MANHATTAN

PORT AUTHORITY, SILVERSTEIN NEGOTIATE OVER WTC BUILDING RIGHTS

Negotiations between the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein continued into the last night as they tried to strike a deal over building rights at ground zero before Governor Pataki’s midnight deadline. A spokeswoman for Mr. Pataki, Joanna Rose, said there had been “some progress” in the talks. Representatives of Mr. Silverstein and the Port Authority have indicated that negotiations would continue past the deadline if progress is taking place. The state’s leading development official, Charles Gargano, who is also the vice chairman of the Port Authority, told the Associated Press yesterday that discussions had taken place in which the Freedom Tower, on which Mr. Silverstein planned to begin construction next month, would be handed back over to the Port Authority, which owns the site.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

LAWMAKERS MEETING ON EXTRA SPENDING IN STATE BUDGET

State lawmakers yesterday began divvying up about $1 billion more in spending for the state budget due April 1. Assembly and Senate leaders sent specific spending targets to conference committees of Senate and Assembly members to negotiate certain areas of the budget. Yet legislative leaders still haven’t agreed on how much they have to spend above Governor Pataki’s budget proposal. He submitted a $110.6 billion budget in January and said the Senate and Assembly are trying to spend too much.

– Associated Press

GOP LEADER: SPENCER MAKES MORE SENSE TO TAKE ON CLINTON

New York’s state Republican chairman said yesterday it would “probably make more sense” for the GOP to give its nomination to challenge Senator Clinton to the former Yonkers mayor, John Spencer, than to a newly minted contender, Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland. Stephen Minarik said given Mr. Spencer’s conservative credentials, he “would be a good person on the ticket for us.”

– Associated Press

SUOZZI ALLY: SPITZER TIED TO PBA LAWSUIT

A day after a police union filed a lawsuit claiming the Nassau county executive, Thomas Suozzi, improperly cut off payments won in arbitration, a Suozzi ally yesterday criticized Eliot Spitzer for what he claimed was the attorney general’s role in the litigation. Mr. Suozzi is battling front-runner Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor.

– Associated Press

PARENTS, UFT, LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR MORE EDUCATION FUNDING

Busloads of parents headed to Albany yesterday along with the United Federation of Teachers and nearly a dozen City Council members to push the governor and Legislature to funnel more funds into city schools. The group, organized by the schools chancellor’s Parent Advisory Committee, also demanded smaller class sizes and increased school safety. Parents typically join the Department of Education for an annual lobby day but the parent group voted this year to break off and join the union members instead.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

EDITOR LEAVES VILLAGE VOICE TWO WEEKS AFTER FABRICATION CASE

The acting editor in chief at the Village Voice has left the weekly alternative newspaper, two weeks after overseeing publication of an issue containing fabricated material. The Voice announced the departure of Doug Simmons on its Web site by posting a photograph of what appeared to be a paper napkin bearing a handwritten note from the Village Voice’s media executive editor, Michael Lacey. “Doug Simmons is no longer acting editor,” the napkin said. “Ward Harkavy, long time senior editor and Arizona crony, is now interim editor. Call us tomorrow for next update.”

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

DRIVER’S LICENSE PROVIDES ACCESS TO STATE LIBRARY HOLDINGS

New Yorkers will now be able to use their driver’s licenses to gain free access from their home to thousands of subscription-charging newspapers, magazines, extensive reference works, and cutting-edge research. The State Library’s New York Online Virtual Electronic Library – also known as NOVEL – provides access to the largest state library system in the nation.

– Associated Press

SECURITY COMPROMISED IN MIDDLE SCHOOL STATE TEST

Four questions in state standardized tests now being given had appeared in sample tests used by students statewide, compromising the security of the exams.

– Associated Press

HOSPITALS TO BEGIN TALKS FOR MERGERS, TAKEOVERS

Hospitals in New York State could start striking deals for mergers and acquisitions without violating antitrust laws under new protections put forth by a state panel. The panel, charged with the onerous task of consolidating New York’s health care system, is asking providers to propose its own solutions. That means hospitals could initiate a range of deals, including agreements between facilities in a rural area for one hospital to exclusively provide a certain medical procedure while the other is the go-to place for another.

– Associated Press

OFFICIALS: LOCAL ROADS, BRIDGES WORSE THAN STATE ROUTES

Town and county roads and bridges around New York are in even worse shape than those controlled by the state and stand to deteriorate rapidly amid rising traffic and harsh winters, local highway officials said yesterday. About 38% of the state’s county and town-owned bridges are listed as structurally deficient, in need of work but not in danger of imminent collapse. That compares to a national deficiency rate of 28% for local bridges.

– Associated Press

GROUPS WANT TO KNOW IF FBI, POLICE SPIED ON THEM

SYRACUSE – The New York Civil Liberties Union filed Freedom of Information requests yesterday on behalf of itself and 13 political and religious groups to determine whether the FBI and local law enforcement agencies have been spying on them. Requests were filed by NYCLU chapters in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and New York City, the director of the group’s central New York chapter, Barrie Gewanter, said.

– Associated Press

TRISTATE

SCOPE OF BODY PART SCANDAL EMERGES AMID FLOOD OF LEGAL ACTION

The scope of a scandal involving body parts plundered from corpses has begun to emerge amid a flood of legal action, with one company alone saying it has distributed thousands of pieces of human tissue that authorities fear could be tainted with disease. In addition, three other companies have reported quarantining or destroying more than $5 million in tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services – the now-defunct New Jersey company at the center of the scandal.

– Associated Press

BRONX

BLOOMBERG ATTENDS GROUNDBREAKING FOR SOUTH BRONX MALL

Mayor Bloomberg joined developers from the Related Companies yesterday for a ceremonial groundbreaking on a $56.7 million shopping and office complex in the South Bronx. The vacant swathe of land, which was purchased by Related from the city, will be home to a 170,000-square-foot shopping mall. The city kicked in $16 million and will move the Department of Finance’s business center into the new facility once it is complete in 2008. The president of the Bronx, Adolfo Carrion, who provided $500,000 for the project, said it was one more building block in a redevelopment effort that includes the Bronx Terminal Market, a project Related is also developing.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN CHARGED WITH SHOOTING OFFICERS

A man suspected of shooting two police officers responding to a 911 call about a fire in his Brooklyn building was arraigned yesterday afternoon. Jonathan Julian, 29, was charged in Brooklyn Criminal Court with three counts of assault, three counts of menacing a police officer, one count of second-degree attempted murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, three counts of attempted murder, arson, and attempted arson, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. When police arrived at the front door of Mr. Julian’s Halsey Street single-room occupancy on Monday at about 3 a.m., he allegedly fired two rounds from a revolver, striking one officer in the shoulder and another in the chest. Their bulletproof vests saved their lives, Mayor Bloomberg said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE HUNT FOR ALLEGED FLASHER

Police are searching for a man who allegedly exposed himself to a teenage girl on a subway in Long Island City earlier this month. On March 3 at 4:25 p.m., the girl, 15, was sitting on a northbound no. 7 subway train from Queensboro Plaza when the man stood in front of her, police said. He flashed her but she snapped his photograph with her mobile telephone. They both exited the subway car at Main Street. The girl reported the crime to police at about 8 p.m. that night. The suspect is described as a Hispanic man in his 30s, about 5 feet, 9 inches, and 170 pounds.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun