The recent re-count of the ballots at the Board of Elections established once and for all that Laura Sanders will retain her Democratic District Leader position.

Sanders may now have to embark on a new campaign – the one to figure out how to make peace with her Co-leader, Henry McCoy who’d put up Sanders’ opponent Helen Cooper Gregory to run against her. McCoy, reportedly, felt slighted when Sanders did not jump for joy at his announcement a while back, that he would run for Al Waldon’s
vacant senate seat. Everyone and their brother and sister supported Malcolm Smith, who now holds the seat, and McCoy avenged the slight from Sanders with his new find in the Primary.

It is a unique situation that has caused hard feelings throughout the community and Sanders, to her credit, has not been seen throwing any bombs at McCoy — yet.

McCoy, while not quite persona non grata, isn’t the most popular guy at political events these days either. Can these two now move on from the grudge and get back to the business of doing the people’s business or will war break out? Was it just a passing squabble, or is it the real McCoy?

TV's Survivor cutey Coleen Haskell, despite her modesty, is raking in the bucks and visibility while her "fifteen minutes of fame" lasts. Many think that she’ll be the Survivor’s big winner. Haskell has just signed on with ICM, and she co-hosted for a day on Regis Philbin’s increasingly popular morning show. One of the production managers was overheard cracking that, "Coleen is great, but this is a one shot deal. She’s too young to co-host with Reg, and just a couple of years too old to work in one of Kathie Lee’s sweat shops."

Retired Army Gen. Colin Powell has won his latest victory: not in the Iraqi desert, but in traffic court in Fairfax County, Virginia. And his vanquished foe in this battle was 33-year-old Ed Nolan, an electrician from Annapolis, Maryland.

Seems Nolan’s Chevy Silvarado pickup was rear-ended by Powell, who was driving his wife’s 1971 Mercedes, in evening rush hour traffic on April 19 on the Dulles Toll Road in northern Virginia. The pickup needed a new bumper, a $360 repair, while the Mercedes suffered $11,000 in damage.

The four-star general told the police that Nolan suddenly changed lanes, while Nolan claimed that he had been stopped in traffic when he was hit. Despite a 65-foot skid mark leading to Powell’s car, the traffic judge believed the general. He fined Nolan $10, plus $30 in court costs.

But the battle may not be over. Nolan says that he may appeal or file suit against Powell, or both.

Giant coach Jim Fassal is keeping his enthusiasm over his teams auspicious 3-0 start in check because he knows that team ownership has him on a short leash as the Giants struggled through a winless exhibition season.

QConfidential heard from an NFL insider that team owner "Robert Tisch had heard enough of the post-Parcells era rhetoric that the Giants were reverting to their old ways of selling out the stadium, but selling out the fans in the name of greed." Fassal was supposed to be an offensive genius and the guy who molded John Elway into a Hall of Famer, but the Giant's offense under Fassal has generally been an anemic house of horrors. Last year, the Giants collapsed in the second half of the season.

Because of the Giants fast start, "Fassal knows that the heat is on as expectations rise, and the consequences that go with failure are very Sopranos-like."