Swingline stapled it shut ... the firm would shutter its Long Island City plant by the year 2000 ... crime was down again in Queens, as city Councilman Thomas Ognibene called for a teen curfew in the five boroughs ... a developer announced preliminary plans to open a hotel on the long-abandoned site of a former Stern’s store in Astoria ...

Queens cops went full-blast with a fireworks crackdown ... Astoria Pool opened for the summer season, and Congressman Floyd Flake declared he had no intention to give up politics to minister at his Jamaica church ... voters in Glen Oaks heaped praises on Mayor Rudolph Giuliani during a mayoral visit to the North Shore Towers ... and schools Chancellor Rudy Crew started a flap when he shot down community favorite Claire McIntee in her bid for Superintendent of School Board 26 ...

Aliens invade Flushing Meadows? ... nah, it was just the Men In Black posing on a Tribune front page ... Rudy Crew did an about-face and approved Claire McIntee for Board 26, as ousted Board 28 president Lynn Gross vowed to fight Crew’s decision to remove her ... the escape of a violent inmate from Rikers Island set off a renewed round of protests about the penal colony from residents on the Astoria side of the bridge ... School Board 24 vice president Frank Borzellieri announced his decision to challenge incumbent Tom Ognibene for Ognibene’s City Council seat ... and Queens cops showed off some new wheels – the department’s new cars appeared first in Queens ... fearing what would happen to the property after it was parceled-off by the state, community activists fought to have a voice in plans for Creedmoor ... the surviving members of the Grateful Dead played for crowds in Forest Hills ... police closed in on the multi-millionaire owner of City Gas, arresting him in the contract murder of a Jackson Heights cabby ... and Criminal Court Justice Joseph Grasso raised tempers when he set two accused murderers free on bail ...

City Council members urged Forest Hills residents to back the construction of a new school at the long embattled site of a former lumber yard ... FBI agents and Queens cops went looking for a trio of violent bank robbers who struck the borough ... Queens politicos filed petitions with the Board of Elections in July, hoping to secure a spot in the September primaries ... and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown was sworn in as president of the New York State District Attorney’s Association ... Tribune newshound Jeremy Olshan previewed the new USTA Center in Flushing Meadows ... a longtime US Open fan told Olshan she had no love for seating arrangements at the new center ... and we recalled the crash of TWA Flight 800 one year ago, and the 230 lives lost over the waters of Long Island ... a Tribune feature continued to probe the cause of the crash, safety measures that were taken, and asked the question: "Are We Safer?" ...

Woolworth’s was closing for good ... the closing of the nickel and dime stores touched a soft spot in the hearts of Queensites ... four deaf mute Mexican immigrants walked into the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights on a July morning, exposing a slave ring that stretched from Mexico across the U.S. ... and a deadly wind blew through a Queens construction site, injuring two workers and killing two others who were working on a scaffold ... former Queens College prez Allen Sessoms began to position himself for the job of CUNY Chancellor ... The Albany legislature finally agreed on a budget in late July ... debates, filibusters and stall tactics on both sides of the political "fence" stalled the budget approval for 120 days – making it the latest it had ever been... and Tribune production manager Lianne Conklin tied the knot in July ... now Mrs. Walter Procanyn, Lianne was a storybook bride ...