For the last time, if you don't have something nice to say, then don't put it on Facebook. A first grade teacher in Paterson, New Jersey was suspended after writing on Facebook that she felt like a "warden" overseeing "future criminals." Parents started arriving at the school to complain, and the school is now conducting an investigation. Board president Theodore Best said, "You can't simply fire someone for what they have on a Facebook page; but if that spills over and affects the classroom then you can take action." more ›

Yesterday, Gov. Paterson commuted the sentence of John White, the Long Island man who was convicted of killing a teenager in a racially-charged 2006 incident, saying he wanted to "ameliorate the profound suffering that occurred as a result of this tragic event." But maybe he should have spoken to the parents of victim Daniel Cicciaro Jr. before announcing his decision. "In retrospect, I would have sought the family's input," Paterson said today, after speaking with the Cicciaro family for nearly an hour about the situation. more ›

Gov. Paterson has been in office for nearly 34 tumultuous months since he took over from hooker-aficionado Eliot Spitzer in March 2008. Between the almost-scandals, the actual-scandals, and the SNL-parodies, it was in his own words, "very challenging, very difficult, very painful at times." Now that he'll be handing the gubernatorial baton off to Andrew Cuomo in January, he and the media have started the process of excavating his short term in office. And he's already given an exit interview with New York Now. more ›

This week Thirteen.org takes their City Concealed series to... Paterson, New Jersey! Earlier this year Hinchliffe Stadium was named the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places; it's vacant, dilapitated, and one of only three remaining Negro League stadiums in the country. In 1933, the New York Black Yankees started playing home games there, and continued to for a decade. Paterson voters approved a ballot initiative to renovate the stadium, and currently money is being raised to restore and rebuild it—if that happens, the public school system would use it, as well as the community (for concerts, and other entertainment reasons). Learn more below... more ›

Governor Paterson has had it up to here with all the arguing about the Islamic community center and mosque planned for Lower Manhattan. Yesterday he all but begged everyone to just drop it for the next week, out of respect for 9/11, the Jewish New Year, and the upcoming Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Of course, Paterson's request for a moratorium has nothing to do with the upcoming primary elections, he simply wants one lousy "week of peace." Is that so much to ask? The governor told reporters: more ›

While yesterday's Marist poll found that 53% of New Yorkers oppose constructing the Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, a closer look at the numbers reveals that Manhattan residents are solidly in support of the project. 53% of survey respondents in Manhattan—that island in elitist, unreal America where the thing will actually be built—are for the Islamic center, with 31% opposed and 16% undecided. Majority rules! And that's the last we'll hear of the mosque controversy; it's been a real blast, folks. more ›

The developer of an Islamic community center and mosque near the World Trade Center site doesn't seem too keen on Governor Paterson's offer to find a new location for the project on state property away from Lower Manhattan. Yesterday Paterson offered to look into trying to provide them with state property at a distance from Ground Zero to "accommodate a better feeling among the people who are frustrated." (Newt Gingrich's No Mosque Zone will come in handy here.) Last night the developer, Sharif El-Gamal, politely declined. more ›

You've got less than two months to stock up on threads before the taxman jacks up the price by 4%. Well, we had a nice run. The sales tax on clothing purchases under $110 was eliminated in 2007, but like all things it's back in fashion again. As part of a compromise to get a budget passed 125 days past deadline, lawmakers voted to approve $1 billion in new taxes, including the reinstatement of sales tax on clothes. But Governor Paterson says he's not happy about it, because data shows that sales taxes on necessities hurt the poor most. more ›

Here's what's happening stagnating in Albany: Yesterday, as promised, Governor Paterson spent six hours hunched over a table vetoing by hand 4,700 earmarks that the legislature had included in an education bill. These items, commonly known as pork, range from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars, and "are typically distributed by lawmakers to nonprofit and civic organizations in their districts," the NY Times reports. There was a web-cam set up to watch the "veto-palooza," as the Post puts it, and today Paterson is expected to finish the job by signing another 2,200 line item vetoes. more ›

Every week since Albany failed to meet its April 1st budget deadline, Governor Paterson has sent a one-week extender budget over to the legislature, which passes it in a up or down vote (they can't modify it). But lately Paterson's been including controversial items, like the cigarette tax, into these bills, forcing lawmakers to approve it or shut down the government. And next week, Paterson may go through with a "nuclear-option bill," which would include even more of the changes that the lobbyists have worked so hard to stop, like the dreaded soda tax. more ›

Back in February, remember how Paterson dropped his election campaign in the midst of an ever-widening scandal regarding his alleged attempts to silence a woman who accused his top aide of beating her? We haven't heard anything on that in a while, and according to the Times, "Paterson has yet to be questioned, and a date has not even been set for him to be interviewed." Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recused himself in March and turned the case over to Judith S. Kaye, who took the case for free and says, "I’m just plugging ahead." Meanwhile, Paterson's aide, David Johnson, is facing "financial hardship" because he's been suspended for more than three months and unable to collect unemployment. Your heart just bleeds for him, doesn't it? more ›

With Albany still trying to work out a budget two months after it was due, there's a little more than the usual dysfunction, because now there are threats of a government shutdown and some classic personal slams. Speaking of the latter, here's what Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. said of Governor Paterson, "We cannot let an unelected lame-duck governor that no one in the state wants to actually decide this [budget] by himself in a piecemeal fashion." more ›

With New York State operating without a budget for the past two months, have you ever wondered how the government is still, ha, "functioning"? Well, every week Governor Paterson sends a one-week extender budget over to the legislature, which passes it in a up or down vote (they can't modify it). This is pretty much business as usual, but things are about to get dicey, because Paterson is now threatening to include the budget cuts he proposed in January in the temporary spending bill he'll submit to lawmakers tomorrow. "I'm taking over," Paterson told reporters. "I'm not going to sit here and watch this debate go on and on." more ›

Backing down from the furlough plan, Governor Paterson announced he is creating a plan that would lay off thousands of state government workers, just like the Lt. Governor warned. He will be asking agencies to pick positions that could be eliminated on January 1st—the day his no layoffs pledge expires. Paterson said, "It's the only way we're going to get $250 million in work force reductions from public employees...The reality is right now it takes a long period of time to schedule the layoffs. I want this ready to go for the next governor." more ›

Just a few days after a ribbon cutting for a new park in Chelsea, Governor David Paterson will introduce a bill later today that would keep all the state's parks and historic sites open with regular hours until next March. Pols and residents alike are happy about the news, with Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari saying, "It's great. He's listening to the public, which has been outraged over the park closing. I give him credit for acknowledging it." However, the bill does come with a catch: to fund the parks, the Legislature would have to cut $6 million from the Environmental Protection Fund. more ›

After applying jumper cables yesterday to his perpetually pop-blocked plan to levy a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugary beverages, Governor Paterson's soda tax proposal may already be fizzling out. Paterson had hoped his latest compromise—which would except diet soda and beverages from the tax—would win over beverage industry execs and the legislators riding in their pockets. But a spokesman for Senate Democrats told the Daily News, "While we applaud the effort to reduce health risks, we want to provide New York families with tax relief, not add to their burden." Fun facts: The budget is now 51 days late. The state's got a $9.2 billion budget gap. A soda tax would raise an estimated $815 million. If you wash down Pop Rocks with Pepsi you will explode. more ›

In order to "significantly reduce expenditures," Governor Paterson has halted overtime payouts for all state agencies. The new measure would save the state just under $20 million of the $9 billion in debt, but Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook told the Daily News, "As we continue to turnover [sic] every stone, this is one of those things." There have been a few cases of overtime abuse in the past few months, and last year overtime spending cost taxpayers $433.3 million. The legislature has already approved Paterson's emergency spending bill, which calls for furloughs on 100,000 state workers. more ›

Remember Governor Paterson's defeated plan to raise a billion dollars by levying a penny-per-ounce excise tax on soda and other sugary beverages? It's still in play, despite repeated cash roadblocks thrown up by the beverage industry. What brought it back from the dead this time is a compromise, floated by Paterson, that would exempt diet sodas and bottled water. The new proposal would mean less revenue for the state ($815 million) but it seems to be Paterson's best last hope to wrench that bottle of Fanta from your cold, diabetic hands. Of course, the beverage industry has a thing or two to say about this latest "compromise." more ›

Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver accused Paterson of dragging his feet with the budget (gee, ya think?) because he's worried he'll be a lame duck when it goes through. He said at an Alliance for Downtown New York meeting, "Some have suggested that, given that his remaining time in office is running out, the governor's unwilling to do a budget now for fear that he will become irrelevant in the public arena." Though he later specified that this is just what "some people think," he said, "I'm meeting with [Paterson] today in an attempt to break an impasse and trying to move forward in the budget process." So he does admit it...a bit! more ›

With a federal judge temporarily blocking Governor Paterson's move to force state workers to take one day unpaid furloughs, other options are being considered. Yesterday the Governor was opaque on how the state might operate without a budget when the money runs out at the end of the month, but Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch hasn't pulled punches. On Tuesday he said that if furloughs were ruled illegal, the Paterson administration might simply lay off state workers. Paterson has not ruled out that option, and yesterday he said he was determined to fight for furloughs. more ›

A federal judge has blocked the mandatory, one-day-a-week unpaid furloughs of NY state workers which was approved by the state legislature Monday. Yesterday, three unions filed lawsuits requesting an injunction against the furloughs, which would have begun next week. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn says that until he rules on the lawsuits, the state is temporarily blocked from implementing any furloughs, the AP reports. In his decision, Judge, um, KAAAAHHHN said that the unions have shown a permanent 20 percent loss in wages or salaries would constitute irreparable harm. At press time, it was unclear if this court order means Paterson's publicists can get their raises again. more ›

It's common knowledge that blind people are supposed to have superior hearing, but apparently Governor David Paterson is utterly tone deaf. One day after the Legislature approved his emergency budget plan to force 100,000 state workers to take unpaid furloughs, news broke that members of Paterson's staff are getting $70,000 in raises. But maybe he can probably hear just fine, and this is just one of the privileges of being a lame duck—no need to keep up appearances anymore! Ironically, four out of the five staffers receiving raises are members of Paterson's press team. more ›

Furloughs: They're not just for soldiers and prisoners! Starting next week, some 100,000 state workers could be required to take a one day, unpaid furlough from work. And as you can see from this photo of a massive protest outside the State Capitol yesterday, they are not happy about it. more ›

Needing to make $250 million in public workforce cuts, Gov. David Paterson suggested instituting furloughs for over 100,000 unionized state workers yesterday. Though the policy's legality is being questioned, Paterson defensively insisted that this is the move to make, saying, "Nobody thought I could appoint a lieutenant governor and I did. The courts sustained it. I’ve been sued before. I think that the collective sacrifice is preferable to individual layoffs at this time." more ›

Governor Paterson announced today that he would be creating a panel to review the cases of legal immigrants facing deportation due to past convictions. The panel would make recommendations to the Governor's office based on how old or minor the conviction is, or if the applicant had showed signs of rehabilitation. Paterson said in a press release, "We hope this initiative will help set an example for how to soften the blow in those cases of deserving individuals caught in the web of our national immigration laws. We hope it will prove that justice can always find a way." Hmm, wonder who he wants to set an example for... more ›

Though he's facing scandal after scandal, Gov. Paterson says his plight is just the plight of every person in that office. He told the Wall Street Journal recently that he's merely a scapegoat for the state's problems, and that all the issues were really the Legislature's fault. Ok, valid point, but he takes the pity party a little too far. "Whether the governor is David Paterson or Rick Lazio or Andrew Cuomo or Superman, we don't have a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict." Superman? C'mon, he would totally have paid for his own Yankees tickets. more ›

A day before its death sentence, the city's Off Track Betting Corporation voted to keep the bankrupt gambling agency open for another year. After thinking the OTB was dead, Gov. Paterson came to the rescue and agreed to a temporary plan that would "share the burden" of the OTBs debts and allow gamblers to place bets online. Over 1,300 jobs were at risk if the organization had closed as planned, and all OTB locations would have been shut down. Staten Island should be thrilled. more ›

Gov. Paterson is planning to offer legislation today to bail out the Off Track Betting Corp. for one year. The Post reports the proposal would keep the OTB from having to make some payments to tracks, while requiring them to cut management and create new revenue sources. Paterson said, "It will address the problems for some period of time, but the feasibility of the program working, we have not found the solution. Basically what it does is it shares the burden." more ›

The investigation over Gov. Paterson's free World Series tickets is not over, and now the Yankees may face a $25,000 fine. According to the Daily News, Public Integrity Commission executive director Barry Ginsberg said they haven't yet ruled out sanctioning the team. Though they have not been charged yet, Ginsberg said, "We've said publicly ... this investigation is not over." more ›