May 13, 2006

WIN-SOME ICAHN TAKES $29M IN IMCLONE BET

A day after disclosing a $66 million loss on a plasterboard company, billionaire rebel investor Carl Icahn scored a $29 million gain on ImClone Systems - the same stock that...

DE NIRO'S DINERO - ACTOR HOPES TO LAND UPTOWN ICON OBSERVER

Robert De Niro and two business partners who helped launch the TriBeCa Film Festival are in talks with Arthur Carter about buying his weekly newspaper, The New York Observer. The...

SPECIALISTS COP TO FRAUD

Two of the former New York Stock Exchange traders indicted last year in a wide-ranging front-running scheme copped pleas yesterday in U.S. District Court. The plea bargains were struck for...

TV AD BUYERS TURN TO EBAY PLAN

A group of advertisers frustrated with the old way of buying and selling TV commercial time have enlisted online auction giant eBay to create an electronic-trading system. The group, which...

PLENTY TO SING ABOUT

OF THEE I SINGCity Center, 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. (212) 581-1212. Last performances tonight, tomorrow afternoon and Monday. SURE, it's as dated as a calendar - but...

SOFTER SIDE OF SIMON - COWELL'S 'TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY'

"The E! True HollywoodStory: Simon Cowell" Tomorrow at 8 p.m. on E! (three stars) RYAN Seacrest isn't as shrewd as he seems. The first time he laid eyes on Simon...

THE CW: 'HEAVEN' HELP US!

THERE is an afterlife for "7th Heaven," after all. The veteran WB series, which was supposed to have aired its finale after 10 seasons, has been picked up by the...

LITTLE DIVIDEND INVESTMENTS - HAUTE GIFTS FOR THE HIPPER NIPPERS

SURI Cruise, Barron Trump, Whatever Pitt-Jolie - so many baby showers, not enough platinum-plated rattles. Add in all the non-celebritots, and what's a flummoxed gift giver to get for the...

'ON THE TOWN' AND ON THEIR TOES

IT was the first dress rehearsal for "On the Town" - that jaunty show about sailors on leave in the city - and one of the sailor's caps looked a...

BODY FOUND AFTER DAYS IN PARKED CAR

A corpse rotting in the backseat of a car in Brooklyn was only discovered after a passer-by sensed a foul odor wafting from the vehicle, which had numerous parking tickets....

MIKE: NO CITY BREAK ON GAS TAX

Reducing the sales tax on gasoline when you're trying to reduce dependence on crude oil "is not exactly a terribly smart policy," Mayor Bloomberg declared yesterday. The mayor said the...

MAYOR SLAPS 'SPOILSPORTS'

Losing bidders complaining about the city's decision to award a $1.4 billion franchise for bus shelters and other street furniture are "spoilsports," Mayor Bloomberg charged yesterday. "The company that loses...

MIKE GIVES GROUND

Choosing the next chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is a decision that rests with Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. "I will defer on this to the governor...

PATAKI AIDE BUSTED IN DWI CRASH-&-RUN

ALBANY - A senior aide to Gov. Pataki has been charged with drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident, the second Pataki staffer arrested in recent months. Joseph...

SHELLY SILVER: 'THE RAPIST'S BEST FRIEND'

THREE decades ago, Kathleen Ham was raped and shamed into silence. Now, she is nail-spittingly furious at a man she says will do anything to help violent attackers get away...

NASCAR FORCES REV UP VS. POLS

Go, speed racer, go! A developer looking to build a massive NASCAR raceway on Staten Island fired back at the borough's City Council delegation yesterday for trying to muscle the...

HERO COP TO TOT KIN: SHE'S IN HEAVEN; MOVING TALK AT TEARY B'KLYN RITES

The NYPD sergeant who desperately tried to save the life of a shot Brooklyn toddler was called upon to eulogize the murdered child at her funeral yesterday. "She's somewhere we...

BORDER TROOPS; BUSH'S PLAN TO STEM ALIEN TIDE

WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to call for troops and a high-tech "virtual" fence to beef up the border with Mexico when he speaks to the nation on immigration Monday...

WEATHER GODS SMILE ON MOM

Looks like Mother's Day won't be a washout after all. Heavy rain originally forecast for the city today and tomorrow instead will fall upstate and over New England, said Accuweather...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN *** A brazen stick-up man (above) robbed a convenience store during a daylight robbery, police said. The man walked into Mary's Dairy at 158 First Ave. at 3 p.m....

'SLACKER' ATTACK ON HILL; EXPERT: SHE'S WRONG - GEN. Y SAVVY & $TRONG

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton got it half right when she told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the instant-gratification generation thinks "work is a four-letter word," the chamber's expert on...

SUIT CALLS OUT PHONE GIANT

A pair of New Jersey lawyers has hit Verizon with a $5 billion lawsuit accusing the phone giant of violating privacy laws by supplying customers' records to the National Security...

PIRRO'S 'FAMILY' PAL

Jeanine Pirro, the Republican candidate for state attorney general, found herself standing next to a liberal Democratic candidate for Congress yesterday at a City Hall press conference to denounce alleged...

BIG WHIFF OF ANGER

This place stinks. That's what furious Queens residents are saying about a city sewage-treatment plant in Astoria that's been emitting an "intolerable" stench for months. "It smells like 20 dogs...

VERIZON HOLDING THE LINE; FIRM'S ANTI-SPY VOW

WASHINGTON - Verizon Communications said yesterday it does not and will not provide any government agency unfettered access to customer records. The telecommunications company said it could not comment on...

B'KLYN KATRINA CREEP IN 60G CON: DA

A Brooklyn woman posed as a Hurricane Katrina victim and scammed at least half a dozen charities, federal agencies and individuals out of more than $60,000 in emergency aid, authorities...

STALK OF THE TOWN; EX RIPS BUBBA PROBER

Here's the Manhattan woman who has accused a former lead investigator into the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair of stalking her months after she ended their relationship. Tracy Loughlin, 40, surfaced...

'TAINTED BODY PART' VICTIM SUING

A Long Islander who received potentially tainted tissue through a multimillion-dollar body-snatching ring will sue the masterminds behind the ghoulish scheme, her lawyer said yesterday. Homemaker and mother-of-two Pamela Grigorian,...

HARD EVIDENCE; MISSING VIAGRA NIXES WIFE'S DIVORCE

Viagra has saved yet another marriage - but this wife isn't happy about it. A judge has stiffed a Westchester woman on her bid to divorce her husband for allegedly...

PUB CLAN RIPS IMETTE MOM'S SUIT

A member of the family that owns the bar where Imette St. Guillen spent the last night before her murder called the slain grad student's mother's lawsuit "ridiculous" yesterday. "She...

MARINE JET IN CRASH LANDING

The pilot of a Harrier Jet found himself in a hairy situation yesterday when he ran his Marine Corps craft off a runway landing at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, L.I....

SUSPECT IN ELEVATOR SLAY GRILLED

Cops were questioning a hulking ex-con last night as the suspect in the killing of a beloved Washington Heights grandfather in a brutal elevator mugging, police said. Six-foot-6 William Hill,...

MISSING-KID TWIST; 'GAY' LINK WITH MOM'S LADY PAL

The 12-year-old girl missing from Alphabet City may have run away with a female friend of her mother's, police sources said yesterday. Amanda Dent disappeared after leaving her East 10th...

ELIOT, TOM TO DEBATE

Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer has agreed to face off with his long-shot primary rival Tom Suozzi in a debate this summer, officials said yesterday. The pair will clash July...

FATAL FDR CRASH

A man died in a fiery wreck after his SUV flipped over a dividing median along the FDR Drive last night, police said. The victim, who was not immediately identified,...

SERIOUS JET 'LAG' - U.S. BEHIND IN AIR-TRAVEL TECH

Navigation technology that could greatly speed air travel is being rolled out slower in the United States than abroad - and might not be fully implemented in New York area...

NASCAR FORCES REVVED UP VS. POLS

Go, speed racer, go! A developer looking to build a massive NASCAR raceway on Staten Island fired back at the borough's City Council delegation yesterday for trying to muscle the...

NO WAY, JOSE - LIMA'S LATEST NOT ANY BETTER

BREWERS 9 METS 6 MILWAUKEE - Jose Lima could not do the job Sunday. And he couldn't do it last night. Lima has now taken two starts for the Mets,...

JINT ROOKIES CONVERGE FOR MINI-CAMP

Seven draft picks, 16 signed free agents and several others invited by the Giants for tryouts will assemble this weekend at Giants Stadium for a rookie mini-camp that always excites...

BRAVO SEEKS ENCORE AT MONMOUTH

Is jockey Joe Bravo's 11-year monopoly as New Jersey's champion rider about to come to an abrupt end? The longtime terror of Monmouth Park's riding colony will face his biggest...

CUP CALLING MARK

Mark Martin climbed into his No. 6 Triple A Ford for the season-opening Daytona 500 and thought, "Here we go again." If this were baseball, it would be the 10th...

DEVILS DETERMINED TO PREVENT A SWEEP

Grim determination confronts grimmer reality today for the Devils. "We don't want to be swept," Martin Brodeur said. "We're playing this game to win another day." Brodeur has declared he...

TIGER GETS 'BOLD' NOD

Where have all the sprinters gone? Only five were entered for today's Grade 3, $100,000 Bold Ruler Handicap at six furlongs, and two of those, Papua and Dark Cheetah, had...

OLD-TIMER RIPS BONDS - BARRY (0-FOR-3) STUCK AT 713

SAN FRANCISCO - Elden Auker, believed to be the last living man to have pitched to Babe Ruth, is no Barry Bonds fan. Auker, 95, said in a phone interview...

SNAP DECISION ; YANKS FORCED TO MOVE ON MINUS MATSUI

Inside or outside? It's the biggest question surrounding the Yankees right now. Ultimately, will the team seek a solution to Hideki Matsui's broken wrist from within an organization that couldn't...

LEE LEANING TO BREWERS

MET NOTES MILWAUKEE - Brewers slugger Carlos Lee, who is one of the marquee free agents-to-be this winter, said yesterday that currently his top choice is to remain in Milwaukee....

TIDE UP AGAIN ; METS CALL UP GONZALEZ; GETS BALL TONIGHT

MILWAUKEE - Exactly a year later, Jeremi Gonzalez is starting a big-league game again. The Mets have reached into Norfolk twice already for starting pitchers. John Maine got the first...

STEAL OF THE DRAFT; JAWS HAD JETS' CLEMENS RATED NO. 1 QB

Ron Jaworski knows quarterbacks. He was a pretty good one in college, carved out a solid NFL career, and takes a lot of pride in his breakdown of QBs in...

ACHY DAMON HANGING IN

YANKEE NOTES Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon estimated that he undergoes about an hour of treatment before each game. And after Thursday night's collision with the outfield wall, his left...

HATTON EYES COLLAZO'S TITLE

Ricky Hatton, perhaps the world's best boxer at 140 pounds, moves up to 147 tonight when he challenges Luis Collazo for his WBA welterweight championship in Boston. It will be...

CANO'S STICKY GLOVE BLANKETS A'S

Chien-Ming Wang made it look so easy last night. He made it look effortless as he sliced and diced his way through the Oakland lineup, going eight strong innings and...

NOTHIN' WANG ; SPARKLES THROUGH EIGHT AS BOMBERS ZIP A'S

Yankees 2 Athletics 0 There was some curiosity whether Mariano Rivera or Chien-Ming Wang would pitch the ninth inning last night. That was a great sign, no matter what the...

GONZALEZ ON HILL FOR METS

MET NOTES MILWAUKEE - Exactly a year later, Jeremi Gonzalez is starting a big-league game again. The 31-year-old right-hander becomes the third starter from Triple-A this season to take the...

REESE ANSWERS THE CALL

th Kevin Reese was watching Thursday's Yankees-Red Sox game with his teammates at Triple-A Columbus when his cell phone began to light up with incoming text messages in the wake...

YANKS FORCED TO MOVE ON MINUS MATSUI

Inside or outside? It's the biggest question surrounding the Yankees right now. Ultimately, will the team seek a solution to Hideki Matsui's broken wrist from within an organization that couldn't...

DEFENSE VS. SHAQ IS NOW CLIFF-HANGER

WE KNEW this much going into Game 3: Shaquille O'Neal - whose minutes, points,, rebounds, assists, and blocks are all in inexorable decline - is still aging at a slower...

NETS TAKE WRONG TURN LATE

ankees vs. Redsox At a glance Nets vs. Heat WBBR (1130 AM) ; *-also on YES; x-if necessary Game Date Site Time TV Radio Game 1 Nets 100, Heat 88...

SHAQ, WADE, 'ZO TURN UP HEAT

MIAMI - Shaquille O'Neal delivered elbows and shoulders to Net center Jason Collins much of the night, but he delivered his strongest blow verbally following last night's massive 103-92 Heat...

DEFENDING SHAQ NOW A CLIFF-HANGER

SHAQUILLE O'Neal's points, rebounds, assists and blocks are all down this year, his 34th on the planet, putting the Nets, a two-time loser to him in the playoffs in four...

'ZO DOESN'T MOURN PAST

jay.greenberg@ nypost.com JAY GREENBERG Yankees vs. Redsox At a glance Nets vs. Heat WBBR (1130 AM) ; *-also on YES; x-if necessary Game Date Site Time TV Radio Game 1...

NETS UNRAVEL DOWN STRETCH

GAME 3 Heat 103 Nets 92 The Nets' emotional makeup was in more pieces than a porcelain vase dropped off the 12th floor. Cliff Robinson, the Nets' best bench player...

MELTDOWN - CARTER & CO. UNRAVEL DOWN STRETCH

GAME 3 Heat 103 Nets 92 The Nets already suffered one hellacious gut punch as Cliff Robinson, their best bench player and a locker-room force, was banned five games for...

CLIFF IS ONE-MAN BANNED

The specter of Miami's Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning grew enormously larger for the Nets. Their defense and bench shrunk considerably when Cliff Robinson was banned five games yesterday for...

ONE MAN BANNED - THOMAS GOES FROM NOWHERE TO DIESEL DUEL

NET NOTES The Nets lost their best bench player to a five-game suspension when Cliff Robinson was sacked by the NBA for failing to comply with the league drug policy...

ONE MAN BANNED - ROBINSON OUT 5 GAMES FOR DRUG VIOLATION

The specter of Miami's Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning grew enormously larger for the Nets because their defense and bench got decidedly smaller after Cliff Robinson was banned five games...

OLD-TIMER RIPS BONDS - AUCKER: 'GUY'S A DAMN CRIMINAL'

SAN FRANCISCO - Elden Auker, believed to be the last living man to have pitched to Babe Ruth in the major leagues, is not a Barry Bonds fan. Auker, 95,...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Guard dogs from Dooly State Prison in Warner Robins, Ga., had no problem tracking down an escaped inmate. They found him hiding in a doghouse. Marcus Valdez, 22, had crawled...