New sitcom is ‘Better’ left unsaid

Backhanded compliments, 101: I like James Van Der Beek and Zoe Lister-Jones in "Friends With Better Lives" — but that's about the most enthusiasm I can muster for this new CBS sitcom, premiering Monday night after the one-hour series finale of "How I Met Your Mother."

The set-up here finds Will (Van Der Beek) — a wisecracking pediatrician (who apparently never shaves) going through a rough patch in his marriage. He's living with his best friend/medical partner Bobby (Kevin Connolly) and Bobby's wife Andi (Majandro Delfino) in their suburban home. Bobby and Andi are your standard bored-with-each-other married couple — the type we've seen on sitcoms 10,567 times before. Their only mutual attraction is their shared passion for "Homeland" (which, wink, wink, airs on CBS sister network Showtime). Andi uses two breast pumps to feed their young child (are you laughing yet?) and the couple forgets their own anniversary. Oh, and their sex life, or lack thereof, is discussed loudly and often. You've seen and heard it all before. Many, many times.

The group also includes snarky, judgmental single friend Kate, played by the aforementioned Lister-Jones, who gets the best lines and knows how to fire off a zinger. And then there's Jules (Brooklyn Decker), the blond, busty, perpetually-in-love ditz who thinks she's finally found "The One" in New Age-y Australian boyfriend Lowell (Rick Donald).

If anyone considers "Better Lives" the heir apparent to "HIMYM" — as a cornerstone of CBS' Monday-night comedy lineup — I would seriously disagree. "Better Lives" lacks the ensemble chemistry and clever writing of "HIMYM," and seems content to rely on a non-stop barrage of sophomoric sex jokes and double entendres:

Bobby: "How do you sleep with somebody 'by mistake?' "

Andi (sheepishly): "I accidentally sat on a carrot once."

That, combined with a noisy, hyperactive laugh track, results in an annoying 22 minutes.

Consider yourself warned.

("Friends With Better Lives" will move to its regular 8:30 p.m. timeslot on Monday, April 7.)

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

One man’s quest to leap off Mount Everest on live TV

Joby Ogwyn isn't exactly intimidated by Mount Everest: in 1999, at age 24, he was the youngest person to climb to the summit — and he's climbed the world's tallest peak twice since.

So how do you up the adrenaline factor when you've already climbed to the top of the world?

You jump off of it.

Ogwyn is aiming to be the first person to throw himself off the mountain in a wing suit — a sort of strap-on parachute — and while he's soaring at 150 miles per hour back down to base camp you'll be able to watch it live on TV.

It's the first jump of its kind.

Ogywn will strap on a specially made suit that will allow him to glide — weather permitting — for about 10 minutes 10,000 feet down and (hopefully) land safely more than 5 miles away.

The event will air live in a two-hour special on the Discovery Channel in May (the exact date will be announced closer to the feat), with the live jump captured courtesy of a camera strapped to Ogwyn's wing suit. Camera operators will also be stationed at the Everest summit, base camp and along the mountain.

"You feel like Superman," Ogwyn, 39, tells The Post, describing the wing suit experience. "And you get to go up and do it again and again."

The custom-made suit is smaller than a typical wing suit, tailored to the exact needs of Ogwyn's jump. It's got less surface area so he can move faster, and it lets his arms and legs move freely so he can operate different parts of his equipment.

"What I need is a smaller, sleeker suit that's more like a rocket," he says.

Ogwyn and his team are meticulously planning the jump to take into account factors like weather and wind. Still, much of his fate will be in his own hands. He's had lots of practice in the wing suit, including jumping out of an airplane, flying around the four faces of the Matterhorn and flying near Mount Everest.

"For me, it's just a matter of being able to share it with the world," he says.

The experience of soaring like a bird is so intense, Ogwyn can only do it so many times in a row so his brain can cope with all the sensory overload.

"You're seeing something you shouldn't be able to see," he says. "It's really hard to process. It takes a day or two."

Ogwyn, a Louisiana native who now lives in Southern California, has been climbing mountains since he was 15, when he scaled a volcano in Guatemala. After that, he started checking off the highest peaks in the seven continents (known as the Seven Summits).

He's done other televised adventuring, including a stint working with National Geographic for its "Adventure Wanted" series, which saw him racing stock cars, riding a bull and learning how to BASE jump. That's where he got the idea for the Everest jump.

But even though he's done Everest a few times, he doesn't take its majesty for granted. "It's a really powerful place," he says of the summit. "It's a very tiny, tiny little place that you work long and hard a long time to get [to].

"It's the most amazing piece of real estate in the world."

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Robots scamming the little investors: book

Robots aren't just taking your jobs, they're stealing your profits on stock trades, too.

The stock market has been rigged by a group of tech-savvy insiders who are using super-computers to game trades at the expense of normal investors, journalist Michael Lewis charges in his new book, "Flash Boys."

The high-tech traders have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to roll out computer networks with high-speed fiber-optic connections that can quickly detect when investors place orders to buy stocks, according to the new book, which hits shelves this week.

The robots' high-speed networks allow them to buy the stocks milliseconds in advance — enough time to push up the price for the investor that had made the original order.

"They're able to identify your desire to, to buy shares in Microsoft and buy them in front of you and sell them back to you at a higher price," Lewis said. "The speed advantage that the faster traders have is milliseconds … fractions of milliseconds."

The villains are a "combination of these stock exchanges, the big Wall Street banks and high-frequency traders" who are bagging billions every year with the practice, Lewis said in an interview Sunday with "60 Minutes."

The victims, Lewis adds, are "everybody who has an investment in the stock market."

The author of Street classic "Liar's Poker" said the high-tech tactics were deciphered by Brad Katsuyama, a former trader at the Royal Bank of Canada, who has begun a new exchange, IEX, that promises to level the playing field by creating a "speed bump" for the high-frequency robots. Among IEX's investors is Greenlight Capital, run by David Einhorn.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Understanding—and preventing—suicide

The US/UK financial industry has seen eight high-profile suicides in 2014, and it's only March. You can see why Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and nearly two dozen banks and other financial firms have joined the City Mental Health Alliance, a London-based group trying to improve the mental well-being of financial professionals.

Some banks are also reportedly forcing junior employees to take a day off every once in a while, in hopes this may improve their mental health.

There is plenty of reason to praise these efforts, but the fact of the matter is that we have no idea what caused these men to kill themselves.

Sure, the narratives seem simple enough: High-pressure job leads to too much stress leads to. . . well, you know. But the truth of the matter, Sally Satel points out, is that someone in the next office over has the exact same problems and doesn't kill himself.

Satel, a psychiatrist and lecturer at Yale, says that with suicide, there's "a lethal alchemy that takes place." In other words, we're not going to prevent suicide with "small tweaks to a person's schedule."
Nationwide, suicide rates have been trending upward in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose almost 30 percent from 1999 to 2010.

But these things go in cycles, says Jennifer Michael Hecht, the author of "Stay: A History of Suicides and the Philosophy Against It." Suicide rates were actually lower for all age groups in 2002 than in 1970, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health.

And the "why" is rarely clear. Just as many blame heartless capitalism for the deaths of those bankers, so others assume that the recent spike in military suicides recently is the result of trauma that our soldiers have experienced on the battlefield.

Yet Satel has long suggested that "post-traumatic stress syndrome" is an overused diagnosis. In the suicides of military personnel and veterans, she says, there is often something "more mundane" at work: Problems fitting in with one's family upon returning home is a big issue, as are high rates of unemployment.

As for the rising national rate, Hecht thinks one problem is our modern understanding of depression. Hecht, who has a PhD in the history of science, notes that the idea of depression as a biological problem is a fairly new one — and thus often the one we focus on. But, while she has no doubt that chemical issues in the brain affect people's dispositions, she doesn't want us to overlook a lot of cultural factors.

Not least of which, she says, is the common belief that with enough material goods, we should all be happy. So if you're not living a happy life, you wind up thinking there must be something wrong with you. Says Hecht:
"We are not talking [enough] about how hard life is supposed to be."
In fact, she notes, "There are lots of ways of dealing with extraordinary misery. Staying in bed and weeping is one of them."

And when people talk about suicide as a way to stop "being a burden" on others, Hecht says that they could use a little philosophy: "We're human beings. We are all burdens!"

But what can we do to help?

Thinking too broadly about these issues may blind us to the kind of small-bore treatments that people often need. For instance, many patients who are depressed become overwhelmed as a result of sleep deprivation, Satel reports. She says probably between a third to half of all depression cases can be resolved if sleep problems can be resolved. A recent study at Ryerson University in Toronto found that curing insomnia in depressed people makes it twice as likely that they get past the depression.

Hecht has another thought.

In researching her book, she looked at "suicide clusters," where people in a particular group — like farmers in the 1970s — seemed to be killing themselves at higher rates. On the one hand, it probably had something to do with the economic stresses on farming at the time. On the other, she says, you also had people copying each other. "When people see someone like them respond to a life that is hard and miserable by killing themselves," they'll consider the same "solution." In the wake of Marilyn Monroe's death, there was a significant uptick of women in the same age bracket overdosing on pills.

Hecht believes that simply telling people about these patterns in society may influence their behavior. She asks: "Do you really want to die by [jumping on] a trend?"

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Magazines make first pitch for Opening Day

Can we finally put away the snow shovels and winter coats and get the lawn mowers and summer clothes out of storage? We hope so, because baseball season is under way!

Athlon Sports' 200-page preview issue is the best of show this year, narrowly edging out the competition by offering fans not just the in-depth stats that fans demand, but humor and insider stuff as well. Plus, and this point can't be overstated, Editor Mitchell Light appears to have produced a yearbook that doesn't completely suck up to MLB boss Bud Selig — writing about the steroid issue and that Selig appears to be holding one team hostage in its home town. Nice work, sir. Other features, like a calendar of weird 2013 season happenings and one on baseball's unwritten rules, will make any person appear to be Joel Sherman-smart.

The Sporting News is to baseball stats, previews and yearbooks what the Yankees are to baseball itself: the all-time best franchise. So it is a little disappointing to see Editor Scott Smith has lost a little off his fastball. Multi-page features on Opening Day in Australia (complete with BS quotes from Selig), the rising tide of strikeouts and the replay rule (complete with BS quotes from Selig) will waste the time of die-hard fans and bore the casual fan. The story on being a baseball team mascot is good but it is followed by a 12-page preview of college and high school hardball. That is just too much. But the Sporting News does show its strong understanding of the game by providing a very cool list of where current players stand on a variety of all-time lists.

Forget what you might believe about fantasy baseball and those who spend countless hours fretting about draft choices and such. If you are among those who think the practice is a huge waste of time, then you might make the mistake of passing on Lindy's Sports fantasy baseball preview. While it's not an easy first read for the casual or hardcore hardball fan (pages of mock drafts and player draft values, missing the big shift of the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera away from third base and Joe Mauer's away from catching, no schedules or predicted orders of finish), its position-by-position analysis is the best among its peers and makes it the most distinctive preview in newsstands and the first choice as a second read.

Somebody reel in Tom Verducci. The Sports Illustrated baseball writer — one of the most astute observers of America's pastime — appears to be reaching a bit too far for some colorful prose. He likens the line of black SUVs carrying baseball team executives queueing up outside a Beverly Hills mansion to offer a deal to Japanese pitching import Masahiro Tanaka to a steel Stonehenge. Later, in a story about the lack of right-handed sluggers, he proves his cliché finger is as durable as Tanaka's arm by writing of the still struggling Chicago Cubs, with two sluggers on the way up: "The Cubs may be headed for a fifth straight losing season, but on a clear day like the ones in Arizona you can see all the way to their future." Easy, boy! The disappointing SI baseball preview issue also contains the necessary stories on Robinson Cano in Seattle, Cuba imports into MLB and, yet again, on the Molina family producing standout catchers. SI picks Washington over Oakland in the World Series.

Looking at a photo in Time of "Mad Men" star Jon Hamm checking his iPhone between takes, it becomes clear what iPhones mainly have come to replace: cigarettes. Hamm, who is shooting the show's seventh and final season, cites a convincingly nauseating 1960s advertising strategy to explain his reservations about Don Draper. "Put some Vaseline on that food, make it shine and look good," Hamm says, declaring that the "inside is rotten" with Don Draper. "Can't eat it, but it looks good."

Veteran New Yorker scribe John McPhee gripes that in a July 2009 piece on Sarah Palin, Time magazine quoted him as saying "Alaska is a foreign country" in a book he wrote in 1977, clipping off the second half of the sentence which reads, "significantly populated by Americans." McPhee seems a bit overheated about this, but he nevertheless spins a few entertaining yarns about his early days interviewing the likes of Jackie Gleason and Richard Burton. The latter's wife at the time, Sybil, told McPhee Burton had consumed an entire bottle of Remy Martin cognac in the hours before his interview. "I failed to ask what size," McPhee confesses.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

ICE out to shrink Big Board to sweeten sale

The New York Stock Exchange is skating on thin ICE — new owner IntercontinentalExchange plans hundreds of exchange layoffs to slash costs, and may sell some tech assets, Street execs familiar with the situation told The Post.

The setback is not a good sign for the future existence of the financial institution, which traces its roots to a 1792 agreement under a buttonwood tree.

The pink slips affect the six-figure jobs of high-tech programmers, and those of other staffers. But the bloodletting could go much deeper — and force the sale of the NYSE itself, Street execs say.
A lot of people on the NYSE trading floor are not really comfortable," said former Big Board floor trader Joe Cangemi.

Although he's not personally aware of any asset-sale chatter, he has heard other unsettling talk. "Frankly, based on my experience and on what I am hearing, the whole floor is nervous," said Cangemi, who is now CEO of ConvergEx Limited in London.

The tech asset sales are a strategic component of the efforts of ICE to squeeze out $500 million in savings. The owners will also wring costs from big job cuts.

Total expected cuts (1,500 worldwide) would reduce payroll to about 2,600, ICE execs have previously confirmed. NYSE's head count at the time of the deal hovered around 4,000, with contractors factored in. That's compared with the Atlanta-based ICE 's much leaner 1,000 or so.

On a good day, the NYSE floor has about 700 traders overall, including options pros. However, stock traders, the mart's traditional backbone, number just 300 as the troubled NYSE loses market share.

So far, one source who viewed the deal book assembled by ICE banker Evercore Partners says ICE is not impressed by prospective bids for the tech assets. The bidders include several major banks and brokerages and, most recently, media and information giant Thomson Reuters.

One Street pro told The Post that the bidding process was originally set to end a couple of weeks back. But it got extended, often a red flag it's not going well.

Now, this same pro says, ICE is swinging the ax early "to sweeten the deal." The pink slips are out for NYSE tech staff at its Wombat business in New York and a Wombat affiliate in Ireland where some 130 people are employed. Total layoffs in this area alone could involve "several hundred" employees, sources say.

ICE, headed by strong-willed Jeffrey Sprecher, has a history of shuttering floor operations that don't deliver to the bottom line.

It closed the floors and moved to electronic trading after acquiring the International Petroleum Exchange in 2001 and the New York Board of Trade in 2007.

"Nobody really knows," said Cangemi. "They've promised not to close the NYSE floor, but that does not mean a thing. There is no commitment to it."

"If Sprecher can make the NYSE simpler, better and easier, he'll keep it," said NYSE and ICE investor Thomas Caldwell, CEO of Caldwell Securities. "And if he can't … well, I think he is going to dump it."

"We don't have any comment at this time," said Eric Ryan, a spokesman for ICE and NYSE Euronext. Evercore Partners also declined to comment.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Feels like a recession? You’re not alone

New York City hasn't recovered very much from the Great Recession. The need for "emergency food" supplies has worsened — and a majority of New Yorkers are struggling economically, an analysis shows.

A St. Louis Fed nationwide study of the Survey of Consumer Finances — by extension a snapshot of many a New Yorker's financial situation — amplifies the point. It concludes that the recession has ended for only 25 percent of the US population.

The Fed's shocking survey, focused on wealth rather than income, would tend to favor New York over other markets on one key metric — the upward move in local housing prices.

Still, there are higher recurring local housing charges and an uneven recovery in New York prices too, analysts note.

"Since the vast majority of people have their assets in housing, you can see why this doesn't feel like a strong recovery at all," the St. Louis Fed's Ray Boshara told a blogger for The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

"If we adjust for inflation and population growth, we've more than recovered that $16 trillion," he added. "But if you break down what accounts for that wealth, about 86 percent of that recovered wealth comes from appreciation in the stock market, and only 12 percent comes from the housing market. This is highly uneven."

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hey, Marc, listen up to the ol’ guys

So what is it about "Old White Men" that has Silicon Valley's senior hoodie in a knot? I mean, I guess being old and white and a man does make you stand out in Silicon Valley, but that's no reason for hard feelings or snide comments.

What if — despite being old, white and male — you were also brilliant and worth oh, say, $24 billion or $63 billion, making you one of the 25 richest people in the world?

Surely that would engender a healthy degree of respect, if nothing else, from the Silicon Valley crowd.

Two weeks ago, Marc Andreessen— the browser bad boy — criticized New York's own 78-year-old Carl Icahn, who had the nerve to point out that several of eBay's board members, including Andreessen, have way too many conflicts and self-dealings.

Last week, the cranky 42-year-old Andreessen, successful and worth $700 million himself, moved up the Forbes list to swipe at the 83-year-old Warren Buffett who has repeatedly criticized bitcoin, an Andreessen investment and obsession.

Whether you believe bitcoin is a fad, a hackers cult or even a "crypto-virtual currency," there is no need to attack some of the best minds in the world just because they are older and see things differently from the way you do.

That said, when Buffett — who knows a thing or two about currencies — calls bitcoin a "mirage," no one can dismiss his assessment, not even Andreessen.

So when Andreessen tees off on Buffett with, "Track record of old white men who don't understand tech — crapping on tech they don't understand — still at 100 percent."

The thing is, last week the IRS declared bitcoin was not a currency but a property.

So Buffett was right.

In the meantime, bitcoin has fallen below $500, 60 percent down from its mythical January high.

With age comes wisdom. Show some respect.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Subway co-founder attends meeting mid leukemia battle

Subway sandwich chain founder and president Fred DeLuca made a recent dramatic appearance a year after being diagnosed with a very aggressive form of leukemia, The Post has learned.

DeLuca showed up at a large Subway franchisee meeting in Florida, a source at the meeting said. "He wouldn't shake hands. He would fist-bump," the source said.

Subway confirmed the appearance: "Fred's doing really well and has been fully involved in the day-to-day business. In mid-January, to reduce the spread of germs, Fred used the 'fist bump' when greeting people, but now that it's nearly 6 months post-[treatment], he's back to the traditional handshake."

Brooklyn-born DeLuca has largely run the national chain since co-founding it 46 years ago. During the last year, he has been making some company decisions from a hospital bed, sources said.

Subway claims it is the world's largest restaurant chain, with more than 40,000 locations in 100 countries.

There are no natural heirs to take over, leading to speculation that he will bring the chain public or sell it privately.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tory Burch expands clothing line to activewear

The expanding fashion empire of Tory Burch has Lululemon in its sights.

The designer is growing her business lines into menswear and active wear within the next year, Burch told WWD.

Jeffrey Uhl, recently poached from Coach, is going to lead the push into men's accessories, which may include leather goods, belts and shoes.

The activewear line for yoga, running, golf and tennis enthusiasts, with apparel and possible accessories, is taking aim at the flagging sales of Lululemon.

"I find a lot of women wear what they wear to go to the gym all day long," Burch told WWD.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Maryland may punish ‘House of Cards’ if it leaves over taxes

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By Geoff Earle

March 29, 2014 | 4:12am

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PLAYING HARDBALL: "House of Cards," starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, is facing a backlash in Maryland's state legislature over a threat to leave the state over tax breaks.

WASHINGTON — Kevin Spacey and the producers of "House of Cards" are getting a lesson in bare-knuckle politics from the Maryland legislature.

Media Rights Capital Studios collects millions in tax breaks to film the popular Netflix series about the dark side of US politics. But the company overreached when it threatened to "set up in another state" if Maryland didn't increase the benefits.

The backlash culminated in the state House of Delegates passing an amendment to seize the company's equipment through eminent domain if it abandons the state.

The state Senate passed legislation to more than double the tax credits.

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Aides sought to shield Hillary from press after Monica scandal

WASHINGTON — White House aides were so protective of Hillary Clinton during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that they were wary of dealing with the media, new documents show.

The jitters are contained in February 1998 e-mails between White House press aide Julie Mason and US Information Agency official Mary Ellen Glynn about a planned
interview on Voice of America.

"How do you REALLY feel about having press cover her interview?" Glynn asked, explaining she wanted reporters to "sit in a studio next door." She promised to make clear journalists realized they were not there "to ask her questions."

The Clinton Presidential Library released the e-mails and other once-sealed documents.

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Lady Gaga shows off NY pride in Roseland ‘funeral’

Say what you want about Lady Gaga (and we all have at some point), but her hometown pride has always been locked in place throughout her ups and downs.

On Friday night at Roseland Ballroom, that was underlined once again as the born-and-bred New Yorker paid tribute to the closing venue, the city and, of course, herself during the first night of a seven-date farewell.

"Who has a 10-day funeral? Only Roseland," she declared early on and it was a statement spoken like a true New Yorker.

After almost 100 years, it's only right that the venue be given an honorable — and fabulous — discharge. So it was fitting to see Gaga begin the night with a solo rendition of "Born This Way," adapted to include a declaration of love to the weathered West 52nd Street building.

The metallic staircases and platforms built on the main stage seemed designed to pay homage to the industrial clubs of the pre-Bloomberg era New York and Gaga duly danced like it was 1999 to "Black Jesus + Amen Fashion" and the still brilliant "Bad Romance." Midway through the show, she broke away to a darkened side stage which lit up to reveal a mock subway train, and an array of neon signs. One of them simply said "176 Stanton Street" which Gaga nerds and stalkers alike will know as the Lower East Side tenement where she once lived.

But the set was much more than a potted history of New York City. Barely 10 days ago, Gaga was criticized for her vomit-filled, hit-free show at the SxSW music conference in Texas. This time, she chose not to be a performance artist, but a pop star, and opted not to shock, but to rock.

Gaga channeled Elton John's piano-clambering antics during a flamboyant version of "You And I," gleefully revisited her synth-pop breakthrough hit "Just Dance" and busted out her best choreography on "Applause" — which remains by far the best song on her disappointing latest album "ARTPOP."

Following an encore of new single "G.U.Y.," Gaga took her leave. After just over an hour on stage, it felt like she was short-changing the fans, but on the occasion of her 28th birthday, Gaga's little monsters were forgiving enough to let her clock off a little early.

Besides, with six more dates left (running until April 7), this is one funeral that has plenty of life left in it.

17.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Jaywalker killed on Grand Central Parkway

A man crossing the Grand Central Parkway in Queens was hit by two cars and killed Friday night, cops said.

The man was jaywalking as there were no lights or crosswalks where he was struck by the westbound cars at about 11:10 p.m., cops said.

Both drivers remained at the scene and no criminality was suspected, cops said.

The crash backed up westbound traffic on the Parkway.

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Magnitude-5.1 earthquake shakes Los Angeles area

LOS ANGELES — A magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered near Los Angeles caused no major damage but jittered nerves throughout the region as dozens of aftershocks struck into the night.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at about 9:09 p.m. Friday and was centered near Brea in Orange County — about 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles — at a depth of about 5 miles. It was felt as far south as San Diego and as far north as Ventura County, according to citizen responses collected online by the USGS.

Broken glass, gas leaks, water main breaks and a rockslide were reported near the epicenter, according to Twitter updates from local authorities.

Eyewitness photos and videos show bottles and packages strewn on store floors. Southern California Edison reported power outages to about 2,000 customers following the quake.

More than two dozen aftershocks ranging from magnitudes 2 to 3.6 were recorded, according to the USGS. Earlier in the evening, two foreshocks registering at magnitude-3.6 and magnitude-2.1 hit nearby in the city of La Habra.

A police officer directs traffic as workers shut off a water valve in Fullerton, Calif., following a 5.1-magnitude earthquake Friday.Photo: AP

A man picks up goods knocked off shelves in a La Mirada, Calif., CVS pharmacy after the quake.Photo: AP

Water bubbles up through the street in Fullerton after Friday's earthquake.Photo: AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mark Rightmire

Public safety officials said crews were inspecting bridges, dams, rail tracks and other infrastructure systems for signs of damage. The Brea police department said the rock slide in the Carbon Canyon area caused a car to overturn, and the people inside the car sustained minor injuries.

Callers to KNX-AM reported seeing a brick wall collapse, water sloshing in a swimming pool and wires and trees swaying back and forth. One caller said he was in a movie theater lobby in Brea when the quake struck.

"A lot of the glass in the place shook like crazy," he said. "It started like a roll and then it started shaking like crazy. Everybody ran outside, hugging each other in the streets."

A helicopter news reporter from KNBC-TV reported from above that rides at Disneyland in Anaheim — several miles from the epicenter — were stopped as a precaution.

Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully was on the air calling the Angels-Dodgers exhibition game in the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium.

"A little tremor here in the ballpark. I'm not sure if the folks felt it, but we certainly felt it here in press box row," Scully said. "A tremor and only that, thank goodness."

Tom Connolly, a Boeing employee who lives in La Mirada, the next town over from La Habra, said the magnitude-5.1 quake lasted about 30 seconds.

"We felt a really good jolt. It was a long rumble and it just didn't feel like it would end," he told The Associated Press by phone. "Right in the beginning it shook really hard, so it was a little unnerving. People got quiet and started bracing themselves by holding on to each other. It was a little scary."

Friday's quake hit a week after a pre-dawn magnitude-4.4 quake centered in the San Fernando Valley rattled a swath of Southern California. That jolt shook buildings and rattled nerves, but did not cause significant damage.

Southern California has not experienced a devastating earthquake since the 1994 magnitude-6.7 Northridge quake killed several dozen people and caused $25 billion in damage.

Preliminary data suggest Friday night's 5.1 magnitude earthquake occurred near the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles and caused the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said.

"It's a place where we've had a lot of earthquakes in the past," she said.

The 5.9 Whittier Narrows quake killed eight people and caused $360 million in damage

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Mobster Vinny Gorgeous’ third son pleads guilty in weed business

The mob version of "My Three Sons" is officially now coming to the big house.

A third son of imprisoned-for-life Bonanno crime-family boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano is headed to prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to running a marijuana enterprise with his brothers.

Vincent Basciano Jr., 32, copped a plea in Manhattan federal court to helping run the pot-dealing operation while his always-fastidious, fashion-plate father is serving two life sentences in Colorado for mob murders.

Under a plea deal with the feds, Basciano Jr. faces 46 to 57 months in the slammer when he's sentenced by Judge Richard Sullivan on July 18.

His brothers, Stephen Basciano, 29, and Joseph Basciano, 27, copped similar plea deals in February.

Prior to cutting the deal, Vincent Jr. faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines.

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Man and woman found shot dead in Queens

A man and a woman were found shot to death in Queens on Thursday night.

Cops said they're investigating it as a probable double homicide, but have not ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide.

Natalie Mejia-Tavares, 21, was discovered in the doorway of her Ridgewood apartment with a gunshot wound in the torso, law-enforcement sources said.

The second victim, an unidentified man, suffered a gunshot wound to the head inside the apartment on Summerfield Street.

Neighbors said several shots were heard in the building at about 6:30 p.m.

"I feel very nervous," said one, Nancy Lopez. "I don't think I'll sleep tonight.

"I just moved here, and now I hear two people were shot to death.''

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Wrist slap for jewelry designer de Givenchy who punched a cop

A famous jewelry designer got only five days of community service and a $120 fine after he pleaded guilty Thursday to drunkenly slugging a cop for towing his Mercedes last year.

James de Givenchy — the nephew of celebrity fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy — was initially charged with second-degree assault, but he took a deal Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court in which he copped to disorderly conduct, a minor violation that will leave him with no criminal record.

In November 2013, de Givenchy, 50, was with his wife, Gina, in the Meatpacking District at 2 a.m. when his saw his black Mercedes being hauled onto the back of an NYPD tow truck.

A boozed-up de Givenchy jumped into the Mercedes driver's seat.

When he refused to get out, he was dragged out by a police sergeant.

De Givenchy then punched the sergeant in the face before being Maced by a second officer.

De Givenchy's wife, 46, charged with obstruction for trying to pull one of the cops off her husband, returns to court April 16.

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Drug deal leads to double-slay arrest

A man wanted in connection with a double murder in Pennsylvania was caught after being busted in Brooklyn on drug charges.

Laquan Anderson Pierrelouis, 23, was spotted in Bedford-Stuyvesant conducting a drug deal just before midnight Wednesday, according to police.

Cops say Pierrelouis told responding officers that his name was Spencer Johnson and that he lived on Nostrand ­Avenue, but fingerprints ­revealed his true identity.

He allegedly killed two people in York, Pa., on Nov. 23, 2013, in a fight over a drug deal.

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De Blasio names four to rent board

Mayor de Blasio said Thursday that he's "very sensitive" to the needs of tenants, but stopped short of endorsing the rent freeze he called for when running for City Hall last year.

He named four members Thursday to the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board, which sets increases for about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments every June and has never delivered a freeze in its 44-year history.

Last year, the board enacted hikes of 4 percent for one-year lease renewals and 7.75 percent for two years, the highest since 2008.

De Blasio indicated tenants would get a more sympathetic ear this year but didn't mention a freeze.

"I'm very sensitive to what all tenants, all working people have gone through in the last few years of this economy, so that's going to be a major factor in how we weigh the final decisions on the rent situation," he said.

He added he'll get into specifics once he names a chairman for the board.

Tenant advocates praised the change in tone.

"The new members understand that the job of this board is to keep rents affordable, whereas the Bloomberg board felt it was their job to protect landlords' profits," said Michael Mckee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee.

Landlord reps questioned how the mayor could ask property owners to help build and restore 200,000 units of affordable housing while freezing rents.

"I think he can have one or the other but not both," said Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association.

"I don't think he can get the involvement of the real-estate industry to help him, which he needs, and they can't do that with a zero rent increase."

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Man gets 68 years in jail for armed robbery spree

A gun-toting thief who went on an epic 34-day robbery spree in Brooklyn was sentenced to a staggering 68 years in prison Wednesday.

Robert Costan targeted stores in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Fort Greene.

"As part of his robbery spree, this defendant terrorized hardworking employees and business owners," said Brooklyn DA Kenneth Thompson.

Costan robbed some of the stores multiple times — and allegedly told one repeat victim, "Don't be cheap like the last time."

He was busted in 2012 and charged with 12 robberies.

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Teen gunman could face less than 8 years of jail

The family of the innocent Brooklyn dad fatally shot on a city bus was horrified to learn that teen gangbanger charged with the slaying could face a sentence as low as 7¹/₂ years in a juvenile-detention center, even if convicted on the top count.

Kahton Anderson, 14, allegedly opened fire aboard a B15 bus last Thursday, killing passenger Angel Rojas, 41.

"I'm in shock," said Josie Guerrero, 26, a cousin of Rojas' widow.

"I know his wife won't be happy, because if there is one thing she's been asking for, it's justice, and this isn't justice," the cousin said outside Brooklyn Criminal Court Wednesday.

"Angel doesn't get to have a sentence; he's dead forever," she said.

The father of the suspect apologized to the Rojas family but also defended his son, a member of the Stack Money Goons gang.

"My son ain't no killer like that. He was defending himself . . . he's feeling sad," said the dad, who wouldn't give his name.

Cops said Anderson was firing at a rival gang member.

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Deal close on $142B state budget

ALBANY — Legislative leaders Wednesday were nearing a deal on the $142 billion state budget that would include funding for Mayor de Blasio's ambitious expansion of pre-kindergarten classes in New York City.

"We are closing down issues. Progress is being made," said Senate co-leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau).

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) said he expects to print budget bills by Friday.

That would allow the Legislature to vote on approving the budget — a foregone conclusion once the leaders agree — on Monday, the day before the state's new fiscal year begins.

The final sticking points in the negotiations included providing extra funding for charter schools to hold classes in private facilities if they're excluded from sharing space in public-school buildings.

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Christie’s Bridgegate probe blames aides

An investigation by lawyers hired by the office of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reportedly will blame only the two people already named for orchestrating politically motivated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

The Wall Street Journal said the report, to be released Thursday, will point the finger at Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, and ex-Port Authority official David Wildstein.

The closures, which turned Fort Lee into a traffic nightmare, were allegedly payback to the town's mayor for failing to support Christie's re-election bid. The feds and the state legislature have launched probes.

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Obama meets with Pope Francis

VATICAN CITY — President Barack Obama is holding a historic first meeting with Pope Francis, the pontiff that the president views as a kindred spirit on issues of economic inequality and the poor.

Obama arrived at the Vatican Thursday morning amid the pomp and tradition of the Catholic Church, making his way to greet the pope after a long, slow procession. The pontiff and the president shook hands before sitting down with their translators at a wooden table for their meeting.

"Wonderful to be here," Obama said, calling it "a great honor."

As they meet, the six-year president, with his sinking poll numbers, would not be blamed for seeking some reflected glory from a pope who, one year into his pontificate, is viewed as an agent of change in the Roman Catholic Church.

Obama is the ninth president to make an official visit to the Vatican. His audience marks a change of pace for the president, who has devoted the past three days of a weeklong, four-country trip to securing European unity against Russia's aggressive posture toward Ukraine.

The pope whom Obama will sit with this time is a different pontiff than the last one to host him. Obama visited Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, a cordial meeting that nevertheless drew attention to the differences between the church and Obama on abortion.

To be sure, the relationship between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church is a fraught one. And Vatican officials say Obama will not leave without having heard Francis' views on Obama's health care law and its mandates for contraception coverage. But in Francis, the White House sees the popular pope and his emphasis on economic disparity as a form of moral validation of the president's economic agenda.

"Given his great moral authority, when the pope speaks it carries enormous weight," Obama said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera published ahead of his papal visit. "He can cause people around to the world to stop and perhaps rethink old attitudes and begin treating one another with more decency and compassion."

Several presidents have found allies if not comfort in the pope.

President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II famously shared an antipathy for the former Soviet Union, Reagan the Cold War warrior and the pope a Polish priest who fought communism in his country and later in Europe.

"Sometimes in these meetings there are compatible personalities," said Paul Begala, a former aide to President Bill Clinton and a Catholic himself. He recalled being with Clinton when the president met John Paul II in Denver.

"They were only supposed to meet alone for five minutes," he said in an interview earlier this year. "Those two gregarious, charismatic men sat in that room for an hour without another soul in there."

The Obama-Francis chemistry remains to be seen, but thematically both seem to be on some of the same pages.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, at the Vatican this week trying to secure Francis' attendance in Philadelphia next year, said he expected the Obama-Francis meeting to be good for both the U.S. and the Vatican.

"We have the most important religious figure in the world as part of that meeting, and one of the most important political leaders, so anytime the church and politics come together is an important moment for dialogue, discussion and the commitment to the common good," Chaput told reporters Tuesday at the Vatican.

Still, there are difficult areas of discord between U.S. bishops and the Obama administration over abortion and the administration's health care overhaul. U.S. bishops were among the most outspoken opponents of Obamacare, objecting to its mandatory coverage of contraception. The Supreme Court this week seemed divided when hearing arguments in a case in which companies argued that they have religious rights and can object to such coverage based on such beliefs.

Vatican officials noted that during the recent visit of Secretary of State John Kerry with his Vatican counterpart Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the cardinal raised the issue of the health care mandate. The Vatican statement issued after that meeting said Parolin had "expressed the concern of the U.S. bishops for the reforms in relation to the guarantee of religious freedom and conscientious objection."

Anticipating that the issue will be a topic of their meeting, Catholics for Choice published an ad in the International New York Times Thursday as an open letter to Obama declaring that "Francis' interpretation of church teachings does not represent that of the majority of Catholic

Francis faithfully backs church teaching on abortion — he has said he's a "son of the church" — but his emphasis and tone are elsewhere. He has said he wants his church to be more of a missionary, welcoming place for wounded souls rather than a moralizing church.

He caused a fuss in November when he decried some conservative economic theories as unproven. "The excluded are still waiting," he wrote.

Francis' attention to poverty has also captured the attention of Republicans, prompting some to stake out high-profile anti-poverty positions. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has extended a formal and open invitation to the pope to address Congress when he visits the United States.

No doubt there is a political dimension to Obama's visit as well. The president won the Catholic vote in both of his elections, helped by heavy support from Hispanic Catholics. Some of that support has waned since.

Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center found that the pope remains hugely popular, with more than 8 in 10 U.S. Catholics saying they have a favorable view of the pontiff.

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‘Vikings’ renewed for a third season

Get your pillage on — "Vikings" has been renewed for a third season on History.

The scripted drama will resume production on 10 new episodes this summer, to premiere on the network in 2015.

Currently in its second season, "Vikings" is averaging 3.4 million viewers, growing to 5.1 million total viewers with seven days of DVR viewing factored in.

The drama — which was History's first scripted series — centers on Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), a restless young warrior and family man who longs to find and conquer new lands across the sea and claim the spoils as his own.

"Vikings" is created and written by Michael Hirst ("The Tudors"), who serves as executive producer with Morgan O'Sullivan, John Weber, Sherry Marsh, Alan Gasmer, James Flynn and Sheila Hockin.

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BBC America gets first original comedy series

BBC America has ordered its first original comedy series, "Almost Royal," about two young British aristocrats on their first trip to the United States.

The seven-episode, faux documentary-style series centers on privileged siblings Georgie and Poppy Carlton, heirs to an estate and distant descendants to the royal family who allow a camera crew to follow them on a tour of the US, where they interact with Americans for the first time.

"Almost Royal" will premiere Saturday, June 21, following the "Orphan Black" season two finale.

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How Gardner’s ‘Good Wife’ death changes everything

Will Gardner's death may be the best thing that ever happened to "The Good Wife."

No one's happy that Josh Charles has left the show, of course. Judging by the outpouring of sympathy and grief on Twitter, Facebook and between office cubicles, he was a beloved actor whose performance was a key ingredient in the success of this CBS drama, which has been renewed for a sixth season.

And judging by the actor's appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show" Monday night, Charles seemed to take his departure in stride. He had decided to move on, as TV stars sometimes do.

But the character's death was not a shock for shock's sake, like the murders that happen every three weeks on "Scandal" and have little impact anymore. This one was deeply felt by the characters and it opens up a world of possibilities for the show, which is currently enjoying its best season. Fans who thought that Will and Alicia (Julianna Margulies) were somehow going to get back together after she helped staged a coup at Lockhart/Gardner were living in la-la land. They were enemies, they were rivals. But the strong and complex emotions Alicia felt for Will have no outlet now, and she must face what's become of her marriage to Gov. Peter Florrick (Chris Noth).

That, by the way, is a great story — and a great way to wind up the season.

If the coming attractions that aired after Sunday's bombshell episode are any indication, it's going to get ugly. She calls Peter a bastard. He calls her a selfish bitch. "But guess what?" he says with his trademark sneer. "We're all we have."

He's not wrong. The Florrick marriage was one of convenience on both sides. He got the spouse he needed for his gubernatorial campaign, proving to voters that she forgave him for his marital indiscretions and prison time served. His name gave her leverage when she was competing with Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) for that one opening at Lockhart/Gardner, and when she needed to get her kids into private school or some good press when she started her own law firm.

How Alicia regards her success — and what it has cost her — should make for interesting viewing between now and the May 15 season finale.

Will's departure obviously raises many questions for the future of Lockhart/Gardner and his partner Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). Diane thought she was on her way to being an appointee to the Illinois Supreme Court at the beginning of the season, until Florrick was inaugurated and he rescinded that offer once Lockhart/Gardner threatened to sue his wife when she started her own firm. Should Peter experience another reversal of political fortunes, which is a distinct possibility, Diane could pursue that judgeship again.

And how will she carry on without Will? Who will she hire to take his place? Will the law firm bear her name alone? Answers to these questions could easily fill several episodes in Season 6.

Most interestingly, what will Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) do now that her boss is gone? In the days before he was killed, she had been telling him she needed to do something else with her career. Will laughed. He didn't believe Kalinda. She's always been the sharpest character on "The Good Wife." Does she want to work for Diane? Or will she go to work for Alicia?

Sometimes long-running shows have to completely shake things up to keep storylines fresh. "The Good Wife" proved it was willing to do this last fall when Alicia and Cary formed their own firm. Killing off a major character shows a willingness to keep raising the dramatic stakes in service to the overall story.

If only other network shows had the guts to do likewise.

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A-listers fête Huffington’s new ‘Thrive’ book

One of the hottest book parties of the long, cold winter was the kickoff for Arianna Huffington's new book, "Thrive," tossed Monday night at the Fifth Avenue penthouse home of Steve Rattner and wife, Maureen White.

With a 150,000-copy first printing from the Harmony imprint of Random House — and a one-day rise to as high as No. 7 on the Amazon list — it appears destined for overnight best-seller status.

It certainly attracted an A-list crew of luminaries from politics, media and fashion.

On the political front, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton was seen posing with his predecessor, Ray Kelly. Also on hand was supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who lost in his campaign for the Republican nomination for New York City mayor last year.

Media star Katie Couric chatted with media mogul Barry Diller.

The night almost turned chilly for "Morning Joe" producer Louis Burgdorf, who revealed he had suffered a wardrobe malfunction when his pants split just prior to his arrival and he had to do a quick fix.

"I felt I couldn't show up at Steve Rattner's apartment with torn pants," he said to Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles and her husband, P.E.N. Americas President Peter Godwin, noting that he had stopped by J. Crew for a new pair of pants.

Godwin recalled that when he was first introduced to his future wife by a mutual friend, his friend had said, "You have to meet her — she's the rudest woman in Britain!"

Barbara Walters was on the scene, but said she was saving her best stories about the Huffington Post founder for an interview the two were doing at the West Side Y on Tuesday night.

The Fly-By Award for quickest arrival — and departure — went to Norm Pearlstine, the chief content officer of Time Inc., who arrived with Fortune Managing Editor Andy Serwer but left before the toasts began.

Harvey Weinstein gamely deflected questions that he had a hand in prompting Cablevision Chairman James Dolan to postpone the Rockettes spring show at Radio City Music Hall.

"Yeah," said Weinstein, "and I also brought in Phil Jackson as president of the Knicks and I am going to re-sign Carmelo Anthony."

Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive, in her toast, said that she learned from Arianna that you could turn off your cellphone for 45 minutes — and even for hours — "and the world would not come to an end."

But turning it off for four days? "Only Arianna can do that," Leive said.

Huffington said her book is about trying to find a new definition for success, after she worked herself to the point of exhaustion in 2007.

Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of the party as well as the MSNBC talk show "Morning Joe," opined that she felt she was an inspiration for Huffington to write the book, "because I was such a wreck" before learning to get more sleep.

Brzezinski asked Leive if the always fashionable Glamour editor felt overworked to the point of being a wreck, to which Leive sniped, good naturedly, "I was never a wreck."

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Editor lands million-dollar book deal on Rolling Stone founder

Joe Hagan, a contributing editor to New York magazine, has snagged a seven-figure book deal to write about the controversial and colorful founder of Rolling Stone, Jann Wenner.

But there is a healthy degree of skepticism surrounding the project.

At least two previous book projects, which at one time or another were said to have been done with Wenner's full cooperation, were scuttled over the past decade.

Hagan, who penned the explosive cover story on Alec Baldwin for New York recently, referred calls to a spokesman for the Knopf imprint.

When asked if he had an "iron-clad agreement that Wenner would cooperate," the spokesman responded simply, "Yes."

That kind of written contract is very unusual, especially for a book that is not a memoir or an as-told-to book.

"The book is unauthorized," insisted the Knopf spokesman. "Jann has agreed to cooperate, open up his archives, talk at length on the record. But Wenner has no say in the final pages."

"Tough Jews" author Richard Cohen thought he had a deal in 2011 and had secured an agreement for a seven-figure advance from the Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House.

But then Wenner was said to have objected and the deal was suddenly off. The Wenner side insisted that he had never promised to cooperate.

Cohen's agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, at William Morris Endeavor, was quoted as saying at the time, "Jann had come to Rich asking him to do it. After it got snapped up, Wenner had a change of heart."

A bio from Lewis MacAdams, a poet and writer who is very active in the environmental group Los Angeles River Foundation, had a deal to get full access and cooperation from Wenner in 2004. He spent more than five years working on the project, also under a contract from the Knopf imprint of Random House.

Random House acknowledged, "We had a contract with MacAdams. Years passed without final pages materializing. So we killed the project."

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Kobe Bryant boosts BodyArmor venture in sports drink market

Does the Vitaminwater co-founder still have game?

Queens native Mike Repole, who made more than $1 billion from selling Vitaminwater and Smartwater to Coca-Cola, said Monday he sold a minority stake in his new sports drink venture, BodyArmor, to basketball star Kobe Bryant.

The LA Lakers star invested several million dollars for a better than 10 percent stake in BodyArmor and will get one of six board seats, Repole told The Post.

"This is a 100 percent equity investment," he said. "Kobe won't be in commercials."

The 35-year-old NBA standout is providing marketing expertise, Repole said. "He knows the DNA of athletes, and that is invaluable."

Younger athletes, including baseball's Mike Trout, are endorsing the drink. The target audience is athletes 15 to 30 years old.

With BodyArmor, Repole is trying to challenge PepsiCo's Gatorade and Coca-Cola's Powerade in creating a third sports drink brand.

"The goal is to be the No. 1 sports drink in America," Repole told The Post.

For the moment, though, his company generates roughly $10 million in annual revenue, giving it a long way to go before having a meaningful impact in the $10 billion category.

Repole said that after selling Vitaminwater in 2007, he swore he would never go back into beverages.

Since then, he led Pirate Brands, maker of Pirate Booty, for five years before selling it last summer for $195 million to B&G Foods.

Repole also launched healthy fast-food chain Energy Kitchen, with less success — selling some of his locations to franchisees, and closing others.

Now, he has a renewed thirst for building a mega brand on the scale of Vitaminwater. This is the first time, he said, he is challenging industry leaders as opposed to creating a new category.

Repole believes there is an opening since many "athletes today are demanding an upgraded [and healthier] sports drink."

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Carter: Russia invading Crimea was ‘inevitable’

Former President Jimmy Carter says the Crimean annexation was "inevitable" because Russia considers it to be part of their country and so many Crimeans consider themselves Russian.

But he says Russian President Vladimir Putin shouldn't be permitted to go any further.

On the "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday, Carter recounted when then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Carter recalled the U.S. ambassador, declared an embargo and withdrew from the Olympics. Then, Carter said, "We began to arm the freedom fighters."

He says that was "successful at stopping them there."

Carter says he believes no matter how President Barack Obama or European nations tried to head off the takeover, Putin would have gone ahead with it, but he shouldn't be allowed to go further.

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Obama to propose curbing NSA’s phone-data collection

President Obama is set to announce a proposed overhaul of the National Security Agency's controversial collection of phone records as the agency has come under scrutiny for its surveillance methods, it was reported Monday.

If passed by Congress, Obama's legislative proposal would take the systematic collection of US phone records out to the hands of the NSA and instead require phone companies to keep the data for an undisclosed amount of time, The New York Times reported.

If the NSA would like to acquire the records from the companies, they would need permission from a judge under a court order, the Times reported.

With the permission, the government would issue directives requiring AT&T, Verizon and other US carriers to search their databases for information.

The measure will be unveiled Wednesday by Reps. Mike Rogers of Michigan, who is the House intelligence committee's Republican chair, and C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat.

The bulk collection of US phone records was revealed last year in secret records leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who now is living as a fugitive in Russia and is seeking amnesty abroad.

The revelations about the NSA's snooping set off a global debate over the tradeoffs between privacy and security.

Obama in January ordered his administration to develop alternatives to having the NSA collect and hold phone records, which include numbers dialed and call durations but not the content of conversations.

With Post Wire Services

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Snow expected Tuesday night into Wednesday

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By Joe Tacopino

March 25, 2014 | 5:50am

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People walk along 5th Avenue at Central Park during the storm that hit just before Valentine's Day. Photo: Reuters

Old man winter is set to make one more curtain call as the metro area is expected to get up to two inches of snow amid frigid temperatures Tuesday.

The flurries are forecast to begin in the afternoon and come to an end after nightfall, according to AccuWeather.

The weather is expected to be more seasonable by the end of the week, when temps will hit the mid-50s.

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Celebrity stylist hits business partners with $500K lawsuit

Celebrity stylist Oribe Canales is having a really bad-hair day.

The salon owner, who has worked on the manes of models like Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Tyra Banks, slapped his business partners with a $500,000 lawsuit, claiming they're trying to sink his hair-products company with competing brands.

Canales claims Teyva Finger and Daniel Kaner, who are part owners of Oribe Hair Care, violated non-compete and confidentiality clauses in their contracts to launch competing brands called V76 and R+Co.

"Defendants are also misappropriating confidential client and customer lists that were established for OHC at significant time and expense to OHS," the Manhattan civil suit says.

"By example, Neiman Marcus was exclusively carrying OHC's products, but, due to defendants improper activities, is now carrying V76 and . . . will soon carry R+Co," the suit, filed Monday, alleges.

Canales also accuses his colleagues of undercutting his brand by selling their competing, though "virtually identical," line for less.

If Finger and Kaner "are actively promoting a lower- priced option as being worthy and luxurious, why would consumers spend" more money for the same thing? Canales asks in his suit. Finger and Kaner did not return messages seeking comment.

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An act to help all children reach their dreams

I represent Soundview and Hunts Point in the state Assembly. This Bronx district is a diverse, caring community of people who are striving (often struggling), with many immigrants and children and grandchildren of immigrants. Yet amid this diversity, we all seem to agree on one thing: Education is the path forward to a better life.

That's why last week I was proud and honored to stand with Cardinal Dolan, leaders of many of our state's labor unions, my colleagues in the Legislature and our state's Catholic bishops to advocate for a bill that will help the striving parents and children in my community achieve their dreams.

The legislation is the Education Investment Tax Credit, which will drive hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable contributions to our children's educations through needs-based scholarships to parochial or private schools and through donations to public schools.

I support it for three simple reasons:

l  It will help parents make the educational decisions they feel are best for their children.

l It has diverse beneficiaries and diverse supporters. Indeed, the diversity of the bill's list of sponsors speaks to the diversity of those who will benefit.

l It will help all institutions — students not just in parochial schools, but in our public schools as well. It will help our communities, strengthen families, support growth of our economy and improve our city and state.

I don't believe in picking sides when it comes to children. I am for all of them. I believe options should be available to all children, and not just those with resources.

That's why I was totally comfortable attending and speaking at both Mayor de Blasio's pre-K rally in Albany two weeks ago as well as the charter-school rally later that day.

There must be room for all of these initiatives in a discussion about providing parents the best opportunities when it comes to the education of their children.

New York state provides billions of dollars in tax credits for all kinds of things — to for-profit businesses who create jobs, to Hollywood companies who film movies or TV shows, to sports teams, even to beer makers. But not for education? Not for the one cause that matters to all of us?

That makes no sense to me as a matter of public policy, as a statement of our priorities and as a matter of equity.

I come from a family with strong faith-based convictions. Whether you are religious or not, the reality is that many of our black and Latino families in our communities — including an increasing number of non-Catholics — look to the parochial schools or private schools or other alternatives for their children.

But we are losing those options.

Just last year, in Soundview, we lost Blessed Sacrament, whose most famous graduate is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Think of her example. She credits Blessed Sacrament with providing the kind of quality education that put her on the path to historic achievements. When Justice Sotomayor heard about her school closing, she told a journalist she was "heartbroken."

She said: "You know how important those eight years were? It's symbolic of what it means for all our families, like my mother, who were dirt-poor. She watched what happened to my cousins in public school and worried if we went there, we might not get out. So she scrimped and saved. It was a road of opportunity for kids with no other alternative."

How many little girls in The Bronx, or Harlem, or central Brooklyn, or Buffalo, or Rochester or anywhere in our state, with scrimping and saving mothers, could be follow in Sonia Sotomayor's footsteps? Will they even get that opportunity?

Two-thirds of my Assembly colleagues support this bill, including some 90 percent of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. But some of my colleagues still don't support it. I ask them to reconsider. Here's why.

On the heels of Blessed Sacrament's closing, another Catholic school in my district is struggling. It serves almost entirely black and Hispanic students, whose families make great sacrifices to help their children. This school may close — as may many others throughout the state — without the help the Education Investment Tax Credit can stimulate.

I don't have the heart to tell them that supporting their choice and their sacrifice is not a politically convenient thing to do.

This bill must get done.

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College kids need more real-world experiences

If you're a college administrator with a team headed toward the Sweet Sixteen, you may want to start rooting against your school.

Just ask the folks in Kentucky. When the University of Louisville beat Michigan in the NCAA men's basketball finals last year, the school needed riot police in armored vehicles to quell the chaos that erupted on campus. What began as your usual incident — 10 kids arrested for drunken behavior, a few injuries — ended with bottles being thrown at police officers.

The reaction to losing wasn't much better. Fans in Ann Arbor reacted to Michigan's defeat by lighting things on fire — desks, couches, mattresses. But the authorities there seem to be used to it: "It's actually been pretty normal for a night where you have U-M activity going on," Sgt. Craig Flocken of the Ann Arbor police told the local media. "There hasn't really been anything major."

Indeed, it seems at plenty of schools, this is just a typical weekend. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has its spring break during the week of St. Patrick's Day, but the students got smart, if you can call it that, and started their celebrations the week before. The "Blarney Blowout" ended with 55 arrests, including 19 UMass students.

Of the six people charged with inciting a riot, five were from ­UMass, as was one of the two charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Again, not that unusual: The local police have taken to bringing riot gear with them on regular weekend patrols there.

Old news? Your typical "Animal House" behavior? Really, what else can you say about the ­SUNY-Brockport kids arrested for forcing a dog to do a keg stand? Those students posted a photo of the stunt, but maybe the cops should start bringing the ­ASPCA with them on patrol.

In The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan recently chronicled the destruction wrought by college fraternities, from the humorous to the horrific. Her list of people who've accidentally plunged from roofs or out of windows is a journalistic sight to behold. She reports: "Falls from fraternity houses, . . . far from being freakish and unpredictable events, are in fact fairly regular occurrences across the country."

It's the parents paying for tuition who should be rioting. If we don't tolerate our 3-year-olds throwing rocks at each other, why take out a second mortgage so our 19-year-olds can get drunk and do the same?

It is time for parents to start attaching more strings to their tuition checks. If their kids want to stay in school, they have to maintain minimum standards of behavior and a decent GPA.

Students who are older and have some experience trying to make a living tend to be more ­serious, according to the professors I've interviewed. These kids know why they're at a university and they know it's an expensive privilege. Instead of offering to pay for a gap year, maybe parents should force kids to support themselves for a year before agreeing to pay those tuition bills.

And administrators need to stop enabling. The chancellor at UMass Amherst said that the protestors had "brought shame on our fine university," but the president of the UMass system told The New York Times that a review of the incident would include an investigation of the police response. "We can't ignore the fact that this needs to be looked at to see if they behaved as they should," he said. Oh, come on.

And schools need to do a lot more to keep kids busy. Students who only spend 25 hours a week in class and studying (the average, according to the 2011 report "Academically Adrift") and then get inflated grades have way too much free time.

There are 18-year-olds all over this country working their behinds off to make a living — some of them putting their lives on the line to defend American interests in foreign countries. The yahoos on campus should go see how the other half lives.

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Drivers that leave the scene flee from justice’s grip

The death of a small child is heartbreaking. But if it's your kid who is dead, it doesn't matter if he was 3 or 23 when he died. You're not supposed to outlive your children. Belkys Rivera outlived her firstborn: A driver hit Josbel Rivera, 23, at a Bronx intersection and left him to die.

Add injustice to the horror: Police made an arrest — but the alleged perp won't face homicide charges.

Rivera, a nanny, last saw her son Christmas Day 2011. He enjoyed the holiday with his family, then went to meet his friends. When the bell rang the next morning, Rivera expected to see her son at the door of their Bronx home; she figured he'd forgotten his key.

Instead, she found two police officers. They asked her to gather her two younger sons, then gently told her that Josbel was dead.

Josbel died doing what New Yorkers do every day: crossing the street. He saw two women friends home and then set off, alone, across Mosholu Parkway in Norwood. He made it most of the way. A driver, allegedly Mitchum Williams, now 30, hit Josbel then fled — leaving the young man dying at the scene.

Josbel is deeply missed. His mother was already a widow; his father had died of cancer. And Josbel was "a role model," says Shaniel Rivera, the "baby" of the three brothers, now 22 and a student at the University of Nebraska. "I was 13 when my father died," says Shaniel. "He took the father role. He was the one who said, 'You can go to college.' "

Shaniel has seen his mother "suffer" over the past 2½ years, he says, as she tries to see justice done. "He may not be here to defend himself," she says of Josbel quietly but firmly (through a translator). "But I am defending him."

Josbel's case shows how hard it is to get justice for victims of violent traffic deaths — especially when the driver flees from a bleeding victim in the middle of the night, which often makes it a circumstantial case.

With no apparent eyewitnesses, detectives of the 52nd precinct did a bang-up job in tracking down Williams over six months. Williams allegedly went so far as to torch his car — it blew up — two days after the hit-and-run.

Even after they tracked Williams down — video from a private camera shows someone who looks like him fleeing the burning car — it was slow going.

Bronx prosecutors charged a key witness with perjury for allegedly providing a false alibi; that witness, who presumably could have testified against Williams, later died.

Even after all that work, the best case prosecutors can make is not that Williams allegedly killed Josbel.

To face a vehicular homicide charge in New York, a driver needs to be drunk or on drugs — and if you flee the scene, you make it impossible for prosecutors to make that case. (Even the fact that Williams was allegedly driving with a suspended license wouldn't have matter that much, as the penalty is low.)

Perversely, then, the worst thing that Williams did, from his perspective, was allegedly torch his own car — for the top charge he faces is arson.

Arson carries a top sentence of 15 years, giving prosecutors some room to offer a plea bargain — today is Williams' day in court — while at least ensuring the defendant does some solid time if he takes the deal.

Otherwise, in a hit-and-run, good defense attorneys — and even bad ones — know full well that all prosecutors have is a circumstantial case. At trial, it's easy to sow doubt in a few jurors' minds that maybe the owner of the car wasn't driving it — or that maybe the driver "just panicked" after a pedestrian caused distress to a driver by getting himself killed. (The police report says Josbel was "in the vicinity of the crosswalk," but it's easy to say that a pedestrian was "improperly" crossing when the victim is thrown and killed.)

How confident are defense attorneys that jurors are forgiving of drivers who "panic" and flee?

Williams' public defender was flabbergasted that anyone from the press was even interested in the case. "This is a leaving-the-scene [case]," he said before declining comment on his client's alleged actions.

He was genuinely perplexed, too, at the news that City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez cared enough to hold a City Hall press conference on the issue ahead of Williams' court date Monday.

Rodriguez, who heads the council's Transportation Committee, wants Albany to change the law to at least give victims a fairer shot at justice in a case where the driver left someone to die.

Along with Mayor de Blasio, Rodriguez is pushing a bill to boost the penalty for leaving the scene of a crash so that it's the same as the penalty for injuring someone while drunk — that is, up to four years in prison (still not long enough, but that's another story).

That way, hit-and-run drivers could run — but not hide — when it comes time to plea bargain.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.

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Terrific performances, speedy pace lift ‘Les Misérables’

Critics of "Les Misérables" call it bombastic. So what? Bitching that "Les Miz" is overwrought is like complaining a Dalmatian has too many spots: It's the nature of the beast.

With a show like this one, you have to embrace the grandeur, the melodrama, the insane plot twists, the doomed romances and the "I'll hunt you down till the end of time" mania. All the emotions are THIS BIG — people don't just sing, they belt to the heavens.

And in this new revival, you mostly soar with them.

The latest revival of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's spectacle rides the coattails of the Oscar-nominated blockbuster movie. After all, it's not like "Les Miz" has been scarce on Broadway since its 1987 opening. Trevor Nunn's original production lasted a whopping 6,680 performances, until 2003, then resurfaced after a mere three-year break.

Now the juggernaut's back yet again, this time directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell. While we hadn't really missed "Les Miz," its return offers a welcome corrective to the 2012 movie — which, aside from Hugh Jackman, wasn't very good.

So here they are again, the street urchins and fiery students, the bedraggled prostitutes and louche innkeepers, all thrown together in 19th-century France.

And, of course, the story's two pillars are front and center: chain-gang escapee Jean Valjean (Ramin Karimloo) and his determined foe, Inspector Javert (Will Swenson).

Between 1815 and 1832, their destinies remain intertwined as Valjean finds redemption through his fatherly love for the orphan Cosette (Samantha Hill), while trying to escape Javert's clutches.

Karimloo introduces himself with a bang — he opens up his shirt, crying "I am Jean Valjean!" His performance is affecting throughout, but Swenson is a bigger revelation.

He was miscast in his last few outings ("Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," "Little Miss Sunshine") but his furrowed-brow intensity and rich vocal tone are perfect here. Like every other great number in a show that kills off half its characters, Javert's big "Soliloquy" takes place before his dramatic death, and Swenson nails it with fierce angst.

Too bad the inspector's final leap into musical-theater greatness takes place in front of a murky projection — this underlit spectacle seems to explore the 50 shades of brown.

Overall, the staging sacrifices vision and ambition for brisk efficiency, and the highlights tend to come from individual actors seizing the moment by the throat.

Keala Settle ("Hands on a Hardbody") and Cliff Saunders are fantastically funny as the Thénardiers, a pair of nefarious innkeepers. They make the interminable "Master of the House" a lot less painful than usual.

Less successful is Caissie Levy's Fantine, whose "I Dreamed a Dream" is a soulless display of chops, especially for a single-mother-turned-prostitute on her deathbed.

But another just-before-I-die power ballad — "On My Own" — is a smash for Nikki M. James' Éponine, who's hopelessly in love with the dashing student Marius (Andy Mientus). Though she plays it to the rafters, as the show requires, James still creates a powerful sense of intimacy. You can hear Éponine's heart break on the sorrowful pause between "I love him" and "but only on my own."

Is that sniffling we hear in the audience? Yes, and that's why "Les Misérables" endures.

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PBS doc shows women’s lives after gastric surgery

They came together because they were all "big beautiful women" — BBWs for short.

But by the time they disbanded, they were short one of those descriptors and — thanks to weight-loss surgery — many of those women who once celebrated their overweight bodies were no longer "big" at all.

The new hour-long "Independent Lens" documentary "All of Me," premiering Monday at 10 p.m. on PBS, follows a group of Austin, Texas- based women for five years as they change their positions and decide to undergo weight-loss surgery.

One of the women, 62-year-old Dawn Brooks, who peaked at 415 pounds, spent much of her life working as an advocate for size acceptance. In the 1970s, she appeared nude as a supersize model for a variety of "Bridget in the Buff" products, including calendars, books and jigsaw puzzles. The publishing company behind "Bridget" thought they were making gag gifts, but the items' popularity proved there was an entire market of men out there hungry for the taboo nudity of very large women.

"Basically, 'Bridget' was my way of being out there," says Brooks. "I said 'You know guys, don't be ashamed.' "

Brooks came to the BBW group through her work with the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, which she has since fallen out with over the organization's strong stance against weight-loss surgery.

In the beginning, the Austin BBWs were mostly supersized and proud. They'd come together to socialize with people like themselves. But after one member told the group she was having gallbladder surgery — only to return a month later having secretly undergone gastric bypass — attitudes in the group began to shift.

"After it was successful, I think everyone re-examined their position," says Brooks."Whether you choose weight-loss surgery or not, that's a decision everyone needs to make for themselves."

Brooks decided to get an adjustable gastric band, both for health reasons and the looming threat of immobility. She is now down to 260 pounds, a level at which she's remained for eight months.

"I don't think I was a hypocrite," she says. "I was destined for a scooter and, for me, that lifestyle is not what I would want to choose."

But for all the good it's done for her health, the weight loss has had its consequences. She and her husband, Guy, a "fat admirer" — someone sexually aroused by supersized women — have separated, in part because he is no longer attracted to her.

Another BBW, Judy Sinclair, 53, had the opposite trajectory after she underwent gastric bypass. After hitting 425 pounds, she slimmed down to 245 pounds, but is currently at 260. Her success drew her and her husband Marty closer — and he decided to have the surgery himself last November.

"I think my husband is a little bit different than a lot of fat admirers," she says. "He found me intelligent. He liked that I could carry on a conversation. He saw more in me than the way I looked."

It all begs the question: Are these women who once joined a group to be around other big, beautiful women now proud to be a smaller size?

"I am what I am," says Sinclair. "I've worked really hard on being more than what I look like. I'm not better or worse."

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Can the Nets bring back Shaun Livingston?

Here are some thoughts on the Nets' 114-98 win over the Celtics in Brooklyn Friday night:

1. There isn't much to say about Friday's win, which stretched the Nets' home winning streak to 11 games and improved them to 17-2 at home in 2014, 10-2 in their last 12 overall and 26-10 since the start of 2014. The Nets pounded a bad Celtics team from beginning to end, doing what they've repeatedly done since the start of the new year.

So, instead, let's look at several interesting nuggets that came out of Nets general manager Billy King's press conference before the game, which was originally set to update the status of Brook Lopez, but then turned into a forum on the state of the team.

Nets GM Billy KingPhoto: Anthony J Causi

2. The biggest news from King, besides the news about Lopez having a second surgery on his left (other) foot, was King saying Shaun Livingston is "priority number one" this offseason, when Livingston is a free agent.

There's no question Livingston has been outstanding for the Nets, helping turn their season around as part of the smallball lineup that's reversed the team's fortunes. But keeping Livingston with the team beyond this season isn't going to be an easy task.

The Nets have two avenues to keep Livingston: sign him for 20 percent more than he's making this year, which would be about $1.6 million, or sign him to the mini mid-level exception (because they are far over the luxury tax), which would allow them to give Livingston a three-year deal for a total of about $10.3 million.

But if the Nets do that, it would all but end their chances of signing Euro-stash Bojan Bogdanovic this summer, as his contract with Turkish power Fenerbahce Ulker expires this summer. The only way to bring Bogdanovic over here, realistically, would be to pay him that same mini mid-level exception.

The Nets are high on Bogdanovic, and have been for some time, but it's hard to deny how big of an impact Livingston has had at both ends of the floor this season. Just listen to this description of the players King wants to fit the Nets' newfound identity of a four-perimeter-player, one-big-man lineup.

"We start that way, but then we get bigger, too, because Kirilenko comes in," King said. "I think it's the way we play defensively, switching a lot on the perimeter, so you have guys that are very versatile. Probably versatile guys that can play defense, that are unselfish offensively, where the ball is moving in a free-flowing offense."

The description fits Livingston perfectly.

That said, if the Nets do choose to use the mini mid-level to sign Livingston, that could make
Bogdanovic an attractive trade chip this summer, either to use in addition to a player under contract to upgrade the roster, or to acquire a first-round pick in this year's draft, one the Nets currently don't have a pick in.

3. The subject of the unrest in Russia and Ukraine over the Crimea situation was also brought up to King, though he understandably and predictably avoided the subject.

"I'll leave that to [President] Obama and [President] Putin to figure out," King said. "I follow politics, I love politics, but I don't know anything about who we are putting sanctions on, or who we're not."

So far, it appears the only kinds of people being sanctioned by the U.S. government are those with direct ties to the current Russian government led by Putin. But this is clearly an unstable situation, and one that has to be monitored from a Nets perspective moving forward, given that owner Mikhail Prokhorov has transferred all of his holdings back to Russia as part of his political interests there.

Obviously this could have a pretty dramatic effect on the Nets if anything happened involving Prokhorov, because the Nets have a record $190 million in payroll and luxury-tax commitments due this year, and are going to have a big payroll and tax bill next season almost regardless of what happens this summer.

This situation isn't going away anytime soon, so it remains to be seen what will happen next.

Paul PiercePhoto: Anthony J. Causi

4. King was asked about his former Celtics — Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — and was non-committal about the futures of both, saying he hadn't discussed an extension for Pierce, who is going to be a free agent this summer, or Garnett's status for next season, when he's owed $12 million in the final year of his contract.

It seems likely, however, both will be back in Brooklyn. When King said without hesitation that Livingston is "priority number one," it was a good indication that Pierce — a client of powerful agent Jeff Schwartz, who also represents Deron Williams, Jason Kidd, Mirza Teletovic and, beginning last summer, Livingston — is expected to be back. The veteran small forward seems to enjoy Brooklyn, where he's playing with Garnett and for a coach in Kidd who he's known for a long time and respects.

There's also the fact the Nets can pay Pierce more than pretty much any team likely will be willing to pay him as the 37-year-old prepares to enter his 17th year in the league. Because the Nets' plans are obvious for the next couple of seasons — be competitive through 2016, when most of the salary comes off the books and a certain superstar small forward who plays in Oklahoma City will be a free agent — signing Pierce for, say, two years and $18 million total, would make sense for both sides.

It also doesn't hurt Pierce is playing with one of his oldest friends in Garnett, who also seems to have enjoyed his time in Brooklyn. Garnett has been much more willing to accept a reduced role this season with the Nets, playing a career-low 21 minutes per game.

But after his brutal opening two months of the season, Garnett has been excellent when he has been on the floor since the start of the new year, when he shifted over to center full time. Garnett, like Pierce, has adapted to playing in Brooklyn, and particularly has taken an interest in working with rookie Mason Plumlee. Garnett likely will be back for the final year of his deal — and an even 20 years in the league — next season.

5. Speaking of Plumlee, the latest of several late first- and second-round picks King has hit on during his time as the general manager of both the 76ers and Nets, in what is arguably his best skill, King shed some interesting insight into how he looks at four-year college players — like Plumlee was — and how they're underrated.

"Four-year players, a lot of people look at them and say they are finished products," King said, "and sometimes that's a good thing, because they understand their roles. Sometimes you're taking young guys and trying to project them out, and you don't know how they're going to develop their bodies. … Over my career we've had some success with Todd MacCulloch, Kyle Korver, Willie Green, because they had to come in as a freshman and pay their dues, and they have great work ethic."

Still, King admitted he was surprised with how well Plumlee has adapted to the pros.

"I thought Mason coming in, I knew he would work, and he would be willing to listen. I didn't know how quickly he would adapt. That's why I said at the beginning of the season he'll probably play in Springfield [Mass., for the Nets D-league team]. Maybe that was for motivation for him not to be going to Springfield. No disrespect to Springfield. I've been there, it's a nice town."

Mikhail Prokhorov.Photo: Getty Images

6. King certainly bought low at the trade deadline when he sent Jason Terry and Reggie Evans — a pair of aging veterans who weren't part of the rotation — to the Kings for Marcus Thornton, a much younger player who scored 42 points against the Pacers earlier this season for Sacramento but had fallen out of favor with the Kings, who were looking to open up playing time for Ben McLemore.

But while Thornton has always been known for his scoring ability, he's also been known as someone who doesn't give his teams much defensively. But Thornton's defense is something Kidd has harped on since Thornton came to the Nets, praising him for the work he's put in on that end, and King confirmed it was an issue he and Kidd discussed with Thornton after the trade.

"Well, I knew he had the ability to score," King said "and the one thing Jason and I both told him was, 'Now you have to give the effort defensively. The system can help you.'

"And he's bought in, and he's with guys who are veterans and he's listened, but offensively I thought he had a chance to have big nights because he's done that in his career."

Thornton has definitely done that so far, helping the Nets to several wins with big individual scoring runs.

7. Finally, let's get back to Lopez, whom the Nets have found plenty of success with him sidelined, leading to the inevitable conversation of whether or not Lopez would actually fit in the new system the Nets are playing, using more speed and quickness on defense — a pair of things Lopez, for all of the things he does so well, doesn't possess.

Predictably, both King and Kidd went out of their way to say Lopez still could be a key component for the Nets moving forward.

"I think he can fit in. I think if you put Brook at the center and the other four guys around, I think you can play the same way.

"The last time we played Boston, when you go 4-for-30 [from 3-point range], it's good to have a Brook Lopez who you can throw it to inside and get some easy buckets. I think he'll fit in fine."

There's no question Lopez would give the Nets a low-post presence they otherwise lack, but the bigger issue is how he would fit in defensively, given his lack of speed.

But one other thing that's been a key to their success has been ball movement, which is something the Nets didn't see much of when Lopez was on the floor, as he would get the ball on the block and things would grind to a halt. King said he thought Lopez would be able to adjust.

"It's hard to say he's got to improve because he hasn't had a chance to be a part of it," King said. "We played a certain way [before]. We'd throw it to Brook, throw it to Brook and he'd score for us. Now I think the way we're playing is a little different. I think Brook would've easily adapted because for one, he can shoot the ball from the perimeter.

"I don't think we'd be playing the same way we did last year with Brook. I think we'd be playing this way, where the ball would move."

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