While nobody knows exactly what Brooklyn mascot Borough President Marty Markowitz is going to do when his third term ends, we can now confidently say one thing the 67-year-old isn't going to do: run against Yvette Clarke for Congress this year. Earlier today Crain's floated the idea that "Brooklyn's biggest booster could soon be on the warpath to Washington." But the idea was quickly shot down by Marty's office. more ›

The race for Rep. Gary Ackermans' Congressional seat is on: While Assemblyman Rory Lancman has been public about his interest in running, Queens Democrats have tapped Assemblywoman Grace Meng as their candidate. The redrawn Congressional district—the 6th—would be 37-40% Asian. more ›

Apparently Ackerman's news was a surprise, at least to Democrats. Like Assemblyman Rory Lancman who was thinking of running for Congress, but then he'd have to primary against Ackerman, so Lancman said yesterday that he wouldn't run. The Daily Politics reports, “Lancman was blindsided. He had spent 45 minutes with Ackerman earlier in the day and this never came up... Gary hadn’t given Rory any indication that he was bowing out today, and Gary called in chips to get other people to pressure Rory to bow out.” more ›

New Jersey's first black Congressman, Donald Payne, died today at age 77. The Democrat, who had been serving the state's 10th congressional district for the past 23 years, had been suffering from colon cancer. more ›

The Vietnam veteran who spotted an SUV packed with explosives while selling handbags in Times Square last year is now running for Congress. Duane Jackson was one of the street vendors who first noticed the Nissan Pathfinder parked on Broadway by 45th Street with its motor running and smoke coming out of it. He alerted police immediately, and was soon hailed a hero, feted by government officials and even receiving a phone call from President Obama. "Kind of going back to that whole May 1st (2010) incident, as I step back, it kind of changed my perspective of where I am in my life right now," Jackson tells LoHud.com. "This is my time to get involved and I’m going to." more ›

Last month it was revealed that the charity of a mystical rabbi to the stars spent $77,000 on a three-week rental in the Hamptons. Now, the Times reports that the followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto were allegedly strong-armed into illegally donating over $500,000 to Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm's campaign fund. Ah, so that's how mysticism works. more ›

With a vote on the measures looming, organizations like NY Tech Meetup—the organizers of today's protest—are moving at maximum Mbps and seem to be connecting with Congress; the bills are losing sponsors faster than MySpace is losing users. more ›

In a blow to the forces who would keep you from illegally watching The Scorpion King 3 this frigid weekend, the Obama administration has signaled that they will not throw their weight behind the cheerfully abbreviated anti-piracy legislation known as SOPA. more ›

Whether it's refusing to use a national tragedy as a xenophobic soapbox, keeping their genitals out of the public eye, or nobly declining to have sex with prostitutes while wearing diapers, we can always count on our elected representatives to put aside petty differences and do what's right for America. But shocking new data shows that Congress has lost touch with average Americans and has grown richer over the last several decades, at a faster rate than even the richest 10% of the country. more ›

Coupon clippers, keep your eyes peeled for great savings on the country's hottest new Congressionally sanctioned treat: horse meat! Yes, that's right, Congress has just lifted a five-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, which means that horse slaughterhouses in the US could be up and running in the next month. more ›

It's official: the bipartisan Congressional supercommittee charged with coming up with a compromise of budget-cutting (entitlement-slashing) and new revenue (taxes) has failed. Because the twelve lawmakers couldn't even come up with a way to call a press conference, the two chairs released a statement saying they were "unable to bridge the committee's significant differences." But enough of the doom and gloom: check out these AMAZING Black Friday deals! more ›

Great news for the youth of America: the government, which may very well be run by cheese-loving 12-year-olds, has decided that pizza totally counts as a vegetable. more ›

The ailing Postal Service, which is laying off employees and shutting down post offices left and right in the face of a crippling budget deficit, announced more bad news today: the agency might straight-up run out of cash by September 2012. more ›

Politicians win elections and earn their salaries by promising their constituents things and then explaining later why those promises were broken. This is in the Constitution, or Federalist 35 or something. But what happens to voters when they've been pushed to the very brink of insanity by a corrupt, inane political system and a rotten economy? According to new polling by the ABC News/The Washington Post, we're about to find out in 2012! The data shows it will involve a lot of misery, culminating in a campaign that is "a dramatic shift from the hope-and-change enthusiasm generated by Obama's first run for the White House." more ›

Many economists believe that president Obama's $447 billion jobs bill will help stimulate the economy—albeit not quite as much as the administration is predicting—by bolstering the GDP and creating or keeping at least 275,000 jobs. To pay for the plan, the president has asked the wealthy to dig under their manatee-leather couch cushions and be taxed as much as middle class folk. New York Senator Chuck Schumer thinks this is a bad idea. "The main hangup is not the jobs bill itself," Schumer tells the Daily News, "[Obama] proposed ways of paying for it that are probably not the best way to garner the votes. We're looking for better ways." Schumer then began furiously scratching a stack of Instant Take 5s. more ›

While the country fervently wrings its Chris Christie t-shirts anticipating the announcement of the New Jersey governor's 2012 run, let's take a moment to meet the noble white billionaires who would make the dream possible. more ›

Despite the recent (possible) location of his spine, President Obama's "numbers" continue to tumble. A recent Gallup poll shows that 56 percent of respondents believe Obama is "about the same" or "worse" than President George W. Bush. It's also worth noting that nearly 30 percent of people polled don't know who the Vice President is, and 73 percent didn't know what the "Cold War" was (Häagen Dazs vs. Breyers, right?) 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 ›

The Post Office, rapidly becoming one of the country's most endangered creatures, continues to dwindle on the brink of existence today, with word coming from Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe that he plans to slash jobs for some 35,000 postal workers. more ›

So Bob Turner won the special election for Anthony Weiner's old seat and today was his first day on the job. How long did it take the former TV executive to make a gaffe? Oh, no time at all! Cue the C-SPAN! more ›

Bob Turner, a Queens businessman, crushed the presumptive heir to Anthony Weiner's vacated House seat yesterday, winning the 9th Congressional District by a margin of more than eight percent (with 84 percent of districts counted just after midnight). Republicans are characterizing the special election victory as a stern rebuke of President Obama, and a sign that White House is theirs for the taking. Turner's opponent, David Weprin, has not yet formally conceded, but last night Turner told his exultant supporters: more ›

Neither wind, nor rain, nor sleet nor hail, nothing will stop the US Mail. Except maybe Saturdays. And a crippling $9.2 billion budget deficit. While some have been warning of the closure of one of America's greatest institutions, most of us have been sending crappy e-cards to Grandma and refusing to set foot in those "crowded" post offices (but we'll wait 2 hours for Shake Shack?). Now, the Times reports that the United States Postal Service will be unable to make a $5.5 billion payment due later this month and may completely shut down this winter unless Congress does something fast. HAHA get it? Congress? Fast? more ›

With its namesake on vacation, the O'Reilly Factor has some big, shouty shoes to fill. Who better than Laura Ingraham? And for maximum ratings, Bill's bookers found a nice, corrupt, Congressional barrelfish for yesterday's show. Note to Charlie Rangel: FOX is not the same as a subpoena, you don't actually have to appear on it. more ›

After the failure by both parties to advance their catastrophe-sparing legislation to raise the debt ceiling beyond the House of Representatives, Senator Mitch McConnell told reporters this afternoon that a default on U.S. debt "is not going to happen," and that he's "confident and optimistic" of an "agreement within the very near future," based on his recent telephone conversations with President Obama and Vice President Biden. Speaker Boehner agreed, telling CNN, "In spite of our differences, we're dealing with reasonable, responsible people." HAHA he'll be here all weekend, people! more ›

Since Anthony Weiner resigned there has been much murmuring about who would take his probably lame-duck Ninth District seat come the special election on September 13. And today we are a little closer to the answer. The Democratic nominee for the seat will be...Assemblyman David Weprin, brother of City Council Member Mark Weprin and son of the late former State Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin. more ›

Anthony Weiner has said he's going to stay firm in his decision not to resign—but do his constituents even want him? On the heels of Weiner's teary press conference yesterday, reporters rushed to the seven-term Congressman's Brooklyn and Queens district to find out what the people think, and the answers they found seem directly related to who was asking. more ›