Just one day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that House Republicans would take action to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is urging GOP leadership not to waste taxpayer resources to defend the unconstitutional law. Gillibrand, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Congress should [...]
The city’s largest municipal public employee union is asking the mayor to hold contract spending flat and cut waste instead of laying off workers. District Council 37 and elected officials discussed in Downtown Manhattan on Friday Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to lay off city workers while raising spending on outside contracts by $600 million. They [...]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget unveiled yesterday called for closing fire companies, shutting senior centers, and the layoffs of more than 4,600 teachers. Yet he says his budget is not an assault on unions. “Cutting back is not anti-union. Cutting back is pro…, I guess you could say, pro-taxpayer,” said Bloomberg on his weekly radio show [...]
Mayor Mike Bloomberg personally delivered a message for Albany pols yesterday: Don’t short New York City to balance your budget. Appearing before the State Assembly, the mayor said the $2.1 billion reduction in funding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing would cause “layoffs and services cuts that would be devastating to our city.” In his [...]
Just a few days after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was sworn in for a third and presumably final term, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, established a Stringer 2013 finance committee and hired three staff members. The committee will be led by Tom Kramer, a Democratic operative from Virginia who most recently worked for [...]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg stood with 34 Americans on Monday who lost loved ones in Tucson, Virginia Tech and other gun-related tragedies to demand the federal government fix its “broken” background check system. “Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns – and most of them are purchased or possessed illegally,” said Bloomberg, who also co-heads [...]
When members of the City Council want Speaker Christine C. Quinn to call a hearing on a piece of legislation, they have a few options. They can try to cut a deal; they can issue a few dozen press releases; they can nag. Or they can raise their voices in song. Councilman Oliver Koppell is [...]
Assemblyman Jose Peralta has won Tuesday’s special election for the 13th State Senate District. He will now represent parts of Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Corona. It was a heated race between Peralta and his main challenger, former State Senator Hiram Monserrate who ran as an Independent hoping to win back his old seat. Monserrate [...]
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio received a boost of political support Wednesday from former governor George Pataki. Pataki, a three-term governor, said Lazio is the right choice to clean up the dysfunctional government in Albany. “I believe the right person, the best person for the party, and more importantly for the state, is Rick Lazio,” [...]
Governor David Paterson has pardoned an immigrant slated for deportation for having spent time behind bars for crimes he committed as a teenager. Qing Hong Wu, 29, was officially pardoned on Saturday but he was released from detainment in a New Jersey correctional facility Tuesday night. Wu, pictured above center, came to the United States [...]
