U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) announced in October of 2019 she wouldn’t seek a new term. Her retirement concluded a noteworthy 32-year career in Congress, during which she became the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee (past chairs included James Garfield, later President, and Joseph Cannon, later Speaker).
Rep. Lowey is only the latest noteworthy female Representative from New York. The list includes Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress, who ran for President in 1972; Geraldine Ferraro, Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1984; Katharine St. George, a first cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt who represented Tuxedo Park as a Republican for 18 years; and Bella Abzug, the brassy co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus who was the subject of a Broadway show. [Read more…] about Ruth Pratt: Pioneering New York Woman in Congress
“After more than a decade together, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his longtime girlfriend, Sandra Lee, announced on Wednesday that they are ending their relationship. The two confirmed the split in a statement.” – New York Times, Sept. 25, 2019.
Seventy years ago this month, a lower Manhattan courtroom provided the stage for a remarkable confrontation – much of which played out in New York – that symbolized the frustration of a nation that had recently won the Second World War but felt more insecure than ever.
Ogden Rogers “Brownie” Reid, the six-term former congressman, ambassador, and New York Herald Tribune editor who died recently, was a link to a bygone era.
Fifty years ago this month, John Vliet Lindsay, 103rd mayor of New York and national paragon of urban progressivism, faced ruin in Rego Park.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins is positioned to become the first woman and first African-American state senate majority leader in New York state history after the New Year. Ms. Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers resident, is currently the Democratic leader in the senate, a chamber her party will now control, with 39 seats out of 63, following the November elections.
One candidate was the incumbent, owner of a glittering resumé featuring roles in the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman administrations and a veteran of two tries for the Presidency, most recently with former President Truman’s overt backing. The other candidate, 17 years younger, was an electoral neophyte but a past holder of positions in the FDR, Truman and Eisenhower administrations.
A century ago on September 29, 1918, Allied forces breached the formidable 400-mile Hindenburg Line, spelling the beginning of the end for Imperial Germany in World War I. In the vanguard that cool, misty morning were two American divisions under British-Australian command. The 30th division, nicknamed “Old Hickory” after Andrew Jackson, was drawn from North and South Carolina and Tennessee National Guard regiments.