Free Republic

An outraged Manhattan clothing-store owner whose shop was ransacked twice by a violent mob says state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s refusal to toughen retail-theft laws is simply “ridiculous. “I’d be glad to talk to him so he can learn what it’s like firsthand dealing with these problems and getting the same people who come back over and over and over again to rob us,” seethed Kenneth Giddon, co-owner of Rothman’s New York in Union Square, to The Post on Monday. “I think it’s ridiculous,” Gidden fumed after the powerful Albany pol last week scoffed at enacting harsher penalties for violent...

Carl E. Heastie, the first African-American to serve as speaker of the New York Assembly, vowed on Saturday to use his powerful new position to call attention to the needs of black New Yorkers. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our community,” Mr. Heastie said at a rally hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem. As speaker, Mr. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, will join the governor and the State Senate majority leader as Albany’s “three men in a room” who negotiate the state budget and other important matters. “All of you are going to be sitting at that table...