June 26, 2002
WORLDCOM BOMB - $3.6 BILLION IN COOKED BOOKS MAY ROCK MARKETS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWall Street braced for a rout today following the collapse of troubled telecom giant WorldCom over admissions it inflated profits by $3.6 billion. It would likely force the company to...
BOOK WARS BURN AMAZON'S BEZOS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAmazon.com's Jeff Bezos got taken for $242.5 million in a new price war with discounter Buy.com. Buy.com shook up the bookseller world yesterday by saying it would it will undercut...
NOT ROSY AT ROSIE - EDITOR AXED FOR FORMER NO. 2 AT PEOPLE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amRosie O'Donnell's magazine yesterday bounced the editor who had supervised the magazine's transformation from McCall's into its new incarnation as Rosie magazine. The new editor is Susan Toepfer, former No....
MODELS' SUIT CLAIMS RIPOFF ON THE RUNWAY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amIt's the attack of the mannequins. Six models launched a class-action lawsuit yesterday against New York's top agencies - including Wilhelmina, Ford and Elite - claiming they conspired to fix...
FREED CYBERSEX OLLIE PUSHES BOOK, MOVIE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amOLIVER Jovanovic - who spent 20 months in jail as a cyberspace sex fiend only to be freed when an appeals court found evidence in his favor had been suppressed...
LATIN QUARTER DANCES INTO EAST SIDE DIGS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTHE salty salsas and movin' mambos of lusty Latino nightlife are returning to midtown. Leading Latino impresario Ralph Mercado is updating the infamous Latin Quarter nightclub, rechristening it LQ's, and...
QUICKSILVER SURFS INTO SHOWBIZ
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amHang ten! The famed surf and skate maker, Quicksilver, is going Hollywood. The company is launching a new division, Quicksilver Entertainment, to produce TV programs, movies, events, music, publishing and...
ANDERSEN WANTS VERDICT THROWN OUT
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amJurors in the Andersen obstruction of justice case may not be finished just yet. A post-trial motion by Arthur Andersen lawyers has asked that the conviction by a Houston jury...
ADELPHIA FILES FOR CH. 11 BANKRUPTCY AFTER DEFAULT
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAfter weeks of scrambling, scandal-scarred Adelphia Communications Corp. filed for protection from its creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last night. The filing for Chapter 11, or reorganization, in the Southern...
JITTERY INVESTORS BAIL OUT; NASDAQ HITS SEPT. LOWS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWall Street went on a downward spiral that sliced 155 points off the Dow industrials and put the Nasdaq composite within a point of its post-Sept. 11 lows. When the...
PRADA'S BERTELLI BUYING REST OF JIL SANDER
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amPutting his house in order before opening up the doors to the public, Prada's Patrizio Bertelli is buying the 25 percent of Jil Sander AG it doesn't already own. A...
'MONEY' A HONEY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amMONEY BUYS HAPPINESS [] Loveless in Seattle. Running time: 104 minutes. Not rated. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, Third Street and Avenue A, East Village --------- GEORGIA, 35, is...
'I SPEND LIKE A *#&*!' - SHARON TELLS WHY SHE NEEDS $20 MIL-PLUS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amOZZY Osbourne and family will be paid even more than the reported $20 million jackpot for next season's edition of "The Osbournes," says Sharon Osbourne. "The real figures are more,"...
BLESS MY 'SOUL' - 'SOUL FOOD' BEGINS SEASON 3 WITH FAYE DUNAWAY AND STAR JONES SITTING AT THE TABLE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00am"Soul Food" [ 1/2] season debut Tonight at 10 on Showtime ----------- THREE seasons ago, Showtime figured out that if there was one more night-time soap filled with gorgeous, thin,...
JAFFE BOWS OUT IN STYLE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAMERICAN BALLET THEATERAt Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000. Season runs through July 6. ----------- A dancer's career, even a great and beloved dancer, is at best a brief...
KORN FANS ALL EARS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amKORN ------ THE husky bombast of Korn's rage metal sound was ripe and harvested at Madison Square Garden Monday. With its harsh, vent-against-everything style, Korn might seem an unlikely advance...
DHARMA QUEEN
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amJENNA Elfman's been taking singing lessons from composer Cy Coleman. The "Dharma & Greg" star is up for the title role in a revival of Coleman's 1966 musical "Sweet Charity,"...
A CRITICAL LOOK THROUGH ROSÉ-COLORED GLASSES
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amUNFORTUNATELY, Gertrude Stein got it right.A rosé is a rosé is a rosé. That's because the vast majority of the pink bottles that begin appearing this time of year in...
BOSTON SUITS FULL OF BEANS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amCELEB chef Todd English is savoring a Boston judge's ruling. The hunky owner of the Olive Group Corp. - a chain of eateries that includes Olives and Figs - was...
SKINNY GRILLS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amHOT dogs and beer, macaroni and potato salads and . . . pot bellies. From now through Labor Day, it's barbecue season - when the thrill of the grill can...
THE RICE STUFF - NEW MART OFFERS COLORFUL TASTE OF TOKYO
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA Little Japan is growing in the East Village. Japanese restaurants, a pastry shop, a supermarket and a hair salon line Ninth Street between Second and Third avenues. Just around...
WAVES OF GRAIN GREET EATERS AT UNITED NOODLES
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amUNITED NOODLES [ 1/2] 349 E. 12TH ST. (BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND AVENUES) (212) 614-0155 ---------- SOME restaurants serve food that's out of this world. But United Noodles offers pasta...
WAIL ON JENNINGS - COWHIDE PROTEST AIMED AT ABC FOR BOOTING PATRIOTIC COUNTRY SINGER
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amFANS of country singer Toby Keith are about to give Peter Jennings the boot. Actually, make that boots - hundreds of pairs of them which are scheduled to be shipped...
HE'S STILL THE KING
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amELVIS PRESLEY "A Little Less Conversation" [] RCA Dead men tell no tales - but if they are as revered as Elvis Presley, they can still kick butt 25 years...
PUNCH DRINK - TRENDY NEW YORK DROWNING IN KITCHEN-SINK COCKTAILS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amLET'S hope Mayor Bloomberg adds one more zero-tolerance category to his crackdown on "quality of life" offenses: the ruination of the city's drinking scene by the "specialty cocktail" plague. Last...
BRONX KID DIES IN ELEVATOR PLUNGE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA 12-year-old boy roughhousing with some friends at a Bronx housing project crashed through an elevator door last night and plunged 15 stories to his death, police said. Dimel Suero...
PATHMARK PERV NABBED: COPS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA Long Island man was busted for fondling a woman and her daughter in a supermarket after an alert witness got the license plate of the fleeing pervert, police said....
BODY OF MISSING FISHERMAN FOUND
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThe body of one of four amateur fishermen who vanished in high seas off Long Island on June 15 during a shark-fishing tournament has been found in waters off New...
MARTHA'S SALAD DAZE: HACKS CABBAGE AS SHE DODGES TV QUIZ ON STOX
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWith Congress, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission probing the ImClone insider-trading scandal, Martha Stewart wants to focus on more important matters - like salad. The domestic...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA porn-loving pervert walked uninvited - and naked - into the home of a 60-year-old woman who was expecting her husband, cops say. Officers in Jacksonville, Fla., arrested the 39-year-old...
STEWART BURNED BY KMART RECALL
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amOn top of everything else, it appears Martha Stewart Everyday style can be hazardous to your health. Fifty-thousand of the domestic diva's "potpourri simmering pots" from Kmart are being recalled...
16 TAX-CHEAT TRACK TELLERS GUILTY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThree New York racetrack parimutuel tellers and dealers pleaded guilty yesterday to tax fraud in federal court in Central Islip, L.I., joining 13 others whose 2001 guilty pleas were unsealed...
LIBERTY MEDALS SCORE WITH NHL
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThe New York Post has scored a winning goal with its Liberty Medal Awards, the NHL's commissioner said yesterday. "These awards are a great way to show support for our...
ISRAEL KILLS 4 IN HEBRON
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amJERUSALEM - Israeli troops killed four Palestinian policemen in a fierce gun battle in Hebron yesterday, but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon backed off his threat of waging "massive" raids in...
ANOTHER PATAKI IS WAITING IN WINGS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amALBANY - Gov. Pataki's attractive 23-year-old daughter has a starring role in his latest TV campaign ad, fueling questions about whether she's being groomed for future political office. The statewide...
UNCOLLECTED FINES IN NYC
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThe city has failed to collect $634 million in fines for everything from littering to removing asbestos illegally, Comptroller Bill Thompson reported yesterday. The fines have accumulated over eight years...
TRANSIT ACTIVISTS VENT OVER V TRAIN
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTransit and community activists yesterday called on subway commuters to demand that Gov. Pataki reverse controversial changes on the Queens Boulevard lines. "Call Gov. Pataki. He runs the MTA. Tell...
BE PATRIOTIC: BUY A PACK OF BUTTS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amSHE huddles against the office-building wall, looking as guilty as a junkie and every bit as needy. "I'm just stopping, cold turkey," Cassandra Sullivan says. "I'll toss the money I...
'OBSTRUCTION' COPS IN THE CLEAR
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTwo Queens detectives have been cleared of obstruction of justice after they were accused of blocking a prosecutor from questioning a drunken colleague following a fatal car crash four years...
TATUM HITS MCENROE WITH GRAND-SLAM STEROID RAP
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amActress Tatum O'Neal says ex-hubby John McEnroe used steroids to power his tennis playing, but she made him stop because he was "becoming violent." The tempestuous tennis ace would also...
WATCHDOG GROWLS AT GOV'S NEW BUDGET
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amALBANY - Don't accuse the Citizens Budget Commission of grade inflation: It gave the new state budget a "D" yesterday, barely up from last year's failing "F." "The state budget...
CITY GOING TO THE DOGS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTalk about the dog days of summer! Come August, 300 life-sized and individually decorated German shepherd statues will turn up all over town to raise money for canine search and...
STORE $CANNERS RIP YOU OFF
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAttention, Kmart and CVS shoppers: You may be getting overcharged by scanners that ring up higher prices at the register than those posted on the shelves, authorities on Long Island...
MIKE'S IN A RUSH FOR CIG-TAX HIKE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amIn order to enact his unprecedented $1.42-a- pack tax hike on cigarettes, Mayor Bloomberg will hold a Sunday morning public hearing - the first in memory. The announcement in yesterday's...
WHISTLEBLOWER LOSES PROMOTION
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amSchools Chancellor Harold Levy shot down a popular Queens principal's promotion to superintendent after the candidate blew the whistle on his controversial computer tax, The Post has learned. Levy, in...
WRENCHING ARRESTS: CITY FLUSHES OUT 19 IN PLUMBING-BRIBE PROBE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amNineteen current and former city building inspectors - including the chief plumbing inspectors in four boroughs - were charged yesterday with extortion after a three-year probe of the inspections process....
BLOOMY OK ON GAY-WED BILL
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA proposal by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller to have the city recognize gay marriages from other states gained momentum yesterday when the Bloomberg administration offered no opposition. Mayor Bloomberg's...
PIANO MAN MOVIN' OUT OF REHAB
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amPiano man Billy Joel plans to check out of a chic rehab clinic today, his spokeswoman says. "He's doing very well," said Claire Mercuri, his Columbia Records publicist. Joel checked...
FATHER'S FURY AS 'KILLER' DOC FREED
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA father who wanted to see his daughter's killer "die in the electric chair" instead watched him stroll out of court with what the dad blasted as "a slap on...
JUNKET JUNKIE - QNS. POL LEADS STATE'S D.C. DELEGATION IN FREE TRIPS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - When it comes to taking freebie trips, Rep. Greg Meeks is king among New York lawmakers, The Post has found. Meeks (D-Queens) and his wife, Simone-Marie, went to...
TEEN-HOOKER HONCHO JAILED
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA former city Juvenile Justice Department counselor has been sentenced to a year in jail for running a prostitution ring that employed teenage girls, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said...
MY MAD LOVE FOR THIS JUDGE IS BLINDING
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWISEGUY Rossillo Buffalino had great agita at the time he said: "It's bad enough being convicted, but did it have to be by a broad?" Judge Reena Raggi oversaw the...
BLOOMY 'MORE OR LESS' BACKS DOWN ON MEMORIAL
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amMayor Bloomberg - under increasing fire from 9/11 families - yesterday backed off his suggestion that a smaller memorial at the World Trade Center site might be better than a...
LUCIANO: LAST BOW AT 70
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amSix weeks after failing to front at the Met, Luciano Pavarotti claims he will lumber on for another three years before retiring, despite his failing health. The tubby tenor, who...
MOUSSAOUI RIPS JUDGE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amALEXANDRIA, Va. - Alleged 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui accused a federal judge of "preparing me for the gas chamber" during a courtroom tiff that was sparked by his refusal to...
E-MAIL GAVE FIRM EARLY WARNING
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amExecutives close to ImClone had firmer and earlier evidence than first believed that their application for the much-hyped cancer drug Erbitux faced government rejection, a newly disclosed e-mail shows. A...
ED. BOARD $LUGGED OVER PUNCHES
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amFive Bronx parents are suing the Board of Education for negligence, charging that a gym teacher pummeled their kids during an altercation in school last month. "This teacher was an...
SEX FIEND GUILTY - WEALTHY EAST SIDER COPS PLEA IN BATHROOM ATTACKS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA rich young East Sider pleaded guilty yesterday to two vicious attacks on women in bar bathrooms - smashing their heads against tile walls when he proved too impotent to...
COLIN COY ON YASSER 'RE-ELECTION'
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday blasted Yasser Arafat as a failed leader, but ducked the question of what will happen if he gets re-elected despite President Bush's...
BLOOMBERG WILL GRADE SCHOOLS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amMayor Bloomberg is planning to issue a new report card to let the public know how schools are doing under his watch, including rating them on parent involvement, a top...
FEDS BUST ROOMIE OF 9/11 THUGS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - A roommate of two Sept. 11 hijackers was arrested by the feds and questioned about his relationship with the terrorists, a Justice Department official said last night. Rasmi...
CANTOR RIVAL'S DIRTY BUSINESS: PLOTTED TO POACH 9/11-HIT FIRM'S TOP TALENT: LAWSUIT
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amSecret e-mails reveal a rival firm plotted to destroy Cantor Fitzgerald just weeks after the bond broker lost 658 staffers in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, an...
9TH GRADE GOOD ENOUGH FOR CITY KIDS, COURT SAYS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA state appeals court yesterday threw out a judge's finding that the state has been cheating city kids out of billions of dollars in public-school funding, ruling students are entitled...
SCHWARZ SLAMMED - 2 COPS TESTIFY HE LED CUFFED LOUIMA
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA pair of police officers dealt a double blow to Charles Schwarz's defense yesterday - placing the ex-cop with Abner Louima immediately before Louima was sodomized. But the cops, who...
BATHTIME HORROR - BEAU KILLS LITTLE BOY, MOM OVER SPILL: COPS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA pregnant Crown Heights woman and her 6-year-old son were killed by her live-in boyfriend over a spilled bottle of bubbles, cops said yesterday. "He admitted everything," a police source...
MAN DEAD IN MYSTERY S.I. FIRE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA man was found dead in the basement of a burned house in Staten Island yesterday, fire officials said. A source said two people - a house guest and another...
PRIEST MOLESTED BOY, 12, AT ROCKAWAY BEACH: DA
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amA Catholic priest was arrested yesterday on charges of abusing a 12-year-old Queens boy he had taken on an outing to Rockaway Beach. Peter Kiare, 41, a missionary priest visiting...
KIN'S ANGUISHED PLEA IN FATAL L.I. CAR CRASH
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThe anguished family of a Long Island woman killed in a car accident is appealing to the public for help - desperate to know if she died because someone deliberately...
'OBSTRUCT' COPS IN THE CLEAR
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTwo Queens detectives have been cleared of obstruction of justice after being accused of blocking a prosecutor from questioning a drunken colleague following a fatal car crash four years ago....
BUSH VISITS ARIZONA FIRE VICTIMS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amPresident Bush told devastated families to "hang in there" after he got a firsthand look at a monster Arizona wildfire yesterday - and hinted that environmental zeal could have sparked...
PHONE TAG
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amFormer ImClone CEO Sam Waksal has some very high-falutin' friends. On Dec. 27, Waksal got calls from socialite Patricia Duff, famed financier Carl Icahn, and the domestic diva herself, Martha...
DOUBLEDAY WILL SUE TO STOP SALE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amMets co-owner Nelson Doubleday will file a lawsuit to try to block the sale of his 50 percent share to Fred Wilpon, he announced yesterday. Doubleday, who felt he was...
HANDICAPPING DRAFT IS NO BREEZE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amSO much jabbering, so little space, where do we begin today's column? With the news the Chinese government has declared the NBA Draft unconstitutional? Michael Jordan, hopeful of playing another...
RIVERA'S HEALTHY, HUNGRY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - He doesn't know when Joe Torre will call his name, but Mariano Rivera was back in the bullpen last night at Camden Yards when the Yankees opened a...
SQUEEZED INTO SUBMISSION - BIRDS PREY ON ANDY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - After every pore released an ocean of sweat in the 97-degree heat, the Yankees were squeezed to baseball death last night at Camden Yards. Jerry Hairston's seventh-inning squeeze...
WIN BUYS SOME TIME ... BUT SMILES STILL AMAZIN-LY SCARCE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amGIVE the Mets a mile and they'll take an inch. The Braves did everything short of sending out invitations insisting the Mets blow them out last night. They started the...
JONES WASN'T CHIPPER
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAtlanta manager Bobby Cox said he got the matchup he wanted. Chipper Jones said he got the pitch he wanted. But neither worked out for the Braves last night as...
SWEATY BUT SWEET - METS SURVIVE LATE SCARES, BEAT BRAVES
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amBobby Valentine dismissed last night's pregame altercation between Roberto Alomar and Roger Cedeno by saying, "the Latin fluids were going." The Met manager used the dugout scuffle between his starting...
RICHTER GOING TO MARKET
June 26, 2002 | 4:00am'Round and 'round she'll go and where the free-agent goaltending carousel will stop, nobody really knows. But this much appears inevitable: Mike Richter will be on it. A telephone conversation...
RIVERA: NO MO PAIN - YANKS' CLOSER HEALTHY, HUNGRY
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amBALTIMORE - He didn't know when Joe Torre would call his name, but Mariano Rivera was back in the bullpen last night at Camden Yards where the Yankees opened a...
NETS HAVE EDGE WITH THORN ON THEIR SIDE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amGranted, the Nets have the 24th pick in tonight's NBA Draft, and much can happen before the selection wheel points to them. But they have on their side Rod Thorn,...
NBA TEAMS DIG FOR GEMS AT GARDEN - IMPACT PLAYERS SCARCE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amIt's time to make this proposal to NBA general managers, scouts and draftniks: Let's do away with the term "impact player." Unlike the NFL Draft, the impact player no longer...
LAYDEN ON THE LINE WHEN KNICKS PICK TONIGHT
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amThe day of reckoning has arrived for Knicks general manager Scott Layden. The former Jazz executive brought to New York three years ago for his drafting expertise gets one last...
DUQUE'S RETURN IS 'PENNED'
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES BALTIMORE - Orlando Hernandez is expected to join the Yankees today or tomorrow and report directly to Joe Torre's bullpen. He will likely work from there until after...
CRYSTAL HELPS LIBERTY CRACK THREE-GAME SKID
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amLiberty 74 - Fever 55 Teresa Weatherspoon knew this would be Crystal Robinson's game very quickly. "From her first shot, I could tell she was on," Weatherspoon said. "She said,...
WIN BUYS SOME TIME - NOW, GRUMPY SHEA FANS NEED TO SEE MORE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amYOU know what last night's 7-4 victory over the Braves bought the Mets? Our interest today. This is where the Mets are now, not even three months into the 2002...
FACE IT, METS: BRAVES ARE BETTER
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTHE Mets not only played like losers Monday night, they sounded like losers. What a disturbing combination. They talked as if the Braves' dominance over them owed much to mysticism...
A MASTERFUL CHANGE
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amAs brilliant as Tom Glavine has been - and with five 20-win seasons and a pair of Cy Young Awards, he's among the best this generation has seen - he's...
BUSINESS AS USUAL - METS' BAD KARMA VS. BRAVES IS NOTHING NEW
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amNelson Doubleday walked up to Mike Piazza at the side of the batting cage yesterday afternoon, exchanging pleasantries and almost immediately pleading for a victory. "They aren't better than we...
TRACHSEL DELIVERS
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amFor the second straight outing, Steve Trachsel flirted with perfection. And even though the much-maligned starter fell four innings short of arguably the most difficult achievement in sports, he gave...
ROAD-WEARY LIBERTY HAPPY TO BE BACK HOME
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amDuring the Liberty's 12-point loss in Orlando on Sunday, Vickie Johnson saw a different team than the one to which she's accustomed. "We were definitely dragging," the Liberty guard said...
SHARK SEASON STARTS WITH A BANG
June 26, 2002 | 4:00amTHE first weekend of shark fishing for the crew of the Adios was anything but typical with the boat scoring each day with decent sized threshers. Capt. Skip Rudolph, who...