• The 2008 battle lines are just being drawn, and already they look ugly. Richard Collins, a principal donor to Rudy Giuliani’s political action committee, also turns out to be the main man behind Stop Her Now: a PAC devoted to tainting the presidential prospects of Guess Who. While not illegal, the situation is ever-so-slightly uncouth, especially as Collins has taken to describing himself as Stop Her Now’s “chairman.” [NYT]
• Seems Mike Bloomberg may actually be overdoing the anti-cop stance after the Queens 50-bullet shooting. The mayor said that the cops should face a Queens jury — a reference to the Albany trial in the Diallo case; the statement didn’t sit too well with the officers’ families, since there aren’t even any indictments yet. Everyone else kinda loves the Angry Populist Mike, though. [NYP]
• The belt-tightening program for the New York State health industry, created by a Pataki-led panel, has finally released its report, and the plan would shut down five hospitals in NYC, eliminating 7,000 jobs. City Hall calls the proposal “reasonable,” and Spitzer isn’t commenting. The rest of us will try extra hard to stay healthy. [NYDN]
• Not that anyone expected otherwise, but Coney Island’s Astroland Amusement Park has been sold to a huge developer, Thor Equities. The original owners, the Albert family, will keep the octogenarian Cyclone. The rest of the park will close after the 2007 season for “renovations,” which we somehow doubt include an expanded Shoot the Freak pavilion. [NYDN, amNY]
• And, it wasn’t exactly a crocodile in a sewer, but a two-foot caiman in a cardboard box is close enough. The cops found the “feisty,” in their words, reptile abandoned on a Brooklyn street. In a lovely touch of local color, its jaws were kept shut via a double-knotted sneaker shoelace. [AP via IHT]
