Mayor Phil Amicone delivers his fifth State of the City speech tomorrow night,  an address to be televised live from City Hall. The speech comes two weeks after Amicone proposed a budget calling for an 8.5 percent real estate property tax and warned  that the following year’s budget could contain significant layoffs. There’s been more [...]

Spurred on by anger over high taxes and proposed raises for County Legislators, the move to abolish Westchester County government may not be rolling yet, but it’s at least at the starting line.  Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Yonkers City Councilwoman Joan Gronowski hold their first joint meeting of the Committee to Abolish County [...]

It might be easier to keep track of the public officials and municpalities not being sued by Sam Zherka. This time it’s Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore who is being charged with violating the First Amendment rights of the Westchester Guardian publisher and owner of a real estate empire that includes a Manhattan strip [...]

The Westchester Guardian’s federal court win over Yonkers City Hall earlier this month  will cost Yonkers taxpayers nearly $50,000 – a payment that has nothing to do with the tens of millions of dollars publisher Sam Zherka is seeking from the city in series of other lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Charles Brieant ordered the city to [...]

Publisher Sam Zherka is opening a new front in his continuing war with Yonkers. Last month a federal court ruling found City Hall had violated the first amendment rights of the Westchester Guardian, when it swept its news racks from city streets and issued summonses to its employees who were handing out the free weekly [...]

Westchester Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said look for two big changes when Lt. Gov. David Paterson fills the seat vacated by Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Speaking on Brian Lehrer’s program on radio station WNYC this morning, Brodsky said Paterson first would change the tone in Albany. Known for his conciliatory manner, Paterson would reverse the confrontational [...]

The controversial publisher of the Westchester Guardian has filed a federal lawsuit charging that he was defamed by readers who posted derogatory remarks about him on Politics on the Hudson, the political blog published on The Journal News’s Web site.

Among those cited in the lawsuit filed by Sam Zherka are “Mob Buster,� “Ethan Edwards,� and [...]

In a decision sharply critical of the city, a federal judge ruled today that the city of Yonkers violated the First Amendment rights of a free weekly newspaper when it swept the Westchester Guardian’s news racks from streets and stopped its employees from handing out the paper.

U.S. District Justice Charles L. Brieant found that the [...]

Mayor Phil Amicone made another trip to Albany today, his fifth since the release of Gov.Eliot Spitzer’s budget in January. The Republican mayor is meeting with Democratic lawmakers: Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, and state Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Jeffrey Klein. At the top of the mayor’s agenda is more money – $35 million to be precise [...]

The big surprise is not that Yonkers Councilwoman Patricia McDow held a fund-raising last-night event, even though she easily won re-election in November. Elected officials always seem to be in a money-raising mode. What was surprising, though, is the new website listed on the invite: www.mcdow2009.com. The Councilwoman’s term does not expire for nearly four [...]