BROOKLYN

BAPTIST MINISTER WINS ASSEMBLY SEAT VACATED BY NORMAN

A Baptist minister beat the brother of an assassinated City Council member and a former teacher in a special election yesterday to fill a state Assembly seat left vacant in September when veteran Brooklyn Democratic boss, Clarence Norman Jr., was convicted in a corruption scandal. Seeking the 43rd Assembly District seat were Democrat Karim Camara, Republican Kenneth Cook and Geoffrey Davis, a Democrat running as the Independence Party’s candidate.With 40% of the precincts reporting, Mr. Camara had 3,388 votes, or 76% , to Mr. Davis’s 634 votes, or 14%, and Mr. Cook’s 417 votes, or 9%.

– Associated Press

STATEN ISLAND

OFFICIAL: FERRY MUST EMPLOY STRICTER SAFETY STANDARDS

A federal transportation official said yesterday that the Staten Island Ferry should employ stricter safety standards, like those required of international vessels. The acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mark Rosenker, told an industry audience in Florida that passenger ferries need more aggressive, well-documented safety procedures to prevent accidents like the crash of the Andrew J. Barberi in Staten Island in October 2003 that killed 11 people. Earlier this year, the board released a scathing critique of the ferry’s lack of safety procedures, prompting the city’s Department of Transportation to adopt new safety procedures recommended by a consultant it hired after the crash.

– Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

LANGONE TO SPEAK TO CATO ABOUT SPITZER

A former top official at the New York Stock Exchange, Kenneth Langone, plans to intensify his criticism of the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, with a speech to the Cato Institute next month. Mr. Spitzer, the Democratic front-runner for governor in 2006, is targeting Mr. Langone for his role in awarding a $187 million compensation package in 2003 to Richard Grasso, then the head of the Big Board. Mr. Langone’s speech for a December 9 Institute luncheon is titled “Justice or Political Ambition: The Case of Eliot Spitzer,” and likely will advance his argument that Mr. Spitzer is pursuing a high-profile case to advance his candidacy for governor. Mr. Langone, the chairman of Inverned Associates LLP and co-founder of Home Depot, penned an opinion piece on the topic for the Wall Street Journal in September.

– Special to the Sun

CLINTON CRITICIZES DECISION THAT COULD LEAD TO CASINO IN SOUTHAMPTON

Senator Clinton yesterday criticized a decision by a federal judge that could pave the way for the Shinnecock Indian tribe to build a massive casino in Southampton. A U.S. district judge, Thomas Platt, on Monday granted tribal rights to the Shinnecocks as part of a lawsuit filed by the town in 2003 after the tribe broke ground on a gaming facility in Hampton Bays. In a statement yesterday, Mrs. Clinton sided with the town, saying she remained “adamantly opposed” to the Shinnecock Nation’s proposal. “The resulting traffic congestion and the significant environmental impact involved with the facility will have too negative an effect” on the region, she said.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

LAWSUIT ACCUSES HEAD OF BARAMI OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

An aspiring entertainer who sought work as a model with the clothing retailer Barami has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan accusing the company’s head, Bahram Hakakian, of groping her and offering her drugs during a job interview. Kelly Alexander, 22, says in court papers that the offensive behavior occurred September 1, 2004, in Mr. Hakakian’s Manhattan office on West 36th Street, where he interviewed her for the modeling position. She says she had been invited to apply after a salesperson saw her in a Barami store two months earlier. During the interview, court papers say, Mr. Hakakian harassed and abused Ms. Alexander by refusing to leave the room where she was dressing, offering her wine and illegal drugs, showing her sexually explicit and offensive illustrations on his computer, and groping and fondling her buttocks and breasts.

– Associated Press