Jeff klein

The cash comes as the former IDC members are facing tough primary challenges.

Fighting between members of Albany's two Democratic conferences intensified as the leader of the IDC called its critics racist.

Why is a small group of breakaway Democrats in the state Senate in a power-sharing agreement with Republicans? It's...complicated.

A bid to lower the city's default speed limit from 30 to 25 mph has passed the state Assembly and Senate, leaving it only to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, which he is expected to do.

Klein's new bill no longer has the lane limitations, and does not require Community Board approval to lower the speed limit by more than five miles an hour.

The State Assembly has refused to vote until all 10 pieces of legislation associated with the act are passed, putting the bill on hold just as the 2013 legislative session closed.

Thanks to a coalition of Republicans and a handful of Democrats that together control the Senate, these issues are likely dead.

Sharpton said the breakaway Democrats "need to know that the people that elected them elected Democrats, not Romney Republicans."

"The last time I checked, Al Sharpton was a paid member of the media," said an annoyed Democratic. But Sharpton says, "What bars a TV host from working to a unify his or her party?"

Cyberbullies could soon face tougher penalties under a new bill proposed by State Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx), who introduced the legislation in the wake of the suicide of Amanda Cummings.

According to the report, 11 patients under the influence of Four Loko visited the emergency room at Bellevue Hospital in four months 10 of them were underage.

The war on Four Loko rages on, despite the fact that Loko is yesterday's news to tweens. "Four Loko is still the leading beverage in this category," Klein's spokesman Rich Azzopardi told us.