CITYWIDE

Ground Zero Site Free of Asbestos, Carcinogens

Workers resumed the search for human remains in manholes and other areas around the World Trade Center site yes terday after testing revealed no asbestos or carcinogens nearby, Mayor Bloomberg said. “It was perfectly safe,” the mayor told reporters in Brooklyn. Mr Bloomberg also defended anew the city’s recovery efforts in the months after the Twin Towers collapse, pushing back at some family members who said offi cials rushed to complete the search for human remains so reconstruction work could begin.”Nobody suggested that we were going to start construction right away,” the mayor said. He added: “It was family members who wanted to know what had happened, and I think the workers there deserve nothing but cred it for how respectfully and how rapidly they gave whatever certainty we could give to family members.” In the mean time, the Associated Press reported that 36 more bone fragments were found yes terday as workers continued sifting de bris from subterranean cavities that were missed during the initial cleanup.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Mayor Says Clinton Has Been ‘Very Helpful’ To City

Mayor Bloomberg declined to endorse Senator Clinton for reelection yesterday but he left relatively little doubt about whom he’ll be voting for on November 7 The mayor said that reported comments by Mrs. Clinton’s Republican opponent John Spencer, were “totally inappropri ate,” and he praised the former first lady’s performance as senator. The Daily News on Monday reported that Mr Spencer suggested Mrs. Clinton was ugly and that she had “millions of dollars” in plastic surgery. “Senator Clinton has been a very good senator for this state,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday “and she’s certainly been very helpful to the city every time I’ve called her.” But the mayor would not officially endorse her, citing his decision to “stay out of the statewide elections” this year.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Movie Business Brings in Big Bucks

The motion picture business con tributes $13 billion to the New York state economy, according to a report re leased this week by researchers at Cor nell University and the Fiscal Policy In stitute, based in Albany and Manhattan The Mayor’s Office of Film, Television and Broadcast, has traditionally said that the industry added $5 billion to the state economy every year, but the new re port takes into account other ways the money spent and earned by the industry affects the economy, including revenue for local production companies. A pro fessor of city and regional planning at Cornell University and researcher on the study, Susan Christopherson, said the report highlights New York’s com parative advantages, which include in dependent filmmaking, documentaries a large community of actors, and televi sion production. With this information legislators and those in the industry can continue to nurture these specific groups and make New York City more competitive with Los Angeles and Toron to, who are major competitors, she said.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

City Breaks Ground On Brooklyn Navy Yard

The city yesterday broke ground on a 400,000-square foot expansion of industrial space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that officials could add up to 800 jobs in the area. The seven building com plex, a $106 million project, is the first of two phases that will boost the 300 acre site by nearly 50%. The buildings will house a food manufacturing and processing plant, and the site is expect ed to include a 60,000-square foot su permarket. Mayor Bloomberg in 2004 pledged to expand the navy yard, which he said had been “bursting at the seams,” and touted the development yesterday as evidence that the industrial sector “remains a vital part of our economy.”While the buildings are funded privately, the city is chipping in $210 million over five years to pay for infrastructure improvements around the yard.

—Staff Reporter of the Sun

The Times Seeks Tenants For New Building

The New York Times Company is now searching for outside tenants to fill five floors of its new corporate headquarters, according to Crain’s. The Times initially planned to occupy the first 29 floors of the 52-story building that it is developing in partnership with Forest City Ratner Companies. Now, the Times is looking for other businesses to fill 155,000 square feet of office space between the 23rd and 27th floors. Currently under construction, the new skyscraper will stand at 620 Eighth Ave., between West 40th and West 41st streets and across the street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Noted architect Renzo Piano, former winner of the Pritzker Prize, designed the building. CB Richard Ellis will be in charge of leasing the space. Reports estimate the asking price to be roughly $85 per square foot. The Times reported a 39% drop in third quarter profits this year, Crain’s reported.

— Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

Teenager Charged With Stabbing Stepmother

Police arrested the 15-year-old stepson of a Washington Heights woman for allegedly stabbing her to death on Monday. As of last night, Raymen Fernandez, 15, was awaiting arraignment. A spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney said he is being tried as an adult. Police allege the teenager stabbed his stepmother, Janet Fernandez, multiple times in the face, neck, and chest inside their West 177th Street apartment. Her body was found in a bedroom there around 5 p.m. on Monday. On at least one previous occasion, police said officers were called to the family’s home in response to a domestic dispute between the slain woman and her stepson.

— Special to the Sun

Police Seek Deliveryman’s Attacker

Police are looking for the man who stabbed a Chinese food deliveryman in Queens on Monday night. Police said the suspect, believed to be in his 20s, met the 39-year-old deliveryman inside an apartment building on 21st Street in Astoria around 7:40 p.m. The two rode the elevator together, although the attacker allegedly got off on the fourth floor and the deliveryman got off on the fifth. Police said the attacker ran up to the fifth floor, however, where he stabbed the victim three times. The victim was brought to New York-Presbyterian Hospital in stable condition. Yesterday, police released two videotapes from the building’s security camera, which recorded the assailant coming in and out of the building.

— Special to the Sun

Subway Flasher Arrested Again

The man accused of exposing himself on a New York City subway train this past August was arrested yesterday, police said. Kenneth Hoyt, 41, of Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, was apprehended around 11 a.m., and subsequently picked out of a police line up, authorities said. According to police, he was charged with public lewdness. Police said on August 1,the suspect flashed two female passengers on a southbound number 6 train at the Union Square subway station. Previously, he was arrested on similar charges after he flashed subway passengers on at least two other occasions. Police also said Hoyt is a registered sex offender stemming from a California case.

— Special to the Sun