December 8, 1999
LEVITT WILL TAKE YOUR QUESTIONS AT MEETING
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThinking about buying into a mutual fund or investing in the stock market? Wondering if your retirement plan is right for you? Anxious about saving enough for your kids to...
SETTLEMENT HANDCUFFS CENDANT'S SILVERMAN
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amCendant CEO Henry Silverman is being put on a short leash under the terms of a deal settling a securities fraud case against his company that resulted in the biggest...
HEY, PRADA - NIKE'S GOT A STRIPE, TOO
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amNike's Air Jordans have a new successor to their former "swoosh" -- and it looks a lot like the well-known trademark on Prada's sport line. The new Air Jordans --...
HASBRO CUTS 2,200 FOR CHRISTMAS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amHasbro will cut 2,200 jobs, shift much of its production to Asia, and discontinue some toy lines, as the world's second-biggest toymaker tries to remake itself into a technology powerhouse....
YET ANOTHER #$%(%$ COMPUTER VIRUS FOR YOUR Y2K CELEBRATIONS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAntivirus software companies were bubbling yesterday with news of yet another insidious computer virus set to erase hard drives at the start of the New Year. The W95/Babylonia virus, an...
YAHOO! WE'RE RICHER! - CO-FOUNDERS MAKE $1.5B; STOCK SOARS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amJust by moving Yahoo! to a classier Wall Street index neighborhood, the company's young co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang enriched themselves yesterday -- by another $1.5 billion apiece! Stock...
OTIS, NGN MAKE E-LEVATOR MUSIC
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amUnited Technologies, parent company of Otis Elevator Company, will buy a 25-percent stake in Next Generation Network, the makers of electronic out-of-home billboards. The investment was disclosed at a press...
DOW JONES BIG CHEESE HAS KANN-DO ATTITUDE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amROILED by defections and public relations blows, Dow Jones Chairman Peter Kann seemed to be trying to boost morale at the flagship Wall Street Journal. Only weeks after USA Today...
ANDIAMO? LET'S GO!
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amANDIAMO is not your typical unassuming Upper East Side Italian restaurant. On Tuesdays and Fridays there's live Brazilian jazz, plus there's a tiny downstairs lounge with overstuffed chairs and a...
SONO RUNS ON FUSION POWER
December 8, 1999 | 5:00am'THIS doesn't work for me," my colleague Andrea declared of her "Yuzu cosmo," a cosmopolitan made at Sono with juice of the sour Japanese citrus fruit. "Try the shiso margarita,"...
WHY THE HACK SEE 'Y2K'?
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amARTHUR Kopit's "Y2K," which opened last night at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, leaves you wondering why -- why a computer hacker wreaks so much havoc on a married couple, and...
ABC MAY REHAB '20/20 DOWNTOWN'
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amABC is talking about a major facelift for its youth-oriented news magazine, "20/20 Downtown." Word is that ABC may replace its Thursday-night edition of "20/20" aimed at younger viewers with...
COURTING AN AUDIENCE ; WITH JUDGES BENCHING THE TALKS, MORE TRY FOR AIR TIME
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amNEED more evidence that court shows are overtaking the tired old talk shows on daytime TV? Then take a look at what's in store for next season. The nation's biggest...
THE STARR REPORT
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA clothes call Designer Tommy Hilfiger is looking to develop his own TV shows. Hilfiger already has a multimedia deal to clothe the cast of Columbia TriStar's "Time of Your...
LOFTY 'CRADLE' CRASHES
December 8, 1999 | 5:00am'CRADLE Will Rock" is an attempt to do for the ideological and artistic battles of the Depression years what Milos Forman's excellent "Ragtime" did for the early 1900s. But despite...
SCROOGE, THE MEANEST TEEN IN HER HIGH SCHOOL
December 8, 1999 | 5:00am"POPULAR" Thursday, 8 p.m. on WPIX/Ch.ll POPULAR" is popular for a reason: the writing is really good. It's funny. It's hip. It's as mean as throwing homeless people in jail...
A NEW 'AMADEUS': PLAYWRIGHT PETER SHAFFER SPRUCES UP HIS BROADWAY CLASSIC
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amALTHOUGH it is one of the most successful stage plays of all time, Peter Shaffer's "Amadeus" did not win universal acclaim when it was first produced in London in 1979....
CREATION OF AN EMPIRE: RESTAURATEUR STEVE HANSON HAS FOUND THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS IN FICKLE NYC. NOW HE'S TAKING IT NATIONAL
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIn a city that has a taste forwinners, few can top the track record of restaurateur Steve Hanson. He just doesn't lose. With seven thriving restaurants (opened in the past...
MONEY IS THE LEAST OF IT - WILL TIME AND GREEDY LAWYERS OBSCURE THE HOLOCAUST'S HORROR?
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amDISCUSSIONS of the Holocaust shouldn't center on money. But they often have in the four years since the issue of Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust took on new life....
911 CALL FROM HERO KID, 6, SAVES BROOKLYN GRANDMA
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIt was as easy as dialing 911. That's exactly what a 6-year-old Brooklyn boy did yesterday to save his grandmother's life when she went into severe diabetic shock. Little Xavier...
BX. STUDENT IN GUN BUST
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA Bronx student was arrested yesterday when he tried to slip a loaded pistol past the metal detector at his school, police said. Jamal Ford, an 18-year-old senior at Taft...
RON HAS SO MANY DOLLARS, YET SO LITTLE SENSE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amYOU can hear the 4-year-old chattering merrily into the phone, the sound of her voice nearly eclipsing her mother's. Something about bears, I believe. The voice belongs to Caleigh Perelman....
FIRST LADY TO SHUT OUT PRESS WHEN SHE MEETS JEWISH BIGS; EXCLUSIVE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amFirst Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's eagerly anticipated appearance before key Jewish leaders -- the first since her disastrous West Bank trip -- has been closed to the media, The Post...
MCCAIN AIMS FOR STRONGER MILITARY
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -- Surging Republican presidential candidate John McCain yesterday said low military pay, outdated airplanes and poor health care for vets are a "stain upon the nation's honor." McCain added...
DUTCH BOY BLASTS AWAY AT CLASSMATES
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA 17-year-old student, bent on avenging his sister's honor, opened fire in a Dutch high school yesterday, wounding a teacher and four other teens. Although school shootings are chillingly familiar...
BX. HOSP SUED OVER AIDS ATTACK; EXCLUSIVE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA Bronx hospital failed to protect a sick woman from a violent, deranged AIDS patient who bit and scratched her bloody -- leaving her in fear for her life, a...
FATAL-COLLAPSE BUILDER'S SHODDY WORK DATES TO '91; EXCLUSIVE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA Brooklyn contractor under investigation for a fatal collapse at a Williamsburg construction site has a nearly decade-old record of hazardous building practices, records show. Industrial Enterprises was hauled into...
IMMIGRANTS FOUND SAFE HARBOR HERE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIf you went to sleep in the year 1000 and didn't wake up until 1999, what would be the single biggest news story of the millennium through which you'd just...
OH, BROTHER! THIS JUDGE IS TRULY THE PITTS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amS UFFOLK County -- always the most law-and-order county of any in the metropolitan area -- has suddenly overdosed on Manhattan's liberal pills. Why else would an airhead judge called...
'FAIR' THEE WELL AT QUICK-GIFT MARTS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amSavvy Shopper reveals tips and trends for gift-buying in what is shaping up as the biggest holiday season of the '90s.WANT to do all your holiday shopping in one stop...
OKLA. TEEN USED GUN DAD BOUGHT AT WAL-MART
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amFORT GIBSON, Okla. -- The suspect in the Oklahoma school shooting used his father's 9 mm handgun -- bought at Wal-Mart six years ago -- to fire 15 rounds at...
THE LOWDOWN ON HIGH-RISE ZONING
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIn the most sweeping revision of the city's zoning regulations in nearly 40 years, the Giuliani administration yesterday proposed limiting new building heights in almost all neighborhoods. With several references...
FEAR GROWS FOR 40,000 TRAPPED IN CHECHNYA
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWestern governments yesterday expressed alarm over the fate of some 40,000 residents trapped in the Chechen capital who could be slaughtered if Russia carries out its ominous "get out or...
KILLING FIELDS YIELD 2 MORE IN MEXICO
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThe bodies of two important FBI informants whose work led to the seizures of large shipments of cocaine were found in the mass graves along the U.S.-Mexico border, sources said...
METS HIT KNICKS' SEX-SCANDAL CLUB
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAt least two Mets are among the athletes and celebrities to party at a swank Atlanta strip club linked to the mob and a sexy scandal allegedly involving Knick players....
JUDGE GIVES DUFF GUFF, NIXES $1.6M BID - PERELMAN FACING TINY SUPPORT HIKE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amRubbish! That's how a Manhattan judge yesterday dismissed Patricia Duff's claim that she needs nearly $135,000 a month -- $1.6 million a year -- from billionaire Ron Perelman to take...
SEATTLE TOP COP QUITS FOLLOWING RIOTS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amSeattle's top cop -- pummeled by critics after violence rocked the city during last week's world-trade talks -- yesterday said he's stepping down. Police Chief Norm Stamper, 54, was roundly...
BROADWAY BIG IN TRANSPLANT ORDEAL - STATE WON'T LET CONVICT GIVE KIDNEY
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA Broadway conductor in "desperate" need of a kidney found the perfect 1-in-a-million match -- in Attica. But state correction officials won't let 66-year-old Charles Coleman get a lifesaving transplant...
COMMON FOLK TIRED OF POLITICAL CHESS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amHAVANARAQUEL GAMES pressed her back against her front door, squatted down, covered her face, and cried. "I want him back," she said. She wasn't talking about young Elian Gonzalez. Games,...
IT'S WAR FOR ROSIE & RUDY - TRADE BARBS ON HOMELESS AND HILLARY
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amDaytime diva Rosie O'Donnell took aim at Mayor Giuliani on her TV show yesterday, accusing him of playing politics with the homeless -- and declaring she wants to get locked...
BOY'S DAD TO HAVE HIS SAY AS FIDEL UPS THE ANTE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amU.S. officials said yesterday they will reach out to the father of 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez to explain what he needs to do to get his son back. The...
FEDS' NEW 'PROJECT' TARGETS GUN-MAKERS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThe White House is drafting a new weapon in its war against gun manufacturers -- the threat of a multibillion-dollar class-action suit to be filed on behalf of federally subsidized...
TEACHERS EMBROILED IN EXAM SCAM
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThose who can't teach, cheat. That's what Special Schools Investigator Edward Stancik charged yesterday in a report that says test-tampering by city teachers and administrators to boost student scores on...
SUPER BUSTED IN KIDNAP-RAPE OF TENANT'S DAUGHTER, 12
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA 12-year-old Bronx girl was brutally raped and kept locked in the tiny boiler room of her family's apartment building for a year by the building's super, his wife and...
COPS SEEKING MISSING MOM WHO LEFT BABY WITH NEIGHBOR
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amBrooklyn detectives are looking for a teenage mother who left her healthy baby girl with a teen in Flatbush and never returned to pick her up. The missing mom, a...
METS VISIT KNICK STRIP CLUB
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAt least two Met players are among the crowd of athletes and celebrities to party at a swank Atlanta strip club linked to the mob and a sexy scandal allegedly...
BROTHERS, 1 AND 3, DIE IN SMOKEY HARLEM FIRE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amA 1-year-old boy and his 3-year-old brother were killed in a fire in their Harlem apartment last night -- but seven other kids survived thanks to a pair of heroic...
HOSP SHOCKER ON POST-RAPE PILL
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amNearly one-third of the state's hospitals don't offer rape victims emergency contraceptive pills to prevent pregnancy, a new survey found. And another 23 percent of hospitals seem to have no...
FEDS MULL COCKPIT CAMERAS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amU.S. transportation officials said yesterday they're considering requiring commercial planes to install video cameras in cockpits in the wake of the EgyptAir Flight 990 crash. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman...
TWO-STATE TRANSIT PASS ON TRACK
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amTransit riders could soon travel from Astoria to Atlantic City with a regional E-ZPass-type card that won't require fumbling for cash when switching from the subway to New Jersey buses....
DOCS: SMALL WEIGHT LOSS IS BIG GAIN
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amOverweight women who shed as little as 5 pounds may see some physical and emotional woes melt away, too, new evidence shows. But researchers also weighed in with a more...
TYSON IN DEAD-FERRET PROBE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amInvestigators are trying to ferret out the facts behind the mysterious death of one of the wily weasels at Mike Tyson's Las Vegas estate. A second ferret was found alive...
FIDEL UPS ANTE FOR RAFT BOY WITH HIJACK CLAIM
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThe international tug-of-war over 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez took a bizarre turn yesterday as Fidel Castro demanded the United States hand over six armed men who allegedly hijacked a boat...
SAFE 'N' SOBER Y2K BASH GOES CITYWIDE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThe city is turning the final night of the millennium into a big-time First Night. With a star-spangled stilt walker and a costumed samba band at his side, Mayor Giuliani...
CLIP IS A FASTEN-ATING CHOICE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amForget about technology taking over completely - Fortune magazine says the lowly paper clip is the "product of the century." The little metal item even beat out the computer and...
BOOK REVEALS ALL THE DIRT
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWith more than three months of racing to come over the inner dirt track, "The Aqueduct Inner Track Handicapper 2000," which contains some invaluable information about betting the IDT, could...
FINALLY, RANGERS COMING TOGETHER
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amMaybe there's hope for this pricey bunch of Rangers after all. "People talk about chemistry, but that doesn't just happen," coach John Muckler said at practice yesterday -- after Monday...
JINTS GETS GOOD NEWS ON WILLIAMS' INJURY
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amGIANT NOTES The Giants desperately needed positive injury news and they got some yesterday, as center Brian Williams may not be hurt as badly as the team feared. Williams went...
DISABLED SKI TEAM ON ITS OWN
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amMEMBERS of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, the world's most successful disabled competitive sports organization, are incensed by their recent ouster from the United Ski and Snowboard Association and are...
ERNIE & JIM ARE A-OK: GIANTS' GM AND COACH ON SAME PAGE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amTHERE are reports circulating within the league that Jim Fassel and Ernie Accorsi aren't getting along, that there's friction between the head coach and the general manager. If this is...
JONSSON TO ISLES: DON'T DEAL FELIX!
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -- It's becoming more apparent every day. The Islanders are preparing to make 20-year-old rookie Roberto Luongo their No. 1 goaltender, while looking to trade current No. 1 Felix...
JETS FIND RAY OF HOPE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIF there were a morsel of anything good that came out of Sunday's humiliating loss to the Giants -- and we know we're stretching it a little here -- it...
ITCHY MADDEN TIRED OF GETTING SCRATCHED
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amHe is another victim of the vaunted Devil depth, stuck in the 23-man roster. Instead of a celebration, John Madden's rookie season has been more like a hazing. This was...
MARBURY NOT GETTING GIDDY AFTER RARE TRIUMPH BY NETS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAfter Monday's win, Stephon Marbury's friends asked him why he wasn't beaming. After all, it was the Nets' third win in 18 games and it came against a quality opponent,...
TORRE'S BATTLE NEARLY OVER
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES So far, so good. That's the way Joe Torre described radiation treatments he hopes are the final stage of his battle against prostate cancer. "Knock on wood, hopefully...
NFL FILES SUIT VS. WEB SITE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amThe National Football League sued the owner of a Web site yesterday in what is believed to be the first-ever action in the new, tougher cyber-squatting enforcement world. The NFL...
BOSS IS THINKING LONG-TERM DEALS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amIt may be too late in the game to teach George Steinbrenner an entire new bag of tricks. However, The Boss may have learned a lesson in baseball economics from...
UMPIRES APPEAL TO NLRB
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amMajor League Baseball's threats to punish umps supporting Richie Phillips led the men in blue to overwhelmingly vote for a new umpire union, the Phillips' lame duck union charged yesterday....
HOWEVER YOU LOOK AT IT, PLAN B IS SECOND-BEST OPTION FOR PHILLIPS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amTODAY, Bobby Bonilla is a Met option to play first base in 2000. John Olerud isn't. GM Steve Phillips said this "makes it a more exciting offseason." This is the...
SILENCE DEADLY IN BROOKLYN - JOHNSON REMEMBERED WITHOUT POL IN SIGHT
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWHEN boxing came to Brooklyn to bid farewell to one of its own, there wasn't a politician in sight. It has been 16 days since Stephan Johnson went into the...
PLANE TO SEE, ALI STILL THE GREATEST
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAT first, the weary travelers at LaGuardia Airport terminal couldn't believe their eyes. There was Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time and the soon-to-be-crowned sportsman of the century,...
JOHNNY GOES MARCHING HOME ; OLERUD CHOOSES SEATTLE OVER METS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amSeattle GM Pat Gillick reached down into the engine room of the Mets' lineup yesterday and ripped out the third gear. And that's why the Mets today are a significantly...
GM'S ON 1B HUNT
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amAs Met GM Steve Phillips heads to Anaheim for the winter meetings this weekend, he faces a dizzying array of choices on how to fill the large void left by...
BELL RINGS TRUE FOR SPARTANS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amCHICAGO -- When Michigan State learned that senior point guard Mateen Cleaves would be lost for the first few months of the season with a broken bone in his right...
MADDEN SKATES, SHOOTS & SCORES
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amDeemed not good enough to even dress for four straight, the Devil rookie got the message. "I was at the end of my rope here," John Madden said. "I felt...
P.J.'S NECK ON BLOCK ; EMBATTLED COACH EYES WINS NOT APOLOGIES
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amTHEY are both emotional players who thrive off high energy. Players who can shoot 0-for-the-first-three-quarters, then beat you with a barrage of points in the fourth. Latrell Sprewell and John...
BUTCH GOES BALLISTIC AFTER REFS 'HAND' IT TO CAPS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -- In the city famous for its independent prosecutors, Butch Goring desperately needed one last night to investigate a Watergate-like robbery at the MCI Center. In a rarely seen...
STARKS' GARDEN RETURN HAS IMPERFECT ENDING
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amWhen John Starks got the basketball at the top of the key with less than half-a-minute left last night, his new team trailing his old one by three, he had...
EWING VEXING VAN GUNDY
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amJeff Van Gundy is sounding as exasperated as reporters covering the team trying to figure out when Patrick Ewing will return. Van Gundy said he didn't know if Ewing would...
NCAA RULES PULL PLUG ON GREAT EIGHT; EXCLUSIVE
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amCHICAGO -- It took the Great Eight six years to put together its best field ever. It took one ruling from the NCAA to put an end to the tournament...
EL-AMIN DOGS WILDCATS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amCHICAGO -- Connecticut point guard Khalid El-Amin seems to have established himself as college basketball's version of the Cowboys or the Yankees. There is no middle ground. There hasn't been...
SPREE BUT NOT EASY: KNICKS STRUGGLE PAST STARKS & CO.
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amKNICKS 89 WARRIORS 83 It turned into John Starks' best moment of the night -- a warm 25-second standing ovation during Garden introductions. It went downhill from there, as Starks...
HE'S MORE THAN RUN OF THE MILLS TO WARRIORS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amLast night's Knick-Warriors game at the Garden was hardly lacking for subplots, with volatile fan favorite John Starks making his return to New York, and yet another meeting between assailant...
STILL IN GOOD STANDING :GARDEN FANS RISE TO OCCASION FOR STARKS
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amLatrell Sprewell received a torrent of jeers, taunts and boos when introduced to the Oakland crowd upon his homecoming Nov. 20. Last night, it couldn't have been more opposite for...
CLEAVES TRIES CLIPBOARD
December 8, 1999 | 5:00amCHICAGO - Michigan State isn't violating any NCAA rules. The Spartans have the same allotment of assistant coaches as the other seven teams gathered here for the Great Eight. The...