News

SILive.com reports:

Bloated with billions of toll-payer dollars, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can’t resist dumping a fortune into real estate. Too often, it’s a waste of money.

Nor does the P.A. seem to discriminate between big and small properties when it comes to dubious spending.

The Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners — disdaining accusations of financial extravagance — has OK’d a preliminary $7.1-billion budget for its combined operating and capital expenses in fiscal 2012.

Politicker NY reports:

Republican Congressman Michael Grimm, who represents the 13th District in Brooklyn and Staten Island, will be sitting next to his frequent television sparring partner, Democratic California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, at next week’s State of the Union address.

Roll Call reports:

A group of more than 150 legislators is taking up Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s challenge to scrap the “happy talk” on deficit reduction and produce a bill this year to cut more than $4 trillion from the deficit.

The Go Big Coalition aims to craft bill language based on the recommendations of the president’s 2010 deficit reduction commission and bring that measure to the floors of the House and Senate by this spring.

The following Op-Ed by Rep. Michael Grimm appeared in the New York Post:

The Port Authority’s massive toll hikes are bad news for just about everyone — but they’re a job-killing disaster for Staten Island. Changing this situation is my absolute No. 1 local priority.

Gov. Cuomo talked a lot about jobs in his budget address this week; too bad he wasn’t thinking about jobs when he (along with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie) OK’d the hikes last year.

The Daily News reports:

The lurid 39-second video of wisecracking Marines urinating on Afghan corpses drew angry condemnation from politicians of every stripe Thursday none more vehement than from those who had served.

“This actually hurts me. This is painful,” Rep. Michael Grimm (RStaten Island), a former Marine, told the Daily News.

SILive.com Reports:

Staten Island will now have a constant reminder of the sacrifice of one of its bravest sons, as President Obama signed off on legislation to officially rename the St. George Post Office in honor of Vietnam war hero Marine Sgt. Angel Mendez.

The bill to honor Mendez -- who was killed as he went to the aid of his platoon commander -- was shepherded through the House of Representatives by Rep. Michael Grimm.

The post office at 45 Bay St. will now be known as the "Sergeant Angel Mendez Post Office."

The New York Times reports:

Michael G. Grimm, a freshman United States congressman representing Staten Island, has been a Marine, an undercover F.B.I. agent and the owner of a health food restaurant in Manhattan called Healthalicious. After a week in Washington, Mr. Grimm, 41, a Republican, spends his Sundays in the Heartland Village neighborhood of Staten Island, where he lives on the top floor of a multifamily house with his puppy, Sebastian, a Yorkshire terrier. The dog is a regular presence in his office in the Capitol.

PolitickerNY reports:

According to reports out of Washington today, President Barack Obama is planning to bypass the Senate and appoint Richard Cordray to new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Many Republicans not only do not want to see Mr. Cordray appointed–especially during a recess appointment–they do even think that the agency should exist at all.

Count among those Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm.

CBS New York reports:

In a defiant display of executive power, President Barack Obama bucked GOP opposition and named Richard Cordray as the nation’s chief consumer watchdog. Outraged Republican leaders in Congress suggested that courts would determine the appointment was illegal.

SILive.com reports:

Partisan bickering? Political back-biting?

Not so much, maintains Rep. Michael Grimm of the seemingly endless tug-and-pull between the Republican House, the Democratic Senate and the White House on a host of issues.

"My first eight months in office, there was a lot of rhetoric and rancor," Grimm said the other day. "But I really believe you will see both sides coming together now more and more because of the scope and the magnitude of what we are facing financially" both domestically and in world markets.