Bronx hypodermic needle robber strikes again

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- A man accused of threatening people with a hypodermic needle has struck again.

Police say he's now struck three times in the Bronx over the last month.

One of the victims was just 16-year-old and had his iPad stolen.

Previous incidents occurred last Tuesday near Roberts and Tremont avenues and on August 16 near Castle Hill and East Tremont avenues.

No injuries have been reported.

Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

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Gingrich, Romney tangle in New Hampshire again

  By KASIE HUNTMANCHESTER, N.H. -- A combative Newt Gingrich accused Mitt Romney of "pious baloney" Sunday and charged him with hiding behind inaccurate attack ads aired by allies in the increasingly rancorous race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Targeted by his rivals for weeks, the GOP front-runner fired back in a campaign debate: "This ain't beanbag ... we're going to describe the differences between us." It was the most intense exchange of a weekend debate double-header run-up to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, won the Iowa caucuses last Tuesday by a scant eight votes over former Pennsylvania Sen.

Rick Santorum but is so far ahead in New Hampshire polls that his rivals have virtually conceded he will win.

In a slap at front-runner Romney, New Hampshire Rep. Frank Giunta announced Sunday he would endorse none of the primary candidates. Romney already has the support of the state's one Republican in the U.S. Senate and its other congressman.

South Carolina comes next, on Jan. 21, the first Southern state to hold a primary. While it is the contest where Gingrich, Santorum and the rest of Romney's rivals face an urgent need to slow his candidacy, Romney pointedly noted that he has been endorsed by that state's governor, Nikki Haley.

Santorum finished second in Iowa, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with Gingrich fourth, Texas Gov. Rick Perry fifth and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann in last place. She has since quit the race. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman skipped Iowa in hopes of a breakout showing in New Hampshire.

The GOP contenders faced off Sunday for the second time in less than 12 hours, following their debate Saturday night in nearby Manchester.

Though aggressive in assailing Romney, Gingrich hedged when he was confronted with one of his own campaign leaflets declaring Romney to be unelectable against President Barack Obama. "I think he'll have a very hard time getting elected," was as far as he would go.

It wasn't all testy. Perry drew laughter as well as applause when he said that federal bureaucrats would experience pain as a result of his plans to cut spending, especially those in the departments of education, commerce and energy. That was a reference to his gaffe in an earlier debate when he couldn't recall the name of the third of the Cabinet-level agencies he has proposed eliminating.

Indicating he'd taken offense on another matter, Huntsman, who was Obama's ambassador to China before quitting to run for the White House, returned to a comment Romney had made the night before. Romney said then that the rest of the GOP hopefuls had been trying to oppose the administration's policies while Huntsman was advancing them.

"And I just want to remind the people here in New Hampshire and throughout the United States, he criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy.

They're not asking what political affiliation the president is. `' As was the case Saturday night, Romney sought to shrug off the attacks from his rivals on the debate stage and worked to turn the focus onto Obama, whom he accused of presiding over an unnecessarily long recovery from recession.

Obama has been "anti-investment, anti-jobs and anti-business," he said.

But Gingrich was more aggressive than he had been Saturday night, his attacks serving as bookends to the 90-minute event.

The former speaker briefly led in the Iowa and national polls before the caucuses, before his surge was blunted by a series of ads aired by a so-called super PAC that is operated by former Romney aides and allies.

Gingrich has complained bitterly that the attacks were false, but he was asked on Sunday about a similar organization set up by his own supporters. It is intent on criticizing Romney for having run an investment firm that cost workers their jobs when it took over their companies.

Asked if he was being consistent, Gingrich said, "I'm consistent because I think you ought to have fact-based campaigns." He demanded Romney say whether the attacks against him were true.

Romney replied, "I haven't seen them, and as you know, under the law, I can't direct the ads. If there's anything in the ads that are wrong, I hope they take it out."

Yet moments after saying he hadn't seen the commercials, he recited the charges they made and said they were accurate - that Gingrich had been forced to resign as speaker, that he had once talked of finding common ground with House Democrats on climate change and that he had called a House Republican proposal to overhaul Medicare "right wing social engineering."

Gingrich said he was glad "he has said weeks later if they're wrong they should take them down."

Almost 90 minutes earlier, Gingrich called Romney a "relatively timid Massachusetts moderate" whose state ranked fourth from the bottom in job creation when he was governor.

Romney said he had created more jobs in one state than Obama had in the entire country, adding that it was important to replace "a lifetime politician" like the president with a different type of leader.

Santorum, too, took a swipe at Romney, asking why he hadn't sought re-election as governor after one term.

"Why did you bail out? And the bottom line is, I go fight the fight," Santorum said, referring to his time in Congress in the House of Representatives from a blue-collar district.

Romney jabbed back with a reference to Santorum's lucrative career in the six years since he lost a re-election campaign in 2006.

"I long for the day when instead of having people to go to Washington for 20 to 30 years, will get elected and then when they lose office, they stay there and make money as lobbyists or conducting their businesses.

"I think it stinks," Romney said.

Moments later, Gingrich appeared irked and accused Romney of using more than his allotted time to respond.

"I realize the red light doesn't mean anything to you because you're the front-runner."

"Could we drop a little bit of the pious baloney. The fact is you ran in `94 and lost (to Ted Kennedy). ... You were running for president while you were governor. ... You've been running consistently for years."

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Mayor Reorganizes New York City Schools Again

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave his State of the City speech recently and included some unexpected changes for the New York City schools that could profoundly change their current operation. Though the pre-speech release noted that his speech would focus on tax cuts, many were caught by surprise on what could be called only his second reorganization of the New York City schools.

The announcement was followed by a prepared public relations campaign of press briefings and New York City schools' chancellor Joel Klein spoke to business leaders the following day. Here are the major points of the mayor's announcement:

o The New York City schools would remain public and under the control of the Department of Education. The department will continue to be responsible for setting educational standards, allocating funds to the New York City schools, and hiring/firing New York City schools' principals.

o Principals will be empowered to control key issues within their New York City schools. They will have more autonomy, beginning with the next school year, managing their individual budgets and staffing, as well as determining the best teaching approach for their individual New York City schools. Principals will be expected to partner with a support organization.

Along with empowerment and more autonomy comes more accountability. An array of measurements will be employed to ensure the principals are succeeding in their New York City schools. Student grades will be accessible to parents, one of the most effective forms of accountability. New York City schools' principals who do well will enjoy additional funding for their schools.

Mayor Bloomberg sees this move of empowerment and accountability as a longtime corporate success tool -- succeed or lose your job. Others worry he may be losing sight of the learning and teaching aspect of education.

o Support organization partnerships will be established for each of the New York City schools. Each support organization comes from a private group, such as nonprofit agencies and colleges/universities. The support organization will provide professional development support to the principal, his teachers and staff. It will help interpret test results and other statistics, as well as identify helpful teaching approaches for the individual New York City schools.

o Four years ago, when the mayor took control of the New York City schools, he created ten regions. Now that they have served their purpose and completed their work, they are being eliminated. The mayor did not address, however, what group or agency would be responsible for the administration of high schools and admissions for middle schools, previously handled by the regions.

o Chancellor Klein has long criticized the New York City schools' tenure policy of three years on the job and a teacher qualifies for tenure, making it difficult to fire ineffective teachers. Under the mayor's new proposal, the tenure standards will become more difficult but not impossible to achieve. He intends to work with the United Federation of Teachers (the teachers' union for the New York City schools), whose consent is required for any major changes in tenure policy. The mayor aims to use tenure to improve teacher quality with salary increases, develop a program for experienced "lead teachers" to mentor others, and a housing bonus for experienced teachers in teaching fields of short supply.

o Lastly, the mayor is looking at changing the New York City schools' funding formula. He wants to fund each child rather than each New York City schools, believing the current policy is extremely complex and unfair. Each of the New York City schools would receive $3,000 to $3,750 per child with additional funding for poverty-level, non-English speaking, special education, and/or low academic performance-level children. There may possibly be extra funding for the gifted and talented children.

Comments and discussions already have commenced from parents, special interest groups, and advisory councils/committees. It is difficult to see how all of the mayor's changes will benefit the New York City schools' students directly. Parents especially have an interest is seeing smaller class sizes and keeping their children from dropping out of school -- none of which was mentioned in the mayor's announcement.

Patricia Hawke is an expert researcher and writer on real estate topics such as economics, credit improvement tips, home selling advice and home buying preparations and education for relocating families. For more information please New York City Schools