Senators and rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama met at the University of Texas in Austin tonight for the CNN/Univision debate. The debate was less a showdown than an "agree to disagree" type affair. You can read a transcript here and clips will start to appear, but, per Austinist, here are some of best lines of the night:

“I have to confess, I was somewhat amused, the other night, when, on one of the TV shows, one of Senator Obama's supporters was asked to name one accomplishment of Senator Obama, and he couldn't.” -- Clinton more ›

Cuban president Fidel Castro resigned his position after nearly 50 years of rule. The 81-year-old Castro has been battling illness since 2006, notably turning over power to his brother Raul and other ministers temporarily. Though he was still ruling after his 2006 surgery, Castro was little seen. Now it is expected that Castro's resignation positions Raul Castro, 76, in line for the presidency. more ›

• Devils 5, Hurricanes 1: To be fair, Carolina was without three of its best players, but even a full-strength Hurricanes team would have had trouble with the Devils. New Jersey allowed only 22 shots the entire game and blew by Carolina for its seventh win in nine games. That makes them tied for the Eastern Conference lead with Ottawa and Montreal and two points clear of Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division. The Senators and the Penguins, however, have a game in hand. Travis Zajac, Mike Mottau, Jay Pandolfo, Johnny Oduya and Zach Parise all took part in the scoring. This was classic shutdown mode for a team peaking at the right time.
• Islanders 3, Sharks 2: If you can't beat the opposing goaltender, why not bloody his face and then get the puck into the net? That more teams haven't tried this method is one of the world's biggest unsolved mysteries. Radek Martinek couldn't get the puck home, but he did do enough damage to Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov's mask that the netminder had to get stitches. He probably should have stayed in the dressing room. Andy Hilbert and Mike Comrie helped tie the game in less than a minute, and then Freddy Meyer did the glamorous work to give the Islanders a home win. They're one point out of a playoff spot, but they've played more games than Buffalo, Boston and Philadelphia, the teams above them in the Eastern Conference standings.

• Rangers 5, Sabres 1: Five days off, but only 10 seconds to score. Sean Avery got the Blueshirts off to a great start and they finally got the taste of Sunday's overtime loss to Washington out of their mouths. "I don't think we expected that great of a start," said Brendan Shanahan. He has to be telling the truth. Who sits at his locker lacing up his skates and says, "I think we'll score within nine seconds"? No one, that's who.
• Islanders 4, Thrashers 1: The Rangers took 10 seconds to score, but the Islanders denied the Thrashers a goal until 77 seconds remained in this one. Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Sean Bergenheim all scored for the Islanders. Don't look now -- actually, it's safe to look -- they've won three straight. Up next: San Jose on Monday. It's at home, so the team won't get lost.
• Devils 3, Senators 2: Jason Kidd was in the NBA's skills challenge, but, even if his trade has fallen through, he still doesn't feel like a true local player. With him as the only such representative in Saturday's NBA festivities -- if not playing defense were a skill, Eddy Curry would have been there -- the Devils had to show off their talent. Arron Asham had as many goals as he has R's in his first name, and Martin Brodeur had 37 times as many saves as he has B's in his last. The Devils won despite finishing a 10-round shootout the night before.

After the national debate about race turned into the national debate about how race discussed in the Democratic presidential campaign, Senators and Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have declared a truce. The stir was caused by Clinton's remarks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts ("Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.") and when Obama criticized Clinton for belittling King's achievements...which then lead to Clinton accusing Obama of making mountains of molehills. more ›

A negative byproduct of the disparities between New York and the rest of the country is that after every Census, Congressional seats are reapportioned based on population. Each state will always have two Senators, but New York is likely to lose at least one seat in the House of Representatives. more ›

But Dubielewicz doesn't deserve all the blame. Ottawa has plenty of talent and the highest points total in the Eastern Conference. After stonewalling to a scoreless first period, the Senators put up three goals in the middle session to suck the drama out of this one. Bill Guerin scored both Islanders goals, with the second coming in garbage time. more ›

Rangers 5 Ottawa 2: The Senators may be in a funk of late, but they still have the best record in the Eastern Conference. That may not last for too much longer as the Rangers beat Ottawa soundly Saturday afternoon, scoring three goals in the first period and forcing a goaltending change. Everything seemed to work for New York as the power play scored twice, Brendan Shanahan had two goals and Blair Betts even got... more ›

Barack may have Oprah, but the stagehands' and writers' union have John Edwards! The former senator, currently in third place after Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination, voiced his support of Local One, the Broadway stagehands union that has been on strike since November 9 over a new contract. Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said, "To interfere with the power of the Broadway community is not... more ›

The current Devils are one of the best teams in the NHL over the past 12 seasons, but that meant nothing as they opened up their new building with a loss. The Senators blew open a 1-1 game after two with three goals in the third and the Devils fell to 3-6-1 on the season. Luckily, they have a lot of home games coming up at “The Rock”. more ›

The Yankees chipped away late in the game with solo home runs from Cano, A-Rod and Abreu, but they could get no closer and they will once again head into next season in search of their 27th championship. Who will be back and who will be managing in 2008 is hard to say right now, but expect a lot of changes in the Yankees’ organization over the next few weeks. more ›

The prominent Democratic party donor and California fugitive Norman Hsu's connection to New York City's New School is examined in the NY Times today. Hsu donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to national Democrats like Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to governors like Eliot Spitzer of NY and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, and NYC politicians like City Council members Christine Quinn and John Liu and City Comptroller William Thompson. Hsu, who had been wanted by California authorities since 1992 for defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme, was going to surrender himself last Wednesday, but ended up on a train to Denver. more ›

A new plan adopted by the FAA yesterday hopes to decrease delays in airports around the nation by 20%. The focus of the plan is on airports in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelpha, where delays can cause a ripple effect on the rest of the nation's air traffic. The Airspace Redesign Project, as the FAA is calling it, is supposed to modernize the systems in the affected airports (Newark, JFK, LaGuardia, and Philadelphia International) and help prepare for the future. Additionally, the FAA says that the project will reduce noise levels for more than 600,000 people, and reduce fuel burn and emissions by 20% by 2011. more ›

The failure of congestion pricing (at least for this legislative session) has cast a pall on NYC-Albany relations. Not least because Mayor Bloomberg spent some time yesterday slamming state lawmakers. He said:

New York City is today poorer because of Albany's inaction yesterday, and I think, sadly, it appears that we jeopardized, at best, and probably lost, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something with someone else's money. more ›

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. more ›

We've had half a day to absorb the news, but it's still kind of crazy that Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to drop his 6-years-old Republican coat for an unaffiliated one. Here's his official statement:

“I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party. Although my plans for the future haven’t changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our City. more ›

Yesterday, the controversial immigration bill proposed by President Bush stalled in the Senate when both Republicans and Democrats could not come to a final vote. The bill, which neither party liked very much for different reasons, represented a historic to change immigration law, and both parties tried to work on a compromise that would satisfy most Senators. Sixty votes were needed to stop debate and move to a final vote, but there were only 45 votes (37 Democrat - including Senators Schumer and Clinton - 7 Republican and 1 Independent) to break the filibuster. more ›

The eight Democratic presidential candidates debated in New Hampshire last night, covering immigration, health care, and, of course, Iraq. Former Senator John Edwards, who is a distant third in the polls, went after Senators Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's voting on the Iraq spending bill, saying, "They went quietly to the floor of the Senate. They were among the last people to vote. They cast the right vote, and I applaud them for that. ... But there is a difference between leadership and legislating." But Obama fought back, pointing out that Edwads voted to go to war in 2002 (the Daily News gave Obama an "A" for his debate performance). more ›

One would think that some New Yorkers were fresh off the boat, or at least had never seen the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer is refused his calzones after attempting to pay in pennies. Everyone knows that merchants frequently won't accept bills over $20 or other denominations; don't they? more ›

Last night, eight Democratic candidates met in the first debate of the already very long road to the 2008 presidential election. And the debate, which included Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Joseph Biden, as well as former Senator John Edwards and Mike Gravel, Representative Dennis Kucinich, and New Mexico Bill Richardson, was more an opportunity to criticize President Bush's policies, versus each other. With eight candidates vying to make the most of the time, it was a somewhat underwhelming debate. more ›