Homeless LGBTQ youth from three shelters will be performing in an interactive theater festival this weekend. At one performance, city and state legislators will join, and turn audience ideas into policy proposals. A similar Legislative Theatre event in Brazil produced policy changes affecting human rights and prison conditions.

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After a series of anti-gay attacks in Manhattan, city and state legislators are joining homeless gay youth in an interactive theater performance based on the real-life experiences of the teens involved.

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  Homeless LGBTQ youth rehearse for Theatre of the Oppressed festival

The “legislative performance” is part of a theater festival presented by Theatre of the Oppressed NYC that will take place this Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19, at the Church of St. Luke in the Field in Greenwich Village. The legislators’ performance will be on Saturday at 2 p.m.

City Councilmembers Daniel Dromm, Jimmy Van Bramer and Rosie Mendez, City Council Candidate Corey Johnson and New York State Senator Brad Hoylman will join three homeless LGBTQ teen acting ensembles from three local shelters geared at LGBTQ youth: The Ali Forney Center, The Door, and the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

The teens will also be joined on stage by a U.S. Housing and Urban Development policy analyst, Homeless Coordinator Samuel Miller and Department of Justice Regional Director Reinaldo Rivera. 

The plays will deal with the issues that the homeless LGBTQ teens face. Katy Rubin, the 27-year-old founder of both the festival and Theatre of the Opressed NYC, said that one of the main topics is the shortage of shelter beds that are safe for LGBTQ youth and being victims of hate crimes in non-LGBTQ shelters for youth.

There are only 80 bed available in LGBTQ-friendly shelters in New York City, for an estimated 1,800 homeless gay teens.

Some of the teens rehearsing. Clockwise from top: Sophie Nimmannit, TONYC Joker, Member of Door Troupe, Kendall (floor). Credit: Theatre of the Oppressed.

The performances in the festival are interactive: the teens act out a scene and then invite the audience onstage to improv, act out, and brainstorm solutions to the issues portrayed in the scene. At the performance involving legislators, the audience’s ideas will be shaped into policy proposals by the legislators, and the audience will vote on the proposals.

In a similar festival in Brazil, this kind of Legislative Theatre has led to policy changes in education, prison rights, and civil rights, Rubin said.

The performance, as well as all other performances and panel discussions in the festival, are free of charge and open to the public.

“We really want everybody’s voice to be part of the dialogue,” Rubin said.

Legislative Theatre Performance

Saturday, May 18 at 2 p.m.

The Church of St. Luke in the Fields

487 Hudson Street

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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan Thursday intended to promote the safety and economic involvement of immigrants in New York City.

The plan would eliminate bureaucratic obstacles faced by domestic violence victims, who are eligible for a special visa, lessen cooperation with the federal detention and deportation process, and eliminate the city’s Human Resources Administration’s mandate that sponsors of legal immigrants repay the city for assistance sought by the individuals they sponsor.

“Our city can’t be whole while hundreds of thousands of people are living in the shadows,” de Blasio said.

Karen Kaminsky at the New York Immigration Coalition called de Blasio’s proposals “common sense,” and said they “will contribute to rebuilding a sense of trust between the NYPD and the communities they serve.”

“NYC should not be in the business of helping deport people,” Kaminsky said.

De Blasio’s proposal includes legislation similar to that in Colorado, which would enable immigrants to get driver’s licenses and auto insurance, as well as legislation that currently exists or is being put in place in New Haven, San Francisco and Los Angeles, which would provide undocumented immigrants with municipal IDs, giving them access to city services.

“We’re seeing states and cities around the country take the lead in opening their doors,” de Blasio said. “New York City has to retake the mantel of the nation’s premier open city, that welcomes all immigrants and knits them into our civic life.”

Council members, including Daniel Dromm and Gale Brewer, recently proposed legislation to allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. While Mayor Michael Bloomberg has generally been a vocal proponent of immigrant rights, his office said they would not support such legislation because it conflicts with state law.

The Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs, established in 1984, is the only chartered immigrant affairs office in the country.

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The New York State Legislature has sent a letter to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics demanding that any mention of Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office be removed from an investigative report into sexual harassment allegations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the New York Times reported.

The letter states that the inquest into the role played by Silver’s office is outside of the jurisdiction of the ethics regulators.

Following the public outing of the Lopez scandal last summer, Silver admitted he authorized a settlement with other women who had made allegations of sexual harassment by Lopez.

Silver has previously called for the release of the report in full, which his spokesman repeated following the release of the letter.

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A former New York state senator from Queens secretly recorded seven lawmakers as part of a political corruption probe, according to a court document unsealed Wednesday.

Shirley Huntley, 74, a Democrat who pleaded guilty in January to embezzling $87,700 from a nonprofit organization, recorded and photographed the officials on multiple occasions in the summer of 2012 after meeting with federal prosecutors and agents, according to the filing in Brooklyn federal court.

The recorded lawmakers include New York state Sens. John Sampson, Eric Adams, Ruth Hassel-Thompson, Jose Peralta, Malcolm Smith and Velmanette Montgomery, and New York City Councilman Rubin Wills. Huntley also taped conversations with Melvin Lowe, a former political consultant and associate of New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, and Curtis Taylor, a former press adviser for Malcolm Smith.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment. However, it said in a separate court filing Tuesday that eight of the nine individuals recorded remain under investigation. No details of the investigation were provided. Huntley’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Wills said that his attorney had been informed by law enforcement that his client was not the subject of an investigation. Adams said he had not been contacted with regard to any investigation. Peralta he was confident authorities would find he did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Representatives for Sampson and Smith declined to comment. Representatives for the other senators did not immediately return a request for comment. The non-elected officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Two of the individuals who Huntley taped have already been named in federal criminal cases.

Last month, Smith was charged with bribery in connection with the New York City mayoral race. Sampson was charged Monday with embezzling funds from foreclosed properties in Brooklyn. Both pleaded not guilty.

The filing, a sentencing memorandum from Huntley, was originally filed under seal. After media outlets, including Reuters, requested that it be made public, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein unsealed the filing.

Huntley, who faces up to five years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

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Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday the addition of millions of government records to the state’s data transparency website open.ny.gov.

The added information to the website, which launched in March, include campaign contributions and expenditures since 1999, lists of lobbyists and their expenditures, and a downloadable directory of state government employees with office telephone numbers.

The website also allows users to download the data, create analysis graphs, search by keyword and compare with other public data.

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UPDATE: Not long after Councilman Dan Halloran announced he would not pursue a second term in order to “focus [his] attention” on “restoring [his] reputation” in the wake of corruption allegations, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn suggested he take it a step further.

“I urge Council Member Halloran to think hard about whether he should go further and step down immediately,” Quinn said in a statement.

Quinn brought up not only the allegations of bribery and corruption, but also more recent ones of sexual harassment.

“The constituents of Dan Halloran’s district deserve to have a Council Member who is full-time, 100 percent focused on representing them,” the statement continued. “Clearly, with the outrageously unacceptable allegations that are pending… he is far from 100 percent focused on his constituents.”

The Wall Street Journal noted that following Halloran’s arrest about a month ago, Quinn took away his committee assignments and barred him from allocating city money, rendering him essentially ineffective as a councilmember.

Metro’s original story is below.

Councilman Dan Halloran, who was arrested about a month ago on corruption charges along with State Senator Malcolm Smith, announced that he is cutting short his campaign for re-election in order to focus his energies on clearing his name.

Halloran and Smith are accused of trying to use bribes to get Smith on the GOP ballot in the city’s mayoral race this year.

“Regrettably, I must now focus my attention on clearing my name and restoring my reputation, while I continue to discharge my sworn duties as a member of the New York City Council,” Halloran said in a statement. “After much thought, I have concluded that it is impossible for me to properly do these things and take on the enormous demands of a political campaign.”

Halloran continues to insist he is innocent and said he is “confident that [he] will ultimately be vindicated.”

“Our Nation enshrines the presumption of innocence for a reason, and I look forward to having my day in court,” he said.

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Senator Brad Hoylman has introduced a bill that would legally prohibit mental health professionals from using “conversion therapies” meant to turn gay teens straight.

Hoylman, a Democrat from Manhattan, is co-sponsoring the bill with Queens Democrat Michael Gianaris. The same bill will be brought to the Assembly by Manhattan Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, a Democrat and a lesbian.

Hoylman, who has a husband and a two-yeay-old daughter, condemned the practice as “particularly detrimental to young people,” and asserted that it reinforces stigma and “a culture of unacceptance, because it suggests that young gay people shouldn’t be gay.”

Hoylman said this is one of the first bills he started researching when he took office on January 1. He consulted with advocates and analysts at the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as some LGBT people who were subjected to attempts at conversion.

The legislation is personally compelling to the senator, as he referenced his two-year-old daughter.

“I think about her future and how she perceives her parents, her dads, and whether the medical establishment views her family as normal or not,” Hoylman said.

But while he has his eye on the ramifications for the society and his family, he said “the most important issue is to protect young people from quacks.”

A similar law was enacted in California last year but is currently on hold while it’s challenged in court.

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms Executive Director Reverend Jason McGuire told the NY Daily News he doubted that the law would pass in New York.

“I simply believe that those in the homosexual community should recognize that there is a significant population in that community that want to leave that lifestyle and pursue a heterosexual lifestyle,” McGuire said. “People should respect their choice to pursue that.”

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State Sen. Malcolm Smith was formally indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly trying to bribe his way onto this year’s mayoral ballot.

Smith was arrested by FBI agents April 2 for allegedly scheming with Queens Councilman Dan Halloran, a Republican, to bribe the GOP party in order to get Smith on the Republican ballot for mayor. As a Democrat, Smith needed the support of at least three Republican county chairmen to get on the ballot.

Halloran and party leaders Joseph Savino of the Bronx and Vincent Tabone of Queens were also named in the indictment. Smith and Halloran face 45 years in prison if convicted of the charges, the New York Post reports.

The councilman allegedly set up meetings with the party leaders to negotiate thousands of dollars in bribes, while keeping some of the money for himself.

Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret were also indicted Thursday for taking money and property in a related bribery scheme.

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Legislators in Albany have apparently taken to playfully “frisking” one another, according to a New York Times report.

The practice comes at a time when several lawmakers have been indicted on federal charges of corruption, and were caught due to incriminating conversations recorded on wires worn by colleagues.

“You run into them, and you feel them up and down,” said Queens Assemblyman David Weprin.

All four lawmakers involved in the recent corruption scandals hail from the five boroughs of New York City. They are also all Democrats.

Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith is charged with bribery in an attempt to run for city mayor.

Two assemblymen from the Bronx, Eric Stevenson and Nelson Castro, are also in hot water. Steveson is accused of taking bribes from developers of adult day care centers in his district. Castro resigned in a deal where he agreed, in exchange for avoiding prosecution for perjury, to wear a wire to record conversations with fellow lawmakers.

And Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland was recently taken in for bribery, among several other charges.

Weprin, a Democrat, noted the need to “make light of” the situation, as other Congress members similarly complained of the frustration caused by their allegedly felonious colleagues.

“These people make our lives impossible,” said state Sen. Martin Dilan, reportedly over a game of darts and some drinks with a fellow senator, 28-year-old Rafael Espinal. The two both hail from Brooklyn.

Espinal agreed: “We’re all angry. We’re angry at the fact that we have to, the good ones or most of us, deal with the backlash.”

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Former Congressman Anthony Weiner has not yet declared that he is running for mayor, but a new poll showed him in second place among the Democratic candidates, trailing only City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in a hypothetical primary race.

According to an NBC New York/Marist poll released Tuesday, Quinn led the race with support from 26 percent of voters, and Weiner came in second with 15 percent. City Comptroller John Liu followed with 12 percent, and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio both received 11 percent.

“Right now, a Weiner candidacy attracts double-digit support in the Democratic primary,” said Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.  “He makes it even more difficult for any of the Democratic contenders to reach the needed 40 percent to avoid a runoff.”

Weiner recently returned to the public eye when he announced in an interview with The New York Times Magazine that he is considering running for mayor. The former congressman resigned in 2011 amid a sexting scandal.

When voters were asked if Weiner should enter the mayoral race, 40 percent of registered Democrats said he should run, while 46 percent said he shouldn’t run. Fourteen percent said they are not sure.

The poll also showed what the race would look like without Weiner: Quinn led the race with 30 percent of support, de Blasio came in second with 15 percent, Thompson followed with 14 percent and Liu received 11 percent of support.

The results indicated a slight drop in support for Quinn, even though she still led by a large margin. A similar poll conducted in February showed 37 percent of voters supported Quinn.

The survey was conducted between April 11 and 15, with 1,127 adults interviewed over the phone.

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Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died this morning aged 87.

She had been ill for some time, but died following a stroke, according to a spokesman.

Thatcher was Britain’s first and only female prime minister and served in that capacity for 11 years.

She was dubbed The Iron Lady by diplomats in Russia and Europe over her tough, uncompromising stance in negotiations over the European Union and arms control in the Cold War.

She was also a staunch ally of the United States and had a close personal relationship with former President Ronald Reagan.

At home she was a divisive figure. Her tenure saw the U.K. develop from one of the economic “sick men of Europe” into a powerhouse of the European Union. She destroyed once-powerful unions, but her time in office also saw record unemployment in former industrial areas. 

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  PHOTOS: Remembering Margaret Thatcher

She came to office in 1979 and by 1982 was riding at historic lows in polls due to the tough economic measures she delivered to transform Britain.

The turning point in her fortunes came in May 1982 when Argentinian military forces invaded the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

Many observers, including the Argentinian forces and American diplomats, forecast that Britain would do nothing. Instead, Thatcher ordered Britain’s military to send a task force to retake the islands. The task force set sail within three days of being ordered to do so and within weeks had pulled off  a stunning military victory to eject Argentina from the Falklands.

The wave of patriotic fervor that followed fueled a general election victory in 1983.

Michael Howard, a successor of Thatcher as leader of the center-right Conservative Party said she “was a titan of British politics. I believe she saved our country.”

Five things we’ll remember about Thatcher

Britain’s First Female Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, when elected in 1979, became Britain’s first and so far only female prime minister and the West’s first female head of government. Her political dominance and leadership helped power on for three consecutive terms in office, and inspired countless women worldwide to break the glass ceiling of male-dominated politics.

Maggie clad in iron
She wasn’t called Iron Lady for nothing. Shaped by a hard-line political and economic stance, Thatcher shut down national coal mines, slashed social spending, refused to recognize Northern Irish political prisoners and introduced a widely unpopular poll tax.

The Queen of the 1980s
With her fondness for the private sector, deregulation and big missiles, Maggie embodied the zeitgeist of the 1980s – bellicose, ultra-aggressive capitalism – and she was loved for it. The 1982 Falklands War boosted her popularity, while herself and US President Ronald Reagan looked quite the (super) power couple in the era’s anti-communist chic.

No sleep, no problem
Tireless Thatcher famously said while in power she could get by on just four hours a night. She joins the genetically blessed Sleepless Elite, a band of top historical figures and leaders (Napoleon, Da Vinci, Churchill and Florence Nightingale) that needed five hours or less of shut-eye.

‘Power dressing’ personified
Her sense of style was as powerful as her politics. Sporting a helmet of deep strawberry hair, broad Royal blue skirt suits, and the briefcase-esque handbag, Thatcher pioneered the bold “I’m shoulder to shoulder with men” look. Her taste for proud Britishness was reflected in her choice of classic heritage labels Asprey and Aquascutum.

Credit: Anthony Johnston, Metro World News in London

… And 5 facts you ought to know about Thatcher

Keen chemist: Before becoming an MP, Thatcher worked as a research chemist for British chemical companies Xylonite and Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream.

Infamous monikers: Worldwide people know the Iron Lady, but lesser-known nicknames include The Milk Snatcher (after she removed free school milk for over-7s), Attila the Hen, The She-Elephant and Brigitte Bardot with Caligula’s eyes (thank French president Francois Mitterand for that one.)

Lowering the tone: King George VI (from movie “The King’s Speech”) wasn’t the only British ruler to get voice therapy. Thatcher had her voice changed to sound more authoritative. After intensive training with a National Theatre tutor, Thatcher’s voice was lowered by 46 hertz and has became a cross between a typical male and female voice.

A perfect wife: Despite being Britain’s prime minister for 11 and a half years, Thatcher insisted on cooking for her husband every night and never had a personal chef while in office.

Troublesome children: Her son Mark received a four-year suspended jail sentence after funding mercenaries in a 2004 coup d’état attempt in Equatorial Guinea (British backers were allegedly keen on tapping into that country’s oil and gas reserves.) Mark’s twin sister Carol made some headlines when she won a British celeb reality show in 2005 but made many more in 2009 after uttering an off-air racist comment about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

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New York State Senator Diane Savino had been a co-sponsor of the New York state medical marijuana bill since she first joined the Senate, and credits her interest in the cause to the “thousands and thousands of New Yorkers who suffer from chronic, debilitating conditions like multiple-sclerosis, epilepsy, diabetes, and cancer.”

“Unfortunately for them, the options that are available to them are high addictive, very deadly narcotics—oxycodone, vicodin, ativan,” she listed. “[These drugs are] a lot more damaging to you than marijuana but because of the laws in New York state, they can’t sit down with their doctor and come up with the best treatment plan for them.”

Savino said the New York bill would be the most regulated marijuana statute in the country.

“California is the worst model, there it’s like the Wild West, literally,” she said. “There’s almost no regulation, there’s almost no discernment on the part of medical professionals [about] who should and shouldn’t have marijuana.”

“It’s exactly the opposite of what we want in New York,” she added.

The way Savino describes it, legalizing marijuana could even be a profitable endeavor for the state.

“We want to license it, we want to tax it, we want to derive a significant amount of revenue from it,” she said.

Savino said there would be a licensing fee imposed upon growers and dispensers, and an excise tax that has yet to be determined.

As for whether medical marijuana will be available to veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a potential use floated by advocacy group the New York Cannabis Alliance, Savino said she’s “not sure.”

“I don’t believe we’re listing that,” she said. “Unfortunately, unlike other drugs, which are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, marijuana is still going to be considered illegal by the federal government, so we have to list specific conditions.”

Savino said that public opinion is a factor in how restrictive the criteria in the bill is.

“Unfortunately the public is a little leery about what this substance could be used for, so we have to proceed a little bit carefully,” she explained.

But the senator said she knows this legislation is vitally important to many New Yorkers.

Savino said she gets letters and phone calls not just from her own constituents, but from “people all over the state who have been living in pain, and if they just lived across one of the three bridges that connect us to New Jersey, they would have that option [to use medical marijuana].”

“Unfortunately, some people aren’t going to live long enough to avail themselves of this options, but for those people that are, we have to move,” Savino said.

The senator hopes to have a vote on the bill before the end of the legislative session.

Medical marijuana: the personal

Medical marijuana: a doctor’s perspective

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When Attorney Preet Bharara brought two corruption cases against New York state politicians this week, accusing some of selling their votes and another of trying to bribe his way onto the ballot, he challenged the political class to clean up the system.

Some political veterans worry any reforms are destined to fail, and that only a federal prosecutor like Bharara can crack down on crookedness.

Asked if this week’s cases could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in the state capital Albany, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was quick to respond: “No, this camel’s very strong.”

Over the last seven years, 31 New York state office holders have been convicted, censured, or otherwise accused of wrong-doing, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

“There need to be enough cases made so that people realize the likelihood of being caught increases,” Spitzer, also a former state attorney general whose political rise was tied to his challenges of Wall Street corruption, told Reuters. “And that at the end of the day is going to be what changes the system.”

In 2006, Spitzer captured the governor’s mansion in a landslide victory after campaigning that “Day One, Everything Changes.” His aggressive efforts at reform were cut short two years later, when he resigned amid a prostitution scandal.

Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey said there was a “crime wave of corruption” in Albany and in New York City but he is hopeful the cases will lead to reforms.

“I very much hope that this is the thread that is being pulled out of the sweater and will unravel everything,” said Dadey, whose group has long pushed for more transparency.

Bharara, the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, brought charges against state Senator Malcolm Smith on Tuesday, accusing him of a plot to buy a spot on New York City’s mayoral ballot. New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran was charged with accepting bribes to set up meetings between Smith and two Republican party leaders, who were also charged.

Lawyers for both men said they will fight the charges.

Two days later, Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was charged with accepting more than $22,000 in bribes in exchange for helping four businessmen establish a network of senior daycare centers in the Bronx. He too plans to fight the charges, his lawyer said.

“Federal prosecutors and federal agents are doing everything we can to proactively attack the corruption problem. And it’s time for others to step up also,” Bharara said.

Experts worry reformers will step back, not up.

“The state government really breeds a culture where it’s all about the money,” said Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Project.

“Every single week in Albany there’s a dozen fundraisers within a block of the state capitol, and as soon as legislators finish voting on a bill, they walk over to a fundraiser and get checks from the people who told them to vote a certain way on that,” said Mahoney.

“A LACK OF WILL”

While Illinois and Louisiana may have the greater reputation for corruption, New York has its own colorful history, best exemplified by William “Boss” Tweed, who built a Democratic Party political machine in mid-19th Century New York City that held power until Republican Fiorello La Guardia was elected mayor in 1933.

The culture of Tweed’s Tammany Hall machine persists. State lawmakers are now more likely to be ousted from office because of criminal or ethical issues than defeated in a general election, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Advocates of reform also cite weak campaign finance laws and limitations on prosecutors as impediments. New York has the highest contribution limits of those states that set limits, for example allowing an individual donation per election cycle of almost $17,000 to a state senator.

This week, Citizens Union released a series of reform proposals including giving the state attorney general the power to pursue public corruption and election law violations, rather than leaving such enforcement to local law enforcement. The group also called for instituting nonpartisan elections in city races and passage of comprehensive campaign finance reform.

Bharara said corruption was to be expected given “a lack of transparency, a lack of self-disclosure, a lack of self policing, a lack of will, and a failure of leadership.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo – the former state attorney general who came into office in 2011 on a reform platform – has said he intends to take up a campaign finance reform bill this year.

Cuomo won plaudits for an ethics reform bill passed in his first year, but was criticized for declining to wield his veto power after state lawmakers drew up self-serving electoral boundaries during the once-a-decade redistricting process.

This week’s charges could encourage bold action from a shamed legislature said Larry Norden, deputy director at the Brennan Center. “Politically, I think this has the potential to have an impact in a way that previous scandals have not.”

Still, reformers say that, without overwhelming pressure, lawmakers are unlikely to curb their own powers or to make it easier for investigators to monitor their activities.

For example, good government groups have long decried the existence of large pots of undefined money, set aside for infrastructure spending in the state or for local initiatives in New York City. In the cases brought this week, Halloran is said to have offered to redirect City Council member funds in exchange for money, while prosecutors say Smith boasted of money outside the budget that is “always around.”

And yet, the existence of those funds creates enormous power for leaders who can dole them out.

Watchdog groups and political analysts also hope to empower state and local prosecutors to do more.

“In a well-functioning state, this would be done at the local level and not at the federal level,” said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who worked under Giuliani and is now a law professor at Columbia University.

“I’m one of those who thinks that having overlapping jurisdictions, particularly for white-collar crimes, are a good thing,” Richman said. “They lead to competition.”

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The FBI informant in the mayoral ballot bribe investigation that has led to the arrests of state Sen. Malcolm Smith and Queens Councilman Dan Halloran is a business developer who owes Citigroup $126 million over a failed real estate project, according to various news reports.

Moses Stern, 40, is the man who helped the FBI secretly tape conversations with the senator which revealed a plot to bribe Republican county chairmen to get Smith on their ballot in the upcoming mayoral race.

But Stern is accused of plotting a fraudulent deal of his own. His realty firm borrowed tens of millions of dollars from Citigroup in 2007 to buy up 11 shopping malls, but Citigroup soon discovered that the firm lied about where the mortgage payments were going to, The Daily News reports.

In the criminal complaint against Smith, Stern is listed as a “cooperating witness” who presented himself to Smith and the others as a wealthy, connected developer who could deliver campaign money in exchange for political favors, the News reports.

In addition to Smith and Halloran, Republican County Chairman Jay Savino, Joseph Tabone, Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin and Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret were all arrested Wednesday for their involvement in a scheme to get Smith on the GOP ballot. As a Democrat, Smith needed the support of three Republican county chairmen to run on the Republican party line.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted state lawmakers Wednesday for blocking a proposal to place speed-tracking cameras on city streets, blaming them for the future deaths of children killed by speeding cars. 

The next time a child dies from being struck by a speeding car, “why don’t you pick up the phone and call your state senator and ask why they allowed that child to be killed,” he said at a news conference, according to The New York Times.

The mayor even said his office would provide the contact information for three senators: Republican majority leader Dean Skelos and Brooklyn’s Simcha Felder and Martin Golden.

“Maybe you want to give those phone numbers to the parents of the child when a child is killed,” he said. “It would be useful so that the parents can know exactly who’s to blame.”

Speed cameras were included in a budget package in the State Assembly, but it recently became apparent that they are not included in the budget that is expected to be approved this week.

Felder said the mayor’s comments were “inflammatory, reckless and out of touch, as usual,” the Times reports. Golden said Wednesday other cities that use speed cameras have found them to be “unreliable.”

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A representative at the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes disputed claims that the DA is going to be involved in a reality television show on CBS in the coming months.

“The CBS people don’t call it that and we don’t call it that,” said Jerry Schmetterer, the DA’s Director of Public Information. “I don’t believe it’s accurate to call it a reality show in the genre that we’re used to seeing reality shows.”

Schmetterer instead described the television appearance as a six-episode documentary. The first episode will air on May 21st, he said.

Schmetterer also emphasized that the show is not specifically about Hynes.

“It’s focusing on the 1,200 people who work here in the DA’s office, which is the largest office in the country,” Schmetterer explained. “It’s really taking a look at the important and difficult work that they do.”

“The DA is a part of it, but he’s just one part,” Schmetterer added.

According to Schmetterer, the show will look at the inner workings of the office, as well as “re-create” some of the most famous cases the office has prosecuted.

Some people are skeptical, however, including one of Hynes’ competitors in this year’s election, Ken Thompson.

Thompson seized upon a line in the Daily News report that broke the news of Hynes’ television appearance.

“The network was also given access to two sensitive sting operations that prosecutors have been working on for months, and that they’re hoping to make arrests on before the show airs,” the Daily News wrote.

Thompson slammed Hynes over this allegation, saying, “It is simply reckless for District Attorney Hynes to share sensitive information about ongoing cases and investigations with a film crew for self-promotion—information that leaked before the show even aired and could easily lead to more failed prosecutions and overturned cases.”

Schmetterer dismissed these accusations, saying that when the show airs, “there’ll be no confidential information revealed.”

“There’ll be no open cases involved in the documentary,” he said. “They haven’t been given access to anything that other reporters couldn’t get access to.”

But in regard to “that information about two cases,” Schmetterer mentioned that, at the request of the DA’s office, “the Daily News agreed not to run… information [in the internal CBS document] that would endanger these cases and maybe lives.”

Still, he insisted, “no case is being compromised.”

He emphasized that the document the Daily News obtained was an internal document from one CBS employee to another, and “there’s a lot in that document that isn’t happening.”

“What the Daily News was working off of was nothing that was official and nothing that was vetted for accuracy,” Schmetterer concluded.

In 2011, prosecutors in the Manhattan DA’s office who were responsible for litigating sex crime cases were the focus of an HBO documentary, prompting criticism from former prosecutors. Defense attorneys for two NYPD cops acquitted of rape but convicted of official misconduct used the opportunity to review the footage in the hope that they could move for a mistrial. However, the cops were ultimately sentenced and did not win their appeal.

Susan Zilinsky, reportedly a producer on the show, did not respond to a request for comment.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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The United States Supreme Court will look at the controversial Defense of Marriage Act tomorrow, in a case brought by long-time New Yorker Edith “Edie” Windsor.

Windsor was forced to pay $363,053 in estate taxes when her partner of more than 40 years passed away in 2009.

Windsor and her partner, Thea Spyer, were married in Toronto in 2007, and at the time of Spyer’s death, same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions were recognized in New York, even though same-sex marriages were not yet legal in-state.

However, because estate taxes are federal, Windsor did not have the same rights under federal law that a heterosexual widow would have: namely, inheriting from a spouse untaxed.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed an amicus brief on behalf of the state of New York and a coalition of 13 other states, urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that it infringes on state laws.

“[This case] matters a great deal to New Yorkers,” Schneiderman told Brian Lehrer on WNYC on Monday. “In addition to discriminating against individuals, it discriminates against the states that recognize same-sex marriage because it says that… the federal government doesn’t have to respect our marriages and provide married couples from New York with all the benefits that other… marriages get [and] it also says that other states don’t have to respect our marriages.”

“It’s a matter of overreaching by Congress and overreaching by the federal government into an area that should be committed to the states as it always has been,” Schneiderman added.

Schneiderman’s argument frames the overturning of DOMA not as a legalizing of same-sex marriage, but rather as eliminating a ban on it. If the Supreme Court strikes down DOMA, it would not establish a right to same-sex marriage in every state, but the federal government would be obliged to provide equal rights to those marriages in states that do permit them.

“This is about discrimination against the state of New York and the nine other states and the District of Columbia that have same-sex marriage,” Schneiderman told Lehrer.

Ez Cukor, an attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group’s LGBT Law Project, pointed to other rights conferred on heterosexual married couples but denied to same-sex couples, including the ability to take medical leave to care for a sick spouse.

“My colleague Virginia had a client who lost her job because she couldn’t get [Family Medical Leave Act] leave,” Cukor explained. “If she’d been married to someone of the opposite sex, federal law would have allowed her to take care of her sick spouse and return to her job.”

Instead, Cukor says, the woman’s employer let her go.

Cukor also explained that under New York state law, same-sex couples can be married in New York regardless of their status as citizens or non-citizens, but due to DOMA, a gay partner cannot file a green card application for his or her non-citizen spouse.

“It leaves people in the bind of having to live here without documentation, or having to leave,” Cukor said. “The immigration issue is of particular concern in New York City where we have a large immigrant population.”

Proposition 8

The Supreme Court looked at another same-sex marriage case today: this one about Proposition 8, the California amendment that states that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

While repealing DOMA would leave the issue up to the states to decide, ruling against Prop 8 in this case could make marriage a constitutionally protected right for all Americans.

The Court debated whether “regulating procreation through marriage” does indeed “serve the Government’s interest,” as the argument in favor of Prop 8 states: namely, that marriage should only be between people who can have children. The justices questioned this logic, with Justice Elena Kagan asking one of the attorneys, Charles Cooper, if it would be constitutional for a state to refuse a marriage license to a couple over the age of 55.

“Your honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that… both parties to the couple are infertile,” Cooper responded.

Justice Kagan cut him off, however, saying, “I can just assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Former Gov. George Pataki announced on Thursday that he is endorsing John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain, in the mayoral race.

“John Catsimatidis has the skills, the vision and the courage needed to lead New York City. He’ll make a great mayor and that’s why I am endorsing him today,” Pataki said in a statement.

“John Catsimatidis isn’t a career politician,” he added.

The endorsement puts Pataki at odds with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani who has backed Joe Lhota, former MTA chairman, the New York Times reports. 

Catsimatidis’ $3 billion fortune may put him at an advantage ahead of his competitors. He has already spent $260,000 on his campaign in his first two months in the race, according to the Times.

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The soda ban officially goes into effect tomorrow, and a Daily News exclusive reports today that city health inspectors will be enforcing the mayor’s controversial ban with 17-ounce measuring cups.

Food-serving establishments, from restaurants to arenas to movie theaters, will be prohibited as of Tuesday from serving sugary beverages in containers larger than 16 ounces.

The health inspectors’ measuring cups are apparently intended to allow for a one-ounce margin of error.

Deputy Health Commissioner Daniel Kass reportedly told the Daily News that the measuring cups are specially ordered.

A lobbyist from the National Association of Theatre Owners reportedly requested that “someone please call Jerry Seinfeld to request a reunion show just on this ridiculousness.”

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Governor Andrew Cuomo’s favorability rating has been on a steady decline in the past few months and hit an all-time low in the most recent poll by Siena College. Despite the slip, however, the poll shows he is still popular.

The governor’s favorable rating stands at 64-30 this month, compared to 72-21 in December, 71-24 in January and 67-29 in February. Cuomo hit his all-time high in February 2011 with a favorability of 77 percent.

The poll showed voters support the state’s new gun law, increasing the minimum wage, creating a system of public campaign financing for the state, enacting the governor’s reproductive health act and decriminalizing public possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana.

But when it came to legalizing casinos, support slipped from 48-22 to 46-23. Voters also slightly oppose fracking now 43-39.

Fifty-four percent of voters said they would re-elect the governor next year and 37 percent said they would prefer someone else.

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City Council Speaker Christine Quinn officially announced via Twitter and an online video this weekend that she is running for mayor.

The candidate, who was leading in the polls before officially running, tweeted Sunday morning: “It’s official: I’m running for mayor to fight for the middle class.”

Quinn released a 5-minute biographical video where she talks about growing up in a middle class home in Long Island, her father’s union activism, her mother’s battle with breast cancer, her accomplishments in the City Council and her vision for the city.

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  VIDEO: Christine Quinn launches bid for mayor

Though the latest polls have shown she is a favorite among democrats, she has also drawn criticism for being too close of an ally to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and stalling action on the paid sick leave bill.

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Republican mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis released the first 30-second radio ad of the 2013 mayoral campaign this week to some tepid reviews, with the New York Times describing it as “a scrappy, somewhat corny… stilted exchange.”

In the ad, a male voice inquires as to whether his companion knows who Catsimatidis is.

A female voice replies, “You mean the immigrant who came here with nothing, grew up poor in Harlem, and is a successful independent businessmen?”

The male voice proceeds to praise Catsimatidis as a “common sense guy” and promise that as mayor “he won’t owe anyone anything” because he’s “not a career politician.”

The ad ends with the woman asking her companion to repeat his pronunciation of the candidate’s name.

The candidate also recently conducted a robocall in which, Capital New York noted, he repeated his own name four times.

A recent Qunnipiac poll found that 86 percent of all voters haven’t heard enough about Catsimatidis to form an opinion.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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City Council Speaker Christine Quinn drew criticism from some of her competitors in the race for mayor on Thursday for her refusal to allow a vote on the paid sick leave bill.

Quinn, a favorite for mayor, defended her decision at a forum in Harlem to stall a City Council vote on the bill that would require employers to give workers paid sick days, The Daily News reported.

Quinn said the city’s economy is not strong enough to have employers be mandated to pay workers for sick leave. This drew jeers from the crowd and criticism from the other mayoral candidates.

A group of women politicians recently rallied at City Hall urging Quinn to act on the bill. Feminist author and activist Gloria Steinem said last month that she would not endorse Quinn if she did not allow a vote.

Quinn has delayed acting on the bill for more than two years, feeling pressure from both the business community and liberals. The legislation would require employers to give workers five paid sick days, which could be used for themselves or if a family member is sick.

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A majority of New Yorkers support Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on plastic foam containers, but they are less supportive of his ban on large sugary drinks, according to a new poll.

The Quinnipiac University poll found that New York City voters support a potential plastic foam ban 69 percent to 26 percent. But when asked about the ban that prohibits the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at some establishments, New Yorkers are opposed 51 percent to 46 percent.

Opposition was especially strong among black voters. They oppose the drink ban 60 percent to 38 percent. The poll also found that more men oppose the ban than women do.

The ban on sugary drinks goes into effect March 12. Restaurants and other food establishments will no longer be able to sell sugary drinks that are larger than 16 ounces. Grocery stores and convenience stores, such as 7-11, are not affected.

A ban on plastic foam would force restaurants and other food service providers who currently use plastic foam to replace their takeout containers. Foam trays in school cafeterias would also be eliminated.

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The special prosecutor investigating sexual harassment allegations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez, Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan, has requested that the legislative ethics committee of the New York State Legislature withhold the report they’ve drafted until his investigation is finished, the NY Times reported.

However, a source allegedly told the Daily News the delay is “probably indefinite.”

According to the Daily News, the report “eviscerates” Lopez, and also does not reflect well on Speaker Sheldon Silver, who became entangled with the issue over a $103,000 settlement given to two female staffers who accused Lopez of harassment. The report allegedly does not say that Silver or his staff committed any ethical or criminal violation.

The report also allegedly describes new or worse instances of inappropriate touching by Lopez, according to the Times, though it is not clear if those details are grounds for criminal charges or simply unsavory.

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City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is leading among the Democratic contenders for mayor by a huge margin, with more support than her three biggest challengers combined, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.

Quinn has the support of 37 percent of registered Democrats, inching closer to the 40 percent she needs to avoid a runoff election.

Public Advocate Bill De Blasio follows with 14 percent, former Comptroller Bill Thompson has 11 percent and City Comptroller John Liu has 9 percent. Twenty seven percent are undecided.

The Quinnipiac survey also found that more New Yorkers are comfortable with a woman, an African-American, a Hispanic-American, an Asian-American, a gay or lesbian or someone married to a gay or lesbian as mayor than are comfortable with a business executive as mayor.

Quinn leads Republican candidate and former MTA Chairman Joe Lhota 69 percent to 19 percent, according to the poll.

Voters also said they do not know enough about the Republican candidates to form an opinion.

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Former two-term Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. formally announced Tuesday that he is running for mayor. He earned the support of the Independence Party last week.

Carrión made his announcement at the Bronx Museum of Arts.

The 51-year-old politician left the Democratic Party in 2012 to run as an independent.

Carrión, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is the only Hispanic candidate running for mayor. After serving as Bronx Borough President, he worked for the Obama Administration as the Housing and Urban Development Regional Director for New York and New Jersey.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes a ban on large sugary drinks, to take effect in the city March 12, should be expanded to the whole state.

A spokesman for the mayor confirmed on Monday that the mayor thinks the ban will save lives and the state should adopt the same policy, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Under the ban, restaurants, food carts, movie theaters and other food service establishments are restricted from selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces. Grocery stores and convenience stores are exempt. Come June, violators of the ban will be fined.

The ban has been controversial and unpopular since it was first introduced. The mayor has defended the policy, saying that people are still free to buy more than one beverage if they want more than 16 ounces.

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