Dan Janison
LaBarbera faces possible expulsion from Local 282
July 5, 2009
When he served as president of Teamsters Local 282, based in Lake Success and representing private construction workers, Gary LaBarberawon praise for transforming the organization from a mob enterprise into "a model of union democracy," in the words of his lawyer, Bruce Maffeo. Two years ago, LaBarbera was called in to help salvage the New York City Central Labor Council after ex-Assemb. Brian McLaughlin - due this month to begin serving 10 years for theft - was ousted as leader.
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Can Obama's 'acting' help push health care agenda?
July 1, 2009
Asked many years ago how an actor could become president, Ronald Reagan reportedly said "How can a president not be an actor?"
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Citizens are the losers in Albany's political games
June 30, 2009
Suspicions between Team Democrat and Team Republican have grown so thick by now that it took only seconds for a surreal drama to develop over what a veteran senator called his casual stroll through the chamber of New York's upper legislative house.
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State Senate combat won't end after it gets back to work
June 28, 2009
The State Senate struggle over seats, patronage, clout, offices, titles and pork funds can be expected to keep raging - even if members manage to meet Tuesday's deadline for approving local legislation.
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Senate story line is like fast-moving financial drama
June 25, 2009
Politics equals business at the Capitol. So in a way, the state Senate story line resembles a fast-moving financial drama.
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Suddenly, New Yorkers care about lieutenant governor
June 24, 2009
ALBANY - The day's best quip about the state's lack of a lieutenant governor came from Alfred DelBello, who quit the job in 1984, citing sheer boredom.
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Albany power war may be headed for court showdown
June 23, 2009
ALBANY - The Senate power war, now in its third week, may be headed for a new and potentially explosive court showdown.
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Backroom deal months ago presaged N.Y. Senate upheaval
June 21, 2009
It was an open secret, but one easily forgotten in the whirl of events: A cross-party deal similar to what has displaced Malcolm Smith as the state Senate's top official was first discussed nearly seven months ago, before Smith was installed.
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Queens, Bronx DAs could shape Albany outcome
June 18, 2009
We elect district attorneys to enforce laws, not to decide who writes them.
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Breaking the deadlock in Albany is no game of chance
June 16, 2009
ALBANY
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Dean Skelos set up Senate deadlock
June 15, 2009
ALBANY
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New York Senate stalemate could just end in a tie
June 14, 2009
ALBANY
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State Senate control has a lot of twists and turns
June 11, 2009
ALBANY
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Rare moment makes for 'great civics lesson'
June 10, 2009
ALBANY - A rare moment has arrived in which each of the state's 62 senators has personal veto power over legislation and budgets.
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Bronx senator has led tumultuous career
June 9, 2009
Standing before news cameras in Albany the other night, Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx) recalled that his 30 Republican colleagues had asked "many times" in recent months: "Are there some brave citizens and senators on the other side of the aisle?"
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Lightning strikes in Albany parliamentary coup
June 8, 2009
For those learning of it downstate, this struck like lightning.
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One politician sure to oppose a nearby Belmont casino
June 7, 2009
Not far from Belmont Park, on the Queens side of the border, you find yourself in the district of 37-year veteran state Sen. Frank Padavan, whose Web site calls him "the Legislature's leading opponent of casino gambling and the state lottery."
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Even a small change on LI is a big deal
June 4, 2009
Prodded by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the State Senate this week gave final legislative approval to a hotly debated bill paving a way for voters and officials to merge or dissolve local government entities.
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Gillibrand plays gender card
May 31, 2009
Asked whether she's gotten this far on skill or luck, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand turns the question to why she believes Gov. David A. Paterson selected her for her current job. She raises the matter of gender.
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Senator Gillibrand's fortune appears to be holding up
May 28, 2009
To say Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand leads a charmed political life is to risk underrating her ability to stay on message and push.
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Sonia Sotomayor would bring New York vibe to Supreme Court
May 27, 2009
MUCH was made, in the wake of President Barack Obama's election, of the "New Yorkers" he'd named to key positions - Tim Geithner as secretary of the treasury, for example, or Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.
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Democrats speculate over real reason Israel backed off
May 24, 2009
The question of whether Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) was browbeaten or sweet-talked out of challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a primary has roiled the Democratic scene.
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Cuomo enjoys some good vibes over special districts
May 21, 2009
The pitch has a fine populistic ring, and yesterday before the audience at the Long Island Association, it rewarded state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo with the kind of vibes he must like.
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Schumer praises Israel for not facing Gillibrand
May 17, 2009
Political players gush the most when others agree to get out of their way.
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Threats of secession a big attention-getter
May 16, 2009
Threats of secession, no matter how hokey, do grab the American attention.
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Eliot Spitzer could be itching for a comeback
May 11, 2009
Consider yourself warned. Ex- Gov. Eliot Spitzer, long on pride and short on shame, might try for a comeback, even if he now says otherwise.
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Political parallels can be drawn for Nassau, Albany
May 6, 2009
The surprise arrest of member Roger Corbin makes the Nassau County Legislature look ever more like a scale model of the often-struggling New York State Senate.
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Michelle Obama takes center stage at Time Warner Center
May 5, 2009
THE journey from campaign life to White House residency marks the change of a lifetime, they say, and now it is the turn of Michelle Robinson Obama -- once of Chicago's working class and later of the Ivy League - to see it.
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Statewide, support for GOP chief Mondello wanes
May 4, 2009
The "Chairman-Joe-gotta-go" chorus grows louder in state Republican circles. So far Joseph Mondello, also the Nassau chairman, refuses to budge, disputing the charge that he dithers as GOP gloom deepens.
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Obama should look at flu crisis as an opportunity
April 29, 2009
Sounding a bit like the nation's physician, President Barack Obama stuck last night to standard protocol in addressing the first domestic public-health emergency of his 100-day-old administration.
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Drama brewing over leaks during Kennedy's Senate bid
April 28, 2009
You may have guessed that the drama that whirled around Caroline Kennedy's bid to be named to the U.S. Senate had wound down for good.
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Hevesi, Morris pay-to-play flap now a national concern
April 26, 2009
Either ex-Comptroller Alan Hevesi knew of his confidant Hank Morris' estimated $35 million in "placement" fees - or he became one of the most bamboozled public executives since the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.
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Comptroller, 'placement agent' ties raise questions
April 22, 2009
New York's public scandal of the day boils down to whether and when "paid intermediary" means "bagman."
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Dan Janison: Former state Liberal Party boss' downfall
April 16, 2009
Authorities placed Ray Harding, 74, ex-boss of the now-defunct state Liberal Party, in a double-set of handcuffs before walking him past the cameras to his arraignment.
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Paterson needs to support same-sex marriage bill
April 14, 2009
For Gov. David A. Paterson, the question simply seems to have been: Why NOT move for a same-sex marriage bill?
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Candidates discover it's the Year of the Spouse
February 21, 2008
Even Janet Huckabee was in the news Thursday, despite her preacher husband's electoral status as Hucka-been.
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In politics, outcomes are rarely certain
February 8, 2008
Last June, John McCain bemoaned the rush by different states to move up the dates of their presidential primaries into an early Super Tuesday. "It's not good for the country for the whole nominating process to be over by the end of January or the fifth of February," he was quoted in the Arizona Republic as saying. "It's just not healthy."
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Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor, fades into history
January 29, 2008
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani, 63, a well-off and well-known citizen with residences in Manhattan and the Hamptons, faces a resumption of private-sector life -- as lawyer, businessman, consultant, and social celebrity.
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Dan Janison
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