(NAPSI)--Wedding bands and engagement rings are more than gifts to mark an occasion; they symbolize a couples eternal love and commitment. Now, that everlasting love can also lead to more lovely jewelry. Thats because through May 21, 2013, people can share their stories of Everlasting Love online for a chance to win $11,000 Erica Courtney diamond earrings.

(NAPSI)—Every year on Earth Day, millions reflect on what can be done to be more environmentally conscious. But why limit it to just one day a year? Make every day Earth Day by changing out the old, energy-inefficient light bulbs in your home with LED bulbs and put money back in your pocket.

Few words brought Mets fans greater joy than when the Amazin’s late broadcaster Bob Murphy would say “Back with the happy recap!” immediately following a victory. Howie Rose, the team’s longtime play-by-play voice, has his own signature phrase that gladdens the hearts of Mets fans following a win: “Put it in the books!”

Rose has written his first book, appropriately titled “Put It in The Book! A Half Century of Mets Mania” (Triumph Books), an interesting amalgam of autobiography combined with a breezy look back at the history of the Mets.

“We were the first team to ever beat the Celtics, who went 68-14 that year, in a seventh game at the Boston Garden,” former Knicks forward Jerry Lucas recalled last Friday night as the Knicks honored members of their 1972-73 squad, the last New York team to win an NBA championship.

Lucas obviously took a pride in that accomplishment, but he was also sending a message to fans of the current Knicks team that even the Miami Heat, led by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, a team that recently peeled off 27 straight wins, can be beaten by the never-say-die Knicks in the playoffs.

(NewsUSA) - The situation at Rutgers is what happens when priorities are out of line.

Flushing native Steve Chubin spent his childhood playing on the basketball courts of Queens parks with his neighborhood friends. He went on to play for Forest Hills High School’s varsity basketball team before capturing the all-time scoring record at the University of Rhode Island. Now Chubin will join 15 former student-athletes and coaches to be inducted into the Atlantic 10 Conference’s Inaugural Men’s Basketball Legends on March 16 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

You would have thought David Wright personally affronted some of the New York sportswriters for incurring a rib cage injury while he was playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. The gist of the grousing was that Wright should have made his employer, the New York Mets, his primary concern, instead of chasing the glory that comes with being part of an American all-star team in an international competition that is the baby of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

Of course these same media types were relishing how Wright was called Captain America by his USA teammates when he appeared to be completely healthy. Talk about pathetic front-running.

(BPT) - If you love March basketball, here’s how to use the time and energy you spent on choosing a winning bracket to live your own hoop dreams.

An African-American art exhibition by Khalil Koromantee and His Young Black Artists will be on display on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rosenthal Library, Room 230, at Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing.

For the third straight year, a collection of the borough’s special needs kids will start gathering for Little League baseball on April 13. Their chance to play comes from the big heart of a dad who lost his son in a tragic accident in 2010.

Last year, the Glen Oaks Little League’s Challenger Division grew to 65 kids in total, most with autism and some with other ailments, more than double the 28 participants when the division first started two years ago. This year, they’re hoping to have even more kids.

The Knicks did not ask their fans to observe a moment of silence on the passing of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch Friday night but they did put his photo and pictures of his life on the Jumbotron during the first quarter. In a moment that Koch would surely have loved, the crowd cheered mightily.

It was the least the Knicks could have done, not just because they are a New York-based NBA franchise but because in 1982 Mayor Koch gave the then-owners of Madison Square Garden, Gulf & Western, a permanent exemption from paying New York City real estate taxes. Veteran sports business author and lecturer Evan Weiner estimates that over the last 30 years the Garden has saved roughly $300 million cumulatively from Koch’s largesse.

It was supposed to be an evening for the community to hear the positions of candidates in the 31st District City Council race, but a lot of the forum, held Tuesday night in Laurelton, was spent grilling one contender for his decision to sue several of his opponents, challenging the validity of their signatures and attempting to get them thrown off the ballot.

Rosedale attorney Jacques Leandre filed, and later dropped, lawsuits against his opponents Mike Duncan, Donovan Richards, Earnest Flowers, Allan Jennings and Selvena Brooks. He pursued the action against Marie Adam-Ovide, but a judge decided in her favor. He did not challenge the remaining candidates, Saywalah Kesselly and Pesach Osina.

Three candidates in the special election for the 31st District City Council seat have taken a stand against what they call unfair tactics employed by one of the competitors, who has gone to court to keep them and others off the ballot.

Rosedale attorney and candidate Jacques Leandre has filed lawsuits in Queens Supreme Court challenging the validity of the signatures of six of the other eight candidates in the race — Mike Duncan, Marie Adam-Ovide, Earnest Flowers, Donovan Richards, Selvena Brooks and Allan Jennings — for the Feb. 19 special election to replace James Sanders Jr., who was elected to the state Senate. The candidates needed to submit 450 signatures by the Jan. 15 deadline to get on the ballot.

Chili may be the official dish of Texas, but a bunch of folks in Whitestone put together a cook-off on Sunday that would have left even San Antonians drooling.

The first-ever event, held last Saturday as a fundraiser for Grace Episcopal Church on Clintonville Street, brought together dozens of hungry area residents and a total of 10 competitors, all vying for a custom-made trophy and $25 gift card, not to mention bragging rights as the “Chili Champion of Whitestone.”

There is no legitimate reason why Mike Piazza was not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame last week. He was one of the best-hitting catchers of all time, and while it’s hard to say he was the greatest, he clearly ranks alongside Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Mickey Cochrane, Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk. Piazza’s defense was more than adequate and starting pitchers liked the way he called a game. He also was able to produce in the two largest American markets, Los Angeles and New York.

So why didn’t Mike get the requisite 75 percent of the vote, something which eluded every other Hall of Fame candidate in 2013? The scuttlebutt from the apologist analysts at the MLB Network was that the voters (current and retired members of the Baseball Writers Association of America) wanted to make sure that they didn’t rush judgment on any player whose glory days were during the steroid era, which roughly ran from 1995 to 2005.

The investigation continues into the 300-foot crane collapse last Wednesday at the TF Cornerstone construction site in Hunters Point where seven workers were harmed with non-life-threatening injuries. According to the Fire Department, of the seven involved, three had to be freed from under the crane itself.

“I just ran; I was calling my son’s mother and my son to tell them, you know, how much I loved them,” said Preston White, a Bronx carpenter working at the scene during the accident.

Although pop stars like Gautier and Carly Rae Jepsen ruled the radio waves with songs like “Someone I Used to Know” and “Call Me Maybe,” Queens’ musicians don’t remember the year with these catchy tunes. Instead, all the artists we asked selected tracks that kept them going through a tough 2012.

Carol Sudhalter is an Astoria-based multi-instrumentalist who last month placed ninth in the 2012 jazz readers’ poll by DownBeat magazine, the genre’s go-to bible of all things jazz, in the category of International Best Flutist. She also tours Queens with the Astoria Big Band.

One of the memorable lyrics in the philosophical 1966 Frank Sinatra hit, “That’s Life,” was when Ol’ Blue Eyes crooned, “You’re riding high in April; Shot down in May!” Former Brooklyn Nets head coach Avery Johnson can certainly relate. In November he was named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. Last Thursday, following his team’s lethargic 3-10 record for December, he was fired by Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Most of the media pointed to guard Deron Williams as the impetus for Prokhorov’s decision. The moody Williams clashed with his old Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan two years ago and sparking his trade to the Nets. Sloan, one of the most respected coaches in hoops history, allegedly saw Deron as the prototypically spoiled and overpaid NBA star and decided to retire rather than deal with him.

Every Wednesday since October, the FDNY volleyball team has been meeting at the Maspeth High School gymnasium to practice for a big game next year.

The 20-member team is set to compete at the renowned World Police and Fire Games in August 2013 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The biannual event brings fire and police departments from around the world to face one another in various elimination-style tournaments.

“Squirm,” in the world of children, is what you do when you’re so excited you can’t stand still. “Burr” is the sound you make when you shiver with anticipation. And “pee” is what you just might do when you laugh too hard.

Put ’em all together, and you’ve got “Squirm Burpee Circus — A Vaudevillian Melodrama,” coming to Queens Theatre just in time for the holiday season, said Cole Schneider, the artistic manager of Handsome Little Devils, the troupe performing in the show.