Arun Venugopal

Having grown up outside of New York my early associations with Stella D'Oro were their grating ads for breadsticks, but I'm told that for anyone who lived within a couple miles of their Bronx factory, it was impossible to ignore the sweet scent of their baking. These days, the scene outside the factory is a lot gloomier: the 136 union workers who've run the factory have been on strike since August, refusing to sign on to the new contract presented to them.

(stelladorostrike2008.com)

Last week, when I headed out there, the temperature was in the 20s, but a crew of union members was performing its picketing duties. Now and then, that involves confronting and verbally abusing the replacement workers who are now operating the factory:

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Stella D'oro has been baking cookies, breadsticks and biscotti in the Bronx since the 1930s, but these days much of the action is outside its factory. That's where 136 workers have been staging a continuous strike since August. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

REPORTER: The Stella ...

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Governor Paterson's approval ratings are at historic lows. But he's trying to win back some support, one voter at a time. WNYC's Arun Venugopal followed him during yesterday's St. Patrick's Day parade on Staten Island.

SOLAZZO: Your governor, your governor!

REPORTER: That's John Solazzo, a Staten Island ...

I've been called worse, said Schuerman, seen here as Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan

This morning at around 8, WNYC's listeners may have heard a brief audio clip of WNYC transportation reporter Matthew Schuerman, addressing the MTA rescue plan.
That clip was merely meant to promote his discussion with Morning Edition host Soterios Johnson, but for whatever reason, Johnson said the following:

'That's Matthew Schuerman, WNYC's Transportation Commissioner...'

Johnson immediately corrected himself - 'I mean, WNYC's Transportation REPORTER' - before laughing and moving on to other things.

In the end, it was just another product promotion for their new album, but the members of U2 also saw it as a civic honor. Today with the Mayor and Council Speaker Quinn looking on, a stretch of West 53rd Street was renamed "U2 Way." Frontman Bono said ...

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A stretch of West 53rd Street in Manhattan has been temporarily rename "U2 Way." WNYC's Arun Venugopal took today's ceremony with city officials and a few fans.

REPORTER: They may be the world's biggest band but U2 isn't all over the airwaves these days. So frontman ...

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The mayor and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were in Sunset Park yesterday at one of 42 new schools that will be open this fall. According to Klein, the schools include a new Cinema School in the Bronx and other schools for struggling students, as well ...

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Governor Paterson pulled out a baseball reference to describe how he thinks federal stimulus money should be spent in New York. Speaking to Brian Lehrer on WNYC this morning, Paterson said money for transportation projects should be spent the way St. Louis Cardinal Ozzie Smith ...

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The Port Authority is leading a major coalition of business and tourist groups in calling for a $22 billion upgrade to the nation's air traffic control system.

The existing system has been in place since the 1960s, and relies on radar, which has been around since ...

New York, NY —

A coalition of business, airline and tourism groups is calling for a $22 billion upgrade of the nation's air traffic control system.

The new, satellite-based system would replace the existing one, which operates by radar.

Kathy Wylde heads the Partnership for New York City. She says the ...

Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Kelly and Queens District Attorney Brown, announce results of Saturday buyback. (Edward Reed)

The NYPD says ...

Mayor Bloomberg says President Obama needs to give the public confidence and concrete solutions with his prime time speech to Congress tonight.

"I don't think they want to hear that there's going to be a chicken in every pot and there's no pain. People are smarter than ...

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In the last six months the city has received 3,500 weapons through the gun buyback program, which assures gun owners of complete confidentiality. And at $200 per gun, the program isn't a bad way to make some extra cash. But officials say the smartest thing ...

New York, NY —

The NYPD says 919 guns were traded in for cash at the most recent gun buyback program, in Queens. That brings the total to over 3,500 guns handed in at houses of worship around the city in the last six months. Councilman James Sanders says ...

We've all got our ways of coping with the economy. Since I always forget to bring lunch from home, I have become a regular customer at Mamoun's, which makes a mean $2.50 falafel sandwich. And as I was walking back to work with said falafel, I chanced upon this chalkboard outside the Native Leather store on Bleecker St.

It says: 'YOU ARE MY ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE.'

Native Leather has been around since 1968 - it sells Italian caps, Argentinian belts and fine Laguiole knives from France - but these days, its owner since 1993, Carol Walsh says things aren't going so well. People continue to buy leather hats and gloves and belts ranging from $20 to $55, but the nicer items just don't move off the shelf. Thus the chalkboard plea, which went up a week ago, right after President Obama signed the economic stimulus package into law.

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The city is launching an ambitious plan to shore up Wall Street, and prevent a brain drain of its employees, by encouraging out-of-work financial service workers to do what Mayor Bloomberg did, and start their own companies.

BLOOMBERG: I was fired, and nobody offered me a ...

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A first of its kind report on climate change and its impact on New York City has just been released. Expect hotter weather, more rain, and a lot more flooding as the century progresses. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more on the report, and the city's ...

New York, NY —

2,200 attendees from around the world crowded the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries, in Crown Heights.

Chana Weisberg came from Toronto, where she edits www.chabad.org. She says outsiders may have their own notions of Hassidic women, but that many of those in attendance are essentially ...

New York, NY —

The International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Women Emissaries drew twenty-two hundred attendees from around the world to Crown Heights, Brooklyn Sunday.

REPORTER: Chana Weisberg came from Toronto, where she edits chabad.org. She says outsiders may have their own notions of Hassidic women. But she says many of ...

Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave her annual State of the City, and she tried to pack it full of sunshine.

New Yorkers, she says, have a "resounding belief in the future of this country. We may be in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis in decades. But New Yorkers know better than anyone, that no crisis has ever stopped our city from moving forward. As EB White reminds us, New York is the city that reached the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression."

Lots of policy proposals in her speech, but the splashiest one is certainly this: take all those vacant new or luxury apartments that are scattered around the city, gathering dust, and turn them into affordable housing for the middle class. She says the city would negotiate for the best possible price with developers who are eager to offload their luxury units. She didn't get into the numbers, only saying that there are "thousands" of such units, "just waiting for someone to call them home."

She also announced an ambitious plan to reform the city's tax code, her own version of the so-called Millionaire's Tax that's gaining momentum in Albany. Under this plan: