Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule.

At 10 a.m., U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, U.S. Transportation Deputy Secretary John D. Porcari and Sen. Charles E. Schumer discuss emergency funding for Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts; next to the Saker Aviation Services Inc.’s Downtown Manhattan Heliport, Pier 6, Manhattan.

The Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus kicks off its annual winter conference in Albany. (This is a three-day event. Cuomo’s office has yet to say whether he’ll attend).

Frank Lautenberg, the US Senate’s oldest member, will announce his retirement today in his hometown of Paterson, NJ.

Headlines…

New York will receive $250 million in federal funding to fix Superstorm Sandy-damaged roads, including the Bronx River Parkway in Westchester and River Road in Rockland, according to the offices of Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

A NY1/Marist College poll shows NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn continues to lead her fellow Democratic mayoral hopefuls, while ex-MTA Chairman Joe Lhota is ahead among the GOP contenders.

After an inquiry by the NY Post, NYC Public Advocate/mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio decided to return thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from one of the city’s largest operators of homeless shelters.

Fifteen executives at various New York nonprofits primarily financed by Medicaid money each were paid more than $500,000 a year, according to a report a House committee approved yesterday.

The same committee made a bipartisan request for federal auditors to examine New York’s $54 billion Medicaid spending and fraud oversight programs.

Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner called a Cuomo aide to alert him to her scathing NYT editorial on the governor’s pension smoothing plan. “No surprise, they weren’t exactly pleased,” she said.

Mayor Bloomberg touted his accomplishments and unveiled a host of new initiatives in his 12th and final State of the City address.

The mayor warned that without him at the helm, NYC will fall prey to special interests, lobbyists, unions and hack politicians.

Bloomberg used the speech to double-down on the city’s multi-billion-dollar gamble on science, technology, engineering, and math education.

The NYT cheered Bloomberg’s proposal to ban styrofoam containers in NYC, but also noted he hasn’t always been so enthusiastic about recycling.

Technical problems prevented Bloomberg from playing a video tribute to the late former NYC Mayor Ed Koch during his speech. You can view it here.

Local governments are borrowing $368 million to pay for pension costs this year – an 81 percent increase from 2012 – through an amortization program offered by the state comptroller’s office.

Some advocates are calling on Cuomo to create a public advocate’s office to represent customers of utilities like Con Edison that are owned by shareholders. New York is one of only 10 states that doesn’t have this position.

The Cuomo administration is refusing to explain why former NYS Fair Director Dan O’Hara still has a job when the IG has been so critical of his performance in his last post.

The NY Post slams JCOPE for apparently failing to criticize Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in its report on Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s sexual harassment case.

Silver has said he made a political mistake, not an ethical one, in the way he handled the Lopez mess.

Queens Democratic Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, who is pushing the “rape is rape” legislation in Albany, unveiled a compromise bill she hopes will help get it passed.

New York City Republicans leaders are now squirming over their fawning support of Wall Street actor-financier Thomas Belesis — whose brokerage firm faces multiple regulatory probes over alleged misdeeds.

DiNapoli says local sales tax collections in New York grew by $450 million in 2012, an increase of 3.3 percent compared to 2011.

In Buffalo, a handful of youth football leaders and participants joined state Sen. Timothy Kennedy outside a stadium to protest Assemblyman Michael Benedetto’s proposal to prohibit kids under 11 from playing tackle football.

The Oswego County Legislature voted 25-0 for a resolution urging the repeal of the NY SAFE Act, joining a growing list of counties that have denounced New York state’s controversial gun law.

After Sandy, LIPA customers are the most dissatisfied utility consumers in the entire country.

The case against former White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley was put off for two weeks Thursday after his lawyer moved to be relieved from the case, citing an unspecified conflict.

The Cuomo administration held a private meeting with Hudson Valley school athletics officials to ease their fears about the impending Tappan Zee Bridge project.

Two opposing election law attorneys will head up the president’s commission on election reform.

Obama’s $9-an-hour minimum wage proposal gave cover to both sides of the New York debate on this controversial issue.

A financial disclosure form filed nearly seven months late by Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis shows he neglected to list his pension or a scholarship fund that is part of a widening federal probe, and reveals that he owns two additional properties in his native North Carolina.

Terrifying.

Share|