CITYWIDE

MAYOR TO UNVEIL BUDGET FOR 2007

Mayor Bloomberg is slated to unveil the executive budget for fiscal year 2007 today, and sources say it will include a slightly increased surplus, as well as additional funding for education, public housing, and hospitals. The added money for public housing could be directed to tenants who have been angered in recent weeks by announced increases in rent and fees. In January, the mayor proposed a $52.2 billion budget that included a $3.3 billion surplus to be spent largely on paying down debt and creating a trust fund for retirees. As part of an annual ritual, the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, proposed adding more than $500 million dollars to the budget earlier this month, including $338 million in restorations that were cut. By law, the administration and the council must agree on a final budget by the end of June. Since releasing his preliminary budget, the mayor has proposed an additional $575 million to bail out the city’s public hospitals.

– Staff Reporter to the Sun

CENSUS BUREAU TO DEDICATE RESEARCH CENTER AT BARUCH COLLEGE

The U.S. Census Bureau is set to dedicate a new research center at Baruch College today. The facility, part of the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, is the bureau’s ninth across the nation and the second in New York, the other one being at Cornell University. The centers provide access to a range of economic and demographic data to qualified researchers. The director of the Census Bureau, Louis Kincannon, and the president of Baruch, Kathleen Waldron, will preside over the dedication ceremony today.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITY OPERA CALLS OFF NEGOTIATIONS OVER CONCERT HALL

The New York City Opera will not be building a concert hall at the base of a high-rise apartment building, slated to go up at the former American Red Cross site on Amsterdam Avenue. The City Opera and A & R Kalimian Realty, which purchased the Red Cross site for a reported $72 million in 2004, announced yesterday that negotiations to had had been called off. Before yesterday’s announcement, the two parties, in talks for about 18 months, were said to be close to inking a deal to build a $350 million theater with about 1,800 seats.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NEW YORK TO DISTRIBUTE NICOTINE PATCHES FOR SMOKERS

New York’s health department plans to distribute nicotine patches to residents as part of its campaign against smoking. New York City will distribute 35,000 kits with a fourweek supply, which typically costs about $150, to residents who call the 311 New York City information line.This is the third giveaway since the program began in 2003 and so far 80,000 kits have been distributed.

– Bloomberg News

BR OOKLYN

BROOKLYN SOLDIER KILLED IN IRAQ

A Brooklyn soldier has died of injuries suffered in an attack in Iraq, the Defense Department said. Officials said Tuesday that First Sergeant Bobby Mendez, 38, died Thursday of injuries sustained that day in Baghdad after an improvised explosive device went off near his military vehicle.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

MANY ELIGIBLE FOR MEDICARE NOT ENROLLED AS DEADLINE LOOMS

One out of every four New Yorkers eligible for the new Medicare prescription drug plan still have not signed up, with less than two weeks until a deadline will start costing them more money to join, new figures show.

– Associated Press

SCHOOLS POST GAINS IN PERFORMANCE; GRADUATE RATES LAGGING

ALBANY – The share of students in New York City schools that performed below state standards in middle school math was cut in half in one year, part of several gains by the nation’s largest school district reflected in state records released yesterday.

– Associated Press

REGENTS TARGET ATTENDANCE TO TURN AROUND SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

ALBANY – Schools that can’t improve attendance and graduation rates of students could soon find themselves under intense state scrutiny that could lead to their closures, under proposals being considered by the state Board of Regents. The state education commissioner, Richard Mills, yesterday released data that shows a sharp decline in graduation rates and academic performance when school attendance drops below 92%.

– Associated Press

ARMY TO DECIDE DISCHARGE OF CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

FORT DRUM – Army officials at Fort Drum will determine whether to discharge a soldier who successfully fought deployment to Afghanistan by applying for conscientious objector status, Sergeant Corey Martin. “Each soldier’s situation is unique,” a public affairs specialist at the Pentagon, Paul Boyce, said yesterday. “Reviews are done on a case-by-case basis. Those few who are genuine conscientious objectors are moved to non-combat status. We want to accommodate genuine conscientious objectors.”

– Associated Press

QUESTIONS ARISE OVER $1 BILLION FOR YOUTH JOBS, WELFARE PROGRAMS

ALBANY – County officials statewide were relieved yesterday to learn the state will provide more than $1 billion for youth employment, child care, and welfareto-work programs despite a battle between the governor and legislators. But in Albany, lawmakers and advocates for some of the grant recipients worried that Governor Pataki’s release of the funds in block grants might mean individual programs would be underfunded.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

TWO KILLED IN UNRELATED SHOOTINGS IN HARLEM AND FORT GREENE

Two people were victims of gunfire in the city early yesterday morning, police officials said. A man sitting in a parked car on 123rd Street in Central Harlem was shot multiple times at about 3:00 a.m., police said. He was rushed to North General Hospital, but was pronounced dead after arriving at the emergency room. The 35-year-old man’s name wasn’t released last night pending notification of his family. At 5:47 a.m., a woman, identified as Parthanea White, 53, was found with a single gunshot wound to the head at her home on Carleton Avenue in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, police said. Police are investigating both cases.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CORRECTIONS OFFICER ARRESTED FOR RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT

A corrections officer is facing charges of reckless endangerment after a feud with a fellow driver last night ended with the officer firing shots in the air on the Whitestone Expressway, police said. The officer, identified as Cornell Kelly, 39, was driving to Queens from the Bronx on the bridge when a feud began with another driver after one of them cut the other off, police said. At one point, Mr. Kelly put his hand out the window and fired two rounds from a handgun into the air. The other driver backed off, but pursued Mr. Kelly to Rikers Island where he is employed as a correction officer. Police arrested him after the man in the other car gave them a description of Mr. Kelly.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

WOMAN SEXUALLY ABUSED BY MAN WHO ALLEGEDLY PREVIOUSLY ROBBED HER

A woman was sexually abused in the East Village yesterday, police said. A man knocked on her door, saying he had some property that belonged to her. Her apartment had been burglarized a week earlier and she answered the door, believing he recovered some of her property, police said. On opening the door, he pushed his way in and forced her to perform oral sex at knife point, police said. As he left, he said that he was the one who had robbed her a week earlier.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TRISTATE

FBI SEEKS CONNECTION BETWEEN TRASH INDUSTRY, GENOVESE FAMILY

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Federal authorities are scrutinizing the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family as part of their investigation into the mob’s influence over the trash industry in New York and Connecticut, people close to the case said yesterday. The interest focuses on Matthew “Matty the Horse” Ianniello, 85, who prosecutors have called the acting boss of the New York crime syndicate.

– Associated Press

OWNER OF CAT ACCUSED OF ATTACKING NEIGHBORS OPTS FOR TRIAL

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The case of a Fairfield cat that is accused of viciously attacking several neighbors is going to trial. Ruth Cisero, owner of Lewis the cat, Tuesday withdrew her bid for special probation because she would have had to allow Lewis to be euthanized. Ms. Cisero withdrew her application for accelerated rehabilitation and instead pleaded not guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment and elected a trial by jury.

– Associated Press

HEALTH OFFICIALS: NO 25-FOOT RULE FOR SMOKING BAN

TRENTON, N.J. – A proposal to ban people from smoking within 25-feet of any nonresidential building has been scrapped after strong opposition by tavern and restaurant owners. The proposed rule was not part of the statewide smoking ban that took effect April 15, but was being considered by state health officials.

– Associated Press