Candice Hill knew she would be attending the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Next Generation Institute, a program for assistant coaches aspiring to become head coaches, held in conjunction with the Final Four. Just prior to departing, Hill got some excellent news—she was selected as the new head coach at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). While her position was squared away, Hill still listened intently to all the information during the program.

“I took away some great nuggets about…accepting that everybody goes through ups and downs. It’s really about the resilience you and your program have,” said Hill. The WBCA has been a big part of her journey. As a college student, she participated in the So You Want to Be a Coach program and was later named to the WBCA’s Thirty Under 30.

She joins UMBC after three seasons with St. John’s University women’s basketball, serving as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator this past season. She served a crucial role in helping the Red Storm return to the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and is deeply appreciative for the knowledge Coach Joe Tartamella imbued. Hill was pivotal in upping the skills of star guard Unique Drake, who was MVP of the Seniors All Stars Game played during the Final Four.

“Coach Joe Tartamella brought me in as a piece to the rebuild of his program, and I believe that’s what I’m going to do here [at UMBC],” Hill said. “Another thing I will be able to take away from not only St. John’s but every stop I’ve been at is the effort to build relationships within the university’s community and outside of the community.

“Joe Tartamella taught me how to win, how to be strategic and honestly allowed me to be me,” she added. “I’m going to do the same thing with myself and with my staff. I’m going to have people on my staff that are proven winners, that have experience and bought into what I’m trying to do at UMBC.”

She is thrilled to not only take this next step in her career, but to do it in her hometown of Baltimore. There are some highly competitive Division I and II programs and Maryland, and Hill is looking forward to being part of the community.

“Growing up here makes UMBC so attractive to me, but it’s also based in a city where I know I can recruit to,” said Hill, who played her college basketball in Baltimore at Loyola University.

The post Candice Hill returns home for her first head coaching position appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

It has been a remarkable season for the Knicks.

Through a season ending shoulder injury to their two-time All-NBA power forward Julius Randle,  which occurred on January 27, not only did they persevere, the Knicks excelled. Their regular season schedule culminated on Sunday at Madison Square Garden fittingly with a dramatic and hard-fought 120-119 overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls to secure an unlikely No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. It also produced the 50-32 Knicks’ first 50-plus win season since they went 54-28 in the 2012-13 campaign.

“It’s a goal to be the best team we can be by the end of the year, and for us now it’s just move on from that,” said the Knicks’ uncontainable point guard Jalen Brunson, whose 40-point, 7-assists, 8-rebound display of  indomitable will was a microcosm of the 27-year-point guard’s astonishing season.

“It’s something to be crossed off and have to get better from here.” Brunson’s 11 th 40-point game this season tied Patrick Ewing for the second most in a single season in franchise history. Bernard King reached or exceeded the 40-point mark 13 times in the 1984-85 slate. Brunson, in only his second season with the Knicks, also reached 36 games scoring 30 or more, tying Richie Guerin (1961-62) and Ewing (1989-90) for the franchise record. His 28.7 points per game average was fourth overall in the league.

“I got teammates and coaches in this locker room who trust me and I trust them and we all try to go out there and make the right play every single time,” expressed Brunson. “No matter what’s going on out there, no one really cares about the credit or anything. We’re just trying to win and so we do whatever it takes, and I have their back out there.”

Now Tom Thibodeau will lead his team into the playoffs for the third time in four seasons since becoming the Knicks’ head coach in July of 2020. Their first round opponent, either the Philadelphia 76ers or Miami Heat, was determined last night when they faced each other last night in Philadelphia in an NBA Play-In Tournament matchup. The Knicks were 2-1 against Miami this season and 3-1 versus the 76ers.

They open the playoffs at the Garden for Game 1 this Saturday at 6 p.m. and a 7:30 p.m. start on Monday at MSG for Game 2. 

“I think when you have competitors, it doesn’t matter. Competitors compete,” Thibodeau said of which team the Knicks will meet.

Brunson emphasized the Knicks’ approach will be consistent with how they have carried out their business thus far.  “Making sure our mentality is the same, if not, better,” he pointed out. “Making sure we’re getting right and making sure we’re watching and preparing, getting our minds right. And that’s what is most important.”

The post The 50-win Knicks enter the playoffs as the East’s No. 2 seed appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

The Rooftop at Pier 17 has long been one of our favorite concert venues in New York City. The panoramic views, the chill vibe, and the stellar acoustics make it a truly special spot to see a show. And with this year’s stacked lineup of 60+ concerts this summer, it’s definitely worth heading there for a night of live music.

The sixth Summer Concert Series on The Rooftop at Pier 17 features more than 60 artists in genres from rap (Isaiah Rashad) to rock (Social Distortion) to electronic (Electric Callboy) and more. Plus, there are several bands on the roster that will make Millennials swoon with nostalgia (like Taking Back Sunday, Something Corporate, Two Door Cinema Club, and Mayday Parade). Read on for the full lineup and get tickets here.   

RECOMMENDED: Governors Ball 2024 just announced its lineup

Here’s the full Pier 17 lineup for summer 2024

• May 4 – Social Distortion and Bad Religion
• May 8 – Bad Religion and Social Distortion
• May 11 – Freddie Gibbs & Madlib with El Michels Affair
• May 13 – Electric Callboy with Bury Tomorrow and If Not For Me
• May 31 – NEEDTOBREATHE with special guest Judah & The Lion
• June 1 – Isaiah Rashad
• June 14 – Greensky Bluegrass
• June 15 – Reggae Fest Blaze
• June 16 – Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Neal Francis
• June 21 – Something Corporate
• June 22 – Billy Currington with Larry Fleet and Redferrin
• July 6 – Everyday People with DJ Moma & Friends
• July 9 – Cavetown & Mother Mother
• July 10 – Mother Mother & Cavetown
• July 11 – moe. with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country
• July 12 – Michael Franti & Spearhead with Trevor Hall & The Great In-Between
• July 17 – Old Crow Medicine Show with special guests Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
• July 18 – Totally Tubular Festival feat. Thomas Dolby & more
• July 20 – The9AMBanger: Rise & Rosé
• July 23 – Two Door Cinema Club with special guest flipturn
• July 24 – Two Door Cinema Club with special guest flipturn
• July 25 – O.A.R. with special guests Fitz and the Tantrums, and DJ Logic
• July 26 – O.A.R. with special guests Fitz and the Tantrums, and DJ Logic
• July 28 – Iration and Pepper with special guests DENM and Artikal Sound System
• July 30 – Switchfoot, Blue October, & Matt Nathanson
• August 1 – Sad Summer Festival feat. Mayday Parade, The Maine & more
• August 3 – Anjunabeats Outdoors
• August 4 – SLASH – S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival with Keb’ Mo’, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph
• August 8 – Still Woozy with special guest MICHELLE
• August 9 – Still Woozy with special guest MICHELLE
• August 15 – Stray Cats with special guests The Midnight Cowgirls
• August 16 – Andrew Bird and Amadou & Mariam
• August 17 – Taking Back Sunday with special guests Citizen
• August 18 – Taking Back Sunday with special guests Citizen
• August 22 – mike.
• August 24 – Sublime with Rome
• August 31 – Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Andy Frasco & The UN, and Dogs in a Pile
• September 4 – Crowded House
• September 12 – Dashboard Confessional with special guests BOYS LIKE GIRLS and Taylor Acorn
• October 12 – Nothing But Thieves
• Plus, more shows to be announced.

Tickets are on sale here. 

Tips for seeing a show at Pier 17

If you haven’t seen a show on The Rooftop at Pier 17 yet, it’s worth changing that this summer. With its 3,500 capacity, the venue offers an intimate atmosphere combined with impeccable views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. 

As for drinks, stop by the Patrón Patio, a lounge with Patrón Tequila cocktails and frozen beverages. If you want to treat yourself, you can add on access to the Grey Goose Terrace, a private rooftop lounge with food and cocktails for purchase, plus an Instagram-worthy backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Before (or after) the show, there are plenty of delectable dining options near the venue’s Seaport location. To name a few: Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s seafood restaurant The Fulton; Tin Building by Jean-Georges; Helene Henderson’s Malibu Farm New York; Andrew Carmellini’s Italian chophouse Carne Mare, NoHo Hospitality’s Mister Dips, more.  

“The Rooftop at Pier 17 has become a bucket list destination with New Yorkers and visitors from across the country and around the globe, looking forward to the Summer Concert Series every year,” Anton Nikodemus, CEO of Seaport Entertainment Group said in a press release. “People are flocking to The Rooftop not just to hear their favorite artists perform live, but for the breathtaking views of the city skyline and to enjoy the best cocktails and food the city has to offer at the Seaport’s surrounding bars and restaurants.”

* This article was originally published here

Members of the group Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC) showed up at Manhattan’s 26 Federal Plaza on April 12 to deliver a letter addressed to President Joe Biden to bring attention to the concerning direction they see Medicare going in. 

CROC members are mostly New York City municipal retirees who said they wanted to deliver a letter to Medicare and Medicaid Services representatives about something they call a “(Dis)Advantage” plan, a play on Medcare’s Advantage plan terminology. 

“We are mostly New York City retirees, and the city has been trying for three years to take away our wonderful Medicare,” said Julie Schwartzberg, a CROC founder who also once served as vice president of AFSCME District Council 37’s Local 768. “We found out that all over the country, the same thing is happening. In states all over the place, in cities, they’re taking away retirees’ Medicare and putting people on Medicare Advantage.” 

“Medicare Advantage is profit-making. We don’t want it,” she added.

Security guards at the federal building refused entry to CROC representatives after the rally. The group was asked to mail in their letter and stand by for a response from Biden regarding their concerns.

CROC members have reacted to the changes in Medicare by helping to form the National Alliance for Retiree Health Care. They say they’ve been joined in this new national effort by retirees in Vermont, Delaware, California, Minnesota, Washington, and Tennessee who stand ready to unite nationally to fight against any tweaks to access to Medicare. 

In their letter to the Center for Medicare Services and Biden, the national movement asks that instead of having Medicare privatized, there be more of an effort to expand it.

“We are an alliance of retiree organizations fighting for the expansion of our public Medicare benefits and against the ongoing privatization of traditional Medicare,” one portion of the letter reads. “We retirees served our communities for years, paid into Medicare every paycheck, and were promised strong public Medicare when we grew older.

“Now retirees all over the country are being forced into for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, without their consent. Many other seniors have chosen Medicare Advantage because they cannot afford expensive private Medigap plans or are deceived by false advertising.

“These plans are literally killing us. The National Bureau of Economic Research estimates that 10,000 Medicare Advantage patient lives could be saved every year if insurance companies did not delay and deny the care their doctor ordered as a method of increasing their profits.”

“Medicare (Dis)Advantage screws everyone” 

“Through the years we always thought that the enemy was the Republicans who were against Social Security and––like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan––against Medicare,” Stuart Eber, Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations (COMRO) president, remarked during the stand-in. “Then we woke up in the 21st century and we have Democrats and Republicans who are foisting Medicare Advantage on us.”

Eileen Moran, a member of the Professional Staff Congress’ (PSC) retiree executive committee said that because it’s propelled by the need to make a profit, she believes “Medicare (Dis)Advantage screws everyone.” 

“The PSC Social Safety Net early on was skeptical of the agreement that the [Municipal Labor Committee] made with the city both in 2014 and then again in 2018, because there was no way that you could save $600 million a year every year without denying care. But that’s the route that the MLC and the city took. And that’s why we’re here because we’re urging Biden to make sure that regular Medicare is protected––real Medicare, not Medicare (Dis)advantage. And if we begin to claw back that $140 billion that’s being wasted going into corporate executive salaries and advertising to lie to people, then we could actually go without a Medigap policy, and we could expand Medicare to cover dental, eyeglasses, hearing aids, etc––all of which is not covered now. But instead, we’re flushing money down the toilet to make people in the 1% richer and richer and richer.”

Schwartzberg said CROC believes Medicare could be financially buttressed with the funds the federal government has won in lawsuits against the largest insurance companies who, according to Physicians for a National Health Program, overbill Medicare Advantage. Many of these companies have had to pay million-dollar fines for fraudulent and inflated bills, according to a 2022 congressional report. “We are saying, take that money that the insurance companies are robbing––and there’s an estimate that it is up to $140 billion a year––and put it into Medicare. Why does Medicare make us pay 20%? Why don’t they have dental? Why don’t they have optical? Why can’t we take the money from the fraud and …make Medicare whole? That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re going up and delivering a letter to President Biden saying, this is what you can do.”

The post NYC retirees vow to fight Medicare privatization appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Arts education and creative programs are struggling to stay afloat amid major citywide budget cuts. ArtsConnection, an organization dedicated to bringing the arts to NYC youth through in-school, after-school, and community programming, faces its third round of cuts in the last three years. 

“Our budgets are shrinking,” said Dionne Thornton, director of teen programs and community engagement for ArtsConnection. “You add increasing student numbers with shrinking budgets, and then the increase in the cost of everything from food to tickets. We are put between a rock and a very hard place in terms of servicing our students to the best of our ability.”

For Thornton, serving students means providing experiences that only become possible through ArtsConnection programming. The organization prides itself on showcasing the variety of art available across the boroughs, especially art that reflects the diversity of its students. 

“They need to know that their identity is being expressed creatively around the city and in various ways,” said Thornton. “Providing that opportunity for them to say ‘Okay, I see myself here’ speaks as well to bringing equity inclusion into the conversation, into our curricula, our structure, and whom we hire.” 

But decreased funding hinders these efforts and leads to staffing shortages. 

“This year, we actually did have to downsize—downsize in the amount of work and also downsize in staff to be able to continue to run, so that has had a significant impact,” said Rachel Watts, executive director of ArtsConnection.

Watts explained that ArtsConnection relies heavily on funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). During her tenure, however, they have experienced significant budget cuts from the DCA. 

Until recently, they also regularly received federal funding, but Watts said they have been unable to secure such funding lately. 

“In terms of the government support, there was a significant shift in supporting me as a leader and the organization as a whole,” said Watts. 

The lack of government support is forcing ArtsConnection to seek funding elsewhere. Thornton said the organization has been combining budgets across departments and asking for favors from community partners.

“For example, we do community activities with cultural partners like The Shed, where we’re not paying base rental fees that we would otherwise have to pay. That frees up some amount of money,” said Thornton. “There’s a lot of sacrifice across organizations to try to continue to do this work.” 

For teaching artists who provide lessons and residencies, funding is crucial for their survival. 

“That’s how I make my money,” said Kim Grier-Martinez. “I went from having a roster of schools and teaching to almost not having a roster because of budget cuts.”

While cuts threaten the volume of ArtsConnection’s programming, Watts said the quality remains consistent. She said art offers young people a range of skills that benefit their day-to-day existence, which illustrates the importance of arts education. 

“When you practice the arts, you’re learning to problem-solve,” she said. “You’re dealing with ambiguity. You’re learning to work with other people as an ensemble; you’re learning to think and know when to step up and when to step back, and those are valuable skills of being a fully formed human.”

Thornton echoed similar sentiments, looking toward the future of arts education at ArtsConnection and throughout the city in the face of budget cuts. “There isn’t humanity without the arts,” she said. “We are creating space for young people to explore, engage, and connect with the arts. Come hell or high water, we’re going to figure out how to do that.”

The post ArtsConnection struggles to bring art to NYC youth amid major citywide budget cuts appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

Folks who park their cars illegally in NYC will no longer have to deal with those famous boots that lock your vehicle’s wheels: the NYPD has just launched a new pilot program that involves the use of a plastic yellow box that gets suctioned to the windshield, making it impossible to see while driving.  

Aptly dubbed the Barnacle after the marine crustacean that quite literally attaches itself to rocks, ships and other animals as it grows, the tool is already in use around Queens and will soon expand to the rest of the city. 

According to CBS News, one Colin J. Heffron St., the executive chairman of Barnacle Parking, actually “invented the device with a friend after getting one too many boots on his car.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by C⑧NFIDENTIAL (@carsconfidential)

The Barnacle sounds like a pretty nifty creation in terms of usage. Officials simply have to unfold it, place it on a car’s windshield and wait for the two giant suction cups to adhere to the glass through a self-contained pump.

The pros: it takes the NYPD less than a minute to install each Barnacle, a big time saver compared to the up-to-three-minutes that setting up a traditional boot require. The device also boasts GPS technology so officials will always know where the products are and, according to NBC4, an alarm sounds whenever someone tries to remove the object from the windshield. 

It’s also important to note that, unlike getting booted, which usually requires your car to be towed, getting “Barnacle-d” is a relatively easy situation to solve: the driver can scan the QR code that is plastered on the device, input his or her license plate, pay the $185 fine and then punch in the given code to release the Barnacle. The tool can be folded up and will then have to be dropped off to whatever address the guidelines will provide one with.

There are some cons to keep in mind, though. Turns out that New Yorkers with a flair for the very dangerous have attempted driving away with the Barnacle still suctioned to their windshield, for example. How… very New York of them.

* This article was originally published here