TrueNews: OTB Bailout: How does the state run a gambling operation that loses money?

Friday, July 9, 2010

OTB Bailout: How does the state run a gambling operation that loses money?

OTB Bailout
How does the state run a gambling operation that loses money?

Try a termination specialistThe time has long since passed for the New York City Off-Track Betting Corp. to be put out of its misery like a broken-down race horse -- shut down, once and for all, or sold off. (NYP ED)

Off-Track Betting's Defunct Rescue Plan Was a Winner for Consultants (nyt )

NYC OTB Still Losing Money Despite State Control

It's Alive!: OTB Will Stay Open Another Year - Gothamist

Council Cuts Services Keps Lulus and Member items
Council Cuts Health Plan That Helped Poor People (NYT) * City Programs Already Feeling Gov's Veto Pinch (NY1)

Lulu of a payday: Only a dozen City Council members spurned cheesy bonuses (DN) * The council's just-passed budget boosts member-item spending -- the cash pols get to pass around their districts like Christmas turkeys -- a full 9 percent over last year, to $396 million.That's nearly $8 million per member.Porkfest in the sun (NYP Ed) * Essentially, member items are little more than an incumbent-protection racket -- which should, by rights, be subtracted from the public campaign funds pols get during election season. Pork Winners: Who Got What: FY2011 * MTA Has New Plan to Charge You for New MetroCards (WCBS)

The budget is now 100 days late. (The modern record was 133 days in 2004).
Gov: Time & money running out on NY * Gov. David Paterson’s veto of a $600 million education funding bill has more of a financial impact that expected, but means more cash for charter schools * Governor Paterson said the state has a month and a half of money left, and might bring lawmakers back from their vacations.

Council gets Lulus New Yorkers Lose Unemployment Benefits
Jobless & brokeThere's one gone every 80 seconds. That is, every day, 400 unemployed New York City residents exhaust their unemployment benefits (NYP)

Feds See ‘Grim’ Delays, Overruns on Second Ave. Subway, East Side Access

Meeks taps Dem fund-raiser to help pay back $40,000 loan (DN)

FBI looks into secret $40000 personal loan to Queens pol Gregory Meeks New York Daily News

FBI investigating Meeks's $40K personal loan Politico (blog)

Judge nixes suit from Spitzer's former top aide Dopp * The Scandal That Keeps On Giving (YNN) * PIC Official: We’ll Take Dopp’s House If We Have To (YNN) * Commission On Public Integrity Points To Court Decision On Troopergate: Updated

I See Nothing Know Nothing DiNapoli

No primary he can do what he wants to serve the special interests and not offend anyone

Tom DiNapoli On Pedro Espada: I'm So Not Going There * DiNapoli Cool To Cuomo’s Call For New Laws On Pension Padding (City Hall) * N.Y.'s big, fat pension system (TU) * The Watertown Times thinks the Democrats’ effort to oust Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is a “face-saving gesture” that “does not address the underlying problems” that enabled his rise to power.

Election 2010 Doubts About Cuomo’s Support of Gay Rights (NYT) * Asked if he believes AG Andrew Cuomo’s claim that he wasn’t behind the “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo” signs, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch replied: “I honestly don’t know. I’d like to believe it. But I don’t know.”

Government Reform Instant Runoff Voting Is Under Review (WSJ) * Do Land-Use Deals Cut Out Communities?Many land-use agreements are hashed out in a way that largely leaves residents on the sidelines. Should the city change the way it makes development decisions? (WSJ) * The Charter Revision Commission might recommend that future changes to term limits not benefit those in office * As Voter Turnout Dwindles, Some Look to a Tiny Agency for Help

Constructing_subway_1900
City's latest pothole caused by subway drill on 2nd Avenue (DN) * Subway Drill Pierces Second Avenue; MTA Investigates (DN)

Community gardens threatened with development

Audit can't account for $109M of Columbia University Medical Center's work (DN)

Trading Spys
Spy Suspects Leave U.S. in Swap With Russia (NYT) * Russian sleeper spies sent packing in spy exchange (DN) * All 10 In Russian Spy Case Plead Guilty, Agree To Deportation (DN) * US, Russian Flights Meet Up In Vienna For Spy Swap - wcbstv.com

Law and Order Man Stabs Four People in Chelsea, Police Say (NYT) * Ex-Stripper Charged in Murder Plot (WSJ) * Newark man sentenced to 200-plus years for three murders (DN) * Wild-eyed lunatic stabs four people in Chelsea * Knife Wielding Man Stabs Several In Meatpacking District (DN) * Icy wife plotted hotel slay: feds (NYP) * 218 years in NJ slays (NYP)

Terrorism NY Columbia Scientists Prepare for a Threat: A Dirty Bomb

Britain’s Budget Pain Britain’s budget aims to cut too much too soon, likely leading to drastically downsized public services and years of stagnation.( NYT Ed)

Tip Says All Politics is Local
For Democrats, Politics Is Local AgainDemocrats defending House and Senate seats amid the stiffest anti-incumbent mood in two decades are trying to focus attention on local factors that might persuade voters to return their lawmaker to office. (WSJ)

Media and New Tech The Newsweek Sale Gets Political

Why Donate to True News Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth. Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter. If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove. Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness. Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and Apartments Gives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the Media Investigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine Reports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws. True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians. It's been written about True News Those of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well. Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting. Contributors names are confidential

Other Views

On October 15, 1958, veteran broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered his famous "wires and lights in a box" speech (VIDEO) The Last Lion of Tammany HOW JIMMY McMANUS, MANHATTAN’S LAST GREAT TAMMANY DISTRICT LEADER, HELPED TO REVIVE HELL’S KITCHEN AND THE THEATER DISTRICT c By James S. Kaplan f On January 13, 2011, the law firm of Proskauer Rose moved into 11 Times Square, which is located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. In moving west to the final building of the City’s Times Square redevelopment, the Proskauer firm joined such other major law firms as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Covington & Burling, Roberts & Holland, and the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather. That such major professional firms, along with a number of newly constructed luxury apartment buildings on 42nd Street from ninth to eleventh avenue and trendy restaurants and off Broadway theaters would be located west of 8th Avenue in midtown would have been almost inconceivable fifty years ago. Tammany Last Stand Continued

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