Story Archive

Sandy Claus

Some of New York City’s paving machines had been “sitting under the highway in the dump for seven years” and had been prey to vandals, the city’s transportation department told its police department. And yet the city found a way to get money for the junk vehicles: it reported them to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as having been damaged by Superstorm Sandy, a settlement now says. According to court papers, city workers who examined vehicles to see whether they should be replaced at federal expense “considered only whether a vehicle had sustained any damage during the storm, without regard to the condition of the vehicle prior to Sandy.” The city agreed to repay the feds $5.3 million. (AC/WNYC New York) ...really not that bad when you’re a government with an $89 billion budget.