When you’re a 6-10 pro basketball player, you are used to getting things your way. But Los Angeles Clippers power forward Lamar Odom, husband to Khloe Kardashian, may not win the current battle he’s thrust himself into.

Odom and designer Jonathan Garcia launched a clothing line, Rich Soil, back in 2009 and one of its T-shirts caused so much of a stir that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo actually sent him a letter to tell him to stop selling it, the Associated Press reports. Cuomo expected Odom and his pal to stop sales within five days.

The problem? The shirt looks an awful lot like a logo for a New York State farming program. The Rich Soil shirt features a very similar Statue of Liberty that sits behind familiar-looking crop rows, encircled in a similar font reading "Rich Soil New York" as opposed to the program's "Pride of New York." Check out a side-by-side here.Continue reading...

“How’m I doin?” has been quieted forever.

With the passing of Ed Koch, the former three-term mayor who died early today, New York City has lost one of its most enduring modern-day icons. Few in New York public life have been as synonymous with its late 20th century bluster and personality.

By embodying a certain bombastic brand of city dweller, Koch and his trademark candor helped the world understand New York's overall image — its frenetic energy, its outspoken charm. He rooted the New York brand in warts-and-all, take-it-or-leave-it reality.

Ironically, Koch's death has come on the very day that "Koch," a documentary that looks at his life and long mayoralty, is being released in U.S. theaters nationwide.Continue reading...

The need for jobs in a job-starved America can create some interesting political dynamics. Witness how New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going out of his way today to praise practically every other politician in the state for having anything to do with bringing new PepsiCo jobs in yogurt-making to upstate — and implicitly thumbling his nose at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has put PepsiCo on the Most Wanted list with his proposed big-soda ban.

"This is a new New York State, partnering with the private sector to create jobs and grow new industries," Cuomo said in a PepsiCo press release today. He's been notably lauded even by some Republicans for making economic development (tagline: "New York - Open for Business") a priority of his administration, including a high-profile TV campaign promoting economic investments in New York State, with not only PepsiCo but Fage bringing their yogurt works to upstate New York.Continue reading...

New York State is getting ready to celebrate its first same-sex weddings on Sunday.

Following last month's passage of marriage equality legislation, the state’s travel bureau is getting in on the action by “offering wedding packages for same-sex couples in some of the most world-renowned travel destinations – from Niagara Falls to New York City” on its I Love NY website.

New York City is expecting to break the record for most marriage licenses given out in a day on Sunday with 764 available, the New York Times reports. That’s 20% higher than the previous high of  621 set on Valentine’s Day 2003, the paper notes.Continue reading...

When you’re talking about almost $400 million, everybody wants a piece of the pie. That’s how much a “report last month from New York's Senate Independent Democratic Conference estimated the state would earn” in the next three years if it legalized same-sex marriages, according to USA Today.

Now that the bill has passed and same-sex couples can start tying the knot in the Empire State on July 24, New York City is planning an “I Do” marketing campaign to help draw wedding-bound couples to the Big Apple.Continue reading...

As New York state governor Andrew Cuomo kicks off a statewide "marriage equality" tour (and opponents gear up to fight him), New York Rangers star Sean Avery's PSA (above) that was released late last week in support of gay marriage has reignited the debate about homophobia in sports, writes Bleacher Report, citing the recent Kobe Bryant homophobic slur incident. Former First Daughter Barbara Bush also taped a PSA for the Human Rights Campaign-backed "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality" effort earlier this year, among other celebs rallying to change New York state legislation.