April 30, 2007 — The bombshell sex probe of a Washington, D.C., madam that already has caught one Bush administration official with his pants down may soon focus on well-known political pundits who have appeared on TV.

“There are several thousand names, tens of thousands of phone numbers, from administration officials to lobbyists to advisers who are well known, people who appear on television,” said ABC News’ Brian Ross, to whom alleged madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey turned over her little black book.

In an interview with CNN, Ross refused to identify any more of the customers of Palfrey’s “escort service” and did not indicate whom he might name in a segment of ABC’s “20/20″ scheduled to air Friday.

The explosive revelation of the list has had powerbrokers quaking in their boots since Palfrey was pinched by the feds last month.

Some names have already leaked out, including those of former Navy Cmdr. Harlan Ullman, a military strategist who developed the “shock and awe” combat theory, and political pundit Dick Morris, a former Bill Clinton adviser. Both have denied being clients.

On Friday, a former assistant secretary of state, Randall Tobias, 65, abruptly resigned in disgrace after admitting he had called the service.

Tobias, who is married, had once worked in a government job promoting abstinence and opposing prostitution as a way to stop AIDS in Third World countries.

Ross quoted Tobias as saying he had called the service “to have girls come over to the condo to give me a massage.” He denied having sex with any of the workers.

Ross said Palfrey “sees it as hypocritical that the government is going after her and the women who worked for her and not the men who paid them.

“The phone lists were in her home when the federal agents raided it,” he said. “But they were not interested in the names of the men, only the women . . . She thinks that it is hypocritical.

Palfrey has turned down a plea deal and has threatened to call some of her clients to the stand if the case goes to trial.

Palfrey, also known as “Miz Julia,” has denied charges that the girls she employed at the Pamela Martin & Associates escort service are hookers.

She’s accused of hiring more than 130 women over the years, charging clients $200 to $300 a session and generating more than $2 million. The women are said to include university professors, legal secretaries and military officers.

Ullman is a regular columnist for the Washington Times and wrote analyses of the Iraq war for the New York Post during the opening weeks of combat. Dick Morris also writes for The Post.

cynthia.fagen@nypost.com

OMAHA, Neb. —, who suffered a stroke after a performance eight days ago, has improved enough to be moved into a regular room at Creighton University Medical Center, his publicist said.

The 78-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist has been hospitalized in Omaha since May 13, after performing two shows at a casino in nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Diddley’s move out of intensive care was expected to happen later on Monday, his publicist said.

Publicist Susan Clary said Diddley was awaiting word on when he can be transferred to Shands Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla., near his hometown of Archer, Fla.

Faith Fusillo, Diddley’s business manager, said the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer continues to improve and that he has little or no physical limitations from the stroke except difficulty with speech and speech recognition.

“I was able to speak with him by phone this morning,” Fusillo said. “He wanted to know where his stuff was: his guitar and the money from the gig. I was so happy because this is the Bo that I know and love, and a real indication that Bo is on his way back.”

Diddley, with his black glasses and low-slung guitar, has been an icon in the music industry since he topped the R&B charts with “Bo Diddley” in 1955. His other hits include “Who Do You Love,” “Before You Accuse Me,” “Mona” and “I’m a Man.”

Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1998.

April 19, 2007 — A group of Brooklyn Bravest got the surprise of their lives yesterday when a stranger dropped in to their firehouse - literally.

A suspected burglar being chased by cops had jumped onto their roof from the fire escape of another building, stepped on a hatch, fell into an attic, and crashed through its floor. He landed in an area where firefighters bunk.

“He had to be like Spider-Man to get there in the first place,” said Lt. Raymond Seeley.

Then, Seeley said, “He fell about 10 feet through two layers of ceiling and ended up in the bunkroom.”

Firefighters Eric Svihovec and Christopher Velez saw him hiding in a shower.

“He kept saying, ‘I’m using the bathroom! Can you close the door?’ ” Svihovec recalled.

The two firefighters subdued him and cops quickly cuffed him.

“It was an oddball day - you never know what is going to come at you,” said Svihovec.

March 2, 2007 — A husband-and-wife team of lawyers from Long Island has emerged at the center of a brazen insider-trading ring that netted $15 million - the biggest scandal of its kind to rock Wall Street since the 1980s.

Randi Collotta, an attorney and former compliance officer for Morgan Stanley, and her lawyer husband, Christopher Collotta, were among 13 people charged in connection with a pair of overlapping insider-trading schemes that tainted two of the world’s most respected financial giants.

The ring’s members included pros at UBS Securities and Morgan Stanley who allegedly profited from thousands of trades based on information they stole from their firms over the past five years.

“This conduct didn’t occur in obscure boiler rooms, but rather at what are commonly considered top-tier Wall Street firms,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the Division of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Court papers unsealed yesterday in Manhattan federal court detail a host of crimes, ranging from securities-fraud charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years to bribery stemming from a blackmail scheme.

Thomsen called the case “one of the most pervasive Wall Street insider-trading rings since the days of Ivan Boesky and Dennis Levine” two decades ago.

The Collottas, of Bayport, allegedly hatched their crooked scheme to get ahead in the summer of 2004.

Randi, 30, secretly slipped juicy, nonpublic information about four planned mergers and acquisitions to her husband Christopher, 34, and a day trader in Florida, the feds alleged.

The trader, Marc Jurman, 31, executed trades based on the tips in exchange for a cut in the profits - also passing the information to three portfolio managers at a Bear Stearns hedge fund, the feds said.

The couple surrendered to the FBI yesterday morning and entered pleas of not guilty to securities fraud for pocketing approximately $600,000 between September 2004 and August 2005.

Meanwhile, Mitchel Guttenberg, an executive director and institutional-client manager at UBS, was allegedly selling his firm down the river in a related scheme.

The plot was allegedly hatched at a dinner meeting at Grand Central’s famed Oyster Bar. Feds say Guttenberg, 41, arranged to tip off hedge-fund and day traders about upcoming analysts’ securities recommendations in exchange for cash.

The feds said David Tavdy and Erik Franklin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the inside tips from Guttenberg, who communicated with the pair using disposable cellphones and cryptic, coded text messages.

Authorities estimated Tavdy and Franklin each pulled in profits of more than $4 million on the illegal trades.

Three Bear Stearns traders are also accused of trading on Guttenberg’s crookedness, while at the same time profiting from secret information supplied by the Collottas.

In a related bribe scheme, two brokers are accused of blackmailing Tavdy and a cohort for $150,000 in hush money after catching wind of the insider trading based on USB information.

A total of nine members of the ring were arrested yesterday and pleaded not guilty.

Four defendants, including Jurman, quietly pleaded guilty earlier this week.

Staff at UBS and Morgan Stanley were shocked at how far the insider trading reached.

“This wasn’t just a few guys,” said one UBS broker. “It looks like this happened across a bunch of firms.”

kati.cornell@nypost.com

What to look for in a Multivitamin

Written by Gloria Tsang R.D.
Published in May 2007

Multivitamin supplements are available in many forms: pills, capsules, enteric-coated pills, powders, liquids, or chewables. Some brands claim to offer a “Women’s Formula,” “Stress Formula,” or a formula “For Older Adults.” Some brands market themselves as “Complete,” “Active Formula,” “High Potency,” or “Advance.” No wonder people are confused! The #1 thing to look for when choosing a Multivitamin

In order to choose a multivitamin that meets your needs, you should look for a formula that is gender-appropriate and age-appropriate. Nutritional needs for women are quite different from those of men. On the same token, nutritional needs for people over 50 are very different from those of younger adults. “High Potency” is not always the best choice

The strongest formula is not always the best choice. Too much of certain vitamins and minerals in your multivitamin supplement can actually be harmful. In particular, watch out for too much of the following 3 micronutrients:

- Vitamin A: The recommended level of vitamin A is 3000 IU daily for adult men and 2310 IU for women. Some multivitamins have 10,000 IU packed in a daily dose. Too much Vitamin A can lead to birth defects, liver abnormalities, reduced bone mineral density (that may result in osteoporosis), and central nervous system disorders. As a general rule, look for a multivitamin that contains no more than 4000 IU of Vitamin A.

- Vitamin E: The recommended level of Vitamin E is 22.5 IU daily for both men and women. But some multivitamins are packed with 400 800 IU of Vitamin E. This is particularly dangerous because a daily dose of 400 IU or more Vitamin E can increase the risk of death from all causes, according to . Furthermore, a found that cancer patients receiving a daily dose of 400 IU of Vitamin E during and after radiation therapy were at greater risk of developing a second primary cancer. Although the findings are still inconclusive, the Center of Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recommends choosing a multivitamin that contains no more than 100 IU.

- Iron: The recommended level of iron is 8 mg daily for men, 18 mg for premenopausal women, and 8 mg for menopausal women. Too much can cause constipation. In addition, studies in the 1980s reported that high iron stores in men were associated with high risk of heart attacks. CSPI recommends choosing a multivitamin that contains no more than 10 mg of iron for men and postmenopausal women, and 14 18 mg for premenopausal women. (Vegetarians need more iron in their multivitamins because the non-heme iron found in plant-based foods is not as readily absorbed as the heme iron found in meat-based foods.)

The Bottom Line

Taking a multivitamin daily is important to ensure optimum nutrition particularly for pregnant and lactating women, as well as those with specific chronic diseases. For people older than 50 (men and women), a multivitamin or calcium / Vitamin D supplement may be warranted as foods alone may be not able to deliver adequate and to meet the increased needs of older adults. Always speak to your doctor or dietitian before starting a new supplement.

As fortified-foods are widely available, it’s best to choose a multivitamin with less than 100 percent of the daily value (% DV) of most ingredients to avoid toxicity.