Results tagged “senatorcharlesschumer”

Not to be missed: Yesterday's lengthy NY Times article about Senator Charles Schumer, which explores his relationship with Wall Street—namely how he made sure to protect the industry industry "from government oversight and tougher rules, a review of his record shows... He has also helped save financial institutions billions of dollars in higher taxes or fees." (The article is part of the Times' "series...exploring the causes of the financial crisis.") Though Schumer touts himself as a middle class defender, his support of Wall Street and hedge funds goes way back. One financial industry executive amusingly summarized Schumer's reassurances during the bailout talks: "We are not going to be a bunch of crazy, anti-business liberals. We are going to be effective, moderate advocates for sound economic policies, good responsible stewards you can trust.”

Governor Spitzer is facing opposition in his attempt to snuff out any Javits Center expansion by selling land surrounding the center to fill budget gaps. The administration still plans to renovate the convention center, but it will result in far less space than what was originally envisioned for the expansion, which would have cost between $1.8 billion and $3 billion. Senator Charles Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn oppose the land sale, which would effectively eliminate the possibility of any future expansion.

Last year we visited 1520 Sedgwick Avenue's past and uncertain future. The "Birthplace of Hip Hop" was, and still is, in danger of losing its lifeblood when the landlord (BSR Management) announced they wanted to abandon the Mitchell-Lama program. Essentially buying out of the program and leaving the doors open for a rent increase. Then things got worse when BSR made it clear they would be selling the building to a real estate mogul Mark Karasick, which was set to happen next month.

Just the kind of thing needed for everyone to continue questioning in the current air traffic control situation at area airports. Two planes almost collided on Sunday at JFK Airport. Senator Charles Schumer said that an air traffic controller said, "That was the closest I have ever seen two airplanes get together." According to the NY Times (also, see image at right), a "37-seat commuter jet" almost collided with a "Boeing 747 cargo jet on...

Democrats Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Dianne Feinstein joined nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and approved the nomination of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to go to the full Senate. The vote was 11-8, the eight opposing votes from the remaining Democrats on the committee. His confirmation is expected next week. Mukasey - and his supporters - has faced criticism after not declaring waterboarding illegal. Schumer has an op-ed in today's NY Times...

Senator Charles Schumer's latest crusade? Trying to keep the national Do Not Call registry list extended so New Yorkers and other Americans won't have to deal with re-registering.

Senator Charles Schumer issued another annual report card grading the Department of Homeland Security's efforts. The good news is that the grade is up from last year's C-minus. The bad news is that Schumer still gave it a C, noting, "Six years after 9/11, the progress the Department of Homeland Security has made in securing our country is shameful," and "When your kid comes home with a C on his report card on something vital, you're not very happy...That is not a grade we can be proud of."

This is some way to start off the week before Labor Day weekend: U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned. The NY Times reports, per a White House source, that Gonzales called President Bush (who was at his ranch in Crawford) on Friday to submit his resignation: "His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch." Bush apparently accepted the resignation "grudgingly."

You may have many opinions of Senator Charles Schumer. A man who gives weekly press conferences by way of making the rounds on Sunday morning news shows, someone who will "put a bullet betweens the president's eyes," the senior Senator of New York, orchestrator of the Senate's shift back to the Democrats, husband of a recent Department of Transportation commissioner, imaginer of middle class couple the Baileys, cereal hog. But defender of hedge funds' and private equity firms' desire to keep their low tax rate? Who knew?

If you want to feel a little uncomfortable about how the Federal Aviation Administration is doing its job, read today's NY Times story about a near-miss at LaGuardia. Two weeks ago, a Comair Delta 50-seater and a Delta 737 were within a "few hundred feet" of colliding. A trainee had allowed the smaller plane to cross the runway, just as the 737 was descending to the very same one:

As the 737, Flight 1238, rolled down the runway at more than 150 miles per hour, an alarm flashed on a radar screen in the tower and someone realized a dire mistake had been made, according to details provided by officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the pilots’ and controllers’ unions. “No delay, no delay,” a controller shouted to the pilots of the regional jet, urging them to hurry across.

Continue reading "Planes Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close at Laguardia"

Chertoff but were unable to convince him to raise New York's anti-terror funding. Secretary Chertoff repeated said the he was not there to talk about money, but Spitzer says, "he knew we were going to raise" the issue. Yeah - if you're a federal official walking into a room with the Governor and Senators of a state that has been vocal about how the government has shortchanged it, you can guess what will be discussed.

Starrett City, the subsidized housing development in Brooklyn, was sold for $1.3 billion in February, but for the second time, the Department of Housing and Urban Development rejected the deal. The February sale needed to be approved by HUD, because Starrett City is the country's largest subsidized development, and shortly after the sale was announced, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo got to work on blocking the sale.

As long as the air traffic controllers union is trying to get more controllers hired, we have a feeling we'll be hearing more stories like this one: According to the Post, there were five "near collisions" at NYC area airports last month. The head of the air traffic controllers union Phil Barbarello said, "Air travelers should be seriously concerned about their safety. The margin of safety is as low as I have ever seen, and I've been with the agency [FAA] for 23 years." Eek!

Fifth Avenue was packed with revelers and performers during the 50th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. Celebrities, like "King" Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, were out in force, as were the politicians, including Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Eliot Spitzer, Senator Charles Schumer, Representative Jose Serrano, and Puerto Rico governor Anibal Acevedo-Villa.

The Daily News and Post both use the alleged JFK Airport terror plot - that would have involved blowing up the airport's fuel oil pipeline - to move papers: The cover of the Daily News teases an interview with a waitress who served an "alleged mastermind" (cover headline: "Evil Ate at Table Eight") while the Post wonders about the whereabouts of one of the alleged plotters (headline: "Invisible Man"). The story doesn't crack the NY Times' front page, though the Times' big story is how the plot was "less than mature" based on the criminal complaint. In fact, apparently two of the plotters were ambivalent, and the retired JFK worker allegedly involved, Russell Defreitas "appeared to possess little money, uncertain training and no known background in planning a terror attack," although he did dream of "of inflicting massive harm."

Finally, the stats to back up what we know: NYC area airports have had more delays so far this year than in 2006. New data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that delays have increased by 140.6% at JFK Airport, when comparing April 2007 to April 2006. The delays at LaGuardia are up by approxmiately 35% and delays at Newark are up by 21%.

Yesterday, Caroline Giuliani graduated from her private high school, and the tabloids were on hand to note the seating arrangement: Mother Donna Hanover, step-dad Ed Oster, and brother Andrew Giuliani were sitting near the front, while father Rudy Giuliani and step-mom Judi Nathan sat in the balcony.

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is urging New Yorkers to be careful of ticks while spending time outdoors, especially since many are traveling to forested and wooded areas. The DOH's report has helpful preventative steps you can take, as well tips on how to remove ticks. And this FAQ on ticks has more info about the nasty buggers.

A bus headed from Chicago to NYC's Chinatown crashed early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania. Thirty-six people were on board as the bus was going eastbound on I-80 near Clearfield, Pennsylvania; the AP reports the bus "ran off the right side of the two-lane highway before veering left across the roadway, running up an embankment and flipping onto its side in a grassy area."

Mamadou Somare, the Malian immigrant cab driver whose wife and four children were killed after last week's devastating Bronx fire, will be able to bury his family in Mali and return to the U.S. Soumare's status was unclear: Though an illegal immigrant, he had applied for asylum many years ago; earlier reports suggested he either missed a court date or did not file the necessary paperwork.

A reader snapped this picture from the protest against the NYU College Republicans' "Find the Illegal Immigrant" game in Washington Square Park today. College Republicans president Sarah Chambers denied the event was racist and told the Washington Square News, "The event will open up both vocally and physically the issue of illegal immigration." She added, "The media response was much larger then I expected - the NYU response was no."

The $1.3 billion deal for Brooklyn developer Berkshire LLC to buy federally subsidized Brooklyn housing complex Starrett City may be blocked by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cuomo announced that his office will enforce an injunction barring the lead investor David Bistricer from completing "certain real estate for life and will not permit the conversion of any of the property to cooperative apartments." Cuomo's statement was pretty damning, calling Bistricer's real estate history "sordid" and saying, "The material I turned over today should be enough to ban him from this deal at the start."

Findings that led to the court order against Bistricer include that he failed to disclose the terms of refinanced mortgages in amendments filed prior to the auction of apartments he owned, a violation of the Martin Act. He was ordered to pay $450,000 in restitution to residents and $50,000 to the State Attorney General’s office.

Continue reading "Cuomo and HUD Attempt to Block Starrett City Deal"

This is good to know as well as spooky stuff from Senator Charles Schumer: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark air traffic control towers are understaffed by 30%. Newark has 29, when it should have 40 air traffic controllers; JFK and LaGuardia each require 36, but JFK has 30 and LaGuardia only has 27. That sounds really great, especially since NYC had the worst airport delays of any airports in the country.

In the wake of President Bush's Wednesday night address to the country, when he announced that he will send thousands of more soldiers to Iraq, hundreds of people protested the plan. They convened at the tiny island in the middle of Times Square in front of the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station, with signs like "Stop the funding, stop the war" and "When government lies, Democracy dies" with drivers passing by honking their horns. Some protesters were dressed as Guantanamo prisoners. Of course, there were counter-protesters; one sign said, "Warning: Leftist protesters trying to demoralize our troops." No arrests were reported.

Here is part two of our semi-chronological look back at the top stories this past year (here is part one):

Though canvassing is still being done in Virginia in the Senate race between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat challenger Jim Webb, the AP and other news organizations named Webb the winner, with his narrow margin of 7,000 votes over Allen. And the Democrats seized that news excitedly. The NY Times reports Senator Charles Schumer, who headed the Democratic campaign to take back Senate seats, as saying,"It is virtually 100 percent that Webb is going to win the race. I think you can say without any hesitancy or doubt that Democrats are going to be the majority party in the Senate."

Since many of New York State's elections were runaways, the real election action was seeing how the House and Senate would turn - with the Democrats taking control of the house, which makes Nancy Pelosi possibly the first female Speaker of the House. The control of the Senate is still in question - votes are being counted and re-counted in the Virginia and Montana races (Democratic challenger John Tester has a narrow lead over incumbent Conrad Burns in Montana; Senator George Allen trails Democrat Jim Webb by just 6,000 votes). In one of last night's too-close-too-call elections, with incumbent Jim Talent conceding to Democrat Claire McCaskill.

Senator Charles Schumer is all over the city's skies. Regulating them, that is. In the wake of the Upper East Side plane crash, Senator Schumer is asking for the FAA to make more changes. His ideas? Make a "Trusted Flyer" program which would require pilots to register their planes and submit to background checks before flying in local airspace. Schumer said, "It's a little bit like E-ZPass, in a certain sense." Uh, yeah. He added, "The problem here is that the FAA is focusing on accidents - that's very important - but they neglect terrorism altogether."

Investigators have spent the hours after a plane, carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, crashed into an Upper East Side building gathering evidence from the street. Federal transportation investigators believe that the single engine Cirrus SR 20 was trying to make a U-turn when it turned left over the East River, based on something either Lidle or Stanger told an official at Teterboro Airport. According to radar, the plane had flown over the East River at an altitude of 700 feet and was at 500 feet a quarter mile north of 524 East 72nd Street.