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Brooklyn DA Charles "Joe" Hynes, not as visually compelling as Snooki.

You know, it used to be the case that if two New York politicians needed to settle a score, one could shoot the other in the gut. The contenders for Brooklyn district attorney aren't so quaint. Still, at least one is using the most familiar weapon in his arsenal: The lawsuit.

Abe George is a candidate for Brooklyn DA (he's also published an op-ed here on Runnin' Scared) who believes that an upcoming CBS TV series about incumbent DA Charles "Joe" Hynes violates campaign finance law. Today, George and his political action committee are filing a complaint against Hynes and CBS, claiming that a "six-part news series" following the attorneys in Hynes' office and airing May 28 amounts to undisclosed publicity--a "contribution-in-kind" from CBS that adds up to much more than the legal $5,000 campaign contribution limit from corporations.

"They're going to say that this is a news program, and therefore it's exempt," George told the Voice. "We're saying it's an infomercial and therefore it's not exempt."

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Some the library books ruined in the November 2011 police raid on Zuccotti Park.

In an agreement announced today, the City of New York will pay more than $365,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by people whose property was destroyed when the New York Police Department raided Zuccotti Park and evicted Occupy Wall Street on Nov. 15, 2011.

Occupy Wall Street had brought the suit against the city over the destruction of the People's Library, a collection of about 5,500 donated books that formed a central part of the community that sprang up for two months in the park. In the eviction, many of the books were completely destroyed, and others were so badly damaged as to be unusable. Occupy Wall Street claimed $47,000 in damages, all of which the city agreed to pay today.

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The disputed fences around Chase Manhattan Plaza.

A year and a half after the fences first went up around Chase Manhattan Plaza, new court filings show the fight over public access to the space is still heated.

We've written extensively about the fight over the fences, which were first erected the day before Occupy Wall Street protesters first gathered in Lower Manhattan. Open space activists initially challenged Chase's unilateral closure of a treasured downtown plaza on the grounds that the fencing violated prohibitions against altering the exterior of landmarked buildings. Chase countered that the fencing was only temporary, and was needed not to keep out the bank's critics, but rather to protect the public during scheduled maintenance on the plaza. The landmarks challenge fizzled, and the fences stayed up, though neighborhood residents saw little if any maintenance work being performed behind the fences.

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Trinity Wall Street's leadership is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that it propped itself up with unlawful voting protocols.

Trinity Wall Street, the venerable Episcopal church that has anchored lower Manhattan since 1697, has been roiled by internal turmoil for a while, and the hits just keep coming.

As we wrote in our December cover story, Trinity's congregation has been rocked by tumultuous disagreements over the church's controversial rector, James Cooper. A year and a half ago, some members of Trinity's vestry -- a vestry is something like a board of directors -- sought to persuade Cooper to leave. Instead, Cooper stayed, and managed to force out all the vestry members who didn't support him, using his control over the vestry-selection process. Now that control is the subject of a lawsuit.

The suit, filed Monday by Jeremy Bates, who has attended Trinity since 2004, alleges that the mechanism Cooper used to stack the vestry with his supporters is actually contrary to the church's own charter.

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All city workers called to military duty after 9/11 will be represented in a lawsuit to recover unpaid pension funds.

In early August, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of three retired NYPD officers seeking to recoup pension funds they would've earned had they not been called to active duty.

Bharara announced the expansion of the lawsuit yesterday. The original lawsuit argues that the New York City Police Pension Fund failed to calculate the amount of money officers would've have made in overtime and other bonus earnings if the military hadn't mandated their service.

"As we said when we filed our class action lawsuit on behalf of retired NYPD officers who were called to active duty after 9/11, we are committed to ensuring that all retired City employees who selflessly and bravely served our country since 9/11 receive the benefits to which they are legally entitled," Bharara said in a release.

"Since the lawsuit was filed we have received dozens of inquiries from veterans who worked in other City agencies, prompting the expansion of our investigation," he said.

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Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan has news for the gossip blogsters over at Gawker: I'm comin' after you, brother!

But it's not Hogan and his 24-inch pythons that the gossip site needs to worry about, it's his attorneys.

Gawker was named in a $100 million lawsuit filed by Hogan -- whose real name is Terry Bollea -- over a sex tape the Hulkster made with the wife of his best friend, Florida-based DJ "Bubba the Love Sponge.

The tape was "leaked" (read: probably purchased) by Gawker, and published on its website earlier this month.

Also named in the lawsuit are "Sponge," and his now-ex-wife, Heather Clem.

When asked if the website had any comment about Hogan's lawsuit, A.J. Daulerio, the bolgger who posted the video, tells the Voice "nada."

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www.chicagonow.com

A Queens teacher/former 220-pound college football player was so humiliated when he supposedly got beat up by a 50-pound 6-year-old that he had to see a psychiatrist to get over the emotional trauma. He's also suing the city -- and telling the media all about it.

John Webster, a 27-year-old gym teacher at PS 330, claims 6-year-old Rodrigo Carpio threw a temper tantrum earlier this year, during which he kicked and bit the former Morrisville State College tailback, causing a broken ankle, an injured knee and "emotional distress."

Again, Webster is now telling his story to the media so we can all share his (ahem) humiliation.

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When the city Industrial Development Agency voted back in February to give FreshDirect $128 million in tax breaks and other goodies to move their shipping headquarters from Queens to the Bronx, local residents who were peeved at the prospect of a fleet of produce-laden trucks idling all night -- in a borough that isn't even currently until last month wasn't even served by FreshDirect -- vowed to keep up the fight. And fight they are, as this afternoon New York Lawyers for the Public Interest will file a lawsuit against the IDA on behalf of South Bronx residents, charging that the agency skimped on the environmental review required by state law.

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America, fuck no!

Runnin' Scared recently brought you news of the damning 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision that OKs strip searches for any offense -- even something so minor as an unpaid parking ticket.

Yes, it is absurd -- and just plain wrong -- that jailers can now make inmates undergo cavity searches for a parking ticket.

And specifically in New York, there are plenty of minor offenses in the penal code that can lead to these invasive investigations.

Some of these crimes?

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www.yvpc.edu

*UPDATE: Click here to see MTA's response to Jenkins' allegations.

Reginald Jenkins, a former coach cleaner for the Metro-North Railroad, is described by his attorney as a "proud gay man." So, when he claims some of his co-workers started shouting "kill them faggots dead" while shuttling people to and from last year's Gay Pride Parade, he didn't find it nearly as amusing as some of his colleagues. When his foreman allegedly spent the rest of that day calling him "cupcake," Jenkins claims he became "physically ill" from the stress it caused.

"It was extremely disconcerting to be surrounded by co-workers yelling about killing gay people," Jenkins says. "I am proud of who I am, but I know how hostile people can be. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done to experience this and feel like it was to dangerous to speak up."

Jenkins has since spoken up -- he's currently suing the MTA for $1.5 million.

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