News Of The Neighborhoods
COMPILED BY LIZ GOFF Cheesy Recall

New York State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker last week advised consumers not to purchase or consume "Queseria Mexico Queso Fresco Fresh White Cheese," produced by Peregrina Cheese Corporation of Brooklyn.

Hooker said the cheese, which comes in a foilwrapped, 14-ounce net weight package coded as "1971", could be contaminated with Listeria, which can cause Listerosis, a disease that displays flu-like symptoms in healthy individuals. In extreme cases, the disease can cause meningitis and blood poisoning and may result in stillbirths in pregnant women.

To date, Department of Agriculture officials have not associated any cases of the disease or its symptoms with the product, officials said.

Recycler Scofflaws Strictly Enforced Beginning 2008

Department of Sanitation of New York (DSNY) officials last week said they are sending a Recycle Swat Team to Queens next year, to slap repeat offenders with increased fines and subject them to public humiliation.

Homeowners who regularly fail to recycle will be ordered to separate all their trash into clear plastic bags, and endure routine inspections by DSNY personnel, said DSNY Waste Prevention Director Robert Lange, "This is for what I would describe as the most egregious violators."

The program, already underway in Brooklyn, will be expanded citywide in 2008.

DSNY officials said despite repeated warnings and community outreach efforts, New Yorkers only separate 12 percent of their garbage for recycling.

FreshDirect 'Immigrants' Laid Off

Officials at FreshDirect, the online grocery supply firm, have issued pink slips to scores of immigrant employees as part of a crackdown on undocumented workers at the company's Long Island City workplace.

The former employees said company officials demanded to see documents proving they are in the U.S. legally. If the workers were unable to prove their legal immigration status, they were laid off.

FreshDirect officials said they are acting under guidelines from U.S. immigration officials, who initiated the crackdown as part of an investigation of illegal workers. A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration Service would not comment on the investigation.

Jim Moore, FreshDirect senior vice president for business affairs, said in a prepared statement that the company is "cooperating with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in its review of employment documentation."

Phony Vet Pleads Guilty

A Queens man who served in Vietnam and made the rounds of military gatherings and galas with a chest full of medals pinned to his dress blues, last week pled guilty to posing as a U.S. war hero.

Louis Lowell McGuinn, 68, one of the first people to be prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act, which was enacted in January 2007, admitted in Manhattan Federal Court to wearing phony service medals, including the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star, despite the fact they were never awarded to him.

McGuinn, of Flushing, is facing up to six months in prison and will be sentenced on February 12, 2008.