OUR CITY, YOUR PAPER
No one covers the city like the Daily News. For more than 100 years, New York’s Hometown Newspaper has been your eyes and ears — and your voice. Do you have a story you think we should tell? Call us at (212) 210-NEWS or email us at news@ nydailynews.com. This is your paper, and we are committed to covering the issues that matter to you. Here are some of our top stories from the past week:
Crowded cafeteria: Ignoring school COVID-19 safety guidance, lunch was served in the cafeteria at the Connie Lekas School for students with complex disabilities in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, The News reported Monday. About 150 adults and students were told by Principal Antoinette Rose to eat lunch in the cafeteria rather than in their individual classrooms, riling staff and the teachers union. Health officials were sent to o test 36 students and 11 18 staffers for the virus s, all of whom were e negative, a Department of Education spokesman said d Wednesday.
COVID clai ims Casso: Notorious m mobster Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso died of COVID-19 behind bars on Tuesday. The 78-year-old Luchese underboss caught the virus at his Arizona federal prison. Prior to his death, lawyers filed a motion for compassionate release, which Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block rejected Nov. 28. Casso (inset) was wa serving 455 years in prison for 11 counts of murder in aid of racketeering.
Queens nurse is first: A nurse in Queens on Monday was the first person in the nation to get an authorized COVID-19 vaccine. Intensive care unit nurse Sandra Lindsay, 52, who got the shot at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, took it in stride. “It didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine,” she said. On Wednesday, physician Veronica “Ronny” Delgado at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens and service aide William Kelly also got their shots. “I hope everybody gets the vaccine. ... It’s good to take it,” Kelly said.
Coronavirus concerns: Workers at a Brooklyn Whole Foods claim the grocery giant isn’t doing what it should to keep them healthy. More than two dozen employees tested positive for COVID-19 at the facility in Gowanus, The News reported exclusively Wednesday. An employee said there had been 16 staff cases since Sept. 10 — the most recent one the week before. “My concern basically is they’re not following the protocol,” the worker told The News. “It’s more about the money than our health. I don’t think that’s fair at all.”