Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The 2013 Mayor's Race Has Really Begun: de Blasio Takes A Wack At Kelly

Can Ticket Fixing Scandal Hurt Kelly?

de Blasio who is normally very cautious in his politics and press release has taken the hardest shot against an opponent in the 2013 mayoral campaign. The Public Advocate is trying tie Kelly into the NYPD ticket fixing scandal. This our of character attack is an indication how strong a candidate de Blasio things Kelly would be. de Blasio is a good political strategist understands that Kelly on the GOP and independent line would do very well after the expected crowded and divisive Democratic Primary could make Kelly a winner. de Blasio also understands that the WFP could have their own candidate regardless who wins the Democratic Primary making Kelly even more of a shoe in to be the next mayor. Will the de Blasio attack on Kelly get traction in the press who has not even mentioned which City Hall pols got their tickets fixed by the cops is still in question. So far only the NYP and NYDN has picked up the de Blasio attack first reported in yesterday on the blog DNAinfo.com

Ray Kelly: From chief cop to commander in chief?(NYDN) * De Blasio to NYPD: Admit tix-fix mess de Blasio has jumped into the NYPD ticket-fixing controversy, demanding the city's top cop come clean over allegations that some officers covered up busts for crimes a lot more serious than minor motor-vehicle infractions. (NYP) * De Blasio to NYPD: Admit tix-fix mess (NYP) * Scofflaw Judge Emily Jane Goodman criticized parking tickets; forgot to mention she never gets any (NYDN Ed)

Civil Rights

Bloomberg, Quinn Defend City Funding of Groups that Discriminate

Wage plan 'kills jobs' (NYP) * Study Sets Off A Wage BattleA bill that would mandate wages of at least $10 per hour on projects that receive significant public subsidies would result in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and would stymie development, especially outside Manhattan, a study said. (WSJ) * 'Living wage' bill a job killer, says study; critics charge bias (NYDN) * New ESDC Chair Ken Adams says the term Empire State has been “misleading for years.”

Most Subway Stations and Tunnels Still Don't Have Working Online Cameras

Broken lens can't catch tunnel boob A surveillance camera that could have spotted him has been broken for some time now

Thanks Florida State gets $354 million rail boost after other states turn down money(NYDN)

5
5

Millions Spent on TV Ads Supporting the Governors and Cleaver Politics Has Kept Cuomo Poll Numbers High

Poll: NYers see Cuomo as changing Albany(WSJ) * NY1 Exclusive: NY1-Marist Poll Finds Cuomo's Numbers Are Strong, Legislature's Are Not (NY1) * Governor Andrew Cuomo begins his “People First” tour today at Noon in Syracuse. * Cuomo to Legislature: ‘Pass the tax cap now, or don’t come home.’ * Cuomo is telling New Yorkers that lobbyists are fiercely fighting his property tax proposal and he needs their help (Fox 5) * Cuomo Says Legislature Is Rife With Corruption (NYT) * Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he has “shared” his property tax cap bill with the governor

Immigration: 38 legislators urge Cuomo to pull NY from federal program that sends fingerprints of people in jail to Department of Homeland Security.

New York to be allowed to collect taxes on cigs sold on reservations(NYDN)

4 Spitzer Keeps At Least His Toe in Politics

Spitzer 2010, account is still up and running.

5

When Banks Foreclose, Who Takes Out the Trash? (NBC) *Brooklyn rent controlled apartment in foreclosure (WABC)

New York City Must Fix Its Pension Mess (NBC) * Over the past few years, the New York State pension fund has invested hundreds of millions in hyrdofracking companies.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew On New NYC Budget Cuts (WPIX)

Can Private Methods Save Public Housing? (Gotham Gazette)

The Port Authority Bus Terminal is about to get the Times Square treatment.

Diana Reyna: Hipsters might not think Census is “cool”

e

Little Interest: Parent School Council Elections

Voting deadline for local school-council elections to be delayed for a week after parent outrage(NYDN) * Education Council Elections Postponed, Walcott Says(NY1) * Bronx Charter School Makes Eating Well Part of Its Philosophy(NYT)

Panic attacks, false alarms rise over fear of retaliation for Bin Laden's death(NYDN) * 'No guarantees' on train safety, NYPD boss Kelly says(NYDN) * NYPD Says City Rail Systems Are Safe Following Two Security Breaches (NY1) * Osama's death: Fears of revenge rise (NYDN) * NYC: 2 subway tunnel arrests not linked to terror (WABC)

New Yorkers soon to get emergency cell phone alerts in what Bloomberg calls 'quantum leap forward' (NYDN) * City To Introduce New Cell Phone Emergency Alert System (NY1) * NYC Unveils First-in-Nation Emergency Text Alert System (NBC)

Feds Pushing Times Square Theater Evacuation Safety

Safety Hawks Targeting Theaters A year after an attempted car bombing in Times Square, the federal agency that governs workplace safety is putting theaters across New York on notice that future inspections will include reviews of emergency-action plans—which instruct employees how to respond to crises, including evacuations. (WSJ)

FDNY's $27M fireboats beset by glitches, sidelined for repairs (NYDN)

Yankee Stadium servers sue over tips(NYP)

6

'Cab scam king' hauled into custody(NYP)

Daily News Says State Is Not Doing Enough to Crackdown on Dangerous Commercial Driver

State must do a better job of getting dangerous tour bus drivers out from behind the wheel (NYDN Ed) * 46 Commercial Drivers In NY Charged With Felonies In License Crackdown (WCBS) * Commercial-driver slap (NYP) * 46 Bus Drivers Hit in Safety Check (NBC)

TLC agent's wild ride(NYP)

* Charges pile up for bus driver who led cops on wild chase (NYDN)

Moreno testifies he resisted gal's advances, sang Bon Jovi(NYP) * In Rape Trial, Officer Calls Woman the Aggressor and Says They Only Snuggled(NYT) * Officer Denies Rape Charge A New York City police officer testified that he didn't rape a 29-year-old woman while she was drunk but, moved by his own struggle with alcohol, tried to comfort her in a series of brief visits to her apartment. (WSJ) * Officer On Trial For 2008 Rape Says Accuser Was The Aggressor (NY1)

Westies thug dies in prison (NYP)

Law and Order Vinny ordered hit to show who's boss: feds (NYP) * Trial and error in robbery case (NYP) * Sis sought in Qns. slay (NYP) * Woman found stabbed to death in her Queens apartment (NYDN) * Police Investigate Fatal Stabbing Of Queens Woman (WCBS)* Family Justice Centers see spike amid increased violence(NYDN) * Airbags Becoming A Hot Commodity Among Thieves In NYC (WCBS) * Shower cap-wearing suspect in Midtown robbery (WABC)

8 bodies, 4 killers: Multiple butchers eyed at LI beach (NYP) * Identifying Another Victim, Officials Raise Possibility of a 2nd L.I. Killer (NYT) * Multiple Long Island Killers Suspected(WSJ) * Authorities Identity a Fifth L.I. Victim (NYT) * DA: 2-3 Killers Dumped Bodies(Fox 5)

Clueless robber botches attempts at Duane Reade, Cosi & Starbucks, then succeeds at CVS (NYDN) * Bumbling Thief Botches 4 of 5 Robberies (NBC) * Would-be rapist convicted seven years after victim fought him off (NYP)

4

Steinbrenner, the Original 'Undercover Boss' Yankees owner George Steinbrenner helped the FBI with two investigations in the years leading up to a pardon by President Ronald Reagan, according to documents released by the bureau. (WSJ) * Steinbrenner worked as secret FBI informant, documents reveal (NYDN)

Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Skype(WSJ)

Microsoft confirms $8.5B purchase of Skype (NYP)

Jon Stewart Ridicules Last Week’s Post-bin Laden GOP Presidential Primary Debate

Colbert Explains Why Hasidic Paper Erased Hillary Clinton From Iconic Photo (VIDEO)

Second Jewish paper drops Clinton from photo (Wash Post)

WATCH: Last Summer At Coney Island Trailer

Schwarzenegger, Shriver split up

Why Donate to True News Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth. Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter. If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove. Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness. Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and Apartments Gives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the Media Investigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine Reports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws. True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians. It's been written about True News Those of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well. Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting. Contributors names are confidential

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

Send News Tips to True News

True New NYC@aol.com

"I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures." Boss Tweed

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. ” -Thomas Jefferson

“Nearly all the newspaper accounts published at the time were manufactured by journalists at a distance, and were not only inaccurate in their facts but intentionally misleading.”
- George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

Gene Kelley in “Inherit the Wind” described the job of a newsman: “Comfort the afflicted; and afflict the comfortable.”

In the beginning of the last century, Lincoln Steffens and Jacob Riis were the muck rakers. Steffens tried to rouse the public to take action against the misdeeds of government and corporate leaders. Jacob Riis, a Danish immigrant, was the pioneer of photo journalism. He took his camera into the miserable tenement slums of the city. Depicting the plight of the poor, he wrote a book called “How the Other Half Lives.”

"Through the years of the 20th century even the most mercenary of newspaper owners were, above all, conscious of their duty to inform the public and they backed their reporters to the hilt. It was not just a matter of right or wrong---but common sense. The ethics of good journalism in this era, alas, seems to have been forgotten." Gabe Pressman

"A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues." Theodore Roosevelt

As a 19th-century Manhattan politician once observed, “no man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock." — Ben Hecht

Kempton once said, "There's no excuse for kicking somebody unless he's up." Murray Kempton used to kick people who were up all the time, and though he was half their weight and underpaid it was beautiful to watch. Quite beautiful.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. - George Orwell

There is no final reliance but upon us; Democracy rests finally upon us. - Walt Whitman