Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:35:21 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Dina Temple-Raston :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Dina+Temple-Raston istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-plans-to-follow-in-kochs-footsteps/14357/ Wed, 25 May 2005 00:00:00 EST In the coming weeks, Mayor Bloomberg plans to swipe a page out of Mayor Koch's re-election campaign playbook and do walking tours around the city to meet voters one at a time, Bloomberg aides told The New York Sun. Mayor Koch used to walk the city's neighborhoods, stop at their busiest intersections, and then stand on a box, he said. "I would preach my message to the 50 or a hundred people who would gather around," he told the Sun. "I would say to them, 'Raise your right hand, repeat after me... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/comptroller-foster-care-provider-owes-city-140000/14243/ Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 EST The Association to Benefit Children, a nonprofit organization that provides foster-care services, owes the city almost $140,000 for advances it received for foster care during the fiscal 2000 and 2001 years but did not use, according to an audit to be released today by the comptroller's office. Typically, the Administration for Children's Services advances expenses to foster-care services at a per diem rate. In fiscal 2000 and 2001, the agency advanced the association $5.8 million to provide... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-takes-aim-at-bases-of-support-of-top/14248/ Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 EST With the polls bouncing around and front-runners changing by the week, Mayor Bloomberg has embarked on a re-election strategy that only an incumbent with limitless resources can afford: target the two candidates who, this early in the game, seem most likely to emerge victorious from the Democratic primary. That's why last week - as will be the case in weeks to come - New Yorkers were inundated with Bloomberg campaign advertisements that not only draw a bead on the Hispanic base of the one... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/cash-crunch-due-for-bloomberg-budget-strategy-ibo/14140/ Fri, 20 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's strategy of keeping the city in the black by rolling over budget surpluses, instead of cutting spending, will probably crash into fiscal reality next year, according to a report released yesterday by the Independent Budget Office. Analysts at the budget office expect the city's economic growth will level off and the real estate market will slow down, robbing Mr. Bloomberg of the windfalls that have allowed him to fill multibillion dollar budget gaps with little pain. "We're... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloombergs-campaign-ads-roll-out-over-next-10-days/14048/ Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's first re-election campaign ads hit the airwaves yesterday morning: $1 million worth of 30-second and 60-second spots aimed at defining the mayor in the next 10 days before his opponents have a chance to. "Estimados amigos," Mr. Bloomberg begins in his Boston-accented Spanish. "Hace 4 anos, tuve el gran honor de ser elegido su alcalde." ("Dear Friends, four years ago, I had the great honor of being elected your mayor," the ad begins.) In the ad, the mayor says that if voters... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/flooded-astoria-residents-await-reimbursement/13871/ Mon, 16 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Conchita Syrigos is waiting to rebuild. She says she lost everything she had on February 16, when a city water main burst in Astoria and flooded her home and dozens more along Ditmars Boulevard. "It was like Niagara Falls," she told The New York Sun. "My garage door gave way, my washing machine was carried from one wall to the other. I call it my mini-tsunami. Everything is gutted out now. No walls, no floors, no nothing. It is really sad. You work all your life for things and it is gone in a... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-leads-ferrer-47-to-38-in-q-poll/13689/ Thu, 12 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg landed another set of cheery poll numbers yesterday. The latest Quinnipiac University poll showed him pulling ahead of the longtime Democratic front-runner, Fernando Ferrer. The poll, released yesterday, found Mr. Bloomberg ahead of the former Bronx borough president by 47% to 38%, representing a stunning 15-point drop for Mr. Ferrer in the poll since March. "The mayor has a nine-point lead, which is better than being six points down," the poll's director, Maurice Carroll, said... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-unveils-re-election-budget-that-cuts/13434/ Fri, 6 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a proposal yesterday for spending nearly $50 billion that provides everything a politically expedient budget should: tax cuts, education initiatives, and more money for popular programs. He has pulled an election-year budget out of a hat, despite a recently discovered $800-million accounting mistake concerning pension funds. The $49.7 billion budget for fiscal 2006, which begins in eight weeks, includes $500 million in tax relief, modest proposals on class size and... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mayor-will-propose-a-sales-tax-rollback/13328/ Thu, 5 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg will unveil a budget today that proposes rolling back the city portion of an "emergency" sales-tax increase on clothing and shoes, and lowering the city's assessment on improvements to multi unit properties, aides said. The plan indicates that the city banked a significantly larger-than-projected surplus while balancing the 2006 budget. The executive budget updates the $48.3 billion spending proposal Mr. Bloomberg unveiled in March. It is the next step in a drawn-out process... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/local-union-endorsements-up-for-grabs/13262/ Wed, 4 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Last week Mayor Bloomberg stood with the leader of the construction unions council, Edward Malloy, to accept the endorsement of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a consortium of construction unions. While the event was portrayed as handing Mr. Bloomberg the votes of 100,000 union members and the support of construction workers across the five boroughs, the victory is smaller than it might have seemed. The question now is, where is the fight for the local unions?... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mayor-benefits-from-ferrers-drop-in-poll/12954/ Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST The cheery poll numbers Mayor Bloomberg had been hoping for have finally arrived. He now holds a double-digit lead over the best-known Democratic candidate, Fernando Ferrer, and, if the election were held today he would soundly beat the other Democratic hopefuls as well in the race for City Hall. "Obviously you have a bigger smile on your face when polls go up than when they go down," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters on the Upper East Side yesterday after a Marist College Institute for Public... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-lands-endorsement-of-100000-strong/12877/ Wed, 27 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg scored a mayoral endorsement coup yesterday, winning the support of the New York Building and Construction Trades Council, a body that represents 60 affiliated unions and 100,000 members in the five boroughs. The union endorsed Mr. Bloomberg's opponent, Mark Green, in the 2001 election. "Our 100,000 union members want the same thing all New Yorkers want: good jobs, safe streets, and better schools," the labor group's president, Edward Malloy, told a raucous crowd at downtown... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/state-law-change-modifies-citys-workfare-rules/12863/ Tue, 26 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST A little-noticed change in the state law has modified the city's workfare rules to allow a larger group of welfare recipients to use education and training against "work" requirements they must meet to continue receiving welfare benefits. Last year, the city's Human Resources Administration drafted a proposal for a state law that changed the participation rules for the state's so-called Safety Net Program. That program gives welfare assistance to residents who don't qualify for federal payments... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/senator-clintons-campaign-looks-farther-afield/12805/ Tue, 26 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST While Senator Clinton may be focused primarily on re-election from New York, her campaign team is looking farther a field, angling for a decisive victory in 2006 so the former first lady will be able to keep her "options open," Mrs. Clinton's top communications aide, Ann Lewis, told The New York Sun in an interview. "I want her to get re-elected well," Ms. Lewis said during a recent meeting in Washington, "and I want her to have options for what to do next." The likeliest option to pursue is... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/analyst-sharptons-refusal-to-endorse-mayoral/12726/ Mon, 25 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST The Reverend Alford Sharpton stunned the Democratic candidates running for mayor last week when he announced that for the first time in 20 years he would not endorse a candidate in the primary, because no one in the field had presented a clear vision for the city. Candidates should view Rev. Sharpton's comments as a wake-up call, not a rebuke, analysts said. "There is no question that the Democratic message is in trouble," one political consultant, Scott Levenson, said. Mr. Levenson, president... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/diallo-case-sends-ripples-through-mayoral-forum/12669/ Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayoral front-runner Fernando Ferrer's stumble on whether the killing of Amadou Diallo was a crime came back to haunt him yet again last night at a forum with the other three Democratic candidates on the Upper East Side. A panelist at the Hunter College gathering asked all the candidates - the former Bronx borough president, Mr. Ferrer; the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields; the City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, and a Brooklyn-Queens congressman, Anthony Weiner - whether the... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mayor-says-miller-took-too-long-in-handling-case/12630/ Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg took a swipe at a Democratic mayoral hopeful, Gifford Miller, yesterday, saying he would have addressed the sexual-harassment allegations against Council Member Allan Jennings "more expeditiously" than the City Council speaker has. The council's Committee on Standards and Ethics spent six months and roughly $150,000 to produce a 104-page report that chronicled Mr. Jennings's behavior, finding, among other things, that the Queens council member was responsible for creating a... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/dept-of-education-issues-erroneous-check-for-864m/12633/ Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST It was a question of a couple of misplaced zeros. When Midtown lawyer Gary Mayerson opened a check from the city for his clients, he was expecting reimbursement of $86,400 for special-education fees for some autistic children. Instead, the check was a little bigger. Actually, quite a bit bigger. The check from the City of New York was for $8.64 million - an amount, according to the Department of Education's chief financial officer, Bruce Feig, that would have actually cleared the bank had Mr... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-sells-olympics-panel-on-the-citys/12354/ Mon, 18 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Seven years' free marketing counseling - that is what Mayor Bloomberg and a deputy mayor, Daniel Doctoroff, offered more than two dozen international sports federations during a presentation at Berlin yesterday aimed at bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to New York City. "We're looking forward to making a presentation about what New York can do to promote the 28 different sports that are represented here," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters in the German capital. "There is no better city to build a... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fulani-adds-hiccup-to-bloomberg-bid/12280/ Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST The leader of the Independence Party, Lenora Fulani, added an unexpected hiccup in Mayor Bloomberg's bid for re-election when she made comments this week that critics called anti-Semitic. Mr. Bloomberg then failed to distance himself from her. During an interview on NY1 television Wednesday night, Ms. Fulani was asked whether she would retreat from some remarks she reportedly made about Jews in 1995. She was quoted in a report by the Anti-Defamation League as saying Jews "had to sell their... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/public-advocates-report-pans-homeless-services/12212/ Thu, 14 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST The city has been housing homeless families in buildings that have serious building-code violations, and the city has been paying landlords rent for apartments without ascertaining whether promised repairs have been done, according to a report from the public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, that was obtained by The New York Sun. The Department of Homeless Services - which has been working to place the chronically homeless in stable housing situations - has re-inspected only a fraction of residences... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/re-elect-bloomberg-heres-a-look-at-the-numbers/12124/ Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg has told New Yorkers he deserves four more years because crime rates in the city have fallen, the New York economy is back on track, and he is reforming the schools. The mayor, who has an unshakable faith in figures, has told voters to look at the numbers. So The New York Sun has done just that, comparing New York City's performance on crime, the economy, and education with the records of the nation's three other largest cities over the same period. The Bloomberg report card is... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/quick-sale-pitch-haunts-mayor/11503/ Fri, 1 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Though Mayor Bloomberg won a unanimous vote from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board for a New York Jets stadium on the far West Side, the victory may be short-lived. As he wades into his re-election campaign, he will have to explain to voters why, less than two months ago, he had sought quick approval of a deal to sell the Jets the right to develop the 13-acre riverfront site at what proved to be a fraction of market value. The football team originally offered the MTA $100... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/poll-fields-closing-gap-on-ferrer/11418/ Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, will attend a women's breakfast this morning riding high on a surprise surge in a citywide poll released yesterday. Seen for months as an also-ran, she is running second to the Democratic mayoral front-runner, Fernando Ferrer, and is closing the gap, according to a poll released yesterday. Mr. Ferrer, a former Bronx borough president, still leads Ms. Fields by 36% to 21%, but the 15% margin is far narrower than in a poll completed March 2... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/organizers-enthralled-by-citys-status-in-leaked/11343/ Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST New York's political leaders took a break from their heated battle over the proposed Jets stadium on the far West Side of Manhattan yesterday long enough to crow about a press report that indicated the city was one of three front-runners to host the 2012 Olympics. Leaks from a draft report of the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission and an on-the-record interview with a key Australian Olympics official suggested that the competition for the 2012 Games has come down to Paris... Dina Temple-Raston http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fossella-named-chairman-of-bloombergs-2005/11371/ Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg, seeking to boost his Republican Party bona fides yesterday, announced that Rep. Vito Fossella, the congressman whose district includes Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, will be the Republican chairman of Mr. Bloomberg's 2005 re-election campaign. "Vito learned about politics from the ground up," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday as he announced Mr. Fossella's post. "He brings a lifetime of experience helping win Republican races in New York City to the table, and there is simply... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/administration-denies-that-jets-got-sweetheart/11276/ Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST In the aftermath of calls for the MTA to hold off on its plan to award the development rights for the Hudson rail yards this week, Mayor Bloomberg's aides and outside analysts denied that the administration had arranged a sweetheart deal for the New York Jets and said the Bloomberg administration's efforts to help the football team build a stadium and convention center on the West Side have been nothing out of the ordinary. Mr. Bloomberg has made no secret of his support for the Jets' proposal... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/this-time-bloomberg-gets-an-early-giuliani/10760/ Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg had more than the luck of the Irish on his side yesterday as he marched in the city's 243rd annual St. Patrick's Day parade: He was walking with someone would could give him a political boost, Mayor Giuliani. Eight months before the general election, it was difficult to see Mr. Giuliani's presence at the parade as anything other than an attempt to make a political point. Mr. Bloomberg received Mr. Giuliani's key endorsement at the tail end of the 2001 campaign, a move that most... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/mayors-short-israel-trip-will-go-far/10708/ Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's 36-hour whirlwind trip to Israel may end up helping him reap some political points with a key constituency - Jewish swing voters - political analysts said, because he was able to stand comfortably with leaders and dignitaries on the world stage. "Bloomberg's basic problem is that he is having trouble creating intensity among those who voted for him last time," said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. "Among the Jewish community in New York, an occasion like the opening of a... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ognibenes-fund-raising-is-raising-doubts/10634/ Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Republican mayoral hopeful Thomas Ognibene reported yesterday that he had raised a little more than $21,000 for his underdog primary challenge to Mayor Bloomberg, a sum that some said was so small as to cast doubt on his chances. Mr. Ognibene, a former City Council minority leader, filed his fund-raising report with the Campaign Finance Board in time for yesterday's filing deadline. The documents showed that he had raised $21,384 for his mayoral bid. About $11,485 of that would be eligible to... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/report-says-education-dept-overstates-savings/10568/ Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The city's Independent Budget Office will release portions of a report today that indicate the Department of Education has saved tens of millions of dollars less than originally announced after its reorganization under Mayor Bloomberg's Children First program, The New York Sun was told yesterday. For months, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been speaking with pride of $267 million he said he had whittled out of the department's bloated budget between 2002 and 2004. Those figures have been... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/foreign/engineer-casts-doubt-on-veracity-of-claims-that/10581/ Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Physicist and engineer Nahum Shahaf will address the Knesset today seeking to end a controversy over the shooting of a 12-year-old Palestinian Arab boy named Mohammed al-Dura. Mr. Shahaf has used forensic science to advance the theory that al-Dura was not killed by Israeli troops and believes that he may be alive. While not necessarily a household name in the West, al-Dura has become a potent symbol of violence in the Middle East and a rallying point for those who have tried to paint Israel as... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/radio-show-host-gets-long-sought-trip-to-israel/10491/ Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Nachum Segal is proof that, sometimes, if you want something, all you have to do is ask. For three years now, since Mayor Bloomberg took the reins at City Hall, Mr. Segal, host of one of the most popular radio shows in the Jewish radio market, "JM in the AM," has been asking for a mayoral invitation to visit Israel. "This has been a running joke. I ask him to take me to Israel every time he comes on the show," Mr. Segal told The New York Sun in an interview yesterday. Mr. Bloomberg's known... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-shifts-focus-to-projects-in-all/10450/ Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg, taking the spotlight off his plan for a West Side stadium yesterday, focused instead on the development projects he has helped launch across all five boroughs. "From day one right up to today, our administration has had a five-borough economic development strategy," Mr. Bloomberg told the Real Estate Board of New York in Midtown. "Some of my critics say I am 'Manhattan-centric,' but nothing could be further from the truth," he told the group. "... Our strategy for making New... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/miller-gets-ball-rolling-to-block-bloombergs/10343/ Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The speaker of the City Council introduced legislation yesterday aimed at blocking Mayor Bloomberg from controlling tax-break money the Jets would provide if they win the right to build the West Side stadium. Mr. Bloomberg wants to finance the city's $300 million contribution to the New York Sports and Convention Center with "payments in lieu of taxes." The money would go to build a platform over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's rail yards at the site. The council speaker, Gifford... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/jets-endeavoring-to-form-a-group-to-make-bid/10266/ Wed, 9 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Just weeks before the March 21 deadline to bid on the development rights at the West Side rail yards, the New York Jets have begun working with a coalition of developers to pull together a bid, The New York Sun was told. Among others, Steven Roth's Vornado Realty Trust and Stephen Ross of the Related Companies are likely to pitch in on the project, offering their own development scenarios should the area be rezoned from its current designation as a manufacturing zone, three officials familiar... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/brooklyn-gop-expected-to-endorse-bloomberg/10205/ Tue, 8 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The Kings County Republican Party is expected to endorse Mayor Bloomberg next week, The New York Sun was told yesterday. The Brooklyn support is meant to provide momentum to Mr. Bloomberg's re-election bid and would level yet another blow at the upstart campaign of Mr. Bloomberg's Republican challenger Thomas Ognibene. The Kings County party's executive committee will not actually cast their votes to choose who will win the endorsement until next week, officials close to the discussions told... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/surplus-of-470m-projected-for-city-by-end-of-year/10069/ Fri, 4 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Even if the city's "emergency" increases in the sales tax and the personal income tax for high-income households do sunset on schedule, the city is on track to finish the fiscal year with a $470 million surplus, according to the Independent Budget Office's analysis of the mayor's latest financial plan. Mayor Bloomberg's $48.3 billion election-year spending proposal rolls back the increases in the sales and personal income taxes; provides a $400 property tax rebate, and merely nibbles at the... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/poll-says-ferrer-now-leads-bloomberg/9997/ Thu, 3 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST If the mayoral election were held now, a former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, would win, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday. In a head-to-head match up with Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Ferrer beat the incumbent by an 8-point margin. Last month, the Quinnipiac poll found Mr. Ferrer, who is considered the front-runner among the four Democratic contenders, in a dead heat with Mr. Bloomberg, who is favored to defeat two challengers for the Republican nomination. Mr... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-declines-to-offer-a-pledge-of-no-new/9917/ Wed, 2 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg declined yesterday to provide a "no new taxes" pledge, during a speech to business leaders. During a question-and-answer session after his remarks at a Crain's New York breakfast, Mr. Bloomberg was asked if he thought taxes in the city were too high and whether he would commit "right here and now" to not raising taxes if he wins a second term. "Nobody can truthfully predict what will go on in the future," Mr. Bloomberg said, ducking an unequivocal pledge. "My objective would be... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/citys-snow-budget-at-1-million-an-inch-has-been/9848/ Tue, 1 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Two weeks ago, when Mayor Bloomberg held up a groundhog at the Bronx Zoo and declared that spring was around the corner, it looked like the $26 million he set aside for the city's snow removal efforts would be enough. Since then, however, two enormous storms have socked New York City, and in advance of the mess and inconvenience of nearly a foot of snow predicted in the latest wintry blast, the mayor said yesterday the city's snow budget has been busted. "You should know that since this is the... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/jets-plan-a-substantially-higher-bid/9772/ Mon, 28 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST The president of the New York Jets, Jay Cross, said yesterday that his organization will increase substantially its $100 million offer for the development rights over the Hudson rail yards at the far West Side of Manhattan. The fight over transforming an industrial wasteland on the far West Side into a new residential and business district has been coming to a head in a year in which Mayor Bloomberg faces re-election and New York City's bid to be named host city of the 2012 Olympics will be... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/transcendental-meditation-group-asks-city/9580/ Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST The city is considering a request by an Iowa-based transcendental-meditation organization, Global Country of World Peace, for more than $9 million in tax-exempt financing to create a New York headquarters. The city's Economic Development Corp. is looking at the Global Country application to have the triple-tax-exempt bonds issued, officials said, and has not yet decided whether to forward it for consideration by the city Industrial Development Agency. That agency's 15-member board would decide... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ruling-on-school-funds-puts-candidates-in-tight/9275/ Wed, 16 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST The landmark decision this week by a state Supreme Court judge in one of the nation's biggest school-finance cases puts the candidates vying for the mayor's job in a tight spot. While it is easy for them to say they support more education spending, it is unclear how the city and state would come up with the billions of additional dollars that Justice Leland DeGrasse ordered. "If the candidates are smart they won't talk about the ruling, because if they do they will have to present a plan to pay... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/gop-county-bosses-set-to-back-mayor/9204/ Tue, 15 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Four county Republican organizations will endorse Mayor Bloomberg at a press conference in the next few weeks, The New York Sun was told yesterday. The announcement is aimed at leveling a blow at the upstart campaign of Mr. Bloomberg's Republican challenger Thomas Ognibene, who secured the endorsement of the Queens Republican organization last week. More than six months before the primary, leaders from the New York County, Kings County, Bronx, and Staten Island Republican organizations will... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/reverends-endorsement-boosts-bloomberg/9148/ Mon, 14 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's re-election campaign got a boost yesterday after he won a qualified endorsement from one of the city's prominent black clergymen. The Reverend Calvin Butts, the outspoken pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church, spoke with enthusiasm of Mr. Bloomberg in an interview with a small group of reporters. Rev. Butts said that in the mayoral primary, he was supporting one of his parishioners and longtime friends, the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields. Once the dust... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/two-new-yorks-theme-resurrected-by-ferrer/8930/ Wed, 9 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST The trick for mayoral hopeful Fernando Ferrer in this election will be to convince New Yorkers that when he talks about "two New Yorks," he is making a compelling point about class, not an explosive argument about race. He resurrected the phrase, which may have cost him the 2001 election, in a speech at the Bronx yesterday. "I've spoken in the past about two New Yorks," Mr. Ferrer told an audience at a belated celebration of Martin Luther King Day at Lehman College at the Bronx yesterday. "Let... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ognibene-hopes-to-parlay-queens-nod-into-backing/8946/ Wed, 9 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg's sometimes difficult relationship with his fellow Republicans may come back to haunt him tomorrow night when the Queens County GOP organization is expected to endorse a former City Council minority leader, Thomas Ognibene, over the mayor in a Republican primary. While the Queens organization won't make the vote official until tomorrow, sources close to the party said Mr. Ognibene, the Queens GOP vice chairman, has the votes he needs to get the party's nod. Mr. Bloomberg made... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/klein-accused-of-creative-accounting/8869/ Tue, 8 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST New questions arose yesterday over how much money the Department of Education saved when it reorganized under Mayor Bloomberg's Children First program, one of the key planks of the mayor's re-election campaign. For months, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been crowing about $250 million he said he had whittled out of the department's bloated budget. That money, he testified before various committees of the City Council, was redirected to the city's classrooms, where it belongs. Now a new... DINA TEMPLE-RASTON http://www.nysun.com/new-york/on-gay-marriage-mayor-emerges-but-not-in-court/8801/ Mon, 7 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Getting Mayor Bloomberg to say unequivocally where he stood on the issue of gay marriage had become a kind of sport among City Hall reporters this time last year. Journalists were in tacit agreement that during each of the mayor's thrice-weekly question-and-answer sessions, at least one question on gay marriage should be posed. Then the scribes would dutifully write down the mayor's latest duck-and-weave on the issue. This weekend he stopped ducking. "I think people have the right to love, to...