.Stephen Nessen/WNYC)

Two Emergency Medical Service workers marched up 17 darkened stories of the JASA Israel building Monday to take one elderly man to the hospital. On his widow sill was day-old chicken soup, several rolls of toilet paper and two radios.

A few minutes later, a crew of nearly a dozen workers from various agencies, FEMA, the FDNY EMS and the Virginia Beach Urban Search and Rescue team arrived to take another man to the hospital. An officer said he was on a list of residents that were in need of immediate medical care.

Crews from LIPA were also in the area. Its website said it hopes to have 90 percent of power restored by Wednesday.

(Photo: LIPA workers in Far Rockaway trying to restore power after Sandy. Stephen Nessen/WNYC)

Next Challenge: Housing Sandy's Victims

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:40:10 -0500

With tens of thousands of people potentially facing homelessness and in need of long term shelter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Monday appointed a former federal disaster coordinator to oversee the city's efforts to provide them with replacement housing. The new director, Brad Gair, is also a former deputy commissioner for the city's Office of Emergency Management.

On Sunday, the mayor said as many as 40 thousand people might need long term shelter. A day later, however, Bloomberg, revised those numbers downward.

"I don't think we have a good number. It could be 10,000 it could be 5,000," Bloomberg said when asked for an estimate. "I don't want to just give you a number."

The mayor said public housing residents would likely get their housing back this week. As for the others, the mayor said the city would go door to door to see whose homes may be damaged beyond repair.

Twenty-six-year-old Eric Johnson and his wife Lina could be among the long-term displaced. They are currently staying at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. They said they walked there during the height of the storm after water filled their basement apartment in Coney Island.

"Everything is gone, everything," Johnson said. "The landlord is gone. There's nothing we can do about it."

The couple said they were renting the apartment and have no family or friends to take them in. They are hoping to receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

At a news conference Monday, Gair, the city's new director of housing recovery operations, said his first priority would be to quantify the demand for new housing before working on solutions. He said the federal government may help by providing hotel rooms, or cash for people to find their own temporary lodging.

NY, NJ Investigate Price Gouging in Sandy's Aftermath

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:25:34 -0500

Officials in New York and New Jersey are investigating whether merchants have been artificially inflating prices to take advantage of customers in the aftermath of Sandy.

"Investigators are going out and they're trying to assess where there's price gouging and where there are folks just passing along increases in wholesale prices," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in an interview.

His office has received more than 500 complaints of alleged price gouging at gas stations, bodegas and other businesses.

In New Jersey, the Division of Consumer Affairs has received upwards of 1,200 complaints — 85 to 90 percent of them for the state's gas stations where lines have stretched as far as a mile and a half long.

"The overwhelming majority are related to gas station issues," said Eric Kanetsky, acting director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. "They were particularly bad in the days immediately following the storm."

The NJDCA has already issued more than 100 subpoenas.

But proving these types of cases has been difficult. After Hurricane Katrina, a study from the Federal Trade Commission found that most cases of alleged price gouging following the storm were not legitimate.

NYU Starts Seeing Some Patients, but Bulk of Hospital Remains Closed

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:38:29 -0500

New York University Langone Medical Center reopened many of its outpatient offices, and the 600 students in the medical school went back to classes – but it’s still not clear when the hospital will open its emergency room, surgical suites and labor and delivery ward.

A spokeswoman says an outside engineering expert is assessing the damage from last week’s storm that led to the dramatic evacuation of patients while winds were still blowing strong.

“We don’t want to promise we’ll open by a certain day and then not deliver,” said Lisa Greiner, the director of public relations.

Greiner said a preliminary assessment by an in-house team determined that it was the 15-foot-deep flood waters that led to the evacuation, not a power failure. She also said that the backup generators shut off briefly, but did not failed.

Damage occurred only in the basement, including the pits below the elevators, Greiner said, but did not affect patient treatment areas or sensitive equipment.

The hospital plans to build new flood barriers and a seven-story power generation plant which will provide the hospital with a largely independent source of electricity.

Cuomo to Allow Affidavit Ballots for Sandy Victims

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:52:00 -0500

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has agreed to issue an executive order that will allow displaced voters to cast ballots by affidavit at any polling site they can reach Tuesday.

The order will permit voters to sign affidavits that they're legally registered to vote in the presidential and state races and cast ballots at any open polling site, even those outside their neighborhoods.

But they won't be able to vote for state legislative candidates unless the polling place is within the proper legislative district.

New Jersey is allowing voters to use provisional ballots at any polling site.

Common Cause-New York and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School urged the action earlier Monday.

Immigrants Benefiting from Deferred Action Keep an Eye on Election

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:55:28 -0500

Andres Palacio says the letters he recently got from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services make him feel more like his classmates at Nassau Community College in Garden City, Long Island.

“I won't have to worry about any restrictions,” he said. “I’ll practically be normal.”

Palacio, 19, got his approval for deferred action and two days later a work permit arrived in the mail. He is among the 4,500 people across the country who have been approved for deferred action, according to the latest figures from the Department of Homeland Security. It means he won’t be deported for two years and can work legally as long as he does not commit a serious crime. Palacio came to the United States from Colombia when he was 8 to join his parents. He's in his third semester and says he thinks his life will be easier from now on.

“I’ll be able to work and help my parents and drive, which is a big deal,” Palacio said.

Palacio’s parents, Janeth, 45 and John, 47, who clean houses, currently pay for his education. After he gets a driver's license, Palacio plans to find a part-time job to help out with his tuition and living expenses. He’ll get an associate degree in liberal arts next summer, but he hopes to continue studying to become a nurse, nurse practitioner or a physician assistant.

Some experts and advocates, like Jojo Anobil, attorney in charge of the immigration law unit at the Legal Aid Society, say that so far deferred action seems to be working.

“I think the program has been a success,” Anobil said.

But Anobil says the number of people who have so far applied for deferred action, around 200,000, is a small proportion of the 1.26 million who are estimated to be eligible, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Eighty thousand of those eligible live in New York State.

To qualify for deferred action immigrants must show they arrived in the United States before their 16th birthday, are under the age of 31, and have lived in the U.S. for at least five years. They also need to have a high school diploma or a G.E.D., or currently be in school. They also must not have been convicted of a serious crime.

Anobil says there are a few reasons those who are eligible haven't applied. For some the required $465 fee is hard to come up with. Some fear by coming forward they could end up deported. And one group is watching “ to see what happens with the elections on November 6th,” Anobil said.

The question of what happens after the elections also lingered in the air at the cafeteria at Nassau Community College. Palacio was joined by his friend Oscar Lopez, 19. He came eight years ago from El Salvador. Lopez has also applied for deferred action and he’s waiting to hear back.

”I feel positive I’m gonna get it,” he said.

Lopez is optimistic not only about getting a work permit but also about being able to renew it when it expires in two years. Palacio, however, said he is worried what could happen with the program if Mitt Romney wins.

“I heard he’s not going to continue deferred action,” Palacio said, referring to Governor Romney.

Romney has said he would honor already issued work permits, but would replace deferred action with a more permanent solution. He plans to allow those who were brought here as children and who serve in the military to get green cards. But it's unclear what would happen with others who qualify for deferred action.

U.S. Presses Fractured Syrian Opposition To Unite

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:32:00 -0500

Could a united Syrian opposition be the game changer that finally topples President Bashar Assad, after almost 20 months of revolt and more than 30,000 dead?

"You need a game changer, either military or political, and hope it will break the stalemate," says Amr Azm, a Syrian-born professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio.

The Obama administration appears to embrace this view, and last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the surprise announcement that the U.S. backed a plan to overhaul the Syrian opposition.

Hundreds of Syrian dissidents began five days of intense talks Sunday in Doha, Qatar. Clinton added urgency by also withdrawing support for the Syrian National Council, the exile-led group that has claimed to represent Syria's revolution for more than a year.

The SNC is widely seen as dysfunctional and has lost legitimacy with young activists as well as front-line militias. The group also has failed to convince Syria's minorities that it is a credible political alternative to Assad, who has ruled the country for 12 years, succeeding his father, who was in power for three decades.

A Rough Beginning

The so-called makeover meeting in Qatar got off to a rocky start Sunday as U.S. hopes clashed with the reality of fractious opposition politics.

Divisions quickly emerged. SNC leaders complained about a reduced role; Islamists disagreed with secularists; young activists charged that longtime exiles are out of touch. And the goal to build an alternative leadership could be infected with the same "virus" that sunk unity within the SNC, says Randa Slim, with the New America Foundation.

"The demise of the SNC is a result of self-inflicted wounds," says Slim. Syrians are "fed up" with the SNC, she says, but that doesn't make it easier to quickly create a credible alternative. "Their intuitive reaction is mistrust," says Slim, especially with the call for a major overhaul coming from the Americans.

However, the plan for a leadership shake-up came from a widely respected Damascus dissident, Riad Seif. The 66-year-old is a former member of parliament and was also jailed by the government. He comes from the Sunni business class.

Slim says he has broad-based connections and "brings to the table leadership skills and credibility."

Seif led a group of 20 opposition figures in Amman, Jordan, ahead of the Qatar talks to hammer out the details of a new leadership group that would consist of about 50 members.

Bringing In Younger Activists

Called the Syrian National Initiative, the council would include many young activists who have played an important role on the ground in Syria's revolt. The new body would then choose a 10-member executive council as early as this week.

"The goal is to appoint a group of technocrats as a transitional government," says Amr Azm, which could set the stage for support from the Arab League and international recognition.

In Qatar, Seif dismissed speculation that he would lead a transitional government. He's been diagnosed with prostate cancer and told Agence France-Presse in an interview, "I am 66 and have health problems."

He said an alternative government to Assad's regime is "dearly needed," to secure more foreign aid and international support.

Seif, a longtime opponent of the Assad regime, joined peaceful street protests in the capital, Damascus, early in the revolt that began in March 2011. He was beaten and arrested in the capital with hundreds of young activists.

"He realizes that the young people are dominant," says Andrew Tabler, with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "He's an inside guy who has street cred."

Tabler believes that activists from the provincial and revolutionary councils in Syria should have been given leadership positions a long time ago. Tabler also cautions that opposition politics are splintered in Syria, and that won't change anytime soon.

For the Obama administration, shifting the generational power balance appears to be one selling point for a new opposition leadership. In addition, there are the changes that have taken place on the ground. This summer, rebel militias seized control of large areas across northern Syria.

Training The Opposition

The U.S. has been giving nonlethal aid to the opposition, including training programs conducted in Istanbul and in southern Turkey, a $6 million program geared toward activists coming out of Syria.

The first group included 36 activists, members of revolutionary councils from the northern province of Aleppo. Later groups came from Idlib, in the northwest; and Deir el Zour, a rebel-held area near the Iraqi border.

The intense course work focused on helping the Syrian opposition set up administrations in towns and villages. For the first time, U.S. officials met face to face with young activists creating grass-roots representative bodies that provide humanitarian services and a fledgling judiciary.

The French government has gone even further by directly distributing cash to revolutionary councils under rebel control.

"There has to be a representation of those who are on the front lines, fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom," Clinton said. "And we also need an opposition that will be on the record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution."

However, those doing the fighting and the dying are the rebel militias, but they have not been invited to the Qatar meeting.

"That's an important thing that's missing," says Tabler. "The big problem in this is not engaging armed groups directly. Those taking the shots will be calling the shots, at least in the interim."

But the Obama administration has become increasingly concerned about the radicalization of the militias. The U.S.-backed political initiative is an attempt to empower secular civilians who would have stronger links with commanders on the ground.

Over the past 20 months, the Syrian revolt has become a grinding military contest. Militia leaders concede that radicals, including some who share the ideology of al-Qaida, are well-trained and well-armed by a network of private funders, and are crucial to the rebels' campaign.

"Until the opposition can hold a major city, they can't create an alternative Syria," says Joe Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

Micropolis: Mormons in the City

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 04:00:00 -0500

Lisa Higbee loves President Obama. She loves Mitt Romney too — so much so that she composed a song that she played for me in her Inwood apartment.

“Mister Romney! Mister Romney!/ You can help your country with your brave and generous ways,” she sang.

Higbee, a speech pathologist, is one of around 42,000 Mormons who live in New York City. And not all members of her faith share the same excitement about the GOP challenger.

“There are a lot of us, especially in New York, that are ready for the election to be over,” said Kristina Petersen, a biochemist who’ll be voting for Obama, “because it’s caused a lot of conflict just within members of the church.”

Despite his political leanings, Petersen said she thinks Romney's candidacy has helped demystify Mormonism for many. "I think at first the Mormon thing was a deal breaker," she explained. "People were like, 'They believe in a prophet — what is this?'"

Emily Kunz, a conservative, said it was “discouraging” to watch her faith “be called a cult, or to be ridiculed” during the Republican primary. Although she will vote for Romney in part because he’s a Mormon, she also embraces his politics.

Even Mormons who don’t plan to vote for Romney speak to his intrinsically Mormon appeal.

“He's a very successful, good-looking, well spoken Mormon,” said Lachelle Francis, 27. “And not that that's hard to find. I find that by and large, Mormons tend to be that — all of those things. But he's such a good representation of what it is to be Mormon.”

Francis is gay, and stopped attending services after the Church of Latter Day Saints declared its opposition to same-sex marriage. The church stated, through a spokesman, that it doesn’t endorse political parties or candidates.

For Mormons like Alexander Struk, the fear is that their faith would be singled out if Romney becomes president.

“I just hope that if he is elected, and he does enact an agenda that large parts of the country will probably find unappealing or unpopular, that's not conflated with his religious beliefs.”

For more visit Micropolis: NYC.

Public Housing Residents Still in Despair After Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 04:00:00 -0500

Large parts of the East Village appear to be back to normal with cafes open and young people back on the streets. But at a public housing development on Avenue C, the desperation was palpable.

About 700 people live at Campos Plaza I, a tattered public housing development at the edge of the East Village. After Sandy, residents said floodwater filled the lobby of some of the buildings, reaching the raised first floor. Ruhith Ahmad lives on the first floor with his mom. The two have electricity and gas. But no heat or hot water. The 13-year-old said his family has been boiling water to keep warm.

"We have little Poland Spring water bottles and we're filling them up with hot water and then we just put them in our blankets and stuff so we just surround ourselves with it," Ahmed said. "It doesn't help that much but it's better than nothing."

At another building nearby volunteers with the group Good Old Lower East Side climbed up dark stairwells carrying bags of food. On the 17th floor they encountered Angelina Solano. The 71-year-old had just lugged up 4 gallons of water and was out of breath. She could barely speak.

"I no got water. No steam. I'm a sick person. I got problems," she said through tears. "My daughter she is not healthy. My husband is sick, too. This is terrible."

Solano explained the water was from a fire hydrant that someone had pried open. Her family was rationing it and didn't want to use the water to flush the toilets so now they said the bowl was full of excrement, which was stinking up the apartment.

On the 12th floor, 87-year-old Prudis Ortega hadn't left her apartment since the storm. "I've been very depressed and very scared," she said in Spanish.

The frail, white haired woman said her apartment was freezing. She answered the door wearing a ski cap. After the storm, she said the lights went out and she feared she had been left in the building alone. It’s a thought that still haunts her.

Because of osteoporosis, she said there's no way she can make it down the stairs. Several residents said they were too weak to leave.

A spokesman for the utility, Con Edison, said the problem is that many buildings along Avenue C still have not been pumped out. That job, they said is the building owner’s responsibility. In this case, that means The New York City Housing Authority. NYCHA said thousands of employees were working to get developments up and running.

Currently, 108 buildings at 17 developments remain without power. The authority said it's too early to tell where long-term outages may exist.

School Closings in NY, NJ and CT

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:42:13 -0500

In New York City, all but 65 schools will be open on Monday. Mayor Bloomberg advised parents that even schools with electricity may lack heat and recommended that students dress accordingly. For updates on the status of individual schools, visit the DOE website.

For information on school closings throughout the area, use the following links:

Levee Rebuilding Questioned After Sandy Breach

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:00:00 -0500

Every time a storm brings flooding to a large metropolitan area, there are calls to improve the levee systems that are designed to prevent flooding.

But there's a major problem with doing that. "We don't know where all of our levees are," says Samantha Medlock with the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

She says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knows about 14,000 miles of levees in this country, because the corps is supposed to be in charge of their upkeep. "Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has identified approximately 30 to 34,000 miles of levees," says Medlock. And there could be thousands of more miles. No one can say for sure.

Why is maintaining an up-to-date levee inventory so difficult? Gerald Galloway, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland in College Park, says it's because of the way many levees come into being.

"In many cases levees start from a farmer or a developer ... taking a grader or a bulldozer and pushing up a bunch of dirt to create a mound that keeps out frequent flooding from a particular area," Galloway says.

Then people start building homes or businesses behind the levee, and it's in everyone's best interest to maintain it. But there are no mandatory national standards for what constitutes an adequate levee.

There are voluntary standards set by FEMA and the Corps of Engineers, and the federal government provides an incentive for adhering to them.

"In order to get the after-the-flood event support, you need to have met the standards of the Corps of Engineers in maintaining your levee and its overall structure," says Galloway.

But keep in mind that money is only for after the levees fails. There's no federal money for routine maintenance. And from a flood manager's perspective, fixing a broken levee is not always the way to go.

"Fixing a levee and solving a levee problem may not be the same thing," says Medlock. She says no levee will last forever, and a levee that might be adequate for conditions as they are today could be overwhelmed in the future because of climate change.

"If we simply rebuild right back in place, we are setting the stage for the next major, costly, disruptive, tragic disaster," says Medlock.

There is a solution to flooding that doesn't include building levees. Steven Sweeney, president of the New Jersey State Senate, says there's a community along the Raritan River that flooded last year after Hurricane Irene and this year after Sandy. Here's what he suggests as a simpler and cheaper way to deal with the problem:

"Get appraisals for their homes, write them a check, knock the homes down, and just let it go back to its natural state," says Sweeney. "I think that's something we really need to take a look at. Because governments have allowed people to build right onto the water, and water has a tendency to move."

Medlock agrees with Sweeney.

"Ultimately this is about protecting people permanently. No levee provides permanent or complete protection. Buying out and relocating to higher, safer ground is permanent protection," she says.

Insurance Companies Rethink Business After Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 08:00:00 -0500

Superstorm Sandy capped what's been a pretty impressive couple of years for U.S. natural disasters. There have been wildfires, tornadoes, floods and derechos. And insurance companies are on the hook to pay billions in related claims.

"We're seeing more of everything, and what we're doing is trying to factor that in going forward as we work with others to have a better sense of what the future holds," says State Farm spokesman David Beigie.

Here is one thing the industry agrees is true: The cost from hurricane damages is increasing. That's largely because population density and the cost of coastal property increases every year.

Do insurers expect to see more frequent and more intense weather events in coming years? Opinions diverge.

Peter Hoppe heads the Geo Risks Research center for Munich Re, a global company that insures other insurers. His company put out a report just before Sandy warning that North America will face a rising number of natural catastrophes due in part to greenhouse gas emissions.

"We believe that climate change is a big problem and will drive losses in the future," Hoppe says.

He says there is no evidence climate change caused Hurricane Sandy. But, he says, it doesn't matter whether insurers believe in man-made climate change. His report says the number of weather-related events nearly quintupled in North America over the past three decades. And that means premiums will increase in the long run if exposure continues to increase.

"On the long term, definitely we have an interest in what will be happening in 50 years, or even in 100 years because this concerns our business model in general. It may be that in the long term, things become uninsurable," Hoppe says.

But this is not a view embraced by the whole industry.

"Are we really seeing more storms, or are we just recording more storms? That's the big question," says longtime expert Karen Clark, who runs her own risk-management consultancy.

Clark says the problem is that hurricane prediction is a very young science. She notes that records documenting hurricanes go back only about a century, a data set far too small to draw big conclusions.

She says after Hurricane Katrina — the most expensive of all documented storms — some predicted a warming cycle would produce more powerful storms. That forecast did not bear out.

"It just shows you that we just are not that smart, you know, when it comes to what's really going on," Clark says.

Bill Keogh, president of Eqecat, one of the major risk-modeling firms in the U.S., says that despite what it may seem, we are now in a statistically low period of hurricane activity. After Katrina, few powerful hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S.

That is not to say Sandy won't change the way insurance companies assess their weather risks.

"Risk models change all the time, and they change when we have new information," Keogh says.

That's especially true when that information is unusual. And Sandy was unusual because it hit the Northeast, as few hurricanes do, and because it veered inland, instead of toward the ocean. That information from Sandy, Keogh says, will shape views about the probability of future risks. But probability is not the same as a crystal-ball prediction.

"Everybody wants to know: 'Tell me the answer. You know, over the next five years, how many hurricanes will we have, what will they look like, how will much they cost. And when will the occur?' We don't do that," Keogh says.

The only thing we can do, insurers say, is build our buildings safer, and better prepare for what will eventually come.

Can China's Legal System Change?

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 05:10:00 -0500

China's Communist Party will introduce a new slate of leaders this month to run the world's most populous country for at least the next five years. Their to-do list will include dealing with the nation's opaque and politicized court system.

"China's judicial system urgently needs to be reformed, improved and developed," a government planning paper acknowledged last month.

Few Chinese know this better than Chen Guangcheng, the self-taught, blind lawyer who made a stunning escape from government custody last spring.

After his release from China, Chen settled in New York, where NPR spoke with him at length about China's rule of law — or lack thereof.

Chen, who is studying law at New York University, is fiercely critical of China's legal system, but also surprisingly optimistic about the potential for change.

The rule of law in China is crucial to addressing many of China's most pressing problems and keeping peace in a sprawling, fractious country. The lack of an independent judiciary allows officials often to operate with impunity: detaining citizens without charge, approving environmentally dangerous projects and stealing public money with both hands.

Perhaps the judiciary's greatest problem is that it is ultimately controlled by the Communist Party. Chen says the party refuses to give up that power because it is so politically useful.

"It's very much against their interests," says Chen, speaking in a conference room at the New York University School of Law in Manhattan. "The implementation of a law would rule out the possibility of foul play on their part."

Challenging State Power

Chen's personal story is a case study in how the party uses the law for political ends. Chen got his start as a lawyer advocating for the rights of disabled people, like himself.

In 2005, he took on one of the country's most politically sensitive issues: the one-child population policy. Chen learned officials in east China's Shandong Province were forcing women to undergo sterilization or abortions.

"Women were forcefully dragged out of their quilts and taken away by hired thugs," Chen recalls. "They were not even allowed to put on clothes."

Li Qun, the mayor of Linyi, a city in Shandong, led a crackdown in which an estimated 130,000 people were beaten and held hostage to force their friends and loved ones to submit to abortions or sterilization.

Forced abortion and sterilization is illegal under Chinese law, so people asked local police to stop it. They did nothing, so Chen decided to sue.

The central government evaluates local officials on how well they meet population targets, regardless of how they do it. So, the local justice system didn't punish those officials, it punished Chen.

He was sentenced to more than four years for destroying property and organizing a mob to disrupt traffic — charges widely seen as trumped up.
Li, the mayor who lead the forced abortion campaign, fared much better.

"Well, he got promoted," Chen says dryly.

Li is now the Communist Party secretary of Qingdao, a city of more than 7 million on the Yellow Sea. Why did the government reward him with a better job?

"It's because he was bad enough," Chen says.

Risks To Chen's Family

The upside-down aspects of the Chinese justice system continue to take a toll on Chen's family.

The day after he escaped from house arrest in April, 20 of Chen's former guards stormed the home of his nephew, Chen Kegui, and took revenge.

Chen Kegui said the guards did not wear uniforms and did not show a search warrant. When they tried to apprehend him, Chen Kegui said he grabbed a kitchen knife in defense. His mother said the men attacked with one saying, "Beat him to death."

Chen Kegui slashed at the men with a knife. He's been in custody largely since then and is expected to face indictment for "intentional infliction of injury."

"If Chen Kegui didn't fight back, he would probably have been killed," says Chen Guangcheng. Under Chinese law, as written, resistance would be viewed as self-defense, he said. "But the reality is if they beat you up, it isn't against the law, even it happens in your home. If you fight back, you are guilty."

If all this seems as if it would make Chen despondent over China's legal system, it doesn't. China has an extensive code of laws and Chinese lawyers continue to press for reform. Chinese people — everyone from farmers to factory workers — are increasingly sophisticated and aware of their legal rights.

Chen says eventually Chinese people will demand rights from their leaders and the party will have little choice but to change.

"Even China's current leaders know very well that steps toward rule of law and the historical trend that societies move toward constitutionalism, rule of law, democracy and freedom, are inevitable," says Chen. "No power can stop that."

Midwest Generators to Power NY Poll Sites

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 20:48:05 -0400

As New York election officials work out contingency plans for poll sites still without power on Election Day, the vendor that supplies machines to New York City, Nassau and Rockland counties is hauling in a solution.

“We are trucking 128 generators pony express style,” said Judd Ryan, regional sales manager of Election Systems & Software, the company that supplies voting machines to the region, as he boarded a plane to New York City to assist officials with set up.

Drivers are positioned at various check points from the Midwest to New York City, where the generators are scheduled to start arriving Sunday morning at 9 am.

The company is also sending gas cans and extension cords with the generators, and can get tents as late as Sunday afternoon if the officials determine there still needed, Ryan said.

“The company really took the initiative,” said New York State Board of Elections Commissioner Douglas Kellner, who has been working with county elections officials to make sure they have the resources they need to run their elections smoothly.

The cost of the rental and shipping is estimated to be around $500,000. State election officials expect that cost will be covered by federal disaster aid.

Crews Work To Restore Power, And Explain The Delay

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 15:00:00 -0400

More than 8 million people lost power after Superstorm Sandy. Five days later, 2.5 million are still waiting as power companies across the region continue to say that restoring power is more complicated than it seems.

The storm packed a one-two punch. First, it flooded several switching stations including one hidden under the New Jersey Turnpike in Newark, says Art Torticelli, who was out with his crew from Public Service Electric and Gas at a switching station in Essex, N.J.

"The water level that rose was about to the top of the fence line here," he says, pointing to debris stuck to the fence at about 6 feet high.

The station was shut down during the storm, but water still got inside circuit breakers and other components. Torticelli uses a number of cleaning tools, including a small wire brush about the size of a toothbrush. He says that every one of the wires has to be taken off and thoroughly cleaned, dried and reattached. "So that's what we're doing now," he says.

These switching stations send power to substations, which in turn deliver it to homes and businesses. This particular station in Essex supplies power to 30,000 residential customers and a number of industrial ones.

Meanwhile, in Nutley, N.J., in the second of that two-part punch, bucket trucks arrived on Montclair Avenue late Friday to clear trees that fell on power lines, driving them into the ground. PSE&G supervisor Scott Hallamin outlined the damage with his crew. "Everything's down," he says about the power, but new poles were up and, after four days without power on Montclair Avenue, Hallamin's crew was there to connect the wires.

Two residents, Ro and Joe Labate, watched with anticipation on the brisk evening, thankful for their power to be restored and wishing they could do a bit more. "I would make them coffee if I could. There's too many of them, though," says Ro Labate.

Hallamin says he hears complaints, but he understands that customers don't see the total picture. That is, how crews have to clear debris, check each line and work block-by-block to get the grids back up. He adds, "All these residents will see is this part. All they know is Montclair Avenue."

Hallamin says crews have been working 16-hour shifts since the storm hit, even with an extra 2,000 workers from outside the area to help.

"They might see us sitting for awhile, but we're waiting for a circuit or waiting for a tree crew, or something happened to the truck like we have a flat tire like we did yesterday. So, you've got to explain it to them," he says.

Theresa Mercado, who lives on this block, says she knows this storm was unprecedented. Still, she says, crews took too long to get here. "It just seems so slow, and thank God that the utility service is out today," she says.

Mercado says the utilities weren't prepared for this kind of damage, but Hallamin says there's not much more they can do. "I work for the company and I'm out of power. I know their pain, but what are you going to do?" he says.

Around 10 last night, Mercado and the others on her block got their power back. PSG&E says it has restored service to more than 1 million customers, but 600,000 are still without power.

Sandy Call-In Special with Amy Eddings

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:00:00 -0400

Saturday from 2-4pm (and re-airing from 6-8), the WNYC newsroom brings you special coverage of Sandy and its aftermath, hosted by Amy Eddings. Call 646-829-3980 to take part!

Sandy Resources: Transit Tracker | Volunteering | Questions, Answered | Traffic Map | WNYC News Home

Featuring:

Latest News Updates on gas, power, transit, and emergency aid from the WNYC newsroom
Who Stepped Up? Your calls highlighting those who rose to the ocassion during Sandy and in the days since
Cleanup Advice Your cleanup questions answered with industrial hygienist Monona Rossol

MOMA efforts to clean damaged artwork

Our Waterways A check-in on the state of the Hudson River with Riverkeeper's Phillip Musegass
Marathon Cancelled How did public pressure play a part - what do you think of the decision?
Delivering Gas to the Region An explainer on how NY and NJ are getting gas to local residents
Who Helped You, Who Are You Helping? Calls on how you are coming together, and what comes next

Obama And Romney Go On A Whirlwind Tour In Election's Final Weekend

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 12:54:00 -0400

President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are making the most of every moment this weekend, with only three days left before Americans choose who will lead the government for the next four years.

Update at 4 p.m. ET. Focus Is On Early Voting:

On his first stop today in the final campaign sprint, President Obama was in the super-battleground state of Ohio. The AP reports that the president reminded voters that Tuesday's election is "not just a choice between two candidates or two parties, it's a choice between two different visions for America."

NPR's Scott Horsley, on the campaign trail with the president, told weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz that a large focus was placed on early voting, which is happening all weekend in Ohio and many other states.

"They're trying to bank as many votes as possible even before the polls open on Election Day," Horsley says.

After a day that began in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney continued with campaign stops in Iowa and Colorado. NPR's Ari Shapiro told Raz that Romney is promoting a message of "unity, bipartisanship, working together [and] crossing the aisle," in order to take advantage of a lead among independent voters.

According to the AP, Romney also added Pennsylvania to his campaign tour this weekend, hoping to end a streak of five presidential contests where the Democratic candidate prevailed in the state.

Our Original Post Continues:

Romney kicked off his day campaigning in New Hampshire and will see crowds in Iowa and Colorado before the day is out. The president started Saturday in Washington, D.C., with a briefing on Superstorm Sandy relief efforts before moving on to campaign events in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Virginia.

In New Hampshire, the AP reports, Romney questioned his opponent's fighting words from the day before:

"Romney opened a three-state campaign day in New Hampshire by faulting Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their 'best revenge.'

" 'Vote for revenge?' the GOP candidate asked, oozing incredulity. 'I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. It's time to lead America to a better place.' "

NPR's Ari Shapiro reports that the night before, Romney held the biggest rally of his campaign at an event in the freezing cold just outside of Cincinnati. More than 20,000 people came out to see the Republican candidate, who was flanked by dozens of Republican governors, senators and other party leaders. Romney told the crowd:

"I'll reach out to both sides of the aisle. I'll bring people together; do big things for the common good. I won't just represent one party; I'll represent one nation."

In an interview with The Washington Post, Republican leading light Karl Rove says that Superstorm Sandy has given President Obama a political boost as he takes on the role of "comforter-in-chief."

The president did nothing to detract from that point of view when he started his Saturday not on the campaign trail but instead with a briefing at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Obama addressed the recovery efforts in the wake of the storm, saying:

"There's nothing more important than us getting this right and we're going to spend as much time, effort and energy as necessary to make sure that all the people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut know that the entire country is behind them in this difficult recovery effort. And we are going put not just 100 percent but 120 percent behind making sure that they get the resources that they need to rebuild and recover."

NPR's Scott Horsely reports that out on the campaign trail President Obama is aligning himself with the policies of the Clinton administration, contrasting them with Republican initiatives since, saying:

"So we know that the ideas that we believe in work. We know that their ideas don't work."

The president will appear with former President Clinton in Virginia today and New Hampshire on Sunday to try and underscore the link between the two Democratic administrations.

Only about 4 percent of people in Ohio reportedly have yet to make up their minds on whom to vote for in the presidential election. Kabir Bhatia of member station WKSU reports that President Obama's visit to Lake County in Ohio on Saturday is aimed at getting supporters energized and to the polls, not to swing undecideds.

University of Akron political scientist Dave Cohen tells Bhatia:

"This is just an effort by the Obama campaign to solidify support and get the base excited in an area of the state that he's gonna need in big numbers."

Free Gas Draws Crowds In New York City; Gas Rationing Starts In New Jersey

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 09:27:00 -0400

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he is unsure how long restrictions on the sale of gasoline that began at noon on Saturday will last. The gas rationing in 12 New Jersey counties was enacted after Christie signed an executive order Friday night.

The New York Times reports that the biggest hindrance for the state's gas stations was power, not supply, at this point. Outages have hamstringed the distribution system and closed many individual gas stations, resulting in long lines of customers desperate for fuel.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New Yorkers that the city would get through the disaster, the AP reports, but he was quick to add that he didn't "want anyone to think we're out of the woods yet."

Update at 7:25 p.m. ET. Bloomberg Criticizes Long Island Power Authority:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg updated the city on recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy on Saturday afternoon. He assured New Yorkers that the city would recover, but that they weren't "out of the woods" just yet.

Bloomberg also criticized the Long Island Power Authority, which provides power to the Rockaways in Queens. He said the utility had not worked hard enough to restore power in the hard-hit neighborhood and that the authority could not give him a timetable for when it would be restored.

"In our view, L.I.P.A. has not acted aggressively enough," Mr. Bloomberg said. "When it comes to prioritizing resources, we think they should be first in line."

Update at 2:30 p.m. ET. FEMA Activates Program For Storm Survivors:

After long lines formed at mobile gas stations in New York City, the AP reports, the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs issued an advisory asking the public to stay away until more fuel is released in order to let first responders get their gas first.

FEMA also activated its Transitional Assistance Program in New York and New Jersey. The program is designed to allow eligible survivors who are in shelters but can't return home due to storm damage to stay in participating hotels until housing is available.

Those who need assistance can call FEMA at 1-800-621-FEMA or register online.

Update at 2 p.m. ET. Free Gas In New York City:

Five emergency mobile gas stations were being deployed around New York City by the military on Saturday, offering 10 free gallons per person. The stations will also supply emergency service vehicles with fuel.

Initial reports from the AP describe "chaos" at an emergency station in Brooklyn and a line of cars 20 blocks long at a station in Queens.

As we reported earlier (below), widespread power outages in the wake of Hurricane Sandy have knocked out fuel distribution networks and forced officials in New Jersey to ration gas in parts of their state.

On Friday, officials canceled the New York City Marathon for the first time in its history as it became apparent that, in Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson's words, "the people who were suffering the most were looking upon this as a source of unhappiness."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had news of progress on Saturday, however, reporting that power was reaching about 60 percent of the New York City metro area. Still, as many as 900,000 people were without power, including 550,000 on Long Island.

Gov. Cuomo also said that as much as 80 percent of the New York City subway system was in service Saturday.

Customers in Manhattan were nearly all back on the grid, with The New York Times reporting only about 5,800 customers lacking power.

NJ.com says power had been restored to 1 million customers in that state since the storm hit, reducing the number without power from 2.4 million last Tuesday to 1.4 million on Saturday.

Our original post:

Restrictions on the sale of gasoline begin at noon Saturday in 12 New Jersey counties after Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order Friday night.

Power outages have crippled the distribution system and closed many individual gas stations, resulting in long lines of stressed-out customers. NJ.com reports that the situation has echoes of the fuel crises of the 1970s:

"The frustrating focus on finding fuel after the storm has been aggravated by the lack of electricity that helps station employees to keep pumping gas. It has also led to lines that meander on down major Monmouth streets and highways, mirroring the remembered fuel crisis of the 1970s. Ultimately, the grim search for gas has pushed the limits of civilians and law enforcement personnel alike, testing people's politeness in the face of a serious situation."

The rationing ordered by Gov. Christie mandates odd-even fuel sales in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex Union and Warren counties. The last number on a car's license plate determines which day it can by fuel: odd numbers buy on odd days, even on even days.

NJ.com also reports there are no restrictions on filling up gas cans. The director of a trade group representing gas retailers predicts in the same story that gas distribution will be nearly back to normal by the end of the weekend.

Meanwhile, the federal government is stepping in to help stem fuel shortages with the purchase and shipment of up to 12 million gallons of gas and 10 million gallons of diesel. The AP reports:

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday that President Barack Obama has directed the Defense Logistics Agency to handle the purchase of the fuel. It will be transported by tanker trucks and distributed throughout New York, New Jersey and other communities impacted by the storm."

With nerves also fraying over the search for fuel in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed his own executive order Friday intended to get gas flowing again. Silive.com reports:

"On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he signed an executive order waiving New York's requirement that fuel tankers register and pay a tax before unloading. The move will speed up deliver[y] of gas to customers, said Cuomo, adding that tankers are making 'great progress' delivering fuel to distribution centers.

"The governor said there's 'no reason to panic.' "

Teachers, Students and Evacuees Co-Exist as Schools Set to Resume

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 08:09:11 -0400

Teachers were back in school Friday, preparing for Monday’s reopening. But eight public schools are still doing double duty as shelters for those displaced by flooding from Sandy. At Brooklyn Tech, the borough's most sought after public high school, students will share their building with the elderly and people with mental and physical disabilities. Some are apprehensive.

On Friday, Brooklyn Tech was housing about 400 people from nursing homes and homes for people with mental and physical disabilities.

They were joined by 200 of Brooklyn Tech’s 250 teachers, who trekked to school to meet with their principal. Even the school’s athletic director, who lost his house this week to the fire in Breezy Point, showed up. Many were eager to hear how the building will function Monday with hundreds of elderly and disabled evacuees plus 5,500 students.

“It’s a very crowded school so it’s hard to imagine,” Social Studies teacher Serge Avery said. “You know, the question is how well schools and hospitals can function together.”

Outside the entrance to the school’s main hall and huge auditorium – said to be the largest in Brooklyn – a dozen evacuees smoked cigarettes and chatted with friends from facilities in Far Rockaway and Coney Island. A few were talking to themselves. Cynthia Shield was among many to explain they did not evacuate before the storm and were told to stay put.

Looking outside the window, she said she saw water that was waste high.

But she said she wasn't scared. The staff at Surf Manor Adult Home in Coney Island stayed with them.

“They brought us good food to our rooms, they gave us cereal for breakfast. They treated us good,” said Shield.

Down the bock, Edward Ezer says he wasn't scared either, despite the speed with which water was rushing outside his Far Rockaway home. "I wasn't frightened because I was in Israel in the army during the October war," he said. Ezer has lived in New York facing the ocean for 25 years at the Chai Home for Adults for people with physical or mental disabilities.

"As far as I know," he said, "my last diagnosis was chronic paranoia and schizophrenia. And I don't argue with it."

It's unclear when evacuees will return to their homes. With Brooklyn Tech students headed back Monday, the Department of Homeless Services is trying to reduce its footprint at the school. The population at the shelter is already half what it was earlier in the week. On Friday, returning teachers were restricted to the 5th and 6th floors of the nine-story building. But school administrators hope they'll have much more space come Monday.

So does Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond. "It's very hard to predict," he said Friday afternoon, "I mean there and active search that's going on now to find out if there are spaces available for them."

Up on Brooklyn Tech's 7th floor, rows of blue cots lined the lunchroom and dozens of frail evacuees tried to make themselves comfortable. One man called for medication. In a wheel chair, Alicia Brown said she wasn't mad that no one evacuated her from Lawrence Nursing Care Center in Far Rockaway before the storm.

"How could they do that?" she asked. "Who wants to be out there in the middle of the storm? I didn't!"

Brown's legs were both amputated above the knee because of sugar, she said. Diabetes. Attending to her and others in the cafeteria were a combination of city staff, aid workers, volunteers and employees of the nursing homes the evacuees came from.

But, after emerging from Brooklyn Tech's staff meeting, U.S. History teacher Adam Stevens said he was as concerned about how evacuees were faring as he was about students coming back to share space with them.

"There just doesn’t seem to be the staff on hand to really take care of them and what they need," he said.

Adams had gone up to the college office on the 7th floor to print out a transcript for a student’s early admission application and found, on the floor in the hallway, evidence that nursing home evacuees weren’t making it all the way to the bathroom from the cafeteria

"They’re unable to contain their waste," he said, "I’m not sure they have bathroom facilities to properly care for them."

Social studies teacher Avery was pessimistic about the return to school next week. “The principal really seemed to be at a loss for words to describe how this would work Monday," he said, "I don’t think there’s anybody in the building who thinks school and the facility can operate together."

Brooklyn Tech’s Senior Class President, Ahmed Abdelqader, also came by to check out the scene. He said his classmates have been talking on social media about the shelter — with mixed reactions.

He said some students said they didn't feel comfortable. "But really school can’t be closed for any more,” he said. "Losing out on one week is almost horrific. We have to catch up on a lot of our classes. You gotta do what you gotta do."

Come Monday, Homeless Services Commissioner Diamond says students, teachers, evacuees and emergency aid workers will share the building.

"We have enough staff on site — or we will on Monday when school starts — that we are confident we can coexist with the schools without interfering," he said.

Then on Tuesday, voters will get into the mix. Brooklyn Tech is also a polling site for the presidential election.

Lessons From Katrina Boost FEMA's Sandy Response

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 08:00:00 -0400

Following Superstorm Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has received good grades from politicians and even some survivors of the storm. In part, that's due to lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.

For Staten Island resident Deb Smith, whose house was flooded by the storm surge from Sandy, FEMA has been a savior.

"What a hell of an organization. I got on the phone with them yesterday, I got my claim number in already, the guy said he's going to call me in a couple of days," she says. "He's going to come out and estimate, and they said, listen, whatever doesn't work, they're going to help us put stuff in storage."

The reviews are almost as glowing from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other local officials in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. They've praised FEMA for being prepared before the storm and responsive immediately afterward — which did not happen when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Agency Gets A Makeover

"FEMA is a very different organization than it was during Katrina," says Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Lieberman chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which helped spur post-Katrina reforms at the agency. Those changes, Lieberman says, have proved themselves during Sandy.

"[FEMA] was proactive, and it didn't used to be. It doesn't wait for the storm to hit; it pre-positions personnel, equipment, food supplies, water, etc.," he says.

FEMA had hundreds of thousands of liters of bottled water, along with millions of meals, cots and blankets stockpiled, which were moved into the region ahead of Sandy.

The agency also had President Obama sign disaster declarations before the details of those disasters were fully known. Lieberman says that was important, too, to start the money flowing immediately to local governments and survivors.

"You used to have to fill out a lot of paperwork to get eligibility for disaster assistance from the president. Today, they're being much more commonsensical about it," he says.

Federal officials say FEMA has some $3.6 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund and billions more available in other accounts, if needed. It has already begun spending that money. Some $19 million has gone out to storm victims to pay for temporary housing.

Cutting Through The Bureaucracy

The good reviews of FEMA extend to the agency's leader, administrator Craig Fugate. Fugate was tapped by Obama to head the agency after leading the Florida Division of Emergency Management. That experience is key, says James Kendra, who heads the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware.

"FEMA really benefits from having an administrator who's very well-versed in the science of disaster, who's very familiar with the disaster research," Kendra says, "and because he himself comes from a fire- and first-response background, has a very high regard for first responders and for the value of local-level initiatives."

Fugate has brushed off praise of his agency's performance, saying he won't be satisfied until everybody who needs housing assistance has it and the power's back on. Barry Scanlon, a former FEMA official who is now president of disaster-management consulting firm Witt Associates, says keeping the bureaucracy at bay will be the true test of FEMA's performance.

"The president came out forcefully the other day and said, 'I do not want any red tape, I don't want any bureaucracy,' and hopefully that spirit of partnership and people working together quickly will stay through the recovery phase," he says. "That's not always the case."

Officials know all too well the reviews of FEMA are likely to become less glowing with each day that passes that the lights remain out and people like Smith can't move back into their homes.

WTC Site Floods, But Officials Say Buildings Will Be Hurricane-Proof

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Millions of gallons of water streamed into the World Trade Center site during Sandy, cascading through the PATH terminal and down ramps used for construction vehicles. But officials say the prognosis for flooding, and any other hurricane damage, should be much better once the 16-acre redevelopment is complete.

“We had a large scale presence of the Hudson River at the site,” said Larry Silverstein, the developer constructing some of the office buildings there. “Once you have an open construction site, there is no physical way to keep it all out.”

Silverstein estimates the east “bathtub” along Church Street took on about 15 to 20 feet of water. A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the subject, said between 150-200 million gallons of water entered the lower level of the complex, which includes interconnected portions of 1 World Trade Center, the PATH terminal and the September 11th Memorial and Museum. (The PATH and Memorial are closed due to the storm.)

As of mid-day Friday, the official said about 40 million gallons had been pumped out. He expected the rate would accelerate as more pumps are added.

He said crews are still assessing the damage to the site and don’t yet have a dollar estimate.

But he and others connected to the project say that 1 World Trade Center has several design features meant to withstand the high speeds and flooding that come with hurricanes, including:

Concrete walls at its foundation that are 6.5 feet thick, reinforced by steel as thick as a human arm
Beveled edges up and down the tower that will create eight corners, which will “confuse and disperse wind,” and
The lack of windows for the first 180 feet of the tower —an aspect designed in order “terror-proof” the structure, but will also reduce the amount of water entering through openings.

Additionally, the entire platform for the World Trade Center complex is set to rise 15 feet above grade level, which means that the Hudson River would have to rise at least that high to flow in across West Street. That could be possible in a fierce storm; as it was, Sandy’s 9-foot surge, coupled with high tide, brought the water almost to that height.

Still, Christian Myer, a professor at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, said that flooding shouldn’t pose a long-term problem to the stability of the structures since the World Trade Center is built on bed rock.

“As soon as you go off the rock like in Battery Park City,” Myer said, “the water will go into the sand and create a soil condition. You have to go very deep or it will create instability.”

As Queens Remains in the Dark, Panic and Fear Grow

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:10:54 -0400

Power has been restored to parts of Manhattan, but in Far Rockaway, Queens, it’s cold and dark. The NYPD says its adding extra patrols and lighting after reports of looting, but residents are still anxious and fearful.

Cars are still flipped upside down from the high waters and the roads are clogged with mounds of dirt and waterlogged furniture is filling up on sidewalks.

Waiting at a bus stop, Alice Bridges, 62, was getting panicky. She has diabetes, and tried stocking up before the storm, but was told it wasn’t time to refill her prescription.

“I’m supposed to get 3 shots a day,” she said. “I haven’t taken any today at all, and I’ve been trying to get it. I know I need to eat, and I blacked out before for just missing lunch and I’m afraid it’ll happen again.”

There are four massive public housing complexes at Far Rockaway. Residents said at night, they hear people going door-to-door turning knobs, looking for an unlocked apartment.

Eddie Gale , 63, was pushing his son and niece down the street in a shopping cart to get supplies from the National Guard. He said the area is like a war zone.

“At night time here, it’s worse than the Vietnam jungle, where I was in ‘69, ‘68,” he said. “Makes me think about this, [being a] survivor, you have to survive, here, and if you’re not strong, you won’t.”

Local shops are closed, and some have been looted. Some residents are afraid to leave their homes at night. The NYPD has sent extra patrols and has set up flood lights on the street.

Members of the Sikh Cultural Society in Forrest Hills, and the Karam Joth Sikh Temple joined up to make vats of rice, beans and vegetables for residents in the area. The National Guard was also handing out boxes of MREs and water Friday.

City Councilman James Sanders told The Daily News it could be four more days until power is restored in this area.

Even as Power is Restored, Some Buildings Remain Dark

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:14:35 -0400

For someone without power, that longed for moment is when the clock radio starts blinking 12:01 or the refrigerator's calming hum returns.

Standing in the damp basement of her East 14th Street co-op on Friday, Victoria Keller said she looks forward to no longer feeling like a camper in her own home.

"I sit and read for a little bit by candle light or flash light, and then I think, I may as well just go to bed," Keller said.

But getting power back isn't as simple as Con Ed flipping a switch.

When Sandy conspired with a full moon to cause record-high tides, basements across the city flooded with salt water. That alarmed building superintendent Chris Drelich because salt water can corrode metal.

"I said, ‘uh-oh, we have a problem,’" Drelich recalled.

As the waters receded, the fuse boxes in the six buildings in his complex had patches rust, and there was white fuzz on the switches: salt crystals.

Drelich said they would all have to be replaced, otherwise, the box could short circuit, or even start a fire.

No one yet knows how much it'll cost to replace all this.

Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging people to avoid turning on the power too soon.

"We've already seen some cases where when electricity was turned on there were fires and we lost some of the houses,” he said on Friday. “We wanna make sure that does not happen.”

Still, in the East Village, early Friday evening there were cheers when the power came back on.

The co-op on East 14th Street had a team of electricians working for hours, rigging up a temporary electricity distribution system for just this occasion. And for the first time in four nights, there was light.

For One East Villager, A Lesson Learned in the Dark

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:00:27 -0400

On day four of Sandy, I cooked a hot meal for a neighbor who hadn’t yet left his apartment, dropped off the last of our candles with friends, loaded the car with a bag of clothes, a transistor radio and the remains of our freezer and headed out of the dark zone.

Within 30 minutes, I was fighting with Upper East Siders to get into the turning lane, stopping at red lights and gaping at shops with lights on and shoppers inside them. Shops that sold running shoes! Frozen yogurt! Coffee!

During my four days without power, I had glimpses of this other life – I downloaded a Facebook feed when I stopped by a bicycle-powered hotspot on Avenue C. I had invitations to movie premiers and photos of friends' Halloween cleverness. It was disheartening. Not that life was going on, but it was going on without us. While they were getting back to work, we were surveying the damage to our basement, gathering with neighbors on corners to share information ("The hardware store on 1st Avenue still has batteries," "There's coffee on 2nd Avenue") and cooking by the light of the Chanukah candles.

We got off easy. The East River rose mightily with the surge, crested over the seawall a few blocks north and came rushing down Avenue C, reminding us that before the landfill creation of the projects to the east of us, it was once the river’s edge. We stood on our stoop watching the water rise, step by step, until it was over the tops of our rain boots.

“Never in my entire life have I seen anything like this,” our neighbor gasped.

She’s 11.

Our basement was chest-high in brackish water, our boiler and electric meters submerged, appliances floating. But our building was standing and we were all intact.

On Friday, FEMA was distributing food and water on our block. And the National Guard was knocking on doors in highrises to make sure the elderly have water and food. But if you could get out of your apartment, here is a list of what you could find: Cheetoh Macaroons (they needed one of the city’s last generators?), lobster rolls and fresh pressed juice (food trucks), croissants (day old), avocados and mangos (very ripe), wine and beer. Here’s what you couldn't find: ice, gasoline, generators, pumps, radios, water, flashlights.

Civilization was just a few miles away, so why not head to the land of hot water and broadband? Traffic going uptown was gridlocked. The only people I knew who had made it out bicycled or walked. I was daunted by the task of leaving and also feeling the pull of home and neighbors in need. We stayed as long as we could and I am grateful for the chance to live not just among the “have nots” but to be one. Here is what I gleaned from just a few days of living in the dark zone:

At every meal I overate. It felt deeply primal to make sure my belly was continually full and I thought about how hard it is to eat properly when food is unreliable.

On day three, I stood at the sink washing dishes in the cold water. I thought about students trying to take standardized tests while worrying about their safety.

The parks were closed and without traffic lights it was dangerous to cross the avenues on foot. Toxic puddles of oil, septic and storm water made obstacle courses of the sidewalks. Suddenly bereft of outdoor spaces, I thought about the kids who don’t kick balls, play baseball not because they don’t want to, but because there is no safe place to do that.

Frayed from worry about fires and staying warm, I yelled things at my kids I swore I would never say (the most benign being “stop practicing piano!”). I shamefully remembered all the times I had judged parents for threatening and berating their children in the streets.

I considered meditating or exercising, or even taking a few deep breaths, but it was too cold and I was too stressed. I thought about how hard it is to break that feedback loop of stress, especially when it’s been hard-wired in from years of worry.

And late at night, after I got the girls to bed and the work of the day took it’s toll, I drank a glass of wine, then another and then another. And I thought about how difficult it is to face reality when it’s hard edges can so easily be softened with drugs and alcohol.

A decade ago, my husband and I lived in South Africa. The N2 highway is the only route from the Cape Town airport into the city. Traveling the nine mile stretch, the uninitiated will notice a sea of tin shacks, makeshift toilets and hijacked electrical lines until that gives way to Jacaranda-lined boulevards and modern high rises.

During apartheid, the government hauled in truckloads of sand to bolster the sand dunes lining the highway to spare travelers from the sight. The sand dunes had long ago blown away (it was too expensive to keep replacing them). But even 20 years on, it was hard not to be shocked by the disparity. The yawning gap in South Africa is visible by color line and geography.

As I stood in the dark in our 6th floor walk-up in the East Village, I thought about those dizzying afternoons in South Africa where we would travel between the dusty roads of the townships to the pristine beaches in 20 minutes. Across Avenue C, my neighbors pumped out their basements and offered each other hot meals. My own sand dunes had washed away with the storm.

Interactive: Slide To See Before And After Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:20:00 -0400

There's been no shortage of before-and-after imagery portraying the coast in Sandy's wake. One of the more impressive ways to see the storm's impact is by exploring this map assembled by NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

We took a few screen grabs of the destruction around Seaside Heights, N.J., to create these sliding previews — but you can see much more if you zoom in on NOAA's interactive map.

Comptroller: Sandy Could Cost State $18B

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:34:13 -0400

The State Comptroller estimates that Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath will cost the state as much as $18 billion dollars.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli says “it’s hard to quantify” right now the true costs of the storm, but he says based on a number of factors, losses could be between $15 to $18 billion dollars for the state.

He says Wall Street was down for a few days, and tourism, which is “a big driver of the city’s economy,” may suffer. He says there are also economic losses from property damage, people not being able to get to their jobs, and small business closures.

DiNapoli says the losses are likely to blow a bigger hole in the state’s budget, at least for the short run. New York already had an estimated $1b dollar deficit, and tax collections had been running slightly below what had been projected.

The comptroller says those numbers will be compiled next week.

What If There's No Winner? Presidential Campaigns And Their Lawyers Prepare

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:00:00 -0400

The presidential race is expected to be extremely close, and that has a lot of people nervous about what it will mean for election night.

Does it mean that the vote count could drag on for days, or even weeks, as it did in 2000?

Lawyers for the campaigns, the political parties and state election offices are preparing for the possibility.

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted could very well be the man in the middle of any election night storm. By all accounts, the vote in his crucial battleground state will be extremely close.

"We are preparing for the potential that it would be so close, that we might not know what the results will be on election night," Husted says.

One possibility is that an automatic recount will be triggered, says Husted. Ohio law requires a recount if the vote margin between the candidates is a quarter of a percent or less of the total vote — or about a 150,000-vote difference.

"We are issuing directives and working with local [elections] boards to make sure that the rules are in place for how they're going to handle the security of the ballots, that everyone is well aware in advance of what the rules are for a recount process," says Husted.

Husted knows that if there is a recount, lawyers will be descending en masse on the Buckeye State. These will include lawyers for President Obama and Mitt Romney — and anyone else with an interest in the outcome.

But a recount is just one of several things that could delay the final count.

In Ohio, about 200,000 voters are expected to cast provisional ballots because they don't have identification, because they requested an absentee ballot but showed up at the polls instead, or for other reasons.

But those ballots can't even be counted until 10 days after Election Day according to Ohio law.

Then, says Ned Foley, an election law expert at Ohio State University, there's the state's announcement of the official count, or canvass. "The statute says that localities have up to 10 days to do that. So that's a second 10 days," Foley says. "That could take you to Nov. 27."

And he says any recount that might be triggered can't even begin until the canvass is completed — meaning the tally for Ohio could easily go into December. And the Electoral College needs to meet on Dec. 17 to officially pick the president.

Foley also says the deadlines could change if there are legal challenges and the courts get involved.

Larry Norden with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York notes that automatic recounts can be triggered by close votes in states other than Ohio, such as Florida, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

And he adds: "The big fights are always over ballots that have not yet been counted, so another issue is absentee ballots."

Norden, author of a new report detailing just how different and complicated the recount rules are in the crucial battleground states, notes that absentee ballots are increasingly popular around the country, and that they're unpredictable.

"In states like Florida, North Carolina and Ohio in 2008, we saw many thousands of rejected absentee ballots. So, that is likely to be a subject of dispute in a very close election," he says.

For example, an absentee ballot can be rejected if a voter accidentally signs it in the wrong place or if officials decide the signature doesn't match the one they have on record. Norden says similar issues can be raised with military and overseas ballots that could also arrive and be counted days after Nov. 6.

"It's an election administrator's prayer that we don't have close elections," he says.

The presidential campaigns also hope for a clear outcome next week, but they're preparing for the worst.

A Romney campaign aide, who spoke on background, says they have all the resources they need for any potential dispute or recount. The Obama campaign also has teams of lawyers ready to go.

But publicly, they're putting on a more optimistic front. Both campaigns say that they expect to win decisively on Nov. 6.

Snapshot | Red Hook After Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:52:22 -0400

As power returned to much of the region, many of the residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn, remained in the dark Friday without heat or hot water.

WNYC's Amy Pearl visited this hard hit area of Brooklyn to see how residents are coping in the aftermath

Michale, 10, waiting on line for food for his family in Red Hook. "My mom is with my brother. We have no power. We need school, I guess it will start next week."

Here's Michael with his mom after picking up food at a distribution center at Cofey Park in Red Hook on Friday. "This is very helpful," his mom said.

Members of the National Guard unload food and water at Cofey Park in Red Hook.

Claresa Ward waited for food and water being distributed in Red Hook. Ward works at Ikea and they are putting her and her three kids up in a hotel "for as long as I need."

Peter Molino in Red Hook: "I live- lived in the basement on Pioneer St. but I'm staying at my girlfriend's sister's now. I'm here to pick up some food to get through the day. I work on commission, I'm a tattoo artist and where I work has no power so that means no work for me. I thought I put things high enough, but when I came back to look, the water line was above my head. My girlfriend just got off the phone with the FEMA guy. We applied Tuesday and he was supposed to come today by 11. He said he is coming but he gave up on the train and he is walking here from Marcy [Projects]."

Shirley Melendez lives on Columbia St. and tried to wait out the storm. "I live on Columbia. When I saw the water coming up it scared the hoops out of me! We have no heat, no power. When I got to my mom's at the Wycoff Projects, it felt like the Hyatt with that hot shower! I have a generator and I want to stay here but I don't know where to get gas," she said.

A Dept. of Sanitation vehicle moves debris near Cofey Park in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Workers at Fairway on the waterfront in Red Hook continue to clear away spoiled food and ruined equipment.

Phil, 13 and Ant, 10, at the American Quick Stop in Red Hook. Phil: "We have no gas, just diesel. We hope to get a gas delivery on Monday or Tuesday. We live in Staten Island but our house is okay."

No gas (just diesel) at the American Quick Stop on Van Brunt in Red Hook.

Ricardo and Shane work in the kitchen at The Good Fork in Red Hook. Shane said, "We moved all our food out ahead of time so we are lucky. We just have to clean up. I biked in from Crown Heights. A bike is the best way to get around right now. Neighbors have been coming by all day, asking if they can help clean up."

Donations for the Red Hook Houses which are without power and running water, begin to pile up at PS 32, on Hoyt Street. The relief is being organized by a parent group at the school.

How to help in Red Hook

Red Hook Recovers is connecting volunteers and givers in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

The Red Hook Initiative is collecting toilet paper, water, candles, food, flashlights, cell phone chargers, batteries, paper towels, and paper for printers.

Your Sandy Stories: What Are You Learning About Your Community?

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:28:31 -0400

This past weekend, WNYC gathered your stories as we recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

What are you learning about your community?

We wanted to hear how your community reacted to Sandy, and how it’s dealing with the aftermath. Was there a particular person who rose to the occasion? Something you are learning about your state, city, workplace or family during the crisis?

Here are some of your responses.

+ Dennis from Sheepshead Bay on NYC Auxiliary Policy

+ Cindy from Long Beach

+ Mary from Porchester

+ Sarah from New Rochelle

+ Vladimir from New Jersey

+ The Rockaways Come Together

+ Justin on Music Community

How the NYPD Polices the Aftermath of Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 07:44:34 -0400

Police have fanned out across the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to patrol neighborhoods plunged into darkness, direct traffic at snarled intersections and stand guard in areas where looting has been reported.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said officers are working longer shifts — and police say they have tapped the Organized Crime Control Bureau for additional officers on the ground, are using recruits to man some intersections have relied on NYPD school security to help staff city-operated shelters.

“Certainly we're focused on the blackout areas, but other areas as well,” Kelly said Thursday. “I think the officers are doing an excellent job in covering a whole host of issues we're addressing."

In hard-hit Coney Island, police were standing guard on just about every block Thursday, patrolling by foot and standing guard outside a Key Food where hours earlier 18 were arrested for looting. Earlier in the week, nine had been arrested for looting in the neighborhood.

Looting has also been reported in parts of Far Rockaway and Manhattan.

And even with a strong police presence, Coney Island resident Kenneth Bishop, who lives on East 33rd Street, said he has seen looters carry stolen items past his window.

"What they do is keep watch on the activity of the police and the moment that police are gone they go right back into action," he said.

Bishop said instead of locals stealing to overcome food and water shortages after the storm he believed it was more the work of opportunistic gangs.

Wanda Feliciano, resident leader of Unity Towers, one of the nine public housing complexes in the area, said she's also concerned about a potential crime wave.

"Now the people in the neighborhood are taking things and looting and robbing,” she said. “I had one apartment that was robbed while the people were away and that's not good. People have to live here.”

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said the police presence has been key in hard-hit areas.

"I would prefer that we didn't need such a police presence,” he said. "Unfortunately, there's always a few mutants who make it bad for everyone."

Power, Transit Problems Drive Lines at the Pumps

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:57:04 -0400

Around the metropolitan area, drivers are lining up at gas stations for hours on end to fill up. More people are traveling by car because of limited mass transit and many are buying gas to fuel generators after losing power.

New Jersey Public Radio's Nancy Solomon says she didn't see a single station open as she drove around towns like Orange, Maplewood and Union on Thursday.

“The primary problem seems to be power,” she said. “Some gas stations are out of gas, so they can't pump the gas, so everything is connected to everything.”

In Morristown, New Jersey, WNYC’s Bob Hennelly saw just as many people standing in line for generator fuel as drivers idling in hopes of filling up their tanks.

“One island is for individuals walk-up business, if you will. Cash and carry,” he explained. “There's a whole new protocol for how to stand in those lines. So you'll see people in their suburban finery holding ten gallon gasoline containers and some of them two and three at a time and at the same time there will be another island with a line, a queue of cars.”

No matter which line you're in, it was taking about two and a half hours to get to the front. And that seemed to be the case around the region.

WNYC's Janet Babin was at a Hess station in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she says hundreds of cars are lined up for blocks, many coming from outside the neighborhood.

“One person told me she came in from Hoboken, another person was there for Staten Island. Other people came in from Queens. People are coming from all over, to Brooklyn, to get gasoline,” she said.

But coming to Brooklyn didn’t ensure a victory in the battle to get to the pump on the first try. Elana Snow of Hoboken started her search in Williamsburg.

“I went to three or four different gas stations there, and one the line was too long and people were backing up the opposite way down the street so you couldn't get to the gas station,” she said.

She finally ended up at that Hess in Park Slope, where a handful of police officers were doing their best to manage the chaos of traffic around the station. WNYC's Amy Pearl was there too.

“I tried to ask the gas station operator if she was expecting another shipment of gas anytime soon, and at first she was very unable to talk and very stressed out because she wasn't able to accept cash transactions because her system was down,” Pearl recalled. “But she, working on the phone with somebody was able to get that back up, and a little cheer went up along the line ‘She's taking cash. Come back. Oh, you got off the line. Come back. She's taking cash!’"

(Photo: The line for gas spread in all directions at the Hess station on Union St. and 4th Ave. Amy Pearl/WNYC)

On Long Island, gas attendant Omar Qurushi says he's never seen anything like this rush for gas.

“I remember when the gas prices went to $4 for the first time, people used to go crazy. You know, when we had some sales and that type of stuff,” he said, “but not like this, not all, because you know especially Long Island, people are running generators…everybody just wants a little bit of gas, two gallons, to run their generators for power.”

Elected officials have taken note of the shortage.

Senator Charles Schumer says the gas crisis will end in a day or two because New York Harbor and the ports have now opened after being shut down for safety reasons.

“These boats, ships, tankers will be able to go through, they'll be able to land. They'll be able to unload their gasoline loads onto trucks which will go to the gas stations that people need,” he said.

But it the crisis won't be completely over until the power is back on, so some stations have power to actually pump the gas. It could be days in some areas like Lower Manhattan, and perhaps as long as 10 days in other areas.

AAA issued a list of stations in New Jersey and Long Island reporting that they had gas as of early Thursday afternoon. Check with the station, however, before heading out.

Coping in the Dark, Long Islanders Learn to Live With Less Power

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 18:04:36 -0400

Long Islanders are finding ways to do more than less, as a whopping 646,512 customers remain without power island-wide. It’s been tough, but they’re finding ways to cope, as the latest estimates from the Long Island Power Authority are likely to leave them in the dark for seven to ten days.

Melissa Cortez said she’s given up searching for a generator, after traveling far and wide to hunt one down.

"We've been to five different Home Depots and Loew's,” she said, having traveled all the way from Queens Village. “Not happening.”

Instead, she’s going to drive two hours to her sister’s place in Connecticut where there is power.

For others, traveling to family elsewhere isn’t an option. Joe Piciulo, from Malverne, said he’s run out of gas for his generator, which he bought after a particularly bad storm left him in the dark. His family live on Long Island, too and is in the same predicament he’s in.

"Everyone's pretty much in the same shape. My mom is out east, Riverhead, she's out of power. I have another brother in Franklin Square, he's out of power. So we're all pretty much in the same boat,” he explained.

Piciullo tried several gas stations, but said he they either didn’t have power, or they didn’t have gas.

In the meantime, locations that offer free wi-fi, or outlets to plug in electronics, have become safe havens for many Long Islanders.

Sixteen-year-old Austin Son and his friends have set up a work station with laptops, and a power strip to charge their phones, at a Panera Bread in New Hyde Park that has power.

He said he typically spends four to six hours a day there, watching movies, chatting with friends, and doing homework. Life outside of Panera, he said, has become pretty boring.

“It's really dark.....I usually fall asleep around 11, but since I don't have power, it gets kinda dark around like 8,” he said. “So I just fall asleep, and then just come here as early as I can, and stay here as long as possible, and then go back home, fall asleep. And it goes on like that."

China Offers Proposal For Cease-Fire In Syria

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:55:00 -0400

China, which along with Russia has repeatedly rejected international intervention in the civil war in Syria, issued a cease-fire proposal on Thursday.

The proposal, reports The New York Times, calls for a "phased-in truce" and the "establishment of a transitional authority," but does stop short of calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

As the Times reads it, this overture "appeared to reflect concern by Chinese leaders that their consistent support for the legitimacy of the government of President Bashar al-Assad had strained China's relations with other Arab countries that have been pushing for Mr. Assad's removal."

Xinhua, China's official English-language news outlet, reports that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that "a political settlement is the only viable solution in Syria."

Reuters spoke to Guo Xian'gang, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, a government think tank. Guo said that this proposal isn't a shift in the position China has already held but it is more concrete.

"China has always maintained the principle of peaceful resolution of the Syria problem, that anti-government forces should achieve peace through dialogue, without outside armed intervention," Guo said.

Superstorm Sandy May Have Blown In Fresh Breeze Of Bipartisanship

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:42:00 -0400

Amid the devastation caused by Sandy, there are signs the superstorm might have blown a fresh breeze into the nation's politics. Suddenly, everyone's talking about something that seemed impossible just days before — bipartisanship.

Nothing sums that attitude up better than the actions of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Republican Christie, who has worked closely with GOP hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign and has consistently proved one of President Obama's harshest critics, put that aside in the aftermath of Sandy.

Pundits on both sides of the aisle have taken notice. And the photos of a concerned-looking Obama and earnest-looking Christie shaking hands next to Marine One on the tarmac in Atlantic City may become iconic images of the disaster.

Christie went out of his way to praise Obama for the president's actions before and after the storm.

"I thank the president publicly for that," he told Fox News on Tuesday. And at a news conference on Wednesday with the president at his side, Christie described his dealings with Obama as "a great working relationship to make sure that we're doing the jobs that people elected us to do."

The more cynical among us would say that, much like Hurricane Sandy, this too shall pass. But there are tantalizing clues to the contrary, says Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and co-author of It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.

"This massive storm and this remarkable 'bromance' between Obama and Christie, and the apparent ability of them to move things forward and to help a devastated state and people in need, is going to add to the momentum to do something," he says.

Even before Sandy, the theme of bipartisanship has been a staple on the campaign trail in recent weeks, with both candidates talking togetherness in hopes of swaying any lingering fence-sitting voters.

An Associated Press-GfK poll showed that likely voters favor Romney over Obama as the candidate most likely to end the stalemate in Washington. A Pew Research Center poll published in June asked whether people liked political leaders who are "willing to make compromises to get the job done." Ninety percent of Democrats said yes, while 68 percent of Republicans agreed. Those percentages are up from 77 percent and 66 percent, respectively, in 1987.

The issue of bipartisanship has also bubbled up in many down-ballot races amid congressional gridlock and approval ratings for the legislative branch that are at slightly improved, but still near historically low levels.

Ornstein points to the Indiana U.S. Senate race, where Tea Party-supported Richard Mourdock unseated longtime Republican incumbent Richard Lugar in the primary and promptly announced that "bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view." Mourdock, whose remarks since then about rape have garnered him national attention, has struggled in what is a fairly reliable red state.

"Let's face it: That remark about his unwillingness to compromise played a hand here," Ornstein says.

In Massachusetts, incumbent Sen. Scott Brown has touted his bipartisan credentials in hopes of holding on to his seat against challenger Elizabeth Warren. In Ohio, long shot Democratic challenger Joyce Healy-Abrams has tried to use bipartisanship as an issue in her campaign to unseat GOP Rep. Bob Gibbs.

Ornstein says he thinks the Senate will move toward greater bipartisanship after the Nov. 6 election, but he's less optimistic about the House.

"I think the Senate is going to unleash a significant number of problem solvers across the spectrum," he says. "That's been building. I have had conversations with Republican senators who've said, 'I'm tired of just voting no all the time. That's not why I'm here.'

"The House is going to grow more polarized and the willingness to compromise is not going to be apparent," Ornstein says.

Neil Malhotra, a professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has co-authored two studies on voter attitudes about bipartisanship in recent years. His research suggests that most voters like the idea of bipartisanship in the abstract but want their individual representatives to be uncompromisingly partisan.

"Even strong Republicans and strong Democrats have a higher opinion of Congress when it's framed as working together," he says. "But both strong Republicans and strong Democrats want their own members to behave in an extreme fashion that is not bipartisan."

It's a paradox, Malhotra says. "People want a Congress that is full of people doing exactly what they don't want."

Bloomberg Endorses Obama for President

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:17:39 -0400

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, citing climate change, endorsed President Barack Obama on Thursday.

The mayor endorsed the president in an op-ed published online Thursday — saying his decision to endorse was prompted by the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy. It brought the stakes of the election into "sharp relief," he wrote.

"This issue is too important," he wrote. "We need determined leadership at the national level to move the nation and the world forward."

Bloomberg said he "may have voted" for GOP challenger Mitt Romney if the "1994 or 2003 version" were running but says the former Massachusetts governor has "reversed course" on at least one major climate change initiative.

Of the two candidates, Bloomberg writes that, "One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics."

Bloomberg had said he would not endorse a candidate. Stu Loeser, Bloomberg’s former, long-time press secretary says he was surprised that the mayor changed his mind.

But he noted, the mayor’s endorsement was “not a straight up the board endorse.”

“In this case, the mayor has real misgivings about some of the ways that the president has responded to parts of the business community in New York for instance,” Loeser said, “but based on preponderance of the issues, he's going to vote for Obama and he thinks others should, too."

Your Post-Sandy Questions, Answered

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:56:44 -0400

We're collecting your questions about city and regional services here, and answering the ones we can. We'll update this page regularly as we learn more.

Jump to:

Food, water and ice

Where can we get food?

New Jersey

Residents in need of food, water and ice can pick them up at three distribution centers starting at 9 a.m. Friday according to the Monmouth County Sheriff.

The regional distribution centers will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and has a fast drive-up service, said Sheriff Shaun Golden. There will be two bags of ice and two cases of water allocated per car. Make sure to bring identification to show you are from the area. There will also be charging stations at these distribution points.

Keyport to Atlantic Highlands: residents can go to the Holy Family Church, located at 910 Route 36 in Hazlet.

Sea Bright to Allenhurst: residents should go to the Monmouth Park Racetrack on Oceanport Avenue in Oceanport.

Asbury Park to Brielle: residents should go to the Peddler's Village Outlet Mall, located on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Route 35.

The Red Cross is operating a number of fixed and mobile feeding locations in NY and NJ.

New York

Food Bank of New York is distributing food via mobile distribution centers, and Meals on Wheels is continuing to deliver food to the elderly. City Harvest is delivering food to soup kitchens and food pantries throughout the city.

Food, water, and blanket distribution sites will open from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. The locations in Manhattan are:

Pitt and Houston Streets
419 West 17th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues

In Brooklyn:

Coffey Park at Richards Street
West 25th Street and Surf Ave.
Corner of Brighton Beach Avenue and Coney Island Avenue

In Staten Island:

Mill Rd. and New Drop Ln.
Hunter Avenue and Father Capadanno Boulevard

In Queens:

Beach 44th Street and Rockaway Beach Blvd.
Red Fern Ave. and Beach 12th St.
Vernon Blvd. and 30th Rd.
Highland Place between Rockaway Point Boulevard and East Market Street
129-16 Rockaway Beach Boulevard between Beach 128th and 129th Streets

On Long Island:

Nassau County:

Cedar Creek Park 3340 Merrick Road Seaford, NY
Nickerson Beach Park 880 Lido Blvd Lido Beach, NY
Christopher Morley Park 500 Searingtown Rd. Roslyn, NY

Suffolk County:

HL Dennison 1oo Veterans Memorial Hwy Hauppauge, NY 11718
Mastic Firehouse 1080 Mastic Rd Mastic, NY 11950
Riverhead County Center 210 Center Drive Riverhead, NY 11901

Where can I get ice?

Brooklyn (dry ice) - WalgHreen's, 532 Neptune Ave. (between W. 5th & 6th Streets)

Bronx (dry ice) - 1200 Waters Place at the entrance to the Hutchinson Metro Center

Queens (dry ice) - 121-10 Rockaway Blvd.

Staten Island (dry ice) - The entrance to Great Kills Park on Buffalo Street

Westchester County (dry ice) - Yonkers Raceway, 810 Yonkers Ave., Yonkers

Manhattan (wet ice) - Union Square Park, Union Square East and East 17th Street.

Is the water safe to drink?

In NYC, tap water is safe to drink in all areas except Breezy point.

The city cautions that water in Breezy Point will not be drinkable even if boiled. This is specific to Breezy point; residents there will have to drink bottled water once the water returns. Water is being provided by the Department of Environmental Protection at portable water stations in Breezy Point. Water is being restored, where it can, in Breezy Point for the express purpose of firefighting and fire suppression.

Breezy Point uses the city's water, which is safe, but its distribution system is privately owned and managed. Breaks in that distribution system are what's making the water unsafe.

In Long Island, the LI Water Conference says water in most places is fine to drink, with these areas of exception - two isolated areas in Nassau County — Long Beach and Mill Neck Estates — and three areas in Suffolk County — portions of Fire Island, Maidstone Park Cottages and Peconic View Mobile Home Park.

In New Jersey, water advisories are in effect for 11 cities/municipalities. The state has also set up at 211 system to answer questions about food and water safety. You can also call 1-866-324-0964. Public health officials will be available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

Where can we get ice?

ConEd is keeping a list of distribution centers in each borough where wet and dry ice are being distributed.

PSE & G is also providing ice, drinking water and power strips where customers can charge their devices free of charge at five New Jersey locations this Saturday:

CVS Parking Lot, 59 Wahington Ave., Hoboken- 24/7

Red Neck Grove -John Stevens Baseball Field, Moonachie - 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Paramus Park Mall from 8 to 9 p.m.

On the corner of Westside and Claremont Ave., Jersey City from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

St. James Church Parking Lot, on the corner of Elm and Madison streets in Newark from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Power and cell phones

When will I get my power back?

Con Edison says that as of 7am Saturday, approximately 280,000 customers are out of service. The NY Times has a map of power outages around the five boroughs. Call 1-800-75-ConEd for specific restoration times. Con Edison is also working to restore steam power to the roughly 550 customers without heat in lower Manhattan.

Jersey Central Power & Light has a list of estimated restoration times, and says the majority of customers will be restored within the next seven days. As of Friday at noon, there are still more than 710,000 customers without power.

PSE&G says over the last three days the utility has restored power to over a million customers. They estimate that all customers will have power within the coming week, but that some pockets may have to wait until after November 9. Currently there are 607,000 customers without power, down from 2.2 million.

This weekend, the utility says it's concentrating its restoration efforts on areas that will impact the most customers: Jersey City, Bayonne in Hudson County; Irvington, West Orange, Montclair, East Orange, Bloomfield, Maplewood, Orange and Belleville in Essex County; Teaneck, Englewood, Ridgewood, Fort Lee, Paramus, Bergenfield, Palisades Park, New milford, River Edge, Glen Rock, Tenafly, Hackensack, Lodi and Bogota in Bergen County; Princeton Township, Ewing Township, Lawrence Township, West Windsor, Trenton, Hopewell, Princeton Borough, Hamilton Township and Pennington in Mercer County; Moorestown, Willingboro, Maple Shade, Mt. Laurel and Delran in Burlington County; Paterson, Clifton, Passaic and Wayne in Passaic County; Cherry Hill, Camden and Pennsauken in Camden County; Elizabeth, Union, Plainfield, Linden and Westfield in Union County; Edison, Piscataway, Woodbridge and East Brunswick in Middlesex; and Franklin Township in Somerset.

Extensive flooding in Hoboken continues to hamper restoration efforts there.

LIPA says it’s already restored power to 65 percent of customers who lost power during Sandy, and is still working this weekend with an estimated restoration time of 7 to 10 days. Some may get their power before then, but some will also get it after that time. As of noon Friday, there are still 535,760 customers without power.

Where can I charge my cell phone?

Solar One—green energy, arts and education center—has a trailer on the East River waterfront at 22nd Street. Solar panels that power Solar One's small building are providing electricity to the community while the power in the community is down. Residents have been charging their cell phones off the solar panels.

For residents in/near the Rockaways, the Queens Library is inviting affected residents a place to charge electronic devices, get information and assistance in filing for disaster recovery and emergency services, borrowing books. Queens Library @ Peninsula, 92-25 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Rockaway Beach.

What is happening with cell phone service?

Federal regulators say the storm knocked out a quarter of the cell towers in an area across ten states.

AT&T confirms it is experiencing “some issues in areas heavily impacted by the storm.” AT&T and T-Mobile have entered into an agreement to enable roaming on their networks to customers of both companies. Calls will be carried by whichever network is most operational in their area.

Verizon Wireless, the largest cell carrier in the country, said their network in greater New York has been stressed due to flooding and power outages and that there are "serious problems" in lower Manhattan. They are working to restore service, but did not release an estimate of when they expect repairs to be completed.

Gas and transportation

Where can I find gas?

According to AAA, as of 11:45 a.m. Thursday, these stations reported having gas available in New Jersey and Long Island. You should check with them before making the trip.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management published this list on Thursday afternoon at 4:45 p.m. of pharmacies, hotels, restaurants and gas stations that are open in New Jersey. And New Jerseyans are using the hashtags #njopen and #njgas to share what they're seeing.

Governor Cuomo announced Saturday that the Department of Defense will set up mobile fuel stations at five locations in the New York-Metro area. It will be free and there will be a 10 gallon limit.

The five locations are:

Queens Armory
93-05 160th St.
Jamaica, NY 11433

Bronx Armory
10 West 195th St.
Bronx, NY 10468

Brooklyn Armory
1579 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Staten Island/Elizabeth Armory
321 Manor Road
Staten Island, NY 10314

Freeport Armory
63 Babylon Turnpike
Freeport, NY 11520

Which roads, subways and buses are open and running?

Check frequently with our Transit Tracker for the latest updates on road and transit openings.

Getting help and giving help

Where can I donate my time or money?

We've got a growing list of shelters, charities and volunteer organizations on our How to Help page.

How can I find someone who’s missing?

Check Red Cross’s Safe and Well Tracker, where you or your loved ones can register to say you’re safe.

How can I get insurance to cover my damages?

The Public Advocate's office has a guide to filing storm-related claims here. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio recommends filing those claims as soon as possible, so they can be processed more quickly.

How can I get social and economic aid?

The Mayor's Office and FEMA have set up five Disaster Assistance Service Centers with information about applying for emergency social and economic assistance. They are located in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Hours and locations can be found here.

FEMA has opened three centers in Nassau County, to help provide relief to those affected by Sandy. County Executive Ed Mangano says representatives will give information on what federal aid residents and business owners may be entitled to during the recovery. The cnters are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Nassau Community College in Garden City, the Recreation Center and Ice Arena in Long Beach, and Island Park Village Hall.

You can apply for FEMA assistance by calling 1-800-621-FEMA or online at DisasterAssistance.gov.

I need to report price gouging.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's office is taking in reports of price gouging in the wake of the storm. File a report here.

Where are the shelters near me?

This NYC evac map shows shelters around the five boroughs, Long Island and in New Jersey.

What about pet shelters?

The Humane Society has a list and hotline to identify pet-friendly shelters in New York and New Jersey. On Long Island, a pet Shelter will also open at Nassau County Mitchel Athletic Complex, Administration Building, in Uniondale.

Where can I go to get warm?

The city has set up a number of warming centers throughout the five boroughs where the public can go to warm up. The following warming shelters will be open overnight on Saturday, 11/3:

MANHATTAN
George Washington High School, 549 Audubon Manhattan
BUS PICKUP Seward Park High School, 350 Grand Street

QUEENS
Hillcrest High School, 160-05 Hillcrest Avenue
BUS PICKUP Waldbaum’s, 122-15 Beach Channel Drive between Beach 65th and Beach 66th Place. Fort Tilden Park at Beach Channel Boulevard.

BROOKLYN
John Jay High School, 237 7th Avenue
BUS PICKUP MCU Park Parking Lot At 1904 Surf Avenue

STATEN ISLAND
Tottenville High School, 100 Luten Avenue
BUS PICK UP Miller Field at 600 New Dorp Lane at Weed Avenue Mount Loretto at 6581 Hylan Blvd at Sharrotts Road

Where can I take a hot shower?

Westchester: Club Fit and New York Sports Club, two major health club chains in Westchester, will open their facilities to accommodate those who are without power and need a place to take a warm shower. Club Fit has facilities in Briarcliff Manor and Jefferson Valley. New York Sports Club has facilities in Carmel, Croton, Dobbs Ferry, Hartsdale, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Somers and White Plains and is open to adults 18 and over.

New York City: New York Sports Clubs are opening their doors to people affected by the storm to take showers. Go to their website to find which clubs are open.

To use any of these shower locations, management asks the public to please bring an ID and your own towels. It is recommended that you please call in advance to make sure power and hot water are still available.

Where can I do laundry?

Beginning Saturday, November 3, the Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundry program will bring its free laundry services to Eatontown, New Jersey to provide clean clothes to those affected by Superstorm Sandy.

Money

Are banks open? Where are ATMs operational?

Information is still coming in on where exactly banks and ATMs are operational - many banks say they're working to re-open more than half of the branches that were closed in anticipation of the storm. Additionally, most banks say they will waive or reimburse ATM fees.

Health, prescriptions and sanitation

How can I get my prescriptions filled?

The website RX Response has a growing list of open pharmacies that are filling prescriptions.

What about closed/evacuated hospitals?

The NYU Langone Medical Center outpatient facilities plan to open on Monday, Nov. 5.

Bellevue Hospital will remain closed until further notice. Families should call 311 to find out about transferred patients. Check for updates here.

When will my trash get picked up?

The Sanitation Department is making scheduled garbage collections as storm conditions permit. Recycling collections are suspended, and all recycling should be stored until further notice. The Department continues to handle hurricane debris clean ups citywide.

When will regular postal service return to normal?

Mail delivery has been attempted throughout the storm and its aftermath. All main post offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn are operational, but mail facilities on Staten Island and Long Island were affected.

Connie Chirichello, a spokeswoman for the U.S.P.S. said mail delivery was attepted in all areas where it could be safely delivered. She also said depending on the impacted zone, between 20 and 80 percent of all mail has been delivered. And as emergency crews continue to clear roads and electricity returns, that percentage will get better. Also, about 70 to 90 percent of postal employees have been able to return to work.

The U.S. Postal Service says individuals living in areas most affected by the storm and expecting social security checks for November 1 will have to pick them up at one of several post office locations:

Long Island

Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens

Northern New Jersey

Westchester

All Bronx addresses will have their checks delivered through regular mail.

Schools, voting and other events

When are schools open?

Schoolbook has updates on public schools.

For information on school closings throughout the area, use the following links:

How will I vote?

The New York City Board of Elections is currently surveying its approximately 100 polling places in the flood zones and assessing to see how many may need to be relocated. In some storm-ravaged precincts, New York City Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said the city may have to resort to erecting tents for temporary polling places.

In New Jersey, power outages and flood will likely force polling places to move in New Jersey, but the New Jersey Department of State, which administers elections, has not yet announced any changes. The agency makes no mention of Sandy on the polling location finder on its website.

Con Edison says it's hoping to restore electricity to schools for Monday and polling places for Tuesday.

Is the marathon really still happening?

As of Friday afternoon, the NYC marathon is cancelled. Runners are being encouraged to donate their rooms to victims of Sandy seeking a room.

The New York Road Runners also said that race supplies -- blankets, food, port-o-Johns and generators -- would be diverted to relief efforts. The group also raised $2.6 million for its "Race to Recover" campaign.

Other facts and figures

I can't get WNYC AM 820.

WNYC AM 820 is temporarily operating at lower power, due to damage sustained at our transmitter site during the recent storm. If you are having trouble hearing WNYC AM 820, you can stream our signal at WNYC.org and by tuning into 93.9 FM.

What's happening with the nuclear reactors?

In anticipation of the storm, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission shut down three area reactors: Nine Mile Point 1 in Scriba, N.Y., Indian Point 3 in Buchanan, N.Y.; and Salem Unit 1 in Hancocks Bridge, N.J. As of Thursday morning, these remain offline.

What's up with NYC parks?

The majority of NYC parks and playgrounds will re-open by 8 a.m. on Saturday November 3rd. For more information on specific closures, check out the NYC Parks & Recreation website.

The city has asked for volunteers to help clean up parks over the weekend. More information on how to help can be found here.

Which libraries are open?

More than 65 branches in the NYPL system will be open on Monday. A list and map of open locations can be found here.

A list of closed libraries in the Brooklyn PL system is accessible here.

The Nassau Library System has a list of open branches here.

The New Jersey Library Association has established an online fund to help rebuild member libraries. For information on branch hours, check your local library's website.

Living on the Edge

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 04:00:00 -0400

Look at a New York City evacuation map and you’ll notice something about many of the red areas along the water’s edge: they correspond to areas that the Bloomberg administration hopes will catch on as new residential neighborhoods.

The red areas denote Zone A, which means residents are supposed to evacuate if there’s a threat of a tropical storm approaching the city. It include's Manhattan’s West Side, Greenpoint-Williamsburg, Hunter’s Point and Coney Island.

Why is the city trying to encourage development in areas that, especially after Sandy, seem so vulnerable?

“It’s a very profound question because one of the things that has given the city a lot of rebirth and energy has been the redevelopment of the waterfront,” said William Solecki, a geography professor at Hunter College and co-chairman of the New York City Panel on Climate Change. “It’s that delicate balance between development and access to the water and limiting exposure.”

Solecki says one solution is to design buildings to withstand occasional flooding: sub-basements that are entirely sealed to the outside, high windows on the first floor, or architectural strategy adapted from Florida that treats the first floor as a fairly expendable “blow-out zone” that could be washed out without causing serious damage.

Solecki says he’s not entirely convinced design is the answer, but says Sandy provides a test-case.

About 375,000 people live in Zone A and they were supposed to evacuate on Sunday, in advance of the storm. Many did not. Most live in areas that have long been settled like the Rockaways.

But over the past decade, the Bloomberg administration has moved quickly to rezone industrial areas. Once built up, another 5,400 apartments in Williamsburg-Greenpoint, 4,500 in Coney Island, and roughly 5,000 on Manhattan’s West Side will have been added to Zone A over the next few decades, perhaps accounting for another 30,000 or 40,000 people.

The city’s taken various approaches to making those new developments heartier, such as requiring new construction to meet rigorous flood-proof standards, or raising new developments above storm surge levels by adding landfill.

A former Bloomberg administration official, Vishaan Chakrabarti, was involved in some of those rezoning efforts when he was Manhattan Director at the Department of City Planning. Now at of the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University, he’s increasingly skeptical that design measures by themselves will solve the problem and that eventually the city may want to explore building a sea wall, like in the Netherlands, that would rise to keep storm surges from inundating New York City.

“What are we going to do? Retreat from the water’s edge?” he asked. “We have Battery Park City, which has a larger population than many towns in other parts of the country. We have the New York Stock Exchange. We have Wall Street. We have all sorts of housing in Zone A, and there’s no way this could get pulled back to Zone B, and Zone B will eventually be in danger.”

One long time opponent of developing the waterfront, Marcy Benstock, sees such logic as folly. The executive director of the Clean Air Campaign and its Open Rivers Project. Benstock looks at the city’s flood map, sees a lot of white — all those areas that lie outside of the red, orange and yellow zones that show which residents should evacuate, depending on the increasing severity of the storm. (The red edge is just for tropical storms and category 1 hurricanes, the orange for category 2, the yellow is for categories 3 and 4) And it’s there, she says, in those white spaces, where New York should be developing.

Along the water, she suggests, putting affordable parks that may flood, but would be easily and cheaply repaired.

“Let the waterways act as waterways,” she said. “If you want to work against nature you can create multi-billion dollar problems for yourselves.”

Cuomo: Helicopter Survey of Sandy Damage ‘Disturbing’

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:12:26 -0400

Governor Andrew Cuomo took a helicopter tour of areas devastated from Hurricane Sandy, along with New York's Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. He says the state faces "significant" challenges to rebuild, and will have to "fundamentally" rethink New York City's infrastructure going forward.

Cuomo organized a helicopter tour of locations particularly hurt by Sandy, including Breezy Point, where a massive fire destroyed over 100 homes and Long Beach, Long Island, where the beach has eroded completely away and houses are flooded. He also saw JFK airport, where planes have been grounded for days.

Afterward, Cuomo, who visited disaster sites when he was HUD Secretary under President Bill Clinton, says he's never seen New York like this.

"It is very disturbing and sad and troubling to see the amount of damage done and the lives that have been disrupted," said Cuomo, who added he found sights of devastation at Breezy Point , Long Beach and Fire Island "breathtaking"

Senator Chuck Schumer says he's confident that federal money and assistance from FEMA is coming.

"It's one of the biggest disasters to have ever struck this state, and even this country," said Schumer. "The federal response has to measure that scope."

MTA Chair Joe Lhota says public transportation is slowly coming back to life, some subway lines are open, buses are being ramped up to full service, and commuter lines Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road are opening on a limited basis. And he says workers are still trying to get the water out of numerous tunnels, with the help of the special federal unwatering team.

"We're going switch by switch, signal by signal, power substation by power substation," said Lhota, who said the ultimate goal is to restore service "even better."

Governor Cuomo says the state and city will have to build back better, in anticipation of what he says is likely more coastal storm flooding in the future. He says he'll be convening meetings on how to do that shortly. The governor, who's stated already that he believes extreme weather occurrences are here to stay, skirted the line on what's become a political controversy over global warming.

"People will debate whether or not there is climate change," said Cuomo. "That's a whole political debate that I don't want to get into."

Cuomo say he instead wants to discuss the "frequency of extreme weather situations," which he says is "way up."

But Senator Schumer was not reluctant to jump right in.

"There are a group of people in Washington right now who just deny the truth," said Schumer who says he believes there is a "relationship" between the frequent extreme storms "an what's going on in the atmosphere."

Schumer, along with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also delved deeper into the politics in Washington, where some Republican conservatives have proposed cutting FEMA and other government disaster aid programs.
"That's the wrong set of priorities," Gillibrand said.

After the briefing, Cuomo was back in the helicopter for another tour of more devastated regions, including the Robert Moses State Park at Jones Beach, where the sand has now disappeared.

Cuomo has also written a letter to President Obama, asking for the federal government to reimburse the state for 100 percent of response and recovery costs. The total expense is expected to reach into the billions of dollars.

Long Island Struggles in Sandy's Aftermath

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:32:54 -0400

More than 930,000 customers on Long Island are without power following the massive storm, as officials assess the damage caused by flooding, downed trees and power lines.

Several areas along Long Island’s shore were part of mandatory evacuation zones, and several shelters are open in Nassau and Suffolk counties for residents who need them.

One of those shelters, Nassau Community College in Uniondale, was quickly filling up on Tuesday, following the worst of the storm. A Red Cross volunteer said the shelter housed 575 people on Monday night, and expected to double that number by Tuesday night as evacuees filed in after the storm hit.

Red Cross spokesman Steve Bayer came in from Florida to help out with relief efforts. He said evacuees are registered, given a cot and a blanket and are set up in the large gymnasium.

Several people at the center on Tuesday said they’d tried to wait out the storm, having experienced Tropical Storm Irene, but they woke up to damage worse than they’d imagined. Some were asked to evacuate by the county, and others by the National Guard.

“It’s just unbelievable devastation,” said Pat Constantino, a Lido Beach resident who was evacuated after the storm. “This was the storm of the century.”

“It looks like the world ended,” she said. “We had dunes, most of our dunes are gone. Our whole back of our building is covered in sand. Our parking lots are covered in sand…every car in the parking lot floated.”

Crystal Lynch, in nearby Long Beach, also experienced flooding in her apartment complex. She said she lives close to the bay, which met the ocean during the storm. “We got, like, both ends coming in,” she said.

There will certainly be substantial cleanup needed in those areas, and for many at the shelter, it’ll be a day-to-day wait to find out when they can return to their homes.

Linda Minerva, also from Lido Beach, put things into perspective, after being evacuated on Tuesday.

“It was a terrible thing, but we’re all safe and people are alive,” she said. “It’s things and buildings…we can replace those things but we can’t replace lives.”

A Trip Down Broadway Reveals a City in Recovery

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:51:20 -0400

New York City is slowly coming back to life following Superstorm Sandy. Reporter Ben Bradford saw signs of that as early as Tuesday when he walked from one end of the city to the other along Broadway.

And he got a good sense of what many New Yorkers are likely to see as the city struggles to to figure out “the new normal.”

Virtual Halloween Parade

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 08:25:44 -0400

Hurricane Sandy forced the postponement of Wednesday's Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and we want your help to create a Virtual Village Parade.

Email a photograph of yourself in the costume you planned to wear in tonight's parade to pics@wnyc.org. Include your name and a phone number where we can reach you today. Or tweet us @WNYC, #costume. We'll take care of the rest!

Note: sending us your photos and stories means we can use them here and on air. Got it?

There's No Contingency Plan If Disaster Strikes On Election Day

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:10:00 -0400

Suppose Sandy had struck a week later. With power out across multiple states, how would people be able to vote on Election Day?

"If this were happening next week, we have no provisions for dealing with this in law," says Thad Hall, a political scientist at the University of Utah.

Many states have contingency plans for conducting elections in the wake of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. But they tend to focus on strictly local effects — moving polling places over to a neighboring precinct, for example.

There's no controlling authority when it comes to rescheduling presidential voting when roads are blocked and power is down in several states at once, according to the Congressional Research Service.

When terrorists struck Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, New York City suspended its mayoral primary, which was to be held that day, delaying the vote for two weeks.

But postponing the vote in a single city or state — or across multiple states — would skew the result of a national election, says Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University.

"We don't have a contingency for major disasters on Election Day," he says. "If [Sandy] occurred next Monday and Tuesday, there'd be an enormous number of people who couldn't vote."

Local officials frequently call on courts to allow a little more time for voting when there are blizzards or power outages within a contained area. On Colorado's primary Election Day in June, wildfires were raging across 12 counties, but vote counting continued.

"The people in Colorado Springs were counting even with masks on, and there were embers and everything," says Donetta Davidson, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association. "They didn't leave until they were told to get out."

Colorado's primary, though, was conducted mostly by mail. Getting voters and poll workers to voting stations could be difficult after a disaster.

And, while counties have gotten better about having backup batteries and generators in place to power voting machines, making sure schools, churches and other voting centers remain open in an emergency might be tricky.

"We'll ignore it until it happens, and when it happens, we'll figure it out," says Doug Lewis, executive director of the National Association of Election Officials. "It's not the best way to go about doing something like this."

It might be smarter to have plans in place ahead of time. Overburdened state and local officials understandably have other priorities while coping with a crisis.

"I don't give a damn about Election Day," New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie told reporters Tuesday, during a briefing about Sandy. "It doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. I've got bigger fish to fry."

But Lewis says election officials have typically been shouted down the moment they bring the subject up for discussion. No politician, it seems, wants to be accused of plotting to manipulate an election by changing its possible time frame.

"Elected officials are reluctant to take on the task of canceling the election and being accused of doing that for partisan purposes," says Ray Holmberg, a Republican state senator in North Dakota.

Early voting might ease some of the strain of a storm-struck Election Day, Davidson suggests. States along Sandy's path, such as Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts, allow very little by way of early voting, which would leave them with a much more difficult task if voting were disrupted.

But early voting has become a partisan issue, with Republicans in states such as Ohio and Florida seeking to curb the practice this year.

In terms of tinkering with the final Election Date, Congress clearly has that power. The current system, in which the presidential election is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, was set by statute. But despite prodding from some academics, Congress hasn't taken up the question of contingency planning if disaster were to strike.

That means, should the time ever come when a storm the size of Sandy occurs on or just before Election Day, officials in the affected areas would be left scrambling at the worst possible time.

"Whether it's man-made or natural," says Lewis, the association director, "we're eventually going to get hit by something on Election Day."

Sandy Underscores Debate Over Government's Role

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:00:00 -0400

President Obama offered thoughts and prayers Tuesday for all those who have been affected by Sandy. He also offered something more tangible: the full resources of the federal government.

"The most important message I have for them is that America's with you," he said. "We are standing behind you, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet."

For Obama, the federal government is a critical vehicle for that kind of help. Republicans put more faith in local government, and even voluntary efforts.

On Tuesday in Ohio, Mitt Romney sponsored a canned food drive for storm victims and told a parable about the virtue of individual action. When he was in high school, Romney said, a small group of students managed the big task of cleaning up a trash-strewn football field, after each student was given responsibility for scouring one small section.

"And if everybody cleans their lane, why, we'll be able to get the job done," he said. "And so today we're cleaning one lane, if you will. We're able to gather some goods for some people that are in our lane. We're going to help them."

Romney did not suggest that this kind of voluntary effort alone is a substitute for the government. But during a Republican primary debate last year, he did argue that disaster relief should be as decentralized as possible.

"Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction," he said at the time. "And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better."

State disaster officials have sometimes clashed with the federal government, though that's been less of a problem in recent years. Unlike his predecessor, President George W. Bush, Obama named a disaster professional to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA director Craig Fugate understands the states' perspective — he used to run Florida's emergency agency. Obama has promised to keep red tape from getting in the way of recovery.

"I told the mayors and the governors if they're getting 'no' for an answer somewhere in the federal government, they can call me personally at the White House," the president said.

So far, the federal government seems to be delivering. Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey had nothing but praise for the federal response when he spoke Tuesday on Good Morning America.

"I have to say, the administration — the president himself and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate have been outstanding with us so far," Christie said. "And I want to thank the president personally for his personal attention to this."

New Jersey and most of the states hit hard by the storm were already reliably Democratic in the presidential race, but that's not true of disasters generally. Texas leads the nation in federal disaster declarations, with deep-red Oklahoma not far behind.

Even so, for Republicans bent on reducing federal spending, the FEMA budget remains an attractive target. When Romney was asked directly during that same GOP debate last year whether disaster relief should be on the chopping block, here's what he said:

"We should take all of what we're doing at the federal level and say, what are the things we're doing that we don't have to do? And those things we've got to stop doing. Because we're borrowing $1.6 trillion more this year than we're taking in. ... We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids."

That's an inconvenient comment in light of this week's storm. Romney ignored reporters' questions about FEMA funding at Tuesday's canned food drive.

President Obama will continue to make the case for an active federal role Wednesday, not at a campaign rally but by touring hard-hit New Jersey.

Keeping Sandy's Economic Impact In Perspective

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:55:00 -0400

When Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast on Monday, the fragile U.S. economy was just sitting there, stuck in a sluggish-growth mode.

Now, as the massive cleanup begins, business owners, workers and investors are wondering what impact the megastorm ultimately will have on their wallets. Did Sandy weigh down economic activity enough to drown the recovery? Or will the rebuilding efforts boost growth over the longer term?

Economists say Sandy's negative effects will be huge, but the U.S. economy is enormous. On Tuesday, the emerging view held that once all of the costs are counted up, Sandy will have had a big and bad impact, but not one large enough to reverse the slow-moving recovery.

IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm, estimates that the megastorm's costs — including interruption of business activity and damage to infrastructure — will total $30 billion to $50 billion.

That's a big number, but much lower than the one for Hurricane Katrina, which caused around $120 billion in damages. And on a national scale, $30 billion to $50 billion in economic losses would represent just about 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent of gross domestic product. That would knock the economy's current 2 percent growth rate back to where it was this summer, but it would not kill the recovery.

In such a listless economy, where roughly 12 million people are seeking work, that dip would be unwelcome. "The effect on growth for the fourth quarter will not be catastrophic but might still be noticeable, especially in an economy with little momentum anyway," IHS economists Gregory Daco and Nigel Gault wrote in their analysis of Sandy's impact.

Without question, the storm's rampage will be a huge negative for millions of individuals, from cruise operators to waiters who will never get the tips lost during the storm and subsequent power outages.

Here are some estimates for the storm's negative impact:

-- As of Tuesday morning, about 8.1 million customers were without power in the affected areas, the U.S. Department of Energy said. That means millions of people couldn't get ready for work in the morning, or their place of employment was shut down.

-- IHS said Sandy idled about 70 percent of the East Coast's oil refineries, and with supplies already tight before the storm, gasoline prices could go up. But oil futures were little changed Tuesday afternoon and gasoline futures sank on speculation that the storm will cut demand as drivers stayed home and businesses were closed, Bloomberg News reported.

But a megastorm can also have positive impacts as rebuilding begins. Here are some potential upsides:

-- Roughly $10 billion in public infrastructure was damaged, the IHS economists estimated. That means state and local governments will have to hire more workers — or give them longer hours — to repair the roads, bridges, beaches and airports that were damaged.

-- And widespread power outages mean that grocery stores will see a short-term benefit once residents restock their refrigerators after throwing out spoiled food. And that's on top of the supplies people bought to get ready before the storm hit.

Superstorm Shines A Light On Power Grid Vulnerabilities

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:29:00 -0400

The storm that has spawned so many worst-ever superlatives managed a few more when it comes to electricity, with record-breaking power outages across 18 states stretching from Michigan and Indiana to Maine and North Carolina, according to a Department of Energy assessment.

As of Tuesday, Superstorm Sandy had left more than 8 million people without lights, heat, refrigeration, TV or Internet.

At least 2 million homes and businesses in New York state had no power. Consolidated Edison, which serves the New York City metro area, says 752,000 of its customers were in the dark Tuesday and that crews — some from as far away as San Francisco — will begin repairs once the damage is assessed.

Elsewhere, 2.5 million customers had no power in New Jersey, more than 1.2 million in Pennsylvania and 311,000 in Maryland. Some 625,000 also lost electricity in Connecticut and 300,000 in Massachusetts.

Massoud Amin, a power grid specialist and senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, says it could take up to two weeks before power is fully restored. After Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast last year, it took as long as 10 days for electricity to be fully restored to rural customers in Connecticut and elsewhere — and Amin notes that Irene was much smaller than Sandy.

Gregory Reed, director of the Electric Power Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering, agrees it will take a week or more to turn the power back on.

"You normally will see a lot of major metropolitan areas get their power back in a short time, a matter of a couple of days in the case of a major event like this," Reed says, adding that rural areas are typically the last to see the lights come back on.

The storm couldn't have targeted a more vulnerable part of the power grid. "Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and New York are the oldest infrastructure," says Amin, who is also a professor at the University of Minnesota.

The grid in those states "is a marvel of engineering for the 20th century, but because of a lack of investment, it has been operating with diminished shock absorbers," Amin says, referring to backup lines and equipment as well as high-tech monitors to pinpoint problems.

A system of "mutual aid" among utility companies all over the country has been in place since the 1950s to help a crisis-hit power provider get the lights back on.

"As long as we get a heads up and know a few days ahead of time that something big is coming ... we can preposition crew, equipment, trucks, everything to a place close to where the event is going to be," Amin says.

Reed says because big, damaging weather events seem to be occurring more frequently, we may be heading into an era of "more activity and more significant impacts." Power lines are susceptible to strong winds and storm-tossed branches, and high waves can submerge substations and other critical equipment.

"The way [the grid] is designed and because so much of it is an overhead infrastructure, it is inherently vulnerable," Reed says.

Amin has run calculations on annual outages around the world. The most fragile part of the U.S. grid, in the Northeast, averages about 240 minutes of outages per customer per year. Compare that with the Midwest, where it's only 92 minutes, or Japan, where the outage rate is just four minutes per customer per year.

It costs anywhere from six to 12 times more to bury a power line than it does to put in overhead lines. But there has been a push in the past five to 10 years to put more infrastructure below ground, where it's safer, Reed says.

"This might not be justified everywhere, but there are certain parts of the country where" it might make sense, he says. "You do have to start looking more and more at the cost/benefit of spending that extra money on capital investment upfront instead of spending all the money on the back end to replace the damaged equipment and the cost of operations afterward."

Short of a massive investment to put wires below ground, Reed and Amin agree that other grid improvements and upgrades are possible. Some of them are already in the works, thanks to federal stimulus money aimed at moving toward a smart grid.

Before stimulus funds began flowing in 2009, there were only a few hundred smart-grid sensors, which help pinpoint exactly where a problem has occurred. With the government kicking in about 45 percent of the cost of these sensors and private utilities paying the rest, there should be 1,000 in place before the end of next year, Amin says.

Amin thinks building a system with almost 100 percent protection is possible, but it's just too costly.

"We can localize these disturbances and we can reduce the impact" of events such as Hurricane Sandy, he says. "But when there's physical damage to the infrastructure, that's always going to require crews on the ground."

In China, A Ceaseless Quest To Silence Dissent

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:00:00 -0400

China is about to get new leaders for the first time in a decade, and it comes at a crucial moment for the world's most populous nation. Economic growth, which surged for decades, has slowed. Demands for political reform have increased and the Communist Party has been hit by scandal. In a series of stories this week, NPR is examining the multiple challenges facing China. In this story, Louisa Lim looks at China's pervasive efforts to maintain order.

In China, government critics call it "the era of stability maintenance." It's their label for the government's policy over the past decade of prizing internal stability above all else, no matter the cost.

Beijing this year is spending $111 billion on its domestic security budget, which covers the police, state security, militia, courts and jails. This is now higher than its publicly disclosed military expenditure.

Three scenes illustrate how the state security apparatus targets individuals, as well as groups of people, and how the system feeds off itself.

SCENE ONE: Retired film professor Cui Weiping is a small, tidy woman in her 50s with a radiant smile and an easy laugh. It's difficult to imagine anyone who looks less threatening.

But for the past nine years, state security has monitored her movements, ever since she co-wrote a letter expressing her support for a group of mothers whose children were killed on June 4, 1989, the day the government cracked down on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square.

Her phone has been tapped, her car followed, her life subject to directives from state security agents.

"Sometimes they tell me not to go to certain places, not to meet certain friends, not to go to one particular bookstore," she says. "There are restrictions on my movements."

This is how the system works: monitoring those individuals considered a threat to stability, limiting their freedom to act.

The tentacles of China's state reach deep into Cui's life: Her husband has been urged to put pressure on her; fellow teachers from her university spied on her, sometimes even following her by car. Eventually she was pushed to retire, a pattern common among dissidents employed by state-run institutions.

Cui is philosophical.

"I think money spent on stability maintenance is a big burden to society, including the government," she says. "Once interest groups coalesce around that funding, they need to feed themselves via the stability maintenance machine. Then more instability is needed, right?"

SCENE TWO: A group of tearful elderly petitioners is being berated angrily by a younger official. They are retired special forces soldiers, who have suffered health problems after working on what they describe as a secret nuclear project in the 1970s.

The petitioners had been hoping to lodge a complaint in Beijing about the poor treatment they received in their hometown. But they were intercepted by local officials on arrival at the train station in Beijing and are detained in their hometown's representative office in the Chinese capital, which is an unmarked apartment in a secret location.

"Your coming to Beijing has led to instability," the local official tells them in a harsh tone. "As veterans, you should share the country's difficulties, not make trouble for your motherland."

One of the veterans, choking back tears, gets on his knees in front of a young official, but to no avail. This is footage from a documentary called An Interceptor from My Hometown, which follows a deputy mayor, whose job is stopping petitioners. In the process, he lays bare the whole system.

"We are buying stability with money," says the deputy mayor, who is given the pseudonym of He Xiaozhou in the film.

He is brutally honest about how corrupt the system has become. He describes how his rural town spends roughly $25,000 per year on one particular petitioner, sometimes resorting to paying him not to cause trouble.

He also admits that he pays bribes to erase complaints that petitioners have already lodged, which could block the chances of promotion for himself and his superiors.

"We have to beg related departments to cancel records," he admits. "We have to bribe them and the police. They profit from their power, and so gain more power to sell off."

Even the train conductors profit from the security apparatus, by spotting the petitioners and tipping off officials so they can be detained on arrival in Beijing.

"They sold them to the Beijing liaison office," he says, "for $64 a head."

In the film, as the deputy mayor wines and dines and describes gambling sessions with other officials, the petitioners are detained illegally in a secret liaison office.

"They can make and remake the laws at will," one petitioner complains as he reflects on the extent to which maintaining stability is the overriding imperative, trumping even China's Constitution.

This deputy mayor is honest about his own role.

"Being an official is like being a prostitute. They're selling their bodies; we're selling our smiles. And we're selling more than them. We're selling our dignity," he says.

As he enjoys a foot massage, he describes visiting Zhongnanhai, the Beijing compound where the country's leaders live. He was impressed by its solemn, silent atmosphere.

For the film's director Zhang Zanbo, this sums up China's current situation.

"It's absolutely a metaphor for the era of stability maintenance," he says. "The silence he talked about in the leadership compound is actually achieved by sacrificing the voices of those outside."

SCENE THREE: The voices the leadership doesn't want to hear are the angry screams of young men as they clash with rows of well-armed riot police.

This was the scene in June, when three nights of violence ripped through Shaxi town in southern China's Guangdong province. Yet such scenes are replicated across the country. One Chinese professor, Sun Liping, estimates there were 180,000 "mass incidents" in 2010.

The reasons for such mass protests are varied: Land requisitions, environmental protests, ethnic grievances and employment disputes are just some of them.

But two days after the Shaxi riots, many of the migrants from Sichuan, who were blamed for rioting, accuse the government of mishandling a minor dispute, causing discontent to explode.

"It started with a playground fight between two kids," says one migrant worker who asked for his name to be withheld for fear of the consequences.

The migrant workers say one of their children was involved in the fight and was brutally beaten by private security forces, to whom policing had been outsourced.

"The police beat anyone who was there with steel pipes and batons," he says. "The relatives of those who got beaten thought it was unfair, so more and more people went there, and it just escalated."

As he talks, a car pulls up. Inside the vehicle is a man swathed in bandages.

"We didn't break any laws," says the man, who gives his name as Mr. Zhen. He has 10 stitches in his head. "We were just spectators. I was seeing my friend home, when I was hit. He was hit in the head, too, and has eight stitches. In the hospital, there were at least 100 injured people. But they were all chucked out."

The story is all over the local TV news stations, and these migrants are outraged when they hear the way the episode is portrayed by the broadcasts — from the number of nights the violence went on to claims that it was under control at a time migrants say rioting continued. The migrants have tried to post accounts of police brutality and photos showing their version of events online, but these have been blocked.

One man, who asked that his name not be used, is apoplectic with rage at what he hears on television.

"It's absolutely untrue," he says. "In the past, we never questioned the government's story. But this time, we saw everything ourselves. Why did they take down our photos? You can imagine why. They're just using violence to enforce stability."

Stability maintenance means whole swaths of the country are sealed off, with Tibetan areas effectively becoming a militarized zone as growing numbers of Tibetans immolate themselves in protest against Chinese rule. At one Tibetan temple, monks begged me to leave because they were so scared of the consequences.

In the far-western autonomous region of Xinjiang as well, policing has been stepped up following riots in 2009. But as the discontent balloons, maintaining stability by force is increasingly difficult.

Corruption throughout the machinery of stability maintenance means increasing numbers of people benefit from instability, or the growing "empire of unaccountability" as Kerry Brown from the University of Sydney describes it.

And so the paradox: The more stability is "maintained," the less stable the country becomes.

Superstorm Sandy Takes Toll On New York Hospitals

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:24:00 -0400

When a storm hits, people count on the local hospital to be ready — no matter what.

But when Sandy slammed into New York City, one of Manhattan's biggest hospitals buckled. After the power went out in Lower Manhattan, New York University Langone Medical Center's backup power generators failed, too.

That led to the evacuation of more than 200 patients to other hospitals, including Mount Sinai Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Patients were still being moved Tuesday morning, the Huffington Post reported.

"I don't know why we waited so long to evacuate," an unidentified NYU nurse told the Huffington Post. "Everything was okay in terms of people working together, and us having enough staff to complete the transfer. But it seems like we waited too long, especially with all the news we had about the storm."

At a media briefing Tuesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the evacuation of patients from NYU was "virtually complete." Two other hospitals — NYU-Downtown and the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Hospital — had been closed, he said. Coney Island Hospital had also been evacuated. Bellevue Hospital was still open, operating on backup power, he said.

"We've had significant challenges at many of our hospitals and health care facilities," he said. "Fortunately, as of now there has been no storm related fatalities at any them."

Here's a Storify roundup of some of the coverage.

Cuomo: Expect ‘Long Term’ Recovery After Sandy

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:11:28 -0400

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who says he spent a “frightening” night monitoring storm devastation in lower Manhattan, held a briefing addressing short term repair efforts and long term weather concerns.

Governor Cuomo spent Monday night traveling lower Manhattan, including the Ground Zero construction site, where water was pouring in at one point. He says he saw many harrowing sights, including the Hudson River streaming into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel at the tip of Manhattan, and the Hudson and East Rivers rising up and converging in downtown New York.

“It was really frightening,” Cuomo said.

As the lengthy flood recovery begins, the governor says the “most devastating news” of Sandy’s effects is the death of 15 New Yorkers in the storm.

“My guess is, if anything, that number is going to get larger,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo and MTA Chair Joseph Lhota say many subway stations remain underwater, including South Street Station, where water is up the ceiling. Power is down on commuter lines as far north as Croton–Harmon in Westchester County, and as far east as New Haven, Connecticut. And there’s been flooding on the Long Island railroad.

City buses, largely undamaged, were to resume on limited schedule, with fares waived through Wednesday.

Wall Street will re-open for business Wednesday, but power will likely be out for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers for several more days.

Cuomo says people should expect a “long term recovery and reconstruction” after Sandy, and he says the structure of the city’s transportation system may have to be redesigned. For instance, he says a transformer exploded Monday night when the seawater hit Con Edison electrical equipment.

“When hot electrical equipment hits cold salt water, that is bad combination,” Cuomo said. “That is a design flaw for our system now, if you anticipate these extreme weather conditions.”

And the governor says extreme weather occurrences are becoming more common.

“That is not political statement, that is a factual statement,” Cuomo said. “Anyone who says there’s not a dramatic change in weather patterns I think is denying reality.”

Cuomo says after the devastation experienced upstate by storms Irene and Lee last year, and now Sandy downstate this year, no weather pattern would “shock” him at this point.

New Bombing In Syria After Ineffective Truce Ends

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:24:00 -0400

It's been just a day after the grudging cease-fire expired between the Syrian government and rebels. Reports from Syria say government warplanes are bombing rebel-held areas with even greater vehemence.

Witnesses told Reuters there were air strikes in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, the city of Homs in central Syria, and a town in the north that's on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo.

Syria's state media reports a senior Syrian air force general was assassinated in Damascus on Monday. Major Gen. Abdullah al-Khalidi was shot to death as he got out of a car. Syria blamed terrorists, but Al Jazeera spoke with activists who suggested the general was preparing to defect, "so the regime got rid of him before he does that".

Al Jazeera also carried blistering remarks from the prime minister of Qatar, who alleged Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is engaged in a "war of extermination against the Syrian people". He says he supports the work of U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who tried to arrange the recent dashed ceasefire between the government and the rebels for the recent Muslim holiday. But the prime minister wants Brahimi to put forward a "clear proposal" that could lead to a transfer of power away from Assad, notes the Lebanon Daily Star.

Brahimi is in China, talking with officials about the Syrian situation. He was in Russia yesterday. China and Russia have vetoed strong U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria. Brahimi is expected to brief the Security Council next month.

Sandy Leaves Much of the Region in the Dark

listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC Radio) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:50:49 -0400

As many as 4 million customers in the tri-state area are without power Tuesday due to the high winds and flooding that accompanied the massive storm that hit the area.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that approximately 750,000 Con Edison customers remained without power, and that it could stay off “in a lot of places for 2 or 3 days.”

Con Edison said that about 250,000 customers in Manhattan, 180,000 in Westchester County, 108,000 in Queens, 109,000 in Staten Island, 87,000 in Brooklyn, and 45,000 in the Bronx were in the dark. The power outages were due to problems with the overhead and underground systems.

Power was lost in much of the lower third of Manhattan, where areas south of 39th Street lost power.

Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, the power picture remains bleak. As many as 2.4 million customers have lost power, according to Governor Chris Christie. He said that’s twice the number the number affecting from Tropical Storm Irene.

It took the Garden State 8-10 days to restore power after Irene, and Christie warned the time frame to get power back on will be longer. He asked residents for patience as the power companies work on the “huge undertaking” of turning the lights back on.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said restoring power will also be a major challenge for the state. He said as of Tuesday morning about 2 million families are without power. Westchester County was “hit hard,” but he noted that Long Island bore the brunt of the disruption of service. Cuomo said roughly 90 percent of the people on Long Island are without power

He has asked the Public Service Commission to oversee the that the utilities restore power well, and as quickly as possible.

He added it may take a bit longer than normal to get power back on. States typically have reciprocity agreements, meaning in times of crisis state will send utility workers to help, however, because of the size of Sandy, New York is seeking utilities workers as far away as Texas and California to help. He did say there would be about 4,000 workers coming.