Take a Tour of Fat Beats Records

DJ Eclipse takes you on a tour of the world-renown hip hip vinyl mecca known as Fat Beats in New York City.

[Fat Beats blog]

Ace Hotel is for Vinyl Lovers

When the original Ace Hotel opened in Seattle, Time described it as “a superaesthetic barrack, with an in-the-know economy of style.” The new Ace Hotel in New York, located in the former Hotel Breslin and set to open in February, fits the same description: turntables in every room, vintage furniture, retro plumbing fixtures. Roman & Williams, the team behind the revamped Royalton Hotel, was in charge of the overhaul. The ambience promises to be achingly hip, with a curated music selection from Other Music at the front desk (guests can purchase CDs and vinyl). Product collaborations include custom Pendleton blankets and a boxing-robe-meets-hooded-sweatshirt by Wings and Horns. The team behind the Spotted Pig is in charge of the restaurant, and Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters is providing the caffeine. On the corner of Broadway and 29th Street; go to Ace Hotel for reservation information.



[Remodelista]

Mayor Bloomberg wants to give more New Yorkers a chance to dance.

Dance 'til you drop - after Bloomberg repeals bizarre cabaret law

According to 1926 New York City cabaret law on the books two's company, three's a crime on dance floors of unlicensed clubs.

Mayor Bloomberg wants to give more New Yorkers a chance to dance.

City Hall is looking to eliminate - or at least loosen - the cumbersome cabaret license so more bars and businesses can allow patrons to let loose, the Daily News has learned.

"We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing," said a source close to the mayor.

The 82-year-old license "as it exists doesn't offer a reasonable opportunity for New Yorkers to dance at clubs," the City Hall source said.

The administration is in talks with the Consumer Affairs Department, which issues the licenses, and the NYPD, which enforces them, to make the change.

It is also considering forming a task force to examine the issue.

"I'd be tickled if we could get reform on this. New York City is the only city in the world where there is a law that makes dancing illegal," said John McGarvey, a spokesman for Metropolis in Motion, a group fighting to change the law.

As the 1926 law stands, three or more people can't dance unless a bar or restaurant has a cabaret license - even if music and liquor are allowed.

There are 181 licensed cabarets in New York, according to Consumer Affairs, and most are limited to techno-thumping clubs in Manhattan.

During former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's quality-of-life campaign in 1997, police cracked down on venues without a cabaret license and the law became a quick way to shut down out-of-control nightclubs.

But dancers have long complained the license process squeezes out small venues that might offer swing and salsa and even sued the city last year to reverse its Prohibition-era ban on social dancing.

A court upheld the city's right to dole out cabaret licenses, which the city argued was necessary to protect neighbors from noise and rowdiness.

The official said the city's new noise code would prevent bars from abusing a dance license and building codes that limit the amount of people in the facilities.

"This is not something we are going to ignore," the source said.

[NY Daily News]

NY Governor Paterson Admits Past Cocaine Use

Paterson Admits Past Cocaine Use

David Paterson is still adding to his string of confessions (following his recent confession of marital affairs).

“I tried it a couple of times,” he said in an interview with NY1 News, when asked if he had ever used cocaine.

It was his first television interview since he became governor last week.

Host Dominic Carter asked Paterson a number of questions about past drug use. The governor also admitted he has used marijuana, but added that he has not touched illegal drugs since his early twenties.

Carter asked a similar series of questions during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Both Eliot Spitzer and Tom Suozzi said they had tried marijuana.

Paterson told Carter he spoke publicly about past drug use when he was Spitzer's runningmate in 2006.

Here's the exchange:


Dominic Carter: You have?

David Paterson: Yes

Dominic Carter: Marijuana?

David Paterson: Yes

Dominic Carter: Cocaine?

David Paterson: Yes

Dominic Carter: You used cocaine governor?

David Paterson: I'd say I was 22 or 23, I tried it a couple of times, yes.

Dominic Carter: When is the last time that -- is that the only time you've tried cocaine, governor?

David Paterson: Yeah, around that time, a couple of times and marijuana, probably, when I was about 20. I don't think I've touched marijuana since the late 70s.

Source [Observer]

...what will he confess to next?
Will we finally know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried??

New York State now recognizes Gay Marriages from Elsewhere

A New York appellate court ruled Friday that valid out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized in New York, just as the law recognizes those of heterosexual couples solemnized elsewhere. Lawyers for both sides said the ruling applied to all public and private employers in the state.

Even though gay couples may not legally marry in New York, the appellate court in Rochester held that a gay couple’s 2004 marriage in Canada must be respected under the state’s longstanding “marriage recognition rule,” and that an employer’s denial of health benefits had discriminated against the couple on the basis of their sexual orientation.

“The Legislature may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled unanimously in rejecting a 2006 lower court decision. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”

For more than a century, the court noted, New York State has recognized valid out-of-state marriages. Moreover, it said that the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest judicial body, has said the Legislature may enact laws recognizing same-sex marriages. “In our view, the Court of Appeals thereby indicated that the recognition of plaintiff’s marriage is not against the public policy of New York,” the court held.

As a practical matter, the marriages of thousands of gay couples entered into outside the state have been recognized in recent years by many state and local agencies and by private employers for purposes of allowing health and life insurance coverage, child care and other benefits. But others have resisted doing so voluntarily, pending the outcome of numerous cases in the courts.

Friday’s ruling, legal experts said, was the first by an appellate division court, and would make the recognition of valid out-of-state gay marriages mandatory across New York. It was not clear whether Monroe County and Monroe Community College in Rochester, the employer in the case, would appeal.

Daniel DeLaus Jr., the county attorney for Rochester, said his office was reviewing the decision and would decide whether to seek an appeal.

Jeffrey Wicks, a lawyer who represents the plaintiff, Patricia Martinez, said that New York had recognized common-law marriages, even marriages of closely related people that might not be allowed in the state. “There’s a long tradition in New York of recognizing marriages that couldn’t be performed in New York,” he said.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Ms. Martinez, a word-processing supervisor at the college, hailed the ruling. The union called it “the first known decision in the country to hold that a valid same-sex marriage must be recognized.”

“This is a victory for families, it’s a victory for fairness and it’s a victory for human rights,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the N.Y.C.L.U. “Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York State: You are now husband and husband, wife and wife. Now we need to work toward a New York where you don’t have to cross state or country lines to get married.”

The New York City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, the first openly gay leader of the Council, also applauded the ruling. “If this is saying companies have to do it, it’s a tremendous step forward in recognizing the diversity of families in New York City.”

New York City already extends marriage benefits to workers in domestic partnerships, and under a law passed in 2002, it provides all city benefits and services to same-sex couples whose unions are recognized by other jurisdictions. But the city has no power to impose such rules on private companies.

In 2004, the Council adopted legislation sponsored by Ms. Quinn that would have required large companies doing business with the city to provide equal job benefits to domestic partners. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vetoed the bill, and while the Council overrode the veto, the mayor said it violated state and federal laws and would prove costly to taxpayers. He sued successfully to block it in a case decided in 2006 by the Court of Appeals.

Mayor Bloomberg’s office declined to comment on Friday’s ruling, saying it had not seen the decision.

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo also declined to comment, noting that his office may be involved in an appeal as the traditional defender of state agencies. Monroe Community College is a branch of the State University of New York.

In the past, Mr. Cuomo has said that state law requires that marriages performed in other states, and in Canada, be recognized in New York.

In the case before the appellate division in Rochester, Ms. Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden, formalized their longstanding relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001, and were married in Ontario on July 5, 2004.

A few days later, Ms. Martinez applied to Monroe Community College for health care benefits for her spouse. In November 2004, the college’s director of human resources, Sherry Ralston, denied the application, contending that the state did not recognize the marriage as a matter of law and public policy.

Ms. Martinez sued in 2006, arguing that her constitutional and civil rights had been violated. A State Supreme Court justice, Harold Galloway, dismissed the lawsuit in August 2006, saying the state did not recognize same-sex marriages. The state, he wrote “currently defines marriage as limited to the union of one man and one woman.”

But the appellate court disagreed, citing the century-old “marriage recognition rule” applying to heterosexual couples and noting that the Court of Appeals had implied that the Legislature could adopt a law legalizing same-sex marriage.

In early 2006, the court said, Monroe Community College had begun extending health-care benefits to Ms. Golden under a new contract provision. However, the judges held, the plaintiff was entitled to unspecified monetary damages for the period during which the benefits were wrongly denied.

Source [NYTimes]

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg possibly jumping into 2008 Presidential Race

Bloomberg Inches Yet Closer To Running As Centrist Independent.

It now appears as if the public, the media and the political establishment are being prepared for an announcement that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will launch an independent run for President.

On January 7, 2008, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to meet with Unity08, a high-powered bipartisan group of elder statesmen that is on the brink of finding a candidate to back, and there’s a possibility that they could join forces in a third party bid. This meeting with Unity08, including Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, both of whom have been frequently mentioned as possible running mates, will be to pressure the major party candidates to promote national unity and reduce partisan gridlock.

A final decision by Mr. Bloomberg about whether to run is unlikely before February. Still, he and his closest advisers are positioning themselves so that if the mayor declares his candidacy, a turnkey campaign infrastructure will virtually be in place.

Bloomberg aides have studied the process for launching independent campaigns, which formally begins March 5, when third-party candidates can begin circulating nominating petitions in Texas. If Democrats and Republicans have settled on their presumptive nominees at that point, Mr. Bloomberg will have to decide whether he believes those candidates are vulnerable to a challenge from a pragmatic, progressive centrist, which is how he would promote himself.

The filing deadline for the petitions, which must be signed by approximately 74,000 Texas voters who did not participate in the state’s Democratic or Republican primaries, is May 12.

Advisers have said Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire many times over, might invest as much as $1 billion of his own fortune (he spent about $160 million on his two mayoral races) on a presidential campaign.

But they warned that while they were confident of getting on the ballot in every state, the process was complicated and fraught with legal challenges, and that Mr. Bloomberg would begin with an organizational disadvantage, competing against rivals who have been campaigning full time for years.

Bloomberg does NOT want to be seen as “a rich Ralph Nader” — someone who is in the race but doesn’t really have a chance to win, although he could influence the debates and take votes away from someone else as a “spoiler.”

Next week’s meeting, reported on Sunday in The Washington Post, comes as the mayor’s advisers have been quietly canvassing potential campaign consultants about their availability in the coming months.

And Mr. Bloomberg himself has become more candid in conversations with friends and associates about his interest in running, according to participants in those conversations. Despite public denials, the mayor has privately suggested several scenarios in which he might be a viable candidate: for instance, if the opposing major party candidates are poles apart, like Mike Huckabee, a Republican, versus Barack Obama or John Edwards as the Democratic nominee.

Forbes and other sources report his net worth at US$11.5 billion as of 2007. Bloomberg is among the world's richest people. He was ranked 34th by Forbes magazine in its list of 400 Richest Americans in September 2006. He was ranked 142nd in its list of the The World's Billionaires in March 2007.

As mayor of New York, Bloomberg declines to receive a city salary, accepting remuneration of $1.00 annually for his services.

On the major issue of abortion, Bloomberg is considered pro-choice. He supports abortion rights, stating: "Reproductive choice is a fundamental human right and we can never take it for granted, on this issue, you're either with us or against us."

Bloomberg supports governmental funding for stem cell research, calling the Republican position on the issue "insanity," while also supporting same-sex marriage with the rationale that “I think anybody should be allowed to marry anybody."

On June 19, 2007, Bloomberg left the Republican Party, filing as an Independent after a speech criticizing the current political climate in Washington.

Bloomberg's term as mayor ends on December 31, 2009. He is prohibited by term limits from being re-elected in November 2009; however, he can be elected mayor again after a four-year wait.

http://mike2008.com/
http://www.mikebloomberg.com/
http://www.myspace.com/michaelrbloomberg
http://facebook.com/person.php?id=4982033498


Unaffiliated Draft Campaign Websites:
UniteForMike.com Draft Mike Bloomberg For President
RunMikeRun.com - Mike Bloomberg for President, 2008
Americans for Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg for President
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Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg for President website
Petition site to encourage Michael Bloomberg to run for President
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Gotham Gazette 2005 webpage
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New York Times 2005 Endorsement
Campaign contributions made by Michael Bloomberg
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Draft Mike Bloomberg


Various Sources include [The Moderate Voice], [Huffington Post], [MSNBC], [Wikipedia]