Governor Kathy Hochul yesterday appointed Dr. Mary Bassett Commissioner of the Department of Health. She’ll officially start the job December 1st. Dr. Bassett serves as director of the Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. From 2014 through 2018, she served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she helped lead the response to Ebola, Legionnaires’ and other disease outbreaks. She’ll take over for Dr. Howard Zucker, who submitted his resignation last week, but is staying on until Dr. Basset officially begins in the position. Dr. Zucker has come under fire for possibly helping former governor Andrew Cuomo hide the coronavirus death toll in nursing homes and keeping other data from the Legislature.
WRCR Market Analyst Weighs in on Budget Bills Weaving Through Washington
Congress is expected to vote today on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. It’s already passed the Senate, but the more-ambitious $3.5 trillion dollar spending plan could get rejected. That’s according to WRCR’s Market Analyst Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management in Chestnut Ridge, who predicts that could be greatly pared down before the vote is taken…
Meanwhile, CNBC says the House on Wednesday passed a bill to suspend the U.S. debt ceiling as the country heads toward a first-ever default with no clear solution in sight. Republicans are expected to defeat the plan in the Senate. Government funding is set to expire tomorrow, and the stopgap bill would extend funding and keep the government open through December 3rd.
Orangeburg Hotel Sold, Renamed
An Orangetown big-chain hotel has changed hands and is now independently-owned. The Rockland County Business Journal says the former Holiday Inn on Route 303 in Orangeburg was purchased by a Monsey developer for a reported $5.8 million and was renamed “Armoni Hotel.” The 171-room hotel has two banquet rooms, a bar and restaurant and an outdoor pool.
Rockland Loses Another to COVID, Numbers on the Rise
COVID numbers are creeping up again as the county has begun offering booster shots for those who have taken the Pfizer vaccine and qualify for it under CDC guidelines. Here in Rockland, we lost another to COVID, the first in a week. Our total coronavirus death toll is now at 979. The number of hospitalized with COVID is up to 27 and the number of current cases, also up, stands at 1,002. Pearl River-based Pfizer meanwhile submitted data to the FDA Tuesday on their COVID-19 vaccine trials for kids ages 5-11. The FDA is expected to take several weeks to review data. The Pfizer vaccine is currently available for those 12 and up.
Parole Hearing for Brinks Killer Scheduled for Mid October
The parole hearing for a 1981 Brinks killer has reportedly been pushed out to late October, scheduled now to occur the same week that the 40th anniversary Brinks memorial service is set to take place in Nyack. That’s according to the Journal News. The now 76 year-old David Gilbert had his 75-years-to-life sentence commuted by former governor Andrew Cuomo in August. Rockland sheriff Lou Falco says Gilbert never should have been given the chance to see the light of day again…
Gilbert was part of the “Weather Underground” group that robbed a Brinks truck at the former Nanuet Mall of $1.6 million. Nyack Police Sergeant Edward O’Grady, officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown, and Brinks guard Peter Paige were all killed in the 1981 incident. The 40th anniversary commemorating the tragedy is scheduled for October 20th.