New York Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CITYWIDE
CONTRACT TALKS BETWEEN TRANSPORT WORKERS, MTA RESUME TODAY
Negotiations resume today between the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but with a contract set to expire December 15, an agreement is unlikely. Hinting that they’ll strike if an agreement is not reached, union members protested yesterday for the third time in three weeks against demands by the MTA to consolidate union jobs, which would not result in job cuts, but in fewer future hires. Union members have said talks have not broached the core issue of wage increases. The secretary-treasurer of the union, Ed Watt, said Monday that both sides have increasingly turned to arbitration to solve disputes. He said each side spends about $32,000 a month on arbitration fees.
– Special to the Sun
NEWMAN RESIGNS FROM ALL STARS PROJECT
The architect of “social therapy,” Fred Newman, resigned yesterday from the All Stars Project after school program. Mr. Newman, an aging Marxist, has been a mentor to a former Independence Party leader who has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements, Leonora Fulani. He told the group’s board of directors in a letter this week that plans to retire from his post as artistic director of the Castillo Theatre and as the program design consultant for the All Stars youth program.
“I don’t want any of the controversy associated with my views and opinions to create unnecessary difficulties for the All Stars Project,” he wrote. “I am tendering my resignation from my position at the All Stars Project, effective December 1, 2005.” Mr. Newman’s All Stars Project works with some of the city’s neediest children and has received donations from prominent New Yorkers, including Mayor Bloomberg. In a statement accepting Mr. Newman’s resignation, the All Stars board wrote that it is “proud” of Mr. Newman’s accomplishments. Mr. Newman was born in the South Bronx in 1935.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
GIANTS CO-OWNER TISCH POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED BRONZE MEDALLION
New York Giants co-owner Robert Tisch was posthumously honored yesterday with the Bronze Medallion, the city’s highest civic award. Tisch, who held several civic posts, died last month of brain cancer at age 79. His wife, Joan Tisch, accepted the award from Mayor Bloomberg at a reception at Gracie Mansion celebrating the family’s Take the Field charity, which raises money to renovate and rebuild public school athletic facilities in New York. The couple’s son, Steve Tisch, said the award, which last was presented in 1980, was a “great honor.”
– Associated Press
IN THE COURTS
NORMAN CONCLUDES TESTIMONY
A former assemblyman, Clarence Norman Jr., finished testifying at his grand larceny trial in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday after prosecutors spent the morning grilling him about why he deposited a campaign check into a personal bank account. An assistant district attorney, Michael Vecchione, showed jurors a series of nine checks issued by the Thurgood Marshall Democratic Club on October 30, 2001, to various Democratic groups in the city. All the checks were marked “contribution” and all had accompanying vouchers. The last of the group was the $5,000 check made out to Norman’s re-election campaign, which the former Brooklyn Democratic chief is charged with stealing. Closing statements are expected this morning.
– Special to the Sun
QUEENS
FOUR KILLED IN QUEENS HOME FIRE
Three children and a man were killed last night in a fire at a home in Queens, authorities said.
A firefighter suffered a shoulder injury in the blaze, which was reported in the two-story home around 6:15 p.m., a Fire Department spokesman, Ken Bohan, said. It took more than 100 firefighters about three hours to bring the blaze under control, he said.The cause was being investigated.
The four people killed were not immediately identified.
– Associated Press