Let the games begin

Pencil Point

Cartoonists take Olympics torch

Click here to see cartoons on the 2016 Olympic Games.

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Talking Point

Not by the (Face)book

The 1st Congressional District race got a bit confrontational this week when Rep. Lee Zeldin challenged Democratic trackers of his campaign and then posted the recorded exchange on his Facebook page.

Zeldin, a first-term incumbent being challenged by Democrat Anna Throne-Holst in the fall, was with his family at a charity youth basketball game in Mastic Beach last week. The video shows Zeldin approaching the trackers and asking them a series of questions, such as, why was the camera trained on his daughter?

One of the trackers, a young woman, eventually acknowledged she was with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a campaign arm that’s hoping to win an uphill battle to regain a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

Trackers are a normal part of intense campaigning. Zeldin’s decision to go public with the video is a curious one: Is he trying to gain sympathy or trying to make it stop?

Anne Michaud

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Quick Points

Making the Friday rounds

- A state legislative commission is considering boosting base pay for members of the Senate and Assembly from $79,500 to as much as $116,900. Shouldn’t taxpayers get more than six months of work from them for that?

- Donald Trump is holding a rally Friday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the state’s top three Republicans — House Speaker Paul Ryan, Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson — are skipping the event, even though it seems each will be in Wisconsin. But we hear Mr. Cheesehead will be there.

- Central Africa has a massive outbreak of yellow fever and 1 million World Health Organization vaccines disappear in Angola. Another epidemic, another botched international response.

- To clarify his false statements about seeing a film of a plane delivering $400 million to Iran, Donald Trump tweeted Friday morning: “The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!" Next up on his tweet list: “That wasn’t thousands of Muslims I saw on TV celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. It was a couple guys with their arms up hailing a cab.”

- Hillary Clinton repeated on Thursday her false claim that FBI Director James Comey said everything she has said publicly about the email controversy was “consistent and truthful” with what she told the FBI. And they say consistency is a virtue.

- Today’s numbers, brought to you by "Sesame Street": 4 - the number of points Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump by in polling in deep-red Georgia. 95 - the number of days until the election. 0 - the percent chance that the first number won’t change by the time the second number rolls around.

Michael Dobie

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Daily Point

NYPD channeling Ed Koch?

Even as he readies for the private sector, NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton — and his successor, Chief of Department James O’Neill — want to know how they’re doin’.

O’Neill says the New York Police Department will start regularly polling both residents and officers across every precinct to determine what they think of the city's policing, especially efforts in neighborhoods. The survey will be extensive, polling as many as 20,000 people across every community in the city at a time.

“In terms of how we are doing, we’ll be able to tell you every month,” Bratton said.

Sound familiar? It seems the NYPD has come up with a modern version of former Mayor Ed Koch’s “How’m I doin’?" refrain.

Even as he expressed excitement for the polling, Bratton said he’s finished with public life after he leaves the NYPD in September. He wouldn’t even take a post in the White House, he said. Perhaps his own internal polling will feel differently if Hillary Clinton wins in November and needs a new homeland security chief.

Randi F. Marshall