From City & State’s Heard Around Town: Earlier this week, the operator of an East Village record store told the New York Post – whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, has drawn attention for criticizing the legislation on Twitter – that pending paid sick leave legislation, which the New York City Council may or may not vote 
2013 Mayoral Race Malcolm Smith will discuss a possible run with the five NYC GOP chairs. Will Christine Quinn eventually back paid sick leave? Staten Island Michael Grimm failed to properly disclose a trip to Cyprus. Queens The Senate Democrats hit Eric Ulrich for missing a minimum wage vote. Ulrich was also knocked again for 
Carl Kruger was hearing rumors around his neighborhood. Confidants told the Brooklyn State Senator that federal agents had approached them and asked questions about Kruger. Private questions. It unnerved him. Kruger needed an attorney. He called Benjamin Brafman. “He came to see me, said that he had learned there were people being interviewed, and he 
2013 Mayoral Race Paid sick leave advocates plan to use member of Christine Quinn’s LGBT base to pressure her on the issue. The issue shows how much power is wielded by Quinn. Meet the campaign finance loophole that developers love. Brooklyn Craig Eaton is at odds with David Storobin over Storobin’s signature-gathering efforts. Queens Dan 
A source passed along an advance copy of a radio interview set to air tonight, in which Comptroller John Liu says he hopes the federal investigation into his fundraising will be finished before the 2013 mayoral race kicks into gear. “I’m hoping by the beginning of the year [in 2013], which will still be clear 
After helping knock Pedro Espada out of the Senate in 2010, lefty millionaire Bill Samuels is getting involved this year in a Brooklyn district leader race. Samuels, who is declining to use his reform-minded group the New Roosevelt Initiative to back any Senate candidates in 2012, writes in a fundraising pitch to potential donors that 
After Nan Hayworth’s campaign spokesman resigned in June, Democrats are looking to make an issue of a new top Hayworth aide. The Republican congresswoman’s former top adviser, Jay Townsend, resigned after he wrote a Facebook wall post saying, “Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to 
From today’s Heard Around Town: * The fight over paid sick leave in the New York City Council is becoming a battle between the New York Times and conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. After the Times editorialized in favor of sick leave over the weekend, Murdoch took to Twitter yesterday to write: “Somebody needs to 
Infamous former lobbyist Jack Abramoff claims to be a changed man. After making millions of dollars manipulating the system, Abramoff, who was once chairman of the College Republican National Committee and close friends with ex–House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is now working with liberal lions like Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig and good-government groups to reform 
By Michael Benjamin Like many New Yorkers, I thank Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his repeated demurrals concerning a presidential bid in 2016. Cuomo was elected to run our state, not to use Albany as a Triple-A way station on his way to the “show.” Two hundred and thirty-six years into our nation’s history, a professional 
