Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts

‘Cannibal’ has bone to pick

Accused “cannibal cop” Gilberto Valle says he may have to take the witness stand if an FBI agent isn’t cross-examined about “substantially exculpatory statements” Valle claims he made while under interrogation after his arrest.

In a letter to the judge, Valle’s lead lawyer complained that prosecutors “cherry-picked” only damaging testimony from Agent Anthony Foto from the nearly four hours that Valle blabbed to him after getting busted last year.

But public defender Julia Gatto insisted that Foto “opened the door” to cross-examination on several key issues, including whether Valle said his admitted interest in cannibalism was “real or fantasy.”




GILBERTO VALLE Evidence “cherry-picked.”


GILBERTO VALLE Evidence “cherry-picked.”



Unless Foto is forced to also give potentially “favorable testimony” for Valle when he returns to the stand tomorrow, it “could force Mr. Valle to testify to rebut Mr. Foto’s false statements,” Gatto wrote.

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I’m all bark and no bite








The British nurse arrested after “mentoring” accused New York cannibal cop Gilbert Valle yesterday denied having ever basted — or tasted — human flesh, despite Internet boasts that he’d feasted on two women and a young child.

“None of this is real. It is all fantasy,” Dale Bolinger, who allegedly coached Valle on how to kidnap, torture and eat women, said yesterday.

Asked if he was a cannibal, the weepy, shaking Bolinger told The Post, “No. No!”

“I’m an a--hole. I’m an idiot,” Bolinger, 57, whined outside his home — which sits directly across the street from a cemetery in the leafy English town of Canterbury, about 60 miles outside London.





BONE TO PICK: Dale Bolinger, biking in Canterbury, England, yesterday, says he’s no cannibal, after he was busted and linked to Gilberto Valle (below in online fetish chats.

Nick Obank





BONE TO PICK: Dale Bolinger, biking in Canterbury, England, yesterday, says he’s no cannibal, after he was busted and linked to Gilberto Valle (below in online fetish chats.






“It was my stupidity, because I went and put stupid things online, thinking that it was funny.”

Authorities said Bolinger used the name “Moody Blues” in an online sex-fetish forum to coach Valle in cannibalistic pursuits.

Bolinger spoke after being released on bail in connection with the gruesome New York federal court case where Valle, 28, is on trial for allegedly conspiring to kidnap women and illegally accessing a law-enforcement database to get information on potential victims.

Bolinger, who also used the online names “MeatMarketMan” and “Christopher Collins,” was arrested last week after British authorities working with the FBI raided his home.

Cops spent 15 hours searching with police dogs, digging up the sicko’s garden and seizing computers. Bolinger is charged with conspiracy and possession of kiddie porn.

Bolinger’s son, Rick, 30, a performance artist and blogger, was also arrested and charged. Bolinger insisted his son was not involved in the cannibalistic conversations.

“It was because he was in the same house. Poor bastard,” said Bolinger, who has been suspended from his nursing job at East Kent Hospital. “We haven’t spoken since it happened. He won’t talk to me.”

Bolinger was nabbed after New York trial testimony asserted that he and Valle met through an extreme-sex-fetish Web site last summer.

Valle allegedly asked to be Bolinger’s “assistant” and asked for flesh-eating advice.

“I don’t know who that guy is,” Bolinger said yesterday about Valle. “I’ve never met him. It was just someone I was talking to online.”

During their chats, Bolinger claimed to have recipes for human flesh, including one for “haggis” made out of human lungs and stomach, and said the foot was his favorite piece of meat. He also urged Valle to consume a victim while she was still alive.

“I think of it as eating her to death,” Bolinger, using his screen name Moody Blues, wrote. “The meat isn’t quite like pork, but very meaty...I’ve eaten a black woman and a white person.”

He also claimed to have eaten a 5-year-old boy.

In another exchange, Bolinger referred to Brit serial killer the Yorkshire Ripper, advising Valle to mix it up when it came to his victims, and not chose the same kind of women for each cannibalistic encounter, according to testimony.

“The main reason the Yorkshire Ripper got caught is he stuck to the same type,” Bolinger wrote. “Don’t follow the same pattern. Pattern is what they look for.”

At one point, the two twisted men talked about knocking women out with anesthetic gas and using a meat cleaver to attack victims.

Bolinger talked of coming to New York, and fretted that he might not get his butchering tools through customs.

Bolinger’s estranged wife, Rosemary, has cerebral palsy and lives with the couple’s 26-year-old daughter in another village. She said she hasn’t not seen Bolinger in a year.

His Canterbury neighbors said they were stunned by the police activity in their tiny hamlet.

“We wondered what on earth was happening,” said one. They came about seven in the morning [and] were there until about 10 o’clock at night.”

Valle’s trial in a Manhattan courtroom is scheduled to resume on Monday.










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‘Ma chop’ suspect in the bag








The Bronx man accused of killing and dismembering his mother before taking a picture of himself with her severed head appeared in court yesterday wearing only a garbage bag.

At his bizarre appearance, Bahsid McLean, 23, also professed his innocence.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” McLean blurted out after his lawyer asked for medication for him. “I don’t need anything at all. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

As for the trash sack, McLean “kept urinating on himself,” said defense lawyer Jerry Iannece.

McLean allegedly stabbed mom Tanya Byrd, 45, to death Tuesday, then dismembered the body.





Bashid Mclean

Robert Kalfus





Bashid Mclean





McLean’s pal, William Harris, 26, also appeared in court on charges he helped chop up Byrd’s body and dump dispose of the parts in neighborhood trash.

McLean lived with his mother and 7-year-old brother in Morrisania.










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Slaughter her like this goat!









Cannibal cop Gilberto Valle plotted to slaughter his future bride with the help of a depraved Pakistani “butcher” who bragged about his skills — and even sent the officer a video of a goat’s throat being slit, the feds said yesterday.

In an online chat with Valle last year, a nut job who called himself Aly Khan said he “would love to slaughter a girl and make her meat,” according to a transcript read aloud in Manhattan federal court in testimony by FBI Agent Corey Walsh.

“I killed few goat to see what happens to the animal and how its done,” Aly Khan wrote in a typo-filled, sadistic back-and-forth with Valle, according to documents entered into evidence.





Gilberto Valle


Gilberto Valle




GRISLY: This video of a goat butchering was sent online to Gilberto Valle by an alleged co-conspirator.


GRISLY: This video of a goat butchering was sent online to Gilberto Valle by an alleged co-conspirator.





“i fond it easy. Its just to use some arm power to lay it down. tie it a little and cut its throat.”

To back this up, Kahn sent Valle a graphic YouTube video of someone slitting a goat’s throat halal-style, in an effort to educate the cop about butchery and show him that anyone can do it with a little practice.

The video is so sickening, prosecutors have been barred from showing it to the jury. Only a still picture of a knife against a goat’s throat in the moment before slaughter was entered into evidence.

Valle — who met Aly Khan on a Web site for human-meat-obsessed perverts — wrote in one chat that he was “trying to pick out a girl who i can send over” before saying “i can talk my girlfriend into going to india,” where Walsh said Aly Khan claimed to live.

“If you bring her here, i promise i will make a good meal for you,” Aly Khan wrote in January 2012 about Kathleen Mangan, the woman who would become Valle’s wife about six months later.

The butcher said he would kill Mangan as humanely as possible, adding, “i can’t resist her meat.”

“Will you participate in the slaughtering process with me,” Aly Khan asked.

“Absolutely,” Valle, 28, wrote back.

“I have longed to butcher and cook female meat.”

The two also shared twisted plans to humiliate Mangan. They would “tie her down spread eagle” and take turns raping the woman, mother to Valle’s baby daughter.

“It would humiliate her. do you have something to keep her mouth open? otherwise she will bite,” Aly Khan wrote

“Hell yes,” Valle replied.

He added, “She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on.”

While Aly Khan claimed to be a butcher in India, Walsh said the feds actually traced his IP address to an unspecified location in Pakistan.

After Valle said that his girlfriend was a vegetarian, Aly Khan remarked that “her meat quality be slightly less.” “She will taste like a tasty goat, . .” he added.










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Times ‘dead’ line








An Israeli-born Upper West Sider revealed his lifelong hatred for The New York Times — in a paid death notice that ran in The New York Times.

Retired stockbroker Amos Shuchman, 84, “loved his family, his birth and adopted countries, finance, skiing, opera, ballet and biking in Central Park,” read his Feb. 2 death notice in the Times.

But there was just one thing didn’t like.

“Loved everything about NYC, except The New York Times,” his obit read.

The dead man’s son, Daniel Shuchman, yesterday told The Post that Amos was “deeply committed to principles of individual freedom and to the security of the United States and Israel.”





PARTING SHOT: Amos Shuchman’s dislike for the Times was shown in his Feb. 2 death notice.


PARTING SHOT: Amos Shuchman’s dislike for the Times was shown in his Feb. 2 death notice.





Amos Shuchman, who was born in Tel Aviv, “fought bravely” in the Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organization. He didn’t like the Times’ coverage of Israel.

“To put it diplomatically, he did not believe that the Times provided honest and objective reporting on these and other important matters,” the son said.

The Times has been criticized by both sides for its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Still, there was a classic New York paper that Amos Shuchman did love — The Post.

“We think he is in heaven now with a New York Post and a falafel sandwich, having a good chuckle over this notoriety,” his son said.

Daniel Shuchman acknowledged that his father might not have liked his obit because he would “not have wanted to generate revenue for the Times.”

But “he would have laughed heartily at the irony and the posthumous attention the obituary is getting,’’ the son said.

Daniel Shuchman said his father had canceled his subscription to the Times years ago.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the obit was paid content and is not subject to editorial oversight.

“I thought it was sort of amusing,” she added.

poliveira@nypost.com










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Dismal show a gaffe-fest









Hey, Oscar: We saw your boob last night. His name is Seth MacFarlane.

MacFarlane’s tone-deaf, unfunny, sexist, puerile, straight-from-the-ninth-grade-locker-room “We Saw Your Boobs” routine about nekkid actresses was lower than a cockroach’s pedicure. Charlize Theron’s pained reaction shot (which was part of the act, but fitting anyway) spoke for the world: Several of the actresses MacFarlane mocked were shown in rape scenes.

Jennifer Lawrence, you weren’t the first to fall on your face last night. And the burst bathroom pipe backstage wasn’t the only thing stinking up the place.





SOUR NOTE:Oscar host Seth MacFarlane is joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe for a musical number.

WireImage





SOUR NOTE:
Oscar host Seth MacFarlane is joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe for a musical number.





MacFarlane, who was hired by first-time Oscar producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadon to bring back some life to the wax museum, instead led a night of gaffes, awkwardness and slights that concluded just as inappropriately as it began, with a surprise appearance by Michelle Obama as the Best Picture presenter.

Michelle Obama is not a neutral ceremonial personage, like the queen of England. She is a partisan political figure. Hollywood liberals, this isn’t hard: Picture how you’d have felt if the climactic moment in 1985 were handed over for the purpose of glamorizing Nancy Reagan, with a phalanx of uniformed troops grinning nervously behind her. “Creepy South American totalitarian lite vibe,” tweeted Walter Kirn, and he writes for the liberal journal The New Republic. Even President Ronald Reagan never busted in live on the Oscars, and Reagan was an actual movie star, academy member and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. (He taped a non-self-aggrandizing “enjoy the show” welcome for the March 30, 1981, Oscars — which had to be delayed because he was shot that very day.)

Off-putting moments were scattered throughout. Instead of doing a good-natured Billy Crystal-style musical salute to the nominees, MacFarlane seemed determined to show off his pipes. (Impressive, but so what? The Oscars aren’t a Seth MacFarlane concert.) It was his jokes that were off-key.

MacFarlane made a funny about Chris Brown beating Rihanna, another about Latinos with accents, and another about orgies at Jack Nicholson’s house, the place where Roman Polanski gave a little girl drugs for the purpose of raping and sodomizing her.

“Too soon?” he said, after joking that no actor ever got into Lincoln’s head like John Wilkes Booth. MacFarlane once made a joke on “Family Guy” about JFK and RFK Pez dispensers getting their heads blown off, but, no, it’s not too soon for Lincoln jokes. They just have to be funny. You know what shouldn’t be funny? The theme music the orchestra plays to nudge aside the winners. Playing “Jaws” humiliated the poor relations from the tech side.

Take away MacFarlane’s pointless, look-at-me-I-can-dance routine (again: We didn’t tune in to see Family Guy cut a rug with Harry Potter and Robin) and you’ve got a few extra seconds for each acceptance speech.

MacFarlane is a voiceover actor and writer, not a comic, and the Oscars are not the place to launch a career in live performing. Cutaways are fine on “Family Guy,” but at the Oscars, you have to build energy in the room (as he did in his best moment, the “Sound of Music” gag), not rely on taped bits.

Perhaps to cover up the sound of crickets, MacFarlane kept laughing at his own gags. This was in keeping with the self-loving motif of the evening: Producers Meron and Zadan turned the evening into an infomercial for “Chicago,” as if no one would remember they were executive producers on that film, while Best Original Screenplay winner Quentin Tarantino thanked not his handlers but himself for his own brilliance.

And those bits had arthritis. William Shatner as Capt. Kirk? Really? Sally Field probably thought she’d heard the last “Flying Nun” joke 20 years ago, and viewers under 35 must have been baffled.

Even the evening’s best moments were partially bungled. How did the memorial reel manage to leave out Andy Griffith, Richard Dawson and Larry Hagman? The Denzel Washington Best Actor clip gave away the climactic twist of “Flight.” The James Bond segment was supposed to be introduced not by Halle Berry but by all the 007 stars together — but Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan hate Bond producers and refused. Still, if you have both Shirley Bassey and Adele in the house, how can you not have them do a duet?

“Couldn’t they just have hired Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host the show?” asked William Shatner in a segment in which MacFarlane tried to head off bad reviews by predicting them. Seth, what Booth did to Lincoln you did to yourself.

Kyle.Smith@nypost.com










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Exploiting addiction









headshot

Andrea Peyser









He’s ringmaster in the Circus of the Damned.

Dr. Drew Pinsky is the nation’s leading huckster for celebrity addicts — the go-to guy for almost-famous faces lost to liquor, sex, ecstasy and crack.

Since 2008, Dr. Drew has glammed up and tarted up B- and Z-list celebs on his hit VH1 show, “Celebrity Rehab” — renamed “Rehab” last fall so as not to exclude folks who’ve yet to make it big by falling on their faces. He’s turned addiction from an affliction to a wise career move.

From Tiger Woods’ Bimbo in Chief Rachel Uchitel — self-diagnosed as addicted to inappropriate men — to plastic-surgery enthusiast Janice Dickinson, no life is too trivial or sad to exploit.





Dr. Drew and Mindy McCready

ABC via Getty Images



Dr. Drew and Mindy McCready





Thanks to the good doc, feeling powerless in the face of drugs or, who knows, compulsive, naked tweeting, are not weaknesses. He’s done more to make addiction look hip and trendy since stoned rocker Jimi Hendrix choked to death on his own vomit in 1970 at age 27.

Eight days ago, Dr. Drew lost it. With the passing of country singer and “Rehab” alum Mindy McCready (pictured with him), who died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, folks suspicious of the Rehab Industrial Complex are taking a dim look at Dr. Drew.

It’s about time.

“I think ‘Dr’ Drew Pinsky should change his name to Kevorkian. Same results,” singer Richard Marx tweeted the day McCready died Feb. 17, referring to the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who helped terminally ill patients off themselves.

Marx backed off the next morning. Sort of. “I went too far with the Kevorkian crack.” Then he continued to lay blame at Dr. Drew’s feet. “It is, however, my opinion that what Dr. D does is exploitation and his TV track record is not good.”

“Dr. Drew has lost another one,’’ was the reaction to McCready’s death from Eugene Kovar, grandfather of dead “Rehab” player Joey Kovar.

Five of Dr. Drew’s “Rehab” stars have, to date, succumbed to their demons, including actor Jeff Conaway and Rodney King. Three have died from the 2009 season alone — rocker Mike Starr of Alice in Chains was lost to a drug overdose in 2011, “Real World” star Kovar died in August from opiate intoxication, and McCready. Dr. Drew diagnosed her on the show as suffering from “love addiction.”

This is serious?

Dr. Drew is no killer. But he has reason to fail. He sits at the epicenter of the multibillion-dollar addiction industry, whose existence depends on the relapses of people he’s trying to cure.

“Whenever a celeb overdoses or has an addiction problem, buy Drew Pinsky stock. It’s good for his brand,” said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist and author who says he likes and respects the doctor.










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Man's legs sliced off after he falls into the path of subway train








Twitter.com/joeyboots


Emergency crews help a man who fell into the path of a D train in The Bronx Saturday.



A drunken man’s legs were sliced off last night when he fell into the path of a D train at a Bronx subway station, authorities said.

The man, whose name was not released, got up from a bench, staggered across the platform, and fell to the track bed at the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium stop at 9:30 p.m., said sources.

“He was drunk, he was intoxicated,” said one MTA worker. “He was sitting here and he fell down.”

Before the man could get up, a D train rushed into the station, crushing and severing both of his legs.



An ambulance rushed the man to a nearby hospital. He was expected to survive, despite his horrific injury, police said.

Subway riders captured pictures and video of the frantic scene.










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Hey, I’m a dude, Lucille








The women-only Lucille Roberts health club cluelessly peppered Alex Shiyan with text messages about a sweetheart membership deal.

Just one problem — he’s a man.

The Brooklyn resident became so fed up with the useless offer that he fired back at the fitness giant with a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court.

“1 Day Sale @ Lucille Roberts. just $5 to register and $15 a month NO CONTRACT,” read the message, according to the suit.

It also urged him to call the franchise operation’s Irvington, NJ, branch, adding, “Ask for Jessica and get a free gift when you join today!”




Shiyan’s suit cited some serious problems with the offer — most notably his gender.

He said the texts have been arriving for several months on a phone he got from the New Jersey law firm where he works in client relations.

“It’s a little funny,” Shiyan said. “I mean, I’m definitely not the target market audience, so what are you going to do? I reached out to an attorney.”

Shiyan’s proposed class-action complaint seeks damages of up to $2,000 “for each and every text” received by him and potentially “thousands” of others, along with a court order barring Lucille Roberts from sending out future unsolicited spam directly to people’s smartphones.

Shiyan, 25, and his lawyer said that they didn’t know how many texts have been sent in total and that they were still in the discovery process.

Lucille Roberts “knowingly and/or willfully” violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by using an “automatic telephone dialing system” to contact him without his permission, the suit says.

Shiyan’s lawyer, Sergei Lemberg, who runs the “Sue Spam Texters” Web site, said he was baffled by the texts.

“It’s hard to know why Lucille Roberts texted my guy. He certainly has no need for women’s fitness,” Lemberg explained.

Kevin Roberts, acting president of Lucille Roberts and a son of the late fitness guru, insisted that the company doesn’t use a mass- texting machine and texts only women “who have come in as guests” or been referred by members.

“It seems very strange,” Roberts said. “It has to be an error because we really don’t text-message men.”










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‘I want these scumbags DEAD!!!’








A heavily armed ex-con from Rockland County was busted yesterday for threatening to kill Gov. Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and a host of other politicians in a rage-filled Facebook post, police said.

“I cannot wait to start killing the scum,” Lawrence Mulqueen, 49, wrote Tuesday on Facebook.

He then named seven Democratic members of Congress, including Sen. Charles Schumer and Reps. Nita Lowey and Louise Slaughter, and warned them: “Your dirt nap is coming very soon.”

Mulqueen also named Sens. Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “every Congressional Black Caucus member there is.”





HOLY SHOOT: Police found this cache of weapons and ammo in the Nanuet home of Lawrence Mulqueen, who was busted yesterday following a Facebook rant in which he threatened to kill politicians.


HOLY SHOOT: Police found this cache of weapons and ammo in the Nanuet home of Lawrence Mulqueen, who was busted yesterday following a Facebook rant in which he threatened to kill politicians.




Lawrence Mulqueen


Lawrence Mulqueen





“I want these scumbags DEAD!!!” he added in the post. “That traitor scum, Obama subserviant eunichs, f--k them and death to them all.”

Mulqueen’s landlady, Fran Pillersdorf, read the posts and decided to call the cops.

“He is creepy, dangerous, obsessive and booze-fueled,” Pillersdorf said. “I’ve been stalking his Facebook page. I felt it got to a point where it was getting too crazy and I said enough.”

Clarkstown police arrested Mulqueen yesterday morning and charged him with making terroristic threats and possessing weapons despite criminal convictions.

The arsenal in the bedroom of his rented apartment in a Nanuet house included two rifles — one of which was loaded with six rounds — and another 94 rounds of rifle ammo, 27 of which contained armor-piercing bullets.

Cops also found a hunting knife, a metal knuckle knife and “various papers relating to guns and ‘sovereign citizen’ propaganda.”

Mulqueen evidently did not possess what he told his Facebook friends was his favorite weapon — an Italian-made Benelli semiautomatic shotgun.

“Use blades when you can to conserve bullets,” he advised his pals. “Always shoot them at 100 yards or more when you can, the further away they are the least you have to worry about.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that he notified Bloomberg about the arrest, and that the police took the threat “seriously.”

Other law-enforcement sources said Mulqueen hadn’t gotten to the point where he was about to act on his hatreds.

FBI agents “went out and talked to the guy,” said a law enforcement source. “He told the agents, ‘When I posted that stuff on Facebook, I was really drunk. But I knew you’d find me anyway.’ ”

Though Mulqueen is now being held on state charges, his case may be moved to federal court because he threatened members of Congress.

Clarkstown Police Sgt. Glenn Cummings called Mulqueen “a career petty criminal,” and said he’s been arrested previously for felony DWI, harassment and criminal contempt.

Records show Mulqueen served time in an Oklahoma prison.

Pillersdorf said she was frightened by her tenant, who she called “a mediocre self-obsessed loser” who sometimes worked as a carpenter and had lived in her house for a year.

“I was just worried this guy was nuts,” she said.

“When the booze and the hate came together it really creeped me out,” she said. “That was dangerous, especially when you throw a gun in the mix.”Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh










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Lead investigator in Pistorius case faces attempted murder charges in 2011 shooting: police








AFP/Getty Images


Detective Hilton Botha, the lead investigator in the case against Olympian Oscar Pistorius, faces attempted murder charges in a 2011 shooting, police said.



PRETORIA, South Africa — South African police say the lead investigator in the case against Olympian Oscar Pistorius faces attempted murder charges in an October 2011 shooting.

Police Brig. Neville Malila said Thursday that detective Hilton Botha is scheduled to appear in court in May on seven counts of attempted murder. Malila says Botha and two other police officers fired shots while trying to stop a mini-van in the incident.



On Wednesday, the prosecution case against Pistorius began to unravel with revelations of a series of police blunders and Botha's admission that authorities have no evidence challenging the double-amputee Olympian's claim he killed his girlfriend accidentally. Pistorius faces a charge of premeditated murder.










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Anne shines bright








In the run-up to the gala Academy Awards Sunday, Anne Hathaway makes a sparkling entrance last night in Beverly Hills at the annual Costune Designers Guild Awards. Anne is an odds-on favorite to score an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her command performance in “Les Misérables.”





Anne Hathaway

WireImage



Anne Hathaway













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NYPD sarge cuffed in child-porn case








An NYPD sergeant was arrested yesterday for watching child pornography online, cops said.

Alberto Randazzo, 36, of Queens, was charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child.

Cops wouldn’t say if the arrest came after an ongoing probe.











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Campaign at your own ‘frisk’








Democrats vying to succeed Mayor Bloomberg can expect their views toward his stop-and-frisk policy to be a key campaign issue this year, according to the leader of the nation’s most influential civil-rights group.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said his organization “will encourage every resident of the city to make stop-and-frisk one of the top issues.”

Jealous trashed the policy — which Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly credit with a major reduction in crime across the city — when he spoke at Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn yesterday.





Benjamin Jealous

Helayne Seidman





Benjamin Jealous





The NAACP will pressure the candidates to commit to ending the policy, which Jealous said is akin to “racial profiling.”

He also called Bloomberg and Kelly “villains” for expanding the practice over the past 11 years.

“We intend to ensure through every legal means that stop-and-frisk becomes a thing of the past with the next mayor of this town.”Bloomberg and Kelly say police officers do not engage in profiling when they stop, question and search suspects believed to be carrying weapons.

“In New York City, fewer young men are being killed or shot and fewer are going to jail than ever before,” City Hall spokesman John McCarthy said yesterday.

Three of the four major Democratic candidates — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson — have all said the practice should be reformed but not scrapped. Quinn has yet to take a position on a package of bills before the Council to scale back the program.

City Comptroller John Liu wants to abolish stop-and-frisk altogether.

Jealous also said he wants the next mayor to get rid of Kelly, who consistently polls higher among Democrats than any elected official.

Quinn has signaled she would keep Kelly on board if she won the race and Kelly was willing to stay.

Her competitors in the primary have not made the same commitment.

sally.goldenberg@nypost.com










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‘Private’ life of Ed








When Edward I. Koch was just a lanky 19-year-old Army draftee from The Bronx marching off to World War II, his mother, Joyce, handed him a gift.

It was a new, leather-bound, gold-leafed diary in which she inscribed: “God bless you, my son.”

Private Koch dutifully filled that diary during his days in basic training at Camp Croft, SC, in 1943. He would go on to serve with the 104th Infantry Division — the Timberwolves — landing in Cherbourg, France, in September 1944, earning two Battle Stars.

After Koch’s death on Feb. 1, his sister, Pat Thaler, discovered the journal in a dresser drawer in his West Village apartment. She glimpsed a side of Koch that neither the world nor his family had ever seen — but one that also seemed familiar. He was already a crusader against injustice, a proud Jew — and a great lover of movies.





BRAVE WORDS: Pat Thaler holds up the diary that her brother, Army Pvt. and later Mayor Ed Koch (above), kept when he went to basic training 1943.


BRAVE WORDS: Pat Thaler holds up the diary that her brother, Army Pvt. and later Mayor Ed Koch (above), kept when he went to basic training 1943.







“What struck me was that he was the same person then that he was at the end of his life,” said Thaler, 80, who agreed to share excerpts of the entries with Post readers:

* April 27, 1943

I’m tired but not dismayed. The chow (chili con carne) was terrible but I scraped the plate. It will be a long time before I’ll get used to the open latrine. The fellows in the bunk are pretty good. Mother acted fine in the station. I think that I’ll get along fine. . . . The beer stinks, it leaves a taste in my mouth.

* May 24

Had an argument with several of the boys over anti-Negro prejudice, this led to arguments over Jews and the usual line. The arguments Lee presented were very poor and ignorant. He believes the Negro is inferior because of skull structure and that man was descended from monkeys. I know that he is very biased even though he covers it up with an air of friendliness. It’s a pity that there are so few liberals in the land and so many ignorant people. I’m referring to all the bigoted individuals who make up this country.

* July 9

Patrolling today. Our object was to get out of a forest. We had to go from cover to cover. I hid behind a tree and assumed the prone position. Lt. Reed came over with the Lt. Col. and said, “Koch, on what side of a tree do you aim from,” I said, “On the right side.” He said, “So what the hell are you doing on the left side?”

* August 20

Full field inspection in the afternoon. The whole battalion set up their shelter halfs in a line and displayed equipment. it took about an hour to get everything ready for display and then the Col. merely walked swiftly up and down the aisles and glanced at the tents once in a while. It was the biggest example of a waste of time that I have ever seen in the Army.

* August 21

All week long they have called yiddy yiddy yiddy all the poor [GIs] who happen to be Jews. I couldn’t take it anymore today and when LaRue kept calling out that miserable epithet, I boiled and told him to meet me outside the supply room. I was boiling inside and the whole company was out there to watch the fight. I was beaten pretty badly — knocked down a couple of times and the Lt. wanted to stop the fight but I wouldn’t let him. Finally, he did. Strangely enough I’m not marked up which makes me feel pretty good. Even though I took the beating, I’m glad I fought.

* October 22

Went to main base and saw “Sahara.” Good but unbelievable — 10 men catching a battalion.

* October 23

One of the boys drowned in the lake. He wasn’t in for bed check yesterday nor Reveille today. They found his body down near the pier. They put the flag at half mast and played Taps. I’ve heard Taps every nite but it never sounded like this call. It just cut through everybody.

* November 5

Had double date with Madison. I took Betty Lou Carnagie. We went to AAFSAT. Had supper in the PX and saw “Flesh and Fantasy.” We made the late show 8-10. Got out at 10. We were going to miss bed check by travelling by bus so we took a cab back to Rollins $2.00.

* December 6

Went to movies, “Above Suspicion.” Grade B picture. Staying in tonight. Received package from home containing candy and rugelach plus a very handsome dog bracelet.

Postscript: Koch was called up for duty the next year, and his division helped liberate a concentration camp. He didn’t keep up the diary, but he kept reviewing movies.

gbuiso@nypost.com










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Magnolia is house of mouse









Cheese wasn’t good enough for these rodents.

The city Health Department shut down Magnolia Bakery’s flagship West Village location because of an infestation of mice, authorities said yesterday.

The popular cupcake shop, which gained fame after it was featured on “Sex and the City,” was shuttered Thursday after mouse holes and droppings were found.

“It was closed because of a mouse infestation,” confirmed Health Department spokesman Sam Miller.

“I can’t believe I came all the way from Pittsburgh for a rat-cake! Too gross!” said Dave Harshbarger, 41, though no rats were actually found.




A company spokeswoman said the mice were confined to the basement.

“Because of the flooding [from Hurricane Sandy], a lot of mice have moved inward, and that was the issue that was found in the basement,” said the spokeswoman, Sara Gramling.

She added that the bakery hoped to reopen today.

“We have had exterminators in here for the past 24 hours,” said the shop’s general manager, Eric Larios, 30.

“I used to love their vanilla cupcakes with the chocolate sprinkles,” said Leslie Hamilton, 31, who lives around the corner.

“But I don’t know. Ugh, mouse droppings? There are a lot of sprinkles on those cupcakes.”











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Meteorite falls in Russia








MOSCOW — Russian officials say a meteorite has fallen in the Chelyabinsk region some 930 miles east of Moscow.

A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry, Vadim Kolesnikov, said the Friday morning fall caused a blast that broke windows.

There were no immediate confirmed reports of injuries, but Russian news agencies cited unnamed sources as saying several people were injured at a school in a thinly populated part of the region, which is on the eastern edge of the Ural Mountains.











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Silver ‘cleared’ in Gropez case








A new report “exonerates” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of any wrongdoing in regard to the sexual-harassment allegations against Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

According to Silver’s spokesman, the report indicates that the speaker will be cleared of any legal misconduct in the ongoing investigation.

“As we have said throughout, we are confident that the commission found no legal or ethical violation by Speaker Silver or his staff and urge the Legislative Ethics Commission to release the report immediately,” said Silver spokesman Michael Whyland.

The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics yesterday passed the report about Lopez’s alleged misconduct to the Legislative Ethics Commission.




Lopez was censured last summer for harassing female staffers, two of whom received a $103,080 settlement in taxpayer funds.

Silver had approved a secret deal to keep the harassment claim against the Brooklyn politician a secret.

The payouts surfaced last August after the harassment charges against Lopez came to light.

Silver later stripped Lopez of the powerful Housing Committee chairmanship. Silver said he had been wrong to keep the transaction a secret.

A separate criminal probe into Lopez’s conduct is also under way by Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.










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Obama’s Rx is a liberal dose








WASHINGTON — President Obama confronted Congress withso his plan for a second term in last night’s State of the Union Address — demanding action on a laundry list of progressive policies that culminated with a fiery appeal for votes on tough gun-control laws.

Emboldened by his re-election, Obama showed little sign of compromise in pushing an ambitious agenda that called for new spending to boost the economy, while deriding Republican plans for cutting the deficit as “even worse” than the budget battles of his first term.

Obama told the nation that his proposals would restore American prosperity, making jobs and economic growth the focus of his presidency after four years of painfully slow recovery from recession.





FACE THE NATION: President Obama last night tells Congress and the nation of his plans to grow the economy and for “sensible” gun reform, deriding his Republican critics.

Reuters





FACE THE NATION: President Obama last night tells Congress and the nation of his plans to grow the economy and for “sensible” gun reform, deriding his Republican critics.





Still, the president declared that the country had made great progress over the last four years.

“Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our union is stronger,” Obama said.

The president offered up wide-ranging proposals tailored to his Democratic base that will likely trigger more battles with the GOP, including:

* Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour.

* Helping states expand preschool programs.

* Creating a $40 billion “Fix-It-First” program to put people to work on urgent infrastructure repairs, including nearly 70,000 unsafe bridges.

* Combating climate change with a new Energy Security Trust to spearhead research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil.

* Enacting comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for illegals.

Obama also used the occasion to announce the pullout of 34,000 troops — about half the US force in Afghanistan — by 2014.

And he condemned North Korea’s test of a miniaturized nuclear bomb and called for reduced nuclear arsenals worldwide.

The emotional heart of a speech that touched on an array of issues from immigration to trade came near the end, when Obama spoke poignantly of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old who marched in the inauguration and got shot “just a mile away from my house” just days afterward.

Obama mentioned Pendleton’s parents, who were seated with First Lady Michelle Obama, saying, “They deserve a vote.”

Obama summoned some of his stump-speech rhetoric to much applause, declaring: “Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote.”

Substantively, Obama didn’t demand much — he called expanded background checks a “sensible reform” and noted that police chiefs “are asking our help” to get “weapons of war” off the streets.

Despite calling for more “investments” in education, infrastructure and scientific research, Obama promised that “nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.”

“It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth,” said Obama.

“It was unabashed liberalism,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a newly elected Tea Party favorite after sitting glumly through much of the speech.

smiller@nypost.com










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Cops pop gun-toting teen after rooftop firefight








Cops shot an armed teenager and apprehended another man after a gunfight erupted on a Brooklyn rooftop last night, sources said.

Police said a 16-year-old male opened fire on a Brownsville rooftop at 10:13 last night. When the officers returned fire they shot him three times.

The teenager was shot once in each arm and once in the leg.

“They were just shooting blanks,” said Hennesy Mark. “They were just shooting up in the air. It’s like a cap gun.”

Cops said the gun, which was retrieved at the scene, was real. Two men were arrested.

“They took a Spanish kid out on a stretcher,” said Tina Brown, 30. “ He was alive, but he didn’t look happy.”











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