The NY State Legislature has long been considered the most dysfunctional state government in the country, and NY Sun has a great article giving weight to that statement: "The Empire State's Legislature employs more people than any other state legislature in the nation." Well, all that dysfunction has to be enabled from someone - or many someones! According to the most recent data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, the NY State Assembly and......

New York State Senate leader Joseph Bruno is still under FBI investigation for possibly improper ties to unions that deal with state pension agencies! In 2006, Bruno said of the FBI's look, "I have nothing to hide. They are going into background over the past five or six years," but the NY Times describes the feds' current investigation as widening. At issue are tens of millions of dollars paid by Albany labor unions in fees......

Weighing in on the modified congestion pricing plan the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission recommended, Mayor Bloomberg said:"The Commission has done a thorough and thoughtful job. They've taken testimony from hundreds of residents, community leaders and civic organizations. They've held dozens of public meetings and have analyzed mountains of data. Although the final recommendation varies from our original proposal, I accept it. "We will work with our partners in the Council and the State Legislature, and......

Even while targeted in the Troopergate scandal, State Senate leader Joseph Bruno was living in high style. The New York Sun is reporting that Bruno enjoyed a 3,500 square foot, two-story penthouse suite at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, just weeks before the legislature selected the hotel chain to construct a luxury hotel in Albany.On November 30, the nine-member board of the Albany Convention Center Authority, which includes a member appointed by Mr.......

Queens Councilman Hiram Monseratte is alleging dirty tricks in regards to the burglary of his office late this week. While the Councilman and his staff were at a community meeting Thursday evening, someone broke into Monseratte's office. It wasn't a regular break in--all that was taken was a laptop belonging to his chief of staff containing campaign information and a box of envelopes labeled with Monseratte's imprimatur. The fact that no other valuable items were......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction on Warwick St. and Livonia Ave. in Brooklyn, a police involved shooting on West Kingsbridge Rd. in the Bronx, and an abduction on 33rd St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan. A contestant on Deal or No Deal from Bayonne, NJ tells host Howie Mandel that the godawful smell around there is from the dump on Staten Island. Residents of Richmond County are not amused. Two pitbulls,......

In spite of the presence of a new governor, Albany politics has been as insanely frustrating as usual. And the NY Sun's year-end interviews with the top three lawmakers - Governor Eliot Spitzer, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver - demonstrate why pretty much everyone sighs when they think of the capitol and state politicians. Bruno, the lone Republican, tells the Sun that Silver needs to deals with insults better,......

Governor Spitzer may have been proud of not doing things the usual Albany way at the beginning of his term, but in the wake of Troopergate and other missteps, he's apparently desperate for support. So desperate that he's turned to lobbyists. According to the NY Times, there's been a distinct shift in how the Spitzer administration works with lobbyists. While the staff doesn't favor certain lobbyists (the way Governor Pataki's did), the administration seems to......

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......

Former Westchester County District Attorney - and one-time Attorney General candidate and potential Senate candidate - Jeanine Pirro and her husband Al Pirro have announced they are separating. Their statement to the press: "We have agreed to amicably separate. As always, our priority remains our two wonderful children. We ask that people respect our privacy. There will be no further comment." The couple has been married 32 years and have weathered through many years of......

When Governor Spitzer announced he was dropping his controversial plan to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants yesterday, he was praised by his fellow Democrats. The NY Times notes that the decision won Spitzer "the kind of wide acclaim from elected officials that he could not win for the proposal itself." And that's gotta sting a little. Spitzer had first introduced a broad plan to allow illegal immigrants to get licenses, which caused outcry from......

Well if it's not the driver's license issue that's plaguing Governor Spitzer, it's Troopergate and its fallout. Spitzer's former communications director Darren Dopp (pictured), who was faulted for at least co-devising a plan to smear Spitzer rival State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, may have perjured himself during an investigation and now the Albany County DA's office has opened an inquiry. Back in July, Dopp gave a sworn written statement to Attorney General Cuomo. But......

The NY Post has been claiming that Mayor Bloomberg is flirting with the idea of a gubernatorial run in 2010, and the Mayor keeps on denying it. After the latest "Governor Bloomberg" rumor offered by the Post, Mayor Bloomberg told reporters that the Post never contacted his office to confirm whether reports of him discussing plans with a GOP strategist were true: "I categorically will not run for governor." The Post, however, has an article......

Even though he has amended his plan to give illegal immigrants the opportunity to get driver's licenses, Governor Spitzer can't make everyone happy. The governor's new plan has three tiers: There will be the Real ID (the one passed by Congress in 2005 - the very program Spitzer's own Homeland Security director criticized last month) which will be offered to citizens and legal immigrants, plus, per the NY Times, "an enhanced driver’s license that......

Rensselaer County Clerk Frank J. Merola is unhappy with Gov. Spitzer's plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. As an employee of the State, he has no legal discretion over whether he can ignore the plan once it's enacted, so he's filed a lawsuit to block the initiative in state Supreme Court in Albany. In a statement explaining his lawsuit. County Clerk Frank Merola alluded to a recent public opinion poll that showed......

Principal Tyona Washington of Canarsie High School opened up a piece of mail that contained a noose made out of string as well as a 2-page letter containing, per Newsday, "a common racial slur and words suggesting that a black person should not be running the school." The letter also referred to "white power" and had the signature of a white administrator, but police do not believe the letter was from that individual. Additionally, the......

H. Dale Hemmerdinger, Gov. Spitzer's nominee to replace Peter Kalikow as chairman of the MTA, relinquished his membership in the Harmonie Club, a private social club that some accused of excluding minorities. The club has a membership of 1,100 and none of them are minorities. Mayor Bloomberg is a former member, but he also resigned when the club's complexion came under scrutiny. Initially, Hemmerdinger refused to quit the Harmonie Club, saying that while he was......

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver made a public plea to Gov. Eliot Spitzer to cool down his feud with State Senate Leader Joseph Bruno. The so-called Troopergate scandal began when the Governor allegedly sicced State Police on Bruno to monitor his business travel practices. In the aftermath, Spitzer lost some of his long-time aides when he claimed he knew nothing about the surveillance and they resigned. Darren Dopp recently was hired as a lobbyist after......

Yeah, it was too much to hope that the two of the most powerful men in Albany could put aside their differences and, uh, govern. Now, Governor Spitzer's aides are suggesting that State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno should pay income taxes on his many flights on state aircraft. The Republicans got a hold of a letter drafted by State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith's aides that asked the IRS to look into the matter.......

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......

Darren Dopp, Governor Spitzer's communications director who was suspended after it was discovered he and other aides were plotting against a Spitzer rival (the State Senate majority leader), may be leaving state government for the warmer shores of...political lobbying. Dopp allegedly accepted a job at Patricia Lynch Associates, which was formed at a former aide of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, according to its website, occupies "the number two spot among all lobbying firms in New......

The Governor and the Attorney Genral are not getting along. One would think that Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo would totally be BFF in New York politics. Both are the sons of prominent fathers––one a real estate bigwig, the other a son of a New York Governor. They've got a lot in common. Spitzer held Cuomo's job as state attorney general before becoming Governor. Cuomo's the current attorney general and seems to share his predecessor's......

It's turns out that a dirty tricks campaign - even if it's not quite criminal - can be pretty damaging. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Governor Spitzer's approval rating has dropped to a new low of 47%. Of course, that's the low after nine months in office, so there's still room for improvement - or to find a new low. Most intriguingly, more than three-quarters of voters want Spitzer to testify about the scheme......

Governor Spitzer's plan to allow illegal residents of U.S. to get New York State drivers licenses by producing a valid foreign passport is generating widespread opposition. More than 80% of New York's DMV offices are supervised by county clerks and The New York Times reports that many oppose Spitzer's license plan and will resist processing applications that don't include proof of legal residence. Clerks in NYC, Westchester, and Long Island are agents of New York......

Governor Spitzer can rest a bit easier now: The Albany County DA found that the governor's aides broke no laws when they tried to use the state police to discredit a rival, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. DA David Soares will release a report today, but in the meantime, his spokeswoman's statement said, "This office found no illegal conduct. To the contrary, we found that the governor, his staff, and the New York State......

The Dept. of Education is claiming that it was simply a mix-up in recordkeeping that led to a failure to hand over a few hundred cases of abuse and misconduct that occurred on city school buses when the Daily News was investigating chaotic situations as kids rode to and from school. Six months ago, the News began a series of articles titled "School Bus Disgrace," detailing the horrors kids face when dealing with bus drivers......

Darren Dopp, Governor Spitzer's communications director who was faulted for at least co-devising a plan to smear State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno by way of State Police records, is planning on fighting a subpoena from the State Ethics Commission. The subpoena, which asks for Dopp's email that relates to the scandal (beginning January 1, 2007, Spitzer's first day, until a few days ago), is described as "very broad" by Dopp's lawyer Terrence Kindlon who......

It's been too long since we've checked in with Roger Stone, the GOP operative who is suspected of making a threatening call to Governor Spitzer's father. The Sun reports that Stone, who was asked to resign his $20,000/month gig consulting for NY State Republicans, has apologized to Dale Hemmerdinger, the owner of his apartment building and friend of Spitzer. Spitzer's father's lawyers say that a call (which included the invective, "You will be compelled by......

Reach out and touch someone - and get fired for it, possibly even if you didn't do the reaching out and touching. The nutty voicemail message left for Bernard Spitzer, father of Governor Spitzer, is reassuring everyone that it's just politics as usual in Albany. The elder Spitzer's lawyers believe that the call was made by GOP consultant Roger Stone, who was recently hired at $20,000/month by NY State Republican (he was consulting with Spitzer's......

Okay, we give up. The whole Governor Spitzer-Senate Republican animosity thing has become totally and utterly insane. Someone left a crazy message for Spitzer's father, the wealthy (and 83-year-old) real estate developer Bernard Spitzer. And call has been traced to the apartment of a GOP adviser to State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno! This is a message for Bernard Spitzer. You will be subpoenaed to testify in front of the Senate committee on investigation on......