Truman Said the Buck Stops With Him
Is Liu Saying Nobody is Responsible?
The Daily News is unsatisfied with John Liu’s explanation for his failure to disclose campaign bundlers, who raised a quarter of his reported donations last year John Liu Has Failed to List His Fundraising Bundlers. Liu revealed none, even though he had raised $1.5 million — an amount so large that it tended to demand bundling. His failure to identify big-money supporters left the public with the misimpression that he was funded primarily by small donations. Now, he has revised his filings and revealed that 58 bundlers collected about a quarter of his haul. Among them was Pan. At the least, Liu ignored the legal mandates of campaign disclosure in New York. He is engaged in his sixth run for public office in the city and cannot claim ignorance of the law.
Liu man ‘hid’ $$ in lo mein (NYP) 16G in ‘straw’ donors at Chinese eateries. The secret recipe for how city Comptroller John Liu’s fund-raiser allegedly tried to skirt campaign-finance laws can be found in hole-in-the-wall Chinese takeout joints in Jersey City, newly released records show. Liu’s campaign returned three $800 donations from employees of the tiny Neptune Cafe Chinese restaurant in Jersey City on Nov. 17 — the same day Pan was arrested in an FBI sting, according to the records. All the donations were made Aug. 17 when Pan hosted an alleged sham fund-raiser with an undercover FBI agent posing as an out-of-state restaurateur looking to make a $16,000 donation — far in excess of the $4,950 cap and Liu’s own $800 self-imposed limit.
Unions double-down on cash for comptroller (NYP) Unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, DC 37, and the Retail and Wholesale Department Store Union, gave more than $58,300 to John Liu’s 2013 mayoral campaign over the past weeks * Liu's Bundlers Get Scrutiny on Donations(WSJ) City Comptroller John Liu’s campaign returned more than $75,000 in donations, including $16,000 raised by bundler Yi Xia, a Queens developer building a $100 million complex in Flushing.* Comptroller Liu Releases Long-Delayed List Of His "Bundlers"(NY1)* Asian-Americans consider life after Liu.
Daily News Owner Zuckerman Always Supports Bloomberg And Used His Paper to Change the Term Limits Law So the Mayor Could Run for a Third Term
City's $6M computer system keeps crashing, delays latest property tax roll(NYDN) Only 75% of data is finished, Finance Department sources say
The DN Does Not Even Mention the Corruption and Cover Up Involved In the Contract That Built the Unfinished Software
The Daily News Reporter Blau failed to connect the crashing of the city's financial computers to the corrupt contractor Technodyne and the fact that no city employee has been indicted. 11 arrests by the feds of those involved with the CityTime contract. The DN left out how the mayor was pushing the contract until the arrests and then demanded and got a partial refund. The DN own reporter Juan Gonzalez wrote in 2008 that a whistleblowers wrote a letters to DOI to warn them of fake times sheets and hours claims where being made my CityTime. The DN did now report about the former head of the city's Office of Payroll Richard Valcich letter that blew the whistle on CityTime corruption in 2003.The city official who was the project’s point person, Joel Bondy, resigned in December and had close ties to the suspected mastermind of the scheme. The DN failed to inform its readers that Mayor Bloomberg praises scandal-scarred CityTime time-keeping. * Privatization NYC: Deputy Mayor Goldsmith's plan.
City Hall Admits Mishandling Technology Projects(NYT) * Time-Out Proposed For CityTime System - City Limits Magazine(May 19, 2008) * City Council to probe CityTime; timekeeping and payroll system(Dec 18, 2009) * Bloomberg demands refund from CityTime contractor(NYP) * Mike: I share blame in CityTime fiasco(NYP)* CityTime Contractor Repays Nearly $2.5M To City(NY1) * Mayor Mike Bloomberg Technodyne Arrests CityTime SAIC ScandalTax Payers Want Full Refund! * Liu Crows as CityTime Investigation Widens(NYO) * Mayor Mike Bloomberg's CityTime tax payers Titanic renewal must be stopped Sept(5/27/2010)
Is the CityTime Scandal Being Downplayed Because It Was Largely Uncovered By Liu?
Report Warns City Is Yoked to Maker of Payroll System (NYT) * Liu Sees Further CityTime Woes(WSJ) * CityTime's 700M scandal gets worse: Accounting firm says only contractor has knowledge to run it (DN)
More on the CityTime Cover Up
William Boyland Jr. Has 41 Unpaid Judgments Against Him From The Board of Elections (NYO)
Jobless rate in NYC rose to 9% in December, now half a point above US average City's Jobless Rate Rises as Nation's Falls(NYT)
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Plea in Hospital Payment(WSJ) Solomon Kalish, the owner of a health-care consulting firm, withdrew his original not guilty plea and told a federal judge in Manhattan that he had knowingly broken the law when he accepted $197,005 in payments from hospital executives that he later turned over to former Democratic state Sen. Carl Kruger. *Kruger crony admits bribes(NYP) * Half of Brooklyn hospitalsCrain's New York Business * Former Sen. Carl Kruger spent $1.42 million in campaign funds on his legal defense and still has $400,000 left over, although he must make a court-ordered restitution to the tune of $900,000. * Politicians’ Ambitions and Indiscretions, on Taxpayers’ Tab (NYT) Each special election to replace them costs $350,000.
Hudson Valley Democrat Won’t Seek 11th Term in Congress(NYT) Representative Maurice D. Hinchey’s announcement did not come as a complete surprise, as he had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer. “(I)t’s certainly manna from heaven in a redistricting year,” consultant Evan Stavisky said of Hinchey’s retirement, which puts pressure on the GOP over which downstate seat to eliminate.
Upstate Dem out amid House shuffle(NYP)
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4 Meet the people behind SOPA (NY Metro)NY1 Online: State GOP Chairman Views Senator Gillibrand As Vulnerable(NY1) Senate GOP Far Ahead of Democratic Colleagues in Campaign Cash(NYO) * The Senate Democrats paid $60,000 in debt service over the past six months, making their uphill climb into the black even steeper, and many conference members aren’t pulling their weight. |
Cuomo “dropped by” the NYP to say his two most important reforms in the state’s new budget are pension adjustments and changes to teacher ratings
Cuomo Sells His Agenda
Mobsters ‘bettor’ stay away: Cuomo (NYP) * Cuomo Limits State Money for Salaries of Contractors(NYT) * Pushback time(NYP Ed)* Cuomo * EJ McMahon calls Cuomo’s Teir VI a “big improvement” over his first attempt last year, which was more of a Tier V-A.* The Legislature and Cuomo have a “long way to go” on pension reform, warned Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.* Andrew Cuomo envisions a Nevada-style state gambling commission to keep mobsters and others away. * Cuomo signed an executive order placing a $199,000 limit on the amount of state funds that contractors can use to pay executives. * Cuomo Budget Calls For Reinstating Cross Bay Bridge Toll Rebate -- VosIzNeias.com * DiNapoli: Replacing Defined Benefit Pension With 401(K)-Style Plan ‘Unacceptable’(YNN)
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Are the Million Spent to Gain Support For A Policy Or Public Official Brainwashing?
Coalition Spends Millions Pushing Cuomo’s Agenda(NYT) The Committee to Save New York, a pro-business coalition formed to support Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s agenda, spent more than $12 million supporting the governor’s budget this year. The main reason Cuomo has such a huge campaign war chest: He doesn’t have to spend money to promote his budget and policy agenda because the business community – through the Committee to Save NY, which dropped $12 million last year – does it for him.* State pols spent $9M in taxpayer money on constituent mailings despite budget deficit (NYDN)
Teachers Protest As Bloomberg Moves to Close 33 Low-Performing Schools
Teachers Denounce Mayoral Plan To Remove Educators From Failing Schools(NY1) * Inching Closer to Agreement on Evaluations for Teachers(NYT) * ayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott said they were moving ahead with plans to close and re-open 33 low-performing schools, at the same time they are hoping to negotiate a new and more rigorous teacher evaluation system with the teachers’ union,
G.O.P. Council Member to Switch Parties(NYT)
Teamsters Union Reaches Tentative Deal With Hunts Point Market(NY1)
New Questions Over Billboards After Brooklyn Collapse(NYT)
Forgot to Move Car? City Council Votes to End a Sticker of Shame(NYT) * City Council Approves New Parking Enforcement Rules(NY1) * NYC approves parking grace period, ditches stickers(WABC)
Complaints Over Hell's Kitchen Bars(WSJ) Once billed as the next Manhattan gentrification success story, Hell's Kitchen's reputation has instead gone from rough to rowdy.
Trump Cleared to Manage Golf Course, Despite Opposition(NYT) * Trump Wins Bid For Bronx Golf Course(Fox 5)
Gingrich's bitter ex gives TV interview that could derail presidential run(NYP) * ABC debated the ethics of airing a damaging interview with Gingrich’s ex-wife so close to the Saturday SC primary, but ultimately decided to go for it during “Nightline” tonight – after CNN’s SC debate.
Rick Perry Is Ending His Presidential Bid
Perry to Abandon Presidential Bid(WSJ) * Perry to Drop Out of Race and Endorse Gingrich(NYT)
New polls showing a @MittRomney collapse in South Carolina. But ex-wife #2 may be Mitt's new best friend.
The Iowa Caucuses Will Have No Official Winner (NYT)
POLITICO Poll: Newt in striking distance (Politico)
Romney Riches Are Seen as New Hurdle for His Campaign(NYT) * Poll Shows Obama’s Vulnerability With Swing Voters(NYT) * The 1% and That 15%(NYT Ed) Mitt Romney’s tax returns will remind Americans of the fundamental unfairness of the tax code and show just how much it favors the rich * A NYT/CBS News poll finds President Obama is vulnerable with key independent/swing voters.* Santorum got 34 more votes than Romney in Iowa caucuses: report(NYP) * Poll: Gingrich surging post-debate in SC (The Hill) * In the end Mitt Romney appears to not have won Iowa. * Newt Gingrich On Today: ‘I’m Not Going To Say Anything Negative About Marianne’ * On Keystone, Obama Sides With Urbanista America - Joel Kotkin, Forbes * A Historic Victory in Fight Against Big Oil - Robert Redford, Huffington Post * Obama Faulted By Key Swing Voters - Zeleny & Sussman, New York Times * Why Romney Is in Trouble Over His Taxes - Toby Harnden, Daily Mail * Bain Capital Saved America - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal *Romney Parks Millions in Offshore Caymans - Brian Ross, ABC News * So Much for a Populist GOP - E.J. Dionne, Washington Post * Romney Can Do Well in South Carolina - Sean Trende, RealClearPolitics * Closes In On Nomination - Ron Brownstein, National Journal * Gingrich Hoping for Boost From Sarah Palin - Scott Conroy, RCP * Obama on the Changing Nature of American Power - Fareed Zakaria, Time * The Wrong Call on Keystone - Washington Post * Mr. Romney's Returns: He Should Release Them Now - Chicago Tribune * Newt's ex-wife says he wanted an 'open marriage' (TPM) * Brian Ross Speaks About Marianne Gingrich Interview On 'The View' (Huff Post) * Santorum Up by 34 in Review of Iowa Caucuses(NYT) * WFP Hits Obama Over Wall Street While He’s In Town(NYT) * Gingrich’s Ex-Wife Says He Asked for ‘Open Marriage’)(NYT) * Bill Clinton tells Esquire magazine he believes Obama will win and be the “next president.”
fivethirtyeight Nate Silver (Twitter) South Carolina forecast update: Romney 33.8 (52% chance of winning), Gingrich 33.6 (48%). 
Swinging Newt
Newt's Ex-Wife Says He Wanted To Have An 'Open Marriage'(Huff Post)
Obama for America 2012 TV AD - The Facts About President Obama's Energy Record
Stephen Colbert Super PAC Ad Attacks Stephen Colbert - Samuel L. Jackson Voiceover
FBI Sweep Targets Big Funds(WSJ) Federal authorities announced charges against seven people in an insider-trading probe involving some of Wall Street's most prominent money managers.
Murdoch Unit to Settle 36 Hack Cases(NYT) *Murdoch Company Settles With 36 Hacking Victims(NYT)
Law and Order
Unrepentant, Killer of Four Is Sentenced to 200 Years(NYT) * Deadly Spree Sentence(WSJ) * A 200-Year Sentence for Deadly Stabbing Spree(WSJ)
Police impersonators hits two Manhattan spas (NYDN)
35 Accused of Selling PCP in an Open-Air Drug Market(NYT) * Authorities Charge 35 Suspects In East Harlem Drug Ring(NY1)
* Robber Sought in Hold-Up of Brooklyn Dunkin' Donuts(NYT) * Meatpacking hotel ‘sex fiend’ arrested(NYP* Man arrested in Manhattan restaurant beating(WABC)* Man arrested in string of Bronx tire slashings(WABC)* Dozens indicted in Brooklyn gang crackdown(NYP)
