What’s the difference between a bank and a casino?

Though they’ve never been co-stars, actors Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Hudson can be connected on a Muckety map. Your challenge is to figure out how.

Pursuing efforts to jail Bernard Madoff, federal prosecutors disclosed Thursday that investigators had found about 100 signed checks to friends and relatives, totaling more than $173 million, on the day of his arrest.

One of Gov. Bill Richardson’s closest advisers worked as a consultant for the Beverly Hills financial advisory firm at the center of a federal “pay-to-play” probe that led the governor to withdraw his name as the Commerce secretary nominee.

She is a complete unknown to most politicians and journalists. But President-elect Barack Obama says that Nancy Killefer will be one of the most important people in his new administration.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois almost annihilated the career of a young Barack Obama almost 20 years ago when he easily beat back a primary challenge from the then-unknown state lawmaker by portraying him as less than authentically black, among other things.

Bernard L. Madoff mailed Cartier and Tiffany watches, an emerald ring and a diamond necklace worth a total of at least $1 million to relatives and friends in violation of a court order, and should be immediately jailed because he is a flight risk, prosecutors said in court papers released Wednesday.

The firing of Nat Hentoff by the Village Voice last week after he had been with the paper for 50 years posed a problem for reporters and headline writers.

Michael Bennet may be rich and well connected, but he’s a political unknown in Colorado.

CDR Financial Products LLC of Beverly Hills, CA, and its founder, David Rubin, have been scrutinized by multiple federal agencies in recent years, from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Internal Revenue Service.

Call it the Midas touch: Casino magnate Richard Fields just flipped his three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath condo at 15 Central Park West for $27 million - twice what he paid for it a mere six months ago.