MANHATTAN

REPORT SAYS STADIUM SUPPORTERS PRESSURING SILVER, BRUNO

The two elected officials with the power to steer the outcome of this week’s scheduled vote on the proposed West Side stadium are coming under increasing pressure from stadium supporters.

The speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, and the majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno, a Republican, have not yet said where they stand on project. According to a report in Crain’s New York, stadium supporters are making it clear that they will politically retaliate against the men if they do not support the West Side stadium proposal.

Stadium backers, particularly those in the construction industry, have warned Mr. Bruno that they will yank support for GOP candidates who do not get behind the project, the Crain’s story said. Mr. Bruno would lose his leadership position if the Republicans lost their narrow majority in the Senate. Mr. Silver is also being criticized by Democrats who have come out in favor of the project because it would create jobs for black and Hispanics residents. “Potentially there will be a lot of payback if the stadium is not built,” the publication quoted the Reverend Alford Sharpton as saying. “That could come back to bite a few people on the backside politically.” Proxies for the two leaders and for Governor Pataki on the Public Authorities Control Board are scheduled to vote this week. The board must approve public funding in order for the project to go ahead.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

BILL WOULD REQUIRE POLICE TO RECORD FULL INTERROGATIONS

Police departments in New York state would be required to electronically record interrogation of suspects for statements to be admissible in court under a civil rights bill making its way through the state Legislature.

Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said he wants to ensure that interrogations are done properly, protecting the innocent who have been accused and protecting the police from false accusations of coercion. In New York, police routinely tape a suspect’s confession, but often do not tape the interrogation that led up to the confessions, Mr. Lentol said.

“We’re not really getting the whole picture as to what goes on,” said Mr. Lentol. “This will make juries’ jobs a lot easier in the future to determine the veracity of witnesses.”

John Grebert, executive director of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, representing more than 500 local and municipal police departments, said his group supports the idea of electronic recording, but has reservations about the bill.

– Associated Press

PATAKI AND SPITZER ANNOUNCE ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION

A series of bills being introduced by Governor Pataki and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer would give police new ammunition to go after suspected terrorists and expand current anti-terrorism laws.

The proposed bills would, among other things, create the crime of agricultural adulteration to protect the state’s agriculture industry from terrorist attack, establish the crime of cyber-terrorism, and strengthen the crime of impersonation to include posing as a pilot or other aviation workers.

Other measures would extend state jurisdiction to crimes committed on aircraft that land in New York state and make it easier to issue search warrants for out-of-state phone and commuter services and wireless phones.

Several of the measures have been proposed before. And the governor and the Legislature, particularly the Democrat-led Assembly, have had a hard time reaching agreements on anti-terrorism initiatives since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Legislature did approve a package of antiterrorism bills in the days following September 11, creating six new penal law offenses for people who commit terrorist acts, make terrorist threats, solicit or provide material support for terrorist acts, or hinder the prosecution of terrorists.

But there has been no such bipartisan embrace of anti-terrorism bills since.

– Associated Press