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1.
Has a top city labor leader run a red light? The Feds want to know. At dawn yesterday, the FBI raided the New York City Central Labor Council. It's part of an investigation of the council's president, Brian McLaughlin. McLaughlin is also a Democratic state assemblyman from Queens, as well as one of the most powerful union leaders in New York City. Law enforcement officials say that McLaughlin received illegal payments from electrical contractors. Petrocelli Electric, one of the two electrical companies which operates all of the street lights in New York city, is also under investigation. In recent years, McLaughlin has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from large electrical contractors like Petrocelli
2.
Representatives from Con Edison and the Department of Transportation testify today at a City Council hearing concerned with stray voltage incidents around the city.
On Thursday, a 9-year-old boy said that he got an electric shock when he stepped on a manhole cover on Lenox Avenue near 127th Street.
Councilman Peter Vallone:
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Outcue: …find the stray voltage and run out and fix it
Peter Vallone.
3.
According to the latest New York Police Department statistics, murder and rape rates have risen citywide. Homicide rates are up nearly 11 percent and sex assaults are up 20 percent.
However, according to the same report, overall crime rates in New York City are down from last year.
4.
Since January 1st, the number of inmates in New York City jails has risen by 9%. There are currently 13,793 inmates in New York city jails. If inmate numbers continue to grow, the City Correction Department will reopen the Brooklyn House of Detention, a jail which closed in June of 2003. The growing jail population is causing logistal and bureaucratic problems, including extremely long waits to process newly arriving inmates.
5.
Lou Costello, of Paterson New Jersey, died on this day in 1959.
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Outcue: who?
If he had lived, Costello would have been 100 years old.