ALBANY GIFT BAG HALF-EMPTY

State legislators have slashed in half the funds they plan to dole out to New York’s thousands of human service organizations this year, leaving those groups scrambling to figure out how they can get their names on the cash list before shrinking budgets force them out of business.

PARENTAL REPRESENTATION ADVISED

An ongoing federal lawsuit filed to end the city’s practice of automatically removing kids from mothers who report abuse from their partners is expected to do more than that: A judge is calling for more competent, higher-paid lawyers for those parents.