CITYWIDE

HOSPITALS PLAN LAWSUIT AGAINST BUSH ADMINISTRATION

A group of New York City hospitals plan to file a suit against the Bush administration over a proposed change to Medicare rules that they allege could cost area hospitals nearly $1 billion over the next decade. Medicare rules stipulate that hospitals receive federal assistance based on labor costs in their regions. The rule change, based on the 2000 census, would redraw boundaries to include three New Jersey counties. New York hospitals argue the change would allocate more money to New Jersey and cost New York hospitals an estimated $930 million over the next 10 years. Several elected officials have declared support for the planned lawsuit to be filed in Manhattan “in the next couple of weeks,” according to a spokesman for the Greater New York Hospitals Association.

– Special to the Sun

THIRD FIREFIGHTER SUSPENDED IN FIREHOUSE SEX INQUIRY

A third firefighter has been suspended without pay for his role in a sexual romp inside a Bronx firehouse, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta announced yesterday.

Anthony Loscuito, 27, of Engine 75 was interviewed by the city Department of Investigation before his suspension, Commissioner Scoppetta said. No other details were released. Two other firefighters were suspended Friday after a Staten Island woman alleged she had been raped by several firefighters inside the firehouse. The woman later recanted her story, saying the sex was consensual, and then returned to her original account that she had been raped.

– Associated Press

JUDGE DENIES UNION REQUEST TO BAN PROTEST BARRICADES

A U.S. District Court judge summarily denied a series of injunctions sought by the police and firefighter unions to bar the city from making union members stand behind barricades when they demonstrate against Mayor Bloomberg.

The unions said the iron gates behind which they must stand make it impossible for them to get their message to the mayor. The judge said the unions failed to show the restrictions were unconstitutional. The groups are pressuring the mayor to give them a raise in their next contract. Mr. Bloomberg said the city doesn’t have the money to give them the increase without some productivity enhancements.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY SUBMITS SCHOOL FUNDING PLAN

New York City submitted its school funding outline to the special referees in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case yesterday. The plan combines the $5.3 billion a year proposal the mayor described in March and the Department of Education’s $13.1 billion five-year plan. The plan calls on the state to provide a “sound basic education” with new state funding – not by decreasing other state funding or by requiring the city to raise taxes. It asks the state to provide increasing aid to the city, reaching $5.3 billion annually by the 2008-09 fiscal year. The plan also calls on the state to fund half of the $13.1 billion capital plan, which focuses on building new schools and renovating old ones.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

RNC CUTS GAY-THEMED SHOW FROM LIST OF ATTRACTIONS

The Statue of Liberty. Bloomingdale’s. The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. A stage full of naked guys singing. Oops! The city’s tourist bureau has pulled an off-Broadway show called “Naked Boys Singing” from a list of discounted offerings to visiting delegates, after the Republican National Committee complained it wasn’t suitable. The gay themed show, billed as a musical revue that “celebrates the splendors of male nudity in comedy, song, and dance,” has received generally good reviews and hasn’t created much of a stir since it began its run six years ago.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

BUSH TAX CUTS SAVED NEW YORKERS $36 BILLION, STUDY SAYS

President Bush’s income tax cuts have saved New York State residents some $36 billion through 2004 and Senator Kerry’s tax proposals, should they become law, would add $32 billion to New York State’s tax burden, according to a study released yesterday by the Manhattan Institute. The 2004 income tax cut alone saved state residents nearly $14 billion in federal income taxes, said Manhattan Institute tax policy analyst, E.J. McMahon, who authored the study. Should Mr. Kerry’s tax proposals become law, New York would be particularly hard hit, Mr. McMahon said. He has suggested rolling back Mr. Bush’s tax cuts on earned income, dividends, and capital gains for taxpayers earning more than $200,000. Because of the high incomes in New York, people here would shoulder at least 11% of the Kerry-inspired tax increases.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LAWMAKERS ON OFFENSIVE OVER HASTERT BOOK

New York lawmakers yesterday fired back at House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who in a new book accuses them of turning the procurement of September 11 aid into an “unseemly scramble for money.” In “Speaker,” published this month, Mr. Hastert writes that just after the terrorist attacks “already we heard voices asking, ‘Who’s going to pay for this? How much will it cost?’ “

“Mr. Hastert’s comments are an attack on New York,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Rep. Anthony Weiner said Mr. Hastert’s comments came as little surprise and were a “shameful way to open the Republican convention.”

– Special to the Sun