CITYWIDE

City Expected To Pass Tougher Demolition Laws

After toughening proposed legislation at the request of the Bloomberg administration, a City Council housing and building committee is set to vote today on two bills that would stiffen fines levied for violations such as staging a demolition without a permit and disobeying city inspectors’ stop work orders. The bills also urge the city to seek jail terms for the most egregious violators. If the bills pass the committee today, the full 51-member City Council is almost certain to vote on them tomorrow. A spokeswoman for Speaker Christine Quinn, Maria Alvarado, said Ms. Quinn’s office is evaluating the bills, and a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, Jason Post, said Mr. Bloomberg supports them. At the last meeting of the committee, an attorney representing a group of demolition companies, said they are opposed to criminal charges on the grounds that accused violators often don’t receive proper notice that a summons has been issued.

— Special to the Sun

Decision on Voting Machines Nears for City

After the general election in which electronic voting machines around the country malfunctioned, miscalculated, or just didn’t turn on, a public hearing to discuss the future of the machines in New York City was held yesterday in Brooklyn. The city’s Board of Elections must decide by February which type of new voting machines it will choose for the 2007 elections. New York will be the last state to employ the new voting machines that are mandated under the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The board has picked four different vendors who will present their products to the public and the board’s commissioners tomorrow at LaGuardia Community College in Queens and on Friday at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. A public hearing will also be held November 21 at the Board of Elections in Manhattan.

— Special to the Sun

Transit Union President Candidates Debate Tonight

Four of the five candidates in the election for president of Transport Workers Union Local 100 will square off tonight in a debate at CUNY’s Joseph S. Murphy Center for Labor, Community and Policy Studies in Manhattan at 7:30 p.m. TWU Vice President Barry Roberts, who is considered to be incumbent president Roger Toussaint’s top rival in the mid-December election, is the only candidate who declined to participate in the debate. He did not return phone calls yesterday. Ainslie Stewart, the TWU vice president who is running for president on the Union Democracy slate, says he will have “no choice but to attack Toussaint on his miserable record” this evening. Mr. Stewart has been running a campaign to improve healthcare benefits for union members. The current contract requires union workers to give back 1.5% of their gross income to the Transit Authority to offset healthcare costs. Candidates Michael Carrube and Anthony Staley are running for president as independents. Mr. Carrube says he will bring up medical benefits, as well as the lack of a union contract 11 months after the transit strike, and that he believes Mr. Toussaint should be held accountable for the absence of a contract.

— Special to the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

Car Jumps Curb, Injures Four in Union Square

Four people were injured last night after police said a driver who lost control of her car jumped a Manhattan sidewalk and struck several pedestrians. The accident occurred around 5:50 p.m. on Broadway and East 12th Street near Union Square. Authorities said five people were struck, and one was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in serious condition. Three others were taken to St. Vincent’s and Bellevue Hospital, police said. One patient was treated at the scene. Initially, authorities said they did not suspect criminality, and reported that it seemed the woman lost control of her black sedan, which also struck a storefront and left the sidewalk covered with shattered glass. The driver stayed on the scene, police said, and no summonses were issued.

— Special to the Sun

Body Burned in Car Fire At World’s Fair Marina

Fire marshals and police detectives are investigating a car fire at the World’s Fair Marina in Queens, where a severely burned body was pulled from the flames. The fire was reported just before 6 a.m. yesterday at the Flushing marina but may have been raging for some time before authorities were notified, according to fire department officials. Several units responded to the scene, where the unidentified body was recovered. Authorities said the body was burned beyond recognition. A spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s office said an autopsy would be done today.

— Special to the Sun