Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:59 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Matthew Chayes :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Matthew+Chayes istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/columbia-to-pay-11-m-fine-in-loan-probe/55664/ Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Columbia University, where a former financial aid official is under criminal investigation for monetary ties to lenders, has agreed to pay a $1.1 million fine, adopt a conduct code, and let Attorney General Cuomo monitor the college for the next five years, Mr. Cuomo said yesterday. Separately, the head of the 12,000-member National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Dallas Martin, said the association would follow Mr. Cuomo's conduct code, which bans private lenders from... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/national/giuliani-would-use-compstat-system-as-president/55652/ Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:00:00 EST Mayor Giuliani said yesterday that if he is elected president in 2008, he will use the CompStat crime measurement system, employed during his eight years at City Hall, to improve the performance of federal agencies. "If we get elected president," Mr. Giuliani said at a news conference yesterday in Midtown, "it will turn around the federal government just as well as it turned around New York City." The Giuliani administration implemented CompStat in the 1990s to track crime statistics and hold... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/hecklers-razz-giuliani-over-attacks-of-9-11/55428/ Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Critics questioning Mayor Giuliani's stewardship after the World Trade Center attacks marred the presidential candidate's campaign fund-raising swing through his hometown yesterday that was intended to highlight his national security credentials. The day got off to a rocky start for Mr. Giuliani, who a day after celebrating his 63rd birthday barnstormed through the city to collect campaign contributions for his White House bid. During his first stop of the day, in City Island, a woman... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/jury-finds-fake-firefighter-guilty-on-most-charges/55169/ Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 EST A Manhattan jury deliberated for less than four hours yesterday before finding a former fashion journalist guilty of kidnapping and sexually molesting a colleague after forcing his way into her Chelsea apartment while dressed as a firefighter. By convicting Peter Braunstein on felony charges that include burglary, robbery, and sexual abuse, the jury rejected his defense that he was too psychotic to be found criminally responsible for drugging the woman with a chloroform-soaked rag, then holding... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/national/star-witness-at-un-trial-is-assailed/55085/ Wed, 23 May 2007 00:00:00 EST One of the government's star witnesses in a United Nations bribery trial is expected to face tough cross-examination today from defense attorneys seeking to undermine his credibility for using illegal drugs and lying about hiring prostitutes. The witness, Nishan Kohli, spent yesterday on the witness stand in Federal District Court in Manhattan, testifying against a former procurement official for the world body, Sanjaya Bahel. According to Kohli's testimony, Mr. Bahel gave members of Kohli's... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/times-editor-sues-truck-driver-over-broken-foot/54931/ Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 EST A managing editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, is suing a Pennsylvania truck driver, alleging he ran her over on May 8 at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 44th Street, a few blocks from the newspaper's Times Square headquarters. She is seeking unspecified damages in State Supreme Court in Manhattan from the driver, Oscar Ernesto Lara. The suit also names a Bronx food distributor operating the truck, West Side Foods, and the truck's registered owner, MTLR Corp. It accuses them of... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/noting-september-11-leadership-new-york/54965/ Tue, 22 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Mayor Giuliani's White House bid has won the endorsement of prominent state Republicans, who invoked his stewardship of New York City following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "New York is Rudy territory," a former state Republican party chairman, Bill Powers, said yesterday. Mr. Giuliani and his supporters cast the 2008 presidential election as a battle for America's values and national security. "The lessons of the 20th century, to me, are that you never, ever back down in the... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/giuliani-mccain-team-up-to-rebuke-democrats/54778/ Fri, 18 May 2007 00:00:00 EST While Republican White House hopefuls have been fighting among themselves in the race for the GOP nomination, two last night kept their internecine differences to themselves to focus on a common enemy: the Democrats, whom they labeled as anti-growth and dangerous to America's national security. Mayor Giuliani and Senator McCain came to a Midtown hotel to rally donors at the New York Republican State Committee dinner, vowing to help rebuild the state GOP — Mr. Giuliani told the donors that "you... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/parents-voice-distrust-of-arab-school-promises/54495/ Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Parents of children who attend two Boerum Hill schools, which the city has proposed share space with a new Arabic culture public school, told officials last night that they don't trust the Department of Education to keep its promises to improve the school building to accommodate the extra students. The city already abandoned initial plans to put the Khalil Gibran International Academy, named for a Lebanese philosopher, at P.S. 282, a Park Slope elementary school, after parents there protested... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/weiner-floats-plan-to-rival-bloombergs-commuter/54388/ Mon, 14 May 2007 00:00:00 EST An early critic of the Bloomberg administration's plan to impose a fee on commuter vehicles in Manhattan has announced an alternative proposal, promising to cut pollution and traffic congestion while saving lower-income New Yorkers money. Rep. Anthony Weiner's ideas are similar to Mayor Bloomberg's — except they center on trucks and largely exclude cars. Mr. Weiner, who calls the Bloomberg traffic plan a regressive tax on the poor and middle class, says City Hall can achieve its environmental... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ruling-lowers-the-boom-on-city-island-cannon/54313/ Fri, 11 May 2007 00:00:00 EST A City Island yacht club's century-old tradition of saluting the Star-Spangled Banner has ended; complaints from a group of angry neighbors led to a court ruling preventing it from bursting bombs in the air. A state appellate court ruled yesterday that First Amendment rights of the Harlem Yacht Club were not violated when city noise inspectors fined the organization for firing a miniature cannon at its sundown flag-lowering ceremony. Officials of the club — founded in 1856 and located on City... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/accomplices-get-15-to-life-in-cop-killings/54063/ Wed, 9 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Two accomplices of a man who murdered police detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin were sentenced yesterday to 15 years to life in prison for their part in the murders. Jessie Jacobus, 21, and Mitchell Diaz, 22, earlier testified against the triggerman, Ronell Wilson, whom a federal jury sentenced to death in March... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/sharpton-criticized-for-romney-quip/54070/ Wed, 9 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Less than a month after helping to get Don Imus removed from the radio airwaves following an offensive remark about the Rutgers women's basketball team, the Reverend Al Sharpton is drawing criticism for a quip about the Mormon presidential candidate. Hundreds of people at the New York Public Library laughed Monday night when Rev. Sharpton joked that a Republican presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, would lose the election. "As for the one Mormon running for office," Rev. Sharpton said, "those... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/hitchens-sharpton-spar-over-the-almighty/54047/ Tue, 8 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Few would be surprised that the British contrarian who was asked to be the devil's advocate and oppose Mother Teresa's sainthood doesn't think God is great. The Reverend Al Sharpton traveled to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue last night to prove him wrong — or at least to try. God's greatness — actually, Christopher Hitchens's book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything " — was in question as the author and the reverend spent some 90 minutes arguing over the almighty... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/jurors-hear-halloween-victims-911-call/53666/ Wed, 2 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Jurors in sexual abduction trial of Peter Braunstein yesterday listened to a frantic emergency call placed by his sobbing victim after he drugged, bound, and abused her for nearly 13 hours on Halloween in 2005. With the 911 operator pleading with the caller to calm herself by taking deep breaths, the Chelsea woman, now 36, can be heard refusing at first to admit police officers because her kidnapper had been dressed in a fake firefighter uniform. "I don't know," she wept. "I don't trust anybody... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/assault-victim-says-she-feared-for-her-life/53535/ Tue, 1 May 2007 00:00:00 EST Eighteen months after a Chelsea woman was sexually abused for almost 13 hours by a man who entered her home dressed as a firefighter on Halloween and tied her up at gunpoint, the 36-year-old testified yesterday that she feared the masked man would kill her. "I knew as morning came, he either had to leave or get rid of me," the woman said during more than three hours on the witness stand. She would later learn that she had seen the man on trial for the felony attack — journalist Peter Braunstein... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/business/bush-official-sees-moral-hazard-in-regulation/53364/ Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST One of the Bush administration's top finance officials said yesterday that subjecting hedge funds to government regulation could prove to be a "moral hazard," as it would stamp a deceptive imprimatur onto investments that are by design inherently risky. "It communicates a sense of confidence in the actual product, which, by definition, is more risky, illiquid, and has more flexibility than the average person should embrace," President Bush's treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, Robert... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/affordable-housing-law-struck-down/53154/ Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST A state judge has invalidated an "affordable housing" law that local real estate agents complained lowered property values and that the Bloomberg administration said could have displaced the lower-income tenants the Mitchell-Lama program is intended to help. The law, passed in 2005, would have forced Mitchell-Lama landlords who wanted to sell or convert apartments to market-rate properties to first offer to sell them to tenants. In ruling that the city overstepped its statutory bounds when it... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/garson-is-guilty-of-bribery-for-unequal-justice/52862/ Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The Kings County district attorney's efforts to weed out corruption in the Brooklyn judiciary received a boost yesterday when jurors found a former divorce court judge, Gerald Garson, guilty of rendering unequal justice in exchange for wine, cash, and cigars. He faces up to 15 years in prison. Garson stared straight ahead, his face flush, as the foreman pronounced him guilty of bribery and official misconduct for giving a lucrative legal guardianship and strategic advice on divorce cases to a... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/edwards-calls-imus-insult-symptomatic/52765/ Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The racial insult that led to the firing of radio host Don Imus is symptomatic of a nation where "opportunity isn't equal," John Edwards said at a fund-raiser last night for the Reverend Al Sharpton. "I think some people really believe that all you have to do to succeed in this country is pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work hard," the former North Carolina senator and presidential candidate said in prepared remarks at Rev. Sharpton's invitation-only Keepers of the Dream VIP Reception... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/business/activists-use-tax-day-to-attempt-to-influence/52675/ Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Think of it as the people's First Amendment answer to their 16th Amendment tax burden. With the deadline yesterday to file federal income tax returns, activist groups seeking redress from the government fanned out across Manhattan to greet taxpayers, remind them what their government money buys, and influence public opinion — or at least try. "Do you care about your tax dollars?" a 68-year-old Brooklyn antiwar activist and adult literacy coordinator, Joan Pleune, shouted as she handed out... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/giuliani-praises-thorn-in-side-of-bloomberg/52386/ Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Mayor Giuliani yesterday praised a former top aide who has spent his post-City Hall career clashing in court with the Bloomberg administration. "I would imagine he is thought of at the present City Hall the way we used to think of the ACLU," Mr. Giuliani said yesterday of his mayoral operations chief, Randy Mastro. "That's a nice thing to be — the guy who sues them the most and defeats them the most." Courts don't publicize win and loss tallies for individual lawyers, but Mr. Mastro — a vocal... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/sallie-mae-agrees-to-adopt-cuomo-code-of-conduct/52335/ Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The nation's largest lender to college students, Sallie Mae, agreed yesterday to curb its marketing practices and pay a $2 million fine as a result of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's widening inquiry into the $85 billion financial aid industry. Citigroup accepted a similar settlement earlier this month, and Mr. Cuomo said he hopes to persuade smaller lenders to adopt his code of conduct. "Sallie Mae accepts the code. Citibank, the second-largest lender, accepts the code. I think it's going to... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/real-estate/preservationists-take-aim-in-court-at-open/52328/ Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Preservationists battling a 350-year-old Upper West Side synagogue's expansion efforts added a new wrinkle to their fight yesterday, asking a state judge to overturn what they say is a citywide ban put into place after September 11, 2001, on releasing blueprints of "sensitive" locations without written permission from property owners. Landmark West, a 22-year-old nonprofit group, says building plans filed with the city help rally community opposition to projects like Congregation Shearith... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/business/bronfman-sues-vivendi-over-pension-reduction/52200/ Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Edgar Bronfman Jr., the head of Warner Music, yesterday sued his former employer, Vivendi SA, alleging the entertainment conglomerate he helped form broke its contract by reducing his pension payments. Attorneys for Mr. Bronfman, the billionaire scion of one of North America's richest families, say in legal papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court that Vivendi deflated his pension checks by 65% after claiming to discover "an alleged 'mistake' in the calculation" and "erroneously crediting" him... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/inspector-in-rat-scandal-tenders-her-resignation/52124/ Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST A health department inspector who gave a passing grade to a Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell a day before a television news station broadcast video of rats scurrying around the restaurant resigned yesterday morning, the same day the city's independent watchdog agency recommended she be fired. The inspector, Cemone Thomas, acknowledged to investigators that she forgot to tell her bosses about 20 rat droppings she saw during her initial inspection of the restaurant in February, the watchdog's... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/columbia-dean-is-probed/51875/ Thu, 5 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST The head of one of Columbia University's financial aid offices is being investigated for recommending a student loan company to borrowers at the same time as he held stock in the company, the state attorney general's office and Columbia said yesterday. A senior associate dean of student affairs at Columbia, David Charlow, owned 7,500 shares of Education Lending Group Inc., according to records on file with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is the parent of Student Loan... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/cuomo-requiring-written-permission-for-testing/51791/ Wed, 4 Apr 2007 00:00:00 EST Laboratories at one of the city's largest university hospitals will be required to obtain written permission before testing whether patients are predisposed to genetic diseases, the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, said yesterday. Mr. Cuomo's office wants to extend the agreement with New York-Presbyterian, the university hospital of Columbia and Cornell universities, as a best practice for testing statewide for propensities to diseases such as ovarian cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, a... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/giuliani-focuses-on-foreign-policy-at-nj/51316/ Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST TEANECK, N.J. — Mayor Giuliani crossed the Hudson River last night, campaigning on his muscular foreign policy and taking a fresh swipe at Senate Democrats who voted yesterday to include a timetable for withdrawing troops in an Iraq war spending bill. "I hope that the president vetoes it, and I think the idea of giving your enemy a timetable for retreat makes no sense to me," he said, calling the Senate vote a "terrible mistake" that hinders America's efforts to create "an Iraq that acts as a... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/now-comes-the-lawsuit/51214/ Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Two months after risking death by saving the life of an epileptic passenger who fell into the path of an incoming no. 1 train, subway hero Wesley Autrey Sr. is accusing one of his attorneys and a Hollywood agent who promised him movie and book deals of tricking him, making him "act fast" in signing a far-reaching contract giving the duo half the profits from his fame. "Because he was getting himself and his daughters ready to go to the White House and he did not want to keep the president... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/in-columbia-speech-rangel-warns-president-on-trade/51241/ Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST With President Bush's fast-track trade authority set to expire at the end of the week and the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill in talks with the White House, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel, reiterated yesterday that he would renew the authority only if the Bush administration changes its tactics. Fast-track negotiating authority, granted periodically to presidents since the 1970s, allows the White House to negotiate globally and submit... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/richard-parsons-does-he-sound-familiar/50926/ Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST With the end of Mayor Bloomberg's two terms in City Hall starting to come into view and a wide-open candidate slate to become his 2009 successor, Time Warner's CEO, Richard Parsons, yesterday praised the mayor in a way that made Mr. Bloomberg sound a bit like himself. "I have no idea what his ideology is. None," Mr. Parsons said. "I'm not even sure he even has one, other than he likes to solve problems." Mr. Parsons spoke for less than an hour to a standing-room crowd of more than 300 at Baruch... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/tape-garson-refers-to-litigants-as-schmucks/50909/ Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Jurors in the felony bribery trial of a former state Supreme Court judge yesterday watched surveillance videos showing Gerald Garson accepting cash and cigars from a divorce attorney who frequently appeared before him. Another excerpt showed the judge in his robing room in a Brooklyn courthouse secretly ridiculing litigants as "schmucks," "hustlers," "crazy and stupid" — and at one point joking that children would be better off if a father seeking custody would die. Later in the tape, Judge... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/suburban-officers-sue-city-cite-bias/50449/ Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Dozens of city police officers who live in the suburbs are suing City Hall because a 2003 civil service exam gave a two-and-a-half-point bonus to residents of the five boroughs. In court papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court, more than 50 officers with homes on Long Island and in upstate counties, such as Westchester, contend that the bonus punished them for seeking "to advance their family situation respecting air quality, less population density, and suburban living benefits." Because of... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/foreign/ex-un-official-convicted-of-conspiracy/50058/ Thu, 8 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST A former high-ranking U.N. diplomat from Russia, Vladimir Kuznetsov, has been convicted of a money-laundering conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten bribes from companies seeking to do business with the United Nations. A Manhattan jury took little more than an hour to find Kuznetsov, who once oversaw the budget of the world body, guilty of federal charges stemming from a five-year-long procurement scam. He faces up to 20 years in prison. The government convinced the... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/judge-delivers-mixed-ruling-in-convention/49979/ Wed, 7 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST In a mixed ruling, a Manhattan federal judge said yesterday a city policy restricting large gatherings on Central Park's Great Lawn is constitutional but that a jury should decide whether the city acted fairly in 2004 when it denied permits to activists seeking to rally in protest of the Republican National Convention. The case has pitted civil libertarians and anti-war picketers against the city and park advocates, delving into minutiae about which kinds of crowds cause irreparable grass... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/lawyer-if-9-11-injured-sue-rescue-efforts-would/49946/ Wed, 7 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Future terrorist attack rescue efforts would be endangered if thousands of responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks were allowed to sue, a city lawyer warned a federal appeals court yesterday. "What is at stake is the extent to which public and private entities will respond to the future such disasters or will hold back for fear that they will be embroiled in thousands of lawsuits and years of litigation," a lawyer who represents the city and other litigants, James Tyrrell Jr., told judges... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fertility-bank-accused-of-losing-embryos/49899/ Tue, 6 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST A lesbian couple from New Jersey is seeking $3 million from a Murray Hill fertility bank they accuse of losing their frozen embryos. The women, Cathy Berger and Adriana Pacheco of Hoboken, say in a lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court that in 2003 they paid Repro Lab Inc. to store six embryos, created with eggs from Ms. Pacheco. When Ms. Berger — who had been taking drugs to prepare her body for implantation — visited the storage facility last year to retrieve the embryos, clinic... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/claims-that-greenberg-profited-from-starr/49846/ Tue, 6 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST An independent commission of retired judges has exonerated a former chairman of American International Group of wrongdoing almost four decades ago in connection with a charity Governor Spitzer accused him of shortchanging by billions of dollars. While serving as New York's attorney general, Mr. Spitzer said Maurice "Hank" Greenberg profited from the death of his mentor, Cornelius Vander Starr, and called on Mr. Greenberg and others to reimburse the Starr Foundation, a charity founded in 1955... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/this-detectives-mysteries-involve-real-life-books/49753/ Mon, 5 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST College slackers, meet Patrick Murphy. A paralegal by trade, he is a book detective, an investigator who's busiest close to midterms and finals weeks. Employing some of the tactics used to stop drug dealers and illegal DVD peddlers, Mr. Murphy and other "enforcement associates," as they're called by his employer, John Wiley & Sons, have a more erudite target: pirated books and the ultra-secret teachers' editions of textbooks that contain homework answers and test questions. Mr. Murphy estimates... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/7m-suit-filed-against-estate-of-yankee-killed/49690/ Fri, 2 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST A dentist whose Upper East Side condominium was destroyed last fall by a plane crash that killed Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle is seeking $7 million from the pitcher's estate. In court papers filed Wednesday, Lawrence Rosenthal and his wife say they are emotionally scarred and will have trouble selling their apartment because it is "stigmatized." "A lot of people don't want to move into an apartment that's been totally gutted by smoke and fire," lawyer David Jaroslawicz said, adding, "It's like... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/national/cuomo-urges-gingrich-to-enter-race/49673/ Fri, 2 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Newt Gingrich is waiting until September to declare whether he intends to seek the Republican 2008 nomination, but the former House speaker has attracted an unlikely cheerleader: the liberal ex-governor of New York, Mario Cuomo. "Incidentally, if I can pause and be erratically independent of my text, I think you would make a great candidate for president on the Republican side, I really do," Mr. Cuomo said, turning to Mr. Gingrich. Still, the two men clashed on everything from how to handle... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/business/13-people-are-charged-in-insider-trading-scheme/49635/ Fri, 2 Mar 2007 00:00:00 EST Thirteen people were charged in connection with insider-trading schemes involving confidential investment information passed on by employees at UBS and Morgan Stanley that resulted in $8 million in illegal profit, according to federal criminal complaints unsealed yesterday. Separate civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against most of the same defendants estimated that the scheme reaped even more — $15 million — in illegal profit. Over five years, those indicted... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/weiner-seeks-payback-for-city-losses-in-iraq/49472/ Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST A local congressman said yesterday he would introduce a bill to push the federal government to reimburse the city for salaries of emergency workers, such as police officers and firefighters, who are sent to fight America's wars as reservists. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens and Brooklyn and is considering a mayoral bid in 2009, said the war has cost city taxpayers close to $57 million to continue paying the salaries of municipal workers. With those workers facing... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/national/clinton-defector-escalates-tirade-against-senator/49453/ Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Hot on the heels of a personal assault on President and Senator Clinton by their former chief fundraiser, David Geffen — which sparked a feud with Mrs. Clinton's Democratic rival, Senator Obama — the Clintons' former confidant, Dick Morris, is showing that he intends to keep up a constant barrage of criticism and bad memories of the former first couple in an effort to ensure that Mrs. Clinton does not return to the White House. "She believes that she is the last good person on Earth, and she... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fourth-norman-case-to-go-before-brooklyn-jury/48973/ Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST A Brooklyn jury will begin deliberating today whether Clarence Norman Jr., the one-time Kings County Democratic Party leader, was corrupt or simply a polished politician. While prosecutors portrayed a money-hungry extortionist who endorsed only candidates who could pay out tens of thousands of dollars to his friends, the defense drew a picture of a masterful strategist who knew whom to hire to guarantee Election Day victory. Norman's three-week trial concluded yesterday. It was his fourth... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/national/gop-candidates-squabbling-is-dumb-gingrich-says/48825/ Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST A former House speaker who helped engineer a sweeping Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, Newt Gingrich, yesterday criticized two of his party's 2008 presidential candidates for internecine squabbling this week. "The idea that these campaigns have to be this utterly stupid and destructive," Mr. Gingrich told an audience at the Women's National Republican Club in Midtown. "I saw something the other day where Brownback is attacking Romney. I mean, what a dumb way to spend your life." Mr... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/team-norman-said-to-vandalize-opponents-campaign/48694/ Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Campaigning was a real chore for those who worked for Clarence Norman, once Brooklyn's most powerful political boss. Work began at 5 a.m., and over the course of the day, they risked violent confrontations as they distributed fliers, posted placards — and vandalized campaign literature belonging to the enemy camp. "A 'hurricane' may come, and the posters fall," a Brooklyn Democratic party operations manager, William Boone III, said yesterday on the witness stand at the fourth Norman corruption... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/funds-sought-for-sept-11-sick/48589/ Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST Mayor Bloomberg called on federal lawmakers yesterday to allocate $150 million a year to help New York City cope with health problems that have arisen since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Bloomberg made the request as he released an 83-page report estimating that the attacks have cost the city health care system about $393 million a year — for a total of more than $2 billion. The money the mayor is seeking would finance medical programs and keep physicians and policymakers... MATTHEW CHAYES http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-city-sought-800-times-to-padlock-nuisance/48606/ Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:00:00 EST The city sought more than 800 times last year to padlock locations the police department alleged were havens for crime, an assistant police commissioner, Robert Messner, told a City Council committee yesterday. Of the targeted locations, 250 were in Manhattan, and about 60 there were bars or nightclubs — almost double the year before. At Mayor Bloomberg's request, lawmakers are considering expanding the list of crimes that allow the police to seek to shut down locations that investigators...