New York City Council

Paid Sick Leave Passed, So Here's What You Should Know

It's been a long time coming. After three years, New York City Council has finally passed veto-proof legislation guaranteeing paid sick days in businesses with more than 20 employees. Now (hopefully), restaurant workers afraid of losing their jobs won't come to work hacking up pathogens into soup. B ... More >>

New York Legislature Unanimously Agrees: No Shark Fin Soup For You

Two weeks ago, we reported that the New York State Senate had taken a major step towards banning shark fin soup--an elite delicacy in Chinatown and total horror show on the ocean floor. On Monday, the state Assembly unanimously agreed, cementing the decision to halt the sale, trade, and possession ... More >>

Only a Giuliani Could Make The Halloran Situation Even Weirder

It was a story that enraptured headlines for the entire week, involving the FBI, business interests, moles and all the other classic characters in political scandal. Last month, Queens Councilman Dan Halloran was caught in cahoots with State Senator Malcolm Smith in a scheme to rig the Republican ra ... More >>

New Amsterdam Market Fights for the Seaport

On Thursday, March 14, the New York City Council will hold a public hearing to discuss future plans for South Street Seaport, the city's oldest communal meeting place. Organizers of the New Amsterdam Market -- an outdoor marketplace held in the area -- are seeking to "preserve and rehabilitate" the ... More >>

As Growth Shifts Into Overdrive, NYU Faces a Rebellion From Within

Alan Dershowitz to Brooklyn College: Academic Freedom For Me But Not For Thee

It has become a safe assumption that otherwise liberal and open-minded New York politicians will make an exception for Israel. Case in point: 10 members of the New York City Council have declared that they support academic freedom, just not the freedom of public universities to host events that do n ... More >>

City Council Presses Dept. of Education Officials on Controversial Co-Location Policy

After fielding criticisms earlier this week about the city's policy of shutting down failing schools, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the Department of Education took heat yesterday for the city's frequent practice of co-locating multiple schools in the same building. At an Education Committee hearing yes ... More >>

Governor Cuomo Joins the Lawless Kelly-Bloomberg Gang

Isn’t it time the NYPD had some real oversight?

The Constitution Versus Ray Kelly

A new coalition is ready to take its fight to the commissioner

NYCLU: Allowing Church Worship In Public Schools Violates Religious Freedom

The fight to block churches from using public school space got support today from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which says the policy is a threat to religious freedom. The Civil Liberties Union is arguing in testimony today that these kinds of arrangements between religious organizations and ... More >>

Poll: More Than Half of New Yorkers Disapprove of Bloomberg's Handling of OWS

​A new Quinnipiac poll shows that fifty-one percent of New Yorkers disapprove of the way the mayor has handled Occupy Wall Street. Despite this, Bloomberg has a steady overall approval rating of 49 percent. Sixty-two percent like the man personally, and 52 percent approve of "most of his polic ... More >>

Bloomberg Schools Flunk the Constitution

We're raising a generation that doesn't know its rights

New York City Considers Fast-Food Toy Ban, Cites Happy Fat Kids

Ladies and gentlemen, a photo of the world's only Filet-O-Fish Happy Meal.​Gather round, children, and listen to a tale of the evil New York City Council attempting to take your Happy Meal toys away. Yahoo reports that the dastardly City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie, who comes f ... More >>

New York Eyes Possible Happy Meals Ban, Spike in Temper Tantrums

​Ronald McDonald may be returning to the airwaves, but a New York City Council member is determined to keep the clown from making his way into children's digestive tracts.

City Council Passes Strict Smoking Ban

SuperFantastic​New York City Council has passed a bill that prohibits smoking in public parks, beaches, boardwalks, pools, playgrounds, and pedestrian plazas. Smokers may need a cigarette to calm their nerves after reading this news.

Rightbloggers: TSA, Don't Touch Our Junk -- Profile Arabs Instead!

Since the Republicans -- with the help of those Revolutionary-War reenactors in the Tea Party -- scored big in the 2010 elections, they've been bringing up the U.S. Constitution a lot. Incoming House Speaker John Boehner pushes the GOP "Pledge to America" promise "to honor the Constitution as constr ... More >>

New York Anti-Violence Project Honors the Voice's Steven Thrasher

​Congrats to Voice staff writer Steven Thrasher, who has been awarded the 2010 Courage Award by the New York Anti-Violence Project -- the oldest organization in the nation that combats violence toward and within the LGBT community. We are proud to have this amazing writer (and human) in our mi ... More >>

In the U.S. Senate, A Hearing on Downgrading Rape Complaints; In Our City Council, Crickets (Update)

While elected officials here in the city are reticent to hold public hearings on allegations published in the Village Voice on the downgrading of criminal complaints by the NYPD, the United States Senate has no such qualms about looking at the practice across the country. Senator Arlen Specter, a d ... More >>

Carl Kruger's Mighty Campaign Warchest Draws FBI Attention

​Just in time for the state budget showdown, the FBI is again poking around in the affairs of state senators. The latest probes are encouragingly bi-partisan, which is the best way to do corruption probing. There is one for a Democrat -- state senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, whose dealings wi ... More >>

Nat Hentoff Defends WBAI's Right to Air 'Racist Poetry'

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. February 6, 1969, Vol. XIV, No. 17 The siege at WBAI by Nat Hentoff "There is no doubt, certainly, that life in the United States remains freer than in the Soviet Union," Edgar Friedenberg writes in the February Atlantic Monthly. "What ... More >>

Morning Links

​Happy Thursday. We wish you a glorious tax/census/free-coffee-from-Starbucks (with reusable travel mug) day. For those productive folks who have already done their taxes and censuses, fear not! Amuse/disturb yourselves with the following: • God help us, Tea Partyers are educated. This ne ... More >>

Doctors and Nurses to Rally at St. Vincent's Tuesday

Photo by William Alatriste, courtesy NYC Council​Medical staff from St. Vincent's are not happy with what they feel was an abrupt shutdown of talks that might have saved the hospital, and will gather tomorrow with local residents in a community rally/press conference to speak out on the closin ... More >>

Council Candidate: Latino Blood is Better Than Non-Latino Blood, Which "Has Problems"

The Grand Council of Guardians, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Alliance, and the Corona branch of the NAACP will hold a press conference today at which they will discuss controversial remarks made by Eduardo Giraldo, a candidate for the 21st district city council seat in Queens. The remarks in q ... More >>

Federal Court Defendants Joel Klein & Ray Kelly

Our Education Mayor remains silent about police abuses of students in public schools

NYS Supreme Court Rules on Behalf of Street Vendor

City Jails Chief Gets Off With Only a Few Sentences

Council members barely question Martin Horn on the deadly teen jail at Rikers

Letters 11.05.08

Letters 10.29.08

Families to Rally At Schumer's Office for Child Citizen Protection Act

Christine Quinn's Half-Billion-Dollar Secret

Another hefty chunk of taxpayer-funded projects that council leaders would rather not discuss

President Bloomberg? Not This Bad Apple

Mayor Mike should get more heat for teaching kids to fear the police

Court Backs Council Metal Bat Ban

Congestion Pricing Panel Named

NY Pans Another EPA 9-11 Plan

Third American Revolution

Chancellor Joel Klein's plan to turn students into active citizens for the Constitution

Close-Up on Egbertville, Staten Island

2003

The Wealth of Districts

Turnout Burnout

Saving NYC's Liberties from America

Gifford Has A Plan

The speaker has cash, backers—and a low rank in polls. What gives?

This Candidate Wants Your Clothes

Rad Medicine

City council wades into the middle of the nation's health care crisis

The Diminishing of John Ashcroft

A Bipartisan Groundswell of Rebellion

Election-Week Docs Profile Anti-Globalist Cleric, Deliver Civics Lesson

Left-Handed Compliments

Can Progressives Love a Military Man?

100th Civil Liberties Safe Zone!

Hawaii Is the First State to Defy Ashcroft

Agenda Item: Slave Reparations

Letters