Google Play cleans out nasty apps, updates its look

Suzanne Choney , NBC News ? ? ? 1 hr.

Google Play, the app store for Android phones and tablets, is not only rolling out a cleaner look, it's cleaning house, so far removing a reported 60,000 apps that were of questionable quality.

"The largest category of apps they cracked down was the MP3s and ringtones, which were heavily abused by slightly dodgy apps," Chester Wisniewski, Sophos senior security advisor, told NBC News Tuesday.

The apps "weren't technically illegal" as to violate Google Play rules, but were "heavily intrusive marketing vehicles that barely delivered on their promise," he said.

Google Play has 675,000 apps, and unlike "Uncle Apple," Wisniewski said, Google does "not prescreen apps using humans, there's an automated system" for apps to be allowed into the store.

The purging of the apps, he said, was done in February. "The fact that Google got rid of tens of thousands of apps that were duping people, upsetting users, is great. What we don't know is how have they changed their processes to make sure those apps don't come back in a week."

Problems with questionable ? and sometimes dangerous ? apps were becoming such an issue that in February 2012, Google introduced "Bouncer," a scanning service designed to identify malicious apps in Google Play.

NBC News has contacted Google for comment about the recent purge, and will update this post when we hear back.

When Bouncer was introduced, a Google Android engineering exec noted on the company's blog:

While it?s not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market - and we know the rate is declining significantly.

Wisniewski said to be safe, Android users and buyers should make sure they have the latest version of Android that they can get on their devices. Phones and tablets with Android 4.0 and higher "have a whole ton of safety and security improvements on them," he said.

"There's still a whole bunch of cheaper ones out there running older OS's that are more vulnerable ? Android 2.2, or 2.1 ? really, really old versions of Android that are more vulnerable."

In the meantime, Google Play group product manager Michael Siliski shared news of the app store redesign, writing on a blog that the new look "focuses on bigger images that jump off the page. Similarly themed content is grouped together so you can hone in on a magazine to read or an app to try."

Google has also "simplified purchasing so you can breeze through checkout," he wrote.

The new look starts rolling out immediately for Android phones and tablets that use Android 2.2. and higher, and will be available around the world "in the next few weeks."

Check out Technology, GadgetBox, TODAYTech and InGame on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a85c562/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Ctechnolog0Cgoogle0Eplay0Ecleans0Eout0Enasty0Eapps0Eupdates0Eits0Elook0E1C9279171/story01.htm

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Jennifer Lawrence Sex Tape Tops Fans' Celebrity Wish List, Survey Finds

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As Aereo Fights A Clone, Fox Threatens To Go To Cable If Courts Continue To Rule In Aereo's Favor

This is a story about multiple lawsuits, a clone, and yet another tale of David vs. Goliath, except this time David and Goliath are kind of the same person. After winning in the courts against a cohort of major broadcast networks just last week, two major problems have befallen the streaming TV startup Aereo. The first is a clone called AereoKiller LLC, which claims to operate under similar technology on the West Coast. The second problem is that News Corp has threatened to turn Fox into a cable channel, putting it out of the reach of Aereo's technology, in the wake of the recent Second Circuit court decision.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/UGgdbDHgkFg/

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Neutrons help explain ozone poisoning and links to thousands of premature deaths each year

Apr. 9, 2013 ? A research team from Birkbeck, University of London, Royal Holloway University and Uppsala University in Sweden, have helped explain how ozone causes severe respiratory problems and thousands of cases of premature death each year by attacking the fatty lining of our lungs.

In a study published in Langmuir, the team used neutrons from the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and the UK's ISIS Neutron Source to observe how even a relatively low dose of ozone attacks lipid molecules that line the lung's surface. The presence of the lipid molecules is crucial for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as they prevent the wet surfaces of the lung from collapsing.

Ozone is mostly produced in the upper atmosphere as the sun's UV light splits oxygen molecules, but it can also form at ground level from burning fossil fuels. It is known to harm our respiratory systems and is linked to asthma, bronchitis, heart attacks, and other cardiopulmonary problems. A recent study published by the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences found that stricter ozone emission regulations in the US could prevent over a thousand premature deaths and over a million complaints of respiratory problems each year [1].

However, it remains unclear how exactly ozone causes this damage. One theory is it attacks the lung's surface layers which consist of a layer of water sitting below a mixture of fatty molecules called lipids and proteins that are together known as lung surfactant. The surfactant aids the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide during breathing. It does this by reducing surface tension, i.e. the attraction that molecules feel for each other, in the liquid surface layer above, causing these fluids to spread out and provide a greater surface area for gas exchange.

Critically, a lack of adequate surfactant, a deficiency often found naturally in babies born prematurely, can produce similar respiratory health complaints to those mentioned above, even resulting in death in some cases.

This link was further established in 2011 by the same team from Birkbeck who demonstrated that ozone reacted very strongly with the lipid layer, damaging it. However, what exactly is going on and how these reactions might impede the surfactant from doing its job was still unclear.

To investigate further Dr Katherine Thompson from Birkbeck and her team ran neutron reflection studies at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and ISIS Neutron Source in Oxfordshire on an artificial lipid monolayer, created to mimic the lung surface. The lipid layer was exposed to a dilute gaseous mixture of ozone, and changes in its structure or surface tension were studied in real time. The concentration of ozone was around 100 parts per billion (0.1 ppm), equivalent to what you might get in a polluted city in the summer.

The use of neutrons meant that Dr Thompson could label different parts of the sample using deuteration, a process whereby a heavier isotope of hydrogen, deuterium, is introduced and contrasted with undeuterated samples to pick out the location of hydrogen atoms. This allowed them to monitor different parts of the molecule separately as they reacted with the ozone.

Using this technique Dr Thompson's team showed that one of the lipid's upwards-facing tails, known as the C9 portion, breaks off during the ozone degradation and is lost from the surface completely. The portion still attached to the lipid head then re-orientates itself and penetrates into the air?water interface. The loss of the C9 portion causes an initial decrease in surface tension which temporarily increases surface area for gas exchange and efficient respiration. However this effect is short-lived as the penetration of the rest of the molecule into the water results in a slow but pronounced rise in surface tension, producing an overall net increase.

Note:

1. Health Benefits from Large-Scale Ozone Reduction in the United States -- Berman et all, Oct 2012

2. Royal Holloway is one of the UK's leading universities. We have a distinguished history of world-changing research and innovative teaching, with an international outlook. Our close-knit community enables students to benefit from a personalised experience, with staff collaborating across facilities to enhance health, science, culture and security on a global scale. Set in 135 acres of parkland in Surrey, our campus is recognised as one of the most beautiful in the world, and the pioneering spirit of our founders continues to inspire teaching and research today.

3. Birkbeck, University of London, is a world-class research and teaching institution, a vibrant centre of academic excellence and London's only specialist provider of evening higher education.Our flexible approach attracts many non-traditional students and we offer them the opportunity to fit university studies around busy lives. Birkbeck encourages applications from students without traditional qualifications and it has a wide range of programmes to suit every entry level.18,000 students study at Birkbeck every year. They join a community that is as diverse and cosmopolitan as London's population.

4. About ILL and ISIS -- the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble and ISIS at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK are international research centres which have led the world in neutron scattering science and technology. They operate intense neutron sources, feeding beams of neutrons to a suites of 30 to 40 high-performance instruments that are constantly upgraded. Each year 1,200 researchers from over 40 countries visit each of ISIS and ILL to conduct research into condensed matter physics, (green) chemistry, biology, nuclear physics, and materials science. The UK, along with France and Germany is an associate and major funder of the IL; ISIS is owned and operated by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.

5. STFC -- The Science and Technology Facilities Council is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security. The Council has a broad science portfolio and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, microelectronics, wafer scale manufacturing, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production, radio communications and radar.

The next step for Katherine and her colleagues is to look at adapting the model, to represent the condition of people with various forms of chronic respiratory problem and attempt to understand why ozone seems to affect them worse than others.

Dr Katherine Thompson, Birkbeck, University of London said: "We are not completely sure what causes the second stage of tension increase. The damaged lipid might be slowly dissolving in the water and leaving the interface entirely, or a slow reaction might be occurring that is damaging another part of the lipid not directly attacked by ozone. What we can say is that the slow increase in surface tension that occurs as a result of the ozone exposure would certainly damage the ability of our lungs to process oxygen and carbon dioxide, and could account for the respiratory problems associated with ozone poisoning."

Dr Martin King from Royal Holloway University said: "This important study shows how a key air pollutant has a detrimental effect on the human lung and could impair breathing. It is essential that a complex mixture of air pollutants -- for example Ozone and nitrogen oxides -- and the effect of inhaled particulate matter on the lung, is looked at next."

Dr Richard Campbell from the Institut Laue-Langevin said: "Neutrons are an ideal tool for studying biological materials, particularly their reactions and interactions on surfaces and across interfaces. They are highly sensitive to lighter atoms such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen that make up these organic molecules and isotopic labelling can be used to determine the structure and composition of interfacial layers. As one of the world's brightest neutron sources, the ILL has a long history of modelling important micro-scale processes that take place inside our bodies and providing ground-breaking insights that inform the next generation of treatments."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Royal Holloway, University of London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/P39my8Nuvq4/130409211934.htm

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Broadcasters worry about 'Zero TV' homes

This undated image provided by James Weitze shows a truck driver taking a self portrait on the road. Weitze satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He sleeps most of the time in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he's an extreme case and probably wouldn't fit into Nielsen's definition of a household in the first place. But he's watching Netflix enough to keep up on shows like ?Weeds,? ?30 Rock,? ?Arrested Development,? ?Breaking Bad,? ?It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? and ?Sons of Anarchy.? (AP Photo/James Weitze)

This undated image provided by James Weitze shows a truck driver taking a self portrait on the road. Weitze satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He sleeps most of the time in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he's an extreme case and probably wouldn't fit into Nielsen's definition of a household in the first place. But he's watching Netflix enough to keep up on shows like ?Weeds,? ?30 Rock,? ?Arrested Development,? ?Breaking Bad,? ?It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? and ?Sons of Anarchy.? (AP Photo/James Weitze)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Some people have had it with TV. They've had enough of the 100-plus channel universe. They don't like timing their lives around network show schedules. They're tired of $100-plus monthly bills.

A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.

Winning back the Zero TV crowd will be one of the many issues broadcasters discuss at their national meeting, called the NAB Show, taking place this week in Las Vegas.

While show creators and networks make money from this group's viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.

"Getting broadcast programing on all the gizmos and gadgets ? like tablets, the backseats of cars, and laptops ? is hugely important," says Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Although Wharton says more than 130 TV stations in the U.S. are broadcasting live TV signals to mobile devices, few people have the tools to receive them. Most cellphones require an add-on device known as a dongle, but these gadgets are just starting to be sold.

Among this elusive group of consumers is Jeremy Carsen Young, a graphic designer, who is done with traditional TV. Young has a working antenna sitting unplugged on his back porch in Roanoke, Va., and he refuses to put it on the roof.

"I don't think we'd use it enough to justify having a big eyesore on the house," the 30-year-old says.

Online video subscriptions from Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. ? which cost less than $15 a month combined ? have given him and his partner plenty to watch. They take in back episodes of AMC's "The Walking Dead" and The CW's "Supernatural," and they don't need more, he says.

He doesn't mind waiting as long as a year for the current season's episodes to appear on streaming services, even if his friends accidently blurt out spoilers in the meantime. With regular television, he might have missed the latest developments, anyway.

"By the time it gets to me to watch, I've kind of forgotten about that," he says.

For the first time, TV ratings giant Nielsen took a close look at this category of viewer in its quarterly video report released in March. It plans to measure their viewing of new TV shows starting this fall, with an eye toward incorporating the results in the formula used to calculate ad rates.

"Our commitment is to being able to measure the content wherever it is," says Dounia Turrill, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights.

The Zero TV segment is increasingly important, because the number of people signing up for traditional TV service has slowed to a standstill in the U.S.

Last year, the cable, satellite and telecoms providers added just 46,000 video customers collectively, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That is tiny when compared to the 974,000 new households created last year. While it's still 100.4 million homes, or 84.7 percent of all households, it's down from the peak of 87.3 percent in early 2010.

Nielsen's study suggests that this new group may have left traditional TV for good. While three-quarters actually have a physical TV set, only 18 percent are interested in hooking it up through a traditional pay TV subscription.

Zero TVers tend to be younger, single and without children. Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, Dounia Turrill, says part of the new monitoring regime is meant to help determine whether they'll change their behavior over time. "As these homes change life stage, what will happen to them?"

Cynthia Phelps, a 43-year-old maker of mental health apps in San Antonio, Texas, says there's nothing that will bring her back to traditional TV. She's watched TV in the past, of course, but for most of the last 10 years she's done without it.

She finds a lot of programs online to watch on her laptop for free ? like the TED talks educational series ? and every few months she gets together with friends to watch older TV shows on DVD, usually "something totally geeky," like NBC's "Chuck."

The 24-hour news channels make her anxious or depressed, and buzz about the latest hot TV shows like "Mad Men" doesn't make her feel like she's missing out. She didn't know who the Kardashian family was until she looked them up a few years ago.

"I feel absolutely no social pressure to keep up with the Joneses in that respect," she says.

For Phelps, it's less about saving money than choice. She says she'd rather spend her time productively and not get "sucked into" shows she'll regret later.

"I don't want someone else dictating the media I get every day," she says. "I want to be in charge of it. When I have a TV, I'm less in control of that."

The TV industry has a host of buzz words to describe these non-traditionalist viewers. There are "cord-cutters," who stop paying for TV completely, and make do with online video and sometimes an antenna. There are "cord-shavers," who reduce the number of channels they subscribe to, or the number of rooms pay TV is in, to save money.

Then there are the "cord-nevers," young people who move out on their own and never set up a landline phone connection or a TV subscription. They usually make do with a broadband Internet connection, a computer, a cellphone and possibly a TV set that is not hooked up the traditional way.

That's the label given to the group by Richard Schneider, the president and founder of the online retailer Antennas Direct. The site is doing great business selling antennas capable of accepting free digital signals since the nation's transition to digital over-the-air broadcasts in 2009, and is on pace to sell nearly 600,000 units this year, up from a few dozen when it started in 2003.

While the "cord-nevers" are a target market for him, the category is also troubling. More people are raised with the power of the Internet in their pocket, and don't know or care that you can pull TV signals from the air for free.

"They're more aware of Netflix than they're aware over-the-air is even available," Schneider says.

That brings us to truck driver James Weitze. The 31-year-old satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He often sleeps in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he's an extreme case who doesn't fit into Nielsen's definition of a household in the first place. But he's watching Netflix enough to keep up with shows like "Weeds," ''30 Rock," ''Arrested Development," ''Breaking Bad," ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Sons of Anarchy."

He's not opposed to TV per se, and misses some ESPN sports programs like the "X Games."

But he's so divorced from the traditional TV ecosystem it could be hard to go back. It's become easier for him to navigate his smartphone than to figure out how to use a TV set-top box and the button-laden remote control.

"I'm pretty tech savvy, but the TV industry with the cable and the television and the boxes, you don't know how to use their equipment," he says. "I try to go over to my grandma's place and teach her how to do it. I can't even figure it out myself."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-07-Zero%20TV/id-da2c6d0410824dd78c34cd0b43d32716

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Obama's domestic agenda on the line this week

FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's second term is on the line, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill this week and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget proposal. His victories or defeats will help define his legacy and determine how much political capital he has for the rest of his term. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama's second term is on the line, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill this week and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget proposal. His victories or defeats will help define his legacy and determine how much political capital he has for the rest of his term. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Copies of President Barack Obama's proposed federal budget plan for fiscal year 2014 are prepared for delivery at the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington, Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Barack Obama hugs Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, accompanied by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., left, after Obama arrived at Bradley Air Force Base, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama is traveling to the Hartford, Conn., to speak at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws with the Sandy Hook families standing behind him. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama, followed by, from second from left, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., walks down the steps of Air Force One at Bradley Air Force Base, Conn., Monday, April 8, 2013. Obama traveled to the Hartford, Conn., to speak at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws with the Sandy Hook families standing behind him. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's second-term agenda will be robustly tested this week, with gun control and immigration in the spotlight on Capitol Hill and the White House releasing his long-delayed budget blueprint. In a taste of what lies ahead, Democratic gun legislation arrived on the Senate floor Monday ? facing an aggressive Republican effort to block it.

In an era of deep partisanship and divided government, Obama knows he won't get everything he wants on the three big issues as he seeks to capitalize on the national support that brought him re-election. But the scope of his victories or defeats on these issues will at least in part define his legacy and determine how much political capital he retains for his final four years in office.

"This is his best chance to set up the next 3? years where he's the pace car," said Sara Taylor Fagen, who served as political director for President George W. Bush.

But much of what happens during this pivotal period is out of the president's direct control. Members of Congress will largely determine whether his proposals to deal with gun ownership, revamp broken immigration laws and reduce the federal budget deficit gain traction.

Lawmakers, back in Washington after a two-week recess, are expected to take significant steps on some of the issues this week. A bipartisan group of senators could unveil highly anticipated immigration legislation by the end of the week. And Democrats brought a gun-control bill to the Senate floor Monday afternoon amid a threat from conservative Republicans to use delaying tactics to prevent formal debate from even beginning.

Obama himself flew to Connecticut for a new gun-control speech, and he was bringing relatives of Newtown shooting victims back to Washington on Air Force One to lobby members of Congress.

In the midst of all that, Obama will release his 2014 budget, which already is drawing opposition from both parties ahead of its Wednesday publication. Republicans oppose Obama's calls for new tax hikes, and many of the president's fellow Democrats balk at his proposals for smaller annual increases in Social Security and other federal benefit programs.

The White House tried to play down the significance of the week's overlapping events to the president's broader objectives, with Obama spokesman Jay Carney saying the administration is always trying to move forward on "the business of the American people."

Said Carney: "Every one of these weeks is full of the possibility for progress on a range of fronts."

But Obama's advisers know the window for broad legislative victories is narrower for a second-term president. Political posturing is already underway for the 2014 midterm elections, which will consume Congress next year. And once those votes for a new Congress are cast, Washington's attention turns to the race to succeed Obama.

Patrick Griffin, who served as White House legislative director under President Bill Clinton, said Obama's legislative efforts this year are likely to be the "sum and substance" of his second-term agenda.

"I think it would be very tough to put another item on the agenda on his own terms," said Griffin, adding that unexpected events could force other issues to the fore.

On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the outcome of the debate over gun measures is perhaps the most uncertain. The White House and Congress had little appetite for tackling the emotional issue during Obama's first term, but December's horrific elementary school massacre in Connecticut thrust gun control to the forefront of the president's second-term agenda.

If a bill does reach Obama's desk this year, it will be far weaker than what he first proposed. An assault weapons ban appears all but dead, and a prohibition on ammunition magazines carrying over 10 rounds, also supported by the president, seems unlikely to survive.

The White House is largely pinning its hopes on a significant expansion of background checks for gun buyers, but the prospects for such a measure are far from certain, despite widespread public support. The best chance at a deal appears to rest on eleventh-hour talks between Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Obama focused his efforts Monday on building public support for the legislation and tapping into the emotions of the Newtown shooting during an evening event in Hartford.

The White House is far more confident about the prospects for a sweeping immigration deal that could provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of people who now are in the country, tighten border security and crack down on businesses that employ people illegally. But the president is treading carefully on the sensitive issues, wary of disrupting a bipartisan Senate working group that has been laboriously crafting a bill.

The group of four Republicans and four Democrats could unveil that legislation as early as this week, a pivotal development that would open months of debate. While the growing political power of Hispanics may have softened the ground for passage, significant hurdles remain.

Looming over Obama's entire domestic agenda is the economy, including the deficit deal that has long eluded him. The budget Obama will release Wednesday proposes spending cuts and revenue increases that would project $1.8 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years.

That would replace $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are poised to take effect over the next 10 years if Congress and the president don't come up with an alternative.

Seeking to soften bipartisan opposition to his budget proposals, Obama will dine Wednesday night with a dozen Republican senators, part of the broader charm offensive he launched in recent weeks.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-08-Obama's%20Agenda/id-0fbc1fb041024d3f89c285ccab3aa8e3

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Historical Society Honors Three Long-time Supporters - Around GC ...

Maureen Clancy, Kris Harder and Mayor John Watras to be recognized at the May 2 spring capital campaign benefit.

The Garden City Historical Society will proudly acknowledge three well-known Garden City residents and long-time supporters at its Spring Capital Campaign Benefit, Thursday, May 2, at The Garden City Hotel.

The special honors go to Maureen Clancy, Kris Harder and Mayor John Watras.

A Garden City resident since 1960, Maureen Clancy serves on the boards of Winthrop-University Hospital and New York Community Bank. She also serves as a member of three nonprofit boards: The Garden City Historical Society (where she also served as president), RotaCare and the Garden City Chamber of Commerce Foundation. A parishioner of St. Joseph?s Church, she had been active on the Parish Council and as chair of various Appeals.

Maureen was the first woman elected to a trustee seat on the Village Board of Trustees, and served as deputy mayor. She?s currently an appointed member of the Village Board of Ethics. Nominated by Village Administrator Bob Schoelle, Maureen became the first woman member of the Mineola-Garden City Rotary Club in 1987, and was the first woman to serve as its president in 1993.

A licensed insurance broker since 1959, Maureen and her late husband, Cummin, founded Clancy & Clancy Brokerage Ltd, located on Seventh Street. She serves as Chief Financial Officer and manages the insurance agency with her daughter, Maura.

As a business owner, she became a member and then a director of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce, and served as president from 1995-1997.

Maureen is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Garden City Jaycees Bob Hogan Citizenship Award (1982), Garden City Citizen of the Year (1989) and the Distinguished Alumna Award (Rosemont College, 1998). Maureen was a recipient of the Town of Hempstead Pathfinder Award for a Woman in Business (1998) and a New York State Woman of Distinction, twice: honored by State Sen. Kemp Hannon in 1999 and State Assemblyman Thomas McKevitt in 2009. For her long-time association with the Girl Scouts, she was honored with the Juliette Low Award of Distinction (2002).

While she attended Rosemont College, she met Cummin, who had come to the United States from Galway, Ireland, after being ?discovered? in the 1948 London Olympics. Married for 58 years, the couple has five children and seven grandchildren.

An astute businesswoman and dedicated community volunteer, Maureen is honored to have been a trailblazer for women by her accomplishments, but considers her greatest honor and blessing to be her wonderful husband and family.

An Indiana native, Kris Harder graduated from Purdue University where she met her husband, Frank, who grew up in Hempstead. They married in 1950 and moved to Levittown. Now 50-year residents of Garden City, Kris and Frank are well known for their business, Harder Tree Service, family owned and operated since 1922.

The first business of her own that Kris initiated was The Garden Bench, which was located on Seventh Street and sold outdoor benches and garden-related products. She founded and owned The Pear Tree, originally located on Nassau Boulevard, Garden City South. The shop sold needlepoint wool and offered classes and then branched out to selling antiques, one of Kris?s passions. The Pear Tree eventually relocated to the west end of Seventh Street, before settling in at the currently location just steps from Franklin Avenue.

Kris became a member of the Garden City Chamber of Commerce and was influential in advancing the notion of a community Homecoming Parade. She co-founded TWIGS, Winthrop-University Hospital?s Auxiliary and its signature Golden Goose Boutique. In addition, she was recognized by the American Cancer Society as Volunteer of the Year (1989).

Kris recalls that even before she joined the Garden City Historical Society, Harder Tree Service helped in the monumental move of the Historical Society?s building in 1988 to its current location on Eleventh Street from the property of the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

As a member of the board of trustee, Kris chaired the Society?s Spring Garden Tours and Christmas Candlelight Walking Tours, initiated its commemorative brick campaign and spearheaded the start of its annual June Flea Market. With her artistic touch, she decorates the Historical Society Museum with beautiful floral arrangements for holidays, special occasions, lectures, art exhibits and annual meetings.

In 2005, Kris founded the Society?s successful consignment shop, the A. T. Stewart Exchange. Proceeds from the shop supplement the Society?s annual membership drive to support operations and maintenance of the Museum, an 1872 structure and an original building erected during the time of Garden City founder, Alexander Stewart.

Kris and Frank have five children, three of which live in Garden City, and 12 grandchildren. A visionary and unwavering volunteer, Kris can still be seen assisting at the Exchange, contributing at board meetings and sprucing up the Museum for all occasions.

Village Mayor John Watras has volunteered his services as a village trustee for the past 10 years. He has served in numerous capacities, including trustee liaison to the Garden City Historical Society, the Garden City Public Library, Board of Cultural and Recreational Affairs, Zoning Board of Appeals, senior citizens and the Environmental Advisory Board, and has held the board position of finance chairman. He is the only trustee to have served as fire commissioner and police commissioner simultaneously. From April 2011 until his installation as mayor on April 1, 2013, he served as deputy mayor.

Along with his fellow western section trustee, Gerry Lundquist, John proposed and helped establish the volunteer Citizens Budget Review Advisory?Committee. He spearheaded the roller rink project at Community Park and supports the expansion of space for senior citizens. He initiated the creation of the community garden, located behind St. Paul?s School.

John joined the Western Property Owners Association (WPOA) in 1995 and has remained a dues paying member for these past 18 years. Prior to his election to the village board of trustees, he served in various directors? positions and as president.

A graduate of Hofstra University with a business administration degree, John has been involved in the securities industry since 1986, and is a past director of The New York Stock Exchange. He is currently a partner and managing director for a brokerage firm.

During his career, his responsibilities have included institutional sales and money management for corporations and he held compliance and principal responsibilities on the trading desk for Blackford Securities Corp.

Garden City residents since 1994, John and his wife, Beth, have two grown children. He serves as chairman of the Development Committee for Little Village School and is a member of the board of directors of the Tanners Pond Environmental Center (the Garden City Bird Sanctuary).

John believes in preserving tradition while embracing new ideas. He has been a dedicated supporter of the Garden City Historical Society and faithful attendee at its events, and continues to serve his community.

The Society is taking reservations for the May 2 cocktail reception (6-9 p.m.). Please join us in acknowledging our honorees?visionaries and tireless community members. Admission is $75 per person; reservations can be made by April 26 to Society president Albert Intreglia (750-3214, business hours) or to Society secretary Gloria Jones (248-0042 or 917-446-6131).

The Benefit Committee is sponsoring a 50/50 Raffle; the winner will be drawn on the night of the event (winner need not be present). Raffle tickets are $10 or three for $25, and can be purchased at the event, in advance at the A.T. Stewart Exchange, or by contacting Mary Jane Caldwell at 248-5917.

A Chinese Auction will include such prizes as a vintage, designer ermine woman?s white fur coat; a rendering of a winner?s home sketched and painted by local resident and artist?Suzie Alvey; a Trader Joe?s gourmet gift basket, complete with fixings for the winner?s next spring soiree; a gift basket from Covert Avenue?s Salone di Capelli; a special basket of goodies from Pellegrini?s Prime Meats and much more.

For further event information, visit us online at gardencityhistoricalsociety.org.

Submitted by the Garden City Historical Society

Source: http://gardencity.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/historical-society-honors-three-longtime-supporters

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