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(The following is the legend of the breviary for St. Bruno, as quoted in Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for October 6, in Volume XIV of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order, was born at Cologne [Germany], and from his very cradle gave great promise of future sanctity. Favoured by divine grace, the gravity of his character made him shun all childishness; so that, even at that age, one might have foreseen in him the future father of monks and restorer...

Three senior aides to a former governor, Eliot Spitzer, and a former state police superintendent violated state ethics laws by plotting against a former Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, the state's top ethics body has concluded. More than a year after the Spitzer administration was hit with allegations that it improperly used the state police to dig up travel records that could prove damaging to the former Senate leader, the State Commission on Public Integrity handed down the first formal charges related to the scandal. It did not find evidence linking Mr. Spitzer to the scandal. The...

Akansas cage fights turn gay for new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. ULY 8--Lured by $1 beer and the prospect of "hot chicks" and "hardcore fights," thousands of Arkansans were duped last month into appearing as extras in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest staged mayhem. Cohen and his confederates organized cage fighting programs on consecutive days in Texarkana and Fort Smith. Both cards ended with two male grapplers (one was identified as "Straight Dave" and wore camouflage) tearing each other's clothes off and, while in underwear, kissing down their opponent's chest. This man-on-man action triggered Fort Smith fans to throw chairs...

For those familiar with the antics of shock comic Sacha Baron Cohen , it was a case of déjà vu, all over again. On May 28, he outraged a crowd of unsuspecting guests at a Carrollton office park by luring them to what they thought was a new talk show on "family values." [Click image for a larger version] Hello, Arkansas. As an encore early last month, he outraged a crowd of 1,600 by luring them to what was billed as cage fighting. Police say the show was designed instead to capture the reactions of the unsuspecting to the sight...

ALBANY — Again and again when he appeared before a state ethics commission last year, a top aide to Gov. Eliot Spitzer tried to explain that he had told the governor about steps he was taking to gather the travel records of Joseph L. Bruno, then the Senate majority leader. But the commission’s executive director kept changing the subject and did not want to hear about Mr. Spitzer’s involvement, says the aide, Darren Dopp. In his first extended interview about the case, Mr. Dopp said this week that he was refusing to reach a settlement with the ethics commission, known...

Here’s the statement Joe Bruno just issued regarding his decision not to seek re-election in November: ”Today, I met with my Republican colleagues in the Senate and informed them that I will not be running for re-election this November. “After 32 years in office, I have decided that it is time to move on with my life and to give my constituents an opportunity for new representation and my colleagues in the Senate who have supported me, an opportunity for new leadership. “Public service has been a blessing for which I will be ever grateful. I have had the opportunity...

ALBANY, N.Y. _ Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has run the Republican chamber for more than a dozen years, confirmed Monday that he won't seek re-election in the fall.

ALBANY — The other day, the state’s top Republican, Joseph L. Bruno, stepped out of a meeting to take a phone call. “Governor Bruno?” the voice on the other end said. “Who’s this?” Mr. Bruno asked, momentarily disoriented. “It’s David!” said the real governor, David A. Paterson, who was in Washington. “You are the governor!” Technically it was true. Under the State Constitution, when Mr. Paterson leaves New York his duties transfer to Mr. Bruno. “I’m glad you called,” cracked Mr. Bruno, who described the exchange later to a reporter. “I’m going to run right down and see what the...

CUOMO ON THE CASEApril 1, 2008 -- It's up to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo now: Gov. Paterson, as The Post's Fredric U. Dicker reports today, has asked the AG to open a criminal probe of the State Police in the wake of Eliot Spitzer's Dirty Tricks campaign. **SNIP** "Recent reported events raise questions of possible political interference with the State Police," Paterson wrote to Cuomo, "and I am determined to not only ascertain the veracity of such reports but to do everything within my power to protect . . . the reputation of the State Police." Paterson's move followed Dicker's...

SCHEMER: Darren Dopp, one of the governor's men who orchestrated the plot against Joe Bruno. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer would have faced a grand-jury probe and may have warranted impeachment for repeatedly lying about his involvement in the Dirty Tricks Scandal, an explosive report from the Albany County district attorney concluded yesterday. In a startling revelation, District Attorney David Soares said that had Spitzer not resigned in the call-girl scandal, the DA would have asked a grand jury to consider urging impeachment or other disciplinary action because the then-governor repeatedly claimed in testimony to Soares that he was not...

From the moment last July when State Editor Fred Dicker broke the story that the State Police - at the direction of then-Gov. Spitzer's office - began detailed surveillance of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, one question has remained: What did Spitzer know - and when did he know it? Now, comes a front-page NY Times report confirming nearly every exclusive broken by The Post's Albany bureau. That puts the lie to the whitewash report issued last September by Albany DA David Soares......... Attorney General Andrew Cuomo certainly came close to the real story. His bombshell report concluded that key...

Disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer was up to his neck in his administration's dirty tricks aimed at discrediting State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.....Spitzer ordered senior aides to release potentially damning information, The New York Times reported. Spitzer has adamantly denied involvement....But, according to the DA's report, he even called former aide Darren Dopp at home to check on his progress in carrying out the orders. Dopp said he warned Spitzer that Bruno would be angry - but the then-governor dismissed the alert, getting so furious, he turned red and spit out the coffee he was drinking, according to the report....

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was deeply involved in his administration’s efforts last year to discredit the State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, holding detailed discussions with senior aides, ordering damaging information about Mr. Bruno released, and calling an aide at home repeatedly to check on the progress, according to several people with direct knowledge of the investigation. The governor has previously said he was not personally involved in the effort, suggesting only that he was vaguely aware that his aides had responded to a reporter’s inquiry about Mr. Bruno’s travels on state aircraft. But testimony and other information gathered...

The decision by state ethics officials to ask the district attorney of Albany County, David Soares, to investigate perjury allegations against a former top aide to Governor Spitzer is coming under increasing scrutiny in Albany political circles. Under speculation is whether the perjury referral made by the Commission on Public Integrity was influenced by a motive to protect Mr. Spitzer. The commission is conducting a probe into allegations that the governor's office may have committed ethical violations by involving the state police in an alleged attempt to discredit the Republican Senate leader, Joseph Bruno. Some Republicans and legal experts are...

EXCLUSIVE Democrat Gov. Spitzer is being blamed for siccing the FBI on Republican Sen Bruno - after earlier accusations that Spitzer unleashed the State Police, and tried to unleash the IRS on Bruno as well.

Gov. Spitzer's former communications director, Darren Dopp, asked another Spitzer aide to lie about the origins of the Dirty Tricks Scandal - including the governor's own allegedly extensive knowledge of the plot to smear the Senate's GOP leader, a well-placed source told The Post yesterday. ~~~Snip~~~ As soon as The Post broke the story of the anti-Bruno plot on July 5 - and revealed that many of Dopp's claims were false - an "emergency" meeting was held in one of Spitzer's executive offices at the Capitol to discuss the scandal. Present at the meeting were Dopp, Howard, Spitzer Chief of...

Spitzer hiring city lawyer on taxpayer expense in TroopergateBY JOE MAHONEY DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Saturday, October 13th 2007, 4:00 AM ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer has lined up a Manhattan lawyer - at taxpayer expense - to help him quash subpoenas sent to his office by a GOP-controlled panel investigating the Troopergate scandal. Spitzer's office confirmed that Dietrich Snell, a former deputy attorney general, will help the administration as it seeks to block the Senate Investigations Committee's push for e-mails and other documents related to an effort by the governor's aides to discredit Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno. An...

After Governor Spitzer's staff's plan to use the state police against the Senate Republican leader, Joseph Bruno, backfired in a scandal, the governor's office tried unleashing a different authority against Mr. Bruno — the Internal Revenue Service. The plan was that, guided by Mr. Spitzer's office, Democrats in the state Senate would get federal agents to go after Mr. Bruno for taxes they say might be due on the value of several trips on state aircraft that he took to New York City where he conducted mostly political business. A draft of the letter to the IRS, which was signed...

October 12, 2007 -- Gov. Spitzer's continuing claims that he wants to focus on governing and leave his office's Dirty Tricks campaign behind, would be laughable even if that campaign weren't still ongoing. Yesterday, Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reported that Spitzer aides were conspiring with state Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith's staff to turn the Internal Revenue Service against Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Amazingly, Spitzer's press secretary, Christine Anderson, then admitted as much. Bruno says that Smith told him the IRS ploy was only one of several that were (are?) in the works - but declined to elaborate....

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Several Democratic state senators allied with Gov. Eliot Spitzer drafted a letter to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to investigate Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno, a move Bruno blasted as the latest in a smear campaign against him despite the fact the letter was never sent. Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith notified Bruno about the letter, first obtained by The New York Post, which pushed for an IRS investigation into whether the majority leader had any income tax liability for personal use of state aircraft, Bruno said Thursday. "There were communications between my staff and...

It's time to "fight fire with fire." That's Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's message to his fellow Democrat, Gov. Spitzer, when it comes to dealing with the governor's arch political enemy, and New York's top Republican, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. (snip) The speaker yesterday urged the governor to exercise his right to appoint a Moreland commission, which would have subpoena power and the ability to investigate "whatever it is they want to look into." "I think it's appropriate to do the same thing [the Senate Republicans] are doing, which is basically to do a fishing expedition," Silver said. "It's tit...

ALBANY, Sept. 20 — The Albany County district attorney said on Thursday that Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his administration did not break any laws and acted within their authority in their handling of travel records related to the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno. The news was a victory for the Spitzer administration, which was knocked back on its heels when the state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo — a Democrat, as is the governor — issued a report in mid-July that found that the governor’s staff had misused the State Police in their effort to discredit Mr. Bruno, the...

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is calling for the Glenwood Springs Police Department and Garfield County Sheriff's Office to get tougher on immigration. The outspoken immigration hawk lowered the boom on the downvalley police agencies last week upon learning 7-Eleven shooting suspect Ricardo Ramirez had at least two previous contacts with police that failed to put him in custody. Records show that Ramirez, an illegal immigrant, cursed at police and was uncooperative in 2006 when he was the passenger in a Glenwood Springs drunken driving case that occurred two years after he had been deported to Mexico and illegally returned here....

That was fast. In a just-released statement, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno called the Roger Stone phone call flap "a distraction from the real issues - the abuse of government power, political espionage and a cover-up of information," but said the consultant has agreed to "resign and end his relationship with us at our request." "We are not going to let this incident become a distraction or to be used as an excuse to hamper people from getting at the truth," Bruno said. The investigations into the Executive Chamber are continuing. We hope that both District Attorney Soares and the...

PSC Member Claims Energy Adviser Mitnick Threatened Her (CBS) NEW YORK One of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's top advisers has resigned under pressure after allegedly threatening a Republican on the Public Service Commission. Virtually since the day he took office, Spitzer has been criticized for his use of intimidation to achieve his goals. There are a slew of investigations going on into his aides' efforts to dig up dirt on his political nemesis, Senate Leader Joe Bruno. Well, his administration is just 8 months old, but Spitzer on Friday purged another top-level aide who was under investigation. This time it was...

In the past, if Bruno Kirchenwitz wanted to see his name in print or vent about U.S. immigration policy, he would write letters to local newspapers about "illegal hordes" and stemming "the tide that threatens our sovereignty." Today, the former 7-Eleven clerk who was fired from his job after a shooting at the Basalt store has become a minor celebrity in local and regional media and a full-fledged poster child on conservative Internet Web sites dedicated to immigration reform. "I'm kind of like the kid that's gotten a thousand presents for Christmas," he said of the recent media attention. "I've...

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is now traveling the state trying to put a scandal behind him... Here's what we know, thanks to some enterprising reporting ...and an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: Two close advisers to the governor apparently used the New York State Police to carry out a political smear campaign against me by creating documents designed to generate negative press reports... And it nearly worked. ...there is only one way forward for Mr. Spitzer. He needs to support a full airing of the truth. That support must include publicly testifying under oath, and making...

By all rights, battered Joe Bruno should have been waiting in line at the state Crime Victims Assistance Board last Wednesday, seeking the redress that is rightfully his. The governor's men had tried to get him, hadn't they? Set him up, put the state police on his trail, concocted phony reports, leaked them to friendly reporters? It was all right there in a report put together by novice prober Andrew Cuomo, an investigation compiled in record time. It should have been called "Joe Bruno: Wronged." But the wily old Republican, savvy leader of the state senate, knew luck when he...

ALBANY, N.Y. - Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer rolled into office on a promise to clean up and energize a moribund government beholden to special interests, and one of the state's top Republicans looked like a man with a target on his back. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has the upper hand on Spitzer — nicknamed the Steamroller — just seven months into the governor's first term and as the GOP fights to keep its slim majority in an increasingly Democratic state. "Steamrollers don't do very well when the going gets tough. Going uphill, they just spin," Bruno said, "and...

WOLFEBORO, N.H. — Mayor Giuliani, using his strongest words yet to describe the allegations that Governor Spitzer's office employed the state police to improperly scrutinize the Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, is calling upon Attorney General Cuomo to conduct a full inquiry into the matter with subpoena power. While Mr. Giuliani did not specifically call for Mr. Cuomo to be made a "special prosecutor," as some Senate Republicans want, the statements by the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York appear to echo their request for a complete probe backed by subpoena power. "These are very serious...

A majority of New York voters -- 53% -- now believe that Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) knew what his aides were doing when they arranged for State Police records of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's (R) travels to be leaked to the media, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Spitzer has denied knowing about the scheme. As a result, Spitzer's approval rating plunged to 48%, down from 60% last month. Another interesting finding: While 50% of voters agree that Spitzer is a "steamroller," only 18% say this tactic is working, while 53% say it contributes to legislative gridlock. A new...

A 7-Eleven clerk who was fired after a bullet-riddled dispute over his U.S. Border Patrol cap passed a lie-detector test indicating that he didn't instigate the clash, a radio talk-show host said Friday. [...] He said he was fired because of his views on immigration. But Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven Inc., said Kirchenwitz was dismissed for violating company rules prohibiting employees from engaging in confrontations with customers. "He wasn't fired for his political position. It has nothing to do with that or his views on illegal immigration," she said. Interviews with Kirchenwitz's co-workers and feedback from store customers...

BASALT — The Basalt 7-Eleven clerk who may have been the target of a shooting there last week said he was placed on one week’s paid leave of absence Saturday by the corporation. Bruno Kirchenwitz said he was placed on leave while “some guy from Dallas is going to come down and check it out.” The convenience store corporation is based in Dallas. Kirchenwitz said he has no reason to believe his job is in jeopardy. He noted that he works 32 hours per week at the store and was given 40 hours of pay during the leave. Margaret Chabris,...

Police think Ricardo Ramirez, 23, of El Jebel used a semi-automatic M-1 carbine rifle to fire shots through the store window, into the area behind the counter where the clerks work, shortly after 11 p.m. that night. Police are looking to arrest Ramirez on felony charges. Police said they found an M-1 rifle in Ramirez's El Jebel home on July 11 and that three 30-millimeter shell casings found at the 7-Eleven after the shooting were consistent with the type of ammunition typically used with an M-1 rifle. The rifle has since been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for...

Eliot Spitzer made his name as a corruption fighting attorney general who forced reforms on Wall Street. As governor, he promised to take that campaign to Albany and end the state government's reputation for political dysfunction. This week, though, it was Mr. Spitzer who was under fire for underhanded tactics. His successor as state attorney general, fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo, issued a report Monday saying two of Mr. Spitzer's top aides were involved in a plot to smear the governor's political nemesis, Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, by releasing records to the media on Bruno's use of state drivers...

Corporation tells Kirchenwitz dismissal unrelated to shooting incident. Bruno Kirchenwitz was fired Monday from his job at the Basalt 7-Eleven. The firing came nearly two weeks after Kirchenwitz may have been the target of a person or persons who fired five shots from a rifle into the store. Kirchenwitz said a 7-Eleven official who called to inform him of his dismissal claimed it was unrelated to the shooting incident. He isn't buying it. Kirchenwitz believes he was fired because his presence as a clerk at the store could be bad for business. He is an outspoken critic of illegal immigration....

The fallout from a damaging report by Attorney General Cuomo's office detailing the Spitzer administration's use of state police for political attack purposes is likely to spread, threatening to upend Governor Spitzer's agenda and bring down his most senior adviser. After a three-week investigation, Mr. Cuomo's office yesterday released a 53-page report accusing Mr. Spitzer's communications director, Darren Dopp, and a top state homeland security official of ordering state police to take extraordinary measures to track the use of air and ground police escorts by the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, in an effort to catch him abusing state...

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's attorney general issued a report Monday recommending disciplinary action be considered against Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office for releasing information about a top legislator's use of state aircraft. "The governor's office planned to obtain information concerning Senator (Joseph) Bruno's use of state aircraft for the purpose of giving this information to the media," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wrote in his report on the scandal. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, had accused Spitzer's office of political espionage. Spitzer, nationally known for forcing reforms on Wall Street during his eight years as the state's attorney general, had no...

Gov. Spitzer targeted state Senate Ma jority Leader Joseph Bruno for an unprecedented State Police surveillance program that led to allegations Bruno improperly used a state helicopter for political purposes, an investigation by The Post has found. No other state official, including Spitzer and Lt. Gov. David Paterson, was singled out for the type of detailed record-keeping the State Police maintained on Bruno, the state's most powerful Republican, official records show.

ALBANY, April 17 — Campaign-finance reform tops Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s agenda for the rest of the legislative session, which has two more months to run. “The first step, and this is the predicate of any meaningful conversation on campaign-finance reform, is lowering dramatically the threshold for contributions” — which would require legislative action — the governor said at a press conference on Tuesday to discuss his priorities. But as he has learned in his first few months in office, the Legislature often has its own, far different, agenda. When the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, spelled out his priorities...

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday angrily blasted the leaders of the state's best-known good-government groups as "hard-core Democratic operatives" who have given a pass to Gov. Spitzer's "unethical" campaign practices. Bruno (R-Rensselaer) also accused Spitzer's top political aides of "pressuring people" for contributions of $25,000 or more on behalf of Democratic efforts to win a special Senate election scheduled for Feb 6. Bruno blasted Spitzer a day earlier for sponsoring a $25,000-a-person fund-raising event despite Spitzer having recently limited contributions to his own campaign committee to $10,000. Yesterday, Bruno said he was outraged that good-government groups that advocate for...

GRAFTON, N.Y. — Pond View Way, a dirt road in this town of 2,125 residents, was completed late last year, but it is so new, and in such a remote location — eight miles west of the Vermont-Massachusetts border — that much of it does not appear on local maps. Living in a large but secluded house on Pond View Way is Kenneth R. Bruno, a lawyer and real estate broker. He was the district attorney for Rensselaer County from 1997 until 2003, when he resigned to become a lobbyist, with clients like Madison Square Garden. He is also the...

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on Tuesday called for embattled state Comptroller Alan Hevesi to resign, saying his failure to reimburse the state for the use of a staffer as his wife's driver represents "a serious breach of the public trust." In a scathing report Monday, the state Ethics Commission said Hevesi, a Queens Democrat, broke the law by failing to pay for the driver despite a 2003 advisory opinion from the commission that he should. The commission faulted him for not tracking the employee's time and noted that Hevesi had assigned another state driver for his wife even before...

ALBANY, N.Y. - The powerful leader of New York's state Senate said Monday he is grateful for the support he and his family have received "as we pray for the safe return of my granddaughter Rachel." Rachel Bruno, the 20-year-old granddaughter of Republican Joseph Bruno, has not been heard from by friends or family since Thursday when she had telephone conversations with her boyfriend and another friend, said John McArdle, a spokesman for the Senate majority leader. She was last seen by family members on Wednesday and did not show up at work on Friday. State police, who have not...

Two Roosevelt Island Tram cars carrying dozens of people over the East River were left hanging Tuesday when the system lost power due to a mechanical problem, officials say. Rescue crews have begun the process of using cages and baskets to get the passengers off. Both cars stopped moving around 5:15 p.m., stranding about 80 people, officials say. The tramcars were still stalled after 7 p.m. while engineers worked to restore power. One of the tramcars had about 50 people, the other about 30. We are told that there are nine children on board. No injuries were reported. Eyewitness News...

ALBANY, March 31 — One is a wisecracking if wandering orator, a silver-haired Korean War veteran and upstate entrepreneur with an acknowledged love of the cameras. The other is a gravel-throated lawyer from the Lower East Side whose voice rarely rises above a low rumble. His eyebrows are one of his most expressive features, undulating as his mouth frowns. The two, Joseph L. Bruno, the 76-year-old Republican Senate majority leader, and Sheldon Silver, 62, the Democratic Assembly speaker, have been clashing behind closed doors for more than a decade. Along with Gov. George E. Pataki, the two men steer the...

New York Coalition is looking for candidates across New York State to challenge the Leadership in Albany in a Primary. The only way to beat these life long Politicans is to run against them in the Primary of their respective Parties. Due to heavy gerrymandering of districts it is virtually impossible for the opposing Party to beat them in the General Election. We are looking for candidates brave enough to eliminate the status-quo and change the course of this state. New York Coalition.org needs to focus on the Leadership but are looking for people to challenge every senator and...

ALBANY, NEW YORK (2006-02-27) State Senate Leader Joe Bruno says he's angered by the creation of a new PAC aimed at pushing Republican Senators out of office next fall. The PAC, known as EdPAC, targets Republican Senators who oppose the CFE court decision that orders the state to pay billions of extra dollars to New York City's schools. Senate Leader Bruno, who told a meeting of the state's Mayors that the court order was "lunacy" , says taxpayers can't afford it. And he says he won't let the PAC intimidate him, saying the group's efforts are "unconscionable" . "We don't...

ALBANY - The second-highest ranking Republican in New York State government, Joseph Bruno, yesterday called on President Bush to pull the troops out of Iraq, warning that the American military is incapable of putting an end to the violence wracking the country. The Senate majority leader's comments against the war stunned and pleased anti-war activists, while Albany observers suspected that Mr. Bruno, a Republican in a predominantly Democratic state, was trying to erect a wall between Mr. Bush and the slender Republican majority in the state Senate before the November elections. Mr. Bruno, who is a veteran of the Korean...

ALBANY—Top New York Republicans have called for a formal investigation into allegations that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer threatened a man who wrote an editorial critical of Spitzer’s conduct.According to the New York Post, both Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) and state Republican Chairman Stephen Minarik have urged that a formal investigation be launched into claims by John Whitehead, “one of the most respected figures on Wall St,” that Spitzer telephoned Whitehead and threatened him after Whitehead wrote an editorial about Spitzer in the Wall St. Journal. a furious Spitzer tracked him down in Texas last spring after he authored...