NEW YORK, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The mystique of Yankee stadium did its magic again as the New York Yankees won Game 4 by a score of 4-3 and tying the series 2-2 with the Arizona Diamondbacks Thursday morning in a game that went ten innings and put the World Series in November for the first time.
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center pushed back the baseball season but it's giving New York City a sense of getting back to normal, as New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani pointed out. The Yankees have won the World Series five times in the last six years so "what's more normal that the Yankees being in the World Series," asked Giuliani.
Halloween pranks or renewed terrorist attack warning did not keep 57,000 fans crowding into Yankee Stadium under extreme security of metal detectors, searches, bags being confiscated and bomb-sniffing dogs.
"Winning the series will improve the morale of New York, a lot," Giuliani said.
Other holiday activities were also under high security but quiet, according to police.
"There were no arrests and no incidents at the 20-block Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, which is always a colorful parade, and we have no reports of Halloween-related arrests or incidents," a police spokesman told United Press International. "Maybe everyone was watching the Yankee game."
About 2,000 police officers were assigned to patrol the parade and more than 1,000 police officers were assigned to the Yankee game. "During the regular season we have a 65-person baseball detail but once you reach the playoffs, or even a Mets/Yankees game when emotions run high, about a 1,000 officers are assigned," the police spokesman said.
One day after Giuliani told a House subcommittee on terrorism that a law should be passed to allow better counter-terrorism information sharing between federal agents and local police, New York's U.S. Senators introduced a bill to do just that.
Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrats from New York, introduced a bill Wednesday to allow local police to receive information from the FBI. However, it does not require the FBI to share information with police.
Currently, a federal law restricts the FBI from sharing information obtained through wiretaps and grand jury proceedings with local police. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said he supported the measure and would make it a priority.
New York City attorneys say that families are still reluctant to apply for death certificates for their relatives lost in the World Trade Center attacks. Many are hoping against hope that their loved ones may still be alive. So far, less than half of the people reported as missing in the attacks have had death certificates applications filed.
New York State streamlined the process to have death certificates issued; something that usually took three years when there is no body, and volunteer lawyers stepped forward to help the families make their way through the paperwork. Death certificates are needed to access assets and apply for life insurance and other benefits.
While some believe the number of people listed with the police may not be accurate -- they are based on missing persons reports filed with the police by relatives, some involved in the process believe it could also be that some are not ready for the final step of acknowledging that a loved one perished in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
Immigrants or those who entered the country illegally may be reluctant to apply for the death certificates for fear of being deported, even though government officials have said they will not prosecute immigration irregulars.
Most of the $200 million in gold buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center has been recovered, Giuliani confirmed. The Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia said its vault under 4 World Trade Center held more than $200 million in gold and silver, but other financial institutions also have precious metals at the site estimated at about $20 million.
Kathy T. Nguyen, a stockroom employee at the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital on the Manhattan's East Side died early Wednesday, becoming the fourth anthrax fatality in the nation and the first anthrax fatality in New York City.
The 61-year-old woman was on a respirator and sedated during the three days she was in the hospital. She was too sick to talk to investigators trying to track down where she could have been exposed to anthrax.
Some anthrax spores were found on the clothes she wore to the hospital. But all 40 environmental tests for anthrax at the hospital where she worked have been negative, a health department spokesman told UPI.
All employees of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital will be given antibiotics as a precaution. Patients or visitors who were in the hospital for more than an hour since Oct. 11 will also get the medicine. The president of Lenox Hill Hospital said 1,116 people had already been treated as of noontime Wednesday, including 351 hospital employees.
One woman had an undiagnosed lesion consistent with skin anthrax symptoms. A biopsy was performed and results are expected Thursday. Patients or visitors meeting the criteria are urged to go to a Lenox Hill Hospital to receive a two-week dosage of antibiotics.
The federal Small Business Administration wants more small businesses in New York City hurt by the September attacks to apply for federal business loans. More than 800 applications totaling about $80 million in disaster assistance to businesses have been approved but about 1,000 loan applications have been turned down. More than 500 applications were filed but withdrawn because they didn't qualify. About 1,500 applications haven't been processed yet, according to The New York Times.
Some of the reasons given for the lack of applications are the burdensome paperwork, less than a sterling credit history and the uncertainty of the future of Lower Manhattan. Unlike a flood or a hurricane where a business can rebuild fairly quickly as the area recovers, the area surrounding the World Trade Center may take years to be rebuilt. A small business may not want to take on additional loans if they think it may not be in business by the end of the year.
A category of small business that has also taken it on the chin is the New York City walking tours. Usually a booming business in the fall with schools and tourists coming forward to see the city, one walking tour group said it has had only one tour since Sept. 11.
Big Onion Walking Tours usually has about 150 tours during the autumn but it was pleased even to have just one customer this season, a 20-person group of cadets from West Point. A sociology class had booked a tour for its Social Inequality class.
The cadets did not visit Ground Zero, a restricted area, but its tour was just north of the site. The tour began at the Tenement Museum; they visited new Chinatown, historic Chinatown, and ended in Little Italy.
"The tragedy happened, but you have to go on, sir," Janaia Nash, a 20-year-old sociology major from North Carolina told The Times. "Staying away is not going to make the situation go away, sir."
According to city officials:
-- 3,962 declared missing by police
-- 542 have been declared dead
-- 490 bodies identified
-- 375, 736 tons of rubble removed
-- 93,587 tons of steel removed
-- 469,323 total tons of debris removed
(Reporting from Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)
