Free Republic

Kathleen C. Hochul, a former member of Congress and Erie County clerk with a reputation as a personable politician and strong campaigner, is Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s choice to run for lieutenant governor.Hochul, 55, would replace Robert Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, who opted not to seek a second term as lieutenant governor.“This should be another big boost for Buffalo,” Cuomo said. “This is a big deal to have a lieutenant governor from your town.”After months of speculation, Cuomo this afternoon made his selection known to the delegates attending the convention here that Hochul will be running with him...

RYE BROOK - New York Republicans have officially nominated Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino (R) as their candidate in the race for governor. Republicans wrapped up their state party convention Thursday at the Hilton Hotel in Rye Brook after nominating Astorino. Other candidates nominated include Onondaga County Comptroller Bob Antonacci for comptroller and chief of staff to former Gov. George Pataki John Cahill as attorney general. Astorino says his success in Westchester shows he can appeal to all kinds of voters in heavily Democratic New York. In his acceptance speech, Astorino called for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and the...

WASHINGTON — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged the White House Wednesday to give "immediate attention'' to safety issues involving the increased use of freight trains to transport crude oil. He made his comments just hours before the latest derailment in Lynchburg, Va. Cuomo later said the accident and other recent derailments are "a startling pattern that underscores the need for action." "In addition to steps that states like New York are taking, the federal government must overhaul the safety regulations, starting with taking DOT-111 trains off the rails now," he said in a statement. "These trains travel through populated...

Subprime Scandal: Newly released memos from the Clinton presidential library reveal evidence the government had a big hand in the housing crisis. The worst actors were in the White House, not on Wall Street. During the 1990s, former Clinton aides bragged that more aggressive enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act pressured banks to issue riskier mortgages, lending more proof the anti-redlining law fueled the crisis. A 2012 National Bureau of Economic Research study found "that adherence to that act led to riskier lending by banks," with "a clear pattern of increased defaults for loans made by these banks in quarters...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will be arriving in New York this afternoon for a trip trying to lure businesses to the Lone Star State, offered a Texas-sized take-down of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s record on job creation this morning and challenged him to a debate. “I’d be more than happy to sit down and have a thoughtful conversation, a debate with Gov. Cuomo over the issues that face us as a state and talk about the economic policies and compare New York to Texas,” said Mr. Perry, speaking on New York Post columnist Fred Dicker’s Live from the State Capitol...

<p>ALBANY — A “mass exodus” is expected from the Cuomo administration after November’s election, according to several sources.</p> <p>“They all want out,” one source said of top Cuomo staffers. A former staffer said the rush has been spurred by the work environment.</p>

This year April 15 is more than the tax deadline for an estimated one million New York State residents. It’s also the deadline to register “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines. If they don’t, they’ll begin living outside the law. A lot of them have decided to do just that. They’ve decided to practice civil disobedience even though failure to register an “assault weapon” by the deadline is punishable as a “class A misdemeanor,” which means a maximum sentence of one year in prison. I put “assault weapon” and “high-capacity” in quotes because their definitions vary by state—they’re political terms. In...

<p>US Attorney Preet Bharara of the southern district Thursday did not rule out investigating whether Gov. Cuomo and his aides improperly intervened with the investigations undertaken by the governor's anti-corruption commission.</p> <p>"We're going to look at the documents, we're going to see what the facts are, and if there are questions that are appropriate to ask, as I think the public knows by now, there are strong-willed and aggressive--but fair--people in my office who will ask those questions," Bharara said during an appearance Thursday morning on WNYC public radio's "The Brian Lehrer Show."</p>

When Andrew Cuomo was running for governor in 2010, he claimed time and again that he wanted to represent and fight for all the people of New York – all, that is, except Catholics.Since taking office in 2011, Cuomo, who was baptized a Catholic, graduated from Archbishop Molloy H.S. in Queens County and Fordham University, has been hell-bent on offending Catholics and dismissing their beliefs in the public square.Cuomo’s first assault was on Catholic teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman. He was embarrassed that his state had been “surpassed by many other countries which have legalized...

(Photo courtesy of Carl R. Gottstein Jr.) By: Raquel Okyay4/6/2014 03:20 PMRESIZE: AAA Print More than a year after the New York governor’s landmark gun control law was enacted, thousands of New Yorkers poured into the state house in Albany to protest his governance and leadership.“There is nothing about the SAFE Act that makes us safer,” said Robert P. “Rob” Astorino (R-Mount Pleasant), executive of Westchester County and candidate for governor 2014. Astorino, who spoke to the crowd state police estimate at 3500, said the people were energized and enthusiastic about the Second Amendment. “It’s an issue that deals with...

The pastor of a Lansingburgh Baptist church plans to give away an AR-15 assault rifle to the winner of a free raffle at an upcoming Sunday service. A provocative flier he distributed rallied supporters of gun rights and stirred controversy among anti-gun advocates and some who considered it un-Christian. The Rev. John Koletas, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, said the service and gun raffle are aimed at "honoring hunters and gun owners who have been so viciously attacked by the antichristian socialist media and antichristian socialist politicians the last few years," according to a letter he posted on the church...

Remington Arms announced last week that it will open a large manufacturing plant in Alabama. It will create 2,000 jobs for the southern state. While I don’t begrudge another state from securing these high-paying manufacturing jobs, I do begrudge our own leaders for forcing the “SAFE Act” upon its people and hindering economic development right here in New York. Its passage has undoubtedly affected Remington Arms, located in Illion, NY, for more than a century, from expanding in its home state. The SAFE Act makes gun owners and gun manufacturers feel unwelcome, plain and simple. I voted against the SAFE...

An upstate New York lawmaker told Guns & Patriots Remington’s decision to develop a new plant outside the Mohawk Valley shows a state that is closed for business. “The long-term consequences of Remington expanding to Huntsville, Ala., instead of Ilion, N.Y., are profound,” said Assemblyman Marc W. Butler (R.-Newport), whose district includes the Village of Ilion, where the Remington Outdoor Company has been situated for almost 200 years. “Remington is part of our culture.” The Village of Ilion which is located at the South Bank of the Mohawk River is recognized as ‘Remington Country’ because of its integral relationship...

ALBANY >> With his re-election campaign underway, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is riding high in the polls, but don’t tell that to Assembly member Steven McLaughlin, his self-described loudest critic. “I would point to a multitude of problems, but I think overwhelmingly he’s a bully,” McLaughlin said last week. “He acts that way and it’s catching up with him.” McLaughlin, a Rensselaer County Republican, compared Cuomo to Hitler and Mussolini after the SAFE Act gun law was pushed through the Legislature in January 2013, later apologizing for a poor choice of words. A year later, he says voters in his district...

Kerry Kennedy may agree to a plea deal over driving while drugged charges stemming from a 2012 accident so she can continue her extensive human rights work. Kennedy, 54, is afraid a conviction would bring with it restrictions that would curtail her international travels – she has visited several dozen countries on humanitarian missions. The plea deal was previously discussed between her legal team and prosecutors before being shelved, but her attorneys have brought it back to the table with her trial slated to start Monday, according to the New York Daily News. Lawyers originally tabled the deal while preparing...

Two state lawmakers from Queens had mixed reactions this week to news of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s initiative that would allow inmates to earn a college degree while serving their prison sentences. The proposal, announced Feb. 16, would use state dollars to fund college classes in 10 prisons across New York, one in each major region, the governor’s office said. The initiative is designed to encourage a lower risk of returning to crime and prison, which Cuomo’s office said happens 40 percent of the time in New York state after an inmate is released. Under the new initiative, inmates could earn...

The Cuomo administration has a serious, potentially deadly laser pointer shortage. That's the only way to explain a report from the Albany Times-Union that Jerome Hauer, the state's commissioner of Homeland Security & Emergency Services, used the the laser sight on his handgun as a pointer during a presentation in October, panicking a bunch of foreign delegates from countries where guns are only used for civilized things like shooting people.

Appearing together in Church, Mayor de Blasio dialed down the temperature Sunday in his ongoing clash with Gov. Cuomo over how to fund universal prekindergarten. Speaking at a church service for attendees of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus in Albany, the mayor did not mention at all his plans to fund it with a tax on the wealthy while stressing the need for universal Pre-K. “We know the direction,” de Blasio said. “We all have to work together at it. And I know we will because the public is realizing, the public is realizing that if...

Full Title Governor Cuomo’s Selective Anti-Gun Fervor: And This Is Why So Many Americans Have No Respect for Laws Or Lawmakers New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been the source of some of the most excessive anti-gun rants making up the sorry legacy of the Post Sandy Hook Ethics Train Wreck. It was a year ago that a unveiled a package of strict gun restrictions, saying that with “the senseless massacre in Newtown, Connecticut… New York must say enough is enough to gun violence.” Oh, Gov. Cuomo hates guns, believe you me. So what do you think happened when it...

New York's dishonest governor, Andrew Cuomo, has made it eminently clear that there is no place for pro-life voters, or gun owners, in his sorry excuse for a state. This, along with the resounding failure of even moderate Democrats to distance themselves from this individual, shows there is no place for gun owners, Catholics, Orthodox Jews, or Evangelical Christians in the Democratic Party. New York State's problems have a clearly identifiable source. Votes from the Big Rotten Apple put individuals like Andrew Cuomo, his father Mario, and Emperor's VIP Club Client 9 into office. Michael Bloomberg was a Kim Jong...