April 7, 2003
AIRLINES SEE BLUE SKY IN ONE AREA: CUSTOMER SERVICE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amThe worse the skids for the nation's airlines, the better their service. A new report due out today says airlines are losing fewer bags, making more flights on time and...
NHL ON THIN ICE: 1/3 OF TEAMS FOR SALE AMID EXPANSION, HIGH COSTS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amThe finances of the National Hockey League are in such tatters that a full one-third of the league's teams are for sale, The Post has learned. At least 10 of...
TROOPS' CHANNEL OF CHOICE? MTV ITS REPORTER IS SAME AGE AS OUR SOLDIERS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amIT'S not your parents' war coverage. Noted more for music news like Puff Daddy's gun trial or Madonna's latest video scheme, MTV has a new agenda - how to keep...
TROUBLE IN PARADISE ; JEN & BEN'S CHEMISTRY MAY BE ALL OFF-SCREEN
April 7, 2003 | 4:00am"If you were Ben and you were sleeping with Jen, or if you were Jen sleeping with Ben, you would have better things to do than to read newspapers or...
HEADED THE RIGHT WAY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTALKING HEADS At the Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane. Call Ticketmaster (212) 307-4100. PERHAPS best known for his royal forays "The Madness of King George" and "A Question of...
AMERICAN AS RUSSIAN BALLET
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amEIFMAN BALLET OF ST. PETERSBURG City Center. 131 W. 55th St., between Sixth and Seventh avenues. Season runs through April 18. (212) 581-1212. RUSSIAN dancers in drag! Whirling around to...
STILL AN 'OUT' & AWAY HIT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amMOVIN' OUT 1/2NOT everyone would have guessed that Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel's "Movin' Out," which has moved into the Richard Rodgers Theatre for what looks like a long, long...
ACTOR WITH HEROIN HABIT LETS HBO WATCH
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amMAVERICK filmmaker, Kevin Smith says he is concerned about his longtime co-star and buddy, actor Jason Mewes, who is the subject of an HBO documentary about Mewes' heroin addiction. Mewes...
STARR REPORT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amCharlie gets 'Extra' credit - and a new job Charlie Maher, the "Bachelorette" contestant who was shockingly snubbed by Trista Rehn, has been hired by "Extra" to be a special...
ROYAL FLUSH ; 'LUCKY' UPS THE ANTE, MIXING VEGAS DRAMA WITH CAPER COMEDY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00am"Lucky" Tomorrow night at 10 on FX ½ I'LL say one thing: "Lucky" has got a good shot at making it. But not as good a shot as it should...
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: L.A. FASHION WEEK PUTS NEW YORK'S IN ITS STUFFY PLACE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amI'M coming clean: For the last couple of years, I haven't enjoyed New York Fashion Week. It has nothing to do with the clothes. I think some of the most...
IT'S A 'MUG' SHOT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTalk about being robbed blind. This smiling Virginia bank executive told The Post he was totally oblivious to the robber pulling a heist behind his back as a photographer shot...
GOV'S EX-DEM AIDE LAUNCHES ELEX BID
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNEW YORK Secretary of State Randy Daniels, a Democrat-turned-Republican and a senior aide to Gov. Pataki, has filed legal papers to run for statewide office, The Post has learned. Daniels,...
MIKE WARY OF PLAN FOR OTB $LOTS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amALBANY - A top aide to Mayor Bloomberg yesterday raised serious economic and moral concerns about a state plan to raise revenue for the city by allowing video slot machines...
PSYCHIC'S 'BLIND' FAITH RETESTED
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNATASHA Lulova is showing off again. She picks up a book and starts reading aloud. Then she flips through a pile of colored paper and identifies each sheet. None of...
PASSOVER-PRICES HOT LINE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amThe Department of Consumer Affairs announced that citizens can now access the city's 311 service hot line to report overpriced kosher Passover food. Complaints recorded on the nonemergency hot line...
THE SECRET WAR; TRIUMPHS YOU WON'T SEE ON TV
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amAS many as six Iraqi divisions barely fired a shot and evaded orders to attack allied forces. Chemical weapons still have not been used, despite Iraqi commanders receiving permission to...
PEN MAY BE SWORD, BUT IT'S NO SHIELD
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTED YATES, former Marine and NBC producer, signed off the letter with his trademark farewell. "Keep your powder dry," he wrote from Israel during hostilities in 1967. By the time...
SO-CALLED 'ELITE' ARE ON THE RUN
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amOn the eastern boundary of Baghdad. MANY of Iraq's vaunted Republican Guard soldiers are abandoning their positions on the outskirts of Baghdad and retreating into the city but it's not...
GUNMEN SHOOT UP RUSSIAN DIPLOS IN BAGHDAD CONVOY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA convoy of Russian diplomats and journalists leaving Baghdad yesterday was caught in the middle of a blazing gunfight which injured five people, including the Russian ambassador. A witness, Russian...
ANTI-GUN RALLY ATTRACTS 'SUITS'
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA Brooklyn city councilman led about a dozen gun-control advocates to City Hall yesterday to call on Congress to throw out two bills that would protect gun makers and sellers...
AIRPORT SLIP-UP LETS 'TERROR' TOOL GET BY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amIn an incredible security blunder, a London man was allowed to board a flight to JFK with a potentially deadly tool - complete with a pointed knife and serrated saw....
OPERATION ATLAS $HOULDERS BIGGER BURDEN THAN ESTIMATED
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amMayor Bloomberg acknowledged yesterday that the price tag for the city's heightened security is hovering at $13 million a week - more than double his previous estimates. Officials at the...
JOYFUL JESSICA GREETS FAMILY AFTER SURGERY IN GERMANY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA beaming Jessica Lynch - the Army private who was captured by the Iraqis and then freed by U.S. forces last week - had nothing but smiles for her family...
MINORITY POLS PITCH SOME TAXING IDEAS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amBlack and Latino lawmakers from the City Council and the state Legislature yesterday joined to urge Gov. Pataki to consider $8.2 billion in new taxes and fees to avoid cuts...
RAIDERS SMASH TERROR CENTER: MARINES KILL DOZENS AT SADDAM'S CAMP OF EVIL
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. Marines overran Iraq's main terrorist training camp yesterday, capturing or killing dozens of non-Iraqi Arab fighters and providing fresh evidence of U.S. allegations of an axis between...
MOST IN U.S. DON'T FEAR SARS INFECTION: POLL
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA majority of Americans does not fear that they or their loved ones will be infected with the deadly respiratory disease from Asia known as SARS, according to a new...
U.S. BOMBS FALL ON KURDS, GIS IN FATAL FRIENDLY FIRE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amU.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed a convoy of allied Kurdish soldiers and American troops during fierce fighting yesterday with Saddam Hussein loyalists in northern Iraq, officials said. In the friendly fire...
TROOPS SCORE A 'TOUCHDOWN': REINFORCEMENTS LAND AT BAGHDAD'S AIRPORT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON U.S. military forces demonstrated their overwhelming dominance yesterday, flying the first transport plane into Baghdad's airport, seizing control of all major highways out of the city and sending new...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTHE BRONX * A 23-year-old man was stabbed in the chest at about 4 a.m. Saturday on Thieriot Avenue in Castle Hill, police said. The man, whose name was not...
PRAY FOR 'PERV TEACH': L.I. PARISH
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amParishioners at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in East Meadow Island, L.I., yesterday were asked "to pray for" its former youth minister, who has been charged with raping and sodomizing a...
SNOW FOOLING - 12 INCHES COULD SOCK CITY TODAY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA monster snowstorm is set to whack the Big Apple today, dumping as much as 12 inches of the stuff on the city. Spring may be in full swing and...
EXILES JOIN FIGHT FOR LIBERATION
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amSome 700 Iraqi "freedom fighters" have been airlifted by U.S.-led forces into southern Iraq to help ferret out Saddam Hussein sympathizers. The Iraqi exiles and defectors could even join in...
PUFFER ZONES ; SMOKING OUTSIDE BARS GETS RESIDENTS ALL CHOKED UP
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNo butts about it - Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban has turned the city into one big noisy ashtray, frustrated New Yorkers are saying after the first full weekend of the...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amThe winner of the world's biggest dog show was accused of having a secret face lift. Rival owners had charged that Danny the Pekinese, who beat 20,000 pooches at the...
TEENAGE DAD-TO-BE SLAIN AFTER PARTY FIGHT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amA Bronx teen who expected to be a father this week was shot and killed near Lincoln Hospital early yesterday after a fight at a housing project, cops said. James...
'CHEM ALI' LIKELY DEAD
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - A precision airstrike killed the bodyguard of the Iraqi military leader known as "Chemical Ali" - and most likely killed the infamous genocidal maniac as well, according to...
6 MOS. 'TIL NEW REGIME
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amDeputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday said it will take more than six months to establish a new Iraqi government after the fall of Saddam Hussein - while a top...
TRAGEDY AT NBC: REPORTER DAVID BLOOM, 39, DIES OF BLOOD CLOT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amDavid Bloom, the boyish NBC News correspondent who covered the 3rd Infantry Division's push to Baghdad from atop a military vehicle barreling through the desert, died yesterday from an apparent...
TROOPS SEIZE SADDAM PALACE: 'BAGHDAD OURS,' CAPT. SAYS -- SARIN STASH IS DISCOVERED -- U.S. OPENS SEIZED AIRPORT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amU.S. troops smashed into Saddam Hussein's main palace early today, taking control of the complex in Baghdad. Then U.S. forces thundered into a second presidential palace and battled for other...
KISS BAGHDAD BYE-BYE, SADDAM: 'THIS CITY IS OURS' AS TROOPS STORM PALACE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. troops riding tanks and Bradley armored vehicles struck the very heart of Saddam Hussein's crumbling regime early this morning - crashing into his riverfront presidential palace in...
IF MATZO RISES, YOU'LL KNOW WHO TO CALL
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amThe Department of Consumer Affairs announced that citizens can now access the city's 311 service hot line to report overpriced kosher Passover food. Complaints recorded on the non-emergency hot line...
SALTY OCEAN AIR MAY BE COLUMBIA CULPRIT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - As scientists continue piecing together charred fragments of the shuttle Columbia, a leading investigator theorized this week that salt air could have caused unseen corrosion and...
'MONTHS' TO HAVE NEW RULE IN PLACE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amDeputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz yesterday said it will take more than six months for a new Iraqi government to be established after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Speaking on...
'CHEM ALI' GUARD KILLED
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. military officials yesterday said that a precision airstrike killed the bodyguard of the notorious Iraqi military leader known as "Chemical Ali" but that it was unclear whether...
TROOPS SCORE A 'TOUCHDOWN' : REINFORCEMENTS LAND AT BAGHDAD'S AIRPORT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. military forces demonstrated their overwhelming dominance yesterday, flying the first transport plane into Baghdad's airport, seizing control of all major highways out of the city and sending...
LANGFORD READY FOR CARMELO
April 7, 2003 | 4:00am"I'll probably have to play my best defensive game of the year."KEITH LANGFORD NEW ORLEANS - Kansas swingman Keith Langford jump-started the Jayhawks offense Saturday in their 94-61 crushing of...
MESSIER WON'T SAY IF HE'S COMING BACK
April 7, 2003 | 4:00am"It comes down to if I feel like playing. That's the only thing."MARK MESSIER He'll massage his achy joints and scratch his hairless head and wonder if his body and...
SNOW DAY FOR YANKS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - After playing their first six games indoors, the Yankees' home opener slated for today against the Twins at Yankee Stadium was postponed last night due to an...
SCARS STILL SMART FOR ROY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNEW ORLEANS - Roy Williams' skin barely conceals the scars, and you don't have to work very hard to peel away the scab, let the memories all come flooding back....
COLLISON, HINRICH TOGETHER TO END
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNEW ORELANS - Kansas seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich have been linked by basketball long before they came to Kansas. The two shared Iowa's Mr. Basketball title in their...
FIRST, SLATS MUST FIND COACH ; SATHER WILL BE TOO BUSY TO WORK RANGER BENCH
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amGLEN Sather revealed nothing yesterday about his own plans for next season, but if the GM does not remain behind the bench, it doesn't sound as if he'll be speed-dialing...
LATEST PREPS FAIL TO ROCK BOAT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amFlorida Derby winner Empire Maker, who's scheduled to fly into New York tonight for Saturday's Wood Memorial, didn't do much more than stretch his legs over the weekend at Hollywood...
BENITEZ BLOWS IT ; EXPOS' 3-RUN HR BEATS MET CLOSER
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amExpos 8Mets 5 As Art Howe sat at his desk following the Mets' 8-5 loss yesterday to the Expos, he calmly tried to deflect questions about Armando Benitez' psyche. Just...
BURNS, DEVILS ARE SATISFIED
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amDevils 2Sabres 2 BUFFALO - His Devils 13 points better than last season, Jennings Trophy co-champs and Atlantic Division titlists, the coach deserved a chance to crow. Still, he refrained....
BASEBALL LIKE IT OUGHTA BE ; FOR AN INNING, YANKS-RAYS WAS GOOD AS IT GETS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amEVERYTHING, the spiritual tell us, happens for a reason. And so, with Kansas waxing Marquette, Saturday, we hit the mercy button and jumped to the Yanks-Devil Rays on YES -...
ROCKET ROLLS ; CAPTURES 295TH WIN
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - While other men his age were sailing Tampa Bay, draining 25-foot putts, flipping burgers or inhaling beer yesterday, Roger Clemens took another step toward 300 victories at...
FRANCO TAKING BIG STEP
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amMET NOTES John Franco's comeback will take a huge leap tomorrow when he faces major-league hitters for the first time since September of 2001. Before tomorrow's game in Florida, Franco...
SEO & CLARK DO THEIR PART
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amAt the start of spring training, neither Jae Seo nor Tony Clark figured into the Mets' immediate plans. But both debuted and acquitted themselves well in yesterday's 8-5 loss to...
TIME HAS COME ; MAGIC MOMENT FOR JAYHAWKS & ORANGEMEN
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNEW ORLEANS - The time has come for much more than a championship to be settled. A college basketball Aquarius could take place tonight in the Superdome where Kansas and...
AMAZIN'LY, ARMANDO STILL DOESN'T GET IT
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amARMANDO Benitez was a failure on the field yester day and an embarrassment off it. Six years into his tenure as a closer - his fifth as a Met -...
NOW, FOR THE TOUGH PART
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amIslanders 2Hurricanes 1 RALEIGH - It matters not that the Islanders backed into the playoffs, winning just six of their final 22 games. Of major significance is that they begin...
DEREK UPBEAT OVER SHOULDER
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - When Derek Jeter is done playing baseball, he has a future in giving motivational talks on the power of positive thinking. Jeter is set for a noon...
MARIANO HITS SORE SPOT ON ROAD TO RECOVERY
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES ST. PETERSBURG - One day after Mariano Rivera's first batting practice session since going on the DL, his right groin was barking yesterday morning. "Mo was a little...
TENNESSEE DUKES IT OUT TO TITLE GAME
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTennessee 66Duke 56 ATLANTA - Gwen Jackson didn't have any choice. Not when it came to honoring a final wish. A few weeks ago, as 76-year-old Laura Jackson was dying...
HUSKIES RALLY TO NIP TEXAS
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amUConn 71Texas 69 ATLANTA - It should have been over. Connecticut trailed Texas in last night's Final Four Semifinal by nine points with 10:59 left. The top-ranked Huskies were down...
TENNESSEE DUKES IT OUT: JACKSON CARRIES VOLS TO NATIONAL TITLE GAME
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amTennessee 66 Duke 56 ATLANTA - Gwen Jackson didn't have any choice. Not when it came to honoring a final wish. A few weeks ago, as 76-year-old Laura Jackson was...
UCONN GOES FOUR IT ALL: HUSKIES ROLL INTO ATLANTA
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amATLANTA - If it's April, it must be time for the women's Final Four, and if it's time for the women's Final Four, it must be time for UConn. You...
NETS RIP RAPTORS, TOP EAST
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNets 96 Raptors 87 TORONTO - The Raptors were rallying against the Nets yesterday, riding Vince Carter - gee, what a surprise - to move from 15 points down in...
DIKEMBE STARTS HIS GRUMBLING OVER MINUTES
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amNET NOTES TORONTO - The Net president has a simple message for Dikembe Mutombo: think team, not Deke. Mutombo, maintaining he does not want to start any controversy, still has...
SPREWELL TO LAYDEN: YOU HAVE TO GO BIG
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amLatrell Sprewell knows it now more than ever, he just doesn't voice it as often any longer. Since the Knicks were eliminated by the Raptors in the first round in...
THE MARCHUPS: KANSAS VS SYRACUSE
April 7, 2003 | 4:00amSYRACUSE VS KANSAS CENTER Craig Forth vs. David Graves. Both players have a tendency to get into foul trouble, but it's crucial that Graves plays smart. He's a better post...