Alligator Enthusiast Mulling Mayoral Campaign
Governor Cuomo Sends New York's Lawmakers Down the Rapids
Charlie Rangel on Black Republicans
Earlier this week, Congressman Charlie Rangel made headlines when he blasted the lack of diversity in President Obama’s Cabinet. In a roundtable with reporters yesterday evening where he weighed in on a variety of topics, Mr. Rangel also criticized the Republican Party for not being diverse enough. Mr. Rangel brought up the issue while he discussed his belief the country needs to be more open to immigrants and posited there are many conservative opponents to immigration reform because the G.O.P. and its constituents are not sufficiently diverse.
“All you have to do is take a picture of Republicans and a picture of Democrats and it’s as though you’re talking about two different countries,” Mr. Rangel said.
Politicker asked the congressman for his take on the African-American members of the Republican Party. Read More
Charlie Rangel Discusses the Debt Ceiling Debate and $1 Trillion Coin
Congressman Charlie Rangel sat down with a small group of reporters yesterday for a wide-ranging discussion at his office. One of the main topics was the brewing battle over the debt ceiling and Politicker asked the congressman for his take on the idea President Barack Obama can avoid a fight with congressional Republicans who won’t raise the debt cap by having the Treasury Department mint a $1 trillion coin.
“I’m working on the design, one for the president and one for me,” Mr. Rangel said with a smile.
We wondered whether that meant he wanted to see his portrait depicted on the coin.
“No, I want one of the coins,” the congressman responded as the assembled reporters laughed. “The president gets one, he puts it in the treasury. I get one, I keep it. Makes sense to me.”
Earlier in the conversation, Mr. Rangel criticized Republicans who have said they will not vote to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts because he said they are solely focused on slashing “so-called entitlements” that are social programs for “vulnerable” portions of the population. Read More
L.A. Beat New York to Congestion Pricing and Andrew Cuomo Could Care Less
How did L.A. wind up taking our transportation lunch money? New Yorkers were so busy bullying each other, we didn’t even notice when they took it and beat us to the mass transit punch.
The Architect’s Newspaper had an interesting story earlier this week pointing out how back in November, Los Angeles launched its own congestion pricing system to speed traffic on some of its jammed, anything-but-free freeways, and it has been enjoying impressive results. This was, of course, “made possible by political gridlock in the New York State Assembly over congestion pricing,” as the paper points out. All the while, the MTA has been hemorrhaging cash, leading to reduced service and all those fare hikes.
After Albany failed to pass the congestion pricing measure, a portion of the hundreds of millions in federal funds that had been set aside to start our program were given over to L.A. Read More
Satanists Rally For Rick Scott
A group of Florida-based Satanists will be holding a rally in support of the Sunshine State’s Republican Governor Rick Scott on January 25. According to a press release for the event, the Satanic Temple, which organized the rally, will be showing “solidarity” with the governor for his “unwavering fortitude and progressive resolve in his defense of religious liberty,” specifically his approval of a legislation that will allow students to vote on whether or not to include prayers in graduation ceremonies and other school assemblies.
“The Satanic Temple embraces the free expression of religion, and Satanists are happy to show their support of Rick Scott who–particularly with [Senate Bill] 98–has reaffirmed our American freedom to practice our faith openly, allowing our Satanic children the freedom to pray in school,” the group said in a statement announcing the rally. Read More
Russians and Orthodox Jews Clash at Brooklyn Redistricting Hearing
It was the multicultural American Dream, the only hope of ambitious Russian immigrants and the possible death knell of Orthodox Jewish communities, all at once, at least according to some of those testifying at the redistricting hearing last night in Brooklyn.
It was not the controversial draft map that placed potential Council candidate Vito Lopez in a neighboring district–the aspect of this year’s redrawing of the City Council lines to reflect the new Census numbers that has attracted the most media coverage–that sparked the controversy last night. Rather, two versions of Councilman Michael Nelson’s 48th District offered alternating realities for competing demographic groups, dominating the public hearing in front of most members of the Districting Commission.
Bloomberg Slaps Down Criticism of Painkiller Restriction Plan
Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city officials unveiled a new initiative to limit supplies of prescription painkillers in the city’s emergency rooms as a way to combat what they described as a growing addiction problem in the region. Some critics, as documented by The New York Times, however, felt the move would unnecessarily hurt poor and uninsured patients who use emergency rooms as their primary care doctor. Needless to say, Mr. Bloomberg was not swayed by this line of argument.
“The city hospitals we control, so … we’re going to do it and we’re urging all of the other hospitals to do it, voluntary guidelines. Somebody said, oh, somebody wrote, ‘Oh then maybe there won’t be enough painkillers for the poor who use the emergency rooms as their primary care doctor,’” the mayor said on his weekly radio show with John Gambling. “Number one, there’s no evidence of that. Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect … There’s nothing that you can possibly do where somebody isn’t going to suffer, and it’s always the same group [claiming], ‘Everybody is heartless.’ Come on, this is a very big problem.” Read More
Morning Read: ‘Decide Whether He Wants to Be Dov Hikind’
Headline of the Day: “A Different Kind Of Gun Show? Gov. Cuomo Gets His Flu Shot — And A Lollipop.”
The New York Post‘s editorial board, which has often avoided taking the ax to Governor Andrew Cuomo like it does for other Democratic pols, certainly didn’t hold back in today’s paper. Using words like “near-hysterical” to describe his State of the State speech, the Post attacked Mr. Cuomo’s agenda from every angle. They even dismissed the Adirondack Challenge! Read More
New York Post Pulls Fake Weiner Story
The New York Post pulled a story offline after New York Mag called them out on the erroneous report that one-time congressman Anthony Weiner got a new job.
“Disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner has landed a job after being unemployed for 18 months, his first gig since resigning amid a Twitter sexting scandal,” the Post story said, claiming that Mr. Weiner got a part-time gig consulting for Madison Avenue brokerage firm Concept Capital Markets. Read More
Republican George McDonald Kicks Off Mayoral Bid for the ‘47 Percent’
Earlier today at Grand Central Terminal, George McDonald, the Republican CEO and Founder of the DOE Fund, kicked off his campaign for Mayor of New York City. The DOE Fund’s mission, which is to provide employment to the homeless and formerly incarcerated, was on full display at the event, where he was introduced and surrounded by graduates of his nonprofit’s program.
“Time is not what it seems in Grand Central Terminal. It’s said that trains leave promptly on schedule, one minute after the posted time on the big board, a kind of grace period for busy commuters. And in what seems like a minute, our city has been transformed,” Mr. McDonald expounded. “25 years ago New York was a different city, it was dirty, dingy, unsafe, and many believed unmanageable. It was widely thought that our best days were behind us. During those days, I came to Grand Central every night, 700 nights in a row to feed the homeless.” Read More
