CITYWIDE

REPORT: 60% OF CLASSES NOT MEETING CLASS-REDUCTION TARGETS

New York City has received about $88 million a year in state funding since 1999 to reduce class size in kindergarten through third grade to 20 students, but about 60% of those classes have failed to meet that goal, according to a report released yesterday by the state comptroller, Alan Hevesi. The city’s Department of Education says that it has made great strides in reducing class size, for example, shrinking the average kindergarten class to 20.8 students from 23.9 students.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LOS ANGELES MAYOR TO VISIT NEW YORK MONDAY

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, is coming to New York on Monday for a “listening and learning tour” of the city’s public school system. Mr. Villaraigosa, the first Latino mayor of that city since the 19th century, and a longtime friend of Mayor Bloomberg’s challenger in the last election, Fernando Ferrer, has been talking publicly about wrestling control of the Los Angeles’s school system in the same way Mr. Bloomberg did in his first term. That system has more than 700,000 students and is the second largest in the nation behind New York.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MICROSOFT PREVIEWS PRODUCTS

Marking the 20th year anniversary of when Microsoft became a publicly traded company, its CEO, Steve Ballmer, previewed new products he said will increase employee productivity for its customers. That, he said, was the company’s focus, a shift from using technology primarily for cost saving purposes. Among the products previewed were voice-activated e-mail and encryption to prevent e-mail messages from being forwarded or published. The company products resulted from $20 billion worth of research and development over three years, Mr. Ballmer said, speaking to reporters in Midtown yesterday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

A PET DETECTIVE, PSYCHICS, AND A BIG REWARD; BUT NO MISSING VIVI

They have brought in scent-tracking hounds, offered a $5,000 cash reward, and handed out fliers around New York. A detective drove in from Oklahoma to help crack the case. They have looked into tips from psychics, even analyzed a pile of dog droppings for clues. The owners of Vivi the missing show dog have tried everything to track down their beloved whippet, who bolted from her carrier at Kennedy Airport on February 15 after the Westminster Kennel Club show. Vivi’s co-owner, Paul Lepiane, remains optimistic that the dog can still be found, saying the search team is hot on her trail in Queens.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

BLOOMBERG CELEBRATES EXPANSION OF BRASS MASTERS

With public attention focused on plans for skyscrapers and sweeping commercial developments, Mayor Bloomberg was in East New York yesterday celebrating the expansion of a manufacturing company with four employees. The mayor helped break ground on a new 33,000-square-foot facility for Brass Masters, which makes hardware, furniture, and architectural products. The company will expand to 49 employees, and since its facility is located in one of 16 new Industrial Business Zones, it will be one of the first eligible for tax incentives under a program to promote industry and manufacturing jobs, Mr. Bloomberg said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

MACY’S UNION RATIFIES FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT

The union representing 3,500 workers at four Macy’s department stores in New York says it has ratified a new five-year contract. The contract applies to workers at the flagship store in Manhattan’s Herald Square and three others in Queens, the Bronx, and White Plains, said the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 1-S, a unit of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

– Associated Press

NASSAU OFFICIALS TAP ISLANDERS OWNER TO BUILD COLISEUM

MINEOLA – A group headed by the owner of the New York Islanders was selected yesterday to renovate the Nassau Coliseum as part of a $1.6 billion development project, the Nassau county executive, Thomas Suozzi, said. The announcement means nearly all the professional sports franchises in the New York area will soon be playing in new homes. Also, the owners of Madison Square Garden reportedly are negotiating to move the Knicks and Rangers across the street to a new facility in Manhattan.

– Associated Press

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN FACES $75,000 FINE BY LOBBYING COMMISSION

Madison Square Garden’s owners have tentatively agreed to pay the state $75,000 for lobbying violations, both sides said yesterday. The tentative agreement is expected to be finalized soon after some details are reworked, according to the lobbying commission and a spokesman for Madison Square Garden. The lobbying commission executive director, David Grandeau, said several public officials were allowed to use the arena’s hospitality suite at events in 2004 and 2005 and helped themselves to food and drinks while there. The visits were never reported.

– Associated Press

SOLDIER TAKES OWN LIFE AFTER DISPUTE, CHASE

ADAMS – A Fort Drum soldier who led troopers on a chase on Interstate 81 yesterday and forced a temporary shutdown of the highway apparently killed himself after crashing his car, state police said. U.S. Army officials at Fort Drum confirmed the man was a 10th Mountain Division soldier but did not identify him. A New York State police captain, Darrin Pitkin, said it appeared the man died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound. A Fort Drum spokesman, Ben Abel, said the incident began on post at about 10:30 a.m. when the man was involved in a domestic dispute that resulted in his wife suffering non-life threatening injuries.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

STATE RESTRICTS GIFTS TO LAWMAKERS FROM LOBBYISTS

A lobbyist or lobbying firm trying to win votes for a client may give gifts to a lawmaker worth no more than $75 in total for a year, under a stricter rule adopted yesterday. Previously, lobbyists were restricted to giving gifts of no more than $75 an item or event.

– Associated Press

STATE LEGISLATURE WORKS TOWARD AGREEMENT ON HEALTH SPENDING

State lawmakers yesterday nearly doubled, to $700 million, the amount of money they propose to spend on health programs. Earlier this week, lawmakers committed to spending $400 million for health programs. Health funding is by far the largest increase that lawmakers seek over Governor Pataki’s budget proposal. Mr. Pataki and legislative leaders will soon try to negotiate a final 2006-07 budget by the April 1 deadline.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

WOMAN CONVICTED IN HUMAN SMUGGLING SCHEMES GETS 35 YEARS

A Chinatown businesswoman who prosecutors described as one of the biggest “snakeheads” of all time, Cheng Chui Ping, 57, was sentenced to 35 years in prison yesterday for her role in organizing human smuggling schemes, including the doomed Golden Venture voyage in 1993.

– Associated Press

SUIT SETTLED OVER CLAIM THAT POLICE IGNORED HARASSMENT AT PARADE

The city agreed to an eleventh hour settlement yesterday with a woman who filed suit after she said the Police Department ignored her calls for help when she was assaulted by a mob of men during the 2000 National Puerto Rican Day Parade. The $125,000 agreement for Anne Peyton Bryant, 34, is the 22nd and final settlement stemming from the incident. The decision on the settlement came just as the trial was about to begin yesterday morning. Her attorney, Susan Karten, said Ms. Bryant’s case was the last to settle because the city targeted her after she emerged as a whistleblower, accusing the police of inaction.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE ARREST ALLEGED SUBWAY ROBBER

Police yesterday arrested a man suspected in at least five robberies in or around subways since January, police said. Brian Ballard, 18, of Evergreen Avenue in the Bronx, was charged in several robberies, criminal use of a firearm, and grand larceny in the incidents, police said. The suspect accosted his victims in or around no. 6 trains, sometimes stealing their wallets, cash, or cell phones. In at least three incidents, Ballard robbed people at gunpoint, police said.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN GIRL DIES, POSSIBLY FROM ABUSE

A 2-year-old Brooklyn girl whose mother was arrested for pushing her and inflicting serious head injuries died yesterday, hospital officials said. Kailey Rigalado died yesterday at around 2 p.m. at Brooklyn Hospital, where she was brought with critical head injuries March 13, a hospital spokesman said. The toddler was on life support the entire time, and died from cerebral bleeding, the spokesman said. The girl’s mother, Antonia Ramirez, 30, of Central Avenue in Bushwick, was charged Wednesday with assault and reckless endangerment of a child, according to police, who said three other children living in the home were put into the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services. A spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney said the district attorney’s office was still investigating the toddler’s death, but charges against Ms. Ramirez could be upgraded.

– Special to the Sun