Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance released a statement detailing that the company, specializing in interior construction, arranged for clients to be overcharged for work by general contractors, only to pocket the excess.

"This construction company was corrupt at all levels," Vance said in the statement. "Its executives developed--and successfully executed--a scheme to steal millions of dollars from their clients. Simply put, they used an over-invoicing scheme to steal from their construction management clients, and then used general contractor jobs to recover the stolen funds."

The District Attorney claims Lehr Construction Corp. was able to siphon money from their clients by having subcontractors overcharge clients, and receive a percentage of the profit, as a payoff for agreeing to charge less for bigger clients.

Clients listed in the indictment include Fidelity Investments, Zurich North America and The Economist.

The four executives charged are Jeffrey Lazar and Todd Phillips, both executive vice presidents, Steven Wasserman, who oversaw the bid packages proposed to clients, and Steven Halper, the finance director. Individual charges vary. The corporation and each executive are charged with multiple counts of grand larceny, and one count each of enterprise corruption, and scheme to defraud. Halper and the corporation are also charged with money laundering. All four executives pleaded not guilty and were released on $150,000 bail each.

The release says that the corruption took place between 1998 and 2010, though today's announcement is not the company's first brush with the law. In 1998, Gerald Lazar and his brother Howard- the father and uncle of Jeffrey Lazar, respectively- pleaded guilty to bribery when they ran the firm at that time. Prior to that, Howard pleaded guilty of bribing city construction inspectors in the 1970s.

Lehr Construction Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February and their offices were raided the next month by the D.A.'s office for this investigation.

Currently, there are 78,000 valid parking placards distributed by various authorities in the city. The president of Transportation Alternatives, Paul Steely White, said his group surveyed six neighborhoods, and out of 1,450 permits found, 343 were fake. "That means that between 10,000 and 25,000 fake permits are used regularly in the city," White said.

That's more than the 12,000 yellow taxi cabs currently on the road here, he noted.

"More often than not these placards are getting a free pass," said City Councilman Dan Garodnick, who joined White and others on the City Hall steps to announce the findings. "We can assume that is because parking permits denote a level of prestige and privilege and many traffic agents want to risk running up against someone in power even if they are parked at a fire hydrant or on a sidewalk."

Garodnick introduced the Authentic Permit Act to the City Council in early February, calling for a barcode to be added to all legitimate permits so that parking enforcement agents can scan each permit to see if it is both real and being used by the registered car.

"If there is no barcode, there is no reason to not write a ticket," Garodnick said.

Garodnick's bill, which has 21 co-sponsors, was introduced nearly three months ago, but he said that he has spoken with Jimmy Vacca, the chair of the Council's Transportation Committee, and Vacca reportedly "expressed an interest in the bill and a desire to hold a hearing on it." While no hearing date is set, supporters hope it will come in the next few months.

Parking issues are making big news throughout the city, as 40 NYPD officers are being investigated for reportedly "taking care" of their friends parking tickets as a courtesy.

"If we shut down, it hurts the American people," Grimm said.  "I am worried about our troops and the families of our troops. I haven't changed my stance on anything. I have always said that we owe our entire freedom and liberty to those in uniform and the idea that they wouldn't get paid and that their families and mothers back home won't get paid is reprehensible."

Grimm said he is unsure of what will happen in the coming days, but he sees image problems ahead if a shutdown occurs.

"I think the politics of [a shutdown] is bad for the Republican party because the media in general is liberal and is going to help the Democrats and use it to help the Obama administration. The headline will be 'Republicans Shut the Government Down' rather than the headline being 'The President and the Government Have Failed to Put a Budget Together.'"

The Democrat's lack of a counter budget only serves to show the impact of the Republicans' work, Grimm said.

"Besides hurting our troops, a shutdown is going to be the perfect smokescreen for the Democrats to hide that they have failed," he said. "Now that we've been here what just over three months, this new Congress has put out the best budget I have ever seen. This is the bold action that people were expecting from me and the Republican Party."

Grimm thinks the focus on inter-party squabbles and continuing resolutions is taking attention away from the real issues.

"Its like the house is on fire but we're cleaning up the spilled milk in the kitchen. We need the fire department to come and put out the fire and stop focusing on the spilled milk," he said.

"The Democrats are successfully using the Continuing Resolutions as a distraction and we have to let them stop distracting us."

The light at the end of the debate comes in the form of Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed "Promise to America," his 2012 budget plan that will lead to $6 trillion in cuts over ten years. Grimm called Ryan's proposal "real, tangible and it's a way to get us on the right path."

Highlights below:

Meeting Mr. Cuomo:

She was spending that summer in ­Southampton, when her friend Alexandra Stanton's mother threw a garden party. Cuomo arrived with his three daughters attached to his arms and legs. "This huge muscle-bound man had little girls climbing all over him, and he was very gentle and kind with them," Lee remembers. "I found that intriguing." At first, she tried to set him up with three different girlfriends of hers, and for four months, Lee stresses, they were just friends. Finally, wearying of Lee's deflections, he said, "I think you should look in front of you."

Semi-Homemade daughters:

Lee, who has chosen not to have children of her own, has been extremely generous with her siblings and nieces and nephews, buying homes and cars, paying for hockey lessons and college tuition. And by all accounts, she has also embraced Cuomo's children, whom she calls her "semi-homemade daughters." Before the inauguration, she went to lunch with Anna Wintour, seeking her advice on what the girls should wear for the occasion. While there, she wangled an internship at Teen Vogue this summer for Michaela, Cuomo's 13-year-old daughter. "I thought she was going to hit her head on the ceiling she jumped so high," Lee says.

Talking (food) politics:

Lee is not unattuned to the politics of food. At the Elmira food bank, she made a point of asking how much of the bank's in-kind donations were candies. She thinks Mayor Bloomberg's campaign against salt and fat is useful, applauds Michelle Obama's promotion of gardens as "important" and "amazing," and says of Sarah Palin's defense of cookies, "I have absolutely nothing in common with Sarah Palin."

About her lack of campaign stops:

"Andrew said, 'You can do as much or as little as you're comfortable with,' " Lee explains. "He's very kind to me that way. It's very generous of him." Chris Cuomo, the governor's younger brother, affirms that Lee's public detachment from the campaign was her choice. "Her goal was to help Andrew any way she could, and I think she kept a very low profile so as not to take away attention from him."

"I don't think she sees herself in the First Lady capacity at all," Chris Cuomo says.

"This is a movie... about a mother," Haynes said while introducing his new miniseries, Mildred Pierce (to debut on HBO March 27) at the Ziegfeld Theatre, "and tonight isn't quite the same for me because my mom can't be here tonight."

Haynes' mother died unexpectedly during the production of the miniseries, which is based on the mother of all mother-daughter tales--the 1941 novel of the same title--and features a pathetically self-sacrificing mother (Ms. Winslet) and her monstrously conceited bad-seed daughter, Veda (Evan Rachel Wood).

Winslet elected herself a sort of hen-mother throughout the shoot-but no drama for her! "You all want to enjoy your work and do the best job that you can and when the leading actor is being effervescent or positive I think it makes a big difference to the atmosphere."

Especially when the cast must endure Mildred's specialty: chicken and waffles. Ms. Wood was a fan: "Hell, yeah! Roscoe's, absolutely!" But Brían F. O'Byrne, who plays Mildred's first husband, couldn't stomach it: "It's an odd combination, and I think there's a reason why it's not around anymore." Guy Pearce, who plays Mildred's second husband, added, "Behind closed doors, you might have something like that."

The release of a Depression-era story during a seemingly endless financial crisis is a case of clever or lucky timing, though Mr. Pearce thinks that the story bears more interest than simply economic: "I just think people hopefully will relate to it more because it's an emotional story, and it's an exploration of human behavior, and ultimately that should be a timeless thing," Pearce said.

Thankfully, not all of Mildred Pierce is universal--Ms. Turner said that she's no Veda. Of her real-life mother, she said: "We have fights about stupid things. I'm not supposed to paint my nails a certain color because it looks weird." She even ate Mildred's chicken and waffles, though her character is ashamed to have a mother working in the fast-food industry. "It tasted really good--even though it was kind of cold--but it tasted really good!" Art does not, this time, imitate life. 

"Health care is a little bit like Buddhism," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, "we know its going to change we just don't know how its going to change. We were on a path for the last four years of kind of letting it change by itself, and finally last year we said we cant keep going like this."

Weiner, who unsuccessfully, but loudly, advocated for a single-payer provision for the law, was speaking at a breakfast hosted by a non-profit called Small Business Majority, a group founded by small business owners nationwide, set to mark the anniversary of the legislation's passage in Washington. 

The criticism that the government is forcing people to buy insurance is moot, according to Weiner.

"The experience that we saw in RomneyCare in Massachusetts was actually that people, when incentivized to get it, want to get it," he said.

"What we did was something that was ultimately good for the country and particularly good for New York," said Weiner, as a few dozen business leaders munched on their breakfast.  "We're a healthcare economy we've lost 17 hospitals  in New York City since the year 2000 because of the inextricable math of more people being uninsured."

Rima Cohen, an advisor from the Department of Health and Human Services, also spoke at the breakfast, and said the government is actively trying to implement the bill, despite ongoing litigation to declare it unconstitutional, and congressional efforts to defund it. 

"[W]e just keep going on and trying to get the benefit out there to people," said Cohen.

Cohen said some of the tax benefits that could help small business owners go into affect this April because the bill was passed in 2010, (more tax benefits go into effect in 2014).

The legislation was a big deal when it was signed by President Obama, but quickly became a rallying point for Republicans in the 2010 elections, who said it was an example of big, expensive government intruding on individual's freedom. During the mid-term elections, many Democrats were weary of touting the legislation as a major achievement, leaving the door open, for some, to keep debating the merits of the bill. 

Weiner, for his part, joked at the breakfast that the health care debate had taken a toll on him, physically.

"When we started debating healthcare, I was 6'4'', 290 (pounds). This," the rail-thin congressman said, "is all that's left."

"It is beyond troubling that at the same time the federal government acknowledges increased seismic safety risk at some nuclear power plants in this country, it refuses to fully and openly assess these specific risks to Indian point as part of its relicensing process," Schneiderman said. "Before any conversation about relicensing I concluded, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must answer basic health and safety questions."

Schneiderman's letter questions the independence and effective validity of the NRC's safety reports, specifically because the reports do not require seismic activity to be tested. While the need for nuclear plants to be tested for seismic disruptions may look directly connected to the Japanese crisis, the issue has been on the Attorney General's agenda for some time.

"This office- starting with the activities of my predecessor, then Attorney General Cuomo- raised this repeatedly with the NRC, going back to 2007 and they have consistently refused to include seismic activity assessments of this kind of safety risk as a part of their relicensing procedure," Schneiderman said.

Units 2 and 3 of Indian Point are the currently operating portions, with 2013 and 2015 relicensing dates respectively. Unit 1 is no longer operational, but parts of Unit 1 were incorporated into Units 2 and 3, raising concern in the AG's office because those parts were never subject to, what they deem as satisfactory safety checks.

"These aging Unit 1 systems, structures, and components were built to inferior seismic specifications, and Unit 2 and Unit 3's continued reliance on these systems today poses significant safety questions," Schneiderman wrote in his letter to the NRC commissioners.

Indian Point's previous scores do not raise many red flags, as the plant received five consecutive high scores from the NRC from 2004 to 2009. The independence of the NRC and the effectiveness of their checks became an issue last November, however, when the plant was temporarily closed in late 2010 when there was a minor explosion in Unit 2, the cause of which is still unknown.

Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, who represents Westchester County where Indian Point is located, is not concerned about the quality of the Indian Point inspections.

"The Congresswoman is confident in the NRC's independent process and is confident in their ability to insure the safety of her constituents and all New Yorkers who rely on Indian Point for energy," said Nat Sillin, the congresswoman's spokesperson. "As a physician her number one concern is the health and safety of her constituency. Her staff has been in regular communication with Entergy [the company that operates Indian Point] and the NRC."

Though New York is not known for its catastrophic earthquakes, Schneiderman still feels that the possible threat is "not, by any means, science fiction" and serves as a larger wake up call for a serious interest in renewable energy.  

"It's also time for us at the state and national level to immediate begin to developing a plan for alternative energy sources because the biggest argument they make is 'Oh, the plant may be in a horrible location but you can't shut us down because you need the electricity.' Well, we will need the electricity until we develop a plan for alternatives and that's something that needs to get going right away," Schneiderman said.

Charlie Rangel has tax tips. Two whole newsletters worth. Enter irony here.

Ed Koch is liking the looks of Cuomo's redistricting committee.

Cuomo deems himself an impatient governor.

Proposed restrictions on San Gennaro festival are an "amazing travesty."

New York 'political power couples' dole out advice on how to avoid sex scandals and more.

Firefighter's Association blaming this weekend's fatal Brooklyn fire on staffing cuts.

Nadler is pushing to a museum to be built near downtown African Burial Ground.

Governor's Island to get a $150 million facelift. Highlights include hammocks and fields.

Harlem Community Board fighting with the NY Housing Authority to insure that residents have a say in what is built in the undeveloped properties.

In honor of President's Day, some of the most awkward presidential encounters.

"Lets put your money where your mouth is," he said. "Why don't you step up and say 'We're opposed to government run health care for members of Congress!'"

Videos of Weiner's passionate public pleas have gone viral throughout the debate.

In his most recent turn before the House mics, Weiner called the Republicans out for hypocrisy, especially those who ran against 'Obamacare' during the campaign, decrying it as an over-extension of the federal government, but are personally benefiting from federal health care. He told two anecdotes about unnamed Republicans- one of which was a freshman from New York delegation- who inquired about their health care packages when the new Congress was called to session.

"It turned out that there are a lot of members of Congress who rail against other people getting health coverage but really like that they get it- as they should, no one should give up their health care plan," Weiner said.

 "This is the moment in the bill that I would hope that my Republican colleagues come down five minutes at a time and say 'Lets get rid of that dastardly federal employees health benefits program that the legislative branch benefits from' or at least say 'I'm taking it and here's why I'm contradicting what I said in the campaign.'"

Here's his full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3XwIeBPkg&feature=player_embedded

Even though he went into a newspaper interview intending to damper the chatter about a possible 2012 run, Christie's close advisor Bill Palatucci said that the idea of forming a political action committee would be a smart move.

"I might frankly contemplate that. There's so much interest out there; it's leaving money on the table by not having one," Palatucci said in an interview with the Courier Post.

That said, he was quick to reiterate Christie's continued claims that he is not running.

"If reporters would look for a second below the surface, they'd see I've never been to Iowa," Palatucci said. He also added that no lawyers have been added and a presidential exploratory committee has not- and will not- be created.

Christie's tough talk and strong stance against unions have turned him into a conservative favorite and was recently named Vice President of the Republican Governor's Association, only increasing his national prominence and the volume of 2012 speculation.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter also publicly declared her support for the governor.

"Christie is very articulate," Coulter recently told MSNBC. "He has taken brave positions that no other Republican was willing to take, taking on the teachers' union. Amazingly, every once and a while a politician comes along and tells the truth, and he's one of them."

A poll released last week said that his constituents don't mind the gossip, with 63% of New Jerseyans saying that the presidential rumors haven't hindered his job performance. 

One constituent created a website to garner support for a Christie run, saying that the governor's reluctance only means that his supporters have to try harder.

"If he was a volunteer then we wouldn't need to draft him," said Donald Sico, creator of DraftChristie2012.com.

In spite of the increased attention in recent weeks, Sico thinks it is not enough to alter Christie's stance.

"Theres going to have to be almost a tidal wave of enthusiasm for him to change his mind."

The governor has consistently denied all rumors of a 2012 run with his trademark bluntness.

"Short of suicide, I don't really know what I'd have to do to convince you people that I'm not running. I'm not running," Christie said.