New York: Local News from The NY Post

Kids’ group Hot Peas ’N Butter has beef with Hot Peas ’N Butta
A popular children’s- music group called Hot Peas ’N Butter is steamed that a similarly named creative- music agency won’t stop operating under a trademarked moniker. Butter says in a new Brooklyn federal-court lawsuit that it has tried outside court to settle the beef with Hot Peas & Butta, a Philadelphia-based music-production and promotion company,…

Cops don’t have to reveal targets of counterterrorism surveillance
The NYPD does not have to reveal the targets of counterterrorism surveillance, a Manhattan appeals court said in a unanimous decision released Thursday. Two Muslim men, Rutgers student Samir Hashmi and Talib Abdur-Rashid, of Harlem, sued the Police Department in 2013 to learn if cops had files on them. They argued that they had a…

Tragic cathedral fire sparked by Easter candles
The fire that destroyed a 160-year-old Serbian church in Manhattan last month wasn’t sparked by angry Croatians, but by Easter candles left burning by a caretaker, officials said Thursday. “Fire marshals have . . . determined that candles, which had not been completely extinguished, caused the fire,” FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said. Investigators were able…

Comptroller report blasts ACS’ juvenile delinquents program
A city program for 560 low-level juvenile delinquents experienced “pervasive mismanagement” — even though it cost taxpayers $85,000 a year per child, a report says. The report, released Thursday by city Comptroller Scott Stringer, took the Administration for Children’s Services to task. Deputy ACS Commissioner Jill Krauss said the agency has “added experienced staff to…

State Assembly passes bill legalizing gravity knives
The State Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to legalize gravity knives. The measure passed with an unofficial tally of 99 votes for to 12 against. Al Graf (R-Suffolk) was among the “nay” voters, citing a rise in slashings in New York City as reason to oppose the folding knives.

Teen girls pummel elderly woman waiting for subway
Two teenage girls beat up a 78-year-old woman in a Brooklyn subway station Thursday afternoon, cops said. The girls approached the elderly woman on the southbound platform of the Franklin Avenue C train station in Bedford Stuyvesant at about 3:30 p.m. They began arguing with her, according to police. Then they punched and kicked her…

Cuomo and de Blasio actually agree on this homeless plan
ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday that the state would open 513 emergency beds for the homeless in New York City and move to close shelters with severe violations. The news came as a surprise to Mayor de Blasio, who has been feuding with the governor. “We’d like to see that plan,” the mayor said,…

Principal accused of covering up alleged locker room gang rape
Administrators at a troubled Brooklyn high school face potential firing for covering up allegations that a female student was raped by five football players in a locker room, The Post has learned. The educators include Boys and Girls HS Principal Michael Wiltshire, who was publicly praised by Mayor de Blasio last year but is currently…

Daily Blotter
Manhattan A 21-year-old woman was robbed by a thug who tackled her as she was walking into her East Village apartment building, authorities said. The woman had just walked into the vestibule of the building near the corner of East 10th Street and First Avenue on May 7 at about 4:45 a.m. when the suspect…

Eva Moskowitz: De Blasio obstructing charters
Success Academy boss Eva Moskowitz accused Mayor de Blasio of illegally denying charter schools classroom space at a City Hall rally on Thursday. One day after her organization scrapped its pre-K program over a bitter contract dispute with the de Blasio administration, Moskowitz blasted Hizzoner for failing to provide facilities for charters as mandated by state…

School victimized by fake $1.5M donation forced to cancel trip
The Brooklyn high school that discovered it had been scammed by a bogus $1.5 million check suddenly canceled a student trip to the White House, infuriated parents said Thursday. The planned DC trip was scrapped last week after the principal of the HS for Enterprise, Business and Technology in East Williamsburg notified staffers that the…

The de Blasio’s are strapped for cash
Mayor de Blasio seems to be having a hard time paying the bills. With a second kid heading off to college last year, the mayor took out a loan of between $5,000 and $48,000 from HSBC Bank, according to his financial disclosure forms for 2015 released Thursday. De Blasio gets free housing, food and transportation…

Affordable housing plan has Hamptons residents fuming
An affordable-housing complex is coming to a swanky Hamptons hamlet filled with movie stars and music legends — from Sir Paul McCartney and Gwyneth Paltrow to Scarlett Johansson — and residents are furious. Officials from the town of Amagansett — where the average home sells for $2.8 million — say a 4.67 acre property at…

Sneakerhead fatally shoots man over Air Jordans: cops
A sneaker-obsessed Crown Heights resident named Donald Proudfoot allegedly shot a man to death over a pair of Air Jordans earlier this week — and cops say this isn’t the first time that his love for luxury kicks caused him to snap, sources said. Authorities are on the hunt for Proudfoot who they believe shot…

Cop-hating vandal paints ‘no cronut’ on NYPD cruiser
The words “Bad Cop” and “No cronut” were discovered spray-painted on the police vehicle parked at Montrose Avenue and Broadway in Williamsburg early Wednesday, police sources said.

Nurses charged with ignoring bleeding patient after he fell
Two Queens nurses were indicted Thursday for “ignoring” a severely disabled patient who fell and hit his head for more than 10 minutes — forcing the bleeding man to drag himself across the floor of the facility before someone else finally helped him. Funmilola Taiwo and Esohe Agbonkpolor were employees at Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation…

Cops ID killer named by teen with her dying breath
Surveillance video played by NYPD officials on Thursday show the man wanted for the shooting death of the Brooklyn 16-year-old girl racking his submachine gun three times moments before gunning her down inside her apartment while she babysat her young cousin. Police were able to identify the gunman as 24-year-old Taariq Stephens after victim Shemel…

Finally! WiFi inside subway cars could be happening soon
Straphangers might soon have to endure their fellow passengers on Facetime when they are hurtling between stations underground. The MTA quietly began testing WiFi inside a few train cars this week, creating even more spaces where riders can stream videos, update their social media or just surf the web. The agency has installed the technology…

‘He was a pure soul’: Boy who fatally fell from window mourned
The 5-year-old boy who tragically plunged five stories to his death from a Brooklyn balcony was mourned at an outdoor funeral service Thursday afternoon as hundreds of black-clad tearful grievers surrounded the boy’s tiny casket. Mourners joined the devastated family of Shimon Meisels, whose body was placed in a casket draped with a black cloth…