Andrew Cuomo

Kerry Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo were married Saturday in a ceremony that merged two of America's most powerful political families. They swore mutual commitment to the oppressed--"the people who have disappeared in El Salvador, the children in shelters in New York." The bride, 30, is the daughter of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and is executive director of the human rights center in New York City that bears his name. The groom, 32, is New York Gov. Mario M.

Eastern states took slow but steady steps toward normalcy Wednesday, coping amid rescue and cleanup efforts after Hurricane Irene turned parts of the rural Northeast into flooded disaster areas. Officials in Vermont continued to airlift supplies — including food, water, medicine and diapers — to people cut off by flooded streams and rivers. But roads across the state were open to emergency vehicles, a step up from Tuesday when at least 13 communities were isolated, according to the Vermont Emergency Operations Center.

Could this be an episode of "Family Feud," New York style? The contestants: Clintons, Kennedys and Cuomos, America's most famous Democratic dynasties. The prize they're sniffing around: a U.S. Senate seat, soon to be vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton. This week, Caroline Kennedy made it clear that she, like Andrew Cuomo, wants Clinton's spot after the senator ascends to secretary of State.

New York's Andrew Cuomo may be a freshman governor, but he's no rookie. For 12 years, during his father's two terms in the governor's mansion, and as attorney general, Cuomo had an up-close look at how Albany works — and its famously gross dysfunction. By all assessments, he drew on that experience to have a productive first legislative session, capped by passage of a same-sex marriage bill while the whole country was watching. Just two years earlier, a measure to legalize same-sex marriage had failed.

Andrew Cuomo, heir to one of the best known names in New York politics, announced Saturday morning that he was running for the job his father, Mario, held for 12 years. Cuomo, New York's Democratic attorney general, surprised no one and yet caught everyone off guard by simply posting a nearly one-hour video on his campaign website. He is expected to make an in-person announcement in Manhattan later Saturday. It has long been clear he was running, especially after the current governor, David Paterson, withdrew from the race.

Days before leaving office, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo settled lawsuits he filed against former Obama administration advisor Steven Rattner. A financier who led the federal bailout and restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, Rattner agreed to pay $10 million to end the civil litigation. The suits accused him of paying more than $1 million in kickbacks to help his former firm, Quadrangle Group, win contracts to manage $150 million in assets in a state pension fund. Rattner was one of several investment managers accused of improperly securing business from the fund.

Despite anger at incumbents across the country, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has spent most of his adult life in government, Tuesday was elected governor of New York, the job his father, Mario, held for three terms. In recent weeks, Democrat Cuomo, 52, ran far ahead of his Republican opponent, Carl Paladino, 64, a crusty Buffalo real estate developer who promised to take a baseball bat to the dysfunctional state government in Albany and came out of the primaries with strong support from the "tea party" movement.

With polls showing him substantially ahead of his Republican opponent, New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has decided not to release his full tax return despite having told reporters that he would. Cuomo, the state’s attorney general, who has fought political corruption and has called for more openness in government, released a summary of his taxes but decided not to release the full tax return before Tuesday’s election. The campaign said there was no need to release the return since Republican candidate Carl Paladino hadn’t.

Bank of America Corp. and its former chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, were accused of fraud Thursday for allegedly failing to disclose huge losses at Merrill Lynch before the brokerage was acquired by the giant bank. The bank and Lewis misled not only its shareholders but also the government about the size of the losses at the height of the financial crisis, according to a lawsuit filed in New York state court by the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo. The purchase of Merrill Lynch has been a long legal headache for Bank of America.

A lawsuit filed against accounting giant Ernst & Young marks one of the biggest government efforts to date to assign blame for the financial crisis. The suit by Andrew Cuomo, the outgoing New York state attorney general, accuses Ernst & Young of helping Lehman Bros. cover up its declining health in the months before the investment bank's collapse in September 2008. Cuomo's complaint, filed in state court, focuses on a set of short-term transactions, begun in 2001, that allowed Lehman to look healthier and less risky when it reported quarterly financial data.

Days before leaving office, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo settled lawsuits he filed against former Obama administration advisor Steven Rattner. A financier who led the federal bailout and restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, Rattner agreed to pay $10 million to end the civil litigation. The suits accused him of paying more than $1 million in kickbacks to help his former firm, Quadrangle Group, win contracts to manage $150 million in assets in a state pension fund. Rattner was one of several investment managers accused of improperly securing business from the fund.

A lawsuit filed against accounting giant Ernst & Young marks one of the biggest government efforts to date to assign blame for the financial crisis. The suit by Andrew Cuomo, the outgoing New York state attorney general, accuses Ernst & Young of helping Lehman Bros. cover up its declining health in the months before the investment bank's collapse in September 2008. Cuomo's complaint, filed in state court, focuses on a set of short-term transactions, begun in 2001, that allowed Lehman to look healthier and less risky when it reported quarterly financial data.

Steven Rattner, who engineered the government's bailout of the auto industry, was sued by New York state in a pension kickback case just as he settled similar federal allegations. Two lawsuits filed Thursday by New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo accuse Rattner of paying state officials to steer investment work to his former private equity firm, Quadrangle Group. The suits seek to permanently bar Rattner from the securities industry and to force him to pay at least $26 million.

Despite anger at incumbents across the country, New York Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has spent most of his adult life in government, Tuesday was elected governor of New York, the job his father, Mario, held for three terms. In recent weeks, Democrat Cuomo, 52, ran far ahead of his Republican opponent, Carl Paladino, 64, a crusty Buffalo real estate developer who promised to take a baseball bat to the dysfunctional state government in Albany and came out of the primaries with strong support from the "tea party" movement.

With polls showing him substantially ahead of his Republican opponent, New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has decided not to release his full tax return despite having told reporters that he would. Cuomo, the state’s attorney general, who has fought political corruption and has called for more openness in government, released a summary of his taxes but decided not to release the full tax return before Tuesday’s election. The campaign said there was no need to release the return since Republican candidate Carl Paladino hadn’t.

Carl Paladino, a self-made multimillionaire who wants to be governor of New York, has set up shop in the lobby of a low-budget hotel in midtown Manhattan. This real estate developer from downtown Buffalo has been giving media interviews back to back since he trounced an establishment Republican last month to become the party's nominee. He is visibly exhausted, shirt rumpled, dark circles under his eyes. But when the subject turns to New York's state legislators, he is suddenly renewed, pounding his fist on the table with the ferocity of the jackhammer breaking up the sidewalk outside the hotel.

ALL SHOOK UP: Andrew Cuomo, an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development and son of the New York governor, complained to aides that his desk occasionally trembled. A baffled building crew couldn't find a thing until superintendent Elaine Robinson opened a drawer and discovered Cuomo's pager, which vibrates when activated, displaying a dozen unanswered calls.

The race to be the next governor of New York became a two-man heat Monday. In one of those the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend moments, Rick Lazio, a former congressman from Long Island, took himself out of the running in order to give "tea party" favorite Carl Paladino a better shot at beating their Democratic rival, state Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo. This month, Lazio lost badly to Paladino for the Republican nomination, yet kept his name on the ballot for the November election as the Conservative Party candidate.