Briefs

*New York news drivers probed: New York City law enforcement delivered search warrants upon circulation offices of the New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and El Diario La Prensa -- as well as the offices of the Newspaper and Mail Delivers Union (NMDU) -- last week in an apparent investigation into bribery schemes designed to falsely inflate drivers' seniorities. The probe is being led by the New York City Police Department's organized-crime division and the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the Wall Street Journal reported. The union, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, represents drivers at the four papers whose offices were raided, as well as drivers for the Journal and The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. The NMDU was the subject of a 1992 grand jury indictment, which alleged the group was run by the Bonanno crime family and various union leaders plead guilty in that case. *New daily launches in Detroit: Veterans of the Detroit newspaper business -- including two brothers who have specialized in publishing alternatives during metropolitan newspaper strikes -- were to have launched the Detroit Daily Press today, using the former offices of the suburban Daily Tribune of Royal Oak, Mich., which relocated its staff last year to the offices of its sibling, the Macomb Daily. Mark and Gary Stern said the Daily Press would cost readers 50 cents daily and $1 on Sundays and that they would offer home delivery starting next week in the three main Detroit counties. The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News -- which are partners in a joint operating agreement -- dropped home delivery to three or two days a week, respectively, in March. The brothers said they have hired 60 full-time workers to put out the paper and are contracting for presswork, packaging and delivery. The Sterns published short-term dailies in Detroit in 1964 and 1967, in New York in 1978, and in Minneapolis in 1980, when the metros in those markets were closed because of strikes.