May 15, 2003

ASBESTOS SUITS MAY HURT SEARS' CREDIT CARD SALE

SEARS Roebuck's credit cards are not made of asbestos. But there's a chance that the nasty insulating material could keep the auction for Sears' card business from getting as hot...

ROTH IS SELLING PARK AVE. TOWER

Steve Roth's Vornado Realty Trust is hoping to cash out of 2 Park Avenue for around $300 million. The approximately 965,000-square-foot building is being marketed by Woody Heller of Insignia/ESG...

NO JOY ON PERRY ST.; SUN'S GURU FLIPS CONDO

SUN Microsystems co- founder William Joy will apparently not be enjoying his new apartment in the West Village. The hi-tech guru who paid $15 million for a combined triplex apartment...

THEY'RE FED UP - NEW YORK FED CANDIDATES DECIDE TO DROP OUT

The two top candidates for the key post of New York Federal Reserve Bank president withdrew their names from consideration, sources close to the decision-making process said. Treasury Undersecretary for...

WAKSAL ART SALE - FORMER IMCLONE BOSS TAKES 19% LOSS ON PAINTINGS

Biotech scamster Sam Waksal is losing his shirt on his art investments. The founder of ImClone Systems, who's admitted guilt to tax evasion and insider trading crimes, sold two of...

RETAILERS HOPE RED-TAG SALES TURN INTO GREEN

Get ready for the summer of sales. Retailers across the country are sitting on a mound of excess merchandise. To clear their shelves and make room for new goods, they...

WAKSAL ART SALE: FORMER IMCLONE BOSS TAKES 19% LOSS ON PAINTINGS

Biotech scamster Sam Waksal is losing his shirt on his art investments. The founder of ImClone Systems, who's admitted guilt to tax evasion and insider trading crimes, sold two of...

ALL EYES ON THE HEAVIES

SAY goodbye to "Becker" and "The Agency" and hello to another slick Jerry Bruckheimer show and four other new dramas on CBS. The Eye Network unveiled its new fall lineup...

AVRIL CHARM ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE

AVRIL LAVIGNE --- IT'S hard to believe 18-year-old Avril Lavigne isn't as processed as a Twinkie, but like her song "Complicated," she's not that simple. At the Nassau Coliseum, in...

COMIC APPEAL

JOHN Travolta has been hitting the books - the comic books, that is. Joining the ranks of Hollywood stars flocking to big screen versions of comic books, Travolta has just...

THE REEL DARK WORLD OF CINEMATIC FREAKS

IT isn't easy being Jack Angstreich. "I can't really sleep late, I feel like I'm on the go all the time, and it's seven days a week." Angstreich doesn't have...

'IDOL' DOWN TO CLAY & RUBEN

FOR Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, next week will be a do-or-die race to the finish of "American Idol." For Kimberly Locke, the competition is over. Locke, 24, a student...

STARR REPORT

Sawyer is 'History' ; Oprah to get Hillary? Diane Sawyer won't be chasing Sen. Hillary Clinton for an interview after all - putting Oprah Winfrey in the forefront to land...

[FOUR STAR] FUHRER - DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE HITLER YOU NEVER KNEW - HE'S STILL A MONSTER

"Hitler: The Rise of Evil" [* * * *] Sunday and Tuesday at 9 on Ch. 2. ---- I'M here to report that all the recent histrionics and wild rantings...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

How much rotting garlic does it take before an entire neighborhood notices? Residents of Millmont, Pa., say the answer is one ton. Already accustomed to foul smells from a nearby...

THE GRAY LADY IN CRISIS: CALCIFIED MINDS

"I don't think that anybody seriously takes something on the front page of the New York Post that has to do with smoking . . . I mean, they're going...

MARTHA MANSE ON MARKET

Martha Stewart may soon have one less house to decorate. Sources say the domestic diva is listing her modestly sized, architecturally important contemporary home in the Georgica Pond area of...

MIKE BUS-TS GIFF ON 75G ROAD TRIP

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that City Council Speaker Gifford Miller's decision to spend $75,000 in public funds to promote a tenant rally in Albany "certainly does not help" make the...

CITY AND TEACHERS UNION BACK AT TABLE

Negotiations between City Hall and Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers union, will resume today after weeks of feuding and name-calling. Mayor Bloomberg - who declared that he won't budge...

'TARNISHED' ANEMONE TO SUE

Ousted MTA Security Director Louis Anemone plans to sue the agency today for "tarnishing his reputation" amid charges he made up a confidential informant in an internal corruption probe, his...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN * An unruly mob helped a drug suspect escape police custody in Brownsville, but cops soon recaptured him and arrested two people for helping him get away, authorities said...

HOME-VIOLENCE OUTREACH HITS HOSPS

Faced with many victims of domestic violence shunning authorities, the city is beginning a program to find them in municipal hospitals, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. "If victims won't reach out...

POLICE ALERT FOR QAEDA AIR ATTACKS

All NYPD units and precincts have been warned that terrorist airstrikes remain a serious threat, The Post has learned. The alerts - contained in terrorism awareness bulletins issued by the...

IMPOTENT GOV MEANS NEW YORKERS IN FOR TAXING TIMES

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki's sweeping budget vetoes signal a new era of chaos and confrontation in state government, the likes of which hasn't been seen for decades. Because Pataki's vetoes...

FILMS IN THE CANNES - REELS ROLL AT FRENCH MOVIE FEST

DESPITE jitters over SARS and local transit strikes, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off last night with Meg Ryan, Andie MacDowell and Penelope Cruz climbing the red-carpeted steps into the...

BASHING BUSH BACKFIRES ON DEMS

IN CASE the Democratic Party isn't in enough of a mess, its 2004 presidential candidates still seem hellbent on morphing into the Blame-Bush-First party - as if they've learned nothing,...

OVERTIME KING - NONSTOP BRIDGE COP ADDS 210G TO SALARY

A Port Authority police officer who was on the job 360 days last year patrolling Staten Island bridges has an E-ZPass to the bank - he's the king of overtime....

NAACP'S GUN CLAIM SHOT DOWN

Rack one up for the gun lobby. A Brooklyn jury yesterday found that 45 handgun manufacturers and distributors could not be held liable for fueling street violence that victimized blacks....

SMIRK STABS AT HEARTS OF LOVED ONES

LEMRICK Nelson Jr. left the courtroom smirking, smiling and laughing - with his defense predicting he could be back on the streets within eight months. "He has served eight years,"...

SPAM SLAM - 'CYBERSCAM PRINCE' BUSTED

The "crown prince of spammers" has been dethroned. Howard Carmack, busted at his Buffalo home, was a scam-and-spam artist who stole people's identities, used them to open bogus accounts and...

ORTHODOX CLERIC ADMITS TO KID-SEX RAP

An Orthodox archbishop accused of molesting a teen parishioner copped a plea yesterday as opening arguments were about to begin at his trial in Queens Supreme Court. Pangratios Vrionis, the...

SUPERINTENDENTS GET FAILING GRADE

State education officials have flunked one-third of the city's local school superintendents for failing to boost the achievement of poor students in low-performing schools. Eleven of the city's 37 district...

PATAKI VETOES BUDGET, SETTING UP OVERRIDE VOTE

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki yesterday delivered on his pledge to veto the Legislature's $94 billion "tax-and-spend" budget, rejecting 119 items and declaring "dozens of others" unconstitutional. But legislative leaders immediately...

HUBBY: 'I NEVER SHOT MY WIFE'

A soft-spoken Long Island meat merchant accused of brutally beating then shooting his wife while she cooked Easter dinner said in court yesterday he had nothing to do with her...

JAILED RAPE SUSPECT EYED IN CO-ED SLAY

Brooklyn cops are investigating an accused rapist in the savage death of a Hunter College psychology student, sources said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, is in jail on charges...

LEMRICK GUILTY - BUT HE FACES ONLY 2 YEARS IN JAIL

In an emotional ending to a racially charged case, a federal jury yesterday convicted Lemrick Nelson Jr. of violating the civil rights of a Hasidic scholar during the Crown Heights...

MOB FAMILY JEWELS - TURNCOAT NEARLY ICED TRASH MEN

Wearing a beard and wire-rim glasses, Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo looked more like a school teacher than a vicious Mafia boss when he testified against the mob yesterday - until...

SCANDAL-BROADSHEET BOSS: MY EDITOR STAYS - ANGRY JOURNALISTS PUT NEWSPAPER'S EXECS ON HOT SEAT

The publisher of The New York Times stood by his embattled executive editor yesterday as scores of the paper's journalists grilled the Gray Lady's top brass at a special meeting...

DIVVYING UP CITY'S $200M TERROR AID

WASHINGTON - New York City is getting about $200 million in federal grants to combat terrorism, the Department of HomelandSecurity announced yesterday. The grants include: * $125 million to cover...

LIBERTY FLYOVER STIRS 9/11 FEAR

Frightened residents and workers in lower Manhattan suffered flashbacks of 9/11 yesterday when a jetliner swooped low and circled the Statue of Liberty. The Continental Airlines Boeing 777 was carrying...

MODEL FIRM IS SMOKED FOR $5M

And bar owners think the city's anti-smoking fines are tough. A Manhattan jury smacked Elite Model Management with a $5.2 million judgment yesterday for making a former executive suffer through...

BRINKS BANDIT BOUDIN DENIED PAROLE

Kathy Boudin, serving 20 years to life for robbery and murder during a 1981 Brinks robbery, was rejected for parole yesterday because her heinous crimes "clearly outweighed" her exemplary prison...

POW FLAGS WILL FLY IN CITY PARKS

The City Council yesterday approved a bill that mandates the flying of POW/MIA flags at all city parks. There are 800 locations where the U.S. flag is flown, and the...

MTA HAS A TUNNEL VISION OF $UBWAY ADS

Advertisers have sunk to new depths - and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to cash in on it. The cash-strapped MTA is exploring a plan to line portions of its...

MANDOLIN FIND IS MUSIC TO HIS EARS

A Manhattan rocker who left his rare mandolin in a cab is singing The Post's praises today - after the driver returned the $5,000 instrument. "I can't tell you how...

BROOKLYN TEACHER WINS 'STAR SEARCH'

Brooklyn music teacher Vickie Natale earned an A from America by winning TV's "Star Search" song contest last night. Natale, 22, a rookie teacher at JHS 239, was awarded $100,000...

VICTIM RIPS 'TERROR HOTEL' JURY

An American lawyer who survived being shot in a terror attack at a Cairo hotel lashed out at a Manhattan jury yesterday after it found the hotel provided adequate security...

MASTERMIND ID'D IN SAUDI BLASTS

WASHINGTON - Authorities have fingered a 29-year-old Saudi - a fanatical follower of Osama bin Laden - as the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia. One of the...

MODEL FIRM IS $MOKED

And bar owners think the city's anti-smoking fines are tough. A Manhattan jury smacked Elite Model Management with a $5.2 million judgment yesterday for making a former executive suffer through...

POLLS APART: HOW LAWYER LEFT LIVID LEONA IN DARK

HOW hated is Leona Helmsley? So much so, her own lawyer never bothered to tell the hotel queen he commissioned a poll ranking her the No. 1 most-hated New Yorker...

MOB FAMILY JEWELS: TURNCOAT NEARLY ICED TRASH MEN

Wearing a beard and wire-rim glasses, Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo looked more like a school teacher than a vicious Mafia boss when he testified against the mob yesterday - until...

GENEROSA WILL MOVE TO SLAY HOME

Generosa Ammon Pelosi is planning to move back into the East Hampton estate where her estranged husband, millionaire financier Ted Ammon was brutally murdered in 2001 - but her kids...

KNICK HERO DIES: STAR WHO WON 2 TITLES COLLAPSES ON STREET

Knick legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere collapsed in the street and died yesterday of an apparent heart attack, authorities said. The eight-time All-Star, who helped the Knicks...

UNFARE: JUDGE KOS HIKE, ORDERS $1.50 RIDE REINSTATED

The fare hike is not fair. That's what Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Louis York ruled yesterday after calling the MTA's fare increase and ordering the agency to roll it back...

LEMRICK'S GUILTY: BUT HE ONLY FACES 2 YRS. IN JAIL

In an emotional ending to a racially charged case, a federal jury yesterday convicted Lemrick Nelson Jr. of violating the civil rights of a Hasidic scholar during the Crown Heights...

ANEMONE SUES

Ousted MTA Security Director Louis Anemone plans to sue the MTA today for "tarnishing his reputation" amid charges he made up an informant in a corruption probe, his lawyer said...

HOW JURIST'S TRAIN OF THOUGHT DEVELOPED

The Manhattan Supreme Court judge who slammed the brakes on the MTA's controversial fare hike yesterday is a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails jurist who won't be taken for a ride. Louis York,...

CLASSROOM EXTRA: GETTING OFF THE GROUND

Ever wonder how a big metal airplane shares space with the sparrows? Read on to see how these winged marvels make it in the air. Man envied the birds for...

SORIANO'S DAD DIES OF STROKE

Alfonso Soriano received distressing news yesterday morning when he learned his father, Carlos Gilliard, had died of a stroke in the Dominican Republic. Gilliard was 78. While the Yankee second...

UNSELFISH ANGELS PLAY LIKE CHAMPS

The patience. The discipline. The selflessness. For Joe Torre, it looked all too familiar. Torre couldn't help but notice the similarities as he sat in the Yankee dugout last night....

NO RELIEF FOR BOOMER

THE Angels had squeezed a Garret Anderson single, his stolen base, and a soft single by Shawn Wooten into one run in the sixth. David Eckstein's sacrifice fly had barely...

MAJOR: I'VE LOST DESIRE TO COACH

Larry Major has been the head basketball coach at Robeson for the past 17 years and enjoyed considerable success while at the Brooklyn school. Prior to this season, Major had...

DEBUSSCHERE: A LEGEND DIES - ON CLASSY TEAM, HE WAS WORKING-CLASSIEST

BY the late 1980s, after he'd been exiled for good by the franchise he'd once built into a fable, Eddie Donovan had found asylum at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure,...

SCOTT GETS NETS HOPPING AGAIN

The Lakers sought a "Three-peat" in 1989, looking to defend their two-title run against the Pistons. As usual, Pat Riley took his Lakers out of town to focus and turn...

UNSELFISH ANGELS LOOK LIKE CHAMPS

When Joe Torre sat in the dugout, both last October and on Tuesday night, and watched Anaheim's disciplined dissection of his vaunted Yankees pitching staff, he couldn't help but notice...

BRODEUR: SIMPLY THE BEST

THIS is going to be about the Senators now, about whether their maturing, very talented team can trade gut-punches with the ripe, menacing Devils. For we don't know quite yet...

DEBUSSCHERE: A LEGEND DIES A LEGEND LEAVES US

BY the late 1980s, after he'd been exiled for good by the franchise he'd once built into a fable, Eddie Donovan had found asylum at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure,...

NO MO MYSTERY; VAUGHN CALLS IN

MET NOTES DENVER - Mo Vaughn has not been abducted. Vaughn, who was incommunicado for the past few days while he was on a cross-country tour of second opinions for...

LUKAS TAKES A 'CIDE' - SAYS DERBY WINNER DESERVES RESPECT

BALTIMORE - D. Wayne Lukas, the reigning Triple Crown champion, yesterday offered a hot tip for Saturday's Preakness Stakes - Funny Cide. "The cream of the crop has come to...

BOEHEIM CAN'T SEE SYRACUSE IN ACC

The official slap in the face came yesterday when the Atlantic Coast Conference formally voted to expand from nine to 12 members. The Big East is ready to fight back,...

ROCKY HORROR - METS 'IN BIG TROUBLE' AFTER LOSS

Rockies 6 - Mets 5 DENVER - Art Howe admitted he stayed up "half the night" after mismanaging the Mets' 7-0 lead into a 9-8 loss to the Rockies on...

WHITTENBURG CLOSE TO DEAL AT FORDHAM

He took Wagner to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and took N.C. State to a national championship with his famous shot-pass to Lorenzo Charles. Now Dereck Whittenburg faces another challenge:...

NO RELIEF IN SIGHT - ACEVEDO FAILING IN YANKS' BULLPEN

To hear Juan Acevedo tell it, the Yankees reliever sounds almost fed up with himself. "I [stink] right now. Simple as that," Acevedo said before last night's game against the...

'CIDE' GOING TO PIMLICO NIGHT BEFORE

PREAKNESS NOTEBOOK BALTIMORE - Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide was not going to travel to Pimlico for the Preakness until the day of the race, but his handlers had a...

OUTSIDE SHOT FOR UPSET - FUNNY CIDE LANDS POST 9 IN FIELD OF 10

BALTIMORE - Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby without a straw in his path, but trainer Barclay Tagg's chestnut dynamo has a hurdle to overcome as the 7-5 favorite in...

WELLS DOING JUST FINE

BIND David Wells. Gag him, like the Yankees did, with $100,000 in big bills; lock him in a trunk weighted down with stacks of his unsold autobiography; dump him, like...

DEVS FEEL AT HOME

That big square building in the swamp, Fort Neverfill, the one their owners hate, has become the Devils' Meadowlands monument of playoff perfection. They're there tonight because they've been unbeatable...

OSUNA IN; CHOATE OUT

YANKEE NOTES As soon as pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre tapped him on the shoulder yesterday, Randy Choate knew. He was heading back to Columbus. After meeting with Joe Torre and...

A HALL OF FAMER, A HERO, BUT MOSTLY HE WAS HUMAN

LOS ANGELES - When I heard yesterday that Dave DeBusschere died, my first thought was to find my number 22 jersey. It was the only number I ever wore. That's...

ISLES' JONSSON CONSIDERS LEAVING

Kenny Jonsson, a restricted free agent, is considering not returning to the NHL next season, The Post has learned. It's a loss that would be a significant blow to the...

ACEVEDO BOOS HIMSELF

YANKEE NOTES To hear Juan Acevedo tell it, he sounds almost fed up with himself. "I stink right now. Simple as that," the Yankee reliever said yesterday. "I've never been...

BOEHEIM'S OPPOSED TO ACC MOVE

The official slap in the face came yesterday when the Atlantic Coast Conference formally voted to expand from nine to 12 members. The Big East is ready to fight back,...

DEVASTATED JAX CUTS SESSION SHORT

Phil Jackson was so distraught yesterday over Dave DeBusschere's death, he declined to take questions about his second-round series in which his Lakers trail the Spurs 3-2. Jackson could well...

RAMS SELECT WHITTENBURG

Dereck Whittenburg took Wagner College to its first NCAA Tournament appearance and took N.C. State to a national championship with his famous shot-pass to Lorenzo Charles. Now, Whittenburg faces another...

TEAMMATES, OPPONENTS PAY TRIBUTE

George Kalinsky, the famous Garden photographer, had dinner with Dave DeBusschere two weeks ago. "He was talking about his golf, his tennis, how he felt real good," Kalinsky recalled yesterday....

OCTOBER ALL OVER - ANGELS CONTINUE TO POUND YANKS

Angels 5 - Yankees 3 You can forget what the calendar read when you woke up this morning. May 15? Not even close. In The Bronx, it's October again. Just...

JINTS TO KEEP CAMP IN ALBANY

Heading into the last year of their contractual agreement for training camp at the University at Albany, the Giants are close to agreeing to an extension that will keep the...