Squeegee men have returned to Midtown West, ‘getting aggressive’

 The squeegee men are back — and they’re rubbing drivers the wrong way.

The dreaded street hustlers — who were the scourge of the Big Apple in the 1980s and ’90s — have set up shop on Ninth Avenue between West 39th and 40th streets, where they wait for red lights to stop traffic and then pounce on their unlucky marks, The Post has learned.

“I see them almost every day,” said one local who’s seen the new squeegee influx firsthand. “I don’t go out there. When I’m done, I go straight to the subway, I don’t look at them.”

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A squeegee man preys on unsuspecting commuters near the Lincoln Tunnel entrance at the corner of West 40th and 9th Avenue in Manhattan at about 7:45 a.m. Thursday.LP Media

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The water the men use is not particularly clean, as the contents of this bucket show.Georgett Roberts/NY Post

The witness said that after they “clean” a car, they get hostile if the driver doesn’t want to pay up for their unwanted service.

“I don’t know if they have a short temper, or if it’s the heat,” the person continued. “I can see them getting aggressive if you don’t give them money — they are not like most chill people.

“But I’ve seen them flip out sometimes, arguing with each other. They are not 100% good every day.”

The Post spotted one black Toyota SUV being targeted by a squeegee-wielding shyster at a Hell’s Kitchen intersection. One area worker told us it was a common sight these days.

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Squeegee men, like this one seen in a file photo, have long been the bane of New York City commuters, who hate the unsolicited cleanings.Matthew McDermott

“I do see people not give them money sometimes, and they get aggressive,” Tony West, a housekeeper at a nearby hotel, told The Post. “I hear like loud talking like, ‘Help us out!’

“I wish somebody would give them a broom or something,” West continued. “There is a lot to be cleaned up around here. They would be way less of a bother. I don’t think it would bother anyone if they are sweeping.”

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The men, like this one in a file photo, have started hanging out near the intersection of 9th Avenue and West 40th Street.Matthew McDermott

The squeegee guys have a long, torrid history in New York City, where they became the face of ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s quality-of-life crackdown three decades ago.

The teams are smaller nowadays, with just a couple of window-washers instead of the well-organized crews of a half-dozen that took to the streets in years past. But it still drives locals and commuters crazy.

“I don’t interact with them,” one nearby worker said. “I don’t like them out there. The street should be [clear].”

Workers said the squeegee men normally flock to the area in the early morning, then again in the afternoons, when they hold up traffic as they ply their irritating trade.

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Local workers said the men are out in the early mornings, then again in the afternoons.Matthew McDermott

It’s not the first time these relics of New York’s shadowy past have crawled back into the light of day — two summers ago, the notorious keepers of spotless windshields emerged at the same intersection.

“Where are the cops?” a worried New Jersey driver said in 2022, just moments after a squeegee man had suddenly approached her car. “That was like a shakedown! How is this OK? He just kept saying, ‘I know you got some money! I know you got some money!’”

During his campaign, Mayor Eric Adams revealed he was once a squeegee man — and vowed to get the guys off the streets without police intervention.

“I’m going to go there, number one, with mental health professionals, because some of them may be dealing with mental health crises, and also job training opportunities,” he said.

Neither City Hall nor the NYPD responded to requests for comment Wednesday.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/15/us-news/squeegee-men-have-returned-to-midtown-west-and-locals-say-theyre-waiting-for-you-to-get-stuck-in-traffic/

Disney Wants Lawsuit Over Doc's Allergy Death Tossed Due to Disney+ Sub Detail

 Does signing up for Disney's popular streaming service mean you have agreed to never sue the entertainment giant over anything forever?

That is what Disney argues in a wrongful death lawsuitopens in a new tab or window involving a 42-year-old New York doctor whose family claims had a fatal allergic reaction after eating at an Irish pub in Disney Springs in October.

Disney is asking a Florida court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it by Jeffrey Piccolo, the husband of Kanokporn Tangsuan, DO, a family medicine specialist with NYU Langone's office in Carle Place, on Long Island.

The company argues Piccolo had agreed to settle any lawsuits against Disney out of court through the arbitration process when he signed up for a 1-month trial of Disney+ in 2019 and acknowledged that he had reviewed the fine print.

"The Terms of Use, which were provided with the Subscriber Agreement, include a binding arbitration clause," the company wrote in its motion. "The first page of the Subscriber Agreement states, in all capital letters, that 'any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration.'"

Disney also notes in its response that Piccolo agreed to a similar arbitration provision when he created an account on Disney's website and app ahead of the ill-fated theme park visit.

But Piccolo's lawyer, in a response filed earlier this month, argued that it was "absurd" to believe that the more than 150 million subscribers to Disney+ have waived all rights to sue the company and its affiliates in perpetuity -- even if their case has nothing to do with the popular streaming service.

"The notion that terms agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer's right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this court should not enforce such an agreement," Brian Denney, Piccolo's attorney, wrote in the August 2 filing.

Disney, in its May 31 filing, argued that whether Piccolo actually reviewed the service terms is "immaterial." It also noted the arbitration provision "covers 'all disputes' including 'disputes involving The Walt Disney Company or its affiliates.'"

Arbitration allows people to settle disputes without going to court and generally involves a neutral arbitrator who reviews arguments and evidence before making a binding decision, or award.

Disney said late Wednesday that it is "deeply saddened" by the family's loss but stressed the Irish pub is neither owned nor operated by the company. The company's stance in the litigation doesn't affect the plaintiff's claims against the eatery, it added.

"We are merely defending ourselves against the plaintiff's attorney's attempt to include us in their lawsuit against the restaurant," the company wrote in an emailed statement.

Raglan Road, the Irish pub in Disney Springs where Tangsuan dined, didn't respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Disney Springs is owned by Disney, which leases some of the spaces in the outdoor dining, shopping, and entertainment complex to other companies.

Piccolo's lawsuit, which was filed in February, claims that he, his wife, and his mother decided to eat at Raglan Road on October 5, 2023 because it was billed on Disney's website as having "allergen free food."

After informing their server numerous times that she had a severe allergy to nuts and dairy products, Tangsuan ordered the vegan fritter, scallops, onion rings, and a vegan shepherd's pie.

The waiter then "guaranteed" that the food was allergen-free even though some of the items were not served with "allergen free flags," the lawsuit states.

About 45 minutes after finishing their dinner, Tangsuan had difficulty breathing while out shopping, collapsed, and eventually died at the hospital, despite self-administering an EpiPen during the allergic reaction, according to the lawsuit.

A medical examiner's investigation determined later she died as a result of "anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system," the lawsuit said.

An October 2 hearing has been scheduled on Disney's motion in county court in Orlando. Piccolo seeks more than $50,000 in his lawsuit.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/allergyimmunology/allergy/111526

Doctor Arrested in Connection to Matthew Perry's Death: Reports

 Authorities have arrested at least one person in connection with Matthew Perry's death from an accidental ketamine overdose last year, a law enforcement official tells the Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

But reports from ABC Newsopens in a new tab or window and TMZopens in a new tab or window, citing law enforcement sources, said that a doctor and drug dealers were in custody. At least two doctors had been treating Perry, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, according to a medical examiner's report from the time of the actor's death.

Authorities have scheduled a news conference in Los Angeles to announce details in the case later Thursday morning.

Los Angeles police said in Mayopens in a new tab or window that they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anesthetic in his system.

An assistant found Perry face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.

His autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgeryopens in a new tab or window.

The decades-old drug has seen a huge surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and pain. People close to Perry told coroner's investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.

But the medical examiner said Perry's last treatment over a week earlier wouldn't explain the levels of ketamine in his blood. The drug is typically metabolized in a matter of hours. No illicit drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house.

Ketamine was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected, the report said. Drowning and other medical issues were contributing factors, the coroner said.

Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on "Friends," when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC's megahit sitcom.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/ethics/111528

Medicare Unveils First 10 Negotiated Drug Prices due 2026

 Sitagliptin (Januvia) saw the greatest drop in price among the list of 10 drugs

opens in a new tab or window whose new prices were announced Thursday under Medicare's drug price negotiation programopens in a new tab or window.

The price negotiation program was passed in 2022opens in a new tab or window as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The measure lowers prescription drug costs for seniors by empowering Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs. The price for sitagliptin, a type 2 diabetes drug, dropped from $527 for a 30-day supply to $113, a 79% decrease. The other nine drugs whose prices were announced Thursday included:

• Insulin aspart injection (NovoLog, among others): for diabetes mellitus; original price $495, negotiated price $119 (76% decrease)
• Dapagliflozin (Farxiga): for type 2 diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease; original list price $556, negotiated price $179 (68% decrease)
• Etanercept (Enbrel): for rheumatoid arthritis; original list price $7,106 [$1,777 per weekly dose], negotiated price $2,355 (67% decrease)
• Empagliflozin (Jardiance): for type 2 diabetes and heart failure; original list price $573, negotiated price $197 (66% decrease)
• Ustekinumab (Stelara): for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis; original list price $13,836, negotiated price $4,695 (66% decrease)
• Rivaroxaban (Xarelto): to prevent blood clots and reduce risks for patients with coronary or peripheral artery disease; original list price $517, negotiated price $197 (62% decrease)
• Apixaban (Eliquis): to prevent stroke and blood clots; original list price $521, negotiated price $231 (56% decrease)
• Sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto): for chronic heart failure; original list price $628, negotiated price $295 (53% decrease)
• Ibrutinib (Imbruvica): for chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and other blood cancers; original list price $14,934, negotiated price $9,319 (38% decrease)

"Americans pay way too much for their prescription drugs; that's what makes today's announcement so historic," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said on a phone call with reporters Wednesday night. "For the first time ever, Medicare negotiated directly with drug companies, and the American people are better off for it."

The negotiated prices will take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2026. "In our first year of negotiations, we are saving Medicare $6 billion," Becerra said; the figure is based on what Medicare would have paid for drugs in 2023 had the negotiated prices been in effect. "And on top of that, Americans who pay out-of-pocket costs in Medicare for their prescription drugs will be saving another $1.5 billion moving forward."

The 10 drugs chosen for negotiation by CMS -- single-source brand-name drugs with no therapeutically equivalent generic or biosimilar competition -- were targeted for negotiation based on their total expenditures in the Medicare Part D program. These drugs are either costly, widely used, or both. Apixaban, for example, was used by nearly 4 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2023, bringing the total cost last year to over $18 billion.

Looking ahead, CMS will choose up to 15 additional drugs for price negotiation for 2027, up to 15 more drugs (to include drugs covered under Medicare Part B) for 2028, and up to 20 more drugs for price negotiation each year after that, as stated in the IRA.

For the upcoming negotiations on Part B drugs, which are dispensed in physician offices, "we've built a strong foundation to build on for future negotiations," Stacy Sanders, HHS Chief Competition Officer, told MedPage Today during a phone interview at which a press person was present. "The focus of this administration really has been about making sure that patients -- the people who need the medications, are able to afford those medications."

"The driving principle behind the work we're doing is to assure affordability and ensure access. That will be true for future negotiations too," Sanders added.

To that end, the agency will monitor to make sure that Medicare beneficiaries have access to the negotiated drugs and aren't being steered to other drugs by the plans, she said. "CMS has been clear in their guidances that they'll engage in a robust formulary review process" for Part D plans. "We know under the law these negotiated prescription drugs must be covered. We'll continue to keep access and affordability at the center of our decision-making."

Some opponents of the price negotiations have complained that although CMS said it took into account each drug's research and development costs when it was negotiating prices, the agency didn't account for the fact that for every drug that makes it to market, there are dozens of others that the drug company spends money looking into but has to abandon.

"Research and development costs were one among many things that we took into consideration as we engaged in negotiations with the drug manufacturers," Sanders said when MedPage Today asked about this criticism. "We strongly believe that we can implement these programs and still secure innovation in the market. The manufacturing industry is strong and thriving. We believe drug companies will continue to profit."

On a call with reporters Thursday, senior administration officials gave a brief glimpse of the negotiating process. "The negotiations were a genuine back and forth with the participating drug companies, and we learned a lot of valuable information in the negotiation meetings," one official said. "Some of the topics discussed [included] the selected drug's clinical benefit and how a selected drug benefits people with Medicare and the Medicare program, as well as therapeutic alternatives for the selected drug and how they should inform the negotiated price."

"For five of the selected drugs, we reached an agreement on a negotiated price in association with one of those negotiation meetings," the official continued. "And for the remaining five selected drugs, we sent a written final offer to those drug companies, and each company accepted that written final offer."

More information about the negotiations will be forthcoming when CMS releases a more detailed explanation of how the prices were arrived at, including the data CMS received, the exchange of offers and counter-offers, and more information on the negotiation meetings; by law, that information must be released by March 1 of next year, the official said.

This is not necessarily the end of the matter, however. Drugmakers and lobbyists have filed 10 separate lawsuitsopens in a new tab or window objecting to the negotiation program. Five lawsuits filed by drug companies have been dismissed in federal court; they are all being appealed.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/medicare/111523

New 'Official' Nord Stream Sabotage Narrative Says Zelensky's Top General Went Rogue

 A fresh Wall Street Journal investigative report purports to finally provide the "real story" on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage which happened nearly two years ago, and has since resulted in a series of seeming endless theories and speculation. After as we previously detailed Germany has issued its first arrest warrant in the case amid a lengthy investigation, the WSJ unveils a fantastical sounding tale which began among Ukrainian senior officers and businessmen over drinks one night early in the war.

The new WSJ reporting weaves a narrative that essentially focuses on a rogue general who ultimately defied efforts by President Zelensky and the CIA to reign him in. "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan, according to one officer who participated and three people familiar with it. But later, when the CIA learned of it and asked the Ukrainian president to pull the plug, he ordered a halt, those people said," the report says.

We are told that Zelensky’s since fired commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, still moved ahead with a high risk plan funded by businessmen to the tune of $300,000 and involving a rented yacht with a six-member crew which included experienced civilian divers.

The scheme was dubbed a "public-private" partnership as it involved military officers reportedly being financed from these private sector sources. Some top Ukrainian special-operations officers were recruited, and the crew set out "armed only with diving equipment, satellite navigation, a portable sonar and open-source maps of the seabed charting the position of the pipelines."

They used a powerful explosive called HMX and timer-controlled detonators, the account says. WSJ described that once the plan was set in motion, the team went incommunicado and thus Zelensky's supposed desperate efforts to call off the operation couldn't be conveyed. Again, the whole narrative appears crafted to exculpate Zelensky and the CIA. A key section of the WSJ report reads as follows:

Within days, Zelensky approved the plan, according to the four people familiar with the plot. All arrangements were made verbally, leaving no paper trail.

But the next month, the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD learned of the plot and warned the CIA, according to several people familiar with the Dutch report. U.S. officials then promptly informed Germany, according to U.S. and German officials.

The CIA warned Zelensky’s office to stop the operation, U.S. officials said. The Ukrainian president then ordered Zalyzhniy to halt it, according to Ukrainian officers and officials familiar with the conversation as well as Western intelligence officials. But the general ignored the order, and his team modified the original plan, these people said.

The CIA also just days after the bombing in late Sept. 2022 was able to provide European allied intelligence agencies a detailed report of how the covert operation went down, the WSJ story says. According to more from the report, German investigators were later able to identify the boat and thus gain valuable evidence:

They had one lucky break. In rushing to leave Germany, the sabotage crew neglected to wash the Andromeda, allowing German detectives to find traces of explosives, fingerprints and DNA samples of the crew.

Investigators later identified their mobile phone numbers and their Iridium satellite phone. That data allowed them to reconstruct the entire journey of the boat, which moored in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. U.S. authorities sought a court order to obtain from Google the emails a Ukrainian businessman used to lease the boat, and handed them over to the Germans. That Ukrainian businessman had contacted a number of boat rental firms in Sweden as well as in Germany, starting from mid-May 2022.

Investigators then analyzed all mobile phone traffic in the areas where the boat was located, trawling through thousands of connections to distill the relevant data.

We are then told that the German investigation has been unable to link President Zelensky directly to the operation and is now focused on former General Zalazhniy and his aides (Zaluzhniy is now the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK).

The Andromeda, believed to be the small yacht used by the Ukrainian team, Getty Images

The report also includes the key admission that allies of Kiev have this whole time had incentive to hide, withhold, or cover-up information that arises from the investigation: "The findings could upend relations between Kyiv and Berlin, which has provided much of the financing and military equipment to Ukraine, second only to the U.S. Some German political leaders may have been willing to overlook evidence pointing to Ukraine for fear of undermining domestic support for the war effort."

Indeed this high level blame-game in the aftermath of recent findings being made public is already beginning:

The former head of German intelligence says that there was an “agreement” between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the President of Poland to carry out the attack on the Nord Stream Pipelines.

...Much of the legacy media initially blamed Russia for attack, claiming it was a false flag but offering no sensible reason as to why Moscow would target its own energy infrastructure.

However, during an appearance on German broadcaster WELT-TV, August Hanning, who served as the head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, the attack was carried out at the behest of Zelensky and Andrzej Duda.

Meanwhile, in reaction to the flurry of new reporting this week on the German investigation the Ukrainian presidency's office has issued a fresh statement vehemently denying the government's involvement in the pipeline blasts.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that "Such an act can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources … and who possessed all this at the time of the bombing? Only Russia."

But contrast this with some of the statements in the fresh WSJ report. It cited one Ukrainian officer who was involved in the plot as saying, "I always laugh when I read media speculation about some huge operation involving secret services, submarines, drones and satellites." The officer continued, "The whole thing was born out of a night of heavy boozing and the iron determination of a handful of people who had the guts to risk their lives for their country."

Many readers of the fresh WSJ account remain high skeptical to say the least...

The following questions still remain: Was it the CIA, as famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh claimed? Was it a Ukrainian team of commandos with a sailing yacht? Or was it a high-level op approved by the top leadership of Ukraine and Poland, with knowledge of American intelligence? 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-nord-stream-sabotage-narrative-says-zelenskys-top-general-went-rogue

'Harris Plans to Increase M&A Scrutiny Between Big Food Companies'

 Kamala Harris will closely scrutinize proposed mergers between big food companies, according to an emailed campaign statement.

• Campaign cites ongoing Kroger-Albertsons M&A as example of a deal that merits such scrutiny
• Plans to direct resources toward “investigating and prosecuting price-fixing—where companies illegally collude to set prices—up and down the meat supply chains”
• Harris to expand on plans in Friday speech in North Carolina
• NOTE: In July, Colorado Judge Temporarily Halts Kroger-Albertsons Merger

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/mergers-and-acquisitions/harris-plans-to-increase-m-a-scrutiny-between-big-food-companies