1. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, running for Senate, expressing dismay Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced her bill on Sept. 11 worker health.

2. Nassau Conservative chairman Roger Bogsted slamming Nassau GOP chairman Joseph Mondello, for allegedly trying to subvert Bogsted’s support of Legis. Joseph Scannell.

3. Sarah Palin saying she was resigning as Alaska governor so her administration “can continue without interruption.”

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Here's the latest on the Albany deadlock from Mr. Madore:

Paterson should use a little-known provision of the Public Officers Law to break the stalemate by appointing a lieutenant governor, good-government groups and an assemblyman said Monday.

Citizens Union, Common Cause and Assemb. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) urged Paterson to exercise the authority given him by Section 43 of the Public Officers Law. It reads in part, “if a vacancy shall occur, otherwise than by expiration of term, with no provision of the law for filling the same, if the office be elective, the governor shall appoint a person to execute the duties thereof until the vacancy shall be fill by an election."

The constitution and statutes don’t provide for special elections for governor or lieutenant governor should vacancies occur. The other statewide offices, comptroller and attorney general, are filled by the legislature in case of vacancy.

Of course, there's no lieutenant governor at the moment.

However, Gianaris, right, said the groups’ idea was presented to Paterson several weeks ago and he hasn’t yet made a decision.

“I urge the governor to make this appointment as quickly as possible so the State Legislature can resume its work and pass the dozens of important measures that await action," said Gianaris who added . . .

When he served as president of Teamsters Local 282, based in Lake Success and representing private construction workers, Gary LaBarbera won praise for transforming the organization from a mob enterprise into "a model of union democracy," in the words of his lawyer, Bruce Maffeo. Two years ago, LaBarbera was called in to help salvage the New York City Central Labor Council after ex-Assemb. Brian McLaughlin - due this month to begin serving 10 years for theft - was ousted as leader.

Surprisingly LaBarbera, of Wantagh, now finds himself fighting possible expulsion from membership in the local - which Robert Machado, the local's federally-assigned investigation officer, recommended.

The issue, before the local's executive board, involves Brer-Four Transportation, a unionized Hicksville company that ran a nonunion "alter ego" affiliate, which allowed payments due the union funds to be avoided. Machado claims LaBarbera, now an official of the Building and Construction Trades Council, told him in 2002 that an audit deemed the company "clean" - though the audit wasn't finished and later proved shoddy.

Maffeo, of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, calls the charges a "baseless" bid to keep Machado in the job.

(Disclosure: The writer of this, and other editorial employees of Newsday, are members of a separate Teamsters division.)

Just last Tuesday, he was on a panel about social media’s impact on government at the Personal Democracy Forum at Lincoln Center in New York City. And he just redesigned his Web site to highlight social media.

Indeed, Israel has more tweets, 100, and more followers, 1,400, on Twitter than anyone else in the delegation, and his 5,551 channel views of his YouTube site dwarfs those of other House members from New York.

He even does well in the old media, ranking third in the delegation with 434 hits since January on the Nexis newspapers and newswires database, trailing only Carolyn Maloney (815) and Charles Rangel (649).

But Israel has apparently neglected one forum: the House floor.

According to Capitol Words (capitolwords.org), which counts words in the Congressional Record from floor speeches and later submissions, Israel ranks as the seventh “most silent” member of all 535 members of Congress in the past two months.

In fact, he ranks second to last, with 300 words spoken on the House floor, in the New York delegation over the past year, from June 2008 to June 2009, Capitol Words says. Maloney ranked first, with 4,107 words.

Israel’s spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said Israel has been too busy with his work on the House Appropriations Committee to make speeches on the floor of the House.
“Some people like to talk,” she said. “Congressman Israel likes to deliver to his constituents.”

Below is a sample of the Congressman's party promotion.

And after the 'continued' click, you can see how the Long Island Five rank among the 29 New York House members, including the video lovin' Peter 'King of Pop Knocker" King:

At the bishop’s request, co-developer and Islanders owner Charles Wang gave a presentation for parishoners two Sundays ago, June 28th, in the basement of St. Martha’s Church in Uniondale.

A spokesman for the diocese, Sean Dolan, said the bishop was traveling and could not be reached for comment, but that he supports the project because of the jobs it would create.

The project is scheduled for a public hearing Tuesday before the Hempstead Town Board.

[Wang, in suit, with two unidentified priests and a lay person at the St.Martha’s meeting - photo courtesy of the Lighthouse Group]

Matt Miner, a deputy health commissioner, is the leading contender to replace deputy Suffolk executive Jeff Szabo, when he leaves to take a post at the Suffolk Water Authority, according to several political sources.

Miner, 42, is a $132,327 a year deputy who oversees administration in the $379.5-million health department which has 1,317 employees.

A spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy spokesman declined to comment on a successor, but other administration sources say that Levy “has someone in mind” for the post but declined to say who. Others who may be under consideration include Carrie Meeks Gallagher, his top environmental aide and Janet DeMarzo, until recently Social service commissioner, now chief deputy.

Miner, a Center Moriches resident, who is registered as a Conservative Party member, has worked for the county since 2006. Before that, he worked for Brookhaven and the Town of North Hemsptead.

Szabo, who spent 12 years as an aide to Levy, will start his new job July 28. The authority’s five member board approved his appointment as the $155,000 a year special projects coordinator Tuesday night at its Oakdale headquarters. Authority sources say that Szabo is likely to succeed Stephen Jones as the authority’s CEO next spring.

There is also speculation that a Miner promotion could also open a place for DeMarzo in the health department where she once worked.

Rick Brand

(Newsday File Photo / Michael E. Ach)

Here's the full dispatch from Rick Brand on a Suffolk lawsuit to combat the ouster of police brass from police organizations:

County Attorney Christine Malafi may be using public money on what critics say is a “private” $12.25 million person injury lawsuit for top police brass, axed from various police groups, but she forgot about Sheriff Vincent DeMarco.

DeMarco was also ousted from the Suffolk County Police Conference around the same time as Police Commissioner Richard Dormer and his deputy, Roger Shannon for their role in having deputy sheriff replace the police highway patrol on key roads.

Malafi said she was not even aware that DeMarco, a Conservative, had been dumped from the police conference.

DeMarco, however, said he does not feel slighted. “If they don’t want me in their club I don’t want to be in their club either.”

Meanwhile, the reason that the law firm Lamb and Barnosky has not filed any bills on the Dormer lawsuit since the $3,685 invoice in December is that the firm has no 2009 contract with the county. Between 2005 and 2008, the firm has billed the county $1.45 million.

In a letter, Richard Zuckerman, the county’s labor lawyer from the firm, said that the firm had another bill from February but would not submit it until the contract is finalized.

The lawsuit was filed in April and Malafi could give no estimate of how much it has cost so far or could not say when the contract, already six month overdue, will be finalized.

In a two-minute YouTube video that appears to have been smuggled out of Iran, King has his say about the nonstop Jackson coverage the last nine days. He somehow blames the intense interest in the suspicious death of the biggest pop star of his generation on political correctness and the media, King's old standbys.

"Let’s knock out the psychobabble. He was a pervert, a child molester, he was a pedophile," King says in the video, posted Sunday. "And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? I just think we’re too politically correct.

"No one wants to stand up and say we don’t need Michael Jackson. He died, he had some talent, fine. There’s men and women dying every day in Afghanistan. Let’s give them the credit they deserve."

Reached at his home Sunday night, King said he was tired of seeing Jackson "treated like the hero of civilization."

"The bottom line is, he’s a pervert," King said. "He was endangering young children and all these people who say he's a great hero would never let their children or grandchildren near him."

Full text of King's remarks after the jump.

Mr. Madore notes in Newsday that Long Island's own Senate GOP leader Skelos speaks with subtle diplomacy pending a 6 p.m. convening of the divided house today, faux or otherwise.

Meanwhile, it is our impression that Gov. Paterson keeps pushing things court-ward, per Ken Lovett, with a move to have a judge decide on cutting off the legislators' pay. But what about the two-for-one Taylor Law penalties that his dad's clients at the TWU drew in 2006 for striking?

Count Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who was on hand at the Republican National Convention last year to cheer the introduction of Gov. Sarah Palin to the rest of the nation, among those who think her resignation as Alaska governor is geared toward a 2012 presidential run.

"I would think so," he said. "I don't have any claims to inside knowledge. I talked to her when she came to Long Island last month, and urged her to stay engaged on a national level and stay in the national arena. I never thought she'd be stepping down."

As for being active in national politics, he said, "I don't know how you'd do it from Alaska. It's another world geographically, politically and media-wise. . . .

"It would give her an opportunity to break loose from the chains of local politics and a very small population with a lot of ancient feuds, where you're bogged down by the Lilliputians there."

She can be on a national stage more often, he said, adding: "She's a lightning rod. That can be good for her. . . . We have a lot of boring people in the Republican party. . . . she certainly engages."

(Sarah Palin at Wasilla, Alaska, resignation announcement; AP Photo)

Either way she's due to move out of the Alaska governorship and who knows -- perhaps straight into the 2012 presidential race. Or not.

Who knows? Maybe Judge Scalia can roll into town -- and do one of his famous judicial fixes on behalf of the GOP replete with July 4 fireworks.

County Executive Steve Levy, Democrat -- an interesting prospect for statewide office if nothing else -- emerges this week with his announcement that he's going to court to get the Legislature off its collective bottom. How his effort might change the status quo remains to be seen. Who's to say it isn't worth a shot, given the arc of this story? Suozzi seems to be glomming all the local TV face time on this anyway.

First a judge told the feuding legislative sides to get lost, but then another judge ordered them to go into session at a designated time.

It's not like this is getting any more cohesive as we go into Independence Day weekend.

PLAYBOY: Will you run for office?

BALDWIN: I’ll put it this way. The desire is there; that’s one component. The other component is opportunity. A law firm in a liberal Democratic bastion in Ohio state politics sent me a binder with a cover letter that read, “Mr. Baldwin, here’s who we represent, the kinds of cases we handle, our credentials in Ohio state politics. We want you to move to Ohio and run for governor. We will launch your career.”

PLAYBOY: Could you live in Ohio?

BALDWIN: I have sometimes thought I could move to New Jersey or Connecticut and run. I’d love to run against Joe Lieberman. I have no use for him. But it’s all fantasy. I’m a carry-me-out-in-a-box New Yorker. Here, anything can happen. Who thought Eliot Spitzer would go down the way he did? Senator Hillary Clinton left to serve as secretary of state. Two of the biggest forces gone. Maybe Andrew Cuomo will run for one of their old seats. How much longer will Chuck Schumer stay as senator? After 2013 Bloomberg will be gone. What happens then?

Do I run for Congress on Long Island? What’s Tim Bishop going to do? He represents my district. People get sick, die. They’re offered lucrative deals and want to cash in and make money for their retirement. People misstep. Unfortunately, an opportunity for me may mean bad things for someone else. I don’t wish that.

So here's an out-of-the-box political initiative: What if Baldwin ran as that inspirational character in Glen Garry Glen Ross? What would his first campaign staff meeting look like? Does he remind you of anyone now on the political scene? Check below:

The claims, accurate as far as we can tell, are nonetheless reminiscent of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s claims on crime reduction years ago.

Yes, education statistics are improving in NYC, but they’re also improving in other jurisdictions, which is not noted in the flier.

Giuliani claimed credit for dropping crime rates in the 1990s, ignoring more significant drops elsewhere — and ignoring the fact that crime stats were getting better before he took office.

Bill Murphy

LIBN's political blog has previously posted a good summary of the mechanics here.

Like other legislation, it is in limbo due to the 31-31 tie between the major parties.

We ran into the former Brookhaven supervisor in a Capitol hallway Wednesday where he expressed the sentiment that if you're going to have leadership fights, they ought to come at the beginning of sessions, not on the verge of the traditional busy season when so much of the year's legislation goes through the houses.