ARCHIVES - NTS NEWS
June 30, 2003
ALBANY, NY.
SUNY BOARD TO VOTE ON TUITION HIKE
ALBANY, NY.
NYS CRIMINAL RECORDS TO BE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC
BRONX, NY. JACOBI HOSPITAL BRIBE PROBE
NEW YORK. GAY PRIDE PARADE MARCHED DOWN FIFTH AVE
SUNDAY
NYPD REPORT
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SUNY BOARD TO VOTE ON TUITION
HIKE
By James Limage, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
The State University of New York is scheduled to vote on across-the-board tuition increases Monday, including a $950 hike for in-state undergrads.
The Board of Trustees will likely approve the 28 percent hike recommended by Chancellor Robert King.
That’s less than the $1,400 hike the board had proposed in January. Governor George Pataki had recommended a $1,200 increase.
Under the chancellor’s proposal, annual tuition would rise to $4,350 for undergrads who are state residents, and out-of-state students would have to may $2,000 more, for a total of $10,300. Tuition will also rise at SUNY specialty schools, including graduate, law and medical colleges.
Chancellor King is defending the hikes, saying state aid to SUNY has fallen off with the downturn in the economy.
SUNY last raised tuition eight years ago.
The City University of New York has
already decided to raise tuitonn by $800, to $4,000, for in-state
undergrads, to $2,800 at community colleges, $5,400 for master’s
students, $7,130 for law students and $4,870 for doctoral students
JACOBI HOSPITAL BRIBE PROBE
By Jacques
Dussek and Jacqueline O'Garro
Prosecutors have seized computers and files from Jacobi Hospital as
part of an expanding probe into a Bronx construction company already
under investigation for millions of dollars of work it did at the MTA.
Investigators have interviewed several Jacobi executives about their relationship with MBL Contracting Corp., which earned more than $1.2 million at the city-owned Bronx hospital over the last three years, sources said.
MBL is also under investigation for $8.3 million in work it did at the MTA, where a top executive was fired last year amid allegations he had taken bribes to steer work to contractors and to overlook inflated bills.
Investigators descended on Jacobi late last year and seized computers and files relating to MBL, and then began interviewing hospital officials, the sources said.
Independently, MTA investigators were looking at the company's work at the transit agency - and when their information was turned over to prosecutors, the two probes intensified.
Sources said the Bronx investigation is looking for the same pattern of bribes and inflated billing that has been uncovered at the MTA.
MBL has done work for several other city and state agencies, including the state Dormitory Authority and the city's Department of Design and Construction.
Carmine Bossio, who runs MBL out of a hole-in-the-wall office on St. Raymond Avenue, did not return repeated calls from The Post.
Morton B. Levitin, the company's founder who is listed as an MBL owner on city documents, acknowledged being interviewed by MTA investigators.
Levitin, who told The Post he retired late last year and is no longer involved with the company, said he has not been questioned about the Jacobi probe.
He denied anything improper in the company's involvement with Howard Weissman, the MTA facilities manager fired in December for allegedly taking bribes.
"Are you sick?" Levitin said. "Why do I need to pay anybody anything? I've got a contract" with the MTA.
Kate McGrath, a spokeswoman for the city's Health and Hospitals Corp., said she was unaware of the DA probe.
It is unusual for the Manhattan district attorney to be investigating alleged corruption at a Bronx hospital - but sources said the case is an offshoot of another probe conducted by the DA.
MBL's recent work at Jacobi includes a $167,650 charge for work on emergency-room doors and a $130,950 charge to replace steam piping.
The company has done work for other
city hospitals as well. The Health and Hospitals Corp. reported $2.9
million in payments to MBL over the last three years for capital
projects. The agency did not give a full accounting of work MBL has
done on other short-term contracts.
NYS CRIMINAL
RECORDS TO BE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC
By
Romy Dussek and Jean Dupiton
The public will soon be able to search New York State criminal records
in a central location.
Beginning July 14, the state Office of Court Administration will allow the public access to a central database of convictions and arrest records. The charge for the search will be $52 per name.
Criminal charges that have been dismissed won't be available.
The records are already open to the public, but not in one place. Previously, only law enforcement agencies have had access to a central database of criminal convictions.
GAY PRIDE PARADE MARCHED DOWN
FIFTH AVE SUNDAY
By Terry Dussek and
Judith Jn-Louis.
For many revelers, there were extra reasons to celebrate this year: a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas law banning gay sex and a decision by Canada's highest court that made marriage between gay and lesbians legal in that country.
The event drew roughly half a million people, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Wonderful parade, great weather and a lot of people that are having a great time,” said the mayor. “The community wants to express themselves. It's typical New York.”
The always festive and never inhibited Gay Pride Parade is a New York City tradition dating back to 1970, when it started as an illegal protest on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. It has since marched into the mainstream, and organizers say it is the largest and oldest celebration for gays and lesbians in the world.
This year’s theme was "Peace Through Pride."
About 100 gays and lesbian couples participated also in an annual unofficial wedding ceremony in Central Park.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- James Smoot, a civilian assigned to
the NYPD's management information system division, was arrested and
suspended from his job Saturday after a domestic incident, police said
yesterday. Smoot was charged with third-degree assault.
IN QUEENS
2- A 36-year-old man, Janmaja Prashad, was found dead at 8 a.m. Saturday in the garage of his home on 220th Street in Queens Village, police said. The Medical Examiner's Office is investigating the cause of death.
3- An unidentified 18-year-old man was fatally shot once in the head by an unknown person at 11:15 p.m. Saturday on Linden Boulevard in Cambria Heights.
He was pronounced dead at Mary Immaculate Hospital. No arrests have been made.
4- A woman reported Saturday morning that anti-Semitic remarks had been scrawled on the door of her house near 137th Street in Flushing, said police.
IN THE BRONX
5- Two men were stabbed, one fatally, at a party in Morris Park early yesterday, cops said. Darwin Miliano, 18, was stabbed once in the chest by an unknown assailant at 2:47 a.m., police said. He was pronounced dead at Lincoln Hospital.
Anthony Alvarez, also 18, was stabbed by the same person as he tried to defend Miliano, police said. His injuries were not life threatening.
June
27, 2003
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NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW
YORK. THE FANCY FOOD SHOW IS IN TOWN.
NEW YORK.
CITY GETS $1.3B SURPLUS SURPRISE
ALBANY, NY. CITY SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN CHEATED
NEW YORK. CITY AUDIT SPANKS KID SERVICES
NEW YORK. TELEMARKETERS BLOCKED OUT
NYPD REPORT
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NEW YORK. THE FANCY FOOD SHOW
IS IN TOWN.
From June 29 to July 1, 2003, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, 70,000 of the finest specialty food items wil be available in one place for tasting. This is the ultimate food trade events in the city
The last Fancy Food Shows have attracted from 19,000 to 32,000 attendees from specialty food, wine, gift and department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, mail-order and other related businesses.
These attendees come to see over a thousand exhibitors from around the world, presenting over 50,000 specialty foods to discover and sample.
Business booms at these trade-only shows, in a unique decision-maker to decision-maker environment. An impressive 87% of all attendees either authorize or recommend purchasing decisions! Be there.
CITY
GETS $1.3B SURPLUS SURPRISE
By Romy Dussek and Jean Souffrant
City Council is set to approve the $44.5 billion city budget today -
and there will be a $1.3 billion surplus rolled over into the coming
fiscal year, sources said yesterday. Both council and mayoral aides
confirmed yesterday that increased tax revenues had flooded city
coffers and as a result, the city will be able to shift more funds
over than they had anticipated.
"The bulk of it is attributable to the fact that the property-tax increase was passed midyear," said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city's Independent Budget Office.
The unexpectedly high surplus - at least $300 million more than anticipated - was turning out to be a bone of contention among several council members.
It negates the need the need to now pass the $44 million absentee landlord tax, which is tied to the budget vote, argued James Oddo, Andrew Lanza and Dennis Gallagher.
They plan to vote against the budget unless it is separated from the landlord tax vote.
"For those who believe the right thing to do is to impose yet another tax on the already overtaxed New Yorker, they ought not hide behind the budget," Lanza (R-S.I.) said.
When the handshake ceremony with Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) was announced, many council members were absent, and some whispered that they were unhappy with the outcome despite $115 million in social-service restorations to come.
Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) complained to Miller in a City Hall hallway about the council rolling over on Bloomberg's refusal to restore $23 million for school aides, 1,800 who will be laid off today.
Nearly 4,000 school aides have so far been retrenched.
"This, when we have a $1 billion surplus. We should have fought for that," he said.
Michael McMahon (D-S.I.) said he had hoped that the council would fight to get back a $2 million program that ensures a school nurse is in every nonpublic school, but that was not even pushed by council negotiators.
Other council members were still grumbling about the six shuttered firehouses and seemed resigned to taking up the fight in the next budget go-round.
Peter Gorman, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, called it a sad day.
"If anyone dies as a direct result of these budget cuts . . . every member of the FDNY will judge [Bloomberg and Miller], as will the victims."
CITY
SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN CHEATED OUT OF THEIR FAIR SHARE OF ED FUNDING
By Jacques Dussek and Jean Dupiton
The state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the state is not
adequately educating New York City’s 1.1 million school children.
In a 4-1 decision, the justices upheld a 2001 ruling by a state Supreme Court judge who said the state's education funding system shortchanges the mostly minority population in city schools, who have the most need and the highest costs but receive the lowest per-student funding in the state. That decision was overturned by a state appeals court last year.
The court has now given legislators one year to revamp the way education money is divided.
“This is a victory for all New Yorkers,” said City Councilman Robert Jackson, who started the fight in 1991 as a parent leader in Washington Heights. “No matter where you are no matter whether you are in public school or private school. It sets the minimum standards for everyone.”
"It recognizes the high costs that are associated with doing business in the city and says those children are entitled to an education that is comparable to other children around the state,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. “We have to figure out how to get the necessary resources to make sure that that happens."
Governor George Pataki said lawmakers have been working for a long time to ensure the system is fair.
“This lawsuit began long before I was the governor, when New York City was shortchanged and wasn’t getting an adequate percentage of resources,” said Pataki. “We worked very hard to change that, and we'll continue to work hard to change it."
The governor has maintained the issue should be left to the state to resolve, not the courts. But under the ruling, the court ordered the state legislature to:
determine the actual cost of a high school education in New York City;
provide the resources to provide that education and hold the state accountable;
create a system to ensure the funds are used properly, or face court intervention.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity sued the state in 2001, seeking a complete overhaul of its education budget. The suit, which was backed by the city, claimed one-third of the city's elementary students are functionally illiterate, and 40 percent of ninth graders never graduate.
The state argued the city already gets more money than most districts nationwide, and that the state constitution requires only that children get a "minimally adequate" education.
“What the court upheld is an adequacy decision, not just an equity decision,” said Michael Rebell of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. “And what they said is every kid is entitled to the amount of money they need to get a meaningful high school education.”
At issue is what constitutes a “sound, basic education,” as mandated by the state constitution. The original judge ruled city students were not getting enough resources, but the appeals court ruled the state only needs to provide an eighth grade education to enable citizens to vote and sit on juries.
“I don’t know how we could look in mirror and say an eighth grade education is good enough,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We can't shortchange kids. The state can't shortchange us.”
The state Legislature now has 13 months to develop a plan that's fair for the city's kids. If it's unable to by July 30 of next year, the court will step in and take the issue into its own hands.
CITY
AUDIT SPANKS KID SERVICES
By Terry Dussek and Jean Souffrant
The city's day-care centers are so poorly mismanaged that they "may place many children in jeopardy," City Comptroller William Thompson warned yesterday. In one day-care center, a child was left with the operator's 16-year-old daughter - even though it's illegal for anyone under 18 years old to supervise children - while a stovetop burner was left on, filling the center with natural-gas odors, an audit said.
At another center, a 5-month-old infant was left unattended in a crib, surrounded by pillows.
Thompson's office conducted two audits of the Administration for Children's Services that reveal the department failed to correct many problems found in a 2001 audit - including failure to conduct background checks and to properly certify teachers.
"It is unconscionable for ACS to allow these situations to persist for so long," Thompson said.
"Mothers and fathers who leave their children in the care of city-contracted day-care centers should be able to do so without fear."
The 2001 audit found 321 deficiencies in 50 day-care centers.
But Thompson said 72 percent of those problems have still not been fixed, including:
* 19 instances of missing background checks and teacher certifications.
* 23 instances of lower- or higher-than-approved enrollment.
* 15 unfilled positions, including director.
ACS operates nearly 500 day-care centers citywide for 60,000 children.
TELEMARKETERS
BLOCKED OUT
By James Limage and Gislène Laforest
The national "Do Not
Call" list starts accepting registrants Friday. People who don't
want to be bothered by sales pitches from telemarketers can sign up,
either by computer or by phone.
The website is taking on heavy traffic today, so if you go to it, expect some delays.
Starting October 1, telemarketers will be required remove numbers on the registry from their call lists. Companies who call people on the list could be hit with fines up to $11,000.
Calls on behalf of charities or politicians are exempt.
Twenty-six states, including New York, already have "Do Not Call" lists, and most will be transferring them to the national registry.
To register, log onto
www.donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Police yesterday released the photo of a gun-wielding bandit
who has robbed three livery drivers in Manhattan and The Bronx. The
first robbery took place on May 13 at 4:25 a.m. when a livery driver
drove the man to West 151st Street in Harlem.
The bandit pulled a gun and ordered the driver to turn off his engine before fleeing with the victim's cash and car keys.
About five hours later, the bandit used the same M.O. to swipe cash from a livery driver on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem.
The third incident occurred on May 15 at 1 a.m. when a livery driver chauffeured him to 182nd Street and Davidson Avenue in University Heights.
This time the robber shot the driver in the shoulder and back before fleeing with the loot. Anyone with information should call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.
2- A woman who works cleaning and caring for the NYPD Mounted Unit's horse stables was arrested yesterday for cruelty to animals, police said.
Arlene Greaves, 47, a hostler assigned to Troop A on Varick Street, was charged after ASPCA cops found her emaciated dog, cops said.
Greaves has been suspended from duty at the stable.
IN QUEENS
3- A thug raped a teenager at knifepoint early yesterday in
Baisley Park, the victim told police.
The 18-year-old woman was walking on Merrick Boulevard at 12:30 a.m., when she was approached by a man with a knife.
He forced her into the park and raped her before fleeing. The victim was taken to the hospital, where she was treated and released.
The suspect is described as a black man, 19 to 22 years old, 5-foot-5, 170 pounds, with baby dreadlocks.
IN BROOKLYN
4- A 25-year-old man was found shot dead inside a Prospect Park
South building yesterday afternoon.
The unidentified man, found inside 499 Ocean Ave. around 3:30 p.m., had gunshot wounds to his head and torso, and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
Police gave no information on a motive or a suspect in the shooting.
5- A 24-year-old man was shot on a Greenpoint street after a gun-wielding assailant approached him and opened fire.
The victim suffered wounds to both legs on Commercial Street and Manhattan Avenue at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.
6- A 42-year-old man died yesterday after he was found unconscious on a Bushwick street, cops said.
Police discovered the unidentified man on Wilson Avenue near Eldert Street at 2:30 a.m.
He was taken to Wyckoff Hospital, where he died. Police said his body bore no visible signs of trauma.
June
26, 2003
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NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK. GOVERNOR PATAKI
ASKED TO RELEASE $ 15 MILLIONS.
NEW YORK. FARE INCREASE FOR
TAXI RIDE.
BROOKLYN, N Y. USHERY BEAUVILL
FELL FROM WINDOW AND DIED.
NEW YORK. MRS. CLINTON WOULD
WIN NY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.
NEW YORK. LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.
NYPD REPORT
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NEW YORK. GOVERNOR PATAKI
ASKED TO RELEASE $ 15 MILLIONS.
By Jacques Dussek and
Jean Dupiton
The City Council is urging Governor George Pataki to release $15 million in funding earmarked for the city's summer jobs program.
Council members and youth advocates will rally in front of City Hall Thursday, where they'll call on the governor to stop holding up the money, which is meant to provide summer jobs for 25,000 young people.
Pataki is accusing the state Legislature of improperly appropriating the money when it approved a $93 billion state budget over his objections.
The governor has offered new legislation to release the funding, but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says no new legislation is needed.
Many teens were expected to start their jobs next Monday, as school officially let out for the summer today.
NEW YORK. FARE INCREASE FOR
TAXI RIDE.
By Terry Dussek and Jacqueline O'Garro
A taxi ride could soon cost a $1.60 more if fleet owners get their way.
They argue gas, insurance, and maintenance costs have climbed dramatically since the last rate increase seven years ago.
“This is the time, I guess,” said taxi driver Majid Ali. “We need it."
Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade formally petitioned the city Taxi and Limousine Commission for a 23 percent fare increase. It had submitted the same request back in 2001. At the time, the TLC acknowledged an increase was needed, but could not agree on the details, and the plan was tabled.
"There's been public hearings. The public understands that we need an increase,” said taxi fleet owner Allen Kaplan. “There's been no opposition. Yet, this petition has not been acted upon."
Some taxi drivers said they need the increase but are worried the money will end up in the pockets of large fleet owners.
"If fare goes up, the question is, is it going to help us or not?" said taxi driver Mohammed Isla. But Kaplan said drivers traditionally see 50 percent or better of the money from a fare hike. Taxi drivers have other concerns.
"For now, we need it,” said taxi driver Samuel Opong. “But I also have a fear that people might stop using it and business will dramatically go down."
Under the proposal, the initial charge would rise to $2.50 from $2. The fare would then go up 30 cents for every one-sixth of a mile, instead of the current one-fifth, and for every 60 seconds of wait time, instead of the current 90.
The flat rate from JFK Airport to Manhattan would also rise, to $49, from $35.
“It's a bad time. I mean, people are overextended as it is,” said a New Yorker. “Traveling around the city now is getting ridiculous. It's almost out of hand."
“If the economy was better, then I could understand,” said another New Yorker. “But people can't really afford it right now. Everyday people can't afford to take a taxi." The Taxi and Limousine Commission would not comment on the proposal except to issue a statement saying: "The TLC has received a submission, which is currently under review."
“I think, the higher they raise the cab fare prices, the more available taxis will be,” he said. “So I like them raising the price very much.”
BROOKLYN, N Y. USHERY BEAUVILL
FELL FROM WINDOW AND DIED.
By Romy Dussek and Jean Souffrant
A young Brooklyn boy died after falling from a ninth-floor apartment window Wednesday evening.
Police say 4-year-old Ushery Beauvill fell from the window at 224 Highland Boulevard just before 7 p.m. last night. He was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital a short time later.
Investigators say the boy may have fallen while playing near the window, which had a screen, but no window guard.
A 74-year-old aunt was in the apartment watching the boy and his younger brother at the time of the accident. The boys’ mother was not home at the time.
NEW YORK. MRS. CLINTON WOULD
WIN NY DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY.
By Jacques Dusseck and Fred Dupiton
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows that if Senator Hillary Clinton were to run for President, a majority of New Yorkers would support her.
Clinton would receive 45 percent of the vote in a Democratic primary, according to the poll. However, in the general election, a Clinton/George W. Bush match-up would result in a dead heat for the state.
According to the poll, the president’s approval rating was down six percent from two months ago.
The poll, conducted last week, surveyed 1,095 registered voters in New York State, including 395 Democrats. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent.
NEW YORK. LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.
By James Limage and Gislène Laforest
Thursday is the last day of class for the summer.
Public schools citywide let out today. Fourth graders at P.S. 123 in Harlem told what they have planned for the steamy months ahead.
“I'm going to swim and stuff,” said one student. “I’ll go to camp and be at home and relax, and just chill,” said a classmate.
A third fourth-grader added, “It's the summer, and we get to go places, and there's no more school and we get a break from all the hard work we do.”
This was the first year public schools were under direct control of City Hall. Next year, students will be greeted by big changes, including a new standardized math and reading curriculum. P.S. 123's principal, Edith Bly Jenkins, says she welcomes the changes.
“What I like is the continuity,” said Jenkins. “Every student in every school around the entire city will be doing the same thing. They'll be using the same resources and the same materials, so that if one student transferred from one school to another, they'd be on the same page.” The 2003-2004 school year begins September 8.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques
Dusseck, Terry Dussek and Jacqueline O'Garro
IN MANHATTAN
1- Two men raped a 34-year-old woman in Marcus Garvey Park yesterday before fleeing, the victim told police. The alleged incident took place at around 4:30 a.m. on West 125th Street and Fifth Avenue.
2- A man in his 40s found dead in a Harlem building was fatally stabbed, the medical examiner ruled yesterday. The unidentified body bearing chest wounds was discovered by the superintendent when he went to clean out an apartment on West 150th Street at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
IN BROOKLYN
3- An East New York woman was charged with robbery yesterday after beating a 35-year-old woman and swiping $250 from her at gunpoint, authorities said. Kelli Fields was arrested about 2 a.m. when cops arrived at a Stanley Avenue apartment building for an unrelated domestic incident and recognized her from a wanted picture distributed after the robbery. On June 22, Fields approached the woman outside the same location and punched her in the body, knocking her to the ground, cops said. She then pulled a gun and pointed it at the victim before fleeing with the loot.
4- A man and a woman were shot on a Fort Greene street, police said yesterday. On Tuesday evening, the 22-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was shot in the head and found by cops on Putnam Avenue near Downing Street about 8 p.m. She was taken to Kings County Hospital and was in critical condition yesterday. The 39-year-old man, shot in the torso, went to Brooklyn Hospital yesterday.
5- A man spewed anti-gay insults at two women and hit one in the face with a belt on a Flatbush street before fleeing, police said yesterday. The possible bias-related incident occurred on June 19 at around 6 p.m. on Parkside Avenue and Parkside Court. The injured woman suffered a face laceration.
6- A 47-year-old man raped a woman with whom he is acquainted in a Kensington home, police said yesterday. The alleged incident occurred on June 15 in the East 19th Street residence at around 9 a.m. The 27-year-old victim, who was treated at Brooklyn Hospital, reported the incident this past Monday. No arrests have been made.
IN THE BRONX
7- An 18-year-old man was shot dead on a Kingsbridge street in an apparent drug-related dispute with another teenager, police said yesterday. Leon Wagner, 17, pulled a gun and shot Murod Dunlap in the back and pelvis on Fort Independence Street near Bailey Place around 7 p.m. Tuesday. Somebody jumped Wagner, wrested the gun from him and shot him in the stomach and buttocks before fleeing. The teenagers were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where Dunlap died. Wagner, who was arrested, was listed in critical but stable condition. Charges are pending.
8- A 31-year-old man was shot in the stomach yesterday during an attack on a University Heights street, police said. A thug pulled a gun and shot his victim on West 183rd Street near Grand Avenue before fleeing at around 8 a.m. The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
9- Police yesterday identified a 21-year-old man who was found dead of gunshot wounds in a vacant lot in Eastchester. Alfred William, of Mount Vernon, was discovered lying face down with several wounds on Provost Avenue near East 233rd Street at around 8 a.m. Tuesday.
IN QUEENS
10- A man in his 30s walked into a Middle Village bank yesterday, slipped a teller a note demanding money and fled with $300 in cash, police said. The robbery took place at around 9 a.m. in the Chase branch on Woodhaven Boulevard near 71st Avenue.
June 25, 2003
NEW
YORK.
COUNCIL APPROVED CITY INCOME-TAX HIKE
NEW YORK.TAXI OWNERS ASK FOR 23 PERCENT INCREASE IN CAB FARES
HARLEM, NY. IN INITIATION INTO A GANG,
HARLEM TEEN DIES
NEW YORK. BLOOMBERG: BOOTHS ARE NOT MY PROBLEM
NYPD REPORT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COUNCIL APPROVED CITY INCOME-TAX HIKE
By Romy Dussek, Terry Dussek and James Limage
The City Council, as expected, approved a temporary increase in the personal income tax yesterday, retroactive to Jan. 1.
Individuals with taxable incomes of $100,000 or more and couples making $150,000 and up will see the city portion of their tax go from a top rate of 3.65 percent to 4.25 percent.
The tax will be reduced in each succeeding year until it returns to 3.65percent on Jan. 1, 2006.
People earning $500,000 or more will get socked with a 4.45 percent rate.
The council acted as a deal with the mayor on the $44.5 billion budget for fiscal 2004 - which begins July 1 - was about to be clinched.
After weeks of squabbling, Mayor Bloomberg met with Council Speaker Gifford Miller, and sources said both sides could announce a budget agreement as early as today.
Bloomberg, who has been warning for months that there was no extra money this year for the council to restore services, later told reporters the budget package will "be a compromise, like the real world requires."
TAXI OWNERS ASK FOR 23 PERCENT
INCREASE IN CAB FARES
By Jean
Dupiton, Jacques Dussek and James Limage
The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, a lobbying group that represents about 20 percent of the industry, stepped up its campaign for an increase in a letter hand-delivered to all the TLC commissioners on Monday.
The group petitioned for an identical hike in late 2001, but the TLC postponed the matter because the commissioners could not agree on the details.
The Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade later withdrew that petition. Now, the group is resubmitting it, even though it says it could justifiably seek an increase as high as 37 percent.
Gas prices and other operating costs have soared in the seven years since taxi fares last went up, the owners say.
Taxi fare hikes have historically followed subway fare increases. The most recent increase for cabs was in March 1996, four months after the subway fare rose to $1.50.
Subway and bus fares in the city rose to $2 last month.
IN INITIATION INTO A GANG,
HARLEM TEEN DIES
By James Limage, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
A Harlem teenager died Monday night in a fight that police believe was related to a gang initiation.
Orlando Rosario, 16, was punched several times and fell during a fight behind a housing project on the Harlem River Drive. He may have struck his head on a steel beam during the fall.
Rosario died an hour later at Harlem Hospital.
Sources say police have been questioning the teen's classmates, who said he may have been trying to join the gang known as Bone Thugs. Police are still deciding whether to consider Rosario's death a crime or an accident.
Family and friends have left candles and flowers where Rosario was found unconscious.
BLOOMBERG: BOOTHS ARE NOT MY
PROBLEM
By Jacques Dussek, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
Mayor Bloomberg ducked a question yesterday about whether to spare 62 token booths that are on the chopping block.
"I'm not here to run the MTA," the mayor said when asked about the threatened booths during a press conference.
A bill sitting on Gov. Pataki's desk would block the MTA from closing any booths until a seven-member advisory panel was formed to study subway safety. The study could take three years.
Pataki has not said whether he plans to sign or veto the legislation.
Although Pataki controls the MTA, the city handles subway safety.
On that front, the mayor said, the news is all good.
"The subways become safer almost every reporting period," Bloomberg said. "That's the part we can work on and I'll leave it to the MTA - the governor will be talking to them - how best to allocate their resources."
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and James Limage
IN MANHATTAN:
1- A 23-year-old man was hit by two bullets in a Washington Heights drive-by shooting yesterday, police said.
The man was sitting on a bench with four others on Broadway and 162nd Street at around 4 a.m. when shots were fired from a passing car.
The victim was hit in the leg and taken to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
The vehicle sped away south on Broadway.
Police did not know the motive for the attack.
2- The body of an unidentified man in his 40s was found wrapped in a blanket in a Harlem building yesterday, police said.
The superintendent discovered the body at around 10:30 a.m., when he went to clean out an apartment on West 150th Street and Macombs Place.
The medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
IN QUEENS
3- A gun-wielding assailant shot a 21-year-old man in the leg on an Arvene street before fleeing, police said yesterday.
The victim was shot on Beach 54th Street near Beach Channel Drive at around 8 p.m. Monday.
He was taken to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
4- Police yesterday identified the body of a 33-year-old man who plunged to his death from an Elmhurst apartment building.
Teofilo Ventura either fell or was pushed from a third-floor window of the building on 41st Avenue at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Police were called to the scene and found him unconscious on the sidewalk.
Ventura was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he died.
5- Several swastikas were scrawled on the wall of a Fresh Meadows parking garage yesterday.
The vandalism was discovered at around 11 a.m. on 67th Avenue near 165th Street.
IN BROOKLYN
6- A 27-year-old man was shot and slightly wounded yesterday in a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment building, police said.
The victim was hit in the lobby of the building on Atlantic Avenue at around 12:30 p.m.
He was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was listed in stable condition.
Police have no suspects and do not know the motive.
7- A Brownsville man was shot twice after an assailant accosted him on the street, cops said yesterday.
The man was shot in the hand and foot on Ralph Avenue near Bainbridge Street at around 10 p.m. Monday.
He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
The gunman, whose motive was not known, fled.
ON STATEN ISLAND
8- Police yesterday identified an 18-year-old man who was shot dead in a Park Hill apartment building.
Andre Ames and Rahman Khadhir, 26, rode an elevator up to the third floor of the Park Hill Avenue building at around noon Monday.
When the elevator door opened, a masked man waiting for them opened fire, hitting Ames in the chest and Khadhir in the buttocks.
The shooter, whose motive was not known, fled.
Ames died later at Staten Island University Hospital, while Khadhir was listed in stable condition.
June
24, 2003
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW
YORK.
FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS CITY VIOLATED RIGHTS OF 3 MEN.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG TO ANNOUNCE REFORMS IN BILINGUAL ED.
NEW YORK. BREAK FOR NY HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR STUDENTS.
A PAKISTANI CHARGED WITH LYING ABOUT THREAT TO TUNNELS.
NYPD REPORT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK.
FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS CITY VIOLATED RIGHTS OF 3 MEN.
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and Jean Dupiton
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the city violated the rights of two firefighters and a police officer who were fired for their participation in a racist parade float in Queens in 1998.
The judge ruled that the city violated the three employee’s constitutional rights, saying the expression of an idea cannot be prohibited just because a segment of society finds it offensive.
Police Officer Joseph Locurto and firefighters Jonathan Walters and Robert Steiner were fired after wearing blackface and large, black wigs in a Labor Day parade in Broad Channel, Queens, in 1998. On a float called “Black to the Future,” they threw watermelon and fried chicken into the crowd, while calling them “crackers.”
Their truck also dragged a dummy intended to represent James Byrd, an African-American who was chained to a pickup by white supremacists and dragged to pieces in Jasper, Texas, a few months earlier.
Walters, Steiner and Locurto were subsequently fired, but the three men sued the city to get their jobs back, saying the float had no racist intent. The officer and firefighters say their display was a parody in a competition for "funniest float," and was consistent with similar entries.
The city says it will appeal today’s decision.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG TO ANNOUNCE REFORMS IN BILINGUAL ED.
By
Terry Dussek and Jean Dupiton
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday will announce his long-awaited plan to reform bilingual education in the city’s public schools.
The plan will affect 150,000 students, the majority of whom speak Spanish. The issue is politically sensitive because of its impact on the Latino community, whose leaders do not agree on what should be done.
The mayor’s plan is expected to favor so-called dual language classes, in which students are taught in both their native language and English. Currently, most students in bilingual programs are taught primarily in their native languages.
But as many as 140 different languages are spoken in city schools, so many students will still have to take English as a second language, or ESL, classes.
The Bloomberg administration has said the new bilingual program will not be ready by the fall, when the mayor’s overhaul of the school system to centralize administration and curriculum takes effect.
NEW YORK.
BREAK FOR NY HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR STUDENTS.
By Eddy
Dupiton, Gislène Laforest and Jean Souffrant
Thousands of New York high school seniors who were in danger of not graduating this week are getting a break on the controversial math Regents exam.
State Education Commissioner Richard Mills decided Tuesday to disregard the test, after teachers and students across the state complained this year’s version was unfair
The failure rate more than doubled for the rewritten test, which students must pass before they can receive their diplomas. Education officials attributed the problem to questions that were confusing and inappropriately difficult.
About 3,000 seniors statewide were in danger of not graduating on time solely because they failed the standardized math exam this month. Schools now have the discretion to evaluate classwork to decide whether those students can graduate.
The results for juniors have also been tossed. A make-up tessed scheduled for August has been postponed to give education officials more time to figure out why so many students failed.
A PAKISTANI CHARGED WITH LYING ABOUT THREAT TO TUNNELS.
By
Jacques Dussek and Jacqueline O'Garro
A Pakistani man has been charged with falsely reporting a terrorism threat after admitting he lied when, in a drug-induced stupor, he told authorities about an imminent attack on the Lincoln and Holland tunnels last weekend.
Khuram Yousifzai, an who is living illegally in the United States, called 911 from a Manhattan payphone early Saturday and then met with agents from Federal Bureau of Investigation several times, claiming he knew of a plot by Al Qaeda to blow up the tunnels, authorities said.
Security was boosted across the city as a result, and extensive traffic delays were reported at both tunnels.
According to authorities, Yousifzai told the FBI that he made the false claim because he had been drinking, smoking marijuana and using cocaine and desperately wanted to be a federal agent.
He is being held without bail.
The Lincoln and Holland tunnels were among the targets in a foiled 1993 plot to bomb New York City landmarks.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and James Limage
IN MANHATTAN:
1- Police are asking for the public's help in finding two suspected burglars in the heist of about $500,000 in jewels from a Manhattan wholesaler. The men were captured on a surveillance video inside Gold Force International Ltd., on the eighth floor of 236 Fifth Ave., near West 27th Street, at around 8 p.m. on June 14, police said. They swiped assorted rings, bracelets and necklaces before fleeing.
2- A human skull was discovered by construction workers renovating an East Harlem apartment building yesterday, police said. The hardhats made the grisly find as they were knocking down walls in the building on Lexington Avenue near East 126th Street at around 11:30 a.m.
IN THE BRONX
3- A Florida man has been charged with the September 2001 stabbing murder of a 22-year-old man in Longwood, and cops are searching for two more suspects. Police arrested José Diaz, 19, at his house in Kissimmee, Fla., Friday after cops received word he applied for a Florida driver's license this month. On Sept. 17, 2001, Diaz and two cohorts lured Roberto Martinez, 22, to the roof of an apartment building on Lafayette Avenue at around 2 a.m., cops said. Martinez was stabbed more than 40 times before the trio stole his money and jewelry, then tossed him off the roof, police said. Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene. Diaz also was charged with robbery.
IN STATEN ISLAND
4- Two men were shot and wounded yesterday by a masked gunman in a Park Hill apartment building, police said. The men, ages 18 and 26, were riding an elevator to the third floor of a building on Park Hill Avenue at around noon. When the elevator door opened, they found an unidentified man brandishing a gun at them. He opened fire, hitting one man in the chest and the other in the buttocks. The shooter then fled.
5- A 19-year-old man has been charged with raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl in his Grymes Hill apartment, authorities said yesterday. Malcolm Bowman allegedly had sex with the girl in his Steuben Street home on June 19, cops said. The next morning, he allegedly had sex with her again, police said.
BROOKLYN
6- A man in his 50s made off with about $600 from a Flatlands bank yesterday after he passed a note demanding money to a teller, police said. The robbery took place at around 9:30 a.m. at the Chase branch on Flatbush Avenue and Lott Place.
7-
Two thieves robbed two men at gunpoint in a
Fort Greene bar, police said
yesterday. The two men, brandishing guns, stormed into the saloon on
Fulton Street near Clinton Avenue at 11:50 p.m. Sunday. They snatched wallets from Ernest Green, 54, and Hikmat
Abelsattah, 25, before fleeing. No one was reported injured.
June 23, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
HUNTINGTON, L.I. NY. A SPECIAL
SATURDAY WITH KAREN THOMAS.
NEW YORK. PRESIDENT BUSH WILL BE IN TOWN THIS EVENING.
NEW YORK. RUDOLPH GIULIANI MAY RUN FOR OFFICE AGAIN.
JFK. NY. $ 250,000 OF JEWELRY STOLEN FROM LIL KIM AT KENNEDY
AIRPORT.
NEW YORK. JUNE IS THE WETTEST MONTH ON RECORD.
NYPD REPORT:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HUNTINGTON, L.I. NY. A SPECIAL SATURDAY WITH KAREN THOMAS.
By
Jacques Dussek, Jean Dupiton
This past Saturday, the
rain could not stop the success of Karen Thomas' special party by the
pool in Huntington.
About 75 special guests were there to enjoy the gracious company of
Karen and her staff of the Thomas Public Relations. Good music,
dancing, exquisite barbecue, drinks, swimming made that party an
unforgettable affair. Those of us who left New York City couldn't have
a better time in suburbia as well as the other attendees. Karen proved
to be the grande Dame of entertainment.
With over 10 years of experience in public relations for computer
companies, Ms. Thomas is behind the success of major product launches,
such as the Olympus America's digital camera line wining over 60
awards in less than a year. She has been successful in her work with
an office at 33 Walt Whitman Rd., Huntington Station, managed by six
full-time assistants and a roster of specialized technical writers to
suit each of her client's needs.
All the guests of that Saturday party are waiting for an encore bash by Karen Thomas, the best hostess in Long Island, as far as we are concerned.
NEW YORK.
PRESIDENT BUSH WILL BE IN TOWN THIS EVENING.
By Jacques
Dussek, Terry Dussek and James Limage
President George Bush is coming to New York City today, and when he leaves his re-election campaign will be a lot richer.
Bush will only be in town for about five hours, for a fundraiser. Fellow Republicans Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are scheduled to attend.
Tickets are going for around $2,000 a person. There are reports Bush could walk away from the city with as much as $5 million in campaign contributions.
Monday’s fundraiser will be the president’s third in the last seven days, part of a two-week blitz expected to raise more than $20 million.
The event starts at 5 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel, at Seventh Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan. Traffic delays and closures are expected as a result.
Drivers should expect sporadic "frozen zones" and closures between JFK Airport and Midtown Monday afternoon.
There are also several
protests planned surrounding the event. Planned Parenthood and the New
York Civil Liberties Union are among the groups taking part.
NEW YORK.
RUDOLPH GIULIANI MAY RUN FOR OFFICE AGAIN.
By Jacques
Dussek and Fred Dupiton
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tells Time magazine he will probably run for office again, though it might be a few years. Giuliani said he doesn't know if he will run for senator, governor or another position. Giuliani challenged Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate but dropped out of the race after being diagnosed with prostate cancer and separating from his wife.
Clinton is up for re-election in 2006, and Governor George Pataki's current term expires the same year. When asked if he'd like to be president, Time reports, Giuliani says it's something he's never seriously thought about.
JFK. NY. $ 250,000 OF JEWELRY STOLEN FROM LIL KIM AT KENNEDY AIRPORT.
By Romy
Dussek and James Limage
Hip-hop star Lil’ Kim says someone stole $250,000 worth of jewelry from her bag at Kennedy Airport.
The native New Yorker, whose real name is Kimberly Jones, was headed to the Black Entertainment Television awards in Los Angeles on Friday when her carry-on bag, containing half a million dollars worth of jewelry, was mistakenly checked with her other luggage. The flight was delayed after Jones realized the error, so the bag could be retrieved from the luggage hold.
But it was too late. According to her lawyer, the bag had been “tampered with” and someone had taken some of the jewelry, including her signature “Queen Bee” necklace.
A spokesman for the Port Authority, which runs the airport, said that Lil’ Kim filed a stolen jewelry report and that the incident was under investigation.
NEW YORK. JUNE IS THE WETTEST MONTH ON RECORD.
By Jacqueline O'Garro, Terry
Dussek and Jean Dupiton
There’s still a week
left, and this month is already the wettest June on record for New
York City.
Another rainy weekend pushed the total for the month to 10 inches as
of Sunday morning – about as much rain as the city usually receives in
three months.
That is also the most rain in June in the city since the National
Weather Service started keeping records, drowning the previous record
of 9.78 inches set in 1903. This month is also on pace to be one of
the five coldest Junes over. “We've got a winter jet stream pattern
that just has not gone away,” said meteorologist John Davitt. “We
keep getting storm after storm.”
The lousy weather has meant significant losses for business that
attract customers on nice days. Few people have been visiting Coney
Island. “It's rained almost every weekend,” said Sandro Ortega, a
manager at Nathan's. “It's not the same as last year. Crowds aren't
coming. It's terrible.”
One T-shirt and toy shop on the boardwalk said business is down 80
percent from a year ago.”
“We don’t have any business in here,” said Gilberto Bravo, who works
at Coney Island Photomat. “No people are coming in, no money. It's
been real lousy here.” An employee who's worked at a food stand for 28
years says this month has been the slowest ever. One regular customer
said the rain has kept him away.
“I just came from Tucson,” said customer, Michael Salvatore. “I was
down there the last six months, and it was 110 degrees. I come up
here, and for the last 20 days it's been raining day and night.”
It seems to be a case of all or nothing in New York. Last summer there
was a drought emergency in the five boroughs. If there's one positive
thing to come out of all this rain, there definitely won’t be a water
shortage this year. “Reservoirs right now are over 100 percent,”
Davitt said. “And what that means is there's enough rain in the
reservoirs so that it doesn't have to rain for the next year.”
Will the rest of the summer will be a washout? The National Weather
Service is calling for normal rainfall and temperatures in its 30- and
90-day outlooks, though long-range predictions are often
inaccurate.For now, businesses that are drowning financially can only
hope the sun will come out and save them.
NYPD REPORT:
IN MANHATTAN
6- An off-duty sanitation worker was busted for DWI after allegedly driving the wrong way down Edgecombe Avenue in Hamilton Heights. John Gill, 49, who is assigned to the Sanitation Department's District 7 in The Bronx, was arrested at 11:30 p.m. Saturday.
IN THE BRONX
1- A 32-year-old Bronx man who was sitting in his parked car in Baychester was wounded in a drive-by shooting early yesterday. David Coram told cops he was shot in the right arm at about 3:10 a.m. after a Mitsubishi Galant pulled alongside his vehicle, parked on Bruner Avenue. He said the gunman didn't speak to him and drove off immediately after shooting. Coram, who was in stable condition at Jacobi Hospital, wasn't able to provide cops with a detailed description of his attacker.
2- A gang of teenagers shot a 16-year-old boy yesterday in Belmont after he refused to hand over money. The victim was walking with a pal at 2 a.m. when four male teenagers approached him at the corner of Crescent Avenue and East 183rd Street. When the boy refused their demands for cash, the thugs tried to frisk him. After he resisted their attempts to search his pockets, one of them fired a shot, hitting him in the right forearm. He was taken to Bronx Lebanon Hospital and was in stable condition. No arrests have been made.
3- A 52-year-old man was slashed in the face with a razor blade after a fight broke out in his Morrisania apartment. Balus Dickey, who lives in a first-floor apartment on East 166th Street, was attacked at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday by James Walker, 45, cops said. Dickey allegedly punched Walker in the stomach before he was slashed. Both men were charged with assault.
IN QUEENS
4- Residents of an apartment building in Sunnyside were evacuated yesterday after a live hand grenade was found on the second floor. Officers in the NYPD bomb squad were called to 42-09 47th Ave. after a 21-year-old resident discovered the grenade on the floor of an incinerator room at 11:35 a.m. The grenade was removed to the police bomb range at Rodmans Neck in The Bronx where it was detonated. Cops are investigating the incident. No one was arrested.
5- A 43-year-old woman returned home yesterday to find an anti-Semitic message scrawled on the door of her fifth-floor apartment in Flushing. The woman, who lives on 137th Street, was returning home at about 10 a.m. yesterday when she found the offensive message. Cops have launched an investigation.
IN BROOKLYN
7- Two teens were arrested for allegedly assaulting three Indian men yesterday in East Flatbush, in what police are calling a possible bias incident. Samuel Colon and Tony Winston, both 18, made ethnic remarks as they attacked the men at the corner of East 94th Street and Foster Avenue at about 4:50 p.m., cops said. It's unclear what sparked the incident. The three victims were treated for minor cuts and bruises.
June 20, 2003
NEW YORK.
DUTCH BANK BUILDING TO BE DEMOLISHED.
LA GUARDIA. $ 10 MILLION IN DRUG MONEY FOUND AT AIRPORT.
BROOKLYN, NY. LYMAN FARIS PLEADS GUILTY TO DESTROY THE BROOKLYN
BRIDGE.
NEW YORK.
RENTS INCREASE ON STABILIZED APARTMENTS VOTED BY CITY BOARD.
NEW YORK.
NYPD AND BODEGA OWNERS WORKED OUT NEW SAFETY PLAN.
NEW YORK.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF
PHOENIX ON SALE AT
MIDNIGHT.
NYPD REPORT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK. DUTCH BANK
BUILDING TO BE DEMOLISHED.
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and Harvey Dupiton.
The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center left a 24-story gash in the Deustche Bank building. Now, the building will be demolished next month, the New York Times reported Friday.
The Times said last week, the bank reached a preliminary settlement with the lead insurer of the building which would allow it to be taken down.
The 40-story structure has become infested with mold caused by moisture from fire sprinklers. Dismantling the building is expected to cost more than $100 million because it must be covered in an airtight tarp to contain asbestos and other contaminants.
LA GUARDIA. $ 10 MILLION IN DRUG MONEY FOUND AT AIRPORT.
By Jean
Dupiton, Jacques Dussek and Harvey Dupiton.
A police search of a piece of luggage at LaGuardia Airport Thursday turned up millions of dollars in drugs.
Police said they recovered a bag containing 10 kilos of cocaine, 20 pounds of heroin and 2,000 ecstasy pills. The drugs arrived on a Spirit Airline flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and have a street value of nearly $10 million.
Two men were arrested and charged with drug trafficking.
Police said the bust was made by an alert airport security team.
“Two men carrying five pieces of luggage could only produce baggage claim receipts for two bags,” said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. “When questioned, they tried to disclaim ownership of the other three bags even though they had them in their possession.”
Both suspects are from San Juan. They face life behind bars if convicted.
BROOKLYN, NY. LYMAN FARIS PLEADS GUILTY TO DESTROY THE BROOKLYN
BRIDGE.
By Romy
Dussek and Terry Dussek
A truck driver from Ohio admitted Thursday he was part of a group to destrot the Brooklyn Bridge.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said 34-year-old Iyman Faris pleaded guilty to two felony charges, including conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. The charges together carry as much as 20 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.
Ashcroft says Faris scouted out the Brooklyn Bridge during a visit to New York last year, then sent a coded message to the al Qaeda terror group. As part of his guilty plea, Faris admitted he was told by a senior al Qaeda operative to get “gas cutters,” equipment that could have been used to cut bridge cables.
“This case has many of the hallmarks we have come to recognize in al Qaeda operations: recruitment of sympathetic operatives, extensive planning, travel inside several countries and extensive use of hard to track communications, such as cell phones and Internet cafes,” Ashcroft said.
Justice Department officials say Faris was also plotting to blow up aircraft and derail trains in the United States.
“From late 2000 to March of this year, Faris worked in concert with al Qaeda - our enemies - to plot potential attacks against America and its citizens,” said Ashcroft.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Faris conducted surveillance of the Brooklyn Bridge and saw tight security, so he allegedly sent this coded message back to al Qaeda: "The weather is too hot."
Kelly credited the NYPD’s counter-terrorism work. The bridge is under 24-our surveillance and heavily-armed police teams guard city landmarks.
Faris, who is originally from Kashmir, was a truck driver licensed to carry hazardous materials. Investigators said he traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and even met with Osama bin Laden.
Government investigators said Faris was receiving instructions directly from senior al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Mohammed is in U.S. custody overseas and is reportedly providing interrogators with valuable intelligence about the terror group.
NEW YORK.
RENTS INCREASE ON STABILIZED APARTMENTS VOTED BY CITY BOARD.
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and Harvey Dupiton.
Thursday afternoon, the City Board voted to increase rents on rent-stabilized apartments in the city.
After more than two hours of shouting back and forth, the board voted 5-to-4 for a 4.5 percent increase on one-year leases and a 7.5 percent increase on two-year leases.
The board shaved one percentage point off the rent increases it had proposed in its preliminary vote.
When asked whether influence from the mayor's office was behind the decision to reduce the increase, Board Chairman Marvin Marcus said no, adding that the final decision was the right one.
“I'm happy,” Marcus said. “I think it's a fair and equitable consensus vote. ‘Happy’ is a relative word; it’s hard to be happy in this context.”
Landlords had lobbied for even higher increases, citing rising costs of fuel, water and insurance, along with the city's property tax hikes. Tenants groups argued people are already paying more than they can afford.
The increases will apply to leases signed between October 1, 2003 and September 30, 2004.
It is the largest rent increase for the city's more than one million rent-stabilized apartments since 1989.
Meanwhile, the state's rent laws have expired with no agreement on a renewal.
The Senate and Assembly have been working in a similar direction, with both chambers pushing toward a renewal of existing laws without changes. But, as the clock ticked down on the legislative session Thursday night, the Senate passed an eight-year renewal. The House version was a four-year renewal.
Until those versions are reconciled, the rent laws are up in the air.
The Assembly could settle the issue in its final session today, but Assembly leaders have indicated they're not willing to match the Senate's eight year renewal.
"If they don't pass it, then yes, it's going to expire," said Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. "And it will be expired until we come back into session, which will be sometime in September or October."
For tenants, it means there’s no immediate impact unless your lease happens to expire today, because most tenants are protected by leases that run at least until the end of the month.
NEW YORK.
NYPD AND BODEGA OWNERS WORKED OUT NEW SAFETY PLAN.
By Eddy Dupiton and James
Limage.
After weeks of calling for
better security, bodega owners work out a new safety plan with the
NYPD.
The pilot program comes following two deadly shootings in Harlem last month.
About $65,000 worth of security cameras will be installed in bodegas across the city, starting in high-crime areas. An emergency panic button will also be installed, giving bodegas an immediate connection to police.
The program is expected to begin within a couple of weeks.
NEW YORK.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF PHOENIX ON SALE AT
MIDNIGHT.
By Eddy Dupiton and
Jacques Dussek.
The countdown has begun for Harry Potter fans. The best-selling
series' fifth installment, "Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix," is set to go on sale Friday at midnight.
Lines are expected at bookstores around the city. Some stores, like Barnes and Noble, have even organized Harry Potter-themed parties leading up to the midnight release.
"We're getting ready for Harry," said Carolyn Brown of Barnes and Noble in Manhattan. "We have our midnight magic parties today in new York starting at six o'clock. Molly Ringwald will be reading the last chapter of Book 4. We're going to have magic shows with wizards and witches. You can come get your picture taken with Harry. We're having look-alike contests, raffles – everything Harry."
The book is expected to be the highest-selling book in the store’s history.
A countdown to midnight is planned in Times Square tonight.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling told the BBC the sixth book in the series will be much shorter than the 896-page "Phoenix.”
Rowling said the seventh and final book in the series will be longer again because she "won't want to let go.”
Meanwhile, Rowling is suing The Daily News for $100 million for publishing what it called "a brief glimpse" into "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," after saying it bought a copy from a Brooklyn health food store.
NYPD REPORT:
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Police yesterday identified a Maryland man who was shot to death in a Morningside Heights apartment building last Saturday.
The body of Cheo Swanson, 28, of Oxinhill, Md., was discovered with several bullet wounds in the lobby of the building on Columbus Avenue near 101st Street at around 5:30 a.m.
Police have no suspects in the case.
2- An 81-year-old man was found dead in an apparent suicide yesterday in a Chinatown apartment, police said.
The body of the unidentified man was discovered in the Grand Street building at around 10 a.m.
3- An armed robber walked into a Chelsea bank yesterday, passed a teller a note demanding money and fled with an undetermined amount of cash.
The robbery took place at around 3 p.m. in the Commerce Bank branch at 26th Street and Seventh Avenue.
4- A gun-wielding thief held up an Upper East Side bank yesterday, making off with an unknown amount of cash, police said. The robber - described as a 40-year-old black man - walked into the Commerce Bank at 1091 Third Avenue around 11:15 a.m., displayed a handgun and demanded money, cops said. No one was injured during the heist
IN BROOKLYN
5- A city firefighter is charged with patronizing a prostitute in Sunset Park, police said. Firefighter Andre Torres, assigned to Engine 216 in Williamsburg, was nabbed at 63rd Street and Sixth Avenue around 4:30 p.m., cops said.
6-
A gun-wielding bandit has been arrested for allegedly robbing a
Carroll
Gardens bodega, and cops are searching for a second suspect. Brandishing a 9 mm
Luger, Luis Martinez, 35, and his male cohort entered the bodega on
Fourth Avenue near Douglass
Street at around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said. They allegedly ordered employees to open the
cash register. After swiping cash, cops said, the thugs tied up the
workers with duct tape and rifled through their pockets, stealing
property.
They fled with $150 in cash and some packs of cigarettes as the
workers gave chase. Police were driving by when they saw the chase and
joined in. They quickly nabbed
Martinez on robbery and gun-possession charges.
7- An on-duty NYPD cop was arrested early yesterday on charges she beat her boyfriend and stole his keys from his Bushwick home, police said. Danielle Jackson, assigned to the 73rd Precinct, went to the apartment and assaulted her boyfriend during a domestic dispute, cops said. Jackson was charged with petit larceny and assault.
8- An 18-year-old man was shot in the hand on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street, cops said yesterday. Police said they did not know the motive for the attack, which took place on Marcy Avenue at Quincy Street at around 3 p.m. Wednesday. The victim was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was treated and released. No arrests have been made.
9- A man in his 30s entered a Coney Island bank yesterday and slipped a note demanding money to a teller, but fled empty-handed, cops said. The attempted robbery occurred about 10 a.m. in the Citibank branch on Mermaid Avenue and West 29th Street.
IN QUEENS
10- Two officials with the Transport Workers Union were charged with trespassing yesterday after they tried to conduct a safety inspection at a College Point bus depot, authorities said. Secretary Treasurer Ed Watt and Safety Director Toney Earl were arrested at 9:30 a.m. in the Queens Surface Corporation depot on 28th Avenue. For the last three days, union officials have been trying to inspect Queens Surface buses after receiving complaints about allegedly dangerous fuel emissions.
IN THE BRONX
11- A 58-year-old man has been arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes to a passer-by on a Tremont street corner, authorities said yesterday. Police said they spotted Librado Rodriguez handing an individual two packs of cigarettes in exchange for cash on Valentine Avenue and Fordham Road at around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Sources said Rodriguez was also carrying in his jacket pocket six cigarette packs lacking the required New York tax stamp.
12- An off-duty emergency medical technician was charged with drug possession after cops spotted him with marijuana on a Kingsbridge Heights street, police said yesterday. Terrance Hardy, assigned to EMS FDNY Battalion 19, was arrested on Strong Street and Reservoir Avenue at around 4 p.m. Wednesday. Police are investigating the source of letters with anti-Jamaican remarks that were found inside a Williamsbridge middle school, authorities said yesterday. The 10 letters were discovered inside IS 113 around 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Cops said the incident was reported just after 4 p.m. yesterday.
June 19, 2003
NEW
YORK.
BOARD TO VOTE ON RENT INCREASES FOR STABILIZED APARTMENTS
NEW YORK.
WOMAN FOUND SLAIN IN MANHATTAN APARTMENT
BROOKLYN, NY. SCHOOLKIDS HAD LOADED GUNS: COPS
NEW YORK.
MORE CHANGES IN METER RATES
NYPD REPORT
BOARD
TO VOTE ON RENT INCREASES FOR STABILIZED APARTMENTS
While lawmakers in Albany continue to haggle over whether or not to renew the laws that govern the city’s more than one million rent stabilized apartments, New Yorkers will find out Thursday the annual rent increase for those residences.
The Rent Guidelines Board is set to vote on increases tonight. Last month, the board proposed hikes of 5.5 percent for one-year lease renewals and 8.5 percent for two years. Historically, the final decision has varied little, if at all, from the preliminary vote.
The board held its last public hearing on Tuesday, where for five noisy hours, board members heard from tenants who said they can’t afford higher rents, and from landlords who said they can’t pay their own bills without a hefty hike. Some elected officials also spoke on behalf of tenants.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers passed another 24-hour extension of rent laws Wednesday, still unable to reach agreement on vacancy decontrol. However, their ability to buy time is running out, because the legislative session wraps up today for the summer break.
The Daily News reports there's momentum toward the easy solution, which is to keep the laws roughly as they are now. The News says a four-year extension is likely.
Under the current law, landlords can deregulate vacated apartments that rent for more than $2,000 a month. Democrats in the Assembly and the city’s GOP senators want to raise the threshold to $2,500, while Governor George Pataki and most of his fellow Republicans in the Senate want to lower it to $1,500.
A lower threshold, supported by landlords, would speed up the reduction of rent stabilized apartments in the city, and a higher threshold, which would favor tenants, would keep the rent regulation system in place longer.
WOMAN FOUND SLAIN IN MANHATTAN APARTMENT
Police are investigating the death of a Manhattan woman found in her East Side apartment late Wednesday evening.
Investigators say a friend of 19-year-old Ifeyinwa Ikechukwu called police yesterday to report she hadn't seen her friend in several days. When police entered Ikechukwu’s apartment on 59th Street and First Avenue, they found her in the bedroom with several stab wounds and her throat slashed.
Police say the apartment was not broken into, but it was ransacked.
Investigators think Ikechukwu may have been an aspiring actress or model. However, police say they do not yet know if the woman was killed by a strangers or someone she knows, and there is no indication yet of a motive for the murder.
Nearby residents say they are surprised a crime like this took place in their neighborhood.
“I'm shocked. I feel very safe in this neighborhood. There's lots of traffic, lots of lights, and it seems pretty calm,” said neighbor Nena Terrell.
“It's a really high traffic area, very highly populated, but you don't really see anything going down like that. Even late at night, this area's always pumping,” said Brandon Mikolaski, another neighbor.
The Medical Examiner’s office is conducting an investigation to determine exactly how Ikechukwu died.
SCHOOLKIDS HAD LOADED GUNS: COPS
Two Brooklyn students were busted in separate incidents yesterday when they were caught in school with loaded guns - and, in one case, firing the weapon out a window, police said.
The younger of the two, a 12-year-old boy, was arrested around 1 p.m. at PS 202, the Ernest S. Jenkyns School, in East New York after he showed off a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun to some fellow students, police sources said.
One of those students was nervous enough to tell a teacher, who notified the principal who in turned called police.
When officers arrived at the school on Hegeman Avenue, they found the weapon in the boy's backpack.
No one was injured, and the pistol-packing student was arrested without a problem, cops said. A school suspension is pending for the boy, said a spokesperson for the Department of Education.
Earlier in the day, a teen at IS 232 in Wingate was charged with assault and weapons possession for shooting a BB gun from inside the school, hitting a student outside, police said.
The gunplay began around 12:40 p.m. when a 14 year-old boy fired the pellet gun onto the Winthrop Street school's playground, striking a 14-year-old girl in the forehead, cops said.
The girl was taken to Kings County Hospital, where was listed in stable condition.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the boy will be suspended for at least a week.
An official said neither school has a metal detector.
MORE CHANGES IN METER RATES
Motorists will have to dig a little deeper to park at thousands of metered parking spaces starting July 1.
Under a plan announced months ago, the rates on 6,020 meters are going up from $1 to $1.50 an hour.
The first phase - affecting 1,220 spots on Third to Fifth avenues, from East 59th to East 96th streets - kicks in July 1.
By September, another 4,800 meters will be converted to the higher rate.
NYPD REPORT
By
Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- An East Harlem man has died after being punched in the face last week, police said yesterday.
Francisco Lebron, 61, was walking on East 116th Street at around 4:30 p.m. on Monday of last week when he was approached and assaulted by William Hargrove, 47, cops said.
During the fight, Lebron fell and hit his head on the ground.
Police were called to the scene and arrested Hargrove on assault charges.
Lebron was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where he died the following day. Charges are expected to be upgraded.
2- A 32-year-old man has been arrested for robbing an Upper West Side bank last week, police said.
Albayan Shabazz, 32, walked into the Commerce Bank on Broadway near West 68th Street on Wednesday of last week at around 3:30 p.m., slipped a note to a teller and fled with cash, cops said.
After further investigation, police arrested Shabazz on Tuesday and charged him with robbery.
IN BROOKLYN
3- A drunken driver was arrested in Canarsie after he stole a car and plowed it into a police car, cops said yesterday.
The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was driving a stolen 1998 Nissan north on Rockaway Parkway around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when he struck the police car standing at a red light at the corner of Farragut Road.
Two officers were taken to Jamaica Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released.
4- An emotionally disturbed man leaped into the waters off The Canarsie Pier after he got into an argument with his girlfriend, police said yesterday.
Jian Wang, 23, was driving with his girlfriend at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when he threatened to kill himself, police said.
He pulled over on the pier, hopped out of the car and jumped into the water, said cops.
NYPD Aviation and Harbor units combined to rescue the man, who was taken to Kings County Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
IN QUEENS
5- Detectives are probing the murder of a 16-year-old boy who was gunned down on an Elmhurst street.
Alejandro Brito, of Elbertson Street, was shot once in the head in front of 86-11 Whitney Ave. shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday.
He died later at Elmhurst Hospital.
Cops spent yesterday canvassing the neighborhood for possible leads to the slaying. Police had yet to turn up any witnesses.
One police official said the victim had a juvenile-arrest record, but details of that case were sealed.
6- A 24-year-old man accidentally plowed his car into two pedestrians at a Rego Park intersection yesterday, sending both to the hospital, police said.
Armen Babayez is charged with driving with a suspended license after backing his car into the middle of 64th Avenue at 108th Street around 12:55 p.m., cops said.
Babayez struck a 48-year-old woman and then a 92-year-old man, authorities said.
Law-enforcement sources said Babayez suffered a seizure before the accident.
7- A Rikers Island correction officer was charged with menacing a woman and her pregnant daughter with what appeared to be a gun in a road-rage incident on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, authorities said yesterday.
On May 29, Jeff Obrenski, 40, was heading west on the thoroughfare near the Grand Central Parkway at around 7:30 a.m. when he accelerated and then slammed on the brakes, authorities said.
Nerida Cuccia, 50, and Bernadette Cuccia, 35, who is eight months pregnant, were driving behind him and decided to pass his car.
As they pulled alongside his vehicle, Obrenski allegedly displayed his shield, produced a gun and pointed it at them.
Police later arrested him, and he faces up to a year in prison if convicted, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's office.
IN THE BRONX
8- A gun-wielding assailant shot and killed a 28-year-old man on a Morrisania street before fleeing, police said yesterday.
Terick James, 28, was shot in the chest for unknown reasons after the thug approached him and drew a gun on East 168th Street near Sherman Avenue at around 11 p.m. Tuesday. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died. No arrests have been made.
9- A 25-year-old man was shot in the stomach and seriously wounded on a Mott Haven street, police said yesterday. At about 1 p.m. Tuesday, an unidentified assailant pulled a pistol and shot him on Willis Avenue and East 137th Street before fleeing.
The victim was taken to Lincoln Hospital. Police had not determined a motive as of last night.
June 18, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW
YORK.
CeBIT AMERICA OPENS IN NEW YORK’S JAVITS CENTER
QUEENS, NY. WORKERS AT
QUEENS POWER PLANT THREATEN TO STRIKE
NEW YORK.
TEACHERS IN OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES FIGHT
NEW YORK.
CRIME IN THE SUBWAYS CONTINUES TO RECORD LOW
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK.
CeBIT AMERICA OPENS IN NEW YORK’S JAVITS CENTER
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and Harvey Dupiton.
From June 18 to June 20, for the first time, New York welcomes CeBIT America tradeshow and conference. As organizers of the world’s most high-profile information and communications technology tradeshow, the CeBIT group provides an invaluable resource and voice to the high-tech world. The rain could not stop the huge crowd for the opening of the show.
Information technology is fundamental to making globalization work. Given the current downturn in the global economy and additional uncertainty in financial markets, business has a vital interest in ensuring that information technology supports thriving markets and brings a growing number of developing countries into the global marketplace.
The “Bridging the Global Digital Divide” conference presents vision, strategy, and innovative business solutions for expanding IT in today’s global economy.
Participants will include leading international government IT decision-makers, senior executives from all sectors relevant to IT, investors and analysts, senior U.S. Government officials and international media and journalists.
The conference will be the staging ground for formulating concrete, results-based proposals seeking to foster greater cooperation between technology companies and political leaders. These proposals are aimed at growing markets and providing both countries and their citizens the tools necessary to plug into the global economy. This process will be coordinated by the Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN). A final group of proposals will be presented at the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2003.
CeBIT America brings together the best in systems, applications, communications and networking with world-class exhibits, best-of-breed conference programs, special events and programs to meet your information needs. Built over three quick days and conveniently located in the heart of the business capital of America: New York City, with programs by organizations you want to meet and talk to. It's everything today's enterprise manager has been asking for in an event.
The keynote speakers are: Michael D. Capellas, Chairman, President and CEO of MCI David Nagel, President and CEO of PalmSource, Inc, Craig A. Conway, President and CEO of PeopleSoft, Inc., Nobuharu Ono, President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo USA, Inc of Japon.
WORKERS AT QUEENS POWER PLANT THREATEN TO STRIKE
By
Jacqueline O'Garro, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn- Louis.
Workers at an electric plant in
Queens that generates one-third
of the city’s power are threatening to strike next week if they don’t
get a new contract with raises and better benefits.
Employees of the Ravenswood facility in Long Island City, owned by the private company Keyspan, protested outside Wednesday morning.
A spokesman for their union, Local 12 of Utility Workers Union of America, said they want higher wages, better pension and medical benefits and safer working conditions. If there is no deal in place by the time the old contract expires next Tuesday, the union says, the plant’s 131 workers will walk off the job.
“The workers might be just practicing today, but come midnight June 24, this could be the real thing,” said union spokesman Stephen Mangione. “That could be devastating and crippling to the city, because this Ravenswood plant serves Manhattan and major load pockets in Queens. It would affect residents, businesses and institutions.”
Keyspan says both sides are negotiating in good faith. But if there is a strike, the power company says, there are contingency plans to maintain the flow of electricity to the city.
TEACHERS IN OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES FIGHT
By
JacquesDussek, Judith Jn- Louis and James Limage
Public school teachers spend an average of $426 of their own money for basic classroom supplies like paper, pencils and books, according to a City Council survey released yesterday.
Joined by the United Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten, Speaker Gifford Miller cited the results as reason to fully restore the "Teacher's Choice" program that reimburses teachers up to $200 for classroom supplies.
Mayor Bloomberg initially proposed eliminating the $16 million program. But he recently announced he restored half the funds, providing teachers up to $100 in reimbursement.
But Miller said teachers deserve the full $200 despite the city's fiscal problems.
"It is simply wrong to force teachers to spend their own money on supplies for the classroom, especially when those supplies should be provided by the Department of Education," Miller said.
A mayoral spokesman said, "We will not reach a resolution by the council issuing press releases or doing publicity stunts."
The survey conducted by the council Investigations Committee, headed by Queens Councilman Eric Gioia, questioned more than 400 teachers and found that more than two-thirds spent more than $250 on supplies, including computer-related software. And one-quarter spent more than $500.
CRIME IN THE SUBWAYS CONTINUES TO RECORD LOW
By
Jacqueline O'Garro, Gislène Laforest and James Limage.
Major crime in the subways continues to tumble to record lows this
year - the result of a giant crackdown on fare beaters, transit
officials said yesterday.
The spate of arrests is part of the NYPD's ongoing effort to prevent crime by deploying uniformed and plainclothes cops on subway platforms.
"We will always go after fare evasion," said NYPD Chief of Transportation Michael Scagnelli. "People who are in the system to commit a crime aren't the ones paying the fare."
The NYPD said 5,893 fare evaders were arrested between January and May - up a whopping 15.5 percent compared to the same five-month period last year.
"If we stop them before they get in [the subway system], we will have prevented a crime," Scagnelli said.
The drop in crime follows the Big Apple's overall downward trend.
Felonies in the subways dropped a staggering 15 percent compared to last year, while robberies are down 10.4 percent and assaults dipped 9 percent.
NYPD statistics show that 9,633 total arrests were made in the city's 468 subway stations so far this year - up 17 percent compared to the same period last year.
Scagnelli said the drop comes as a result of several crime-fighting measures, including targeting high-crime stations and deploying an army of cops underground in response to the heightened terror alert after 9/11.
"We have a large amount of officers at stations," he said. "That deters crime and it deters terrorism."
Scagnelli also said he will work "hand in hand" with the new MTA security director William Morange, a three-star chief and the NYPD's Chief for Organized Crime Control, to help keep crime down and avert terrorism.
"We have mutual concerns," Scagnelli said. "There are areas like Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station where we will have joint efforts."
Then, on June 10 of this year, Tanya testified against Eugene and another sister in a civil case.
Afterward, an angry Eugene got into a heated argument with Tanya on an elevator in Brooklyn Civil Court on Livingston Street.
As they were leaving, he allegedly screamed at her and threatened to kill her. Court officers tossed him out of the courthouse.
Tanya reported both incidents to 70th Precinct cops, who arrested Wood and charged him with menacing and harassment.
NYPD REPORT
By
Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- A 24-year-old man was shot several times and critically injured after he intervened in an argument between two women on a Morningside Heights street, cops said yesterday.
Police said it was unclear what sparked Monday's dispute, but the man sided with one of the women while the other walked away.
She returned later with a male companion to West 109th Street near Columbus Avenue, pointed out the victim and said, "That's him."
Her partner pulled a gun and shot him in the buttocks and chest.
The duo fled. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital.
2- A 30-year-old man was beaten and stabbed yesterday after he exposed himself to a one-armed hooker on a Harlem street, witnesses said.
The unidentified man walked up to her on East 123rd Street and Madison Avenue at around 1 p.m. and opened up his pants.
The woman screamed, prompting a group of seven people standing nearby to chase the man four blocks east on 124th Street and one block north into the 125th Street subway station.
The group caught up with him at a turnstile, brutally beat him and stabbed him with a hunting knife.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital.
IN BROOKLYN
* The body of an
unidentified man in his 30s was discovered in an apartment on West
11th Street near Avenue W in Gravesend on Monday, police said
yesterday.
The body was fully clothed in a water-filled bathtub, with stab wounds to the chest and blows to the head. Police were searching for suspects.
* A 19-year-old man was stabbed in the leg in Coney Island, authorities said yesterday.
The attack occurred about noon Monday at West 8th Street and Sheepshead Bay Road.
The victim was taken to Coney Island Hospital in serious condition.
3- Police are asking for the public's help in finding a 15-year-old girl who vanished in East Flatbush last year. In October 2002, Lashawn Pope disappeared near Tilden HS at 2:30 p.m.
She was described as black, 5 feet tall, 103 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and boots.
Anyone with information should call the Missing Persons Squad at (212) 473-2042.
IN THE BRONX
4- A 31-year-old man was arrested yesterday in the fatal shooting of a Tremont man, and cops are searching for three more suspects.
Duane Beaty and three cohorts entered a second-floor apartment on Monroe Avenue near East 173rd Street at around 3:30 p.m. Monday and accosted Ruben Medina, 28, cops said.
One of the thugs pulled a semi-automatic handgun and shot Medina in the head and back.
Police were called to the scene and arrested Beaty as the other suspects fled in a silver Jeep.
IN QUEENS
5- A thief walked into a South Ozone Park bank yesterday, slipped a note demanding money to a teller and fled with $3,000 in cash.
The robbery took place at around 12:30 p.m. in the North Fork branch at 114-19 Liberty Ave.
ON STATEN ISLAND
6- A robber made off with a bag of loot from a Castleton Corners bank after he ordered two employees to open a vault and fill a bag with cash, police said yesterday.
The robbery took place 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Richmond County Savings Bank on Victory Boulevard near Manor Road.
The robber, described as a black man in his 30s, 5-foot-7 and wearing a black coat, hat and pants, was unarmed.
June 17, 2003
FORMER
CITY COUNCILMAN TO BE SENTENCED FOR BRIBERY
By Jacques
Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
Former Brooklyn City Councilman Angel Rodriguez is scheduled to be
sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to bribery and extortion.
He faces up to five years in prison on the federal charges. He had faced a much longer sentence if convicted by a jury.
In August, Rodriguez admitted to taking $50,000 in cash and buying $1.5 million in real estate below the market price in exchange pushing through Council approval for a supermarket in Red Hook.
He was arrested in
March of 2002 after a year-long undercover operation. Prosecutors say
Rodriguez asked the developer for the bribe, but the developer alerted
authorities instead.
BOARD HOLDS HEARING BEFORE SETTING
RENT INCREASES
By Terry
Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
As state lawmakers continue to haggle over renewing rent stabilization
laws, the Rent Guidelines Board is holding a public hearing Tuesday
before it sets the annual increase on one million city apartments.
The board has proposed hikes of 5.5 percent for one-year lease renewals and 8.5 percent for two years. If enacted, they would be the steepest rent increases in 14 years.
“The rent is going out of hand,” said a resident of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. “Pretty soon, we won’t be able to live anywhere.”
The board's final vote, which historically has varied little, if it all, from the preliminary rates, is scheduled for Thursday.
“The salaries aren't really moving because of the cuts and everything, so yes, it’s hurting,” said another tenant. “It's really hurting. The only thing we can do is go to work and hope for the best.”
Landlords, who wanted even higher rent increases, say they need the extra money to offset the rising costs of fuel, insurance and property taxes.
Meanwhile the laws that govern rent stabilized apartments were extended for a second day, through Tuesday, as state lawmakers continue to debate whether to make changes or continue the system in its current form.
Vacancy decontrol is the main point of contention. Governor George Pataki and the Republican majority in the Senate are pushing for changes that favor landlords, and Assembly Democrats are siding with tenants.
Under the current law, landlords can deregulate vacated apartments that rent for more than $2,000 a month. Democrats and the city’s GOP senators want to raise the threshold, to $2,500, while the governor and most of his fellow Republicans in the Senate want to lower it, to $1,500.
A lower threshold would speed up the reduction of rent stabilized apartments in the city, and a higher threshold would keep the system in place longer.
Tuesday’s public hearing on rent increases will be held in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, at 7th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, from 1:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 8:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. The deadline has passed to register to speak.
The new rates for rent stabilized apartments will affect lease renewals between October 1, 2003, and September 30, 2004. Leases that expire before then are subject to last year’s increases: 2 percent for one-year leases and 4 percent for two years.
STORE OWNERS SLAPPED WITH FINES FOR HAVING ILLEGAL AWNINGS
By Jacques Dusseck and Terry Dussek
Shop owners across the city are getting slapped with hefty fines. The reason: the awnings in front of their stores have too many words.
The awning in front of Jin and Xia on Flatbush Avenue may look fine now, but about a year ago, it had too many words, as far as the City of New York was concerned. It was a violation that cost shop owner Jin Yi $400.
Yi doesn't speak much English, so his neighbor explained his story: “They issued him a violation saying that his sign was wrong, put up illegally. He had to go through the stress of changing the sign all over again.”
Replacing the awning with a more subdued one cost Yi $4,000.
Almost all of Yi's neighbors, along with stores across the five boroughs, have had to shell out similar amounts of money after they were fined for having an illegal canopy. Shop owners say the crackdown is taking place to help close the city's budget gap. The city insists that's not the case.
Whatever it is, the City Council says the number of fines have doubled in the past year. And that, they say, has to stop.
“It is simply unfair to target these mom and pop stores with violations when they simply don't know they are in violation,” said Councilman John Liu.
The Council has proposed legislation that would put a six-month moratorium on canopy fines until the law is changed and expanded. Right now, a 1961 law says awnings may only contain the store's name and address - nothing else.
The council estimates 90 percent of awnings are illegal. Merchants who are found in violation can face hefty fines of up to $2,500 for the first offense and $10,000 for any offense after that.
Illegal canopies seem to be everywhere on Flatbush Avenue. An awning on a dentist's office, for example, looks fine, but it has a phone number. A nearby deli is in violation, too, because the awning tells you what it sells.
The owner of one cell phone store found out his sign was illegal last August. He didn't have to pay a fine, but he had to change his sign because it had too many words. Doing that cost him $4,000.
“It's very painful, you know, because I never thought about changing my sign because I would have to spend all that money,” said Afam Jackson, the owner of T-Mobile.
The city's Department of Buildings says it won't comment on the proposed legislation until Tuesday, when the City Council committee responsible for regulating store awnings is expected to vote on the bill.
REGENTS ALLOW CITY TO HIRE MORE UNCERTIFIED TEACHERS
By Romy
Dusseck & Jean Souffrant
The state Board of Regents Tuesday approved Schools Chancellor Joel
Klein’s plan to hire thousands of uncertified teachers to make up for
recruiting shortfalls.
The unanimous decision clears the way for the city to hire 3,000 uncertified teachers by September and an additional 1,500 the following school year, if needed.
Klein went to Albany Tuesday to personally make the request. The city is supposed to be phasing out uncertified teachers, but Klein says the Education Department can’t hire enough teachers with the proper qualifications.
Klein still projects that 96 percent of the city’s teachers will be certified in September, up from 88 percent during this school year. There are currently about 78,000 teachers in the city’s 1,100 public schools.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
IN MANHATTAN
1- Police yesterday identified Michael Davis as the fifth suspect in a string of gunpoint hold-ups at upper Manhattan bodegas and newsstands over the last two months.
Between April 25 and May 25, Davis, 41, and four cohorts allegedly robbed a dozen grocery stores and newsstands on the Upper East and West Sides.
Police have already arrested Tyrone Washington, 18, Andre Allen, 23, Rashid Graham, 18, and Boston Traxler, 33, and charged them with robbery.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Manhattan Robbery Squad at (212) 614-6755.
2- A man was shot in the head yesterday in a Harlem apartment building, cops said.
The unidentified victim, who was taken to Harlem Hospital, was shot for unknown reasons in a building on West 146th Street. He is in critical condition.
Police yesterday released the name of a 47-year-old man who was shot to death on the Upper East Side. Ernesto Gomez was discovered with a chest wound at around 10 a.m. Sunday in the East 65th Street apartment building where he lived, cops said.
He was taken to New York Hospital, where he died. No arrests have been made.
IN BROOKLYN
3- A Canarsie man was charged with murder yesterday after he fatally stabbed his girlfriend's ex-lover on a Brownsville street corner, police said. Rubin Bramble, 29, and his girlfriend got into an argument with Ramone Ellis on Eastern Parkway and Saratoga Avenue at around 11 p.m. Sunday, cops said.
Bramble allegedly stabbed Ellis several times in the torso.
Ellis, who had a child with the woman, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died.
4- An off-duty Manhattan cop was arrested for drunken driving early yesterday after he hit a car parked on a Brownsville street, police said.
Anthony McNeil, 36, assigned to the 28th Precinct, was trying to park his car on Thomas Boyland Street near Sumpter Street at around 1 a.m. when he struck the other car, cops said.
He then allegedly got into an argument with his neighbors and responding cops, who placed him under arrest. McNeil, who was suspended, refused a Breathalyzer test and was charged with drunken driving and menacing, authorities said. It was not immediately clear what he did to merit the menacing charge.
5- A city correction officer was arrested yesterday for menacing his family with a gun during an argument at a relative's apartment in Kensington last week, police said.
Eugene Wood, 38, assigned to the Manhattan House of Detention, was charged with menacing and harassment as a result of the June 10 incident. No injuries were reported.
IN THE BRONX
6- An unlicensed livery driver was shot and wounded in Williamsbridge yesterday during an argument with two passengers, police said.
The 39-year-old victim was driving a man and woman to the corner of East 216th Street and Paulding Avenue at around 1:30 a.m. when one of them shot him once.
The couple fled and the victim was taken to Montefiore Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
IN QUEENS
7- A man robbed a Flushing bank at about 1 p.m. yesterday after slipping a teller a note.
The robber escaped the Astoria Federal Savings Bank at 71-20 Kissena Blvd. with an undetermined amount of cash.
Two swastikas were spray-painted on the front of Hillcrest HS, and cops are investigating it as a bias incident.
June 16, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
ALBANY,
NY.
NEW DEADLINE NEARS FOR RENEWING RENT STABILIZATION
NEW YORK.
CRIME CONTINUES TO DROP IN NEW YORK
NEW YORK.
LAWMAKERS SAY GOP PLAN CUTS CITY'S TRANSPORTATION AID
QUEENS, NY. QUEENS MAN STABBED TO DEATH BY VISITOR
NEW YORK.
TIMES SQUARE RESTAURANTS HOST ANNUAL FOOD FESTIVAL
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW
DEADLINE NEARS FOR RENEWING RENT STABILIZATION
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
The laws that govern over one million rent stabilized apartments in New York City are now set to expire Monday, as lawmakers haggle over how to change them.
The laws were originally set to lapse Sunday, but last week Governor George Pataki and the state Legislature agreed to a one-day extension to give them more time to reach a deal.
The new deadline is at midnight, though it could be extended again. A deal is expected by at least Thursday, when the legislative session ends.
Vacancy decontrol is the main point of contention. The governor and the Republican majority in the Senate are pushing for changes that favor landlords, and Assembly Democrats are siding with tenants.
Under the current law, landlords can deregulate vacated apartments that rent for more than $2,000 a month. Democrats and the city’s GOP senators want to raise the threshold, to $2,500, while the governor and most of his fellow Republicans in the Senate want to lower it, to $1,500.
The opposing positions could lead to a compromise of simply renewing the rent stabilization laws in their current form.
A lower threshold would speed up the reduction of rent stabilized apartments in the city. Tenant advocates warn that any decontrol will lead to the end of rent stabilization altogether.
“Renewing the laws in their current form, without repealing vacancy decontrol, will mean the eventual end of the entire rent regulation system, probably over a reasonably short period, ten years or so,” said Michael McKee of the group New York State Tenants and Neighbors.
On the other side are those who say rent stabilization is unfair to building owners and managers hit with rising property taxes, insurance and other costs.
"There really is no such thing anymore as the apartment that's going to rent for under five or six hundred dollars,” said Frank Ricci of the Rent Stabilization Association. “It just can't happen, because the baseline amount of money that an owner needs just to maintain the apartment is much above that."
The East Side Tenants
Coalition says it will hold a demonstration in front of Pataki's
office Midtown office during rush hour Monday.
CRIME CONTINUES TO DROP IN
NEW
YORK
By Romy Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
The state's crime rate is falling, while the rest of the country isn't seeing much of a change.
Preliminary Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics released by Governor George Pataki show crime in the state has dropped for the ninth year in a row. Statewide, crime was down 3.3 percent last year compared to the year before.
Nationwide, crime was up slightly.
The governor credits the state's tough criminal justice policies with the falling numbers.
In New York City, according to the FBI report, crime dipped 4.5 percent in 2002.
The largest drop for the city, 9.1 percent, came in the murder category. There were 1 percent more murders in the country as a whole.
The one major increase in the city, 8.4 percent, was forcible rapes.
According to the NYPD,
crime has also continued to decline in 2003. But just over this past
weekend, there was a rash of at least 13 murders in the city.
LAWMAKERS
SAY GOP PLAN CUTS CITY'S TRANSPORTATION AID
By Terry
Dusseck & Jean Souffrant
A battle is brewing in Congress over federal transportation spending,
with billions at stake for New York City.
Some House Democrats joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and other city officials Monday to protest Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's proposal to rework the formula to divvy federal transportation dollars between the states.
The Democrats and the GOP mayor say the proposal could cost the city $300 million in aid a year, putting such big projects and Second Avenue subway line in jeopardy.
“There is a move by some in Washington to use this as an opportunity to do what can only be described as fleecing New York City,” Bloomberg said at a news conference in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Democratic congressmen said their own reauthorization bill would allocate an additional $5 billion for New York over six years. The construction projects the bill would fund would also create 60,000 jobs, the Democrats said.
“It would mean improved services to Staten Island and the Rockaways,” said Representative Anthony Weiner, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens. “It would mean the East Side access is more likely to be built, the Second Avenue subway, road improvements throughout the five boroughs, mass transit improvements everywhere. It would be a dramatic, dramatic improvement.”
The formula for federal transportation funding comes up for renewal every six years. The current law is set to expire on September 30.
QUEENS MAN STABBED TO DEATH BY VISITOR
By
Jacques Dusseck & Jean Dupiton
A Queens man was apparently stabbed to death by someone who rang the
doorbell of his home and asked his mom to speak to him, police said.
Ali Karon, 20, went downstairs to the front door of his house in Jamaica, on 171st Street, at 6:30 p.m., after the unidentified visitor came looking for him.
When Karon didn’t return, his mother went back to look for him. She found Karon in front of the house, with stab wounds to his neck and chest.
He later died at Mary Immaculate Hospital.
No arrests have been made, and the motive for the killing is still unclear.
TIMES SQUARE RESTAURANTS HOST ANNUAL FOOD FESTIVAL
By Jacques
Dusseck, & Terry Dussek
Restaurants near Times Square will set up tables outside Monday
evening, offering signature tastes to the public.
The 10th Annual Taste of Times Square Festival kicks off at 5 p.m. More than 45 neighborhood restaurants will take over West 46th Street between 7th and 9th avenues.
They will provide hungry visitors with samples of the food that's available in an area best known for entertainment.
“What do people do when they go to the theater? They go out to a movie, they go and they eat first,” said Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Business Improvement District. “And so everything from pizza to pasta, from low end to high end, we've got the best stuff here.”
There's also entertainment while you eat, including singers, bands and dancing.
Admission to the festival is free, but you'll pay for each item on the menu with coupons you buy on site.
NYPD REPORT
By
Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- A woman's body was discovered in a suitcase by a passer-by in Harlem last night. The corpse was found at West 130th Street near Fifth Avenue at about 6 p.m. An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death.
IN THE BRONX
2- A University Heights woman was stabbed in the throat by her former live-in boyfriend yesterday, police said - and was rescued by a good Samaritan who held the man down until cops arrived.
Mercedes Garcia, 53, was listed in serious condition at St. Barnabas Hospital. Pedro Mateo, 47, lured Garcia out of her apartment by calling her to ask her to run an errand for him, cops said. Mateo had lived with her for 18 years until she kicked him out last month, according to police sources.
He approached Garcia as she was walking on Loring Place, a few blocks away from her apartment, at about 10:30 a.m. and allegedly stabbed her at least three times with a kitchen knife.
A man who lives nearby saw what was happening and wrestled Mateo away from Garcia. Cops arrested Mateo, who was charged with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.
3- A pregnant woman was in a critical condition yesterday after being struck by an SUV in a Morrisania hit-and-run Saturday night, cops said.
Eugenia Nieves, 25, was crossing Boston Road and 169th Street at 9:20 p.m. when the green SUV rammed into her and sped off. Nieves was taken to a local hospital. No arrests have been made.
4- Four men were slashed yesterday after trying to break up a fight between two women at a Bathgate party.
The incident took place at 3:15 a.m. on the 19th floor of a Webster Avenue building.
Three of the men were taken to Lincoln Hospital and one to St. Barnabas. Their injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening.
IN BROOKLYN
5- Two women were attacked inside a C train by a man who shouted anti-gay insults as he punched and kicked them, cops said yesterday.
Joseph Jones, 32, of Newark, approached the women, 27 and 31, after getting on the Brooklyn-bound train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
As he hurled the slurs, he kicked one woman in the pelvic area and punched the other one in the shoulder, cops said.
When the train stopped at the Lafayette Avenue station, Jones allegedly tried to push a man off the train. Police, who were standing on the platform, saw Jones kicking and spitting at the train. Jones, who was wanted on a felony warrant, was arrested and charged with assault. Cops did not say what the warrant was for. The victims refused medical treatment.
6- A man was shot twice during a dispute on an East New York street yesterday.
Jason Montayne was in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital after he was wounded on New Lots Avenue around 5:28 a.m. Police did not know the motive.
7- A 21-year-old man was shot once in the leg during a dispute in the lobby of a building on Avenue D in Flatbush yesterday. The injured man, shot at 12:50 a.m., was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he's listed in stable condition.
No arrests have been made.
June 13, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
BLOOMBERG EXPECTED TO UNVEIL PLAN TO CHANGE BILINGUAL EDUCATION
NEW YORK.
CITY TO INSTITUTE TAX-FREE WEEKS FOR CLOTHING
NEW YORK.
LAWMAKERS RENEW STATE RENT LAW FOR ONE DAY
NEW YORK.
TWO PEOPLE INJURED, STAIRWELL COLLAPSES IN MANHATTAN
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLOOMBERG EXPECTED TO UNVEIL PLAN TO CHANGE BILINGUAL EDUCATION
By James
Limages, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
After months of debate, sources tell Friday a final plan to change
bilingual education has landed on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's desk, and
he is expected to unveil it soon. However, sources caution schools
will not see drastic changes in this politically sensitive area – at
least not for some time.
When fully implemented, it will mark a significant departure from the past. Sources said the plan favors so-called dual language classes, in which students learn basic course work in both Spanish and English. Right now, only about 1,000 children are in such programs in the city, while 75,000 are in programs where they're taught primarily in their native languages.
But on the record, city officials are making just one thing clear: these changes will not be ready for the fall.
“We never said we'd have it rolled out for September implementation,” said Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. “We've taken on a lot already as far as the overall school structure of the Department of Education and the new systems we're putting into place.”
The mayor's standing has fallen among Latino voters, who helped put him in office. And pressure has been mounting among Latino leaders, who want to know the administration isn’t abandoning bilingual education for English-only immersion programs.
But Walcott insists it's not political, and that school officials – not City Hall – will determine how the plan is phased in.
“I think the question becomes, ‘What's feasible,” Walcott said. “And that's up to the staff at the Department of Education."
If it indeed turns out to be a dual language program, it could find a supporter in potential mayoral challenger Fernando Ferrer.
“Bilingual maintenance programs, and above all dual language bilingual programs, succeed brilliantly,” Ferrer said.
Dual language also wins the support of critics of bilingual programs, like former mayoral candidate Herman Badillo.
“The program of bilingual education as it exists now has to be reformed, because there are many areas of the city, for example, in Brooklyn, where bilingual education has become monolingual education,” Badillo said.
Some education watchdogs praise the idea of dual language programs but worry they'll only end up being for those who speak Spanish, leaving other groups out.
“We're really eager to find out about the new program,” said Jill Chaifetz of the organization Advocates for Children. “It's going to have a huge effect on all different populations. Sixty-seven percent of the kids who are English language learners are Spanish speakers, but over 10 percent are Chinese speakers.”
As many as 140 languages are spoken in city schools, but the concern is that those who speak a language other than Spanish will remain in English as second language programs.
CITY TO INSTITUTE TAX-FREE WEEKS FOR CLOTHING
By
Jacques Dussek, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
The sales tax exemption for clothing has ended, but the city is still planning to give shoppers a short break.
Facing deep deficits, the state and city have increased the sales tax in the five boroughs by over a quarter of a percent and ended the exemption for clothing items under $110. But in an exclusive interview Wednesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a $3 billion aid package from Albany was large enough for the city to afford two tax-free weeks for clothing and shoes.
“If you did a couple weeks that would cost us about 47 million odd dollars, but there are a lot of people, remember, who the extra sales tax on clothing at school time and maybe at Christmas time really hurts,” Bloomberg said. “And it would be a great thing for the City Council – and it's up to them; they could pass a law putting back those two sales-tax free weeks on clothing.”
City council speaker Gifford Miller says a resolution has been in the works for the tax-free weeks, but the mayor beat the council to the punch.
Miller also says the council plans to implement a year-round sales tax exemption on clothing under $100 starting in June 2004.
“We were glad to learn the mayor also feels this way, and we are pleased that he could join us here today,” Miller said Thursday. “We think that this can be a good step in the right direction as part of our negotiation.”
“We are trying to give as many services as efficiently as possible, and reduce the tax burden to everybody to the extent humanly possible and as required by laws,” said Bloomberg.
If the sales tax-free weeks work like those in the past, city shoppers can buy clothing and other items that cost up to $500 and pay no tax.
In total, it's estimated shoppers will save $180 million in taxes during the two weeks.
Meanwhile, the mayor, who spent nearly $70 million of his own fortune to reach City Hall, also told that he is willing to spend a lot again in 2005 to get re-elected.
“I don't know what I'm going need in two years to get the message out,” Bloomberg said. “I have a constitutional right to spend my own money. I made it myself. The majority of the public seemed to like me doing it. They did elect me. Every poll back then showed it was a non-issue, other than for some of the editorial boards. The public never cared about this."
The mayor says he'll continue his push for nonpartisan city elections, which would end primaries and leave political parties off the ballot. Bloomberg said the change would probably hurt his re-election chances, but critics say he is really trying to make it easier for Republicans to win office in the heavily Democratic city.
LAWMAKERS RENEW STATE RENT LAW FOR ONE DAY
By Terry
Dssek, Jean Dupiton and Jacqueline O'Garro
The state rent law which
regulates more than one million apartments in the city was renewed
Thursday, but only for one day.
The move gives state lawmakers in Albany the weekend off. They'll now debate the issue Monday instead of Sunday, when the law would have expired.
The major point of disagreement centers around vacancy decontrol. Right now, the current provision allows landlords to take an apartment out of the rent stabilization system if it becomes vacant and its rent reaches $2,000.
The governor and some Senate Republicans want the threshold reduced, while the city's six Republican senators want to keep the cap, but raise it to $2,500.
Democrats in the Assembly want the threshold eliminated, or at least raised, because they say decontrol makes it harder for many New Yorkers to find affordable housing.
TWO PEOPLE INJURED, STAIRWELL COLLAPSES IN MANHATTAN
By Jacques Dussek, Romy Dussek and James Limage
Two people were injured when a stairwell collapsed in a Manhattan building Friday morning, and now inspectors fear the rest of the structure may be in danger as well.
The incident happened around 8:30 this morning near Fort Washington Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights. Fire officials evacuated the six-story building after a stairwell connecting the first, second and third floors pancaked on each other.
“I felt it. I heard a noise - ‘Bang! Bang! Bang! – and then it stopped,” said building resident Victor Augosto. “Then I listened to see if something [happened,] but nothing happened. About 15 minutes or 18 minutes [later,] I heard the fire engines.”
“It looked like a big hole, because it was from the fourth floor to the first floor, all the way down. Everything fell,” said neighbor Janessa Guzman.
One man was taken to a nearby hospital with neck and back injuries, while another person was treated at the scene.
Fire officials fear the rest of the building may not be safe.
“We had a stair landing collapse between the third and fourth and fourth and fifth [floors.] There was a landing and marble steps collapse,” said FDNY Battalion Chief Howard Hill. “Upon further investigation we determined that there were similar cracks in the rear of the building and in the apartment lines and in the hallways. This indicates that we might have some more serious structural stability problems with the building.”
The building’s owner dismissed claims that residents had reported problems with the stairs in the past. However, some residents say the stairs have been a problem for some time.
Thirty-eight
apartments in the building were evacuated, and residents are being
housed temporarily at nearby P.S. 4 while an investigation is
completed. After that, the American Red Cross will make further
arrangements if necessary.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Police are searching for eight bandits who committed three unrelated gunpoint robberies.
The first occurred on April 19, at the Discovery News Store on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 128th Street, at around 6:45 p.m. Three men entered the store and two of them pulled guns, while the third stood by the door acting as a lookout.
One of the men pointed his pistol at an employee as the second gunman went behind the counter and stole cash.
On April 29, two other men walked into the Oasis Grocery Store at Broadway and West 99th Street at around 9:30 p.m. One of them drew a gun and pointed it a store clerk while the other jumped over the counter and stole cash.
Finally, on May 3, two men entered the Empire Market on First Avenue and East 91st Street at around 1 a.m. One of the assailants produced a gun, went behind the counter and swiped money from the register. The two were joined by a third man and fled in a livery cab.
Police are offering $2,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the robbers in each of the three cases.
Anyone with information can call the Crime Stoppers number below.
2- A thief walked into an Upper West Side bank yesterday, slipped a teller a note demanding money, and fled with more than $2,000, police said.
The robbery occurred at the Apple Bank on Broadway and West 73rd Street at around 12:30 p.m.
3- A 19-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly committing a gunpoint robbery in Washington Heights, and cops are searching for a second suspect.
On May 19 at 1 a.m., Kris Siraj and a male accomplice accosted a 25-year-old woman in an apartment building on West 172nd Street, and one of them men pulled a gun, cops said.
They allegedly demanded her money and stole her cell phone and pocketbook before fleeing.
Cops tracked down Siraj on Sunday after tracing calls he had made using the phone, police said. He was charged with robbery.
IN QUEENS
4- An 18-year-old man was shot in the leg yesterday after a gun-wielding assailant approached him on an Astoria street, police said.
The unidentified gunman opened fire, for reasons that were not immediately clear, at Vernon Boulevard and 21st Street before fleeing at around 9:30 a.m.
The victim was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
IN BROOKLYN
5- Two thugs slashed a woman and tossed a chemical in her face yesterday in a Williamsburg building.
The men accosted the 27-year-old victim, a legal secretary, in the Driggs Avenue building at around 10:30 a.m.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where she was listed in stable condition.
One assailant was described as a black man, 17 to 21 years old, 5 foot 9 and 150 pounds. He was wearing a blue sports jersey and blue pants.
His cohort was described as a black man, 17 to 19 years old, 5 foot 6 and 140 pounds.
6- A 21-year old man was stabbed to death by a man he fought with in Fort Greene last night, cops said. The man was stabbed in the chest in front of 99 Lafayette Ave. about 10:10 p.m.
He was taken to Brooklyn Hospital where he died about an hour later.
IN THE BRONX
7- The Medical Examiner's Office yesterday ruled a homicide the death of a 20-year-old man who was found with a head injury on a Mott Haven street.
Cops were called to Brook Avenue near East 143rd Street at around 9 p.m. Friday and discovered Marcus Gomez unconscious.
Cops suspect he was hit over the head during a robbery. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died from his injuries the next day. No arrests have been made.
June 12, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
MAYOR PROPOSES TAX-FREE WEEKS FOR CLOTHING
NEW YORK.
CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS BAN ON CAR ALARMS
NEW YORK.
MTA BLAMES MISTAKES BY SUBWAY WORKER FOR HIS DEATH
NEW YORK.
SUSPECT ARRESTED IN WEST SIDE ROBBERIES
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAYOR
PROPOSES TAX-FREE WEEKS FOR CLOTHING
By Gislène Laforest and James
Limage.
The sales tax exemption for clothing has ended, but the city is still
planning to give shoppers a short break.
Faced with deep deficits, the state and city have increased the sales tax in the five boroughs by over a quarter of a percent and ended the exemption for clothing items under $110. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a $3 billion aid package from Albany was large enough for the city to afford two tax-free weeks for clothing and shoes.
“If you did a couple weeks that would cost us about 47 million odd dollars, but there are a lot of people, remember, who the extra sales tax on clothing at school time and maybe at Christmas time really hurts,” Bloomberg said. “And it would be a great thing for the City Council – and it's up to them; they could pass a law putting back those two sales-tax free weeks on clothing.”
The City Council has already indicated it will approve the mayor’s tax break bill.
Meanwhile, the mayor, who spent nearly $70 million of his own fortune to reach City Hall, also told that he is willing to spend a lot again in 2005 to get re-elected.
“I don't know what I'm going need in two years to get the message out,” Bloomberg said. “I have a constitutional right to spend my own money. I made it myself. The majority of the public seemed to like me doing it. They did elect me. Every poll back then showed it was a non-issue, other than for some of the editorial boards. The public never cared about this."
The mayor says he'll continue his push for nonpartisan city elections, which would end primaries and leave political parties off the ballot. Bloomberg said the change would probably hurt his re-election chances, but critics say he is really trying to make it easier for Republicans to win office in the heavily Democratic city.
CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS BAN ON CAR ALARMS
By Gislène Laforest and
Jacques Dussek.
It's a common sound in the city: a blaring car alarm so loud it wakes
you from your sleep.
But now, the City Council wants New Yorkers to rest a little easier. Two new bills are on the table that would essentially make most car alarms illegal.
“At three in the morning, when the baby is trying to take a nap – whatever it is, these blaring alarms are incredibly annoying,” said City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.
One bill would eliminate audible car alarms altogether – even those already installed in cars. The only alarms that would be allowed are those installed by the car's manufacturer.
The other bill is less strict. It would ban the sale and installation of all car alarms but would allow owners who presently have an alarm to keep it.
Both bills would impose fines of upwards of $5,000. Currently, a person can face a $2,000 fine if a car alarm sounds for more than three minutes. Members of the Council claim car alarms often ring without acting as a deterrent.
“There’s no conclusive evidence that they actually do the job that they claim to do,” said City Councilman John Lui. “And yet, they harm New Yorkers in other ways.”
The Police Department has no hard statistics on whether car alarms work. The only stats they do have show noise is the most common complaint in the city. But even though the NYPD and the Department of Environmental Protection agree that alarms are annoying, they don't want to see them eliminated.
“We are very reluctant to remove a layer of protection that’s available to people, especially those people that have older cars or less expensive cars that don’t have the more sophisticated anti-theft devices,” said NYPD Assistant Commissioner Susan Petito.
Council members say they will work together to combine the two bills. Right now, nearly half the Council supports either proposal, so it’s likely the call to outlaw car alarms will get louder.
MTA BLAMES MISTAKES BY SUBWAY WORKER FOR HIS DEATH
By Jean Dupiton and James
Limage.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority says a subway worker committed a
series of errors that led to his death last fall, but the transit
union is calling the findings “cowardly.”
Kurien Baby was setting up a warning light when a northbound E train hit him near Canal Street last November. The MTA’s report says Baby did not take proper safety precautions, went onto the track without supervision and walked along a curve with limited visibility.
The report also notes that a supervisor sent the crew out with no one in charge. The MTA said that mistake contributed to Baby’s death, but did not directly cause it.
The transit union slammed the results of the probe, saying Baby's death resulted from a massive failure by management to implement its own safety policies.
SUSPECT ARRESTED IN WEST SIDE ROBBERIES
By Gislène Laforest and Terry
Dussek.
A man who could be the so-called Spiderman burglar, who robbed over a
dozen apartments on the Upper West Side by climbing through windows,
was arrested on a roof early Wednesday morning, police said.
Rufus Graham, 40, is suspected in a string of at least 15 break-ins in the past month, all on the Upper West Side except for one on the East Side on Tuesday. The alleged serial robber scaled fire escapes and climbed through windows, usually in the early morning while the residents were home, taking cash, credit cards, clothing, cellphones, jewelry and other belongings, according to police.
Graham was arrested on the roof of a building on West 45th Street at 1 a.m. Wednesday, while attempting another robbery, police said. He was not immediately linked to the Upper West Side robbery pattern, so his arrest was not announced until Thursday.
In the interim, police had thought they were chasing the Spiderman burglar Wednesday afternoon, after a woman on West 88th Street spotted a man trying to break into their building and called 911.
“I saw some feet on top of my glass door and then hands and then the top of his head. He was just about to spring down into the terrace,” said the woman, Robin Bryant. “So I said, ‘Excuse me,’ and he ran away.”
Within minutes, police helicopters were circling overhead, and police officers canvassed every home on the block, hoping they had the serial thief cornered. But the unidentified man remains at large.
Graham had been in police custody the whole time.
Graham’s last known address is just blocks from where most of the robberies occurred, but residents of the building say he hasn’t lived there for three years.
“He was a normal guy, a personal trainer. Nothing unusual about him,” said one of his former neighbors. “He was quiet, kept to himself. He never bothered anybody.”
Police are still questioning Graham and are expected announce more details later in the day Thursday.
NYPD REPORT
By
Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- A Yeshiva University student was hospitalized after getting caught in the crossfire between gunfighting thugs in Washington Heights last night, police said.
The gunfight erupted around 8 p.m. among a few unidentified men who were arguing heatedly at the corner of West 183rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, cops said.
The 23-year-old victim was in a car at the corner when the bullet struck him in his left leg.
He was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where he is listed in stable condition, police said.A Jersey City man was critically injured early yesterday when he was punched at the Copacabana Club, police said.
2- Raymond Rushforth, 33, got into an argument with three unidentified men in the club at West 34th Street and Tenth Avenue around 2 a.m.
The dispute spilled out onto the street, and one of the combatants sucker-punched Rushforth, who fell to the ground and hit his head on the pavement, cops said.
He was taken to St. Vincents Hospital. The suspects, whose motive was not known, fled the scene.
IN THE BRONX
3- A 20-year-old man was arrested after allegedly stabbing an elderly woman in a $6 robbery in Crotona Park East, police said yesterday.
James Carlton approached a car parked on East 170th Street near Charlotte Street at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
He pulled a knife and stabbed the driver, Gwendolyn Torres, in the cheek through her open window, cops said.
He then allegedly grabbed her pocketbook from her lap and told her, "Give me all of your money."
After Torres forked over the bills, Carlton reached into her bra to get more money, but came up empty-handed, authorities said.
Police were called to the scene and arrested Carlton on robbery, assault and gun-possession charges.
Torres was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she was treated and released.
4- The construction worker who plunged to his death from the seventh-floor of a Concourse Village building was identified yesterday as Joao Goncalves, 22.
Authorities said he accidentally fell to the second-floor landing of the building at East 161st Street and Sherman Avenue at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Goncalves, of Mineola, L.I., was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died.
IN BROOLYN
5- A 22-year-old man was fatally shot in the chest yesterday after getting into a fight on a Sunset Park street, cops said.
Liang Peng and four others were standing at 42nd Street and Tenth Avenue around 1:30 a.m. when an unidentified man approached, got into an argument with them and left.
Moments later, another man in his 20s appeared and got into a brawl with all five.
He pulled a gun, shot Peng and fled. The shooter's motive is still a mystery.
Peng was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where he died.
6- Police yesterday identified a teenager who was shot dead on an East Flatbush street Tuesday.
Khamar Clarke, 16, was sitting on a stoop with three unidentified men at East 45th Street near Ditmas Avenue at 5:45 p.m. when they were accosted by a thug wearing a ski mask, dark-hooded sweatshirt and black pants.
The assailant, whose motive was not known, pulled a gun and shot Clarke in the chest before fleeing, cops said.
Clarke was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died.
7- A Brownsville man was charged with attempted murder after he shot a 22-year-old man in the leg and stomach, authorities said yesterday.
Matthew Booker accosted his victim, drew a gun and allegedly shot him several times on Amboy Street near Blake Avenue at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Arriving cops arrested Booker nearby.
In addition to attempted murder, Booker was charged with assault and weapons possession. The wounded man was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.
June 11, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
MAYOR TAKES STEP BACK ON SCHOOLS OVERHAUL
NEW YORK.
MAYOR AND GOV IN RIFT OVER RENT PROTECTION
ALBANY, NY. ASSEMBLYMAN PROPOSES TAX ON FATTY FOODS
NEW YORK.
CITY GETS ITS WAY ON HOMELESS
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAYOR
TAKES STEP BACK ON SCHOOLS OVERHAUL
By Jacques
Dussek and James Limage.
Marking his one-year anniversary of running the city's schools, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday agreed to appoint a superintendent to each of the city's 32 community school districts to settle a lawsuit filed by state lawmakers challenging his education overhaul.
The lawsuit charged that City Hall and Schools Chancellor Klein violated state law by abolishing the 32 community superintendent positions as part of their reorganization.
Instead, the mayor and chancellor crafted a new management team that includes 10 regional superintendents and 113 new instructional supervisors overseeing all 1,200 schools in a unified K-to-12 system. Currently, elementary and middle schools and high schools are run by different supervisors.
The two-year deal goes into effect July 1.
Superintendents, who will report to the regional bosses, will be chosen from among the 113 local instructional supervisors, who will receive no additional salary. The superintendents will evaluate the principals, as is done currently.
The settlement will have no impact on proposed changes to special education, which will be dealt with in a separate legal proceeding.
City Hall and the legislators reached a court-ordered settlement following negotiations with Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan.
But the two parties, who held dueling press conferences after the agreement, acted as if they just completed a nasty divorce settlement.
The plaintiffs contended they taught City Hall and Klein a lesson with the lawsuit.
"The mayor and the schools chancellor have blinked," state Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) said of putting back the superintendents.
Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steve Sanders (D-Manhattan) said, "This is a victory for the rule of law."
"We wanted to make sure we kept the public in public education. We've succeeded in doing that."
Council of Supervisors and Administration chief Jill Levy - also a plaintiff - said the school system now has a "legal stamp of approval" rather than "a cloud of accusations."
City Hall saw it differently. "The reforms can go forward," said Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott.
Klein said the three-person offices will mostly be located in schools and be staffed by existing employees, a far cry from when districts had massive fiefdoms with dozens of employees.
MAYOR AND GOV IN RIFT OVER RENT PROTECTION
By
Terry Dussek and James Limage.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday broke with Gov. Pataki and called for an extension of the current rent protections, saying they are "as good a compromise" as tenants could expect.
"I'm not happy with it," the mayor said of the existing $2,000 rent threshold at which landlords are allowed to decontrol apartments that become vacant.
Bloomberg's position puts him at odds with Pataki and State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who sources said are pushing for a $1,500 threshold at which protected apartments can be deregulated.
Bloomberg stressed that it was Albany - not the city - that calls the shots on rent laws, which are set to expire on Sunday.
"That's [the mayor's] fault," charged tenant leader Michael McKee.
"If he tried to get control over the rent laws the way he got control over the schools, he might have control over the rent-regulation system right now."
McKee, whose organization opposes any vacancy decontrol of apartments, warned that an extension of the current law would be a victory for landlords because it allows for thousands of units to be deregulated every year.
"Unless Mayor Bloomberg weighs into this fight soon on our side . . . we are going to lose all rent regulations over the next 10 to 15 years," McKee said.
Rent controls must be expanded, said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who will sign off with Pataki and Bruno on any changes to the law.
New York needs "more
regulated, more affordable apartments, so we can have the economic mix
in the city," Silver said.
ASSEMBLYMAN PROPOSES TAX ON FATTY FOODS
By Romy
Dussek and Jean Dupiton.
State lawmakers - experts at larding the budget, adept at feasting on political pork, often called fat-heads themselves - now want a "fat tax" on obesity-linked snacks, soft drinks and junk foods.
"We have to act now to prevent a ticking time bomb that will overwhelm our health-care system and resources in the coming years," said the chief sponsor of the measure, Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Felix Ortiz.
"Just as people pay attention to smoking, we need to pay attention to obesity."
Ortiz, who last year brought about the ban on driving while holding a cell phone, said a 1 percent "junk-food tax" may be just what the doctor ordered.
His aides said such a levy would raise "tens of millions of dollars" a year - to be earmarked for educational programs to convince the public to restrict their high-fat food intake.
Ortiz's proposal, still in the drafting stage, faces an uncertain future in the Legislature.
"The real tragedy is that most nutrition-related health problems are preventable, and we owe it to our children to give them the opportunity to become healthy, productive adults," said Ortiz, citing federal figures showing that nearly 300,000 deaths a year are linked to obesity.
Ortiz said he also may recommend new taxes on video games and television commercials, because New Yorkers are getting fat spending too much time in front of the TV screen.
"A new excuse for a new tax is the last thing we need," responded state Business Council spokesman Matt Maguire.
"New York's most pressing fat problem is the fat in the state budget," Maguire added.
A representative of the state Dietetic Association testified at a hearing conducted by Ortiz that 30 percent of all family food now comes from often-fatty restaurant take-out.
Ortiz cited statistics showing that New York has a higher childhood-obesity rate than the national average.
He said figures show that 22 percent of black, 20 percent of Latino, and 19 percent of white sixth-grade children in New York City are overweight.
CITY GETS ITS WAY ON HOMELESS
By
Jacques Dussek and Jean Dupiton.
An appeals court handed the city a major victory yesterday, ruling it doesn't have to provide shelter to homeless people who are "disruptive" or "refuse to take steps toward self-sufficiency."
Mayor Bloomberg hailed the ruling and said he believes it will actually result in fewer homeless on the streets.
"This decision . . . will lead to safer and more effectively managed shelters that will, in turn, help us to convince those on the streets to come inside for services," he said.
The 5-0 decision by the state Appellate Division reversed a November 2001 decision by Justice Stanley Sklar, who the appellate justices said had "created an obligation [for the city] to provide shelter without regard to financial need, regardless of the conduct of any individual."
Sklar found a 1995 state regulation empowering the city to give some single homeless people the boot from the shelter system violated a 1981 consent decree the city had fashioned with homeless advocates.
The Appellate Division, however, found Sklar overstepped his bounds.
While the city is "obligated to supply a sufficient amount of decent shelter to meet demand," the judges ruled, it is "not required to provide that homeless individuals who engage in disruptive behavior or refuse to take steps towards self-sufficiency may nonetheless remain in shelters in perpetuity."
NYPD REPORT
By
Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- A thug shot a man in the head on the Lower East Side yesterday evening, police said. The victim - described only as a Hispanic man - was on Attorney Street when he was attacked by an unknown assailant just before 6 p.m.
The wounded man was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, cops said.
IN BROOKLYN
2- Police are investigating the brazen daylight shooting death of a man sitting in his car yesterday afternoon.
Brandon Scordus, 28, whose last known address was on Staten Island, was shot in the chest while in his Pontiac on Harway Avenue in Gravesend at around 4:30 p.m., cops said.
Authorities do not have any suspects and do not know the motive.
3- A 17-year-old boy was shot to death yesterday evening on East 45 Street near Ditmas Avenue in East Flatbush, police said.
The teen - whose name was withheld pending notification of his family - was shot in his torso at around 5:45 p.m.
He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Cops had no suspects.
4- A dispute involving three teens in East New York turned deadly when one of the combatants pulled a gun, killing one youth and wounding the other, police said yesterday.
The violence took place around 10:15 p.m. Monday on Van Siclen Avenue when 18-year-old Gary McQueen and a 16-year-old girl were gunned down by another teen with whom they had argued, cops said.
It was not immediately clear who the shooter was or what the fight involved.
Both victims were hit in the chest and taken to Brookdale Hospital. McQueen died several hours later. The girl, whose name was withheld, was in stable condition.
5- Police have nabbed a Brighton Beach man for allegedly committing a three bank robberies.
Vincent Poole, 45, of Brighton 2nd Street, was picked up shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, just seven and a half hours after he committed his most recent heist in Park Slope, cops said.
Poole allegedly robbed two other banks on consecutive days - one in Gravesend on June 5, the other in Sheepshead Bay on June 6.
6- A 22-year-old man was gunned down on an East New York street early yesterday.
The victim was on Pitkin Avenue around 2:15 a.m. when he was hit in his chest, back and shoulder, cops said. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital in extremely critical condition.
Authorities do not know the motive and have no suspects.
IN THE BRONX
7- Two cops were injured early yesterday when their car hit a tree in Kingsbridge while they were racing to help fellow officers capture three gun-toting suspects.
The injured officers - assigned to the 50th Precinct - where responding to a call about 1:50 a.m. for assistance from colleagues trying to arrest suspects in the robbery of a 49-year- old man at University Place and West 195th Street.
As their radio car reached the corner of Bailey Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue West, it careened out of control and slammed into a tree.
Both cops were taken to Jacobi Hospital, where one was treated for a broken ankle and the other for cuts and bruises.
Their colleagues, meanwhile, managed to grab two suspects, Ramone Branker and Allen Brown, both 16, who were charged with robbery and weapons possession. The third suspect is being sought.
8- A 12-year-old girl suffered minor injuries when she was hit by a police car as she dashed across a busy Soundview street, police said.
The unidentified girl was struck around 5:11 p.m. as she got out of a car and tried to cross Westchester Avenue between Morrison and Harrod avenues.
Police said that as the girl began to cross the street, the officer's view was obstructed by a westbound bus in front of him.
A witness agreed that the police officer had no time to react.
"She just opened the door and ran out," said Hector Ramos. "There wasn't anything the cop could do."
The girl was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where police said she was being treated for knee injuries.
June 10, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
APPEAL ON TRANSIT FARE AND TOLL HIKES GOES TO COURT
QUEENS,
NY. THREE FAMILY MEMBERS FOUND MURDERED IN QUEENS
NEW YORK.
CITY COUNCIL PRESSURING MAYOR FOR MORE BUDGET RESTORATIONS
NEW YORK.
MUSEUMS TAKE OVER FIFTH AVE FOR ANNUAL FESTIVAL
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPEAL
ON TRANSIT FARE AND TOLL HIKES GOES TO COURT
By Jacques
Dussek and Jean Dupiton
Oral arguments will be held Tuesday in the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s appeal of a rollback of transit fare and toll hikes.
Judges in two separate lawsuits ordered the MTA to rescind the 50-cent hike on the basic subway and bus fare and toll increases of 25 cents to $1 on the nine bridges and tunnels the agency operates. The judge in the toll case also ordered the MTA to give drivers refunds.
The two cases have been combined into one appeal.
Both lawsuits accuse the MTA of intentionally misleading the public about its finances to justify a fare hike a year earlier than when it was really necessary. Therefore, the lawsuits say, the legally-required public hearings were invalid, and so were the hikes.
The Daily News reports
that this is becoming a costly legal battle for the MTA, which has
opted to hire outside lawyers rather than its in-house counsel. The
attorneys’ fees run to about $400, according to the paper.
THREE FAMILY MEMBERS FOUND MURDERED
IN
QUEENS
By
Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
A 13-year-old boy came home in Queens Monday afternoon to find his
aunt shot dead on the floor, and police later discovered his parents
were murdered as well.
A source tells that drugs played a role in the execution-style killings. There were no signs of forced entry, but specific places in the house, on 120th Street in Cambria Heights, had been torn apart, sources say, leading to speculation that drugs could have been hidden there.
The boy, Khadeen Chambers, came home from school around noon for lunch when he discovered the body of his aunt, 21-year-old Tisha Chambers, on the kitchen floor. He ran across the street to call police, who found the bodies of his parents, 34-year-old Karen Chambers and 49-year-old Larie Barnes, in the basement.
All three victims were shot once in the head.
Vera McCalla was beyond grief when she learned her daughter Karen was killed. She said she doesn't know why anyone would do this.
“I have no idea,” McCalla said. “I don’t really know.”
Neighbors said the father owned a hardware store in Brooklyn, and relatives said the mother was an accountant. Both were hard-working people, according to neighbors.
“He would leave for work around 7:40 in the morning and be back at night. You didn't see much of him,” said John Sampson, a neighbor.
“I don't know why someone would do this,” said family friend Janessa White. “I feel so bad for Kadeem.”
The slain couple's 5-year-old daughter was in pre-school at the time of the shootings. She and Kadeem are now in the custody of relatives.
There have been no arrests so far.
CITY COUNCIL PRESSURING MAYOR FOR MORE BUDGET RESTORATIONS
By Jacques
Dussek and Terry Dussek
Believe it or not, Senator Hillary Clinton's new book wasn't the only
political news Monday. At City Hall, as a deadline approaches, there
is no deal on the budget.
City Council Speaker Gifford Miller is taking the budget battle into communities, putting the pressure on Mayor Michael Bloomberg for more restorations. Monday, he started a week-long tour of places affected by potential budget cuts, like a senior center in Washington Heights represented by Councilman Robert Jackson.
Right now budget talks are at a standstill, as both sides are at odds over how much the city can afford in restorations, especially after Bloomberg made $90 million worth last week. Senior centers, zoos, libraries and college scholarships are now the council's top priorities.
Lawmakers want at least as much in restorations as last year, which was around $200 million. Both sides say it's the sticking point in the negotiations.
“If we're not able to come to an agreement with the administration, the council will pass a balanced budget on time. I can assure you that,” said Miller. “But I'm hopeful that we are going to be able to come to an agreement. We just have to take that first step that the mayor made and keep making a few more steps.”
Miller is expected to visit a Brooklyn zoo Tuesday which is set to lose city funding.
Bloomberg says he realizes council members will fight for more money, but he says there is not enough to go around.
“These are processes that may take a little while,” said the mayor. “We have a couple of weeks, and there is no reason to think that we won't get together. Life is compromise.”
While the two sides are still far apart on a deal, the mayor and the speaker are scheduled to meet on Tuesday in hopes of coming closer together on a final budget.
MUSEUMS TAKE OVER FIFTH AVE FOR ANNUAL FESTIVAL
By Jean
Dupiton, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
The museums of Fifth Avenue
are throwing open their doors and spilling out onto the street Tuesday
night for an annual party.
The 25th annual Museum Mile Festival offers free admission to nine museums, in addition music, food and activities outside. Visitors can stroll down the middle of Fifth Avenue, which will be closed to traffic from 82nd Street to 104th Street.
“Nowhere in the world do you have in such a small piece of land that many rich cultural manifestations,” said Julian Zugazagoitia, the director of El Museo Del Barrio. “So imagine: It's free, it’s open to the public, and you can see them all in the same night and have all these visual, incredible experiences. It’s going to be great.”
The Museum Mile Festival runs from 6-9 p.m.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
IN MANHATTAN
1- An Upper East Side man who was arrested last week for a bank robbery has been linked to 11 other heists that netted him about $26,500 over the last three months, police said.
Oswaldo Planas, 33, of East 97th Street, was busted on June 3 at the Emigrant Savings Bank on Lexington Avenue near East 85th Street after he passed a note to a teller demanding money, cops said.
Between March 27 and June 3, Planas passed similar notes to tellers at two Fourth Federal Savings Banks on the Upper East Side, two Chase Banks on the Upper West and East Sides, two Fleet Banks in Midtown, an HSBC Bank in Midtown, two Country Banks in Tudor City, and a Washington Mutual Bank and Citibank on the Upper West Side, police said.
Planas allegedly escaped with cash from all of those banks, except one. He was charged with robbery and attempted robbery.
2- A 15-year-old student was arrested yesterday after he was caught with a .38-caliber gun at a Midtown school, police said.
School safety agents found the gun in the boy's jacket pocket as he tried to slip through a metal detector in Norman Thomas HS, on East 33rd Street, at 9 a.m.
The suspect, whose name was not released because of his age, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
3- A masked gunman shot and seriously wounded a 52-year-old man in a Morningside Heights apartment yesterday, police said.
The assailant shot the victim in the neck in a basement apartment on Manhattan Avenue and West 120th Street at around 1:30 p.m.
The gunman, whose motive was not known, fled. The victim was taken to St. Luke's Hospital.
IN BROOKLYN
4- A 34-year-old man was shot twice during an assault in Brownsville, police said yesterday.
The man was shot in the buttocks and suffered a graze wound to his head when he was attacked by an unidentified assailant on Eastern Parkway near St. Marks Avenue at around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
The suspect fled. The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
IN THE BRONX
5- The 22-year-old man arrested Saturday for battering his 9-month-old girl attacked the baby because she would not stop crying, authorities said yesterday.
Jayfrias Andino allegedly grabbed his daughter by the neck, slammed her head against a wall and tossed her to the ground in their Fordham apartment on the Grand Concourse at around 6:30 p.m.
She suffered seizures and a fractured skull and had bruises to her neck and cheek. She also vomited and lost consciousness before she was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, where she was in serious but stable condition.
Andino was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
6- Three suspects were arrested - and a Mac-10 submachine gun confiscated - after police saw them driving recklessly and pulled them over in the South Bronx, authorities said yesterday.
Cops on patrol in an unmarked car stopped a Chevy Malibu at East 138th Street and the Major Deegan Expressway at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. They approached the vehicle, noticed a man acting suspiciously in the back seat and found the machine gun under a knapsack during a search, cops said.
John Doyle, 21, George Rivera, 24, and a 15-year- old boy were arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
7- A Bronx man was charged with attempted murder early yesterday for shooting a 25-year-old man in the buttocks last month, authorities said.
Michael Simpson, 23, was also charged with assault after police, acting on a tip, arrested him at an acquaintance's home in Scranton, Pa.
At around midnight May 3, Simpson got into an argument with Gill Guity at East 166th Street near Prospect Avenue, police said. Simpson allegedly shot Guity with a 9 mm handgun and fled.
The motive for the shooting was unknown. Guity was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was treated and released.
June 9, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
FIFTH AVENUE
PULSES WITH PUERTO RICAN PRIDE
BROOKLYN,
NY. BROOKLYN JUDGE PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO TAKING ILLEGAL GIFTS
NEW YORK.
FOUR MEN CHARGED WITH ARMED ROBBERY
SPREE
QUEENS, NY. CAR GOING THE
WRONG WAY
INJURES WOMAN ON QUEENS BLVD.
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIFTH
AVENUE
PULSES WITH PUERTO RICAN PRIDE
By Jean
Souffrant, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
The flags were waving, the music was pumping and hundreds of thousands
of people were dancing along Fifth Avenue Sunday for the 46th annual
Puerto Rican Day Parade.
“It’s just a wonderful celebration with the Puerto Rican people,” said a man in the crowd, which was 20 people deep on some blocks. “We love our heritage.”
As usual the parade drew hundreds of thousands from all over the city – and beyond.
"It's my first time ever here in New York City for the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and I'm having so much fun,” said a newcomer.
The theme of this year's parade was "Puerto Rico: Its Music and Songs." The music lasted all afternoon, and everyone got in on the act, young and old, from beauty queens to firefighters.
"The music is wonderful,” said one reveler. “It's just a rhythm that no other place has. And the women and the people love to dance."
Everywhere, Puerto Rican pride was on display, as people came up with creative ways to wear the flag. More than 150,000 people marched in the seven-hour-long parade, and some 100 floats made their way up the route.
The usual array of politicians was in attendance, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki and Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. And golf legend Chi Chi Rodriguez served as grand marshal.
"I feel very good,” Rodriguez said. “I see all my people here. It's the first time in my life that I've been chosen by them for this great honor, and I'm going to make them proud of me."
The crowd was raucous, but peaceful. Police kept a close eye on the parade, and no major incidents were reported.
“It’s all about Puerto Rican culture, our pride, the music, the spiritual feeling,” said one parade-goer.
BROOKLYN JUDGE PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO TAKING ILLEGAL GIFTS
By Jean
Dupiton, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
A Brooklyn judge pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday on
charges he took illegal gifts to fix divorce and child custody cases.
Now former State Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was arrested in April following an eight-month undercover investigation in which he was videotaped taking gifts from lawyers in his chambers, including cigars, cash, personal checks and the promise of exotic trips, according to prosecutors. The probe started when a woman complained about a man wandering the courthouse and soliciting bribes to fix marriage cases.
Six other people, including lawyers and court employees, were also indicted in the alleged scheme to reroute marital cases to Garson so he could rig the outcomes. One of the lawyers has agreed to testify against Garson.
Garson has been indicted on sex felony counts of receiving a reward for official misconduct – a lesser charge than bribery. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
Both sides said there have been no negotiations for a plea deal.
FOUR MEN CHARGED WITH ARMED ROBBERY SPREE
By
Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek and Judith Jn-Louis.
The hunt is on for more suspects after four people are arrested in
connection with a robbery spree in
Manhattan that left two people
dead.
Police say a group of armed robbers held up 10 grocery stores and two news stands since March. Most of the robberies took place Harlem, though some were on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side.
Tyrone Washington, 18, and Andre Allen, 23, both of Manhattan, and Rashid Graham, 18, and Boston Traxler, 23, from Pennsylvania, have been arrested on burglary charges. Police are now searching for 10 others suspected of taking part in the spree.
The first death in the pattern occurred on May 25, when a store clerk fatally shot one of the robbers who tried to hold up a bodega on 130th Street and 8th Avenue.
The clerk, 69-year-old Jose Acosta, and another employee have been charged with illegal weapons possession because the gun he used to shoot 19-year-old Luquarn Washington was not registered. Acosta told that he lives in fear of jail, deportation and retaliation from Washington’s family.
Two days later, a group of robbers entered a bodega on Saint Nicholas Avenue and shot another clerk, 45-year-old Mohammed Drammeh, in the chest.
Anyone with information about the robbery spree is asked to call the confidential police hotline Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
CAR GOING THE WRONG WAY INJURES WOMAN ON QUEENS BLVD
By Romy
Dussek, Jean Souffrant and Jacques Dussek.
A man driving the wrong way down Queens Boulevard hit and seriously
injured a woman crossing the street Sunday.
Police say 79-year-old Gil Coggins, a jazz pianist, was driving east in the westbound lanes around 10 a.m. when he struck 68-year-old Ella Ohana at 75th Street, then slammed into a light pole.
Both were taken to Jamaica Hospital and are now listed in stable condition.
Coggins has not been charged with any crime so far, but the accident is still under investigation.
The roadway has been dubbed the "Boulevard of Death" for the many fatal accidents involving pedestrians.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
IN MANHATTAN
1- An elderly Harlem woman who was found dead in her apartment early Saturday was stabbed to death, the Medical Examiner's Office said yesterday.
Odessa Pullins, 77, who lived on West 147th Street, suffered numerous stab wounds in her chest.
Police, who were called by worried neighbors who hadn't seen Pullins for a while, said there were no signs of forced entry, and they did not know the motive for the crime.
2- A 38-year-old Harlem man was shot in the stomach and wounded early yesterday, police said.
The shooting took place at 3:15 a.m. on 129th Street. The victim, whose name was withheld, was taken to Harlem Hospital in stable condition.
IN BROOKLYN
3- A 23-year-old man was arrested after he stabbed two men he'd been arguing with early yesterday in East New York, police said.
Gill Prince, of Lafayette Avenue, allegedly began fighting with the two men, ages 35 and 21, in an apartment on Sheffield Avenue.
Prince stabbed the older man five times and the younger man once, police said. The names of the victims were withheld.
Both were brought to Brookdale Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition. Prince was arrested at the scene.
4- A teen was shot on a street corner in Coney Island yesterday afternoon, cops said. The 18-year-old told police he was standing at the corner of Mermaid Avenue and West 25th Street at about 2:05 p.m. when he heard shots and realized he had been hit in the left thigh. He was taken to Lutheran Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
5- A 31-year-old man was shot last night by an unknown gunman in front of 971 East 95th St. in Canarsie at about 8 p.m., police said. He was listed in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.
IN QUEENS
6- A 32-year-old Ozone Park man was arrested for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl, police said yesterday.
Cops declined to say exactly where the alleged abuse occurred, except that it happened at 10 p.m. Saturday in Richmond Hill.
The suspect, Malik Abdul Almohsin, of 78th Street, was accused of forcing the teen to sit on his lap before he sexually abused her, police said. Cops were summoned shortly afterward, and the victim was taken to an area hospital where she was treated and released.
Police did not say whether Almohsin had known his alleged victim.
7- Cops are investigating as a possible bias incident involving the defacing of a Puerto Rican flag outside the home of a Broad Channel resident.
The burned and torn flag was discovered at 9 a.m.
June 6, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
HARLEM,
NY,
CELEBRATING A LEGACY: DR. THELMA C. DAVIDSON ADAIR, 83.
NEW YORK.
POLS PUSHING MAYOR TO SCRAPE UP $100M MORE
NEW YORK.
JEWELRY DISTRICT WORKERS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERING
QUEENS, NY. QUEENS MAN CHARGED IN TWO HIT AND RUN INCIDENTS
NEW YORK.
CRITICS SAY $1.75 IS FARE ENOUGH
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HARLEM, NY.
CELEBRATING A LEGACY: DR. THELMA C. DAVIDSON ADAIR, 83.
Thursday evening was the time to be with the beautiful crowd of elegance on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary Gala of the Communitty Life Center Inc. of Harlem. The Grande Dame of Harlem, Dr. Thelma C. Davidson Adair was being honored. She is the treasure in a city filled with treasures. From 6:00 p.m. to 10:00, the theater of the Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church was filled with joy during the dinner reception in honor of Thelma C. Adair and some other honorees. Lesly H. Hanson was a great Master of Ceremonies with articulate speakers as Hon. Justice Milton Tingling and Arvelia Meyers. Among the special attendees of more than 200 invited guests, was the radiant Phylicia Allen Rashad.
At
83, Thelma C. Adair is not ready to retire as she said she is still
young. Dr. Adair has often been named citizen of the world, is an
outstanding educator, devoted church leader, advocate of human rights,
writer and public speaker. She has been a resident of Harlem since
1942. She has used her many talents and considerable energy in service
to the Harlem community over the past 6 decades. She is an ordained
elder in the Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church of New York
City founded by her late husband, the reverend Arthur Eugene Adair, in
the early 1940's. Dr. Adair became the first woman of color to be
honored with the highest elected office of the church in 1976 as a
Moderator of the Presbyterian Church's 188th Assembly. A special
Grande Dame of New York is truly Dr. Thelma C. Adair.
ay evening
POLS PUSHING MAYOR TO SCRAPE UP $100M MORE
By Jean
Souffrant, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
City Council leaders yesterday demanded Mayor Bloomberg come up with at least an additional $100 million if he wants to get his budget approved.
A day after the mayor's surprise decision to restore $90.2 million in threatened service cuts, council members said there are still too many painful reductions in the mayor's $44.5 billion proposed budget.
The fight was shaping up over zoos in Brooklyn and Queens and funding for libraries and other cultural institutions.
Bloomberg put up $7.6 million for the libraries, a figure he said would keep branches open five days a week. But council members disagreed.
"As I understand, it'll take at least $20 million to keep libraries open at the same hours," said Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan). "The mayor's plan will have them open five days, but two hours on one day [is not] a whole day."
The entire council is up for re-election this year, and Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) insisted it was legislators who forced the mayor's hand.
"This restoration [of the $90.2 million] is the council's that the mayor is trying to take credit for and something that we forced him to do," Barron said.
Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) listed numerous services he wants to beef up, including efforts to lower infant mortality, senior centers and scholarships.
"It's not about dollars, its about people and their lives," Miller said after the council voted to extend yesterday's budget deadline to June 13.
It's the second consecutive year the mayor and council have missed the deadline.
Meanwhile, the Independent Budget Office reported yesterday that the reason the mayor was able to be so generous was because the $2.7 billion aid package he won in Albany was $210 million more than anticipated in the city's executive budget issued in April.
The IBO said Bloomberg didn't include an estimated $280 million in new revenue from reimposition on the sales tax on clothing.
The IBO also estimated that the personal-income tax surcharge would raise $784 million, $144 million more than Bloomberg's aides had estimated.
When Bloomberg was asked why he did not include zoos in his restoration package, he said weightier issues were on his mind.
"We'd like to focus our money on things like rodent control, asthma and HIV prevention," he said.
JEWELRY DISTRICT WORKERS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERING
By Gislène
Laforest and Jean Dupiton.
The Justice Department is cracking down on money laundering in
Manhattan's jewelry district, as it announced the arrest Thursday of
11 people it accuses of working with Colombian drug lords.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan says seven of the suspects were jewelry store owners, and the rest were associates. The arrests came Wednesday after a two-year undercover operation.
Agents posing as drug smugglers approached the jewelers with more than $1 million in cash and said they needed gold and diamonds to ship back to Colombia.
“Those corrupt jewelers offered to sell them large amounts of gold and to shape it into forms that would make it harder for Customs agents either here or in Colombia to know what was moving back to Colombia,” said U.S. Attorney James Comey.
Prosecutors say the jewelers sold undercover agents more than 100 kilograms of gold. Some of it was molded into common items such as belt buckles and tools.
QUEENS MAN CHARGED IN TWO HIT AND RUN INCIDENTS
By
Jacques Dussek, Jean Dupiton & Romy Dussek
Police have arrested a man they say was driving a van involved in two
separate hit and run incidents in Queens late Thursday night, one of
which was fatal.
Investigators say 42-year-old Anthony Neville was driving drunk last night when he hit 48-year-old Rosa Viquez near an intersection on Colden Street in Flushing. Viquez was killed in the incident.
Police say about 20 minutes after the first incident, Neville hit another woman near 149th Street and 38th Avenue. That victim is in stable condition Friday at Flushing Hospital.
Neville is facing
several charges, including DWI and vehicular manslaughter.
CRITICS SAY $1.75 IS FARE ENOUGH
By Jacques Dussek, Terry Dussek & Jacqueline O'Garro
The MTA could have boosted bus and subway fares to just $1.75 this year and staved off the current $2 fare until next year, a transit advocacy group said yesterday.
"This would be better than what we got and would save New Yorkers money," said Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign. "It would mean more money in the pockets of riders."
Russianoff said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's claims that not raising fares to $2 this year would mean hiking it to as much as $2.35 in 2004 are the agency's attempt to "mislead the riding public."
Russianoff's findings are based on an analysis compiled by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who argues the agency has enough money to consider a $1.75 fare.
Hevesi issued a scathing budget review two months ago, accusing the MTA of hiding over $500 million in surplus funds in order to justify this year's increase.
Russianoff said pegging fares to $1.75 would cost the MTA $140.8 million and that the agency has $147.3 million in resources that could pay for it.
"They say raising the fare is inevitable," he said. "This is simply false."
Russianoff also said he would use the $1.75 option at future hearings if he ultimately wins his court battle against the MTA.
MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said the reasoning behind the $1.75 idea relies on possible "productivity savings," possible "potential resources" and a possible "reversal of historical ridership trends" that are too unpredictable to count on.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Louis York last month ordered the MTA to roll back the fare.
York's decision was automatically put on hold after the agency filed an appeal. The Appellate Division will hear arguments Tuesday.
Meanwhile, State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) said he uncovered a $1.8 billion hole in an MTA pension fund after he and agency staffers got together to go over the MTA's reform package.
"That information is in none of their public records," Brodsky said.
Kalikowsaid he "was aware" of the pension liability, but was unsure whether it appeared in any agency records.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
IN MANHATTAN
1- A third suspect was charged with murder yesterday in the fatal Manhattan shooting of rapper Freaky Zeeky and the slaying of his bodyguard, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Cops followed suspect John Mingo, 32, to his apartment at 2150 East Tremont Ave. in The Bronx on Wednesday and set up surveillance outside the building, Kelly said.
They waited for a woman and two 7-year-old boys to leave the apartment to go to school at around 8:30 a.m. yesterday.
A detective posing as a maintenance man knocked on the door and told another woman who answered that he was going to repair a water leak. She and two others were safely taken out of the apartment as cops executed a search warrant and apprehended Mingo in a back room.
On April 24, Mingo, Herndon Williams, 32, and Chauncey Dillon, 29, were driving through Chelsea at around 3 a.m., when they collided with a Jeep driven by Freaky Zeeky, whose real name is Ezekiel Giles.
When the two groups got out of their cars, cops said, Mingo and Dillon tried to rob Giles.
Police believe Mingo shot Giles, 27, while Dillon gunned down Giles' bodyguard, Eric Mangrum, 28. Dillon was arrested a few days later and charged with murder. Williams was busted last month and also charged with murder.
2- A 26-year-old woman was charged with murdering her 4-month-old daughter yesterday in their Harlem apartment, cops said.
Police sources said Raven Austin put her hand over the baby's mouth to stop her from crying in their West 126th Street home at around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The baby lost consciousness and was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital, where she died.
IN THE BRONX
3- Two gun-wielding thugs forced their way into a Tremont apartment yesterday afternoon, where they assaulted and robbed the residents, police said.
The two thieves - described as male blacks in black clothing with hoods - pushed their way into an apartment at 365 Ford St. around 2 p.m., cops said.
Inside, the duo demanded money and ordered the residents to lay on floor.
One of the robbers hit one of the victims with the butt of a gun before fleeing with $365, authorities said.
4- Two NYPD employees were arrested and suspended Wednesday in separate incidents, police said yesterday.
On Tuesday, Desiree Wilson, assigned to the 52nd Precinct's School Safety Unit, made a phone call threatening a Fordham woman's daughter, authorities said.
Wilson, 37, was charged with aggravated harassment.
Also on Tuesday, Bronx Task Force Officer Jeffrey Chambers, 35, allegedly threatened his girlfriend and pulled out a clump of her hair in a car on the Major Deegan Expressway.
The next day, Chambers pushed her and stomped on her foot during an argument in his Netherland Avenue apartment in Riverdale, authorities said.
He was charged with assault and harassment.
5- A suspect arrested with burglar tools before fleeing police custody was recaptured yesterday at his Wakefield apartment, cops said.
Alfonso Saunders, 43, who had been charged with criminal trespass, slipped away from cops on East 161st Street near Sherman Avenue as he was being transported to the 44th Precinct station house at around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
It was not immediately clear how he escaped.
About an hour later, he was apprehended at his Carpenter Avenue residence.
IN QUEENS
6- As her horrified relatives looked on, a 48-year-old woman was struck and killed by a hit-run driver on a Flushing street corner last night, police said.
Rosa Visquez was getting into her car at the corner of Colden Street and Laburnum Avenue around 9:45 p.m. when a gray van traveling southbound on Colden struck her, cops said. Visquez was taken to Booth Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Relatives said the accident took place just after Visquez left a Jehovah's Witness church.
She had immigrated to Queens from Costa Rica, and worked as a housekeeper.
7- Two men with phony law-enforcement-type badges tied up and robbed a Flushing woman yesterday afternoon, police said.
The 53-year-old victim answered a knock at her door at her 27th Avenue home around 2:30 p.m. and was confronted by the duo, who bound her before stealing an undetermined amount of money and jewelry, cops said.
8 -Two on-duty correction officers were busted for drunken driving early yesterday after cops spotted them driving erratically in Astoria, police said.
Miguel Ortiz, 45, and David Rodriguez, 36, both assigned to Rikers Island, were driving on 45th Street at Berrian Boulevard at around 2 a.m. when cops pulled over their 2003 Toyota.
Ortiz was charged with DWI and Rodriguez was given a summons for the open container.
IN BROOKLYN
9 - A thief claiming to have a gun stole more than a thousand dollars from a Gravesend bank yesterday afternoon, police said.
The robber - described as a 45-year-old white male - walked into the Richmond County Savings Bank at 132 Avenue U around 4:30 p.m., told a teller he had a gun and demanded cash, cops said. He fled with $1,100.
Police yesterday identified a 24-year-old man who died from a gunshot to the head on a Canarsie street.
10- Arthur Jones was attacked at Avenue K and East 95th Street around 8 p.m. Tuesday when he got into an argument with an unidentified man who drew a gun and opened fire.
The shooter, whose motive was not known, was spotted fleeing. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene.
June 5, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
EDITORS HOWELL RAINES & GERALD BOYD RESIGNED
NEW YORK.
MTA MUST ROLL BACK TOLL HIKES.
NEW YORK.
$90 MILLIONS IN RESTORATIONS TO CITY SERVICES.
NEW YORK.
BAD COCAINE MAY BE THE CAUSE OF DEATH.
NYPD REPORT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK.
EDITORS HOWELL RAINES & GERALD BOYD RESIGNED
By
Jacques Dussek, Romy DUssek & Jacqueline O'Garro
In the wake of a plagiarism scandal, Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd have resigned from the New York Times, the paper announced Thursday.
Criticism has been mounting against Raines and Boyd since 27-year-old reporter Jayson Blair resigned after admitting using false and plagiarized information in dozens of stories, undetected by his editors.
The Times announced that Joseph Lelyveld, who retired as the paper's executive editor when Raines took over in September 2001, has been named interim executive editor. An interim managing editor will not be appointed.
Revealing the news to staffers Thursday morning, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger said, “This is a day that breaks my heart." Without mentioning the Blair scandal, Sulzberger thanked Raines and Boyd for putting the interests of the newspaper first.
Last month, the Times revealed that an internal investigation found fraud, plagiarism and inaccuracies in 36 of 73 articles Blair wrote as a national correspondent for the paper between October and April. Despite the misgivings of a few editors, the young black reporter was promoted and his misdeeds went unnoticed.
Last week, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg also resigned after being suspended for using an intern’s notes for a story without citation, though he denied his actions violated the paper’s policy.
The Blair scandal put the credibility of the “paper of record” into question and prompted a sweeping internal probe of the Times’ management and editorial policies and practices, which Sulzberger said will continue.
Even before the controversy, some Times staffers had grumbled about Raines’ top-down management style, and he was also accused of favoritism.
Raines, 60, previously headed the Times bureaus in Washington and London and was the editor of the editorial page for eight years before taking the top editorial position just days before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Last year, the paper won a record seven Pulitzer Prizes, most of which were related to its coverage of the attacks.
Raines won a Pulitzer in 1992 for a memoir he wrote for the New York Times Magazine about his childhood friendship with his family's black housekeeper in Alabama.
Boyd, 52, was named managing editor in 2001, after serving as deputy managing editor and assistant managing editor.
NEW YORK.
MTA MUST ROLL BACK TOLL HIKES.
By Jean
Souffrant, Gislène Laforest and Judith Jn-Louis.
Mirroring a similar lawsuit on transit fares, a judge Wednesday ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to roll back recent toll hikes on its nine bridges and tunnels.
The judge also ordered the MTA to refund drivers who have been paying the higher tolls for over two weeks, but it is not clear how that would be accomplished. The ruling gives the MTA 10 days to comply, but the agency has vowed to appeal, which would automatically put the rollback on hold.
The Automobile Club of New York, the state division of AAA, filed the lawsuit, citing allegations that the MTA intentionally misled the public about its finances to make fare and toll hikes appear necessary a year earlier than when they actually were.
Judge Robert Lippman called the process of public hearings “fundamentally flawed” and said the MTA displayed “a pattern of untrammeled arrogance and deception and a disdain for the public.”
“In a nutshell, what this case says is that the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority is not above the law, and when they seek to take money from the people of New York they have to do it in compliance with statute,” said AAA attorney Robert Muir, referring to the division of the MTA that oversees the river crossings. “The judge said, ‘You didn't do it, [so] it's vacated. If you want to do it, go back and start again.’”
An appeal is pending on another judge’s order to cancel the 50-cent fare hike on city subways and buses. Oral arguments on the appeal are scheduled for next week.
After the MTA files an appeal to the toll hike decision, the two cases could be combined.
On May 18, the MTA raised cash tolls between 25 cents and $1 on the Verrazano-Narrows, Triborough, Throgs Neck, Whitestone, Marine Parkway, Henry Hudson and Cross Bay bridges and on the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels.
NEW YORK.
$90 MILLIONS IN RESTORATIONS TO CITY SERVICES.
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton and Terry Dussek
Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday announced $90.2 million in restorations to the city budget, enabling the city to avoid several proposed cuts to services.
The mayor says the restorations are possible because many of the uncertainties in the state budget have come through in the city’s favor. In addition, Bloomberg says the savings from the state will also automatically trigger an additional $74 million in funding from the federal government.
The laundry list of items includes:
twice weekly garbage pick ups citywide ($11 million);
keeping libraries open five days a week ($7.6 million);
the Staten Island Ferry will continue to run four boats during rush hour ($2.3 million);
senior centers will get money to maintain services ($5.7 million);
teachers will get money for instructional material ($8 million);
money will got toward summer youth jobs ($12.5 million).
The mayor says the restorations are possible because many of the uncertainties in the budget have come through.
“Because Albany and Washington have come through with more than we had originally asked for in our budget, we have a little bit more breathing room,” said Bloomberg. “I can't tell you that there is more money. You really don't know until afterwards. But since some of the risks and the uncertainties in the budget have now been removed, while you’re still not sure where it’s going to come from, over the next 12 months there will be some things that surprise us positively and some things that surprise us negatively. I think at this point, however, prudence says we can go and run a bit more of a risk and provide services.”
Many of the restorations are ones the City Council traditionally fight for. Council sources said they've come up with $350 million in restorations, far more than the mayor's package.
Speaker Gifford Miller said he's pleased with the announcement and said the mayor did not steal the Council's thunder.
“New Yorkers who ride the Staten Island ferry don't care who restored what,” Miller said. “What they care about is that the ferries are there.”
Despite the restorations, both sides of city hall are still negotiating a final budget deal, which is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Despite the windfall, the mayor warns the city’s economic outlook remains uncertain, with a $2 billion deficit predicted for next year.
NEW YORK.
BAD COCAINE MAY BE THE CAUSE OF DEATH.
By James
Limage, Judith Jn-Louis and Jacqueline O'Garro
A man who died in police custody in Manhattan Wednesday may have had a fatal reaction to cocaine, according to a police source, but the man’s father says he was a victim of police brutality.
Jose Mateo, 22, was subdued with mace and pepper spray by police responding to a call of a domestic dispute in Washington Heights. He went into cardiac arrest after police handcuffed him and died hours later in the hospital.
Mateo’s girlfriend told police that he had used what she called “bad cocaine,” according to a high-ranking police official. The medical examiner is performing an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
On Wednesday morning, the girlfriend called 911 to say Mateo was becoming violent with his family. Police released a recording of the call.
"He's had like a nervous breakdown, a bad reaction,” the girlfriend says on the tape. “He's fighting.”
But when the operator asked if he had taken any drugs in the last 24 hours, she responds, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Mateo was attacking his father when officers arrived, according to police. But the father said that police overreacted and that he tried to cover his son to protect him from the officers.
Three officers were treated for minor injuries sustained in the struggle.
NYPD REPORT:
By
Jacques Dusseck, Jean Dupiton & Jean Souffrant
IN MANHATTAN
1- A Harlem infant was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital where she died last night, police said yesterday.
The 4-month-old girl had been taken to the hospital from her West 126th Street home, where she was discovered unconscious around 9 a.m.
The cause of death is unknown, pending an autopsy by the medical examiner.
2- Fast-acting cops busted two of three would-be bank robbers in separate incidents on the Upper East Side Tuesday, police said yesterday.
In the first, Ronald Cooper, 34, walked into the Bank of New York branch on Third Avenue near 65th Street at around 9 a.m. and passed a note demanding money to a teller, cops said. He left without getting anything.
Police quickly arrived and arrested Cooper during a brief search of the area. He was charged with attempted robbery.
About four hours later, Eric Planes, 33, entered an Emigrant Savings Bank branch on Lexington Avenue near 85th Street, pretended he had a weapon and slipped a teller a note demanding money, cops said.
He also left without any loot. Nearby cops arrested Planes, who was charged with attempted robbery.
Another would-be thief tried to rob an Upper West Side bank, but got nervous and also fled empty-handed, police said yesterday.
The man walked into a Citibank branch at Broadway and 96th Street around 1 p.m. Tuesday, handed a teller a note demanding money and then walked out. Cops are still looking for him.
3- A 43-year-old man has been arrested for trying to get a $3,500 cash advance on someone else's account with a fake I.D. at an Upper West Side bank, police said yesterday.
John Abewale, of Hempstead, L.I., entered a Citibank branch on West 72nd Street at around 1 p.m. Tuesday and handed the I.D. to a teller, who called cops, police said.
Abewale fled the bank without receiving money. Police arrested Abewale nearby and charged him with attempted grand larceny and possession of a forged instrument.
IN THE BRONX.
4- A teenager who was shot last week was busted yesterday in the fatal clubbing of a 20-year-old man on a Mott Haven street, authorities said.
Francisco Lasante, 17, was arrested at Harlem Hospital and charged with murder and robbery.
Last Thursday, Lasante, with bat in hand, approached Marcus Gomez on Brook Avenue near East 143rd Street around 9 p.m., police sources said.
He allegedly slugged Gomez in the head in the course of a robbery and fled on his victim's motor scooter.
Gomez was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died.
The next day, two masked men believed to be friends of Gomez knocked on the door of Lasante's East 146th Street apartment.
When he opened the door, one of the men drew a 9 mm pistol and started blasting.
Cops said Lasante was hit in the hand, his mother in the leg, his father in the shoulder and a family friend in the torso. The suspects fled.
The four victims were taken to local hospitals, where they were listed in stable condition.
5- A 75-year-old woman apparently leaped to her death from a Bronxdale apartment building, police said yesterday.
The woman, whose name was withheld, was discovered behind the Cruger Avenue building at around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
IN QUEENS
6- A St. Albans man has been charged with attempted murder for shooting a 41-year-old man who was sitting in a parked car, police said yesterday.
Dennis Huggins, 50, walked up to the vehicle at 205th Street and Hollis Avenue at around 9 p.m. Sunday, then allegedly pulled a gun and shot the man through the passenger-side window in what police described as an ongoing dispute.
The victim drove himself to Mary Immaculate Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Police arrested Huggins on Tuesday. In addition to attempted murder, he was also charged with assault and weapons possession.
IN BROOKLYN
7- A 23-year-old man was shot to death on a Canarsie street last night, police said.
The victim - whose name was not released - was found with a bullet in his head at 9516 Avenue K around 8 p.m., cops said.
Police are searching for the gunman and trying to determine a motive.
8- Police yesterday identified a 21-year-old man who was fatally stabbed in the chest on a Fort Greene street.
Alpensie Best was arguing with his unidentified assailant on Lafayette Street at around 10 p.m. Monday when he was attacked.
The thug, whose motive was not known, fled. Best died at Brooklyn Hospital.
9- Police yesterday identified a homeless man who died from gunshots to the head and torso on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street.
Johnny Howard, 45, was attacked at Greene Avenue near Franklin Avenue at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday by a man who pulled a gun and opened fire.
June 4, 2003
NEW YORK.
MARTHA STEWART AND BROKER PLEAD NOT GUILTY.
NEW YORK.
CITY REACHES DEAL WITH FIRE
UNION
ON STAFF REDUCTIONS.
NEW YORK.
FISCAL YEAR ENDS WITH SURPLUS FOR THE CITY.
NEW YORK.
FDNY OPENS NEW $45 MILLION TRAINING FACILITY.
ALBANY, NY. LAW CORKS NEW LIQUOR LICENSES.
NYPD REPORT.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK.
MARTHA STEWART AND BROKER PLEAD NOT GUILTY.
By
Jacques Dussek and Terry Dussek
Martha Stewart and her former stockbroker lied to federal investigators who were probing her profitable sale of ImClone stock, according to an indictment Wednesday that does not accuse Stewart of insider trading.
Martha Stewart arrives at federal court in New York.
The nine-count, 41-page indictment of Stewart, who built a media and homemaking empire, paints a picture of a coverup in which Stewart and her former broker at Merrill Lynch, Peter Bacanovic, obstructed justice and made false statements.
"This criminal case is about lying, lying to the FBI, lying to the SEC and lying to investors," James B. Comey, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told a news conference. "This is conduct that will not be tolerated by anybody."
Stewart, 61, entered Federal Court in Manhattan and surrendered to federal authorities. At a nine-minute arraignment Wednesday afternoon, she and Bacanovic each pleaded not guilty to all nine counts, possibly paving the way for a trial that would draw tremendous publicity. They were released without bail.
The indictment comes a year after it was revealed that Stewart in late 2001 sold 3,928 ImClone shares a day before a regulatory setback sent the stock tumbling. Investigators had been trying to determine what Stewart, a friend of ImClone's then-CEO Sam Waksal, knew ahead of a sale that netted the multi-millionaire about $229,000.
Wednesday's indictment focuses on Stewart's public statements and private dealings with investigators during the past year.
Specifically, she was charged with two counts of making false statements, while one false-statement charge was made against Bacanovic. Each faces one count of obstruction of justice, and Bacanovic was charged with perjury and making and using false documents.
The lone charge of securities fraud leveled against Stewart deals with making false statements regarding her own company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, that allegedly defrauded investors by artificially propping up the stock price.
Martha Stewart's attorneys seized on the absence of insider trading charges, the focus of so much speculation.
Martha Stewart is indicted in the ImClone stock scandal on five counts, and her former broker, Peter Bacanovic, on four counts.
"The indictment reveals that the predicate for the entire investigation -- the accusation that Martha Stewart sold her ImClone shares based on inside information -- has proven to be false," her lawyers, Robert Morvillo and John Tigue, said in a statement.
That matter will be left to a civil suit filed Wednesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Manhattan. The suit accuses Stewart of getting an illegal tip from Bacanovic saying that Samuel Waksal, and Waksal's daughter, had placed orders to sell ImClone shares on the morning of Dec. 27, 2001.
Determining the truth about what happened between Stewart, her stockbroker and the ImClone shares may be difficult, according to one legal expert.
"The problem has always been who said what to whom and the lack of a paper record," said Jeffrey D. Bauman, a law professor Georgetown University.
Wednesday's indictment also raised questions about whether Stewart will resign as CEO and chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. The SEC wants to bar her from being an officer or a director of a public company.
Stewart became one of the nation's wealthiest people by taking Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. public in October 1999 during the last gasp of the 1990s bull market. But the company whose identity is so tied to Stewart's became unprofitable this year and has lost millions in market value as customers defected and legal costs climbed.
Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO: Research, Estimates) jumped 48 cents, or 6 percent, to $10 Wednesday, but the stock is still down 47 percent over the last year.
According to the terms set during Wednesday's arraignment, Stewart must give the court 72 hours notice if she intends to travel outside the country. Bacanovic was asked to turn in his passport.
Stewart had long maintained that she had an agreement with her broker to sell the shares when they fell below $60. But both the SEC's suit and the indictment dispute that contention, saying Stewart sold the shares after learning that Sam Waksal, who left ImClone last year, was trying to unload his stock
"By selling when she did, Stewart avoided losses of $45,673," according to the SEC.
That kind of profit motive is, of course, minimal for Stewart, who in 2000 and 2001 was named on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
In criticizing the charges against their client, Stewart's attorneys go after the government's record on prosecuting corporate fraud involving bigger sums.
Are the charges being filed "because the Department of Justice is attempting to divert the public's attention from its failure to charge the politically connected managers of Enron and WorldCom who may have fleeced the public out of billions of dollars?" her attorneys ask.
The lawyers also focused on gender, asking if the government has brought the case "because she is a woman who has successfully competed in a man's business world by virtue of her talent, hard work and demanding standards?"
But in an informal Web site poll, a majority of more than 60,000 readers said the government was not being too hard on Stewart.
"The worst thing they could do is bring this case and lose it, so they must be very confident in their case," said Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's legal correspondent, who interviewed Stewart this year for the New Yorker magazine.
Sam Waksal is due to be sentenced this month on the securities fraud charges that he pleaded guilty to last year. Recent optimism over ImClone's cancer treatment, Erbitux, has pushed ImClone stock up six-fold since October.
CITY
REACHES DEAL WITH FIRE UNION
ON STAFF REDUCTIONS
By Gislène Laforest and Jean
Dupiton.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Uniformed Firefighters Association
reached a deal Tuesday on firehouse staff reductions - a deal that
will also end all pending legal action between the union and the city.
“I have to be able to look myself in the mirror and say I’ve made a reasonable balance between the fiscal needs of this city and the protection of the men and women of the Fire Department,” Bloomberg said.
The modified contract agreed to by the UFA Tuesday will reduce the number of firefighters from five to four at 23 engine companies. Initially, in an effort to save $13 million a year, the mayor wanted to cut crews at more than 50 engine companies.
In exchange, the union agreed to drop seven lawsuits, including one calling for the city to reopen six engine companies closed last month.
Firefighters will always put their lives on the line,” said Steven Cassidy of the Uniformed Firefighters Union. “I just feel a little more comfortable today to say that they can do that with more resources than we would have had, had we not reached this agreement.”
The mayor says the changes will not affect public safety.
“They have chosen an occupation where there are just some risks you can't avoid, and, tragically, the law of averages catches up no matter how well trained they are and no matter how good their equipment. But the better trained they are and the better the equipment that they have, the lower the risk,” said Bloomberg.
The deal also allows the city to make further reductions if the UFA does not lower its sick leave numbers. Those numbers have risen sharply since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
The new contract expires in July of 2004.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg watched firefighters in training learn the ropes on how to battle a blaze. He joined Fire Department officials to unveil a new $45 million state of the art training center at the Fire Academy on Randall’s Island. Bloomberg also defended the cost.
“We will not skimp on training. We will not skimp on equipment,” the mayor said. “We will do nothing that jeopardizes their lives. They have a dangerous job, which you should not forget."
FISCAL YEAR ENDS WITH SURPLUS FOR THE CITY
By Gislène Laforest and
Jacques Dussek.
The deep budget gap that the city faced for the current fiscal year
has been flipped into a $1 billion surplus, according to two new
reports.
The reports, from the state Financial Control Board and the state comptroller, attributes the turnaround to the city’s 18.5 percent property tax hike, spending cuts and state and federal aid.
The surplus is already spoken for, however. The money has been allocated towards closing next year’s multi-billion dollar deficit.
The 2004 fiscal year begins on July 1.
FDNY OPENS NEW $45 MILLION TRAINING FACILITY
By Terry Dussek and Jean
Dupiton.
The FDNY unveiled a new state-of-the-art training facility on
Randall's Island Tuesday.
The $45 million facility includes two buildings that will be used to simulate fire conditions. A third building houses six classrooms and a gymnasium.
“I can't think of anything that is more important than protecting the lives of the 11,000 odd firefighters that we have working,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We will not skimp on training. We will not skimp on equipment. We will do nothing that jeopardizes their lives.”
“It's great. I mean, they're going to see these buildings maybe for the first time in their life, and they'll know the hazards, the shafts, and everything else,” said FDNY Chief of Training Nicholas Santangelo.
The new Fire Academy class consists of 350 probationary firefighters scheduled to graduate in mid-August.
LAW CORKS NEW LIQUOR LICENSES
By Gislène Laforest and Romy
Dussek.
It will be harder for new liquor stores to open, under a little-known provision tucked away in the new state budget.
The provision places a five-year moratorium on the granting of new liquor-store licenses and is intended to help smaller stores compete against the threat of new, larger stores that might hope to capitalize on Sunday sales.
Under the provision, a person or corporation wanting to go into the business must buy an existing license, which some say will up the value of those licenses.
The provision was included in the law allowing liquor stores to open on Sundays as long as they close at least one other day during the week.
Officials at the state Liquor Authority, whose approval is required for any sale of existing liquor licenses, were taken by surprise by the change.
"We didn't even know about it until after the fact," said authority spokesman J. Mark Anderson.
Gov. Pataki had vetoed the measure as part of his budget vetoes, but the Legislature overrode it.
"We don't want to see any small places go out of business, so this is an attempt to give them some stability while the transition period occurs," said Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari, the Troy Democrat who pushed for the change.
As of May 30, there were 2,494 liquor-store licenses.
During the moratorium, existing license holders can apply to the Liquor Authority for approval to sell the license to another person or corporation.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Two gun-and-knife-wielding assailants robbed an Israeli diamond dealer of $600,000 in gems yesterday at a Times Square hotel, police said.
The thugs accosted the 49-year-old man as he was entering his room in the Edison Hotel on West 47th Street at around 2:30 p.m.
The assailants pulled a knife and a gun and forced the man inside the room, where they tied him up and fled with the diamonds.
2- A 2-month-old girl found unconscious in her family's East Harlem apartment early Monday died yesterday, police said.
The child, whose name was not immediately released, bore no visible signs of trauma.
3- A brazen burglar has robbed 13 Upper West Side residents since mid-May, gaining entry via fire escapes or windows, police said yesterday.
The thief has struck mainly in the early-morning hours, beginning on May 18, with the last incident occurring yesterday, cops said.
Taken from the homes on Central Park West and West 88th and 89th streets was cash, credit cards, clothing, jewelry and electronics, including cell phones, cameras and computer equipment.
IN THE BRONX
4- A 5-month-old boy suffered a fractured skull when his mother tossed him against the corner of a TV stand in their Longwood apartment, authorities said yesterday.
Fatoumata Tambadou, 23, assaulted Lassana Touray after she became angry that the boy was crying in their Hoe Avenue apartment at around 6:30 p.m. Monday, sources said.
The victim was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.
Police arrested Tambadou and charged her with assault.
5- A 38-year-old man has been charged with raping and sodomizing his girlfriend's 7-year-old daughter in a Fordham apartment last year, cops said.
Between June and November 2002, Miguel Arjona had sex with the child on several occasions in the Valentine Avenue building, authorities said.
Police arrested Arjona at 9 a.m. Monday.
6- A schoolteacher was busted on drug charges after cops saw him with marijuana on a Kingsbridge Heights street yesterday, police said.
Gregorrio Velez, a teacher at IS 216 in Longwood, was arrested at around 5:15 p.m. at the corner of Morris Avenue and Kingsbridge Road, cops said.
7- Four thugs shot a Longwood bodega clerk in the arm during a robbery attempt yesterday, but ran out empty-handed - spooked by their own gunshot, police sources said.
The three men and one woman entered the shop at East 156th Street and Prospect Avenue just before 6 p.m. yesterday. After they demanded money from the 45-year-old clerk, one of the would-be thieves hit him in the arm with a handgun. The gun went off, striking the man.
The victim was taken to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition. The four bandits fled.
8- A New Mexico man was charged with attempted murder yesterday in the shooting of a 33-year-old man on an Edenwald street last year, police said.
In July 2002, Samuel Robinson, 39, accosted the man on Edson Avenue and Grenada Place at 4:30 p.m., pulled a gun and shot him, cops said.
The shooter, whose motive was not known, fled.
The victim was taken to Jacobi Hospital.
9- Two thugs shot a man in the stomach on an East Tremont street yesterday before fleeing, police said.
The assailants accosted the 23-year-old man on Webster Avenue near East 178th Street around 4 a.m.
One of them drew a pistol, shot the man and fled with his companion in a black Lincoln.
The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
10- A 6-year-old girl yesterday fell from a second-floor window of her family's Crotona Park East apartment, but was not seriously injured, police said.
The girl was found on the ground behind the East 169th Street building at around 11 a.m.
She was treated at a local hospital and released.
IN BROOKLYN
11- A 45-year-old man was shot twice in the head and died early yesterday after an assailant accosted him on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street, police said.
About 2:30 a.m., the thug pulled a gun and opened fire at Greene Avenue near Franklin Avenue before fleeing.
The victim, whose name was withheld, was pronounced dead at the scene.
12- A 17-year-veteran officer, suspended after being busted last month for selling cocaine out of a Flatlands bar, was suspended a second time yesterday for failing a drug test, police said.
On May 25, Thomas Coyle, assigned to the NYPD's Manhattan Courts section, twice sold cocaine to undercover Internal Affairs Bureau officers at Cousin's Sports Bar, where he moonlighted as a bartender, authorities said.
13- Six swastikas were scrawled in a commercial building in Sunset Park, police said.
An ET Trading Co. worker discovered the drawings on walls, a sign and the door of the business in the 35th Street building around 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Police said the vandalism occurred over the weekend.
14- A 29-year-old man was shot in the right leg on an East New York street, police said yesterday.
The man told cops he was walking on Milford Street near Sutter Avenue around 10 p.m. Monday when he heard gunshots and realized he'd been hit.
He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. No arrests have been made.
ON STATEN ISLAND
15- A Pathmark supermarket was evacuated in Bay Terrace yesterday after a suspicious substance was discovered in a trash can, police said.
Authorities said a fired employee may have dumped the substance to get back at his boss.
Members of the NYPD Bomb Squad, the Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Protection Hazmat unit were called to the supermarket on Amboy Road around 10:30 a.m., where two men complained of having trouble breathing.
DEP officials were testing the substance.
June 3, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
ALLEGATIONS OF POLICE ABUSE IN NYC ARE ON THE RISE.
NEW YORK.
BODEGA OWNERS ASK POLICE FOR MORE SECURITY.
NEW YORK.
POLICE SEEK FOR A BANK ROBBER.
BROOKLYN, NY. CLOSED FIREHOUSE TEMPORARILY BACK IN SERVICE.
NYPD REPORT.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALLEGATIONS OF POLICE ABUSE IN NYC ARE ON THE RISE
By Gislène Laforest and James
Limage.
A report by the board shows 4,616 complaints were filed last year, up
nearly 9 percent from the year before and 12 percent higher than 2000.
In the first four months of this year, complaints have risen over 18 percent, the CCRB says.
The study also found that blacks are disproportionately the victims of alleged police abuse.
That finding comes as the NYPD investigates two recent police raids in which unarmed blacks died.
BODEGA OWNERS ASK POLICE FOR MORE SECURITY
By Eddy Dupiton and James
Limage.
After a string of violent incidents, bodega owners are calling on the
NYPD to help protect their workers.
Members of the U.S. Bodega Association met with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Monday and asked him to set up a special task force to deal with security. The trade group wants more officers on patrol near their stores, saying a stronger police presence might have prevented several recent crimes.
Last week, a bodega worker was shot and killed inside a Harlem store. At another store, two workers are facing gun possession charges after fatally shooting a would-be robber with an unlicensed gun.
The Bodega Association is pushing to accelerate permit applications for store owners who want to buy guns. The process currently takes up to a year.
“I feel that everyone who feels their life is in danger, like the American way, you have to protect yourself and defend yourself from any perpetrator that comes to your store,” said Jose Fernandez, the president of the association.
The Police Department said it would look into the bodega owners’ requests. Another meeting is planned within the next few weeks.
“The police commissioner obviously couldn’t give an answer right there at the table, because he has to see what they can legally implement,” said Joel Rivera, one of two City Council members who joined the meeting. “But he has committed himself to working with the Bodega Association and elected officials to decrease crime in our neighborhoods, especially in the bodegas.”
Meanwhile, police are asking the public to help them solve robberies at three convenience stores in Manhattan.
In the most recent incident, on May 3, three people fled in a livery cab after robbing the Empire Market, on First Avenue and 93rd Street, according to police.
Days earlier, two men held up a candy store on Broadway and 100th Street. Police say one of them pointed a gun at the clerk, while the second grabbed the cash.
And on April 19, police say, three men robbed a magazine store on Eighth Avenue and 127th Street.
Anyone with information in any of the cases is urged to call the confidential police hotline Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
POLICE SEEK FOR A BANK ROBBER
By Gislène Laforest and
Jacques Dussek.
Police are searching for a bank robber who disguises himself as a
construction worker.
The so-called Hardhat Bandit is believed to be responsible for 13 robberies in Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island since November, getting away with as much as $40,000.
Police say they are looking for a 6-foot-tall black man between the ages of 25 and 30. The bandit wears a welder's mask over his face, an orange reflective vest and construction boots.
In half of the robberies, the robber had an accomplice who wore similar construction gear, according to police.
Police urge anyone with information about the robberies to call the confidential hotline Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
CLOSED FIREHOUSE TEMPORARILY BACK IN SERVICE
By Terry Dussek and Eddy
Dupiton.
The Fire Department is putting a closed firehouse in Brooklyn back into action – temporarily.
The former home of Engine 278, which was disbanded along with five other companies last month to save money, will house Engine 282 while its home is renovated.
Besides handling calls in their district, firefighters with Engine 282 will assist on calls that Engine 278 used to respond to.
Engine 282 is scheduled to move back to its own firehouse in November.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Police are searching for eight bandits who committed three unrelated gunpoint robberies.
The first occurred on April 19, at the Discovery News Store on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 128th Street, at around 6:45 p.m. Three men entered the store and two of them pulled guns, while the third stood by the door acting as a lookout.
One of the men pointed his pistol at an employee as the second gunman went behind the counter and stole cash.
On April 29, two other men walked into the Oasis Grocery Store at Broadway and West 99th Street at around 9:30 p.m. One of them drew a gun and pointed it a store clerk while the other jumped over the counter and stole cash.
Finally, on May 3, two men entered the Empire Market on First Avenue and East 91st Street at around 1 a.m. One of the assailants produced a gun, went behind the counter and swiped money from the register. The two were joined by a third man and fled in a livery cab.
Police are offering $2,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest of the robbers in each of the three cases.
Anyone with information can call the Crime Stoppers number below.
2- A thief walked into an Upper West Side bank yesterday, slipped a teller a note demanding money, and fled with more than $2,000, police said.
The robbery occurred at the Apple Bank on Broadway and West 73rd Street at around 12:30 p.m.
3- A 19-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly committing a gunpoint robbery in Washington Heights, and cops are searching for a second suspect.
On May 19 at 1 a.m., Kris Siraj and a male accomplice accosted a 25-year-old woman in an apartment building on West 172nd Street, and one of them men pulled a gun, cops said.
They allegedly demanded her money and stole her cell phone and pocketbook before fleeing.
Cops tracked down Siraj on Sunday after tracing calls he had made using the phone, police said. He was charged with robbery.
IN QUEENS
4- An 18-year-old man was shot in the leg yesterday after a gun-wielding assailant approached him on an Astoria street, police said.
The unidentified gunman opened fire, for reasons that were not immediately clear, at Vernon Boulevard and 21st Street before fleeing at around 9:30 a.m.
The victim was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
IN BROOKLYN
5- Two thugs slashed a woman and tossed a chemical in her face yesterday in a Williamsburg building.
The men accosted the 27-year-old victim, a legal secretary, in the Driggs Avenue building at around 10:30 a.m.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where she was listed in stable condition.
One assailant was described as a black man, 17 to 21 years old, 5 foot 9 and 150 pounds. He was wearing a blue sports jersey and blue pants.
His cohort was described as a black man, 17 to 19 years old, 5 foot 6 and 140 pounds.
6- A 21-year old man was stabbed to death by a man he fought with in Fort Greene last night, cops said. The man was stabbed in the chest in front of 99 Lafayette Ave. about 10:10 p.m.
He was taken to Brooklyn Hospital where he died about an hour later.
IN THE BRONX
7- The Medical Examiner's Office yesterday ruled a homicide the death of a 20-year-old man who was found with a head injury on a Mott Haven street.
Cops were called to Brook Avenue near East 143rd Street at around 9 p.m. Friday and discovered Marcus Gomez unconscious.
Cops suspect he was hit over the head during a robbery. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he died from his injuries the next day. No arrests have been made.
June 2, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
APPEALS COURT COULD ROLL BACK TRANSIT FARES.
QUEENS, NY. FOUR PEOPLE DIE IN CAR ACCIDENT IN QUEENS.
NEW YORK.
HIGHER STATE SALES TAX GOES INTO EFFECT.
NYPD REPORT.
___________________________________________________________________
APPEALS
COURT COULD
ROLL BACK TRANSIT FARES
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Straphangers
Campaign head back to court Monday in the battle over the transit fare
hike.
Last month, the Straphangers Campaign, a transit watchdog group, won a lawsuit accusing transit officials of misleading the public about its finances, and a judge ordered the MTA to drop the new $2 fare on city subways and buses back to $1.50. But the MTA appealed the decision, and an automatic stay has put the rollback on hold.
The Straphangers Campaign wants the appeals court to vacate the stay – and immediately roll back fares – before making a final decision. Both sides are filing papers on that motion on Monday.
Once the briefs are filed, a decision could come at anytime.
Oral arguments on the appeal itself are scheduled for June 10.
The Straphangers Campaign also wants the MTA to create an escrow account to be able to reimburse riders if the fare hike is rescinded. The group is urging riders to save their old MetroCards.
FOUR PEOPLE DIE IN CAR ACCIDENT IN QUEENS
A fiery car accident in Queens early Monday morning left four people
dead and two others injured.
Traffic on the Jackie Robinson Parkway was shut down for a few hours following the accident, just after midnight.
Police say a Toyota Camry carrying six people was traveling westbound when it struck a tree and burst into flames. Four people, two men and two women, died at the scene.
Rescue crews pulled out two survivors, both 20-year-old men. They were taken to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
HIGHER STATE SALES TAX GOES INTO EFFECT
A state hike has rung up the sales tax in the five boroughs up to 8.5
percent, and an increase to the city's portion later this week will
push it even higher.
“I understand the city needs a little bit more money, but it should find a better way,” said Tom Faernstrom, one of the shoppers who were digging deeper Sunday.
The city’s increase is set to take effect on Wednesday, bringing to total tax to 8.625 percent. In addition, the exemption on clothing items under $110 has ended.
“I could live with the increase in tax, but they took away a benefit that we had that we no longer have,” said shopper Lonny Behar.
The tax break on clothing was introduced three years ago to keep shoppers from traveling to New Jersey, which doesn't tax clothing of any price.
“Now we send it back to New Jersey again,” said Nasser Moussa, an assistant manager at Men's Wearhouse. “And I think it's going to hurt New York a lot.”
But one customer said he won't give up the convenience of shopping in his own neighborhood in Manhattan. Cory Elbaun spent $750 in Men’s Wearhouse Sunday, including an extra $20 in taxes.
“I had no problem paying the tax before they changed it,” said Elbaun. “It was kind of a benefit when they did change it. So it was more money in your pocket then, and now that it's reinstated I guess it's just back to the old ways. Not a huge issue, I would say.”
What could become an issue is the failure of some businesses to charge the higher tax. Like many other businesses, the manager of a diner said he has been too busy to recalibrate his register.
Some retailers have faulted City Hall for providing little guidance, especially since they had just four days to make the adjustments. And they’ll have to do it again on Wednesday when the sales tax rises again.
“It was unfortunate that we couldn't get everybody's act together,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I think the administration deserves as much blame as anybody else. But it's just one of those little annoyances, and we'll have to get on with it.”
And then there are businesses where sales tax is already included in the price. The manager of a pizza shop said an accountant will soon take a look at its books to determine whether the tax increase is worth a price increase.
In the end, it's customers’ wallets that will likely take the hit. The mayor said it’s one of the sacrifices necessary to keep the city afloat.
“The only way we can keep the budget in balance and continue to keep the streets safe and get the schools better is to have the revenue to pay our municipal workers,” Bloomberg said.
City Hall hopes the increase will raise $123 million dollars over the next fiscal year. It will be at least a few months before business owners will be able to tell if they're losing.
Shoppers will get a break during two tax-free shopping weeks, scheduled in the fall and winter.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and
James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- A woman's body was discovered in a suitcase by a passer-by in Harlem last night. The corpse was found at West 130th Street near Fifth Avenue at about 6 p.m. An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death.
IN THE BRONX
2- A University Heights woman was stabbed in the throat by her former live-in boyfriend yesterday, police said - and was rescued by a good Samaritan who held the man down until cops arrived.
Mercedes Garcia, 53, was listed in serious condition at St. Barnabas Hospital. Pedro Mateo, 47, lured Garcia out of her apartment by calling her to ask her to run an errand for him, cops said. Mateo had lived with her for 18 years until she kicked him out last month, according to police sources.
He approached Garcia as she was walking on Loring Place, a few blocks away from her apartment, at about 10:30 a.m. and allegedly stabbed her at least three times with a kitchen knife.
A man who lives nearby saw what was happening and wrestled Mateo away from Garcia. Cops arrested Mateo, who was charged with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession.
3- A pregnant woman was in a critical condition yesterday after being struck by an SUV in a Morrisania hit-and-run Saturday night, cops said.
Eugenia Nieves, 25, was crossing Boston Road and 169th Street at 9:20 p.m. when the green SUV rammed into her and sped off. Nieves was taken to a local hospital. No arrests have been made.
4- Four men were slashed yesterday after trying to break up a fight between two women at a Bathgate party.
The incident took place at 3:15 a.m. on the 19th floor of a Webster Avenue building.
Three of the men were taken to Lincoln Hospital and one to St. Barnabas. Their injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening.
IN BROOKLYN
5- Two women were attacked inside a C train by a man who shouted anti-gay insults as he punched and kicked them, cops said yesterday.
Joseph Jones, 32, of Newark, approached the women, 27 and 31, after getting on the Brooklyn-bound train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
As he hurled the slurs, he kicked one woman in the pelvic area and punched the other one in the shoulder, cops said.
When the train stopped at the Lafayette Avenue station, Jones allegedly tried to push a man off the train. Police, who were standing on the platform, saw Jones kicking and spitting at the train. Jones, who was wanted on a felony warrant, was arrested and charged with assault. Cops did not say what the warrant was for. The victims refused medical treatment.
6- A man was shot twice during a dispute on an East New York street yesterday.
Jason Montayne was in stable condition at Brookdale Hospital after he was wounded on New Lots Avenue around 5:28 a.m. Police did not know the motive.
7- A 21-year-old man was shot once in the leg during a dispute in the lobby of a building on Avenue D in Flatbush yesterday. The injured man, shot at 12:50 a.m., was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he's listed in stable condition.
No arrests have been made.
IN QUEENS
8- Two men were found stabbed blocks away from one another yesterday in Corona.
Cops found one man, whose name was not immediately released, at 45th Avenue off 102nd Street and the other, 23-year-old Manuel Martinez, on 47th Avenue and 104th Street at around 5:40 a.m. It was not clear whether the two attacks were connected.
Both victims were taken to Elmhurst Hospital. Their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. No arrests have been made.
9- A 26-year-old-man man was shot in the leg by an unknown gunman in the Hammels section of the Rockaways yesterday, cops said. The shooting took place at Beach Channel Drive and Beach 83rd Street at about after 6:15 p.m. The man was taken to Peninsula General Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
May 31, 2003
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK. NYPD MADE MISTAKES IN FATAL POLICE RAID IN HARLEM.
NEW YORK. POLICE SHOOTING OF UNARMED MAN UNDER INVESTIGATION.
NEW YORK. RAPIST SOUGHT IN ATTACK OF STUDENT AT ESSEX
AND DELANCY
NEW YORK. THIS WEEK END WILL BE FULL ACTIVITIES
IN THE BIG APPLE.
NYPD REPORT:
___________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK. NYPD MADE MISTAKES IN FATAL POLICE RAID IN HARLEM.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says "mistakes were made" during a botched police raid on Alberta Spruill's Harlem apartment two weeks ago, according to a report released Friday by the NYPD. Andrew Siff filed this story:
It was a series of communication failures that caused the death of 57-year-old Alberta Spruill.
That finding – from the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau – was spelled out in a 24-page report that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly delivered to Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday.
"A citizen lost her life as a result of actions by the police department," Kelly said at a Friday afternoon press conference.
Kelly says the commanding officer of the 25th Precinct didn't let the officers running the raid know that the suspected drug dealer they were after had already been arrested by the neighboring 32nd Precinct.
"At the very least, the fact that he was in custody should have been communicated from members of the precinct to the Emergency Services Unit," Kelly said.
Among other revelations in the report:
Police never de-briefed the arresting officer to see if what he knew fit with what they heard from the confidential informant whose bad tip led them to Spruill's apartment.
The 25th Precinct never let the 32nd Precinct know that the raid was going to happen in their jurisdiction. Nor did they consulted the narcotics division, as required by department rules.
And on the morning of the raid, the captain from the 25th Precinct and others were late for the final tactical meeting.
In addition, an ESU lieutenant approved the use of the flash grenade in Spruill's apartment - when the NYPD requires a captain or above sign-off on the device. As a result, the NYPD's chief of department must approve the use of all flash grenades from now on.
"I'll look at every case individually," said Chief of Department Joseph Esposito. "I know ESU has said they may have used the device anyway - and maybe they would have - but that decision will be made by me now."
As for confidential informants, Kelly has ordered the deployment of a computerized database overseen by the borough commanders.
"What we're doing here is to see to it, as best we can, that something like this never happens again," Kelly said. Nevertheless, Kelly said that search warrants remain "critical tools in the police department's continuing efforts to drive crime down," and that the police department would continue to rely on them as it always has.
NEW YORK. POLICE SHOOTING OF UNARMED MAN UNDER INVESTIGATION.
The investigation continues into the police shooting death of an unarmed man in a Chelsea warehouse.
Police are trying to locate witnesses in the shooting of West African immigrant Usman Zongo, who was shot and killed more than a week ago.
Reverend Al Sharpton said he has a witness who was with Zongo in the warehouse and warned him someone had a gun. Appearing on “Inside City Hall” Friday night, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Sharpton has yet to produce that witness.
"We would certainly like him to be made available,” Kelly said. “Perhaps they're waiting for another time. I believe they may have spoken to someone in the district attorney’s office. I'm not certain, but we stand ready to talk to anyone with information concerning this event."
NEW YORK. RAPIST SOUGHT IN ATTACK OF STUDENT AT ESSEX AND DELANCY
The search goes on for a rapist who attacked a college student on the Lower East Side Thursday evening.
The assault happened at Essex and Delancey streets. Police said the student was headed home to Brooklyn when she was grabbed from behind, threatened with a box cutter, raped, and robbed.
The suspect is described as approximately 5’ 6” inches tall and about 160 pounds. The victim believed him to be a male Hispanic.
The woman was treated and released from a local hospital.
NEW YORK. THIS WEEK END WILL BE FULL ACTIVITIES IN THE BIG APPLE.
Between the street fairs and the parades, there's plenty to do in the city this weekend – but drivers might find getting around a little more difficult than usual.
At least a dozen parades and street festivals will tie up traffic and prevent parking in many parts of the five boroughs.
Police are strongly suggesting residents use mass transit for getting around the city.
Among the larger events are the Second Avenue Street Festival, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday in Manhattan, and the National Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival beginning at 10 a.m. in the Bronx.
On Sunday, the Easter Seals Roll and Stroll 2003 will begin at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers and make its way into New Jersey, while the Salute to Israel Parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Sunday in Midtown.
Following is a complete listing of the weekend's activities:
SATURDAY
Little Italy Merchants Association Pedestrian Mall Activity, Manhattan, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Mulberry St. between Canal St. & Broome St.
National Puerto Rican Day Parade/Festival, Bronx, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
152nd St. between Jackson Ave. & Tinton Ave.
Kwanis Club Of Sheepshead Bay Festival, Brooklyn, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
North side of Emmons Ave. between Nostrand Ave. & Batchholder St.
Forum's Children Foundation Street Festiva, Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
6th Ave. between W. 42nd St. & W. 52nd St.
2nd Avenue Street Festival , Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
2nd Ave. between E. 66th St. & E. 86th St.
St. Columbia Church Festival, Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
W. 25th St. between 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.
Riverside Church Family Arts Festival
Manhattan, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., W. 120th St. between Broadway & Claremont Drive
Society Of St. Anthony Of Giovnazzo Feast, Manhattan, from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Mott St. between Canal St. & Hester St.
SUNDAY
Easter Seals Roll & Stroll With Me 2003, Manhattan, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:35 a.m.
Formation & Start: Chelsea Piers at 12th Ave./23rd St.
Route: East on 24th St. to 11th Ave.; North on 11th Ave. to 25th St.; East on 25th St. to 10th Ave.; North on 10th Ave. to 36th St.; East on 36th St. to Dyer Ave.; North on Dryer Ave. into Lincoln Tunnel south tube. Event is broken onto 3 routes: 8 miles, 13 miles and 26 miles. Event will continue with traffic thru Hoboken, Weehawken, West New York, North Bergen, Edgewater, and Fort Lee and Over the George Washington Bridge (26 milers only)
H.O.G. Bikers Against Breast Cancer Ride, Queens, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Start: 42-11 42nd St. Route: East on Northern Blvd. to BQE; West on BQE to Gowanus Expy.; South on Gowanus Expy. to Belt Pkwy.; East on Belt Pkwy. to Cross Island Pkwy.; North on Cross Island to Grand Central Pkwy.; West on Grand Central Pkwy. to Francis Lewis Blvd.; North on Francis Lewis Blvd. to park entrance. End: Cunningham Park entrance.
Philippine Independence Day Festival
Manhattan, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Madison Ave. between E.23rd St. to E. 26th St.
Little Italy Merchants Association Pedestrian Mall Activity, Manhattan, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Mulberry St. between Canal St. & Broome St.
5th Avenue Board Of Trade Street Festival Brooklyn, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
5th Ave. between 65th St. & 75th St.
Kwanis Club Of Sheepshead Bay Festival, Brooklyn, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
North side of Emmons Ave. between Nostrand Ave. & Batchholder St.
Greek Orthodox Com. Of St. Demetrios Festival, Queens, from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
152nd St. between 84th Ave. & 84th Drive; 84th Rd. between 152nd St. & Parsons Blvd.
Queens Lesbian And Gay Pride Festival, Queens, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
37th Ave. & 75th St. between 73rd St. & 77th St.
Salute to Israel Parade, Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
No parking on the following streets:
Fifth Avenue between 51st and 86th Streets (parade route)
Madison Avenue between 76th and 86th Streets
From 52nd to 55th Streets between Sixth and Park Avenues
56th Street between Seventh and Park Avenues
From 57th to 59th Streets between Sixth and Madison Avenues
From 60th to 75th Streets between Fifth and Madison Avenues
From 76th to 77th Streets between Fifth and Park Avenues
From 78th to 83rd Streets between Fifth and Lexington Avenues
Philippine Independence Day Parade
Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. No parking will be permitted on the following streets:
Madison Avenue between 23rd and 42nd Streets (parade route)
From 39th to 41st Streets between Fifth and Park Avenues
27th Street between Fifth and Park Avenues
Jefferson Area Market Festival Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Greenwich Ave. between 6th Ave. & 7th Ave.
St. Columbia Church Festival Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
W. 25th St. between 8th Ave. & 9th Ave.
West Side Crime Prevention & Mitchel-Lama Festival Manhattan, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Columbus Ave. between W. 86th & W. 96th St.
Society Of St. Anthony Of Giovnazzo Feast Manhattan, from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Mott St. between Canal St. & Hester St.
NYPD REPORT:
IN MANHATTAN
1-A thug wielding a box-cutter robbed and sodomized a college student in a Lower East Side apartment building, police said. The 27-year-old victim was walking along Delancey Street at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday when an unidentified man accosted her from behind and put the weapon to her throat. He forced her into the building and robbed her of $20 in cash and some of her belongings. He then sodomized her in a hallway before fleeing. The victim was taken to NYU Downtown Hospital, where she was treated for a neck injury and released. The attacker was described as a Hispanic man, 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.
2-A 55-year-old man was fatally stabbed around the corner from his Harlem home yesterday after he and another man got into an argument, cops said.
Johnny Spellman, 55, was stabbed in the chest and arm on 132nd Street and Seventh Avenue around 12:30 p.m. He died an hour later at Harlem hospital. His alleged assailant, Arthur Bryant, 48, was arrested a short time later and is charged with murder.
3- A Department of Environmental Protection employee was charged with marijuana possession after cops stopped him for an undisclosed traffic violation on the Randalls Island ramp from the Triborough Bridge, police said. Sewage treatment worker Kenneth Bristol, 52, also was charged with DWI after being arrested at 10 p.m. Thursday.
4- A man in his 30s, described by cops as apparently intoxicated, was hit and seriously injured by a subway train early yesterday in a lower Manhattan station, police said. A northbound Grand Street shuttle train struck the unidentified man in the Lafayette Street station around 3:30 a.m. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital. It was not clear if he fell or jumped.
5- A man robbed an Upper West Side bank yesterday by pretending to carry a weapon and passing a note to the teller demanding cash, cops said. The robber, described as a black man in his 20s, was handed about $800 by the teller at Washington Mutual Bank at 2438 Broadway at 5:10 p.m. Police said the bandit fled west on West 89th Street.
IN BROOKLYN
6- A teenager was charged with assault yesterday for shooting and seriously wounding a 27-year-old man in a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment building, police said.
7- On May 3, Nelson Delossantos, 19, was arguing with an acquaintance in a Classon Avenue building at 4 p.m. He pulled out a gun and shot the man in the chest, cops said.
8- A 16-year-old boy was shot in the leg after a thug approached him on an East New York street, police said. The assailant pulled a gun and shot the youth on Wyona Street near Linden Boulevard at 8:30 p.m. Thursday before fleeing. The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital and was in stable condition.
IN THE BRONX
9- Four people were shot early yesterday when a masked gunman opened fire in a Mott Haven building, police said. The assailant knocked on the door to an apartment in the East 146th Street building around 1 a.m. When Francisco Lancaster, 17, opened the door, the gunman drew a 9 mm pistol and started blasting. Lancaster and three others tried to close the door, but were hit. The shooter, whose motive was not known, fled with a cohort, also wearing a mask. The four victims were in stable condition at local hospitals.
10- A man was critically injured after he was clobbered over the head during a robbery on a Mott Haven street, police said yesterday. An unidentified assailant accosted the 20-year-old man and bashed him with a blunt object at Brook Avenue near East 143rd Street around 9 p.m. Thursday.
IN STATEN ISLAND
11- A gun-wielding assailant fired several shots and hit a man once in the buttocks in Mariners Harbor. The 23-year-old man was hit on Holland Avenue near Richmond Terrace at around 2:30 a.m.The victim was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital where he was listed in stable condition.
May 30, 2003
NEW YORK.
NYPD TO RELEASE ITS FINDINGS ON BOTCHED POLICE RAID THAT KILLED HARLEM
WOMAN
BROOKLYN, NY. JUDGE ORDERS UFA TO PAY FOR LEGAL BATTLE
OVER REDUCTION OF FIRE CREWS
NEW YORK. FOR SECOND MONTH, CITY UNEMPLOYMENT
NUMBERS DROP
BRONX, NY. SCHOOL MOURNS
MOM WHO DIED WHILE TRYING TO BREAK UP FIGHT
NYPD REPORT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NYPD TO RELEASE ITS FINDINGS ON BOTCHED RAID THAT KILLED HARLEM WOMAN
By Gislène Laforest
and Jacques Dussek.
Exactly two weeks after a Harlem woman died in a botched police raid, the NYPD will release its findings on the incident.
The 28-page report to Mayor Michael Bloomberg details the circumstances leading up to the mistaken raid and the heart attack that caused 57-year-old Alberta Spruill's death.
Spruill died after police, relying on a tip from an informant, broke into her Harlem apartment.
The medical examiner determined she suffered the heart attack after police detonated a flash grenade and handcuffed her.
The police department has already announced a number of reassignments stemming from the mistaken raid. Among them, Assistant Chief Thomas Purtell, who was the senior police commander in charge of the emergency services unit which coordinated the raid on Spruill's home.
Purtell has been transferred to the Housing Bureau.
JUDGE ORDERS UFA TO PAY FOR
LEGAL BATTLE OVER REDUCTION OF FIRE CREWS
By Terry
Dussek
and Jacques Dussek.
In what could be a big win for the city, a Brooklyn judge has ordered
a fire union to pay for a court challenge preventing a reduction in
crews on some fire trucks.
Reducing crews is another cost-cutting effort for the city. But the State Supreme Court judge ruled if the Uniformed Firefighters Association wanted to continue its fight, it would have to pay $4.5 million.
The UFA said it can't pay but still vows to keep the legal battle going.
Last month, the union won a restraining order preventing the city from reducing crews in 49 fire companies from five to four.
The city plans to ask the courts to order the staffing reduction if the union doesn't pay up.
FOR SECOND MONTH, CITY
UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS DROP
By Gislène Laforest
and Jean Dupiton.
The city's unemployment rate dropped for the second month in a row, according to recently released figures.
The unemployment rate after seasonal adjustment, for this past April, was 8.3 percent; that's down from 8.5 percent in March.
The seasonal adjustment takes into account how seasonal employment, like snow removal, plays into the month to month job numbers.
Statewide, the rates went up slightly from 6 percent to 6.1.
The city and state are still trying to pull out of the slump caused by the terror attacks and the national recession.
The numbers seem to be on mark with the national average. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 6 percent, up from 5.8 percent
SCHOOL MOURNS MOM WHO DIED
WHILE TRYING TO BREAK UP FIGHT
By Gislène Laforest
and Romy Dussek.
Friends and associates are remembering a Bronx woman who suffered a
fatal heart attack Wednesday while trying to break up a fight between
her 12-year-old daughter and a classmate.
Friends say 50-year-old Mary McGuire was in her apartment Wednesday afternoon when she heard screaming across the street.
It was a fight in the I.S. 146 schoolyard. McGuire raced to break up the brawl, as did neighbor Janet Rosario.
“I heard the commotion, I looked out, looking for my daughters, and I came running,” Rosario said.
Rosario said McGuire’s own 12-year-old daughter was involved in the fight, and school officials said kids from Junior High School 120 and Morris High School, all within a block of each other, may have joined in.
McGuire, trying to calm the situation, suddenly collapsed.
“Her lips turned purple, her eyes were purple, her tongue was coming out,” said Rosario. “It was very sad. Just over a teenage fight.”
McGuire, who suffered from asthma, had a heart attack. But police and school officials are trying to sort out whether anyone is to blame.
“It’s an immense loss,” said Andrew Eisenberg, the principal of JHS 120.
The principal of JHS 120 said McGuire was a respected president of the Parents Association as well as the mother of 18 children.
Known as “Ms. Mary” in her Trinity Avenue building in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, McGuire was a familiar face in the neighborhood.
“She walks through this building and children from all over walk up to her and she calls them by their first name,” Eisenberg said. “She knows the children in the school. You could tell by the relationship that if she’s not a mother to many of them, then she’s certainly carrying it out. She can’t be replaced.”
Police officials said at this point, no one will be charged and no suspects will be questioned. But they are awaiting a report from the medical examiner.
As for school officials, they have brought counselors in to help the kids cope.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek, Romy
Dussek and Jacqueline O'Garro
IN MANHATTAN
1- A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death yesterday by a co-worker with whom he had been involved in a feud, police sources said.
At 5:20 p.m., Marcus Desmond was stabbed once in the chest at West 28th Street and Broadway. He died 90 minutes later at St. Vincent's Hospital.
The suspect, whose identity was being withheld, was being sought last night.
Desmond gave out handbills advertising music CDs and DVDs that were being illegally counterfeited nearby, a law-enforcement source said.
Last week, a simmering feud between the victim and the suspect led to police being called, according to the source. Each man filed a complaint against the other for criminal conduct, but details of those allegations were not available last night.
2- Two teenagers were wounded after each was shot in the leg on a Harlem street corner, police said yesterday.
An assailant accosted a 17-year-old male and a 15-year-old girl and pulled a gun on West 129th Street and Lenox Avenue around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The suspect shot the young man in his right leg and the girl in her left leg before fleeing.
Two police officers suffered minor injuries yesterday when their patrol car collided with a vehicle in Harlem, cops said.
The cops were responding to a call at 9:10 a.m. and traveling north on Broadway at West 145th Street.
The other vehicle, whose occupants were not injured, was heading east on West 145th Street when the collision occurred.
3- A man walked into an Upper East Side bank yesterday, slipped a teller a note demanding money and fled with cash, police said.
The robbery occurred about 2:30 p.m. in the North Fork Savings branch on Second Avenue at East 91st Street.
IN BROOKLYN
4- An unruly mob helped a drug suspect escape police custody in Brownsville, but cops soon recaptured him and arrested two people for helping him get away, authorities said yesterday.
On Tuesday, a cop spotted Tyshaun Williams, 16, with marijuana, arrested him and put him in the back seat of a patrol car on Ralph Avenue and Halsey Street around 10 p.m., police said.
A disorderly crowd of people who had gathered on the street then got into a physical confrontation with the officer, cops said.
One crowd member, Charles Williams, 18, allegedly assaulted the officer as the cop's partner came to his aide.
Simultaneously, the mob helped Tyshaun Williams escape the patrol car.
He was quickly recaptured in an apartment building at 841 Halsey St.
Charles Williams was arrested on disorderly conduct and assault charges.
A third crowd member, Daniel Mealy, 21, was arrested for obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
The two cops were taken to Wyckoff Hospital, where they were treated for abrasions and contusions.
5- A teenager was busted on charges he fatally shot a man in a Williamsburg apartment building two months ago, police said.
On March 3, Taheen Hayes, 16, allegedly got into an argument with Wilbur Williams, 22, and drew a gun in the building at 140 Moore St. around 9 p.m.
Hayes, who was known to Williams, shot him several times in the chest, cops said.
Williams was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he died.
Police collared Hayes on Monday after further investigation.
IN THE BRONX
6- A 16-year-old Evander Childs HS student was stabbed in the back inside the bathroom of the Bronx school yesterday morning, police said.
The violence erupted shortly before 11 a.m. on the third floor of the school, at 800 East Gun Hill Road in the Williamsbridge section, when Leon Luke, a sophomore, began fighting with another student
The fight continued in a nearby bathroom where the suspect used a small steak knife blade to stab Luke once in the back, the sources said.
Luke was taken to Jacobi Hospital in stable condition with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, sources said.
7- A 5-month-old baby girl suffered severe head injuries when her father assaulted her in their Soundview home, police said yesterday.
Cops responded to a call of an unconscious baby in the apartment at 1810 Watson Ave. at 5 p.m. Monday.
The baby was taken to Jacobi Hospital in critical condition. Leslie Martin, 34, was arrested on assault charges.
8- A thief was collared yesterday after he robbed one bank and tried to steal cash from another on the same block in Kingsbridge, police said.
Robert Solis, 25, walked into a North Fork branch at 185 W. 231st St. around 9 a.m. and allegedly passed a teller a note demanding money.
He fled with an undetermined amount of cash, cops said.
Minutes later, he entered a Chase bank at West 231st Street and Broadway and slipped another demand-note to a teller, cops said.
Police responded to the scene and arrested Solis.
May 29, 2003
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
THIRD POLICE OFFICIAL REASSIGNED AFTER BOTCHED RAID
NEW YORK. COLLECTING FINES LOSES MONEY FOR THE CITY
NEW YORK. CITY SALES TAX WILL RISE TO
8.625 PERCENT
NEW YORK. ONE MAN KILLED,
TWO INJURED IN MANHATTAN SHOOTING
NYPD REPORT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------THIRD POLICE OFFICIAL REASSIGNED AFTER BOTCHED RAID
By Eddy
Dupiton, Gislène Laforest and James Limage.
A third police official has been reassigned in connection with a
botched police raid that left a Harlem woman dead.
Assistant Chief Thomas Purtell was the senior commander in charge of the unit that broke down Alberta Spruill's door and detonated a flash grenade on May 16, based on an erroneous tip from a drug informant. Spruill suffered a fatal heart attack, and the medical examiner rule her death a homicide.
Purtell, the most senior officer disciplined in connection with the incident, has been transferred to the Housing Bureau.
“We’re happy that they’re finally recognizing that these gentlemen need to be removed from their duties, but they’re moving him from one position to another position,” said a Harlem resident. “They need to be taken off the force.”
The NYPD acknowledged the raid was a mistake, and investigations by the Internal Affairs Division and the Manhattan district attorney are underway. The classification of the death as a homicide does not necessarily imply criminal wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the Civilian Complaint Review Board says it urged Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to keep a better record of unannounced, or “no-knock,” or search warrants months before the Spruill raid.
"We think that the department would want to know if a particular unit, for example, has executed a disproportionate amount of warrants where no contraband was recovered," said CCRB Director Florence Finkle.
Police currently keep no central records for warrant information, but the NYPD now plans to install a database by July to track the names of the judges and officers involved in issuing and serving each warrant.
COLLECTING FINES LOSES MONEY
FOR THE CITY
By Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
As the mayor and the police union trade accusations over whether a
ticketing blitz is underway, a new report suggests that issuing fines
may actually cost the city money.
The report by the city’s Independent Budget Office, which is set to be released Thursday, says that, on average, the city spends more money to collect the fines than the tickets actually bring in.
But only certain agencies are losing money, the study found. Parking violations, the subject of a dispute between City Hall and the police union, are in the black.
Earlier this month, the union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, took out print and radio ads accusing police supervisors of enforcing ticket quotas. The union urged the public not to blame police officers for writing tickets.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg denied the claim Wednesday, saying union leaders made the allegation because they face re-election soon.
However, Bloomberg admitted that more parking tickets could help ease the city’s budget crisis.
“Does the city need the money? Absolutely,” said the mayor. “The parking ticket fees, well, you can have it either way. You can have fewer cops on the street catching the bad guys, or you can have more parking tickets. We have to get revenues someplace, and fees and fines are welcome additions to tax revenues.”
Some members of the City Council have scheduled a news conference Thursday to address comments made by the mayor that suggested – wrongly, they say – the Council was involved in the alleged ticket blitz.
CITY
SALES TAX WILL RISE TO 8.625 PERCENT
By Jacques Dussek
and Gislène Laforest
City shoppers will have to start digging deeper next week.
After striking a deal with the mayor Wednesday, the City Council voted 47-3, with one member absent, in favor of a raise to the city’s portion of the sales tax. Coupled with a state hike, the sales tax in the five boroughs will rise from 8.25 percent to an unwieldy 8.625 percent.
The exemption on clothing purchases up to $100 will end.
“It's sort of a bittersweet pill to take, but I think it’s medicine that will help get us through this crisis,” said Manhattan Councilman Bill Perkins.
The state’s hike takes effect on Sunday, but the city’s will likely be a few days behind. The legislation reportedly stipulates a five-day “aging” period before Mayor Michael Bloomberg can sign it.
“This is a fiscal crisis, and what is needed in a crisis is leaders of good faith to step forward and meet the responsibility,” said Council Speaker Gifford Miller. "This Council has taken tough step after tough step to meet this fiscal crisis. We will continue to take those steps."
However, not all members of the Council were happy with the vote.
“It’s a good deal for Woodbridge, New Jersey, and parts of Nassau County,” said Councilman James Oddo of Staten Island. “We’ve lived this on Staten Island. I have merchants who were hurt by sales tax increases. Staten Islanders like to get in cars and go to Woodbridge [Mall], and we took that incentive away when we reduced the taxes and eliminated the sales taxes on clothing. To put it back, to me, nets out as a negative.”
The three no votes were lodged by Republicans.
The agreement between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council marks a turnaround for Miller, who had wanted to delay the vote for a month as he sought assurances the new revenue would be used for what he called essential city services.
In a deal first reported, the mayor and the Council agreed to:
no increases in recycling fines;
keeping the city's AIDS and HIV assistance program remain intact;
protecting social services from $75 million in cuts with the consolidation of several agencies, including the Department of Employment, the Human Resources Administration and the Administration for Children's Services.
The Council is still expected to pass a personal income tax surcharge for the wealthiest city residents as part of the full budget package next month.
“Clearly, we are in budget negotiations with the mayor,” said Councilman Leroy Comrie, of Queens. “We are bargaining, and we will use whatever is necessary to protect the quality of life of New Yorkers.”
ONE MAN KILLED, TWO INJURED IN
MANHATTAN SHOOTING
By Terry Dussek and James Limage.
One man died and two others were wounded in a shooting in Manhattan
Wednesday night.
Police found the men, all in their 20s, near the intersection of Dykman Avenue and the Westside Highway in Inwood at 7:45 p.m.
Robert Garcia, 29, was shot in the head and died. The two others, whose names have not been released, are hospitalized in stable condition.
Police say the shooting appears to have stemmed from a dispute with an unknown person or persons. No arrests have been made.
NYPD REPORT
By Jacques Dussek and James Limage.
IN MANHATTAN
1- Three men were shot on an Inwood street near Henry Hudson Parkway yesterday, cops said.
The men, all in their 20s, were found at 7:45 p.m. on Dyckman Street close to the highway entrance.
Two were rushed to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital - one in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head and the other in serious condition with a wound in the torso.
The third victim was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in stable condition with a bullet wound to the leg.
Cops do not know the shooter's motive.
2- A gun-wielding assailant shot a man in the leg early yesterday on a lower Manhattan street, police said.
The thug pulled out a gun and shot the 22-year-old man on Cherry Street at Peck Slip around 4 a.m. before fleeing.
The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
N THE BRONX
3- A man unloading packages from the trunk of his car last night heard a gunshot fired then felt a burning sensation in the back of the head - realizing a moment later he had been grazed by the bullet, cops said.
A woman passing by spotted the bleeding man across on Sherman Avenue in the Highbridge section at 7:48 p.m. and called 911.
The 36-year-old man was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition.
4- A teenager was critically wounded when two thugs stabbed him in the head and neck at the entrance to Claremont Park, cops said yesterday.
Police said it was unclear what prompted the attack on the 17-year-old youth at Claremont Parkway and Webster Avenue at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
IN BROOKLYN
5- An NYPD officer died after his motorcycle collided with a car, police said yesterday.
Aqida Overstreet, 28, assigned to Brooklyn's Transit Task Force, was heading north on New York Avenue around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when the collision occurred on Avenue D in East Flatbush.
It was not immediately clear whether the officer was on or off duty when the accident occurred. No summonses were issued and no arrests were made.
6- A city schoolteacher was arrested in a Bushwick grocery store after police searched her and found what appeared to be drugs in a napkin, cops and witnesses said yesterday.
Bertha Lucky, 46, who works at PS 6, entered the Central Avenue store around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to buy a pack of cigarettes, a worker said.
Cops followed Lucky inside, the worker said, put her up against a wall to search her and found the alleged drug.
She was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Cops would not say why she was singled out for a search.
7- A 22-year-old man was shot in the hand yesterday when he tried to wrest a gun from a teenage acquaintance in an East New York apartment building, cops said.
The victim attempted to grab the gun from the 19-year-old man in the Crescent Street building around 12:30 a.m.
He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The teenager fled.
8- A 20-year-old man was shot in the buttocks on a Brownsville street yesterday, police said.
The man was shot on Kingsboro Walk around 1:30 p.m.
He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
ON STATEN ISLAND
9- A teenager was arrested on assault charges yesterday after he shot one man in the leg and another in the foot in Fox Hills, cops said.
Javon Mitchell, 18, allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the two men in an alley off Park Hill Avenue around 2:30 p.m.
The victims were taken to Staten Island University Hospital North, where they were listed in stable condition.
Mitchell, whose motive was not known, fled but was later captured by police, authorities said.
10- An anonymous tip to CrimeStoppers led to the arrest of a 41-year-old man who stole about $2,250 in cash from a Great Kills bank, police said yesterday.
According to cops, Robert Simmons walked into the Richmond County Savings Bank on Amboy Road around 11:30 a.m. Saturday carrying a bag.
He allegedly slipped a teller a note that said, "Fill this bag with 20s and 10s; I have a gun and won't hesitate to use it; I have nothing to live for anyway."
The teller stuffed the loot into the bag and gave it to Simmons. He was arrested Tuesday.
May 28, 2003
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS SUMMARY:
NEW YORK.
CITY SALES TAX COULD RISE TO 8.625 PERCENT
NEW YORK.
MAYOR BACKS OFF PLAN TO REDUCE TRASH PICK-UPS
ALBANY. PATAKI TO GIVE SMOKERS A BREAK
NEW YORK.
5 DAYS TO FIT NEW PLATES
QUEENS, NY.
LAWSUIT TRIES TO SAVE CLOSED FIREHOUSE IN
QUEENS
NYPD REPORT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CITY
SALES TAX COULD RISE TO 8.625 PERCENT
By Terry Dussek and Jacques Dussek
City residents will likely have to start digging deeper this weekend.
The City Council plans to vote Wednesday on a measure to raise the city’s portion of the sales tax on Sunday, when a state hike also takes effect. Altogether, the sales tax in the five boroughs will rise from 8.25 percent to 8.625 percent.
The agreement between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council marks a turnaround for Speaker Gifford Miller, who had wanted to delay the vote for a month as he sought assurances the new revenue would be used for what he called essential city services.
If the deal passes, sources say, the city will restore from $50 million to $75 million in proposed cuts to social services. A plan to double recycling fines will also be dropped.
MAYOR BACKS OFF PLAN TO REDUCE TRASH PICK-UPS
By Jean Dupiton and Romy Dussek
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing away from a plan to cut garbage
collection in the outer boroughs starting July 1.
The plan would have saved the city $11 million a year in overtime by dropping one trash pickup a week in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and parts of the Bronx. Manhattan would not have been affected, because it generates more trash.
But some members of the City Council members say they've been bombarded with complaints since the proposal was announced. The city is now working to come up with alternatives to cut overtime, such as better planning of pick-up routes.
PATAKI TO GIVE SMOKERS A BREAK
By Jacqueline O'garro and Terry Dussek
Governor Pataki yesterday said for the first time that he's open to
easing a statewide ban on smoking due to go into effect in late July.
"When I signed the bill, I said we wanted to look at the impact and see if there were some ways to minimize or mitigate the impact - so, yes, it is something I would look at," Pataki said.
The city smoking ban that went into effect earlier this year allows bars and restaurants to have separately ventilated smoking rooms for three years - but it was superceded by the state law, which does not contain that exemption.
Asked specifically about allowing separately ventilated rooms for smokers, Pataki said, "It is something that we should look at."
Pataki's comments yesterday came after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said last week that they are open to considering possible changes to the state law.
An aide to Mayor Bloomberg said he did not expect major changes to the state law that would impact the city.
"It's unlikely, but anything's possible," the aide said.
A group of state lawmakers, who believe the state law goes too far and will hurt businesses, are seeking to ease the restrictions by adding exemptions that would make the law more like the city's ban.
A bill spo