CITYWIDE

FIRE DEPARTMENT RECALLS NEW SAFETY ROPES
A week after unveiling a rope system to help firefighters escape deadly blazes, the Fire Department said it is recalling the Kevlar ropes out of safety concerns. While testing the new devices at Randalls Island, one of the ropes got jammed in a pulley and frayed. Fire officials, who said the fraying rope appeared to be an isolated incident, nonetheless decided to recall the ropes while they conducted an investigation. Two firefighters died nine months ago after jumping out of a burning building, prompting the Fire Department to develop safety ropes. The Fire Department has not used ropes since 2000 to descend from buildings because fire officials said they were too cumbersome.

– Special to the Sun

EDWARDS STUMPS FOR FERRER
Senator Edwards became the latest former presidential hopeful to stump with the Democratic mayoral candidate, Fernando Ferrer, joining Mr. Ferrer yesterday to meet with residents in Washington Heights. The party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee told Mr. Ferrer to “ignore the polls” that show him far behind Mayor Bloomberg. Mr. Edwards acknowledged that Mr. Ferrer was being “outspent by a huge amount of money” but said that shouldn’t matter. “This is not about who can buy the most television commercials.” Mr. Edwards said. “It’s about where you come from, and whether you understand the lives of most people who live in New York.” Earlier in the week, Mr. Ferrer campaigned with Howard Dean.

– Special to the Sun

GIULIANI: BLOOMBERG HANDLED SUBWAY THREATS PROPERLY
Mayor Giuliani said yesterday that his successor, Michael Bloomberg, made the right decision by going public last week about a purported terrorist threat targeting the city’s subway system. “Mayor Bloomberg did exactly the right thing about putting the information out to the public, as did Commissioner Kelly,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I think they have handled the whole situation about terrorism very well.”

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

REPUBLICAN HOPEFULS PUSH CONSERVATIVE ISSUES
While Republican leaders yesterday tried behind closed doors to winnow their fields of potential candidates for U.S. Senate and governor, the concern outside was clear: What to do with the party’s newest high-profile member, Thomas Golisano, who is considering a run for governor? The Rochester billionaire, however, didn’t attend yesterday’s fifth meeting between potential candidates and county GOP chairmen. On Tuesday, Mr. Golisano enrolled in the Republican Party and said he’s “seriously” considering his fourth campaign for governor in 2006.

– Associated Press

CLINTON, SCHUMER CALL ON CHERTOFF TO BACK AMENDMENT OF PATRIOT ACT
Senators Clinton and Schumer yesterday called on the secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, to throw his weight behind an amendment to the Patriot Act that would change the way $1.3 billion f homeland security money is distributed among the states. The amendment – which, the senators say, Mr. Chertoff supports – would distribute the money based on the threat that terrorism poses to a region, its vulnerability to an attack, and the damage a strike would inflict on the region. At present, the Department of Homeland Security distributes the money simply by population. It would also lower the minimum amount of money each state received to 0.25% of the total, or 0.45% for border states, whereas currently, each state receives a minimum of 0.75%.The House passed the amendment on July 21 by voice vote, since there was no opposition, but the Senate did not include it in its reauthorization of the Patriot Act.

– Special to the Sun

CAREY TO COMBAT PROPOSITION 1 The governor of New York State from 1975 to 1983, Hugh Carey, has agreed to be chairman of Stop the Amendment, a new coalition of think tanks and business groups combating Proposition 1 on November’s ballot. The “runaway spending amendment,” as members of the coalition have termed it, would strip the governor of much of his power over the yearly budget process, and make it much easier for the Legislature to add appropriations bills. It is a “power grab and a purse grab,” Mr. Carey, who saw New York through its fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, said. Members of the coalition include two state budget directors under Governor Cuomo, Wayne Diesel and Dall Forsythe, as well as the Citizens Budget Commission and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, among others.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

CLINTON HITTING CELEBRITY TRAIL FOR CAMPAIGN CASH Senator Clinton is hitting the glitter circuit to raise money for her 2006 re-election campaign and pump up the coffers of the political action committee she uses to bankroll her national presence. The former first lady, eyeing a possible 2008 run to become the first real-life female “Commander in Chief,” will be in California over the next several days for a series of celebrity-hosted fund-raisers for her Friends of Hillary campaign committee.

– Associated Press

QUEENS

GIRL FOUND IN STREET AFTER MOM’S DEATH MEETS WITH GRANDMOTHER
The abandoned 4-year-old Queens girl found wandering the streets late at night last month after her mother died has been visited by her maternal grandmother.

Valery Belen Saavedra Lozada sported a big smile and pigtails tied with red ribbons when she met for more than an hour Tuesday with her grandmother Roxana Rivadineira at a child services center in Queens. Valery was found barefoot on the streets of Queens last month after her mother allegedly was killed by a former lover. She has been in foster care since. Her case captured national attention after authorities took the unusual step of putting the preschooler on television in the hopes of tracking down her family. The grandmother arrived from her native Cochabamba, Bolivia, over the weekend to seek custody of Valery, her only grandchild, and to claim the body of her 26-year-old daughter, Monica Lozada-Rivadineira, who police say was strangled by her ex-boyfriend and dumped in the trash. Valery’s paternal grandmother, Ana Maria Rivera, also is seeking custody of the girl, whose father is in prison in Bolivia on drug charges.

– Associated Press

MAN PLEADS GUILTY FOR HIS ROLE IN HOWARD BEACH ATTACK
One of the men charged in an attack on a black man in the Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach earlier this year pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of second-degree attempted robbery and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime, prosecutors said.

Anthony Ench, 22, was expected to be sentenced to two years in prison later this month, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown’s office said in a news release.

“The defendant has admitted that he took part in a heinous, cowardly and hate motivated crime that left a young man seriously injured,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. “Attacks predicated upon hate are a threat to the safety and welfare of all.”

Mr. Brown said Ench admitted to kicking and punching Glenn Moore and stealing his sneakers during the June 29 attack. A co-defendant, Nicholas Minucci, 19, is accused of using an aluminum bat to hit Mr. Moore, leaving him with a fractured skill.

– Associated Press