State senator Carl Kruger, an outspoken critic of Mayor Bloomberg’s plans for Coney Island, is now accusing the city of “extorting” $68,000 from the owner of Tatiana Restaurant and Nightclub, a popular Russian nightspot on the Brighton Beach boardwalk. Tatiana Varzar lost her restaurant in a massive fire in 2003 that authorities believe was caused by homeless people living under the boardwalk. The Post reports that Varzar has since used insurance money to reopen her......

A former cop whose dealings with a Queens brothel were discovered last year pleaded guilty to federal charges yesterday. Dennis Kim, who resigned from the 109th Precinct this week, told a judge that he used information on a brothel's rivals to make "make many arrests...for drug offenses, possession of weapons, robbery, and prostitution-related crimes." Kim and partner Jerry Svoronos had worked vice out of the 109th, but ended up working with a brothel's operators, Gina......