New York City's Child Care Centers Misspending State Funds

Some New York City child care centers have been stealing from the state tills:

The money for the programs came from the federal Child Care and Development Fund, which provides New York State with more than $300 million a year to arrange child care for low-income families.

One part of the study examined a sample of 34 contracts whose contractors were supposed to create 1,545 slots for child care, but as of May 2007 they had created only 821. Another part of the audit focused on 55 contracts that cost the state $2.9 million and found that misspending in 39 totaled nearly $1.6 million.

Leona Helmsley's Estate Goes To The Dogs

Leona Helmsley may have been the queen of mean but she apparently loved dogs:

In a two-page “mission statement,” Leona Helmsley left her entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion and amounting to virtually all her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs.

It is by no means clear, however, that all the money will go to dogs. Another provision of the mission statement says Mrs. Helmsley’s trustees may use their discretion in distributing the money, and some lawyers say the statement may not mean much anyway, given that its directions were not incorporated into Mrs. Helmsley’s will or the trust documents.

New York's Governor Embraces Gay Rights

From NYT:

Few governors have made advancing gay rights as central to their policy making as Mr. Paterson. Even liberal Democrats who have long advocated equal rights for gay men and lesbians, like Mr. Paterson’s predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, have not embraced the gay community so publicly.

The most significant move Mr. Paterson has made toward broadening gay rights in New York was an order he issued in May that directed state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed outside of New York.

Contracts and the Mafia

The Mafia have their hands in everything even in school bus contracts:

The former president of a union representing 15,000 New York City school bus drivers was sentenced on Thursday to four years and nine months in federal prison after pleading guilty to extortion and receiving bribes in a Mafia-controlled racketeering conspiracy.

The former president, Salvatore Battaglia, admitted his role in the conspiracy in January, four days before his trial was to begin. Mr. Battaglia, 61, of Staten Island, acknowledged taking payoffs from mobsters under the employ of Matthew Ianniello, the former acting boss of the Genovese crime family, in exchange for agreeing not to unionize certain bus companies with contracts with the city.

Mr. Battaglia was the president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 2002 to 2006, when he lost the job because of his indictment in the case. In that indictment, he was accused of being a member of the Genovese family.

Testing For H.I.V.

Routine testing for H.I.V. could help save lives. The Bronx will soon be able to say that they are willing to control this epidemic:

The New York City health department plans to announce on Thursday an ambitious three-year effort to give an H.I.V. test to every adult living in the Bronx, which has a far higher death rate from AIDS than any other borough.

The campaign will begin with a push to make the voluntary testing routine in emergency rooms and storefront clinics, where city officials say that cumbersome consent procedures required by state law have deterred doctors from offering the tests.

Columbia Professor Fired Over Plagiarism Charge

She cried racism but ultimately it was her dishonesty that led to her downfall:

Madonna G. Constantine, the Columbia University professor who gained widespread attention last fall after a noose was found hanging on her office door, was fired on Monday after months of wrangling over charges that she plagiarized the work of two former students and a former colleague.

Standing Strong To One's Conviction

Winning a criminal case at the expense of the truth has long been most prosecutor's motto, but not for prosecutor Daniel L. Bibb:

The 1990 shooting of a bouncer outside the Palladium nightclub — had been called into question by a stream of new evidence. So the office decided on a re-examination, led by a 21-year veteran assistant, Daniel L. Bibb.

Mr. Bibb spent nearly two years reinvestigating the killing and reported back: He believed that the two imprisoned men were not guilty, and that their convictions should be dropped. Yet top officials told him, he said, to go into a court hearing and defend the case anyway. He did, and in 2005 he lost.

But in a recent interview, Mr. Bibb made a startling admission: He threw the case. Unwilling to do what his bosses ordered, he said, he deliberately helped the other side win.

He tracked down hard-to-find or reluctant witnesses who pointed to other suspects and prepared them to testify for the defense. He talked strategy with defense lawyers. And when they veered from his coaching, he cornered them in the hallway and corrected them.

Bravo Mr. Bibb for doing the right thing.

And The Walls May Come Tumbling Down

Your safety may be at risk:

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating whether the leading concrete testing company in the New York area, which has been hired to measure and analyze the strength of the concrete poured at some of the biggest construction projects in the city, failed to do some tests and falsified others.

The investigation has uncovered problems with tests the company conducted on concrete poured over the last 18 months at the new Yankee Stadium site in the Bronx and the foundation of the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, along with as many as a dozen other large projects.

Man Made Fatal Wall Collapse

Putting money before safety was on the mind of this loser:

Abraham Hertzberg, a licensed engineer has been charged with filing fraudulent plans with the Department of Buildings in connection with a Brooklyn construction site where a day laborer died in March when earth and debris collapsed on him.

The charges come one week after the owner of the site was indicted on manslaughter charges, and at a time when the authorities are placing intense scrutiny on construction safety following a string of deadly accidents at building sites.

Is This Possible?

Car-free streets:

New York City will close off to traffic a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street on three consecutive Saturdays, giving New Yorkers to a chance to explore and enjoy “car-free recreation corridors” — well, for six hours a stretch, at least.

The route will run from Lower Manhattan to East 72nd Street via Centre Street, Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue. Major crosstown routes — including Chambers, Canal, East Houston, 14th, 23rd and 59th Streets — will remain open to traffic. Buses that ride along the 6.9-mile route will be rerouted during the street closings — which have been scheduled for Aug. 9, 16, and 23, from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m.

New York Tries To Save Benefits For Workers

State officials say they may have to create a $200 million emergency fund to finance workers’ compensation benefits for thousands of injured New Yorkers because 12 trusts that provided insurance to their employers have failed financially.

The self-insured trusts provide workers’ compensation insurance to groups of small- to medium-size employers in the same industry, and the failure of so many of them in recent months has sparked fears of a cutoff in benefits to thousands of injured workers. It has also generated criticism that the State Workers’ Compensation Board was lax in regulating the trusts. There are 50 group trusts remaining in the state that provide insurance to more than 20,000 businesses with a total of about 500,000 employees.

Study Says Police Need More Weapons Training

Don't shoot until you read this:

Police recruits as well as veterans require more dynamic and frequent firearms training, according to a study of the New York Police Department’s shooting habits released on Monday.

The study, by the Rand Corporation, was commissioned in January 2007, about seven weeks after an unarmed Queens man, Sean Bell, died in a hail of 50 police bullets. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at the time that questions about the department’s effectiveness and training required an independent look at its tactics.

Rand researchers tried to tackle the phenomenon known as “reflexive shooting” or contagious shooting in which one officers’ gunshots spur a fusillade of bullets by others.

Reform Groups Angry At Patterson

There are always those who are quick to criticize:

The government reform groups were already angry enough with Gov. David A. Paterson. At a news conference on Wednesday, they accused him of abandoning the reform platform on which he had campaigned alongside Eliot Spitzer, in 2006.

They said he had walked away from new campaign contribution limits, lobbying reforms, redistricting measures and steps to make the notoriously reform-resistant state government more open.

But not long before the event ended, a reporter held up his BlackBerry to reveal that Mr. Paterson had issued a fresh announcement about what he called a historic overhaul of state campaign finance laws.

The Political Future Of Mayor Bloomberg

Voters may feel that enough is enough. One should not make a career out of an elected position. Mayor Bloomberg, however, is weighing his options:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his senior advisers have been exploring strategies that would allow him to remain in political life, including undertaking a campaign to overturn the city’s term limits law or making a bid for governor.

Mr. Bloomberg, as part of that effort, commissioned a poll recently to determine whether city voters would be open to lifting the term limits law, which forces him and other elected city officials from office after two four-year terms. The poll found that even as voters approved of his performance as mayor, they would strongly oppose any attempt to undo the limits. Voters were receptive to the idea of a Bloomberg candidacy for governor, however.

Plea Expected In Prostitution Case Tied To Spitzer

What will Eliot Spitzer plead to? Oh I forgot---he didn't do anything wrong. Uuh?

A graduate of an elite New Jersey prep school is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday to charges related to running the day-to-day operations of a prostitution ring that authorities say was patronized by, among others, Eliot Spitzer, a person briefed on the case said on Monday.

The woman, Cecil Suwal, 23, is expected to plead to a money-laundering conspiracy charge and to conspiring to violate federal prostitution statutes, said her lawyer, Alberto A. Ebanks.

Ms. Suwal, described by prosecutors as the operations manager for the ring, would become the second person to plead guilty in the case, which is being prosecuted in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

Some Headlines just Grab Your Attention

Oh now I get it...

CLOTHING DESIGNERS HONOR...BLOOMBERG?

On Monday night, when the Council of Fashion Designers of America gives Mr. Bloomberg its annual award, it will not be for his groundbreaking clothing selections.

“When I close my eyes and think of him, I just see this mid-gray suit,” said the designer Stan Herman, a member of the council. Others wince at Mr. Bloomberg’s version of casual wear, like matching salmon-colored socks and sweaters, which can be exasperatingly formal.

The council of designers will honor the mayor for his advocacy on their behalf, displayed most vividly two years ago when he intervened to keep the city’s annual fashion shows from being booted out of Bryant Park.

Crane Collapse In Manhattan Kills Crane Operator

Please look upward while going about your daily life in New York. The life you save may be your own.

A crane toppled and collapsed onto a high-rise apartment building on East 91st Street on the Upper East Side on Friday morning, tearing off balconies and raining broken brick and shattered glass onto the street below, in the second Manhattan crane collapse in two months. At least one person, the operator of the crane, who was sitting in the cab as the structure fell, was killed, officials said.

The crane, which was apparently being used for a construction project at 354 East 91st Street, snapped apart moments after 8 a.m., sending the top piece onto the white-brick residential building at the southwest corner of 91st Street and First Avenue.

ConEd Sues New York City

Can we sue ConEd?

Consolidated Edison has sued New York City and a contractor, contending they contributed contributing to the explosion of one of the utility’s steam pipes in Midtown Manhattan last summer that killed one person, injured dozens of others and displaced thousands more.

Con Edison alleged that a sealant used by Team Industrial Services, a contractor hired by the utility to prevent leaks, clogged steam traps designed to remove condensation from steam pipes. With the traps not working, water built up and helped trigger the explosion, according to the complaint, which was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Was That Stock Tip Legit?

Do you trust your friends to provide you with sound investment advice? Well, some people did and now they are paying a hefty financial price:

A former stock trader was charged on Thursday with duping friends out of $16 million over six years by luring them into various investments, most of which never existed.

Instead of investing the money his friends handed him, the ex-trader, David Holzer, 58, spent it on luxuries, including a $300,000 Aston Martin, a gold Cartier watch with diamonds and bracelets from Hermès. He spent the money so quickly, prosecutors said, that he now has only $375 in one bank account and just over $1,000 in a brokerage account.

Choose your friends wisely.

Double-decker Buses Could Make Comeback

Who says what's old can't be made new again:

Double-decker buses — a fixture of the streetscape in London and other international cities — could be making a comeback in New York City. Officials at New York City Transit said today that the agency was considering bringing back double-decker buses, similar to ones that used to run in the city decades ago.

Maybe the bus prices could also decrease.

Officers In Sean Bell Case Face Departmental Charges

Keep in mind that although the officers face departmental charges, those charges have been suspended pending a federal investigation into civil rights violations:

The three detectives who stood trial in the case — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were charged with “discharging their firearms outside of department guidelines. Detective Isnora was also charged with taking enforcement action while working as an undercover officer instead of letting officers who were present, and not working undercover, take control.

Lt. Gary Napoli, the ranking officer at the scene, faces internal charges of failing to supervise the operation. Sergeant Hugh McNeil and Detective Robert Knapp, of the Crime Scene Unit, were also charged: the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene and the sergeant with failing to ensure a thorough processing was done.

If nothing results from the federal investigation, then the departmental charges will probably go down the drain as well.

Officers In Sean Bell Case May Be Fired

Could the officers, in the Sean Bell case, who were found not guilty by a juror face the possibility of losing their jobs. Well, that depends on what further action the police department takes:

On Tuesday, additional charges were filed accusing the three detectives and one other shooter who wasn't charged in the criminal case with firing outside of police guidelines. Isnora, who followed the men and fired first, also was charged with ''taking enforcement action while acting in an undercover capacity while other non-undercover officers were available.

In addition, the department accused a lieutenant of failing to properly plan the undercover operation, and two more detectives of failing to properly process the crime scene.

The officers are to be tried by an administrative judge, with private attorneys defending the officers. The trial commissioner makes recommendations to police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has final say. It is unclear when proceedings would begin.

Do you think the officers should be fired?

New York City's Subways Out Of the Loop

If you depend on New York City's Subways, you may want to know about the following problems:

One of every six elevators and escalators in the subway system was out of service for more than a month last year.

The 169 escalators in the subway averaged 68 breakdowns or repair calls each last year, with the worst machines logging more than double that number. And some of the least reliable escalators in the system are also some of the newest, accumulating thousands of hours out of service for what officials described as a litany of mechanical flaws.

Two-thirds of the subway elevators — many of which travel all of 15 feet — had at least one breakdown last year in which passengers were trapped inside.

Noose Display To Result In Felony

It's been a long time coming but thank God it is here:

Gov. David A. Paterson says he has signed legislation that will make it a felony to display a noose as a threat. The crime will be punishable by up to four years in prison.

The noose, a symbol of lynchings in the Jim Crow South, has made news in other cases around the country, including in Jena, La., where six black teenagers were charged with beating a white student. The beating happened after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus there.

This will help teach those, who engage in this type of behavior, how despicable and vile their acts are.

Removing Children From Abusive Homes

We have to learn from our mistakes:

New York City has enacted a tough new policy that allows the authorities to remove newborns from their parents’ homes in all but an “extraordinary instance” if the parents previously had children taken from their custody and their case is still open.

John B. Mattingly, the city’s commissioner of children’s services, announced the more aggressive approach during a City Council budget hearing on Tuesday at which he faced questions on his agency’s role in the death of Pablo Paez, an 11-week-old boy whose older sibling had been removed from the same home at age 3 months, a year earlier.

The children’s mother, Kiana Paez, a 23-year-old drug addict, was charged on April 25 with beating Pablo to death. Child welfare workers had been in frequent contact with Ms. Paez since the first baby was placed in foster care because of violence in the home, but they did not try to remove Pablo.

Mr. Mattingly said that the new policy was influenced by the Paez case, but that he had been considering the changes — a natural outgrowth of other changes he had made at the agency — for a long time. The policy, which had been toughened in 2006, was officially revised again on April 21, 18 days after the baby’s injuries were discovered.

School Bus Safety Officials Indicted

Some people believe everything is for sale these days including the safety of our children:

Four City Department of Education employees were charged in a federal indictment on Tuesday with soliciting bribes in exchange for promising preferential treatment, including on safety inspections, to bus companies that serve thousands of special education students.

The indictment said the bus companies, which were not named, had paid bribes from the mid-1990s to 2007 for a variety of reasons, among them to get reduced fines for safety violations and advance notice of inspections that were supposed to be unannounced. The Education Department said bus safety was not compromised by the bribes.

We cannot be certain that bus safety was not compromised by the bribes. Violations were being overlooked.

Spitzer Prostitute Folly To Plea

Get this! One of the people associated with the prostitution ring that brought down Eliot Spitzer is expected to plead guilty. Prosecutors, however, are undecided as to whether Spitzer himself should be charged:

Several former prosecutors and defense lawyers said the movement toward resolving the charges against Ms. Lewis and her codefendants suggested that prosecutors were nearing a decision on whether to prosecute Mr. Spitzer. The pleas do not indicate clearly what decision the government might reach, they said.

Why is that decision so hard?

I Love New York

How does one express their feelings for New York? Why, with a symbol of course:

Last week, the state tourism board, Empire State Development, announced a retooled marketing campaign centered on the famed slogan and design, this time with an emphasis on gas-sipping day trips and short vacations for residents of the region.

But inherent in the campaign is a drive to reclaim the symbol itself, which, like the Playboy logo, has become devalued, as marketers term it, through overuse. This year, state officials plan to introduce new tools — like a difficult-to-reproduce hologram — that will assure consumers that a product is officially licensed by New York State.

For those who sell unofficial “I ♥ NY” products, officials plan to warn and then penalize offenders.

Scammers will face consequences. Don't buy junk merchandise.

Repubs Wants Fossella Resignation

The Republican Party sees Vito Fossella as a liability due to his scandalous behavior and they would like for the pathetic representative to resign:

Representative Vito J. Fossella, the Staten Island Republican who was arrested on drunken-driving charges in Virginia last week, acknowledged on Thursday that he had fathered a daughter, now 3, in an extramarital affair.

The five-term congressman identified the woman with whom he had the affair as Laura Fay. She is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel whom he apparently called after he was taken into custody early May 1, saying he was on the way to pick up his sick child. The police said his blood-alcohol level at the time was more than double the legal limit, and he faces a mandatory five days in jail if he is convicted.

The repubs will probably get their way.

Uma Thurman Testifies Against Stalker

We have to protect society from the deranged.

Uma Thurman told jurors how Jack Jordan, who is on trial on charges of stalking her on and off over a period of two and a half years, came to the door of her trailer on Prince Street in SoHo late on the night of Nov. 8, 2005, where she was making the movie “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.” He identified himself to one of Ms. Thurman’s assistants as a friend of Ms. Thurman’s parents, she said.

What a harrowing experience for Ms Thurman.

Gee, No Gun Control

Do gun makers sell weapons directly to criminals?

A federal appeals court threw out New York City’s longstanding lawsuit against the gun industry on Wednesday, ruling that a relatively new federal law protects gun makers against such suits.

The appellate ruling killed perhaps the boldest avenue by which the city has sought to stem the flow of illegal guns into New York: a claim that gun makers and distributors have knowingly flooded illicit, underground markets with their weapons.

Criminals have a way of getting guns from law abiding citizens. It is called stealing them---that is what criminals do.

Book About Spitzer In The Making

What could be more juicier than the story of a former governor who previously busted up and prosecuted prostitution rings to be later caught up with a prostitute? Penquin group now wants to bring the story to a bookstore near you.

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, co-authored by the makers of a book and film about the fall of Enron, is being published by Penguin Group (USA), Penguin imprint Portfolio announced Wednesday.

Peter Elkind, who helped write the best-seller about Enron, ''The Smartest Guys in the Room,'' is collaborating on the Spitzer book with filmmaker Alex Gibney, who is making a documentary about the law-and-order Democrat who resigned last month over allegations about his connection to a $5,500-an-hour call girl ring. The book's title and publication date weren't immediately available.

Actor Robin Williams should play Spitzer in the movie version.

It's Not Over For Officers In The "Sean Bell " Case

Yes, they have been acquitted, but more may be in store for these officers:

Although detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were acquitted of criminal charges in Queens on Friday, they and their three colleagues are still facing the specter of a federal civil rights investigation, and the possibility of being brought up on departmental charges. Therefore, all six officers remain in limbo, working without their guns and badges.

Could it be possible that they may be fired---or better yet, serve time in federal prison? It's not over till it's over.

Muslim Educator's Dream Falls Short

Critics can have you so dismayed that you give up on your dream. Debbie Almontaser learned this the hard way when critics stepped in to criticize her school:

The school’s creation provoked a controversy so incendiary that Ms. Almontaser stepped down as the founding principal just weeks before classes began last September. Ms. Almontaser, a teacher by training and an activist who had carefully built ties with Christians and Jews, said she was forced to resign by the mayor’s office following a campaign that pitted her against a chorus of critics who claimed she had a militant Islamic agenda.

Did they have proof as to the nature of her agenda?

Officers Accused In Sean Bell Case Found Innocent

This news should not surprise many. According to the judge, the witnesses for Sean Bell were not believable. What is ironic is that the judge must want us to believe that the officers were totally believable.

When Will They Leave Martin Tankleff Alone?

First they convict him for a crime he did not commit, then he spends 17 years in prison before being released; now they put Marty's life on hold by their flim flop actions:

Though the court overturned his convictions, it left standing the original indictments in the 1988 murders. At first the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas J. Spota, indicated that Mr. Tankleff would be retried; he later announced that the charges would be dropped.

Then the New York State attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, was appointed as a special prosecutor to reinvestigate the case, a move that kept the indictments open. He is expected to announce on June 16 whether Mr. Tankleff should be prosecuted again.

Enough is enough; let Martin Tankleff get on with his life.

Check Cashing Corpse Case Dismissed

Remember the case of the two elderly men who brought their dead friend to a check cashing place to case his social security check? As it turns out, the gentlemen may not have been dead after all:

Since prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cintron had died before leaving the apartment en route to Pay-O-Matic, Judge Evelyn Laporte dismissed the forgery and larceny charges against Mr. O’Hare and Mr. Daloia.

Sometimes we are quick to think the worse of people. This was probably just a case of friends trying to help each other out.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Can you imagine facing unwanted scrutiny based on your tax deductions? Well, that is exactly what is happening to Gov. David Patterson. When the New York Times first mentioned the governor's charitable donation amount, my first thought was that maybe he did not want to disclose all of his charitable donations.

I thought that was something everyone should be proud of because he was not trying to deduct every little penny in order to decrease his tax liability. The governor has since offered his own explanation:

Gov. David A. Paterson described himself on Monday as a generous person, but said he did not want to reveal more about his charitable giving because he was worried that it would bring intrusive news media attention to those he helps.

His explanation is still not enough for the New York Times who obviously is trying to grab a news story. Shame on you the New York Times..

Official With Ties To Spitzer Faces Scrutiny

You may land in hot water when speaking to a reporter...or is it just the Spitzer connection? Maybe I am just tired, but so freakin what.

Daniel Wiese, a former State Police official, was put on paid leave after a report by the Albany County district attorney said that he had spoken to a reporter for The New York Times in July at Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s behest. During a telephone conversation with the reporter, Mr. Wiese backed the administration’s claim that the State Police had long held concerns about whether Joseph L. Bruno — the Senate majority leader and Mr. Spitzer’s chief adversary in Albany — had been inappropriately using state aircraft.

CNN Anchor Charged With Drug Possession

Listen to this: A CNN anchor gets busted in the park for loitering. It is later discover that he is in possession of meth. Now read what the judge tells him:

At Friday’s arraignment, Judge Anthony J. Ferrara told Mr. Quest that the case would be dismissed and sealed if he reported back in October and demonstrated sufficient progress in his therapy. The judge also agreed that there would be no restrictions placed on Mr. Quest’s ability to travel.

Dah...the case would be sealed. What's the point? Everyone knows the story by now.

Quinn Apologizes To Council Members

Is Quinn's apology a little too late?

In a series of private meetings with rank-and-file members of the City Council on Monday, Speaker Christine C. Quinn kept apologizing. She told them she had blundered badly in her response to revelations about the Council’s appropriation of money to fictitious organizations.

Some want her to resign. This appropriation is serious stuff. It will be very difficult for trust to be rebuilt.

J.K. Rowling Extends "Olive Branch" To Potter Lexicon

When I wrote the title to this blog post, I said to myself-what a bunch of fugery-it's not real:

Ms. Rowling told the judge in Federal District Court in Manhattan that she had been misunderstood.

“I never ever once wanted to stop Mr. Vander Ark from doing his own guide — never ever,” she said as she took the stand for the second time in the three-day trial, as the last rebuttal witness. “Do your book, but please, change it so it does not take as much of my work.”

Her words were not that sincere since her attorney proceeded as usual. Apparently she just felt compelled to utter them since her opponent had been crying. Be honest, J.K., you really don't want him to publish the Lexicon.

New York Governor's Tax Return Faces Scrutiny

There is a lot of hoopla and speculation going around about David Patterson and his wife's 2007 tax return. It seems that some people are appalled at their charitable donation of $150.

Could it be that the governor is more generous than they expect by not claiming every dime from his charitable donations? Some people will find anything to gripe about. They feel that it is more conducive to their psyche by trying to seek out what they perceive is the worst in people instead of focusing on positive things. The governor does not owe them any explanation.

Profiting On The "Harry Potter" Craze

J.K. Rowling goes to court:

Ms. Rowling and Warner Brothers Entertainment, which produces the Harry Potter films, are suing RDR Books, a small Michigan publisher, to stop the publication of Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon,” an encyclopedia based on Mr. Vander Ark’s popular Web site of the same name.

Ms. Rowling argued on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan that the proposed encyclopedia — she has read the manuscript — is a copyright infringement and is little more than an alphabetical form of plagiarism.

What she denounced as plagiarism and a waste of money, the publisher defended as literary scholarship and an invaluable tool for Harry Potter readers, similar to a Shakespeare concordance, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the dictionary and other reference books.

While I never understood the hype behind the "Harry Potter" books, I do agree with Rowling's assessment of this situation.

What Is Eliot Spitzer Up To?

According to the New York Times, the former governor has a lot of things on his plate these days. Some of those things include meeting with his legal advisers, dealing with his father's illness and attending couples therapy.

The one that strikes me the most is the couples therapy. How does one go about rebuilding a relationship after such a betrayal? I know his constituents are possibly concerned about any legal ramifications behind Spitzers actions but I am concerned about what this has done to his family.

Pope To Visit New York City

Everything publicly mapped out for the Pope:

He will address officials at the United Nations at 11 a.m. and, in a separate talk, members of the United Nations staff. In the afternoon he will visit Park East Synagogue, on East 67th Street, and later, the Church of St. Joseph, on East 87th Street.

Pope Benedict will be staying at the East 72nd Street residence of Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations. The archbishop’s home, off Fifth Avenue, could take on the atmosphere of an armed fortress, officials said. The street will be closed, and those who live on the block “will be escorted by police officers to their residences,” said Mr. Kelly. “They should have their ID.”

Let's hope no crazys' are listening.

Is Your Child Gifted?

The new rules may say so..

Under a change which is expected to be approved at a meeting on Thursday by the Panel for Educational Policy, students scoring in the top 10th percentile on admissions tests, as measured nationwide, would be guaranteed a slot in kindergarten or first-grade gifted and talented programs in New York. Under new rules announced last fall, however, only those scoring in the top 5th percentile would have been admitted.

So fellow New Yorkers, make sure your little kiddies are prepared for the test.

Assemblywoman Found Guiltty Of Bribery

This is just another case of a greedy politician using her office for personal gain:

State Assemblywoman Diane M. Gordon of Brooklyn was convicted on Tuesday of receiving a bribe for offering to help a developer acquire a parcel of city-owned land in her district if he would build her a free house in a gated community in Queens.

Honesty in government seems to be a goal few politicians are willing to achieve.

I Smell Smoke

Will you complain about her perfume next?

The plaintiffs — Jonathan Selbin and his wife, Jenny, both lawyers — had sued their fourth-floor neighbor, Galila Huff, claiming that smoke seeping from her condo into the common hallway was jeopardizing the health of the Selbins’ young son.

I know Ms. Huff is glad this suit has ended.

Project Runway

People came from all over the country to line up outside hotel W, in Times Square, for their big chance on being the next contestant on "Project Runway". I am really not a fan of the show myself, but I am always curious about those people who spend so much time trying to appear on reality TV.

I guess it is a lot cheaper to host reality TV shows than to pay actors to perform in sitcoms and dramas. As a result, reality TV is here to stay.

Are New Yorkers Getting Fatter?

Studies about people's weight always seems to amaze me.

A new health department analysis says that New Yorkers are getting fatter and that obesity and diabetes are growing faster in the city than in the rest of the country. But generally, Manhattanites have fared better than residents of other boroughs.

About one in four New Yorkers is overweight. And from 2002 to 2004, according to the analysis, New Yorkers collectively gained 10 million pounds.

Where do they really get this info from? I guess anthing goes to start a debate.

What Tripped Up Christine Quinn?

Is Christine Quinn telling the truth?

For years, the Council budgeted millions of dollars for dozens of fictitious community organizations and used the money later for grants to favored neighborhood groups.

Ms. Quinn, despite her reputation as a focused manager with an understanding of the levers of city government, has said she knew nothing of the unorthodox budgeting practice. She and her staff have gone to great lengths to show that she had tried to put an end to it but was stymied by staffers she forced out.

Do you believe her explanation?

Defense Witness Testifies In 'Sean Bell' Case

Officer Michael Carey, was the first defense witness who testified on Thursday at the trial of three detectives charged in Sean Bell’s death, saying he heard the shouted identification and watched as Mr. Bell drove the car into the detective’s leg.

The Altima surged away from the curb, “the fastest it could from a parked position,” and struck Detective Isnora’s leg, causing a minor scrape, before hitting the unmarked police van in which Officer Carey was a passenger, he said. The Altima then reversed, angling onto the sidewalk near the detective before striking a security gate hard enough to shatter the vehicle’s rear windshield, Officer Carey testified.

“I still heard Detective Isnora yelling, and there were other voices at this point also yelling police commands,” Officer Carey, 27, said, adding that at that moment, he thought the situation had ended.

“I believed at this point that there was no possible way that the people in the car would make any further actions,” he said.

Surgeon Testifies In Sean Bell Case

Mr. Joseph Guzman, the passenger who was shot 19 times while riding in the car with Sean Bell, became the center of attention on Wednesday as the surgeon who kept him alive on Nov. 25, 2006, testified.

Dr. Cooper was the prosecution’s last and, coincidentally, 50th witness in the so-called 50-shot case. He was called to establish the nature of the injuries, which are the basis for the assault charges. Prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday, and the defense is expected to call its first witness, Officer Michael Carey, who fired three shots and was not charged, on Thursday.

Friend Testifies In "Sean Bell" Case

Yesterday we were able to hear the chilling testimony of Joseph Guzman, friend of Sean Bell, who was allegedly slained by New York police officers.

Mr. Joseph Guzman’s account of the shooting on Nov. 25, 2006, in Jamaica, Queens, was by far the most detailed version given by one of the men wounded in the barrage of 50 police bullets that claimed Mr. Bell’s life.

It followed testimony on Monday by Trent Benefield, the other passenger in the car, and it was everything Mr. Benefield’s mumbled telling was not: detailed and enraged, combative, questioning and at times almost theatrical. He denied saying, “Go get my gun,” which Detective Isnora said he overhead moments before the shooting, and which set the fatal events in motion.

Both Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield were prosecution witnesses in the sixth week of the trial of Detectives Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper, who have been charged in the killing of Mr. Bell. A doctor who treated Mr. Guzman’s grave injuries, the Queens district attorney’s final witness, is expected to testify on Wednesday.

Grand Jury Is Investigating "Noose Appearance" At Columbia University

It has been awhile since we heard anything about the noose incident at Columbia University. Now the story has made headlines again:

A state grand jury in Manhattan is investigating the appearance of a noose in October on the office door of a black education professor at Columbia University, officials said on Monday.

The spokeswoman, Marcia Horowitz, confirmed that the university had received a subpoena for records pertaining to the Teachers College professor, Madonna G. Constantine, whose specialty is race and multiculturalism. Ms. Horowitz said the university was turning over records, but she would not be specific.

Let's see how this plays out in court. somehow I feel it will lead nowhere.

Priest Accused Of Gambling With Church Funds

Gambling can take its' toll on anyone and priests are no exception.

A long-serving pastor of a Roman Catholic parish suspected of using church money to feed a gambling habit has been permanently removed from his parish.

The pastor, the Rev. Patrick Dunne, of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains, took a “very significant amount of church money” because of a “very powerful” gambling addiction, Msgr. William Belford told parishioners.

Although he took a vow of poverty, he could not resist the temptation of going for the gusto.

Texas Democratic Caucuses

There are 67 at-large delegates at stake here in Texas, depending mostly on the results of the state senatorial district and county conventions. Obama was the caucus winner on primary night, and an Associated Press delegate count showed he might be holding his ground.

Obama's campaign late Saturday said he would win, claiming he would receive 38 delegates to Clinton's 29. Clinton's campaign says Obama should wait for the official results before declaring victory.

If the Obama campaign prediction is accurate, that would give Obama a total five-delegate advantage over Clinton in the Texas primary/caucus contest.

Obama won all of the Houston-area conventions, except Senate District 6, a heavily Hispanic community that went for Clinton in the popular vote. That district's results were the subject of an ongoing dispute late Saturday.

People Love To Try And Dig Up Dirt

The following excerpt, from the New York Times, leads me to believe that newspapers have a thirst for trying to dig up dirt on politicians even when there is nothing scandalous to report:

When Gov. David A. Paterson was the State Senate minority leader, he got in touch with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a fellow Democrat, with what seemed like a routine request: Would he meet with a representative of a small Harlem hospital that was in need of financial assistance?

As it turned out, the hospital’s representative was Mr. Paterson’s wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, who was responsible for lobbying the State Legislature for aid. Mr. Silver agreed to meet, but warned that it would be improper for the senator to be present. As a result, Mr. Paterson did not attend the session, held on April 7, 2003; he would later say that arranging the meeting was a mistake.

But that meeting was not the only thing Mr. Paterson did for his wife’s employer. He also directed state grants of at least $150,000 — with a pledge for as much as $500,000 more — to the hospital over the next two years, a period that overlapped substantially with his wife’s employment there from 2002 to 2005.

The article went on to say that he did not want to do anything unethical. So what is the problem? If Gov. Patterson did not come forward to say that he tried cocaine in his early twenties, there would have been a reporter trying to snoop into that period of his life. We are all human and as such we all make mistakes.

Whoremonger, Eliot Spitzer May Have Told More Lies

The 'House of Eliot' keeps fallen down. How many bricks will be left standing when we discover who is the real Eliot Spitzer ?

According to a recent news report, Gov. Eliot Spitzer lied to the public last year about his role in an effort to discredit a political rival and may have misled the district attorney’s office itself in an interview last year.


In sworn testimony, Darren Dopp, Mr. Spitzer’s former communications director, portrays Mr. Spitzer as keeping closely abreast of aides’ efforts to compile evidence that the State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican, misused state cars and helicopters, according to the report. Mr. Dopp goes as far as to describe the governor as enthusiastically issuing the final order to release Mr. Bruno’s travel records to the press.

Mr. Spitzer, by contrast, told the public — and the district attorney’s office — that he was barely involved in the release of the records and had been misled by his own staff about the collection and release of the documents about Mr. Bruno.

It is time for Eliot to release his own travel records so we can see his whoremonging activities. If he would have been like Stan "Pampy" Barre, III, he would have just performed oral sex on the prostitute and be done with it.

Hip Hop Artist Found Quilty Of Assault

Ms. Remy Smith, aka Remy Ma was accused of shooting Ms. Joseph on July 14 during a struggle over Ms. Joseph’s purse, after they celebrated the birthday of a mutual friend in a meatpacking district club. Ms. Smith had asked Ms. Joseph to hold her purse, and claimed that when she retrieved it, $3,000 in cash was missing.

As they were leaving, she pulled her Cadillac Escalade up to Ms. Joseph’s Nissan Maxima. Then she got into the Maxima with a cocked gun and tried to grab Ms. Joseph’s purse so she could search it for the cash, the prosecutor said.

During the struggle over the purse, Ms. Joseph, who denied taking money from Ms. Smith, was shot. Ms. Smith drove away, abandoning her $69,000 Cadillac nearby and getting into a taxi, the prosecutor said. The gun was never found.

Thefts Occurred After Crane Collapsed

If I did not know any better, I would think that Stan "Pampy" Barre, III was somehow involved in these heist:

The recent crane collapse that claimed seven lives, demolished a town house and destabilized a neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan also created an opportunity for looters.

Since the March 15 accident, about $90,000 in jewelry, electronic equipment, cash and other items has been reported stolen from three apartments in two buildings near the accident site, the police said. Both buildings, on East 51st Street near Second Avenue, were evacuated the day of the collapse.

Fortunately for New Yorkers, they did not have to deal with the drug addicted burglar.

New Informant In Gambino Case

This is about to get very interesting:

According to a federal official, Lewis Kasman has turned informer and is expected to testify this week that the son of Mr. Gotti’s former henchman helped shake down a restaurant on Long Island months ago.

The son, Joseph Corozzo Jr., is a New York City lawyer who has made his name as a defense lawyer in mob cases; one of his clients is his father, who was charged last month with racketeering and extortion in a sprawling mobster case. The father, Joseph Corozzo Sr., is said to be the Gambino family’s third in charge and was named with nearly 90 others in a federal indictment in the case.

John Gotti is probably turning over in his grave.

Officers' Families Denied Benefits

Officer Pekearo, 28, and Officer Marshalik, 19, were fatally shot on the evening of March 14, 2007, in a confrontation with David R. Garvin, who had fatally shot a bartender in a pizza restaurant. Mr. Garvin, 42, shot Officer Pekearo six times in the back, shoulder and side, the authorities said. Another bullet lodged in a bullet-resistant vest that Officer Pekearo had bought for his own protection; such vests were not at the time provided by the city to auxiliary officers.

Seconds later, Mr. Garvin shot Officer Marshalik in the back of the head. Armed officers shot and killed Mr. Garvin when he refused to drop his gun.

Soon after the deaths of the auxiliary officers, their families applied for federal benefits under the Public Service Officers Benefits Program, intended to compensate the families of the police, firefighters or other public safety officers who are killed in the line of duty. Both families were informed by the federal agency in September that their applications had been denied because, as members of the police auxiliary, Officers Pekearo and Marshalik were not authorized to make arrests, and not considered peace officers under federal guidelines.

What Else Was Spitzer Up To?

It seems that Spitzer had a little more than seeking prostitutes on his mind as governor. According to a New York Times report:

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was deeply involved in his administration’s efforts last year to discredit the State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, holding detailed discussions with senior aides, ordering damaging information about Mr. Bruno released, and calling an aide at home repeatedly to check on the progress.

You reap what you sow Spitzer. I wonder how you feel about the damaging information about yourself.

Engineer’s Arrest Spurs Review of 29 Building Inspections

Would you trust any of his work?

A city report on the collapse found that the engineer, Jose D. Vargas, who approved renovation plans for the Bronx building in 2001, never completed a required final inspection to make sure the job met the city’s building code.

A Fire Department report concluded that had Mr. Vargas completely inspected the building, he could have detected rotten pillars in the basement that caused the collapse. Mr. Vargas was charged this month with lying to investigators looking into the collapse of the building, a discount store at 1575 Walton Avenue.

Where is the concern for other's safety?

No Sex - No Green Card

He wanted sex before he issued green cards:


The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.

Can you imagine how long he has been getting away with this? I guess we will see his wife standing by his side.

Suit Against 'Law and Order' Creator To Continue

In the criminal justice system of television’s “Law & Order,” the plots are derived from two separate yet equally important groups: the television writers who shape the intricate episodes, and the real-life characters who inspire those writers. This is one of their stories.

Ravi Batra, a Manhattan lawyer, filed a lawsuit in 2004 against Dick Wolf, the creator of the television series, arguing that the plot of a November 2003 episode defamed him by including an unsavory character, Ravi Patel, who was modeled on him. In a decision made public on Wednesday, Justice Marilyn Shafer of State Supreme Court in Manhattan rejected a motion by Mr. Wolf’s lawyers to dismiss the lawsuit.
________________________________
I love Law ad Order. This lawyer is bring more attention to himself by filing this suit.

Stepfather Convicted In 7 Year Olds Death

The stepfather of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for his role in her fatal 2006 beating. That beating was inflicted as punishment for stealing a snack from the refrigerator and jamming his computer printer with toys. The jury, however, acquitted the stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, of second-degree murder.

The verdict, reached on the fourth day of deliberations at State Supreme Court after eight weeks of testimony, brought an end to the first trial in one of the most horrific child deaths in recent New York history, one that caused an overhaul of the city’s child welfare system and a spurt in child-abuse reports and foster care placement. Nixzmary’s mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, is to be tried later on a murder charge.

Nylon Strap Breaking May Have Caused Crane Collapse

A prime suspect in Saturday’s East Side crane collapse — a spectacular disaster across two Manhattan blocks that has now claimed seven lives and is expected to cost untold millions — is a $50 piece of nylon webbing that investigators suspect may have broken while hoisting a six-ton piece of steel.

A photograph taken at the site shows the yellow nylon sling ragged at the end like a child’s broken shoelace, indicating, according to experts, the immense force that may have torn it apart.

The investigation into the accident continued on Monday as workers recovered three more bodies from the rubble of a four-story town house on East 50th Street that was demolished when a section of the toppling crane slammed into it. That brought the death toll from the collapse to seven, making it one of the deadliest construction accidents in New York City in recent memory.

Six Ton Support Caused Crane To Drop

The spectacular collapse of a towering crane on the East Side began when a massive piece of steel designed to secure it to a new high-rise building came loose and pancaked on top of a second support nine stories below, shearing it free and creating a fatal imbalance that sent the 22-story crane toppling across a two-block swath of Turtle Bay, officials said on Sunday.

Four construction workers — a crane operator and three riggers who were helping to “jump” the crane, or increase its height — were killed. Three people were missing. On Sunday, as hope dwindled, firefighters, including a unit that specializes in building collapses, continued to search for signs of life. “We’re still calling it a search operation, though with each passing hour, things are getting more grim,” said Nicholas Scoppetta, the fire commissioner.

Investigators Want Spitzer's Campaign Finance Records

Federal authorities are seeking records involving payments to a political fund-raising consultant to Gov. Eliot Spitzer as part of their criminal investigation, according to two people with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

One person said the authorities had requested detailed documentation for thousands of dollars in reimbursements to the consultant, Kristian B. Stiles, who has worked on Mr. Spitzer’s campaigns since 2003 and directs national fund-raising. Another person with knowledge of the investigation said the authorities were particularly interested in hotel room charges during trips Mr. Spitzer took to West Palm Beach, Fla., Dallas and Washington, where he might have arranged to meet prostitutes.

Campaign finance records show that Ms. Stiles, 31, was paid about $6,460 monthly for her consulting work on the Spitzer 2010 committee, and she was listed as having been reimbursed for nearly $22,000 in expenditures over the last year.

Spitzer Case Prosecutor Described As Fair

The prosecutor, Boyd M. Johnson III, leads the public corruption unit of the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is handling the investigation of the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., a high-priced prostitution ring that Mr. Spitzer patronized.

Mr. Johnson and his boss, Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney, will be the ultimate arbiters of whether to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer, and experts expect that they will make the decision in a deliberate manner and only after hearing from his defense team.

Mr. Spitzer has not been charged with any crime, but legal experts say he could face charges of structuring, which involves concealing payments, and of illegally transporting prostitutes across state lines, an approach rarely used against prostitutes’ clients.

Prosecutors are also said to be looking at whether he used campaign money to pay for prostitutes, involved state employees in illegal activities or made unnecessary trips at public expense to facilitate his liaisons.

Did Spitzer Use Campaign Funds For His Sexual Escapades?

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Gov. Eliot Spitzer used campaign funds in connection with his meetings with prostitutes, including payments for hotels or ground transportation.

Prosecutors have asked the governor’s lawyers about the travel arrangements for three trips, including his Feb. 13 rendezvous with a prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has also asked about the governor’s use of car services during trips to Washington.

The governor’s lawyers have begun consulting with a campaign finance expert who has long worked for Mr. Spitzer’s political organization to see whether campaign money was spent on the trips, including some as recently as last month. If campaign money was involved, it would expand the scope of a criminal inquiry, because it is illegal to use campaign money for personal expenses.

Prostitute At The Center Of Spitzer's Downfall

Kristen, the prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having had a rendezvous with Mr. Spitzer on Feb. 13 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor apartment in the Flatiron district of Manhattan. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court, where a lawyer was appointed to represent her. She is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with operating a prostitution ring called the Emperor’s Club V.I.P.

Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupré, she spoke softly and with good humor as she added with significant understatement: “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”

She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don D. Buchwald, told a magistrate judge in court on Monday that she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation. Asked to swear that she had accurately filled out and signed a financial affidavit, she responded affirmatively.

Wal-Mart Kept Out Of Small Town

Keeping Wal-Mart from building is a story I thought I would never see, but one small Jewish community accomplished that goal:

They had waged a modest yet unyielding campaign against the proposed store, which they feared would force too many outside influences into their insular world of Orthodox Judaism.

It also represented a political vindication of sorts for Christopher P. St. Lawrence, town supervisor of Ramapo, which encompasses Monsey, in the heart of Rockland County. He hung much of his re-election on a promise to keep the Wal-Mart out of Monsey. During his campaign, he mailed a flier to every home in Monsey, saying, “Supervisor St. Lawrence opposes the Monsey Wal-Mart.” Mr. St. Lawrence was elected to a fourth term in November. Wal-mart doesn’t vote for the supervisor,” said Rabbi Jacob Horowitz, one of Monsey’s most respected religious leaders. “The people vote for the supervisor.

“We work very hard to raise our families the right way,” Rabbi Horowitz said. “And the supervisor understood that preserving our lifestyle is something that’s very important to us.”

There were other issues that Mr. St. Lawrence said had prompted him to stand up against putting a Wal-Mart on Route 59, like the flood of traffic such a big store could bring to a two-lane highway that is already clogged much of the time, and its impact on the revitalized downtown section of Spring Valley, a village northeast of Monsey.

This show what a group of determined people can accomplish. Good for them!!!

Defense To Link Marijuana In Sean Bell Killing

Lawyers for three detectives on trial in Queens in the killing of Sean Bell in 2006 will try to link small bags of marijuana found near the shooting site to one of Mr. Bell’s friends who was wounded and who fled a short distance, perhaps tossing the drugs as he ran.

The wounded friend, Trent Benefield, ran from the back seat of Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima as the police fired 50 rounds at the car in the belief that someone inside was armed and shooting back, the police have said. Mr. Benefield was stopped on a sidewalk of Liverpool Street, a short distance from the shooting near the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens.

The defense is expected to argue that if Mr. Benefield threw the marijuana away, it suggests that he knew the people shooting at them were police officers. Mr. Benefield has told investigators and a grand jury that the police never identified themselves before firing, and that he did not know who the gunmen were. He is expected to testify in the trial.

Federal Juries Reluctant To Impose Death Penalty

In the 20 years since the federal death penalty statute was revived, no federal juries have been more reluctant to sentence federal defendants to death than those in New York. According to records compiled by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project, which coordinates the defense of capital punishment cases, federal prosecutors in New York State have asked juries to impose death sentences 19 times since 1988. In only one case did a jury rule for execution.

Lawyers and other experts in the field say that a variety of reasons underpin New York’s status as a tough sell in death penalty cases. They say that there is a fundamental liberal slant to juries in the state, and that New York has some of the best death penalty defense lawyers in the country.

They also say many victims in New York capital cases are unsavory characters: drug dealers, mobsters or members of street gangs — not the sort of people whose killers are likely to be punished with death.

New Jersey's Gov. Plans Will Cripple State Services

Governor Jon Corzine’s intention is to reduce the work force to the 75,000 positions that were on the payroll in 2002. But his aides argue that reaching that level will require significant improvements in efficiency because in 2004, the deprivatization of the motor vehicles department added 3,000 positions, and 900 additional child-welfare caseworkers were hired under a court order.

Mr. Corzine relied mostly on attrition to cut 1,800 jobs during his first two years in office, with effects varying by department. In the attorney general’s office, which lost more than 140 lawyers and 105 investigators, the remaining staff has to work longer hours to handle heavier caseloads.

Woman Keeps Tabs On Sex Offenders

For the past decade, Ms. Laura Ahearn has been painstakingly compiling information about sex offenders and distributing it — first by hand, then by e-mail — to their neighbors, including updates like a new car or new scar.

Last week, her nonprofit advocacy group, Parents for Megan’s Law and the Crime Victims’ Center, received a $593,000 federal grant to take the project national, using the sharp new mapping program that enables such a computerized tour.

Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representatives Timothy H. Bishop, Pete King and Carolyn McCarthy all joined Ms. Ahearn in her inconspicuous office in a strip mall here to announce the federal grant.

The group plans to use the money to compile sex offender data from all 50 states into maps on a revamped version of parentsformeganslaw.com, its Web site, scheduled to make its debut on May 1; to create a national e-mail notification program to alert people about offenders in their ZIP code; and to establish a toll-free number that Ms. Ahearn says will be the first national Megan’s Law help line.

Would Six Figure Salaries Attract Better Teachers?

A New York City charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights will test one of the most fundamental questions in education: Whether significantly higher pay for teachers is the key to improving schools.

The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades, is promising to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on school wide performance. That is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most senior teachers in the most generous districts nationwide.

The school’s creator and first principal, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, contends that high salaries will lure the best teachers. He says he wants to put into practice the conclusion reached by a growing body of research: that teacher quality — not star principals, laptop computers or abundant electives — is the crucial ingredient for success.

"Donald Trump Vows to Fight Opposition

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would go to court for the right to expand a planned catering hall at Jones Beach to include a 26,000-square-foot basement to accommodate its kitchens, a proposal that was rejected the night before by a state code enforcement review board.

After a public hearing filled with complaints about Mr. Trump’s project, the board voted 4-to-1 Tuesday against granting a variance of state building codes that would let the basement work proceed.

Mr. Trump conceived the expanded basement after signing a 40-year lease in 2006 to build and operate a 46,000-square-foot catering hall anchored by a smaller basement with no kitchen. Mr. Trump said the board ruling would indefinitely delay the opening of the catering hall, planned for 2009.

Being Paid To Learn

If students show marked improvement on state tests during the school year, each teacher at Public School 188 could receive a bonus of as much as $3,000. School districts nationwide have seized on the idea that a key to improving schools is to pay for performance, whether through bonuses for teachers and principals, or rewards like cash prizes for students.

New York City, with the largest public school system in the country, is in the forefront of this movement, with more than 200 schools experimenting with one incentive or another. In more than a dozen schools, students, teachers and principals are all eligible for extra money, based on students’ performance on standardized tests.

Former Newark Mayor On Trial For Fraud

In a wide-ranging federal indictment, former Newark Mayor, Sharpe James, is accused of improperly helping a Newark public relations executive in a series of favorable land deals.

Federal prosecutors have argued that Mr. James’s relationship with Ms. Tamika Riley was the prime motivation for what they said was his help in steering nine city-owned properties to her. She bought the properties through an urban revitalization program for a total of $46,000, in three purchases over four years, and resold them for $665,000.

In return, Mr. Kwon said, Ms. Riley carried on a relationship with Mr. James, in which she gave him $5,000 worth of boxing tickets and accompanied him on trips to the Caribbean.

Bill To Delay Foreclosure Proceedings

Assemblyman James F. Brennan, a Brooklyn Democrat, and State Senator Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican, have introduced a bill in both houses that would delay foreclosure proceedings for New York residents for one year.

The measure would allow residents to remain in their homes while granting them time to work with lenders to modify their mortgages.

Former New York Governor Pataki's Political deceit

It seems that Pataki had other motives besides running for the presidency. Perhaps he just wanted the cash:

Former Gov. George E. Pataki spent more than $1 million from his political action committees for Broadway theater tickets, gatherings at the Yale Club and payments to political loyalists and advisers.

The money came from PACs used to raise Mr. Pataki’s profile nationally and to lay the foundations for a possible presidential run. They were organized in Virginia, where candidates are given broad discretion in spending.

In all, the committees spent about $2.1 million in 2007; about $1.4 million of that was paid out after Mr. Pataki quietly suspended his efforts to seek national office last March, according to a review of campaign finance disclosure reports and other records. Some of the spending appears to have had little connection to a political cause or candidacy.

Commanding Officer At Sean Bell Shooting Testifies

The commanding officer of the detectives charged in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell testified on Friday that believing he was under fire, he drew his gun and pointed it toward the passenger windows of his car that night. He was ready not only for ambush, he said, but ready to add to the fusillade of 50 shots that claimed Mr. Bell’s life.

“If anyone came up on our car, I would have fired,” said the officer, Lt. Gary Napoli, in part of the second-by-second account he gave in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s killing after his bachelor party on Nov. 25, 2006.

The lieutenant also testified that an oft-quoted radio transmission from one of the detectives before the shooting that the situation was “getting hot” was, to his mind, a frantic call for help.

Queens Councilman May Get Plea Deal

Queens Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher who is accused of raping a woman could get off with a slap on the wrist if he agrees to a plea agreement.

Under the proposed deal, Mr. Gallagher would have to plead guilty to sexual misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor, but would not face jail time, the people familiar with the case said.

A grand jury indicted Mr. Gallagher in the summer on 10 counts of rape, criminal sexual acts and assault. In January, a State Supreme Court justice dismissed the indictment after finding that prosecutors had unfairly prejudiced grand jury members. A new indictment is possible.

Commanding Officer To Testify About Sean Bell Killing

Lieutenant Gary Napoli, the commanding officer in charge of the accused detectives, will be the first police officer to testify who was at the shooting, as the trial zeros in on the 50 shots fired by the police at Mr. Bell and two of his friends, one of whom, officers said, was suspected of having a gun.

Lieutenant Napoli has described the evening of the shooting in interviews with police investigators. The club enforcement detail had met at the Seventh Precinct station house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan the night before.

Prosecutors contend that the detail was disorganized from the start, its members having chosen their own roles in the night’s mission rather than having received them from Lieutenant Napoli. The lieutenant is scheduled to appear on Thursday as a witness for the prosecutor, but he is expected to receive harsh questioning.

Witness Testifies at trial of Police Officers in Sean Bell Case

The testimony from the dancer, Marseilles Payne, 32, in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s shooting was as dramatic as it was at odds with other accounts of that early morning of Nov. 25, 2006. Ms. Payne’s version more closely resembled an account of road rage, with a single detective opening fire after a car collision, than the chaotic events that the police, prosecutors and the defense have described.

Ms. Payne said she last saw Mr. Bell turn on his car’s headlights on Liverpool Street, in Jamaica, Queens, and pull away from the curb. She was at her car and was going to follow him and his friends to a diner for breakfast after her long night of dancing, she said.

“As he came out, a minivan came from behind me and they crashed,” she said. “The driver of the minivan got out of the car. He got out and he started shooting.” She said she was close enough to see the muzzle flash from his pistol.

“I saw the fire, like, three times and I turned and I ran,” she said, adding that she crouched in someone’s shrubs. “I waited for the gunshots to stop. It was about three seconds, and I started to get up, and the gunshots started again.”

The testimony came on the busy second day of the trial, which also featured accounts of Mr. Bell relaxing and celebrating his coming wedding in what would be the last hours of his life, at the Club Kalua. As the group celebrated, a group of undercover officers was on duty at the club, where prostitution and drug activity were suspected.

Officers Accused of Killing "Sean Bell" go on Trial

Fifteen months to the day after Sean Bell was killed in a blast of 50 police bullets, and after rounds and rounds of court hearings, motions and countermotions, the trial of three of the officers who fired their handguns that cold morning began Monday in State Supreme Court in Queens.

Detective Isnora and Detective Michael Oliver face charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter. A third detective, Marc Cooper, fired four shots and hit no one, but one of his rounds struck an AirTrain terminal, and he was charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

Long Island Mother Kills Her Three Children

Leatrice Brewer, 27, who has been described as mentally disturbed, murdered her three children on Sunday and she then called the police. Ms. Brewer had been living with the children in an apartment in the Nassau County hamlet of New Cassel. Late Sunday evening, she was charged with the murder of all three children.

Neither the police nor the county medical examiner said what caused the death of the children, who were identified as Jewell Ward, 6; Michael Demesyeux, 5; and Innocent Demesyeux, 18 months old. But investigators said one appeared to have been drowned, while the others had been slashed to death.

The killings on Sunday appeared to add another grim chapter to a growing casebook of children slain by mothers: five drowned in a bathtub near Houston; two battered with rocks in Tyler, Tex.; three drowned in San Francisco Bay. The cases — some ending in verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity — have ignited a national debate over mental illness and the legal definition of insanity.

The Big Commute

There are about 300,000 people who live in New York City and make their way to jobs in the suburbs every day, part of a fast-growing segment of the work force that has turned the traditional idea of bedroom communities on its head. The group includes young workers in high-skilled professions, as well as tens of thousands of others up and down the income spectrum who prefer city living or cannot afford the suburban dream.

Planners and business groups across the region have increasingly come to realize that these commuters are a critical part of their economic prospects and are vigorously promoting transportation initiatives to encourage them. But they face considerable obstacles.

9/11 Victims' Family Request May Be Denied

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has suggested that he would turn down the request of several families of people who died at the World Trade Center to sift through a million tons of debris at the Fresh Kills landfill in a search for human remains left from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

During the hearing, the judge stated that nothing could ever return dead loved ones to their families. New York City had asked Judge Hellerstein to dismiss the lawsuit that was filed in 2005 by 17 families who believe their relatives' remains were still at Fresh Hills.

Professor At Columbia Will Keep Her Job

Columbia University’s Teachers College will not dismiss Madonna G. Constantine, the professor it charged with plagiarizing numerous works by another professor and two former students.

On Thursday, she renewed her claims that the investigation was biased and that the president, Susan H. Fuhrman, had tried to force her to resign. She said she had not plagiarized anyone’s work and stepped up her public defense.

Her lawyer released a statement by Barbara Wallace, the other black woman in a full tenured position at Teachers, charging that the college’s actions were hasty and left it “vulnerable to the appearance of racial bias.”

Columbia University Accuses Black Professor Of Plagiarism

Dr, Madonna Constantine was the black professor who discovered a noose outside of her door last fall. Now the professor is being accused of plagiarizing the work of colleagues and other students. Here is Dr. Constantine's response to those allegations:

Dr. Constantine, in an e-mail message to faculty and students on Wednesday, called the investigation “biased and flawed,” and said it was part of a “conspiracy and witch hunt by certain current and former members of the Teachers College community.”

“I am left to wonder whether a white faculty member would have been treated in such a publicly disrespectful and disparaging manner,” she wrote.

She added, “I believe that nothing that has happened to me this year is coincidental, particularly when I reflect upon the hate crime I experienced last semester involving a noose on my office door. As one of only two tenured black women full professors at Teachers College, it pains me to conclude that I have been specifically and systematically targeted.”

Her attorney has stated that the professor's work was plagiarized. Do you think that there is some sort of vendetta against the professor?

A New Alternative For Juvenile Offenders

The Juvenile Justice Initiative, which New York City started in February 2007, is an alternative sentencing program for juvenile offenders. The program sends medium-risk offenders back to their families and provides intensive therapy. The city says that in just a year, it has seen significant success for the juveniles enrolled, as well as cost savings from the reduced use of residential treatment centers.

Until the Juvenile Justice Initiative, family court judges had few options for dealing with youngsters convicted of less-serious crimes. They could place them on probation and hope for the best, or send them to upstate residential centers. The decision would typically depend as much on the gravity of the crime as on the stability of the child’s family. Judges are more likely to send a child into state custody if the home situation is complicated or unsafe.

Panel Seeks Testimony On Ashcroft Deal

United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie has been asked to testify before members of Congress about a multimillion-dollar contract his office awarded to former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The subject of the inquiry is a contract that Mr. Ashcroft’s Washington law firm received from Mr. Christie’s office to serve as a federal monitor. The deal is worth $27 million to $52 million over 18 months.

Under the contract, Mr. Ashcroft’s firm will monitor an Indiana-based manufacturer, Zimmer Holdings, as part of a settlement in a fraud investigation by Mr. Christie’s office. Mr. Ashcroft was also asked to testify but has not responded, according to Ms. Sanchez’s office. A phone message left at Mr. Ashcroft’s law firm on Monday was not immediately returned.

Veteran Judge To Preside Over "Sean Bell" Case

Justice Arthur J. Cooperman will preside over the trial of three detectives charged in the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed bridegroom, Sean Bell, outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens.

The trial will bring more immediate attention to the 74-year-old judge than most criminal trials, because the defendants have waived their rights to a jury, leaving the verdict solely in Justice Cooperman’s hands. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 25.

Man Arrested for killing Psychologist

A 39-year-old man who blamed a Manhattan psychiatrist for having him institutionalized 17 years ago was charged on Saturday with killing a female therapist in a furious knife attack and then slashing the psychiatrist when he tried to come to the woman’s aid, law enforcement officials said.

The man, David M. Tarloff, was picked up at his home in Queens at 7:20 a.m. and later made statements implicating himself in the killing of the therapist, Kathryn Faughey, 56, and the assault on the psychiatrist, Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, who is in his 70s, on Tuesday night inside the East 79th Street offices they shared, the police said.

Confidentiality Hinders Police Investigation

As part of an expansive effort to catch a knife-wielding attacker, police officials confronted a thorny legal hurdle on Friday as they sought the medical records of an Upper East Side therapist who was slain and those of a colleague who was wounded rushing to her aid.

Three days after the attack, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the police and the Manhattan district attorney’s office were trying to get a court order that would allow investigators to go through the patient files — up to 1,000 of them — of the slain therapist, Kathryn Faughey, and the wounded man, Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, in the hope that one could provide evidence leading to the killer.

Use of Myspace may Violate Restraining Order

If you have a restraining order against someone and that person contact you through the social networking site, Myspace, that person may be held in contempt of court:

In one of the first rulings of its kind, a Staten Island judge has said that a teenage girl could be charged with violating a restraining order by using MySpace.com to reach out to people she was told not to contact.

The girl, Melisa Fernino, 16, of West Brighton, Staten Island, was charged with three counts of criminal contempt in September after she was accused of sending a MySpace “friend request” to Sandra Delgrosso and her two daughters on Aug. 23. The order was put in place after Ms. Fernino made several violent threats against Ms. Delgrosso, who had dated her father, and against her two daughters, said a Staten Island official who insisted on anonymity because the case originated in Family Court, where proceedings are private.

This is good news for those who may have been in an abusive relationship and their abusers try to contact them through Myspace.

Sister Sues Over Firefighter Brother's Death

The sister of one of the two firefighters killed in August fighting a fire at the former Deutsche Bank building sued the government agency that owns the building and several contractors on Wednesday, charging they knowingly created dangerous conditions that led to her brother’s death.

The sister, Barbara Beddia Crocco, contends in the suit that her brother, Robert Beddia, 53, died because of conditions caused during the dismantling of the building, including piles of combustible debris, dismantled fire connections, compromised stairwell walls and barricaded exits.

The lawsuit says the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owned the building, and several private companies knew of the potentially fatal conditions before the fire.

Irag Troops Receives Shoddy Mental Health Care At Fort Drum

Can you imagine serving four tours of duty in Iraq yet having to wait for more than a month to receive psychological help? Well, that is exactly what is going on at Fort Drum:

According to a draft report, “Fort Drum: A Great Burden, Inadequate Assistance,” which was given to The New York Times last week, uncovered several problems with the mental health services on the post, which is north of Syracuse. Based on interviews with a dozen soldiers and the mental health providers on the base, the report describes problems with under staffing, a reliance on questionnaires to identify soldiers in need of treatment and a sometimes dismissive view at the company level of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Maj. Gen. Michael Oates, the commander of the 10th Mountain Division, which includes the Second Brigade, acknowledged the shortcomings of the mental health care on the base, and said the problems were being addressed. In particular, he said, the providers of psychological services on the base have been expanding their effort to interview “those who are most at risk,” though “the screening process is not where we want it to be.”

Indeed, the report said that the wait for an appointment has eased since three Army psychiatrists were reassigned last month from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, joining three psychiatrists already on the base, to address the needs of 3,500 Second Brigade soldiers recently back from Iraq. But, the report noted, the reassignment was “only a temporary fix” since the psychiatrists from Walter Reed would probably return to Washington in a few weeks.

Fort Drum lacks its own hospital, so any soldier needing inpatient treatment has to be sent to Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, which recently increased the number of beds in its psychiatric unit to 32 from 24.

But the report said that when the psychological facilities at the base have closed for the day, some soldiers have bypassed Samaritan and driven more than an hour to Syracuse for treatment. The Veterans for America report said the soldiers fear that doctors at Samaritan will side with some base leaders, who had, “in some cases, cast doubt on the legitimacy of combat-related mental health wounds.”

Nor is the heavy service the only problem at Fort Drum. In the last two weeks, it has been at the center of a controversy over whether the Army instructed the Department of Veterans Affairs last March to stop helping soldiers there with their disability claims. At first, the Army surgeon general, Eric B. Schoomaker, denied that the Army had told Veterans Affairs to do so.

Fort Drum needs to be totally investigated because this is a shoddy way to treat soldiers who have given so much of themselves. Is it too much to ask that they receive the help they most desperately need?

New York State Businesses Misclassifying Employees

Sometimes businesses will do anything to get out of paying unemployment taxes and workers compensation benefits:

A new crackdown on employers in New York State that are paying workers off the books has snared dozens of companies and uncovered millions of dollars in violations. The sweeps focused on the construction and restaurant industries and sought to ferret out off-the-books work as well as the misclassification of workers as independent contractors.

State officials said that worker misclassification — from the failure to pay unemployment insurance taxes to failure to withhold income taxes — causes substantial revenue losses at various levels of government.

In their sweeps, which investigated 117 companies, state officials found that 2,078 employees had been misclassified as independent contractors. The task force also found 646 workers who were owed minimum and overtime wages totaling about $3 million.

This is probably just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure there are other businesses doing the same thing as well.

Long Island Hospital Under Investigation

When we enter a hospital, we expect the hospital to take care of us. The following case, however, illustrates that some hospitals can be a dangerous place:

The investigation of Mercy Medical Center was prompted by the complaints of one of its doctors, Anthony Colantonio, who said a physician’s assistant had improperly inserted catheters, chest tubes and pacemakers into patients. Three such patients died, the doctor said: a 65-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman last summer, and a 19-year-old woman in October. The Health Department would not confirm whether the assistant was a focus of its investigation.

I am glad the doctor came forward. Sometimes this sort of thing is covered up.

New York Area Unions and the Mafia

Can Labor Unions ever escape the influence of organized crime? Recent indictments show that two labor unions were plagued by mafia influence:

A trucking company owner, Joseph Spinnato, together with unnamed others, repeatedly embezzled money from Local 282’s health and pension funds. The charges detailed an enduring practice in which construction and trucking companies contribute less money to union benefit funds than is required, usually by underreporting the hours that employees work. While the scheme often operates with the complicity of union stewards, officials with Local 282 and its benefits funds were not accused of wrongdoing.

Louis Mosca, the business manager of Laborers’ Local 325 in Jersey City, was charged with taking a $2,000 bribe to give someone a union card, a move often done to help someone qualify for a construction job or union benefits. Michael King, a shop steward of Laborers’ Local 731 in Queens, was also accused of selling a membership.

Prosecutors say the unions that deliver cement and other building supplies have long been a magnet for Mafia involvement because mob officials know that if they delay deliveries, construction companies can lose large amounts of money. Those union locals thus become an ideal pressure point for extortion.

Mob Informant Had Power And A Wire

How the mob got caught:

Mr. Joseph Vollaro, who had already been netted in a drug sting by the State Organized Crime Task Force, had agreed to become a government witness. He wore a hidden recording device and captured his conversations with a range of accused mobsters, including Mr. Corozzo.

So it appears that it was actually the Task Force, federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. who were stringing Mr. Corozzo along, gauging his sincerity to try to determine whether he indeed intended to induct their informant into the family, a ceremony some among them were keen to record for posterity.

Gambino Crime Family Indicted

Bad boys, bad boys, what are you going to do, what are you going to do when they come for you was the last song mob members thought they would hear. The Gambino Crime Family had to think about that song:

Scores of crimes were outlined in state and federal indictments unsealed on Thursday that charged 87 people and represented a government move against the upper echelon of the Gambino crime family.

Beginning with early morning knocks on doors around the New York City area, the case formed the basis for a roundup that authorities called the biggest such sweep in memory, one that was coordinated with arrests by Italian authorities in Sicily.

The charges took aim at not only the family’s leadership but at a cadre of middle managers and lower level figures in the Gambino clan and others in the Bonanno and Genovese families. Also charged were several union and construction officials.

Will they beat the charges? I guess they think it will take the feds some time to convict them if this becomes a repeat of the late John Gotti "Teflon Don" episode.