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NEW YORK – The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street's biggest Ponzi schemes is growing, snaring some of the world's biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities. The alleged victims who sunk cash into veteran Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's investment pool include real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A can of Coke could soon cost New Yorkers more than just calories. Gov. Paterson, as part of a $121 billion budget to be unveiled Tuesday, will propose an "obesity tax" of about 15% on nondiet drinks. This means a Diet Coke might sell for a $1 - even as the same size bottle of its calorie-rich alter ego would go for $1.15. Paterson's budget also calls for a 3% cut in education spending, a $620-a-year tuition hike at SUNY and a $600 increase at CUNY - and about $3.5 billion in health care cuts, a source said. The Democratic...

Polls closed early? More votes disqualified than counted for either side? Individuals casting multiple votes? No independent, anti-fraud auditing? Yes -- to all of the above. And, at the final result, by a 39-vote margin Columbia University students decided to renew the ban on ROTC classes at the Ivy League school. In an episode reminiscent of the referenda conducted by Joe Stalin in the USSR’s heyday, Columbia University surveyed its students from Monday, November 24 until Monday, December 1 to gauge interest for the return of the Navy’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to campus. Students currently have no option...

Gov. Paterson didn't see the humor in a "Saturday Night Live" bit that mocked his blindness. During the "Weekend Update" segment of NBC's irreverent comedy show, actor Fred Armisen played Paterson, imitating his wandering eye, gravelly voice and blunt, self-effacing demeanor. But Paterson and advocates for the visually impaired didn't appreciate stock blind jokes that had Armisen pretending to be disoriented and wandering aimlessly. "I can take a joke," Paterson told reporters. But he called the SNL spoof a "third-grade depiction of people and the way they look" that could lead others to believe that "disability goes hand-in-hand with an...

Fairfield Greenwich Fund Plans to Sue Madoff Posted By: Charlie Gasparino | On-Air Editor Fairfield Greenwich, one of the big feeder funds, is planning a lawsuit against Bernard Madoff, the New York money manager accused of running what prosecutors say was a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. In the lawsuit, Fairfield is expected to say it was a victim of fraud and that Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities didn't do enough due diligence when it marketed Madoff's investment business to clients. Fairfield did its own due diligence, hiring auditors and checking trade confirmations. Madoff had produced the confirmations but Fairfield claims...

Gov. David Paterson is heading near Indian Country to sign a bill that would call for the state to collect taxes on sales by Indian retailers. Despite urgings by the Seneca Nation for the governor to veto the measure, he is traveling to Oneida County to sign the legislation in Utica on Monday

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

What really draws me to the notion of Caroline as senator, though, is the modern-fairy-tale quality of it all. Like many women my age -- I'm a few months younger than she -- Caroline has always been part of my consciousness: The lucky little girl with a pony and an impossibly handsome father. The stoic little girl holding her mother's hand at her father's funeral. The sheltered girl, whisked away from a still-grieving country by a mother trying to shield her from prying eyes. In this fairy tale, Caroline is our tragic national princess. She is not locked away in...

Saturday Night Live pushed the envelope last night with a drop-dead impression of Gov. Paterson that mocked his blindness and past drug use. The skit features SNL castmember Fred Armisen as Paterson during a segment on "Weekend Update." Like disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Paterson must appoint someone to the senate seat being vacated by Sen. Hillary Clinton. Blagojevich was arrested last week for trying to sell the seat left open by President-elect Barack Obama. Armisen, as Paterson, says he has three criteria: economic experience, upstate influence and someone with a disability who is completely unprepared for the job -...

Panicked investors scrambled desperately yesterday to determine whether their life savings had been wiped out after a Wall Street legend allegedly admitted blowing as much as $50 billion in what is emerging as the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Among several big-name investors who trusted former Nasdaq Chairman Bernard L. Madoff with their cash were New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who may have lost as much as $500 million in the scheme, sources said. New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg also confirmed he had invested money from his charitable organization through the 70-year-old Madoff's company, though he...

Maybe U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks should change the name of his fund-raising committee from Build America to Travel America. A Daily News investigation found the Queens Democrat often uses his political action committee to spend thousands of dollars on cross-country jaunts, including multiple trips to Las Vegas, and tickets to the Super Bowl. Incredibly, he even skipped the Dec. 5 congressional hearing on the auto industry bailout and jetted off to Las Vegas for a weekend at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino on the Strip.

'Spirit of inclusion': 'Jesus Christ himself would have gathered everyone around him' The decision by a New York village to place the Islamic star and crescent alongside the community's official Christmas tree has a Catholic leader wondering if there are any wise men among the town's leaders. Supervisors for Armonk, N.Y. voted to display a menorah and a star and crescent at tonight's Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the town's gazebo. "We've decided to go in the direction of being all-inclusive," Supervisor Reese Berman told Associated Press. The village had added the menorah previously. Last year, town resident Asad Jilani,...

If Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr, chairman and publisher of The New York Times, had paused in his Renzo Piano-designed headquarters this week, the art project commissioned for its lobby might have caught his eye. “Why are the Giants struggling?” read the message on one of the screens randomly flashing up lines from the newspaper and its website. “What is to be done?” blinked another in front of an atrium full of birch trees. The giants of US journalism are more than struggling. This week, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy, crushed by $13bn (€9.7bn, £8.7bn) of debt from Sam Zell’s...

QUEENSBURY — A local man’s challenge of President-elect Barack Obama’s citizenship has been garnering national attention, if not credibility. Robert Schulz of Queensbury is the founder and chairman of We The People, a group dedicated to upholding strict adherence to the state and U.S. constitutions. He says there’s compelling evidence that Obama was born in Kenya, not on U.S. soil, which he contends would make him ineligible to become president. On Thursday, Schulz mailed letters to all members of the Electoral College, asking them to delay the Dec. 15 official balloting until the citizenship questions are cleared up. "We really...

ARMONK, N.Y. – When they light the town Christmas tree in Armonk on Sunday, there will be a Jewish menorah right alongside, as usual. There will also be something new this year — an Islamic crescent and star. And if there are any Buddhists or Hindus in town who want to see their symbols, the town is welcoming applications. The holiday display, sponsored by the town of North Castle, which includes the village of Armonk, is among a growing number around the country that include the symbol for Islam.

President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named New York City's housing commissioner to his Cabinet, turning to a former Clinton administration aide to help deal with an issue at the heart of the U.S. economic crisis. If confirmed by the Senate, Shaun Donovan will lead the Housing and Urban Development Department at a time when the mortgage crisis is being blamed for the financial market turmoil that has dragged the nation into a recession. Obama praised Donovan's record in New York, where he managed a $7.5 billion plan with a goal of putting a half-million New Yorkers in affordable housing. The...

An Israeli mortgage lender has started foreclosure proceedings against Symphony Place the modern section of the former Hotel Syracuse where construction work has stalled just short of completion of a project to renovate it into upscale apartments. Apartment construction was 80 percent finished when work stopped in September. The project owners were trying to raise more money to finish the job when the foreclosure was filed, said project manager Mark Belanger, the local representative for the Israeli owner of the property. Perfect Provident Fund Ltd., which holds a $10 million mortgage on the 15-story property, said in foreclosure papers that...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 12, 2008 – An 18-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department is achieving another veteran status here, this time as a soldier. Army Pfc. Steven P. Fitzgerald and his fiancée, Army Spc. Viviana B. Molina, of the 3-142nd Assault Helicopter Battalion, review intelligence reports before a briefing in Iraq. Fitzgerald, an 18-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department, joined the National Guard when he was 41 years old. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Pfc. Steven P. Fitzgerald, from Floral Park, N.Y., is serving as an intelligence analyst in...

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - A comment in the New York Post from Queens / Long Island Congressman Gary Ackerman regarding the replacement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as a U.S. Senator after her appointment as Secretary of State, has left many locally, including officials, angry, and disappointed. The New York Post reads "Ackerman also joked that he had taken himself out of the running for the Senate in a way that appeared to highlight (Caroline) Kennedy's lack of statewide experience. He said he wouldn't want to replace Clinton, 'because I don't do Utica, and that's a qualification for the job."

It's been a week since Caroline Kennedy's name vaulted to the top of the list of candidates to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate, and already the bloom is coming off the boomlet. Kennedy, the 51-year-old lawyer, education advocate and daughter of President John F. Kennedy, has done little more than express interest in the job during a phone call with Gov. David Paterson — but that doesn't mean the woman who inspired "Sweet Caroline" is being spared the elbow-to-the-teeth New York treatment. Rivals – including at least three members of the New York congressional delegation — are starting to...