A federal prosecutor in Manhattan said Thursday that two government psychiatrists had concluded that a Pakistani neuroscientist charged with trying to kill American soldiers and F.B.I. agents in Afghanistan had been faking her symptoms of mental illness.

An earlier court-ordered psychological evaluation had concluded that the neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, 37, was unfit for trial as a result of a mental disease, “which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense,” a court document shows.

Then last month, prosecutors said two new evaluations by government-retained psychiatrists had found differently, that she was not suffering from mental illness. But the prosecutors had not previously said the doctors concluded she was faking.

On Thursday, an assistant United States attorney, David Raskin, told a judge in Federal District Court that the psychiatrists, each working independently and unaware of the other’s findings, concluded that the symptoms that had been seen “were attributed to malingering.”

“It was manipulation by the defendant,” Mr. Raskin told Judge Richard M. Berman, “as opposed to any signs of serious mental illness.”

According to a government document, one psychiatrist wrote that Ms. Siddiqui “has most likely fabricated reported psychiatric symptoms to give credibility to her claims that she suffers a mental disorder.”

The psychiatrist added that Ms. Siddiqui may believe a finding of incompetence “could serve to both prevent prosecution while at the same time facilitating rapid repatriation,” the document says.

Ms. Siddiqui’s lawyer, Dawn M. Cardi, said in court that she intended to retain her own experts to review the new evaluations and to examine her client. Ms. Cardi said by telephone after the hearing, “We assert that she’s not malingering.”

Ms. Siddiqui, who studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, is being held at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth.

She has been held since last summer when she was first brought to New York for prosecution from Afghanistan.

She had been taken into custody after being found loitering outside an Afghan police station with suspicious items in her handbag. Prosecutors have said that while she was detained, she picked up an unsecured rifle and fired at least two shots toward a soldier who was part of an American team of F.B.I. agents and military personnel who were about to question her. No one was hit. Ms. Siddiqui has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Berman said he would hold a hearing on June 1 to determine Ms. Siddiqui’s competency. He set a tentative trial date of July 6, in the event she is found fit for trial.
source:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/terror-suspect-faked-mental-illness-prosecutors-say/

As of last Nov. 1, according to numbers from the New York City Housing Authority, 14 of the city’s 340 public housing developments were more than 60 years old. And 67 of them were between 50 and 59 years old; 168 were more than 30 years old.

Saratoga Village, a development of one high-rise residential building and a surrounding courtyard that opened in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on Dec. 31, 1966, fits into the last group, at a little over 42 years old. It is not, then, one of the oldest projects in the city. Still, every year shows. The 16-story apartment tower looks faded and worn, and its tan brick facade is nearly featureless.

Since last summer, though, the tower has been flanked by a new neighbor: a smaller building constructed on part of the project’s old courtyard, also brick but with a sharply different mood and personality. It is the Saratoga Avenue Community Center, which was commissioned in 1999, designed by the architect George Ranalli, and opened in July, after long construction delays.

The center is the first public building designed by Mr. Ranalli, 62, who is the dean of the City College of New York School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. Its reviews have been positive, and it is the subject of a new book being released by the publisher ORO Editions. Most striking, in the context of Saratoga Village and eastern Bedford-Stuyvesant, are the little differences from the apartment tower next door: mahogany trim instead of stainless steel, a wood and glass door instead of heavy metal, and intricate detail instead of blank rectangularity.

The building is the subject of the Dispatches feature in this weekend’s City section, and it has been getting attention since early in the design and construction process. Mr. Ranalli said this week, in an interview, that while he considers it a modernist building, its goal is different from that of many other modernist buildings, which aim to stand out from the surrounding streetscape.

The center is situated on a corner of the complex’s existing courtyard in a way that frames the rest of the courtyard and links it with a lush public park nearby, Mr. Ranalli said. As for the building, he said, his goal was to make the building feel like part of the complex while also distinguishing itself.

“It’s a dual idea of making it feel exceptional, but at the same time making it feel comfortable, like it fits in,” he said.

Referring to the tower, he added: “You want to be better than that, but you want to complement it as well. You want to make it feel like it’s of that world, but that the tenants and people in the community are being given something that’s more special at the same time.”

Howard Marder, a housing authority spokesman, said the center is one of many community centers built or refurbished by the agency in recent decades, as part of a renewed emphasis on design. Those projects, many of which began when David J. Burney was the agency’s director of design and capital improvements, include the Red Hook Center for the Arts in Brooklyn and the Melrose Community Center in the Bronx. (Mr. Burney has since left the agency, and is now director of the city’s Department of Design and Construction. Mr. Ranalli’s book is dedicated to him, and to the residents of Saratoga Village.)

Mr. Marder took vigorous exception to any suggestion that the city’s public housing buildings tend to be boxy, bland or undistinguished.

“Absolutely not true. It’s the farthest thing from the truth,” Mr. Marder said. “We do have a history of doing rather unique buildings, with a wide variety of architects to assist our design department in coming up with those structures.”

Still, he said he was referring mostly to community centers. Of the residential towers, he said: “Our infrastructure, you know, it’s old. But it holds up.”

Currently, Mr. Marder said, money is a major obstacle, and there are no new community centers planned. Keeping the existing centers open is now the challenge: In January, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, and other city officials announced a plan to keep 19 such centers open that would otherwise have had to close.

The area around Saratoga Village, near where Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Brownsville intersect, has long been troubled. In August 1999, around the time Mr. Ranalli learned he was being hired to design the community center, 11-year-old Kelvin McGinnis was killed by a stray bullet while sitting on a bench in the Saratoga Village courtyard, feet from the site of the new building. Shortly after the building opened last summer, a bullet hole was found in one of the upper windows.

Mr. Ranalli said he is not under the illusion that the community center will fix everything, but he maintained that it does have a purpose.

“This building advocates for people wanting to behave better,” he said. “Architecture doesn’t fix society, but it does cause people to want to be a part of it.”
source:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/a-new-neighbor-for-a-brooklyn-housing-project/

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Carmel Car and Limousine Service announced today that its nationwide network of affiliated car services, Carmel USA, has expanded to 43 U.S. cities, including such major destinations as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta, and that it expects to offer the service in 52 cities by year-end.

The service enables travelers who use Carmel in New York to also arrange ground transportation for their travel destinations. Reservations can be made through Carmel's regular telephone system -- 212-666-6666 or 1-800-9Carmel -- or its computerized reservation system -- www.carmellimo.com.

"Carmel USA is a seamless service that offers great convenience to the traveling public," said Dr. Avik Kabessa, Carmel's president and chief operating officer. "Carmel USA has invested significant effort selecting its network affiliates to ensure the most reliable and most affordable transportation for our customers and partners.

"We will continue to expand our network to additional cities and expect to serve a total of 52 markets by the end of the year, including all major U.S. cities and tourism destinations."

Carmel was founded 25 years ago and in the years since then has become the leader in the New York City metro area for value-priced, consumer-focused Town Car service. Carmel's strengths include its superior management team and its proprietary, computerized reservation and dispatch system that allows it to deliver the industry's leading on-time record. Carmel USA has adopted the same business model that has made Carmel the leading consumer car service in the New York City metro area, offering Lincoln Town Cars at a reasonable price.

Carmel and Carmel USA also have service affiliations with some of the biggest names in the travel industry: Orbitz, CheapTickets, American Express, Air Canada, Delta Airlines, Aer Lingus, Spirit Airways, Priceline and Southwest Airlines.
source:http://in.sys-con.com/node/726586

(Marketwire) -- 03/25/09 -- March is a great time to book a Hummer limo or Escalade limo in the greater Boston area. AA Transportation is lowering the price of their six-hour limousine service for these coveted vehicles throughout the month as part of their "economic stimulus plan." Now customers can book a Hummer limo or Escalade limo for six hours and only pay for three hours of service.

The cost of booking this Boston limousine service is already low-priced at $125 an hour, whether for a birthday party, prom, bachelor/bachelorette party, wedding, or any evening of fun. Boston area residents in Shrewsbury, Marlboro, Hudson, Northboro, Grafton, Westboro, Hopkinton, Framingham and other vicinities can enjoy a 50 percent savings on limousine service during the month of March. Customers who book the 18 passenger Hummer limo or Escalade limo only pay $375 for a six-hour night out, which is about $20 per person.

There are many benefits to choosing a limo service rather than driving besides the obvious luxury. A limousine service means a designated driver without any chances of DUI, and a stress-free night with more time to celebrate rather than worrying about transportation. And everyone can share in the celebration together.

It's important to note that quoted rates for the Hummer limo or Escalade limo do not include gratuity for the driver. To learn more about AA Transportation's limousine service visit www.aatransportation.com or call (508)791-9100, Ext 1.

About AA Transportation:

AA Transportation provides transportation services to businesses, municipalities and consumers for their special occasions. Incorporated in 1996, the family-owned and operated transportation business has more than 150 years of combined management experience. CEO Ron Ernenwein has developed an award-winning operation dedicated to providing the highest quality 24-hour service.

All drivers are Department of Telecom & Energy (DTE) certified, and all employees have passed an extensive criminal background check and are randomly drug and alcohol tested. All vehicles are also DTE certified and many of them exceed the 14-passenger limit for limousines. AA Transportation is bonded and insured, meeting state requirements the average transportation company does not. They also operate out-of-state and exceed federal and state guidelines.
source:http://in.sys-con.com/node/893198

The average cabby works nine and a half hours a day. A cab’s busiest hours are 6 to 8 p.m. And even as the economy has fallen deeper into recession, the number of cab rides each day in New York has remained relatively steady.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Times Topics: Taxicabs and Taxicab Drivers
Enlarge This Image
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Satinder Singh has been driving a taxi for two years and does not notice a difference in business.

Those are among the most vivid bits of information about the yellow cab industry to emerge from a trove of new data collected by the Taxi and Limousine Commission from cabs equipped with new computerized systems that record each trip and fare.

Among the more surprising findings is that credit cards may be saving the industry from feeling the worst effects of the recession.

“The credit card that we put in cabs has helped keep them afloat,” said Matthew Daus, the chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

By last November, every yellow cab in the city was equipped with a credit card reader — as a part of the new computerized system — and as a result, Mr. Daus said, many corporations that once ordered black cars for their employees have begun telling them instead to take a cab (which costs less) and charge it.

That has hurt the black car business, which was already reeling from the impact of the Wall Street crisis on its main customers, financial services firms. The black car business is down at least 30 percent, Mr. Daus said.

But the shift has helped yellow cabs and appears to have made up for lost business as tourism and air travel have slumped and the disposable income of ordinary New Yorkers has dwindled.

For several years, data from old-fashioned taxi meters has shown that there are about 400,000 to 450,000 cab rides a day in New York (the data does not distinguish between weekdays and weekends). Now, information from the computerized systems, which the commission calls an electronic trip sheet, shows that the industry has maintained similar levels in recent months.

In December, cabs carried an average of 432,000 fares a day. That rose to 455,000 in January and 478,000 in February. (Because the commission has only a few months of data, it was not possible to tell the significance of the change from month to month or whether it was part of a seasonal pattern.)

Last month riders paid with a credit card for one out of every five trips. A year ago, only six percent of trips were paid for with plastic.

“Industries all across the city and across the land are losing revenue, and we’re showing signs of hope,” Mr. Daus said. “Taxi drivers have had a relatively consistent ride so far.”

Cabbies, however, were adamant in disputing the commission’s claim that business has remained steady.

Bhairavi Desai, the head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a drivers’ group, said the recession had pushed more people to drive cabs. As a result, she said, at any given time there are more taxis on the road than a year ago and, while the total number of fares may be fairly constant, each driver ends up with a smaller piece of the pie.

And she criticized the credit card system — which many drivers opposed — because drivers must give up five percent of each transaction in a processing fee.

Most drivers interviewed on Tuesday said they had seen a drop in business.

“It can’t be possible,” Mohamed Hillman, 45, who has been driving a yellow cab for four years, said of the commission’s numbers. He said that a year ago he usually carried 35 fares a day while spending 10 hours behind the wheel. Now, he said, he carries about 27 fares during the same time. And he said trips were often shorter than before.

Syed Shah, 60, a driver for 15 years, said he used to take home $150 a day after expenses. Now, he said, he takes home $90. He said he sees many more people sharing cab rides. Where he used to take one person to work in the morning, now four get in his cab to ride together. A year ago, those might have been four separate cab rides.

The data also gives other insights into the life and work of cab drivers.

On average, drivers work about nine and a half hours a day, the commission said. That covers the time from a driver’s first pickup to the last drop-off.

That is in contrast to what many cabbies have long told officials: that they often work 11 or 12 hours a day.

The data also shows that the greatest number of cabs are on the road at about 7 p.m. At that time on an average day in February, about 10,000 cabs were cruising the streets. At noon, an average of 8,700 cabs were on the road. The fewest cabs were available at 5 a.m., when about 2,600 cabs were out.

Mr. Daus said there were more than 47,000 people licensed to drive taxicabs, a record number. Commission staffers said that in recent years the number of licensed cabbies had generally been between 37,000 and 40,000. But Mr. Daus said that drivers’ wages appear to have remained steady at $14 to $16 an hour after expenses.

The data shows that at least in the last three months, there has been some earnings consistency. The average cab took in $32.11 (not counting cash tips) from 6 to 7 p.m. in February. In December the average for that time period was $31, and in January it was $30.96.
source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/nyregion/25taxis.html?ref=nyregion