Cuomo proposes $152.3B state budget with three-year extension to mayoral control of NYC schools

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo wants to extend mayoral control over New York City schools through 2020, allow movie theaters to sell beer and alcohol, and tax and regulate e-cigarettes and other vapor products.

The proposals are all part of a $152.3 billion state budget proposal Cuomo unveiled Tuesday night.

Unlike last year, when the governor, who is feuding with Mayor de Blasio, sought to shift $800 million in CUNY and other funding from the state on to New York City, Cuomo said there are no such proposals in his budget plan this year.

He did suggest a three-year extension of mayoral control last year as well. But Mayor de Blasio had to settle for a one-year extender that expires this June after the Senate GOP wouldn’t budge.

Meanwhile, Cuomo’s plan would also extend a tax surcharge on the wealthy that was due to expire this coming December, continue with a middle class tax cut enacted last year, and close a $5.3 billion deficit.

Cuomo is proposing to boost education spending by $1 billion, or 4.1%, Medicaid by $567 million, or 3.2%, and spend $163 million to create a free public college tuition program for families making up to $125,000 that a source said would be covered entirely by the state.

The spending plan does not contain any contingencies for the possible repeal of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which, if not replaced, Cuomo has said could cost the state $3.7 billion.

In seeking to tax vapor products, Cuomo would expand the definition of tobacco products to include e-cigarettes, hookah pens and vape pens. He would impose a tax rate of 10-cents per milliliter.

Source:-nydailynews

Barack Obama pays tribute at Hiroshima nuclear memorial

Barack Obama on Friday paid tribute to the 140,000 people killed by the world's first atomic bomb attack and sought to bring global attention to his unfulfilled vision of a world without nuclear weapons, as he became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima.

"Death fell from the sky and the world was changed," Obama said, after laying a wreath, closing his eyes and briefly bowing his head before an arched monument in Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park that honors those killed on August 6, 1945, when US forces dropped the bomb that ushered in the nuclear age. The bombing, Obama said, "demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself."

Obama did not apologize, instead offering, in a carefully choreographed display, a simple reflection on the horrors of war and his hope the horror of Hiroshima could spark a "moral awakening." As he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stood near an iconic bombed-out domed building, Obama acknowledged the devastating toll of war and urged the world to do better.

"We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell ... we listen to a silent cry." Obama said.

A second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki three days later Hiroshima, killed 70,000 more.

Obama also sought to look forward to the day when there was less danger of nuclear war. He received a Nobel Peace Prize early on his presidency for his anti-nuclear agenda but has since seen uneven progress.

Source:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

EgyptAir flight MS804 to Cairo disappears from radar

EgyptAir flight 804 travelling from Paris to Cairo has disappeared from radar with 56 passengers and 10 crew members on board, the airline has said.

French President Francois Hollande said in a televised address that the plane had crashed early on Thursday.

The plane made "sudden swerves" mid-air and plunged before dropping off radars in the southern Mediterranean, Greece's defence minister said.

"At 3:39am the course of the aircraft was south and south-east of Kassos and Karpathos [islands] ... immediately after it entered Cairo FIR and made swerves and a descent I describe; 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told a news conference.

Greek authorities mounted a search in the area south of the island of Karpathos without result so far, he said.

However, Egypt's civil aviation ministry said in a statement it was too early to confirm if the passenger plane had crashed.

According to EgyptAir, the plane took off from Paris' Charles De Gaulle Airport shortly after 11pm local time.

Greece is deploying military aircraft and a frigate to an area in the southern Mediterranean its defence ministry said.

The search for the missing EgyptAir plane was taking place at sea, about 130 nautical miles southeast of the island of Karpathos, the Greek defence ministry told Reuters news agency.

"One C-130 aircraft and an early-warning EMB-145H plane are already operating in the area. Another C-130 plane is on standby at Kasteli airport on the [southern Greek] island of Crete," Greece's military command said.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com