What was supposed to be a rainy day now seems more like a category 3 hurricane fund, as the story of the City Council's practice of distributing money to fake community groups unravels. It turns out that since 2001, $17.4 million has been allocated to the fake groups, with $4.7 million set aside in 2007 and 2008. At a press conference, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn explained she learned of the practice last spring and......

According to the NY Post, the City Council Speaker's office has, since 1988, had the tradition of granting money to "phantom" (as in fake) groups. A source explained it gave the speaker "a stash of cash with which to thank or pay off politically important allies or cooperative council members." During 2007 and 2008, $4.7 million has been set aside for thirty different phantom groups. City Council Speaker Quinn told the Post while she knew......

The New York Times takes a look at Rafael Martínez Alequin, who is the publisher of a small independent newspaper and recent evictee from the Blue Room, the room where press conferences are held in City Hall. According to the Times, Martinez Alequin has been antagonizing public officials for years with his questions: Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani once called him a “jerk” and an “embarrassment,” and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller asked him in 2005,......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

A business card may be a reminder for others about how to contact you, but when you're a City Council staffer, watch out! According to the Daily News, back in 2004, when he was deputy chief of staff to City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Michael Nieves gave his card with "his cell phone number and the name and city phone number of another Council employee" to a tenant that a landlord had a dispute with.......

We know that Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn are appearing relatively buddy-buddy on certain issues. But who knew they would agree on a $52.9 billion budget for the city "with a handshake, a hug and four kisses." The budget allows for increased spending for the NYPD and 66,000 more classroom seats as well as another $233 million for programs the City Council wanted to add, like extra money for libraries to remain open......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continued to show how different she is from former Speaker Gifford Miller by backing part of the Mayor's garbage plan. The plan includes creating a recycling plant at pier 52 (near Gansevoort - and right in Hudson River Park, where the trucks are parked), converting the recycling plant at 59th Street and Hudson into a commercial waster station, and then putting a residential waste station at East 91st and the......

- A Gothamist tipper says that there are state troopers turning people away from the Comic-Con. Anybody know anything more? - Remember Gifford Miller? NYU owns him now. - A judge upheld a $2 million jury award for a couple whose stillborn infant was discarded before the family could conduct a religious burial. - "A child welfare worker was arrested after screeners at Kennedy International Airport found two glass crack pipes in his carry-on......

The City Council is considering increasing the number of terms members serve from two to three, without voter input. Outgoing City Council speaker Gifford Miller says that the limits should stay (or that voters be consulted) but wait! Miller got the increasing-the-number-of-terms machine working himself. Blog PO Boss has been tracking the term limits issue, trying to remind New Yorkers why this is a big deal. Its sibling blog, Backroomie, has been following other City......

If there is one thing that your average group of politicians can agree on it would be a general dislike of term limits. So it should come as no surprise that if you put a bunch of politicians with voter-referendum-imposed term limits onto a governing body, say a City Council, they would do their darndest to nix those limits, or at least reduce them, without involving their constituents. Which is exactly what is happening, the......

Perennial outsider political candidate Christopher X. Brodeur has been arrested (for the 20th time). Here at Gothamist we're treated to a few of Chris' amusing emails every week. We've always enjoyed reading them, because he hates politicians from both political parties (this picture is from last year's 9/11 Commission hearings, right before he was dragged and thrown out), as well as most journalists (especially those at the New York Press, where he seems to......

Fernando Ferrer gleefully accepted the Local 1199 (the biggest health care union) endorsement and invoked the tale of David and Goliath. Meaning Mayor Bloomberg is Goliath, a Goliath built of money. Ferrer also asked Bloomberg to not spend so much and "Come on out and go mano a mano with me." Gothamist is unsure whether or not Bloomberg would know what mano a mano is; Bloomberg seems to be all about the minions. The Times......

Well, would you look at that: When the four Democratic mayoral candidates bands together and supports Fernando Ferrer, the Bloomberg campaign gets worried. Ferrer was joined by C. Virginia Fields, Gifford Miller, and the runner-up in the primary, Anthony Weiner, in what Newsday called a "unity ritual" at City Hall, to show that the city's Democratic party could hold hands and that only they could fight the billionaire Mayor. The Mayor's team scrambled to......

- Fernando Ferrer holds hands with Anthony Weiner, Gifford Miller and C. Virginia Fields at City Hall and fail to do the Voltron formation - Two students were shot in the Bronx this afternoon; one was a 10-year old bystander on her way home from school - After being forced out of the state Bridge Authority, the father of one of Pataki's advisers sues Pataki and two advisers for "attempted bid-rigging, cronyism and using the......

It's deja vu all over again! In the recent Democratic mayoral primaries, runoffs were threatened and this year's was no exception as campaigns squirmed in too-close-to-call limbo. While former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer has essentially 40% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff, he's about 0.04-0.05% short of a perfect, unequivocal 40%, which translates to a handful of votes. And Congressman Anthony Weiner, who has 29%, will be demanding that every vote......

Okay, here's a 11PM check on the votes: With 5999 precincts of 6033 precincts reporting, it seems like Fernando Ferrer has a 39.99% of the vote, with Anthony Weiner snatching up 28.9%. C. Virginia Fields has 15.89% and Gifford Miller has 10.19%. That is some ouchy for the Miller campaign. If these numbers hold, then there will be a runoff. Ferrer originally had a pretty substantial lead (with 500-some precincts reporting, his lead was......

Okay, so it's crunch time for the Democratic mayoral candidates, with just hours until the polls open tomorrow and New Yorkers (hopefully) go and vote for a Democratic candidate. Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer received an endorsement from Reverend Al Sharpton yesterday, which helps his frontrunner status, but many polls show the Congressman Anthony Weiner is right at Ferrer's heels - and that Ferrer still might not be able to avoid a runoff. While......

And since this is the last weekend before the primaries, what kind of New York City group-blog would Gothamist be without yet another post on the current state of the election. A few highlights: -Anthony Weiner has jumped into a statistical dead heat with Fernando Ferrer, which could mean a runoff. -Al Sharpton is going to endorse Ferrer in an attempt to prevent said runoff. -District Attorney Robert Morgenthau got a bunch o' endorsements.......

"And, like, these really annoying kids, you know, the Democrats? Like, they will not get off my back! I mean, I'm going to win this election, 'cause I'm the richest kid around...I just want to say, 'Listen, yo, I'm taking you down...'": Gothamist's imagining this conversation Mayor Bloomberg with some students at Queens Vocational High School in Long Island City. Seriously, how must it be to sit next to the Mayor at lunch? Probably difficult......

It was the Democratic mayoral hopefuls' second-to-last-debate-gasp to get in some good punches, but it was actually kind of boring because the answers were 25 seconds. Former Bronx Borough President and frontrunner Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Congressman Anthony Weiner mainly tried to attack the Mayor whose popularity with Democrats is confounding their campaigns. And with Hurricane Katrina very much the top story of the news,......

- A sheep escaped slaughter by heading to a Queens cemetery - How does sugar make the land dirty? That's not quite answered, but Curbed explains more about the Red Hook sugar factory sale - We're so confused: The Observer's poll says Gifford Miller is second to Fernando Ferrer (yesterday the Marist poll said Weiner was second)... but the runoff will probably happen - And speaking of Miller, that $1 million he used for "legal......

On what was surely one of the most beautiful "last day of the summer" in recent memory, millions of people celebrated in Brooklyn at the 38th West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade. While people with roots in the Caribbean were the main participants, they weren't the only ones: The NY Times reported that "four rabbinical students donned do-rags with the colors of the Jamaican flag." And Gothamist's favorite quote comes from Newsday, where......

The NYC public schools start this week and the Daily News looks at how they need to open smoothly in order for Mayor Bloomberg to prove that he's fixing the school system. There are 73 new small schools opening, but teachers have been without a contract for 2 years. Columbia professor Jeff Henig says, "You can put your money on the fact that the Democrats will have their antennae up," as in, if anything......

As the disaster that is the wake of Hurricane Katrina understandably continues to dominate the media, the Times takes a look at what the sudden dearth of local news coverage will do for the September 13 Democratic Mayoral Primaries. Candidates have historically depended on a slow Labor day news cycle in order to attract attention for one last media blitz. This year was no different until Katrina hit. Suddenly Miller, Weiner and Fields, who......

The NY Times paired their article, "Many Democrats Prefer Bloomberg, Poll Finds," with group photo op with all four Democratic candidates. The photograph by Librado Romero catches them in the middle of a press conference after touring distressed buildings, and they look out of sorts. Sure, they are each doing something - Anthony Weiner (holding an adorable moppet - rule #1 of politics - find a child to pose with if you don't have......

A woman passed out not once but twice during the Mayor's press conference about Summer Success Academy. During the woman's second collapse, Mayor Bloomberg actually "rushed to her side," perhaps concerned how it would look if a constituent, though a government employee in the Department of Education, fainted twice during his speech. And luckily the woman woke up a few seconds later - no need for CPR or anything! No word on whether or not......

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields is featured in the third mayoral hopeful profile from the NY Times (which means we'll be reading about Congressman Anthony Weiner next week). The article notes that she's nice, "immaculately turned out," and, so far, not very firm when it comes to taking sides in a issue. The article is filled with examples of Fields's good nature but not exactly distinctive political career:When Percy E. Sutton, the Harlem business......

With a day to think about Tuesday night's Democratic debate, people are wondering what will happen at the next debate. Will the candidates be able to emerge as distinct candidates? The NY Times has the optimistic outlook, with pundits thinking that things can only get more exciting. Well, we can always hope the candidates will wander off message - our bet's on C. Virginia Fields to do that first. But Fields did sound the......

The first official Democratic candidate mayoral debate took place last night with all four candidates, including Congressman Anthony Weiner who had been passed a kidney stone earlier in the day. After that, we can only imagine the debate was a walk in the park! The NY Times has a transcript of the debate, but there's nothing like seeing City Council Speaker Gifford Miller get all pissy when asked if he would send his kids......

Gothamist learns something new everyday! In today's NY Times profile of City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Gifford Miller, not only did we find out his first name is Alan, it turns out that Miller is also the one who worked on the "investigation into vastly understated calorie counts in some of the city's best-selling frozen yogurt brands" a few years ago! Oh, to be living in those simple days again. The Times also says......