CITYWIDE

MAYOR ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF MARRIOT AT BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled an enormous expansion of the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, a $77 million project that will add 24 stories to the existing hotel and nearly double the number of its rooms. A two-level pedestrian bridge will link the expansion to the existing hotel. Construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2006 and, the mayor said, the project will create 600 construction jobs, more than 100 permanent jobs, and will generate millions in new tax revenue. Designated “Marriott Hotel of the Year” two years in a row from 2000 to 2001, the Brooklyn Marriott was rated higher than any of the 300 full-service hotels in the chain, according to the Marriott’s own figures. The additional sleeping rooms will allow the Brooklyn hotel to accommodate more group and convention business, Mr. Bloomberg said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

KERIK ATTENDS INAUGURATION

Amid the horns and hoopla of the inaugural, Bernard Kerik came to the nation’s capital quietly yesterday, a month after his nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security collapsed under scrutiny. Mr. Kerik, a vociferous backer of President Bush’s re-election campaign, praised Mr. Bush as he and his wife left a parade-watching party hosted by his former boss, Rudolph Giuliani.

“We came down to attend the inaugural,” Mr. Kerik said. “We had a great day. It’s a real honor to be here.” The party for some 150 people was put together by Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm run by the former New York mayor. Mr. Kerik had been an executive at the firm before his nomination to the homeland security post sparked a slew of personal and ethical questions.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

NONMUSICAL PLAY TICKETS TO BE SOLD IN SEPARATE TKTS LINE

In an effort to boost ticket sales for nonmusical plays, the TKTS discount ticket booth in Times Square now has a play-only line.

“We thought it would be great to highlight the straight plays,” David LeShay, a spokesman for the Theatre Development Fund, the nonprofit organization that runs the ticket booth, said yesterday. “We’re trying it out and seeing how it goes.”

Tickets to both Broadway and off-Broadway nonmusical plays will be sold at the play-only line, while tickets for both plays and musicals will continue to be sold at the other lines. The TKTS booth at South Street Seaport, where lines are generally shorter, will not be affected. The TKTS booths sell same-day discount tickets to Broadway, off-Broadway, music, and dance productions.

– Associated Press

IN POLL, MAJORITY OF VOTERS OPPOSE WEST SIDE STADIUM

Mayor Bloomberg may be gaining ground in his quest for re-election, but voters remain opposed to one of his pet projects: a $1.4 billion stadium to host the New York Jets and attract the 2012 Olympics.

More than half – 58% – of New York City voters don’t want the stadium, while 34% are in favor, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. The new statistics were released yesterday, a day after results from the same survey showed Mr. Bloomberg in a statistical tie with a former Bronx president, Fernando Ferrer, a Democratic challenger.

Some respondents, 26%, even said the mayor’s support of the plan would dissuade them from voting for his re-election in November, though 69% said it wouldn’t make a difference. Fifty-three percent said they would support the project if it were true that the stadium would generate enough income to repay the money the city and state would borrow to help build it. A vice president for the Jets, Matthew Higgins, emphasized that finding.

“The poll shows New Yorkers support the project so long as it pays for itself, which even the independent budget office says it will,” Mr. Higgins said.

– Associated Press

QUEENS

BODYGUARD OF MICHAEL MOORE ARRESTED

A bodyguard who has protected outspoken moviemaker and gun-control advocate Michael Moore was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport for carrying a pistol without a New York license, authorities said yesterday.

Patrick Burk, 34, was awaiting arraignment in Queens on a felony charge of criminal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors did not have the name of his attorney. A spokesman for Mr. Moore, Mark Benoit, said the filmmaker “wasn’t there and had nothing do with this.”

Mr. Burk was questioned by Port Authority police Wednesday night after he notified a United Airlines ticket agent that he wanted to carry his weapon – unloaded and in a bag – on a flight to Los Angeles, said a Port Authority spokesman, Tony Ciavolella.

The bodyguard, who works for the California-based security firm Gavin de Becker & Associates, told police he had traveled to New York with Mr. Moore earlier this month, Mr. Ciavolella said. He produced licenses for his Mauser handgun from California and Florida but not New York, which prompted his arrest.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

PATAKI HIRES SECOND AIDE FROM MILLS CAMPAIGN

Governor Pataki has found a high-paying job for another veteran of Howard Mills’s hugely unsuccessful Senate campaign against Senator Schumer, the Democratic incumbent.

Caroline Quartararo, who served as the campaign’s communications director, has been named executive deputy director of the state Consumer Protection Board, a $100,000-a-year job, officials said yesterday.

On December 30, Mr. Pataki announced he would nominate Mr. Mills, the state Assembly’s former deputy minority leader, to become state insurance superintendent, a post that pays $127,000 a year. And, in early January, the Pataki-controlled Republican State Committee announced that the Mills campaign’s deputy communications director, John Durso, was the new political director for the state GOP. Mr. Mills had come to the rescue of state GOP leaders in February when he said he would take on Mr. Schumer, who had a whopping $25 million in his campaign bank account and impressive poll numbers. Other big-name New York Republicans refused to challenge the Democratic incumbent.

In November, Mr. Schumer won a second Senate term with 71% of the vote while Mr. Mills, his campaign hampered by lack of money, got just 24%.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE SAY SUBWAY ATTACK MAY BE BIAS-RELATED

An unprovoked subway attack last night left a young woman slightly injured and police have pinpointed bias as a possible motive, detectives said yesterday.

As she waited for an uptown 4 or 5 train at the 59th Street subway station, a 21-year-old white woman was approached by a 25-year-old black man. Police could not provide specific details of their encounter, but the man allegedly punched the woman in the head as he shouted anti-white slurs at her. The man quickly fled the scene, and the woman was later taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment.

This is the second possible bias attack so far this year, said police sources.

– Special to the Sun