Americans across the country were rolling out their Fourth of July celebrations on Friday, readying backyard grills, colorful parades and brilliant fireworks displays.

The mustard yellow belt stays in America. Hot dog-eating champion Joey Chestnut successfully defended his title Friday by beating onetime frankfurter king Takeru Kobayashi in the Coney Island competition's first-ever sudden death overtime.

A live-in nanny who drowned while rescuing a 3-year-old boy in his backyard pool was hailed as a hero by the boy's family Friday. "She definitely saved my son," dad Matthew Foglia said as he entered Schneider Children's hospital in Long Island to visit his recovering son.

At an energetic age 3, Kamar Reynolds isn't about to let a little thing like a chomped ear slow him down. The Brooklyn tot romped around his Bellevue Hospital bed Thursday, a day after surgeons had to reattach the ear he almost lost in a vicious pit bull attack.

Friends and loved ones of Nathan Allsbrook said farewell to the slain teen on Thursday night with an outpouring of laughter, prayers, song and heart-touching remembrances.

Angry friends and relatives of the Brooklyn woman left to die on the floor at Kings County Hospital are demanding justice for her.

A 2-year-old boy suffered a broken arm Thursday when he darted into traffic in Queens and was struck by a minivan, police and witnesses said.

As the nation celebrates Independence Day, the federal government is taking steps that could one day reopen the Statue of Liberty's crown for the first time since the World Trade Center attack, the Daily News has learned.

HIS PRICELESS music will play on.

The 2-year-old Central Islip girl found by her parents floating unconscious in their backyard swimming pool Wednesday died later that night.

A Riverhead teen was charged with drunken driving yesterday in an early morning car wreck that killed his friend.

Suffolk cops chased a Patchogue woman for 12 miles before the speeding driver's luck ran out when she hit a curb and blew out three of her tires, police said Friday.

For the third time since 2001, the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team has struck out with the city controller's office, failing to report a whopping $130,000 in attendance revenues.

The fledgling Rockaway ferry appears to be cruising on course. Ridership has doubled since its maiden voyage nearly two months ago, but critics say there are still a few kinks to work out.

State officials plan to spend $630 million to demolish the traffic-choked Kosciuszko Bridge and replace it with two parallel spans, beginning in 2011, the Daily News has learned.