Newsday's star political reporter--and Hillary Clinton chronicler--Glenn Thrush is leaving the Long Island-daily for Politico. We've been wondering where Thrush would land after Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race, and now he's got the perfect forum to advertise the big-time work he's been delivering. He'll be a congressional reporter for Politico, which is a big coups for Politico as they try to demonstrate post-election relevance.

As for Newsday ... well! Their national desk, decimated like everything at that paper in recent months, loses a big time player.

Memo after the jump:  read more »

The future of the city's best radio talk sports show ever, Mike and the Mad Dog, is in jeopardy. Newsday's sports media reporter, Neil Best, reported Sunday that the two oddball hosts of the show, Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, are on the verge of splitting up and it's unlikely that both will be on WFAN to celebrate the show's 19th anniversary this September. The reasons why aren't entirely clear, but apparently the two are fighting.

For sports fans, life without Mike and the Mad Dog is a little like imagining baseball without the Mets. Since the late 1980s, they've scored the biggest interviews and have had the most influential voices of any sports reporters or broadcasters in the city. For WFAN, the wound could run particularly deep: about year after losing their morning show, Imus in the Morning, they could lose their drive-home show too.

Let this be a lesson for managers and coaches in New York: When your team is down, don't pick a fight with the media.

Willie Randolph, the Mets manager whose team is now under .500, has made two mistakes this week, at a time when his job is looking more and more unsafe.

Randolph told the Bergen Record that he was getting a lot of heat from the media because he's black, and that SNY--which the Mets organization owns--delighted in catching him at unflattering moments in the dugout.

He asked to speak with the Mets' owners, the Wilpons, to apologize, and his offer was rebuffed (instead, he spoke to the team's GM, Omar Minaya).  read more »

Yesterday at Cablevision's annual shareholders meeting, Cablevision boss Charles Dolan acknowledged that he's not quite sure what he got himself into with buying Newsday.

"We're very aware of our inexperience with newspapers," he said.

But!

"We plan to consult widely and seek advice from people who have backgrounds and are professionals in the field."  read more »

Who is Rivka Galchen, M.D.? The author of Atmospheric Disturbances, which according to Leon Neyfakh is, "a winding, psychological quest story involving weather control, quantum theory, and an intricately calibrated, radically counterintuitive conception of space and time..." She also may be the new Thomas Pynchon. PLUS: The return of Mark Leyner.

Choire Sicha bravely asks, "Why can’t men write anymore?" According to Mr. Sicha, "A little penis, it turns out, can be a dangerous thing. But it’s not crazy at all to feel bad for the young male writers of our time, despite all they have done to us with their books. There are these legends that loom; all women, all terrifying."  read more »

On the afternoon of May 10, when word got out that Rupert Murdoch was dropping his bid to buy Newsday, the writing was on the wall: For a likely $650 million, the odd-couple father-and-son team of Chuck and Jim Dolan would be the paper’s new owners.

So on May 11, Newsday’s business desk dispatched reporter Ellen Yan to the Dolans’ compound in Oyster Bay Cove to try to buttonhole the new owners for a story.

She looked for their house, having bought a flower in case it, in turn, might buy a little goodwill—it was Mother’s Day, after all!  read more »

Earlier, I wrote that some Democrats are not very enthusiastic about seeing fellow Democrat Jimmy Dahroug make a third attempt to unseat Republican State Senator Caesar Trunzo on Long Island.

Today's Newsday has more on the story.  read more »

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The Dolans win the bidding for the Long Island daily for $650 million. The deal is structured the way Sam Zell needed it to be--the Dolans pick up 97 percent of the company, while the Tribune company retains 3 percent. Here's the release:

CABLEVISION TO ACQUIRE 97% STAKE IN NEWSDAY MEDIA GROUP THROUGH PARTNERSHIP WITH TRIBUNE COMPANY IN A $650 MILLION TRANSACTION

Returns Newsday to Long Island-based Ownership After Nearly 40 Years  read more »

Later this morning, Newsday should belong to the Dolans.

Their $650 million bid will likely be accepted by Tribune owner Sam Zell later this morning, and the only thing that stands in the way are "minor details," said Charles Dolan in an interview last night with Newsday. The Times reports that Charles and James Dolan were in Chicago two weeks ago talking to Sam Zell, and Cablevision bankers and lawyers are there now hashing out the final terms of the deal.  read more »