CITYWIDE

City Contracts Total More Than $11 Billion

Whether it’s $62 million dollars for photocopies, $83 million to haul and dump Queens garbage to Pennsylvania and Virginia, or $20 million dollars to a Long Island City car dealership for General Motors car parts, the city signed almost 50,000 contracts totaling more than $11 billion in the latest fiscal year, according to City Law, a newsletter produced by New York Law School. The largest contract was for $471 million to HIV prevention programs in the city. The newsletter reported that the Sanitation Department processed its competitively-bid contracts on average in two while the Human Resources department took almost a year to complete the same cycle.

— Special to the Sun

Bloomberg Gives Largest Anti-Smoking Donation On Record

Two-and-a-half months after announcing plans to give $125 million to fight tobacco use around the world, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday the five organizations he is funding to do the work. Mr. Bloomberg, who is known nationally for passing a New York City smoking ban for restaurants and bars, is spreading the two-year gift to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (the mayor’s namesake), the World Health Organization, and the World Lung Foundation. The gift is the largest of its kind to fight smoking and will be used exclusively outside America to “benefit low-and-middle-income countries” like China, India, Indonesia, and Russia. The money will be used to push for smoking bans and higher taxes on tobacco, to teach children about the dangers of smoking, and to develop a system to track tobacco use worldwide.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Woman Says Harlem Beauty Salon Visit Left Her Feeling ‘Suicidal’

A woman who went to a beauty salon so she could “look pretty for herself and her family” sued the shop yesterday saying a worker removed layers of skin and flesh from her top lip during a hot wax hair removal procedure. Mercy Ago, 48, said she was bleeding and in pain after having a hot wax treatment October 23 in Master Nails USA, a beauty shop near her home in Harlem. Ms. Ago said shop employees gave her a Band-Aid and an ointment for the wound. During the same visit, Ms. Ago got her eyebrows hot waxed. Because of chemicals in the topical cream the salon employee used, said Ms. Ago’s lawyer Alan Schnurman, the skin around her eyes darkened so that she looked like she had two black eyes. “I was suicidal” after looking in the mirror said Ms. Ago, a Ghanaian who spoke in halting English during a news conference in Mr. Schnurman’s office. The woman who did the hot wax procedure “didn’t even ask me my name or my telephone number,” Ms. Ago said. She said her husband, Elvis Egbenyah, took her to Harlem Hospital after he saw her and she explained what had happened. The salon’s lawyer, John S. Park, said he had heard of the lawsuit but had not seen Ms. Ago’s papers and had no comment. Ms. Ago said the visit was her third to that salon. In the first two, she had only her eyebrows done. Mr. Schnurman said, “It’s our position that this was depraved and reckless act. It should never have happened. Her intention was to look pretty for herself and her family,” the lawyer said. “You go there to feel good, not to be disfigured.” Ms. Ago’s lawsuit is asking for unspecified and punitive damages, Mr. Schnurman said.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

Teenager Arrested In Queens Stabbing

A 14-year-old student was arrested for stabbing two older teenagers inside a Queens subway station yesterday morning, police said. Police said just before 9 a.m., inside the Main Street station of the number 7 line in Flushing, the younger teenager allegedly stabbed the other two after a fight broke out between the three. Police said a 19-year-old victim was stabbed in the abdomen and chest, and taken to New York Hospital in Queens, where he was listed in critical condition. A 17-year-old was stabbed one time in the back, and also taken to New York Hospital, police said. Police did not indicate a reason for the fight. Police said the younger teenager — whose name was not released because he is a juvenile — was charged with assault. A knife was recovered on the stairs of the subway station, police said.

— Special to the Sun

Police Seek Morningside Heights Thief

Police are looking for a man they said robbed six people in Morningside Heights in four separate incidents over the past three weeks. During the robberies, police said the suspect — believed to be an 18-year-old man — told victims he was carrying a gun, although he did not display it. No one was injured in any of the incidents. In the first robbery, on October 12 around 10 p.m., police said the suspect approached a 28-year-old woman on West 120th Street and demanded cash from her. Several minutes later, on West 121st Street, he robbed a 28-year-old woman in a similar fashion. On October 18, around 7:15 p.m., police said the suspect robbed a 43-year-old man, and two women, ages 53 and 28, on West 112th Street. In the final incident on October 19 around 8 p.m., police said the suspected robbed a 21-year-old woman on Morningside Drive.

— Special to the Sun