Common Cause and National Organization of Women-New York City filed a complaint on Wednesday urging the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate embattled Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s past conduct and look into whether his current and former staff had any knowledge of harassment. That includes Councilman Steve Levin, who served as Lopez’s chief of 
Assemblyman Vito Lopez remains the Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman for now, but if he is forced to relinquish that post, a number of candidates including Assemblywoman Annette Robinson or District Leader Jo Anne Simon are being floated as replacements, according to Democratic sources. Robinson remains well liked among party leaders, and could forge a number of alliances across the 
A reader passes along a video shot earlier this week at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “New Ideas, New NY” policy conference of anti-fracking protesters interrupting the discussions. As Capital New York reported, “before the protest,[former New Mexico Governor Bill] Richardson had praised Cuomo, who has postponed a final decision on fracking while the state conducts an 
From the Department of things we totally were not expecting comes this release from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Office, saying Assemblyman Vito Lopez, powerful chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee, will be removed as chair following allegations of sexual harassment against him. Silver’s letter to Lopez is included below. [bold emphases mine] “The bi-partisan Assembly 
There’s a possible hurricane headed for the Republican convention in Tampa and across the rest of the country, tempests were escaping the confines of their teapots, from Rep. Todd Akin’s gaffe factory to a couple of Congress members’ drunk and ‘nekkid’ swimming in the Holy Land. Back here in New York, we waited for the 
More than 50 people rallied yesterday against StudentsFirstNY, a political group launched earlier this year to push for charter schools, for making it easier to lay off teachers and for other education policy changes. Carrying signs saying “StudentsFirstNY = Billionaire$ Fir$t NY” and “Fat Cats – Get Your Dirty Paws Off Our Schools,” demonstrators gathered along 
The New York City Planning Commission didn’t include a ban on big box stores when it voted yesterday on development plans for the Seward Park Extension Renewal Area, or SPURA, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, despite pressure from some local residents and activists. A push for size limits, which had been included in the local community board’s 
Wendy Long, the Republican challenger to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, went on the attack against the incumbent earlier this week over the senator’s Off the Sidelines web site, which Long called a “deception” and “a big scam.” The web site, OfftheSidelines.org, portrays itself as an avenue to get women “off the sidelines” and involved in 
DIANE SAVINO New York State Senator Q: What are the key issues facing organized labor? DS: The private-sector unions, especially the service sector, will continue to pursue a legislative agenda that will bring many of their members into the organized sector. Issues like living wage or prevailing wage and paid sick leave top the agenda 
Two years ago I walked into a fund-raiser for Planned Parenthood New York City at a cream-colored midtown apartment filled with fresh flowers. It was a scene out of a Nancy Meyers movie: educated, professional women and men in comfortable chic clothes with sharp eyewear. Council Speaker Christine Quinn was the star attraction, but I 
