Last week, a federal judge in Virgina struck down laws that prohibit corporations from donating directly to political campaigns. The judge reasoned that if, under Citizens United, corporations are people too, then they should be able to donate to political campaigns just like people can.

This ruling destroys over a century of settled law, going back to the Tillman Act of 1907. Granted, that law, which prohibited corporate contributions to federal elections, was completely ineffective -- corporate boards merely voted huge bonuses for top employees who then donated the bonuses. Still, it's yet another blow to attempts at campaign finance reform.

As a novice to Brooklyn politics, I'm not sure how to handicap Item #2 of this post from Celeste Katz.

Item #1 is easy; Hakeem Jeffries has no intention of spending the rest of his career in Albany.

I have no idea how to handicap Item #2. Is Fidler the most likely Democratic nominee to succeed Kruger? Who are the Republicans?And what are the odds of a Republican victory, either next year or in a special election?

Finally, how could redistricting alter the odds, and what effect
could it have on neighboring Senate districts?

Perhaps some veteran Brooklynites can chime in.

Actually, the title is a bit premature, but I will be speaking on the subject tonight at CBID (for the uninitiated, that's "Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats"). Details:

Thursday, March 24, 2011
7:00pm
Park Slope United Methodist Church
6th Avenue (Between 7th/8th Streets)

I look forward to an excellent discussion.

I moved out of Manhattan in 1988.

Living in the outer boroughs, I am keenly aware, as are many TDG readers, of the Manhattan-centric rules under which this city often operates. Once in a while, however, someone (usually from an outer borough) finds a way to make things a little better. In this case, TLC Commissioner David Yassky is proposing a method by which we can hail (legally) a gypsy cab in the outer boroughs.

Under the proposal, the "livery cars" would have to be licensed, equipped with meters, GPS systems and credit card payment systems. That way, what we would get is, for all practical purposes, the same as a yellow cab. And since yellow cabs don't patrol outside of Manhattan, and the gypsies could only pick up street hails in the outer boroughs, it would help ease the problem.

It's an excellent proposal. It will solve a problem without creating new problems. I predict that in a few years they will expand it to upper Manhattan as well.

(Note: This column is cross-posted on my website.)

One of the signatures achievements of the Bloomberg administration is the advent of 311. People who have complaints about a city agency, or a landlord, or a business, or who want information about a wide variety of items, can call one clearinghouse number and get everything taken care of.

Well ... not exactly. Read on...  read more »