“Inside City Hall,” an hour-long look at New York politics, can be seen on NY1 News weekdays at 7 and 10 p.m.

On last night’s “Inside City Hall”, Eliot Hoff from New Yorkers for Beverage Choice discussed his group’s lobbying effort against the Mayor’s ban on large sugary drinks.

Watch a clip of the segment above.

Tonight’s guests include: Our NY1 Wise Guys; Eva Moskowitz, the CEO and founder of the Success Academy Charter Schools.

The New York Times

Kate Taylor looks at the court battle in the Rangel-Espaillat primary.

“Gotham” columnist Michael Powell rips the city’s Board of Elections for its handling of last week’s primary.

Michael Grynbaum looks at how the heat may have made N.J. Gov Chris Christie and Mayor Bloomberg a little bit more testier than usual.

Al Baker notes: “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is weighing whether to sign a bill on special education that opponents argue would give families more power to send their children to religious schools at taxpayers’ expense.”

New York Post

Erik Kriss reports: “Hank Morris, the disgraced former top aide to crooked ex-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is suing the state, claiming he was improperly denied parole in February. Morris claims in his state Albany Supreme Court filing that the state Parole Division ignored new laws that changed the system for assessing eligibility. He asserted he should be headed back to his home in tony East Hampton based on his ‘perfect low-risk assessment’ score.”

Kriss also notes: “Indicted state Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. didn’t introduce a single bill last year while billing taxpayers for more per-diem travel expenses than most of his colleagues. Even with the three dead-end bills Boyland sponsored this year after vowing an aggressive agenda, his was the lowest legislative output in the 2011-12 session, according to a report released yesterday.

Dave Seifman writes: “The bad news for small-home owners is that property taxes are going up by a couple hundred bucks. The good news is that it could have been worse. As it does just about every year, the City Council has protected the 703,144 owners of one-, two- and three-family homes from the full impact of rising property taxes.”

Seifman also notes: “The 9/11 memorial and museum should be overseen by the foundation that helped fund both projects, to keep the site out of the ‘political process,’ Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.”

And Seifman reports: “City Comptroller John Liu is in a fine mess.
The city’s Environmental Control Board yesterday upheld a decision ordering the comptroller to fork over $527,400 in fines for putting up 7,032 campaign posters on city property during his 2009 run for his post.”
New York Daily News

Rachel Monahan reports: “The city filed legal papers Monday in a bid to overturn an arbitrator’s decision to block the Department of Education’s plan to shutter 24 schools and replace up to half their staff. The city argues the arbitrator had no authority to determine whether the closings were a ‘sham,’ as the teachers and principals unions have alleged.”

In a column, Michael Aronson rips the city’s Board of Elections for its handling of last week’s primaries.

Ken Lovett reports: “Gov. Cuomo is taking heat from minority lawmakers for not renewing the term of the lone black male on the state Parole Board.”

Lovett also notes: “Voting in the Legislature is embarrassingly similar to a glorified game of follow the leader, a new analysis shows.”

Wall Street Journal

Michael Howard Saul reports: “New York City's economic-development agency and two related organizations admitted in a settlement Monday that they illegally lobbied the City Council on behalf of projects at the heart of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's redevelopment agenda. The concessions came after a three-year probe by the state attorney general's office. Investigators found that the Economic Development Corp. worked behind the scenes with the groups—called local development corporations—to nudge lawmakers to support projects in Willets Point in Queens and Coney Island in Brooklyn.”

Have great Independence Day. We’re off until Friday.

Bob Hardt