Free Republic

Cuomo’s homelessness order deepened the chill between him and Mayor de Blasio Sunday, with the mayor’s office charging Cuomo lacks the power to impose the mandate. "We support the intent of the Executive Order, but to forcibly remove all homeless individuals in freezing weather, as the Governor has ordered, will require him to pass state law," de Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton said as Cuomo inked the order requiring people to go to shelters when temperatures are below 32 degrees. "This Executive Order adds no legal or financial resources to New York City's programs to assist the homeless, and merely requires...

New York is reaping the whirlwind of sky-high cigarette taxes with a wave of smuggling decimating the state’s revenue. New York raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006. The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state’s finances. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports New York’s revenue from cigarette taxes has plunged by $400 million over the past five years.

No doubt you, too, spent the holidays relishing the humiliation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the overrated and obnoxious Democratic Party hack who, finally, is teetering on the brink of political oblivion. How the former ballet dancer and Sarah Lawrence alumnus parlayed ambition and drive and the ability to scream like a lunatic into high office and a fortune of more than $10 million is one of the remarkable political stories of our time. "Emanuel has succeeded in almost every professional endeavor he has undertaken," Ryan Lizza wrote approvingly in 2009. Spoke too soon. How bad is Rahm Emanuel? He...

What's more sexist: Donald Trump saying "schlonged" to describe the way Hillary Clinton lost in 2008, or Hillary herself orchestrating a campaign to discredit and destroy women, including Monica Lewinsky, whose "bimbo eruptions" threatened Bill and Hillary's hold on power? According to Al Sharpton on today's Morning Joe, Trump's offense is the graver. Sharpton suggests that Hillary's attack on Monica Lewinsky should be understood as a woman "dealing with someone who was in an indiscretion with her husband." Sharpton thus paints a picture of poor Hillary, the wronged woman, fighting her rival for the affections of her husband. As Trump...

Yesterday I called Al Sharpton's call for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's resignation over a police shooting the “perfect Obama-era scandal.” It showcases Obama’s hometown, home of some of the country’s strictest gun-control laws, plagued by 2,937 shootings in the past year, about 350 more than the previous year; an entirely-Democrat controlled political system that engages in cover-ups and a culture of unaccountability; a microcosm of African-Americans, the most loyal demographic to the Democratic Party, feeling victimized and disregarded by leaders they eagerly elected and reelected. Elitism, double-standards, runaway state power, incendiary agitation, racial tensions - it's all here. Now we...

It's Spitz-ville: Disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer and his girlfriend, 33, break up - two years after affair ended his marriage It was an affair said to have cost Eliot Spitzer his marriage and his girlfriend her political spin job. But after two years together it appears that the disgraced former New York governor and partner Lis Smith have gone their separate ways, NY Daily News reports. Smith had just joined Bill de Blasio's team and was widely considered to be the likely candidate for the mayor's press secretary when pictures of emerged of then-married Spitzer sneaking into...

NEW YORK - A "credible threat" has been lodged against New York City, days ahead of Christmas and during an especially busy time of the year when tourists flock to the Big Apple, law enforcement sources told PIX11 News Tuesday. Top NYPD brass including Commissioner William Bratton held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the threat and their response to it, sources said. Few details were released about the nature of the threat. A federal law enforcement source said the threat is not specific and could take place in several major U.S. cities. All New York City police officers received...

From last night's speech to the New England Police Benevolent Association, which voted to endorse him. Rarely can you tell whether a new Trump policy idea was gamed out beforehand or just something he came up with on the fly while in front of a mic, and this is no exception. His advisor, Dan Scavino, tweeted it out after Trump said it, though, so if it wasn't official campaign policy before, I guess it is now. Is it worth critiquing this? Krauthammer’s ready to give up on arguing against Trump policies, partly because they're all obviously political panders rather than...

A former state Senate leader and his son were convicted Friday of federal extortion charges, marking the second time in a month that one of Albany's most powerful politicians was run out office following a case that put the state capital's political culture on trial. The prosecution of Republican Dean Skelos, 67, and his 33-year-old son, Adam, cast a harsh light on politics-as-usual, much like the one against former Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted of bribery on Nov. 30. ...

Congressman Chris Gibson of New York is calling for an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration after learning hundreds of millions of dollars in loans went to Health Republic, an insurance co-op that lasted only two years, and which caused 215,000 New Yorkers to lose their insurance. Health Republic was founded in 2013 with $265 Million in federal loans. It soon became one of the largest health insurance cooperatives in the United States. Now it is no more after New York regulators discovered massive deficits in Health Republic's books. Originally ordered to close by December 31, regulators had to bump...

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio's multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students failing grades to passing without teachers knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post. In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a "no show" in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she did not deserve, several staffers charged. He thinks he is God and can do whatever he wants. ... Taveras changed a students failing 55...

Americans increasingly support free speech as a concept but make lots of exceptions. A new Pew Research poll found that 40 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 34) believe the government should be able to prevent people from making offensive statements about minority groups. New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, certainly agree. Often rivals, they teamed up to remove a set of controversial subway ads advertising a new Amazon series that depicts an alternate history in which the Nazis and the Japanese won World War II and divided control of America between...

Mayor de Blasio said his son Dante has been active in protests over racial issues at Yale — and they both agree the school should drop the name of a prominent defender of slavery. Dante, a freshman, is assigned to Yale’s Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and South Carolina senator who vehemently backed slavery as a “positive good” for the nation. “He’s very concerned, and he certainly notes the fact that the college he’s in, Calhoun College, is named for someone it shouldn’t be named for,” de Blasio told reporters Monday. “ That’s quite...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced as part of his "See Something, Send Something" campaign a new mobile app that allows New Yorkers to alert authorities of potential threats. The "See Something, Send Something" app allows anyone with a smart phone to report suspicious activity directly to the New York State Intelligence Center in the form of photos or written notes, according to a press release. The press release reminds users to only report “suspicious behavior and situations (e.g., an unattended backpack or briefcase in a public place) rather than beliefs, thoughts, ideas, expressions, associations, or speech unrelated to...

Thanksgiving week is typically a time for people to reflect on the blessings they have known and to be grateful for all of the bounty we receive in our lives, so we should kick off Monday morning with just such a story. One person who apparently has a lot to be grateful for is Al Sharpton. The nationally renowned race agitator arranged for some particularly rich blessings last year in the form of a 71% pay raise, made possible largely through the renewed, high profile image he obtained via multiple public appearances with President Barack Obama and New York City...

It pays to have friends in high places. Al Sharpton gave himself a 71 percent raise last year after his National Action Network group drew a record $6.9 million in donations — as the controversial cleric’s association with Mayor de Blasio and President Obama lent him a newfound air of legitimacy. De Blasio’s election gave Sharpton a seat at City Hall, as the mayor treated him as an adviser and presented him at a press event next to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton after the death of Eric Garner. Also in 2014, Obama addressed NAN’s annual convention, bringing along five...

Rev. Al Sharpton will Announce that NAN is Convening a National Summit of Black Ministers to discuss the Recruitment of Black Churches as Sanctuaries for Syrian Refugees and to Recruit Congregation Members to provide Homes to Those Seeking Asylum. Rev. Sharpton will also condemn a lack of mercy, compassion and the perpetuation of Islamophobia by certain leaders

Mayor de Blasio says New York City will not turn away any refugees fleeing Syria. De Blasio said Tuesday that New York "is a proud immigrant city" and would welcome refugees trying to escape the conflict in their homeland. Many public officials and U.S. presidential candidates have expressed wariness at admitting refugees in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris last week. De Blasio chided a pair of local Republicans running for president. He called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie "an embarrassment to this country" and said that the city "will adhere to the words of our Founding Fathers,...

Mayor de Blasio is moving to clean up a state medical-insurance mess that blindsided thousands of New Yorkers, including 114 cancer patients in the city who were about to lose their doctors. Under a hastily drawn-up deal, the patients will continue to get coverage for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the city's MetroPlus health plan. The patients had faced a tough choice: pay out of pocket or find new doctors because of the impending bankruptcy of Health Republic - one of the state's ObamaCare providers and the only one that covers treatment at Sloan Kettering.

FLINT, MI -- The Michigan chapter of Al Sharpton's National Action Network says the state needs to set up a special court to hear criminal cases against juveniles who may have been poisoned by lead contaminants in Flint water. "All juvenile offenders arrested, charged or incarcerated in Genesee County that may have consumed Flint water during the period of lead contamination should be tested for lead content in their blood," Sam Riddle, state political director of Michigan NAN, said in a news release.