July 8, 2003

MORTGAGE-RATE REDUCTION SUCCESS STORIES FROM READERS

IN this column last week, I suggested that homeowners ask their banks for a simple and cheap rate "modification" before they consider refinancing - or, worse, living with the overpriced...

IN IDAHO RESORT TOWN, CALM PRECEDES A SCHMOOZING STORM

SUN Valley, Idaho - There were few signs yesterday that this sleepy ski town tucked in the Idaho mountains would soon become the center of the media world: no private...

MACK DITCHED DAVIS FOR GE IN VIVENDI BID BATTLE

Hollywood film maker Vivendi Universal's high-profile auction has set the stage for a behind-the-scenes drama unfolding between Credit Suisse First Boston and a few of its prominent clients. The story...

MUSIC TO HIS EARS - MOTTOLA INKS $50M JOINT VENTURE WITH UNIVERSAL

Tommy Mottola is back in a big way. The former Sony Music honcho inked a long-term, multimillion-dollar joint venture deal yesterday with Universal Music. Terms were not disclosed, but a...

N.Y. EATERY ENTREPRENEURS ABANDON BASEMENT DIGS

DANNY Meyer owns or co-owns five of the city's most successful restaurants, including Zagat "most popular" choices Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe. Daniel Boulud owns a French trio whose...

JUDGE OKS WORLDCOM'S $750M FINE

WorldCom yesterday won approval to settle its $11 billion accounting scandal by making a $750 million payment to ripped-off investors. Rejecting calls for a stiffer penalty, Manhattan federal Judge Jed...

TECHS IGNITE STOX - NASDAQ SOARS 57 PTS.; INVESTORS SHIFT OUT OF BONDS

Investors walked out on their long love affair with bonds yesterday, triggering a global stock rally unseen in years. Much of the freed cash around the world went into the...

ADELPHIA'S BANKS HIT WITH $UIT

Wall Street's role in yet another massive corporate scandal is under the microscope. Creditors of now-bankrupt Adelphia Communications filed suit against more than 450 banks for making what they charge...

CHU DA MAN! WINS BIG IN NAUTICA DEAL

Of all the people to benefit from VF Corp.'s $585.6 million acquisition of Nautica Enterprises, David Chu stands to gain the most. As part of the deal announced yesterday, Chu,...

BONNIE LURES TWO US STAFFERS TO NEW GIG

Tabloid queen Bonnie Fuller is on the attack. In her very first day at her new job as editorial director of American Media, she has already poached two key staffers...

WHAT'S IN A NAME? SPIKE LEE ENDS TNN SUIT

Spike Lee is spiking his suit against Spike TV. The diminutive "Do the Right Thing" director has struck a deal ending his lawsuit against The National Network over its plans...

STARR REPORT

JonBenet - six years later Katie Couric revisits the JonBenet Ramsey case today and tomorrow on "Today" and "Dateline" - with some new info on the six-year-old murder. Among the...

OUT BEFORE IT EVEN BEGINS - 'BIG BRO' BOOTS BRANDON FOR SNEAKING CALLS

BIG Brother 4" has dumped a contestant even before the show begins tonight. Brandon Showalter, a 28-year-old computer engineer from Newport Beach, Calif., suddenly found himself out of the running...

A GRANDE AFFAIR

ORLANDO, land of Mickey and $59 rooms at the Maingate, is getting an upgrade. The 500-acre Grande Lakes, formerly known as a big swamp, debuted just a week ago. The...

FIT TO BE EYED - HOW KERRY KEEPS IN TIP-TOP SHAPE - AND YOU CAN, TOO

DEMI Moore isn't the only fortysomething mom with a body to die for. Just as the "Charlie's Angels" star stunned Hollywood with her itoned torso, newly separated Kerry Kennedy Cuomo...

YOU CAN'T GET DIVORCED FROM YOUR DIET

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo may not be on a diet, but she's definitely watching what she puts in her mouth. "The rate at which you burn calories slows 10 percent every...

'R*I*C*H' STAR JOINS FOX NEWS

FORMER "M*A*S*H" star Wayne "Trapper John" Rogers is joining Fox News Channel as a business contributor. Rogers, who is co-chairman and co-CEO of Swifty Serve, the nation's largest privately held...

LOST LUSTER OF BLOCKBUSTER - FRANCHISE FLICKS ARE SINKING QUICK

WITH Hollywood's endless summer at the halfway mark, it's clear the public is wearying of the incessant string of blockbusters rolling off the assembly line. Except for "Finding Nemo," "Bruce...

THE GOOD BROOKE

* Brooke "Coming Home" [] Connoisseur/Artemis One of the most exciting elements of music is how new hybrid styles evolve not over generations, but over the course of just a...

ASHTON K SUITS UP AS $8-MILLION MAN

'THAT '70s Show" star Ashton Kutcher, who's busy romancing Demi Moore and chumming around with P. Diddy, isn't ready to leave his comfortable TV nest just yet. Kutcher, who plays...

COUNTRY HEARTACHE & MORE FROM TEXAS TROUBADOUR

WHEN he's not on tour, Dale Watson performs his country and western tunes two or three times a week in his hometown, Austin, Texas; hangs with his pals at a...

CITY SAYS METS ARE OWE-FOR-$4.5M

The Mets are crying foul over an audit that says the team owes the city $4.5 million. Comptroller William Thompson said the team owes $1.2 million from underreported revenue and...

8 YRS. FOR 'BODY CHOP' DRUG SNITCH

A former drug informant accused of murdering two teens and scattering body parts across the South - all while he was out on bail - was sentenced to eight years...

COP-BEAT CABBY AWARDED $2.5 MIL

It may have been the nightstick; it may have been the cop's hands around his neck. All Pedro Minaya's family knows is that for the 18 years since the Dominican...

3 GIRLS IN POOL GROPE ORDEAL

It's the first reported "whirlpooling" in three years - a terrifying crime in which girls in the city's public pools are surrounded by rampaging boys who pull at their bathing...

POOL SEX ORDEAL - MEN GANGED UP ON GIRLS, DA SAYS

It's the first reported "whirlpooling" in three years - a terrifying crime in which girls in the city's public pools are surrounded by rampaging boys who pull at their bathing...

CABBY SLAIN IN BROOKLYN VAN ROBBERY

The driver of a livery van was shot and killed in Brooklyn yesterday during an apparent robbery by a four-man gang - one of whom pulled a gun on the...

PRISON BREAKOUT - MURDER DUO USES BEDSHEETS TO FLEE

An intense police manhunt was under way yesterday for two escaped killers who broke out of an upstate maximum security prison by shimmying down a makeshift rope of bedsheets and...

ACCUSED SPY PLEADS INNOCENT

The son of an Iraqi diplomat, accused of helping Saddam Hussein's spies in New York, pleaded not guilty yesterday after being indicted by a Manhattan federal grand jury. Raed Rokan...

TV HOST AXED IN GAY RIP

MSNBC has canned controversial host Michael Savage after he told a viewer to "get AIDS and die." "You're one of those sodomites? Are you a sodomite? You should only get...

HOPE FOR AFRICA - BUSH VS. WASHINGTON'S 'WISDOM'

YOU could summarize Washington's traditional thinking about Africa in one word: Hopeless. Yet Africa may present the greatest strategic opportunity for the United States in the 21st century: We can...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

A dog accidentally got sealed under the floor of a building under construction - and, after three weeks without food or water, somehow survived. A night security guard in Grants...

SPIES THAT CAN'T LEAK STRAIGHT

THE CIA has determined that Saddam Hussein is alive. Funny: It was the CIA that determined Sad dam was hiding in a Baghdad bunker on March 20, leading President Bush...

FROM PROSECUTOR TO PRINCIPAL

Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lloyd, who has spent the past several years prosecuting lawbreakers, is heading back to school to help students become law-abiding citizens. Lloyd is one of...

CRITICS BACK OFF THREAT TO HALT SPECIAL-ED REVAMP

Advocates for disabled kids have agreed not to file a lawsuit to block the Bloomberg administration's overhaul of special-education services - at least for the time being, The Post has...

LITTLE GIRL'S DOLL IS 'HULK WITH A BULK'

A 6-year-old English girl pulled the shorts off her new Hulk doll to find something really incredible - a penis. Pixie-faced Leah Low discovered the 2-inch-long part as she checked...

U.S. TEAM LANDS IN LIBERIA

WASHINGTON - A heavily armed U.S. military team arrived in war-torn Liberia yesterday and immediately got to work figuring out how to bring peace to the desperate country. Their work...

BRITNEY: JUSTIN MADE ME EX-VIRGIN

Britney Spears has finally made it official: She's not a virgin. Confirming what we've all suspected for years, the curvy pop tart says she had sex with then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake,...

U.S. MAY SEND MORE TROOPS

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is considering sending thousands of elite new troops to Iraq to crush the smoldering guerrilla campaign, The Post has learned. Military officials said there is rising...

BARS GO PUB-LIC WITH SMOKE SUIT

ALBANY - Restaurants and bars this week will begin asking customers to help fund a lawsuit seeking to strike down the looming statewide ban on smoking, The Post has learned....

'BODY CHOP' DRUG SNITCH GETS 8 YRS. ON COKE RAP

A former drug informant accused of murdering two teens and scattering body parts across the South - all while he was out on bail - was sentenced to eight years...

HEVESI ZAPS LIPA OVER PRICEY POLITICAL POLLING

The Long Island Power Authority spent more than $1 million on polls - including some that asked consumers unnecessary political questions, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi charged yesterday. Hevesi's office has...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN * Detectives need the public's help in identifying the body of a young woman who was brutally murdered and whose body was set on fire with gasoline in a...

IRAQIS KILL 2 MORE GIS - FOUR OTHERS WOUNDED IN GUERRILLA ATTACKS

WASHINGTON - Two more American soldiers were killed and four were wounded in Iraq yesterday as the guerrilla war launched by Saddam Hussein's hit squads continued to intensify. Military officials...

LYNCH RESCUER DIES

A Marine who helped rescue Jessica Lynch and returned home to a hero's welcome last week died Sunday in a car crash. Josh Speer, 21, who joined the Marines after...

ELEX-$$ PROBERS TO GRILL DEM AIDE

Brooklyn prosecutors plan to interview longtime Clarence Norman ally Jacqueline Ward regarding $95,120 she received in Mark Green campaign cash, which they believe was used to subsidize her work on...

ISRAEL FUMES AT RELEASE OF 'BOMBER'

JERUSALEM - The day after arresting a woman who was on her way to carry out a homicide bombing, the Palestinian Authority released the suspected terrorist - drawing the ire...

BOXLEY RAPE ACCUSER WAS DRUG-FREE

ALBANY - The woman who accused a top aide of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of rape had no narcotics or "date rape" drugs in her system, according to preliminary test...

METS BALK AS CITY CLAIMS TEAM IS OWE-FOR-$4.5M

The Mets are crying foul over an audit that says the team owes the city $4.5 million. Comptroller William Thompson said the team owes $1.2 million from underreported revenue and...

CABBY BEATEN BY COP IN '85 AWARDED $2.5M

It may have been the nightstick; it may have been the cop's hands around his neck. All Pedro Minaya's family knows is that for the 18 years since the Dominican...

OH, SHEET! ESCAPE - VICIOUS KILLERS USED THESE LINENS TO FLEE MAX-SECURITY PRISON

An intense police manhunt was under way yesterday for two escaped killers who broke out of an upstate maximum-security prison by shimmying down a makeshift rope of bedsheets and leaving...

THREE DIE IN L.I. AIR CRASH

Police divers yesterday pulled three bodies out of a Montauk pond after a small plane crashed on the eastern end of Long Island. East Hampton Town police found a twin-engine...

WISCONSIN TRIPLE-SLAY SUSPECT BUSTED IN N.Y.

New York cops have arrested a Taiwanese teenage gambling fiend charged with killing three men in Wisconsin as they slept. Meng-Ju "Mark" Wu, 19, a freshman at the University of...

GOV VOWS TO BUTCHER POLS' PORK

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki yesterday vowed to stop state lawmakers from going hog wild - announcing he is putting the brakes on $200 million in legislative pork-barrel spending. "Our view...

LIVERY DRIVER SLAIN IN BROOKLYN GANG'S VAN HEIST

The driver of a livery van was shot and killed in Brooklyn yesterday during an apparent robbery by a four-man gang, one of whom pulled a gun and opened fire...

TEACHERS IN PENSION RIP-OFF

A city audit has fingered 26 educators for illegally "double dipping" by collecting both a pension and a city paycheck. Comptroller Bill Thompson's office said that in 2001, the city...

KOBE CALLS FOUL - NBA SUPERSTAR DENIES SEX RAP

Kobe Bryant is innocent and expects to be completely exonerated, his lawyers said yesterday. The NBA superstar was arrested last week on felony sexual assault charges in Eagle, Colo., near...

AMBUSH THUGS ARE DEADLY, BUT WE CAN BEAT THEM

LONDON - With daily attacks on U.S. forces and a combat death every other day, you could be forgiven for thinking that things are falling apart in Iraq. But although...

'MATRIX' MASSACRE BID - MOVIE-FAN TEEN ENLISTED PALS FOR GUN RAMPAGE: COPS

For years, Matthew Lovett answered taunts with silence - but he allegedly kept a list of the people who teased him going back to elementary school. And on Sunday, the...

CABRINI HOSP SETTLES SEX LAWSUIT

A Manhattan hospital settled a lawsuit by a woman who was sexually assaulted by a doctor in a recovery room after the victim took the witness stand yesterday to detail...

HAMPTONS DIARY

THE toughest door policy in the Hamptons over the holiday weekend might have been at Rocco's a la Playa, where even the owner, Rocco Ancarola, was denied admittance. On Saturday...

SEX TESTS FORCED ON GIRLS: LAWSUIT

Two eighth-grade girls were forced by school administrators to undergo tests for pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases before they could return to class, the New York Civil Liberties Union said yesterday....

EVEN IF PHONY, ALLEGATIONS MAY TARNISH POT OF GOLD

Kobe Bryant's ability to rake in the big bucks through endorsement contracts for products from Sprite to Spalding may be irreparably damaged by sexual-assault allegations - even if he is...

CARJACK JACKASS - PAROLEE CHASED DOWN IN S.I. ROB-RAMPAGE

A knife-waving parolee launched a wild, one-man crime spree that included a diner heist, a pair of carjackings, a car crash and a scuffle with cops that landed three officers...

ISRAEL FURY OVER FREED 'BOMBER'

JERUSALEM - The day after arresting a woman allegedly on her way to carry out a homicide bombing, the Palestinian Authority released the suspected terrorist, sparking outrage among Israeli officials....

BELOVED HARLEM PASTOR LAID TO REST

Harlem bade farewell yesterday to one of its most beloved ministers, the Rev. Preston R. Washington, whose legacy of creating thousands of new homes and his advocacy for people with...

TEEN IN 'MATRIX' MASSACRE PLOT - MOVIE FANATIC AND TWO PALS HAD HIT LIST - AND 2,000 BULLETS: COPS

The New Jersey teen accused of plotting a Columbine-like killing spree plot in his south Jersey suburb imagined himself as the star of "The Matrix" and kept a list of...

'LONER' HID INNER TORMENT

Matthew Lovett silently endured his pain for years, giving others only a glimpse into his young, tortured soul by defiantly sauntering around town in a bizarre, all- black uniform of...

STADIUM GETS KIM AGAIN

This time it wasn't a home run that doomed Byung-Hyun Kim. Just a ground ball to a teammate. Unfortunately for Kim, the Arizona-turned-Boston closer, the result was the same: another...

PEDRO BRINGS HIS 'K' GAME

It was clear from the game's first batter that Pedro Martinez was going to be pure nastiness. "I saw [Alfonso] Soriano swinging at a pitch that ended up hitting him,"...

METS: EVERYONE CAN GO

MET NOTES With the trade deadline almost three weeks away, interim general manger Jim Duquette indicated yesterday that even cornerstone Mike Piazza and phenom Jose Reyes would be available for...

TORRE: BERNIE NOT READY YET

YANKEE NOTES Bernie Williams' surgically repaired right knee is fine. However, his stroke can use work and will delay his return from the DL. The Yankees anticipated their switch-hitting center...

TELFAIR GETTING TASTE OF LIFE'S FASTER LANES

ABCD CAMP Rapper Jay-Z strode toward the court at Rucker Park two weeks ago, camera lights shining in his face, fans all around. And while plenty of the fans were...

NETS ON SIDELINES FOR KIDD'S COURTING

The Mavs called at midnight July 1. The Spurs put out the red-carpet treatment and wined and dined him for the past two days. But what did the Nets do?...

JETER: ALL-STAR GAME SHOULDN'T AFFECT SERIES

On the day Derek Jeter was slammed in the right hand by a Pedro Martinez purpose pitch, the Yankees captain slammed Major League Baseball's decision to give the winning league...

YANKS BOTCHED STAR VOTE

Maybe if more Yankees voted for who goes to the July 15 All-Star Game in Chicago, maybe more of them would be going. Initially, news that none of the Yankees'...

KNICKS INK PAIR OF BIG MEN TO SUMMER DEALS

The Knicks named two 7-footers to their summer-league roster yesterday but not exactly the two 7-footers they envisioned on Draft Night. The Knicks announced their full summer-league squad yesterday, but...

SHEFFIELD: I'M MADE FOR SHEA

However prideful Gary Sheffield may be, he's not arrogant enough to say the Mets wouldn't be in this pitiful predicament if they'd traded for him two winters ago. But he...

RED SOX SHOW CURSE LIVES ON

LET'S get this straight. Six regulars were out of the lineup for the Yankees, including Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter, knocked out by Boston ace Pedro Martinez, who was breathing...

BENITEZ STAR NOD SEO WRONG

IT'S been hard enough watching Roger Cedeno in center field, enduring a season-plus of somebody else using Roberto Alomar's identity at second, taking the drip-drip-drip of one Mets middle reliever...

STADIUM GETS TO KIM AGAIN

This time it wasn't a home run that doomed Byung-Hyun Kim. Just a ground ball to a teammate. Unfortunately for Kim, the Arizona-turned-Boston closer, the result was the same: another...

INJURED DUO MIGHT PLAY TONIGHT

Both Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano said they hope to play tonight in Cleveland, although it appears Soriano's hand injury is a bit more serious than Jeter's. Their hands -...

LYASHENKO DEATH ROCKS BLUESHIRTS

Todd Diamond, the agent for Roman Lyashenko, is awaiting the results of an autopsy that was to be performed on his client, found dead in his hotel room on Sunday...

PEDRO BRINGS HIS 'K' GAME TO THE BRONX

It was clear from the game's first batter that Pedro Martinez was going to be pure nastiness. "I saw [Alfonso] Soriano swinging at a pitch that ended up hitting him,"...

RANGERS TAKING IT SLOWLY

Seven days into a free-agent period in which the Rangers continue to browse rather than shop: * NHL officials report ongoing discussions between Glen Sather and Mike O'Connell in which...

YANKEES SURVIVE BEAN BAWL BATTLE - JETER, SORIANO TAKE HITS

Yankees 2 - Red Sox 1 Fifty-eight minutes after the first pitch yesterday, Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano were on their way to Beth Israel North Hospital for X-rays. Their...

ACHES PAIN METS - LEITER ON DL; FLOYD COULD BE NEXT

As expected, Mets starter Al Leiter was placed on the disabled list yesterday with a sore right knee. But Leiter expects to be back in the first rotation turn after...

MUSSINA HOLDS OFF ON PAYBACK

When Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter were taken to the hospital after being plunked by Pedro Martinez in the first inning yesterday, Yankee Nation turned its eyes to Mike Mussina...

BOSS TURNS INTO CRY-BRENNER

WHEN Tino Martinez and then Scott Brosius hit two of the most memorable homers in Yankee history - two-out, two-run, game-tying, ninth-inning homers off Byun-Hyung Kim in Games 4 and...

JINTS: 6 DOWN, 5 TO GO

With less than three weeks remaining before the start of training camp, the Giants have been one of the NFL's most active teams as far as signing draft picks. Of...

INJURED DUO MIGHT PLAY VS. CLEVELAND

Both Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano said they hope to play tonight in Cleveland, although it appears Soriano's hand injury is a bit more serious than Jeter's. Their hands -...

SHEF SHOWS FANS WHAT THEY MISSED

However prideful Gary Sheffield may be, he's not arrogant enough to assert the Mets wouldn't be in this pitiful predicament if they'd traded for him two winters ago. But he...

DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR METS: FLOYD HURT, LEITER ON DL

"I can't hold the bat right now." -CLIFF FLOYD --- Al Leiter's expected placement on the DL wasn't the most disturbing injury news in the Met clubhouse yesterday afternoon. The...

ARMANDO AN ALL-STAR? SAVE US!

IT'S been hard enough watching Roger Cedeno in center, enduring a cruel impersonator of Roberto Alomar at second, taking the drip, drip, drip of one Met middle reliever after another...

DUQUETTE: ANYONE COULD GO

MET NOTES With the trade deadline almost three weeks away, Mets interim general manager Jim Duquette indicated yesterday that even cornerstone Mike Piazza and phenom Jose Reyes would be available...

SUDDENLY SEO BAD - ROOKIE RIPPED AGAIN AS BRAVES ROLL

Braves 7 - Mets 3 At least the Mets didn't let the seven Atlanta All-Stars beat them. Rafael Furcal, Marcus Giles, Andruw Jones, Javy Lopez, Gary Sheffield, Russ Ortiz and...