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Republican legislators grilled public safety Commissioner Dora B. Schriro Tuesday over problems in her previous job as head of New York City's prison system including violent abuses of teenage inmates under her watch but she still won a legislative committee's approval for four more years as commissioner.

"This is really bad," Republican state Sen. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, told Schriro at her confirmation hearing before the executive and legislative nominations committee. He was referring to a scathing report last August by the U.S. Department of Justice that said young inmates' civil rights were routinely violated from 2011 to 2013 by correction officers' use of excessive force in a "deep-seated culture of violence" at the Rikers Island prison complex.

"I read it last night and I was flabbergasted by it," Kane said.

Schriro left her job as New York City's correction commissioner to accept Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's appointment in January 2014 as commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which includes the state police. Malloy's renomination of Schriro requires approval from the state House of Representatives, and Tuesday's committee hearing was the first legislative step toward that.

Although Kane was vocal in his criticism, only House members of the committee could vote when it ended and Schriro was approved 7-3, with all the "no" votes coming from Republicans on the Democrat-controlled committee.

Schriro, who holds a law degree and a doctorate in education but never served as a police officer, calmly defended her four-year tenure in New York, just as she has in recent months when asked by The Courant about the August report and subsequent news stories in the New York Times that raised questions about her actions.

Schriro said she inherited a bad situation in New York and instituted new measures to combat abuses, including adding 2,000 surveillance cameras inside the prisons a 70 percent increase.

But Kane hammered her with questions about a Times report last September that Schriro used her authority in New York to order that critical comments about two key subordinates a warden and deputy warden be removed from a 2012 report on an internal investigation. That report found that hundreds of inmate fights were omitted from correction department statistics, making it appear that Warden William Clemons and Deputy Warden Turhan Gumusdere had dramatically reduced violence in the prison. The edited report, not the original version by internal investigators, was later turned over by city officials to federal investigators.

"How could you accept that type of data when it's untrue?" Kane asked.

Schriro responded that she had immediately corrected the public record concerning the flawed statistics, but had removed a recommendation from the report that Clemons and Gumusdere be demoted because they hadn't had a chance to defend themselves in a disciplinary process. She said she had not handled the Justice Department's request for all relevant city reports and had nothing to do with which version was handed over.

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Public Safety Chief Grilled Over Prior Job, But Wins OK For Reappointment

ST. PAUL (WCCO/AP) Minnesota Republican leaders today ramped up their criticism of Gov. Mark Daytons hefty pay hikes for his Cabinet.

The Democratic governor issued a detailed defense of the raises in a letter to the legislature, calling the pay hikes necessary and legal.

The raises I approved were to salaries that had remained stagnant for over twelve years, he said, and thus were well below the amounts paid to people with comparable responsibilities in other states.

Top Republicans say they were caught off guard by the hefty pay hikes, which the governor didnt make public for 30 days.

This was just a kind of whammy that came out of nowhere, said Rep. Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth.

At a testy Capitol hearing, Republicans accused the Dayton administration of misleading Minnesotans about where the budget surplus is going.

I dont think there is a citizen in the state of Minnesota who expected that the surplus money would be going toward commissioner salaries, Anderson said.

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, derided the luxurious, gold-plated salaries that were announced last week as out-of-step with stagnant wages for many Minnesota residents. He sponsored the provision to withhold state money from those agencies.

In his letter to lawmakers, Governor Dayton said the raises, some as high as $35,000, are a way to attract and keep high-level talent.

I want to make clear that none of my commissioners have ever complained to me about their salaries, Gov. Dayton said in the letter. Not one has ever asked me for a raise.

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Republican Lawmakers Respond To Governors Pay Hikes

Marylands new Republican governor enjoys solid public support for some of his plans to curb agency spending and cut taxes, but he faces strong opposition to a proposal to slow the growth of education funding, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found.

Three weeks into his tenure, Marylanders have high hopes for Gov. Larry Hogan, an Anne Arundel County businessman who won an upset victory in the heavily Democratic state by promising fiscal restraint and a new direction after the eight-year tenure of Gov. Martin OMalley (D).

Parts of Hogans agenda solving the budget shortfall, for example, and expanding charter schools resonate with state residents, although the vast majority appear to oppose his proposal to alter school funding formulas. Overall, about half of the Hogan initiatives tested in the poll received less than majority support.

That split illustrates both possibility and peril for Hogan as he sets out to define his governorship and find common ground with the Democratic-controlled General Assembly whose leaders have vowed to resist efforts to curb school funding and whose priorities are generally supported by state residents. Hogan has said repeatedly that he wants avoid the partisan acrimony that festered under Marylands last Republican governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

(Full poll results)

Although his relationship with legislative leaders has started to sour, Hogan continues to enjoy a honeymoon with the public. Nearly 6 in 10 Maryland adults are confident that Hogan will take the state in the right direction, according to the poll. And among those who express an opinion, approval of Hogans performance is 18 percentage points higher than disapproval. Democrats are split about evenly on Hogans job performance, and more than five times as many Republicans approve as disapprove.

Marylanders such as Shirley Hendrix, a Democrat who lives in Middle River in Baltimore County, said they are willing to give Hogan a chance. Hendrix, a retired deli worker, said she voted for OMalley in 2010 but felt taxed to death during his tenure.

Basically, we needed a change, said Hendrix, who voted for Hogan in November. I can sum it all up like that.

Chris Casson, another Democrat who voted for Hogan, said she understands that she wont agree with everything Hogan does as governor but appreciates his candor about the states finances and other issues.

He inherited a quagmire, said Casson, 65, a Gaithersburg resident and retired receptionist.Hogan is going to tell us what hes going to do. It doesnt mean that well like all of it.

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Poll: Marylanders like Hogan, but oppose effort to slow school funding

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Photo by Reuters.

With a $1,000-per-plate luncheon scheduled at a hotel blocks from the governor's mansion, the trip highlights Bush's strength in the largest U.S. swing state, crucial to the Republican Party's hopes of regaining the White House in 2016.

Bush, considered a front-runner in the crowded field of Republican presidential prospects, is already a household name as the brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush.

On Tuesday, he released thousands of emails from his time as governor from 1999 to 2007 along with the first chapter of a campaign-style book to show he could connect with constituents at a personal level.

"Everyone could email me," he writes. "So they did."

He and his advisers believe that by releasing large chunks of his communications from his time as governor it will show evidence of a chief executive at ease with connecting daily with the people who write to him and responding to their concerns.

Early in his tenure Bush made public his email address, jeb@jeb.org, and encouraged people to write to him. In the first chapter of an ebook he is to release, he said he spent 30 hours a week answering emails, earning the nickname "the eGovernor."

Bush, unlike many Republicans at this early stage of the nomination drive, is not running to the conservative right but presenting himself as a mainstream alternative, seeking to expand the scope of the party and appeal to independent voters.

Bush also plans to talk about education policy at a school reform conference hosted by his Foundation for Florida's Future. The current Republican governor, Rick Scott, will also speak.

Last month, Bush launched the "Right to Rise" political action committee to raise money as he explores a campaign.

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Jeb Bush talks education, releases emails as he eyes 2016 bid

BuildingNY: Arcadio Casillas: NYS Republican Party Finance Comm Chair
Cuban born Arcadio Casillas experienced the Revolution, first hand - the assassination of his father and uncle and his time in prison. President and CEO of t...

By: cunytv75

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BuildingNY: Arcadio Casillas: NYS Republican Party Finance Comm Chair - Video