U.S Council on Foreign Relations

Former City Council staffer Brittany Mariotti sends word that her current employer, the Council on Foreign Relations, has a new interactive site about North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The Korea Crisis Guide includes a map whic explains where North Korea is (admit you need it); shows the military strength of neighboring countries, and gives economic and historical info.

Or, you can think of it this way: it's a place to learn about a real international, diplomatic, nuclear crisis. Which should help put another crisis in perspective.

-- Azi Paybarah

Even Leslie Gelb, the intellectual godfather of the plan to separate Iraq into three autonomous and ethnically homogenous regions, was taken aback by Sen. Chuck Schumer's recent expression of support for the idea. "It surprised me too," said Gelb, who is the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's a conversion, because he told me that he thought I was full of it."

Gelb first tried to bring Schumer around to his way of thinking in mid-2005. "We had a conversation here at some length, at my apartment, where he wasn't impressed with it," Gelb said, referring to his proposal to divide the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations into three distinct geographic regions with the goal of preventing further sectarian bloodshed.

Gelb said he had the opportunity to convince Sen. Joe Biden, now the proposal's most vocal proponent, on a grounded shuttle flight between New York and Washington.

"I converted Biden thanks to the happenstance of a stalled shuttle," said Gelb. "I got on a shuttle about 9 months ago and he sat down next to me and the thing was delayed two and a half hours, on top of the trip. We did nothing but talk about this."

According to Gelb, the flight ended with Biden turning to him and saying, "Well, you convinced me now you have to convince my staff."

--Jason Horowitz

At Hillary Clinton's appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations today, ICM literary agent Esther Newberg asked her about, again, Alan Hevesi.

"Can we get back to talking about nuclear proliferation?" Sen. Clinton asked.

"This is not a pleasant experience for those of us who are friends of his."

If Mr. Hevesi were elected and then removed or resigned, she said pointedly, the governor is entitled to appoint a successor.

"I'm voting for him,"she said. "Chuck Schumer is voting for him."

-- Choire Sicha

The Council on Foreign Relations will hold a conversation with Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's minister of foreign affairs.

John Jay College holds a forum on felon disenfranchisement.

Ted Kennedy, joined by his dog, Splash, read from "My Senator and Me: A Dog's Eye View of Washington, D.C." at P.S. 11.

Keith Wright and others hold a press conference urging JP Morgan Chase to keep local branches open on West 125th Street.

Members of the black, Hispanic, Puerto Rican and Asian Legislative caucus will urge the state Senate to override George Pataki's veto of legislation allowing day care providers to unionize at the UFT headquarters.

—Nicole Brydson