May 11, 2002

DR PEPPER SPICES UP SALES WITH FRUIT SODA

Dr Pepper is getting fruity. Cadbury Schweppes, owner of the soda company, is matching rivals at Coke and Pepsi blow for blow with the introduction of Red Fusion. The new...

BIG BLUE TO ISSUE 9,600 PINK SLIPS

IBM lifer Sam Palmisano is making the biggest play of his climb to the top, by firing as many as 9,600 of his colleagues. After two months at the helm...

A WING & A PRAYER

The weak sister of the airline industry - US Airways Group - plans to land in bankruptcy court unless it gets a hefty multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and...

BIG BLACK & BLUE: PALMISANO'S FIRST MOVE: FIRING 9,600

IBM lifer Sam Palmisano is making the biggest play of his long climb to the top - by firing as many as 9,600 of his colleagues. After two months at...

IT'S RAGA TO RICHES

CORNERSHOP THERE'S no band quite like Cornershop.England's transcendental raga-rock outfit has zero stage presence, a handful of catchy melodies, exotic instrumentation - and yet a loyal cult following in this...

THE MOTHER OF ALL TV SHOWS

IN honor of Mother's Day, we've compiled some of the more interesting shows airing today and tomorrow - all, of course, with a Mother's Day theme (either obvious or subtle)....

DANCERS CHEER, LAWYERS AWAIT

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY THE Martha Graham Dance Company, borne aloft with dusty, phoenix wings, flew once more for one singular performance and a new beginning on Thursday night at...

BANGING HEADS ON 'GILMORE GIRLS'... WORST MOM - BEST MOM: ONE IS THE ENEMY THE OTHER'S A BEST PAL

JUST in time for Mother's Day, here comes Emily Gilmore - the matriarch on the hit drama/comedy "Gilmore Girls" - who may be the most unlikable mother on TV. In...

TRIBECA OUR MECCA: DOWNTOWN FESTIVAL IS A FAMILY AFFAIR

Monique Staffile saw the attack on the World Trade Center from her apartment at Independence Plaza, on Greenwich Street, just blocks north of the towers. She fled her 35th-floor home...

REAL KIDS REVEAL: WHAT MAKES YOUR MOM ROCK?

Kelsey Flowers, 11, Darien, Conn. (with her mom, Avery) "She takes me everywhere - lacrosse practice and horseback riding." Mericia Mills, 17, Scranton, Pa. "She's always there when I need...

SOME KIND OF WANDA-FUL

Before she became the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson, now 64, was a country and western singer. But in 1955, Jackson toured with a young Elvis Presley, and the King...

DINNER PARTY CHEAT SHEET

MONEY SHOT The web-slinging adventures of "Spider-Man," a.k.a. "Kirsten Dunst's Rain Scene," last weekend captured the weekend box-office gross record by earning a whopping $114 million. Box-office analysts say it's...

NEVER MIND THE BUTTOCKS: AT PUNK ROCK AEROBICS, YOU CAN WORK OUT LIKE A SEX PISTOL

God save the Queen, or maybe Jane Fonda. Punk-rock aerobics is coming to New York today. And while you won't find any slam-dancing at these exercise sessions, get ready for...

GO FOR 'CHOKE

Maybe you know how to eat an artichoke, but how about cooking one? To the uninitiated, preparing this unique bud from the thistle family seems daunting. But all it takes...

ALL JAZZED UP AND PLAYING FOR A PRIZE: HIGH SCHOOL BANDS DUKE IT OUT

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. So it goes when the nation's best student jazz bands go horn-to-horn in Jazz@Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington HS Jazz...

UH-OWE! CITY WORKERS ARE MAJOR PARKING $COFFLAWS

City employees rank among New York's biggest parking-ticket scofflaws - racking up tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid fines, The Post has learned. Two dozen city workers owe the...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Marines are prepared for battle at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. But nothing prepared the brass for the food fight that erupted in the base mess hall recently. Food started...

TERROR-WARY FEDS TOUGHEN STUDENT VISAS

Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday announced a crackdown on foreign students who abuse their visitation privileges, as FBI agents probed a possible terror link to a group of Arab students...

MIKE CUTS BILL OUT OF LEAD FILM-FEST ROLE

THE Republican-friendly Bloomberg administration tried to block former President Bill Clinton from participating in the high-profile kickoff of the Tribeca Film Festival at City Hall this week. "Some people in...

B'KLYN TOT HIT BY MINIVAN CRITICAL

A rambunctious three-year-old who "likes to run away" was in critical condition last night after he scampered off the stoop of his Crown Heights apartment building into the path of...

CUOMO HIT PAY DIRT AFTER HUD

Andrew Cuomo cashed out when he left the federal government last year - almost tripling his salary through a lucrative gig at a white-shoe law firm, according to tax returns...

SNORTING 'BULL' WANTS LAWYER OUT

Notorious mob rat Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano knows something his embattled lawyer Lynne Stewart doesn't - and it's enough to make him drop her like a hot potato. Gravano initially...

PRISONER-FLEE SPREE PROBE DUE

The City Council will hold a hearing about a string of recent prisoner escapes from NYPD custody - including a suspected serial rapist who walked out of a Bronx station...

DEATH-VAN VICTIM IN $10M SUIT

A Swiss man who was badly hurt by an out-of-control van in Herald Square last year filed a $10 million lawsuit yesterday against the delivery company and the 76-year- old...

THE BLOOMY PRINCIPLE WANTS SCHOOLS TO DICTATE HOW TEACHERS SPEND TIME

Mayor Bloomberg broke his silence about the ongoing negotiations over a new teachers contract yesterday - telling the teachers union it shouldn't get a say in how instructors spend their...

SKAKEL LOSES AN ALIBI EX-SUSPECT'S 'CONFESSION' SHOT DOWN

The ex-wife of a former suspect in the murder of Martha Moxley testified yesterday that he never confessed to her that he killed the teen. And Mary Baker said cops...

OPEN-AND-SMUT CASE: 2 B'KLYNITES BUSTED IN KIDDIE-PORN STING

A city transit employee and a computer teacher - both from Brooklyn - were caught yesterday in a worldwide child-pornography sting. The sting, based in New Jersey, has rounded up...

VICTIM'S KIN FUMES AT DWI-COP PENSION

A police captain who killed a construction worker while allegedly driving drunk might soon to be able to retire with a high pension because the NYPD is dragging its heels...

SOAP OPERA: PAVAROTTI FLAP TAKES NEW TENOR

If Luciano Pavarotti calls in sick again tonight, the Met has a surprise up its sleeve - an electrifying young Italian tenor who flew in yesterday to wait in the...

BLOOMY: MY AX MAY GET SHARPER

Mayor Bloomberg warned yesterday that multibillion-dollar deficits in future years could force him to take severe budget-cutting actions, and "it's not going to be popular." Bloomberg spoke on his weekly...

TODDLER'S FINEST MOMENT: LATE 9/11 OFFICER MOM HONORED WITH HEROES

Little Patricia Smith danced innocently around the giant statue of a police officer and child, while her father, Jim, sat stoically in the front row, holding back a river of...

EX-DEVILS COACH CUNNIFF DEAD AT 57

The lasting memory of John Cunniff will be that of the man who adamantly remained at his post behind the Team USA bench at the Salt Lake Olympics rather than...

DEADLY LIES: 9/11 DECEIT

Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker," repeatedly lied to federal agents before Sept. 11 - making it possible for the deadly terror attacks to go forward, federal prosecutors revealed yesterday....

WTC ART PLUNDER EYED: PROBERS HUNTING RODIN STATUE

City Department of Investigation probers are pondering the possible theft of a statue by French sculptor Auguste Rodin from the rubble of the World Trade Center, The Post has learned....

TRASHED COUCH IS ALL COKED UP IN BX.

So who put the coke in the couch? That's the question police were posing in a South Bronx neighborhood yesterday after sanitation workers found a discarded sofa that contained a...

BANK-ROB SUSPECT UNMASKED

Two Brooklyn cops knew something was wrong when they saw a man leaving a bank wearing a fake beard, dark sunglasses and a pair of white latex gloves. But they...

JUDGE MULLS BID TO FREE 'KILLER'

A Brooklyn judge wants more information before deciding whether to free a convicted killer whose brother has come forward after 13 years to take the blame for the slaying. Lamont...

L.I. FAMILY DRIVEN TO STUPIDITY

Would you rather drive with a 14-year-old unlicensed driver or a 36-year-old whose license had been suspended? For a Long Island mom, the question was a no-brainer. She gave the...

DOWNTOWN'S BOOMING WITH TRI-BUCK-A FE$T

Downtown is back. Just check the bustling streets of Tribeca, or the number of tickets sold to Tribeca Film Festival events. Or, better yet, ask cabby Bouchaib Touil. Yesterday, he...

SPIDEY SKETCHER'S ART & SOUL

The artist behind Marvel Comics' "Amazing Spider-Man" was engaging in some superheroics of his own at Planet Hollywood yesterday with a marathon sketching session to raise money for his ailing...

EX-MOXLEY SUSPECT'S DENIAL IS BACKED UP

The ex-wife of a former suspect in the murder of Martha Moxley testified yesterday that he never confessed to her that he killed the teen. And Mary Baker said cops...

PAUL BELIEVES IN YESTERDAY

Paul McCartney sure knows his music - and his veggies. Seems Sir Paul was driving through Los Angeles recently, listening to a Beatles-themed breakfast show, when DJ Chris Carter asked...

GIVE THE BOSS CREDIT

MINNEAPOLIS - Add talent evaluator to George Steinbrenner's resume. The Boss is getting better with age. There was a time when Steinbrenner overruled his Inner Circle by acquiring players who...

CUBAN: MING'S NOT WORTH IT

Mark Cuban, the Mavericks' eccentric owner, warned NBA general managers with high lottery picks to steer clear of drafting 7-5 Chinese center Yao Ming, saying that Dallas center Shawn Bradley...

BOMBERS STILL CRAZY FOR CRUZ

YANKEE NOTES MINNEAPOLIS - The Yankees remain so interested in Toronto outfielder Jose Cruz, Jr. that they dispatched super scout Gene Michael to Oakland last night for the Blue Jays-A's...

NETS' BOARDWORK NEEDS TO IMPROVE

NET NOTES CHARLOTTE - Rebounds equal rings. Unless, of course, the other guys are doing all the rebounding. Then rebounds equal losses. Like the manhandling the Nets experienced Thursday night...

SERNA'S ADJUSTING TO LIFE AS A STAR

They have been down this road before and still succeeded. The difference this time around is the (3-3-1) MetroStars were prepared to fight the good fight without Clint Mathis, who...

GIANTS INK 3 FREE AGENTS

Looking for some increased competition and some live bodies for training camp this summer, the Giants yesterday signed three more rookie free agents: safety Tad Golden of Tennessee, tackle Ryan...

SLATS IN NO RUSH TO NAME COACH

The Rangers will not make a head coaching selection until Glen Sather meets with his key hockey department personnel, a well-placed source yesterday told The Post. Sather, who will host...

NO POINT IN KIDD PLAYING AT LESS THAN FULL STRENGTH

CHARLOTTE - We don't know what the big deal is. Through their miserable existence, the Nets have had all kinds of point guards who didn't see the floor, anyway. Jason...

HORNETS TO MAKE MOVE TO BIG EASY

CHARLOTTE - The Hornets have bigger dreams than knocking out the Nets in the second round of the playoffs. Even without Jamal Mashburn for the rest of the series, and...

POLY'S GREEN TABS COLGATE

Daniel Green, a 6-2 guard from Poly Prep, signed with Colgate yesterday. Green, the nephew of former Knick Sidney Green, won four Ivy League Prep titles with the Blue Devils...

NETS KEEP EYE ON JASON GAME 4 RETURN STILL UP IN THE AIR

CHARLOTTE - Looking every bit like a combatant in a title prizefight, Jason Kidd walked into the Nets' team meeting here last night holding an ice pack wrapped in a...

HAMPTON EXPECTS RUDE RECEPTION

The boos hurt, because Mike Hampton was the final and perhaps the most important cog in the 2000 World Series Mets. For that, he felt he deserved a little better....

BOBBY BLAMES HIMSELF

Rockies 9Mets 5 After their sixth straight loss, Bobby Valentine closed the Mets' clubhouse doors last night. Calmly, Valentine started pointing fingers. Actually, he only pointed one, and it was...

ON THIS NIGHT, SHEA IS REUNION ARENA

MET NOTES Benny Agbayani chuckled for a moment. Then he paused and looked at a reporter. "You've got to put me on the spot right away," Agbayani said after being...

MO MAKIN' YANKS SWEAT: HE'S STILL KING OF SAVES - BUT STRUGGLES ARE MYSTERY

MINNEAPOLIS - The debate as to who's the best baseball player ever rages on. Ditto the top pitcher. But when it comes to closers in the American League, Mariano Rivera...

STRUGGLIN' NICK ON THE BUBBLE

YANKEE NOTES MINNEAPOLIS - The batting average is dangerously close to dipping under the embarrassing .200 mark. Until he shows Joe Torre a few good rips against right-handers, he isn't...