Rudy Giuliani has been making calls to Republican officials to discuss his former deputy mayor Joe Lhota's potential mayoral candidacy.

Whoopi Goldberg, Donna Karan and Deepak Chopra were among the attendees at a fund-raiser for public advocate candidate Reshma Saujani earlier this month.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez didn't let sexual harassment allegations stop his annual "adults-only" holiday party.

Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and President Barack Obama's "point person" on the long-term rebuilding effort after Hurricane Sandy, said Congress needs to approve the entire $60.4 billion storm supplemental aid package at once and do so quickly or victims of the hurricane will be stuck in a "nightmare of inaction and limbo that is completely unacceptable."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that it may take "as many as 20 votes the next few days" for the Sandy aid package to be approved. A final vote is expected to be held today.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced legislation to allow New Yorkers to vote two weeks prior to election day and to force more disclosure of political ad spending yesterday. He also said legislators are "on standby" for a special gun control session, but noted the vote on new gun control laws could also take place next year.

Mr. Silver said Assemblymen Joseph Morelle and Robert Sweeney are among those being considered for the chamber's No. 2 position, majority leader, which is currently held by retiring Assemblyman Ron Canestrari.

The most recent jobs report found Sandy cost New York State 29,100 jobs while New Jersey lost 8,100.

In spite of this, the unemployment rate in New York dropped 0.4 percent in November.

Department of Education officials accused the teachers union of refusing to sign off on an agreement for teacher evaluations without a guarantee of wage increases. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott called union president Michael Mulgrew's "insistence on including issues unrelated to teacher evaluation" in the negotiations "unacceptable and illegal." Mr. Mulgrew countered that "The idea that this is not a subject of bargaining is ludicrous."

As retiring Congressman Maurice Hinchey bids farewell to the House of Representatives, his staff has moved from their large quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building to "a cubicle in the building’s basement."

The House freshmen will be sworn in next week. Newly minted Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries will be holding a reception after the ceremony to celebrate.

Senators are not exactly pleased to be at work on the fiscal cliff during this post-holiday week. "I didn’t realize how much I didn’t want to be here until I got here," said Chuck Schumer, who cut short a trip to visit his daughter in California.

Some politicians on both sides of the aisle have decided it may be a better deal for them in the short term to let the country go over the fiscal cliff.

Wall Street is getting antsy as the probability lawmakers won't make a cliff deal is becoming increasingly real.

Congress might also allow the country to go over the "dairy cliff," which could cause milk prices to double.

President Barack Obama dubbed the late General Norman Schwarzkopf "an American original" in a statement on the officer's death.