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Hizzoner’s Relationship Not Private Affair by JIM DWYER

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, May 07, 2000

Last fall, a Daily News reporter wondered why the mayor had vanished most summer weekends. For years, the mayor made public appearances on Saturdays or Sundays all summer long, so reporter Michael O. Allen asked the mayor’s press office about his schedule.

Because the answers were vague, Allen asked for the mayor’s public calendars.

File a freedom-of-information request, the reporter was told — a classic stalling tactic, but Allen sent in the paperwork.

A few weeks later, he got a call from the press office. Withdraw your official request, and we’ll tell you what you want to know.

Yes, the mayor had cut way back on his weekends.

How come? Speak to deputy mayor so-and-so, the press office told Allen, and he’ll give you what you need.

The deputy mayor said the mayor was taking more private time on weekends to be with his son.

“He’s also got a new love in his life,” the deputy mayor said. He gave a long, theatrical pause.

“It’s called golf.”

We now know the mayor has developed a very close relationship with a woman who is not his wife. He brought her to the party for the New York City Marathon and to be with him on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

And he apparently stayed at the friend’s beach home in the Hamptons many weekends last summer.

Nothing here calls for Kenneth Starr and a grand jury investigation. While Bill Clinton lied about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky and confessed to being ashamed of himself, the mayor has all but boasted about his involvement with his friend Judi Nathan. She was posing for pictures all week.

Still, anyone who files Giuliani’s nonmarital relationship under the category “purely private” is hallucinating.

When three or four New York City Police detectives have the job of chauffeuring the mayor to liaisons in the Hamptons with his friend, the public life meets the private around the Douglaston exits of the Long Island Expressway. From the city line to Nathan’s condominium in Southampton, it is 75 miles.

“There’d be one or two city Town Cars in the parking lot all weekend,” said a Southampton neighbor of Nathan’s. “These big guys would be in the cars, with the motors running when you went to bed at night, and they’d be there in the morning. There were always at least two, sometimes three or four.”

Not so long ago, a New York City mayor got in trouble for sending city detectives to Long Island. In 1991, when David Dinkins dispatched two detectives to investigate a fire at the home of a friend, Giuliani clucked disapprovingly: “This poor guy gets into trouble every day.”

Last week, I asked the Police Department how much it cost the public to have the current mayor delivered by a police taxi service to his woman friend in Long Island. I wanted to know if helicopters had been used, hotels booked, food paid for, and if there had been any repayment by the mayor for these expenses.

“We never give out details of security,” Police Chief Thomas Fahey said Friday.

“Not details of security,” I said. “This is a request for costs.”

“Then you’ll be able to see which guy made the most overtime and figure out who spent the most time with him,” said Fahey.

“Give the cost information without the names,” I proposed.

“FOIL it,” he said.

“FOIL it” means file a freedom of information request. It would do no good, Fahey assured me, but I should file it anyway.

We argued some more, and then he said to put the questions in writing. I did. Late in the day, his office called back: “The chief wanted me to tell you that our statement is, ‘We’re not responding.'”

Later on, Fahey revised his official answer: “We don’t discuss security.” Of course, some of this is security, and some of it is a taxi service provided to the mayor.

Since the city has chosen to stonewall, we are free to analyze it ourselves. It is fair to say that the cost to the public of the mayor’s personal friendship was at least $200,000, much of that having to do with overtime and the need to dedicate so many detectives making $55,000 to $75,000 annually sitting in a Long Island parking lot.

Naturally, the mayor is entitled to protection, wherever he is. So are his wife and family, who continue to live in Gracie Mansion, the official residence supplied by the public. His wife and children also have police protection and chauffeurs, a reasonable precaution.

What about Judith Nathan? Asked by The News’ John Marzulli if she also receives police protection, Commissioner Howard Safir retorted: “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”

Whatever the bright line between public and private life, Giuliani long ago declared that his temperament was a force that would shape the city.

And if he were a senator, he has even declared what the standard of public morality should be. In February, he called for the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms.

“The Ten Commandments is part of our tradition, it’s part of our history,” said Giuliani.

A few weeks later, the mayor and his “very good friend” Judith Nathan marched on St. Patrick’s Day, in a parade where gays are banned for practices seen by the Catholic Church as sinful as, say, adultery.

The wife who shares a public home with the mayor was not in that parade.

May 7, 2000
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‘AMADOU’S ARMY’ HAS NEW RECRUIT IN WINNIE MANDELA By MICHAEL O. ALLEN SUNDAY NEWS STAFF WRITER

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, December 19, 1999

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s efforts to recruit people for “Amadou’s Army” – a group of New Yorkers who will go to Albany for the Amadou Diallo murder trial – got an unexpected boost yesterday from Winnie Mandela.
Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist and former wife of Nelson Mandela, arrived at Sharpton’s Harlem headquarters unannounced to support the effort.
“It’s wonderful that, as we stand here and fight for a child from Africa, Amadou Diallo, the queen from Africa and everywhere else would make a surprise appearance,” Sharpton said.
“Amandla! Amandla!,” Mandela, her right fist up in the air, said, chanting the Zulu word for power and a rallying cry of the anti-apartheid movement.
“In South Africa, they used the police to carry out their racist laws, but out of that was born a progressive police movement,” Mandela said. “They did exactly what you are doing here.”
The gathering was for Sharpton’s weekly radio show, at the end of which about 200 people attending were asked to sign up to attend the trial at its new venue in Albany.
State appeals court judges stunned the city Thursday when they moved the trial to Albany from the Bronx, ruling that the four cops charged in the Feb. 4 killing of Diallo could not get a fair trial by jury in the Bronx.
Saikou Diallo, Amadou’s father, said his son’s rights would be diminished by the trial being moved to Albany and called for the federal government to take over the case.
Sharpton said the signup would mobilize the same multiracial group that protested in front of city Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan in the shooting’s aftermath.
“If the cops involved in the shooting think they’ve gotten away with something by having the case moved to Albany, they should check out Justin Volpe’s new address,” Sharpton said, calling for a rally Tuesday to urge prosecutors in the case to seek federal intervention.

December 19, 1999
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Art of controversy: New ‘Sensation’ sparks throngs of protesters By Michael O. Allen, Michael R. Blood and Dave Goldiner, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, October 3, 1999

NEW YORK — The controversial “Sensation” exhibit opened Saturday amid heated protests outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art — and a massive show of support from art lovers.
Nearly 1,000 mostly Catholic protesters prayed, clutched rosary beads and held signs denouncing the exhibit, which includes a portrait titled “The Holy Virgin Mary” decorated with elephant dung.
“Enough is enough; We draw the line here,” shouted Desiree Bernstein, a member of an evangelical church on Staten Island. “This is not art to me. This is an abomination.”
But block-long lines also snaked outside the museum as a near-record number of supporters waited to see the explosive show.
Museum officials opened the doors early to accommodate a massive crush of visitors — many of whom passionately defended the museum’s right to have the exhibit.
“I don’t feel it’s offensive at all,” said Julie Durkin, 21, a student at Parsons School of Design. “People just need to be open-minded.”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who started the controversy over the show when he denounced it 10 days ago, was nowhere to be seen.
Aides said the mayor — who slashed city funding and plans to sue to evict the century-old museum — did not plan to comment on the opening.
He seemed like the only New Yorker keeping his lips sealed Saturday, as protesters of all stripes created a near-carnival atmosphere outside the stately museum on Eastern Parkway.
Conservative politicians blasted the exhibit as a “hate crime.” Catholic activists handed out anti-exhibit vomit bags, and a nun held a sign reading, “Defend your Holy Mother against this porno.”
They were joined in an unlikely alliance by animal rights activists, who object to several works in the exhibit that include dead animals.
“There’s a fundamental difference between free expression and art that causes harm to living beings,” said Adam Weissman of the Animal Defense League.
On the other side of the trenches in the budding cultural war, a potpourri of artists and First Amendment advocates also rallied behind a separate set of police barricades.
Gary Schwartz, executive director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, handed out leaflets reading, “Hey, Rudy, I’m a taxpayer too.”
“The purpose of art is to challenge,” Schwartz said. “Whether it offends some people shouldn’t determine whether other people can see a painting.”
One artist dressed in a Grim Reaper costume to dramatize Giuliani’s supposed antipathy toward the arts. Others held signs of the mayor’s face splattered with dung.
Despite the tension, the protests were peaceful, with police reporting only a few shouting matches. One veteran anti-Giuliani protester, Robert Lederman, was arrested when he refused to stay behind the barricades, police said.
Police said there was a bomb threat at the building earlier.

SHOWING: Betsy Feliciano, above left, carries a picture of the Virgin Mary during a protest Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Viewers, left, examine Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary” during opening day of the British exhibit.
MUSEUM SHOWING: John Dixon looks at “Angel” a silicone and acrylic sculpture by artist Ron Mueck during the opening day of the controversial British “Sensation” exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York on Saturday. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani opposes the show.null

October 3, 1999
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After 27 years, man retires from job as keeper of Lady Liberty’s flame By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsOne Comment

Sunday, September 26, 1999

Over the years, Charlie DeLeo figures, he must have climbed the iron girders through the upraised arm of the Statue of Liberty to the torch more than 2,500 times.

“I knew it was time to leave because my legs gave out,” he conceded one day last week.

Thursday was DeLeo’s final day on the job changing Lady Liberty’s 750 light bulbs, a job he did for more than 27 remarkable–and much-chronicled–years.

For the occasion, friends and co-workers held a long sendoff picnic for him. Perched on his head was an off-white baseball cap they gave him. Embroidered on it were the words “Keeper of the Flame.”

“I had butterflies in my stomach, because, you know, I’ve spend most of my life working at the Statue of Liberty,” he said of his last day on the job.

Reminiscing with his co-workers, DeLeo recalled that Americans had just walked on the moon for the first time and were still dying in Vietnam when he began his life’s work.

His love affair with the Statue of Liberty began when he was 9 years old. His fourth-grade class from Public School 42 on the lower East Side made a trip to the island in 1957.

He visited again in 1968. This time he was a Marine, bedecked in ribbons, including a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound he got during a mortar attack on his unit in Vietnam.

DeLeo remembers muttering under his breath as he stood before Lady Liberty, “Man, I’d give my right arm to get up to that torch one time.”

“Little did I know God would hear my prayer, and that four years later I would become the keeper of the flame.”

On impulse, during a visit in January 1972, DeLeo, who was unemployed at the time, decided to ask for a job. Three months later, he started work.

Through the years, there have been countless stories in newspapers and on television about DeLeo and his work.

“Spencer Christian once interviewed me for ‘Good Morning America,’ and he said, ‘Charlie’s job is not for the fainthearted,’ They showed me doing my thing, and then he called me Spider-Man, and I am like Spider-Man,” DeLeo said.

Though DeLeo stands little more than 5-feet-5 and weighs not a wisp over 140 pounds, “pound for pound, I’m a crackerjack,” he said.

DeLeo has devoted so much of his life to his work, there were some things he never got around to. He never married, for instance.

“I certainly don’t worship the statue, but I talk to her,” he said. “Ever since my mother died of cancer in 1974, Lady Liberty has been like a mother figure to me.”

FLEET 2 (KRT122 Vert C, 5-20-98) A U.S. Navy helicopter from Light Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 94 (HSL 94) flies by the Statue of Liberty Wednesday during the opening ceremonies of Fleet Week ’98 in New York City.

(c) 1999, New York Daily News.

September 26, 1999
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KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY No One Likes To Think About Dying, But Estate Planning Is Your Most Important Financial Obligation By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, April 25, 1999

It wasn’t long ago that Gerald and Toby Sindler thought estate planning – setting up trusts so heirs are not hard hit by inheritance taxes – was something that only the wealthy needed to worry about.

“And we do not consider ourselves to be wealthy,” said Gerald, who owns Career Objectives, a Mt. Kisco, N.Y., personnel agency, with his wife.

But a brief course in financial planning opened their eyes.

“Even with modest assets, you’ll be surprised how quickly things mount up,” he said, “what with the house and life insurance, in addition to anything that we’ve managed to accumulate over the years.”

Gerald Sindler is now 59 years old. His wife is 56. The Westchester home they bought for $ 65,000 27 years ago, and now own outright, is now worth at least $ 450,000. And that’s just the beginning. So one day about a year ago they made an appointment with the Ettinger Law Firm, which specializes in trusts, estate and elder law.

What they found out shocked them.

“Our estate was in jeopardy not only from the government and the inequitable tax system, but if one or both of us became chronically ill, the absolute cost of long-term care would virtually eat up any finances we have,” Sindler said. In which case they could also forget about any inheritance they might want to pass on to their two grown children.

Today, with a will, revocable trusts that allow the couple to split their assets in equal halves (by law, each is allowed to protect up to $ 650,000 from inheritance tax), and a long-term health-care insurance policy, they are breathing a little easier.

The Sindlers are not alone.

A generation ago, planning your estate and writing a will was easily put off until much later in life. But changes in tax laws – and in the way Americans accumulate money and plan their retirement funds – have estate lawyers and financial advisers saying that everyone, no matter the size of their estate, should work out a financial plan and write a will.

A DREADED TASK

But estate planning is not something most people do easily.

Whether it is the misconception that they do not have enough assets to merit a proper will, or the too- common belief that they are invincible, many people put off dealing with it until “later.” Someone else will handle it, they say to themselves.

The main reason is fear. “This is always a hard conversation to have with clients because most people are not eager to talk about their own mortality,” said Betsy Dillard, an American Express financial adviser based in Manhattan.

“I feel obligated to have that discussion with my clients because wealth preservation is a critical element of financial planning,” she continued. “Think about it, you save and you save and you save throughout your life. Ultimately, it all comes down to who are you saving for.”

David Dorfman, a Manhattan estate lawyer, said one of the main advantages of estate planning is that it can help you stay out of probate court, or avoid costly guardianship hearings if the surviving spouse – or other heirs – should become seriously ill.

“If you don’t have a will, the court will appoint a public administrator to administer the estate and then the family will be paying unnecessary lawyer fees and other fees to strangers,” he said.

Most people want someone they love, or a charity or organization of their own choosing, to inherit that money, no matter how large or small the amount.

AFTER DEATH, TAXES

Another compelling reason to put your finances in order, according to Arden Down, Chase Manhattan Bank’s director of financial planning services, is the ravenous federal tax system, which imperils unprotected estates.

All a person’s assets at the time of death – cars, houses, jewelry, 401(k) and other retirement accounts, life insurance policies, savings and personal investment accounts – are counted as part of the gross estate and may be subject to taxes at a rate of 37% to 55%, regardless of the fact that taxes may have already been paid on many of these items, in one form or another.

“Isn’t that a dirty trick?” Down said. “If I’m aware of what’s going on from the other side of the grave, I’m now pissed off. I can’t take it with me, but I don’t like what’s happening to it either.”

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 gradually increases the size of an estate that is exempt from federal estate taxes. This year’s limit is $ 650,000, and it is supposed to be raised to $ 1 million by the year 2006. The value of the estate above that amount at the time of a person’s death is subject to inheritance tax.

This has nothing to do with me, you say. I don’t have a million dollars to leave to my family, I don’t even have $ 650,000. Think again, says Michael Ettinger, head of the law firm the Sindlers are using. The strong economy is transforming households in the Northeast Corridor, especially those of the so-called baby boomers, and their attitude toward wealth preservation. And the effects of the long-running Wall Street bull market on the New York region, and in particular on real estate values, find even modest wage-earning homeowners with a net worth beyond $ 1 million.

And even those with assets well below the million-dollar mark need to think about their future, said Sandra Busell, a Nassau County estate attorney with clients in Brooklyn and Queens. An estate that consists of a house worth $ 200,000 and another $ 100,000 in various savings accounts needs estate planning too, she said.

A TAX-FREE GIFT

One of the ways to reduce the size of an estate – and any potential tax liability – is for both spouses to give each of their children an annual tax-free gift of up to $ 10,000.

The experts say it is better to act sooner, rather than later. Consult a financial adviser and a lawyer when drafting your estate plan – each has a valuable role to play.

Taking these steps was how Gerald Sindler and his wife discovered their financial house was not in order.

“Not only did we have to worry about some distant future time,” he said, “it brought it into the very real present for us.”

GRAPHIC: timothy cook illustration

April 25, 1999
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3 Who Died In ’94 SoHo Fire Remembered By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 11, 1999

As the skirl of bagpipes filled the air, scores of firefighters milled about a Manhattan church yesterday, reliving a tragic event the pain of which has not diminished five years later.

It has been a half-decade since three firefighters were killed in a March 28, 1994, fire on Watts St. in SoHo; Firefighter James Young died almost immediately after the blaze, and Firefighter Christopher Siedenburg died a day later.

Capt. John Drennan hung on 40 days before finally succumbing, his heroic battle to survive memorialized at a funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Yesterday, the three members of Engine Co. 24 and Ladder Co. 5 were remembered at a Mass at St. Anthony’s of Padua Church, two blocks from their firehouse.

“These were great guys, and hopefully they’ll continue to be remembered,” said Capt. Pat Ruddick, who was a lieutenant under Drennan until he became a captain three days before the fire. “I know, for myself, that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about them. Even now.”

For the families, the years have not made their loss easier to take.

Eddie Young, 38, said he was gratified at all the people who came to pay their respects to his brother James and his fallen comrades.

“We miss him too much,” said Young, holding his 3-year-old son James. “I guess being here today makes you remember that he’s not here anymore.”

“I’m proud that we named him after my brother,” Young added. “My brother is a great man, and we’ll always have my son to remind us of him.”

Bob Drennan, 47, said he was consoled by the priest’s words that his brother was in Heaven.

As hard as it was for him to deal with losing his brother, he felt just as keenly the deaths of Siedenburg and Young, Drennan said.

“They were so young, just starting out, really,” he said.

His brother, he said, packed so much into his life it seemed he lived two and half lives.

As a reception began in the church basement after the Mass, scores of firefighters ran out to answer an emergency call.

“You can’t think about the tragedies,” Ruddick said. “If you go out with this constantly in your mind, it’s going to hinder your ability to work. We just come to work and do our job everyday.”

April 11, 1999
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QUICK CASH STRATEGIES Where to Go When You Need Money in a Hurry By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 11, 1999

The man sitting before Clifford Jones had come to him several times before, to bury loved ones. But this time, the man wanted a loan. He needed $ 2,800 to fix the transmission on the car he depended on to get to and from work.

“You know I’m good for it, too,” the man told James, a co-owner of Harlem’s Unity Funeral Chapel.

“How could you turn down someone who trusted you with their loved ones?” James asked. And so he not only arranged for the man to get the loan, but to pay it back over six months without interest.

This is a bit unusual, of course, and not something many people could arrange – but it demonstrates one of the many solutions that could help someone in a sudden financial bind that requires a quick infusion of cash.

Swallow your pride

Whatever is driving your money needs, it’s smart to recognize that no choice is easy, and all likely have both advantages and disadvantages. The range of options run from very good and advisable to pretty awful.

You could certainly seek out your funeral director or pastor, sell jewelry or a family heirloom, get a cash advance on your credit card, even borrow from your employer or against your retirement accounts. But it’s never wise to drop in on your neighborhood loan shark.

That person, said Erroll Louis, a business consultant who was co-founder and former manager of a Brooklyn credit union, is no longer the trench-coat clad thug with a broken nose.

She just might be the kindly old lady down the block who’ll give you the loan – but with not enough time to pay it off and at 150% interest – with friends to enforce the terms.

“The first thing to do is not jump off a cliff, or dig a deeper hole in order to get out of the one you are in,” Louis said. “The idea is to get creative quickly and realize the first option is not always the best.”

The only ways to raise cash quickly is either to borrow or sell something with hard cash value.

Louis said he advises those in need to swallow their pride and call a friend or family member. They might just have enough to spare for a while, or know someone who does, without the onerous conditions that other options come with.

But be aware that owing money to someone you know can quickly put a strain on that relationship. You should weigh that cost before making your request.

Sell your jewels, not your wheels

If a person has a family heirloom or valuable jewelry he or she is willing to part with, it could be sold to one of the many high-end jewelry resalers in New York City.

Paul Lubetsky, owner of Windsow Jewelers on Fifth Avenue, said furniture, clothing or electronics equipment probably won’t fetch much of a return because that type of merchandise has only about a 5% resale value.

You could sell your car, but you probably need it to get around, making jewelry a better option to get your hands on quick dough.

“For example, a Rolex watch that’s in good condition could be worth 40% to 50% of its retail value to us,” Lubetsky said. “If a piece is signed, like Cartier, Tiffany or Bulgari, we would purchase it at a large percentage above its intrinsic value because there is a high demand in the second-hand market.Also, anything that’s antique would go for a large amount above its intrinsic value, sometimes as much as 20 times.”

Another option is to go to a pawn broker, an industry that has been working overtime to clean up its image and, in recent years, has come under tighter state regulations.

Alan Wohlgemuth, manager of Century Pawnbrokers at 725 Eighth Ave., said state law bars his store from buying merchandise. He could only take the item people bring in as collateral for a loan, for which he can only charge 3%, plus a small monthly storage fee.

One advantage in this type of transaction is that there is usually no credit check.

“Usually you leave a diamond or some other jewelry and walk out of the store with the cash and ticket that is good for four months,” Wohlgemuth said.

Hidden costs of quick loans

“Borrower beware” should be the guiding principle of someone who wants to look into a home equity loan, refinancing or a second mortgage on a property, said Sarah Ludwig, executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project – which works with groups in neighborhoods underserved by the city’s largest financial institutions.

The problem with going to a commercial lender like the Money Store, or answering any of the mailings that tend to flood some communities, as she sees it, is that there are a lot of hidden fees that could drive up the cost of borrowing and make one’s financial situation even worse.

“What people don’t understand is that there are tons of fees upfront and during the life of the loan. If you are going to refinance to get a small loan, do your homework,” Ludwig said.

The cost of taking this step without being aware of the responsibilities is great, since a home is often the single greatest asset anyone has. Mess up and you could end up homeless and in greater debt than you started with.

One of the quickest ways to free up cash is to get an advance from your credit card, said Paul Quinn, a Chase Manhattan Bank senior vice president for personal credit services. The cash comes quickly, sometimes in just a few moments at an automated teller machine. But the interest rates can be sky-high. Also, something to keep in mind: credit card companies exist to keep you in debt.

“If it is a longer-term need, you need to think about an installment loan that you could take 12 to 60 months to pay back,” Quinn said.

And the annual interest rate on this transaction could range from 10.99%, if you already have an account with Chase and are willing to let the bank deduct the payment directly from your account, to 12.99% if you have good credit but no relationship with the bank.

Of course, many credit cards charge north of 20%, so know the terms before you’re obligating yourself to heavy duty interest payments.

Quinn said, however, that a credit union would offer rates on a personal loan that are very competitive with those of banks.

Some people might chose to borrow from a retirement account such as an IRA or 401(k) plan. There are some rules that must be met to qualify, but the one significant advantage is that the interest that you pay back on such a loan typically goes into your own account – meaning you’re paying the interest back to yourself.

“Those type of borrowings are excellent for someone looking to pay off a credit card debt,” Quinn said.

But such gambits scare Erroll Louis, the former credit union manager.

“To me, this is almost the same as selling off your future,” he said. “You may in fact be delaying your retirement by as long as five years.”

GRAPHIC: Christoph Hitz illustrations

April 11, 1999
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U.S. Serbs Saddened and Angry By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 04, 1999

Lana Todorovich was on the phone to Belgrade with an urgent message for her parents: “Get out. Now.”

In the early hours of March 24, U.S. NATO warplanes bearing bombs were on their way to Yugoslavia.

Milan and Yela Simic, 62 and 57 years old, heeded their daughter’s warning. They made the hair-raising journey through the city of Novi Sad, northwest of Belgrade, as the first bombs began to fall.

“They saw bombs and rockets fall on Novi Sad, everywhere just fire and destruction and fear and disbelief,” said Todorovich, a fashion executive from Westchester.

They traveled first to Budapest under cover of darkness, then took a flight on CFA Czech Airlines to The Hague, Netherlands. The paradox of this war and their flight from it: The United States was their ultimate haven from the fighting.

“So the very country that was bombing them,” Todorovich said, “was also their way out of this terrible situation.”

That ambiguous dynamic in which the pain of U.S. attacks was felt along with the comfort of sanctuary in America has played out with many Serb immigrants in the last two weeks.

They love America, they say, but they hate what American-led NATO forces are doing to them.

More than 2 million Serb immigrants live in the U.S., predominantly in Midwestern cities, such as Chicago and Cleveland. In the greater New York area, some 50,000 Serbs live in Paterson and Elizabeth, N.J., and in Astoria, Queens.

Many express disbelief at what they see as the unfairness and injustice of the NATO attack on their homeland. Todorovich, 33 and the mother of a 6-year-old girl, arrived in the U.S. about 10 years ago and is an American citizen. She said the bombing campaign left her disillusioned, frustrated and angry.

“I just believed that we would do the right thing, and we didn’t.” she said. “It is a violation of my American sense of morality, to go ahead and commit aggression, provoke death and atrocities in the name of protecting people from the very same thing,”

Todorovich is not alone in feeling betrayed by U.S. actions in the Balkans. Serbs interviewed in the city said they blame President Clinton, not the American people, who they do not believe support the assault on their nation.

They scoff, however, at the notion that the U.S. quarrel is with Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, not with the Serb people. In protests across the city and all over the world, Serbs have taken to wearing bull’s-eyes on their shirt fronts and backs, suggesting they are also targets of the bombs.

George Bogdanich, 50, of the upper East Side, decried what he sees as President Clinton’s bungling of the conflict.

“These obnoxious references to Hitler and Nazis and so on Clinton ought to be aware that Serbs provided the first resistance to Hitler on the mainland of Europe during World War II,” Bogdanich said.

Americans just don’t understand what is at stake in Kosovo, he said. For Serbs to give in to the Kosovo Liberation Army, many said, is tantamount to a violent separatist movement wanting to secede from Texas and Russia or China saying, “Give them what they want or we’ll bomb you.”

“It’s just a sad situation,” Bogdanich said. “But Clinton does nothing but create ill will and bad policies by demonizing Serbs.”

By bombing and threatening Serb sovereignty, he said, Clinton and NATO did for Milosevic what the Serb strongman had not been able to do for himself: wipe out opposition to him in his own country.

Bogdanich bristled at reports of fresh Serb atrocities against Kosovo Albanians since the NATO bombing began. He insisted there is no evidence of such incidents.

Like many other Serbs, he blamed the reports on a biased Western media that have taken complex issues and created a simplified picture of good and evil.

“As a result of the selective press coverage, Serbs have been demonized,” Bogdanich said.

The media, Serbian-Americans argued, tagged the Serb people as genocidal for the killing of 200,000 Bosnian Muslims. But they fail to report that many Serbs have suffered ethnic cleansing at the hands of other warring Balkan ethnic groups, they said. They cited, correctly, the 190,000 Croatian Serbs routed from their homes in 1995 by Croat soldiers being advised by retired U.S. generals under the cover of NATO air strikes.

Mark Milich, 46, a third-generation Serbian-American who lives in Port Washington, L.I., said Clinton’s arrogance was responsible for a debacle.

“Our action is not the way to free people from oppression. America, the land of the free, is now responsible for driving these people deeper into their oppression,” Milich said.

“These are the days of infamy,” said Tatjana, 32, of Bernardsville, N.J., an economist for a telecommunications company who did not want her full name used. “I just don’t believe Tomahawks [cruise missiles] can bring peace.”

Todorovich’s parents are happy to be alive. But their worldly possessions have been reduced to the two suitcases they hurriedly packed when they left Belgrade.

“My parents are just recuperating now,” she said, “trying to get over the fear, the treacherous ride through bombs, through the furnace.”

GRAPHIC: CLARENCE DAVIS DAILY NEWS RALLY: Pro-Serb protesters sporting bull’s-eye look popular in Yugoslavia march outside Grand Central Terminal last week.

April 4, 1999
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’60 batboy sees it again through 14-year-old’s eyes By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSaturday, October 17, 1998

NEW YORK–As ace Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera punched out the final Cleveland batter last week, tears welled up in Fred Bengis’ eyes.
“Are you OK?” Terry, his wife, asked.
“I’m just happy,” he said.
And as Yankees jumped in joy, an image of James D’Angelo, the 14-year-old honorary bat boy during the league championship series against Cleveland, flitted across their television set, and Terry turned to her husband:
“If you could say anything to that kid right now, what would you tell him?”
Bengis didn’t hesitate.
“I would tell him, ‘Kid, this is the very best time of your life. You should really take it all in and enjoy it.”‘
Bengis should know. His entry into the Yankee family began as a 14-year-old bat boy with the legendary Yankee team of 1960. He would stay through the ’61 and ’62 World Series-winning teams.
“The years that I was with the Yankees were, beside being with my family, the most exciting years of my entire life,” Bengis said.
He is 54 years old now, a resident of Yorktown Heights in Westchester County and a national accounts manager for a Maryland-based microbrewery. But those teenage days are as vivid today as when he worked with Yankee greats like Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Tony Kubek.
The pinstripes, he said, feel like part of his skin, and putting on the uniform today still brings back memories of the first time as a 14-year-old.
Bengis grew up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, on Morris Ave. about 10 blocks away, and idolized Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth. So, when Lou Zaklin, a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, opened Lou’s Sports Store on 170th St. and Grand Concourse Bengis started frequenting the store. Pretty soon, he got a job as a stock boy.
Zaklin found out from his friend Pete Sheehy, the long-time Yankees clubhouse man, that the Yankees needed a bat boy during the 1960 season. He sent young Bengis along for an interview.
“It was unbelievable,” Bengis said. “When he told me he was going to hire me, I started to cry. My father had tears in his eyes.”
Headier days were to come: Being tongue-tied on first meeting Mickey Mantle; traveling on the road with the team, and becoming a celebrity in his own right. He appeared on television shows and was profiled in Sports Illustrated.
The best part was befriending Maris, he said.
“I just had a lot of fun with him, and I respected him very very much,” Bengis said. “I liked the idea that he was a major-league ballplayer, but he was a down-to-earth, real nice human being who had deep feelings for people. He appreciated my nervousness, and he helped me.”
(c) 1998, New York Daily News.

October 17, 1998
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A MALEVOLENT HULK Sunken ship continues to claim lives By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullWednesday, August 26, 1998

NEW YORK–On a foggy July night in 1956, 52 people died when the cruise ship Stockholm rammed the luxury liner Andrea Doria off Nantucket Island.

But 42 years later, even as the Andrea Doria lies a rusting hulk 240 feet under the Atlantic Ocean, its appetite for blood has not been quelled.

From 1981 through last year, seven divers had lost their lives in search of sport or riches rumored to be beneath the ship’s collapsed deck. Since June 28, three more have died in the dark and deep waters of the North Atlantic.

For divers, the Andrea Doria holds an almost mystical allure.

But it is sinking deeper into the seabed, and its insides are rotted out, with webs of cables everywhere that often snare divers. They risk being blinded by silt stirred by their own motions. And the ocean itself is subject to capricious changes.

Craig Sicola of Surf City, N.J., died June 28 after suffering decompression illness while exploring the wreck.

The body of Richard Roost was discovered July 9, floating face-down in the mud inside the ship’s first-class bar and lounge area. Like Sicola, Roost, 46, of Ann Arbor, Mich., was an experienced diver.

Vincent Napoliello, a 32-year-old stockbroker who lived in Brooklyn, was the latest of Andrea Doria’s victims.

Napoliello was a careful man, those who knew him said. He came home to his apartment one day to find his fiance, Marisa Gengaro, sitting on the sofa wearing a helmet.

“Marisa, what are you doing?” the puzzled Napoliello asked.

“Well, Vincent, accidents do happen in the home, you know,” Gengaro jokingly replied.

“I was making fun of him because he was just so careful about everything,” she said.

By all accounts, Napoliello took that care to his sport, where he was recognized not only as a top-notch diver, but also as a conservative, well-prepared wreck explorer.

William Cleary, a 37-year-old lawyer from Hackensack, N.J., who had been Napoliello’s dive partner for several years, said Napoliello always told everyone not to take foolish chances.

Napoliello’s message was simple: If you run into trouble, leave. You can always go back.

“Vincent had been there for me inside shipwrecks, on a few occasions saving my life,” Cleary said, “including on the day that he died–on the dive prior. He freed me from an entanglement.”

Built at a cost of $ 30 million shortly after World War II and called the Grand Dame of the Sea, the 700-foot, 11-story Andrea Doria was a virtual floating museum of murals, rare wooden panels, and ceramics and mirrors commissioned by its owner, the Italian Line.

Designed with 22 watertight compartments, it was advertised as unsinkable.

It was en route to New York City on the night of July 25, 1956, from Genoa, Italy, with more than 1,600 people aboard when it was broadsided by the smaller Stockholm, whose 750 passengers and crew were bound for Sweden.

It took the Andrea Doria 11 hours to sink, plenty of time for valuables to be removed. But that has not stopped rumors of treasures being locked in her compartments or strewn on the ocean floor.

And a purser’s safe, where passengers kept jewelry and other valuables, is one of 16 still believed to be in the wreck 46 miles off Nantucket.

The most famous explorer of the Andrea Doria was department store heir Peter Gimbel.

In 1981, Gimbel brought up a Bank of Italy safe from the wreck. It contained only soggy paper currency.

His quest for the safe nearly killed Gimbel. He was brought up unconscious, suffering from oxygen poisoning, on his first dive that year. Afterward, he declared that the wreck had a “malevolent spirit.”

The ship’s reputation doesn’t deter several hundred technical divers–those trained to go below 130 feet–from exploring the wreck each summer. About a dozen charter vessels ferry divers from late June to early August.

Napoliello was one of them.

On his first trip of the season, in late June, he and other divers discovered a china closet full of cups, saucers, bowls and pitchers, all bearing the Italian Line logo in gold leaf.

Napoliello returned a week later, on the Fourth of July weekend, and salvaged more artifacts.

On Aug.3, Napoliello was among 12 passengers and three crew members aboard The Seeker, the most active of the Andrea Doria dive vessels, as it departed Montauk Harbor on Long Island.

Anticipating success on this last trip of the season, Napoliello brought cigars and Scotch. The boat reached the site about 8 a.m. the next day, and about an hour later, Napoliello and Cleary made their first dive.

Later in the day, Napoliello dove without Cleary, who was exploring another deck on the ship. Instead, he went down with a man making his first trip to the Doria.

Cleary said Napoliello went into the foyer deck through an opening known as Gimbel’s Hole, down to a depth of about 210 feet, then swam toward the back of the ship to the china closet.

According to Cleary, Napoliello had been breathing the necessary pressurized gas mixtures out of just one side of his double tanks, instead of both. A valve that regulated breathing from both sides somehow had shut off, Cleary said.

So Napoliello thought he was running out of air. He motioned to his partner that he was going up, Cleary said. But instead of using the anchor line on which the Seeker was moored to the wreck, Napoliello swam toward the anchor line for another dive boat, the Sea Inn, a move that has puzzled his colleagues, because Napoliello had not made other mistakes that disoriented or panicked divers make.

At that point, Napoliello had been in the ship for about 17 minutes. Instead of ascending slowly, taking about an hour and breathing gas mixtures with more oxygen to expel the helium and nitrogen from his system, he surfaced in three minutes.

Cleary said Napoliello must have passed out outside the hull of the Andrea Doria, and his lungs ruptured as he floated to the surface.

He had no vital signs when he was pulled aboard the Sea Inn. The Coast Guard was called and helicoptered him to Cape Cod Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Medical examiners are still waiting for results of tests to determine what killed him.

Cleary said it would be an insult to Napoliello for him to stop diving.

“I could picture him saying, ‘I’m dead now, and you are not going to do this anymore?”‘

August 26, 1998
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