NY Observer > MSNBC Interactive News LLC

Jersey's Loss Is New York's Gain--Sort of

Observer Staff — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:00:00 -0500

Hah! And you thought it was always New York City that lost out on the corporate-retention duel. This time around, MSNBC is moving 421 jobs from Secaucus, NJ, to Rockefeller Plaza, balking on a deal that was supposed to keep them in the Garden State for another five years.

New Jersey loses about $8 million in foregone sales taxes from the move, according to the watchdog group New Jersey Policy Perspective, and another $9.6 million in grants and equipment that the network won't give back, according to this article in the Asbury Park Press. Hey, 10 years is long enough, ain't it?

Now, NBC, capitalizing on the return move as well as on plans to expand staff by 1,600, wants more tax breaks from New York City, according to Good Jobs New York. - Matthew Schuerman

Elsewhere: Taxes, Blackjack

Observer Staff — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:05:41 -0500

New York City is the tax capital of the world.

Conservatives don't like Eliot Spitzer's nominee for Environmental Conservation Commissioner.

Alan Hevesi wasn't the only state comptroller who had his wife chauffeured by a state employee.

Assembly members are playing basketball against the City Council this weekend.

Hillary Clinton's favorite game is blackjack.

Tom Daschle will endorse Barack Obama.

Jonathan Stein thinks "John McCain might as well be gay."

A GOP pollster tells Greg Sargent that that poll showing massive support for the war in Iraq is bogus.

A Republican presidential debate in Iowa will air on MSNBC on November 6. And pictured above is a photographic scrum in the Council's Red Room today.

-- Azi Paybarah

Norah O'Donnell Sees Israel Lobby Behind Carter Row

Observer Staff — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:31:40 -0500

Norah O'Donnell on MSNBC just now did a very aggressive job of interviewing Steve Berman, one of the Jews who resigned from the Carter Center advisory board in protest of Carter's book. O'Donnell asked whether he had been "lobbied" by Jewish groups to do so. Berman said he hadn't. She didn't seem to believe him, virtually repeating the question, this time adding "AIPAC", and then bridled at the fact that these so-called friends of Carter did all this without even talking to their former leader ahead of time. Didn't you owe the former President that? she asked.

O'Donnell made her own point of view clear when she showed footage of Carter, on Hardball, saying that the United States has been deprived (by the lobby) of the vigorous debate about the Occupied Territories that goes on every day in Israel itself. I applaud her for being a tough journalist who knows a smokescreen.

O'Donnell's stance is significant. It demonstrates that, 10 months on, and notwithstanding the inability of the New York Times to cover the matter and the smearing of the authors by the Washington Post, Walt & Mearsheimer have mainstreamed the lobby as an issue in our public life. The battle is on. American attitudes on Israel are changing. More and more Americans recognize a simple truth: the hateful Israeli occupation has undermined our image across the Arab world.

The Abrams Family

Rebecca Dana — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Back in the 1970’s, when Floyd Abrams was co-counsel for The New York Times on the Pentagon Papers read more »

The Abrams Family

Rebecca Dana — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Back in the 1970’s, when Floyd Abrams was co-counsel for The New York Times on the Pentagon Pa read more »

What We Learned Tonight

Observer Staff — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:22:43 -0500

It's 11:30 on the East Coast and we know that Nancy Pelosi will be the next Speaker of the House. That's about all we know. We don't yet know how many of her fellow Democrats will constitute the next House majority, nor do we have any clue whom they will select as their new Majority Leader-- Maryand's Steny Hoyer and Pennsylvania's John Murtha will now square off.

We also have no idea which party will control the Senate-- and with the Virginia race now on its way to a recount, it may be several days. The signs, though, point to a reduced Republican majority, with Democrats falling short in Tennessee and Virginia. However, if the Virginia outcome is reversed -- either in the very late returns (13 precincts from Democrat-rich Richmond have apparently not been counted yet) -- and if Democratis then run the table in Missouri and Montana, they'll have their magic six seats.

So for anyone still reading this, the best advise is to head to your living room, flip on MSNBC, keep your finger on the mute button when Chris Matthews comes on the screen, and have some fun watching the rest of the numbers trickle in. -- Steve Kornacki

There Goes the House

Observer Staff — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:18:39 -0500

MSNBC has declared that the Democrats will take back the House, based on Associated Press projections that the party has gained at least 19 seats (they needed 15 to win control). Still unclear is whether they will add significantly to that total before the night is over. -- Steve Kornacki

The Final Seinfeld: I Told You So!

Ron Rosenbaum — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:00:00 -0400

I’m sorry, I just can’t resist. read more »

Wednesday: A Buyers' Market

Observer Staff — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 05:02:17 -0400

Why are police targetting the red seven-seater tricylcles? (The New York Sun)
The "purves" in Long Island City can find a cheaper luxury condo from Corcoran. (Curbed)
The city's may be losing its black population, but Battery Park City is suffering from black-car blight. (The Village Voice)
The corner of Lexington Avenue and East 86th Street will house a residential/retail building, fitted with an H&M and a Barnes & Noble. (New York Post)
Liberal authors beg for money at a Barnes & Noble near you. (Free Williamsburg)
The new Javits Center expansion will be of little use to larger conventions. It will rise up, not out, and the city will end up losing money. (The New York Times)
Duck pâté, charcuterie plates and brick turns a Lower East Side joint into a bourgeois den. (The Village Voice)
The average sales price for an Upper East Side townhouse increased by 64 percent in one year. But they're the outliers. (MSNBC)
A 95-year-old landmark building, also known as the john. (The New York Times)
A townhouse owners in Durham, England is so desperate to move he's throwing in his Ferrari to sweeten the deal. (House & Ferrari)
Save Our Parks is not a Yankees fan.
Deep insights: "The shift we’re seeing is an emphasis on large developers, not small nonprofits who reach those most in need." Duh... (City Limits)

- Riva Froymovich

Instapundit Pauses to Reflect On How the Little Guy Can Win

Chris Suellentrop — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:00:00 -0400

In case you don’t know, Glenn Reynolds is the biggest sole proprietor in the political blogosp read more »