CITYWIDE

BLOOMBERG EXTENDS RENT STABILIZATION LAWS

The city’s rent stabilization law has been extended for another three years. Mayor Bloomberg signed legislation yesterday that keeps the law in effect until April 1, 2009. Mr. Bloomberg said the law was being extended because there was still a housing emergency in the city’s rental market.

– Associated Press

MAYOR MOVES TO IMPROVE CITY’S RESPONSE TO CHILD ABUSE CASES

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday announced a series of procedural changes aimed at improving the city’s response to cases of potential child abuse following the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. The moves will tighten time frames for when school officials must intervene if a child has been excessively absent and to give officials more discretion to take action when they sense a problem. The city will also appoint a Police Department supervisor to work full-time at the Administration for Children’s Services. The changes stem from recommendations by a mayoral taskforce on child welfare and are intended to improve coordination among the NYPD, ACS, and the Department of Education.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TWO NEW YORKERS WIN TRUMAN SCHOLARSHIPS

Two New York students are among the 75 winners of this year’s Truman Scholarships, announced Tuesday by the president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, Madeleine Albright. The scholarships provide $30,000 for graduate study to American Citizens interested in careers in the public and nonprofit sector. Brooklyn-born and raised Ryan Merola majors in political science and philosophy at Brooklyn College. To help him achieve his goal of becoming a Kings County assistant district attorney, he plans to go to law school and graduate school in public policy. A student of liberal arts and psychology at the New School, Jennifer Onofrio, is an activist in prison reform who teaches job readiness to inmates at Rikers Island. She plans a career in organizational behavior. Other prestigious scholarships won by CUNY students this academic year are the Goldwater Scholarship, presented last week to a Queens College junior studying mathematics, Rachel Schnur, and the Marshall Scholarship, awarded to a schoolteacher, Julia Rafal, who is completing a master’s degree in special education and childhood education at Lehman College.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BRONX

SECOND-GRADERS SUSPENDED IN ALLEGED HYPODERMIC NEEDLE ATTACK

Two second-grade boys have been suspended after allegedly stabbing a classmate with a hypodermic needle they found on the street on their way to school, a Department of Education spokesman said. The boys, students at P.S.85 in the Bronx, allegedly stabbed the second-grade girl with the needle at about 11:15 a.m. Monday, a department spokesman, Keith Kalb, said.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

TWO CHILDREN TAKEN INTO CUSTODY FOR BRINGING GUN TO SCHOOL

Two 12-year-old boys were taken into custody for possession of a handgun in a Brooklyn school yesterday. One boy took his mother’s boyfriend’s loaded .45-mm gun and two loose bullets into J.H.S. 78 at 1420 E. 68th St., police and the Department of Education said. He passed the weapon to his friend. The gun owner, Roger Stewart, 47, who lives on Brooklyn Avenue, was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, police said. The boys were suspended, a spokesman for the Department of Education, Keith Kalb, said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BRONX DA CHARGES THREE IN DEATHS OF FIREFIGHTERS

Three people and a corporate owner were indicted in the Bronx for creating and allowing dangerous conditions that contributed to the death of two firefighters. Firefighters John Bellow and Curtis Meyran died on January 23 in a fire at 234 E. 178th St. The defendants allegedly illegally converted the building, leading to the mens’ deaths. Rafael Castillo, Caridad Coste, and Cesar Rios were each charged with two counts of manslaughter, two counts of criminally negligent homicide, and reckless endangerment.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

OFFICER CHARGED IN FATAL VEHICLE ACCIDENT

An off-duty housing officer, Brandon Colon, who allegedly drove into and killed a photographer, Julio Ortega-Moncada, on the Queensboro Bridge on Tuesday was arraigned on charges including second-degree manslaughter and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. If convicted, he could serve a maximum of 15 years in jail.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

STATE GOP CHAIRMAN ENDORSES SPENCER FOR U.S. SENATE

The state Republican chairman, Stephen Minarik, endorsed the former Yonkers mayor, John Spencer, in his bid to be the party’s senatorial candidate against Senator Clinton. Mr. Spencer, who opposes legalized abortions and has been endorsed by leaders of the state’s Conservative Party, faces a Republican primary from Kathleen Troia McFarland, a Pentagon official under President Reagan. “We believe Mr. Spencer’s attack-dog strategy will drive even more voters, especially female voters, into Mrs. Clinton’s arms,” a spokesman for Mrs. McFarland, William O’Reilly, said. Mr. Spencer’s campaign did not return a call seeking comment.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BILL REQUIRES HOSPITALS TO GIVE FREE, DISCOUNTED CARE TO POOR

Hospitals will be required to give free or deeply discounted care to the state’s poorest population to get state funds for charity care, under an agreement announced by lawmakers yesterday. Patients must also be clearly notified such financial-aid policies exist, under the legislation.

– Associated Press

SUOZZI: MONEY RECOVERED FROM MEDICAID INVESTIGATIONS MISLEADING

The state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, announced that investigations into Medicaid fraud last year recovered a record amount of money by his office was called misleading by a political opponent yesterday. Thomas Suozzi, who is battling Mr. Spitzer for the Democratic nomination for governor, said the vast majority of money recovered last year came from a federal lawsuit led by the Department of Justice, not by Mr. Spitzer’s office.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

JUDGE RE-SENTENCES OFFICER CONVICTED OF PERJURY IN LOUIMA CASE

The police officer convicted of perjury in connection to the 1997 stationhouse torture of Abner Louima will remain in jail until at least November, after a federal judge re-sentenced him yesterday. In a U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Judge Reena Raggi told Charles Schwarz, 40, that the false testimony he had given prevented justice from being fully administered after the 1997 police assault that roiled the city. “You know more about the events that occurred on that date than you ever told anyone,” Judge Raggi told Schwarz. Judge Raggi rejected Schwarz’s request that he be released from prison after he finishes serving 47 months of a five-year sentence that began in 2002. Yesterday, the judge reinstated the original five-year sentence that is set to end in May 2007.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SUSPECT ARRAIGNED ON MURDER CHARGE IN STABBING OF MINISTER

An ex-convict who was accused of stabbing an East Harlem minister and civil rights activist to death was held without bail yesterday following his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment. David Jordan, 44, was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge in the death of the Reverend Philip Mann, 68, pastor of Harlem’s Blessed Trinity Baptist Church.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN STRIP CLUB OWNER PLEADS GUILTY IN TAX CASE

An owner of the Scores topless clubs and two corporations pleaded guilty yesterday to charges related to filing bogus tax returns. Richard Goldring, of Watchung, N.J., pleaded guilty in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court to offering a false instrument for filing. He admitted that in March 2004 he filed a tax return that he knew contained false information. Goldring was one of three Scores officials indicted in February along with five companies on charges of evading taxes on $3.1 million income. All three officials faced up to four years in prison if they had been convicted after trial.

– Associated Press

CITY ORDERED TO RELEASE NAMES OF SEPTEMBER 11 911 CALLERS

A judge yesterday ordered the Fire Department to release the names of 28 people who called 911 during the terrorist attacks September 11, 2001, and information that could help identify others in edited tapes and transcripts of more than 100 calls for help from the World Trade Center.

– Associated Press

ATTORNEY ACCUSED OF PAYING GIRLS FOR SEX TO APPEAR IN COURT TODAY

The former Cravath, Swaine & Moore tax attorney accused of paying two underage sisters for sex will appear in state Supreme Court this afternoon in Manhattan. James Colliton, 41, who was arrested earlier this month, remains in jail. He is charged with rape, patronizing prostitutes, and bribing a witness. His attorney, Alan Abramson, indicated earlier that financial concerns may force Mr. Colliton to seek a new attorney whom he can afford. As of yesterday, Mr. Abramson declined to say whether another attorney will be representing Mr. Colliton at today’s court appearance and in the future. Mr. Abramson is still listed as the attorney on the case.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun