General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
NEW YORK (AP) — State Sen. Jose Peralta, a New York lawmaker who was the first Dominican-American elected to the Senate, has died. The Democrat was 47 and nearing the end of nearly two decades in office after losing a primary this fall.
Peralta died Wednesday night at Elmhurst Hospital, spokesman Chris Sosa said. The cause of death has not been determined.
Peralta’s wife, Evelyn, told reporters he had felt pressure behind his ears and headaches for a week or more and had seen a doctor, according to local news outlets. But his condition didn’t raise alarms until he developed a fever Tuesday and became disoriented and had trouble breathing Wednesday, when he was taken to a hospital, she said.
His wife said the family believes his illness was an infection but is awaiting autopsy results.
“We really don’t know what happened,” she said. “… He just took a turn for the worst.”
Peralta represented parts of Queens in New York’s Senate for eight years and served in the state Assembly for eight years before that. As a senator, he was a member of a breakaway Democratic group that, for a time, formed a coalition with Republicans to control the chamber.
News of his death brought an outpouring of sympathy from officials and the soon-to-be-senator who ousted him in September’s primary.
“When I met him in 2003, I saw a world of promise for our community,” Sen.-elect Jessica Ramos wrote on Twitter. “Though years later we’d disagree on tackling the issues, I know in his heart he loved his community. He was a true public servant.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called Peralta “a relentless advocate for Queens” who “fought tirelessly to make a difference for others.”
State Assembly Speaker and fellow Democrat Carl Heastie recalled Peralta’s commitment to public schools, gun safety and immigrant rights.
“His constituents remained his top priority” even after his primary loss, Heastie said in a statement, noting that Peralta was coordinating a flu shot clinic in his district and distributing Thanksgiving turkeys to the needy only days ago.
Peralta started his state political career in 2002, when he was elected to the Assembly. He won a special election in 2010 to the state Senate and was re-elected in four general elections.
He later became a member of the now-defunct Independent Democratic Conference, the splinter group that helped maintain Republican control of the chamber. Cuomo brokered a deal earlier this year to reunify Senate Democrats, but six of the IDC’s eight former members were soon ousted in party primaries.
Peralta’s survivors include his wife and two sons.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
BERLIN (AP) — At least five people were killed Wednesday when a bus headed from Berlin to Switzerland came off a highway in eastern Germany and ended up on its side, authorities said.
ΒΟSTON - The newly-elected Metropolitan Iakovos of Mexico, who was enthroned on Saturday, March 16th at the Cathedral of Aghia Sophia in Mexico City, gave his first interview as Metropolitan to The National Herald, which he described as a "historic newspaper," one he has known since childhood, as have his close relatives.
BALTIMORE - Authorities have released the identities of the two people recovered from the water Wednesday morning at the site of the Baltimore bridge collapse.
ATHENS — Police in Greece clashed late Wednesday with Communist-backed demonstrators who tried to prevent a concert by U.
ATHENS – Greece recorded a huge improvement in the business environment rankings of The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) among 82 countries worldwide.