MANHATTAN

RATHER IS PLEASED PROBE FOUND NO BIAS; PUTIN WEIGHS IN

CBS’s ex-anchor, Dan Rather, admitted to the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta that he was pleased that a panel’s investigation of his broadcast on President Bush’s National Guard service could not prove political bias, nor that the documents were fake, a fact Mr. Rather said should have made newspaper headlines.

Mr. Rather, speaking publicly for the first time since the panel released its report, also said he stands by his colleagues’ work and their decision to air the critical broadcast.

“I am not arguing with the panel – they are honorable people,” Mr. Rather is quoted as saying in an article Mr. Auletta wrote for this week’s issue of the magazine. “But I worked with all these people for a long while, and neither in my mind nor my heart am I not going to give them up.”

Mary Mapes, one of the broadcast’s producers, was fired after the release of the panel’s report. Three others associated with the broadcast were asked to resign by CBS’s co-chairman, Leslie Moonves.

Mr. Rather’s resignation has prompted a deluge of press criticism, perhaps the most provocative coming last week during President Bush’s European tour.

According to a report in Time Magazine, Russian President Vladimir Putin chided Mr. Bush for CBS’s actions, implying that the White House had been involved with the journalist’s loss of employment.

When Mr. Bush launched into a discussion about the Kremlin’s crackdown on journalistic freedoms, stating that a free press is necessary for democracies, Mr. Putin shot back by asking why, in a country like America where press freedom is said to be highly valued, did the reporters at CBS lose their jobs.

– Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

THRUWAY AGENCY FINDS MILLIONS IN UNPAID FINES, TOLLS

The New York State Thruway has accrued $19.9 million in unpaid fines and $3.4 million in unpaid tolls from more than 400,000 motorists using E-ZPass, according to a report published by the Times-Union of Albany.

The agency collects more than $430 million a year in tolls. The report calculated the revenue lost since 2000. In response to the report, Thruway officials said they would hire a company to help collect the tolls and fees.

The top 10 toll evaders – as the paper put it – consist entirely of commercial customers such as trucking companies. It was unclear how many of the unpaid tolls were justified and how many are the result of faulty equipment used to track collection.

A Thruway spokesman told the paper that $3.4 million in uncollected tolls, and even the $19.9 million in outstanding fees, represents a tiny fraction of overall revenue for the road system over the past five years.

– Special to the Sun

CASH-ADVANCE COMPANIES AGREE TO REFORM PRACTICES

Nine companies that specialize in providing cash advances to personal injury plaintiffs have agreed to reform their practices under a deal with New York State to be announced today.

The compact comes eight months after New Jersey-based Cambridge Management Group LLC agreed to the industry’s first state-negotiated cash advance reforms with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office.

The companies specialize in giving cash advances, usually between $1,000 to $7,000, to clients with pending personal injury claims or lawsuits. The clients are often jobless and unable to secure bank loans for living expenses while their litigation take a year or more to settle.

In exchange, the companies obtain the right to receive a percentage of the claim proceeds, an amount that is usually greater than the advance. Since the advance is not considered a loan under state law, consumers pay nothing if they get no cash award from the courts or in a settlement with an insurance company or other defendant.

The nine cash advance firms, which did not admit wrongdoing under the agreement, will pay a total $45,000 in costs to the state.

New York officials had raised concerns that some cash advance arrangements were confusing to consumers. As a result, the firms agreed to provide details of the cash advance including itemization of fees and the annualized financing rate; allow a five-day window for consumers to cancel the contract without penalty; require a notarized acknowledgment by the consumer’s attorney that the transaction was explained, and write contracts in the same language in which the negotiations were conducted.

– Associated Press