May 16, 2006

GAS UP FOR 6ó A GALLON

WE paid 6 cents a gallon for gasoline on Long Island last week. Six CENTS a gallon. And it's the same price anywhere else once I tell you the secret....

ALTMAN PLANNING A STOCK OFFERING FOR EVERCORE SHOP

Former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman plans to sell a piece of his Evercore Partners merger boutique to the public, following mega-bankers Bruce Wasserstein and Robert Greenhill into a red-hot...

LAUGH TRACK GOES SILENT AS NBC BANKS ON DRAMA

NBC isn't laughing. Neither is ABC. CBS and Fox don't find much amusing either. With all the major broadcast networks mired in a comedy drought, fourth-place NBC is looking to...

PLAN IN THE CLEAR; FREEDOM TOWER BASE TO BE UNDER GLASS

WHILE everyone involved - state, city, Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority - continue to keep secret what the Freedom Tower will actually look like beyond its basic height and...

SALARY SCRAP; BEAR BLASTS NYSE PAY STRUCTURE

The New York Stock Exchange and Bear Stearns traded harsh words yesterday after one of the investment bank's analysts labeled the Big Board's cost structure "bloated and inefficient" and pointed...

FEDS CLOSE WITH ANGER

When the Enron episode of "Law & Order" comes out, the actress who'll play fiery prosecutor Kathy Ruemmler gets a huge scene - a four-hour closing argument peppered with foot-stomping,...

DUELING DOLLS - REAL JEWELS TO SPARK BARBIE, BRATZ BLING BATTLE

Barbie and Bratz just can't seem to play nice. The shin-kicking battle between the doll brands, owned respectively by Mattel and MGA Entertainment, is expected to get nastier this summer...

SKY-HIGH COMMODITY PRICES TUMBLE

The gloom-and-doom investment crowd got clobbered yesterday when their high-flying bubbles - gold, oil and copper - popped in midair. Oil tumbled below $70 a barrel while gold plunged nearly...

SMEAR CAMPAIGN - SUNSCREEN'S PROMISES JUST A PUT-ON, SUIT SAYS

CALL it sun scream. After years of slathering our skin with lotions to protect us from the sun's cancer-causing rays, along comes word that it could all be a hoax....

THE DAWN OF A NEW CAMPAIGN FOR MORNING-AFTER PILL

A controversial new birth-control ad campaign aims to take the "emergency" out of emergency contraception - at least when it comes to getting a prescription. The American College of Obstetricians...

MISCHA MISSING

SOMEONE on Fox's "The O.C." will die this week and it could be Mischa Barton's character, Marissa. Or not. Rumors have been swirling for weeks that producers have written Barton...

SIMON PICKS HICKS

BURBANK, Calif. - Look for Taylor Hicks to edge out Katharine McPhee and become the next "American Idol," judge Simon Cowell told night-owl TV watchers yesterday. The delightfully mean-spirited "Idol"...

READ MY LIMBS - DECIPHER THE FLIRTY CLUES YOUR BODY BETRAYS; MAKE ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

IS that sexy barista brewing more than coffee for you? Is that coworker trying to intimidate you to get ahead? Is your spouse thinking of leaving? The answers may be...

SUPERSIZE ME! - IS BIGGER BETTER? THE POST BOARDS THE NEWEST MEGA-SHIP; ALL ABOARD FOR BIG FUN

QUESTION: I am longer than the Chrysler Building, wider than the White House, taller than the Statue of Liberty. You can climb my walls and surf my waves. What am...

SEA MONSTERS - WITH CRUISE LINES VYING TO LAUNCH EVER-LARGER VESSELS, CHRIS BUNTING ASKS: WHAT'S NEXT?

FREUD would have a field day with the cruise industry's escalating size war. First came Cunard's Queen Mary 2, which made its maiden voyage back in 2004. Coming in at...

SALE BOATS - TAKING A CRUISE SHOULDN'T DROWN YOU IN DEBT. CHRIS BUNTING FINDS THE TOP DEALS

ONE YEAR ago, we used our psychic powers (or, rather, coopted the Cruise Lines International Association's psychics) to predict that the number of cruise ship passengers would reach the 11...

GO PUBLIC - TAKE A DIFFERENT SORT OF CRUISE. BY CHRIS BUNTING

HAD it with the midnight buffet? Bored with the staff's idea of entertainment and the cruise director's incessant rah-rah announcements? Or maybe, though you crave the high seas, you've never...

SPACE ODDITY - BE IT BEARSKIN RUGS OR PONYTAILS, THERE'S A SUPPORT GROUP OUT THERE FOR ANY FETISH

WE'VE all heard about obsessive stamp collectors, Trekkies and people that go to Renaissance fairs. But who knew that somewhere out there was a group of people united by, say,...

'CHIEF' EXITS PRONE

WHEN last seen, President Mackenzie Allen was being carried out on a stretcher - a preview of an upcoming episode of "Commander in Chief." A few days later, ABC more...

STARR REPORT

Leslie & the 'Law' Screen legend Leslie Caron was here last week shooting a guest spot for a "Law & Order: SVU" episode that will air next season. That Caron...

FINALLY, NYC SAYS 'BYE, BILL'

TWO generations of TV news people gathered yesterday at a Lincoln Center memorial service to say goodbye - at last - to Bill Beutel, the former "Eyewitness News" anchor who...

IT'S ABOUT TIME - 'THE 4400' GANG REUNITES

TALK about growing pains. Isabelle, the killer baby from last year's blockbuster USA sci-fi series, "The 4400," goes from toddler to 20-yearold temptress in just one minute. That twist and...

FINALE FELON - KELLIE'S PAPA ASKS TO GO TO L.A. TO SEE 'IDOL' SING

The recently freed dad of "American Idol'' contestant Kellie Pickler wants Florida probation officials to stamp his ticket for Hollywood - so he can accompany his daughter to next week's...

'BRASCO' FED'S INSIDE STORY; HOW FBI HERO FOOLED GAMBINOS

An FBI agent who earned the moniker "modern day Donnie Brasco" for miraculously infiltrating the Gambinos laid out for the first time yesterday how he tricked the family into believing...

IMETTE BAR COULD LOSE ITS LICENSE

The State Liquor Authority is taking action against the SoHo bar where murdered student Imette St. Guillen was last seen alive. The SLA will issue a notice of pleading today,...

SKAKEL'S SUPREME LAWYER

Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel has hired a top lawyer to handle his bid to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn his conviction for murdering Martha Moxley 31 years ago. Theodore...

PREZ'S GOP BASE WON'T BACK HIM UP ON THIS

WASHINGTON - President Bush last night gambled that sending the National Guard to police the border would persuade get-tough Republicans to back citizenship for illegal aliens. At first blush, it...

ELIOT SUES NIP-&-TUCK 'SCAMMER'

ALBANY - Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday sued a Park Avenue plastic surgeon for defrauding patients out of tens of thousands of dollars after his medical license was yanked by...

COSTLY AND CONFUSING

Medicare Part D is confusing enough for people trying to get into it - but retired NYPD cop Anthony Bruno is bewildered trying to get out of it. Bruno, 63,...

A TALE OF SOOT & ILL-GOTTEN LOOT

A down-the-chimney thief captured in the act Sunday found himself yesterday in another tight spot - the Tombs. Serafin Gomez Sanchez, 24, homeless and just 5 feet tall, was still...

COLUMBIA TO PAIN MCCAIN

Columbia University students seeing red over the naming of Sen. John McCain as a keynote speaker for an annual Class Day celebration today plan to protest his address with the...

PRECINCT-THEFT VICTIM IN IRAQ

Three pistols stolen from a Queens station house that's the focus of an NYPD Internal Affairs probe belonged to a police lieutenant on leave for military duty in Iraq, a...

MOTHER CONVICTED OF KILLING INFANT

A 22-year-old homeless mother was convicted of murder in Manhattan yesterday for the bludgeoning and starvation death of her baby boy. Victim Colesvintong Florestal Jr. died at age 3 months,...

RUSH TO MEET RX DEADLINE; SENIORS IN 11TH-HOUR BID TO BEAT THE CLOCK

Tens of thousands of procrastinating seniors kept Medicare's operators busy yesterday during the final hours of enrollment for the government's new drug benefit - but millions still hadn't joined. Mark...

'EAT & GUN' MAN GUILTY

A Brooklyn man who allegedly fired an Uzi at cops in January was convicted yesterday of blasting away at an East Flatbush restaurant in an unrelated incident last summer. A...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

STATEN ISLAND *** A St. George man was arrested after he attacked a cop with a beer bottle during a drug bust, law-enforcement sources said. Gary Barnickel, 37, of Central...

LIBYA'S OFF U.S.TERROR LIST AS TIES RESTORED

The United States restored full diplomatic ties with Libya yesterday for the first time in a quarter-century, rewarding Moammar Khadafy's regime for scrapping its weapons of mass destruction. Culminating a...

WOMEN'S GROUP SUCKERED BY A SHEL GAME

SLICK Shelly has done it again. Sheldon Silver, the powerful liberal Assembly speaker, has infuriated some loyal pals at the National Organization for Women. He pulled a fast one. "I'm...

TEARS FOR N.Y. HEROES; DIE IN IRAQ CRASH

Relatives and neighbors are in mourning in Rockland County and on Long Island over the deaths of two Marines who died when their tank rolled off a bridge in Iraq....

LILLO PAL TRIES NEW GUN PLAY

Former "Sopranos" star Lillo Brancato's alleged cop-killing cohort is asking a judge to shoot the gun out of evidence. The .357 Magnum - which cops say accused murderer Steven Armento...

BOY'S EYE LOSS COSTS CITY $3.6M

The city is paying $3.67 million to a public school student who lost sight in his eye when he was hit with a hockey stick during gym at a Bronx...

MOBSTER: I TOOK CARE OF STAB KIN

A Genovese crime-family bookie took the stand in his own defense yesterday, telling a Brooklyn jury how he cared for his mentally unstable brother-in-law - but didn't hesitate to draw...

MIKE HITS GUN SLINGERS ; CITY SUIT TARGETS 15 DEALERS WITH 'BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS'

Accusing federal officials of shirking their duty to halt illegal weapon sales, Mayor Bloomberg filed the city's own lawsuit yesterday against 15 gun dealers nationwide who have "New Yorkers' blood...

NO SPARE $$ FOR PLAN

Anna Adamec declined signing up for Medicare's Part D prescription drug plan - because she simply can't afford it. The 88-year- old Astoria, Queens, woman said she already pays a...

HUNTS POINT FIX

A judge's preliminary ruling said yesterday that the city failed to give every company a fair chance to bid on a 15-acre site near the new Hunt's Point Terminal Market....

RELIEF AS CITY OKS 'FURNITURE' PLAN

Just hold on a little bit longer. The Franchise and Concession Review Committee unanimously approved a deal yesterday that would allow the city to build 20 public toilets. They're expected...

3RD DUKE KID RIPS RAPE SLAP; LACROSSE CAPTAIN: IT'S A PACK OF LIES

A Duke University lacrosse-team captain - slapped with a grand-jury indictment yesterday for allegedly raping a stripper during a booze-fueled party - immediately blasted the charges as "fantastic lies." "I...

CENTRAL PK. TO BECOME A WEB SITE

Get out your Frisbee and your laptop - Central Park is going wireless. Parks Department officials said yesterday that they expect to have the park ready for wireless Internet access...

TEENY POPPER PERILS; 1 IN 5 ABUSE RX DRUGS

Teens are kicking butts and booting the bottle, but their dependence on prescription painkillers for a high has become an "entrenched behavior," a new survey warns. The Partnership for a...

FAMILY OF SLAIN TEEN: HOW MANY MORE WILL DIE?

The angry, grieving family of a promising teenager shot dead in a Mother's Day robbery - just weeks before her high-school graduation - called for an end to the gun...

'LAW' STAR'S KID PLEADS

The tough-girl teen daughter of former "Law & Order" actor Dianne Wiest yesterday pleaded guilty to stealing an iPod off a classmate at Midtown's Beekman School. The two-time Oscar winner...

SEX-RAP STATUTE FREES 332 FIENDS

ALBANY - More than 300 sex criminals linked to DNA evidence are free on the streets because the statute of limitations on the cases has expired, The Post has learned....

HANDYMAN GETS LIFE IN RAPE SLAY; 'YOU STOLE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE'

A day laborer convicted of the barbaric rape and murder of a Rockland County mother of two was sentenced to life without parole yesterday - on what would have been...

VIDEO OF ILLEGAL SALE PACKS LOTS OF AMMO

Reality TV may be all the rage, but you can be sure that a certain Virginia gun dealer isn't thrilled to be starring in a video that landed him on...

2 BOZOS BLOW BREAK-IN ; 'LAUREL & HARDY' BUSTED

Two bumbling bandits with the savoir flair of Laurel & Hardy cut a hole through the roof of a Queens bank yesterday - but then couldn't break into the vault...

BOMB PLOT PRAY PLEA

The alleged Herald Square subway bomb plotter testified yesterday that he never intended to carry out a terrorist act and his advice for the man urging him to do it...

SUBWAY HITS RIDE RECORD

Weekday subway ridership hit a record high in March, transit officials said yesterday. The 4.9 million passengers who passed through turnstiles every day represented the largest average weekday ridership for...

U.S., LIBYA RENEW TIES AFTER 27 YRS.; KHADAFY REWARDED FOR DISARMING

The United States restored full diplomatic ties with Libya yesterday for the first time in a quarter-century, rewarding Moammar Khadafy's regime for scrapping its weapons of mass destruction. Culminating a...

CITY PAYS $3.67M IN SCHOOL EYE INJURY

The city is paying $3.67 million to a former public school student whose left eye was severely damaged when he was hit with a hockey stick at a Bronx school...

MIDDLE GROUND; BUSH'S IMMIGRATION SHIFT

IN his speech on immigration last night, the president got very, very specific. * He said he wanted to add 6,000 Border Patrol officers by the end of 2008. *...

GRANNY FOUND SLAIN; WESTCHESTER MYSTERY

A 59-year-old grandmother was brutally stabbed to death in her Westchester home - just a day after an anonymous tipster mysteriously asked child-protective services to go to her house, police...

20% OF TEENAGERS ABUSING RX DRUGS

Teens are kicking butts and booting the bottle, but their dependence on prescription painkillers for a high has become an "entrenched behavior," a new survey warns. The Partnership for a...

'BRASCO' FED'S INSIDE STORY DINED WITH MARIAH AS HE FOOLED MOB

An FBI agent dubbed the "modern-day Donnie Brasco" revealed fascinating details yesterday about how he secretly infiltrated and lived among the Gambinos - including once dining with an acting capo...

MIKE HITS GUN SLINGERS; CITY SUIT TARGETS 15 DEALERS WITH 'BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS'

Accusing federal officials of shirking their duty to halt illegal weapon sales, Mayor Bloomberg filed the city's own lawsuit yesterday against 15 gun dealers nationwide that have "New Yorkers' blood...

WRONG-WAY BABY; BRITNEY CAR-SEAT BLUNDER IMPERILS KID GINSBURG-SPALY/X17

MALIBU, Calif. - When it comes to driving with her baby, Britney Spears just can't get it right. After causing an international uproar by driving with her infant unsecured in...

BORDER 'GUARD' - BUSH VOWS 6,000 TROOPS VS. ILLEGALS

WASHINGTON - President Bush admitted last night that "we do not yet have full control of the [Mexican] border" - and vowed to send 6,000 National Guard troops to beef...

QNS. ALIEN LIKES WHAT HE HEARS IN SPEECH

A Queens baker who's in the country illegally sees "opportunities" in the immigration program President Bush laid out last night. Tomas Salvador Olivares, 57, who watched the president's speech with...

CNN TUBE BOOBS JUMP GUN ON W.

CNN was embarrassed last night when it briefly showed President Bush rehearsing his speech, thinking it was the actual address. The TV camera in the Oval Office was operated by...

MYSTERY MURDER NEAR SCHOOL HQ

A man was shot and killed last night in a parked car across from the entrance to the Nyack school district headquarters in Rockland County, authorities said. The victim, who...

RV MODEL A GAUZE CELEB - LEAVES HOSP 'IN PAIN'

Here's the first glimpse of on-the-mend model Tatyana Simanava leaving Mount Sinai Hospital yesterday - nearly a week after the klutzy catwalker opened the wrong door inside a moving RV...

WRONG WAY, BABY - BRITNEY AGAIN IMPERILS KID IN HER AUTO

MALIBU, Calif. - When it comes to driving with her baby, Britney Spears just can't get it right. After causing an international uproar by driving with her infant unsecured in...

BORDER 'GUARD' - BUSH VOWS 6,000 COLUMBIA TO TROOPS VS. ILLEGALS

WASHINGTON - President Bush admitted last night that "we do not yet have full control of the [Mexican] border" and vowed to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to beef up...

MUSSINA COMING UP ACES

While Carl Pavano was in the bullpen trying to work his way back into the Yankees rotation, Tanyon Sturtze was returning from an MRI that revealed the dreaded slight tear...

HITTING THE SKIDS - BOMBERS BATS WASTE MOOSE'S SOLID START

RANGERS 4 YANKEES 2 Say hello to The Swiss Cheese Gang. Without Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui and with Johnny Damon slumping, the Yankees' lineup is loaded with holes. "We...

LOOKIN' FOR GLOVE

THE Yankees have two perennial 100-plus RBI outfielders down and need two guys who are never going to play regularly on any good major league team to pick them up....

GIAMBI HOPING NECK GETS BETTER

When Jason Giambi left Yankee Stadium last night, he walked like he had an iron board nailed to his back. With Hideki Matsui gone for at least three months and...

'ONE GAME AT A TIME' FACING ELIMINATION, NETS STAY OPTIMISTIC

MIAMI - The Nets maintained brave faces and offered all the necessary, logical desperation-speak about winning one game at a time. But win three straight against the Heat? Don't even...

CLIFF LET OFF HOOK (FOR NOW)

NET NOTES MIAMI - Cliff Robinson visited the Nets yesterday before they flew here for tonight's Game 5. "He was here. He sat through the film, the whole nine yards,"...

FOR BARBARO, IT'S GOOD TO BE KING

FAIR HILL, Md. - In the pastoral serenity of Maryland's lush horse country, a thousand miles from the madding hordes of Churchill Downs, Barbaro, the thoroughbred icon of the hour,...

ACE UP THEIR SLEEVE; MOOSE ANSWERS CALL FOR YANKS

RANDY Johnson, who has an ERA of 5.13, has reached the point where four runs over six innings is considered an improvement. He probably will do better as the season...

JETS INK 4

The Jets yesterday signed four rookie free agents - CB Omowale Dada, LB Tearrius George, WR Wallace Wright and TE Joe Kowalewski and waived rookie fullback Micheal Warren. Dada, 5-11,...

CTK'S DAVIS VISITING HALL

Larry Davis is ready to take his second visit to a college. The first came nearly a year ago, when he went to N.C. State and almost immediately decided to...

HEY, HEY, HEY: IT'S PHAT ALBERT! PUJOLS POTENT BAT NEXT UP FOR METS

ST. LOUIS - The Mets are about to face baseball's No. 1 hitter. A few weeks ago, Barry Bonds and the Giants hosted the Mets in San Francisco. And three...

'SEA' CHANGE FOR BIG BLUE - PRACTICE-SQUAD DT CLEANS UP ACT

Jonas Seawright recalls two meetings last season with coach Tom Coughlin to discuss how the practice-squad defensive tackle was acting as a new member of the Giants. There were issues...

ZAMBRANO SURVIVES SURGERIES

MET NOTES ST. LOUIS - Victor Zambrano not only had surgery for his flexor muscle tear yesterday but also ended up having Tommy John surgery. According to Mets PR man...

NOT SO HOT; TOO MANY QUESTIONS FOR DEVS

THEY'LL try picking up the pieces this summer, these Devils whose Glory Days are now over with three Stanley Cups. Don't expect a fourth anytime soon. This was Lou Lamoriello's...

HARD WORK PAYS OFF FOR A-ROD

It was some two hours before the Yankees were to play the Rangers last night and Alex Rodriguez, the $252 million man who plays the game with an ease that...

MAKE WAY FOR PELFREY ; PROSPECT COULD GIVE METS JUNE JOLT

IN January, the Mets invested more than $5 million to lock up Mike Pelfrey. In February and March, the organization's top decision-makers were near unanimity that he had the best...

LARRY'S MAGIC NUMBER: $25M; ISIAH'S ALREADY PLANNING FOR LIFE WITHOUT BROWN

The tragic Larry Brown Era moved a step closer to a messy conclusion with the Knicks coach laid up in his Greenwich, Conn., mansion recovering from surgery as Isiah Thomas...

DEALING WITH IT ; YANKS NOT RUSHING TO RESTOCK OUTFIELD

Even though not many believe Melky Cabrera is a long-term answer in left field, the Yankees haven't been burning the phone lines looking for Hideki Matsui's replacement. Instead, the Yankees...

BERNARDINI TOPS NEW FOES

Every year, a group of horses known as the "new shooters" joins the Triple Crown fray in the Preakness after skipping the Kentucky Derby. Mostly, they are hometown horses taking...

LARRY'S MAGIC NUMBER: $25M - DOLAN SET TO SIGN CHECK, BOUNCE COACH

WHAT we have here is a failure to excommunicate. All this time, I had it wrong. I figured Isiah Thomas hired someone who would end up sabotaging him and taking...

BARRY 'EXHAUSTED' - WEARY BONDS GOES HOMERLESS AGAIN

HOUSTON - Barry Bonds' manager believes the slugger is tired. His teammates think he is tired. Even Bonds admits he's dragging - yet he will not take a day off,...

WANNA WHOLE LOTTA GLOVE

THE YANKEES have two outfielders down and need two guys who are never going to play regularly on any good team in the majors to pick them up. Just like...

NUMBER: $25M - ISIAH'S ALREADY PLANNING FOR LIFE WITHOUT BROWN

The tragic Larry Brown Era moved a step closer to a messy conclusion with the Knicks coach laid up in his Greenwich, Conn., mansion recovering from surgery as Isiah Thomas...

HANGIN' IN THERE - WEARY BONDS WON'T COME OUT OF LINEUP

HOUSTON - Barry Bonds' manager believes the slugger is tired. His teammates think he is tired. Even Bonds admits he's dragging, yet he will not take a day off. The...

MRI CONFIRMS TANYON HURTZE

YANKEE NOTES Tanyon Sturtze had an MRI on his right shoulder yesterday, and the early reports were disconcerting. The test found bursitis and a small tear of the right-hander's rotator...

JOE SAYS CANO CAN BE LIVE AT 5

YANKEE NOTES Joe Torre kept Robinson Cano in the No.5 spot in the lineup for the second straight game, even though the second-year pro went 1-for-4 with a strikeout in...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Some people hang mobiles in their homes, but not millionaire Richard Moriarty. He's hung an automobile in his mansion. And not just any auto. Moriarty had a crane lower a...