REGION

MAN ARRESTED FOR DISTRIBUTING HATE STICKERS

A Bronx man has been arrested on charges he used alcohol and pornography to recruit teenagers to deface a Westchester County train station and synagogue with anti-Semitic stickers, prosecutors said yesterday. The man, Thomas Zibelli, 33, met the teenagers in his neighborhood, Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro said. He allegedly bought them alcohol and showed them porn videos in exchange for their participation in what Ms. Pirro called an “organized ring.”

“Young people can be very vulnerable, and that’s why we have to make sure that we prosecute these cases to the full extent of the law,” Ms. Pirro said by telephone.

Mr. Zibelli allegedly directed the teenagers, who were mostly 14 or 15, to put stickers bearing the terms “White Power,” “Hitler was Right,” and “Stop Non-White Immigration” around the Metro-North Fleetwood station in mid-August. About 65 stickers were found on the station, Ms. Pirro’s office said.

The teenagers also put stickers on the windows and front doors of the Fleetwood Synagogue and on signs owned by the synagogue, the DA’s office said.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HIRES SCIENCE DIRECTOR

The Department of Education has hired a new director of science, Julia Rankin, to beef up the city’s lagging science program and integrate science into the public schools’ curriculum.

Ms. Rankin was the director of science and life skills for the public school system in Bridgeport, Conn. Her appointment is part of a new emphasis on science instruction in the city.

Less than 50% of fourth- and eighth-graders here meet state science standards, compared with 70% of fourth-graders and almost 75% of eighth-graders statewide. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has called science instruction a “vitally important component” of a New York City education.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL TO REQUIRE SCHOOL NURSES

For the last three years, Lucille Kelly, a Staten Island mom, has spent school days on edge, praying that neither of her sons need medical attention on the school nurse’s day off.

But yesterday Mrs. Kelly and thousands of other parents won a long-fought victory against the Bloomberg administration, when the City Council health committee voted to mandate school nurses in all schools, both public and private, with 200 students or more.

The Bloomberg administration cut funding for private school nurses two years ago, causing an uproar in Queens and Staten Island, where parochial school parents argued that they were paying taxes and being denied services. Mayor Bloomberg announced on Friday $8 million in government funding for private school nurses. But council members from both parties said yesterday that the amount was not enough and that without legislation the threat of future fights over the issue loomed.

“We need a law to require it, to make sure that a year from now, two years from now, six months from now, we are not at this again,” said the chair of the health committee, Christine Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat. The legislation will cost about $12.5 million.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CIT Y ANNOUNCES PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE SAFETY INITIATIVE

Mayor Bloomberg and the city’s Department of Transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, announced a $1 million pedestrian bridge safety initiative that will set up slalom fencing at the exits of certain bridges to prevent bike riders and skateboarders from accidentally running into traffic. The DOT has completed a safety survey of all 122 pedestrian bridges across the city and found that 31 of them need additional safety enhancements such as the slalom fencing, traffic-control devices including pedestrian-activated traffic signals, and beefed-up markings at all pedestrian bridge intersections. All the work is expected to be completed by December 2005. The city is putting up $500,000 for the project and the state is providing the rest of the money.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun