September 11, 2003

TWO YEARS AFTER 9/11, STOCKS STILL A CAUTIOUS INVESTMENT

WHEN a pair of planes hit the World Trade Center two years ago today, the world changed. And while even I find it tawdry to discuss money on such a...

PRICEY ONE BEACON FACES OFF AGAINST NEW AOL-TW TOWER

ONE Beacon Court, the East Side equivalent of AOL Time Warner Center's One Central Park West residences, is poised to give its West Side competitor a run for its money...

MALONE'S STARZ! FALLING

John Malone's tussle with Comcast Corp. is hitting his bottom line. Malone, the chief of Liberty Media, said yesterday that he expects profits from his pay-TV channel Starz! Encore to...

TOWER TURNS TO NEMESIS FOR AID

Tower Records, on the verge of bankruptcy and searching in vain for a buyer, recently turned to its mortal enemy for a possible lifeline. But software companies such as Sharman...

HOME DEPOT DESIGN CENTER SLATED FOR FLATIRON

Just a week after announcing plans to open a 108,000-square-foot store in the Flatiron district comes word that Home Depot has signed a deal with Vornado Realty Trust to open...

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON'T

If tourists were still allowed into the New York Stock Exchange, they could have a viewed a little circus yesterday. Not elephants or tigers, just angry reporters and equally annoyed...

IT'S OFFICIAL: NEW YORK MAG FOR SALE

New York magazine is officially on the block - but the field of suitors is already narrowing. Henry Kravis formally confirmed yesterday that New York magazine is on the block...

BIG LAYOFFS AT PECKER'S AMI

American Media, the tabloid publisher that owns the Star, the National Enquirer, the National Examiner and the Globe, is undertaking a massive round of cutbacks that will slice the work...

CSFB LURES 3 MERRILL BANKERS

Credit Suisse First Boston is poaching a team of media bankers from rival Merrill Lynch, in the latest blow to the firm's rapidly shrinking investment bank. CSFB has hired John...

CUTTING GRA$$O IN - EMBATTLED NYSE CHIEF SHAPED BOARD THAT PAID HIM

Dick Grasso had a strong influence over the New York Stock Exchange's compensation committee, enabling the Big Board to enrich him by as much as $190 million without outside scrutiny,...

PECKER SLASHES 70 JOBS AT AMI

American Media, the tabloid publisher that owns Star, the National Enquirer, the National Examiner and the Globe, is undertaking a massive round of cutbacks that will slice the workforce by...

$10M OPTICAL SOLUTION FOR DWELLING QWEST

One of the city's boutique residential firms has been sold to a local entrepreneur with backing from an eyewear franchiser. Industry sources put the tab at less than $10 million....

MALONE EXPECTS STARZ! PROFITS TO DROP

John Malone's tussle with Comcast Corp. is hitting his bottom line. Malone, the chief of Liberty Media, said yesterday that he expects profits from his pay-TV channel Starz! Encore to...

GIMME SHELTER: ONE BEACON FACE$ OFF VS. NEW AOL DIGS

ONE Beacon Court, the East Side equivalent of AOL Time Warner Center's One Central Park West residences, is poised to give its West Side competitior a run for its money...

CUTTING GRA$$O IN: EMBATTLED NYSE CHIEF SHAPED BOARD THAT PAID HIM

Dick Grasso had personal control over the New York Stock Exchange's compensation apparatus, enabling the the Big Board to enrich him by as much as $190 million without outside scrutiny,...

GOING FOR BRODY: INDIE DARLING ON HOW OSCAR TURNED HIM INTO A GLOBE-TROTTING HOTTIE

WOMEN have always been hot for Adrien Brody, but since the angular Queens native won the Best Actor Oscar for "The Pianist," he gets hit on all the time. "It's...

VOTE FOR THE GREATEST AMERICANS EVER

HERE'S one that's bound to generate debate in bars and offices everywhere: Who are the 100 greatest Americans? "Who's the Greatest?," adapted from a smash-hit British show called "Great Britons"...

W.K. REELS IN FRAT PACK WITH PARTY LINE

ANDREW W.K. --- WITH songs like "Party Hard," "It's Time to Party," "Long Live the Party" and the fan favorite, "Party 'Til You Puke," Andrew W.K. is an artist with...

CHIC TO BE A FREAK - 'CARNIVALE' THROWS LINDA FOR A LOOP

"Carnivale" [ ] (three stars) Sunday, 9:30 p.m. on HBO --- WITH the exception of the 1940 film, "Grapes of Wrath," and the 1998 PBS documentary "Surviving the Dust Bowl,"...

FASHION FORECAST: FALL IS THE NEW SUMMER

"I love fall because it's the only time of year I get to wear my entire wardrobe." -Brooke Lovell, restaurant manager NO more whining that the summer never happened. It...

LETTERMAN LANDS S&G

NEWLY reunited Simon & Garfunkel will perform on tomorrow's "Late Show with David Letterman" (11:35 p.m./Ch. 2). Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel announced Tuesday that they will tour together for...

PEEK AT FASHION WEEK

INTRIGUED by the glamour and high camp of Fashion Week but can't get fashion show tickets because you're not an editor at Conde Nast? Well, turn that frown upside down...

HOOKED ON BLAHNIKS - MANOLO, HOW THEY LOVE HIM

MANOLO Blahnik is the Elvis of shoemakers - and that's why a perfumed mob of more than 100 women mobbed the dapper Spanish designer during an appearance in the shoe...

STARR REPORT

A REMEMBRANCE of the engineers and technicians who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11: Isaias Rivera and Bob Pattison (Ch. 2); William Steckman (Ch. 4); Donald DiFranco...

BLAMING VICTIM - S.I. BIAS GIRL STARTED IT: LAWYER

A lawyer for a suspect in the notorious Staten Island bias attack tried to turn the tables on the victim yesterday, claiming it was she who first hurled racial slurs...

WHY WE FIGHT - AND THOSE WHO WOULD FORGET

REMEMBER the smell? The smell dominated lower Manhattan and south Brooklyn for weeks - sulphurous, nauseating, inescapable. Remember the sky - the billowing black gash that cut through it all...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

School officials in San Francisco have been barging into kindergarten classes and searching kids' lunchboxes - in a hunt for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That's because the Valle Verde...

21 YEARS FOR KILLER LANDLORD

Tears flowed in a Queens courtroom yesterday as relatives of a man shot dead by his landlord after a fight over rent begged a judge to throw the book at...

2 ROBS 2 MUCH FOR DELI

A Long Island thief liked robbing an Elmont deli so much, he returned the next morning and tried it again, herding the same employees into a back room - but...

DOUBLE-TALK COULD DERAIL DEAN MACHINE

DEMOCRATIC 2004 front-runner Howard Dean is starting to get a reputation for talking out of both sides of his mouth - and not just on Israel. That could become a...

HAMAS HONCHO HURT AS ISRAEL PLEDGES 'HARSH' PAYBACK

An Israeli missile flattened the home of a senior Hamas leader yesterday, wounding him and killing his son and bodyguard in reprisal for the twin bombings that killed 15 Israelis...

BUSINESSES WILL MOURN FALLEN STAFF

Businesses that suffered grievous losses plan quiet memorials to mark the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees, plans to donate all of today's worldwide...

MTA PUT$ UP ITS GUARD

The MTA has embarked on a $600 million counter-terrorism effort it hopes will protect its sprawling transportation infrastructure from a potential attack, The Post has learned. The MTA's newly formed...

OTHERS HELP CYBERSWAP KID, 12, FACE THE MU$IC

Good Samaritans have stepped forward to pay the $2,000 that 12-year-old Brianna LaHara had to pay to the music industry for distributing tunes over the Internet. "We think that the...

ALTARED STATE: BEN AND JEN PUT OFF WEDDING DATE

The hotly anticipated "Bennifer" wedding is off. Guests invited to attend Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's star-studded nuptials this weekend in Santa Barbara got calls mid-afternoon yesterday informing them the...

SENATE DEMS WORK OT FOR LABOR

WASHINGTON - Democrats yesterday approved a plan to protect the rights of millions of workers to receive overtime, handing a setback to Republicans and the White House, which sought to...

CHENEY OUT OF SITE - SECURITY PROBLEM AT WTC

Vice President Dick Cheney withdrew from this morning's memorial ceremony at Ground Zero after City Hall and the Secret Service couldn't agree on security arrangements. The dispute centered on whether...

BOY, 12 IN BANK STICK-UP

Call her a modern-day Ma Barker. A Harlem mom who lived like a queen in a housing project engineered a bank heist in which her 12-year-old son passed a note...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

THE BRONX * Three men have been arrested for stealing a car and using it to commit three gunpoint robberies in an hour in The Bronx, authorities said yesterday. Ramon...

BUSH VOWS TO HUNT DOWN 'SERVANTS OF EVIL'

WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday al Qaeda still has "plots against our people" and that Americans won't ever forget the "servants of evil" who carried out the Sept. 11...

MAN ASKED SON OF SAM TO BUMP OFF CON: COPS

A Queens man who scoured the prison system looking for an inmate to bump off the "rat" who told cops of a sexual-mutilation plan against his girlfriend's ex-husband even turned...

HONORING DAD'S MEMORY - 3 L.I. SONS OF LOST FIRE HERO RACING TOWARD MANHOOD

One year ago, The Post met with a dozen children of 9/11 - youths who lost parents in the trade center attack - to see how they were adjusting on...

FAMILIES PUMMEL PATAKI IN 'FOOTPRINT' FIGHT

Branding Gov. Pataki a "liar," relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks held an emotional Ground Zero protest yesterday to demand that the "footprints" of the Twin...

40% OF CITY SCHOOLS GET AN 'F'

Nearly 500 city public schools are flunking out, shocking new state Department of Education figures show. A whopping 374 city public schools are failing federal standards - a 13 percent...

NO-KNOCK COPS SUED FOR $21M

Two families are suing the NYPD for $21 million, saying narcotics cops, acting on bad information stormed their homes in a pair of terrifying "no-knock" raids. A raid on the...

DEADLY OBSESSION - 'ADMIRER' EYED IN MASSACRE

A quadruple slaying in Queens may be the work of an obsessed man who flew into a murderous rage after he learned the sailor husband of one of the victims...

RUSH TO FILE $UITS

Families of Sept. 11 victims, including New Jersey widow Lisa Beamer, are opening a new front in their court battle, filing billion-dollar suits against the manufacturers of airport security screening...

ONE FIRE CHIEF'S BRAVERY, BY THE BOOK

"When I am called to duty, God, wherever flames may rage, give me the strength to save some life, whatever be its age . . . help me embrace a...

THE SPIRIT TO REBUILD GROUND ZERO

IN the spring of 2002, Andrew Farkas, then CEO of the huge real- estate-services company Insignia Financial Group, gave me a perspective on 9/11 that continues to resonate. We were...

LIEBERMAN WANTS INT'L BOSS IN IRAQ

Sen. Joe Lieberman yesterday peppered President Bush with his sharpest criticism to date on the war in Iraq and called for an international administrator to take control of the country's...

VICTIMS' ANGEL SLAIN BY BOMB - DOC AND HIS BRIDE-TO-BE DAUGHTER DIE

A U.S.-born doctor, who became an emergency-room hero in Israel for his groundbreaking treatment of terror victims, was among the victims of Tuesday night's bombing in Jerusalem, along with his...

JFK'S SISTER BACKS ARNOLD

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Eunice Kennedy Shriver broke from her Democratic heritage yesterday to back Republican son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger and his California gubernatorial bid. The sister of President John F....

MOVE ON, BUT NEVER FORGET: GIULIANI

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said yesterday that Americans are rapidly letting go of the events of Sept. 11, and he hopes today's anniversary ceremonies will lead people back to the...

WTC DAD'S DAUGHTERS LIVE ON IN HIS POEMS OF ANGUISH

Reeling from the deaths of his only daughters, Lisa and Samantha, in the World Trade Center terror attacks, bookbinder and poet David Egan put his agony into words. Two years...

SEX SUIT VS. LEONA TOSSED

A federal judge yesterday tossed out a $9 million suit against hotel magnate Leona Helmsley brought by an employee who claimed he was sacked for spurning her advances. Manhattan Judge...

N.Y. CITY IS PORN AGAIN

It's not the last dance for the lap dance after all - a Manhattan judge has thrown out new city zoning regulations that would have shuttered almost all of the...

ALTARED STATE : BEN AND JEN PUT OFF WEDDING DATE

The hotly anticipated "Bennifer" wedding is off. Guests invited to attend Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's star-studded nuptials this weekend in Santa Barbara got calls yesterday informing them the wedding...

NEW PLAN INSURES YOUR METROCARD

Straphangers who use unlimited monthly MetroCards will be able to replace them for free if they're lost or stolen, under an MTA insurance plan that goes into effect next month....

CLASSES MAY ALTER RULES OF PHYSICS

The state Board of Regents today is considering whether to dumb down its physics exam and curriculum following a firestorm of criticism from teachers, parents and students who say they're...

BOY, 12, BUSTED IN BANK HEIST

Call her a modern-day Ma Barker. A Harlem mom who lived like a queen in a housing project engineered a daring bank heist in which her 12-year-old son passed a...

KILLER LANDLORD GETS 21 YEARS

Tears flowed in a Queens courtroom yesterday as relatives of a man shot dead by his landlord - after a fight over rent - begged a judge to throw the...

41% OF APPLE SCHOOLS GET 'F'

Nearly 500 city public schools - including highly regarded ones in middle-class neighborhoods - have been given failing grades, according to shocking new state Department of Education figures. A whopping...

STRIKE ON HAMAS HONCHO SPURS CHILLING WARNING

An Israeli missile flattened the home of a senior Hamas leader yesterday, wounding him and killing his son and bodyguard in reprisal for the twin bombings that killed 15 Israelis...

SECOND BUST IN SHOOTING OF POLICE CAPT.

Police have nabbed a second suspect in the attempted murder of a police captain in Harlem nearly two weeks ago. Jason Rivera, 18, of The Bronx turned himself in at...

MOUNTAIN MADMAN - OSAMA'S ANNIVERSARY TAPE TAUNTS U.S.

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden and his chief henchman, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent America a taunting message yesterday on the eve of the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, saying they...

SEN. JOE BAGHDAD-BASHES BUSH

Sen. Joe Lieberman yesterday peppered President Bush with his sharpest criticism to date on the war in Iraq and called for an international administrator to take control of the country's...

MOMMY AMY FISHER TIES KNOT

Somebody has made an honest woman of the Long Island Lolita. Amy Fisher - who gained fame as a teenager for shooting the wife of her older lover, Joey Buttafuoco...

NO FINAL VICTORY - WINNING THE WAR AGAINST TERROR

TWO years after the 9/11 attacks marked the true beginning of the 21st century, the United States has altered the global strategic landscape. We have taken the fight to our...

9/11: TWO YEARS LATER

TWO years gone now, since that day the world changed. The memories fade, yet sometimes seem to tap you on the shoulder. We live on, with the voids - the...

NEW PLANS TAKE SHAPE - DESIGNERS FINE-TUNE TOWER AND MEMORIAL

Plans for Ground Zero could soon take on a new look from bottom to top - with proposed memorial designs expected to give shape to the trade center's pit, while...

CLASSROOM EXTRA: NEW YORK - LOOKING BACK, MOVING AHEAD

We love our city and today, Classroom Extra introduces a new weekly series highlighting New York history. Each Thursday, we'll explore the people, places and things that make New York...

CONTRERAS: I'LL MAKE NEXT START

YANKEE NOTES Jose Contreras insisted that his sprained left ankle had improved yesterday and said he would definitely make his next start. "It's a lot better," Contreras said. "I really...

CAN'T BLOCK HIM OUT - LOSING CAMPBELL PUT GIANTS IN TIGHT SPOT

Players leave. It's a fact the Giants aren't necessarily fretting about; many of those who exit weren't wanted much anyway. The Giants wanted Dan Campbell, but not enough to dissuade...

PETITGOUT 'PROBABLY WILL PLAY'

GIANT NOTES Luke Petitgout bent down stiffly in front of his locker yesterday, certainly not looking ready to get down and dirty at left tackle for the Giants. Petitgout was...

ANOTHER TEST FOR CYCLONES

Tim Teufel gazed out on the field at KeySpan Park last night and shook his head. "These guys are about to play the biggest game of their lives," said Teufel,...

NEW JET WILL HIT GROUND RUNNING

When Michael Bates walked into the Jets' locker room yesterday to don his No. 20 uniform for the first time, he arrived with more credentials than most last-minute free agents...

BOOK STILL OUT ON YANKEE PEN

Against the Tigers, the worst team possibly in the history of baseball, a litmus test of the Yankees' bullpen is complicated. On one hand, when Felix Heredia, Jeff Nelson, Gabe...

RUSSIAN ROCKET'S STATUS IS UNCLEAR

Even if Pavel Bure fails his Ranger physical at the club's Westchester training facility this morning, his status is likely to remain unclear for the immediate future. "If Pavel is...

DEVILS INK GOLDEN OLDIE

The Devils' youth movement has momentarily reversed course. It lapsed into a Changing of the Old Guard - for the oldest. As Joe Nieuwendyk was celebrating his 37th birthday yesterday...

METS GO MEEKLY AS SKID HITS 7

Marlins 7 - Mets 3 Throughout this humbling campaign, the Mets had maintained at least some standards - until yesterday. They bumbled and bobbled away a game and some measure...

CURTIS: DON'T BLAME HACKETT'S GAME PLAN

JET NOTES Jet offensive coordinator Paul Hackett, again tagged with that "embattled" label, received an unsolicited but significant vote of confidence yesterday. Curtis Martin, perhaps the most respected and influential...

DE LA HOYA: IT'S GOING TO BE WAR

LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya insisted yesterday a cortisone injection he received Monday in his surgically repaired left hand was only a precautionary measure and said the hand...

GARCIA HAS AN AMAZIN' AFTERNOON

As Danny Garcia is probably used to hearing from his days in Brooklyn: "You done good." Garcia, who joined the Mets on Sept. 2 to become the first former Brooklyn...

GIAMBI GOES FROM THUMP TO SLUMP - SLUGGER TRIES TO SHRUG OFF HORRID SECOND HALF

Mariano Rivera hasn't been the world's best closer this year. Bernie Williams hasn't been the AL's best center fielder this year. But nobody has suffered a drop-off this season like...

COLLINS, STARKS BOLSTER MSG HOOP COVERAGE

MSG Network has added Doug Collins and former Knick John Starks to its basketball coverage. Collins - who last season coached the Wizards and recently signed on with TNT -...

BATS BETTER WAKE UP SOON

TO listen to Joe Torre talk recently, you would think he is managing the Tiger lineup or that of the Dodgers or Mets. In back-to-back weekend series against the Red...

SWEETNEY KNOWS NOTHING'S GUARANTEED

NBA Stars 149 - N.Y. Stars 131 One of the reasons the Knicks drafted Michael Sweetney with the ninth pick in the NBA Draft is that they thought he had...

TRADE WOULD NOT SURPRISE ARTEST

For those who question if the volatile Ron Artest has matured, consider his take on the possibility of being traded. "Nobody's safe in the league," Artest said last night before...

YANKS HAVE BLAST AT OLD MAUL GAME - BATS SPRING TO LIFE AS BOMBERS BASH TIGERS

Yankees 15 - Tigers 5 Well, you won't be seeing this one on ESPN Classic anytime soon. For the second straight night, the Yankees played to the level of their...

CYCLONES FALL IN FINAL - BROOKLYN NATIVE SCORES WINNER

11 INNINGS: 'Cutters 4 - Cyclones 3 The Brooklyn Dodgers won their last championship in 1955. The fans in Brooklyn will have to wait at least one more year for...

JORGE STAKING CLAIM TO MVP

HE is the overlooked guy in last night's Yankee battery. His work has been consistently good all year and often elevated to far better than that. No, not Andy Pettitte....

BAT HELPS JOHNSON FORGET GLOVE WOES

In sports, sometimes you will play down to the level of your opponent. Last night against the Tigers, Nick Johnson needed mining equipment. Johnson, the first baseman, was as brutal...

YANKS HAVE BLAST AT OLD MAUL GAME - BATS SPRING TO LIFE VS. WRETCHED TIGERS

Yankees 15 - Tigers 5 Well, you won't be seeing this one on ESPN Classic any time soon. For the second straight night, the Yankees played to their level of...

WHITEY FORD. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD - ELEGANT LEFT-HANDER WAS SPECIAL - THE BEST PITCHER IN YANKEE HISTORY

My sisters would laugh and I'd get angry. They didn't understand. Forty years later, especially during the larger family gatherings, they still bring it up and laugh about it. "Does...

RON GUIDRY: LOUISIANA LIGHTNING - SLENDER LEFTY ELECTRIFIED THE BRONX WITH HEAT AND BIG-GAME HEROICS

He spoke in a Louisiana drawl - when he spoke at all - and he could have starred in a remake of "The Thin Man." He was 155 pounds soaking...

RED RUFFING: ANOTHER GIFT FROM THE RED SOX - AFTER LOSING 96 GAMES IN BOSTON, A TRADE TO YANKEES SPARKS INCREDIBLE TRANSFORMATION AND HALL-OF-FAME CAREER

Stop us when this starts to sound familiar. The Red Sox sell a promising pitcher to the Yankees for pennies and watch him transform into a star. We can stop,...

ROGER CLEMENS - ROCKET: A LEGENDARY VILLAIN FROM BEANTOWN PITCHES HIS WAY INTO THE HEARTS OF YANKEE FAITHFUL

There was only outrage at first. Trade for the former Red Sox ace? Why don't the Knicks just complete the misery and acquire Reggie Miller? Ah, but this is New...

MARIANO RIVERA - SAVING GRACE

If you remember what the kid was like in the beginning, before he became the official brand name for relief pitchers, then nothing that came after should truly surprise you....