Tamiflu

As apocalyptic horror fantasies go, the threat of an avian-flu pandemic remains blessedly hypothetic  read more »

It’s a bad sign for a candidate when his campaign gaffes are better known than his agenda.  read more »

It’s a bad sign for a candidate when his campaign gaffes are better known than his agenda.  read more »

It's a pretty sleepy Tuesday out there, so I've taken it on myself to stroll the blogosphere in search of sparks for The Politicker's second-ever Blog Stroll. As always, please email me if I seem to have any hotttt blogs in my blind spot. Here we go.... GOP and the City gleefully derides Freddy's suspicious attitude toward Mike's charitable giving, which totalled $139 million last year. Freddy recently referred to the gifts as "strategic charitable contributions" during an interview on Air America...a forum which, the blog notes, may have been an ironic choice to for airing that kind of criticism, considering the radio station's own charity-money scandal.

At the DMI Blog, Andrew Friedman lambasts Madeline Pronvezano for dragging her feet on scheduling a hearing for the Healthy Homes Act. The act would authorize the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to fix "immediately hazardous" outstanding housing code violations, bypassing negligent landlords and billing them three times the value of the repairs as a penalty. The blog suggests that addressing complex issues like lead paint (is it good? it it evil? is it tasty? such nuance...) is too much of a political hot button to hit before the election.

The Neighborhood Retail Alliance follows the ongoing food fight over Intro 699, a bill to tighten regulation of city fruit stands that makes vendors want to thow rotten tomatoes at City Hall. They also take a look at the mayor's track record on solid waste management, and suggest that it shows how "being 'above politics'...doesn't automatically translate into astute policy making."

Over at Daily Gotham, Liza high-fives Chuck for tangling with Roche over its Tamiflu patent.  read more »

Joel Rivera wants you to take him seriously as a candidate for Speaker, notes Power Plays. Apparently, last week's display of door-measuring prowess didn't do the trick. Soon, I hope, we'll get reports of the council member sawing down his desk to fit through that hallowed door (saws are louder than tape measures, and therefore more likely to get attention, right?).

And who knew that there was a BlogOn social media summit in New York yesterday? Not us! But Dominic Basulto at Corante's New York blog did. And apparently the McDonald's corporation did, too; nothing says "social media" quite like a Big Mac and fries nestled up against your keyboard.