NEWS YOU CAN USE
York College holding jazz auditions for HS students
The York College Summer Jazz Program will be holding auditions for high school sophomores and juniors on Saturday, May 14.
These auditions will be held at 9 p.m. in the York College Performing Arts Center.
The tuition-free jazz performance program includes six weeks of study in a near-professional big band environment. Students will receive training and mentoring from professional jazz musicians.
Completing this program will give the students five college credits that are transferable to many colleges.
Free community paper shredding
Throwing out documents containing personal information puts you at risk for identity theft.
The safe way to protect yourself is to shred those documents with your social security number, bank account number or anything else that could put you at risk.
Councilmember Daniel Dromm is holding a free community shredding to prevent people from being victimized.
On Sunday, May 15 at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, 37-06 77th Street, Dromm is inviting anyone that would like to shred any personal documents to join him.
The shredder can shred thousands of pages in minutes and you can stay and watch to make sure all your papers are shredded.
New York gas prices approach record high
As the temperature is rising, so are the gas prices.
The average gas price in New York is $4.284, according to AAA’s fuel gauge report.
This is two cents higher than last week and over 30 cents higher than one month ago. Gas prices were at $3.143 one year ago.
The highest recorded gas prices in the city were recorded on July 16, 2008 when the price hit $4.411. The average gas price nationally is $3.96, just 15 cents short of the record high.
New traffic pattern on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
A new traffic pattern began Saturday, May 7, on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge as work is being done to replace the three southbound lanes.
One southbound lane has already been completed. The three northbound lanes were replaced in 2010.
The work will require one lane to be closed around-the-clock. Despite the lane closure, there will still be three lanes during peak rush hours. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. there will be three lanes open to the Bronx and two to Queens. From 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. three lanes will be open to Queens and two to the Bronx.
This pattern should remain in effect through mid-summer.
The work is part of a four-year, nearly $200 million project to replace all 1,785 feet of original roadway on the bridge’s Bronx approach.
244,000 jobs added in April
The U.S. economy added 244,000 jobs in April, the Department of Labor reported.
Though more jobs were added, unemployment rose from 8.8 percent in March to 9 percent in April.
The number of jobs added exceeded expectations by 60,000. Most of the new jobs came from the private sector which added 268,000 jobs.
March had previously also gained over 200,000 jobs.
