CITYWIDE

EMS PARAMEDICS GET NEW CONTRACT

The city has reached a tentative contract with the union representing 2,800 Emergency Medical Service workers and paramedics. The agreement calls for an 8% salary increase over four years, and new longevity differentials, the city announced Monday. The contract is retroactive to July 2002, and runs through June 2006.

– Associated Press

EX-OFFICER CONVICTED IN KILLING NOW TEACHING SELF-DEFENSE

A disgraced patrolman convicted in one of the most notorious abuse cases in city history – the 1994 choke-hold death of an unarmed Bronx man who was tossing a football in the street – has chosen a new career path: motivational speaker and self-defense trainer. A Web site promoting a business launched by Frank Livoti boasts that during 15 years patrolling the South Bronx, he “single-handedly fought and disarmed knife-wielding felons on numerous occasions, with his bare hands.”

– Associated Press

COUNCIL LIKELY TO APPROVE FINANCING PLAN FOR METS STADIUM

The City Council is set to approve today a financing plan for a new stadium for the Mets, after Queens lawmakers said last night they had reached agreement with the Bloomberg administration and the team on a community benefits package. The Mets are agreeing to pay for maintenance projects such as street cleaning and graffiti removal, and the team has committed to awarding 25% of all construction contracts for the project to businesses owned by women and/or minorities and 25% of contract to Queens-based companies. The city, meanwhile, has agreed to study traffic issues in the Flushing neighborhood and will chip in funds to repair roads and bridges, including $50 million to reconstruct the Roosevelt Avenue Bridge.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL HOLDS HEARING ON RE-OPENING BROOKLYN JAIL

City officials and community activists testified before city lawmakers yesterday, as a proposal to reopen a Brooklyn community jail was taken up by lawmakers focused on reforming the city’s long-term jail plan. Representatives from the Department of Corrections and prison services groups urged members of the City Council’s Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services to move forward with a plan to reopen the Brooklyn House of Detention as part of an effort to reduce the strain of inmates and the deteriorating facilities on Rikers Island. A City Council member, David Yassky, who represents part of Brooklyn, as well as community activists in Brooklyn, however, pressed lawmakers to consider relocating the Brooklyn jail from Atlantic Avenue, citing traffic and quality of life concerns.

– Special to the Sun

FITZGERALD SPEAKS WITH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

News flash: The prosecutor in the CIA leak case has given an exclusive interview – to a New York City school newspaper. Under a front-page headline that says “Alum Takes On The White House,” the Owl of Regis High School in Manhattan profiled Patrick Fitzgerald, class of ’78, in a 1,700-word story.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

BILLS WOULD ADD REPEAT-DWI PRISON TIME, END ‘SECOND CHANCE’

Accompanied by the sister of a 25-year-old man killed in a fatal crash, state senators yesterday announced several bills that would add years of prison time to repeat drunken drivers. The introduced bills would also eliminate a common “second chance,” in which a motorist gets a driving while intoxicated charge reduced to the lesser misdemeanor of driving while ability impaired.

– Associated Press

ETHICS COMMISSION FINES EX-STATE OFFICIAL $3,500 FOR TESTIMONY

A former state administrator accused of being a witness for hire against the state has been fined $3,500, less than the fee he collected for his testimony, the state Ethics Commission said yesterday. William Gormley, who made $107,000 a year as former deputy director in the state Health Department, violated the lifetime ban on appearing before the state on a matter with which he was “directly concerned” while in public service, the commission said. He was paid $11,800 to be a witness and faced a maximum fine under the state’s much-criticized ethics laws of $10,000.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

STATE ISLAND FERRY OFFICIAL SENTENCED TO PROBATION IN 2003 CRASH

A former Staten Island ferry official has been sentenced to two years’ probation for lying to investigators about the Staten Island ferry crash in 2003 that killed 11 people. “I stand before the court today a shameful man,” a former port captain, John Mauldin, said Monday in federal court in Brooklyn. “I was not honest with the government and I should have been.”

– Associated Press

PARENTS PUSHING SMALLER CLASS SIZES HEADING TO COURT

Parents advocating for smaller class sizes are going to court tomorrow to push for a proposition on the November ballot that would amend the city charter. The amendment would require the city to lower class sizes to between 18 and 22 students and would also require that at least 25% of the additional funding from the court-ordered settlement in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case be designated to creating smaller classes. The state Supreme Court in Manhattan is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case this morning.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

TIP FROM PARKS SUPERVISOR LEADS TO ARREST OF CITY EMPLOYEE

A tip from a Parks Department supervisor led to the arrest of a city employee for allegedly taking bribes from residents looking to buy their way out of community service, officials said yesterday. Police arrested Janet Billups, 45, of Manhattan, on charges that she took $80 in bribes from a city investigator posing undercover in Union Square Park as a participant in a court-ordered community service program. Ms. Billups faces up to seven years in prison if she is convicted on two felony charges.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BODY OF MISSING RECYCLING EMPLOYEE FOUND IN DUMPSTER

The body of a man who went missing from his job at a recycling plant was found in a Long Island landfill yesterday, police said. Police were searching for Milton Rocano of 47th Street in Queens since Monday, when his sister told police she hadn’t heard from him in two days. Investigators who observed a surveillance video at City Recyling Corporation in Brooklyn, where Rocano worked, saw him on tape working inside the dumpster when a co-worker who did not know he was inside dumped three additional loads of debris into the container. Police said they tracked the dumpster to a landfill in Melville, Long Island, where a body presumed to be his was found.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

MANHOLE FIRES DIVERT RUSH-HOUR TRAFFIC

Three manhole fires sent flames shooting into the streets and caused delays during yesterday’s evening rush hour. Traffic was diverted from two busy Manhattan avenues because of the flames and smoke, but no injuries were reported, a Fire Department spokesman, Jim Long said. There were no power outages.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

SUOZZI HAND-DELIVERS DEBATE REQUEST TO SPITZER

A Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Thomas Suozzi, hand-delivered a letter yesterday to the Midtown campaign headquarters of the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer – the front-runner in the race – challenging him to bimonthly debates until primary day in September. Mr. Spitzer’s campaign said he would debate, but did not elaborate. “Eliot has never shied away from an opportunity to take on his opponents. We have requests from news organizations and Eliot looks forward to debating,” a campaign spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, Christine Anderson, wrote in an e-mail to The New York Sun.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TRISTATE

EX-PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT, 2 OTHERS NAMED IN SPY PLOT

NEWARK, N.J. – A former Philippines president, Joseph Estrada, and two other Philippines officials were identified in a New Jersey court as alleged conspirators in a spy plot involving a former FBI analyst who worked at the White House. Prosecutors in U.S. District Court in Newark have identified Mr. Estrada, Senator Panfilio Lacson, and a former Philippines speaker, Arnulfo Fuentebella, as participants. According to court documents, the trio worked with the former analyst suspected of passing secret intelligence to officials in the Philippines, Leandro Aragoncillo.

– Associated Press

OIL SPILL SHUTS MILES OF DELAWARE BAY OYSTER BEDS

TRENTON, N.J. – The state’s environmental chief ordered a large area of South Jersey oyster beds closed yesterday, hours after an oil slick was spotted in the Upper Delaware Bay.

– Associated Press