POLITICS

POLL: NEW YORKERS WANT CLINTON TO PLEDGE FULL SENATE TERM

ALBANY – The majority of New York voters, including 65% of Democrats, want Hillary Rodham Clinton to pledge to serve a full six-year Senate term if she runs for re-election next year, a statewide poll reported yesterday.

The former first lady made such a pledge in 2000 when she successfully ran for the Senate seat from New York. Mrs. Clinton, leading in the polls for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, has yet to offer such a pledge this time around. Overall, 60% of the voters surveyed think she should make the pledge.

Despite looking to keep her in their service in New York, Democratic voters polled by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute didn’t seem very firm in their conviction as 61% also said they would like her to run for the White House in 2008.

Overall, 41% of New York voters said she should run for president, including 17% of Republicans.

There was no immediate comment from Mrs. Clinton.

In the poll, 21% of voters overall and 36% of Democrats said they would be more likely to vote for Mrs. Clinton for president because it would also return her husband, President Clinton, to the White House. Nineteen percent said that would make it less likely they would vote for her and 57% said it would make no difference.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

WOMAN WITH 2 JOBS CHARGED WITH STEALING $180,000 IN WELFARE BENEFITS

A Queens woman who held two full-time jobs has been charged with stealing $183,887 in welfare benefits for rent, food stamps, child care, and Medicaid, prosecutors said.

Elaine Jones, 39, of Hollis, was charged with grand larceny, welfare fraud, forgery, and other offenses, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said yesterday. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison.

The prosecutor said that while Ms. Jones was receiving benefits between 2001 and 2004, she was employed by the Department of Sanitation and by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and earned $205,500.

Ms. Jones, who supports three children, inadvertently received the benefits and “didn’t fully understand what was taking place,” said her lawyer, Steven Kirschner. Ms. Jones had worked out an agreement to repay what she owed but was arrested anyway, he said.

“I think it’s a tragedy,” he said.

Ms. Jones was arraigned on Wednesday night, pleaded not guilty, and was released on her own recognizance, the lawyer said.

Her next court date was set for June 1.

– Associated Press

‘SOPRANOS’ ACTOR MULLS PLEA DEAL IN ALLEGED ASSAULT ON GIRLFRIEND

Vincent Pastore, the actor who played gangster Big Pussy on the HBO hit series “The Sopranos,” was offered a plea deal yesterday in connection with charges that he assaulted his former girlfriend. His lawyer said he was considering it.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Weinberg said at a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court that his office was recommending that Mr. Pastore be sentenced to five days of community service, attend a batterers’ program, and sign a final order of protection.

As Mr. Pastore left court, attracting looks of recognition from passersby, he was asked why he did not accept the plea deal. He replied, “Because I didn’t do anything.”

Mr. Pastore, 58, is free without bail. He has pleaded not guilty to four misdemeanors – two counts of assault and one each of attempted assault and harassment – related to an alleged attack on then-girlfriend Lisa Regina, 44, last month in Little Italy.

– Associated Press

MAYORAL RACE

FERRER WINS ENDORSEMENTS OF BROOKLYN POLITICIANS The Democratic front-runner in the race for mayor, Fernando Ferrer, picked up endorsements from a group of Brooklyn elected officials yesterday.

State Senators Kevin Parker and Velmanette Montgomery, along with Assemblymen James Brennan, Nick Perry, Roger Green, and Felix Ortiz, threw their weight behind Mr. Ferrer, who is a former Bronx borough president. The endorsements come as Mr. Ferrer is trying to recover from slipping poll numbers that seem to be linked to comments he made in March related to the 1999 fatal police shooting of the unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo.

During a news conference on the steps of City Hall yesterday, Ms. Montgomery said Mr. Ferrer has been at the “forefront” in dealing with issues such as education, housing, and economic development. Mr. Parker said he was supporting Mr. Ferrer because he would fight for resources for the city.

Messrs. Parker and Green have made headlines recently after being charged with misdemeanors. Mr. Green was accused of filing false expense reports, while Mr. Parker allegedly punched a traffic agent who issued him a ticket.

Yesterday, Mr. Parker told reporters that he was confident in Mr. Ferrer’s abilities to get resources for New York. “I know about fighting, and nobody is going to fight more for this city than Freddy Ferrer,” the senator said. District leaders Joseph Bova, Weyman Cary, and Alan Fleishman also endorsed Mr. Ferrer yesterday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL HEARS OF INVOLVEMENT OF FOSTER KIDS IN HIV DRUG TRIALS

City Council members, asking a litany of questions and chastising the commissioner who was testifying, yesterday insisted on a thorough investigation into policies that allowed foster children into clinical drug trials for HIV/AIDS from the late 1980s to 2001.

According to the Administration for Children’s Services, 465 children were enrolled in the trials, which also were done in other states, to determine what drugs would work on children with HIV or AIDS. Critics have raised questions about whether the children were exploited or proper procedures were followed.

ACS announced late last month that an investigation would take place.

ACS Commissioner John Mattingly yesterday came under fire from a few of the council’s General Welfare Committee members, who criticized him as being disrespectful of community concerns that the drug trials were a reiteration of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, in which black men were deceived into letting their conditions remain untreated for years.

Mr. Mattingly, who took over ACS last year, finished his testimony by asking that people consider the facts that the investigation turned up instead of making allegations. “To suggest that my predecessors or that I would be willing to engage in any Tuskegee-like experiments is just not right,” he said.

– Associated Press

DIAL 311 TO QUIT SMOKING

Quitting smoking is now as easy as pushing three buttons: 311. Starting yesterday, the first 45,000 smokers to call New York City’s information hotline will receive a full six-week supply of nicotine patches, worth $150, and a healthy dose of habit-kicking tips.

The $8 million worth of patches donated by Pfizer, the makers of the smoking cessation product, will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis for as long as supplies last, according to the city health department, sponsors of the free patch program.

“Most people want to quit, but they don’t get the proper guidance or medicine,” city health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said. “We want to get that kind of help directly into people’s hands.”

As part of the campaign, health workers will meet with doctors and medical counselors to educate them about the benefits of quitting with the patch. Smokers who opt to quit cold-turkey have a 5% change of succeeding, Dr. Frieden said. With the nicotine patch, the success rate jumps to 33%, he said. An additional 30,000 patches will be given to hospitals and health clinics in communities with the highest prevalence of smokers.

A similar free patch campaign in 2003 exhausted a supply 35,000 patch kits in six weeks.

– Special to the Sun

JUDGE ORDERS MSG TO POST $35 MILLION BOND IN STADIUM CASE

A Manhattan judge told Madison Square Garden’s owners yesterday to post a $35 million bond while he decides whether to void the New York Jets’ successful bid to buy air rights over the West Side rail yards from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

State Supreme Court Justice Herman Cahn ordered MSG to post the bond by May 16 in exchange for the Jets’ and MTA’s agreement to refrain from closing on the deal before the judge issues his decision. Judge Cahn said he would decide by June 2.

If the Jets and the MTA win the court fight they could try to prove that they suffered money damages from the delay caused by MSG, and they could seek to be compensated from MSG’s $35 million bond.

– Associated Press