New legislation introduced in the U.S. House yesterday would prohibit the use of federal money for advertisements attacking products like Coke and Pepsi. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) introduced the bill to counter a growing trend of anti-obesity ads that are funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Scribe reported in October the money was included in President Obama’s economic stimulus law. The federal government has provided $230 million in funding to at least 25 communities for a …
Late last night, al-Qaeda sympathizer Jose Pimentel was arraigned for his plans “to build a bomb and use a bomb to assassinate U.S. servicemen and women returning from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Pimentel’s arrest marks at least the 43rd Islamist-related plot aimed at attacking the U.S. homeland since 9/11. Heritage’s James Carafano explains in a new paper that this latest foiled plot teaches important lessons about “lone-wolf” terrorists: The arrest of Pimentel reminds that lone-wolf operations can be effectively detected and disrupted by law enforcement. As with other …
Scribe reported last week on the extensive damage to small businesses wrought by the “Occupy” protests being staged around the country. In lower Manhattan, business owners are fighting back. Having been forced to endure nearly half a million dollars in lost revenue, they are planning to stage a counter-protest. At 5 pm, they will gather on the steps of City Hall to speak out against the “Occupy Wall Street” tent city, which has remained in Zuccotti Park for nearly two months. A recent survey by the New York Post showed …
Ready to fork over some of your hard-earned dollars to help the United Nations construct a new building — and for New York City to build a new park? Well then you’re in luck. Heritage’s Brett Schaefer writes at National Review Online that the U.N. is erecting a new building next to its existing tower in Manhattan, on an existing playground. The U.N. hasn’t provided the Obama administration or Congress an official cost estimate for the project or a detailed justification of the need for the building, but Schaefer says earlier estimates pegged …
It is potentially the 39th terrorist plot foiled against the United States since the attack on September 11, 2001. Yesterday, the NYPD arrested two men seeking to purchase hand grenades and guns for a possible attack against New York City synagogues. This is nothing new—at least three of the attempted terrorist plots since 9/11 have targeted synagogues or Jewish centers and, by our count, this would be the 11th plot against the Big Apple. While some have been holding their breath for the possibility of retaliation following the death of …
Starting next summer, New Yorkers will get hit with a tax that is hard to believe even in the already overly-taxed metropolis of Manhattan. Firefighters will begin charging accident victims for their emergency services to the tune of hundreds of dollars, even if the victim was not at fault. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (I) newest tax would charge residents $490 for a car fire or accident with injury, $415 for a car fire without injury and $365 for any vehicle accident without injury. (New Yorkers must be relieved to know that …
It turns out that many city public pension plans are just as underfunded as various state plans are. For instance, Chicago has only about $22 billion in pension assets to pay for $66 billion in pension promises to its city workers, while New York City has $93 billion available to pay $215 billion in city pension promises, and Boston has only $3.5 billion available to pay $11 billion in promises. That means that every household in Chicago has a liability of about $42,000 just to pay pensions to city workers, …
The Lottery, a new documentary about charter schools in New York City, is changing the debate on parental choice in education. Madeleine Sackler, a 27 year old graduate of Duke University and creator of the film, follows 4 students who have been entered into a lottery to be selected for one of the spots at Harlem Success Academy (a transformative system of charter schools that is catching the eyes of policymakers across the country.) The film will be screened today at 5:30 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. …
In the wake of last Saturday’s attempted Times Square bombing, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is mad because NYC’s share of federal counterterrorism dollars has fallen over the past few years. These dollars, allocated through the DHS Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) have gone from “25% of the total funding pot in 2005 to 18% in 2010.” Schumer may indeed be right, that dollars have fallen, but he fails to address the more fundamental problem of UASI funding—the fact that more and more jurisdictions are receiving the money, leaving and less …
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation is guaranteeing that New Yorkers will soon have to pay even more for electricity — when they can get it. The department just rejected Indian Point’s request for a water-quality certificate, which the plant needs to keep operating one reactor running after 2013, and the other after 2015. (The plant also needs its license renewed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but that’s a different battle.) A court fight is expected, but if this holds up, New York City in particular is in …
