Political Lobbyists

As Fast Food Workers Walked Off the Job, Giant Industry Lobbying Groups Tried To Convince Us How Awful a Living Wage Would Be

A summer of protests over fast food workers' impossibly low wages reached its boiling point yesterday, when employees in New York and 49 other cities walked off the job in a one-day strike. In Lower Manhattan, our own Raillan Brooks interviewed Tyeisha Batts, a 27-year-old Burger King worker who ma ... More >>

In New Vision of Politics, Rightbloggers Denounce Boehner the Leader, Praise DeMint the Leaver

Jim DeMint, one of the most ideologically pure and least effective legislators in the U.S. Senate, announced he would leave Congress to run the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank; or, as the Foundation itself put it, "Jim DeMint to Lead the Battle of Ideas." It would seem to us that, compar ... More >>

Evaluate Teachers? Let Students Also Do It

Governor Cuomo has political capital—why waste it on more reliance on standardized testing?

Lobbying is Ridiculously Profitable, Enraging Study Says

Lobbyists who grease the wheels of government can sleep well at night: A study shows that businesses that use intense lobbying get a return on their investment that is "comparable to the returns of the most blistering hedge fund." They also probably can sleep well because they own nice, expensive ma ... More >>

Chris Lee, Craigslist Congressman, Has Been Known to Party Hard

via​Christopher Lee resigned yesterday, less than four hours after Gawker published a story from a woman who claims Lee contacted her on Craigslist, claiming to be single, and proceeded to send her a (fairly impressive) shirtless picture. "I promise not to disappoint," he told her sexily. Now, ... More >>

The Heavyweight Albany Lobbyist They Call 'Feathers'

James FeatherstonhaughMy cover story this week about Albany lobbyists featured "Feathers," otherwise known as James Featherstonhaugh, who is the final toll on the thruway to the state capitol. Everyone, apparently, pays. Over the course of a four-decade career as unofficial state gatekeeper, Feathe ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo Goes to Albany, Where Lobbyists Are Waiting

Tom DiNapoli's Appointment Logs: He's Just Too Nice a Guy

​Tom DiNapoli is too nice a guy. The state comptroller apparently can't say no to anyone who wants to meet with him, though he has a mixed record when it comes to delivering what his bellringers want. I've been reading half a foot of DiNapoli's appointment schedules from 2007 to now an ... More >>

People's Champion? Rick Lazio Is a Wall Street Creature

His fingerprints are all over the recent economic collapse

City Says It Paid Former Queens Beep and Lobbyist for "Outreach," Not Lobbying

Way back in October, the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, a group strenuously opposed to the city's attempt to throw their businesses out of Willets Point so it could be redeveloped, accused former Queens borough president Claire Shulman of being an unregistered lobbyist for the Bloomb ... More >>

What Do You Have To Do To Get a Bottle of Wine Around Here?

Why you still can't buy wine with your groceries in New York

Gay Talese Amongst the Poor: Comedy, Tragedy, Or Kind Of OK?

This Gay Talese thing does make for a bizarre story--a man famous for his bulletproof sartorial style and glamorous townhouse parties takes to the streets with font-laded laserprinted signs bearing the legend "Please Support Pres. Obama's Stimulus Plan, and begin right here ... at the bottom ... T ... More >>

Daily Flog: Barack Obama -- already a virtual star

Yanks Still Got Balls: Double-Dipped on Rent Break

Release the news hounds!

The Book of Sarah (Palin)

Strafing the Palin record

Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie

How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave birth to the mortgage crisis

No Joy in Mudville

Hillary's Top Lobbyist

Gotham power Suri Kasirer puts the peddle to the meddle for Clinton

Puppet Show

¡You've Got Mail, Pendejo!

Readers tell the Mexican the darndest things

He Shot the Sheriff

Spitzer guns down Albany's real clean-up man

Another Yankee Sweep

How city officials snoozed while the Yanks burned public money for their new stadium

Yankee Lobbyists on Taxpayers' Tab

Circling the bases: Documents reveal city paid the team's lobbyists and execs—for lobbying city and state officials

How to Kill a War in 10 Not-So-Easy Steps

Desperate times call for desperate measures—like talking to lobbyists

Influence Peddlers

Trade secrets of the city's fastest-growing lobbying firm

Reform School Dropouts

Congress vows changes but makes only a few after Abramoff scandal

In D.C., It's All Relative

Congress members, staff, and lobbyists—one big happy family

The War on Murtha

Congressman's theatrics about Iraq spark a new fracas out in the lobby

Morning Report 11/28/05
A Country Under the Influence

Morning Report 9/29/05
You Don't Know Jack

After Monica

D.C. interns pay to climb Capitol Hill

Morning Report 7/23/05
The War on Tourism

'You Can Never Not Fight Back!'

A conversation with Larry Kramer about the current state of gay activism

Getting the Incest Out

A Bloomberg proposal that could transform city campaign finance

Playing Ball in D.C.

GOP's Forgetful Convert

New republican state senator Olga Mendez quit more than just the democratic party

Inside Bush's Indian Bureau

A labyrinth of lobbyists is manufacturing millions

Turning Point

George Bush's global holy war threatens our Presidency—and perhaps the future of our nation

Bush’s Unemployment Line

Newest labor statistics show that at least snow jobs are on the rise

John Edwards's Goody-Two-Shoe Politics

North Carolina Senator Claims He Will Not Accept a VP Nomination

Bad Policy, Big Bucks

How Pataki's Disastrous Energy Plan Fattened His Friends and Campaign Coffers

Pataki's Sick Department of Health

How a Collusive Contagion Has Infected a $34 Billion Bureaucracy

Lobbying for Leniency

Scandal-Scarred Adult Homes Buy Pataki Protection

Feeding Frenzy

From Celebrity Chefs to Gourmet Guerrillas, Americans Confront the Hazards of the Food World

The Albany Glacier

While Everything Else Changes, the State Legislature Remains Frozen in Time

Nation

Noblesse Oblige

All in the Family

When blood and marriage bind lobbyists and politicians

Trump's Gamble for Indian Wampum

The Self-Proclaimed 'Biggest Enemy of Indian Gambling' Has Suddenly Backed a Plan To Build Casinos on Seminole Land