MANHATTAN

ANTHRAX PATIENT UPGRADED TO GOOD CONDITION

SAYRE, Pa. – A New York City man diagnosed with inhalation anthrax was upgraded to good condition yesterday, more than a month after he collapsed. Vado Diomande, 44, a dancer and drum maker, collapsed February 17 after performing with his dance company in Pennsylvania. Officials at Robert Packer Hospital said yesterday he was in good condition and was improving. Mr. Diomande started experiencing flu-like symptoms in January after he traveled to the Ivory Coast and brought back goat hides to make drums. Health officials believe he may have inhaled anthrax spores while making the instruments.

– Associated Press

PARAMEDIC WHO WORKED AT WTC MORGUE DIES OF RESPIRATORY ILLNESS

A 41-year-old paramedic who worked at a morgue for months after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, was buried yesterday after dying of an asbestos-related cancer. Deborah Reeve, a 17-year paramedic, died on March 15 of mesothelioma, a lung cancer associated with exposure to asbestos, her family said. Reeve developed a cough in late 2003 and retired at the end of 2004 after becoming too ill to work. Her doctors and family say her cancer was caused by exposure to toxic dust from the World Trade Center site. City health officials say it’s too early to definitively link trade center exposure to respiratory illnesses. A pending lawsuit alleges more than 20 deaths have been linked to ground zero exposure.

– Associated Press

TRUMP’S WIFE GIVES BIRTH TO A BOY

Donald Trump has a new apprentice. Mr. Trump’s wife gave birth to a boy yesterday, the billionaire developer announced. “Everyone’s perfect,” Mr. Trump said in a telephone interview on MSNBC’s “Imus in the Morning,” about 20 minutes after the arrival of his fifth child. Mr. Trump, 59, said the new baby was already making him feel younger.

– Associated Press

PRODUCER OF ‘CHICAGO’ SUES MIRAMAX FOR $10 MILLION

A producer of the movie “Chicago” filed a $10 million lawsuit yesterday, charging that Miramax Films Corporation failed to pay the producer its share of hundreds of millions of dollars the movie earned. The Producer Circle Company says in its lawsuit it is the owner of the film rights to the musical “Chicago,” a Broadway hit of the 1970s that Miramax agreed to produce with PCC as a movie. PCC said it was to receive part of the film’s gross.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

SCHOOL AIDE SHOT IN BROOKLYN

A school aide was shot and wounded outside a Brooklyn day care center within Brownsville’s Howard Houses yesterday, police said. The victim – a 51-year-old woman – was standing outside the YWCA Brownsville Day Care Center on Watkins Street shortly before 3 p.m. when she was shot at multiple times by an individual using both a 9-mm and a .25 caliber gun. A bullet hit her in the right thigh, and she was removed to Brookdale Hospital and listed in stable condition, police said. Police arrested Charles Grier, 23, who was found with two guns. Charges were pending last night.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

GANG ACTIVITY TARGETED UNDER NEW BILL

Gang-related crimes, which in recent years have spread from the state’s largest cities to its smaller communities, would get stiffer penalties under legislation introduced yesterday. The bill, passed yesterday afternoon by the Republican-controlled state Senate, would create a mandatory minimum sentence of two to five years for nonviolent crimes and a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence for violent felonies. The legislation was sponsored in the Senate by a Nassau County Republican, Michael Balboni. It also was introduced in the Democratic-controlled Assembly by Peter Rivera, a Bronx Democrat. A study in Rochester showed gang members accounted for 68% of all violent acts among youths. In Nassau County, there are an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 gang members, with as many or more in Suffolk County, according to a 2004 report by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national advocacy group.

– Associated Press

STATE TELLS SCHOOLS TO KEEP CORE BUDGETS IN ONE PIECE FOR VOTERS

The state Education Department said yesterday it has told school districts not to separate core areas of spending into different proposals that could make their school budgets and taxes appear better to voters. The state issued its “guidance” to school districts after an “increasing number of inquiries” regarding the separation of certain elements of school budgets into separate propositions to be voted on by district residents in May. The February 21 letter states that districts can’t break out from the school budget core items such as interscholastic sports, programs for students with disabilities, occupational education, guidance, health services, social services, interscholastic athletics, bus transportation, employee benefits, and “teaching” for the regular school and for special schools.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

FALSE STATEMENT SCUTTLES S.I. FERRY SETTLEMENT

A $25.6 million settlement against the city for a man who lost both legs in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry accident is “off the table” after the man’s lawyers announced the deal prematurely yesterday. The Cochran Firm announced the settlement yesterday morning. “There is no settlement,” the city’s chief litigating assistant, Lawrence Kahn, said in a statement yesterday afternoon. The “settlement amount set forth in plaintiff’s press release bears no relationship whatsoever to the number that had been discussed,” Mr. Kahn said. His spokeswoman declined to say how much the city offered to pay the victim, Paul Esposito, 26. An independent consultant with the Cochran Firm, Rachel Noerdlinger, said she sent the initial announcement. Later, she announced, “at this moment the city has no offer of settlement pending.” Lawyers for the firm were not available for comment, she said. “We have advised plaintiff’s counsel that any offer we had made is off the table pending further discussions,” Mr. Kahn said. According to the city’s comptroller, $3.3 billion has been paid in 191 settlements relating to the October 15, 2003 crash.

-Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

TRITIUM LEAKS AT INDIAN POINT TO BE INVESTIGATED

WHITE PLAINS – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that it will undertake a five-month investigation into several recent accidental releases of radioactive water, including a tritium-contaminated leak at Indian Point. The announcement came three days after the commission ruled that the leak at Indian Point, in Buchanan, 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, was not endangering anyone.

– Associated Press

REGENTS BOARD MAY BAN ELECTRIC SHOCK FOR YOUTHS SENT OUT OF STATE

ALBANY – The state Board of Regents yesterday began a process that could end electric shock therapy for disabled New York youths sent to a mental health facility, the Judge Rotenberg Center, in Massachusetts. The state pays $50 million a year to the Massachusetts facility that cares for 150 disabled New York youths. For years the state has paid the facility, where disabled students wear backpack-like devices that provide shocks of varying length to correct behavior. The use of electric shock isn’t prohibited in New York State, but no schools have the practice, the state deputy education commissioner, Rebecca Cort, said. The practice is used, however, in New York psychiatric hospitals as therapy for depression and other mental illnesses.

– Associated Press

SOLDIER NOT TO BE DEPLOYED WHILE C.O. APPLICATION PENDING

The Army agreed yesterday not to deploy a Fort Drum soldier to Afghanistan while his conscientious-objector application is pending, under terms of a judge’s order. Sergeant Corey Martin, 24, applied for discharge as a conscientious objector December 12. While his application was pending, with an investigating officer recommending approval, the Army ordered him deployed to Afghanistan on March 14. But under a stipulation and order from a U.S. district judge, David Hurd, the Army agreed not to deploy Sergeant Martin before a final decision by its Conscientious Objector Review Board. Lawyers for the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented Sergeant Martin, said the order ensures the intelligence analyst’s rights will not be violated.

– Associated Press

PROBATION DEPARTMENTS FINDING DNA COLLECTION DIFFICULT

ALBANY – Probation departments around New York say they lack the time and money to collect DNA samples from a widening pool of offenders, data that supporters say could solve some crimes and keep career criminals from striking again. Frustrated by his failure to get the Democrat-led Assembly to pass a law expanding the DNA databank, Governor Pataki issued an executive order in December requiring additional DNA samples be collected from all convicts offered parole, probation, plea bargain, or a temporary release program.

– Associated Press