Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Rudy Is Just Another Victim of the Recession | Rudy Giuliani's consulting business isn't the moneymaker it once was. The ex-mayor's firm, Giuliani Partners, has lost a number of clients and top execs in recent months, and now has about half the number of employees it had at its peak a couple of years ago. Some suggest the decline can be attributed to the recession, or perhaps all the time he spends out of the office making public appearances and tending to his law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani. (Or maybe  his golf obsession has returned?) But leave it to Giuliani boosters to find a way to spin it into a positive: "Some said not having a raft of new clients could be helpful should he run for statewide office—since his business dealings become fodder for opposition research during the presidential run." [NYP]

Islam Karimov is the autocratic leader of Uzbekistan and a man routinely described as one of the worst dictators on earth by the likes of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. (The group Common Dreams once suggested he's so bad that he made Saddam "look good.") Since taking over the oil and gas-rich country in 1989, he's plundered billions, held fake elections to keep himself in power, censored the media, and tortured those who dare to challenge him, often using some of the most barbarian methods to do so, like submerging them in boiling water. And now he's coming to visit New York! Not really. But we wondered: What would happen if one of the most evil tyrants did decide to come to New York. Would he receive a warm welcome from the local political establishment? We wanted to know. So we did what you'd probably do in such a situation: We printed up some official-looking letterhead and sent out letters to various City Council members and local congressmen to see if they'd take the meeting. And guess what? Lots of influential politicos have no objection to sitting down with one of the worst men on earth. Details on the people we duped—with audio of their calls to Karimov's "office"—after the jump. More