Arun Venugopal

New York, NY —

Councilman Alan Gerson has been bumped off the ballot. The city's Board of Elections decided this afternoon that he could not run again this fall, after finding errors in his filing. Gerson has represented District One in lower Manhattan since 2002.

Meanwhile, Councilman Bill De Blasio ...

New York, NY —

A city councilman is calling on school officials to be as transparent as possible this fall about the spread of the swine flu. Eric Gioia says providing more information to parents will help them once flu season starts again.

GIOIA: The way to prevent panic is ...

New York, NY —

Brooklyn City Councilman Bill de Blasio joined with other elected officials to demand that the Board of Elections put him back on the ballot for public advocate. De Blasio's name was removed because of a typo in his most recent filing. Brooklyn councilwoman Letitia James ...

New York, NY —

City Comptroller Bill Thompson says School Chancellor Joel Klein is not fit to run the Department of Education and should step down. THOMPSON: We found the DOE has engaged in sloppy and unprofessional practices that encourage cheating and data manipulation. The Comptroller's office released an ...

New York, NY —

The city is selling off nearly $11-million worth of pension investments in two companies that deal with Iran.

The announcement from City Comptroller William Thompson follows similar efforts from Los Angeles and 15 states including New York state. Thompson says the investments were sold at a ...

New York, NY —

President Obama is in the area today. He's addressing the NAACP convention, and he's hoping his popularity rubs off on some local politicians. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: President Obama will first head to the town of Holmdel, New Jersey. There he'll be stumping for ...

New York, NY —

For some Latinos and members of the legal community, there's great excitement surrounding the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

Carlos Vargas-Ramos is with the Centro de Estudios Puertoriquenos, at Hunter College. He says it feels "terrific" to see a fellow Latino as a nominee.

And speaking as a ...

New York, NY —

The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization marks its 100-year anniversary with a celebration this week here in New York City.

The NAACP's annual convention started over the weekend, and featured speeches from Mayor Bloomberg, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Charles Schumer. But many ...

Is the office of Public Advocate about to disappear? That's been the buzz these last few weeks, with 40 percent budget cuts and noise from Councilman Simcha Felder, radio guy Curtis Sliwa and the likes, that it's worth shutting it down. So, is it?

We put the question to several ...

New York, NY —

One of the more high-profile citywide races taking place this summer and fall is the one for the Public Advocate's office. The contest has drawn some of the most well known politicians in town. But even as they make their case to the public, other ...

New York, NY —

Demonstrators opposed to mayoral control of city schools rallied in Harlem yesterday, just a few feet from supporters of the law. The dueling protests took place outside a school, where the mayor, the governor, and other officials urged the State Senate to get its act ...

New York, NY —

The weekend marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and thousands of people filled the streets for the annual Gay Pride parade. Drea Lewis has been attending the pride parade for about 10 years, and the big difference, she says, is how much more ...

New York, NY —

The sentence was handed down to convicted investor who defrauded thousands of clients to the tune of almost $65 billion. Federal judge Denny Chin handed down the maximum sentence to Madoff in a downtown courtroom. Madoff victims who attended the proceedings errupted in applause and ...

New York, NY —

Shouting "We condemn coup d'etat" and other chants, more than a hundred protesters gathered at Dag Hammarskjold plaza to dispute the results of the Iranian election.

Nazi Hajari came from New Jersey. She says there's no way Mir-Hossein Moussavi could have lost to the incumbent, Mahmoud ...

Are we seeing the subtle softening of Candidate Bloomberg? Check out the latest endorsement from the Bloomberg campaign. It's by Mohammad "Mo" Razvi, a well-known Muslim and Interfaith activist - and this is the first time I'm seeing anyone refer to him not as "Mayor Bloomberg" or "the mayor" or ...

New York, NY —

It was an improbable idea but the elevated park known as the High Line was inaugurated, ten years after it was first conceived. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more on the city's new aerial promenade.

REPORTER: The opening of the High Line was a pretty glam affair: ...

Ten years after it was conceived, the elevated park known as the High Line was unveiled today. Abandoned three decades ago as an industrial rail line, the new park sits 30-feet above the street and snakes from Gansevoort Street in the West Village up to 20th Street. Robert ...

Thousands of people flocked to Jackson Heights yesterday for the annual Queens LGBT Pride Parade. And while same-sex marriage was on the minds of many, one gay activist says it shouldn't obscure other causes. Reverend Pat Bumgardner is the pastor at Metropolitan Community Church and one of the ...

New York, NY —

Thousands of people flocked to Jackson Heights yesterday for the annual Queens LGBT Pride Parade. And while same-sex marriage was on the minds of many, one gay activist says it shouldn't obscure other causes. Reverend Pat Bumgardner is the pastor at Metropolitan Community Church and ...

New York, NY —

City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate William Thompson says the Mayor should no longer have complete control of the city's water board. Thompson says water rates have gone up sharply, in part because the mayor appoints all seven members of the board.

THOMPSON: This year, over ...