CITYWIDE

CITY APPOINTS ASSISTANT DAY CARE COMMISSIONER

Nearly five months after a 7-month-old baby suffocated in a crib at a Queens day care center, the city has appointed a new assistant commissioner to oversee more than 9,400 day care centers. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced yesterday that Frank Cresciullo, a former deputy director at the state Office of Children and Family Services, would fill the role, which was created after the death of Matthew Perilli. In his last job, Mr. Cresciullo was responsible for child protection, foster care, and adoption services. The health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, launched an aggressive response to Matthew’s death. In October, he issued a report detailing the holes in oversight of day care centers. The report cited poor staffing and training and said communication between inspectors and the department was lacking. The city has been remaking the bureau in the months since. Mr. Cresciullo will oversee the licensing and inspection of all the day care centers.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

PROSECUTOR FINISHES ARGUMENTS IN TRIAL OF TERROR LAWYER

A prosecutor finished his closing argument yesterday by suggesting that a prominent Manhattan defense lawyer and two others eagerly helped a terrorist organization win a jailed Egyptian sheik’s blessing to re-ignite violence in Egypt. The argument by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember capped nearly three days in which he repeatedly attacked the credibility of the lawyer, Lynne Stewart, and her co-defendants, Ahmed Abdel Sattar and Mohamed Yousry. Once Mr. Dember finished, the defense began its presentation by trying to turn the tables. Attorney David Stern, on Yousry’s behalf, blasted the government for what he said was its distortion of the evidence, especially as it related to his client, an Arabic translator.

– Associated Press

UPSTATE

WESTCHESTER HOPES TO OPEN MUSEUM AT SING SING

WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County is hoping to bring tourists “up the river” to a new museum at Sing Sing, the 176-year-old prison where the Rosenbergs were electrocuted and Willie Sutton scaled the walls. A principal attraction would be the prison’s original cellblock, restored from the existing ruins and reached by a walkway above the prison’s stone walls and razor-wire fences. County Executive Andrew Spano said yesterday that the Empire State Development Corp. should fund the construction of a Sing Sing Historic Prison Museum to attract tourists and inspire development along the Hudson River.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

PRETRIAL HEARING FOR WOMAN ACCUSED OF PAINTING SWASTIKAS

An emotionally-distressed woman alleged to have spray-painted swastikas on more than 20 synagogues, cars, community centers, and houses on a three-day vandalism spree last fall will be in Brooklyn criminal court for pretrail hearings today.

Olga Abramovich, 50, was arrested in October and faces charges of criminal mischief after her former husband, Lev Abramovich, 52, helped police crack a disturbing wave of anti-Semitic graffiti, which had been painted on his car, along with the personal property of his friends and local religious leaders. Ms. Abramovich also allegedly tagged two police cars with swastikas, after she received summonses. According to police, Ms. Abramovich, who is Russian Orthodox, was distraught over her former husband’s marriage to a younger woman who is Jewish.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

STATE SENATOR CALLS FOR TSUNAMI SENSORS IN ATLANTIC

State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn urged the Department of Homeland Security yesterday to allocate special funds for installing tsunami sensors in the Atlantic Ocean. The issue came to Mr. Kruger’s attention by way of a geological observation of Cumbre Vieja – a 6,334-foot volcano in the Canary Islands, which has completed 98% of its cycle before it is expected to collapse. Experts believe this process may send a 75-foot tidal wave into the East Coast. Mr. Kruger sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge yesterday, in which he said that “in light of the recent tragedy and studies conducted by scientific expert, we cannot in good faith continue to harbor the hopeful but unrealistic belief that the unthinkable will never happen here on the East Coast.”

– Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

OFF-DUTY OFFICER WOUNDS SHOOTING SUSPECT

An off-duty detective shot and wounded a man at the Bronx yesterday after he allegedly shot at the detective and two acquaintances following a dispute, police said.

Neither the detective nor the two others were hit in the Claremont Village shooting, police said. The suspect, 20-year-old Michael Robinson, was shot once in the stomach and was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. He is being charged with three counts of attempted murder, among other charges.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun