www.johnsbachelorshow.com

No weed for you!

As we reported yesterday, a bill will soon be introduced into the state Legislature that would legalize medical marijuana in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, says he won’t sign the bill — despite overwhelming public support for prescription pot. It seems as though maybe — just maybe — the gov might be a little more concerned with running for president in a few years (and having to explain signing a medical marijuana bill) than he is with doing what makes sense.

“There are tremendous risks [associated with legalizing medical marijuana],” he told reporters in Utica on Monday. “I think the risks outweigh the benefits at this point.”

We asked Cuomo’s office what specific “risks” came with allowing people to treat various health problems with marijuana rather than other powerful/dangerous legal narcotic drugs. We were ignored. So until the governor’s office tells us otherwise, we’ll go ahead and assume Cuomo doesn’t know of any “tremendous risks” associated with legalizing medical marijuana, and that’s because there aren’t any — it’s weed, not crystal meth.

Last time we checked, nobody’s died from a marijuana overdose…ever. And if medical marijuana is legal — and regulated by the government, like, say, alcohol (which can be lethal) — it’s a way for sick people to best treat their illnesses without having to deal with a sketch-ball drug dealer who may try to A) rob them, or B) give them crappy weed.

If Cuomo considers food tasting better, movies seeming funnier, and an unhealthy obsession with the Planet Earth series (oh, yeah — and relieving excruciating pain) to be “risks,” then he might be on to something.

If not — and there aren’t actually “tremendous risks” with letting people who already are smoking weed do so legally — it seems the governor might want to stop worrying about how he’s going to explain on the campaign trail why he signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana, and start worrying supporting something the majority of New Yorkers want.

In addition to the “tremendous risks,” Cuomo says there isn’t enough
time in the current legislative session to iron out a medical marijuana
bill. However, as assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried
pointed out earlier this
week: “The
legislature and governor have sorted out much more complicated issues
in less time over the years. I think the governor
would find this is very doable.”

Unfortunately, here’s the reality: if Cuomo backs a medical marijuana bill, you can pretty much count on a few “Andrew Cuomo’s soft on drugs — he led the charge against the Rockefeller Drug Laws AND legalized weed (gasp!)” GOP campaign ads if he runs for president.

We spoke with a few medical marijuana advocates yesterday. See our previous story here. As we all agreed, it’s “odd” that an uber-conservative state like Arizona currently has medical weed, but a “progressive” place like New York doesn’t. And, again, the overwhelming public support (anywhere from 60-percent to 80-percent of New Yorkers support medical marijuana, depending on which poll you look at) makes it seem as though an incumbent governor might want to embrace something so popular amongst his constituents — unless, of course, he plans to seek higher office.

Obviously, this is our theory on Cuomo’s “uncharacteristic” (as described by a medical marijuana advocate) opposition to something “progressive” like medical weed. But we want to know what you think: Is Cuomo’s opposition to medical marijuana political posturing?

Cast your vote below.

www.thefeministagenda.blogspot

?Former Massachusetts governor/wannabe GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s currently catching some heat from the left over comments he made about his desire to “get rid” of Planned Parenthood — something he has no authority to do, even if he is elected president.

One of those worked up over Romney’s comments is Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York Democratic Party.

Before we get to Jacobs, have a look below at what Romney said during a radio interview on KSDK in Missouri when asked yesterday about how he would determine which programs will lose federal funding:

My test is pretty simple. Is the program so critical that it’s worth borrowing money from China
to pay for? And on that basis, of course you get rid of Obamacare.
That’s the easy one. But there are others. Planned Parenthood, we’re
going to get rid of that. There’s a subsidy for Amtrak. I would
eliminate that. National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for
the Humanities. Both excellent programs but we just can’t afford to
borrow money to pay for those things.

Again, even if he is
elected president, Romney will have about as much power to “get rid” of
Planned Parenthood as he does as a presidential candidate, which is
precisely none.

What he means is he wants to cut federal funding for
the organization — Planed Parenthood is private, and not even the
president of the United States can just wave a magic wand and get rid of
it (although, cutting the organization’s federal funding would be
devastating — about a third of its budget comes from government
grants), even if that’s what a President Romney would want to do.

Obviously,
Romney knows he can’t just get rid of Planned Parenthood, but “I want
to get rid of Planned Parenthood” is much better sound bite when trying
to appeal to the far-right-wingers, who are the folks GOP presidential
candidates are trying to woo in these last stages of the Republican
primary.

In any event, Jacobs seems to agree that Romney is using Planned Parenthood to kowtow to the far right.

Below is a statement Jacobs sent out a few hours ago calling Romney out on his BS:

“Mitt
Romney has once again shown there are no limits to what he will say to
pander to the extreme far right wing of the Republican Party – even
offering to put the health care of millions of American women at risk if
it means scoring a few cheap points with his party’s base.” Chairman
Jay Jacobs said. “Since supporting the Blunt Amendment, Mississippi’s
personhood bill and flip flopping on abortion rights aren’t helping Mitt
Romney close the deal with his party’s base, Mitt Romney has now
decided to try an even more extreme and desperate strategy by promising
to get rid of a 95-year old organization that one in five American women
has depended on for health care services.

“Mitt Romney just doesn’t get it. America’s women aren’t interested in
being pawns in his quest to pander his way to the Republican Party
nomination for President. It’s bad for women, bad for America, and
isn’t going to help him wrap up the nomination any time soon.”

www.sodahead.com

?If you wire money to some stranger who sent you an email promising a large sum of cash if you just cough up some sort of initial payment, you’re an idiot. There, we said it.

That said, people are still falling for these types of online money wiring scams, and a new one has caught the attention of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The latest online money wiring scam involves Craigslist ads for
apartment rentals. The way it works, according to Schneiderman, is a
scammer will post an ad on Craigslist for an apartment they’re renting.
The scammer will offer the apartment for a much lower rate than the
apartment would normally be rented for, and advise potential renters
that they need to pounce on the great deal and wire a deposit to the
“renter” ASAP.

The problem, however, is the person advertising the apartment has no
authority to rent it to anyone, and that deposit you wired is long gone.

Schneiderman says people in New York have been swindled out of anywhere from $200 to $6,000.

“While these offers look appealing, prospective renters must have a
critical eye when applying for rental properties on sites like
Craigslist,” Schneiderman says. “Remember the simple adage, if it looks
and sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Many of the scams
originate overseas, making prosecution at the state or local levels
impossible…”

Schneiderman offered up the following anecdotes to illustrate his point:

Syracuse – A realtor discovered scammers had used his “house for sale
listing” as a “house for rent” listing on Craigslist. The realtor only
realized what happened when people contacted him using the phone number
on the for sale sign in front of his house to inquire about the rental.

Watertown – A Fort Drum service member almost fell victim to a
Craigslist rental scam and was on her way to wire the security deposit
money when she was alerted by our office that it was a scam. Had there
not been a delay as the consumer waited to transfer funds from one
account to another, the Attorney General’s office would not have been
able to get to her in time. As part of the work of the Attorney
General’s Consumer Protection Bureau, an investigator had been
corresponding with the Craigslist scammer when the scammer inadvertently
forwarded the victim’s contact information to the staffer, who was then
able to alert the would-be victim before it was too late.

Poughkeepsie – A resident lost $2,600 in a Craigslist rental scam.
She responded to an ad looking for a roommate. The scammer told the
consumer that she was temporarily working out of the country but would
be moving back shortly. The scammer convinced the renter that she needed
assistance in making arrangements to move back. She sent fake checks to
the victim and asked her to forward the money to other people who were
allegedly helping her move. The renter was promised $100 for her
troubles. In the end, the bogus checks did not clear by the bank and the
consumer ended up owing the money.

Buffalo – A family looking to relocate to New York City found a
listing for an apartment on Craigslist. They were required to put down
nearly $6,000 for first and last month’s rent and security. When they
arrived in New York City, they discovered their new home was actually an
abandoned warehouse.

The AG urges anyone who feel like they’ve a victim of this type of
scam or any other type of consumer fraud, contact his office’s consumer
helpline at (800) 771-7755.

www.imdb.com

Unlike the Griswolds, Eddie Calderon-Melendez’s European Vacation was paid for by taxpayers.

There appears to be a reason a Brooklyn charter school was so broke in 2009 that its teachers were forced to double as janitors: the school’s founder was allegedly using the (publicly funded) school’s credit card to go gallivanting across Europe — amongst several other alleged acts of sleaze.

That founder, Eddie Calderon-Melendez, was hit today with an 11-count indictment alleging that he failed to pay more than $70,000 in taxes over six years after getting compensated $1.4 million to “manage” the school.

All of that compensation came either “directly or indirectly from taxpayer funded charter schools,” according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Calderon-Melendez founded the Williamsburg Charter High School in 2003.
In 2009, he opened two more publicly funded charter schools in the same
neighborhood. He also created the Charter Management Network, which
“managed” the schools for a hefty fee — the money to pay the fee came
from taxpayers and, naturally, Calderon-Melendez served as the Network’s
CEO, taking in a $500,000 salary in 2009 alone.

In addition to the high fees for very little “management” (click here to read a NY Post
story from last year detailing the brand of “management”
Calderon-Melendez provided the schools in exchange for his bloated
salary), Schneiderman says Calderon-Melendez charged $1,800 on the school’s credit card to
fund a trip to Europe.

To cover up his despicable use of taxpayer coin, Schneiderman says Calderon-Melendez created and submitted false tax returns.

“While earning a six-figure salary funded largely by taxpayer dollars,
the defendant robbed the state of New York of much-needed revenue when
he failed to pay his taxes for six years in a row. He then compounded
his crime by creating false evidence to throw investigators off his
trail,” Schneiderman says.

In all, Calderon-Melendez has been hit with 11 felonies: two counts of
repeated failure to file personal income
and earnings taxes; two counts of criminal tax fraud in the third
degree; one count of criminal tax fraud in the fourth degree; four
counts of tampering with physical evidence; one count of grand larceny
in the fourth degree; and one count of falsifying business records in
the first degree.

Attempts to reach Calderon-Melendez this afternoon were unsuccessful.

www.broadstreetsports.com

?Remember a few years ago when then-New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg with an unregistered handgun at a Manhattan night club? And how Mayor Mike Bloomberg said it would be a “mockery of the law” if Burress received a sentence that’s anything less than the 3 1/2-year mandatory minimum?

About that…

Yesterday, a former U.S. marine, who was busted in September with an illegal gun, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapon-possession charge. Under the deal, 28-year-old Ryan Jerome — who initially was charged with the same felony gun charge as Burress — will avoid jail time.

Burress, as you may remember, spent nearly two years in the hoosegow. Jerome will do 10 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine.

Seems like a “mockery of the law,” if you ask us — yet, the mayor has been, and still is, mum on the case (even as former Governor David Patterson, and others, have argued that the charges against Jerome should have been dropped).

There are a few differences in the two cases — for starters, Jerome didn’t accidentally shoot himself at a crowded night club.

Jerome, who lives in Indiana, was arrested in September when he tried to
check his .45-calibur pistol with security at the Empire State Building
while sightseeing.

In New York, loaded guns are rarely permitted outside of a home or
business — even if they’re registered with the state — which is not
the case in other parts of the country, where gun laws are a bit more
lax (in other words, “red states” like Indiana).

Jerome’s weapon is registered in Indiana, where he has a concealed
weapons permit. That permit, as he learned the hard way, doesn’t extend
to New York.

Jerome, according to various media reports, including one from the Washington Post,
told police he checked New York’s gun laws before bringing his weapon
on his trip to the Big Apple — he claims he must have mis-read them.

He also told police that, as someone who makes a living dealing in
precious metals, he carries the gun on him for protection from people
who may want to rob him.

Burress’ gun wasn’t registered in New York, either. It was, at one
point, registered in Florida, though. However, when he popped a cap
into his own leg, the Florida permit was expired.

Expired or not, it’s not like Burress bought the gun out of the back of
some guy’s car and was using it to hold up liquor stores — he bought it legally in a different state, and failed
to re-register the gun when his permit expired.

Like Jerome, Burress also says he carried the gun for protection — as a
multi-millionaire celebrity in a sport with a history of its athletes
being the targets of robberies, you can’t blame the guy for thinking he
needed a little extra protection.

Regardless of the circumstances, the two men broke the same law. Jerome, however, got a slap on the wrist, while Burress lost two years of his life — which happened to be during the prime of his career.

If that’s not a “mockery of the law,” we don’t know what is.

Mayor Bloomberg’s office tells us he’s in Singapore at the moment. Our request for comment was forwarded on to someone who “handles all the gun stuff” down at City Hall. We’ll let you know if we hear back.

James King

?If you were wondering why gas prices have been outrageously high lately, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and President Barack Obama are to blame…duh.

That’s according to the propaganda ministry Senate campaign of Congressman Bob Turner, anyway, who currently is trying to win the Republican nomination to square off with Gillibrand in the November election.

Gillibrand, meanwhile, was in Manhattan this afternoon, where she officially was nominated to be the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat she currently holds.

Obviously, Gillibrand and Obama didn’t single-highhandedly conspire to make gas prices more than four bucks a gallon. But this is an election year, where oversimplified rhetoric to explain complex issues is to be expected — and expected from all sides.

In any event, the price of gas, or (we apologize in advance for using
this uber-obnoxious term) “pain at the pump,” is the issue du-jour for
Turner, who reportedly spent the weekend hanging around New York gas
stations alerting motorists that Gillibrand was the reason why it now
costs an arm and a leg to fill their tanks.

He followed up loitering at gas stations with a press release issued
this morning, in which his campaign spokeswoman, Jessica Proud, says the
following:

“At every turn Senator Gillibrand is voting against increasing domestic
oil production and those votes result in higher prices at the pump. When New Yorkers think about their crazy
gas bills, they should think about Kirsten Gillibrand.”

Specifically, they should think about her vote against an extension to the Keystone
Pipeline Project, which Turner’s campaign says would create more than
20,000 jobs, and decrease reliance on oil from places like Venezuela
and the Middle East by nearly 40 percent.

Regardless of whether those numbers add up, there are a few environmental issues with the pipeline that might cause a Democratic senator — who has to worry about the environmentalist vote — to vote against it. In other words, she’s not intentionally trying to make gasoline expensive just to make the lives of New Yorkers as miserable as possible.

The original proposed route for the extension would have taken the pipeline over the Ogallala Aquifer, which is one of the largest reserves of fresh water in the world and provides agua for about two million people. Not to mention, it supports about $20 billion in agriculture, according to a 2010 editorial in The Tyee.

Part of the route also would have gone over an active seismic zone that had a 4.3 magnitude earthquake as recently as 2002.

The company pegged with building the pipeline, TransCanada, has since altered the route to avoid those areas of potential catastrophe, but it’s still a hot-button issue for environmentalists — and NASA scientist James Hansen’s comment that the pipeline extension would be “game over for the planet” certainly isn’t helping Republicans in favor of the project win them over.

Pressure from environmentalists prompted Obama to delay a decision on whether the extension to the pipeline is in the national interest until 2013 — after this year’s election.

Meantime, though, expect more from Turner’s camp — and probably every other Republican running for office this year — on the evil Democrats’ plot to bankrupt (insert location of respective constituencies here) by keeping oil prices sky high.

Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign is ovah.

When (or if) Rick Santorum comes to New York next week, he’ll do so as a former presidential candidate — the former Pennsylvania senator announced this afternoon that he’s suspending his campaign…finally.

“We made a decision over the weekend that, while this presidential race
for us, is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today,
we are not done fighting,” Santorum told reporters and supporters at a press conference this afternoon.

Santorum, despite a few brief surges in the polls, didn’t stand much of a chance at actually winning the primary.

“If he doesn’t win in Pennsylvania, it’s over — and that’s only if he stays in the race,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center For Politics, told the Voice last week. “I can’t imagine anyone outside of his immediate family really thinking [Santorum] can win this thing.”

As Sabato explains, the math was not on Santorum’s side; of the six
states heading to the polls on April 24 — New York, Pennsylvania,
Alabama, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Connecticut — Santorum
only stood to gain electorates in two of them: New York and
Pennsylvania. However, Sabato says, Santorum probably would only win about 20
of New York’s 95 delegates — mainly from rural, Upstate counties. By Santorum only landing about 20 delegates — as Romney adds about 70 from New York to the 658 he already has — the gap is widened between the two as they each try to get to the magic number of 1,144 to clinch the nomination.

Again, though, if Santorum stood any chance at all at winning the primary,
he’d have had to win big in his home state of Pennsylvania, where a
recent poll from Public Policy Polling shows that he trails former
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney 37-percent to Romney’s 42. About
three weeks ago, a similar PPP poll showed Santorum leading Romney
43-percent to 25-percent. In other words, his popularity was on the decline heading into primary day.

Santorum’s late departure from the race basically seals the deal for Mitt Romney to become the GOP nominee to take on Barack Obama in the November election — Newt Gingrich already is referring to his own candidacy in the past tense, and said over the weekend he expects Romney to be the nominee. However, Gingrich is yet to officially bow out of the race — a move intended to give the former House speaker some extra clout amongst GOPers come convention time, Sabato says.

Things just got a little greener in the Garden State.

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services issued a permit to Montclair-based Greenleaf Compassion Center yesterday to begin growing medical marijuana. It’s the first “compassion club” in New Jersey to receive a permit since the state’s medical marijuana law was signed in 2010.

Here in New York, however — the “progressive capitol of the nation,” according to Governor Andrew Cuomo — a medical marijuana bill that will be introduced into the Legislature in the next few weeks probably won’t see the light of day; Cuomo says he won’t consider a medical marijuana bill this year because (he claims) there are “tremendous risks” associated with letting people use marijuana to treat various medical conditions.

We’ve asked the governor’s office on two separate occasions to
explain to us what the “tremendous risks” associated with medical
marijuana are. The gov’s response each time: crickets.

“We are
grateful to Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd for getting the program to
this important milestone,” Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey State Director of
Drug Policy Alliance — the group that led the campaign to pass the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act — says in an email to the Voice.
“The patients we work with and represent are ecstatic.  They have
waited so long for safe and legal access to medical marijuana and this
gives them hope that that wait is coming to an end and relief is in
sight.”

New Jersey’s Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act allows for the licensing of
six Alternative Treatment Centers to grow and dispense medical marijuana
to seriously ill patients. As soon as the law is fully implemented, it
will allow patients suffering from certain debilitating and
life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple
sclerosis to use and possess a limited amount of medical marijuana with a
doctor’s recommendation.

When weighing the pros and cons of
medical marijuana for New York, Cuomo might want to consider the story
of Don and Gerry McGrath, whose youngest son, Sean, was diagnosed with a
rare form of cancer in 2004, when he was only 28 years old.

According to the McGraths, Sean’s doctors recommended he use
marijuana to treat the debilitating pain and nausea he suffered as a
result of the disease.

“Words can’t express what it was like to watch my son waste away
before my eyes, and then on top of that pain, have to deal with feeling
like criminals just because Sean used medical marijuana, which helped
relieve some of his suffering,” the McGrath’s say in an email to the Voice.
“I’m so grateful that the state finally appears to be moving forward
with medical marijuana and that no other family will ever have to go
through what my wife Gerry and our family endured.”

Again, despite there being overwhelming public support for medical
marijuana in New York (anywhere from 60-percent to 80-percent of New Yorkers support medical marijuana, depending on which poll you look at) — and across the country — Cuomo won’t consider the bill.

See our story on Staten Island state Senator Diane Savino’s upcoming medical marijuana bill here. Click here
to see our post suggesting that Cuomo refuses to consider medical
marijuana legislation because he plans on running for president in 2016
and doesn’t want to have to explain on the campaign trail why he’s soft on drugs.

We’ll let you know if Cuomo’s folks ever get back to us about the “tremendous risks” of medical marijuana. 

www.ballofwax.com

Prosecutors say Ray Lengend threw a few of these bad boys at various targets in Queens during New Year’s Day crime spree.

?In what appear to be actual hate crimes, a Queens man has been hit with a 36-count indictment alleging that he fire-bombed multiple buildings — including a mosque and a Hindu temple — during a New Year’s Day crime spree that ended with the suspect telling investigators how much he hates Arabs, Muslims, and Hindus.

In addition to the indictment in state court, the suspect, 40-year-old Ray Lazier Lengend, also faces federal charges.

According to the indictment, Lengend stole a Buick Regal from JFK Airport and used it to drive around Queens and throw Molotov cocktails at various buildings.

Lengend’s first target was a deli at 179th Street and Hillside Avenue — which happens to be the same deli where he’d been busted trying to steal a Starbucks Frappacino and a container of milk the week prior. Lengend allegedly walked into the deli, lit a Molotov cocktail, and threw it on the floor. The fire was extinguished by employees as Lengend fled the scene in the stolen Buick.

Lengend’s next stop was a home at 146-62 107th Avenue, where he
tossed another fire bomb through a front bedroom window, causing a small blaze
inside of the home.

Then Lengend headed to the Al-Khoei
Benevolent Association, a mosque located at 89-89 Van Wyck Expressway,
and threw two Molotov cocktails at the front of the building.

After
leaving the mosque, Lengend went to a Hindu temple at 88-20 170th
Street, where — you guessed it — he threw a fire bomb at the building.

Lengend hit another residence — which was occupied at the time — before his fire-bombing spree would come to an end.

After his arrest, Lengend told authorities that he “had planned to inflict as much damage as possible and take out as many
Muslims and Arabs as possible by throwing all five bottles into the
crowd from the [mosque's] balcony and made further references to his
dislike of Muslims, Arabs and Hindus,” according to the Queens County District Attorneys Office.

“Particularly troubling is the fact that the defendant is alleged to
have been motivated by hate in at least two of the instances where he is
alleged to have struck at a Muslim house of worship and attempted to
strike at a second location which is a Hindu house of worship,” Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown says. “Hate
crimes – whether they be motivated by religion, color, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, or gender – will not be tolerated here in Queens, the
country’s most diverse county.”

Lengend’s been charged with various counts of arson as a hate crime, grand larceny, criminal
possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief,
criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child,
and other charges. If convicted of the top count of first-degree arson
as a hate crime, Lengend lookin’ at 25 years to life in prison.

www.zazzle.com

What we would do to be 17 again — and have the keys to a bulldozer….

?If there’s one thing that’s more fun than a playground, it’s demolishing one with a friggin’ bulldozer!

That’s what Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown says a 17-year-old Bronx boy did earlier this week, destroying a brand new playground in Far Rockaway during what we’ll assume was the most awesome day of this kid’s entire life.

Brown says the suspect, Allan Swafford, broke into the Land-Tek construction site at the intersection of
Lewmay Road and Beach 30th Street sometime between 5
p.m. Sunday and 6:40 a.m. Monday and stole — amongst other fun-for-a-17-year-old-boy items, including a nail gun — the keys to a bulldozer that was parked outside.

As you might imagine, when a 17-year-old boy finds the keys to a bulldozer, he’s not gonna not try to drive it.

Swafford, Brown says, drove the bulldozer “through a playground under construction, destroying nine sections of
decorative fencing and forty feet of curbing; damaging the sidewalk and
decorative pilings; and ripping two plastic slides from the playground.”

Additionally, Swafford “damaged four platforms including
roofing, stairs, posts and railings; destroyed a suspended walking
bridge; damaged a small slide and tore down an additional fifty feet of
fencing.”

Unfortunately for Swafford, a witness watched him driving the bulldozer “with its
front shovel swinging back and forth causing damage to the property.” He was arrested yesterday.

District Attorney buzzkill offers the following assessment of Swafford’s alleged crimes:

“The defendant is accused of causing
extensive damage to a brand new playground in Far Rockaway that was
under construction and set to open this summer – bringing some welcome
joy into the lives of the area’s many disadvantaged children. Instead
of having a fun place to spend some time this summer, the neighborhood
children will be left to wonder why someone would commit such a
senseless crime. ”

Swafford, as you might imagine, is in some pretty serious shit, despite his young age — he was booked on one count each of
third-degree burglary, second-degree criminal mischief, and first-degree
unauthorized use of a vehicle. If convicted, he’s looking at up to seven years in prison, which, in our immature humble opinion, is probably worth it.

www.someecards.com

That shouldn’t be a problem…

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is still pretending that he’s running for president, and will be “campaigning” in New York next week — which is hilarious for a number of reasons.

For starters, he has literally no chance of winning the Republican nomination — he currently has only 136 delegates, and already has said he realizes Mitt Romney (with his 666 delegates) will be the nominee. Secondly, New York hasn’t played a significant role in a Republican primary in more than three decades, so of all the places he could pretend to campaign next week, the Empire State should be one of the last.

As we’ve been reporting for about two weeks, Gingrich will be in town
on April 19, to attend the New York State Republican Party’s Annual
Dinner. But that won’t be his only stop — he reportedly plans to
“campaign” in New York in the days following the dinner.

A source in the know told the Voice
last week that Gingrich actually planned on holding campaign events in
New York — despite his campaign, at this point, being a waste of
Gingrich’s time and his supporters’ money.

A Gingrich campaign spokesman confirmed our tip to the Albany Times Union (the Gingrich campaign did not respond to our request for confirmation last week).

From the Times Union:

“The
campaign is what the campaign is. We’re limited by funds,” Stephen
Luftschein, Gingrich’s volunteer coordinator in New York, told me by
phone. But he said there will be “a couple of events in the
Buffalo-Rochester area.”

Upstate, as Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s
Center for Politics, told us last week, is where Rick Santorum stood to
win a few delegates — 26, Sabato predicted — from the state’s
Conservative voters who question whether Romney’s far enough to the
right. Many of those delegates could go to Gingrich (who claims he’s the
“last Conservative standing”), but it still would have literally no impact on the outcome of the primary.

So why would Gingrich continue to chug along? Sabato says it’s an
attempt to gain a little clout within the party. If that’s the case, it
seems like an odd way to go about it considering his campaign is
creeping into the humiliation zone. Others (Fox News, in particular)
think he’s trying to land a gig with CNN.

Whatever reason Gingrich has for waging on with his hopeless
campaign, one things is certain: he will not be the Republican nominee
for president.

www.theblogmocracy.com

Tim Tebow might not be the miracle the Jets front office is hoping for.

?The deal between the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos for quarterback Tim Tebow is now complete.

Halleluiah!

Jesus’ favorite quarterback will be wearing green next season in exchange for two draft picks — a fourth-rounder and sixth-rounder in 2012 — thanks to a deal that nearly fell apart in the late stages yesterday afternoon.

As we noted yesterday, not everyone’s thrilled with the trade — more specifically, Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie isn’t thrilled with the trade (former Jets QB Joe Namath apparently also is on the list of those not fond of the move).

Cromartie took to Twitter yesterday to let the world know that the Jets didn’t need Tebow — he literally said “we don’t need Tebow.”

As obnoxious as getting hassled by a new colleague can be, Cromartie may have a point — even if it could have been better made in the confines of the Jets’ locker room.

The Jets just signed their presumed starter, Mark Sanchez, to a three-year contract extension — despite his already having thrown 51 interceptions (including three in the last game of the 2011 season), and having an unimpressive career QB rating of 73.2, in the three years he’s already been at the helm of Rex Ryan’s squad.

As Cromartie points out, the team made the decision to stick with Sanchez, so they should do what they can to build a team around him, not hold auditions for his replacement.

Aside from the contract extension for Sanchez, the Jets just picked up former Detroit Lions backup Drew Stanton (and gave him a $500,000 signing bonus), and still have former Alabama star Greg McElroy in their arsenal of wannabe B-squad quarterbacks.

Additionally, Tebow brings with him the guarantee that the first time Sanchez throws an interception, every drunk J-E-T-S fan at every home game — and every Tebow fan on the road — is gonna start chanting “Tebow! Tebow!” until sexy Rexy throws him in the game (it’s called Rookie of the Year Syndrome — and it happened with Tebow in Denver).

In other words, with a fan-favorite like Tebow holding his clipboard, there’s additional — unwanted, and un-needed — pressure on Sanchez.

However, Tebow seems to have the lord on his side, which can’t hurt things. He’s also a nice addition if the Jets want to start running a wildcat offense more frequently, which they likely will with Tony Sporano as the team’s new offensive coordinator.

There are pros and cons to having Tebow on the team. Cons: resources were used on him that could have been used elsewhere, and he could prove to be a distraction for Sanchez, the Jets’ 40-million-dollar man. Pros: Jesus and a wildcat offense.

We want to know what you think, though: do the Jets really need Tebow?

Cast your vote below.

www.navytimes.com

Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Missile? What missile? Kim Jong-un’s friggin’ awesome!

North Korea pissed off just about everyone yesterday when it launched a missile that the international community fears could be the precursor to the communist dictatorship developing an intercontinental missile that could potentially carry a nuclear warhead. The missile, thankfully, failed.

If you haven’t already heard about it (it was pretty much the biggest story in the world yesterday), you probably live in North Korea, where the state-run — and only — news agency barely mentioned the failed rocket launch (natch). It instead ran 33 stories praising the country’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung — who founded the country’s current dictatorship, and whose 100th birthday was being celebrated by attempting to launch a rocket into space, defying international warnings not to do so.

Just to see how the North Korean government was spinning the missile story, we checked out the Korean Central News Agency’s website last night –
just hours after the bungled launch — and as Piers Morgan and every other
talking head was yammering on about it on cable news shows, we could only
find a tiny article about the missile on the KCNA website. Rather than further coverage of the biggest story in the world, KCNA went with dozens of
“news” articles congratulating Jong-un for his recent “election” to be
the first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and honoring his grandfather.

As every other news outlet on planet earth was leading with headlines like “North Korean Rocket Said to Fail Right After Liftoff,” and “North Korea Rocket Launch Fails,” KCNA published a paragraph about the failed launch — providing few details, according to the BBC and other news outlets with Korean translators — and then ran with the following list of headlines:

Kim Jong Un Receives Congratulations from Hu Jintao

Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President

Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Lao Party Leader

Gifts Presented

Gifts to Kim Il Sung

Gifts from Delegations and Delegates of Organizations for Study of Juche Idea

Gift from Chinese Organization

Deputies to SPA Pay Floral Tribute

Floral Tribute Paid

Floral Basket and Congratulatory letter from Military Attaches Corps

Floral Basket from Lao Party Leader

Foreign Personages Present Floral Basket and Congratulatory Letter

Floral Baskets, Congratulatory Letters

WFDY President and Representative of WHO Pay Tribute

Floral Baskets, Congratulations from Int’l Organizations Delegations

World Congress on Juche Idea Opens with Splendor

Old Home in Mangyongdae Draws Endless Bevy of Visitors

Participants in Int’l Festival Visit Old Home

Military Attaches Corps and Staffers of UNCF Office Visit Mangyongdae

Deputies to SPA Visit Mangyongdae

Foreign Guests Visit Pyongyang Mission of AINDF

WPK Secretary Meets Foreign Party Leaders

Songhwa Fine Art Exhibition Opens

Chinese in Chongjin Mark Birth Anniversary

Mass Game Given in North Hwanghae Province

Foreign Guests, Delegations and Delegates Arrive

Servicepersons Delighted at News of Election as Head of WPK

Kim Jong Un, Symbol of DPRK’s Dignity

Aid Materials Donated by Chinese Organization

Devoted Teacher Working on Suun Islet for 35 Years

Health Dishes, Drinks Presented to Food Festival

Korean Stamp Museum

“Kim Il Sung’s Korea”, Special Write-ups to Centenary of His Birth (26)

Maltese Party Leader Hopes Everything Will Go Well in DPRK

Chongryon Central Standing Committee Congratulates

Koreans in Japan Remember Kim Il Sung

Title of Honorary Citizen of Nigeria Awarded to Kim Il Sung

S. Korean Prosecution Accused of Dragging on Case of Illegal Investigation into Civilians

U.S. Shoots Down East Asian Peace: Asian Times

Korean Stamp Exhibition Opens in China

Collection of Works Published in Russia and South Africa

Work Off Press in Ecuador

Day of Sun Marked Abroad

Day of Sun to Be Celebrated in Libya

Birth Anniversary Celebrated in China

Birth Anniversary Marked by Foreign Newspapers

That’s every headline that appeared on the KCNA homepage last night,
just hours after the failed launch. The paragraph about the failed missile was added early this morning, but doesn’t appear on an English version of the website at the time of his writing.

From the sound of KCNA’s website, things are just swell in
the isolated autocracy — despite the fact that its starving citizens
could potentially lose even more foreign food aid because Kim Jong-un
decided to spit in the face of the international community.

If you’ve never visited KCNA’s website, you should — it would be hilarious…if it wasn’t real.

www.glossynews.com

Shhhh…Andrew Cuomo might be listening.

?With a few flicks of his pen, Governor Andrew Cuomo this morning signed off on a new law that makes being too loud in church — and various other supposed “crimes” — a criminal offense that will land an offender’s DNA on a government database.

The new statute, Cuomo’s “All Crimes DNA” law, is the first of its kind in the entire country. Under the new law, anyone convicted of a felony, or penal law misdemeanor, has to hand their DNA over to the government so it can be added to a database with the DNA with other criminals.

The goal, obviously, is to get as much DNA in the government’s hands as possible so
it’s easier for authorities to solve crimes where there’s DNA evidence.
The problem, however, is that it’s a bit big brother-y –
especially when you consider some of the crimes that could now give the
government the right to your DNA.

Last week we looked at all of the state’s penal code misdemeanors. What
we discovered is that crimes like being too loud in church, adultery,
and fortune telling will now get your DNA into the state’s database.

See some of the other crimes that will now give the government the right to your genetic fingerprint here.

Civil rights groups argue that the law goes too far, and that it opens
the door for potential error and fraud at state crime labs. Cuomo — as well as
legislative leaders and district attorneys, including Manattan DA Cyrus
Vance — are lovin’ the new law.

“I am proud to sign this bill today because this modern law enforcement
tool will not only help us solve and prevent crimes but also exonerate
the innocent,” Cuomo, who calls the law a “centerpiece” of his 2012
legislative agenda, says.

As for that part about exonerating the innocent…

As the Voice also noted last week, the New York state Bar
Association and the Innocence Project say the state ranks third in the
nation in wrongful convictions.

The Innocence Project, a non-profit that uses DNA evidence to try to
exonerate those wrongfully convicted, says Cuomo’s new law doesn’t
include certain measures that would help clear the innocent, like
requiring police to videotape interrogations, and giving defendants the
right to obtain DNA evidence even after they have pleaded guilty to a
crime.

More on that here.

In any event, going forward, you might want to pipe down while attending
mass, and keep the fortune telling to a minimum…big brother’s
watching.

Wikipedia

Happy “Timothy Cardinal Dolan Week,” New York!

?On the same day Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan told reporters that he’s “bolstered” by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s assurances that he won’t support a bill pending in the New York Legislature that would define abortion rights (NOTE: the Governor’s Office declined comment when asked if Cuomo opposed the bill), Cuomo — who is Roman Catholic — declared this week “Timothy Cardinal Dolan Week” in New York.

“It is an honor to designate Timothy Cardinal Dolan Week in New York,” Cuomo, who met with the New York State Catholic Conference this morning, says in a statement. “Cardinal Dolan has quickly become a beloved leader in our state and it is clear that he will continue to have a tremendous impact on the next generation of Catholicism in New York and throughout the United States.”

Dolan has toed the conservative Catholic line with his opposition to abortion, and helped lead the charge against the same-sex marriage bill that Cuomo signed into law last year.

Additionally, Dolan bashed the Obama Administration’s decision to no
longer enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines
marriage as only being legal if it’s between a man and a woman.

“The administration’s failure to change course on this matter will…
precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous
proportions and to the detriment of both institutions,” Dolan wrote in a letter to the president last year.

Dolan’s
charm and conservative Catholic positions have made him somewhat of a
rock star amongst Catholics — 60 Minutes did a segment on him last
year (which you can watch below), and he was elected in 2010 to be head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He’s even been dubbed “the American pope.”

Social issues aside, Dolan’s often applauded for his efforts to repair the Church’s image following seemingly endless cases of priests sexually abusing children. However, he reportedly also is urging Cuomo and state lawmakers to oppose a bill currently in the Legislature that would extend statutes of limitations for lawsuits in sexual abuse cases, saying it would “devastate parish finances.”

Dolan’s office didn’t immediately get back to us when asked to clarify the cardinal’s position on the sexual abuse bill, which you can read here.

To celebrate Dolan’s week, Cuomo says One World Trade Center will be lit in red until Sunday.

Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera comes with a bit of baggage.

?Governor Andrew Cuomo used the annual dinner for a non-profit group aimed at increasing the role of Hispanics in the public policy making process to announce that Democratic Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera is his pick to replace Colleen Gardner (a David Patterson holdover) as the commissioner of the state Department of Labor.

Rivera happens to be Puerto Rican, so the governor couldn’t have picked a more politically savvy venue to make his announcement (courting the Hispanic vote could go a long way — like all the way to a 2016 presidential run, if you catch our drift).

The dinner the governor attended was the annual gala for Somos El Futuro, which found itself smack-dab in the middle of a public pissing match between the governor and two teachers unions last week. More on that here.

Rivera has served in the Assembly for nearly 20 years. During his time in the Assembly, he served as the chairman of the Assembly Standing Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. He also currently sits on the New York State Assembly Committee on Rules and the Judiciary Committee, as well as the committees on Agriculture, and Consumer Affairs and Protection.

Rivera, however, also comes with a little baggage — as former Voice scribe Tom Robbins noted in January 2011, one of Rivera’s buddies got popped for federal corruption charges for allegedly lying to a grand jury during a probe into an agency he led, and to which Rivera, as a powerful assemblyman, steered millions in taxpayer coin.

David Griffiths, a former law partner of Rivera’s who also served as
his campaign treasurer, headed the non-profit group Neighborhood
Enhancement for Training Services (NETS), which was the target of a federal corruption investigation starting in 2008.

By
Robbins’ estimate, Rivera steered $1.2 million in taxpayer money to
NETS. The New York Post, at the time of Griffith’s arrest, put the dollar amount closer to $2.2
million.

Much of the money was supposed to go towards renovating
an old synagogue NETS wanted for its headquarters. The renovations never
happened.

Rivera later claimed he hadn’t visited the bogus
building project “in several years,” despite a contractor initially hired to do
the renovations telling the Post that he “thought it was Peter’s
[Rivera's] thing.” Get all the details here and here. 

Rivera’s
appointment still needs to be approved by the Legislature. He’s
expected to hold on to his Assembly seat until the current session ends
in June.