Tuesday, April 8th, 2014
Avi Israel remembers everything about the day his 20-year-old son, Michael, killed himself three years ago; from the cocking sound of the shotgun to his desperate struggle to break down the bedroom door, to finding Michael in a pool of blood.
It was Michael’s addiction to prescription painkillers that killed him, Israel said recently. And he blames that addiction on the 20-odd prescriptions from three different doctors treating Michael’s Crohn’s disease.
“When I lost Michael, it was unnecessary,” Israel said. “Michael could’ve lived.”
Israel, 61, and his wife are among the families that pushed for New York’s Internet System for Over-Prescribing Act, or I-STOP, which was signed into law in 2012.
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Thursday, March 20th, 2014
A neat stretch of row houses comes to an abrupt halt at 2247 Walton Ave., in the Bronx, where a boarded-up house warning of rat poison sits beside a fenced-in lot covered in dead grass and garbage. The site has remained empty for several years and has served as an effective backdrop for media events held by Picture the Homeless, an advocacy group headquartered nearby.
Throughout the Bloomberg administration, Picture the Homeless campaigned for the city to turn the thousands of vacant lots and buildings strewn across the boroughs into affordable housing for the city’s growing homeless population.
The group may now have a high-profile ally to champion its cause: Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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Thursday, March 20th, 2014
Rabbits bought as pets are being dumped and left to die in parks and gardens across the city — and animal advocates fear the problem will worsen as Easter approaches.
Animal Care & Control of New York City took in 380 rabbits last year — up from 341 in 2012 and 283 in 2011. That doesn’t count the dozens of homeless bunnies saved by volunteers who say they’re having a hard time keeping up with rabbit rescues.
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