June 15, 2005

AOL'S WELL AGAIN; TIME WARNER MULLS SPINNING IT OFF WITH CABLE UNIT

Time Warner Cable may have a companion when it goes public sometime next year - America Online. Media giant Time Warner has considered combining its cable unit and AOL into...

HIS STAR IS FALLING; PECKER'S AMI EMPIRE HURT BY DEBT DOWNGRADE

AMERICAN Media, owner of Star, Shape and the National Enquirer, released its full-year earnings numbers yesterday - and they ain't pretty. For the first time since CEO David Pecker came...

ARE LEVITRA ADS MAKING IT? NOT TONIGHT, HONEY

Apparently, the ads for impotence pill Levitra failed to perform. GlaxoSmithKline and Schering-Plough, which market the erectile-dsyfunction drug in the U.S., are changing their advertising yet again. The firms have...

SPRINT TO GET SIRIUS ON CELLS

Sirius Satellite Radio and Sprint reached a deal that will make satellite radio available on cell phones. It marked the first of what is expected to be many deals between...

NEW PARK AVE. ICON ; GROUP TO RAZE BROWNSTONE FOR 'ULTRA LUXURY' SLIVER

AN unusual ground-up condominium is being developed in a Park Avenue sweet spot by the Icon Group. The Icon trio of Michael Miller, Todd Cohen and Terrence Lowenberg intend to...

KIRK MADE $300M ON GM GAINS

Kirk Kerkorian picked up a quick $300 million yesterday for a week's work in his General Motors mystery playbook. The cagey 88-year-old billionaire had baffled some investors by suddenly taking...

COHEN, DEF JAM CLEARED

Rap mogul Lyor Cohen and his former employer Island Def Jam were vindicated yesterday when an appeals court overturned a $132 million fraud judgement against them in a case involving...

GUCCI GAL'S GOTTA GET GLAM

Gucci creative director Frida Giannini has a way to go before she receives the near-universal praise that was so often heaped on her predecessor Tom Ford. Giannini was in New...

MORGAN SCOURS STREET FOR CEO

As Wall Street plays a guessing game over who Morgan Stanley's next boss will be, some candidates are starting to emerge from key Wall Street competitors. In the wake of...

JPM CHASE'S ENRON BILL: $2.2B

In Wall Street's latest settlement deal in the Enron scandal, J.P. Morgan Chase is paying $2.2 billion to the institutional funds hurt in the debacle. The deal comes just one...

STARR REPORT

Fox 'Kitchen' aid Monday's episode of "Hell's Kitchen" on Fox delivered its best numbers yet, averaging 7.4 million viewers, up 6 percent from the previ ous week. "Kitchen" also saw...

A MELLOW 'TIME'

WHEEL OF TIME *** (three stars) CALL it a spiritual Woodstock. In 2002, half a million pilgrims gathered in Bodh Gaya, India, where Buddha is said to have found enlightenment....

'BILLY' MAY BE TUTU RISKY; BRIT HIT MIGHT NOT HAVE LEGS ON B'WAY

LONDON - Is it too English? Will it be too expensive? Can they cast it? Will it resonate with Americans? These are the questions confronting the producers and creators of...

SCARIER THAN AN ISLAND MONSTER, IT'S TREKKIES: THE NEXT GENERATION . . . 'LOSTIES'

'LOST" fans are taking a page from the Trekkies and have held at least one convention to celebrate the show so far. Almost nobody wore any costumes, as is the...

'DAYS' AND CONFUSED ; GUESS WHAT? MINIMUM WAGE IS NO FUN

"30 Days" Tonight at 10 on FX * * (two stars) MORGAN Spurlock ate only at McDonald's for a month and guess what happened: His health declined. Well, duh. More...

SPITZ RETURNS TO NY1 TODAY

NY1 reporter Rebecca Spitz makes her first on-air appearance to- day - almost two years since her near-fatal accident. "I would never take it so lightly as to say I'm...

SLEEPOVER! - MY FIRST DAY OF FREEDOM, BY MICHAEL JACKSON; DIARY OF 'BAD' MAN

A day after being cleared of all child-molestation charges, Michael Jackson holed up at his California ranch. But behind the gates of Neverland, we're pretty sure the King of Pop's...

DON'T BURY HARRY

As venerable society restaurant Harry Cipriani was closing its doors for the last time yesterday, restaurant employees were saying, "Don't bury Harry, just yet." According to insiders, a deal between...

THAT'S OIL FOLKS - PRESSED OLIVES: THE NEW SALT AND PEPPER

Had any good olive oil lately? If the answer is no, you've been missing out. From the masses of high-end oils showing up in stores, tasting bars, and restaurant dipping...

XII MARKS THE SPOT

AFTER three visits to Table XII, John Scotto's latest restaurant of four he's launched on the site of long-gone Laurent, I'm not sure what gave me the biggest kick. Was...

DEAD MAN CRIED FOR HELP IN CELL

A Long Island man who died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage after an altercation with Suffolk County sheriff's deputies screamed for hours before he was finally taken to...

VICTIM'S KIN IN TEARS AS KILLER GETS 'LIFE'

The heartbroken sister of a Queens teen stabbed to death by a paroled rapist during a three-borough crime spree broke down in tears as the ex-con was handed what amounted...

FOE RIPS GIFF 'TAX' FLIER

Mayoral candidate C. Virginia Fields took off the gloves yesterday, demanding a probe of City Council Speaker Gifford Miller after she charged he broke the law by using taxpayer-funded mailings...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Honk, if you want to go to jail. Cops are warning motorists to stop honking their horns for peace at a weekly anti-war rally in pacifist-packed Marin County, Calif. -...

NINFA IN CHARTER-SCHOOL BID

The president of the former Board of Education, who was a campaign adviser to Mayor Bloomberg is looking to open the city's first charter middle school for leadership on the...

'CROOKHAVEN' BIG HAS THOROUGHBRED STABLE

A Long Island town official charged in a $250,000 bribery scheme owned expensive thoroughbred racehorses on his government salary, a prosecutor revealed yesterday. Town of Brookhaven Chief Building Inspector Vincent...

OPRAH: MY DNA SAYS I'M A ZULU

She's known as America's queen of daytime-TV talk. Now meet Oprah Winfrey, Zulu queen. Winfrey said she underwent DNA testing that determined her ancestors were members of South Africa's famous...

SCHOOL-FOOD BIGS JU$T PIGGED OUT

Two former executives responsible for stocking city school cafeterias with food stocked up on free computers, baseball tickets, dinners and meat from vendors in violation of the city's conflicts of...

STATE KIDDIE-ID CARDS WILL HELP FIND MISSING CHILDREN

ALBANY - Parents will soon be able to have their kids photographed and fingerprinted as part of a new state initiative to develop special identification cards designed to help find...

NYPD DAILY CRIME BLOTTER

MANHATTAN *** An independent film producer was beaten and subjected to anti-gay slurs by a thug on an East Village street, police sources said yesterday. The victim, a 30-year-old California...

COP IS SHOT IN LEG; QNS. DRUGGIE FLEES

A Queens scooter patrol cop was shot in the leg yesterday when his gun discharged during a struggle with a drug suspect who was trying to wrest the weapon from...

NEW YANKEE STADIUM REVIVES CLASSIC '20S LOOK

The House That George Builds will be a cathedral to the city's winningest sports franchise, featuring elegant Gothic lines echoing the existing Yankee Stadium facade - as this exclusive first...

3RD DEATH HITS L.I. HS

Students wept openly in the eerily quiet hallways of Long Island's Bayport-Blue Point HS yesterday as they mourned their third classmate since November to die tragically under the wheels of...

PALS SALUTE BLAST-SLAY GUARDSMAN

Hundreds of friends, loved ones and fellow soldiers gathered in Rockland County yesterday to mourn an Army National Guard officer killed in Iraq last week in a mysterious explosion -...

'DADS OF YEAR' HONORS FOR LARRY & THE DONALD

They've had 10 wives between them, but that didn't keep Larry King and Donald Trump from being toasted as fathers of the year yesterday. The National Father's Day Council feted...

HE'LL 'SHYNE' ON IN PRISON

Jamal "Shyne" Barrow will have to continue churning out his hit records from behind bars. A state appeals court yesterday denied the rap star's bid to overturn his conviction for...

SURVEY REVEALS RACE CHASM

Americans split along "a major racial divide" in their response to Michael Jackson's acquittal on child-molestation charges, a Gallup Poll revealed yesterday. Overall, 48 percent of those surveyed disagreed with...

HOOD'S EX: I'M BU$T; @#$! LIAR, WISEGUY HOWLS

FLEMINGTON, N.J. - A New Jersey political candidate being sued for legal malpractice and for allegedly bilking $1.2 million from her reputed Mafia ex-boyfriend threw the courtroom into turmoil yesterday...

NEW PROBE LAUNCHED OVER KOFI'S OIL 'LIES'

WASHINGTON - The commission probing the oil-for-food scandal said yesterday it is "urgently reviewing" devastating new documents suggesting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan knew that a company that hired his son...

HILL-IONAIRE AUTHOR ; CLINTON WORK RAKES IN BIG BOOK BUCKS

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's wildly successful memoir, "Living History," pumped $2.4 million in royalties last year into her growing personal fortune, according to documents released yesterday. Publisher Simon...

NEW BIKE PATH TO MAN. BRIDGE

Getting to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn by bike is about to become a smoother and safer ride. City officials yesterday announced plans to construct a new two-way bicycle path...

30 MILLION WATCHED VERDICT

More than 30 million people watched the Michael Jackson verdict Monday afternoon, according to Nielsen estimates. The reading of the verdict and its aftermath, which ran from roughly 4:43 p.m....

CAN'T TOUCH THE RICH AND FAMOUS

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Only now, as we suffer the pounding hangover from the trial of Michael Jackson - a monumental waste of time and energy, money and tears -...

4-YR.-OLD BOY SUDDENLY STOPS BREATHING RIDING ROCKET-SHIP SIMULATOR AT EPCOT

The 4-year old son of a United Nations finance officer died on a chilling Walt Disney World ride that simulates a rocket launch and has a history of sending thrill-seekers...

$60M DRUG-RING BUST

Authorities have smashed a massive Colombian narcotics and money-laundering ring - seizing nearly $60 million in drugs and cash - after unwitting traffickers hand-delivered $1.7 million in dirty money to...

TOUGH-GUY TEARS FOR TERRY ; STREET NAMED FOR HERO

A block of a Midtown street was renamed yesterday for legendary 9/11 fire Capt. Terry Hatton in a ceremony so drenched with emotion that even veteran rescue workers had to...

ARSON RAMPAGE; FIREBUG HUBBY KILLS HIMSELF AND 2 TENANTS

A domestic dispute turned deadly early yesterday morning when the owner of a Brooklyn building set his home on fire during an argument with his estranged wife, killing himself and...

REPTILES A-ROAMIN'

It felt like the dog days of summer, but reptiles were giving Brooklynites the chills yesterday. A 5-foot-long iguana was found in a middle-school parking lot on Ocean Parkway around...

TRASH-TALKING BLOOMY FIGHTS BACK WITH VETO

As promised, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday vetoed a City Council measure that would prevent the administration from implementing a new garbage-disposal plan. That set the stage for a major City Hall...

PROTESTERS GET BENT OVER RENT

About 100 people turned out last night to protest proposed hikes for rent-stabilized apartments. Last month, the Rent Guidelines Board proposed boosts of 2 to 4.5 percent for one-year lease...

SINGER STARTS A BOY BAN IN HIS BEDROOM, LAWYER SAYS

Michael Jackson will no longer allow boys to sleep in his bed with him, his lawyer said yesterday. "He's not going to do that because it makes him vulnerable to...

BLAZE HITS QUEENS HS

A raging fire tore through the auditorium at Van Buren HS in Queens Village yesterday, forcing more than 3,100 students to evacuate, fire and education officials said. No one was...

FOE RIPS MILLER'S 'TAX' FLIER

Mayoral candidate C. Virginia Fields took off the gloves yesterday, demanding a probe of City Council Speaker Gifford Miller after she charged he broke the law by using taxpayer-funded mailings...

TOUR COPTER IN SPLASH CRASH - ALL 7 SURVIVE TERRIFYING PLUNGE INTO E. RIVER

A tourist helicopter on a sightseeing trip crashed into the East River seconds after takeoff yesterday - but all aboard miraculously survived. Three of the tourists struggled in the water...

'KILLER' COP BUST - CHARGED IN 2001 SLAY OF GAL PAL

A police sergeant, long suspected in his ex-girlfriend's grisly 2001 murder, was finally charged with her slaying yesterday. Prosecutors claim that NYPD Sgt. Martin Peters, 41, brutally shot Juliette Alexander,...

JUDGE HITS FERRY-CRASH PILOT'S DEAL WITH FEDS

A Brooklyn federal judge ripped into Richard Smith's lawyers yesterday, questioning why the pilot of a doomed Staten Island Ferry boat copped a plea when the government apparently offered him...

W'BURG TRIMS ITS WASTE

There's going to be less hazardous waste in Williamsburg, but what remains isn't going to be as strictly regulated. In the face of community opposition, Radiac Research Corp., the only...

THE '100G' TEACHERS

City teachers are demanding a 19 percent across-the-board pay hike that would boost the top salary to more than $96,600 in three years. The United Federation of Teachers posted the...

CHOPPER PILOT SAVES THE DAY - RESCUES WOMAN AFTER CRAFT GOES DOWN IN EAST RIVER

A hero pilot whose helicopter crashed into the East River and flipped over seconds after takeoff yesterday dived into the murky waters to save the life of a British woman...

SHOTS HIT TWO B'KLYN BUSES

Bullets smashed into a two city buses yesterday. The lead started flying at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy when two men got into a gunfight. One stray shot...

OLYMPIC BID GETS JUMBO MUTOMBO HELP

NBA star Dikembe Mutombo is joining Mayor Bloomberg's Olympic team by going to Africa on a lobbying trip for the city's bid to land the 2012 Games. The Congo-born Mutombo,...

TRAGIC DAD'S ANGUISH ; HE SLAMS KILLER DELI DETECTIVE

The shattered father of a Queens deli clerk shot dead by a retired police detective last fall collapsed in tears yesterday, telling a crowded courtroom how the incident had torn...

$60M DRUG RING BUSTED

Authorities have smashed a massive Colombian narcotics and money-laundering ring - seizing nearly $60 million in drugs and cash - after unwitting traffickers hand-delivered $1.7 million in dirty money to...

LAW MAKES IT EASIER TO GET 9/11 DISABILITY

Gov. Pataki will be in Battery Park today to sign legislation making it easier for public employees who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath 9/11 to claim disability benefits....

HOWARD BEACH IN DARK ON RECORD POWER DAY

Thousands of Queens residents sweated out a power outage overnight after a day of historic electricity consumption left Howard Beach and parts of surrounding neighborhoods in the dark. The outage...

MIKE'S VETO FUELS TRASH WAR

As promised, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday vetoed a City Council measure that would prevent the administration from implementing a new garbage-disposal plan. That set the stage for a major City Hall...

BUSH TALKS TOUGH VS. 'BLOCK'HEAD DEMS

WASHINGTON - A fired-up President Bush last night took a new, more combative stance against Democrats impeding his policies, charging they "stand for nothing" and "follow the agenda of the...

FREEDOM SUMMER 1964 - REVISITED

Today's page takes a look at the reopening of the Mississippi Burning trial and the deaths of three young civil-rights workers. THE Mississippi Burning trial of 1967 is again in...

GRAND JURY TO GET 'PILFERING PRIEST'

A Manhattan grand jury is expected to convene next week to decide if it will seek criminal charges against Monsignor John Woolsey, the Upper East Side priest accused of living...

CAMERON KNEE-DS TIME OFF

MET NOTES OAKLAND - Mike Cameron is not yet ruling himself out for the entire three-game Oakland series. But he was out of the lineup last night due to an...

PISTONS GET BACK IN GEAR

GAME 3 Pistons 96Spurs 79 AUBURN HILLS - The Pistons blocked the ball, stole the ball and ran the ball. And made Manu Ginobili invisible with the ball. Back on...

SANCHEZ BUGGED BY BULGING DISCS

YANKEE NOTES With two bulging cervical discs, Rey Sanchez wasn't going to help the Yankees anytime soon. So the club placed Sanchez on the disabled list and recalled infielder Andy...

NETS EYE PROSPECTS

The Nets continue to audition prospects this week in advance of the June 28 draft, in which they pick 15th. Today, Ike Diogu, a 6-8 forward from Arizona State, heads...

WRIGHT'S WRONGS - ERRORS AT THIRD COSTLY FOR METS

OAKLAND - Even though he's just 22 years old and hasn't even played a full season in the majors, it seems there are few things that David Wright doesn't do...

OLBERMANN GETS SPOT ON ESPN RADIO

Keith Olbermann, estranged from ESPN for more than eight years, will rejoin the network on a very limited basis on radio. Olbermann will co-host one-hour of "The Dan Patrick Show"...

M'STARS' PREZ HAS BIG GOALS

Former MetroStars defender Alexi Lalas has returned to his old team as the president and GM and is already talking about building them into the first MLS dynasty. "It's a...

MATSUI'S STREAK IS STILL ALIVE

There isn't enough tape in the Yankees training room to completely hide the badly swollen and purple mass that is Hideki Matsui's right foot and ankle these days. Matsui turned...

FOR JAX, L.A. OR BUST

The Knicks weren't even his second choice. Across the last 10 days, Phil Jackson admitted yesterday, the Knicks disappeared from his radar. "The last week and a half, it was...

PISTONS HOPE 'BAD' IS GOOD

AUBURN HILLS - Rasheed Wallace was three-quarters of the way through the Pistons' locker room door when he stopped to talk briefly with reporters at Detroit's morning shoot-around yesterday. "We're...

IN LINEUP, WOE IS WOMACK

TONY WOMACK is not a starting second baseman, left fielder or center fielder. He is a utilityman, and we mean a utilityman in the National League, where his speed, bunting...

BOSS IN THE HOUSE - STEINBRENNER AT STADIUMTO KEEP EYE ON YANKEES

The temperature on the billboard outside Yankee Stadium read 92 degrees at mid-afternoon yesterday. With George Steinbrenner in town, that'll feel like an Alaskan winter unless the bumbling Bombers start...

SANCHEZ BATTLING BULGING DISCS

YANKEE NOTES With two bulging cervical discs, Rey Sanchez wasn't going to help the Yankees anytime soon. So the club placed Sanchez on the disabled list and recalled infielder Andy...

UNION MUST GAIN INPUT OF PLAYERS

Optimists are hoping the NHL will be back in business by Independence Day. There's just that little matter of both sides' rank-and-file ratifying the deal that's now being hammered out....

BLUEFIN SPAWN CONCERN

ONE WAY to protect the remaining giant bluefin population is to close the spawning grounds to longlining. The National Coalition for Marine Conservation and four other environmental groups last week...

GATTI EXPECTS BIG GUT CHECK

Arturo Gatti is the WBC super lightweight champion, yet when he defends his title June 25 against Floyd Mayweather, he'll be the underdog. "That's fine with me," Gatti said. "A...

CTK STAR EYES UCONN

Tina Charles, who led Christ the King to a state federation title this past season as a junior, will announce her college plans at a press conference at the Queens...

GIAMBI'S DOUBLE TROUBLE

Jason Giambi absolutely crushed the ball, caught it right on the screws on a perfect night for hitters. It was hot and humid, and the steamy Bronx winds were blowing...

JOE NEEDS ACES UP SLEEVE

GEORGE STEINBRENNER was in town to christen his new stadium and cantankerously monitor his old team. The plans will be officially unveiled today for a 50,800-seat facility to be built...

MATSUI, MOOSE GIVE YANKS LIFT - INJURED OFSMACKS HR

Hideki Matsui's right foot is purple and swollen down to his toes. Whether by accident or design, he wasn't in the Yankees' original lineup last night. Matsui only pronounced himself...

'A GREAT WIN' PLACATES BOSS

The Yankees may have hammered the Pirates last night at the Stadium, but that doesn't mean George Steinbrenner is pleased. The Bombers are still lagging behind in the American League...

GIAMBI GETS CLOSE BUT CAN'T CLEAR YARD

Jason Giambi absolutely crushed the ball, caught it right on the screws on a perfect night for hitters. It was hot and humid and the steamy Bronx winds were blowing...

BOSS SEES NO REASON TO PANIC

The Yankees may have hammered the Pirates last night at the Stadium, but that doesn't mean George Steinbrenner is pleased. The Bombers are still lagging behind in the American League...

DALY LAUDS L.A. RE-PHIL

FINALS NOTES AUBURN HILLS - Legendary former Pistons coach Chuck Daly believes Phil Jackson would not have returned to the Lakers yesterday if he didn't believe he can win another...

BAY BOTCH - OAKLAND TO METS: TAKE THAT TO THE BLANK

Athletics 5Mets 0 OAKLAND - Even though the 12-2 pasting by the Angels on Friday was the Mets' most lopsided loss of the season, the defeat they suffered against the...

MATSUI, MOOSE GIVE YANKS LIFT - INJURED OF SMACKS HR

Yankees 9Pirates 0 Hideki Matsui only went five innings on a right foot that's purple and swollen down to his toes. Mike Mussina went the distance on a night when...

AMAZIN' BATS WAY OFF BASE

MET NOTES OAKLAND - The Braves and the Brewers. Those are the only two National League teams that have been worse than the Mets have been this year with either...

SHADES OF SHINNECOCK

PINEHURST, N.C. - The 2005 U.S. Open shapes up to be one of the toughest tests of golf ever witnessed. Let's hope the USGA doesn't screw it up this time....

STEALTH-LIKE GOOSE YET TO SHOW UP ON RADAR

U.S. OPEN NOTES PINEHURST, N.C. - Quick. Who won last year's U.S. Open? If you said "Retief Goosen" without looking it up, you're not in the kind of crowded company...

TIGER FEELS SLAM GOOD - WOODS PUMPED FOR SECOND MAJOR

PINEHURST, N.C. - Tiger Woods insisted that he never thinks about it. In fact, he sounded incredulous that the question was even asked. "You don't look at it that way,"...