Council slaps Mike, boosts Sect.8 rents for the poor

SIDING WITH low-income tenants,the City Council voted this week to enact a new law--over Mayor Bloomberg's veto to bar rental discriminatiion against tenants with Section 8 vouchers. The 44-to 4 vote by the Council overrode a veto cast by the Mayor last mounth of a bill that was first passed by the Council on Jan. 1.The repassed bill will become law in a few days after it is certified and filed with city lawyers. Known as Intro,61-A, the measure bars landlords from rejecting prospective tenants based on their "lawful source of income" including having governmental housing subsidies such as Section 8 federal housing assistance. Just because a landlord may not like the fact that you use Section 8 or another income program, this bill says they can no longer say, No" said City Council Speaker Cristine Quinn (D-Manhattan ). " If you have the ability to pay, you have to be rented the apartment".
In vetoing the bill, Bloomberg had argued that the measure "essentially makes a voluntary government program involuntary" for landlords.Though he supports Section 8 vouchers, the Mayor said there are some bureaucratic aspects that are unfair to landlords.
He noted that onced a landlord accepts the vouchers for a particular appartment, that "unit is taken of the market while the necessary inspections and paperwork are completed." The delay averages three months, during which the landlord loses rent , he explained. The bill's chief sponsor , Council Bill deBlasio (D-Brooklyn), said the new law will enable aggrieved tenants ---or their avocates ---to file complaints with the city's Human Rights Commission or in state Supreme Court. The bill was originally passed by the Council by a vote of 39 to 8. Supporters needed a minimum of 34 votes for an overide, and did so with 10 votes to spare.
----- adapted from nydailynews Metro News 3-28-2008
Posted by davidsradiotv2000

Bloggers twist Obama's words

There's a new anti- Obama story-line whipping through cyberspace at the speed of stupid.

Put simply, some internet nitwits say Obama's comment that his --white grandmother who made racist remarks and was fearful of blacks ---was a "typical white person" just proves he can't stop alienating white voters. Never mind that Obama's point, made casually yesterday on a Philadelphia radio show, was to emphasize the important truth that whites, including his elderly grandmother, are slowly winning the fight to purge their hearts of poisonous prejudices.

That message was swiftly discarded as a gaggle of bloggers and correspondents -whose collective contribution to an honest national dialogue about race has been nil--pounced." Barack Obama basically called all white people racist," wrote blogger/radio show host Taylor Marsh on the Huffington Post, neatly avoiding the inconvenient fact

that such a libel from the bi-racial candidate would include ( or half -include ) himself

Other political Websites echoed Marsh's sentiment ---Oooh! He said "white person "!

Now he can't be President ! ---and conservatives dutifully added it to their talking points. Once again Obama, having scaled political heights undreamed of 90 days ago

finds himself bedeviled by his most formidable adversary: a bored and biased press

corps that refuses to recognize or report race relations the way Americans actually live it. Obama forecast this problem Tuesday in his groundbreaking race relations speech,

noting the media " has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polerization, not just interms of white and black, but black and brown as well. "



I saw the phenomenon up close in South Carolina, Obama supporters chanted, " It's

not about race " but hundreds of reporters ---many of whom had never set foot in the

state be fore ---pecked at their keyboards and told America the primary was racially divided ------- Were they k idding ? In South Carolina, Obama won 43 out of 46 counties : the richest, the poorest and basically everything in between --including a majority of white voters under 30. Of course that didn't stop the spin. Nor have the anti- Obama writers explained how he won so many votes in places like Iowa, Alaska,Vermont and Wyoming, where pretty much the only voters are white. The default explamation ----that those states somehow don't count---doesn't make much sense. Obama's daring attempt to initiate a frank national dialogue about race ---a challenge Hillary Clinton and John McClain seem unlikely to meet runs the risk of foundering on the rocky shore of smug ignorance and indifferance

It's odd that the same reporters and pundits who give short shrift to topics like housing segregation,discrimination and racial disparities in credit and health have become experts on race relations. Ridiculous ! All they're doing is seizing on non issues like Obama's remark to breathe life into a story line of racial division in the presidential race, even where it doesn't exist.

Their confidently pessimistic predictions about white voters abandoning Obama en masse have been wrong ever since they failed to predict Obama's Iowa win or the the stunning string of victories that followed. When the lull in primaries ends next month, voters will go about the business of proving the so-called experts wrong once again. Adapted from nydailynews ---and ERROL Louis page 8

posted by davidsradiotv2000

MTA hikes take toll

With tomorrow's increase, trip from Rockaways to N.J. could soar to $23.

A ROCKAWAY RESIDENT driving to Jersey to vist mom will need more than a fistful of quarters: It could cost up to $23 in bridge tolls.Tolls for MTA bridges and tunnels go up tomorrow, just weeks after the Port Authority hiked the price to use the crossings under it's control. That Rockaway driver heading to the Garden State without E-ZPass faces these round-trip toll..

The Marine Parkway or Cross Bay bridge: $5---Verrazano Bridge linking Brooklyn and Staten Island: $10 ---Outerbridge Crossing between Staten Island and Perth Amboy, N.J.: $8. That $23 hit can be slashed to $19.40 with E-ZPass discounts and reduced to $18.32 if the driver enrolls in a discount program for Rockaway residents only, which applies to the Marine Parkway and Cross Bay bridges. The Port Authority's toll for the for the Outerbridge Crossing can be slashed $8 to $4 --but only if the driver buys a bulk package that makes economic sense if a commuter uses the Port Authority's Staten Island bridges frequently. ---MTA tolls rise at 3 a m tomorow.
.. ---Tolls for cash customers will go from $4.50 to $5 on the Triborough Bridge , Bronx Whitestone, Throgs Neck Bridge and the Midtown and Battery tunnels. The E-ZPass rate on those crossings will bo $4.15. The Verrazano Bridge has a one-way toll (Staten Island bound) that is rising from $9 to $10. The E-ZPass charge will be $8.30.
Crossing the Henry Hudson will cost $2.75 cash or $1.90 with E-ZPass.The cash price for the Marine Parkway and Cross Bay bridges will become $2.50 ; $1.55 with E-ZPass. nydnews 3-15-2008 p-20

davidsradiotv2000































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Governor--in--waiting David Paterson

ALBANY--David Paterson and his top advisors are racing the clock to get a new team in place and ready to govern by the time he officially takes office on Monday. Some members of Gov. Spitzer's inner circle will be held over to smooth the transition and provide institutional memory with the April 1 budget deadline looming. Others will eventually leave or be shown the door.

But there was one big immediate change: Paterson's chief of staff, Charles O'Byrne, replaces Spitzer loyalist Richard Baum as secretary to the governor, the top job on the Capital's second floor. Baum, a veteran of Spitzer's attorney general days, will remain temporarily in an advisory role.
Bill Lynch, a former Dinkins administration deputy mayor, is advising Paterson during the transition, along with Paterson's father, former state Secretary of State Basil Paterson, and ex-state Controller Carl McCall. Here's how the rest of his team is shaping up: Staying: Two Spitzer aides, First Deputy Secretary Sean Patrick Maloney and Director of Operations Paul Francis, accepted offers to keep their jobs. Maloney is a former Clinton White House counsel and Francis is an independently wealthy Spitzer and Paterson donor. Budget director Laura Anglin will stick around. Likely newcomers: Paterson's former campaign manager, Luther Smith. From the nydailynews 3-13-2008 page 8

Obama and McCain ready to butt heads over Al Qaeda threat

COLUMBUS Ohio-----Barack Obama and John McCain ridiculed each other's stance on Iraq yesterday, providing a lively preview of what their general election battle would sound like. McCain, in Texas, teed off of Obama's remarks in Tuesday night's debate. Obama said that while he is committed to withdrawing U.S. troops, he would "reserve the right " to act "If Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq. " I have some news " deadpanned McCain. " Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It's called "Al Qaeda in Iraq" The Republican called Obama's statement "pretty remarkable" and pledged," I will not surender to Al Qaeda." Obama threw McCain's words back at him during a rally at Ohio State University yesterday. " I have some news for John McCain," he said " And that is that there was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq." Obama accused McCain and President Bush of taking "their eye off" the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for Sept. 11. " John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq." Obama said.
Getting out of Iraq, he said, will mean " we can actually start going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan, like we should have been doing in the first place."
Adapted from---nydailynews --2-28-2008-p-msaul