CITYWIDE

MTA SHOOTS DOWN PLEA TO RATIFY CONTRACT

The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Peter Kalikow, yesterday shot down the transit union’s plea for the MTA to ratify a contract that workers approved in a re-vote last week. With union chief Roger Toussaint serving his second full day in jail, the MTA’s executive board took no action on the contract at its monthly meeting in Midtown. The membership of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 overwhelmingly approved the proposed deal last week, three months after it narrowly rejected the same proposal. The dispute is now likely to remain in binding arbitration, a process the authority favors but which the union has staunchly opposed. At yesterday’s meetings, Mr. Kalikow said, in stark terms, that the union’s demand ran counter to 100 years of collective bargaining law. “They have no right to push that deal, in its exact form, down our throat as we have no right to push it down their throat,” Mr. Kalikow said, adding that he had “begged” Mr. Toussaint not to take his workers out on an illegal strike in December. Mr. Toussaint, meanwhile, spent his second day in the Tombs jail, meeting with union officials and lawyers to plot the TWU’s next move, a spokesman, Jesse Derris, said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY REPLACING OLD MEDICAL FILES WITH ELECTRONIC FILES AT 150 CLINICS

The city is getting rid of the dusty medical files at 150 clinics in the five boroughs and replacing them with new electronic files. Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that the city would invest $27 million over five years to provide 1,000 doctors in public health centers with an electronic health record system. That is in addition to the $13 million that the centers will contribute. The new system, scheduled to be in place by 2008, will be password protected and will link to the city’s public hospital system, so that if a patient is treated at another institution in the system, a doctor there will be able to log into their records.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL APPROVES YANKEES, METS STADIUM FINANCING PLANS

The new multimillion-dollar baseball stadiums that the Yankees and Mets want to build passed a financing hurdle yesterday when the City Council approved their payment plans.

– Associated Press

NEW YORK-PRESBYTERIAN BREAKS GROUND ON HEART CENTER

New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia Presbyterian Center is breaking ground today on a $250 million heart center in Washington Heights, with the help of President Clinton, who is expected to attend the morning ceremony. Also expected to attend is the as-yet-unnamed donor who gave $50 million to the project, which is said to be the largest gift in the hospital’s history.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE LAUNCH SCHOOL SCANNING PROGRAM

The Police Department launched a new random scanning program in middle and high schools yesterday that is intended to keep knives, guns, and other weapons out of the classroom. But it looks like the initiative might do more to eradicate another piece of contraband – cell phones. In its first day, a team of police showed up at the ACORN School for Social Justice in Brooklyn with portable metal detectors and confiscated one box cutter. They also took 129 cell phones, which are banned in all city schools. The phones and other banned items like iPods and CD players were returned at the end of the day.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SCHOOL BUS GETS STUCK AND CLOSES PART OF PARKWAY

A school bus became lodged under an overpass yesterday afternoon when it ran into scaffolding that had shortened the clearance, forcing authorities to close part of a major parkway during the evening rush hour. There were no children on the bus, and no injuries were reported, a police spokeswoman, Detective Theresa Farello, said. The bus became stuck in the overpass on the Henry Hudson Parkway near the West 246th Street exit in the Bronx at about 3:45 p.m.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN SHOT AFTER ASSAULTING POLICE

Police shot a Far Rockaway man yesterday after he assaulted two officers who attempted to arrest his brother. Police said Floyd Johnson was shot in the shoulder after he tried to grab an officer’s gun, making the shooting within department guidelines. The incident occurred around 1:45 a.m. at the Redfern Housing Development, when officers recognized trespasser Makai Jackson from previous arrests, including a drug sting there in February. As Mr. Jackson resisted arrest, police said, his brother Mr. Johnson assaulted the officers, knocking one down and grabbing for the other’s gun. Ultimately, the fallen officer recovered in time to shoot Mr. Johnson – who is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital – while Mr. Jackson fled, police said. A third brother, Malik Jackson, was arrested for disorderly conduct after the incident, police said.

– Special to the Sun

SIX JAIL EMPLOYEES ARRESTED FOR SMUGGLING IN CONTRABAND

Three corrections officers, two jail cooks, and a nurse’s aide have been arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs and contraband tobacco into jail facilities at Rikers Island. The Department of Investigation announced the arrests yesterday after undercover officers bribed the workers $50 to $1,000 to smuggle cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, and a cell phone into the jails. Correction officers Eric Jones, Gary Heyward, and Glenda Glenn, and cooks Anthony Guzman and Ahmad Abdul Kaim, as well as nurse’s aide Cleveland Porter, face various individual charges, including bribery, official misconduct, attempting to promote prison contraband, and various drug-related charges, among others, investigators said.

– Special to the Sun

GIRL DIES AFTER TELEVISION FALLS ON HER

A 4-year-old Brooklyn girl died yesterday after police said a television set fell on her and caused severe head trauma. In what police said appears to be an accident, the television fell on the child at approximately 6:30 p.m., while she was with her father and a younger sister inside an Avenue M apartment. Police said they found the girl unconscious when they responded to a 911 call placed by her father, and she was pronounced dead at Lutheran Hospital around 7:15 p.m. As of last night, police said there was no suspicion of criminality.

– Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

NO INDICTMENT AGAINST SERGEANT IN YONKERS SHOOTING

WHITE PLAINS – A grand jury has refused to indict the off-duty New York City police sergeant who shot and killed a man he said was stabbing another officer outside a Yonkers bar.

– Associated Press

LAWYER: PEACE ACTIVIST CINDY SHEEHAN READY FOR TRIAL

Cindy Sheehan and three other peace activists are ready for trial on charges filed when they were arrested last month during an anti-war demonstration at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, one of their lawyers said yesterday. Robert Gottlieb, Ms. Sheehan’s lawyer, told the court that he is ready for trial once he receives materials he requested from prosecutors. He asked Manhattan Criminal Court Judge James Gibbons to order compliance with his requests and to set the earliest practicable trial date.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

CONSERVATIVE PARTY CALLS FOR TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF GASOLINE TAX

The Conservative Party of New York State yesterday called for a suspension of the state’s 4% gasoline sales tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. “The windfall New York has reaped due to the increase in gasoline prices is unconscionable when families are struggling to fill up their gas tanks,” the party’s chairman, Michael Long, said. “We firmly believe that suspending the tax is in the best interest of New Yorkers, since the coffers have been filled beyond what was anticipated.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ACTIVISTS CHALLENGE ‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’ POLICY AT WEST POINT

WEST POINT – Twenty-one gay-rights activists were arrested yesterday after staging a protest against the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy.

– Associated Press

CAREY ENDORSES SPITZER

A former governor, Hugh Carey, who managed New Yorks’ fiscal crisis in the 1970s, endorsed fellow Democrat Eliot Spitzer for governor yesterday in Brooklyn, saying Mr. Spitzer can improve the state’s economy. At the event, Mr. Carey reportedly referred to Mr. Spitzer as Charles Schumer, the senator who almost challenged Mr. Spitzer in this race. In return, Mr. Spitzer referred to the former governor as “Governor Cuomo.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NASSAU COUNTY RAISES AGE FOR BUYING TOBACCO TO 19

MINEOLA – Nassau County yesterday raised the minimum age for buying tobacco products to 19 from 18.

– Associated Press

COAST GUARD POLICY TO ACCOMMODATE RELIGIOUS HEADGEAR IN PHOTOS

The U.S. Coast Guard has abandoned a rule requiring anyone seeking a merchant marine license to submit photographs showing no religious head coverings, civil rights lawyers said yesterday.

– Associated Press

LAWMAKERS SPAR OVER CARGO RADIATION SCREENING

An effort to shore up port security in New York and elsewhere cleared a House committee yesterday after Republicans beat back a Democratic attempt to screen all cargo for radioactive material.

– Associated Press