CITYWIDE

BLOOMBERG PROMOTES SKYLER TO DEPUTY MAYOR

Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that he was promoting his communications director, Edward Skyler, 32, to the post of deputy mayor for administration. Mr. Skyler will assist the mayor in managing departments, including the Police Department, Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Labor Relations, and the Law Department. He will directly oversee the departments of Sanitation, and Citywide Administrative Services, as well as the Office of Contract Services, the Criminal Justice Coordinator, the Office of Midtown Enforcement, the Business Integrity Commission, Pensions, Public Finance, and Communications.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

FIRST CLASS OF POLICE RECRUITS WITH REDUCED SALARY SWORN IN

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly yesterday swore in the first class of Police Department recruits earning the newly reduced salary for police-in-training. The 1,121 men and women sworn in yesterday will earn a starting salary of $25,100, down from $34,500 under the old contract. The mayor and the police commissioner said yesterday that the drop in salary has not yet had an impact on the city’s ability to recruit new officers since the new class was “already in the pipeline” when the new pay scale went into place.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

FLOOR COLLAPSE INJURES FOUR

Four people were injured when the first floor of a Manhattan apartment building partially collapsed yesterday, fire officials said. The four construction workers suffered minor injuries when they were trapped in the basement of a six-story walk-up at 331 E. 51st St. around 11:30 a.m. No residents were present at the time, but 20 construction workers were at the site, fire officials said. The injured men were taken to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in stable condition, fire officials said.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

HOUSEKEEPER REPORTS SEX ASSAULT IN W HOTEL

An on-duty housekeeper in an East Side W Hotel told police she was sexually assaulted while working, police officials said. At around 5:30 a.m. yesterday, the woman, 25, who has been employed at the hotel for about one year, regained consciousness in the hallway on the sixth floor of the hotel on Lexington Avenue between 49th and 50th streets. The woman had no memory of an attack, but told police that about an hour before she had been pushed from behind and was knocked unconscious, although she was not sure how. The woman was taken to an area hospital where evidence was gathered for a rape kit. A spokeswoman for the hotel did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

– Staff Reporter for the Sun

POLICE ARREST SUSPECT IN 15 ROBBERIES

Police arrested a man who they suspect committed 15 robberies in Flushing between October 28 and Saturday, January 7. On Saturday at 3:10 p.m., the suspect, Darrell Cordes, 39, robbed a woman at the corner of Kissena Boulevard and Cherry Avenue and tried to flee by boarding a bus, police said. Watching the man sorting through a woman’s handbag, the bus driver grew suspicious of the straphanger, police said, and called the dispatcher, who in turn called police. Cordes tried to escape through the back door, but police apprehended him at Horace Harding Expressway and 164th Street at 3:20 p.m., officials said. Although police only charged the suspect with the Saturday crime, they have linked him to 14 other robberies in Flushing, where Cordes lives, police said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

LAWMAKERS FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT ON SEX OFFENDERS

The Legislature opened its 2006 session yesterday racing against the clock to keep thousands of convicted sex offenders living in communities from vanishing from the public registry beginning January 21. So far, the Senate and Assembly versions remain far apart. The Republican-controlled Senate wants lifetime registration of all sex offenders, while the Democrat-controlled Assembly seeks a temporary fix until Congress sets a standard for a national database. Under current law, more than 3,500 sex offenders in New York are expected to fall off the list by the end of the year.

– Associated Press