Hillary Clinton is getting a pass on gay marriage – for now.

Greg David urges a “single standard” for all special interests – including the Committee to Save NY.

NYC Councilman Eric Ulrich might be facing a primary challenge in his state Senate bid from Juan Reyes, a former Giuliani administration aide who is a favorite of the Queens GOP (whose leaders don’t get along terribly well with Ulrich).

NYC Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley’s campaign argued her endorsement by the electrical workers Local 3 is a potential gamechanger in the NY-6 primary.

Ed Koch is already robocalling for one of Crowley’s Democratic primary challengers, Assemblyman Rory Lancman.

Rep. Charlie Rangel would like to be hugged and kissed (metaphorically speaking) by President Obama.

David Grandeau, citing “inside gossip,” says the second floor (AKA the Cuomo administration) “green-lighted” the JCOPE leak about Sen. Tom Libous, which, of course, would be illegal.

Disgraced former SU basketball coach Bernie Fine’s wife, Laurie, is suing ESPN for libel, saying the network ruined her reputation. ESPN says it stands by its reporting.

The attorney for Bernie Fine accusers Bobby Davis and Mike Lang says her clients should be allowed to pursue their own slander suit if Laurie Fine gets to go forward with hers.

Eleven people have reportedly passed up the opportunity to challenge Sen. Tony Avella on the GOP line.

RadarOnline is reporting RFK Jr.’s ex-wife, Mary, who is Cuomo’s ex-sister-in-law, was found dead in her Westchester County home.

The Bedford Police Department confirmed an unattended death at the Kennedy home, but did not confirm the identity of the victim pending notification of the family.

Two workers were hurt in an explosion early this morning at a hydraulic fracturing tank site in south Texas.

Contrary to its advertising campaign – and Kim Kardashian – Sketchers’ footwear do not tone your butt. AG Eric Schneiderman announced a record $45 million settlement with the company for deceptive ads.

Labor groups are planning a rally outside Sen. David Carlucci’s office. They’re angry he’s not supporting a bill to hike Rockland County’s sales tax.

Here’s video of Sen. Dan Squadron’s tribute to the late Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch, (AKA MCA), on the Senate floor yesterday.

Things are getting personal in the NY-1 GOP primary.

Bloomberg high-fives Mr. Met. Over and over and over.

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor really loves New York.

In the report, the NYP sources Radaronline.com which is reporting she died from an apparent suicide.

We will have more details on this as the story develops.

There’s logic to that assumption. After all, King goes waaaaaaay back with Cuomo, serving under him at HUD, running as his LG in his ill-fated 2002 gubernatorial campaign and then, at then candidate-Cuomo’s request, serving as the official party attack dog during the 2010 campaign.

(Of course, there was that little bump in the relationship road when King challenged Cuomo in the 2006 AG’s race, but he ended up dropping out and backing Cuomo, so that’s all water under the bridge now).

I’ve heard from two highly-placed Democratic sources, however, that King is NOT in fact Cuomo’s choice to lead the party.

One source tells me King actually asked not be to considered because he wants to return to the private sector “well before” Cuomo’s 2014 re-election bid because he has some college tuitions to start saving for, which means whoever does replace Jacobs – and I haven’t managed to get any names confirmed yet – is going to have the opportunity to pick his or her new executive director fairly soon after taking control of the party.

It has been clear for some time that Jacobs’ days were numbered. Even Jacobs himself admitted as much when I talked to him briefly last night after news of his imminent departure broke in the NYT.

Another source insists nothing in particular is behind the timing of Jacobs’ departure, the administration just happened to “get around to it” now after kicking around the idea of a party re-organization for several months.

“The notion is they need someone acceptable to the state committee and the county chairs, not just someone pulled out of nowhere, but also someone who will elevate the profile of the party, someone real,” this source said.

And, of course, the person in question has to be loyal as the day is long to Cuomo, AND be able to raise money – although the governor is no slouch in that department.

It’s kind of hard to find someone with all those qualities. It will be interesting to see who the governor picks – or rather, has picked, because it’s highly unlikely the news of Jacobs’ resignation would have leaked if Cuomo didn’t have a replacement chair already lined up.

The regulations, the result of an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year, does provide an escape hatch by allowing a provider to keep compensation below the top 25 percent in the field. Another way of lifting the cap would require the approval of an organization’s board of directors, plus two independent directors and be subject to a review of comparability data in order to receive the waiver.

The proposed guidelines would take effect Jan. 1, but include a rolling phase-in of reporting requirements and enforcement actions as the organizations operate under the new system.

Hospitals, health-care networks and other Medicaid recipients are most likely to be impacted by the regulations.

The regulations stipulate that at least 75 percent of a provider’s operating expenses go toward services provided and not administrative overhead.

At a presentation unveiling the regulations, top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz stressed that the regulations were aimed at a “few bad apples.”

Still, the regulations target a set of non-profit organizations that pay their administrative staff exorbitant salaries while benefiting from state dollars.

“We want the money to go to services,” Schwartz said. “We want the money to go to people. We don’t want it to go to bad actors.”

Schwartz also said the regulations were not meant to address criminal wrongdoing in the non-profit world.

Non-profit organizations that apply to the new regulations would have to annually report the public dollars it has received and the compensation of its highest-paid employees, plus their administrative expenses.

I asked the union for a confirmation and received the following response: “There is a process that these things go through. We will be announcing endorsements later this month after our delegates meeting on May 22.”

I also contacted both Barron (personally) and Jeffries (through a spokeswoman), neither of whom had any idea at the time that a vote had been taken on Wednesday, May 9.

The Politicker’s David Freedlander subsequently reported the vote, and said an announcement is expected sometime next week. He also spoke to Barron, who said it would be “huge” and a “game-changer” for him to receive the DC 37 nod.

I’ve since spoken with several union sources who say Jeffries’ alliance with Brooklyn Democratic Chairman/Assemblyman Vito Lopez and his support of charter schools were most to blame for his loss of support among DC 37 executive committee members.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the full delegate convention would overturn the executive board’s candidate selection, although that happens only rarely.

One labor leader could recall only three recent examples: The union ended up backing former Sen. John Sabini over his 2002 primary challenger, Charlie Castro (NOT his ’06 and ’08 challenger, Hiram Monserrate, who had DC 37′s support – fixed); Eric Schneiderman over Guillermo Linares in 2002 (when the Republicans re-drew the district to make it more Latino) and then-Rep. Chuck Schumer over then-GOP US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato in 1998.

In all three of those cases, someone – or a number of someones – lobbied for the underdog candidate. So far, I haven’t heard of an internal campaign being waged at DC 37 for the delegates to buck the executive committee and go with Jeffries, but I’m willing to bet one is underway.

Then there’s the question of exactly how big of a deal it would be if DC 37 ultimately goes with Barron. Jeffries has already collected a number of union endorsements, including from 1199 SEIU, which has a pretty impressive GOTV operation.

Since the June 26 primary is about two and a half months earlier than usual, it’s essentially functioning like a special election, which meants turnout will be everything. Whoever has the better GOTV operation will likely win that race, and then cruise to victory in the general election.

UPDATE: Ryan Harbage, campaign manager for Colin Beavan, the Green Party candidate in NY-8, took issue with my saying that whoever wins the primary will be a new sure thing in the November election. He says people are “tired of old-fashioned two-party politics,” adding: “It’s not working.”

“While I respect Councilman Barron and Assemblyman Jeffries, whichever of them wins the primary next month will be wise to acknowledge that the real race begins June 27th,” Harbage said in an email.

Harbage actually wanted me to “run a correction,” which I won’t do, because history has shown that in Democrat-dominated NYC districts – particularly in a presidential electino year – the primary winner is a safe bet to win the general. But Beavan (AKA “No Impact Man”) is indeed in the race, and should be acknowledged as a contender – especially after the sweet write-up he got from the NYT this week.

The Republican-led Senate unanimously approved the legislation, which creates a Center for Justice to handle abuse cases, but Democrats in the Assembly are yet do so. Speaker Sheldon Silver said on Tuesday he approves the bill’s broader framework, but indicated some unspecified changes will have to be made to the legislation.

“In Albany there’s always a reason not to do something, right? And for every reform there’s change and change brings about opposition,” Cuomo said. “Have I heard a good reason not to do this? No. And if I somebody has a good reason, I’d like to hear it and we’ll address it. But in my opinion, we have seven weeks left, it’s plenty of time.”

In a separate statement, Cuomo praised the Senate for approving the bill as is. The measure is in some respects similar to the expansion of the DNA database, which Silver sought some changes to in order to please his Democratic conference.

The bill has been criticized some advocates, including Michael Carey, a well-known proponent of tightening reporting requirements whose son died under state-supervised care.

Cuomo has made the Justice Center legislation the centerpiece of his post-budget legislation before the end of the legislative session, which wraps on June 21.

“This is one more task before they go home,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo also declared victory with his tax cap after school districts across the state overwhelming approved their spending plans save for scattered districts. Few were able to override the cap and many stayed within the defined ceiling.

Cuomo trotted out the old chestnut that the “cap isn’t really a cap” because of the supermajority override provision.

The tax cap was approved last year and was linked to rent control laws for New York City.

Cuomo also said the cap on increases of 2 percent, but most districts were able to raise their levies higher because of a complex formula built into the legislation.

He said the main benefit of the cap was starting a conversation about fiscal austerity on the local level.

“A school district can raise above the 2 percent and a lot of them didn’t want to have that conversation,” the governor said. “We changed the culture, we changed the dialogue to maybe we have to find some economies of scale. Maybe we have to reduce spending and maybe the answer isn’t find more money from the taxpayer.”

Asked about the ongoing problems of the New York Racing Association’s leadership, Cuomo said the corporation needs to rebuild its tattered reputation.

The NYRA investigation is an ongoing investigation, but there’s no doubt that NYRA has been a long troubled agencies. There have been problems at NYRA that go back decades. It doesn’t have the public’s trust and it hasn’t earned the public trust and that’s what we have to change.

“I think his passing will be mourned by all who had the privilege to know Ed. He was a friend to the city. He was a friend to me. And he is someone for whom I have always had an enormous amount of respect,” Mayor Bloomberg said during his Q-and-A with reporters. (Actually, this is how a number of us found out that Malloy had passed, although several labor sources told me he has been sick for about a year now).

“Ed for years helped build New York and I think his legacy can be seen all across our city in projects big and small,” the mayor continued. “And it is no exaggeration to say that without his leadership we wouldn’t have hundreds of schools, office buildings and parks in our city. And we might not have the stadium that brings us here today, the new home of the New York Mets, Citifield.”

Malloy, a member of the steamfitters union, served as president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York from 1992 to late 2008 when he was replaced by Gary La Barbera.

AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento issued the following statement:

“Ed Malloy dedicated his life to improving the lives of working men and women throughout the State of New York. Ed was an innovator who thought outside the box and had the rare ability to bring people together from different points of view to create jobs, improve working conditions, and foster positive change.”

“No fight was too big, no issue was too small to get Ed’s personal attention when it came to protecting workers. The thoughts and prayers of our affiliates and members are with Ed’s loved ones on this sad day.”

UPDATE: And now we have the following statement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo:

“Today we mourn the passing of Ed Malloy, who for decades stood up for the working men and women of New York and helped build the state into the great place it is today.”

“For the years that Ed served as president of the New York City and New York State Building and Construction Trades councils representing over 200,000 union members, he worked tirelessly with public officials, investors, and labor leaders to get major infrastructure projects off the ground and create jobs in every corner of the state.”

“Ed pioneered the Project Pathways agreement and Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills that changed the face of the construction industry and opened the door for more than a thousand young, diverse New Yorkers to launch successful careers in the building trades. He was an early partner in forging the public-private partnerships that have helped pave the way toward building a new Tappan Zee Bridge.

“Above all else, Ed was a gentleman and a true New Yorker: putting the interests of others and service to his country and community above all else, including serving in armed forces and in numerous roles in public life. I send my condolences to his friends and family.”

UPDATE2: Lots of statements have come in since news about Malloy’s passing broke, but this one from Sen. Chuck Schumer is really worth posting – personal and very moving:

“Ed Malloy was New York to his very bones; a child of New York City and the Catholic schools who was an Army vet and a steamfitter, he rose to lead the proud workers of the building trades for two decades.”

“Eddie was pure class, a guy who knew, from instinct and intellect, how to navigate both sides of every street – public and private, labor and management. From Project Pathways, to rebuilding after 9-11, to thousands of PLA’s, he used his charm and toughness and skill to improve the lives of countless working people and their families, and in the process was a partner in the building and rebuilding of the greatest city on the face of the earth.”

“Today, the very angels in heaven got a new business manager who will find a way to make even their existence more than a little bit better. RIP, Eddie.”