2012: Obama's re-elect kicks off with testimonials from the grassroots. [BarackObama.com]

FOIL: Wikiaccountability.org collects FOIL requests scrutinizing Obama. [Noam Cohen]

Federal Budget: Schumer doubts there'll be a shutdown. [Thomas DeFrank]

Redistricting: Tie-breaking professor endorses "Democratic-drawn map." Christie a loser. [Lisa Fleisher]

Redistricting: Christie got very involved. [Richard Perez-Pena]

Comparing Cuomo: He's like "Happy Warrior" Alfred E Smith, but Cuomo "isn't known to be as warm and fuzzy." [Rick Karlin]

Questioning Cuomo: Why did't Cuomo negotiate with schools the way he negotiated with healthcare "stakeholders" during Medicaid redesign? [Fred LeBrun]

Questioning Cuomo: Will education cuts and property tax hikes be blamed on Cuomo, or local school districts? [Casey Seiler]

Property Tax Cap: Cuomo insiders say Skelos may hold it up. [Fred Dicker]

Albany Ethics: It's next up on Cuomo's agenda. [WNYT]

Albany Ethics: Silver says he has a deal with Cuomo. [Ken Lovett]

Albany Ethics: "Cleaning Albany's ethical stable is as necessary a task as maintaining a balanced budget" say the editors. [New York Post]

Message Control: State's top geologist is barred from talking to reporters since making comments about gas drilling. [Times Union]

Labor: Central Labor Council holds first political directors meeting in six months; major rally set for Saturday. [Celeste Katz]

Voting: Walter Cronkite and Frank McCourt among dead celebrities listed as eligible voters. [Aaron Short]

Education Deals: Dean Skelos gets TAP funding approved, Agudath officials agree to support GOP for Kruger's seat. [Chris Bragg]

Education Money: "The pain is just beginning." [Jay Jochnowitz]

Education Money: Downward pressure to make budget cuts. [Tiffany Lankes]

Education Staff: Bloomberg sends new mailers, attacking "Last In First Out." [Heather Haddon]

Education Staff: "No teachers in the classroom should be cut, period," says Gale Brewer. [Emily Neil]

Education Staff: As enrollment dropped, more supervisors and teachers were hired. [Brendan Scott]

Campaign Money: Oddo says raise bar for matching funds. Paper describes "candidates [who] got a total of $900,000 in matching funds but only got an average of 6 percent of the primary vote." [Tom Wrobleski]

Campaign Money: Critic complains Oddo's bill will hurt minority challengers. [Sally Goldenberg]

Housing: De Blasio wants "worst landlords" info on Craigslist; potential 2013 rival has long record on the issue. [David Chen]

Crime: 24 percent spike in rapes in NYC compared to 2010. [Bob Kappstatter]

Crime: 32 percent spike in rapes in NYC compared to 2009. [Bob Kappstatter]

"The allegations raised by The New York Times are extremely troubling," Thompson said in a statement emailed to reporters just now. "If the funding was not initiated by a Council Member – as the Times notes - but directly from the Mayor’s office, that would be improper. The public deserves to know the facts about whether any rules were broken."

When asked if he'd seek an investigation or audit, a Thompson spokesman declined to comment.

The article hinges on an interview from Simcha Felder, who told the Times that he did not request funding that was inserted into the city budget from 2002 to 2006 under his name which went to two groups in his district, Agudath Israel of America Community Services and Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services.

Worth noting is that Felder is an unrepentant supporter of the slush-fund allocation system, and has always been proud to claim credit for the funding that went out under his name.

In the years after the period that the story focused on, specifically in 2008 and 2009, Felder directed Council discretionary money to those two organizations.

One intresting political implication to come out of the story (interesting to me at least) is the rift it exposed between Felder and Michael Bloomberg, who, as recently as this weekend, seemed pretty close.

Felder had been in agreement with most of Bloomberg's policies, including extending term limits, and questioning the amount of money spent on the public advocate's office. Bloomberg had always helped find money Felder's initiatives, they traveled together, and Bloomberg even endorsed Felder in his unsuccessful bid for State Senate.