–Prosecutors in the Sheldon Silver federal corruption case questioned an Albany budget staffer yesterday, as they “sought to illustrate that Mr. Silver controlled (state grants) with little transparency or accountability.”
–Cops arrested a suspect on St. James place for marijuana possession. Turned out he was armed and wanted for a parole violation, the Daily News reports.
–Prosperity Dumpling still hasn’t reopened on Eldridge Street after being shut down by the city in August. Eater suspects the beloved “cheap eats” haven is moving to Broome Street.
–Lower East Side art dealer Hong Gyu Shin bid $142 million for a painting by Amedeo Modigliani at a Christie’s auction. But Artinfo reports, he lost out to a private art museum in Shanghai.
—The Times pays tribute to Mars Bar owner Hank Penza, who died Oct. 29 at the age of 82. Robert Simonson writes: “Mr. Penza… held on… offering a port in a storm to the hard-partying and outmoded East Villagers who were being squeezed out of the neighborhood… Locals regarded (Mars Bar’s) closing as the last nail in the coffin for the East Village that once was — the scrappy, scruffy melting pot of the Second Avenue Deli, CBGB, Amato Opera and Allen Ginsberg.”
