 With the MTA budget crisis still looming large over the city and commuters, it seems that many politicians are scrambling for solutions behind the scenes. So to try to avert another fare increase and to restore some of last year's MTA service cuts, pols have quietly resurrected our old friend, congestion pricing. Except this time, the used car feels more like a pre-owned one: it's being called "traffic pricing." "The MTA needs a sustainable funding source. This has to be on the table," said state Sen. Daniel Squadron. [MORE]  | Michael Santomauro, whose son is a third grader at P.S. 290 on the Upper East Side, was up late on the night of January 15th, toiling on a vital e-mail intended to spread the word about the book Debating the Holocaust, by Thomas Dalton, PhD. Around 2:30 a.m. he clicked send, firing off the e-mail with the enthusiastic recommendation, "You should read this book! It is rocking my world!" He tells the Times the e-mail was intended for "another group he belongs to, where members debate whether accounts of the Holocaust are exaggerated." But he sent it to the wrong address list, and it went to every parent and teacher on the P.S. 290 PTA list instead. Parents say they're shocked and outraged, and some have called the ADL. ... [ MORE ] |  | Facebook is about to launch a new ad feature called "Sponsored Stories," in which users who check into Facebook while, say, visiting Starbucks, will simultaneously become potential spokespersons for Starbucks. (It also applies to products you "like" on Facebook.) Corporations interested in this form of "organic advertising" will have the option of paying Facebook for users' profile images and product comments, to use as an ad that's seen on their friends' pages. Facebook users, however, won't have the option of opting out. Here's a friendly video explaining you new unpaid gig as a brand ambassador.... [ MORE ] |  | It looks like Mayor Bloomberg didn't consult his criminal-justice coordinator before saying that a "woman could walk in virtually every neighborhood in this city during the day and not look over her shoulder." Or maybe "virtually every neighborhood" didn't include Morrisania in the Bronx. Former Gov. Pataki's daughter Emily Pataki, Bloomberg's criminal-justice coordinator, was attacked while exiting the Freeman Street subway station yesterday morning on her way to a meeting at a nearby school.... [ MORE ] |  | Over the weekend, a76-year-old man was shot in the stomach while his son was the target of a raid. Emergency Services Unit officer Andrew McCormack was apparently trying to turn on his flashlight—which was mounted on his Glock—but accidentally discharged the gun and hit Jose Colon. A firearms instructor, who testified for a cop acquitted in the 1999 fatal police shooting of Amadou Diallo, thinks the gun-mounted flashlight is a terrible idea: Kenneth Cooper said to the Post, "A handgun should be a handgun, and a flashlight should be a flashlight. When you put a flashlight on a weapon system, there are numerous things that you have to manipulate, and under stress, things are more difficult."... [ MORE ] |  | Oh, MTA: On the same day the transit agency announced that crippling debt could mean another round of fare hikes, a Metro-North rider shot video of an open door on a crowded train that barrels from the 125th Street stop towards Grand Central. Here's what the rider wrote on YouTube, "Open door on MetroNorth from Harlem/125th to about midway within the tunnel to Grand Central. No warning lights, no conductors nearby. Door finally closed on it's own with a little passenger assistance. Notice the packed vestibule, probably 75 people standing from Stanford to GC. And the trains were running 45 minutes late." Obviously this is why riders need beer cars.... [ MORE ] | | |
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