CITY COUNCIL ADS CRITICIZE BUSH POLICIES

Democrats will be counting on prairie dogs and disgruntled children to beat up on the Bush administration when the Republicans gather for their convention later this month.

The City Council and the Central Labor Council, both of which are aligned with the Democratic Party, have bought $13,000 worth of advertisements in community newspapers across the five boroughs to persuade readers that the Bush administration is shortchanging the city on terror funding and education.

In one of the ads, a lone prairie dog is meant to showcase how, under the current federal homeland security funding formula, the state of Wyoming receives $38 per capita to New York City’s $5.50.A photo of a frowning child will be used to criticize President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation. The ads are slated to run the week before the Republican National Convention, which begins August 30.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

WEINER SUPPORTS TRANSFER CAPS

Rep. Anthony Weiner told the U.S. Secretary of Education in a letter yesterday that he supports the new caps on transfers out of failing schools in New York City.

“With roughly half the city’s schools already at or near capacity, and most of the schools with space part of innovative efforts to keep class sizes down, the transfer policy creates the potential for a system wide disaster if more students begin to utilize the program,” he wrote.

He also wrote that allowing students to transfer out of failing schools is “not a solution to failing schools” but a “surrender.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

EX-CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT CHIEF INDICTED AGAIN The city announced yesterday that it had filed a third indictment against the former bureau chief of the Department of Correction, Anthony Serra, saying he misappropriated department property and equipment, had subordinates do his personal business, and used the agency for personal gain.