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Monthly Archives: June 2009
Congrats, Al Franken
You might recall we posted here about “A Dollar A Day To Make Norm Go Away“–a campaign to get Norm Coleman to drop his lawsuit keeping Minnesota Senator-elect Al Franken from officially taking up his seat. Good news! MN Supreme Court has ruled in his favor: Just now, the Minnesota Supreme Court handed down its unanimous verdict [PDF] on the long-running, unresolved contest between Al Franken and Norm Coleman to determine who will fill the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Specifically, the decision pertains to which candidate received the most votes and whether those votes were counted (and recounted) properly. This was the whole basis of Coleman’s case against Franken, rejected by a lower court, and now rejected by the … More >>
Tagged al franken, norm coleman
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MYD Does NYC Gay Pride!
This past Sunday MYD Members participated in the annual New York City Gay Pride Parade. This year, we were proud to be more than casual observers to the parade. We have worked hard to push for Marriage Equality in New York State, and will continue to work hard to guarantee equal rights for all. Don’t forget to check out our website www.newyorkequality.com to email your State Senator today! That being said, the parade was AWESOME! We joined our friends The Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane, Borough President Scott Stringer and Councilman David Yassky for one of the first really summery days of 2009! We’re not very picky, so we were … More >>
Shake That Fist At The MTA (Again)
Enjoying that fare hike that went into place over the weekend? ($2.25 per ride now, hooray!) Here’s another reason to be annoyed with the MTA: Not surprising, but still troubling: A new study from the University of Washington and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health shows that subways are the loudest forms of mass transit in the city. Some of the noise levels recorded in the subway exceeded 100 decibels, which is loud enough to cause permanent hearing loss for regular straphangers if they’re exposed to it for even as little as two minutes a day. Lovely. Oh, by the way, if you’ve noticed your weekend commute feels longer than usual, it’s not just you: [A]ccording an internal memo … More >>
Tagged fare hikes, hearing loss, mta
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Crusading New Yorkers
Some cheery news from beyond New York State borders! The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that state attorney generals have the right to investigate nationally-chartered banks for violating consumer protection laws. NY AG Andrew Cuomo wanted to see if national banks were engaging in discriminatory practices by funnelling minorities into dangerous sub-prime loans. Fannie Mae estimates that more than half of sub-prime borrowers qualified for prime loans; many were minorities suffering under redlining practices. The map…shows the distribution of foreclosures in New York City; foreclosures are most dense where minorities are concentrated, in large part because of these practices. But when Cuomo tried to look into the problems, the banks told him that their national regulator preempted any state … More >>
“Ayes, 32″
Apparently Republican Senator Padavan walked through the chamber while the Democrats were having yet another not-really-a-session. Democrats are now passing a huge list of non-controversial legislation, claiming “Ayes, 32″. But Padavan has told Paterson he wasn’t present: Paterson takes Padavan’s word that he was not in chamber during session and [will] not sign bills passed this afternoon. You can watch the proceedings live here (scroll down). Senate Shows Up - The Albany Project
“Only” 5% of GDP
One of Manzi’s central points is that climate change just ain’t all that damaging, economically speaking: it will reduce global GDP by “only” 5 percent one hundred years hence, he writes, even arguably pessimistic assumptions by the IPCC about both the magnitude of climate change and its economic impacts. The problem with GDP is this: it varies greatly across counties, by a factor of 800 or so on a per-capita basis between Burundi and Luxembourg, or nearly 2,000 if you count Zimbabwe, which effectively does not have an economy. A lot of countries contribute almost nothing to global GDP, even though they may have tens or hundreds of millions of people. You could literally wipe them from the globe and … More >>
Tagged climate change
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