MANHATTAN

PERKINS ENDORSED BY THREE IN CITY COUNCIL

Three Manhattan City Council members endorsed Bill Perkins yesterday for state Senate. Robert Jackson, Melissa Mark Viverito, and Miguel Martinez endorsed Mr. Perkins – who left the City Council in 2005 due to term limits – yesterday afternoon on the City Hall steps. After the event, Mr. Perkins told The New York Sun that he agreed with the Brennan Center for Justice study calling the state Legislature the worst in the nation, but said term limits were not the answer. He suggested strengthening campaign finance and lobbying restrictions instead. Mr. Perkins is running to succeed Senator David Paterson, who has represented the 30th District since 1985 and is now running for lieutenant governor with Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Eliot Spitzer.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COLORFUL PARADE CELEBRATES PERSIAN HERITAGE

Thousands of Iranian-Americans marched down Madison Avenue yesterday to celebrate their heritage with floats, marching bands, and DJs spinning Farsi-language pop music. The third annual Persian Parade commemorated Nowruz, the Persian holiday marking the vernal equinox. Spectators along the parade’s 14-block route waved the Pahlavi-era Iranian flag with its lion, sword, and sun emblem, and dancers in colorful silk gowns shivered in the unseasonable chill. There were floats dedicated to Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian empire, to the prophet Zoroaster, and to the 13th century poet Rumi.

– Associated Press

FIRE TEMPORARILY CLOSES FERRY SERVICE

An all-hands fire on the loading dock of a pier at the South Ferry transit hub temporarily closed down ferry service for an hour yesterday morning, Fire Department officials said. The fire was reported at 11:06 a.m. and was extinguished a little more than an hour later, officials said. The cause has yet to be determined, but no firefighters were injured and no dam age was done to the structure of the pier.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

WEINER, YASSKY CALL ON FORD TO CREATE HYBRID FOR NYPD, TLC

Rep. Anthony Weiner and Council Member David Yassky yesterday called on the Ford Motor Company to create a hybrid version of its Crown Victoria model. The change would save the city’s Police Department and taxi drivers hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel expenses every year, they said. A hybrid version of the car would also cut down on gas emissions in city neighborhoods. Messrs. Yassky and Weiner sent a letter to the president of Ford urging him to produce a hybrid model of the popular Crown Victoria but said early talks with the company have shown a resistance to develop another hybrid model while the Ford Escape hybrid is lagging in sales, Mr. Weiner said.

– Special to the Sun

LEGISLATION ON INSURANCE FOR WIDOWS OF CITY RETIREES RE-INTRODUCED

A City Council member, David Weprin, who heads the Finance Committee, is reintroducing legislation this week to provide health insurance for the widows of city retirees, who are the primary health insurance holders. There are about 200,000 city retirees this legislation would apply to, Mr. Weprin said. Under current law, when a city retiree dies, his or her spouse may lose his or her entire city healthcare package. The bill, an amendment to the city’s administrative code, will be re-introduced for the council’s vote on Wednesday.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

FIRE DEPARTMENT QUELLS QUEENS BRUSH FIRE

Firefighters battled a Queens brush fire for nearly three hours early yesterday morning, in the latest of a citywide series of brush fires, a Fire Department spokesman said. It took nearly 138 firefighters from 12:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. to control the three-alarm fire, near 159th Avenue and 78th Street in Howard Beach, a spokesman said. Fueled by high winds and dry weeds, the fire destroyed an area one-third of a mile long and 150 yards wide, he said. No one was injured and no buildings were damaged. Yesterday’s fire is one of several recent brush fires that are under investigation, at least five of which occurred on Staten Island and have been deemed suspicious, a spokesman said. Last week, a Staten Island man was arrested in connection with a small fire in New Dorp Beach on March 16, and is a “person of interest” in several other blazes, the spokesman said.

– Special to the Sun