Leads

"Non-platform" issues come to the Mayor's attention every single day. "What will the candidate do once in office about X, Y, or Z?" is not an unreasonable inquiry. We tried to get answers to 13 questions; the Mamdani campaign didn't respond.

The governor assures New Yorkers that there is a budgetary surplus that can fund a tax cut and that there’s even money to fund universal, state-wide pre-K without a tax increase. But would the money be available if the governor were honoring what the state’s highest court has determined to be the funding level necessary to meet the obligation to provide a “sound basic education” to all students?

The New York Times just documented the continuing existence of an intense level of racial segregation in schools in New York City. But scant attention was paid to the still-entrenched pattern of housing segregation that afflicts New York and many other metropolitan areas, a pattern that is a critical driver of segregation in schools.

Does it really make sense to take at face value the statements made by and behalf of Mitt Romney as he and his campaign try to place a positive spin on his tenure at Bain Capital? Wouldn’t it be better to look at how the firm articulates its mission for current and prospective business clients?

According to Remapping Debate's preliminary inquires, a range of factors have conspired to make us, in general, treat both family and strangers with less generosity of spirit than we once did. A relative lack of kindness would be disconcerting in any time, but it has special resonance at a time of pressing economic hardship and pronounced inequality. The diminution of kindness calls out for further study and reporting.

In June, the National Labor Relations Board issued proposed rules to modernize and streamline the process by which a union can be certified to represent a group of workers. The hearing and comment period on those rules — which generated extensive activity especially on the employer side — just ended. What questions are raised by the arguments that have been made?

Might there be reasons independent of immediate job creation for the government to take advantage of historically low rates?

That wasn’t exactly the headline on Norimitsu Onishi’s excellent story published June 25 in The New York Times. Onishi’s reporting was presented under the headline, “‘Safety Myth’ Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis.” But the issues Onishi raised are begging to be probed in the U.S. context.

Governor Andrew Cuomo — who just played a historic role in securing marriage rights for gay and lesbian New Yorkers — is already being referred to as a presidential candidate for 2016, and is being touted as an "aggressive pragmatist" or "dynamic centrist." Why won’t the press pin him down on what specific outcome he sought in the battle pitting the need of millions of New Yorkers for affordable and secure housing against the desire of landlords and free market ideologues to continue to dismantle the rent regulation system?

No, not about private indiscretions. Just about what sort of leadership the widely-hailed governor is or is not exerting when it comes to the fate of the homes of more than a million families.