MR GRADY'S DAILY BLOG: AMERICAS EARLY BIRD NEWS

Thursday, May 14, 2015

AMERICAS EARLY BIRD NEWS

PICTURED Brandon Bostian, 32 of Queens, is engineer in control of doomed Amtrak train

The engineer who was in control of the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia on is refusing to talk to investigators.

Guest column Seat belts are likely no help in a train crash, could injure from sheer force of impact

Robert E. Paaswell: Seat belts probably would not have saved the victims of the Amtrak train crash.

CUNY dean, 5th victim ID'd in Amtrak crash, had just completed Ph.D and set to graduate this month

Dr. Derrick Griffith, 42, was a dean of student affairs for City University of New York Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. Griffith had recently defended his dissertation in urban education.

Missing Amtrak passenger’s 13-year-old son: ‘Please help me find my dad’

Marc Gildersleeve passed out flyers with a picture of his dad, Bob Gildersleeve Jr., to reporters outside a Philadelphia hotel.

IT WOULD BE 'NICE TO GET RID OF LAUREN': Sicko dad found guilty of tossing daughter, 4, off cliff to avoid paying child support

Cameron Brown, 53, (right) hurled his 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, off a 120-foot cliff in a posh L.A. suburb. Sarah Key-Marer, mother of the child, sobbed after Brown was brought to justice.

White Florida pub owner held black couple at gunpoint, shouted slurs after dispute about a drink: cops

“It’s all false accusations,” Kim Bruns, owner of a George & Dragon British Pub in Orlando, told the Orlando Sentinel. “I have black people who work for me. I have never used a racial slur.”

Fifth suspect arrested in connection to traffic stop shooting deaths of two Mississippi cops

Abram Wade “Pete” Franklin has been charged with obstruction of justice during the investigation into the slayings of Hattiesburg Police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate.

EXCLUSIVE Bill Clinton’s travel schedule eyed for ties to his then-Secretary of State wife

The organization Citizens United will release an open letter to the Clinton Foundation, demanding Bill Clinton's travel schedule.

Who runs the world? Bey stops by Hillary fundraiser in NYC

‘It felt good’ watching him drown: Upstate New York woman, 36, accused of killing fiancé by sabotaging kayak

Angelika Graswald is accused of second-degree murder in the drowning death of lover Vincent Viafore, 46.

LUPICA Another NYPD cop is attacked, but this time the story ends right

The story ended right this time at 37th and Eighth. The great police infrastructure of the city held.

SIEGEL Mr. de Blasio goes to Washington — and it's actually a timely, important political play

As Mayor de Blasio left the city this week to push his progressive contract with America based on what he’s called his “historic"...

New York

De Blasio administration wants to partly restore disability benefits to new NYPD cops, firefighters

Currently, the city's uniformed workers who got on the payroll before 2009 have far more financial security. In the event of a career-ending injury, they get three-quarters of their final year's pay, mostly tax-free, for life.

Off-duty cop busted for drunken driving in Bronx: police

Jamir Navarro, 27, was arrested around 2:42 a.m. and charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.

HAMILL Pope Francis' planned visit to New York City in September excites Brooklyn Diocese

As my devout Catholic mother used to say, “For God’s sake, you’d think the Pope himself was coming." This time he is.

LATEST FROM AROUND NEW YORK

Riders booted from NYC's Access-A-Ride service file lawsuit detailing tangled system

The suit, which seeks class action status, features five people who say their Access-A-Ride privileges have been inexplicably reduced or denied outright — though their disability has not changed.

Gunman fled on bike after gunning down man, 20, in Brooklyn: witness

The victim was shot once in the torso on St. Marks Ave. in Crown Heights about 6:20 p.m. Sunday.

Amtrak crash victim Justin Zemser mourned by Beach Channel H.S. football coach Victor Nazario

Victor Nazario had a major decision to make. It was just a few weeks after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Rockaways in the fall of 2012.

Rachel Jacobs, daughter of former Michigan state senator, among 7 dead in Amtrak train derailment

“We are just frantic waiting to hear news from my daughter,” Gilda Jacobs told The Daily News just before took off for the East Coast to find her daughter.

‘WE KEPT ON CALLING’: Navy midshipman from Queens among dead

Justin Zemser was a Navy midshipman, a straight A student, and the kind of son who would call his mother if he was going to be late.

‘Thanks a lot for derailing my train’: Musician sparks outrage after tweet demanding her lost violin be returned

A professional violinist sparked Internet ire after the Amtrak crash survivor complained about losing her violin.

WARREN Congress needs to invest in Amtrak's service, and stop worrying about peanuts

It’s a tragic irony that an Amtrak train could even go 100 mph.

Jim Gaines, Associated Press worker killed in Amtrak crash, was a ‘geek’ beloved by all

A video software architect who worked for The Associated Press, Gaines was heading home from a series of meetings in Washington when the Amtrak train crashed.

Modern signaling system could have prevented Amtrak train crash tragedy

The curving track where an Amtrak train derailed did not have a high-tech system that could have prevented the tragedy.

Wells Fargo exec Abid Gilani, 55, dies in Amtrak crash on way back to N.Y. from uncle’s funeral in Virginia

A Wells Fargo executive, traveling after a family funeral, was one of at least seven people killed on Tuesday in a deadly Amtrak crash, a relative and the company confirmed.

Scott Foley: Season finale will be very 'Scandal'-ous

Tank cars capable of carrying crude oil filled junction yard where Amtrak train derailed, highlighting freight dangers

The deadly Amtrak derailment took place at a Philadelphia train junction where freight cars capable of carrying crude oil are stored.

Prosecutors in Boston Marathon bomber’s trial make last pitches for death penalty

Prosecutors passionately argued Tsarnaev should be sentenced to death as he deliberately sought to cause his victims as much pain as possible and has shown no remorse.