CITYWIDE

QUINN: $17.1 MILLION NEEDED FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY OFFICES

More than $17 million for the five district attorneys offices is needed to restore their funding to almost half the levels they were at before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the speaker of the City Council said. At a Manhattan press conference yesterday, the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, said the proposed $17.1 million is “a little less than half of what they need to get back to that level” in 2001. Ms. Quinn also called for an additional $2.9 million to help the district attorneys investigate cases of child abuse following the death 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown, whose parents were charged with the girl’s death.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

JUDGE SAYS CITY PROGRAM UNFAIRLY PENALIZED DISABLED

A city program that was supposed to offer extra help to welfare recipients with physical or mental disabilities became a logistical nightmare for some of them, a federal judge said. A U.S. district judge, Laura Taylor Swain, ruled late Wednesday that New York’s WeCARE program also unfairly discriminated against disabled people by forcing them to stop using regular neighborhood welfare offices and travel instead to one of three special “disabled only” service centers.

– Associated Press

HOLIDAY HALF-FARE PROGRAM PROVIDED ‘SLIGHT INCREASE’ IN RIDERSHIP

The much-touted program that provided half-fare subway tickets to straphangers during the holiday season last year resulted in only a “slight increase in ridership,” while costing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about $3 million less than expected, transit officials announced. About 46 million half-fare trips were taken during the reduced price period from Thanksgiving to January 2, 2005. The authority plans a second $50 million “reward” for customers this year.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

DAVID LEE ROTH ON WAY OUT, OPIE AND ANTHONY MAY BE COMING BACK

No surprise: David Lee Roth’s run as morning radio host is about done. Big surprise: It appears raunchy satellite radio stars Opie and Anthony will replace him on seven CBS Radio stations. A deal was in the works to dump the ex-Van Halen singer’s ratings-deprived program with shock jocks Greg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. They spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement of the agreement next week.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

DISSIDENTS, VICTIMS OF GADHAFI REGIME TO SPEAK AT COLUMBIA

Dissidents and victims of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime will speak during a panel discussion at Columbia University next Tuesday, school officials said yesterday. The discussion is meant to provide a counterpoint to a conference sponsored by the university and the Libyan government last month, the event’s sponsor, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. Among the speakers will be a Libyan refugee, Hussein Shafei, who “was an eyewitness to the Abu Sleem Prison massacre of political prisoners,” as well as the relative of a victim of the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack, Stephanie Bernstein, and a Libyan-American activist, Mohamed Eljhami. A professor at Columbia, Lincoln Mitchell, will moderate the event.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NO CHICKS FOR PALE MALE AND LOLA THIS YEAR

Sorry, bird people. No chicks again this year for Pale Male and Lola. NYC Audubon experts yesterday delivered that verdict after the city’s famous pair of red-tailed hawks passed 47 days without hatching any eggs, putting them well beyond the normal period for reproducing. “Lola is significantly overdue. It is improbable a chick will hatch,” NYC Audubon’s executive director, E.J. McMahon, said.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

CLINTON WANTS NO RAISE WITHOUT MINIMUM WAGE BOOST

Senator Clinton, who earlier this year compared Congress to a plantation, said yesterday that lawmakers should know what it feels like to be working poor and going years without a raise. Democrats and Republicans have been at loggerheads for years on raising the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $5.15 an hour since 1997. Mrs. Clinton offered a novel approach yesterday, saying she would introduce legislation that would prevent congressional salaries from increasing unless the minimum wage rises by the same percentage.

– Associated Press

WATCHDOG WANTS COMMISSION TO SHAPE DISTRICT

Legislative districts in New York drawn by lawmakers in the majority parties of the Senate and Assembly to protect incumbents are denying fair representation, according to government watchdog groups. The advocates yesterday called for an independent commission to shape Senate and Assembly districts before the district lines are redrawn after the 2010 Census. “With this rigged system, lawmakers are choosing their voters rather than voters choosing their lawmakers,” Rachel Leon of Common Cause, said.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

REPUTED GAMBINO HEAD PLEADS GUILTY TO RACKETEERING

The reputed head of the Gambino crime family pleaded guilty yesterday to racketeering charges after getting an assurance from a judge that he was not admitting he was a Gambino. Arnold Squitieri,70,entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in a deal that calls for a sentence ranging from seven years, three months to nine years. Sentencing was scheduled for July 28.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

DRUNK DRIVER KILLS HOMELESS MAN RIDING HIS BICYCLE

A drunk driver hit and killed a homeless man riding his bicycle late Wednesday night, police officials said. The man, identified as Arthur Williams, 45, was crossing Neptune Avenue in Coney Island, when he was hit by a 1997 Mercury Marquis. The driver of the car, Vito Scarola, 40, of Brooklyn, was charged with driving while intoxicated. Further charges were pending last night.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun