Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is a busy guy–dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and gearing up for the 2013 mayoral race–he’s considered among the frontrunners to succeed Michael Bloomberg. But there’s always time for a quick photo op. Read More
With less than two months to go before the elections, now is the time to stock up on your favorite 2012 memorabilia.
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The mayor of Tampa has declared that he’s prepared to evacuate the city during the Republican National Convention if Tropical Storm Isaac grows stronger–how could the GOP have chosen Florida during hurricane season for their big to-do? Worth remembering that the other two finalist cities for the convention were both hot, dry Western Read More
If you were wandering down Fulton Street between Washington Avenue and St. James Place in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill starving and with $3.50 to spend, you might stroll into trendy taqueria Cochinita and exchange it for a pork shoulder taco heaping with pickled onions. A couple of doors down, for the same price, Brooklyn Victory Garden would sell you a bagel slathered with “faux gras” (or, walnut lentil pâté—not that you didn’t know). Where you could not spend that small wad of dollars is the vacant storefront of Joloff, a shuttered Senegalese restaurant that, after 17 years in this location, has recently been nudged out and relocated deep in Bed Stuy.
Also nestled in this block of Fulton is the small campaign headquarters for Democratic congressional hopeful Hakeem Jeffries. On a visit last Sunday, The Observer found an array of frantic, fresh-faced college and high school students, typing away on brought-from-home MacBooks, noshing on tacos from the aforementioned Cochinita, and phone banking furiously. It is an odd (or perhaps perfectly fitting) place for an ideological battle to land: in a neighborhood newly defined by hastening gentrification, the race that has emerged is between an old-guard, ultra-left black Brooklyn politician and a young moderate, modern coalition-builder who has fairly painlessly raised $700,000. Read More
“One thing about smart cars, there’s no room for error,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach said as he piloted his 99-inch-long convertible along 10th Avenue. “I’m a little person, I like little things,” he said cheerily.
Mr. Boteach took directions from a GPS system as we zipped across Manhattan to the Lincoln Tunnel last week. Our window was at bumper level with the surrounding traffic as the rabbi made the sharp turns and tight maneuvers required for escaping Midtown. Wearing a Bluetooth headset and juggling a pair of cell phones to maximize his multitasking, Mr. Boteach said he often takes calls on the move. When he’s not driving, he opts for a much larger headset that offers better reception.
“It’s military grade,” Mr. Boteach tells us. “It’s like a landline.”
Always a busy man, the rabbi balances his career as a widely published author and Oprah-approved spiritual guru with a family of nine children and the daily demands of religious worship.
Now he’s running for Congress. Read More
Jon Cooper first met Barack Obama in 2007, a few weeks before Obama announced a run for president and back when he was mostly known as a promising first-term U.S. senator with a gift for oration. At a low-dollar fund-raiser in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Cooper, the president of a large electronics manufacturing company and then the majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, stood next to Mr. Obama after he had taken questions from guests. Mr. Cooper pulled out a Christmas card that he had mailed to friends and family and showed it to the Illinois senator.
The card showed Mr. Cooper and Robert Cooper, his domestic partner of 27 years, and the couple’s five adopted children. (Robert Cooper changed his last name when the couple adopted their first child 25 years ago.)
“He told me how beautiful my family looked, and I said to him that I hoped that if you decide to run for president that you will remain a strong and consistent advocate for gay rights and for gay marriage,” Mr. Cooper recalled. Read More
Don’t expect us to fall for your witchcraft logic, Delaware also-ran Christine O’Donnell. Your support of Mitt Romney, when questioned today on CNN about his inconsistencies over the years, was met by the most baffling of endorsements ever…unless you were trying to ruin his campaign? Through black magic?? Read More
After walking out of her interview with Piers Morgan, Christine O’Donnell addressed the Women’s National Republican Club on West 51st Street, starting about 45 minutes late, just before 7. “I want to apologize for being so late. I know that’s not respectful of your time, so please accept my apology,” Ms. O’Donnell began. “We started Read More
Last night, after her Piers Morgan walk-out, Christine O’Donnell spoke briefly at the Women’s National Republican Club about her memoir, Troublemaker, and about the virtue of pulling together and showing cohesiveness as a party going into the 2012 elections. ”I told it in a way that some political advisors have said was a little too honest,” Ms. O’Donnell said, “and I probably shouldn’t have admitted some things.” Read More
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come out against “perp walks”, reports the Post–the forced march of famous suspects before the media–now that the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case looks weaker. “I’ve always thought perp walks were outrageous,” said the Mayor, comparing the walks to “Roman times” for their presumption of guilt.
How things have changed! On Read More
