Financier and philanthropist J. Ezra Merkin assented Tuesday to step down as manager of his hedge funds and to place them into receivership.

The financier, philanthropist and former GMAC chairman who steered more than $2 billion of investors’ money into Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was sued Monday by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may be the only player emerging from the AIG mess as a star.

Kirsten Gillibrand is it. The new U.S. Senator from New York. The upstate Congresswoman is widely viewed as smart, tough and an up-and-comer. She is also anti-gun control, which may open her to primary challenges from more liberal Democrats next year.

With Caroline Kennedy out, who is the frontrunner to replace Hillary Clinton as New York’s representative in the U.S. Senate?

He’s been in a California jail cell for months, but the problems of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former fund-raiser Norman Hsu still continue to multiply.

At lunch Tuesday, former New York Stock Exchange CEO Richard Grasso toasted his appeals court victory with a bottle of Peter Michael chardonnay.

There’s more trouble for former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The New York Times reports that Spitzer was “deeply involved” in the effort to discredit State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno last year. Previously, Spitzer had said he was not personally involved.