Ailsa Chang

New York, NY —

Residents in former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate's district are getting their first mailings from "Fight Back New York." In the lead-up to the March 16 special election, the political action committee is targeting Monserrate for voting against New York's gay marriage bill.

Alex Navarro-McKay is coordinating ...

New York, NY —

New York's highest court has ruled that governors and legislators violated the state constitution by failing to give judges raises for 11 years. The court found lawmakers violated the separation of powers by tying judicial pay to legislation affecting lawmakers' pay.

Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau ...

New York, NY —

A federal judge will decide today whether former State Senator Hiram Monserrate should remain expelled by the State Senate.

WNYC's Ailsa Chang watched lawyers for Monserrate and lawyers for the state make their arguments in court yesterday.

Former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate appeared with five lawyers in federal court Thursday to ask a judge to block his expulsion from the state Senate and cancel the special election scheduled for March 16th. Six voters in his district joined as co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Monserrate says this legal battle ...

New York, NY —

After Attorney General Eric Holder announced he was planning to try the 9/11 defendants in Lower Manhattan, a lot of residents there have been saying their neighborhood is no place for a terrorism trial. But for decades, federal prosecutors have been trying some of the ...

New York, NY —

When Attorney General Eric Holder announced last November that he planned on trying the 9/11 defendants in New York City, the Obama Administration acted like it was a done deal. Until residents in Lower Manhattan –- like Jan Lee -– began pushing back. "Terrorists pose ...

New York, NY —

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was hoping a federal judge would grant a temporary restraining order today to stop the Senate from expelling him.

But Judge William Pauley in federal court Manhattan said there was no need to grant the order immediately since the state Senate doesn't ...

The New York state Senate voted late last night to expel Sen. Hiram Monserrate by a vote of 53 to 8. Monserrate was convicted last fall of a misdemeanor assault charge. Gov. David Paterson has already called for a special election on March 16 to fill Monserrate's seat. ...

New York, NY —

The state Senate on Tuesday voted to expel Sen. Hiram Monserrate following his conviction last year for assaulting his girlfriend. The Senate motion passed 53-to-8.

Monserrate has vowed to fight the chamber in court, saying the state constitution has no provision for expelling its own. Monserrate ...

New York, NY —

The State Senate will likely vote today on whether to expel Senator Hiram Monserrate who was convicted of a misdemeanor for assaulting his girlfriend. WNYC's Ailsa Chang talked to Monserrate's lawyers who say Monserrate's pending appeal of that assault conviction is one reason the Senate ...

New York's State Senate expects to vote tomorrow on whether Senator Hiram Monserrate should be censured or expelled from office.

New York, NY —

New York's State Senate expects to vote tomorrow on whether Senator Hiram Monserrate should be censured or expelled from office. The Queens Democrat was convicted of a misdemeanor last year for recklessly assaulting his girlfriend, and a special senate committee said his conduct since that ...

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg does not like talking about his new hearing aid. That was clear today at a news conference when he chided reporters who asked the mayor about ...

New York, NY —

Immigration advocates are demanding the release of immigrant detainees set to be transferred from a Lower Manhattan facility to a New Jersey jail. The Varick Detention facility will close this month, and Benita Jain, co-director of the Immigrant Defense Project, says it's a good time ...

New York, NY —

An armory in Brooklyn is being turned into a one-stop resource center for Haitian New Yorkers struggling in the aftermath of Haiti's devastating earthquake.

Gov. David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg say the National Guard Armory in Crown Heights will provide services such as grief counseling, ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg says the city needs to close a 5 billion dollar budget deficit by making deep cuts. WNYC's Ailsa Chang has the details.

REPORTER: He says you don't measure the quality of city services by the quantity of city spending. So he's looking to lay ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been pushing the federal government to pay for security costs if the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other 9/11 detainees are held in Lower Manhattan.

Now, he says, he just wishes President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder would consider ...

New York, NY —

With Republicans galvanized by a victory in Massachusetts and a new Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend freely on campaign ads, Democratic incumbents are heading into this year’s midterm elections with some frayed nerves. It doesn't help that on the horizon is the ethics ...

New York, NY —

The head of the New York Senate's Democratic Majority, John Sampson, says he'll address party members next week about a resolution calling for the expulsion of Sen. Hiram Monserrate. Sampson says he wants to proceed carefully.

"I'm a lawyer by training, and we just want to ...

Now that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling has removed limits on independent corporate political expenditures, reform advocates are pointing to New York City's campaign finance system as a potential model.