After pushing for tighter restrictions of prescribed narcotics and attempting to block a "super painkiller" ten times more powerful than Vicoden, Senator Chuck Schumer wants to allocate $140 million in federal funding towards developing a test that would catch drivers who are under the influence of drugs. "If people next year knew they'd be tested for drugged driving just like they are tested for drunk driving, it might deter them from doing it to begin with and save lives," Schumer told the AP. more ›

Top Democrats were upset that President Obama wanted to tax wealthy Americans, because as our own Senator Chuck Schumer put it, making $250,000 a year doesn't make you wealthy in New York. So now they are offering a new plan to tax the rich: A 5.6% tax on those making $1 million or more a year, which would raise about the $447 billion needed to fund Obama's American Jobs Act. more ›

GM's OnStar system is so concerned about finding you the closest car wash and finding you an Ethiopian restaurant that the company tracks the location and speed of its customers long after their subscriptions have expired. US Senator and Big Apple Juice enemy Chuck Schumer takes issue with OnStar knowing where you are and whether you're listening to Linkin Park. "OnStar is attemping one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory," Schumer tells CBS. "I urge OnStar to abandon." There's no point in abandoning your vehicle though: that OnStar computer chip lodged in your temple isn't going anywhere. more ›

First, he came for our prescription drugs, but we said nothing. Then, he went for our Prospect Park West bike lanes, but we were still pretty zonked out from the prescription drugs. Now, Chuck Schumer wants to regulate how much arsenic is in our apple juice. This is where we draw the line: it's not a tall glass of apple juice unless we're convulsing with joy! more ›

In another step toward equality for all, the US Senate confirmed James Paul Oetken, a law professor at Fordham, Greenwich Village resident, and openly gay man, to the federal judiciary yesterday. more ›

In the wake of the gruesome Long Island pharmacy murders which saw four innocent people gunned down in a prescription drug robbery, Senator Chuck Schumer is seeking to restrict the number of painkillers doctors may prescribe and increase the penalties for those who steal them. "If the events of last week don't wake us up to the severity of the problem, I don't know what will," Schumer told reporters. "The problem is more serious these days than heroin, than crack, than methamphetamine." Prescription drug abuse has increased 400% in the last decade, and doctors wrote 48% more prescriptions for narcotics in 2009 than in 200, the Daily News reports. Pharmacy robberies have surged 81% since 2006. more ›

While the recession has been over for quite some time now, if there was to be a recession, there's nothing like gambling to give the economy a shot in the arm. Yesterday the Interior Department reversed position on a rule that denied Indian tribes to build casinos "beyond commuting distance from their reservations," which means that the St. Regis Mohawk tribe may get that casino [pdf] 90 miles from New York City at the Monticello Race track after all. Atlantic City was just way too far! more ›

Now that a federal ruling has raised the amount that power generators can get, which would then result in a 12% rate hike for Con Ed customers, on top of another previously-scheduled 4% rate hike, we need a hero to stop this madness. And Senator Charles Schumer is signing up for hero duty: Schumer told the Post that he spoke to the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, "I told him how upset we were about FERC's decision, and how we thought they left out some very key information, and about how we wanted a rehearing. He said there will definitely be a rehearing." more ›

German company Deutsche Börse AG is in talks with the New York Stock Exchange to acquire the NYSE and merge the two companies. But Senator Charles Schumer, aka Wall Street's "go-to-guy," has some demands: NYSE would have to come first in the merged company's name. more ›

With Obama's budget out today, politically hungry Representative Anthony Weiner gave a Schumer-style presser yesterday that focused on how the GOP's alternative budget would directly harm New York City. How much would it hurt us? He calculates it would cost us like, one beeee-lion dollars. more ›

To the joy of Jon Stewart (presumably) and many a New Yorker it appears that the Senate really is going to vote on the 9/11 Health Bill, AKA the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, either tomorrow or Wednesday. The vote comes after its supporters, NY Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, managed to cut the cost of the bill from $7.4 billion down to $6 billion. But how'd they do that? more ›

After Republican Senators filibustered the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act because, well, they wanted to make sure they got their $900 billion in Bush tax cuts, there's been a determined push to get the legislation passed before the end of this year. Now New York's Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer say they believe there are enough votes from Republicans to pass a less expensive, $6 billion version of the bill. more ›

New York Senator Charles Schumer has called upon the Food and Drug Administration to bring stricter punishment against airline caterers who violate health codes. Which, we found out earlier this week, is pretty much all of them. more ›

To no one's surprise, NY Democrats picked Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to run for their Senate seats this fall. According to the AP, "Schumer reported $21.8 million in his campaign account last month and polls put him far ahead of potential Republican challengers," and WNYT says of the junior Senator, "Gillibrand has been considered more vulnerable than Schumer by Republicans, but no prominent Republican is running against her. Polls show Gillibrand leading potential challengers." more ›

Senator Charles Schumer has an op-ed in today's Post, explaining the financial reform bill in the Senate. This comes just two day after Post slammed him and other Congressional Democrats in an editorial, "What's the point of having a high muckety-muck like Chuck Schumer sitting in the US Senate if he refuses to fight for New York's best interests? And that goes double for his hapless little poodle, Kirsten Gillibrand. Congress is poised to rip the heart out of New York's economy -- i.e., Wall Street -- while Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand stand by dumb as fence posts." more ›

Since former Tennessee Congressman and three-year New York resident Harold Ford Jr. announced that he was considering running against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, his candidacy has been met with widespread opposition from Democrats. Backers of Gillibrand are doing everything they can to keep the 39-year-old politician from running — but before we delve into the details, here's a brief primer on this New York newcomer. more ›

Sen. Charles Schumer called on airlines to stop servicing foreign airports with security practices that don't meet American standards, according to NY1. In a move he hopes will close the "gaping holes" in overseas air travel security, the senior Democratic senator wants carriers to report any security issues at foreign airports and threaten boycotts if measures aren't changed. more ›

Senator Chuck Schumer held one of his famous Sunday press conferences yesterday, presumably before spending the rest of the day chilling with Jay-Z and Beyonce at the summer's last Pool Party. The presser was held three days after the National Transportation Safety Board recommended major changes to air traffic over the Hudson River—changes which Schumer says fall short. The senator told reporters that the current regulations are "a mess. There are countless handoffs, gaps and holes in the regulatory authority, and that only leads to trouble." Trouble like the fatal mid-air collision between a single-engine plane and a tour helicopter earlier this month. Schumer is demanding (once again) that the FAA monitor all flights below 1,000 feet (pilots currently use a "see and avoid" strategy), the creation of a pilot training program for commercial sightseeing operations, and fully staffed control towers at Teterboro Airport and at other area airports. Radical, right? The TSB report admitted that the absence of a supervisor from the Teterboro tower at the time of the crash enabled a controller to make a "nonbusiness" cell phone call, which infamously involved joking about barbecuing a dead cat—actually making the genre of dead pet jokes even more inappropriate than ever. more ›

Count Senator Charles Schumer amongst those who want the space shuttle Atlantis to retire at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Following NASA's announcement that they will send three space shuttles to institutions around the country, the Intrepid put their name in the hat. It's now being reported that "Schumer said Sunday he is supporting the Intrepid's bid for a space shuttle and he has appealed to Vice President Joe Biden to make it happen." If it all goes down, the shuttle would be housed in a glass enclosure at the end of Pier 86 around 2012. more ›

Senator Charles Schumer was sounding like a savior today for two agencies recently experiencing major budget woes: the Department of Education and the MTA. Schumer indicated that $1.8 billion of the stimulus bill that arrived in the Senate today should be heading toward city schools saying, "If they were to use that money to prevent massive layoffs of teachers, that would be the intention of what the money is for and that's a good thing." The mayor did not take any stimulus money toward education for granted in last Friday's "Doomsday budget." Schumer also proposed an amendment to the $819 billion stimulus package, calling for money going toward transit to nearly double the allocated amount to around $15 billion. While that money could not go toward the MTA's budget deficit that will likely lead to a fare increase, it could be used towards maintenance and new projects like the Second Avenue Subway. more ›

The last time Chuck Schumer ran for reelection for his Senate seat in 2004, he was victorious by the widest margin in state history at 71% to 24%. Right now it appears that he could top that in his bid for reelection next year. With the mayor going for a third term, Giuliani and Lazio considering a shot at the state house and Peter King already eying the Senate seat now held by Kirsten Gillibrand, Republicans are essentially looking for a jobber to throw up against Chuck. When asked who might run, Conservative Party chief Mike Long said, "If you're trying to ask a 'gotcha' question, I guess you got me." One poli-sci professor described it, "You've got (Muhammad) Ali in one corner and a couple of guys from the high school gym in the other." But with the recent attention drawn to his lax standards for Wall Street before the economic crisis, GOP operative Roger Stone thinks Schumer should be considered more vulnerable saying, "He should be the poster child for the financial meltdown." The last time a Republican won a Senate race in New York was 1992. more ›

The congresswoman whose last name begins with a soft "g" may have to become the senator who reconsiders her hard-lined history against gun control control advocates. That seems to be the one thing we've learned in the less than 48 hours since it was revealed that Representative Kirsten Gillibrand would be named to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate following the Caroline Kennedy fiasco. more ›

Were you one of the 150,000 New Yorkers who came up on the short end of the stick in the statewide lottery drawing to determine who would get tickets to the inauguration next week? Well, Senator Schumer is giving you a second chance. Schumer is giving out another 100 tickets to President-elect Obama's swearing in on the 20th. Thus far, 128 winners have been selected from the city and another 91 from the surrounding areas—including one adorable 4-year-old girl. And for everyone who still can't find a way down to DC to celebrate in all of the festivities, we're still crossing our fingers for Central Park Jumbotrons. more ›

We learn more today about Flatbush-born, "Blago-destroyer" US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. As a leader in going after terrorists since the 1993 WTC attack, he apparently can still recite from memory Osama Bin Laden's 1000-word fatwa declaring war against the US in 1998. Yet another colleague mentions, "He is a disorganized genius—if he didn't remember where things were, no one would ever find it in his office." And did you know that the Regis High School grad was one of People's "sexiest men alive" in 2005? As for his future following the traditional resignation of all US Attorneys at an administration change, Senator Schumer has strongly encouraged new Attorney General Eric Holder that Fitzgerald remain at his post. Schumer said, "(Fitzgerald) has a deserved reputation of being totally non-political and totally on the merits and a tough and strong prosecutor, and I think leaving it in his hands is exactly the right way to go." more ›

Governor David Paterson frequently uses humor to disarm his audiences (we were disarmed in September and he disarmed Stephen Colbert's crowd, too) but he made a splash with an important group of people last night: Members of the Gridiron Club, made up of Washington bureau chiefs of newspapers and networks. more ›

Senator Charles Schumer will hold a lottery to determine which New Yorkers will get to attend the inauguration for President-elect Obama on January 20. Schumer's office has 350 tickets to give out of the 240,000 total. But don't get your hopes too high--over 100,000 requests have already come in. New Yorkers can enter the lottery by faxing the senator's office or registering on his website. The deadline is November 30 and the drawing will be held the first week of December. "The inauguration of a new president is always an exciting event. But I think we all realize that this year is special," Schumer said. more ›

Still angry that a student accused of attacking a fellow student at Binghamton University is avoiding U.S. authorities by staying in Serbia, Senator Charles Schumer said the U.S. should withhold $50 million in aid to the county. However if Serbia turns over Miladin Kovacevic (pictured), it is welcome to the money. more ›

Senator Charles Schumer believes that the oil bills for winter home heating will come as a shock to homeowners. Newsday reports that, based on his office's estimates, Long Island homeowners will have to bear a $966 increase while NYC residents will see a $720 jump. Schumer is working on a bill to help out low income families help cover the bills. The senior Senator from NY also defended his comments on IndyMac, disagreeing with regulators who think his discouraging remarks caused a run on the bank. more ›