MANHATTAN

PLAN TO EXPAND JAVITS CENTER MAY BE APPROVED TODAY

The $1.7 billion plan to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center by more than 1 million square feet could receive final approval today if the Public Authorities Control Board signs off on it. The three-member PACB is made up of Governor Pataki, a state senator, Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.While Messrs. Pataki and Bruno strongly support the plan, Mr. Silver has emitted some mixed signals. He could delay a vote today, or opt to approve the plan. Yesterday, as expected, the leading state development agency approved the plan, clearing the way for it to be considered at the PACB meeting scheduled for today. Last June, Mr. Silver killed Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for a West Side stadium with his vote on the board. If approved, a Javits ground-breaking could occur this fall with the goal of completing the expansion by 2010.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

REPORT: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN PARKING RATES PRICIEST IN COUNTRY

You might want to take the bus. A survey of 49 American metropolitan areas found that monthly parking rates in Midtown Manhattan were the country’s most expensive, averaging $574, with downtown Manhattan coming in second, at $500.The report, released yesterday by real estate firm Colliers International, said the nationwide average is $153, up 4.4% from last year.

— Associated Press

METLIFE CONSIDERS SALE OF CITY PROPERTIES

Life Insurer MetLife Inc. said yesterday it is evaluating options for its New York City housing developments, Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, including a possible sale of the properties. According to MetLife, the total development makes up the largest apartment complex in Manhattan with more than 11,200 units spread across 80 contiguous acres.

— Associated Press

U.N. MISSION DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST ISRAELI MILITARY OFFENSIVES

Hundreds of demonstrators in front of Israel’s mission to the United Nations yesterday protested the country’s military action in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

— Associated Press

BROOKLYN

COMMUNITY GROUPS EXHORT MAYOR TO RESOLVE TRANSPORTATION ISSUES

Twenty-eight Brooklyn community groups sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg last week urging him to get moving on the transportation issues they say are plaguing the borough’s most rapidly developing areas. Large-scale commercial development has overwhelmed public transit and left the roadways congested — the problems have been especially intrusive in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the groups say.The letter, originally conceived by an advocacy group, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, conveyed a growing impatience with the mayor. “We do not want another letter from the transportation department about why nothing can be done and how years of more study are required before any decisions can be made or anything concrete can be accomplished,” the letter stated. “As Brooklyn experiences a period of redevelopment and revitalization DOT continues to work hard to meet the demands of the changing landscape,” a Department of Transportation spokeswoman, Kay Sarlin, said.

— Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS’ UNION RATIFIES CONTRACT

School bus drivers ratified a new contract yesterday, staving off a disruption of service for 37,000 summer school students, a union spokesman said.The Amalgamated Transit Union’s Local 1181, which represents 8,400 drivers, escorts, and mechanics in New York and parts of Westchester County, overwhelmingly approved the three-year contract, a union spokesman, Steve Mangione, said.

— Associated Press

CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATES CRITICIZE NYPD PROTEST PERMIT RULES

Police have proposed placing tighter restrictions on protesters who march on sidewalks by making them obtain parade permits — a move civil libertarians say would cripple the rights of people to stage spontaneous demonstrations. The written proposal, made public Monday, would require permits for any march on a sidewalk by 35 or more people or for street demonstrations involving 20 or more bicycles or other vehicles.It says the new rules are needed to better police “assemblies that obstruct the free passage of public streets and sidewalks.”

— Associated Press

ALBANY

STUDY: LEGISLATURE DRIVING UP PUBLIC WORKER PENSION COSTS

Lawmakers want to give unionized public employees — who already get some of the best benefits in the country — more sweeteners to pensions that are helping fuel New York’s high taxes, according to a study released yesterday. State lawmakers this year passed at least 36 bills to expand pension benefits for public workers. If they are all signed into law, local and state government costs would be driven up by at least $189 million this year, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN PICKED UP IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC FOR QUESTIONING IN CHILD SLAYING

A man wanted for questioning in the drive-by slaying of an 11-year-old girl was intercepted by federal authorities after traveling to the Dominican Republic, police said yesterday.The man, whose name was not released, took a flight to the Dominican Republic after the girl, Genesis Regalado, was gunned down Monday night in Queens. Police said she was an innocent bystander of a street dispute. After identifying the man through witnesses, police notified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE agents in the Dominican Republic met him there and put him on a return flight, police said.

— Associated Press

MAN FOUND DEAD AT MUSIC STUDIO

A 19-year-old Manhattan man was found dead yesterday inside a Lower East Side music studio, police said. Officers responding to a 911 call found Antonio DeJesus unconscious inside a Clinton Street studio around 10 a.m., police said. Reporting no visible signs of trauma, police said the medical examiner would determine the man’s cause of death.

— Special to the Sun

ARREST LIKELY IN DEADLY QUEENS SHOOTING

Police are questioning two men they believe were involved in a drive-by shooting that killed an 12-year-old Queens girl Monday, including one suspect who tried to flee to the Dominican Republic. Police said Dominican authorities refused entry to the suspect after a man believed to be his accomplice identified him to police and investigators issued a warrant for his arrest. According to police, 11-year-old Genesis Regalado was shot and killed shortly before midnight, when several men involved in a previous dispute with another group drove by a 99th Street apartment building and opened fire.

— Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

EX-MAYOR ADMITS TRYING TO ARRANGE SEX WITH MINORS

BINGHAMTON — A former upstate New York mayor was sentenced yesterday to more than three years in federal prison for trying to arrange a sexual encounter with two teenage girls. John Gosek, mayor of Oswego between 2000 and 2005, admitted paying $250 to a woman he believed had lined up two 15-year-old girls for sex at a suburban Syracuse hotel.

— Associated Press

EARLY RETURN FOR SOLDIERS WHO RE-ENLISTED

FORT DRUM — As a payback for their re-enlistment while deployed, a group of 10th Mountain Division soldiers will be the first wave of troops returning from year-long duty in Iraq.The early return is for 650 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team who re-enlisted and were cashing in on a promise made by their commander to sweeten the deal. The soldiers are from all the brigade’s units.

— Associated Press

LONG ISLAND

STUDENT INDICTED ON ASSAULT FOLLOWING GLEN CLOVE GOLF CLUB MELEE

GARDEN CITY — A grand jury returned an indictment yesterday against a college student accused of striking four people with his Jaguar after a bar fight at an upscale golf club. But the student’s attorney insisted he was the victim of a racial attack at the bar that caused him to flee the club in a panic. Sayed Khaled El-Waraky, an Egyptian national who attends American University in Washington, D.C., was indicted on four counts of first-degree assault, two counts each of second- and third-degree assault, reckless endangerment and driving while intoxicated, the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen Rice, said in a statement.

— Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

QUEENS MAN SENTENCED IN DEATH OF BRAZILIAN EXOTIC DANCER

A man was sentenced yesterday to 35 years to life in prison for the murder of a Brazilian exotic dancer and the attempted murder of her roommate, prosecutors said. Aaron Gutierrez, 27, of Queens, was convicted in June of second-degree murder, seconddegree attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.

— Associated Press