Wife hid $800k, sues bank for blabbing to husband

Those of you who keep a bank account secret from your partner should take note of this one....

A Great Neck, NY, wife has filed a lawsuit against Chase Bank after an employee told her husband about her personal $800,000 bank account. Nazita Aminpour, 43, a dentist, said her husband, David Shamash, 47, didn’t know about her private stash of cash until a Chase employee cold-called their home to provide investment advice. Her husband answered the phone and the jig was up.

The Long Island dentist is suing Chase bank to recover the more than $150,000 that she says she had to share with her hubby after the bank employee let it slip that she had a huge account balance he didn't know about.

Nazita Aminpour, 43, and her husband, David Shamash, 47, have a joint account at a Chase branch in Kew Gardens, Queens, along with a custodial one for their three children. But Aminpour also had a secret stash account of $800,000 at the branch in her name only, according to a suit filed last week in Queens Supreme Court.

A bank employee trying to be helpful spilled the beans to Shamash by cold-calling him and telling him he should take his small fortune out of the low-interest account and make other investments with Chase, the suit alleges.

Shamash said he knew nothing about the money.

"Shamash then began harassing [Aminpour], asking for money from the funds that he can invest in the stock market and to cover a margin call he had on his stock account," the wife's suit says.

Shamash began "alienating" Aminpour, so she forked over $155,000 "to save her marriage and restore order in the marital home," the suit says.

She says the bank placed her in a "situation of duress."

She also claims in the suit that the bank violated federal privacy laws that "prohibit the disclosure of non-public, personal information."

Aminpour wants Chase to cover her loss and shell out for her lawyers' fees.

A recent bank statement submitted with the court papers shows her with a balance of more than $1 million -- 25 percent higher than in March last year, when her husband had his hand out.

Chase Bank is declining to comment because the matter is currently under litigation.

Official who OK'd N.Y. flyby accused of 'felony stupidity'

After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homeland Security adviser questioned whether the man who approved the flyby should remain in his White House office.

Fran Townsend, who advised President George W. Bush for more than three years, labeled the decision as "crass insensitivity" in the wake of 9/11.

"I'd call this felony stupidity. This is probably not the right job for Mr. Caldera to be in if he didn't understand the likely reaction of New Yorkers, of the mayor," Townsend said Tuesday on CNN's show "American Morning."

Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, quickly apologized for Monday's incident after the planes prompted workers and residents to evacuate buildings in New York and New Jersey.
"Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," Caldera said. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption."

The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot.

An angry Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it "defies the imagination" that an agency would schedule the photo shoot so near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

President Obama also reportedly expressed outrage. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the FAA's decision to not announce the fly-by "borders on being either cruel or very, very stupid."

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River.

The YouTube video shows dozens of people standing in a parking lot, watching the plane approach. As it nears, they begin to run. Someone unleashes an expletive. "Run, run!" says one person. "Oh my God," cries another.

Two officials said the White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight.

"The president was furious about it," one of the officials said.

On Tuesday, President Obama told reporters, "It was a mistake. It was something we found out about along with all of you. And it will not happen again."

Bloomberg said he, too, was perturbed.

"I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told," he said, calling the FAA's decision to withhold details about the flight "ridiculous" and "poor judgment."

"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination," he said. "Had we known, I would have asked them not to."

Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office three blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, called the flight an "absolute travesty."

"There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us," she said. "I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack."

Garcia-Rose, who works with nearly two dozen patients ages 15 to 47, said she was inundated with phone calls from patients.

"They're traumatized. They're asking 'How could this happen?' They're nervous. Their anxiety levels are high," she said.

Garcia-Rose said she is considering filing a class-action suit against the government for sanctioning the plane's unannounced flight.

"I believe the government has done something really wrong," she said.

Capt. Anna Carpenter of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland said local law enforcement agencies and the FAA had been given notice of the exercise.

New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted about the flight "with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it."

Here is a Youtube video of the plane flying low over New York

To fly a plane, this close over the general public, is just plain stupid, this was done as a photo opportunity to "update photos of air force one"?? are you kidding me? this couldn't be done in the air over some air force base away from civilian population? a photograph of a plane in the air is a photograph of a plane in the air regardless of where it is, isn't it?

Thoughts??

2 would-be passengers feel relief, sadness: 'It could have been me'

One person credits bad weather, The other a long line....

Those are the reasons two would-be passengers did not fly on Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Thursday outside Buffalo, killing all 49 people aboard and one on the ground.

"It could have been me," David Becony said from his home in Springville, New York, as he watched television reports on the crash and its fiery aftermath. "My wife would have been with all those families" who had loved ones on the plane.

Becony missed the flight from Newark-Liberty International Airport to Buffalo Niagara International Airport because bad weather had delayed his earlier flight from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Newark.

Unable to get another flight and unable to find a hotel room near the airport, the supervisor for a demolition company decided to camp out on a seat in the terminal.

When he found out the plane he was to have taken had crashed, he called his wife, Marti, at their home outside Buffalo. "He broke down, and I broke down," she said. "We just couldn't believe it."

Becony spent a sleepless night in Newark and then returned Friday morning to Buffalo -- on another Continental Connection flight.

It wasn't a smooth ride, Becony said of his Friday flight. "It was weird, shaky, knowing it was the same type of aircraft."

That type of aircraft was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Connection's regional service.

"I'm still in shock, really," said 49-year-old Becony, a Catholic. "God was looking over me."

Becony is keeping his unused ticket for Flight 3407 as a reminder of how close he came.

His wife said friends and family called all morning to check on his safety.

"It is wow," she said. "It's been unbelievable. We're happy. We're sad for everybody else."

Asked how her husband's close call would affect the family, which includes two children and two grandchildren, she said, "I think we'll probably appreciate each other a lot more."

Susan Reinhardt, 49, a marketer for Verizon, had a confirmed seat on a 4:30 p.m. flight from Newark to Buffalo, but it was delayed for four hours because of bad weather, and she was looking for alternatives.

Using her Blackberry to search Continental's Web site, she noted that the 7 p.m. flight was delayed by only about 20 minutes, so she asked the gate agent whether she could get on the standby list for that flight.

"He said, 'It's pretty open ... easy eight standby seats. You won't have a problem getting on it,' she said . "I said, 'Can you put me on standby?' He said, 'No, you've got to go on the customer service line.' "

But that line "was a gazillion deep because of all the delays," enough to dissuade her from making the switch. "I said, ehhh."

When she heard about the crash, Reinhardt was happy for her good fortune but shaken nevertheless. "The heart-wrenching piece for me was, I was at the gate talking to this gate agent, and a young woman came up and she wanted to know: Should she stay on the 7 o'clock flight because of all the delays? Did the gate agent think the 4:30 was going to get out before the 7?"

"He said, 'No, you will still get in before the 4:30,' and she said, 'OK, I'm going to stay on the 7 o'clock; I'm calling my boyfriend.' And she did."

For a while, the two women stood together at the gate, both of them using their Blackberries to study the flight information. Then, they went their separate ways. "I said, 'Good for you. Have a nice trip.' That's the killer for me."

Reinhardt said her flight was uneventful. She and the other passengers landed at the airport in Buffalo shortly before 11 p.m., oblivious to what had happened just minutes before and a few miles away.

"I walked out, and I saw all these people standing there, and I'm thinking, 'It's Thursday at 11 at night. Why are all these people in Buffalo? Who are they waiting for?'

"They were waiting for that plane that didn't come in. Of course, I didn't know that until I got to my car, and then my phone starts ringing."

Reinhardt said the close call has made her "a little more philosophical where, if it wasn't my time, OK, it wasn't my time. What is the meaning of my life now? What am I supposed to do because it wasn't my time? I've had several people say, you know, sometimes you can't ask why. It just is the way it is."

Reinhardt said she plans to go to one of the memorial services. "I think I need to do that for some kind of closure."

New York Yankees offer 25¢ bleacher seats for 2009 opening game at new Yankee Stadium

The price of a bleacher seat for the exhibition openers at the new Yankee Stadium will cost far less than a soda at the concession stands.

The Yankees have announced that bleacher seats for the games against the Chicago Cubs on April 3 and 4 will sell for 25 cents and grandstand tickets will be $1.10(US funds) .

That matches the prices for the opener of the original Yankee Stadium against Boston on April 18, 1923.

Field level seats at the new 52,325-seat ballpark will cost $45 to $50, main level $20 to $45 and terrace level $20 to $35. Full season-ticket holders will get the seats for free, and those who bought partial season-tickets will be given a pre-sale.

The regular-season opener is scheduled for April 16 against Cleveland.

Tickets cost as much as $2,500 a game during the regular season.

Did Saturday Night Live mock the disabled?

Legally blind New York Gov. David Paterson lambasted a "Saturday Night Live" skit for portraying him as an aimless bumbler. But those who have watched the sharp-witted Paterson over his two decades in public service know how he might have deadpanned in the past: I didn't see it.

The skit, that aired Saturday featured "SNL" cast member Fred Armisen as Paterson, who must appoint someone to replace Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Armisen said he has three criteria for filling the job: economic experience, upstate influence and someone who is disabled and unprepared for the job - like himself. He held up a chart illustrating the state's job losses upside down.

"I don't mind that they make fun of me, but I thought it was important of me to stand up for people who don't have a voice and don't have a job," Paterson said.

Marc Liepis, a spokesman for NBC, which broadcasts "Saturday Night Live," said the network would not comment.

Paterson has used self-deprecating humour for years, riffing on his own blindness regularly, even on national television. The patter has only increased praise from advocates for the disabled black man who worked his way through Albany's stodgy Senate to be elected lieutenant governor and in March take over as governor.

Some of Paterson's greatest hits include:

-At his inauguration after taking over for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned amid a sex scandal, Paterson joked that he was brought in early the first time he spoke in the Assembly Hall to get used to the massive podium "so I didn't break anything."

-In a September appearance on "The Colbert Report," he was asked whether he would waive host Stephen Colbert's traffic tickets and replied: "I don't see traffic."

-When running for lieutenant governor with Spitzer in 2006, he described Spitzer as the idea guy and himself as the legislative technician, "because I sure don't have the vision."

Lee Miringoff, director of The Marist Poll, which regularly gauges public reaction to politicians, said the reaction to the SNL skit seemed out of character for Paterson and potentially unwise for any politician.

"I can't recall the last time a politician has reacted negatively to being lampooned on 'Saturday Night Live,"' Miringoff said. "It humanizes them. At least your name is on the marquee."

Paterson lost sight in his left eye and much of his right after an infection as an infant. He can see shapes and usually recognizes people as they approach, but he can read for only a few minutes at a time and must hold text close to his face.

Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, said the portrayal suggesting Paterson was befuddled and disoriented because of his blindness is "absolutely wrong."

I really want to hear your thoughts on this...What do you think? Am I just taking this the wrong way??