March 8, 2000
M&A GETS BACK TO BASICS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHERE are hundreds of corporate mergers and acquisitions in the works, mainly because old-line companies feel underappreciated during the e-commerce craze. While I'm not going to be able to give...
DOWNY IT GOES! P&G PROFIT MISS SPOOKS MARKET
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amOne big profit warning was all it took to take the steam out of the stock market. When Procter & Gamble forecast an earnings shortfall early yesterday, investors panicked, driving...
DEUTSCHE LOSES $44B CITY FUND
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amDeutsche Bank has lost a lucrative contract to manage the $44 billion New York City Employees' Retirement System fund -- one of the biggest pension funds in the country. New...
HDP DROPS OUT OF CALVIN KLEIN BIDDING
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amNo one seems to want to buy Calvin Klein. HdP is grudgingly admitting -- finally -- that it has dropped out of the bidding for the designer's company. That confirms...
THE PAMPERS HIT THE FAN AT P&G
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amProcter & Gamble's embattled rookie chairman Durk Jager could use a little divine help from his top marketing man -- who's leaving in a few weeks to join a monastery....
'MICROSOFT SPAMMED US'; WEBTV USERS OUTRAGED BY ADS IN E-MAILS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amMicrosoft's WebTV users have a message for Bill Gates: Return to sender. After WebTV subscribers voiced and e-mailed complaints to WebTV about new banner ads inserted in e-mails, WebTV pulled...
TOMMY IS SINGING A NEW TUNE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amWhat's a clothing designer to do when his latest looks and overall image become yesterday's news? If he's Tommy Hilfiger, he gets into the music business. The designer announced yesterday...
GARDEN DESIGN RAIDS VOGUE STAFF
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amMAGAZINE entrepreneur Terry Snow -- the Florida publisher who took over the two flagship titles of financially battered Meigher Communications -- just poached Anna Wintour's Vogue staff to sign Michael...
VERISIGN BUYS NETWORK SOLUTIONS FOR $21B
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amDomain-name registry Network Solutions may have a new Web address. VeriSign Inc., which provides Internet encryption technology to businesses, said it would buy the Internet company in a $21 billion...
THALIA HAS FUSION WITHOUT CONFUSION
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amRESTAURANT REVIEW Thalia 828 Eighth Ave. (at 50th Street) 'WHAT'S the secret of your turnip puree?" we ask Thalia chef Michael Otsuka as he makes the rounds one night. "A...
FRINGE FILMS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHE wacky, gonzo spirit of previous outings may be toned down, but don't expect any of the films featured in this year's New York Underground Film Festival to be coming...
COSBY: TABLOID LIED
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amBILL Cosby says he will sue the National Enquirer for $250 million if the tabloid doesn't retract a story in which a young actress accused the comedian of sexual harassment....
IT'S A GRAND NEW THING ; FAST FOOD FROM COUSCOUS TO CAVIAR IS POPPING UP IN THE TERMINAL
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTALK about an underground movement.One of the most exciting restaurant projects in town is unfolding relatively quietly inside Grand Central Terminal. The throngs of commuters are seemingly unaware of the...
BUTTER BELIEVE IT! ONE OF BEST-KEPT SECRETS IN MANY TOP RESTAURANTS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amIT'S the greatest cooking secret of all time -- butter!The great chefs don't like to admit it. Gourmets don't want to know about it. But butter makes it better. Fat-laden...
THE STARR REPORT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amDarva's pain Danny Conger, the younger brother of "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" bride Darva Conger, passed away last Sunday after battling cerebral palsy. Family friend Kendall Retzlaff told...
BRANDY-COUNTESS FEUD ENDSWITH A BIG HUG
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFORMER "Moesha" rivals Brandy Norwood and Countess Vaughn have kissed and made up in a teary Hollywood reunion. Norwood stunned Vaughn and a live studio audience by paying a surprise...
OWNER OF 'BANNED' MOVIE CLAIMS... '20/20' STARTED UGLY WWF FIGHT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amA "20/20" profile of pro-wrestling star Mick Foley was the spark that ignited a war between WWF honcho Vince McMahon and the makers of a new wrestling film called "Beyond...
DISAPPEARING ACT OVER FOR COPPERFIELD SPACE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amBACK when theme restaurants flourished and Claudia Schiffer was inexplicably under his spell, David Copperfield and a group of investors embarked on an ambitious plan to open a gigantic, technologically...
ANCHOR A-SWAY; NEWS BOYS GET SPANKED BY THE GOP
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amGOP officials yesterday vowed to continue targeting network news anchors Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings in a phone and e-mail protest. Republicans were enraged at how the three...
HIGH-STEPPING CELTS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHE Irish are coming! St. Patrick's Day may still be more than a week away but our theaters are already alive with the sound of those happy, bekilted, beclogged hordes...
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE! POST OFFICE LOSES ACADEMY AWARDS BALLOTS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHERE was a mad scramble at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday over The Case of the Missing Oscar Ballots.Academy heads discovered Monday that 4,000 ballots --...
READING SCORES VARY AMONG SIMILAR SCHOOLS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThe Board of Education yesterday released reading rankings of public elementary and middle schools citywide -- revealing wide disparities even among schools with nearly identical numbers of poor and immigrant...
SLIMY TACTICS COULD COME BACK TO HAUNT BUSH IN END
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL GEORGE W. BUSH, who hurt himself in South Carolina, appears to have done it again in New York - and the damage may stay with him...
MCCAIN SHOULD QUIT TODAY
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFOR six weeks, many of us on the Right have argued that John McCain was the Republican candidate most likely to defeat Al Gore in the fall and therefore that...
DA WON'T SEEK DEATH IN 'MUFFIN' SLAYS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amManhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced yesterday he will not seek the death penalty against two men accused in the October double-murder at a Prince Street muffin shop. Terence Wells...
MAKE-OR-BREAK FOR PATAKI
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amANALYSIS ALBANY - It doesn't do much for Gov. Pataki's image that New York was still up for grabs in the final days of the GOP primary campaign. In many...
SUPER TUESDAY REALLY SUPER FOR GORE & BUSH: VEEP KOS BRADLEY AS TEXAN RACKS UP BIG W'S VS. MCCAIN
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amVice President Al Gore just about locked up the Democratic nomination last night - and George W. Bush took a giant step toward the Republican nod by raking in a...
BRADLEY FINALLY DEFEATED BY THE NEW YORK NIX
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amIt looks like Bill Bradley has been knocked out of the game. The former New Jersey senator - whose "reform" campaign was overshadowed by GOP maverick John McCain's own brand...
REVISIONISTS STILL IN DENIAL ; CONDEMN IRVING'S VIEWS -- FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amLAST Friday, testimony ended in a London courtroom in author David Irving's libel suit against Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University and her publisher, Penguin Books. The issue is whether...
POPE PLANS MEA CULPA FOR CENTURIES OF SIN
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amPope John Paul II is preparing a sweeping apology for the sins of Catholics -- ranging from promoting the Crusades and Inquisition to the church's treatment of women, Jews and...
IRAQ BLAMES U.S. NUKE-TIPPED SHELLS FOR CANCER BOOM
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThe cancer rate in Iraq has more than doubled in 10 years -- and health officials place the blame on radioactivity from spent munitions fired by British and U.S. forces...
BILL: WIPE OUT MOZAMBIQUE DEBT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFlood-devastated Mozambique would be forgiven its multimillion-dollar international debt under a proposal supported yesterday by the Clinton administration. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said erasing the South African nation's debts "is...
STUDY HAILS HEART-FAILURE RX
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amExperts said the findings should end concerns that beta blockers worsen heart failure.A drug used to treat high blood pressure can save the lives of people suffering from heart failure...
SYRIAN CABINET QUITS AMID REPORT OF ASSAD'S 'DEMENTIA'
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amJERUSALEM --Syria's government resigned after 13 years yesterday amid reports about the deteriorating physical and mental health of President Hafez Assad. Assad, Syria's iron-fisted leader since 1970, named a provincial...
WHO'LL BE GORE'S VEEP? INSIDERS THINK HE WANTS SOUTHERNER
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amNow Al Gore gets to pick his own vice president -- and some Democrats suspect he may pull a "Clinton" and pick a fellow Southerner. Like maybe North Carolina Gov....
ALBRIGHT NIXES BID TO BE NEXT CZECH PREZ
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amSecretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday ruled out seeking the presidency of her native Czech Republic, declaring: "My heart is in two places -- but America is where I belong."...
AMY'S KILLER STILL OUT THERE ONE YEAR LATER
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amA year to the day after social-work student Amy Watkins was stabbed to death in Brooklyn, detectives are still searching for her killer. The Kansas-reared Watkins, 26, was killed in...
'CURTAINS' FOR KATHIE LEE ; SHE'S ANGLING TO LAND STAR ROLE ON BROADWAY
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amNow that she's decided to bolt her morning talk show, Kathie Lee Gifford is making a beeline to Broadway. Gifford -- who will be leaving "Live With Regis and Kathie...
THIS JOINT'S GONNA BE JUMPING ; GRUBMAN & SIEGAL TO HAVE PRE-EMINENT FLACK FIRM
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTWO of New York's best-known publicists are set to join forces in a merger that's been likened by one of them -- without irony -- to that of AOL and...
BRUNO SEES NEED FOR CITY TO HIKE TEACHER PAY
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amALBANY -- New York City has to pay higher salaries if it wants to attract and keep good schoolteachers, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said yesterday. Bruno (R-Rensselaer County)...
CALISTA: POUND FOR POUND, I'M JUST LIKE MONICA AND LINDA
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amWafer-thin "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart says she's in the same boat as Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp when it comes to being persecuted by a sexist public. The actress...
BELLEVUE'S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SICK: UNION
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amBellevue Hospital's basement is a warren of corroded pipes, leaky old barrels and fire hazards, say maintenance staffers, who worry they may soon need a hospital bed themselves. Teamsters Local...
TOO BIG FOR HIS BREACHES ; CIA EX-CHIEF FREE AS SCIENTIST IS JAILED FOR SAME OFFENSE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFORMER CIA Director John Deutch and scientist Wen Ho Lee both kept secret files on their home computers. But while Lee is in a New Mexico cell, facing life imprisonment,...
FUROR OVER AMBULANCE HONCHO'S SEX RAP
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThe head of the only private ambulance company in the city's 911 system is a convicted sex offender who -- critics charge -- should never have been recertified as a...
ONE FOR THE BOOKS: 'BULL' FINDS CRIME PAYS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00am"Sammy Bull" has escaped the Son of Sam. Mob rat, admitted serial murderer and alleged drug runner Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano can reap the profits from a best seller about...
ADD SHARP JUMP IN DROPOUTS TO ED BOARD WOES
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amRead this and weep: The dropout rate among city high school students is on the rise after years of decline. The Board of Education reported the dropout rate jumped nearly...
LOUIMA APPEALS EYED AS 2 MORE COPS AWAIT TRIAL
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amCourt battles over the Abner Louima torture were far from over yesterday, as the three convicted conspiracy cops geared up to file appeals -- and two others were set to...
GOP BALLOT SLATE PROVES PRIMARILY BAFFLING TO VOTERS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amRepublican primary voters were dazed and confused yesterday -- searching for their presidential candidate amid a list of largely unheralded party delegates on the GOP ballot. In a set-up blasted...
BRADLEY'S SHOT AT NOMINATION IS BLOCKED BY NEW YORK NIX ; PREZ BID SUNK AFTER LOSS IN HOME ARENA
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amBill Bradley all but took himself out of the game last night. "He won. I lost," the former New Jersey senator said wryly as he appeared in the Sheraton Hotel...
BUSH'S TASK IS 'CENTERED' ON FIXING A FRACTURED GOP ; BUSH TASK 'CENTERS' AROUND FRACTURED GOP
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHE Democrats are already unified, but the Republicans are still fractured. Democratic nominee-to-be Al Gore and defeated rival Bill Bradley said nothing but nice things about each other last night....
PATAKI DODGES A BULLET
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amANALYSIS Gov. Pataki escaped a major national embarrassment last night with George W. Bush's strong victory in the New York Republican primary. Pataki, badly hurt last month by his unsuccessful...
MAULED MCCAIN NIXES THIRD-PARTY BID
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThe Straight Talk Express ran out of gas last night -- and John McCain's aides and supporters shot down any notion that he'd consider a runner-up prize like a veep...
FEDS COULD MAKE HER A LOTTERY LOSER
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amA struggling Brooklyn mom, who accidentally got $700,000 when the United Nations confused one of its bank-account numbers with hers, faces arraignment today on charges she did a "lotto" lying...
IT'S TIME TO PUT UP YOUR DUKES, GEORGE W, AND FIGHT LIKE A DEMOCRAT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTHE son who once was viewed as a pale version of his father now resembles the father far too well. Almost a year ago, George W. Bush seemed untouchable, his...
TWO GIRLS, MOM SAFE AFTER KIDNAP NIGHTMARE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTwo little girls were held hostage in their Queens home last night while their mother was abducted and taken on a terrifying high-speed ride by kidnappers trying to escape pursuing...
JOE'S NOT FRETTING OVER LOSSES
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA - Joe Torre understands George Steinbrenner's thirst to win and The Boss' uneasiness over the Bombers losing their first five exhibition games going into last night's action against the...
CHARLIE RETURNS TO STARTING LINEUP
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Charlie Ward was taken off the injured list and inserted into the starting lineup for last night's game against Vancouver. The Knicks had gone without a point guard...
VAN GUNDY: AX ACCESS - NBA'S NEW RULES NIGHTMARE FOR JEFF
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThe Knicks have enough problems abiding by the scant NBA media access rules of today. Due to sluggish TV ratings, access is about to increase and Knicks' coach Jeff Van...
NO STOPPIN' SUPER BUG
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFor the third straight year it looks like the winter meeting at Aqueduct will produce the nation's Eclipse Award winner as best apprentice jockey. Following in the footsteps of Sean...
TRADED ODELEIN FILETS FTOREK
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThis was the lookout on the Titanic spotting the tip of the iceberg. His trade request finally granted, defenseman Lyle Odelein ripped into coach Robbie Ftorek yesterday, and said other...
JAYSON FEELS FRISKY AFTER NETS PRACTICE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThere was a heavy media turnout at the Nets' practice site yesterday. And there were jokes, laughter. Yup, Jayson Williams was back practicing with the Nets for the first time...
NO-DEAL NEIL'S GONE GOOFY
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amANAHEIM -- So here is Neil Smith with a $60 million team that's three games under .500 with 15 to go, holding on to the conference's eighth and final playoff...
AMAZIN'S GIVE THUMBS UP ON REALIGNMENT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amFT. LAUDERDALE -- GM Steve Phillips paused. He tried to remain stoic, but he couldn't contain his smile. He was just asked what he thought of the proposed realignment that...
FED-UP HILL CLIPS WINGS OF ROBIN, TOSSES OLIVARES
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amRules are rules, no exceptions. Fordham basketball coach Bob Hill sent that message to his team after suspending junior guard Bevon Robin and dismissing junior forward Alejandro Olivares yes- terday,...
BARKLEY MULLS APPEAL
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amSt. John's and Erick Barkley remain undecided as to whether the star point guard will appeal with the restitution portion of his NCAA imposed requirement for reinstatement, athletic director Ed...
BIG FUSS AT HALE CENTERS AROUND BASKETBALL TEAM
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amSarah J. Hale's basketball team will play for the PSAL B championship at the Garden on Sunday. So, everyone must be pretty pleased at the school, right? Actually, nothing could...
SATISFACTION & PRIDE DRIVE RULAND HOME
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amJeff Ruland has accomplished much in his 41 years: All-America at Iona, All-Star for the Bullets and a return to New Rochelle to coach his alma mater. But a day...
ISLANDERS RECALL NABOKOV, SHIP SHULTZ
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amLeft wing Dmitri Nabokov was recalled by the Islanders yesterday from Lowell (AHL). Nabokov had eight goals and 26 assists for the Lock Monsters, including a recent five-assist outburst in...
KEYSHAWN KOMBAT: FURIOUS PARCELLS BRACED FOR WAR WITH WR'S AGENT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amThere's a war of wills and thinly veiled threats taking place between the Jets and Keyshawn Johnson's agent and, according to an NFL source very familiar with Jets' busi- ness,...
BEWARE OF THE BIG DOGS! YOU READ IT HERE: HUSKIES WILL 3-PEAT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amDURING the football season, I go by the name of Pigskin Profit. But when it comes to Big East Conference basketball, I am known around News Corp. headquarters, located just...
MALCOLM RIDES TO RED STORM'S RESCUE
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amCHSAA B SEMIFINALS St. John's Prep 54 St. Edmunds 51CHSAA B SEMIFINALS Xavier 69 Mt. St. Michael 56 From the way many people talk about St. John's Prep, it sounds...
SPOTLIGHT FINDING FONZ
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amMets 5 Orioles 4PORT ST. LUCIE -- Edgardo Alfonzo has managed the impossible. He is the best all-around baseball player in New York not named Derek Jeter and we hardly...
YANKEES PLAY HARDBALL ON LEDEE'S PACT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTwins 7 Yankees 5 TAMPA -- He knows it has happened to Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada, and he understands it's all part of the growing-up process in the Yankees'...
A TOUCHING GET (SPRE)WELL SOON WISH ; SPREE BUOYS AILING FAN
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amAN HOUR and a half before last night's 111-86 destruction of the Grizzlies, Latrell Sprewell scored the basket of the night, in the hallway outside the Knicks' locker room. Standing...
BOSS UPBEAT DESPITE LATEST LOSS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA -- George Steinbrenner viewed the latest Yankee loss last night and gave no indication he is about to do something over his high-priced talent losing the first six exhibition...
ZEILE PUTS ON A SHOW
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amMET NOTES FT. LAUDERDALE -- On the first play of last night's game, first baseman Todd Zeile showed the athleticism of his wife, 1984 gold medal gymnast Julianne McNamara. After...
BOMBERS CAN WAIT BEFORE THEY RE-ARM
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amTAMPA -- The Twins can scrounge up the $27 million to pay Brad Radke, as long as he doesn't mind pitching for a team that can only afford to put...
CHARLIE HUSTLE'S BACK!
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amKnicks 111 Grizzlies 86 Two Knick players resurfaced in the offense last night -- Charlie Ward from injury, Patrick Ewing from a funk. Ewing barreled right to the hoop on...
EWING ROOTING FOR STARKS
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES A Garden fan held up a sign "Free Starks." The scoreboard showed the man with the sign. Patrick Ewing, on the bench in the fourth quarter after a...
MCGUIRE SIDELINED BY BLOOD AILMENT
March 8, 2000 | 5:00amAl McGuire, a New York City, college-basketball and TV-sportscasting legend -- and a character's character -- is seriously ill with a blood disorder. At a press gathering held by CBS...