Since all the budget negotiations are being conducted behind closed doors as Cuomo readies his first budget it is impossible to determine how much support the new governor has. We do know his opponents are dumping in the press attacks on his property tax hike. We also know from a story by NYP Dicker a Cuomo insider that the city will be cut one billion dollars. The major unknowned is will the unions fight or fold.
Unlikely Allies Fight Cuomo’s Plan for Property Tax Cap Educators, school district officials and unions in mobilizing against the tax cap have been joined by homeowners and tax protest organizations, say they are deeply dissatisfied with his proposal also(NYT Ed) * Cuomo Wavers on Layoffs Law As the threat of teacher layoffs looms over the city's school system, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is wavering on whether to back Mayor Bloomberg's push to repeal a state law mandating that the most recently hired teachers would be the first to lose their jobs.(WSJ) * Gov. Cuomo begins Albany ethics reform effort - behind closed doors, critics say (DN) * Jeremy Creelan, the former Brennan Center staffer who dubbed NY’s Legislature the most dysfunctional in the nation, is now helping negotiate ethics reform for Cuomo – behind closed doors.
True News PM Update
News After the Morning Newspapers
Must See Photos: Ice-Encased Car In East Village (WCBSTV) * Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands of Post Offices - WSJ.com * IDC’s Carlucci ‘Unsure’ On Sampson’s Committee Offers * Court: Rahm Emanuel Can't Run For Mayor, Not Chicago Resident (Huff Post) * Moscow on high alert after fatal airport blast (Washington Post) * Wither the Korean Greengrocer? (Village Voice) * Daniel Hernandez And Christina Taylor Green’s Family To Attend State Of The Union Address * Cuts, Cuts, and Even More Cuts(Bxnews.net) * Woman Confesses to Snatching Baby 20 Years Ago: FBI (NBC)
Cuomo's budget ax to cut $1B from city (Dicker, NYP)
24% of all NY workers in unions
New York is number one! …in union membership. Not just government workers, but all workers. According to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data, slightly less than a quarter of (working) people in the state are union members. That number is falling nationwide, and in New York. 14.7 million Americans belong to unions: 612,000 fewer than this time last year. 17.7 million
34.6% of state government employees nationwide belong to unions; 45.9% of local government employees do. Only 7.7% of private-sector workers now belong to unions.
Daily News Says Comptrollers Liu and DiNapoli by Not Taking on the Special Interests are Not Doing Their Job
State Controller Tom DiNapoli, city Controller John Liu are failing taxpayers on runaway spending (DN Ed)
Fact Checking Media Star Ed Koch
Since the media and Bloomberg has labeled Koch a reform of everything that is wrong with government we thought it time the True News Fact Checked the guy. Koch's Group New York Uprising was put together to throw the bums out of Albany. Not one of the challengers Uprising chose beat an incumbent. Koch has been pushing for non partisan redistricting. Today we learn that the GOP Pushback To Independent Redistricting Plan Begins To Take Hold(City Hall News)
Now Bloomberg has asked Koch to help him reduce pension costs to the city. During his three terms as mayor there is no evidence that Koch did anything but increase pension to city workers. Koch does share with Bloomberg that the two largest city scandals in recent history and that both their scandals started with the letter C. Koch Citysourse and Bloomberg CityTime. Koch a rising star - again! Bloomberg last week asked Koch -- who has been out of office 21 years -- to educate the public on the need for pension reform. (NYP) * Comptroller John Liu On CityTime Payroll System Fiasco (WPIX) * Collision Course The audience applauded Wednesday when the mayor called for the state to slash public employee pensions and other benefits. Now he must convince the unions and Assembly Speaker Silver. Read more» (Gotham Gazette)
The Strange Secret Case of John Haggerty
The courts should be making public corruption cases public to set examples of what will happen to corrupt pols. Is someone trying to settle this case behind closed doors?
Yesterday
DA puts freeze on Bloomy elex-$$ probe
The Campaign Finance Board is holding off its review into whether Mayor Bloomberg's re-election campaign violated disclosure rules on the orders of the Manhattan DA's Office, sources told The Post.
The sources said the DA is worried that any CFB findings might interfere with the criminal case against John Haggerty Jr., the Republican operative charged with swiping most of the $1.2 million that the mayor channeled through the state Independence Party last year for an Election Day ballot-security operation.A veteran election lawyer said that it was a violation of both state election law and CFB regulations, since the chief beneficiary of the donation was the mayor's campaign and not the Independence Party, which was supposed to keep only $100,000. Today
No oral arguments today in Haggerty case. Lawyers met w judge behind closed doors. Judge wants more time. Now scheduled for Feb. 8. (Twitter) * Hearing Delayed for Consultant Charged With Defrauding Bloomberg (NYT)
Bronx high school principal Lynn Passarella has discovered the secret to aca demic success: Never flunk your students, no matter what. A scandalous 'success' (NYP Ed)
More Cuts in the Pipeline for Next Year
Riders gain 'wait' MTA eyes service slash on 40 bus routes (NYP) * Set for a fare fight 'Scam' hack to trial (NYP)
Copy Machines Reporters Do MTA Spin Stories
On the same day the MTA voted to reduce services Riders gain 'wait'(NYP) Dummies at NY1 and the Daily News do report spin an old about subway station fix up not the cuts in services. MTA To Renovate Dozens Of Subway Stations (NY1) * Donohue: New life for dreary subway stops (NYDN) *M.T.A. and Port Authority Chiefs Keep Jobs (NYT) * Oral Arguments In Haggerty Trial Delayed (YNN)
Several Hours After This Story Was Posted on True News NY1 Posted This Story Big Changes Coming To Several Bus Routes(NY1)
And the NYT Calls This Blogger "Not Quite A Reporter"
Not Quite a Reporter, but Raking Muck and Reaping Wrath(NYT)
Last night and tonight were a Code Blue for the city's Department of Homeless Services.
Hundreds of New Yorkers have called 311 to report neglectful landlords who have forced tenants to shiver in unheated apartments. And the city's Homeless Services department has had to trigger its emergency Code Blue procedures 41 times so far this winter. At this time last year, Code Blue had been called 32 times. (NYDN)
Tishman Speyer Sucks Off of Fannie Mae Also
Not only did Tishman Speyer lose billions in pension funds in the Bankruptcy of Stuy Town last year it is also responsible for taxpayer money bailing out Fannie Mae which was one of the major investors in Tishman's Stuy Town deal. Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud. (NYT) * Mortgage Giants Leave Legal Bills to the Taxpayers
Reform and the Teachers’ Unions The country’s second-largest teachers’ union has wisely chosen to help shape reform rather than block it. (NYT Ed)
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Law and Order
Pettway admits stealing baby in 1987, tried to fake birth certificate: feds (NYP)
The mother of all arrests (NYP) *Accused 1987 baby stealer turns self in DN) * Woman Surrenders in Kidnap Case (NYT) *Dad of Kidnapped Baby Says Adjustment Is Hard (NBC) * Woman stole tot to keep drug-kingpin beau: kin(NYP) * For a Police Family in New York, Yet Another Test (NYT) *Victim's brother waits 28 years for cops to get killer - then finds out evidence got tossed (DN) * Kelly, Bloomy visit elderly man accidentally wounded by cops (DN) * Bx. shooting a flashlight mishap: cop (NYP) * Bloomberg, MLK III to call for gun control fix (NYP) * Mayor, 34 Victims Of Gun Violence Call For Gun Control (Huff Post) * Washington Heights On Verge Of "Bad Old Days"? (Gothamist) * Cuts, Cuts, and Even More Cuts (BXnews.net)
Friggin’ Nice: Man Tries To Rob WABC 7 News Van While Crew Covers Stabbings In NJ
Terrorism Conspirator’s Path From Poverty as a Boy in Zanzibar to bin Laden’s Side(NYT) * Muslims worry Rep. Peter King’s planned Homeland Security Committee hearings on the “radicalization” of the US Muslim community will spark a rash of Islamaphobia.* Deadly Blast at Moscow’s Main Airport Seen as Terror Attack (NYT)
Media and New Tech
New York Times Readies Pay Wall Paper Will Charge for Bundled Digital Service, Allow Some Free Access
Jack LaLanne dies at 96; brought fitness to masses (Washington Post)
Jack Lalanne - Stop being so Tired(1950's Nutrition and Exercise Video)* Workout Video
The West Wing, Season II Almost overnight, Barack Obama overhauled his White House and rewrote much of the script. Now all he needs is a happy ending.
President Obama is going to strike a centrist toneSounds familiar, no? in his State of the Union address tomorrow and call for a “responsible” effort to shrink the budget deficit and “shared sacrifice.” Hmm.
Hero intern Daniel Hernandez to attend State of the Union (Politico)
Obama's Address Previews 2012 Race(WSJ)
