Free Republic

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law on Tuesday a sweeping package of gun control measures, significantly expanding a ban on assault weapons and making New York the first state to change its laws in response to the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. Mr. Cuomo signed the bill less than an hour after the State Assembly approved the legislation on a 104-to-43 vote. The State Senate approved the measure, 43 to 18, on Monday night. The expanded ban on assault weapons broadens the definition of such weapons, banning semiautomatic pistols and rifles with detachable magazines and...

The financier Steven L. Rattner (Obama's lead auto industry overhaul administrator), has agreed to pay $10 million to settle civil charges that he engaged in a kickback scheme involving New York state’s pension fund... Rattner will pay restitution to the state pension fund and will be barred from appearing in any capacity before a public pension fund within the state for five years. He did not admit any wrongdoing... Rattner accused Mr. Cuomo of “extortion” and said this conduct was “not the kind of behavior I think we want out of an attorney general or a governor.” Cuomo was infuriated...

More than 425 retired educators return to work in New York school districts every year, obtaining waivers from the city and state Education Departments to allow them to collect paychecks and pensions in what critics have called “double-dipping.” A new state law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson on Friday will tighten government oversight over this longstanding practice, which was intended to help school districts cover hard-to-fill positions with experienced educators but has instead allowed some superintendents and principals to receive six-figure salaries on top of six-figure pensions. The new law requires school districts and public agencies to wait a...

ALBANY, Sept. 13 — Private lawyers for two top aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer said on Thursday that they would not fight subpoenas issued by the State Ethics Commission earlier this week. Terence L. Kindlon, a lawyer for Darren Dopp, the governor’s communications director, said his client told him to abandon his plan to fight a subpoena and instead cooperate with the commission. And Steven F. Reich, a lawyer for Richard Baum, the secretary to the governor, also said his client would not fight the subpoena issued to him. Two months ago, the governor said he and his staff had...

ALBANY, Sept. 12 — Few political partners have been closer than Hank Morris and Alan G. Hevesi. --snip-- Mr. Morris ran Mr. Hevesi’s breakthrough political campaign, an upset of City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman in 1993. He was the guiding force behind Mr. Hevesi’s combative last race, when he won re-election as state comptroller amid scandal last November. And he was Mr. Hevesi’s main adviser when he resigned a month later after pleading guilty to using state workers to chauffeur his wife. Chief strategist, image maker and personal confidant, Mr. Morris, 54, has been far more than just a consultant to...

Ever since taking office, Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York has made a name for himself as the avenger, the reformer, a political whirlwind who kicks up dust wherever he goes. Albany’s smarmy politics certainly need a reformer and, within reason, an avenger. But now a devastating report from a fellow Democrat, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, has accused Mr. Spitzer’s administration of abusing its power in the name of reform. The report describes how the governor’s office used the state police to collect damaging information about Mr. Spitzer’s chief opponent, Joseph Bruno, the Senate majority leader, and then released that...

The New York attorney general’s race, one of the most combative and colorful state political contests in recent memory, turned ever nastier yesterday as the two candidates, Jeanine F. Pirro and Andrew M. Cuomo, spent an hour attacking and undercutting each other in their first televised debate. Ms. Pirro, the Republican, went on the offensive against Mr. Cuomo with a prosecutorial zeal. She belittled him as an ambitious politician in search of a job, yet unqualified to succeed the Democratic attorney general, Eliot Spitzer. “My opponent was a junior prosecutor more than 21 years ago,” said Ms. Pirro, a former...

Two years ago, Andrew M. Cuomo put more than half of his campaign treasury into a hedge fund, making him one of the few New York politicians to invest campaign money in anything riskier than a sure bet. In the case of Mr. Cuomo, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, the hedge fund was directed by one of his largest financial backers, a man who also handled Mr. Cuomo’s personal money. The investment of $750,000 turned out to be all upside, with a return of nearly 20 percent after one year. Mr. Cuomo’s experience is a rarity in an arena...

After Mark Green narrowly lost the bitter contest for mayor in 2001, his longtime friend and former employer, Ralph Nader, gave him some blunt advice: Get out of elective politics, and return to citizen advocacy or television commentary. This time around, Mr. Green is finally listening. Last night, after conceding to Andrew M. Cuomo in the race for New York attorney general at a shopworn bar downtown, Mr. Green effectively ended his career as a candidate. He told reporters that he would “never run again.” After his losing bids for the House of Representatives, the United States Senate, the mayoralty...

After relentless pressure from rival candidates for attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo released 14 years of personal tax returns yesterday that showed substantial gains in his income in the recent past. During this year's campaign, some of Mr. Cuomo's rivals have called on him to release a list of his law clients in addition to his tax returns. But his campaign said yesterday that Mr. Cuomo, who was a housing secretary in President Clinton's administration, had not practiced law in recent years, and therefore had no clients. The tax records show that Mr. Cuomo's earnings jumped significantly in the tax...

As the race for state attorney general was beginning to take shape several months ago, two of the Democratic candidates, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and Andrew M. Cuomo, made a pact: They would disclose how they made all their money last year. But now, with Mr. Cuomo the presumed front-runner and the state party's convention just a month away, Mr. Cuomo has not released the information. And Mr. Brodsky, who stands far behind in the polls, is crying foul. "This is a matter of ethics," Mr. Brodsky said, in an interview yesterday. "It's about avoiding potential conflict and whether or not...

For years, they were close political allies and friends. They are nearly the same age and have similar ideas about public policy. They even joined forces four years ago as running mates for governor and lieutenant governor. But nowadays, Andrew M. Cuomo, 49, and Charlie King, 46, are rivals for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. And between the 2002 race and this year's contest, their friendship has withered to a point where they are barely on speaking terms. Indeed, the rift between Mr. Cuomo, housing secretary in the Clinton administration and onetime... --snip-- In the last year, Mr. King...

Since entering the race for attorney general a year ago, Denise O'Donnell has labored to raise her profile in a campaign whose coverage has been largely fixated on two other Democratic candidates, Andrew M. Cuomo and Mark Green. But the political events of the last few days may have provided a boost to the candidacy of Ms. O'Donnell, a Buffalo resident who is the former United States attorney for the Western District of New York. Last week, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer selected David A. Paterson, a state senator from Harlem, to be his running mate in the 2006 governor's race....