NYPD Daily Blotter

Queens

Police are searching for two ski-masked — and jittery — stickup men who have been terrorizing bodegas, gas stations and other shops in and around Jamaica.

The crooks flashed silver-and-black handguns in each of the 15 establishments they hit over the last two months, sources said.

In each case, they forced the store owner or an employee to stuff cash into a black plastic bag, said a law-enforcement source, and their haul so far is estimated at $15,000-plus.

Still, the manager of a Mobil gas station in Hillside that was robbed at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday thinks the daring duo seemed a bit unsure.

A 68-year-old Astoria woman told police that she was ripped off last month by the woman in the picture above and her male partner in crime.

“Their hands were shaking. They looked nervous,” said Dalgeed Singh. “They calmed down only after we gave them the money.”

One of the them, he added, warned Singh, “If you do anything wrong, we’ll shoot you.”

Then, as they were about to leave, one allegedly turned to Singh and said, “Wait. Let me get some cigarettes.”

And, Singh added, when he handed him a pack of Newports, the thug’s reaction was, “Give me some more.”

***

It was just before Christmas — and this heartless grinch was on the prowl.

A 68-year-old Astoria woman told police that she was ripped off last month by the woman in the pictured and her male partner in crime.

The victim said the couple approached her on Dec. 12 and claimed to have found a large sum of money. They offered to split their good fortune with her, she said, if she agreed to pay the taxes on the cash beforehand.

They then drove her to a bank, and she withdrew $4,500 and handed it over, never suspecting the age-old scam, police said.

When the three of them drove on to their next stop, the victim got out of the car first and then watched in despair as her new “friends” took off with her cash, cops said.

The couple, each believed to be 35 to 40 years old, fled in a black sedan with Connecticut plates, investigators said.

***

A 23-year-old woman was found dead yesterday under mysterious circumstances in her Richmond Hill home, police said.

Family members told cops that they found Victoria Baburam unconscious in her residence on 106th Street near Liberty Avenue at about 6 p.m.

EMS pronounced her dead at the scene, and investigators said the city medical examiner would determine the cause of death.

Brooklyn

He’d always wait until the kids got out of school.

Police say Sammy Nour, 30, is behind a cellphone-snatching spree that targeted Borough Park businesses for more than three months late last year.

The phones were swiped off desks and counters at a store, a doctor’s office and an Internet cafe, all near Eighth Avenue and 56th Street, between Sept. 9 and Dec. 13, court records indicate.

Each theft occurred at about 3:30 p.m., when local schools had let out, increasing foot traffic and the number of phones available, the papers say.

Nour was caught red-handed on video surveillance all three times, according to the documents.

He was charged with three counts of petit larceny and three counts of criminal possession of stolen property, cops said.

The Bronx

An off-duty cop was drunk when she crashed her car into a parking sign in Bedford Park, authorities said.

Evlyn Hernandez, 35, refused to submit to a Breathalyzer after Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. smashup, police said, which explains why she was charged with DWI and refusal to take a breath test.

Staten Island

Two teens are under arrest for mugging a man and stealing his iPhone at gunpoint in Clifton, authorities said.

Emmanuel Jallah, 17, and Hassan Sroura, 18, attacked the victim on Vanderbilt Avenue near Osgood Avenue at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 4, according to court documents.

Sroura punched the man in the chest, while Jallah snatched the pricey phone out of one of his pockets, the court papers state.

Only after the victim made a bid to get the phone back did Sroura pull a gun and snarl, “If you take another step, I’m gonna shoot you,” the records say.

The suspects then fled the scene, but investigators caught up with Sroura on Jan. 8 and with Jallah last Thursday.

Both were charged with robbery, grand larceny and criminal possession of a weapon, the records show.

Jallah was being held in lieu of $1,000 bail, but Sroura was released after making his $5,000 bail, the court papers state.

Read More..

‘Safe’ drivers give kids crash course

They claim they’re fighting to keep children safe, but statistics show that city school-bus drivers — the vast majority members of the striking union — are really hell on wheels.

Buses with public-school contracts were involved in more than 1,700 accidents in which the driver was at fault in each of the past five years for which numbers are available, according to statistics compiled by the Department of Education.

These incidents range form minor fender-benders to collisions that resulted in 912 injuries in 2011, the latest year available, the data show.

A year earlier, there were 1,792 accidents resulting in two deaths and 1,796 injuries.

Despite this bloody record, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 claims its crippling bus strike is being waged in the best interests of its student passengers — because only it can do the job safely.

One of the union’s top goals with its strike is to keep job protections that prioritize seniority for its 8,800 drivers and matrons.

“The mayor has removed a requirement that keeps the most qualified, experienced and skilled drivers on the job,” it said when it announced the strike.

That argument didn’t fly with parents of children hurt on the buses.

“Right now, they need to screen these matrons. They need matrons that really care for the kids,” said Tellison Forde, of Queens, whose severely autistic daughter, Donia, suffered bloodied hands and feet during a ride on a Logan Bus in May 2010.

“She could have been sliding on the seat and the driver and matron were probably not paying attention and talking with each other,” she said.

That incident, when Donia was 9, is now part of a lawsuit in Queens Supreme Court.

In a more recent case, a Lonero Transit matron is accused of trying to cover up how Nehemiah Rondon, 10, bashed his head on the floor of a moving bus.

“The bus stopped. He starts walking, and when he gets to the door, the bus starts again and lurches forward and banged his head,” said his attorney, Igor Grichanik.

The matron allegedly tried to coerce the boy into not telling what happened.

“Since the day of the incident, [Nehemiah] has been singled out, coached and/or questioned by the ‘matron’ regarding the happening of the incident,” the boy’s lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.

Grichanik added: “The kid says, ‘I go to church. God doesn’t let me lie. Why are you making me lie?’ ”

The coalition that represents several of the private bus operators, which in total receive about $1.1 billion a year in contracts from the city, disputed the city’s tally of accidents.

“Our insurance reports distinguish between driver fault and nonfault, chargeable versus nonchargeable, and show the large majority of incidents are not the fault of school-bus drivers, and most are minor incidents without children on board,” said spokeswoman Carolyn Daly.

About 67 percent of drivers are striking.

Additional reporting by Christina Carrega and Julia Marsh

chuck.bennett@nypost.com

Read More..

OMerica

John Podhoretz

As Barack Obama’s second term begins with a private swearing-in ceremony today, we know one thing: If he leaves office as a well-regarded two-termer in 2017, he will have become the most important president since Ronald Reagan and the most important liberal president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

If the American electorate deems his eight years a success, the Obama presidency will have altered the ideological trajectory of the United States.

For decades now, since the Reagan era, the United States has been most accurately described as a center-right nation. That will not be the case if Obama does well over the next four years. By 2017, it will have moved several clicks starboard — for a generation at least. Due to Obama and his policies, the United States will have become a center-left nation.

Getty Images

If, however, Obama crashes and burns during his second term — either because the public turns on his policies, as was the case with George W. Bush, or (impossible to believe) because of personal misconduct, as was the case with Bill Clinton — Obama will leave liberalism in the same state of crisis in which conservatism now finds itself.

Rather than enshrine it as the dominating force in American politics, he will have discredited left-liberalism.

So the stakes are pretty high. The reward for success will be vast. The cost of failure will be severe. And Obama has made sure we will be able to tell which is which. There will be no doubt.

He’s not Clinton, who saved his presidency by tacking to the right after losing in 1994. He’s not George W. Bush, who passed an education bill with Teddy Kennedy’s help and created a new entitlement program in 2003 (the Medicare prescription-drug benefit). Both presidents were loathed unreservedly by their ideological opposites, and yet both frequently tacked to the center on domestic politics.

By contrast, Obama was the first successful candidate for the presidency to call himself a “liberal” with no discomfort since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. And he meant it. His significant legislative accomplishments, all of which have tacked to the left, would have seemed like science-fictional dreams in 2005, when it appeared liberalism had been routed and conservatism had embedded itself permanently throughout the government.

Obama’s first term began with the passage of the largest domestic spending bill in US history, the trillion-dollar stimulus.

He moved on post-haste to the partial nationalization of two auto manufacturers, an unprecedented reach into the private marketplace made all the more audacious for its naked giveaways to the same auto workers union that played such a role in leading the companies to ruin.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

Read More..

Gorman’s gamble pays

James Gorman’s big bet on Morgan Stanley’s brokerage business is finally starting to pay dividends.

The investment banking chief — who has hitched the firm’s fortunes to its legion of 17,000 financial advisers at its wealth-management unit — reported fourth-quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations.

The performance sent the shares up nearly 8 percent yesterday to their highest level since June.

The wealth-management division fueled profit in the latest quarter. The business started out as a joint venture with Citigroup, known as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, until Gorman struck a deal to buy out Citi. Gorman said yesterday the bank will accelerate the purchase of Citi’s remaining 35 percent, further fueling results.

JAMES GORMAN


Money man.

The business run by President Greg Fleming posted profit margins of 17 percent in the latest quarter. That’s better than the firm’s mid- to low-teen projections and well ahead of the mid-year timetable the bank had set.

Morgan Stanley also got a boost from cost-cutting, including 6,000 layoffs over the past year. It is aiming to slash another $1.6 billion in expenses over the next 18 months but said that will not result in more job cuts.

The measures helped the bank swing to a quarterly profit of $507 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a loss of $250 million, or 15 cents, a year earlier.

Morgan Stanley changed the way it values debt due to accounting rules. Excluding the impact of that change, it had per-share earnings of 45 cents, topping analysts’ estimates for 27 cents.

Morgan Stanley said this week it would defer cash bonuses for top managers, spreading them out over three years. Overall compensation fell 4 .5 percent to $15.6 billion in 2012.

Gorman’s bumper quarter comes as investors are putting more pressure on the firm. “I am confident that we are on a path to return capital to shareholders regardless of the macro environment,” Gorman said.

Read More..

Thieves prey on Brooklyn residents who leave their doors open

You're not in Kansas anymore. It’s Brooklyn!

Thieves last year preyed on dimwitted residents who left their doors open in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn.

There were 146 burglaries in the 84th Precinct in 2012 — and almost 50 came from residents who left their doors opened or unlocked, authorities said.

Cops said that the neighborhood has gotten so safe that residents weren’t bothering to lock up when they were home or went out.

The command had, on average, less than three crimes a day in 2012 — making it one of the city’s safest communities, Captain Maximo Tolentino, commanding officer of the 84th Precinct, said at a recent community council meeting.

However, this may have given residents a false sense of security. Some burglars haven’t needed to break a window or climb up a fire escape to pull off their heists — instead, they have just been waltzing into their victim’s apartments.

“Even if you’re home, you can’t assume it’s okay to leave your front door open,” said Tolentino.

He asked residents to be more aware of their surroundings, and to report burglaries more speedily to police.

“When your home has been broken into, it should be reported right away,” he said.

Some crime victims had waited days before telling the police, making the investigation much more difficult.

Most of the burglaries were crimes of opportunity, cops added.

Read More..

Gal fends off subway fiend

A Brooklyn woman on her way home fought off a sex assault in a Williamsburg subway station — and her attacker got away with just her cellphone, authorities said.

Police yesterday released video surveillance of the hoodie-clad suspect they say followed the 22-year-old woman out of the Lorimer Street L-train station just after 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

The man — a 185-pound, 5-foot-9 Asian dressed in a red Hurley sweatshirt and dark pants — sexually assaulted her, but the woman fought him off.

Cops are asking anyone who recognizes the man in the video to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

AT LARGE: Suspect is seen on security camera.

Read More..

Defer madness: 3-year wait for Morgan Stanley cash bonuses

Wall Street’s high-rollers are facing a cash crunch.

Morgan Stanley is deferring cash bonuses for its top executives for three years as new regulations and stricter capital requirements force banks to slash staff and pay.

The belt-tightening moves come as other banks, including UK-based Barclays, are planning to cut bonuses and trim staff in the coming weeks, The Post has learned.

Banks like Morgan Stanley also are facing heightened pressure by regulators including the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to defer more cash bonuses in an effort to tamp down the sort of perverse incentives that many believe led to the financial meltdown.

AP

President and CEO of Morgan Stanley James P. Gorman.

Bankers this year are widely bracing for smaller bonuses, including cuts of as much as 30 percent in some areas.

Morgan Stanley, which is gearing up to lay off 1,600 of its investment bankers, would defer cash bonuses for all employees earnings more than $350,000 — or those due a bonus of at least $50,000. Lower-paid employees would not have their bonuses deferred.

The high-pay group would get 25 percent of their cash payout in May and then in equal payouts in three successive Decembers, a person familiar with the situation said.

Bankers’ stock awards would vest over three years, starting next January.

Last year, Morgan Stanley chief James Gorman limited bonuses to $125,000 and set the cash-deferral bonus payments to those receiving salaries of $250,000 or more.

“Some execs cried poverty,” hence the increase, according to one person familiar with the situation.

Gorman, who has hitched the company’s success to its 17,000-strong wealth managers, has been thinning its ranks in its volatile investment banking platform.

Activist investor Dan Loeb of Third Point Capital has taken a stake in the company and has been pushing it to lower compensation costs.

Morgan Stanley bankers are due to learn the size of their bonuses on Thursday — a day ahead of the release of the bank’s fourth-quarter results on Jan. 18.

Many of Morgan Stanley’s compensation changes have been aimed at limiting costs and have targeted cutting the fat at its highest levels.

The bank is expected to promote the lowest number of managing directors it has since 2009.

“Morgan Stanley is trying to use all the tricks in its playbook to shrink their size,” said Wall Street recruiter Michael Karp.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Barclays is said to be pushing to limit the number of senior managers it elevates as it also moves to trim its ranks.

Under new CEO Anthony Jenkins, Barclays has been aiming to restructure the big international bank, which was whacked by the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, scandal.

That regulatory dust-up forced former CEO Bob Diamond and other top officials to step down.

Jenkins is slated to announce changes at the bank when it releases its fourth-quarter results on Feb. 12.

mark.decambre@nypost.com

Read More..

Liu’s top aide a tax cheat: IRS

The top campaign adviser to city Comptroller John Liu is a tax deadbeat, the federal government claims.

The IRS has filed a lien against Chung Seto, claiming she owes $103,872 in back taxes, records show.

The feds had previously slapped Seto with $175,000 in liens.

Seto declined to comment.

The timing could not be worse for Liu, who is running for mayor. His ex-treasurer, Jia “Jenny” Hou, and fund-raiser, Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan, face trial next month on charges they schemed to funnel illegal contributions into Liu’s campaign war chest.

Read More..

Duck, goose! Another JFK wing ding

A Caribbean-bound JetBlue flight was struck by a bird yesterday for the second day in a row after lifting off from JFK Airport, officials said.

In the most recent incident, JetBlue Flight 721 struck the fowl “on departure” around 10 a.m., according to the FAA.

“It was not a direct hit,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Tamara Bentham, but the plane nonetheless returned to JFK as a precaution.

The jet, an Airbus 320 with 125 people on board, hit a “pretty large bird” between 500 to 700 feet above ground and the feathered fiend “probably fell onto the runway,” Aviation Week reported.

After an inspection, the plane departed again without incident about 90 minutes later.

On Saturday, a Dominican Republic-bound flight had to go back to the airport after the pilot reported a bird strike to the plane’s nose.

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the city’s most famous bird strike — the “Miracle on the Hudson” incident in which Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger safely landed his disabled US Airways plane on the river.

Read More..

Finally! City to tackle unwed-mom epidemic

Michael Goodwin

It’s my favorite single-question pop quiz: What is the out-of-wedlock birth rate in The Bronx?

The answers I get from New Yorkers who should know better usually top out at 50 percent. Only occasionally does anyone come close to the correct answer: 70 percent.

You read it right — seven out of 10 babies born in The Bronx in 2010 were born to unmarried parents. The state recorded 22,386 live births in the borough that year, with 15,539 born to single mothers. More than 2,100 of those mothers were teens, some as young as 15.

Yet it is how most people react to hearing the correct answer that I find especially troubling. They are shocked it’s so high, but then shrug and mutter something like, “Well, I’m not surprised.”

That world-weary cynicism illustrates the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s meaning of “defining deviancy down.” His point was that a declining society accepts as normal bad things that are not normal. Numbness leads to inertia.

So it is with out-of-wedlock birth. As the proportion climbed and climbed, from single digits to 41 percent nationally, and 45 percent in the city, our political leaders responded with . . . silence. Even Mayor Bloomberg once said to me that “you know it’s something we can’t touch,” presumably because of the racial implications. Nationally, 73 percent of black children are born to single mothers.

That chat was about six months ago — but I am happy to report that Bloomy’s response could be outdated. City Hall is now getting ready to smash the taboo on confronting out-of-wedlock birth. Heart be still.

The effort is in the planning stage but likely will involve a public-service-style campaign, suggests Robert Doar, Bloomberg’s determined Human Resources commissioner. It will focus on “the outcome of the child,” meaning it will warn potential parents about the hard lives of children if the parents aren’t married.

Doar cites unstable homes, poverty, lower educational achievement and higher odds of criminal behavior as the fate of many children raised without a father. He also has a suggestion for journalists fond of tear-jerker stories about poor, single mothers. Ask them, he urges, “Where’s the father?”

Doar made the comments in a thoughtful speech last week when he won the Manhattan Institute’s Urban Innovator Award for fostering upward mobility instead of dependency among welfare recipients. He outlined Bloomberg’s philosophy that combines conservative principles of “work first” with the liberal instinct for government help, including Medicaid, food stamps and tax credits.

Read More..

Oxygen turns toxic

Brent Bozell

Television is getting a little unreal.

First, the idea that Al Gore would sell out to Al-Jazeera sounded like an April Fools’ joke. Then the Oxygen network — that supposedly uplifting women’s channel founded in 2000 by Oprah Winfrey — announced it was producing a reality show called “All My Baby’s Mamas” starring an Atlanta rapper and former drug dealer named “Shawty Lo,” alongside his 11 children and their 10 different mothers.

Oxygen promoted this videotaped puddle of stupidity with a YouTube highlight reel featuring the rapper (real name: Carlos Walker) unsuccessfully attempting to name his 11 kids as quiz-show music plays.

The entire political spectrum has united against it. Leftist Boyce Watkins called it “a platform for ignorance.” Liberal Clarence Page asked “Lincoln freed us for this?” Upset with the black stereotyping, citizen activist Sabrina Lord posted a petition on Change.org demanding “Shawty-Lo Must Go,” and the Parents Television Council and its grass-roots army joined in that effort.

As the criticism and petition signatures piled up, Oxygen executives locked down. They sidestepped the show at the winter press tour with TV writers in favor of touting their other new programs, like one called “Fat Girl Revenge.” They lamely claimed their YouTube video was “hacked” instead of official, and claimed it was very early in the development process, although it was expected to air this spring. They insisted it was a special, not a series.

But when pressed hard enough, a network publicist didn’t back down with Fox News. “Oxygen’s one-hour special in development is not meant to be a stereotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society . . . It is a look at one unique family and their complicated, intertwined life. Oxygen Media’s diverse team of creative executives will continue developing the show with this point of view.”

Critics can’t say this familial mess isn’t reality in the sense that Walker actually created this twisted trail. The names of the mothers have been changed to make better TV — one is nicknamed “Jealous Baby Mama” and another “Shady Baby Mama.” This is odd, because they’re can’t be anyone “shadier” than our aspiring TV star Shawty-Lo, sneaking around to the point that he dishonorably piled up ten “baby mamas.”

Wouldn’t you think that somewhere in this chain that Baby Mama Five or Six would have been warned away by the rest of the roster?

Since he has no shame, 36-year-old Shawty-Lo is now dating a 19-year-old. His oldest child is 21.

No one by now expects “reality TV” to offer us role models. Instead, these shows careen recklessly around the culture and celebrate dysfunction. Sadly, more than half of births to women under age 30 are out of wedlock. Among blacks, the rate soars to more than 65 percent.

Oxygen isn’t making this show as a morality play, some kind of “Scared Straight” documentary. Like almost every other reality show, this network surely will just set a stage for outsized drama and squabbling and yelling and crying.

Early in the controversy, Oxygen Media senior vice president Cori Abraham hoped that the show would provide “over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about . . . leaving the man of the house to split his affection multiple ways while trying to create order . . . but sharing your man with several opinionated women is bound to create issues.”

In short, they see this as a black edition of TLC’s “Sister Wives,” without the actual lobbying for polygamy.

This ridiculous concept should be dumped by Oxygen, and Oxygen should be dumped by cable systems. The fact that people are having to write petitions about this train wreck only proves that the TV industry will always “think” its way to an idiotic-sounding new low.

L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

Read More..

Twist in Net 'sex' drama

The stripper who claims she was sexually assaulted in a Brooklyn Net’s hotel suite said the hoopster watched the attack and did nothing to stop it.

“He peeked in the room,” the alleged victim said of forward Andray Blatche. “He just didn’t . . . when he came in, he didn’t have intercourse with me.”

The 21-year-old woman told Philadelphia’s ABC 6 that Blatche knew exactly what was happening to her but never tried to help.

“He was not oblivious. He was aware the whole time,” she said on camera, with her face silhouetted.

She said she met up with the baller and his entourage at Delilah’s, a Philly strip club, and they partied there before going back to Blatche’s Four Seasons hotel suite.

Andray Blatche

She told the station she believes she was drugged at the club.

“I felt strange,” she said.

She collapsed on a bed in the hotel just before the first alleged attack.

“It was like I was asleep, but I was still conscious. I heard everything that was around me, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t move,” said the college student.

“And not long after that, that was when the first guy came in. It was like he rolled me over and had his way,” the student said.

Blatche and at least one of his pals watched the attack from the doorway, she said.

“And then the other guy came in, the short one with the dreads, and then he had his way,” she said.

“It was like they kept peeking in. He went to the door a few times, opened the door, and then they were all three at the door.”

She never claimed that Blatche assaulted her.

Blatche didn’t seem worried yesterday.

“When the truth comes out, then everybody will realize what really happened,” he said at the team’s practice. “In the meantime, I can’t really have too much comments on it.’’

The hoopster, who has a history of brushes with the law, denied that he runs with a bad crowd.

“No, I’m telling you — y’all will hear the truth sooner or later. It’s just a bad situation . . . but trust me, no. When the time comes and I can talk about it, then everybody will realize that it’s not what you think.’’

Philadelphia cops yesterday said no one was in custody and no charges had been filed.

The city’s police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, has questioned the validity of the woman’s claims because of her intoxication and said it would be a tough case to make.

dmacleod@nypost.com

Read More..

Yacht owner says lenders are trying to take ship in 'fire sale'

He won’t surrender the ship.

The owner of an iconic presidential yacht is suing his lenders claiming they’re trying to commandeer the ship in a “fire sale,” according to documents filed in New York Supreme Court.

The lenders “developed and then instituted a dastardly plan to wrest control of the Sequoia from,” its owner, the complaint states.

Sequoia owner Gary Silversmith, of Washington D.C., was burdened by the costs of maintaining the 104-foot wooden yacht. Built in 1925 it served presidents Hoover to Carter, until the later sold it at auction.

Silversmith received a $5 million loan in July 2003 from D.C.-based company called FE Partners, which the complaint says is owned by a powerful business family from the Indian state of Goa.

But FE Partners only paid Silversmith half the loan and then served him with fabricated default notices, the filing alleges. The notices were issued for infractions like bringing prostitutes abroad the vessel, according to the complaint, which calls those charges “outright false.”

“The plan was to strategically loan only half of what it contracted to loan,” forcing Silversmith to default on his payments and surrender the ship for half its stated $13 million value, court papers say.

The yacht, a National Historic Landmark, is rented out to private groups and used for charities including an organization that helps wounded vets.

Silversmith wants the court to force the lenders to pay the balance on the loan and prevent them from buying the historic ship.

The parties are due in court on Jan. 17.

Read More..

Business briefs

Sac bonuses

SAC Capital is raising bonuses for portfolio managers by 3 percentage points to help retain employees as the feds’ insider-trading probe moves closer to Stevie Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund.

Watch it!

Broker Cantor Fitzgerald faces a possible credit downgrade from its BBB rating, Fitch Ratings said.

Curran caught

Mary Curran, an ex- UBS client, admitted to using Swiss bank accounts to hide more than $43 million in the largest individual offshore tax evasion case since a crackdown began in 2008.

Not so dreamy

Boeing shares slipped 2.6 percent to $74.13 after Japan Airlines had a Boeing Dreamliner towed back to a Boston airport gate when the jet leaked fuel while taxiing for takeoff to Tokyo, a day after a fire broke out on another 787 at the same airport.

Staying put

The city reached a tentative deal with the merchants who operate the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market in The Bronx to extend their lease by 10 years, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Read More..

Venezuela crisis: weekend at Hugo’s?

Benny Avni

Whether Venezuela’s power crisis materializes by Thursday or later on, it’s coming. America will have a role to play, and better choose the right side this time.

President Hugo Chavez won re-election in October; he’s due to be sworn in the day after tomorrow. But he’s too sick to show up.

Chavez, 58, has ruled the oil-rich country since 1999, promoting his (Simon) Bolivarian revolution — but he hasn’t been seen in public or heard from since his latest cancer-related operation in Cuba.

As far as anyone can tell, he’s still in Cuba, where official word has him in “delicate” but stable condition.

When last seen: Chavez kissing a crucifix Dec. 9 as he headed off to surgery.

In lieu of verifiable data, the Caracas rumor mill is rife with near-death rumors — not to mention stories contending that the man is already up there, in the great Bolivarian playground in the sky.

Anyway, the country’s remaining leaders have all but announced that he’s unlikely to show up to his re-inauguration ceremony.

Which may turn into a major constitutional crisis.

Under the Venezuelan constitution, if an elected president is incapacitated and can’t take office on the Jan. 10 swear-in date, the National Assembly chief assumes temporary powers. He then must call a new presidential election within 30 days.

Here’s where things get a bit messy.

Before he was rushed off to Havana, Chavez named his deputy, Nicolas Maduro, as his successor. But Maduro, a former bus driver who came up the ranks along with an ambitious Evita Peron-like wife, Cilia Flores, lacks the political skills, charisma and ruthlessness of his boss.

In fact, Maduro’s strongest asset, for now, is his tie, cultivated during a stint as foreign minister, with Venezuela’s real puppet masters: Cuba’s Castro brothers. (Maduro also has ins with other Chavistas across Latin America, as well as with the Iranians.)

But if there’s a new election, it’s not at all clear that Maduro can beat opposition leader Henrique Capriles — who in October won more votes than anyone who’d ever run against Chavez.

In fact, it’s not even clear how long Maduro can control Chavez’s ruling party. He must contend, for example, with Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly president re-elected to that job just last week, whom many believe has his own eyes on the presidency. (Cabello is a former general and loyal Chavez hatchet man).

Can the Chavistas hang together, let alone hold power, without Chavez?

The solution, apparently cooked up in Havana recently, is straight out of “Weekend at Bernie’s”: Prop up the cadaver and pretend Hugo’s coming back — just not quite yet.

Chavez “remains in power and will be sworn in whenever possible,” heir-apparent Maduro told a government-controlled TV channel Sunday. Echoed Cabello: “Chavez was re-elected and will continue being president beyond Jan. 10.”

And the hell with all that constitutional mumbo-jumbo. After all, the nation’s Supreme Court, which would need to decide the matter, is stacked with party loyalists.

Meanwhile, the opposition isn’t yet eager to use a “technicality” to challenge the power structure. Capriles wants to unshackle Venezuela from the Chavistas’ economically destructive hold. But he fears that moving in too quickly to exploit Chavez’s absence would leave him seeming to take advantage of a health crisis. So he’s unlikely to rock the boat for now.

But unless the strongman truly recovers, sooner or later the weekend will be over — and then a constitutional crisis will erupt. What will America do?

In 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a Chavez ally, tried to keep power despite constitutionally imposed term limits. The very independent Honduran Supreme Court joined the legislature and the military to resist the power grab — and show Zelaya the door.

But the Obama administration sawthe unseating of a Constitution-violator as nothing but a “military coup,” and joined a chorus of Chavez allies calling to reinstate Zelaya.

Let’s hope that when Venezuela’s constitutional drama unfolds, Washington will be smarter about picking sides. The imminent departure of “El Loco” could ease hostility toward the United States in Latin America and beyond.

Maybe this time we’ll back our would-be allies for a change.

Twitter: @bennyavni

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

Read More..

Off-off Broad ‘Grey’

They promise a spanking good show.

A musical spoofing the spicy bondage romance novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” is set to hit a Manhattan theater this week — featuring singing, dancing and plenty of sexual innuendo.

The show, “50 Shades! The Musical,” will be performed Friday and Saturday at the Gramercy Theater, with tickets going for $50 to $60 a pop.

“It winks at the novel — but there’s some sexiness, too,” said director Albert Samuels. “It’s a super-fun time.”

The sassy singing comedy features a live band performing raunchy original numbers, such as “They Get Nasty,” “I Don’t Make Love, I “F#*!” and “There’s a Hole Inside of Me.”

WHIP IT GOOD: Actors in the stage lark “50 Shades! The Musical.”

The opening scene centers on a middle-aged ladies’ book group, then plunges, like a cougar’s neckline, into sketches making fun of the erotic, best-selling novel.

The audience gets a peek at the steamy book through the eyes of the women reading it — with an absurdist twist.

For example, the book’s dashing stud, Christian, has a beer belly in the show. And the smart and sexy ingenue, Ana, is a bit of an airhead.

Created by the musical improv comedy troupe Baby Wants Candy, the show features a lively score and 11 original songs.

The musical was a hit last month in Chicago, where it drew long lines at that city’s Apollo Theater, despite its next-to-nothing advertising budget, and earned the praise of the Chicago Tribune’s theater critic.

The show also ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

The book it spoofs, E.L. James’ 2011 novel “Fifty Shades of Grey,” is about a college girl’s boundary-pushing affair with a wealthy, older entrepreneur.

The book became controversial for its “soft sadomasochistic” sex scenes — think rooms full of whips — and has been banned in three US libraries.

Several blogs, magazines and newspapers, including The Sun of London, have dubbed it “mommy porn.”

The novel has sold more than 65 million copies worldwide and inspired a literary parody titled, “Fifty Sheds of Grey,” in which a garden-shed-owning husband is “thrust into a world of pleasure” by his erotic-novel-reading wife.

The new play, its creators say, is best suited for audience members over the age of 18 because of its adult themes.

Still, it won’t make the average theatergoer squirm, Samuels said.

He promised that everyone in the show keeps their clothes on — which is more than the book can say. “It’s just packed with innuendo,” he said.

The book is also set to become a feature-length film, produced by Universal Pictures, this year.

noneill@nypost.com

Read More..

That’s hypocritic-Al

Michael Goodwin

As Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” In that spirit, I give up resisting the urge to shout “HYPOCRITE.”

Not once, but a thousand times.

Start with Al Gore, the low-hanging fruit in the “say one thing, do another” culture. With his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, the almost-president instantly doubled his charlatan quotient.

The blowhard who often proclaims the end of the world is nigh because of fossil fuels sold his TV business to the emir of Qatar, king of the oil patch. But Gore’s scheming didn’t stop there. He also reportedly wanted to finalize the deal before the end of the year so his $100 million windfall wouldn’t be subject to new higher tax rates he zealously supported.

He’s not alone in urging tax hikes he tried to avoid. From the Washington Post to Costco to Warren Buffett to Hollywood, the woods are full of devotees to that Sage of Selfishness, Leona Helmsley. The Queen of Mean insisted that “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes,” just before she was marched off to prison for tax evasion.

Her acolytes are hypocrites, but not felonious. President Obama’s Tinseltown pals got lucrative tax breaks and, after declaring themselves eager to pay their fair share, the Post and Costco pushed 2013 dividends into 2012 so higher taxes this year wouldn’t hit their wallets. Sharpies for sure, especially Buffett, who is on the Post board and is a big stockholder. He made himself the poster boy for soaking the rich, though “Taxes for thee, but not for me” is his real creed.

There’s no telling how many wealthy Obama supporters helped fuel the surge of apartment sales in deep-blue Manhattan, but brokers say the coming hikes played a role. With capital-gains taxes going from 15 percent to 23.8 percent, including an ObamaCare hit, sellers took the money and ran. A friend tells of a rich liberal who did exactly that — sold before the ball dropped and moved to Connecticut to avoid New York City and state taxes as well.

Liberals, of course, don’t have a monopoly on failing to practice what they preach. Republican Gov. Chris Christie is famous for insisting that New Jersey live within its means, and good for him for showing it can be done. But when he gets to the federal trough, he eats with both hands.

Christie, along with Long Island Republican Congressman Pete King, leveled savage attacks on House Speaker John Boehner. Boehner’s “crime” was not instantly approving every penny of the $60 billion of aid New York, New Jersey and Connecticut demanded after Hurricane Sandy.

Read More..

Oscars in ‘Bond’age

LOS ANGELES — This year’s Academy Awards will feature a celebration of Bond, James Bond.

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced yesterday that the show will pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, which they describe as “a beloved global phenomenon.”

The most recent Bond film, “Skyfall,” was released in November and has made more than $1 billion.

Read More..

Statement by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly

At 7:32 p.m., a lieutenant and three police officers assigned to Transit District 34 were in plainclothes on patrol in two separate cars of a Manhattan-bound ‘N’ train here in Brooklyn. Officers Michael Levay and Lukasz Kozicki observed an individual moving from the second car to the third in violation of transit regulations.

As the train approached the Fort Hamilton Parkway station at 62nd Street, the subject sat down toward the front of the third car. The officers approached, and asked him for identification with the intention of removing him from the train as it came to a stop. The male stood up as if to comply with the officers, and appeared to reach for his wallet.

Paul Martinka

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly responds after three officers were injured Thursday.

Instead, he pulled a 9-millimeter Taurus handgun from his waistband and opened fire. Officer Kozicki, 32, was struck three times; once in each of his upper thighs and once in the groin.

A witness said that the gunman appeared to notice the officer’s bullet-resistant vest, and, as a result, aimed low before he fired.

Although shot in the lower back protected by his vest, Officer Levay, 27, returned fire, striking his assailant, killing him.

A passenger on the same car sustained a graze wound to the leg during the gun fight.

Fortunately no one else was injured, as passengers ran onto the platform when the gunfire erupted.

An hour earlier in the Bronx, as the Mayor said, at 6:30 p.m., Police Officer Juan Pichardo was working off-duty at his family’s car dealership when two men, one of them armed with a Bryco .380 handgun, entered the location. Two accomplices waited outside in a getaway car.

After the two feigned interest in buying a red Altima that was parked near the dealership office, one of them produced the gun and forced Officer Pichardo and a second dealership employee on to the floor in the small back office. They began to ransack the office, looking for cash and the safe, all the while brandishing the weapon in Officer Pichardo’s face.

A few minutes after the robbery, Officer Pichardo stood up and grabbed the gunman, who fired, striking the officer in the right thigh. Despite being wounded, Officer Pichardo and the other employee wrestled the gunman to the ground and disarmed him. The gunman’s accomplice fled with the two others in the getaway car, a white Impala with Oregon license plates.

Officer Pichardo held the gunman for responding officers, who recognized the gunman as a member of a Bronx robbery crew who they had been looking for. A short distance away, at 183rd Street and Katonah Avenue, police stopped the getaway car and its three occupants, placing them under arrest.

As both of these incidents illustrate, the historic crime reductions that New Yorkers enjoy come at a price. As the Mayor said, a dozen police officers were shot last year. And now three more, in the first three days of the new year. So thank God, that the doctors at Lutheran and Jacobi did their usual work, and all of these officers will recover.

Read More..

Obama signs cliff deal, $633B defense bill

HONOLULU — President Obama has signed a bill that boosts taxes on the wealthiest Americans, while preserving tax cuts for most American households.

The bill, which averts a looming fiscal cliff that had threatened to plunge the nation back into recession, also extends expiring jobless benefits, prevents cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and delays for two months billions of dollars in across-the-board spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.

The GOP-run House approved the measure by a 257-167 vote late Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the Democratic-led Senate passed it 89-8.

Obama also signed a $633 billion defense bill for next year that tightens penalties on Iran and bolsters security at diplomatic missions worldwide after the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Obama had threatened to veto the measure because of a number of concerns, including limits on his authority to transfer terrorist suspects from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for one year.

But Obama said that although he continued to oppose certain sections of the bill, "the need to renew critical defense authorities and funding was too great to ignore."

The bill includes cuts in defense spending that the president and congressional Republicans agreed to in August 2011, along with the end of the war in Iraq and the drawdown of American forces in Afghanistan.

Obama, who is vacationing in Hawaii, signed the bills using an autopen, a mechanical device that copies his signature.

Read More..