CITYWIDE

Developer Found for Last Times Square Plot

The state is moving towards approving a lease for the last undeveloped plot in the Times Square redevelopment district. The plot on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue has been vacant for many years as the rest of Times Square has been revitalized. Yesterday, the Urban Development Corporation cleared the way for a public hearing about a pending lease with a developer, SJP Properties. SJP Properties will develop a 40-story commercial office tower on the site with about one million square feet of office space. If current market conditions change, the lease enables the developer to instead build a 58-story residential or hotel building, with retail. The developer recently purchased the lot for more than $300 million from Howard and Edward Milstein. The terms of the lease were unavailable yesterday.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Education Department Employee Arrested for Stealing

An administrative assistant at the Department of Education was arrested yesterday for stealing more than $116,000 over five years through an elaborate scheme. Sandra Sykes McMikle allegedly fabricated a special education student and then produced invoices and other documents necessary to bill the department for his special education services. Ms. McMikle’s job was to oversee and approve such special education services. As part of the scheme, she had checks made payable to her mother and then deposited the money into a joint bank account. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison. The education department said yesterday that it had started the process of terminating Ms. McMikle’s employment. “Stealing money meant to provide services to our special education students is contemptible,” a spokeswoman for the education department, Kelly Devers, said.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Council Considers Opening Up City’s Cable Market

In a sign that Time Warner and Cablevision’s near-monopoly on cable television service in New York City is a step closer to coming to an end, the Bloomberg administration urged a City Council panel to open up the market yesterday. “It’s probably the Council’s and the administration’s view that we would like to have any new entrants, be it Verizon or others, be able to enter as promptly as possible,” said the senior counsel for regulatory and legislative affairs with the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Radhika Karmarkar. Although the five boroughs were divided decades ago into nine service regions when New York first became wired for cable, Time Warner and Cablevision have became the de facto cable providers for almost all New Yorkers through corporate mergers over the years.

— Special to the Sun

TriBeCa Zoning Vote Tabled

A City Council land use subcommittee postponed a vote until this morning on whether to rezone four blocks in north TriBeCa to allow the Jack Parker Corporation to redevelop the area. But with opposition to the project from community leaders, as well as most, if not all the local, state, and federal elected officials who represent the area, the panel appears poised to reject the developer’s density increase request. Opponents charge that the proposed construction would create a traffic-jam nightmare and sully the community’s character.

— Special to the Sun

N.Y. Orchestra Cancels Shows in Britain

EDINBURGH, Scotland — The New York-based Orchestra of St. Luke’s has canceled two performances in Britain after its flight was grounded by the terror alert, officials said yesterday. The 30-member orchestra was to play at the Edinburgh International Festival on Wednesday and at the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall in London on Thursday. “We are very disappointed that the orchestra has had to cancel, but this is not a colossal blow as it is our only cancellation so far, out of 167 performances,” festival spokeswoman Jackie Westbrook said. Yesterday, flight delays and cancellations continued at British airports despite the government’s decision to lower the terror threat level from critical to severe. It was raised to critical last week after British authorities said they foiled an alleged plot to bomb U.S.-bound flights. More than 1,500 tickets had been sold for the orchestra’s performance in Edinburgh; ticket holders will be offered a refund or tickets to an alternative event, Ms. Westbrook said. The orchestra’s director, Edinburgh native Donald Runnicles, is expected to keep an August 26 date to conduct another orchestra at the festival, she said.

—Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

Immigrant Found Strangled in Brooklyn

A man was arrested Monday in the death of a 69-year-old woman found stabbed and strangled in her bedroom. Gloria Boney, who moved to New York from Trinidad in 1990, was found face down and fully clothed in her Brooklyn home shortly after midnight Sunday, police said. There were no signs of forced entry.Police said they arrested a 51-year-old man and charged him with murder. They wouldn’t say how he was caught or what his relationship with the woman was. Boney was discovered after her two daughters were unable to reach her and contacted police. “We don’t know if she heard a knock and opened the door,” said one of her daughters, Maria Boney. The medical examiner said Boney had been strangled and stabbed in her head. Boney, a widow, made frequent visits to Trinidad and Tobago, where three of her six children live.

— Associated Press

Atlanta Man Dies In Brooklyn Accident

A Georgia man died in a car accident in Brooklyn yesterday when his car was struck by a 15-passenger van, police said. Police identified the victim as Marvin Chapman, 40, of Atlanta. Officials said Chapman was driving a Lincoln town car on the service road of Kings Highway and Church Avenue in East Flatbush when the driver of a 2003 Ford van struck him shortly before 2 a.m. Police said Chapman was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died from his injuries a short time later.The driver of the van fled the scene.

— Special to the Sun

TRISTATE

Bus Driver Blamed for Crash With Light-Rail Train

NEWARK , N.J. — The driver of a bus was to blame for a rush-hour crash with a light-rail train that sent 15 people, including himself, to hospitals, N.J. Transit said yesterday. N.J. Transit, which operates both the bus and the train, said driver Henry Daise, 51, has been suspended without pay and could be fired. The crash happened at about 6:45 p.m. Friday in Weehawken, just blocks from the Lincoln Tunnel. Service on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line was suspended between Ninth Street in Hoboken and Port Imperial in Weehawken for a time after the crash.

— Associated Press