State Senator Hiram Monserrate faces a September trial after losing his bid to dismiss charges that he slashed his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, with a broken glass. The judge also rejected the disgraced politician’s attempt to suppress his girlfriend’s initial claim that he attacked her, as well as surveillance footage showing Monserrate dragging her screaming from the building. |NYDN|

After scoring the the attendance records of City Councilmembers, the Post tallies up state legislative sessions absences. The state’s 62 senators only missed 1 in 10 meetings at most, while 14 of the 150 state assemblymembers skipped more than that. Queens assembly member Ann-Margaret Carrozza barely showed up a third of the time the chamber was in session.

A new law takes aim at distracted drivers, banning motorists from text messaging and using other electronic devices, when it goes into effect this November. But unlike the state’s driver cell phone ban, police can only issue the extra $150 fine if a motorist is breaking another law as well, which only diminishes the law’s value to improve safety on the road. |NYP|

Frustrated by the State Senate deadlock, which could cost him control of city schools if they don’t vote to extend it by Wednesday morning, Mayor Bloomberg jokingly suggested a solution: making legislator’s home phone numbers and addresses public so that angry New Yorkers could more directly voice their concern. “We’ll give you the numbers of the senators assuming everybody promises to call them at 3 in the morning.” |NYP|

The New York State Senate chamber remains locked after two Democrats, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr., switched sides and shifted the majority back to the Republicans in a highly dramatic spectacle. Gotham Gazette has a good summary of what this coup, orchestrated by billionaire businessman politician Tom Golisano, means. |Gotham Gazette|

Just days before he attacked a NY Post photographer and ripped his car door to pieces, State Police issued a warning about Senator Kevin Parker’s temper to his boss, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. State troopers were concerned when the senator “angrily confronted a security guard” over a gate in place in an Albany parking garage. |NYP|

Former Bronx State Senator Efrain Gonzalez faces up to nine years in prison for funneling hundreds of thousands of state dollars to two nonprofit groups, then taking $200,000 of the money for personal expenses, including “a luxury apartment in the Dominican Republic for his wife and $9,000 to pay for ‘Assembly’ and ‘Speaker’ cigar labels.” |NYDN|

On Friday night, Brooklyn state Senator Kevin S. Parker was arrested after allegedly assaulting a New York Post photographer, who says, “He ripped the door panel off my car with his legs. He tore out my flash.” Last year, the Senator was accused of choking one of his staff members and in 2005 he was accused of punching a traffic agent in the face. |NYP|