MUSIC TO OUR EARS
An overwhelming majority of Assembly and Senate candidates say they would support the creation of independent judicial qualification panels that would evaluate Supreme Court candidates, the New York Law Journal reports. The candidates were responding to a Fund for Modern Courts poll, in which more than half also said they would favor an appointment system instead of judicial elections.

WHITE COLLAR WOES
Former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso’s tab comes to $112.2 million, according to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. That would leave him less than half of his $187.5 million compensation package for 2003, the AP reports via the New York Sun. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos (see the Judicial Reports profile "Hard-Driving Judge") ordered Grasso to return part of his pay and directed Spitzer’s office to figure out how much the former Big Board chairman should give back. Ramos now is set to rule on whether to accept Spitzer’s recommendation, goverened by the AG's argument that the chairman received compensation that violated state laws about not-for-profit finances. (The exchange has since gone private.) Before Ramos ruled, an internal NYSE report found that Grasso’s compensation was excessive when compared with most American corporations. . . . In other white-collar news in the courts, the Sun reports that Brooklyn federal court judge I. Leo Glasser sentenced the former chief executive of software maker CA Inc. to 12 years in prison for trying to artificially boost his company’s quarterly revenue by backdating sales contracts. Sanjay Kumar was also ordered to pay $8 million restitution.

 
HATE CLAIMS INFINITUM
More hate crime charges, this time against five Orthodox Jewish teenagers accused of beating a Pakistani immigrant in Brooklyn. The attackers allegedly yelled religious epithets while beating Shahid Amber, who is Muslim. The attackers, all from Borough Park, were charged with assault as a hate crime, gang assault, menacing, harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the Daily News. (The paper also picks up the New York Law Journal story from yesterday about Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Jane Solomon’s decision not to allow a New Jersey couple access to their dead son’s sperm donation.)

 
CAN SHE COOK!
We can’t resist this other item from the News : A Brooklyn cop who tested positive for drugs says his wife substituted marijuana for oregano in her homemade meatballs in a misguided attempt to force him to retire.

TRYING TO REMEMBER TO FORGET
A memory expert won’t be allowed to testify in the I. Lewis Libby case, a federal judge in Washington ruled yesterday. The New York Times reports that the defense wanted a psychology professor from the University of California to testify on behalf of Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who is facing trial in connection with C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame’s identity.