SUBPOENA DE MAYO

There's the infamous subpoena, including the directive that the recipient not disclose the existence of the subpoena. Nothing special. Standard fare. Of course, people talked about the subpoena and it's content before the ink was dry. Welcome to Rensselaer County, Mr. Soares.

We're still not exactly sure what the DA is looking for with this subpoena. Perhaps it has something to do with Mirch's allegation that Legislator Ginny O'Brien asked him to pick up garbage.

Or, perhaps these are the campaigns that Colleen Regan alleges she and other County employees worked on during the work day. No, on second thought, it's probably the garbage thing.

As an aside, Hummel did not disclose any payment to Victory Lane in his campaign filings. This leads us to believe there were no payments. Hummel's treasurer, Troy attorney Dave Gruenberg, is far to ethical (and smart) to not report such a payment.

IN OTHER NEWS

In other news, word has it that Mr. Mirch has finally filed his own campaign disclosures (dating back to 2003) with the Rensselaer County Board of Elections. Better late then never, Bob.

Mirch had already filed his July 15, 2002 statement with the Board, under the moniker of "Political Endeavors of Bobby Mirch." The treasurer, of course, was Rich Crist. They filed again in January of '03 ("Public Service Pursuits of Bobby Mirch."). Interestingly, Crist was also the Treasurer for the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee in 2005.

***

Rumor has it that Deputy Mayor Dan Crawley is lobbying for a position with the Troy Housing Authority. Rumor also has it that neither Crawley or Mirch will be part of Tutunjian's second Mayorshipitality. Jeff Buell safe-guarded his spokesmans job by disabling the spell-check on Harry's computer.

***

The Troy Polloi has always felt it incumbent to speak out against injustice and to speak up for the weak and downtrodden. Word has spread of another Grave Injustice (or GI) in our fair City. Charges against Rabbit Riley for harassing Bob Mirch have been dropped. As we're sure you remember, Riley was ticketed for poking Mr. Mirch (we believe the actual charge was Third Degree Poking with an attempted Purple Nurple).

Many labeled Mr. Riley a criminal. In point of fact, the charge was a violation. Violations are not crimes. You can be convicted of 100 violations and still not have to check-off that "Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" box on job applications (thank god!). So, feel free to commit all the violations you want.

Dismissing the charges was discrimination, pure and simple. Have men like Riley learned anything? It's the 21st Century! Just because someone dresses provocatively does not mean they are "asking for it."