QUEENS

MAYOR SAYS OFFICERS’ LIVES SAVED BY BULLETPROOF VESTS

Mayor Bloomberg credited a bulletproof vest with saving the lives of two police officers shot by a Brooklyn man yesterday morning. “Thankfully, neither of these officers are seriously injured. They both appear to have been protected by their bulletproof vests,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a visit to Kings County Hospital Center, where the officers were treated. The Fire Department and Police Department responded to a 2:59 a.m. call about a fire in a Bedford-Stuyvesant building. The nature of the call was amended to a man with a knife, police said, although the suspect had started a small fire in a shared kitchen. Jonathan Julian, 29, fired two shots at the police officers while standing in his single room occupancy at 834 Halsey St., police said. Officer Hector Ramirez, 33, was hit in the chest and Officer John Antonacci, 40, was hit in the back. Mr. Julian bit the hand of another police officer, Nicholas Horun, 26, who aided his sergeant, Chiksum Gong, 44, in wrestling the gun out of the suspect’s hand. The officers were in stable condition last night.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

10 HURT IN FIRE

A fire in a row of stores raged for five hours and injured 10 people before it was brought under control yesterday afternoon, the Fire Department said. Firefighters were called to the stores on Sutphin Boulevard in the Jamaica section of Queens around 11:30 a.m., a department spokesman, Farrell Sklerov, said. The fire spread to five stores. Six firefighters, three police officers, and one civilian suffered minor injuries, Mr. Sklerov said. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

MAYOR ANNOUNCES RETROACTIVE CONTRACT WITH FIRE DEPARTMENT

Mayor Bloomberg announced a retroactive contract agreement with the Uniformed Fire Officers Association yesterday that includes a 17% salary increase over about four years. In order to fund part of the wage increase, starting pay for lieutenants and fire marshals promoted was cut for anyone promoted on or after March 1 or later. That precedent was established by the police union, which was forced in binding arbitration to accept salary cuts for new recruits. The union has been without a contract since 2003.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SHEEHAN’S TRIP CANCELED BECAUSE SHE IS ‘NOT FIT TO TRAVEL’

Organizers canceled a trip abroad for a peace activist, Cindy Sheehan, because of injuries sustained when she was arrested last week in New York City. “We had to cancel Cindy’s trip because her doctor said she was not fit to travel,” an employee of American Voices Abroad, one of the groups that organized the trip, Elsa Rassbach, said. Ms. Rassbach said Ms. Sheehan, an active protester of the war in Iraq, suffered an arm injury and possibly a concussion. The Police Department declined to comment.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

HOSPITALS FACE BUDGET GAP IN ’07

The city’s hospitals are facing a $350 million budget gap in 2007, the president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, Alan Aviles, said yesterday. At a City Council hearing, Mr. Aviles blamed state Medicaid reimbursement policies for stagnant revenues and increased expenses, saying the city needed to pressure Albany to reverse proposed budget cuts to Medicaid.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

HEVESI PUTS NEW FINANCIAL RULES IN PLACE FOR PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

State-run public authorities that handle billions of dollars will have to provide better financial reporting and tighten business oversight under new rules put in place yesterday by the state comptroller, Alan Hevesi. Mr. Hevesi said the regulations will publicly open the budget process for 215 authorities and subsidiaries that finance state building construction, run mass transit systems, and operate state highways and bridges, among other duties.

– Associated Press

LEGISLATURE PROPOSES LARGER BUDGET THAN PATAKI

The Republican-controlled Senate proposed a state budget of $111.8 billion and the Democrat-controlled Assembly proposed its own $112 billion budget yesterday. Both proposals were full of more spending for education and health care, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks. Both chambers’ majorities also rejected Governor Pataki’s proposed increase in tuition for the State University of New York and the City University of New York. Lawmakers also rejected Mr. Pataki’s proposal that would restrict the Tuition Assistance Program, a major financial aid program for public and private college students.

– Associated Press

DEMOCRATS PLACE FIRST TV ADS IN PRIMARY FOR GOVERNOR

The Democratic candidates for governor, the Nassau County executive, Thomas Suozzi and the two-term attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, yesterday began running television ads statewide, an early but predictable start for both in the Democrats’ effort to take back the executive branch after 12 years, political observers said.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

‘MAFIA COPS’ TRIAL OPENS

Raising their voices and pounding their fists, using props and a touch of hyperbole, the high-profile lawyers for a pair of allegedly crooked ex-New York Police Department detectives launched a vigorous defense yesterday against charges their clients kidnapped and killed on the orders of a mob underboss. The courtroom theatrics came during opening statements in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where defendants Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa sat quietly as their attorneys answered allegations that the pair joined the payroll of the Luchese crime family before going on a two-cop crime spree.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

SUNY APPROVES UFT CHARTER SCHOOL

The United Federation of Teachers moved one step closer to opening a secondary charter school in Brooklyn yesterday. The SUNY Board of Trustees approved the school that will eventually serve sixth- through 12th-graders. The union made headlines when it opened the nation’s first union-operated charter school in September. The new school will open with 125 sixth-graders in September in a public school building at 800 Van Siclen Ave. in the East New York section of Brooklyn. The SUNY trustees approved an amendment to the UFT’s existing elementary school charter to permit the operation of the secondary school. Class sizes will be limited to 25 students. The school still needs a final stamp of approval from the state Board of Regents.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

BUSH TO VISIT CANANDAIGUA, KUHL TODAY

A freshman congressman, John “Randy” Kuhl, hasn’t even formally declared he is seeking re-election, but he’s already called in the big gun – President Bush. Mr. Bush plans today to visit Canandaigua in Mr. Kuhl’s conservative-leaning 29th District, where Mr. Kuhl is well-known and where presumably the president has not suffered as steep a drop in popularity as reflected in his national poll numbers.

– Associated Press

ADULT HOME ADVOCATES SAY LAW ALLOWS RESIDENTS TO SWELTER

Nursing homes built after 1991 must have central air conditioning, the Health Department only requires adult homes to ensure residents are not put at risk on hot days. Protections can include closing blinds or making sure residents drink enough fluids, according to Health Department guidelines. A survey by the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled in New York City found more than half of adult homes in the state did not have air conditioning available in every resident’s room last year. Many of those that offer it require additional fees of up to $50.Yet about a third of the 40,000 people living in adult homes across New York are mentally ill and survive on a Social Security allowance of $150 a month. This month, state Assemblyman James Brennan, a Democrat, introduced a bill to provide $7 million for air conditioning in adult homes.

– Associated Press

SPENCER ENDORSED BY UPSTATE REPUBLICANS

GLENS FALLS – A former Yonkers mayor, John Spencer, was endorsed by two upstate Republican county committees last night over his primary opponent and former Pentagon spokeswoman, Kathleen Troia McFarland. The two appeared at a candidates’ forum hosted by the Republican committees of Warren and Washington counties. The counties also endorsed John Faso for governor, and Christopher Callahan for comptroller. Mr. Faso’s opponents, William Weld and Randy Daniels did not attend.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun