Here’s Sheldon Silver playfully introducing Democratic County Leader Jose Rivera, also an assemblyman, at the Bronx Democratic County Dinner last night.

Silver told the crowd that Rivera was “in the Assembly for five years and he went to Albany Medical Center and the doctor told him to go on light duty. So, he went to the City Council for 13 years. And then he was all cured and he came back. Now he’s working again real hard.”

“I say that in jest,” said Silver to Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Guests also included Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, likely Republican mayoral candidate John Catisimatidis (who had brief chats with Silver and Cuomo); City Council members Eric Gioia, John Liu, and David Weprin; Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV; and former county leader Roberto Ramirez.

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Some other notable expenditures from city candidates, courtesy of intern Bharat Ayyar:

John Liu--whose reluctance to specify his intention for 2009 is keeping Grace Rauh busy--paid $29,340 to the Washington, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners for polling on February 22. He paid an additional $10,366.80 for a “voter survey” from the same company on March 31.

Scott Stringer, who isn’t term-limited in 2009 and whose intentions for the next election are not clear, paid Global Strategy Group $13,7000 for polling on June 27.

Dan Gardonick, a possible City Council speaker candidate, paid $1,020 in rent to State Senator Liz Krueger’s campaign.

Here’s the invitation for tonight’s fund-raiser at the Park Avenue home of major Democratic donor Morris Pearl. The money is going to the campaign of Anchorage mayor Mark Begich, who is running for Senate.

The event is organized by progressive activist and fund-raiser Lewis Cohen, and headlined by City Councilman John Liu.

Liu’s featured spot on the invitation is notable, since he’s term-limited in 2009 and eyeing an unspecified citywide race. Putting him inside the home of Pearl -- who has contributed a few times to mayoral and public advocate candidates -- can’t hurt Liu’s own fund-raising efforts.

There's a new local race to watch in Flushing, where Grace Meng, daughter of former Assemblyman Jimmy Meng, has announced she will run for her father’s old seat.

The seat is now held by Ellen Young, who won it when the elder Meng left after one term, citing health problems. The younger Meng ran then, but abandoned her campaign when Young challenged her residency status.  read more »

Although it seems like the pressure on Christine Quinn over the problems with City Council's finances has eased, at least one council member is only partially satisfied.

John Liu, who has been one of Quinn's most vocal critics since news of the speaker's slush fund became public, gave an interview to WNBC's News Forum in which he said of her new reforms, "I'm not sure how much good it actually does, but at least they don't do any harm."

He also continued to be critical of her original handling of the problem.

Here's the transcript, which was sent over by the network:  read more »

Al Sharpton just finished a press conference with friends and family of Sean Bell, saying they hoped justice would be dispensed by the trial judge, who will announce a verdict Friday.

Sharpton also refuted the notion that their supporter need to be reminded not to act violently if they are unhappy with the decision.

He went on to say that it was the police who acted recklessly when they approached and fired on Bell and his friends without just cause.  read more »

Christine Quinn angered some City Council members when she announced a package of reforms last Friday, but the reaction was reinforced by resentment that's been brewing for some time over her management of the council.  read more »

The only thing that has gotten City Council members more angry than when they found out Christine Quinn’s staff hid millions of dollars in the city budget by assigning it to phony organizations are the reforms she proposed last week to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Quinn proposed Friday to give the executive branch power over $20 million in the speaker's discretionary fund, which many Council members think gives up some of the relatively little power they have.

Today, Quinn faced an unhappy crowd of City Council members who “universally panned,” her plan, according to Peter Vallone, Jr., who spoke to reporters after leaving the nearly hour-long, closed-door meeting. “If we move forward on this, which probably is a good idea, I think we can improve things, we won’t be giving up power to the executive branch,” he said.

“Did anything that the speaker said change my mind? No,” said City Councilman Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, who issued a critical statement as the meeting began. “I think that is a very significant consensus,” he told reporters.  read more »

Just as Christine Quinn began addressing City Council members in a closed-door meeting at City Hall about the appropriation-process reforms she proposed, another member released a statement criticizing those changes as ceding too much power to the mayor.

This is from Jimmy Vacca of the Bronx, and follows last week's sharp rebuke from John Liu and criticism from Lew Fidler:  read more »