New York Post - 27.08.2019

New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019

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14

Biden slips

to 3-way tie

Kid busted in HK chaos

Hong Kong wrapped up a

weekend of tumultuous

protests that resulted in 86

people being arrested — in-

cluding one as young as 12.

“The escalating illegal

and violent acts of radical

protesters are not only out-

rageous, they also push

Hong Kong to the verge of a

very dangerous situation,”

the Hong Kong government

warned in a statement.

Over the course of two

days, police fired water can-

nons, 215 rounds of tear gas

and even a warning gunshot

after six officers drew their

weapons. Hong Kong police

defended the shot, which

they said was only fired af-

ter protesters bearing metal

poles and other weapons

charged at them.

Protesters tossed bricks

and Molotov cocktails at

the officers, 21 of whom

were injured.

In total, 86 people ages 12

to 52 were arrested.

They were slapped with

charges including unlawful

assembly, possession of of-

fensive weapons and as-

saulting police officers.

The pro-democracy pro-

tests — now in their 12th

week and largely peaceful

— erupted over opposition

to a since-suspended extra-

dition bill and have

morphed into a broader call

for more democracy in the

Chinese-ruled territory.

Kenneth Garger, Wires

By KENNETH GARGER

Former Vice President Joe

Biden is losing ground in the

Democratic presidential pri-

mary race, sliding into a dead

heat with Sens. Elizabeth

Warren and Bernie Sanders,

according to a Monmouth

University poll released

Monday.

Biden polled at just 19 per-

cent — a 13-point plummet

from Monmouth’s previous

poll in June — among regis-

tered Democrats and left-

leaning voters nationwide.

The drop in support now

places Biden in a virtual

three-way tie with Sanders

and Warren, who topped the

poll at 20 percent each.

Support for Warren and

Sanders rose since the last

poll, up from 14 percent and

15 percent, respectively.

Biden’s numbers dropped

among voters across the

board, including Democrats,

blacks, men and women. His

lost voters in those groups

shifted almost equally to

Warren and Sanders.

The latest poll was con-

ducted over the phone from

Aug. 16 to Aug. 20.

It has a plus/minus 5.7 per-

centage-point margin of er-

ror.

Golden fleece of donors: suit

‘Cheat’ charity

By PRISCILLA DeGREGORY

A company that col-

lected donations for city

charities has mysteri-

ously disappeared —

swindling thousands of

dollars from a local ice-

skating dance troupe and

hundreds of thousands

more from dozens of

other groups, a lawsuit

alleges.

“This is the story of a

charity formed ostensibly

to help other charities,

which in the end ripped

off those charities to the

tune of hundreds of thou-

sands of dollars,” Ice

Theatre of New York

claims in a suit against

NYCharities filed in

Manhattan Supreme

Court on Friday.

Ice Theatre claims that

NYCharities ripped it off

to the tune of $10,

when company principal

Cristine Cronin vanished

and stopped responding

to its calls and e-mails.

Ice Theatre says it be-

gan using the Web site to

collect donations in 2008,

but sensed trouble on

June 28 of this year when

a donor’s contribution

wouldn’t go through.

After ignoring multiple

calls and e-mails, Cronin

finally told Ice The-

atre executive di-

rector Jirina Rib-

bens that

NYCharities

was “aware of

the problem”

and was work-

ing to fix it, ac-

cording to the

court papers.

But “Cronin never

called Ribbens again,” the

court documents claim.

Within a few days,

NYCharities’ office space

was closed and Cronin

stopped answering calls

or returning e-mails

altogether, court papers

claim.

State Attorney General

Letitia James (inset)

announced at the end of

July that her office was

investigating NYChari-

ties.

The organization,

which was founded

by Cronin in 2004,

got its Web site

back up for a few

days in July be-

fore the AG’s Of-

fice shut it down

Aug. 2 amid

the inves-

tigation, which the AG’s

Office said is ongoing.

“NYCharities.org is in-

excusably depriving

charities of their donors’

generosity,” James said in

a statement at the time.

Another nonprofit,

Friends of the Upper East

Side Historic Districts,

lost more than $10,000 in

donations when the Web

site closed.

Still, the donors were

able to recoup much of

the money from their

banks, according to the

nonprofit’s president,

Franny Eberhart.

A working number

could not be found for

Cronin. A message left on

NYCharities’ Facebook

page was not immedi-

ately returned.

[email protected]

finally told Ice The­

atre executive di­

rector Jirina Rib­

bens that

was “aware of

the problem”

and was work­

ing to fix it, ac­

cording to the

ties.

The organization,

which was founded

by Cronin in 2004,

got its Web site

back up for a few

days in July be­

fore the AG’s Of­

fice shut it down

Aug. 2 amid

Mayor de Blasio made

CNN’s ratings plummet

almost as low as his poll

numbers with his town-

hall event Sunday night.

Just 376,000 viewers

nationwide tuned in to

see Hizzoner for the 7

p.m. event, according to

Nielsen.

Combined with Steve

Bullock’s 6 p.m. town

hall, CNN registered a

25 percent drop in its

average Sunday night

ratings. Ben Feuerherd

View and far

between, DeB

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