As part of the deal to advance congestion pricing (and nab the $354 million the feds are offering), the city and state have announced their appointees to a panel to, ur, study congestion pricing and develop a recommendation. The Mayor, Governor, City Council, State Senate Majority Leader, and State Assembly Speaker each get to select three appointees, while the Senate minority leader and Assembly minority leader each select one. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Today we are......

- Man fatally stabbed at the Mill Basin Home Depot this morning - Curtis Sliwa took the stand during the Junior Gotti trial today: "I figured I had seconds, maybe minutes to live." - Other mob news: John Gotti secret family gets their 15 minutes - Former deputy mayor Marc Shaw, who was replaced (to his surprise, perhaps) by Patricia Harris will now work for real estate concern Extell; we expect Extell to milk Shaw......

Lately, there have been a spate of articles about Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris. The Mayor recently said that Harris, who is apparently one of his best pals, would be in charge of the city when he leaves town. Which is like almost every weekend he can - if Gothamist had our own island in Bermuda, private jet, and $5 billion fortune, we'd probably go too - which means she's pretty damned powerful. (She replaces......

Dunh dunh DUNH: Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki are doing their Ground Zero development dance, with Bloomberg naming four people onto the LMDC board, including Dan "NYC 2012/West Side Stadium" Doctoroff, and then Pataki named two new people of his own: His economic adviser Charles Gargano and former FBI-bigwig James Kallstrom. The Post says the Gargano and Doctoroff have clashed before, so we can only look forward to some well-planted leaks about the other guy......

In a forceful display of making officials employees realize they are not better than regular New Yorkers, Mayor Bloomberg is, per the Times headline, "Yanking Sirens and Lights From Cars of 255 City Officials." This comes after WCBS reported Deputy Mayor Carol Robles-Roman's abuse of them. Gothamist wants photos on Mayor Bloomberg going from car to car, with Hulk-like rage, tearing out the sirens and lights. There are still 73 civilian cars with lights and......