CITYWIDE

QUEENS LAWMAKERS QUESTION CON ED REIMBURSEMENT A trio of Queens elected officials are demanding that Consolidated Edison not limit how much it will reimburse residents and businesses that lost money and goods during a blackout in northwest Queens last month. They also proposed that affected customers get three free months of electricity. The utility has said it will compensate residents up to $350 and businesses up to $7,000, but the politicians — City Council members Eric Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr., along with Assemblyman Michael Gianaris — say many of their constituents have lost far more than what Con Ed is willing to pay. A spokeswoman for the utility, Elizabeth Clark, said, “It’s too preliminary” to comment but “we’re willing to work with all elected officials.”

— Special to the Sun

FIRE DAMAGES QUEENS SHOPS four-alarm fire at a commercial building in Queens yesterday caused severe damage to several small shops, the Fire Department said.

No one was inside when the fire started at 7 a.m. on the first floor of the two-story brick building in Jackson Heights. The blaze was declared under control at 10:55 a.m., after causing extensive damage to a shoe store, a coffee shop, a sandwich store, and several other businesses.

Ten firefighters suffered minor injuries, mainly from smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion. Nine were taken to Elmhurst Hospital, and one was treated at the scene.The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

— Associated Press

ASTOR’S SON SOLD ONE OF HER FAVORITE PAINTINGS Anthony Marshall, who is accused of neglecting his mother, 104-year-old philanthropist Brooke Astor, has sold one of her favorite paintings and has invested her money in his Broadway productions, according to published reports.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Astor was “up and eating and walking” at her Westchester estate, said a spokesman for her court-appointed guardian.

The Daily News reported yesterday that Mrs.Astor’s grandson, Philip Marshall, claimed in court papers that Anthony Marshall, his father, sold “Flags, Fifth Avenue,” by American Impressionist Childe Hassam, about a decade ago.

— Associated Press

CONTRACT TO REPLACE TAPPAN ZEE DECK MINIMIZES TRAFFIC WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A $147 million contract to replace the deck of the Tappan Zee Bridge includes provisions designed to minimize traffic tie-ups caused by construction on the already jammed Hudson River span.

The state Thruway Authority announced yesterday that the contract was awarded to a joint venture of Perini Corp. and Tutor-Saliba Corp. in Peekskill.

The redecking, which will cover a majority of the bridge surface, is “a necessary interim measure” while officials decide whether to replace the 51-year-old Tappan Zee, authority Executive Director Michael Fleischer said.

— Associated Press

STATEWIDE

PATAKI SIGNS 300 BILLS ALBANY — Governor Pataki this week signed 300 bills that set aside a day for civil rights activist Rosa Parks, watched the finances of volunteer fire companies more closely, made school buses safer, cut down on junk faxes, and required standardized tests to be scheduled around religious holidays.

But it was a bad week for coyotes and a good week for seagrass. Hunters can now hunt coyotes without getting a special permit to use dogs in tracking the wild animals down. State law also established a seagrass research, monitoring and restoration task force. A dozen government and fishing industry representatives would meet to recommend how to best improve underwater seagrass in Long Island Sound to foster better fishing.

— Associated Press

GIULIANI TO TRAVEL TO S.C. Mayor Giuliani will travel later this month to South Carolina, a potentially crucial presidential battleground, to headline several events there. Mr. Giuliani will be the guest of honor at a fund-raiser for the South Carolina Republican Party on August 16. He will also host a fund-raiser for a congressional candidate, Ralph Norman. — Associated Press

REPUBLICANS REQUEST INVESTIGATION INTO CUOMO CAMPAIGN FILING ALBANY — State Republicans yesterday asked the state Board of Elections to investigate Democrat Andrew Cuomo’s latest campaign financial filing, saying Mr. Cuomo failed to report receiving free or discounted rent for office space.

“Certain of the unreported in-kind contributors at issue here are near the contribution limit for this election cycle and calendar year,” the state GOP chairman, Stephen Minarik, said in a letter to the Board of Elections. “By failing to report these in-kind contributions, Mr. Cuomo has illegally reduced his total campaign expenditures, and thereby illegally boosted his current campaign balance.”

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

MAN ARRESTED FOR SHINING LASER POINTER AT POLICE HELICOPTER A 19-year-old man was arrested for shining a laser pointer at a police helicopter returning from an emergency call, authorities said yesterday.

The bright green laser was beamed into the cockpit three times from the ground at Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn late Monday night, temporarily distracting the officers, who were returning from an unfounded report of a jumper on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The aviation unit officers, flying at an altitude of about 500 feet, spotted a man on the ground trying to flee in a white four-door sedan.They radioed a description to other officers, who quickly captured Anthony Pepe, of Brooklyn.

— Associated Press

POLICE INVESTIGATE S.I. WOMAN’S DEATH Police are investigating the death of a Staten Island woman whose body was found yesterday morning.They identified the woman as Linda Nappi of Daniel Low Terrace. Her body was found by a neighbor shortly after 8 a.m. in her third-floor apartment, according to police. Police did not report visible signs of trauma, but indicated an investigation was ongoing.

— Special to the Sun

MORE SUSPICIOUS WHITE POWDER AT NYT A report yesterday of suspicious white powder in the mailroom of the New York Times was the second in three weeks.The powder, found around 3:30 p.m. on an envelope in the Times’ building on West 43rd Street, was not anthrax, a Fire Department spokesman said. On July 14, the eighth floor of the newspaper’s headquarters was evacuated after a mail employee discovered white powder in a piece of correspondence. The first case was also innocuous, and no one was treated for injuries in either incident, Fire Department officials said.

— Special to the Sun