December 4, 2001
O'NEILL HEAVE-HO - BUSH EYES DUMPING TREASURY BOSS
The White House, increasingly dismayed by the poor performance of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, is quietly chatting about ways to dump and replace him, The Post has learned. Vice President...
PARSONS: GO SLOW ON SOC. SECURITY
NOW that America knows how dangerous the stock market can be, it is probably safe to allow people to invest some of their own Social Security money. I've always been...
UNIVERSAL EXEC TOPS FILM-BIZ LIST
Universal Studios honcho Stacey Snider has knocked Paramount Pictures powerhouse Sherry Lansing off her perch as the most powerful woman in Hollywood, according to a new list out today. Snider,...
GOOD NEWS: LEASING ISN'T DEAD
EVEN with Downtown a mess and the vacancy rate inching up in Midtown, "leasing doesn't just suddenly stop," points out Cushman & Wakefield Senior Director Joseph A. Fabrizi. He should...
STOCKS END LOWER AMID MIDEAST, ENRON TURMOIL
Wall Street fought back for ground lost in the damage of Enron's giant bankruptcy and spreading war clouds in the Mideast. Shares plunged at the opening bell yesterday following the...
BIDS IN FOR AT&T CABLE
AT&T's board is expected to meet this Saturday to discuss the bids received yesterday for the company's cable operation. The deadline for offers was moved from last Friday to yesterday....
AMERICAN MEDIA MAY LEAVE FLA. AFTER $10M ANTHRAX TAB
Supermarket-tabloid king David Pecker said he may move his empire out of the state of Florida after running up an estimated $10 million in anthrax-related costs at the National Enquirer,...
TEXAS-SIZED TIFF FOLLOWS BANKRUPTCY
The world's biggest bankruptcy case boils down to a personal fight between two Houston tycoons - one-time pals who happen to co-own Houston's new pro football club. The tangled collapse...
ENRON GETS $1.5B LOAN FOR LIFELINE
The first day of the world's biggest bankruptcy case was all about - $500-an-hour lawyers. Top legal eagles of major firms from Manhattan to Washington, D.C., and Houston packed themselves...
STOCKARD IN TRADE - 'IT' GIRL AGAIN A HIT GIRL
STOCKARD Channing had some doubts about playing an emotionally fragile woman newly promoted to CEO in "The Business of Strangers." "I thought it could be formulaic, and you always have...
TRAVELER'S UPDATE
Walt's world Mickey Mouse fans take note: Walt Disney would have been 100 tomorrow, and Disney World is marking his centennial with yearlong festivities. The celebration, called "100 Years of...
CYPRESS GANG'S DOWNHILL WITH GOOD GROOVES BUT BAD WORDS
* CYPRESS HILL "Stoned Raiders" [ 1/2] Columbia Smoking guns and burning blunts are still the heart and soul of alterna-rappers Cypress Hill. On its latest, the band continues to...
H'WOOD SPOOK TURNED YANKS INTO CANADIANS
"INTO THE SHADOWS: THE CIA IN H'WOOD" [ ] Tonight on AMC at 10 ------ WHAT if I were to step up to you and say, "Hey - did you...
CLOUDS OVER THE ANGELIKA
GET ready for the battle of the art-house theaters. The Angelika Film Center, at Houston and Mercer streets in the West Village - one of Manhattan's most popular and hippest...
CURRYING FAVOR IN GEORGIA - ATLANTA'S MANY NEIGHBORHOODS ARE ITS STRENGTH
JUST outside the city of Atlanta stands an old Church of Christ, a brown brick structure hidden behind a parking lot off Scott Boulevard. As you approach the downstairs door...
PHILLY FLING - LET MASS TRANSITWHISK YOU AWAY FOR THE WEEKEND
DAVID Rittenhouse was the first man to head up the United States Mint, so it would make sense that the park they named after him would be surrounded by pricey...
GERALDO'S GOT A GUN ... AND BIN LADEN IN HIS SIGHTS
GERALDO Rivera, reporting for Fox News Channel in Afghanistan, says he's packing a gun - which he will use to defend himself, if necessary, from hostile Taliban killers. "If they're...
SAD FANS BUY GEORGE
'ALL Things Must Pass," is back in the present as local George Harrison fans rushed record stores to buy the album over the weekend after the "quiet" Beatle's death last...
STARR REPORT
Yule be glad: Ch. 11 'Logs' in again The Yule Log is returning to the Ch. 11 airwaves this year after being absent from WPIX since 1989. The filmed scene...
STREETSMART - MUPPETS SAFE IN SHAKEUP
SESAME Street" is about to be re-paved. For the first time in more than 30 years, the pioneering show for toddlers will be reformatted - to appeal to today's media-savvy...
THIS JUST IN ... NEWS IN THE NUDE
THE Internet's wildly popular, nude news show, "Naked News," is jumping to television. The new weekly pay-per-view show will feature an all-nude female lineup of anchors who "uncover" stories with...
BRITNEY'S $100,000 BODY - THAT'S HOW MUCH IT'LL COST A NEW YORKER TO BUY HER CURVES
Britney Spears, who plays the Garden Wednesday, may be an - ahem - natural beauty, but Lord knows not everyone can look like the 20-year-old pop princess. That is, unless...
PEACHES AND PREEN
WHEN British beauty Elle Ekland first traveled to New York two years ago, she was just like any other tourist. But when an agent for RCA Records noticed the blond...
ENOUGH! THE TIME HAS COME TO TOPPLE ARAFAT
ON A visit to New York last year, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a sly joke about the still-beating heart of Yasser Arafat. "All the government of Israel made...
BRITNEY'S BIRTHDAY BEEFCAKE
She's not that innocent! Britney Spears celebrated her 20th birthday by getting a steamy private dance from a hunky male stripper - right in front of her parents and 10-year-old...
GOODNIGHT, 'SWEET PRINCE' OF THE CITY
Fallen firefighter Christopher Mozzillo was remembered yesterday as an adventure-seeking jokester - a "sweet prince" taken from his loved ones too soon. He was a motorcycle-riding, scuba-diving gourmet cook, friends...
SLAY SUSPECT IN COURT AFTER 20 YRS. ON LAM
A wannabe wiseguy on the lam for 20 years pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Queens Supreme Court yesterday for his alleged role in a 1981 double homicide. Assistant...
BALL'S IN YOUR COURT, YASSER - FED-UP WASHINGTON'S TOUGH MESSAGE AFTER PALESTINIAN ATROCITIES
WASHINGTON - The White House yesterday challenged Yasser Arafat to curb Palestinian violence, and supported Israel's right to protect itself against suicide bombings. Abandoning the customary call for restraint by...
DEDE 'DEALS' BLOW TO THE TRUTH: DEFENSE
THE ever-so-elegant Diana "DeDe" Brooks, the one-time queen of the art world, was portrayed yesterday as being as crooked as a dog's hind leg. "She lied to customers, she lied...
MIKE PAID RECORD $92 PER VOTE
Mike Bloomberg spent a record-shattering $69 million on his bid for City Hall - outstripping even heavyweights like presidential candidate Ross Perot and Sen. Jon Corzine, new filings released yesterday...
TAUBMAN JURORS WILL NOW DECIDE BIDDER END
Jurors will begin deliberating today on the fate of Sotheby's tycoon Alfred Taubman after prosecutors argued yesterday the arrogant executive fixed prices because "he thought he was above the law."...
CON CUTS JAIL TIME BY GOING TO ISRAEL
A former Sunset Park electronics dealer, extradited from Israel in a massive bank-fraud scam, plans to cut his 11-year sentence to less than half by serving his time in the...
DAN'S RATHER A TYRANT, SAYS COLLEAGUE
While Dan Rather covers the war in Afghanistan, he's under fire here at home as a Nixon-style autocrat who rules CBS News with an iron fist. That's the word from...
LIFE'S A BEACH FOR BERMUDA BLOOMY
Mayor-elect Mike Bloomberg isn't about to let a $1 billion city deficit put an end to his globe-trotting - he jetted to his new, multimillion-dollar Bermuda home in the midst...
U.S. GOES ON HIGH ALERT FOR HOLIDAY TERROR
Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge announced a new nationwide terror alert yesterday - warning possible attacks could be linked to the upcoming holidays. In issuing the third high alert since...
PATRONAGE JUDGES FACE DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS
A nearly two-year probe into judicial patronage has led to about a dozen judges being referred to the disciplinary commission for possible action against them, sources told The Post. The...
DURST DIGGING IN - READY TO FIGHT EXTRADITION IN TEXAS SLAY
Flaky fugitive millionaire Robert Durst very likely won't return to Texas to face murder changes without a fight. In court yesterday, Durst's lawyer told a Pennsylvania judge he planned to...
CALLERS RIP ATT'Y IN SLAY DEFENSE
Angry calls have flooded the phone of a Manhattan lawyer who is defending the accused rapist-murderer of an 81-year-old woman - by claiming the sex was consensual. "The callers are...
ATROCITIES BLEW $3.6B HOLE IN CITY'S BUDGET
Mayor-elect Mike Bloomberg is about to be handed a budget gap of at least $3.6 billion for next year. In announcing the projected deficit yesterday, Mayor Giuliani stressed that actions...
HEALTH COMMISH SAYS 900 CARS FROM WTC WILL NEVER ROLL AGAIN
About 900 cars towed from the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are contaminated and should be junked, the city's top health official declared yesterday. Dr. Neal...
KARMA-KOOK LAWYER LEAVES SLA FUGITIVE OLSON IN LURCH
LOS ANGELES - The hotshot defense lawyer for Symbionese Liberation Army fugitive Sara Jane Olson hung his client out to dry yesterday, blowing off her do-or-die hearing and blaming his...
TURNING ON THE TALIBAN
DESPITE all the lipsmacking warnings from pundits and editorialists nostalgic for the issues of their youth, Afghanistan has not turned out to be "another Vietnam" for the United States. That...
FIEND RAPES CLERK IN UPPER E. SIDE STORE
A clerk working alone in an Upper East Side children's clothing store was raped at gunpoint in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, police said. The violence unfolded around 1...
CRIME SPIKE DOESN'T TELL WHOLE STORY, SAY COPS
The last four weeks saw alarming jumps in the numbers of murders and shootings in the city - but police stressed yesterday that violent crime is still down for the...
BEEPS WANT TO APPOINT SELVES TO ED BD.
Three borough presidents want to appoint themselves to the seven-member Board of Education, possibly further politicizing an already divisive body. Bronx Borough President-elect Adolfo Carrión Jr., Queens Borough President-elect Helen...
UFT GIVES AN 'F' TO FOREIGN-TEACHER PLAN
The teachers union flunked the Board of Education yesterday for allegedly mistreating its new foreign instructors, charging that recruiters misled the newcomers about housing, salary and assignments. But Schools Chancellor...
U.S. RAT GETS GRILLED AS TWO MORE SURFACE
The American turncoat who fought for the Taliban was being interrogated by U.S. forces in a secret location in northern Afghanistan last night - and two others who claim to...
BRILLIANT TEEN SCHOOLED HIMSELF IN ISLAM
The year 1997 was a critical turning point for high-school student John Walker. That's when he read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," began wearing a white robe and turban, and...
BLITZ IS ON AGAINST ARAFAT - ISRAELIS STRIKE BACK AS ARIEL SEES LONG FIGHT
JERUSALEM - Declaring Yasser Arafat "guilty of everything that is happening here," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hinted that yesterday's sweeping attacks on Palestinian targets were only the first wave....
TOT WITNESS' KIN SUE OVER AIRBUS CRASH
A 3-year-old who witnessed the crash of Flight 587 in the Rockaways is now too traumatized to hug his dad, an NYPD deputy inspector, the family's lawyer said yesterday. Lawyer...
WOMAN NABBED IN NANNY-AGENCY SLAY
A female gunslinger who stalked into a Greenwich, Conn., nanny agency and blew away the proprietor was arrested last night in what's being called "an employment dispute," police said. Flora...
JETS TARGET CAVES - NEW STRIKES FOLLOW WORD OF AL QAEDA IN THE AREA
WASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes launched massive new airstrikes on Osama bin Laden's underground fortresses south of Jalalabad yesterday after the Pentagon received intelligence reports that villagers in the area are...
GOV FIRES BACK OVER 9/11 AID
ALBANY - Gov. Pataki yesterday shot back at critics who accuse him of not doing enough to fight for federal funding in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. "It's...
VICTIM-BASHING 'RINGS' FALSE AS CRITICS GIVE LAWYER EARFUL
Angry calls have flooded the phone of a Manhattan lawyer who is defending the accused rapist-murderer of an 81-year-old woman - by claiming the sex was consensual. "The callers are...
GREENWICH COPS HUNT FEMALE KILLER
Police in Greenwich, Conn., were hunting last night for a female gunslinger who stalked into a nanny agency and blew away the proprietor, officials said last night. The gunfire erupted...
BEATLE GEORGE'S ASHES SCATTERED IN INDIAN RIVER
As mourners worldwide observed a moment of silence in his memory, George Harrison's family flew to India yesterday to spread his ashes during a sacred, private ceremony. The family of...
FEDS LINK CONN., BRONX ANTHRAX DEATHS TO MAIL
Authorities say they've now come to the same conclusion in the baffling anthrax fatalities in The Bronx and Connecticut - all evidence points to death by cross-contamination of mail. U.S....
HOU FOR THE SHOW - ALLAN SAVES KNICKS FROM ROCKET CRASH
The final scene was Allan Houston cutting to the left corner and drilling a picturesque 14-foot pull-up jumper over a flailing Glen Rice. The ball sank through with 14 seconds...
WARD GETS THE POINT AGAIN
KNICK NOTES Charlie Ward's back! In the same way Howard Eisley stole his job last month against Portland, Ward entered with 3:28 left in the third quarter vs. the Rockets...
IT ALL CAME APART
JET REPORT CARDQUARTERBACKS: D Vinny Testaverde (19-of-33, 184 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs) was terrific in the first half and lost in the second. His tipped INT changed the momentum...
COLD DEVS OUT TO GET HOT
The Devils need some help. Maybe they can get some tonight when they host the Lightning (10-14-1-1), who used to be thought of as an automatic two points for the...
CUT FINGER UNLIKELY TO PUT YASHIN ON BENCH
Alexei Yashin may get hurt, but he doesn't get injured. The difference, of course, is that when you're hurt, you can play. When you're injured, you can't. Since his rookie...
TY'S RIGHT ON Q - 17-YEAR-OLD PHENOM PLAYS WAY ONTO TOUR
The PGA Tour policy board passed a new rule in September that a golfer must be 18 or older to become a member. So much for rules. By the time...
STEPHON-NETS FEUD GETS UGLY
There already have been salvos fired and venom spewed between Nets coach Byron Scott and their often-surly former star Stephon Marbury, and Marbury's Suns don't even face the Nets until...
THERE'S NO DENYING 4-TEAM BLOCKBUSTER
THOUGH not privy to all the particulars, sources continue to maintain (despite denials from all precincts) these are the major trade ingredients being discussed by four teams: Karl Malone to...
JESSIE: I'LL GET GIANT SHIP ON COURSE
The one regret Jessie Armstead has is he did not speak up sooner. "I sat back, let the ship run," he said. "We've got a lot of veteran guys around...
FRANCO EXPECTED BACK BY OPENING DAY
Steve Phillips says John Franco, despite having surgery on his left elbow yesterday, will be ready for Opening Day. The 20-minute procedure on the 41-year-old Franco removed a calcium deposit...
IRISH MAY HAVE EYES ON N.Y. SON
Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White left South Bend yesterday on a mission to find the football coach who will restore the Fighting Irish to national prominence. His search could...
ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR GIAMBI DEAL
All signs still point toward Jason Giambi eventually becoming a Yankee, but they are in small print. Negotiations between Yankee brass and agent Arn Tellem continue daily and never hit...
JETS: LOSS WON'T START USUAL SLIDE
Given the magnitude of the opportunity the Jets let slip through their fingers Sunday by way of their confounding and inexplicable 17-16 loss to the Patriots, you'd have expected depression...
KNEE COULD KEEP GLENN OUT A MONTH
The Jets will be without starting left cornerback Aaron Glenn for at least this Sunday's game in Pittsburgh and possibly a month with a sprained right knee. Glenn, who went...
HOT RICE GOES COLD AT THE END
In Glen Rice's return, it was ecstasy and then agony. In his Garden comeback, the Rockets' sharpshooter torched Allan Houston and the Knicks for 11 first-quarter points on 5-for-5 shooting....
DESPITE WIN, THESE KNICKS LACK HEART
DON'T be fooled by the final score. This was the most hollow of victories. If the Knicks continue to play like they did last night at the Garden against the...
GRIFFIN GOES FROM SETON ... TO SITTIN'
EDDIE Griffin sits on the Rockets' bench and collects his millions. He says he couldn't be happier. He says he's glad the Nets traded him. "I was happy to get...
GLEN STILL PUZZLED BY TRADE
No hard feelings. No bitterness. But for Glen Rice, there's definitely still some confusion. In town with the Rockets, Rice last night returned to the Garden floor for the first...
VG SEES RED OVER KNICK FADES
KNICK NOTES Coach Jeff Van Gundy isn't sure what happens to his players when prosperity lands in their laps - but blowing leads has become commonplace for these Knicks. Fresh...
GUARD-EN PARTY - HOUSTON, SPREE ENJOYING LIFE WITHOUT RICE
During training camp, Jeff Van Gundy fired a warning shot at Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston. He told them that just because Glen Rice was gone and Shandon Anderson was...