CITYWIDE

Bloomberg Playing Fund-Raiser Host

Mayor Bloomberg is holding a fund-raiser for Governor Schwarzenegger tonight at his Upper East Side townhouse. The visit comes a few weeks after Mr. Bloomberg traveled to California to appear with Mr. Schwarzenegger and to headline a fund-raiser to boost the Republican governor’s bid for reelection. Burnishing his reputation for political independence, the Republican mayor is also playing host today to Adrian Fenty, a Democrat who is likely to become mayor of Washington, D.C. next year. Mr. Fenty, who won the Democratic primary last month, will join Mr. Bloomberg for breakfast on the Upper East Side before touring the mayor’s open-office “bullpen” at City Hall. Later this month, Mr. Bloomberg is holding a fundraiser for Senator Lieberman, the centrist Democrat of Connecticut who is trying to hold on to his seat by running a third-party candidacy.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Residents Rally To Save Housing

Several hundred people were joined by local politicians yesterday in a rally at the East River against the proposed sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village to private developers by MetLife. The tenants of the community are attempting to raise funds themselves and offer a competitive bid, maintaining the current community and rent structure. “Before we started to organize, the discussion was just about dollars,” the councilman for Stuyvesant Town, Dan Garodnick, said. “Now it’s also about affordability and how to protect the tenants here today.” Representatives of the tenants association will meet with MetLife and offer a new bid today at noon.

— Special to the Sun

Lower Levels Of Manhattan Bridge Closed Until Next Year

Watch out Chinatown and downtown Brooklyn. This won’t be pretty. The lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge closed yesterday for a facelift that is expected to take at least a year.The upper roadway of the Manhattan Bridge will remain open, but New York City’s transportation department is suggesting that drivers use alternate routes to cross the East River until the autumn of 2007. Pedestrians and bikers will share access along the Manhattan Bridge’s south walkway. The north walkway will be closed. Work on the lower roadway is expected to be completed by next October.

— Associated Press

CUNY Professor To Create Legal Resource For Web Loggers

In an effort to help bloggers protect themselves against an increasing number of libel lawsuits, the City University of New York’s new journalism school is creating a legal reference for bloggers. Funded by a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a journalism school professor, Geanne Rosenberg, will author the guide. “There’s a real danger that if people read about lawsuits against bloggers and about legal risk, they’re just going to feel like they have to censor themselves and shut down,” Ms. Rosenberg said. She said that she hopes her undertaking will help maintain a plurality of voices in the field of journalism. The director of the journalism school’s Interactive Journalism Program and proprietor of the popular Buzz Machine Weblog, Jeff Jarvis, said that the guide could make up for the fact that bloggers lack the in-house legal resources often available to professional journalists. “We bloggers don’t have the protection of big companies behind us. That’s why we need a guide like this.”

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

Men Stabbed in Queens

Three males from Hollis, Queens, were stabbed as they were being robbed early yesterday morning on Jamaica Avenue in Queens in front of a Mexican restaurant. Two of the victims, who suffered wounds to the neck and torso, were in stable condition at Mary Immaculate Hospital last night. The third victim, a man in his twenties, who suffered stab wounds to his chest, was in critical condition yesterday evening. Charges against suspects Dolton Castellano, 23, and Walter Molina, 22, also of Hollis, are pending.

— Special to the Sun

Vehicle in Brooklyn Hit and Run Identified

The Brooklyn hit-and-run driver who killed Jane Felzin, 55, on the scene, and sent her daughter, 26, to the hospital in critical condition on Saturday remained at large as of last night. The mother and daughter were walking on Nostrand Avenue at approximately 11:45 p.m. on Saturday night near their home when they were hit by a red Kia driving southbound on Nostrand Avenue. The car was recovered on Avenue T in Sheepshead Bay late Saturday evening, but the driver, identified only as the car owner’s boyfriend, had fled the scene. The bereaved husband and father of the victims was hospitalized early yesterday morning after hearing the news and suffering from shock. The investigation is ongoing.

— Special to the Sun

Body Recovered Off Rockaway Point

A body was recovered in the water off of Beach 222nd Street and Rockaway Point Boulevard yesterday at approximately 3:30 p.m. Police would not confirm the identification of the body until the family was notified, but the body was recovered in the same area where fisherman Karl Heinzen, 21, was knocked off a jetty on October 8, while fishing with his father, Jerome Heinzen, and friends. Mr. Heinzen, a student at Brooklyn College, has been missing since the fishing accident.

— Special to the Sun

Man Shot in Queens

A man shot in Queens on the corner of 192nd Street and 118th Avenue was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in critical condition late yesterday afternoon. At press time last night, police said it was still too early to identify the victim.

— Special to the Sun