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,......

Photograph of Fidel Castro from 2006, proving he was alive after intestinal surgery and wearing an Adidas tracksuit 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......

Photograph of the Devils' Zach Parise battling with the Hurricanes' Scott Walker along the boards of the Prudential Center by Bill Kostroun/APDevils 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......

Photograph of the Rangers celebrating as Buffalo Sabres player Ales Kotalik skates away by Frank Franklin II/AP 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......

Raptors 109, Nets 91: If this is a sneak preview at life after Jason Kidd, it wasn't pretty. Well, even if this isn't a sneak preivew, it wasn't pretty. The Nets never led and trailed by as many as 30 north of the border. Then they got word that the Kidd deal may not be done yet. Thanks to the veto of Devean George, who was in the deal to balance out contracts and not......

Nets 87, Bucks 80: For one night at least, Jason Kidd did his best to help the Nets get maximum value in a trade. The Nets also proved that even they couldn't find a way to lose a weak team playing without its best player (Michael Redd). The fans cheered loudly for Kidd before the game, so they either want him gone -- and are cheering his efforts to leave -- or love him so......

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......

Knicks 89, Pistons 65: Fans leaving Madison Square Garden on Sunday night had to be asking each other, "Where are the Knicks and what have they done with them?" Normally New York outscores its opponents by 18 in a quarter only when it is down by 25 or so. But the Knicks' 28-10 advantage in the third period helped them put this game out of reach from one of the Eastern Conference's elite teams. Zach......

While the United States' population grew almost 1% this year and is expected to top 303 million people at the end of 2007, New York State's population grew at less than one-tenth the rate, increasing only .08%. States in the Sunbelt, like Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas, experienced much faster population growth. A negative byproduct of the disparities between New York and the rest of the country is that after every Census, Congressional seats are......

Senators 5, Islanders 2: Any time Wade Dubielewicz is seeing significant time in goal for the Islanders, things can't be going that well. He made 32 saves -- but allowed five goals -- as the Senators romped past New York and snapped the Isles' three-game winning streak. Dubielewicz played because Rick Di Pietro sprained his ankle in Wednesday's win over Toronto. The No. 1 goalie is day to day -- aren't we all? -- and......

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......

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......

Ottawa 4 New Jersey 1: It’s been 25 years since the original Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey and Wayne Gretzky called them a “Mickey Mouse organization”. That team struggled to establish an identity in an area with a historic franchise and, at the time, a franchise that was the best in the NHL, but they managed a 3-3 tie in their first game in their new building. The current Devils are one of the......

Devils 6, Thrashers 5: Down 4-2, the Devils decided to take action. They scored four of the next five goals, including Patrick Elias' game-winner with 28 seconds remaining, to avoid their fourth loss of the season. When a team's goalie's saves is twice the number of goals scored by his team, something's wrong. Martin Brodeur made 12 saves on 17 shots but stayed in the game. This comeback loses some of its luster when the......

Cleveland 6 Yankees 4: The 2007 Yankees’ season ended as it began, in disarray. Chien-Ming Wang didn’t make it out of the second inning and while Mike Mussina was reasonably effective, he left with a 6-1 deficit. Meanwhile, Paul Byrd managed to shut down the Yankees’ offense. Somehow, Byrd pitched around 10 base runners in five innings and the Yankees squandered numerous opportunities to score. In a way, that was the story of this......

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......

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......

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. "And [we] demonstrated once again that Albany just......

Yesterday, Governor Spitzer, Senator Charles Schumer, and Senator Hillary Clinton had a meeting with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael "[I have a] gut feeling...we are entering a period this summer of increased risk" 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......

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......

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......

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.......

Senators 3, Devils 2: Scott Gomez's pair of goals couldn't save the Devils, who went out of the NHL Playoffs with a whimper by losing the conference semifinals series in five games. New Jersey just couldn't light the lamp enough in this series, and Martin Brodeur wasn't the best netminder. That title belongs to Ray Emery, who made 27 saves Saturday despite being in a car accident the day before. Ask any Devils fan if......

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? Apparently not! The New York Times has an article today over a man so incensed his local Chinese restaurant wouldn't accept pennies as payment––not for......

Senators 3, Devils 2: The good news is that the Devils scored. When that qualifies as a positive development, things probably aren't going well. They didn't score enough, and now they are facing elimination and a 3-1 series deficit. The pivotal play came when Dany Heatley took a shot from the right boards and knocked it into the net off Martin Brodeur's skate, giving Ottawa a 2-1 lead at the time. Hot goalies often win......

Senators 2, Devils 0: So much for the momentum of an overtime win from Saturday. New Jersey looked sluggish and couldn't cash in on its scoring threats. The Devils now trail this series two games to one. They had only 25 shots overall, went 0-for-5 on the power play and wasted another solid effort from Martin Broduer. Game 4, set for Wednesday, becomes almost a must-win. Marlins 9, Mets 6: Things aren't going right if......

Devils 3, Senators 2 (2OT): Things appeared to be going according to plan for the Devils. They jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in a game they needed to avoid an 0-2 deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinals. That plan got broken when Dany Heatley tied the game with 26.4 seconds left. The first overtime was ripe with chances -- tired skaters lead to open shots -- but the Devils needed to the......

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......

Senators 5, Devils 4: Few teams hold leads as well as the Devils. Unfortunately for them, that skill doesn't translate to recovering from early deficits. New Jersey trailed for all but 90 seconds of this game and found itself down by four goals at the 16:39 mark. Goalie Martin Brodeur didn't get pulled, but it didn't matter. Patrick Elias missed the game with a cold, but the Devils will need a better start to win......

After spending a week healing their wounds, the Rangers head into the second round of the playoffs tonight rested and ready. They will need to be at the top of their game to beat the Buffalo Sabres, a deep and talented team with plenty of guys who can fly all over the ice. Sean Avery has vowed to make every check hurt and the Rangers are going to need to put hits on the Sabres......