I Can Only Be Me...Winter by Kisha Green

Well season three of Love and Hip Hop has not disappointed viewers thus far but there's more in store. This past Monday we were introduced to a beautiful Latina having lunch with fellow cast mates Radhidah and Tahiry and just like them, she too had a story to tell.

Winter Ramos hails from Brooklyn New York where she was born and raised. Introduced to the world of Hip Hop at an early age she has worked behind the scenes in the Hip-Hop industry for more than 10 years and has consulted as a wardrobe stylist for labels such as Ruff Ryders, Murder Inc. Full Surface, and Def Jam.

She is mostly known for her position as executive assistant to platinum recording artist Fabolous and executive assistant to the CEO of Slip-N-Slide Records Ted Lucas.

With years of experience in the industry, Winter has seen AND heard a lot. Never one to be a quitter she has taken her negatives and turned them into positives. One thing for sure is; she has no regrets.

Introducing Winter Ramos...

                                                  

KG:Who is Winter Ramos?
WR:Winter Ramos is a child of God, great friend and hard worker.  Contrary to what most believe, I’m a selfless person who simply speaks the truth. With me there’s no nonsense, no chaser, no bullshit. Just real talk.

KG:When did you decide you wanted to write a book and why?
WR:I never thought about writing a book until early 2011 when an old friend of mine, rap artist “Jadakiss” told me it would be a good idea. I’d written journal entries for years but still brushed the thought under the rug until I met Tressa “Azarel” Smallwood for something totally unrelated to books. I found out she was a publisher and the rest was history. I believe everything happens for a reason and think God brought her into my life to share my story with women who want to repeat my past.

KG:Who are some of the authors that influenced you as a writer?
WR:I’ve always been a fan of Terri McMillan. Her books introduced me to drama-filled plots and kept me at the edge of my seat in my late teenage years. Since high school I've leaned towards African- American fiction stores. Currently, my favorite fiction title is The Dirty Divorce by Miss KP- not because she’s on my team but because it reads like a movie.

KG:Describe your writing life.
WR:For now, my writing has consumed my life. When I’m not filming episodes of Love &Hip Hop or on the movie set doing my real job, I’m up on late night calls with the Life Changing Books team, either re-reading my work, making additions, changes and whatever is necessary to get my story out effectively.

KG:Do you have plans to release more books?
WR:I would love to write more books. Obviously they would be fiction since I'm telling all of my business in my non-fiction debut “Game Over.” Who knows what the future holds…but yes, I’m optimistic.

KG:What is one word that would best describe you?
WR:Boisterous.

KG:What made you want to join the cast of Love & Hip Hop?
WR:After being approached by Mona Scott- I thought about that very same question. I figured  my experiences in the Hip Hop game both personally and professionally would shed some light on the show. My role is slightly different from my other cast-members since I’d both worked in the industry and had relationships with some of the artist for many years. I also believed my life story would allow some young lady to see that it’s not all it’s perceived to be.

KG:What do you say to critics who say you are just releasing this book because you are on a reality show and attempting to expand your 15 minutes of fame?
WR:Critics will always talk. You can’t please them all... so my advice to anyone would be to stop trying. But I can please myself and reach my goals. Being on Love and Hip Hop does give me a huge avenue to market my book but that’s not why I decided to write the book. The show airs for a limited number of weeks. My life story can help someone forever.  And let’s be clear, I don't want 15 minutes or 15 years of fame. I've lived that life already. I now want to educate females about what really goes on with love and dating in the Hip Hop world. And trust me….I give the whole truth.

KG:Being in the entertainment industry many people say those you encounter are
fake/phony, were you able to make real friendships?
WR: Yes, I've made some great relationships and maintained them until today. There are even celebrity’s talked about in my book, “Game Over,” who still reach out to me even though they KNOW they are in the book. Me personally, I’m not fake or phony so I don’t attract that mess, nor would I click with those type of people. Just note; you also have to be a good judge of character no matter what industry you are in.

KG:What lessons did you learn from your experience? Do you have any regrets?
WR: My lessons run deep. Most of my life up until now resembled a roller-coaster ride. I have learned the life of the artist, the ins and outs of working at a record label, and staggered my way through being the significant other of a few Platinum selling artist. So you can say I'm well rounded in the Hip Hop music industry. I have absolutely no regrets about anything that I've done or the bad things that have happened to me. Every mistake and every accomplishment has taught me something and made me the woman I am today.

KG:What advice would you give someone wanting to break into the entertainment industry?
WR: Don’t! I’m laughing-hard. Seriously though, if you are talented and have dreams that can be obtained on your own, go for it. Make sure you have thick skin and try not to allow a physical or sexual relationship to dictate your success. People will try to bring you down but you have to be able to keep pushing until you meet someone who will cheer you on and want to see you excel.

KG:Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
WR: In the next five years I want to be married with children. I hope to open several boutiques, write more books, and explore more entrepreneurial opportunities in life. I also want to provide for my family and friends who have been there for me when I needed them; especially thanking them for never judging me.

Follow her on Twitter/Intagram @TheRealWinterRamos

Her publisher- www.lifechangingbooks.net






Kisha Green is a author  who has a passion for writing and sharing her witty personality with many through social media. For more info about Kisha, visit her websitewww.divabooksinconline.com and you can also follow her on Twitter @KishaGreen

JoeyPinkney.com Book Review The Magnificient Life of Gravvy Brown by Devaughn Lilly

The Magnificient Life of Gravvy Brown
by Devaughn Lilly
5 of 5 Stars

The Magnificent Life of Gravvy Brown by Devaughn Lilly is non stop action in a historical context. Born just before the Roaring 20s, Gravvy Brown went on the be the youngest person in Louisiana history to be executed for murder and the first person to be executed by the electric chair - just three days before his twenty-first birthday.

Pure Nostalgia for us Native New Yorkers born during the 60s, 70s

Compliments of: Da rEaL Battle Ground!!

Remember the time when boys and girls played hopscotch,
Girls bring their rope out to do some double dutch,

Neighborhood past time was a good game of skelly,
Hot peas and butter wasn’t just something for your belly,

No ping pong table or tennis courts that I can recall,
So we took a blue ball to the street and called it box ball,

Remember the good times you had when you was outside,
Drop the ball you better run to the wall and say suicide,

On the sidewalks playing red light green light 1 2 3,
Favorite line in tag was ha ha you can’t catch me,

Time to see who is going to be IT everyone but your foot in,
We played cops and robbers not cowboys and Indians,

Who would’ve thought a block was unified to play manhunt,
You can ride your bike outside, you just better stay in the front,

Can I take two step towards you huh Mother May I,
Who remembers 7up not talking about the soda that taste like sprite,

Before girls chased us around for touching their caboose,
They use to chase us around because of duck duck goose,

Free school lunch held everyone down when they were hungry,
Stop punching me already I said no punch buggy!,

Boys played tag football, girls had jacks all over the place,
If the rims were crowded we played basketball on milk crates,

Race you to the end of the block when I took off I was gone,
I have to stop now and go home the streetlights just came on.

Reaching Out to Those Who Wont Come in

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Ruth Palapa and Josh Rotkin on patrol in Midtown, offering aid to a woman on Fifth Avenue.

By JULIE BOSMAN

He was identified on paper only as James Unknown, a white male in his 50s with a temporary address near 57th Street and Second Avenue.

On a wind-whipped Wednesday night as the temperature plunged below freezing, two social workers set out in a van to find him, the first of 10 homeless people scattered across Midtown Manhattan they would look for that night.

On nights when the wind chill dips to 20 degrees, the city’s Department of Homeless Services declares a Level 2 “Code Blue.” Starting at 8 p.m., its outreach teams divide the city into zones and drive around in vans, armed with lists of the most vulnerable homeless people. They visit, or try to visit, each person every two hours, all night long.

The outreach workers try to persuade the homeless to climb in the van to be taken to a shelter. Only a small fraction say yes.

The teams’ real mission, a city official said, is “death prevention.”

James Unknown was spotted just before 9 p.m. “There he is — over on the right,” said Ruth Palapa, 41, a social worker who rode shotgun. She looked....Full article

New York News Bits

Man killed on subway by exterminator gone mad was mentally ill germophobe
BY Samuel Goldsmith
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

It was a clash of two men on the edge. The straphanger killed by an exterminator gone mad was a mentally ill germophobe who used his bag to keep people at a safe distance, friends said Sunday.

"He didn't like people to sit next to him," said Phenix Hall, a volunteer who befriended Dwight Johnson at a Manhattan soup kitchen years ago. "Dwight was famous for placing his bag on the seat beside him." The 36-year-old drifter was knifed in the neck early Saturday after arguing with bug man Gerardo Sanchez, 37, who wanted to sit next to Johnson on the half-empty D train. Johnson was "very paranoid" and had an erratic temper, Hall said. The two had a...full story

Fleeing Queens youth riddled by 11 police bullets, but angry kin say he didn't deserve to die

BY Joe Jackson and Joe Kemp
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Cops blasted 14 shots and killed a Queens teenager they said pointed a gun at them - but the slain 18-year-old's family insisted Sunday he didn't deserve to die.

Dashawn Vasconcellos, who had no criminal record, was hit by 11 bullets, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

The teen fled from four plainclothes cops who spotted him and two friends inside Bayswater Park in Far Rockaway about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. When cops caught up with the teen, he drew his gun and pointed it at the officers, cops said. "Despite repeated orders for him to drop the weapon, the suspect refused and was shot in the torso....full story

After inflating rent, Brooklyn landlords find storefront empty during sour economic times

BY Erin Durkin
DAILY NEWS WRITER

After almost 25 years of running their Cobble Hill dry cleaners, Kyung Dong Oh and his wife Kyung Ja Oh closed the doors for good in March of last year.

The landlord wanted to hike the rent for Trusting Cleaners from $2,500 to $6,500 a month, and the Ohs couldn't afford it.

"It was hard," said Kyung Dong Oh, an immigrant from South Korea who opened the shop in 1984, and saw it become a beloved neighborhood fixture. "My store was not only a store, it was a meeting place."

Twenty months later, the space on the corner of Court and Baltic Sts. still sits empty. Landlord Dominic Cusimano is still asking $6,500 for the space - and no one has bitten.

It's one of several cases around the borough where landlords saw gold during boom times and shed longtime.....full story

Tweetin' Mayor

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined other big-city mayors and is starting to Twitter.
The billionaire technology lover says it's fun to try new things. He may be trying to act like a regular Joe but he got a rare privilege -- a personal tutoring session from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Bloomberg's first Tweet on Tuesday wished his 7,000-or-so followers a good morning, and said he was trying it out during his morning Spanish lesson.
By early afternoon he had sent four tweets. He told reporters that most days won't be as active as his first.
Bloomberg is running for re-election. Other fellow mayors, including Newark mayor Cory Booker and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, tweet regularly. Read More About Tweeting Mayor Here

Bloomberg Offers the Homeless One-Way Tickets Back Home

By Alicia Cruz
TheBlackUrbanTimes

(Photo Left) Justin Little and Eugenia Martin, with Inez, returned to North Carolina after only a few days when relatives paid their back rent.
Photo By / Michelle V. Agins / The New York Times

It costs $36,000 a year for the City of New York to house a homeless family and the City has shelled out multi-millions since over the years to house them in several of the cities shelters.

Mayor Bloomberg devised a plan to shave these costs and move homeless individuals closer to relatives where they may have support systems: he's offering anyone with a homeless status or currently residing in one of the city's many shelters or shelter programs a one-way ticket back to their home of record.

550 families have left the city since the inception of this program in 2007 and so far, none have returned to New York City.

Some are going by bus, some by plane and some are driving, but all are headed home to what they hope is going to be a better life. Many of these families and individuals arrived in New York hoping for a shot at a better life, but instead met the inability to find jobs which eventually led to them entering or re-entering shelters.
Read the entire story here

NYC Foreclosure Vic Tenants To Get Protection

BY Frank Lombardi

Hundreds of tenants across the city face eviction each month because they've become fallout victims of the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
These particular endangered tenants live in one- to four-family homes - usually in the more financially strapped neighborhoods - that have been foreclosed because their property owners defaulted on their mortgages.
Under state law, banks that take over the properties don't have to notify tenants their properties have been foreclosed on, and they can be told to leave in 10 days or face an eviction suit.
"These are people who paid their rent on time, played by the rules, maintained these properties - and one day they wake up and a marshal is at their door ready to evict them," said State Sen. Jeff Klein at a City Hall press conference yesterday with several City Council members and housing activists.
The group gathered to press for passage in Albany of a Klein-sponsored bill that would force banks and other lenders to alert tenants that their homes have been foreclosed on, and give them as long as 90 days to find housing.

Full Story

DEVELOPING STORY: Interior Secretary: Statue of Liberty crown will reopen

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the crown of the Statue of Liberty will reopen July 4.
Salazar, speaking from inside the statue's crown, made the announcement Friday morning on NBC's "Today."The statue was closed to the public after 9/11 because of security concerns. The base, pedestal and lower observation deck have since been reopened.Salazar says about 30 visitors an hour, chosen by lottery, will be allowed inside the crown. He says that number eventually will increase.Improvements to the crown will be made before and after the reopening.Salazar also is visiting New York's Ellis Island to discuss stimulus funding for the historic immigration center.

THE DAY THAT CHANGED NYC FOREVER

Thirty years ago this month, six-year-old Etan Patz ran down the three flights from his SoHo loft, kissed his mother goodbye, dashed out his front door to head west on Prince Street, vanished somewhere on the next block as he approached West Broadway, and changed New York City forever.
That day -- May 25, 1979 -- was tow-headed Etan's first solo walk to the school bus stop on the corner.
When he didn't return, the sleepy city, emptying ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, jolted awake.
Police fanned out in a massive hunt through lower Manhattan, tearing through basements and sewers and closets of family friends.
As news of a possible child abduction spread from the close-knit artist community of SoHo through the city, it also put an end to a way of life -- one that allowed kids to run to corner stores, play unsupervised in neighborhood parks and dart around streetlamps and stoops for untended nighttime games of hide-and-seek and stickball.
Etan Patz was a child of a different city -- the looser, bohemian Manhattan that today's residents often regard with misty-eyed nostalgia. But that Manhattan also had frightening pockets of human depravity. Police, unequipped with computers, high-tech radios and quickly updated central databases, relied on beat smarts and word of mouth to investigate crimes -- and all too often were defeated by the chaos within their own overworked system. It was into that dark city that Etan Patz disappeared.

MOVING TO SOHO

Ramshackle 1970s SoHo was a perfect fit for Stan and Julie Patz. The young couple, married in 1965, scraped together $7,500 for an empty shell of a loft and gradually renovated it for their growing family, adding plumbing, floors and walls.
In their airy haven was space for Stan, 37, a commercial photographer, to carve out a personal photography studio, which Julie, 36, also used to run a day-care center for toddlers.
Their kids, Shira 8, Etan, 6, and Ari, 2, went to local schools. Their neighbors were of a similar pioneering mindset, fashioning homes out of abandoned industrial buildings.

FULL STORY HERE

Twins Born on Fifth Avenue; Passers-by Cheer Mom On

Only in New York City...and what classier place to do it, but on Fifth Avenue. My fellow New Yorkers never cease to amaze or surprise me. read this wonderful story:

NEW YORK (AP) — After nearly 40 years as a nurse, Lucille Nassery had no problem identifying the sounds coming in the window from Fifth Avenue. Those were definitely the sounds of childbirth.
"There's a certain kind of sound that comes from women who are about to deliver. It's not just a typical scream. It's a whole-body scream," she said Friday, hours after she ran to peer down at an SUV parked hastily in front of Mount Sinai Medical Center. A distraught man circled the vehicle, looking for help, and a very pregnant woman lay across the front seat, howling.
Nassery, a nurse manager, grabbed a team of nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists and rushed outside.
The mother, Elizabeth Brew of Scarsdale, was 33-weeks pregnant. While she remained in the SUV — her legs extended toward busy Fifth Avenue and Central Park — the hospital staff brought equipment into the middle of the street. Nassery and other staffers used their bodies to block off two lanes of traffic.
With the baby girl's head already crowning, the group wasn't going anywhere. The 4-pound, 13-ounce girl was delivered right out on the avenue. Passengers in taxis stuck their heads out of windows to cheer and exclaim over the baby. Drivers stopped to yell out: "Is the mother OK?"
The mother, an old hand at this with two kids already at home, interrupted the merriment to tell the doctors it wasn't over yet.
A few minutes later, the second of the pair of twins, a 5-pound, 5-ounce boy, was delivered. Both children were healthy, but they were expected to remain hospitalized in neonatal intensive care for several weeks because they were premature. Brew, 39, was admitted to recover in a hospital room.
After all the chaos settled down, Nassery said, she gave the babies' father some cleaning supplies — just to tidy up the SUV before finishing his parking job.

NYC Dad, Friend Robbed Homes, Mom Drove Getaway Car...With Babies in Tow!

By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
theblackurbantimes.com
Tom Skerritt (Fred) and Angie Dickinson (Wilma McClatchie) came to life in New York City.
Everybody remembers the 1974 hit movie "Big Bad Mama" right?
A millenium "Fred" and "Wilma" of New York City pled guilty, along with an accomplice, Wednesday to burglary and weapon charges in Queens.
The Queens district attorney’s office says the modern day "Wilma McClatchie" and "Fred" duo and accomplice robbing spree began to unravel when a witness saw their blue minivan outside his home Monday with the girlfriend in the driver’s seat and the two men going out his front door. A number of items had been stolen. An NYPD officer saw the same minivan later and arrested the three after seeing the men break into another apartment. The couple's children ages 5-month and 4-years-old were in the minivan with the woman at the time. Some people really should'nt be allowed to be parents. *sigh*

The Carters on Their First Anniversary

By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

theblackurbantimes.com

The Carters were spotted out this past weekend doing a little shooping and eating in Nueva York. Beyonce aka Mrs. Shawn Carter was looking quite casually sexy in her second skin jeans pants, burgandy jacket (and accessories to boot).

Her suspenders give her that classic 'buppy' look and those 6-inch YSL stilettos are stunning. Her fitted un-buttoned shirt tops that look off with s-e-x-y!

Hubby and music mogul Jay-Z rocked a black leather bomber with blue jeans and a crisp white tee shirt. The Carters were spotted in Nueva York having a bite to eat at Pastis on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.

Photos courtesy of: http://theybf.com/

Gang Shooting Claims a Life, 49 Years Later

On Oct. 21, 1960, as “West Side Story” was playing on Broadway, a real blood feud was playing out at a youth dance and on the streets of Spanish Harlem between two rival gangs called the Viceroys and the Dragons.

About 8 p.m. that night, William M. Jenkins, 18, was shot through the stomach and back, rendering him a paraplegic. He continued his life of crime, however, becoming known to the police as Wheelchair Willie, while two teenage brothers in the Dragons were arrested and imprisoned for shooting him.
“West Side Story” popped up again on Broadway last month, and, 49 years after it happened, so did the case of the Jenkins shooting. After Mr. Jenkins died on March 13 at age 66, the city medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide due to infectious complications caused by the gunshot wounds, making it the oldest reclassified homicide in New York Police Department history, a police official said.
“I can’t believe this,” one of the brothers, George Lemus, now 64, said after he was told the news Wednesday at the computer repair business he runs in Midtown Manhattan. A little while later, he looked down at his arm. “The hair stood up,” he said, holding out the arm, still fresh with goose bumps.
Mr. Lemus’s brother, Robert, died a decade ago at age 58. The shooting haunted him until his death, said his son, Robert Lemus 3rd: “He lived with a level of remorse for the fact that, at his hands, someone had a handicap his entire life over an evening of probable misunderstanding.”
The district attorney’s office said it would not prosecute because the brothers had already served time (Mr. Lemus said he was imprisoned for a year and half and his brother for five years) for the shooting and because witnesses and medical records would be hard to come by, the police official said.
The victim’s brother, Samuel A. Jenkins, even questioned how his brother’s death could be attributed to long-ago violence rather than the myriad medical problems he endured in his life or the recent acute deterioration of his health.
He said the whole matter was better off left in the past.
“It’s kind of old, and it was kid stuff then,” Mr. Jenkins said.
When asked about the Lemus brothers, he said that his family held no grudge: “Willie forgave them and I forgive them, if they are still alive.”
The fights of the 1950s and ’60s between gangs with fanciful names might seem downright quaint compared with the drive-by violence fueled by automatic weapons that would come later. But as the Jenkins case shows, tempers and bullets flew easily even then.
In East Harlem, according to the book “Vampires, Dragons and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York,” by Eric C. Schneider, “dark-skinned Puerto Ricans organized the Viceroys while their light-skinned rivals formed the Dragons.” George Lemus, who said his parents were Cuban, insisted it was geography, not race, that divided them: the Dragons south of 106th Street, the Viceroys north of it.
He said that El Barrio was so crowded that the gangs were a necessity for protection. Sometimes, he said, the Dragons and Viceroys banded together to fight the Red Wings, an Italian gang that reigned north of 118th Street.
“These gangs go deep,” Mr. Lemus said. “That’s the law of the street.”
On Oct. 21, 1960, he was with Dragons who faced off against some Viceroys on 103rd Street, between Park and Madison Avenues, according to old typewritten detective reports.
Samuel Jenkins, who was 11 that night, said the story was told often in his family. He believed some friends came to the dance to get his brother, a big kid known as Husky Willie, “to make sure they had a fair fight.”
William Jenkins’s son, Charles Martinez, 49, picked up the narrative. “My father told me he had fought the two guys, hand to hand,” said Mr. Martinez, who was born in February 1961, four months after the shooting. “And then the guys came back. My dad said ‘Oh, you want some more?’ And they just stood there, so he tried to walk away and they shot him in the back.”

Mr. Lemus said the fight was sparked by something “very, very stupid,” when a Dragon insulted a Viceroy with “something about his mother.” Mr. Jenkins, he said, decided to play the father figure. “He came to reprimand us or something,” said Mr. Lemus, who said he “blanked” the episode out. “He sort of kept looking for me and I guess you could say he found me.”
Samuel Jenkins said the injuries stopped his brother from doing things he loved.
“He was a good boxer, he played baseball and basketball,” he said. “He could have had a good life.”
Police records show the shooting did not curtail William Jenkins’s criminal behavior. Wheelchair Willie was arrested four times from 1971 through 1991, on criminal charges including attempted murder. In 1975, he was accused of robbing someone from his wheelchair, the police said, and was sent to prison for three years on lesser charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Samuel Jenkins said that his brother lived on disability payments and that he had worked for a time as a drug counselor. He said his brother was “black and Puerto Rican, and he stood with the Puerto Ricans.”
He later became a Muslim, he said. “He was married twice, to Gloria and Beverly,” he said. “He had one kid.”
Though the shooting occurred in 1960, it is counted statistically as one of the 92 homicides in New York City in the first quarter of 2009, among the lowest numbers in many years. Five other homicides this year were linked to injuries from previous years.
“If someone is shot on New Year’s Eve and dies the next day, it makes sense to record it as a homicide in the new year,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. But he found the Jenkins reclassification a bit harder to accept. “When shootings and deaths are separated by decades, and now by almost a half century, it’s counterintuitive that they are consistently declared homicides.”
George Lemus, who was 13 at the time, turned his life around after prison, becoming a designer of men’s clothing in a textile firm and, more recently, a computer repair businessman. He said he has been married 40 years, has six children and six grandchildren and even took in foster children, appearing with his wife on city posters advertising for foster parents.
Even still, he said he always worried someone from the Viceroys would come after him. “There’s still retaliation out there,” he said. “As much as you think it couldn’t happen, it could.”
In 1996, his brother and William Jenkins reconciled, spending a few nights sleeping under the same roof and talking about some of what happened.
“It didn’t happen because we hated each other, it happened because of the situation we were in,” said Mr. Lemus, who added that he was scared to meet with Willie.
“I’ve thought about the fact that I felt sorry for Willie,” Mr. Lemus said. “It wasn’t really personal. It was gang-related.”
He paused for a moment, then looked up. “Even though the guy was in a wheelchair, he wasn’t doing the nicest things.”

The $2 cocktail...and 8 more awesome NYC bargains

New York is the cheapest city in the world. At least it can be. Gone are the days of spending $15 on a martini or dropping $200 at a spa. But no one expects you to stop pampering yourself - or drinking, for that matter. And with secret bargains throughout the city, you don’t have to.
“It’s all about knowing where to look,” says Stuart Schuffman, author of “Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City.” He believes there are more deals than ever in the city right now.
“You can find almost anything on Craigslist, especially for furniture and houses,” he notes. “But people are getting more creative, so look out for chalkboard signs mentioning discounts when you’re walking down the street.” Or start with a few steals, things that are already up grabs.

$11 RENTAL CAR The big car-hire firms charge as much as $100 per day for a rental, so consider switching to a shared ride rented by the hour instead.

Zipcar.com operates in all five boroughs. Register for an annual fee of $50 for the occasional driving plan and you’ll get your own Zip card that gives you access to hundreds of cars parked around NYC. Hourly rates start at $11, with gas and insurance included in the price.
$5 YANKEE GAME Seats at the new Yankee Stadium can run up to $2,500, if you want to be near home plate. But if you’re okay with an obstructed view of Derek Jeter, consider this: The team recently announced that some bleacher seats (600 in all) will be dropped from $12 to $5 because of imperfect views.
Go to http://www.newyork.yankees.mlb.com/ and get ’em while they’re hot.

$11 PARKING SPOT With many local parking lots charging as much as $400 a month, find out what discounts their competitors can offer at nyc.bestparking.com. The best Bronx deals currently include a $11 early-bird rate at the Central Parking System of NY, located near the subway (528 W. 162nd St. 212-740-1732), and monthly rates as low as $154 at J &L Parking (280 W. 155th St., 212-283-7778).

And if you’re driving around and stuck for a spot, you can even access the site from your PDA by going to mobile.bestparking.com.
$2 COCKTAIL
Join the after-work crowd at Staten Island’s Burrito Bar Restaurant (585 Forest Ave., 718-815-9200), where $6 margaritas are just $3 from Monday to Friday, 4-7 p.m., or try Wednesday nights in midtown Manhattan at McFadden’s Saloon (800 Second Ave., 212-986-1515), when $10 appletinis are just $2 from 8-9 p.m .
$50 BROADWAY TIX You don’t have to wait alongside a cast of thousands at the TKTS booth in Times Square to get half off a $100 theater ticket. Hit the TKTS booth in downtown Brooklyn between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily at 1 MetroTech Center, at the corner of Jay St. and Myrtle Ave., for same-day evening and next-day matinee performances without the long lines. Alternatively, try for a completely free night at the theater by calling the theater beforehand and asking if they have volunteer ushering. In exchange for seating paying guests and helping clean up after the show, you’ll get to watch the performance for free.

$12 HAIRCUT A good cut and coloring costs upwards of $100 at top salons, but the Cactus Academy in Garden City offers high-end hair care at a fraction of the price. Supervised students at this Paul Mitchell Partner School, located on the Roosevelt Field Mall’s lower concourse, charge just $8 for a blow-dry, $12 for a cut and blow-dry and $25 for a half-head of highlights using top-of-the-line Paul Mitchell products, from 9:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. Call ahead at (516) 746-0067 to make an appointment.
$15 FACIAL If you’re feeling the pinch from spending $30 a pop on waxes and manicures at a regular salon, check out any of the three Empire Beauty Schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens, where a mani or an brow wax will set you back just $5 with one of their supervised student technicians. Basic facials start at $15, and you can get your roots done from $20 at the Brooklyn branch, open 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Thursday, at 2384 86th St. Call (718) 373-2400 for appointment.
$6 GYM An Equinox gym membership will set you back over $100 per month, but you can pay less than that for a full year’s access to 35 fitness facilities throughout the five boroughs operated by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Membership costs $75 per year at the Al Oerter Recreation Center at 131-40 Fowler Ave. in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which houses an Olympic-size pool and has weights and cardio equipment. That’s just $6.25 per month. Fees drop to $50 per year for facilities with no pool, $10 per year for over-55’s and free for kids younger than 18. Got to Befitnyc.com for a full list of recreation centers, or call (212) 639-9675.
$13 LOBSTER DINNER Steamed lobster costs $20 per pound at Manhattan’s City Crab, but head to Williamsburg and you can pay just $13 for 1-1/4 pounds of fresh lobster at Wombat (613 Grand St., 718-218-7077), on Tuesday nights, or slurp oysters for $1 each on Mondays. “Get there early because it gets popular,” warns author Schuffman about the lively Australian restaurant, which throws open its doors at 5 p.m. and doesn’t take reservations. For more info, go to thewombatbar.com.
GRUB GIVEAWAYS
For just the price of a beer, these local watering holes offer dinner along with a view:
FREE PIZZA: ALLIGATOR GREENPOINT (113 Franklin St., Brooklyn, 718-383-6000) When Alligator Greenpoint, an expansion of the hugely popular Alligator/Crocodile Lounge operation in Williamsburg and Manhattan, recently opened on Franklin St., reaction was immediate. All thanks to a modest circumference of dough and a thin layer of unassuming marinara, available on the house with purchase of a $4 drink.
FREE WINGS: THE WATERING HOLE

(106 E. 19th St., 212-674-5783) This happy-hour hangout gets a ton of spillover from the celebrity-studded W Hotel. In fact, owner James Clare says that Eli Manning fancies a fling with the karaoke microphone on weekends every now and again. If you come by early enough on weekdays, you may not see a star but you will get a heaping helping of complimentary chicken wings and French fries between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
FREE SMORGASBORD: THROGGS NECK CLIPPER

(3599 E. Tremont Ave., Bronx, 718-829-0005) This cozy family-owned offering rests between the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges, and offers one of the city’s sweetest happy-hour deals. Every weekday from 4-5 p.m., you can chow down on lasagna, wings or whatever the chef is inclined toward that afternoon, while washing it down with a standard domestic brew for a ridiculously meager $1.50.
FREE SHEPHERD’S PIE: MCNULTY’S IRISH COTTAGE RESTAURANT & PUB

(108-07 72nd Ave., Forest Hills, 718-520-8530) This traditional Irish pub doesn’t advertise its goodwill helpings of hearty appetizers. But trust us: Stop by on Fridays at 5 and you’ll get a much tastier plate of shepherds’ pie, meatballs, wings or chicken fingers than you will at many other hot spots. And you’ll probably have about 100 fewer people to climb over. You can take your chances Mondays to Thursdays, but the waitstaff warns their generosity can be sporadic earlier in the week.

Remorseless Cop-Killer Gets Life Plus 40-Years in Prison

BY John Marzulli

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A remorseless cop-killer was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison plus 40 years for the execution of Officer Russel Timoshenko during a car stop in Brooklyn.
Lee Woods was the last of three thugs convicted of ambushing the rookie cop and partner Herman Yan after the cops stopped their stolen SUV on July 9, 2007.
Woods, 31, refused to make a statement, but even the cold-blooded murderer appeared transfixed by the powerful words of Tatyana Timoshenko who spoke of an American dream destroyed by the loss of her beloved only son.
"Unfortunately the death penalty cannot be imposed on Mr. Woods the same way he imposed a death sentence on our son," she said.
"Russel came to this country when he was just 9-years-old...At the age of 23, with his life just beginning, you Mr. Woods, along with your co-defendants, took his life and took our lives as well.
"You stole our dreams. You stole from us everything that we worked for. Russel saw opportunities in this country and dedicated himself and sacrificed his life to protecting the people of this city. You also saw opportunities in this country and dedicated yourself to a life of crime."
Woods, 31, was at the wheel of the SUV when accomplices Dexter Bostic and Robert Ellis opened fire from inside the vehicle.
He was convicted last month after his first trial ended in a mistrial. The sentence was mandatory because of his criminal history, which included paralyzing a man in a 1993 shooting.
"There is no punishment within the court's power that can redress the loss of this fine police officer," Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges said in pronouncing the mandatory sentence.
"I heard no remorse at all from the defendant."
Scores of cops applauded prosecutors Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and Mark Hale and Timoshenko's parents as they left the courtroom.

Councilman Fights To Keep Sex Offenders OUT of City Housing Projects

BY Lore Croghan
Councilman Eric Gioia is adamant about where New York's most dangerous pervs should not live - city housing projects.But when asked to suggest neighborhoods where they might reside he couldn't come up with a single suggestion. "I don't think government should be telling people where to live," Gioia offered. For the third year in a row, Gioia (D-Queens) released a report Sunday detailing the number of registered sex offenders illegally living in public housing.
Federal law and New York City Housing Authority policy bars registered offenders from living in subsidized housing. This year the number jumped to 126 offenders, up 12% from last year. In 2006, Gioia found 200 registered offenders in public housing.

Forty-two of the city's 3,432 registered sex offenders live in projects in Brooklyn, according to the new report. There are 37 in Manhattan public housing, 36 are in the Bronx, eight are in Queens and three are in Staten Island.

"We are implicitly saying to the poorest among us, 'We're sorry, but we will warehouse the most violent predators in New York City next to you and we won't even tell about it,'" Gioia said.
A Housing Authority spokeswoman defended the agency's efforts.

"When NYCHA is notified by the NYPD that an individual is a registered sex offender who is living in public housing, tenancy proceedings are begun to remove them," spokeswoman Millie Molina said.

NYC Nightclubs Turn Into NYC Fightclubs

Foto courtesy of: Iudici for News

BY Barry Paddock AND Jonathan Lemire
A night of revelry turned terrifying for nine people who were injured during violence at two city clubs early Sunday, police said. Four employees were stabbed at a glitzy Chelsea club and five people were shot in front of a Staten Island hot spot, police said.
The trouble at Club Promenade on W. 28th St. began after a patron objected to leaving at closing time, police said. Employees were trying to get a raucous crowd to disperse from the club at 4:30 a.m. Abdul Taylor, 35, of Queens, pushed back, cops said.
When the club's bouncers and coat check staff tried to force him out, Taylor pulled a knife and began slashing, police said. Clubgoers ran screaming from the two-story dance hall as other employees called 911. Taylor, of Long Island City, was charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
A 35-year-old Club Promenade employee was stabbed in the stomach during the melee and his 45-year-old colleague was slashed in the torso, officials said. A 28-year-old staffer was cut in the leg and another employee, also 28, was slashed in the arm. They were all in stable condition at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Club Promenade managers refused to comment, but neighbors said the club often attracts a rowdy crowd.
"There is always noise on this street," said neighbor Caroline Asher. "We've had [problems] in this club before."
On Staten Island, cops were sent to The Lion's Lair on Bay St. just after 3 a.m. after calls about a disorderly crowd. Gunshots were heard as police arrived, scattering the group of revelers.
David Walters, 35, who works at a nearby Tompkinsville deli, said it was a quiet night until the shots rang out.
"People kept saying 'Move! Move!' and 'Run! Run!,'" Walters said. "The streets were filled with people all trying to get away. They said someone had a gun. People were scared."
A 20-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man were each hit in the leg and taken to Richmond University Medical Center in stable condition. Before sunrise, three more victims walked into area hospitals and reported that they had also been grazed by bullets outside the club, police said.
No arrests have been made, but police recovered two handguns near the dance hall.

Model MISbehavior at New York Audition for ANTM

Chaos breaks out at 'America's Next Top Model' audition in Manhattan
BY Dorian Block, Elizabeth Lazarowitz and Rich Schapiro

Pandemonium erupted outside an "America's Next Top Model" casting call in midtown yesterday when an overheating car triggered a stampede of catwalk-craving cuties. Screaming as they ran for their lives, hundreds of hotties in heels toppled over barricades along W. 55th St. after several people in the crowd started yelling, "There's a bomb!" By the time the model madness ended, six women were injured and two women and one man were busted for inciting a riot, authorities said.
"The girls were running like it was 9/11 part two," said Jennifer Brown, 27, of Kensington, Brooklyn. "I feared for my life."
The audition for the show on The CW, which for the first time was open only to women under 5-feet-7, was doomed from the start, several said.


SEE VIDEO OF THIS MELEE HERE---




Scores of aspiring models slept overnight outside the Park Central Hotel, hoping to be the first to sashay before the hit show's casting agents.
But shortly after the sun rose, women began arriving and lining up indiscriminately.Tensions quickly boiled over.
Things only got worse when the dolled-up ladies were told if they stepped out of the line, they couldn't come back in.
"I had to pee in a cup and change my clothes in the street," said Mona Knight, 18, of the Bronx, who arrived at 11:30 p.m. Friday night. "There was no organization whatsoever."
Cops arrived and placed barricades along the street. But by that point, there were already several thousand women lined up. A handful of women started fainting after getting pressed up against the wall, witnesses said.
"Everyone was so compressed, I don't think they could breathe," said Alex Saavedra, 23, who escorted his girlfriend to the audition. "Then they started passing out."
A fight broke out between two men who had been taunting each other for several hours, witnesses said.
Cops intervened and pulled the men off the line. One of them threatened to return with a gun, heightening tensions among the already-frazzled women.
Soon after, a black BMW with smoke pouring out of its hood pulled up in the street near the line, sending the sea of underdressed women scrambling to get away.
"The metal barricade fell down," said Kiara McCarthy, 19, of Levittown, L.I. "All of a sudden we heard this roar from behind us and we looked behind us and there's a wave of people falling on top of us."
Gabrielle Rose, 25, said several women started crying out in pain.
"We all fell on top of each other," said Rose, of Scranton, Pa. "People were squished against the wall, screaming, 'I can't breathe! I can't breathe!' "
A total of six women were injured, authorities said.
Two were transported to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in stable condition, authorities said.
In the wake of the stampede, cops arrested three people: Clem Clemmons, 40; Vanessa Quiones, 20, and Michael Edwards, 24. All were charged with inciting a riot.
A CW spokesman referred requests for comment to a CBS rep who did not return phone calls or e-mails.
No more women were allowed to audition after the stampede, leaving many diminutive ladies devastated that they missed out on an opportunity to make it big.
"I'm 5-foot-3. There's no way I can make it into a model agency," McCarthy said. "They would turn me away at the door. We had an opportunity and it was taken away from us."

NEW YORK'S MIDDLE CLASS IS IN FOR A SHOCK !!

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