Perdido Street School:
How Rahm Emanuel Got Chicago's Crime Rate Down
Chicago Police Brass Reclassify Murder Victims To Bring City Murder Rate Down
Perdido Street School Week
How Rahm Emanuel Got Chicago's Crime Rate Down
To quote from The Sting, it's simple - he cheats: It was a balmy afternoon last July when the call came in: Dead body found inside empty warehouse on the West Side. Chicago police officers drove through an industrial stretch of the hardscrabble Austin neighborhood and pulled up to the 4600 block of West Arthington Street. The warehouse in question was an unremarkable-looking red-brick single-story
Chicago Police Brass Reclassify Murder Victims To Bring City Murder Rate Down
From The Guardian:Stung by a 16% spike in killings in 2012 that led Moody’s, the ratings agency, to downgrade the city’s debt due to its "unrelenting public safety demands", Emanuel promised a tough response. Amid spending cuts, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama has ploughed tens of millions more taxpayer dollars into policing. Sure enough, in January he proudly annou
How Union Contracts Get Covered In The Media
From the ever municipal union-friendly NY Post: A day after the MTA offered its workers a new contract with retroactive pay, Mayor de Blasio insisted the deal doesn’t set a precedent for the city’s ongoing negotiations with its unions. “We have a very different reality here — we have our fiscal circumstances. We have a separate history in terms of labor relations than that which state and MTA has,
Cuomo To Be Honored In Washington D.C. As "Champion Of Charters"
May's going to be a banner month for Andrew Cuomo and the charter entrepreneurs.First he's hosting a ritzy education reform vacation getaway/conference in Lake Placid for charter entrepreneurs and other reformy types and now we learn that he's to be honored by the National Alliance for Public (sic) Charter Schools in D.C. alongside other charter heroes like sex criminal/Sacramento mayor Kevin &quo
MTA/TWU Contract Agreement May "Set The Floor" For Other Contract Negotiations In City And State
First, some of the details of the contract:Under the MTA pact, members of the TWU Local 100 would receive retroactive pay increases of 1% for each of the past two years and 2% increases in each of the following three years. The deal would also give the union employees paid maternity and paternity leave, as well as increased optical and dental benefits.In a concession to the MTA, the employees woul
Funny What An Election Year Can Do To Politicians
Cuomo in January talking about contract negotiations:Meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board Wednesday, the governor went out of his way to point out that he had negotiated state worker contracts that included three years of zero raises.He did so in the aftermath of the national economic downturn, a time when inflation was essentially zero. Mayor Bloomberg took the same stance with the city’s
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More Details On TWU 100 Contract
More from Dana Rubenstein at Capital NY on the TWU 100 contract:After two long years of stop-and-go negotiations, Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Transport Workers Union had struck a tentative labor contract deal.The announcement, which was light on details, includes five years of annual wage increases, including 1 percent in the first t
Cuomo Announces Contract Deal Between MTA And TWU 100 - Raises In Each Year + Full Retro
Here's TWU 100 update:President Samuelsen, Gov. Cuomo announce tentative contract agreement giving raises in each year and fully retro. pic.twitter.com/zTC6OYDrmq— TWU Local 100 (@TWULocal100) April 17, 2014 Cuomo was asked at the press conference if this new TWU 100 contract sets the pattern for city contracts.Remember that he said a few months ago that the state pattern set the pattern for the c
Cuomo Appoints Geoffrey Canada To Smart School Initiative Commission That Looks To Upgrade Classrooms For Online Testing
Another day, another Cuomo commission - this one a commission to make recommendations for what to do with $2 billion in "Smart School Initiative" bond money Cuomo hopes to get the public to pass in order to provide "smart classrooms" (i.e., classrooms wired for online testing) in schools:Though voters are yet to consider a $2 billion bond act for education infrastructure and te
Daily News: Cuomo Stepping In To Broker MTA/TWU 100 Deal
As surmised in this morning's NY Times piece, Governor Cuomo is indeed stepping in to broker a deal between the MTA and TWU 100 over deadlocked contract negotiations that has brought about the possibility of a summer transit strike hitting just months before Cuomo hopes to get re-elected:Gov. Cuomo is stepping into the heated contract talks between the MTA and the union representing 34,000 transit
MTA Pulls What Amounted To Taxpayer-Funded Cuomo Campaign Ad
Colby Hamilton at DNAinfo:CIVIC CENTER — The MTA will pull a subway advertisement that thanked Gov. Andrew Cuomo for helping to secure $4 billion in federal funding for Hurricane Sandy-related transit repairs, an MTA spokesman said on Wednesday, after DNAinfo New York contacted the agency earlier in the week....The ad, which began appearing inside subway cars last month, begin with the line, &quo
Cuomo May Break CSEA Contract Pattern For MTA, Has Implications For City Contract Negotiations
James Eterno at ICEUFT posted this morning that in its municipal contract negotiations the city is offering the pattern first set by Governor Cuomo and CSEA back in 2010 - a five year contract with 0% for the first three years, 2% in the fourth year and 2% in the fifth year.Cuomo said publicly that the CSEA pattern set the pattern for municipal contracts as well as state contracts, although in the
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How Will NYSED Defend These Lawsuits Against APPR?
Rochester teachers filed suit over the APPR teacher evaluation system last month, now Syracuse teachers file suit as well:The Syracuse Teachers Association sued the state Education Department today over its teacher evaluation system, arguing that the system unfairly penalizes teachers of disadvantaged students. The suit was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany by the STA and about 30 city teach
No Surprise - Study Says U.S. Is An Oligarchy
The more money you have, the more say you get in how things get run:A new study by researchers from Princeton and Northwestern Universities finds that America's government policies reflect the wishes of the rich and of powerful interest groups, rather than the wishes of the majority of citizens. The researchers examined close to 1,800 U.S. policy changes in the years between 1981 and 2002; then, t
Ravitch: Andrew Cuomo Had His Tentacles In The Paterson Administration
Richard Ravitch is publishing a memoir that says Cuomo's been running things longer than you think:In the summer of 2009, Republicans who lost their half-century control of the Senate mounted a coup with three dissident Democrats. That power struggle gridlocked the legislature for weeks until the dissidents struck deals for lucrative leadership posts in return for going back into the Democratic fo
Buffalo News: Opt-Out Movement Gains Steam, Notice Of State Educrats
On the margins no more:A boycott movement that has turned state standardized tests into a battleground is dividing school districts across the region and drawing the attention of state education leaders.Roughly 7 percent of students in third through eighth grade in Erie and Niagara counties refused to take a state English exam earlier this month.But in some districts, 15 to 28 percent of the stude
Wall Street Journal Covers ATR's
The Wall Street Journal reports that the ATR issue is a major part of the contract discussion:As negotiations drag on over a new contract for the city's teachers, one sticky issue involves how to handle teachers who lost permanent jobs during cutbacks but keep getting full paychecks as they bounce around schools for brief stints, filling in for absent staff.Hundreds spend years in limbo. A city De
Bloomberg Still An Arrogant Ass
The NY Times publishes a puff piece on Bloomberg and his "philanthropy work" this morning and at the end, we get this statement from Mayor Mike:Mr. Bloomberg was introspective as he spoke, and seemed both restless and wistful. When he sat down for the interview, it was a few days before his 50th college reunion. His mortality has started dawning on him, at 72. And he admitted he was a bi
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Why Is Andrew Cuomo Being Paid So Much Money For His Memoir?
This is an awful lot of money for a book that nobody is going to read, let alone buy: Gov. Cuomo’s memoir doesn’t hit bookstores until August but he’s already reaping the fiscal rewards. Cuomo’s 2013 tax return – which was made available to reporters Tuesday afternoon - shows he received $188,333 from the first installment of his book advance. The advance boosted his adjusted gross income to $358,
Cuomo On The Run From Reporters
Gov. Andrew Cuomo avoided reporters after a speech in Syracuse, wouldn't take questions, @TeriKWeaver reports. They chased him to car.— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) April 14, 2014Syracuse.com also reported that Cuomo refused to take questions from the press after the speech he gave to business people at the CenterState CEO annual luncheon:After the speech, Cuomo didn't take questions from the
Andrew Cuomo Took More Than Double The Koch Money That Scott Walker Took
Buried in this National Journal piece on why progressives are starting to revolt against Tea Party Governor Cuomo is this doozy:Several Democrats who spoke privately to National Journal lamented that Cuomo accepted $87,000 in campaign contributions from David Koch and his wife during the 2010 cycle—more than double the $34,000 that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took. Cuomo has also accepted donation
How Cuomo Meddled Into The Moreland Commission Report
Another story about just how much meddling the governor's office did into the Moreland Commission work:An assistant counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who professed himself to be the author of the NY SAFE Act, was ultimately selected as the lead writer of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption’s December 2013 report after several independent candidates for the position were nixed, according t
Cuomo Is Honorary Chair Of Pro-Charter Education Reform Retreat Run By His Donors
Here's Cuomo's brand of realpolitik in action:ALBANY—Governor Andrew Cuomo will headline an education retreat next month in Lake Placid hosted by hedge-fund managers who support the Common Core standards, charter schools, mayoral control of schools, testing and student-data collection. Cuomo is the “honorary chairman” of Camp Philos, “a philosopher's camp on education reform” presented by Educatio
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Cuomo's Control-Freak Style Comes Back To Bite Him
It's a banner day in the newspapers for Cuomo-bashing. Here's another Cuomo-bashing piece, this one from Ken Lovett in the Daily News: ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo's latest woes over his handling of an anti-corruption commission can be traced back to his need for control, insiders say. Cuomo is privately being called out by some of those he appointed to the Moreland Commission — which he initially promised
Long Island NYSUT Members Will Protest Cuomo
Cuomo's vulnerable these days, so it's good to see the protests against him from teachers pick up steam:Long Island public school members of New York State United Teachers are planning a protest when Gov. Andrew Cuomo headlines the Suffolk Democratic dinner April 28. Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman, confirmed last week that union officials informed the party they will not be taking a
Cuomo Fears A Third Party Candidate Could Make Him Lose Re-Election
An extraordinary column from Fred Dicker in the NY Post:After his worst week in office since becoming governor, Andrew Cuomo is now viewed for the first time by important Democrats as potentially vulnerable to Republican challenger Rob Astorino, The Post has learned. The changing sentiment results from the extraordinary criticisms Cuomo received last week from corruption-fighting Southern District
Cuomo Faces A Challenge Like He's Never Faced Before
Blake Zeff at Capital NY:This time, Andrew Cuomo may be in some trouble. I don’t write those words lightly: I’ve never written them before, and I’ve never even thought them. But the man who’s picked fights with—and systematically disemboweled—every New York politician who’s stood in his way (or who he’s feared might stand in his way at some point) is up against a very different kind of obstacle th
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Will Political Fortune Turn On Cuomo?
Michael Fiorillo on Sheriff Andy Cuomo's shutdown of Moreland and the subsequent furor that shutdown has caused, with US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara picking up the Moreland investigations and refusing to rule out an investigation of Cuomo himself:The abrupt shutdown of the Commission was surprising, immediately suggesting that it was not the the PR and negotiating weapon that
Former Moreland Commissions Erupt In Fury Over Cuomo's Interference In Panel Work
I don't know how deeply US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara intends to probe Cuomo and his aides over their interference into the Moreland Commission work, but from accounts of former Moreland Commissioners given to Ken Lovett in the Daily News, it seems there's a lot there: ALBANY - Some members of Gov. Cuomo's short-lived anti-corruption commission are angry and bitter. The Daily
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New Criminal Investigation Into Christie And The Port Authority May Cause Headaches For Cuomo Too
From the NY Times:The Manhattan district attorney’s office has subpoenaed documents from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey concerning a range of the troubled agency’s major construction projects, including several that have come under scrutiny as a result of the politically charged George Washington Bridge lane closings, a person with knowledge of the matter said Saturday.The subpoena
Who Benefits From The Race To The Top "Powergrab"?
When New York State was up for the Race to the Top money a few years ago, the editorial boards across the state admonished the legislature and the unions to make sure the changes necessary to win RttT came to be because New York's kids needed that extra money for their schools and education.Given all the changes needed to "win" that Race to the Top dough - including changing the state's
Union Doormen And Handymen Get Contract With No Givebacks
Obviously a different thing than the municipal unions, but wanted to point out what looks to be a pretty good contract: The union representing doormen and handymen reached a tentative agreement Friday with the Realty Advisory Board, averting a possible strike that would have affected thousands of city residents. Service Employees International Union 32 BJ agreed to a four-year deal that includes a