Wall Street Negative Press Fix
Instead of giving end of the year bonuses financial firms now pay their employees higher salaries. Wall Street Bonuses Drop, at Least the Cash Part of Them(NYT) * Down on Wall St. Securities industry bonuses shrank 9% in 2010 . DiNapoli said that the decline in bonuses reflected the industry's shift away from handing out boffo cash awards in favor of higher base salaries and deferred stock compensation -- and not "weakness" on Wall Street (NYP)
True News PM News Update
New Since the Morning Papers
Saudi college student Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari accused of plotting bomb attack on George W. Bush(DN) *Feds nab Saudi man who took aim at Big Apple, George W. Bush * On Science Exams, New York’s Students Fall Short (NYT) * Gov. Cuomo: Teachers Should Not Be Judged By Seniority Alone (DN)* Pressure Mounting On Central Labor Council's Jack Ahern To Take A Walk (DN) * Stop-Question-and-Frisk Numbers Go on Display (NYT) * NY Senate clashes over Gov. Cuomo’s major reform idea (NYP) * Is GOP getting cold feet? Democrats say Republicans are backing away from Cuomo's redistricting bill (TU) * The Greater New York Hospital Association and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East—some of past governors’ main foes in cutting Medicaid—are out with a joint statement in support of the recommendations from Gov. Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team. Why? George Gresham, 1199 SEIU president, and Ken Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, served on the panel. (LoHud)
Cuomo: Capping Health Care Costs
New York State Proposal Would Cap Annual Medicaid Increases(NYT) * Gov. Cuomo made amendments to his budget that narrow the definition of financial fraud and financial products that would be used by the state's Department of Financial Regulation. He also removed references to the Martin Act, a New York law passed in 1921 and a powerful tool for prosecutors because it doesn't require a showing of a suspect's intent to defraud. (WSJ) * The state Health Department is poised to propose a 4 percent cap on yearly Medicaid increases – a move designed to help reach the $2.85 billion reduction called for by the governor.
Transparency Is Important for Good Health Care Policy
It understandable that the Cuomo needs people in the health care industry to advice him how to save money and not endanger patients health. What the gov needs to understand that in the coming weeks the special interests he is cutting will look for any way to plant negatives stories on him. Pressure Put on Adviser to Cuomo Public interest groups urged Jeffrey A. Sachs, who is helping Cuomo on health care policy, to identify the clients of his private consulting business.(NYT) * Gov. Cuomo must be completely open, transparent about his dealings with consultant pal Jeffrey Sachs (DN Ed) * Ethics watchdogs and other groups urged the Public Integrity Commission to review whether close Cuomo friend and health care adviser Jeffrey Sachs broke the lobbying law by failing to register and called on him to reveal his consulting client list.
Gov. Cuomo won't fire back at Vatican after scolding(DN) * Albany Diocese Bishop Howard J. Hubbard defended himself – and Cuomo – from a Vatican adviser’s criticism.
Does Jeter Pay Enough NYC Taxes?
In City Often? Tax Man Asks Some for Tally A new line on tax forms asks state residents who own more than one home to specify how many days they spent in NYC (NYT) * Multi-home New York taxpayers who spend more than 183 days per year in New York City: consider yourselves warned.
No Says the WSJ
New York’s Vanishing Millionaires–and Other Myths The number of millionaires in New York actually increased in 2010–while the tax was in place. New York had 381,197 millionaires in 2010, an increase of 35,000 millionaires from 2009. This again likely reflects wealth gained from the stock market and Wall Street, not from taxes. (WSJ)
MTA' S Pinstripe Patronage
The process of patronage-performing favors and offering lucrative positions or rewards to people who raise money or offer service-has always been a part of government, but not to the extent that it is in American politics today, argue the Tolchins in this fascinating exposé. Once defined by reliable blue-collar jobs and gifts of food to the poor, patronage has moved into the boardroom and grown exponentially in worth and influence. Pinstripe Patronage * Pay$ to be ex-boss of transit boss MTA chief Jay Walder's past two employers now have consulting contracts with the transit agency just 16 months into his time at the helm -- and the one approved yesterday is worth up to $11.7 million.(NYP)
Meet Albany's 'Brangelina'(Page 6, NYP)
Political sparks are flying over a romance between state senators Jeffrey Klein of The Bronx and Westchester and Diane Savino of Brooklyn and Staten Island. The couple -- known as "Klavino," a la Brangelina. Albany Dems have snarked that Savino may have left the party's Democratic Conference and joined Klein's breakaway Independent Democratic Conference because of their relationship.
MTA escalators are going down
If New York's ar chaic, seniority-driven teacher-lay off law -- "Last in, first out" -- is to be modernized, it's up to the governor. A message for Andrew (NYP Ed)
Senate bill for 'fire' power vs. teachers (NYP)
UFT spends lavishly as layoffs loom As nearly 5,000 city teachers face the ax, their union shells out millions of dollars on feasting, boozing and partying, as well as coffee and parking. (DN) * School Chancellor and UFT book Staten Island meet-and-greets on same day; some residents may boycott both (SI Advance)* Education groups and liberal lawmakers are increasing their criticism of Cuomo's vow to let the tax on wealthy New Yorkers expire. (LoHud) * Q Poll: NYers Like Teachers, But Their Unions? Not So Much (YNN)* Eighty-five percent of New Yorkers support doing away with the “last in, first out” rule for firing teachers and say they should be evaluated based on merit, not tenure.* The NYC Department of Education is planning to halve its construction budget due to Albany’s aid cuts. * YC Teachers Fear Layoffs While Their Union Brass Throws Around The Cash * NYC students score below state and national averages on science exam (DN)* Gov. Cuomo: Teachers Should Not Be Judged By Seniority Alone (DN)
GM Science Lab in China
On Science Exams, New York’s Students Fall Short (NYT)
Redistricting NY: GOP blocking Dems from co-sponsoring Cuomo’s bill. (Albany Times-Union) * Counting Votes: Cuomo proposes bill to help military votes get counted; delays when NY-26 race gets called. (Albany Times-Union)
Uptown politics: State Sen. Adriano Espaillat's rise a bit of fate, lot of planning
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Why Does It Take 10 Years to Replace Cancer Causing PCBs in the City's Schools?
City to Replace School Lighting Tainted by PCBs(NYT) * City's PCB Plan Criticized(WSJ)
Cost of World Trade Center transit hub grows
This Stinks
Under the Gowanus Canal, Flushing Out the Stench (NYT)
The Power of Good Housing
Score one for the broken windows theory, that largely hypothetical correlation between vandalism and crime. Overall crime has declined in the last six years. So has the number of broken windows. Of all the 5 million homes and apartments counted in metropolitan New York in 2009, windows were reportedly broken in 23,500, compared with 156,900 in the 4.8 million counted six years earlier, the Census Bureau said this week. (NYT)
Law and Order NYPD cops issuing fewer summonses from more frisks (DN) *The more information the New York Civil Liberties Union gets out of the NYPD, the better cops look (DN Ed) * In Arthur Ave. Holdup, Trail to 2 Key Suspects (NYT) * Sixth-grader vows to become detective after seeing mom killed by the street (DN)Slash horror: Girl 'covered in blood' after vicious McDonald's attack (DN) * Charge mom who brought daughter to precinct with stupidity (DN) *Staten Island Parents Charged With Trying to Abandoned Their Daughter in a Police Station (WNBC) * Jay-Z protege facing eight years in prison for role in gang slay (DN) * Nightmares haunting man who was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years (DN)Fake water workers targeting elderly in NYC (WABC) * * * Ordeal of wrong guy in Bx. rape (NYP) * Rabbi charged as perv (NYP) * Psycho killer's day 'in' court (NYP) * Tips lead NYPD Gang Unit to weapons cache; 2 arrested (NYP)
Larry King To Piers Morgan: 'I Haven't Seen Dangerous Yet' (VIDEO)
Anti-Abortion Billboard Coming Down
Racial anti-abortion billboard in SoHo comes down amid outrage from pro-choice NYers, black leaders
Anti-abortion billboard riles up politicians, pro choice NYers * Mom: Remove Girl's Image from Ad (Fox 5) * Pro-Life Billboard Stirs Up Controversy In SoHo (NY1)
School of hard knocked A group of Brooklyn educators is trying to launch a charter high school for pregnant girls and teenage parents in Bedford-Stuyvesant (NYP) * Time Warner — helping minority students or minority pols? (Brooklyn Paper)
Wisconsin governor urging others to take stands against unions (Wash Post) *Wisconsin: Unions leaders in NY support workers against WI Governor. (New York Post)* Fox’s Shep Smith: Pretending Wisconsin Is About A Fiscal Crisis Is “Malarkey” * Colbert Plays The Part Of ‘Union Goon’ To Mock Tea Party’s Wisconsin Protest Plan
