March 1, 2015
The perk of delaying Thaddeus Young's Brooklyn debut
At the end of his postgame press conference Saturday night in Dallas, Nets coach Lionel Hollins was asked if he still remembered where he lived, since his team has gone...
Unheralded Herman enjoying time in Honda Classic spotlight
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — There were a number of moments during play Sunday at the Honda Classic when little-known Jim Herman had to be thinking to himself: “This is...
Unfair condemnation of a coach overshadows real NCAA issue
When I was in college — a small school in Western Pa., coal country — Jim and Lon rented an old house on Main Street. Jim, a geology major, kept...
Two Brits will lead Monday's mad dash to finish at Honda Classic
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — It figures to be a mad dash to the finish in Monday’s completion of the Honda Classic at PGA National with eight players within three...
Lou Amundson making name for himself (not via dunks, though)
Lou Amundson sensed the moment. The Garden crowd, suffering an emotional toothache all season, was ready to explode as the Knicks were about to ice a victory against the Atlantic...
There's only one way bold Sather and Rangers win Yandle trade
A risk-reward player acquired in a risk-reward deal. That’s Keith Yandle, a substantial player, albeit with warts, acquired on Sunday by the Rangers in a go-for-broke move engineered by never patient...
The rise and fall and rise of Knicks' newest triangle hope
As a rookie in 2012-13 with Minnesota, Alexey Shved started 16 games, averaging 11.2 points and 5.9 assists with the first unit. Not bad. “I played well,” said Shved, a...
JayVaughn Pinkston's stunning decision that saved Villanova
Jay Wright got the news and immediately sought out JayVaughn Pinkston. This was four years ago last December, the coach receiving the news the school has suspended his star freshman...
The Mets' intangible that has Terry Collins predicting playoffs
PORT ST. LUCIE — The swagger is in place. That is a good thing. The first step to success is believing in yourself and your teammates. “I want a little...
With one tweak, Wheeler went from erratic to Opening Day option
PORT ST. LUCIE — Zack Wheeler is just fine with life as the “other guy” with electric stuff in this Mets rotation. In a spring training camp during which Matt...
Despite partial deafness, Michael Cuddyer OK with OF shakeup
PORT ST. LUCIE — Michael Cuddyer has barely played left field in his career, but is willing to give it a shot if it helps the Mets. Manager Terry Collins...
Proposed 'congestion pricing' for free bridges blasted at protest
Elected officials and civic leaders blasted a congestion pricing proposal Sunday that would slap tolls on all four of the city’s free East River crossings in order to reduce tolls...
Hardaway, Lance Thomas share touching Anthony Mason stories
In the wake of Anthony Mason’s passing, so many foes remember the ex-Knick’s fight, so many fans recall his ferocity. And while the tough Queens product lived up to that...
Wheeling-and-dealing Rangers trade Lee Stempniak for winger
In addition to the big deal that brought All-Star defenseman Keith Yandle to Broadway, the Rangers also made a couple of smaller moves. The Rangers traded fourth-line winger Lee Stempniak...
Why New York is missing out on America's blue-collar boom
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sparked a firestorm back in 2011 when he signed legislation that narrowed collective-bargaining rights for government workers. Now he’s shaking things up again by pledging to...
'Fairness' fallacy: The error in NYC politicians' pleas for cash
Like toddlers, New York’s politicos are obsessed with “fairness” — but it’s only “fair” when it benefits them. Last week, Mayor de Blasio went to Albany to “urge” lawmakers and...
Why Obama's Iran deal is a path to war
The Obama administration and its supporters insist that, although the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program now taking shape may not be perfect, the only alternative is war with Iran. A...
What our president should say about Islam
Good evening. I speak tonight not just to the Muslim world, but to all men and women of good will. I speak as president of a secular republic founded to...
Rangers go all-in, get Coyotes' Yandle for Duclair, Moore, picks
This was declaration day for the Rangers, a day they stated the chance to win a Stanley Cup is right now, and they’re going for it. Late Sunday afternoon, on...
'Slaughter of major proportions' feared after ISIS kidnaps 300 Christians
Authorities fear that ISIS will launch an “on-camera slaughter of major proportions” after kidnapping at least 300 Christians in Syria last week, a top US official told The Post. “What...
Yankees lack the swagger that permeated Core Four era
TAMPA — Since 1996, Joe Girardi’s first season as a Yankee and also the first year the team held camp here in George Steinbrenner’s backyard, the Yankees have reported to spring...
De Blasio mum on participation in St. Patrick's Day Parade
Mayor de Blasio will not yet commit to marching in this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade on Fifth Avenue because parade organizers are only allowing one gay group to march...
Girardi to make first A-Rod/Headley 3rd-base decision
TAMPA -- Joe Girardi wants to talk to Alex Rodriguez before deciding if Rodriguez will play in Monday’s intra-squad game at George M. Steinbrenner Field or Tuesday’s exhibition opener against...
Marching to the union's Dromm
Talk about lazy pols. Apparently, it’s not enough that City Councilman Daniel Dromm does the bidding of the teachers union. When it comes to actually carrying out the agenda, he...
Hillary 5.0
The Republicans are turning out to be a feisty bunch. Over the past few days, thousands of activists gathered just outside Washington for the annual meeting of the Conservative Political...
Indecent disclosure
Guess it depends on what you mean by “full disclosure.” Ever since former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested and indicted on corruption charges, Gov. Cuomo has stepped up his...
Ebola nurse blames hospital for infection, plans lawsuit
The first person infected with Ebola in the United States, nurse Nina Pham, said she was used for publicity purposes by her hospital, which also invaded her privacy and did...
Yankees expect Pineda to go from pine-tar laughingstock to ace
TAMPA — It has taken longer than anybody expected, but Michael Pineda is on the cusp of being the ace of the Yankees’ rotation. With CC Sabathia battling a balky right...
March begins with snow after historically cold February
ALBANY, N.Y. — Hardy souls who shivered and shoveled their way through February in the Northeast now have evidence of just how brutal the weather was, with record cold in...
Lynch hints fateful Super Bowl play was conspiracy
Marshawn Lynch's coldness to the media apparently does not extend worldwide. The reticent superstar finally opened up about the heartbreaking Seahawks defeat to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, offering his...
Walker admits flip-flop on immigration
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a presumptive 2016 Republican presidential candidate, says he has changed his immigration stance and no longer backs comprehensive reform that would allow illegal immigrants to be...
NHL player/analyst pulled from TV for Twitter rape joke
An NHL free agent, Dustin Penner had been scheduled to moonlight on TSN's "TradeCentre" on Monday, analyzing and covering the league's trade deadline. But after a few insensitive tweets, he may be...
Kerry: Give Obama 'the benefit of the doubt' in Iran nuclear talks
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration deserves “the benefit of the doubt” over a pending nuclear deal with Iran, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday, maintaining that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
50,000 march in memory of slain Putin critic
More than 50,000 protesters marched through central Moscow Sunday to honor slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was shot in cold blood just hours after he criticized Russian President Vladimir...
NBA star has surgery to fix 'facial crater' injury
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook had surgery to repair a fracture to his right cheek Saturday and the NBA's hottest player will miss at least a game. The...
Retiring Juan Pierre has one last, hilarious regret
MIAMI — Outfielder Juan Pierre announced his retirement Friday after a 14-year career in the majors that included a World Series championship with the 2003 Florida Marlins. Pierre, 37, ranks...
Manslaughter charge for teen in friend's suicide
Massachusetts prosecutors say a troubled teen took his own life after exchanging texts with a fellow student who egged him on to do it. Prosecutors from the Bristol County District...
ISIS releases at least 19 Christian captives
BEIRUT — The Islamic State group released at least 19 Christians on Sunday who were among the more than 220 people the militants took captive in northeastern Syria last week,...
'Just...f--k': Ronda Rousey dominates in 14 seconds, is not fair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UhqVgiRNU LOS ANGELES — Ronda Rousey has stopped every opponent she has faced in her meteoric mixed martial arts career, so a first-round victory is no shock for the UFC's...
MLB trailblazer dead at 90
CHICAGO -- Minnie Minoso, the seemingly ageless Cuban slugger who broke into the majors just two years after Jackie Robinson and turned into the game's first black Latino star, has...
Kevin Garnett's gift for 1,000 'unbelievable' Minnesota fans
MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin Garnett has purchased 1,000 tickets to Minnesota's next game in appreciation of Timberwolves fans for their welcome of his return to the team. The Timberwolves made the...
'SNL' blasted over ISIS sketch
"Saturday Night Live" used satire to take a shot at ISIS — and people are blasting them for it. The longtime NBC sketch comedy show sparked a Twitter frenzy early Sunday...
Teen girl accused of planning suicide bombing beaten to death
BAUCHI, Nigeria — A crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze Sunday, according to police and...
British teens seen in video at Istanbul bus station
ISTANBUL — A Turkish television station says it has obtained video showing three missing British teenagers at an Istanbul bus terminal before they boarded a bus to a city near...
Jihadi John's emails indicate he was paranoid, suicidal
The ISIS executioner known as Jihadi John was paranoid and suicidal — and called himself a “dead man walking” — as British agents trailed him in 2010, e-mails show. Mohammed...
Drunken, racist friars run amok at homeless charity: lawsuit
Forgive me, fathers, for you have sinned. Three Catholic priests who run homeless charities in Manhattan are anything but Christian behind closed doors, longtime female staffers at St. Francis Friends...
Big Brother 2.0: 160,000 Facebook pages are hacked a day
WikiLeaks, the National Security Agency, data mining — we all know Big Brother is watching. But few of us realize to what extent. Some things you might not know: Your...
Israeli mole flushed out Assad chemical weapons plot
Israel cultivated a member of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s entourage, then helped him defect, author Gordon Thomas reveals. The double agent, code-named “Hassan bin-Ali,” eavesdropped on conversations outside Assad’s office....
Terrorists eyed using Chernobyl victims as suicide bombers
For the enemies of Israel, no plot is too absurd. In “Gideon’s Spies,” author Gordon Thomas reveals that in the mid-1980s, a Palestinian group called Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade wanted to...
Terrorists using eBay and Reddit to send coded messages: Mossad
In 1999, author Gordon Thomas took readers where they had never been before — inside the clandestine world of Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad. Now, in a new 2015 edition...
Second teen sues city over teacher's alleged 'sex abuse'
Brooklyn Technical HS teacher Sean Shaynak wooed a student by giving A’s to blank papers she handed in, but he did teach her one lesson: how to seduce instructors, a...
Thugs nabbed after shooting man in front of unmarked police car
Two luckless thugs shot a man from their car Saturday in upper Manhattan, but were quickly nabbed by plainclothes cops who happened to be in their unmarked cruiser behind the...
Missing Swedish teen with Asperger's found at Penn Station
The 15-year-old Swedish tourist with Asperger’s Syndrome missing since Friday night has been found and reunited with his father, officials confirmed. Marcus Kerttu was recognized by MTA police officers at...
How Britain covered up the friendship between Hitler & Edward VIII
History has romanticized Edward VIII as the king of hearts, the man who gave up the throne for the love of an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. But the truth is...
Human biology may be wired to react to love songs
Laurel Katz-Bohen met her husband in middle school, and even in her earliest memories of him, he is playing guitar. “I remember being totally turned on by him playing at...
Behind-the-scenes scoops from John Hughes' films
"Don't you forget about me,” Simple Minds sang in their hit tune from “The Breakfast Club.” Not likely, when it comes to the movie’s director. Though John Hughes died in...
High taxes, regulations make NY dead last in freedom
The United States might be the “land of the free,” but some states are clearly freer than others. Based on a new national ranking, New Yorkers have the worst claim...
Why Disney World is the only ‘guaranteed’ vacation in America
“A day at a Disney park is unlike any other in the world,” spokesman Bryan Malenius wrote to the Orlando Sentinel upon the announcement last week that a one-day pass...
The real story behind the assassination of Julius Caesar
On Feb. 15, in the year 44 BC, Julius Caesar, the all-powerful ruler of Rome, visited a soothsayer named Spurinna, who “predicted the future by examining the internal organs of...
Shocking report exposes neglect & abuse at Head Start schools
One teacher bit a child. One smacked a kid with a belt. Another wielded a vacuum cleaner to frighten tots. Two others put a child’s training diapers over his clothes...
City shells out $20M over kids' playground injuries
Merry-go-ouch! Injuries on city playgrounds cost taxpayers $20 million in the last decade — with parents filing 577 claims against the Parks Department, a comptroller report reveals. The personal injury...
Fish Mooney may earn the nickname 'Ol’ Blue Eye’ on 'Gotham’
1. "The Last Man on Earth" Sunday, 9 p.m., Fox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXhYZYL9LKw Ex-“SNL”-er Will Forte (“Nebraska”) created and stars in this sitcom that’s set in the year 2020 — where Phil...
ISIS beheader 'Jihadi John' was once a 'lovely boy'
“Jihadi John,” the ISIS savage infamous for beheading innocent captives, was once a “lovely, lovely boy,” a former teacher says. But the unidentified teacher, who worked at London’s Quintin Kynaston...
Russia blames model, Islamic extremism for Putin foe's murder
Russian officials are serving up preposterous motives in the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov as tens of thousands of his supporters plan to march Sunday in his memory. Kremlin...
Derek Fisher: Knicks can learn from Mason's on-court toughness
Anthony Mason died Saturday morning, almost two decades after he last played for the Knicks. But as the organization mourns the late Mason’s life, they also can learn from him....
Top cop's winter advice — moisturize!
A top cop in Harlem is urging New Yorkers to say no to crack — by improving their skincare regimen.
Yankees turn to Cowboys for dose of inspiration
TAMPA — Cowboys head coach and former NFL quarterback Jason Garrett spoke to the Yankees Saturday when rain forced the workouts to be held indoors at George M. Steinbrenner Field....
Flu-ridden student kept in psych ward six days: suit
A Syracuse University student with a bad cold was locked in a hospital psych ward for six days and treated like a patient in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,”...
Teacher who lied for vacation busted after Facebook boasts
Some teachers never learn. Brooklyn guidance counselor Mindy Robinson lied about having dental work so she could celebrate her birthday on a tropical beach. Then she boasted about the ruse...
Smokey buildings menacing Columbus Avenue luxury tenants
Thick plumes of noxious black smoke are terrorizing tenants in a luxe apartment building a block from Central Park. “This impacts the health of hundreds of people,” raged Steven Katsman,...
Gregorius' biggest challenge — and it's not replacing Jeter
TAMPA — Didi Gregorius is more than a month away from his first costly error as a Yankee. Nobody knows if he can hit lefty pitching enough to stay away...
Donald Trump fighting for domain name of future development
The Donald’s been trumped. The real-estate titan is poised to develop a luxury housing complex in Dubai called Trump Estates, but doesn’t own the TrumpEstates domain name. A Trump Organization...
Cherry king's secret pot farm likely made millions: expert
“Cherry King” Arthur Mondella was likely making millions of dollars from his secret pot-growing farm, according to an expert in the city’s illicit ganja trade — former pot farmer and...
Rand Paul wins CPAC straw poll for third year in row
For the third year in a row on Saturday, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky Saturday won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker...
Netanyahu still has 'respect' for Obama on eve of trip
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on the eve of his controversial trip to Washington that he still has “respect” for President Obama. “I want to take this opportunity to...
'Threatening' city teacher won't lose his job
A Staten Island teacher wrote a “veiled threat” on his blackboard, told a co-worker he owned a handgun, and spoke of buying bullets on the Internet and bringing the weapon...
Anthony Mason remembered for his buzz-worthy hair trends
He carved out a legacy. For decades, Queens barber Freddy Avila, 53, crafted ex-Knick Anthony Mason’s signature buzz cuts — popularizing a New York City trend and helping define the...
Anthony Mason was the heart of New York basketball
He had shoulders that seemed to stretch from the corner of 33rd and Seventh Avenue to the West Side Highway. Anthony Mason stood defiantly in the lane alongside Patrick Ewing...
Dear John: Gas tax hike a smokin’ idea
Dear John: A higher gasoline tax, as you proposed, is a terrible idea. The government should have to prove through audits that it is spending and using its current income...
Daily Blotter
Brooklyn Someone stole over $22,500 in jewelry and electronics from a Brooklyn Heights apartment, police sources said. The burglary occurred between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Schermerhorn...