Editorials

Preet can’t be beat, unless you think Loretta is better. The U.S. attorneys for the southern and eastern districts of New York, respectively, Preet Bharara and Loretta Lynch, are in the midst of stellar work that should do more to clean up the political corruption that seems endemic to Albany than most so-called reforms have ever managed.

They’re going after corruption in case after case and knocking down one elected domino after another. Any city or state lawmaker who’s on the take and hasn’t been charged yet must be very, very nervous.

Here at the Queens Chronicle, we dislike cigarettes. We dislike how they kill, we dislike how people waste money on them, we dislike the smell that rushes into the office anytime we open the front door while someone is smoking on the sidewalk. The few staffers we’ve had who smoke regularly know they’re addicts and would love to quit.

Over the years we’ve supported Mayor Bloomberg’s agressive stance against smoking — the ban in bars, the ban on beaches, the pending plan to keep tobacco products out of view in stores. All are valid efforts.

“A pretty shameful day for Washington.” That’s how President Obama described the failure on Wednesday of attempts to tighten gun laws. He is correct.

Who could be against expanding background checks for people trying to buy firearms? Only the leadership of the National Rifle Association and its dependents on Capitol Hill. Poll after poll shows the public wants it to be just as difficult to buy a weapon at a gun show as it is at a store. Yet members of the U.S. Senate, led by Republicans but including Democrats, knocked down even that common-sense, along with others meant to reduce the daily carnage in our streets.

Think your vote doesn’t matter? Don’t feel bad — neither do those cast by members of the Borough Board.

That’s one of the nifty tidbits revealed by Monday’s canceled vote on the United States Tennis Association’s expansion plans. The board lacked a quorum you see — and somehow Borough President Helen Marshall knew it would ahead of time, as evidenced by her prepared remarks.

Imagine if you were one of those people struggling with a mortgage after the housing market collapse, but making your payments. Maybe you cut back heavily on expenses. Maybe you took out an informal loan from a friend or relative. But you managed.

Meanwhile your neighbor down the street let his house go into foreclosure and just waited for the government to ride to his rescue. You weren’t happy about that.