Progressive Prosecutors Clamor for Queens
On a warm day in early May, hundreds of people packed the Reform Temple of Forest Hills to mourn Richard Brown, the man who ran one of the largest district attorney’s offices in America for nearly 30 years.
Trump’s labor department is giving the gig economy carte blanche
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanTwo days before May Day, the Trump administration quietly punished the American worker. In a ruling lost in the din of the Mueller report and the 2020 inanity, Trump’s labor department determined that an unidentified company’s workers were contractors and not employees – a decision that could free tech behemoths everywhere to further exploit the people who help generate their titanic value.
Inside jokes falling flat: End the White House Correspondents Dinner — and the Inner Circle and LCA while we’re at it
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanI first learned about the existence of the Inner Circle show in 2014, when I became a City Hall reporter. Many of my colleagues took part or were joining up.
Meet the Grown-Ups Keeping Kids Out of Prison
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanOne Saturday morning 13 years ago, Darryl Thompson went to brush his teeth. The 15-year-old from the Bronx was with four other boys at Tryon, a notorious juvenile prison in upstate New York. The boys were not allowed to talk during their morning routine, but it was hard not to: For the last two days, they had been on lockdown, cut off from the outside world.
NY Progressives Want Real Change Fast? Forget It Jake, It’s Albany
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanThe new $175 billion state budget, in true Albany fashion, manages to both thrill and deeply frustrate. Approved just before the April 1st start of the fiscal year, it’s the first one Governor Andrew Cuomo ever had to negotiate with a fully Democratic legislature—a fact that boggles the mind, until you consider the warped gravity of a state capital Cuomo has bent to his will for so long.
Campaigning Ourselves to Death
/in Journalism /by Ross Barkan“WELL I THINK he’s got a lot of hand movement, I’ve never seen so much hand movement,” the president of the United States said last month. “I said, is he crazy or is that just the way he acts? So I’ve never seen hand movement—I watched him a little while this morning doing I assume it was some kind of a news conference and I’ve actually never seen anything quite like it. Study it. I’m sure you’ll agree.”
Will Rachel Maddow face a reckoning over her Trump-Russia coverage?
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanThe worst-kept secret in the liberal media ecosystem is that Donald Trump is great for business. Rebranded for the resistance, liberal newspapers gobbled up thousands of new subscribers while local outlets die across America, unable to feast on the Trump manna.
Switching Sides
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanI ran for office in 2018 to win—to become a state senator and represent my district in a quiet pocket of Brooklyn. I did not run to make myself a better journalist or glean new insights into the craft I had practiced for most of my working life.
Joe Crowley Is Gone, But The Queens Machine Chugs On
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanJoe Crowley, the congressman who lost in a stunning primary upset to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last year, will step down from his role as chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, Queens Democrats confirmed Tuesday night.
Cuomo stomps on the grassroots: A lobbying provision in his budget would stifle many of the small groups that delivered a Democratic majority to the state Legislature
/in Journalism /by Ross BarkanThese are thrilling times for New York progressives. Democrats control the state Senate for the first time in a decade and have already passed a raft of bills Republicans bottled up for years. More ambitious proposals, like a state Green New Deal and robust tenant laws that protect working-class residents, are finally on the table.