Police: 3 wounded in shooting on Bourbon Street in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — Police say three people have been shot on crowded Bourbon Street in New Orleans as revelers were partying during Mardi Gras.

New Orleans police spokesman Frank B. Robertson said two males and a female were shot just before 9:30 p.m. local time. He says one person is in critical condition and the other two are in stable condition. He did not release their ages.

Robertson says detectives are working vigorously to identify a suspect and determine a motive. He did not have any other details.

The streets were crawling with bar-hopping revelers as they celebrate the weekend before Fat Tuesday.

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DNA no help in Turk slay

The mystery of the Staten Island woman murdered in Istanbul deepened yesterday as Turkish media reported that none of the DNA taken from 22 suspects matches the DNA found near her body.

Married mother-of-two Sarai Sierra, 33, an amateur photographer, was beaten to death and her body was found in a seedy area of Istanbul last Saturday.

Turkish media also revealed her family was aware she was cheating on her hubby.

The dead woman’s brother sent her a Facebook message referring to her husband that said, “If you are going to cheat on him, why don’t you just get out of his life,” Turkish newspaper Per Vatan reported.

The message was sent before Sierra went missing.

Sierra also had sex with a man in a bar bathroom on Jan. 20, local media reported this week.

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Psycho cop loves Tebow

A crazed former LA cop with a grudge against his fellow officers has gone on a killing spree after writing a bizarre Facebook manifesto in which he denounced his enemies — but also proclaimed his love of Tim Tebow, “The Hangover” and “Shark Week.”

Christopher Dorner, 33, is believed to have shot three cops yesterday, killing one, days after he allegedly shot and killed the daughter of a fellow cop and her fiancé over the weekend.

Dorner was still at large last night after his pickup truck was found burnt out in Big Bear, Calif., about 80 miles east of where the rampage started in Irvine.

Reuters/Getty Images

SNAPPED: Police inspect an LAPD cruiser shot yesterday during a gunfight with a man believed to have been ex-cop Christopher Dorner (left), who was at large last night after allegedly going on a killing spree.

He began his spree after posting a screed online in which he named targets for execution and bragged about how tough he is.

“The Violence of action will be HIGH . . . Whatever pre-planned responses you have established for a scenario like me, shelve it,” the rant reads.

The maniacal manifesto also had some encouraging words for Jets quarterback Tim Tebow.

“Tebow, I really wanted to see you take charge of an offense again and the game. You are not a good QB by today’s standards, but you are a great football player who knows how to lead a team and WIN,” he wrote. “You will be ‘Tebowing’ when you reach your next team. I have faith in you. Get out of that circus they call the Jets.”

He also made some pop-culture critiques.

“It’s kind of sad I won’t be around to view and enjoy The Hangover III. What an awesome trilogy,” he mused.

He added, “Damn, gonna miss shark week.”

Ironically, he also ripped the head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, calling him a “vile and inhumane piece of s--t.”

The madman also sent a note to CNN journalist Anderson Cooper referring to former NYPD and LAPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Cooper said last night that the note came with a bullet-hole-ridden coin. It arrived at his office earlier this month. The packaging read, “Thanks, but no thanks Will Bratton.”

Bratton oversaw the LAPD during Dorner’s tenure.

Dorner is wanted for slaying Monica Quan and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence, on Sunday in Irvine, authorities said.

Quan was the daughter of a former police captain who represented Dorner in a disciplinary hearing, cops said. Dorner was axed from the force in 2008 for making false statements.

And yesterday, cops guarding one of his targets chased a car they believed was being driven by Dorner. One cop was grazed in an exchange of gunfire.

Later, a driver, again thought to be Dorner, ambushed two Riverside cops in a car. One was shot dead, another wounded.

During the manhunt, cops reportedly shot two bystanders.

In his Web rant, Dorner said the rampage was a “necessary evil” to “reclaim my name.”

He also weighed in on his favorite personalities:

* To “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator Larry David: “I agree. 72-82 degrees is way too hot in a residence. 68 degrees is perfect.”

* “Gov. Chris Christie. What can I say? You’re the only person I would like to see in the White House in 2016 other than Hillary.”

* “Charlie Sheen, you’re effin awesome.”

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Monopoly ‘token’ interest

PAWTUCKET, RI — Scottie dog has a new nemesis in Monopoly after fans voted in an online contest to add a cat token to the game, replacing the iron, toymaker Hasbro Inc. announced yesterday.

The results were revealed after the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck for elimination in the final hours of voting.

The vote on Facebook closed just before midnight on Tuesday. Other pieces contending for a spot included a robot, diamond ring, helicopter and guitar.

“We put five new tokens out for our fans to vote on, and there were a lot of fans of the many different tokens, but I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out and voted,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice president for Hasbro gaming marketing.

CAT’S MEOW: Game piece that’s replacing the iron.

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Slain cop's father collapses in court

The trial of Peter Figoski’s alleged killers was thrown into chaos yesterday when the slain cop’s dad suddenly slumped over in the Brooklyn courtroom.

Figoski’s ex-wife, Paulette, first noticed Frank Figoski, 79, staring blankly ahead, his shoulders hunched over, in his seat during the grilling of a turncoat accomplice of the two men on trial. She began waving her hand in front of his face.

When he didn’t respond, police-union President Pat Lynch and one of Frank’s sons leaped out of their seats to help.

The two men and other police officers laid Frank across the bench, where he regained consciousness.

Gregory P. Mango

UNBEARABLE GRIEF: Frank Figoski (above), dad of slain cop Peter Figoski, yesterday in court, where he later fainted.

AP

Peter Figoski

The dad was taken by an ambulance to Long Island College Hospital accompanied by his wife, two sons and several officers.

He was to stay overnight for observation.

When the trial resumed, Judge Alan Marrus told the packed courtroom that he “seems to be doing fine.”

“It was just a culmination of over a year’s worth of heartache,” said cop and PBA trustee John Giangrasso, who helped Frank Figoski into the ambulance.

“No father, especially at his age, should have to go through what this man and his family have gone through in the past 14 months.”

The elderly man’s health scare came a day after Mary Ann Figoski, 79, his wife and Peter Figoski’s mom, broke down in tears as prosecutors showed photos of their son’s bloodstained badge and uniform.

Yesterday’s drama came as crook-turned-rat Ariel Tejada was being grilled by the defense.

Tejada, 23, is testifying against career criminal and alleged cop killer Lamont Pride, 28, and getaway driver Michael Velez, 22. Pride and Velez both face murder charges in Peter Figoski’s slaying.

Pride and Velez stared down the snitch, who flipped on them in exchange for a lighter sentence, when he waltzed into court to take the stand.

Tejada revealed that Pride racked his gun before storming the East New York apartment and that Velez knew about the robbery and even asked for a cut.

“Trouble said, ‘Can I get PC?’ meaning profit, percentage,” Tejada testified, using Velez’s nickname and street slang.

“Liar,” Velez mouthed to his lawyer.

Velez claims that he didn’t know Pride was armed or that he and the other thugs were planning to rob the drug dealer.

Career criminal Tejada, the son of an MTA bus driver and a registered nurse, cliamed that Pride wanted to rob drug dealers along with him and ringleader Nelson “Nels” Morales in order to earn some cash.

The prosecution rested after Tejada’s testimony.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona

jsaul@nypost.com

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NYPD releases stop-frisk numbers: Most used in Brooklyn & Queens, nearly all stopped are black or Hispanic

The NYPD for the first time publicly released a report last night on its controversial stop-and-frisk procedure that breaks down by city precinct — and by race — those targeted.

The figures, all from 2011, show that the precinct with the most stops by sheer numbers was Brooklyn’s 75th, which includes East New York and Cypress Hills.

More than 31,000 people were stopped, 97 percent of them either black or Hispanic.

The 73 Precinct, covering Brownsville in Brooklyn, was the next highest with 25,167 stops. About 98 percent involved minorities.

In Queens, the 115th Precinct — which includes East Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights — ranked third with 18,156 stops. Nearly 93 percent of those involved minorities, the figures show.

The 40th Precinct in The Bronx, which covers Mott Haven and Melrose, racked up the next highest number — 17,690 — with 98.5 percent of them involving minorities.

And at No. 5 was the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where there were 17,566 stops, with 88.6 percent involving minorities.

The New York Civil Liberties Union had fought for release of the stats last year.

After getting them, the civil-rights group published the figures on their Web site in May, saying they show a pattern of racial profiling — a charge that the NYPD denies.

The Police Department said it had no comment on why it was releasing the figures itself now.

As has been reported, the statistics show that overall, nearly 90 percent of those targeted by NYPD stop-and-frisks in the city in 2011 were either black or Hispanic.

Meanwhile, blacks and Hispanics together make up less than 53 percent of the population.

A total 685,724 people — 8.6 percent of the city’s population — were detained by cops for “reasonable suspicion.”

That was the highest number since the NYPD started recording stop-and-frisk figures in 2002.

Of that number, 9 percent also were white, and 4 percent were Asian, the figures showed.

The No. 1 reason for stop-and-frisks that year was possible weapons possession, the report said.

The statistics did not say how many of those stops resulted in arrests.

natasha.velez@nypost.com

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The good, the ads & the ugly

Some of the biggest scores and worst fumbles made during last night’s Super Bowl were made by advertisers.

At a record $3.8 million for each 30-second spot, companies strived for buzz and attention.

Mercedes-Benz wound up on both the winning and losing sides last night, experts said.

In the winner, the carmaker tapped Willem Dafoe as the devil offering to give a man a car in return for his soul — only to be rejected when the guy learned he could buy it for $30,000.

The company’s losing ad teased viewers by implying it would show supermodel Kate Upton getting sudsy while washing a Mercedes — but ended with highschool football players doing the job.

Old folks can party hard — and down late-night tacos — like anyone else! The funny, raucous spot showed seniors out on the town, dancing, getting tattoos, getting freaky in a bathroom and eating at Taco Bell.

Taco Bell found the marketing end zone with senior citizens going crazy.

Perennial Super Bowl ad star GoDaddy.com grossed out experts with stunner Bar Refaeli giving a very wet kiss to a nerd.

Budweiser and Jeep both scored emotional points, using a baby Clydesdale and military families, respectively.

The Post’s panel of experts included Richard Kirshenbaum, CEO of NSG/SWAT; George Belch, chairman of the marketing department at San Diego State University; Timothy Calkins, marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management; and Barbara Lippert, Mediapost.com editorat-large.

—Additional reporting by Claire Atkinson

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Deadly deserts

Ralph Peters

Violence in Allah’s name in northern Africa won’t end in my lifetime — and probably not in yours. The core question is: To what extent can the savagery be contained?

From the Atlantic coastline to the Suez Canal, struggling governments, impoverished populations and frankly backward societies struggle to find paths to modernization and to compete in a ruthless global economy. Religious fanatics for whom progress is a betrayal of faith hope to block development.

Still, if the only conflict was between Islamist terrorists and those who want civilized lives, the situation could be managed over time. But that struggle forms only one level in a layer cake of clashing visions and outright civil wars bedeviling a vast region. Much larger than Europe, the zone of contention encompasses the Maghreb, the countries touching the Mediterranean, and the Sahel, the bitterly poor states stretching down across desert wastes to the African savannah.

AFP/Getty Images

Figthers of the Islamic group Ansar Dine

The Sahel is the front line not only between the world of Islam and Christian-animist cultures in Africa’s heart, but between Arabs and light-skinned tribes in the north, and blacks to the south. No area in the world so explicitly illustrates the late, great Samuel Huntington’s concept of “the clash of civilizations.”

If racial and religious differences were not challenge enough, in the Maghreb the factions and interest groups are still more complicated. We view Egypt as locked in a contest between Islamists and “our guys,” Egyptians seeking new freedoms. But Egypt’s identity struggle is far more complex, involving social liberals, moderate Muslims, stern conservative Muslims (such as the Muslim Brotherhood) and outright fanatics. The military forms another constituency, while the business community defends its selfish interests. Then there are the supporters of the old Mubarak regime, the masses of educated-but-unemployed youth and the bitterly poor peasants.

Atop all that there’s the question of whether the values cherished by Arab societies can adapt to a globalized world.

The path to Egypt’s future will not be smooth — yet Egypt’s chances are better than those of many of its neighbors. Consider a few key countries in the region:

Mali

Viva la France! (Never thought I’d write that in The Post.) Contrary to a lot of media nonsense, the effective French intervention in Mali demonstrates that not every military response to Islamist terror has to become another Afghanistan: The French are welcome.

As extremists invariably do, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its allies rapidly alienated their fellow Muslims — after hijacking a local uprising. The local version of Islam is far more humane and tolerant than the Wahhabi cult imposed by Islamist fanatics. To the foreign extremists, the Malian love of Sufi mysticism, ancient shrines and their own centuries of religious scholarship are all hateful — as is the Malian genius for music that’s pleased listeners around the world.

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Con Ed worker injured by explosion on UWS

On Friday a Con Ed worker was injured when a small electrical explosion burned his face and arms as he worked inside a tony Upper West Side apartment building, authorities said.

The explosion sent the unidentified Con Ed worker and one other injured person to New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical Center in stable condition at about 12:50 p.m., the FDNY said.

The Con Ed worker suffered a flash burn to his face with first and second degree burns to his arms, neck and hands while working on a service box, Bob McGee, a spokesman for Con Ed said.

The other victim was burned on his hands, neck and face, FDNY officials said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the second victim was a resident in the Windermere – an upscale building on West 92 Street and West End Avenue – but a Con Ed spokesman confirmed there was only one worker injured.

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Not so fast: Liu still feds’ target

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu is not yet out of the woods in the criminal probe of his campaign fund-raising activities, sources said yesterday.

A report published yesterday suggested that Liu would not be personally charged in the case.

Prosecutors are far from clearing Liu or shutting the door on the case — and still haven’t ruled out filing charges against him or his campaign manager, Chung Seto, at a later date, a federal law-enforcement insider told The Post.

“The investigation isn’t getting closed. It will remain active. There are still things that can be done,” the source said.

Warzer Jaff

Comptroller John Liu

Liu’s former campaign treasurer Jia “Jenny” Hou and key fund-raiser Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan face trial next week on charges they schemed to defraud the city of matching taxpayer-contribution funds by funneling illegal donations into Liu’s campaign war chest.

As The Post reported last year, the FBI and federal prosecutors were trying to convince Pan and Hou to roll over on Liu or Seto to directly connect them to illicit campaign donations.

The feds’ theory was that Pan and Hou solicited illegal donations and hid them at the direction — or at least with the prior knowledge — of Liu or Seto, sources said.

But without documents or testimony that directly tie Liu to the donation conspiracy, the feds determined they did not have the evidence to file charges against Liu or additional people at this time, sources said.

It’s always possible that Hou or Pan could flip on Liu if they’re found guilty, but the feds rarely cut deals after trials with convicted defendants, sources said.

That’s because convicts’ assertions of innocence raise questions about credibility, as opposed to those who fess up before trial and agree to cooperate.

Liu last night said he expected that the fund-raising scandal would be used against him in a “no holds barred” campaign.

“I think my opponents will certainly bring it up,” he said. “I expect for my opponents to try to make it an issue.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors and lawyers for the defendants argued over whether the government could present former Liu press secretary Sharon Lee as a witness.

Lee has admitted she sought illegal “straw” donations from family and friends.

Additional reporting by David Seifman

ccampanile@nypost.com

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Miss America Mallory Hagan belts out National Anthem before Nets game

WireImage

Miss America Mallory Hagan sings the national anthem before the Brooklyn Nets game at Barclays Center Wednesday.

No lip sync needed.

Newly crowned Miss America Mallory Hagan belted out the National Anthem at the packed Barclays Center last night before the Nets game.

The former Brooklynite drew cheers and once again promised her adopted borough that she’ll be moving back after her Miss America reign ends.

“Once I came here, I never wanted to leave,” Hagan saidbefore her big performance..

Despite Hagan’s boost, the Nets were hammered by the reigning NBA champion Miami Heat, 105-85.

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FDNY adds fuel to Breezy Point fire suit vs. LIPA

The FDNY confirmed yesterday that LIPA was still delivering electricity to the Rockaway Peninsula when a fire destroyed more than 130 homes in Breezy Point during Hurricane Sandy.

The FDNY statement provides ammo to 17 Breezy Point families who plan to file a negligence suit against LIPA for leaving the electricity on — instead of shutting it off as a safety precaution — which allegedly ignited the blaze when Sandy’s surge-fueled waves hit shore.

“The power was on,” said Fire Department spokesman James Long.

Specifically, city fire marshals concluded that the hellish six-alarm blaze in Breezy Point started “when rising seawater came in contact with the electrical system of a home at 173 Ocean Avenue.”

An investigative panel created by Gov. Cuomo strongly suggested it will look into LIPA’s role in the inferno.

“Our investigation of LIPA will be comprehensive,” said David Neustadt, a spokesman for the state Moreland Commission.

Meanwhile, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has subpoenaed LIPA’s records relating to the utility’s preparation and response to the storm.

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo, who represents Breezy Point and other areas of the Rockaways devastated by Sandy and other areas in the Rockaways, demanded a state probe of the inferno.

“The state should investigate what procedures LIPA had in place to cut power and prevent electrical fires. It goes to the utility’s public- safety and public-service mission,” Addabbo said.

LIPA declined to comment.

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Ex-NYCiSchool principal in Regents test cheat

The former principal of the high-performing NYCiSchool improperly allowed one of her teachers to re-grade and raise scores on high school Regents exams, school investigators found.

She was among nearly 100 educators — including 17 principals, 61 teachers, seven assistant principals and nine other staffers — who have been implicated in cheating probes by the city Department of Education since 2006, according to documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act filing.

It took the Department of Education nearly 18 months to comply with The Post’s request for cheating cases confirmed by its internal investigative arm, the Office of Special Investigations — in violation of the rules governing public access to documents.

Among the recent cases, NYCiSchool principal Alisa Berger let teacher Susan Herzog re-grade the June 2010 Living Environment Regents exam by herself after they had already been graded.

Herzog said she raised the scores given to students for certain questions after clarifying proper procedures with the State Education Department.

Berger told The Post that student scores were both raised and lowered, but that no students’ grade was changed from failing to passing.

“Did I make a procedural mistake? I did. Was it cheating? Absolutely not,” said Berger, who unrelatedly left the downtown school last year.

Among the biggest cases of cheating, teachers at Hillcrest HS in Queens were found to have bumped up the scores of 255 students on the English Regents exams back in 2006.

The case was never made public and no teachers were punished because the re-scoring practice, known as “scrubbing,” wasn’t technically prohibited.

In another case, Manhattan teacher Iris Ventura helped several classrooms of 8th graders with the state’s high-stakes math exams — at the request of MS 322 principal Erica Zigelman, investigators found.

Despite the DOE’s stated no tolerance policy for cheating, they were both let off with letters of reprimand.

In 2011, Ventura was caught cheating again — this time telling four 7th graders to check their answers on the state math exams, probers found.

She was again let off with a letter in her file, and has since resigned, according to the DOE.

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JonBenet Ramsey grand jury voted to indict parents in 1999, but DA refused to press case: report

AP

John and Patsy Ramsey, parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, drew attention from a Colorado grand jury investigating their daughter's death.

The Colorado grand jury looking into the death of JonBenet Ramsey had actually voted to indict the slain tot beauty queen’s parents 13 years ago, though prosecutors decline to press the case, according to a bombshell new report.

The grand jury voted in 1999 to indict both John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse resulting in death, a Class II felony that can carry up to 48 years in prison, sources told Colorado’s Boulder Daily Camera newspaper.

The paper said Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter never reveled the indictment vote, but refused to sign it.

He announced the end of the investigation, telling the media: “I and my prosecution task force believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant a filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time.”

The former child beauty queen was murdered in the family’s Boulder home on Christmas Day in 1996.

ZUMA PRESS

JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered on Christmas Day in 1996.

While Patsy died in 2006, a lawyer for John Ramsey yesterday hailed Hunter’s actions.

“If what you report actually happened, then there were some very professional and brave people in Alex’s office,” his attorney Bryan Morgan told the paper.

Experts are unclear whether the DA’s acted properly in not signing the indictment, the paper said.

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Qns. shooting ends city's nine-day murder-free streak

The city broke a nine-day murder-free streak last night when a man was found dead in the basement of a Queens apartment complex, police said.

The 20-year-old victim, whose name was not released, had been shot in the head.

He was found just after 6 p.m. in a building in the LeFrak City complex in Corona.

The slaying was the first in the city since Jan. 16, when Jennifer Rivera, 20, and her uncle, Jason Rivera, 30, were gunned down execution-style while sitting a parked car in The Bronx.

The nine days without murders came amid brutally low temperatures that cops say usually keeps criminals indoors — and homicides and other street crime to a minimum.

Last year saw just 414 homicides — a record chalked up to concentrating police operations in high-crime areas.

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Great balls of ire

It seemed like the perfect arrangement for a Manhattan billionaire and his fat-cat friend.

They had admired a set of three abstract paintings depicting a skull and hairy testicles and decided to buy it — and share custody.

For five years, billionaire Henry Kravis and Napa Valley vineyard owner Donald Bryant happily shuttled the Jasper Johns masterpieces between their Manhattan apartments.

In 2008, they bought the set called “Tantric Detail” for tens of millions of dollars from a Chelsea gallery, and it spent the first year at Bryant’s luxurious East 72nd Street duplex.

Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan.com

The Bryants

FilmMagic

The Kravises

HOW’S IT HANGING?Donald Bryant, with wife Bettina, is allegedly keeping this Jasper Johns from Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis.

The next year, Bryant sent the triptych eight blocks to Park Avenue for a year with Kravis and his economist wife, Marie-Josée.

And so it went until 2012, when Bryant refused to yank the paintings from his wall.

He’s balking, Kravis claims, at having to continue schlepping the works between their homes — and at their agreement to eventually give the paintings to the Museum of Modern Art.

“Mr. Bryant continues to hold the artworks hostage,” Kravis fumed in a new lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

He claims Bryant reneged on “the promised gift of the art works to MoMA.”

Bryant whines it’s a burden to shuttle the pieces to Kravis’ 26-room abode by the agreed-upon drop-off time.

The Kravises don’t believe it.

“This so-called ‘issue’ is nothing more than a pretext,” the suit charges. “It served as an excuse for Mr. Bryant’s unjustifiable refusal to honor his obligation to transfer the artworks to Mr. and Mrs. Kravis by the mutually agreed date of Jan. 14, 2013.”

When the Kravises tried to claim the modernist paintings for their home in January, Bryant canceled delivery and demanded a new sharing agreement, the suit alleges.

“How could he even think that he could get away with this?” gasped art expert Michael Amy.

“These are classic Jasper Johns. It’s a loss because the public does not have access to the work of a major master.”

He said a close look will reveal a penis hidden in the painting.

“The shaft is actually masked by the crosshatches,” he said.

Johns, famous for his American flag paintings, sold the works from his private collection and helped broker the gift to MoMA, the suit says.

Mrs. Kravis, president of MoMA’s board, is also a part-owner of the painting. Her husband is the 92nd richest person in America with a $4 billion net worth, according to Forbes.

Bryant’s personal art collection includes a Picasso nude, a Jackson Pollock and a de Kooning that mixes images of testicles, bananas and tongues.

Bryant’s St. Louis company caters to other rich execs, and cabernets from his family winery are a popular if pricey vintage.

MoMA declined to comment, and Bryant did not respond to messages seeking comment.

jmarsh@nypost.com

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Mayor Bloomberg blasted at candidates forum

William Miller

New York City mayoral hopeful Joseph Lhota at at a Thursday forum discussion.

It looks like Mayor Bloomberg is in for a very long campaign year.

The mayor got battered last night at a forum in the East New York section of Brooklyn that featured Republican contender Joe Lhota in his first appearance with other candidates.

The former MTA chairman offered carefully constructed responses to questions that focused on affordable housing before a packed audience at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church.

But most of his Democratic rivals, as well as Republican hopeful Tom Allon, unloaded at just about every opportunity at Bloomberg.

"It's quite possible Mayor Bloomberg does not know what mold is," mocked Comptroller John Liu when the questioning turned to the city's response to super-storm Sandy.

All six candidates agreed the city hasn't done enough to help residents still struggling to recover.

"This is a city administration that wanted to run a marathon while people were just moving into shelters and unfortunately bodies were still being found," said former Comptroller Bill Thompson.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is closest the the mayor of all those running, said mold removal should have been included in the "rapid repairs" program initiated by the city after a homeowner from Gerritsen Beach said hundreds of homes there might be lost due to spreading contamination.

Bloomberg has said that he doesn't intend to respond to every single issue raised by his would-be successors.

But Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson felt compelled to tweet last night, "Reality check-- Bloomberg at 65-23 (per cent in polls) on Hurricane Sandy performance."

The harshest attacks on the mayor came during a discussion of the Housing Authority and its embattled chairman, John Rhea.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio charged that the agency can't function well "if the mayor doesn't care about people who live in public housing. There's an old colorful Sicilian expression that says the head stinks from the head down."

Longshot GOP hopeful Tom Allon went him one better by describing Rhea as the "Cathie Black" of housing, a stinging reference to the schools chancellor appointed by the mayor who lasted 96 days.

There's not much political downside for the Democratic candidates hammering away at Bloomberg before the primary, where the electorate tends to lean to the left and the mayor is an easy target.

The one place where Bloomberg got some credit was his ambitious program to build or rehabilitate 165,000 housing units before he leaves office, the largest such project in the nation.

Every candidate pledged to keep that pace of 15,000 added apartments a year. None explained how they'd paid for them.

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It’s plenty of 20 – plus flurries

When they say it’s “too cold to snow,” don’t believe them. A dusting of 1 to 2 inches is expected when snow showers develop tomorrow afternoon and continue into the evening.

Before that we’ll get more struggling sunshine today, with temperatures peaking at 21 degrees — but icy winds feeling like only 2 degrees. Tonight’s low temperature will be about 13, forecasters said.

Tomorrow’s temps should be more of the same, with a high around 22 degrees.

The weekend will be warmer, but just a bit. Saturday’s high is expected to be 24 and Sunday’s will be 27.

Don’t expect relief until next week. Forecasters say temps will finally go above freezing and hit 36 on Monday, 40 on Tuesday and a positively balmy 48 onWednesday. Andy Soltis

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Gunfire at Houston college

Gunfire erupted yesterday at a community college near Houston, and a school maintenance man was wounded during the volley of shots, cops said.

An afternoon “altercation” between two men — at least one of them a student — led to shots being fired at Lone Star College, said Harris County Sheriff’s Maj. Armando Tello.

“There was a maintenance man injured and shot. It appears he was an innocent bystander,” Tello said of the janitor, who was shot in the leg.

A female student collapsed amid the incident and was hospitalized for a “medical condition,” Tello said.

Carlton Berry, 22, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. His rival was called a “person of interest,” and both were under armed guard at a local hospital, cops said. Details of their wounds were not immediately disclosed.

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Bath salts bust in Hell's Kitchen

Byron Smith

Police at the scene on West 54th Street where officials had suspected a meth lab — cops found bath salts instead.

Something foul is cooking in Hell’s Kitchen.

Police raided a West 54th Street co-op and found pounds of bath salts in a possible drug lab after neighbors complained that apartment of cat urine, sources and witnesses said.

“One officer said ‘don’t go in there,” said Chelsea Blakeburn, 20, who lives next to the third floor apartment and smelled the stench.

Blackburn said that a neighbor upstairs in the five story walk up — which is two blocks from a police precinct — was the one who called authorities.

Pounds of a white substance, believed to be bath salts, were found in the apartment’s refrigerator along with beakers, according to police sources.

A 44-year old man who lives in the apartment is being questioned by police, but has not been charged, police said.

Neighbors describe the man as “bizarre and strange.”

DEP has not finished testing the substance and will make a final determination.

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