The Morning Read: Thursday, March 29, 2007
"The record-high, $123 billion budget deal neither reforms nor reshapes," according to Fred Dicker.
At a press conference yesterday explaining the budget, Spitzer was "stumbling through answers to basic questions," according to Jacob Gershman.
But the budget does move the state towards reform, which was Spitzer's goal all along, according to Newsday's editorial board.
Lawmakers and the public should be given a chance to study the budget, according to the Times Union editorial board.
Rudy Giuliani and his wife will be interviewed by Barbara Walters tomorrow.
Giuliani, who was endorsed by Steve Forbes, backed the idea of a flat tax-- something he opposed when he was mayor.
Mike Bloomberg said the timetable approved by Congress for withdrawing troops from Iraq was "untenable."
Hillary Clinton was endorsed by the National Organization of Women.
A person who told a witness in the Sean Bell shooting to keep quiet was arrested.
The former Brooklyn judge on trial for bribery had some Machiavellian advice about power and perception.
35 Nassau officials will lose their take-home vehicles.
And voter fraud is a myth, according to the Brennan Center's Executive Director Michael Waldan and Justin Levitt, an attorney there.
-- Azi Paybarah
About the Sean Bell murder: the real witness tampering is being done by the NYPD who arrested a man for riding his bicycle on the street (!) and then reported that he told them that Sean Bell had shot him last year in a drug turf battle.
The next day the supposed victim of Bell told the NY Times that after the police hauled him in for riding his bike on the sidewalk, they brought up Sean Bell.
The Times quotes Anthony Jeffers:
"They asked me, 'Did he do it?' I said no. It's a false statement. They're just lying."
I don't think New York City police are racist, but their higher-ups sure do their best to make us think they are.