Right on the heels of the arrest of Comptroller John Liu's treasurer, another New York politician is wrapped up in some financial funny business. The Associated Press is reporting that the FBI is gathering information in order to decide whether to officially investigate the campaign fundraising of U.S. Representative Michael Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island. Grimm has faced increasing scrutiny since it was revealed that followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto -- who in total contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars Grimm's campaign 2010 -- admitted to donating illegally.

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Sam Levin

Comptroller John Liu at his State of the City speech.

Bad timing for Comptroller John Liu.

Yesterday, news broke that Xing Wu Pan, a fundraiser for the campaign of Liu -- a likely mayoral candidate -- was indicted on federal wire fraud charges.

The Daily News also dug deeper into the departure of Liu's top deputy, who allegedly was clashing with the comptroller's chief campaign bundler.

All this, a day before Liu delivered his State of the City speech -- a move seen as an effort to move away from the negative publicity and focus on citywide policy issues that could set the groundwork for his mayoral campaign.

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News of the World? Old news. Months after the that paper was shut down in the wake of phone hacking revelations, the Associated Press reported this morning that four current and former journalists from another one of Rupert Murdoch's British tabloids, The Sun, were arrested for allegedly bribing police. One police officer was also arrested in the investigation known as Operation Elveden.

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When is a scandal connected to sports not a scandal? Apparently when ESPN decides not to report on it.

There is one huge missing piece in the Syracuse-Bernie Fine sex abuse scandal that the media seems to have agreed not to investigate, namely, who at ESPN knew what and why didn't they do something about it?

In October of 2002, Bobby Davis, the first man to publicly accuse longtime assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine of sexual abuse when he was a child, taped a phone conversation with Fine's wife, Laurie. In the tape, Mrs. Fine seems to acknowledge everything that her husband has since been accused of. (She also acknowledges an affair with Davis after he turned 18.) Davis's recording of the call, by the way, was entirely legal.

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World politics is about to lose a pioneer in the field of bunga bungas. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's controversial prime minister, is set to step down this evening after Italian Parliament approved of a series of austerity measures. The New York Times reports Berlusconi is following the lead of Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of Greece, who bowed to pressure and "resigned last week to make way for a technocrat-led unity government." This news is sure to upset Silvio Berlusconi, as Silvio Berlusconi is Silvio Berlusconi's greatest supporter and fan.

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A couple of hours ago, Penn State University announced that Joe Paterno's weekly Tuesday press conference was cancelled. It's probably just as well, since the Paterno camp had already advised the press that he would not be taking questions on his role in the sex abuse scandal -- and that's the only thing reporters want to ask about at this point. In any event, it's a clear sign that university officials are circling the wagons, and an even clearer sign that they don't yet comprehend the magnitude of what has happened.

This isn't a sports story, and the news media shouldn't be harping on Joe Paterno just because he is the most famous name connected -- however tenuously -- with the scandal.

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via Wikipedia

A three-year-old Malaysian tiger in captivity at the El Paso Zoo killed her mate after she became jealous of his blossoming relationship with another tiger. Reuters has all the steamy details of this crime of feline passion that occurred Thursday afternoon. Seri attacked and killed her mate, six-year-old Wzui, after he fell in with 15-year-old Meli, an older seductress that was on loan from a zoo in Fresno. Hell hath no fury like a 220 lb Malaysian tiger scorned.

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​A former reporter at the U.K. tabloid the Daily Mirror told the Independent that phone hacking was "endemic" during his time there, and that he would testify in a public inquiry ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron. Hipwell worked at the Mirror while current CNN anchor Piers Morgan was editor. Morgan has denied any knowledge of or involvement in phone hacking while the Mirror was under his editorship. More »