Thursday, July 13, 2017

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SHELDON SILVER

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The evidence still shows Shelly Silver is guilty, guilty, guilty

The lawmaker who replaced Assemblyman Sheldon Silver on the Lower East Side said he’s still a crook — despite a court ruling Thursday overturning his corruption conviction.

“This case continues to move through the judicial process, but regardless of whether Mr. Silver is ultimately convicted of a felony, any public official who uses his position to line his own pockets with $4 million from special interests has violated the public trust,” said Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou.

“My district has suffered tremendously from this betrayal, and my constituents and the organizations who trusted him to represent them still feel it every day. The facts of the Silver case, which have never been disputed, demand aggressive reforms to clean up Albany,” she said.

“New Yorkers deserve an honest and transparent government. We are moving on from this sad chapter in my district, but we still need serious ethics reforms in our state government, including closing the LLC loophole, limiting outside income, and ensuring pensions are stripped from officials convicted of corruption.”

Niou, who was elected last year, said “business as usual does not get enough done for the people of New York, so I look forward to continue representing lower Manhattan with the highest levels of transparency and integrity.”

Claude Solnik

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Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

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.

The next Democratic primary for the seat is in September 2018.