Last week, over cheese sandwiches, Caesar salads and a cauldron of French press coffee, The New York Observer sat down at the Ace Hotel with a cross section of New York’s tech clique to find out how they relaunched the city’s tech scene. There was the classic financier, Dan Allen, principal at Bain Capital; the Read More
First, the chutzpah. The “tablet.” On Mount Sinai, Moses received the Ten Commandments written on twin “tablets,” then climbed back down into the desert wilderness and explained the new law to the Jewish people. Clutching his own “tablet,” Steve Jobs orchestrated his appearance before the world press last Wednesday along Mosaic lines, presenting his device Read More
Insider trading by hedge funds has a long and distinguished history, dating to the days when people didn’t know that there was such a thing as a hedge fund. Today, Wall Street is drooling over the latest manifestation of alleged hedge fund insider trading, involving Galleon Group’s Raj Rajaratnam. This gentleman has pleaded not guilty, Read More
After years of inexplicable delay, the state has settled on a private company to run a new casino planned for Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Governor Paterson chose an outfit called Aqueduct Entertainment Group even though one of the other four bidders, Penn National, offered more money—$300 million—as an initial payment to the state, and another Read More
Give the Obama White House good marks for recognizing a mistake—holding terrorism trials in downtown New York—and correcting it before any damage was gone. But give city officials and advocates even higher grades for calling attention to the ill-advised plan, showing precisely how it would have impacted downtown businesses and skillfully persuading the White House Read More
PARK CITY, UTAH—On the evening of Friday, Jan. 29, Curtis Jackson—better known as the rapper 50 Cent—was milling about the red carpet before the premiere of Twelve, director Joel Schumacher’s adaptation of the 2002 novel of the same name, which wunderkind New York author Nick McDonell penned when he was 17.
It was Mr. Read More
Hamptons Housing Market: Read More
PARK CITY, UTAH—On the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 26, during the first and welcome lull of the Sundance Film Festival, novelist Russell Banks met The Observer after finishing an early run in the snow.
Mr. Banks is one of five jurors—among them, Park Posey (The Actress); Jason Kilot (The Producer); Karyn Kusama (The Writer/Director); Read More
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sounds more like a gubernatorial candidate these days, which means he apparently has decided to take on his fellow Democrat, Governor David Paterson. Some Democrats may rue the prospect of a potentially bruising and divisive intraparty squabble, but their concerns are misplaced. New York is in deep financial trouble, and voters Read More
It’s hardly a secret that the United Federation of Teachers is the most powerful force for the status quo in public education today. From charter schools to teacher accountability, the UFT stands in the way of some of the most creative reforms in public education today.
Now, however, the union bosses are no longer content Read More
