NYObserver

The National Endowment for the Humanities has given NYU classics professor Peter Meineck $800,000, Arts Journal's Real Clear Arts blog reports.  They're funding his idea to bring (relatively) star-studded productions of ancient Greek plays to libraries across the country: think Gary Sinise reads Sophocles Ajax. Afterwards, they'll be town-hall discussions on "connections between the classics and contemporary America," says writer Judy Dobrzynski, who also interviewed Meineck for the Wall Street Journal.  The program, which got its...

Bill Clinton will be presiding over the wedding between Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin tomorrow.

A Bloomberg administration study showed that Lebron in Miami costs the city $58 million per year. (In other words, this blogger would be a cool $7.25 richer)

The mayor is headed to New Hampshire. But it's not like what you are thinking.

Tom Dinapoli's campaign says his race is the most competive in New York.

The Bronx News Network says Pedro Espada's Senate...

The City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus has sent a letter to Gov. David A. Paterson urging him to sign legislation that would outlaw the NYPD's practice of retaining the personal information of people who are stopped and frisked but not arrested or summoned.

"Maintaining the personal information of these individuals found to be doing nothing wrong and using it in current and future criminal investigations, violates their privacy and due process rights, and...

City Comptroller John Liu will be handing out over $750,000 in raises to employees at the Comptroller's office, according to an email sent out to office employees.

His office stressed that the salary bump-ups will go to staffers in the Comptroller's office who predate Liu's term, which began on January 1 of this year, and not some of the big-name deputy comptrollers that Liu brought on-board, including former city councilman Simcha Felder, former Empire State...

Faced with a budget shortfall that may cost 1.3 million Britons their jobs, the U.K. government has embraced a strategy used by struggling organizations all over the world: increasing its presence on Facebook.

Prime Minister David Cameron appeared in a video with Mark Zuckerberg today, soliciting solutions to the budget crises from The People. The video conference included a forced laugh from the prime minister at one of his own jokes and the grammatical...

The campaign arm of the New York Senate Democrats just sent out an email slamming SRCC leader Tom Libous for appearing at a Tea Party event with gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.

Paladino, the Democrats note, was busted for forwarding a series of racist and sexist emails, including one that portrayed dancing African tribesmen under the headline "Obama Inauguration Reheasal." Paladino has called the unearthed emails a smear, and said he simply forwarded the e-mails to...

For months, the M.T.A. and the Federal Transit Administration had been at odds over cost overruns of the M.T.A.'s two biggest projects: the long-planned Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access, which would bring the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central. The F.T.A., which is partially funding both, had argued the projects were running up to $1.6 billion over what the M.T.A. was projecting, and the projects would be further delayed, both into...

A reader passed along this invitation for a fundraiser for Congressman Ed Towns attended by a host of liberal lions from the House: former Black Panther Bobby Rush, Barbara Lee, the Oakland Congresswoman who cast the lone "No" vote to authorize the war in Afghanistan, and Dennis Kucinich, whom Anderson Cooper once told in a debate that he thought it would be impossible to find someone to the left of him.

Towns, who turns 76...

Following her A1, above-the-fold profile on the front page of the Washington Post yesterday--under the headline "Candidate Banking on Sympathy for Wall St."--Congressional hopeful Reshma Saujani appeared on Hardball last night for a tough interview with host Chris Matthews.

Matthews wanted to know if her quote in the WaPo about lending a hand, rather than a fist, to Wall Street was accurate.

Saujani thanked him for the chance to "set the record straight," but didn't deny...

The late budget hits the 100-day mark.

Governor Paterson said the state has a month and a half of money left, and might bring lawmakers back from their vacations.

Paterson signed a bill to allow organ donors to register online.

Gay rights advocates are a little wary of Andrew Cuomo.

Congressman Gregory Meeks borrowed $59,650 from Dennis Mehiel to pay back the $40,000 loan he took out in 2007.

A state judge upheld the $10,000 fine levied by the...

Brodsky Scores DC37

Department of Consumer Affairs Hits Stores For Letting All The Cold Air Out

Art Vendors Get All Litigious

Quinn Mails For Schneiderman, A "Lifelong Progressive"

R.I.P Pataki Aide Brad Race

There is some confusion on the prospects of a debate between Reshma Saujani and Carolyn Maloney

Troopergate, again

Lazio to Cuomo: For Shame

It's The Moderate GOP Senators Who Most Have It In For Kagan

Cantor for Altschuler in NY-1

And thank you all for the kind...

Member items—or earmarks—get much of the attention in the City Council, there's a substantially bigger pot of discretionary handouts that doesn't always gain as much focus: additions to the capital budget.

This year, the Council approved about $375 million a year in city spending for such additions, which typically go to schools, museums, and non-profit groups toward capital investments like new buildings, renovations, supplies or other infrastructure.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn has the most...

Reshma Saujani's campaign sent out an email today announcing that Representative Carolyn Maloney has agreed to debate her upstart challenger in the 14th District.

"Last night at a community meeting in Queens, Reshma Saujani approached Carolyn Maloney and said that she looked forward to debating her," says the release. "The Congresswoman agreed." The release says Saujani will ask NY1 to host the debate when she appears on Inside City Hall tonight.

But a spokesperson...

A Washington Post reporter got coveted access to a fundraiser for Wall Street sweetheart and would-be Upper East Side congresswoman Reshma Saujani and delivers the goods in this morning's paper:

[D]ozens of rich New Yorkers are gathered around a grand piano, sipping white wine in the living room of an elegant high-rise apartment. There is plenty of gossip to be heard, but this is not a social event. The city's moneyed elite have come to...

The Post has a nice photo of the 6,700 vetoes being delivered.

The vetoes mean lots of cuts for non-profits--including more than half a million dollars that won't go to Vito Lopez's Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council.

The court reporting business owned by Steve Levy's wife has gotten a lot of work from businesses who received county contracts.

Andrew Cuomo is headed to Syracuse for work--and a fundraiser.

Consultants made a lot of money off the now-defunct rescue plan...

The 6,700 vetoes were delivered to the Legislature, in large piles, today.

The TU has the full list of all the unlucky groups that will not be getting their member items.

Harry Wilson has a plan to make the Comptroller's office less political (complete with a colorful chart).

Tom DiNapoli's campaign lashed back, as it sought to tag Wilson as a BP sympathizer.

The new CEO of OTB will be making $1.5 million a year! 

Michael Benjamin is sticking up for Pedro Espada Jr.

Charlie Rangel wants to end...

Douglas Durst, the taciturn scion of a three-generation real estate empire, has been selected to buy a stake in One World Trade Center, besting in a bidding contest Stephen Ross, the aggressive developer who chairs Related Companies, according to an official familiar with the decision.

The board of the Port Authority, which is building the tower, today opted to designate the Durst Organization the winning bidder, although the firm still must undergo a 30-day...

Holding his sixth press conference in the past 10 days (three of which were weekend/holiday), Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today turned to pension spiking, the practice of public employees boosting overtime hours in the last years of employment to increase their post-retirement pensions.

He's been critical of the practice before, and today he released a report on 50 counties, cities, agencies, and other public employers to find that this practice is, as suspected, quite...

State Senator Eric Schneiderman picked up the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice New York this morning, citing a history of reproductive rights work that goes all the way back to his teenage years.

The organization is backing Schneiderman over Nassau Country District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who is the only woman in the five-person field.

"As a senator, Eric has been a sponsor of every pro-choice piece of legislation in New York. As a friend and ally, he...

Senate Conference Leader John Sampson has a new $49,000 Chevy Tahoe.

The Daily News calls the Democratic state committee's attempt to shed Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. a "lame gambit."

Espada says Andrew Cuomo is behind it.

Cuomo is also going after landlords.

The Post hits Chuck Schumer for using the DISCLOSE act to raise money.

Maggie says the Ground Zero mosque is becoming a wedge issue, with Rick Lazio set to hold a morning press conference about it.

Mayor...