POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE SAY BRAUNSTEIN GAVE BLOOD FOR $20 AT TENNESSEE BLOOD BANK

Police said yesterday that the alleged fake firefighter, Peter Braunstein, gave blood for $20 cash at a Memphis, Tenn., blood bank at the end of November. On the morning of November 28, Mr. Braunstein walked into Tennessee Blood Services, a diagnostic donation center, appearing “well-rested,” “clean-shaven,” and thinner than in his “Wanted” photograph, an employee of the center, Rhonda Taylor, said. “His hair was neatly combed,” she added. Mr. Braunstein used his passport, containing a Los Angeles, Calif., address, as identification, Ms. Taylor said. Using his real name and his actual profession as a freelance journalist, Mr. Braunstein told Ms. Taylor he was in town working on a story, but had run out of money, she said. Mr. Braunstein gave 1 pint of his blood, and said that he was heading to Kansas on an assignment, the blood bank owner, Harold Stamey, said. Another employee who asked Mr. Braunstein about his medical history, Andrea Chatman, recalled Mr. Braunstein laughing at some of the questions, including whether he was under the influence of any drugs. She said he asked, “Do I look like I’m on any kind of drugs?” Mr. Braunstein allegedly posed as a firefighter as a ruse to sexually abuse a former colleague in her Chelsea apartment on Halloween.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

AL SHARPTON AGREES TO PAY $100,000 TO FEC

A former presidential candidate, the Reverend Al Sharpton, agreed to repay $100,000 – plus interest – in taxpayer money he received as part of his failed 2004 bid, under a deal announced yesterday with the Federal Election Commission. Rev. Sharpton, a left-wing activist minister whose effort to win the Democratic nomination racked up more debt than votes, has been at odds with the FEC for more than a year over his personal loans to his campaign.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

LEGISLATORS TO INTRODUCE BILL ON ‘PHISHING’

Two state lawmakers are going “phishing” for Internet scam artists who hijack consumer identities by sending e-mails posing as legitimate organizations or businesses. Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat of Westchester, and Senator Fuschillo, a Republican of Long Island, plan to introduce a bill that would target the practice by allowing the attorney general, industry, and nonprofits to bring civil cases against Internet “phishers.” “This is theft. This is theft of the worst kind,” Mr. Brodsky, who is running for state attorney general, said. “People are going to effectively be able to protect themselves.” Fraudulent e-mails typically present the same font and interface as a legitimate institution and ask recipients for personal information and/or passwords, saying their account information could not be verified. There were more than 15,000 “phishing attacks” in October representing nearly 100 brands, according to an “anti-phishing” working group of law enforcement and industry members.

– Special to the Sun

PATAKI: MOODY GIVES STATE HIGHEST RATING SINCE 1975

The Moody’s Rating Agency has given the state its highest credit rating since 1975, Governor Pataki said yesterday. With the upgrade – the second in three years – New York now has an Aa rating from each of the major reporting agencies. The governor hailed the rating as a vindication of his policies of spending restraint, debt reform, and fiscal responsibility. According to Moody’s, the upgrade reflects trends of an improving state economy, tax revenues, and a positive fiscal outlook.

– Special to the Sun

HISTORIC LAKE PLACID LODGE BUILDING BURNS

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Flames engulfed the main building of the Adirondacks’ historic Lake Placid Lodge as firefighters from nearly a dozen companies spent hours battling the blaze yesterday in below-freezing temperatures. No injuries were reported, but damage to the nationally recognized and award-winning resort was extensive, fire officials said. The president and chief operating officer of the Garrett Hotel Group, Philip Wood, couldn’t say how the fire would affect the Lodge’s operations or its employees. But he promised the blaze wouldn’t be the end of the Lake Placid Lodge. “We’re in the hotel business, so there’s going to be a hotel in Lake Placid, I can tell you that,” Mr. Wood told the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

COURT OF APPEALS SENDS PORNOGRAPHY CASE BACK TO LOWER COURT

Peddlers of X-rated materials in Manhattan will get another chance to argue a New York City zoning law banishing them from most city neighborhoods violates their right to free expression, the state’s highest court ruled yesterday. In a 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals sent a case brought by the adult establishments against the city back to trial court. Several clubs and video stores peddling X-rated material sued the city over a 2001 amendment to a 1995 law that banned all adult entertainment activity from neighborhoods outside certain industrial areas. The establishments had been operating under the “60/40 rule” which provided that a business could not be called an adult establishment if less than 40% of its floor space or inventory was devoted to pornographic or X-rated materials.

– Associated Press