May 15, 2002
LAST STAND AT 2 COLUMBUS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAFTER nearly eight years, the city may actually choose a new owner for 2 Columbus Circle, formerly the Huntington Hartford Museum and now the subject of a preservationist battle. Economic...
MARTS GO BUY, BUY - INVESTORS INSPIRED BY RETAIL REPORT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAmerica went shopping - and investors followed suit. The government's retail sales report, released yesterday morning, showed sales surging 1.2 percent higher in April, twice the increase expected by economists....
FED GRANTS SWAY AD FIRM TO DOWNTOWN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amGovernment relocation incentives, poo-poohed in some circles as too puny to save Downtown, have begun flexing their muscle. In a breakthrough deal for the Wall Street area, media company MPG...
YANNI PLAYS BIO TO PUBLISHERS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amYANNI, the new-agey music man, will be coming to town in two weeks in a bid to sell his autobiography: "Yanni in Words." He is going to get a serious...
BLACKSTONE CONFIRMS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amBlackstone Group confirmed yesterday that it has struck a deal to buy a majority stake in Columbia House, the jointly-owned music and movie direct-marketing firm of AOL Time Warner Inc....
CRAMER FUND LET SPITZER CLEAN UP
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAttorney General Eliot Spitzer - who's crusading to clean up Wall Street's seamy side - made a bundle from a hedge fund that's been criticized for using possibly illegal trading...
SMART BUSINESS NIXED
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSmart Business looks like a dumb idea, after all. The Ziff-Davis hi-tech title is the latest casualty of the ad recession. The magazine, first known as PC Computing, then Smart...
DUNCAN: I DIDN'T KNOW LAW
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAlthough his offices were a beehive of document-shredding, top auditor David Duncan initially believed nothing illegal was going on at Arthur Andersen. Duncan took his second day on the stand...
MILLER: FROM JOBLESS TO CFO
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amCall her the once and future queen of CFOs. Heidi Miller - who left behind her job as chief financial officer of Citigroup to take the same job at Priceline,...
DARK DAYS; HOW 115 EYES SAW HELL ; HARSHEST LOOK YET AT HORROR ON A SEPTEMBER MORNING
May 15, 2002 | 4:00am"In Memoriam:New York City, 9/11/01" Sunday, May 26 at 10 on HBO LIKE thousands of other New Yorkers, my friend Louis Viel who lives downtown walked out of his house...
RATS! IT'S NINA HAGEN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amNINA HAGEN = PUNK + GLORY [] Mostly for fans. Running time: 108 minutes. Not rated. At Anthology Film Archives, Second Avenue and Second Street. ------ 'SHE'S a very strange...
STARR REPORT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTonight: Son of Sam talks to 9 at 10 David Berkowitz, alias "Son of Sam," sits for an exclusive interview with Ch. 9's Matthew Schwartz airing tonight on Ch. 9's...
GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSTANDING BY YOURSELF [] Alienated teens. Running time: 65 minutes. Not rated (drugs, violence). At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, Avenue A and Third Street. --------- JOSH Koury's "Standing by...
ABT GALA'S PERFORMERS IN GOOD COMPANY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAMERICAN BALLET THEATERMetropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center: (212) 362-6000. Through July 6. --------- AMERICAN Ballet Theater's opening gala Monday was intended to show off the company, and to offer a...
CREMASTER-FUL
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amCREMASTER 3 [] A visual tour de force. Running time: 182 minutes. Not rated (nudity, disturbing images). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue. ------------ PSHAW to those...
ROSIE KISSED OFF ; SHE'S ODDS-ON FOR A FAREWELL EMMY AWARD
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHE Daytime Emmys - which will be handed out Friday night - are shaping up as a farewell party for departing talk show host Rosie O'Donnell. O'Donnell, who show is...
CHEF MAY SHUT EATERY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWHISPERS are growing louder about the impending closure of chef Matthew Kenney's Commune restaurant. We hear that Kenney, who's had a run of bad luck that began a few years...
BABES! BEER! CABLE!
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMAXIM magazine is close to a deal that would bring its babes-and-beer formula to TV 24 hours a day. The red-hot men's mag, published by London-based Dennis Publishing, is reportedly...
'PI' GIVEN A KOPPEL OF WEEKS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00am'POLITICALLY Incorrect" host Bill Maher has 4-6 weeks to clean out his locker. ABC announced yesterday that, beginning this summer, "PI" will be replaced by a half-hour expansion of "Nightline"...
MADONNA 'GRABS' LONDON
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHERE were screams, wild applause and a standing ovation. And she had yet to utter a single word. Madonna's mere entrance onto the stage at London's Wyndhams Theater on Monday...
SAVORING MODENA IN THE APPLE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amALL politics, they say, is local.The same could be said about wine. In France, the Bordelais drink cheap Bordeaux. In the Bairrada region of Portugal, they drink wine from the...
TONY'S TAME TEAM
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAFTER a week of playing the rejected suitor, the Tony Awards telecast has finally landed a host or, rather, hosts - Bernadette Peters and Gregory Hines. Neither is exactly A-list,...
IN THE PINK AT NEW RED
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amRED [ 1/2] 356 W. 44TH ST. (BETWEEN EIGHTH & NINTH AVENUES) (212) 445-0131 ------ IT'S deja vu all over again at Red. The owner of Pietrasanta and Rachel's has...
SAUCE IS BOSS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWHEN a jar of Lidia's new tomato sauce surfaced at The Post recently, it occurred to us that Felidia Bastianich wasn't the only one in town packaging her pomadori. The...
BRING BACK THE BULLS: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE CHEFS GET BORING
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHE restaurant we were supposed to review today, seafood house Lure, closed yesterday "for renovations." I can't say I'm shocked: Despite ample puffery, including a softball "Diner's Journal" in the...
UNREFORMED COP-KILLER
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThirty-one years ago next week, a trio of self-proclaimed revolutionaries from the Black Liberation Army brutally gunned down two New York cops. One of the three, Anthony Bottom (who now...
CONSERVATIVES, IDEALS & GEORGE PATAKI
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amAS state Conservative Party activists gather tomorrow night with Vice President Dick Cheney to celebrate its 40th anniversary, they would do well to question whether their party remains true to...
FAKE COP MOLESTS TEEN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amCops are hunting for a cop-impersonator who followed a 15-year-old girl into a Manhattan apartment building where he sexually abused her, police said. At 6 p.m. Monday, the man followed...
GRAVANO WHACKS LAWYER OFF CASE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amNotorious mob rat Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano has kissed his embattled lawyer, Lynne Stewart, goodbye. "I think the world of Lynne," Gravano told Judge Allyne Ross. "She was very good...
EX-WIFE IS POOR EXCUSE FOR A PERSON
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amNORWALK, Conn. MOXLEY murder-trial witness Kenneth Littleton desperately wanted to reconcile with his ex-wife, Mary Baker - but better he reconcile with an arctic rock. "You know how much I...
BUSH CRACKS DOWN ON BORDER BREACHES
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday signed a border-security law that restricts travel visas on visitors from terrorist countries, strengthens enforcement and requires schools to keep better tabs on foreign students....
BLOOMY BIZ IN $1.5M GIFT TO CUNY SCHOOL
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amBaruch College will soon announce that Mayor Bloomberg's communications company has agreed to donate $1.5 million for the "Bloomberg L.P. Endowed Chair in Business Journalism." Baruch, a business college, is...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA mysterious fluid that leaked from a package - sparking the evacuation of a California office building - has finally been identified as 80-proof vodka. Several workers reported feeling sick...
WEBBED FEAT: 75G 'SPIDEY' MOVIE HEIST
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThere's a new villain in the "Spider-Man" saga - an assistant manager at a Georgia movie house who made off with $75,000, much of it from the flick's boffo box-office...
POLS TALK UP HIKE ON CELL-PHONE TAX
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amALBANY - New York is preparing to hike the tax on cell-phone users a whopping 71 percent - and that's just the beginning, legislative sources said yesterday. State leaders engaged...
HILL'S WAR: RAISING BIG BUCKS TO UNSEAT PATAKI
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is driving her powerful political fund-raising machine into New York - and will soon use it to try to oust Gov. Pataki, The Post...
'FONDLE' PRIEST SHOT - 'VICTIM' TOOK HIS REVENGE: MD. POLICE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA Baltimore man shot and seriously wounded a Catholic priest he had accused of molesting him nine years ago after the cleric refused to talk to him, cops said yesterday....
AGENTS NIXED FROM DRUG MULE'S SUIT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA convicted drug mule who claims he was forcibly operated on after ingesting and trying to smuggle 51 heroin-filled condoms into the country was denied a bid to add customs...
DEATH DUO'S SAD DESCENT INTO A DRUG NIGHTMARE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThey were doomed lovers with stars in their eyes, needles in their arms and empty pockets. For a while, Damien Connors and Theresa LaMarca lived on the $58,000 she got...
HS TO BE FREE OF WTC DEBRIS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amDebris from the World Trade Center site will no longer be transferred to barges at a pier behind Stuyvesant HS officials said yesterday, drawing cheers from parents who said the...
SKAKEL BROTHER WON'T BE WITNESS FOR PROSECUTION
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amProsecutors trying to nail Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel for the murder of his pretty teen neighbor yesterday suddenly backed off calling a potentially explosive witness to the stand - Skakel's...
PHOTOGRAPHIC MAMMARY - 'PORN-IKOVA' FOTOG TESTIFIES HOW HE MADE MISS-TAKE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amGame, set, nipple-match! The photographer behind the Penthouse "Porn-ikova" controversy testified yesterday that he ID'd Anna Kournikova topless on a beach by matching the size of her nipple to photos...
ROUNDUP NABS WTC 'CON' EXECS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThe feds rounded up eight financial executives with ties to a shady World Trade Center firm yesterday, charging them in a conspiracy to bilk investors out of $100 million. The...
'GOD, I'M BLEEDING' - CARNEGIE VICTIM'S 911 CALL CHILLS MASSACRE JURY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amIt was another battering day in court yesterday for loved ones of the Carnegie Deli Massacre's three murder victims - with trial evidence including gory crime-scene photos and a 911...
MAG'S HEADLESS EDITORS MADE TOPLESS BLUNDER
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHIS is a tale of morality and shame, pitting a men's magazine's right to publish against a woman's right to privacy. Right. And if you believe that one, may I...
BOSTON DIOCESE IGNORED BAD REPORT ON 'PERV' REV.
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTop officials of the Archdiocese of Boston allowed a child-molester priest who publicly advocated sex with kids to work at a New York City hostel while knowing a top church...
TURNSTILE-JUMP BUST SNARES SUSPECT IN 1988 L.A. SLAY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA Brooklyn man who tried to save $1.50 by jumping a subway turnstile ended up paying a lot more when he was charged yesterday with murdering someone in Los Angeles...
FIRE GUTS HISTORIC QNS. TEMPLE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA three-alarm blaze tore through the oldest synagogue in Queens yesterday - gutting the basement and sending smoke swirling through the neighborhood. The fire broke out in the basement of...
BONUS FOR CHINATOWN - RESIDENTS TO GET $750 IN 9/11 AID
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amFamilies who commit to living in Chinatown for at least a year can get a one-shot $750 bonus from a federal pot of cash earmarked to help lower Manhattan, sources...
DEMS TAKE DIM VIEW OF BU$H 9/11 PHOTO OP
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Democrats yesterday said it was "grotesque" for Republicans to sell 9/11 photos of President Bush at a Republican fund-raiser - but the GOP and the White House defended...
LOGO PLAN A GO-GO PLAN, MIKE TELLS LEVY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMayor Bloomberg yesterday gave a tentative thumbs-up to Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's plan to permit companies to plug their names and logos in schools in exchange for financial contributions to...
THE CITY'S 44 BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS GOT A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThe city's 44 Business Improvement Districts got a new lease on life yesterday when Mayor Bloomberg, in another reversal of Giuliani administration policy, approved their first funding increases in five...
RED TAPE SNAGS STREET-CORNER MEMORIAL
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThe family of a firefighter who died on 9/11 wants a Brooklyn intersection named for the fallen hero - but complain officials are giving them a runaround. Gregory Saucedo, the...
HOAX-LEERY COPS PROBE RADIO CALL-IN SLAY CONFESS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThe outrageous "Opie & Anthony" radio show turned into a deadly serious version of "America's Most Wanted" yesterday - when a live caller told stunned listeners he'd once killed two...
'ABUSED' TOT DIES IN HOSPITAL
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA 3-year old Brooklyn boy, who was hospitalized on Saturday with serious head trauma in what cops called a case of child abuse, died yesterday, police said. Anthony Rivera died...
STILL LOOKING SHARPE - NEWARK VOTERS RE-ELECT JAMES AFTER MAYORAL MUDFEST
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amNewark Mayor Sharpe James beat back the toughest challenge of his political career yesterday, winning a record fifth term after a bitter campaign against an upstart Ivy Leaguer. With 99...
ROAD TO TITLE ALL MAPPED OUT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHIS is how you win your fifth straight pennant. You stay so far under the radar screen that the Red Sox actually think things are going their way even though...
FOES OF JOINT EMS-FIRE HQ LOSE ROUND
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amIn an issue with racial overtones, firefighters in the Rockaways opposed to combining a firehouse and ambulance station suffered a setback yesterday when a City Council committee voted unanimously for...
YOU MAY BE ALLERGIC TO MATE'S KISS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amHere's a story to give you the wedding-bell blues - doctors say husbands and wives can actually be allergic to each other's kisses. In a bizarre case reported in Italy,...
WACKY WEBBED FEAT: 'SPIDEY' THEATER WORKER SPLITS WITH 75G: COPS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThere's a new villain in the "Spider-Man" saga - an assistant manager at a Georgia movie house who made off with $75,000, much of it from the flick's boffo box-office...
CARL: ANDY MUST NAME LAW CLIENTS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amCarl McCall yesterday demanded that his Democratic rival, Andrew Cuomo, release the names of his legal clients, citing a potential conflict of interest in the governor's race. "If you worked...
STEAL TRAP IN $600M SCAM
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amFour executives at a group of New Jersey metals-trading companies were charged yesterday with stealing $600 million from banks around the world, federal officials said. "This is a scam of...
MOUSSAOUI TO JUDGE: KEEP YOUR SHRINKS AWAY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Accused "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui is fighting a judge's order that he be examined by a psychiatrist before being allowed to fire his lawyers. Moussaoui filed the motions...
MAN SHOT IN BACK IN B'KLYN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA 36-year-old Far Rockaway man was shot twice in the back on a Brooklyn street early yesterday morning, cops said. It was not immediately clear why he was shot, police...
KID-SEX RAP FOR 'DIRTY' CUSTODIAN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amA Board of Education handyman at a city public school has been busted for sexually abusing a 10-year- old girl inside her East Flatbush gym class, police said yesterday. Angel...
WESLEY'S PLANNING ON MORE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amHORNET NOTES FORT MILL, S.C. - David Wesley didn't want to hear that yesterday may have been the final time the Hornets practiced at their plush facility in South Carolina....
GET A LOAD OF THOSE LAKERS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amANOTHER record-setting lake trout was taken this month from Round Valley Reservoir in New Jersey's Hunterdon County, according to the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife. Gregory Young of Whitehouse...
SILAS BLASTS NBA QUIP AS ANTI-HORNET
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amFORT MILL, S.C. - Paul Silas lashed out at NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik yesterday for saying the league would be "uncomfortable" if the Hornets made the Finals. After hearing...
TOP GUNS TAKE AIM AT BULLET BOB ; IT'S GONNA BE 'WAR,' TRAINERS VOW
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - The gloves are off. It's going to be war in the Preakness Saturday with the major players ganging up against Bob Baffert and his Saudi-owned Kentucky Derby winner,...
'HOLIDAY' LOOKS TO TURN TABLES
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - When Point Given, after finishing fifth as the favorite in last year's Kentucky Derby, bounced back two weeks later to win the Preakness, it was hardly a one-shot...
CONFIDENCE GAME : NETS WILL ADVANCE - JUST ASK 'EM
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThe Nets have no doubt they are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals. "No doubt at all," said forward Kenyon Martin. For the Hornets to survive, they must win three...
'EMBLEM' STROLLS ON BY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - "Bullet Bob" Baffert earned that nickname by drilling his horses in three speeds - "fast, faster and fastest" - so it came as a bit of a shock...
METROS' RAMOS CALLING IT QUITS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amIn what felt like a Who's-Who of American soccer, some of the greatest players, coaches and executives of the sport met at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark to bid a...
D. WAYNE SAYS HE'LL RUN 'TABLE' SATURDAY
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amPREAKNESS NOTEBOOK BALTIMORE - Trainer D. Wayne Lukas confirmed yesterday that Table Limit will run in Saturday's Preakness. Originally, Lukas said the Conquistador Cielo colt - coming off a four-length...
FOR LUCIOUS, IT'S A HOOP DREAM COME TRUE
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amNET NOTES He lived through - actually, he threw - the infamous Milt Palacio pass that gave the Celtics a ridiculous buzzer-beating win last year against the Nets. He saw...
NO TIME FOR WHINE ; TOUGH LOSSES TAKE TOLL ON METS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMONDAY / 13 INNINGSDodgers 3Mets 2 LOS ANGELES - Three team meetings over the weekend. Two 13-inning defeats bookending a 3,000-mile flight. One .500 team that is looking up at...
IT'S TIME TO THROW BYRON SOME KUDOS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSINCE Net coach Byron Scott wasn't deemed worthy to be named NBA Coach of the Year, what about Coach of the Playoffs? Then again, that probably would got to Sacramento's...
GROUP III RICHTER HIRES AGENT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSo Ken Hitchcock, who never, ever, was the leading candidate to coach the Rangers, signed yesterday in Philadelphia, but that's not the news of the day that will have the...
OBSESSED LEWIS CHAMPING AT BIT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSCOTRUN, Pa. - Fittingly, Lennox Lewis did not say the words, so much as he bit them off. For a moment, the smile vanished from his face, his eyes went...
LOPEZ' ARM, BAT ARE JUST GRAND
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amGrand Street 6John Adams 3 Richard Lopez has pitched in a number of important games for Grand Street. "He's been my ace since his freshman year," head coach Melvin Martinez...
BURTT TO CONTINUE TRADITION AT IONA
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amSteve Burtt Jr. is officially following in his father's footsteps. The 6-foot-1 guard from Rice High School signed with Iona yesterday. Burtt, named to the Post's All-CHSAA first team, averaged...
IT'S BUSINESS AS USUAL
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amTHIS is how you go about winning your fifth straight pennant: You bump, you grind and you absolutely destroy Bud Selig's weaklings. And when the Devil Rays act stupid and...
NOT MUCH OF A FIGHT
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amYanks 10 Devil Rays 3 It wasn't a fair fight, but it wasn't a rout just yet when Derek Jeter took off, to second, then to third, stealing two bases...
NO WOES FOR ANDY ON MOUND
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES His return remains a long ways away, but the Yankees received some encouraging news last night regarding Andy Pettitte and his ailing left elbow. Pettitte threw 42 pitches...
PEDRO TO THE RESCUE: ASTACIO GEM JUST WHAT METS NEEDED
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMets 3 Dodgers 0 LOS ANGELES - Pedro Astacio has been the Mets' best pitcher this season, but he hadn't pitched the very best games. Astacio, in his five previous...
QUICK FIX SOUGHT FOR SIDELINED VALENTIN
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMET NOTES LOS ANGELES - A check swing by John Valentin ended up worsening an old unknown injury and will force the Mets infielder onto the disabled list today. On...
ANDY HAS NO WOES ON MOUND
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES His return remains a long ways away, but the Yankees received some encouraging news last night regarding Andy Pettitte and his ailing left elbow. Pettitte threw 40 pitches...
YANKS ROCK RAYS
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amYanks 10 Devil Rays 3 It was cold enough and raw enough to feel like October, but that's where the similarities ended last night at Yankee Stadium. Postseason? This was...
SIDELINED VALENTIN WANTS SPEEDY RX
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amMET NOTES LOS ANGELES Having spent much of the previous two seasons on the disabled list, John Valentin, who injured his right shoulder on Monday night, had been hoping to...
IT'S ALL ABOUT PITCHING - YANKS' ARMS TRIGGER RISE IN EAST
May 15, 2002 | 4:00amThere are signs everywhere, like the flowers bursting through in the springtime warmth, that the Yankees are beginning to heat up, starting to blossom. Batting averages are slowly but steadily...