MANHATTAN

MTA GIVES CABLEVISION A FRIDAY DEADLINE

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked for more information yesterday from Cablevision, the company that owns Madison Square Garden, after it made an 11th-hour bid for the air rights to the West Side rail yards. Cablevision, which opposes the stadium proposed by the Jets for the site, offered the MTA $600 million, trumping the Jets’ bid of $100 million. The chairman of the MTA, Peter Kalikow, asked the Garden’s owners to detail the conditions of their offer on or before the close of business this Friday. Mr. Kalikow has said that the MTA, which faces budget deficits, will take the highest bid for the site despite his personal desire to build the stadium, which would be the centerpiece of the city’s 2012 Olympic bid. The MTA had originally asked for three times what the Jets offered for the site, leading Jets President Jay Cross to propose a binding arbitration process to be led by a former U.S. senator, George Mitchell. Mr. Kalikow responded to that request yesterday, proposing nonbinding arbitration to determine a fair market value for the site.

– Special to the Sun

TWO JURORS IN TERROR TRIAL ASK TO SPEAK TO JUDGE

A month of deliberations in the trial of a Manhattan civil rights lawyer and two others accused of helping terrorists seemed to have taken its toll on jurors yesterday, leading two of them to ask to speak with the judge.

The text of what was said in the two jurors’ separate meetings with U.S. District Judge John Koeltl was sealed. But the proceedings, witnessed by a lawyer for the government and a lawyer for the defense teams, created a buzz in the courtroom.

After the two jurors met with the judge, the three defendants and their lawyers gathered in a corner of the courtroom for a discussion that brought a smile to each defendant. Prosecutors huddled as well. Both sides refused to comment.

Attorney Lynne Stewart, 65, is charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, defrauding the government, and lying to the government while she represented Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life prison sentence. Abdel-Rahman, 67, was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to assassinate Egypt’s president and to blow up New York landmarks.

The government says Ms. Stewart conspired with Arabic interpreter Mohamed Yousry and postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar to spread Abdel-Rahman’s deadly messages to followers in other countries despite American government attempts to seal him off.

After the judge’s meetings yesterday, there was discussion by observers throughout the courtroom about the increased possibility of a mistrial as jurors appeared tired and frustrated by the pace of deliberations, the methods being employed in their efforts, and the attitudes of some of their fellow panel members. Jurors have met only 11 times since deliberations began January 12.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

MTA CHOOSES IBM TO MANAGE ITS COMPUTING

Computing giant IBM will manage computer systems for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the next five years at a cost of $65 million.

From a data center outside Manhattan, IBM will manage the MTA’s computer processing operations, which include handling fare-collection data as well as the massive databases that keep track of subway and bus parts. The computer systems will help manage the MTA’s crew schedules, procurement, contracts, and other tasks. A disaster-recovery site will be established outside New York City.

– Special to the Sun

CITY WANTS TO GRANT MORE POWER TO CONSUMER AFFAIRS DEPT.

The Bloomberg administration wants to give the Department of Consumer Affairs the right to adjudicate violations it issues to businesses that are not licensed by the city.

The city currently is allowed to issue fines, but can only hold hearings for businesses that it licenses, which excludes furniture stores, funeral homes, and others. The commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Gretchen Dykstra, told a City Council committee yesterday that the agency lacked “the effective leverage” to enforce the law and that the new authority would allow the city to better protect consumers.

In fiscal year 2004, there were 1,060 violations issued to business that the city did not have the authority to hold hearings on. Opponents of proposed legislation said the city is already issuing too many violations.

The president of the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, Richard Lipsky, said, “You gotta sell a lot of pineapples if you get a $1,000 fine.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

UPSTATE

SPANO WINS RE-ELECTION TO STATE SENATE WHITE PLAINS – Republican State Senator Nicholas Spano won re-election by 18 votes yesterday, ending the longest legislative election in New York history.

Mr. Spano’s victory over Democratic Westchester County lawmaker Andrea Stewart-Cousins, more than three months after Election Day, leaves just one undecided state race in the nation, a contest for the Kentucky Senate.

“I am floating on air,” Mr. Spano said in a telephone interview. “Clearly this election could have gone either way. I want to thank the 57,073 people who voted for me, and I want to tell the 57,055 who voted for my opponent that I am going to start working immediately to earn their support.”

Mr. Spano said he had spoken to Governor Pataki and would be sworn in this morning in Albany.

– Associated Press

LONG ISLAND

GRAND JURY DISMISSES CASE AGAINST MAN WHO TOLD LAWYER JOKE

A grand jury delivered the punch line for a senior citizen charged with disorderly conduct after telling lawyer jokes outside a Long Island courthouse: charge dismissed. No kidding.

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon said yesterday that a grand jury considered the evidence in the case and voted to dismiss.

On Monday, Harvey Kash, 70, testified before the grand jury that he was expressing his First Amendment rights in sharing a few lawyer jokes with a friend, Carl Lanzisera, 65, as they stood on line waiting to get into the Nassau County courthouse last month. It was alleged the two men had been abusive and caused a disturbance.

“How do you tell when a lawyer is lying?” Mr. Kash had asked Mr. Lanzisera.

“His lips are moving,” they howled in unison.

They say a lawyer farther up in the line told them to “shut up” and reported them to court officers who arrested them.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

BRONX DOCTOR CONVICTED IN DRUG SMUGGLING

A Bronx doctor was convicted yesterday of orchestrating an international smuggling ring that brought kilos of heroin into the country from the Dominican Republic, federal prosecutors said.

Rafael Rodriguez, 49, a native of the Dominican Republic, is expected to receive a 10-year minimum sentence for narcotics conspiracy after an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security uncovered his operation. In a September 2003 sting, investigators used a camera disguised as a hotel alarm clock to catch Rodriguez personally removing 650 grams of heroin from the lining of a courier’s shorts and shoes at a Queens hotel, federal prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, Rodriguez’s illegal business dated back to the early 1990s, when he coordinated the smuggling from his Caribbean home. Rodriguez came to the Bronx in August 2003 to personally oversee his drug distribution ring. Several others, including four witnesses who participated in Rodriguez’s trial, have also been convicted.

– Special to the Sun

15 FIGHTING COCKS, 10 ROOSTERS SEIZED AT BRONX

Fifteen fighting cocks and 10 common roosters were seized after a police officer saw a man carrying one of them outside of a Bronx house, animal protection authorities said yesterday.

The police officer questioned the man, who then led the officer to a basement where the roosters were being kept, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said.

The officer called in the ASPCA because it is illegal to possess a live chicken in New York City, ASPCA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said.

Fifteen birds carried scars typical of cockfighting, he said. Those birds, which were missing their combs and had shaved chests and sharpened spurs, were taken to an ASPCA facility to be euthanized. The other 10 were taken to an animal care center. The ASPCA said it also found syringes, vitamins, and antibiotics, which often are used to treat the cocks after they have been injured in fights.

Cockfighting is illegal but not rare in New York, Mr. Pentangelo said.

“It is disappointing that rooster fighting is still a reality,” he said, “and the ASPCA is making every effort to combat it.”

The ASPCA was investigating the incident, but no arrests had been made.

– Associated Press

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