CITYWIDE

REPORT: CONGESTION PRICING WOULD RESULT IN LOSS OF $2.7B A YEAR

Instituting a congestion-pricing scheme in New York would reduce the number of people entering the city’s central business district by 40,000 every day and result in the loss of $2.7 billion a year, according to a report commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce that was released yesterday. The report comes a week after a report commissioned by Transportation Alternatives found most people driving into the city had other viable options to travel to Manhattan’s central business district. The report found that congestion pricing wouldn’t hurt the city’s economy because people would continue traveling into the city by other means. Representatives from Transportation Alternatives and the Partnership for New York City said the report was full of holes and didn’t take into account how the city would adapt London’s system to its specific needs and constraints.

– Special to the Sun

ROSENTHAL WINS ASSEMBLY SEAT ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE

A former aide to Rep. Jerrold Nadler won election to the state Assembly seat on the Upper West Side vacated by the Manhattan president, Scott Stringer. Linda Rosenthal, who served as Mr. Nadler’s Manhattan director for 13 years, carried 61% of the vote in Tuesday’s special election, easily defeating her top challenger, Charles Simon. Ms. Rosenthal’s victory was expected after she secured the backing of the Democratic county committee and received endorsements from most local party leaders. Mr. Simon, a lawyer and former Justice Department official, won 23% of the vote after outspending Ms. Rosenthal with more than $100,000 of his own money. Ms. Rosenthal will hold the 67th District seat through the November elections, when she will have to run again for a full two-year term. She may face a challenge from Mr. Simon and other Democrats in the September primary. Democrats easily won Assembly seats in two other elections Tuesday. Alan Maisel carried 85% of the vote in the 59th District in Brooklyn, and Sylvia Friedman won with 71% in the 74th District on Manhattan’s East Side.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

DEAL CALLS FOR MORE VIDEO CAMERAS IN JAILS

The city will install hundreds of video cameras in jails and improve training and accountability of guards to better control the use of force against inmates, according to a deal reached to settle a class action lawsuit.

– Associated Press

WINTER STORM WARNING ISSUED

Officials announced a winter storm warning yesterday. Meteorologists expect it to start snowing between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. today and continue through into the night. Snow will mix with sleet at times as the temperature fluctuates between 34 and 36 degrees, according to the storm warning. The rest of the week is expected to be in the upper 30s and low 40s.

– Special to the Sun

GAS SMELL PROMPTS EVACUATION OF BUILDINGS NEAR HANOVER SQUARE

A suspicious gas smell prompted the evacuation of several buildings in the vicinity of 5 Hanover Square yesterday morning. Officials attributed the smell to fumes from a gas plant in New Jersey, Duke Energy. By the end of the work day the smell had lifted and gas readings were negative in Lower Manhattan, officials said.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

THIEVES DRESSED AS POLICE OFFICERS ROB RIVERDALE WOMAN

Two alleged thieves dressed as New York City police officers robbed a Riverdale apartment yesterday morning, police said. The incident took place at around 8 a.m. inside a second-floor apartment on Kingsbridge Terrace, police said. The victim, 35, let the men inside because she said she thought they were police officers. The suspects were wearing dark clothes, shields around their necks, and caps emblazoned with the acronym “NYPD.” Police said a safe holding a small amount of cash was stolen. Police said the woman, a bodega owner, had been robbed a month ago, and was the victim of an attempted robbery two weeks ago. In yesterday’s incident, the two suspects, described as two Hispanic men in their 30s, were reportedly talking to a third individual – a possible collaborator – on a cell phone during the incident. No injuries were reported.

– Special to the Sun

MEDICAL EXAMINER RULES CHILD DEATH HOMICIDE

The death of a 2-year-old Bronx girl was reclassified by the medical examiner’s office as a homicide yesterday after it was discovered the toddler died from acute heroin intoxication, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said. The child, Sherlyn Polonia, died January 25 after ingesting heroin, the spokeswoman said. Police said investigators found drugs and drug paraphernalia in the girl’s apartment, including the room where she was sleeping. The girl’s mother, Joanna Bare, 23, and her boyfriend, Johnny Carvajal, 47, are charged in the girl’s death. A spokeswoman at the Bronx district attorney’s office said the case will be presented to a grand jury. Mr. Carvajal and Ms. Bare appeared in court yesterday, the spokeswoman said. They were charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, and endangering the welfare of a child; the district attorney’s office is still investigating whether or not to upgrade the charges to homicide.

– Special to the Sun

TEACHER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY RAPING BOY

Police arrested a pre-kindergarten teacher in Queens yesterday for allegedly raping and sexually abusing a 4-year-old boy. Khemwatie Bedessie, 37, of 125th Street in Queens, confessed in a video statement yesterday at the Police Department’s child abuse office in Queens, police said. Ms. Bedessie, a teacher at a Queens private school, was charged with first-degree rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child, police said. The 4-year-old boy reported the abuse to his mother on February 20, prompting his mother to take him to Jamaica Hospital. The hospital alerted police, who could not take a statement from the child because of his age, but elicited a full confession from Ms. Bedessie yesterday.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

MARK GREEN JOINS DEMOCRATIC RACE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Democrat Mark Green formally launched his campaign for attorney general yesterday, saying his career as a consumer advocate and public interest lawyer in New York and Washington made him the candidate best suited to succeed Eliot Spitzer.

– Associated Press

REAL ESTATE HEIR DURST IS RELEASED EARLY

HOUSTON – A New York real estate heir, Robert Durst, who was acquitted of murder in 2003 but sent to a private prison facility last month for parole violations was released early on Tuesday after he sued the state alleging his detention was too harsh.

– Associated Press

DROPOUTS COST STATE MORE THAN $24B OVER THEIR LIFETIME

High school dropouts in New York are costing the state more than $24 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetime, according to a report released yesterday by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLL: DEMOCRATS FAVOR SPITZER FOR GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION

New York Democrats prefer Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor, with 73% saying they would vote for him, according to a recent poll. On the Republican side, a former Massachusetts governor, William Weld, led for the nomination with 15%, but 69% of potential voters said they were undecided. When asked if they believed Senator Clinton should run for president, 68% of respondents said they thought she would. A total of 57% said they would rather that she not run. Sixty-four percent of voters said they would like Mayor Giuliani to run for president. The poll was based on 1,200 likely voters who were contacted from February 24 to 26 by Strategic Vision, LLC. The margin of error is three percentage points.

– Special to the Sun

TROOPER SHOT TO DEATH IN RURAL WESTERN NEW YORK

BIG FLATS – A New York State trooper was shot and killed yesterday while authorities were investigating an armed robbery at a bank in this rural western New York village, police said. The trooper was killed about 90 minutes after a robbery at noon in Big Flats, which lies midway between Corning and Elmira above the Pennsylvania state line.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

CANCER CENTER GIVEN CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH AFTER DRUG PROBE

The Upper East Side’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has been given a clean bill of health by the state Department of Health, which yesterday concluded its investigation into allegations of illegal prescription drug use in the basement of the hospital, an agency spokesman said. News accounts indicated there were also allegations that hospital workers were selling the drugs in the basement. The agency found no violations, but noted that there was no involvement by licensed personnel or any patient care staff in the alleged criminal activity. Several employees were involved in activity that did violate policies, she said, but there was no “diversion of prescription drugs from our pharmacy nor illegal use or sale of prescription drugs.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun