Striking New York University graduate teaching assistants responded to an administration back-to-work ultimatum today with a pumped-up noon-time rally in Washington Square Park where they vowed to continue their four-week old walkout.

The rally by some 300 strikers and supporters came a day after NYU president John Sexton issued an open letter to the teaching assistants setting a December 5th deadline for strikers to return to work and classes -- or risk losing their paid stipends.

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When the New York City Department of Education decided last year to give just three companies the job of delivering food to all its schools, the idea was to simplify its system and to save money on running the second-largest feeding program in the United States (only the military is bigger). In practice, the plan's performance been anything but simple, with delays in deliveries, steep fines to the distribution companies, and a declared emergency that brought in extra delivery firms. Now, the DOE is trying to stabilize the system with a new request for companies to bid on delivering food. But that hasn't been simple either.

The DOE has temporarily withdrawn that request for proposals for three areas now covered by emergency contracts. At the same time, the city comptroller's office has begun asking questions about the way the new system has performed. And the DOE could end up in court with one vendor—Louis Foods, which withdrew from its contract this summer because it was losing too much money—that may have been overpaid more than a million dollars. …More >>

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday in the New York Civil Liberties Union's challenge to the subway bag searches implemented by the NYPD this summer after the second set of London transit bombings. The NYCLU's contention has been that the searches violate riders' protections under the Fourth Amendment.

"Wait," you ask sheepishly, "which one's the Fourth Amendment, again?" No worries; you aren't alone. For a couple of months now, a small group (a member estimates the size at "four, maybe five people") has been walking the subway platforms distributing business card-sized copies of the Framers' text. …More >>

The notion that the Bush administration has accomplished nothing in its almost five years in office is totally without merit, as proven by yesterday's White House event in which the president pardoned two turkeys from the Thanksgiving dinner table. The president has now been able to pardon eight turkeys:

Marshmallow

Yam

Biscuits

Gravy

Stars

Katie

Liberty

Freedom

Back when he was Texas governor, the president wasn't in such a pardoning mood. Hence, also missing from the Thanksgiving table this year are: …More >>

The private watchdog group formed by the former members of the 9-11 Commission is closing up shop. The announcement of its last media event—a December 5 briefing where the 9-11 Discourse Project "will issue its final assessment of progress on all 9/11 Commission recommendations"—came today. This is no surprise: The project (funded by entities like the Carnegie Corporation, the Drexel Family Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund) was intended to last for just a year after the commission expired in August 2004, its mission to "educate the public on the issue of terrorism and what can be done to make the country safer." But even if this end was long planned, it doesn't mean everyone thinks the job is finished. …More >>

A search for political news in the aftermath of Campaign 2005 might take one to City Hall this week, and the parade of hearings there on everything from hunger to real estate sales to what New Yorkers call their streets, roads, and avenues—or rather, what we would call them if we paid attention to the signs that dedicate small spans of certain byways to the great and good.

The council's parks and recreation committee on Tuesday will take up the latest batch of new street names, a compilation of 58 designations that includes Pope John Paul II Avenue (on Staten Island) as well as memorials to fallen cops and soldiers, a "beloved daughter," and a dearly missed son. And, in what's becoming a custom, the list honors Mary Pinkett. …More >>

Dubbing the system "flawed" and "a great failure of a great idea," the seven city council members competing for speaker berated the Campaign Finance Board system at a public debate last night, citing a lack of oversight and failure to "level the playing field."

"The big loser last Tuesday wasn't Freddy Ferrer, it was campaign finance," said Brooklyn's Lewis Fidler, who, along with fellow speaker candidates Bill de Blasio, Leroy Comrie, Melinda Katz, Christine Quinn, Joel Rivera, and David Weprin, appeared before a packed room of council members, lobbyists and residents at Baruch College. …More >>

Ka-ching! The public cost of the proposed Yankees stadium just went up. Turns out the four new parking garages the Bombers want will cost not $70 million in state funds, as early reports had it, but rather $234.8 million, with the rest coming from an as-yet-to-be-picked private developer. And all parking fees will go not to the state, but to the developer—leaving the $70 million as a "capital subsidy," which is city bean counters' demure term for "money pit." Add that to the $374 million in tax and rent breaks discussed in this week's Voice, and Bloomberg's "no public subsidies" stadium would cost the public $444 million.

Hidden costs were among the issues not addressed at last night's stadium "town meeting" called by Bronx Borough President (and stadium backer) Adolfo Carrion. The event was scheduled as a two-hour airing of neighborhood grievances about the plan to drop a stadium down atop Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks, but the first 90 minutes were soaked up by speechifying and Powerpoint presentations from Yankees execs and city planners, leaving the 300-odd attendees who'd packed a South Bronx gym cooling their heels—and, eventually, jeering, heckling, and chanting, "Let the community talk!"

When the audience questions finally came, they were no friendlier, running from skepticism about the promise of community jobs to calls for the city to renovate the Yankees' existing ballpark or choose another site. When Greg Bell of Bronx Voices for Equal Inclusion declared about the new stadium, "Put it south and west, as recommended by your community board," he was met by a standing ovation.

Carrion, meanwhile, played the role of increasingly peevish school principal, at one point shushing the peanut gallery with the admonition, "The purpose of a public hearing is for people to ask questions!" Not long after, he called the proceedings to a close and fled the podium, clutching the sign-in sheets of at least twenty community members who had yet to speak.

With organized labor pushing hard for the legislation, the city council voted today in favor of a bill narrowing restrictions on labor unions' contributions to political candidates.

Passage of the bill marks the first time in the 17-year history of the city's Campaign Finance Board that a rule has been changed through legislation, rather than through hearings by the board.

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Last year John Kerry ran for president on a Democratic platform that read, "People of good will disagree about whether America should have gone to war in Iraq." Kerry struggled to reconcile his vote to authorize force with his vote against funding the occupation. At his first debate with President Bush last fall (the "he forgot Poland" debate in Miami), Kerry was asked whether Americans in Iraq were dying for a mistake. "No," Kerry replied, "and they don't have to, providing we have the leadership that we put—that I'm offering. I believe that we have to win this. The president and I have always agreed on that." Candidate Kerry, in other words, opposed withdrawal.

Former candidate Kerry (whose presidential fundraising committee now has $15,368,359 in the bank) apparently feels differently. His personal web site is collecting donations to pay for billboards in Republican leaders' home districts that promote "a plan for a stable Iraq" and "20,000 troops home for the holidays," and direct people to johnkerry.com. You can also download a window sign that promotes Kerry's site—and his Iraq plan. The senator seems to have discovered the simple, clear policy on Iraq that his campaign lacked, a year too late—or three years early.