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Friday, December 30, 2022
Vol. 10, No. 52
HEALTH AND WELLNESS GUIDE
EAST SIDE ACCESS DELAYED
COUNTY, PBA REACH AGREEMENT
PAGES 19-22
PAGE 2
PAGE 8
Dems, GOPers blast serial liar Santos Call for probes of congressman-elect BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z
PHOTO BY BRANDON DUFFY
Congressman-elect George Santos announcing victory in November.
Republican Congressman-elect George Santos has received criticism from officials on both sides of the aisle, including Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, for lying about his personal and professional background along with a challenge from the Democrat he beat in the race for Congress in November. Blakeman and newly-elected U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Bay Shore) called for the House Ethics Committee to launch an investigation into Santos’ past riddled with discrepancies as outlined by the New York Times last week. Blakeman told Newsday that
the congressman-elect’s record has now come into question. “I think that he’s entitled to a hearing with the [House] Ethics Committee, and that they should do a thorough investigation to see if he violated any laws or any ethics rules,” Blakeman told Newsday. “I think that we have to let the process unfold, which I think will happen fairly swiftly.” “New Yorkers deserve the truth and House Republicans deserve an opportunity to govern without this distraction,” LaLota, who will represent the state’s 1st Congressional District, told Newsday. Continued on Page 38
Hochul signs first Kyra’s Champion bill BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y The first bill championed by lifelong Manhasset resident Jacqueline Franchetti was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul Friday. The bill is the first of five that Franchetti has pushed for to reach this point. It requires court-ordered forensic evaluations and visitations be done by a licensed psychologist, social worker or psychiatrist who completed
training from the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, among other things. “Our judicial system just got one step closer in protecting children from abusive parents. This is the first of many bills that we need to become law,” Franchetti said in a statement. “This law took a tremendous amount of effort — personal time and effort spent. This is why showing up in Albany and sending emails mean so
much.” Before the bill was signed, child custody evaluators previously had no training on family violence, child abuse and trauma. The law first appeared on Hochul’s desk on Dec. 12 after unanimously passing the state Senate in June. The bill is sponsored by state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time Franchetti first told
him about her tragedy. On July 27, 2016, 2-year-old Kyra’s father shot her twice in the back while she was sleeping at his Fairfax, Va., home on an unsupervised, courtsanctioned visit. He then set the house on fire and shot himself to death. After Kyra was killed, Franchetti founded Kyra’s Champions and the Kyra Franchetti Foundation, whose mission is to protect children in custody cases from being ordered by a
court into the home of an abusive parent. Franchetti’s advocacy has led to multiple bills, including Kyra’s Law, which would makechild safety the top priority in Family Court, increases judicial training on family violence and eliminates the use of forensic evaluators. The bill’s signing comes one year after Hochul released a report from Continued on Page 6
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