Free Republic

A founder of a black police organization said yesterday that he was facing departmental charges for publicly criticizing the city's handling of a terror alert last fall. Eric Adams, a captain who heads 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, will attend proceedings this week over accusations that his appearance on a television news program in October is grounds for termination, one of his lawyers, Norman Siegel, said at a news conference. On the program, on WCBS-TV, Captain Adams castigated the city for deciding to wait four days before publicizing a Department of Homeland Security warning about a possible terror...

A federal appeals court threw out New York City’s longstanding lawsuit against the gun industry on Wednesday, ruling that a relatively new federal law protects gun makers against such suits. The appellate ruling killed perhaps the boldest avenue by which the city has sought to stem the flow of illegal guns into New York: a claim that gun makers and distributors have knowingly flooded illicit, underground markets with their weapons. The city’s suit, filed in 2000, was upheld in December 2005 by Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Judge Weinstein allowed it to move forward, despite...

While declaring his commitment to nonpartisanship, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is quietly injecting himself — and his money — into one of the most explosive partisan battles in decades in New York. Several weeks ago, the mayor wrote a $500,000 check to help keep the dwindling and increasingly imperiled State Senate Republicans from losing their grip on power, according to an official with direct knowledge of the donation. The Democrats are seeking to gain control of the Senate for the first time in 40 years, and the race is growing personal and bitter. Moreover, Mr. Bloomberg has made clear to...

WATCHING the 2008 presidential campaign, you sometimes get the feeling that the candidates — smart, all of them — must know better. They must know we can’t fix our economy and create jobs by isolating America from global trade. They must know that we can’t fix our immigration problems with border security alone. They must know that we can’t fix our schools without holding teachers, principals and parents accountable for results. They must know that fighting global warming is not a costless challenge. And they must know that we can’t keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals unless...

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Friday that the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg did not break the law in conducting sting operations meant to catch out-of-state gun dealers making illegal sales. The ruling, by Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak of Federal District Court, followed lawsuits brought by the city against the dealers in the mayor’s campaign against illegal gun trafficking. In 2006, the city sent teams of private investigators to five states, where they posed as gun buyers. They focused on stores whose guns had been linked to more than 500 crimes in New York City from...

Nearly every day a tiny new development trickles out from the stealth presidential campaign of Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York. He has talked with Chuck Hagel and Sam Nunn, potential running mates. He has delivered a tart critique of the presidential field. He is conducting intricate polling to test his appeal in all 50 states. Mr. Bloomberg’s dalliance with the idea of running for president has stretched on and on, with his enthusiastic approval despite the public denials. But even before actually entering the contest, Mr. Bloomberg may have already risked losing something: people’s patience. The...

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a "government of national unity" to end the gridlock in Washington. Those who will be at the Jan. 7 session at the University of Oklahoma say that if the likely nominees of the two parties do not pledge to "go beyond tokenism" in building an administration that seeks national consensus, they will be prepared to back Bloomberg or someone...

SMYRNA, Ga., Dec. 5 — In Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s campaign to remove illegal guns from New York City’s streets, he sued 27 out-of-state gun dealerships last year over what he said were illegal sales. Most agreed to settle, while others chose to take their chances in court. But here, in this town of 48,000 where Julia Roberts was born, the fight has become deeply personal. Jay Wallace, who owns Adventure Outdoors, one of the major gun distributors in the area and a defendant in one of the city’s lawsuits, is countersuing Mr. Bloomberg, alleging fraud, slander and libel. A...

Faced with 70,000 students or more who are years behind in obtaining the credits needed to graduate from high school, New York City is at the forefront of a movement to recognize that for a significant number, high school might stretch into five, six, even seven years. In an effort that has expanded across Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s second term, the city has spent nearly $37 million to identify and cater to students who are at the biggest risk of dropping out and has already contracted for $31 million more in programs. The staggering numbers of those who are far...

The federal government said on Tuesday that it would provide $354 million for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s broad plan to reduce traffic, but left it to the city to come up with more than $200 million needed for the most controversial part of the plan: a system to charge people who drive into Manhattan. In addition, under the agreement outlined by the United States secretary of transportation, Mary E. Peters, the release of the funds is contingent upon the City Council’s and the State Legislature’s approving the plan, including the new fee on drivers, by next March. The announcement was...

ALBANY, July 16 — Lawmakers on Monday shelved Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge a fee to drivers entering the busiest parts of Manhattan, dealing a setback to the mayor as he tries to raise his national profile and promote his environmental initiatives. The State Senate, which had convened in a special session, adjourned without taking up the plan after it became apparent that the votes for passage were not there. Meanwhile, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, proposed sending the issue to a study commission that would also consider other ways to reduce traffic, and giving the Legislature until...

In promoting his sweeping traffic reduction plan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his aides have stressed one provision: drivers who enter Manhattan below 86th Street would be charged an $8 fee. But what has not been widely mentioned is a measure that could startle some Manhattanites: those who live within the zone would have to pay $8 to drive out. The congestion pricing program was devised to cut traffic, chiefly by persuading people from the other boroughs and beyond to leave their cars behind and take public transit into Manhattan. But planners say that those who live inside the congestion...

Before he was elected mayor in 2001, Michael R. Bloomberg had surgery to have two stents implanted in a coronary artery because of blockage in his heart, a person with knowledge of Mr. Bloomberg’s health said last night. Mayor Bloomberg has not had heart disease since the stents were put in, according to this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Mr. Bloomberg had not authorized release of the information. The mayor is in excellent health today, this person said. Newsweek magazine first reported the implants this week. The person with knowledge of the mayor’s health said the procedure...

ALBANY, June 11 — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, in his strongest language yet against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to charge people who drive into the most congested parts of Manhattan during the day, questioned the health benefits of the proposal yesterday. He also suggested that many of the environmental goals Mr. Bloomberg has outlined could be accomplished without congestion pricing. His comments suggested that two hours of testimony by Mayor Bloomberg at an Assembly hearing on Friday had not swayed the Democrats who control the chamber. Mr. Silver even seemed to outline new concerns, saying that the plan could...

Last week, Michael R. Bloomberg, the New York City mayor, stood on a sunny public school terrace in Queens and told reporters that he was not running for president. “I’m just going to be giving an energy speech in Houston on Friday and a commencement speech in Oklahoma Friday night,” he said, describing his national campaign-style travel plans. He added coyly, “I don’t know why you would think anything like that.” So it... --snip-- And while aides say he has not been persuaded to mount a campaign, he has fashioned a second-term agenda for the city that is in many...

RICHMOND -- Attorney General Bob McDonnell has warned New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg about a new law that would prevent the mayor from sending undercover private investigators to buy guns in Virginia.     Mr. Bloomberg, a Republican, has sued 27 out-of-state gun dealers in attempt to reduce the flow of illegal guns into New York. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the firearms used to commit crimes in the city are initially purchased out of state, according to police.     City officials say the dealers have supplied hundreds of weapons used in New York City crimes. The lawsuits, which...

CINCINNATI, April 12 — Broadening his national effort to reduce the use of illegal guns, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York announced the addition of 14 mayors from Ohio and Kentucky to his coalition on Thursday and unveiled a campaign to pressure Congress to allow cities to share information about the source of guns used in crimes. The campaign, to include Internet and television advertisements as well as a new Web site, is intended to pressure Congress into rescinding the so-called Tiahrt amendment, a measure attached to spending bills each year since 2003 that bans the federal Bureau of...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s budget director mounted a blistering attack on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposed state budget yesterday, asserting that it would create an $862 million shortfall in the New York City budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1. The city’s budget director, Mark Page, warned that such a shortfall, if other revenues were not found, could result in an 8 percent across-the-board cut in agency spending or imperil the mayor’s $1 billion plan to cut taxes. Mr. Bloomberg’s plan calls for reducing property taxes by about 5 percent for one year, eliminating the city sales tax...

In his battle for re-election to the United States Senate without the backing of the Democratic Party, Joseph I. Lieberman is deploying a secret weapon in the race’s closing days: a sophisticated operation to identify and turn out voters, courtesy of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The Bloomberg group includes several top-level operatives who played key roles in the mayor’s decisive re-election last year or who are in the administration, and have taken leaves from their jobs to work on Mr. Lieberman’s campaign. Since Mr. Lieberman lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut to Ned Lamont, they have helped open campaign offices,...

CHICAGO, Oct. 25 — Raising his oratory against illegal guns, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sharply assailed the National Rifle Association on Wednesday during a visit here that also included a fund-raiser for the re-election campaign of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. Mr. Bloomberg joined Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago at a news conference to promote a gathering of officials from 22 Midwest cities who are to discuss gun-control strategies on Thursday. Similar meetings are scheduled in Boston on Nov. 9 and Atlanta on Nov. 30. The Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, which Mr. Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas M....