ALBANY

BIG THINGS IN SMALL PACKAGES FOR N.Y. IN FEDERAL HIGHWAY BILL

The approval by Congress this month of its long-awaited highway and transit bill will result in many small, local but long-sought projects for New York State, from a faster commute in New York City to an easier walk to temple in the Hudson Valley. Hundreds of projects from around the state will see federal dollars under the six-year, $286 million highway and transit bill expected to be signed by President Bush. New York will get about $17 billion over the next six years, helping to rebuild roads everywhere from a new Yankee Stadium site to the Peace Bridge outside Buffalo.

Kiryas Joel, a tradition-bound village in Orange County built by chasidic Jews from New York City, is getting $600,000 for a sidewalk project. Wayne County is getting $220,000 to update street signs, and Wallkill will get $800,000 to help build a tunnel under Route 17, according to a database compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group. Congress is also providing $10 million for projects of the Destiny USA mega-mall planned in the Syracuse area.

The bill also gives $25 million to further the long-awaited Second Avenue subway project and boost ferry ridership in and around the metropolitan New York area. The city will also get $5.8 million to clean up graffiti.

– Associated Press

QUEENS

PLANE ENGINE CATCHES FIRE AT JFK

The engine of a JetBlue airplane parked at John F. Kennedy International Airport caught fire around midnight Saturday. Port Authority officials said no one was on board the plane at the time of the fire and that it was quickly extinguished. Airport traffic was unaffected and no in juries were reported.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM OFFICIALS BRIEFED ON RATNER’S ARENA PLAN

Regional tourism officials from the North West province of South Africa, which is preparing to host the 2010 World Cup, were briefed last week on developer Bruce Ratner’s plan to build an arena for the New Jersey Nets basketball team in downtown Brooklyn. A pro-Ratner state assemblyman from the borough, Roger Green, said he saw “some similarities” between South Africa and parts of Brooklyn – noting that both face high rates of unemployment and HIV/AIDS – and added that the June agreement between community groups and Mr. Ratner’s firm, which pledged to channel 30% of construction dollars to female and minority contractors, could serve as a model for development in the North West province. In response, a spokesman for the anti-Ratner group Develop Don’t Destroy, Daniel Goldstein, parroting Mr. Green’s words, said that there are “a lot of similarities” between the Ratner plan, which would seize Prospect Heights properties via eminent domain, and the apartheid regime’s forced removal of blacks in “slum clearance” projects.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

WOMAN INJURED IN ACCIDENT INVOLVING GOLDEN IN CRITICAL CONDITION

A woman injured in an automobile accident Saturday involving state Senator Martin Golden, Republican of Bay Ridge, remained in critical condition at Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center yesterday after two operations, an observer familiar with the situation said.

According to press accounts over the weekend, Harkli Zafiroulos, 74, a resident of Mr. Golden’s Bay Ridge district, suffered a critical head injury when she was struck by the senator’s black 2005 Chevrolet sports-utility vehicle while returning home from church. Witnesses reported that Ms. Zafiroulos entered the intersection of 84th Street and Third Avenue in Bay Ridge against the traffic signal and outside of the crosswalk when she was hit by Mr. Golden, who was returning home from the gym. A Breathalyzer test conducted by police showed Mr. Golden to be free of any trace of alcohol, and he was not charged with any crime, according to news accounts. The senator was also reported to have aided Ms. Zafiroulous at the scene of the accident – where, according to witness accounts, he was demonstrably concerned about the victim – and to have stayed with her family at the hospital. Yesterday, an emotional Mr. Golden told The New York Sun: “We feel for the woman … we just want her to be better, that’s our only concern – that’s our focus.”

“Our prayers are going to her and her family,” the senator added. – Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY VOWS TO RETALIATE AGAINST DEMOCRATS OVER CAFTA

The Working Families Party is vowing to retaliate against the two Democratic congressmen who crossed party lines last month to support the Central American Free Trade Agreement: Gregory Meeks of Queens and Edolphus Towns of Brooklyn. At a City Hall press conference yesterday, party leaders also denounced Mr. Meeks for his support of a bankruptcy reform bill, and they assailed Mr. Towns for voting to eliminate the federal estate tax. Seven top party officials sent a letter to the House Democratic minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, calling on her to remove Mr. Meeks from the Financial Services Committee and asking her to kick Mr. Towns off the Energy & Commerce Committee. “Voters in Brooklyn and Queens didn’t elect Greg Meeks and Ed Towns to send American jobs abroad,” a Democratic state assemblyman from Flushing and a close ally of the Working Families Party, Brian McLaughlin, said yesterday. But according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimate, the free trade pact – which passed the House last month by a 217-215 margin, with 15 Democrats voting in favor – would create more than 4,000 jobs in New York state over nine years. Mr. Meeks has also argued that the agreement will improve labor standards in the six Central American countries that signed the pact. Messrs. Meeks and Towns both won the Working Families Party endorsement in their 2004 re-election bids.

– Special to the Sun