Latest news with #Podolsky
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Owners of Fort Lauderdale assisted living home rack up $40,000 in fines, board says
The owners of an assisted living home accused of removing all of its residents to convert to luxury apartments have now racked up $40,000 in fines over the renovations, Fort Lauderdale code enforcement officials said at a meeting Tuesday. Management for Oasis Living Quarters announced the controversial evictions at a meeting in March, according to residents, employees and a state inspection report. As residents moved out, workers began tearing down partitions, demolishing kitchenettes and installing air conditioning units. But the facility never received a permit for the renovations or changed the building's use from an assisted and independent living home to apartment buildings, according to city officials. The removals, which included residents who were bedridden or had dementia, also led to a lawsuit and citations from the state over the lack of written notice. Attorneys for Oasis have claimed that it did provide notice. At a May 27 code enforcement hearing, an angry code enforcement board decided to give the owner of the property, Lauderdale Commercial Blvd Partners LLC, two weeks to comply with code and then begin fining them $1,000 a day if they did not comply. The LLC is connected to Lee and Jay Podolsky, members of a family of notorious landlords in New York City, the Sun Sentinel previously reported. On June 11, the fines began. By Tuesday, the fines totaled $40,000 and are continuing to increase each day, officials said. Andrew Gebbia, the building inspector, said he visited the property last week and the owners still were not in compliance with code. At that point, the contractor had not submitted applications for plumbing and electrical permits, Gebbia said. As of Tuesday, he had submitted the two applications but both still required additional documents and information. Asked if the building was occupied, Gebbia said yes, but not the units that were under construction. Half of the property that was once Oasis' assisted living side is already operating as Waterview luxury apartments. The assisted living residents had first been moved into the other half, then told to leave in March. Ariel Grosfeld, an attorney for the Abrams Law Firm in Fort Lauderdale, appeared at the Tuesday meeting on behalf of the owners, asking the board to postpone the case until the next meeting because the attorneys for the owners are at trial. She also cited 'the convoluted nature of the case, the procedural history, and the irregularities from city staff.' 'If they get the continuances, the fine still accrues, it's still a thousand in a day?' asked Jacquie Shaw, a member of the board. Assistant City Attorney Rhonda Montoya Hasan said yes, unless the board decides otherwise. The board voted to postpone the hearing until August and to continue fining the owners $1,000 a day in the meantime. A lawsuit in Broward County Court over the removals remains active. It was originally filed on behalf of a bedridden tenant still living at the facility. She later died shortly after moving out. Grosfeld, the attorney for the property, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
National Geographic
01-07-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
The ‘little cow' of the sea nears extinction
This story appears in the October 2019 issue of National Geographic magazine. One of the world's most endangered marine animals is a pint-size porpoise known as the vaquita. It exists only in the Gulf of California off Mexico. No one knows exactly how many are now alive; by 2018 fewer than 19 were left, researchers estimate. Unless the species' decline can be slowed, vaquitas likely will become extinct before 2021, which raises the question: How did we let this happen? A stocky creature about four and a half feet long, the vaquita is the smallest of the cetaceans, a family that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Dark pigment edging vaquitas' eyes gives them a bovine look; in Spanish, the animal's name means 'little cow.' Shortly after scientists discovered the species in 1950, they realized it was in trouble. Vaquitas were regularly drowning in gill nets meant for shrimp and totoabas, a fish whose swim bladder is a delicacy in China. In 1975, after the totoaba was declared endangered, Mexico outlawed fishing for it. But the work is easier, more lucrative, and less risky than drug trafficking, so totoaba fishing continues—as do the deaths of vaquitas as bycatch. In 2005 Mexico's government made part of the gulf a vaquita refuge. But the population kept falling—from more than 200 individuals in 2008 to fewer than 30 in 2016. Unable to protect vaquitas in the wild, the government made an unprecedented attempt to protect them in captivity. In 2017 an international team of scientists, veterinarians, and conservationists gathered in Mexico to stage VaquitaCPR, a multimillion-dollar project to transfer half of the remaining vaquitas into protected sea pens until their safety in the wild could be assured. The team captured two females—but when both began showing signs of stress, they were released. One of them didn't survive, and VaquitaCPR was discontinued. This young female vaquita, known as V01F, was captured during the VaquitaCPR mission, an emergency effort to place some of the endangered cetaceans in protected seapens. V01F appeared to be so stressed by the experience that the conservationists decided to release her back into the wild. Wildlife biologist Matthew Podolsky contends that 'even if that vaquita hadn't died and the capture effort had been successful, the root of the problem would still remain': Impoverished poachers, greedy cartels, and corrupt officials would still care more about catching totoabas than protecting vaquitas. Podolsky co-directed Sea of Shadows, a National Geographic documentary about activists' and undercover investigators' work to help save the species. In this fight against extinction, Podolsky sees a cautionary tale about the importance of protecting rare animals 'at the first sign of trouble'—not when only a few of them remain.
Fox News
23-04-2025
- Fox News
Trump admin files first racketeering charges against massive migrant terrorist group present in U.S.
The first RICO racketeering charges against members and associates of the migrant terrorist group Tren de Aragua were filed this week in New York. A statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said that the case is part of "Operation Take Back America," which it said is a "nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime." According to the statement, the charges filed against 27 alleged current and former Tren de Aragua (TdA) members include human smuggling, sex trafficking and murder. "Today, we have filed charges against 27 alleged members, former members, and associates of Tren de Aragua, for committing murders and shootings, forcing young women trafficked from Venezuela into commercial sex work, robbing and extorting small businesses, and selling 'tusi,' a pink powdery drug that has become their calling card," announced Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Podolsky said that the indictments "make clear that this Office will work tirelessly to keep the law-abiding residents of New York City safe, and hold accountable those who bring violence to our streets." The charges were filed in two separate indictments, the first against six alleged current members of Tren de Aragua and the second against 21 alleged members and associates of a splinter gang known as "Anti-Tren," which consists of former TdA members. The Trump State Department has designated Tren de Aragua, as well as several other migrant gangs present throughout the U.S., as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said that 21 of the 27 alleged gang members and associates are currently in federal custody. The statement said that 16 were already in federal criminal, immigration, or state custody and five were arrested over the last couple of days. Most of the alleged gang members are in their twenties, with the oldest being 44. Many are facing multiple life in prison sentences if they are found guilty. Charges include racketeering, sex trafficking, alien importation, drug trafficking and carjacking conspiracy, robbery, illegal firearms possession and use and extortion. Among the most egregious of the charges included in the indictments are the smuggling of "multadas" – indentured sex workers – from Venezuela into Peru and the U.S. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office statement, both TdA and Anti-Tren operate keep the multadas trapped in a life of sex slavery by threatening to kill them and their families and by assaulting, shooting and killing them and tracking down those who attempted to flee. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on the RICO charges, saying: "Today's indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA's infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country." "Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang," said Bondi. "It is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities." New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch also praised the operations, saying that "for the first time ever, TdA is being named and charged as the criminal enterprise that it is." "This gang has shown zero regard for the safety of New Yorkers," said Tisch. "As alleged in the indictment, these defendants wreaked havoc in our communities, trafficking women for sexual exploitation, flooding our streets with drugs, and committing violent crimes with illegal guns. Thanks to the dedicated members of the NYPD and the important work of our federal partners, their time is up." The U.S. Attorney's Office statement also mentioned that this case received significant support from Joint Task Force Vulcan, a collection of U.S. attorneys' offices and law enforcement agencies that was created in 2019 to eradicate the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and has now expanded to target Tren de Aragua.
