BDB can't take the heat

From the Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio tangled with callers to his weekly radio segment Friday, pushing back on criticism of his plans for new homeless shelters and to jack up the price of smoking.

Hizzoner treated callers to Brian Lehrer’s show on WNYC a bit like reporters — they were limited to the topic of public health and safety, and he repeatedly challenged the premises of their queries.

The most heated exchange was with a caller who identified herself as Fior, a Crown Heights resident opposed to the building of a homeless shelter who said her area has 1,700 beds already, while the mayor’s Park Slope has just 330.

“I myself have sons and I want the same opportunities that his son Dante had,” the caller said. “And I’m sure the mayor wouldn’t have raised his son around 15 to 19 shelters.”

De Blasio noted there’s a shelter about four blocks from his family home, and that his old neighborhood would get new homeless beds under his plan to house homeless people within their own community board districts.

But communities like Crown Heights have argued they’re already overburdened with social service facilities, and Lehrer asked whether the plan puts more burden on low-income communities with more homelessness.

“If they’re unwanted,” de Blasio said of the shelters, “then that’s a moral question. How can people feel that their very own neighbors and people who grew up and have lived in that community for a long time are quote-unquote unwanted? I reject that.”

The caller argued she’d not seen any data proving the people who’d live in the shelter were from Crown Heights — prompting de Blasio to say she “doesn’t know her facts” and calling the argument, used elsewhere in the city, “a smokescreen.”

De Blasio ok with hiring illegals

From Crains:

In a radio interview Thursday, Mayor Bill De Blasio cheered a Brooklyn supermarket owner who acknowledged hiring undocumented workers.

“Of course you’re running a business and if someone’s willing to work hard for you, you’re going to hire that person,” de Blasio told the caller, who was identified as Thomas in Brooklyn. “And you’re giving them a job that they get to feed a family on, and I thank you for that.”

The caller told the mayor he owns a supermarket in Brooklyn. “A large number of my employees are undocumented workers and, you know, I have to say that, you know, they are hard workers, they do get paid well,” he said. “Just as a businessman I’m caught between having these undocumented workers, which I’m not supposed to employ,” and the benefits of doing so.

De Blasio said neither the business owner nor the employees should be penalized, calling the current rules governing immigration “ridiculous."

Malcolm Smith probe may not yet be over

From Lohud:

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office used an Orthodox Jewish radio program in an elaborate sting operation that helped the government convict Malcolm Smith and other New York politicians in a corruption scandal, a four-month investigation by The Journal News/lohud revealed.

It is unclear whether there are other targets, including New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who appeared on the show as a state senator prior to the 2010 election with Moses Stern, later revealed to be an FBI cooperator. Stern appeared twice on the show prior to election day using aliases, posing as both a political analyst and a resident from Brooklyn. He urged listeners to vote for Schneiderman.

Prosecutors disclosed little about the New York Jewish Communications Channel to defense lawyers for two people convicted in the sting operation. The show was hosted by longtime Orthodox radio personality Zev Brenner, who owns Talkline Communications Network, and registered with the state by Joseph Markowitz, whose name was linked to thousands in campaign donations to Schneiderman, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, and an illegal donation to Halloran. After the Smith arrests, Schneiderman pledged to donate the contributions from Markowitz and Markowitz's wife to charity.

Drive at 5 talks illegal conversions

Go to 17:15 where Curtis Sliwa interviews Paul Graziano about illegal conversions. It's quite entertaining.

Ass Hat At Rockaway Beach

How Smoking Is Affecting Young People's Brains

Bloomberg in hiding

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg canceled his weekly radio appearance, scheduled for Friday morning, amid a growing outcry over his handling of a top aide’s arrest over a domestic violence complaint, said a person told of the mayor’s decision.

The move appeared to be an attempt to avoid the public spotlight — and potential questions about why Mr. Bloomberg sought to conceal the arrest of Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. When Mr. Goldsmith resigned several weeks ago, the mayor’s office said he was leaving to pursue a job in private business.

On Thursday, it was revealed that Mr. Goldsmith had actually stepped down because of the arrest, which stemmed from an altercation with his wife, Margaret, that involved screaming and shoving at their town house in Washington.

A spokesman for the mayor, Marc La Vorgna, declined to comment Friday morning. The radio program on WOR-AM (710), which starts around 8 a.m., generally touches on the major news of the week, but has a breezy tone: its host is not known for posing particularly tough questions to the mayor.

For the second day in a row, Mr. Bloomberg has scheduled no public events where reporters might have an opportunity to ask him questions.

The NY Post excoriated him for hiding the reason for Goldsmith's resignation.

Cop radios don't work underground

From AM-NY:

NYPD street officers are carrying radios that don’t work in the subway, making it impossible to call for help. The city has spent 15 years and millions of dollars trying to resolve the problem, but it’s still unclear when it might be fixed.

“Not being to communicate in this day and age is ludicrous,” said Nicholas Casale, a retired NYPD detective and the MTA’s former Deputy Director of Security for Counterterrorism. He pointed to Madrid and London as examples of transit hubs increasingly becoming terrorism targets.

In NYC, transit police can radio one another, but they can’t talk to street-level officers, who use a different frequency. To bridge the communication divide, the MTA and NYPD agreed in the mid-1990s to create a uniform radio network in the subway using above-ground frequencies.

But after spending $144 million in transit funds, only an FDNY network has been established.

The multiple police frequencies technically are trickier to resolve, and the project has been beset with numerous technical issues, mainly audio interference, experts said.

The NYPD, the Transit Authority and City Hall have deflected responsibility. The mayor’s office referred requests for comments to the NYPD, which in turn directed questions to the MTA.

Why is the media silent on challengers?

Here is the accompanying press release.

And guess what? YouTube sent Biviano a notice saying his video was hit with a privacy complaint from an NBC employee who appears briefly in the video.

And here is a story of another unholy alliance - Michael Nussbaum and a Queens incumbent senator, Shirley Huntley.

Finally - a reason to like Paterson!

From NBC:

Gov. David Paterson today courted some more controversy for himself as he took a relatively hard line during illegal immigrants on a morning radio show.

A caller on "The John Gambling Show" on WOR-radio asked Paterson about the cost burden illegal aliens put on the education system that is shouldered by legal resident tax-payers.

"There's a difference between illegal aliens and legal permanent residents. Illegal aliens obviously shouldn't be here," he told the caller. "And the only time that we aren't as aggressive in trying to find illegal aliens is when it's a health care issue."

"If you know any illegal aliens that are here that shouldn't be here, then the important thing is to report it to the INS and lets get moving so that we reduce that number," said the governor.