Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. A couple of NY-centric items to pass along:

1) Sen. Gillibrand says that the votes are there to pass the Zadroga 9/11 responders bill after adjustments were made to reduce the cost of the bill (but not a reduction to the services being provided to the responders). Better late than never, but this is something that should have been resolved years ago (such as during the Bush Administration when the issues of 9/11 responders began to be identified as a serious condition/concern).

2) Reports that Saudi King Abdullah was looking to buy St. Vincent’s Hospital in the West Village and move the Cordoba House/Park51 project from near Ground Zero is news to the Park51 developers. They don’t know anything about the proposal. I think it’s something that the sellers were trying to float to get another developer to increase their bid on the properties.