Statement from the Office of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on the NYS Senate's Expulsion of Hiram Monserrate...

“We are gratified that the Court has confirmed our position that the Senate had the authority to expel Mr. Monserrate. The time for changing the culture of Albany is long past due. Today's ruling is a step in that direction. The Office of the Attorney General will continue to represent the Senate in this matter.”

Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani's Ex-Head of New York Police, Gets 4 Years in Prison by Sam Dolnick- NYTimes.com

Read original...

Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner who rose to national prominence, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

Under the terms of a plea agreement reached in November on the eve of his trial, the prosecution and the defense recommended that Judge Stephen C. Robinson sentence Mr. Kerik to 27 to 33 months in prison. But the judge departed from the sentencing recommendations, giving Mr. Kerik a longer sentence.

“I think it’s fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences,” Judge Robinson said. “I think the damage caused by Mr. Kerik is in some ways immeasurable.”

The sentencing was the end of a legal saga in which federal prosecutors denounced Mr. Kerik, a former detective who rose to the upper echelons of power, as a corrupt official who sought to trade his authority for lavish benefits.

Mr. Kerik, looking thin and clean-shaven as he entered the courtroom in United States District Court here, spoke briefly.

“ I make no excuses,” he said. “I take full responsibility for the grave mistakes I’ve made. Believe me when I say I have learned from this and I have become and will continue to become a better person.

“I know I must be punished,” he continued. “I only ask that you allow me to return to my wife and two little girls as soon as possible.”

As the judge delivered the sentence, Mr. Kerik sat impassionately at the defense table, flanked by his lawyers. Behind him, his supporters — including Geraldo Rivera and Steven McDonald, a former New York City police officer who was paralyzed from the neck down in 1986 — filled the gallery.

Mr. Kerik will begin serving his sentence on May 17. Prosecutors had requested that Mr. Kerik be sent to prison immediately, but Judge Robinson allowed him to surrender later to get his affairs in order in light of the longer sentence. Mr. Kerik has awaited sentencing under strict house arrest at his home in Franklin Lakes, N.J.

The sentence follows a fall from a rarefied perch where he wielded power with a signature mix of brash confidence and tough-guy charm.

He was a close ally of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, whom he served as a bodyguard and driver. Mr. Giuliani then tapped him for a senior position in the Correction Department, and he went on to become the agency’s commissioner. As testament to his clout, Mr. Kerik had a jail named after him in downtown Manhattan. (The name has since been changed.)

Mr. Kerik later served as police commissioner, and his performance during after 9/11 attacks turned him into a national figure, earning him the respect of President George W. Bush, who nominated him to lead the Department of Homeland Security. That bid quickly collapsed in scandal, marking the beginning of the end of Mr. Kerik’s career.

The case against Mr. Kerik centered on charges that a New Jersey construction company, the Interstate Industrial Corporation, which was suspected of ties to organized crime, had paid for renovations at Mr. Kerik’s home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Prosecutors said company officials had hoped Mr. Kerik would help them obtain a city license.

In addition to pleading guilty to two counts of tax fraud and one count of making a false statement on a loan application, Mr. Kerik also pleaded guilty to five counts of making false statements to the federal government while being vetted for senior posts.

Prosecutors had called for Judge Robinson to make an example out of Mr. Kerik, and to punish him for his “egotism and hubris.”

Mr. Kerik’s lawyer, Michael F. Bachner, had asked the judge for leniency, citing his years of public service, and the dozens of letters of support written by family members, former colleagues in the Police Department, and even strangers who said they admired Mr. Kerik’s bravery.

After the sentencing, Mr. Kerik paused outside the courthouse, where he read a statement before being driven off in a black sport utility vehicle.

“I’d like to apologize to the American people for the mistakes I’ve made and for which I have just accepted responsibility,” he said. “As history is written, I can only hope that I will be judged for the 30 years of service I have given to this country and the city of New York. It has not and will not diminish my love for this country.”

When asked if Mr. Kerik intended to appeal the sentence, his lawyer said, “No comment.”

Andrew Cuomo: Hiram Monserrate's Lawsuit to Get State Senate Seat Back is 'Absurd'' by Glenn Blain and Celeste Katz - NY Daily News

Read original...

Ousted state Sen. Hiram Monserrate. Ruttle/AP

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo blasted Hiram Monserrate's argument for getting his job back as "absurd" Tuesday, saying the state Senate has to be able to boot dangerous wackos.

Monserrate's colleagues tossed him from the Senate last week on a misdemeanor conviction for assaulting his girlfriend, but the former Queens councilman is suing to stop a March 16 special election to replace him - saying his expulsion trashed his civil rights and voters', too.

If Monserrate's argument held up, "the Senate [could] not expel a member who is demonstrably corrupt, insane or violent. Such a position is not only absurd, but dangerous," Cuomo argues in federal court papers filed on the Senate's behalf.

Cuomo says no voters were harmed when Monserrate was shown the door, and the courts would only "micromanage" the Legislature by stepping in.

What's more, having someone who has been convicted of domestic violence cast votes would be "repellent to the notion of responsible government," he added.

Monserrate's lawyer, Norman Siegel, disagreed.

"Currently, neither the [state] Constitution nor New York law sets forth specific grounds for expulsion," he said. "Therefore, Hiram Monserrate was unconstitutionally and illegally expelled."

Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York to Harold Ford Jr.: Stop Proclaiming Yourself as Prochoice...

Read original...

Ford says one thing about his position on abortion and his voting record in Congress says another

In anticipation of Harold Ford Jr.'s appearance in the Capital Region this evening, Sunday, February 14, 2010, Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York urges the former Tennessee Congressman to stop proclaiming himself prochoice.

Below is the official statement from M. Tracey Brooks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York:

"A prochoice representative supports a women's right to access safe, legal, comprehensive reproductive health care without government interference."

"Ford's voting record and recent public statements prove that he does not trust women to make their own decisions. He cannot claim to be supportive of our issues when, as a Tennessee Congressman, he demonstrated that he is clearly not prochoice."

"Planned Parenthood Action Fund did not endorse Ford in his elections for Congress in 2000 or 2004, nor for his Senate bid in 2006."

"New Yorkers demand that 100 percent pro-choice champions represent them in the U.S. Senate. If Ford wants to understand the true definition of a pro-choice individual, he need only look at the voting records of New York's U.S. Senators and compare them with his own."

Harold Ford Jr. Eludes Tough Questions on 'Meet the Press' by Heather Grossmann- DNAinfo.com

Read original...


Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford Jr. continued to raise his public profile with speaking appearances over the weekend as he contemplates a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Ford joined a round-table discussion Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Host David Gregory unsuccessfully pressed Ford to disclose the details of a bonus he had received from his job at Merrill Lynch — an issue Gillibrand frequently raises.

“I had a contract with Merrill Lynch,” Ford said. “I satisfied that, and I was paid. I make no bones about it. New York City, New York state depend heavily on Wall Street.”

Gregory also asked Ford about his stance on abortion, a hot button issue for Ford, who says he is pro-choice but has been quoted numerous times as saying he is pro-life — a term he claims has nothing to do with his views on abortion.

“I am pro choice. The record has been distorted,” Ford told Gregory, adding when asked to clarify, that he is in favor of parental notification. “If you — if your daughter can't go to an NR-17 movie, David, without some notification, it would seem to me that a family ought to be made aware of some of these.”

Ford was the keynote speaker at the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators dinner Sunday evening, where he and Gillibrand greeted each other after weeks of bashing each other publicly.

Ford, who ascended the stage to a mixture of boos and applause, discussed the difficult spot the Democratic Party is in, calling on voters to stop the wave of Republican upsets like those that occurred in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Although he is still not a candidate, Ford finished his speech by requesting that the audience keep an open mind.

“I hope if we decide to go forward, you’ll give me an opportunity to show you that indeed I can lead, and lead not only for those in this room, but for those across this state.”

Bloomberg's $750K Payment for Election May Have Funded Purchase of Queens Home by Adam Lisberg - NY Daily News

Read original...

Inside sources say that John Haggerty may have used some of Bloomberg's $750,000 to purchase this home in Forest Hills

When Mayor Bloomberg funneled $750,000 to a longtime Queens ally last fall, he thought he was buying a citywide poll watching operation.

He may have paid for a house in Forest Hills Gardens, too.

The house was the childhood home of John Haggerty Jr., the Republican operative who has claimed he was working as a volunteer on Bloomberg's third-term campaign.

Haggerty has ducked calls to explain how he spent the $750,000 payment, which went into his newly formed "Special Election Operations LLC."

The money was channeled through the state Independence Party, which got $1.2 million from Bloomberg's pocket right before Election Day.

Sources inside and outside the Bloomberg campaign say it was supposed to buy an extensive Election Day operation, with up to 300 workers paid $500 each to make sure there was no funny business at poll sites.

That only adds up to $150,000, though. One source says the Independence Party can't account for $300,000 to $400,000 of the rest of the money - and has drawn up legal papers against Haggerty to locate the rest.

"It's just infuriating," the source said. "Haggerty probably made money throughout the campaign one way or another."

Special Election Operations got its $750,000 on Dec. 11.

Six days later, Haggerty bought out his brother Bart's share of the family home - paying $1.6 million to the estate of their late father, records show.

It's unclear how much of the purchase was in cash, but Haggerty apparently did not take out a mortgage. The next month, records show, Bart had enough money to buy a $619,000 apartment in Forest Hills - again, apparently without a mortgage.

So where did the Haggerty brothers get that cash? After all, it had been almost a year and a half since their father, a respected longtime lawyer in Albany, passed away.

In his will, he split most of his estate between the brothers - though he gave an extra $30,000 to Bart "due to the extra care, support and effort he expended on my behalf."

Haggerty had another potential pot of Bloomberg cash to tap as well: The mayor gave $120,000 on Nov. 20 to a new political committee Haggerty set up, the 28th Assembly District Republican Committee.

He did not respond to messages left at the house last week, or at the Rego Park office he rents for political operations. Bart did not respond to an e-mail.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has issued subpoenas in the case, which may deter them from talking even if Haggerty has done nothing wrong.

Bloomberg campaign officials have generally defended Haggerty, who ran Election Day operations for the mayor's 2001 and 2005 campaigns through the Republican Party.

They say he put together an extensive operation in November that could well have cost $750,000. Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said the campaign offered to pay Haggerty a salary or bonus, but he declined - which he would have been unlikely to do if he really needed money.

"The suggestion is unfair," Wolfson said. "If he was interested in money, he didn't demonstrate that during the campaign."

alisberg@nydailynews.com

Baruch Professors Study NYC Harbor by Hsi Chan - The Ticker

Read original...

Baruch professors Timothy Hoellein and Chester Zarnoch had one question: what role do oysters play in the New York City’s ecosystem?

Their research, titled “Oyster restoration and nitrogen cycling: an ecosystem approach,” examines how the restoration of oysters can help increase water quality in Jamaica Bay. According to Hoellein, who holds a doctorate in aquatic ecology, the water quality issues in Jamaica Bay are common in urban estuaries like the N.Y. harbor.

“There are multiple waste water treatment plants and combined sewer overflows which, in addition to runoff from streets and parking lots, contribute to high levels of nutrients in the water,” said Hoellein. “Excess nutrients cause lots of algae to grow, which can cause other problems for the aquatic environment.“

Nitrogen is one of the most common and destructive pollutants. According to the International Nitrogen Initiative, humans have disrupted the nitrogen balance and drastically increased re-active forms of nitrogen into the environment. Organisms like algae bloom, which can result in oxygen depletion from the water.

However, bivalves, which include oysters, can remove problematic algae by filter-feeding particulate matter in the water. Hoellein specializes in measuring water quality and nutrient cycling in response to human and environmental change, while Zarnoch specializes in shellfish biology.

“In my last year of college, I worked with the East Hampton Shellfish Hatchery, which produced clams, oysters and scallops to restock the local waters,” said Zarnoch. “This work led to my research interest in shellfish biology, aquaculture and restoration.”

Both Professor Hoellein and Zarnoch are members of the Baruch College Environmental Biology and Sustainability Research Group (EBSRG), an organization that seeks to demonstrate the biological significance, economic importance, and ecological complexity of local and global ecosystems.

Students who are interested in the environmental sciences can volunteer with the EBSRG or Baruch College’s Sustainability Task Force.

New Community Board Director Visits Community Board 10 by Stephen Geffon - Queens Chronicle

Read original...

Community Board 10 Second Vice President Robert Ruffin, left, joins Deputy Borough President Barry Grodenchik and CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton. Photo by Stepehn Geffon

Deputy Borough President Barry Grodenchik, the newly appointed director of community boards, has been making the rounds of each — most recently at the CB 10 meeting last week in South Ozone Park — to discuss ways he can work with the panels to develop City Charter changes that would enhance their roles.

“Our goals in the upcoming charter revision is to strengthen the role of community boards in this community and throughout Queens,” Grodenchik told CB 10 members. “Please feel free to communicate to me on any issue that you want, I will be very happy to share your thoughts with the borough president.”

As part of the legislation extending term limits, Mayor Mike Bloomberg agreed to appoint a charter revision commission, which he has not done yet.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall stated that she will ask the charter review commission to set a new funding formula that gives borough presidents and community boards a guaranteed percentage of the city budget.

“This will remove us from the political see-saw of the budget process and ensure an independent voice for each borough and local community district,” Marshall said.

Community boards are also facing the possibility of what they consider draconian cuts to their budgets as the city readies its next spending plan. The proposed cut for boards is 2.5 percent this current fiscal year and a proposed 5 percent for the fiscal year beginning July 1, according to Marshall’s spokesman Dan Andrews. Each community board has had a budget of about $200,000 to cover staff, rent and office expenses.

However, according to CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton, in November 2009, all of the city’s Community Boards had their FY2010 budgets cut by 4 percent. Braton’s FY2011 figures also differed.

“As of July 1, 2010 when FY2011 begins, we will be cut another 8 percent,” Braton said. “The Mayor's Preliminary Budget published at the end of January reflects the November PEG cuts.”

Braton said there is great concern that the ability of community boards to function will be impeded if planned cuts are actually implemented in the final budget when it comes out in June.

“We may not even be here to provide service if we can’t pay for our office and have our staff,” she added. “The proposed cuts are significant.”

New CO Heads NYPD Patrol Borough Queens South by Stephen Geffon - Queens Chronicle

Read original...

Assistant Chief James Secreto now commands Patrol Borough Queens South, which oversees eight precincts in south Queens. PHOTO COURTESY NYPD

Assistant Chief James Secreto, 53, a 30-year police department veteran, has been promoted to commanding officer of Patrol Borough Queens South. Secreto previously served as the commanding officer of two precincts, in Harlem and East New York and worked as commander of the Queens narcotics unit.

Secreto served as the commanding officer of the NYPD’s School Safety Division for the last three years before being tapped by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to head Queens South. In his new post he will oversee eight precincts in southern Queens.

South Queens’ new top cop is no stranger to the borough, having lived in Queens Village for 24 years and Elmhurst for 5 years.

Secreto succeeded Assistant Chief Thomas Dale, who was promoted to NYPD chief of personnel last week and whom Secreto credits as one of his mentors. The new CO met Dale in 1996 when he was a captain and Dale was the commander of the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “I learned a lot from him,” Secreto said.

The PBQS commander said his goal at his new post is to reduce crime even further — in 2009, Queens South reported a 36.4 percent decline in murders from the previous year and a 15 percent drop in overall crime. “I want to make Queens safer, a place that people want to live. That’s my number one goal — to make the people here safe.”

Asked how he will deal with two of the community’s top quality of life issues — noise and graffiti — Secreto said he would continue aggressively attacking the problems, the way the Police Department has done over the past 15 years. “That is not going change,” he said.

Secreto said Queens South would be active in the mayor’s graffiti program, which works to paint over graffiti where it is found. “We’re just going to be aggressive about it, zero tolerance.”

Regarding noise — south Queens residents’ No. 1 quality of life complaint — he said, “It’s an issue and it’s something that we are going to take seriously and we are going to address.”

Acknowledging that auto thefts have been a problem in Queens for a long time, Secreto said police use of state-of-the-art tools such as license plate readers will help reduce their frequency. Secreto added that although the technology in new cars today makes them more difficult to steal, police will not sit back: “We are going to do our part.”

Citing Operation Impact as an effective program that places police officers where crimes have been occuring, Secreto said it would continue, along with other successful department programs. He noted that he is always open to suggestions from his staff as to what could be done better.

Questions Surround Gov's Aqueduct Pick by Patricia Adams - Forum News

Read original...

The sigh of relief that came with last week’s award of the bid to redevelop Aqueduct Racetrack was followed this week by a sigh of contempt from local elected officials and residents alike.

The focus of local furor centers on allegations swirling rampantly about Albany that David Paterson is on the cusp of a possible resignation from the governorship -- and that the bid award was motivated by political agenda. The contract in question is for the installation of 4,500 video lottery terminals at the struggling Ozone Park venue.

On Friday afternoon Paterson’s lead counsel, Peter Kiernan, made statements admitting politics was a critical factor in choosing the Aqueduct Entertainment Group as the winner. Kiernan’s statements came on the heels of protestations from groups who lost out on the bid, citing a flawed process complicated by what they called political favoritism.

James Featherstonhaugh, a veteran Albany lobbyist who represented Delaware North in the bidding, called the process and its associ- ated delays, “bizarre,” adding that he “never witnessed anything like it in 40 years of experience in Albany.”

State Senator Joe Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) spoke out on Friday during an interview with NY1. “I have been a critic of it [the process] ever since I felt that we had the same number of bidders for the last eight months and we’ve had all their financial information for the last eight months. We could have made this decision some time in 2009,” said Addabbo, “it took us this long to make this decision and then when the decision is made, it’s questionable.”

Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer has been involved from the inception of the Aqueduct proposal. “It’s a very serious issue that we have these potential complications,” Pheffer told The Forum. “The state needs this money by April 1 and we can only hope that everything will move forward. I assume they [AEG] are going to come up with the $300 million and if they can’t I trust that they’ll tell us so that we can move on.” Pheffer says she was particularly encouraged by the transparency AEG displayed throughout the process.

During an interview with The Forum, Community Board 10 Chair Betty Braton expressed confidence in the winning bidder. "AEG's proposal to develop the VLT facility is a solid one, the company has been communicating with us and has been forthcoming over the course of the past year with any information the Community Board requested,” she said. “The conditions set forth as part of the decision are certainly reasonable ones and AEG has indicated the company can meet them. We expect that it will.”

Braton indicated that she shares the dismay of both Addabbo and Pheffer over extended delays and agrees that the focus must be on progress. “It's time this project become a reality. We look forward to working with AEG and their NY and Queens partners: Levine Builders, Turner Construction, and Green- Star Services to create the VLT facility along with the thousands of much-needed jobs it will create.”

Jeffrey Levine, a partner in AEG, said his group “was selected by Governor Paterson, Senator Smith and Speaker Silver because our bid represents the best value for the taxpayers of New York and the best plan for the residents of Queens. We will pay the $300 million upfront licensing fee by March 31, 2010, and are working towards signing the MOU and breaking ground as soon as possible."

Andrew Frank, a spokesman for AEG said the consortium was “very pleased to have been selected. We understand that the other bidders are disappointed. Had we lost we would be [disappointed] too.” Frank expressed confidence in the future of Aqueduct project under AEG’s lead. “We put ourselves in a po- sition to have been selected and we’ll get through it. We are going to pay the state $300 million, provide the jobs we promised and build it.”

On Tuesday, Paterson called a press conference and struck what was defined by one observer as “an almost defiant pose” following an interview with the Albany bureau of the New York Times. Paterson maintained that he would not be leaving the governor’s mansion unless the decision was made “at the ballot box” by the voters. The only option for Paterson leaving office before his termwould be “in a box.”

Now the state and local community sur- rounding Aqueduct will wait to see if AEG can meet the conditions imposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in order for the deal to be final and move through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) process.

As part of the agreement to accept AEG, Silver laid out four “non-negotiable” terms:

--AEG must pay a $300 million up-front licensing fee.

--Anyone with a felony conviction within the past 15 years is barred from being a partner in the deal.

--The project must be environmentally sound.

--Legislative leaders must have veto power over any subsequent changes to the plan.

Following the announcement by Silver, AEG announced that the Darman Group would step down as a key partner in the project because of a misdemeanor conviction against one of its leaders, Darryl Greene. Greene has closes ties to AEG partner former congressman Floyd Flake, and state Senate President Malcolm Smith.

AEG released a statement on Tuesday to address the situation regarding political affiliations. "We can unequivocally state that Senator Smith nor any government official involved in this process will ever be employed by Aqueduct Entertainment Group or any of its partners, investors or affiliates.”

Will David Gregory Ask Harold Ford About His Tax Problem? - YouTube - TPM-TV

Yesterday, with Gawker's revelation that Harold Ford had not filed a NY tax return as a resident despite having claimed to live here for 3 years, the story was blogged about all over, including:

TPM: Harold Ford's Own Personal Tax Cut

DailyKos: NY-Sen: Either a Non-NYer or a Tax Dodger?

The Albany Project: Harold Ford, Tax Cheat?

FireDogLake: Harold Ford Has Lived In NY Three Years Without Paying State Taxes

Gothamist: Things Harold Ford Forgot To Do Before Leaving Tennessee

The mainstream media, however, seems to be satisfied by Ford's latest declarations that he is paying his quarterly estimates and that if he becomes a candidate, he'll comply with all FEC requirements. But what about 07 & 08 and if he didn't file resident returns for those years, what sorts of returns did he file and if he didn't file them, did he break the law?

Well, Ford is on Meet The Press tomorrow, as a pundit not as a subject, but Gregory will have the opportunity to press this. Will he?

DID HAROLD FORD JR. VIOLATE NY CITY AND STATE TAX LAW IN 2007 & 2008?

State and City Law Requires All Individuals to File Partial Returns and Pay Income Taxes On All Income From NY Sources

Ford Certainly Earned Income in New York in 2007 & 2008, But Admits to Never Filing A Tax Return in New York

Merrill Lynch Vice Chairman Harold Ford Jr. says he’s a New Yorker.

For 2007 and 2008, Harold Ford Jr. served as a Wall Street executive, based in New York, and a commentator for MSNBC, also based in New York.

“I spent the majority of my time on Wall Street, working as vice chairman at Merrill Lynch." [Charlie Rose interview, 2/4/08]

But new evidence has emerged that raises the simple question: Did Harold Ford Jr. fail to properly pay New York state and city taxes on income he earned in New York in 2007 and 2008?

New York State law and New York City law requires individuals to pay taxes and file a partial tax return on all income earned in New York.

According to the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, “If you are not a resident of New York State, you are subject to New York State tax on any income you receive from New York State sources.” The law requires you to file a IT-203: Nonresident and Part-Year Resident Income Tax Return.

According to the City of New York Department of Finance, part-year residents in New York City figure their New York City income tax based on income and deductions based only on the days lived in NYC.

However, according to the NY Daily News, Harold Ford Jr. told YNN, a Buffalo affiliate of NY1, "I will file a return for the first time, [for] last year, come April, when taxes are to be filed."

One of Ford’s campaign flacks, Tammy Sun, echoed her boss, explaining that Ford "will file a New York tax return in April for the first time." She later explained that he will file for the first time “as a resident,” but still avoided whether he has ever filed a partial return for non-residents as required by law.

With Ford’s new admission that he never filed a return in New York, it raises questions whether he may have violated state and city law requiring an individual to file a partial return on any amount of income that was earned in New York.

Certainly his work for NBC and some of his work for Merrill Lynch would qualify. However, he will not answer the simple question: Did you ever file a partial return for 2007 and 2008 to pay New York taxes on the income that was earned in New York City and State?

Harold Ford's Tennessee Tax Dodge - Harold Ford - Gawker

Read original...

When it comes to his shadow run for Senate, Harold Ford is a New Yorker through and through. When it comes to paying taxes, though, he's still a Tennessean — he's never filed a New York return.

Ford claims to have moved to New York three years ago, and says paying "New York taxes" makes him a New Yorker. But his spokeswoman confirms to Gawker that he's never filed a New York tax return — meaning that he's never paid New York's income tax, despite keeping an office and a residence in New York City as a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch since 2007: "He pays New York taxes and will file a New York tax return in April for the first time," Ford's spokeswoman Tammy Sun told Gawker. "He will file all necessary personal disclosure and tax forms that candidates are required to file if he chooses to run." (According to Sun, Ford admitted to the tax dodge yesterday at a press availability in Albany, but we can't find any news accounts mentioning the remarks.)

Ford presumably decided that his real home was Tennessee, which conveniently has no income tax. Which means that, despite the fact that New York law requires part-time and nonresidents to pay income tax on money they earn in the state, Ford has shielded his entire Merrill Lynch salary from New York's tax collectors for the past three years. In fact, it seems like Tennessee's lack of an income tax may be the best explanation for Ford's rather complicated two-state life since 2007 — he clearly wanted to live in New York, and married a woman in 2008 who did live in New York. But he made sure to keep a foot in a state whose tax code is friendly to rich guys like himself.

When Merrill Lynch announced Ford's hiring in 2007, it said he would be keeping offices in Nashville and New York City. Ford has said that he's basically lived in New York since then, though he never technically lived here until last year since he didn't "spend the requisite number of days" staying at his wife Emily Ford's breathtakingly yellow apartment in the Flatiron district. ("Moved is such a legal term," he told the New York Times). Ford was clearly thinking of New York's 184-day rule, which requires that part-time residents who spend 184 or more days living in the state pay New York taxes on all their income.

What he seems to have forgotten is that New York has gone to great pains to prevent wealthy people like him from spending time and earning money in the state and then jetting off to a tax haven come April 15: It also requires nonresidents and people who live there fewer than 184 days to pay New York income taxes on whatever portion of their income they earned in the state.

If Ford did enough business in New York to keep an office there, its reasonable to presume that he earned a good deal of money in New York. Now, we're sure that there are all sorts of accountants' arguments and narrow dodges at Ford's disposal to claim that he didn't owe New York income tax until he moved here last year: He could have been paid out of Merrill Lynch's Nashville office, for instance, and he could have received the majority of his income in a bonus that he could claim he earned in Tennessee, not New York. But while those sorts of arguments may be useful to someone trying to get as close as possible to living in New York without suffering the tax consequences of doing so, they're not as effective when you're loudly thinking about running for Senate in New York by claiming you've lived there for three years and pay taxes there.

So what taxes is Ford talking about, if he's never paid income tax in New York? We've asked Sun, and haven't heard back. The most pathetic (and, by our lights, likely) answer is New York City's 8.875% sales tax, though Ford could also be talking about sharing in property taxes on Ford's apartment, or paying quarterly estimated tax payments on his freelance income as an MSNBC talking head, which he might have started paying last year once he decided to break that 184-day barrier and commit to New York. Or perhaps he instructed Merrill Lynch to start withholding New York taxes from his salary when he established residency in 2009.

And when precisely, did that happen, by the way? According to this Federal Election Committee filing recording a donation Ford made to Colorado Sen. Mike Bennet, he was still using his Memphis address as recently as September 29 of last year—98 days before he announced his interest in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's seat.

CLARIFICATION: This post originally said that "Ford has presumably chosen to instead file in his other home Tennessee, which conveniently has no income tax." That was changed to reflect the fact that, since Tennessee has no income tax, there's actually no return to file there.

SECOND CLARIFICATION: A reader points out that Tennessee does have an income tax on dividends and interest, just not wages, so Ford actually almost certainly did file there.

Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.

Parents, Students and Civil Rights Advocates Protest the Mass Closings of Public Schools by Leonie Haimson - The Huffington Post

Read original...

In communities all over the country, resistance is building to the mass closings of neighborhood schools.

Instead of strengthening our neighborhood schools, that have for generations accepted and served a variety of students, and providing resources and reforms like smaller classes that have been proven to work, officials are pursuing a scorched earth policy -- as during the Vietnam war, when the military claimed they were forced to destroy villages in order to save them.

Here in New York City, rallies and protests have attracted thousands, culminating in a tumultuous eight hour meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, at which parents, students and teachers pointed out how the Department of Education and Chancellor Joel Klein had unfairly targeted their schools, putting forward misleading statistics and incomplete or false data.

They also revealed how the DOE was itself responsible for overcrowding these schools with our neediest children -- many of them poor, immigrant, and needing special education services -- after having closed other large schools nearby. The small "boutique" schools and charter schools that took their place failed to enroll them. The schools now slated for closure also saw huge rises in the number of homeless students over the last few years.

Given all these challenges, many of these schools have done an admirable job. Particularly moving was the testimony of many students, some of them recent graduates, who eloquently pleaded with the administration, saying that after they had been rejected or discarded elsewhere, teachers and administrators at these schools had literally saved their lives.

Here is one story, told by a recent graduate of Paul Robeson High school in Brooklyn, now proposed to be closed:

Stephanie Adams, 22, described being born with fetal alcohol syndrome, getting turned away from school after school in a couple of states, and eventually enrolling at Robeson in the 10th grade. She started out in ninth-grade special education classes but was transferred to general education classes the following year and later graduated 11th in her class, despite being homeless for two years while in high school...."you're not just giving up on institutions, you're giving up on the kids, you're giving up on the teachers....Without Robeson to light the way I don't know where I'd be."

Over the course of eight hours, only a single individual out of nearly three hundred spoke up in favor of the proposed closings, and yet the panel, composed of a supermajority of mayoral appointees, rubberstamped these decisions with not a word of explanation offered to justify their decisions. Only the independent members appointed by the borough presidents of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens voted in opposition.

In Chicago, battles have been similarly intense and heartbreaking, with community members and parents fiercely defending the survival of their neighborhood schools, now fated for extinction, while officials assured them that they knew better what was best for their children.

As one commentator put it, "While local and national education leaders talk about increasing school choice, parents ... feel the choice they've made is being taken away" -- the choice to send their children to a neighborhood school.

And it's not just parents, students and teachers who oppose these policies; so do researchers. Studies have shown that in Chicago, students sent to schools in other neighborhoods after their schools had closed did no better academically, and in some cases, their displacement appears to have led to the worsening of gang violence, ending in shootings and deaths.

Before the 2006 school year, an average of 10-15 Chicago public school students were fatally shot each year. With massive numbers of school closings, this number soared to 24 deaths in 2006-07, and 34 deaths in 2008-9.

Here in New York City, discharge rates have skyrocketed as schools are phased out -- with up to half of the students in the last two classes at closing schools either forced to transfer to GED programs or just disappearing from the system's records.

Researchers have found that an increase in student mobility is correlated with worse outcomes in academic achievement, nutrition and health, and that nationwide, students who change schools even once are twice as likely to drop out.

Unfortunately, Arne Duncan, head of the US Department of Education, is forcing more districts to adopt these destructive policies, by making this a condition of their eligibility for federal stimulus funds. The federal government has ordained that states have to choose from a small number of "intervention models" -- none of which have been proven to work: either close schools, turn them over to charter school management, or fire half of the staff in the process of "reconstituting" them.

Attempts at actual improvement can be only used in about half of targeted schools -- and unfortunately the specified methods, like teacher performance pay, have never been shown to work.

After studying the these sort of policies for five years, the Center on Education Policy concluded that the federal government "must refrain form forcing schools to implement unproven strategies...Only with more specific knowledge can leaders create policies that help schools improve."

Meanwhile, in New York City alone, literally tens of thousands of students are going to be left without a neighborhood school they have a right to attend -- breaking the ties between their communities and their public schools -- while charter schools are installed in their place.

The expansion of the charter school sector proposed by the Obama administration is particularly risky. According to two recent studies, one from UCLA's Civil Rights Project and another from researchers at the University of Colorado and Eastern Michigan University, show that the proliferation of charter schools nationwide has led to more segregation nationwide.

Yet another analysis reveals how charters in NYC serve far fewer poorer, immigrant and special needs students than reside in the communities in which they sit, leading to a "separate but unequal" school system.

Some day these misconceived policies will be recognized as the educational equivalent of practices pursued by civic authorities the 1950s and 1960s to remake entire neighborhoods in the name of "urban renewal" and "slum clearance."

Those top-down policies led to loss of vibrant neighborhoods characterized by small businesses, a mix of low-rise housing in a complex eco-system, bull-dozed into barren complexes of cement, and caused misery for millions of residents dispersed elsewhere.

Just like the current educational establishment, which has withdrawn their support from neighborhood schools to make their eventual privatization easier to achieve, financial institutions in earlier decades disinvested in these inner-city neighborhoods and "redlined" them so that no loans would be available to improve their conditions- all in the interests of flattening them to the ground.

Indeed, the current policies constitute educational redlining, prescribing top-down solutions, with those in charge ignoring the experience and priorities of community members, in the heedless and arrogant fashion of those who have never themselves sent their own children to urban public schools, and know little and care less about what makes schools work.

Yet communities are fighting back. Here in New York City, the NAACP, along with the teacher's union and local elected officials have filed suit in state court in an attempt to block the city from closing these schools.

Let's hope that the courts deliver justice, before it's too late.

NYS Senator Addabbo Sets Community Discussion for Maspeth on February 11th...

NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., will host a Community Discussion on Thursday, February 11, from 7 - 9 PM at the Maspeth Town Hall, 5337 72nd Street, Maspeth. Travel via public transit: Grand Ave.-73^rd Street bus.

The Senator will discuss issues that are important to his constituents: jobs, transportation, education, public safety, sanitation, the new voting machines, the 2010-2011 state budget, the 2010 Census, and programs to benefit our veterans and seniors.

The current legislative session in Albany will also be covered during an anticipated lively exchange with the audience.

WHO: NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr.

WHEN:Thursday, February 11, 2010, 7 PM – 9 PM

WHERE:Maspeth Town Hall, 5337 72^nd Street, Maspeth, NY 11378-1724; 718-335-6049

Pimp Who 'Bought' Young Woman for $2,000 and Advertised Her on Craigslist is Sentenced to 25 years by Thomas Zambito - NY Daily News

Read original...

David Brown paid $2,000 to an ex-girlfriend for the 19-year-old victim, who was described as homeless and vulnerable. Anderson Willie

A Queens pimp who "bought" a young woman for $2,000 - and advertised her sex services on Craigslist - was sentenced to 25 years to life.

David Brown, 32, paid $2,000 to an ex-girlfriend for the 19-year-old victim, who was described as homeless and vulnerable.

He took nude pictures of the victim and then posted them online, advertising the woman as a sex slave.

Over 12 days in August 2008 she was forced into sex with 30 men, and Brown collected payments ranging from $60 to $200, prosecutors said.

Brown was convicted on sex trafficking, kidnapping and other charges. He was the first to be charged under a new harsh sex-trafficking law signed by disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in June 2007.

Ironically, Spitzer was forced from office less than a year later after being identified as "Client 9" - the patron of a $5,500-an-hour call-girl ring.

"You are a con man of the first order," Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise told Brown. "I'm going to do my best to insure that you never see the light of day again."

Brown blamed his troubles on a spiteful ex - the woman prosecutors said sold him the woman.

"I did not do the crime," Brown said. "This was straight jealousy from an old girlfriend that I left. I never touched [the victim.] I never kidnapped her."