Of robbers Buffalo bills fans thieves and business partners of Joseph g Cairo and rapists of the rights of Nassau otb employees and bettors
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Smoke dope fire the salutary cannon and debate
After Post push, Hochul promises Zeldin debate plan ‘by end of week’
With mail-in ballots about to go out and early voting just six weeks away, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday she still needs a few more days before committing to debatesagainst Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin.
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Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
“That’ll be all clarified by the end of this week,” Hochul said at a Monday press conference in Manhattan, when asked by a Post reporter when she will agree to debates.
“We’ll have our full schedule of debate, forums, events we’re gonna be doing so that will be out very shortly. I know there’s a lot of interest, so thank you for asking,” Hochul insisted, while still failing to say yes to outstanding invitations from CBS-2 and PIX-11.
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The Democratic incumbent has stayed mum for weeks about when and where she might debate Zeldin after saying vaguely more than a month ago that she was willing to face off at least twice.
But she appears to be singing a different tune in recent days after The Post put her in a chicken suit for a Page 1 editorial, four years after her disgraced predecessor, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, finally agreed to debate his Republican opponent after similar treatment.
Zeldin has called for up to five debates in cities across the state while beating the drum on the issue in recent weeks.
“It’s Sept. 19 and mail-in ballots start going out in 4 days, but @KathyHochul still has not yet accepted ANY debate requests. She wants people to find out where she stands AFTER they vote, but it doesn’t work like that,” the Long Island pol tweeted Monday morning.
“Come out, come out wherever you are #ScaredyKat!” he added.
Political experts have said that it makes sense for an incumbent like Hochul to avoid committing to debates — from an everything-to-lose standpoint — considering her ongoing leads in the polls and big fundraising advantage over Zeldin in a largely Democratic state.
A televised debate offers the Long Island Republican a big chance to connect with voters while holding Hochul’s feet to the fire on issues like her relative inaction on controversial bail reforms and alleged pay-to-play schemes involving donors to her campaign since she took office.
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Taxpayers paid $637 million to a rapid testing company tied to $300,000 in donations even though other states bought the same tests at much lower prices.
But debates could become a double-edged sword for Zeldin, who had uneven performances while sparring with his primary rivals months ago.
While he has attacked Hochul over the issue in recent weeks, she appears eager to fight back by highlighting his positions on abortion, gun control and the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol that followed his votes against certifying the 2020 election results from certain states.
“Zeldin should be careful what he wishes for,” political consultant Jake Dilemani recently told The Post.
