February 5, 2000

BRIDGES RAMPS UP; LAUNCHES MUSIC LABEL WITH EX-DOOBIE

Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges is set to launch an independent record label -- and the first release will be his debut album. Ramp Records, the new company co-founded by Bridges,...

EX-D.H. BLAIR BROKER GUILTY IN IPO PRICE SCAM

A stockbroker from the now-defunct Manhattan securities firm D.H. Blair pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring with several brokers in a scheme to artificially inflate IPO prices. Vincent Poliseno, 32, pleaded...

LIVING KIDS: HISTORY COMES ALIVE

Carve a drum, hear a story - and make a quilt. You can do all that and more at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which kicks off its Black History Month...

A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES

Not all the action you see on TV takes place in front of the camera. Or, for that matter, in front of the curtain at a play, opera or ballet...

COLORADO BALLET'S DEBUT AT JOYCE IS ANYTHING BUT ROCKY ;

ANYONE who ever claimed that it ain't what you do but the way that you do it, quite clearly knew little or nothing about dance. Martin Fredmann's highly regarded and...

MCCAIN : I'LL BE KING OF ' EMPIIRE'

Republican upstart John McCain - ecstatic at being on the ballot for New York's March 7 primary - yesterday predicted he'll take the Empire State and zap the GOP establishment...

DAVE'S CELEB PALS GIVE OLD RERUNS NEW LOOK

Regis Philbin, Charles Grodin and Paul Shaffer will pinch-hit for recuperating David Letterman on "The Late Show" next week -- sort of. Philbin, Grodin and Shaffer are sitting down with...

BUILDER COLLAP$ES AS PRINCE ; BIDS CHEERI-OWE

Prince Edward has refused to pay $1 million for work done on his luxury country home, helping to force a London construction firm into bankruptcy. The C.J. Sims firm had...

BX. MAN ABUSED 5 BOYS: COPS

Using Chinese food and Pokemon cards, a Bronx man lured five neighborhood boys to his home, showed them pornography, gave them marijuana and videotaped himself sexually assaulting them, police said...

STRIP CLUB'S SUIT: NAKED GIRLS JUST AS LEGIT AS GUYS

So what's wrong with naked girls singing? That's the question behind the latest legal assault on Mayor Giuliani's strip-club crackdown, as one lawyer claims the all-nude male revue, "Naked Boys...

PAY-TOILETS PLAN FLUSHED

THE Giuliani administration is apparently washing its hands of a plan to install pay toilets on streets around the city. In a little-noticed move, mayoral aides last week asked the...

WILDER 'IN REMISSION' ; HOSP CONFIRMS LYMPHOMA

Actor Gene Wilder is in the VIP section of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for treatment to prevent a recurrence of lymphoma, hospital officials confirmed yesterday. In a terse statement, the...

83RD PCT. BIG QUITTING FORCE

The commanding officer of a Brooklyn precinct recently investigated for fudging crime statistics is quietly quitting the force, The Post has learned. Capt. William Kenny, 48, filed for retirement yesterday,...

MCCALL TO GOVERNOR: POWERBALL IS BAD BET

Gov. Pataki is rolling snake-eyes with his push for the state to join the high-stakes Powerball lottery game, the state's comptroller said yesterday. Comptroller H. Carl McCall, a Democrat who...

MOSCOW HAS SHIP FIT OVER SEIZED OIL TANKER

A furious Russia yesterday dispatched a reconnaissance ship to the Mediterranean and demanded the U.S. Navy release one of its oil tankers suspected of bootlegging oil from Iraq. "We imperatively...

WHAT A BALLPARK FIGURE! ; CITY PLANS FIVE NEW STADIUMS

Get ready for Sports Stadium Fever. Five new stadiums could be built in the city over the next decade. That's more than any city has built in such a short...

BIZ PROS: LET 'CZAR' MANAGE PROJECT'S TEAM

New York City needs a "stadium czar" to oversee the building of as many as five new ballfields over the next 10 years, experts say. The task of building the...

BRADLEY VENTS SPLEEN OVER 'LUNG RIPPER' AL

WASHINGTON -- Underdog Democrat Bill Bradley, taking a bite out of Al Gore, yesterday claimed the veep's campaign tactics were to "rip your opponent's lungs out." Bradley, nipping at Gore's...

COPS FACE DOWN GUN-TOTING DRUGGIE

Six cops were applauded yesterday for capturing a crack-crazed woman without firing a shot even though she repeatedly pointed what turned out to be an inoperable gun at them on...

RUDY USES CITY HALL TO RUN CAMPAIGN, HILLARY CHARGES

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign yesterday struck back at Mayor Giuliani, charging he is improperly using government staffers to work on his Senate campaign. "Rudy Giuliani has been running his campaign...

FEDS KEPT STATE IN THE DARK ABOUT STONED DOC

Federal investigators never told state health officials that one of their witnesses was still practicing medicine after being "stoned" for years while working in operating rooms, officials said yesterday. Angry...

CD PIRATES HAD HOT RAP: COPS

Brooklyn cops cracking down on pirated compact discs busted two suspects yesterday and seized more than 1,000 bootleg versions -- including those of indicted rap artist Jay-Z. A dozen cops...

ISRAELI ROCKETS WOUND HEZBOLLAH BIG

JERUSALEM -- Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a village in southern Lebanon yesterday, hitting a guerrilla commander and seven civilians, officials said. Three American-made Cobra choppers fired upon the village...

JUDGE WANTS COP AXED IN 'SQUEEGEE' SHOOTING

The off-duty cop acquitted in the shooting of a squeegee man near Yankee Stadium was found guilty of using excessive force by an NYPD trials commissioner who recommended his dismissal....

LOUD NOISES PRECEDED JET'S DEATH DIVE

PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- Two loud noises rattled terrified pilots and flight attendants in the final minutes before their doomed Alaska Airlines jet plunged into the Pacific, a federal investigator...

SAD DEATH-SITE VIGIL ON TRAGIC DIALLO ANNIVERSARY

As candles flickered in the night, the mother of Amadou Diallo placed a bouquet of red and white carnations in his apartment and said his tragic death "should not happen...

SON HELPED MOM SCORE: NARCS

A Bronx woman used her 8-year-old son as a drug pawn to help her buy heroin from a dealer in Bushwick yesterday, cops said. Antonia Bongiorno, 43, was arrested by...

BUSTED MOM TO SUE COPS OVER STING AT S.I. MALL

A Staten Island mom says she'll sue the NYPD for millions after being arrested for walking off with a purse, containing $2, that cops had planted as part of a...

CONGRESSIONAL GRILL COULD BE DEUTCH OVEN

WASHINGTON -- A top senator yesterday demanded that ex-CIA boss John Deutch tell Congress why he kept spy secrets on his home computer. The move came as it was revealed...

GIRL'S SUBWAY TERROR ; DRAGGED WITH FOOT IN DOOR

A 12-year-old girl thought she was moments from death yesterday when her foot got stuck in the door of a rush-hour subway train and she was dragged -- kicking and...

BIG A'S CORRECTION: T STORM WILL GO

Back in the early 1980s, trainer Oscar Barrera was notoriously successful in New York using the tactic of running his horses back on just a few days rest. Today at...

VETS KNOW NETS NOT TOUGH ENOUGH

BOSTON - Some say you are born with it. Others argue about whether you can learn it. Still others insist you gradually acquire it. Whatever, the Nets don't have it....

WILLIAMS FACES A GIANT DECISION

He has already undergone surgery on his left wrist, "to put it back together." He's holding off on surgery on his still-sore left knee. His damaged right thumb is not...

JARVIS STAYS POSITIVE DESPITE STORM'S SKID

When does a coach coddle and when does he criticize? When does he bolster his team's shaken confidence and when does he break down a team that is too cocky...

PATIENCE PAYS OFF FOR RESURGENT RANGERS

Back on Jan. 3, when the Rangers had dropped to 12-19-7-3 and were threatening the expansion-like Islanders for last place, a playoff berth seemed as likely as the Garden lowering...

DR. JEKYLL & MR. EWING ; PATRICK WON'T SIT IF HE REPEATS BLAZER BASH

Minutes would not be an issue if Patrick Ewing repeats the formula he found Thursday night against Portland. Ewing would never be bound to the bench in the fourth quarter...

SPREE'S ALL-STAR WISH MAY BE GRANTED

Latrell Sprewell's All-Star chances could hinge on Grant Hill's lower back. Last night against Toronto, Hill was expected to miss his fifth game in seven contests and third straight with...

NELSON RIDES HER 999TH WINNER

Diane Nelson is now one win away from 1,000 victories in her career after she guided Of All the Nerve to a three-quarter length victory over Irish Oz in the...

DOUGLASS FINDS ITS DAY DOUBLY DISAPPOINTING

Man. Ctr.58Douglass43 If you're ever in Las Vegas, don't bring Frederick Douglass Academy's basketball team with you. Yesterday at Manhattan Center, Douglass took two beatings. The first was on the...

MIGHTY GREENE MACHINE ; MAURICE TOPS OWN MEET RECORD IN 60

Maurice Greene, the World's Fastest Man, flashed down the Garden track at last night's Millrose Games, with Jon Drummond on his shoulder like a shadow. The finish line raced up...

ROYALS GET IT DONE WITHOUT OMAR

OVERTIMECTK66St. Fran.61 Who needs Omar Cook? Last night at Christ the King, the Royals' flashy point guard fouled out on a technical with 28 seconds left in regulation, but the...

PANICKY NETS DROP 6TH IN ROW

Boxscore P. 38Celtics100Nets95 BOSTON -- The Celtics were making their charge in the fourth quarter, urged on by a tumultuous crowd, storming back from the grave. Boston guard Kenny Anderson...

LEON WATCH CONTINUES FOR NETS

BOSTON -- The Leon Smith watch continues for the Nets. The troubled teen has cleared waivers from Dallas and there was a possibility he would meet with the Nets yesterday....

CARROLL JOINS WANAMAKER FRATERNITY

Ireland's Mark Carroll has won his share of races, and gained his share of fame. But legendary countrymen Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan built much of their careers by winning...

UNKNOWN ARNOLD STUNS OLYMPIANS

High hurdlers Allen Johnson and Mark Crear had gone 1-2 at the Atlanta Olympics, and had been heavily favored to do the same at last night's 93rd Millrose Games at...