CITYWIDE

WATER PARK PLANS WIN FINAL APPROVAL

A proposed water park that would bring wave pools and 80-foot-tall water slides to New York City sailed through final approval yesterday and is set to break ground this year. The city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee voted to allow the proposed 35-year lease with Aquatic Development Group. The planned 26-acre attraction is set to take over a slice of Randalls Island parkland, where the East and Harlem rivers meet under the Triborough Bridge.

– Associated Press

OFFICIAL: CHILD ABUSE PROGRAM TIMETABLE ‘UNACCEPTABLE’

New programs aimed at boosting the city’s response to child abuse and neglect may not be implemented for several months, education and children’s services officials said at a City Council hearing yesterday. ChildStat, a data-tracking initiative modeled after a similar police program, will not be operational until December, officials said, while other programs should be ready by the start of the school year in September. The chairman of the General Welfare Committee, Council Member Bill de Blasio, called the timetable “unacceptable.” Also yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced the appointment of a former deputy ACS commissioner, Jennifer Jones Austin, to the new position of Family Services Coordinator, where she will serve as a liaison among agencies.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BOARD RULES WASTE MANAGEMENT BARGAINED IN GOOD FAITH

A garbage carting union on strike in Brooklyn took a blow yesterday when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Waste Management Incorporated had bargained in good faith. The entire 137-member Teamsters Local 813 went on strike last week because the company was trying to have them pay a portion of their health care plan, among other grievances.

– Special to the Sun

PHILADELPHIA’S HOMELESS SERVICES HEAD TO LEAD CITY’S DEPARTMENT

Philadelphia’s former head of homeless services, Robert Hess, has been hired to tackle that problem in New York City, where there are 10 times as many people staying in shelters each night.

– Associated Press

LATIN GRAMMYS HEAD TO CITY

New York City has landed the Latin Grammy Awards. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced the city would be host to the music organization’s seventh annual awards show. The event will be broadcast live on November 2 from Madison Square Garden. The city estimates that the event will have a $30 million economic impact and will generate future tourism.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

FEW GATHER FOR HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT MEETING

There were just a handful of people yesterday at an unauthorized meeting of Hillary Clinton supporters who have set their sights not on her 2006 Senate re-election campaign but on putting her in the White House. Co-hosts Suri Harris and Alfred Schreiber said it was the first of many gatherings they plan to hold on the second Tuesday of every month in the hopes of building a larger network of supporters.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

COUPLE SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR TODDLERS’ DEATH IN HOT BATHWATER

A Yonkers couple who drifted in a drug-induced stupor while their two young children cooked to death in a bathroom flooded with scalding water were sentenced to prison yesterday by a Westchester County judge. David Maldonado, 32, who turned on the tap and then left the boys trapped in the bathroom, was sentenced to a term of five to 15 years. Luz Arroyo, 26, the toddlers’ mother, was sentenced to serve between 16 months and four years in prison.

– Associated Press

HOME HEALTH AIDE SENTENCED IN EAST HARLEM WOMAN’S MURDER

A former home health care aide was sentenced yesterday to 18 years to life in prison for the 2003 murder of a frail 85-year-old woman who died after she was tied up and assaulted while being robbed in her East Harlem home. A weeping Assia Serrano, 22, said she had not meant to cause the death of her former patient, Petra Cuchola. Serrano was convicted February 21 of second-degree murder and other charges for the attack on August 23, 2003.

– Associated Press

JUDGE DELAYS FINAL RULING ON TWU FINE

Judge Theodore Jones yesterday delayed his final ruling on whether the Transport Workers Union Local 100 would be fined the full $3 million for breaking the state’s Taylor law by going on strike last December. A decision is expected later this week. Meanwhile, the local’s president, Roger Toussaint, is considering an appeal of Judge Jones’s ruling yesterday that Mr. Toussaint be held in jail for 10 days for leading the union into the three-day strike.

– Special to the Sun

EX-FBI AGENT CHARGED IN STATE MURDER CASE SEEKS FEDERAL VENUE

A former FBI agent accused of helping a ruthless mobster plan gangland slayings in Brooklyn more than a decade ago wants his case moved to federal court, his lawyers said in court papers. State prosecutors have charged Lindley DeVecchio with four counts of murder in what they billed as one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in American history. They said yesterday that they would fight to keep the case in state court.

– Associated Press

CLOTHING COMPANY SUES JESSICA SIMPSON FOR $100 MILLION

A California based clothing manufacturer is suing Jessica Simpson for $100 million, claiming she breached their contract by failing to support lines of apparel she developed with the company. Tarrant Apparel Group, of Los Angeles, says in court papers that an agreement it signed in December 2004 with Jessica Simpson Brand Management LLC lets it use Ms. Simpson’s name to make, sell, market, and distribute women’s sportswear.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

SPITZER WOULD SEEK $1 BILLION BOND FUNDING FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH

Democrat Eliot Spitzer said yesterday that if elected governor next fall, he will seek a ballot initiative authorizing the state to borrow $1 billion over 10 years to fund stem cell research.

– Associated Press

STATE APPROVES PLAN ALLOWING TELEPHONE COMPANIES TO RAISE RATES

ALBANY – A scaled-back measure allowing telephone companies to raise basic, low-cost rates to $12.61 from $8.61 was approved yesterday by the state Public Service Commission. Critics say poor working families could lose their affordable access to emergency 911 service under the decision.

– Associated Press

IRAQ ‘HUMAN SHIELD’ TRYING TO AVOID GOVERNMENT FINE

KERHONKSON – Before the bombs fell on Baghdad, Judith Karpova went there to put herself in harm’s way. The veteran activist was among dozens of “human shields” who poured into Iraq as the American-led offensive loomed in early 2003, although she ended up leaving before the war. Three years later, Ms. Karpova is again playing defense, this time against a $6,700 civil fine from the government. None of them are paying up quietly, and Ms. Karpova is before a federal appeals court disputing charges that she illegally exported services to Iraq as a shield.

– Associated Press

SABRES OWNER GOLISANO OUTLINES CASINO CONCERNS

BUFFALO – The Buffalo Sabres owner, Thomas Golisano, yesterday opposed the Seneca Indian Nation’s plans for a casino in the city, even if it has the potential to help his hockey team. “This is a train that needs to stop here and now,” Mr. Golisano said at a news conference he acknowledged may have come too late: The Senecas broke ground on their Buffalo Creek Casino in December.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

OFFICER CHARGED IN HUSBAND’S SHOOTING

Police charged a police officer with attempting to murder her husband, Todd Jamison, 43, a retired police officer. The woman, Alison Jamison, 42, was expected to be arraigned last night or this morning on charges of second-degree attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and assault, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ARREST IN RETIRED OFFICER’S STATEN ISLAND SHOOTING DEATH

A retired New York Police Department officer was arrested yesterday on charges that he shot and killed a retired officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The victim, Steven Vitale, 55, was shot numerous times on Richmond Hill Road on Staten Island just before 7 p.m. Monday, police said. Allen Lau, 46, surrendered to authorities yesterday. Police said they were charging him with murder, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon.

– Associated Press

TWO ARRESTED AT IMMIGRATION PROTEST

Two women were arrested Monday as tens of thousands of protesters gathered near City Hall to demand legal rights for immigrants. Police said Orla Bradshaw, 34, of Manhattan, kicked a police officer in the knees and groin area and was charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. In a separate incident, police said they arrested Eligia Santillo, 38, of Brooklyn, on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after she allegedly pushed past a police barricade and into Barclay Street, and then refused to put her hands behind her back when an officer tried to arrest her.

– Special to the Sun