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Meet the Neighbors! Frances Katzen Pliés for Prudential

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:56:58 -0500

Welcome to the latest installment of our ongoing interview series, Meet the Neighbors! A managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Fran Katzen leads one of the firm's most successful teams. Once a professional ballerina, she now dances her way into deals all over town and around the world--she was born in South Africa and raised in Sydney before coming to New York, after all.

Where do you live?
In the West ...

Elsewhere: The Difference Between a Murderer and a Bagel-Stealer

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:27:02 -0500

New York City mayoral race: here we go again, with breakdown services for the cast of characters courtesy of HuffPo.

Political consultant James Carville is shilling for Miracle Whip.

Libya is no longer a member of the Human Rights Council, which sort of makes sense given the whole massacre of protesters thing.

The National Journal finds that John McCain is a maverick once more.

Providence, Rhode Island has issued dismissal notices to every...

Rangel: Republicans Want to Get Rid of Unions

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:59:59 -0500

The way Charlie Rangel interprets the events in Wisconsin, Republicans would like to get rid of unions altogether.

"There's no question about it," Rangel told Brother Bill from the Voice of Harlem. "This is not been the first time that we had heard that the Teabag Party--or the Tea Party--rather and some of the Republicans have wanted to drive the unions out of business."

Without unions, Rangel went on to say, America's middle class...

Silver, Gottfried Declare Support for Medicaid Redesign

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:55:19 -0500

Crisis averted: it looks like a potential collision between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Democrats over the Medicaid redesign proposal may not happen, after all.

Speaker Sheldon Silver has released a statement in support of the plan, and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried--the proposal's most outspoken opponent thus far--has reconsidered his position, and now says that he approves of the redesign plan as well.

"I commend the members of the Medicaid Redesign Team for their work to...

It's Free to Look: Grand Art

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:48:43 -0500

A dizzying eleven art fairs will fight for the attention of New York City collectors and art-lovers starting Tuesday, March 1. Bringing in the big guns, by and large, are the dealers who’ll be showing at the Park Avenue Armory. There, works by some of the most famous artists (Picasso, Warhol) will hang in booths curated by some of the city’s more established galleries (Acquavella, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Pace)....

De-nied! Deloitte's 30 Rock Move Leaves Law Firm Scrambling

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:30:44 -0500

When Deloitte signed a 430,000-square-foot lease at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in December, it seemed like the space came from thin air.

The reality, it turns out, is nearly as dramatic: While law firm Chadbourne & Parke was mulling whether to renew its lease there, Deloitte swooped in and leased the space from under them, according to sources with some knowledge of the deal. Now the law firm, which occupied roughly 300,000 square feet, is scrambling.

For...

Statuesque! Weiner Posts His Own Craigslist Ad

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:21:25 -0500

Anthony Weiner is putting his own ad for a naked man on Craigslist.

The wiry congressman was at Queens Borough Hall this afternoon, calling for a twenty-foot marble statue of a nude man--standing atop two women--to be removed and placed on the "free stuff" section of Craigslist.

"It doesn't represent civic virtue of any sort, it represents an eyesore," said Weiner, who called the statue sexist and complained that he can see it from his office...

Gawker: Chris Lee Was Searching for Cross-Dressers on Craigslist

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:09:23 -0500

Gawker, which brought us the emails and shirtless photo that brought down Congressman Chris Lee's career, is out today with another bombshell, and one that helps explain why Lee resigned so abruptly.

Apparently after the original story broke two transgender women contacted the website with separate stories about exchanging emails with Lee. In one, Lee allegedly posted an ad in the "casual encounters" section of Craigslist describing himself as a "sexy classy guy" in search...

Gawker's Ban on 'Shiny Bauble' Share Buttons Lasted One Week

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:12:10 -0500

Three weeks ago, newly-relaunched Gawker hit the web with a curious omission: the row of social media widgets frequently attached to blog posts across the web (examples below and to the right of this post).

"These sites festooned with social media buttons—they look like primitive tribesmen clutching pathetically onto shiny baubles they believe to the symbols of modernity," Nick Denton told The Observer at the time. Facebook was by far the most significant source of...

News Alert: Weiner Releases Bar Mitzvah Photo

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:11:53 -0500

Earlier this month Anthony Weiner promised via a Twitter that if he were to hit 10,000 followers he would release a photograph of his 1977 Bar Mitzvah.

Well, a deal is a deal and apparently Weiner has now reached that social media plateau, he has to pay up. And Weiner, ever the master media manipulator, wisely chose to blast out that photo on a Friday afternoon, just the moment when the press isn't paying attention.

This...