From AP:The call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is suing the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video series for more than $10 million.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre filed a lawsuit Monday in Miami federal court claiming she never gave “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis permission to use her name and likeness to advertise the videos.

Dupre contends she was 17 and not old enough to sign a contract when the videos were taken in 2003 in Miami Beach.

A spokesman for Francis didn’t immediately return a call for comment Monday.
The now 22-year-old Dupre was identified in March as a prostitute named “Kristen” who had been involved with Spitzer. He has since resigned.

State Assemblyman Greg Ball sent out a copy of a mailer today touting some upcoming fund raisers. On one side are the upcoming events. On the other is a copy of a New York Times story about Ball’s actions during the state Legislature’s vote for a new comptroller.

If you remember, Ball, R-Carmel, criticized the Legislature for backing one of their own for the position left empty by the resignation of Alan Hevesi. Here’s the story, notice the date.

Now, here is Ball’s mailer with the same story but dated a year later, 2008 instead of 2007. (Right click on the previous link if you’re having trouble downloading the mailer.)

Maybe it’s a typo and someone needs to check the calendar. Or maybe it’s an effort to freshen things up.

Spurred on by anger over high taxes and proposed raises for County Legislators, the move to abolish Westchester County government may not be rolling yet, but it’s at least at the starting line.  Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Yonkers City Councilwoman Joan Gronowski hold their first joint meeting of the Committee to Abolish County Government,  Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Will Library on Central Avenue near Tuckahoe Road in Yonkers. The meeting is open to the public.

Among the first actions the committee plans will be a petition drive calling on New York State to commission an independent study to look into Connecticut’s experiences and how that state, which abolished county government several decades ago, manages. For more information contact Feiner at 914-438-1343 or Gronowski at 914-377-6313 or 914-589-8213.

The New York Racing Association announced today that a bankruptcy judge has signed off on its reorganization plan, meaning the state’s bailout got the approval from thecourts.

In one of his final acts before he resigned, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer approved a 25-year deal with NYRA to continue to run racing at Aqueduct and Belmont in the New York City-area and at Saratoga, north of Albany.

The state also included a $105 million bailout of NYRA to help them get out of bankruptcy. The state gets to own the land at the tracks and form a new NYRA board.

“Today’s confirmation represents one of the most significant events in what has been a complex and protracted franchise process,” said NYRA Chairman C. Steven Duncker.

The Associated Press, meanwhile is reporting that the creators of the Hard Rock Cafe and the Mohegan Sun casino are vying to run video lottery terminals at Aqueduct.

The companies who have submitted proposals to run the VLT parlors include: Capital Play Inc. and the Mohegan Sun casino; Aqueduct Gaming, which includes Delaware North Companies Gaming and Entertainment and Saratoga Harness Racing; and SL Green Realty Corp., a New York City developer with plans to build a Hard Rock entertainment facility.

Every three months, from the start of the war in Iraq, Greg Mitchell, editor of the news industry trade magazine Editor & Publisher, would write a column asking when a major newspaper was going to call for a pullout.

It never happened, until last year, said Mitchel, who speaks tomorrow at the Nyack public library. His talk will focus on his newly-released and much publicized book, “So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits – and the President – Failed on Iraq” (Union Square Press).

Read more about this event at Book by Book.

Politics on The Hudson has already noted state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s apparent fixation with Westchester County — he’s made several high-profile visits so far this year

Well, he’s coming again.

DiNapoli will be the “special guest speaker” at the Westchester Democratic Committee’s annual dinner on June 19th, according to a letter Chairman Reginald LaFayette sent to party members late last week.

The dinner begins at 6 p.m. at the VIP Club in New Rochelle.

Soaring gas prices continue to provide fodder for candidates. Sen. Hillary Clinton today announced a plan to ease motorists’ pain.

Among other things, Clinton would impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies and use the money to suspend the gas tax for the peak summer months. She would also close ”$7.5 billion in oil and gas loopholes” and use the funds to help low income families pay food and energy bills.

Locally, Westchester Legislator George Oros, a Cortlandt Republican and a candidate in the 19th Congressional District, issued a press release today calling upon the Board of Legislators to halt the collection of county sales taxes on gasoline purchases.

Gov. David Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno were all hugs this morning at an event in Troy, where the Democratic governor and the Republican Senate leader announced a $10 million grant for an environmental research facility along the Hudson River.

“This governor gets it. He understands what partnering is all about,” Bruno said as he introduced Paterson. “The people of this state need your leadership and they are getting it. We all here are indebted to all the good things that you are doing.”

When Paterson arrived, he joked with Bruno that his motorcade stopped at one point on the way to the event, but said “We better start moving. He’s going to think we are staking him out”—a reference to the Troopergate scandal that engulfed his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer.

Paterson said that partnering with the opposing party shouldn’t be seen as a sign of “weakness.”

“It just shows the balance that is needed in government,” Paterson said. “There’s a sense that if people have an understanding of each other and they get along and they are of opposite parties this is a sign of weakness. It’s actually a sign of strength.”

The Journal News’ Jonathan Bandler today sent along word that the Mount Vernon Democratic party has a new vice chairman and there’s speculation that he could soon replace the embattled Serapher Conn-Halevi as head of the party.

Deveraux Cannick, a criminal defense lawyer who was legal counsel to the Mount Vernon Board of Education for several years, was elected second vice chairman by district leaders.

Conn-Halevi said earlier in the week that she had no plans to step down. But she declined to answer questions about her long term plans and could not be reached for comment after Thursday night’s meeting.

Reginald Lafayette, the former city chairman who heads the county Democratic Party, remains the first vice chairman. He said he would not take over the city party again if Conn-Halevi was to step down.

LaFayette said he has not urged Conn-Halevi to step down but understood she was considering it because of what he considered unfair criticism leveled at her.

The Journal News has published several articles about her in recent months. One revealed that she paid herself and her daughter several thousand dollars from a political committee she runs. Another disclosed that the city building commissioner gave her a permit for renovation work to her home after it was damaged by fire without making her get the necessary approval from the Architectural Review Board.

Lafayette said the negative articles were the product of a smear campaign by
people who don’t like Conn-Halevi. “It becomes a hit job, which damages people and they don’t want to fight anymore,” he said.

Cannick, 55, could not be reached for comment. He is a principal partner in the Queens law firm Aiello & Cannick. The city’s new inspector general, Harry Stokes, was also a lawyer at that firm in recent years.

In addition to stoking the ire of motorists, steadily rising gas prices are providing candidates with an easy issue to raise as they head into the summer campaign season.

Today, it was Republican Bill Gouldman, who is seeking to unseat Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, an Ossining Democrat, in the 90th Assembly District. Gouldman held a press conference outside a Croton gas station to call for a cut in taxes on gasoline purchases.

“It is outrageous that both the State and Federal governments are getting tax windfalls as people suffer,” Gouldman said in a press release sent out by his campaign. “Politicians in Albany and Washington are out of touch with the everyday hardships people are facing. They lack the common sense that is needed to act now to help ease the burden that people are facing,”

UPDATE – Rep. Eliot Engel, who is running for re-election this fall, just issued a press release calling upon the Bush administration “to halt buying oil to fill the strategic petroleum reserve, as a means of lowering the price of gasoline before the summer travel season.”