Bob Hennelly

Bloomberg administration officials were grilled yesterday for hours by the New York City Council about the city's response to last month's blizzard. WNYC reporters Ailsa Chang and Bob Hennelly discuss what came out of that hearing and the lessons learned as we look ahead to another snow storm. Plus, Bob previews NJ Governor Christie's state of the state address today. 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will give his first State of the State address later today. Lawmakers, lobbyists and labor will be listening for hints about how he'll close the state's more than $10 billion budget gap.

He will hammer home familiar themes that have made him one of the kings of the GOP speaker circuit — education reform, fiscal discipline and holding the line on taxes.

For months now, the banking industry has been dismissing the fact that they may have been pursuing tens of thousands of home foreclosures with deficient paper work as mere technical glitches.

Last week they got a wake-up call when Massachusetts highest court ruled 6-0 in favor of two Springfield homeowners who had been foreclosed on three years ago. The high court let stand a lower court decision that both foreclosures were invalid because the two banks trying to seize the homes did not actually have the legal standing to do so.

Gary Klein, a Boston based lawyer who wrote a friend of the court brief on behalf of the victorious homeowners, says he has a pending class action involving almost 10,000 families that he says were victims of improper foreclosures. “We need to sort out these faulty foreclosures,” says Klein because the underlying defective paper work will haunt the “future property owners years from now who will have a hard time getting a clear title” to the land they think they own. The Boston Globe quoted one of the banks tried to put the best spin on the ruling by suggesting it only created a "standard legal process" going forward for mortgage companies to follow.

Even as the giant snow piles melt into memory, the inadequate response to the blizzard of 2010 presages some of the great trials ahead for many Americans, their local town halls and...

By weeks end, Mayor Bloomberg's five-borough reputation-rebuilding strategy was a well-oiled machine. But if the expletives written after his name in diesel dust on a lumbering MTA bus in Queens were any indication, some hard feelings may last until the spring thaw.

On Monday morning, New Jersey was under a state of emergency and state government operations were closed except for emergency personnel. Across the Hudson in New York City, no emergen...

A decade ago, the FBI announced plans to upgrade its IT systems and create a computer-based case management system. The so-called "Trilogy" project was subcontracted out to defense giant Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

By 2005, it was a red-faced FBI Director Robert Mueller in front of a Congressional oversight committee explaining how the FBI had blown a half billion dollars over five years — and didn't have much to show for it.

In his testimony, Mueller blamed the well-connected defense giant, whose board includes former military and Pentagon types. For its part, SAIC insisted it had delivered as required, and that it gave taxpayers value for their dollars despite ever-changing FBI needs.

But the Government Accountability Office reported when it came to overseeing the details of the contract, the FBI was missing in action. GAO wrote that the FBI relied "exclusively on contractors to account" for the Trilogy assets that had been purchased by taxpayers. The G-men subbed out technical oversight and could not locate millions of dollars in computer components it had purchased.

In a parallel universe, toward the end of the Giuliani era, New York City was hyping an early version of "CityTime," the payroll miracle software. It was going to revolutionize New York City's municipal payroll process with the wonders of biometrics to keep tabs on municipal employees.

There's hope that the U.S. can pull out of this economic slump it's in, but there's a potential disaster looming for states that could derail any economic recovery. Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst famed for predicting Citigroup's major debt fallout, made a new dire prediction.  She believes up to 100 U.S. cities could default on their municipal bonds. 

Population shifts mean that New York and New Jersey will lose seats in the House and redistricting will take place ahead of the 2012 elections. Bob Hennelly, WNYC reporter, discusses the implications. 

→ Read Bob Hennelly's Article and Join the Conversation at It's A Free Country!

Numbers released earlier this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show that the population of the United States continues to shift to the South and West. Based on the census numbers, bot...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Reverend Al Sharpton want to put the state out of the juvenile justice business. They say the City has achieved good results with a three-year initiative that has kept delinquents in community programs close to home.

It is the between-time. The old regime has just days left. Control in the Senate is expected to shift to the Republicans and a Democratic governor is coming in promising to  cut gover...

WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly gives an update of recent and upcoming legislative decisions in New Jersey. 

While the Senate debates President Obama's deal with Republican leaders to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years, one high ranking local conservative Republican is pushing back.

Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ5) says he supports the call to extend the Bush tax cuts, but he says the $170 billion price tag to extend unemployment benefits and cut the Social Security payroll tax may be over the top when the federal government needs to reduce spending.

Why isn't America working for Americans? Because we are in the era of post-nation-state feudalism. Wealth and capital are the only global sovereigns and nation-states are mere "op...

On Monday, New Jersey lawmakers will consider a bill that would get the state out of the public broadcasting business. Supporters of the measure hope it will keep New Jersey Network running.

Drivers who get into accidents may have to worry about a bill from the Fire Department.

As a result of a bipartisan compromise, New Jersey police and firefighters won't get more than a two percent raise over the next three years. Under the deal struck by Governor Chr...

After months of political theater, New Jersey's Democratic legislative leaders and Governor Chris Chrisitie are holding substantial discussions on what tools they can give local governments to cut costs.

The NYPD says shootings and murders are up in New York City. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the easy access teens have to guns is law enforcement's biggest challenge.