ALBANY

PATAKI SIGNS LAW TO REFORM PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

Governor Pataki has signed a new law to provide greater oversight and tighter regulation of state authorities that handle billions of dollars in public money for state purposes like maintaining the Thruway and running mass transit in New York City. Mr. Pataki said yesterday that his executive budget contains $1.5 million for the new Public Authority Budget Office, which is created by the new law to report on the operations of public authorities and their efforts at compliance. Over the past several decades, their number has grown to more than 700. The measure, passed by the state Legislature in June, also establishes an independent inspector general, bans procurement lobbying, strengthens provisions for public access to information, and provides new rules for the disposing of public authority property. It establishes codes of ethical conduct for authority directors, officers, and employees.

– Associated Press

TRISTATE

CODEY MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO SMOKE IN BARS

WEST ORANGE, N.J. – Governor Codey yesterday made it illegal to light up in New Jersey bars, restaurants, and most other public places with the exception of casino floors. Mr. Codey signed the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act in West Orange, along with a bill that raises the age at which a person can buy tobacco to 19 from 18. The smoking ban is designed to protect customers and employees from the dangers of second-hand smoke and goes into effect April 15. The legislation makes New Jersey the 11th state with such a ban, joining Delaware and New York, among others. Some business owners who rely on customers who puff away say their businesses will suffer withdrawals from the impending ban. “It’s going to hurt all of our businesses,” the owner of the Park Tavern in East Rutherford, John Italiano, said. “I’m going to have to put a sign in the window that says, ‘No smoking, that’s it.'” In a raucous rally last week, hundreds of people and a handful of strippers turned up on the Statehouse steps to protest the legislation. Bowling alley operators have also sued the state to block the ban, but their request was thrown out by a Superior Court judge.

– Associated Press

ONE DEAD, ONE INJURED IN SEPARATE TRAIN INCIDENTS

NEWARK, N.J. – One person is dead and another injured after each was hit by an NJ Transit train in two separate incidents yesterday. An unidentified man was killed in Monmouth County’s Middletown when he was struck just after 2:30 p.m. at the Church Street crossing by a North Jersey Coast Line train heading from New York to Long Branch, a spokesman for NJ Transit, Dan Stessel, said. The man had just arrived at the station on another train, walked behind the train he’d been on, and was attempting to cross the tracks at a crossing while the gates were down and lights flashing to indicate an oncoming train, Mr. Stessel said. The engineer on the oncoming train sounded the horn and applied the brakes, but Mr. Stessel said the man was apparently wearing headphones and failed to respond. A woman, identified as Carla Williams, sustained non-life threatening injuries after she jumped off the platform in front of a Northeast Corridor train in New Brunswick just after 1 p.m, Mr. Stessel said. Although the woman jumped early enough before the train’s arrival into the station so that the engineer was able to see her and apply the brakes, she still sustained injuries including a broken leg and head injuries, Mr. Stessel said. She’s currently at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, in critical but stable condition.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE: TWO FOUND DEAD, POSSIBLY DUE TO EXPOSURE TO COLD

Two men were found dead yesterday, possibly due to their exposure to the cold, police said. Police said the bodies of two unidentified men in their 50s or 60s were found in a vacant lot at Moultrie and Calyer streets in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn around 4:53 p.m. One man was found face up, and the other was facedown, according to police. Both men were probably homeless, police said. As of last night, police said the medical examiner was investigating the causes of death. According to police, the men were found in a frozen state as a result of exposure to the extreme cold.

– Special to the Sun