January 28, 2003
APOLLO SLUGFEST - PARSONS BACKS NBC; SUTTON MOUNTS CHALLENGE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amNBC may be taking over the broadcast of a variety show from the famed Apollo theater, potentially giving a boost to the theater and the entire neighborhood. The network is...
HEADLINE & BETTING LINE: THE MARKET'S ODDS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amIS this stock market just like 1991, meaning Wall Street will rally whenever what is going to happen in the Middle East happens? Or have the financial and corporate communities...
NEW MOVE TO MAKE AOL'S CASE HISTORY
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSome high-level AOL Time Warner executives and major shareholders are hoping to get Steve Case off the company's board of directors, The Post has learned. Case stepped down as chairman...
CIBC MOVE CRAMPS MARKET - EXTRA SPACE AT 300 MADISON STIFFENS MIDTOWN COMPETITION
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amMIDTOWN brokers were split yesterday over the impact of CIBC's decision to put more than two-thirds of its new headquarters tower up for sublease before it's even finished. As The...
WAR FEARS BLAST DOW SUB-8,000
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amNext stop, 7,000? The Dow Jones industrial average fell below the psychologically important 8,000-point level yesterday for the first time since mid-October, suggesting investors have not escaped the grip of...
CALL FOR PHILIP MORRIS, BUT GET 'ALTRIA' INSTEAD
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amPhilip Morris is leaving its legendary Marlboro Man out in the cold and taking down its famous sign. The tobacco and foods giant yesterday changed its name officially to Altria...
OUT-OF-TOWN BROWN TAKES BABY STEPS INTO SPOTLIGHT
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amHigh-profile editor Tina Brown has already gone from uptown to downtown, but now New York's favorite expatriate just seems to be out of town. A year after her high-profile Talk...
BLAIR GETS A BOOST FROM JANE SEYMOUR
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amFrom hawking fabric swatches in the mail to direct selling on television, Blair Corp. has gone from a sleepy, small town direct mail operation to a sophisticated retailer. And the...
RETAIL VETERAN DREXLER PUTS $10M BET ON J. CREW'S FUTURE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amMickey Drexler's back in business. The seasoned retail veteran has been named chairman and CEO of J. Crew, ending his short sabbatical from the business, after retiring from the Gap,...
WHAT IF ...
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amQ: My travel agent is useless when it comes to Las Vegas, I'm lousy on the Internet and I'd like to add a Grand Canyon tour to an upcoming trip....
BRITS PICK 'CHICAGO,' 'GANGS'
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTHE musical "Chicago" and the historical epic "Gangs of New York" led this year's British Academy Award (BAFTA) nominations, announced yesterday, with 12 nods for each of the Miramax films....
MEN IN TIGHTS - NO ACTOR TOO BIG TO FILL SUPERHERO SHOES
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amGEORGE Clooney, Christopher Reeve and Tobey Maguire have done it, and now Ben Affleck is poised to parade around in his hosiery pretending to be a superhero. Kids' stuff? No...
ZWAN DIVES DEEP
January 28, 2003 | 5:00am* ZWAN "Mary Star of the Sea" [] Reprise After Smashing Pumpkins' swan song a couple of years ago, Billy Corgan, the band's frontman and mastermind, lands on his feet...
WHO'S THAT SADIE? IT MUST BE JON LANGFORD
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTHE last time the Sadies were in town, they opened for the Mekons' 25th anniversary shows, billing themselves as the Ugly Band and covering Mekons songs. Now the Canadian brothers...
DON HEWITT CLOCK STOPS - '60 MINUTES' LEGEND FINALLY AGREES TO GET PUSHED OUT THE DOOR AT CBS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amPEACE broke out yesterday between Don Hewitt and CBS. The network and the plan under which Hewitt will 80-year-old creator and executive producer of "60 Minutes" have agreed on a...
WNEW PLAYING NAME THAT TUNE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWNEW-FM suddenly dropped its crippled talk format yesterday and brought back music. But it's not known what kind of music the former home of Opie & Anthony will ultimately settle...
DRUNK AND DISORDERLY ON ABC
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amJIMMY Kimmel's new late-night show on ABC is only one day old and already in trouble with the network. Kimmel - who is replacing Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" in the...
ALONE AT LAST - NOT COLD ENOUGH? SKI ALASKA AND GET THE SLOPES ALL TO YOURSELF, SAYS DAVID LANDSEL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTHE Seward Highway, extending southeast from Anchorage, stays faithful to the jagged shoreline of the Turnagain Arm, simply because it has nowhere else to go. Across the road, sharp vertical...
COLD AS ICE - EVEN AT 20 BELOW ZERO, FAIRBANKS PLAYS HARD
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTHERE are people in Anchorage - let alone visitors of sound mind from out of state - who can't imagine traveling the 350 miles north to Fairbanks in wintertime. Fairbanksians,...
BREAK WITH CONVENTION - BETH PISKORA SAYS 'NO' TO BIG, IMPERSONAL HOTELS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTHE world is full of necessary evils, and three of them are conventions, conferences and trade shows. Your hotel, however, doesn't have to be a fourth. If you're tired of...
MOJO'S A NO-GO AS 'JOE' TRIMS DOWN TO 3
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amMELISSA JO's mojo was not working. She was eliminated last night on "Joe Millionaire," leaving just three eligible bachelorettes to vie for the affection of hunky Evan Marriott in the...
FRIENDS STAR A MATCH MAKER
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amCOURTENEY Cox is making new friends on cable. The "Friends" star has created and will executive produce a new show for cable's WE: Women's Entertainment channel called "Mix it Up."...
BLAME THE VOTERS - ISRAELI ELITES DO
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amJERUSALEM IT doesn't matter which democratic country you're talking about. When an election doesn't go the way the nation's intellectual class thinks it should go, writers and thinkers inevitably analyze...
BLIX: SHELLS MAY BE 'TIP OF THE ICEBERG'
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein hasn't shown any sign of getting rid of his doomsday weapons and the recent discovery of 12 chemical warheads "could also be the tip of a...
A NEW HORROR - SAVE US, GOV. PATAKI
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amFOR 16 months, Gov. Pataki has behaved as if the responsibility for rebuilding Ground Zero lay with anyone but himself - the mayor, Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the governor of...
ARIEL'S NEXT TASK - COALITION WOES LOOM WITH EXPECTED VICTORY TODAY
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is poised to win an unprecedented early re-election today - and begin work on the harder job of forming a government coalition. The...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amYes, that was a 7-year-old boy driving a black Lexus through East Hartford, Conn., the other day. Kitson Brown, who told cops he let his son drive home from football...
NEW YORK CITY IS TAKING A CONTROVERSIAL POSITION ON THE MIDEAST
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amNew York City is taking a controversial position on the Mideast - with a tourist Web site that refers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "occupied" territory, a...
FEDS RIP MAGNATE'S 'POOR' COURT EXCUSE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA big-talking Manhattan property developer who squirreled away a treasure-trove of assets to avoid paying $15 million in debts is now crying poor to avoid being sent to prison for...
SUPER DUPER SUPER BOWL RATINGS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amABC snagged the largest TV audience in five years Sunday when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers crushed the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII. Despite the blowout, the game produced...
HEAT'S ON HS ATHLETES OVER 'SEX PARTY'
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amQueens detectives are investigating claims that star basketball and football players at a Catholic high school had sex with an underage girl at a party in October, The Post has...
FIRE BIG HAILS WEEPY WEAVER'S 9/11 FILM
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amALBANY - Actress Sigourney Weaver was nearly brought to tears yesterday at the state Capitol when the head of a firefighters union gave her an emotional thank you for her...
MONTHLY METROCARD THE WAY TO GO IF MTA HIKES FARE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amBus and subway riders who buy monthly MetroCards could suffer the least impact from a fare hike under a plan being considered by the MTA. The monthly card, which now...
HIZZONER: ALBANY'S IN A $TATE OF DENIAL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA day after Gov. Pataki offered another one-time cash infusion to help the financially strapped city, Mayor Bloomberg stressed that only "repetitive" revenues can really protect services. "The city cannot...
'SMOKING GUN' BARES POL'S FREE RIDES IN '94
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amALBANY - Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green was receiving free chauffeur-driven rides from a bribery-linked company as far back as 1994, an internal company document shows. The explosive "smoking gun" memo...
POLS CALL FOR 'ANTI-JEW' PRINCIPAL'S HEAD
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSix Brooklyn lawmakers yesterday demanded the removal of a veteran Brooklyn public high-school principal they charge discriminates against Jews. The legislators, in a joint letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein,...
PA COPS PUMMELED WTC 'DIGGER': SUIT
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA city engineer who supervised the excavation at Ground Zero has filed court papers saying he intends to sue the Port Authority, claiming PA cops beat him up and broke...
COPS: THEY DID IT - ORIGINAL JOGGER PERPS 'LIKELY' INVOLVED: PANEL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amAn NYPD panel that reviewed the Central Park jogger case concluded yesterday that "it is more likely than not" that the five original defendants attacked the jogger. But the panel...
DOVE-TO-HAWK MOVE CLIPS WAR SKEPTICS' WINGS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The best proof that time really is running out for Saddam Hussein is that Secretary of State Colin Powell, often painted as the dove in President Bush's Cabinet,...
WASHING MACHINE HORROR
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA washing machine killed a 12-year-old Newark boy in a freak accident, only minutes after he had said his prayers in church, authorities said yesterday. Cops said DeShaw Young was...
TRIO HELD BX. GIRL AS SEX SLAVE: COPS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA 17-year-old Bronx girl was kidnapped, stabbed, sexually assaulted and threatened with death in Westchester County, prosecutors said yesterday. Three people - a homeless man, his sister and her husband...
9/11 KIN SUE FED VICTIMS-FUND 'CHEAT'
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amFamilies of Sept. 11 victims who claim they've been cheated out of bigger compensation payouts are accusing the administrator of the federal victims fund of acting illegally in a class-action...
LEONA GETS GAY SAY - HOTEL QUEEN TO DEFEND SELF TODAY IN BIAS CASE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amThe queen will finally hold court today. Billionairess Leona Helmsley will take the witness stand in Manhattan Supreme Court today to defend herself against charges she's anti-gay. Asked what she...
EVERYONE ENDS UP A LOSER IN THIS FRIVOLOUS COURT FIASCO
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amDON'T underestimate Leona Helmsley. Finally getting a chance to defend herself against axed employee Charles Bell, the reputedly meanest woman in New York is sad. And more than a little...
OPERATOR 'DROPPED THE BALL' ON TEENS' 911 CALL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amONE of the four teens in a sinking rowboat off City Island screamed, "Oh, God! We're going to die!" at the end of a desperate 911 call - but the...
TUTOR TEMPEST - MOMS SUE KLEIN FOR ED RIGHTS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTwo city parents launched a class-action lawsuit against Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday, claiming they've been denied the right to transfer their children out of failing schools or obtain tutoring...
'DWI' COP $HOCK - TRIED BRIBE AFTER DEATH WRECK: DA
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA drunk, off-duty city police sergeant pleaded for help and offered a handful of $20 bills to a Long Island cop after his car plowed into another car stopped at...
FED-UP POWELL READY TO RUMBLE - IRAQ'S LAST CHANCE IS 'FAST COMING TO AN END,' HE WARNS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday warned that Iraq's chance to avoid war is "fast coming to an end," after U.N. weapons inspectors reported that Saddam Hussein still...
COPYCAT CHOPPERS - BROS MIMIC 'SOPRANOS,' DECAPITATE MOM: COPS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTwo brothers took their cue from "The Sopranos" when they strangled their mom - then chopped off her head and hands to hide her identity, California cops said yesterday. Jason...
PIANO MAN IS ON THE MEND
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amPop star Billy Joel was in a thankful state of mind yesterday after wrapping his car around a Long Island tree over the weekend. "He's doing very well," said Joel...
GRIEVING KIN ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amFamily and friends yesterday held out little hope that the teens who disappeared off City Island are alive - and said they just want their bodies recovered from the frigid...
PAL PASSED UP BOYS' OFFER TO RIDE ALONG
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amA lifeguard who's a pal of the missing teens declined an offer to join his friends the night they disappeared in the icy waters off City Island - and refused...
SCIENTISTS GET DEATH NOTICES
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein has ordered official death certificates sent to Iraqi scientists' families as a chilling warning against aiding U.N. inspectors, The Post has learned. Word of the death...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amQUEENS * A Cambria Heights man crashed his car into the back of a city bus in Hollis yesterday, killing his passenger, police said. The fatal accident occurred around 5...
BOY FOUND NUDE AFTER L.I. KIDNAP
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amAn 11-year-old boy, found naked in the freezing woods behind a Long Island school last night, told cops he was snatched from in front of his home by two perverts...
HOMELE$$ BARON A BIG GIFF GIVER
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amCity Council Speaker Gifford Miller's campaign war chest has been fattened with $33,000 in donations from a Brooklyn real-estate mogul who has been profiting handsomely off the city's homeless. The...
LANDLORD TO HOMELESS IS A GIFF GIVER
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amCity Council Speaker Gifford Miller's campaign war chest has been fattened with $33,000 in donations from a Brooklyn real-estate mogul who has been profiting handsomely off the city's homeless crisis....
BUTCHER MAILS DOCS DEATH NOTES
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein has ordered government death certificates to be sent to families of Iraqi scientists as a chilling warning to prevent them from cooperating with U.N. inspectors, The...
COTTRELL LOOKING WEST
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - Jets' defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell left New York yesterday to interview for the vacant 49ers' head coaching position. Cottrell, who's been with the Jets for the last...
INJURIES TAKING TOLL ON ISLES
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amAlexei Kovalev will be at the Coliseum this evening. What is unfortunate for the Islanders is that he'll be playing for Pittsburgh, despite rumors of the slick-shooting forward being very...
CHANEY: SPREE INJURY HURT US
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amDon Chaney often talks about how good the Knicks would be if Antonio McDyess had not gotten hurt. But Chaney yesterday admitted the Knicks could be sitting in the eighth...
RANGERS' POWER TURNED OFF
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amThey continue to move the puck around the perimeter with perfection, as if amazed at how crisply they can pass the darn thing 40 and 50 feet away from the...
THERE'S NO MORE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - Mostly, Andy Gay felt giddiness as the images flashed into his living room in Quincy, Fla. The phone hadn't stopped ringing all day, ever since one of...
BIG BUCS MAY NOT STOP HERE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - When the confetti finally stops falling and the euphoria subsides, a newly-crowned Super Bowl champion takes stock of itself and figures out how to defend what it...
STARS IN THEIR EYES - THOMAS, HOUSTON AWAIT WORD
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amLatrell Sprewell has heard the All-Star buzz for center Kurt Thomas. But Sprewell believes if the Knicks are represented in 12 days in Atlanta, it should be by Allan Houston....
HEART WOES MAY GROUND ROBIN
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amBevon Robin's life has always been defined by basketball. Just because he hardly plays or even watches the sport anymore doesn't mean it isn't constantly on his mind, almost haunting...
CONGRATS, NOW DO IT AGAIN
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - Before the swashbuckling Buccaneers become too enamored with their place in NFL history, they should keep working hard and win Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston next January....
SOURCE: WEAVER TO TAKE FIFTH
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amFrom his first season as Yankees manager, Joe Torre has dealt with rotation overflow. Or do you not remember Scott Kamieniecki and Melido Perez? Torre has always maintained he would...
DERBY SYSTEM: ANOTHER DOSE
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amThere's a rule in horseracing that any successful handicapping system stops working when too many people start using it. Take the "dosage dual-qualifier" system for picking the winner of the...
KIDD DENIES FREE-AGENCY TAMPERING
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amNET NOTES DENVER - While Jason Kidd clarified his statement about "behind the scenes" talks with his agent regarding his impending free agency, Nets' team president Rod Thorn stressed that...
AZERI IS BEST OF '02
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amAs expected, the 5-year-old mare Azeri was named Horse of the Year last night at the annual Eclipse Awards dinner in Beverly Hills - just the fifth time in history...
A NUGGET OF HOPE - DENVER SHOT FOR NETS TO SAVE TRIP
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amDENVER - Finally, something positive emerged from the Nets starting their five-game road trip with three straight defeats. Those three losses meant they would not look past the Nuggets here...
ROBBINS CASE STILL MYSTERY
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO -Raiders' center Barret Robbins, who missed the Super Bowl under a cloud of mystery, remained hospitalized yesterday with his Silver and Black future in doubt. The Raiders dropped...
RAID IN ADVANCE - OAKLAND: GRUDEN KNEW WHAT PLAYS WE WERE GOING TO CALL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - The Buccaneers took a page out of Oakland's playbook - perhaps literally. Raiders center Adam Treu and QB Rich Gannon said yesterday the Buccaneers played with such...
PLAYBOOK RAIDER - OAKLAND: GRUDEN 'KNEW' WHAT WE WERE GOING TO CALL
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amSAN DIEGO - The Buccaneers took a page out of Oakland's playbook - perhaps literally. Raiders center Adam Treu and QB Rich Gannon said yesterday the Buccaneers played with such...
THESE STARS DESERVE LEADING ROLES
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amVOX POPULI: The people have spoken - for this incarnation of NBA All-Star starters (reserves to be announced today). Don't get me wrong; I have great respect for people. In...
DOC SAYS OLEG HAD CONCUSSION
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amConfirming The Post's Jan. 5 report so vehemently denied by the Devils, The Post has learned exclusively that defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky crossed the border into Canada to seek a private...
GUTTY UCONN STOPS STORM
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amUConn 74 - St. John's 68 After class let out at Longfellow Elementary School in Westchester County, Connecticut's Ben Gordon of Mount Vernon and St. John's' Willie Shaw of The...
JASPERS SHOW HALL WHO'S BOSS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amManhattan 74 - Seton Hall 70 MAAC teams do not go into Big East arenas and come out with wins. It simply does not happen. Unless the team is Manhattan,...
DEEP-FRIED NUGGETS - NETS ROUT DENVER, SAVE ROAD TRIP
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amNets 92 - Nuggets 66 DENVER - They spoke of 5-0 going out. But they came home gladly embracing 2-3. Why not? The Nets' began their Western road trip at...
HOWEVER YOU SLICE IT, MANHATTAN WINS
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amManhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez may not be a gambler, but he knows when he's playing with the house's money. And that's just what he did last night against Seton Hall...
BROWN'S ONE TOUGH HUSKY
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amTaliek Brown's right wrist was so badly sprained that Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said he could actually see it throbbing in Saturday's win over Villanova. Each time Calhoun asked if...
CHANEY: SPREE INJURY CHANGED SEASON
January 28, 2003 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Don Chaney often talks about how good the Knicks would be if Antonio McDyess had not gotten hurt. But Chaney yesterday admitted the Knicks could be sitting in...