Flushing (New York)

Saturday

9 a.m. Assemblywoman Ellen Young will host a tax free preparation day for low-income clients at the YWCA, 42-07 Parsons Boulevard in Flushing, Queens.

10 a.m. Rainbow PUSH Coalition of New York will hold a Bridge Building Rally for Justice at the Metropolitan Community United Methodist, 1975 Madison Avenue at 126th Street.

10 a.m. Council member Bill De Blasio will sponsor a three-day electronic waste drive at J.J. Byrne Memorial Park, Fifth Avenue and 4th Street, in Brooklyn.

10:30 a.m. Hispanic Federation and Entergy will host a health fair at the Broad Street Ballroom, 41 Broad Street between Exchange Place and Beaver Street.

11 a.m. Animal rights groups will protest opening day of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue near 33rd Street.

12:30 p.m. Immigrants will be offered free legal help on citizenship applications at The Chinatown YMCA, 100 Hester Street between Eldridge and Allen streets.

6 p.m. Barack Obama will be speaking to constituents in an online video conference for his Community Kickoff, marking the beginning of his grassroots community organizing campaign. Supporters and fundraisers will host parties in their private residences and in bars all over the city. For more information, visit My.BarackObama.com.

Hip-hop producer Timbaland hosts a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Miami, Florida.

John Edwards fundraises in Cary, North Carolina.

Barack Obama campaigns in Iowa.

Joe Biden campaigns in Sumter, South Carolina.

Sunday

12 p.m. The Nation's Alexander Cockburn will speak about his life and career on C-SPAN2.

Barack Obama campaigns in Sioux City, Iowa.

Monday

11 a.m. Congressmen Gregory W. Meeks and Anthony Weiner, Assemblymen Audrey Pheffer and Michele Titus and Councilmen Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr. and James Sanders, Jr. will start their Rockaway listening tour in Queens at the Church of God Christian Academy, 1332 Central Avenue followed by stops at the Sea Side Hammels Seniors, 90-01 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, at noon; the Far Rockaway Chamber of Commerce, 253 Beach 116th Street, at 1 p.m.; the P.S./M.S. 333 Goldie Maple Academy, 365 Beach 56th Street, at 3 p.m.; and the Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation, 1920 Mott Avenue at 4 p.m.

The Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights and advocacy organization, will launch a new blog.

-- Gillian Reagan

• The Upper East Side zip code 10021 is getting chopped up three different ways by the U.S. Postal Service. Something tells us the two new codes will become just as adverse to Aby Rosen as the original one.
[NY Sun]
• The Shake Shack opened two days early. Take that, lingering winter!
[Eater]
• Daily Reminder That More Than 6 Million New Yorkers Don't Put Up With High Costs of Manhattan Housing: Out in Flushing, Queens, a five-bedroom Colonial with a five-car driveway and a pool recently sold for $620,000. The median sales price for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan was $649,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to Miller Samuel.
[OuterB]
• The Real Deal's hosting its third annual New Development Forum on Tuesday night at Lincoln Center. You don't have tickets? God, you're pathetic.
[Real Deal] - Tom Acitelli
• 0 comments

Daily News editor Dawn Eden writes in response to criticism of a recent piece in her section that, to me, seemed to gloss over the politics of abortion, and that led a reader to apparently discover that the profile subject was spreading misinformation:

"Moral rehab for reporters" --I like that. Thanks for the plug, Ben.

Regarding Ms. Chapman’s grievances, I stand by Colin O’Brien’s excellent story.

As the story states, abortion is not Bridge to Life’s mission. The center has helped hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women support babies whom they would not be able to support otherwise.

Regarding Ms. Chapman’s other criticism in the comments, she is correct that Yahoo Yellow Pages does not list 11 abortion clinics in College Point itself. I found that statistic via searching for abortion clinics in Flushing, Queens, which includes College Point. Here are the results of that search. To be accurate, should have said that there are 11 abortion clinics in the College Point area and the omission was my mistake. Nonetheless, the truth remains that it is easier to find an abortion clinic in Flushing than it is to find a Starbucks. But ask any one of those abortion clinics to give you diapers, clothes, food, toys, and a housing referral, and you’d have better luck asking Starbucks for a free grande mochaccino. That’s why Bridge to Life fills an important need in the community and, in my mind, deserves all the recognition it gets.

Ben, I hope that while you were searching for Big Town , you also found the very first one, on Frank Jump, a schoolteacher who has been living with HIV for over 20 years. Also, check out today’s story (which will be available here) about former slave Simon Deng’s Sudan Freedom Walk.

Joe's Shanghai has had a lot of great press over the past two years.  read more »