Totally random fact of the day: A reader pointed out to me this morning that former Assemblyman Bran McLaughlin is doing time in Butner Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) in North Carolina, the same prison as Bernie Madoff.
UPDATE: Former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio is there too.
Can Judge Richard Sullivan flip Bernie Madoff's right hand man? Or has he flipped already?
No one, including Judge Sullivan, is quite sure what's going on with Frank DiPascali, a 33-year veteran of Madoff Securities who called himself C.F.O. and supposedly executed the firm's trades.
In August, Judge Sullivan denied bail to Mr. DiPascali, over the Read More
ALBANY—The other day I wrote about the late State Senator Ron Stafford's campaign account, and how nearly $60,000 of it has been spent since his death in 2005.
It turns out there are lots of pots of campaign money out there, just sitting, some being spent, controlled by elected officials who have left office Read More
Austin Shafran is leaving Hank Sheinkopf’s office to become a spokesman for Malcolm Smith, the embattled leader of the Senate Democratic conference, according to two people with knowledge of the move.
While at Sheinkopf’s office, Shafran was working on the Democratic transition, and has been accompanying Malcolm Smith at numerous events.
Shafran’s move comes Read More
Here’s Village Voice investigative reporter Wayne Barrett in City Hall today, saying that Christine Quinn shouldn’t necessarily be held responsible for the City Council's recent troubles.Barrett, who is pretty familiar with the murky side of New York City politics, argues that legislative leaders aren’t normally held accountable when legislators misuse money.“No one has ever Read More
A new political club in Assemblyman Rory Lancman’s district - which used to be represented by Brian McLaughlin before he was implicated in a contract-rigging scandal - is having its first meeting tonight in Fresh Meadows, featuring Read More
This year's Labor Day parade has been cancelled, according to The Chief.
The head of the Central Labor Council, Ed Ott, is quoted as saying the group felt it best "to remain focused on our organizational priorities and review the various observances of our Labor Day events as we consider how to march Read More
Writing about the other scandal of the day, Blair Horner thinks the indictment of labor-leader and Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin "should be an indictment of Albany's political culture. A culture that is far more interested in maintaining a clearly ethically challenged status quo than working for change." George Pataki is going to Harvard. For Read More
Greg Smith had an interesting story the other day about one of the City Council members who got campaign funds funneled to him by indicted labor leader, Brian McLaughlin. According to the massive indictment [pdf] against McLaughlin, here's how the plan worked: McLauglin got his friends and their wives to send $250 contributions Read More
"Given the clear directive in the Advisory Opinion, Mr. Hevesi was not entitled to substitute his judgment, or that Read More
"After careful Read More
Right now, the Democratic Caucus of the City Council - all but four members of the Council - is meeting in the members lounge. No doubt term limits will be on the agenda. (It's the air conditioning issue of the Council. You hear it buzzing in the background all the time, and when it stops, Read More
Republicans everywhere are on the defensive about Iraq, a development that is bound to have a big impact on the GOP incumbents fighting for survival here in New York. Eliot Spitzer and John Faso favor very, very different approaches to tax policy. Alan Hevesi leads his opponent, and continues to duck him. Read More
McLaughlin described a plan to use $2,000 from the SLA account to compensate J Division members who would make $250 contributions, in the names of their wives, to Read More
If you don't have time to read the 186-page indictment [pdf] against former Assemblyman and labor leader Brian McLaughlin, here are some highlights from the press release from the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York: McLaughlin "allegedly required certain J Division members to make monthly payments to McLAUGHLIN from Read More
