The New York Observer

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn won’t tolerate anyone messing with Mayor Bloomberg and Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, doesn’t want messing with Ms. Quinn for angrily leaving this morning’s rally celebrating the upcoming vote to pass the living wage bill after someone mocked the mayor.

Ms. Quinn made her exit from morning’s rally on the City Hall steps when someone shouted a crack about “Pharaoh Bloomberg.” Mr. Appelbaum, who was in attendance at the awkward rally, leapt to the Speaker’s defense this afternoon with a press release reminding people of her role in getting the living wage bill vote passed in the first place.

“Make no mistake, there would be no living wage law bill without the Speaker,” Mr. Appelbaum said. “Even though Chris may have left the rally after declaring her support for the bill, the most important thing for us to remember is that thousands of new Yorkers will receive higher wages because she had the courage to stand up and pass the living wage law.” Read More

Former GOP Congressman and 2010 Senate candidate Joe DioGuardi endorsed attorney Wendy Long’s Senate campaign this afternoon, giving her the notable endorsement from the person who last went toe-to-toe against incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as Ms. Long seeks to do the same this year.

In the statement announcing the endorsement, Mr. DioGuardi, who was soundly defeated by close to a 30-point margin despite strong Republican performance in various congressional races across the state that year, stressed Ms. Long’s electability, declaring, “[M]ost importantly, she is the only Republican who can defeat Kirsten Gillibrand, and that is why I am endorsing her for U.S. Senate.” Read More

The good people at Daily Intel caught up with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly at a cocktail party before last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner and they asked the city’s top cop about the mounting calls for him to run for mayor. Mr. Kelly, who has faced mounting criticism this year, quipped he was having enough trouble holding on to his current position.

“I’m the police commissioner. I’m running for police commissioner,” Mr. Kelly said. “I want to hold on to my job.  I don’t know — I might be out the door!” Read More

The sibling team that famously brought the cinema verite style to documentary films in the 60s might no longer be around, but Albert Maysles continues to keep the family name alive, despite the passing of his brother/co-creator David in 1987. Last night, the Maysles Documentary Center–also known as the Maysles Institute, a not-for-profit Read More

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was a featured speaker at today’s rally celebrating the vote to pass living wage legislation, but her speech abruptly halted shortly after introducing her fellow colleagues in attendance when a protester yelled out that everybody but “Pharaoh Bloomberg” was at today’s event.

“Now, look,” Ms. Quinn said, turning around and staring silently at the crowd behind her for a good five seconds. Read More

Roboinvest, which lets ordinary folks follow each others’ trades in real-time, booted up at the end of January with a partnership with amateur trading clearinghouse E*TRADE. The startup has processed $2.5 million in trades and grown to 1,300 users since then, founder Michael Giles told Betabeat, with only some seed money and a full-time team of two.

The trick to Roboinvest is “one-click copy trading,” the feature that launched just over two weeks ago and got the attention of Bloomberg’s Businessweek. Broadcast your trades in real-time on Roboinvest, and your followers have 30 minutes to decide if they want to copy your move. ”Most people know somebody who trades, and they always want to know what they’re doing,” he said. ”It’s trading for the rest of us. Anybody with a trading account can use Roboinvest.” Read More