Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno announced today that he'll officially resign on Friday. Just three weeks ago the 79-year-old lawmaker stunned when he announced he was leaving office after 32 years in the state Senate (and claimed it had nothing to do with the FBI investigation into his finances). In his statement, he mentioned how he was proud of steering projects that led to job creation and thanked his colleagues, "Now I will bring......

State Senator Joseph Bruno told reporters, "There'll be a vacancy until Assemblyman Roy McDonald gets elected in this district." This suggests the former majority leader will be leaving office before the November election in which McDonald, a Republican, will try to win Bruno's seat. Bruno announced he wouldn't run for re-election two weeks ago, surprising many and giving the Democrats a chance to possibly win over the State Senate. Bruno has repeatedly said his decision......

The highest ranking Republican in NY State, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, announced he would not seek re-election this fall. The 79-year-old released a statement; here is an excerpt (the full statement is after the jump: "Today I met with my Republican colleagues in the Senate and informed them that I will not be running for re-election this November. After 32 years in office, I have decided that it is time to move on with my life and to give my constituents an opportunity for new representation and my colleagues in the Senate who have supported me an opportunity for new leadership."...

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is seeking the dismissal of a civil suit against her filed by Council Member Charles Barron's former chief of staff Viola Plummer. Quinn gave Plummer the boot when the councilman's aide refused to sign a pledge to compose herself while the City Council was in session. The City Hall drama all began when Queens Councilman Leroy Comrie refused to vote in favor of naming a street after black activist Sonny......

Albany county attorney general P. David Soares is taking another stab at the Troopergate scandal by issuing subpoenas for Gov. Spitzer's e-mails to and from his aides, as well as e-mails between aides. Troopergate centered around accusations that Spitzer and/or his top aides used state police to essentially spy on Spitzer's primary foe in Albany--state senate leader Joseph Bruno. The first Troopergate investigation resulted in the resignation of Spitzer's communications director Darren Dopp. The broad......

Former Westchester County District Attorney - and one-time Attorney General candidate and potential Senate candidate - Jeanine Pirro and her husband Al Pirro have announced they are separating. Their statement to the press: "We have agreed to amicably separate. As always, our priority remains our two wonderful children. We ask that people respect our privacy. There will be no further comment." The couple has been married 32 years and have weathered through many years of......

The Governor and the Attorney Genral are not getting along. One would think that Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo would totally be BFF in New York politics. Both are the sons of prominent fathers––one a real estate bigwig, the other a son of a New York Governor. They've got a lot in common. Spitzer held Cuomo's job as state attorney general before becoming Governor. Cuomo's the current attorney general and seems to share his predecessor's......

In a city whose mayor has made gun control one of his signature issues, it's no surprise that the number of registered gun owners has gone down. The Post reports that there are now 36,169, versus 38,000 last year. Permits that allow one to wear a gun on a holster (concealed) also dropped to 2,555, which the Sun says is almost 50% less than the 2004 number. Of course, there's now way to estimate illegal......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at 186th St. and Amsterdam in Manhattan, a child was struck and killed by a car on 130th Ave. and Springfield Blvd. in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck by a Bobcat (motorized work vehicle) on Monroe St. and Catherine Slip in Manhattan. Ironic Sans examines the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and finds specific references to it taking place in NYC, but a......

Reach out and touch someone - and get fired for it, possibly even if you didn't do the reaching out and touching. The nutty voicemail message left for Bernard Spitzer, father of Governor Spitzer, is reassuring everyone that it's just politics as usual in Albany. The elder Spitzer's lawyers believe that the call was made by GOP consultant Roger Stone, who was recently hired at $20,000/month by NY State Republican (he was consulting with Spitzer's......

Dan Rather may have retired from the CBS Evening News, but he's still breaking stories while at HDNet. On his upcoming Thursday night Dan Rather Reports, he will air an "rare sit-down interview" with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where Bloomberg makes it "categorically clear that he will not run for President of the United States, nor will he seek a Vice Presidential bid nor any cabinet position for that matter, something he's never done before." Wow,......

The National Weather Service has confirmed that an EF-2 tornado touched down in Bay Ridge this morning. That category of tornado has winds between 111 to 135 miles per hours, and roofs were blown off buildings and trees fell on top of cars and in the middle of roads. A resident told NY1, "I saw a mass of just leaves turning and it was just dark, like a dark mass. I was afraid and......

Governor Eliot Spitzer think the State Senate's idea to have Attorney General Andrew Cuomo appointed "special prosecutor" - to investigate misdeeds in Spitzer's office - is "pointless." Spitzer told the Sun, "It seems to me that the attorney general already issued a report that he called complete, and Joe Bruno already called it a complete report. We have the Ethics Commission doing its thing." Um, State Senate majority leader Bruno actually wants Cuomo to be......

After Attorney General Cuomo found that Governor Spitzer's staffers were using state police records to attack rival Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, everyone agrees on one thing: It's very bad for Governor Spitzer. In a nutshell, Spitzer's aides, including communications director Darren Dopp, leaked information about possible misuse of state aircraft by Bruno to the Albany paper, the Times Union. Spitzers' aides later claimed that they were investigating Bruno's use of state aircraft because......

Mayor Bloomberg returned from Sun Valley's media mogul conference to stump for his congestion pricing program at three churches yesterday. And today he's headed to Albany, as the congestion pricing program will be discussed by the Legislature. The Bloomberg administration has pointed out that the federal Department of Transportation is pretty willing to give $537 million in funding to NYC if the concept of congestion pricing is passed by Albany lawmakers, but the deadline for......

Why is it that things are hotter in Albany with the Legislative session over? The brouhaha between Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Governor Eliot Spitzer has, as the Sun put it, "reached a new low." Bruno had a press conference yesterday, saying Spitzer's alleged State Police surveillance on Bruno's activities was "espionage." From the Times Union:"I've been in government 31 years and I've never experienced anything like this," said Bruno. "I was stunned to......

Albany seemed to be its usual stagnant self, as the legislative sessions closed on notes of rancor, versus happiness and optimism on the job well done. Many issues were left unresolved, and Governor Spitzer and Senate Majority seem to be rarin' for a fight. Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio notes that "There's been bad blood" between Spitzer and Bruno for a while, which has now turned into a "full frontal assault on Joe Bruno."......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: The 61st Annual Tony Awards (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WCBS 2) If you are a theatre fan you probably know this is already on. If you haven’t seen anything this year, think of this as a highlight reel. It also appears that they have broken tradition and have gone hostless this year. The Sopranos (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., HBO) Undoubtedly this will be the most watched Tony on Sunday,......

A number of politicians offered their support (though not 100%) of Mayor Bloomberg's Voldemort, aka congestion pricing, today. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters appeared with Governor Eliot Spitzer and Bloomberg at a press conference today, with Peters saying, "This plan will keep the city that never sleeps from becoming the city that never moves." She also put some pressure on the state Legislature to approve the just submitted S. 6068, the NY State Senate's......

WCBS 2 reporter Andrew Kirtzman takes up rumors of Mayor Bloomberg wanting to run for Governor (which the mayor denies) by way of looking at how everyone wants to talk about him. Given that he's frequently cited in national publications (writing about gun control in Newsweek, named a Time 100 influential), political consultant Norman Adler says, "Mike Bloomberg is kind of the Paris Hilton of politics. People want to report about him and want to......

He wants to reform campaign finance laws. Spitzer told a group of government reform activists (aka Goo Goos - the good government types) he was negotiating with the Senate and Assembly, but State Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno said, "We've been close for a month, but close, you know, you don't get a cigar," and pointed out that it's easier for Spitzer to introduce campaign finance reform because he's rich (like almost $2 million reported......

The latest Quinnipiac poll about New York politics shows that the public is behind Governor Spitzer and his "Steamroller Style." Sixty-one percent say Spitzer's way is "good for the people"; by gender, men like Eliot a little more than women, with 63% men approving to 57% of women. (Men like a man who gets angry!) Interestingly enough, 59% of Republicans approve of Spitzer's attitude - probably because they are enjoying his fight with Assembly leader......

She may developing a talk show, but that doesn't mean former Westchester DA and failed Attorney General candidate Jeanine Pirro can't be investigated some more! WNBC's Jonathan Dienst reports the federal investigation into Pirro's doings has broadened, with a focus on what occurred during 2004-2005. Last fall, news that state and federal authorities were investigating whether Pirro eavesdropped on her husband made her the scandal du jour during the election (until Driving Mrs. Hevesi surfaced).......

- The men rescued from the Hudson River after their plane went down talk to the media - NJ got snow, we got rain that kept us awake all early AM - Donald Trump isn't running for governor of NY... we hate you Joe Bruno for even floating the idea - The NY Sun is worried about City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's...ideas - TWU President Roger Toussaint uses a messenger bag with his name......

As if things couldn't get worse for Jeanine Pirro, State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has told the Westchester County DA to get out of the race for US Senate. Pirro has been fighting an uphill battle ever since her campaign started with a flub and the more recent news that her fundraising has been less than stellar. In his statement, Bruno said: "I have said from the beginning, and I know a lot of......

Mayor Bloomberg is getting very impatient about the state of the West Side Stadium, asking political leaders in the state to go ahead and approve the gosh-darn thing already. (The gosh-darn emphasis is Gothamist's.) What's funny is that the Mayor wants everyone to ignore Cablevision's lawsuit against the MTA, Jets, and City, which accuses all three entities of colluding to give the Jets the West Side railyard rights. Now, a few state panels need to......

The MTA not only mentioned the fare hike for 2006 but also warned about another fare hike in 2007, due to the budget deficit that will just keeping ballooning. Why is there a crazy deficit ($400 million more expected for next year, on top of the the current $700 million gap)? The lack of city and state aid in recent years. The MTA acknowledges this is a challenge and emphasizes the need for more aid......