Let’s face it.  You don’t forget  whether or not you are a college graduate.  Just like you don’t forget whether you got married.  It’s one of the  memorable moments in one’s life. There’s usually some sort of celebration. And there’s usually a certificate that comes with graduation, which most normal people cherish and keep in a safe place.

So Yvette needs to stop it. She certainly knew that she was not a graduate. And if she indeed has the credits to graduate and forgot to complete the process for graduation, then she certainly has known it at all along.  If Yvette  Clarke  deliberately lied about being a graduate from  Oberlin College or has deliberately deceived the public in some way, in this writer’s opinion cannot be trusted to represent her community in Congress. Voters need  to have the plain truth, without any finesse so they can make their decision.

As they say in some religious services. Let us therefore give thanks. Since the thread on this subject began, I have noticed in my travels that the postering in Central Brooklyn has become far more reasonable. The comments of Room Eight dialogue may already have made an impact. It may be wishful thinking and premature. But nevertheless, we give thanks.

There really is no reason to have more than one poster of a candidate on a pole or any object. And maybe there could be an informal agreement among candidates in the future to  instruct their “consultants” to observe a “one poster” rule. It would be a good start.

Last week was Medicaid week, based on data I have collected and want to let people see. That was planned.  This week is turning out to be public employee pension week.  That was not planned, but is in response to an excellent series the Times has produced on the subject.  Better than anything the Times has done on any subject where I have specific knowledge in years.  Today, the Times smoked out the three remaining major party candidates for Governor on the state legislature’s practice of granting New York City public employee pension sweeteners over the objection of New York City.  For the most part, all three candidates answered the same, but even so, Suozzi had the best answer.

I recently e-mailed the NYPD about hit-and-run statistics. (As you may know, my wife's uncle was killed in a hit-and-run last month, no one has been arrested, and it's been our wake-up call to leave NYC.) If someone dies in a hit-and-run, is it counted in the murder statistics?  Where are hit-and-runs recorded?

It was a pretty simply question, but no one at the NYPD has answered it yet.

I went to check the U.S. Department of Justice murder statistics for NYC.

In case you missed it, we thought it worth noting that prolific Room Eight contributor, Jerry Skurnik, makes an appearance in today's New York Observer Wise Guys column.

The Observer folk were apparently quite taken by Jerry's earlier analysis on the extent campaigns go to crack The New York Times endorsement code - a piece that appeared on Room Eight this past weekend.

Jerry elaborates further on this point today...

Yesterday, the Daily Politics raised the specter of intensifying 527 action in NY's 24th.

Today, this little 527 [you may have heard of them] released a couple of ads aimed squarely at NY Republicans who were supposedly "caught red-handed" voting against NYer's interests.

One, US Rep John E. Sweeney. [click here to watch]

The other, US Rep Randy Kuhl. [click here to watch]

Is Sen. Hillary Clinton playing politics with federal HIV/AIDS funding?

Apparently ... that all depends on whom you ask, and where you live.  Such was the question posed by Jeffrey Birnbaum in today's Washington Post.

May I call your attention to the latest NY Times articles here and here.  And let me repeat what I said yesterday:  these pensions will not be paid! 

Twenty years from now, when the burden of debt and senior citizen benefits is leading to public service and benefit cuts, soaring taxes, and a crashing standard of living, and seniors of my generation, and those after, realize that they will have to work until physically unable and then face poverty rather than having the cruise-ship lifestyle of those who came before, then public employees who retired in their 40s and 50s will be as unpopular as the tobacco companies are today.  Back room deals will be cut, and budgets passed with little review, but to their detriment, not their benefit.  With no one else benefiting from this largess, they will be a big target for desperate times. 

With the Second Avenue Subway, the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central, and other major rail projects planned, borrowed for, financially diverted from and abandoned, in some cases several times, new politicians on the block face a dilemma.  Come up with even more money to carry out those plans, and they get the blame for the cost and disruption while the irresponsible pols that preceded them get credit for the improvement.  Fail to do so and they might get blamed for the absence of such improvements.  Thus, a few ambitious up and comers have hit upon water transportation as a new mode they can get credit for supporting, and have hit upon calls for public subsidies as a way to get their name in the news.  Unfortunately, such subsidies would divert scarce resources from the existing subway system most New Yorkers rely on, to a new luxury mode that almost exclusively serves the better off -- and relatively few of them at that.  On a populist basis, such a proposal is easily and fairly attacked.  There is, however, a potential transformational investment to that very subway system, one not on anybody’s radar screen, that would permanently increase the potential of ferry service as a transport mode.  The opportunity to make that investment is about to close as a result of a development that would be built in its path.  That investment is…

State Comptroller Hevesi says that the State of New York is currently holding billions of your dollars in unclaimed funds - ranging from wages of yesteryear, to old bank accounts to security deposits, trust funds, estate proceeds, etc.

Does any of this cash belong to you?

Search away!

Search for yourself; search for your parents or partner; search for the putz in the cubicle next to yours ... just search!

I spent several hours in the 40th Assembly District yesterday, attending a candidates’ meeting, and gathering information from Block parties. Rock Hackshaw, a blogger on Room Eight and a well-known activist in Central Brooklyn,  was also in the District and provided me with some information he himself had gathered.

Amazing as it may seem, less than a quarter of the residents of  the 40th District may be aware that Assemblywoman Diane Gordon had been captured on tape making a deal to acquire a $500,000 home from a developer.

Among senior citizens, the highest-voting block, the number aware of the Assemblywoman‘s indictment fell to less than 10%. And many of those were told that once  Gordon was re-elected,  the charges against her would be dropped.

Imagine it’s 20 years from now, the year 2026.   After 43 years in which Social Security payroll taxes had been greater than Social Security payments, with the surplus used to finance the rest of the federal government (but also promised to future retirees), the Social Security system will have begun to run a deficit in 2018.  Taxes will have been substantially increased, and many kinds of federal spending (housing subsidies at the top of the list) slashed to pay Social Security back, but now Congress has no choice but to bite the bullet and drastically slash Social Security benefits for future retirees.  That’s bad for the 50% of private sector workers who have no retirement plan other than Social Security, and bad for the additional 30% who only have a 401K plan – a plan they now realize has nowhere near enough money to pay for decent retirement.   The poverty rate among the elderly, who have been the richest and most privileged of Americans for the past 60 years, begins to soar.

There is a general belief among people active in politics that a candidate who challenges his or her opponent’s petitions forfeits any chance of receiving the New York Times endorsement or at the very least guarantees criticism by The Times of such “undemocratic” tactics.

Many, including me, think that fear is what prevented the Ferrer campaign from challenging the petitions of Christopher Brodeur & Art Piccolo for Mayor even though leaving them on the ballot increased the likelihood of a Primary Run-off.

I don’t agree with this view. I think that the Times Editorial Board considers a number of factors in deciding whom to endorse and whether a candidate takes advantage of the election law is a relatively minor one.