January 22, 2003

WALL ST. RESEARCH FALLOUT'S UP TO $4B

The nation's biggest investment banks could face a $3 billion to $4 billion liability from lawsuits arising from analyst conflicts of interest and other research scandals. Just weeks after 10...

CITIGROUP BARELY FEELS 37% PLUNGE IN PROFITS

Citigroup's Sandy Weill took it on the chin yesterday - but seemed to shrug off the blow without even feeling it. Citigroup posted $2.43 billion in fourth-quarter profits 37 percent...

CUFF STUFF IRKS WORLDCOM'S SULLIVAN

After crying poor in a bid to get his fraud trial moved from Manhattan, fallen WorldCom bigwig Scott Sullivan is now complaining the feds prejudiced his case by marching him...

BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL ; STEVE FLORIO RETURNS TO CONDE NAST HELM AFTER ACCIDENT

NEARLY a month after his Florida fender-bender, Conde Nast CEO Steve Florio made his return to the Conde Nast Building on Monday, a little groggy but none the worse for...

MIDORI FIDDLES DOWNTOWN

HOW do you leave Carnegie Hall? Simply get an office closer to Penn Station to keep your commuting employees happy. Former child-prodigy violinist Midori has relocated the offices of her...

US TECH CEO MAY CUT DEAL

Gregory Earls, the chief executive officer of U.S. Technologies Inc., is trying to cut a plea deal with the feds, court documents filed yesterday show. Earls, who faces up to...

EARNINGS, WAR FEARS SINK MARKETS - AGAIN

Poor profits from financial companies sank the markets yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 143.84, or 1.68 percent, to 8,442.90. All 30 stocks in the Dow dropped, led down...

KERKORIAN SLAM : MGM HIT BY KIRK'S PLAN TO DUMP 25M SHARES

Investors ran from movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer yesterday. Shares in the company plummeted after its billionaire principal owner, Kirk Kerkorian, said he was selling a hefty chunk of the company to...

STARR REPORT

Bean there, done that: Rhea goes 'Mondo' Caroline Rhea begins rehearsals in April for the off-Broadway show "Mondo Drama," in which she'll play a variety of roles (with two other...

RADIO GUYS FACE MUSIC OVER SEX IN ST. PATS

RUMORS that a return to music is imminent for embattled WNEW-FM heated up yesterday after word that Opie & Anthony's backup crew has been fired - five months after the...

DAVE CHAPELLE COULD BE THE FUNNIEST GUY ON THE PLANET; WHAT A(RACE)CARD

Tonight at 10:30 on Comedy Central "Chappelle's Show" 1/2 RIGHT off, let me confess that I'm a fool for good sketch comedy - which for the past decade on TV...

SOUTHERN VOYAGE A TRIP TO REMEMBER

VOYAGE 117 PERRY ST., AT GREENWICH STREET (212) 255-9191 'I want to come back here on a date," our lovely restaurateur friend says of Voyage's romantic dining room. You will,...

PULLING OFF A 'MIRACLE'; RONALD ASADORIAN/SPLASH NEWS

'SEUSSICAL" producer Barry Weissler, who spent most of last season haplessly casting about for a show, any show, to pay his overhead, nearly lost another one last Friday - the...

THE NEXT BIG TEEN; WRITER, 14, FRAZZLES FEST WITH SORDID SAGA

A movie about 13-year-old girls who have threesomes with older men, get high on pot, prescription pills and nitrous oxide and wear outfits that would make Christina Aguilera blush has...

NOTHING FINER THAN EX-DINER

LUNCHBOX FOOD CO. ½ 357 WEST ST. (BET. LEROY & CLARKSON STREETS) (646) 230-9466 'THEY'RE not going to get much walk-by business," my friend noted as we hoofed to Lunchbox...

KEY NOM FOR 'PIANIST'

FUGITIVE director Roman Polanski scored a nomination in the closely watched Directors Guild of America awards yesterday for his Holocaust drama, "The Pianist." Polanski fled the U.S. for Paris in...

THE CATS' MEOW ; N.Y. IS A CABARET FOR THESE 'DOLLS'

AUNTIE Mame would be proud. Reviving that vaunted tradition of New York burlesque, "Pussycat Dolls" - a star-studded cabaret act that's all the rage in L.A. - is making its...

THREE SNEERS FOR 'IDOL'

TART-TONGUED talent scout Simon Cowell was as nasty as ever last night, on the second-season premiere of "American Idol." And he saved some of his harshest comments for New York...

CUCKOO FOR COCOA CUPS: AS CITY CHEFS FIGHT FREEZE WITH HOT CHOCOLATE, VICTORY IS SWEET

COLD weather and hot chocolate go together, hand in glove. And just when our frozen forms need it most, the city's chefs are turning molten cocoa into an art form....

PISTOL PACKIN' PILOT BUSTED

A Northwest Airlines pilot was busted moments before boarding his plane at La Guardia yesterday with a loaded 9 mm handgun in his carry-on bag. Robert Donaldson, 43, of Detroit,...

VOTE-SALE INDICTMENTS IN ISRAEL

JERUSALEM - The first indictments in Israel's cash-for-candidacy scandal were handed up yesterday - and a major pre-election terrorist attack was averted, officials said. State prosecutors said more charges may...

WAITER STABS CHEF IN JOB CLASH: COPS

A waiter in a Long Island retirement home became enraged when told by the chef to polish the silver - so he grabbed a steak knife and punctured the tires...

GARY HART MAY TAKE NEW SHOT

More than 15 years after some monkey business with an ex-model sunk his presidential aspirations, Gary Hart came to New York last night to test the waters for another run...

BOBBY BROWN RUSHED TO HOSP

R&B bad boy Bobby Brown's went from a jail cell to a hospital bed yesterday, when he was rushed to an Atlanta medical center while serving an eight-day sentence for...

AL QAEDA EYED IN NEW SLAY

WASHINGTON - Officials are investigating whether Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden are behind yesterday's brazen terror killing of an American computer expert working for the U.S. military in Kuwait....

SHARPTON ENTERS THE FRAY

AL Sharpton made it official yesterday, throwing his coiffure into the Democratic presidential campaign. This, no doubt, will serve to raise Sharpton's already considerable profile even more. Whether it actually...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

An Illinois college student has written an editorial in her school newspaper begging her next-door neighbors to stop having such loud sex romps. Kelly Roe, a senior at Northwestern University...

CHUCK EYES $650M CITY BUDGET AID

New York City would receive a desperately needed $650 million under a $40 billion national bailout proposed yesterday by Sen. Charles Schumer. Schumer suggested that Congress allocate the money as...

WINONA MAY STEAL NEW SCREEN ROLE

Lock up your valuables and activate the alarms - Winona Ryder is getting ready to hit Hollywood again. The sticky-fingered star - convicted of a shoplifting spree last year -...

A FUTURE BUILT ON HISTORY

'WHAT'S your life's blueprint?" Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King, that was the question First Lady Laura Bush posed in a heartfelt keynote speech at the Congress of Racial Equality's...

PROF'S AGE-DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AN 'IDOL' THREAT

A Florida college professor has slapped "American Idol" with an age-discrimination lawsuit because he was told he's too old to try out for the hit talent show. Drew Cummings, 50,...

LABOR DEAL ON TRACK, SAYS TWU

Transit union leaders are "confident" the tentative deal reached last month with the MTA will be approved today, sources said yesterday. The Transport Workers Union Local 100 will count the...

53RD & LEX. SUBWAY FIX RUSHING TO COMPLETION

Straphangers will again be able to catch E and V trains at the 53rd Street-Lexington Avenue station during the morning rush starting in October - 10 months ahead of schedule...

BUSH HITS BAGHDAD 'RERUNS'

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday said Saddam Hussein's latest games with weapons inspectors are "a rerun of a bad movie" - and he has no desire to watch it or...

MIKE VS. JEER-LEADERS AT NYPD GRADUATION

You might have thought the mayor's name was "Boo-berg" yesterday when Mayor Bloomberg was jeered by many of the 2,108 new cops and their supporters at a raucous NYPD graduation...

HOMELESS HEADCOUNT - CRITICS RIP SURVEY BY VOLUNTEERS

The city is looking for 1,000 volunteers to go out in the middle of the night next month and count homeless people on the streets, in the most comprehensive survey...

SLAY EVIDENCE MOUNTS

A trail of evidence stretching to Miami links a 41-year-old accused killer to the brutal slaying of five members of a Bronx family, a prosecutor said yesterday. The 9 mm...

U.S FIRES SHOT IN PROPAGANDA WAR

WASHINGTON - The White House issued a new salvo in the war for public opinion yesterday, charging that Saddam Hussein has an "apparatus of lies" that he uses to fool...

LEONA'S WILD CRUISE SLUR

Millionaire hotel magnate Leona Helmsley called Tom Cruise a "fag" according to more wacky testimony, as her gay-bash trial continued in Manhattan yesterday. "He's gay! He's a fag!" the so-called...

BELL BOY ACCUSES EX-LOVER OF USING SEX-BIAS ABUSE

THEIR romance, if you can call it that, was more of a footnote than a fairy tale. It went something like this: Boy meets boy. Boy e-mails kinky leather-fetish photograph...

MINORITY REPORT: LATINOS NOW NO. 1

It's official: Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the United States, new Census figures released yesterday show. The number of Latinos leaped to 37 million in 2001, surpassing...

CRIME PAYS LOUSY - MOBSTER LAMENTS HIS 250G A YEAR

Heading up a crime family is not nearly as lucrative a job as it's cracked up to be, a mob turncoat said yesterday. Joseph "Little Joe" Defede - testifying at...

STAR INNOVATOR TOPPLES LANGUAGE BARRIER

PS 172 Principal Jack Spatola has made his Brooklyn elementary school one of the city's best - and he says one big reason is because he abolished the bilingual-education program....

FUROR ERUPTS OVER U.N. 'PERVY' PROBER

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter shouldn't have gotten a free pass after he was arrested for soliciting an underage girl in a police Internet sting, says the district attorney...

WISEGUY WANTS NEW TRIAL OVER GOTTI 'THREATS'

A former Gambino underboss who was convicted of murder with John Gotti in 1992 is now claiming the dead Dapper Don threatened his defense lawyer - and is demanding a...

COPS RESCUE CANAL JUMPER

A Bronx man, spurned by a woman, tried to kill himself yesterday by jumping into the icy waters of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, police said. "I just wanna see her! She...

HARRY POTTER 'ECSTASY' RING SMASHED

Harry Potter's image was stamped on "ecstasy" pills brought to New York by a drug-smuggling ring busted by U.S. and Spanish investigators, authorities said yesterday. The 14 suspects charged in...

POST OFFICE HIT-RUN - COWARD ELUDES MOB AFTER KILLING BX. GRANNY

An out-of-control driver crushed a 63-year-old grandmother against the wall of a Bronx post office, got out of his car to stare at her crumpled corpse, then fled on foot...

NAZI SURVIVOR FOILS CON MEN

A pair of heartless thieves nearly bilked $5,000 from an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor - but the victim wound up pulling a fast one on them, authorities said yesterday. The two...

TOT-SLAY SHOCKER - BURGER KING MOM'S HORROR AS STRANGER SHOOTS BOY, 2

Shaken witnesses to the apparently random slaying of a 2-year-old boy in a Burger King in Pomona stepped forward with chilling details of the horror yesterday, as the tragic tot's...

BACK TO SCHOOL BASICS - KLEIN OVERHAULS MATH & READING

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the curriculum for elementary and middle schools, scrapping current reading and math programs. A linchpin of the plan includes replacing...

MIKE HAILS SHARPTON PREZ RUN

The Rev. Al Sharpton officially threw his hat into the presidential ring yesterday, saying he wants to reach out to "disaffected" voters - and he got encouraging words from Mayor...

FUGITIVE HEIR GUILTY OF RAPE

With fugitive cosmetics heir Andrew Luster nowhere to be found, a Ventura, Calif., jury convicted the Max Factor millionaire in absentia yesterday of drugging and raping three women at his...

EX SUED TREASURY PICK AS DEADBEAT

President Bush's Treasury nominee was once sued for being a deadbeat dad - but John Snow's ex-wife says her allegation "was nothing to cloud his nomination." "I think he will...

HEAT'S ON BX. DEM OVER BRO'S 'RIDE' LINK

The brother of a prominent New York City politician has been on the payroll of a company linked to a political-bribery scandal, The Post has learned. City Councilman Larry Seabrook...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN * A man was arrested for driving while intoxicated on the Upper East Side, police said yesterday. On Monday, Jeffrey Fleming, 45, of Macdonough Street, Brooklyn, was driving south...

SUGE'S PALS HIT WITH RAP FOR REVENGE-MURDER BID

Two associates of jailed rap big Marion "Suge" Knight have been charged with trying to kill a man in retaliation for the murder of one of Knight's pals. Terran Andrews,...

STRIPPER SLAY - B'KLYN TRIAL OPENS FOR TWICE-ACCUSED RUSSIAN

A Russian immigrant, suspected of killing a sultry stripper with his roommate - and then offing his co-conspirator - went on trial yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Vladimir Zuran, 40,...

STRIPPER-SLAY TRIAL UNDER WAY

A Russian immigrant suspected of killing a sultry stripper - and then offing his co-conspirator - began trial on murder charges yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Vladimir Zuran, 40, is...

CROSSWALK LAW YIELDS CONFUSION

Drivers and pedestrians had mixed reaction yesterday to a new state law requiring drivers to yield to those on foot no matter where they are in the intersection. "With more...

CHUCK SEEKS $650M CITY BUDGET BAILOUT

New York City would receive a desperately needed $650 million under a $40 billion national bailout proposed yesterday by Sen. Charles Schumer. Schumer suggested that Congress allocate the money as...

JAILBIRD BOBBY RUSHED TO HOSPITAL

R&B bad boy Bobby Brown's went from a jail cell to a hospital bed yesterday, when he was rushed to an Atlanta medical center while serving an eight-day sentence for...

NEW PROCEDURE DROPS ACID REFLUX

For years, Jamna Persaud suffered from such severe heartburn that he often couldn't breathe. "The acid reflux was choking me off. I literally couldn't breathe. It was scary. I thought...

MORE CARRIERS BOUND FOR GULF

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday ordered two additional aircraft carriers to deploy to the Persian Gulf in the latest military build-up. Pentagon officials said the USS Theodore Roosevelt,...

BACK TO SCHOOL BASICS: KLEIN OVERHAULS MATH & READING

Reading and math coaches will be assigned to 1,000 public schools to help teachers master new battle-tested instructional programs and help kids learn, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced yesterday. In...

POST OFFICE HIT-RUN : COWARD ELUDES MOB AFTER KILLING BX. GRANNY

An out-of-control driver crushed a 63-year-old grandmother against the wall of a Bronx post office, got out of his car to stare at her crumpled corpse, then fled on foot...

BUSH WOULD UP SPENDING 4%

WASHINGTON - President Bush will call for a 4 percent hike in Uncle Sam's spending for 2004 - less than half the 9 percent spending growth this year, his top...

AMERICANS ARE AT TOP OF GAME

U.S. skiers and boarders scored on the World Cup circuit this past weekend, with wins in boardercross and moguls along with a good finish in the slalom that put Bode...

CHANEY: MCDYESS BIG KEY

KNICK NOTES Give Don Chaney a healthy Antonio McDyess, and he'll give you a .500 team. At least. With McDyess' former team, the Nuggets, in town tonight, the Knick coach...

PECA IS ISLES' HART AND SOUL

Michael Peca, come get your Hart Trophy. Of course, Islander fans would rather hear "Stanley Cup" rather than the award for the league MVP at the end of that sentence,...

BUCS DEFEND HONOR ; SAY SUPER BOWL WIN CONFIRMS GREATNESS

SAN DIEGO - After the Buccaneers get their rings, they'll demand The Stamp. Postal? No. Posterity? You bet. "This is the showcase we wanted," safety John Lynch said. This is...

BIERRIA FOUND HOME AT NEWTOWN

H.S. ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Tyshawn Bierria had heard a lot of stories growing up on the playgrounds in Lefrak City. "People were always talking about how bad it was...

HOBBLED CAMBY THINKS NUGGETS WON KNICK DEAL

Even though Marcus Camby has played just 6:17 this season, even though he'll spend his Garden homecoming in a too-familiar brown suit, he believes Denver got the better of June's...

49ER DAD: FINE WITH SHOCKEY

SAN DIEGO - Justice has been served. That's the sentiment of the 49ers fan whose two young sons were sprayed with water and pelted with ice by tight end Jeremy...

LB BROOKS LETS GAME DO TALKING

SAN DIEGO - Derrick Brooks might be the most dominant football player that America's never met. As reporters swarmed over the Buccaneers yesterday, it was WR Keyshawn Johnson and DT...

KEY HAVING A DAMN BALL

"For [the Jets], I guess they got the better trade. They spent less money, got rid of a selfish player. ... And I'm in the Super Bowl."KEYSHAWN JOHNSON SAN DIEGO...

HILARIO CHOWS DOWN ON BIG APPLE VIBES

If bruising rookie power forward Nene Hilario had any doubt New York was the city he wanted to play in, it ended Monday night when the Nuggets hit town. Hilario...

KNICKS SEE MARCUS CURSED BY INJURIES

Everybody knows what kind of reputation Marcus Camby has. Let's just say the man's not going to win the iron man award any time soon. The talented but brittle Nugget...

LOMAS - JINTS' 'O' WAS FLAT

SAN DIEGO - Watching from afar during the first half of the season, Lomas Brown was not at all surprised when the Giants struggled to locate the end zone. And...

GANNON STEERED PAST ROADBLOCKS; LONG JOURNEY HAS SUPER ENDING

SAN DIEGO - Rich Gannon yesterday called his long-and-winding, 16-year journey through the NFL to his first Super Bowl "the road less traveled." That road the Raiders' quarterback has taken,...

TIM CAN'T BELIEVE HIS EYES

SAN DIEGO - Even as Tim Brown walked the field at Qualcomm Stadium yesterday, the Raiders wide receiver still couldn't believe his team is playing for an NFL title. "When...

RAIDERS VET WOODSON CELEBRATES SWEET 16

SAN DIEGO - Rod Woodson didn't need this. After 15 years in the NFL as one of the most accomplished defensive players in the game, he didn't need to play...

STRAHAN WON'T USE TV GIG TO GET SAPP-Y

SUPER BOWL CONFIDENTIAL SAN DIEGO - Giants DE Michael Strahan, already in town as a commentator for ABC's Super Bowl pre-game show, said he will not use the gig as...

ROGERS TO MISS 5 GAMES

NET NOTES SACRAMENTO - Well, Rodney Rogers won't be waiting to help when the Nets get back from their road trip. At least not for one game. The Nets placed...

ACHIN' ANKLES MAY KO TOCCET FOR DERBY

Toccet, one of the favorites for this year's Triple Crown after a string of impressive stakes victories as a 2-year-old, probably will miss this year's Kentucky Derby because of problem...

JASPERS STUDY UP FOR FAIRFIELD TEST

Manhattan 75Rider 61 The game was more of a prelude than a contest. Manhattan came in looking for revenge and got a 75-61 rout over Rider that was void of...

ISLES SHOW FIGHT ONLY IN WARMUPS

Rangers 5Isles 0 On the same night Bryan Trottier was booed at the Coliseum, the chants of "Potvin [stinks]" shook the building to its rusty, crusty foundation. The Rangers and...

TROTS SHINES AT 'HOME'

EXCEPT for the shades of gray in the neatly trimmed mustache he has worn for the last quarter of a century, there's little difference in the Bryan Trottier that first...

LONG, HARD ROAD: NETS STUMBLE AGAINON WEST COAST TRIP

Kings 109 Nets 102 SACRAMENTO - So what's worse than starting a road trip with an emotional, exhausting overtime defeat? Starting a road trip with an emotional, exhausting overtime defeat...

LONG, HARD ROAD: NETS STUMBLE AGAIN ON WEST COAST TRIP

Kings 109 Nets 102 SACRAMENTO - The Nets began their road trip Monday with an emotionally and physically draining overtime loss in Utah, where they gave all they had and...

KITTLES BACK AS STARTER; ROGERS OUT

NET NOTES SACRAMENTO - What everyone knew would happen, happened. Kerry Kittles officially re-claimed his role as a starter for the Nets while Lucious Harris went back to the bench....

STU GIVES SCOTT, KIDD FREE PASS

NET NOTES SACRAMENTO - Score one for freedom of speech. Stu Jackson, NBA senior VP of operations, yesterday decided against reviewing the comments and actions of Byron Scott and players,...

NO REST FOR WEARY

SACRAMENTO - So what's worse than starting a road trip with an emotional, exhausting overtime defeat? Starting a road trip with an emotional, exhausting overtime defeat and then being forced...

HARRIS BACK TO BENCH

SACRAMENTO - Everyone knew the switch was coming, that Kerry Kittles would go back to starting for the Nets while Lucious Harris moved back to the bench. The only question...

WHY NOT BOSSY, TOO?

IF THE Rangers had really wanted to make a splash to drain the Long Island Sound, they wouldn't have stopped with the hiring of Bryan Trottier as head coach, they...

JASPERS KEEP EYE ON STAGS

Understand that Manhattan's game tomorrow against Fairfield will be one that they've waited for since last season's promising season came to an abrupt end, thanks to a MAAC Tourney upset...