New "Rent Control" Bill Being Sneeked Through Assembly & State Will Destroy New York Housing Market

 Not content with jacking up taxes massively and dangerously mushrooming the state budget, legislators are now looking to inflict yet more pain, by sneaking through a “universal rent control” bill that would clobber the housing market.

This, even though rents in New York City have plunged to decade-long lows.

The legislation, now in committee in both the Assembly and the Senate, is misleadingly labeled “Good Cause Eviction,” when it would essentially force landlords statewide to accept tenants for life — with a cap on yearly rent increases.

That’s right: No building owner could ever evict a tenant or deny him or her a lease renewal, except under narrow circumstances. If landlords tried to raise rent beyond 3 percent, or 150 percent of the region’s Consumer Price Index, that would — by law — be a legitimate reason for a tenant to not pay and still skirt eviction.

The new law would apply to every apartment in the state, thereby instantly subjecting nearly 2 million existing units in the city alone, and any new ones, to rent control — including those rented by the wealthy. And all on top of a raft of harsh measures lawmakers took in 2019 that made it tougher for landlords to make ends meet.

Sure, the bill might sound good for tenants, but there’s no rescinding the laws of economics: It’s too much demand for housing and too little supply that drives up rent, not a lack of regulation. 

Plus, as studies show, rent-control policies only further fuel demand and decrease supply. Parents hang on to large apartments, and keep them off the market, long after the kids are gone — because rent regulation makes their monthly rent too (artificially) low to give up. The prospect of getting a rent-controlled apartment also winds up attracting more people to the market, fueling demand.

Meanwhile, though, landlords can’t recoup costs. They wind up skipping on optional repairs and upgrades and converting rental buildings to co-ops or condos. And you can forget about investors putting up new buildings. Why should they, if they’re only going to lose money?

Contractors and other businesses that depend on work from owners also suffer and the jobs they provide dry up.

“History has shown that strict rent controls lead to less housing, higher rents and more homelessness,” notes landlord rep Jay Martin.

“Whatever housing is left after ‘Good Cause Eviction,’ a k a universal rent control, will be poor quality,” and the result will be “an economic calamity” that’s “worse than the pandemic,” warns Rent Stabilization Association head Joseph Strasburg.

Too bad New York lawmakers don’t care about consequences.

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Will the REAL joe Biden Stand Up? Old Joe Biden vs. New Joe Biden

 

Writer Salena Zito best described the Rorschach testthat Donald Trump represented. As she put it in 2016, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” 

Now comes another presidential dilemma: What to make of the new and radical Joe Biden? 

On the surface, it seems an odd question about a 78-year-old man who has spent nearly 50 years in Washington. But the new Biden, the President Biden, doesn’t sound and act like the former senator and vice president. 

In fact, this Biden is so dramatically different that it’s not clear if we should take him either seriously or literally. 

Who the hell is this guy? 

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NYC Councilman Chaim Deutsch pleads guilty in federal tax fraud case

 

New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch admitted Thursday that he defrauded the government of tens of thousands of dollars in taxes by concealing “his true business income,” federal officials said.

Deutsch was charged and pleaded guilty Thursday morning in Manhattan federal court to tax fraud for failing to report business income connected to his real estate company, Chasa Management, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. 

The Manhattan feds say the 52-year-old councilman evaded paying $82,076 in property taxes between 2013 and 2015. 

“As an elected official and community leader, Deutsch had a particular responsibility to follow the law,” said US Attorney Audrey Straus. “Instead, over a multi-year period, Deutsch concealed his true business income to avoid paying his fair share of taxes.”

The probe was a joint investigation of the city Department of Investigation, the IRS and Manhattan federal prosecutors. 

“It is dispiriting when a sitting City Council member is convicted of a crime,” DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson called on Deutsch to resign saying he “betrayed that public trust by committing tax fraud.”

“Our constituents rightly expect the people they vote for to uphold the law. Deutsch failed them,” Johnson said. “To protect the integrity of the City Council and his Brooklyn seat, he must resign. He can no longer serve his constituents in good faith.”

Council spokeswoman Jennifer Fermino said the guilty plea was “incredibly troubling news.”

“As a result, we are looking at removing Council Member Deutsch from all his committees, including his position as Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee, as well as his role dispersing discretionary funding,” she said.

The councilman is not required to give up his seat with the guilty plea, according to council sources. 

Deutsch, who was elected in 2014, has no plans to resign despite the conviction, his attorney said in a statement.

“Today, my client pled guilty to a one-count misdemeanor tax office of making a false statement on a tax return,” attorney Henry Mazurek said. “He accepts responsibility for his actions and intends to fully repay the $82,000 in taxes he owes.

“Mr. Deutsch’s dedication to public service will not be diminished, and he looks forward to completing his elected term.”

His current term expires at the end of the year.

The councilman faces up to one year in prison and a year of supervised release, as well as up to $100,000 in fines and restitution. 

He is due back for sentencing on July 29.

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New photos show Epstein and Maxwell were VIP guests in Clinton’s White House

 

Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were once White House guests of former President Bill Clinton, new pictures prove.

The images were published by The Sun, days after Maxwell’s last court appearance on sex trafficking charges in Manhattan, related to her alleged procurement of underage rape victims for the convicted pedophile.

The disgusting duo were invited to the White House in 1993, after Epstein reportedly donated money to have the Oval Office refurbished.

They toured the East Room and the presidential residence during a reception, the paper reported.

The pictures expand the timeline of Clinton’s involvement with Epstein and Maxwell.

Prior to their surfacing, some of the oldest photos linking the trio were from 2002, Clinton was photographed aboard Epstein’s private jet along with Maxwell and one of the late billionaires’ rape accusers.

The former president also reportedly had a private dinner with Maxwell in 2014 — long after Epstein was convicted of child sex abuse.

Clinton has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island in the Bahamas, but accuser Virginia Giuffre has claimed to be on the island at the same time as the ex-president.

A book released last year claims that Clinton had an affair with Maxwell.

Clinton has maintained he was unaware of any sexual misconduct in his dealings with the wealthy financier. Epstein has also socialized with Prince Andrew — who Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with.

Epstein, facing a slew of sex charges, was found fatally hanged in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.

The Florida mansion where he allegedly raped hundreds of girls and women was demolished last week.

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The story of the police unit that protected Eichmann

 

Adolf Eichmann led from his jail cell to the court, 1961

Throughout the period, the police documented Eichmann, and in the photos taken, the archvillain is seen cleaning the toilets in his cell, hanging laundry, brushing his teeth, being examined by a doctor or sitting on the iron bed in the cell, wearing slippers.

The documentation also appears in a new book slated to be released in a few weeks. Operation Iyar – The Activities of the Israel Police in the Eichmann Affair is, in fact, a second in-depth study by the police, after the first study into the work of Bureau 06, was published last year.

Both studies were written by Inspector Yossi Hemi, a historian and head of the Israel Police Heritage Center. For many months, Hemi searched the police archives and state archives and retrieved documents, correspondences, drawings and photographs documenting the behind-the-scenes of the trial, including the tight security arrangements, along with Eichmann's daily routine and interaction with his investigators.

"The current study presents the story of the Israel Police in the Eichmann case in all its aspects," says Hemi. "From the Iyar Unit, to carrying out the sentencing, together with the Prison Service. The role of the police went far beyond its area of responsibility, but few people know and appreciate what it did. I hope the two studies will reveal one of the most significant stories in the country's history and the history of the police in particular."

On May 23, 1960, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion took to the Knesset podium in one of the most historic speeches in Israel. He announced that Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Final Solution – the Nazi plan for the Jewish genocide –  had been captured in Argentina and brought to Israel two days earlier in a Mossad operation. Upon landing in Israel, Eichmann was taken into custody at the Israel Security Agency base in Jaffa. Ben-Gurion then tasked the Israel Police with his interrogation and security.

One of the first decisions of the then-Police Commissioner Yosef Nachmias was to turn the Jalama camp near Haifa (now the Kishon Prison) into a detention center intended for Eichmann alone. The place was named "Iyar Base", after the Hebrew month in which he was captured, and Commander Shaul Rosolio (later Israel's fifth police commissioner) was appointed commander of the base. He had only 48 hours to prepare for the transfer of Eichmann from the GSS, on May 26.

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Happy Earth Day !

 

This guy pictured above, Ira Einhorn, was the founder of Earth Day, and an environmental activist. 

In between his important work for the environment, he found time to kill his girlfriend and mummify her body. He was an advocate of  flower power, peace and free love.

Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the “composted” body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

A self-proclaimed environmental activist, Einhorn made a name for himself among ecological groups during the 1960s and ’70s by taking on the role of a tie-dye-wearing ecological guru and Philadelphia’s head hippie. With his long beard and gap-toothed smile, Einhorn — who nicknamed himself “Unicorn” because his German-Jewish last name translates to “one horn”  —advocated flower power, peace and free love to his fellow students at the University of Pennsylvania. He also claimed to have helped found Earth Day.

But the charismatic spokesman who helped bring awareness to environmental issues and preached against the Vietnam War — and any violence — had a secret dark side. When his girlfriend of five years, Helen “Holly” Maddux, moved to New York and broke up with him, Einhorn threatened that he would throw her left-behind personal belongings onto the street if she didn’t come back to pick them up.

And so on Sept. 9, 1977, Maddux went back to the apartment that she and Einhorn had shared in Philadelphia to collect her things, and was never seen again. When Philadelphia police questioned Einhorn about her mysterious disappearance several weeks later, he claimed that she had gone out to the neighborhood co-op to buy some tofu and sprouts and never returned.

It wasn’t until 18 months later that investigators searched Einhorn’s apartment after one of his neighbors complained that a reddish-brown, foul-smelling liquid was leaking from the ceiling directly below Einhorn’s bedroom closet. Inside the closet, police found Maddux’s beaten and partially mummified body stuffed into a trunk that had also been packed with Styrofoam, air fresheners and newspapers.

After his arrest, Einhorn jumped bail and spent decades evading authorities by hiding out in Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. After 23 years, he was finally extradited to the United States from France and put on trial. Taking the stand in his own defense, Einhorn claimed that his ex-girlfriend had been killed by CIA agents who framed him for the crime because he knew too much about the agency’s paranormal military research. 

He was convicted of murdering Maddux and is currently serving a life sentence.

Although Einhorn was only the master of ceremonies at the first Earth Day event, he maintains that Earth Day was his idea and that he’s responsible for launching it. Understandably, Earth Day’s organizers have distanced themselves from his name, citing Gaylord Nelson, an environmental activist and former Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator who died in 2005, as Earth Day’s official founder and organizer.

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Camal'a Harris Finally greets migrant children ... But Only in a Book..... Veep herself nowhere to be found

 

Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to visit the border amid the burgeoning crisis there.  But her children’s book will be given to unaccompanied minors as they are housed in shelters after illegally crossing the U.S. border.

Illegal immigrant children who are being staged in a new shelter located in Long Beach, CA will reportedly receive a copy of Harris’ 2019 children’s book, “Superheroes are Everywhere” in their welcome packages. The PR move is ostensibly meant to normalize the situation and paint the Biden administration as caring for these unaccompanied minors. Thousands of children are still being packed into facilities for prolonged periods of time.

“Whenever there’s trouble, superheroes show up just in time,” Harris says in her book.

In March, border czar Roberta Jacobson admitted that the administration’s messaging to illegal immigrants has been inconsistent and has contributed to the surge across the border.

Harris visited a bookstore in New Hampshire on Friday and gave a speech on workforce training initiatives. 

She refused to take any questions from the press while she was there. Harris reportedly did not addressthe border crisis.

It has been more than 30 days since Harris was tapped by President Biden to lead the response concerning the crisis but she has yet to visit the border or even hold a press conference on the issue. The administration now claims that she will address the “root causes” that are causing illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors to come into the country, but not the actual surge itself.

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In Sanctuary NYC Illegal Alien Gang Members Charged with Hacking Young Mother to Death

 

Three illegal alien MS-13 gang members in the sanctuary state of New York have been charged with murdering a 31-year-old mother in a brutal attack.

MS-13 Gang members 20-year-old Rigel Yohairo, 22-year-old Allan Lopez, and 21-year-old Jose Sarmiento – all of whom are illegal aliens, Breitbart News has learned – were arrested and charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse, and tampering with evidence this month in the death of Nazareth Tamer-Claure, the mother of an eight-year-old boy.

Rodolfo Lopez, a fourth suspect who is also an illegal alien MS-13 gang member, has been arrested and charged with concealment of a human corpse and tampering with evidence.

Last week, Queens County prosecutors say Yohairo, Lopez, and Sarmiento beat Tamer-Claure with baseball bats before hacking her to death with machetes in the neighborhood of Far Rockaway. Then, the MS-13 gang members wrapped up Tamer-Claure’s body and stuffed her in the trunk of a car before taking off for Long Island, New York, according to prosecutors.

Days before the alleged murder, Tamer-Claure obtained a protection order against her boyfriend, 28-year-old Anander Henriquez, also an illegal alien MS-13 Gang member. Tamer-Claure had reported Henriquez for choking her on April 9.

Months before, in January, Tamer-Claure was allegedly punched in the face multiple times by Henriquez before he hit her with a metal pipe. Henriquez pleaded guilty for the attack.

Police said they witnessed the MS-13 gang members stuffing Tamer-Claure’s body in the trunk of the car and began tailing the suspects as a result. Tamer-Claure’s body was discovered after police pulled the suspects over.

All five MS-13 gang members are in police custody. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency confirmed to Breitbart News that all five suspects have detainers placed on them, a request that New York officials turn them over to ICE agents should they be released at any time.

New York, though, has one of the most expansive sanctuary state policies, whereby local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from cooperating with ICE and thus illegal aliens with pending charges against them are often released from police custody instead of being arrested and deported.

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Miracle of Two orphans who escaped the gas chambers and are reunited after 76 years

 

Jacques Weisser (right) and Bill Frankenstein (left) stayed together at the Meisjeshuis orphanage in Antwerp. Here they are aged three in August 1944 after Belgium was liberated 

Two young Jewish boys who narrowly escaped the Nazi gas chambers by being hidden in a Belgian hospital have met again for the first time in 76 years in an emotional Zoom reunion.

Jacques Weisser and Bill Frankenstein, now both 79, were among only 13 of 39 Jewish children from an orphanage in Antwerp to escape the Holocaust and survive the war.

Though they never knew each other until now, their remarkable story was immortalised on a handful of photographs taken in 1944 after Belgium was liberated, but which neither could remember being taken.

Their lives followed different, yet oddly similar paths; Bill in the US and Jacques, eventually, in the UK. Both had just one daughter and two grandsons.

Last month they joined six of the other Antwerp orphanage survivors, brought together by the painstaking detective work of a young Dutch researcher poring through dusty records and oral accounts to retrieve fragments of long-lost memories from war-torn Europe.

'We're like twins - two peas in a pod,' Jacques told MailOnline. 'I've always had this photo buried among others from my childhood, but didn't have a clue who the other boy was – now I've found out,' said Jacques.

'It's fascinating how fate had made some aspects of our lives so alike, particularly our children and grandchildren.'

Added a tearful Bill, born as Bernard Baron and now retired in Calabasas, Los Angeles: 'We spent so long together and went through so much, but I've only a few fleeting recollections, but none of them of Jacques, sadly. Now I'm so glad to know my brother from another mother!'

Bill was born in December 1941, Jacques in February 1942. After their parents were rounded up by the Germans, they were sent as orphans to the Meisjeshuis, an orphanage, in Antwerp.

All children there over the age of five were shipped off to the death camps of Auschwitz in late 1942, while fourteen younger children, were taken for safety elsewhere, ten of them, including Jacques and Bill went to the Sint-Erasmus Hospital and put into hiding among the dying patients. Of those 14, one was not so fortunate.

Alfred Goldstein, four, was initially saved from the orphanage and brought to the Sint-Erasmus hospital. However, he was found and arrested by the Germans in the hospital in October 1942 and sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered.  

At Sint-Erasmus Hospital, the Nazis would stage regular raids and take Jewish patients away, but somehow the nurses and other carers managed to keep the youngsters out of the way in cupboards or under piles of dirty linen with strict orders to remain silent.

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Israel records ZERO daily Covid deaths for first time in ten months

Israel has recorded no new daily Covid death for the first time in ten months as it continues to lead the world in its vaccination drive.

Figures show the country's coronavirus death tolls remained unchanged at 6,346 on Thursday.

The last time Israel recorded zero Covid death was at the end of June last year. Hospitals have now started closing its specialist coronavirus wards after daily death toll plunged in recent weeks.

Israel continues to lead the world in its vaccination drive, with more than 80 per cent of its adult population vaccinated.   

With only one death having been recorded the day before, it appears as though the rate at which people are dying from the virus in Israel is slowing. 

Israeli columnist Nadav Eyal Tweeted about the landmark achievement yesterday.

In the Tweet he said: 'For the first time in 10 months, no Israeli died of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. 

'Special Corona wards have closed in all hospitals and share of positive cases stands now on 0.4% with dozens of thousands of tests per day, in a 9M population. #Covid_EndGame.'

The last time that Israel managed to record zero coronavirus deaths was 299 days ago on June 29, 2020, following a series of lockdown restrictions which helped contain the first wave of the virus. 

To date, Israel has recorded 837,892 cases of coronavirus, with 6,436 deaths 

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