June 3, 2004

JOBS NUMBER LIKELY TO SEND RATES UP, STOCKS DOWN

THE government will probably pump a very hefty dose of imaginary jobs into tomorrow's Labor report and the result could be unsettling for the financial markets. Wall Street is anticipating...

REDFORD SEEKS NET STAKE $ALE

A financially strapped Robert Redford is looking to cash out of the cable network the Sundance Channel, The Post has learned. Redford, and his advisers at investment bank Allen &...

AT&T CUTS SOME OF ITS PROPERTIES IN N.J.

AT&T reduced its New Jersey and Staten Island real estate holdings in a deal with Mack-Cali Realty Corp. The deal, which closed Tuesday night, involves 13 properties and 2.5 million...

HUGE FAUX NO-NO - LVMH TARGETS DOONEY & BOURKE 'COPYCAT' BAG

Upscale handbag maker Dooney & Bourke would normally find itself on the same side of the courtroom as Louis Vuitton when it comes to policing knockoffs. Now, in a twist...

HERSH GETS DEAL FOR BOOK ON IRAQ PRISON

Publishers often announce important book buys in the days before a major book convention, and this year is no exception. On the eve of Book Expo America, which officially begins...

POST LOVES A PARADE ON SUNDAYS

Parade magazine will start appearing in The Post on Sundays starting July 4 - the first time in more than a decade that Parade will be be in a major...

FORSTMANN SAYS PICKS WERE 'SAFE'

Teddy Forstmann, one of Wall Street's smart money wizards, testified yesterday that he thought the doomed telecom companies into which he pumped billions were the "safest" investments he'd ever made....

DOLGEN BOWS OUT - QUITS AFTER COMING UP SHORT IN SHUFFLE AT VIACOM

Jonathan Dolgen, the loser in Viacom's succession plans, quit last night. His resignation marks a rapid fall from grace within Viacom, where as recently as a year ago Dolgen -...

NOW CBS TARGETING NIELSEN

CBS has joined Fox and a TV industry panel in their fight to block today's roll-out of Nielsen's controversial people meters to measure ratings in New York City. Critics say...

MCCAW AIMING FOR COMEBACK WITH WIRELESS BROADBAND LAUNCH

Cell phone scion Craig McCaw is looking to get back on the air. After losing billions on several ventures, McCaw is launching a nationwide broadband network that will go head-to-head...

GORY DAYS - REAL POLICE REALLY RIVETING

"The First 48" [] (three satrs) Tonight at 10 on A&E JUST when you thought there couldn't possibly be one more freaking new angle for a cop show, along comes...

OUT SOON AT THEATER NEAR YOU

THE hot, high-kicking chicks in "D.E.B.S." - which launches this year's Newfest gay film festival in Manhattan tonight - are hardly the dowdy Central Casting lesbians so often portrayed on-screen....

STARR REPORT

Ten years later . . . Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren ("On the Record") interviews O.J. Simpson for the full hour on Monday, June 7 beginning at 10 p.m....

JUST 'PRACTICE' FOR THE REAL WORLD

DAVID E. Kelley, one of the most anti-reality show TV producers in the entertainment industry, has finally hopped onto the reality bandwagon. Kelley will serve as a consulting producer for...

SEDAKA SKITTISH ABOUT SINGING IN YIDDISH

NEIL Sedaka thought breaking up was hard to do. That was be fore he tried singing in Yiddish. "There are so many pronunciations," he kvetched. "Sephardic, Ashkenazic, Galitziano . ....

FAVORITE SONS

THE OFFSPRING YOU can't swing a skateboard without hitting another new punk-pop band, so when old-timers like SoCal's the Off spring play the city for the second time in six...

PIGGING OUT ON HIS ART

SOME New York artists are hams. And some New York art is ham. Best known for covering a hotel room in melted cheese in 1999, Brooklyn artist Cosimo Cavallaro will...

NO STOP FOR BUM THUMB

ELISABETH Hasselbeck sported a bandaged thumb on yesterday's "The View" - and a rockin' ponytail courtesy of her husband, Redskins quarterback Tim Hasselbeck. Elisabeth had a non-cancerous tumor excised from...

A&E LIKES 'IKE'

A&E's "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" scored the best-ever ratings in the network's 20-year history. The biopic, starring Tom Selleck as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, grabbed 5.5 million viewers Monday (8...

'SKIN' TIGHT ATOP CHARTS

TEEN punk popper Avril Lavigne's sophomore Disc, "Under My Skin," stole the top of the charts, pushing Usher's "Confessions" to the No. 3 slot. Lavigne's album sold 380,507 copies its...

'POTTER' PRIMER - HOW TO TELL A MUDBLOOD FROM A MUGGLE

THE third - and, buzz has it, the best - of the Harry Potter films opens tomorrow, but if you're not one of the tens of millions who have already...

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR - THIRD TIME'S A CHARM FOR HARRY & CO

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN ½ (three and one half stars) Genuinely magical, this time. Running time: 141 minutes. Rated PG (frightening moments, creature violence, mild language). At...

BLOCK PARTY - HOUSTON, NO PROBLEM

E. Houston St. WHEN it comes to "undiscovered" corners of the city, there are two types: the charming, little blocks in the West Village and elsewhere tucked around meandering backstreets...

LAST SHOT - D-DAY LOOMS FOR 'SOPRANO' MOB WAR

Who do you think will be whacked on the season finale of The Sopranos? Vote now! ALL is forgiven. Not that the makers of "The Sopranos" should care one way...

HUNT BEGINS IN PENTAGON FOR CHALABI'S MOLE

WASHINGTON - FBI agents are focusing on a Pentagon intelligence-gathering unit in their probe into who told Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi that the United States had broken Iran's secret...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

An Indiana man was zapped with 69,000 volts of electricity - and lived to tell about it. Cops said they found 22-year-old Jason Grisham - jolted as he climbed an...

GAM-JEANOS HIT THE MARKET

Some guys have the mob in their jeans. Christopher Gambino, a law-abiding member of America's once-powerful crime family, is about to hit Times Square with a huge billboard advertising his...

PANEL OKS LAW TO BAN PROFILING

Racial and ethnic profiling by cops is on its way to becoming illegal in the Big Apple. After percolating in the City Council for three years, a bill that explicitly...

6G FINE A LESSON FOR SCHOOL STAFFER

A public-school guidance counselor has agreed to pay a $6,000 fine for soliciting business from the mother of one of his students, officials said yesterday. The Conflicts of Interest Board...

SLAYING WAS A SHAME, JUSTICE WAS A SHAM

AT 8:37 a.m. yesterday, Lemrick Nelson walked out of a Texas prison, a good kid, a misguided kid, a rehabilitated knife slayer. We know he must be worthy of rehabilitation...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN * A parolee who lives in Midwood has been arrested in two unrelated incidents on charges of menacing, attempted grand larceny and assault, law-enforcement sources said yesterday. In the...

FBI HUNTS CHALABI'S U.S. MOLE

WASHINGTON - FBI agents are focusing on a controversial Pentagon intelligence-gathering unit in the espionage probe into who told Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi that the United States had broken...

NEW WRINKLE IN JESSICA SHIRT FLAP

Jessica Simpson has decided not to make a federal case out of an alleged wardrobe malfeasance. The sumptuous songstress has moved her lawsuit - charging 4 Dog Productions with not...

MIKE'S CAMPAIGN CASH PLAN WOULD GUT GIFFIE

Potential mayoral candidates Council Speaker Gifford Miller and City Comptroller William Thompson would have their fund-raising efforts severely hamstrung if Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to limit contributions from companies that have...

MCCAIN TALK HAUNTS KERRY

CALL it McCain envy. After months of hyping the dream that Republican Sen. John McCain could be his running mate - no matter how often McCain said no - John...

HAMPTONS DIARY

A TOURIST at the Panoramic View hotel in Montauk called an escort service last weekend and got himself into a pickle. The man, whose name is being withheld by East...

SUBWAY MAP SHOWS ROOTS

A new subway map showing the latest route changes on one side and six historic maps on the other will be available this week as part of the MTA's yearlong...

ARIEL PUTS HIS GOV'T ON THE LINE

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday to win Cabinet approval on Sunday of his Gaza Strip pullout - even if it means the collapse of his government...

LAST CALL FOR LADIES NIGHTS IN NEW JERSEY BARS

Jersey Girls who enjoy cheap nights of boozing may soon have to cross the Hudson to drink - the Garden State says bars that hold "Ladies Nights" are discriminating against...

HOSP. LOSES AUTOPSY CASE

A judge has found New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens liable for an unauthorized autopsy that was performed on a Muslim man after he died of a heart attack...

COMMISH'S FURY - SCOPPETTA FIRES BACK AT SEPT. 11 PANEL

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta had a tough message for the 9/11 Commission during yesterday's Medal Day ceremony: Don't knock the FDNY. "I know this is not the time or place...

ROCCO'S MAY SOON BE RIO'S

Mamma Mia! Rocco's meatball mecca could go Latin by the fall. Restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow has told employees of Rocco's and others that he's shutting down the tourist trap and turning...

ARENA FIGHT'S GOING POSTAL

Support the arena, get a free gift. The developer of the proposed basketball arena in the heart of downtown Brooklyn has unveiled his latest campaign to sway public opinion toward...

HORROR IN THE COURT: PHOTOS TOO MUCH FOR KIN

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Conner Peterson lived. The startling claim emerged yesterday from the lips of Scott Peterson's lawyer. Until now, little Conner, who died before he was to talk,...

'INEXCUSABLE' - YANKEL'S BRO FUMES AS KILLER LEAVES JAIL

Nearly 13 years after he fatally stabbed an innocent bystander in the Crown Heights race riots, Lemrick Nelson Jr. was released from prison yesterday. Nelson was given his belongings, filled...

'A GIFT TO US ALL' - 350 MOURN AT JUILLIARD FUNERAL

Juilliard drama student Sarah Fox was laid to rest yesterday after a tear-filled funeral service where the young woman, who was murdered while jogging in upper Manhattan, was remembered for...

SWIMMER SAVED, THEN BUSTED

Tracy Tobin was rescued from icy ocean waters off Rockaway Beach yesterday - only to get a chilly reception from cops, who arrested him. Tobin, 38, was swimming on a...

HONOR EVERY VICTIM - 9/11 MUSEUM COULD HAVE ALL 2,749 PHOTOS

The Ground Zero memorial museum should include touching tributes to each victim, including their personal effects and images, an advisory panel recommended yesterday. Such personal and moving memorials would be...

PAUL ON COKE FOR 'PEPPER'

Paul McCartney says he was a real "Day Tripper" in his Beatles heyday - snorting cocaine as he created the legendary "Sgt. Pepper" album in the '60s, and even once...

APPLE GORED ON TERROR FUNDS AS PORK-BARREL POLS PIG OUT

WASHINGTON - Rural and suburban lawmakers from around the country won a big victory over New York City yesterday, crushing an effort to boost anti-terror spending and delivering a defeat...

PAXIL MAKER HID RISK: SUIT

The makers of the popular anti-depressant Paxil intentionally misled doctors into thinking the drug was safe to prescribe to kids - when, in fact, the company knew it could lead...

POOCH OWNERS MAX OUT

New Yorkers may pride themselves on originality, but when it comes to naming their dogs, they apparently take comfort in the tried and true. For the fourth year in a...

THIEVING UNION BOOKKEEPER GUILTY

A disgraced bookkeeper for District Council 37, the largest union of city workers, faces anywhere from one to nine years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to stealing more than...

SHELLY SCOFFS AT CROOKED ROGER

ALBANY - Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver poured cold water yesterday on the bizarre plan of just-resigned former Brooklyn Democratic Assembly Roger Green to seek re-election in November. "I'm not sure...

GOP HAS SOROS IN ITS SIGHTS

WASHINGTON - Republicans launched an attack on billionaire financier and anti-Bush fanatic George Soros, mocking him as the "Lord of the Democrats" and outlining a plan to rip his out-of-the-mainstream...

SCHOOLS HELP DUMPED DRAKERS

More than a dozen trade schools and colleges yesterday offered to enroll students from the Drake Business School, which closed Tuesday with no notice. "We are heartened by the outreach...

THIS IS OUR WWII - WE MUST STAY THE COURSE AGAINST EVIL: BUSH

WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday said his war on terror is a battle to save the world from evil - just like World War II - and Americans can't "lose...

ALL BETS OFF IN SILVER'S $6B SCHOOL-AID PLAN

ALBANY - Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday proposed adding $6 billion to state education spending over five years, without the massive expansion of casino gambling urged by Gov. Pataki and...

NYPD IS SUED OVER HANGING

A Bronx widow is charging that the NYPD is to blame for her husband's mysterious hanging death in an upper Manhattan station house. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court,...

AIDS SPIT IS SLAY ATTEMPT

An upstate man with AIDS has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly spitting on a state trooper. José Carmona, 33, of Hurleyville, was stopped April 17 while driving on...

MODEL'S PAL HELD - ACTOR IS GRILLED IN SUBWAY SHOOTING

Cops were holding a friend of model Monica Meadows for questioning last night about the subway shooting that left the bombshell brunette wounded and lucky to be alive, police sources...

FEDS 'BUTCH' SLAP 'CAPO'

The feds busted an alleged acting capo in the Gambino family yesterday for shaking down one of Brooklyn's top Italian restaurants, putting the muscle on loan-sharking victims, and running illegal...

MAN DIES AFTER TIMES SQ. FALL

A man died yesterday after he slipped and hit his head on an illegally parked news truck near Times Square, police said. James Gould, 60, of Princeton Junction, N.J., was...

LONE HOLDOUT IN MODEL $$ SUIT

A price-fixing lawsuit against a top modeling agency opened yesterday with the disclosure that most of the city's other agencies had quietly settled out of court. The class-action suit, brought...

DON KING CAME OUT SWINGING FOR THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ...

Saying that African-Americans need President Bush in their corner for four more years, boxing promoter Don King came out swinging for the commander-in-chief yesterday before a crowd of Brooklyn small-business...

STRUCK BY STRAY BULLET

A home health-care attendant was shot in the back yesterday on a Brooklyn street as her elderly patient looked on in horror. Rose Pryce, 49, was an innocent bystander who...

6G LESSON FOR SCHOOL STAFFER

A public-school guidance counselor has agreed to pay a $6,000 fine for soliciting business from the mother of one of his students, officials said yesterday. The Conflicts of Interest Board...

JACKO CLEARED IN L.A. 'MOLEST'

LOS ANGELES - Cops yesterday cleared embattled Michael Jackson of allegations he molested a boy more than a decade ago in L.A. Detectives discounted "repressed memory" claims by the accuser,...

DC 37 PAY-HIKE DEAL LEAVE$ OUT NEW HIRES

Workers in the city's largest municipal union have overwhelmingly ratified a tentative contract that provides lower wages for new employees. District Council 37, which represents 121,000 city workers, announced yesterday...

POLS PAN TV RATING PLAN AS 'METERS' MOVE IN

Frustrated City Council members gathered outside the headquarters of the Nielsen ratings firm yesterday to protest today's launch of a controversial new way of measuring TV audiences. Members of the...

W. MAY TALK IN CIA LEAK

WASHINGTON - The White House last night said President Bush has consulted a private lawyer and left the door open to his testifying before the federal grand jury probing the...

ROOMIE GRILLED - ACTOR MISTAKEN FOR MODEL'S SUBWAY SHOOTER

Cops freed the ex-roommate of model Monica Meadows last night after grilling him for nearly 24 hours in the subway shooting that left the bombshell brunette wounded and lucky to...

'KILLER' FIANCÉ BACK IN BRONX

The fiancé of a bride-to-be who was found stabbed to death in the bathtub of her Bronx apartment was flown back to the city yesterday after he turned himself into...

STOLEN CAR SMASH INJURES 2

A 51-year-old livery cab driver was clinging to life after a stolen car slammed into his vehicle at a Brooklyn intersection early this morning, police sources said. An unidentified 32-year-old...

DRUG FIRM 'HID' DANGER TO CHILDREN

The makers of the popular anti-depressant Paxil intentionally misled doctors into thinking the drug was safe to prescribe to kids - when in fact the company knew it could lead...

IMPALE MIRACLE - DRIVER SURVIVES AS POLE RUNS THROUGH HER

A woman - impaled on a two-inch-thick metal fence pole in a horrific auto accident in Brooklyn yesterday - came out of five hours of surgery alive and expected to...

CLASSROOM EXTRA - HE'S ONE SMART HORSE

This Saturday, all eyes will be on New York's Belmont Stakes as Smarty Jones tries to grab the elusive Triple Crown. Here's a little history on the hardest test in...

STURTZE & PRINZ UNLIKELY HEROES

All the usual suspects like Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield were there in the middle of the Yankees' rally, a come-from-behind 6-5 win over Baltimore. But it was the unlikely...

THIS AMAZIN' WIN REALLY AN OLD STORY

PHILADELPHIA - Jose Reyes will be back sometime, before the continents drift back together, before the sun burns out, before the Mets have a new stadium like the one here...

HIS HEART WILL RIDE WITH ELLIOTT - 'BID'S' JOCK RECALLS SPECTACULAR HEAT OF CROWN CHASE

NO one can understand what's going on inside Stewart Elliott's head this week, probably not even Stewart Elliott. Until you've been there, until you've spent a week at Belmont Park...

PISTONS PLAN FOR SHAQ

The Pistons are heavy underdogs to the Lakers. Logic says so. The common guy on the street says so. Las Vegas says so, at 5-1. Yup, almost everybody says so....

DR. JACK SAYS DETROIT CAN WIN

Dr. Jack Ramsay picks the Lakers to beat the Pistons in six games. But he's not emphatic, believing the Pistons' team defense and Richard Hamilton's ability to tire out Kobe...

PISTONS REUNION FOR ISIAH

Pistons GM Joe Dumars is attempting to get all his fellow "Bad Boys" - even Dennis Rodman - together for a reunion Thursday for Game 3 of The Finals against...

KURT LIKELY A GIANT TODAY

The Giants, not long after 4 p.m. yesterday, as soon as Kurt Warner officially became a free agent, opened negotiations with the two-time MVP quarterback, and all indications are he'll...

'SMARTY' HITS TOWN - DRAWS OUTSIDE POST FOR BIG TEST AT BELMONT

Convoyed by a relay team of state troopers, from Philadelphia Park up the Jersey Turnpike to New York, the white Cedarlane Farm horse van pulled into Belmont Park shortly before...

JOHNNIES STORM WEST WITH HIGH HOPES

Each morning, they'd wipe the sleep from their eyes and see something like this: a stadium full of fans, a roster of can't-miss pro prospects in the other dugout, NCAA...

WATCH OUT FOR PURGE - SECOND CHOICE THREAT TO DENY 'JONES'

AS Smarty Jones pulled into town yesterday with all the fanfare and hoopla of a potentate come to claim his crown, an old adversary stood quietly at the other end...

MATSUI STRAINS SHOULDER

Hideki Matsui didn't know how discomfort worked its way into his left shoulder, but it was bothering the Yankees' leading hitter enough to have the arm smothered in heat prior...

THIS CUP'S NOT WORTHY FOR TOASTING

TAMPA - The only time the Stanley Cup wasn't awarded over the previous 111 years came in 1919, when an epidemic of Spanish influenza claimed the life of the Canadiens'...

IN DEFENSE OF DEREK'S 'D'

HERE is what I have never understood about the theory that Derek Jeter's slump this year was attributable to his being overwhelmed by Alex Rodriguez's presence: A-Rod's arrival was not...

CAPTAIN CATALYST - RED-HOT JETER SPARKS YANKS

Derek Jeter is not just the Yankees' captain, he is their catalyst. As he goes, they go. And with the single biggest barometer of their lineup red-hot for the past...

KIDD'S MRI COULD LEAD TO SURGERY

Nets All-Star Jason Kidd has undergone another MRI exam on the left knee that troubled him throughout the end of the season and the playoffs. Team CEO Rod Thorn said...

KAZ TURNING INTO MAN OF STEAL

MET NOTES PHILADELPHIA - Turns out there's a pretty simple reason why Kaz Matsui is suddenly stealing a ton more bases. "I'm sending him more," Art Howe said yesterday. Smart...

INACTIVITY PROBLEM - LOFTON

YANKEE NOTES Kenny Lofton had no doubt. The Yankees' injured center fielder - on the DL for the second time this season despite limited use - insists he's getting hurt...

JOSE'S WAIT PROBLEM - METS IN LIMBOWITHOUT REYESIN THEIR LINEUP

PHILADELPHIA - On and on this 2004 season goes for the Mets. Jose Reyes is nowhere in sight. The news does not change much with the Mets' prized second baseman,...

EGADS! METS NEED TO FIX THEIR DEFENSE

PHILADELPHIA - Jose Reyes will be back sometime. Before the continents drift back together, before the Mets have a stadium as nice as this new one they played in here...

GW FEELIN' GRAND - TROJANS ROAR BACK TO GAIN PSAL SEMIS

PSAL: Geo. Washington 5 - Grand Street 4 Carlos Del Rosario sat on the bus going back to Manhattan Tuesday, aware that his team's season was in jeopardy. "It was...

A NOBLE EFFORT KOS STANNERS

CHSAA: Regis 3 - Molloy >2 Dave Noble needs the slider. "When it's not working, I struggle," Noble says of his best pitch. Oddly enough, he learned how to throw...

REYES RETURN STILL ON HOLD

PHILADELPHIA - After tomorrow, the Mets will have played one-third of their season: 54 games. Jose Reyes has not played in one, and there's no reason to believe that will...

YANKS ARE TOUGH TO RATE

THERE were only two real questions evoked when the Orioles took a 5-0, first-inning lead off Jose Contreras: What flight from Tampa to New York would Billy Connors be on?...

BOO, CONTRERAS - BOMBERS BOUNCE BACK AFTER JOSE'S EARLY EXIT

Yankees 6 - Orioles 5 It's official. The Yankees are in the market for a starting pitcher. When Jose Contreras returned from the minors, Brian Cashman said Contreras' performance would...

IN TODD WE TRUST - ZEILE HERO AGAIN WITH TWO HRS AS METS SWEEP PHILS

10 INNINGS: Mets 5 - Phillies 3 PHILADELPHIA - Don't be surprised if at the end of the season, the Mets grab onto Todd Zeile's leg, tug at his jersey...

WRONG WAY, JOSE - BOMBERS OVERCOME CONTRERAS' QUICK EXIT

Joe Torre ignored Jose Contreras' awful outing last night. And not simply because his team rebounded to win. "I am not concerned at this point," Torre said following a 6-5...

MATSUI'S SHOULDER WORRIES BOMBERS

Hideki Matsui didn't know how discomfort worked its way into his left shoulder but it was bothering the Yankees' leading hitter enough to have the wing smothered in heat prior...

KURT JOINING GIANTS TODAY

The Giants this afternoon will hold a press conference to announce the signing of Kurt Warner as their new quarterback, exactly 40 days after they traded for Eli Manning to...