Secession Talk Heats Up Again

Taken out of context, it sounds rather impressive:

“It’s a great day for Staten Island,” said [Staten Island Assemblyman Michael] Cusick. “With Governor Spitzer signing this bill, he has truly given Staten Island its independence.”

. . . until you find out that he’s only talking about electing judges.

Didn’t Your Mama Teach You Nothing? It’s “Put Out Or Get Out,” Not “Put Out And Get Out” . . .

Anyone will tell you that when consorting with jailbait down at the park, it’s considered proper form to offer her a ride home afterwards:

As it is, Christopher Coppinger’s callousness after a 13-year-old girl performed a sex act in a South Beach park contributed to his prison sentence.

Coppinger, 18, of Bay Terrace, was sentenced yesterday to 10 months in jail under a plea agreement last month in which the troubled teen admitted to attempted second-degree criminal sexual act.

He and his friend Jason Talanquines, 18, were caught with two underage girls at Ocean Breeze Park in August.

Justice Leonard P. Rienzi granted Coppinger youthful offender status, which frequently indicates probation. The judge based the jail term on Coppinger’s criminal record, the youth of the two girls and “your failure to give a ride.”

. . .

Prosecutors charged that Coppinger and Talanquines picked up the two adolescents at the Grasmere train station, then drove to a wooded area in Ocean Breeze Park, where the girls serviced them. When Coppinger refused to drive the girls home and left them at the park, the 13-year-old girl called 911 and reported the incident.

Cute . . . Until He Had To Recuse Himself When Attorneys From Shavitz & Shavitz Argued Before Him

How performing one’s duties as an officer of the court is like competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs:

Staten Island may become its own judicial district, and may get a new courthouse complex, but Acting Supreme Court Justice Philip Straniere isn’t touching a razor until New York state judges get a raise.

It has been almost nine years since judges have seen a salary increase, and about four months since Straniere last shaved.

“I decided not to shave while on vacation in August,” said Straniere, who is supervising judge of the Civil Court. “Then I decided it would be a good protest beard.”

State judges currently make $135,900, Straniere said.

“It sounds like a lot,” he admitted. “But no one has the same salary for nine years straight.”

And Straniere pointed out that unlike big-league ballplayers like Alex Rodriguez, judges are restricted as to how much outside income they can earn and can’t do endorsements and promotions to make up for those little salary shortfalls.

“You don’t see Nike ads for judicial robes do you?” Straniere said. “Or Hillerich & Bradsby model gavels signed by judges?”

Sports comparisons do not end there:

It’s not the first time that the jurist has gone hyper-hirsute in the the service of a good cause. Straniere also grew out his beard to protest the baseball strike that began in August 1994 and lasted into April 1995, wiping out the 1994 World Series.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Straniere said. “Baseball came back stronger than ever. Hopefully, my colleagues and I will be as successful — and without the use of steroids.”

That beard was shorn before Straniere ran for Civil Court in 1996.

Growing a beard also makes economic sense, Straniere said.

“Think of the money I’m saving on shaving cream and razor blades,” he said. “Besides, the way things are going, my beard should be long enough by Christmas for me to get work as a sidewalk Santa for some charity.”

No Miracle On The Island This Year

. . . and no one feels gelt-y about it:

In the search for the thematic tchotchkes that herald the holiday season, it’s an annual lament on Staten Island that Hanukkah decorations get only a slim section of retailers’ shelf space.

But this year, cries about the scarcity of toy dreidels and blue-and-white napkins amid the dancing Santas and porcelain reindeer have grown even louder.

With the Jewish holiday coming much earlier than Christmas — it starts Tuesday — there have been anecdotal reports from across the Island of struggles to locate Hanukkah greeting cards, wrapping paper and other doodads to brighten up celebrations of the festival of lights.

“I have been trying to buy decorations for a while, there’s very, very little around,” said George Laufer, who every year decorates his daughter’s medical office, his home and nearby Congregation Ohel Abraham, where he is president. “It makes me very upset; especially when they say, ‘We haven’t gotten it in yet.’ If they’re telling us they have nothing, they’re not going to get it — Hanukkah is on Tuesday.”

Laufer said he walked out of several stores in frustration last week after combing through aisles of tree ornaments, felt stockings and wreaths, only to find puny Hanukkah displays hidden like afterthoughts, in cardboard boxes, in the back.

“Hate” Is A Strong Word For It . . .

Well now isn’t that cute:

With all the peace, love and unity in the air at the Petrides school auditorium during yesterday’s “Day Out Against Hate” assembly, one couldn’t help but think of the feud between Borough President James P. Molinaro and District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

Both men attended yesterday’s event, the first time they have been together at a public event since Molinaro went nuclear on his former deputy in the final weeks of Donovan’s recent re-election campaign.

But unlike Martin and Lewis, or Yogi and Steinbrenner, there was no public rapprochement between the two yesterday. They did not speak.

. . .

Molinaro said he didn’t see any incongruity between the theme of yesterday’s event and the feud that he set in motion. “I don’t dislike the man,” he said afterward. “I don’t hate the man. I felt what I felt. It is what it is.”

When asked if he would make some overture to Donovan to mend the rift, Molinaro said, “There hasn’t been close contact for years, so why go there?”