MANHATTAN

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN MAY MOVE

Madison Square Garden, the legendary arena, may move across the street into the planned Moynihan Station, and its current structure may be demolished and replaced by luxury high-rises, office and retail space, according to a report yesterday in the New York Times.

Cablevision, which owns the Garden, has been negotiating with Steven Roth of Vornado Real Estate and Stephen Ross of the Related Companies, the two developers selected by the city and state to build a new transit hub for $930 million at the site of the Farley Post Office, between 33rd and 31st streets and Ninth and Tenth avenues.

Charles and James Dolan, who control Cablevision, said in June 2004 they would spend $300 million to renovate the Garden instead of building a new arena.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

CAMPAIGN SEEKS FULANI-FREE PARTY

There’s a move afoot in the Independence Party to oust Lenora Fulani, one of the party’s top officials, who has spoken out against Jews and Israel.

Some officials, including Eliot Spitzer, reportedly support the anti-Fulani movement. But yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg dodged a question about whether he would prefer a Fulani-free party.

“I’m not a member of the Independence Party and they’ve got to do what they think is right,” he said. He took the opportunity, though, to repeat his disapproval of Ms. Fulani’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions. “I’ve said before I don’t agree with Fulani’s comments whatsoever,” he said. “I thought they were disgraceful. She had the opportunity to walk away from them and she didn’t take that opportunity. I was disappointed in that, but it’s up to the Independence Party as to who they have as their officers.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN LOBBYIST DENIES INTENT TO EVADE CONTRIBUTION LIMITS

The lobbyist who allegedly paid bills for Brooklyn Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr.’s re-election campaigns testified today that although he made the contributions through four separate accounts, it was not to evade contribution limits but to avoid overdrawing his political action committee’s bank account.

Testimony from the executive director of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops, Ralph Bombardiere, made it clear that every penny of the contributions was intended to come from the company’s political action committee and go to Mr. Norman, and therefore could not be considered a lesser contribution from multiple entities, to multiple candidates, as the defense had suggested.

As for whether his company’s contribution of $7,493 in 2000 and intended contribution of $5,400 in 2002 fell within the legal limit of $3,100, Mr. Bombardiere said, “I didn’t give it a lot of thought.” He said that although Mr. Norman asked him to pay the bills, the assemblyman never instructed him to use different accounts, which weakened the prosecution’s case that Mr. Norman acted “with intent to defraud” the board of elections.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

SIX CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY AND DRUG SALES Six people who are allegedly involved in two conspiring Brooklyn drug crews were arrested yesterday and charged with conspiracy and drug sales. The crack cocaine operations were both operating between Nostrand and Rogers avenues, one on Lincoln Road and the other on Fenimore Street, in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and had made an agreement to “respect each others’ territory, “according to the Kings Country District Attorney, Charles Hynes. “These thugs thought they could come in, take over a neighborhood, and sell their poison on the street, but once again the community fought back,” Mr. Hynes said.

Alerted by complaints from local business owners and residents that drug dealers were doing business in plain view in residential areas, the district attorney sent out undercover detectives from its Major Narcotics Bureau, which made 18 buys from the street dealers, the district attorney’s office said.

The detectives discovered that the dealers were stashing the crack cocaine in bushes and in wheel wells of parked cars, carrying on their person only as much as they could wrap and fit in their mouths.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun