Rangers’ roster still a muddle after preseason loss to Devils

The Rangers have problems more than decisions, and that was something coach Alain Vigneault was open to admit.

Following the preseason finale on Saturday night at the Prudential Center, a dreary 3-0 loss to the Devils, Vigneault remained bewildered concerning who to keep on his roster and who to let go in anticipation of the regular-season opener, this coming Thursday in St. Louis. And in hopes of having some players separate themselves from the pack, what Vigneault got instead were performances that left him scratching his head.

"You know what it was like?" he asked afterward. "It was like the last game of exhibition, that's what it was like."

The biggest problem has become how to fill the center position, where the loss of top pivot Derek Stepan to a broken left leg has created a domino effect more drastic than could have been imagined. It is a sentiment that Vigneault, in a glairing bit of honesty, confirmed.

"We've got issues in the middle right now," he said, shaking his head.

Vigneault said at some point on Sunday, he would get together with general manager Glen Sather, the rest of the management staff and the rest of the coaches, and make some hard decisions to be announced Monday. The first decision would be whether to put Stepan on long-term injured reserve, thus keeping him out for the first 10 games of the season, when the proposed timeline of four-to-six weeks could bring him back as early as the seventh game.

Vigneault said he is "leaning towards" the long-term list, thus temporarily clearing Stepan's $3.075 million salary-cap hit and enabling the coach to keep 14 forwards for the time being and help him "sort out" what is a very muddied picture.
"We have some possibilities," he said, "and they all depend on what we do with Step."

The issue at center was not helped by a mediocre game by Matt Lombardi, his first game since the preseason opener last Monday after suffering a groin injury. And if Lombardi might have been in the lead for that fourth center spot, he was outplayed on this night by Chris Mueller.

"I think everybody is trying their best," Vigneault said. "You can only give what you have. I think Mueller gave us a real honest effort. I thought Lombardi, for a guy that hadn't played in camp, tried his best tonight. We have to sort out if those guys help us, or if we're better off putting somebody else in the middle."

The experiment of Martin St. Louis switching to center was not ruled out, Vigneault said, even though it didn't work out extremely well in its first attempt Friday night.

It also hasn't been ruled out that 19-year-old winger Anthony Duclair might find his way onto the roster, even after what was his least impressive performance of the preseason and the contractual conundrum that keeping him would create. The organization is already at their 50-contract limit, so they would have to clear one – either by having someone get claimed on waivers or making a trade for no pro contract in return – in order to have Duclair play in the NHL. (His age also makes him ineligible for the AHL.)

Yet in true coach-speak, Vigneault didn't find that to be a problem.

"I think if we want him to stay, we're going to find a way to make it happen," Vigneault said. "Those things are going to sort themselves out."

All of the tough decisions will be made — because they have to — but if the problems are solved another question. When asked if he has a good feeling about who he was going to keep now that the preseason schedule is over, all Vigneault could do was rub his chin, wait, and smile wryly.

"I don't know," he said.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Henry’s goal gives Red Bulls win over Houston Dynamo

Thierry Henry sent home a deflected shot in the 47th minute to help the Red Bulls beat the Houston Dynamo 1-0 on Saturday at Red Bull Arena.

The Red Bulls (11-9-11) entered the game in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, holding onto the final playoff spot.

Red Bulls star Bradley Wright-Phillips was held scoreless for consecutive matches for the first time since April. He had a blocked shot fall to him at the top of the 6-yard box in the 23rd minute, but his left-footed attempt hit off the crossbar. His open header in the 56th minute sailed over the crossbar and his breakaway in the 60th minute was saved by Tyler Deric.

Houston (10-14-6) fell to 0-8-3 at Red Bull Arena.

The Red Bull's Tim Cahill received a straight red card in the 88th minute for a rough tackle of Oscar Garcia.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Medical center food isn’t good enough for this obese sex offender

Talk about a big crybaby.

A 560-pound former pimp and convicted sex offender called The Post to whine about his taxpayer-funded stay at a Queens medical center — saying his bed was too small and the food is scanty and bland.

Kenneth Harvey, 58, says the Peninsula Center for Extended Care and Rehabilitation in Far Rockaway has made his five-month stay a "bad dream."

Kenneth Harvey says his body "literally bends the mattress like an accordion."

"My body is literally bending the mattress like an accordion," Harvey said in his private room, which costs Medicaid and Social Security up to $10,000 a month.

"A lot of times when they bring a meal up here, almost nothing is on the plate," he said. "There might be lettuce and tomatoes and two pieces of bread. That's what they call lunch."

The supersized slacker, who was once 700 pounds, said he griped to the state Health Department and Queens Legal Aid to no avail.

Maybe the heavyset hustler's own past came back to bite him.

Harvey admits he used to own an escort service.

He was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in 1994, and was sentenced to four to eight years in prison, the state sex offender registry says. The charge was for a violent attack on a woman at the Pickwick Arms Hotel on East 51st Street in Manhattan in 1993.

Authorities in New Jersey separately accused him of stalking and harassing his victim so she wouldn't testify. Harvey said the charge was dropped.

Harvey is receiving medical treatment for his obesity at the Peninsula Center for Extended Care and Rehabilitation.

Harvey says his apartment in Brooklyn burned in 2013. He lived on the streets for a while and panhandled at Grand Central Terminal. Eventually, he was hospitalized with pneumonia.

A social worker at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick, Brooklyn, set him up at Peninsula.

"It's a rehab place and also a long-term home for you until you lose enough weight to get back on your feet," the social worker told him.

"I'm the heaviest guy here in the home. Nobody is nearly as heavy as me," Harvey said.

"A lot of people don't like people as heavy as me," he whined.

Harvey says Peninsula's staff is slow to respond to his requests for pain medication or to empty his urine bottle.

"I have to wait three hours for medication here," he said. "I am in pain from not being in a proper bed.

"I'm being verbally abused by everybody.

"Depression can do a lot of things. It can happen to anybody."

He has no money. The hospital takes the $800 per month he gets from Social Security, he says.

Harvey hopes a lawyer will help him sue the home.

On Friday, The Post observed as nursing-home staff set up a bigger bed.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Even museums won’t take Banksy’s art — for free

Banksy's a bust!

Artworks by the British graffiti artist during his NYC tour last year are selling so poorly, even the Brooklyn Museum won't take one for free!

One of Banksy's popular pieces featuring a balloon heart.Photo: EPA

Banksy embarked on a surprise, one-month tour last October, leaving the city littered with free artwork, from a mini-Sphinx recreated with cinder blocks and Styrofoam in Willets Point, Queens, to a painting of a balloon heart on a factory wall in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

"People were basically seeing dollar signs," said Joseph Gross Gallery director Casey Gleghorn, whose gallery repped a truck-door piece from the NYC tour with "The grumpier you are, the more assh—s you meet" written across it.

Two big pieces repped by Manhattan's Keszler Gallery — the balloon-heart wall and a spray-painted car door — failed to sell in Miami in February, despite a $250,000 offer on the balloon and $145,000 for the car door. They had wanted between $400,000 and $600,000 and up to $300,000 respectively.

"It gave the impression that Banksy's market was weak, but people were just asking too much for them. People were getting greedy," said Gleghorn.

Banksy's artwork entitled "Winnie the Pooh."Photo: EPA

Stephan Keszler of Keszler Gallery is now slashing the prices of his four NYC Banksy pieces — which include the Sphinx from a side street behind Citi Field and the "grumpy" truck door — for the Art Silicon Valley fair next week. He quotes $300,000 for the Sphinx, high $200,000s for "grumpy," $425,000 for the balloon wall and $200,000 for the car door.

Dealing with the post-Banksy frenzy was "overwhelming," said Cara Tabachnick, whose family owns the East Williamsburg building on Graham Avenue where Banksy painted two geishas.

Her family approached the Brooklyn Museum to offer it to them for free — although the museum would have to cover removal costs — but never heard back after museum staff visited. "They, I guess, decided it wasn't worth it," said Tabachnick.

To protect the painting, the building owners covered it with plexiglass and then a roller door on top. Art lovers must ask the shop staff at the opticians on the ground floor to let them have a peek.

A specialist in preservation and an art auctioneer are both expected to visit the piece to see whether they should try removing the wall — which would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Tabachnick reckons her piece could be worth up to $650,000. "We have a real sense of pride and excitement around the piece . . . Doesn't mean we know what to do with it," she said.

One roller door that Banksy emblazoned with a fake Plato quote was repped by Keszler Gallery, but the owner of the Greenpoint store where the work was done has taken it off the market and put it in storage.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rutgers holds off Michigan for first Big Ten victory

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers got its first-ever Big Ten victory Saturday night, and beleaguered Michigan coach Brady Hoke got another nail in the coffin of his tenure in Ann Arbor. In front of a raucous sellout crowd, the Scarlet Knights gutted out a 26-24 win that was far more hard work than work of art, but they will take it.

The Knights appeared on the verge of another fourth-quarter collapse, similar to their league debut against Penn State. But this time, they held on in front of 53,327, the third-largest in High Point Solutions Stadium history. The crowd stormed the field after a landmark win that could cost jobs half a country away.

When the Wolverines arrived in Piscataway, Hoke was on the hot seat, and Michigan was facing protests and national PR nightmares after quarterback Shane Morris was allowed to re-enter their Sept. 27 game against Minnesota while concussed. Students earlier this week marched on the school president's house demanding the firing of Hoke and the resignation of the athletic director. Saturday's loss won't quiet the fervor.

In its debut season in the Big Ten, Rutgers (5-1, 1-1) has been one of the league's better stories, while the Wolverines (2-4, 0-2) are without question the worst. They not only lost three games by the end of September for the first time in program history, but made national news for the Morris gaffe, a decision that could cost Hoke his job.

Rutgers senior quarterback Gary Nova — who was benched late last year and was booed by the home fans in that five-interception loss to Penn State on Sept. 13, gave coach Kyle Flood a great reward for his faith, and gave those fans something to cheer. Nova went 22-of-39 for a career-high 404 yards, three touchdowns and no turnovers.

His second scoring strike of the day was a 7-yard pass to John Tsimis for a 19-17 halftime lead. He later hit Andrew Turzilli for a 14-yarder to make it 26-17 with 13:12 left in the game.

Michigan quarterback Devin Gardner (11-of-18 for 178 yards) had been benched in favor of Morris, but got his starting job back after the concussion. Gardner ripped off a 19-yard TD run, freezing Lorenzo Waters with a pump fake and running through another arm tackle for the second of his two scores to cut the Rutgers lead to 26-24.

As time ran down in the fourth quarter, Michigan drove to the Rutgers 39, but on third-and-9 Gardner's pass to Andrew Dorbah was ruled incomplete, and replay confirmed the call on the field. And when Michigan opted to try s 56-yard field goal with 3:07 left, Kemoko Turay rose to block Matt Wile's attempt, the redshirt freshman's third blocked kick of the year.

That sealed the win for the Scarlet Knights.

For the second straight week, Nova connected with Turzilli for a long touchdown. After the two hooked up for a 93-yard TD against Tulane last week, this time Turzilli got wide open on a deep post for an 80-yard score in the second quarter.

Rutgers actually got the point after blocked, and led just 12-10. After getting the ball back with that lead, Flood gambled on a fake punt on fourth-and-10 from his team's own 45, and it nearly came back to bite him.

The fake failed — a Michael Burton pass back to punter Tim Gleeson went for a 2-yard loss — to give the Wolverines a short field, and they cashed in with De'Veon Smith's 1-yard TD plunge.

But with Rutgers down 17-12 with 1:43 left in the half, Nova worked the clock like a shrewd hourly employee. He drove the Knights 75 yards in 11 plays, including video reviews on Tsimis' 12-yard toe-tapping catch on sideline and another on his 7-yard touchdown grab. On the play, Nova evaded a sack by defensive end Frank Clark and rifled the ball into a tight window with just 22 seconds remaining before halftime.

Safety Jonathan Aiken — who had been suspended for the first half for a targeting infraction in last week's game — came on at halftime to bolster the defense, and Nova added a touchdown to Turzilli on a third-and-goal from the 14, pushing the lead to 26-17 with 13:12 to play.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man who lunged at cops with knife was shot down

A Brooklyn man was shot by cops after lunging at officers with a knife inside his Sheepshead Bay home Friday night, authorities said.

Police sources say Denis Volchkin, 28, of East 26th Street, tried to stab officers with a kitchen knife after his mother called the cops on him twice on Friday afte domestic disputes.

Pilipenko first called police shortly after 5 p.m., telling them there had been a disturbance at her home involving her son.

"There were three cop cars in front of their house around 5:45 p.m.," said neighbor Barbara Lamassa. "They left minutes later and I didn't think anything of it."

The mom told responding officers there had been an incident with her son, but he had left the residence before police arrived.

About two hours later at 7:25 p.m., cops were called back to the Sheepshead Bay home for another dispute, this time involving a knife, according to a police source.

As officers made their way upstairs, Volchkin caught cops off-guard and lunged at them with a knife, causing one officer to shoot him in the left side of his torso, according to authorities.

Volchkin was taken to Coney Island Hospital in serious condition, authorities said. Two responding officers were taken to Lutheran Hospital for observation.

Four knives were recovered at the scene, according to a law enforcement source at the scene.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stock market soars on strong job numbers

An increase of 248,000 jobs last month took the unemployment rate below 6 percent for the first time since July 2008 and sent the three major stock indices up more than 1 percent.

The government, which on Friday released its September report, attributed the unemployment rate's decline by 0.2 percentage points during the month to gains in professional and business services, retail trade and health care.

"It was a pretty good report," said Joseph Foudy, a business professor at New York University. "The fact that job growth was in a range of sectors tells you it's not just a one- or two-industry story."

The employment figures for July and August were also revised upward, adding 69,000 jobs. The revision boosted the average number of job increases for the past three months to 224,000. And for the 12 months prior to September, employment growth averaged 213,000 jobs per month.

Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, called the revisions "very good news" in that they indicate job formation has been doing better than previously indicated.

The gains weren't just limited to service industries but spread throughout the private sector "where you'd hope to see them," Cappelli added.

The month also saw the number of unemployed decrease by 329,000, to 9.3 million, which reduced the year-over-year unemployment rate by 1.3 percentage points and the number of unemployed by 1.9 million.

Investors responded by sending the Dow Jones industrial average up 1.24 percent, to close at 17,009.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.12 percent, to close at 1,967.90, while the Nasdaq climbed 1.03 percent, to 4,475.62.

The report wasn't completely trouble free, however.

The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — held steady at 3 million.

"It's going to be tough for them to get back in even when the economy improves," Foudy said. "Some will give up the search and retire, which does bring down the unemployment but for all the wrong reasons."

Another indicator of economic slackness was a 1-cent decline in average hourly earnings, to $24.53.

"Wages won't start rising until the labor market tightens up," said Harry Holzer, a former Labor Department chief economist who teaches public policy at Georgetown University. "But with monthly job increases of 250,000 or so, that's not going to happen until next year."

The economy, meanwhile, should continue to improve at a pace Holzer called "slow and steady."

The lingering slackness suggests the Fed may not raise interest rates as soon as conventional wisdom has it.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Bored teacher’s bomb threat joke backfires

A bored-to-death city teacher sent his wife a joke text Friday, playfully begging her to call in a bomb threat to save him from a monotonous meeting — but she misread the message and sent the cops to his East Harlem school.

The man, whose first name is Eric, had been sitting in a morning town-hall meeting at Renaissance Charter HS for Innovation, a fellow instructor told The Post.

Teachers typically run through the day's events during such meetings. This one apparently wasn't lively enough for Eric, who started text messaging his wife about his bad case of boredom.

Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation.Photo: Brigitte Stelzer

"Call in a bomb threat," he wrote, according to police sources.

His wife zeroed in on the B-word — overlooking the "haha" he tacked on in the next message.

She called the cops, reporting a bomb threat at the school, which shares a building with three other charter schools at 410 E. 100th St., police sources said.

Only after the wife hung up did she notice her hubby's "haha." She phoned the cops again to call it off — but it was too late.

Police told her they needed to look into the matter anyway, law-enforcement sources said.

Eight uniformed police officers showed up at the high school at around 9:50 a.m. asking to speak with the texting teacher.

"It was meant to be a joke. It was misconstrued, and, boy, oh, boy, before we knew it, there were cops here," said the school's executive director, Stephen Falla Riff.

Staffers were taken by surprise.

"They tell us that a bomb threat has been called in. We hadn't heard anything about that," Falla Riff recalled.

Executive Director Stephen Falla Riff.Photo: Brigitte Stelzer

The cops questioned Eric for "some time," he said.

"The NYPD was satisfied it was a joke," Falla Riff said. "If they thought there was any doubt whatsoever, my guess is that he would be in cuffs right now."

They left without searching the school or making any arrests.

Staff had to call up students' parents to explain it was just a false alarm with no actual threat.

Falla Riff said he would wait until Monday to decide whether Eric should be reprimanded.

"We're really committed to due process," he said. "Any outcome will be based on the facts."

Additional reporting by Kathleen Culliton, Dana Sauchelli and Aaron Short.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thieves sneak off with goods from ‘Madam Secretary’ set

This would never have happened on Hillary's watch!

Two laptops and assorted other items valued at $17,800 were swiped on Friday from the set of "Madam Secretary" in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — even as the cameras rolled for the new CBS show starring Téa Leoni as the secretary of state.

Two thieves sneaked off with the Apple MacBook Pros — one a 15-inch, the other a 17-inch — along with a black knapsack at around 1 p.m. inside Broadway Stages studios on Kingsland Avenue, sources told The Post.

They also made off with a hard drive and what cops would only describe as "assorted tools," including a "cable tester." Sony headphones and a Wi-Fi hot spot were also taken.

Luckily, there were cameras rolling at the time. The crooks were caught on surveillance video and two male "persons of interest" — outsiders believed to have been lurking around the studios — have been identified.

Police did not immediately release a description of the two sticky-fingered interlopers.

No arrests had been made by Friday night, sources said. It was not known if Leoni was present at the time of the thefts.

The 48-year-old blue-eyed beauty portrays Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA agent and newly appointed Secretary of State who juggles international crises and a fracturing family.

Broadway Stages has been host to numerous film and TV productions recently, including "Smash" and "The Good Wife."

Friday's set theft comes on the heels of another Brooklyn set-turned-crime scene. On September 2, $15,000 in Apple electronics was swiped during shooting for the upcoming Warner Brothers flick "The Intern."

That theft happened on the street, at the corner of Cheever Place and Degraw Street in Cobble Hill, during filming for the comedy vehicle with Anne Hathaway, who plays an online fashion editor, and Robert De Niro, who plays a 70-year-old widower and Hathaway's senior intern.

In that heist, 17 iPads, iPad minis, iPhones and MacBook Pros were taken, police said at the time. Warner Brothers Pictures Inc. was listed on the paperwork as the victim. That theft has yet to be solved, officials said.

Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Job numbers favor Democrats

Advantage, Democrats — unless the 248,000 new jobs in September suddenly force Republicans to go on the offensive.

I will explain in a second what the Republicans' next move could be.

But first, you may have read that the Labor Department on Friday, in its last jobs report before the mid-term elections, revealed that job growth and the unemployment rate both improved nicely in September — in fact, better than I expected.

That's going to make the Republican battle to take over the Senate a lot harder because issue No. 1 with Americans is the economy.

Jobs = votes.

In addition to the unexpectedly strong job growth, the unemployment rate broke through the 6 handle — and you can bet that 5.9 percent rate will be in quite a few Democrats' campaign ads in the coming weeks.

Voters probably won't hear the second part of Labor's message — that the unemployment rate went down largely because 315,000 more people left the workforce in September.

What's a Republican to do?

Well, Republicans could look more closely at the numbers — as I've been suggesting for a long time.

Here are some stats on that point. The unemployment rate has declined 1.3 percentage points over the past year. The number of Americans who are defined as being in the labor force over that same period of time dropped by 0.5 percentage points.

In other words, a lot of the drop in the unemployment rate occurred because Americans have left the labor force — given up looking for work — and not because the job market has improved.

See how long it took for me to explain that?

It clearly won't fit nicely into a campaign ad.

So, let's get back to the unemployment rate for a second. I've been investigating the manipulation of the jobless rate for the last year — not by Labor but by people at the Census Bureau who compile the data that go into this statistic.

There's already been an investigation by the Census Bureau's Inspector General (IG), the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

To prevent fraud, the IG recommended significant changes in the way data for the unemployment rate are collected. And the Oversight/Joint Economic Committee report confirmed that surveys of jobless people were being fabricated at the Census Bureau's Philadelphia office.

Another Census supervisor — this one from the Denver region — has come forward and told Congress, as well as Commerce, that data were being falsified in that part of the country.

The House Oversight Committee, which was given that information within the last week, is controlled by Republicans. So, does the issue of falsified data suddenly have its big day before the election?

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More