CITYWIDE

NY-PRESBYTERIAN TO PARTNER WITH SOUTH KOREAN HOSPITAL

New York-Presbyterian Hospital, along with the Columbia University and Cornell University medical schools, reached an affiliation agreement with a South Korean teaching hospital that will lead to an exchange of medical research and training between the two institutions. The agreement will bring Korean residents and research fellows from Hallym University Medical Center in Seoul to both New York medical schools in hopes to better service the Korean community in the area. Doctors from the three American institutions have already begun traveling to Korea to provide medical expertise to Hallym University, the president and chief executive officer of The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Herbert Pardes, said. The hospital, which is the largest private employer in the city, also has similar agreements with a hospital in Turkey, as well as the American University in Paris. In 2001, Cornell University established the Weill Medical College in Qatar, becoming the first American university to establish a medical school branch in the region.

– Special to the Sun

COUNCIL MEMBERS DEMAND BETTER BUSING FOR STUDENTS

City Council Members today are demanding better busing for special education students. Council members Eva Moskowitz, who heads the Committee on Education, and John Liu, who heads the transportation committee, are raising demands after an accident Friday, in which a school bus carrying eight special education students burst into flames. Children with significant special needs ride to school on special buses. Often, the rides take up to two hours, and students often arrive late after long, circuitous rides. The council members also charge that bus drivers and chaperones don’t always have the training they would need to properly care for the students. The council members will urge the Department of Education and the Department of Transportation to improve service today at a City Hall press conference.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PICKELL PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING FROM CULINARY FOUNDATION

The former president of a culinary charity pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing from the foundation to pay his own credit card debt and forging documents for cash, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said. Leonard F. Pickell Jr. pleaded guilty to grand larceny, a Class C felony, in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. Mr. Spitzer said Pickell admitted writing foundation checks to cover his personal credit card debt, taking petty cash, and forging documents to claim reimbursement from the nonprofit foundation named after the late chef and author, James Beard. The foundation sponsors forums on food, wine, and hospitality as well as scholarships for culinary arts students. Pickell will be sentenced March 23 in New York City. He faces a maximum of five to 15 years in state prison. His attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

STATE SENATE PASSES REFORMS

The New York State Senate yesterday passed a list of reforms and rules changes that included a ban on empty-seat voting, a practice that allowed legislators to cast votes on important legislation without participating in debate or being present for the roll call. The reforms, which represent a rare bipartisan achievement in the Republican led Senate, also expand the use of conference committees and broaden statewide access to televised Senate sessions. They come at a time of increased public scrutiny over the legislative process in Albany, which was referred to in a 2004 report by the New York University-based Brennan Center for Justice as America’s “most dysfunctional.” Passage of the reform package was not without controversy. Prior to the vote, Senate Speaker Joe Bruno, an upstate Republican, convened a press conference with Senate Minority Leader David Paterson to highlight the effort’s bipartisan nature. Yet Mr. Paterson, a Democrat who represents parts of Harlem, ended up voting against the package as a whole. An aide to the senator said Mr. Paterson agreed with changing the empty-seat rule but disagreed with the other elements of the package. According to the new rules, members of the Senate are required to be in their seats to vote on bills that are placed on the “controversial” calendar, or those that that require debate.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

ROBERT KENNEDY DECIDES NOT TO RUN FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had recently been considering a run for the office of state attorney general, said he has decided against it, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night. Mr. Kennedy, son of a one-time senator from New York, said he decided against entering the race because a successful run would leave too little time with his wife and six children. Mr. Kennedy told the newspaper his decision was unrelated to the fact that his brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo, has also expressed interest in the post. Mr. Cuomo is among several candidates mentioned as possible replacements for Eliot Spitzer, who had announced he will run for governor.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

WESTCHESTER

DEVELOPER TO BUILD MONUMENT FOR JEWISH CEMETERY

WHITE PLAINS – A real estate developer agreed yesterday to erect a monument near the site of a former Jewish cemetery that was paved over for big-box stores alongside the state Thruway. The developer, Morris Industrial Builders, is also to research the history of the people who were buried there before it arranged to have them disinterred and reburied in Israel. The agreements were part of a $100,000 settlement of a case brought against Morris by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who claimed last year that more than 100 children may have been left behind when the bodies were disinterred in 1989 to make way for Costco Wholesale Corp., Home Depot Inc., and Stew Leonard’s stores in Yonkers. A lawyer for the developer said no bodies were left behind. The case began when the People of Righteousness, a declining Jewish congregation with only five elderly members, agreed to give up the cemetery land for development without receiving any payment if Morris would arrange a reburial in Israel. The congregation had been unable to protect its cemetery against vandalism and overgrowth.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

MOTIVE UNCLEAR IN FATAL MOTEL STABBING

The motive is unclear in a fatal stabbing at a Queens Econo Lodge motel, say investigators, who have charged a prostitute in the death of a young accountant. The accountant, Avinash Rookhum, was found by motel maids with five knife wounds to his neck, face and body. The murder weapon was a Japanese martial arts-style knife found later by detectives in the motel dumpster, and its alleged owner, Qwanyel Cullins, a 21-year-old believed by authorities to be a prostitute, has been charged with Rookhum’s murder. Yesterday, authorities released an initial statement Ms. Cullins made to detectives claiming the murder was made in self-defense. In the statement, Ms. Cullins said she met Rookhum, 26, at a subway station near the hotel, which was located near his apartment. It was not the first time the two had met. According to law enforcement sources, Rookhum had met Ms. Cullins at the motel on two separate occasions. They first met after he picked her up in his car on Queens Boulevard, sources said. According to the statement, Ms. Cullins claims Rookhum began to assault her. She then struck him with the blunt end of her knife, then proceeded to stab him repeatedly. It does not appear the crime was sex related; detectives found Rookhum clothed, law enforcement sources said. Rookhum worked for the Midtown nonprofit Covenant House. The chief financial officer at the Covenant House, Bob Cardany, said Rookhum had recently submitted his application to apply to become a CPA. “I would be shocked to think that [Rookhum] would be the aggressor in this,” Mr. Cardany said. “He was a very even tempered, helpful, wonderful person. I would be shocked to think that he could hurt anybody.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

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