CITYWIDE

CITY SEARCHES FOR 584 NEW YORKERS WHO ARE OWED MONEY

Calling all New Yorkers! The city may owe you money. The Department of Finance said it owes $13 million to 584 New Yorkers but cannot locate them. The money comes from court proceedings or bail actions. Checks the department sent out months ago were returned with no forwarding addresses. If the money remains unclaimed by March 31, it will be turned over to the New York State comptroller’s office. The agency will post the names of those to which it owes money on its Web site: www.nyc.gov/finance.

State law requires the department to hold unclaimed money for five years. In the last year, the department sent approximately 12,000 checks for a total payout of $75 million. Of those checks, 584 came back as returned mail.

– Special to the Sun

DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSIONER TRAVELS TO SPANISH SUMMIT

The deputy commissioner of intelligence for the New York Police Department, David Cohen, will travel to Madrid, Spain, next week for a summit on Democracy, Terrorism, and Security. The secretary general of the United Nations is also expected to attend the conference, which is scheduled for March 8 to 11 and convened by a group of former elected officials knows as the Club de Madrid.

“My interest is knowing what my colleagues overseas are doing,” Mr. Cohen said yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said terror groups are changing quickly and that security agencies need to be “quicker than the enemy.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MOSKOWITZ TO HOLD HEARING ON GIFTED PROGRAMS

The chairwoman of the City Council’s Committee on Education, Eva Moskowitz, said she plans to ask some tough questions at a council hearing today about gifted and talented education programs.

The Department of Education created a think tank last year to talk about expanding educational opportunities for gifted and talented public school students. When critics raised questions in December about the goals of the panel, the chancellor’s press secretary, Jerry Russo, said the group would discuss the issues and seek input before making recommendations to the chancellor this year.

Two weeks ago, before the panel issued its recommendations, the deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, Carmen Farina, announced a new policy for gifted and talented education including the self-contained classroom model and the school-wide enrichment model. A member of the think tank, Dona Matthews, said the panelist weren’t upset by Ms. Farina’s announcement. Ms. Matthews said the panel was still planning on making recommendations this spring, which she hopes will help determine the details of the policy. A spokeswoman for the education department, Michele McManus Higgins, said the department was under no obligation to wait for formal recommendations before announcing its plan.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

CLINTON ALLIES INSTALLED AT STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The head of New York’s state Democratic Party announced staff changes yesterday, which moved allies of Senator Clinton into influential positions. A move by Clinton allies to exert more influence on state party affairs had been expected as she gears up for a re-election bid next year that many Democrats and Republicans believe the former first lady will use as a stepping-stone to a 2008 run for the White House.

Among other things, state Democratic Chairman Herman Farrell said top Clinton advisers Howard Wolfson and Gigi Georges would be in charge of the state party’s communications and strategic planning. Mr. Wolfson and Ms. Georges are top officials in the Glover Park Group, a consulting firm founded by former top aides to President Clinton. Mr. Farrell also announced that the state Democratic Committee’s political director, Rodney Capel, was being promoted to executive director. Mr. Capel is a son of top Clinton ally Rep. Charles Rangel’s chief of staff, Jim Capel. The younger Mr. Capel replaces Chung Seto, who has been the party’s executive director since April 2001, in the job of managing the state party’s day-today operations.

– Associated Press

GOVERNOR, LEGISLATORS AGREE ON EXTRA REVENUE

Governor and legislative leaders agreed yesterday the state will bring in $595 million more in revenues than the executive budget projected in January. The agreement with Senate and Assembly leaders of both parties and Mr. Pataki met a deadline the officials set as part of reforming the state budget process. The revenue numbers – a critical and often contentious element of state budget negotiations – will be part of budget talks today. The leaders plan another session open to the public to proceed in passing what is expected to be a $105 billion budget by the April 1 deadline.

The Democrat-led Assembly projected yesterday that the state would receive $904 million more in revenues, while the Republican-led Senate projected a $531 million increase in revenues over Mr. Pataki’s proposed budget.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

TEENAGER BEAT MAN TO DEATH, POLICE SAY

A teenager looking for a fight beat a Queens man to death in an unprovoked attack late last night, police said. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for Jagat Balram, police said. As the 52-year-old walked back to his Jamaica, Queens, home, Antonio Roque, 18, approached him and tried provoke a fight, police said. That evening, Mr. Roque had been out in the neighborhood harassing anyone he encountered on the street, several witnesses had told police. Without provocation, the teenager attacked Balram and knocked him to the ground and then continued to kick him in the face and head, police said. Balram was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he later died.

– Special to the Sun

THIEF BREAKS THROUGH WALL, STEALS $50,000

A thief who broke into a popular deli over the weekend took more than $50,000 in cash, police said.

The thief, determined to break into Lenny’s Gourmet Deli at 489 Columbus Ave. on Saturday night, forced his way into the basement of an adjoining building through a street-level construction site. The man then broke through the wall separating the basements of the two businesses, police said. Once inside Lenny’s, the thief pried open a small safe, which contained more than $30,000, police said. He also pried open an ATM inside the deli upstairs for another $20,000.

– Special to the Sun

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY IN ACCIDENTAL FIRE DEATH

A Bronx woman practicing Santeria pleaded guilty to negligent murder charges yesterday for accidentally setting her client on fire during a ritual cleansing last year, prosecutors said.

The woman, Mildred Sanchez, 62, pleaded guilty to killing her client, Minerva Perez, 32, who came to her Bronx apartment in February of last year. Perez was soaking in rum and bath of Florida water when the flammable liquid concoction ignited after touching a candle.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

Please send story tips to crimetips@nysun.com, or call 212-619-2262.