There's been a lot of back and forth about the city's bragging rights to recent high school graduation rates. Sure they're on the rise, but when fewer than 23 percent of graduates are "college ready," does that diploma even mean anything? Now, an audit (below) finds that the city may have been fudging the numbers on high school dropouts. Would it be better to let them graduate? more ›

After suspending his mayoral campaign in March, representative Anthony Weiner has decided to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination, according to a scoop in City Hall News. Democratic Party officials have been increasingly throwing their support behind Controller William Thompson—with the notable exception of Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat, who today announced her endorsement of Mayor Bloomberg. Weiner spent Memorial Day weekend attending three parades, a burst of activity that could have been interpreted as campaign appearances, but a source tells City Hall News that Weiner will formally announce his withdrawal tomorrow. His exact reasons for dropping out are not yet known, but Bloomberg's God-like affluence certainly played a factor. Though the Post had been gleefully attacking the six-term congressman in recent months, it's doubtful their smears broke his will to run; as the Daily News puts it, Weiner "wakes up in the morning looking for a fight." His withdrawal leaves just Thompson and Council Member Tony Avella to fight over the Democratic nomination. more ›

A study conducted by the non-profit group America's Promise Alliance has found that New York City has one of the nation's worst high school graduation rates, ranking 43rd among 50 other major U.S. cities and their surrounding areas. Only 45% of high school students in New York City graduate in four years, while in the surrounding suburbs, the four year graduation rate is 83% more ›

Not only is the NYPD having trouble getting potential recruits to sit for the entrance exam to the Police Academy, but one in five who gain entrance wind up dropping out or disqualifying themselves before they graduate. The end result is that for the first time in years, fewer than 1,000 were officers were added to the force from a graduating class and the size of the NYPD has shrunk to its smallest number in 15 years. more ›

The specter of a Mormon multimillionaire as president has been lifted; Mitt Romney announced his withdrawal from the Republican primary race this afternoon. Romney used his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee to declare: “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win.” Wonkette liveblogged the speech to great comic effect. more ›