STATEWIDE

SCHUMER AGREES TO TWO DEBATES ALBANY – Senator Schumer yesterday agreed to two debates against his Republican opponent Howard Mills and the Conservative Party’s candidate, Marilyn O’Grady.

Mr. Mills, a state assemblyman from Orange County, had sought two-way debates, but his aides have said he would accept three-way encounters if that was all Mr. Schumer would agree to.

“Consistent with New York tradition, Schumer will participate in both an upstate and a downstate debate, both of which will be televised,” a statement from Mr. Schumer’s campaign said.

“I’ve worked hard for New York over the last six years, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to talk directly to the people about my record,” Mr. Schumer said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Mills, Caroline Quartararo, said the assemblyman accepted and will participate in both debates. “However, like Senator Schumer said in 1998 about the need for one-on-one debates, the voters would be well-served if he would agree to additional debates,” Ms. Quartararo said.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST RNC PROTESTERS Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against 227 protesters arrested during the Republican National Convention yesterday, saying that police officers had given protesters conflicting statements about whether they were legally allowed to participate in a non-permitted march organized by the War Resister’s League.

The August 31 march was stopped short and protesters were netted by police after only two minutes on the corners of Fulton and Church Streets in Lower Manhattan, according to an internal investigation conducted by prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Three protesters from the march were in court yesterday to fight desk appearance tickets stemming from their arrests when assistant district attorney William Beesch informed Manhattan criminal court judge Kathryn Freed that all charges would be dropped.

“This is major victory,” said the pro bono attorney representing the protesters, Martin Stolar, president of National Lawyers Guild city chapter. He added that the district attorney’s failure to prosecute the charges against protesters allied with the War Resister’s League only increased the chances that a class action lawsuit could be filed against the police department for having “a preemptive strategy to curtail the First Amendment.”

“The city is looking at some liability here,” Mr. Stolar said, “for overreacting and criminalizing descent.”

In a statement yesterday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly criticized the dropped charges and defended the arrests.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL MEMBER SAYS MTA WON’T MEET BUS DEADLINE The chairman of the City Council’s transportation committee said yesterday that there was a “snowflakes chance in hell” that Metropolitan Transportation Authority would take over seven private bus companies by the imposed December deadline.

“They continue to string people along,” said Council Member John Liu. “I’m appalled to hear that there is a confidence that they will meet the December 4 deadline. There is no chance that it’s going to happen.”

The deal requires the MTA, which reports to Governor Pataki, to assume control of seven bus lines that serve about 400,000 residents, primarily in Queens and the Bronx. The MTA will receive about $150 million in annual subsidies from the city. It has already missed two deadlines to transfer control and last week voted to create a subsidiary called the MTA Bus Company to run the operation.

An MTA executive said yesterday during a transportation committee hearing that details of the transfer plan were still being hammered out. She said the bus company’s new president had 30 years of transit experience and said she was confident that the deadline would be met.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MTA CONSIDERS SMART CARDS The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering a replacement for the MetroCard that can be waved, instead of swiped, at subway turnstiles and bus fareboxes. The Smart Card would be a card or key ring with an embedded microchip, similar to the E-Z Pass or Mobil Speedpass used by motorists at toll booths. PATH train riders will begin using a similar system next April.

Advocates of the new technology, headed by a group called the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, said Smart Cards would take only a sixth the time needed to swipe MetroCards at turnstiles, and could reduce crowding. The new cards would also last five years and require less maintenance because riders wouldn’t have to touch cards to sensors, supporters said. Last month, the MTA set aside $43 million for the new cards. MetroCards were introduced in 1997.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

SILVERSTEIN, LIBESKIND SETTLE FOR $370,000 World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein will pay architect Daniel Libeskind’s firm $370,000 for its work on the Freedom Tower under a settlement announced yesterday.

Mr. Libeskind, designer of the master plan for redevelopment of the trade center site, filed a lawsuit in July in Manhattan state Supreme Court claiming Mr. Silverstein owed him more than $843,000 for creative services. Under the terms of the settlement facilitated by a court-appointed mediator, Mr. Libeskind will withdraw the lawsuit.

“I am pleased that the mediation has produced a resolution to this dispute, and that both of us again can focus completely on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center,” Mr. Silverstein said in a statement.

Mr. Libeskind said, “I am pleased that we have put these issues behind us so that we can move forward without distraction on the critical tasks ahead, which are so vital to our city and our nation.”

The cornerstone was laid on July 4 for the Freedom Tower, which will be the first skyscraper to go up at the 16-acre trade center site. Its history has already been rocky, as Mr. Silverstein brought in architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill to design the building, which Mr. Libeskind had envisioned as a 1,776-foot tower with a spiraling shape echoing the Statue of Liberty. The building’s final design was a compromise between Mr. Libeskind’s and Mr. Child’s versions.

– Associated Press

STATE AMONG THOSE WITH LARGEST EDUCATION FUNDING GAP New York has the nation’s largest gap in funding between its wealthiest and poorest schools, translating into as much as $65,375 a year more spent in the most well-off classroom than a counterpart in the most impoverished neighborhood, according to a national report released yesterday by The Education Trust.

New York and Illinois are the only states with a funding gap of state and local aid of more than $2,000 per student, according to the nonprofit organization known for its work on the nation’s student achievement gap between rich and poor students. Both states also are known for having among the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in the country.

– Associated Press

REGION

GOVERNOR DECLARES LONG ISLAND A WINE REGION RIVERHEAD – Hoping to promote the growing wine industry on eastern Long Island, Governor Pataki signed legislation yesterday designating the area as the Long Island Wine Region. The designation recognizes the separate grape-growing areas on the north and south forks of Long Island and is aimed at promoting the wine industry to tourists. Almost a half million people visit East End wineries every year, according to the Long Island Wine Council. The region includes 60 vineyards and more than 3,000 acres and produces more than 500,000 cases of wine annually.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN CONVICTED OF ROOMMATE’S MURDER A man who admitted strangling his roommate but blamed the slaying on childhood abuse was convicted in yesterday of second-degree murder.

A Brooklyn jury rejected Mickey Cass’ defense that he was guilty of manslaughter – not murder – because his roommate, Victor Dombrova, caused him to snap by making sexual advances. Cass had argued that his father had sexually and physically abused him for years, leaving him prone to extreme emotional disturbances. But Assistant District Attorney Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi argued that the killing was “cold” and “calculated.”

The prosecutor said that Cass charmed Dombrova into sharing an apartment and then became angry when Dombrova kicked him out for not paying rent. On the morning he was murdered, the prosecutor said, Dombrova told police that they had fought over money and that he was scared of Cass.

Cass is set for sentencing on October 26. He faces up to life in prison. Cass also is awaiting trial for a 2002 murder of a man in Buffalo.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun