Brigid Bergin

Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials announced forthcoming legislation to reform the Veterans Property Tax Exemption on Wednesday.

Hundreds of area firefighters were deployed to fight fast-burning blazes that erupted in the New York region this week – using wildfire-fighting skills not often used in an urban environment.

The Big Apple has gotten even bigger. The number of New Yorkers grew by 70,000 in the 15 month period from April 2010 – July 1, 2011, bumping the city’s population to more than 8.2 million people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Wednesday.

New York state is working with electronic gaming companies to kick more than 3,500 convicted sex offender accounts off popular video game platforms like Xbox and Playstation — which could potentially allow them to interact with children. 

More than 20 people, including City Council members, half a dozen labor leaders, representatives from Housing Development and Preservation, the Consul General of Mexico in New York, a...

City Comptroller John Liu announced a $1.2 million settlement on behalf of building workers from four city sites and called on those workers to come forward to collect their unpaid wages.

Called a pioneer on Capitol Hill and a champion for a host of women’s issues, Sen. Olympia Snowe was honored for her lifetime’s achievement, even as many see her departure as evidence...

Immigrant advocates criticized the U.S. Census Bureau Monday for rebuffing a city petition to adjust the 2010 population count.

Several hundred people passed through the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea this weekend for what organizers were calling New York City’s first-ever modern divorce expo, “Start-Over Smart.”

The United States Census Bureau rejected New York City’s appeal of the bureau’s 2010 population count because the errors cited by the city did not meet the Bureau’s qualifications, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Department of City Planning. That means the Bureau’s tally of 8.175 million city residents will stand as the baseline for population estimates until the next Census in 2020.

A panel of six powerful women - led by Chelsea Clinton - spent the evening hashing out a different women’s issue: Why it’s so hard to get women off the sidelines and into the political race.

A New York City detective who was fired on Friday for his role in connection to the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed man as he left his bachelor party plans to pursue legal action, according to his lawyer Philip E. Karasyk. 

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday called for the Obama administration to accelerate the pace of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Policy analysts who study Afghanistan took i...

The conviction of Dharun Ravi in the Rutgers webcam spying trial last week raises difficult questions for universities when it comes to protecting students online and ensuring their policies keep up with the realities of campus life.

As spring break ends, students will return to Rutgers University on Sunday — two days after a verdict in the trial of Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers student who was accused of spying on his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi's sexual encounter. Ravi was found guilty on all 15 criminal charges, including a conviction on hate crime charges. Clementi committed suicide in 2010, days after learning of the spying.

Sen. Krueger argues that this move by the Republican Majority is indicative of bigger problems. “If you can't even get a simple noncontroversial resolution through, how do imagine the...

Billboards targeting atheists in New York and New Jersey went up Wednesday with a simple message: “You know it’s a myth…you have a choice.” 

City Comptroller John Liu says he’s still “stunned” by the arrest of his campaign treasurer, Jia “Jenny” Hou. He said, “at this point there are probably few things that will stun me again.”

Today, WNYC producer and reporter Brigid Bergin is shifting gears to to look at the role of women in the 2012 election. Specifically, has the discussion of contraceptives by the GOP galvanized new energy on the left? Here's a range of analysis on the issue ending with some reflections from last night's GOP debate:

Baseball and Lent have about as much in common as cracker jacks and a communion wafer. But the head of New York’s Archdiocese used America’s pastime as a way to explain Lent – beyond giving something up for 40 days — to the congregation at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Ash Wednesday.