By Dee Richard
We hope our readers had a happy Thanksgiving, which is a reminder that Christmas is a month away. The retailers are predicting a lackluster holiday season due to the disastrous economy. Let’s all hope for a speedy recovery.
On Wednesday night at the Reception House in Flushing, we attended the Northeast Queens Republican Club’s monthly meeting. The meeting’s primary discussion was a rehash of the local elections. The results were, in our opinion, two−fold. First was the huge turnout of voters for Obama and the ensuing pulling of the lever for the Democratic Party straight down the line. Second was the failure of the Republican Party to effectively develop and support viable candidates for election. We hope the Republicans are planning to do better in the next elections, as we strongly believe in a two−party system.
State Sen. Frank Padavan was the guest speaker and said he and challenger Jim Gennaro’s supporters were still counting the paper votes. According to Padavan, they had only counted approximately 40 percent of the votes as of Nov. 19. Expect it to take several more weeks for the final results to be in. At the moment, Padavan is ahead, but there were still many more votes to be counted. Best of luck to both men.
The club featured a second speaker, Daniel Halloran, an attorney from the Whitestone area. His analysis of the current Republican situation was quite accurate and thought−provoking. For all you older folks out there, he is a member of the Halloran real estate family, who were the largest real estate brokers in this part of Queens for more than 100 years. Their famous slogan was “Ask the Hallorans.”
On Thursday night, we attended the joint meeting of two Democratic Clubs, the Saul Weprin Club and Eleanor Roosevelt Club, at the Hollis Hills Jewish Center. Their agenda was similar to the Republican one in as much as they also rehashed the election results. They deserve a lot of credit as they made a tremendous “get out the vote” effort.
A guest speaker was U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, who gave his update on what is happening in Washington and the condition of the current automotive crisis. Although this country cannot afford to bail out every failing business, how can they not help this industry? So many lives are at stake through no fault of their own.
Congratulations to Gary, who has two new grandchildren, a little boy from his daughter and a little girl from his daughter−in−law.
The other speakers were state Assemblyman Mark Weprin, who spoke on what was happening in Albany with the Assembly and City Councilman David Weprin, who gave an update on the Council’s plans.
All the electeds predicted some tough times ahead.
The keynote speaker of the evening was Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer. Her topic was identity theft and how to safeguard yourself from those types of predators. Her main advice was for you not to give anyone any of your personal information on the phone or any other form of communication to anyone contacting you and requesting it. Ask them to send you something in writing and then check it out before complying with their request.
She also said that as far as all the scams at this time of the year, particularly the requests for donations, etc., check them out thoroughly and only give to the ones that are true charities. If you have any doubts, check with the state attorney general’s office. Audrey was not only informative, but also helpful.
Along with her presentation, she passed out a great pamphlet on protecting your hard−earned money. Her advice to everyone was to invest in a paper shredder, as apparently these vultures go through your garbage looking for useful information that can be used for identity theft. If you are in her neighborhood, stop by one of her offices and pick up a copy of the pamphlet.
The holiday season is upon us and as of Dec. 1 we shall start covering the many upcoming events. While it is tough trying to cover all of them, it is also a fun job and we all could use a little fun in our lives right now. See you on the holiday party circuit. Be sure to let me know what’s happening in your world.
That’s it for this week.
I always look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties or politics or gossip.
I also like to receive your voice mail at 718−767−6484, faxes at 718−746−0066 and e−mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Till next week, Dee.
