Latest news with #MichaelMcWeeney
New York Post
01-07-2025
- New York Post
NYC driving school rigged driver's licenses for illegal immigrants — even if they couldn't drive: DA
A Big Apple driving school paid off DMV examiners to fraudulently fast-track driver's licenses for illegal immigrants — even if they had no clue how to drive, Staten Island prosecutors said Tuesday. T&E Driving School in Queens took cash from Chinese immigrants — many of whom didn't even speak English — and paid off a crew of Department of Motor Vehicles employees on Staten Island to illegally obtain driver's licenses, District Attorney Michael McMahon said at a press conference. The crackdown, dubbed Operation Road Test, took down the ring in a joint investigation with state investigators and the US Department of Homeland Security, prosecutors said. 4 Staten Island prosecutors said a Queens driving school ran a DMV pay-to-drive scam for illegal immigrants. Michael McWeeney 'Our investigation found that T&E Driving School blatantly flouted the laws and procedures that are necessary to ensure the public safety on the road,' George Ioannidis, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New York said Tuesday. 'As alleged T&E utilized social media and strategic advertising to Target exploited members of the Chinese community and guaranteed individual driver's licenses regardless of their immigration status, language, and even their ability to operate a vehicle,' he said. 'Moreover these individuals were those who did not speak or understand English and may have believed that they all were taking necessary and legitimate steps.' T&E owner Weixian Tan, secretary Weiwen Tan, employee Winnie Yang and school road test driver Wenfeng Yang set up the scam by paying off DMV examiners Aji Idicula, Tianna Rose Andolina and Edward Tarik Queen, according to the indictment. 4 Staten Island DA Michael McMahon said the T&E driving school ran a DMV fraud scam for illegal immigrants. James Messerschmidt 4 Wenfend Yang and three other employees of T&E Driving School are charged with an illegal immigrant DMV scam. Michael McWeeney The examiners would then rubber stamp the wanna-be drivers without even having them take a road test. McMahon said the scam extends beyond the seven named indictments, with two dozen suspects in custody and another indicted DMV employee not identified in the 49-page document. 'The numbers, as we go through this investigation, as we go through the materials that have been seized, we think that we are going to find hundreds if not thousands of people that have been part of this scam,' the prosecutor said. 'The number of tests given by an individual examiner can be about 1,500 a year,' he said. 'Two out of the three examiners have been working for four or five years, so we think this is just the tip of the iceberg.' 4 Staten Island prosecutors said DMV examiners took illegal payoffs to issue fraudulent licenses to immigrants. Getty Images In a statement, McMahon called the pay-to-drive scheme a 'corrosively corrupt' operation centered on DMV workers who 'brazenly betrayed their oaths of office.' The defendants were arraigned on a slew of fraud, tampering and theft charges and were released — the charges are not eligible for bail under the state's controversial 2019 criminal justice reforms. However, they were ordered to surrender their passports.
New York Post
24-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Brooklyn pork store's closure after 55 years underscores sad exodus of beloved Italian mainstays: ‘We didn't leave you — you left us'
After 55 years as a tasty Italian hallmark of Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood, Bari Pork Store is cutting its last slice of gabagool on Saturday, June 29. 'It feels like I'm losing a big part of my life,' co-owner George Firrantello told The Post of the impending closure of the beloved shop, which first opened in 1969 on 18th Avenue. Firantello said he had no choice but to say ciao. 'Some of my customers coming in are devastated,' Firrantello said. 'They say, 'Oh, you guys are leaving us.' No, no, no. We didn't leave you — you left us.' 15 Nino Manning (seated), Javier Castillo and co-owners Tony Turrigiano and George Firrantello pose for a photo at Bari Pork Store in Bensonhurst. After more than half a century, the business is closing its doors. Michael McWeeney Firantello is referring to the changing demographics of Bensonhurst, which was once flourishing with Italian-American businesses and the clientele to match. Just this month, right up the street from Bari, another neighborhood hallmark, SAS Italian Records, also played its final song. It opened in 1967. 'These days, there's just not enough customers coming into the place,' Firantello said of his exit after running Bari for the past 26 years alongside partner Tony Turrigiano, the latter putting in 37 years of pork-store service. 'It means a lot to me that the store has meant a lot to a lot of people. I know kids who came in who now have kids of their own,' Firantello said. 'We've fed a lot of families over the course of the years.' 15 'It feels like I'm losing a big part of my life,' co-owner George Firrantello told The Post of his beloved neighborhood business. Michael McWeeney 15 Parmigiano cheese and prosciutto are on display in a deli case. Michael McWeeney 15 Co-owner George Firrantello, who has been at Bari for 25 years, takes some meat to be sliced from the refrigerator. Michael McWeeney But an exodus of customers isn't the only headwind Firrantello has fought. 'Running the store has just gotten more expensive, between the rent, electricity, insurance, payroll tax, and so on and so forth,' he said. Their heartbroken landlord even offered to reduce the rent to keep the store in business. 'But it still would have been too high,' said Firrantello. 'In my head, I'm saying, 'How much could you reduce it? $500? What would $500 do for me?'' The partners also looked into selling the business. But according to Firrantello, 'Nobody was really interested.' That underscores a big shift for the area. 15 Behind the counter, Nino Mannino, who has been at Bari for 15 years, helps a customer named Agnes with an order. Michael McWeeney 15 Firrantello shares a smile from behind the counter stocked with canned tomatoes, prepared-food menus and more. Michael McWeeney When it comes to Italian pork stores, the titular animal is more colloquial as they tend to sell everything from sandwiches to pantry items, breadcrumbs, olives, cheese and the like. 'Pork stores are a staple of many Italian-American communities, especially here in the Northeast,' Anthony 'Tony Mangia' Scillia, a New Jersey-based influencer who highlights Italian businesses across the tri-state area, told The Post. 'The butchers and proprietors usually know their customers on a first-name basis,' said Scillia. 15 Co-owner George Firrantello, who has been at Bari Pork Store for 25 years, takes an order over the phone as the Bensonhurst fixture prepared to close its doors. Michael McWeeney 15 Firrantello trims meat to be used in the shop's popular sausages. Michael McWeeney 15 Firrantello weighs a brown-wrapped deli treat for a customer. Michael McWeeney Perhaps that's why famous faces, including 'The Sopranos' vets Steve Schirripa and the late Tony Sirico, were fans of Bari in particular, Firrantello said. 'They have a connection to the community. When you went into the store they knew your order,' Scillia explained. 'And to be honest, the quality of the items in these stores are always far superior to the big supermarkets.' Bari is especially known for its luscious, fresh mozzarella along with plump, signature sausages, the recipe for which is sailing into the sunset as well. 'I'm gonna take that with me,' a steadfast Firrantello said. 15 Turrigiano, a Bari fixture for nearly 40 years, ties sausage links. Michael McWeeney 15 A display case shows off freshly made sausage. Michael McWeeney While there are seemingly thriving shops — including Faccio's Italian Specialties' multiple locations around the city, the ever-busy Emily's Pork Store in Williamsburg and Calabria Pork Store on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx — old-school pork stores are becoming a dying breed even beyond Firrantello's neighborhood. G. Esposito and Sons Pork Store in Carroll Gardens closed in 2023 after 100 years in business, while the decades-old Mario's Butcher Store on Brooklyn's Metropolitan Avenue shuttered in 2022 after the death of its eponymous owner, Mario Zollo. Over in Little Italy, the 130-year-old Alleva Dairy said arrivederci last year as well. German pork stores also aren't immune to the trend, with Ridgewood's Morscher's Pork Store closing in 2024 after seven decades. Meanwhile, the restaurant Zum Stammtisch's pork store offshoot, open since 2011, shut its doors earlier this year as well. 'It makes me feel terrible, but what can we do?' said Sicilia. 15 A longtime customer named Alberta says goodbye to Turrigiano … Michael McWeeney 15 … and the longtime co-owner accepts her hug as Firrantello looks on. Michael McWeeney 15 Turrigiano who has been at Bari for nearly 40 years, talks with the original owner, John Buttaro (right), who owned Bari Pork Store from 1969 to 1988. Michael McWeeney 'If we don't go back to the old neighborhoods and support these places, what choice do they really have? Many of the younger generations are not following in their parents' and grandparents' footsteps when it comes to pork stores or even old school red sauce joints.' Ray Guarini, who runs the popular Instagram account Italian Enclaves and is author of the book 'New York City's Italian Neighborhoods,' helped announce Bari's closure. At the time, he called it 'the hardest video in our many years of documenting Italian neighborhoods and businesses.' 'The area changed so drastically, we just can't keep up anymore,' said Turrigiano in a video. Noted one commenter of many who bemoaned the loss: 'This is heartbreaking, I will always remember going here with my dad.' 'A lot of people have expressed their sadness about it, and I'm saddened myself,' Guarini told The Post. 15 Firrantello and Turrigiano work side-by-side to make sausage. Michael McWeeney 'But I admire them. What they have done all of these years by preserving the business as a living piece of our culture is commendable.' However, don't expect much fanfare when Firrantello locks Bari's door for the last time: He has no big plans for the final day. 'Hopefully it goes fast, and then I just wanna walk away and take a nice picture outside with my partner,' he said. 'Then Monday, I'm probably gonna stay home with my wife and enjoy a couple of weeks with her. And then go look for a job.'
New York Post
13-06-2025
- General
- New York Post
This is how NYC crushes gnawed apple cores and greasy pizza boxes into ‘black gold'
This is where trash turns into treasure. Millions of disgusting, leaking bags of rotting food collected from New York City streets every week are digested and spat back out as 'black gold' as part of the city's fast-growing compost initiative. The arduous process sees the apple cores, spoiled spinach bunches and greasy boxes squeezed, cooked and pummeled for months — all while being fiercely protected from hungry birds — until they are transformed into a fine, nutrient-rich dust that is returned to New Yorkers for their very own gardens. 9 Millions of pounds of food scraps, landscaping materials and food-soiled items are turned into compost every week at the Staten Island facility. Michael McWeeney The Post was offered on Thursday an up-close and personal view of how the Staten Island facility produces what it calls 'black gold' — which has been collected in record-breaking troves week after week since composting mandates went into effect in April. Last week, more than 5.4 million pounds of scraps, food-soiled paper and yard waste — equal in weight to 12 Statues of Liberty — were collected across the five boroughs. The surging collection rate is almost overwhelming for the Staten Island facility, which DSNY Assistant Commissioner Jennifer McDonnell said is fast approaching its compost capacity — which is a good problem to have. 'When you think about how much food waste there is all across the city, it would be very difficult to put ten more of these [facilities] so we have to have many diverse resources for a city as large as ours,' said O'Donnell, adding that the DSNY would partner with other facilities in the region to manage the load if it became too much. 9 It takes about three months for the materials to be turned into compost. Michael McWeeney 'It all depends on how much people participate … We always manage no matter what it is.' The Staten Island facility is one of two in the Big Apple, but handles the bulk of the city's spoiled scraps. After being plucked from curbside pick-up, the materials are piled into a massive shed, which laborers rifle through to remove any non-compostable trash that slipped through. Black bags — which make it nearly impossible for laborers to tell what's inside — are the bane of the DSNY's work and are swiftly ripped open. 'Sometimes we get crazy things like refrigerators. We think that happens sometimes when the trunk that was used to collect recycling didn't get everything out and sometimes it ends up coming out here instead, which is not great, but it happens,' said O'Donnell. 'And I understand this, but we've gotten entire planters because people say, 'Oh, I want to compost my plant,' but they don't actually take it out of the pot,' she continued. 9 The materials are kept in a storage shed before piled thrown into the shredder, which rips bags open, and screener, which separates compost from garbage. Michael McWeeney 9 'We always manage no matter what it is,' DSNY Assistant Commissioner, Jennifer McDonnell, said about the facility nearly reaching compost capacity. Michael McWeeney 'You never really know it's New York City, right?' A select few items that are clearly compostable — often spotted thanks to clear plastic bags — are taken to 'The Tiger,' a massive machine that squeezes the vile liquids out of the materials. Everything else is taken through a duo of machines, aptly named the 'shredder' and 'screener.' The massive conveyor belt with knives rips open remaining plastic bags and separates them from the materials, before pushing them through the screener, which is able to discern compost from garbage based on its density. All the compost taken from The Tiger, the shredder and the screener is next laid out in long, narrow rows on the grounds of the Staten Island facility, where they will spend weeks 'cooking' in the sun. 9 DSNY staff is constantly fending off birds and other animals who want to munch on the pre-compost materials. Michael McWeeney This process is to promote the growth of bacteria that consume the material, creating methane and carbon dioxide, which is key for transforming the scraps into compost, while also killing off unwanted pathogens. A fan is almost constantly churning beneath the piles to regulate the temperature, while a tarp above keeps out the elements — and the hungry birds that are looking to snack on the rescued trash. Landscaping materials like downed trees and old plants go through a similar process nearby, where they are whittled down to mulch, explained O'Donnell. Every once in a while, the piles need to be watered — otherwise, they could spontaneously combust. 9 Fans help regulate the temperature of the compost while its being 'cooked.' Michael McWeeney 9 The finished result is a sweet-smelling dirt that can be returned to New Yorkers for use in their own gardens. Michael McWeeney 'It can. It has. It was a while ago, but we haven't forgotten about it!' said O'Donnell. During these crucial few weeks, the DSNY is battling Staten Island's wildlife, which have been prowling the grounds for dinner since the grounds were a landfill. A constant blast of bird calls is echoed on speakers throughout the 33 acres, an original mix of five 'predators' overlaid on one another meant to keep the birds away. The agency has also scattered fake dead seagulls across the property to show their friends what might happen if they try to munch on the future 'black gold.' It's not just that the DSNY doesn't want the compost to be eaten, but the birds' excrement and bacteria would jeopardize the safety of the material, explained the compost facility's project manager, Mike LeBlanc. 9 Ground compost is being loaded onto a conveyor belt to be bagged at The Staten Island Compost Facility. Michael McWeeney 9 More than 2.1 million bag of compost have been doled out to New Yorkers for free since January. Michael McWeeney The measures seem to be working — there have been no reports of a bird, coyote or other animals getting sucked up into any of the compost machines. 'I haven't seen one yet. The good news is that if they do, they are organic,' said LeBlanc. At the end of the 'cooking' time, the landscaping mulch and food-soiled materials are put through the 'Star Screen,' which pummels the now-sweet-smelling combination into a fine dust that looks like healthy dirt. Much of the compost is doled out to parks and schools across the five boroughs, and plenty is sold off to contractors, but DSNY keeps a hefty amount in stock at all times to give back to New Yorkers at its weekly GiveBack sites — completely free of charge. Big Apple residents have claimed more than 2.1 million pounds of compost since January. All in all, it takes about three months for kitchen scraps to be collected at curbside pickup and returned in dirt form.
