April 2, 2006
REFINANCING: IT'S ALL ABOUT PLAYING THE ODDS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amDear John: Is this a good time to refinance my mortgage? A.S.Dear A.S.: Unfortunately, there is no "yes" or "no" answer to this question. This has to do with the...
MLB'S 'FANTASY' DREAM
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amMajor League Baseball's fight to gain complete control over its players' statistics is getting nasty. One of the largest fantasy baseball league operators is claiming MLB's move to claim ownership...
POLITICAL SAVVY PAYS OFF WITH REGULATORS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe political game is not an unfamiliar one for Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. After all, he's been dealing with regulators for three decades now. "Ivan is one of the most...
HEAR ME NOW; VERIZON STAKES LIFE ON GOING FULL-SERVICE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amVerizon executives were on Capitol Hill last Thursday not to testify publicly at a telecom bill hearing, but for something more important - to quietly work the room. As Verizon...
BRAND BOMBER - YANKEES TOP $PONSOR DRAW
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe Yankees don't play their first game until tomorrow, but they have already won the title -for most corporate sponsors, that is. The Bronx Bombers have already signed up 86...
THE TOURNAMENT THAT NEVER WAS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amTHE success of national chess federations is usually managed by how many players they can claim as members - and how many of them they can turn into international grandmasters....
KINDER, GENTLER; A NEW BREED OF COLLARS HUMANELY RESTRAIN
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amTHE collar and leash, the two accessories most crucial for city dogs, haven't evolved much in centuries - until now. Finally, smart companies are leading the pack with innovative new...
SHELLEY WINTERS' WATERY GEMS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amCLEVER, clever, clever, clever is the best way to describe BAM Rose Cinemas' salute to Shelley Winters: four films in which "she always seems to run afoul of water." One...
WHAT'S TONY SMOKING? - HOW TV'S TOUGHEST DRAMA BECAME A FARCE; MAFIA MIRTH
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amSomething funny has happened to "The Sopranos." It was once TV's toughest drama, on par with its former HBO stablemate "Oz," the ultra-violent prison series. Just a few years ago,...
CARRIE UNDERWOOD: LIFE AFTER 'AMERICAN IDOL'
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amCarrie Underwood followed up her victory on "American Idol" with a multi-platinum selling album, "Some Hearts," and a hit single, "Jesus, Take the Wheel." We caught up with the country-pop...
SKIRTING THE NEWS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amCOMEDY HERE'S an acting stretch: Rebecca Romijn is playing a television news anchor. On "Pepper Dennis," she makes her series television debut as an ambitious reporter with her eye on...
NEWSFLASH: MORON TV ATTRACTS . . . MORONS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amEver read a short item in the paper - an item that made little-to-no sense - then figure that the item was cut before the part that would've made sense...
IT TAKES A 'THIEF' - 'HOMICIDE' STAR RETURNS AS MASTER CRIMINAL
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAndre Braugher did not disappear after "Homicide." It might have seemed so to the many who were mesmerized by his portrayal of the intense Baltimore Police detective Frank Pembleton for...
REEL GOOD - LINDA STASI PREVIEWS THIS WEEK'S BEST MOVIES
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amBORN YESTERDAY (1950) An uncouth tycoon (Broderick Crawford) hires a newspaper man (William Holden) to teach manners to his brassy girlfriend (Judy Holliday), but ends up on the wrong end...
HOT LIST - WHAT WE'RE OBSESSED WITH THIS WEEK
April 2, 2006 | 5:00am1 Moenningand groaning Pouty-lipped Katherine Moennig (Gwynnie P's cousin) takes a break from the fiery lesbianism of "The L Word" to star off-Broadway in "Guardians," a serious satire inspired by...
GIRL POWER - PLAIN TRUTH - 'FRIENDS' CAST GETS REAL-WORLD MAKEOVER
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAN actress can do "ugly" in any number of ways. There's all-out hideousness, as with Charlize Theron's overweight "Monster" serial killer. There's isolated quirkiness, like Nicole Kidman's big fake nose...
MEAL TICKET - AT A RAVE-WORTHY SEDER, A TAB OF ECSTASY GETS PASSOVER ROLLING
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amWHILE casting the Passover Seder comedy "When Do We Eat?," director Sal Litvak had an unlikely source of inspiration: "The Godfather." "It was important to us that the family be...
IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE GORILLAZ - THE GRAMMY-WINNING CARTOON BRIT-ROCKERS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amYOU'VE gotta hand it to the Gorillaz. Not since the Archies, who gave us the classically insipid pop confection "Sugar, Sugar," has a cartoon band sailed so easily into the...
FAB FREAKS - HOW THE FLAMING LIPS MADE ROCK FUN AGAIN
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amYOU can't help but pay attention to the man behind the curtain when he's the Flaming Lips' resident wizard, Wayne Coyne. As the guitarist, lyricist and vocalist for the Oklahoma...
EVERYBODY HURTS - SATIRICAL NOVEL CUTS TO THE QUICK OF ETHNIC IDENTITY
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAPEX HIDES THE HURT Colson Whitehead 3 STARS (three stars) (Doubleday, $22.95) ALTHOUGH at first glance it poses as a novelty item, this book is deceptively ambitious: a Whoopie Cushion...
MISSING TABBY REUNITED WITH BEST PAL
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe miracle cat who survived a brutal Brooklyn arson attack was reunited with his owner yesterday - a 5-year-old boy who never gave up hope that "Baby" would be found...
10,000+ ON THE MARCH; IMMIGRANTS HIT B'KLYN BRIDGE IN RIGHTS RALLY
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA roiling sea of immigrants - many of them in the country illegally - and their supporters poured across the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan yesterday to protest what they...
'POTTER' FANS IN FUTILE BID TO GET CLUED IN
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amHarry Potter fanatics across the globe sat glued to their computers yesterday, trying to decode author J.K. Rowling's first online "clue" about the seventh and final book in the series...
'TAPE' KIN FACE HEART-WRENCHING DECISION
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amWhen Wendy Cosgrove sits down in her Long Island home next week to listen to her husband Kevin's two taped 911 calls from the World Trade Center, she'll face an...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amTHE BRONX *** A 26-year-old Brooklyn man was killed early yesterday morning after being stabbed repeatedly in the arm and torso in his friend's Morrisania apartment, police said. Cops busted...
'FONDLED' L.I. GAL EYE SORE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA Long Island eye doctor was accused of focusing on the wrong body parts after a woman told police that he fondled her in his office during an examination. Nassau...
BUSTED COP AGAIN ON THE 'HOOK'
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA Bronx cop with a history of violent attacks on transvestite prostitutes has been busted again - in the knifepoint sexual assault of a hooker in his car, police said...
ECO-RIG A SANITATION SENSATION
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe city is looking to clean up its garbage trucks. The Department of Sanitation is working with two manufacturers to develop environmentally friendly electric- and hydraulic-powered vehicles that could hit...
NAOMI'S GARDEN SPAR-TY; SPAT AT MSG GUARD
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amSurly supermodel Naomi Campbell took her temper tantrums to center stage at Madison Square Garden last fall - spitting in the face of a security guard during a U2 concert,...
HARLEM MAN SLAMMED BY CAR
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA 20-year-old man is clinging to life after being hit by a car on a Harlem street last night, police said. The unidentified man was crossing 125th Street, when an...
MAN BLOWN AWAY IN CANARSIE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA man was shot dead on a Canarsie street corner last night, police said. The victim, whose identity was not known last night, was on Farragut Road when his attacker...
THUG BEATS STOREKEEPER
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe owner of a Harlem bodega was badly beaten yesterday by a youth whom he had tried to boot from the store, police said. The sticky-fingered 19-year-old walked into the...
SHOOTER SLAYS MAN IN BRONX
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA 27-year-old man was shot to death in The Bronx last night after a gunman fired point blank at his head, police said. The victim, who sources said hails from...
ANTI-SHOPPING HANDBOOK
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amNOT BUYING IT: MY YEAR WITHOUT SHOPPINGBY JUDITH LEVINE FREE PRESS, 288 PAGES, $25 AFTER "tapping the ATM like an Iraqi guerrilla pulling crude from the pipeline" and lamenting holiday...
U.S.-BORN DON'T MAKE GRADE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00am"Give me liberty, or give me death," patriot Patrick Henry declared in 1775. Not George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Hancock or Henry Ford, as a surprising number of solid citizens...
ARTISTS CLASH WITH RESIDENTS IN SOHO
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amMake art, not war. That's the motto painted on the front of a four-story loft building in SoHo, where a group of hipster artists is creating a wild, raw gallery...
CONTEMPTIBLE COURTS; NY POWER GRAB
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amIn 2003, New York's top court dealt a potentially huge blow to taxpayers, opening the door for billions more of their tax dollars to be shoveled into the public-school money...
I'M A HOT FLASHER; WOMEN STILL DIG ME: PERV
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amHaughty subway flasher Dan Hoyt - exposed by a cellphone camera-snapping rider - claims some women like his style. Hoyt, a raw-food gourmet who once operated two restaurants frequented by...
SCHOOL CUTS THREATEN FAMILY'S BLESSING
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThey scrimped and saved - and did it gladly - to put their three boys into Our Lady Queen of Angels in Harlem. Anita Rivera-Rodriguez and husband William Rodriguez had...
WORKED OVER; COP-SHOOT LILLO GETS BEATDOWN IN LAST FLICK
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAccused cop killer Lillo Brancato is getting his comeuppance big-time - a grisly beating that leaves his skull bashed in and his face bloodied. But it's only a movie. The...
BRONX TEACH HAS TB; SCARE AT ELITE HS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA teacher at Bronx Science HS has contracted tuberculosis, making her the latest victim in a series of maladies that have plagued the school in recent years. No other cases...
CORZINE A 'NICKEL & DIMER': PATAKI AIDE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amALBANY - Aides to Gov. Pataki are "outraged" that New Jersey officials, including Gov. Jon Corzine, are "nickel and diming New York on the most important redevelopment project in the...
REALITY BIT MIKE'S VOW VS. GOPERS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amInside City Hall returns next week Mayor Bloomberg began the year with a threat to help oust the Republican majority in the state Senate, but there were never any furtive...
L.I. MOM PUTS UP DUKES; RIPS 'RAPE' PROBE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amPolice investigating an alleged rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team have taken nude photos of players to document if any have scratches on their bodies. And that's...
PRISON COP KILLS THIEF IN SHOOTOUT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAn off-duty New York City correction officer shot and killed one of two men who broke into his car in the driveway of his Long Island home early yesterday morning....
HERO GETS TOUGH ON A TURNCOAT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amWHEN he finished his dia bolical mission, two sol diers lay dead and 14 were horribly wounded. Today he is on death row at Fort Leavenworth and we can only...
MILITARY BOSS AT HOME BASE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe nation's top general looked on in a Queens union hall yesterday as more than a dozen scholarships were awarded to children of electrical workers -43 years after he got...
A SANITATION SENSATION
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe city is looking to clean up its garbage trucks. The Department of Sanitation is working with two manufacturers to develop environmentally friendly electric- and hydraulic-powered vehicles that could hit...
NYPD DAILY CRIME BLOTTER
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amBROOKLYN *** Two teenagers have been arrested for murdering another man after a fight erupted inside the victim's Crown Heights apartment, police said. Joeless Pierre and Kevin Lilly, both 18,...
CORRECTION COP KILLS RADIO THIEF
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAn off-duty New York City correction officer shot and killed one of two men who broke into his car in the driveway of his Hempstead home early yesterday morning. Ricardo...
SHOES SPRING AHEAD - PLATFORMS STRIDE BACK INTO STYLE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amLadies will be walking tall this spring. The platform shoe is towering above its fashion competitors, taking the streets by storm, one racy high heel at a time. "It's for...
'TAPE' KIN FACE HARD DECISION
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amWhen Wendy Cosgrove sits down in her Long Island home next week to listen to her husband Kevin's two taped 911 calls from the World Trade Center, she'll face an...
DOGGED MA WAS BRAINS BEHIND BUST OF FBI'S 'MOB' AGENT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAn unassuming single mom from New Jersey who's never worked in law enforcement cracked the case against Lindley DeVecchio, finding the mother lode of evidence that led to charges against...
WELL-FED FED ATE UP MEANIE'S LINGUINI
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAs they got to know each other better, FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio and mobster Gregory "Grim Reaper" Scarpa Sr. made time for weekly meals at Scarpa's house in Bensonhurst, sources...
CHOKE TOT NOW PICTURE OF GLEE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe baby who twice cheated death when his nanny was mangled by a truck as she rushed to get the choking infant medical treatment spent the afternoon of his first...
REALITY BIT MIKE'S THREAT VS. THE GOP
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg began the year with a threat to help oust the Republican majority in the state Senate, but there were never any furtive fund-raisers and no candidates who announced...
AMERICAN MILITARY BOSS AT HOME BASE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe nation's top general looked on in a Queens union hall yesterday as more than a dozen scholarships were awarded to children of electrical workers - 43 years after he...
GET ON WITH THE SHOOTOUT! THERE'S NO POINT IN PLAYING THE OT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amSO SOME games are worth three points and others are worth two. Some games are decided six-on-six, some are decided five-on-five, some are decided one-on-one. All losses are not created...
PAVANO MAY NEED NEEDLE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES PHOENIX - If the soreness in Carl Pavano's rear end hasn't subsided by tomorrow, he will likely be receiving a cortisone shot. "Could be," GM Brian Cashman said...
ON THE WAG-ON ; BILLY'S BACK, AND RARIN' TO GO
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amMETS 2 CARDINALS 1 JUPITER, Fla. - The Mets closed spring training yesterday with their closer finally getting on the mound again. Two weeks had gone by since Billy Wagner...
GUTTY 'CIDE' COMES UP SHORT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amYesterday's feature, Grade 3, $200,000 Excelsior Breeders' Cup, boasted six Kentucky Derby winners: Funny Cide, trainers Barclay Tagg and Nick Zito, and jockeys Mike Smith, Jose Santos and Kent Desormeaux....
HIDEKI'S LEFT KNEE CONTINUES TO BARK
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amPHOENIX - If Hideki Matsui didn't know what it takes to play every day, Joe Torre said his left fielder's bothersome left knee would be a bigger issue than it...
VICTOR REMAINS IFFY FOR START
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amMET NOTES JUPITER, Fla. - The Mets' starter for Wednesday remains unknown. It will be either Victor Zambrano, who's suffering from a left hamstring strain, or rookie right-hander Brian Bannister....
DEVILS STAY RED-HOT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amDevils 4Flyers 1 PHILADELPHIA - Eyes have turned upward again, the Devils' and Martin Brodeur's, whose fortunes go hand-in-hand. More certain of avoiding disaster, they're rekindling higher aspirations. They ran...
VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT TO FISH 'N' TELL
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amTHE warm weather is a reminder that the north country of New York will soon be clear of snow and ice, and anglers will once again be on the famed...
DON'T HURL IF YOU HAVE ARM TROUBLE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amDISCIPLES of fantasy baseball draft strategy (not whom to pick, but whom to pick, when) follow this golden rule: Thou shall not pick pitchers early. The theory makes sense: As...
COMATOSE ISLES CAN BE SPOILERS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amThe Islanders can do the rival Rangers a solid favor this afternoon by beating the Flyers in a Coliseum matinee. In their first appearance as a possible spoiler in the...
BRUINS SPANK BIG BABY & CO.
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amUCLA 59 LSU 45 INDIANAPOLIS - The UCLA Bruins sent a message to the LSU Tigers, the Florida Gators, and the rest of the college basketball world: They are not...
FLORIDA AND UCLA, FINALLY - GATORS' RAIN OF 3S SENDS CINDERELLA HOME
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amFLORIDA 73 G. MASON 58 INDIANAPOLIS - The players who have given us the most heart-warming story in college basketball history had to file past the rowdy Florida student section...
TEAMS LOOK FOR A FINAL REWARD - DONOVAN KNOWS CINDERELLA STORY
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amINDIANAPOLIS - Nineteen years ago, Billy Donovan wore the glass slipper. Nineteen years ago, the role of Cinderella, reprised in this Final Four by George Mason, was played by Providence...
DAY STILL BLESSED FOR COACH OF MASON
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amFINAL FOUR NOTEBOOK INDIANAPOLIS - Jim Larranaga has memories for a lifetime from this Final Four. The George Mason coach from The Bronx took an unknown team from the Colonial...
FAMILYBUCKS UP MASON'SCOACH
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amFINAL FOUR NOTES INDIANAPOLIS - Jim Larranaga has memories for a lifetime from this Final Four. The George Mason coach from the Bronx took an unknown team from the Colonial...
BRUISED BRUINS - INJURIES CONTINUE FOR UCLA
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amFINAL FOUR NOTEBOOK INDIANAPOLIS - UCLA center Ryan Hollins suffered a bruised knee Friday at practice. Backup center Lorenzo Mata broke his nose at Thursday's practice. The Bruins couldn't have...
GANG GUIDRY- $78M STAFF IN GATOR'S HANDS
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amYankees 3 D'backs 3 PHOENIX -Tomorrow night in Oakland, we get our first glimpse of Ron Guidry in the toughest job in sports. That's when Guidry will settle into a...
ELECTRIC YOUTH - CHARGED-UP KIDS WILL MAKE DIAMOND SPARKLE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amA HALLOWED record is under assault by a Bay Area native as this baseball season begins, and I say let's cheer the pursuer. Jimmy Rollins begins 2006 with Joe DiMaggio...
PLAYBALL! THE BEST TWO LITTLE WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amPHOENIX - The games start for real tonight, they start in earnest, and it's possible we've never needed them more. The Cleveland Indians will visit U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago,...
THE LOOKING GLASS - STEROID PROBE A SHAM IF OWNERS' ROLE IGNORED
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amSPECIAL investigator George Mitchell had better be special. After all, if he truly wants to get to the bottom of all this, the bottom of all this starts at the...
AVOID THE 'ROID, ENJOY THE RIDE - HARDBALL'S GUIDE TO AN INTRIGUING '06 SEASON
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amANOTHER baseball season arrives wrapped in steroid hell. The past sins of illegally juiced players and negligent caretakers have created the mother of all performance-enhancing hangovers. The 2006 season is...
TIGER & MICK WILL NEVER BE ARNIE & JACK
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amTHE Masters is without its masters. For the first time since Arnold Palmer played in his first Masters tournament in 1955, neither he nor Jack Nicklaus will be competing when...
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING - LONGER COURSE LIMITS CONTENDERS, LESSENS CHANCES FOR DRAMA
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amAUGUSTA - Augusta National is on steroids. The fabled course that has made the Masters an annual pilgrimage has bulked up to the point where it barely resembles its old...
ALL PAIN, NO GAIN - STEPH MAY BE BACK, BUT ROSE JOINS KNICKS' HOBBLED
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amStephon Marbury isn't out for the year. At least, not yet. Marbury received what amounts to good news in this lost season yesterday, when an MRI revealed that he suffered...
NETS SET ON TURNING UP THE HEAT
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amWhen the Nets play host to the red-hot Heat today, they'll do it as winners of 11 straight games themselves - second-best in franchise history - and the hottest team...
AHMAD'S SOFTBALLS SO INCISIVE
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amDON'T know about you, but I can't get enough of ABC's Abscess Ahmad Rashad. It doesn't get any more thought-provoking than last week's halftime Kobe ("Tell us the real deal...
RANGERS RETHINK POWER PLAY
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amIf the Rangers are to succeed in the playoffs, they must be able to convert power-play opportunities into goals. This reality was the driving force behind their acquisition of Sandis...
MCKILLOP QUIZZED FOR SETON HALL JOB
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amSeton Hall first-year athletic director Joe Quinlan interviewed Davidson's Bob McKillop before the national semifinals tipped off last night in Indianapolis, The Post has learned. McKillop, 55, a Long Island...
MAGIC TOUCH - ORLANDO FUTURE BRIGHT WITH DARKO
April 2, 2006 | 5:00amI'D LIKE to take this opportunity to thank the Mavericks for taking the suspense out of the NBA's last remaining division competition. Losers of three straight and five of seven,...