Richard Khavkine

New York

Editor at The Chief Leader

Editor @TheChiefLeader. Lapsed line cook, cab driver, messenger.

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Articles

Nespoli, longtime San Man, retires

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/9/25 When Department of Sanitation workers went on strike in February 1968, Harry Nespoli was hard at work. On the gridiron. Nespoli, who had graduated from John Jay High School in Brooklyn a few years earlier, had gone to college in Kansas, starring as a running back. He then played with the minor league Bridgeport Jets, in Connecticut, the New York Jets’ minor league affiliate.
500 bodegas to get 'SilentShield' panic buttons

1 week ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/9/25 Following a series of robberies, stabbings and killings inside city bodegas that have workers at the small groceries concerned for their safety and that of their customers, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday that the city would fund the installation of ‘SilentShield’ panic buttons in about 500 of the stores across the five boroughs.
Transit crews who worked at ground zero still awaiting disability pension benefit

2 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 5/2/25 Philip Ronnie Shpiller retired from his 30-year career with the city as an emergency-response plumber with the New York City Transit Authority in 2012. But in a very real sense, the work never left him. Shpiller and dozens of his colleagues at the authority had labored with firefighters, cops and other first responders at ground zero following the September 11 terror attacks, sifting through still-smoldering rubble over the course of six long days and nights.
Unions rip adminstration's decision to halt wind farm project

3 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 4/25/25 A chorus of criticism from unions and state officials followed the Trump administration’s immediate halt last week to the build-out of Empire Wind 1, the wind farm off the southwest coast of Long Island that had already generated more than 1,000 union jobs and was expected to employ thousands more. The secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, cited a memo issued by President Trump Jan.
City retirees health takes center stage at mayoral forum

3 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 4/25/25 All but one of the seven candidates for mayor who assembled at the CUNY Graduate Center to debate health care and other topics were adamant on the topic of most interest to attendees: Municipal retirees must be able to keep the health care benefits they were promised when they signed up to work for the city.
Ex-Rikers CO gets 6-month prison term for smuggling scheme

4 weeks ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Ex-Rikers CO gets 6-month prison term for smuggling schemeBY RICHARD KHAVKINEPosted 4/18/25 A former Rikers correction officer has been sentenced to six months in prison for her role in a narcotics-smuggling scheme at the penal island. Ghislaine Barrientos, of Mount Vernon, had pleaded guilty in January to federal bribery charges for conspiring to smuggle cocaine, smokable synthetic cannabinoids known as “K2” and food to inmates at the Robert N.
Sergeants union, city finally reach deal

1 month ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Sergeants union, city finally reach dealBY RICHARD KHAVKINEPosted 4/18/25 After nearly two years of hard bargaining, the union representing NYPD sergeants and the city have chiseled a tentative contract agreement. The retroactive 5-year deal, which will be put to a vote of the Sergeants Benevolent Association's rank and file in the coming days, would net sergeants who were in the rank December 2021 and who work through Dec. 9 a compounded raise of nearly 19 percent.
‘Grace period’ would allow fired state COs to get their jobs back

1 month ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 4/18/25 The more than 2,000 state correction officers fired by Governor Kathy Hochul for taking part in an illegal strike earlier this year would be given an opportunity to get their jobs back, according to legislation introduced by two Upstate lawmakers.
NYPD sergeants union, city remain dealdlocked contract

1 month ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 4/18/25 The NYPD sergeant’s union is pushing back on efforts by city officials to institute a pilot program that would have its members work 12-shifts as a condition to settle outstanding contract issues. The president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Vincent Vallelong, said the proposal to have his members, whom he says are already overburdened given their declining numbers, work the longer shifts would risk further burnout and also risk their health and safety.
‘Strongest’ pay discrimination suit goes ahead

1 month ago | thechiefleader.com | Richard Khavkine

Posted 4/11/25 A pay and discrimination lawsuit by 13 current and former Department of Sanitation workers against the city will go ahead following a federal judge’s finding that the plaintiffs have standing under the city’s human rights law and federal discrimination statutes.