NYPD Officials, Prominent Jewish Business Men Charged In Bribery Corruption Scandal

The four arrests follow months of revelations that have embarrassed the nation’s largest police department and put Mayor Bill de Blasio on the spot about his campaign financing.

Associated Press
By Associated Press
Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg, right, leaves Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, June 20, 2016, after he was charged with showering New York Police Department officials with tens of thousands of dollars in bribes, including vacations, prostitutes and home improvements so that he could use the NYPD as his private police force.

Two high-ranking New York Police Department officers were arrested Monday on charges they took over $100,000 worth of free flights, prostitutes, expensive meals and other bribes in exchange for providing a "private police force" for local businessmen. Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, Deputy Inspector James Grant and a third defendant, Brooklyn

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Muslim Students Allowed To Celebrate Religious Holidays In NYC

Social media has been flooded with a mixture of both celebratory and disdainful posts over de Blasio’s announcement. Many seem outraged that their children will be missing school in order to observe religious holidays that are not their own

Kristin Paquette for The Fifth Column.
By Kristin Paquette for The Fifth Column.
Muslim Prayer Beads

Image Source: “Muslim Prayer Beads” by Muhammad Rehan from Pakistan The New York City Council had voted to authorize these observances in 2009, however, the former mayor, Michael Bloomberg had been adamantly opposed. So, now, nearly six years later, Mayor de Blasio is following through on his 2013 campaign promise to enact the city council’s

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Fight For 15 In NYC Just Got A Lot More Promising And A Lot More Complicated

Bill de Blasio’s role in helping Andrew Cuomo attain the endorsement of the Working Families Party has opened up a space for a more vigorous and radical discussion of a minimum wage for NYC.

William Blueher and James Hoff
By William Blueher and James Hoff

In politics, the greatest opportunities often present themselves amid the least promising of circumstances. The New York Working Family Party's (WFP) scandalous and much decried endorsement of Governor Andrew Cuomo on June 1 is but one example of how, out of the chaos of internal conflict, opportunities for more radical change can become possible.

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NYC Parents Vs. Wall Street-Backed Charter Schools

Governor Cuomo and charter lobby ‘strong-arming’ bid to evict special needs students in favor of charter expansion

Lauren McCauley
By Lauren McCauley
nyc_school_protest_banner

Parents and public school advocates staged a dramatic protest outside the New York City Department of Education on Tuesday against a bid, backed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and financed by Wall Street lobbyists, to evict special needs students in order to make room for charter school expansion. The demonstration is the most recent development in

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St. Pat’s Parades Proceed Amid Tension Over Gays

Mayor Bill de Blasio held the traditional St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at Gracie Mansion with the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, but planned to boycott the parade, which doesn’t allow expressions of gay identity. Boston’s new mayor, Martin Walsh, also opted out of that city’s parade Sunday after talks broke down that would have allowed a gay veterans group to march.

Associated Press
By Associated Press
St Patricks Day Parade

NEW YORK — A weekend of St. Patrick's Day revelry and tensions over the exclusion of gays in some of the celebrations was culminating Monday in New York, where Guinness beer and the city's new mayor planned to sit out the world's largest parade celebrating Irish heritage. Mayor Bill de Blasio held the traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast at

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For A Pay Hike, NYPD Unions May Drop Stop-And-Frisk

New York City’s police unions might be willing to eliminate a controversial policing tactic if the city’s mayor puts pay increases on the negotiating table.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke
Bill de Blasio, William J. Bratton

Despite pledging to thwart any and all attempts by newly minted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to eliminate the controversial policing practice known as stop-and-frisk, New York City’s police unions appear to have had a change of heart, or as one local report put it, “the officers unions’ see poor compensation as more valuable than their right

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