The Morning Read: September 19, 2006

Jeanine Pirro says she's tougher on perverts than Andrew Cuomo.

State campaign contribution limits didn't stop AIG from giving $50,000 to Eliot Spitzer in one day and $90,000 to George Pataki on another.

The head of the Port Authority won't force PA employees to relocate to the Freedom Tower, and once said he'd quit his job over moving employees into the building. Other prospective employees say they don't want to work in the Freedom Tower.

The city's drinking water is being protected from biological weapons by the hardy bluegill fish.

Mayor Bloomberg's plan to fight poverty includes a $1,000-per-child tax credit. The City Council, which needs to approve the overall plan, will hold hearings on Thursday.

Speaking at the New School yesterday, former Sen. John Edwards said, "There is a natural disconnect between market values and moral values."

The Transport Workers Union changed rules on how to elect its union leaders in the run-up to their December elections.

The New Jersey Nets extend their lease at home until 2012, but can move to Brooklyn earlier. Donald Trump won't pay $1.4 million in local taxes on his new project at Jones Beach, which he built but the state owns.

A state senator in New Jersey was paid $35,000 "to lobby himself."

An Associated Press photographer with alleged ties to terrorists is detained by the U.S. military.

And Errol Louis says the normally sedate judicial race on Manhattan's Lower East Side has turned into a mud fight.