CITYWIDE

BILL TO LOWER VOTING AGE INTRODUCED

City Council Member Gale Brewer introduced a bill yesterday to lower the minimum voting age for municipal elections to 16 from 18. Ms. Brewer said she believes that 16- and 17-year-old students “are more engaged in political activity than ever before” and deserve to be able to vote. The Democrat, who represents the Upper West Side, also said studies have found that stimulating interest in politics among young people helps spur voter turnout among adults.

A spokesman for the Children’s Defense Fund said the nonprofit group supports the proposed legislation. “We believe that 16- and 17-year-old children are politically savvy,” the spokesman, Hector Soto, said. Ms. Brewer also questioned the fairness of keeping a large proportion of America’s consumers from voting. She said 16- and 17-year-olds pay more than $10 billion a year in sales tax. Opponents of the legislation include the council’s minority leader, James Oddo, Republican of Staten Island. “Some 16-year-olds are more interested in what’s in their iPod than they are concerned about who occupies Borough Hall and Gracie Mansion,” Mr. Oddo said.

– Special to the Sun

PARKS DEPARTMENT SETTLES DISCRIMINATION SUIT

The city’s Parks Department has settled a 2002 civil lawsuit that alleged the agency discriminated against black and Hispanic employees, the United States Attorney General for the Southern District announced yesterday. The lawsuit alleged that qualified black and Hispanic employees were routinely passed over in favor of white employees handpicked for upper-level positions without any competitive process. Under the terms of the settlement, the Parks Department has agreed to post job vacancies internally and fill them through a fair and competitive process, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. The settlement with the Justice Department, however, did not resolve an ongoing civil lawsuit filed in 2001 by 11 black and Hispanic current and former employees against the city and former parks commissioner, Henry Stern. Yesterday, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said it planned to pursue the class action suit, which will seek monetary damages. Whites compose 41% of the city’s work force but make up 79% of senior and executive staff of city agencies, according to a report issued in January by the New York City chapter of Blacks in Government. Mr. Stern did not return a call seeking comment.

– Special to the Sun

DRUG RING DISMANTLED BY POLICE

An illegal prescription-drug ring that allegedly sold 25,000 pills of Vicodin a week was dismantled by police detectives after an 11-month investigation this week, the authorities said yesterday.

Thirteen people – including alleged mob associates, pharmacists, and drug dealers – were arrested in the past three days. If convicted, some of those arrested stand to face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, said. Six pharmacists also stand to lose their licenses.

According to criminal complaints filed against members of the alleged ring, the pharmacists sold the prescription painkillers to an alleged mob associate, Dominick Devito, for $1 a pill. In turn, Mr. Devito allegedly resold the pill for $2 to street dealers, who peddled the pills at bars and to students on local college campuses for as much as $8 to $12 a pill. The investigation into the alleged drug sales began last June, when narcotics detectives were tipped off about the alleged sales from street informants. A team of a dozen detectives logged thousands of hours of recorded phone conversations, officials said, and recovered $60,000 in cash, as well as a small amount of steroids, cocaine, and amphetamine tablets in searches conducted at seven pharmacies.

– Special to the Sun

LONDON’S IVY MAY OPEN RESTAURANT IN NEW YORK

The Ivy, the London restaurant known for its soigne clientele, is looking to open an Ivy restaurant in New York’s theater district, according to a report in the Times of London. The announcement comes on the heels of the London-based multibillionaire Richard Caring’s purchase earlier this year of six upscale London restaurants, including the Ivy, for an estimated $57.4 million. Mr. Caring has said he has yet to find an American-based management partner or an exact location. The Ivy was opened in 1917 by Abel Giandellini, and its name is supposed to come from an actress who told the owner: “Don’t worry. We will always come and see you. We will cling together like ivy.” The restaurant serves down-home English fare like bangers and mash and sticky puddings, but it is better known for having people like Elizabeth Hurley and Madonna as regulars. The Ivy restaurant in Los Angeles, which also happens to count Ms. Hurley among its regulars, has no relation to the Ivy in London.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY COUNCIL REJECTS WASTE TRANSFER APPLICATIONS

The City Council soundly rejected three applications for waste transfer stations that constituted a major part of Mayor Bloomberg’s trash plan, behind a strong push by the council speaker and democratic mayoral hopeful, Gifford Miller.

In a press conference preceding a lengthy debate, Mr. Miller criticized the mayor for not presenting the council with an entire waste management plan before sending them land-use applications in a piecemeal fashion. In conjunction with several other council members, Mr. Miller presented an alternative trash plan that traded the mayor’s proposed transfer stations in densely populated neighborhoods on East 91st and West 135th streets in Manhattan with facilities on West 59th Street or Pier 76, near the Jacob K. Javitz Center. The Upper East Side station fell within the boundaries of Mr. Miller’s affluent district. The alternative plan also proposed an increased emphasis on recycling and waste reduction.

The mayor’s proposal, supported by several environmental and public health groups, is a 20-year plan to float garbage out of the city by boat rather than continuing the current use of diesel trucks. Mr. Bloomberg’s spokesman, Jordan Barowitz, said: “While we are working to take thousands of trucks off the streets of New York’s neighborhoods, Miller is twisting arms and presenting half-baked schemes to protect his self-serving political agenda.”

– Special to the Sun

PLAZA HOTEL SETTLES DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT

A lawsuit alleging that the Plaza Hotel harassed Muslim and Arab-American employees after the 2001 terrorist attacks has been settled with the hotel’s management agreeing pay $525,000 to a dozen workers and to offer additional anti-discrimination training to its staff. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court in September 2003 by the American Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Plaza and Fairmont Hotel Management LP.

Since then, the Plaza has been sold to Elad Properties, which has closed the hotel for remodeling and plans to reopen it in the fall of 2006 as a condominium building and smaller hotel.

The consent decree signed Tuesday by Fairmont will cover the company’s 14 hotels nationwide and will be in force at the new Plaza if Fairmont becomes its managing agent, said Sunu Chandy, an EEOC senior trial attorney. Fairmont made no admission of liability by signing the decree. A telephone call to a Fairmont spokesman seeking comment was not immediately returned. The lawsuit alleged that after the September 11, 2001, attacks, managers at the Plaza called Arab-American employees terrorists referring to them as “Osama” or “dumb Muslim.”

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

SUNY TRUSTEES TO DECIDE ON CHARTER SCHOOL A committee of trustees of the State University of New York will decide today whether to recommend approval of a charter school application to the university system’s full board. The application was submitted this spring by the United Federation of Teachers union.

Four members of the board’s charter schools committee raised concerns about the application at a preliminary meeting last month, casting doubt over the proposed Brooklyn grade school. The Charter Schools Institute, a state body that oversees applications, had previously recommended the application be approved.

The institute communicated the concerns of board members to the union and issued a memo earlier this week indicating that the UFT has agreed to amend its application. One major change is the willingness of the UFT’s president, Randi Weingarten, to serve as an ex-officio board member at the proposed school. A meeting of the full 16-member board is scheduled for later this month.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ESCAPEE FROM POLICE CUSTODY APPREHENDED

A 28-year-old man arrested in Coney Island yesterday is missing after he escaped from police custody in a pair of leg shackles, officials said yesterday.

The man, Rafael Vasquez, was arrested by police officers at about 2 a.m. on Mermaid Avenue and charged with possession of burglary tools, the police said.

On the way to the 60th precinct station house, Mr. Vasquez, 28, complained to arresting police officers about a shortness of breath and claimed he suffered from asthma. Instead of taking Mr. Vasquez into the precinct to process his arrest, police officers took the man to Coney Island Hospital for an inspection.

Inside the hospital, at about 3:30 a.m., police officials said Mr. Vasquez asked to go to the bathroom, at which point the arresting officer removed his handcuffs but kept the man’s leg shackles fastened. As Mr. Vasquez was leaving the stall, police officials said he grabbed the bathroom door and, using it as a weapon, smashed it into the officer, knocking him to the ground. Mr. Vasquez then fled on foot. Police detectives were trying to locate him yesterday. The man is about 5 feet 8 inches tall and was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun