On the brief side...
Vallone Announces Blood Drive

City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. (D- Astoria) has announced that the New York Blood Center will hold a blood drive at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, 25-10 30th Ave., Astoria this Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., hoping to collect 100 pints of blood for New Yorkers in need.

Participants must bring a valid ID, know their Social Security Number, or a passport or visa, be betweeen the ages of 17 and 76, weigh over 110 pounds, and have received no tattoos in the past 12 months.

Vallone said that over 2,200 pints of blood are needed to meet the demand of New York and New Jersey medical patients each day, yet only two percent of New Yorkers donate blood, compared to five percent nationwide. Unclaimed Tax Refunds

Taxpayers who reside in Congressmember Joseph Crowley's congressional district in Queens and The Bronx are urged to check his Web site at www.crowley.house.gov/irs.htm- to see if they might be among 1,000 constituents who are owed tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.

Besides these 1,000 taxpayers, there are 8,000 more throughout New York City who should check the list to see if they are on it, Crowley said: "We are in the midst of the 2007 holiday season when everyone is in need of some extra cash to purchase gifts etc., so everyone should check the list. "My constituents deserve the money they rightfully earned, and I hope this list makes it a little bit easier for them during this busy time of the year." Loophole Closed, Affordable Rents Preserved

Governor Eliot Spitzer has closed a unique and peculiar loophole in the state's rent regulations that could have removed tens of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments from the state's affordable housing portfolio and made thousands of tenants vulnerable to drastically increased rents.

According to Deborah VanAmerongen, commissioner of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, if the governor had not responded promptly, "if this inequality in the law had not been addressed, right away, the rents of 4,400 affordable apartments could have jumped dramatically".

According to VanAmerongen, some landlords attempted to use the Mitchell- Lama, or other regulation programs', loophole in order to bring these apartments immediately up to market rate, claiming their decision to end their participation in Mitchell- Lama, or other government programs qualified as "unique and peculiar" circumstances. Toy Safety Discussed

Government representatives, toy safety advocates, industry officials, consumer advocates and medical professionals recently participated in a discussion of toy safety before an Assembly committee.

The committee Chair, Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer (D- Rockaway) said afterward that all the participants provided the committee with the necessary background information to allow us to analyze the toy safety legislation that has been proposed and consider the need for any additional legislation on this important consumer issue.

All the testimony plus existing legislation on the subject is now being renewed, Pheffer said.