Yesterday the Sun broke news that Democratic Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has a weird habit of traveling from New York City to Albany by flying through D.C., racking up frequent flier miles for himself while costing taxpayers $500 to $760 for his round-trip airfare. Today the defunct paper takes a Parthian shot at the politician, interviewing watchdog groups who say Silver's costly (but legal) commute is proof that the state legislature needs to revise its......

State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has a funny way of traveling between his Manhattan district and Albany: through D.C.! Instead of taking Amtrak or driving like other representatives, Silver prefers commuting by plane with a stopover 200 miles in the wrong direction. Depending on the length of the layover, the trip can end up taking four hours—not including the time it takes to get to the airport and pass through security. (A drive to Albany......

Shelly Silver doesn't think the commuter tax (repealed back in 1999) sucks! The Assembly Speaker, who opposed congestion pricing, said he was open to revisiting the tax, given the state of the economy. But, the Daily News reports, "Silver said he wants the GOP-controlled Senate take the lead in resurrecting the commuter tax," which seems unlikely, since Senate Majority Dean Skelos's spokesman said, "The NYC commuter tax was a particularly onerous and unfair tax." (The......

NY1 has the 2008 primary results and here are the headlines: Sheldon Silver won the 64th State Senate district, with 68% of the vote; Paul Newell got 23%, Luke Henry 9%. Edolphus Towns defended his House seat (District 10) with 67% of the vote; Real World alum Kevin Powell got 33%. State Senator Kevin Parker (district 21) won, with 49% of the vote; City Council members Simcha Felder and Kendall Stewart got 37% and 14%,......

The Observer's Azi Paybarah took this great photograph of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver with today's instant classic "Count Shelly Dracula" NY Post cover. Apparently a Post photographer held up the paper as Silver responded to a question about "tabloid coverage," saying, "Well, I’ll tell you the truth. Media is having trouble in this town and I hope I help them sell a few newspapers today." Then a few questions later, he realized the newspaper was......

Thank you, Governor David Paterson because now we have the long-awaited NY Post Photoshop job of Sheldon Silver as Count Dracula. The Governor caused a commotion after telling advocates for the disabled, "I used to sit in my legislative office and think about how difficult it is to travel 150 miles to Albany on a bus...and how there were legislators who I used to think practiced their own versions of being Count Dracula. They would be very nice to the advocates when they came to Albany and then...the sun would go down and they'd go back to who they really are, a bunch of bloodsuckers." ...

View Larger Map Noticing Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's new re-election campaign site, complete with map showing "What Shelly's Doing Near You," Streetsblog created a "Streetsblog: Pin it on Shelly!" map. Streetsblog was frustrated by Silver's site, which doesn't allow users to put a pin on Canal Street to "make note of Silver's complicity in maintaining that street's never-ending traffic jam and Chinatown's third world-level childhood asthma rate" or anywhere else. If you click on the......

The NY Times doled out a few endorsements for Albany-related primaries. The Times endorsed former Schumer aide and "enthusiastic new outsider" Daniel Squadron for incumbent State Senator Martin Connor's 25th District seat and endorsed incumbent Assemblyman Adriano Esapaillat for his 72nd Assembly District over challenger City Councilman Miguel Martinez. However, the biggest endorsement is for Assembly District 64--home of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver--and the Times throws its support behind challenger Paul Newell. Acknowledging it's an......

The scandal around emails that Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Buffalo) reportedly sent a colleague's teen intern is currently out of Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver's hands, as the Ethics Committee looks it over. However, the NY Times notes that accusations of sexual misconduct by lawmakers or staffers is "especially sensitive for Mr. Silver, who has faced criticism that he mishandled a 2001 complaint that his former chief of staff sexually assaulted an Assembly employee." As for Hoyt......

Yesterday, the NY Times reported how the Assembly Leader, who is also a trial lawyer, has loaned money to company that "helps finance small law firms that specialize in personal injury lawsuits"--raising some questions from Republican critics and government watchdog groups. Today the NY Sun has an editorial about his investments in for-profit hospital firms, which NY State bans--if Silver is investing in them, he should lead the way in letting them in. And there......

Even though Mayor Bloomberg doesn't belong to a political party, he has confirmed he will help NY State Republicans face re-election this year. Why? It boils down to his pet failed project, congestion pricing. The Daily News reports Mayor Bloomberg as saying, "I've said repeatedly, I'll help those who help this city. The Republicans in the state Senate were willing to vote for congestion pricing and the Democrats were not." Indeed, when Assembly Leader Sheldon......

Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver is up for re-election this fall, and while he's likely to win it, one woman is making sure one of his challengers has her help: The Daily News reports former Assembly staffer is helping challenger Paul Newell with his campaign because Silver "ignored her accusations of rape against one of his top aides" back in 2001. Elizabeth Crothers told the News, "I see it as the only opportunity to bring real......

State judges have been agitating for a salary raise for a while, but since state legislators are determined to link judicial raises to legislator pay raises. Now judge are planning a "rule-book slowdown" and other ways to get back at the Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver and the state legislature. The Post reports the judges have been circulating an email listing all the state legislators who work as lawyers and the law firms they work at--so......

Photograph of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, announcing congestion pricing was rejected, by Mike Groll/AP Mayor Bloomberg didn't appear in public after Assembly Leader Sheldon put a nail in congestion pricing's coffin. But Bloomberg did issue an angry press release. The full text is after the jump (and he does thank many politicians who helped), but here's where he lets loose, after noting that while Washington D.C. was willing to give NYC $354 in federal......

Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver announced the State Assembly is rejecting congestion pricing. The controversial plan, a pet project of Mayor Bloomberg's, was approved by the City Council last week and had support from Governor David Paterson and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, making the Assembly's support the final, critical step to ensure $354 million in federal funds (which would have been directed towards the MTA's projects). Bloomberg had been very vocal about wanting the......

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has kept a relatively low profile over the past several months, as Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno battled with Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who would go on to self-destruct in a highly public style. With Mayor Bloomberg's beloved congestion pricing plan past the City Council hurdle and with the support of our new Gov. Paterson, it now lays stalled in the Assembly, where whatever Silver says pretty much goes. A profile......

After his $500,000 donation to NY State Republicans was revealed, Mayor Bloomberg explained why he did it to reporters while attending a Mayors Against Illegal Guns conference, "I've said repeatedly, I will help those who help us. They have stood up for the city a number of times — when we needed to have a voice in Albany and we didn't have that voice from the Assembly or from the governor, whether it was the......

Photograph by forklift on Flickr An estimated three million people assembled along Broadway during yesterday's ticker tape parade to celebrate the Giants' 17-14 Super Bowl XLII win over the New England Patriots. After the many floats with Giants players (and cars with some dignitaries, like Governor Spitzer, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver) rolled up the Canyon of Heroes, Mayor Bloomberg presented the team with keys to the city. When David Tyree,......

Weighing in on the modified congestion pricing plan the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission recommended, Mayor Bloomberg said:"The Commission has done a thorough and thoughtful job. They've taken testimony from hundreds of residents, community leaders and civic organizations. They've held dozens of public meetings and have analyzed mountains of data. Although the final recommendation varies from our original proposal, I accept it. "We will work with our partners in the Council and the State Legislature, and......

The City Council voted 40-3 to end the tax breaks Madison Square Garden has enjoyed since 1982. It's estimated that the city has lost almost $300 million in potential revenue in subsidies to the "World's Most Famous Arena." Although the City Council wants the tax breaks to end (our favorite quote is from Councilman Lew Fidler: "I have spent my entire life as as Knicks fan, and I doubt if there's anyone who loves the......

Even while targeted in the Troopergate scandal, State Senate leader Joseph Bruno was living in high style. The New York Sun is reporting that Bruno enjoyed a 3,500 square foot, two-story penthouse suite at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, just weeks before the legislature selected the hotel chain to construct a luxury hotel in Albany.On November 30, the nine-member board of the Albany Convention Center Authority, which includes a member appointed by Mr.......

Today, Governor Spitzer is giving his second State of the State Address. Which makes us recall last year's State of the State. A year ago, everyone was all smiles on the podium as Spitzer delivered his first address [pdf]. It was going to be a new Albany, free of discord and full of bipartisan cooperation to benefit all New Yorkers. Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno was on board (“This is our agenda. Tax cuts, no......

Ooof. Talk about insulting. In today's Times, Clyde Haberman goes so far as to compare the Dolan clan to the Mario Puzo's Corleone family from his Godfather series of books. That comparison to the Dolans is clearly a slap in the face to the Corleones. Haberman says that any "enormously rich and influential business family would do as a replacement" and casts Jim Dolan, Chairman of Madison Square Garden, as "the hapless Fredo Corleone."......

You would think things couldn't get worse for Jim Dolan. After all, the Knicks stink and it seems like Isiah Thomas isn't going anywhere quick (perhaps due to Dolan's own doing). But the City Council started to look into Madison Square Garden's $11 million/year property tax exemption today. David Weprin of Queens sponsored the resolution opposing the exemption saying that "It's very unusual that you have a profitable institution like Madison Square Garden that's been......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is seeking the dismissal of a civil suit against her filed by Council Member Charles Barron's former chief of staff Viola Plummer. Quinn gave Plummer the boot when the councilman's aide refused to sign a pledge to compose herself while the City Council was in session. The City Hall drama all began when Queens Councilman Leroy Comrie refused to vote in favor of naming a street after black activist Sonny......

In spite of the presence of a new governor, Albany politics has been as insanely frustrating as usual. And the NY Sun's year-end interviews with the top three lawmakers - Governor Eliot Spitzer, State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver - demonstrate why pretty much everyone sighs when they think of the capitol and state politicians. Bruno, the lone Republican, tells the Sun that Silver needs to deals with insults better,......

The MTA has released details for its subway and bus fare hike. While the base fare will still stay at $2, there will be increases for unlimited cards - plus a new two-week unlimited: 1-Day Fun Pass: Increases from $7 to $7.50 7-Day Pass: Increases from $24 to $25* New 14-Day Pass: $47* (*Current 7-Day Pass users who switch to the new 14-Day Pass will actually enjoy a fare reduction.) 30-Day Pass: Increases from......

During an address at a Center for Working Families conference yesterday, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said that Gov. Spitzer may consider delaying a fare hike. Spitzer already changed his mind about raising the base fare above $2 a ride and limiting any hikes to multi-ride metrocards. Only 15% of riders actually use the $2-a-ride cards though. Silver told the Daily News that he's been urging the governor to postpone any fare......

A storefront at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 43rd Street (across from Grand Central) may be a window into the future of the West Side Rail Yards. The MTA unveiled an exhibition of the five proposals to redevelop the rail yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan, and the public will get a chance to see the models every day (except Thanksgiving) through December 3. And what's more, the MTA wants the......

When Governor Spitzer announced he was dropping his controversial plan to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants yesterday, he was praised by his fellow Democrats. The NY Times notes that the decision won Spitzer "the kind of wide acclaim from elected officials that he could not win for the proposal itself." And that's gotta sting a little. Spitzer had first introduced a broad plan to allow illegal immigrants to get licenses, which caused outcry from......