CITYWIDE

UNION SAYS FDNY ALTERS RECORDS TO ALLOW CUTBACKS

The union that represents city firefighters is charging that the department has rejiggered the formula it uses to calculate medical leave so that it can justify reducing staff on some trucks. The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Stephen Cassidy, alleged yesterday that the FDNY had inflated sick-leave numbers so that they would exceed 7.5% – the marker that allows the commissioner to decrease the number of firefighters to four from five on some engine company trucks.

The commissioner of the Fire Department, Nicholas Scoppetta, denied the allegations. He told the council’s Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice that the department had been using the same calculation since 1988 and that it was simply entering sick-leave information into the computerized database faster because of an electronic lag in keeping up with schedule swaps between firefighters.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

SIX ALLEGED MOBSTERS PLEAD GUILTY IN MAIL-FRAUD CASE

Six reputed mobsters pleaded guilty before jury selection was to begin yesterday in a case alleging that the Gambino crime family placed hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges on unsuspecting consumers’ credit cards and telephone bills. Alleged Gambino captain Salvatore Locascio, made member Richard Martino, and four mob associates pleaded guilty to charges including money laundering and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. They face sentences ranging from less than two years to as much as a decade in prison.

The defendants agreed to forfeit millions of dollars in proceeds from the scheme. Prosecutors said the defendants helped set up shell corporations that advertised free services such as psychic readings, phone sex, and horoscopes. But calling the numbers triggered unauthorized monthly charges on customers’ phone bills, eventually grossing more than $420 million for the Gambino members and their associates, prosecutors said.

– Associated Press

DIRECTOR NAMED TO LOWER MANHATTAN CONSTRUCTION CENTER

Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg announced the appointment yesterday of Charles Maikish as executive director of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, where he will be charged with keeping downtown rebuilding projects on schedule and minimizing the impact on local businesses and residents.

Mr. Maikish, a lawyer and engineer, formerly served as director of the world trade department of the Port Authority, where he spearheaded the rebuilding of the World Trade Center following the 1993 bombing. He is currently executive vice president of global real estate business services for J.P. Morgan Chase.

– Associated Press

UNION OFFICIAL INDICTED AFTER ILLEGAL REAL ESTATE DEAL

After he brokered an illegal real-estate deal for two family members, a union official was indicted on mail fraud charges in Manhattan federal court yesterday, federal prosecutors said. Vincent Callaghan, 75, the fourth-generation business representative for Local 798, a professional trade union for the workers that create the makeup and hair behind Broadway’s blockbusters, faced charges yesterday that he used the U.S. Postal Service to defraud his employer. Entrusted with running the union’s business affairs, including its Midtown building at 152 W. 24th St., Mr. Callaghan falsified state documents in order convert parts of the property into condominiums and sell them to his family at bargain-basement prices, prosecutors said.

– Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

PATAKI APPROVAL RATING DROPS TO NEW LOW

A new poll shows that fewer than half of New Yorkers approve of the way Governor Pataki is doing his job, the lowest level of support since his first year in office.

The survey, conducted by the New York Times, also shows Eliot Spitzer, who plans to challenge Mr. Pataki for his post in 2006, with a favorable rating of 59%. If an election were held now, voters polled said Mr. Spitzer would win with 49% of the vote versus Mr. Pataki’s 34%. Of those surveyed, 43% approve of the job Mr. Pataki is doing. Since 2002, this represents a decline of 19 points. The drop was a severe one: Mr. Pataki’s approval rating was about 60% in every year since 1995, when it hit a low at 33%.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PATAKI’S OFFICE ACCUSED OF ABUSING SUBSIDIES

The Pataki administration has doled out millions in taxpayer subsidies to a company that outsources New York jobs, a Democratic assemblyman claimed yesterday.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said Sutherland Global Services, an outsourcing company with operations in Rochester and Syracuse, has received benefits through the state Empire Zone program of at least $2 million and possibly worth as much as $10 million.

Mr. Brodsky is chairman of the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions. He’s spent the last 18 months in that capacity investigating the state Empire Zone program, which uses tax breaks and other incentives to trigger and maintain economic development. The assemblyman said Sutherland has outsourced jobs from companies in the state such as General Electric, Xerox, and Pitney Bowes. He could not, however, provide an exact number.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

COMMISSION RECOMMENDS REMOVAL OF CITY JUDGE

A state commission has recommended the removal of a New York City judge for awarding millions of dollars in “overly generous” fees to a friend.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct, in a decision made public yesterday, said Kings County Surrogate Michael Feinberg should be removed from the bench. The commission said it found Mr. Feinberg awarded “excessive and overly generous” fees to Louis R. Rosenthal, a longtime friend whom Mr. Feinberg appointed counsel to the public administrator of King’s County. From January 1997 to May 2002,Mr.Rosenthal received more than $2 million in excessive fees despite never filing any affidavit of legal services that would have supported the fee requests, the commission said.

– Associated Press

H.S. GRADUATION RATE IS LOWER THAN NATIONAL AVERAGE

Sixty-four percent of New York’s high school Class of 2002 graduated in four years and just 32% of the class left high school qualified to apply to college, according to a study to be released today. By comparison, the study by the conservative Manhattan Institute said the national graduation rate was 71% and 34% of all students graduated with qualifications for college. But the study by the institute also found some of New York’s rates improved since 1991. Researchers said the gains are likely the result of higher standards, increased accountability of schools, and state requirements that students take more challenging courses “without pushing those students to drop out.”

– Associated Press

UPSTATE

SUSPECT IN MALL SHOOTING HAD COLUMBINE FASCINATION

A man who opened fire in a crowded shopping mall with an assault weapon, wounding two, seemed to have a “lurid fascination” with the Columbine High School shooting, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Robert Bonelli Jr., 25, is accused of wounding two people and sending shoppers scurrying for safety on Sunday after shooting his way into the Hudson Valley Mall, then giving up when he ran out of ammunition.Police searching the suspect’s room in nearby Saugerties that night found a cache of “Columbine memorabilia,” Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams told the Associated Press.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

BOY PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT

A 15-year-old boy who was with the man charged in the fatal Manhattan shooting of actress Nicole duFresne pleaded guilty to hitting a 20-year-old man earlier that night, authorities said.

The boy, identified as Kashawn B., entered the plea to second-degree assault in Family Court yesterday, law department Deputy Chief Elizabeth Brady said in a statement.

He was to be held at a juvenile detention facility until his February 24 sentencing. Kashawn was with Rudy Fleming, 19, and two other teenagers who allegedly approached the 20-year-old man on the Lower East Side at about 1:45 a.m. on January 27, displayed a gun, and repeatedly hit him while trying to take his leather jacket, Ms. Brady said.

Kashawn was not charged in duFresne’s death. Mr. Fleming, the alleged shooter, and the two other teens have been charged with murder and robbery.

– Associated Press

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