New York News Blog

A private film maker stood up in a near-deserted federal courtroom in Manhattan this morning to plead guilty to stealing tens of thousands of dollars in ad revenue that should have gone to the city.

Vincent Taylor, 50, pled to a single count of wire fraud before federal District Judge Harold Baer. Taylor said that he had been enlisted in the scheme in March, 2007, by Trevor Scotland, former chief operating officer of NYC-TV, the city's wholly owned television production studios.

Taylor told Baer that he had been trying to persuade Scotland to use public service ads he had made about diabetes and childhood obesity when Scotland asked him in March,2007, to submit bogus invoices for ad work that he hadn't done.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I was afraid that the chief operating officer [Scotland] would blacklist me," Taylor said.

By Kate Rose.

With a huge Ed McMahon-style check worth $100 million and 99 cents and a bullhorn, Reverend Billy Talen of The Church of Life After Shopping stood in Washington Square Park and announced his miraculous news:

"Politics is serious business, and you need $100 million dollars. I won the lottery, I got lucky, and I'm going to be mayor now!"

Although it was late in the afternoon on Election Day, the Reverend, in a cobalt blue suit and white clerical collar, was extremely optimistic. (The race was won by Mike Bloomberg with 557,059 votes, versus Bill Thompson's 506,717; Reverend Billy received 8,964 votes.)

"Mike Bloomberg has shown the way," said the Reverend. "He's our role model to finance something, to advertise something, to give people information that they do not need. Amen! Hallelujah!... I will march with this fake check, all the way to Gracie Mansion. Will you be there with me? Amen. And once we are there -- will we take our clothes off? Amen!"...

Bloomie knows how to party

​It was well past 11:00 p.m., and a couple thousand Bloomberg supporters were still waiting in the Metropolitan Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel for the mayor to show up. They were an enthusiastic group, shouting slogans of "four more years" while noshing on giant soft pretzels, popcorn, and sliders, all paid for by Mayor Mike. If it weren't for the fact that everyone was constantly checking their Blackberries, people seemed to actually be having a lot of fun.

Despite Bloomberg's strong Wall Street backing and a larger-than-normal contingent of people who looked like they had just graduated from business school, people from every slice of New York City life showed up to party (at 11:30 people were still waiting in line to go in) -- and many gave widely varying reasons people gave for supporting the mayor. A Trinidadian real estate broker from East New York had been a volunteer on every one of Bloomberg's campaigns. "That's my boy," she said. "I love him." She went on:"When I first came to this city, in 1970, everything was a hassle. You had to call a number to find out whether the buses were running, and wait for hours on the phone. Now all I do is call 3-1-1. He gave us 3-1-1!" The woman, Jennifer Pinto, said she viewed term limits "as a promotion."

Hang on a second.

Five points?

A week ago Quinnipiac had Bloomberg up 18 points. Yesterday they had him up 12 points.

If the polls were anywhere near right, and the shift in their numbers reflected the rate of Thompson's gain, he should have lost by about 10 points.

What happened?...

​On the Bloomberg campaign website, the staff announces that -- as he did one magical day in August -- the Mayor will be personally using Twitter throughout Election Day. "Mike will personally take over our campaign's twitter account," the ad says.

So far, we've hardly had any tweets from Mike -- tweets "from staff" have filled the large gaps -- and the ones we've gotten haven't been very much fun...

​Perhaps wishing to avoid the long, long lines, Mike Bloomberg and Bill Thompson voted early this morning -- Thompson in Harlem, Bloomberg a few blocks from his East Side townhouse. Bloomberg is "expected to sail into his third-term" (Times), "all but certain to win a third term" (UK Guardian), "looks likely to win a third term after getting City Council to scrap a mayoral two-term limit and spending a record amount of his own money on the campaign" (AlterNet), etc. Already being floated are what-ifs ("Would the race be closer if the UFT had endorsed Thompson? Some say maybe") and so-whats ("Despite a half-assed endorsement from President Obama, Thompson doesn't exactly sweep voters off their feet").

Nonetheless, do your duty, citizens. Winning isn't everything. Lolcat via 8bitjoystick.

​This morning Mike Bloomberg embarked on a whistlestop tour of small business in the five boroughs. So far, he's stopped at two bakeries: Holterman's in Staten Island and Cake Man Raven in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. We caught up with him at Cake Man Raven, where the Mayor spread icing on a six-layer Southern red velvet cake and was gifted with his first baker's jacket (bright red).

After spreading the icing, Harlem Cake Man-cum-Broooklyn Cake Man Raven Patrick De'Sean Dennis asked Mayor Mike if he wanted to eat some cake.

"I'm only doing this to be neighborly," said Bloomberg, as he took a bite of the richest cake on this side of the East River, adding that he was sacrificing his body for the cause. Then he had another bite.

"How many cakes do you make every day?," asked the data-driven mayor of the Cake Man.

The answer is a lot. When Dennis relocated his famous Harlem bakery to Brooklyn in 2000 (he could afford Harlem rents, and he couldn't get a loan), he started out with four employees -- today he has thirty...

We re-elect the Mayor tomorrow. (Technically it's an "election," but come on.) The late hit on Bill Thompson in today's Post is that he remained silent as a radio call-in talker passed an ethnic slur. During KISS-FM's "Open Line" show, on which Thompson was a guest, one "Carl from Harlem" opined that Bloomberg "just thinks about helping the rich, the rich contractors, and the Jewish people of his persuasion..." Thompson thanked him without addressing the coment; he later said he missed that bit and anyway Carl was off the line by the time Thompson responded. and thus was unavailable for chastisement.

Thompson appeared earlier in the week on Dov Hikind's radio show, where no such comments were passed, and called for an end to the Bloomberg ticket blitz.

Last night Bloomberg was airlifted onto the deck of the arriving USS New York, where he talked about 9/11 and handed out Yankee/FDNY/NYPD caps. "This has nothing to do with the campaign," said the Mayor. "This is New York. This is America."

​Trevor Scotland, former chief operating officer of NYC TV, the city television station so heavily boosted by Mayor Bloomberg, showed up in federal court yesterday to plead guilty to stealing tens of thousands in ad revenue from the station.

Scotland, 39, looked every bit as dapper as he did in "Man Up!" - the TV show about men's styling that he produced and moderated and which won a local Emmy award this spring and which was hailed by the mayor as another example of the station's hip new programming. He wore a form-fitting gray suit with side vents, a blue and white checked shirt, and a muted tie.

Photo credit: Marla Maritzer.

(l to r): John Graham, Deputy Comptroller for Audits, Accountancy & Contracts and Bill Thompson.

In 2008, 3797 city employees called the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board and asked for a legal opinion about a transaction--or other action--they were thinking about doing that might be inconsistent with the city ethics rules. Another 624 wrote the board.

Apparently Bill Thompson, the comptroller who wants to be Mayor, wasn't one of them.