WNYC News

New York, NY —

Thirteen year olds Talia Weisberg and Thomas Harkins, New York City eighth graders, spelled their way to trophies this week. The New York City spelling bee champions competed against 88 other students from all five boroughs, ranging from fifth to eighth grade. The two-day competition ...

New York, NY —

A new report says there's been a 70 percent surge in the number of public high school graduates entering the City's Community College system over the past seven years. Mayor Bloomberg also points to a 37 percent growth in enrollment at CUNY's four-year colleges, and ...

New York, NY —

A custodian at West Side High School in Manhattan is accused of organizing a payroll scheme in which he stole nearly $100,000 from the Education Department. The Special Commissioner of Investigations for the city schools claims Philip Portelli clocked two fellow custodians for overtime and ...

New York, NY —

Students, teachers, and community groups are urging Governor Paterson to reinstate $2 million for Adult Literacy Education, which was cut from his proposed budget. John Hunt, assistant director at the Center for Immigrant Education and Training at Laguardia College, runs English as a Second Language ...

New York, NY —

State Senate Democrats have unveiled their OWN plan to rescue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and it does NOT provide the kind of funding called for by former MTA chairman Richard Ravitch. The plan provides for a payroll tax, but at a reduced rate, and there's ...

New York, NY —

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas to AIG, demanding that the troubled insurance firm detail who is getting big bonuses. Cuomo also wants to see the contracts that supposedly force AIG to make good on executive bonuses. He told reporters in a ...

New York, NY —

Foreclosed homes aren't just an eyesore and a drag on property values. A new report suggests they're also a magnet for illegal activity. Community activist group ACORN says Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates saw crime increase last year. Mary Fortune has lived ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg is troubled by President Obama's budget proposal, which would reduce tax deductions for charity donations.

Bloomberg personally gave $205 million to over a thousand different charitable organizations last year. He says with endowments down and charitable giving low, this is a bad time for ...

New York, NY —

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley says the U.S. government is going to pump as much money as needed into the system to make sure banks that are "too big to fail" don't fail.

DUDLEY: The government is committed to supplying whatever amount ...

New York, NY —

Horton Foote, whose more than 50 plays and films chronicled small-town life in America in the 20th Century, died yesterday at age 92. Among his memorable works are the nine-play cycle “The Orphans’ Home” and the screenplays for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Tender Mercies.” ...

New York, NY —

Making good on a promise to combat the city's nursing shortage, Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced a plan to train more people to become nurses. Speaking at Saint Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, Quinn says she's reached a deal with local hospitals to send 10 ...

New York, NY —

Add law enforcement to Deputy mayor Ed Skyler's list of duties. Skyler helped a woman retrieve a cell phone that had been stolen from her by a group of teenagers.

He was on his way to dinner last night, near 48th and Sixth, when he saw ...

New York, NY —

Millions of New York's Medicaid dollars are being wasted on people who also receive Medicaid from other states. That's according to a new audit from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The audit found that both state and New York City Medicaid officials had not kept up with ...

New York, NY —

Over 100 CUNY students are preparing for meetings tomorrow with Albany lawmakers to discuss the governor's proposed $65 million budget cut to tuition aid and community college funding.

Nineteen year-old Tim Roulhac says his tuition stipend is already stretched thin. Any more cuts and he'll have ...

New York, NY —

The first snow day for New York City public schools in five years has brought some criticism from parents. A decision to close the schools was reached at 5:40 this morning, but at a news conference today Mayor Bloomberg expressed little sympathy for parents who ...

New York, NY —

Long Island families facing foreclosure and members of the advocacy group ACORN gathered outside the sheriff's office in Nassau County today. The group demanded that he suspend all evictions from foreclosed homes until President Obama's homeowners' recovery package goes into effect. They also insisted that ...

New York, NY —

The Hudson River watershed advocates at Riverkeeper want New Yorkers to drink more tap water, and they're pushing a new water bottle to do just that. The group says tap water is better regulated than bottled water and it saves oil because water pipes deliver ...

New York, NY —

NEW YORK (AP) - Two former New York City school system employees have pleaded guilty to charges that they accepted bribes from private bus companies.

Prosecutors say Neil Cremin and Ira Sokol were among a group of workers who took thousands of dollars a year from ...

New York, NY —

President Obama is spending time today with families of 9/11 victims who are upset about the suspension of trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The meeting with about 15 family members is set for 3:30 at the White House. They wrote to Obama last month about ...

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg says without help from Albany and Washington, New York City will have to reduce its workforce by more than 20,000 people in order to make ends meet in its next budget. The city's deficit for the next fiscal year has mushroomed, from $1 ...