Rev. Al Sharpton cuts ties with longtime collaborator,attorney Sandy Rubenstein, as rape claim investigators find sex toy(NYDN) “Even if it was consensual, why would he take a key leader
of our organization back to his apartment right after a fund-raiser,” an angry
Sharpton told the Daily News. “It's disrespectful to our movement, and the
women in our network are absolutely outraged." Rubenstein’s accuser was spotted in Brooklyn — after leaving
the Manhattan district attorney’s office — holding a booklet she got from the
hospital titled “After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors.” She
covered her face with dark clothing. In an interview with The News, Sharpton said he wasn’t
waiting for prosecutors to rule on Rubenstein. The lawyer, with whom he stood
arm-in-arm at countless protests and referred to as Brother Sanford for 17
years, is out. “I don’t foresee one,” Sharpton said when asked if he envisions
a day when Rubenstein would be welcomed back. “He has no future.”
Sharpton closed the book on an unlikely alliance that began
back in 1997 with the infamous Abner Louima police brutality case. At the time,
Rubenstein was a wealthy but little-known Rockland
County legislator who was hired by
Louima’s family after the Haitian immigrant was arrested and sodomized by cops
in a Brooklyn police precinct stationhouse. “He was useful to me and I was useful to him," Sharpton
said, "but we were never in the same political bed." Meanwhile, a knowledgeable source who has seen security
video from Rubenstein’s building said that — contrary to earlier reports — the
accuser showed no sign of being intoxicated. “The video will exonerate him,” the source said of
Rubenstein. “The video won’t shed any light on what happened in Mr.
Rubenstein's bedroom or apartment,” Montgomery
fired back. “I think that is another red herring.” With Shayna Jacobs.
The family of Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who died
when a police officer put him in an apparent chokehold in July, has filed a $75
million claim against the NYPD and the City of New York , the Observer reports: * Woman in Sharpton lawyer ‘rape’ may have been drugged (NYP) Authorities are investigating whether the woman who accused
lawyer Sanford Rubenstein of rape was drugged while visiting his posh
penthouse, The Post has learned. “They’re testing her blood to see if there were any drugs in
her system, because she doesn’t know what happened and doesn’t know why she
kept passing out [there],” a law-enforcement source said Tuesday. “Even the
next morning, she was still passing out. She passed out in [Rubenstein’s] limo
on the way home.’’
More on the Secret World of Al Sharpton
More on Sharpton CCRB vsNYPD, McCray
More on the Secret World of Al Sharpton
More on Sharpton CCRB vsNYPD, McCray
Avella Does A 180 On Real Estate PAC $$$
A year ago, state Sen. Tony Avella denounced the Real
Estate Board of New York's $8 million in outside spending in New York City
Council races, but when he needed last-minute help in his own September
primary, he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a REBNY
donor, Crain’s reports:
.
A Tale of Two Pre Ks: Middle Class Communities Better Off Than Poor in the Bronx
Mayor de Blasio’s ambitious pre-K expansion provided a
bigger boost to parents in well-off Staten Island and Queens than in the needy Bronx , the New York Post reports:
de Blasio Proforms Robin Hood for the Voters and Press Than Makes the Back Room Deals With Developers and Political Power Brokers
De Blasio should spruce up parks with less attitude. Mayor de Blasio had good news for the children of New York City on Tuesday: 35 neighborhood
parks will be rebuilt at a cost of $130 million. But why did he have to spread
the word so sanctimoniously? Families living in the targeted communities will benefit nicely if de
Blasio delivers on the promised renovations on budget and on time. That’s his
job — to improve basic services. Additionally, New Yorkers have just learned that the mayor has
established a formula for allocating park spending that includes the density of
poor kids in a neighborhood and lack of past park investment. That’s his job,
too — to establish fair criteria for deciding who gets what. Regardless, riding a high hobby horse, de Blasio insists that he is
doing more than fundamental mayoral work. At every turn, he is saving New
Yorkers from rich, powerful forces that have been out to hurt them. Thus, standing in a love-worn Flushing
playground, he decried “another example of inequalities that have plagued this
city: Over time some parks have done very very well. Other parks didn’t get the
resources and support they deserved. We’re here to take a major step toward
addressing those inequities.”* LET'S SHARE THE GREEN: De Blasio to ask privateconservancies helping Central and Prospect Park to fork over cash tohelp greenspaces in poor neighborhoods(NYDN)* Mayor @BilldeBlasio announced a $130 million investment inNYC’s underserved parks(Map)
Mark Green @markjgreen
Just amazing how Andrew overcame burden of famous
name/money/networks/Dad-on-phone... Cuomo Plays the Women's Vote to the Max
Women help Gov. Cuomo to 20-point lead over Rob Astorino inQuinnipiac poll of likely November voters (NYDN) Incumbent Democrat Cuomo, who's been making an appeal to
female voters via his "Women's Equality" party, trounces Westchester
County Executive Rob Astorino 51% to 31%, with a 32-point lead among women. Green
Party candidate Howie Hawkins pulls eight percent of the vote in a three-way
matchup. In an August Quinnipiac poll of registered (not likely) New York voters, Cuomo
held a 28-point lead over the GOP's Astorino. “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo got a
head start on the Quinnipiac
University Hilbert College
in Hamburg , just outside Buffalo ,
State of Politicsreports:
Why should a pol tell the truth Gov? Reporter don't care and are so dumb they
cannot tell the difference
Glenn Blain @gblainnydn
Disconnect and Forgotten in the Courts: Justice Denied As Albany Shrugs
Where is Cuomo and Schneiderman?
Too many working-class New Yorkers are routinely tried, convicted and locked up without serious attention from an attorney and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Cuomo have failed to fix the problem, the Daily News’ Bill Hammond writes: * Courthouse Serves Justice, With Indignity (NYT)
The NYP Does Their Spitzer Routine On Sharpton's Cashew Lawyer
NYP's Wood
Sharpton lawyer accused of rape is ‘hung like a cashew’(NYP) * Why Rachel must go: The bleeding won’t stop soon (NYP) Ten months into his incumbency, the mayor still seems impervious to embarrassment. He doesn’t get that when mayors speak, people listen. That words matter. That a statement made today might have to be defended tomorrow.**Victim of Sharpton lawyer ‘rape’ looked sober in video(NYP) * Family of Eric Garner sticking with Rubenstein — for now (NYP) Sharpton said the family will announce a decision Saturday about their legal representation.
Both the NYP and Daily News Wood Rubenstein
'DEVASTATING' EVIDENCE: Accuser's lawyer claims cops havedamning details against Sanford Rubenstein in rape probe while blaming him for'demonizing' victim(NYDN) ‘There’s a lot of new information that will be devastating
to Mr. Rubenstein,’ said one of the attorneys representing the woman, 42, who
alleges she was raped by the high-powered lawyer after a birthday bash for the
Rev. Al Sharpton. Police on Monday removed at least a dozen evidence bags and a
mattress from Rubenstein’s building. But Mayor de Blasio wouldn’t speculate how
the rape accusations would affect the case of NYPD chokehold victim Eric
Garner, whose family is represented by Rubenstein.
Does the NYT and de Blasio Establishment Team Need A Reality Check?
De Blasio Stands Behind Aide Who Omitted Boyfriend onBackground Check Form(NYT) Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said he had “absolute faith”
in a top City Hall aide whose failure to disclose a troubled boyfriend on a
background check prompted a formal city inquiry last week.* De Blasio’s continuing support of Noerdlinger and the Rev.Al Sharpton risks permanently damaging his relationship with the NYPD, Len Levitt
writes in am New York :
Sharpton 2nd Rape Crisis 27 Apart
Lawyers for the woman who accused Sanford Rubenstein of rape
said they have “devastating” information against the high-powered lawyer and
blamed him for “trying to demonize” the alleged victim. “There’s a lot of new
information that will be devastating to Mr. Rubenstein,” said lawyer Keith
White, who added they are confident he will be indicted. “We want to give the
district attorney a chance to take this information and do the right thing. . .
. We expected the district attorney to do the right thing.” White did not divulge any details about the supposed
evidence, but said the female friend who was with the 42-year-old accuser at
Rubenstein’s E. 64th St.
apartment before the alleged attack is “completely cooperative.” Tawana Brawley and Sharpton
Sharpton lawyer accused of rape is ‘hung like a cashew’(NYP) * Why Rachel must go: The bleeding won’t stop soon (NYP) Ten months into his incumbency, the mayor still seems impervious to embarrassment. He doesn’t get that when mayors speak, people listen. That words matter. That a statement made today might have to be defended tomorrow.**Victim of Sharpton lawyer ‘rape’ looked sober in video(NYP) * Family of Eric Garner sticking with Rubenstein — for now (NYP) Sharpton said the family will announce a decision Saturday about their legal representation.
Both the NYP and Daily News Wood Rubenstein
Does the NYT and de Blasio Establishment Team Need A Reality Check?
Sharpton 2nd Rape Crisis 27 Apart
Is The CCRB Covering Up for the Cops?
A bombshell lawsuit by its former executive director says
the Civilian Complaint Review Board is in bed with the New York City Police
Department and has been ignoring and covering up misconduct, the Daily Newsreports *Fired New YorkPolice Review Board Head Sues, Alleging Stop-And-Frisk Coverup (Huff Post)* A new report found the use of chokeholds by members of the
NYPD has spread and a disciplinary process meant to head off wrongdoing “failed
to hold officers accountable”, The New York Times reports:
de Blasio: Nothing to See Here (Noeerdlinger), Move A Long
‘Case closed': Mayor shuts down queries on wife’s aide(NYP) A testy Mayor de Blasio on Monday tried to shut down questions about the controversial appointment of Rachel Noerdlinger — despite revelations she omitted crucial information about her personal life during a background review. Case closed,” de Blasio declared as he fended off inquiries during a press conference on Staten Island . “I think this whole notion — with all due respect to all of you and the job you have to do — this notion of ‘Let’s talk about people’s boyfriends, let’s talk about their children.’ It’s just going too far,” he said. De Blasio also fielded questions about The Post’s report that she obtained a New York-residency waiver by claiming that her son, Khari, 19, had to be near his doctors in New Jersey after he was in two car accidents in 2012.
ButThe Post discovered that Khari was fit enough to play football the following year for a New Jersey high school. She got the waiver for a variety of reasons, and it was done appropriately,” de Blasio said. “This does not have a lot to do with public service.”After The Post informed the mayor that Noerdlinger was granted the waiver because of her son’s medical condition, he said, “The point is that she’s a good public servant, and that’s what I respect.”“The waiver was sought based on the physical — as well as mental — challenges faced by her son,” said City Hall spokesman Phil Walzak.The mayor insisted, “We’ve covered this issue very clearly … DOI did a review. There was no effort to deceive. I have absolute faith in Rachel and her ability to serve the people of this city. Case closed!”
de Blasio and Sharpton Push Back To Control the Media
chris smith @chrissmithnymag
A Tale of Two Kerik/ Noeerdlinger Leaving Out Info on Their City Disclosure Forms
de Blasio Meets With the Godfather Now With the City's DAs
Meetings with the city's district attorneys: 0.
Update
The Affordable Housing Canard or Tale
Queens councilman smashes‘affordable’ $2,700 rent(NYP) An angry City Council member Monday blasted a de Blasio administration-backed “affordable housing” project in Queens for allowing rent on a “discounted” one-bedroom to top out at $2,700 per month. That’s simply not affordable, Queens Councilman Costa Costantinides said. The push-back came one week after the City Planning Commission gave approval to the Astoria Cove project, which calls for 345 of the planned 1,723 apartments — 20 percent — to be set aside as affordable. But of those lower-cost units, only 10 percent are guaranteed to be priced for “low income” New Yorkers — leaving the developer with significant flexibility to target moderate- and middle-income residents. * Council promises final say on Astoria Cove 'affordability (Capital)
Affordable Housing Has Become A Band-aid On A Cancer for Elected Officials to Protect Them From What They Are Doing to Our City With Their Tax Breaks to Developers
Poor Door’ in a New York Tower Opens a Fight Over Affordable Housing(NYT)
As public housing becomes a relic, American cities have grown morereliant on developers, who say they can maximize their revenues and build more affordable units, by separating them from their luxury counterparts. * Real Estate Developers, Tax Breakes and Politics
How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
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Lobbyist For the Astoria Cove Project Davidoff Spotted At City Hall
De Blasio Performs First Marriage at City Hall(NYO) between lobbyists Sid Davidoff. and Linda Stasi, a columnist for the Daily News.Sid Davidoff, an early de Blasio backer and longtime friend whom insiders view as one of the big winners of the 2013 elections. Has gotten the following contracts in 2014 to lobby the mayor: 
Telebeam Telecommunications Corporation, New York Cosmos LLC, Association of Water and Sewer Excavators Inc., Madelaine Chocolate Novelties, Inc., AMERICAN RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES INC., Election Systems & Software, Inc., Touro College, Abbott Laboratories, Times Square District Management Association, Inc., Oxford Nursing Home, Inc., New York Community Bancorp, Inc., Marshall E Bloomfield ESQ, Palladia, Inc., RCN Telecom Services, LLC, AbbVie, Inc, 2030 Astoria Developers, LLC., HUNTS POINT TERMINAL PRODUCE COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION INC, Taxicab Service Association Inc., Master Plumbers Council of the City of New York, Inc, American Recycling LLC, FIGLI DI SAN GENNARO, INC. ***Here is City Hall lobbyist Davidoff telling Earl Lewis on NY1 that the mayor will be OK
Telebeam Telecommunications Corporation, New York Cosmos LLC, Association of Water and Sewer Excavators Inc., Madelaine Chocolate Novelties, Inc., AMERICAN RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES INC., Election Systems & Software, Inc., Touro College, Abbott Laboratories, Times Square District Management Association, Inc., Oxford Nursing Home, Inc., New York Community Bancorp, Inc., Marshall E Bloomfield ESQ, Palladia, Inc., RCN Telecom Services, LLC, AbbVie, Inc, 2030 Astoria Developers, LLC., HUNTS POINT TERMINAL PRODUCE COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION INC, Taxicab Service Association Inc., Master Plumbers Council of the City of New York, Inc, American Recycling LLC, FIGLI DI SAN GENNARO, INC. ***Here is City Hall lobbyist Davidoff telling Earl Lewis on NY1 that the mayor will be OK
Davidoff Cashing in Again 5-building complex OK'd for Queens waterfront (CrainsNY) The City Planning Department has given a preliminary thumbs-up to a proposed residential project set to include three towers, each with as many as 32 stories, plus a pair of six-floor buildings farther inland, with a total of 1,698 apartments. "This project will take what is presently an isolated and desolate, underutilized area and transform it into a vibrant mixed-use community," said Howard Weiss, chair of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron's land-use group, who is representing the developer. Astoria Cove, south of Astoria Park on a gritty waterfront peninsula, is being developed by 2030 Astoria Developers Group, which includes Queens-based Alma Realty. The property will include 295 units of affordable housing, a public school and a supermarket, plus a waterfront park that will be open to the public.
A Forgotten Cover-Up Corruption Scandal Connected to
Has the statute of limitations passed?
The collapse of the Corona-Elmhurst Center Corona-Elmhurst
Center
To Oddo and Ignizio Grimm is Just A Fairy Tale
Staten Island Republicans mum on Grimm-Recchia race(NYDN) Borough President James Oddo said he didn't want to talk
about it, but expressed unprompted support for Democratic Assemblyman Michael
Cusick, a Democrat battling Republican Joe Tirone. City Council Minority Leader
Vincent Ignizio said it wasn't appropriate to talk about politics, since the
pols were in the middle of a press conference about resiliency measures at Staten Island University Hospital
From A Creative Fun City Where Moving Up the Class Ladder Was Possible to Cold Disconnect Rich City
1970's All Welcomed to NYC, 2014 Only the Rich Can Get In
Why I got out of New York City (NYDN, Katcham) The super-rich are driving rents up, and character out.
Middle-income residents — already a smaller percentage of
the population here than the national average — are seeing incomes shrink and
opportunities decline. Even as 
Living Wage is A Band-Aid On A Cancer (Gentrification) That is Causing 1000 Mom and Pop Business to Close Each Week
Mom and Pop Stores Was the Ladder to the Middle Class
City's Small Business Crisis Continues - Gotham Gazette* While de Blasio boasted that his executive order boosting the pay rate that tenants at city-subsidized projects must pay their employees will effect 18,000 workers, critics put the number closer to 4,100 and argue that the order could make it harder to create entry-level jobs in poorer neighborhoods, Crain’s reports:
How Come the Press Has Not Made NY's Low 40% Rate Of College Ready Students?
How VIPs and the Connected Get Their Parking Ticket Fixed
Trial exposes how NYPD cops ‘fixed’ tickets(NYP) “The officer can just tear it up and throw it away,” or change information on the ticket to disassociate it from the offender, said Katakofsky in testifying for the prosecution. Or, he said, “Phone calls could be made to take it out of the summons box” in the precinct, or, “if you were able to reach the mail guy in the borough (headquarters), he could tear it up.”Katakofsky, an ex-IAB cop slapped with departmental charges in 2011 for tipping off colleague Cobb about the “tix-fix” probe, said once a ticket reached One Police Plaza
Flashback Heard on Tape: Yankees Exec Gets Ticket Fixed by Cops ...(DNAINFO)* NYPD cops fixed summonses for Alex Rodriguez, GeorgeSteinbrenner and Jay-Z's driver, sources say(NYDN) * De Blasio’s ticket-fixing past (NYP) * Report: Celebs Benefited From NYPD Ticket Fixes (NY1) * PBA big's tix-fix slap(NYP) * Bronx prosecutor accused of DWI fix to face colleagues in court as witnesses(NYDN) *Report: Tickets ‘Fixed’ for Council Members; ‘Really Disgraceful’ Says Mayor(NYO)
City agency tickets surged in summer, despite de Blasio’spledge(NYP)
Ticket Fixing Scandal: Case Study in A Successful Cover-Up
The lead investigator in the sweeping Bronx ticket-fixing probe is attempting to retire on a mental disability — a revelation that could affect the outcome of the investigation
Bronx DA Now Says NYPD Brass Knew Nothing About the Ticket Fixing Scandal
 |
| Containing an Investigation |
Councilmembers and City Hall Insiders Get Their Tickets Fixed And Nobody Knows Nothing
NYPD Ticket Fixing Scandal Reporting Drip Drip Drip (True News)
The Race for the State Senate
STATE DEMS SPENDING ON SENATE RACES: While some observers were skeptical that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would push aggressively for a Democratic takeover—which he pledged to do while securing the Working Families Party’s line—there is some evidence that he is following through: (C&S) * Three first-term Democratic senators are trailing their Republican challengers in critical races that will help decide control of the chamber, a Siena College Albany (NYP Ed) Nassau County Democrats have now done an abrupt about-face. Apparently they’ve decided their state Senate candidate, recently accused of fraud, would be much more at home in Albany than on the state bench. Then again, the whole reason Democrats were angling to put David Denenberg forward for a judgeship was to get another candidate to take his place on the November ballot for an open Senate seat. In the latest campaign finance filing period, Cuomo transferred $2.52 million from his $27.3 million campaign war chest to the New York State Democratic Committee, in addition to $3.5 million transferred in the previous filing period.* These @SienaResearch polls look very, very good for NYSenate Rs (and thus Cuomo) Joining @sarbetter on @CapPressRoom Re: 3 new @SienaResearch State Senate polls. SD 41 Serino-R +12; SD 46 Amedore-R +10; SD 55 Funke-R +25* GOP challengers pull ahead in upstate senate races (NYP)
Astorino Pulls Out of the WNYC Radio Debate
Why Did WNYC Radio Make A Deal Which Helped Cuomo In the Debates Without Telling Astorino?
A series of emails released by the Astorino campaign show negotiations to agree to debates with the Cuomo administration were fairly one-sided, with the Cuomo campaign accepting two debates that were not on the original list, NY1 reports: On Saturday, the Cuomo campaign announced it had agreed to two debates. NY1 asked if there had been any negotiations at all between the two campaigns on the terms or format for those debates. "There was some email traffic back and forth, and we've talked to the campaign manager since then," said Peter Kauffman with the Cuomo campaign. "We got two invitations.
We accepted them." However, a series of emails provided by Astorino's campaign show that negotiations between the two campaign managers were fairly one-sided. Astorino's campaign manager, Mike Lawler, first reached out to Cuomo's campaign manager, Joe Percoco, in August. He never heard back. The conversation resumed September 18 when Lawler sent Percoco an email that read, "I'd like to discuss the debate schedule and format." He then listed the five offers on the table, which included one from Time Warner Cable News, NY1 and News 12. Percoco got back a day later, saying, "I got the invites let me go through them and I will get back to you." Five days later, Lawler sent another email that read, "Just wanted to follow up with you and see where you guys are at." Two days later, Percoco responds, "Still working out dates. Will get back to you shortly." Lawler responded later that day, "No problem. Is there a time tomorrow we can speak via phone and discuss?" Two days later, on a Saturday, Percoco responded, "We are accepting debates today and announcing shortly. Will send you release asap." The two debates Cuomo accepted were not on the original list, and one of them will not be televised. The Cuomo campaign said it never agreed to negotiate terms, although the governor did say previously that the campaigns "have to work them out." "You could say we shouldn't do any debates. You could say we should do one debate, two debates, 10 debates. I think we struck the right balance," Cuomo said.* Those Emails (YNN) * Cuomo Says It’s Up To Debate Sponsors To Coordinate (YNN)
Fracking Candidate Gov Vs Victim Gov 2nd Chance
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, who has vowed to approve fracking in upstate’s gas-rich Southern Tier, yesterday accepted an offer of a pre-election tour of the gas fields of
Rich Candidate Cuomo vs Poor Candidate Astorino
Cuomo’s Big Dollars Versus Astorino’s Small Dollars(YNN) Nearly half of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign war chest this
election cycle have come from just 331 donors, according to an analysis from
Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group. The NYPIRG
analysis found that 49 percent of Cuomo’s money have come from donations of
$40,000 and more — accounting for $22.1 million of the nearly $45 million he
has raised this cycle. Cuomo’s small-dollar donors are relatively few,
especially when compared to his GOP opponent: Only 1,257 donors have given
under $100, or less than a full percentage point of his overall cash raised. By
contrast, Republican challenger Rob Astorino, who began his campaign earlier
this year, has raised the bulk of his $4 million from small dollar donors as he
struggles to compete with Cuomo on the fundraising battle.
Bertha Lewis Who Endorsed Teachout Must Not Get Along With Cuomo
Bertha Lewis(Acorn) on Cuomo's WEA “I think it’s bogus,I think it’s outrageous,I think it is cynical, I think it is disrespectful to women.'
Bertha Lewis Who Endorsed Teachout Must Not Get Along With Cuomo
Bertha Lewis(Acorn) on Cuomo's WEA “I think it’s bogus,I think it’s outrageous,I think it is cynical, I think it is disrespectful to women.'
Another de Blasio Campaign Promise Bites the Dust
FreshDirect gets City Hall to back off on campaign promise(NYP) FreshDirect lobbied City Hall — and dangled the prospect of giving workers a raise — to get the mayor to drop his campaign promise to end the firm’s city subsidies,... Flashback De Blasio blasts Fresh Direct’s $100M freebie(2013, NYP) Fresh Direct would never have gotten more than $100 million in government subsidies to stay in New York City if he ran City Hall, Bill de Blasio said Thursday. The Democratic mayoral nominee said his administration would remove subsidies from large companies such as Fresh Direct and “give them to smaller companies.”
Tech Revolution: All the Taxi Bosses and Lobbyists Could Not Stop the Lowering of Medallion Costs
NYC taxi medallion cost $1.1m 6 months ago Now about $800k Because Uber
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No Shame In Former Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa Lying
Ex-NY pol Gabriella Rosa gets a year jail for marriage scam to obtain citizenship
Gabriela Rosa Weeps at Yearlong Prison Sentence For MarriageFraud(NYO) Rosa to Judge Denise Cote: "I just ask you for mercy, don’t send me away from my son.” Cote was not persuaded:
Show Former Sen Kruger Assembly Rosa Crying At Their Court Sentencing to Elected
Former Assembly Member Gabriela Rosa Faces Sentencing, SeeksProbation with Support of Electeds(Gotham Gazette) On the other hand, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr., and Assembly Members Herman Farrell Jr. and Dan Quart sent character letters to Judge Cote. Members of Rosa 's family, uptown nonprofit leaders, and several of her former constituents also sent letters, which were filed with the court. While they said they didn't condone what she did, the elected officials praised Rosa 's commitment to her district and her work ethic. Rosa was offered the chance to wear a wire and to catch other elected officials in exchange for leniency, but declined, the Daily News reported in August. Former Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa, who pleaded guilty to marriage and bankruptcy fraud in June, will face sentencing Friday morning at the Manhattan
To Save Time and Travel Expenses Why Not Convert the Albany State House Into A Jail
It took a whole 91 days for another member of New York State
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Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough arrested(NYDN) Scarborough, who said investigators raided his home, offices and hotel room in March, was scheduled to be arraigned in Albany following a joint investigation by the state controller and attorney general.* In Federal Indictment ScarboroughAccused Of Misusing Reimbursement Money(YNN) * Scarborough Raked In PerDiems Since 2009 (YNN)* After Scarborough Arrest, Schneiderman Says He Is NotTargeting Southeast Queens * He faces up to 37 years in prison if convicted on all 23 state charges and 180 years if found guilty on all 11 federal counts. He also faces a maximum $2.75 million in fines on the federal charges.* Scarborough vows to fight state, federal fraud charges via @capitalnewyork * Chasing cheap crooks(NYDN Ed) Assemblyman Scarborough's arrest should be a warning for Albany scofflaws* With another lawmaker accused of filing tens of thousands
of dollars in improper expense claims, the public is left to wonder why this
system hasn’t been fixed, the Times Union writes:
True News Wags the NYT On Cuomo's Second Term Steinfeld's Nothing
In seeking re-election, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has announced few big ideas for the next four years, saying he is running on his record. An opponent says he has an “imperialistic attitude.”
Since Cuomo Won't Tell and the Media Won't Ask True News Reaches Out to Experts to Predict What the Gov Second Term Look Like
Andrew of Afghanistan(NYP Ed) W Afghanistan
If You Thought Dumping Hynes Was the End Of Sexual Problems In the Brooklyn DA Office Forgetaboutit
Brooklyn prosecutor AbeGeorge, who ran for District Attorney last year, forced out amid sex harassmentaccusation(NYDN) George, 36, a former Manhattan
Brooklyn DA Thompson, Hynes
Former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern Fights NYU Park Expansion
The city should fight to preserve precious Manhattan
NYT Covers-Up Lobbyists Berlin Rosen and Shadow Government Out of Mayor's Slush Fund 1NY Story
More to Come, Developing Story From True News
A video touting de Blasio’s pre-k program was sent from a City Hall address, under the city seal, to a list of de Blasio’s campaign supporters, among others, raising questions among legal experts and good-government groups about whether it was an appropriate form of official communication, The New York Times writes
Jobs4NY Which Failed After Spending $7 Million To Take Over the City Council Now Seeks to Keep the Dems From Taking Over the Senate
REBNY jumps into Senate battle Without the Parkside Group Which is Working for DSCC
NYT Covers-Up Lobbyists Berlin Rosen and Shadow Government Out of Mayor's Slush Fund 1NY Story
More to Come, Developing Story From True News
A video touting de Blasio’s pre-k program was sent from a City Hall address, under the city seal, to a list of de Blasio’s campaign supporters, among others, raising questions among legal experts and good-government groups about whether it was an appropriate form of official communication, The New York Times writes
Jobs4NY Which Failed After Spending $7 Million To Take Over the City Council Now Seeks to Keep the Dems From Taking Over the Senate
Jobs4NY Which Failed After Spending $7 Million To Take Over the City Council Now Seeks to Keep the Dems From Taking Over the Senate
REBNY jumps into Senate battle Without the Parkside Group Which is Working for DSCC
Jobs for New York Inc., an outside spending group that poured $8 million into New York City ’s 2013 elections, is now poised to help Republicans in the high-stakes battle for the state Senate, records show, Crain’s New York reports
Awards And Media Coverage for Failed Lobbyists Parkside Group
Lobbyists Groups Parkside Spent $7.5 Million of Real Estate Developers Money and Failed to Elected A Council Speaker. . . Making Their Queens Boss Crowley Their Benefactor A Loser
But the biggest donors to council races were the city’s real estate titans, who raised nearly $7 million in a bid to influence the election of City Council members. Spending for the PAC was coordinated by the industry’s lobbying arm, the Real Estate Board of New York. But after the elections, REBNY President Steven Spinola was quick to declare victory, asserting that 18 of the 22 candidates backed by his group had won their elections. But determining just who was doling out the big bucks proved challenging, since most of the contributions to the real estate PAC, dubbed Jobs for New York, came from murky corporate entities that are otherwise ineligible to donate directly to candidates in city elections.* NY State Senate Republicans have $2.9 million in campaignaccount(NYDN)
Awards And Media Coverage for Failed Lobbyists Parkside Group
Lobbyists Groups Parkside Spent $7.5 Million of Real Estate Developers Money and Failed to Elected A Council Speaker. . . Making Their Queens Boss Crowley Their Benefactor A Loser
Lobbyists Groups Parkside Spent $7.5 Million of Real Estate Developers Money and Failed to Elected A Council Speaker. . . Making Their Queens Boss Crowley Their Benefactor A Loser
But the biggest donors to council races were the city’s real estate titans, who raised nearly $7 million in a bid to influence the election of City Council members. Spending for the PAC was coordinated by the industry’s lobbying arm, the Real Estate Board of New York. But after the elections, REBNY President Steven Spinola was quick to declare victory, asserting that 18 of the 22 candidates backed by his group had won their elections. But determining just who was doling out the big bucks proved challenging, since most of the contributions to the real estate PAC, dubbed Jobs for New York, came from murky corporate entities that are otherwise ineligible to donate directly to candidates in city elections.* NY State Senate Republicans have $2.9 million in campaignaccount(NYDN)
Memo to Progressive: The Likely GOP Takeover of the Senate Will Mean Less Money for MTA, NYCHA, HHC Other City Servies
Can Bill de Blasio Lead a Progressive Urban Surge?(City Limits)
The mayor has chalked up victories at home and rallied fellow mayors around an activist platform. Sure, this could be another false dawn for the hope of a new, national urban agenda. But maybe ...
Memo to Progressive: The Likely GOP Takeover of the Senate Will Mean Less Money for MTA, NYCHA, HHC Other City Servies
Can Bill de Blasio Lead a Progressive Urban Surge?(City Limits)
The mayor has chalked up victories at home and rallied fellow mayors around an activist platform. Sure, this could be another false dawn for the hope of a new, national urban agenda. But maybe ...
De Blasio Gives UFT Their Contract Magic Class Size Is No Longer A Problem
Teachers union gives de Blasio a pass on school overcrowding(NYP)
City Changes Grading System With No Connections to the Past, One Year Later Declares Victory For Education Improvements
A new report found New York laws make it so hard to fire bad instructors that 61 percent of city teachers convicted of wrongdoing and targeted for dismissal were returned to their classroom jobs, the Daily News writes: * De Blasio would not be human, let alone a remotely competent politician, if he didn’t call for the firing of someone using a position of power to force himself on young people and exchanging grades for sexual favors, Partnership for Educational Justice’s
Campbell Brown writes inthe Daily News: * A devoted mom’s plea to fix failing schools (NYP) * Fariña unveils plan to stop using letter grades to evaluateschools (NYP)* March for kids: History in the making(NYP Ed) * Focus on the kids, Bill (NYDN Ed) De Blasio's attack on an education reform organization's funders distracts from the very high stakes for city kids Eager to impugn the motives of a group seeking to expand educational opportunity for disadvantaged New York children, Mayor de Blasio is calling on a pro-charter-school advocacy organization to disclose its donors.* Editorial: Someone had to know (NYDN Ed) Administrators at Brooklyn Tech hired a monster when they added alleged serial sexual predator Sean Shaynak to the school’s faculty — despite an earlier accusation in court that he had severely beaten an 11-year-old neighbor. While Shaynak is prosecuted on a long list of felony charges, the city’s special schools investigator must examine who in Brooklyn Tech’s adult community saw, or failed to see, warning signs that he wasn’t fit to be around students.* Teacher Known as Cool Friend, Until His Arrest(NYT) * Families for Excellent Schools held a pro-charter school rally that organizers say drew 21,000 parents to Manhattan ’s Foley Square this morning, but they have yet to disclose how much the event cost or who the donors were, the Observerreports: * Lawsuits challenging tenure laws are working their way through the courts, and we wish them well, but hiring and firing procedures both need improvement, am New York writes: * Charter School Backers Rally, Hoping to Influencede Blasio’s Policies (NYT)* Editorial: Absentwithout excuse (NYDN Ed)You shoulda been there, Mayor de Blasio. An amazing 21,000 New York City Foley Square
Grimm Puppet of de Blasio and Sharpton
New Grimm Ad Attacks de Blasio-Sharpton-Recchia ‘LiberalDream Team’ (NYO) Congressman Michael Grimm’s campaign yesterday released a new web and television ad casting challenger Domenic Recchia, a former Brooklyn City Councilman, as a “puppet” to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rev. Al Sharpton.* Sharpton Accuses Grimm of Race-Baiting in Campaign AgainstRecchia(NY1)* Domenic Recchia Portrayed as Circus Clown in RepublicanMailer (NYO)
More on the Grimm Race
Your Can't Have 1984 Control of the Media If the Public Finds Ways to Communicate
In a rare move, the de Blasio administration testified against a piece of New York City Council legislation that would create an online platform where New Yorkers could start and sign petitions aimed at receiving a government response, Gotham Gazette reports:
Govs: Son of Moreland Loop
Cuomo Aide Gets Independent Investigating Report From BOE About GOP Poll
Head of unit investigating state election law violationskept Andrew Cuomo's office in loop(NYDN) EXCLUSIVE: Chief Enforcement Counsel Risa Sugarman included Cuomo press aide Richard Azzopardi in a Sept. 22 email she sent to four Board of Elections officials, the Daily News has learned. The email related to a pending inquiry over whether Republican state attorney general candidate John Cahill’s campaign should have publicly released an internal poll in its entirety after making a portion of it public. * Gov. Andrew Cuomo denied trying to influence the newly-appointed—and supposedly independent—chief enforcement counsel at the Board of Elections, despite reported communication between the counsel and one of his press aides, the Daily News reports: *Commissioner Kelly Speakers Former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly warned against every officer wearing a body camera and the impact of de Blasio's decision to stop appealing a judge's ruling that called stop-and-frisk unconstitutional, The Wall Street Journal reports: * Cuomo Unleashes a Rockefeller on ‘Ultra-Conservative’Astorino (Updated)(YNN) * Cuomo: Debate Proposal Struck Right Balance(YNN)
Rich Man Catsimatidis Defines A Political Party As Anything He Wants At the Time
John Catsimatidis abandonsRepublican Party(NYP)
De Blasio Gives UFT Their Contract Magic Class Size Is No Longer A Problem
Teachers union gives de Blasio a pass on school overcrowding(NYP)
City Changes Grading System With No Connections to the Past, One Year Later Declares Victory For Education Improvements
A new report found New York laws make it so hard to fire bad instructors that 61 percent of city teachers convicted of wrongdoing and targeted for dismissal were returned to their classroom jobs, the Daily News writes: * De Blasio would not be human, let alone a remotely competent politician, if he didn’t call for the firing of someone using a position of power to force himself on young people and exchanging grades for sexual favors, Partnership for Educational Justice’s
Campbell Brown writes inthe Daily News: * A devoted mom’s plea to fix failing schools (NYP) * Fariña unveils plan to stop using letter grades to evaluateschools (NYP)* March for kids: History in the making(NYP Ed) * Focus on the kids, Bill (NYDN Ed) De Blasio's attack on an education reform organization's funders distracts from the very high stakes for city kids Eager to impugn the motives of a group seeking to expand educational opportunity for disadvantaged New York children, Mayor de Blasio is calling on a pro-charter-school advocacy organization to disclose its donors.* Editorial: Someone had to know (NYDN Ed) Administrators at Brooklyn Tech hired a monster when they added alleged serial sexual predator Sean Shaynak to the school’s faculty — despite an earlier accusation in court that he had severely beaten an 11-year-old neighbor. While Shaynak is prosecuted on a long list of felony charges, the city’s special schools investigator must examine who in Brooklyn Tech’s adult community saw, or failed to see, warning signs that he wasn’t fit to be around students.* Teacher Known as Cool Friend, Until His Arrest(NYT) * Families for Excellent Schools held a pro-charter school rally that organizers say drew 21,000 parents to Manhattan ’s Foley Square this morning, but they have yet to disclose how much the event cost or who the donors were, the Observerreports: * Lawsuits challenging tenure laws are working their way through the courts, and we wish them well, but hiring and firing procedures both need improvement, am New York writes: * Charter School Backers Rally, Hoping to Influencede Blasio’s Policies (NYT)* Editorial: Absentwithout excuse (NYDN Ed)You shoulda been there, Mayor de Blasio. An amazing 21,000 New York City Foley Square
Grimm Puppet of de Blasio and Sharpton
New Grimm Ad Attacks de Blasio-Sharpton-Recchia ‘LiberalDream Team’ (NYO) Congressman Michael Grimm’s campaign yesterday released a new web and television ad casting challenger Domenic Recchia, a former Brooklyn City Councilman, as a “puppet” to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rev. Al Sharpton.* Sharpton Accuses Grimm of Race-Baiting in Campaign AgainstRecchia(NY1)* Domenic Recchia Portrayed as Circus Clown in RepublicanMailer (NYO)
| More on the Grimm Race |
Your Can't Have 1984 Control of the Media If the Public Finds Ways to Communicate
In a rare move, the de Blasio administration testified against a piece of New York City Council legislation that would create an online platform where New Yorkers could start and sign petitions aimed at receiving a government response, Gotham Gazette reports:
Govs: Son of Moreland Loop
Cuomo Aide Gets Independent Investigating Report From BOE About GOP Poll
Head of unit investigating state election law violationskept Andrew Cuomo's office in loop(NYDN) EXCLUSIVE: Chief Enforcement Counsel Risa Sugarman included Cuomo press aide Richard Azzopardi in a Sept. 22 email she sent to four Board of Elections officials, the Daily News has learned. The email related to a pending inquiry over whether Republican state attorney general candidate John Cahill’s campaign should have publicly released an internal poll in its entirety after making a portion of it public. * Gov. Andrew Cuomo denied trying to influence the newly-appointed—and supposedly independent—chief enforcement counsel at the Board of Elections, despite reported communication between the counsel and one of his press aides, the Daily News reports: *Commissioner Kelly Speakers Former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly warned against every officer wearing a body camera and the impact of de Blasio's decision to stop appealing a judge's ruling that called stop-and-frisk unconstitutional, The Wall Street Journal reports: * Cuomo Unleashes a Rockefeller on ‘Ultra-Conservative’Astorino (Updated)(YNN) * Cuomo: Debate Proposal Struck Right Balance(YNN)
Rich Man Catsimatidis Defines A Political Party As Anything He Wants At the Time
Rich Man Catsimatidis Defines A Political Party As Anything He Wants At the Time
John Catsimatidis abandonsRepublican Party(NYP)
RockACuomo * Cuomo, who just released an ad featuring Republican Laurence “Larry” Rockefeller dishing on GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, said he plans to reach out to more Republican Party moderates to aid in his campaign push, State of Politicsreports: * Astorino pledged that if elected he would cut income taxes, eliminate most business tax credits, replace the Common Core standards and allow counties to opt out of non-mandated Medicaid services, Gannett Albanyreports: * VIDEO: Cuomo knocksAstorino over HUD settlement fight
Expect Scarborough Corruption to Be Contained . . . No Wire No Ratting
Assemblyman Scarborough Arrested
Expect Scarborough Corruption to Be Contained . . . No Wire No Ratting
Assemblyman Scarborough Arrested
Assemblyman Scarborough Arrested
Dem lawmaker faces 23 state raps, 11 federal charges over use of campaign funds, travel reimbursements
An official with knowledge of the investigation says a New York legislator has been arrested and is headed foran Albanycourtroom. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly before Wednesday morning's arraignment, says the arrest of Assemblyman William Scarborough follows a joint investigation by the state comptroller and attorney general's offices.
*Assemblyman William Assemblyman William Scarborough arrested arrested (NYP)In March, FBI agents raided the offices and home of Scarborough as part of an investigation he blamed on a Post report about his potential abuse of the state travel voucher system. Scarborough is expected to appear in Albany Supreme Court later this morning.
How Many More Have Abused Per Diems?
Politicians caught collecting Albany per diems whenthey’re not there(NYP, 2012)Albany
State Senate Candidate Pays Himself for Campaign Compliance
Dem lawmaker faces 23 state raps, 11 federal charges over use of campaign funds, travel reimbursements
An official with knowledge of the investigation says a New York legislator has been arrested and is headed foran Albanycourtroom. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly before Wednesday morning's arraignment, says the arrest of Assemblyman William Scarborough follows a joint investigation by the state comptroller and attorney general's offices.How Many More Have Abused Per Diems?
Politicians caught collecting Albany per diems whenthey’re not there(NYP, 2012)Albany
The New York Observer has an interesting article about Munir Avery, a candidate for State Senate from Queens who ran in the recent Democratic primary against incumbent Democrat Malcolm Smith and eventual winner Leroy Comrie. (Mr. Avery finished a distant third in the race, gaining 11.8% of the vote.) According to its campaign filings, his campaign committee (‘Munir Avery for the People’) paid his own law firm (the Law Office of Munir Avery) over $40,000 dollars in fees for “legal compliance.”The consensus is that this isn’t illegal, but that it raises some questions that the new Enforcement Counsel at the state Board of Elections should look into – such as whether any actual work was done
The Good Wife: Sampson and Seddio
Brooklyn Democratic boss Frank Seddio will make a cameo on the television political drama The Good Wife, and he says producers told him to just act like himselfBrooklyn Democratic organization, led by party chair Frank Seddio, although Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo backed his opponent Dell Smitherman. The day after the primary, Sampson’s political consultant Melvin Lowe was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring with the lawmaker to defraud the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
Lobbyists Arzt is the Guy Who Puts His Corrupt Clients On CBS
First Hynes an Arzt Client In Brooklyn DA During the 2013 Campaign, Now Seddio on the Good Wife, What Next for Next Season Sampson on Inside an American Jail
Because Sampson is expected to win another victory in November, the February trial date — which could shift as events proceed — presents complications for the operation of the Senate. While he was kicked out of the Democratic fold following his initial May 2013 indictment, Sampson is expected to vote in line with the mainline conference. Malcolm Smith, another former Democratic leader indicted in 2013′s Springtime for Scandal, was similarly ousted from the Independent Democratic Conference, which he joined just after its union with the Republican conference. Smith lost his own primary battle, and will not return to Albany next year. * Brooklyn Democratic BossWill Appear on The Good Wife (NYO)
More on Brooklyn Democratic Boss Seddio
Carmen Arroyo is Not Only Corrupt She is Hurting Parents and Children
New York’spoor neighborhoods lined with failing schools(NYP) Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) had the highest number of failing schools — 20 — in her South Bronx district. Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx) was a close second, with 17 failing schools in her southwest Bronx district, while Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito represented an area with 15 failing schools in East Harlem and the South Bronx . “The data show show few quality school options constituents in districts all across the city have,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of the advocacy group. “That’s why we hope City Council members stand with 10,000 parents on Thursday to demand an end to our crisis of failing schools. For 50 years, we’ve tried incremental change and it hasn’t worked,” he added. Supporters of charter schools and school reform are planning a huge rally in Foley Square Thursday to demand “bold transformational change” to upgrade the neediest schools.
The New York Observer has an interesting article about Munir Avery, a candidate for State Senate from Queens who ran in the recent Democratic primary against incumbent Democrat Malcolm Smith and eventual winner Leroy Comrie. (Mr. Avery finished a distant third in the race, gaining 11.8% of the vote.) According to its campaign filings, his campaign committee (‘Munir Avery for the People’) paid his own law firm (the Law Office of Munir Avery) over $40,000 dollars in fees for “legal compliance.”The consensus is that this isn’t illegal, but that it raises some questions that the new Enforcement Counsel at the state Board of Elections should look into – such as whether any actual work was done
The Good Wife: Sampson and Seddio
The Brooklyn Democrat was reindicted last February on charges that he told additional fibs to federal agents concerning his ownership stake in a liquor store. Neither set of charges was enough to defeat the former Senate Democratic leader in the Democratic primary, where he bested three other candidates. Sampson enjoyed the support of the Brooklyn Democratic organization, led by party chair Frank Seddio, although Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo backed his opponent Dell Smitherman. The day after the primary, Sampson’s political consultant Melvin Lowe was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring with the lawmaker to defraud the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
Lobbyists Arzt is the Guy Who Puts His Corrupt Clients On CBS
First Hynes an Arzt Client In Brooklyn DA During the 2013 Campaign, Now Seddio on the Good Wife, What Next for Next Season Sampson on Inside an American Jail
Because Sampson is expected to win another victory in November, the February trial date — which could shift as events proceed — presents complications for the operation of the Senate. While he was kicked out of the Democratic fold following his initial May 2013 indictment, Sampson is expected to vote in line with the mainline conference. Malcolm Smith, another former Democratic leader indicted in 2013′s Springtime for Scandal, was similarly ousted from the Independent Democratic Conference, which he joined just after its union with the Republican conference. Smith lost his own primary battle, and will not return to Albany next year. * Brooklyn Democratic BossWill Appear on The Good Wife (NYO)
| More on Brooklyn Democratic Boss Seddio |
Carmen Arroyo is Not Only Corrupt She is Hurting Parents and Children
New York’spoor neighborhoods lined with failing schools(NYP) Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo (D-Bronx) had the highest number of failing schools — 20 — in her South Bronx district. Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx) was a close second, with 17 failing schools in her southwest Bronx district, while Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito represented an area with 15 failing schools in East Harlem and the South Bronx . “The data show show few quality school options constituents in districts all across the city have,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of the advocacy group. “That’s why we hope City Council members stand with 10,000 parents on Thursday to demand an end to our crisis of failing schools. For 50 years, we’ve tried incremental change and it hasn’t worked,” he added. Supporters of charter schools and school reform are planning a huge rally in Foley Square Thursday to demand “bold transformational change” to upgrade the neediest schools.
Since Cuomo Won't Tell and the Media Won't Ask True News Reaches Out to Experts to Predict What the Gov Second Term Look Like
Andrew of Afghanistan(NYP Ed) W Afghanistan Westchester , received $907,669 in campaign donations from dozens of companies that got county contracts, theDaily News reports: * Astorino rejects Cuomo camp's debate proposal (TU) * Challenged to #debate, @NYGovCuomo pulled a fast one, Laura @nahmias reports #NYGov * Clean Water No Bridge A rejected financing scheme leaves Cuomo with a bridge to fund, questions to answer, and clean water money that should now be spent for its intended purpose, the Times Union writes: * EXCLUSIVE: Democrats accuse GOP candidate Rob Astorino of‘pay-to-play’ in report (NYDN) The GOP gubernatorial candidate, who is the county executive in Westchester, received $907,669 in campaign donations from companies that got county contracts, according to a report by the state Democratic party. Astorino has criticized his opponent, Gov. Cuomo, for Albany Westchester County
Preet Bharara Speaks
Republicans might accept Preet Bharara as attorney general(NYP) * #PreetBharara: institutional "culture" is key re corruption. Must be culture where ppl see bad action & blow whistle, ppl willing to listen. * #PreetBharara: seemed #Moreland was heading right direction. When being disbanded, felt must ensure work not lost to "dust bins of history" * US Atty Bharara at @CrainsNewYork forum on Astorino ad: "people try to use the work they presume my office is doing for their own purposes" * Preet Bharara keeps mum on whether he's up for AttorneyGeneral Job (NYO)* Preet vows Rikers reforms 'one way or another' (Capital) * Bharara: elections won'taffect timing of his Moreland probe - Newsday @Newsday * JCOPE lost another commissioner*Bharara explainsabsence of Wall St.prosecutions(CrainsNY)
US Attorney Preet Bharara
Not Even Taxi Bosses and Lobbyists $$$ Can Stop Vision Zero Ticket Blitz
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is cracking down on dangerous yellow cabs and has issued almost 5,000 safety-related tickets to hacks so far this year—a 95 percent jump from 2013
Taxi Driver Will Not Be Charged 4 Running Over 9 Year Old Boy
Thursday Update City Council Passes Bill to Yank Taxi Licenses After Crashers
Cab driver who ran over 9-year-old won’t be prosecuted(NYP) * Mother of Child Struck and Killed by Cab Hopes Laws Can Be Changed(NY1)
de Blasio Rewards Those That Help Fund His Campaign
TAXI FUND-RAISER, NOW REGULATOR(Capital) -- De Blasio aide gets gig at taxi commission -- Capital’s Dana Rubinstein: Izabella Vais been named an assistant commissioner for policy and intergovernmental affairs at the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency charged with regulating New York City's fractious, litigious, and monied taxi industry. The mayor raised more than $350,000 from taxi interests, while championing the industry's fight against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to bring green taxi service to the outer boroughs. Several sources in the taxi industry told Capital that Vais was a point person handling donations.* De Blasio raised prodigious amounts of money from the taxi industry during his run for mayor. Now, one of the consultants who helped him raise money from that industry is helping him regulate it Flashback De Blasio Reaps Big Donations From Taxi Industry(NYT) * De Blasio, a taxi-industry ally, will start by ditching Yassky(Capital* Analysis: Cab industry donors going strong for de Blasio(Newsday) Taxi Lobbyists Bolton St. Johns, Inc., Connelly McLaughlin; Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP; Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Inc., Connective Strategi* Taxi Smartphone Hails Increase(WSJ) * Go green, Bill (NYDN Ed) De Blasio must move forward on citywide taxi service The Taxi & Limousine Commission has injected needless delay into expanding the wildly popular green taxi service for the boroughs and upper Manhattan.
NYP Connects James Office No Show to Weaknes of the PAs Office
Public Advocate Letitia James isn’t showing up for hours at a time, or is cutting out early some days, the most likely reason is because there’s no real work to do and the office should be abolished
We have to wonder at all those New Yorkers who profess to be shocked, shocked to discover that Letitia James, our new public advocate, doesn’t seem to make it into the office much. In practice, as The Post has long argued, “the only real service the office provides is a soapbox for grabbing attention and making mischief.” That, and using it as a publicly funded stepping stone to a run for mayor. If James isn’t showing up for hours at a time, or is cutting out early some days, the most likely reason is because there’s no real work to do.* The agency that handles New York City
End Candidate Swap ... No Fucken Way With This Group in Albany
Skelos Floats Ending Candidate Swap(YNN) Senate Republicans would considering barring candidates from being transferred from one ballot line and being nominated for judgeships after Democrats sought to place former Senate hopeful Dave Denneberg in a Supreme Court justice race.
Since Cuomo Won't Tell and the Media Won't Ask True News Reaches Out to Experts to Predict What the Gov Second Term Look Like
Preet Bharara Speaks
| US Attorney Preet Bharara |
Not Even Taxi Bosses and Lobbyists $$$ Can Stop Vision Zero Ticket Blitz
The Taxi and Limousine Commission is cracking down on dangerous yellow cabs and has issued almost 5,000 safety-related tickets to hacks so far this year—a 95 percent jump from 2013
City cracking down on bad taxi drivers(NYP)
Taxi Driver Will Not Be Charged 4 Running Over 9 Year Old Boy
Thursday Update City Council Passes Bill to Yank Taxi Licenses After Crashers
Cab driver who ran over 9-year-old won’t be prosecuted(NYP) * Mother of Child Struck and Killed by Cab Hopes Laws Can Be Changed(NY1)
de Blasio Rewards Those That Help Fund His Campaign
TAXI FUND-RAISER, NOW REGULATOR(Capital) -- De Blasio aide gets gig at taxi commission -- Capital’s Dana Rubinstein: Izabella Vais been named an assistant commissioner for policy and intergovernmental affairs at the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency charged with regulating New York City's fractious, litigious, and monied taxi industry. The mayor raised more than $350,000 from taxi interests, while championing the industry's fight against Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to bring green taxi service to the outer boroughs. Several sources in the taxi industry told Capital that Vais was a point person handling donations.* De Blasio raised prodigious amounts of money from the taxi industry during his run for mayor. Now, one of the consultants who helped him raise money from that industry is helping him regulate it Flashback De Blasio Reaps Big Donations From Taxi Industry(NYT) * De Blasio, a taxi-industry ally, will start by ditching Yassky(Capital* Analysis: Cab industry donors going strong for de Blasio(Newsday) Taxi Lobbyists Bolton St. Johns, Inc., Connelly McLaughlin; Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP; Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Inc., Connective Strategi* Taxi Smartphone Hails Increase(WSJ) * Go green, Bill (NYDN Ed) De Blasio must move forward on citywide taxi service The Taxi & Limousine Commission has injected needless delay into expanding the wildly popular green taxi service for the boroughs and upper Manhattan.
NYP Connects James Office No Show to Weaknes of the PAs Office
We have to wonder at all those New Yorkers who profess to be shocked, shocked to discover that Letitia James, our new public advocate, doesn’t seem to make it into the office much. In practice, as The Post has long argued, “the only real service the office provides is a soapbox for grabbing attention and making mischief.” That, and using it as a publicly funded stepping stone to a run for mayor. If James isn’t showing up for hours at a time, or is cutting out early some days, the most likely reason is because there’s no real work to do.* The agency that handles New York City
Skelos Floats Ending Candidate Swap(YNN) Senate Republicans would considering barring candidates from being transferred from one ballot line and being nominated for judgeships after Democrats sought to place former Senate hopeful Dave Denneberg in a Supreme Court justice race.
LI Dem Drops Out of Senate Race - Could Effect Control of the Senate
Senate GOP Ldr Dean Skelos: Dems "showing a total disrespect for our judicial system" by nominating embattled Dave Denenberg for judgeship
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Update Denenberg Stays on the Ballot
* Although David Denenberg dropped out of a state Senate race in the wake of allegations of charging fraudulent legal fees, the Nassau County Democratic chair says Denenberg will stay on the ballot, Gannett Albanyreports:
David Denenberg drops out of Long Island state Senate race after being accused of stealing from his old law firm(NHDN) “This was a seat we felt we had a very good chance of winning,” Jacobs said. “When you take a targeted race and you take away a leading candidate under these circumstances, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say it negatively effects the chances for this race. And if that is one of the targeted races, you can do the math.” He also said he recognizes that unless the Dems put up a viable candidate, the Republicans can “pivot” its resources to other campaigns, “which make some other races a lot more competitive.” Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos called it "outrageous that the Senate Democrats have sunk so low that they knowingly chose a candidate who was convicted of serious crimes and had his law license suspended, and now they are showing a total disrespect for our judicial system by nominating this criminal to a Supreme Court judgeship."* David Denenberg, a Long Island Democrat, stepped out of a key state Senate race after his former law firm filed a lawsuit accusing him of defrauding a client for “fictitious” services, Newsday reports: * Accused of Bilking Client, Long Island Democrat Ends State Politics reports: * Juris-Imprudence (NYP Ed) What do you do if your star candidate for a key state Senate seat is accused by his former partners of stealing $3 million? If you’re the Nassau County Democratic Party, you make him a judge.* Astorino said Cuomo shouldn’t allow Nassau County Democrats to manipulate election laws to remove “disgraced” Senate candidate Dave Denenberg from the ballot.
Update Denenberg Stays on the Ballot
David Denenberg drops out of Long Island state Senate race after being accused of stealing from his old law firm(NHDN) “This was a seat we felt we had a very good chance of winning,” Jacobs said. “When you take a targeted race and you take away a leading candidate under these circumstances, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say it negatively effects the chances for this race. And if that is one of the targeted races, you can do the math.” He also said he recognizes that unless the Dems put up a viable candidate, the Republicans can “pivot” its resources to other campaigns, “which make some other races a lot more competitive.” Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos called it "outrageous that the Senate Democrats have sunk so low that they knowingly chose a candidate who was convicted of serious crimes and had his law license suspended, and now they are showing a total disrespect for our judicial system by nominating this criminal to a Supreme Court judgeship."* David Denenberg, a Long Island Democrat, stepped out of a key state Senate race after his former law firm filed a lawsuit accusing him of defrauding a client for “fictitious” services, Newsday reports: * Accused of Bilking Client,Long Island Democrat Ends State Politics reports: * Juris-Imprudence (NYP Ed) What do you do if your star candidate for a key state Senate seat is accused by his former partners of stealing $3 million? If you’re the Nassau County Democratic Party, you make him a judge.* Astorino said Cuomo shouldn’t allow Nassau County Democrats to manipulate election laws to remove “disgraced” Senate candidate Dave Denenberg from the ballot.
* Although David Denenberg dropped out of a state Senate race in the wake of allegations of charging fraudulent legal fees, the Nassau County Democratic chair says Denenberg will stay on the ballot, Gannett Albanyreports:
David Denenberg drops out of Long Island state Senate race after being accused of stealing from his old law firm(NHDN) “This was a seat we felt we had a very good chance of winning,” Jacobs said. “When you take a targeted race and you take away a leading candidate under these circumstances, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say it negatively effects the chances for this race. And if that is one of the targeted races, you can do the math.” He also said he recognizes that unless the Dems put up a viable candidate, the Republicans can “pivot” its resources to other campaigns, “which make some other races a lot more competitive.” Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos called it "outrageous that the Senate Democrats have sunk so low that they knowingly chose a candidate who was convicted of serious crimes and had his law license suspended, and now they are showing a total disrespect for our judicial system by nominating this criminal to a Supreme Court judgeship."* David Denenberg, a Long Island Democrat, stepped out of a key state Senate race after his former law firm filed a lawsuit accusing him of defrauding a client for “fictitious” services, Newsday reports: * Accused of Bilking Client,
Pay to Play Court Lawyers
Four Charged in a Bribery Scheme to Gain Clients in Arraignment Court(NYT)
Astorino Wants Bharara to Investigate Women's Equality Party "Widespread Pattern of Fraud”
Astorino wants investigation of Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Party(NYP) Rob Astorino is asking US Attorney Preet Bharara — already probing Gov. Cuomo in the Moreland Commission scandal — to widen his investigation to include a widespread “pattern of fraud” involving Cuomo’s newly created Women’s Equality Party. The Republican gubernatorial hopeful, citing six recent state Board of Elections decisions tossing Democratic Senate candidates off the WEP ballot line because of unlawful nominating petitions, said that both the US Attorney’s Office and district attorneys where the Senate races are being held should seek to hold those responsible criminally liable.
Sunset Quinn Ready For My Close Up Cuomo
Pay to Play Court Lawyers
Four Charged in a Bribery Scheme to Gain Clients in Arraignment Court(NYT)
Astorino Wants Bharara to Investigate Women's Equality Party "Widespread Pattern of Fraud”
Astorino wants investigation of Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Party(NYP) Rob Astorino is asking US Attorney Preet Bharara — already probing Gov. Cuomo in the Moreland Commission scandal — to widen his investigation to include a widespread “pattern of fraud” involving Cuomo’s newly created Women’s Equality Party. The Republican gubernatorial hopeful, citing six recent state Board of Elections decisions tossing Democratic Senate candidates off the WEP ballot line because of unlawful nominating petitions, said that both the US Attorney’s Office and district attorneys where the Senate races are being held should seek to hold those responsible criminally liable.
Sunset Quinn Ready For My Close Up Cuomo
Christine Quinn leads Women’s Equality Party rally(NYDN)
Christine Quinn expects to keep campaigning for Cuomo, even after the November elections, with an emphasis on the 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda, Capital New York reports:
Former NYC Council Speaker Chris Quinn on whether she’ll get a job with the Cuomo admin: “I’ve not talked to anybody in the Cuomo administration – not the governor or anybody else – about a job.”
Charmian Neary @CharmianNeary
.@WillBredderman a FAKe womens party dreamed up by men to defeat a real woman @ZephyrTeachout. I guess @chriscquinn needs a job.
NEW STATE TARGET FOR MWBES: Gov. Andrew Cuomo now wants 30 percent of all state contracts to go to minority- and women-owned businesses—the highest target in the nation, according to state officials:
Astorino Uses LBJ Nuclear Investigation to Bring Attention to Cuomo's Moreland Investigation
@RobAstorino goes nuclear in new ad. Watch: * Astorino copies LBJ's famous "Daisy" nuclearcampaign ad in move against Cuomo (Village Voice) These are the stakes. Do we re-elect a governor who may end up in jail? * Astorino Tries To Goldwater Cuomo (YNN)
“The fact that so many of the signatures were thrown out indicates that the gathering was done by the same team. * The botched Women’s Equality Party petition drives for upstate Senate Democrats was bankrolled by Cuomo 2014, the Times Union writes: * In Afghanistan,Cuomo Raises Bar on New YorkSecurity (WSJ)* Democratic Candidates Rally For Women’s Agenda(YNN) * Attacking Cuomo on Ethics, Astorino Remakes the ‘Daisy’ Ad(NYT) * Astorino Ad: Cuomo Didn’t Fix Albany (YNN)
Christine Quinn expects to keep campaigning for Cuomo, even after the November elections, with an emphasis on the 10-point Women’s Equality Agenda, Capital New York reports:
Charmian Neary @CharmianNeary
.@WillBredderman a FAKe womens party dreamed up by men to defeat a real woman @ZephyrTeachout. I guess @chriscquinn needs a job.
NEW STATE TARGET FOR MWBES: Gov. Andrew Cuomo now wants 30 percent of all state contracts to go to minority- and women-owned businesses—the highest target in the nation, according to state officials:
Astorino Uses LBJ Nuclear Investigation to Bring Attention to Cuomo's Moreland Investigation
Cuomo TV Ads Cuomo’s Ad Faults Astorino on Health Care for Older Adults(NYT)*Democrats Charge Astorino With Pay To Play(YNN)
Afghanistan , Cuomo said he wants New York to develop “the most sophisticated homeland defense system ever designed by any state,” the Daily News * In Kabul,Cuomo Seeks Insights on Terrorism (NYT) While in Afghanistan , Cuomo, who is not known to mingle with strangers in New York , made a concerted effort to project a relaxed image among the soldiers, who met him over a barbecue in a garden at the heavily secured headquarters of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan .
Will MTA Fare Hike Hurt Cuomo * A four-percent hike of MTA fares and tolls is a major issue that could derail Cuomo’s reelection and could hit him at the worst time—just before the election, the Post reports: * WEP flops upstate (TU)
Cuomo TV Ads Cuomo’s Ad Faults Astorino on Health Care for Older Adults(NYT)*Democrats Charge Astorino With Pay To Play(YNN)
Afghanistan , Cuomo said he wants New York to develop “the most sophisticated homeland defense system ever designed by any state,” the Daily News * In Kabul,Cuomo Seeks Insights on Terrorism (NYT) While in Afghanistan , Cuomo, who is not known to mingle with strangers in New York , made a concerted effort to project a relaxed image among the soldiers, who met him over a barbecue in a garden at the heavily secured headquarters of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan .
Will MTA Fare Hike Hurt Cuomo * A four-percent hike of MTA fares and tolls is a major issue that could derail Cuomo’s reelection and could hit him at the worst time—just before the election, the Post reports: * WEP flops upstate (TU)
Will MTA Fare Hike Hurt Cuomo * A four-percent hike of MTA fares and tolls is a major issue that could derail Cuomo’s reelection and could hit him at the worst time—just before the election, the Post reports: * WEP flops upstate (TU)
As PACs Suck Power Away From Local Communities, Centralizing Campaigns In the Hands of Lobbyists and Special Interests
The Daily News Says PACs Have Not Been A Game Changer (Depends Which Game You Care About)
The influx of independent PACs—which can raise and spend as much as they want for statewide and legislative races as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaigns—has hardly been the game-changer some expected, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *State Senate PACs Coalition pushing for Democrat-controlled state Senate setto begin campaign mailings(NYDN)* An independent expenditure group recently set up by education reform advocates associated with StudentsFirstNY has raised $1.75 million over the past week to pour into New York’s November elections—and is likely to help Senate Republicans, Crain’s reports: *Charter-schools group poised to aid Senate GOP
The healthcare workers union 1199 SEIU has endorsed Brooklyn GOP Sen. Marty Golden for re-election, in spite of a vow earlier this year to work exclusively toward helping the Democrats win the majority.
The NYC-based consulting firm BerlinRosen Public Affairs is establishing a new digital practice headed by former Obama campaign staffer Josh Cook.*IDC PAC Funds Bronx County-Backed Assembly Candidates(NYO)• Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos outlined the successes of coalition rule, an indication that he isn’t ready to write off the Independent Democratic Conference just yet, State of Politics
The Daily News Says PACs Have Not Been A Game Changer (Depends Which Game You Care About)
The influx of independent PACs—which can raise and spend as much as they want for statewide and legislative races as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaigns—has hardly been the game-changer some expected, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *State Senate PACs Coalition pushing for Democrat-controlled state Senate setto begin campaign mailings(NYDN)* An independent expenditure group recently set up by education reform advocates associated with StudentsFirstNY has raised $1.75 million over the past week to pour into New York’s November elections—and is likely to help Senate Republicans, Crain’s reports: *Charter-schools group poised to aid Senate GOP
The healthcare workers union 1199 SEIU has endorsed Brooklyn GOP Sen. Marty Golden for re-election, in spite of a vow earlier this year to work exclusively toward helping the Democrats win the majority.
The NYC-based consulting firm BerlinRosen Public Affairs is establishing a new digital practice headed by former Obama campaign staffer Josh Cook.*IDC PAC Funds Bronx County-Backed Assembly Candidates(NYO)• Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos outlined the successes of coalition rule, an indication that he isn’t ready to write off the Independent Democratic Conference just yet, State of Politics
Developers Pressure Kills de Blasio's Inclusionary Proposed Increase
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s forthcoming mandatory inclusionary housing proposal is more likely to hover around a 20 percent affordability requirement—a ratio associated with the current Inclusionary Housing Program—rather than the increase to 30 percent or more that some have suggested, Crain’s reports:
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s forthcoming mandatory inclusionary housing proposal is more likely to hover around a 20 percent affordability requirement—a ratio associated with the current Inclusionary Housing Program—rather than the increase to 30 percent or more that some have suggested, Crain’s reports:
Here Comes the $3.50 Fare Right After the Election, No Funds for Capital Budget
Yet The MTA is Not An Issue in Campaign 2014
Yet The MTA is Not An Issue in Campaign 2014
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In M.T.A. Capital Budget, a Reappearing Cash Gap(NYT)The budget proposal released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority put the cost of keeping the aging system in working order at $32 billion, outpacing available funding by over $15 billion.
The MTA is proposing to use the $1.2 billion generated annually by the controversial payroll tax to back bonds for its five-year, $32 billion capital plan.
DiNapoli Frets Possible MTA Funding Gap(YNN) The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital plan over the next five years could have a funding gap as high as $12 billion, a report released on Thursday by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office found.* MTA faces $12B funding gap for major capital projects: report(NYP)* Comptroller: MTA Needs More Funds for Capital Projects (WSJ) Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned the MTA may face a funding gap of more than $12 billion for its plan to finance repair and construction projects over the next five years* The MTA said recent contract agreements with its unions will cost an added $1 billion through 2016,(NYDN) setting the stage for a debate over how the agency will pay for construction and repairs in coming years, The Wall Street Journal reports:* The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved an almost $32 billion capital plan to upgrade aging infrastructure, but the agency still faces a more than $15 billion funding gap, the Post reports: Tom Prendergast - Poor Tom. The MTA’s $15.2 billion shortfall in its five-year capital plan isn’t his fault, really. But now he has to deal with it. We guess that’s what you get for aspiring to public service. * CITY & STATE TV: Gene Russianoff, NYPIRG attorney and spokesman for the Straphangers Campaign, discusses the MTA capital budget plan and the significant deficit in the proposal, in an interview with Nick Powell: * The MTA will need to establish an entrepreneurial unit to get past bureaucratic obstacles and move quickly to pursue clear revenue targets that contribute in significant ways to funding of the system, the Long Island Association’s Kevin Law and the Partnership for New York City’s Kathryn Wylde write in theDaily News: * The MTA suffered more than $200 million in unexpected
losses scrambling to install high-tech surveillance equipment to protect subway
riders from potential terror attacks after defense contractor Lockheed Martin
failed to deliver, the New York Post reports:
In M.T.A. Capital Budget, a Reappearing Cash Gap(NYT)The budget proposal released by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority put the cost of keeping the aging system in working order at $32 billion, outpacing available funding by over $15 billion.
The MTA is proposing to use the $1.2 billion generated annually by the controversial payroll tax to back bonds for its five-year, $32 billion capital plan.
A Cash Cow Speed Trap Camera
Keeping the Middle Class In NYC?
Speed camera generates $77,550 in just one day(NYP) A speed camera in Brooklyn tallied a bank-busting 1,551 tickets in a single day this summer, according to the Department of Transportation. At $50 a pop, the July 7 ticket blitz generated $77,550 for city coffers.The area’s city councilman, Chaim Deutsch, praised it for making roadways safer. “If anyone is speeding . . . they deserve a summons,” he told the blog Sheepshead Bites. But Councilman Mark Treyger has blasted the camera’s location as a speed trap.
Speed camera generates $77,550 in just one day(NYP) A speed camera in Brooklyn tallied a bank-busting 1,551 tickets in a single day this summer, according to the Department of Transportation. At $50 a pop, the July 7 ticket blitz generated $77,550 for city coffers.The area’s city councilman, Chaim Deutsch, praised it for making roadways safer. “If anyone is speeding . . . they deserve a summons,” he told the blog Sheepshead Bites. But Councilman Mark Treyger has blasted the camera’s location as a speed trap.
Daily News Takes A Hard Shot At Schneiderman's Shadow Government Cunningham Lobbyist Protection
Don't want to take questions from the media? Well, OK — but Rick Karlin might gently rap on the tinted window of your taxpayer-funded sled.(TU)
Editorial: Lay it out, Eric(NYDN) Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s dealings with a top political operative with whom he has a long-standing personal and professional relationship are getting too cozy for comfort. Worse, Schneiderman is refusing to release all of his official communications with Jennifer Cunningham under a dubious reading of the Freedom of Information Law. Now is the time for the state’s top legal official to come completely clean. His campaign has paid the firm where she is a managing director, SKDKnickerbocker, $5.8 million over the past four years.But it turns out that Cunningham has been wearing the additional hats of (c) unpaid consultant to the attorney general’s office and (d) paid representative of private clients doing business with that same office. The newly public documents show that Cunningham had gone to bat with Schneiderman and his office on behalf of a half-dozen paying clients over the past four years. They included a hospital owner looking for help with a merger, a health-care company seeking an informational meeting, gay rights activists requesting a quote for a press release, organizers of a forum on prescription drug costs inviting the AG’s office to participate and an anti-bullying group suggesting the wording for a friendly tweet.Meanwhile, Schneiderman’s office is concealing who knows how many additional emails, discussing who knows what topics. Allowing officials to exempt any Tom, Dick or Harriet as “consultants” — without pay or a signed contract — would blow a mile-wide hole in the public’s right to know.*Newspaper Inkind Ads New Yorkers who are struggling to stay in their homes received a boost when state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said there was another $40 million for a Homeowner Protection Program that arose following the 2008 financial crisis, the Times Union reports:
As Cahill Gains Ground in the AG Race Schneiderman is Being Push Into Every Corrupt Democratic Operatives (Very People He Needs to Put In Jail) To Pull Out the Vote For Him
Now the AG Needs the Old Machine to Pull Out the Vote
John Cahill gains ground on Eric Schneiderman(NYP) The Siena College
The Old Machines and the New Tammany Hall Will Pull Votes for Scheiderman
Republican John Cahill accuses Attorney General EricScheiderman of hiding political consultant's role (NYDN) * 3 things John Cahill says about NY's AG silence on MorelandCommission (video) (syracuse.com) * The Ground Zero ad goes on to hit Schneiderman hard where it counts: on the corruption in Albany and the curious silence of the AG regarding Gov. Cuomo’s shutdown of the Moreland Commission. (NYP) * John Cahill assails Eric Schneiderman's record as attorneygeneral (TU) * GOP Attorney General Hopeful John Cahill Backs Airbnb andUber (NYO) * AG candidate John Cahill blasts incumbent for lack of transparency (.legislativegazette.com) * GOP opponent blasts attorney general over Moreland Commission (Buffalo News) * Cahill: AG’s crime unit should vet casino bidders(TU) * The Lopez stain spreads(NYP) Both Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli have had to answer questions over their own roles in the burgeoning mess regarding the hush money secretly paid to Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s first sexual-harassment victim. * New York Attorney General Race Narrows to 16 Points,Poll Says(WSJ)
Don't want to take questions from the media? Well, OK — but Rick Karlin might gently rap on the tinted window of your taxpayer-funded sled.(TU)
Schneiderman Protects Lobbyist Cunningham
Editorial: Lay it out, Eric(NYDN) Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s dealings with a top political operative with whom he has a long-standing personal and professional relationship are getting too cozy for comfort. Worse, Schneiderman is refusing to release all of his official communications with Jennifer Cunningham under a dubious reading of the Freedom of Information Law. Now is the time for the state’s top legal official to come completely clean. His campaign has paid the firm where she is a managing director, SKDKnickerbocker, $5.8 million over the past four years.But it turns out that Cunningham has been wearing the additional hats of (c) unpaid consultant to the attorney general’s office and (d) paid representative of private clients doing business with that same office. The newly public documents show that Cunningham had gone to bat with Schneiderman and his office on behalf of a half-dozen paying clients over the past four years. They included a hospital owner looking for help with a merger, a health-care company seeking an informational meeting, gay rights activists requesting a quote for a press release, organizers of a forum on prescription drug costs inviting the AG’s office to participate and an anti-bullying group suggesting the wording for a friendly tweet.Meanwhile, Schneiderman’s office is concealing who knows how many additional emails, discussing who knows what topics. Allowing officials to exempt any Tom, Dick or Harriet as “consultants” — without pay or a signed contract — would blow a mile-wide hole in the public’s right to know.*Newspaper Inkind Ads New Yorkers who are struggling to stay in their homes received a boost when state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said there was another $40 million for a Homeowner Protection Program that arose following the 2008 financial crisis, the Times Union reports:
As Cahill Gains Ground in the AG Race Schneiderman is Being Push Into Every Corrupt Democratic Operatives (Very People He Needs to Put In Jail) To Pull Out the Vote For Him
Now the AG Needs the Old Machine to Pull Out the Vote
John Cahill gains ground on Eric Schneiderman(NYP) The Siena College
The Old Machines and the New Tammany Hall Will Pull Votes for Scheiderman
Republican John Cahill accuses Attorney General EricScheiderman of hiding political consultant's role (NYDN) * 3 things John Cahill says about NY's AG silence on MorelandCommission (video) (syracuse.com) * The Ground Zero ad goes on to hit Schneiderman hard where it counts: on the corruption in Albany and the curious silence of the AG regarding Gov. Cuomo’s shutdown of the Moreland Commission. (NYP) * John Cahill assails Eric Schneiderman's record as attorneygeneral (TU) * GOP Attorney General Hopeful John Cahill Backs Airbnb andUber (NYO) * AG candidate John Cahill blasts incumbent for lack of transparency (.legislativegazette.com) * GOP opponent blasts attorney general over Moreland Commission (Buffalo News) * Cahill: AG’s crime unit should vet casino bidders(TU) * The Lopez stain spreads(NYP) Both Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli have had to answer questions over their own roles in the burgeoning mess regarding the hush money secretly paid to Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s first sexual-harassment victim. * New York Attorney General Race Narrows to 16 Points,Poll Says(WSJ)
Who Watchers the Watchman
The LIRR Extenion That Was Supposed to Be Finished in 1993 is Still Getting Funding
Can Anyone Say Over Budget?
In 1974, the finishing date for East Side Access was set to 1993.Now the the new terminal is expected to be operational by between 2019 and September 2023. BS
The Debate About the Debate . . . Update Sat 1PM Cuomo Agress to Two Debates
Monday
Republican nominee for governor Rob Astorino called Gov. Andrew Cuomo's two debate proposals a "farce" and said he may not take part in either session in part because his campaign was not consulted about them, the Daily News reports:
Astorino's Answer
Astorino campaign, calling for a one-on-one televised debate, rejects Cuomo debate proposals as "insulting to the people of New York State
Cuomo seeks to avoid debate on TV with GOP opponent
Cuomo agrees to two debates (Updated) The campaign said it would participate in one held upstate in Buffalo and a second in New York City . The upstate debate, to be sponsored by The Buffalo News and WNED-WBFO, would include four candidates: Cuomo, GOP candidate Rob Astorino, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and Libertarian Party candidate Michael McDermott. The New York City debate, sponsored by WNYC New York Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal, would be one-on-one with Astorino, the Westchester County
Monday
Republican nominee for governor Rob Astorino called Gov. Andrew Cuomo's two debate proposals a "farce" and said he may not take part in either session in part because his campaign was not consulted about them, the Daily News reports:
Astorino's Answer
Astorino campaign, calling for a one-on-one televised debate, rejects Cuomo debate proposals as "insulting to the people of New York State
Astorino spokeswoman:"No one from @wnyc or @wsj contacted the Astorino campaign about a debate. Funny how Cuomo camp had already accepted."* Cuomo Accepts Debate Invitations(NY1) * Gov. Cuomo agrees to two debates with challenger RobAstorino, but it may not be enough for the GOP candidate (NYDN)
Cuomo seeks to avoid debate on TV with GOP opponent
Cuomo agrees to two debates (Updated) The campaign said it would participate in one held upstate in Buffalo and a second in New York City . The upstate debate, to be sponsored by The Buffalo News and WNED-WBFO, would include four candidates: Cuomo, GOP candidate Rob Astorino, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins and Libertarian Party candidate Michael McDermott. The New York City debate, sponsored by WNYC New York Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal, would be one-on-one with Astorino, the Westchester County
Cuomo Won't Debate But He On TV All the Time
Reports: Cuomo Campaign Dominates TV Airwaves
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A new report shows 20,000 broadcast TV ads have been targeted at New York voters during the 2014 election cycle, with a flurry in the run-up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's defeat of primary challenge Zephyr Teachout. The nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity and the ad tracking service Kantar Media/CMAG took a count of political ads from January 2013 through Sept. 8 and reports Wednesday an estimated $14.5 million was spent on legislative and statewide races. Those numbers don't include TV ads that ran on local cable channels or other campaign spending. State records show Cuomo's campaign spent $1.4 million on TV advertising in the 30 days before the Democratic primary. The records show nearly $8 million for TV ads out of the $12.6 million spent by the campaign since January 2013. Teachout didn't make any TV ad buys.
Reports: Cuomo Campaign Dominates TV Airwaves
Local TV News Will Not Criticize Cuomo No TV Debate Because of Feal of Losing the Benjamins
Local TV News Which Makes Millions Off of Campaign Ads, Lobbying Ads Like Airbnb and Government Public Service Ads
Pay to Report Local TV New$
Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in TV lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. Copy Cat Journalism * Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
Shrinking Coverage Means Less Real News on TV Which Reads the Newspaper Headlines Every Morning
Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion * Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)
Local News Wins Emmy For Keeping the Public Uninformed
That's a total reversal from the May 22 Q poll, when 48% of voters approved and 34% disapproved.
Despite the souring views of his ability to muck out the Albany cesspool, Cuomo is still wrecking all challengers in the Democratic primary and November general election, Quinnipiac found in the latest survey.
Local TV News Which Makes Millions Off of Campaign Ads, Lobbying Ads Like Airbnb and Government Public Service Ads
Pay to Report Local TV New$
Spending on advertising has fueled the increase in TV lobbying costs. Well-funded special interests funnel millions to lobbyists for public campaigns to sway lawmakers on hot-button issues (TU) Local News which is mainly weather, traffic, cooking and dog segments is making millions in lobbyists spending. Union and business interest like the pro fracking interest are also spending millions on ads to local stations. All this money is coming in as local news dumbs down. Copy Cat Journalism * Shrinking Newspaper Coverage Means Less Real TV News More Sexy Reporters
Shrinking Coverage Means Less Real News on TV Which Reads the Newspaper Headlines Every Morning
Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)*CSNY’s budget blitz: $3.9 million (updated)(TU) *Save NY airing tax cap ad(TU) *Budget opponents up their ads and mailers(TU) *Bloomberg Blames Negative Ads For Poor Showing In Education ...(Politico) *Save NY now airs on school money(TU) *NYC's Bloomberg Pays for TV Ads Backing Cuomo's Pension * Bloomberg Defends His Administration With TV Ad - NY1.com * Local TV News For $ale: How Special Interests Control News Content and Public Opinion * Local TV stations stand to profit from boom in super-PAC spending (The Hill)
Local News Wins Emmy For Keeping the Public Uninformed
That's a total reversal from the May 22 Q poll, when 48% of voters approved and 34% disapproved.
Despite the souring views of his ability to muck out the Albany cesspool, Cuomo is still wrecking all challengers in the Democratic primary and November general election, Quinnipiac found in the latest survey.
How Local TV News Make Millions Rehabilitating Candidates and Cleaning Up Policies Harmful to the Public
More Proof That NY's Political Parties Are Dead and Used for Person Gain
As Rent Increase Change the Racial Make Up of Crown Heights and Bed Stuy The Rent is Too Damn Hight Party Off the Ballot?
Say it ain't so! RT @gblainnydn: Jimmy McMillian of 'Rent is2 Damn High' party tossed off gubernatorial ballot
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Say it ain't so! RT @gblainnydn: Jimmy McMillian of 'Rent is2 Damn High' party tossed off gubernatorial ballot
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How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
Charter School Rent Too Damn High Also
Management company cuts high rent it was chargingtaxpayer-funded Brooklyn charter school(NYDN) National Heritage Academies, based in Michigan , was charging a whopping $2.5 million per year for classrooms leased to Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School
Charter School Rent Too Damn High Also
Management company cuts high rent it was chargingtaxpayer-funded Brooklyn charter school(NYDN) National Heritage Academies, based in Michigan , was charging a whopping $2.5 million per year for classrooms leased to Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School
Is the Daily News Turning Into the Incumbent Protection Party Newspaper?
Attorney general reaches $925K settlement that will givemajor pay raises to 40 JFK airport skycaps giving the News Fair Pay campaignanother victory (NYDN) State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reached the deal with Alstate Maintenance LLC, which employs the skycaps and for years had underpaid them. His office pressured Alstate to raise the pay to $9 an hour, up from the $5.65 that many workers were receiving.
Attorney general reaches $925K settlement that will givemajor pay raises to 40 JFK airport skycaps giving the News Fair Pay campaignanother victory (NYDN) State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reached the deal with Alstate Maintenance LLC, which employs the skycaps and for years had underpaid them. His office pressured Alstate to raise the pay to $9 an hour, up from the $5.65 that many workers were receiving.
Klein Working to Build IDC . . . Will He Keep His Word to Join the Dems?
Klein's Power Play
Jimmy Vielkind: “Jeff Klein may or may not follow through ona tentative deal to end his Independent Democratic Conference’s alliance with Republicans and form a new coalition with Democrats come November. But there is one goal he is doggedly, indisputably fixated on in the meantime: growing his conference to maximize his own influence.”Diane Savino: ‘Jesse Hamilton Will Be a Member of the IDC’(NYO) * JESSE HAMILTON UNDECIDED ON JOINING THE IDC Despite rumors of Hamilton 's commitment to joining the Senate IDC, his campaign insists he is undecided.* * Gotham Gazette takes a deep look at the involvement of Cuomo , New York
IDC GOP Senate Coalition
Klein's Power Play
Jimmy Vielkind: “Jeff Klein may or may not follow through ona tentative deal to end his Independent Democratic Conference’s alliance with Republicans and form a new coalition with Democrats come November. But there is one goal he is doggedly, indisputably fixated on in the meantime: growing his conference to maximize his own influence.”Diane Savino: ‘Jesse Hamilton Will Be a Member of the IDC’(NYO) * JESSE HAMILTON UNDECIDED ON JOINING THE IDC Despite rumors of Hamilton 's commitment to joining the Senate IDC, his campaign insists he is undecided.* * Gotham Gazette takes a deep look at the involvement of Cuomo , New York
| IDC GOP Senate Coalition |
Groundhog Murder Cover-Up
RIP Staten Island Chuck, er, Charlotte
Groundhog dropped by de Blasio died a week later(NYP)Mayor de Blasio has groundhog blood on his hands! A week after Hizzoner dropped Staten Island Chuck in front of a crowd of spectators on Feb. 2, the winter-weather prognosticator died of internal injuries — and then the coverup began, The Post has learned. Staten Island Zoo officials went to great lengths to hide the death from the public and keep secret the fact that “Chuck” was actually “Charlotte,” a female imposter, sources said Wednesday.
de Blasio Thugs Strong Armed the Zoo Boss and the Liberal NYT Protects Him From the Murder Charges
Staten Island Zoo spokesman on Chuck/Charlotte’s demise: “We don’t know how the animal suffered the injuries but we don’t think it was from the fall.”
Zoo mulls Groundhog Day ban on mayors (NYP) * Mayor’s Fault or Not, Fatal or Not, Groundhog Had an EarlyFall (NYT) * WHAT THE CHUCK?! Bill de Blasio dropping Staten Island Chuckmay lead to hands-off-the-critter policy (NYDN) * Mayor de Blasio has ruined Groundhog Day forever(NY Mag) * Colbert and Twitter take on de Blasio over groundhog death(NYP) *Mayor de Blasio ducks questions on groundhog (WSJ)* Bill de Blasio Drops the Subject of Dropped Staten IslandGroundhog(NYO) * Mayor Bill de Blasio did his best to sidestep questions todayon the death of Staten Island Chuck: (ny1)* Zack Fink in State of Politics
Style and Class Till the Last Drop
Staten Island Zoo spokesman on Chuck/Charlotte’s demise: “We don’t know how the animal suffered the injuries but we don’t think it was from the fall.”
Zoo mulls Groundhog Day ban on mayors (NYP) * Mayor’s Fault or Not, Fatal or Not, Groundhog Had an EarlyFall (NYT) * WHAT THE CHUCK?! Bill de Blasio dropping Staten Island Chuckmay lead to hands-off-the-critter policy (NYDN) * Mayor de Blasio has ruined Groundhog Day forever(NY Mag) * Colbert and Twitter take on de Blasio over groundhog death(NYP) *Mayor de Blasio ducks questions on groundhog (WSJ)* Bill de Blasio Drops the Subject of Dropped Staten IslandGroundhog(NYO) * Mayor Bill de Blasio did his best to sidestep questions todayon the death of Staten Island Chuck: (ny1)* Zack Fink in State of Politics
Style and Class Till the Last Drop
Lobbyists Sheinkopof Working for A GOP Assembly Candidate, At the Same Time Working For the State Democratic Party, Pushing for the IDC
Veteran Democratic consultant rips idea of finding embattledcandidate a judicial nomination(NYDN) Veteran Democratic operative Hank Sheinkopf says the party's effort to get embattled Dave Denenberg off the Long Island state Senate ballot by finding him a judgeship nomination sends a terrible message to voters that could backfire. "It looks like you're manipulating the judicial process, it looks like you have no ethics by pushing someone accused of thieving for the bench," Sheinkopf said. * Sheinkopf, a well know Democratic strategist, said he wasspeaking not on behalf of the state party–where he was hired to do consultingwork—but rather on his own. (NYP)
Sheinkopof Goes Rogue Media Stays Silent About Corrupt Consultant Lobbyists Who Have Taken Over NY Election System
Sheinkopf Helping GOP Candidate Against Hikind More Than $$$
Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf is crossing party lines to join the campaign of Nachman Caller, a Republican seeking to unseat Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind, [The Insider]
Story Developing
NY's Svengali Sheinkopf: The Corrupt Liar Still Running Politics and Fooling the Press
From Team Astorino
Statement from Governor Cuomo Spokesman
Hank Sheinkopf on Andrew Cuomo
April 12, 2002
Andrew Cuomo is "willing to say anything, do anything -- including distorting the facts -- to win election.'' (link) Cuomo-McCall Contest Quickly Turns Nasty(2002 NYT) More Dems adviser urging Cuomo to forget Working Families Party(NYP) * NYCLASS Hires Sheinkopf to Steer Mail Blitz - Blogs * Sheldon Silver on hot seat over racino bid as e-mails track money to political committee(NYP) Just before that scandal-plagued bidder was picked, Silver solicited “campaign dough” from Hank Sheinkopf, a friend who was lobbying for the company, the Aqueduct Entertainment Group.
Lobbyists Sheinkopof Working for A GOP Assembly Candidate, At the Same Time Working For the State Democratic Party, Pushing for the IDC
NY's Svengali Sheinkopf: The Corrupt Liar Still Running Politics and Fooling the Press
From Team Astorino
Statement from Governor Cuomo Spokesman
Hank Sheinkopf on Andrew Cuomo
April 12, 2002
Andrew Cuomo is "willing to say anything, do anything -- including distorting the facts -- to win election.'' (link) Cuomo-McCall Contest Quickly Turns Nasty(2002 NYT) More Dems adviser urging Cuomo to forget Working Families Party(NYP) * NYCLASS Hires Sheinkopf to Steer Mail Blitz - Blogs * Sheldon Silver on hot seat over racino bid as e-mails track money to political committee(NYP) Just before that scandal-plagued bidder was picked, Silver solicited “campaign dough” from Hank Sheinkopf, a friend who was lobbying for the company, the Aqueduct Entertainment Group.
Sheinkopf Up to His Balls In the FBI AEG Corruption Scandal is Somehow Working for the Democratic Party
Sheinkopf took the 5th when asked questions by the NY former state Inspector General Joseph Fisch about the AEG scandal which is still being investigated by the feds as part of the AEG investigation. The Feds are also investigating a Board Of Election (the cesspool of political corruption) contract for new machines that Sheinkopf was a lobbyist for. Feds investigate switch by Board of Elections ... - New York Post "Sheinkopf copped a memo, (Barrett, Village Voice, 2010) too, obtaining it from an aide to the top Senate staffer, Angelo Aponte, who Sheinkopf personally installed in the key spot. He had the power to do that because the skillful Sheinkopf doubles as a lobbyist and as a political consultant, and had advised Senate Democrats in the elections that led to the 2008 majority, helping to make Malcolm Smith majority leader. Sheinkopf collected $356,741 in consulting fees from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee at the same time that he was representing AEG and its precursor with Senate Democrats. Having worked for Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg most recently, Sheinkopf makes kings so he can then make deals with the kings he’s made." More on Hank Sheinkopf * Bill Thompson Has His Own Pension Pals(Tom Robbins, Village Voice 2009)
A King's Pension Deal For Sheinkopf Partner
While Sheinkopf Worked for Comptroller Thompson His Partner Norman Levy Did Well With the Pension Funds "Norman Levy “received a half-million dollars” in 2006 payments from Bill Howell, a major pension fund placement agent, and “appeared sometimes to be Howell’s partner” in controversial deals with the fund, according to a source familiar with the transactions. Investigators concluded that they were splitting fees, and not disclosing it. The payments to Levy - whose conviction for running a parking-ticket-fixing-scam decades ago was also overturned on appeal - were allegedly tied to his introduction of Howell to a principal of Global Strategies, a consulting firm whose client, Intermedia, was seeking millions in city and state pension fund investments. Howell made the placements and shared the fees with Levy, who appeared to be listed as an employee of one Howell entity. Sheinkopf received payments from Levy shortly after Levy was paid by Howell." (Voice)
Russell Schaffer @RussOnPolitics
Sheinkopf Up to His Balls In the FBI AEG Corruption Scandal is Somehow Working for the Democratic Party
Sheinkopf took the 5th when asked questions by the NY former state Inspector General Joseph Fisch about the AEG scandal which is still being investigated by the feds as part of the AEG investigation. The Feds are also investigating a Board Of Election (the cesspool of political corruption) contract for new machines that Sheinkopf was a lobbyist for. Feds investigate switch by Board of Elections ... - New York Post "Sheinkopf copped a memo, (Barrett, Village Voice, 2010) too, obtaining it from an aide to the top Senate staffer, Angelo Aponte, who Sheinkopf personally installed in the key spot. He had the power to do that because the skillful Sheinkopf doubles as a lobbyist and as a political consultant, and had advised Senate Democrats in the elections that led to the 2008 majority, helping to make Malcolm Smith majority leader. Sheinkopf collected $356,741 in consulting fees from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee at the same time that he was representing AEG and its precursor with Senate Democrats. Having worked for Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg most recently, Sheinkopf makes kings so he can then make deals with the kings he’s made." More on Hank Sheinkopf * Bill Thompson Has His Own Pension Pals(Tom Robbins, Village Voice 2009)
A King's Pension Deal For Sheinkopf Partner
While Sheinkopf Worked for Comptroller Thompson His Partner Norman Levy Did Well With the Pension Funds "Norman Levy “received a half-million dollars” in 2006 payments from Bill Howell, a major pension fund placement agent, and “appeared sometimes to be Howell’s partner” in controversial deals with the fund, according to a source familiar with the transactions. Investigators concluded that they were splitting fees, and not disclosing it. The payments to Levy - whose conviction for running a parking-ticket-fixing-scam decades ago was also overturned on appeal - were allegedly tied to his introduction of Howell to a principal of Global Strategies, a consulting firm whose client, Intermedia, was seeking millions in city and state pension fund investments. Howell made the placements and shared the fees with Levy, who appeared to be listed as an employee of one Howell entity. Sheinkopf received payments from Levy shortly after Levy was paid by Howell." (Voice)
Russell Schaffer @RussOnPolitics
de Blasio Double Talk On OWS People's Climate March Protest Rights vs Marchers Arrests
Mayor de Blasio: 1st Amendment More important Than Traffic As He Allows NYPD to Arrests Protesters
De Blasio also praised those who took to the streets over the last few days, including those at yesterday’s
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Cuomo's Negative Campaign Ads And Tea Party Killing Astorino
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Astorino unfavorables jumped to 37% from 25% in August,almost certainly due to heavy advertising against him (WSJ)WSJ poll: Cuomo - 54 percent, Astorino - 29 percent, Hawkins - 9 percent * Cuomo holds a wide lead over Republican gubernatorial challenger Rob Astorino even as Cuomo's job-performance rating has fallen back to its lowest point since taking office, a Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 NewYork/Marist College poll found: * The Astorino campaign said Tuesday that the gubernatorial candidate has earned $100,000 for consulting work with a media company during his first four years as Westchester County Westchester County
* Critics say state’s rebate checks are re-election gimmick(Buffalo News)* Andrew Cuomo received $2.7M in donations from statecontractors, charges GOP opponent Rob Astorino (NYDN) Astorino's gubernatorial campaign released a 100-page document detailing companies that gave money to Cuomo while also having business before the state.* Really good first take on @NYGovCuomo's $750 million subsidyfor Buffalo @SolarCity plant here: 
What Do Local Govs Do When They Are Left Out of UN Week?
* 2 Governors Announce Extra Security at TransportationCenters (NYT) *Republican Rob Astorino criticizes NJ Gov. Christie formeeting with Gov.Cuomo(NYDN) * Cuomo and Christie have forged an extraordinarily closeand politically useful partnerhip (WSJ)
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A Bronx Recount Goes On and On
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NOT YOUR TYPICAL RECOUNT: Allegations of voter fraud are complicating the Democratic Assembly primary recount between incumbent Victor Pichardo and challenger Hector Ramirez, City & State's * CATCHING UP WITH “ELECTION CREEP”: As New York City candidates start campaigning earlier and earlier, city officials are considering whether to expedite the matching funds process, City & State reports:
Women and Their Groups Have Their Own Blue Wall of Silence to Protect Speaker Silver
So any potential liability, Mintzer added, could fall directly on Silver, who is also named in the suit as an “aider and abettor” of Lopez’s alleged serial-perv behavior in Albany . Mintzer during the hearing also reiterated some of his clients’ allegations against Lopez while working for him in 2012, including that he had them “massage his hands while driving,” attempted to stick their hands by his private parts and would routinely request that they “not wear a bra at work.” Silver lawyer Bettina Plevin said she believes “liability falls exclusively” with Lopez because “it is not Silver’s job to investigate complaints.” Mintzer disagreed, saying Silver should be held liable “because he has hiring and firing power in the Assembly.” Lopez reportedly hasn’t paid a $330,000 fine the state Legislative Ethics Commission hit him with last year for sexually harassing staff members.
| Albany Hush Fund Cover Up, Press Containment Timeline |
Tax the Foreigners Who Own NYC Apartments for Investiments *** What About the Gentrification Pied-a-Terres are Causing?
Wednesday Update
NYP Wnats to Protect Luxury Developers
What About Tax Breaks NYS is Giving Luxury Developers to Build Housing for Pied-a-Terres?
The left-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute argues that the de Blasio administration should levy a tax on New York City’s very expensive pied-à-terres—homes not lived in by their owners who often reside in other countries—a move that could prove palatable to the city’s business establishment but which would also have to get cleared with Albany first, Capital New York reports: http://goo.gl/QQRgoQ * If Mayor Bill de Blasio pursues the Fiscal Policy Institute’s recommendation for higher taxes on ultraluxury apartments owned by foreigners, state Sen. Brad Hoylman has just the bill, Crain’s reports: http://goo.gl/chTDTi* Fiscal Policy Institute proposes tax on luxe pied-á-terres(NYP) Left-wing allies of Mayor de Blasio have come up with a new way to tax the rich by going after nonresidents who buy expensive co-ops and condos that they seldom...
NYT Pushing for A Democratic U.S. Senate While Ignoring 9% Turn Out in NY
Long Lines at Minority Polling Places(NYT Ed)It may not be a coincidence that some of the longest lines on Election Day occur in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
AG Beats Dead Pol Lopez
Vito Lopez Who Runs A Multi-Million Dollar None Profit Empire . . . Controlled the Developers . . . Has No Money to Pay for A Sexual Abuse Settlement? BS
Not Speakers Silver Job to Investigate Sexual Complaints?
Lopez says he can’t pay any potential settlement money(NYP)Disgraced former state Assemblyman Vito Lopez is waving a tin cup, saying he can’t find a job — and can’t pay any potential settlement in a pending federal sexual-harassment lawsuit accusing him of groping two former underlings. His claim, if true, could leave Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is also named in the suit for allegedly allowing Lopez’s behavior to continue unchecked, on the hook for any settlement or award, the plaintiffs’ lawyer said Monday. Lopez lawyer Laura Sack told Manhattan federal Judge Michael Dolinger in court that the former Brooklyn Democratic boss and power broker “is not in a position to contribute” to any settlement in the lawsuit by two former Assembly aides Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera. Lawyer Kevin Mintzer, representing Burhans and Rivera, told Dolinger he had not contacted Lopez’s lawyers with an offer because “the gist of it is that Mr. Lopez has no ability to pay.”
Albany Incumbents Take Over the Political Party and Centralize Power
Senate Dems, State Party Coordinate For Battleground Races(YNN) The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and the state Democratic Committee are undertaking a coordinated and layered advertising effort in key races. The mail in the Senate districts is already being sent out, with TV ads also expected, Democratic officials said.
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How Come Taxes Get the Media and Pol Attention, But Pushing Blacks, the Middle Class and Poor Out of Brooklyn Gets None?
Buyouts have long been part of New York City’s real estate lore, but as offers have become more common, buyouts have become instruments of illegal harassment and a growing threat to the stock of affordable housing, The New York Times writes Tenant groups cite illegal harassment and a growing threat to affordable housing, while landlords say buying out longtime tenants in low-rent apartments is lawful.* SWEATING IT OUT: Brownsville tenants live without hot water and electricity (NYDN)
How Come Taxes Get the Media and Pol Attention, But Pushing Blacks, the Middle Class and Poor Out of Brooklyn Gets None?
Buyouts have long been part of New York City’s real estate lore, but as offers have become more common, buyouts have become instruments of illegal harassment and a growing threat to the stock of affordable housing, The New York Times writes Tenant groups cite illegal harassment and a growing threat to affordable housing, while landlords say buying out longtime tenants in low-rent apartments is lawful.* SWEATING IT OUT: Brownsville tenants live without hot water and electricity (NYDN)
NYT Reports on Gentrification In Crown Heights It Does No Report Why It is Happening So Fast?
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Gets Its Turn(NYT) The neighborhood has finally overcome a reputation for intolerance and violence that had plagued it since the 1991 riots between blacks and Hasidic Jews. In fact, residents credit the successful post-riot reconciliation between the two communities with being one of the drivers of Crown Heights’ rapid transformation — or gentrification, depending on one’s perspective.
Along Franklin Avenue, signs saying “Moving to Flatbush” have appeared on many businesses in the last couple of years, and while longtime residents don’t tack up signs, there are indications they have also been leaving in large numbers as new arrivals replace them in this community of about 140,000 people. * Nuns raise rents at immigrant home to boot longtime residents(NYDN) They’re kicking them like a bad habit. The nuns running St. Joseph’s Immigrant Home in Hell’s Kitchen are boosting the rent on young female residents and trying to boot women..
Norman Oder @AYReport
Daily News Ignores the Suffering Caused By Unchecked Gentrification
Oh, the horror! (NYDN Ed) Gowanus suffers an attack of the NIMBYs. NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) are in a tizzy over the development of the Gowanus, the formerly industrial Brooklyn neighborhood between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens
NYT Reports on Gentrification In Crown Heights It Does No Report Why It is Happening So Fast?
Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Gets Its Turn(NYT) The neighborhood has finally overcome a reputation for intolerance and violence that had plagued it since the 1991 riots between blacks and Hasidic Jews. In fact, residents credit the successful post-riot reconciliation between the two communities with being one of the drivers of Crown Heights’ rapid transformation — or gentrification, depending on one’s perspective.
Along Franklin Avenue, signs saying “Moving to Flatbush” have appeared on many businesses in the last couple of years, and while longtime residents don’t tack up signs, there are indications they have also been leaving in large numbers as new arrivals replace them in this community of about 140,000 people. * Nuns raise rents at immigrant home to boot longtime residents(NYDN) They’re kicking them like a bad habit. The nuns running St. Joseph’s Immigrant Home in Hell’s Kitchen are boosting the rent on young female residents and trying to boot women..
Norman Oder @AYReport
MT @davidbivins Interesting article abt future of BK realestate,gentrification, w/some juicy details @brooklynbureau * Despite convo@ realEstate parley, mayb ENY is a "nextneighborhood" @brooklynbureau @citylimitsorg via @CrainsNewYork
Daily News Ignores the Suffering Caused By Unchecked Gentrification
Oh, the horror! (NYDN Ed) Gowanus suffers an attack of the NIMBYs. NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) are in a tizzy over the development of the Gowanus, the formerly industrial Brooklyn neighborhood between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens
Gentrification and Race
Airbnb Housing Market
Shush . . . Income inequality is Increasing in NYC Because of Gentrification
De Blasio brought his message on income inequality to theinternational stage Wednesday with a speech in the U.K. , further solidifying his position as a leader in the activist wing of the Democratic Party.
De Blasio brought his message on income inequality to theinternational stage Wednesday with a speech in the U.K. , further solidifying his position as a leader in the activist wing of the Democratic Party.
Real Estate Market Forces: International Money, Gentrificatrion and Airbnb Are Making Affordable Housing Program into A Band-Aid on A Cancer
Is Anyone Studing the Effect of Foreign $$$ Puring Into the City
“The Dumbest Person in Your Building Is Passing Out Keys toYour Front Door!” (NY Mag) The war over Airbnb gets personal.
Airbnb Killing Bed and Breakfasts Business
Airbnb regulations threatening actual bed and breakfasts(NYP) Strict laws enacted to prevent abuses by users of Airbnb are putting the city’s legitimate bed-and-breakfasts out of business. That’s because the regulations, meant to keep apartments from turning into illegal hotels — or, in a few notorious cases, brothels — are being applied to B&Bs that have been operating here for years, according to Crain’s New York Business.* B&B be gone (CrainsNY) A law cracking down on illegal hotels in the city, and the rise of Airbnb, have put real bed-and-breakfasts out of business.
Rangel Continues to Fight to Reattach the Public to Decision to go to War |
Bharara Pushes City Hall to Fix Rikers
Moving the Media Aways From Moreland During the Cuomo Campaign
Preet Bharara, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, questioned the commitment of New York City officials to make meaningful reforms at Rikers Island, which has come under scrutiny for a “culture of violence,” The New York Times reports: http://goo.gl/yHgwDU * As New York City’s Department of Corrections seeks to beat back controversy, Commissioner Joseph Ponte is replacing a top staffer—Chief of Staff Sara Taylor—who is a holdover from the Bloomberg administration, the Observer reports: http://goo.gl/U8j6WC Preet Bharara threatens legal action over jail conditions(NYP)* Prosecutor Warns That Rikers Island Problems May Prompt U.S. Lawsuit (NYT) The New York Jail Scandal Continues (NYT) News that city officials sanitized a report about Rikers Island
More Arroyo Corruption
Councilwomen Backed City Project Bids from Developers WhoHired Relatives(DNAINFO)In the past two years, two city councilwomen went to bat for nonprofits employing their family members, writing letters of support for the groups to city officials deciding on their proposals to develop public land, records show. City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo and ex-city Councilwoman Diana Reyna each penned letters to officials at the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development backing affordable-housing proposals, records obtained by DNAinfo New York show. Arroyo's June 14, 2013, missive supported a Bronx nonprofit that had hired her ex-convict nephew six months earlier, while Reyna's Aug. 27, 2012, note praised a proposal by a Brooklyn nonprofit where her mother-in-law worked as a director.
The Jerks in the Council Pushing Out Small Landlords and Helping Take-Over Landlords of Push Tenants Out
NYC City Hall Shaming BadLandlords for ‘Inflicting Pain for Profits’(epochtimes) Committee chair Jumaane Williams said the point of the bill was not to fine all landlords $10,000, but to increase protection for tenants in the right. The bill may be counterproductive for smaller landlords, however. Frank Ricci, director of government affairs for the Rent Stabilization Association, told Wall Street Journal the fines could put small landlords out of business and encourage selling their properties to institutional investors. The large institutional owners are typically the landlords who have the ability to hire entire portfolios of lawyers and systematically try to push tenants out if they so wish. Stories of tenants bewildered over the level of constant harassment they receive over a few hundred dollars is common, because the apartments they live in are potential multi-million condos. According to lawyers and small landlords, the debt taken in purchasing a building full of rent-stabilized units, which may have had no mortgage when the small landlord owned it, basically calls for turning over all the regulated apartments
Nussbaum, Comrie, Crowley and Parkside Tammany Hall Journalism Organized Crime Politics
The Queens Machine Controlled the Tribune From the Start of the Paper
Newspaper gives vote of approval to paying politicalcandidates (New York World)
A New York World review of campaign finance records and endorsements found that of the 15 candidates who purchased services from Multi-Media Advertising in competitive races for amounts exceeding $1,000, 11 also received a public endorsement from the Tribune in that race.
In queens the local newspaper, the political machine and government all work together. The paper do not preform the role of checks and balances that Founding Father envisioned to protect the people from the government and ensure a working democracy. Instead Queens local newspapers have gamed journalism to operate as a co-machine in Queens.
More on Nussbaum and the Queens Tribune, Queens Machine and the Parkside Group
They work in campaigns and are lobbyist to the same elected officials they help elect or reelect. The papers operate as the house organ for the Democratic party to controling who becomes gets elected or becomes a judge in Queens county. The judges in turn send the legal ads worth tens of thousands dollars to the local papers.* FOR MENG CONSULTANT NUSSBAUM, A HISTORY OF VOTE-SPLITTING(True News) NUSSBAUM...should have gone to jail back in the Manes days when he was caught red handed in ...wasn't it a Time Warner bribery scandal? And this is the man who is "representing" the RKO Keith's owner de jour...Patrick Thompson. . .
Investigative Journalism At Last . . .
Daily News Looks to Be Close to the Next President Journalism, Common Sense Be Dammed
Huma Abedin remains at Hillary Clinton’s side despitesexting woes with husband Anthony Weiner (NYDN) Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal left his wife Huma Abedin’s role with Hillary Clinton in doubt. But one year later, Abedin's position as Clinton’s personal chief of staff remains intact, as well as her marriage to Weiner.
Investigative Journalism At Last . . . Undercover Elmo
SEE IT — Daily News reporter goes undercover as Elmo in Times Square , bearing heat and crowds for just a buck (NYDN) * BIG APPLE TO BIG EASY: Daily News takes roadtrip withstellar cabbie
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NYT Public Editor: NYT OP-ED page is used covertly by paidadvocates to push their cause--a practice it needs to stop
THE article ran above the fold on the front page early this month, a Times investigation into the influence of foreign money within American research organizations. It reported that more than a dozen think tanks “have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities.” It warned of the danger of that big money, which it said was “increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington .” Maybe The Times should heed its own warning. The very next day, a complaint arrived in my email — not about the think tank article but about an Op-Ed piece. The writer, Till Bruckner of Transparify, a nonprofit organization that looks into think-tank funding, said that “the NYT may be unwittingly aiding and abetting the very manipulations of public opinion and government policies that it publicly deplores.” Titled “The Saudis Can Crush ISIS,“ the Op-Ed article called for “the international community to form a solid coalition with Saudi Arabia to roll back ISIS ’ military advances.” One of its authors is affiliated with Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which Mr. Bruckner described as “one of the most opaque think tanks,” in terms of disclosing its funding sources.There may be no conflict of interest here — but it is awfully hard to tell. And this is not an isolated case of a Times reader calling for more disclosure. Many are demanding it. And they’re right. Readers continually cite examples, on both the news and opinion pages, in which The Times gives voice to information and opinion without disclosing the financial or political ties behind them. Here are two I have heard about.
Here Come the Corporate Lobbyists Newspapers
Remember the Brooklyn Standard? The permanent campaign adjusts(AYR)
Remember the Brooklyn Standard? It was supposed to be published way more often.
Two years ago, on 6/17/05, Forest City Ratner announced:
FOREST CITY RATNER LAUNCHES THE BROOKLYN STANDARD TO KEEP BOROUGH INFORMED ABOUT ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT
Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), the developer of the Atlantic Yards project over the Long Island Rail Road yard at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, today announced the publication of The Brooklyn Standard, a periodic publication providing updates on the project and information about other relevant news and events in the borough.
Here's the first issue."Every few months"
The press release offered a prediction of publication “every few months”:
“We want The Brooklyn Standard to be informative and to the point on issues related to the Atlantic Yards project,” Bruce Bender, the FCRC executive vice president for government and public affairs. “Every few months we will put out a new issue with updates, summaries of meetings, up-coming events and even other activities throughout the borough that people may find interesting.
Of course, that was before the New York Times belatedly trashed the first issue and the second issue, released in October 2005, facedcriticism of its content and reports that it falsely attributed bylines to a stringer.
The second issue was never mounted on the web, and no further issue never appeared, so the publisher never printed corrections requested by the stringer cited above.
Questions continue But Bender recognized that, yes, the public would have questions:
“We anticipate that as the project goes forward there will be questions about traffic and construction – along with others about how to find employment or opportunities for small businesses – and we intend to use this publication as a way to speak directly to the people of Brooklyn about these and other issues.”
As demolitions are planned, the developer has found new avenues--press releases and a Community Liaison Office--to present some calibrated doses of information. The Community Liaison Office, however, has met with widespread criticism, from community groups such as the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods and even in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which reported 5/1/07 that "whenever this reporter has called that number, only an answering machine is heard."
Brooklyn Tomorrow Now we have the annual Brooklyn Tomorrow, produced not by Manhattan Media for Forest City Ratner but by the New York Post's Community Newspaper Group (aka Courier-Life) for... well, the advertisers, who most prominently include Forest City Ratner and Barclays Capital.
The tabloid appears in each edition of this week's Courier-Life issues, as well. Consider it another adjustment in the "Atlantic Yards permanent campaign."
Remember the Brooklyn Standard? It was supposed to be published way more often.
Two years ago, on 6/17/05, Forest City Ratner announced:
FOREST CITY RATNER LAUNCHES THE BROOKLYN STANDARD TO KEEP BOROUGH INFORMED ABOUT ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECTForest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), the developer of the Atlantic Yards project over the Long Island Rail Road yard at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, today announced the publication of The Brooklyn Standard, a periodic publication providing updates on the project and information about other relevant news and events in the borough.
Here's the first issue."Every few months"
The press release offered a prediction of publication “every few months”:
“We want The Brooklyn Standard to be informative and to the point on issues related to the Atlantic Yards project,” Bruce Bender, the FCRC executive vice president for government and public affairs. “Every few months we will put out a new issue with updates, summaries of meetings, up-coming events and even other activities throughout the borough that people may find interesting.
Of course, that was before the New York Times belatedly trashed the first issue and the second issue, released in October 2005, facedcriticism of its content and reports that it falsely attributed bylines to a stringer.
The second issue was never mounted on the web, and no further issue never appeared, so the publisher never printed corrections requested by the stringer cited above.
Questions continue But Bender recognized that, yes, the public would have questions:
“We anticipate that as the project goes forward there will be questions about traffic and construction – along with others about how to find employment or opportunities for small businesses – and we intend to use this publication as a way to speak directly to the people of Brooklyn about these and other issues.”
As demolitions are planned, the developer has found new avenues--press releases and a Community Liaison Office--to present some calibrated doses of information. The Community Liaison Office, however, has met with widespread criticism, from community groups such as the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods and even in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which reported 5/1/07 that "whenever this reporter has called that number, only an answering machine is heard."
Brooklyn Tomorrow Now we have the annual Brooklyn Tomorrow, produced not by Manhattan Media for Forest City Ratner but by the New York Post's Community Newspaper Group (aka Courier-Life) for... well, the advertisers, who most prominently include Forest City Ratner and Barclays Capital.
The tabloid appears in each edition of this week's Courier-Life issues, as well. Consider it another adjustment in the "Atlantic Yards permanent campaign."
The NYT Out of Touch of New Yorkers
Is the Times' editorial board a Democratic player or protester?(Capital) Nobody believed that The New York Times' decision not to endorse Governor Andrew Cuomo in yesterday's Democratic primary would be a deciding factor in the race. But insofar as it expressed a liberal dissatisfaction with Cuomo's record, it at least comported with the results: Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu drew approximately 35 and 40 percent of the vote in their bids for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, making theirs a shockingly successful protest. But the controversial decision by the editorial board in the governor's race is one of the few in this primary that fell on the right side of history. While the Times did not endorse Teachout, the paper did endorse Wu, who lost to Kathy Hochul. In State Senate District 34, covering parts of the Bronx and Westchester county, the Times endorsed Oliver Koppell, who lost a nasty campaign against Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein. In Queens ' District 11 the Times endorsed John Liu, whose challenge to incumbent Tony Avella, another I.D.C. senator, failed.
Endorsement Power Meltdown
In the Assembly, the Times endorsed former investment banker Gus Christensen in the 76th Assembly District, covering parts of the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island . He lost to attorney Rebecca Seawright. A race in which the Times-endorsed candidate won was, in this sense, an outlier: the primary in Brooklyn 's Assembly District 52, where the paper supported Jo Anne Simon over the longtime Working Families Party activist Peter Sikora (who had the endorsement of mayor Bill de Blasio). After Christine Quinn had seemed to work hard to gain the Times' endorsement for mayor last year only to lose to de Blasio, there was muttering that a Times endorsement might not be the agenda-setter it has historically been presumed to be in New York 's downstate Democratic primaries. Last night's results won't make the presumption any easier to maintain.To be clear, the mixed record shouldn't be taken as evidence that the Times endorsement doesn't matter. While some of its candidates of choice ended up losing in competitive races—Liu and Christensen—other of the Times' "failed" endorsements, like Koppell and Wu, were principled suicide missions. So a pure win-loss analysis would punish the paper for having the courage of its convictions, rather than being cheaply transactional. About that, though: The Times no longer appears to be completely sure what its convictions are, when it comes to the mission of the editorial board itself. Part of the board's justification for that odd, tradition-defying Cuomo-Teachout non-endorsement was that Teachout wasn't thought to a plausible candidate for governor. But that didn't stop them from endorsing Wu, who had even less political experience than Teachout, and who duly proceeded to outperform his unendorsed running mate by more than 20,000 votes.
NY Times Failed Kingdom and Jill Abramso
The NYT Out of Touch of New Yorkers
Is the Times' editorial board a Democratic player or protester?(Capital) Nobody believed that The New York Times' decision not to endorse Governor Andrew Cuomo in yesterday's Democratic primary would be a deciding factor in the race. But insofar as it expressed a liberal dissatisfaction with Cuomo's record, it at least comported with the results: Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu drew approximately 35 and 40 percent of the vote in their bids for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, making theirs a shockingly successful protest. But the controversial decision by the editorial board in the governor's race is one of the few in this primary that fell on the right side of history. While the Times did not endorse Teachout, the paper did endorse Wu, who lost to Kathy Hochul. In State Senate District 34, covering parts of the Bronx and | Endorsement Power Meltdown |
In the Assembly, the Times endorsed former investment banker Gus Christensen in the 76th Assembly District, covering parts of the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island . He lost to attorney Rebecca Seawright. A race in which the Times-endorsed candidate won was, in this sense, an outlier: the primary in Brooklyn 's Assembly District 52, where the paper supported Jo Anne Simon over the longtime Working Families Party activist Peter Sikora (who had the endorsement of mayor Bill de Blasio). After Christine Quinn had seemed to work hard to gain the Times' endorsement for mayor last year only to lose to de Blasio, there was muttering that a Times endorsement might not be the agenda-setter it has historically been presumed to be in New York 's downstate Democratic primaries. Last night's results won't make the presumption any easier to maintain.To be clear, the mixed record shouldn't be taken as evidence that the Times endorsement doesn't matter. While some of its candidates of choice ended up losing in competitive races—Liu and Christensen—other of the Times' "failed" endorsements, like Koppell and Wu, were principled suicide missions. So a pure win-loss analysis would punish the paper for having the courage of its convictions, rather than being cheaply transactional. About that, though: The Times no longer appears to be completely sure what its convictions are, when it comes to the mission of the editorial board itself. Part of the board's justification for that odd, tradition-defying Cuomo-Teachout non-endorsement was that Teachout wasn't thought to a plausible candidate for governor. But that didn't stop them from endorsing Wu, who had even less political experience than Teachout, and who duly proceeded to outperform his unendorsed running mate by more than 20,000 votes.
| NY Times Failed Kingdom and Jill Abramso |
When Negative Stories Are Printed by News About Airbnb or Cuomo's Moreland Problems Local TV News Makes Money and is the Main Source of News For Most Americans
Local TV News Makes More oney Keeping Us Misinformed and Giving the Special Interest News Control Though Paid Ads
Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices?
The report notes the important role of television news but also describes how cutbacks have resulted in newsrooms without deep, beat-oriented expertise. It also says that news stations need to do a better job disclosing paid programming and how they serve the public interest.
How Local TV News Make Millions Rehabilitating Candidates and Cleaning Up Policies Harmful to the Public
Weakening Eduation Exelence
Efforts to change the admissions process for New York ’s specialized high schools are disquieting. No entrance criteria is perfect, but the Specialized High School Admission Test, or SHSAT, has served New Yorkers well as the sole determinant of admission to the specialized schools.
Stringer Looking for Press Goes to Citi Bike
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Why Not Use Some of the Pension $$$ to Expand the Program?
City auditing Citi Bike, the bike share program that's beentroubled since debut(NYDN) Auditors are conducting an in-depth review of the finances and management of Citi Bike, including revenue and cost of operations, condition and maintenance of equipment, and the availability of bikes to riders, according to Controller Scott Stringer’s office.COMPTROLLER STRINGER ANNOUNCES NEW YORK CITY PENSION FUNDS RETURNED 17.4PERCENT IN FISCAL YEAR 2014 New York City to save $17.8 billion through 2035 because of above-average returns
Lobbyists Pitta Bishop Del Giorno Which Already Control the City Council Is Seeking To Also Take Over GOP Clubs
New Boss Same As the Old Boss
Pitta & Giblin LLP Sponsor of our Annual Columbus DayDinner (Queens Village Republic Club) The members of the Queens Village Republican Club wish to extend our warmest thanks to Robert Bishop, a partner at the lawfirm, Pitta Bishop, Del Giorno, Giblin LLP for the generous donation from his lawfirm, to sponsor our annual Columbus Day Dinner on Oct. 2nd at the Knights of Columbus, St. Annes Council in Glen Oaks. Giulani Saving the Bronx GOP* The Bronx Republican Party will host a fundraising golf outing to fill its coffers Wednesday at the acclaimed Saint Andrews Golf Club in Westchester County with special guest former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Daily News reports: Lobbyists Are the New Party Bosses and Operate as a Shadow Government
Melissa Mark-Viverito spent big bucks on speaker's race, campaign filings show
Mark-Viverito spent significant amounts on campaign consultants - paying $22,352 to consultants Pitta Bishop Del Giorno Giblin. She also owes that firm another $6250.She paid $8295 to Amelia Adams from New York Communities for Change, now a top staffer on her city payroll, $10,000 to H Strategies, where her now-communications director Eric Koch then worked, and $10,000 to Jon Paul Lupo, who worked on her speaker campaign and is now a top aide to Mayor de Blasio. She also donated $8500 to the Working Families Party. Mark-Viverito collected donations from unions 1199 SEIU, CWA Local 1180, and 32BJ. An opponent of the proposed big soda ban, she also got $1000 from Coca Cola’s PAC.* Mark-Viverito spent $106K on bid to become speaker(Capital)
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Puppet Council Speaker
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Puppet Council Speaker
Top Speaker Lobbyists Puts A Man Inside
Council speaker puts connected lobbyist on payroll(CrainsNY) Melissa Mark-Viverito quietly handed a $130,000-a-year staff position to a lobbyist from the firm that helped propel her to the City Council speakership, payroll records show. In late March, Carlos Beato, who was a lobbyist at the firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin, joined the City Council payroll as a deputy general counsel. The move came not long after the lobbying shop—which has long served as Ms. Mark-Viverito’s campaign compliance consultant—quarterbacked her council speaker bid. The firm’s Jon Del Giorno set up an “appointments committee” for Ms. Mark-Viverito to vet applicants for the council staff. The firm lobbied Ms. Mark-Viverito as her speaker bid was ongoing, and has continued to do so since her ascension to the city's second-most powerful post. The close ties have drawn scrutiny and a call from the Daily News for Ms. Mark-Viverito to sever ties with the firm and its clients. In an unprecedented and clever move, the Pitta Bishop set up a 2017 campaign accountto facilitate Ms. Mark-Viverito’s speaker run. That allowed her to raise $100,000, with more than $20,000 coming from the lobbying firm’s clients. The good-government group Common Cause accused Ms. Mark-Viverito of exploiting loopholes in state election law. Pitta Bishop's clients also reportedly funded much of her $27,000 inauguration party.
To the Winner Lobbyists Goes the Spoils (City Council)
Since the 2013 elections Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin has picked up of 70 clients to lobby for. 51 clients to lobby the city council, 17 to lobby the office of the mayor
Another big winner of 2013 made a similar argument. Jon Del Giorno, sitting in his firm's 28th-floor conference room a few blocks from City Hall, downplayed the notion that his closeness with Ms. Mark-Viverito will help his firm, Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin, which has hovered near the bottom of, or just out of, the top-10 list. Pitta Bishop has done Ms. Mark-Viverito's election-law compliance since 2005, and last year Mr. Del Giorno quarterbacked her uphill speaker bid. In a clever and unprecedented move, the firm set up a 2017 campaign account for an unspecified office with the state Board of Elections, which allowed Ms. Mark-Viverito to raise $100,000 and hire a full staff for her run, despite needing just 26 votes from council colleagues to win. More than $21,000 of the money reportedly came from Pitta Bishop's long roster of business and labor clients, and gave Ms. Mark-Viverito an edge over her rivals. Common Cause New York said the new speaker was "exploiting" the state's lax campaign-finance system.A consulting firm—Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin—that helped Melissa Mark-Viverito in her runs for City Council and Council speaker has lobbied her on behalf of four clients, the Daily News reports: Disclosure reports show an advocacy group, the East Side Alliance Against Overdevelopment, paid Pitta Bishop $15,000 in November to fight a plan by Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital to build two towers on city-owned land on E. 73rd St. Pitta Bishop lobbied Council members from Manhattan, including Mark-Viverito — who represents East Harlem — to vote against the project when it came before the 12-member Manhattan Borough Board on Nov. 21. Mark-Viverito voted no, but the project was approved 6 to 4. Mark-Viverito’s spokesman said her vote had no connection to the lobbying by her consultant. In January and February, Pitta Bishop lobbyists also met with Mark-Viverito’s staff on behalf of another client, the Vera Institute. The goal? Vera’s request for additional Council funding of a pilot program providing legal aid to immigrants. Vera received $500,000 in funding last year and wants $5 million more this year. Pitta Bishop also lobbied Mark-Viverito in January and February seeking “support for museum programming related to anti-bullying” run by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Manhattan. She was asked to speak at an anti-bullying event targeted to children, which she agreed to do, her spokesman said. And Luis Miranda of the MirRam Group enjoys a close relationship with Ms. Mark-Viverito.
The Speakers Lobbyists Cash In
The Shadow Government "Permanent Government" Changes the Guard and Remains in Control
Lobbyists Political Consultants Cut Themselves Into Permanent Government Since Jack Newfield Wrote the Book 1977
New Kings Makers Eat the Kings Meat and the Media Does Not Notice
Former Borough President Molinaro joins high-powered consulting firm with strong Staten Island ties(SI Advancew) Molinaro has joined the Pitta Bishop Del Giorno and Giblin LLC government relations and consulting firm, a company with strong ties to the Island. In his role as senior managing director, Molinaro will oversee the firm's new satellite office in St. George, close to many of the economic development projects that Molinaro helped become a reality during his time in office. Pitta said that the Wheel development as well as other Island projects, including the development of the Stapleton home port and the re-development of the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Charleston, "are sure to spur further growth, opportunity and investment across all of Staten Island." Jon Del Giorno of the politically-prominent law firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin LLC (which manages Melissa Mark-Viverito campaign finance filings) also helped pave the way for the councilwoman's deal with Brooklyn Boss Seddio.Feds charge Senate Dems' operative (CrainsNY) Michael Cohen, who now works for the New York lobbying firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno and Giblin, did not return a request for comment made through a firm spokesman. Pitta Bishop lists crisis management among its specialties, and is affiliated with the law firm Pitta & Giblin. Ms. Mark-Viverito was escorted around Brooklyn's Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club recently by Michael Cohen
. LICH Hospital Loses After 2 Elections
LICH deal crumbles After the 2nd Election . . . 1. After Mayor's 2013 Campaign Promise to Keep LICH A Full Service Hospital the Developer Created A Doctor in A Box Emergency Room . . . 2. After 2014 Election Community Loses Fake ER
The judge, DOH and SUNY all seem to be at fault
N.Y.U.Langone Medical Center is pulling out of its agreement to run Long IslandCollege Hospital, derailing a deal to sell the property and leaving open the question of whether any health care will be offered on site Long Island City Hospital Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn has collapsed, a huge setback to Mayor de Blasio’s plan to keep a health care facility there.* NYU Backs Out of LICH Project(WSJ) University Medical Center Cites Nursing Dispute as It Steps Away from Brooklyn Development***Tuesday Update ‘Expectations are low’ for salvaging a LICH deal (Capital)
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A Fake Fight Over A Fake ER NYU Pulls Out After the Election . . . de Blasio's Promise to Keep A Full Service Hospital Open in 2013 Campaign Comes Up Again in Local Newspaper
Saturday Mayor de Blasio weighs in on NYU’s exit from LICH deal (Brooklyn Daily Eagle) We are heartened that today emergency services are still being provided to the community at LICH,” de Blasio spokesperson Phillip Walzak said late Friday afternoon. “Yet the fact remains that SUNY must live up to its responsibility to ensure that people who relied on LICH in the past will continue to have access to the care they need.”* NYU pulls out ofdeal to save LICH over snag with nurses union (NYP) When he was running for City Hall last year, Mayor de Blasio pledged to maintain medical care at the Brooklyn facility and was even arrested at a protest to demonstrate his support. NYU officials said a court decision dragging them into a lawsuit involving the New York State Nurses Association led to the withdrawal. A top state official blasted irresponsible politicians, litigious labor leaders and a meddling judge for destroying a hard-fought deal.
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What Bull Shit: NYP Blames the Nurses and Community for Killing LICH Not the Developers and SUNY
Well, now it looks as though Cobble Hill has also lost the emergency room and clinics that were to replace it. For that, it can thank the nurses union and an activist judge. When Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes ordered the union to sue the buyers as well — NYU’s Langone Medical Center
Daily News Also Sides With Real Estate Developers Over Its' Own Readers
What Bill hathwrought (NYDN) The LICH deal de Blasio boasted about continues to fall apartBrooklyn Judge Johnny Lee Baynes — who recklessly conspired with Mayor de Blasio to throw the sale of Long Island College Hospital
The Founder of the Daily News Spoke for the Average New Yorker Not the Rich Developers
When Joseph Patterson founded the Daily News in 1919 he said the paper would not represent one class over another. His pledge still remains on a corner stone of the former Daily News Building 220 East 42nd Street . It is a pledge long forgotten
Daily News Founder
Rebellion Joseph Medill Patterson, author (1879-1946)
Plain people and city life furnish dramatic material for "Rebellion," by Joseph Medill Patterson. The husband in the story becomes interested in politics, like most young men, and eventually develops as the lieutenant of the leader. By easy stages he becomes a typical ward heeler*, loses his standing with the leader and at the same time develops an inordinate craving for strong drink. His wife again becomes a wage-earner. The intemperance of the husband drives the wife, through neglect and desperation, to receive, reluctantly at first, attentions from another suitor. A church's unalterable position toward divorce furnishes a theme that is hardly required to make "Rebellion" of itself a story impressive in its human appeal. No reader can fail to appreciate the author's careful, painstaking analysis of a situation that finds many counterparts in all our great cities. * ward heeler: a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than for public ends. (FreeDictionary.com) Daily News Sides With the Real Estate Developer Over Those Protecting the Library * The Brooklyn Public Library’s trustees have approved an extraordinarily good deal for their cash-strapped system, the Daily Newswrites:
WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Tuned Campaign Funding Into Anything Goes and Fake Campaign Mailings into An Art
NY1 allowed Biviano to changed WFP candidate Peter Sikora with Illegally coordinating the mayor's One NY PAC money with his campaign money. The PAC mailing told the community that the emergency room being built by the developer of luxury housing on the site of the closed LICH Hospital with meeting the communities health care needs. Doctors and community leaders have said the mailing are a total lie. While NY1 allowed those charges to be aired over 100 other journalist in the city have opened Biviano's press releases with contained the illegal PAC charges and said nothing. Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government
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Today's Media Blacks Out Judicial Conventions
In 2008 True News Wrote
In 2008 the Daily News Only the Daily News Noticed That Jeff Feldman Help Run the Brooklyn Judicial Convention in 2014 None of the Media Noticed
Feldman and his Friends Play the System
“Similarly unseemly was the role played at the convention by Jeff Feldman, a one-time party honcho who was indicted with Norman
| More On Corrupt Judicial Conventions |
Boyland Blames His Lawyers A Month Before Sentencing
ConvictedAssemblyman Boyland blames lawyers in letter to court(NYP)Brooklyn assemblyman — facing up to 12 years behind bars — is making in an apparent bid for leniency. In a new Brooklyn federal court pre-sentencing filing, Boyland claims well-respected attorneys Peter Quijano and Nancy Ennis defied him at trial and have ignored him since his March conviction. Slated for sentencing next month, the incarcerated crook wrote to Judge Sandra Townes and requested a new attorney to represent him.
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Saturday Crime Report NYP vs NYT
Friskings Ebb, butStill Hang Over Brooklyn Lives (NYT)Brownsville neighborhood, the police still maintain a heavy presence, and residents are wary of innocently drawing their attention. Interactive Graphic: ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Is All but Gone From New York (NYT)
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NY's Incumbent Protection Party
New York’sIncumbent Party — can’t throw the bums out(NYP) There come moments, H.L. Mencken once wrote, when men must rise above principle. For New York Albany by rigging the electoral maps. It’s called the Incumbent Party, and it includes Republicans and Democrats alike. In theory, voters go to the polls to choose their representatives. In practice, legislative control over redistricting often means incumbents choosing their voters. And data-driven technology makes it easier and easier for them to do it. In 2010, California opted for a citizens’ commission to reform a redistricting process skewed, like New York ’s, to favor incumbents. The next year, Pro Publica ran a story exposing how Democrats had gamed the reform. “Skilled political professionals armed with modern mapping software and detailed voter information,” the story said, “managed to replicate the results of the smoke-filled rooms of old.” Truth is, any completely independent commission would by definition also be completely unaccountable. It also means recognizing the problem will only get worse. Long before he was indicted on federal bribery charges and became one of the few incumbents to lose a primary, state Sen. Malcolm Smith had admitted that if Democrats got control of both houses at redistricting time, they’d “draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.” But instead of looking for one big magic fix, New Yorkers would be better off recognizing that even if this reform would help, it’s only one of a series of measures needed to put the squeeze on Albany ’s Incumbent Party.
Others include ending rules that now allow third parties to cross-endorse a candidate already on the ballot as a Democrat or Republican — which only gives incumbents another line on the ballot they can buy. Goo-goos should also have no problem with another simple measure: requiring full disclosure of all outside income — and its sources — for our part-time legislators.Incumbents might have a more difficult time being returned to office if their challengers could point voters to the connections between an incumbent’s votes and the people who are paying him the big bucks. The challenge of gerrymandering, of course, is as old as American democracy, going back to accusations that Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry in 1789 tried to design Virginia New York Texas
The Silence of the Jewish Hate Crime Attack Spike
City Hallripped for silence over hate crime spike(NYP) The de Blasio administration has been too quiet in the face of a troubling spike in hate crimes, Jewish and other elected officials charged Thursday.
Affordable Housing Fix? Guess
A city program that provides millions of dollars annually in low-interest loans for private landlords to rehabilitate affordable housing units rarely bothered to verify if those landlords repaired building violations that their loan arrangements required them to fix, the Daily News’ JuanGonzalez writes:
Lipstick on a Pig Port Authority
In the wake of the Bridgegate scandal, lawmakers in both New York and New Jersey should approve changes that will ensure greater transparency and accountability so abuse at the Port Authority will not happen again, the Times writes:
Meet the New San Gennaro Mob the Same As the Old San Gennaro Mob
EXCLUSIVE: San Gennaro Feast is a famine for local charitieswhich collect under 5% of massive proceeds — just slightly more than when themob dished out the dough(NYDN)The current treasurer, Vivian Catenaccio, was allowed to stay on after it was revealed that her brother, Frank, was identified by law enforcement as a made member of the Genovese family. Frank has since died. In 2000, the late Anne Compoccia, then head of the charity, was charged with skimming money from Mulberry St. merchants. She later pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud. In recent years, this altruism has all but evaporated. In fact, in two years — 2007 and 2009 — the group gave zero dollars to charity, tax forms reveal. In 2012, the last year for which tax forms are public, Figli took in $768,000 and gave out $55,000. That’s 7%.
Ramirez 6 Votes Ahead of Pichardo - Recount Monday
Ramirez 6 Votes Ahead of Pichardo - Recount Monday
Hector Ramirez's slim six vote lead over incumbent Assemblyman Victor Pichardo in the 86AD has triggered a manual recount by the Bronx Board of Elections. The BOE faces an October 3rd deadline for certifying candidates appearing on the November General Election ballot. The manual recanvass of votes in the 86AD is set to begin on Monday, 9/22 at 10am in the Bronx BOE (1780 Grand Concourse, 4th floor).
Hand Recount Scheduled In The Bronx’s 86AD Assembly Race
James' Pay to Play Hotel
James' Pay to Play Hotel
Letitia James Backed Hotel Project After Builder Donated toHer Campaign(DNAINFO) Letitia James received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions last year from two real estate entrepreneurs hoping to build a hotel on city land in Brooklyn — and just three days after pocketing their donations, she penned a glowing letter on their behalf to city officials deciding on the proposal, records show.
Is the party for rent, or just the storefront?
Council Continutes Secret Take Over of BOE
Thursday
Three city Board of Elections commissioner nominees swore Wednesday during a City Council grilling that they would work to rid the agency of nepotism and incompetence if appointed, the Daily News writes:
Quiet on the Bronx (and Brooklyn)front: Council mainly mum on elex board picks(NYDN)
Will the Council Members Knock Off Their Challengers At the BOE in 2017? Da
Council Takes Over the BOE in Secret
Vote of no confidence(NYDN Ed)
In choosing a new executive director, the Board of Elections cannot gets its act together. The City Council’s Manhattan delegation met in secret to select a new Democratic commissioner for the Board of Elections. Then the Daily News reported on their deliberations. Then the members distributed a memo stating that the leaker would be expelled from the delegation if identified.Here’s why they are afraid of sunshine: They picked a man who has a total of four months’ elections experience and made a botch of even that.As the Manhattan Democratic clerk (salary $107,735), Alan Schulkin oversaw June’s congressional contest between Charlie Rangel and Adriano Espaillat. He managed to lose 215 votes.Schulkin admits that he now believes he is not cut out for such an administrative function. He thinks he will be better suited to setting policy for the whole incompetent place.
90% Percent Voters Participation in Scotland and 10% in NY What Are They Doing Better?
This is the best that Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito can do? Give us a break.Manhattan delegation of City Council warned against leaks(NYDN) The emailed ultimatum came from delegation leaders Margaret Chin and Corey Johnson. Hours after the Daily News reported that the Manhattan delegation of the City Council met behind closed doors to select a replacement for a departing Board of Elections commissioner, Manhattan lawmakers were warned that leakers might be barred from future meetings.The emailed ultimatum came from delegation leaders Margaret Chin and Corey Johnson. Citizens Union head Dick Dadey called the veiled threat “an unnecessary pressure tactic” that’s clearly “over the top.”* After the Daily News reported that a New York City Council delegation met behind closed doors to nominate a replacement for a Board of Elections commissioner who quit, lawmakers were warned that leakers could be barred from future meetings, the Daily News reports: * NYC Council vows 'fair, transparent, and public' pick of new Board of Elections commissioner(NYDN) * Show and tell(NYDN Ed) Public must scrutinize Council’s Board of Elections picksDuly embarrassed by the Daily News exposing her secret process to find a new Manhattan commissioner for the Board of Elections, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is going public. The three job candidates should be forced to answer, on the record, whether they would keep the patronage system that’s created the miserable state of affairs at the board — or move toward hiring based on merit.* Now In Control, City Council Opens Up BOE AppointmentProcess (Gotham Gazette)
90% Percent Voters Participation in Scotland and 10% in NY What Are They Doing Better?
More Corruption in the Brooklyn Surrogate Court Public Administration Office
Estates official resigns after office mishandles $2.2M inassets(NYP)The official who oversees estates of people who die without wills in Brooklyn — and whose office was cited for sloppy work by the city comptroller last year — has resigned, The Post has learned. Kings County Public Administrator Bruce Stein stepped down earlier this month, in part because of questions about his ability to perform the job, a source said. Stein’s office was slammed by former Comptroller John Liu in 2013 for mishandling more than $2.2 million in assets, including misplacing a fur coat and allowing $50,000 in cash to sit unclaimed in a safe deposit box for five years. The money was claimed only after auditors pointed it out. The auditors found shoddy work in more than half of the 50 cases that were examined. Stein was appointed to the role in January 2009, and was earning more than $123,000. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Corrupt Surrogate Court
Another Conviction from the Corrupt Surrogate Court
Stealing From the Dead Court
‘Sorry’ estate robber off to jail(NYP) A crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from the estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday for his crime before a judge sentenced him to 6 to 18 years in prison. A crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from the estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday for his crime before a judge sentenced him to six to 18 years in prison. Crooked bookkeeper Richard Paul * Manhattan DA Statement
The Surrogate Court is A Political Toll Booth Exacting Tribute From Widows and Orphans - Robert Kennedy, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
Brooklyn City bookkeeper in 600G ‘scam’(NYP) A bookkeeper stole more than $600,000 in taxpayer money by creating a phony check from the Brooklyn municipal office that handles the estates of people who die without wills or next of kin, court papers allege.
Queens A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (NYT, 11/28/11) *Were Have All the Journalist Gone After Newfield (True News, 7/14/11)) Not since the death or old school investigative report Jack Newfield in 2004 has any reporter in New York covered how the corrupt Queens Democratic Machine use the courts as there personal bank.
Bronx Bronx Surrogate Judge, Facing Discipline (NYT) Judge Holzman, the Bronx surrogate since 1988, is in the midst of a disciplinary hearing in which he is charged with allowing his staff to run amok and to take fees that were excessive and unearned from estates that it was handling. Judge Holzman could lose his job as a result of the hearing.
Staten Island Expose Corrupt Courts: Cover-Up Continues in Surrogate's Court
Brooklyn Lawyer makes millions with no details on fees - New York Daily News * Is ex-Surrogate Judge Michael Feinberg of New York a degenerate crook?
Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go (True News)
An Email Attack on Judge Dear Before His Promotion to Supreme Court?
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An Attempt to Clean Up Judicial Conventions
Killed by the U.S. Supreme Court
Class Size Up
Average class sizes in grades 1-3 in New York City public schools rose to 25 or 26 children in the last school year—an addition of three students a class from five years earlier, The Wall StreetJournal reports:
More On Education, Charter Schools, Tenure
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Judge Dumps BOE Redistricting Language
The proposed redistricting commission is not “independent.”
Judge Tosses ‘Independet’ Redistricting Language(YNN) A state Supreme Court judge on Wednesday struck down proposed language for the upcoming redistricting amendment before voters in November, saying in a ruling that the measure is inaccurately described as “independent.” In the ruling, Judge Patrick McGrath found the language was misleading since the proposed commission “cannot be described as ‘independent’ when eight out of the ten members are the handpicked appointees of the legislative leaders and the two additional members are essentially political appointees by proxy.”New York State Judge Rejects Wordin Redistricting Ballot Question (NYT) A new commission’s plan to redraw legislative district lines would be “little more than a recommendation to the legislature,” a State Supreme Court justice wrote.* After last week’s Democratic primary Zephyr Teachout, who appears determined to keep her finger in
Here is a Weiner Story You Won't Read His Flack Paper the Daily News
Warren Goes After Weiner As A Wall Street Lobbyists
In a Huffington Post op-ed Massachusetts Sen. ElizabethWarren responds to Anthony Weiner’s criticisms of her concern over the“revolving door” between Washington and Wall Street, accusing the former congressman of being one of many politicians who do not see a problem with the workings of federal government:
Mapping a victory pattern in the Avella district(Capital) The results by portion of Assembly District show that Tony Avella won the vote in the parts of the Senate district that overlap with Assembly Districts 26 and 27. These areas cover large portions of Avella's former New York City Council district.In portions of the Senate district that had close to equal numbers of registered Democratic voters from Liu's and Avella's old City Council districts, Liu had more votes. The 25th Assembly District portion had 20 percent of its registered Democratic voters from Avella's old City Council district and 17 percent from Liu's City Council district. Liu won this portion of the district with 54 percent of the vote. In the 40th Assembly district portion, Liu's old district covers 58 percent of registered Democratic voters and Avella's covers 41 percent. Liu won this portion with 53 percent of the vote.
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At de Blasio City Hall, Scorn (and Quiet Affirmation) forBloomberg Years(NYT) As Mayor Bill de Blasio and his surrogates continue to issue barbs at Michael R. Bloomberg, former Bloomberg administration officials have increasingly moved to defend him.
Today the Buck Stop Nowhere
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is traveling to England next week to speak at the Labor Party’s annual conference about his signature issue—income inequality, the Daily News reports: *McCray A Shadow Mayor De Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, was so intimately involved in the operation of City Hall during her husband’s first five weeks in office that she exchanged nearly 1,200 e-mails with his top aides, the Postwrites: * Ex-Bloomberg Aides Strike Back Against de Blasio(WSJ) Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's top aides are pushing back against a fusillade of attacks on his legacy as Mayor Bill de Blasio breaks from many of his predecessor's signature policies.
Until New Yorkers Start Acting Like Ukrainian Voters We Won't Clean Up Politics Here
Today the Buck Stop Nowhere
Until New Yorkers Start Acting Like Ukrainian Voters We Won't Clean Up Politics Here
A Bridge Too Far for the EPA
In a blow to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s bridge plan, the agency denied most of a $511 million request, saying it was not for environmental use.* The EPA determined that $29 million of the plan to build the Tappan Zee bridge is a valid use of clean water funds, but the rest of the project – or $482 million – is not eligible for that cash.*“(T)he bridge construction was never dependent on this loan in the first place,” said Cuomo, who plans to appeal the EPA decision. “This was never part of the planning for the bridge financing in the first place.”
The Election is Over the Shadow Government Takes Over Goodbye Library, Yes Building in the Park
A Shadow Government King
The Lobbyists for the Developer of the Library Hudson Companies is the Same Lobbyists for the Developer of the Hospital James F. Capalino & Associates, Inc.
Bill de Blasio fund-raisers are big time lobbyists (NYDN) Spokeswoman for mayoral rival Joe Lhota says the lobbyists on de Blasio's host committee for his $1 million fund-raiser with Hillary Clinton show his 'hypocrisy' as 'he takes cash from developers and special interests. The host committee included James Capalino, who has lobbied for Rudin Management, developers of high-end condos near the old St. Vincent’s Hospital, and lobbyist Suri Kasirer, who met with de Blasio on Brooklyn ’s contentious Atlantic Yards project.
| BELL, ALAN 322 CPW NY | 1,500.00 | 09-JAN-09 | FRIENDS OF BILL DEBLASIO-2009 | 2009 January Periodic | A | Public Advocate | NA | New York | New York |
| BELL, ALAN 322 CENTRAL PARK WEST NEW YORK, NY 10025 | 10,000.00 | 05-MAY-14 | ANDREW CUOMO 2014, INC. | 2014 July Periodic | A | Governor | NA | N/A | N/A |
| BELL, JOSEPH COUNTY RD. 16 CANANDAIGUA, NY 14424 | 10,000.00 | 04-NOV-13 | INDEPENDENCE PARTY OF MONROE COUNTY | 2013 27 Post General | A | N/A | NA | Monroe | Monroe |
| BELL, ALAN 322 CENTRAL PARK WEST NEW YORK, NY 10025 | 5,000.00 | 24-MAY-11 | ANDREW CUOMO 2014, INC. | 2011 July Periodic | A | Governor | NA | N/A | N/A |
| BELL, RICHARD 7 PINE ACRES DR. ROCHESTER, NY 14618 | 5,000.00 | 06-OCT-10 | PALADINO FOR THE PEOPLE | 2010 11 Pre General | A | Governor | NA | N/A | N/A |
| BELL, ALAN 15 HEERDT FARM LANE POUND RIDGE, NY 10576 | 4,950.00 | 10-OCT-13 | NEW YORKERS FOR DE BLASIO | 2013 11 Pre General | A | Mayor | NA | New York | New York |
| FOWLER, WILLIAM 345 WEST 13 STREET #4D NEW YORK, NY 10014 | 1,500.00 | 10-JAN-09 | FRIENDS OF BILL DEBLASIO-2009 | 2009 January Periodic | A | Public Advocate | NA | New York | New York |
| KRAMER, DAVID 171 CLINTON STREET BROOKLYN, NY 11201 | 4,725.00 | 15-AUG-11 | NEW YORKERS FOR DE BLASIO | 2012 January Periodic | A | Mayor | NA | New York | New York |
| KRAMER, DAVID 171 CLINTON STREET BROOKLYN, NY 11201 | 4,725.00 | 15-AUG-11 | NEW YORKERS FOR DE BLASIO | 2011 Off Cycle | A | Mayor | NA | New York | New York |
"The secret government" or "the invisible government," an idea based on the notion that real and actual political power does not reside with publicly elected representatives but with private individuals who are exercising power behind the scenes, beyond the scrutiny of democratic institutions. According to this belief, the official elected government is in reality subservient to the shadow government who are the true executive power.
| Contributor | Amt | Contr. Date | Recipient | Filing | Sched | Office | Dist | County | Municipality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HUDSON COMPANIES 826 BROADWAY NEW YORK, NY 10003 | 500.00 | 13-MAR-08 | MALCOLM A SMITH FOR NEW YORK | 2008 July Periodic | C | State Senator | 14 | N/A | N/A |
| HUDSON COMPANIES INC 826 BROADWAY NY, NY 10003 | 1,000.00 | 06-AUG-09 | FRIENDS OF VITO LOPEZ | 2010 January Periodic | B | Member of Assembly | 53 | N/A | N/A |
Moses Change NYC, Caro's Power Broker Book Also Changed NYC
Forty years ago today, Caro’s magisterial 1,296-page life of New York
An After Election MeetUp
Taxes Pushing the Middle Class Out of NY
Proportionately, New York State
Liu Discovers Reality to Concede
BATTLEGROUND: LONG ISLAND: The balance of power in the State Senate will most likely be determined by a couple of close races on Long Island, writes Jerry Kremer in an op-ed for City & State
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No Matter How Weak NYC's Party Machine Gets the Party Never Ends
| Weaken Political Machines, Tammany Hall |
Moses Change NYC, Caro's Power Broker Book Also Changed NYC
UFT Protected From Illegal Campaign Spending by Prosecutors
Dark Pools Lobbyists Campaign Consultants and Money
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Letitia James questions guard at de Blasio’s unoccupied home(NYP)Even a top political ally of Mayor de Blasio thinks the city needs to stop shelling out big bucks to keep the NYPD posted outside his unoccupied Park Slope rowhouse. “I don’t understand why it’s still there,” Public Advocate Letitia James told The Post on Sunday.
More Crap From NYP's Dicker And NYT
Insiders say de Blasio could beat Cuomo forgovernor in 4 years A former top city official calls a “very ambitious’’ de Blasio—who provided crucial support and political cover to Gov. Cuomo in last week’s Democratic primary—a good bet to challenge Cuomo for governor in four years(NYP) NYT Turning into A Local Newspaper Coming to the Rescue for Riders Who Drop Treasures on theTracks(NYT) * Two Jet Skiers Are Rescued After Mishap in
Is the NYT All About Politics
The NYT Which Has Not Commented About the Undemocratic 9% Turnout is Pushing For A Big November Vote to Keep the Senate in Democratic Control
A Bigger Midterm Election Turnout(NYT Ed) Will voters realize that decisions made on Nov. 4 will reverberate in laws not passed, roads not built and jobs not created?* In wake of dismal primary turnout, sources tied to Gov.Cuomo want him to lay out 2nd term agenda and energize base(NYDN)
Daily News More Worried About the BOE Than the Fact New Yorkers Stop Voting
The reason theNew York City ’s Board of Elections continues to make mistakes running the city’s exercises in democracy is because of how the board trains their hires, the Daily News writes:
Daily News More Worried About the BOE Than the Fact New Yorkers Stop Voting
The reason the
Solving Our Voter Turnout Crisis(Gotham Gazette)
de Blasio Operates On A Higher Level
Are We Protected in NYC Mayor de Blasio?
Saturday PM The beasts commit new act of savagery, this time beheadingBritish aid worker (NYT)
De Blasio under fire amid new threat from Islamic Statefighters(The Hill) New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is coming under sharp criticism for making decisions that may have undermined the effectiveness of his police department’s counter-terrorism operations. Thirteen years after the 9/11 attacks on Manhattan , prominent security experts say de Blasio has made fighting terrorism a lower priority in order to appease the communities that helped elect him.
“A classic case of taking your eye off the ball at the worst possible time is Mayor de Blasio in New York ,” said John Lehman, a former member of the 9/11 Commission.He said de Blasio is failing to take seriously enough the new threat posed to New York and other major American cities by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has reportedly trained dozens of American jihadists. “At the very time when the threat suddenly emerges in a whole new additional form focused on the U.S. , he decides to end some of the most effective programs in the country in the NYPD counterterrorism unit,” Lehman said. “He has reassigned people and vehicles and special equipment to non-counterterrorist activities,” he added.In April, de Blasio disbanded a special unit tasked with conducting surveillance of mosques and Muslim groups suspected of radical ties. Michael Mukasey, who served as U.S. Lebanon or Yemen New York Man Charged With Trying to Support ISIS (NYT) The most significant accusation in the seven-count indictment of Mufid A. Elfgeeh of Rochester asserts that he tried to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State.* ISIS has mastered social media, recruiting ‘lone wolf’terrorists to target Times Square: Bratton (NYDN) * Bratton: NYC In ‘New Era’ Of Potential Terror Threats (NYDN)Rep. Eliot Engel spoke on the House floor about the threat ISIS poses to the United States , warning if the U.S. does not act, “many more September 11ths” will happen on American soil.* A man who was already accused of plotting to kill US service members is now also accused of trying to send two men from Rochester to Syria to fight alongside terrorist group ISIS.* Targeting Times Square (NYP) * New York CityPolice Add Security Amid a Call for Attacks(NYT) The police stepped up security in response to the possible threat of a terrorist attack in Times Square , even as officials cautioned that they had no information about specific plans against the city.*Bill Bratton: Inside the terror threat (NYDN) ISIS and a host of other groups present a more complex set of dangers than Al Qaeda once did
A Tale of Two Jewish Voting Blocks
The Hasidic population boom is transforming the religion’s traditional profile in New York .FOR generations, American Jews, and particularly Jewish New Yorkers, have largely been identified as ardent liberals. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe formed a substantial core of early 20th-century progressives and socialists. More recently, 70 percent of Jews voted for President Obama in 2012, about the same as Hispanics, and were exceeded in their enthusiasm mainly by African-Americans. But that liberal image is poised to change. A 2012 demographic study by UJA-Federation of New York found that 60 percent of Jewish children in the New York City area — the Jewish center of the United States — live in Orthodox homes, which suggests that in a generation a majority of the city’s one million Jews may be classified as Orthodox. A sizable percentage of those children happen to be Hasidim, the group that has fueled Orthodox growth with its astonishing fecundity. (Seven or eight children per family is common and one Hasidic woman, Yitta Schwartz, had about 2,000 living descendants when she died in 2010. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s deputy director for intergovernmental affairs is Avi Fink, an Orthodox resident of Queens. Letitia James, the public advocate, employs Yoel Lefkowitz, a Satmar Hasid from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as a community outreach coordinator.
When America Produced Leaders Not the Political Class We Have Today
When giants roamed the land(NYDN Ed)
Ken Burns' fantastic documentary on Teddy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. To watch the documentary on the Roosevelts — Teddy, Eleanor and Franklin — debuting on public TV Sunday is to be transported to a sorrowfully bygone era when American politics produced giants. Where is today’s Teddy, the overly timid, sickly little boy who self-consciously grew into a brash, unstoppable man, charging up San Juan Hill with bullets whizzing, hunting bear at close range, swashbuckling as New York City police commissioner and busting trusts in the White House?
Read Political Consultant O'Brien's TR Book
It is Inauguration Day, March 4, 1901. New Vice President Theodore Roosevelt uncovers a vast international conspiracy that has already claimed the lives of Queen Victoria and other world leaders. Aided by British spy Sidney Reilly, Roosevelt races to prevent more attacks around the globe. But the threat they fight has already reached 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ...
Blacks Stand Behind de Blasio
Here's Why De Blasio Still Has 'Overwhelming' Support FromBlack Community(DNAINFO)The mayor has seen his approval rating among blacks remain steady at 65 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University Quinnipiac University
Is the NYT Trying to Mislead New Yorkers on the WFP?
Does the Staten Island WFP Investigation Have Anything to Do With Wolfe Taking Time Off From City Hall?
2009 WFP . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . .
Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Investigator wants to speak with Mayor de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe in Working Families Party probe(NYDN) Roger Bennett Adler sent a letter in September to Emma Wolfe, de Blasio’s director of intergovernmental affairs, asking for a sitdown, according to sources. The investigation is examining whether the party’s now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services, gave cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates, giving them an unfair advantage in elections. The investigation is examining whether the party’s now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services, gave cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates, giving them an unfair advantage in elections.
Prosecutor investigating Working Families Party sought interview with de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe
A special prosecutor investigating the Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor, Roger Bennett Adler, has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service, potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
WFP Lawyering Up To Stop An Investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr. de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position. She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in 2009 was legal and is seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the party's ties to Data & Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended. Dan Donovan, the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.
More On the WFP the New Progressive Machine
Cuomo Will Debate Astorino
Cuomo gives in to debating Astorino(NYP)WABC-TV, the Daily News, WXTV Univision 41, and The League of Women Voters of the City of New York have teamed up to invite Cuomo and his Republican rival, Westchester Council Executive Rob Astorino, to face off in a prime time debate. The Meaning of Cuomo's Embarrassment (New Yorker)* Business Community Hedges on Cuomo(YNN) * After Teachout-Wu Loss, No Endorsement By PEF(YNN) * In Two House Districts, Bad Numbers For Cuomo(YNN) * Per-Vote Cost Correction(YNN)The cost-per-vote calculation that has been widely cited was initially reported by The Washington Post’s “Fix” blog, which said the Cuomo-Hochul campaign spent $60.62 for each vote it received to Teachout-Wu’s $1.57.* Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino called on U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to let the public know before the November election whether he has found criminality tied to the Cuomo administration's handling of the governor's anti-corruption commission, the Daily News writes:
Chokeholds Undercouted
2014 Gov Race: Cuomo, Astorino, Teachout
Chokeholds Undercouted
The city's police review board said it found more chokehold complaints against New York Police Department officers after discovering that it had misclassified some of them.
Queens Library Head Dumped But Still Getting Paid
* Money for nothing (NYDN) Suspended Queens library chief Thomas Galante idles on the public dime
More About the Queens Library Scandal
NYCHA Real World: Despite the Promises Washington Cut Will Reshape Public Housing
Thousands of city renters who rely on public subsidies are being forced to pay more for housing or move into a smaller space.
.Lobbyists Secret Government Cover Up
True News Has Been Reporting About the Lobbyist's Shadow Secret Government . . . And Mr. Power the Media is Enabling the Pols to Cover It Up
Why Did the NYT Make Powell A Sports Reporter? All His Friends Have Conspiracy Theories About Why the Times Would Remove (with no replacement) A Reporters Who Understands the World Outside the Kingdoms' Bubble
Chris Bragg
Michael Consultants and favored PR firms form a powerful and growing shadow government in NYS. Pols trying to cover that up
Lobbyists the New Permanent Government
Poor Door and Lobbyists George Arzt
CrainsNY Goes After the Secret World of Political Consultants
An Amendment to Cut Political Cash(NYT Ed) A proposal to amend the Constitution would restore fairness to American politics by reducing the influence of big money.* The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics held its first-ever hearings on specific alleged violations of state lobbying law, the Times Union reports: * The state of political consulting(Politico)
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The day after Sampson survived the primary battle, his political consultant, Melvin Lowe, was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring with Sampson to defraud the DSCC
Democratic operative convicted on all counts
Ex-Consultant Found Guiltyof Fraud Tied to Lawmaker (NYT)
Sampson Hugs for Brooklyn Boss Seddio
The conviction stemmed from an investigation that has already felled Shirley L. Huntley, a former Democratic state senator fromQueens . She was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after she pleaded guilty to stealing taxpayers’ money through a nonprofit organization she was running. Malcolm A. Smith, a Democratic state senator from Queens who was seeking re-election but lost his primary on Tuesday, is awaiting a retrial on bribery charges that grew out of the inquiry. A judge granted a mistrial in June. * Former Sampson aideguilty of conspiring to defraud Dems(NYP)* Victorious Sampson Knocks de Blasio and Cuomo For EndorsingHis Opponent(NYO)
The conviction stemmed from an investigation that has already felled Shirley L. Huntley, a former Democratic state senator from
Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Found Guilty Of Tax And Fraud Charges LOWE was retained as a consultant by the DSCC after New York State Senator John Sampson was appointed as the Senate's Democratic Conference Leader following the June 2009 "coup" that temporarily shifted the balance of power in the New York
State Senator Sampson Arrested and Re-Elected
Is Pitta Bishop Operative The NJ Based Consultant? Why is the Name Being Covered Up?
From NYT "At Mr. Sampson’s request in 2010, he arranged for a New Jersey-based consultant to bill the committee for $100,000 in printing services that were not performed, the news release said.Mr. Lowe allowed the consultant to keep $5,000 and he gave $20,000 to Michael Nieves, a political operative based in Queens, who had helped the Democrats regain power. He kept the remaining $75,000 for his own firm, which he used to renovate his second home in Georgia."
From NYT "At Mr. Sampson’s request in 2010, he arranged for a New Jersey-based consultant to bill the committee for $100,000 in printing services that were not performed, the news release said.Mr. Lowe allowed the consultant to keep $5,000 and he gave $20,000 to Michael Nieves, a political operative based in Queens, who had helped the Democrats regain power. He kept the remaining $75,000 for his own firm, which he used to renovate his second home in Georgia."
Michael Cohen, the former district office chief of staff for Mr. Sampson, now works for the New York lobbying firm Pitta Bishop Del Giorno and Giblin. A firm spokesman said that Mr. Cohen maintains that "Political Consultant #1" in the charges against Mr. Lowe unveiled this week was "not him." Mr. Cohen has hired prominent criminal defense lawyer Sanford Talkin, who declined to comment.
Mr. Lowe is charged, among other things, with pocketing much of a $100,000 payment the state Senate Democrats' campaign arm initially paid to a New Jersey political consulting firm, which Crain's and others have identified as Cornerstone Management Partners. The money then went back to Mr. Lowe and others, the complaint alleges.s part of the scheme, prosecutors contend, Mr. Lowe directed a vendor to submit a false invoice for printing to the campaign committee, and then to redirect $75,000 of the committee’s payment for those nonexistent printing services to him and $20,000 to a political consultant, identified in the complaint as Political Consultant No. 1. The complaint says the $20,000 payment to the unnamed consultant was made days after a state senator, identified in the complaint only as Senator No. 1, promised to pay the consultant for assistance the consultant had already provided to the senator. * Melvin Lowe | Capital New York A political consultant with ties to leading Democrats has been charged with defrauding the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, in a complaint by federal prosecutors.
Did Klein Ever Ask Lowe What He Was Doing With the Money He Was Paying Him?
Independent Senate Democrats Re-Ignite Push To Outlaw Political Consultants From Lobbying (UPDATED)View All Blogs IDC spokesman Eric Soufer blasted the traditional Democratic conference for opposing the bill in June. His statement specifically hit Sen. Liz Krueger, the Manhattan Democrat quoted earlier in the week in the New York Times claiming special interests “bought” tobacco bill that was pushed by IDC Leader Jeffrey . “By voting no on a common sense ethics reform bill, Senator Krueger and her allies are giving shady consultants like Mel Lowe an opportunity to double-dip in Albany's largesse,” Soufer said. “If Sen. Krueger and her colleagues in the Senate Democratic Conference are serious about cracking down on conflicts of interest, then the least they can do is vote yes for a common sense reform."UPDATE: A Krueger spokesman just sent over a blistering response to Soufer."Is this serious? While Sen. Krueger would love to put more distance between lobbyists and campaigns, as drafted this bill was almost certainly unconstitutional, and she's not in the habit of voting for silly, plainly unconstitutional bills that are certain to go down in court. And frankly, if I were Mr. Soufer I wouldn't want to raise the subject of Melvin Lowe, who was hired on and received these absurd payments during DSCC Chair Jeff Klein's watch. When Liz Krueger was chair of the DSCC, she personally signed off on every payment of $1,000 or more -- if Sen. Klein followed the same procedure, then he signed off on those checks. And if he didn't, then he's a rube."* State Sen. Jeff Klein is still operating a law office in a residential neighborhood more than two years after The Post revealed he was violating the zoning code, the New York Post reports:
Booklyn Dems Love Sampson Kicks the Ass of Team de Blasio
In Hotly Contested Races, the de Blasio Endorsement OnlyGoes So Far(NYO)Brooklyn , where Mr. de Blasio has lived for decades, was where his endorsed candidates had the most trouble. Despite campaigning in person for Pete Sikora twice, the economist with the Communication Workers of America lost to Jo Anne Simon, a Democratic district leader, by more than a thousand votes. Mr. Sikora’s loss was glaring because it was in the brownstone Brooklyn Assembly district that heavily overlapped with Mr. de Blasio’s old City Council district: the mayor’s Park Slope row house lies just blocks beyond the district’s boundaries.A similar dynamic played itself out in central Brooklyn . District Leader Jesse Hamilton, backed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams–the Democrat who held the senate until this year–and other local Democratic power brokers, easily bested attorney Rubain Dorancy, who ran with WFP and mayoral support. The district, rich with black voters that overwhelmingly supported the mayor in 2013, rejected Mr. Dorancy, who was assailed for recently moving from Mill Basin to Crown Heights Brooklyn , twice indicted State Senator John Sampson faced down a challenge from Dell Smitherman, a former political director for 1199. Backed by Mr. de Blasio, the WFP and just about every labor union under the sun, Mr. Smitherman still lost to Mr. Sampson, once the majority leader of the senate, by 14 points. Mr. de Blasio made personal appeals for Mr. Smitherman at a megachurch in East New York and at a subway station yesterday, but the mayor–treated like a celebrity in those corridors–could do little to move the needle against an incumbent with high name recognition and a power base that has yet to erode. (The same was true for WFP, who found themselves in the unfamiliar position of falling to the county organization in many competitive races.) * Brooklyn Dems celebrate defiant Sampson win (Capital)
Even With Teachout Protest Vote Turnout Only 9.3% . . . Where is the Outrage?
Daily News Too Busy Kissing Cuomo Ass To Understand New Yorkers Think Voting Makes No Difference
All joking aside, his approach to campaigning ismystifying." Cuomo's (very) low-turnout primary: (Capital) Unofficial election results from the state’s Board of Elections show only about 9.3 percent of the state’s 5.8 million registered Democrats cast their ballots in the primary contest last night, the lowest turnout in a Democratic statewide primary in more than a decade. Turnout actually dipped below 2002’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Cuomo took himself out of the race against then-state comptroller Carl McCall shortly before the vote to avoid an expected hiding, and remained on the ballot in name only. According to unofficial returns, 531,205 Democrats voted yesterday, which was also lower than the 661,296 who voted in 2010, when there was no competitive race for governor.* Paterson: Low Turnout Raised Volume Of Cuomo Dissenters(YNN)The Democratic primary race is shaping up as one of the lowest-turnout statewide contests in recent memory – under 10 percent.* Why almost no New Yorkers voted(NYP)
Public Fianancing is an Opportunity to Weakerns Big Money Puppet Show
Yes NYP Public Financing Will Not Stop Corruption But It Will Allow A Few Individuals Not Selected By Big Money Interests To Get Into Office
The phony cure for New York corruption(NYP Ed)
Even With Teachout Protest Vote Turnout Only 9.3% . . . Where is the Outrage?
Landslide Cuomo (Daily News )
Randy Credico @Credico2014
All joking aside, his approach to campaigning ismystifying." Cuomo's (very) low-turnout primary: (Capital) Unofficial election results from the state’s Board of Elections show only about 9.3 percent of the state’s 5.8 million registered Democrats cast their ballots in the primary contest last night, the lowest turnout in a Democratic statewide primary in more than a decade. Turnout actually dipped below 2002’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Cuomo took himself out of the race against then-state comptroller Carl McCall shortly before the vote to avoid an expected hiding, and remained on the ballot in name only. According to unofficial returns, 531,205 Democrats voted yesterday, which was also lower than the 661,296 who voted in 2010, when there was no competitive race for governor.* Paterson: Low Turnout Raised Volume Of Cuomo Dissenters(YNN)The Democratic primary race is shaping up as one of the lowest-turnout statewide contests in recent memory – under 10 percent.* Why almost no New Yorkers voted(NYP)
Public Fianancing is an Opportunity to Weakerns Big Money Puppet Show
Yes NYP Public Financing Will Not Stop Corruption But It Will Allow A Few Individuals Not Selected By Big Money Interests To Get Into Office
The phony cure for New York corruption(NYP Ed)
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FU Liu From Wu
Tim Wu @superwuster
Too bad progressive John Liu @JohnCLiu lost. If we had worked together, I'm sure he would have won. Unfortunately, he never knew me.
BS Political Gov Campaign Spin
BS Political Gov Campaign Spin
Upbeat from his victory the previous night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was “fine with 60 percent” of the vote in the primary election and called the results “liberating,” The New York Times reports: * One night after losing to Cuomo in the primary election, former Democratic gubernatorial challenger Zephyr Teachout went back to teaching law at Fordham Law School, the Times writes: * Democratic candidates who were endorsed by the Working Families Party and lost in the primary elections now face the decision of running in the general election and potentially taking away votes from other Democratic candidates, Gotham Gazette reports: * Teachout attracted a narrow constituency of upscale white liberal voters, while Cuomo is an accomplished politician who rallies the broad spectrum of New York’s 5.9 million Democrats, and she should endorse Cuomo, the Daily News opines: * Teachout's running mate slams de Blasio's Cuomo endorsement
IDC Growns Stronger
Diane Savino: ‘Jesse Hamilton Will Be a Member of the IDC’(NYO) Brooklyn and Jesse Hamilton will be a member of the IDC,” State Senator Diane Savino, an IDC member, declared at an election night party for the conference’s leader, State Senator Jeffrey Klein.* HAMILTON HEDGES ON JOINING IDC: After his state Senate primary victory Tuesday, Jesse Hamilton is still undecided about joining the Senate’s Independent Democratic Conference, despite Sen. Diane Savino’s claim last night that he would become the IDC’s newest member, City & Statereports
Hamilton Wasn’t Always Playing IDC Footsie(YNN) In debates during his Democratic primary,
Hamilton Wasn’t Always Playing IDC Footsie(YNN) In debates during his Democratic primary, Hamilton — who received support from the IDC during his campaign — ruled out joining the IDC. “Definitely not,” he said during a debate on our sister station, NY1.
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True News Give You the Why the Media Gives You Filtered News About Gentrification
True News Give You the Why the Media Gives You Filtered News About Gentrification
Brooklyn Dems celebrate defiant Sampson win(Capital)At a victory party in Canarsie on Tuesday night, State Senator John Sampson and his supporters in the Brooklyn Democratic organization celebrated a defiant win, beating back three challengers, despite the cloud of a federal indictment and a spate of endorsements for his rivals. “I think it was in the Bible where Job had to fight one heartache after another, one calamity after another, and ultimately he prevailed. And now, John Sampson has done that," said Frank Seddio, the county's Democratic chairman, who was walking around the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in a "RE-ELECT JOHN SAMPSON" t-shirt.
de Blasio's 180 on Charter Schools
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration said on Wednesday that it would find space in public school buildings for four charter schools that want to open or expand next year, the Times reports:
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration said on Wednesday that it would find space in public school buildings for four charter schools that want to open or expand next year, the Times reports:
de Blasio to Take Over Albany Leading to Rent Control . . . NYCHA Stringer Attacks Conditions
Mayor de Blasio is campaigning hard for Democrats to secure control of the state Senate in the hopes of wresting city rent regulation from Albany , according to a published report....* The killer flaws of de Blasio’s housing plan (NYP Ed)Mayor de Blasio’s affordable-housing plan has two big flaws. First, it uses bad data to describe the size of the problem. Worse, his solution is unlikely to put a dent in the number of “severely rent-burdened” New Yorkers. “Housing New York,” the mayor’s bid to build or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing, says the city faces a special “crisis of affordability,” with 600,000 households — more than 30 percent of the total — who pay over 50 percent of income in rent. The big picture is this: The de Blasio plan is a costly diversion that will benefit only a fortunate few — and continue to help them even if they no longer need it.Far better for New York to turn its attention to its real housing crisis: the wretched condition of its public housing, in dire need of billions in capital repairs and routine maintenance. Reducing the number of new market-rate housing units (as “affordable” requirements do) will do nothing to fix that crisis, while depriving the city of new property-tax revenue that might help tackle it. In the Post, Howard Husock, vice president for policy research at the Manhattan Institute, points out numerous flaws in de Blasio’s affordable housing plan, including a lack of accurate dat * Report by Controller Scott Stringer shows public housingconditions are worsening (NYDN) Problems such as broken windows, rat infestations, and water leaks are on the rise at NYCHA apartments. Even many of the city’s rent-stabilized apartments have faced trouble. ‘We have failed to stop the deterioration of NYCHA housing stock, and there are dire consequences for tenants,’ Stringer said. * Mayor de Blasio wants to take control of rent regulationfrom state lawmakers (NYDN) For years, Republicans in the Senate have oppose efforts by Democrats and tenant advocates to strengthen the rent regulation laws to make it harder for property owners to shift their apartments to the free market. But if Democrats take control of the Senate in November, the de Blasio administration could be allowed to rule on rent regulation.* Broken Windows (Real Ones) Surge in Public Housing (NYT) According to a report from the New York City comptroller’s office, windows across the city’s public housing complexes have fallen into a degree of disrepair that seems drawn from generations past.
Why are NY Lobbyists Make Millions With Gambling Contract and Pols Get Big $$$ When Atlantic City Melts Down
@zephyrteachout casino gambling is not economic development Great to generate campaign contributions for pols bad for the people.
| Gambling and lobbyists 777 |
de Blasio Dumps 911 Contract
EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio ditches NASA's contract for overhaulof 911 system after costs skyrocketed(NYDN) Consultants from NASA were hired two years ago by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to solve technical problems with the 911 system, which the city is spending $2 billion to fix. But the project is behind schedule and over budget — in part because of high-priced consultants taking in average annual salaries of $250,000. Mayor de Blasio is grounding NASA. Consultants from the space agency were hired two years ago by de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, to solve mounting technical problems with the city’s $2 billion overhaul of its 911 system. But now our new mayor is scrubbing NASA’s $13.2 million contract for the project, and he wants city officials to take over mission control themselves, the Daily News has learned. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is abandoning a $13.2 million contract with NASA to overhaul the city’s 911 system in part because layers of high-priced consultants were driving up costs
EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio ditches NASA's contract for overhaulof 911 system after costs skyrocketed(NYDN) Consultants from NASA were hired two years ago by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to solve technical problems with the 911 system, which the city is spending $2 billion to fix. But the project is behind schedule and over budget — in part because of high-priced consultants taking in average annual salaries of $250,000. Mayor de Blasio is grounding NASA. Consultants from the space agency were hired two years ago by de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, to solve mounting technical problems with the city’s $2 billion overhaul of its 911 system. But now our new mayor is scrubbing NASA’s $13.2 million contract for the project, and he wants city officials to take over mission control themselves, the Daily News has learned. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is abandoning a $13.2 million contract with NASA to overhaul the city’s 911 system in part because layers of high-priced consultants were driving up costs
POLITICO deemed de Blasio “the new icon of the left.”
Speeding Cam$ Helping Keep the Middle Class in NYC?
Mayor de Blasio revealed Tuesday that the city had collected an astonishing $9.15 million since January from $50 fines generated by speed cameras around public schools.* City will install more speed cameras near schools(NYDN)
| Traffic, Vision Zero and Speed Cameras |
The St Patrick's Parada Allows Gay Groups
After a battle of 20+ yrs, NYC's St. Patrick's Day Parade will allow gays, lesbians to march under their own banner
he organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue will allow a single gay group to march next year, altering a policy that has sparked controversy and protests for decades.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan will be the parade’s grand marshal.
Gay Groups to Join St. Patrick’s Parade in New York as a Ban Falls (NYT)
In Irish Enclaves, Support and Relief as St. Patrick’s Parade Lifts Ban on Gay Groups(NYT)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan will be the parade’s grand marshal.
Gay Groups to Join St. Patrick’s Parade in New York as a Ban Falls (NYT)
In Irish Enclaves, Support and Relief as St. Patrick’s Parade Lifts Ban on Gay Groups(NYT)
"I Can Do Anything Better Than You"
The dog ate his homework(NYDN Ed) De Blasio cuts some corners on pre-K
Stringer Theory: a Democrat Rises to Challenge de Blasio\ via @Politicker
The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio(NYT)
The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio(NYT)
* Calling expanded pre-kindergarten the "centerpiece" of his battle against income inequality, Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off the school year by visiting preschool sites in all of New York City’s boroughs, the Daily News reports:
* New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said he has still received only 186 of 570 pre-K contracts from the Department of Education and called on city officials to “get their act together,” the Daily News writes:
* Many of the nine new pre-K sites shuttered by de Blasio this week are under investigation for "integrity issues," according to the Department of Investigation, and not likely to open this year school year, DNAinfo reports: http://goo.gl/ZcLiL0
Comptroller Scott Stringer and the Budget
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Campaign 2017 is A Tale of Two School Systems
Public schools ‘doing bad things to children': Success Charter head(NYP)
If Mayor de Blasio thought a leading advocate for charter schools would be silenced after reaching a deal with the city for more space, he was badly mistaken. Charter chief... * Gonzalez: Eva Moskowitz isn't just backed by Wall Street, she moved there(NYDN)
Fariña Tackles Challenges Ahead of Opening Day(WSJ)
As New York readies for the first day of school on Sept. 4, it is up to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to deliver on Mayor de Blasio's promise to provide free full-day preschool for 53,000 children and to deal with other challenges.* First day at city schools has smooth start, few snagsreported(NYDN)
Campaign 2017 is A Tale of Two School Systems
Public schools ‘doing bad things to children': Success Charter head(NYP)
If Mayor de Blasio thought a leading advocate for charter schools would be silenced after reaching a deal with the city for more space, he was badly mistaken. Charter chief... * Gonzalez: Eva Moskowitz isn't just backed by Wall Street, she moved there(NYDN)
Fariña Tackles Challenges Ahead of Opening Day(WSJ)
As New York readies for the first day of school on Sept. 4, it is up to Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña to deliver on Mayor de Blasio's promise to provide free full-day preschool for 53,000 children and to deal with other challenges.* First day at city schools has smooth start, few snagsreported(NYDN)
More than 1 million kids turned out for classes Thursday, with more than 51,000 kids coming to the city’s newly established universal prekindergarten programs** De Blasio said that all charter schools in the city will have to meet City Hall’s standards, including acceptance of special education students and English-as-a-second language learners, the Daily News reports:
A lawsuit filed by a group of charter-school supporters alleges that a chronic funding gap between charter schools and traditional public schools violates the state constitution and disproportionately hurts minority students.
A lawsuit filed by a group of charter-school supporters alleges that a chronic funding gap between charter schools and traditional public schools violates the state constitution and disproportionately hurts minority students.
de Blasio Vs Brooklyn Boss Seddio In Brooklyn Endorsements, 52AD, 19SD, 20SD
Sampson When He Was A Senate Leader Had Over $1.5 in His Bank Account Today As He Faces A Hard Re-Election Under Indictment He Has $2000
NYT: Small Donations Fuled Mayor's Race
But Leaves Out Small Donor PACs Like NYCLASS, United for the Future and 7 Million Jobs for New York
Small Donations Fueled ‘Most Wide-Open’ Mayoral Race Last Year, Board Says
Small Donations Fueled ‘Most Wide-Open’ Mayoral Race Last Year, Board Says
Mayoral candidates received $14 million in matching funds, according to a report by the New York City Campaign Finance Board to be released Tuesday.
New York Times
Fariña thinks big New York Daily News
NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina is an “active and engaged grandmother” of two boys.
New York State United Teachers is seeking to intervene in an anti-tenure lawsuit filed against the state.* PreK Universal Pre-K Takes Off While it might not be completely smooth, more than 50,000 4-year-olds will start prekindergarten on Thursday, primarily thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio.* Ninety city schools failed to pass a single black or Hispanic student on state tests, study says(NYDN)
Overhaul to school discipline code won't be made this year(NYDN)* * Looking at a diverse cross-section of 90 New York City schools, an education-reform group found that not a single black or Hispanic student passed the state-administered math and reading exams, which is shameful, the Post writes: * As 50,000 4-year-olds prepare for their first day of expanded pre-K in New York City, it is important to remember how this extra year of education will help, Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina writes in the Daily News:
| More On Education, Charter Schools, Tenure |
NYT Hands Down Its Choices
No endorsements on the Sampson and Smith senate races? Choices for the Legislature and the Civil Court(NYT Ed)
The Times makes some recommendations for the Democratic primary races in New York City.
NYT for Koppell and Liu another message to Cuomo?
NYT for Koppell and Liu another message to Cuomo?
Mayor Defends Dumbing Down of Elite HSs
NYT Denounces Citizens United Over and Over Just Does Not Report Its Effects on Local Races
While the NYT Ignored Illegal Campaign Funding Going On in the 52AD Campaign (and other campaigns) They Covered A Climber Near the District
In the era of unlimited spending, those who give are targets.
The Daily News Gave Us Ready for My Closeup Mr Demille Quinn
To Get A Tough Senate Primary You Need to Be Indicted or Fight Rangel or WFP
New York Democrats face tough primary elections(NYP) Four Senate incumbents find themselves in tough races, including two in legal jams. For the first time since being indicted by a federal grand jury, state Sen. Malcolm Smith of Queens and Sen. John Sampson of Brooklyn are up for re-electionSmith was indicted in April 2013 for trying to buy his way onto the city mayoral ballot. But Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who once worked for Smith, expects him to prevail. “The man has not been convicted of anything, he is well-liked in his community and the truth will stand with him,” Sheinkopf said. In Brooklyn, fellow indicted pol John Sampson has a tough challenge. His recent campaign filing showed a deficit of $9,621. There is also strong opposition to Sampson, who has been indicted twice in two years for embezzlement and lying to the FBI, drummed up by his primary opponent, Dell Smitherman. In Queens, incumbent state Sen. Tony Avella is in a fight with fund-raising machine John Liu — who currently has four times the amount of cash on hand as Avella. After losing a congressional primary to Rep. Charles Rangel, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat is locked in a primary with former City Councilman Robert Jackson. * LOVETT: Michael Bloomberg hasn’t given Senate Republicans a dime since he left office, despite being their single largest donorduring his three terms as mayor(NYDN) Senate Republicans have lost a big weapon in their fight against the Democrats for control of the chamber: former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was the single largest donor to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee during his three terms in office — but since leaving City Hall, he hasn’t given a dime. … he has also given nothing to the Assembly Democrats, who received $250,000 from Bloomberg two years ago. … In fact, campaign records show that Bloomberg this year has given just a single $6,500 donation in New York — to Buffalo Republican state Sen. Mark Grisanti. … one of just four Senate Republicans in 2011 who voted to legalize same-sex marriage, which Bloomberg supported as mayor
Free Incumbent Senate Mailings
Tax the Rich II
Higher taxes down the road are a distinct possibility, given New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fiscal record so far, because while it may have enough cash now, the city might soon fall short, the Post writes:
Higher taxes down the road are a distinct possibility, given New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fiscal record so far, because while it may have enough cash now, the city might soon fall short, the Post writes:
As Candidates For Office Try to Get Their Message Out the Daily News Turns Into A PR Agent for Incumbents While Candidates Cry to Get Their Message Out
Biking is picking up amongst City Council members(NYDN)
The Daily News Goes After the Corrupt Queens Library President and Puff PR's Van Bramer Who Benefited From the Corruption
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer on his homeless childhood, calls for residents to be part of the solution(NYDN)
Flashback EXCLUSIVE: City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer explodes at colleagues (NYDN, 1/29/2014) Van Bramer's colleagues questioned whether Van Bramer's ties to the Queens Library would compromise his ability to hold a hearing on the library's finances
NYP Uses the Times Square Muppets to Defend NYPD
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Goo Goos Finally Acomplish Something - A Civil War Between Good Govt Groups
Reform-group civil war over Cuomo-style redistricting(Capital)Citizens Union and the League of Women Voters unveiled a new website Tuesday in favor of a new commission
NYT Calls de Blasio Meets Reality, Its Really NYC's Campaign System Meets Reality
Its Not About Liberal Friction It is About Reality and Fooling the People During Campaigns
Former Mayoral Candidate Sal Albanese. and A Candidate for Assembly Tries to Tell the Truth and Get Boycotted By the Media
Mitchell Moss
“Inequality is not something that a mayor of New York can solve, but public safety is...
NYC Voters Are Disconnected From Their Own Believes
New York's Voters
Cuomo Connected to Corruption
We Support Cuomo
Cuomo Emerges Unhurt From Morelandgate Scandal; Dem Primary Challenger Unknown
More voters see Gov. Cuomo as part of New York's corruption problem, not solution: Quinnipiac Poll(NYDN)
Cuomo Connected to Corruption
We Support Cuomo
Cuomo Emerges Unhurt From Morelandgate Scandal; Dem Primary Challenger Unknown
More voters see Gov. Cuomo as part of New York's corruption problem, not solution: Quinnipiac Poll(NYDN)
Fully half of voters in the new poll say they disapprove of the way the incumbent Democrat is handling government ethics, while only 39% say he's doing the right thing.
That's a total reversal from the May 22 Q poll, when 48% of voters approved and 34% disapproved. Despite the souring views of his ability to muck out the Albany cesspool, Cuomo is still wrecking all challengers in the Democratic primary and November general election, Quinnipiac found in the latest survey. Cuomo still holds a 56 to 28 lead over Republican gubernatorial challenger Rob Astorino despite almost half of voters saying Cuomo is part of the corruption problem in the state, a new Quinnipiac poll found* Polls continue to show huge lead for Cuomo over Astorino(NYP)This is What It Takes to Get Media Coverage in New York?
Rep. Maloney visits panda in China, possibly headed for New York zoo(NYP)How NYC Tax Breaks to Developers is Killing the Character and Style of the City
BdB told the public he paid for personal vacation to Italy. But City Hall confirms NYC paid for this Mercedes-Benz. BdB recently consulted w/ lawyer to determine whether he should personally pay for commuting from Gracie. * BdB recently consulted w/ lawyer to determine whether he should personally pay for commuting from Gracie.
Michael Howard Saul Less Jobs in the City, Lower Unemployment Rate, Oh Yea
Hillary Distances
Brooklyn Reformers Take Both Sides
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Zephyr Teachout and Cuomo’s hand-picked LG running mate, former Rep. Kathy Hochul, attended the same Brooklyn Democratic club meeting last night.
NY Pols Duck and Cover On Cuomo and Other Corrupt Elected Officials
Elect Officials Like the Cops Have A Wall of Silence on Not Talking About Their Corrupt Colleagues
Here’s Bill de Blasio on the Moreland Commission imbroglio in which Gov. Andrew Cuomo now finds himself steeped: “I’m not following it because I have a lot of other things to do. I try to keep up a bit with the world, but when I look at the media, I am focused on the things that affect New York directly.”What a crock!bringing shame upon their colleagues by tarnishing the institutions in which they serve, our electeds say nothing.* Chuck Schumer Mum on Andrew Cuomo’s Moreland Controversy(NYO) * In Spite Of Moreland Mess, Cuomo Still Earns Praise From Republican Lawmakers(YNN)
This is Rudy Giuliani! The crusading U.S. Attorney who made his entire career taking on political corruption! If anyone should be cheering on Preet Bharara, it’s Rudy! How low Giuliani has sunk since the days when he heroically brought powerful politicians like Meade Esposito and Mario Biaggi to justice. Has he forgotten his own words? “I don’t think there is anybody worse than a public official who sells his office and corrupts others—except maybe a murderer.” I guess the only remaining test for our elected officials’ tolerance of one another’s crimes is for one of them to actually commit murder. Then we’ll find out if that’s somehow an excusable offense, too.* Polls Despite the governor’s continuing lead in a recent poll in the wake of the Moreland Commission scandal, the race is far from over as we wait to see if the scandal will release a bombshell that upends the election or fizzles out in the coming months, Michael Goodwin writes in the Post: *Cuomo Says Staff Should Aid Inquiry(WSJ)
* “Experts say (Cuomo’s) bungling of a high-profile criminal dragnet…damaged his future as a crime-fighting policymaker.” * “Cuomo is having a bad summer, though apparently not bad enough to jeopardize his re-election chances in November.”* Astorino: Why doesn't anyone call for Moreland special prosecutor? Politics on Hudson *Democrats Seize On Astorino Inaccuracies (Updated)(YNN) * Astorino Asks For Heroes, Perhaps Longer Than Just For One Day(NY1) * NY Post: “If Rob Astorino wants to be elected governor, he’ll have to start giving New Yorkers a reason to vote for him. Soon.”
Cuomo Top Aide Schwartz to Avoid Subpoena Moves to Meet With Feds* “Experts say (Cuomo’s) bungling of a high-profile criminal dragnet…damaged his future as a crime-fighting policymaker.” * “Cuomo is having a bad summer, though apparently not bad enough to jeopardize his re-election chances in November.”* Astorino: Why doesn't anyone call for Moreland special prosecutor? Politics on Hudson *Democrats Seize On Astorino Inaccuracies (Updated)(YNN) * Astorino Asks For Heroes, Perhaps Longer Than Just For One Day(NY1) * NY Post: “If Rob Astorino wants to be elected governor, he’ll have to start giving New Yorkers a reason to vote for him. Soon.”
Charity lived large as it stiffed staff: suit(NYP) A Queens nonprofit — which counts indicted Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith and ethics-probed Rep. Gregory Meeks as benefactors — cheated its workers out of wages while throwing lavish parties for friends of the charity’s chairman and CEO, a new lawsuit charges. Five former employees are suing the now-shuttered Jamaica Business Resource Center for $250,000 saying they stopped receiving full paychecks in 2012 and then were fired in 2013 for complaining about not getting paid.
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Albany Lawyers Up
So Shelly Hired a Penthouse Attorney and Andrew Hired Woody Allen's Attorney?
Mayor and Brooklyn Boss Bad Timing Backs Cuomo
De Blasio backs Cuomo through allegations of interfering with Moreland commission(NYDN)
Brooklyn Democratic boss backs a lawmaker facing criminal charges(NYDN)
CM Dromm Continues His War On Charter Schools
Andrew Cuomo is in trouble — but probably not for reelectionWashington Post * For the first time, Cuomo scrambles to play defense Opinion-Newsday *Cuomo Faces Legal Issues in Moreland Wall Street Journal * US Attorney presses Cuomo on witness tampering USA TODAY *Cuomo draws scrutiny from US attorney
Buffalo News * Cuomo acknowledges federal inquiry; says office did nothing Poughkeepsie Journal * Aide seeks Cuomo aid Albany Times Union*Gov. Cuomo’s cover-up?(NYPED)Some of this contradicted earlier comments. For example, though co-chair William Fitzpatrick now says the governor honored the commission’s independence, the Times reported an e-mail in which he griped the governor’s office wasn’t treating the commission as independent. The Times says Bharara demanded that, “to the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation,” his office should be notified immediately.* A Daily News editorial notes that while Al Sharpton and other critics charge the NYPD with rampant, race-based brutality, it is unclear if de Blasio agrees, and until there is an even-handed review of over 1,000 complaints against the police force and a fair accounting of Eric Garner’s death, it will remain unclear if the brutality is endemic or isolated: http://goo.gl/gKgGDc
Big Foot vs. Big Foot–Bharara’s warning to Cuomo & Co.(NYP Ed) * It was Joseph Percoco, a longtime political aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who contacted several members of the now-shuttered commission in the past week and encouraged them to make public statements supporting the governor and affirming the panel’s independence. He even offered to provide drafts.* Cuomo’s Back-Room Style Draws a Potent Critic(NYT) Cuomo said his office was interested only in setting the record straight about the role it played in the handling of the disbanded anticorruption panel. * Trying to influence the commissioners while Bharara’s investigation is underway “put the governor is at risk in ways he was not before,” writes legal ethics Prof. Stephen Gillers. The US obstruction statutes are incredibly broad.” * Bharara’s investigators had already questioned delays in receiving thousands of emails and other documents they had subpoenaed from the panel more than two months ago.* Cuomo acknowledged having discussions with “relevant parties” about inaccuracies in news reports about his office’s involvement with the commission. * “Andrew Cuomo is having the roughest stretch of his political career since flaming out of the New York governor’s race in 2002,” POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman writes. “…The mess is almost entirely of his own making.” * In short: “Cuomo is in hot water for allegedly micromanaging his response to a scandal based on his own micromanagement.”* Cuomo Faces Legal Issues in Moreland(WSJ) * good ready by @jimmyvielkind Moreland mess turns @nygovcuomo into just another Albany politician * Wife of chief Cuomo anti-corruption defender up for judgeship (NYP) * NYPost editorial: "Apparently it’s not as easy to laugh off a US attorney."(NYP Ed) * Erie County DA Frank A. Sedita III, a Moreland commissioner, defended commision co-chair, Onondaga County DA, Bill Fitzpatrick, calling him an “incorruptible public servant.
Buffalo News * Cuomo acknowledges federal inquiry; says office did nothing Poughkeepsie Journal * Aide seeks Cuomo aid Albany Times Union*Gov. Cuomo’s cover-up?(NYPED)Some of this contradicted earlier comments. For example, though co-chair William Fitzpatrick now says the governor honored the commission’s independence, the Times reported an e-mail in which he griped the governor’s office wasn’t treating the commission as independent. The Times says Bharara demanded that, “to the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation,” his office should be notified immediately.* A Daily News editorial notes that while Al Sharpton and other critics charge the NYPD with rampant, race-based brutality, it is unclear if de Blasio agrees, and until there is an even-handed review of over 1,000 complaints against the police force and a fair accounting of Eric Garner’s death, it will remain unclear if the brutality is endemic or isolated: http://goo.gl/gKgGDc
Mayor and Brooklyn Boss Bad Timing Backs Cuomo
De Blasio backs Cuomo through allegations of interfering with Moreland commission(NYDN)
Brooklyn Democratic boss backs a lawmaker facing criminal charges(NYDN)
CM Dromm Continues His War On Charter Schools
City Council Daniel Dromm (D-Queens), who heads the city Education Committee, said the city has no control over the charter schools even though they are given $13,000 per student. An investigation into harsh discipline, rigged admissions and other allegations needs to be completed, reads a letter the committee will send to the state.
The NYT is Counting On an Un-Elected Prosecutor to Clean Up Albany
* Bharara: “We are the people who do our jobs" (LoHud) * Bharara and Schneiderman Do Lunch(YNN)
The Real Build New York Campaign
