Scoopy’s notebook

Justice for Jodie: Some have called on Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to prosecute Con Edison for the death of Jodie Lane, who was fatally electrocuted last month by one of the company’s service boxes on E. 11th St. But Morgenthau, talking to The Villager at his recent reelection kickoff at the Ear Inn on Spring St., sounded skeptical. “You’d have to find someone guilty of criminally negligent homicide,” he said. “Whether you can do it…. We’re reviewing it, and it hasn’t risen to the level of an investigation.” Councilmember Margarita Lopez has also asked state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to launch a criminal investigation into Lane’s death.

Koch gets call: Former Mayor Ed Koch reports that President Bush has appointed him chairperson of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Anti-Semitism in Berlin on April 28-29. “Anti-Semitism in Europe is the highest it’s been since the 1930s,” Koch told The Villager.

Deaniacs reconsider: In light of Howard Dean’s withdrawal from the race for the Democratic nomination for president, Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats will be holding a presidential re-endorsement meeting prior to the New York State primary on March 2. GLID will vote Thurs., Feb. 26, 8 p.m., at the L.G.B.T. Community Center, 208 W. 13th St.

Name needed: In the spirit of community, a new falaffel and shawarma restaurant opening on Third Ave. near St. Mark’s Pl. is asking people to help name the place. Hey, how about Karma Karma Shawarma Chameleon? Visit www.name-our-restaurant.com.

Couldn’t stay away: Not much had been seen of Robert Marion, a.k.a., “Loanshark Bob,” since November when a civil court jury awarded the East Village homeless man $1 million in his lawsuit against Bellevue Hospital. Marion was confined against his will for six days and injected with drugs five years ago at Bellevue for ranting about his theories of “povercide.” But he’s recently been seen around and was at the protest on W. 24th St. last Wednesday where Bush advisor Karl Rove was speaking. “We’re protesting the world economic siege — fool!” Marion told a reporter.

Sign of preservation: Scoopy recently dropped into Garber’s Hardware at their new space on Greenwich St., near Charles St. They still have the same, worn, orange-and-black sign from their Eighth Ave. location out front. Tom Schoen of Garber’s figures the sign is at least 60 years old. Asked about the new location, which has less foot traffic, he said, “It’s a little different speed, but word is getting out.”

Corrections: A recent item in Scoopy’s Notebook on Kathryn Freed’s attending Downtown Independent Democrats’ presidential endorsement vote incorrectly stated that it was against the judicial code of ethics for Freed, as a newly elected municipal court judge, to have done so. Freed called to explain that there is a six-month “window period” during which new judges can attend such sorts of political club events and fundraisers and thank people who helped them get elected — “Which is exactly what I did,” Freed said. Specifically, the code states new judges can “attend and deliver presentation on non-controversial substantive legal topics at political organization meetings held within the window period following the judge’s election.” The Villager apologizes to Judge Freed for the error. However, it is true that judges cannot be members of political clubs…. An article on Fernando Ferrer in last week’s Villager incorrectly stated that Ferrer compared Mayor Bloomberg’s failure so far to follow through on his promise to build affordable housing to the situation under former Mayor Ed Koch. In fact, Ferrer was contrasting Koch’s record with Bloomberg’s thus far. Koch created 150,000 affordable units over a 10-year period, most of it in the Bronx, mostly renovations of abandoned housing.