CITYWIDE

ONE DEAD, ONE MISSING AFTER EVENING SWIM AT ROCKAWAY BEACH

Police responded to a call for water rescue at Rockaway Beach last night after three boys went for a swim at about 6 p.m. following a game of football. Signs were posted forbidding swimming at the beach due to a dangerous undertow, according to CBS News. The boys were pulled out to sea by the undertow, police said.

Wade McDonald, 44, drowned while trying to save the boys, and a 16-year-old boy is still missing, according to police. One swimmer made it back to the beach on his own. The second swimmer was saved by a man on a surfboard, who said he tried to reach the third swimmer but that he disappeared before he could help him, according to CBS News.

McDonald, of Brooklyn, entered the water to help the boys, but became distressed and was pulled from the water by NYPD harbor divers, police said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Peninsula Hospital, police said.

Police called off the search for the third swimmer until this morning. The names of the swimmers have not been released.

– Special to the Sun

FDNY TO PROVIDE FIREFIGHTERS NEW ESCAPE ROPE SYSTEM

The New York Fire Department is gearing up to give firefighters a rope escape system designed primarily by firefighters themselves, according to a report on the New York Times’ Web site last night. The escape system comes almost five months after a fire in the Bronx forced two firefighters to jump to their deaths. The system will likely be in place by September, according to the Times. New York will be America’s first large city to provide firefighters with a rope and anchor to jump out of a burning building’s windows in an emergency.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PROPERTY NEEDED FOR WTC REDEVELOPMENT BOUGHT FOR $59 MILLION

One of the last privately owned piece of land needed to redevelop the World Trade Center has been bought for $59 million, state officials said. The vacant property is less than half an acre on the south side of Liberty Street and has been owned by the Milstein real estate family since 1978. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s acquisition of the site was “absolutely necessary,” the leader of the rebuilding effort, John Cahill, said, according to reports. Mr. Cahill is Governor Pataki’s chief of staff, and was recently appointed by the governor to oversee the redevelopment.

The site is planned to be part of the new Liberty Park, and will sit above a vehicle ramp and security checkpoint leading to underground roadways, loading docks and parking spaces. The site was a parking lot at the time of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The city took control of it after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and then passed it on to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

CRIME FALLS IN NEW YORK FOR 11TH STRAIGHT YEAR

ALBANY, N.Y. – Overall crime dropped statewide last year by 3.6%, continuing a downward trend in New York that started 11 years ago, according to preliminary figures from an FBI survey of the nation’s police departments. The decline last year was helped by New York’s 5.9% statewide drop in violent offenses, the figures showed. That reduction outpaced the 1.7% decrease in violent crime nationally.

While the number of murders outside New York City last year stayed at 319, slayings in the city dropped from 597 two years ago to 570 in 2004, according to the figures, which were released by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Meanwhile, statewide, there were drops in every other category of crime, including rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. Compared to 1994, there were more than 400,000 fewer crimes last year, Pataki administration officials said.

– Associated Press

STATE WON’T PROBE COMPANIES THAT EXCEEDED CAMPAIGN-DONATION LIMIT

ALBANY, N.Y. – The state has refused to investigate a detailed report of 96 companies in 14 counties which apparently contributed far more to local political campaigns than was allowed by law, a state official confirmed.

The report found some companies spending two to three times more than the limit set to control corporate influence in politics. The report was compiled by the New York Public Interest Research Group and Common Cause and submitted to the state Board of Elections two years ago. The records include $18,575 spent by a Nassau County property valuation firm for state and local officials, including the local assessor, and $19,750 spent by a Rochester-area firm on state and local campaigns, according to Nypirg’s report. State law limits companies to $5,000 in total campaign contributions in a calendar year for state and local elections.

– Associated Press