Vince Fumo's lawyers are asking a federal judge to acquit the disgraced former state senator or give him a new trial.

Fumo was convicted by a federal jury on March 16 of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and related tax offenses.

Jurors found that Fumo had used Senate aides to do personal and political tasks for him on the taxpayers' dime. They also found that Fumo had tapped a nonprofit organization he founded, Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, for personal and political use and that he had taken free cruises on yachts owned by the Independence Seaport Museum.

But in a court filing yesterday, Fumo attorney Peter Goldberger said evidence presented during the five-month trial was "insufficient for any reasonable jury" to convict Fumo or co-defendant Ruth Arnao. (She was convicted on 45 similar counts.)

Philadelphia's Public Defender today petitioned the courts to dismiss charges or grant new trial to another 26 persons convicted on drug charges - all allegedly arrested based on false information by veteran narcotics Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and his paid confidential informant.

Together with 24 petitions filed on April 3 and three last Wednesday, today's filings will bring to 53 the number of people whose convictions could ultimately be dismissed.

As with the earlier petitions, the filings in Common Pleas Court today bring contend that the cases - most of which resulted in guilty pleas - are tainted by allegations by Cujdik's former paid informant, Ventura "Benny" Martinez. Martinez, in a Feb. 9 interview with the Daily News, said he and Cujdik often falsified information to convince judges to sign search and arrest warrants for drug suspects.

Federal investigators on Wednesday sought help finding anyone who has been asked or required to provide money or anything else of value in order to obtain a job in a northeastern Pennsylvania public school.

The FBI made the request in what it said is a criminal investigation into the hiring of teachers and other school employees.

''We have heard allegations that it is a practice that may be going on in multiple areas, so we want to make sure that anybody who thinks that they have information that's related to this, that they should feel free to provide it to us,'' said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver, a Philadelphia-based special agent.

The news release was issued one day after Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Jeffrey Namey testified before a federal grand jury in Scranton and a week after federal agents obtained records from the district and the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center.