CITYWIDE

LATIN IDOL CONTEST SHOW COMING TO BIG APPLE

The Latin version of “American Idol” is coming to New York. Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of a bilingual music talent show yesterday called the Nueva Estrella Awards. Auditions for the production will be open to singers between the ages of 16 and 29 who can perform in both Spanish and English. The winner will be picked by a panel of celebrity judges during a final televised round to be aired on WCBS-2 later this year. Like the “American Idol winners, the winner also will be awarded a record deal with Sony BMG.

Mr. Bloomberg, who is heavily courting the Hispanic vote in his quest to win a second term in office, provided some of the details in Spanish yesterday. The idea for the production came from his Latin Media and Entertainment Commission, a panel he created in 2003 and announced with great enthusiasm while sharing the spotlight in City Hall’s Blue Room with pop singer Jennifer Lopez, whom he named honorary chairwoman of the commission.

Auditions for the Nueva Estrella – or New Star – Awards will be held on April 3 and April 10 at the China Club in Manhattan. Officials on hand yesterday said they expected at least 5,000 applicants. Mr. Bloomberg said he knows from his cameo appearances on the hit show “Law and Order” how difficult it can be for an aspiring actor or musician to get “that first big break.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CFO SAYS CITY SHOULD CHANGE BUDGET BALANCING RULES

The city’s chief finance officer said yesterday that it was time to change the rules for the way the city balances its budget. During a speech yesterday morning in Manhattan, William Thompson Jr., took issue with a state law passed during the fiscal crisis in the 1970s that requires the city to balance its more than $40 billion budget without dipping into savings.

Mr. Thompson said before the Financial Emergency Act sunsets in 2008 that officials should establish a “Rainy Day Fund” that would require 1% to 5% of revenues to be stashed away and saved for economic downturns. As it stands now, the city usually rolls over any surpluses into the following fiscal year. “It would lead to better budgeting practices,” the deputy comptroller for budget at the comptroller’s office, Marcia Van Wagner, told The New York Sun. “When you have a surplus, if the money is building up in there it becomes very tempting for people to spend it. It’s tempting to the mayor, it’s tempting to the City Council.” A rainy day account, she said, would require more fiscal responsibility.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

GOTTI WANTED TO BUY ONE LAST JUROR

Mob boss John Gotti, in his final criminal acts as a free man, desperately plotted to bribe jurors and intimidate witnesses at the 1992 Brooklyn trial that put him behind bars for the rest of his life, according to allegations in long-buried FBI documents.

The last-ditch efforts by the Dapper Don included the hiring of two or three private investigators “to aid in witness/juror identification” while the trial was under way, according to the documents, released to the Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Jurors in the case were kept anonymous and sequestered in an undisclosed hotel because of tampering by Gotti in earlier trials.

“Members and associates of the Gambino crime family have been actively seeking to identify both jurors and witnesses in an attempt to influence their decisions in regard to this case,” said a February 10, 1992, FBI memo designated as “routine.”

In a sense, it was routine: This was not Gotti’s first try at buying his freedom.

A juror at his first federal racketeering trial in 1987 was convicted of taking $60,000 to successfully convince fellow panelists of the mob boss’s innocence. And at his 1990 trial for allegedly ordering a hit on a union official, information on jurors was funneled to Gotti through a corrupt New York City detective. No jurors were charged in that case.

The tainted acquittals earned Gotti his other sobriquet, the “Teflon Don” – which became the “Velcro Don” when he finally was convicted of racketeering and murder in April 1992. He died 10 years later in a federal prison.

Details of the purported scheme were revealed in the 274 pages of FBI documents. Though heavily edited, they offer new glimpses into the last-ditch efforts of the Gambinos to keep their boss out of jail. According to the February memo, Gotti’s cronies ran down license plate numbers as they hunted for jurors or witnesses who might be paid off or scared off. Gotti’s trial attorney, Albert Krieger, was dismissive of the latest jury tampering story.

– Associated Press

SCHIAVO STORY PUTS LIVING WILLS WEB INFO IN DEMAND

More than 17,000 visitors to the New York State Bar Association Web site have downloaded free information on living wills and health care proxies since the group posted the information two days ago in response to public interest in the Terri Schiavo case.

The fate of the Florida woman, who doctors say is severely brain damaged and receives nourishment through a feeding tube, lies in the hands of the courts since her own intentions over whether she would want her feeding tube removed were never explicitly made. The documents available on the association’s Web site at www.nysba.org allow individuals to make their wishes known in the event of a future illness or incident that leaves them unable to communicate.

Individuals can designate a family member or a close friend to make health-care decisions in such cases. Once filled out, the two forms are legally binding. Since the association posted the documents, daily visitors to the Web site have jumped to 12,000 from the typical count of 5,000, a spokesman, Brad Carr, said. He also said the state bar’s Elder Law Section would be conducting information programs on living wills and health care proxies as part of “Decision Making Day” on May 5.

– Special to the Sun

FIGHT FOR SCHOOL MONEY FROM ALBANY ESCALATES

Parents, teachers, and politicians visited 100 schools yesterday morning to enlist supporters in the fight to convince Albany to comply with the court order in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case to give New York City more school money.

“Everyone says that they’re in favor of settling the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case,” said Randi Weingarten, president, of the teachers union, who passed out fliers outside of P.S. 321 at Brooklyn. “We’re trying to get people to focus on this.”

She said lawmakers in Albany are to blame, adding that Mayor Bloomberg should have a firmer strategy for convincing Governor Pataki to take action.

“You can’t just say this is an outrage,” she said. “You have to fight for it.”

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was at Albany early this week speaking passionately about the need for more school aid in the city.

Gifford Miller, the City Council speaker, was also at P.S. 321 yesterday. “For all the talk about education being a top priority, it’s past time that Governor Pataki put our money where his mouth is,” Mr. Miller said. “Our children deserve a quality education, and this CFE decision makes it clear that our priority must be our schools.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SENATORS ANNOUNCE FINANCING FOR WATER TRANSPORTATION

Senators Schumer and Clinton announced yesterday more than $1.4 million in funding mainly for city water transportation services, including $661,333 for Staten Island Ferry boat replacement.

The money is part of the $338 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill for fiscal 2005, which are announced as the funds become available, a spokeswoman for Mr. Schumer said. The funding includes nearly $200,000 for the Jamaica Bay Transportation Hub, a proposed terminal that would provide ferry service between Rockaway Peninsula and Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Sandy Hook, N.J., and other communities situated along the New York Bay. About $400,000 is earmarked to support the development of more docking facilities in New York Harbor.

– Special to the Sun