Arizona

Brendan Scott captures the moment when the Chairman of the Assembly's Ethics Committee decided to vote for the controversial ethics reform bill.

Eliot Spitzer's appointments so far have not been confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.

The Jewish Press thinks Spitzer is too hard on Sheldon Silver.

The snow storm has Newsday asking, "How far does Tom Suozzi's juice go?"

Hillary leads the Democratic field in Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah.

Ben explains the rift between the netroots and the religious left.

The "fastest and safest human-powered vehicle ever built," according to one inventor, is here.

The daughter of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was arrested for DUI.

President Bush refused to answer questions about the Scooter Libby trial.

And pictured above is a happy Eliot Spitzer at his budget press conference yesterday.

-- Azi Paybarah

• Just what the Upper East Side needs: a 16,000 square foot spa garden--not to mention an 8,000sf "indoor gym"--will open with the new condo at 550 East 72nd. Thanks to an Arizona company named Miraval, this baby will be the largest of its kind in the city. And thanks to the lucky brats in the new condo at 550 East, everyone else will be viciously jealous that they can't enjoy a cucumber mint coat mist from the comfort of their own condo. (Real Deal)
• The Village Voice looks into the Brooklyn Academy of Music's new Fort Greene "cultural district," and finds hefty doses of class conflict, racial conflict, Robert Moses and Bruce Ratner. Most interesting of all is an examination of the young Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts, a tenant of the new 80 Hansen Place--or, excuse us--80 Arts. (Village Voice)
• Frank Bruni begins a bi-monthly Q&A series with Manhattan's best chefs. Yesterday he asked Pearl Oyster Bar's Rebecca Charles about her kitchen etiquette, embarrassments, and guilty secrets. ("Guilty?" Ms. Charles answers. "Not really. And hardly a secret.") Sometimes Bruni can be so charming. (New York Times)
• The snappily-named Museum of the City of New York gets a $70 million renovation. What will that mean for the East Harlem "landmark"? Mostly a big lobby, new exhibition spaces, and fancy storage areas. To celebrate, Mayor Bloomberg cuts a cake, and shouts: "It's a living museum." (NY1)
• The International Brotherhood of the Teamsters comes to friendly terms with Waste Management, and--presto!--10,000 New York business get back their "helpers who collect trash" after four months. (The title "garbage man" is obviously sexist and offensive.) (New York Times)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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All of us have access to a set of cocktail-party facts that it seems like we were just born knowing.  read more »

John McCain was back in town yesterday for a Irish-American event at the New York Yacht Club. Niall Stanage has the details:

Senator John McCain stored up some ethnic backing for a possible 2008 presidential bid last night, stressing his support for immigration reform - and recounting a story about a pair of drunken Irish twins that some of us have heard before.

In his remarks, McCain said that America's greatness is a product of the "blood and vitality that is poured into this nation by generation after generation" of immigrants. He also asserted that "we will win this fight" to change the immigration laws.

In a curious sideswipe, the Arizona senator contrasted the openness of the American tradition with France, "where you shovel off the Muslim youth to ghettos and every once in a while they come out and burn a few thousand cars."

The rest is after the jump.  read more »

Stagecoach is to American movies what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to American literature.  read more »

“We have to win,” said Senator Charles Schumer, banging a table with his fist at a diner  read more »

“We have to win,” said Senator Charles Schumer, banging a table with his fist at a diner close t  read more »

After Congress passed a set of weak lobbying reforms following the Jack Abramoff scandal, Senator Jo  read more »

Well, today's McCain story has generated quite a lot of letter writing from addresses we usually don't see here at the li'l old Observer. Most of the e-mails coming in are from conservatives west of the Hudson River, and they argue that McCain's moderate stance on domestic issues does not represent their values. Many say they would only vote for him if he ran against Hillary. Others say nothing, not even that dreaded scenario, would cause them to cast their vote for McCain. This all doesn't exactly wash with McCain position atop the polls, but we thought we'd give a sample of their views, just because they are opinions that, to be frank, we don't hear much in the blue capital.

Emails after the jump.  read more »

Enjoy.

—Jason Horowitz

Forget immigration, global warning, Donald Rumsfeld and abortion rights.  read more »

Forget immigration, global warning, Donald Rumsfeld and abortion rights.    read more »

I experienced a little frisson of excitement this morning when a quick crawl through the Federal Election Commission website turned up a presidential fund-raising committee for one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Was this the smoking gun? The proof that reporters have been looking for?

As I suspected -- and an FEC spokesperson confirmed -- it was, in fact, the work of some overzealous "Draft Hillary" types who had gone ahead and registered the committee. The committee has not raised any money. But it got me wondering which other possible-potential-theoretical presidential contenders have inspired (or is it "inspired"?) drafters to go out and register them for presidential bids -- and which ones have not.

So herewith a list of the lucky proto-candidates with presidential committees (and apparently draft teams) and those without...

The Presidential Committee'd: * Virginia Senator George Allen * Wisconsin senator and favorite insurgent-Democrat-son Russ Feingold * Ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani * Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice * Former Virginia Governor and chosen Anti-Hillary Democratic contender Mark Warner The Presidential Committee-less: * Indiana Senator Evan Bayh * Delaware Senator and 1988 presidential contender Joseph Biden * Kansas Senator Sam Brownback * Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist * Almost-President Al Gore * Arizona Senator and 2000 presidential hopeful John McCain * New York Governor George Pataki * New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson * Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney * Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack -- Lizzy Ratner

It’s been a bad year for movies, especially summer blockbusters, and most fans probably look towar  read more »

No worse example exists of the moral cowardice of the federal government-implicating all three branc  read more »

When George W.  read more »

The monumental gnarliness of 2001 was brought to a hideous crescendo on Dec.  read more »

"The worst thing is the guy has absolutely no sense of humor," a tattooed young woman in a halter to  read more »

Here's the fellow I'd like to meet in a dark alley-me all armed to the teeth and him woozy from drin  read more »

Prepare to be embarrassed again, New Yorkers: The eyes of the nation will soon be upon you, and as h  read more »