March 16, 2003
BATTLE FATIGUE POST-WAR MARKET GAIN MAY NOT HAPPEN THIS TIME
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThere's a growing chorus among market pros that a U.S.-led war in the Middle East would derail the country's already fragile economy and drive stocks deeper into the red. While...
ESPN'S HIDEF SPORTSCAST: A PICTURE-PERFECT GAME
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amESPN is making a multi-million-dollar bet on the future of televised sports. As many other television companies sit on the sidelines, preferrring to ride out the current economic malaise, ESPN...
HIGH-SOCIETY BROKER; DOLLY LENZ HOUSES THE RICH: FOR $280M IN 2002
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amReal estate broker Dolly Lenz is inspecting one of her typical residential listings. The vacant, never-lived-in apartment she's viewing today - one of 11 full-floor residences atop the Ritz-Carlton hotel...
STARR REPORT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThe 'Perfect' role for PastoreVincent Pastore's guest-starring gig on Tuesday's episode of "Less Than Perfect" (9:30 p.m./Ch. 7) is only one of the many projects the former "Sopranos" star ("Big...
DEVIOUS AT DATING: MEN OR WOMEN?
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThe other night, my roommates Claire, Alice and I spent hours staring at Alice's phone. "He won't ring again," I said. The Nokia cell sat between us on the sofa....
PORN-AGAIN FLICKS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amAdd "Variety" to your life when Bette Gordon's spicy 1984 indie is screened at 5 p.m. next Sunday at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. The adventures of a woman ticket-seller...
FINDING HER VOICE : ROSEANNE CASH NEVER LOVED TO SING - UNTIL SHE LITERALLY COULDN'T
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amShe may be the daughter of one of the most legendary musicians of the 20th century, but Rosanne Cash never intended to be a musician. "I thought if you were...
OSCAR ETIQUETTE: IF WE'RE AT WAR, IS THERE AN AFTER-PARTY?
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amWhile everyone's wondering what Nicole will wear and who will win Best Actor, there is really only one question truly hanging over the 75th Academy Awards, set to air March...
SHOPAHOLIC: I DARE YOU: CAN DESIGNER ELISA JIMENEZ PUT TOGETHER A GREAT LOOK FOR ONLY $100?
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA critic once wrote that designer Elisa Jimenez's clothes looked like they had been chopped with a machete. "Most people would have been upset about that," says the 38-year-old bombshell....
THE $26 MILLION MOBSTER:JAMES GANDOLFINI HIJACKS 'THE SOPRANOS' FOR MORE MONEY - AND RESPECT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIt's an offer they can't refuse. Or is it? James Gandolfini put the screws to his Home Box Office bosses last week, demanding $26 million to return for the fifth...
SCREWY IN SALT LAKE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amEvery day it becomes clearer that none of the people involved in the Elizabeth Smart debacle is very, well, smart. First, there are the police. Now wouldn't you think that...
BLAIR'S BONEHEADED TV PITCH
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amWith his popularity in Great Britain dropping faster than Pamela Anderson's top at the sight of a camera, their prime minister, Tony Blair, last week came up with what he...
KOSMIC KREME
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amHere we all were walking around secure in the knowledge that the universe is infinite and without end, only to be stunned to find out that the universe is probably...
SLAY TRIAL DEFENSE: VICTIM BATTERED ME
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amValerie Seeley planned on spending New Year's Eve with her boyfriend - but the fireworks started early when she found him in bed with someone else in the Brooklyn apartment...
FAREWELL TO A HERO: UNDERCOVER COP HAILED AS A 'GIANT'
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThe tears flowed yesterday as grieving family, friends and a sea of New York's Finest bid a heart-wrenching farewell to one of the two hero undercover detectives coldbloodedly executed in...
A DO-NOTHING JOB : EASIEST 51G THIS 'MR. FIX-IT' EVER MADE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amDaniel Carrique saw himself as a self-styled "Mr. Fix-it" in Staten Island, who worked hard for his $51,205 city salary. But his former bosses, co-workers and his union say they...
TOP AL QAEDA BIZMAN BUSTED IN PAKISTAN
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amPakistani and FBI agents busted a senior al Qaeda member described as one of the top seven terrorists wanted by the U.S., officials said yesterday. Yassir al-Jazeeri, who holds dual...
SMART KIDS KEPT THE FAITH
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSALT LAKE CITY - Even as the adults around them struggled with doubt, Elizabeth Smart's five brothers and sisters always believed their sister would come home alive. "Every time we...
JORDAN PLAYS DEFENSE - TO PROTECT ISRAEL
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - U.S. Patriot anti-missile batteries are in Jordan, manned by Jordanians, to intercept Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles in the war that everyone in the region expects in a matter...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amAn Arkansas man had a brush with cops - a hairbrush, that is. Police in Harrison were called to a hospital on a report of a man with a loaded...
BROTHERS IN BEIGE SAY GOODBYE TO A FELLOW WARRIOR IN BLUE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amStanding ramrod-straight, wearing thin desert army fatigues as a bone-breaking chill swept across Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn, he said: "Yes. We are going in." Translated, "going in" really means "over there,"...
JET-SETTING KILLER BUG SPURS APPLE SCARE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA new, deadly virus that has stricken hundreds in Asia may be poised to poison the Big Apple - as a Singapore doctor who recently visited here has come down...
DAD FEARS 'KIDNAPPER' WILL KILL SELF
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSALT LAKE CITY - The father of accused kidnapper Brian David Mitchell fears his son may kill himself in prison. Given the attention surrounding the astonishing case and Mitchell's volatile...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amBrooklyn A dead body was found floating in the East River near Quay and Franklin streets in Greenpoint yesterday at about 3 p.m., police said. The body is so badly...
BABY RESCUED IN YONKERS BLAZE SAFE AT HOME
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA bandaged but smiling 7-month-old baby, who was rescued by her hero dad from a raging inferno that claimed the lives of his parents in their Yonkers home, bounced on...
DEAD GRANNY WAS SECRET DRUG MULE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA Washington Heights grandmother's secret life as a "drug mule" was uncovered after she bled to death and an autopsy revealed 65 powder-filled balloons in her stomach, cops and relatives...
ELIZABETH 'DID WHAT SHE HAD TO' : FAMILY BELIEVES SHE WAS BOUND
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSALT LAKE CITY - Elizabeth Smart "did what she had to do" to survive her kidnapping ordeal, says her uncle, David. He stopped short of confirming reports that her alleged...
PALESTINIAN BIGS HAPPY FOR 'MAP'
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amMideast CorrespondentPalestinian legislators said yesterday that President Bush's promise to follow a "road map" for Palestinian statehood was a positive sign. But the three-stage plan now has to clear its...
'YANK'ING THE BRITS GIS, ALLIES TRADE JABS IN DESERT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amKUWAIT A WAR before the war is being fought here - and it's being waged in the latrines shared by American and British troops. Every few days, cleaning crews from...
HIT LIST: BUSH NAMES IRAQI 'WAR CRIMINALS'
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amAs the countdown to war continued, the Bush administration yesterday released a list of top Iraqi official it wants captured and charged with war crimes or crimes against humanity -...
HIGH NOTES & LOW NOTES
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amLate night with Elvis Costello: When Brit punk rocker Elvis Costello, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame this week, subbed for an ailing David Letterman on...
NOISE NUT KILLS 3 IN BX.: COPS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA noise dispute between neighbors ended in death yesterday, when a Bronx man fatally shot an elderly woman and her two adult children because he believed they were disturbing the...
BASH NIXED WITH LIZA IN REHAB
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amLiza Minnelli and David Gest's first-anniversary party scheduled for last night was canceled because of the impending "threat of war" with Iraq, according to a statement from the couple. But...
ATTORNEY AT FLAW : BOGUS BX. 'LAWYER' BILKED 350G: SUIT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA Bronx woman impersonated a lawyer, charged legal fees and is still holding thousands of dollars from the sale of an apartment building, according to a lawsuit. The suit claims...
SWANK BUNKER FOR BUTCHER: SADDAM'S $90M RAT HOLE BUILT TO LAST
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThis is the underground bunker Saddam Hussein hopes will save his life if U.S. forces begin dropping bombs on Baghdad. The Iraqi dictator plans to scurry like a rat by...
GUN TRAFFICKING ON HOLD
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThe murder of two undercover cops in Staten Island Monday night and the NYPD's release of their photos two days later wiped out at least three other gun-trafficking probes in...
UNITED FAILURE ANOTHER REPLAY
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amAviation wishes its "airlines of tomorrow" were already here. Futuristic airport robots and foolproof check-in gadgets are expected to bring big savings, but many industry-watchers say carriers still would be...
DEPUTY D.A. IN 'PHONY COP' RAP
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA top Bronx prosecutor has been accused of a road-rage assault and flashing a badge to try to wriggle out of the trouble, The Post has learned. Ricardo Rodriguez, 39,...
WIVES CHEAT TO BE 'BAD' IN BED
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amWives who cheat on their husbands are increasingly searching for good sex - and finding it with a co-worker, according to a psychologist who studies sexual behavior. Dr. Shirley Glass,...
E-MAIL CALL
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amFROM Vinnie: "France announced today that it plans to ban fireworks at Euro Disney. Last night's display caused soldiers at a nearby French army garrison to surrender." From Glenn1151: "Have...
H20 NO: YOUR CUT-OUT AND KEEP GUIDE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amWater is a multi-billion-dollar industry with much of it coming from from Weasel World. While there are U.S.-based companies distributing many of these waters, it is the French companies primarily...
DEPUTY D.A. FACES BUST AS FAKE COP
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA top Bronx prosecutor has been accused of a road-rage assault and flashing a badge to try to wriggle out of the trouble, The Post has learned. Ricardo Rodriguez, 39,...
VICTORIA GOTTI
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amCODE VIOLATION I: It's a standoff between mob boss Tony Soprano and HBO execs. But actor James Gandolfini, who made the character famous and helped turn "The Sopranos" into the...
ELIZABETH BOUND & BRAINWASHED: GIRL'S CAPTOR LIKELY USED ROPES AND CULT TRICKS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSALT LAKE CITY - Elizabeth Smart may have been bound, probably with ropes, as helicopters and search crews combed the hills behind her home in the hours after her kidnapping,...
SNATCHER DUO'S SLIDE INTO SICKO WORLD
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSALT LAKE CITY - Brian David Mitchell began penning his crazed 27-page religious manifesto six years ago - around the same time he convinced wife Wanda Barzee to stop going...
BX. NUT KILLS 3 NEIGHBORS IN NOISE FIGHT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amA noise dispute between neighbors ended in death yesterday, when a Bronx man fatally shot an elderly woman and her two adult children because he believed they were disturbing the...
LAVERANUES AN INGRATE FOR TRASHING JETS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amLAVERANUES Coles, by nature, is an angry young man. It's a byproduct of his difficult upbringing and, to Coles' credit, he's used it in part to help develop himself into...
BANNEKER'S FORBES HAS SCORE TO SETTLE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amGary Forbes has played well in plenty of big games. But he played one of his worst games when he was under the most scrutiny. Forbes' Banneker squad faced Lincoln...
CTK'S GETTING SECOND CHANCE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSecond chances don't come along very often. Japhet McNeil knows this and insists he won't let it slip away. "This is a special opportunity for me," the Christ the King...
RACISM HAS NO BOUNDARIES BEEZER'S SLUR WAS STAIN ON ALL OF HOCKEY
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSO NOW John Vanbiesbrouck is out of hockey after using the ultimate racial slur to defame Trevor Daley, the 19-year-old captain of the OHL Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. He is...
ZAVACKAS PICKS UP PIECES FOR PITTSBURGH
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIn so many ways, Donatas Zavackas is what Pittsburgh's Panthers are all about. Smart. Tough. Determined. As colorful as white paint. As gourmet as a plain bagel. Zavackas doesn't sky....
'BELONGS IN PINSTRIPES' BOSS IS RIGHT: LIAR WELLS, YANKS ARE PERFECT MATCH
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amWE ALREADY knew David Wells' handshake meant nothing, so there should be no surprise about his word, whether it is in the first-ever fictional autobiography or now in his acts...
'DEVIL' COULD BE TOUGH IN GOTHAM
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amOf this weekend's four Triple Crown prep races - yesterday's Florida Derby and today's Gotham, Tampa Bay Derby and San Felipe - Aqueduct's Grade 3, $200,000 Gotham appears to have...
BOMBER SUCCESS HINGES ON BOOMER BEING BOOMER
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amCLEARWATER-Now that the Yankee image has been protected, and the clubhouse unity stabilized, we wait to see if David Wells' humbled psyche numbs his pitching prowess. Recent history suggests athletes...
SHOW LENNY THE DOOR RUPTURED RAPTORS NEED TO PULL PLUG
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amDON'T think I'm unaware of being remiss in routinely ripping the Raptors, but keep the faith; I'm about to correct that negligence. Far from being "on" in Ontario, Lenny Wilkens...
NO MYSTERY: HITCHCOCK WON'T START FOR YANKS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amBlue Jays4Yankees3 DUNEDIN - From the moment George Steinbrenner slipped David Wells a two-year contract between cheeseburgers during the 2001 holiday season, Sterling Hitchcock hasn't fit into the Yankees' rotation....
NETS LOOK FOR ANSWER IVERSON, HOT SIXERS ARE HUGE HURDLE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amSIXERSatNETSToday1:00 - YES WOR (710) This is the Nets vs. the Sixers. This is first place vs. second place. "This is," Byron Scott said, "the biggest game of the year....
HAMMOND OK AFTER SECRET TEST
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES DUNEDIN - The Yankees were confused why Chris Hammond would lie about undergoing an MRI on Friday night. Even after the test on his left shoulder was negative....
PLAYOFFS: NO DICE KNICKS RUE WHAT MIGHT'VE BEEN
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIt was a cruel irony. After two straight last-possession heartbreakers to league softies Memphis and Atlanta that all but ended their playoff hopes, the man who could have prevented it...
THESE BEANS'LL BE SERVED BEST COLD
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amMEXICO CITY - Was anybody loco enough to actually do something? Noooooooooooooooooo! The goaalllllllllllllllll of Serie De Primavera, a two-game series between the Mets and Dodgers, was to spread more...
AMAZIN'S, L.A. PUT BRAWL BEHIND THEM SOUTH OF BORDER
March 16, 2003 | 5:00am11 INNINGSMets16Dodgers11 MEXICO CITY - After a week in which their catcher was the target of a 90-plus MPH cheap-shot, the Mets arrived south of the border for the "Serie...
ROUGH OUTING PUTS CONE-BACK IN JEOPARDY
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amMEXICO CITY - For the first time in his comeback, David Cone faced adversity. Cone knew he'd have to pitch out of the stretch at some point, but the crafty...
BEDEVILED, AS USUAL - BLUESHIRTS' PLAYOFF HOPES DIM WITH LOSS IN SWAMP
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amAll that's left for the Rangers is the inevitable mathematics, the numbers that soon will add up to their worst-ever sixth straight year out of the playoffs. The bad old...
BRAWL GAME TAKES A BACKSEAT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amMEXICO CITY - After a week in which their catcher was the target of a 90-plus MPH cheap-shot, the Mets arrived south of the border for the "Serie De Primavera"...
SO MANY MERCENARIES, SO FEW VICTORIES
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIT'S JUST so disappointing to sit through, so discouraging, so tiresome. It's difficult to even work up a healthy dose of indignation at this point, just three weeks shy of...
ALL IN ALL, IT'S A DAY WORTH SAVORING
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIsles5Senators2 KANATA, Ont. - The Islanders must've worn their pajamas inside-out Friday night. How else to explain a win here against a team they had beaten just once in their...
KNIGHT TO REMEMBER
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amHE hobbled every step of the way when he didn't have the ball and the fortunes of his dogged, relentless basketball team in his hands, but whatever pain and discomfort...
EXTRA DAGGER STICKS IN CALHOUN'S CRAW
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amBIG EAST NOTEBOOK The final seconds were winding down in Pittsburgh's 74-56 victory last night in the Big East championship game and the outcome was no longer in doubt. But...
PANTHERS SHOW THEY'RE COOLER THAN HUSKIES
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amThe moment came when poise would be the deciding factor, when poise would tell the tale as to whether Pittsburgh or UConn would capture the coveted Big East Conference championship....
DINGED AT 7,349 FT., TRACHSEL COPS AN ALTITUDE
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amMEXICO CITY - Steve Trachsel referred to the movie "Hoosiers" yesterday as he walked out of the clubhouse and into the dugout at Estadio Foro Sol for the first time....
PITT WINS BIG EAST KNIGHT, MVP PAGE OUTSHINE HUSKIES
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amPitt74UConn56 The trip to New York four years ago was forgettable at best. Pittsburgh had won just five Big East games and 13 games overall that season. They came to...
GOVERNOR STICKS TO HIS GUNS ON N.J. BEAR HUNT
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIT DID not take long for the anti-hunting crowd to react to the New Jersey Fish and Game Council's recommendation to hold the first black bear hunt in the state...
OPENING DAY: PARADISE LOST
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amESPN's Peter Gammons recently opined that baseball's new All-Star Game plan - the winning league gets home-field advantage during the World Series - smacks of a cheap ratings ploy on...
HUSKIES MARCH ON : UCONN PLAYS BEST THIS TIME OF YEAR
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIf ever there was a season when Connecticut might not make a run in March, this was it. Jim Calhoun underwent successful surgery on his cancerous prostate Feb. 6. Point...
DIPIETRO RELISHES OPPORTUNITY
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amKANATA, Ont. - Welcome to the Rick DiPietro Show. That's what Islanders' GM Mike Milbury said on the day he traded Chris Osgood to St. Louis earlier in the week,...
THE INSIDERS: THE POST TAKES YOU BEHIND THE LOCKER-ROOM DOORS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amIMPERFECT LARSEN? DON MAY HAVE BEEN 'HALF-DRUNK', TOO Long before David Wells was an author, Don Larsen was the imperfect man who pitched the most perfect game of all time...
BEDEVILED, AS USUAL: BLUESHIRTS' PLAYOFF HOPES DIM WITH LOSS IN SWAMP
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amDevils 3 Rangers 1 It's back to the bad old days for Ranger fans, just like the pre-1994 years. Their dying hopes to end their five-year playoff drought flickered further...
MONEY CAN'T BUY BLUESHIRTS HAPPINESS
March 16, 2003 | 5:00amTHEY would win an All- Star Game; no one doubts that about the Rangers. They would win just about any shootout competition imaginable, too. But what does that have to...