CITYWIDE

SURVEY: TOURISTS SAY CITY SHORTCHANGED IN ANTI-TERROR FUNDING CUTS

Tourists visiting New York City say the federal government shortchanged New York when it cut the amount of anti-terrorist funding the city is to receive, according to a survey designed and conducted Monday by Manhattan Borough staff members. The Manhattan Borough president, Scott Stringer, released the results of the survey, completed by 110 Americans from all over the country, yesterday at Ground Zero. The survey found that 73% of non-New Yorkers do not agree with the 40% cut in anti-terrorism funding and with the 15% cut in anti-bioterrorism funding.

– Special to the Sun

DUBAI ROYALTY BUYS TIMES SQUARE LANDMARK

The one-time Knickerbocker hotel in Times Square has an illustrious history: Enrico Caruso sang from its balcony, Maxfield Parrish’s 30-foot-long painting “Old King Cole” hung in its barroom, and the martini is believed to have been invented there. Now the Beaux-Arts-style Knickerbocker, long since converted into apartments and textile showrooms, may be returned to its bygone Gilded Age splendor. Istithmar Hotels, an investment arm of the royal family of Dubai, announced this week that it has acquired the landmark building at the southeast corner of Broadway and 42nd Street for $300 million, and plans to restore it as a luxury hotel in the prime tourist district.

– Associated Press

CITY TO RECEIVE $600,000 TO CLEAN UP BROWNFIELDS

The city is getting $600,000 from the federal government to assess and clean up brownfields around the five boroughs, officials announced yesterday. The money is coming in three separate grants awarded as part of almost $70 million that the Environmental Protection Agency is allocating nationwide to repair brownfields, which are properties where contamination prevents development. Mayor Bloomberg announced the award yesterday at Mariners Marsh in Staten Island, the former site of a steel manufacturer and shipbuilding company now plagued by the build-up of coal tar residue and other pollutants. A $200,000 grant will go toward cleaning the 107-acre site, part of which will be converted to a recreational park, the mayor said. The other two grants will be used to investigate sites around the city that may be contaminated by oil or heavy metal deposits.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

ONE DEAD, TWO INJURED IN BROOKLYN FIRE One construction worker died and two others were injured yesterday after a waterproofing solution they were using ignited and caused a Brooklyn house to catch fire. Three workers were waterproofing a mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath, in the basement of a two-story Midwood home on East 31st Street when the accident occurred around 11:30 a.m., officials said. One of the workers – whom officials did not identify yesterday – died, and two others were brought to local hospitals with serious burns, officials said. Five fire fighters suffered minor injuries battling the blaze. A spokeswoman from the Department of Buildings said the owners of the home did not file a construction permit, and the department would issue a stop work order until they do so.

– Special to the Sun

MAN SUSPECTED IN PATTERN OF BURGLARIES ARRESTED

A man suspected of a pattern of 19 burglaries over five months in Brooklyn and Queens was arrested Monday, police officials said. The man, Hector Morales, 22, was released on parole in December of 2005 after serving a sentence for criminal sale of a controlled substance. The robberies began soon after he was released. His technique was blunt and loud – factors that caused police to wonder why the case hadn’t broke earlier. He would slam his body weight into the door, sometimes breaking the frame, Lieutenant Tom Conforti of the 104th Precinct, said. Morales would then allegedly burglarize the house of televisions, power tools, jewelry, cell phones, and other possessions. When police raided his home, they found piles of stolen possessions, many of which were returned to their owners yesterday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN WANTED FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE ARRESTED

A man wanted for indecently exposing himself to four women since March on the subway was arrested yesterday, police officials said. Kenneth Hoyt, 41, of 703 Ninth Ave., is suspected of exposing himself to two teenage girls on the N train in March, a teenage girl on the Q train in April, and a 25-year-old woman on an R train in May. He was charged with public lewdness and endangering the welfare of a child. He hadn’t been arraigned as of yesterday evening.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SUSPECT IN STABBING OF UPPER WEST SIDE RESIDENTS ARRESTED

The man who stabbed two Upper West Side residents in a push-in robbery on Sunday was arrested in the Bronx, police officials said. George Borges, 44, was charged with attempted murder, burglary in the first degree, robbery in the third degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. On Sunday afternoon, Borges – who has a long criminal history of robbery, assault, and drug convictions – allegedly pushed his way into an apartment on West 97th Street, after asking to borrow a pen. He then stabbed a 67-year-old man in the head and neck, as well as his partner, a 61-year-old woman in the ribs and arm.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

IN THE COURTS

COMMISSIONER’S COUSIN SEEKS DAMAGES OVER ALLEGED POLICE BEATING

A cousin of New York’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, is seeking $120 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the city and Police Department after plainclothes police officers wrongfully suspected him of subway fare fraud and beat him in January, according to legal documents filed yesterday. Arthur Heller, 27, the son of Mr. Kelly’s cousin who is also named Arthur Heller, filed the complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York yesterday afternoon. A lawyer for Mr. Heller, Gabriel Levinson, said that though his client and the police commissioner are cousins once removed, their relationship had nothing to do with the case. Police officials declined to comment on the case yesterday. The chief of the city law department’s Special Federal Litigation Division, Muriel Goode-Trufant, said her division would evaluate the case thoroughly when the city receives the legal documents, which they hadn’t yesterday evening.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN CONVICTED OF RAPING CELEBRITY IN 1980S TO GO ON TRIAL AGAIN

A man who was convicted of raping a celebrity in the 1980s and of threatening to kill two former presidents is going on trial again, this time for the rape of two women in Greenwich Village 10 years ago. Opening statements are scheduled for today in the trial of Leroy Johnson, 39, who is accused of forcing his way into the home of two women and attacking them at knifepoint on November 18, 1996. Prosecutors say it was not Johnson’s first rape. During a hearing Monday, Assistant District Attorney Michele Bayer told the court that in 1982, when he was 15, Johnson raped two women. Ms. Bayer did not say who the celebrity was, but it has been widely reported that the celebrity was actress Kelly McGillis.

– Associated Press

COURT LETS LAWSUIT CITING BRONX LANDFILL INJURIES LAWSUIT PROCEED

A lawsuit saying the city created a mountain of toxic trash in a landfill, causing children who lived nearby to be sickened or killed by cancer, can proceed, a state appeals court ruled yesterday. By a 3-2 vote, the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Manhattan rejected the city’s argument that the plaintiffs failed to show the deaths and illnesses of their family members were directly related to the contents of the Bronx landfill.

– Associated Press

TWO SUITS CLAIM COMPANY FAILED TO DELIVER PROMISED TAX HELP

A company whose nationwide advertising offered tax delinquents a chance to settle with the IRS for “pennies on the dollar” collected hefty fees but often couldn’t deliver on its promises, according to a pair of lawsuits. New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs filed a lawsuit Monday accusing American Tax Relief of bombarding households with junk mail that exaggerated what it could do for clients with big tax debts. Separately, a Brooklyn woman filed a class action lawsuit June 1 claiming she and other clients paid thousands of dollars to the Los Angeles firm and wound up with the same debts with which they’d started.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

COAST GUARD DENIES FAULT IN DEADLY BOAT ACCIDENT

ALBANY – The U.S. Coast Guard says in court papers it bears no responsibility for the capsizing of a tour boat that killed 20 elderly tourists on an Adirondack lake, denying that it inspected, certified or regulated the Ethan Allen. While acknowledging the Coast Guard does boat stability tests and issues stability letters and inspection certificates for some vessels, federal lawyers said the agency did not do any of those for the tour boat that flipped over and sank October 2 on Lake George.

– Associated Press

MOTHER HIT AFTER ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ COMMENT RESENTS PRESS COVERAGE

PLATTSBURGH – The mother of a Plattsburgh man who is charged with allegedly striking her in the head after the two disagreed about an “American Idol” contestant wants media coverage of her family to stop. “They are making it out to be a circus,” said Jan Chagnon, whose son, Cory Favreau, was charged May 24 with striking her on the head when she told him she thought “American Idol” contestant Katharine McPhee would receive a record contract despite losing to winner Taylor Hicks.

– Associated Press