​This is enough to make you never want to get old, ever: an elderly woman in Queens says her home aide, who she had known and trusted for seven years, stole $800,000 from her. The woman also turned 85-year-old Renee Fuld's apartment into a rent-free boarding house for seven of her friends and relatives. Fuld is bedridden, has no children, and can only get around her apartment with the help of a wheelchair. More >>

​Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) tells the Post that he's requesting a Treasury Department investigation to see if Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian investor who's trying to buy stakes in both the Nets and the planned Nets Arena in Brooklyn, has violated Bush-era sanctions against doing business with associates of Robert Mugabe and his government in Zimbabwe. Prokhorov's Onexim Group, which has offices in the United States, holds a 50 percent stake in Renaissance Capital, which has extensive holdings in Zimbabwe.

This is not good news for Bruce Ratner, who is depending on Prokhorov's investment to get his Atlantic Yards project built.

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You may remember that last year, art dealer Lawrence Salander was indicted for scamming a lot of rich and famous people out of tens of millions of dollars -- including Robert De Niro, whose father's paintings, it was alleged, Salander sold without permission and without paying the actor his cut.

The Manhattan D.A. pursued the case more aggressively than De Niro seemed to, which suggested to our own Rend Smith that maybe De Niro had made a deal to get the paintings back.

If he didn't then, he has now -- De Niro has paid $14,000 to get back six of his father's paintings that were in a bankruptcy court's custody.

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​In a perhaps politically ill-timed decision, Governor Paterson's Executive Budget Summary for the coming year calls for $3 million to be cut from domestic violence programs, according to a coalition of anti-violence service providers.

Of the $3 million, $1.25 million will adversely affect the city, says the New York City Coalition of Non-Residential Domestic Violence Service Providers. The coalition, made up of 13 groups, fears the funding cuts will effectively end all domestic violence intervention within many specific communities.

Sharon Stapel, executive director of the Anti-Violence Project -- the only program in the state that deals specifically with violence in the LGBT communities -- noted that the budget came out just days before the governor's own troubles related to a domestic violence dispute came to light.

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​Under the gaze of Moses, King Solomon, Hammurabi, and Abraham Lincoln (in a mural on the ceiling of the New York County Courthouse rotunda), the latest sad drama in the city's real estate bust played out this morning with minimal fanfare. Speaking slowly and deliberately, the auctioneer finished his work in a matter of minutes.

Today's victim: The Riverton, a complex of 12 buildings and 1,230 units on 135th Street in Harlem. Built as a black answer to Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village -- both of which excluded African Americans in their early years -- the Riverton was a point of pride for generations of Harlem residents.

About 75 people -- tenants, activists, potential buyers and attorneys -- crowded in a tight circle on the marble floor of the rotunda, and saw the Riverton sold for $125 million to a trustee for CW Capital Asset Management, a firm that works closely with Wells Fargo, the bank that holds the mortgage on the Riverton.

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​Ray's Candy Store on Avenue A, centerpiece of East Village life for decades, has gotten a lot of press support since it was announced that he was having yet another rent crisis (the landlord wants back rent from Ray, who's been having all sorts of problems, for his teeny-tiny space). And he's had some benefits, too, like the Sidewalk Cafe affair that netted him $1,300.

But now he also has a force of nature on his side -- anti-consumerist preacher and former mayoral candidate Reverend Billy.

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​The other day Republican Senator Jim Bunning waged a one-man war on, among other things, extension of unemployment benefits. Among the highlights: "Tough shit" and "[gives finger]." (And this was without being required to perform a real, talk-all-day filibuster, so you can't put it down to fatigue.)

Now Republican Senator Jon Kyl (pictured) argues that unemployment benefits are a "disincentive" to work. While admitting that the jobless "would like work and probably have tried to seek it," the Senator believes that "continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."

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​State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports that New York sales tax revenue went down last year by 5.9 percent versus 2008. And city sales tax collection declined even in the spender's paradise of New York City, by the same percentage. (It was worse elsewhere: in the Lower Hudson Valley collections were down by 8.4 percent.)

But someone's making money: Wall Street bonuses were up 17 percent by the comptroller's estimate. Though still well below those paid in the boom years, such honoraria went up 17 percent to $20.3 billion.

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​Being renters, we didn't even know there was a state program offering to partially pay for certain large appliance purchases. The Great Appliance Swap-Out passed its deadline this weekend, but New York announced that it would extend part of the program to spend out unused funding.

The program, like those in other states funded by the federal stimulus, offered to kick in between $75 and $105 for each energy-inefficient refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, and washing machine consumers replaced with a new "Energy Star"-rated unit. (Consumers got extra if they recycled their old unit.)

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​Now here's a surprise: Despite widespread negative reaction among politicians and YouTube videomakers, a new poll suggests New York City folk favor a soda tax like the one Governor Paterson proposed in 2008 (and has vacillated on, in both directions, in response to criticism) to balance the city budget.

This Quinnipiac Poll result, which shows that city voters endorse a non-diet soft drink tax by a 76 to 22 percent margin, contrasts with statewide results taken earlier in the month, in which voters were opposed to the tax, 57-40 percent.

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