STATEWIDE

SAT VERBAL SCORES INCH UP BUT FALL BELOW NATIONAL AVERAGE

Verbal scores on the SAT inched up in New York State this year and math scores stayed constant, but the state’s students are performing well below national averages, data released yesterday show.

New Yorkers averaged 497 out of 800 on the verbal section, according to the new data from the College Board. That compares with a 508 national average. In math, New York students earned an average score of 510,compared with 518 nationwide.

Although the state’s students fell short of their peers in other states, 87% of students took the test – a larger portion than in any other state. Nationally, black and Hispanic students continued to score well below their Asian and white counterparts. Black students earned an average combined score of 866, compared to the Asian average of 1056 and the white average of 1052. Hispanic students earned an average combined score of 895.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

TWO TENANTS SUE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING OVER SECURITY

Two lawyers who are Empire State Building tenants filed a lawsuit yesterday saying the 102-story landmark is a terrorism target and the court should direct the skyscraper’s managers to improve its security.

Attorneys Aaron Broder and Jonathan Reiter say in court papers that security personnel do not search or screen visitors for explosives or weapons before they enter the lobby and other common areas of the building that is now New York’s tallest. Court papers say the lax security is “reckless” and “negligent” and presents a “clear and present danger and substantial risk of grievous bodily harm and death” to those in the building “due to the actions of terrorists.”

Mr. Broder said security was tightened for about a year after the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed on September 11, 2001, but after store owners in the lobby of the 34th Street and Fifth Avenue building complained about financial losses, some security measures were eased.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

COURT RULES ABSENT FATHER CAN TAKE DEAD SON’S BENEFITS

The state’s highest court let stand a decision yesterday that a man was “parent” to a son he abandoned at age 20 months and is eligible for half of a workers’ compensation death benefit after the son perished in the World Trade Center attack.

Without comment, the Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s determination that Leon Caldwell was the parent of Kenneth Caldwell under the state Workers’ Compensation Law. Leon Caldwell abandoned his son and his wife in September 1972 and had only seen him twice since, according to court papers.

Kenneth Caldwell, who worked for the Alliance Consulting Group and lived in Brooklyn, died at age 30 without a spouse or children during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the trade center towers.

Leon Caldwell sought half his son’s $50,000 death benefit with Kenneth Caldwell’s mother, Elsie Caldwell, seeking the other half.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

GUILTY PLEA IN CORRUPTION CASE

A housing official who worked under the former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, pleaded guilty yesterday to making false statements about his use of a car.

The plea by Richard Roberts, former commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, grew from a corruption scandal that surrounded Russell Harding, the former president of the city’s Housing Development Corp. The charge against Mr. Roberts, 40, of Manhattan, came after Mr. Harding, in early summer 2000, approved $38,000 in housing funds to buy a vehicle for Mr. Roberts’s use. Mr. Roberts could face up to five years in prison at sentencing December 3.

– Associated Press