Sam Levin

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Mike Bloomberg at a press conference.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today that he is ending a controversial policy that requires food stamp applicants to be fingerprinted -- a move that has pitted him squarely against Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The news today is also one that puts Bloomberg in direct opposition with City Council Speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn (and a handful of other local politicians).

At the center of the debate is the policy that requires all food stamp applications and recipients in New York State to be fingerprinted, which the governor, along with a group of advocates, says creates a stigma around receiving welfare, slows down the process, and creates barriers to reducing hunger. But Bloomberg, who butted heads with Cuomo on the policy back in January, has repeatedly defended fingerprinting, arguing that it stops New Yorkers from abusing the benefits and saves the city millions of dollars by stopping fraudulent recipients.

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University of Wisconsin report.

A report released today argues that the city is excessively fining street vendors and in doing so is actually losing out on revenue it would get with a fine system that's more fair.

The report, called "Fining the Hand that Feeds You," from the University of Wisconsin, argues that high fines are less likely to be paid than lower, more reasonable fines -- and that if the city made them easier to pay, they would bring in more money. It was released this morning in partnership with the the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center and with support from City Council members who are pushing legislation on the topic and held a hearing today on street vendors.

Last year, the report notes, the city handed out more than 26,000 tickets to street vendors -- many costing vendors $1,000 for infractions that the authors say are minor and unrelated to health and safety, including vending too far from the curb or carrying their vending license in their pocket instead of wearing it around their neck.

Given their modest incomes, most street vendors simply aren't able to pay $1,000 fines, the report argues.

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New York, get ready, Tebow's in town and you're going to hear about every move he makes. First up: Tebow sees a show! Though we're not sure if he needs any lessons on how to be popular, Tim Tebow went to see the Broadway musical Wicked in New York last night, according to the New York Daily News. Donna Vivino, an actress in the production, notified her public via Twitter of the new Jet's presence at the show.

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Squadron

Only two places in America still require fingerprints from food stamp recipients: Arizona and New York City.

While this isn't too surprising from a state that practically had a ban on controversial Mexican-American books in one school district (no, really), it's a bit odd to see something like this in the Empire State, let alone New York City.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in fact, has pushed for the elimination of the practice -- which is now only active in NYC -- so that more more eligible families will participate in the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP.)

This prompted backlash from Mayor Mike Bloomberg: He claims that this policy shift would bring the state back to the "bad old days" before 1996, when the food stamp program was supposedly rife with fraud.

He said on his radio segment in January: "We forget how easy it is to go back to the bad old days when anybody that wanted to get subsidies, whether they deserved or not, just walked up and said I'm taking it," he said. "You can't go back to those days. ... We've saved five million dollars this year alone because the fingerprints caught 1,900 people."

But that hasn't stopped State Sen. Daniel Squadon and State Assemblyman Keith Wright, with support from Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, from fighting for fingerprint-free food stamps.

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Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com/Flickr

A day after Mayor Mike Bloomberg held a press conference touting the successes of the city's letter grading system for restaurant health inspections, members of the City Council are saying that a majority of businesses don't actually like them.

Bloomberg, alongside the city's health commissioner, told reporters yesterday that requiring restaurants to post their letter grades has done nothing but good for the city since the policy was first implemented in 2010.

Most New Yorkers like seeing As, Bs, and Cs in restaurant windows, restaurant sales have jumped, more businesses have improved their cleanliness, and salmonella infections have gone down, the city reported.

Everyone wins, right?

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It's just one of those win-win-win kinda things.

In 2010, the city began requiring restaurants in the city to post letter grades based on health inspections. That means that restaurants that score badly -- due to things like pest-conducive kitchens or inadequate hand-washing facilities -- have to put up scarlet letters in their windows (like a "C") deterring customers from patronizing their business. Others with zero or minimal violations get to flaunt their "A" score in the window, luring in passersby into their squeaky-clean, healthy facilities.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg reported Tuesday that, during the time that the city has mandated these grades be posted, the city has seen a reduction in foodborne illnesses, restaurants have gotten cleaner, owners have had to pay fewer fines, New Yorkers have increasingly used the grades when making dining decisions, and total restaurant sales have increased. (Win-win-win-win! -- except for, you know, the restaurants that are losing).

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Party favors. Ivanka called them "amazing!!!"

This afternoon EV Grieve posted about a party that really takes the cake, or rather, the pastrami sandwich.

A couple had their black tie wedding reception yesterday at Katz's Delicatessen. Ivanka Trump tweeted about the event including pictures of the menu and the party favors. We talked to Kevin Albinder, the manager of Katz's, who said that weddings and other such events (Bar Mitzvahs, anniversaries) aren't that unusual at Katz's. "The party we had yesterday was kind of a big party, and we were closed for a good part of the day," he said.

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It is pretty lovely weather outside today -- which times well with Occupy Wall Street's latest action. We've seen how this winter, as mild as it has been, has created some problems for the Zuccotti Park activists.

But today, the sun is shining and OWS is gearing up to do sunshine-appropriate activities, like biking. And planting seeds! And visiting gardens!

Today is "Occupy Our Food Supply," a global day of action targeting corporations and food inequities. The idea originated in San Francisco and apparently over 60 OWS groups and advocacy organizations will be joining in the fun today.

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Mayor Bloomberg and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. weighed in on the Fresh Direct controversy stewing in the Bronx in a New York Daily News op-ed Sunday. Writing in favor of Fresh Direct's move to the South Bronx the two politicians tried to assuage critics' fears over the damage the company would bring to the neighborhood, and justify the $128 million incentive package going to the online grocery service.

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It started as a take-that-New-Jersey story -- but now it's become not-in-my-backyard.

Ah, land use battles in New York City!

The central character in this debate is FreshDirect, the online grocer looking for a new home, having outgrown its location in Queens.

Last week, news broke that the company has decided to re-locate from its Long Island City headquarters to the Bronx, instead of New Jersey, which offered Fresh Direct $100 million in public benefits.

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