View Larger Map DATE: Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2010. LOCATION: 17 Slaight St., Port Richmond, Staten Island. Jahaad Chesson, the accused killer of a Staten Island man told reporters yesterday he was "...
Continue reading "Anthony Illidge Slay Suspect Jahaad Chesson Says He was 'High As a Motherfucker'" > " [...]The Michael Jackson autopsy report is out, and reveals only a few heretofore unknown details. For instance, scene investigators found "near the foot of the bed... a closed bottle of urine atop a c...
Continue reading "Michael Jackson Autopsy Reveals Thin Hair, Closed Bottle of Urine"" [...]
First Lady Michelle Obama took to the mikes this afternoon to kick off a national campaign to combat childhood obesity, emphasizing new initiatives to promote biking and walking alongside a strong focus on healthier food options in schools.
Michelle Obama visited "Sesame Street" [...]
Senator Schneiderman's bill S. 6794, introduced February 8, is a vast improvement over previous attempts to craft an ethics bill.
Yesterday we described its innovations, including the creation of designating panels and greatly increased financial disclosure requirements, especially the requirement that legislator-attorneys disclose important information about their law practices. [...]
If and when the Times breaks its David Paterson story, some of the news is expected to focus on the governor's exploitation of his campaign kitty for personal use. In that spirit, let's consider t...
Continue reading "David Paterson's Campaign Money Problems Only Highlight Andrew Cuomo's'" [...]Legendary New York painter Chuck Close has been named by President Obama to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Close came to fame by taking photographs of his subjects and the...
Continue reading "Chuck Close Appointed to Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities" [...]
SPOT ON media and LIVESTRONG are joining together in the fight to battle cancer with LIVESTRONG Quarterly, a new online, print, and print-on-demand publication that highlights individuals battling with cancer, support groups for the disease, as well as cancer resources. LIVESTRONG is [...]
After Rick Lazio sent out his second statement in as many days defending David Paterson and criticizing the New York Times for the story they haven't yet published about the governor, I had to ask: What does Lazio think the paper did wrong?
"They have not stemmed the rumors,"' [...]
At the end of last month, the tolerable East Village watering hole Telephone Bar closed; it's being replaced by a new venture from the owners of such fratastic destinations as The Stumble Inn and Gin Mill. The change wouldn't really merit mention on its own,' [...]
The Senate is currently in conference meetings; the live feed of proceedings will resume when the members hit the chamber.
[...]
Just as the markets were starting to unwind in October 2007, real estate titan Steve Roth thought he'd hooked a giant fish. Merrill Lynch had been through a tortuous, hard-fought search for a firm to build its new world headquarters, and after pitting Mr. Roth and his Vornado' [...]
Preparing for what they hope will be their return to power in Washington, Republican Congressional leaders have revived the fear-mongering and flag-flapping used by Karl Rove to win the 2002 midterm elections. Like the former White House deputy, forever known to his boss as “turd blossom,” the right-wing [...]
Consumers are dumb. For decades, this has been the bedrock assumption of advertising. For obvious reasons, no one in the field wants to be caught voicing it out loud, but think about it: You endure an unwanted interruption in a TV show you’re watching or an article you’re reading, and [...]
The city is backing out of plans to purchase the historic Wyckoff-Bennett House in Brooklyn even though the 18th-century Dutch farmhouse—located on East 22nd Street near Avenue P—is one of the few left standing and it's still inhabitable. Homeowners Stuart and [...]
Yesterday we highlighted a Bob Mionske column that eloquently lays out inherent biases common in U.S. traffic codes and proposes measures we can take to start correcting them. One of them is strict liability, which generally assigns responsibility for a collision to the operator of the vehicle likely [...]
Let the record show that Al Franken, freshman senator from Minnesota, bears little resemblance to Al Franken, onetime Saturday Night Live funnyman. At an otherwise genteel subcommittee grilling of the top executives from NBC Universal and Comcast over their proposed media mega-merger last week, Mr. Franken had none [...]
After the Senate took a recess, Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch spoke to the press in the corridor.
“I was requested to preside today,” Ravitch said of his role in today’s Senate proceedings, which later this afternoon will include as-yet-undetermined action against Sen. Hiram Monserrate.
Selecting a senator to preside over a [...]
Fans of the great British sitcom Fawlty Towers will recall an episode that featured a dour health inspector who, upon examining the not-quite-spotless kitchen of John Cleese’s hotel, says, “The only gourmets you’ll find here are kamikaze ones.”
Luckily, the same wouldn’t be said of the vast majority of New York’s [...]
Law-enforcement authorities—that means you, Attorney General Cuomo—should be asking pointed questions about the odoriferous goings-on at Aqueduct Racetrack. Like the calling card of Aqueduct’s principal entertainers—thoroughbred racehorses—this deal stinks to high heaven.
Governor Paterson’s decision to give a politically connected company the rights to transform the Queens racetrack into a quasi-casino [...]
Alan Rosenfeld, en route from Central Casting to the Rubber Room
Today's update on Alan Rosenfeld, the ex-teacher who landed in a Department of Education teacher reassignment center (aka Rubber Room) nearly a decade ago for lewd behavior towards students, features [...]
Every baseball fan will want to watch Bob Costas interview Willie Mays tonight on the MLB Network's Studio 42 (8:00 pm EST). But fans should also be cautioned that Willie's memory isn't what it on...
Continue reading "Willie Mays Is Old, but What's the Daily News'" [...]Here's the indictment of councilmember Larry Seabrook presaged in press reports this morning. In the 13 counts with which Seabrook is hit, it is alleged he took -- on his own behalf, and that of r...
Continue reading "Larry Seabrook Indictment Charges Rent Fraud, Do-Nothing Programs," [...]
A Staten Island man accused of stabbing a 54-year-old to death told reporters he was on drugs when he committed the crime. While waiting to enter court for his arraignment, 23-year-old Jahaad Chesson tried to tell his "side of the story," stating: "I was high" [...]
The Senate passed a resolution expressing opposition to the Obama administration’s decision to hold the trials of suspected 9/11 terrorists in Lower Manhattan.
“I personally believe that we should not be using the civilian criminal justice system to deal with these terrorists,” said Sen. Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, who authored the [...]
Did none of these suggestions solve the intractable problem of Valentine's Day for you? Well, your looming V-Day troubles are over: Philly's favorite Rita's Water Ice (snowcones, fro-yo, etc.) will be opening their first NYC location on the 14th, and all visitors for [...]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has lost approximately half its workforce since 2007: going from 2,000 to 1,000 employees due to circulation decreases, budget cuts, and all those other pesky recessionary reasons that papers are folding or cutting back severely these days. Yet the Star Tribune [...]
In a move that The Times calls "unprecedented," the Royal Shakespeare Company will set up camp at the Park Avenue Armory in the summer of 2011 for a six-week-long residence.
This operation will involve 44 actors, 23 musicians, "about 30 other artists," five plays, and a full-size replica of [...]
An elderly Carroll Gardens woman recently fell for the old "you're grandson's in trouble" con, but this one had a clever Canadian twist. A man identifying himself as "Constable Karl Moore from the Canadian Police Department" telephoned a woman at her home on Henry Street' [...]
Image: U.S. PIRG
Now that the Obama administration has awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to more than two dozen states, with $2.5 billion more coming soon, why not keep thinking big when it comes to bullet-train expansion?
That's the ethos of a [...]
With the recession and layoffs dominating media conversations, it's easy to forget about the people who are unhappily employed. You know who you are. Your co-worker just got canned, but instead of consoling, you want to scream, "Take me with you!"
Don't worry, young grasshopper. Even
Owing to wintry scenes such as the one at right, recorded in north Brooklyn, public schools are closed tomorrow. Meteorologists predict a storm, and the Daily News says "officials are worried tha...
Continue reading "Record 0" Snowfall Closes New York Public Schools" >
Photo via mtkr's flickr More animals are terrorizing our streets! This time chickens have taken over the 1300 block of Edward L. Grant Highway in the Bronx (safe from eagles and coyotes... for now). According to the Daily News, [...]
The House of Representatives just one-upped New York's public schools and canceled the rest of its week.
Earlier, committee chairs had been steadily re-scheduling hearings--even on seemingly urgent issues like those nine million potentially faulty brake pedals. "Due to the inclement weather set to impact the DC Metropolitan area" [...]
The anticipated vote on the fate of Sen. Hiram Monserrate has made the Capitol just a little bit weirder today. The building hasn’t quite been enveloped by the circus atmosphere that existed during this summer’s Senate coup, but there is a sense that people are ready to see a show.
The [...]
The anticipated vote on the fate of Sen. Hiram Monserrate has made the Capitol just a little bit weirder today. The building hasn’t quite been enveloped by the circus atmosphere that existed during this summer’s Senate coup, but there is a sense that people are ready to see a show.
The [...]
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Councilmember Larry Seabrook has surrendered.
In a press release, the office announced, “Seabrook, 58, surrendered to authorities this morning, and is expected to be presented later today in Magistrate court in Manhattan federal court.”
Elsewhere, the City Council is expected to take up [...]
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Councilmember Larry Seabrook has surrendered.
In a press release, the office announced, “Seabrook, 58, surrendered to authorities this morning, and is expected to be presented later today in Magistrate court in Manhattan federal court.”
Elsewhere, the City Council is expected to take up [...]
A reader sent along the above photo from the concourse. It speaks largely for itself.
I would just note that today is D-Day for Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat who was found unfit to serve in the Senate by a panel chaired by Schneiderman.
Also, [...]
Gov. David Paterson’s 21-day budget amendments are due out today and supporters of allowing wine sales in grocery stores is already touting a key feature of the updated fiscal proposal: higher fees for stores seeking to sell wine.
If approved, that should raise projected revenues from $147 million to $300 million [...]
AP/Toyota's president Akio Toyoda
Today Toyota made official its recall of over 400,000 hybrid cars. Meanwhile a Queens man says he felt the affects of automaker's widespread pedal problems first-hand when his out-of-control Camry hit two other cars yesterday, ending up [...]
Gerald Posner, an investigative journalist and contributor to Tina Brown's The Daily Beast (not to mention a frequent guest on MSNBC's Hardball), has admitted to plagiarizing a juicy celebrity death story straight from the pages of The Miami Herald. Jack Shafer at [...]
from Zach K's flickr
Under Gov. Paterson's plan to rescue the MTA from a $400 million budget shortfall, New York City businesses would see a payroll tax increase by 59 percent, surging from .34 percent for every $100 of payroll to [...]
City Council member Larry Seabrook has been indicted in the continuing probe into the slush fund scandal.
The 13-count indictment charges Seabrook with soliciting and accepting bribes, extortion, money laundering, and funneling tax money into phony nonprofits that existed only to benefit him and some of his relatives. In addition, there [...]
Friends and clients of real estate investor Adam Hochfelder thought they were buying shares in Lake George's Sagamore Resort and another property in Telluride, Colorado, but instead the money was going up Hochfelder's nose, among other places. The onetime-mogul—who underwent nasal reconstructive surgery because of [...]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the Standards and Ethics Committee will review the accusations against Larry Seabrook, who just turned himself in. It'll be the committee's first meeting of the year, according to the Council web site.
In a public statement, Quinn said:
All of us in the City Council take' [...]
Former Tennessee lawmaker, current Wall Street worker, and possible Senate candidate Harold Ford has already taken heat from his likely rival for not disclosing whether or not he earned a "taxpayer-backed" bonus for his work at Merrill Lynch. Now, he's taking heat from [...]
That coyote's in your bike lane While we all wait for a Bald Eagle vs. Coyote face-off—or for those Columbia University coyotes to finish their education and take over the human race—we figured we'd get some facts from the front' [...]
For months, students have been fighting back against the MTA’s budget cuts that would phase out the free Metrocards that allow them to get to school and back.
Khaair Morrison, a Queens high school student, explains in the community section what such a change would mean for him and [...]
Monserrate, Espada and Nieves. (Jimmy Vielkind/Times Union)
“I’m going to go back to work right now. That’s what I’m here for,” Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who was deemed unfit to serve by a Senate committee, said to reporters before going into an anteroom beside the chamber.
He sucked [...]
We're bringing Pencil This In to you earlier with our new newsletter, GothamList. Sign up below for the daily scoop on concerts, readings, performances, and other events, which will arrive in your inbox first thing every morning Monday through Friday. You can get today's newsletter when you sign' [...]
Tonight Rep. Eric Massa will appear on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” at 6:00 pm eastern to discuss healthcare reform. Check local listings for more information.
Related posts:Eric to Join Ed this evening on MSNBC[...]
They’re paying Monserrate off
Monserrate will say he accepts “the will of the senate”
ALBANY – Nervous Senate officials are calling in extra muscle for Tuesday’s historic vote on whether to expel Sen. Hiram Monserrate.
The Senate will have additional sergeants at arms inside the Senate and state troopers stationed just outside [...]
So it's come to this. With transit revenues plummeting to the point where the MTA has to deal with a $400 million shortfall on top of an austerity plan that already calls for deep cuts in service, Governor Paterson yesterday proposed shifting the burden of the MTA payroll tax [...]
Brooklyn youths use a 1957 snowstorm as an excuse for idleness and pelting busy adults with snowballs. (Lisa Larsen/Life )
Snow noes, the teenagers are going to be running amok tonight! The Mayor's office has preemptively announced that all NYC public [...]
Councilmember Larry Seabrook, who served in the state Assembly and just started his third term at the City Council, is being charged with money laundering, extortion and fraud, according to an indictment released today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.
Councilmember Larry Seabrook, who served in the state Assembly and just started his third term at the City Council, is being charged with money laundering, extortion and fraud, according to an indictment released today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.
Abu-Shahid
Today Imam Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, the Correction Department chaplain and ex-con caught carrying sharp objects (razor blades and a pair of scissors) into a downtown prison, is set to testify in front of a grand jury. Last week the Imam was [...]
Today is the day that Sen. Hiram Monserrate will face the music. Some sort of resolution to penalize Monserrate is expected to be introduced and voted on.
It isn’t clear whether Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson will introduce a measure to expel Monserrate or one that simply censures him. Sen. [...]
Today is the day that Sen. Hiram Monserrate will face the music. Some sort of resolution to penalize Monserrate is expected to be introduced and voted on.
It isn’t clear whether Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson will introduce a measure to expel Monserrate or one that simply censures him. Sen. [...]
We almost forgot: there's a special election in the 24th Assembly District in Queens today. Heavily favored is David Weprin, the former councilmember who ran for the Democratic nomination for com...
Continue reading "David Weprin vs. Bob Friedrich: Oh, Right, Special Election in Queens Today" > [...]
[UPDATE BELOW] Today rapper Lil Wayne is expected to go to Rikers Island, where he'll spend most of 2010 behind bars after pleading guilty to "attempted" gun possession charges. In a cover story interview with Rolling Stone, Wayne says he hasn't [...]
As an indication that this predicted snowstorm is no joke, Joel Klein has already announced that New York City public schools will be closed tomorrow.
Now the city has worry about clearing the snow, which, as Washington has shown, isn't always that easy.
From Klein:
Due to anticipated inclement weather conditions,' [...]
Photo of Brighton Beach Sunbathers by Tom Giebel
Last week, the Empire Center for New York State Policy released their annual report on NY legislative spending and posted it on their government transparency website, SeeThroughNY. I didn’t see much of any coverage of the release, so I wanted to get this out in front of [...]
To the slate of candidates bucking the national anti-finance mood and touting their Wall Street experience, add one more name.
"I worked 10 years in finance," alleged Spitzer-madam Kristin Davis told a Libertarian group last week, according to the Daily News. "I was vice president of a hedge fund." [...]
A parent just left this comment on today’s Rise and Shine post:
I think education reporters should disclose information about their schooling–public or private–as well as where their children go, if they have them. I think this is fair especially when a cover story blasts certain aspects of public schools. [...]
[...]
