January 16, 2000

CITIGROUP'S LEVY IS POST-ED

CITIGROUP compliance chief Harold Levy is wisely not commenting on his appointment as interim schools chancellor until the political battles have been resolved and he definitely has the job. But...

IS DOBBS' APPEARANCE ON CNBC PROBLEM FOR CNN?

LOU Dobbs thumbed his nose at his former employer, CNN, when he decided to appear as a guest on CNBC last Monday night. The topic? The acquisition of CNN's owner,...

IT'S STOCKS, NOT LOVE, ON HIGH SEAS

IT'S the first cold, dreary month of the year, and financial advisers are naturally thinking about ... No, not the January effect or the flood of 401(k) investments -- but...

KLEINFELD MART SAYS 'I DO' TO NEW MAKEOVER

Trapper John, aka Wayne Rogers, got most of the attention when he and a group of investors bought Kleinfeld last July and gave it a $3 million cash infusion. But...

FORTUNE STEALS STAFFERS FOR E-MAG

FORTUNE Editor John Huey is finding that Time Inc.'s newest magazine project, a Fortune spinoff to be known as eCompanyNow, is tough to staff. And the pending merger of AOL...

WEBSITES FOR MINORITIES ATTACK INTERNET GAP

A slew of companies are attempting to close the so-called digital divide, the new catch phrase used to sum up the findings of a Commerce Department report that says African-Americans...

GOLDMAN IS KING OF THE HEAP IN SPORTS M&A

THE usually loud whooping and hollering heard on Wall Street last week most likely was coming from the sports mergers-and-acquisition folks over at Goldman, Sachs. Probably part of their end-zone...

TECH IT OUT

Sometimes it's hard to decide whether to splurge a few hundred on a state-of-the-art cordless phone or buy one of those $5 jobs on the street. At $149.95, Sony High...

STYLE & SUBSTANCE: JILL EIKENBERRY

Former "L.A. Law" star Jill Eikenberry has gone from courtroom to chat room with her husband (and former co-star) Michael Tucker, leading discussions on www.GenerationA.com, a site aimed at Americans...

CHILLI RESPONSE:TLC IS STICKING TOGETHER

There may be a lack of T.L.C. within the group TLC, performing Friday at Madison Square Garden, but trio member Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas believes spats go hand-in-hand with love. "We...

FILM FICTION: WHEN REAL LIFE AND REEL LIFE COLLIDE

In her old nightclub act, Bette Midler used to boast that "mud will be flung tonight." But not much mud is flung in the Divine Miss M's new flick, "Isn't...

NECKING AT THE MOVIES

Bram Stoker had no idea what he was starting when, back in 1897, he wrote the novel "Dracula" (original title: "The Un-Dead"). The tale was loosely based on a real-life,...

4 QUESTIONS FOR DOMINIC CHIANESE

HBO's "The Sopranos," which kicks off its second season tonight at 9 p.m., has more than it's fair share of colorful characters. But Dominic Chianese, who plays Tony Soprano's (James...

BOOK REPORT: IN REVIEW

"Afterburn," by Colin Harrison, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 438 pages, $25. Too many promising thrillers get bogged down in complex plot twists that leave you dazed and confused a hundred...

GUY-GERCOUNTER

MARK CHEMTOB NAME: Mark Chemtob AGE: 23 SPOTTED: 48th Street and Sixth Avenue HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, NY RESIDENCE: Manhattan HEIGHT: 6'3'' WEIGTH: 175 lbs. OCCUPATION: Financial adviser PERSONAL CLOTHING STYLE: I...

MEALS & DEALS

Maroons244 W. 16th St. (between Seventh and Eighth avenues) (212) 206-8640 With the observance of Martin Luther King Day tomorrow, it's only right to highlight a restaurant that embodies both...

WHAT I WATCH

LUCILLE ROBERTS FOUNDER LUCILLE ROBERTS HEALTH & FITNESS CLUBS"The Practice." It makes lawyers seem human and decent.JOHN CARPENTER $1M WINNER ON "WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE""Seinfeld." Because it relies...

PRAISING 'THE DEAD'

Something odd is happening to the Broadway musical. Quietly, almost stealthily, it seems to be changing ... everything. It is enough to make Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hammerstein...

HILLARY JUMPS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT AFTER MONTHS OF HIDING

After a lengthy tug-of-war inside her campaign -- and inside her own head, according to some associates -- the first lady is starting to shed her icy image as Hillary...

MOON AND EARTH TO STAR IN SHADOW DANCE

Americans will see red when they look up at the sky later this week -- thanks to a rare lunar eclipse. The full moon is expected to turn brick red...

BODY DUMPED AND TORCHED IN QUEENS

A man in his 20s was shot dead, dumped in Fort Tilden Park in Rockaway, Queens, and set on fire yesterday morning, police said. It appears the victim, who had...

PREZ HONORS KING WITH BID TO BOOST HATE LAWS

Speaking on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, President Clinton yesterday said he'll ask Congress to expand federal hate-crime laws, as a series of nationwide celebrations honoring the slain civil-rights leader...

BRONX COUPLE BEAT BABY: COPS

A Bronx mother and father have been charged with badly beating their 10-month-old daughter, police said yesterday. Eva Garcia, who is 31 and five months pregnant, took the girl to...

A BENIGN TOP 10 LIST

From The Post's home office on Sixth Avenue,here are the Top 10 reasons David Lettermancan't wait to get out of the hospital: 10. Nurses are playing Stupid Hospital Tricks with...

FANATICS MIGHT BE ATTACKING 'IDOLATRY'

The latest attack on a Catholic religious figure appears to be the work of a group that believes statues are an "insult to God," the pastor of one of the...

SYRIAN PREZ REJECTING FACE-TO-FACE WITH BARAK

Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad yesterday spurned President Clinton's efforts to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. There was "no need" for Assad to meet Barak in...

MCCAIN AND BUSH HAMMER EACH OTHER'S TAX-CUT PLAN

JOHNSTON, Iowa -- John McCain claimed George W. Bush's tax plan is "all hat and no taxes" as they battled yesterday over who's the real tax-cutter in the last GOP...

LETTERMAN'S LAMENT: HOW TO KICK STOGIES

Now that David Letterman's on the road to recovery, the big question is whether the Cohiba-chomping comic can kick his cigar habit, as some doctors are urging. Letterman can choose...

JUDGE TRIES OUR PATIENCE AS HE RETRIES HERO COP

FEDERAL Court Judge Alfred Lechner must have nightmares of cops lurking under his bed as he slumbers. Now, if you want to know where your federal tax dollars go, have...

HBO'S MOB HIT BACK TONIGHT

"The Sopranos," the edgy mob drama that has charmed countless viewers as well as critics, returns to HBO at 9 tonight with the highly hyped premiere of its second season....

HOLY-STATUE VANDALS BEDEVIL COPS

Cops and Roman Catholic clergymen want to know who's been desecrating religious statues in Brooklyn. Six religious carvings have been defaced -- their heads or hands hacked off -- in...

UPBEAT DAVE'S ON HIS WAY TO QUIP RECOVERY

David Letterman says he's doing just great after emergency heart surgery -- and he fired off one of his patented, off-the-wall jokes to prove it. "I feel fantastic," an alert...

CHARLOTTE CHURCH'S DAD IS IN DIRE STRAITS

Biological dad did time for debt.While pint-sized singing sensation Charlotte Church is earning millions, her father reportedly is bankrupt and living in a housing project. Although computer engineer Stephen Reed...

RAGE FUELS PROTEST IN HAVANA FOR LITTLE ELIAN

In the middle.Tens of thousands of angry protesters rallied at a historic Havana street corner yesterday to demand the return of little Elian Gonzalez. "How long? How long do we...

MOYNIHAN HAMS IT UP FOR BRADLEY IN IOWA AD

DES MOINES -- Democratic 2000 contender Bill Bradley yesterday unveiled the secret weapon in his final push to win Iowa's Jan. 24 caucuses, and it's a real surprise: New York's...

FAR TOO MANY GIRLS RUIN MICK'S 'KNIGHT'

No sir -- Mick Jagger won't be a knight. The wrinkly rocker can't get no satisfaction from knighthood because of his randy ways, it was reported today. British Prime Minister...

TA WORK CREW GOT PUSHED OFF TRACK ON PRIVATE JOBS: PROBE

A top Transit Authority supervisor has been suspended after being caught using TA workers -- on overtime -- to do work for a private contracting company, The Post has learned....

O'CONNOR REACHES 'GOLDEN' AGE ; FLOCK RAISES $5.2M AT HIS BIRTHDAY BASH

A roaring crowd of 1,500 helped boost John Cardinal O'Connor's spirits last night at his 80th-birthday bash -- and raise a whopping $5.2 million for Catholic causes. The ailing cardinal...

APPLE-CHI FLIGHT IS NATION'S 'MOST DELAYED'

It's just a two-hour flight from New York to Chicago, but waiting for takeoff is another story -- just ask Tony Pecora, who has spent more time than that sitting...

SERB KILLER SLAIN IN HOTEL AMBUSH

Masked gunmen burst into a Yugoslavian hotel yesterday and shot dead a ruthless paramilitary leader allied with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. Zeljko Raznatovic, 47, better known as Arkan, was gunned...

POST READERS 'FESS UP TO EDIFICE COMPLEX

You hate them -- you really hate them! The Post received an overwhelming response from readers in last week's survey of the city's ugliest buildings. And the "winner" from the...

TRUMP TOWER IS TOP STY IN APPLE'S EYE

Post readers had a slew of theirown nominations for the city'sugliest building but TrumpTower was the runaway winner-- chosen by nearly one out ofevery 10 write-in voters.Here are the five...

GOODFELLAS WHO MIGHT BE ROLE MODELS ; GOODFELLAS MIGHT BE ROLE MODELS

Producers of "The Sopranos" insist the guys in the show's Jersey mob crew are totally fictitious. But lawmen and longtime observers of the New Jersey mob scene say each of...

BARAK BIDS TO LINK BIBI ; TO PEACE PUSH

JERUSALEM.R ONALD LAUDER'S name has been used repeatedly lately by the office of Prime Minister Ehud Barak as a way of persuading the Israeli public to approve Barak's plan to...

CITY COUNTING ON YOU FOR ; DOLLARS & CENSUS

"The census counts affect power, money, group interests, civil rights . . . in short, who gets how much of what."CENSUS DIRECTOR KENNETH PREWITTWASHINGTON -- It looks like junk mail,...

DOSAGE SYSTEM TABS '00 DERBY HOPEFULS

Thoroughbred racing's Experimental Free Handicap, ranking the top 2-year-old runners of 1999 by weight, was released Friday, giving us the dosage "dual-qualifiers" for the 2000 Kentucky Derby on May 6....

CALM BEFORE THE STORM : JOHNNIES BELIEVE THEY CONN DO IT

STORRS, Conn. -- There was a warm air of confidence in the St. John's locker room Wednesday. No need to bundle up and hide from the college basketball world. Tonight...

RAMS, VIKINGS FIGURE TO PUT ON TWA AERIAL SHOW

ST. LOUIS -- The last time he prepared a team for a playoff game was 19 years ago, which sounds like a long time ago and probably feels even longer...

MANNING HAS CAPTURED HOOSIERS' HEARTS

INDIANAPOLIS -- This game could be billed as the Flat-leavers Bowl. The Colts left Baltimore flat in 1984 in the middle of the night and just a few years ago...

ISLES WIN BATTLE; RANGERS, WAR: NEDVED FUMES FOLLOWING BLUESHIRT ROUT ON ISLAND

Rangers 5 - Islanders 2 One of our New York teams is treading water while the other is submerged at the deepest end of the NHL pool. Still, Rangers-Islanders can...

YES, PHILLS WAS GREAT GUY ... BUT HE'S TO BLAME FOR HIS OWN DEMISE

I F THE NBA's shelves were stocked entirely with gentlemen like Bobby Phills, my column would've folded long ago. In a league whose characters supply this space with scandalous behavior...

HAL'S HOPE CAPTURES HOLY BULL

Hal's Hope, sent off at 40-1 after coming off an allowance victory at Calder and a bullet four furlong work, took control at the start and drew off in the...

RICE PRESS WEARS OUT ST. PATRICK

Down by 15 points in the third quarter, the outlook wasn't good for Rice. Already having lost twice this year -- something the Raiders don't often do -- Rice seemed...

METS' REED GETS $4.375M

The Mets and Rick Reed avoided salary arbitration when they agreed yesterday to a one-year, $4.375 million contract for the veteran right-hander. "I've never been in the game for the...

BLUESHIRT 'PLANS' DON'T INCLUDE CUPS

THREE weeks ago the Rangers were trying to trade Petr Nedved to Carolina for Keith Primeau. Now skating between Czechmates Jan Hlavac and Radek Dvorak, Nedved is the linchpin of...

25G REWARD FOR BUCK-NAPPER

ACOUPLE in Pennsylvania could have retired on the stud fees from a 28-point buck that was like the Bold Ruler of the growing deer breeding business. About two months ago,...

DAN, DOLFS GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT: JAGS SCORE 41 IN 1ST HALF, COAST INTO TITLE GAME

JACKSONVILLE - If this was, indeed, the end for Dan Marino, it was perhaps the most unceremonious and pitiful sendoff in the history of professional sports for a Hall of...

A TIME TO GRIEVE, A TIME TO PLAY ON

ELDEN CAMPBELL was too soon to a scene that will haunt him the rest of his life. "Myself and Baron [Davis] pulled up, it couldn't have been more than a...

NO HIDING THE TEARS

IF it took only two minutes, not two long hours, to cut Bobby Phills out of his crumpled Porsche, that image from the worst day of most of the Hornets'...

POLICE: WESLEY HAD SUSPENDED LICENSE

It is unclear if Hornets guard David Wesley was aware he was driving with a suspended license Wednesday when he was supposedly drag-racing Porsches with teammate Bobby Phills. Phills lost...

THE GAME MUST GO ON: EMOTIONAL SCARS MAY TAKE TOLL ON KNICKS

When last night's Hornets-Knicks game at the Garden ended, the Knicks were ready to leave the distractions of the last four days from Bobby Phills' death behind and get on...

POINT COUNTERPOINT

The training camp practice gym was set up inside a massive hotel ballroom in Atlantic City. Court here. Stationary bikes and weights equipment there. Racks of balls were in place....

DEVILS HOPE WHITE'S RIGHT

PHILADELPHIA - While they were getting some money back on one prospect, the Devils have been opening the package on another. With the Devils, it's rarely certain if a new...

CASEY'S SITTING IN GILL'S CORNER

Don Casey would like to be back next season as Nets coach, of course. He also thinks Kendall Gill should be re-signed by New Jersey. "If they (ownership) asked for...

KUSHNER PLAN HAS A RING TO IT

IN MOST areas of New York City, the overall reduction in violence has been a boost to the quality of life and a most welcome change. Except, of course, if...

TAMPA BUCS THE ODDS: RALLY, ROOKIE QB SHOCK THE 'SKINS

TAMPA -- They were down 13-0. Their offense was going nowhere and time was running out. The Bucs looked as if they were in trouble, big trouble. But that was...

NFL DECISION ON JETS WON'T BE TOMORROW

JACKSONVILLE -- The decision regarding the validity of Bill Belichick's contract won't be rendered until after Tuesday, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated yesterday. Tagliabue, who sat in on the first...

IN THE END, KING SAVORS CROWNING GLORY

TAMPA -- Shaun King offered this analysis of his performance in the Bucs' 14-13 win over the Redskins yesterday at Raymond James Stadium: "I didn't play great, but I didn't...

DEVILS GIVE TOP EFFORT

Devils 4 Flyers 1 PHILADELPHIA -- They aspire again to greatness, and this was a step in the right direction. An upward step. Like great teams, these league-leading Devils kicked...

CELTICS' WALKER FILLS UP THE NETS

Celtics 99 Nets 96 Truly, this was a game the Nets had no business winning. And guess what? They didn't. With a chance to leap-frog not one but two teams...

ROCKER NOT ALONE IN DUMB DEPT.: HE TAKES HEAT -- WHILE OTHERS GET A FREE PASS

ODD, but two years ago Barry Bonds made an ugly crack about Jews, apologized the next day, a la John Rocker, and, whoosh, the story went away. In fact, I'll...

CONCUSSIONKOS ERIC

PHILADELPHIA -- The Lindros Concussion Curse has reared its head again. Flyer captain Eric Lindros sat out with his third career concussion last night against the Devils. Although it was...

HORNETS HONOR PHILLS ON COURT

Some of the Hornets admitted before last night's 91-79 loss to the Knicks that they weren't quite ready to return to the court so soon after the death of teammate...

WESLEY'S LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED

KNICK NOTES It is unclear if Hornets guard David Wesley was aware he was driving with a suspended license Wednesday when he supposedly was drag racing Porsches with teammate Bobby...

KNICKS STOP RALLY BID BY SAD HORNETS

After the awkward, toned-down Garden evening was over, during which the Hornets sleepwalked through the first half en route to a 91-79 loss, Patrick Ewing declared the game should never...

SPREWELL: GOD SMILED ON ME

Last week, before Bobby Phills wrecked his Porsche supposedly in a drag race with teammate David Wesley, Marcus Camby asked teammates Latrell Sprewell and John Wallace a serious question: "Why...

ONE NIGHTMARE HARD TO FORGET

ELDEN CAMPBELL was too soon to the scene that will haunt him the rest of his life. "Myself and Baron [Davis] pulled up, it couldn't have been more than a...

JONES WINS RADIO CITY MISMATCH

About an hour before last night's light-heavyweight title bout between Roy Jones Jr. and David Telesco at Radio City Music Hall, a curtain was lowered to provide a backdrop for...