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FULL TITLE: 1836 Colt Revolver Sets World Record Price For A Single Firearm, Bringing $977,500 At Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions In Dallas DALLAS, TX – An exceptional, rare and fine ivory-gripped Texas, or Holster Model No. 5, Paterson Revolver from the Al Cali Collection realized $977,500 as part of Greg Martin Auctions/Heritage Auctions Sept. 18 Signature® Arms & Armor Auction in Dallas, setting a world record price realized for a single Firearm sold at auction. All prices include 15 % Buyer’s premium. It was purchased by an unidentified West Coast collector, who auction house officials will only identify as a...

A New Jersey first grade teacher who wrote that she was a "warden for future criminals" on Facebook says she was speaking "out of frustration to their behavior." Jennifer O'Brien defended herself Wednesday at an administration hearing that will determine whether the tenured Paterson teacher should lose her job. O'Brien told an administrative law judge she wrote the post in exasperation because six or seven unruly first-graders kept disrupting her lessons. She said one boy had recently hit her. The teacher posted her remark to 333 friends on March 28. However, it was forwarded and led critics to call her...

Governor Paterson has made one more major policy decision before he leaves office tonight. The Democrat is announcing a deal with the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to take a hands-off approach to illegal aliens without serious criminal records. The agreement calls for ICE to move to deport illegal immigrants charged with felonies--instead of those whose only crime is illegally crossing the border.

Gov. David A. Paterson of New York on Saturday vetoed legislation intended to curtail natural gas development using the technique called hydraulic fracturing until a closer review of its effects can be undertaken. Instead, the governor issued an executive order instituting a moratorium that extends until July 1, 2011 — beyond the date specified in the legislation — and that more narrowly defines the types of drilling to be restricted. “This legislation, which was well intentioned, would have a serious impact on our state if signed into law,” Mr. Paterson said in a prepared statement. “Enacting this legislation would put...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Environmental groups and energy companies both claimed victory after Gov. David Paterson ordered a seven-month moratorium on some natural gas drilling in the state, although environmentalists would have preferred the broader ban that the Legislature had approved. The outgoing Democratic governor vetoed a bill on Saturday that would have suspended all new natural-gas drilling permits until May 15. Instead, he issued an executive order prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled wells, such as those in the Marcellus Shale region of southern New York. The order stands until July 1...

Gov. David A. Paterson, still unhappy about the defeat last year of a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage, reached out to lawmakers recently to see if they would approve it during the lame-duck session this year. But even the most ardent supporters of the bill, which was resoundingly rejected by the State Senate last December, said the measure would meet the same fate if it were brought to the floor now, and the governor, apparently reaching the same conclusion, has abandoned the idea. Mr. Paterson described his frustrations over the defeat of the legislation, which was one of...

MONTICELLO, N.Y. — Gov. David Paterson on Monday signed a land settlement with a Wisconsin tribe that could give New York state leaders something they have been trying to get for decades: a casino within day-tripping distance of the lucrative New York City market. The deal to settle a decades-old land claim by the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans in central New York’s Madison County comes in exchange for state support of a tribal casino about 100 miles northwest of New York City...

ALBANY - Count Gov. Paterson among those who think the Republicans won control of the state Senate on Election Day. Paterson, during his weekly radio appearance on WOR this morning, contradicted the hopeful spin coming from Senate Democrats and said it's likely the GOP will be in charge of the Senate in 2011. Citing the narrow leads held by GOP challengers in key Buffalo and Long Island races, Paterson told Gambling this morning that "it is probable that \[GOP Sen. Dean\] Skelos is right, that he will be the majority leader of the Senate in 2011. So that's a significant...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. David Paterson is offering state help if the developers of a proposed mosque near ground zero agree to move the project farther from the site of the Sept. 11 attack. He says some state property elsewhere might be suitable. (...)

Labor leaders on Monday accused New York Gov. David Paterson of using union families as political pawns by preparing a plan that could lead to layoffs of state workers in coming months. Paterson told The Associated Press Sunday that a late budget and declining revenues from taxes and the federal government is forcing an immediate "real conversation" about laying off some of the state's more than 200,000 workers before Jan. 1.

NEWARK, N.J., Jul 04, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Mohamed El Filali like some other Muslims across the nation plans to avoid large public gatherings over the holiday for fear he'll be mistaken for a terrorist by edgy law enforcement officers or suspicious citizens. "As a Muslim, especially during this specific holiday, I have a concern of being racially profiled by the police and the federal agents," said El Filali, an official with the American Muslim Union based in nearby Paterson. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, carried out by Islamic extremists, El Filali's fears are...

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell is going to war, it seems, in an effort to lure New York hedge funds to her state. Who can blame her? Albany, after all, attacked first — by moving to wrest millions in tax revenue from her state and New Jersey. In the end, alas, New York might turn out to be the big loser. As The Post noted Thursday, Rell’s rolling out the red carpet for hedge-fund bigwigs, offering to meet them over dinner at a fancy Darien steakhouse. She wants to discuss “Connecticut’s advantages” — particularly in the face of Albany’s plan to...

A Manhattan high school history teacher, who resigned under fire after taking students on a spring-break "Club Red" field trip to Cuba three years ago, is a self-proclaimed Communist who tried justifying the jaunt by telling Education officials he needed to see Fidel Castro one more time before the dictator died. .... Turner, whose class walls were adorned with posters of Castro and Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, resigned in 2008. Besides placing full blame on Turner, 39, for violating federal restrictions for traveling to Cuba, the report also fully exonerates the school’s principal, Ruth Lacey. .... Lacey, the report says,...

Gov. Paterson is counting on a Madonna-blessed higher power to lead him out of the mess in Albany. The lame-duck governor has begun wearing a red string kabbalah bracelet - just like the Material Girl - in an eyebrow-raising bid to deflect ill will. "It was explained to the governor that the red string is a symbol of protection [that] wards off problems and tribulations," Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook said. ...

Paterson to Emcee Rangel's Birthday BashBy Reid Pillifant July 14, 2010 | 4:09 p.m Charlie Rangel will celebrate his 80th birthday in style next month, with Aretha Franklin contributing vocals and local Democrats providing plenty of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. The invitiation lists the attendees: both U.S. Senators, all three statewide electeds, all three citywide electeds, plus Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and unnamed colleagues from the congressional delegation. Of course, the outpouring of support--even for a congressman facing ethics charges--isn't terribly surprising, since they're almost all Democrats coming to pay tribute to a local legend. The one non-Democrat on the list: Mayor Michael...

ALBANY - New York enters the weekend on the brink of its first-ever government shutdown. Gov. Paterson unveiled his latest emergency spending bill Friday - it's stuffed with $327 million in cuts to mental health and social service programs. "We think we have put a bill together that has cuts that are reasonable, cuts that we believe the Legislature could live with, and spending they know we need to do," said Paterson budget director Robert Megna. The Legislature is due to vote on the plan Monday, though its fate is unclear in the state Senate. If lawmakers vote it down,...

ALBANY (CBS) ― Chaos and anarchy. That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is warning if he's forced to shut down the government in a few days. The clowns in the state Legislature, now deadlocked for 71 days on the budget, are ready to take down the "big tent" and bring state government to a standstill. At least that's what Paterson thinks. "No one knows the full ramifications of a government shutdown," said Paterson. "It would create unimaginable chaos around the state and the greater metropolitan areas."

Who'd a thunk that David Paterson might be the governor who found the way to cut New York's out-of-control, Constitution-defying, money-grows-on-trees Legislature down to size. Paterson has hit upon a maneuver that holds enormous promise for reestablishing proper gubernatorial authority after he and his predecessors frittered away their power, allowing Albany to sink into dysfunction. He has sent the Legislature a bill that's needed to keep the government functioning because lawmakers have failed to pass a budget that closes a $9.2 billion deficit. They were supposed to do so by April 1. There's no sign that they'll develop the courage...

For now, NY-29 residents wait patiently for a verdict to be handed down by the local district federal court that plans to release its ruling this week -- an unnecessary imperative for the residents who want nothing more than to have their voices heard in Washington and a plight that is only too recognizable in the national polls.

On the eve of the state Republican convention, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio yesterday glossed over inter-party squabbling and came out swinging against Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo. "People -- I don't care if they're Democrats or Independents or Republicans -- look at Andrew Cuomo trying to run against the establishment and they laugh. Andrew Cuomo is the establishment," Lazio said during a Memorial Day parade in Queens yesterday. The former Republican congressman from Long Island went on to criticize Cuomo -- the state's popular attorney general who is considered difficult to beat in the race to replace departing Gov. Paterson...

A member of New York Gov. David Paterson's administration said the governor is putting together a plan that would lay off thousands of government workers at the beginning of next year to help balance the state budget. The administration official confirmed a report Tuesday in The New York Times that Paterson will direct state agencies to begin picking positions that could be eliminated starting Jan. 1. That date marks the expiration of the no-layoffs pledge Paterson gave public employee unions last year in exchange for an agreement to reduce pension costs. It would also be the day Paterson leaves office....

At the state level, governors like New York’s George Pataki and California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger pandered to government-employee unions and opened the spending spigots, to taxpayers’ ongoing horror. Other culprits include the state-level influence peddlers who seem more interested in cash than in free-market and conservative principles.New York ’s former U.S. senator Alfonse D’Amato is a perfect example of this breed. “Senator Pothole” personally discovered an obscure state senator, George Pataki, from Peekskill, N.Y. After being muscled through the state GOP convention, Pataki scored the party’s nomination and won the governorship in 1994. After some limited first-term tax cutting, Pataki’s spend-o-rama...

A federal judge in Rochester is now considering whether to compel Gov. David Paterson to order an early special election to fill the seat of former U.S. Rep. Eric Massa. U.S. District Judge David Larimer reserved decision after listening to legal arguments Tuesday afternoon. He indicated he would issue a written decision, according to Syracuse lawyer John Cirando. Cirando is representing three Southern Tier residents who filed the lawsuit seeking to compel the governor to hold a special election to fill the seat in the 29th District. Paterson recently ordered a special election to be held on Election Day, but...

Card check -- the scheme that violates the traditional American freedom of the secret ballot in labor union organizing elections -- has just captured a beachhead in New York State general election law, arguably opening the floodgates to massive ACORN-style voter fraud and intimidation. The event at hand involves absentee ballot "reforms" hurriedly signed into law by New York's hapless accidental governor David A. Paterson. In the era before the Australian "secret ballot" came to America, voting could be a tricky -- and often violent -- proposition. Goons from such big-city machines as Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall knew how you...

Rochester, NY --- Three people demanding a U.S. Congressman are suing the Governor of New York to get one. A lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court is aimed at compelling Gov. David Paterson to declare a special election in the state’s 29th Congressional District. This is the same seat Eric Massa resigned effective March 9th, nearly two months ago

ALBANY — In a major rebuke of federal immigration policy, Gov. David A. Paterson announced on Monday that he would create a special pardon panel to review cases involving legal immigrants who are at risk of deportation for minor or old convictions. Mr. Paterson’s move will give many immigrants facing deportation renewed hope and places the governor into the middle of the country’s immigration debate. The announcement comes as the federal government has taken an increasingly hard line in its interpretation of existing immigration law, leaving a growing number of legal immigrants who have criminal records facing deportation. “Some of...

Gov. David A. Paterson will ask the State Legislature to let him begin furloughing as many as 100,000 state workers each week until the stalled 2010 state budget is in place. The governor today also said the state's fiscal picture is at crisis proportions, and wants lawmakers to also end their three-day workweek in Albany and remain at the Capitol at least five days a week until the budget is adopted. “I’m trying not to be acrimonious,” Paterson told reporters this afternoon.

Paterson to NY-29: Drop DeadThe governor deems that a congressman for western New York is optional.  Remember Rep. Eric Massa (D., N.Y.)? It’s understandable that you may not want to remember the Tickle-Me Congressman, and his scandalous departure is receding further into history; it has been a full six weeks since he resigned from Congress.His former seat in the House of Representatives has remained vacant since March 8, and while it’s not uncommon for a district to have no representation for a few weeks after a death or unexpected resignation, Gov. David Paterson hasn’t even declared a vacancy. Under New...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP/1010 WINS) -- Gov. David Paterson plans to offer legislation Wednesday to bail out the troubled New York City Off Track Betting Corp. for a year.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is very popular in New York. Governor David Paterson and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand are not... and they're both up for re-election. Conventional wisdom has had it that Cuomo will run for one of their jobs: Paterson's. Amidst unsourced press reports that Cuomo would begin his campaign for governor sometime in March, Paterson even announced he would not be seeking re-election. But now March has come and just about gone, and there's no announcement. Cuomo, in fact, keeps insisting he's running for attorney general. But it's hard to believe the heretofore ruthless politician, suddenly lacks any ambition...

Gov. David Paterson ordered a “hard” hiring freeze in state government nearly two years ago, declaring that only “absolutely essential” positions be filled. But state officials hired 51,464 people at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1 billion in salaries, plus fringe benefits, since that decree on July 30, 2008. The hires include sons of elected officials, a close friend of the governor’s and a slew of highly paid political appointees. Former Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll, for example, makes $155,000 a year in an environmental job the governor created for him. Paterson hired an executive assistant at $178,000 a...

Gov. David A. Paterson personally helped draft a statement last month that he hoped would be endorsed by a woman involved in a domestic dispute with one of his top aides, proposing language asserting that there had been no violence in the encounter, according to three people with knowledge of the governor’s role. On the night of Feb. 16, with The New York Times preparing an article on the aide, David W. Johnson, Mr. Paterson told his press secretary the key points that needed to be included in a brief statement that was sent to the woman, Mr. Johnson’s former...

ALBANY — Union members rallied Tuesday to protest Gov. David Paterson’s proposed tax on sugary soft drinks, which they believe will kill jobs and hurt working families. Labor union officials say the state is trying to pretend that it’s a public health issue, when it’s “nothing more than a money grab.” “This tax is not about obesity, it’s about raising revenue,” said George Miranda, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 16, which represents 125,000 union workers in the New York metropolitan area.

Gov. Paterson Freezes $500 Million, Says Financial Situation The Case, Won't Start Sending Again Until April 1 Embattled Governor: $1.5 Billion In School Aid Next To Be Halted NEW YORK (CBS) ― For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won't be in the mail -- at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won't start again until next month. The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch. Message to New Yorkers: don't start spending your tax refund money because it's going to be delayed. Half a billion dollars' worth...

Gov. David Paterson's press secretary is resigning, making her the fourth top staffer to resign amid scandals that threaten the administration. Press Secretary Marissa Shorenstein says she is quitting because her reported role in one of the scandals makes her unable to do her job effectively... Paterson's communications director, deputy public safety secretary and state police superintendent have also resigned.

The New York State Police lost its second leader in a matter of days on Tuesday when the agency’s acting superintendent, Pedro J. Perez, announced that he would retire as of Friday. Mr. Perez, the State Police’s first deputy superintendent, had been serving as acting superintendent since last Tuesday, when his predecessor, Harry J. Corbitt, resigned from his post. Mr. Corbitt’s resignation followed by a week his admission that state troopers had contacted a woman who had accused a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson of assaulting her last Halloween, an intervention that is being investigated by Attorney General...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Jimmy Vielkind/Times Union) Archbishop Timothy Dolan is at the Capitol for his annual visit today, joining other Catholic bishops from around the state in asking the governor (and legislators) to be wary of hurting the poor with budget cuts.Several reporters spoke with Dolan, the spiritual leader of Catholics in Manhattan and the Bronx, who was asked what he might say to Gov. Paterson given the accusations swirling around him.“Jim, thanks for bringing that up. That’s a delicate question on our mind. If he wanted to talk about that, Jim, we would be happy to. First and...

Gov. David Paterson has been given a reprieve of sorts and it came from a normally friendly, familiar faction of the state's body politic. A group of New York's senior African-American political leaders had gathered Thursday night at the storied Sylvia's soul food restaurant in Harlem to discuss the fate of the governor, the scion of one of their members. They concluded that, despite the calls for his resignation, people should wait for the investigations surrounding the governor to play out before any rush to judgment. "We should not have a mentality that would rob him of the rights he...

New York Politicians Extend Era of Malfeasance With a Fresh Wave of Scandals ALBANY, N.Y.—The Empire State this week managed a rare trifecta of disgrace. First, Gov. David A. Paterson became embroiled in dueling scandals that ran the gamut of allegations from corruption to obstruction of justice to perjury. Next was Rep. Charles Rangel, the dean of New York's delegation, who relinquished the chairmanship of the prestigious House Ways and Means Committee after an ethics panel chastised the Harlem Democrat for accepting corporate-sponsored junkets to the Caribbean.

New York Governor David Paterson attempted to suppress an investigation into an aide’s alleged beating of said aide’s girlfriend, and lied to an ethics panel about the free tickets he scored to the World Series. In this, he follows Eliot Spitzer, whom he succeeded after Spitzer attempted to convince a banker to contravene federal banking laws (that is actually why he had to resign, not because he hired a prostitute, but since prosecutors decided for unclear reasons not to indict him, that part is forgotten). Paterson, in his sure-to-fail attempt to hold on to power for a few more months,...

February was not a kind month to New York State politicians. Last week, only a few days after declaring his candidacy, New York Gov. David Paterson announced that he would not run for reelection. Why the sudden change? It came to light that one of Paterson's top aides was accused of assaulting his live-in girlfriend in New York City, and that members of the Governor's State Police security detail urged her to avoid pressing charges. The night before the woman was to appear in court to seek a restraining order against the aide, Gov. Paterson himself called to "chat." She...

With Massa, Democrats' Bad Week Just Got WorseBy Liz Halloran March 5, 2010 4:57 pm The Democrats' very bad week just got worse. First-term New York Rep. Eric Massa, the subject of a House ethics investigation for allegedly harassing a male staffer, announced Friday that he will resign. Massa's plan to officially step down Monday comes just two days after longtime Rep. Charles Rangel, also under an ethics cloud, was forced to resign as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. In fact, a resignation announcement that Massa posted on his congressional website sits just above his statement...

Gov. David A. Paterson’s administration is “listing,” his handpicked party chairman said Thursday, and the governor even remained silent when asked by reporters whether he would still be in office next week. Another top aide fled the administration Thursday, as Peter E. Kauffmann, the governor’s communications director, quit, saying he could not “in good conscience” continue. It was the exact same line used last week by Denise E. O’Donnell, the governor’s top criminal-justice official, who resigned in protest as just one of Paterson’s several new scandals surfaced. The resignation of Kauffmann, now the third top official to leave in a...

ALBANY -- In yet another blow to his teetering administration, Gov. David Paterson has lost his communications director. "As a former officer in the United States Navy, integrity and commitment to public service are values I take seriously," Peter Kauffmann said in a statement. "Unfortunately, as recent developments have come to light, I cannot in good conscience continue in my current position."Kauffmann was scheduled to testify today to investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office, which is conducting a fast-moving probe into allegations that the governor and the State Police contacted a Sherr-una Booker, a woman who had brought...

The grim faces said it all.Gathered the other day at a meeting convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton, New York’s top minority political leaders held a mini-rally of sorts for beleaguered Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson — whose situation has gone from perilous to pathetic in just a few short days. In a sign of how far he has fallen, Paterson’s colleagues urged him to resist the loud calls for his resignation and hang in there until the end of his lame-duck — and distressingly lame — term.But the issue is so much bigger than Paterson now.Plain and simple, it...

The bad news continues for Gov. David Paterson -- he was just charged by the state's Commission on Public Integrity with violating the gift ban under the state's ethics laws for getting free tickets to game one of the 2009 World Series. He may face criminal charges in that case too. (...)

ALBANY -- A Republican assemblyman has called for the impeachment of Gov. David Paterson after a week of unfavorable reports about his involvement in a domestic violence incident alleged against a close staff member. Assemblyman Philip Boyle, R-Bay Shore, who is not known for bombast, said Tuesday impeachment of the governor is warranted to bring on a Senate trial that would either clear the governor and return him to power or find him guilty of improper interference in a criminal matter and cast him from Albany. Boyle, a 14-year Assembly veteran who has been an attorney since1988, was the lone...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - An unfolding scandal threatening Gov. David Paterson and his administration claimed its second public safety official Tuesday when the head of the New York State Police said he was retiring, partly because of intense media scrutiny. And late Tuesday night, The New York Times reported that Paterson told a state employee in February to contact a woman at the heart of the scandal who had accused a Paterson aide of domestic violence to "make this go away." Soon after, the woman dropped her case against the aide.

ALBANY, N.Y. – The National Organization for Women on Tuesday urged New York Gov. David Paterson to resign because of a report he directed two staffers to contact a woman about a domestic violence case involving one of his top aides

NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- New York Gov. David Paterson declared Monday that he still has the authority to govern and plans to do so through the final year of his term, despite calls for his resignation amid a state police scandal. "I already have the authority," Paterson said in his first comments since Friday, when he suspended his campaign for a full term.