It’s Kennedy for the Prosecution

--John F. Kennedy Jr. gains another illustrious title today, as he is sworn in as an assistant district attorney in New York. In the past, the son of the late President John F. Kennedy was crowned People magazine’s hunk of the year for 1988, and he was named as a trend-setter on this year’s International Best Dressed List. He will be one of 64 first-year prosecutors taking the oath at the office of Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau. It was President Kennedy who, in 1961, named Morgenthau U.S. attorney in New York. According to Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for Morgenthau, efforts will be made to prohibit reporters from interviewing the new assistant D.A. while he’s on the job. Kennedy, 28, a graduate of New York University School of Law, will be treated “just like everybody else,” McKelvey said, and will earn $30,000 a year during his three-year tenure. Morgenthau, the son of Henry Morgenthau Jr., Treasury secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, has a preference for famous sons. He once hired Andrew Cuomo, son of New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, and Cyrus Vance Jr., son of the former secretary of state.

--Country singer Willie Nelson’s three Farm Aid concerts in 1985, 1986 and 1987 helped raise about $12 million. The money was used by the ailing agricultural community for education, telephone hot lines and emergency aid to poor and minority farmers. Well, some of those farmers haven’t forgotten Nelson’s helping hand. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, a group made up mostly of black farmers in 11 Southern states, presented Nelson with a trophy fitted with a plow and a message of thanks on Sunday in Atlanta. The organization received about $700,000 from Nelson’s concerts and honored him for his “colorblind” efforts on behalf of farmers. Jerry Pennick of the federation said: “Farm Aid has been colorblind” in helping to keep black farmers a part of the American agricultural system.

--The curtain came down Sunday on the 35th Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island after performances that reached dizzying heights with the trumpet of the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. Always the firebrand, Gillespie brought 8,000 jazz aficionados to their feet at Ft. Adams State Park with his classic, “A Night in Tunisia.” The 70-year-old Gillespie, who, with saxophonist Charlie Parker, led the advent of the bop movement, also headlined the first festival. Others on the bill at this year’s session were pianist Dave Brubeck, organ master Jimmy Smith and sax man David Sanborn.