Via email, the Wall Street bailout has failed in the House, 205 to 228. More details as they become available.

And via Die Zeit, here's vox populi.

Update: The Dow is down 500 points (10,649), and has now officially moved below the level it had when George Bush took office eight years ago(10,659). How's that MBA Presidency working out for you, Wall Streeters?

Update 2: Via TAP, here's the roll call. Yeas: Ackerman, Arcuri, Bishop, Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Fossella, Hall, Higgins, Israel, King, Lowey, Maloney, McCarthy, McHugh, McNulty, Meeks, Nadler, Rangel, Reynolds, Slaughter, Towns, Velazquez, Walsh, Weiner. Nays: Gillibrand, Hinchey, Kuhl, Serrano

Update 3: The final tally: the Dow is down 777 points for the day, the highest one-day point loss in history.

The NYSDC launched an effort today to gently prod Joe Bruno's caucus back to work. Cool thing: the campaign is being run exclusively online and spread out to newspaper web sites, blogs and other sites across the state. The ads will point to a site where readers can see a presentation by the governor laying out the unfinished agenda the voters sent him to Albany to enact.

The fun part: the Dems are naming names. Some of the ads are personalized for individual markets, calling out Senators Alesi and Robach in Rochester, DeFrancisco in Syracuse, plus all the Long Island Senators.

And Joe Bruno in Albany himself.

“We wanted to let New Yorkers know that Joe Bruno’s GOP Senate left early last week and left the people’s business unfinished. They were so excited to get to the golf course, or to the La-z-boy that they couldn’t manage to finish their jobs,” said State Dem Co-Chair David Pollak.

Chairwoman June O’Neil added, “It’s disgraceful that when they could find the time to vote themselves a pay raise, Senators like Kemp Hannon, John DeFrancisco and Jim Alesi couldn’t vote yes on vital pieces of legislation – including an important power plant siting bill and publicly agreed-to Wicks Law reform. These bills are key components of Governor Spitzer’s plan to revitalize our upstate communities.”

Wait, did we say ad? Here's an example, after the jump:  read more »

As I was coming back from the gym about an hour ago, I saw the mess of traffic that had accumulated at 14th Street and First Avenue.

First Avenue was blocked from 14th all the way up past 23rd. A suspicious looking package was found in the 23rd and First area.

Ironically, it's during mini-crisis like these these that downtown Manhattan turns into a pedestrians' paradise. Can't tell you how much I love it when streets and avenues are closed down here. The quiet makes you forget you're in the heart of the world's capital.

I can't wait for that $8/vehicle charge to enter downtown goes into effect.

Warning: the following post includes confusing details meant to discourage public participation. Some patience and bravery is advised.

In a stunning move of extreme waffling, the office of Melinda Katz has rescheduled the public hearing on Duffield Street from April 11 to May 1. Or maybe it will be April 17, but we won't know for sure until a few days before the meeting.

Action Advisory:
Email Christine Quinn at quinn@council.nyc.ny.us and
Melinda Katz at katz@council.nyc.ny.us

Write that the destruction of the Underground Railroad deserves a fair hearing. The City should not waddle through the seizure by eminent domain of private homes in a haphazard manner.

Stick to the announced date of May 1 for the public hearing on the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes!

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from Tish James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.  read more »

Ok, here we go: The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani, lately running for President, was briefed about the mob ties of his freshly nominated police commissioner-to-be, Bernie Kerik.

Rudolph W. Giuliani told a grand jury that his former chief investigator remembered having briefed him on some aspects of Bernard B. Kerik’s relationship with a company suspected of ties to organized crime before Mr. Kerik’s appointment as New York City police commissioner, according to court records.

Mr. Giuliani, testifying last year under oath before a Bronx grand jury investigating Mr. Kerik, said he had no memory of the briefing, but he did not dispute that it had taken place, according to a transcript of his testimony.

Kerik, if your memory isn't serving, is the sleaze who carried on an affair with Judith Regan in an apartment set aside for rescue workers overlooking Ground Zero. She later resigned as publisher of her eponymous imprint after making one anti-Semitic remark too many while trying to publish O.J. Simpson's If I did it memoir.

But back to Rudy Giuliani, Saint. Let's just say this: if you're told that the guy you're nominating for police commissioner has mob ties, you have several courses of action. None of these include forgetting about that little piece of information; that is, if you even extend him the benefit of the doubt on forgetting it while under oath in the first place. People forget dinner reservations, not being told that their nominee for police commissioner has mob ties.  read more »