November 4, 2003

COMCAST-ING CALL: CABLE GIANT SEEKS CONTENT CZAR

Help wanted: a dynamic exec to fill a position that will likely become one of the most powerful jobs in the media industry. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, is...

NATION'S GDP WON'T LOOK SO GOOD IF JOBS NUMBERS FALL SHORT

NOW all we need are some jobs. A million or so would be nice. The announcement last week of the gaudy 7.2 percent annualized growth in the third-quarter gross domestic...

LAST GATES FIGHTER STANDING: MASS. AG

Today could mark the conclusion of Microsoft Corp.'s marathon antitrust case, as the last plaintiff standing - Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly - makes his case before the D.C. Circuit...

PABST TO POUR ON A BLUE-RIBBON SALE

A sale of Pabst Brewing Co. may be on tap, The Post has learned. Pabst, the nation's fourth-largest beer marketer, has put itself on the block, according to sources familiar...

HAMPTONS REAL ESTATE DEALS JUMP

The Hamptons real estate market is busier, but a bit cheaper this year than it was 12 months ago. In a third-quarter 2003 report released by the Corcoran Group, the...

2 WEB DEALS FOR ORCHARD

The Orchard, a large distributor of independent music, has become the first company outside of the five major labels to ink licensing agreements with all major U.S. and European digital...

WACH-PRU DEAL WHACKS MARKET

THE feared contraction of Prudential Securities' office space has begun. Wachovia Securities, which gobbled up Prudential last winter, has put a huge block of space on the sublease market -...

SPITZER AIM: $10B IN FUND FINES

Blasting mutual funds as "cesspools" of illegal trading, Eliot Spitzer is vowing to seize as much as $10 billion from their ill-gotten gains. New York's crusading attorney general said the...

HARD-HIT FAO HIRES A BANKER TO GET $$

Struggling toy giant FAO Inc. said yesterday that it hired an investment banker to raise an unspecified amount of money. FAO, owner of FAO Schwarz, The Right Start and Zany...

SIMPLE PLAN AT TIME HQ: BOOT TUHY

Carrie Tuhy has been fired at Real Simple - and this time parent company Time Inc. means it. Tuhy, a 26-year editorial veteran of Money, Life and In Style, had...

AMEX SPINOFF OK - NASD AGREES TO GIVE EXCHANGE MEMBERS CONTROL

With its deal to be sold on ice, the American Stock Exchange is going to be spun off to its members. The deal, at an undisclosed price, is intended to...

FEDS ABOUT TO CHARGE SCRUSHY OVER HEALTHSOUTH SCHEMES

Richard Scrushy, the Alabama poor boy turned rich titan, is facing a future behind bars and the prospect of being broke again. Federal authorities are expected to slap the former...

MARTS SOAR TO HIT '03 RECORDS

Wall Street had its best day in more than a year, boosted by a speed-up in factory business and more computer chip sales. But despite the improved economic outlook, some...

INDIE MUSIC'S ORCHARD INKS 2 MORE WEB DEALS

The Orchard, a large distributor of independent music, has become the first company outside of the five major labels to ink licensing agreements with all major U.S. and European digital...

TALKIN' GARDEN BACK-UP ANNOUNCER BLUES

WHO knew there were so many ways to pronounce the name "Keith Van Horn"? As you're reading it right now, you might pronounce the name of the Knicks forward prosaically,...

THE GOLDEN RULE

* JA RULE "Blood in My Eye" [] Def Jam Recordings Beneath the armor of his gangsta persona, Ja Rule is as cold as granite - especially when it comes...

ZAR SHE GOES AGAIN

ZARELA Martinez was the first chef to introduce serious regional Mexican cuisine to the New York restaurant scene. The sultry cookbook author and owner of the long-running East Side restaurant,...

POST-RITTER '8'

'EIGHT Simple Rules" returns tonight with its first new episode since the death of star John Ritter. Tonight's one-hour episode (9 p.m./Ch. 7), covers the death of Ritter's character, Paul...

THE CHOSEN 'VIEW'

A soap actress, the wife of an NFL quarterback and a survivor of MTV's "Real World" are the last three standing in daytime TV's hot new drama - who'll be...

'COUPLING': WE WUZ SCREWED

THE British producers of "Coupling" yesterday blamed its rapid cancellation on NBC's over-hype. "We can't complain about how much publicity we got - but I'm not sure it was the...

DOGGIES ARE DOING IT - YOGA-STYLE

IT makes sense: Who better to teach yoga's Downward- Facing Dog pose than . . . a dog? So reasons Gerry Olin Greengrass, whose two Labradors have given her a...

STARR REPORT

Big 'get' for Dan Dan Rather has snared an exclusive "60 Minutes II" interview with one or both of the Camden, N.J. parents accused of starving four of their adopted...

DONALD DODGES A 'LEONA'-ISM

DONALD Trump won't fall into the same, quotable trap that's haunted New York hotel scion Leona Helmsley for years - even if it means rewriting the commercials for his new...

DADDY DEAREST - SON OF CANDIDATE CAUGHT HIM AT HIS WORST

"Off the Record" [* * *] Tonight at 11 on Sundance --- ON Sept. 11, 2001, mayoral candidate Mark Green woke up thinking that the worst thing that could happen...

'REAGANS' TEETER'

A controvercial CBS series about Ronald and Nancy Reagan may not make it on to TV this month after all. CBS execs are considering yanking "The Reagans" off the schedule...

TIGHTWAD: THE HEAT IS ON! NOT FAR FROM PUERTO VALLARTA, TOM SYKES LIVES THE GOOD LIFE - WITHOUT CENTRAL AIR - IN TINY YELAPA

THE motorboat bumped up against the beach, and our jaws dropped. Just a few miles down the coast from Puerto Vallarta, we'd found its antithesis, the tiny village of Yelapa....

CHOO CHOO TO MACHU PICCHU- SARA STEWART TAKES A RITZY RIDE TO THE LOST CITY

ALTHOUGH Peru has all the ingredients to be an amazing place, some more delicate travelers (like me) find a wealth of reasons not to go. The drinking water. As in,...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN * Police yesterday were asking for the public's help in finding this man (above), who allegedly robbed four banks and attempted to rob three more in Manhattan and The...

BIZMAN RIPPED OFF CELEBS: FEDS

The owner of a White Plains company that books speeches for thousands of celebrities, bilked his clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, federal prosecutors have charged. Alan Walker,...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Score one for free speech. A court in Montana has ruled that kids have the right to ride their school bus and shout "Penis!" over and over again. Bus driver...

BEWARE THE 'FILTER'

THE president earned new scorn from his liberal critics when he told a reporter a few weeks ago that there is a "filter" between him and the American people when...

HIGH COURT SHALT NOT CLEAR JUDGE

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to get into the long-running dispute over an Alabama judge's attempt to display the Ten Commandments in his courthouse. The court declined, without comment, to...

METROCARD INSURANCE PAYS OFF

Straphangers are taking advantage of the new MetroCard insurance program. More than 2,100 riders filed claims for misplaced 30-day passes last month, amounting to $96,000 in lost value, officials said...

GRAHAM WON'T SEEK RE-ELECTION

Just weeks after dropping out of the Democratic presidential race, Florida Sen. Bob Graham yesterday said he won't seek re-election either - the fourth Southern Democrat to retire from the...

NEW ATTACKS BY SADDAM DEATH GOONS

Mortar rounds exploded near U.S. headquarters in Baghdad and a car bomb went off by a Shiite shrine in Karbala yesterday as pro-Saddam death squads continued their lethal Ramadan offensive....

$4M AWARD FOR COP-BOTCH SLAY

A jury has upheld a $4 million award to relatives of a woman slain by cops when she was taken hostage during a botched 1993 bank heist on the Upper...

'TOUCH' AND NO - LESBIAN ROSIE BALKED AT GAL COVER: EDITOR

'As a lesbian, I'm uncomfortable being on a magazine cover holding another woman or touching another woman.' - Rosie O'Donnell, according to editor Susan Toepfer. Rosie O'Donnell said the editor...

9/11 FIREMAN NIXES MEDAL

A hero firefighter has sent back the medal he earned for risking his life in the Twin Towers on 9/11, demanding that Mayor Bloomberg reopen a shuttered Brooklyn firehouse. "I...

BUSH: 'AMERICA WILL NEVER RUN'

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday said "America will never run" from the challenges in Iraq, speaking a day after 16 GIs were killed in a missile attack on a U.S....

'FABOLOUS' A RIP-OFF RAPPER, SUIT CLAIMS

Rapper Fabolous isn't living up to his name, a Brooklyn music publisher claims in a lawsuit alleging his riffs are a rip-off. Carla Boone, who set up an independent recording...

BLOOMY RAPS RUDY - I'M BETTER ON RACE RELATIONS, HE BOASTS

Mayor Bloomberg, in an unusually sharp jab at Rudy Giuliani, says racial issues tinged every aspect of his predecessor's administration. "You forget that every single decision, everybody, every story, everything...

GIRL HEARD MOM & NANA BEG FOR LIFE: DA

A Brooklyn man viciously beat and smothered his girlfriend and her mother as the younger woman's 12-year-old daughter listened to their desperate cries for help, prosecutors said yesterday. "She ....

WAR BUDGET APPROVED BY SENATE

WASHINGTON - The Senate last night approved President Bush's $87 billion spending request to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure was passed on a voice vote,...

KILLER CABBY SUSPENDED

The cabdriver who plowed into and killed a beloved Park Avenue doorman was suspended by the Taxi and Limousine Commission yesterday, authorities said. Bern Otchere-Adjei, 50, had his medallion taken...

SURF GIRL VOWS TO RIDE AGAIN

Gutsy surfer girl Bethany Hamilton flashed a brave smile from her hospital bed yesterday and vowed, "I'm going to get back into the water. I want to keep surfing." Bethany's...

MAYOR'S NEW $13 BILLION SCHOOL-CONSTRUCTION PLAN WILL NOT FUND THE CONTROVERSIAL $40 MILLION "CASTLE ON THE HILL" ....

The mayor's new $13 billion school-construction plan will not fund the controversial $40 million "Castle on the Hill" renovation project in The Bronx - long a favorite plan of local...

PAWN TAB POINTS TO SUSPECT IN JEWELRY SLAY

Less than an hour after gunning down a Queens jewelry-store owner, Anthony Garcia sold off a stash of gold items he took from his victim - and he gave the...

AT&T'S 780G CALLS

Phone giant AT&T could be slapped with a $780,000 fine for cold-calling customers who asked to be left alone, officials said yesterday. In a new crackdown on unwanted telemarketing calls,...

DAD: LET'S NOT FORGET THIS CAPTAIN'S HEROIC SIDE

THE anguished father of embattled ferry captain Michael Gansas broke his silence yesterday, revealing that his son was once hailed as a Navy hero. "He was given an accommodation from...

COPS DESCRIBE SLAY-SCENE STENCH

First, she smelled the filth, an odor "like roaches." Then - so strong it wafted through the ajar door of Apartment 9G - came the smell of something worse. "I...

NEW YORKERS TAKE A SHINE TO WARM SPELL

Mother Nature treated the Big Apple to another tantalizing dose of sizzling summer-like weather yesterday - and set a new heat record for the day, with temperatures rocketing to a...

SINGLE COLLEGE GRADS ARE PICKING THE APPLE

When it comes to attracting young, single college grads, New York City is a chick - and guy - magnet, according to a new Census Bureau report. The New York-Northern...

HIZZONER UNDER FIRE FOR BUDGET BOILOVER

A budget report showing city spending jumped a whopping 8.5 percent last year sparked a war of words yesterday between Mayor Bloomberg and Comptroller William Thompson. The first line in...

SLAIN ON WAY TO BURY MOM - DOUBLE TRAGEDY FOR GI'S FAMILY

'They say there's a reason for everything, but I just can't find a reason for this.' - Bucklaw's uncle Jack Smith Ernest Bucklew was heading back to the States from...

LAWYER SHOOTER'S ACHING BACK

LOS ANGELES - The man who shot a lawyer outside court while TV cameras rolled was in overwhelming pain last week, and desperately needs surgery to cure his ailing back,...

SCHOOLS $NAG - BLOOMBERG & KLEIN HAVE A GREAT PLAN - IF ALBANY PAYS

An ambitious $13 billion, five-year school capital plan unveiled by Mayor Bloomberg yesterday would add 63,000 classroom seats to relieve overcrowding and bust up many of the city's 600 low-performing...

'SLICK RICK' MAY SLIDE FROM FEDS' GRIP SOON

Rap pioneer Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters is praying his latest great adventure, a 17-month stay in prison fighting deportation, is finally over. A Manhattan judge yesterday ruled the government could...

TAKE 'COVER!' ROSIE'S RAMPAGE OVER MAG'S FRONT PAGE

On her third day on the job as editor-in-chief of Rosie magazine, Susan Toepfer got a phone call from "Queen of Nice" Rosie O'Donnell. "You're about to hear a Rosie...

DAVE SKIPS SHOW WITH WIFE IN LABOR

"Late Show" host David Letterman took a pregnant pause from last night's taping - skipping out to be at the side of longtime gal pal Regina Lasko as she went...

BATTLE OF B'KLYN - THREE FIGHT FOR SLAIN POL'S SEAT

It was a brisk day of campaigning yesterday for three candidates in the city's most closely watched City Council race: the battle for the Brooklyn seat of the slain James...

2 GUNNED DOWN IN BX. PARK SHOOTING

Two people - including the stepson of a state investigator - were shot and killed and a third was wounded when gunfire erupted in a park at a Bronx housing...

TRIPP WINS 595G FOR FEDS' MONICA LEAKS

Linda Tripp - the woman the nation loved to hate during the Monica Lewinsky scandal - is about to become $595,000 richer, thanks to Uncle Sam. Tripp will net the...

MIKE HAS 'ZERO' CREDIBILITY WITH NO-PARTY CRITICS

Mayor Bloomberg, who has spent $2 million of his own money to promote nonpartisan elections, declared yesterday that he has a "zero stake" in the outcome - drawing howls from...

A FERRY 'FLIMSY' EXCUSE

The feds slammed Staten Island Ferry Capt. Michael Gansas yesterday for not cooperating with investigators looking into last month's deadly crash, calling his excuse "flimsy" and having "no legitimate medical...

BOMBER-BOY DAD'S RAGE - BLASTS ARAFAT'S THUGS FOR RECRUITING SON, 16

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy who blew himself up yesterday became the youngest of the more than 100 homicide bombers in the Mideast - and his father denounced the Arafat-linked terrorist...

AT&T MAY RING UP 780G FINE OVER NO-CALL LIST

Phone giant AT&T could be slapped with a $780,000 fine for cold-calling customers who asked to be left alone, officials said yesterday. In a new crackdown on unwanted telemarketing calls,...

MTA BIDS BYE-BYE, REDBIRD

The Redbirds are history. The famous red-painted subway train rattled down the No. 7 line's tracks yesterday for the last time. "It's a sad day because we are saying goodbye...

POLICE TELL OF '01 SLAY STENCH

First she smelled the filth, an odor "like roaches." Then - so strong it wafted through the ajar door of Apartment 9G - came the smell of something worse. "I...

CBS SET TO YANK REAGAN

CBS may be getting ready to ax one for the Gipper - and pull the plug on its controversial miniseries "The Reagans" amid GOP outcry over its alleged cheap shots...

PREZ HAILS SENATE APPROVAL OF $87B BATTLE FUND

WASHINGTON - President Bush last night said the Senate's approval of his $87 billion spending request to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shows "America and the world...

$4M FOR SLAY IN COP BOTCH

A jury has upheld a $4 million award to family members of a woman slain by cops when she was taken hostage during a botched 1993 bank heist on the...

BATTLE OF B'KLYN: THREE FIGHT FOR SLAIN POL'S SEAT

It was a final frenzied day of campaigning yesterday for three candidates in the city's most closely watched City Council race: the battle for the Brooklyn seat of the slain...

HIGH COURT KOS COMMANDMENTS

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to get into the long-running dispute over an Alabama judge's attempt to display the Ten Commandments in his courthouse. The court declined, without comment,...

TWO WOUNDED IN MIDTOWN DRIVE-BY

Two men were wounded in a drive-by shooting outside Bryant Park early this morning, cops said. The violence took place at 1:45 a.m. when a black Lexus pulled up to...

SHE 'FOSTERED' SYMPATHY FOR MIKE TYSON

ROSIE O'DONNELL wants to clarify one thing: She does not like men who rape. "I don't support rapists," a visibly hurt Rosie said in the hallway of Manhattan Supreme Court,...

KIDS ATTACK HAZE-SCHOOL CRITIC'S HOME

Students from the Long Island school at the center of a sodomy/hazing controversy egged the home of a couple who have been critical of the school's handling of the violence,...

POSTPARTUM BOUTS? YOUR KIDS MAY BE LOUTS

Kids whose moms suffer depression after childbirth are more prone to being violent by the time they reach age 11, a new study says. And the risk of violent behavior...

BYE, BYE REDBIRD

The Redbirds are history. The last of the famous subway trains rattled down the No. 7 line's tracks yesterday for the final time. "It's a sad day because we are...

FEDS RIP 'FLIMSY' FERRY EXCUSE

The feds slammed Staten Island Ferry Capt. Michael Gansas yesterday for not cooperating with investigators looking into last month's deadly crash, calling his excuse "flimsy" and based on "no legitimate...

NYERS TAKE A SHINE TO WARM SPELL

Mother Nature treated the Big Apple to another tantalizing dose of sizzling summer-like weather yesterday - and set a new heat record for the day, with temperatures rocketing to a...

BLOODTHIRSTY PRO-SADDAM FORCES CONTINUE VICIOUS SPREE

Mortar rounds exploded near U.S. headquarters in Baghdad and a car bomb went off by a Shiite shrine in Karbala yesterday as pro-Saddam death squads continued their deadly Ramadan offensive....

JUST A KID: ARAFAT THUGS MADE MY BOY A BOMBER: DAD

A 16-year-old Palestinian boy who blew himself up yesterday became the youngest of the more than 100 homicide bombers in the Mideast - and his father denounced the Arafat-linked terrorist...

2 DEAD AFTER DAYTIME SHOOTING IN BRONX PARK

Two people - including the stepson of a state investigator - were shot and killed and a third person was wounded when gunfire erupted in a park at a Bronx...

NEVER AN EASY DAY

Giant Report Card QUARTERBACKS: A Given time, Kerry Collins (24 of 40, 303 yards, 2 TDs) is a beast, firing darts over the middle. No INTs and superb decision-making. Loved...

NICE RALLY, BUT . . .

Jet Report CardQUARTERBACKS: B Chad Pennington (27-45, 281 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs, 89.2 rating) wasn't perfect, throwing two INTs and fumbling the ball away on a sack. But he...

SCATCH ITCHING TO PLAY - ISLES' CENTER HOPES SHOULDER HEALS QUICKLY

By the time Dave Scatchard is ready to return to the lineup, the Islanders' leading goal-scorer of a year ago is going to have a Jerry Garcia-sized beard. Because his...

'ZO: EW GOTTA BE HUNGRY

Few people have a better appreciation for the teaching skills of Patrick Ewing than the Nets' newest center, Alonzo Mourning - a protégé of the Big Fella ever since his...

THE HEAT'S ON BRIEN - KICKER GETS BLAMED FOR BOTCHED FG

There was a litany of plays that damned the Jets during their excruciating 31-28 loss to the Giants Sunday, but one stands out as ugly as the "6" in the...

A BIG BLUE STREAK - FASSEL STEERING GIANTS ON ROAD TO PLAYOFF SPOT

"We've got a long way to go. A long climb back." -JIM FASSEL When Brett Conway's potential game-winning field goal sailed wide left, Jim Fassel on Sunday flipped his play...

ROTATION HAS D-LINE UP TO SPEED

GIANT NOTES LaMont Jordan was racing to the sideline, trying to turn the corner on the Giants' defense, and there wasn't anyone out there to stop him as defensive end...

BATES HAS BROKEN HAND

JET NOTES Injuries for the slowly depleting Jets continue to mount as kickoff returner Michael Bates suffered a fracture of two metacarpals on his right hand in the loss to...

REACHES THE MARK, & HOWE!

It happened 25 years ago, but Mark Messier still remembers the classic Gordie Howe greeting he got during that World Hockey Association game. "He got me with an elbow in...

HOU'S KNEE OK, BUT HIS GAME'S HURTIN'

KNICK NOTES ORLANDO - Allan Houston is hardly down in the dumps over his horrid start shooting. In fact, he feels extremely relieved that, after two games, after playing 45...

T-MAC TAKES SHOT AT KNICKS, KEITH

ORLANDO - It is just about the worst thing you can say about a team. And though Tracy McGrady didn't use the word "chokers," he all but implied it yesterday...

BAT'S OUR MAN - YANKS FINALLY LAND DONNIE AS COACH

Donnie Baseball is back in pinstripes. Today at 1 p.m., the Yankees will hold a press conference to introduce Don Mattingly as their hitting coach. It's a move that connects...

'STROS MAY HAVE EYES ON PETTITTE

They still may not have enough money to land Andy Pettitte, but the Astros certainly have more today than they did yesterday before they dealt lefty closer Billy Wagner to...

MELO HAS NUGGETS RIDING MILE-HIGH

AS beautiful as it's been in our area over the last week or so, it's nothing compared to how gorgeous things are in Denver. For the first time, it seems,...

UPON FURTHER REVIEW, HERM'S CALL WAS OK

HERMAN Edwards didn't have to be asked about his decision to go for a 51-yard field goal in overtime of Sunday's 31-28 loss to the Giants. Maybe he had read...

BOBBY V RETURNING TO JAPAN

Ex-Met manager Bobby Valentine is returning to the dugout, but not to a stadium near you. Valentine has agreed to a three-year deal plus a two-year option for a reported...

NEW FACE OF METS? - AMAZIN'S MAY CHASE FREE-AGENT CAMERON

Adding a superstar outfielder such as Vlad Guerrero or Gary Sheffield is unlikely for the Mets. But one outfielder who fits the "new Met mold" - athletic, solid defensively, affordable...

KNICKS MAKE T-MAC & MAGIC EAT WORDS

Knicks 75 - Magic 68 ORLANDO - Next time, Tracy McGrady should keep his mouth shut. Before last night's rematch, T-Mac implied the Knicks were a bunch of chokers who...

BACK KOS HOUSTON

KNICK NOTES ORLANDO - Allan Houston was "encouraged" after yesterday's morning shootaround. His right knee had felt no soreness after either of the first two games. He still couldn't shoot...

SENS CAST FROM COLISEUM

Isles 6 - Sens 3 No thanks to the officials, the Islanders beat the Senators on Coliseum ice last night for the first time since they switched back from wearing...