In January, Village Voice reporter Wayne Barnett was let go after 37 years at the weekly tabloid, for what was said to be budgetary reasons. The Times has a feature catching up with the muckraking reporter, who is currently at work on an article for The Nation. There are many amusing anecdotes from the man ("Bloomberg’s first term was, I think, the best I’ve ever covered, but since then he’s treading water. I think the job bores him."), along with quotes from former colleagues and mentees (“Wayne manages to be endearing and obnoxious at the same time.”) The whole story is worth reading, but there's one bit in particular, from his wife Fran Barrett ("Wayne's liaison to planet Earth") which stood out to us: more ›

Yesterday was a sad day for the once-illustrious Village Voice, which lost two of its legendary muckraking reporters, Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins. Barrett, who has been with the paper since the Koch administration, says he was let go for budgetary reasons; he'll move on to become a fellow at The Nation Institute, a liberal nonprofit media group. And this morning Robbins, a dogged and indispensable political reporter who first started at the Voice in '80s, tells us why he resigned. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Office of Emergency Management have announced 10 winners in the contest to design temporary housing for the thousands of New Yorkers who might be displaced in the event of a catastrophe, like a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane. The 117 submissions from 30 countries had to create quickly assembled housing for 38,000 families from Prospect Shore, a fictional neighborhood set along a mile of the New York City coastline. more ›

"Sleight of hand," "litany of needless fights," "ugly racial polarization" - just some of the phrases in this week's New York magazine's cover story about Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor turned presidential candidate. Chris Smith's article serves as both refresher to New Yorkers about Giuliani's reign as mayor with some fun tidbits (did you realize that then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik commissioned 30 miniature busts of himself?) as well as a cautionary tale to non-New Yorkers.... more ›

Governor Spitzer's campaign slogan was "Day 1, Everything Changes" but from the looks from this photo op at a memorial service for fallen NY State firefighters, things are politics as usual in Albany. The Post said this was the first time that Governor Spitzer and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have appeared together since the Troopergate incident where Spitzer aides were planning to smear Bruno by distributing information about his travel plans to the press. The Post says the event was "no love-fest...They did not directly interact beyond exchanging a brief handshake and 'good mornings' when they arrived." more ›

The revelation that Rudy Giuliani made $16 million over 16 months - has created a few ripples. FDNY Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches told WCBS 2, "[Giuliani's] making all this money on the backs of my dead son and all the other dead victims that day." And the Village Voice's Wayne Barrett, who co-wrote the book Grand Illusion:The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, said, "He's recycled his 9/11 talk for up to $200,000, you know, (based on) what happened that morning and then he has the six principals of leadership, and the seventh should be milk a tragedy for millions." more ›

It's on the cool side but today is the first full day of spring. While winter temperatures linger a day longer than they're supposed to let Gothamist entertain you with links to giant mutant snowflakes and snow donuts. Let us assure you that there is no snow in the forecast. There's a slight chance of light rain mixed with sleet late tonight, but no snow. more ›

In less than a year and a half, former Brooklyn Assemblyman and Democratic party boss Clarence Norman was found guilty on corruption charges. This time, a jury found Norman guilty of five counts of coercion, grand larceny by extortion, and attempted grand larceny by extortion related to, as the Daily News put it, "shaking down court candidate Karen Yellen for $10,000" back in 2002. Norman's threat was that she would lose his support if she didn't use certain campaign consultants. Norman was acquitted of five other similar charges related to extorting another candidate, Marcia Sikowitz. more ›

The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett has the scoop on a big case Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is working on: How disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic party boss Clarence Norman managed to buy a State Supreme Court judgeship for $56,000. Fifty thousand in cash and then $6,000 in stamps ("$3,000 wheels of stamps on sprockets that could be purchased at a General Post Office"). Barrett writes, "When the disturbing details become fully known, Hynes's stunning prosecution may at last force the state legislature to junk the peculiar way New York State nominates the 14-year-term, $136,700-a-year judges who preside at all felony and major civil trials, as a federal court has already concluded we should." more ›

- The NY Times reports that the Democratic party will decide on where the 2008 convention will be held either tomorrow or Monday. New York and Denver are the finalist cities; while Denver is attractive for its swing-state quality, NYC can guarantee better "financing, hotel rooms, entertainment space, logistical support and labor union cooperation." more ›

The Daily News' Ben Smith looks at a possible stumbling block for Rudy Giuliani's presidential hopes. And it would be a big one. With September 11 fire responders falling ill and memos about the Giuliani administration opening downtown earlier, in spite of EPA warnings, becoming a bigger and bigger story this year, some who hope for "Giuliani 2008" are concerned that Rudy could be vulnerable, the way John Kerry was when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth emerged in the last presidential election. Smith writes:

Many of the workers who spent time near Ground Zero, including at least one of his top aides, have come down with respiratory and other illnesses doctors link to the air quality following the attacks. Giuliani and former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman have traded blame over the fact that more workers didn't wear respirators. But it was Giuliani's old rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who helped organize research into the health impact of the towers' collapse. more ›

Steven I. Weiss, Journalist/Blogger more ›