CITYWIDE

FERRER, WEINER TRADE BARBS OVER FERRER’S TAX PROPOSAL

The Democratic mayoral frontrunner, Fernando Ferrer, traded barbs yesterday with the Democratic field’s last-place candidate, Rep. Anthony Weiner, over Mr. Ferrer’s proposals to levy billions of dollars in taxes to fund his “affordable housing” proposals and improve New York’s public schools. At a press conference on education outside Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan, Mr. Weiner lambasted Mr. Ferrer’s tax-raising pledges as evidence of an ill-advised Democratic mentality that favors raising taxes as the cure-all to New York’s financial woes. Mr. Weiner promised to finance his proposals for bettering the city while reducing the income-tax burden on the middle class. In response, the Ferrer campaign said in a statement: “It takes some chutzpah to release a wish list of plans without attaching a dollar sign to them, then take aim at the guy who does say how he’s going to pay for his proposals. But it’s never okay to lie about another candidate’s proposals.” Meanwhile, in a sign the mayoral race’s advertising blitz is heating up, the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, has a batch of commercials due to begin airing today. The commercials, on which the campaign spent more than $500,000, represent the largest “media buy” among the Democratic mayoral candidates to date. The 30-second spots were written and produced by Grunwald Communications Incorporated, which is run by a former consultant to President Clinton and Senator Clinton, Mandy Grunwald. And the cash-strapped campaign of the president of Manhattan, C. Virginia Fields, also announced yesterday it would launch radio ads, featuring Rep. Charles Rangel, on August 12. It said it would begin airing television commercials on September 1.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

GOLDMAN TO STAY IN LOWER MANHATTAN AFTER GAINING CONCESSIONS

Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated, Wall Street’s most profitable securities firm, agreed to remain in Lower Manhattan after winning more than $150 million in tax breaks and changes to the ground zero redevelopment plan.

– Bloomberg News

ST. PATRICK’S RECTOR, NAMED IN DIVORCE CASE, RESIGNS

A 79-year-old monsignor named as “the other man” in a Westchester County divorce case resigned yesterday as rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the New York Archdiocese said. Cardinal Edward Egan accepted Monsignor Eugene Clark’s resignation despite Monsignor Clark’s denials that he has been carrying on an affair with his 46-year-old private secretary, the church said.

– Associated Press

JUDGE SAYS CBGB’S CAN’T BE EVICTED

A civil court judge ruled on Wednesday that the landmark punk club CBGB’s can’t be evicted from its Bowery location, saying it should not be punished because it didn’t notice that it owed its landlord money. Though the ruling by Judge Joan Kenney was a victory for CBGB’s, the club’s future is still uncertain – its lease with the Bowery Residents’ Committee expires on August 31, and a renewal remains up in the air. A group formed to rescue the club, the Save CBGB’s Coalition, which includes the club’s owner, Hilly Kristal, said in a statement: “We hope to move forward with lease renewal negotiations and see no reason as to why talks should be stalled any longer.”

– Associated Press

CHASIDIC JEWS PROTEST HIKIND’S STANCE ON PROFILING

About 50 chasidic Jews protested on the steps of City Hall yesterday comments made by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who said that police should target young men of Arab descent while searching bags at subway stations. A spokesman for the group, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Monsey, N.Y., said Mr. Hikind’s proposal to allow police do racial profiling was antithetical to the teachings of the Torah and a personal affront to religious Jews. In attempting to dissociate themselves from Mr. Hikind, who represents the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boro Park, where many Orthodox and chasidic Jews live, the group followed more secular Jewish groups in denouncing Mr. Hikind’s comments. Mr. Hikind is currently in the Gaza Strip in what he calls a show of “solidarity” with Jewish Israeli citizens who will be forcibly removed by Israeli Defense Forces from their homes in Gaza next week.

– Special to the Sun

BRONX

OVERCROWDED HIGH SCHOOL GIVEN GREEN LIGHT TO MOVE

Hope is on the horizon for the cramped, overheated, and sunlight-starved students of Gregorio Luperon High School in Washington Heights, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. Before a sweaty pack of reporters inside the school’s cafeteria, Mr. Bloomberg said Luperon would relocate to a $41 million facility on 165th Street and Amsterdam Avenue by September 2008. Education officials have long sought a new location for the West 181st Street school in Region 10 but couldn’t find available space in Manhattan. Luperon High School, which serves mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants, was founded in 1992 and moved to its current location in 1994. The school was supposed to have 250 students but has ballooned to 400. The facility lacks a gymnasium, science lab, and air-conditioning, and many of the classrooms are windowless.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEN ISLAND

DEATH OF 18-YEAR-OLD RULED HOMICIDE

The medical examiner yesterday ruled a homicide the death of 18-year-old Aliza Parsy, whose body police found naked and wet inside her locked room at Willowbrook, Staten Island, Tuesday night. The cause of death was “asphyxia by occlusion of the nose and mouth, and compression of the neck,” the examiner’s spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said. Responding to a call from the girl’s mother, Sime Parsy, who returned home on Tuesday night to find her home trashed and her daughter’s room locked, police found Parsy dead on arrival, her head covered by a pillowcase, and her body under a mattress. Police said there were no visible signs of trauma.

The medical examiner will perform routine DNA tests today to determine whether the victim was sexually abused, but those results will only be released to police and the district attorney, Ms. Borakove said. Police have not made any arrests and are continuing to investigate. Samuel Schwartz, who lives across the street from the Parsys on the predominantly Jewish Rupert Avenue with his three daughters, was not particularly worried for the safety of his daughters. “I don’t think it had anything to do with a burglary. No, I think it was a crime of passion,” he said.

– Special to the Sun