WNYC Newsroom

It's not just WHAT you get, it's how you get it -- and New York State and City may not be on the same page. For example, when it comes to education, the state prefers the Senate version, because -- you guessed it -- under the Senate version the state ...

Mayor Bloomberg speaks at Groundhog Day festivities at the Staten Island Zoo. February 02, 2009 (Photo Credit: Spencer T Tucker)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was bitten by a ground hog during a ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo Monday morning.

Bloomberg spoke to the media about the incident later that day, suggesting that Chuck very well could be a 'terrorist rodent' agent.

The city's prognosticating rodent, Charles G. Hogg, also known as Staten Island Chuck, bit through Bloomberg's glove when the mayor was trying to coax the animal into view with an ear of corn.

Mayor Bloomberg speaks at Groundhog Day festivities at the Staten Island Zoo. February 02, 2009 (Photo Credit: Spencer T Tucker)

The defense continues to insist that the illegal walls erected in a Bronx apartment building were not to blame for the deaths of two firefighters in 2005. In testy cross-examinations, the defense has been pressing firefighters about problems getting water to the fire and about why only some of them ...

NEW YORK, NY January 30, 2009 —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 billion to $4 billion, because of Wall Street's heavy losses. Bloomberg says the deficit would have been $6 billion, if not for earlier cuts.

BLOOMBERG: You can only get so much blood out of a stone and after that this is a headcount thing.

by Isaac-Davy Aronson

President Obama got a bit agitated today over a report showing that, as the economy teetered and the government pumped billions of taxpayer dollars into the ailing financial industry, Wall Street firms doled out $18 billion in bonuses last year. With his treasury secretary, and former New York Fed chief, Tim Geithner beside him at the White House, Obama told reporters:

"That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful. And part of what we’re going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler says New York will do well under the stimulus bill passed by the House last night (with no Republican support).

He tells WNYC that money for medicaid, transit, and education will all help the economy. He managed to get support for $3B in additional spending on transit, ...

Wall Street bonuses shrank dramatically last year.

The average compensation check mailed out last month was one hundred twelve thousand dollars, thirty six percent smaller than in 2007. That ...

Nobel Laureate Mohamad Yunus told WNYC's Leonard Lopate that creative, socially-conscious approaches to business can both reinvigorate capitalism and help eliminate global poverty.

Listen to the interview

WNYC's Bob Hennelly reported live during Morning Edition and The Takeaway on this morning's sloppy commute. Here's where he was standing in Riverside, NJ.

Allegations that New York City used Black and Latino foster children as guinea pigs for HIV trials were proved false in a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice. The study was commissioned by an outraged City Council, which wanted on answers on allegations of abuse in the ...

Veteran journalist Gwen Ifill talks to WNYC's Leonard Lopate about the future of American democracy and the Black political structure in the age of Obama.

We just aired a story about how an assistant police chief, James Hall, today attributed an increase in subway crime to the fancy electronic gizmos passengers are carrying with them. He mentioned by name one brand of cell phone, the Sidekick, which retails for $300 or more, and features ...

It was all billions all the time on Sunday night. WNYC's Brigid Bergin reports:

(TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

Mayor Bloomberg stood shoulder to shoulder with Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Charles Rangel in City Hall's Blue Room to speak seriously about a possible $3 billion in federal stimulus dollars that could come New York City's way, pending the approval of President Obama's stimulus package.

But a bit further uptown, and much more tongue-in-cheek, the satirical theatre troupe, 'Billionaires for Bush' held their final hurrah at Bar 13 near Union Square. It was one part cocktails, one part costumes, all complete with a monied soundtrack (think: Kanye West's Gold digger, The Flying Lizards' Money, Madonna's Material Girl, etc.).

The group started in 2000 and originally called itself, 'Billionaires for Bush or Gore,' out of protest for the way money influenced both political parties.

But following the election, the group solidified its name and began growing it's base of 'billionaires' with pseudonyms like Robin Eublind, Ivy League-Legacy and Fillmore Barrels.

by Elaine Rivera

Today, Governor David Paterson selected Kirsten Gillibrand, a little known Congresswoman who represents parts of the Hudson Valley and upstate New York, to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. His choice has drawn mixed reviews from around the state with liberal democrats expressing alarm at Gillibrand's conservative stances on some issues, like gun control. Among liberal Democrats there's an actual howl as one of the newspaper headlines put it.

Gillibrand changed her mind - it seems like overnight - on the issue of gay marriage which she says she now supports. And at today's news conference she extended an olive branch to Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy - whose husband was killed in the Long Island Railroad massacre and is one of the staunchest gun-control advocates in Congress. Gillibrand says she's looking forward to working with McCarthy on making sure illegal guns don't get in the hands of criminals. But a spokesman for McCarthy says they're not buying it. McCarthy says she's very disturbed by the selection and is considering a run against Gillibrand in 2010. The NRA has given a 100 percent approval rating to Gillibrand for her voting record on guns.

Jonathan Bowles and Tara Colton of the Center for an Urban Future discuss their new report on "51 Things the Obama Administration Should do for New York City."

What Do You Think Obama Can Do For NYC?

Look at the 51 Issues ...

Produced by Kathleen Horan and Chaleampon Ritthichai

Senior citizens at a Fort Green/Crown Heights senior center gathered to watch Barack Obama being sworn in. They sang, they danced, they celebrated.

By Ellen Horne

Here at the Old Ebbit Grill in DC, the crowd's loudest celebratory cheer was at the sight of G.W. Bush boarding a helicopter and leaving Washington. TVs and a large projection screen are all tuned to MSNBC.

This party, thrown by the Democratic Leadership Council, is only ...

WNYC Guest Blogger: Afronerd

Well the fated day has finally arrived and beyond the pomp and circumstance, President Obama has his work cut out for him. We can all breath a sigh of relief as he has thus far turned out to be quite a classy (and politically moderate) fellow-not at all like the "socialist" brush my home team attempted to paint him with. But as much as a cineaste and comic book buff that I fancy myself as, one should never forget just how much the proposition of a Black president was perceived as fodder for entertainment and fantasy. So perhaps, we have to give thanks to Sammy Davis, Jr. (yes Sammy......as a child), Richard Pryor (clip, above) James Earl Jones, Dennis Haysbert and the inimitable Morgan Freeman for at least implanting the idea of a Black POTUS in our nation's consciousness.

Robert George

WNYC Guest Blogger: Robert George

1) Barack Obama played against type. He eschewed the high-soaring rhetoric that typified his campaign, choosing instead to stay down-to-earth, laying out a centrist (some would say 'middle-of-the-road') theme trying to paper over most partisan differences.

2) He had an appropriately hawkish tone to the enemies of America:

We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.