• A massive gunfight on Macdougal and Houston ended with two “auxiliary officers” (volunteer cops), a bartender, and the gunman dead; as many as 30 shots were fired in all. Bizarre details abound (the perp, wearing a fake beard, shot the bartender fifteen times in the back). [NYT]
• Eliot Spitzer and embattled Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno had it out in a fifteen-minute shouting match of the kind that’s fast becoming a hallmark of Spitzer’s reign; cowed witnesses say Bruno blew up after Spitzer called his proposed budget increases “absurd.” [NYP]
• Naughty in the Hamptons: An Amagansett physician is out on a $500,000 bail for allegedly churning out millions’ worth of phony OxyContin prescriptions; a Southampton cop is accused of soliciting female suspects for sex bribes Bad Lieutenant-style. [WNBC, Newsday]
• New Yorkers really, really love Bloomberg: a new Quinnipiac poll finds the mayor enjoying a 73 percent approval rating, with 46 percent preferring him to Giuliani and 46 percent figuring Mike for a better presidential candidate than his predecessor. Considering he isn’t even running, that’s gotta hurt, Rudy. [NYDN]
• And, here’s one more demographic the mayor just won over: pedicab drivers. Bloomberg granted the slightly wacky industry a last-minute reprieve from the proposed tough regulations after talking to a group of drivers. Aww. [amNY]
