At the D: Dive Into Media conference, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that the company's political thriller House of Cards has been the most-watched piece of content on the site a few weeks after its release. Not only is that true in the company's home market of the U.S., but it's true across all regions that the company operates in, Sarandos said.
With the threat of climate change?and redrawn?flood zone lines?leading to skyrocketing insurance rates, you?d think the only thing that is certain to rise along the Southern Brooklyn waterfront would be encroaching flood waters and not property taxes. Well, property taxes have been hiked for Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and other coastal areas like Coney Island and the Rockaways, according to a report by the New York Post.
The rise in property taxes comes as a cruel blow to homeowners who have already shelled out thousands on home-repair following Sandy. According to the Post, the news of the tax hikes doesn?t sit well with local residents:
?This is totally insensitive and heartless,? said Ira Zalcman, president of the Manhattan Beach Community Group, which has received more than 30 complaints from residents about the hikes.
?We just sustained one of the worst national disasters in our nation?s history, and now the city is delusional, claiming our property values went up.?
Zalcman said that since Sandy, he has spent roughly $100,000 repairing the basement of his Dover Street oceanfront home, for which he pays more than $7,000 a year in property taxes.
According to Zalcman, the rise in assessed property values do not match market realities. While his home was assessed to be worth an additional $79,000, pushing it over the $2 million mark, he claims he?d be lucky to get $1.5 million should he decide to sell.
Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn was also vexed over the increase in property taxes for storm ravaged homeowners. She has vowed to hold an emergency oversight hearing on February 26 to address the issue.
?It raises real doubts about whether [the Finance Department] is doing enough to ensure fair and accurate assessments ?? Quinn told the Post. ?As New Yorkers work to rebuild their homes and lives, we cannot allow them to be hit twice.?
There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding why property taxes have gone up in the worst hit regions. City officials told the Post that the property assessments were made before the storm, despite the city?s website claiming they were made on January 5.
Mayor Bloomberg insisted that the rise in beach-front property value represented the overall national trend:
?Prices continue to go up in spite of these things,? he said.
But many local real estate brokers say property values in Big Apple neighborhoods affected by Sandy ? such as Manhattan Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn, the Rockaways and parts of Staten Island ? have fallen due to storm damage and prospective buyers now leery of living in high-risk hurricane evacuation zones.
Have you been hit with higher property taxes? Assemblyman Cymbrowitz, who along with Councilman Michael Nelson and many other local pols has spoken out against the hikes, included in a recent e-mail blast information on how to file appeals on increased rates and how to apply for?assistance?through the Finance Department?s Hurricane Sandy Property Tax Relief Program. Relevant details from Cymbrowitz?s press release are listed below.
Property owners who oppose the hikes have until March 15 to appeal to the city Tax Commission before rates are finalized in May. To print a copy of the form you need, click?here.
You also have until this Friday, February 15, to apply for assistance through the Finance Department?s Hurricane Sandy Property Tax Relief program. (The deadline was originally February 1st but was extended.) Download the necessary Property Damage Reporting Application form?here.
My office also has hard copies of both forms that we can send you. Feel free to call us at?(718) 743-4078, email me at?cymbros@assembly.state.ny.us?or stop by and visit us at my temporary district office located at 2658 Coney Island Avenue (between Avenues W and X) and we?ll be happy to help you with this or any other issue. We?re open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. ? 5:30 p.m., and Fridays until 5 p.m.
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Tags: christine quinn, city council, climate change, Coney Island, flood zone expansion, flood zones, hurricane sandy, hurricane sandy aftermath, ira zalcman, manhattan beach, manhattan beach community group, mayor bloomberg, property taxes, rising taxes, rockaways, steven cymbrowitz, tax hikes, tax relief, taxes
This image provided by the National Park Service shows a gray wolf in the wild.
By Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Humane Society of the United States and other animal welfare groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday to restore federal protections for gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region that were lifted last year.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the decision to take wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan off the endangered list threatens the animals' recovery throughout most of their historic range. At one time, the animals roamed nearly all of North America.
The Humane Society of the United States provided a copy of the lawsuit to The Associated Press before its public announcement. The other plaintiffs include Born Free USA, Help Our Wolves Live and Friends of Animals and Their Environment.
Hunters and trappers in Minnesota and Wisconsin killed 530 wolves combined during those states' recently concluded seasons ? 413 in Minnesota and 117 in Wisconsin. The Michigan Legislature voted in December to authorize wolf hunting, which could resume as early as this fall if the state's Natural Resources Commission approves.
"In the short time since federal protections have been removed, trophy hunters and trappers have killed hundreds of Great Lakes wolves under hostile state management programs that encourage dramatic reductions in wolf populations," Jonathan Lovvorn, chief counsel for animal protection litigation at the HSUS, said in a statement. "This decision rolls back the only line of defense for wolf populations, and paves the way for the same state-sponsored eradication policies that pushed this species to the brink of extinction in the first place."
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswomen did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, nor did officials with the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan Departments of Natural Resources.
It's been more than 40 years since the federal government imposed protections to prevent wolves from going extinct in the lower 48 states. Gray wolves recovered to more than 4,000 combined in the western Great Lakes and northern Rocky Mountain states by the time the government took them off the list in those areas in January 2012. That action followed several years of court battles and turned responsibility for managing their populations back to the states.
You know the drill (or is that screwdriver?) by now. New gadget lands at the iFixit labs, and the good folk there give it a teardown. Microsoft's Surface Pro is this week's lucky slab of silicon to hit the bench. The good news is that a removable battery and SSD will make swapping those out a charm. That's pretty much it for the good news though. The less good news is the sheer number of screws you're going to have to contend with (over 90 by iFixit's count). The bad news is that screen is a real fiddle to remove, and there are globs of adhesive to navigate (holding that battery and screen in place for example). The worst part? By our tool-weilding friend's reckoning, you'll be lucky not to sever a major cable artery just by opening the thing. There's not much by way of hardware surprises, bar the mAh rating of the battery (5,676). All this earns the Surface Pro a repairability rating of just one out ten (ten being the best). Better treat yours with the love and care it deserves then.
If you've created lists within the default Reminders app, there are probably lists that you access more frequently than others. For most of us, that will probably be our work lists. While you can easily switch between lists you can also change the order around to set the ones that you use the most with a higher preference. This way, when you switch between lists you'll see them in the order you prefer instead.
Launch the Reminders app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
On the iPhone, tap on the menu icon in the upper left hand corner.
Now, on either iPhone or iPad, tap the Edit button in the upper right had corner of the main manu.
You'll now see delete options to the left of each list. You'll also see the addition of another icon off to the right. This is to move list items. Tap and hold down on this icon next to the list you'd like to move.
Drag it up or down in the list. Repeat this for each list you'd like to move around until the order is to your liking. Then tap the Done button in the upper right hand corner.
You'll now be taken back to the main menu screen. Tap the Done button in the upper left hand corner to return to your lists again.
That's it. You should now notice your lists are in the order you selected.
As police investigate the sudden death of a central Pennsylvania college student, his father remembers him as a "kind and generous" person.
Eric Phillips was hanging out with friends in the common room of a dorm at Franklin & Marshall College early Sunday when he collapsed, his father Byron Phillips confirmed to NBC10.
Eric's friends immediately called for help, but he could not be revived. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, according to college officials.
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?He was a very kind and generous person, quick with a smile and bear hug for anyone who needed one," Byron Phillips said of his son.
The 20-year-old sophomore did not have any underlying medical conditions, according to his father. He says it appears cadiomyopthy, a heart muscle disease, took Eric's life.
?
"He was the only child between my ex-wife and myself and he will be missed," Byron said.
The Lancaster County corner is expected to perform an autopsy Monday to determine the exact cause of death. Franklin & Marshall officials say police are investigating the incident.
Funeral arrangements for the Oakland, Calif.-native have not been set yet, but an on-campus memorial service is planned for Wednesday at 11 a.m. Byron says he and Eric's mother Sherri Pittman plan to be there.
At the D: Dive Into Media conference, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said that the company's political thriller House of Cards has been the most-watched piece of content on the site a few weeks after its release. Not only is that true in the company's home market of the U.S., but it's true across all regions that the company operates in, Sarandos said.
