STATEWIDE

VICTIM’S SISTER PUSHES LAWMAKERS FOR TIGHTER SECURITY AT BARS

ALBANY – The sister of a slain New York City graduate student, Imette St. Guillen, came to the state Capitol yesterday to press for two laws aimed at boosting security at bars and taverns.

A Democratic assemblyman, Felix Ortiz, is sponsoring “Imette’s law,” which would mandate the installation of security cameras at the entrances of all establishments in New York that hold liquor licenses.

Another Ortiz bill would mandate background checks for bouncers and require them to complete a training course. Bar owners and managers could face misdemeanor charges for any criminal act performed by an employee with a criminal record.

– Associated Press

SEARCH IS ON FOR TROOPER SHOOTING SUSPECT

HARPURSVILLE – Residents near this rural upstate New York hamlet remained on edge yesterday as state police spent a second day searching through thick woods, old farm buildings, and seasonal camps for an escaped convict suspected of shooting a state trooper.

There have been no confirmed sightings of Ralph “Bucky” Phillips since 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Phillips and an acquaintance were at a nearby private camp site where police later found a stolen pickup truck, a state police captain, Eric Jarvis, said.

– Associated Press

CLINTON, PATAKI ATTEND RIBBON CUTTING FOR HELICOPTER FACILITY

OWEGO – Possibly, just possibly, Senator Clinton and Governor Pataki were doing a little wishful window shopping yesterday.

Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, and Mr. Pataki, a Republican, both considered potential 2008 presidential candidates, were among the dignitaries on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony at Lockheed Martin’s $37.4 million presidential helicopter facility in the village of Owego west of Binghamton in New York’s Southern Tier. The facility, just north of the New York-Pennsylvania border, will be the main facility for building the new “Marine One” helicopter.

– Associated Press

GREEN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR CALLS OTHERS ‘REPUBLICRATS’

BUFFALO – The Green Party candidate for governor, who favors demilitarizing the National Guard, free college education, and making a crime of smoking near children, watched the recent Democratic and Republican state conventions with amusement.

“It’s such a colossal waste of time and money,” the Green candidate, Malachy McCourt, an actor, activist, author, and broadcast personality, said. “Why didn’t they just do it together?” He called them all “republicrats” for what he sees as their tepid and similar, focus group-tested views.

– Associated Press

ONE DEAD IN GO-CART ACCIDENT

MOHAWK – A teenager was killed and another critically injured when the go-cart they were riding collided with a car.

Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies said the go-cart was partially stuck beneath the front end of the car when they arrived at the scene in Mohawk, about 80 miles west of Albany.

Witnesses said the driver of the go-cart didn’t slow down or look for oncoming traffic as it turned into an intersection Sunday evening. An accident reconstruction team from the State Police showed the driver of the car attempted to avoid hitting the go-cart.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

BLOOMBERG ENTERTAINS PRESIDENTIAL SPECULATION

Maybe Mayor Bloomberg was only playing, but he certainly seemed to entertain speculation about a possible run for president much more than usual Sunday evening at a fund-raiser in Connecticut for Rep. Christopher Shays.

According to the Hour, a newspaper in Norwalk, Conn., Mr. Bloomberg pointed out how he certainly has enough money for a presidential run. He also noted that his beliefs – often described as socially liberal and fiscally conservative – might make him a hard sell for either party. “Running as an independent candidate would be a daunting thing,” Mr. Bloomberg told the crowd at the $1,000-plate dinner at the Greenwich home of the shoe designer Stuart Weitzman.

When asked directly by a member of the audience during a question-and-answer session whether he was contemplating a presidential run, Mr. Bloomberg said “absolutely not,” according to the Hour. Usually, that would be the end of it, but he went on, adding: “And anybody who’s running will say exactly that.”

– Associated Press

ARTIFACT REMOVED FROM AUCTION OVER CONCERNS IT WAS STOLEN

An ancient Egyptian offering vessel expected to sell for as much as $30,000 at auction this week has been pulled from the sale over concerns over how it was removed from that country, Christie’s auction house said.

“Upon receiving information which led us to believe that the object had possibly been improperly taken out of Egypt, we contacted the appropriate U.S. authorities and withdrew the item from the sale,” the auction house said in a statement.

Christie’s said it was working to facilitate the return of the vessel to Egypt as quickly as possible. It would not elaborate on what it had learned about the circumstances of the object’s removal from Africa.

– Associated Press

DAILY NEWS PROMOTES SAPIO, REHIRES NG

Bob Sapio has been promoted to senior executive editor of the Daily News, and a former deputy managing editor, David Ng, is returning as executive editor, the paper announced yesterday.

Mr. Sapio, 55, had been executive editor of the News since 2003 and is a three decade veteran at the paper.

Mr. Ng, 48, is coming back to the Daily News as executive editor after spending the last six years at the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. Mr. Ng worked for the News from 1993 to 2000, serving as metropolitan editor and deputy managing editor.

– Associated Press

DRIVER IN TAXI ACCIDENT HAD LICENSE FOR ONLY FIVE WEEKS

The 21-year-old driver of a taxicab that slammed into a building in Lower Manhattan on Sunday, killing a 20-year-old college student and injuring four other young women, had just received his hack’s license five weeks ago.

Hassan Afzal, of Queens, got his license in May and leased his taxi from Yellow Cab SLS Jet in Queens, a Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman, Allen Fromberg, said.

The driver, whose condition was upgraded to stable at Bellevue Hospital, got his driver’s license in 2004, Mr. Fromberg said.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

SINGER LEAVES HOSPITAL AFTER ALLEGED HATE-CRIME ATTACK

A recording artist assaulted by youths yelling anti-gay slurs in the East Village left the hospital yesterday, his leg in a brace and his jaw wired shut because of the injuries he suffered.

Kevin Aviance clutched a bouquet of yellow roses from a well-wisher and a framed photo of himself in performance costume and makeup, as he was wheeled out of Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

Mr. Aviance, 38, who performs in drag, appeared on the Billboard dance music charts in 2002 and 2004 with his songs “Give It Up” and “Alive.”

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

SCOUTMASTER SENTENCED FOR SEX ABUSE

A Queens Boy Scout scoutmaster was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison for sexually abusing two 13-year-old scouts, the Queens district attorney announced. Ronald Occhipinti, 46, of East Hampton Boulevard in Bayside, pleaded guilty in May to the abuse, which prosecutors said took place at his home and inside a Little Neck church where the troop held meetings.

Prosecutors said the abuse took place over 11 months between September 2003 and August 2005. Occhipinti abused the boys nearly weekly and forced them to take off their clothing and pose for lewd photographs on numerous occasions, prosecutors said.

– Special to the Sun

EX-CONVICT FOUND GUILTY IN 1996 RAPES

An ex-convict who raped a celebrity nearly 25 years ago and who once threatened to kill two former American presidents was found guilty yesterday of raping and robbing two young women in their home in 1996.

The jury convicted Leroy Johnson, 39, on all eight counts. He faces up to 25 years in prison on each of the two rape counts when a state Supreme Court justice, Renee White, sentences him on June 27.

– Associated Press

PROSECUTOR: DEFENDANT KILLED OUT OF ‘HATRED OF WHITE PEOPLE’

WHITE PLAINS – A paralegal who parked every day in a shopping mall garage was stabbed to death by a homeless rapist who was lurking there with a plan – “murder motivated by hatred, hatred of white people,” a prosecutor said yesterday.

“The defendant’s perfect victim had just arrived,” an assistant district attorney, Timothy Ward, said. “Petite, sandy-haired, female, and white.”

Mr. Ward gave the opening statement in Westchester County Court at the trial of Phillip Grant, 44, who is accused of murder as a hate crime in the stabbing death of Concetta Russo-Carriero, 56. She was killed last June 29 as she headed for her car in the garage of the Galleria mall, just a block from the courthouse.

– Associated Press