CITYWIDE

‘LEAD’ TEACHERS TO EARN EXTRA

$10,000 About 200 city educators will earn an additional $10,000 a year starting in September as part of a new “lead teacher” program, the city’s Department of Education announced yesterday. The initiative, agreed to in the most recent teachers union contract, will expand a pilot program that started in the Bronx. Under the program, experienced teachers are chosen to mentor newer teachers. The lead teachers spend half of their time teaching and the other half working with their colleagues to improve instruction.” The program allows us to put our best teachers into the schools that need them most and begins to address the misallocation of human resources that has hurt our schools for decades,” the city’s schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said. The president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said the city was following the terms of the agreement but that the schools in the Bronx where the program began had been “shut out the process” of developing the program.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MURDER CONVICT WHO ESCAPED IN 1973 IS CAPTURED

A convicted murderer who escaped while on furlough from a Pennsylvania prison 32 years ago was captured yesterday morning at his home in New York City, federal marshals said. Jose Ortiz Collaso, 71, was living under the name Eleuterio Rosario in the Bronx, according to the U.S. marshal in Harrisburg, Michael Regan. He was waiting to be extradited to Pennsylvania yesterday. In 1968, Collaso was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison for the slaying of 13-year-old Verela Blakely, of Coatesville, the year before, Regan said.

– Associated Press

FEWER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SMOKING, DATA SHOW

The number of New York City public high school students who smoke has fallen to just over 1 in 10, a decline of more than 50% since 1997, when 23% of students lit up, city officials said yesterday.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

JUDGE LETS STAND LARCENY CHARGES AGAINST PRIEST

A judge yesterday refused to drop grand larceny and other charges filed against a Roman Catholic priest who is accused of stealing more than a $1 million from his parish. Lawyers for Monsignor John Woolsey tried to have the charges dismissed on the grounds that prosecutors conducted grand jury proceedings improperly and the evidence against him was insufficient. The state Supreme Court justice, Bruce Allen, let the charges stand, saying he found nothing improper about the indictment of Monsignor Woolsey, pastor of Manhattan’s Church of St. John the Martyr, and he found the evidence adequate to support the charges.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

GRIEVING MOTHER SAYS AMUSEMENT PARK RIDES SHOULD HAVE RATINGS

WHITE PLAINS – Spurred by a woman whose son died at Playland, state senators are considering a rating system for amusement park rides, along the lines of movies labeled G, PG, and R. The guide could be in place by this summer, Senator Nicholas Spano said.

– Associated Press

BUSH URGED TO VISIT V.A. HOSPITAL President Bush’s planned trip to Canandaigua Tuesday may help draw attention to the reorganization of the area’s aging Veterans Affairs hospital complex. Senator Schumer sent the White House a letter yesterday urging the president to visit the facility next week. The Department of Veterans Affairs recommended in 2003 closing the Canandaigua VA as part of a nationwide cost-cutting and restructuring plan, but the community and lawmakers convinced a commission to reject that plan. Now, the federal government is considering options for a new nursing home and outpatient clinic, but has not determined where in the area to build them.

– Associated Press

SUOZZI, SCHOOL OFFICIALS COMPLAIN ABOUT STATE AID INEQUITY

MINEOLA – Dozens of school board members joined the Nassau county executive, Tom Suozzi, yesterday in urging the state Legislature to change the formulas for how state school aid is distributed. Mr. Suozzi, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor as a state government reformer, said county taxpayers are getting a raw deal when it comes to school aid.

– Associated Press

ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS HAS 4 MONTHS TO SETTLE HARBOR ISSUE

A federal judge has given the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers four more months to prove it has sufficiently studied environmental threats from a $1.6 billion project to dredge the area’s shipping channels for a new generation of container ships. The U.S. district judge, Shira Scheindlin, said the Army Corps had made progress on the environmental front but still did not appear to take it seriously enough.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

LOCAL OFFICIALS WANT ANSWERS FROM STATE ON FLU PLAN

As the threat of bird flu inches closer to American shores, some local leaders say they are still waiting for guidance in complying with New York State’s first-ever pandemic flu plan released last month. The 400-page emergency plan broadly outlines actions including the closing of schools and businesses and the distribution of vaccines, but fails to specify how local agencies would coordinate such measures, experts say. The state Senate on Friday will hold the first public hearing on bird flu, with the state health commissioner, Antonia Novello, and the state director of homeland security, James McMahon.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

SWASTIKAS FOUND IN UWS APARTMENT BUILDING

Police are investigating a possible bias incident, after four swastikas were found inside an Upper West Side apartment building. The incident occurred in an apartment on West 85th Street, where four swastikas were etched into metal panels inside an elevator, police said. Lenn Realty, which manages the building, reported the crime. Police said the swastikas may have been there for as long as a month.

– Special to the Sun

TWO POLICE OFFICERS ARRESTED IN BROTHEL BRIBERY CASE

Two police officers are accused of accepting sexual favors and free drinks as bribes from brothel owners in Queens, authorities said yesterday. Dennis Kim, 29, and Jerry Svoronos, 30, were arrested on Wednesday along with a couple who allegedly operated several brothels. Federal and local agents also seized $800,000 in cash and detained 16 prostitutes from Korea and China on possible immigration violations. Messrs. Kim and Svoronos were awaiting arraignment on bribery charges in federal court in Brooklyn; if convicted, they would face up to 10 years in prison.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

SENTENCING OF STEWART POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

The sentencing of attorney Lynne Stewart and two members of her legal staff will not occur Friday and has been postponed indefinitely. Stewart has asked the court that she complete treatment for breast cancer before she is sentenced for publicizing a message from an incarcerated terrorist sheik she represented, the New York Times reported recently. An attorney for Mohamed Yousry, the Arabic translator also convicted with Stewart, said that his client will likely be sentenced with Stewart and that his sentencing has also been postponed. The lawyer representing Ahmed Abdel Sattar, Ms. Stewart’s paralegal, who is also to be sentenced, could not be reached for comment. Last year, a jury convicted Stewart of illegally passing on statements from a client of hers, Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence sentence for a 1993 bomb plot in New York. Rahman, a sheik, heads a terrorist organization in Egypt, the Islamic Group.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LONG ISLAND

McGOWAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MISUSING CAMPAIGN FUNDS

RIVERHEAD – Peter McGowan, a powerful, outspoken Long Island politician, pleaded guilty to four corruption charges yesterday, admitting he stole tens of thousands of dollars from his campaign and spent the money on vacations, massages and restaurant tabs in the Hamptons. “He was stealing money from his campaign funds, and quite frankly using the money to sustain a lavish lifestyle,” the Suffolk county district attorney, Thomas Spota, said. “It was almost like a year-long Mardi Gras party.” Earlier in the day, McGowan, 69, submitted his resignation as Islip town supervisor.

– Associated Press