THE BRONX

TEENAGER KILLED DURING FIGHT IN SUBWAY

Three teenagers were stabbed in a Bronx subway brawl yesterday morning as they were on their way to school, leaving 18-year-old Marvel Martinez dead and two others injured, police said.

At 8 a.m. on the northbound 4-train platform at Jerome Avenue in the University Heights section of the Bronx, three teenage boys got in a shouting match with another group of four boys who then attacked the trio, police said. The feud may have begun over a girl, the city’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly said, but the argument exploded when a jealous ex-boyfriend attacked Martinez – whom the attacker believed to be his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend – with a large knife.

One other boy was also stabbed on the train platform and a third was stabbed on the street just outside the train station. Both attend Dewitt Clinton High School, and were taken to Jacobi Hospital.

Martinez, who was a student at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, died of his injuries a short time later at St. Barnabas Hospital.

As police scoured the Bronx for the four suspects who fled the scene, extra security was dispatched to the two schools and crisis teams were on hand to provide counseling to both students and staff, Keith Kalb, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education said.

– Special to the Sun

ASSAULT CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

Michael Soguero left Bronx district court yesterday, able to return to his position as Bronx Guild High School principal after criminal assault charges against him were dropped.

On February 3, inside the school, police officer Juan Gonzalez followed an unruly female student into a classroom and tried to pull her back into the hallway to issue her a summons, according to law enforcement sources. Mr. Soguero and school aide James Burgos tried to intervene, however, by stepping between the officer and the student to prevent her from being handcuffed, law enforcement sources said.

Only weeks before, Mr. Soguero had filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board against the same officer. The three misdemeanor counts against Mr. Soguero were dismissed, and charges are adjourned in contemplation of dismissal against Mr. Burgos, court officials said.

“Certainly principals are in charge of the school,” Raymond Kelly, the city’s police commissioner said yesterday. “But when you have a New York City police officer in uniform taking action, you don’t interfere.”

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

ADULT CLUBS LOSE CHALLENGE TO CLOSING OF LOOPHOLE

The operators of several adult book and video stores – including Ten’s Cabaret and the Pussycat Lounge at Manhattan – lost their challenge to the city’s closing of a loophole in the so-called 60/40 Rule.

Before the city closed the loophole, the law said that if more than 40% of a store’s material or floor space was dedicated to X-rated content, the store could not do business in a residential neighborhood. To get around the provision, many establishments would fill 60% of their space with non-X-rated material, like carrying hundreds of copies of the same children’s video. Businesses would also call themselves “billiard rooms” or “cigar bars” when their clear intention was to provide adult entertainment.

In 2001, the city amended its adult-use zoning laws to close the loophole. In October 2002, just before the amended law was claimed to take effect, several adult establishments sued the city. They said that the city had unfairly amended the 1995 law without doing a new study on impacts that 60/40 establishments have on their communities.

Ruling yesterday, the Appellate Division, First Department, firmly rejected the plaintiffs’ claims that their constitutional rights had been violated. The court found that the city had acted appropriately in passing the amendments without additional studies.

“Strip clubs and pornographic book and video stores don’t belong in our residential neighborhoods, and they don’t belong next to our schools, places of worship, and daycare centers anywhere in the city,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. “When today’s unanimous decision from the Appellate Division goes into effect, New Yorkers won’t have to push their strollers past porn shops, have topless bars for neighbors, or have to worry about peep booths in the back of their corner magazine store.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

COUNCIL BILL WOULD REQUIRE REPORTS ON SCHOOL OVERCROWDING

The chairwoman of the City Council’s Committee on Education introduced a bill yesterday that would require the Department of Education to submit reports on school overcrowding to the council twice a year.

The bill would require the department to provide average class size data for each school or academic program. It would also have to report the average class size per grade for all classes in each district, region, and borough.

Currently, the department reports average class size by grade in the Mayor’s Management Report. But the numbers are available only on a citywide level, not at regional or school-by-school levels.

The bill, introduced by Eva Moskowitz, says the city has not succeeded in reducing class size citywide, despite decades of trying. “The council finds that one reason the Department of Education has been unable to reduce class size to acceptable levels citywide is that the public and policymakers do not have access to accurate and timely class size information,” the introduction said.

A spokesman for the education department, Stephen Morello, said, “We see the legislation as superfluous.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

EDUCATION DEPT. HONORED BY PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATION

The New York City Department of Education was named one of five school districts that most improved student achievement yesterday by the Broad Foundation, a Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization.

The foundation will pick New York or one of the other finalists – Aldine Independent School district near Houston, Boston Public Schools, Norfolk Public Schools, and San Francisco Unified School District – in September. The winner will receive $500,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors, and the runners-up will receive $125,000 in scholarships.

The finalists were picked from more than 80 districts nationwide by a board of 18 prominent educators. Teams of educators and researchers will conduct site visits in the coming months before reaching a decision.

In a statement, the city schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said the department is “proud” and “humbled” that New York was named a finalist.

“This recognition highlights the extraordinary work being done at schools citywide by our teachers, principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, staff, community members, parents, and, of course, our children,” he said. “We are especially gratified because nominations for the award are based on statistical analyses of student achievement and district wide results by an independent panel. Setting high standards for an entire system of schools and its students can produce results, and we will continue to work toward improving those results.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LONG ISLAND

JOEL CHECKS OUT OF REHAB AFTER TREATMENT FOR ALCOHOL ABUSE

Billy Joel has returned to his Long Island home after checking out of a California rehabilitation center a month after entering the facility for treatment of alcohol abuse.

The 55-year-old singer left the Betty Ford Center at Rancho Mirage, Calif., early Sunday morning, his publicist, Claire Mercuri, said in an email to the Associated Press yesterday. Mr. Joel entered the clinic in March after suffering what Mercuri then said was “a recent bout of severe gastrointestinal distress.” He was to receive “treatment of alcohol abuse,” she said. He is now back at home with his wife, Kate Lee.

In June 2002, Mr. Joel spent about two weeks at Silver Hill Hospital, a substance abuse and psychiatric center in New Canaan, Conn.

He later said he entered the hospital because he had been abusing alcohol. The Grammy-winner, whose hits include “Piano Man,” married the 23-year-old Ms. Lee last year. It was his third marriage.

– Associated Press

STATE

ONEIDAS ASK TO PUT LANDS IN FEDERAL TRUST

SYRACUSE – The Oneida Indian Nation said yesterday it applied to the U.S. Department of Interior to transfer title of approximately 17,000 acres of its lands in upstate New York to federal trust status.

The application was filed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision against the tribe in its long-running dispute with the city of Sherrill over unpaid taxes on Indian-owned property.

“The Supreme Court detailed a roadmap for providing certainty regarding the nation’s rights in its lands, and the nation is going to follow that roadmap,” said Mark Emery, an Oneida spokesman.

-Associated Press