Popular City Hall reporter Stephanie Gaskell is quitting her job with the New York Post to go cover the war in Iraq as a freelancer, she told me.

Gaskell, who covered Guantanamo Bay for the AP around 2002, is leaving on Friday night -- missing the Inner Circle show! -- and should be in Baghdad by Monday.

She'll be embedded with the military for two or three months.

We all wish her extremely well.

-- Azi Paybarah

In an item she posted at 6 a.m., Ravitch wrote:

-- Azi Paybarah

"The facts speak very clearly for themselves, as media reports on the contents of the tapes have demonstrated.

"Mr. Burkle followed the government's instructions from the onset: From their directive that he record and they monitor the second meeting Mr. Stern had with him -- where Mr. Stern repeated his request that Mr. Burkle pay him $100,000 up front and thereafter $10,000 monthly in exchange for Mr. Stern's 'efforts' to stop the publication of false reports about Mr. Burkle on Page Six of the New York Post -- to the government's subsequent monitoring of a series of emails with Mr. Stern in which Mr. Burkle was given bank account information for wiring money to Mr. Stern -- to now. Mr. Burkle didn't question their decisions previously and he isn't going to start doing so now."

Since last April, Mr. Stern, a former Page Six writer, has waited on word from any law enforcement office regarding allegations of extortion or blackmail due to his interactions with supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle.

Joe Tacopina, Mr. Stern's lawyer, issued a statement to The Observer today:

"I have been informed by the U.S. Attorney's office that they are not proceeding with any case against Mr. Stern. We have said from day one that this was a campaign to spread lies based on false accusations fueled by Burkle's personal vendetta against the New York Post, and that there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on Mr. Stern's part."

More in tomorrow's New York Observer.

--Choire Sicha

The Times Union reported yesterday that the New York Bankers Association, a group that lobbies state lawmakers, paid the New York Post's veteran Albany man Fred Dicker for a speech earlier this month.

A spokesperson for the NYBA said that Dicker's speech on January 9 lasted about 30 minutes, and a spokesman for the Post said Dicker was paid $1,000. (The money has since been returned to the association with a request that it be donated to an Alzheimer's-related charity, according to Post spokesman Steven Rubenstein.)

Today, the Daily News gets in on the story, adding that "this is the third straight year the NYBA has been paying Dicker - without the knowledge of his boss, Post editor in chief Col Allan."

I'm guessing this isn't over.

-- Azi Paybarah

The New York Post handicaps the 2008 race, with Hillary Clinton at 3:1, Obama at 5:1 and Chris Dodd at "He jumped in last week. Did anyone notice?"

Mike Lupica of the Daily News writes, "Clinton would rather be photographed with soldiers than do anything for them."

The New Republic profiles John Edwards, the "accidental populist." [subscription]

"We have eliminated member items as they have been known to exist over the past number of years," said Eliot Spitzer.

Mike Bloomberg plans to cut real estate taxes, which is a departure from how he used a surplus last year to pay down future health care costs.

State pension funds were invested in a company connected to Joe Bruno.

Republican state Senate candidate Maureen O'Connell has union support.

The Times editors say the new comptroller should have "fearless independence," and financial expertise.

Congressional restrictions on lobbying doesn't include spouses of lawmakers.

The head of the police union stopped a break-in at his own house.

And Lower Manhattan residents have until March 30 to get free testing and clean-up of WTC dust from the EPA.

-- Azi Paybarah

One Jersey mayor has an interesting strategy for closing his revenue gap.

John McCain's 18-year-old son has enlisted in the Marine Corps. We should be hearing more about him.

Welcome to the day after Christmas, the only day of the year you're likely to read a feature about Dennis Kucinich and Duncan Hunter's presidential campaigns.

This story is what people were worried about when it came to John Murtha.

James Brown is dead.

Saddam Hussein may follow him soon.

C'mon folks--there must be more than this going on today! Please keep me posted.

"Corporate executives should not feel free to use their company assets to advance any political objectives that are not shared by shareholders and the entire company. We are urging these companies to support this important critical governance reform," Thompson said in a release.

Clearly, the wrath of the New York Post hasn't shaken him.

-- Azi Paybarah

The refusal by Time Warner boss Dick Parsons to rule out a mayoral run this week turned out to have been a brilliant piece of public relations, leading to a spate of respectful media speculation and, today, to this enthusiastic editorial in the New York Post.

It ends with the standard catch phrase for all political draft movements: "Run, Dick, Run."

But is any of it real?

This morning, in reponse to an interview request to Parson's office, here's what Time Warner corporate communications director Keith Cocozza told me:

"He's not running for mayor."

-- Azi Paybarah

3:54 p.m.

5 pounds, 6 ounces

Roosevelt Hospital

“I’m going to be pregnant for another six weeks,” Ella Georgiades, an editor at the publishing house Palgrave Macmillan, groaned to a co-worker right before her water broke. She rushed home to her West Village three-bedroom (we thought those were an urban legend?), where her husband, William Georgiades, the reviews editor at the New York Post, was waiting. “We have to go the hospital,” she told him urgently. Five hours later, they returned with this long, lanky blond bonbon (who has since put on a few pounds and grown a mullet). Parenthood is “like having the guest that never goes away,” remarked Ms. Georgiades, 29, who has been married to Mr. Georgiades, 39, for a mere five months. The new dad is cracking the Russian history books to help soothe Natasha at night. “He’s on a major kick reading about the gulag and torture. The poor kid is surrounded by all these bookish people.”