STATEWIDE

SPITZER REPORTS RAISING $7.9M FOR 2006

The state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, reported yesterday that, thanks in part to an Eagle and an actor, he has $7.9 million in the bank for his 2006 run for governor, almost twice what Governor Pataki had four years ago as he geared up to run for a third term.

Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, filed a required report with the state Board of Elections, saying his “Spitzer 2006” campaign committee had raised $3.4 million over the past six months.

Contributors included Don Henley, a founder of the music group the Eagles, who gave $10,000, and the actor Alec Baldwin, who gave $1,000.

Mr. Pataki, who has not yet said if he will seek a fourth term in 2006, had just more than $2.5 million in his campaign account as of mid-July, and his filing yesterday showed he had even less in the bank now – just $2.35 million. While Mr. Pataki raised almost $567,000 in the past six months, his campaign committee spent $635,000 during that same period and sent $100,000 to the Republican State Committee.

The governor is eyeing a possible run for the White House in 2008.

In January 2001, the year before Mr. Pataki successfully won his third term, his campaign committee had reported about $4.1 million on hand.

While Mr. Spitzer would seem to have a distinct money advantage, the governor has demonstrated the ability to raise big money in a hurry. Mr. Pataki raised more than $10 million for President Bush’s re-election campaign last year. And, in 2002, the governor wound up spending $45 million to win a third term.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

PROBE OF FERRY CRASH SHOWS CONTRADICTIONS ON SAFETY RULE

A supervisor’s claims that the city vigorously enforced a key safety rule was undercut by his own captains, according to new documents released yesterday by federal officials investigating the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash that killed 11 people.

Captain Patrick Ryan, the city’s director of ferries, insisted repeatedly in an interview with investigators days after the crash that rules clearly required two pilots to be in a ferry’s pilot house when docking, barring some unforseen emergency.

The National Transportation Safety Board released transcripts of dozens of interviews about the October 15, 2003, crash of the Andrew J. Barberi.

The investigation has centered on why the ferry’s assistant captain, Richard Smith, was alone in the wheelhouse when he apparently collapsed at the controls, causing the Barberi to slam into a maintenance pier.

Smith pleaded guilty in August to 11 counts of manslaughter for his part in the accident.

– Associated Press

MAYORAL CANDIDATES COLLECTIVELY RAISE $3M IN SIX MONTHS

The five leading Democratic mayoral candidates picked up their fund-raising pace during the past six months, bagging more than $3 million, as City Council Speaker Gifford Miller continued to lead the pack.

Mr. Miller raised $996,000 from last July to early this month and has collected a total of $4.25 million for his prospective campaign. Yesterday was the deadline for candidates to submit fund-raising documents with the Campaign Finance Board for the period covering July 12, 2004, to January 11, 2005.

Since the most prominent Democratic candidates – Mr. Miller, City Councilman Charles Barron, the former Bronx president Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan’s borough president C. Virginia Fields, and Rep. Anthony Weiner – are enrolled in the city’s voluntary campaign finance system, each faces a spending cap of $5.7 million during the Democratic primary.

The winner in the Democratic primary likely will have the spending cap lifted for the general election, however, because he or she probably will face Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman who has refused to enroll in the campaign finance system.

– Associated Press

COMMITTEE PROPOSES PANEL TO REVIEW CHILD DEATHS

The City Council’s health committee held a hearing yesterday on proposed legislation to create a special panel to review the death of every child who dies in the city. Supporters say the current system, under which only one city agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, tracks deaths is not enough. The new advisory team would consist of representatives from several agencies and outside advocacy groups.

Council Member Christine Quinn said the proposed “comprehensive child fatality review team” would help detect patterns and enhance child safety. “Without such an approach, we cannot adequately prevent children’s deaths.”

According to the city, 1,300 children died in 2003, including 300 whose causes of death were considered suspicious.

The Bloomberg administration says, however, that a system for reviewing deaths is already in place. The deputy commissioner at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Lorna Thorpe, told the committee yesterday that creating a new entity would be “largely redundant,” and that a targeted approach was more effective for flagging problems.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

KERIK TO ATTEND PRESIDENT’S INAUGURATION

One-time New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik will attend the inauguration of President Bush, a spokesman for Mr. Kerik said yesterday.

Mr. Kerik, who in December withdrew his nomination to become Mr. Bush’s next secretary of homeland security, had been invited to the Thursday inauguration and a private party being thrown by his old boss, Rudolph Giuliani. Mr. Kerik’s spokesman, Robert Leonard, said Mr. Kerik and his wife will travel to Washington for the ceremony and related parties.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD WORKERS TO OPEN RESTAURANT

Three and a half years after the terrorist attack that killed 73 restaurant workers at Windows on the World, a group of survivors announced yesterday that they’ve signed a lease for the city’s first employee-run restaurant – a 20-minute walk from ground zero.

The surviving workers – 34 immigrants and one American-born partner – call their new restaurant Colors, set to open in Greenwich Village “as soon as possible,” said Mamdouh Fekkak, a Moroccan-born waiter.

“The architect is working day and night. We’re so happy!” he added.

Famed for its spectacular views atop the 106th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower, Windows on the World was decimated on September 11, 2001.

“It’s been so hard after 9/11, with some people still depressed after years of trying to find work – odd jobs or a shift in a restaurant here and there,” said Mr. Fekkak, who is 43 and supports two young children while running a catering cooperative that is raising money for the new venture.

The surviving Windows workers – from waiters, cooks, and food runners, to busboys and dishwashers – have been meeting in the tiny Manhattan office of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, a nonprofit cooperative.

Each worker will share profits at Colors, whose menu will feature American cuisine, with changing specials from each of the 20 countries its owners represent. Mr. Fekkak said he was dreaming of couscous “or maybe a good tagine,” a slow cooked, spicy Moroccan stew including meat, vegetables, olives, and lemons.

– Associated Press

LOOTED ARTIFACTS RETURNED TO IRAQIS

The odyssey of three thimble-size artifacts – looted from a Baghdad museum, sold on the black market for $200, seized from a scholar-turned-smuggler – ended yesterday when they were returned to the Iraqi government. An assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Garcia, turned over the cylindrical Mesopotamian seals to Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Samir al-Sumaidaie at a news conference in Manhattan.

The relics from the Akkadian period, dating to 2340-2180 B.C.E., are considered irreplaceable treasures in Iraq, Mr. al-Sumaidaie said.

“They are completely priceless,” he told reporters. “They are part of our history.” Nearly 15,000 items were swiped from the Iraqi National Museum after the American invasion began, Mr. al-Sumaidaie said. Roughly half of those items have been located, sometimes with the help of a special team of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents dispatched to Iraq.

– Associated Press