“This is a totally obvious statement, but being the mayor of the City of New York is a tough job, and people need to make sure they have somebody who’s tough enough to lead, but smart enough to listen and to lead in a collaborative way.”

That’s how City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) responded to the first question asked of her during an interview last Thursday with the Queens Chronicle editorial board: the old standard, “What makes you the best candidate?”

Championing their constituents’ gripes about airplane noise over their homes, elected officials from Northeast Queens headed down to Washington, DC last Wednesday to convince the Federal Aviation Administration that its environmental review process was insufficient when it changed the procedures for planes departing from LaGuardia Airport last year.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside), and Reps. Grace Meng (D-Bayside) and Steve Israel (D-Melville) agreed with federal and regional FAA representatives to meet again with lawyers and technical experts to discuss the legal arguments over implementing new flight paths without a cumulative environmental impact study. The first meeting is not scheduled yet.

It doesn’t say all that much for our political situation when it’s worth going out of our way to congratulate an honest politician. But that’s how it is.

“Shocker! Post finds honest NY politician” a New York Post page 2 headline blared last Saturday. That politician is Queens City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), who blew the whistle on a builder’s alleged efforts to bribe him.

(BPT) - Often, we don’t think about heroism until we see it in action - when disaster strikes and ordinary people exhibit extraordinary courage and compassion to help victims in their time of need. The truth is, however, that the best of human nature is on display every day in the lives of millions of Americans who work in public service jobs across the country. Sometimes all it takes to tap that inner hero is an opportunity – and the education – to serve others.

“Gravity of the Sculpture: Part II” will remain on display at The Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 45 Ave., Long Island City, through July 3. Call (718) 937-6317, email david@dorsky.org or visit dorsky.org.

The recent spate of arrests and criminal investigations involving public officials has ensnared a high percentage of minorities in the state Legislature, leading some in the community to ask if black and Hispanic lawmakers are being targeted.

State Sen. James Sanders (D-Jamaica) decided last week that the question of conspiracy or corruption was far better-suited for an open, frank and free-wheeling debate before nearly 200 people at the Black Spectrum Theatre in Roy Wilkins Park in Jamaica.

The bill mandating that companies in the city with more than 15 employees eventually provide paid sick leave is awaiting a promised mayoral veto — and an expected override of that veto by the City Council.

The bill passed last Wednesday 45-3, more than enough to nullify the veto promised by Mayor Bloomberg, if members stick to their positions.

Former state Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica), who agreed to wear a wire for the FBI in 2012 as state and federal prosecutors closed in on her, is scheduled to be sentenced today on a wire-fraud charge in federal court in Brooklyn.

The disgraced former senator provided “evidence useful to law enforcement” during conversations she had with three elected officials while wearing an FBI wire in July and August of 2012, all after she was cornered by the bureau and federal prosecutors for her role in siphoning money from “a bogus nonprofit.”

The names of six Democratic state senators and a city councilman from Southeast Queens were among those contained Wednesday on a list of people who had their conversations with then-state Senator Shirley Huntley recorded by an FBI listening device in 2012.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on Wednesday on the names, contained in a sentencing letter connected to Huntley’s case, or U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein’s order to unseal the letter.

City Comptroller John Liu continues to run for mayor as if confident he can overcome the embarrassment of a campaign finance scandal that could send one of his top former aides and a contributor to prison for decades.

How much impact the case will have is an open question. But according to two political science experts in Queens, the Liu campaign faces multiple challenges arising from the convictions last week of Jia “Jenny” Hou, his former treasurer, and Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, a fundraising “bundler,” who secured donations from other parties that then went to the campaign.

A group that began seven months ago with a few people venting their complaints while eating at the Terrace Diner has evolved into a neighborhood movement, a force dedicated to making the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority work for the residents of Northeast Queens to alleviate the noise and pollution from planes flying out of LaGuardia airport.

Approximately 200 people with similar frustrations attended the first Queens Quiet Skies community education meting on May 2 in the Bayside High School auditorium. While planes rumbled overhead, leaders and experts presented residents with legal and technical information and encouraged them to get more involved.

The names of six Democratic state Senators and a city councilman from Southeast Queens were among those contained Wednesday on a list of people who had their conversations with then-state Senator Shirley Huntley recorded by an FBI listening device in 2012.

Those on the list engaged in recorded conversations with Huntley in 2012.

Powerful state Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) surrendered to the FBI on Monday morning ahead of the unsealing of a nine-count federal indictment charging him with embezzlement, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI agents.

Sampson, an attorney, allegedly took the money to finance a run for Brooklyn District Attorney.

Former state Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica) wore a wire and gave at least partial cooperation to federal prosecutors after FBI agents confronted her with the results of court-approved wiretaps of her cell phone in 2012.

Huntley, 74, is expected to be sentenced on May 9 in federal court for her guilty plea in February to wire fraud. The charge was connected with her admission to embezzling nearly $88,000 from a bogus nonprofit organization.

The former treasurer of City Comptroller John Liu's campaign for mayor and one of his fundraisers were convicted of attempted fraud and other federal charges yesterday for their roles in accepting illegal contributions and attempting to rip off the taxpayers of New York City.

Jia "Jenny" Hou and Xing Wu "Oliver" Pan were each found guilty of playing a role in taking campaign contributions from straw donors — people whose names were entered as contributors even though someone else had provided the money — and could each face decades in prison.

The parents at CEC 24 meeting in Middle Village last Tuesday were furious.

Mayor Bloomberg thinks other United States cities should work with immigrant communities like New York does.

Last week the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs released Blueprints for Immigrant Integration that included policies on language access, police and community engagement, economic development and entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and citizenship —and “served as detailed guides to support the replication of New York City models.”

Sometimes planes fly over Janet McEneaney’s house in Bayside every 20 to 40 seconds. “The planes are so loud that we can’t even talk to people in the same room,” she said.

McEneaney is a member of Queens Quiet Skies, an organization formed to combat the flight path changes at LaGuardia Airport, which have increased and concentrated noise pollution in Northeast Queens since last year. The group’s immediate goal is to form a community roundtable with the FAA, the Port Authority, residents and civic leaders to solve the problem, as the Federal Aviation Administration has done in other parts of the country.

Last Thursday morning, while standing in front of LeFrak City where 21 shots were fired at Theo Greene about a year ago, Councilman Danny Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) and state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-Jackson Heights) announced an increased reward for information about his murder.

The total was upped $2,000 to $24,000.

A proposal to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21 is the latest in a series of city bills to curb smoking. Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley announced the proposal, which anti-smoking advocates argue will limit young people’s access to tobacco products and help reduce smoking addiction, on Monday.

While the age to purchase cigarettes would be 21, the same age at which it becomes legal to purchase alcohol, the measure would not prohibit people under 21 from possessing or smoking cigarettes.