When No Means Yes
"It means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less," said the Mad Hatter.
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.
Yesterday NYP'S Dicker reported that Speaker Silver said 'Millionaires tax' brake Surcharge on rich ending, Silver admits The NY Observer Editors called Silver's Courageous Concession Is a Breath of Fresh Air. The Observer said "When Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver recently acknowledged that the poorly named "millionaire's tax" is doomed to expire at the end of the year, it was a sign that reality is beginning to sink in among Albany's leaders."
Today the papers report that Speaker Silver is going against Cuomo and bring up for a vote the continuation of the Millionaires Tax Assembly Will Push to Keep Tax Increase on High Earners, Defying Cuomo’s Wishes (NYT) * Tax Set to End Gets New Life(WSJ) * Two U.S. airmen killed in Germany after shots fired at military bus (DN) * NY Post Editor on Today's NY Times Story: 'Not Even High School Journalism' (NYO) * Fred Dicker vs. The NY Times.* Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos reminds Cuomo of his “no new taxes” pledge.* Twenty Senate Democrats wrote to Cuomo asking for the millionaire’s tax to be extended.
True News PM News Update
"Tax the rich, not the poor" and "The people, united, will never be defeated." Noisy protest inside Capitol (TU) * 16 Protestors Arrested At The Capitol (YNN) * 'Wisconsin!' as a Battle Cry in Albany (NYT) * Bloomberg Admin: Cuomo’s Bill Won’t End LIFO (YNN) * Bloomberg official: The case against Cuomo’s bill (TU) * Court system cuts budget proposal, plans for “digital courthouse” * Bloomberg and Labor (WNYC) * City Drops Plan for 34th St. Pedestrian Plaza * Ex-financial adviser Starr gets 7 1/2 years (NYP) * Proposed Malpractice Limits Face a Fight in Albany (NYT)
True News PM News Update
"Tax the rich, not the poor" and "The people, united, will never be defeated." Noisy protest inside Capitol (TU) * 16 Protestors Arrested At The Capitol (YNN) * 'Wisconsin!' as a Battle Cry in Albany (NYT) * Bloomberg Admin: Cuomo’s Bill Won’t End LIFO (YNN) * Bloomberg official: The case against Cuomo’s bill (TU) * Court system cuts budget proposal, plans for “digital courthouse” * Bloomberg and Labor (WNYC) * City Drops Plan for 34th St. Pedestrian Plaza * Ex-financial adviser Starr gets 7 1/2 years (NYP) * Proposed Malpractice Limits Face a Fight in Albany (NYT)
Cuomo Steps In With A Plan
GOP big criticizes Cuomo's 'LIFO' plan (NYP) On Bloomberg's Team?
Managing Negative News? Speaker Silver gets little negative press for killing the bill as the governor moves in immediately with his own plan. The NYP Editorial does hit the speaker Spotlight on Silver
When Cuomo released his plan yesterday Bloomberg's people called it a UFT plan. Mayor Bloomberg To Gov. Cuomo On LIFO End Run: Seriously... What The hElmo, Man? * Governor issues a 'LIFO' sentence Reveals bill to weigh merit in teacher layoffs * Cuomo Seeks Speedy Change in Teacher Evaluations (NYT) * Governor Floats Teachers Proposal(WSJ) * Cuomo Enters Albany Fray Over Teacher Layoff Policy (NY1) * Bloomberg bid to scrap seniority as basis for laying off NYC teachers hits roadblock in state Assembly (SI Advance) * The Bloomberg and Cuomo administrations are at war over last in, first out. * Bloomberg aides dismissed Cuomo’s plan as a “sham” and a sell-out to the UFT, but UFT President Michael Mulgrew said it appears “far superior” to the measure the mayor has been pushing.* The speaker said the whole LIFO argument is moot since the Board of Regents is already working on an evaluation system.* Teacher Layoffs: "Even Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, appeared to be on-board with Cuomo's plan." [NY Post] * Conspiracy: "Bloomberg aides went further, calling Cuomo's plan a "scam" that doesn't actually repeal the LIFO law and even suggesting it was drafted by the teachers union as a "total smokescreen." [Daily News]
More Albany News Capping Property Taxes: Assembly Democrats are not supportive. [Times Union]
UFT found a young teacher for seniority layoffs Junior teachers OK with seniority layoffs (DN) and found a principal who said the current layoffs system would kill his school. Baum (Principal): If LIFO lives, it'll kill my school (DN)
Judge Revisit Requested Budget Cuts
Lippman Releases Court Budget Cut Plan
Koch the Movie
"Rarely in history has a politician been more naked about backtracking on a commitment to voters than Skelos has."
Koch Disses Skelos: "Politics sometimes causes people to give up their decency."
Filmmakers in Tow, Irate Koch Presses Albany on Redistricting (NYT) * Koch Attacks Republican Lawmakers For Abandoning Redistricting Reform (NY1) * Majority Leader Dean Skelos must not be allowed to back out of promise on redistricting reform (DN)
Is NYPIRG Controlled by the Trial Lawyers? Are they Funded by Them?
A Cuomo Aide Criticizes a Former Cuomo Aide (NYT) * The lowdown on a so-called consumer advocate (Crains NY)
Goo goos Reformers Have Their Annual Press Conference . . . Nothing Else (True News Investigation)
Quinn Avoids Again
Council Speaker Chris Quinn On "Last In, First Out": Wise Or Wily? Your Call, New York . . . No Answer
But Speaker Quinn is A Cancer Expert
Council Speaker Criticizes Article on Cancer Group (NYT)
Dorothy and Others Helps the Council Search for A Brain
City Council Earmarks Flow to Brain Scan Group (NYT) But in doing so, the Council has given the city’s imprimatur to a use of a medical tool that the National Institutes of Health has said “may not be ethical” and whose usefulness in fighting cancer scientists have passionately debated.
What is going on with the AEG aqueduct investigation?
Politically-linked nonprofit's garage, Jamaica First Parking, stripped of charity status (DN)
Pay to Play Carl Kruger B'klyn pol's pal: I lied to the FBI Levitis a local lawyer allegedly acted as a go-between in a pay-to-play scheme to help Kruger (D-Brooklyn) raise money in exchange for official favors, the feds say. * Under Watch: "Kruger has been the focus of an FBI corruption probe into alleged influence peddling since 2008, and the investigation is still ongoing, a source said." [NY Post] * Spotted: Kruger was spotted speaking on a pay phone in the capital yesterday, according to a reader.(NYO)
MTA Poor Management Never Changes
Going in Circles: Whatever contract they make it is over budgeted and outdated
Subway information network is overbudget, almost done and already obsolete (DN) "Due to technology evolution and other factors, many components in this network are at or nearing their end of life," an MTA document from October says. $76 million overbudget (original budget $370)
More Copycat News
Daily News Copies The Daily's Nude Therapy Non-Story
Today the New York Daily News ripped off The Daily's naked therapist story, which ran Monday says today's NY Observer. New York dailies run virtually identical stories all the time, but this case seems exceptionally.
Dorothy and Others Helps the Council Search for A Brain
City Council Earmarks Flow to Brain Scan Group (NYT) But in doing so, the Council has given the city’s imprimatur to a use of a medical tool that the National Institutes of Health has said “may not be ethical” and whose usefulness in fighting cancer scientists have passionately debated.
Council Speaker Criticizes Article on Cancer Group
Italians Kick Boutiques Stores Ass
San Gennaro feast will stay full length, says Bloomberg (DN) * San Gennaro Festival To Lose Time, Not Size (NY1) * Feast they can do (NYP)
Amazin' buyers in lineup No shortage of Mets $uitors (NYP)
Forbes: New York Fourth Most Toxic City
Gowanus Canal . . .
Mosque's Foes Claim Religion Not the Issue(WSJ)
State Sen. Eric Adams shows how easy it is to buy high-capacity gun clips in New York State (DN)
In a landmark case pitting free speech against privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled this morning that members of the controversial Westboro Baptist church can protest homosexuality by continuing to picket military funerals. (NYDN)
Former Paterson aide pleads guilty to harassment in girlfriend Halloween attack
ex-Paterson aide David Johnson pleads guilty to harassment: "I shoved her with the intent to harm her."
Plea carries no jail time
law and Order Jail Renovations Target Makeshift Weapons(WSJ) * A $20 Loan, a Facebook Quarrel and a Fatal Stabbing (NYT) * Expert Finds Defendant's Assisted-Suicide Account Plausible (NYT) * Woman Killed Over $20 Debt(WSJ) * Grand jury results due in NYC block-party shooting(WSJ) * NY police: volunteer shot, suspect killed(WSJ) * Gunman killed by cops after crashing car and shooting firefighter on L.I. (DN) * Letters seek reduced bail for troubled valedictorian Afrika Owes (DN) * Slap on the wrist? Fake doctor gets six years for rape, assaults (DN) * Immigrant in limbo - and facing deportation - after bust at JFK (DN) * Diaper dispute turns fatal in slaying of aspiring Brooklyn lawyer (DN) * Judge in Mets kosher hot dog case recuses himself for fan cap (DN) * Suspect Charged With Murder Over $20 Debt (NY1) * Search Is On For Suspect In Bay Ridge Attacks (NY1) * Psycho shoots rescuer in LI rampage (NYP) * Diaper debt sparks slay (NYP) * 'Dracula' murder jury out (NYP) *Vinny's 'tied' in court (NYP) * Man stabs wife and sets house on fire, killing baby daughter: cops (DN) * No Charges for Man in Harlem Police Shooting (NYT) * Read our exclusive story about how armed bank robberies are on the rise in NYC (AM NY) *Cops raid NYC home - and find massive marijuana farm inside (DN)
Jon Stewart: Why Aren’t Palin And Others Eager To Take On The “Socialist Muslim President”?
Media and New Tech
Tom Robbins Named CUNY J-School’s First Investigative Journalist in Residence * Rich Quits Times for New York Magazine (WSJ) * Breaking: Fox News Suspends Contributors Newt Gingrich And Rick Santorum (Mediaite) * What To Expect From The iPad 2 (Huff Post) * Decline in print advertising slows at NYTimes (Crains NY) * News Corp. Offers to Spin Off Sky(WSJ)
States Make Play for Web Gambling(WSJ)
On-line Gambling: Christie has until Thursday to make NJ first state to legalize it, or latest to block it. [WSJ]
