Danny Hakim
What Andrew Cuomo was worried about, maybe
Today, Danny Hakim spins two separate but related stories out of some documents discovered in the state archives about Andrew Cuomo's attorney general days. More
Andrew Cuomo acts like a politician with things to hide
Andrew Cuomo's policy of sending aides to remove documents from the state archives before and after reporters search threw them has landed on the front page of the Times this morning, in a story whose lede notes the administration is "already drawing attention for its focus on secrecy."
The fact that it landed on the froth page of The Times says something about how seriously the paper views Cuomo as a national figure, and how egregious the tactic is. (The Times story is a follow-up to a front-page story yesterday in the Times Union that first revealed the archives-altering practice (and included an amazing quote from Cuomo's director of communication: "Sending records to the Archives is about preservation for future generations, not access for today."
(1)New York borrows from the pension fund to pay the pension fund
How big a problem are pension costs in New York?
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is leading the fight to cut the state's long-term pension burden, is among the elected officials in New York borrowing from the pension fund in order to pay pension costs. And New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg has complained about pension costs for years, gave a "strong recommendation" to the New York Public Library that they should borrow money in order to pay their pension costs too. More
(1)Andrew Cuomo begins the public search for a graceful way out of a tax pledge
"Read Andrew's Lips" has been a constant feature of the New York Post editorial page for weeks now, a reminder (and implicit warning) to the governor, and everyone else, that he has committed to kill a high-earner tax.
Cuomo's acknowledgment today that he's considering an overhaul of the tax code which could include tax increases on the rich will not go unnoticed by the Post or anyone else, is the point. More
Cuomo's spokesman scandalizes Capitol press with serial accusations; he says he's aggressive, just like them
The Cuomo administration's not infrequently hostile interactions with the people who cover it have been a topic of interest in recent weeks. The list of gripes Albany reporters have aired lately includes a lack of transparency, minimal access to the governor, unavailability of public records to reporters and what they say is the sanitization of the Governor's schedule.
But they have in particular objected to what they perceive as slurs on their ethics or professionalism, employed they believe to knock down stories ad hominem, often, they have felt, when Cuomo's office must have known the stories were substantially true.
Vlasto, contacted for this article, would only say: "I respect aggressive reporters and they should respect aggressive spokespeople." More
