December 30, 2004
COURT TRAP FOR GRASSO
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amDICK Grasso can file this under "be careful what you wish for." The former head of the New York Stock Exchange may get his day in federal court after all,...
HOUSES ON FIRE - HOME SALES END RECORD YR. WITH 2.7% NOV. SURGE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amTwo record-breaking years in home sales are fueling belief that even if the housing bubble bounces, it's getting more puncture-proof. Economists got a welcome surprise yesterday when housing roared to...
SUPER SHOWCASE - FOOTBALL FINALE IS AD HEAVEN FOR REGULARS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe Super Bowl is ready for kickoff. Advertisers have snapped up about 90 percent of the 30-second commercial spots at record prices. The average price to run an ad during...
INSIDERS CASH IN ON MARTHA
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which have climbed steadily since the Domestic Diva began serving her prison term, gave back some of those gains yesterday, on reports that...
DIVERSE MARKET IS NYC STRENGTH
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amNew York City housing is probably too diverse to collapse - stumble, maybe, but not a bust, experts say. Fears that America's four-year housing boom is peaking may be exaggerated...
SPAM'S FLAVOR EVOLVES
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amPorn, Viagra and Oprah are out. Vioxx, identity theft and stock picks are in. That's according to a 2004 ranking of the most often sent junk e-mails compiled by America...
$5B HUSTLED UP TO COVER FANNIE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amAfter bungling its books and firing top bosses, mortgage giant Fannie Mae had to scrape together a quick $5 billion yesterday to cover for its mistakes. Fannie Mae is the...
WHEN YOU CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF REALITY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amFOX, the mother of TV's wildest reality shows, is just a few months away from launching a new reality show channel. "We have thousands of hours of shows," says Fox...
VIEWER HEARTS BELONG ]]TO JON
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amCOMEDY Central's political junkie Jon Stewart was up with viewers in 2004 and Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly was down, according to a new poll released yesterday ranking Americans' favorite...
COLBYS CHEESE - 'DYNASTY' BACK-STORY MOVIE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIT'S hard to know which is a bigger guilty pleasure - the old "Dynasty" shows or this silly, over-the-top campy movie, "Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure," about the...
KEN IS BACK - 'JEOPARDY!' TOURNAMENT PITS BEST AGAINST CHAMP
December 30, 2004 | 5:00am'JEOPARDY!" is getting ready to launch the ultimate battle of the brainiacs - a 15-week "mega" tournament featuring the game's greatest gladiators of the mind. Nearly 150 of the show's...
100 TIMES BETTER - A CENTURY OF DROPPING THE BALL ON NEW YEAR'S EVE; STILL HAVIN' A BALL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amWHEN the first band of revelers gathered in Times Square to wel come in the New Year, there wasn't even a ball - just firecrackers, homemade noisemakers, and the start...
A BASH FOR NOT A LOTTA CASH - THREE NO-FUSS NEW YEAR'S THEME PARTIES YOU CAN STILL PULL OFF
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amWHEN 2004 collides with 2005 Saturday morning, you can bet there'll be lots of horn-blowing ushering in the new year. But if blowing lots of moolah to revel in festivities...
BUBBLE WRAPS - WHY BE A PURIST? GIVE YOUR NEW YEAR'S TOAST A FRESH TWIST
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amCHAMPAGNE doesn't have to go naked anymore. Sure, traditionalists will argue the only way to toast the New Year is with a simple, elegant flute of the bubbly stuff. But...
75 YEARS FOR '21' - CELEB HAUNT BEGAN AS ILLEGAL SPEAKEASY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe odds were against the '21' Club ever surviving Prohibition. The former speakeasy, considered the country's most enduring celebrity haunt, has prevailed, and will commemorate its 75th birthday New Year's...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA dog drove his master's truck through the window of an auto-parts store in Arkansas. Michael Henson had left the vehicle running outside the shop in Springdale, leaving his pooch...
CHANGING TIMES DOOMED LE CIRQUE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amLe Cirque 2000 is shutting down as '21' celebrates its 75th birthday. How did it come to this? Neither place is what it once was. When '21' was purchased by...
'SIXTH SENSE' SAVES WILDLIFE IN TRAGIC REGION
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amWhere are all the dead animals? That's the question that left Sri Lankan wildlife officials perplexed yesterday. The worst tsunamis in a century claimed the lives of more than 22,000...
I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN - FOR A BIG-$$ JOB
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amManhattan wage earners have the fattest wallets in town, and scored the largest increase among any of America's 317 large counties, according to data released yesterday by the U.S. Department...
NYERS UNITE TO HELP THE STRICKEN
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amWITHIN the tranquil walls of the Queens temple, the soft-spoken, gentle folk masked the enormity of the catastrophe visited on the world by Mother Nature. But Malkanthi Goonewardena, of Sri...
CITY SECURITY PROS PREP FOR TIMES SQ. NEW YEAR'S GALA
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amMassive security preparations are in place for tomorrow night's mega street party in Times Square where 750,000 revelers are expected to usher in 2005, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. Hours before...
BLACKOUT-PROOF TRAFFIC LIGHTS FOR CITY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe city will install a traffic light battery back-up system next year at 500 major intersections to keep the signals going during any blackouts, The Post has learned. The Department...
GIFF GIVES CREDIT TO TOP CARDS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amConsumers may be piling into stores, but they're not doing enough shopping when it comes to securing the best credit-card rates, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller said yesterday. Miller issued...
MOURNING ULTIMATE N.Y. STAR ORBACH
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amNew York's own Jerry Orbach - the beloved Broadway belter-turned-tough-guy-detective on TV's "Law and Order" - has died of prostate cancer at 69, after having waged a secret battle with...
FLYING REINDEER PERIL - JERKS TOSS STATUE AT L.I. BUS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA month after a Long Island woman was hurt by turkey hurled through her windshield, a bus driver has suffered a similar fate - but this time, the weapon was...
COP HQ SUICIDE - INSPECTOR WAS UNDER PROBE IN MOONLIGHTING RIP-OFF
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amSuicide rocked a Queens police headquarters yesterday after an embattled deputy police inspector - under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau in a moonlighting scandal - shot himself to death...
'HOOKERS' RELISH THEIR WIENERS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amLong Island cops have busted two women who were selling hot dogs - and themselves - from a food truck parked along a busy stretch of Sunrise Highway, authorities said....
COP'S HUBBY DIES IN CRASH
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe husband of an NYPD officer died in a head-on traffic accident on Staten Island, cops said yesterday. James Rogers-Wilmore, 41, was killed Tuesday after he veered into the oncoming...
FINAL CUT: JERRY'S BARBER RECALLS A 'DEAR' CUSTOMER
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amI NEVER knew Jerry Orbach, but we had something in common. We shared a barber. So when I heard yesterday that Jerry had died, I knew there was only one...
RUDY BASH FOR BUSH INAUGURAL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amRudy Giuliani will throw an exclusive parade-watching party a block from the White House following President Bush's inauguration next month, The Post has learned. The swank soiree for roughly 70...
NEW FOCUS ON PROSTATE RISK
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amProstate cancer is a disease of the prostate gland - a sex gland the size of a large walnut found only in men and located under the bladder and in...
SCOTT GETS FREYED - AMBER SAYS 'LIAR' DESERVES HIS FATE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIn a bitter and emotional interview conducted days after her one-time lover was sentenced to death, Scott Peterson's ex-mistress Amber Frey called the convicted murderer a "pathological liar" who deserves...
THIS BUST'S A HOOT - FUGITIVE 'HAHA' NABBED
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe feds got the last laugh yesterday when they slipped the cuffs on elusive reputed Mafia leader Louis "Louie HaHa" Attanasio, who must trade his swim trunks for prison garb...
REV. FLAKE BACKS MIKE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg has a January surprise in store for his opponents - an endorsement from the Rev. Floyd Flake, one of the most influential black ministers in the city. Sources...
TEEN KILLER EXECUTES SELF
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe teenage suspect in the Queens killing of his upstairs neighbor was found yesterday in a nearby church parking lot, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, cops...
OMAR'S 'LAUGHING' LAWYER
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA prominent radical lawyer worked hand-in-hand with Islamic terrorists, ferrying violent edicts in and out of prison, distracting guards and even belly-laughing about it all, a Manhattan federal court jury...
HOME SELLS FOR $45 MIL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amAn estate in the Hamptons has sold for $45 million - the highest price ever paid for a residence in New York state. The 25-acre estate in Wainscott, with an...
PETRA TOGETHER WITH SOBBING SIS - MODEL IN HOSP REUNION AMID DESPERATE HOPE FOR LOST BEAU
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe heartsick sister of Petra Nemcova had a tearful reunion in Thailand yesterday with the supermodel, who refuses to abandon hope that her boyfriend is alive. Olga Nemcova, 23, flew...
OUR RE$PONSE IS 'INCREDIBLE' - U.S. LEADS IN OPENING HEARTS - AND WALLETS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amContributions are pouring in to the American charities involved in the massive relief effort in South Asia at an "incredible" pace. Americans are using the Internet, the mail and the...
TOLL EXPECTED TO TOP 100,000 - * AIRLIFT BRINGS FIRST RELIEF TO EPICENTER * BUSH SETS 4-NATION AID COALITION
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amCargo planes carrying water purifiers, doctors and medicine touched down yesterday as thousands of bodies were found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, bringing the death toll from the killer...
'HOOKERS' RELISH WIENERS - HOT-DOG TRUCK WAS 'BROTHEL'
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amLong Island cops have busted two women who were selling hot dogs - and themselves - from a food truck parked along a busy stretch of Sunrise Highway, authorities said....
WHERE ARE ALL THE DEAD ANIMALS? ...
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amWhere are all the dead animals? That's the question that left Sri Lankan wildlife officials perplexed yesterday. The worst tsunamis in a century claimed the lives of more than 22,000...
CHILDREN'S SPONSORS AWAIT THE SAD NEWS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amCharities that arrange for generous donors around the world to sponsor poor Third World children are bracing for an awful task - telling thousands of kindhearted sponsors that their children...
OMAR'S 'BELLY-LAUGHING' LAWYER
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA prominent radical lawyer worked hand-in-hand with Islamic terrorists, ferrying violent edicts in and out of prison, distracting guards and even belly-laughing about it all, a Manhattan federal court jury...
BUSTED FOR NOT AIDING OFFICER
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA Housing Authority worker was arrested yesterday after she ignored an NYPD sergeant's pleas for help as the cop struggled with a teen vandal in Queens, authorities said. Grace Watson,...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amTHE BRONX (s, lcf) * Police are looking for this man (above) who has attacked two women in separate incidents in Bedford Park. Police said the rapist forced his way...
WINNING THE RACE OF HIS LIFE - BRAVE YANKEE STAFFER'S STORY OF SURVIVAL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA member of the Yankees' training staff said last night he escaped the tsunami in Thailand by jumping on his motorbike and outracing the raging waters. Scott Yelin, 48, of...
TEEN MALL RATS SHOOT MAN DEAD
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA 31-year-old man was gunned down yesterday in a Queens mall, said cops, who suspect two teens shot him. At least four shots rang out at the Jamaica Coliseum Mall,...
KIDS' SPONSORS AWAIT SAD NEWS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amCharities that arrange for generous donors around the world to sponsor poor Third World children are bracing for an awful task - telling thousands of kindhearted sponsors that their children...
DAD OF 3 IS LATEST VICTIM OF TRAGIC FIRE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe father of three Queens children whose mother was killed rescuing them from a fire has also died, officials said. Alex Sandoval, 30, succumbed Tuesday after suffering severe burns in...
REUNITED - QUAKE ORPHAN FINDS 'DEAD' DAD ALIVE; WAVE TOT BACK WITH HIS DADDY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amA relieved father cries tears of joy tinged by anguish yesterday as he clutches the little boy he feared he'd never see again. Marko Karkkainen of Sweden was reunited with...
INDIA OFFICIALS' TRAGIC SNAFU
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIndian officials had an hour's warning the killer tidal wave was about to hit, but snafus prevented the government from getting the word out before tragedy hit, an Indian newspaper...
BEST & WORST CREDIT CARDS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amConsumers may be piling into stores, but they're not doing enough shopping when it comes to securing the best credit-card rates, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller said yesterday. Miller issued...
FOR KNICKS IT'S SHOWIN' 'TRELL - MARBURY STEALS SHOW FROM SPREE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amKnicks 100 - T'Wolves 87 The new Knick star outshone the old Knick star. Stephon Marbury is the Knicks' heart and soul, as Latrell Sprewell once was back in the...
SPREE'S SWITCH - LATRELL DIFFERENT ON AND OFF FLOOR
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIN a magnanimous gesture, Latrell Sprewell promised to forgo all gestures during his second trip back to New York. The evil twin who tried to put P.J. Carlesimo into an...
JETS FANS FEAR ANOTHER FAILURE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amYOU would think the shocking events of last autumn might alter the viewpoint Jets fans bring into these final hours of football's regular season. You would think watching the Red...
HERM 'GLAD' TO BE HERE - JETS FACE TEST WITH MUST WIN
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amHerman Edwards' glass is always at least half-full. That's why, in the wake of the possible ignominy that would ensue should his Jets fail to qualify for the playoffs this...
HERM NOT STRAINING TO STAND BY HACKETT
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amJET NOTES Herman Edwards has done nothing to cool the heat that's been turned up on his offensive coordinator Paul Hackett. Edwards, asked yesterday to assess Hackett's performance since Chad...
NO VENOM FROM THIS WOLVE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIt must be the holiday cheer or the fact that every time Latrell Sprewell seems to open his mouth he's fined by the league, because yesterday morning, Sprewell was all...
OL' SAINT NICK DELIVERS BIG TIME IN SKI COUNTRY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amSANTA SENT plenty of cold weather our way, which made for great snowmaking that put many finishing touches on ski areas throughout the northeast. It has been great skiing through...
METS TALKING SHOP - BELTRAN, DELGADO, SOSA ALL IN MIX
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe Mets have offered a contract to Carlos Delgado and are seriously weighing a significant push for Carlos Beltran. Yet behind the scenes they recognize they might get shut out...
YANKS UNVEIL WRIGHT MOVE
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe last two times the Yankees reached out for a free-agent pitcher departing the Braves, they came back with bad (Steve Karsay) and worse (Chris Hammond). Last offseason they reached...
WARNER'S LEAVING AMICABLY
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amGIANT NOTES Kurt Warner signed a two-year contract with the Giants - but everybody concerned knew it would be a one-year relationship, as the second year of the deal automatically...
TAMBURELLO CRUISES HOME
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amTamburello, Norberto Arroyo Jr. up, scored first victory in seven U.S. starts since being imported from Chile, rallying wide on far turn then drawing clear to win Big A's $75,000...
TRADE WINDS SHIFT - VAZQUEZ COULD WIND UP WITH ORIOLES
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amJavier Vazquez is the central player involved in every current permutation of trade discussions between the Yankees and Diamondbacks involving Randy Johnson. Yet Vazquez may get his wish to not...
SZCZERBIAK'S WISH OF PLAYING FOR KNICKS FADES
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES Wally Szczerbiak thought there was a genuine chance of fulfilling his dream and becoming a Knick this summer. But now the Long Island resident believes circumstances have changed...
ALIVE IN 2005 - KNICKS HAVE SOME LOFTY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS IN MIND
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIf the Knicks play smarter defense in 2005, share the ball like they did in Orlando Monday and have better luck with their health, there's no reason the club shouldn't...
STORM HOPE HARD EIGHT ARE ENOUGH
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amSeveral weeks ago Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was in the city explaining how sometimes less is more. Coach K finds himself in an unusual position this season. His prize recruit,...
TUNA VS. TOM A SNOOZER - 'BOYS, JINTS SET TO END DREARY YEARS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amNo one expected Bill Parcells to announce his retirement yesterday, but, given his history and the way the Cowboys have gone down the tubes this season, it was worth putting...
'CURLY' STEPPING UP
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amVince Carter admits it: When he first joined the Nets, he had no idea what Nenad Krstic's name was. "I really didn't," said Carter, who plays his first home game...
FANS TAKE IT EASY ON SOFTER SPREWELL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amIN A magnanimous gesture, Latrell Sprewell passed on all gestures during his second trip back to New York. The evil twin who tried to put P.J. Carlesimo into an ambulance,...
KURT DEFENDS TURF AGAINST MVP GARNETT
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amStephon Marbury dumped 32 points on the Timberwolves last night in a 100-87 Knicks victory, but an even bigger reason for last night's Garden win was the defensive play of...
HOUSTON SLUGGISH AGAINST SPREWELL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES With his former partner, Latrell Sprewell, in the house last night, Allan Houston suddenly played tense. Houston said it was not Sprewell's trademark in-your-face defense that had him...
UNIT'S AT HAND - YANKS AND SNAKES WORK ON FINAL DETAILS OF RANDY-TO-BX. DEAL
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe Yankees and Diamondbacks last night inched to the doorstep of a deal that will finally put Randy Johnson in pinstripes - with Arizona most likely getting Javier Vazquez, about...
YANKS UNVEIL WRIGHT
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe last two times the Yankees reached out for a free-agent pitcher departing the Braves, they came back with bad (Steve Karsay) and worse (Chris Hammond). Last offseason they reached...
METS CHASE CARLOS ... & CARLOS
December 30, 2004 | 5:00amThe Mets have offered a contract to Carlos Delgado and are seriously weighing a significant push for Carlos Beltran. Yet behind the scenes they recognize they might get shut out...