Top Things to Know for You Being in New York Today

4th June- Wednesday - Few Big Things and Events Will Take Place Today in New York

Good morning New York

Meet Deborah C. Garner.

As the director of consumer services at the Department of Consumer Affairs, she helps handle 30,000 complaints a year.

Today, Ms. Garner and five other city workers will receive Sloan Public Service Awards, given by the Fund for the City of New York.

Ms. Garner has seen the city’s ups and downs, reflected in consumer complaints.

After Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, despite the hardship it inflicted, complaints actually declined as New Yorkers struggled to get back on their feet.

Then they shot up last year.

“Some consumers lost homes, were flooded, lost cars.”

This year, Ms. Garner has noticed a puzzling surge in complaints against dry cleaners.

No complaint is too small.

Recently, Ms. Garner resolved one about a 55-cent grocery store coupon.

After Ms. Garner successfully negotiated a refund, “You know what the consumer said? ‘It’s only 55 cents.’

“I said, ‘Sir, please go to that store and get your 55 cents.’”

The others honored today are:

• Arnaldo Bernabe, public safety director at Hostos Community College.

• Annie Fine, who detects disease outbreaks for the health department.

• Janice A. Halloran, who oversees the emergency rooms of two Bronx hospitals.

• Assistant Commissioner Kathleen Hughes of the Department of Cultural Affairs.

• April Leong, founder of Liberation Diploma Plus High School in Coney Island.

Here’s what else you need to know.

WEATHER

The fog lifts to reveal another beauty, with a high of 82.

And showers fall after dark, if at all.

COMING UP TODAY

• Mayor de Blasio delivers remarks at the Fire Department’s Medal Day ceremony in Midtown East. 11 a.m. …

• … At the Jennifer Lopez concert at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. 6:40 p.m. …

• … And at the Janelle Monae concert in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. 8 p.m.

• An exhausting lineup of events for National Running Day includes 2,000 children running around Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island. 10 a.m.

• A talk on technologies that could change how we vote, at New York Law School. 5 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

• A talk on the history of anti-Asian imagery with Jack Tchen, author of “Yellow Peril!” at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

• Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is inducted into the National Football Foundation’s leadership hall of fame at the Hilton in Midtown. 7 p.m.

• Fran Lebowitz, “one of the foremost advocates of the Extreme Statement,” speaks at St. Mark’s Church in the East Village. 8 p.m. [$10]

• Yankees host A’s. 7:05 p.m. (YES)

• Mets visit Cubs. 8:05 p.m. (SNY)

• For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

COMMUTE

• Subways

• PATH

• L.I.R.R. and Metro-North

• N.J. Transit

• Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

• Alternate-side parking: is suspended today and Thursday for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

• Air travel: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark.

IN THE NEWS

• Police arrested dozens of suspected gang members in early-morning raids across Harlem today. [NBC]

• The operation targeted rival gangs linked to the 2011 slaying of an 18-year-old high school basketball star. [Daily News]

• A man was stabbed repeatedly on a subway platform in Chelsea this morning. [DNAinfo]

• City teachers approved a labor contract that raises pay by 18 percent over nine years. [New York Times]

• A teenager from the Bronx drowned herself after she was caught cheating on a math exam. [Daily News]

• The Fire Department has as many female firefighters now as it did in 1982. [Village Voice]

• California Chrome’s chance of winning the Triple Crown at the Belmont on Saturday has people buying $2 betting tickets as souvenirs, not to bet on the race. [New York Times]

• A radio story about a performance artist who married her openly gay friend in order to have children. [WNYC]

• Cubs clamber over Mets, 2-1. A’s beat Yankees, 5-2 in 10 innings.

AND FINALLY …

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a cross-country hockey wager on Tuesday with California Gov. Jerry Brown.

The stakes:

If the Rangers win the Stanley Cup finals — Game 1 is tonight (8 o’clock, NBC) — Governor Brown will send Governor Cuomo a history book about California and some Lundberg organic brown rice cakes, lightly salted.

If the Los Angeles Kings win, Governor Cuomo will send Governor Brown a considerably more delicious gift.

His basket of state-made products will include Dutchess County apples, oysters caught off Long Island and red velvet cupcakes from Harlem.

Mr. Cuomo will also throw in a hockey puck commemorating the “hat trick” of three straight on-time budgets.

Kenneth Rosen contributed reporting.

Source : NYTIMES