Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has made misleading practices in the student loan industry one of his major issues (see the AG's info on student lending), and yesterday he announced seven companies will follow a "code of conduct for their marketing". Campus Door, EduGap, GMAC Bank, Graduate Loan Associates, Nelnet, Nextstudent and Xanthus were found to have questionable practices--mailing fake checks or false rebates, offering gifts (iPods) to distract from "sometimes onerous" loan terms, and making......

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Citigroup will buy back $7 billion worth of auction-rate securities from almost 40,000 customers. The auction rate market collapsed in February, and investors were left unable to sell them. Cuomo said, "Today’s settlement sends a resounding message to the entire auction rate securities industry: this type of deceptive behavior will not be tolerated." Citibank must buy back the securities by November 5 of this year; the company will also......

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an investigation that found Rite Aid and CVS drugstore chains selling expired goods, like medicine, milk, eggs, and baby formula. Cuomo called it a "double whammy for the consumer." The statewide investigation revealed 142 CVS (60% of the stores visited) and 112 Rite Aid (43% of stores visited) stores in over 41 counties were selling expired products. A CVS near City Hall was selling expired decongestant, while a Rite Aid......

Making good on a campaign promise, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (pictured) has put pressure on three major Internet service providers to shut down online groups that share child pornography. Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner have each agreed to cut off access to websites and bulletin boards disseminating the illicit images, with a special emphasis on Usenet, one of the oldest computer network communications systems that uses no central server. According to the Times, the......

If you're one of those people that think the FBI has better things to do than investigate Roger Clemens, you have an ally in Washington DC. Congressman Anthony Weiner voiced his opinion on the investigation into Clemens. Weiner sent a letter to the Attorney General questioning the benefit of continuing the investigation into Clemens’ testimony to Congress, saying "Whether or not Roger Clemens may have committed perjury should not compete with real national security threats......

According to its website, Murray Hill's Tonic East “is the most well rounded sports bar in the area, with an attractive scene of locals.” But it seems black was not deemed beautiful by the management: they recently agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to the tune of $35,000. Responding to complaints from blacks who say they were denied entrance “based on violations of the unwritten dress code,” Cuomo’s office......

Photo of Roger Clemens looking at Brian McNamee by AP/Susan Walsh Roger Clemens asked for a chance to testify in Congress and now he had better be prepared to face the consequences of that choice. Congressmen Henry Waxman and Tom Davis have sent a letter to the Attorney General asking him to investigate if Clemens committed perjury or made false statements in his testimony to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Among the questions......

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the unofficial results from NYC's primary night undercounted votes in 78 districts. These districts' unofficial results raised eyebrows because no votes at all were recorded Barack Obama. Bloomberg said, "This is just an outrage," and decried the Board of Elections for being a "partisan patronage organization": "What they do is hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like,......

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. As of Wednesday, the designer was in......

This morning, federal agents have arrested over 50 members of the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families in New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island. Authorities are calling this the "biggest mafia bust in more than 20 years." The Post reports the 80-count indictment includes charges of murder, labor racketeering, "racketeering conspiracy, extortion, , theft of union benefits, mail fraud, false statements, loan sharking, embezzlement of union funds, money laundering and illegal gambling." One......

It wouldn't be Fashion Week without a little bit of scandal, and this week a state government employee nearly made runway roadkill out of designer Marc Jacobs. Jacobs, apparently so over the tents, has staged his shows at the 26th Street Armory (also known as The 69th Regiment Armory) from February 2000 to...this week. In order to get exclusive access to the building during Fashion Week, he's had to pay the piper. Charges were filed......

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......

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......

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and each of his parents kicked in about $16,000 a piece to pay off Mark Green's outstanding campaign debts, which he incurred while unsuccessfully running for Spitzer's old job as Attorney General in 2006. The $50,000 in payments exceed the Governor's self-imposed limit of contributions of $10,000, but he's making an exception because this is to pay off a past campaign debt, so is not really a campaign contribution. Plus, he and......

Today, Governor Spitzer is giving his second State of the State Address. Which makes us recall last year's State of the State. A year ago, everyone was all smiles on the podium as Spitzer delivered his first address [pdf]. It was going to be a new Albany, free of discord and full of bipartisan cooperation to benefit all New Yorkers. Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno was on board (“This is our agenda. Tax cuts, no......

Back in 2006, an agreement signed the day construction started for the new Yankee Stadium promised the team would pay $1.2 million a year in cash and in kind to a fund benefiting Bronx residents for 40 years. It was a gesture to make up for the inconvenience during construction and loss of parkland the new stadium was costing the neighborhood. After a year and half, none of the money has been distributed - and......

New Year's resolutions probably started out as some sort of gym propaganda to up membership. Every new year, fitness centers worldwide bulk up their ad campaigns, promote "deals" and promise a better body in just months. With so many options, how does one choose a suitable establishment in which to "get physical"? The Post points to Consumer Reports' new list of gym ratings...and it's slim pickins! Bally Total Fitness scored the lowest with a......

The Cedar Tavern has been closed for over a year now, and someday soon New Yorkers will finally get more of what they so desperately need: more condo units priced at $1.7 million and up! The famous tavern on University Place, long associated with the drunken hi-jinks of notables like Jackson Pollock and Jack Kerouac, shut down in December 2006 for “renovations” and never reopened. Promises to come back as part of the nine-story condo......

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......

New Jersey police have arrested a number of members of the Lucchese crime family. In the process of breaking up a multi-billion dollar betting organization, cops discovered that the old school mafia family had also teamed up with the more street-level gang the Bloods. The two groups were working together to smuggle things like iPods, cell phones, and drugs into the East Jersey State Prison. The betting ring was fairly sophisticated, utilizing Internet sites, an......

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......

At the direction of Gov. Spitzer, state inspector general Kristine Hamann (who handled the Troopergate investigation) is looking into allegations of "misfeasance and nonfeasance" at The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. The commission was formed in 1953 to root out corruption and mob control of the docks in New York. Ironically, it's now the waterfront watchdog that has come under scrutiny for misdeeds that include that it "hired unqualified police officers, inappropriately spent agency......

Arno Herwerth, the Long Island man who the DMV rejected his GETOSAMA vanity plate, then sued them now wants to have a 9-11 commemorative license plate available to the Empire State’s motorists – something several other states have for their drivers. However, in New York then Governor George Elmer Patkai vetoed the idea in 2006 and put the brakes on any new optional license plates thanks to a pro-life groups suing states, including New......

Troopergate is the story that just keeps giving! Yesterday, we found out that Darren Dopp, former aide for Governor Spitzer accused of leaking information to smear Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, probably won't face perjury but there's question as to whether a sworn statement he gave is actually a sworn statement since it doesn't have the language "I swear to the truth of this statement." Now it turns out that Dopp called Attorney General Andrew......

While Governor Spitzer has been trying to get back to business, the Senate Investigations Committee and Albany County DA's office have been busy deciding what to do with Spitzer's from communications director Darren Dopp. Dopp resigned after he at least co-devised a plan to smear Spitzer's rival Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno over the summer. The NY Times reports the Albany County DA's office is not going to charge Dopp with perjury - yet. Dopp's......

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that NY State filed papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission explaining why the license for the Indian Point nuclear power plant should not be renewed. In fact, Cuomo called the plant a "catastrophe waiting to happen" and said, "I believe Indian Point should be closed and it should be closed now." Here are some of the reasons Cuomo and Governor Spitzer gave (more here - the petition submitted to the......

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......

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......