🌱 LaG Community College Receives $5 Mil + Subway Deep-Clean Underway

Good morning, Queens! 🍃

🎩 Hold on to your hats, Queens, today is going to be another windy one! Here are the stories you need to know today:

• 💰 Queens Councilwoman Julie Won presented a $5 million check to LaGuardia Community College to help fund the ‘3,000 Heroes’ — LaGuardia’s pledge to train and graduate 3,000 frontline healthcare workers over the next five years.
• 🧼🚂 Three stations in Long Island City — Court Square and Vernon Boulevard on the 7 line, and the 21st Street–Van Alst G train stop — are set to receive deep-clean.
• 🏁 Queens resident Kathleen Casillo, 53, who drove her car into pedestrians at a Black Lives Matter protest in Midtown Manhattan in December 2020, has rejected a plea deal for the second time.

🍃 Winds subsiding and ❄️ cooler. High: 46 Low: 32.

Here are the top stories today in Queens:

1. Queens Councilwoman Julie Won presented a $5 million check on Tuesday to LaGuardia Community College to help fund a new initiative to expand the training of healthcare professionals. This comes just a month after LaGuardia’s nursing program was awarded the top ranking in New York state. The additional funding will enable the college to launch ‘3,000 Heroes’ — LaGuardia’s pledge to train and graduate 3,000 frontline healthcare workers over the next five years. This investment will help address the critical shortage of frontline healthcare workers across the city. “LaGuardia Community College is the home to 23,000 scholars in which 88% are students of color. LaGuardia offers a pathway for socioeconomic mobility for working-class students, many of who are first-generation college students. That is why I advocated securing $5 million in funding to convert Shenker Hall into a workforce development training facility to further invest in our next generation of leaders,” Won said.

Queens Courier

2. Three stations in Long Island City — Court Square and Vernon Boulevard on the 7 line, and the 21st Street–Van Alst G train stop — are set to receive deep-clean during their weekend outages in the first quarter of 2023, the MTA announced Tuesday. The improvements are part of the MTA’s "Station ReNEWvation” program, which involves cosmetic upgrades like power-washing, repainting columns, removing gum from floors, and retiling platforms and walls. "We want customers to feel proud of their home station, and this program aims to do just that," New York City Transit President Richard Davey said in a statement. "When we spoke to customers on areas NYC Transit could improve, enhancing the station environment was a popular answer.”

Patch

3. Queens resident Kathleen Casillo, 53, who drove her car into pedestrians at a Black Lives Matter protest in Midtown Manhattan in December 2020, has rejected a plea deal for the second time, turning down a one-year driver license suspension and six days of community service. If convicted at trial, she faces up to seven years in jail for reckless assault and reckless endangerment. Casillo claimed she floored her BMW through the protest, sending several pedestrians flying, out of fear that the group was trying to pull her and her 29-year-old daughter from her car. Local activists, who have demonstrated outside the courthouse, have called for increased charges against Casillo.

New York Post

4. Mayor Eric Adams issued an aggressive directive Tuesday to police officers and emergency medical workers authorizing them to involuntarily hospitalize people deemed too mentally ill to care for themselves. Now, mental health experts, advocates, and elected officials are at odds over the new plan and how it should be implemented, how many people may be affected, whether there is enough hospital capacity to accommodate everyone, and, importantly, whether police officers should be at all involved. Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, and other left-leaning elected officials, have raised concerns over the plan, and suggest that the city focus on funding less intrusive programs like homeless drop in centers, where people can get a hot meal and a shower, and mental health urgent care centers. On the other hand, Ron Kim, a left-leaning state assemblyman from Queens, said he was supportive of the plan, especially after a recent dinner he had with the father of Michelle Go, who was pushed in front of a subway train in January by a homeless and mentally ill man. “I was shocked to hear that from the pain he’s been going through, he wasn’t focused on punishing the attacker,” Mr. Kim said. “He was really furious about how we didn’t see the signs, and we failed to intervene.”

The New York Times

🗞 Hankering for more headlines? 👀 Look no further:

• New York Thruway Authority to consider toll increases for EZ Pass users (Spectrum News NY1)
• Police seek gold necklace snatchers running amok in Queens (Patch ; AM New York Metro)
• Q44 SBS Bus Lane Violators To Receive Summonses Starting Dec. 2 (Patch)
• Strong wind knocks down trees in NYC (FOX 5 New York)
• Can This Man Stop Lying? (The New York Times)

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🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

• Love & Hiking Date For Couples (Self-Guided) (7 a.m.)
• Volunteer at 9 Million Reasons / Evangel Food Pantry (8:45 a.m.)
• World AIDS Day Marathon (9:30 a.m.)
• Day With(out) Art 2022 by Presenting Being and Belonging (12 p.m.)
• Musiquita in Sunnyside (3:45 p.m.)
• Amaze Light Festival (4 p.m.)
• Queens Tech Night (6:30 p.m.)
• Circus Vazquez (7:30 p.m.)
• Taylor Swift Trivia (7:30 p.m.)

🗣 Queens Chatter:

• 🎉 Huge, history-making congrats to Congressman Hakeen Jefferies: "New York City's voice down in D.C. just got a whole lot louder. And history was made in the process, as Congress now has its first-ever Black leader of a political party. Congratulations, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Looking forward to working with you and delivering for #Queens families." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Facebook)
• 👨‍🎨 Michelangelo's masterpiece, the "Pietà," once paid a visit to Queens: "Did you know one of the most recognizable works of art was at the 1964-65 World's Fair? This World's Fair Wednesday, we're spotlighting Michelangelo's masterpiece, the "Pietà", part of the Vatican Pavilion and led to it being one of the most popular areas of the fair, with many visitors viewing the timeless and renowned statue. Installed in Old St. Peter's Basilica in 1499, it had never been taken from the Vatican until the late Pope John XXIII granted permission for it to be brought to the Fair. When he visited New York during a visit to the United Nations, he blessed the statue and returned to Italy." (Queens Museum via Facebook)
• 🌱 It's giving... Wednesday at the Queens Botanical Garden: "It's Wednesday--but it's not too late to celebrate #GivingTuesday! QBG is is an urban oasis, a place of respite where 200 seniors find peace and fresh air every day. Support our work and donate today: https://queensbotanical.org/give" (Queens Botanical Garden via Facebook)
• 🏳️‍🌈 Queens loves love: "Love is love, regardless of who you love. It’s as simple as that. It’s well past time we codified that basic, yet frequently threatened right into federal law. One massive bar cleared — two more to go." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Facebook)
• 🇺🇸🇬🇧 The joys of Terminal 8's expansion: "“The completion of Terminal 8 is the latest milestone in our historic efforts to build a whole new JFK worthy of New York,” Gov. Kathy Hochul @queenschamberofcommerce had the honor to attend the ribbon cutting of JFK’s newly expanded Terminal 8 on Tuesday Nov 29th! This expansion will give American Airlines and British Airways a new space!" (Queens Chamber of Commerce via Facebook)

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Events:

• Berkeley College Transfer Open House (December 1)
• HSS Online Workshop: De-Stress & Express Yourself with Art! (December 6)
• Deck the Walls (December 6)
• Berkeley College MBA Information Session (December 6)
• Ugly Holiday Sweater Day Party (December 10)
• Berkeley College Legal and Justice Studies/National Security Career Seminar (December 14)
• Winter Events at The Poppenhusen Institute (December 17)
• Holiday Lights At The Bronx Zoo (December 23)
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That's it for today! I'll see you around.

— Emma Radu Fighera

About me: Emma Radu Fighera is a reporter born and raised in Queens, New York. She studied Literature and Studio Art at Hamilton College, where she helped run the only daily publication on campus, The Daily Bull newsletter. This past spring she earned her M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Queens Daily? Contact me at queens@patch.com