Sunday PM Update Here’s a link to the Legislature’s revenue bill, which was introduced late last night and will be sufficiently aged for passage by Tuesday * State pensions are inflated as workers boost salaries * Senate Session Ends In Three Minutes Flat, Assembly Goes A Whole Six: UPDATED * Gov. Paterson Threatens Vetos
VPOTUS Biden called a custard shop owner a "smartass" after the proprietor made a joke about taxes. Sunday Update Legislators Seek to Outmaneuver Paterson by Offering a Budget of Their Own (NYT) * Albany To Hold Special Session On Sunday (NY1) *Shel game gambit vs. gov's plan (NYP) * The 36 Hours That Shook Washington For President Obama, there are lessons to be learned in the McChrystal debacle. (Rich NYT) * Gov. Paterson Calls Sunday Session (DN) * Straphangers Face Bus Route Changes, End Of W, V Trains (NY1) * Legislature proposes bill restoring $600M in school cuts (DN) * Gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo's volunteers gather signatures for '5 point plan for a new NY' (DN)* MTA nixed our bid to save $35M, jobs, says union (DN) * That's the ticket: Cameras that catch and fine bus-lane violators get the okay (DN) * NY Lawmakers Legislate Items From Oil To Bedbugs (WCBS TV)*** Sunday Morning TV *** TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking HeadsPay to Play Joe Crowley Queens Congressman Joe Crowley's campaign funds under investigation in ethics probe * Lawmakers keep wining and dining
Is Albany Really This Dumb or Just Cynical Bastards? taking credit for coming up with a budget 87 days after the deadline in some kind of inside baseball game with the governor. As people are losing their jobs, bus service being cut and senior centers closed it all about them.Facebook Assemblywoman Ginny Fields HE may have called Session for Sunday but we haven't gotten word to come in until Monday. Chances are he's mad that the Assembly and Senate agreed without him on the budget and now he's having a tantrum.....
The Kruger Show The politics of a federal investigation when your a corrupt pol
Make No Comments
"What Investigation" when asked by a reporter on the floor of the senate
Hire a good criminal lawyer who understand how to control the press
Kruger hired Benjamin Brafman
Have a government flack spin positive for you
"Mr. Shafran (Senate flack) suggested that Mr. Kruger was the “victim of an influence-peddling scam” by Mr. Levitis."
Brooklyn Senator a Focus of Federal Corruption Inquiry
Amassed the Senate’s largest campaign account. In transcripts of recorded conversations with the confidential informant, Mr. Levitis solicits a $3,000 payment, saying he will pass on $2,000 to an aide to Mr. Kruger, Jason Koppel, and keep the rest. * Kruger asked us to host gig, eatery's lawyer says (DN) * Aide-de-$camp The fed's pay-to-play probe into state Sen. Carl Kruger also extends to whether his top aide traded political favors in exchange for campaign contributions *
Will Rat Koppel Rat?
Jason Koppel, the Brooklyn Democrat's longtime chief of staff and campaign treasurer, is also a key target in the two-year investigation into alleged official misconduct by Kruger, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Koppel is one of the state Legislature's highest-paid aides, racking up a $162,442 annual salary. Levitis was caught on audiotape on April 14, 2009, telling a federal informant that the informant needed to pay off a public official's staff member -- who sources said is Koppel -- to get assistance on an upcoming business inspection.
How Federal Investigations Work
The feds unlike local DA's who almost never prosecute political crime look to get underbosses like Koppel and Sammy the Bull to turn and implicate their bosses. That is how they lock in the conviction of the big guys like John Gotti . Experienced lawyers like Brafman know this and use this understanding to spin for their clients with a clueless press Lawyer reveals senator cleared Attorney says veteran Democrat Carl Kruger "not a target" of feds* wcbs880: BROOKLYN: Lawyer: NY Senator Cleared in Corruption Probe http://bit.ly/c0coD9 * Kruger graft-rap nix (NYP)
A Three Amigos Comeback? Hiram's back! Ousted pol runs for Assembly
Krugerspeak Says A Lot
Kruger claimed ignorance when approached by a Post reporter, shaking his head and saying, "I didn't see the story" before darting into a members-only Senate lounge. True News Has More Krugerspeak - Carl Kruger unplugged
Judge sends Bruno's trial to appeals court for decision (DN) * Already indicted City Councilman Larry Seabrook now slapped with lawsuit from law firm (DN)
Perception of Russian spies in New Jersey Nets offices hastened retirement of Rod Thorn, sources say Thorn had quickly grown tired of having to answer to associates of new Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who took control of the Nets in early May. After months of dealing with Prokhorov's underlings looking over his shoulder, Thorn decided to walk away.
The Mayor's Broken Transit Campaign Promises If you take him at his word that he work to change the term limits law because he knew how best to protect the city during this economic meltdown, then we want a recount. If Bloomberg knew the buck so much he had to know that cutbacks were coming. It is clear that the transit promises he made during the campaign he knew at the time were lies designed to get him reelected.
From the Daily News:
It was the splashiest part of Bloomberg 34-point transit plan: He said most riders on the M50 and other crosstown routes use free transfers off another bus or subway, so charging them was a waste of time. "The lost revenue is trivial," he said. "We've done the survey." Bloomberg can make slight improvements, but City Hall doesn't have money, power to improve transit The mayor promised more: The F train would start running express on unused tracks again. Three closed LIRR stations in Queens would reopen. Staten Island would get a train line on the North Shore. A year later, none of that has come true
General Paterson Dave the leader Some 86 days into the fiscal year, Gov. Paterson yesterday read lawmakers the Riot Act: Produce a final budget this weekend -- or face the music Monday: a government shutdown. (NYP Ed) *Dave comes up big: Paterson shows real leadership in the battle of the budget (DN) * State Budget Bill Would Cap Property Taxes and Let Grocers Sell Wine (NYT) * What Is Albany Doing? Members of the New York State Legislature have a lot of unfinished business to tend to before adjourning to campaign for re-election. (NYT) * Government Shutdown Threat on Table (WSJ) * Forget soda! Gov now wants wine in grocery stores (DN) * Legislative Leaders, Paterson Sweat Over State Budget Deal (NY1) * Gov's doomsday deadline for budget (NYP)New York Economic Meltdown City Renews Effort to End Use of Street Alarm Boxes (NYT) * Budget Cuts to Senior Centers Denounced (WSJ) * Restaurant Chains Target Manhattan (Taking advantage of bad economy) * Celebrating the W The final W train went out Friday night mislabeled as an N on the strip maps inside its cars, but it went out celebrated. (WSJ) * W, V Subway Lines Make Final Runs (NY1) * Good times roll with a party on the last W train (NYP) * V Train Goes Out With a Party * State Passenger Rail Costs Set to Soar
(Tri-State Transportation Campaign) * The End of a Balanced Budget of the City? (Citizens Budget Commission) * Next Stop on the W Train: History (NYT) * NYC Seeks to Remove Call Boxes (Fox 5)
Two Car Models, New York Emblems, Discontinued * Bracing for 35 Likely School Closings Next Year The city said it would try again to close 19 schools and will attempt to phase out 16 more, continuing its pattern of closing some of the city's largest high schools and replacing them with small schools or charter schools. (NYT)
Forced to Hire From Within, Principals Balk (WSJ)
Two Census Bureau managers fired for creating at least 10,000 bogus questionnaires to meet deadlines (DN)
Terrorism NY Bail denied for suspects in NY temple terror plot (NYP) * Woman Named to Run FBI's New York Division (WSJ) * 9/11 health bill gets $10.5B estimate over 10 years (DN)
Law and Order Jamaican gang leader pleads not guilty (NYP) *Quiet Day in Court for Jamaican Drug Defendant (NYT) * Murder Charge in Nun’s Death May Test Law (NYT) * ‘Mommy,’ Boy Said, ‘I Got Shot’ (NYT) * Prosecutors Ease Stance, but Still Seek Long Prison Term for Radical Lawyer (NYT) * Boy Shot in Theft of Bike (WSJ) * Bullet remains lodged in Brooklyn boy shot over bike (DN) * Letterman extorter 'booked' at Rikers (DN) *** Sunday Update *** The brutal rise of drug lord Christopher Coke & the fight to bring him to justice (NYP) * 3 killed in night of B'klyn bloodshed (NYP) *Want a get-out-of-jail card? Just say you're addicted to pot (DN) * Crazed lover kills mother of three in Bronx, police say (DN) * Cop gets $80G over 'Scrabble' fight (DN) * Six people die in four separate city car wrecks (DN) * Man busted in gun-slay of Staten Island teen (DN) * Platt penthouse 'rapist' is a career criminal with a rap sheet a mile long (NYP)
At Kagan Hearings, the Topic May Be Obama and Roberts (NYT)
Media and New Tech Washington Post 'Tea Party' Reporter OUT: The Backstory * Comcast-NBC Merger Hits FCC Snag
The Feuding Fathers Americans lament the partisan venom of today's politics, but for sheer verbal savagery, the country's founders were in a league of their own. Ron Chernow on the Revolutionary origins of divisive discourse. (WSJ)
