CITYWIDE

REPRESENTATIVES SEEKING MORE HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDS

New Yorkers on the House Judiciary Committee plan to press for more federal homeland security money for the city today as the committee takes up legislation that would implement the recommendations of the September 11 commission.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat of New York, said he plans to offer an amendment that would remove language in the bill that would give each of the 50 states a guaranteed share of the money. Instead, the money would be assigned based on threat of terrorist attack, and would likely mean more money for the city.

“We cannot just spread the wealth equally across the nation, because not all areas of the country face the same risk,” said Mr. Nadler.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat of Queens, is expected to offer several amendments to the bill. They include allotting a portion of the funding specifically for the city’s security; allowing the federal government to reimburse the city for the cost of 1,000 police officers hired to work on counterterrorism after September 11, 2001, and reimbursing the city for past expenditures on overtime and other costs.

Mr. Nadler said he also plans to offer amendments that would protect FBI whistleblowers and prevent law enforcement agencies from sharing criminal histories with third-parties outside of law enforcement.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAYOR OFFERS INCENTIVES TO FILM, TV PRODUCERS

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new incentive program yesterday aimed at keeping film and television productions here in New York instead of letting them flee to cities with lower production costs. Statewide legislation signed into law this year provides a 10% tax credit to producers that do most of their soundstage work in the state. The law has a $25 million annual maximum.

Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday that New York City would add an additional 5% tax credit, with a yearly maximum of $12.5 million, to the state plan and provide outdoor advertising equal in value to 1% of production costs, or a donation equal to 0.1% of costs to a nonprofit cultural institutions. Mayor Bloomberg also took the opportunity to announce that Mel Brook’s movie version of the Broadway hit “The Producers” will be the first major movie to be shot at the soon-to-open Brooklyn Steiner Studio facilities and one of the first productions to take advantage of new state incentives.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ECONOMY IMPROVES IN SECOND QUARTER

The city’s economy grew and local industry added 5.6 jobs in the second fiscal quarter of 2004, according to a report released yesterday by the city comptroller’s office.

The analysis, which builds on findings of economic recovery from the office’s last report in June, showed that the gross city product, a measure of goods and services produced in the five boroughs, grew at a rate of 2.8%.The rate is equal to the nation’s annual rate but slightly lower than the city’s performance for the previous quarter.

According to the report, the city’s unemployment rate, 7.4%, is at an all-time low, but is still higher than the nation’s 5.6%. While many of the report’s economic findings bode well for the city, the comptroller, William Thompson, painted the news as mixed. Rising inflation and declining Wall Street profits are still problems, the report said.

“The continued growth in the city’s economy is encouraging,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement. “But the high rate of inflation is worrisome. The second-quarter inflation rate of 4.1% is the highest the city has experienced since 1991, largely because of higher energy prices.”

A report released by the state comptroller earlier this month showed that the city was bouncing back from the recession following the September 11 attacks.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

NEW YORK TIMES SUES ASHCROFT

The New York Times sued Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday, seeking on First Amendment grounds to block the Department of Justice from obtaining records of telephone calls between two veteran journalists and their confidential sources.

The lawsuit said the justice department was “on the verge” of getting records as part of a “leak” probe aimed at learning the identity of government employees who may have provided information to the newspaper. It asked a judge to intervene.

It said the government intends to get the records, which reflect confidential communications between journalists Philip Shenon and Judith Miller and their sources, from third parties unlikely to be interested in challenging its authority. The lawsuit said the justice department has advised the Times that it plans to obtain records of all telephone calls by Mr. Shenon and Ms. Miller for 20 days in the months immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A telephone message left with a government spokeswoman for comment was not immediately returned yesterday.

Times lawyer George Freeman said most of the sources had no connection to the government’s probe.

“We are very troubled at this brazen intrusion into our relationship with our sources, which is unconstitutional and endangers our free press,” he said.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

TWO OFFICERS CHARGED IN INSURANCE SCAMS

Two correction officers were charged yesterday in alleged car insurance fraud scams that authorities say involved faking police reports about nonexistent accidents. Investigators say officer Yvonne White, a 45-year-old Brooklyn resident, received $7,500 after submitting a fake claim and police report. Her medical providers received $20,000, investigators say.

At the time of the accident, the seven-year veteran officer allegedly was at work on Rikers Island. If convicted, Ms. White faces up to 15 years in prison.

The other officer, Nickole Jackson of Brooklyn, also is accused of insurance fraud for faking an accident that involved two insurance claims. The insurance companies paid a total of $13,000 to Ms. Jackson and her medical providers. Ms. Jackson, 32, faces up to seven years in prison. She has been a corrections officer for six years.

“These correction officers now find themselves facing serious criminal charges thanks to their avarice and disregard for the law,” said the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, Rose Gill Hearn.

Investigators are still examining whether the women’s medical providers participated in the alleged fraud, a department spokesperson said.

In the past two years, three other corrections officers for the city have been convicted in unrelated insurance fraud scams.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

REPORT: INCOMPLETE DATA MAY HINDER HEALTH CARE

Data on patient deaths, injuries, and other “incidents” where hospital and clinic patients are at risk for harm is incomplete, which may hinder New York’s effort to provide the best-quality health care treatment possible, the state’s comptroller said yesterday. An audit by the office of state Comptroller Alan Hevesi of the New York State Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System also concluded that mandated reports under the Nyports system are sometimes not made on time and that protections of the confidentiality of subjects of reports may not be as strong as they should be.

Mr. Hevesi said Nyports data is “critical” for the delivery of quality health care, and for enhancing the safety of hospital and clinic patients.

“Without accurate and complete information, it is not possible to effectively pinpoint and address problem areas,” Mr. Hevesi said.

State Department of Health officials announced yesterday they have made a series of changes to tighten reporting procedures, including the mandated reporting to the state of all serious incidents within 24 hours after they occur. Mr. Hevesi’s auditors found that 84% of the 5,777 deaths and other severe medical incidents reviewed were not reported within the 24-hour time frame.

– Associated Press

VELELLA RELEASED FROM JAIL

A former Republican state senator, Guy Velella, who was sentenced in June to a year in jail on a charge related to accepting bribes, was released yesterday after serving a little more than three months.

Velella, who turned 60 on Saturday, left the Rikers Island jail around 2:40 p.m. after being approved for conditional release.

He was jailed on June 21 after admitting he helped bribe payers win public works contracts.

The former senator was taken from the jail to the visitors’ center, where he boarded a bus to ride across the bridge from the island to a parking lot in Queens, a Department of Correctional Services official said.

Velella’s lawyer, Charles Stillman, refused to comment on his client.

Velella, his father, and two other men were charged in May 2002 in a 25-count indictment that alleged he accepted at least $137,000 in bribes from contractors from 1995 through June 2000.

– Associated Press