Norman (Oklahoma)

Three years ago, A.M.  read more »

Tom Suozzi is going to open this week's offensive with a press conference on the theme of Eliot Spitzer and his family money.

In particular, he'll be releasing a "formal ethics opinion" on Spitzer's service on the board of his family's charitable trust.

It does raise the interesting question about who gets to regulates the state official in charge of regulating charities.

As a political issue, though, it would be surprising if Spitzer's family money proves to be any more resonant now than it was in 1998, the year his opponents accused him of buying the primary by showering dollars on Clarence Norman and other party officials in exchange for support.

-- Josh Benson

Community Boards 2, 6 and 8 said they played a very limited role in fashioning the community benefits agreement for the Atlantic Yards basketball arena and complex, according to blogger Norman Oder. The developer, Forest City Ratner, had advertised the community boards' involvement in brochures and e-mails as a way to enhance the agreement's legitimacy by claiming that the community boards were advisors. -Matthew Schuerman UPDATE: Here's the letter (PDF).

Last night’s panel on Atlantic Yards, sponsored by Women in Housing and Finance, was painful and frankly not terribly informative. (You can check out blogger Norman Oder’s play-by-play here.) But following up, we received a statement today from developer Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, who said: “We have also agreed to build on or off site 600 to 1,000 first-time homeowner condos and will continue to work with ACORN on this and related issues.”

That’s news—assuming that “first-time homeowners” would be low- or middle-income families. In the agreement signed last May, Ratner and ACORN said only that they would “work on a program to develop affordable for-sale units, which are intended to be in the range of 600 to 1,000 units.”  read more »

The editor of The Brooklyn Rail, formerly the press guy for Norman Siegel's campaign, pens a post-mortem love letter to his candidate, with a slight hint of conspiracy:

"Why had Norman's candidacy clearly rallied the city's power elite into action? Perhaps because as the Post had said in its earlier editorial, Norman would be 'more focused on principles than practicalities'—a threatening perspective to those in power..."  read more »

He also claims that Hank Sheinkopf (Shein-cough?) coughed on him. Wetly.

A Hitchcock MedleyThis was supposed to be the hot one for summer.  read more »

Stormin' Norman Mailer Says He's Soured on Giuliani  read more »