Bloomberg Chats Up Chertoff

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Thursday night and told him "for sure" that he disagreed with the urban area funding. On his radio show, the Mayor said, "I just think the ways they went about it was wrong. I think some factual things were wrong -- forget about the fact that they didn't have the right number of financial institutions or didn't know there were any significant targets in New York City -- just the quality of the report." (You can download an MP3 on the show here.) At any rate, Bloomberg and Chertoff plan to speak again on Monday, which makes Gothamist think some city staffers are working overtime this weekend.

The NY Times delves into who actually allocates the Homeland Security money, with the city officials questioning the qualifications of some the people reviewing applications - and some of the reviewers are anonymous. NYPD spokesman Paul J. Brown says, "They made it sound like The New England Journal of Medicine, but we have no idea of who these people are." Also, some other officials are wondering if "agro-terrorism" truly is a threat, as Al Qaeda doesn't have a history of attacking the food system. And the junior Senator from NY, Hillary Clinton, has a place on her campaign website where you can send "virtual notes" to Michael Chertoff: www.hillaryclinton.com/action/postcard.