Here We Go Again: Mike to Get His Traffic Money, If Albany Agrees
• The Feds are expected to announce today that, yes indeed, they’ll shell out the big bucks necessary for Bloomberg to execute his congestion-pricing dream plan — if Albany passes it first, that is. [NYT]
the morning line
Brooklyn Cyclone, Confirmed
• Bay Ridge is cleaning up after, well, a tornado. There’s even a Red Cross shelter set up, with about 30 families in it; more than twenty homes are deemed uninhabitable. [amNY]
the morning line
New Jersey and Stewart Airport, Perfect Together
• The Port Authority has permission from New Jersey’s acting governor to buy or build two new airports outside its normal area of operations. The first one will be Stewart International, 65 miles from New York; next up, Atlantic City? [NYDN]
• The plan to open a secular Arabic-studies school in Park Slope is nearly dead in the face of a massive and misguided outcry from parents and media who thought it would be a madrassa; the Sun, for instance, suggested we “break out the torches and surround City Hall to stop this monstrosity.” [NYT]
• An eBay official is testifying in the Peter Braunstein case to list the items the crazed ex-journalist bid on in preparation for his crimes: firefighter gear, handcuffs, a gas mask, potassium nitrate, a Detroit cop badge, a FDNY sticker, and a camcorder. [WNBC]
• A unique surgery healed a Long Island 3-year-old from a case of the permanent giggles doctors dubbed the Joker Face. (It’s actually a very rare form of epilepsy, caused by a tumor on the hypothalamus.) [Newsday]
• And we’re shocked — shocked! — to report an intern scandal in the halls of power. Republican Mike Cole has become the first-ever assemblyman to get officially censured for spending a night in a female intern’s apartment. Granted, he was merely watching the NHL playoffs there, with a bunch of other people present, but still. [NYP]
the morning line
Someone, Think of the Children!
• The state budget is here — virtually on time! — and guess what provision made it in while everyone was busy arguing about hospital cuts? A program that makes 400,000 uninsured children eligible for near-free health care. [NYT]
• Hillary Clinton set a record for pre-primary fund-raising, drumming up $26 million in the first three months of 2007. Her war chest now totals $36 million, with ten left over from the layup Senate campaign. Obama is at $20 million. And Chris Dodd apparently has subway fare. [NYDN]
• Q: When does the Post become touchy-feely about animal welfare? A: When it helps torpedo a Giuliani. Turns out that in the seventies, Judith then-Nathan used to shill for a medical-supply firm that put surgical staples on live dogs during sales demonstrations. Ew. [NYP]
• Today’s USA Today profiles, in heroic prose (“tempers flare as forklifts dart”), the armed federal agents patrolling the Fulton Fish Market for illegal clams. It seems 750 probes into local seafood-smuggling operations were launched in the last year alone. [USAT]
• And a new Arabic middle school will take up the top floor of Park Slope’s P.S. 282, which put the nabe’s parents in a somewhat un–Park Slope–ian nativist tizzy — with some threatening to pull their kids out. Thing is, it’ll be an Arabic language school, not a madrassa. [MetroNY]