SPITZER'S CHOICE:
Today's New York Sun has an informative piece about the seven candidates Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer must pick from to replace Judge Albert Rosenblatt — who retires this January — on the New York State Court of Appeals. Since 1978, candidates for vacancies on the state's highest court have been selected by the Commission on Judicial Nomination, a 12-member body that in recent years has been stacked by George Pataki with close associates and ideological kin. Among this year's interesting subplots: after Pataki failed to reappoint African American Judge George Bundy Smith in September, leaving the court without a black member for the first time in recent memory, Spitzer will no doubt feel pressured to choose either Theodore Jones, Jr, an African American Supreme Court judge in Brooklyn who handled last year's notorious transit union strike, or Juanita Bing Newton, also black, who is the administrative judge of New York City's Criminal Court.

 
REPAY STAY
Reuters reports this morning that the Appellate Division gave former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso a temporary break – granting a stay on Thursday for an order to return about $100 million paid to him by the Big Board. On Oct. 19, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos said in a 72-page ruling that Grasso must repay at least $100 million of payments and interest Grasso received during his tenure as head of the Big Board.

DA BULLDOG
Another profile this morning on Queens DA Richard Brown, this one in the New York Times. In charge of the grand jury investigation of Saturday’s fatal shooting involving a multiracial squad of undercover officers and a carload of black men, Brown has to do some "unopinionated explaining." In the story the DA opines: "I don’t see this as being a hate crime or a racially motivated crime in any sense. It’s a no-brainer that it’s the kind of incident that cries out for an investigation by a grand jury, not that I’m afraid of making factual decisions on my own.” Robin Finn describes Brown, who is 74, as “bulldog-ish” – a man with “a sizable ambition and ego intent on compiling a civic legacy that survives any and all smirches” – this investigation seems likely to test the durability of that legacy.

And in related news, after reports of home raids throughout southeastern Queens, investigators Thursday night reportedly detained a man they believe may have been the so-called “fourth man” with 23-year-old Sean Bell when he was shot dead by police on Saturday, NY1 reports.

 
PAYING THE PIPER
No criminal charges against Emani Taylor, the Brooklyn lawyer who was accused of bilking former Civil Court Judge John Phillips while acting as his court-appointed guardian, the New York Post reports . Taylor is believed by investigators to have improperly paid herself about $187,000 from the estate of the Alzheimer’s-stricken retired judge. Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says the matter will be referred to the Appellate Division’s Disciplinary Committee instead. ... And, the lawyer for Brooke Astor’s son is asking her estate to pay $425,000 in legal fees. “Harvey Corn - who represented Anthony Marshall in the ugly family feud over his multimillionaire mother's medical care and finances - has filed court papers asking to be paid legal fees and expenses from the 104-year-old philanthropist's bank account.” The Post reports it’s the first bill in the feud to become public.

SILVER'S MILLIONS
The results are in - the Albany Times-Union prints today two stories on the legislative spending records it fought so hard to get. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, it turns out, directed $23.6 million to “pet projects”, among them to groups represented by one of his lobbyist friends. “Silver sent grants from his personal basket of funds to at least two groups represented by his friend, lobbyist Patricia Lynch. Lynch served as Silver's top aide for years before opening a lobbying firm, which has become one of the biggest outside of Washington, D.C.” Despite the hype preceding the release of the records, they don’t seem to reveal many surprises – scandalous favors or otherwise.