Sr.

Buried deep in Staten Island Advance reporter Sally Goldenberg's piece about the plastic bag recycling bill working its way through the City Council is this line: "The council employs the Albany lobbying firm of Brown McMahon & Weinraub LLC, of which [Council sanitation committee chair Michael] McMahon's brother, Thomas, is a principal. The lobbying firm has earned $18,000 this year for its efforts."

I asked Michael about it.

“He has a client who has a position on the bill," he told me, referring to his brother. "They did not request the bill. They were not involved in the drafting of the bill. The first time I heard they had a position on the bill is when they came to the hearing.”

More after the jump.  read more »

Can the Vallone Dynasty expand to Bayside?

Paul Vallone confirmed he is planning to run for the City Council in the eastern Queens district that includes Bayside and parts of north Flushing. (He filed his paperwork with the city Campaign Finance Board about two weeks ago.)

“Yeah it is interesting,” Paul told me just now. “It’s going to be the first Vallone not in Astoria. It’s like a fish out of water.”

Paul, 40, a lawyer working in Astoria, added, “I’m not going to be the guy to open up an apartment someplace just so I can run here. My home is there now, so.”

More after the jump.  read more »

One Hispanic lawmaker said he’s not going to the Somos El Futuro conference this weekend in Puerto Rico, in part, because he’s angry at Eliot Spitzer for his new driver’s license policy allowing illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses but not other forms of government ID.

“I don’t want the governor coming back and saying we all support him,” said state Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. of the Bronx.

“I’m very upset with the governor. I’m angry. He failed me and he failed the immigrants.”

For the record, a number of other elected officials and operatives have already left the city to head down to the event, and I'm not aware of Diaz's decision being part of any larger anti-Spitzer boycott.

Yesterday, one of the quirkiest traditions returned to a major Memorial Day Parade that starts a few blocks inside Nassau County before winding its way through the Little Neck-Douglaston section of Queens.

“I refused to march on the Nassau side,” Weiner told me. He stood on the border, next to the 'Welcome to Nassau' sign and waited for the parade to get into New York City territory before joining in. A person who has been marching in that parade for a couple of years told me that the most notable politician to do that in the past was Rudy Giuliani.

Also attending the parade were regular marchers Mike Bloomberg Frank Padavan, Chuck Schumer, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Adolfo Carrion, Eric Gioia, Melinda Katz, David and Mark Weprin, and Peter Vallone, Sr.