Yes, Manti — they’re all real

Now that his fake-girlfriend nightmare is over, NFL prospect Manti Te’o scouts a squad of leggy cheerleaders in Atlantic City. The Notre Dame linebacker was accepting the Maxwell Award and Chuck Bednarik Award as last year’s top player. At Friday’s ceremony, he dodged questions about his online romance with a terminally ill girl that was revealed to be...

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How the West won Square

Jack Dorsey wanted to base his tech start-up, Square, in New York City — but he was in a hurry.The 36-year-old Twitter co-founder said he changed his plan and based the payments platform in San Francisco because access to engineering talent was easier out West — and he wanted to build Square quickly.Dorsey, a New York University dropout, made the comments...

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Wireless deal in doubt

John Paulson is moving against MetroPCS.The hedge-fund billionaire, whose Paulson & Co. hedge fund is the biggest shareholder of the wireless carrier, said yesterday he intends to vote against the proposed sale to T-Mobile. “MetroPCS is contributing 42 percent to the pro forma company’s value but its shareholders are only receiving 26 percent of the...

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LI man, ‘insider,’ arrested

Federal prosecutors charged a Long Island man with insider trading yesterday after he supposedly sold an advance earnings report to an undercover FBI agent for $7,000.Damian Perna, 30, who works at Merrill Lynch, obtained draft earnings reports for several publicly traded firms before they were released, according to charges.Perna, who lives in Oceanside,...

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MTA ‘fare’ thee well

It’s the MTA’s most reliable service — constant fare hikes.The transit agency will increase fares for the fourth time in five years this weekend, infuriating fed-up riders who are now searching for cheaper ways to get around town.The hikes will send the cost of a monthly MetroCard to $112. At this time in 2008, the same card cost just $76. That’s an incredible...

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Blade: I’ll be back

Legless Olympian Oscar Pistorius, possibly facing life in the slammer for killing his model girlfriend, told cops yesterday that he’ll soon be on the “run.” The “Blade Runner” disclosed to South African authorities that he’ll resume training while he’s out on bail for the Valentine’s Day shooting of Reeva Steenkamp. It was the first time Pistorius, 26,...

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Exploiting addiction

Andrea Peyser He’s ringmaster in the Circus of the Damned.Dr. Drew Pinsky is the nation’s leading huckster for celebrity addicts — the go-to guy for almost-famous faces lost to liquor, sex, ecstasy and crack.Since 2008, Dr. Drew has glammed up and tarted up B- and Z-list celebs on his hit VH1 show, “Celebrity Rehab” — renamed “Rehab”...

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And the Oscar goes to...?

Can you ace this Academy lesson?Winners 1927-1977Winners 1978-2012In honor of the 85th AcademyAwards, airing tonight at 7on ABC, British graphic artist Olly Mosswas commissioned to design this puzzle poster of every Best Picture winner.Each film is represented by an Oscar statuette tailored toaplot point or actor’s performance. We’ll give you this one to...

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Why Benedict ‘really’ quit

With five days to go before Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, the Vatican is being rocked by an explosive report that he decided to quit after learning of a network of influential gay prelates who were being blackmailed by gay outsiders.The revelation stems from Benedict’s ordering a committee of three cardinals to investigate the unauthorized release to...

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B’klyn pol: ‘Pay’ ball!

ALBANY — As if sports fans don’t already pay enough to see their beloved Yankees, Knicks and Rangers.They’d have to dig a little deeper into their pockets to go to games under a bill a Brooklyn Democrat is promoting.State Assemblyman Nick Perry’s legislation authorizes the city to slap a 25-cent fee on every ticket to a sporting event worth more than $4,...

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Lead investigator in Pistorius case faces attempted murder charges in 2011 shooting: police

AFP/Getty ImagesDetective Hilton Botha, the lead investigator in the case against Olympian Oscar Pistorius, faces attempted murder charges in a 2011 shooting, police said.PRETORIA, South Africa — South African police say the lead investigator in the case against Olympian Oscar Pistorius faces attempted murder charges in an October 2011 shooting.Police Brig....

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Foreign relations, Jersey-style

You know things are bad when you go to Afghanistan looking for relief.That’s what Sen. Bob Menendez did when he set off on a visit in the thick of headlines about FBI investigations, influence-peddling and hookers. Little could he have known that his host in Kabul — Afghan President Hamid Karzai — would use their meeting to chide the new chairman of the...

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NYPD sarge cuffed in child-porn case

An NYPD sergeant was arrested yesterday for watching child pornography online, cops said. Alberto Randazzo, 36, of Queens, was charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child.Cops wouldn’t say if the arrest came after an ongoing probe. ...

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Bourbon staying strong

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After backlash from customers, the producer of Maker’s Mark bourbon is reversing a decision to cut the amount of alcohol in bottles of its famous bourbon.Maker’s Mark COO Rob Samuels yesterday said the company would maintain the alcohol volume of its product at 45 percent, or 90 proof. Last week, it said it was lowering the amount to 42...

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Mayor-hopeful ‘string pulling’

Mayoral candidate and former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. tried to pull strings in the Democratic Party to get his wife a judgeship before ditching the party, sources told The Post. Carrión, 51, solicited a Civil Court nomination for his wife, attorney Linda Baldwin, 49, from key Bronx Democrats early last year, party insiders said. But the...

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Empty tough talk

Benny Avni Mere hours after North Korea seemingly carried out an underground nuclear test Tuesday morning, our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, vowed to take “swift” and “significant action” against Pyongyang’s rogue regime at the Security Council.To bolster her efforts, new Secretary of State John Kerry picked up the phone Wednesday to consult...

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Retiring Lautenberg paving way for Cory

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who at 89 is the Senate’s oldest member, said yesterday he will not seek re-election next year to a sixth term.His decision opens a clearer path to the seat for Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2014.Before Lautenberg had announced his intentions, Booker said he would...

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Best Buy boner

Best Buy won’t be coming home to daddy, after all.Dick Schulze, the Minnesota entrepreneur who created the nation’s biggest electronics chain 30 years ago, has all but given up his bid to take the company private, sources told The Post.The 71-year-old former chairman of the chain has been scrambling since last summer to corral a team of buyout firms to...

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Cuomo’s calculus

Yesterday morning, an ad in the Des Moines Register warned Gov. Cuomo not to OK fracking in New York. Hours later, the state announced that it will miss a key deadline and the fracking-review process will have to start over from Square One.Is there any better evidence that Cuomo’s interests in fracking lie not in what it might mean for New York’s economy...

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Cops pop gun-toting teen after rooftop firefight

Cops shot an armed teenager and apprehended another man after a gunfight erupted on a Brooklyn rooftop last night, sources said.Police said a 16-year-old male opened fire on a Brownsville rooftop at 10:13 last night. When the officers returned fire they shot him three times. The teenager was shot once in each arm and once in the leg.“They were just shooting...

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