NEW THIS MORNING

SAMPSON SPENDS CAMPAIGN CASH TO COVER LEGAL FEES: Tucked deep into an obscure campaign finance report for Senate Minority Leader John Sampson is a $5,000 expense for a top white shoe law firm, which is representing Sampson in the ongoing Aqueduct Entertainment Group probe: http://bit.ly/A8vY7d NEW THIS MORNING: *A federal judge, citing lawmakers' "current state of inaction" in redrawing New York's political map, recommended that the state's redistricting process be turned over to a court-appointed special master, the New York Times reports: http://nyti.ms/wlXXCX * Police say they do not believe any crime was committed during a weekend brawl at a Niagara Falls casino involving Sen. Mark Grisanti, but a new controversy arose over accusations that Grisanti yelled racial epithets at a black security officer, the Buffalo News says: http://bit.ly/zJeFEi * New York City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people last year, a record number since the department started producing yearly tallies of the tactic and a 14 percent increase over 2010, the Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/yF0Re4 * Council Speaker Christine Quinn is working on a deal to expand the number of workers who would be paid prevailing wages on city-subsidized private development projects, the New York Post reports: http://nyp.st/ABMPoC * Though new MTA chairman Joe Lhota was known as the "rat czar" for his work on rodent problems during the Guiliani years, he still opposes a bill in Albany to ban eating food on the subway, the Times says: http://nyti.ms/xYOx2w * A compromise bill to allow religious groups to hold worship services in city schools will have to wait until an ongoing federal lawsuit over the issue is resolved, the Daily News reports: http://nydn.us/yV8KLr * Michael Bloomberg – who at 70 years old, is the eldest New York City mayor in more than a decade – has aged well during his decade at City Hall, the Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/y83mKG