WeHo Halloween Good for Business

A one mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood was shut down Monday night, as part of the traditional West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval celebration.

"Everybody embraces each other," according to visitor Jeremy Willis. "It's like the one time of year that everybody lets their guard down."

This year more than 400 thousand people came to celebrate Halloween, making it one of the busiest nights of the year for businesses in West Hollywood.

"We're going to spend about $400,000 tonight on law enforcement," according to WeHo mayor, John Duran. "We're not going to recoup that in sales taxes. However, many of our businesses are going to do very well tonight. It's like the biggest night of the year for bars, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels right along this stretch.”

"It's really busy once a year, but I think last year is more busy, because it was Sunday," according to Lily Sasa Lin, a West Hollywood business owner.

Paraplegic Passenger Blasts JetBlue’s Snow Response

Jimmy Brown has learned to deal with a good bit of inconvenience.  

Since a diving accident left him paralyzed from the waist down several years ago, the 32-year-old from Staten Island’s Huguenot neighborhood has spent the better part of each day in a wheelchair.  

Before he boards an airplane, he deprives himself of water. Since airliner bathrooms aren’t generally wheelchair accessible, Brown fears having to relieve himself mid-flight.

On Saturday, Brown was aboard JetBlue Flight 405 when the plane was diverted from Newark to Hartford’s Bradley International Airport because a freak October snowstorm pummeling New Jersey.  

After the jet landed, Brown and more than 100 other passengers sat trapped in the cabin for at least eight and a half hours before they were allowed to deplane.

“I flipped out on the plane and used some vulgarity. I made some comments saying how I need to get off the plane. 'This is way too long. I can’t sit here anymore. I have bad circulation,'” Brown told USA LOCAL NEWS.

Brown’s flight was one of 23 jetliners forced to land in Connecticut because the storm forced traffic away from New York City airports.   

As the smaller airport struggled to find resources and accommodate the unexpected planes, Brown says he was left to languish in a stuffy cabin while his wife watched him suffer.

“She saw what her husband went through. 'He can’t get the circulation he needs. He needs other people to get up and then he gets humiliated on a plane. He’s got to pee in his own seat,'" Brown said of his wife. "I mean, this stuff is terrible.”

JetBlue issued the following statement in response to a request for comment by USA LOCAL NEWS:

“Due to a confluence of events, including infrastructure issues in New York/JFK and Newark, JetBlue diverted 17 flights on Saturday. Six of those flights diverted to Hartford. We worked with the airport to secure services, including remote deplaning and lav[atory] servicing.

Obviously, we would have preferred deplaning much sooner than we did, but our flights were six of the 23 reported diversions into Hartford, including international flights. The airport experienced intermittent power outages, which made refueling and jet bridge deplaning difficult.

We have communicated directly with our customers impacted by this confluence of events to apologize as well as provide a full round-trip refund, as it remains JetBlue’s responsibly to not simply provide safe and secure travel, but a comfortable experience as well."

Two days after the tarmac trouble, Brown said he had yet to receive a personal apology from Jet Blue.

"I got a $30 voucher from McDonald’s. That’s about it," Brown said. "So if that’s the thanks they were looking to give they can keep it.”

New Contract for Atlantic City Union?

Beverage servers, room cleaners and other service workers will vote Tuesday on whether to approve a new contract with four Atlantic City casinos.

Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union reached a tentative agreement with Caesars Entertainment last week on a new three-year deal.

Both sides say terms will not be released until after the vote.

The pact would cover Caesars, Bally's, Harrah's and the Showboat.

The casinos had sought steep pay cuts and also wanted workers to contribute for the first time to their health insurance and pension costs.

Results are expected to be tallied around 8 p.m.

Six Shot in D.C. Halloween Violence

Authorities say at least six people were injured in shootings across Washington on Halloween, including a juvenile who was shot in the head in Georgetown.

D.C. police say the boy was shot amid celebrations in the 2800 block of M Street about 11 p.m. Monday. He was hospitalized in grave condition.  Police are preserving the scene for further investigation in the daylight.

Police say a juvenile also was shot on M Street in northeast about 8:30 p.m.

Shortly afterward, officers responded to the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Decatur Street in northwest for a double shooting. Police say a boy was shot in the knee and a woman was shot in the thigh.

Later, a woman was shot in the ankle on Crittenden Street in northwest. A man also was shot in the foot on Southern Avenue in southeast.

ShopRite Dumps, Bleaches Food

A local supermarket says it was forced to get rid of perishable foods, rather than hand them out due to a power loss in the area.

The ShopRite on Island Avenue in SouthWest Philly disposed of at least two dumpsters full of food on Monday.

“When I came in I saw piles and piles of cheese, milk, juices, ice cream, everything was just piled up in different carts and they were actually disposing of it,” said Jason Williams of South Philadelphia.

Byron Daniels and other shoppers ran outside the store while the disposal was taking place.

“Sure enough they were dumping the food out, just shopping carts of it,” said Daniels. “Then when cars showed up that’s when I guess the manager said ‘okay start pouring bleach on it,’ they came out with bleach and started spraying bleach on the food.”

Jeff Brown, the President and CEO of Brown’s Super Stores, released the following statement to NBC 10 explaining the decision:

Today, Monday October 31, 2011, a number of business along Island Avenue lost power due to a malfunction of a transformer, including the ShopRite of Island Avenue. The ShopRite has a backup generator, but it does not operate our refrigerated cases. This resulted in our refrigerated merchandise being out of proper temperature for more than the allowable time frame.

For the safety of our customers, we disposed of all affected merchandise and fresh merchandise will be re-stocked tomorrow morning.

Our mission at Brown’s is to bring joy to the lives of the people we serve, making this action the only appropriate response.

We appreciate our community’s concern.

Regardless, some local residents were still upset by the store’s actions.

“It didn’t look spoiled,” said Angela Thompson, a local shopper. “What really shocked me is they threw bleach all over it, none of it was expired. There was food that was still good, it was shelf-safe, vacuum-sealed food.

“When I was in the supermarket, the cheese was still cold,” said Daniels.  “I had a 10 pound ham, still good, fresh, heavy, nice and cold.”

Management at the store insists that they poured bleach on spoiled food to disinfect trash containers and keep rodents away.

Thompson still wishes some of the items could have been salvaged for a local food pantry or shelter.

“There are people all over the tri-state area that are hungry and they were just throwing bleach all over the food,” she said. “It was just terrible, it was a sad sight to see on this Halloween evening.”

 

October Snow Brings Power Outages, Deaths

More than 100,000 Pennsylvania utility customers remain without power following a rare late-October snow storm that authorities say contributed to at least eight deaths in the state.

Some areas saw more than a foot of heavy, wet snow that brought down tree branches and power lines across a large part of Pennsylvania.

A slew of weekend crashes were attributed to slippery conditions, including collisions that killed six people.

A Berks County man was killed Saturday when a tree fell on his house. Another man is believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning after burning charcoal to keep warm at his home in Lehigh County, where some could be without power until the end of the week.

PPL Corp. reported about 60,000 without power and Met-Ed reported about 57,000 as of early Tuesday. A handful of school districts also closed.

 

Sabathia Inks New Deal With Yankees

For CC Sabathia, there's no better place to pitch than Yankee Stadium.

The big left-hander decided to stay with New York rather than test the free-agent market, agreeing Monday to a new deal that adds $30 million and one season to his existing contract, giving him a package that pays $122 million over the next five years.

"My son loves it here. All my kids love it here. My wife loves it here, obviously, and I do, too. I love pitching for the Yankee fans and everything, so it was the easy choice," Sabathia said during a conference call.

The 31-year-old had until midnight to opt out of his current agreement, which had $92 million remaining over the next four years in $23 million annual salaries.

New York added a $25 million salary for 2016 and gets a $25 million option for 2017 with a $5 million buyout.

"It was just more time. That's all it was. It was never a question about money or anything like that," Sabathia said. "I just want to end my career here. I want to make sure I end my career as a Yankee and, hopefully, I've done that."

Sabathia agreed to a $161 million, seven-year deal with New York before the 2009 season. He has gone 59-23 with a 3.18 ERA during the regular season for the Yankees.

Sabathia headed a staff that included rookie Ivan Nova, injury prone Phil Hughes, inconsistent A.J. Burnett and surprise additions Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon. Without Sabathia, the Yankees' rotation would have been in trouble.

"CC is the ace of our pitching staff, a leader in our clubhouse and a driving force for the Yankees in our community," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in a statement. "He is exactly the type player and person that Yankees fans and this organization can be proud of. We are excited that he will be wearing the pinstripes for many years to come."

When he signed with the Yankees after pitching for Cleveland (2001-08) and Milwaukee (2008), Sabathia moved his family from California, where he grew up in Vallejo, to Alpine, N.J.

He said the key for him was his family "and making sure everything was kosher with them" with living in the New York area. Then he learned what it was like pitching in the $1.5 billion new Yankee Stadium.

"The energy, what you get coming out the bullpen, the fans," he said. "Everything it is it is to be pitching in New York, in the Bronx. It's just so much fun. To be part of this organization is just a dream for me."

Sabathia's option becomes guaranteed if he does not end the 2016 season on the disabled list because of a left shoulder injury, does not spend more than 45 days of 2016 on the DL with a left shoulder injury or does not make six or more relief appearances in 2016 because of shoulder issues.

He retains a hotel suite on trips, a no-trade provision and the right to buy tickets.

Listed by the Yankees as 290 pounds, Sabathia lost weight going into spring training but appeared to gain it back this season. He went 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA but was 0-1 in his last three starts, then didn't get a decision in two postseason starts and allowed a key run in Game 5 against Detroit, when he made his first career relief appearance and New York was eliminated with a 3-2 loss.

He plans on losing weight.

"It's something I do regardless, and be proactive," he said. "I just need to go out and be healthy and try to do what I can to be up there for every start for this team. For me, that means losing weight, so that's what I'll do."