A strange story has trickled down from the pustulent boil of corruption that is our state capital. The editor of investigative reports for the Albany Times Union (known among some local wags as the Times-Useless) is claiming that local police targeted his wife's spa in a phony prostitution sting, as retaliation for a series of articles about shady police activities. There's a lot to unpack here, but most of it can be summed up with this juicy quote editor J. Robert Port gave to the NY Times: "Obviously I have pissed some people off enough to the point where they would send in jackbooted thug police officers to do an anal search on someone I believe they thought was my wife." more ›

We never thought we'd be the ones to defend your right to anonymously scrawl "bike lanes fart lampshade" on a post about food stamps but Albany's idiocy so moves us. Identical bills that have been proposed in the Assembly and the Senate that would require New York websites to "remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post." more ›

The MTA and officials in Albany mulled it, and it seems they decided it was a good idea: Going forward, if you witness an assault on an MTA employee and report it to either the NYPD or the MTA Police you can make up to $2,000 in cash thanks to a new MTA-funded program called Transit Watch. more ›

The taxpayer-funded Bronx health clinic robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars by ex-State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. is hanging by a thread. Soundview has provided low-cost health care to thousands of South Bronx residents for years, but since Espada and his son Pedro G. have been on trial, it's drastically cut services and even stopped paying the malpractice insurance for its physicians. Fortunately Soundview still has enough cash to pay the Espadas' legal fees! But now the state Department of Health has moved in to shut it down, and it may cease operating completely. more ›

According to a Siena College poll released today [pdf], 57% of New York voters support the legalization of medical marijuana, while 36% oppose it. Presumably, those 36% think that New York will never, ever be as cool as Connecticut so there's no point in trying. more ›

When you are a second generation governor with excellent approval ratings and awhile to go before a viable space opens up in the White House, what to do? Why, if your name is Andrew Cuomo you write a book! A book about being governor, specifically. more ›

Andrew Cuomo is not a straphanger. In news that shouldn't really surprise anyone, the Governor, who splits most of his time between Westchester and Albany, has admitted he hasn't taken the subway since taking office. Mayor Bloomberg, who gets driven 22 blocks when he deigns to ride underground, probably loves this. more ›

It isn't the return of congestion pricing, but Manhattan Borough President, presumed mayoral candidate and rapper Scott Stringer does want to bring back another favorite financial fear of the car-class: The Commuter Tax. You know, the one on folks who work in the city but live elsewhere that was with us for 33 years until 1999. Stringer wants it back. He's proposing reinstating it at the old rate of about "0.45 percent for most commuters." more ›

Are you shocked that Governor Cuomo, our current popular governor, has been keeping tabs on negative reporters? According to Buzzfeed, appears that Andrew Cuomo has had his Communications team collect a political reporter's non-positive postings into a "GENERALLY SNARKY" file (in this case, the writings of Albany political reporter Elizabeth Benjamin of Capital Tonight)... which also sounds like what Communications teams do? At least they weren't taking reporter's DNA! more ›

Albany has passed a budget on time for the second year in a row! Nothing bolsters the public's confidence in politicians like when they go above and beyond to, um, do they job they were supposed to do anyway. Governor Cuomo and the leaders of the Senate and the Assembly were all smiles at yesterday's press conference, but maybe these photos were taken before the pols saw that New York received a D grade on its corruption risk report card? more ›

Protesters made themselves heard on the New York Post's State News editor's radio interview with Governor Cuomo in Albany today. Fredric Dicker's paychecks happen to be cut by a little company called News Corp, which paid an effective state tax rate of 3.7% instead of the standard 7.1%, along with an effective federal rate of 21% rather than 35%. Apparently you could hear the demonstrators shouting in the background on Dicker's program, but State Troopers prevented them from presenting him with a check for all those unpaid taxes. more ›

The recent action out of Albany wasn't all about DNA databanks and pension reform. There was also much wheeling and dealing to bring Governor Andrew Cuomo's dream of non-Indian New York casinos closer to fruition. But even if gambling does get legalized here (and there are still many hoops to get through) don't expect to see a casino open in Times Square. more ›

As we prepare to barricade ourselves in our apartments on Saturday and pray for all the lost souls in the East Village and Murray Hill to learn the virtue of temperance, let us give thanks we don't live in Albany, particularly in the neighborhood that tone-deaf SUNY kids refer to as "the student ghetto." It's actually a place called Pine Hills, where civilian adults courageously go about their lives in the crossfire of a rotating mob of DudeManBros who like nothing more than honoring St. Patrick by wearing Jets jerseys and rioting. Watch, and start planning your next vacation to the Capital District, where the marketing slogan, "We've Got It All In Albany," doesn't exactly say it all: more ›

Something to think about the next time you mull committing a crime: Albany lawmakers have agreed to Governor's Cuomo plan to create the most expansive DNA database in the country. As in everyone convicted of a crime will have to submit their DNA to the state. Well, there is one exception looking likely: Those found with small amounts of marijuana should be allowed to skip the swab. more ›

No charges will be filed against any of the parties involved in a bizarre casino brawl involving Republican State Senator Mark Grisanti, his wife Maria, and members of the Seneca Nation. According to The Buffalo News, the Niagara County DA's office and the Niagara Falls Police Department released a joint statement announcing, "This case is closed." more ›

Andrew Cuomo is a very popular governor and apparently that means that what he wants, he gets. So when Cuomo says he wants teacher evaluations across the state—he gets them. Yup, Cuomo announced earlier today a compromise with the teachers union on evaluations. Nothing like threatening to just write some rules yourself without input to get people moving! more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A bill in Albany that would prohibit eating food on the subway with fines up to $250 for violators, does not have the support of the new MTA chief Joseph Lhota. Although Lhota was known as the "rat czar" when he was deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani, he thinks an outright food consumption ban would adversely impact poor people who inhale their greasy stinking McDonald's on the train because there's simply nowhere else for them to eat. Also, think of the children! "It severely hurts and impacts minority communities," Lhota tells the Times. "I don’t want to deny the kid the only time that day he’s going to get food." more ›

New details surrounding an altercation at a Niagara Falls casino between Republican state senator Mark Grisanti and several members of the Seneca Nation have cast doubt on the politician's story that he played the part of peacemaker. Video footage shows Grisanti pointing and shouting at a security officer, then later being held in a choke hold by another one of the officers. Businessman and former member of the Seneca's Tribal Council, Ross John, also tells The Buffalo News that Grisanti used a racial epithet against a guard. "I was maybe 15 feet away. I heard it. '[Grisanti] yelled, 'Don't you know who the [expletive] I am, you [expletive]?' " more ›

Oil and gas companies spent millions of dollars on lobbying Albany to make a decision on hydrofracking, but the state doesn't seem any closer to allowing the practice and all sides are urging caution. "I wouldn't say it's a given," Republican state senator and hydrofracking advocate Tom Libous tells the Times. "Economically, we need it desperately. But at the end of the day, if the scientists and geologists at the D.E.C. say 'this is not a good thing to do,' I'm not going to challenge it." Did the earth just shift, or what? more ›

Demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement interrupted a legislative budget hearing in Albany to make some noise about taxes. The protest interrupted testimony by Taxation & Finance Commissioner Thomas Mattox, who was being questioned about an agreement between T&F and the Inspector General’s office that enabled IG to look at tax returns of state employees. Here's video: more ›

Apparently the Supreme Court's decision is not good enough to the NY State Legislature when it comes to allowing religious groups to worship in city schools. Last June, the U.S. Second Circuit of Appeals ruled that NYC public schools can prohibit religious services, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, letting the Second Circuit's decision stand. But, still, the State Senate will consider a bill to allow religious services in schools. And the NYCLU wants to remind lawmakers why it's a terrible idea. more ›

Assemblyman Democrat Sheldon Silver introduced new legislation to increase New York State’s minimum wage today. The proposed law will increase the current $7.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour and become permanently fixed to the inflation rate by 2014. Silver said the increase would "give flight to the American dream." more ›

The cost of jumping a turnstile could soon be much higher. Yesterday the State Senate passed a bill which would allow the MTA to raise the current maximum fine for farebeaters from $100 to $500 and the penalty for not paying from $50 to $100. Suddenly an unlimited Metrocard looks affordable? more ›

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a 10-term upstate Democrat, thought that news of his retirement would be the big Hinchey story of the week. But his wife, a state lobbyist, was arrested for not only driving while intoxicated—she was also hit with a texting-while-driving charge. Allison Lee-Hinchley reportedly admitted to cops that she was texting when she got into a car crash in Albany on Wednesday. more ›

Fresh from his gambling-happy State of the State address Governor Cuomo today introduced his $132.5 billion 2012 budget and while it is less agressive than last year's slice and dice budget it still manages to be tough on unions. Teacher evaluations sure look like the future in New York State! more ›

Governor Andrew Cuomo gave his State of the State today, vowing to make 2012 the year "we must transform our government to once again become the progressive capital of our nation." He proposed a $1 billion economic development package for Buffalo, which has the third-highest poverty rate in the country, abolishing the state's requirements for fingerprinting food stamp recipients, deemed himself the "student's lobbyist," and pitched a slew of environmental and energy improvements. But Cuomo was also mum about transportation, spoke glowingly of legalizing gambling, declined to read his brief remarks on hydraulic fracturing, and announced an ambitious plan to build the world's largest convention center at the Aquaduct Racetrack. more ›

New Yorkers have until January 11 to tell the Department of Environmental Conservation how they feel about hydrofracking, and the results of the practice in Ohio should light up their switchboards. Usually Ohio's most dangerous faults are Drew Carey-related, but it has experienced eleven earthquakes since March. Although all of them were minor, the most recent on Saturday was a 4.0 magnitude, and according to the Times the state has ordered gas companies to stop injecting "millions of gallons of brine and other waste liquids" into the ground near Youngstown until scientists can pinpoint what was going on. more ›

Hell of a day for former State Senator Carl Kruger yesterday: Appearing in court to plead guilty to federal corruption charges, the longtime Brooklyn politician repeatedly sobbed as he admitted his guilt. With his gynecologist companion at his side, Kruger, 62, broke down and cried, telling Judge Jed S. Rakoff, "I apologize if I’m a little emotional over this." Asked if he was mentally fit to plea, Kruger said, "Under the circumstances, yes, Your Honor." NY Times columnist Michael Powell filed a vivid account of the pitiful scene, which seems worthy of a Ralph Steadman portrait: more ›