Results tagged “stateattorneygeneral”

On Wednesday, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo crashed Fashion Week when he announced an indictment against the former superintendent of the 26th Street Armory. James Jackson had solicited bribes from fashion darling Marc Jacobs (pictured), who allegedly complied in order to secure the coveted armory space for his fashion shows. The Armory is considered a "community asset" whose space is to be used by the military and public.

A New York State appellate court ruled that under the federal concept of the "marriage recognition rule," which grants reciprocity to the bond of marriage formed in other states, it will recognize gay marriages solemnized in other states. As one of the largest states in the nation, this is a huge step for proponents of normalizing same-sex marriages. Gay marriages still aren't allowed in New York State, although a young mayor in New Paltz, NY attempted to go forward with that initiative, but marriages performed elsewhere will be granted legal status. It's a bit of legalistic court-leading-the-horse, but gay rights proponents seem pleased.

With Martin Tankleff's recent release (after 17 years behind bars) and the appointment of none other than New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor in the murder investigation, there's more attention paid to who may or may not have been responsible for the murder of Seymour Tankleff and his wife Arlene in 1988. At the time, prosecutors pegged the cold-blooded killing on their 17-year-old son Martin, claiming that the distraught teenager copped to killing his parents in hope of getting an early inheritance.

Today, Governor Spitzer is giving his second State of the State Address. Which makes us recall last year's State of the State.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 1st Ave. in Manhattan, a possible abduction at 183rd St. and Webster Ave. in the Bronx, and a homicide on Cedarcroft Rd. and Home St. in Queens.
• A student at Stony Brook University was arrested for falsely reporting to police that he had been robbed at knife point on the Suffolk County school's campus.
• The newborn found by skateboarding teens on a Queens dumpster has been found a foster home for Christmas by the Administration for Children's Services. 'Christina Noel' was three hours old when discovered naked and stuffed in a paper bag with her umbilical cord still attached.
• Former State Attorney General and current Governor Eliot Spitzer issued the first pardon of his tenure in order to prevent the deportation of a man who was convicted and served time for robbing a payroll office. Gov. Pataki only issued one pardon his entire 12 years in office, and that was to comedian Lenny Bruce, after Bruce was dead.
• A stenographer reading back testimony in the case of a black man accused of killing a teenager he feared was going to lynch him or his son, had to leave a court room in tears. Deliberations in the racially charged trial continue with the jury saying it is deadlocked and the judge is threatening to to hold over the 12 through Christmas day.
• Dozens of buildings have to be re-inspected because city officials found that there were cracks in a pair of plumbers' resumes. The two men overstated their qualifications to install life-saving sprinkler systems.
• Profits may be down because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown (excluding Goldman Sachs) and investment firm stocks may be in the toilet, but Wall St. bonuses are up 14% from last year. Bear Stearns CEO Jim Cayne didn't even bother showing up for an investor conference call, however, after he gave up his bonus for the firm's not-so-hot performance.
• The lawyer who is auctioning off one of the Knight Rider cars identified as KITT, suspended the auction because he found the interest overwhelming. Tasked with ameliorating the car's owner's debts, it was his first foray with eBay.

Albany county attorney general P. David Soares is taking another stab at the Troopergate scandal by issuing subpoenas for Gov. Spitzer's e-mails to and from his aides, as well as e-mails between aides. Troopergate centered around accusations that Spitzer and/or his top aides used state police to essentially spy on Spitzer's primary foe in Albany--state senate leader Joseph Bruno. The first Troopergate investigation resulted in the resignation of Spitzer's communications director Darren Dopp. The broad subpoena recently delivered to the Spitzer administration seeks public and private e-mails that may show the Governor pressured Dopp to perjure himself during a sworn statement.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on Monument Walk in Brooklyn, a stabbing on West 31st St. in Brooklyn, and a stabbing on Hughes Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Cops are looking into the death of a man who was found unconscious in the bathroom of the Knitting Factory. They're deeming the incident suspicious.
• A Columbia University hunger striker was carried off a couch after passing out from hunger. Meanwhile, a group of drunken students handed out fliers articulating (presumably in lieu of verbally) why they thought eating was a good thing.
• New York poker players are feeling nervous after last week's late-night holdup that left one player dead.
• News crews with cameras are the wrong people to get into hysterical parking rage incidents with.
• Former Congressman John Sweeney was pulled over on the NY State Thruway after he was observed driving erratically. State Troopers had no comment on the identity of the 23-year-old woman who was accompanying Sweeney when he was pulled over and later registered a BAC of .18.
• Federal regulators feel their toes are being stepped on by NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has initiated an investigation into federally guaranteed mortgage finance companies Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae.
• On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, armed forces veterans marched up Manhattan's 5th Ave. to commemorate those who have served.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at the Washington Mutual on Sheepshead Bay Rd. in Brooklyn, a worker fell into the water off Pier 11 on Governor's Island, and a bank robbery on 57th St. and Broadway in Manhattan.
• Additional charges could be in store for the woman who allegedly shot a Staten Island commune leader before fleeing to Philadelphia.
• Maya Rudolph is not returning for the new season of Saturday Night Live
• New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office is cruising Facebook.com for underage hookups, in order to file charges against the online social networking site.
• Is there a mad firebomber in Park Slope, endangering Subarus, garbage cans, small animals and Eve Ensler's privates? Brownstoner readers are worried.
• A 28-year-old woman was killed while crossing Houston St. this morning. A truck knocked the young woman out of her shoes and pinned her as she was crossing 6th and West Houston at 7:15 a.m.
• Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens was scratched from the series against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, including tonight's start. Kei Igawa will start in place of the high-priced hurler with the hurt hamstring.
• Six New Yorkers were awarded MacArthur Genius Grants.

Carolyn Goodman, a clinical psychologist and civil rights advocate, died at age 91 at her Upper West Side home yesterday. Goodman's son Andrew and two other men, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, were working to help blacks register to vote in the South in 1964 when they were killed by the KKK in Philadelphia, Missipppi. The murders later became the basis for the film Mississippi Burning, and the NY Times' obituary of Goodman explains the deaths also were "widely seen as helping inspire the historic civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act the same year."

Alan Hevesi recently hired a new lawyer and adopted an aggressive stance to battle accusations that he misused his position as New York State Comptroller, who oversees the state's $157 billion pension fund, for personal financial benefit. Last week, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was investigating whether Hevesi used his tenure as Comptroller to financially benefit from the many financial firms that vie to profitably manage a slice of the enormous pension fund.

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.

Columbia University has agreed to let its financial aid office monitored for five years as well as pay $1.125 million to a national fund aimed at financial aid education for students and families in a settlement with the NY State Attorney General's office. In April, AG Andrew Cuomo revealed that financial aid officials at universities had recommended with one student loan organization, as the same officials held stock or other advisory positions at the loan company. Notably, emails between the director of undergraduate admissions at Columbia, David Charlow, and Student Loan XPress were particularly damning, as well as his thousands of dollars in stock options. Charlow was fired last month.

After months of investigation from the State Attorney General's office, Columbia University has finally fired the director of undergraduate financial aid David Charlow yesterday. Charlow had been suspended last April when his "questionable financial ties" to a student loan company were revealed: Charlow was an adviser to Student Loan Xpress, owned stock in the company, and actively encouraged students to use Student Loan Express as a lender. Then the Post printed this excerpt from an email from Charlow to Student Loan Express's CEO Fabrizio Balestri yesterday: "I want by its design to lead the students to [the] best decision in an idiot-proof way." The best decision being Student Loan express.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a cyclist struck on Fresh Meadow Lane and 67th Ave. in Queens, a water rescue north of the GW Bridge in Manhahattan, and someone fatally jumped from a building on West 15th St. in Manhattan.
• The NYPD will boost efforts to get citizens to respect their authority by mounting Big Wheels Segways at beaches and parks this summer.
• Satellite radio duo Opie and Anthony have been suspended for laughing at the prospect of the Queen of England and Condoleeza Rice being violently raped.
• The last public figure who blamed NYC for the 9/11 attacks just died yesterday, so Rudy Giuliani tensed at the mention of an opponent's platform, probably out of concern for the guy's safety, when a candidate reiterated the allegation.
• Andrew Cuomo doesn't give a crap if the Dell Dude did attend NYU. The new NY State Attorney General is suing over allegedly deceptive advertising practices by the computer company.
• Plans for a new Hunts Point House of Detention in the Bronx have been arrested, as the owner of the illegal dumping ground adjacent to Rikers Island claims it's worth is $375 million and the City is considering eminent domain. We honestly do not know who to root for in this one.
• Seeking to rein in governmental waste, The New York Times reports that Albany lawmakers are seeking to rein in government authorities, in a colossal waste of publicly funded irony and spent credibility.
• We wonder if it's child abuse to expose an infant to Paris Hilton's spread-wide-open legs. Only time will tell the eventual damage.
• Because the military isn't experiencing enough heat these days, an F-16 fighter jet dropped a flare that ignited a good portion of the Garden State.

The executive director of Columbia's undergraduate financial aid office was suspended after the school - and NY State attorney general's office - found "questionable financial ties" to student loan company Student Loan Xpress. David Charlow sits on an advisory board for the company (as do two officials from UT Austin and USC who are also under investigation), and received stock options as compensation.

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"

...Al Pirro, who did not appear during wife Jeanine Pirro's concession speech for the NY State Attorney General race. Pirro, who had 40% of the vote to Andrew Cuomo's 57%, gave her speech to a crowd of 100 supporters in Manhattan. The Empire Zone says that her spokesman did not ask her why Al was not there. Huh, we guess even her staff knows some topics are off limits.

...but the truth is, Andrew Cuomo still leads her by 19% in the State Attorney General's race, according to a Quinnipiac poll. The Post does headline the news as "Jeanine Nibbles Into Andy's Enormous Headline" since she imrpoved by 4%, from 52-29 to the current 50-31. If the scandal is improving name recognition for her, she'd need to have a Congressional page scandal to make any more headway.

That thud you heard this afternoon? The jaws of Jeanine Pirro's campaign staffers. It turns out that Republican candidate for NY State Attorney General Pirro is under state and federal criminal investigation. WNBC's Jonathan Dienst had the scoop: State and federal agencies were looking into whether Pirro eavesdropped on her husband, who she suspected might be cheating on her. (Well, he did father a love child a couple years into their marriage.)

Interesting statistical news from the Department of Education today regarding the state of our city's public schools. Under the so-called No Child Left Behind act 185,016 New York City students in 287 schools were eligible to apply to transfer from their underperforming schools this year - that's about a fifth of the students in the charge of the DoE. But while the number of children eligible is up from the 183,960 who were eligible last year the number who actually applied to do so (10,832) is down from last year (11,011). Of those who applied, 6,451 have had the move OK'd by the DoE with 90 percent being allowed to choose their new school. While the DoE is definitely breaking the law by only allowing roughly 60 percent of eligible students to transfer it should be noted that they managed to do much, much better this year than last. In 2005 only 3,614 of those who applied were allowed to transfer and of those only 80 percent were allowed to pick their new school.

Oh, Bloomie, Bloomie, Bloomie. Mayor Mike shot an arrow at State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday on his weekly WABC radio address. After Spitzer has moved to slow/stop/co-opt a number of his and Pataki's larger projects (read: The city's planned purchase of the West Side Rail Yards from the MTA and Moynihan Station) Bloomberg made it very clear that he thinks Spitzer needs to just let elected officials do their job:

"The tendency when you're near the end of an administration [is] to say, 'Oh, let's postpone everything for the next administration, so the next administration gets a chance to weigh in.' "

Continue reading "Bloomie to Spitzer: Let Us Do Our Jobs"

Now this was a primary. Ned Lamont defeated Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman in yesterday's Senate primary, 51% to 48%. Lieberman still plans to run in November's Senate race as a third party "petitioning candidate." A petitioning candidate with better website security, we imagine, after his campaign accused Lamont's of crashing their server, leading them to put up a statement:

"For the past 24 hours the Friends for Joe Lieberman's website and email has been totally disrupted and disabled, we believe that this is the result of a coordinated attack by our political opponents. The campaign has notified the US Attorney and the Connecticut Chief State's Attorney and the campaign will be filing a formal complaint reflecting our concerns. The campaign has also notified the State Attorney General Dick Blumenthal for his review."

- Governor Pataki's office said, "After almost eight years as Shelly Silver's silent partner in Albany, Rip Van Spitzer today awoke from his slumber to talk about ethics in government. New York's top law enforcement official needs to look no further than across the convention hall and see his pal Speaker Silver for the most obvious source of concern. From Michael Boxley to Ryan Karben, Speaker Silver routinely conducts the affairs of the Assembly majority with the secrecy of the old Kremlin and the ethics of Tammany Hall. New Yorkers deserve better. Even old Rip Van Spitzer knows that."Rip Van Spitzer! Plagues! Awesome! What with Spitzer calling Ground Zero's slow development an "Enron-style debacle" and an "abject failure," this might be an exciting war of the words! And Spitzer's running mate is State Senator David Paterson of Harlem - son of Basil Paterson, former NY Secretary of State and the lawyer for the Transport Workers Union on the arbitration panel.

The Texas State Attorney General sued Vonage, after a family was unable to get through to 911 and two members were shot, and even has an audio clip of what happens when 911 is dialed from a Vonage phone. Vonage does emphasize that dialing 911 from a Vonage phone does not mean 911 is actually set up - you need to configure it.

Check out Spitzer's Eliot Spitzer 2006 website. And you know something really is wrong with Albany when there's another NY Times lede that says, "Something unusual happened in Albany this week: Things actually happened."

Spitzer will be looking for restitution for consumers (suckers that they are) as well as to permanently stop the sale of coins. The Attorney General's office says consumers can file a complaint by going to their website or calling 800-771-7755. And our sharp readers suggested to others outraged by the coins could write to the manufacturer, as well as wondered if Spitzer could investigate the matter.

Spitzer has become the center of a national attention because of his outspoken pro-gay marriage stance, New York State law aside. Read the Attorney General's his opinion here, which says that mayors who are solemnizing same-sex marriages are breaking the law [California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer has not been asked to give an opinion yet]. New Paltz Mayor Jason West is still marrying gay couples, even though he has been charged with a misdemeanor for breaking the law. And how can you not love Gay Porn Blog's "Which gay marriage city mayor is cuter, SF's Gavin Newsome or New Paltz's Jason West?" survey. [Via Gawker]