STATEWIDE

GRASSROOTS GROUP FOR CLINTON UNVEILS ADS

Senator Clinton isn’t running for president, but her campaign already has started in New Hampshire. A group, Hillary Now!, this week will run TV ads in Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, Salem, and Nashua, pushing the New York senator for president in 2008.The group has no official ties to Mrs. Clinton’s office, but its president, Bob Kunst, of Miami Beach, Fla., said he is laying the foundation for her possible bid for the presidency. Mrs. Clinton has not openly declared ambitions for the presidency, though she is perennially mentioned as a contender.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

FAKE SAUDI PRINCESS PLEADS GUILTY TO LARCENY, FRAUD

A former investment banker who posed as a Saudi Arabian princess was told to check into a mental hospital yesterday after admitting she tried to cheat an insurance firm and that she stole from a credit card company. Antoinette Millard, 42, of Manhattan, pleaded guilty to second-degree insurance fraud and second-degree grand larceny in exchange for the prosecution’s recommendation that she receive at least a year of inpatient psychiatric care.

– Associated Press

COLUMBIA TO ALLOCATE $15M FOR RECRUITING MINORITY SCHOLARS

Columbia University officials said yesterday that it was taking an additional $15 million out of its discretionary budget to recruit and hire more minority scholars and other faculty members who would make the school more diverse. The money was approved by Columbia’s board of trustees during its June meeting and will add 15 to 20 faculty lines to arts and sciences departments. Columbia has 350 arts and sciences faculty members – 200 of which are tenured – at an annual salary cost of $80 million, a spokeswoman for Columbia, Susan Brown, said Jean Howard, who was appointed vice provost for diversity initiatives last year, Vice President for Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, and two other administrators will vet departmental proposals for those new lines. Ms. Howard said searches would focus not just on minority scholars but any scholar who adds diversity to the university.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

BLOOMBERG: LOPEZ WOULD ‘PROBABLY’ MAKE GOOD BOROUGH PRESIDENT

City Council woman Margarita Lopez has been in the news recently for pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money into a Scientology-endorsed program created to treat 11 rescue workers after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said Ms. Lopez would “probably” make a good borough president – the office the Manhattan politician is seeking – but he said he doesn’t buy into the Church of Scientology.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LOCAL 32BJ TO ENDORSE BLOOMBERG

The building workers’ union, Local 32BJ, is expected to endorse Mayor Bloomberg for re-election this morning, the Politicker reported yesterday. The union, which supported Mark Green in 2001, is the largest building workers union in the country, representing more than 75,000 workers.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY WILL RECEIVE $71M TO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY

The Mayor and the Transportation Commissioner announced today that the city was receiving $71 million in new Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality money to ease traffic congestion and improve air quality. The money will fund a number of projects, including installing video cameras to monitor congestion, easing traffic congestion in all five boroughs, fixing up the roads, and buying alternative fuel vehicles for city vehicles.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SEVEN COUNCIL MEMBERS OPPOSED TO RANDOM SEARCHES

In an August 1 letter to the mayor, seven City Council members complained that the Police Department’s new random search policy on subways and buses was disproportionately affecting some ethnic groups. They cited last week’s incident in which seven innocent South Asian men were “the victims of prejudiced stereotyping” when they were stopped and searched on a tourist bus. The letter, faxed to The New York Sun by Council Member John Liu, a Democrat from Queens, asked the NYPD to collect data on the racial and ethnic identity of the persons that are searched so that racial profiling could be identified and stopped.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

AGREEMENT REACHED ON TRANSPORTATION BOND REFINANCING

A new debt refinancing agreement that will give the state $1.2 billion for transportation projects over the next five years was reached yesterday between Governor Pataki and state comptroller, Alan Hevesi.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

POLICE: ATTACK IN FLATBUSH POSSIBLY ANTI-SEMITIC

A 50-year-old man walking on a street in Flatbush was approached by two men who made anti-Semitic remarks and then punched him in the face on Monday, police officials said. Police are calling the incident a possible bias attack. The man was walking southbound on Schenectady Avenue between Crown and Carroll streets when the two men, who were only described as being black by police, attacked him. The suspects fled the scene. The man was taken to Kings County Hospital with an injury to his lip, police said.

– Special to the Sun