Slain Walter Scott struggled to be a better dad

When I interviewed Walter Scott for a story about deadbeat dads in 2003, he talked about his struggle to support his kids — the same issue that haunted him the day he died in South Carolina a week ago.

Scott is believed to have fled a police officer during a traffic stop in North Charleston because he was concerned he'd be arrested over his late child-support payments. The unarmed, black man was then fatally shot in the back by the cop.

When I first met Scott in Charleston, it was to talk about Father to Father, a program he enrolled in after being locked up for failing to make child-support payments.

Scott didn't stand to get a reduction in those payments by agreeing to talk to me. Outing himself as a deadbeat wasn't going to help his public image, either.

The most he could hope for was that other dads struggling to make payments would learn about the program, which aimed to help them.

Scott told me at the time that after he initially got pinched, "I said, 'Man, you got four kids depending on you, and you got people in your life that love you. You got to get it together.' "

Scott wasn't perfect, but he was honest and didn't hide his time in the clink.

He told me he was so overwhelmed with not being able to hold down a job and make the payments that he withdrew from his children and turned to booze to kill the pain.

His mother, whom he tried to call before running from the cop nine days ago, set him straight for a spell, telling him that his kids missed him.

"That just broke my heart," he told me. "It helped me come to my senses."

Warning: The following video contains graphic content

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The best subway lines for finding a seat on your morning commute

Park Slope, Bay Ridge, the Upper West Side and Forest Hills are the best neighborhoods to move to if you want to get a subway seat during the a.m. rush hour, transit data show.

As long as you're willing to ride the local.

New York's subway system has been breaking ridership records in the last year, with 6 million people cramming on trains on each of 29 different days in 2014. But riders looking to escape sardine-can trains can take the R line into Manhattan from Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope, Bay Ridge, and Sunset Park.

That line operates at only 57 percent capacity.

MTA officials say this is because R train riders typically transfer in Brooklyn to either the express N train at 59th Street, or the D train at 36th Street in order to shave a few minutes off their commutes — even though those lines are more crowded.

Bruni Perez, 38, of Bay Ridge, said the R is a long trip for her but worth it to read in peace.

"I usually do get a seat," she said. "You have to get on towards the back. It's a slow train, you slog through Brooklyn, but having a seat and being able to read my Kindle makes it bearable."

Others said that though they might not always get a seat on the R train, it's still a lot less crowded.

"It's not super crowded, but I'm usually standing," said Justin Felder, 25, who lives off of the Union Street stop.

Upper West Siders also have good odds of getting a seat, as long as they don't mind taking the local.

The B and C lines above 60th Street only run at 58 percent capacity level.

"Oh no! My secret is out," said Cindy Martinez, 48. "I avoid the 2 and 3 in Manhattan. Crazy crowded. You take the B or the C to the Upper West Side, and you almost always get a seat. Plus it's quiet. It's like Upper Manhattan's secret."

Unlike the Upper East Side, where the Second Avenue Subway line is being built, the Upper West Side has two major subway routes — one on Broadway and the other on Central Park West.

The next-best lines are the M and R trains from Queens to Manhattan.

The lines, which are 59 percent full, run through neighborhoods including Jackson Heights, Forest Hills, and Rego Park.

The G train, which runs from Queens to Brooklyn, as well as the 2 and 3 line from Brooklyn to Manhattan, are other lines that aren't packed to the gills.

The MTA says they are at 61 and 63 percent capacity during rush-hour, respectively.

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The secret to Rangel’s weight loss — besides that Post cover

If he can do it, we can do it!

US Rep. Charlie Rangel — who admits that seeing an unflattering photo of himself on The Post's front page led him to shape up — says he dropped 35 pounds by always eating breakfast, drinking lots of water, and loading up on smoothies.

The 84-year-old Harlem Democrat revealed the skinny on his two-year weight loss, saying his meals involve having oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch and a fruit or veggie smoothie for dinner.

"The thing is not to eat before you go to bed, and it helps when you aren't hungry when you go to bed. There's nobody who has an appetite for food after drinking a smoothie," said Rangel.

"You can last forever after drinking a smoothie — you can sit down to the most delicious meal and not be hungry," he said, adding that the drinks remind him of old-fashioned malted milkshakes.

"I feel terrific," he beamed.

But the pol couldn't stomach revealing his actual weight. He only said he started his diet in early 2012.

To keep the pounds off, Rangel also walks from his office to meetings in Washington, DC. In New York, he usually walks a mile or two each day and recently tried a spinning class.

His "Rangel Resolution Recipe e-Book" includes low-fat dishes, such as "winter root veggie home fries," "Thai coconut shrimp curry" and his wife's "Alma's crab cakes."

Rangel credited The Post with getting him on the thin and narrow after a front-page photo showed him letting it all hang out in 2008. The story revealed Rangel's tax woes on his Dominican retreat — and featured a photo of the belly-bulging pol sprawled out napping on a beach chair.

The fear that another photographer would catch him chowing down on junk food somewhere helped kick-start his weight loss, he said.

"It's fun. I'm enjoying it, and the truth of the matter is, the more I talk about it, the less temptation I have to get my damn pastrami sandwich," he said.

But he admitted, "When I walk into Katz's [Delicatessen] and tell them I don't want anything to eat, the whole place moans."

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Should I disclose my DWI in a job interview?

I was convicted last year for misdemeanor DWI. How do I treat this matter appropriately during the job-search process so I can move on to my next rewarding challenge? Do I have to disclose it on the application or volunteer it during an interview?

Most employers conduct pre-employment background checks, which usually includes checking for criminal information, so there is little chance that your conviction won't be discovered. As far as what you have to share, many states have different laws about which crimes and/or arrests have to be disclosed — or might be considered in the hiring process.

Anyone with a criminal history should conduct a background check on him- or herself before beginning a job search, so he or she can see exactly what a potential employer would. Secondly, if anything erroneous appears on your file, or can and should have been expunged, clean up your record. Finally, check online to find out which information is required by your state to disclose, and be honest in the application. If you are not asked such questions in an interview, I would pre-emptively alert an employer conducting a background check, and explain the reasons they should hire you — and how you've learned from your past mistakes.

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How fashion’s biggest names got their start

It hasn't always been pulsing catwalks, Champagne-fueled parties and celebrity hobnobbing for fashion's superstar designers. Such is the take-away in the new book "Fashion Lives" (Rizzoli, $55) by Fern Mallis, the industry stalwart best known for founding New York Fashion Week in 1993 — and igniting a February 2015 feud with Kanye West.

Out Tuesday, the tome collects 19 transcripts from Mallis' "Inside the Actors Studio"-style lectures at the 92nd Street Y. It offers candid personal accounts from style-world luminaries, many of whom got their start in and around NYC. Here are five of the book's most surprising revelations, from Tommy Hilfiger's denim hustle to Michael Kors' short-lived career as a child actor.

Sherry baby

Donna Karan fitting a model while at Parsons, and today.Photo: Parsons School of Design; Getty Images

Before she started dressing generations of famous women (her fan base includes both Barbara Streisand and Rita Ora), Donna Karan, 66, was a teenage aspiring illustrator in Woodmere, LI. She landed her first job — dressing moms and daughters — with the help of a little white lie:

"I was a salesgirl. The store was called Sherry's. I drew an amazing sketch in the dressing room, and all the mothers loved me to dress their kids. I was about 13 or 14," Karan told Mallis in 2012. "I lied about my age [to get the job]."

Jean schemes

Tommy Hilfiger in front of his first store in Elmira, NY (left), and today.Photo: Tommy Hilfiger personal archive; WireImage for Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger is well known for denim — and has been since the beginning. During his senior year of high school, the natural-born hustler, now 64, started a business "buying jeans and hippie clothes" and selling them in a makeshift basement store in his hometown of Elmira, NY:

"[We bought jeans] on the streets. We found vendors. My friend . . . had been to New York many times, and he led the way through the Village and he knew all of these cool shops," Hilfiger told Mallis in 2012. "We used to buy excess merchandise from a lot of the cool stores, pack the clothes into our Volkswagen and drive it upstate."

Lucky one

Before he was a judge on "Project Runway," Michael Kors (second from right) starred in a Lucky Charms commercial.Photo: WireImage

As anyone who's ever seen "Project Runway" knows, Michael Kors is far from camera-shy. In fact, the 55-year-old Merrick, LI-reared mogul launched a short-lived acting career at age 4 after being scouted at a party:

"[The producer] said, 'I think you'd be great on television.' And the next thing you knew, we were doing Lucky Charms [TV commercials] and all this crazy stuff. I thought it was great," Kors told Mallis in 2012. "I still have my SAG card. [My mother] retired me, though, at 6."

Rising stock

Marc Jacobs with a model from his Perry Ellis collection (left), and today.Photo: Thomas Iannaccone/Fairchild Archive; WireImage

Marc Jacobs, New York's homegrown enfant terrible, has always been fearless. At 15, the now-52-year-old designer snagged a stock-boy position at Upper West Side menswear boutique Charivari, where he introduced himself to iconic designer Perry Ellis — the man who catapulted his career:

"I ran up to Perry — I said, 'I'm really serious about being a fashion designer. You're my favorite American designer. Could you give me any suggestions?' " Jacobs told Mallis in 2013. "And he introduced me to [then-Ellis employees] Jed [Krascella] and Patricia [Pastor] and said, 'They both went to Parsons, and if you're serious, then that's where I'd suggest you go to get a good education.' And that's what I did."

Clothes encounters

Vera WangPhoto: Getty Images

Vera Wang is the darling of A-list wedding gown designers now, but the 65-year-old NYC native paid her dues as a 20-year-old salesgirl at a Madison Avenue shop, where she met her future boss, Vogue editor Frances Patiky Stein:

"When I was a salesgirl at Yves Saint Laurent, I was helping [Patiky Stein] buy clothing, and she said, 'You are really gifted — when you get out of college, call me and I'll give you a job at Vogue.' I knew what Vogue was, but I didn't understand what a fashion editor did," Wang told Mallis in 2013. "My mother said, 'Don't be ridiculous. She's not going to give you a job at Vogue.' And I got out of college and I called her up. I said, 'You may not remember me,' but she did, and I got the job."

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Mike for governor?

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April 12, 2015 | 6:13am

"To keep coal-fired power plants in upstate New York and not frack doesn't make any sense at all. . . Our strategy in New York state seems to be to open gambling casinos so we can rip the lungs out of the poor to subsidize upstate real-estate developers. . . That doesn't help anyone in the area. I would certainly frack."

— Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a Wall Street Journal interview, on Gov. Cuomo's decisions to ban fracking and instead rely on casinos to boost Upstate

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Chris Copeland’s alleged stabber says he did nothing wrong

The knife-wielding clubgoer accused of stabbing ex-Knicks player Chris Copeland outside of a Chelsea hot spot insisted Saturday that he did nothing wrong.

"The facts will redeem [me]," Shevoy Bleary-Murdock, 22, told The Post just hours after being sprung from jail.

Bleary-Murdock — who allegedly slashed the Indiana Pacers power forward in the gut early Wednesday, leaving him with 22 stitches — said he had no beef with the NBA star before the bloody brawl.

"I didn't know him," he said, while casually chowing down on a plate of rice and walking to a pal's house near his Brownsville home.

Sporting diamond earrings and a zip-up sweatshirt, Bleary-Murdock looked relaxed as he and a female friend visited the house at Williams and Riverdale avenues.

He declined further comment on the fight, saying, "I can't talk at this time."

Copeland, 31, was knifed in the stomach outside 1OAK on West 17th Street after he told Bleary-Murdock to "f–k off," law-enforcement sources have said.

Bleary-Murdock tried to break up a fight between Copeland and the hoopster's fiancée, Katrine Saltara, the sources said.

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Man starts online petition in battle over baby name with wife

A Queens couple is battling like Spartans and Atheneans over what to name their firstborn son.

Nicholas Soukeras wants his child to be named after his father, Spyridon, but his better half, Kseniya, says the name is as ancient as the Parthenon.

Now, Nicholas has escalated the miniature Grecian war by launching an online petition. If enough people sign it, he'll take that as a signal to go ahead on Spyridon.

"I'll settle for 100,000 — this is an approximate population of my hometown Maladzyechna," said Belarus-born Kseniya, 33, who is due in August and who favors the name Michael, to honor her late father.

"I don't want to call my son something I can't even pronounce," the flustered mom-to-be said.

So far, things are looking good for Michael — the petition has just four signatures.

But Nicholas, 37, said Michael just doesn't cut it, as it would surely be "diminished to 'Mischa' by [his] Russian-speaking wife, a name also shared by B-list Hollywood actress Mischa Barton, star of such films as "Virgin Territory" and "Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard" he writes in the online petition at ipetitions.com.

Nicholas argues that his wife's "Russian ear" is simply not trained "for the sweet, musical sounds of our Greek nomenclature" to appreciate his ancestor's austere appellation.

"The petitioner's wife is a native of the Republic of Belarus and has been exposed to such barbaric names as Arman, Osip, Igor, Rurik, Ruslan, Artem, Vadim and Zoran (to name a few) throughout her Soviet childhood," the petition reads.

Spyridon, on the other hand, has a noble history, he declared.

"Had President Nixon resigned a mere ten months earlier, in fact, the 38th President of the United States would have been Spyridon Theodoros Agnew . . . Additionally, the current President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, can claim that his paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin . . . was the personal chef to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin himself," he trumpets.

Nicholas said the petition started out as a lark — but that the debate is legitimate for the couple, who have been married for about a year and a half.

"The argument is serious — it's not a joke," Kseniya confirmed.

Added Nicholas, "There are nights we're bickering about it back and forth and we won't talk to each other."

Still, the marathon marital squabble may all be for naught — the couple doesn't even know if their firstborn will be a boy.

"But my husband is convinced," Kseniya said. "He thinks he's a psychic . . . he thinks he can see through the belly."

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Doonesbury cartoonist: Charlie Hebdo ‘wandered into hate speech’

Pulitzer Prize-winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau has taken a bitter swipe at Charlie Hebdo, saying the Parisian magazine's anti-Muslim cartoons "wandered into the realm of hate speech."

"Free speech . . . becomes its own kind of fanaticism," Trudeau said, condemning his French colleagues Friday after he accepted a lifetime achievement prize during the George Polk Awards in Journalism at Long Island University.

Twelve died when gunmen attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices in January in retaliation for offensive ­Mohammed cartoons.

A dozen more deaths resulted in the following weeks during violent protests in Niger, Pakistan and Algiers.

"By attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons, Charlie wandered into the realm of hate speech," Trudeau said.

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Landlord cheating dead tenant out of $225K: lawsuit

An Upper West Side landlord that offered more than half a million bucks to get a longtime tenant out of its building is refusing to pay up after the man's death.

Walter Blomeyer lived for decades in his tiny studio at 350 W. 71st St., one of three adjoining single-room-occupancy buildings owned by Icon Realty Management.

Icon, which is planning to convert the building to luxury housing, offered $525,000 to Blomeyer if he hit the road — a deal he accepted, according a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed by his estate.

Icon modified the deal, paying Blomeyer the initial $300,000 and letting him live in one of the adjacent SRO buildings rent-free for a year before issuing the final $225,000, his estate says in court documents.

Boymeyer, who worked as a black-car driver, died in February of a heart attack, according to lawyer Ted Poretz.

"This is bullying," Poretz fumed. "There's nothing at all in this agreement that says, 'We don't have to pay him when he dies.' "

A lawyer for Icon disputed the claims in the suit.

"The agreement said nothing about his estate benefiting," lawyer Mitch Kossoff told The Post. "His estate is entitled to nothing."

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