Last Saturday, the New York City Police Department and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. purchased 139 guns in Harlem through a buyback event designed to take weapons off city streets. Similar recent events brought in far more firearms than D.A. Vance’s effort. Read More
Old friends Al Sharpton and Ed Koch got together on the Rev’s MSNBC show last night and spoke about Mr. Koch’s sudden embrace of President Obama, after Mr. Koch urged New Yorkers to support a Republican in a recent Congressional race to send a message to the administration over its Middle East Policy.
Mr. Koch spoke of a half-hour meeting he had with the president in which “I said that I did not like — I used strong language — what he was doing with respect to Israel and I made it clear that I was not going to vote for him on that basis.” Read More
MSNBC officially hired the Reverend Al Sharpton this afternoon to host “PoliticsNation,” during the network’s 6 p.m. hour.
“I’m thrilled that he’s now reached a point in his career where he’s able to devote himself to hosting a nightly show,” said MSNBC president Phil Griffin in a statement that called Sharpton one of the network’s “most thoughtful and entertaining guests.” Read More
NY-9: Catsimatidis said Obama threw business community “under the bus;” raising money for Turner on 8/23. [City Hall News]
NY-9: Weprin’s vote for same-sex marriage may be his biggest obstacle. “National Democratic officials are considering pouring resources into the race.” [Chris Bragg / City Hall News]
NY-9: Turner’s latest attack on Park51 is “hapless.” [Alison Gendar / Daily News]
Verizon Contract: 8 to 4, Panel for Education policy approves the deal. [Fernanda Santos / New York Times]
Verizon Contract: “We have a responsibility to pay Verizon – but to do this we have to approve this contract,” said Chancellor Walcott. [Ben Chapman / Daily News]
Verizon Contract: Liu criticized for “pandering” to union. [Daily News]
Crown Heights: Panel invite to Sharpton reignites debate about his role then. [Andy Stolis / NY Post]
Crown Heights: “If it is not an event that will heal, it is not an event that I will partake in,” said Sharpton. [Simone Weichselbaum / Daily News]
City Council: “He has no regard for the law, and this is a person who wants to be a lawmaker,” challenger Allan Jennings said of Councilman Ruben Wills. [Michael Saul / WSJ]
Immigration: Bloomberg hasn’t take a position on Quinn’s bill to end city’s participation in a federal program that has led to the deportation of people from Rikers Island. [Reuven Blau / Daily News]
9/11: “Christie privately lambasted Bloomberg as ‘Napoleon,’ ‘a dictator’ and ‘a putz’” for not inviting the NJ governor of 2001 to the 10th anniversary. [Josh Margolin and Bob Fredericks / NY Post]
9/11: Prompted by Florida congressman, FBI probe of Ground Zero workers shows none are suspected terrorists. [Devlin Barrett / WSJ]
Transportation: [A judge] made clear that he believes Sadik-Khan made a mockery of her responsibilities to provide the public with full access to city records as required by the Freedom of Information Law.” [Daily News]
Decoding Sharpton: “Most of the candidates who pay tribute to him aren’t nearly as concerned with the support of a man who has never drawn even 150,000 votes in four losing runs for office, as with defending themselves from the negative attention he can summon.” [Harry Siegel / Village Voice]
Here’s a 2-minute video featuring Councilwoman Tish James of Brooklyn and others explaining why they are rallying against Wall Street today and pushing the mayor to roll back service cuts he proposed in his budget.
“It’s time that we march on Wall Street,” said James, who referred to them as “the people who were responsible for this recession.”
Councilwoman Debi Rose said, “We are not going to allow the mayor to break the unions,” and “they are going to feel the wrath of working people in New York City.”
Video after the jump. Read More
