Tapped In

| 17 Feb 2015 | 04:11

    West Side Author's veggie dog tale Marian Hailey-Moss hopes her new book, A Dog Named Randall, will help kids reconsider what's on their dinner plate as well as "maybe be inspired to volunteer at an animal shelter or go see a pig, a cow, a chicken, a sheep and a goat in person at a sanctuary like Farm Sanctuary or Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary." A Dog Named Randall tells the story of a dog that loves other animals and only eats vegetables. Randall's tale was inspired by a real story that the author heard from other people who take care of animals in need. Hailey-Moss started her career as an actress, became a psychotherapist and most recently a writer. "I feel a natural progression from acting to psychotherapy to writing. Those fields are all about understanding human nature," she explains. She's lived on the Upper West Side since 1964. She will host a book-signing event at Gary Null's Uptown Whole Foods, 2421 Broadway, between 89th and 90th streets, on Saturday, Aug. 18, from noon to 2 p.m. All profits go to 11th Hour Rescue. Brewer Honors UWS Restaurant Celebrating its 31st anniversary on the Upper West Side, local favorite comfort food joint Good Enough to Eat received an official proclamation from Council Member Gale Brewer earlier this week, recognizing owner Carrie Levin for her culinary and community excellence. "For the past three decades, Carrie has brought good food and a sense of community to the neighborhood and hopes to continue to enrich the West Side for another 30 years to come," said Brewer in the proclamation. Levin was born in New York in 1958, and her family soon moved to Brussels. She attended college in France and trained in London at Pru Leith's School of Food and Wine before returning to the city in 1979. After working at the Russian Tea Room, the Four Seasons Restaurant and Basque, Levin opened Good Enough to Eat in 1981, serving up power breakfasts and her now-famous buttermilk biscuits along with lunch and dinner favorites of solid American fare. The restaurant moved to its current, expanded location in 1989 and has been thriving ever since. Columbia Fraudsters found guilty Four cyber-criminals were convicted for executing a financial scam against Columbia University, defrauding the school out of $5.7 million. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced last week that George Castro, 50, Walter Stephens Jr., 66, and Jeremy Dieudonne, 47, were each convicted of grand larceny in the first degree as well as criminal possession of stolen property for transferring funds from Columbia into their own bank accounts. A fourth member of their team, Joseph Pineras, 35, was also found guilty of fraud through his access to Columbia's vendor payment system. Between Oct. 4 and Nov. 24 of 2010, Pineras, an accounts payable clerk at Columbia at the time, helped redirect a series of payments meant for Columbia Presbyterian Hospital into a TD Bank account. The account was registered to IT & Securities Solutions LLC-a company founded by Castro with Stephens and Dieudonne as executives. The three men attempted elaborate transfers and payments in order to hide their illicitly obtained funds. Castro withdrew over $800,000 in cash from the account, spending $80,000 on a brand new Audi Q7 and $18,000 on Apple products. He also directed some of the stolen loot into other brokerage accounts controlled by himself and Stephens and another shell company set up by Dieudonne. "Fraud by insiders against an institution dedicated to the public good is egregious," Vance said in a statement. "Like so many cyber-fraud cases my office prosecutes, this scheme was set in motion by an 'insider,' who made the larger theft of $5.7 million possible." Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24.