May 11, 2008
Recent works by Glenn Thrush
Since 2003, Thrush has covered New York City Hall where he contributed to award-winning coverage of the Staten Island ferry crash and the August 2003 blackout. He has also written extensively about homelessness, poverty and foster care in the city.
From 1997 to 1999, he served as editor of City Limits, a New York-based news monthly and was editorial director for two related think-tanks, the Center for an Urban Future and Child Welfare Watch.
His 15-year career has also included stints as a reporter for Bloomberg News and the Birmingham Post-Herald, where he wrote about poverty, abuses in Alabamas prison system and the abysmal state of schools in the states predominantly-black rural counties. His feature articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York, the New York Observer, Spin, American Demographics, Metropolis, the Village Voice and many other publications.
Hes a graduate of Brooklyns Sheepshead Bay High School, Larry Davids alma mater, and lives with his wife and twin sons.
ELECTION 2006
Right-hand man taking a left turn
Stephen Herbits - Donald Rumsfeld's former right-hand man at the Pentagon and once a trusted Iraq adviser - has allied himself with the defense secretary's nemesis, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Why Hillary wants to win LI
During the 2000 campaign, the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association subjected Hillary Rodham Clinton to a grilling she might have expected at Bill O'Reilly's family picnic. Seventeen hostile union officials badgered her for hours about her husband's morality and rumors about her ties to '60s radicals. Then they whisked her out the door and backed Republican Rick Lazio.
Hil: Looks aren't anything
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wishes politics weren't such a beauty contest.
He touts her presidential hopes
Would-be first lady Elizabeth Edwards may have claimed her life is "more joyful" than Hillary Rodham Clinton's, but the former first lady says she loves her life, particularly the parts that include daughter Chelsea.
Spencer's up-Hil battle
GOP hopeful John Spencer struggled mightily to pick a fight with Hillary Rodham Clinton at Friday night's Senate debate, but Clinton seemed intent on flaying the elephant who wasn't in the room: George W. Bush.
ELECTION 2006
Spencer says he'll stay put
John Spencer says he'll avoid any Rick Lazio-type "excursions" into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's personal space at tonight's debate in Rochester.
Is he waiting in the wings?
Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has plenty of real and perceived rivals (John Spencer, John McCain, Al Gore, George Bush, to name just a few) but the man they're watching most closely these days is Clinton protege Barack Obama.
Presidential pardon me?
George W. Bush doesn't think much of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's criticism of his new military commissions law.
Warner's exit a boon for Clinton '08 rivals
Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner had been touted to be the moderate "anti-Hillary" candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential mix, but now his stunning exit has created an opening for another would-be Clinton-slayer: John Edwards.
Dean to dole out $8M to Senate election effort
After weeks of backroom wrangling, Sen. Charles Schumer has convinced Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to rush about $8 million to Democratic Senate campaigns, Newsday has learned.
HIGH-RISE CRASH
Fighters scan U.S. skies
Dozens of combat aircraft rushed to the skies over New York, Washington and West Coast cities after yesterday's plane crash, the largest deployment of jet fighters over the United States since 9/11.
McCain assails Clinton on N. Korea
John McCain fired the opening salvo in the 2008 presidential campaign against possible opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday over the issue of North Korea's nukes.
Hillary bucks Dem boss Dean
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took a backhanded swipe at Democratic National Committee boss Howard Dean yesterday, saying Dean's long-term party-building efforts should take a back seat to fundraising for the midterm elections.
Hillary charges back in husband's defense
Hillary Rodham Clinton is emerging as her husband's key defender in the who-lost-Osama fight, but the senator's role as family protector could boomerang to hurt her career, Clinton-watchers say.
Hillary backs Bill after Fox tirade
Bill Clinton's fire-breathing defense of his administration's effort to kill Osama bin Laden is getting a thumbs-up from his wife, who says she's tired of Democrats being pushed around on national security issues.
Clinton defends terror record
A red-faced Bill Clinton, fed up with six years of GOP sniping over his failure to kill Osama bin Laden, attacked the Bush administration for neglecting to pursue the al-Qaida leader during its first eight months in office.
Contenders' game of double-dare
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is daring President George W. Bush to stump in New York for her Republican opponent - joking that Clinton would even consider paying for Bush's airfare if he stumped in Dubya-phobic Gotham.
Clinton aides had hand in Dubai deal
In the spring, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was denouncing the Dubai Ports World deal, a consulting firm run by her top advisers was quietly lobbying for a Dubai takeover of two U.S. defense plants, Newsday has learned.
Clinton seeks $1.9B, faults ex-EPA official
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for $1.9 billion in new medical aid for Ground Zero workers, saying it's needed because former Environmental Protection Administration chief Christie Todd Whitman failed to alert workers to health risks.
Clinton to face Spencer in November
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bulldozed anti-war challenger Jonathan Tasini in yesterday's Democratic primary, clearing the way for a new David-and-Goliath contest against Republican John Spencer in November's general election.
Push to reopen 9/11 fund for ill
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer want to reopen the Sept. 11 compensation fund to allow billions in new claims from workers suffering long-term effects from exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.
Schumer pushes for ports vote
Sen. Charles Schumer is demanding that all cargo shipped from 42 ports overseas be screened for nuclear devices and will try to force a vote on an amendment as early as today.
Dems back Hillary despite war stand
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's support of the Iraq war isn't popular with her party's left wing, but an overwhelming majority of New York Democrats back her re-election bid and fewer than a quarter think she's too pro-war, a Newsday/NY1 News poll shows.
Blessed debate over Rove rite
A spirited debate is raging over whether Hillary Rodham Clinton was the subject of a religious rite held in Karl Rove's West Wing office in 2001.
U.S. to speed up illness funds
U.S. Health and Human Services chief Michael Leavitt will release $75 million allocated by Congress for World Trade Center-related illnesses in early October - months earlier than projected.
Switching allegiances
David Brock, the reformed right-wing reporter who once took aim at Hillary Rodham Clinton, has cultivated surprisingly deep ties to the senator - paying $200,000 to a Clinton confidant for working at his watchdog group, Media Matters.
Parents seek SUV safety changes
The driver who killed 16-month-old Alec Nelson in 2004 had checked his rearview mirror and walked behind his SUV, but that wasn't enough.
Lamont ponders Clinton's aid
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton invited anti-war upstart candidate Ned Lamont to her Chappaqua estate last month. But the millionaire Democrat from Connecticut who upset Sen. Joe Lieberman isn't sure he'll return the favor by inviting Clinton to campaign in the state.
Bloomberg bypasses Nagin quip
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin may be slapping the Apple, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he's "scrupulously avoiding criticizing" Nagin's quip about the slow pace of work at Ground Zero.
Clinton gives go-ahead
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will stop blocking President George W. Bush's nomination of Andrew von Eschenbach to head the Food and Drug Administration, following the agency's decision yesterday to allow over-the-counter sales of Plan B contraceptive pills.
Clinton: HIV funding unfair
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting a new federal AIDS funding formula she says will cost New York $40 million, sparking the ire of groups who want more money allocated in southern states.
Mag ticks off Sharpton
The Rev. Al Sharpton is accusing the conservative Weekly Standard of "race baiting" after the magazine caricatured him as a white Senate candidate's white-gloved chauffeur on the cover of its current issue.
Questions, cash flow for Clinton at fundraiser
The drinks were flowing and so were the $1,000 checks, but there was also an undertow of resentment over Hillary Rodham Clinton's support of the Iraq war at an East End fundraiser for the senator yesterday.
Hillary in the Hamptons
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off her Long Island fundraising tour Friday with an announcement about federal funding to save the shorelines and sidestepped whether she'd debate primary challenger Jonathan Tasini.
Exemptions to fluid ban eyed
The restrictions on carry-on liquids are likely to be in effect for the foreseeable future, but some restrictions could be eased soon, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says.
Clinton's weekend stay at $9.4M home of financier
It turns out Hillary Rodham Clinton isn't checking into the Hotel Spielberg for her weekend Hamptons fundraising blitz after all.
THE PSYCHOLOGY
King, Giuliani were together when told of plot
Rudy Giuliani just happened to be with Rep. Peter King Wednesday when the House homeland security chairman got his first indication of the Sept. 11-scale bombing plot in London.
Unlikely Lamont boosters
Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman Tuesday has sparked surprising reactions from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jonathan Tasini.
For Democrats, Iraq war a minefield
A year ago, several of Hillary Rodham Clinton's advisers predicted that the Iraq war would be winding down by the summer of 2006 and pooh-poohed the idea that Iraq would dominate the 2008 presidential election.
Hunting in Hamptons
The annual Bill and Hillary Clinton cash caravan rolls onto the East End next weekend with a quartet of big-cash fundraisers - even as some Clinton campers worry donors are feeling tapped out.
QUEENS POWER MESS
Questioning Hil's visit
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's top aides are privately fuming over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's post-blackout visit to Astoria on Friday.
Growing threat of Iraq civil war
A top U.S. commander is warning that the threat of sectarian civil war in Iraq is "as bad as I've seen it" and predicts that quelling religious conflict in Baghdad could increase U.S. casualties.
Clinton: Rumsfeld should quit
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been forced to defend her continued support of the Iraq war to fellow Democrats, distanced herself from Bush administration war policy yesterday by calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.
Senate hopeful slams Israel's actions
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic foe Jonathan Tasini says that Israel - where he spent his teenage years - is violating international law and terrorizing civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.
Different take on Israeli action
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday refused to condemn Hezbollah guerrillas for their role in the Israel-Lebanon crisis, prompting Sen. Charles Schumer and other local Democrats to declare a boycott of his address to Congress today.
'Madame President' campaign focuses on Hillary
A little girl, no older than 10, was coveting Mosemarie Boyd's stack of bright red "Madame President" placards on the sidewalk outside Little Rock's First United Methodist Church.
Clinton targets tobacco ads
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has glimpsed the future and sees a world where corporations implant tiny microchips into children's brains to bombard the littlest consumers with intracranial commercials.
Clinton returns to Arkansas
Hillary Rodham Clinton signed just about anything that north Arkansas Democrats shoved into her hands yesterday - except for those big crimson signs that read: "Madame President, January 20, 2009."
NY sens. rebuffed in funds recovery
Republicans beat back a last-ditch attempt by New York's senators to boost federal homeland security funding by more than $1 billion, in an effort to offset 40 percent in cuts to anti-terror grants to the state and city.
Duke player’s D.C. trial begins
Duke University lacrosse player Collin Finnerty instigated an attack on two bar patrons in Georgetown last year, allegedly shouting anti-gay slurs and asking one man if he'd perform a sex act, according to trial testimony from his accuser yesterday.
Plot was derailed in early stages
For at least a year, eight followers of al-Qaida scattered across six foreign countries discussed how to send suicide bombers to blow up PATH tunnels under the Hudson River, but their plans never came close to realization, U.S. officials said Friday.
Anti-terror funds for transit
The Bush administration is boosting anti-terror funding to New York-area transit systems by about $10 million this year, after being criticized for recently slashing city Homeland Funding Security money by $83 million.
Clinton: Cheney flouts laws
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Supreme Court's Guantanamo Bay ruling is a major denunciation of Vice President Dick Cheney and his attempts to "rewrite" the Constitution, flout international law and hoard power in the executive branch.
Clinton blames Times' sources
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't think The New York Times should be prosecuted for baring a Bush administration practice of tapping confidential bank records to thwart terrorists.
Panel votes to cut anti-terror funds
In a sign that New York's homeland security funding woes are far from over, a key Senate committee yesterday voted to cut anti-terror funding to high-threat areas such as New York by $20 million in 2007.
Dems back Clinton to block pay raises
Senate Democrats are lining up behind Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan to peg congressional pay raises to hikes in the stagnant federal minimum wage, vowing to bottle up all future House and Senate wage increases.
Schumer joins fight for low-cost generic drugs
Sen. Charles Schumer and the Republican chairman of the Senate finance committee are proposing a ban on pacts between drug makers that block production of low-cost generic medicines.
Democrats debate war exit
As Republicans rejoiced at Democratic infighting over Iraq, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday shot back on the Senate floor, accusing the GOP of "blindly following" President George W. Bush's "dead-end" Iraq policies.
Senate Dems split on Iraq proposals
Sen. Hillary Clinton is on a collision course with possible Democratic presidential rivals John Kerry and Russ Feingold over the Iraq War - opposing their amendment to force a complete withdrawal of troops by July 1, 2007.
On the podium, Hil's a chill
Jennifer Stephens had never seen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in person before the senator strode into Adelphi University's commencement, oxblood robes billowing in her wake.
Bill gets the nod over Tipper as sidekick pick
Bubba tops Tipper in the battle for first spouse.
Senator sure, but president?
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would trounce both her possible GOP Senate foes by more than 30 points - but she's in a dead heat with Al Gore if New Yorkers were voting in a hypothetical presidential face-off, according to a new Newsday/NY1 statewide poll.
Schumer changes tune on bioterror cuts
Sen. Charles Schumer, who has likened $7 million in federal cuts to New York's bioterrorism programs to "rubbing salt in an open wound," voted to cut those programs by 10.4 percent last year, according to Senate records.
THE STATE CONVENTIONS
Clinton accepts party's re-election nod
With her husband sitting a few feet away, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted her party's unanimous re-election endorsement - even as state Democrats denounced the "error" of invading Iraq, an action Clinton strongly supported and still staunchly defends.
Crowning moment for Lady Liberty?
The Senate's passage of immigration reforms might be a crowning achievement for lovers of Lady Liberty.
Environment meeting closed to stop 'rhetoric'
Senate environment committee chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has called global warming a hoax, held a roundtable on greenhouse gases behind closed doors yesterday - in part to muzzle Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other green Democrats, aides said.
Clinton: Let's cut oil use
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants Americans to cut their oil and gasoline consumption in half by 2025, arguing that dependence on foreign sources compromises national security by forcing the United States to defend energy assets in the Middle East.
Amazin'! Clinton's no fan of Mets
One crowd Hillary Clinton will never be accused of pandering to? The one at Shea Stadium.
Hillary tackles migrant policy
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a stern lecture to Long Island business executives yesterday on the evils of hiring undocumented immigrants, while offering a surprisingly downbeat assessment of prospects for immigration overhaul before the midterm elections.
Rudy leans conservative, backs right-wing candidate
Rudolph Giuliani seems to be tacking right, ex-Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed is tacking to the center and some opponents of both men think their surprising political alliance is, well, a little tacky.
Mayor lobbies for gun trace bill
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing Sen. Charles Schumer's bill giving local police access to federal gun tracing databases - and is blasting opponents of the plan as "soft on crime."
Their job: Backup
The National Guard is renowned for its front-line military role in Iraq, but the 420 guard members now assigned to the Mexican border are mostly technicians who tote laptops, surveillance gear and blueprints, not guns.
Clinton offers niceties on Bush
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a thorny olive branch to President George W. Bush last night, praising his "charm and charisma" while claiming the administration covered up Sept. 11-related health problems in New York.
Clinton gains unlikely support
A founding father of the vast right-wing conspiracy is throwing a July fundraiser in New York for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election campaign.
For Rudy, running concern
A year ago, Rudolph Giuliani added his name to the venerable Houston law firm Bracewell & Patterson in a deal that guaranteed the former mayor and his consulting company about $10 million, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.
Political pals size each other up
Visitors ushered into Hillary Rodham Clinton's private inner office on Capitol Hill are greeted by a jarring image: Clinton and her potential arch-rival John McCain smiling conspicuously in an autographed snapshot hung by the door.
Bush consultant eyed to help Giuliani raise funds
Rudolph Giuliani's pet political action committee has hired the Michigan consultant who directed President George W. Bush's wildly successful Pioneers and Rangers fundraising programs, the latest indication the ex-mayor is ramping up for a possible White House run.
Contender's eyes on the spies
Soon after she entered the New York Senate race in March, Republican K.T. McFarland told surprised supporters that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had dispatched helicopters to conduct surveillance over her East End vacation house.
Giuliani to examine chances for '08
Rudolph Giuliani emerged from political hibernation yesterday, telling an Iowa audience he's got the itch for public office - and musing aloud about his White House chances.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Prospects brighten for Senate bill
The Senate moved closer to an immigration compromise Friday when a key Democratic leader said he'd be willing to allow a reform bill - along with up to a dozen controversial GOP amendments - to come to a vote soon.
GOP votes to divert war funds to border
Senate Republicans voted yesterday to divert $1.9 billion in Iraq and Afghanistan war funding to border security, sparking a floor fight between a riled-up Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and a GOP leader who accused her of spouting "poppycock."
House battle over port security
A post-Dubai showdown between Republicans and Democrats over port security reform is shaping up today in the House, with the homeland security committee voting on competing cargo inspection bills.
Clinton's immigration positions draw criticism
On April 5, at the height of the Senate's immigration debate, Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an impassioned speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, praising the "hard work" of undocumented immigrants and honoring those who died in the military.
THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE
Clinton backs border 'smart fence'
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton raised eyebrows this weekend by saying that she thought use of a "smart fence" along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border could identify people approaching the barrier.
The may-be press secretary
Conservative commentator Tony Snow, on the short list to replace Scott McClellan as White House press secretary, played a small but pivotal backstage role in uncovering the sex scandal that nearly sunk the Clinton administration.
McCain, Schumer spar on immigration
Sen. John McCain isn't one of Chuck Schumer's biggest fans in the first place, but the New York Democrat's role in the immigration reform debate has really aggravated the GOP's possible presidential front-runner.