MANHATTAN

25-FOOT SECTION OF WALL COLLAPSES FROM BUILDING

A 25-foot section of a brick wall collapsed from a five-story, 100-year-old apartment building in Greenwich Village last night at 7 p.m. Firefighters evacuated 25 people from the building at 496 LaGuardia Place as a precautionary measure, but no one was injured, according to a spokesman for the Fire Department, Sean Johnson. The City Department of Buildings is investigating the situation to discover why the building collapsed, Mr. Johnson said.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

BLACKOUT LEAVES THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER

A blackout yesterday evening left thousands of Con Edison customers without power in Coney Island. At 5:45 p.m., an area of a few blocks bounded by Bay Parkway on the north, Surf Avenue on the south, Seagate Avenue on the west, and West 15th Street on the east, lost power until 7:15 p.m., according to a Con Edison spokesman, Mike Clendenin. The blackout was caused by a power cable failure, Mr. Clendenin said.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

WOMAN SUFFERING FROM ALZHEIMER’S MISSING

On Friday afternoon, Roberto Soto was separated from his wife, 55-year-old Sylvia Soto, at the Myrtle-Wykoff subway station in Queens. The couple, of Ridgewood, Queens, had been traveling north on the L train, when Mr. Soto, a 61-year-old retired member of the Transport Workers’ Union, lost track of his wife, he told police. Police are searching for Mrs. Soto, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and is also diabetic.

– Special to the Sun

TRI-STATE

DESPITE CASH POTENTIAL, SELLING TOLL ROADS SPARKS DEBATE

New Jersey stands to reap $30 billion by selling the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, according to a report by Merrill Lynch.

That’s enough to cover the state budget with about $2 billion left over. Such revenue potential is also reviving talk of selling the toll roads to bail out the fund that pays for highway and bridge repairs across the state. But the idea also remains a lightning rod for criticism, with some lawmakers drawing the line at privatizing the toll roads.

“I am very skeptical of the wisdom of selling or leasing a toll road in New Jersey. The New Jersey Turnpike is like Main Street, New Jersey,” a Middlesex county Democrat who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, Assemblyman John Wisniewski, told Gannett New Jersey for Sunday newspapers.

Turning public toll roads into private ventures, already a widespread practice in Europe, is an emerging budget fix in North America, according to the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association, based in Washington, D.C.

The Merril Lynch report notes New Jersey and New York are two states where toll highways have great potential for privatization because of their established roads and budget troubles.

-Associated Press

NEW JERSEY OFFICIALS UP IN ARMS OVER RAILROAD TRASH DEPOTS

New Jersey officials are trying to shut down open-air trash transfer depots that have sprung up next to railroads across the state, saying they use a federal loophole to avoid state environmental and health regulations.

But railroad companies defend the sites, saying they are only subject to federal law and that they actually provide an environmental benefit by moving trash by rail instead of the traditional method – trucks. Nine transfer facilities are in operation or proposed in New Jersey, sites that store garbage until it can be hauled away – mostly to Ohio.

Seven of those sites are engaged in court battles with the state. One of the most testy cases is in Atlantic County’s Mullica Township, where a lawsuit over a proposed trash depot – to be located in the scenic Pinelands region – has its first hearing today in Camden’s federal court.

– Associated Press