No Wonder Andrew Cuomo Is Purging Emails

Pro Publica and the Times Union report:

Previously undisclosed emails sent by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described "critical role" in one of Cuomo's signature financial investigations.

The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidant Howard Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser's own clients.

In one email, Glaser touted his influence over a Cuomo deal that weakened rules to prevent misdeeds in the mortgage market. That deal, with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reflected Glaser's "significant, critical and current input," he wrote in an email, "a fact to which current (Fannie and Freddie) employees and the NYAG's office are prepared to attest." Fannie and Freddie were both Glaser's clients.

The emails contradict Glaser's previous account of his involvement in Cuomo's investigations.

ProPublica and the Times Union reported last year that Glaser had worked simultaneously as a consultant for the attorney general's office and for a bevy of mortgage industry firms. Glaser said at the time that he only gave general advice to Cuomo's office, that he did not represent clients with the attorney general, and that he was "not involved" in specific mortgage industry cases.

The emails, however, suggest Glaser was involved in mortgage industry cases, and traveled to Cuomo's office repeatedly over the course of nearly two years while the investigations related to Glaser's clients unfolded.

"Oy. I Spent the last 48 hrs at the NY AG's office and am glad to give you an off the record briefing and my observations," Glaser wrote in a Nov. 7, 2007, email to the federal regulator of Fannie and Freddie. The same day, Cuomo announced subpoenas of the two mortgage giants as part of an investigation into widespread conflicts of interest in the appraisal process.

"These emails on their face indicate a serious conflict of interest, a conflict that could very well have influenced enforcement actions by Cuomo, much to the benefit of Glaser's clients," said Craig Holman of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.

... 

Glaser's years-old emails also show the importance of email preservation at a time when the Cuomo administration is under fire for instituting a policy that purges emails after 90 days unless they're actively retained. If the emails had been sent to or from Cuomo's current office or a state agency under the new policy, they likely would have been lost.

No wonder Cuomo wants to delete all those pesky emails after 90 days.

Then he doesn't have to worry about stuff like this surfacing in the newspapers or media.

Small Coterie Of Hedge Fundies Have Bought New York State And Governor Cuomo

Juan Gonzalez in the Daily News:

Hedge fund executives have unleashed a tsunami of money the past few years aimed at getting New York’s politicians to close more public schools and expand charter schools.

They’ve done it through direct political contributions, through huge donations to a web of pro-charter lobbying groups, and through massive TV and radio commercials.

Since 2000, 570 hedge fund managers have shelled out nearly $40 million in political contributions in New York State, according to a recent report by Hedge Clippers, a union-backed research group.
The single biggest beneficiary has been Andrew Cuomo, who received $4.8 million from them.

...

But the direct donations don’t tell the full story.

In this era after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case, the indirect contributions are even more astounding.

Take, for example, a group called New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany. It financed a massive advertising campaign late last year aimed at keeping the state Senate in Republican hands, largely by blasting upstate Democrats as tied to Mayor de Blasio.

That group received $3.5 million from just six hedge fund backers of charter schools.

...

Two other pro-charter groups, Families for Excellent Schools and the political arm of Students First New York, spent more than $10 million last year on their lobbying effort.

If you're a reader of this blog, you know that Andrew Cuomo was on the take from the hedge fund managers long before he became governor.

As the NY Times reported in 2010, Cuomo met with these same hedge fundies who have donated so much money to these pro-charter front groups in a hotel room and took a suitcase full of campaign cash and promise for even more future campaign cash back to the office with him:

When Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to meet certain members of the hedge fund crowd, seeking donors for his all-but-certain run for governor, what he heard was this: Talk to Joe.

That would be Joe Williams, executive director of a political action committee that advances what has become a favorite cause of many of the wealthy founders of New York hedge funds: charter schools.

Wall Street has always put its money where its interests and beliefs lie. But it is far less common that so many financial heavyweights would adopt a social cause like charter schools and advance it with a laserlike focus in the political realm.

Hedge fund executives are thus emerging as perhaps the first significant political counterweight to the powerful teachers unions, which strongly oppose expanding charter schools in their current form.
After hearing from Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Williams arranged an 8 a.m. meeting last month at the Regency Hotel, that favorite spot for power breakfasts, between Mr. Cuomo and supporters of his committee, Democrats for Education Reform, who include the founders of funds like Anchorage Capital Partners, with $8 billion under management; Greenlight Capital, with $6.8 billion; and Pershing Square Capital Management, with $5.5 billion.

Although the April 9 breakfast with Mr. Cuomo was not a formal fund-raiser, the hedge fund managers have been wielding their money to influence educational policy in Albany, particularly among Democrats, who control both the Senate and the Assembly but have historically been aligned with the teachers unions.

They have been contributing generously to lawmakers in hopes of creating a friendlier climate for charter schools. More immediately, they have raised a multimillion-dollar war chest to lobby this month for a bill to raise the maximum number of charter schools statewide to 460 from 200.

The money has paid for television and radio advertisements, phone banks and some 40 neighborhood canvassers in New York City and Buffalo — all urging voters to put pressure on their lawmakers.
...
The financial titans, who tend to send their children to private schools, would not seem to be a natural champion of charter schools, which are principally aimed at poor, minority students.

But the money managers are drawn to the businesslike way in which many charter schools are run; their focus on results, primarily measured by test scores; and, not least, their union-free work environments, which give administrators flexibility to require longer days and a longer academic year.

It also does not hurt that the city’s No. 1 billionaire, Mr. Bloomberg, is a strong charter school supporter. He is the host of the fund-raiser for Mr. Hoyt, and at times, Democrats for Education Reform seems an extension of the mayor’s own platform.

Besides more charter schools, the group and the mayor have called for ending the use of seniority as a basis for layoffs and for granting principals more power to fire teachers they consider ineffective.

Mr. Cuomo also has expressed support for charter schools. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to answer questions about the breakfast at the Regency, but Mr. Williams said it had gone well.

“We said we were looking for a leader on our particular issue,” he said, and as a result, when Mr. Cuomo is next required to disclose his contributors, “You will see a bunch of our people on the filing.”

Same old story with Cuomo - hedge fundie cash goes into his coffers, education reform policies come out of his office and (almost always) into law.

Former Assembly Speaker Silver has been indicted for monetizing his office and taking $4 million in kickbacks and bribes.

Governor Cuomo, who has taken even more than Silver from the hedge fundies to push their privatization plans, remains free and clear to continue to push for his donors' policies.

NYSUT Writes To Cuomo, Tisch To Ask Why Charter Operators Get To Cancel School For A Political Rally

Via State of Politics, here is part of the letter Karen Magee and Andy Pallotta sent to Cuomo, Tisch and the shill who's filling in temporarilty for John King:

New York State United Teachers is seeking your views on several important questions raised by the upcoming Success Academy event. As a matter of policy, should Success Academy Charter Schools, Inc., as taxpayer-funded public schools, be permitted to close their doors and transport students, parents and staff to Albany for a rally? Even if they use substantial private funds, is this the “right thing for students?”

...

“If school boards and superintendents in the state’s nearly 700 school districts also wish to close en masse for a day and transport thousands of their students, parents and staff to Albany to lobby for additional state funding, would that be permissible? Would you consider closing traditional public schools for a rally to be good public policy and the ” right thing” for all students?”

Cuomo is of course on the charter school payroll, with charter operators and their supporters contributing significant amounts of money to both his campaign coffers and the state Democratic Party coffers (which has used that money to run ads promoting Cuomo and his agenda.)

He's also expressed much adminration for both charter schools and the people who own, er, run them.

So if I had to guess, I'd say he isn't upset at all that charter operators are closing their schools and heading up to Albany for some made-for-TV PR.

Especially since Cuomo himself was "pivotal" in last years "Let's Close Schools And Cheer For Charter Schools Rally" in Albany:

It was a frigid February day in Albany, and leaders of New York City’s charter school movement were anxious. They had gone to the capital to court lawmakers, but despite a boisterous showing by parents, there seemed to be little clarity about the future of their schools.
 

Then, as they were preparing to head home, an intermediary called with a message: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to meet.
 

To their surprise, Mr. Cuomo offered them 45 minutes of his time, in a private conference room. He told them he shared their concern about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambivalence toward charter schools and offered to help, according to a person who attended but did not want to be identified as having compromised the privacy of the meeting.
 

In the days that followed, the governor’s interest seemed to intensify. He instructed charter advocates to organize a large rally in Albany, the person said. The advocates delivered, bringing thousands of parents and students, many of them black, Hispanic, and from low-income communities, to the capital in early March, and eclipsing a pivotal rally for Mr. de Blasio taking place at virtually the same time.
 

...
 

At his prekindergarten rally, before a smaller crowd at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, Mr. de Blasio spoke about the value of early education. Not far away, a much larger crowd of charter school supporters was gathered on the steps of the State Capitol. In an act that his aides later said was spontaneous, Mr. Cuomo joined the mass of parents and students. 

“You are not alone,” he told the roaring crowd. “We will save charter schools.”

I'm glad to see NYSUT trying to put pressure on Tisch and Cuomo over the pro-charter rally, but these people are beyond shame, so I doubt it will get much of a reaction from them.

However it is good to get the news out there that charters are closing their doors on a school day and busing the kids up to Albany for a political rally.

Would the politicians who will speak at the pro-charter rally be so matter-if-fact if public schools closed on a school day and bused everybody up to Albany for a pro-public school rally?

I hope that question makes it into the press coverage of the pro-charter rally this week.

Quid Pro Cuomo

From Politicker:

A small crowd of public school parents and advocates stormed the lobby of midtown building where Gov. Andrew Cuomo was believed to have a meeting this afternoon. Waving “Quid Pro Cuomo” posters, the two dozen or so protesters rallied against proposed budget language that would give the state government some jurisdiction over city schools.

The proposal, outlined by the State Senate’s one-house budget resolution, would block Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ability to stop charters from co-locating with traditional public schools. According to the protesters, Mr. Cuomo’s own pro-charter budget push–which is separate from the senate’s plan–is a power-grab, not in the interests of students, but rather in the interests of the wealthy charter school supporters who regularly make donations to Mr. Cuomo’s office.

“When you look at Cuomo’s donors and who are the largest donors, who are the people giving him huge sums of money, they’re the one’s he is listening to in Albany right now,” Jonathan Westin, Executive Director for New York Communities for Change said. These donors, he added, are attempting to “jam through gubernatorial control of charter schools here in New York City and take that power away from the mayor.”

“It’s taking power away not just away from the Mayor and our kids, but it’s also public school parents, who have no say in the matter,” said Noah Gotbaum, a former City Council candidate whose child he said attends a co-located public school. “This gives veto rights to charters over what happens in our public school buildings. And our public school parents and the Mayor don’t have the same power. That’s ridiculous!”

“Why would a governor and State Senate come out and back 3 percent of the kids, who are in charters, and cast aside the 97 percent of the kids who are in public schools?” he added. “There’s only one reason and it’s money.”

There is little doubt that Governor Cuomo is simply giving his donors what they want.

He took at least $800K from the charter operators and hedge fundies and is giving them everything they want on charter funding and co-locations. He took millions from overseas gambling consortia and expanded gambling in the state just to their liking. He took hundreds of thousands from real estate interests and gave them tens of millions in tax breaks. He took hundreds of thousands from Hollywood producers and movie company folks, then gave them a tax break that essentially pays them to make movies in NY State w/ NY State tax funds. He took millions from wealthy interests as part of the Committee To Save New York PAC, money that was used to push his agenda, then when he was forced to release the names of the donors to this PAC, he shut the Committee To Save New York down instead, so that we don’t know exactly which wealthy interests paid for the governor’s agena to be imposed on the state.

I’d say we need an independent commission to look into this corruption, but the last one we got, the Moreland Commission, took orders from the governor on what they could investigate and what they couldn’t. If you guessed that they couldn’t investigate the governor or any of his donors, you guessed correct.

Albany is a cesspool of corruption and cronyism, and right at the center of that cesspool is one Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.

Cuomo is smirking now, thinking he got his way on the charter school issue and paid back some heavy Wall Street, hedge fundie and charter operator donors in the process, but memories over this kind of thing are long and the list of donors he has paid back over his first term as governor is getting longer and longer by the day.

He's getting away with this stuff so far, but wait until he decides he has had enough of Albany and pivots to a presidential campaign.

He's going to get the kind of scrutiny his pal in New Jersey, Chris Christie, is currently getting over the Sandy Aid, Port Authority conflicts of interest, Bridgegate and the like, and when he does, you can bet some very unseemly stories are going to come up to dog one Andrew M. Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo Says Public Schools Are Failing

After de Blasio went on the Morning Joe clown show and got pounded by the neo-liberals over there over the charter issue, Andrew Cuomo went on the kinder, gentler Brian Lehrer Show to expound upon how much he loves charters and how much he thinks public schools suck:

Not only are charter schools not a threat, Mr. Cuomo said, but they are part of the solution to failing public schools, which he called “the civil rights issue of our day.”

“The problem with the public education system is that it is failing too many students. And failing schools have now failed generations of students. And we need to be focusing on that issue. You want to talk about civil rights issues of our day? A failing public education system, I think, is the civil rights issue of our day,” he said, borrowing a phrase the mayor has used to describe his competing fight to raise taxes on the rich to fund universal pre-K.

“What charter schools say is, ‘Maybe we should try something new. Maybe a little creativity, maybe a little innovation,’” Mr. Cuomo continued.

The civil rights issue of our time talking point is so out of date.

Eva Moskowitz wants to throw autistic kids out of their school so she can take over the space their school occupies.

That's a civil rights issue too, governor.

And when public schools get underfunded year after year after year even as politicians like yourself throw more and more mandates onto them, some of them may struggle.

But that doesn't mean public schools are "failing" or charter schools are the solution to the problems public education faces.

Especially when charters like the ones Eva runs are stealing so much space even as their attrition rates skyrocket year after year.

Looks like all that money the reformers and hedge fundies are paying Cuomo to run with their issues is paying off.

Cuomo Says "Legislative" Fix For Charter School Co-Locations In The Works

For a guy who doesn't do education policy, Governor Andrew Cuomo sure does involve himself in an awful lot of education policy:

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that a legislative solution which could provide “co-location” of charter schools within traditional public schools is being discussed with legislative leaders.

Cuomo’s comments came a day after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver questioned Cuomo’s ability to commit additional state money to charter schools to pay for classroom space.

Cuomo said charter schools are public schools and shouldn’t have to pay rent to operate outside traditional schools. Cuomo said requiring traditional public schools to provide available space to charter schools could be done by law, without additional spending.

“Co-location is not money … it’s policy,” Cuomo told public radio’s “Capital Pressoom” on Thursday.

Uh, no - finding space for new schools takes money, not just policy that Sheriff Andy shoves onto districts.

And since Sheriff Andy is very loathe to fully fund public schools already, this "legislative policy fix" Cuomo wants to have, enshrining charter school co-locations into law, will ultimately mean traditional public schools will get the shaft on funding.

Andrew Cuomo Uses Felon Who Pleaded Guilty To Federal Tax Evasion To Raise Campaign Donations For Him

From State of Politics:

A former Republican state senator and GOP power broker who pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion in 2012 is co-hosting a high-dollar fund-raiser next month in support of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election effort, Capital Tonight has learned.

Adding insult to injury, the ex-lawmaker in question – Nick Spano – hails from Westchester County. That’s home to County Executive Rob Astorino, who is widely expected to announce his challenge to Cuomo this week, and is badly trailing the Democratic governor in raising campaign cash.

In an email obtained by CapTon, Spano asks “friends” to join him at an April 3 “Hudson Valley for Cuomo Reception” at the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown that will be co-hosted by his lobbying firm, Empire Strategic Planning.

Sheriff Andy needs his own Moreland Commission to investigate him.

Of course, the Moreland Commission was completely beholden to Cuomo, so they took not one look at any criminal and/or unethical activity emanating from the executive branch in Albany.

That's why Cuomo gets away with using a felon to raise campaign funds for him.

Governor Cuomo Says There Should Be A Superhero Named After Him

Try not to take a sip of any liquid while reading this:

Super Mario, meet Super Andrew.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today suggested a new superhero based on his stint as governor, while taking a break from budget negotiations in Albany to announce a deal to film a new series based on the Marvel comics characters in New York.

“It just occurred to me as I was sitting here, there’s a sequel here … I can see it: Boy from Queens goes to Albany to fight the evil empire and bring justice to the people of the state,” joked Mr. Cuomo, who made the announcement at the Good Morning America studios in Times Square.

“It is a very, very big deal. It’s also very cool, especially for a guy like me who deals with what he deals with all day long. To be in the world of Superheroes is pretty cool,” he gushed.

The deal between Netflix and Marvel will bring the “flawed heroes of Hell’s Kitchen” characters to the popular online streaming service. The series, set to begin filming in September 2014, will include four live-action shows focused on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and will culminate in a mini series starring all four characters teaming like in “The Avengers,” said Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

The deal will drive $200 million in revenue to the state and create 400 full-time jobs–marking the largest film or television production commitment in New York State history, said Mr. Iger, who credited the deal to the state’s generous tax credit system, which gave away nearly $500 million last year.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Mr. Cuomo–who said that he already had a cape at the ready–eagerly repeated his pitch to the gathered crowd.

“I think that work, right? Boy from Queens. Think about it. Goes to Albany, fights the evil empire on behalf of the people of the state to bring justice back. In the end, the sun shines again,” he said.

Asked by Politicker to identify his superpower, he didn’t hesitate.

“Oh, superior intellect!” he said with a laugh, pointing to his head.

The fevered ego this man has to have to "joke" about this sort of thing, framing his "joke" with the story of the kid from Queens who fights the Big Bad Corrupt Criminal Class in Albany.

It's a joke all right.

As we have demonstrated again and again here at Perdido Street School, Cuomo is as corrupt as anybody else in Albany.

He takes millions from gambling consortia and expands gambling around the state.

He takes hundreds of thousands from real estate developers and they get tax breaks in return.

He takes nearly a million from the charter school industry and gives them their favored education reforms in return.

And he goes to Hollywood for campaign fundraisers and hands tax breaks back to the movie studios so that they actually get paid by taxpayers to make movies or TV shows here in the state.

If Albany needs a superhero to come in and clean up the corruption, Sheriff Andy sure the hell isn't it.

Cuomo Rakes In Big Bucks From Eva Moskowitz's Success Charters

Gee, I wonder what they want for all this money?

Supporters of a charter-school network in Mayor de Blasio’s cross hairs are pouring big bucks into the campaign coffers of Gov. Cuomo, a friend of charter schools.

Records show board members at the growing Success Academy, which runs 22 charters in the city, have given $375,367 to Cuomo’s re-election campaign — including $90,000 since de Blasio won the mayor’s race last year.

Success is run by de Blasio nemesis Eva Moskowitz.

Contributors aren’t shy about their reasons. Cuomo backs charters, and de Blasio’s anti-charter rhetoric scares them.

“Mayor de Blasio is an extremist. There’s no other way to put it,” Success board member Charles Strauch told The Post. “De Blasio is out to take money from the rich and redistribute it. He’s made it very clear. It’s my own way of expressing support for Cuomo.”

Strauch, a businessman and schools philanthropist, added that charters were a major factor in his support of Cuomo.

“Would I give any money to de Blasio? Absolutely not. No way. I won’t be giving money to him. It is important to support politicians who have stated their support for the charter system,” Strauch said.

Cuomo alreeady plans to pay them back for all their largesse:

Cuomo, for his part, is proposing to expand the role of charter schools.

He spoke at a fundraiser before the pro-charter Democrats for Education Reform in November, where he took in $250,000 for his re-election. In January, the group kicked in another $14,000 through its political action committee.

And in return, Success is backing Cuomo's pre-K plan over de Blasio's:

The group’s executive director, Joe Williams, said charter backers are “baffled” by de Blasio’s refusal to allow the state to fund universal pre-K, as offered by Cuomo. The mayor wants pre-K paid for by a tax hike on the wealthy, which he says is a more reliable revenue source.

“He seems to be showing signs that he’s more interested in the tax increase than providing pre-K,” Williams said.

Why would the UFT leadership continue to try and cultivate a close relationship wit this governor, friend of Success Charters, when his intents toward the public education system are quite clearly reformy in all ways?

Dunno, but that is apparently why they're going to stick a shiv into Dick Iannuzzi and the NYSUT leadership - because they want to remain close to Cuomo and be his buddy.

There Needs To Be A Moreland Commission To Investigate Andrew Cuomo

Sheriff Andy used the Moreland Commission as a bludgeon against the Legislature, saying in effect it is a cesspool of corruption where private interests hand over campaign donations (or bribes) and get favors and/or policies in return.

But take a look at how much money Cuomo takes in, just where he takes it from and who gets favors in return:

ALBANY – He may be promoting a taxpayer-funded campaign system, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is doing quite nicely playing by the current rules.

The governor reported Wednesday that his 2014 re-election campaign raised $7 million in the past six months.

That brings his 2014 campaign bank account up to $33.3 million, an increase from $27.8 million in July. He spent just $1.5 million in the past six months.

The governor brought in money from a who’s who of wealthy bankers, real estate developers, lawyers and private-sector unions, many of which have business dealings before the state. Movie studios that benefit from tax breaks expanded by the governor donated to him, as did entities looking to get one of the casinos the state will award this year, such as Rochester developer David Flaum, and the owner of an Albany-area restaurant company that runs a new cafeteria in a state concourse near the Capitol.

Buffalo-area donors included former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, a registered Albany lobbyist who gave Cuomo $1,000, an amount also given by Roswell Park Cancer Institute President Donald Trump, whose hospital has had talks with the Cuomo administration over various future ventures. Uniland Properties, a Western New York real estate company, gave him $3,000.

The donations also included $117,000 in in-kind contributions; how much of that went to pay for private jets that the governor flies when he goes to some fundraisers, such as ones held in Buffalo in mid-November and one in Rochester in late November, was not detailed in his campaign report. He also held fundraisers in the Hamptons where Jon Bon Jovi played, and in Manhattan, where his friend Billy Joel performed.

A who's who of campaign donors giving money to Cuomo and getting favors, policies or tax breaks in return.

The Legislature in Albany may be a cesspool of corruption and malfeasance, but so is the governor's office.

Governor Cuomo On The Take

Capital Confidential:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has filed its six-month report with the Board of Elections, which is due today. The raw numbers:

Opening Balance: $27,811,546.11
Total Receipts: $7,019,967.87
Total Expenses: $1,507,972.95
Total On Hand (End of Period): $33,323,541.03

Whomp! By way of comparison, consider Cuomo’s previous five January filings:

• 2009: $5.6 million
• 2010: $16.1 million
• 2011: $4.2 million
• 2012: $14.4 million
• 2013: $22.5 million

This means that Cuomo has raised more in the past 12 months (about $300,000 more) than he’s raised at any point in his political career.

Capital Confidential notes the following:

Pro-charter New Yorkers for Putting Students First gave Cuomo $25K in Nov '13; same amount in Dec. '12.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) January 15, 2014

And:

Another pro-charter group, Democrats for Education Reform, gave Cuomo $20K in past 6 months.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) January 15, 2014

To which I said:

@TUCapCon @edbobgreen @NYGovCuomo No wonder Governor Cuomo promotes their agenda - they're funding it for him.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) January 16, 2014

It's a joke when Cuomo points fingers at the Legislature in Albany for corruption - this guy's raking in the bucks from the real estate industry, the gambling industry, the education reform industry and giving them their preferred policies in return.

Cuomo Hires TFA/Charter Shill As Education Deputy

Just in case you missed this bit of news this week:

D.C. Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright is leaving his post for a new job in New York state, Mayor Vincent Gray announced in a statement Thursday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) appointed Wright as deputy secretary for education, a top state education post. Wright’s chief of staff, Jennifer Leonard, will begin serving as the interim deputy mayor for education in November.

Wright’s new job is something of a homecoming. He began his career in the late 1990s as a Teach for America corps member in New York City and later worked for the New York City Department of Education.

The departure comes at a critical moment for education in the city, as officials and community members struggle to envision how to plan for the future of both neighborhood schools and fast-growing charter schools.

Wright was charged with leading that planning effort. In January, his office released a controversial study that recommended turning around or closing dozens of D.C. Public Schools and for opening more high-performing charters.

The fix is in here in New York.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, like his fellow education reformer David Coleman, does not give a shit what you think or feel about education policy.

So every time his "reform commission" meets and makes believe that they're listening to stakeholders other than David Coleman and the College Board, Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation, Merryl Tisch and K12 Inc., Pearson, and a bunch of hedge fund managers/education reformers, remember who he is hiring for education policy:

A guy who has recommended closing dozens of schools and turning them into "high performing charters" - even though most charter schools are no better than the public schools they replace and many are, in fact, worse.

The fix is in, folks, and Cuomo will be putting a similar plan into place statewide that many cities like Detroit, D.C. and Philadelphia are seeing - mass closures and mass privatization.

Just follow the money (as in who is paying Cuomo off) and follow the people he's hiring to run things.

You don't hire a TFA cult member with a policy track record of preferring massive closing of public schools and opening of privatized charter schools unless that's exactly the kind of policy you want for New York State.

Spitzer Aide Accuses Cuomo Of Troopergate Investigation Cover-Up

What's the reason that Andrew Cuomo is having his staff scrub his papers and documents from his tenure as attorney general of the state of New York?

Former aide to disgraced Governor Spitzer, Lloyd Constantine, says it's to cover up his role in the investigation of Troopergate and hide his misuse of government aircraft as both HUD secretary and when he was working for his father, Governor Mario Cuomo:

Troopergate — which many would like to forget, foremost my former boss, Eliot Spitzer, and the current governor as well — will continue to haunt us all. I was Spitzer's senior adviser and one of five senior lawyers conscripted to represent the governor and the Executive Chamber in the many Troopergate investigations in 2007 and 2008.

Troopergate began July 1, 2007, when this newspaper reported that then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno had been using state aircraft for travel to meetings and events whose purpose was primarily personal and political. Almost as soon as Cuomo heeded Spitzer's call to investigate Bruno, the tables turned. Cuomo was also investigating whether the governor and his aides had improperly enlisted the State Police in spying on Bruno.

In a sloppy three-week rush to judgment and race for press primacy over competing investigations being conducted by Albany County District Attorney David Soares and then-Inspector General Kris Hamann, Cuomo's Troopergate report superficially addressed the Spitzer administration's sins and ignored and whitewashed Bruno's blatant misuse of the state fleet.

On the Bruno side of Cuomo's probe, neither the majority leader, nor anyone else was questioned under oath. No documents were subpoenaed. Cuomo exonerated Bruno, concluding that if a day of private and political events included any amount of time when Bruno arguably was doing the state's work, the massively expensive use of the state's airplanes was lawful.

The omissions and superficiality of the Cuomo Troopergate probe and the resulting lack of confidence in its findings spawned eight additional Troopergate investigations by Soares, the inspector general, the Senate's Investigation Committee, the State Investigation Commission and two now-defunct state commissions for ethics and public integrity.

The reason for the whitewash was obvious. Any finding of state aircraft misuse by Bruno would have instantly evoked comparison with far more serious and pervasive patterns of misuse by both Gov. Mario Cuomo and allegedly by Andrew himself when he was secretary of housing and urban development.

"Air Cuomo" was the name given to the reports and records showing that during just four of Mario Cuomo's twelve years as governor, Cuomo family members (including Andrew) took 729 trips on the state's aircraft. After leaving office, he reimbursed the state $29,000 for a small number of these trips.

During the planning stages of Andrew Cuomo's unsuccessful bid to become governor in 2002, he flew on the federal taxpayers' tab to New York 24 times, purportedly on HUD business. During that same period, Andrew Cuomo visited no other state within his jurisdiction more than four times, not even California with twice the population and housing of New York.

Cuomo has been quite successful at hiding his corruption and right now he's getting help from the current attorney general, Eric Scheniderman, on hiding his role in the Troopergate investigation.

But this is the kind of stuff that will come out eventually, no matter how Cuomo tries to hide it.

This is especially so if he tries to run for president in 2016.

Light will be shone on his entire political career and he'll have to be really adept at hiding this stuff from opposition researchers in other campaigns.

Four State Senators Want To Know Why Cuomo Shared Fracking Plan With Energy Industry Before Making It Public

The letter, from Liz Krueger, Martin Malave Dilan, Thomas Duane and Kevin Parker to the DEC, is here.

Make no mistake, the DEC shared the regulations with the energy industry because Governor Cuomo wanted it that way.

We still don't know how much money Cuomo and his SuperPAC, the Committee To Save New York, have raked in from the gas and energy companies in order to get fracking legalized here in New York State because both Cuomo and the CSNY refuse to reveal their donor list.

But we do know that Cuomo took $2 million from overseas gambling interests through CSNY right before he put forth a plan for legalized casinos and "racinos" in the state as part of his state budget - a plan that would benefit those gambling interests/donors.

It's certainly not a stretch to speculate that the gas and energy companies paid off Cuomo to legalize fracking here in the state.

If Cuomo and the CSNY disagree with that, then they can reveal their donor list and prove me and everybody else who thinks they've been bribed by the frackers wrong.

But so far, they're operating under the cover of darkness.

Governor Cuomo, What Color Is The Sky In New York?

And how much money are you taking from the gas and energy companies to tell us it's pink?

Earthquakes In Ohio Linked To Fracking

Via Firedoglake, here is the story from CNN:

State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio will be "indefinitely" prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.

Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.

Andy Ware, deputy director of Ohio's natural resources department, told CNN on Sunday that Zehringer and Gov. John Kasich subsequently ordered that four nearby injection well projects will not open in the coming weeks, as had previously been planned. They 'll be inoperational until a determination is made in an investigation of a possible link between the earthquakes and the fluid-injection wells, he added.

...

Last Friday's order affecting the first well in Youngstown came six days after a magnitude 2.5 earthquake that struck that area around 1:24 a.m. on December 24. After Saturday's larger earthquake, scientists recommended that operations stop at all wells within a 5-mile radius of that original site.

"We need to get more information," Ware said.

...

Ohio is far from the edges of Earth's major tectonic plates, with the nearest ones in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey explains on its website. Still, there are many known faults in this region, with the federal agency noting that it is likely there are additional "smaller or deeply buried" ones that haven't been detected.

While earthquakes are not unprecedented in the area, the rate of them in the past year has been unusual. That fact led Zehringer, the Ohio department head, to act late last week.

"While conclusive evidence cannot link the seismic activity to the well, Zehringer has adopted an approach requiring prudence and caution regarding the site," the natural resources department said Friday in a press release, explaining its decision to shut the first well.

...

Dr. Won-Young Kim, one of the Columbia University experts asked by the state to examine possible connections between fracking and seismic activity, said that a problem could arise if fluid moves through the ground and affects "a weak fault, waiting to be triggered." He explained the underground waste "slowly migrates" and could cause issues miles away, adding that the danger could persist for some time as the fluid travels and seeps down toward the fault.

"In my opinion, yes," the recent spate of earthquakes around Youngstown is related to a fluid-injection well, Kim stated -- though there has been no definitive determination, by the state or other authorities, indicating as much.

Firedoglake notes that a recent earthquake in Oklahoma may be linked to fracking as well.

So how's that secretive commission you put together to study fracking in New York State going, Governor Cuomo?

We know YOU'RE in favor of fracking, Governor.

Like everything you do - from prison closures to tax policy to this education commission you're putting together to blame teachers for the problems in public education - you like to make it look like one thing in public while it's a whole other thing in private.

We KNOW this is a done deal, that the fix is in, the oil and gas companies have bought and paid for you.

You just want this supposed commission of experts to give you political cover to open up most of the state to fracking.

But before you give your gas company buddies their fracking wet dreams, take a look at the mounting evidence that FRACKING ISN'T SAFE.

Or turn off the Sandra Lee Show and watch this video instead:

Cuomo's A Crook

And the wealthy men who own him are cashing in with influential appointments:

ALBANY - Gov. Cuomo, who bragged his administration would attract the best and the brightest from across the country, is also elevating the biggest: His wealthy campaign donors.

A host of Cuomo appointments feature the governor's well-heeled financial backers. Of the 13 appointments now awaiting Senate confirmation, eight of the nominees and their spouses donated a combined $328,402.

That doesn't even include John Dyson, a former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani who was already confirmed as a new trustee of the state Power Authority.

Dyson and his wife handed over nearly $93,000 to Cuomo.

While it's not uncommon for governors to reward donors and cronies with plum appointments, Cuomo's nominations raised eyebrows given his vows to change the way Albany does business.

"It seems consistent with the past," said Assemblyman John McEneny (D-Albany).

And while most of the slots come without pay, watchdogs say they have one important benefit - influence.

Susan Lerner, head of Common Cause/New York, said, "The appearance of picking people who have provided you with donations is never the criteria we would recommend for appointments."

Many donors had one other thing in common - Cuomo never announced their nominations publicly, instead sending them up quietly for Senate consideration.

The big donors include:

• Howard Milstein, Cuomo's nominee to chair the state Thruway Authority, and his wife donated $100,000 to the governor's campaign.

• Former lieutenant governor candidate Dennis Mehiel, who made his fortune in the cardboard business, and his wife kicked in nearly $82,000. Mehiel was nominated to serve on the Empire State Development Corp.

• Steven Weiss, a Buffalo-area lawyer nominated to serve on the state Housing Finance Agency, forked over $25,000.

• Donald Capoccia, founder of the real estate development company BFC Partners, was appointed to the Battery Park City Authority. He dished $12,500 to Cuomo.

• RXR Realty boss Scott Rechler and Jeffrey Lynford, co-founder of the Wellsford real estate companies, were both nominated to serve as commissioners to the Port Authority. Rechler and his wife gave Cuomo more than $71,000. Lynford chipped in $6,375.

• Investor Beryl Snyder, nominated to the Dormitory Authority, handed over $18,500.

• Jonathan Sheffer, a conductor and composer nominated to serve on the state Council on the Arts, ponied up $13,000.

Cuomo's team said there should be no surprise that there is "overlap" between people who participate in campaigns and those who serve in government since "they are the same universe of individuals."

"The relevant question is are these qualified, accomplished people and our nominees are outstanding individuals who have brought renewed credibility to government," Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said.

More connections

An examination of Cuomo's appointments and nominations since taking office in January show political connections stretch beyond just donations.

His inner circle is filled with people who worked for Cuomo - either in the attorney general's office or at the federal Housing and Urban Development department when he was Secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Others worked for his father, Mario Cuomo, a former three-term governor.

Then there are political cronies.

Kenneth Adams, already confirmed as boss of the Empire State Development Corp., is a former head of the state Business Council. The council last year for the first time in its history made an endorsement for governor, backing Cuomo.

Former Bronx borough president and longtime Democratic activist Fernando Ferrer is awaiting Senate confirmation to the MTA board.

In the end, Cuomo will be judged by whether his appointments did their jobs and advanced his goals, said Russell Haven, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

"That said, we encourage looking for appointees outside the traditional political and business circles," Haven added.

Cuomo can sign all the "robust" ethics reform legislation into law that he wants.

The fact is, the wealthy and the crooked are still going to do business as usual in Albany and Cuomo himself is not only as crooked as the rest of them, he's also a hypocrite.

But this kind of stuff has a way of coming back to bite people.

Mark my words, Cuomo will leave Albany in disgrace or in handcuffs someday.

You can't point out all the crooks around you while being a crook yourself and not having that come back on you.

What Deal Did Cuomo And Bloomberg Make On LIFO?

Bloomberg is going full speed ahead with teacher layoffs. Many knowledgeable education observers believe he would not be going with the layoffs if he knew he was going to have lay off cheaper newbie teachers and retain more expensive veterans. But with his attempts to change LIFO having been stymied in Albany so far, the question becomes, what does he have up his sleeve?

New York Magazine may have the answer:

The mayor spent much of the winter leading a full-court press, angrily complaining about state government’s unfairness to the city and loudly insisting on the repeal of “LIFO,” the state law requiring that teachers with the least seniority be fired first. Didn’t work: Andrew Cuomo needed peace with the teachers union and Shelly Silver more than he needed Bloomberg’s backing, and the new governor didn’t appreciate the mayor trying to push him around. Bloomberg is still rightly blaming Albany — and, to a lesser extent, Washington — for shifting problems downstream. But today Bloomberg was downright conciliatory and regretful as he criticized, claiming he holds out hope for last-minute help from the state. “I’m very sympathetic to Andrew Cuomo,” he said. “I’m not going to second-guess.” A reporter asked why Bloomberg’s lobbying efforts in Albany had failed; the mayor shrugged off the invitation to attack, instead attributing the setback to prevailing anti-government sentiment.

The soft-pedaling — and Bloomberg’s legitimate touting of his generally solid record steering the city’s finances — didn’t win him much love locally. Comptroller John Liu jabbed at the administration for spending “billions of dollars on high-priced consultants.” Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, accused Bloomberg of playing politics with the budget. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio did better than merely carping: He’s planning to mobilize parent groups to fight the teacher layoffs.

There was also deep skepticism that Bloomberg will follow through with the most painful cuts. “The mayor has a believability problem,” one public official says. “He made a very substantial threat last year to lay off teachers, which dissipated as the revenue dynamics changed. Now, after the snowstorm and Cathie Black and the CityTime scandal, why would he want to do the single most unpopular thing he could do?”

Bloomberg insists he means it this time, that the money isn’t there, and that he isn’t laying off teachers to prove a point about LIFO. But if this isn’t the usual shell game, in which city tax revenues spike and Bloomberg saves thousands of jobs just before the July 1 deadline, he really is going to need an assist from Albany. There’s not much chance of the state suddenly coughing up more cash; a compromise on seniority rules or state mandates, though, should be possible. Two weeks ago the mayor and the governor had a long dinner on the Upper West Side. Perhaps today’s quieter tone at City Hall is the next step in trying to get Cuomo to pick up part of a much bigger check.

The last time Cuomo met in secret so publicly with "education reformers" was when the NY Times reported he met with some hedge fund managers in a NY hotel room, heard their concerns about education reform, walked out of that room with a suitcase full of cash and released an education plan the next day that was an EXACT replica of a Democrats for Education Reform pamphlet.

Cuomo is a crook, big time, and he is up for sale always, so while he has so far not helped Bloomberg on the LIFO issue, you know that if the price is right, he will change direction like a weathervane in an Alabama tornado.

What is Cuomo's price on the LIFO? What would Bloomberg have to give him for Cuomo to push through LIFO changes by June and allow Bloomberg to lay off any teacher he wants this year?

Dunno, but I would imagine cash would be one thing.

While Cuomo has been as low key as possible about future career moves (unlike his Republican brother in New Jersey, Chris Christie), it is believed that Little Andrew wants to run for president someday, and now that Mayor Bloomberg's own White House ambitions have been mostly destroyed by a snowstorm, a spate of outside consultant scandals, and poll after poll showing people would rather elect Donald Trump than Mayor Bloomberg to be president (though Harpo Marx apparently outpolls both - who knew?), Cuomo may be looking for some rich sugar daddy to fund that campaign for him in 2016.

Could Bloomberg be that sugar daddy?

I bet he could.

2016 may seem like a long time away, but make no mistake, a conniving, ambitious, egotistical man like Little Andrew Cuomo is already thinking that far ahead and lining up potential backers and supporters behind the scenes.

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction (with my apologies to both Johnny Carson and Mr. Talk at Accountable Talk):

I think Bloomberg has a deal with Cuomo on LIFO and that's why he is comfortable going ahead with these layoffs.

His long term plan is to do layoffs every year, slowly bleeding the NYC public education system of human capital and replace it with technology and computers.

Reduce the teaching force to 30,000 or so over the next few years (always claiming economic deprivation as the rationale, of course), replace those laid off teachers with computerized instruction a la Wireless Generation's School of One, hire some cheap teaching aides to work the classroom management angle, and remake the school system into an online computer education system.

That's what the governor of Idaho is aiming to do too.

And the governor of Florida.

So of course the biggest technojunkie of them all, Mayor Moneybags, the guy who made his fortune via technology, is heading in that direction too.

But the one sticking point is the teachers union and the work protections that teachers have.

He has already incentivized schools to rid themselves of vets via the Fair Funding Formula that charges schools 100% of their teacher costs.

He has already changed tenure rules so that schools have been incentivized to use untenured teachers for three years and then dump them rather than grant them tenure.

Now he needs to end seniority protections for teachers so that any teacher can be laid off at any time whenever he decides there is an "economic emergency."

Once he has that change in place, you can bet your subscription of Bloomberg Businessweek that there will be an "economic emergency" every year.

Year after year, teachers will be let go, the layoffs will accelerate until the system is remade into Bloomberg's vision - a public school system streamlined of teachers and dominated by computerized instruction and data-driven testing.

There isn't much time left for him to start this move. He's only got three more years. So he needs Cuomo to make changes to LIFO now.

You can be sure that whatever these two politicians talked about at their long UWS dinner a few weeks ago, Bloomberg's vision for the school system, a LIFO deal and Cuomo's 2016 ambitions were all discussed.

So Governor Cuomo, what's your price?

To paraphrase Michael Corleone from The Godfather, "How much are you getting paid to set us up?"

And when does the shiv get shoved in?

Tell Cuomo - Protect Children, Not Millionaires

From the Alliance for Quality Education:

Cuomo's New York

Tax cuts for millionaires.

Budget cuts for old people and kids.

Layoff for public employees.

Kickbacks from Wall Street.

That's Little Andy Cuomo's New York for you.

He's riding high in the polls right now, but let's see where he is one year from the day his "austerity budget" passes.

People vote for this austerity shit because they think the austerity is going to be done to SOMEBODY ELSE.

But when they're library gets closed, when they can't go camping this summer because the park rangers have all been laid off and Yogi Bear is gobbling picnic baskets at will, when they see the old people in their neighborhood dying on the street because Little Andy Cuomo decided that tax cuts for hedge fundies are more important than taking care of old people - well, we'll just have to see how that plays in the polls.

If I were the unions and progressive groups, I would be readying those ads and public appearances to tie the diminished standards of living in New York TO ANDY CUOMO and his hedge fund buddies.

Corporate profits are at an all-time high.

Corporate taxes are at an all-time low.

And yet the standards of living of middle and working class people are plummeting.

The problem is NOT that taxes are too high.

The problem is that Andrew Cuomo's hedge fund and Wall Street cronies refuse to pay their fair share in taxes and the corporations would rather outsource jobs or automate them than hire real live breathing New Yorkers.

Sell that message, Mulgrew.

It's the goddamned truth.