After failing on their push for an independent redistricting commission the Goo Goos now have hired a lobbyist. They want to form a Campaign Finance System like the cities but did not talk about non political redistricting. Must have been an oversight! The Good Government groups are also working with the WFP who have had their own campaign finance problems and a registered lobbyist. This arrangement is a little like Romney hiring Gingrich to run his campaign?
Goo Goos Trying to Make it Look Like They Did Not Duck Independent Redistricting
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Goo Goos Independent Redistricting |
Campaign Finance Reformers Prepare New Campaign(C&S) Campaign finance reform advocates have banded together to push for changes in political funding in Albany this year, and have hired Jennifer Cunningham and SKD Knickerbocker to hone a media relations strategy. The coalition, which includes the Working Families Party, Citizens Union, Common Cause New York and others, is working with the governor’s special counsel on public integrity and ethics issues, Jeremy Creelan, to push for changes. Their agenda includes a New York City-style public financing system, an end to loopholes and large intra-party transfers, and better oversight and enforcement.
Times Union: Dishonesty and Corruption in Your Face
The Times Union on redistricting: “New Yorkers shouldn’t be politely discussing lines on a map. Regardless of political party, they should be seething at the dishonesty and corruption that’s happening right in their face Don’t play Senate’s game (TU)
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Sounds Like Only Incumbent Congressman Will Know the Congressional Lines Before March
Newsday says as bad as the new Senate and Assembly district lines are, New York is poised to make things even worse by redrawing Congressional districts in March Politics taints New York redistricting * Analysis: Redistricting, a Test of Democracy(NBC) * Cuomo: Compressed Political Calendar ‘Unhealthy’(YNN)
State Senate GOP Super PAC Man
Leonard Litwin, the 97-year-old billionaire apartment building owner, was the biggest donor to state political campaigns last year with $700,000 in donations, including $436,500 to Senate Republicans, a New York Public Interest Research Group study found ‘Old’ money (NYP)
NYP Forces Quinn to Return Campaign Contributions From A Ponzi Schemer and A Bank Robber
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| Quinn Contributor |
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to return $2,000 from convicted felons after The Post questioned the campaign cash she was holding in her probable run for mayor. Her 2013 campaign will give back a $1,000 donation from Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr, formerly of Starr & Co., but is keeping $10,000 from his associates, Quinn spokesman Mark Guma said. The Quinn camp also plans to return a $1,000 gift from Hassan Nemazee, a former businessman and Democratic donor who pleaded guilty in 2010 to defrauding banks of $292 million, but the campaign will keep a $1,000 donation from his wife. Christine Quinn is returning some questionable donations, but keeping donations from those donors’ associates.
The Most Important Person in A Campaign is No Longer the Campaign Manager, Its the Private Investigator
Republican Chided Over Blog Says He Won’t Run for Senate(NYT) In a statement announcing his decision, Cenedella lashed out at Gillibrand for her “early and unfounded attacks on me” regarding a blog under his name that had entries containing observations about sex, women and drugs.
A Gambling Monopoly
Shooting craps? (NYP Ed) The NYP says that the new convention center rest upon Genting being allowed to operate more slot machines at the racino, at the least, and perhaps table games down the road, should the state Constitution ever be amended to allow such a thing. Without those revenues, the project’s economics simply don’t add up.
Bloomberg Super Bowl Anti Gun Ad
During Super Bowl, for 30 Seconds, 2 Mayors Will Be on Same Side(NYT) * Bloomberg-Menino Superbowl anti-gun spot produced by SKDKnickerbocker, cost "hundreds of thousands," not millions.
Whatever
Uncle Andrew Wants You(YNN)
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Crowds delighted "ooh's" when police drag out evidence
5-Story Marijuana Farm Is Raided in Bronx(NYT) * Bronx 'Plant' Site Is a Bust(WSJ) * Three Charged With Massive Marijuana Ring In The Bronx(NY1) * Nearly 600 Marijuana Plants Found In Police Raid Of Bronx(WCBS)
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Weiner Hired A Detective To Prove His Twitter Account Was Hacked
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner used $13,290 in campaign donations last year to hire private detectives to prove his Twitter account was hacked, before admitting he sent an X-rated photo himself (NYDN)
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4Gentrification: Crown Heights Changes Yet Again
Unease Lingers Amid a Rebirth in Crown Heights (NYT) The Brooklyn neighborhood, once stigmatized by violence and segregation, is now luring young people and new businesses, but some longtime residents are not sure the change is good. During the '40s, '50s and '60s, many middle class Jews lived in Crown Heights.
Dubrow's Cafeteria - Crown Heights, New York. 1940's
In 1950, the neighborhood was 89 percent white, with a small but growing black population. Some 50- 60 percent of the white population, about 75,000 people, were Jewish. By 1957, there were about 25,000 blacks in Crown Heights, about one fourth of the population. * The Ebb of Racial Segregation Is Slower in New York(WSJ) Racial segregation declined in the vast majority of U.S. metropolitan areas over the past decade -- and the New York City is no exception. But the trend toward integration has been far more modest here.* How gentrification transformed a Brooklyn neighbourhood (BBC)
Is Markowitz Trying to Bring Gentrification to Brownville and ENY?
Markowitz to propose contest for high-tech manufacturing in Brownsville, East New York Beep chooses neighborhoods because of high unemployment and available land
Albany Bill to Expand DNA Database Fuels a Political Fight(NYT) The passage of legislation by the Republican-dominated State Senate has drawn support from the governor, a Democrat. * State Senate okays bill to expand DNA database(NYDN) * Cuomo is so far supporting a DNA database bill passed by the Senate yesterday, but the Assembly Democrats are holding out for changes.* here is a political fight brewing in Albany over an effort to expand the DNA database; Senate Republicans passed a bill that would require all convicted criminals to submit a DNA sample while Assembly Democrats want the measure to include provisions that would make it easier for defendants to gain access to the DNA database and other evidence.
Volunteers Assist In City's Annual Count Of The Homeless(NY1)
Officials Seek Steeper Fines For Illegal Dumping(NY1)
Mayoral Contenders Band Together to Criticize School Closures (NYO)
City Food-Stamp Centers Are Understaffed (WSJ) The number of New York City workers handling food-stamp cases has not kept pace with the dramatic increase in enrollment following the economic downturn, a city official testified. New York City’s welfare agency is hiring more than 200 workers to handle the crush of people applying for food stamps, housing aid and job services. * Bad Economy Forces Welfare Hiring Spree(NBC) *Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s minimum wage hike proposal “could be a job killer.”
The NYT OpEds against a bill that would allow check-cashing businesses common in low-income neighborhoods to charge higher interest rates and to enter the lending business
Churches in the Schools
The DN calls the Bloomberg administration’s push to stop letting religious institutions rent public school building space on the weekends “stupid and heartless,” and welcomes the Legislature’s intervention.
Election 2012: 16 Million in Negative Ads Stops Newt and His Kosher Salt
Mitt a hit as Florida sun burns rival(NYP) * A Distant Second, Gingrich Pledges to Stay in Fight(NYT) * Gingrich Pins Hopes on Super Tuesday(NYT) * G.O.P. Donors Showing Thirst to Top Obama(NYT) * ‘Super PACs’(NYT) * Gingrich 2012? Going, Going, Gone(NYT) * Mitt Romney Wins Big in Florida Primary(WSJ) * Florida turnout was about 41 percent, not too shabby, but down from 2008 * Romney is reportedly getting Secret Service protection this week * Close to 60 corporations and wealthy individuals gave checks of $100,000 or more to a “super PAC” supporting Mitt Romney in the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses. * Romney Leaves Gingrich in His Rearview Mirror - Rich Lowry, FOX News * Inevitability Restored to GOP Frontrunner - John Dickerson, Slate
Gingrich: 'I Pledge to You My Life, My Fortune, My Sacred Honor' Gingrich invoked the spirit of the Founding Fathers by paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence in his speech to supporters following his second-place finish in the Florida Republican presidential primary.
Cop shot in Brooklyn — but survives bullet to base of the skull(NYP) * Officer Shot in Head Is Expected to Recover(NYT) * Police Officer Is Shot in Brooklyn(WSJ) * Mitt Romney Wins Big in Florida Primary(NY1) * Police Questioning Suspect in Shooting of Officer in Brooklyn(NY1)
Cops probed in video beating(NYP) * Eyewitness To Bronx Police Beating Claims The Officers Then Went After Him(NY1) * Officers Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces(NYT) * Officer Shot in Head in Brooklyn; Full Recovery Is Expected(NYT)
Law and Order
