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Former CIA director and retired four-star general General David Petraeus applauds as he makes his first public speech since resigning as CIA director at University of Southern California dinner for students Veterans and ROTC students on March 26, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Petraeus apologized in his speech for his actions that lead to him resigning from the CIA. He'll also have graduate students to assist him with "course research, administration, and grading" and will receive "limited additional funds for travel to professional meetings as a representative of CUNY," Gawker reports thanks to e-mails gleaned from a FOIL request. Petraeus...

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You can't brew beer without malt, which is something Ted Hawley thinks legislators forgot about when they passed a farm brewing bill last year that will eventually require ales and lagers labeled "New York Beer" to contain 90 percent locally grown ingredients. "They just thought they could grow barley in New York," Hawley said. "They didn't know there was another step, which is malting. It has to be malted before you use it in a brew. So it was kind of interesting that they put this huge amount of effort into requiring 90 percent ingredients from New York, but there's...

If you live in New York City, you probably know that your income taxes are high. A combined city and state tax rate of 10.4% kicks in at just $22,000 of taxable income for a single person. You probably don't know that New York City has some of the country's highest taxes on apartment buildings—and if you're not subject to rent control, much of that cost is flowing through to you as a renter. Not all property taxes are high here: New York actually has very low taxes on owner-occupied homes. Our property tax system is a perverse cross-subsidy from...

<p>The U.S. Supreme Court dumped the federal Defense of Marriage Act and declined to reinstate a ban on same-sex marriage in California on Wednesday.</p> <p>And now the Empire State Building has turned the colors of the rainbow in a show of support for Gay Pride Weekend.</p>

In Niagara Falls, a black mob of 20 attacked a mother and her family on a picnic. They hurled racial slurs and told them they did not like their “Puerto Rican (expletive) music.”The Niagara Gazette described what happened next as a “fight,” although many would call it an assault: “Her son was punched and kicked by several people and fell to the ground. When her son picked himself up, the woman said a man from the group pulled out a pistol and pointed it in her son’s face. She said someone in the group was yelling, ‘Shoot him … shoot...

It could spark terrorism! Mayor Bloomberg will urge Gov. Cuomo to veto legislation that would legalize the sale of sparklers outside New York City, arguing that terrorists could resort to using even kiddie fireworks to ignite a bomb. And that’s a risk not worth taking, City Hall officials said. The mayor opposes the measure, which the Legislature passed last week, even though it wouldn’t apply to the five boroughs, where a ban on sparklers — and all other fireworks — would remain in effect. The bill would allow the sale of sparklers and other small “novelty” fireworks only in counties...

A livid Rev. Al Sharpton lashed out Saturday at Mayor Bloomberg, demanding an apology over Hizzoner’s claims that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy targets too many whites. “The tone that has been set by that remark not only polarizes the city, it gives a false sense to police that they can step over the line,” Sharpton told a Harlem news conference.

<p>The Brooklyn EMT who callously refused to help a dying pregnant woman because she was on her coffee break saw her official misconduct charge dropped today after EMS chief Abdo Nahmod — who initially supported the case against her — flip-flopped, leaving frustrated Brooklyn prosecutors no choice but to dismiss the case.</p>

<p>Two polls out this week, while drawing modestly different pictures, demonstrate that former Rep. Anthony Weiner is going to be a big — maybe deciding — factor in this year’s mayoral election.</p> <p>Obviously, this is a town where voters will put up with anything.</p>

On the defense after the City Council passed a pair of bills designed to curb the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactic and other alleged abuses, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said today that his critics had it backwards when they accuse the police of stopping too many black and Latino men. In fact, he bluntly declared the opposite to be true if viewed through a lens of who commits murders. “I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little,” Mr. Bloomberg argued during his Friday morning WOR radio show with John Gambling. “It’s exactly the reverse of what they say....

the New York Times Company, that bought the Boston Globe for $1.2 billion in 1993, is now accepting bids in the range of $100 million, or about a tenth of what it paid just twenty years ago. Complicating matters further is $110 million in pension liabilities ...

"LI teen faces 30 years in prison for trying to join al Qaeda in Yemen to wage war on American forces" SNIPPET: "Justin Kaliebe, 18, of Bay Shore, was arrested by NYPD and federal agents at JFK Airport in January as he prepared to board a flight to Oman, according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court today. He planned to travel by land to Yemen to sign up with al Qaeda, officials said."

One of the most outspoken lobbying groups in the state has been given an exemption to donor disclosure rules after saying the information could put its contributors in danger. NARAL Pro Choice NY is so far the sole recipient of a disclosure exemption under new lobbyist donor rules now in effect. The group was in the forefront of efforts to pass the full 10-point version of the Women's Equality Act, including a controversial provision updating an abortion rights law. Members of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced the exemption after a closed-door meeting on Tuesday. "People who give money...

<p>When Anthony Weiner entered the New York City mayor's race last month, few observers expected the disgraced former congressman to become a front-runner to succeed Michael Bloomberg.</p> <p>Fewer still anticipated that Weiner would poll particularly well among women.</p> <p>But two surveys released this week show that the married Weiner, who resigned from Congress in 2011 after first lying about and then admitting to lewd online behavior, has surged into the top tier of a crowded Democratic field and that his support among female voters is robust.</p>

Starbucks baristas must share their tips with shift supervisors, but assistant managers are left out in the cold, New York’s highest court ruled Wednesday. The Court of Appeals found that shift supervisors do much of the same work as the coffee servers and therefore get to share in the tips. The court also ruled the company can deny those tips to assistant managers.

The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today sent a Freedom of Information Law request to the office of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, asking for all records relating to the Bloomberg administration’s involvement with Mayors Against Illegal Guns. SAF and CCRKBA are joined in the request by Tom Gresham, host of the nationally-syndicated “Gun Talk” radio program. The request, prepared by SAF Special Projects Director Philip Watson, was sent electronically and via overnight mail. Gresham and the two gun rights organizations are asking for the following: 1. All electronic records...

New York City is becoming the most populous place in the United States to make businesses provide workers with paid sick time, after lawmakers overrode a mayoral veto early Thursday to pass a law expected to affect more than 1 million workers. With the vote, the city joined Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and the state of Connecticut in requiring the benefit for at least some workers. Similar measures have failed in some other places, including Milwaukee, Denver and Philadelphia. Supporters see the New York measure as a pace-setter, although it has some significant limits and conditions, and...

WASHINGTON — Canada and the United States have reached an agreement on the future of the Peace Bridge following months of bad blood between Canadians and Americans on the 80-year-old committee that oversees the crucial southern Ontario border crossing. Gov. Mario Cuomo and Gary Doer, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., said Wednesday that the agreement — reached after several days of high-level meetings — will speed up improvements to the Peace Bridge, one of the busiest border crossings between the U.S. and Canada. “It’s called the Peace Bridge, it’s not called the Conflict Bridge,” Doer said in an interview...

<p>Charges have been dropped against an EMT who refused to help a dying pregnant woman – because she was on her coffee break!</p> <p>In 2009, Melissa Jackson was on duty and in uniform when she walked to a nearby coffee shop for her coffee break and discovered that one of the employees was having a severe asthma attack. Jackson called an ambulance, but refused to help the woman. She even refused to go into the back room to see what type of medical care the woman needed.</p>