Only in Albany can you be nominated to head the Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, and start doing work for the government - while still working for a private sector energy company! The state inspector general released a report explaining how this actually happened with former PSC nominee Angela Sparks-Beddoe last year. Sparks-Beddoe was President for Energy East, a utility in Saratoga Springs, when Spitzer nominated her early last year. She was still working......

Photograph of the crowd outside the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home by David Karp/AP Yesterday, over a hundred people - made up of "fans, reporters and photographers" - waited outside the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, where the body of actor Heath Ledger had been kept since ME's autopsy. Ledger had been found dead in a SoHo apartment by his masseuse and housekeeper on Tuesday afternoon. The cause of death is inconclusive, but he......

Notwithstanding a massive steam explosion that horribly burned some New Yorkers and shut down a large section of midtown Manhattan for weeks, neighborhood blackouts that have left thousands in the dark and without air conditioning in the heat of summer, and occasional stray voltage leaks that have electrocuted people and pets, Mayor Bloomberg feels that Con Ed is doing a decent job and customers should be willing to pay extra each month to the utility.......

An exhibit at the main branch of the New York Public Library is drawing outrage from Republicans because some of the work on display depicts former and current members of the Bush administration posing for fake mug shots. Each official in the visionary series, called “Line Up”, is seen holding a slate with a date of arrest corresponding to a date when the official said something about Iraq that was not “reality-based.” Matthew Walter,......

The State Public Service Commission is fining Con Ed $18 million for failing to meet reliability standards during the nine-day Queens blackout last year. PSC Chairwoman Patricia Acampora said, "Hopefully, this order today will send a message to Con Ed that they must be diligent in their efforts to maintain a reliable network, or they will face financial consequences." As far as we're concerned, it seems like Con Ed got off easy. Especially when they......

On Monday, the Citizens Union released a report revealing that City Council members have used $1 million of their council budgets to pay for advertising, even in election years (which is prohibited), over the past five years. You can read the report here (PDF), as well as peruse the variety of ads, from public service ads (PDF), community event ads (PDF), and local news ads (PDF). Some Council members say the adds are important......

It was only half of what Con Ed was asking for, but employees of the State Public Service Commission (PSC) recommended that the utility be allowed to raise rates by the highest amount in the company's history. ConEd wanted to raise rates by $1.2 billion and the PSC officials said that it recommended a hike of $618 million. The New York Times reports that the recommendation was made by members of the PSC's professional staff,......

This is exactly the sort of thing we like learning: Many more NYC light poles are found to have stray voltage versus upstate's light poles. The Public Service Commission issued a report with data from Con Ed and other utilities and relayed these reassuring stats from the 2005 and 2006 periods:Hazardous currents found on 176,000 NYC light poles (sampling of 3.5%): 6,000 Hazardous currents found on 134,000 upstate light poles: 947Con Ed defended itself by......

After questions about whether Con Ed would be able to maintain objectivity when testing equipment from the area of July 18's Midtown steam pipe explosion, a State Supreme Court judge ruled that the utility could test a steam trap. Earlier, a state regulator suggested there could have been build-up in the trap, caused it to malfunction and causing the explosion. A lawyer representing the person most critically injured from the explosion, 21-year-old Gregory McCullough who......

A state regulator says that a steam valve was not working prior to the July 18 steam pipe explosion in Midtown. The Daily News reports that in 2006, a "steam trap" type of valve was installed, but some recent post-explosion tests showed it wasn't working. The valve is "supposed to drain water out of the steampipe to prevent a catastrophic condition called 'water hammer,' which causes water to slam into itself with incredible pressure."......

Mayor Bloomberg will walk across the street from City Hall tomorrow morning to report for jury duty at Manhattan Supreme Court. It won't be his first stint in the jurors' box. Bloomberg reportedly has served state jury duty five times since 1981. The Daily News reports that he served in 2001 on his 59th birthday "when he was openly flirting with running for mayor but was not an official candidate." The Manhattan Supreme Court handles......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft emergency at Laguardia Airport in Queens, a carjacking on 7th Ave. and 115th St. in Manhattan, and a pedestrian fatally struck on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn. The director of the Public Theater's production of A Midsummers Night's Dream suffered four broken ribs and a collapsed lung after falling through a trap door at Central Park's Delacorte Theater during a rehearsal this week. Do not adjust the controls......

Last week, the Mayor and other city officials announced a new public service campaign to highlight the new penalties for illegal gun possession in New York, such as longer mandatory minimum sentences of 3.5 years. Citizens Crime Commission of NYC president Richard Aborn said during the press conference, "Almost 70 percent of murders in New York City are committed with firearms and the vast majority of those weapons are illegal." As it happened, there were......

Covering Coverage Wednesday’s steam pipe burst had a bit of overkill on the coverage, especially with WABC’s decision to pre-empt ABC’s World News (they did go to it briefly during the 7:00 hour). By 6:30, when WCBS and WNBC prudently went to their respective network’s newscasts to give viewers a chance to catch up on the national and international news, the important points of the story were covered – a. it was not a terrorist......

We're getting reports of a blackout on the Upper East Side, from the East 60s up to Harlem, on Third Avenue (mostly about transit blackouts) and York Avenue in the 80s. Subway service is affected - the 4/5/6 line is down. A reader whose friend was at Randalls Island says a Con Ed station exploded. UPDATE: 4PM WNBC reports that the outages are all along the East Side. OEM says "transformer explosions caused at......

"I'm New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead." That's how Corzine starts off a public service announcement to remind people to buckle up. Corzine is the current poster boy for bad seatbelt behavior: He wasn't buckled up when his SUV - which was traveling at 91 MPH - crashed on April 12, and he was critically injured, breaking many bones and lost half his blood. He remained on a ventilator for......

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg traveled back to his Massachusetts roots and gave the commencement speech at Tufts University. Bloomberg, who grew up in Medford, name checked various haunts in the hood, tried to seem with it by mentioning Busta Rhymes, Ali G, and Salma Hayek, and reminded kids to call their mother. He also discussed free speech, in what the Sun called a nod to the Minutemen incident at Columbia: The fourth lesson is, in......

We love scurrilous political gossip! The NY Post's Fred Dicker says that Mayor Bloomberg wants to run for Governor in 2010! For some reason, Mayor Mike thinks that Albany might be his kind of town. A "senior" Republican source spills the beans:"On two occasions in recent weeks, the mayor brought up the possibility of running for governor, of running against Spitzer in 2010. "He's saying he can do for the state what he did for......

The Wall Street Journal won two Pulitzer Prizes today, the most of any newspaper this year. The Journal's honored articles were for Public Service (the backdating of stock options by executives) and International Reporting ("its sharply edged reports on the adverse impact of China's booming capitalism on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution"). The NY Times won for Andrea Elliott's three-part series on a Brooklyn imam, while Newsday's Walt Handelsman won for editorial cartoons. And......

Last week, the city released 247-page report that offered a "mild rebuke" to Con Ed over last summer's blackout. Two outside lawyers from Couch and White wrote the report that finds Con Ed did some things wrong, but felt criticism over not shutting down the LIC Network (which many critics think would have shortened the blackout) was unjustified, because no one knows if that would have helped things. The NY Times summarized the key......

The other day, we were listening to the radio and heard an ad with Wesley Autrey, the city's beloved subway hero! Autrey has done a series of public service announcements with the city's health department to encourage New Yorkers over 50 to get screened for colon cancer. From the DOH statement: "I’m an average New Yorker over the age of 50 who could be at risk of colon cancer," said Autrey. "That’s why I’m joining......

We can't figure this out! Apparently former NJ Governor James McGreevey wants custody of daughter Jacqueline AND child support from ex-wife Dina Matos. The last time we checked, McGreevey was living in a 17-room mansion with his boyfriend Mark O'Donnell, a financier. And he wrote a book that could pay some of the bills, we think. According to the Star-Ledger, Matos makes $82,000 as the executive director of the Columbus Hospital Foundation. She has over......

Rikers inmate David Brown who engaged a hit man to behead Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and blow up police headquarters was arraigned on charges of criminal solicitation yesterday. Brown, with a long rap sheet - 14 felonies out of 30 convictions - mentioned that he wanted to kill Kelly to another inmate, who called in a tip to the Crimestoppers tipline. When an NYPD detective posed as a hit man and spoke to Brown, the......

Queens Assemblyman Michael Gianaris accused Con Ed of placing its own PR needs above basic needs of customers. Gianaris says that the utility spent over a half million dollars to shore up its image after last summer's Queens blackout. He argues that money should have gone towards increasing reimbursements to businesses, whose reimbursements were capped at $7,000. Con Ed's response? "Advertising in local papers . . . is an important means of communicating our......

A couple weeks ago, the state Public Service Commission released a report that slammed Con Ed over the Queens blackout that left 174,000 people without power for over a week. The PSC wrote that Con Ed "failed to fulfill its responsibilities under Public Service Law." Now, the State Assembly has issued its own report, which one member slipped to the NY Times, and that report takes the Public Service Commission to task as well......

If you want to read an incredibly damning indictment of Con Edison ever put to 185-page PDF, we highly recommend reading the Public Service Commission study (here's the PDF) of what happened during last summer's Queens blackout. Our favorite summary of the major screw up that was Con Ed's response is Con Edison’s performance in preparing for, and responding to, the outage event was deficient, a gross disservice to its customers. Or is it......

At the podium with his highest approval ratings ever, Mayor Mike gave his annual State of the City address and outlined an agenda that will dictate his last three years in office and most likely, his legacy. Some of these items include passing $1 billion in tax cuts (including $750 million in property tax and eliminating sales tax on clothing and shoes), improving the school system, pursuing anti-gun laws, and continuing development projects across......

The NY Times has a nice profile of Amanda Burden, the influential Department of City Planning commissioner whose policies will shape the city for years to come. Burden boasts a quiet, behind-the-scenes role in development across the five boroughs, including large-scale projects like Ground Zero, the Atlantic Yards (she supported downsizing it) and the High Line. She’s also overseeing the largest planning push since 1961 - so far, City Planning has rezoned approximately 4,500 blocks,......

Days away from becoming Governor, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer appointed twelve people to head various state agencies, including the Port Authority and the MTA. Well, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, a Pataki appointee, says he's not leaving just yet, but it seems like Elliot Sander (pictured), who was made the executive director and CEO of the MTA, will eventually take over the chairmanship. Sander is currently a corporate senior VP at transportation engineering firm DMJM Harris but......

The NY State Ethics Commission said that State Comtroller Alan Hevesi did violate state law by having a state driver chauffeur his wife. And now it seems that Hevesi is more likely to resign now with this finding. The ethics panel report also found that Hevesi underestimated how much he owed back for the driver and lied about his wife needing a driver because of security concerns - and that the state driver Hevesi hired......