REGION

GIANTS STADIUM PLAN COULD BE OFF

The New York Giants’ plans to build a new $750 million football stadium at the Meadowlands were thrown for a major loss when the state included two proposals that altered a deal the NFL team felt was reached three weeks ago.

“There is always a chance, but I am not very optimistic it will happen,” the Giants executive vice president, John Mara, said yesterday after the team met with reporters for about an hour to explain what went wrong. Mr. Mara said that only a miracle would allow the team to build the new stadium for the 2008 season, adding the team’s co-owners probably would not want to build a new stadium after that because of escalating construction costs. The team is paying the bill on the new stadium.

Mr. Mara added that the Giants would now make the state honor its lease and begin “state of the art” updates to the current stadium. He added that the team would listen to any overtures, including a possible offer by the Jets to be a partner in a proposed new stadium on New York City’s West Side.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

MORE STUDENTS PASS REGENTS EXAM, GRADUATE

More students in New York State are taking and passing the Regents exams and graduating from high school, and more schools are making adequate yearly progress, according to statewide data released yesterday.

But state education department officials said that the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and white students persists. Eighty-one percent of white students who entered high school in 2000 graduated last June, while only 52% of Hispanic students and 45.4% of black students had graduated within four years.

“The gap has to close,” the state Education Commissioner, Richard Mills, said. “The minority four-year graduation rates are too low, unacceptably low.”

In a statement, the chancellor of the city schools, Joel Klein, called the new data “encouraging,” although he said, “there is plenty more work to do to increase all these rates.” He said the 54.3% city graduation rate cited in the report is the “highest rate and largest two-year increase since we began tracking in 1986.” He said he’s also proud of the narrowing achievement gap and the fact that more city schools achieved adequate yearly progress.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL MEMBERS WANT FUNDS RESTORED FOR SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

More than two dozen City Council members gathered at City Hall yesterday, calling on Mayor Bloomberg to restore $1.3 billion they say was cut from the schools capital budget. The lawmakers said they would vote down any budget that takes away money from school construction projects.

“There is no sixth year in a five-year plan, nor did the council ever agree to extend the five-year capital plan another year,” a letter sent to the mayor by a majority of council members read. “We cannot claim that education is our top priority and yet be willing to move critical projects and repairs of the city’s schools to a supposed sixth year of a five-year capital plan. Such a proposed action would constitute a cut or a complete elimination of these projects.”

The council speaker, Gifford Miller, said the council is willing to work with the mayor to find other projects that can be cut instead of school construction.

A spokesman for the mayor, Jordan Barowitz, said both the council’s proposed school construction plan and the mayor’s approved plan relied on money from Albany that was expected as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.

“Albany has failed to deliver this money, so it has had to come out of the plan,” he said. “In his rush to the microphones during an election year, Gifford either forgot about his own plan, or is attempting to mislead people about the mayor. Now he wants to blow up the city’s budget, which would halt all school construction and cause devastating cuts to city services to further his mayoral ambitions.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BACKS STADIUM PLAN

The chairman of the City Council’s Environmental Protection Committee, James Gennaro, said yesterday that he supports the proposed West Side stadium Mayor Bloomberg wants built. Mr. Gennaro said the plan by the Jets to erect an environmentally friendly facility should be commended, not criticized. The Jets unveiled a design a few weeks ago that would be more energy-efficient than its previous design, which featured wind turbines. The plan also calls for waterless urinals in the bathrooms and the reuse of 50% of rainwater collected from the facility’s roof.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

’60 MINUTES’ STAFF MEMBER SUES FOR AGE DISCRIMINATION

A veteran “60 Minutes” staffer sued CBS yesterday for alleged age discrimination and defamation, charging that the network used the flawed report on President Bush’s National Guard service as an excuse to try to ease her out.

Esther Kartiganer, 67, filed the lawsuit on the last day that Dan Rather, the newsman who presented the Bush report, appeared as anchor of the CBS evening news after 24 years. Mr. Rather, 73, will continue as a full-time “60 Minutes” reporter. Ms. Kartiganer said in court papers that her defamation claim is based on a statement by Leslie Moonves, CBS chairman and chief executive officer, on the network’s Web site January 10. In that statement, Mr. Moonves said Ms. Kartiganer had “abnegated her assigned function” and “CBS News is the worse for it.” Mr. Moonves made his statement on the same day that an independent panel issued its report on the Bush report.

– Associated Press