CITYWIDE

QUINN PROPOSES FIRST BILL AS SPEAKER: ‘MANNY’S LAW’

The new speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, proposed legislation yesterday that will require hospitals to notify patients of financial assistance plans and to report the amount of charity care they provide. Manny’s Law was drafted after an uninsured patient named Manny Lanza died when a hospital allegedly delayed surgery because of his insurance status. The bill is the first Ms. Quinn has introduced since being elected speaker, and many have taken it as a signal that she will make health care her top priority.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL MEMBER TO INTRODUCE BILL TO COMBAT BEDBUGS

The city’s bedbug battle may soon find a staging ground in the City Council, as a Manhattan lawmaker is set to introduce a bill to curb the biting bedroom guests. A Democrat of the Upper West Side, Gale Brewer, said yesterday that she wants to ban the sale of reconditioned mattresses as part of a larger effort to tackle what some see as a growing epidemic – the spread of bedbugs in apartments and hotels citywide. Ms. Brewer’s bill also would create a task force to examine the bedbug boom, and advise city agencies on how to deal with the burgeoning problem.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

LEGISLATURE AGREES TO DEDICATE $100M TO EMERGENCY HEATING AID

The state Legislature yesterday announced an agreement to dedicate $100 million in emergency heating aid for the poor and elderly this winter.The agreement adds up to $263 million in federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in New York.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

SEVEN INJURED IN FIVE-ALARM FIRE IN SOHO

Six firefighters and one civilian suffered minor injuries after a five-alarm blaze ravaged a historic building in SoHo Saturday night, fire officials reported yesterday. Fire Department officials said the blaze started at around 10 p.m. on Saturday at 573-575 Broadway in SoHo’s Cast Iron Historic District. It took 198 firefighters until 2:21 a.m. yesterday to control the flames that spread through four floors of the six-story commercial structure, fire officials said. The address currently houses Prada’s flagship store in Manhattan. As of last night, fire officials were still investigating the cause of the fire.

– Special to the Sun

TWO TEENS SHOT, ONE FATALLY, AT SWEET 16 PARTY

Two teens were shot in Brooklyn at a Sweet 16 party early yesterday morning, police said. The two teens were celebrating Saturday night in an apartment building near Winthrop and East 52nd streets in East Flatbush, police said. At around 1:33 a.m. yesterday, police responded to a call that two young men were shot, police said. Ronald Petgrave, 17, of East 91st Street in Brooklyn, had multiple gunshot wounds in his body and head, and was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital. Another 17-year-old teen, whom police did not identify last night, was shot twice and also was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, according to police. As of last night, police had made no arrests and said the investigation was ongoing.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

HISTORIC MANHATTAN SYNAGOGUE PARTIALLY COLLAPSES

A historic synagogue in Manhattan suffered a partial collapse yesterday, fire officials said. According to Fire Department officials, the roof and part of a side wall of the First Roumanian-American Synagogue on Rivington Street caved in yesterday afternoon around 3:45 p.m. The synagogue itself was vacant at the time, but some 100 residents in adjacent apartment buildings on Rivington, Ludlow, and Orchard streets were evacuated yesterday afternoon and placed in temporary shelters by city and Red Cross officials, the Fire Department said.

– Special to the Sun