Remember the provision in the Women's Equality Act that would solidify abortion rights here in New York in the face of anti-abortion bills popping up in state legislatures across the country? Remember Cuomo's call for campaign finance regulation in a state electoral system that is drastically outdated and loophole-heavy? Remember the legislative push for medical marijuana in New York in a state with a record high number of weed arrests? Yeah? Well, none of them are happening anymore.

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C.S. Muncy

They're two bills birthed from latest NYPD controversy. One would establish an inspector general to oversee the department, and another would allow citizens to sue the police over claims of racial profiling. The two parts of the overarching Community Safety Act have divided the city's most powerful, setting up a policy showdown for the upcoming mayoral race. And today, the bills will begin their gestural journey through the City Council as Speaker Christine Quinn gears up for an unprecedented legislative maneuver on her floor.

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In a new TV ad, Rudy Giuliani ladles praise on his mayoral disciple. "Joe Lhota is New York," he says, as images flash of Lhota's life as a born-and-raised New Yorker. It's the first official campaign stamp from Lhota's old boss, whom he served as a deputy mayor and liaison to Washington. But the argument Rudy makes for Lhota's candidacy is one of self-plagiarism, in which he posits the candidate (and, in turn, himself) as "running the city" during 9/11--much to the dismay of Lhota's rivals. Ugh, do we have to go back to 2008?

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It was a quintessential New York corruption story. A few years ago, state Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, were busted by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of embezzling at least $500,000 from the family's nonprofit in the Soundview section of the Bronx. Former Voice writer Tom Robbins called him "Albany's greatest scoundrel" and, now, a week before the Bronx Democrat's long-awaited sentencing, Mr. Espada Jr. wants a judicial re-do.

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John Surico

Last November, NYU and Columbia students protested for a deal on teacher evaluations.

There was the drama and the mayoral temper tantrum. There were numerous missed deadlines, negotiation room walk-outs, separate plans, fed-up union members and, in the end, threats of intervention on behalf of Governor Andrew Cuomo and state education chief John King. Now, months later, after sacrificing millions of dollars for New York's public school system and 1,000 or so jobs for teachers, New York City's power players in education were served their teacher evaluation system by Albany on Saturday. This is what it looks like.

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Once this guy's out, the unions want their money back A-S-A-P.

October 31st, 2009. For the teachers of New York City, this date marks the last day 94,000 of them had a contract with the Bloomberg administration. Since then, the wages for our city's educators have remained at a standstill, suspended by political tensions over layoffs, attrition and mayoral control drama. On January 1, 2014, the day the new mayor takes office, the union hopes to hit the reset button on contract settlements. When that day comes, the United Federation of Teachers, along with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, want their money back, placing City Hall and its budget in a financial bind.

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Wikimedia Commons

In late 2009, after a tumultuous back-and-forth in contract negotiations, DC37 ended its support for Mayor Bloomberg--a leader whom they viewed as emotionally numb towards union layoffs and benefit cuts with the Great Recession settling in. For the 2010 mayoral election, DC37 switched from a mayor it once endorsed in 2006 to Democratic nominee Bill Thompson. New York City's largest public union consists of over 121,000 members; with those numbers in mind, DC37 stands as a formidable force this November. And, last night, they chose their favorite in the post-Bloomberg detente: Comptroller John Liu.

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It's not often that a former president of an entire nation is extradited to the United States on criminal charges, but that happened today as the feds took custody of former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo on money-laundering charges.

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Once-powerful Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez has agreed to step down from his longtime post as his support collapsed this week on the heels of the Staten Island District Attorney's damning report which disclosed the unethical lengths that the legislature's leadership went in trying to hush-up his sexual harassment of staffers.

It is yet another embarrassing turn-of-events in a year that has seen a half-dozen state legislators indicted on a range of corruption charges.

Insisting on his innocence, Lopez said today he would step down at the end of the legislative session, June 20. Lopez claimed he was just pursing a plan to step down at the end of his most recent term in office to run for City Council.

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"I'm trying to gauge not only what's right and what feels comfortable right this second, but I'm also thinking, How will I feel in a year or two years or five years? Is this the time that I should be doing it? And then there's the other side of the coin, which is, am I still the same person who I thought would make a good mayor?"

These were the questions Anthony Weiner asked himself in a New York Times Magazine profile published last month that sparked widespread interest in the former Congressman's future political aspirations. The hints came two years after the sexting scandal that brought down Weiner's congressional career. And, since then, the politician from Queens has played his cards strategically.

His admissions on television interviews have painted him as a man begging to look past the scandal that rocked him and his family a year ago. He reactivated his Twitter. His hypothetical polling in the race has given him good reason to take himself seriously. So who cares about the Clintons? This is a candidate with the potential to change everything.

And, if indications are what we're going on here, that shift might come as soon as next week.

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