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By Trio Mauriello

Brooklyn Daily

Bishop Loughlin couldn’t keep up with Mary Louis’s dynamic duo in the second half.

The Lions trailed by just four going into halftime, but the team couldn’t get on top after big second-half performances from Hilltoppers Danielle Patterson and Jasmine Brunson, so Bishop Loughlin coughed up a 70–56 loss in Brooklyn-Queens girls’ basketball at Holy Cross on Jan. 9. The team, now third in the division behind Christ the King and Mary Louis, failed to keep the momentum going, its coach said.

“They didn’t play with intensity,” said Loughlin coach Chez Williams regarding his team’s second half. “You have to sustain the same intensity into the second half, and they didn’t do that.”

Patterson (25 points) poured in 15 in the second quarter, and future Minnesota player Brunson (20 points), sunk 12 points for Marie Louis (9–2, 2–0) after the break.

Lions senior Skydajah Patterson scored 21 points to lead Bishop Loughlin, which placed second in the league last season. The Hilltoppers held junior Milicia “Mimi” Reid, the Lions’ leading scorer, to just 10 points — with only two in the second half.

“She just didn’t get the shots that she normally gets,” Williams said of Reid. “We didn’t play well.”

Loughlin (8–5, 2–2) was lucky to be trailing by only four at the half. The Lions struggled to score and gave up too many turnovers in the first quarter — though it out-scored Mary Louis 18–15 in the second frame.

Loughlin’s sloppy play continued in the third quarter, when Marie Louis’s four-point lead blossomed into a 14-point advantage heading into the final frame. And Loughlin never cut the Mary Louis lead to any less than 12 in the fourth.

This loss was a clear setback for Loughlin, which also lost to defending champ Christ the King, after winning of five of its last seven coming in. The Lions rebounded to a 53–26 victory against New Jersey’s Immaculate Conception on Sunday, but Williams was still disappointed in his team’s effort in the key league game against Marie Louis two days prior.

“You have to come to play,” Williams said. “There’s always a target on our back, and you have to realize that you can’t take off any games.”

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

The first one hurts the most.

Boys & Girls’ center Fatoumata Konare’s most trying first since coming to the U.S. three years ago is dealing with her first injury. The 6-foot-7 junior bumped knees with another player and tore her anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her team’s season opener as a sophomore — causing her to miss an entire year of games and development. Konare emigrated from Mali to pursue a college education, and she considered never playing basketball again because of the long recovery time.

“It was because she never got hurt before,” Boys & Girls coach Laron Mapp said. “When the first injury of your life is ACL, [it’s] a major injury, and you are not used to it. You have to have good support around you.”

She had to wait until last December for surgery, because it took so long for her knee’s heavy swelling to subside. Konare slowly worked her way back with encouragement from her coach, teammates, and advisor Charles Barkley — an assistant with the Kangaroos, not the former National Basketball Association star of the same name.

“For her it is just the fear factor — ‘I can play, and there is nothing wrong with the knee,’ ” Barkley said.

Konare hesitated at first, even as she began light jogging, water workouts, and using resistance bands back in April and May. But 2016 is a new year — Konare has lost the 10–15 pounds she put on after surgery and said she is at 95 percent physically. Still, she was scared upon first returning.

“It was hard, but you just have to work hard to comeback,” she said.

And her work is far from done. Old Dominion, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, and a host of other mid-major colleges have expressed scholarship interest in Konare, who is averaging 4.5 points and 12 rebounds per game in Public School Athletic League play. She has plenty of potential but must now raise her skills to meet her athletic ability.

The injury limited her to just one full season of organized ball. Mapp is thinking of Konare’s first games this season as an exhibition rather than a true show of her prowess. He wants her to be a defensive shot-changer and rebounder for now — the rest will come in time.

“I believe she will be the best big man in the city,” Kangaroos senior guard Kathryn Kanhoye said.

Konare is waiting for a doctor’s OK to remove a knee brace she says slows her down — and she hopes there are no more roadblocks between her and the college scholarship she desires.

“I can do it,” Konare said.

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Thomas Jefferson’s Shamorie Ponds is really making his nickname “Slick” stick.

The Orange Wave was up two against rival Abraham Lincoln with six seconds left in Brooklyn AA boys’ basketball on Jan. 6, when the senior guard and St. John’s signee snagged an inbound pass off of Lincoln’s Rakym Felder, scored one off a drawn foul, and helped swipe the ball from the Railsplitters’s Caheim Brown to tamp down a last-ditch fast break and seal Jefferson’s 96–93 comeback win in front of a standing-room only crowd — all in the space of six seconds.

“That’s why we call him Slick, man,” said Jefferson coach Lawrence “Bud” Pollard. “If you leave that refrigerator open, he will steal every thing you have in there to snack and drink on.”

It was a huge moment in one of the season’s most hotly anticipated match-ups, Pollard said.

“Everyone has been looking at this game since the season started,” Pollard said. “Everyone was calling me about the [Jan. 9]. You couldn’t ask for more on a Saturday night. We should have charged $25.”

The Orange Wave trailed 83–76 with four minutes left when Ponds and fellow seniors Curtis Smith and Rasheem Dunn led the charge back. Ponds and Dunn, who is headed to St. Francis College, scored 31 points each. The victory keeps Jefferson alone in first place and ends a five-game losing streak that included a fall to South Shore two days earlier.

“We just stepped up as leaders,” Ponds said. “We just said we had to get it going. We got to get our team a W.”

The fourth-quarter comeback started with a Ponds three-pointer and a Dunn thee-point play. Lincoln’s Tyler Bourne sunk a trey, and Smith answered with his own three to tie the score at 85 with 2:42 remaining in the contest. The Orange Wave (7–1) took the lead for good at 91–90 with 90 ticks left.

“C.J. came up big for use down the stretch,” Dunn said of Smith.

Lincoln (6–3) turned the ball over four times against Jefferson’s full-court pressure in the game’s waning moments. Its only points came on a Felder three-pointer. The senior shooting guard drew a foul but missed his free throw. Lincoln got the rebound and called time out, setting up Ponds’s steal.

Felder paced the Railsplitters with 25 points, Donald Cannon Flores scored 20 points, and Bourne chipped in 18. Lincoln, who will be without the ineligible Jahlil Tripp all season, has still made major strides after losing to George Westinghouse and Paul Robeson before the holidays.

“The first two [league] losses we had — those were bad loss,” Bourne said. “This is a good loss, because we all played together.”

Jefferson seemed happy to get a win for assistant and former Lincoln coach Kenny Pretlow, who made a rocky and unexpected exit from the Railsplitters’ program when former headman Dwayne “Tiny” Morton returned from coaching at Seton Hall and replaced his 12-season assistant and as head coach. Pollard praised Pretlow’s contributions to the Orange Wave.

“Having him is like taking [Duke’s] Mike Krzyzewski and putting him on the North Carolina bench,” Pollard said. “He’s a great asset.”

Ponds used one of his greatest assets to make sure he, Pretlow, and the rest of the Orange Wave went home happy — he knew where Felder’s intended to throw the inbound pass and didn’t miss collecting it, he said.

“I kind of knew where it was going for a little bit,” Ponds said. “He just telegraphed his pass. I read his eyes.”

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

Fort Hamilton’s new Youth Center is reporting for duty.

Army base officials and family members cut the ribbon on the brand new Fort Hamilton’s Child, Youth and School Services center for young members of military family on Dec. 16, replacing an older center on the premises. The new-and-improved facility will host academic, leisure, and athletic programs in its 10 classrooms.

Staff will help kids of all ages with homework in the homework and computer labs, and also run some extra-curricular science, performing arts, health, and home economics courses.

“[The center] will help to facilitate health and nutrition, sewing, and other self-help life skills,” said to Fort Hamilton’s Director of Child and Youth Services Lorraine Brown. “The homework and computer labs are geared to support academic excellence and provide assistance to students daily.”

Once they finish their scholarly duties, the base’s young whippersnappers have a gymnasium — slightly bigger than the old one — at their disposal for hoops or any other sports they can think up. The facility’s state-of-the-art kitchen can feed and accommodate “at a minimum, 150 kids daily,” according to a press release.

The facility also has three office spaces and a training area for staff and a trainer, according to the base’s public information officer.

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By Stanley P. Gershbein

Brooklyn Daily

The following are some random thoughts written on the scraps of paper and backs of business cards I found while emptying my jacket pockets this morning.

• • •

My president really believes that crime will go away by passing more gun laws. Yeah, right! He also believes that he is protecting us by spending more time on weather changes than on a true inspection of the immigrants he is permitting to enter the United States. It isn’t those immigrants that we find troubling. It is the bad guys who may be coming in with them that many of us are afraid of.

• • •

Carol and I are still enjoying life on the high seas. We are leaving next week, expecting seven wonderful days aboard the brand new Norwegian Escape. This will be cruise No. 105 for us. We really believe that if we continue to travel, the angel of death will not know where we are when the time comes. That way, we can live to be 100. Great thinking, yes?

I was asked about our travels recently at a party. One very envious person with a bit more alcohol in him than he really should have consumed snipped, “Who can be as rich as you?”

Without a moment of hesitation and a great big grin on my face I snapped back, “Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jim Walton, Mark Zuckerberg, and me. That’s about all.” I received a nice pat on the back from everyone in the room. It seems that they approved of my verbal comeback.

• • •

Right now, only 26 percent of the 2,500 registered voters who were asked believe that this nation is heading in the right direction — 66 percent disagree. Can you imagine that? Two-thirds of Americans actually believe that the United States is going downhill, yet they are willing to stick with the same party that is in power, the same administrators that got us here, and the leadership that still hasn’t changed anything for the better.

• • •

Bernie Sanders is quoted as saying, “Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.” Dr. E. Pratts responded to his comment by saying, “Then stop giving their money away to people who work zero hours a week.” Nice comeback, doctor.

• • •

Hey Jeb, you were the best governor of Florida ever. Only Floridians know what you did for education and taxes. Instead of spending so much airtime blasting Trump, why don’t you tell the world how great you were for the Sunshine State? It’s only my opinion, but I do think you’d stand a better chance of getting the nomination that way.

• • •

Hey Marco, do you really believe that not showing up to vote is the same as voting nay? Yeah, right! The only way to vote nay is to be there and vote nay. Nice try.

• • •

If those accusing Bill Cosby are telling the truth, then Mr. Cosby is the dumbest animal on the planet. With all of his money and fame, Mr. Cosby could have had all the sex he wanted by reaching into his pocket for a few large bills.

• • •

Those of us who watch MSNBC — and whether you believe it or not, I am one — learned this week that 49 percent of Americans are more angry with current events now than they were at this time a year ago. I am StamGershbein@Bellsouth.net asking, does that include you? Why?

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

The world’s most notorious drug kingpin is facing a trial in Kings County.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman could spend time behind bars in Sunset Park and go before a judge at Downtown’s federal courthouse if Attorney General Loretta Lynch sends him to be tried in her old stomping grounds following his expected extradition from Mexico.

Brooklyn prosecutors aren’t the only ones looking to get their hands on Guzman — as leader of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, which has smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine and other illicit drugs over American borders, he has earned indictments from cities across the United States, including Chicago and Miami.

But the borough has a home-court advantage — as U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, Lynch signed a massive 21-count indictment from her office in Brooklyn in Sept. 2014, leveling an exhaustive list of charges, including drug trafficking and murder, against the diminutive drug lord.

And officials are already predicting that Lynch, who has the final say over which court will decide El Chapo’s fate, will send the narcotics bigwig back to Brooklyn to be charged under the indictment she signed, according to a New York Times report.

If he does come to Kings County, El Chapo — whose nickname means “Shorty” — will likely be on trial at the borough’s futuristic courthouse on Cadman Plaza East. And Chances are good he will spend his time outside of court at the Metropolitan Detention Center on 29th Street between Second and Third avenues — an administrative detention facility capable of housing nearly 3,000 inmates of all security levels.

Authorities collared Guzman on Jan. 8 following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico in July via a nearly mile-long tunnel beneath the facility.

The recent escape — El Chapo’s second since his first arrest in 1993 — has led to increased pressure for Guzman’s extradition to the United States.

El Chapo, of course, should not be confused with Rich “El Guapo” Garcia, a rotund reliever for the Boston Red Sox in the late ’90s and early oughts.

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By David Russell

Brooklyn Daily

The Nets sacked head coach Lionel Hollins and reassigned general manager Billy King this weekend over the team’s poor performance.

Owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who recently took full control of the team and home court Barclays Center, said he wants to grow the National Basketball Association bottom feeder back into a championship contender, but the ousted leaders were making the team look bad amid heightened media scrutiny.

“I want to stress also one thing, and for me it is a very important lesson,” Prokhorov during a Monday press conference at Barclays Center. “We are playing in the best market in the world. And of course it is a market that makes great pressure, a lot of attention, a very active press. That is why we need players and a coach who can resist this pressure — who can survive.”

Hollins, whose record was just 48–71 in a season and a half, joins a slew of coaches who apparently could not survive. It would seem the coach’s office in Barclays Center was built with a revolving door — Avery Johnson, P.J. Carlesimo, Jason Kidd, and Hollins have all led the team since it moved here in 2012. Kidd was the only one not to be fired. Tony Brown will be the interim coach.

King was in his sixth season as general manager. Brooklyn made the playoffs each of the last three seasons but only reached the second round once.

Prokhorov wants to keep the coaching and general manager jobs separate and danced around multiple reports that the franchise is in negotiations with former Nets coach and current Kentucky head man John Calipari, a hall-of-famer that insiders have mentioned as a possible combination head coach-general manager.

“Coach Cal is a great coach, but we won’t be discussing, today, any name, because it is the first day of our new approach,” Prokhorov said. “We’re not in a hurry.”

Calipari coached the Nets in the late 1990s, leading the then-New Jersey team to the playoffs in 1998, but owners fired him the next season after a 3–17 start.

The announcement came just hours before the San Antonio Spurs crushed the Nets 106–79 on Monday night. Brooklyn (10–28) has the third-worst record in the league.

The Nets have $40 million to spend on free agents this summer, but getting back to the playoffs any time soon seems a long-shot. The team has no first-round picks in the 2016 and 2018 drafts, and its single, 2017 first-round pick may become the Celtics’ property thanks to the deal that brought Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry to Brooklyn.

But Prokhorov paints a rosier picture.

“I’m sure next season we will be — I hope — a championship contender,” he said.

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

Turn your head and laugh.

A new musical comedy belting its way onto a Williamsburg stage will poke fun at the American health care system with songs and a healthy dose of satire. The title character in “Dr. Glassheart,” opening on Jan. 14 at the Brick Theater, is a thinly-veiled caricature of prominent snake oil salesmen, says the show’s writer.

“It started off as a musical exposé about being able to laugh at our health-care system through the point of view of this doctor, and he’s sort of a Doctor Oz meets Gary Null meets Sanjay Gupta,” said Bushwick playwright Jason Trachtenburg. “He’s clean, he’s well presented, but he does offer some questionable medical advice.”

The play follows the unorthodox career of the titular Dr. Glassheart as he romances his nurse, and provides unsound medical advice to his hapless patients, including one “Rico from Puerto Rico,” who seeks treatment for shell shock following tours in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Rico soon finds that Dr. Glassheart offers only bad medicine.

“The doctor has no advice whatsoever to offer Rico,” said the playwright. “He’s losing touch with reality. He’s having flashbacks to his internship, he dreams of being a singer-songwriter, and he falls asleep during every session he has with Rico.”

Soon, Rico from Puerto Rico realizes he must solve his own problems, a message Trachtenburg hopes rubs off on his audience.

“That’s the message of all messages, it’s up to us to heal ourselves,” he said.

But “heal thyself” is not a serious prescription for audience members with a medical emergency.

“We’ll put a disclaimer on the program that this show is not a substitute for actual medical help, and we cannot be held responsible for any medical advice given during the show,” said Trachtenburg.

The author has performed with the jazz band Pendulum Swings and with his family in the indie-rock act the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, but decided to take a more traditional musical approach for the play’s 10 songs.

“They’re very show tune-y in a Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein kind of way,” said Trachtenburg. “And I know that’s a big market in New York City, I don’t care what anybody says.”

“Dr. Glassheart” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907–6189, www.bricktheater.com]. Jan. 14 at 8 pm and Jan. 16 at 11 pm. $18.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

By Dennis Lynch

It was a chipper leaves-taking.

Brooklynites bid their Christmas trees goodbye by chucking the once-festive arbors into wood chippers during the city’s 20th Annual Mulch Fest on Jan. 9–10. The chips were flying around eight Kings County greenswards as the departments of parks and sanitation teamed up to crush the borough’s boughed rubbish into plant food for the city’s parks and gardens.

Workers let locals keep a few bags of their erstwhile decorations, a boon for one budding green thumb who got his parents to lug their log to Owl’s Head Park, a Bay Ridge mom said.

“It was my son’s idea to go — he has a garden in the backyard, so we picked up some mulch for that,” Cynthia Breimoen said of her six-year-old son. “It’s a great program — gives people a chance to clear out their Christmas trees and takes some of that work away from the sanitation department.”

Workers pulverized just over 30,000 trees citywide, slightly more than last year, according to a parks department spokeswoman.

Another Ridge gardener said she didn’t haul a tree, but she enjoyed the fruits of previous years’ labor.

“I’ve given my tree many times but never taken any before this year,” said Cecile Nugent, who went with her boyfriend Vinny McKeon. “We have just a small garden, so we each took two bags.”

The Department of Sanitation is taking trees left on sidewalks until Jan. 15.

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By Lauren Gill

Brooklyn Daily

Are Jay-Z and Beyonce moving to Brooklyn Bridge Park?

Brooklyn Heights is abuzz after a resident told a packed room at a community meeting that the rap royalty purchased a pad in a park development.

The long-time local said a park security guard let the colossal news slip while the pair were chatting during an evening stroll. He dropped the news during a public forum at Cadman Towers on Wednesday night, prompting whispers and a “shhhh” from the crowd.

Pierhouse, the controversial luxury condo complex next to Brooklyn Bridge where the couple are rumored to have snatched up property, did not deny the claim at first.

“I wish that I could confirm that Jay-Z and Beyonce had bought at Pierhouse but I cannot confirm that,” said Barbara Wagner of Rubenstein Associates, the public relations firm representing the development. “You can publish it as a rumor.”

Wagner later called back and said it was not true.

If true, Queen Bey and Hova could be planning to lay their Brooklyn roots down in any of the 78 of the 106 units that were in contract as of December, per a recent Curbed report. Current listings range from $2.5 million to $10.5 million and amenities include a kids playroom — perfect for their 4-year-old daughter Blue Ivy — a meditation studio, valet parking, and a pool.

The sale would be a homecoming for the couple, who have lived across the river in a Manhattan loft since 2004 and reportedly bought a $14.5 million pad in Hollywood in May last year.

Jay–Z has nevertheless maintained ties with his native borough — he owned a minuscule stake in Barclays Center and the Nets until 2013. Last year, his music-streaming service Tidal bought naming rights for concerts at the arena, and his entertainment company Roc Music inked a deal to program shows there.

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By Max Jaeger

Brooklyn Daily

Here’s one thing Rosie the Riveter can’t do.

National Women’s Hockey League officials suspended the New York Riveters’s Elena Orlando for one game on Jan. 8 after the defender jumped off the bench and repeatedly slugged an opposing player amid a melee during the Riveters’ 6–1 loss to the Connecticut Whale at Aviator Sports on Jan. 3.

The team is named for Rosie the Riveter — a World War II-era feminist symbol meant to encourage women to join the war effort whose slogan was “We can do it.”

Whale Micaela Long porpoise-fully leveled Riveters defender Ashley Johnston six seconds after a ref’s whistle in the game’s third period, igniting an on-ice brawl that drew three Brooklyn players, including Orlando, from the bench, officials said.

But the league didn’t suspend the other riveters, because they didn’t go as buck-wild as Orlando, honchos said.

“The Player Safety Committee has determined that their actions, while illegal, are not worthy of a suspension, as they were not as actively involved in the altercation as Orlando,” a press release states.

A video shows Orlando flying into the fracas, throwing more than a dozen jabs, and taking at least one to the chin before officials could quell the scrum.

Both Long and Orlando had to sit out a Jan. 9 rematch where the Whale (11–1) beat the struggling Riveters (3–8) in Connecticut 4–3.

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

The city’s annual homeless count is Jan. 25, but local leaders say the dead-of-winter tally totally fails in coastal communities, where the homeless population ebbs in the winter and flows in the summer, and are calling on the city tabulators to comes back in warm months. Community board members fear the low reckoning may mean less street-level homeless services when warm weather draws vagrants to the neighborhoods’ boardwalks and commercial strips, one member and business leader said.

“The homeless are seasonal — during the summertime — so usually, when they come and do the homeless count in January, there’s nobody here,” said Yelena Makhnin, director of the Brighton Beach Business Improvement District. “In our district — a coastal area — we are definitely, 100-percent under-served, because the real number of homeless you can’t see until the spring and summer.”

But the federally mandated Hope survey aims to catch the chronically homeless — those out amid the year’s coldest days — and community leaders can count on the city’s mostly volunteer tabulators to tell the homeless from those who are just out on the street, a spokeswoman said.

“Not everyone on our city’s streets are homeless, and the annual Hope count is a federally required, annual count helping to assess those living on our street who are chronically homeless,” said Department of Homeless Services spokeswoman Nicole Cueto.

The mayor’s recently unveiled Home Stat initiative includes quarterly homeless counts and additional outreach citywide, she said.

But the city relies on the Hope survey to estimate neighborhoods’ homeless populations and to help determine where to focus outreach teams who help the indigent find housing, the spokeswoman said.

Basing year-round policy on numbers that seem to swing from season to season doesn’t add up in Brooklyn’s beach neighborhoods, another leader said.

“For us, it doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Community Board 13 district manager Eddie Mark.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

Boardwalk cops are coming to clean up Sponge Bob.

Coney Island is getting 20 more police officers this summer to combat pushy costume characters who hassle passersby for tip-for-tap selfies, Councilman Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island) told this paper. The aluminum foil Iron Men and slushy-at-best “Frozen” characters migrated to the Boardwalk last summer after the mayor cracked down on them in Manhattan for hassling Times Square tourists for tips, so the additional enforcement is welcome, one local leader said.

“Once they got their foot in the door, the performers were prevalent throughout the area — everybody and their brother was Mickey Mouse or whoever,” said Community Board 13 chairman Stephen Moran. “We can always use more law enforcement in our community, and I’m thankful to the [elected officials] who put this together.”

Treyger and Borough President Adams needled the mayor’s office over the summer for addressing the issue in Manhattan but not The People’s Playground.

In response, Mayor DeBlasio created a task force to look into the problem.

The temporary officers are part of the police department’s “summer detail” — when officials send additional cops from other precincts to police the wave of people that washes over the Boardwalk and amusement district. This year’s boost brings the total number of additional summer cops to 84, officials said.

The 20 extra officers will likely be spread over several shifts and may translate to about five additional lawmen walking the Boardwalk at any given time, a police source said.

It is illegal to demand money for taking a picture of someone in a public place, but beach-goers complained costumed pan-handlers were doing just that last summer.

The Department of Consumer Affairs will also hand out leaflets apprising tourists they don’t have to tip for photos, Treyger said.

The Boardwalk is park land, and the Parks Department is collaborating with the police on where it will station additional Parks Enforcement Patrol officers this summer, Treyger said. The rangers should take amusement-area pressure off the cops and let them patrol the rest of the 60th Precinct, where residents last year clamored for the city to invest more resources outside the amusement district amid a spate of late-summer gun violence, he said.

“The more PEP officers we have assigned on the boardwalk, the more NYPD officers we can position to serve the residential areas,” Treyger said. “We shouldn’t really have NYPD dealing with Batman and the Joker on the Boardwalk, and that’s just a matter of putting a PEP officer there.”

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By Shavana Abruzzo

Brooklyn Daily

There’s still some bang left in the old buck!

A dollar doesn’t stretch very far these days, but it can still get you a slice of pizza, a song on iTunes (sometimes), and now, a copy of the Daily News. Our pals in publishing — all Community News Group and New York City Community Media publications are printed at the News’ printing press — have slashed the newsstand price of New York’s Hometown Paper by a quarter in all five boroughs as of Jan. 11.

The media grapevine buzzed over the price drop, which comes just seven months after the News hiked its copies to $1.25 each. Some print pundits speculated the News drove up sales with its strong gun-control advocacy after the San Bernardino shootings, while others credited its financial fluidity to a fresh round of layoffs.

News nabobs only said readers shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“As New York’s Hometown Paper, we look for every opportunity to bring our loyal readers the news they need at a lower price point,” Bill Holiber, president and chief executive officer of the Daily News, said in the press release.

Consider the quarter saving no chump change, either.

“Life in New York City is hard enough and we figured we’d put 25 cents back in the pockets of our faithful readers,” said Ricardo Flattes, circulation sales and consumer marketing director. “It all adds up.”

The New York Daily News, founded in 1919 as the Illustrated Daily News by Joseph Medill Patterson, was the first successful tabloid newspaper in America with the largest circulation in the nation. It later changed its name to the Daily News, attracting readers with its sensational coverage of crime, scandal, and violence, and lurid photographs, cartoons, and other entertainment features. By 1930 its circulation had leapt to more than 1.5 million and in the next decade increased to two million, as it delivered the lowdown on political wrongdoings behind President Warren G. Harding’s Teapot Dome Scandal, and the socially intriguing romance between Wallis Simpson and Britain’s King Edward VIII that led to his abdication.

On Oct. 30, 1975 the Daily News brought the nation to a hush with its gut-punching screamer, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Now, trusty readers applauded the cheaper price.

“It means that the New York’s hometown paper is still in business,” said Flatbush resident Tom Harris, 54. “And I won’t have to rummage about looking for that extra quarter.”

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

60th Precinct

Coney Island—Brighton Beach—Seagate

Worst behavior

Police slapped cuffs on two teenagers who they say attacked security guards at their Ocean Parkway school on Jan. 8, sending one man toppling down a flight of stairs.

A school official told police that the kid suspects, a 17-year-old boy and girl, where at the high school between West Avenue and Shore Parkway at 9:30 am when security guards sensed the odor of pot wafting off of them.

When they confronted the teens, the boy took off running, but ended up battling a guard when he blocked his path at the top of a stairwell, cops said.

The boy grabbed the guard, and dragged him down the stairs, before biting his hand as more security rushed over to assist, according to police.

The girl, meanwhile, was doing her best to resist the guards, and spat viciously at them, cops said.

Parking pirate

A man was arrested for looting another man’s car and then beating him on Brighton Beach Avenue on Jan. 5, police said.

The victim told police that he spotted the suspect inside his car between Brighton Fifth and Brighton Fourth streets at 2:56 pm. The suspect busted through the door, causing about $250 in damage, before grabbing the man’s cellphone and other electronics, cops said.

The victim confronted the suspect as he attempted to make off with the loot on foot, but all he got was a brutal beating from the 26-year-old man, according to police.

Slap in the face

A teenage punk smacked a 51-year-old woman on Avenue V on Jan. 5 and took her cash.

The victim told police that she was between Stillwell Avenue and W. 11th Street at noon when the delinquent waltzed up and slapped her across the face, before grabbing $50 out of her right hand and taking off.

Geriatric attack

A cold-hearted crook hurled a 64-year-old woman to the ground and snatched her phone on Brighton Fifth Street on Jan. 8.

The victim told police that she was near Oceanview Avenue at 12:15 pm when the reprobate pushed her from behind — sending her sprawling to the ground. As the poor lady attempted to collect herself, the coward grabbed her phone from off the pavement and fled, according to police.

Playtime

A burglar looted a woman’s W. 25th Street apartment on Jan. 6.

The victim told police that she returned to her home between Mermaid and Surf avenues at 2 pm, only to find the lock on her door had been busted. Inside, she discovered that two televisions and a Playstation 4 were missing, cops said.

Civic crime

A carjacker drove off with a man’s ’92 Honda Civic he’d left on Neptune Avenue on Jan. 6.

The victim told police that he parked his car between W. 16th and W. 17th streets at 10 pm, and returned later to find an empty spot.

— Colin Mixson

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

61st Precinct

Sheepshead Bay—Homecrest— Manhattan Beach—Gravesend

Boozing brutes

Two men robbed an E. 13th Street liquor store at gunpoint on Jan. 3, police said.

The boozehounds walked into the store near Avenue Z around 7:15 and, like any other customer, grabbed a bottle of liquor and brought it to the counter. But when the clerk bagged up their booze, they ran around the counter and one pulled a revolver on him, ordering him to empty the register, a police report stated.

The clerk handed over $1,200 and his own cellphone, and the thieves split, according to police.

Teens robbed at gunpoint

A menacing mugger pulled a gun on a young teen and robbed him of his wallet in his own First Court driveway on Jan 7 — and may have been responsible for a similar theft a block away.

The teen was locking up his scooter in his garage near Coney Island Avenue after a night ride around 9 pm when the brute came up behind him, brandished a black handgun, and demanded his wallet, according to police.

The teen complied, but the thief hit him in the back of the head anyway and ran toward E. Ninth Street, said officials.

Around the same time and about a block away on E. Ninth Street, a guy fitting the same description robbed another young teen, police said.

The mugger confronted his victim halfway between Avenues R and S. He flashed a black handgun as well and demanded his wallet and phone, police said. The teen handed over his iPhone 6 and a state identification card and the robber fled, according to authorities.

Left with a mess

A burglar turned over a guy’s Ocean Avenue apartment on Jan. 8, but left empty-handed, according to police.

The victim told police he returned to his apartment near Avenue Y around 6 pm after a dinner out to find his home completely ransacked. The would-be thief appeared to have made his entry and exit through a window, police said. Two of the windows were missing stoppers the victim had installed to keep them from opening too wide, and one was left open, he told police.

— Dennis Lynch

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

68th Precinct

Bay Ridge—Dyker Heights

Cab grab

Two vicious villains beat and robbed a cabbie and stole his car on 85th Street on Jan. 9, according to a police report.

The cabbie picked the pair up in Gowanus around 8 pm and drove them to an address near 12th Avenue, but one of them pulled a gun on him and demanded cash when it came time to pay their fare, police reported. The victim ran from the car when the brutes started punching him in the head and the two hopped up front and drove off, according to authorities.

They only made it about 10 blocks before crashing the taxi on Bay Eighth Street, police said. They fled the scene with $250 they found in the cab.

Armed robbery

Two good-for-nothings masquerading as pizza delivery men shook down a female employee at an 11th Avenue spa on Jan. 9.

The two rang the doorbell at the spa near 66th Street around 4:20 am, police said. When the woman opened the door, the ruffians forced their way inside, and one pulled a handgun on her, she told cops.

They got away with her cellphone, another woman’s cellphone, and $300 in cash, according to police.

Butt burglar

A thief broke into a 13th Avenue bodega overnight on Jan. 6 and stole 20 cartons of cigarettes and cash, police said.

The owner closed the store between 74th Street and Bay Ridge Parkway around 11 pm the night before. He told police he returned to find a back door wide open.

The nogoodnik grabbed $600 cash on top of a cigarette haul that up to about $2,000, according to a police report. The thief likely got to the back of the building through a construction site next door, police said.

Copper caper

A cat burglar stole some spools of copper wire from what should have been a secure water treatment plant on Shore Road sometime between New Year’s Eve and Jan. 5.

The thief broke into a “processing center” at the site between Colonial Road and 68th Street sometime between 2 pm on New Year’s Eve and 9 am on Jan. 5, according to police. He got away with four spools of the wire worth around $2,200.

At least some of the 60 security cameras at the site should have caught him carrying out the caper, but only one of the cameras was actually working at the time, according to police.

A load of IR-BS

Scammers swindled a Marine Avenue woman out of $8,000 on Jan. 4 by posing as tax collectors, police said.

The woman told police she received a call at her home near 94th Street around 11 am from a man claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service. They told her she owed her the money, so she went to a Western Union later that afternoon and wired it to them.

Police have not yet determined where the fraudsters are running their scheme.

— Dennis Lynch

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By Joanna DelBuono

Brooklyn Daily

It was just over 40 years ago when I attended the first Beatlefest held at the Commodore Hotel in Manhattan in September, 1974. My best friend Mary and I had secured tickets for the weekend event.

As we walked through the weary hotel’s faded halls and not-so-grand-anymore grand ballrooms, we were amazed at how our favorite group’s memorabilia utterly surrounded us — not an inch of space was left uncovered.

One room had instruments the four lads from Liverpool donated, another contained books and photos, and yet another ran continuous loops of Beatles movies “A Hard Days Night” and “Help.”

One of the screenings was of the very first states-side showing of “The Magical Mystery Tour” — a Beatles film that was never released in the U.S. that we, the adoring attendees of the very first-ever Beatlefest, were privileged to see.

As a diehard fan, I stood in front of the small screen transfixed. I watched in amazement as the images flashed before me. The music, the band — what a thrill it was! I was mesmerized.

Decades later, I still recall how I danced along to “Your Mother Should know,” the performance that ran at the end of the 50-minute flick.

What, you may ask, sparked this walk down memory lane?

This past week, I was channel surfing at 3 am (don’t ask), and what to my wondrous eyes should appear, but a screening of the mythical film “The Magical Mystery Tour” in my very own living room.

“Wow,” I thought. “I have to stay up and watch this, but just in case my aged eyes don’t stay open, I’ll set the digital recorder, too.”

After sitting through it all, all I have to say is “What utter tripe! What a waste of film!”

The sound track was the only redeeming factor. It only included a few songs, and my saving grace was having a digital recorder so I could fast-forward through the rest of the mess.

What had been a magical, mystical experience 40 years before was now only a psychedelic mash-up of skits and images that, in my dotage, only made me dizzy.

Only in my teenage adoration could I have ever enjoyed this movie.

Not for Nuthin™, but they ain’t kidding when the say youth is wasted on the young. After all these years, I finally realized why it never premiered here.

Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

They’ve gotta get it Dunn quick!

Community Board 10 must fast-track a street co-naming for a Bay Ridge do-gooder who died in September so that his aging widow can enjoy a walk down the memorial lane, family members say. The board typically waits two years after a notable dies before entertaining a co-naming, but Dunn’s daughter said she wants the sign up as soon as possible so her 88-year-old mother can see her husband immortalized before she joins him.

“I wanted to honor him because he deserves it, and I wanted her to be alive to enjoy it,” said daughter Geraldine Martinez.

The daughter made an emotional presentation to the board’s Traffic and Transportation Committee on Jan. 11, asking it to honor her father by hanging his name at the corner of Third Avenue and 78th Street as soon as possible. She brought evidence of Dunn’s impact on the community in the form of awards from local organizations and newspaper clippings — including some from the Bay Ridge Courier — featuring the neighborhood titan, but many of the committee members needed no introduction to the man.

“He was a big reason why I’m involved in the community today,” said committee member Brian Kaszuba, who first met Dunn 25 years ago as a 10-year-old Boy Scout. “He was a great mentor to many young men and women.”

The Brooklyn native and life-long scout served in the Navy during World War II before returning to Kings County to marry his high–school sweetheart Mary (neé Brown). The pair settled on 78th Street in 1959 and never left, his daughter said. Dunn routinely collected clothing and money for veterans. But locals knew him best for planting American flags up and down Third Avenue — and throughout the neighborhood, one community leader said.

“No sooner were we in this office than he came by and said ‘Josephine! We’re gonna get you a flag’ — and sure enough, he came by with one and put it out front,” district manager Josephine Beckmann said, recalling the day the board moved its Fifth Avenue office. “He was just one of those quiet heroes. He dedicated himself to the community.”

The board will vote whether the support the co-naming in February. If members give it the go-ahead, the proposal will move on to Council, which votes on co-namings twice a year. City electeds will cast ballots on slate of new street co-namings on Jan. 19, including a proposal to call Third Avenue and 74th Street Ragamuffin Way for Bay Ridge’s annual costume parade.

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

62nd Precinct

Bensonhurst—Bath Beach

Vile visitation

A wicked trio of brazen burglars swiped $200 bucks from an 87-year-old woman’s 20th Avenue apartment on Jan. 11 — while she was home — after letting themselves in and acting like visiting relatives.

The victim told police that she was inside her home between 65th and 66th streets at 7 pm when suddenly the burglars, a man, woman, and child, entered her apartment through the unlocked front door.

Once inside, the kid immediately sat down and watched television, while the man and woman approached the confused woman, telling her that they knew her and were visiting, cops said.

The woman then continued to distract the victim, while her male accomplice went into bedroom, only to emerge shouting, “We need to go, we’re late,” according to police.

The group then left, leaving the poor, old lady to discover she’d been swindled out of $200, cops said.

Jacked

A 37-year-old man was arrested slugging a man and making off with his jacket inside a Cropsey Avenue park on Jan. 10, police said.

The victim told police that he was near Bay 28th Street at 4:45 pm when the suspect socked him in the face, then removed his jacket.

The victim ended up at Coney Island Hospital, where he was treated for wounds sustained during the attack, cops said.

Bathroom burglar

A thief snuck into a woman’s Cropsey Avenue apartment while she was using the bathroom on Jan. 5, and managed to flee with her handbag and Kindle.

The victim told police that she returned home to her apartment between 24th Avenue and Bay 37th Street at 2:44 pm and placed her handbag near the front door before heading to the loo.

While she was in the bathroom, the victim heard her front door open, and she rushed out to find that her purse and electronic reading device were missing, cops said.

Upon realizing she’d been burglarized, the woman stuck her head out the door and spotted a man fleeing down the stairwell, according to police.

Jewel heist

A burglar looted a man’s 64th Street home on Jan. 9, taking jewelry.

The victim told police that the crook snuck into the apartment between 20th and 21st avenues at 6:30 pm, entering through a bedroom window. Once inside, the crook snatched all the jewelry he could find, including a solid gold bracelet and gold necklace, and a wad of cash before fleeing, cops said.

— Colin Mixson

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