Court: anthrx postal facility stays open

NEW YORK, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The New York Metro Area Postal Union lost its bid Friday to get New York City's largest mail sorting facility shut down because anthrax was found on several machines.

U.S. District Judge John Keenan denied the union a preliminary injunction because "the plaintiffs failed to show a likelihood of irreparable harm" from keeping the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center open.

The union sued so that the Manhattan postal center that sorts 12.5 million pieces of mail a day be closed, cleaned and retested for anthrax. No New York postal workers have shown anthrax symptoms, but the union claimed in court that the anthrax is more widespread than postal officials have admitted. Keenan ordered that the adjacent facility to the Morgan Center, the James A. Farley General Post Office, be tested for anthrax.

City officials said that an additional case of cutaneous or skin anthrax was suspected in a mailroom worker who works in the media who developed a lesion on Sept. 23. The identity of the person has not been revealed, but antibiotics had been administered and the person is expected to recover fully.

New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik turned down an offer Friday by Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg to continue under the new administration. Kerik, who had said he would leave when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani did in December, had considered staying and said leaving "was probably one of the hardest I've had to make in my life."

Kerik and Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen had become known nationally in the wake of the World Trade Center attack. Von Essen is expected to retire, according to Bloomberg.

Every family of police officers, Port Authority officers and firefighters who died in the line of duty at the World Trade Center will receive a minimum of $50,000 from the Twin Towers Fund, possibly in days, according to Giuliani.

Calling the $50,000 a "base payment" for every family the mayor explained that a spouse with a child would get $100,000 and an additional $25,000 for each additional dependent child.

The base payments will exhaust about half of the $85 million raised through the Twin Towers Fund, begun by Giuliani shortly after Sept. 11. The mayor said the rest of the fund would be distributed according to each family's needs.

The uniformed services of the city have also raised money for the victims' families. The Port Authority police union is giving $25,000 checks to the families of the 37 Port Authority officers who died in the attacks.

A 37-year-old consultant in Virginia Beach, Va. was shocked to find that a "computer glitch" resulted in her $100-pledge for the families of the World Trade Center victims ended up being a $10,000-pledge.

Tammy Van Dame pledged $100 to the celebrity telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes" on Sept. 21 where more than $150 million was pledged. The United Way of New York City collected the money for The September 11th Fund, and according to its spokeswoman a phone bank volunteer left the decimal point off of Van Dame's credit card receipt.

Most of the 240 people who had decimal points left off of their contributions by the same volunteer have agreed to contribute -- again -- using the correct amount, said United Way of New York City spokeswoman Jeanine Moss.

Moss couldn't reveal how the error was discovered or how the 240 erroneous pledges inflated the total figure of the telethon.

The families of New York City that had a loved one killed in the World Trade Center will be offered free vacations to Ireland by a non-profit organization that promotes Irish/American understanding.

The US-Ireland Alliance based in Washington, is raising $1.6 million to pay airfare and expenses to host the families of uniformed city workers killed on Sept. 11 as a "tangible way to help and express support and solidarity."

The announcement was made Friday after Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was given a tour of "Ground Zero" by Giuliani.

"I believe this initiative by the US-Ireland Alliance gives the people of this island a way to show their support for these heroes' families in a meaningful way," Ahern said. "The government looks forward to being of any assistance to this worthy endeavor."

The week-long holidays will be available to the families over the next two years to travel to any part of Ireland and families need not be of Irish decent.

Free counseling and screenings for Lower Manhattan children and families affected by the terrorist attacks began Friday. A mobile mental health van will be parked in the Battery Park City area but in the future the van will go to other parts of the city as well.

The Community Support Unit will consist of a psychologist, a case manager or social worker and a clerk who will provide short-term counseling and support services for children and families.

"The entire city, for all intents and purposes, is a psychological Ground Zero," according to Dr. Irwin Redlener, head of the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, which is running the program.

In an address to a Fortune magazine conference, Giuliani said the city is now living in a fiction, but it has to learn to live in the reality.

"When you feel you're responsible for other people, and they are looking to you, there is a kind of discipline that makes you heal," Giuliani said commenting on how he is dealing with the loss of Sept. 11. "You're pretending that you're healed; I lost some very, very good friends."

According to city officials:

-- 3,748 declared missing by police

-- 599 have been declared dead

-- 556 bodies have been identified

-- 1,882 death certificates applied

-- 436,166 tons of rubble removed

-- 100,739 tons of steel removed

-- 536,905 total tons of debris removed

(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)