••• “Federal authorities are investigating substantial payments made to the State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, by a small law firm that seeks real estate tax reductions for commercial and residential properties in New York City, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have found that the law firm, Goldberg & Iryami, P.C., has paid Mr. Silver the sums over roughly a decade, but that he did not list that income on his annual financial disclosure forms, as required, the people said. The prosecutors […] and the F.B.I. agents were seeking to determine precisely what Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has been doing for the payments. […] Mr. Silver, who has wielded enormous influence in Albany for the two decades in which he has served as speaker, is a personal injury lawyer. He is not known to have any expertise in the complex and highly specialized area of the law in which Goldberg & Iryami practices, known as tax certiorari, which involves challenging real estate tax assessments and seeking reductions from municipalities.” —New York Times

••• “Blue Planet Grill at 120 Greenwich St. will be closing at the end of business on Sunday, Jan. 4 because the building has been sold.” —Downtown Post NYC

••• “Father and son in lawsuit over Juice Press stores.” You know I love Juice Press’s salads, but how long can the Murray Street location hold on? —New York Post

••• The New York Times recaps the news from mid-November about the restaurants—Eataly, Jones the Grocer, Fika, etc.—signed for the World Trade Center mall. The item also has this: “There will also be spaces for five full-service restaurants in 3 World Trade Center, which have not been signed. That tower is to open in about three years.”