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.