TrueNews: Monserrate Gone Who is Next? Why is the Council Slush Fund Investigation Taking Over Two Years ?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Monserrate Gone Who is Next? Why is the Council Slush Fund Investigation Taking Over Two Years ?

Breaking News Vance Steps Up Fight Against Corruption (NYT)

Monserrate Gone Who is Next?

Why is the Council Slush Fund Investigation Taking Over Two Years?

The Daily News said after yesterday indictment of Monserrate for using the 300,000 member items he funded to the non profit called LIBRE. The feds say that operation became an arm of Monserrate political campaign machine. The NYP said this past summer, for example, council Speaker Christine Quinn and her colleagues passed a budget that boosted member-item spending by 9 percent -- to nearly $8 million per member. Quinn uses that pork pot to enforce member discipline. No surprise, then, that the members use the cash to buy support in their districts.The Daily News said New Yorkers cannot tolerate one more ooze of muck and mire. Quinn must take definitive action. She must stop member items.

True News What Ever Happen to the City Council Slush Fund Investigation? Council Slush Fund (True News)

Quinn: Why the Cover Up of the Slush Fund Investigation?
City Hall Crime Wave
What the Daily News and the NYP did not include in their editorials today is a demand that the council slush fund investigation be finished. We know that Quinn knows about Councilwoman Ferraras involvement in Monserrate member item rip-offs. She was the director of LIBRE which the feds say was put together to help Monserrate to win elections. The editorial boards should ask why a pol who wants to run for mayor is not working to get to the bottom of the council slush fund.

What about these Charges Quinn?

Bronx City Council member Larry Seabrook hit with laundry list of corruption charges

A 2nd pol treads on thin $lush Bx. councilwoman eyed as next fed target
Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo

Monserrate's LIBRE Member Item Campaign Slush Fund LIBRE essentially became a taxpayer-funded arm of Monserrate's various politicacampaigns, according to the indictment Hiram in handcuffs (NYP) * Monserrate Is Indicted on Federal Corruption Charges (NYT) *Montserrate Indicted on Fraud Charges (WSJ) * Indictment just more material for my book: Hiram * Let Hiram bat cleanup: Monserrate case proves sleazy Council member items must go (DN Ed) * Federal corruption charges lodged yesterday against former Councilman Hiram Monserrate - yes, the one and only - must end the Council's practice of letting members tap into a slush fund for so-called member items. So great are the temptations to steal, the money's availability unleashed a City Hall crime wave. * Monserrate's Alleged Registration Drive(Room8)

Two Great NY News Institutions Agree:

Today's NYT Debate Deprived Voters 'Debatable Candidates The “debate” among New York’s gubernatorial candidates deprived voters of information about how the contenders would help the state. (NYT Ed)

Yesterday's True News Dysfunctional Debate for a Dysfunctional State

Today's NYT Editorial
"What there was not was a debate. The 12 minutes or so allotted to each candidate for one of the most powerful state jobs in the country deprived voters of information about how the real contenders would move New York forward." (NYT)

True News Yesterday
"A wish list with little reality that belonged more in Disney's Fantasyland than in a state with the economic and governmental problems like New York. A waste of 90 minutes that left the voters entertained but clueless on how they would govern." (True News)

Mr. Paladino Talks Himself into Oblivion
How dumb can you be to not want a one on one with Cuomo. Paladino has asked for another 7 way circus debate. If he asked for a one on one he might have had a case in the media. The NYT already wants one. "Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Paladino owe voters a real debate before citizens have to go to the polls on Nov. 2. There are several open invitations for a one-on-one exchange. There is no excuse to decline." (NYT Ed)
Please, sir, can I have some more: Carl bashes debate, demands redo (DN) * Siena Poll: Andrew Cuomo Hammers Carl Paladino For Gov, 63% To 26% *Cuomo leads Carl by 37 points: poll
Update Paladino Now Wants to Debate One on One
Paladino To Cuomo: Bring On The Debates! * Paladino Agrees To Debates, Cuomo Remains Silent

Election 2010
Mayor Mum on Senate Races(WSJ) * Bloomberg Endorses Candidates Far and Wide - But Not Schumer * New York Politics Are Stylish Enough for Vogue Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand gets an adoring write-up in the new issue of Vogue as she campaigns to finish the two years left on Hillary Clinton's Senate term.(WSJ) * The DN dubs Kirsten Gillibrand "downright smoking these days." * Jimmy McMillan and Andrew Cuomo Meet "UP" [VIDEO] * Paladino’s Running Mate, and Mop-Up Man * Rent Is Too Damn High Party Candidate Not A Member Of Rent Is Too Damn High Party * Rent Is Too Damn High Candidate Doesn't Pay Rent www.msnbc.msn.com * Ed Koch: Gov Debate "A Joke," But Not Andrew Cuomo's Fault

"The election of a single individual isn't going to change Albany. "
Lame-Duck Gov. Paterson Still Quacking Away

David Paterson

AG
A Senator Who Started as a Deputy Sheriff in Massachusetts Eric T. Schneiderman (NYT) * A Son of S.I. and G.O.P. Prosecutor Who Has ‘No Ties to Albany’(NYT)

Comptroller
Endorsement Sweep in the Comptroller’s Race (NYT)

Daily News Not A Complete List

GOP attorney general candidate Daniel Donovan relying on controversial figures

Armand D'Amato and former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra to help him with a fund-raiser on Thursday. D'Amato, brother of former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.), was convicted in 1993 of mail fraud, though the conviction was later reversed. And Giambra was investigated by then-state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for pay-to-play shenanigans but was never charged. The Daily News did not write about how Steve Rattner is helping Harry Wilson campaign for comptroller. Rattner who has according to reports agree to pay a fine to the SEC is an financial advisor to the Zuckerman the Daily News owner. Zuckerman even invested in Rattner's Quadrangle the center of the pension scandal.

It will cost $25,000 to change a screwed-up ballot in the Queens special election.

Rent is to Damn Low
Gov-election candidate has $800 rent (NYP) * Opposing Excessive Rent, but Vague About His Own (NYT)

No President Bloomberg?
Only 26% of New Yorkers want Bloomberg to run for president: poll

Swing District in Motion Again A recent poll shows Rep. John Hall trailing his GOP challenger, eye doctor Nan Hayworth, by three points. That, in combination with national polls, suggests the district could once again change hands.(WSJ)

New York Economic Meltdown Region Trails City's Rebound, N.Y. Fed Says Although New York is recovering from the economic downturn, the rest of the region isn't following suit, the head of the New York Fed said Tuesday (WSJ) * State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warned that revenues have to grow nearly 12 percent in the second half of the fiscal year in order for the budget to remain balanced.* NYers pay outsized share of public pensions Taxpayers here pick up 88% of state and local government workers' pension tabs, versus a 67% share nationwide. A testament to union power, say budget experts.(Crains NY)

Moskowitz Charter Plan Draws Fire(WSJ) * Citing $11M grant to expand, PS 145 advocates fear growing problem, slam charter school (DN) * Teachers Union Files Lawsuit To Suppress Release Of Teacher Grades

Neighbors fear landlord will open hot-sheet suites (DN)

Scolding City, Judge Bans New Hiring by Fire Dept. (NYT) * Judge Scores City on Fire Hiring(WSJ)

We gave up $30M for this?

Does something look wrong here? You wanna know what this is all about?

(Hint: It's just evidence of more Bloombergian malfeasance.)

Bloomberg's Left Tavern on the Green To Rot--Steve Cuozzo - NYPOST.com

She's my girl! Fan wanted to battle A-Rod for Cameron Diaz (DN)

Law and Order Jetblue loony gets to slide Flight attendant dodges jail in plea bargain (NYP) * 'Cab slash' fiend out (NYP) * $18.6M to cleared rape-rap prisoner (NYP) * City pays $1M for bike busts (NYP) * Murder Trial Puts Death Penalty in Spotlight in Connecticut Campaigns (NYT) * Court Won’t Reconsider Its Reversal of Death Penalty in Killing of 2 Officers (NYT) * $18 Million to Man Wrongly Imprisoned (NYT) * Guilty Plea but No Jail for Ex-JetBlue Attendant (NYT) * 2 Men Are Arrested in Killing of Pace Student in Manhattan (NYT) * JetBlue Attendant Pleads Guilty(WSJ) * Geriatric desperado pleads not guilty to botched bank job (DN) * Gang thug gets 20 years in vicious slay of bus driver (DN) *You auto know: Older vehicles targeted as car thefts up (DN) * Police Release Sketch Of Suspect In Attempted Assaults In Queens* Woman Raped Inside Apartment Building Elevatorwww.wpix.com * Police Release Sketch Of Suspect In Attempted Assaults In Queens * Teen killer says he only 'jabbed' WABC reporter in the neck (NYP) * Accused rapist gets caught after texting victim for date (NYP)

Media and New Tech

Making Ignorance Chic In the ’50s, Marilyn made it chic to be smart. Now Sarah makes it chic to be ignorant.(Dowd, NYT)

Spitzer’s Harvard Club Application? Rejected (NYT)

Obama To Appear On Daily Show Just Days Before Jon Stewart’s ‘Sanity Rally’

Next Stop in Foreclosure Fight May Be Courtroom (NYT)

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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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