CITYWIDE

10-YEAR-OLD TRUMPETER FROM NEW ORLEANS TO LEAD HALLOWEEN PARADE

The leader of New York’s Village Halloween parade will not be a drag queen on roller skates. It will not be a giant caricature of President Bush. It will not be a naked man covered in glitter. The star of the parade will be a little trumpeter from New Orleans – 10-year-old Glenn Haul III, whose house and horn were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In New York, he got a new trumpet that he will play today in what is billed as the country’s biggest public Halloween event. Glenn’s role as grand marshal is part of a New Orleans theme at the parade. The parade’s symbol – as it was in after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – is a phoenix rising from its ashes. Today, it will rise from a traditional New Orleans jazz funeral, with displaced Katrina survivors dancing behind a coffin in both grief and joie de vivre, as was done in this sacred New Orleans rite before the hurricane.

– Associated Press

MINORITY LEADERS: POLICE, FIRE DEPARTMENTS DISCRIMINATE

Minorities are being categorically excluded from the upper echelons of the Police and Fire departments, minority leaders said yesterday. Shortly after the first debate of the season when Mayor Bloomberg called the Police Department “very diverse,” various minority groups said that the hierarchies of the Police and Fire departments were still more than 90% white. Members of the National Latino Officers Association, the Fire Department’s Vulcan Society, Blacks in Government, and 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, along with a civil rights advocate, Norman Siegel, held that of the more than 700 executive positions in the Police Department, blacks occupy less than 25 of the posts.

In response to the allegations, the deputy commissioner of public information for the Police Department, Paul Browne, said in a statement, “Contrary to the Police Department’s ill-informed critics, minority officers have been promoted to the highest uniformed ranks at rates higher than or equal to their majority counterparts.” A spokeswoman for the Fire Department, Virginia Lam, said that the Fire Department has made progress in its diversity. Between 1990 and 2000, she noted,5% of the department’s new recruits were minorities, and in the past five years, 15% of the newest members of the department have been minorities.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MARATHON RACE OFFICIALS LAUNCH WEEK OF EVENTS AT CARNEGIE DELI

Race officials will head to the Carnegie Deli today to kick off a week of events leading up to the running of the 36th Annual New York City Marathon through the five boroughs on Sunday. Today, the marathon will have a sandwich named in its honor. On Wednesday, city officials will mark the painting of the official orange and blue race line at Tavern on the Green, where the 26.2-mile race ends. Race officials will present running awards and tributes to disabled athletes during the week, and on Thursday, they will honor New Orleans runners displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Sunday’s marathon begins in Staten Island and will include more than 35,000 runners.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE KILL ASSAULT SUSPECT

A police sergeant shot and killed a 19-year-old man, Leonel Disla, who was allegedly involved in an assault in University Heights. A little after 2 a.m. yesterday, the police sergeant, the police officer, and a lieutenant responded to a report of gun shots fired at 20-15 Creston Ave., the authorities said. As they prepared to leave after discovering that it was a false alarm, they came upon a group of 14 or 15 individuals at the scene of an alleged assault in front of 20-55 Creston Ave., police said. The assault suspect, allegedly a gang member, swung a 12-inch kitchen knife in a horizontal direction a couple of feet from the police officer but not directly at him, police said. The sergeant fired one round at the suspect and hit him in the abdomen, officials said. The suspect then allegedly swung the knife in a vertical direction in close proximity to the sergeant. Again, the sergeant fired one bullet at Disla, police said. The suspect fell to the ground, with the knife allegedly in his hand. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died. Police later questioned two men, but no arrests have been made. Police are looking for the victim of the assault.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

POLITICIANS PROTEST PLANS TO SHUT DOWN PARTS OF L TRAIN

A group of Brooklyn politicians is protesting plans to shutter key portions of the L line for several weekends in early 2006. The officials, who will rally this morning outside the Bedford Avenue station, include the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz; an assemblyman, Joseph Lentol, and a City Council member, David Yassky. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it will suspend the L line link between Manhattan and Brooklyn over at least seven weekends at the beginning of next year so it can upgrade signals on the Williamsburg Bridge. The move has outraged business leaders in Williamsburg, who say the closures will inconvenience commuters and could cause significant harm to businesses that make most of their money on weekends.

– Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

SCHUMER: RECOMMENDED PROPOSAL FROM TAX PANEL COULD RAISE TAXES

Senators Schumer and Corzine are opposing a recommended proposal by a federal tax reform panel that they say could cost New York and New Jersey taxpayers an average of $3,100 in tax increases. The Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform is expected today to recommend eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes, a move designed to pay for broad changes to the tax code in the future. The two senators say as many as 5 million residents in their states could face tax hikes as a result. They said they would introduce a resolution in the Senate defending the deduction, and Mr. Schumer said he would use his position on the Finance Committee to fight any bill that implements the tax panel recommendation.

– Special to the Sun

SCHUMER RECOMMENDS TAPPING HEATING OIL RESERVES

Senator Schumer said yesterday that the Bush administration should tap into northeast heating oil reserves to hold down rising home heating costs this winter, including a projected $1.2 billion increase in New York City. Mr. Schumer also wants an extra $3.1 billion for the Low Income Heating Assistance Program, which helps families pay for heating needs, and an additional $500 million to expand the Weatherization Assistance Program, which helps make participants’ homes more energy efficient. A $3.1 billion federal increase in the heating assistance program would mean New York state would get $309.1 million worth of help. Presently, the allocation for the program is $1.89 billion, with New York State slated to get $235.6 million. Last week, the Senate decided against raising the budget for the program to $5.1 billion.

– Associated Press