CITYWIDE

CVS, KMART FINED FOR STOCKING REALISTIC-LOOKING TOY GUNS

The Department of Consumer Affairs slapped two large retail stores with $130,000 in fines yesterday for selling dark-colored toy guns that resemble real firearms.

CVS and Kmart were found to have toys in stock that are in violation of the city’s Public Safety Law, which requires toy makers to use bright colors on gun exteriors, so that fakes can’t be mistaken for actual firearms.

Following citations issued in 2004, CVS was fined $100,000 after subpoenaed records showed the store had more than 400 dark green, brown, and black camouflage Official Military and Official Navy SEAL Team toy gun sets in stock throughout the city. Kmart was fined $30,000 when it was found to have nearly 50 green camouflage Fun Zone Delta Force Military Action toy sets in stock. In addition to store inspections, the Department of Consumer Affairs subpoenas toy manufacturers to determine which city stores have fake guns in stock. Over the past two and a half years, the Department of Consumer Affairs has aggressively enforced the city’s ban on realistic-looking fake guns and issued citations to more than 70 stores. Since the crackdown began, more than 5,600 fake guns have been removed from stores in all five boroughs, and the city has collected more than $600,000 in fines.

– Special to the Sun

COMPTROLLER: ECONOMY GREW FOR FIFTH CONSECUTIVE QUARTER

New York City’s economy grew at a 4.5% clip in the fourth quarter of last year, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of economic growth for the city, according to a report by the comptroller, William Thompson Jr.

New York City’s Gross City Product (GCP) – an inflation-adjusted measure of the overall city economy – rose to 4.5% compared with 3.7% in the third quarter of last year, Mr. Thompson said.

“The increase in GCP and the rise in jobs from the third quarter to the fourth are positive indicators,” Mr. Thompson said yesterday, though he cautioned that the city’s job growth rate was anemic at about half the nation’s 1.7% job-creation rate. “The jobs numbers are alarming because most of the gains were in the public sector, which shows the relative weakness of the private economy compared with the nation,” Mr. Thompson said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAJOR EXPANSION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS LEAGUE

The public schools’ middle school sports and fitness league is expanding dramatically this year, the chancellor announced yesterday.

Last spring, the Cooperative, Healthy, Active, Motivated, Positive Students, or “Champs” program, was serving about 1,000 students. Now, more than 12,000 students are involved. New York Knicks star Jamal Crawford joined the chancellor for the announcement at P.S./M.S. 279 at the Bronx. The expansion of the league is being partially funded by a $1 million sponsorship by Snapple and $1 million from The Sports and Arts in Schools Foundation.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

OFF-DUTY POLICEMAN ARRESTED IN SATELLITE DISH DISPUTE

An off-duty housing officer was arrested late Wednesday after a dispute with one of his tenants at his Richmond Hill apartment building, police said.

Officer Samuel Esposito was arraigned yesterday on charges of criminal mischief after his tenant, Edgar Feliciano, alleged that Mr. Esposito intentionally destroyed his satellite dish, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown’s office said. According to police, while Mr. Feliciano was watching television, Mr. Esposito allegedly ripped the dish from its mounting on the chimney and smashed and dented the equipment. According to both a contractor and Mr. Esposito’s partner, Rudy Garcia, however, the three had gone to the top of the building because they had intended to repair existing damage on the roof. The contractor needed to remove the improperly installed satellite dish prior to doing the roof work, and she tried to pry the dish from the chimney, possibly damaging the equipment by accident, Mr. Garcia said. Mr. Esposito was already on modified duty after his arrest for unlawfully evicting a different tenant in August 2003.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

SENATE LEADER’S SON STARTS OWN LOBBYING FIRM

Kenneth Bruno, the son of state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, said yesterday he has left New York’s top-grossing lobbying firm to start his own company. The younger Mr. Bruno said he expected to have some gold-chip clients.

“It is fascinating he is able to break out on his own like this. All lobbyists sell access, that’s the name of the game,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, a leading critic of the influence of highly paid lobbyists on state government. “What he’s pitching his clients, I don’t know. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the last name Bruno.”

Mr. Bruno’s father is the most powerful Republican in the state Legislature.

– Associated Press

STATE

STUDENT ARRESTED IN BOMBING PLOT

BUFFALO – A 15-year-old boy with a strong interest in the Columbine school shootings has been arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up his high school and had assembled bomb-making materials, including gunpowder and fuses, authorities said yesterday.

The student, a sophomore at Sweet Home High School in suburban Amherst, talked about his plans with other students, who alerted school officials.

“He had stated an intent to blow up the school,” Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark said. “He had purchased the gunpowder, he had primers, he had the pipes which had already been bored out, he had the ball bearings.”

A search of the boy’s Tonawanda home also turned up bomb-making instructions and extensive materials about the 1999 shooting deaths of 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado. The boy has been placed on home instruction.

– Associated Press