With scuttlebutt suggesting Senator Barack Obama is unlikely to pick Senator Hillary Clinton as his running mate, Clinton's good friend Governor Jon Corzine said this morning that Clinton would be a "very strong" vice president. "Could she be president? Absolutely. Is she going to add something to the ticket? Yes." The Star-Ledger reports that Corzine, speaking on MSNBC, also thinks that Senator Joe Biden (Del.) is good choice. Biden, Senator Evan Bayh (Ind.) and Virgina......

Carla Katz was suspended as the head of the largest local of the Communications Workers of America. The CWA's national executive board believes there's, per the AP, "financial malpractice and suppression of dissent among the local’s 16,000 members, 10,000 of whom are state workers" (see the claims here). Katz denies the charges and says they are "appalling." Her past relationship with NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been scrutinized (Corzine gave her a $6 million settlement......

The Star-Ledger reports that NJ Governor Jon Corzine will be sharing with the spotlight today with a 115-pound Doberman pinscher. The dog is Buck the Buckle-Up Dog, who helps remind children and adults alike to "Please Buckle-Up Evey Time You Ride." Corzine was critically injured in a car accident last year when he failed to buckle up while sitting in the front passenger seat of his trooper-driven SUV. The governor's brush with death prompted him......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine, who was critically injured after not wearing a seat belt when his state vehicle crashed, endorsed a proposal requiring all passengers wear seat belts in vehicles on NJ roads. He also supported recommendations for stricter restrictions for drivers under age 20, even admitting his three children had been in accidents as teen drivers. Corzine had been riding in his SUV's front passenger seat last year when he was ejected, breaking a......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine and Pennsylvania Ed Rendell have offered a plan to re-stage the Florida and Michigan Democratic primaries. The two men, both Clinton supporters, say they will raise half of the $30 million it would take for new primaries. Funny, where's Governor Spitzer, who said he'd support Clinton but has called Obama "spectacular"? Corzine told the Star-Ledger, "We ought to have a revote. I think the money would be available if it brought......

http://gothamist.com/2008/02/05/get_out_your_pr.php...

Sometimes we refer to Mayor Bloomberg as Mayor Bling because with a net worth with $5.5 billion (according to Forbes), why not? And what's frequently mentioned is how his staff is looking into the possibility of Bloomberg running for president - though he denies it all the time - because he would have about $1 billion to spend on a third-party campaign. Former president Bill Clinton mentioned Bloomberg's wealth with respect to needing to reign......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at 1 Broadway in Manhattan, a person under a train at the Queensboro Plaza station in Queens, and a child struck by a city bus on Parkside Ave. in Brooklyn. Thieves are targeting open houses across the Upper West Side--stealing personal possessions after gaining access to homes. Oddly, one of the two woman thieves is suspected to actually be a man in drag. Chants of "No......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unstable building at 37th Ave. and 31st St. in Queens, a stabbing on State St. and 3rd Ave. in Brooklyn, and an organ transport on the Cross Island Parkway in Queens. GrandOpening on the LES is following up its single-table storefront Ping Pong concept with another slice of Americana: the drive-in movie theater. $75 will secure all six passenger seats in a ragtop Ford Falcon. We recommend burning......

Mayor Cory Booker unveiled new technology to help fight crime in Newark. The plan is called "Community Eye," and it will "marry audio gunshot-detection technology with a series of remote-control public surveillance cameras into a network," according to the Star-Ledger. Booker hopes to put 100 cameras and audio gunshot-detection machines to work, as the Newark Community Foundation has promised to raise $3.2 million for the effort. Booker said, "When all the cameras and gunshot......

Nineteen-year-old Natasha Aerial, who was the only survivor from Saturday night's shootings in a Newark schoolyard, managed to speak to police yesterday. While her brother and two friends died from being shot in the head, execution-style, Aerial survived a gunshot to the head. She is heavily sedated and under police guard. Still, Newark Police Director (and former NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations) Garry McCarthy said, "We're getting the story piecemeal from her. Based upon......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an abduction on Dorchester Rd. in Brooklyn, an armed robbery with shots fired on Richmond Ave. on Staten Island, and a bank robbery on Broadway and 68th St. in Manhattan. If one has been ordained by an online ministry, it's good to make sure the state you marry people in will recognize your performance at the altar. A possible problem is that even state officials in charge of issuing......

It's the future, now! The Daily Intelligencer posted this Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/SWIM rendering of Freedom Tower's lobby, and finds out from SOM's TJ Gottesdiener that the lobby will shed "light into the memorial pool." Notice how the way light falls in Freedom Tower's lobby mimics how light would fall in the World Trade Center's lobby. It's wild to think there's a lobby rendering - remember when Freedom Tower was just redesign upon redesign?......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine told reporters that he will not use his e-mail anymore as NJ Republicans have filed a lawsuit demanding that Corzine's e-mails with ex-girlfriend and NJ union leader Carla Katz be made public. Corzine said, "We’ll go back to the 1920s, and have direct conversations with people." We'll guess his staff is also getting him books on Morse Code, smoke signals, and sending messages in bottles. Now that Corzine's getting healthy after......

The New York Times notes an interesting and under-stressed part of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan that would charge drivers $8 for entering a certain zone in midtown and lower Manhattan: the plan is also going to charge drivers $8 to leave midtown and downtown Manhattan. The Times seems to think that charging drivers to exit a proposed congestion zone is counterintuitive, prompting Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to admit that congestion pricing has less to......

Carla Katz is a smart lady. After, well, years of speculation about her relationship with NJ Governor Jon Corzine and the recent revelation that Corzine gave her a settlement worth $6 million after they broke up, Katz, an influential union leader, decided to talk. And she spoke to none other than the Post's Cindy Adams. Katz tells Adams that she and Corzine are still good friends and that she was not given a settlement because......

Plans for a World Trade Center memorial continue to crawl along, and WNBC has a story today about the personal donations that are funding the effort and the memorial itself. $300 million has been raised to build a set of reflecting pools and a museum at Ground Zero, much of that money coming from a fundraising drive over the last six months. The story includes a list of top donors, and we found it interesting......

"I'm New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and I should be dead." That's how Corzine starts off a public service announcement to remind people to buckle up. Corzine is the current poster boy for bad seatbelt behavior: He wasn't buckled up when his SUV - which was traveling at 91 MPH - crashed on April 12, and he was critically injured, breaking many bones and lost half his blood. He remained on a ventilator for......

The past few weeks, we've learned a lot about NJ Governor Jon Corzine. He doesn't wear a seatbelt, he wears track suits, and he paid his ex-girlfriend, who happened to be NJ's top union chief, a $6 million settlement after they broke up. Oh, yes: The NY Times has an extensive article about Corzine's relationship with Carla Katz, a union president. Though their relationship began and ended while Corzine was a senator, questions about conflicts......

Ensconced at the NJ Governor's Mansion, Drumthwacket, Governor Jon Corzine started to give extensive interviews with the media yesterday. He told the Star-Ledger how a state trooper who responded to his April 12 accident jumped on top of him to shield him from the burning SUV as other responders were trying to put out the fire. Corzine said, "Jimmy Ryan is a hero of unbelievable proportions." Ryan downplayed incident, saying, "That's what our unit......

Yesterday, the NJ Attorney General released calls and radio transmissions made by the state police, EMS, and other responders during the April 12 crash of Governor Jon Corzine's SUV. The Star-Ledger notes that calls show "a mix of confusion, chaos and concern." Here's a transcription of one emergency call:"Sixty-year-old male. Rear passenger. It appears to be a roll-over motor vehicle accident, multi-vehicle accident. The patient is conscious. Obvious left femur fracture. ... Patient stable at......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine voluntarily paid the $46 fine for not buckling his seat belt in the crash that left him critically injured almost three weeks ago. Apparently state police superintendent Col. Joseph R. Fuentes was the one who issued the ticket, which included the fine and court costs. The spokesman for the state police told the Times, "It’s been a good amount of time since the superintendent issued a summons." Well, given that Fuentes......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine left Cooper University Hospital this afternoon, after spending over two weeks recovering from his April 12 car accident. Pushed out in a wheelchair by his children Jeff and Jennifer, the governor spoke to the crowd outside:Via the Star-Ledger: "I understand I set a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general. I hope the state will forgive me." Via the NY Times: “I set......

Every so often, when we are tempted to bemoan the state of NY politics, we remember that at least we don't live in California and haven't been afflicted with Donald Trump's influence on matters of state, even though we can claim him as our own. Governor Spitzor may be the "Steamroller", but he hasn't been accused of accepting cash for appearances on "The Apprentice". Some questions are being raised about a $10,000 donation that billionaire......

When NJ Governor Jon Corzine was critically injured in a car accident two weeks ago, a commenter wrote, "Obviously, God wants Codey to be governor," referring to Richard Codey, the NJ Senate majority leader (pictured) who has served as acting governor under the three past NJ governors. And, apparently, so does Corzine himself: The NY Times has an article about how Corzine was often not in NJ before being injured.:In the 450 days between his......

Governor Jon Corzine expects to be discharged from the hospital next week. Corzine has been at Cooper University Hospital where he has been recuperating after severe injuries after the SUV transporting him (where he sat seat-belt-less in the front passenger seat) crashed on the Garden State Parkway. NJ Acting Governor Richard Codey and State Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts visited Corzine at the hospital, and Roberts said, " “I think that he views this, very literally,......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been moved from intensive care as his condition improved to stable. The governor continues in his second week of recovery after a car crash on the Garden State Parkway which revealed his SUV (a state trooper was driving) was going 91 MPH while Corzine was not wearing a seat belt in the front passenger seat. However, the governor's chief of staff Tom Shea said that Corzine will not be getting......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double shooting on St. Johns Pl. in Brooklyn, a collapse on Grant Ave. in the Bronx, and a barricaded emotionally disturbed person on 102nd St. in Queens. Like Robert Moses in reverse, Mayor Bloomberg wants highways to give way to housing by covering roads like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, as well as rail yards, and constructing housing above them. New York's own Big Dig? Ricki Lake's documentary, which is......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine may taken off a ventilator that has been helping him breathe since his Thursday night car accident on the Garden State Parkway. Yesterday, doctors removed fluid from his lungs (considered a routine procedure) successfully, and today, they will be performing another surgery to continue to clean up wounds from his left leg - when the femur broke, it punctured his skin. Corzine remains in critical but stable condition. His family......