Monday News

• LIPA's program energy project tests has mixed results

  As fuel-related charges pushed electric bills to record highs, the Long Island Power Authority over the past 10 years kept up a lively program of testing a bizarrely diverse, and sometimes costly, range of energy projects, often with mixed results.

• SPIN CYCLE

  DETAILS KEPT SECRET

• Company with solar project gone

  In 2003, FALA Direct Marketing of Melville took delivery of what was billed as one of the largest solar-power installations in the world, most of it paid for with a $4.1-million gift from the Long Island Power Authority.

• Local Republicans seen as possible governor candidates

  For the moment, the biggest Long Island names in statewide politics belong to Thomas DiNapoli, the Democratic state comptroller, and Dean Skelos, the Senate's GOP majority leader. Fast forward to the 2010 governor's race, and at least five regional names pop out of the rumor mill, on the Republican side.

• Boat restorer Michael Kortchmar dies

  Michael Kortchmar was a self-described klutz, a carpenter who had trouble working with straight lines. When he tried to build something at home, it was a disaster.

• Baseball's Hampton Whalers: a new game in town

  The East End is known for its beaches, summer cachet and untouched landscapes, but Rusty Leaver wants it known for something else - baseball.

• WORLD & NATION UPDATE: ABROAD

  Pope Benedict XVI met privately today with Australians who were sexually abused as children by priests, in a gesture of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church. The pontiff held prayers and spoke with four representatives of abuse victims in the last hours of a nine-day visit to Australia for the church's global youth festival. Benedict delivered a forthright apology for the scandal Saturday, saying he was "deeply sorry." Supporters said that was not enough, and have demanded Benedict do more to provide financial compensation and psychological help for them.

• Heading to Iraq

  KABUL, Afghanistan - As Sen. Barack Obama heads to Iraq for his first visit as a presidential candidate, his plan for bringing the war to a swift conclusion is triggering a political furor abroad and at home, with a U.S. military leader declaring yesterday that setting a hard deadline for withdrawing troops is risky.

• Heat drives crowds to Jones Beach

  By 8:30 a.m. yesterday, Jones Beach's Field 6 parking lot was filled to capacity.

• Work starts in park on monument to deceased children

  After Brian and Christine LeMaire's baby boy Brandon died last October at 19 months, the Islip Terrace couple worried his memory would fade - not from their minds but from their friends' and the community's.

• Hundreds turn out for kin of 2 teens slain in crash

  The joking and laughing in the crowd of about 300 people who filled D.S. Shanahan's, a sweltering Kings Park bar, belied the somber nature of yesterday's event: to show support for the families of two Smithtown High School West students who died in a car accident in October.

• Hempstead man charged with murder in SUV-bike crash

  A Hempstead man was charged with murder after police said he intentionally ran over a man on a bicycle at an intersection early yesterday.

• Paterson, top state lawmakers discuss economic downturn

  ALBANY - Predicting gasoline will hit $5 a gallon by September and less state revenue from Wall Street, Gov. David A. Paterson met top lawmakers yesterday to begin grappling with the effects of an economic downturn.

• Dr. Joseph M. Letteri, 75, expert in kidney treatment

  Dr. Joseph M. Letteri, a pioneer in the treatment of kidney disease, has died of a heart attack.

• Kathy Wollard: How come ocean is salty but rivers, lakes are not?

  Why is ocean water salty when rivers and ordinary lakes aren't? asks Ayesha Akhter, a student at IS 125 in Woodside.

• Shoppers changing their habits in a tough economy

  Adrienne Radtke plans to keep riding her bike to work, even if gas prices drop.

• Anglicans struggle over accepting homosexuality

  CANTERBURY, England - The head of the Anglican Communion said yesterday that the global fellowship faces one of the most severe challenges in its history, and he urged bishops at their once-a-decade Lambeth Conference to do the hard work of finding solutions.

• McCain takes in Yankees game with Giuliani

  With Democrat Barack Obama on the other side of the planet, Republican presidential candidate John McCain stayed closer to home yesterday, visiting Yankee Stadium with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

• Fuggedaboutit: Miss Brooklyn wins Miss New York crown

  Miss Brooklyn has been crowned Miss New York.

• WORLD & NATION UPDATE: AT HOME

  A woman suspected of cutting open a pregnant woman's uterus and stealing the baby has been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, police said yesterday. Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., is charged in the death of Kia Johnson, 18, of McKeesport. Curry-Demus is accused of taking the baby boy to a Pittsburgh hospital and claiming it was her own. Johnson's body was found Friday in Curry-Demus's apartment. In the criminal complaint, police said Johnson's body was found bound at the wrists and ankles with duct tape. Johnson appeared to have been dead for about two days. She "had a wound to the abdomen consistent with the removal of a baby," Allegheny County police said. "A very sharp instrument" was used to cut open Johnson's belly, he said. Authorities said Johnson was 36 weeks pregnant, and they were trying to determine whether she was alive when the baby was removed.

• North Shore Animal League sued over cat agreement

  In a legal battle that is something of a catfight, donors to the North Shore Animal League of America are suing the Port Washington-based shelter, claiming a written agreement to provide sanctuary for their 52 rescued cats is being broken.

• Shannon Doherty's return to '90210' is official

  BEVERLY HILLS - Shannen Doherty on the same set with

• Father of 5 pulled from Northampton lake

  A father of five was pulled from a freshwater lake in Northampton yesterday, and police said his death was most likely a drowning accident.

• Pro welterweight boxer Joseph Miceli dead at 79

  Joseph Miceli, a welterweight boxer who fought 110 professional bouts against the likes of Kid Gavilan and Ike Williams, died Saturday at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore after a battle with lung cancer. He was 79.

• Friends take stock of Bohemia couple's murder-suicide

  Relatives and friends of the couple who died in a murder-suicide in Bohemia Friday struggled to find answers yesterday for why the brutal attack happened.

• REALITY CHECK

  COURTNEY, COMFORT AND KING. Not a law firm, just the week-in-review of "So You Think You Can Dance."

• 'The Dark Knight' shines with record opening

  LOS ANGELES - Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood's box-office superheroes.

• ON THE TRAIL

  Barack Obama cut back on his spending in June after securing the Democratic presidential nomination, building up his cash on hand as Republican rival John McCain outspent him with a heavy dose of television advertising. Unlike McCain, who spent more than he raised in June, Obama accumulated cash during the month, holding back on a ramped-up television campaign until July. Obama is now matching McCain's and the GOP's spending on advertising. McCain reported his June fundraising in a monthly report filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. Obama had until midnight yesterday to file his report.

• WAR UPDATE

  U.S. and allied troops were blamed yesterday for two mistakes that killed at least 12 Afghans. NATO said it accidentally killed at least four civilians in southeastern Paktika province when two mortars landed a half-mile from their target. Three other Afghans may have been killed. Adverse weather made it difficult for NATO helicopters to rescue the four injured, who eventually were taken to a military hospital for treatment. "They thought they were under attack," a source with the NATO-led force said. "What's unclear is how they landed the rounds so far away from where they intended." The police chief of western Farah province said foreign troops mistakenly bombed Afghan police in his province, killing eight. He said police fired on vehicles that had their lights off after they failed to stop at a checkpoint, not realizing they were driven by the coalition forces, not guerrillas. The soldiers fired back and called in an airstrike.

• LIRR RIDERS BEHAVING NICELY!

  As the LIRR continues its campaign urging customer courtesy on trains, Newsday asked readers for some examples of truly kind acts. Here is some feedback:

• Live racing canceled at Belmont Park's season closer

  Officials at Belmont Park canceled the final day of racing yesterday after a transformer fire Saturday knocked out power and forced the evacuation of employees at the racetrack.

• Coast Guard calls off search for missing Queens teen

  The U.S. Coast Guard called off its search for a 16-year-old Queens girl who disappeared while swimming in the waters off Rockaway Beach on Friday, officials said. They had looked for 15 fruitless hours.

• THE OIL SQUEEZE

  Can solar pool covers save you money?

• Massapequa man dies in Middle Island crash

  A Massapequa man died yesterday after his 2007 Pontiac strayed off East Barlett Road in Middle Island at 4:35 a.m., hitting a fence before slamming into a tree, police said. Steven Harris, 20, of Lincoln Place was transported by Middle Island Fire Department to Stony Brook University Medical Center where he died at 2:55 p.m. from his head injuries, police said. Police Det. Sgt. William Lamb said the cause of the accident was still under investigation. "There are skid marks in the road," Lamb said. "We're not sure exactly what happened." Police are asking anyone with information to call the Sixth Squad at 631-854-8652 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS Tips.

• Man says he was shot at party

  Police are investigating the shooting of a 19-year-old North Amityville man in his hometown yesterday morning. Christopher Toney, of Bay View Avenue, told police he was shot in the leg, arm and back of the head after an altercation with two unknown men at a party on Jefferson Avenue, police said.

• Hey! We can see too much of your underwear!

  LYNWOOD, Ill. - Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood.

• THIS DATE IN HISTORY

  1831: Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians.

• OWNER OF ABANDONED JET SKI FOUND SAFE

  Nassau police said yesterday the missing owner of a Jet Ski abandoned in Hempstead Bay Saturday has been found safe. Authorities spent Saturday searching the bay for the Merrick man, whom they declined to identify. Saturday morning at about 8:30, police found the riderless Jet Ski moving in a circle until it ran slowed to a stop. Police spokesman Michael Aronsen would not identify the owner, other than to say he is male. A police recovery team had swept the bay with a sonar scanner without finding anyone after a life vest and the Jet Ski were found near the Blue Water Yacht Club marina at 1944 Bayberry Ave. in Merrick.