CITYWIDE

FUND-RAISER TO HELP IN SEARCH FOR SHOW DOG LOST AT JFK AIRPORT

Supporters of Vivi, the award-winning show dog that escaped from a travel cage at the airport on the way home from the Westminster Kennel Club show, have planned a fund-raising event for her owners’ efforts to find her. The 3-year-old whippet, whose formal name is Champion Bohem C’est La Vie, apparently bolted from her carrier at John F. Kennedy International Airport as she was about to be loaded onto a plane for the flight to Southern California on February 15.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

LAWSUIT OVER $241,000 TOPLESS CLUB TAB SETTLED

An expensive night out at Scores cost a Missouri businessman his job, but his final tab for the evening in the topless temple will remain a secret. A confidential settlement was reached in a lawsuit over a $241,000 American Express bill rung up at the club on October 22, 2003, the attorney who represented the strip club, Donald David, said. The settlement was reached among Scores, American Express, Savvis Incorporated, and Savvis’s former CEO, Robert McCormick.

– Associated Press

SEPTEMBER 11 FAMILY MEMBER BEGINS VIGIL TO PROTEST MEMORIAL

The sister of a firefighter killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, yesterday announced she would sleep across from ground zero indefinitely to protest plans for the World Trade Center memorial. “I will be here every night from this night forward until the underground memorial issue is resolved,” Rosaleen Tallon said.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FELL TO 4.6% IN JANUARY

New York State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in January, down from 5% in December, state Labor Department officials reported yesterday. The state unemployment rate in January 2005 was 5.2%. The January 2006 unemployment rate was 5.5% in New York City, down from 5.8 % in December, and 6% a year earlier.

– Associated Press

HEVESI AIMS TO FIX HOW STATE CONTRACTS ARE AWARDED

The state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, saying millions of dollars in state contracts have gone to companies accused of fraud and bribery, is issuing new guidelines to make sure contracts are given only to reputable businesses. State agencies have lacked a coordinated system to determine if businesses seeking contracts were “responsible vendors” without legal or financial problems, and the businesses themselves had to deal with a cumbersome process to even apply for the jobs, he said.

– Associated Press

HOSPITALS COULD GET MORE MONEY FOR EMERGENCY ROOMS

Hospitals for the first time in 15 years could get a boost in funding for the emergency-room care they provide to the poor in New York State. Key lawmakers yesterday showed bipartisan support for raising the amount of money hospitals are reimbursed for emergency-room visits by Medicaid patients. Advocates say the move could free up money to improve quality of care in everything from maternity wards to community health programs.

– Associated Press

SARATOGA COUNTY TREASURER ANNOUNCES RUN FOR STATE COMPTROLLER

The Saratoga county treasurer, Christopher Callaghan, said yesterday he’ll seek the Republican nomination for state comptroller. Mr. Callaghan is the first Republican to enter the race to take on the incumbent Democrat, Alan Hevesi, in the November election.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

BOY GEORGE TO REVISIT REHAB IN PLEA BARGAIN

The former Culture Club lead singer, Boy George, in a plea bargain deal that spared him possible jail time, agreed yesterday to enter a drug rehabilitation program and perform community service to resolve his arrest last year on a cocaine possession charge.

– Associated Press

PROSECUTORS ANNOUNCE CHARGES AGAINST GREENPOINT CREW

Federal prosecutors announced charges yesterday against 21 people who are accused of belonging to a Brooklyn crime ring that dealt in everything from luxury cars to antique violins. Prosecutors claim that a former gynecologist from Ukraine, Ostap Kapelioujnyj, was one of the leaders of the gang called the Greenpoint Crew. Almost all 21 defendants were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon, said a spokesman for the office of U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. Mr. Kapelioujnyj and five others were jailed. The group is alleged to have had access to local law enforcement databases.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LAWYER FOR DUTCH YOUTH MOVES TO DISMISS HOLLOWAY LAWSUIT

The lawyer for a Dutch youth who was questioned about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, Joran van der Sloot, moved yesterday to dismiss a lawsuit filed in New York by her parents.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

WOODY ALLEN AIMING TO JAZZ UP ROCHESTER

Woody Allen wants to help the birthplace of jazz recover its old rhythm. The 70-year-old filmmaker and clarinet player will open the fifth annual Rochester International Jazz Festival in June with a benefit concert for New Orleans’s dislocated jazz community, festival producer John Nugent said yesterday.

– Associated Press

EMERGENCY SIRENS TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE

WHITE PLAINS – The lameduck emergency siren system for the Indian Point nuclear power plants locked up during a test yesterday and had to be taken out of service, county and company officials said. The computer problems meant that the area within 10 miles of the nuclear plants was without its primary means of emergency notification, at least temporarily.

– Associated Press

RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY TO VOTE ON POLICIES ABOUT GAY RABBIS

The authoritative body on religious policy and practice within the Jewish Conservative movement announced yesterday that it plans to vote in December on its policies toward same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay rabbis. The Rabbinical Assembly Committee on Jewish Law and Standards reviewed four opinions on the subject during meetings in Baltimore yesterday and Tuesday, but after “intense but respectful” discussions, decided to put off a vote until the opinions were “extensively revised,” the executive vice president of the assembly, Rabbi Joel Meyers, said in a statement.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TRISTATE

POLICE: MOTHER GETTING MESSAGES FROM MISSING GIRL

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Since 13-year-old Natasha Brown vanished on her way to school Monday, police say she’s text messaged her mother saying that someone followed her and that she woke up in a dark basement.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

CUSTODIAN QUESTIONED IN BURGLARY SCHEME AT RIVERSIDE DRIVE CO-OP

Police questioned a custodian yesterday and said they were planning to interrogate an elevator man last night and a doorman today in a burglary scheme at a Riverside Drive cooperative. Police officials said surveillance video captured the custodian at 11 Riverside Drive carting out a clothing dryer from the apartment of a deceased woman. Investigators said they believe the woman’s fur coat, china, silver, and a painting were stashed in the dryer. The custodian allegedly told police that he was in cahoots with the two other workers. Police suspect the trio could be responsible for other in-house burglaries, including the theft three weeks ago of antique jewelry from a woman’s apartment. The custodian’s name is being withheld by The New York Sun because he had not been arrested at press time.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN ARRESTED IN HIT-AND-RUN OF 81-YEAR-OLD

A car hit an 81-year-old woman as she crossed a street yesterday morning in the Boro Park area of Brooklyn. The driver, an 18-year-old man, briefly drove on before returning to the scene of the accident. The accident occurred at 10:30 a.m. at the intersections of 10th Avenue and 44th Street. The woman was taken to the Lutheran Medical Center in critical condition. Police arrested the driver, identified as Jonathan Reyes of Brooklyn, on charges of leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a license.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun