June 11, 2002
OPEC'S WORST NIGHTMARE: THE GAS-ELECTRIC HYBRID
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amLOOK at the picture above this column. If you were sitting behind the wheel like I did one day last week, turned the radio down and listened very carefully you'd...
MIDTOWN BUZZ ON MACKLOWE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amATTENTION Midtown shoppers: here's a handy guide to the town's most arresting construction sites, within two short blocks of one another. Start at the jinxed northeast corner of Fifth Avenue...
LICENSING SHOW SET TO DAZZLE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe next SpongeBob SquarePants will most likely be named Hamtaro. The Japanese hamster is expected to be a breakout hit at the L!censing 2002 International show, which starts today at...
PWC LOOKING FORWARD TO . . . MONDAY (!?)
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amPricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting biz has made one of the more bizarre choices of all time for a new name: Monday. Monday has been a despised day for centuries, suggesting laziness, second-guessing,...
STAGEBILL GOBBLED UP BY PLAYBILL
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amStagebill has been bought by its bitter archrival Playbill and now the very survival of the 75-year-old Stagebill name is in doubt. Most of the 50 staffers said they will...
TYCO'S TOP DOG: BOIES WINS LEGAL SHOOTOUT, OUSTS BELNICK
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amBig-time litigator David Boies ousted Mark Belnick, Tyco's third-in-command, in a showdown over who's in charge at the scandalized industrial giant. Only a month after signing a retention contract, Mark...
TINA BLAMES 9/11, PRESS FOR TALK FLOP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAfter six months, Tina Brown is still fuming that her Talk magazine flop was caused by hostile New York media and terrorists, not her management. Brown told a magazine conference...
ISLAND-INSTINET MERGER SET TO SHAKE UP NASDAQ
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amInstinet Group's $508 million stock deal for Island ECN could challenge the Nasdaq Stock Market's tightly held supremacy over tech stocks. The combined company will control 22 percent of trading...
STARR REPORT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amRitter's bill of health to be tested live Ch. 7's Bill Ritter is getting up-close-and-personal with the station's week-long focus on prostate cancer - getting a blood test and a...
STILL BOWLES 'EM OVER
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCABARET 1/2The Roundabout Theater Company at Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. (212) 239-6200. OVER the years, I've come to the "Cabaret" so often, I feel I could understudy some...
RISKY BUSINESS SPIELBERG, CRUISE EXPLORE THE DARK SIDE IN FUTURISTIC THRILLER 'MINORITY REPORT'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWHAT do you get when you team the world's most bankable star with the most commercially successful director on the planet? A movie that takes chances, from two men with...
BAD BREAK FOR KELLY: SHE'S OFF LENO
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amKELLY Osbourne has bailed on her much-anticipated "Tonight Show" appearance this Friday - saying she'd broken her hand and was exhausted. "Kelly has been doing a lot of traveling the...
OPEN MIKE ; MAYOR DOES 'DAILY SHOW'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amMAYOR Bloomberg has agreed to be interviewed on the late-night cable comedy show "The Daily Show" - a coup for host Jon Stewart and an out-of-character TV appearance for the...
KIDS' STUFF ; MISTER ROGERS WINS OVER IVY LEAGUE BRATS WITH 'CLASS' ACT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amA VOCAL minority of Dartmouth students didn't want Mister Rogers to speak at their commencement this past weekend because they didn't think a kids' show host was up to Dartmouth's...
PAPA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amVARIOUS ARTISTS "The Osbourne Family Album" Epic Records Now that we're all paying attention to the man behind the curtain, the great Oz can make any kind of record he...
TRAVELER'S UPDATE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amDay in the pork Vegetarians, steer clear of Hillsborough, N.C., this Friday and Saturday. Although the town's Hog Day Festival is filled with a variety of pro-pig activities such as...
IS THERE AN ACTOR IN THE HOUSE?
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCAN hitting an imaginary golf ball or making up stories make you a better physician?Doctors at Manhattan's Lenox Hill and Brooklyn's Long Island College Hospital think so. They're giving their...
URBAN JUNGLES: GET INTO THE GREAT OUTDOORS WITHOUT LEAVING CIVILIZATION ON THESE FOUR GREAT CITY HIKES
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amIN search of the last frontier? You don't have to take a helicopter to get there. As any nature lover knows, wilderness is where you find it. That could mean...
40% OF 9/11 $$ UNSPENT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amLess than 30 percent of the $2.3 billion donated to major Sept. 11 charities has gone to victims' families while 40 percent has yet to be distributed, according to a...
RISE & FALL OF THE GODFATHER
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHE was the Dapper Don who became the Teflon Don and then the Velcro Don. John Gotti, who died yesterday at age 61, used fists, wits, moxie, intimidation and the...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAn Ohio woman says she went out for a bite to eat - and ended up being bitten by a crazed monkey. Mary Roman wants $25,000 in damages from the...
TYCO CASE SCARING TAXES OUT OF EVADERS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amJittery tax evaders are trying to strike deals with authorities following the high-profile indictment of Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski for allegedly ducking more than $1 million in sales tax, officials...
EX-TOP COP WARD DIES ; NYPD'S 1ST BLACK COMMISH WAS 75
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amBenjamin Ward, whose tenure as the city's first black police commissioner was marked by rising crime, a burgeoning crack epidemic and a series of incidents that heightened racial tension, died...
NYPD BIDS TO 'BAR' ESCAPES
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAn alarming number of suspects escaping from police custody has prompted the NYPD to install handcuff bars in all precincts, officials said yesterday. "Eighty handcuff bars were installed in detective...
THE FIRST SIGN OF A FIFTH COLUMN?
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amTHERE are grounds for hope in the arrest of an American accused of being an al Qaeda operative involved in a plot to plant a radiation bomb in Washington, D.C....
GOOD DAY SUNSHINE ; PAUL: CLOUDS WON'T DAMPEN WEDDING JOY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amPaul McCartney and his blond sweetheart, Heather Mills, will come together today and exchange their love-me-do's as they tie the knot in an ancient Irish castle. And the ex-Beatle said...
THE DIRTY-BOMB PLOT ; OUR ENEMY'S TRUE FACE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWE should be pleased, not surprised, at the announced arrest of a terrorist who hoped to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the United States. We should be pleased because this...
W'BURG BRIDGE OPEN
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe city reopened the remaining two Manhattan-bound lanes on the crowded Williamsburg Bridge yesterday, completing a $202 million reconstruction more than a month early. Four lanes will now be open...
LEADING LADIES CAST IN ALLEN'S $ELFISH DRAMAS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHEY, movie fans. Here's a pop quiz: Which longtime-leading-lady-turned-legal-foe of high-living, down-dressing, female-nuking filmmaker Woody Allen fits these descriptions? (Hint: This is Woody, so watch for a trick.) 1. She...
NEW TWIST IN GIRL'S '84 SLAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amA hair found where Angela Wong, an 11-year-old girl found drowned and sexually molested 18 years ago, does not belong to the man cops have in custody, officials said yesterday....
BUSH: ISRAEL IN THE RIGHT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush left Israeli officials delighted yesterday as he warmly endorsed Israel's right to self-defense and again blasted Yasser Arafat after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at...
RABBI DEFIES CITY ON PATROLS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amDespite calls from city officials for a Queens rabbi to cancel his plans for armed vigilantes to mount anti-terrorism patrols in two Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, the clergyman said yesterday...
'DIRTY' RAT GETS TRAPPED ; B'KLYN NATIVE ACCUSED OF BOMB PLOT IN D.C.
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amA Brooklyn-born U.S. citizen turned al Qaeda terrorist planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb," probably in Washington, D.C., before he was nabbed, the feds said yesterday. Jose Padilla,...
BISHOP ACTS FUNNY ; SEX ACCUSER LIVID OVER JOKE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe leader of Brooklyn's Catholics yesterday outraged an alleged victim of priest sexual abuse by telling a joke while being grilled by the man's lawyer. The joke came amid Bishop...
TEARS FOR A THUG IN HIS OLD 'HOOD
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe Dapper Don's death hit hard on the mob chieftain's home turf in Queens, where he ruled with equal measures of intimidation and generosity. Outside Gotti's Howard Beach home on...
CARNEGIE SUSPECT'S TALE FULL OF HOLES
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe prosecution pummeled accused Carnegie Deli massacre mastermind Sean Salley on the witness stand yesterday, turning his claim that he was "forced" into the triple murder into Swiss cheese. Salley,...
COPS FIND BANK-HEIST BILLS NEAR CHANDRA DEATH SCENE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Police searching for clues in the Chandra Levy murder case discovered money that came from a recent bank robbery near the death scene in Rock Creek Park. In...
CAREER CROOK'S BLOODY PAST
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAbdullah al Muhajir, the man busted for plotting to unleash a dirty bomb in the United States, is a Brooklyn-born gang-banger with a long criminal history that includes murder. Muhajir's...
WOODY'S LEGAL FOE HITS BACK
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe joke was on Woody Allen when Jean Doumanian gave herself a $250,000 raise with his cash. Taking the stand in Allen's multimillion-dollar lawsuit against her, Doumanian denied the funnyman's...
'HOLE' LOT OF SECURITY ; ARMY OF COPS DESCENDING ON U.S. OPEN
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe greens of the upcoming golf U.S. Open are awash in black and blue - the color of boosted security forces vowing to avert any potential terror strike at the...
DON'T DRIVE AND YOU'LL STAY OUT OF THE ROUGH
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHere's how not to get teed off by police roadblocks and other security crackdowns that make traveling to the U.S. Open golf tournament a pain in the grass this week....
PA LOSES ROUND IN '93 WTC SUIT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amA Manhattan judge yesterday denied a bid by the Port Authority to block lawyers for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing victims from talking to one of its former employees....
HEADING GAMBINOS MAY BE NO-KIN-DO FOR GOTTIS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWill the Gotti brothers continue to run the Gambino crime family, or have its captains and soldiers had enough of them? That's the big question for law-enforcement officials following the...
JOHN GOTTI DIES LONELY DEATH IN JAIL CELL
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amBids to get to bro's wake.Now that John Gotti's fight against cancer is over, big brother Peter - the new reputed godfather - is waging his own battle to get...
FINAL AGONY OF THE DYING DON ; GOTTI WIFE: FEDS WANTED HIM 'KILLED'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amJOHN GOTTI once ruled the gritty underworld, but in the end, he was a shadow of the Dapper Don who had strolled the Big Apple in $2,000 suits. Gotti had...
FUNERAL WILL BE A WHO'S WHO OF GANGSTERS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe city can expect a mob of mobsters, media and strategically placed lawmen at mob boss John Gotti's funeral. "Among the Cosa Nostra, he's considered a stand-up guy," said a...
BIG BEN SPARED BY GROUNDING OF JETS ON 9/11: REPORT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe terrorists who struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon also reportedly targeted Big Ben on Sept. 11 - but England's most famous landmark was spared because flights out...
VETERAN MOB-BUSTER HAS SOME SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWhen famed mob-hunter Joe Coffey slapped the cuffs on John Gotti, the Teflon Don offered him 3-to-1 odds he would beat the charge. Gotti couldn't beat the odds against cancer...
THIS TIME, FBI-CIA TEAMWORK SAVES THE DAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - The first tip that led to would-be "dirty-bomber" Jose Padilla came from captured Osama bin Laden henchman Abu Zubaydah, U.S. officials say. The result was an intelligence coup...
TEACHER BUSTED IN DRUG PLOT
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amA pregnant Queens teacher was busted yesterday morning by federal authorities for allegedly passing messages from her imprisoned father to his drug-dealing cronies. Helena Gonzalez, 31, who teaches 7th-grade social...
MCCALL: GOV HANDS OUT KEY JOBS BASED ON 'POLITICAL CONNECTIONS'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amGubernatorial candidate Carl McCall yesterday stood outside Gov. Pataki's campaign headquarters and ripped his rival's fiscal record, saying he "needs to stop playing politics with economic development." McCall said at...
MIKE GETS SCHOOLS' REINS TODAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amALBANY - Mayor Mike, the schools are yours. The Legislature today will finish passage of the most sweeping school-reform package in three decades, giving Mayor Bloomberg vast control over the...
JOH GOTTI DIES LONELY DEATH IN JAIL CELL
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amJohn Joseph Gotti, the high-profile boss of the city's most notorious crime family, died of cancer in a lonely prison cell 1,165 miles away from home - ending a nearly...
16-22% PAY ; HIKE FOR TEACHERS ; 21/2-YEAR PACT HAILED BY UFT AS 'HISTORIC'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe city's 80,000 teachers won raises of 16 to 22 percent in a "historic" deal announced last night by Mayor Bloomberg that boosted their top pay to $81,231. "We will...
DRUNK KILLS MAN, 75: COPS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAn allegedly drunken driver ran a stop sign, crashed into a city bus, then skidded onto a Brooklyn sidewalk and killed an elderly man yesterday, police said. Authorities said the...
'TOUGHEST MAN EVER'
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHE WAS a dying breed in a breed that was dying. "I will be me until I die," Gotti said to me through his lawyer, Bruce Cutler, on Aug. 30,...
EATERIES HUNGERED FOR BIG-SPENDING DON
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amJohn Gotti was as famous for his extravagant dining as he was for his dapper duds. While he often dined at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park,...
WTC MEMORIAL MAY BE FUNDED LIKE OKLA. CITY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe funding for the permanent World Trade Center memorial could be managed by a federal committee comprised of local officials, a congressman said yesterday. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said he...
'SUNSET' HAS BRUNO SEEING RED
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday blasted a provision allowing the agreement giving Mayor Bloomberg control of the schools to expire in seven years. Bruno called the legislation's...
THEY'LL GET 16% PAY HIKE
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amMayor Bloomberg and the teachers union reached agreement yesterday on a new contract that raises salaries by 16 percent over 30 months, officials said. Teachers' starting salaries would increase from...
HE HAD A LOT OF STYLE - FOR AN EVIL, MURDERING PSYCHOPATH
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHE WAS a thug. A killer. Head of a violent crime family. But I liked his style. And I think he liked mine. He certainly singled me out from the...
SHAWN DODGES FLAP OVER ROCKET AT-BATS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCHICAGO - If Met fans want to read about how Roger Clemens is going to get one in the ear on Saturday afternoon, they'll be disappointed. If Mike Piazza's supporters...
FICKLE FINGER FOR WHITE; RIVERAS ON DL
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amAs expected, the Yankees yesterday put two Riveras on the 15-day disabled list - closer Mariano and rookie outfielder Juan - but their newest injury concern is the left index...
SHANE SLAMS D'BACKS: HR CAPS YANKEE RALLY OVER JOHNSON
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amYankees 7 D'backs 5 On a night when Randy Johnson was human, on a night when an unknown rookie named Marcus Thames inscribed his name in Yankees history, on a...
ENGLE TAKES THE FALL FOR BUM BATS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amMET NOTES CHICAGO - The Mets finally found a reason for their sluggish start. It must have been hitting coach Dave Engle, who was relieved of his duties yesterday. Engle...
WINGS ONE WIN AWAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amGAME 4 Red Wings 3 Hurricanes 0 RALEIGH - They are one win away now, one win away from fulfilling their manifest destiny, one win away from capturing the Stanley...
D'BACKS BITTEN BY STADIUM HEX
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThis time it wasn't Byung-Hyun Kim, but for the Diamondbacks, the defeat eerily familiar. Once again the Arizona bullpen handled a late-inning lead as though it were coated with cyanide....
HARRIS CAN'T MASK SLUMP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amHe is no longer "The Man in the Plastic Mask." But Lucious Harris still is "The Man in the Wretched Shooting Slump." The Nets' reserve guard was one of the...
NETS LEARNING SECOND STUD IS A NECESSITY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amTHIS first time was all about experience, said the Nets yesterday as, for lack of a second scoring option, they chose between a blindfold and cigarette for tomorrow night. There...
ENGLE TAKES HIT FOR METS' LIMP LUMBER
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCHICAGO - The Mets finally found a reason for their sluggish start: It was hitting coach Dave Engle's fault. It must have been, because Engle was relieved of his duties...
BAFFERT: 'WAR' WILL BE BACK FOR BREEDERS' CUP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amTrainer Bob Baffert may be down, but don't dare count him out in the wake of War Emblem's crushing defeat in Saturday's Belmont Stakes - the third time in the...
PLAYING FOR PRIDE ; NETS JUST LOOKIN' TO AVOID A SWEEP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThere are worse situations to be in for a best-of-seven series than the 0-3 NBA Finals hole in which the Nets reside against the Lakers. OK, so we can't think...
WINLESS POLAND STANDING IN WAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amConventional wisdom says that a tie is like kissing your sister. But after the U.S. soccer team escaped World Cup co-host South Korea with a 1-1 draw, that sibling might...
BENCHED VAN ASKS: WHY ME?
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amBecause they do whenever things go badly for the Nets, the fingers have pointed toward Keith Van Horn again. And a confused Van Horn has responded by wondering about Byron...
BETHPAGE ALL AROAR OVER TIGER
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amNot until 3:13 yesterday afternoon did you feel - really feel - that the long-anticipated 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black finally was on. That's when Tiger Woods, his entourage...
SHAQ, KOBE TAKE TURNS TAKING OVER
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amIt is Phil Jackson's finest work, getting Kobe Bryant to defer to Shaquille O'Neal and selling it to arguably the game's most talented player. The wonderful bonding of two superstars...
LONG AND SHORT OF IT: COURSE FAVORS BIG HITTERS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amOPEN NOTES As more of the PGA's elite play Bethpage Black, a common opinion emerges: A big hitter is going to win the 2002 U.S. Open. Davis Love III, echoing...
NETS CAN STILL LAUGH
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amBeing down 0-3 to the two-time defending champ Lakers has not cost the Nets their sense of humor. Check out rookies Richard Jefferson and Brian Scalabrine. Someone asked Jefferson yesterday...
BOSSY IS WILLING TO WING IT WITH TROTS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amRALEIGH, N.C. - Jacques Lemaire brought Larry Robinson with him to New Jersey, so doesn't it make a world of sense for Bryan Trottier to bring Mike Bossy with him...
ESTES DODGES ROGER FLAP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCHICAGO - If Met fans want to read about how Roger Clemens is going to get one in the ear on Saturday afternoon, they'll be disappointed. If Mike Piazza's defenders...
JOE DEFENDS BY-PASSING SF'S BONDS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amGiants manager Dusty Baker was the envy of headline writers everywhere when he dubbed Roger Clemens "Roger the Dodger" after Clemens pitched around Barry Bonds all four times the two...
SHAQ HAS WILLIAMS FOULED UP
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amIt surely was not what Aaron Williams wants to be remembered for: "Quickest Disqualification in an NBA Finals Game, seven minutes." But that is the dubious achievement Williams earned in...
FEALEY'S FABULOUS IN MOLLOY CROWNING
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amCHSAAMolloy 5Moore 2 As Matt Fealey left practice on Sunday, Archbishop Molloy head coach Jack Curran approached the lanky right-hander and told him he would take the mound in yesterday's...
CALL DALY JOHN Q. PUBLIC
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amJOHN Daly looks like someone you'd see frequent a public golf course. His sizable girth makes him look more couch potato than athlete. And he's not averse to puffing on...
PLAYERS BRACED FOR ROUGH WEEK
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe only thing that wasn't long about Bethpage Black yesterday was the amount of time it took for its difficulty to sink in. It isn't enough that it's the longest-ever...
16-YEAR-OLD TOLAN SWINGS WITH BIG BOYS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amDerek Tolan figured he'd done the hard part. The 16 year old from suburban Denver secured a spot in this week's U.S. Open by knocking in a 50-foot chip on...
BYRON'S FAR FROM BLAMELESS
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amIS the NBA's Consolation Round over? Not officially. The rules state you have to bust your opponents' chops on four separate occasions before you're permitted to luxuriate over Larry O'Brien's...
METS TOPPLE WHITE SOX: ASTACIO, 2 HRS KEY WIN
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amMets 3 White Sox 1 CHICAGO - There is nobody left to take the blame for the hitters. No more patsies or fall guys - only mirrors and statistic-displaying scoreboards....
D'BACK TO THE BRONX: YANKS BATTLE 'ZONA IN SERIES REMATCH
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amThe last time they were here, there was nothing but bitter frustration for the Diamondbacks at Yankee Stadium. It was during last year's World Series, and Arizona suffered three galling...
PRESSURE? 'CANES SAY NO WAY
June 11, 2002 | 4:00amRALEIGH - Game 3 was the one the Hurricanes needed to establish credibility outside of the small circle of people in hockey who have understood all along how credible they...