In the hours after veteran NYPD officer Peter Figoski was killed with a point-blank shot to the face in mid-December, accused gunman Lamont Pride confessed on videotape to pulling the trigger as he fearfully tried to escape the scene of a drug deal gone bad. Only 27-year-old Pride said that he fired the fatal shot by accident, the result of leaving his finger on the trigger when he clutched his hand to run away.

Pride's goal for the admission: leniency.

The videotaped interviews were obtained by NBC New York and posted in three parts.

“The reason I decided to come forward with everything is I need to help myself out of this situation,” Pride says in the video. “I’m not gonna get out of it. I know I’m gonna do some type of crime. I’m not trying to do the max.”

Pride is right. Unless he wasn't Mirandized, or was coerced into the admission, he'll be doing time. And in such a high-profile case that drew the attention of Mayor Bloomberg and brought together about 10,000 somber officers for the funeral, Pride is not exactly a candidate for a sweetheart plea offer. Pride was already wanted in connection with a shooting in North Carolina at the time of the incident, and had been charged in New York a month earlier with crack-cocaine possession and child endangerment.

The videotaped interviews between Pride and a prosecutor, one of which is posted below, are dark but fascinating. Pride nonchalantly describes the terrifying moments before Figoski is killed as if he's recounting a foggy dream. Pride appears detached. He's certainly not remorseful.

Along with four others charged in the robbery turned murder, Pride has pleaded not guilty.

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Filed Under: lamont pride ,nypd ,crime and punishment ,guns ,peter figoski ,video

Florida senator Marco Rubio — Republican rising star, potential VP candidate, and definitely the most adorable person scheduled to take the stage at CPAC this year— used his speech this morning to outline his sentimental, stump-speechy vision of America's place in the world. The “most powerful thing about our nation is the American example," he told the crowd. The American example is what gives hope to oppressed people around the world, he said, what shows them that a better way is possible, that there is something to "sacrifice their lives" for. 

The audience liked what they heard. They vigorously cheered Rubio's applause lines, they laughed at his jokes about TelePrompTers and Jimmy Carter. At one point, Rubio asked the crowd to let him know when his time runs out. "Never!" two people shouted out at the same time. To their great disappointment, he did eventually stop talking. 

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Filed Under: live from cpac ,marco rubio ,politics

One Robert Bell, Republican, took a knee after his bill to allow homeschooled children to play for their local high-school sports teams passed. It was the third time he'd introduced the bill, but the first time he'd dubbed it the "Tebow" bill. (Tim Tebow is a young man who was homeschooled and played football for a Florida high-school team. We hear he may still be playing football?) One presumes the bill's opponents Brady-ed on the floor after the vote count. Just as the Founding Fathers dreamed.

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Filed Under: politics ,tim tebow ,tebowing ,you so crazy ,america!

Nearly four years ago to the day, lifelong Republican Susan Eisenhower, Ike's granddaughter, endorsed Barack Obama for president in an op-ed, writing that he "is the one presidential candidate today who can encourage ordinary Americans to stand straight again; he is a man who can salve our national wounds and both inspire and pursue genuine bipartisan cooperation." Eisenhower's endorsement served as a perfect expression of the cross-party appeal that Obama was trying to foster, and that August, she spoke at the Democratic National Convention. 

This year, though, Eisenhower — who is now an independent but describes herself, appropriately enough, as an "Eisenhower Republican" —  hasn't committed to endorsing Obama again. "I must say I have absolutely no — I've got a completely open mind," she told me after a showing of her grandfather's famous farewell address. "I'm like the rest of the American public, I'm sitting and waiting to be sold one way or the other."

Eisenhower seems conflicted on the Obama presidency. On the one hand, she said she can "understand exactly the frustrations people feel about this White House," but she also doesn't blame Obama for the economic situation. "Listen, I think nobody would be a very happy president in this economic environment," she said. "The deficits are equal opportunity — the Republicans have had just as a big a role to play in these deficits as the Democrats have."

Furthermore, Eisenhower is pretty fed up with the rhetoric coming from the right these days. "What I really object to — to say that Barack Obama is a socialist is nonsense," she said during the Q&A. "You know, it’s embarrassing for me because it only means that Americans don’t know what a socialist is. I do! I traveled the Soviet Union for twenty years. I'll tell you what socialism is." 

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Filed Under: live from cpac ,susan eisenhower ,barack obama ,politics ,2012 ,cpac

This headline is not from 2007: "Wall Street Places Big Bets on Troubled Securities." It is from today. As DealBook reports, Goldman Sachs won a hot Fed auction for $6.2 billion worth of AIG securities. There is "renewed interest in mortgage-related investments and other risky securities at the center of the financial crisis." And Goldman seems to be driving that interest.

In January, Goldman approached the New York Fed, offering to buy a chunk of assets from Maiden Lane II that had a face value of $7 billion. The Fed subsequently held an auction for the bonds, with Credit Suisse emerging as the top bidder.

Credit Suisse quickly sold off the securities to clients, including hedge funds and other banks. Given the strong demand, the Swiss financial firm submitted an unsolicited bid to the New York Fed for another portion of A.I.G. assets, prompting the latest auction.

The auction attracted Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley and the Royal Bank of Scotland, according to the Fed’s statement. Ultimately, Goldman won out with a bid of an unspecified sum.

Does this terrify you a little bit? It doesn't seem to terrify the New York Fed's president, William C. Dudley, who said in a statement "I am pleased with the continued interest in these assets." Nor does it terrify Evan Lorenz, an analyst whom DealBook quotes dispensing Wall Street folk wisdom,"There’s a saying: there are no bad bonds, there are just bad prices."  Ummmm.

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Filed Under: white men with money ,white men with securitized bonds ,aig securities auction

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that a large majority of New Yorkers don't mind the NYPD's monitoring of local Muslims despite extensive reports questioning the civil liberties implications of their methods. Only 24 percent of local voters say the police have "unfairly targeted Muslims," while 60 percent say the NYPD has acted "appropriately." Voters believe the NYPD has effectively fought terrorism by a count of 77-16 percent. And neither his appearance in an anti-Muslim film nor the since-dismissed rape allegations against his son (not to mention various other NYPD issues) could really dent the popularity of Commissioner Ray Kelly, whose approval rating is 62 percent, including support from 73 percent of white voters, 57 percent of Hispanic voters, and 52 percent of black voters. One might even call him Teflon.

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: polls ,nypd ,ray kelly ,muslims ,nyc

In a rare occurrence, I have been unchained (literally, there are chains!) from my cubicle at the New York offices and allowed to venture into the Outside World in order to cover CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is taking place at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C. for the next three days. CPAC is the country's biggest annual gathering of conservatives — or as South Carolina senator Jim DeMint called it in his remarks this morning, the "world's largest gathering of freedom-loving American patriots." While this is an unverifiable and, frankly, dubious claim — a lot of people at the Super Bowl a few days ago probably liked freedom and America, too, we think — there are a lot of people here: 5,500 registered attendees who will be hounded nonstop by 1,300 members of the media. 

A lot will happen over the next few days: Mitt Romney will try to regain his momentum and convince conservatives that he is one of them. Rick Santorum will try to build on his victories from earlier this week and make a case for his viability. Newt Gingrich wil say some stuff, also. (Ron Paul isn't here, but his son Rand is, and they're pretty much the same guy.) Dozens of workshops and panel discussions will be held, such as "The Failure of Multiculturalism" featuring white nationalist Peter Brimelow and "Why Am I Living in My Parents' Basement: How the Obama Administration's Policies Are Detrimental to Young People." A presidential straw poll will be taken. And the one and only Sarah Palin will emerge from the dark Alaskan wilderness to deliver the keynote address. Stay tuned. 

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Filed Under: cpac ,live from cpac

The Planned Parenthood–Susan G. Komen Foundation controversy isn't over yet. Last week, Karen Handel, the former GOP gubernatorial candidate who was widely cited as the driving force behind the decision to revoke Planned Parenthood's funding, resigned from her VP post at Komen — but that isn't big enough game for those who are still furious with the foundation.  Nancy Brinker, the foundation's CEO and founder, is facing increasing calls to step down,  from grass-roots activists,  from journalists like Keith Olbermann, and, perhaps most aggressively, from a former Komen New York board member. Sally Quinn wrote Brinker an open letter in the Washington Post, publicly shaming her as only a Washington socialite can:

No way would the Nancy Brinker I know be involved in something like that. Could this possibly be the Nancy Brinker who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Obama in 2009? Could it be the Nancy Brinker who is the Goodwill Ambassador for the World Health Organization, former ambassador to Hungary and former chief of protocol under George W. Bush?

Brinker responded to Quinn's passive-aggressive recitation of her accolades (which was also, more pointedly, accompanied by lines like "Betrayed. I think that’s the perfect word for how so many people feel. You are going to have to do a lot of work to repair that feeling") with an apologetic open letter of her own.

I’ve seen many commentators suggest that the swift reaction to our decision is an indicator of something larger and more dangerous in our society — culture wars, if you will, or the feeling that women’s health care is being sacrificed on the altar of political ideologies.  If I have learned nothing else from our experience of the past week, it is that we in women’s health organizations must be absolutely true to our core missions, and avoid even the appearance of bias or judgment in our decisions.

I made some mistakes.  In retrospect, we have learned a lot and  must now rebuild the trust that so many want to have in us, and respond to the many thousands who continue to believe in our mission and do what we do best: the funding of cutting-edge science and to bring that work to our communities to help the hundreds of thousands of women we serve each year.

So Brinker, who, from her days as a Nieman Marcus sales trainee probably knows something about the art of smiling through gritted teeth while being taken to task, seems more likely to do damage control of this sort than to resign. And she's good at this kind of thing. It's no accident that she responded to Quinn and not some of her other critics: her genius in building Komen foundation into the juggernaut it is today came partly from her ability to cultivate allies among the elite,  and convincing them of the imperative of being as broadly appealing as possible. 

In a pre-controversy Times article on Komen's success and the "pinking" of America, Brinker explained her marketing approach: “It’s a democratization of a disease. It’s drilling down into the deepest pockets of America.” She meant that she wanted the message spread as widely as possible, of course, but the accidental phrase "deep pockets" in that context also serves as a reminder that Komen, for many years, was able to strike a balance between reaching the 99 percent and enjoying the support of the  1 percent. Putting aside the question of Planned Parenthood supporters among the hoi polloi, or Keith Olbermann's rage, if she can't mollify Quinn and company in decently short order, Brinker might have a harder time making the case that she's the best person to helm the ship.

Read more posts by Noreen Malone

Filed Under: lady business ,susan g. komen foundation ,sally quinn ,karen handel ,nancy brinker

The FBI has released its file on Steven Paul Jobs, the late Apple founder, compiled mostly during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. According to the The Vault description, "In 1991, Jobs was considered for an appointed position on the U.S. President's Export Council. This release consists of the FBI's 1991 background investigation of Jobs for that position and a 1985 investigation of a bomb threat against him." The background check includes tidbits like, "Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals."

On the same page (38), Jobs's "past drug use" is mentioned. Those interviewed "also commented that, in the past, Mr. Jobs was not supportive of [name redacted] (the mother of his child born out of wedlock) and their daughter; however, recently has become more supportive."

There are 191 pages in all, so it's shorter than reading his biography, but might be more fun because it includes some digging.

Update: A deeper look at the files (page 149 specifically) reveals that between 1988 and 1990, Jobs had a "Top Secret" security clearance associated with Pixar. Why? It doesn't say exactly, but in 1990, right before his clearance was terminated, Pixar sold its Image Computer unit to Vicom Systems Inc., which "develops and manufactures image processing systems that are sold to the medical, military, industry-automation and inspection markets," so it could very well have to do with the sale of Pixar hardware to a military contractor.

John Cook at Gawker is also taking a close look at the file.

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: steve jobs ,apple ,fbi files ,fbi ,paperwork

The big, fat, double-decker Megabuses will soon get to pick up riders right outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (They can't fit inside.) But they won't have to pay the $10 million fee like their rivals within, including Greyhound and Peter Pan, since curbside pickups can't be regulated by the city. "We ask for a level ground to compete rather than having the city show preference to one business over another," competitors wrote in a recent letter to Mayor Bloomberg. But he should probably have to ride with a stuffy, smelly, crowded discount bus service before making any decisions.

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Filed Under: transportation ,megabus ,michael bloomberg

It has already been decided that Greg Kelly, the Fox 5 morning anchor and son of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, will not be charged with rape, but the New York Post isn't done with the story yet. All along, the tabloid's focus has been on Kelly's accuser, a woman in her late twenties who said she became pregnant and had an abortion after a drunken encounter with Kelly at the office of the law firm where she works. After being named by the paper yesterday, she makes the front cover today, along with the headline, "SHADY LADY: 'Rape' beauty could not remember sex with Kelly." Yuck.

The Post has adamantly chosen sides, referring to Kelly as "popular" and teasing his "joyful return" to hosting Good Day New York. The woman, on the other hand, continues to be undermined by anonymous sources and snide descriptions.

The paper does report that her story to the district attorney "was consistent," but notes accusingly that she will not be charged with making a false allegation because she "convinced investigators she genuinely believed Kelly took advantage of her — despite her failure to remember what happened." The article begins in the Post's typically callous tone, "She insisted she was raped — she just couldn't remember actually having sex." An unnamed source adds, "Not remembering is not tantamount to being raped." The paper adds doubt by noting "the very low bar bill the two rang up" at their date prior to the alleged sexual encounter.

Last year, during the rape trial of two NYPD officers, the New York Times reported, "In a society that can be quick to turn a skeptical eye toward women who say they were raped — she was scantily dressed, she’s promiscuous, she’s just angry at him — prosecutors of sex crimes say one of their biggest obstacles in the courtroom is alcohol." The woman in question this time has no jury to convince, and the Post has already made up their mind. This time at least, unlike yesterday, their bias comes with a disclosure: "[Kelly's employer] Fox 5 and The Post are both owned by News Corp."

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: ink-stained wretches ,greg kelly ,new york post ,rape ,media

New York and California, among the final holdouts in a multibillion-dollar settlement between five U.S. banks and states with homeowners victimized by fraudulent foreclosure practices, are reportedly poised to support a deal that may be announced as soon as Thursday. New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman, along with a few other holdout states, had previously expressed concern that the deal was too lenient on banks for prior misdeeds. The five banks involved in the settlement are Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial, and Citigroup. Through the agreement, about one million people will have their mortgage debt reduced or refinanced at lower rates, while an additional 750,000 people who lost their homes to foreclosures will receive about $2,000 in aid, distributed over three years, the New York Times reports.

A report by Bloomberg puts the overall value of the settlement at as much as $39 billion. States that had not yet signed on as of a February 6 deadline include New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Delaware. Schneiderman is credited with winning "significant concessions from the banks in recent days." In New York, some 46,000 borrowers will benefit from the deal and 21,000 will have their debt reduced through a principal reduction. Schneiderman was also recently chosen by President Obama to lead a group investigating misconduct related to mortgage-backed securities.

There don't seem to be any delusions that the agreement will fix everything, but it is something. The Times notes right away that "the aid will help a relatively small portion of the millions of borrowers who are delinquent and facing foreclosure. The success could depend in part on how effectively the program is carried out because earlier efforts by Washington aimed at troubled borrowers helped far fewer than had been expected." But the deal is called "the broadest effort yet to help borrowers owing more than their houses are worth."

"I just don’t think it’s going to be a life-changing event for borrowers," said one expert, whose company buys discount loans from banks. An economist from Columbia Business School added, "It may be good for individual homeowners, but if you don’t do something to help the foreclosure process, it’s not going to help the housing market." And as noted by the Wall Street Journal, "it isn't likely to result to a significant hit to bank earnings."

This post has been updated throughout.

Read more posts by Brett SmileyJoe Coscarelli

Filed Under: foreclosure crisis ,homeowners ,settlements

“We had a very, very strong second place — and it’s going to continue,” a beaming Paul told more than 200 supporters. “We do have to remember: the straw vote is one thing, but then there’s a whole other thing — delegates — and that is where we excel.”

Tucked in immediately after his reference to delegates, Paul belted out an inspired "Yeahhh!" that packed a punch of enthusiasm that Romney's personality coach must envy.

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Filed Under: ron paul ,politics ,video

Just after delivering his Humiliating Concession to Rick Santorum Speech in Denver last night, Mitt Romney was glitter bombed —  again. This time, though, he was rolling with his new crew of Secret Service agents, who quickly grabbed the glitterer and escorted Romney to safety. Romney was hit, but survived. 

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Filed Under: all that glitters ,glitterbomb ,mitt romney ,secret service

Condé Nast, which shuttered the beloved magazine in 2009, won't bring it back as a monthly thing, but rather as a newsstand-only special, publishing this spring and fall. It will not, as former editor-in-chief Deborah Needleman made abundantly clear on Twitter, involve any of the original team.

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Filed Under: ink-stained wretches ,conde nast ,domino ,deborah needleman

Imagine Lawrence Gillman's surprise when his 5-year-old daughter came home with a spelling worksheet with images of a handgun and an armed robber with a bag of money. "I looked at it and I seen the word ‘gun’ on it," Gillman told NY1. "The first thing I thought was ‘oh no no no,’ I don't want you reading it, I don't want you spelling it. I don't even want you looking at the picture."

Yet the teacher at P.S. 201 in Queens deemed it appropriate to teach phonics to tots with a photograph of a man committing a felony. A separate section of the assignment asked the kids to spell gun.

"I teach my kids not to play with guns, don't aim or do any of that," one parent said.

Of course, another grown-up didn't think it was a big deal, nor did the assignment surprise an education professional who figured the page came from a curriculum company and not the teacher's imagination.

The teacher has apologized and said that the sheet came from a previous school, in a neighborhood where infants probably gain tactile strength with plastic assault rifles.

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Filed Under: guns ,schools ,gun violence

The Manhattan district attorney has decided not to charge police commissioner Ray Kelly's son Greg Kelly, a Fox 5 anchor, with rape, as reported last night; the New York Post has responded this morning by identifying the accuser. When the news first broke that the case would be dropped, the Post story did not include the name of the woman, who claims Kelly assaulted her in the office of a law firm — where she works as a paralegal — after the pair had drinks. The article has since been updated with personal details and a photo of the woman and her boyfriend, who both the Post and the Daily News have said pressured the accuser into reporting Kelly after finding out about their encounter. Despite the journalistic tradition in the U.S. not to name accusers in sexual abuse cases, this does not exactly come as a surprise.

When the allegations against Kelly were first reported, local tabloids immediately began publishing details that undermined the claims, including the existence of what the Post calls today "steamy texting" between Kelly and the accuser, along with anonymous law enforcement sources doubting the woman's story. Also included was information about the woman — her job, her brother's job — and many identifying details about her boyfriend, who could be easily tracked down in a Google search.

I wrote at the time, "As a public figure accused of rape, Kelly's reputation has already been somewhat tarnished and the details of his life aired out. But if charges are not filed against him, it's the accuser and those close to her who can expect the media glare moving forward, whether or not she decides to go public herself." And here we are. The Post today names the "aspiring-model accuser" and notes her exact age; atop a photo of Kelly is one of the accuser and her boyfriend. (The Daily News, which previously published excessive information about the accuser's boyfriend, has so far opted to leave the woman's name out.)

A source tells the Post, "There are no plans to prosecute her because [authorities] don’t believe she is lying. She never wavered from her story that she was too drunk to consent." But the paper seems to be exercising some vigilante justice of its own. Last year, the paper treated other female accusers similarly: Nafissatou Diallo, whose sexual abuse allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn didn't stick, was villainized and even called a prostitute. When two NYPD officers were found innocent of rape, the woman who accused them was tracked down by the paper in California and put on the cover of the Post, her face slightly obscured. It's a bullying tactic that could prevent women from reporting sexual abuse crimes; who would volunteer for this treatment?

Kelly, on the other hand, is called "the unmarried, popular host of Fox's Good Day New York." Not noted in the tabloid's article: Kelly's employer and the Post are both owned by News Corp.

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: media ,journalism ,sexual abuse ,rape ,greg kelly ,new york post ,ink-stained wretches

Gisele's post-Super Bowl outburst implying that Tom Brady's teammates hadn't held up their end of the game might have been inappropriate. But she now gets sympathy points after Giants running back Brandon Jacobs issued a far more offensive response. "[Gisele] just needs to continue to be cute and shut up," he told the Post. Oh. Maybe football players just need to keep their mouth guards in.

Related: 
Video: Gisele Curses, Swigs Water
Breaking: Gisele Signs Her Personal E-mails With Smiley Faces 

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Filed Under: giants ,gisele bundchen ,model tracker ,tom brady ,super bowl ,brandon jacobs ,backlashes

Over 22 years after Russia began drilling in unforgiving temperatures of 40 degrees below zero — or, as the Russians refer to it, "balmy" — a team of scientists has finally reached a vast, subterranean lake located 2.4 miles beneath the surface of Antarctica. Lake Vostok, which has been completely isolated for over 20 million years, may contain ancient microbial life that could shed light on the origins of life on Earth, and possibly elsewhere. "It's like exploring another planet, except this one is ours," a Columbia University glaciologist tells the AP.

The breakthrough represents "a major discovery avidly anticipated by scientists around the world," but nowhere so much as Russia, where the achievement is being hailed by the head of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Valery Lukin, as a triumph ... over the United States:

Lukin has previously compared the Lake Vostok effort to the moon race that the Soviet Union lost to the United States, telling the Russian media he was proud that Russia will be the first this time.

Welll, yeah, but it wasn't really a race this time, was it? Just kind of you guys, going at it alone. We've been keeping busy with other stuff, mostly. Not exactly a heated competition like the race to the moon, where both sides were like, "Aaahh, we have to get to the moon before the other guy!" But, you know, still, sincere congratulations on completing this very difficult personal quest of yours.

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Filed Under: it's science ,lake vostok ,russia ,antarctica

Former GOP candidate Jon Huntsman visited The Tonight Show last night, where he explained that as "a candidate of the silent majority," his campaign never took off. And while he mostly kept with his diplomatic tendencies, quelling rumors of any bad blood between himself and Mitt Romney and dodging a question of whether Newt Gingrich should withdraw from the race, he actually showed some droplets of ire against all those damned debates. "[The media] gotta squeeze drama out of every aspect of politics, particularly those stupid debates ... It's all some kind of expanded reality show." (And a nineteen-episode one at that.) Then he topped it off with a "hell no" to Donald Trump. Oh, and there was that awkward moment when co-guest Chelsea Handler declared her eagerness to follow in the footsteps of Huntsman's sons and join the Navy. Huntsman laughed nervously and looked to Jay Leno for a save, but Handler quickly filled that silent gap with a signature quip. Watch the video below.

Read more posts by Caroline Shin

Filed Under: ex-candidates ,jon huntsman ,the hunt for red november ,politics ,video ,2012