The Silence of the Lions
What the Comptroller Candidates Don't Want You to Know
The four candidates running for New York City Comptroller – Melinda Katz, John Liu, David Weprin and David Yassky – are hardly media shy. Liu thrust himself into the national spotlight last month by piling on a Texas lawmaker for anti-Asian comments. Yassky preferred the limelight, cozying up with Hollywood stars to push for an extension of the film tax credit. Weprin and Katz basked in the glow of the 1980s, trumpeting endorsements from David Dinkins and Geraldine Ferraro respectively.
Other than that little fiscal crisis thing tearing apart the City, all seems to be right with the world for this fearless foursome. Sure we have some problems, but it’s nothing that rolling up their sleeves and using their Blackberrys’ calculator function to crunch a couple billion bucks can’t fix. Yes, indeed, the Comptroller candidates are ready to get to work. That is, except for addressing the most serious challenge they are to face: dealing with the fallout of the disastrous pay-to-play pension scams that Attorney General Cuomo’s indictments have begun to uncover and changing the way the Comptroller office works beyond the cosmetic "elimination of the middleman", to purge this epidemic of corruption from our government now and forever.
Instead, for the Comptroller candidates, it’s as though the whole pension fund scandal threatening to bring down the former State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi, and current City Comptroller, Bill Thompson, didn’t even exist. Rather than pushing each other out of the way to get on NY1 like usual, the four Comptroller candidates have been eerily silent on Hank Morris, Steven Rattner and all of the other City big shots rolled up into the pay-to-play investigation.
Is that because the Comptroller candidates’ campaigns consultants and donors operate similar to Rattner, Morris, and the rest, to speak out again pay-for-play, while avoiding criticism of hypocrisy? Is it become some of the candidates and consultants are deeply interconnected with the indicted Morris? It’s not as if there is some precedent that would make it politically damaging for a candidate to attack pension fund abuse. After all, even Alan Hevesi and his longtime campaign consultant (now indicted) Hank Morris attacked Hevesi’s much weaker Republican opponent Christopher Callaghan in the 2006 State Comptroller’s race on these grounds. At the time, Hevesi and Morris sought to portray former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, who contributed heavily to Callaghan, as an unsavory lobbyist who converted slices of the state employees’ pension fund into investments.
It’s hard to write off the City Comptroller candidates’ silence as a sin of omission. It’s not like the candidates don’t know that the Comptroller manages the pension fund. Melinda Katz, who rose to political prominence in 1994 thanks to Alan Hevesi handing her off his Assembly seat, even has a plan to use City pension funds for backdoor bailouts of floundering companies.
Katz’s connections to Hevesi’s horde are far from ancient history. Her campaign spokesperson is none other than Marc Guma, Hank Morris’s former partner in the consulting company Morris, Carrick, and Guma. As partners, Morris and Guma contributed $52,972 to the New Mexico Democratic Party in February 2001. Not surprisingly, Steven Rattner’s Quadrangle Group later hired Morris as a third-party broker in New Mexico to secure a $20 million commitment to one of its private equity funds, allegedly kicking back millions to his bag man Morris according to the AG’s indictment.
Global Strategy Group, which is also part of Katz’s campaign, used to be publically aligned with Roberto Ramirez’s Mirram Group, until that firm got into lobbying problems. Nonetheless, they still share office space and seem to maintain a special arrangement. State Controller DiNapoli met personally with the head of a private equity concern, who was accompanied by Mirram’s boss Ramirez. In that case, the pension fund upped its $15 million investment in that company to $50 million.
Hank Sheinkopf, another campaign consultant like Hank Morris, is working for Comptroller candidate David Weprin. Sheinkopf recently abandoned Comptroller Thompson after years of working with the mayoral candidate to earn even bigger bucks from the Bloomberg campaign. Sheinkopf isn’t just a campaign consultant. He’s also a lobbyist for the Retirees Association of DC 37, AFSCME, and AFL-CIO and many other organziations around town. He also shares office space with another consultant, who now works on John Liu’s comptroller campaign.
John Liu’s consultant, mega lobbyist Bill Lynch, is very familiar with financial investors, having represented sub-prime lender Delta Mortgages. According to John Zinner, who worked for the Foreclosure Prevention Project, said “Delta Funding, in the '90s in particular, sort of epitomized predatory lending.” Until it went bankrupt, Delta was the 9th largest sub-prime lender.
As for David Yassky, his campaign consultant Josh Isay, like Katz’s Guma, also used to work for Hank Morris, yet further sad proof that rather than carelessly overlooking the growing pay-to-play scandal in the City and State Comptroller offices, the current flock of Comptroller candidates is deliberately ignoring it in the hope that their silence will help contain it from spreading. Now why would they want to keep the Play to Pay system going?
On almost all of the Comptroller candidates’ websites are proposals as to how they would invest the City pension fund, conceived of to make voters feel they can trust these candidates as the City’s accountant. But apparently, this year’s candidates’ grand plans for managing the life savings of the City’s hard-working union members don’t take into account that as soon as Thompson and Hevesi signed off on the type of private investments the candidates suggest, millions of taxpayer dollars went missing in payouts and fees to modern day “Robber Barons” and political insiders with close connections to the Comptrollers’ offices.
The fact that none of the City Comptroller candidates have thought it necessary or even politically expedient to promise top to bottom reforms, the growing pension fund scandal is almost as appalling as the fact that no one in the media has asked them to do so. Nor have any of the political clubs thought it a worthwhile question for their innumerable candidate forums to ask how the Comptroller hopefuls plan on purging the pervasive corruption that has deeply marred the Comptroller’s office, and which threatens to lead to even more indictments, including one for Thompson, the Democrat’s presumptive nominee for Mayor. Maybe the Working Families Party decided getting to the bottom of where the candidates stand on this scandal was no big deal when they hastily handed off their endorsement to John Liu.
True News thinks it is important to protect New Yorkers’ pensions. That’s why True News is today offering all four candidates a public forum to give the taxpayers the answers we must have in order to evaluate who is really the right person to entrust with our money.
So, David Yassky, David Weprin, John Liu, and Melinda Katz, let’s start with some basics:
1) Do you think that it is a criminal conflict of interest that Josh Wolf-Powers and Adam Blumenthal left their jobs as Bill Thompson’s top deputies in the Comptroller’s office managing the City’s pension fund to set up the private company Blue Wolf Capital Management, which then secured $70 million in investment for Blue Wolf from the Comptroller’s office? And should Bill Thompson resign as Comptroller for taking almost $10,000 in donations for his mayoral campaign from Blumenthal and Blue Wolf Capital?
2) What is the connection between the growing pension fund scandal in Bill Richardson’s administration in New Mexico that the state’s AG is trying hard to keep a lid on and Andrew Cuomo’s bold investigation into New York’s pension fund scandal? Are you troubled that Deborah Gallegos, the Chief Investment Officer for the City Comptroller in 2005 – the year Wolf-Powers urged Steven Rattner to hire the now-indicted Hank Morris as his placement agent – had come to Thompson’s office directly from New Mexico, where she worked in Richardson’s administration as deputy state investment officer for the New Mexico State Investment Council and was deeply involved in the private investment of billions of dollars of taxpayer money under similar (and suspicious) circumstances to the investigation into New York City’s Comptroller’s office. Are you aware that Richardson, who is being investigated for pay-to-play with New Mexico’s pension funds, also received money from Hank Morris and Steven Rattner?
3) Have you met with Andrew Cuomo to learn more about the pension fund scandal and what you could do to end corruption in the Comptroller’s office? Other than the smoke screen concession of eliminating placement agents enacted by Bill Thompson and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, what would you do to really reform the Comptroller’s Office?
We’ll start with these questions. We encourage the candidates to submit their responses in writing to info@changenyc.org as soon as possible.
Other than that little fiscal crisis thing tearing apart the City, all seems to be right with the world for this fearless foursome. Sure we have some problems, but it’s nothing that rolling up their sleeves and using their Blackberrys’ calculator function to crunch a couple billion bucks can’t fix. Yes, indeed, the Comptroller candidates are ready to get to work. That is, except for addressing the most serious challenge they are to face: dealing with the fallout of the disastrous pay-to-play pension scams that Attorney General Cuomo’s indictments have begun to uncover and changing the way the Comptroller office works beyond the cosmetic "elimination of the middleman", to purge this epidemic of corruption from our government now and forever.
Instead, for the Comptroller candidates, it’s as though the whole pension fund scandal threatening to bring down the former State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi, and current City Comptroller, Bill Thompson, didn’t even exist. Rather than pushing each other out of the way to get on NY1 like usual, the four Comptroller candidates have been eerily silent on Hank Morris, Steven Rattner and all of the other City big shots rolled up into the pay-to-play investigation.
Is that because the Comptroller candidates’ campaigns consultants and donors operate similar to Rattner, Morris, and the rest, to speak out again pay-for-play, while avoiding criticism of hypocrisy? Is it become some of the candidates and consultants are deeply interconnected with the indicted Morris? It’s not as if there is some precedent that would make it politically damaging for a candidate to attack pension fund abuse. After all, even Alan Hevesi and his longtime campaign consultant (now indicted) Hank Morris attacked Hevesi’s much weaker Republican opponent Christopher Callaghan in the 2006 State Comptroller’s race on these grounds. At the time, Hevesi and Morris sought to portray former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, who contributed heavily to Callaghan, as an unsavory lobbyist who converted slices of the state employees’ pension fund into investments.
It’s hard to write off the City Comptroller candidates’ silence as a sin of omission. It’s not like the candidates don’t know that the Comptroller manages the pension fund. Melinda Katz, who rose to political prominence in 1994 thanks to Alan Hevesi handing her off his Assembly seat, even has a plan to use City pension funds for backdoor bailouts of floundering companies.
Katz’s connections to Hevesi’s horde are far from ancient history. Her campaign spokesperson is none other than Marc Guma, Hank Morris’s former partner in the consulting company Morris, Carrick, and Guma. As partners, Morris and Guma contributed $52,972 to the New Mexico Democratic Party in February 2001. Not surprisingly, Steven Rattner’s Quadrangle Group later hired Morris as a third-party broker in New Mexico to secure a $20 million commitment to one of its private equity funds, allegedly kicking back millions to his bag man Morris according to the AG’s indictment.
Global Strategy Group, which is also part of Katz’s campaign, used to be publically aligned with Roberto Ramirez’s Mirram Group, until that firm got into lobbying problems. Nonetheless, they still share office space and seem to maintain a special arrangement. State Controller DiNapoli met personally with the head of a private equity concern, who was accompanied by Mirram’s boss Ramirez. In that case, the pension fund upped its $15 million investment in that company to $50 million.
Hank Sheinkopf, another campaign consultant like Hank Morris, is working for Comptroller candidate David Weprin. Sheinkopf recently abandoned Comptroller Thompson after years of working with the mayoral candidate to earn even bigger bucks from the Bloomberg campaign. Sheinkopf isn’t just a campaign consultant. He’s also a lobbyist for the Retirees Association of DC 37, AFSCME, and AFL-CIO and many other organziations around town. He also shares office space with another consultant, who now works on John Liu’s comptroller campaign.
John Liu’s consultant, mega lobbyist Bill Lynch, is very familiar with financial investors, having represented sub-prime lender Delta Mortgages. According to John Zinner, who worked for the Foreclosure Prevention Project, said “Delta Funding, in the '90s in particular, sort of epitomized predatory lending.” Until it went bankrupt, Delta was the 9th largest sub-prime lender.
As for David Yassky, his campaign consultant Josh Isay, like Katz’s Guma, also used to work for Hank Morris, yet further sad proof that rather than carelessly overlooking the growing pay-to-play scandal in the City and State Comptroller offices, the current flock of Comptroller candidates is deliberately ignoring it in the hope that their silence will help contain it from spreading. Now why would they want to keep the Play to Pay system going?
On almost all of the Comptroller candidates’ websites are proposals as to how they would invest the City pension fund, conceived of to make voters feel they can trust these candidates as the City’s accountant. But apparently, this year’s candidates’ grand plans for managing the life savings of the City’s hard-working union members don’t take into account that as soon as Thompson and Hevesi signed off on the type of private investments the candidates suggest, millions of taxpayer dollars went missing in payouts and fees to modern day “Robber Barons” and political insiders with close connections to the Comptrollers’ offices.
The fact that none of the City Comptroller candidates have thought it necessary or even politically expedient to promise top to bottom reforms, the growing pension fund scandal is almost as appalling as the fact that no one in the media has asked them to do so. Nor have any of the political clubs thought it a worthwhile question for their innumerable candidate forums to ask how the Comptroller hopefuls plan on purging the pervasive corruption that has deeply marred the Comptroller’s office, and which threatens to lead to even more indictments, including one for Thompson, the Democrat’s presumptive nominee for Mayor. Maybe the Working Families Party decided getting to the bottom of where the candidates stand on this scandal was no big deal when they hastily handed off their endorsement to John Liu.
True News thinks it is important to protect New Yorkers’ pensions. That’s why True News is today offering all four candidates a public forum to give the taxpayers the answers we must have in order to evaluate who is really the right person to entrust with our money.
So, David Yassky, David Weprin, John Liu, and Melinda Katz, let’s start with some basics:
1) Do you think that it is a criminal conflict of interest that Josh Wolf-Powers and Adam Blumenthal left their jobs as Bill Thompson’s top deputies in the Comptroller’s office managing the City’s pension fund to set up the private company Blue Wolf Capital Management, which then secured $70 million in investment for Blue Wolf from the Comptroller’s office? And should Bill Thompson resign as Comptroller for taking almost $10,000 in donations for his mayoral campaign from Blumenthal and Blue Wolf Capital?
2) What is the connection between the growing pension fund scandal in Bill Richardson’s administration in New Mexico that the state’s AG is trying hard to keep a lid on and Andrew Cuomo’s bold investigation into New York’s pension fund scandal? Are you troubled that Deborah Gallegos, the Chief Investment Officer for the City Comptroller in 2005 – the year Wolf-Powers urged Steven Rattner to hire the now-indicted Hank Morris as his placement agent – had come to Thompson’s office directly from New Mexico, where she worked in Richardson’s administration as deputy state investment officer for the New Mexico State Investment Council and was deeply involved in the private investment of billions of dollars of taxpayer money under similar (and suspicious) circumstances to the investigation into New York City’s Comptroller’s office. Are you aware that Richardson, who is being investigated for pay-to-play with New Mexico’s pension funds, also received money from Hank Morris and Steven Rattner?
3) Have you met with Andrew Cuomo to learn more about the pension fund scandal and what you could do to end corruption in the Comptroller’s office? Other than the smoke screen concession of eliminating placement agents enacted by Bill Thompson and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, what would you do to really reform the Comptroller’s Office?
We’ll start with these questions. We encourage the candidates to submit their responses in writing to info@changenyc.org as soon as possible.
Pay to Play CITY PENSION-FUND BIGS NIX MIDDLEMAN 'PAYOFFS' *** STARK REALITY: SHE'S OUT AS FINANCE BOSS *** Bklyn builder dumps cash on Quinn & Katz
From the NY Post *** New York City Finance Commissioner Resigns Amid Inquiries *** Opinion: Congress Won't Probe Wall St. *** SEC to Fight Fraud With Specialists *** City Finance Commissioner Resigns *** Several weeks ago, now-former Finance Commissioner Martha Stark sent an e-mail to staff that declared: "Rumors of my demise (have been and are) greatly exaggerated!” *** Appeals Court OKs NYC Mayor's Run for Third Term *** Lobbying Loopholes and CDC Secrecy *** California Pension Fund to Regulate Placement Agents *** New Scandal: Pension Fund Pay to Play *** Who Are the Real Losers in the Wall Street/Government Pay-to-Play ... *** Blagojevich Fundraiser Represented Firm in New Mexico Probe *** SEC to Consider Rules to Restrict Pension Pay-to-Play *** Finance Commissioner Stark resigns, but the Yankee Stadium issue is ignored *** Murtha Airport Funds Criticized *** Stark Reality
From the NY Post *** New York City Finance Commissioner Resigns Amid Inquiries *** Opinion: Congress Won't Probe Wall St. *** SEC to Fight Fraud With Specialists *** City Finance Commissioner Resigns *** Several weeks ago, now-former Finance Commissioner Martha Stark sent an e-mail to staff that declared: "Rumors of my demise (have been and are) greatly exaggerated!” *** Appeals Court OKs NYC Mayor's Run for Third Term *** Lobbying Loopholes and CDC Secrecy *** California Pension Fund to Regulate Placement Agents *** New Scandal: Pension Fund Pay to Play *** Who Are the Real Losers in the Wall Street/Government Pay-to-Play ... *** Blagojevich Fundraiser Represented Firm in New Mexico Probe *** SEC to Consider Rules to Restrict Pension Pay-to-Play *** Finance Commissioner Stark resigns, but the Yankee Stadium issue is ignored *** Murtha Airport Funds Criticized *** Stark Reality
City's Economic Crisis MAKING IT ON 'BOARD'WAY RECESSION SIGNS OF THE TIMES *** MTA ISSUES FIRE ALERTS And so it begins. The MTA sent out layoff notices to at least 480 bus and subway workers yesterday, telling them their jobs would be cut without a state bailout to fill the agency's $$$ *** NEW WATER TORTURE: BIG RATE HIKES *** CITY LAGS AS NATION HITS HOME RUNS Home prices in the New York metropolitan area continued to drop at record levels through February, even as the real-estate crisis in most other parts of the nation showed signs of easing up *** THE MTA ALLIANCE it was hard to miss the desperation in the letter Mayor Bloomberg, union boss Randi Weingarten and business leader Kathryn Wylde sent Albany yesterday, begging for action to save the city's mass-transit system *** MTA Board To Discuss Next Phase Of Doomsday Budget *** City's Finance Commissioner Submits Resignation *** Yanks Slash Ticket Prices In Hopes Of Filling New Stadium *** Plus: Developers press on with big plans *** Construction unions agree to cut costs *** NY budget official: Recession to end later in ... *** Lights out for film firms *** State Finance Plan Predicts Peril When Gains Expire Once money from the federal stimulus package is gone, and a tax increase on the highest earners ends, deficits are expected to grow *** As More Apply for Welfare, Concern for Those Denied *** New York Office Landlords Go Small *** Creating Luxury in Days of Denial *** Street Vending, a Solution to Joblessness? *** MTA hands union list of 600 who face layoffs *** Bronx residents boiling over water rate hikes *** Part two of MTA fare hike could surface next month *** MTA shaves cost, features from 96th Street station rehab *** A fourth double-digit water rate hike could be in the offing *** $25 BILLION BUDGET GAP SHOCK *** Welfare applications in New York City rose 54 percent between 1999 and 2007 *** TNPM *** MTA Board Discusses Budget Crisis
Road to City Hall Appeals court OKs Bloomberg's run for third te... *** Women unite & vote for me, DA hopeful Snyder says *** Councilwomen Letitia James and Helen Foster noted the lack of diversity in the Bloomberg administration; James said it's "looking more and more like Rocky Mountain High." *** Two Councilwomen Say Stark's Departure Shows a Lack of Diversity *** Nothing Personal: John Liu Is Running for Comptroller *** Bill Thompson Believes *** TNPM *** Queens GOP Picks Pragmatism Over Ideology *** Tom Robbins wonders about the massive Bloomberg '09 pop-up ad that's running only on the Post's Website *** Paterson Camp Accuses Cuomo of Sabotage *** Rev. Albatross
The City THE FLU PIGS OUT ON NY BUG SHUTS SCHOOLS AS 'HUNDREDS' FALL SICK *** THEY KNEW! FAA FORESAW FLYOVER PANIC *** COPS' DAY IN COURT FOR RAPE RAPS KELLY RIPS E. VILLAGE 'OUTRAGE' *** CSI: NY MOURNS LAB PALS PROBE SLAY OF CO-WORKER *** Everyone knew except Bloomberg (yeah, ok!) From CBS 2 *** MEMO: FEDS KNEW WOULD CAUSE PANIC'PHOTO OP' COST: $328,835 *** City Housing Authority Tightens Leash On Pets *** Lockheed Sues to Pull Out of Security Contract With Transit Agency *** Plan for Taller Tower in Meatpacking District Draws Critics *** Run Away to the Circus? No Need. It’s Staying Here. *** The Forgotten E-Mail That Rocked New York *** Ray Kelly blasts on-duty cops accused of rape *** Brooklyn Flea Adds Sundays at Brooklyn Bridge Park *** Feds knew photo-op flyover might spark panic - but didn't care *** Magna Carta set to go on display downtown *** Ex-Finest top teach in U.S. *** Matos Rodríguez tapped as new Hostos president *** Nabe of fatal blast was checked 7 weeks earlier *** Mayor Bloomberg coughs up some humor *** Pit bulls banned from city housing projects *** Manny's Music May Be Saved *** There are now 44 cases - and growing - in the city *** NY Coffee Summit Set to Give a Jolt to Java Lovers *** In discussion about Fort Greene and Clinton Hall, history, transition, gentrification, and, yes, ... *** TNPM *** Police Uniforms Seized in Garment Factory Raid *** Large Tortoise Turns Up in the Bronx *** Report: Three City Counties Share State's Highest Particle Pollution *** Five City Schools Close, Confirmed Flu Cases Rise *** Sunnyside Arch Gets $500K Refurbishing According to Forgotten NY *** Ward fires back at Silverstein in W.T.C. fight
Albany GOV A 'BIGOT' ON GAY NUPS Religious groups accused Gov. Paterson of "bigotry" and "Catholic baiting" yesterday after the Democratic governor claimed some opponents of gay marriage had earlier *** TEACHERS FILL DEMS' COFFERS Members of state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's education panel -- which issued a report that would gut mayoral control of city schools -- feasted on $100,450 in campaign contributions from the powerful teachers union and its allies, a Post analysis has found *** $25 BILLION BUDGET GAP SHOCK New York state faces massive budget gaps totaling almost $25 billion over the next three years despite a record high new state budget that increased taxes by some $8 billion, Gov *** Tedisco's Loss was Also a Rejection of Albany *** Paterson Gets Warm Welcome At LGBT Rally *** Paterson: Guilt drives opponents of gay marriage *** DN Editorial: Return of the living dead You want scary? A state senator wants to bring the Board of Education back from the dead *** Budget appears on track Ending costs of 8,700 jobs keeps spending in line with revenue, state director says *** report from the state IG on the Public Integrity Commission and Troopergate is due out in the coming weeks, Dan Janison reports *** The Senate is unlikely to vote on an MTA bill until next week - at the earliest *** State releases updated plan for closing $20.1 bil budget hole *** Scozzafava number two Republican in Assembly *** Over 2,000 people rallied in Albany for same-sex marriage *** State Senate Democrats hired another local person for a $90,000-a-year job at the Buffalo office *** Dan Janison tries unwinding the probe of the Caroline Kennedy leak *** TNPM *** Smith Stays Home (Updated) *** Citing Swine Flu, Smith Says He Isn't Going to Puerto Rico; Diaz Is Still Excited *** Gun control battle focuses on micro-stamping proposal *** State workers get their raises today, after three-week lag *** The Senate and the Schools
President Obama OBAMA'S 100 DAYS: MODELING ROOSEVELT *** OBAMA AT WORK & PLAY AN INSIDE LOOK AT 1ST 100 DAYS *** President Obama to spend 100th day in spotlight *** White House will probe presidential plane PR stunt *** A 100 Days Report Card: Grading the Obama Administration *** Obama’s Stand in Auto Crisis Shows Early Resolve *** President Obama’s First 100 Days *** Obama’s Chief of Staff Strikes a Pragmatic Tone *** Many in Administration Have Yet to Start *** Obama’s Cabinet Is Now Complete *** Vice’s Secret Vices Dick Cheney, our former vice president, continues his 24/7 tour justifying the enhanced interrogation techniques of high value detainees, Dowd *** Obama Finds That Saving on Copters Could Be Costly *** Why Does Obama Hate New York? *** Five Insights Into Obama’s Brain Trust *** Making Sense of a Dizzying 100 Days *** DN Editorial: Looking good at 100 *** Specter's defection is huge symbolic plus for Bam *** An intimate look at the Obamas' White House *** Obama calls Air Force One flyover a 'mistake' *** Comics still can't find a good Obama joke *** The Obamas outreach to their community, outside of White House walls *** Transparency Groups: Obama Makes Strides but Still Has Work to Do *** Obama: How 'bout that bipartisanship? *** D.C. caught up in 100-day frenzy *** 10 decisions for Obama's next 100 days *** Analysis: A Bold Stamp on White House Washington Post *** Undoing BushCo: Obama reverses endangered species rules ***Barack Obama Is No Jimmy Carter. He's Richard Nixon.
Congress & GOP SPECTER'S 'PRINCIPLE': HE COMES FIRST *** SPECTER OF DOOM FOR GOP REPUBLICAN SENATOR IN SWITCH TO DEMS *** Specter's defection to Democrats roils Republicans *** Biden long prodded Specter to leave GOP *** Analysis: Specter defection shrinks GOP's reach *** Pa.'s Specter: Cancer and political survivor *** Delayed: Congress may not vote on climate change bill this year... *** Sen. Gillibrand sees another challenger *** Pennsylvania Democrats Reserving Judgment on Specter *** Specter Joins Democrats; Senate Count May Reach 60 *** Minnesota Race Pivotal After Specter's Switch *** Access to List of Clinton Backers Is Sold *** Fred Barnes: What Specter's Defection Means *** To lure Obama to a fundraiser, the Senate and House campaign committees ban contributions from PACs and lobbyists for one day *** Obama asks Congress for $1.5 billion in additional funding to address the swine flu *** Reid Gets Spoils of 100th Day *** Sojourner Truth Bust Unveiled in Capitol *** In an op-ed, Olympia Snowe wrote “There is no plausible scenario under which Republicans can grow into a majority while shrinking our ideological confines and continuing to retract into a regional party.” *** Dems put swine flu to good use *** Specter swings power to Dems *** New hope for stalled labor bill *** GOP is Specter of its old self *** Party switching: courage or ambition? *** No grass grows under Dems' feet *** Thank/Blame Hillary for Specter's Defection *** Congress Passes $3.4T Budget *** After Specter, 3 More GOP Defections?
Wall Street Mess MADOFF SON'S SPLIT ON HOLD *** SKIN OF HIS TEETH BOFA'S LEWIS TO ESCAPE BOARD OUSTER: SOURCES *** CITI BONUSES Citigroup is asking the Treasury for permission to pay special "retention" bonuses to many employees *** STRESS: CITI scrambles to raise capital... *** Lehman bankruptcy hits stumbling block *** Feeling More Secure, Some Banks Want to Be Left Alone *** Time Warner Profit Slips 14% *** Shell Profit Down 62% on Lower Oil Prices *** Castor Pollux Wins Madoff Trading Business at Auction *** Calpers to Oppose Re-election of Bank of America Board *** Pork Industry Fights Concerns Over Swine Flu *** Ethicist Gives Ruth Madoff Advice *** FBI Arrests Danny Pang The FBI arrested financier Danny Pang on charges of structuring cash transactions to keep them under the $10,000 figure that triggers a report to the government *** Investors, Regulators Beset BofA's Lewis *** Lenders Agree to Chrysler Debt Swap *** Bank of America, Citigroup doubt government findings *** Indict hedge guy in $360M swindle *** Comics still can't find a good Obama joke *** Chrysler debt would vanish under proposed deal *** Fed Is Said to Seek Capital for at Least Six Banks (Update1) *** Pork Industry Fights Concerns Over Swine Flu *** TNPM *** Shareholders Oust Bank of America Chief as Chairman *** U.S. Economy in 2nd Straight Quarter of Steep Decline *** WIRE: CHRYSLER Bankruptcy to Be Announced by Obama Tomorrow... *** Fed Keeps Rate at Record Low *** The Madoff effect: Brokers get creative to unload property after the scam *** The Fed’s Cash Machine The fiscal stimulus is puny compared with the actions the Fed has been taking behind closed doors *** Where did the bailout money go?
National Officials trying to reduce impact of swine flu *** Voting rights case at high court Wednesday *** SPIN METER: The politics of counting stimulus jobs *** 50 million retirees to get $250 checks in May *** SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS FCC CRACKDOWN TV DIRTY WORDS... *** Military braces for release of detainee photos... *** Agency Official Draws on TV Skills for Flu Updates *** At Grand Central, a Fluorescent Twist to a Light-Bulb Joke, A Challenge to Voting Rights The Supreme Court should not take away the power of Congress to protect minority voters from harassment and disenfranchisement, NYT Ed *** Justice Dept. Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Google Books Deal *** Phoenix Leads the Way Down in Home Prices *** A New Plan to Help Modify Second Mortgages *** U.S. Sees First Death From Swine Flu *** Mumbai Probes Alleged Sabotage Plot *** Court Backs Broadcast-Expletive Fines ***TNPM *** The World Health Organization says: Get ready for a flu pandemic *** WHO Raises Alert Level; U.S. Flu Death Confirmed *** Panel wants Calif. lawmakers' pay cut 10%
International Ahmadinejad Adopts Obama Campaign Slogan: 'Yes We Can'... *** Pakistan Pushes Back Against the Taliban. But How Far? *** U.S. Sets Fight in the Poppies to Halt Taliban Cash Flow *** From Édgar, 5, Coughs Heard Round the World *** North Korea Threatens to Enrich Uranium *** Pakistan Claims to Retake Town From Taliban *** London Ponders Its Future as Financial Powerhouse *** Political shoe-throwing craze sweeps India *** Pakistani Troops, Taliban Clash *** Voters Wait for Europe's Fiscal Plans *** North Korea Threatens More Tests *** Au Pairs: Barometer of Labor Market *** Swine flu death toll climbs in Mexico *** Iraq claims Al Qaeda big is in custody, but does he exist? *** Hariri assassination suspects freed in blow to Syria's opponents *** Medvedev's Moscow Spring
Media M'SOFT, VERIZON MAY GO UP AGAINST IPHONE *** NASTY NEWS AHEAD SI NIXED MAG TO PROTECT HIS PORTFOLIO *** CLEAR CHANNEL cutting 590 radio jobs... *** Michael Douglas/Oliver Stone planning 'WALL STREET' sequel... *** Tentative Nod to a Pay Cut at The Times *** Tina Brown Is Wrong About Portfolio *** Which Sites Will Survive?As the obituaries for traditional media continue to be written, Matt Pressman compares the emerging business models for online journalism and gauges their survival prospects *** MSNBC's Washington HQ Can't Make Rent: Looking to Share Space with Local U... *** Condé Nast Is ‘Operating Like General Motors’
People and Places DUO DUE FOR MATT & SARAH SURROGATE CARRIES TWINS *** LADY ASTOR WAS WILL-ING & ABLE SON: SHE KNEW SHE WAS INKING $60M DEAL *** The Science Behind Overeating *** LaGuardia Field - predecessor to bigger and better things in the air
Blog Report Greenways on Film {Bronx News Network} *** Henry James and his book “Washington Square” {Washington Square Park} *** Second thoughts from a former state official; could Times Square have been reclaimed without eminent domain? {Atlantic Yards Report} *** Brooklyn Independent Television's Brooklyn Review Takes A Look At The Gowanus Superfund Site Nomination {Pardon Me for Not Asking} *** Note to Sen. Malcolm Smith: Go Easy on Brooklyn. Read Bill Thompson's MTA Report {Brooklyn Ron}
