A lot of people probably don’t know this, or care. In any case, it wasn’t mentioned in any of the obituaries about Sy Syms, the savvy clothier who died this week.

But hear this all you local trivia fans. Syms had political aspirations. That’s right—he  actually ran for Yonkers City Council in 1963.

This little fact was [...]

Earlier today, Rob Astorino had a meeting with  Bill “Boss” Ryan, the powerful chairman of the Board of Legislators. I know it happened because I’ve seen the pictures, which resemble those strained diplomatic photo-ops you normally associate with chats with figures like Karzai and the little kook from North Korea.

Ryan and the county executive-elect held [...]

Just when I think—hey, maybe I’ve been too hard on Bill Ryan,  the self-styled “boss” of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, he goes ahead and proves that I was right all along.

Get a load of this. Through his aide, Tara Martin, he’s trying to control communications between the press and the other 12 Democratic [...]

Bud Adams, the octogenarian owner of the Tennesee Titans football team, found out that flipping the bird in public can cost a lot more than any bail set for repeat felons.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined Adams $250,000 for making the crude middle-finger gesture at Buffalo fans following a 41-17 Titan victory last Sunday. Over the [...]

The “Boss” Ryan gang can’t take a joke.

But I guess humor is in short supply when you are an incumbent and barely win re-election in a district in which your party holds a 2-1 enrollment advantage.

Ryan’s little pal, Alan Goldston, complained about me  in a letter to the editor today because in a recent column  [...]

County Executive-elect Rob Astorino had to know that  Andy Spano wouldn’t make it easy for him. But it’s really up to the Democratic majority on the Board of Legislators to hash out this $1.8 billion budget proposal. They can ill afford to appear as obstructionists to Astorino, who primarily ran and won as an anti-tax [...]

That is to say taxes will go up that much if the 2010 budget goes through as proposed by County Executive-Unelect Andy Spano. The first salvo, or spin, in the budget battle was fired off just minutes ago with a press statement from Spano’s office, saying that a continuing fall in revenues and “unrelenting” increases [...]

Even if Bill “Boss” Ryan ekes out a victory in Westchester County’s Fifth Legislative District where it still too close to call, it is far from a sure thing that he will hold onto his $89,200 a year job as chairman of the Board of Legislators.

Ryan has had the chairmanship for six years, and seems [...]

The other day, I got a call from a Westchester County office worker who is facing the prospect of being on the outside looking in, now that Rob Astorino has been elected as county executive. She wanted to know how to apply for a job with the new administration.

I felt bad because I couldn’t help [...]

Anybody who is a fan of rock ‘n roll and grew up in Westchester County, especially Yonkers, should tune into “High Noon” tomorrow (Thursday) on WVOX.

My phone guest will be Chip Taylor, the musician who first gained fame by writing the classic, “Wild Thing.” It was first made into a hit in 1966 by the [...]