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The New York state senate is poised to eliminate New Yorkers’ so-called “tampon tax.” Feminine hygiene products are currently taxed as “luxury items” in New York, but a new bill could result in their reclassification as tax-exempt necessities, instead. The Republican-run senate passed the bill unanimously on Monday (April 11) after it had passed the state assembly in March, also with full support from lawmakers. The bill now goes to the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo, a father of three daughters, who has said in the past that the tax should be repealed. “It is a way of providing some tax...

The November 3 special congressional election in New York may not be over after all. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) may have jumped the gun by swearing in new Democratic Congressman Bill Owens from the 23rd Congressional District of New York. Although Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman conceded to Owens, the state has yet to certify the election -- and the recanvassing of votes by the county Boards of Election shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. Hans von SpakovskyHans von Spakovsky, a visiting legal...

Spare a thought for New York — where Caroline Kennedy wants a sit-down with Governor David Paterson, with the aim of claiming Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Is there anything wrong with that picture? Well, let’s imagine for a moment that it’s not New York State we’re talking about, but some province – call it the State of Banana — in some nameless republic rife with dynastic politics. Here’s a sample of the politics: Eight years ago, a Senate seat from the Banana State was won by the wife of a sitting president of the republic. That wife had never...

(Gov. David Paterson, with his wife, Michelle, at his side, publically addresses his past extramarital affairs - a story first reported by the Daily News.) In an extraordinary public confession less than 24 hours after taking office, Gov. Paterson said Tuesday he has had affairs with "a number of women" in the not-so-distant past - including a current state employee. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his grim-faced wife, Michelle, the governor said his "conscience is clear" - now that he has come clean about his private infidelities. He said he hopes now to focus on the public's business. "I...

The story: Gov. Spitzer begs forgiveness after getting caught having a sex romp with a prostitute named Kristen in a fancy Washington hotel. Says the soon-to-be-ex gov, "I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, who I promised better." In other words: Also, I apologize to Kristen, who was really a very sweet and smart kid. Kristen, I didn't mean for you to get caught up in all this. And, seriously, I didn't realize my hands were THAT cold. The story: You, too, can own the fancy duds worn by the famous Queen of...

No matter the office or the candidates, all campaigns usually arrive at a moment of clarity. The cotton-candy clouds of confusion part and we suddenly see that one person is connecting with voters and looks better suited for the job. That moment is upon us in the Democratic race for President, and for backers of Hillary Clinton, it is not a pretty picture. Although she is desperate for a big win, Clinton has frittered away almost three weeks in astonishingly trivial pursuits. It's as though her computer blew a fuse after Super Tuesday on Feb. 5 and she doesn't know...

During Thursday night's Republican debate, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said something that angered me a bit... And one more thing. What -- what an audacious and arrogant thing for the Democrats to say, as Hillary Clinton did, that they are responsible for the progress that the surge has seen, by virtue of their trying to pull out so quickly. Look, the success over there is due to the -- the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women, and to General Petraeus and to President Bush, not to General Hillary Clinton. No, this time I'm not mad AT Mitt.

Full Transcript of Interview with Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton knows who she won't get a 60th birthday gift from - her arch-nemesis Rudy Giuliani. Once she stopped laughing at the question, the Democrats' presidential front-runner said she wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the leading Republican candidate's gift list, regardless of their New York connection. "Well, ya know, I think somehow on Rudy's list, I would not be in the top, oh, 1,000," Clinton joked as she talked exclusively to the Daily News about life, health, family, dreams and the milestone birthday she hits tomorrow. Asked how she has...

One of America's foremost experts on Islam says New York's decision to honor a Muslim holiday this weekend shows the city has not learned an important lesson from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. New York's famous Empire State Building is lit up green today in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan. City officials say the lighting, which will continue through Sunday, "will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hanukah." Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch,...

Next year’s presidential race may be characterized as the campaign of the cackle. You know what I’m talking about: that staged, shrill, joyless hoot emitted by Mrs. Clinton. Last month, she hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit. Appearing on five major programs gave her a chance to display her newly acquired funny bone. She erupted in laughter numerous times. Whether the question concerned what another candidate said, or why she and her husband are hyper partisan, or about critics deeming her health care plan socialized medicine, Hillary guffawed like a banshee. Describing the mirth as contrived is charitable. Maybe...

Senator Clinton's Lawyers Seek to Halt Fraud Suit By Fred Lucas CNSNews.com Staff Writer March 27, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Attorneys for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) are trying to keep her out of a lawsuit that may ultimately force her to testify under oath about an alleged violation of campaign finance laws. Washington lawyers David Kendall and Carolyn Utrecht and Los Angeles attorney Jan B. Norman -- all representing the apparent frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination -- filed legal briefs Friday in the California Court of Appeals focusing heavily on the criminal background of plaintiff Peter Paul, the Hollywood...

Angry boos greeted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at a liberal conference yesterday when she opposed fixing a date for withdrawing American forces from Iraq. The sour audience response, at the Campaign for America’s Future conference, hints at the 2008 presidential front-runner’s shaky standing with anti-war Democrats, who wield increasing power in the party. Clinton’s speech packed the room with a crowd billed as the nation’s largest gathering of progressives. But, although the left-leaning audience raucously cheered her domestic agenda, there was only a sprinkling of applause mixed with jeers when the senator refused to disavow her vote authorizing the...

June 13, 2006 -- THE ISSUE: Sen. Hillary Clinton's criticism of Ann Coulter for attacking the widows of 9/11 victims. Sen. Hillary Clinton recently blasted Ann Coulter by stating: "I felt it's unimaginable that anyone in the public eye could launch a vicious, mean-spirited attack on people who I've known in the last 4 1/2 years to be concerned deeply about the safety and security of our country" ("Give-'em-Hill Fury vs. Coulter," June 8). As a parade of Democrats have launched one vicious, heinous assault after another on President Bush, the troops and conservatives, Clinton has remained silent. From...

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Capitol Hill in 1994 in an effort to lobby support for a universal health care plan for which she was sharply criticized. WASHINGTON, June 9 — No policy issue has bedeviled Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more than health care. Ever since the collapse of her proposal for universal coverage in 1994, critics have used the issue as prime evidence in their case that she is, at heart, a big-government liberal with a zeal for social engineering. But now, as Mrs. Clinton heads into her re-election campaign and a possible bid...

YONKERS -- Senator Clinton has shafted middle class Taxpayers in New York by voting against Alternative Minimum Tax relief contained in the President's tax cut extension bill. Under the AMT, taxpayers with incomes over $60,000 lose deductions. By raising the exemption from the AMT, the tax cut extension bill which Senator Clinton opposed prevented a $31 billion tax increase on 15 million middle class families. The bill prevented $2 billion in tax increases on 900,000 New York families. The bill also extended the cuts on capital gains and dividends which are especially helpful to New Yoke since Wall Street is...

Since 1993, when she tried to become the tzarina of government-sponsored health care, I have suspected that Hillary Clinton wanted to become the President of the United States. Since the mid-1990s — when one of her best friends, Judith Hope, moved from Little Rock to New York, and then “suddenly” became the chairman of the NY Democratic Party — I was confident that the fix was in. Since 1999, when she bilked the taxpayers in a phony “listening tour” scam to launch her campaign, there was no doubt in my mind that Mrs. Clinton was going to use a run...

Many residents in New York City are unhappy with the disposition of the killing of a white New York University student by four black youths who chased him into oncoming traffic resulting in the student's death. First, the New York City Police Department refused to charges the four perpetrators with a bias crime. A spokesperson with the NYPD claimed the killing was not racially motivated even though one of the suspects was heard screaming "get the white boy!" The NYPD spokesperson said the case was being treated as a robbery, not a hate crime. However, the prosecutor said the four...

Former-President Bill Clinton insisted yesterday that he was in complete agreement with wife Hillary's objections on the Dubai ports buyout - even though he reportedly advised the Dubai royal family on how to make the deal fly. "I supported Hillary's position, and the news reports to the contrary were wrong,” Mr. Clinton claimed while speaking in Harlem yesterday. What about that phone call Joe Lockhart, his former White House scandal spokesman, made to the Dubai Ports World chairman to lobby for the deal? (The call was made to Chairman Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, according to congressional testimony by DPW CEO...

The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress. A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the...

Lost in the tumult over Islamic port deals and Katrina video capers is the recently released -- and willfully ignored -- Barrett Report. David Barrett, you'll recall, is the independent counsel appointed in 1995 to investigate allegations of impropriety against President Clinton's Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. Mr. Barrett found his path mined by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and President Clinton's attorneys, even after Mr. Clinton departed the White House. He prepared 18 felony indictments against Mr. Cisneros but had to settle for a guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge (lying to the...