An Independent ItCH As Brian McLaughlin Speaks Out
July 03, 2008
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Inside City Hall Real Video links appear as [hiband/loband]
Tonight’s program includes: Congressional candidate Kevin Powell; A special holiday Reporters Roundtable.
Wrongfully convicted of killing his parents, Martin Tankleff told us on last night’s program what he lost in his 17 years in prison.[hiband/loband].
Inside The Papers
The New York Times
Ray Hernandez follows Hillary Clinton in her first visit upstate since she dropped out of the presidential race: “It seemed fitting that Mrs. Clinton’s first swing through her home state after she ended her campaign on June 7 would be upstate, in a region that unexpectedly connected with her in 1999 when she was a first lady who was considering asking New Yorkers to send her to the Senate.”
Willie Neuman notes: “Soaring gas prices and higher tolls seem to be doing for traffic in New York what Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s ambitious congestion pricing was supposed to do: reducing the number of cars clogging the city’s streets and pushing more people to use mass transit.”
Charlie Bagli reports: “The story of the tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and its efforts to rebuild after the collapse of the World Trade Center is one of well-intentioned promises that led to endless negotiations, design disputes, delays and mounting costs. It is, in other words, a microcosm of the seven-year, $16 billion, problem-plagued effort to reconstruct the entire trade center site.”
Chan & Hauser write: “The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said on Wednesday that his office had uncovered numerous instances of child care centers in New York City misspending public funds. He said his office had referred 19 child care centers to local prosecutors for possible criminal investigation.”
New York Post
Dicker & Haberman report: “Mayor Bloomberg’s top political aide approached a prominent upstate former lawmaker about running the ailing state Republican Party, as Hizzoner continues to weigh a possible bid for governor, The Post has learned.The pitch to Ray Meier - a Republican who served five terms as a state senator from Oneida County - was made Tuesday by Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey at a City Hall sitdown, according to a well-informed source.”
The edit-heads opine: “New Yorkers are taxed enough - none more so than hardworking homeowners.”
They’re also thrilled that the mayor’s trash plan is moving ahead – and they trash Rep. Anthony Weiner for criticizing pork projects in the City Council but then preserving his own Congressional earmarks.
New York Daily News
A News trio notes: “The head of psychiatry at Kings County Hospital was among the six people fired after a Brooklyn woman was left to die on a waiting room floor last month.”
Columnist Michael Daly looks at the mess at Ground Zero through the Freedom Tower’s cornerstone.
From Albany, Ken Lovett writes: “The woman who sources said had an extramarital affair with Gov. Paterson before he took office no longer works for him, the Daily News has learned.”
The edit-heads rip into city hospital officials while op-ed columnist Errol Louis previews an audit of a Housing Authority program by City Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Newsday
Dan Janison lands an exclusive interview with former Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin who is awaiting sentencing on various bribery and embezzlement convictions: “At a back booth in a coffee shop in his former Flushing district, McLaughlin politely nudged the conversation toward what he most wanted to talk about: his wife Eva, his family and the life he leads today. He talked about the rewards of returning over the past couple of years to blue-collar work as a sandhog, electrician and limo driver - and about saner hours and spiritual matters, with a backward glance or two at the ruin of his public life. ‘In my case alcohol was a factor in some of what I did,’ he said. With his public roles always keeping him away from home, he said, ‘you're out of touch with the emotional needs of your wife and family, those that matter the most to you, largely without recognizing it. And unable to recognize it, because every day your work schedule and your personal lifestyle kind of take on a habit and a culture of their own.’ “
Michael Frazier reports: "Like their cross-town rivals in the Bronx, the Mets are seeking more tax-free financing for the construction of their $632-million Citi Field stadium, a city official said yesterday.”
New York Sun
Jacob Gershman reports: “Billionaire Thomas Golisano has set his sights on the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, who may soon bear the brunt of the Rochester Republican's new political action committee.”
Joseph Goldstein writes: “In a sign that federal courts here in New York will defend New York City's restrictive gun regulations, a judge is allowing the city to strip a disabled Vietnam War veteran of his gun license.”
Have a great Independence Day. Until Monday.
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