NY area lawmakers blame House GOP for scrapping vote on Sandy aid

WASHINGTON — New York area-lawmakers in both parties are erupting in anger, saying the House Republican leadership has decided to let Congress adjourn without holding a vote on aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

There is no immediate comment from either Speaker John Boehner or Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who sets the floor schedule.

In remarks on the House floor, Republican Rep. Peter King called the decision absolutely indefensible, while Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey said she felt betrayed.

The Senate approved a $60.4 billion measure Friday to help with recovery from the October storm that devastated parts of New York, New Jersey and nearby states. The House Appropriations Committee has drafted a smaller, $27 billion measure, and a vote had been expected before Congress' term ends Thursday at noon.

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Pushed to tears

He was killed by hate — but he spent his life working for peace and love.

Subway-push victim Sunando Sen — who was shoved to his death in front of a 7 train last week, allegedly by madwoman Erika Menendez — was remembered at a small memorial service yesterday as a gentle intellectual who fought for human rights in his native Bangladesh.

“He had a quiet strength,” said pal Lorcan Otway, noting that Sen years ago had escaped oppression in the South Asian country and had recently worked to help his fellow Hindus in New York.

“He was an Indian Gregory Peck,” Otway said, comparing Sen, 36, to the humanitarian Oscar winner. “He didn’t have a hateful bone in his body,”

SUNANDO SEN


“Had a quiet strength.”

His alleged killer, Menendez, 31, has told investigators she pushed Sen because she believed he was Muslim.

During the ceremony at Coppola-Migliore funeral home in Flushing, Sen’s body was wrapped in cloth and covered with flowers. It lay in a blue-gray casket as mourners recited traditional prayers and burned incense.

Sen had no relatives here, and his parents have died. But he fashioned a family with the friends he made in New York.

“I feel like I lost a family member. The neighborhood, the shop, was his family,” said Bidyt Sarker, Sen’s boss at the Manhattan print shop where he’d worked for 15 years.

“Customers are coming in and crying.”

Sen’s body was cremated at a cemetery after the ceremony.

Meanwhile, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that the troubled Menendez’s family called police at least five times since 2005 for the mentally ill woman. In each incident, Kelly said, “It appeared she had not taken her medication.”

Additional reporting by Doug Auer

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Chill factor

Most popular songs

1. Locked Out of Heaven, Bruno Mars

2. I Knew You Were Trouble, Taylor Swift

3. Gangnam Style, PSY

4. Ho Hey, The Lumineers

5. Scream and Shout, Will.I.Am

6. Diamonds, Rihanna

7. Thrift Shop, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis

8. Beauty and a Beat, Justin Bieber

9. Cry (The Voice Performance), Cassadee Pope

10. Home, Phillip Phillips

TiVo favorites

1. NFL Football: 49ers vs. Seahawks

2. NFL Football: Giants vs. Ravens

3. The Big Bang Theory

4. NBC Nightly News, Thurs.

5. NBC Nightly News, Wed.

Top video downloads

1. Dashboard cam films Moscow plane crash

AP

Cassadee Pope

AP

Carmen Electra

2. Puppy’s first Christmas

3. Collison’s incredible game-tying 3-pointer

Google trends

1. UFC 155

2. Case McCoy

3. Norman Schwarzkopf

NY Post hot topics

1. Bethenny Frankel: Gimme your lawyer

2. Sex secrets of NYC’s men

3. Holiday apart for Carmen Electra

4. Gallery owner’s suicide manifesto

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He’s doughin’ for the gold!

He’s a twirling dervish — and wants a slice of history.

Prize-winning pizza man Bruno DiFabio hopes to set the world record for fastest pie making next month when he challenges the current mark of 28 seconds for five pizzas.

“I’ve done 25 seconds in practice,” says DiFabio, 43, a Yonkers native who honed his skills in the pizzerias of Manhattan and now owns restaurants nationwide.

“But it’s different when there’s an official watching you,” he says.

To set the record, he’ll have to stretch five 10-ounce dough balls into neat circles that fully cover 12-inch pizza screens.

NY Post: J.C. Rice

PIE IN THE SKY: Pizza master Bruno DiFabio practices his moves at Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar.

“No metal showing and you can’t have any holes,” says DiFabio, who consistently rates among the five fastest at the World Pizza Championship and also won the top prize for best pizza at an international culinary competition in Paris in November.

He hopes to beat his “arch rival and nemesis” Brian Edler, an owner of four Domino’s franchises in Ohio who set the current record in 2004 and made history in 2010 by churning out 206 pizzas in an hour — the only speed mark that Guinness recognizes.

DiFabio’s edge is his “New York hand-slap,” a quick, back-and-forth flipping of dough, which gives him a read on its elasticity.

“Once I slap a few times, I go into the pulling part, then I’m down on the board,” he says. “I lay it down like a blanket on a bed.”

In addition to quick dough stretching, he limits his use of the sauce ladle to one dip and grabs all the cheese he needs in a single handful.

“It’s about cutting down on movements,” he says.

A judge will be on hand at Harry’s Italian Pizza Bar in Battery Park City and DiFabio hopes to have an official from Guinness there as well.

He prides himself on speed, which is more than just a parlor trick. It’s vital to keeping up with orders in a crowded restaurant, he says.

“You can’t believe how nerve-wracking it can be as tickets pile up on you,” DiFabio says. “It helps to have a lot of experience. In my lifetime, I’ve made close to a million pizzas.”

He began his career at age 12, working with his grandfather, Angelo, at his restaurant, Tony’s Italian Kitchen, on West 79th Street, then the biggest restaurant on the Upper West Side.

He currently has three pizza joints in Westchester but none in the city after his downtown venture, 900 Degrees, closed last year.

“I served myself a big piece of humble pie,” he says.

But he’s still among the upper crust in the trade, having mastered three styles: classic New York, Neapolitan and Romano — and will happily explain the nuisances of flour protein and butter fat in cheese.

“I’ve dedicated myself to the science,” he says.

Chef Bruno DiFabio’s tips for making five pizzas in 25 seconds:

* Get dough to room temperature — it’s easier to stretch.

* Use an 8-ounce ladle; dip it only once.

* Do only eight turns with the sauce.

* Grab all the cheese you’ll need — 16 ounces — in one handful.

brad.hamilton@nypost.com

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Nice to ‘snow’ ya, 2012

The last snowstorm of 2012 will blow through the city today, leaving a wet and messy 1 to 3 inches of white, forecasters said.

“It’s a quick-moving little storm” that moved up from Mississippi yesterday, said AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Walker.

The first soggy flakes are due at about 9 a.m., and the storm — at least the snow part of it — may be out of the city by 7 p.m.

Today’s temperature range is only 33 degrees to about 28 degrees, so rain will be mixed in with much of the snow.

“It’s going to be one of those wet snows,” Walker said. “It’s not going to be far from freezing at any time.”

FAST BLAST: A quick snowstorm will hit the New York area today, according to forecasts — but will be melted and gone before long.

“Some parts of the area will pick up 4 inches,” such as north of the city, where less rain is expected in the mix, he said.

On the other hand, eastern Long Island may get more rain than the rest of the area.

The storm, which brought freezing rain and snow to an area from Oklahoma to Missouri yesterday, may save its biggest snow punch for the areas north and northeast of the city. New England could get 6 to 12 inches of snow.

The storm will be well beyond the city by tomorrow, when high temperatures in the mid-30s will help with the melting, forecasters said.

“It’s not going to be one of those multi-day crippling snows by any means,” said meteorologist Dan Hofmann of the National Weather Service.

But you’ll feel the wind after the snow diminishes. Winds of about 5 mph this afternoon — which will make it feel like well below freezing — will rise to about 10 to 15 mph overnight and then reach a breezy 24 mph tomorrow.

And what’s next on the horizon?

“On New Year’s Day, maybe rain or snow. Another fast-moving little storm,” said Walker.

Temperatures should be in the upper 30s, which will probably be the highest we get this week.

But the good news is: No other storms are forecast in the days that follow.

And if you’re thinking of going to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, bundle up.

When celebrants welcomed 2012 in a year ago, the temperature was around 50 degrees. This time it will feel a lot more like winter, with low temperatures around 30 degrees.

asoltis@nypost

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Consumer confidence slips

Confidence among US consumers declined more than forecast in December as the budget debate soured Americans’ outlook for the economy.

The Conference Board’s index of sentiment fell to 65.1 from a revised 71.5 reading the prior month, figures from the New York-based private research group showed yesterday. The gauge was projected to fall to 70, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

A report earlier this week showed consumers held back shopping this holiday season, another indication of their concerns about possible tax increases.

The survey also showed consumers’ outlook for the next six months deteriorated to its lowest level since 2011.

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‘Dognap’ cur was already collared

He won’t learn to heel.

The man who allegedly swiped a 7-year-old girl’s spaniel right before Christmas had walked out of jail just three days before cops said he pulled the heartless heist, records show.

Brad Bacon, 29, was released from jail on Dec. 21 for allegedly scamming two Manhattan delis earlier this month.

In both cases, he strolled into the cafes and claimed to be a repairman, then charged hundreds of dollars for work he didn’t do, court records show.

On Dec. 2, he allegedly entered an Energy Kitchen on West 17th Street claiming to be a refrigerator repairman.

Steven Hirsch

MANGY: Suspect Brad Bacon at Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.

Tomas Gaston

Mia Bendrat is overjoyed to have her spaniel, Marley, back.

He went to the back of the store where employees couldn’t see him, and later demanded $255 for a deposit on the “work,” the records claim.

About a half-hour later, he hit up another Energy Kitchen on West 23rd Street with the same story, netting a $188 deposit, the records say.

Almost as soon as he was out of jail, he swiped little Mia Bendrat’s dog, Marley, on Dec. 24, prosecutors said at his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.

Bacon pleaded not guilty to a charge of grand larceny and claimed that it was a case of mistaken identity.

But Detective Dean Roberts said he caught Bacon on surveillance video grabbing Marley in front of a Washington Heights grocery, where the pooch had been tied to a pole on Christmas Eve, according to the complaint.

Even though Assistant District Attorney Jamie Kleidman asked for $7,500 bail, Bacon was released pending his next court date on March 11.

“It’s unfathomable,” said Mia’s mom, Angie Estrada, about Bacon’s release. “He could go and do this again anywhere else in any neighborhood.”

Mia was reunited with Marley on Christmas Day at around 4 p.m. after good Samaritan Tena Cohen bought the shaken pooch from Bacon for $220 and called the cops.

Bendrat said Mia would be terrified if she knew the alleged dognapper was out of jail and roaming the streets.

Mia spent the day curled up with Marley watching cartoons.

“I was thinking that I would never see him again,” she said.

“When I saw him, I ran to him. He’s like a little brother to me, and my best friend.”

Bacon ignored questions after his arraignment.

julia.marsh@nypost.com

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New pawn shops court high-end borrowers

Looking for a quick $1 million?

Help is here for Big Apple high rollers: a new breed of upscale pawn shops is willing to trade cash for pricey personal items like jewelry, antique cars and fine wine.

The city’s first high-end pawnbroker, Borro.com, has loaned out millions to more than 15,000 well-heeled clients in its initial year, using their extravagant toys and valuables as collateral.

“We even have a Grammy in our vaults,” said Paul Aitken, the CEO and founder of Borro.com, who declined to identify the artist.

“A lot of our clients are young sports and entertainment people who are just starting their contracts and have some early liquidity problems until their big money comes in,” he added.

Bad economic times and skittish traditional lenders such as banks have left fertile ground for several high-end pawn brokers including iPawn.com. It typically hands out loans of around $100,000 to cash-crunched businesses or professionals.

Both pawn shops say they’ve won followings in their first year in New York because of the city’s abundance of luxury items, coupled with the Big Apple’s appetite for risk and sophistication about leverage.

The outfits — which operate in the privacy of referrals from financial planners and others — offer securitized loans at about half the cost of roadside hock shops where goods wind up on display and the loans are hardly enough to fund a Caribbean weekend.

“We can keep our interest [rates] incredibly low because we lend out more cash we’d otherwise pay in overhead,” said Ben De-Kall, the founder of iPawn.com and a former Lehman Bros. investment banker .

De-Kall, a Columbia MBA, said he knows the humiliation of having few places to turn after his lifestyle letdown following Lehman’s collapse.

“We’re working largely with business people who can’t get the financing they need,” said De-Kall.

He said one client, a doctor, got turned down by his banker for a quick loan to expand his practice. Within hours, iPawn.com wired $40,000 for his deal, backed by the doctor’s briefcase full of family heirlooms, diamonds and luxury timepieces.

Expanding across the US from its headquarters in Texas, iPawn holds banking licenses.

Appraisal of collateral — such as gems, precious metals and artworks — starts online through photos and videos. If a client is interested, he ships the valuables to Texas for a final valuation before cash worth up to 70 percent of the item’s value is wired to the borrower.

About 85 percent of the clients accept the appraisals. Cars and houses are too big to pledge, De-Kall noted.

Borrowers seeking bigger bucks — loans up to $1 million — can turn to Borro.com, which in turn requires substantial collateral such as antique cars, beach homes, a corporate helicopter and even a Babe Ruth baseball bat, said Borro.com founder Aitkin.

“We take on a lot of Warhols valued in the $300,000 to $500,000 range,” said Aitken, a former technology entrepreneur who sold his phone app company to help bankroll the UK-based Borro.com.

A typical recent loan for $24,000 was backed by a case of 1989 Chateau Petrus valued at about $38,000. It’s safe in climate-controlled vaults, where unclaimed treasures are rare, Aitken said.

tharp@nypost.com

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Kerik-case trial shock

The Bronx jury that convicted a friend of jailed former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik on Friday stunned the courtroom yesterday by acquitting the pal’s business-partner brother.

Frank DiTommaso shook his head and was near tears when his not-guilty verdict was read — while his brother Peter, sitting in the second row, started crying.

Both brothers were charged with lying in 2006 before a grand jury that was looking into lavish renovations of Kerik’s co-op in Rivderdale.

The brothers denied doing the work, which included installation of new walls and floors and the addition of a Jacuzzi.

FRANK DITOMMASO Acquitted yesterday.

Kerik admitted later that he got the renovations as a kickback for his help in greasing wheels for lucrative contracts. The brothers’ construction company had allegedly been under a cloud because of suspected mob ties.

In October, Kerik, who is serving four years at a federal prison in Maryland, was escorted to Bronx state Supreme Court to testify in the brothers’ trial.

He was allowed to trade his handcuffs and jail jumpsuit for a dark business suit and red and blue tie.

On the stand, a clearly uneasy Kerik struggled with answers, often replying, “I don’t recall” and “I have no idea” to a prosecutor’s questions.

But he contradicted his previous testimony, saying a contractor, not the brothers, was responsible for more than $250,000 in free renovations.

Defense attorney Cathy Fleming suggested that the reason he admitted wrongdoing earlier was to make the scandal go away.

“You pleaded guilty because you thought that would end it and allow you to move on with your life,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kerik answered.

The same jury convicted Peter DiTommaso of two counts of perjury on Friday. He faces up to seven years prison.

Jurors heard the same testimony against Frank DiTommaso, who faced one court of perjury, but reached a different verdict.

After his acquittal yesterday, Frank DiTommaso said, “I feel terrible that the jury convicted my brother. I feel terrible. But at least it’s over for now.”

douglas.montero@nypost.com

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Shoe sales now a big feat

Surprise! Shoes — which don’t usually make it on to too many gift lists — are coming out of the closet this holiday season, retailers say.

Take Laranda Williams, 39, of Clarksville, Tenn., who got Vans sneakers for one of her sons, two pairs of stilettos for another son’s girlfriend and Nike running shoes for her husband.

“Electronics and clothing get redundant,” Williams said. “Shoes are just the wow. I know they’re gonna use ’em and love ’em.”

It’s part of a larger trend of shopping for practical gifts, industry analysts said.

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Staten Island man killed in early-morning house fire

A Staten Island man was killed when an early-morning fire swept through his home, police and relatives said.

Jameek Champagne, 23, died in the third-floor attic of the home on Osgood Avenue in Clifton. His brother and grandfather escaped the blaze uninjured.

A neighbor reported the blaze after seeing flames erupt from the house at about 5:40 a.m. He banged on the door in a frantic effort to awaken its residents.

The fire was extinguished about an hour after it started, according to an FDNY spokesman. Fire marshals are investigating what caused it.

About ten cars full of grief-stricken relatives and friends came to the scene to mourn Champagne. His devastated girlfriend said that the two had a newborn girl and a 1-year-old boy.

G.N.Miller/New York Post

The Staten Island house after it was damaged by the fire

“We’re just trying to find out how this happened,” Champagne's uncle said, weeping.

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Hear this in heaven, our lost angels

Traffic stopped in the street. Red-eyed firefighters bowed their heads at a memorial filled with teddy bears. Newtown residents hugged and wept.

The nation’s heart broke again yesterday, as church bells rang out 26 times — once for each victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Bells at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown, Conn., chimed at 9:30 a.m., around the same moment exactly a week ago that the unimaginable horror started unfolding there.

“When I heard the 26 bells ring, it just melted my soul,” said Kerrie Glassman of Newtown, who knew seven of the victims. “It’s just overwhelming. You just can’t believe this happened in our town.”

AP

IN REMEMBRANCE: A woman at the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., rings a bell yesterday morning to mark the week passed since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — one of many such ceremonies around the country.

All through the nation, other churches joined in the solemn bell ringing.

In New York, bells at downtown Manhattan’s Trinity Church tolled 28 times: once for each of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed at the school — and also for suicidal murderer Adam Lanza, 20, and his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he gunned down first.

In local schools and in others across the nation, children observed a minute of silence.

The heartbreaking remembrance of the tragedy came on the same day that families and friends gathered for two more funerals.

They included that of bright little Olivia Rose Engel, 6, who was supposed to play the angel in her church’s Nativity play before she was slain.

Every pew at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church was filled as Olivia’s off-white coffin was wheeled into the church.

A small purple bow — a nod to the child’s favorite color — was tied to a handle on one side of the coffin. A wooden crucifix was placed atop.

Mourners wore purple and pink ribbons while pallbearers wore purple ties.

“If you ever met Olivia, chances are she had you wrapped around her little finger,” said godmother Julie Pokrinchak. “That’s Olivia: So much life, she laughed the hardest.”

Her favorite school event was Library Day, when she got to spend time going through some of her favorite books, including “The Grouchy Ladybug.”

And when at home, she loved to dress up.

“The girl knew how to accessorize,” Pokrinchak said. “She was beautiful, and she knew it.”

Collages of pictures of a happy Olivia were placed in the vestibule of the church.

Twenty miles away, tearful mourners packed the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Conn., where a casket carrying behavioral therapist Rachel Davino, 29, was placed in front covered in a white, gold-trimmed tapestry surrounded by flowers.

Relatives remembered a caring professional who was supposed to be celebrating an upcoming engagement to be married — not buried.

“Nothing can mend the wounds of our beautiful angel being taken,” said her sister, Sarah Davino.

Wakes were also held for Grace McDonnell, 7, and Emilie Parker, 6, as well as 7-year-olds Josephine Gay and Dylan Hockley and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56.

pedro.oliveira@nypost.com

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‘Caught’ in Ruth mistruth

A California man received two years’ probation and a $25,000 fine yesterday for trying to sell a baseball glove he falsely claimed belonged to Babe Ruth.

Irving Scheib, who was sentenced in Manhattan federal court, tried to sell the glove for $200,000 to a federal investigator.

Scheib, 50, claimed the 19th-century glove, which he originally bought on eBay for $750, was a childhood possession that Ruth “slept with under his pillow.”

Scheib said Ruth gave the glove in 1944 to the late actor Robert Young, to whom Scheib was related by marriage.

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Paulson funds nixed

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson has gotten another dose of bad news.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is recommending that its financial advisers pull client money out of Paulson’s Advantage and Advantage Plus funds, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Morgan Stanley had been watching Paulson’s performance for months and prepared for this move when it told advisers last spring to stop putting new money into those funds, advisers with the firm have said.

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Gen. gal gets off

Former CIA boss David Petraeus’ mistress faces no charges in the cyberstalking probe that ended his military and intelligence career, federal prosecutors said yesterday.

The US Attorney’s Office in Tampa, Fla., said it could find no crime in the e-mails, in which Gen. Petraeus’ biographer and lover, Paula Broadwell, anonymously warned Tampa socialite Jill Kelley to “back off” and “stay away from my guy.”

Prosecutors said that after “applying relevant case law to the particular facts of this case,” they decided “not to pursue a federal case regarding the alleged acts of ‘cyberstalking’ involving Paula Broadwell.”

She issued a statement saying she and her family are “pleased with this decision and pleased that this is resolved.”

Broadwell’s lawyer has not been notified that she’s the subject or target of any other federal investigation.

But Broadwell is reportedly still being investigated by the Pentagon for allegedly mishandling classified information she got from Petraeus. Broadwell, an Army reserve officer, had a “substantial amount” of material marked classified at her home, FBI probers found.,

Broadwell and Petraeus say their relationship began after he left the military and started work at the CIA in September 2011.

But they became close years before, as Broadwell was researching her book, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” which was published in January.

Broadwell, 40, and Petraeus, 60, who are both married, say the affair ended over the summer.

But while their romance may have been over, the fallout was yet to come.

Kelley, a socialite who hosted elaborate parties for Petraeus and other officers of the Tampa-based Central Command and got herself named an “honorary consul” for South Korea, was seen by Broadwell as a rival for the general’s affections.

That led Broadwell to send the catty e-mails.

Earlier this year, Kelley, 39, took the e-mails to a pal, Tampa-based FBI Agent Frederick Humphries II, a counterterrorism investigator who helped crack the case of the “Millennium Bomber” at Los Angeles International Airport.

The probe wound on for months before it became public last month.

Asked yesterday whether he thought Petraeus should have resigned, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said:

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Well, in this town, with that kind of e-mail, do you think he could have survived as director of the CIA? I don’t think so.”

Kelley was banned from the Central Command base in Tampa. She also lost her honorary consul license plates after the South Koreans revoked her diplomatic title.

FBI agents also found hundreds of “flirtatious” e-mails between Kelley and Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of US forces in Afghanistan. Allen denies any affair with Kelley.Humphries was reportedly being investigated by the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility for sending Kelly a shirtless picture of himself, interfering with the Petraeus probe, and complaining to a congressman that the probers were “dragging their feet.”

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Finked-out wiseguy guilty

An ex-con with links to the Gambino crime family yesterday was found guilty on bank-robbery and firearms charges after a mob associate testified against him.

Gary Fama, 47, who had prior convictions on drug and firearms charges, now faces 17 years in prison when sentenced by Judge William Kuntz II. The Brooklyn federal court jury deliberated for less than two hours.

Fama’s accomplice, Gambino associate Jack Mannino, 44, cut a deal with the prosecutors and is also awaiting sentencing.

Mannino — who has 24 New York bank heists under his belt and was nicknamed “the Seven-Second Bandit” for his speedy robberies — testified that he and Fama held up a Capital One Bank branch in Bensonhurst last Dec. 29.

They fled with a bag of cash, he told the jury, but things went awry when a dye pack inside the pouch exploded and their getaway car’s transmission blew out.

He said that he and Fama panicked after hearing police sirens and jumped out of the Lexus — leaving behind a wallet and a cellphone that helped the FBI track them down.

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New Yorkers ‘in solidarity’ with Conn. neighbors

New Yorkers yesterday paid solemn tribute to the 26 children and educators gunned down Friday in a Connecticut school.

During Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Timothy Cardinal Dolan named each victim and asked worshipers to pray for their families.

“It’s kind of hard to rejoice sometimes these days, isn’t it? Sometimes joy seems to be very elusive,” Dolan said.

“I’m thinking of the very sober events in Newtown, Conn., that senseless slaughter. It brings you to tears, just in solidarity with what those parents must be going through.”

A moment of silence, meanwhile, was observed before every NFL game — and the Giants had a special reason to mourn one of the victims.

Reuters

SPELLING IT OUT: Giants star Victor Cruz pays tribute yesterday to a 6-year-old who was a big fan of his.

Wide receiver Victor Cruz had “Jack Pinto My Hero” and “R.I.P. Jack Pinto” written on his shoes in honor of a boy who was so big a fan of the athlete that Jack’s parents are considering burying him in a Cruz jersey.

Cruz and his teammates also wore helmets marked S.H.E.S., for Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Last night, dozens of New Yorkers attended a vigil in Washington Square Park. The Rev. Joseph Lorenzo, of the Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, prayed for the victims — and for bold political leadership.

“We have to limit guns in our country,” he said. “It’s time for us to take action and not just talk about it.”

David Gruber, chairman of Community Board 2, said, “We’re grieving. This is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s everyone’s children who were murdered, not just the people in Connecticut.

“People wanted to say something in solidarity with the people in Connecticut. It’s a horrific event that affected a lot of people.”

And “Saturday Night Live,” instead of an opening sketch, shelved laughter in favor of the New York City Children’s Chorus singing “Silent Night.”

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Cliff-exempt hiring

John Crudele

DEAR JOHN...THE ANSWER MAN

Dear John: The Republicans state that they do not want to increase tax rates on the rich because they do not want to tax job creators. I have an idea for a compromise.

Raise taxes on millionaires but exempt them from increased Subchapter S income, where the corporation employs at least X number of people.

This would encourage companies to increase hiring to that minimum amount as opposed to ObamaCare, which discourages new hires. The Republican argument against increasing taxes would disappear. Of course, real spending cuts would have to be part of the final agreement. What do you think? L.R.

Dear L.R. I asked David Sands, a CPA at the accounting firm Buchbinder Tunick & Co., who said, “Your suggestion has merit and is quite similar to the Jobs Tax Credit, which has taken many forms over the years.

“Perhaps an expanded credit for small-business owners could help. Taking it one step further, there are many incentives which can increase hiring, including expensing of fixed-asset purchases, research-and-development credits, etc.,” added Sands.

There you go! If they pass something like this, you can talk about your contribution to the issue at Christmas parties.

Dear John: I am a 71-year-old retiree. I have a $378,000 mortgage at a 7 percent fixed interest rate for 30 years. I never missed a payment, but today’s rates are about half that.

I also have a $300,000 lien on my home from a bad investment.

I am living off my 401(k) retirement plan and a pension, which is enough to pay off my mortgage but not the lien.

The bank refuses to refinance my mortgage at today’s rate because of the lien and drop in my credit score.

Here’s my question: Is there any way I can get the bank to lower my rate (maybe by suing them) so I can pay my mortgage and pay off the lien with the savings from a lower interest rate?

I spoke to all the lien holders and they are willing to take less than the original amounts of the loans.

It would be a win-win for all. Tony in NJ

Dear Tony in NJ: I guess you could sue. But every bank, of course, has a funhouse full of lawyers with nothing to do. You would have to pay an attorney, and you already have money problems.

I called the mortgage company — Citibank Mortgage — and they are looking into the matter.

The big issue will be whether the bank still holds your mortgage or whether it has been bundled into a security and sold to investors.

If the bank still has it, you’ll have a better chance getting the terms changed. Maybe they can do something if the mortgage was sold.

You have given Citibank permission to discuss this matter with me, so I will monitor it — especially if you remind me sometime in the near future.

I hope this works out.

Send your questions to Dear John, The NY Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.

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Who’s a turkey now? $outhwest’s ‘fat’ fees

What a bunch of turkeys.

Southwest Airlines, which has long used a “bags fly free” marketing campaign to separate it from rivals who charge a $50 bag fee — and even once ran a campaign stating “Only Turkeys Charge for Bags” — yesterday said there would be more fees to cover the free.

The Dallas-based airline said it would double fees, to $100, for overweight bags — those that tip the scales at more than 50 pounds — or for bags that are longer than 52 inches.

CEO Gary Kelly, in announcing the stepped-up fees at a New York conference, did everything but gobble-gobble the news.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

No free ride: Southwest Airlines, which has long advertised that “bags fly free,” is planning to goose revenues by $1.1 billion in part by boosting fees for overweight bags.

Southwest — facing new wage talks with its employees, who are among the industry’s highest paid — told analysts it expects to boost revenue by $1.1 billion from fee income and other savings in 2013.

Savings include the elimination of 300 workers by attrition and improved handling of schedules and maintenance of jets between flights.

While fliers may feel depressed over higher fees at Southwest, Wall Street loved the $1.1 billion in additional revenues from the higher fees, downsizing and tinkering with operations.

Southwest shares hit a 52-week high of $10.41 in intra-day trading before easing in the afternoon to close at $10.19 a share.

“Some consumers might complain, but it’s unusual to see overweight or oversized baggage anymore,” said aviation analyst George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com.

Virtually all carriers charge for baggage, and last year the industry collected about $1.4 billion in baggage fees alone.

Other Southwest fee news includes:

* Priority boarding fees rose 25 percent, to $25 per round trip.

* A new fee of $50 to $100 for no-shows on certain booked flights.

tharp@nypost.com

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Andy: It’s war if GOP blocks my agenda

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo’s honeymoon with state Senate Republicans is on the rocks.

Cuomo threatened political war yesterday against Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos of Long Island — after two years of relative harmony — if Republicans don’t embrace the governor’s agenda next year as part of the Senate’s new ruling coalition.

Skelos, who lost his GOP majority in last month’s elections pending recounts in two upstate races, balked this week at joining his new “independent” Democratic-coalition partners in raising the minimum wage, enacting campaign-finance reform and decriminalizing minor pot possession during NYPD stop-and-frisks.

“If that’s true, then we’re going to have a problem, and we’re going to have a problem sooner rather than later,” Democrat Cuomo told The Post’s Fredric U. Dicker on Albany’s Talk 1300 AM radio.

“If Senator Skelos is opposed to the agenda of the people of the state, then I will oppose him . . . and I will be involved.”

Republicans, he added, “are wrong, and I will do everything in my power to get that agenda passed.”

Skelos this month agreed to the unprecedented power-sharing coalition with Sen. Jeff Klein of The Bronx, the leader of the five-member Independent Democratic Conference.

The two plan to decide jointly which bills to allow to go before lawmakers for a vote.

Klein has predicted the Senate will pass the heart of Cuomo’s agenda.

But Skelos said there have been “no decisions, no agreements” about what bills the new Senate will take up next year.

He also reiterated his concern about spending up to $200 million in taxpayer money on state elections as part of campaign-finance reform.

Skelos’ top deputy, Sen. Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton), went even further, calling the existing bill to increase the minimum wage “devastating to business” and questioning whether “taxpayers want to pay for campaigns.”

Libous told Gannett News Service that those bills “will be in a different form than what we presently see.”

Black leaders have criticized the coalition as disenfranchising 13 black and Hispanic senators, and they say Democrats should control the Senate outright if their party winds up with the majority of seats.

But a Quinnipiac University poll found voters disagreeing, with more preferring a bipartisan coalition than outright Democratic or Republican control.

Skelos’ spokesman, Scott Reif, said yesterday that “the people want Democrats and Republicans to work together to get results.

“If Senate Republicans have proven anything over the last two years, it’s that we can successfully work with Governor Cuomo to pass an agenda that benefits all New Yorkers,” he said.

Cuomo is also pushing for legalizing casino gambling, “protecting a woman’s right to choose” and “initiatives that address” climate change.

He said he’ll add even more initiatives to the list when he delivers his annual State of the State speech next month.

Sen. John Sampson of Brooklyn said last weekend he’d step aside as head of the Democratic Conference if party members united to create a Democratic majority.

Sampson also promised this week that he and his fellow Democrats would oppose watered-down versions of the bills Cuomo is promoting.

ekriss@nypost.com

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