CITYWIDE

UNION SAYS THERE IS ‘LONG ROAD’ TO AGREEMENT

The teachers union acknowledged yesterday that it has “made some progress” in negotiations with the city, but it said a New York Times report that a contract was near was overblown.

“While we have made some progress and the differences between the parties have been narrowed, we still have a long road to reach an agreement,” the union president, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement.

She said the United Federation of Teachers continues to meet with the city and the Department of Education, in an attempt to reach a contract.

“Our negotiating goals include an across-the-board raise to make our salaries competitive with those of teachers in surrounding areas,” she said. “As part of the normal give-and-take of negotiations, the City and the Department have put forward a number of management proposals, including extended time and changes in seniority rules.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY: DRIVERS WHO TRANSPORTED STUDENTS HAD CRIMINAL RECORDS

The city’s chief investigator released a report yesterday accusing an ambulance company that transported disabled students to school of using uncertified drivers with criminal records, including manslaughter and drunk driving, according to news reports.

Special Commissioner of Investigation, Richard Condon, found that TransCare New York failed to conduct background checks, according to a NY1 report. The Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Education are reportedly supposed to certify the drivers, who are also supposed to undergo drug testing. NY1 reported that the education department stopped using TransCare after it found out about the probe.

TransCare reportedly released the following the statement: “All TransCare EMTs and paramedics participating in the DOE program, including those who serve as drivers, have valid New York State Department of Health issued certification.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PUBLIC ADVOCATE ASKS MAYOR TO EXTEND REBATE DEADLINE

The city’s public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, asked Mayor Bloomberg to extend the deadline to apply for the $400 property tax rebate because of the number of New Yorkers who have called her saying they were unable to get the required School Tax Relief Program, or STAR, application that must be filled out to get the money.

“Twenty-five thousand homeowners have yet to apply for their $400 rebate. And the reason is that the City either hasn’t done its due diligence in explaining the application process or the application process is backlogged,” she said in a written statement yesterday. “It is only fair to extend the deadline and ensure that there is sufficient staff to process the additional applications.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

SOROS, MORGENTHAU AT RALLY FOR AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros joined Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau yesterday at a rally calling for universal after-school programs across the entire city by 2010.

The 5th annual Lights On Afterschool! rally was held at the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change in Central Harlem. Mr. Soros is the founder of The After-School Corporation, which sponsors a program for 200 students at the school. Students gave a choir presentation and read poems about their grandmothers’ home-cooking to demonstrate the activities in which they participate after classes.

“After-school is much more than just keeping kids out of trouble,” Mr. Soros said. “It gives them something valuable that they might not get during the day.”

TASC president Dr. Lucy Friedman said after-school programs give kids a great environment to “sing more, write more, and most important, learn more.”

Mr. Soros said that the federal government is cutting support for after-school programs, and he is counting on strong politicians, such as Governor Schwarzenegger of California, whom he hailed as a “champion” of the programs,” to continue their advocacy.

A father of seven children, Mr. Morgenthau said he understands it’s difficult to raise a child in the city, especially for working parents. He said he couldn’t think of “anything more important” than giving kids something to do after school.

– Special to the Sun

FAMILIES OF WTC VICTIMS FILE NOTICE OVER ASHES

Family members of World Trade Center victims announced yesterday that they have filed a notice of claim against the city, the Port Authority, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. over the treatment of the ashen remains of their loved ones.

The group, WTC Families for Proper Burial, wants city officials to remove the fine-dust remains of the victims from the Fresh Kills landfill and bring them back to the trade center site to be part of a planned memorial there.

The notice of claim, a necessary step before filing a lawsuit against a government entity, lists 19 specific claims including the dumping of human remains at a landfill, “infliction of emotional distress to next of kin and victims’ families,” and “failure to acknowledge and provide for proper burial consistent with religious convictions and beliefs of victims’ families.”

The chief of the trade center unit at the city’s law department, Kenneth Becker, said city lawyers have received the papers and will review them thoroughly.

– Associated Press

BROOKL YN

ALLEGED HEAD OF COLOMBO CRIME FAMILY INDICTED FOR MURDER

The alleged acting head of the Colombo crime family has been indicted on murder charges for the 1999 rub out of a high-ranking Colombo leader.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said yesterday that Alphonse Persico, son of jailed Colombo boss Carmine Persico, and another Colombo wise-guy murdered the family’s underboss. The other man, John DeRoss, then replaced the slain underboss, William “Wild Bill” Cutolo, prosecutors said.

Cutolo was killed during a bloody Colombo civil war in the 1990s. His body was never found. Prosecutors accuse the Alphonse Persico and DeRoss of obstructing justice in the case by “neutralizing” a witness. The two men allegedly threatened to kill Cutolo’s widow unless she agreed to meet with Persico’s private investigator. Both Persico and DeRoss currently are serving prison sentences for racketeering convictions.

Prosecutors yesterday also announced charges against DeRoss and two reputed Colombo associates for allegedly conspiring to murder a Colombo soldier. The soldier, Joseph Campanella, was shot in Coney Island in 2001 but survived and is now cooperating with prosecutors.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BL OTTER

OFFICER ARRESTED BUYING KILOGRAM OF COCAINE

An off-duty NYPD officer was arrested in Rhode Island for attempting to buy a kilogram of cocaine, police said.

Police Officer Jose DelValle, 24, a two-year veteran assigned to the 42nd Precinct at the Bronx, was arrested at 4:30 p.m. yesterday in Warwick by federal agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to police.

Mr. DelValle was carrying his 9mm service handgun when he was apprehended during a buy-and-bust deal, police said. Mr. DelValle was charged with conspiracy to possess narcotics and use of a firearm during commission of a drug deal.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

JUDGE DISMISSES LAWSUIT OVER HOLOCAUST BENEFITS

A federal judge tossed out 20 lawsuits yesterday that accused an Italian insurance company of failing to pay benefits to victims of the Holocaust.

The class-action lawsuits had been filed in New York, Wisconsin, Florida, and California by survivors and their heirs, claiming the company refused to honor policies held by victims of the World War II-era genocide.

Italian-based Assicurazioni Generali had sought to have the lawsuits dismissed.

Messages seeking comment from lawyers on both sides of the case were not immediately returned.

In dismissing the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey said laws permitting these kinds of lawsuits were pre-empted by a federal executive branch policy favoring voluntary resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims through a private commission.

Judge Mukasey, calling Generali the most prominent insurance company defendant in Holocaust-era lawsuits filed in American courts, said his findings were guided in part by a June 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a California law. The California law had been enacted to help elderly Holocaust survivors or heirs who were stonewalled as they tried to collect on dormant insurance policies from the Nazi era. The state threatened to revoke the license of any insurer refusing to turn over records of Holocaust-era insurance policies.

– Associated Press