Tag Archives: New York

British Envoy: Children Safer In Afghanistan Than New York CIty

Posted on by
Lawrence Mijares – AHN News Contributor

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) – According to NATO’s top civilian envoy to Afghanistan, children are probably safer growing up in Afghanistan’s major cities, including the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, than in New York.

British envoy Mark Sedwill, speaking on a BBC television program, added that “in cities like Kabul where security has improved, the total levels of violence, including criminal violence, are comparable to those which many Western children would experience.”

“For most Afghans,” he continued,”the biggest challenges are from poverty — the absence of clean water, open sewers, malnutrition, disease — and many more children are at risk from those problems than from the insurgency.”

His statements are belied by U.N. figures that show Afghan children are victims of the U.S.-Afghan conflict, with 1,795 children killed or injured as a result of the war from September 2008 through August 2010.

A report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in November 2009 said Afghanistan was the most dangerous country to be born in because it has the highest infant mortality rate in the world and two-thirds of its population lack access to clean water.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on All Stories

Lanvin For H&M Collection Unveiled At NY Fashion Show

Posted on by
Anne Lu – Celebrity News Service Contributor

New York, NY, United States (CNS) – French fashion house Lanvin and Swedish clothing company H&M have held a haute couture runway together that showcased customized pieces from the Lanvin for H&M collection. Star guests Sofia Coppola, Andie MacDowell, Anna Sui, Emma Roberts, Leelee Sobieski and Alexander Wang graced The Pierre Hotel Thursday to celebrate the launch of the collection.

Famed models Asia Chow, Pixie Geldof, Dree Hemingway, Olga and Anna Della Russo made their way down the catwalk wearing the customized women’s wear pieces by Lanvin artistic director Alber Elbaz.

H&M creative advisor Margareta van den Bosch said, “It’s such a fantastic experience to see how creatively alber Elbaz uses his designs to form a couture experience for our exclusive fashion show in New York.”

“Working with this incredibly gifted designer has been like an ongoing fashion moment, and we’re thrilled to offer his masterpieces to our customers.”

The looks from the catwalk show, along with original signed sketches from Elbaz, are currently being auctioned on www.lanvinforhm.com, which will end on November 26th. All proceeds from the sales will be donated to UNICEF as part of H&M’s All for Children project.

The Lanvin for H&M collection is set to hit around 200 stores worldwide on November 20 in the U.S. and Canada, and on November 23 in the rest of the world.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on All Stories

Drug Related Shooting Injures Son Of University Veep

Posted on by
Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The son of a New York University vice president was shot and wounded during a drug related shooting in his ritzy Bleecker Street apartment.

Alex Bongard, 24, and Luke Hinde, 31, were reportedly selling marijuana from Bongard’s third-floor apartment about 11:30 p.m. Monday when two men posing as customers showed up at the residence. The men, wearing ski masks, stormed inside the apartment after the dealers opened the door, according to police.

Bongard, who was shot in the chest, and Hinde, who was shot in the stomach, were wounded by the intruders but are expected to survive. On Wednesday both victims in Monday’s shooting were listed in stable condition at Bellevue hospital.

A woman who was also in the apartment at the time escaped injury.

The intruders stole a cash and the woman’s purse and fled the apartment.

When police arrived they found a cache of marijuana.

Bongard’s mother, Debra LaMorte, is the senior vice president of development and alumni affairs at NYU. In 2004 she helped launch a high profile fundraising effort for the university that ultimately yielded $3.1 billion.

Last month a similar incident occurred when a 21-year-old Pace University student was shot dead while selling pot from his downtown Manhattan luxury apartment.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

Student Punished For Wearing Rosary Wins Damages From School District

Posted on by
Windsor Genova – AHN News News Writer

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A federal district court judge has approved a settlement agreement in which a New York school district will pay $25,000 in damages to a student it punished in May for wearing a rosary to school, according to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

School officials in Schenectady also agreed to expunge the record of Raymond Hosier, a 7th grade student at Oneida Middle School, under the agreement approved October 30, 2010 by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn, the ACLJ said Monday.

The school district had a dress code policy that banned the wearing of a Rosary to school regarding it as a gang symbol. This policy was changed in September, four months after the ACLJ obtained a court injunction that cleared Hosier to return to school for the remainder of the year without fear of further punishment.

Hosier was indefinitely suspended in May for wearing a rosary to school in violation of the dress code policy. The ACLJ immediately came into the defense of the student and asked the school district to correct its action on grounds that the suspension violates Hosier’s constitutional right to free speech.

The school district refused forcing the ACLJ to file a federal lawsuit in June. The court immediately ordered the school district to lift the suspension and let Hosier continue attending school.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

School District To Pay $81,000 In Legal Fees In Lesbian Prom Case

Posted on by
Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor

Fulton, MS, United States (AHN) – A Mississippi school district has been ordered to pay more than $81,000 in legal fees in the civil rights case of Constance McMillen, who was barred from attending her high school prom this year with her girlfriend as a date.

McMillen won her lawsuit in March against the Itawamba County School District, which a federal judge found had violated her First Amendment rights. The school district agreed this summer to pay McMillen $35,000 in damages, her legal fees and to enforce a policy against discrimination against gays and lesbians, the first such policy in a Mississippi public school.

McMillen, who filed her suit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, had approached school officials about bringing her girlfriend to the prom, and was told that they would not be allowed to arrive together at the event. She was prohibited from wearing a tuxedo, and was warned that she and her girlfriend may be thrown out of the event if they made other students uncomfortable.

Shortly after McMillen’s talk with officials, the school issued a memo banning same-sex dates at the prom, garnering national attention and earning demands from the ACLU and other groups to let the student bring her girlfriend as a date.

The school district responded by canceling the prom and arguing after McMillen filed her lawsuit, “This is not an issue where anyone has been denied an education. This is a social event that is disruptive to the school environment and the core public education function of the school because people are on all sides of the issue.”

The case attracted national attention, and much support for McMillen, who gained 400,000 fans on a Facebook page devoted to supporting her cause and a $30,000 college scholarship during a television appearance. Now a freshman at a Tennessee community college, McMillen was also a guest at a White House reception marking LGBT month and served as one of three grand marshals in New York’s annual Gay Pride parade.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

Three NYC Teachers Fired for Facebook Flirting With Students

Posted on by
Ayinde O. Chase – AHN News Editor

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Three New York City teachers have been fired for improper conduct with students on Facebook.

In addition to “friending” too many students and posting inappropriate comments, one teacher’s Facebook friendship with a former student led to a sexual relationship.

Chadwin Reynolds, Laurie Hirsch and Stephen D’Andrilli apparently “liked” too many students and have now prompted a teachable moment.

Reynolds, 37, wrote “This is sexy,” under some of the girl’s Facebook photos. Reynolds, a former Fordham High School for the Arts teacher, even allegedly tried to get a teen to go on a date with him. He got her phone number and sent her gifts including flowers, candy and a teddy bear.

Hirsch, 30, a former paraprofessional at Bryant High School in Long Island City, Queens, was let go in May when her Facebook dealings with a student became known. She posted a picture of her kissing the male student, which prompted an investigation. The boy told authorities that he and Hirsch had sex in her apartment 10 times. Hirsch said nothing occurred until after the student left the school.

“I was suspended indefinitely” for using a cell phone too frequently during school time, she said in a New York Post report. “And it didn’t seem in any way, shape or form that I was getting my job back” when the relationship with the boy took off.

D’Andrilli’s interactions were a bit more creepy. The former Manhattan substitute teacher “friended” numerous female students at Essex Street Academy. School investigators say he even tried to visit one female student during her Saturday classes and told another girl that her “boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you.”

Currently there is no school board policy that addresses teacher-student communication on Facebook

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

Amnesty International: Israel Must Cease Illegal Settlement Expansion

Posted on by
Linda Young – AHN News Writer

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Amnesty International on Friday called for Israel to abandon its controversial plans to build 238 new housing units in Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

All settlement building on land captured by war is illegal under international law. However, Israel refuses to recognize that portion of international law. Israel also ignored international law when it unilaterally annexed 44 miles of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and its environs following the 1967 war. Annexing land captured by war is also illegal under international law.

“The Israeli authorities must immediately halt expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.

“Not only does the building contravene international law, it also compounds the litany of abuses of the human rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including their rights to adequate housing and water,” Luther added.

The Israeli Ministry for Construction and Housing on Thursday announced that 80 of the new housing units are planned for the settlement of Pisgat, established in 1984, and 158 are planned for Ramot, established in 1974. Pisgat now has over 40,000 Israeli residents. Services for the settlements are provided by the Israeli Jerusalem municipal authority.

United Nations officials say that 600 Palestinians, half of them children, were displaced in 2009 alone, when their homes were demolished by order of Israeli authorities. In many instances, Palestinian’s homes were demolished to make way to build more Israeli homes in the illegal settlements.

“Although the areas of Pisgat and Ramot were not covered by the recent freeze on settlement construction, which excluded East Jerusalem, all settlement building on occupied land is illegal under international law,” Amnesty International said.

Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the additional expansion of the illegal settlements.

“Discrimination on grounds of nationality and religion is the dominant feature of Israel’s settlement policy,” Luther said. “The policy violates the rights both of Palestinians in East Jerusalem living under civil law and of those in the rest of the West Bank where they are subject to Israeli military law.”

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on All Stories

Survey Shows U.S. Teens More Conscious of Safe-Sex

Posted on by
Lawrence Mijares – AHN News Contributor

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Sexually-active American teenagers were found to be more “safe-sex” conscious than baby boomers according to the largest, most comprehensive national survey of Americans’ sexual behavior since 1994.

The survey, filling 130 pages of a special issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine , offers detailed findings on how often Americans have sex, with whom, and how they respond.

Dr. Dennis Fortenberry, a pediatrics professor who was lead author of the study’s section about teen sex, was encouraged by the new findings stating that, “There’s been a major shift among young people in the role condoms have in their sexual lives. Condoms have become normative.”

The survey also found that black and Hispanic men used condoms more than white males, suggesting to researchers that the HIV-AIDS awareness programs were now gaining ground in these communities afflicted with the disease.

It was also found that men over 50 seldom used condoms which worried researchers as this raised the risk for transmission of the disease considering that an increasing number of older adults had multiple sexual partners.

Other notable findings of the survey were that men are more likely to experience orgasm when vaginal intercourse is involved, while women are more likely to reach orgasm when they engage in variety of acts, including oral sex.

It was also observed that there was a gap in perceptions between men and women in that 85 percent of the men surveyed said their latest sexual partner had an orgasm, while only 64 percent of the women thought otherwise.

The survey also found that one-third of women experienced genital pain during their most recent sex, compared to 5 percent of men which fact deserved further research and study.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

Student Loan Rates Up As Graduates Continue Defaulting

Posted on by
Windsor Genova – AHN News News Writer

New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The rate at which graduates defaulted on repaying their student loans hit 7 percent in 2008, up from 6.7 percent in 2007. The news indicates out-of-work students are still struggling to repay loan during the economic crisis, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

There were a total 238,000 of 3.4 million students who failed to meet the Sept. 1, 2009 deadline to make their first loan repayment scheduled from Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30, 2008, the DoE reported on Monday.

For-profit schools had the highest default rate of 11.6 percent followed by public colleges with 6 percent and private schools with 4 percent.

By state, the one with the highest default rate was Arizona at 10.9 percent. The largest for-profit school, the University of Phoenix, is located in that state.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Education Stories

Small Business Grant Money – How to Find Free Government Grants to Finance Your Business

Posted on by

Finally decided to start your own company but having problems finding the necessary startup capital in order to get it running? Have no fear, the Government is here! Yes, I did just say The Government. The US Government offers free grants to small business owners as a way to help encourage growth and stability. While there are thousands of these offers available every year, very few are even applied for? Why is that? Because most people don’t even know they exist!

Every new entrepreneurs dreams to take his business to the Forbes 100 List but most of them fail to realize realistic goals. One of the largest contributing factors to this is a lack of startup capital or initial investment. Running your own business is expensive, something that is easy to miss-judge. For this reason, the Government offers free grants that are available to boost new business here in America.

So how can I get one of these small business grants? Simple, you need to search one of the many thousand offers available to find one that fits your needs and requirements. Some guidelines regarding that process as well as some tips on what to look for in a grant offer can be found at the Small Business Grant Money Guide. Once you’ve found the offer that fits your company you then need to submit a business plan/grant application.

Some important things to keep in mind when applying to offers:

1. Presentation of the business plan -

The first important step is the presentation. Any small business grant distributor will be interested primarily in how you tend to use the money if they give it to you, and also how you plan on using the funds to make a profit. The difference between a bank loan and a federal grant is you don’t have to show them how you’ll repay it (grants are cash gifts), which means you should focus on the ultimate goal of your business rather than the small steps you plan on taking to generate revenue along the way.

2. The message conveyed in the business plan –

The business plan is the cornerstone of any grant application This plan give a clear idea of your goals and vision as well as a rough timetable for accomplishing these goals. The potential in your business is shown in your business plan and it is the plan itself, which increases the confidence that the grant distributers will have in you.

3. The Eligibility for small business grants sanction -

Small business grants are readily extended to small business industries to help them grow, only if they have a potential.

Small business grants bodies have their own objectives and give grants money to those satisfying them in the best possible manner.

The location of the business is one big reason for sanction of small business grants. The government wants decentralization of industries in order to avoid migration toward cities. For example, you’d have an easier time securing a government small business grant if you planned on being headquartered in upstate New York rather than downtown New York City.

The Small Business Grant Money Guide provides detailed information on how to find and get a grant to help finance your small business.

Tom Conrad is no stranger to the world of corporate financing, having worked in the industry his whole life. His most recent work to help educate the general public about startup financing can be found on the Small Business Grant Money Guide.