Azi Paybarah

Despite some evidence suggesting that Michael Bloomberg doesn’t have the authority to stop the $400 property-tax rebate checks from going out, the mayor told reporters this afternoon that the issue is fiscal, not legal.  read more »

At a press conference in Brooklyn this afternoon to announce tougher rules to home heating oil meter-readers from overcharging, Michael Bloomberg was asked by a reporter how he heats his own home.

“It’s oil,” Bloomberg said.  read more »

Bill Clinton said he'd do "whatever they want" with respect to the vetting process and information he'd have to disclose to the Obama administration to help Hillary Clinton become Obama's secretary of state.  read more »

After a ceremony in Astoria this morning to rename the Triborough Bridge after Robert F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy Jr. said that he'd consider joining the Obama administration, and would "look at" replacing Hillary Clinton in the Senate if she leaves for a secretary of state position.

"You know what?  read more »

Steve Levy’s speech last night about race and immigration the “first time he apologized directly to the family” of an Ecuadorian man killed by 7 high school kids recently.  read more »

The mayor in Toledo, Ohio is following Michael Bloomberg and eyeing a 5-cent tax on plastic bags.

“Council members, stop!” said Christine Quinn when Jimmy Oddo and Charles Barron were yelling at each other.

Thomas Friedman thinks that for Hillary Clinton to be an effective secretary of state, she would have to be seen as having a close relationship with Barack Obama.

David Geffen, an early Obama supporter, says Clinton would be great for the job.

The wife of City Councilman James Sanders of Queens declined to say whether her husband can walk at the moment, or when he’s expected to return to work after he was hospitalized following a major car accident on Saturday,  read more »

The head of the Citizens Budget Commission, Carol Kellerman, draws a comparison between Michael Bloomberg's use of $2 billion set aside to pay for future health-care costs and draining a trust fund.  read more »

Here’s Eliot Spitzer’s call girl, Ashley Dupre, with ABC’s Diane Sawyer.  read more »

Jimmy Oddo and Charles Barron, two of the more outspoken City Council members, got into a yelling match during a Council hearing at City Hall, according to a witness.  read more »

Democratic State Senator Pedro Espada said he’s campaigning to become State Senate majority leader and would appoint a Republican as his deputy, according to an interview with El Diario-La Prensa.

Espada also said that his campaign wasn’t a direct assault on Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith, but the article does end with Espada saying, “I was a senator in 1992, prior to Malcolm Smith put[ing] one foot in the floor in the Senate.”

A message left on Espada’s cell phone was not immediately returned.

The paper’s editorial seemed to welcome the move, saying, “Espada’s shake up may be just what the party had coming.”

Due to enormous budget problems, the M.T.A. is killing the W and Z lines, halving stops on the G and M, laying off 1,500 workers and reducing the number of trains. Without a government bailout, it will get worse.  read more »

Frank Padavan’s vote count over Democratic challenger Jim Gennaro is up to 500 votes, according to Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran. During an earlier stage of the hand recount, Padavan’s margin had dipped down to 474 votes.  read more »

City Councilman James Sanders of Queens was hospitalized after a car accident this Saturday, according to his office.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg introduced national teachers union head Randi Weingarten at the National Press Club in D.C. this morning, stressing what he described as a cooperative relationship that should be duplicated elsewhere, and presenting the city's school system as a national model.  read more »

Mark Page, the dry but not humorless city budget director, has been testifying for two and a half hours in the City Council chambers, mostly defending the mayor’s plan to rescind the $400 rebates and assuring one skeptical councilman that “your premise, that the world ends June 30, 2009, I don’t think is realistic,” and that an eye has to be kept on the city’s long-term financial health.  read more »

The service-workers union SEIU 32BJ is going to run this ad against Michael Bloomberg's proposed cuts to school aid, calling it “a dirty way to trim the budget.”  read more »

New York City’s budget director Mark Page is testifying at a City Council hearing at City Hall right now about Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to help close the city’s multi-billion budget gap.  read more »

New Yorkers want state lawmakers to close the budget gap by reducing state spending instead of raising taxes, according to results from a Siena poll released today.  read more »

According to New York, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s candidacies may have reinforced unhelpful stereotypes about women.

Liz Benjamin quotes a source close to David Paterson saying that if Clinton takes the secretary of state post, Nydia Velazquez is, "for now," the front runner to replace her in the Senate.

Nassau County has a $100,000 contract with Zimmerman-Edelman, a major public relations firm.

There’s one new Paterson appointment; another remains elusive.

Although he hasn't declared victory, Eric Massa is participating in congressional orientation.

Jay Gallagher points out that there are six different state budget offices crunching numbers.

Jose Serrano introduced a bill to keep immigration status confidential when New Yorkers report crimes to the state police.  read more »

If Hillary Clinton’s becomes Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, Governor David Paterson fills her vacancy in the Senate.  read more »

City Councilman Vinny Gentile of Brooklyn thinks Michael Bloomberg's recent call for severe budget cuts provides an opportunity for those who are considering challenging him in next year's mayoral race.  read more »

At a press conference in Queens earlier today, Michael Bloomberg was asked if New York City would follow Philadelphia, Phoenix and other cities in seeking direct federal aid to deal with the financial crisis.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg had nice things to say about Hillary Clinton, who is reported to be under consideration to become Bar  read more »

As of this morning, Frank Padavan's lead over Democratic challenger Jim Gennaro is down to 474 votes, according to Gennaro's spokesman Evan Stavisky.

That's down from a 502-vote lead Padavan had yesterday.

"Frank Padavan’s vote-leads continue to plummet faster than the Dow under George Bush," he said.

Oh, Stavisky.  read more »

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, perhaps?  read more »

After an official canvassing of voting machines in Queens, Republican State Senator Frank Padavan leads his Democratic challenger, City Councilman Jim Gennaro, by 502 votes, according to a spokeswoman at the city’s Board of Elections.  read more »

Sitting on a bench outside the mayor’s office just now was Claire Shulman, the former Queens borough president who is now a lobbyist for a group trying to develop Willets Point—an endeavor whose outcome will depend on a vote being taken today.  read more »

Christine Quinn took the unusual step of protesting Michael Bloomberg, the mayor with whom she’s had an extremely close working relationship.  read more »

Queens Democratic County Leader and Representative Joe Crowley isn’t ruling out the idea of supporting Michael Bloomberg over a Democratic candidate in next year’s mayoral race.  read more »

Liz Crowley, who defeated Republican City Councilman Anthony Como of Queens earlier this month, got a tour of the Council side of City Hall today from one of the speaker's top aides, Ramon Martinez.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg, who plans to seek re-election next year, is rekindling his friendship with Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez, who hosted the mayor at a community meeting last night.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg is introducing Joe Crowley at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York at the Regency Hotel. Last night, Bloomberg hung out with Vito Lopez.  read more »

In a closed-door meeting with four State Senators yesterday, Governor David Paterson expressed openness to supporting someone other than Malcolm Smith, the leading candidate to become the Democratic Majority Leader, according to two people in the meeting.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg is making a rare appearance in the Red Room in City Hall in a few minutes for a press conference to announce a deal on the affordable housing in the redevelopment of Willets Point.  read more »

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten isn’t buying David Paterson’s argument that his new round of budget adjustments is only slowing the rate of increases in funds for education, not making cuts.  read more »

Peter King, the congressman from Long Island who is contemplating a gubernatorial run in 2010, thinks David Paterson may be open to attack as a career liberal, but only if he fails in his bid to trim the budget.  read more »

Page Six says the Clintons got an unremarkable reception at the Abyssinian Baptist Church reception the other night.
 read more »

In an interview with NY1 News, Donald Trump offers the following explanation for the presidential defeat of John McCain, who he endorsed:  read more »

“Michael Bloomberg is budgeting like it’s 1992 or 2002,” said Nicole Gelinas, an economist a financial analyst with the conservative Manhattan Institute.
 read more »

Passerby to Michael Bloomberg at a press conference on Fifth Avenue and 55th Street this morning, during an answer to a question about tolling the East River Bridge: “Hey, King Mike.”  read more »

Speaking to reporters on Fifth Avenue after marching in the Veterans Day parade, Michael Bloomberg was asked about Barack Obama’s advocacy of a Detroit bailout.

"Well, I don't think we can bail out every industry,"Bloomberg said.  read more »

Last night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel uptown, Bill and Hillary Clinton paid tribute to Reverend Calvin Butts, III, who presides over the congregation at one the most prestigious black churches in the city.  read more »

The irony of the drama surrounding the future of Democratic leadership in the State Senate is that whether or not current Minority Leader Malcolm Smith retains his power partly hinges on an issue the party tried to keep under the radar during campaign season: same-sex marriage.  read more »

Portfolio looks at the lawsuit filed by pregnant women at Bloomberg L.P.

Vanity Fair has a lengthy look at the expanding Bloomberg L.P.  read more »

The president of the Citizens Budget Commission thinks Michael Bloomberg is trying to plug the city’s billion-dollar budget gap in little ways, while ignoring the real issues: pension costs for union members.  read more »

Among the people suing Michael Bloomberg and the City Council to block them from extending term limits is attorney Norman Siegel, who said there may be “an implicit restraint” applicable to changing a law legislatively that was created by a public referendum, such as term limits.  read more »

A major city Republican operative I spoke to earlier speculated that probably the best candidate to take over the State Republican Party is John Faso, the 2006 gubernatorial candidate, who also ran for state comptroller in 2002, and was the Assembly Republican Leader for years before that.  read more »

In today's Post, Fred Dicker reports that Republican State Party Chairman, Joe Mondello, is being encouraged to leave his two-year term early, in light of party losses in the elections last week.  read more »