At the time, Hernandez was working on a piece about the obvious cronyism that passed for the administration's "public search" for the best candidate, and figured that conversations between Black and the Mayor's office would be illuminating. (Emails sent from government addresses generally constitute official government business and are, with few exceptions, fair game for FOIL requests.) The Mayor's office denied the request under an exemption for "communications that, if disclosed, would result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

• Dave Chapelle was actually a no-show at this fundraiser.

Last year, you may recall, he lost handily, shortly after Brooklyn Paper revealed that he owed more than $600,000 in unpaid taxes. Given the two-year election cycle, he's been running for Congress more or less continuously for longer than I've lived in the neighborhood (before the 2008 general election, his people were already leaving spam comments about his 2010 candidacy. That was fun).

But this glorious age of Kevin Powell's permanent unsuccessful candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives has come to a close, the Patch reveals, quoting a letter Powell sent to his supporters in which he announced his intention not to run for Congress in 2012. Farewell, Kevin: we'll always have the frank discussions about race you facilitated on MTV in the early 1990s.

• Marty Markowitz is very sad that he missed the first audition to be the Brooklyn Nets' announcer.

Last we heard it sounded pretty likely—though not completely certain—that current Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz will be retiring from politics when his current term ends in 2013. But just because he's (probably) leaving public office doesn't mean he has to cease being Brooklyn's most boisterous spokesman: the Brooklyn Nets need an announcer, and we think Marty'd be perfect for the job.

• Want to re-draw these lines? You'll have to skip work.

Americans love to lament how little Americans actually care about participating in their popular democracy. These same Americans, who forget that the presidential two-party system inherently has lower voter turnout rates than a proportional representation system (and don’t give the issue much thought), usually don’t notice the little things politicians do to discourage public participation in government, like holding public hearings about congressional and state redistricting in New York state at 10am on a weekday.

• America just took a Turner for the worse

As soon as I was old enough to vote, I started voting for losing candidates. (Way to go, Mark Green.) And though I didn't vote in either of the big special elections in Brooklyn yesterday because I don't live in the districts, I learned this morning that the candidates I would have supported lost.

In Anthony Weiner's old district, Republican Bob Turner beat Democrat David Weprin 54 to 46. Weprin was a John Kerry-like candidate: he didn't inspire your support except by virtue of his opposition—the odious Bob Turner, whose campaign strategy involved vilifying Muslims and homosexuals to exploit the prejudices of the conservative-minded voters. The district might be heavily registered Democratic, but it went 44 percent for McCain in 2008 and 70 percent for Bloomberg the following year. "The district’s Russian and Orthodox Jewish populations have been trending hard to the Republican Party in recent election cycles," the Brooklyn Politics reported, "while the district’s Irish and Italians were already with the GOP."

Why shouldn't progressives support the Democrat in this election?
A lot of progressive folks are very angry right now because they feel like the Democrats in Albany—and Washington, D.C.—aren't doing enough to fight for a more just and fair society. The truth is that folks in Brooklyn have felt that way about our elected officials for a long time. Many of them are not responsive to our community and don't represent our needs or our interests. The Democratic party-bosses gave their ballot line to a party foot soldier who is also running on the Conservative party line. He's clearly not a progressive—he publicly declared that he's anti-choice and anti-gay marriage. Plus he is for trust management. In this election, the real Democrat is running on the Working Families Party line.

• This is never a good sign.

If you’re an elected official and you want to exit a parade route to attend a luncheon, don’t do it when the New York Police Department is buzzing around. You will be arrested. And your time will be horribly wasted. Yesterday, city councilman Jumaane Williams and a staffer to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Kirsten John Foy, were handcuffed and Foy was shoved to the ground (see video below) after they attempted to exit the West Indian Day Parade to dine at a luncheon at the Brooklyn Museum.

• Diane J. Savino (insert), and her new car. (Photos via Facebook/Diane J. Savino)

The king of enjoyably snarky Facebook politicians, Anthony Weiner, has self-destructed, leaving a great void. Luckily, a queen has arrived to fill that much-needed space: State Senator Diane J. Savino, who we interviewed about the possible legalization of medical marijuana in New York last week.

• Marty and Jane Markowitz.

According to findings released on Monday by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board (and embedded below), Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz is being fined $20,000 for accepting free airfare and other travel perks for his wife Jamie during official trips to Turkey and the Netherlands in 2007 and 2009. The Times' City Room blog notes that the offending freebies were provided by the Dutch and Turkish governments, and the non-profit the Federation of Turkish American Associations.