Free Republic

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) got some full-throated support from ally Guy Molinari and radio talk show host Geraldo Rivera on Tuesday. Appearing on Rivera's radio show on WABC, Molinari called Grimm "a great American" said he was certain that the criminal case against Grimm was a political witch hunt aimed at defeating the only GOP member of the city's House delegation. "There's no question about that whatsoever," Molinari said.

Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm denied reports Tuesday that he had a kinky 17-minute sex romp with a woman in the unisex bathroom of a Brooklyn wine bar. The Republican congressman, who is single, said he didn’t score at The Owl’s Head in Bay Ridge on the Friday preceding the government shutdown two weeks ago. “I will not dignify this absurd distortion of the facts with a response,” the pol said, calling the accusations a “Democrat-led smear campaign.” A source said Grimm went to the bathroom only to check on the woman, who was upset. “It wasn’t 17 minutes,” the...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) is expected to be indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York following a long federal investigation, his attorney told the Advance. In a statement to the paper, Washington D.C. attorney William McGinley said "After more than two years of investigation plagued by malicious leaks, violations of grand jury secrecy, and strong-arm tactics, the U.S. Attorney's Office has disclosed its intent to file criminal charges against Congressman Grimm. We are disappointed by the government's decision, but hardly surprised." McGinley said, "From the beginning, the government has pursued a politically driven...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After receiving her new health coverage in January through the New York State of Health Marketplace, Arden Heights resident Margaret Figueroa, 49, who suffers from two chronic illnesses, went to her pharmacy to fill her prescriptions. Although her insurance company, EmblemHealth, assured her she was covered, her insurance card was denied. While she had signed up for new health coverage -- because her insurance carrier dropped her old plan -- the company's internal paperwork apparently wasn't filed. She also learned that all her long-time doctors didn't accept the new insurance plan. For Ms. Figueroa, who suffers...

Eight middle school students were hospitalized after they were caught drinking booze out of a water bottle and an AriZona ice tea bottle inside a classroom, a parent and the Department of Education said. The seventh-grade girls were passing around the alcohol-filled bottles inside at William A. Morris Intermediate School, 445 Castleton Ave., on Wednesday afternoon, the DOE said. The water bottle smelled of alcohol, but the DOE did not say what kind. "We're going to really discuss this," said Makishan Brown, of West Brighton, mother of one of the girls. "I have zero tolerance about this." Brown said the...

WASHINGTON — Republican strategists have settled on a new strategy in their fight to a keep Staten Island’s lone congressional seat in GOP hands: tie Democratic challenger Domenic Recchia to Mayor de Blasio at every turn.

We at the Observer would advise skipping this story if you plan on sleeping without horrific nightmares ever again. If social media is to be believed, there is a man dressed as a clown wandering around Staten Island at night. Witnesses describe him as bald, wearing a trademark blue and yellow clown suit, holding balloons and OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS PICTURE. The clown, which has reportedly been spotted hanging around the Grasmere and Richmond Valley train stations according to the SI Advance, has been snapped three times and uploaded to Twitter and Instagram, providing both internet buzz and...

NEW YORK — A Staten Island community group says a project to raise the Bayonne Bridge violates the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 by exposing minority residents of the island's north shore to toxins without providing any offsetting economic benefits.

It begins! According to the NYPD, a 16-year-old girl got ornery during the breakup of a Staten Island house party over the weekend, telling the officers that the mayor-elect would condone her choice of revelry. "This is the projects. Everybody smokes weed! De Blasio's gonna legalize it," she said, allegedly. ("Police say she's a budding political expert," the Staten Island Advance winks, like a dad.) "We gonna smoke more weed after you leave," the teenager added. "You ain't my dad! You can't tell me what to do." The little angel has a different story: "I blew them a kiss and...

You can watch video of the altercation at this link. Joanna Marzullo, president of New York ICE, describes the incident below. July 25, 2013 NY ICE (New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement) conducted outreach outside of the Staten Island Ferry in New York City. NY ICE is the only activist organization in this state devoted to having our existing immigration laws enforced. NY ICE wants Staten Island politicians who have spoken against illegal alien amnesty to remain opposed to illegal alien trespassers. Illegal alien trespassers are not immigrants, and are certainly not legal New York voters. There is a...

The events of the past week have prevented us from discussing an issue dear to the hearts of many of our followers. Namely, the continuing, deliberate assault by public officials upon the intrinsic liberties of Americans. Specifically, the right to defend our lives and property from unprovoked aggression. We know what happens when citizens surrender their individual rights to the state; the burning fields in Mexico and the inferno in Sweden illustrate why entrusting your security to the guardianship of the state-which in many cases is responsible for placing you in peril in the first place-is such a monumentally foolish...

During a panel discussion on the Department of Justice seizing the phone records of Fox News’ James Rosen, Bret Baier revealed that the seizure included the phone records of Rosen’s parents. The entire panel agreed the scandal was an outrage, with Kirsten Powers pointing out that there have been a number of high-profile leaks from the Obama administration, but the only ones they seem interested in going after are the ones that make them look bad. Charles Krauthammer found it amazing that the government would make such a “huge assault on the first amendment” in trying to go after Rosen...

Gov. Cuomo said yesterday that 169 of 192 residents of Staten Island’s storm devastated Oakwood Beach have taken him up on his offer to buy out their Sandy-ravaged homes. The people who live in the battered neighborhood have been enticed by a deal that will pay them 100 percent of their damaged home’s prestorm market value — plus 5 percent if the homeowners stay on Staten Island, Cuomo said. The feds will pick up 75 percent of the tab. “Let’s build back smarter than before, and let’s do it right,” Cuomo said during a visit Monday to the College of...

The historic vote — approving its own controversial proposal to station 300 to 500 retired police officers at local schools — was symbolic because Mayor Bloomberg and Dennis Walcott can veto the council’s recommendations. Staten Island residents voted Monday night for armed guards in schools, but the city’s top education official said he’ll shoot down the initiative. “It’s not happening. Plain and simple,” said Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. “I can’t be any clearer than that,” he added, echoing Mayor Bloomberg’s longstanding position in favor of gun control, not gun-toting guards. Walcott said armed guards are not needed: “We have safe...

Living in this city your entire life gives one the opportunity to experience things you would not normally encounter in any other part of the country. Many of these experiences are deeply unpleasant and disturbing, including periodic attempts, with varying degrees of success, by terrorists to blow up large sections of it, along with its inhabitants. Putting aside the preternatural feeling that I’m living in a very bad Michael Bay film-as if there is any other kind-there aren’t many things that occur to or in New York that shake me out of the existential torpor which stems from spending most...

A relief center for storm-ravaged residents of Staten Island, New York, was vandalized and looted overnight on Christmas by thieves who stole donated supplies and destroyed items intended for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The Midland Beach center on Midland Avenue has been an oasis of hope for those who lost their homes in the storm nearly two months ago. The supplies are housed under a tent, which is blocked off with barricades and manned by volunteers, but the workers left the center unattended on Christmas night.

Last December, as you may remember, I went to my old neighborhood of Dyker Heights to share some of the more ostentatious seasonal displays with our readers. This year I decided to stay on the island and visit a local hair salon which was holding a toy drive for families who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, whose devastation encroached into nearly every part of Richmond County. This was an extraordinary event for a number of reasons, not the least being its rapid turnaround. To have planned and successfully executed a fully-catered party with live entertainment-including a DJ and magician-which hosted...

As we head into the Thanksgiving weekend, thousands of families in the northeast face a difficult holiday season. For those still reeling from the effects of Superstorm Sandy, emotions are still raw and futures are uncertain. Reuters photographer Mike Segar visited Staten Island last week, spending time with residents hard-hit by Sandy. He collected not just their portraits but their stories, as they stood amid the wreckage of what had been their homes, businesses, and places of worship. While there was anger and sadness on display, there was also a sense of gratitude for the outpouring of help from afar,...

President Obama praised the resilient New York attitude and the efforts of rescue workers during his talk after touring areas of Queens and Staten Island that were ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.‘I´m very proud of you, New York. You guys are tough you bounce back,’ he said while visiting New Dorp Beach in Staten Island. After a brief helicopter tour of Queens- passing over particularly devastated areas like Rockaway Beach and Breezy Point- they arrived in Staten Island where they examined the damage by foot.

One of the tragedies of Hurricane Sandy, in addition to the enormous human and material cost it has exacted from our city, is the misery which the chronic inefficiency and incompetence of our government has wrought. From the economically incoherent and historically ignorant institution of price controls to the resuscitation of policies as intellectually vapid as the men who impose them, the specter of the state making the lives of those already suffering even more unbearable is everywhere. Even the federal bureaucracies established to ostensibly aid people who have been the victims of natural disasters are woefully incapable of executing...