Free Republic

Mayor Bill de Blasio spared no expense to burnish the image of his wife, Chirlane McCray — but like many of his big bucks plans it all came to nothing. Hizzoner’s effort to use millions in tax payer money to make McCray a political star came crashing down this week when the city’s First Lady changed course and declared she would not run for Brooklyn Borough President. Throughout his time in office de Blasio set McCray up to follow in the family’s politics biz, including giving her a staff that in recent years grew to a size larger than any...

Putting an entirely new spin on the concept of “public campaign finance,” Mayor Bill de Blasio is ruthlessly exploiting his official powers to get First Lady Chirlane McCray elected as Brooklyn borough president in 2021— with a pretty obvious eye on moving the family back into Gracie Mansion eight years later. Most despicably, the failed ThriveNYC project (which has already cost taxpayers around $1 billion) is a central part of the scam. McCray’s ThriveNYC mental-health and wellness podcast just launched — in partnership with a Brooklyn-based cultural nonprofit that took in $1.2 million in city funding in 2019. For the...

There’s “no evidence” that first lady Chirlane McCray’s mental health initiative — which has burned through $565 million in taxpayers’ money so far — has achieved any measurable results, a lawmaker said Wednesday. City Councilman Ritchie Torres said he’s not ready to scrap the entire ThriveNYC initiative, but wants each of its 41 programs studied with an eye toward dropping those that miss their targets. “There’s no evidence it’s working,” Torres (D-Bronx) said of the overall initiative, which was launched in November 2015 and now has a budget of $250 million a year. “We have to evaluate the effectiveness of...

City First Lady Chirlane ­McCray will appear before the City Council Tuesday to ­explain what exactly her mental-health project, ThriveNYC, has achieved before giving her $250 million a year for the next four years. New Yorkers can be forgiven for failing to notice positive results, what with the ever-growing ranks of homeless mentally ill in our streets and subways (and prisons). As these pages have repeatedly argued, ThriveNYC hasn’t been focused on helping the most seriously mentally ill. Here, then, are 10 questions council members should ask the first lady to get to the root of that problem. **SNIP** Two:...

Democratic superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent an hour with First Lady Chirlane McCray on Friday discussing mental health issues. Cortez told reporters gathered outside of Gracie Mansion afterward that she and McCray spent much of the time talking about the First Lady’s mental health initiative. “It went really well, we were discussing the first lady’s mental health program throughout New York City and we are trying to figure out ways that we can really create conversations around mental health in communities,” the congresswoman-elect said.

The former top aide to First Lady Chirlane McCray announced on Twitter on Monday that she was hired as managing director at the PR firm. She resigned from her City Hall post after a series of scandals including the revelation her live-in boyfriend was an ex-con who spewed anti-cop comments. Rachel Noerdlinger, the controversial ex-aide to First Lady Chirlane McCray, has landed a new gig at a prominent PR firm Mercury Public Affairs. “I'm elated to start the new year as Managing Director at #Mercury! I'm thrilled to join one of the best firms in the country!” Noerdlinger tweeted Monday,...

Jazz already wrote the definitive take on the grisly execution-style shooting of two New York City police officers and the role that irresponsible commentary from elected leaders – particularly Mayor Bill de Blasio – might have played in that attack. Jazz is right to question the part that the mayor’s self-indulgent and unhelpful rhetoric might have played in this incident. Hours after a Staten Island grand jury’s decision to issue no-bill for the death of Eric Garner, de Blasio went on an ill-advised tear in which he impeached the NYPD based solely on his prejudices. “That should never have to...

This story largely went under the radar. The Agriculture Department plans to review more than 14,000 civil rights complaints that have been filed against the agency since 2000. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said only a small number of those complaints were eventually decided against the department and that 3,000 of the complaints have not even been processed. "This issue has lingered too long," Vilsack told reporters Tuesday