Rather Fails With Corporate Welfare and Corruption
Ratner Facing New Tests When Forest City Ratner broke ground on its $904 million basketball arena, it was a sign that one of the most active developers in New York was emerging from a brutal recession. But as the market creeps back, large challenges remain for the development firm.(WSJ) * NBA deal is 'net' loss for B'klyn (NYP)
Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) and Prospect Heights activist Patti Hagan, both longtime foes of Atlantic Yards, said the SEC documents are the latest "proof" that Ratner can't deliver 2,250 affordable housing units and most of the 17,000 jobs he promised state officials in order to gain project approvals.* Financial 411: Forest City Ratner Makes Its Stamp on the City
Ratner Money From Corrupt Kruger In Kruger Case, Real Estate Developer Among the Cast - NYTimes.com Ratner Money From MTA MTA APPROVES BAILOUT PLAN FOR BRUCE RATNER'S ATLANTIC YARDS IN ...
No Ethic Law Will Protect the Payoffs That Carl Kruger Received From Lobbyists and Developers
Only Sting Operations and Wire Taps Will Catch Cash Payoffs
With the City's DA failing to bring corruption cases we need a supper statewide DA to police the state's elected officials. What is need in the ethic bill is not only the power to investigate the legislature itself, but also to prosecute wrongdoing.
Gov. Cuomo And Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Make A Deal On State Ethics Reform (DN)* Ethics time, Andrew (NYP Ed) * Next: the Andy cap Gov urged to tackle property taxes (NYP) * FBI probes PA 'hire' purpose 'Dirty NJ politics' feared in No. 2 cop job (NYP) * Albany Ethics: "Cleaning Albany's ethical stable is as necessary a task as maintaining a balanced budget" say the editors. [New York Post] * Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver insists he and the governor have reached a “full agreement” on ethics reform, adding: “The issue is getting the Senate on board.”* The Journal News has created a searchable database of state employees.
9/11 Terror Trials Will NOT Be Held in Manhattan '
Responses Rolling In To Decision To Try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed At Guantanamo, Not NYC (DN) * Bloomberg Hails Moving of Terror Trial (NYT) * Holder Stands By Decision On KSM While Reversing It (YNN) * King: KSM Trial Reversal ‘Vindication’ For Ex-Prez Bush (YNN)
The New Media: Incumbents and Special Interest TV News
Government Disguise As Journalist Reporting On Themselves
Since most TV news programs have cut out daily reporting on government and Albany. The only news most New Yorkers who do not read the papers or the internet news get about government and politics is from these special interests ads. At last night's New York Emmys no awards were give out for best government beat reporter. Most awards were for sports and anchors, given to attractive people who read news.
Committee To Save NY Lauds Cuomo – And Legislature! – In New Ad * Queens Crap: Bloomberg ads continue
GOP Goes For A Second Seat in Brooklyn Using Kruger Scandal
Education Deals: Dean Skelos gets TAP funding approved, Agudath officials agree to support GOP for Kruger's seat. * In the final days of budget negotiations, state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos insisted that any deal with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Cuomo include $18 million in recurring, new Tuition Assistance Program funding for rabbinical students. Neither Cuomo nor Silver had this funding in their budget resolutions, yet Skelos got it through. (CHN)
Pay to Play Richard Kessel Power chief probed over no-bid deals
NYPA chief Richie Kessel’s practice of handing out millions in no-bid grants to politically connected groups.
Hevesi sentencing slated for Friday
Sen. Tony Avella continues his “no lulu” streak.
When A Comptroller Games the law. Can the Public Asked If the Audits His Office Produces are Also Gamed - Meaning manipulative to Give Liu the Outcome He Wants?
Liu didn't dispute that his campaign put up the signs. Nor did he argue the summonses were incorrectly issued. He said merely that Sanitation had failed to properly deliver the citations. Which isn't to say Liu's campaign did not receive them. In fact, a Liu aide picked up 5,330 of the notices. Although there was no question of receipt, Liu's lawyer argued that the law requires delivery by certified mail. An administrative law judge tossed those tickets, along with 891 additional summonses that were deemed invalid. That left 1,941 violations - all of which were sent by certified mail - and fines of $145,575. But Liu's attorney appealed, demanding that Sanitation identify those particular tickets by summons number. When Sanitation could not do so, the appeals panel dismissed the case entirely 10 days ago. Thus, Liu proved that you can beat both City Hall and you, the taxpayers - even if you are dead to rights guilty. (DN)
The NYP has a story about a plan by Republican Minority Leader James Oddo to cut CFB matching funds. Pols' gravy train Campaign-cash furor * Oddo aims to curtail matching funds for NYC candidates (SI Advance)
What the Otto and the NYP leave out of their article is how incumbent councilmembers use unused public funds for parties, trips and to pay finds as exposed last week in an investigation by WNBC. WNBC Candidates Kept Unspent Public Campaign $$$ * Candidates Who Take Public Funds Rarely Pay Back Taxpayers Where's the Money Going? (Video)
Otto can also look into how incumbents like Lew Fidler petition CFB for full funding when the board determined that they have only token opposition . Or how he uses millions in member items and youth services funds from the committee he chairs to support his reelection and political objectives. Pork Pig Fidler’s Media Friends Put Lipstick On Him (True News)
Will Cuomo Transform NY Politics Like Al Smith
Comparing Cuomo: He's like "Happy Warrior" Alfred E Smith, but Cuomo "isn't known to be as warm and fuzzy." * Questioning Cuomo: Will education cuts and property tax hikes be blamed on Cuomo, or local school districts? * Questioning Cuomo: Why did't Cuomo negotiate with schools the way he negotiated with healthcare "stakeholders" during Medicaid redesign?* “The budget passed overwhelmingly with Democrats. I’m a progressive democrat who’s broke,” said Cuomo in defense of his spending plan, approved largely in tact by the Legislature last week. “Cuomo emerged from the budget battles with his relations intact with the Republican-led Senate, but with considerable ill feelings among many members of his own party in the Assembly and the Senate, especially the more liberal Democratic base,” writes Tom Precious.
Lost Warrior: Al Smith and the Fall of Tammany Hall
Newfield's 10 Worst Landlords Expands to Social Networking on Facebook
The late Journalist Jack Newfield help a lot of poor New Yorkers by inventing and coming up with a yearly list of NYC'S 10 Worst Landlords which he publish in the Village Voice each year. The publication of the list each year put pressure on the city to crack down on the landlords Newfield list. Now Public Advocate deBlasio is using the Internet to get the public to identify bad landlords. Identifying City’s Worst Landlords via Craigslist, and Trying to Penalize Them (NYT)
Nothing Fights Crime Better Than An Experienced Cop on the Beat
After 40 Years, Still at Home in the Trenches NYPD most senior member assigned to street-level work, Detective John C. Roe, 61, has one of the last personal histories of a department transformed. (NYT)
Some 911 Families Want An Above Ground Memorial For the WTC Unidentified
9/11 Relatives Oppose Plans to Put Remains in Museum(NYT) * Families express anger over WTC memorial plans (DN) * September 11th Victims' Families Object To Burial Plan At WTC Site (NY1)
Some September 11 Families Don't Want Body Parts in Memorial (village Voice)* Mayor Bloomberg Says Shrine To 9/11 Victims At Memorial "Beautiful," "Respectful" Despite Protests (DN)
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Like the Shirt First Tragedy The Bus Safety Fix Comes After Multiple Deaths
Discount Bus Industry Is Subject of Federal Safety Inquiry (NYT) * NTSB will probe discount bus industry after deadly March crashes (DN)
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Another Failed Education Opportunity By Klein
School 'Bonus' Plan Comes Up Short (WSJ) Backers of incentive pay are blaming the way New York's program was structured, and school and union officials are pointing fingers at each other. * Another deputy is departing the NYC Education Department.
Child care cuts will hurt us all (DN OpEd)
Supervisor bloat hikes overhead of the class (NYP) * Education Money: "The pain is just beginning." * Education Money: Downward pressure to make budget cuts. * Education Staff: Bloomberg sends new mailers, attacking "Last In First Out."* Education Staff: As enrollment dropped, more supervisors and teachers were hired.
Deutsche Bank Fire Trial Set To Begin (NY1)
Bosses ripped as Deutsche Bank blaze trial opens
Trial in Fatal Fire at Former Deutsche Tower Begins (NYT)
Is Privatization a Bad Deal for Cities and States?
To save money, New York is turning the clock back on outsourcing by replacing private contractors with city workers. (NYT)
NYRA released its 2009 operating budget – under duress and with redactions.
Why Not Sentence Corrupt Pols To 5 Years Terms of Cleaning the Subways?
MTA's plan to put welfare recipients to work ignites debate (DN)
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Nothing Wrong With Leaving the Coney Island Mermaid Parade As Is
Jazzy Funeral Parade Marks Coney Island’s Death and Rebirth (NYT)
For New York's Well-to-Do, What to Do With Tax Windfall? (NYT)
Condos Clash In Park Slope (WSJ)
Singing Off
Katie Couric leaving anchor post at CBS (NYP) * Katie Couric reportedly ready to give up CBS anchor job for syndicated talk show (DN)
Who get's more government subsidies? NPR or NBC? Take a guess...
Are Newspapers' Advertising Coverage Vanishing?
Boo and a half men (NYP)
Law and Order 3 Partygoers Injured in Shooting Outside Brooklyn Banquet Hall (NYT) * Man in Bronx Shot to Death(WSJ) * Harlem woman who killed hubby with ceramic elephant and knife tries to move on (DN) * Brooklyn man charged with bludgeoning 62-year-old wife to death (DN) * City mix-up causes agony for Brooklyn dad of son killed in 2003 (DN) * NYPD stats show city shootings are down in early 2011 (DN) * 24% spike in rapes in 2011 disturbs NYPD brass (DN) * Brooklyn Teacher Accused Of Terror Threat Out On Bail (WCBS) * Bail for teacher in shoot threat (NYP) * Man, 72, in 'wife slay' (NYP) * Search to Resume for More Victims of Serial Killer (WNBC) * Cops 'Lower' boom on DWI's(NYP) * Biz whiz let head go to 'pot': feds (NYP) * New York model pleads guilty to kidnapping baby (CBS) * BREAKING:The remains of three more bodies found on LI coast, NBC New York has learned. It brings the total to 8 bodies
Japan to Release Radioactive Water Into Pacific Ocean (NYT)
Wholesale Robbery in Liquor Sale Congress should not vote for proposed legislation that would hurt consumers and simply benefit the wholesalers who contribute heavily to politicians. (NYT OpEd)
Why Civil Fines? Why No Criminal Charges For this Organized Crime Behavior By Wall Street?
Mortgage paperwork mess: the next housing shock?
Scott Pelley reports how problems with mortgage documents are prompting lawsuits and could slow down the weak housing market
Wachovia Targeted by SEC Over Sale of CDOs The SEC is preparing to bring civil charges against Wachovia for allegedly overpricing mortgage-bond deals. (WSJ)
