New York Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

MANHATTAN
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER DONATES COMPUTERS TO HIGH SCHOOL
The real estate powerhouse that brought the Time Warner Center to New York City’s skyline has made another, admittedly smaller, contribution to New York – $500,000 worth of computers for Washington Irving High School. The president of The Related Companies, Jeff Blau, installed three high-tech computer labs with more than 100 new computers at the Manhattan high school, with help from business associates and the Union Square Partnership. The new facilities opened last month and are being shown to the public today. Mr. Blau said he got the idea last spring when he served as “principal for a day” at the school, one of the city’s 12 most dangerous. Over the summer his company redid three classrooms with new flooring, new paint, and new furniture. Workers also installed air conditioning and prepared all the new computers with software and Internet hookups.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
TUTORING PROGRAM WINS SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD
The Manhattan Institute last night bestowed a Social Entrepreneurship award on a New York City tutoring program. The program, Reading Excellence & Discovery Foundation, provides students in Kindergarten through second grade with 15 weeks of one-on-one tutoring with teenage volunteers. It attempts to match up tutors with children from the same ethnic group. The $10,000 Social Entrepreneurship award recognizes organizations that work to solve societal failings with minimal or no government assistance. Organized by former a Federal Communications Commission chairman and consultant to the Hearst Corporation, Al Sikes, the foundation gets two-thirds of its funding from private sources and grants and another third in an exchange for services from the participating schools.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
CITYWIDE
PROGRAM CREATED TO HELP HOMELESS INTO PERMANENT HOUSING
The city’s Department of Homeless Services announced yesterday it will create a $58 million housing fund aimed at helping homeless families and chronically homeless single adults get permanent housing. The fund would offer a five-year rental subsidy to homeless families and homeless single adults, to encourage them to get out of the shelter system and discourage them from using Section 8 rent vouchers from the federal government. By moving the homeless, who are generally put at the head of the line for Section 8 vouchers, into other programs, the city hopes to make federal housing subsidies go that much farther. Mayor Bloomberg described the new Housing Stability Plus plan as the city’s “own voucher program.”
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
WEINER PLAYS UP MAYOR’S LINK TO BUSH IN AD
Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat who plans to run against Mayor Bloomberg next year, unveiled a new television ad trying to link Mr. Bloomberg more closely to President Bush. The ad, which has a $50,000 buy on cable stations, opens with Mr. Bloomberg’s welcoming speech to the delegates of the Republican National Convention. “I want to thank President Bush for supporting New York,” the ad shows him saying. Then the screen shows schoolchildren and blames Mr. Bush for $2.5 billion in school spending cuts and says the president cut $68 million in terror funding for New York. Mayor Bloomberg’s spokesman, Edward Skyler, dismissed the ad as “ridiculous” and said it may violate the rules of both the Federal Election Commission and the New York City Campaign Finance Board. It would be against FEC and city campaign finance rules if Mr. Weiner used money raised for a congressional campaign for a mayoral race. For months, Mr. Weiner has been sending congressional donations back to constituents and asking them to donate instead to his mayoral bid. It is unclear whether any rules have been broken. The ad also doesn’t overtly say Mr. Weiner is running for mayor. It does say he doesn’t support Mr. Bush.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
COMMISSIONER RESIGNS OVER CITY STANCE ON EQUAL BENEFITS
A member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Commission on Human Rights stepped down this week to protest the city’s decision to go to court to prevent provisions of the Equal Benefits Law from taking effect. Mr. Bloomberg has said he is against the measure because he doesn’t think the city’s procurement policies should be used to push for particular social agendas. This week a Manhattan judge ruled against the city, and said that the Equal Benefits Law had to be enforced. Matt Foreman, a key member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, sent his letter of resignation to the mayor on October 15. “Through its lawsuit, the Administration is saying loudly – and inexplicably – that gay and lesbian families do not merit being part of this tradition,” Mr. Foreman wrote in a letter to the mayor. A spokesman for the mayor, Jordan Barowitz, said that the administration’s decision to litigate the law had nothing to do with the mayor’s commitment to equal rights. “The litigation was entered into because the law is illegal,” he said. “It violates both state and federal statutes and jeopardizes the city’s ability to procure goods and services.”
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
POLICE BLOTTER
PRISONER DIES AFTER FIGHT AT BRONX COURT
A prisoner severely injured during a fight while waiting at Bronx Criminal Court was taken off life support and pronounced dead, police said yesterday. According to police, Ronald Fesce, 54, got into a fight October 12 in the intake area of the court with another prisoner, 27-year-old Kenny Taylor. During the fight, Fesce was struck in the face and fell. His head hit a steel bench and the concrete floor. He was knocked unconscious. Other prisoners revived him and did not report the incident. On October 14, Fesce complained of head pain. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital and treated for serious head trauma. After surgery, Fesce was brain dead. On Sunday, he was taken off life support and pronounced dead. Taylor was re-arrested. The medical examiner is working to determine the official cause of death, police said.
– Special to the Sun
HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVES WANT TO QUESTION HARLEM BOXER
Hollywood homicide detectives are looking to question a Harlem-based boxer in the recent death of Sam Kellerman, 29-year old brother to the popular television commentator and Fox Sports anchor Max Kellerman. On Sunday evening, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department discovered Sam Kellerman’s body in a Hollywood apartment. Recently, Kellerman had been sharing his apartment with James Butler, a struggling light heavyweight known as the “Harlem Hammer” who in November of 2001 was arrested and suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission for sucker punching an opponent and breaking the foe’s jaw. Butler was charged with assault and spent four months on Rikers Island.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun