MANHATTAN

MILLER, COUNCIL MEMBERS FILE SUIT TO BLOCK STADIUM

The speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, and several other council members, filed a brief yesterday in state Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit to block the New York Jets from building a football stadium on Manhattan’s West Side.

Like the lawsuit filed by three nonprofit groups and the city’s largest transit workers union earlier this month, the brief charges that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed to get a fair price for the development rights to its 13-acre Hudson Yards parcel.

As a result, the brief says, the MTA has shortchanged commuters because it does not have necessary money for subway and bus improvements. Mr. Miller has attacked Mayor Bloomberg for pushing the stadium and is trying to pass legislation that would block the mayor’s plan to kick in money for the project.

Still, 24 council members are already on record as supporting the stadium, and a spokesman for the Jets said they are expecting more endorsements of the project soon. Ten council members and two state senators signed on to the brief. Mr. Miller is one of four Democrats hoping to unseat Mr. Bloomberg in November’s mayoral election.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE WILL TRAIN MIDTOWN BUILDING SECURITY GUARDS

Mayor Bloomberg announced a pilot program yesterday that would have the New York Police Department providing extra training for some 250 security officers in more than 30 high-profile buildings in Midtown. The Police Department will train the guards to respond to terrorism, to direct evacuations, and to coordinate efforts with police, fire, and emergency personnel.

The security guards “have a union which is interested in training for the future,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at the Plaza Hotel yesterday. “That’s why their jobs keep getting better – because they aren’t just [saying] ‘We’re only going to do the old stuff.’ They’re always willing to take on more responsibility as the world changes.”

The $125,000 price tag for the program is being shared by the security workers’ union and the Realty Advisory Board, a group that represents management of the buildings.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NYU STUDENTS GAUGE 2012 OLYMPICS INTEREST ON STREETS

New York University graduate students have found a new way to tap into the city’s feelings about the 2012 Olympic bid – via pedestrian relay races. Yesterday, 10 students working on a project for a class called the “Big Game” tested New Yorkers’ willingness to interact with strangers, while also polling them on whether or not they would like to see New York City host the 2012 Olympics.

Shortly after 5 p.m., the students divided into two teams – one green, one blue – and stood on opposite sides of Broadway just above Canal Street, beckoning people on the sidewalk to take 4-inch plastic cards cut into the shape of Manhattan to Union Square by 7:30 p.m. The idea was for people walking up Broadway to carry it as far as they could go in that direction and then pass it off to someone else to deliver.

Those lucky enough (or gullible enough) to accept the task found a question on the back, asking if they would want to see the Olympics in New York City, with two e-mail addresses for voting yes or no. Card carriers who made it to Union Square before the time limit was up were entered into a drawing for a free monthly MetroCard. They were also able to bask in the glow of their accomplishment. Each card contained a tiny red light, which fit neatly into a larger 3-foot-by-2-foot lighting project, outlining the shape of Manhattan.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

YOUNG WOMAN SHOT OUTSIDE BED-STUY FUNERAL PARLOR

An Atlanta teenager was struck by a stray bullet yesterday morning on the sidewalk outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant funeral home where her aunt’s wake was being held, police said.

Visiting Brooklyn for her 63-year-old aunt’s services, Nekeira Hayes, 14, stepped outside the Robeson and Browne Funeral Home at the corner of Gates and Nostrand avenues and into the midmorning air, only to be shot in the chest.

The incident occurred shortly before 10 a.m., when two men not involved in the funeral services were having an argument across the avenue when one suddenly pulled out a silver handgun, witnesses told police. The man fired at least two rounds, but missed his intended target. Instead, a bullet struck Ms. Hayes in the chest. A 35-year-old woman was also shot in the left leg. Press reports indicated that Ms. Hayes was listed in critical condition at Interfaith Hospital, and that the 35-year-old woman was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital.

Police are still looking for the two suspects, who were last seen running east on Gates Avenue.

– Special to the Sun

BURNER WAS ‘ON’ DURING DEADLY WILLIAMSBURG FIRE

The Fire Department issued a statement yesterday outlining the results of their investigation into a fatal fire that killed three Jewish boys in South Williamsburg early Monday morning.

The statement reiterated previous conclusions regarding the fire’s cause and the response time of the fire units, which some tenants have criticized as taking too long. Marshals determined the cause of the fire to be accidental, originating from an open flame on the gas stove in the kitchen.

Evidence of an aluminum foil covering on both the countertops and cabinets indicated that the foil helped conduct heat from the open flame and ignited the fire, department officials said.

An eyewitness account from a health aide working in the neighboring apartment confirmed that one burner was left on the evening before at the request of the Matyash family. Investigators said that an inspection of the fire scene after the blaze found the burner on the gas stove turned to the “on” position. A smoke detector was also found in the apartment, but the battery was dead.

The fire dispatcher reported 20 firefighters on the scene with a response time of 3 minutes and 50 seconds. The ladder company had also been familiar with the apartment complex after receiving a layout of the complex via the department’s computer dispatch system prior to responding to the fire.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

OFFICER STOPS CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER FROM STRIKING AGAIN

The police officer who caught a convicted sex offender before he was able to prey upon two Queens girls could only muster a “thank you” at the suggestion that he was a hero.

On his way to work at the 115th Precinct at Jamaica, Queens, Tuesday afternoon, officer Daniel DeViccaro, 31, spied a man on a bicycle attempting to coax two young girls into a wooded area inside MacNeil Park at College Point. The girls, ages 13 and 12, looked uncomfortable, Mr. DeViccaro said, and were fidgeting and backing away from the man, who was later identified as 31-year-old Timothy Felton.

When Felton reached out to one of the girls, they screamed, and Mr. DeViccaro jumped out of his car to chase down the man. Backup units called in by Mr. DeViccaro caught Felton a few minutes later, with the help of two teenage boys who reportedly told police that Felton had sexually assaulted them in the park’s bathroom the day before. Reports also indicated that police said Felton was paroled in February after serving 13 years for robbery and molestation.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

NEW FUNDING FEARS FOR TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS

Governor Pataki is warning that a version of a federal transportation bill headed for a vote would leave the state about $430 million short of what is needed to maintain its roads and highways.

Mr. Pataki, a Republican, has written New York’s two Democratic senators, voicing “serious concern” about the Senate version of the six-year, $284 billion transportation bill. The state would like a bill closer to the House version, which has the same total figure but gives a larger percentage to New York.

Mr. Pataki calculates the Senate version will boost New York’s funding for highways about 14% over the last such package, and argues it will need a 20% increase to maintain the current system, based on the rising costs of construction.

Those figures indicate New York received close to $8 billion in highway money from the last version of the bill, which expired in 2003.

Mr. Pataki wrote the new figures are “alarming” because the current Senate version “does not provide states like New York the opportunity to keep up with the expected future cost of construction which we estimate to be 20% over the six year period.”

In comparison, the version of the bill passed by the House would provide more than $10 billion in highway money to New York, or 25% more than the past version. Senators Schumer and Clinton answered by faulting the Republican congressional leadership and the Bush administration for limiting the overall size of the bill. They said they could get more money for New York if the total price of the bill were increased.

– Associated Press