Preppie plea: Robert Chambers, serving five to...

Preppie plea: Robert Chambers, serving five to 15 years for killing Jennifer Levin in New York’s “preppie murder” case, wants to be a drug counselor, although he has been caught--twice--with drugs in prison. Chambers, 22, who admitted before he went to jail that he has a drug problem, has filed a lawsuit claiming he is being unjustly barred from enrolling in a prison-college program training drug counselors.

Celebration: It’s gone from a nickel to a buck a ride, from 300,000 to 3.7 million riders daily and from graffiti-free to graffiti-covered and back. The New York City subway system celebrates its 85th birthday today. The service began 1904, on a 9.1-mile run with Mayor George B. McClellan at the controls.

Welcome to L.A.: Indicted Saudi financier Adnan Khashoggi won a reprieve from court-ordered confinement to his Manhattan penthouse, receiving a judge’s permission to spend two weeks in Southern California starting today. Khashoggi, on $10-million bail, is awaiting trial on charges he helped Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos defraud the Philippine treasury.

Nice kitty: A St. Petersburg, Fla., wildlife handler is offering eight abandoned cougars--free--to anyone who will provide a good home for them. “They make good pets if you understand what you’re dealing with,” said Vernon Yates of the cats, which grow to 150 pounds. The animals, he notes, “have the potential to severely hurt somebody, and, in the case of a small child, kill them.”