TRISTATE

LONGTIME NEWARK MAYOR WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION

NEWARK, N.J. – Mayor Sharpe James said yesterday that he will not seek a sixth term leading New Jersey’s largest city, opening the door to a young rival who lost by less than 4,000 votes four years ago. Mr. James, 70, who was first elected to the job in 1986, sent a letter to the city clerk asking that his named be removed from the May 9 ballot. The ballots are to be printed today. In the letter, Mr. James thanked “the 10,000 loving and caring Newark citizens who signed my petition of nomination.” The withdrawal leaves the race open for Mr. James’s rival, Cory Booker. Mr. James beat Mr. Booker by 3,500 votes four years ago in a race so rough that federal election monitors were called into Newark. A film made about the campaign was nominated for an Oscar. – Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

SUSPECT IN JUILLIARD STUDENT’S DEATH JAILED FOR PARK ASSAULT

A man described as the “no. 1 suspect” in a Juilliard School student’s slaying was sentenced yesterday to three months in jail for punching a dog walker, even after his lawyer noted that actor Russell Crowe was spared jail time for a similar crime. Dimitry Sheinman was convicted February 6 of misdemeanor assault for hitting and kicking Rene Perez during a dispute on April 14, 2005, in an Upper Manhattan park after Ms. Perez’s dog jumped on Mr. Sheinman’s pregnant wife, who was lying on the grass.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

LEGISLATURE CALLS FOR MORE HIGHER EDUCATION SPENDING

A bipartisan panel of state lawmakers agreed yesterday to spend $269 million more on higher education than proposed by Governor Pataki as part of a new state budget, a move designed to prevent tuition increases and allow the hiring of more than 300 fulltime faculty. In addition, lawmakers called for a $700 million construction fund for public and private colleges.

– Associated Press

PATAKI: FREEDOM TOWER IS ECONOMICALLY VIABLE

Reacting to a claim by the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, that the planned Freedom Tower at ground zero could wind up an economic “white elephant,” Governor Pataki said yesterday that it “can be done in an economically viable way.”

– Associated Press

SENATE MINORITY CONFERENCE PROBING SMITH’S ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ BEHAVIOR

The Senate minority conference is investigating the “inappropriate” behavior of a Queens Democratic senator accused of throwing hot coffee at the face of a staffer in an eruption of anger. The Senate minority leader, David Paterson, said he is appointing a committee that will recommend an action to take against Ada Smith, a nine-term senator from Jamaica, Queens. She is charged with a third-degree assault for allegedly tossing hot coffee at a female staffer, Jennifer Jackson, moments after the employee reportedly commented on her weight. The senator is also alleged to have pulled the staffer’s hair. Ms. Smith, who faces a year in prison, said the accusations are false. The committee will “make recommendations to me on or before April 4 as to what action I as leader should take in regard to a clear pattern of inappropriate and unprofessional conduct on the part of Senator Smith,” Mr. Paterson said in a statement. Ms. Smith has been accused of biting a police officer in 1998 and was convicted in 2004 of speeding past a checkpoint at a parking garage near the Capitol.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

REPORT: BUDGET EXPECTED TO BALLOON TO MORE THAN $60B BY 2010

The city’s budget is expected to balloon to more than $60 billion by 2010 because of debt and pension expenses, according to a fiscal analysis by the city’s Independent Budget Office. An IBO analysis released yesterday also predicted a stronger real estate market and higher property tax revenues than Mayor Bloomberg did in his preliminary budget, which he presented in February. The budgetary watchdog estimates that the robust housing market will translate into budget shortfalls that are $1 billion a year less than the Bloomberg projections starting in 2008. The growing size of the budget, which is expected to hit $60.7 billion by 2010, up from $53.6 billion for last year, is due largely to skyrocketing pension and health care costs and debt service.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAYOR: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ‘PART OF OUR FABRIC’

On the same day the Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to get citizenship without leaving the country, Mayor Bloomberg said he would weigh in on the debate in the next week or two. Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday that the 500,000 undocumented immigrants in the city are “part of our fabric.” “They do odd jobs that a lot of other people don’t seem to want to take,” he said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

GOVERNMENT TO TRY TO SHOW GREED IS ROOT OF COMPUTER CEO’S FRAUD

In the coming trial of the former CEO of Computer Associates International, the government will try to show that greed led top executives to engage in accounting fraud at one of the world’s largest software companies. The trial, scheduled to begin May 8, is over charges that former CEO Sanjay Kumar and the head of sales at Computer Associates, Stephen Richards, were involved in a fraudulent accounting scheme aimed at keeping keep stock prices steady. Both also are accused of obstructing the subsequent federal investigation into the Islandia-based company that began in 2002 and focused on the company’s accounting between 1999 and 2000. “Chief executives have a serious incentive to keep their job,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Komitee said yesterday in court. “They have luxuries others don’t.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

TEN ARRESTED FROM ALLEGED GAMBLING CIRCLE

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced the arrest of 10 men accused of running a sports gambling circle that took in more than $45 million worth of bets annually. Brooklyn’s district attorney, Charles Hynes, made the announcement Sunday, using the opportunity to call on the state to legalize gambling. Mr. Hynes announced that nine locations where bets were taken were found in three boroughs. The men arrested likely had ties to the Gambino crime family and the Chinese Fukanese street gang. Law enforcement officers seized about $300,000 at the “wire rooms” used to take bets. The cash likely came from recent bets placed on the ongoing NCAA basketball tournament.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

CLERGYMAN FOUND STABBED TO DEATH

A Baptist clergyman was found stabbed to death in his Manhattan apartment yesterday, police said. The 68-year-old clergyman at Blessed Trinity Baptist Church was found around 5 p.m. inside his eighth-floor apartment on Fifth Avenue near East 110th Street. Police said the superintendent checked in on him at the behest of parishioners who were concerned when he did not show up for a scheduled meeting. The man was lying on the floor with a stab wound to his chest, and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The Associated Press reported that Reverend Philip Mann, also a civil rights activist, was the man who was killed.

– Special to the Sun