December 17, 2008
NEXT UP: JETS
In the Jets most-recent trip West they played the 49ers - a team short on wins but desperate to finish the season strong. Gang Green will face a similar team...
NEXT UP: GIANTS
If the Panthers beat the Giants on Sunday night they will have clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC. If they lose they could be in endanger of missing...
MTA BOARD OKS HEFTY FARE HIKE, SERVICE CUTS
With most board members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority expressing displeasure but still hope that the state Legislature would come to the rescue with major money, the MTA Wednesday approved...
SHOE OF FORCE
A Jackson Heights Amtrak worker was bum-rushed by authorities who feared he was planning to throw his shoe at MTA Board Chairman Eliot Sander Wednesday morning, replicating an Iraqi reporter...
MEEKS TAKES VEGAS TRIP AMID WORK ON AUTO BAILOUT
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) was on the defensive this week after a published report and photos revealed that he was in Las Vegas when his fellow congressmen were working...
QNS. NATIVE BUSTED IN $50B SCHEME
New York Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System were among the victims of an alleged $50 billion investment scheme that federal prosecutors contend was...
WILLETS PT. TENANTS SPLINTER ON RELOCATION
A deepening rift has emerged between tenant businesses at Willets Point as they struggle to negotiate with the city for more funding for relocation expenses. The Willets Point Defense Committee,...
CHRYSLER CLOSING ALL 30 PLANTS FOR ONE MONTH
Chrysler says it will close all 30 of its manufacturing plants for a month starting Friday. The company needs to match production to slowing demand and conserve cash. Tighter credit...
ROGER CLEMENS' MISTRESS MINDY MCCREADY TRIES TO KILL SELF
Paramedics rushed country singer Mindy McCready - who had a long-term affair with pitcher Roger Clemens - to a Tennessee hospital after an apparent suicide attempt this morning, cops said....
Variety Blasts Its 'Showman of the Year' For Self-Appointed Sainthood
Variety's Todd McCarthy ends his withering pan of "Seven Pounds'' with a very personal blast at the growing grandiosity of its star Will Smith, saluted just last week by the...
'Idol' Chat: Producer Ken Warwick
We caught up with "American Idol" Producer Ken Warwick to talk about the upcoming eighth season of the hit FOX reality competition. Warwick discussed bringing back the Wild Card to...
MANUEL EXTENDS OLIVER BRANCH
GM Omar Minaya doesn't know which free-agent starting pitcher the Mets will sign, but manager Jerry Manuel today made it clear he would like to have Oliver Perez back in...
Team Locke or Team Aiken
With just one month to go until "American Idol" Season Eight, we here at The Post thought it was time to bring our readers up to speed with the hottest...
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate*
* Translation: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here "Dead Space" fans, get excited 'cause the folks behind that game have set their sights on Dante's "The Divine Comedy."Yes, that's...
Looks Matter
Recent grad Tyler Flowers writes about his first year in the television business."You will never make it in TV. You are too tall and you're not that pretty, well, for...
Starr Report: Goodbyes
NBC is losing two of its longtime PR stalwarts. Carol Janson and Liza Rindge-Petersen are departing the premises, Carol after a 20-plus-year career at NBC (including her famous conference-call releases-always...
Starr Report: Nancy Grace on the 'Money'
Nancy Grace, who's been wall-to-wall on the Caylee Anthony case, set a viewership record for her Headline News show last Thursday night - 1 million viewers in adults 25-54 (the...
FAVRE FOCUSED ON NEAR FUTURE
Brett Favre is well aware this season - and maybe his career - is heading toward its conclusion. "It could be my last three games or last four games, I...
New trailers for "Watchmen" and "Terminator" games
Get 'em while they're semi hot."Watchmen: The End is Nigh" Terminator Salvation We all know that game trailers make games look a zillion times better than when you're actually playing...
A holiday message from "Fringe"
Okay, I'm well aware that this has nothing to do with video games. Even loosely. But I'm compelled to post it because "Fringe" has actually turned out to be a...
Crysis Wars are free (for a while)
As a holiday present, EA has decided to let you experience "Crysis Wars" for free, from Friday (Dec. 19) through Dec. 28.Basically, they're giving you 10 days to check out...
K-ROD LIKES METS' 1-2 PUTZ
Francisco Rodriguez officially joined the Mets today, and tomorrow J.J. Putz will be announced at a press conference at Citi Field. It is one of the few times this season...
Manuel talks K-Rod, Putz
Mets manager Jerry Manuel spoke with reporters this afternoon during the introductory press conference for Francisco Rodriguez in Long Island City and discussed the addition of K-Rod and fellow closer...
A Guitar Hero song you can't play
Y'all know MC Lars? He does "post-punk laptop rap." Perhaps you might remember him from when he did "Signing Emo" back in 2004. Anyway, Lars is back with a new...
WOMAN TO CLAIM 'TRANNY DEFENSE' IN MURDER TRIAL
A Queens woman who shot her ex-cop husband to death is going to use the Tranny Defense - arguing that the respected lawman was secretly a she-male-loving cross-dresser whose "Irish...
Jacobs raring to go
BY PAUL SCHWARTZNot at any point this season has the injury report handed out on Wednesday been this long for the Giants. There's usually the names of four or five...
SEN. KLEIN SLAMS "SUB-PRIME SCROOGES'
New York City lenders foreclosed on more than 250 homes last month, down from October. But experts are attributing the drop to Albany's 90-day foreclosure freeze. Now that the market...
CAPITAL PROJECT PROMISES CLASSROOM WALLS
Built in the mid-1970s during the apex of educational experimentation all across the country, the classrooms for grades four through six in P.S. 175 followed the "open classroom" model of...
CARRION SET TO ACCEPT OBAMA POST
According to published reports circulating in the New York media, Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. will likely be tapped to head President-elect Barak Obama's newly created White House Office of...
FIGHT TO KEEP SENIOR CENTERS OPEN
As the threat to close down senior centers increases, Councilman James Vacca is doing all he can to keep these essential locations open for those who rely on them. Vacca...
WESTCHESTER SQUARE MEDICAL CENTER LOSES SAVIOR
With the economy slowing and news that the borough and the country are in a recession, a proposal to save Westchester Square Medical Center by merging it with New York...
MANNY OR TEX?
So I'm standing in the Yankee clubhouse late in the season, chatting it up with Alex Rodriguez. The talk turns to Manny Ramirez and how he was carrying the Dodgers...
West Coast Blues
The Jets make another trip west this week and the first three trips have not gone well. At least this time they're not playing in California.Eric Mangini seems genuinely annoyed...
FURCAL HEADED TO DODGERS
The Los Angeles Dodgers moved into the lead for free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal one day after it seemed he was on the brink of signing with the Braves. "Right...
MAN TRIES TO THROW SHOE DURING MTA MEETING
All he wanted to say was that the fare-hiking MTA board chairman is a heel. Cops, fearing a rerun of an Iraqi reporter's double-shoe toss at President Bush, tackled and...
JUDGE GIVES MADOFF CURFEW, TRACKING DEVICE
Disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff made an appearance at the federal courthouse in Manhattan to complete paperwork for his bail after a judge set new conditions for release, including a...
MANNY AND THE YANKEES
FROM JOEL SHERMANHey, checking in from vacation again. Wanted to give another personal reminder that I am co-hosting The Show on XM Channel 175 all this week from 3-6 p.m....
3 UP: MANNY AND THE YANKS
Hey, checking in from vacation again. Wanted to give another personal reminder that I am co-hosting The Show on XM Channel 175 all this week from 3-6 p.m. Eastern.Also, I...
Giants looking for WRs
BY PAUL SCHWARTZFor public consumption, the Giants insist they have enough receivers even after the loss of Plaxico Burress, who is suspended after accidentally shooting himself in the thigh with...
VILLAGE VERMIN BUSTED
A violent two-man crime team - wanted for at least six stickups in Greenwich Village over the past month - was busted when cops nabbed the duo as they trolled...
GOV'S TAX & SPEND SHOCKER
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson yesterday socked New Yorkers with a mind-boggling 137 proposed new and hiked taxes on everything from beer to cab rides to iTunes downloads and movie tickets....
BIKE-BELTING COP SUSPENDED
A rookie cop caught on videotape knocking a cyclist off his bike during a Times Square demonstration was suspended yesterday after he was indicted on felony charges. Patrick Pogan, 23,...
COPS EYE 2 IN HATE SLAY
Cops are interested in talking to two men in the savage slaying of an Ecuadorian immigrant beaten to death by bat-wielding thugs in an apparent hate crime, law enforcement sources...
JETS SENDING LEAGUE-HIGH SEVEN TO HAWAII
According to Pro Bowl voting, the Jets are the best team in the NFL. A stunning seven Jets were named to the AFC Pro Bowl team yesterday, a year after...
FAVRE HAS TWO MORE GAMES TO DELIVER
THE Brett Favre experiment, which began 131 days ago when he stepped off a private plane in Cleveland, has come down to this: two games, eight quarters, 120 minutes of...
RANGERS CAN'T PUT CAP ON SUNDIN SAGA
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Tom Renney has made it clear. The Rangers coach doesn't particularly want to know whether the unresolved Mats Sundin situation is creating a distraction in his team's...
THE BEST IS EVERYTHING
RELEASING a greatest hits album is as much a staple of the music biz as demanding a case of whiskey in the contract rider. And while some artists such as...
The mighty Oak Room
My date, Cindy Adams, and I picked a plum dining venue the other night - the reopened Plaza Oak Room, which aims to bring "the prestige and influence of the...
WE LOVE NEW ROURKE
WHEN "The Wrestler" calls himself "a broken-down piece of meat," he is being too generous. He's what's left of an '80s pro-wrestling icon - markdown Rapunzel hair, a face like...
POLITICAL RETELLING IS JUST PLAME DUMB
FOR those who didn't get enough of the Valerie Plame case in the first billion hours of coverage, a lightly fictionalized case turns up in the TV-ish drama "Nothing But...
A wild night in Hollywood
By MARC BERMANLOS ANGELES - Had the Knicks pulled this off and stunned the Lakers, Mike D'Antoni may have requested Stephon Marbury sit baseline with a ticket stub every game.The...
'MOMMA' LIVES
A last-minute lawsuit to keep the Ryan Seacrest-produced "Momma's Boy" off the air last night has been thrown out by a Manhattan federal court judge. Turkish TV producers claim the...
STARR REPORT
NBC is losing two of its longtime PR stalwarts. Carol Janson and Liza Rindge-Petersen are depart ing the premises, Carol after a 20-plus-year career at NBC (including her famous confer...
EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS SOMETHING
GRANDPA Granola is forever Young. He's cantankerous onstage, yet under that crusty exterior Neil Young remains one of rock's most exciting acts whether he's strumming an acoustic Martin guitar or...
BRING THAT WHINE TO THE PARTY
AFTER complaining yes terday that she'd been left off the guest list this year for the White House Christmas party, Elisabeth Hasselbeck discovered that her invitation had been lost in...
THEY DIED IN PRIMETIME
DEAR Friends, We are gathered here today to pay our respects to the characters on primetime shows who met their untimely deaths in 2008. They all died tragically (this is...
SAX MANIAC
IT'S finally happened. Elvis met Elvis and talked music for an hour. No - it didn't happen in the afterlife or in the even more bizarre setting of a Las...
IT'S NOT TV, IT'S HBOPRAH
HBO said yesterday that it's going into business with Oprah Winfrey to produce miniseries, movies, documentaries and series for the pay cable channel. The deal marks the end of Harpo's...
UNFRIENDLY WORDS OVER 'PAL'
ON the eve of the opening of the trou bled revival of "Pal Joey," a war of words has broken out between the head of the Roundabout Theatre Company and...
DERRICK COLEMAN ISN'T BROKE
LOS ANGELES - Got a call Monday from Gina Coleman, Derrick's wife. She wants people to know that widespread reports of her husband being in financial free fall are flagrantly...
TIKI, ELI CLEAR THE AIR; BARBER HOPES COUGHLIN NEXT
ELI Manning doesn't agree to many sit- down interviews, but he did last week for NBC's Tiki Barber, who some may remember as the best running back in Giants history....
JACOBS' INJURY SIMILAR TO BARBER'S
Five games into his NFL career, Tiki Barber as a rookie in 1997 cut through a hole in a game at Giants Stadium against the Saints, tripped and fell straight...
PRO BOWL WILL BE SHADED BIG BLUE
The Giants may be slumping a bit down the stretch of the season, but they are soaring as far as recognition. A year after managing just one Pro Bowl selection...
TIGER MIGHT JUST BAG THIS BLOWHARD CADDIE
HELP WANTED: Male or female, physically fit enough to carry a heavy bag over hilly terrain for weekends at a time in all types of weather conditions. Must be well-versed...
DEVIN SET FOR DERON, THEN KIDD
Devin Harris sounds like he doesn't even bother looking at the schedule anymore. Take the Nets' next two games. "Who we playing the next two games?" Harris said. Well, the...
CC, A.J. READY FOR BRONX DEBUTS
Come April, CC Sabathia is going to be No. 1 and A.J. Burnett No. 2 in the Yankees' rebuilt rotation. However, tomorrow the biggest prizes in the free-agent market will...
ANGELS AIMING RADAR AT MANNY
Agent Scott Boras might have the delicious bidding battle he craves for Manny Ramirez. The Yankees admit an interest in the controversial free-agent slugger to bolster a lineup with holes....
RALLY POINTS THINGS IN RIGHT DIRECTION FOR ISLES
In a season that is becoming more and more about next year - and the years after that - even losses can be good things. While the Islanders certainly weren't...
SPORTS SHORTS
MLB: Furcal headed back to Atlanta Shortstop Rafael Furcal is close to accepting a three-year, $30 million offer to return to the Braves. The 31-year-old played for the Braves from...
LEAFS' SHOOTOUT MOVE SINKS DEVILS
TORONTO - For the first time since Martin Brodeur went down to injury, the Devils settled for the charity point of tie-breaking defeat. A borderline tactic scuttled them, and their...
RANGERS BEGIN BIG TRIP IN STYLE
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Tom Renney laid out the challenge. "This is a pretty crucial part of the season," the Rangers' head coach said prior to last night's match, which opened...
STEPH ON HAND IN L.A.
LOS ANGELES - He's baaaack ! After a training session yesterday morning in the Hollywood Hills, banned Stephon Marbury shocked the Knicks by attending their game last night vs. the...
NATE IS NOT ENOUGH TO ESCAPE LAKERS
LOS ANGELES -Stephon Marbury went from banished pariah to a Knicks good-luck charm last night. But it lasted only for one half. With Marbury sitting courtside after buying a ticket,...
DEAD DRUNKS: SPATE OF SUBWAY BOOZE FATALITIES
Friends don't let friends ride drunk. Sloshed straphangers made up nearly half of all accidental deaths underground during a 13- year Columbia University study. "Now, if groups are going to...
LILLO 'SCARED'
Drug-addled actor Lillo Brancato is "scared to death" as jurors prepare to begin deliberating his fate today in the tragic slaying of an off-duty Bronx cop, his lawyer said yesterday....
PREZ'S SOLE SURVIVOR: EYE FEEL FINE, THANKS
When the footwear flew, Dana Perino got a "shoe-venir." That's what President Bush's press secretary called the shiner around her right eye yesterday when she began her daily White House...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
Queens A purse snatcher was busted after a botched robbery attempt at an Elmhurst subway station, police said. Luis Paucar-Perez, 20, sneaked up behind a 45-year-old woman as she climbed...
AMAZING 'FEET' AS E-GAME BOOTS UP
Online game players have a new obsession - saving President Bush from size-10 shoes. Dozens of Web sites and blogs yesterday featured links to "Bush's Boot Camp," a fresh-from-the-headlines game...
BONANNO BOSS HIT WITH 15 YEARS FOR MOB SLAY
The acting boss of the Bonanno crime family was sentenced yesterday to 15 years behind bars for ordering a hit on one of his associates. Michael "The Nose" Mancuso, 53,...
PATERSON DISHES UP THE SAME OLD ME$$
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson yesterday channeled the original architects of the state's fiscal mess, former Govs. George Pataki and Mario Cuomo, unveiling an "emergency" budget that slashes school aid and...
1981 'ADAM' SLAY SOLVED
Florida police finally closed the missing-child case that led to the creation of the TV show "America's Most Wanted," announcing yesterday that a drifter who died in jail was the...
COLUMBO COMBAT
The daughter of "Columbo" star Peter Falk claims her stepmom is hiding the Alzheimer's-suffering TV detective from the rest of his loved ones, in an ugly family rift headed to...
LET U$ PRAY
The historic Church of the Holy Cross - a longtime refuge for those in need - now needs your help this holiday season. Already crippled by staggering repair bills to...
O TEAM OK: DICK
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney gave a thumbs-up to Barack Obama's national security advisers, calling them a "pretty good team" and giving kudos to Hillary Rodham Clinton. "While I...
BARACK MUM ON ILL. WINDS
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama dodged questions yesterday about any contact his staff had with foul-mouthed Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is facing impeachment in addition to charges for corruption. When...
WEB-POKER PROGRAMMER FOLDS ON $300M HAND
A billionaire computer expert sported a bizarre grin as he pleaded guilty yesterday to running an illegal online gambling parlor - and agreed to forfeit $300 million he raked in...
$LAPPED-HANGERS BRACING FOR WORST
The MTA board is expected to approve drastic fare increases and service cuts at their meeting today, sources told The Post. And an informal poll of board members showed strong...
DESPERATE 'SUPERTHIEF' SON-BERNED
There aren't many people left for alleged mega-swindler Bernard Madoff to alienate - even his sons seem to want to let him rot in jail. MORE: Even Uma Beau Gets...
BEEFY FRAGRANCE
Burger King has a whopper of a new smell. The fast food giant rolled out its "Flame" fragrance for men, in hopes it'll capture the essence of love "with a...
FIRETRUCK HIT HURTS 30
A firetruck racing to a car blaze collided with a city bus as it crossed a Brooklyn intersection yesterday, cops said. Thirty people were taken to a hospital, including six...
TRIANGLE MYSTERY
The Coast Guard is searching the ocean in the spooky Bermuda Triangle for a plane that mysteriously disappeared while reportedly heading to New York City from the Dominican Republic. The...
BARBIE'S FOR 'THE BIRDS'
A scary new version of Barbie is taking wing. For $40 a pop, grown-up collectors of the iconic Mattel doll can have their favorite blonde, packaged in a box and...
YESHIVA U.'S PAINFUL $110M FRAUD LESSON
Joining the long list of institutions that have felt the sting of the massive Ponzi scheme allegedly perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, Yeshiva University acknowledged yesterday it has lost about $110...
EVEN UMA BEAU GETS SKIMMED
Uma Thurman's billionaire fiancé was scorched in Bernard Madoff's $50 billion boondoggle - and he's not buying the alleged con man's claim that he did it alone. "For the amount...
FACING MU$IC ON DOWNLOADS
Filling up your iPod could get very taxing if Gov. Paterson has his way. The governor wants to begin taxing music and movie downloads as part of an effort to...
COP-SLAYING 'GUN TIPSTER'
An accused cop killer testified yesterday that he was working as an NYPD informant to help get guns off the streets when he was unwittingly caught up in the shooting...
$UM LIKE IT REAL HOT
A California collector was thrown for a curve when he was told a clingy black Marilyn Monroe dress a friend had given him could be worth $250,000. The frock, which...
SHOE-ING SPREE 'A SLAY TRY'
The Baghdad reporter who hurled his shoes at President Bush was warned yesterday he could be charged with attempted murder - and face up to 15 years in jail. Muntadhar...
HILL TELLS PALS: LAY OFF CAROLINE
Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday called off the dogs, telling loyal surrogates to quit sniping at Caroline Kennedy with questions about her qualifications to serve in the US Senate, sources told...
WORKING CLASS: WE'RE AT BREAKING POINT
Working stiffs are getting stiffed. That was the angry reaction of New Yorkers last night to Gov. Paterson's plan to impose new or additional taxes on everyday purchases like nondiet...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
Tat's really dumb! When St. Paul, Minn., cops stopped two men in a high-crime area and asked for ID, one said he had none and gave his name as Darnell...
THE WAR ON DRUGS
"Morgy's Equal Treatment Test" (Editorial, Dec. 12) is inaccurate. The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, not the New York County District Attorney's Office, is handling the case against the...
THE GREAT ECONOMIC FREAKOUT OF '08
WE are in what might be called the Great Freak out of 2008. The Federal Reserve is a hair's breadth from pushing interest rates to zero percent. After that, all...
GET YOUR SHOVELS READY, NEW YORK
IMMEDIATELY upon taking office, President Barack Obama will launch a massive effort to revive the economy - centered on $500 billion in new funding for modernization and construction of roads,...
IRAQIS SHOW 'GRATITUDE' FOR BUSH'S GREAT FEAT
THE ISSUE: An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush in Baghdad. *** Regardless of what we think of President Bush, he represents all Americans ("Lame Duck!" Dec....
POLS & MOLLS
CABLE TV intro duced us to "The Real Housewives of Orange County" - an estrogen-infused reality show featuring a coven of conniving and ambitious women living pampered lives in Southern...
PATERSON PUNTS
IT'S only a state budget, but that didn't stop Gov. Paterson from wrapping himself in grandeur when he delivered his spending plan to lawmakers yesterday. He went as far as...
ROCK SUITS CLOTHIER
AFTER 190 years, Brooks Brothers has finally chosen a spot for a store in Rockefeller Center. Brooks Brothers will take over the French Connection UK's duplex at 1270 Avenue of...
GOLDMAN POSTS FIRST LOSS: $2.12B
Wall Street's one-time king, Goldman Sachs, posted its first public loss ever - $2.12 billion in just three months - but pity was scarce. Goldman has already garnered $10 billion...
EPIC PREZ DECIDES TO TAKE A 'WALK'
Epic Records President Charlie Walk will leave the label at the end of the year, The Post has learned. Several sources inside SonyBMG, Epic's parent company, said Walk's contract, which...
BEST BYE TO CHAIN'S WORKERS
Best Buy said it will offer severance packages to nearly all its 4,000 corporate employees in a dramatic bid to slash costs as the recession continues to sap demand for...
DYKSTRA DROPS THE BALL
FORMER New York Mets out fielder Lenny Dykstra appears to be striking out with his magazine, Players Club. Dykstra, who helped the 1986 Mets capture the World Series before landing...
ANALYSTS: FIRM SENT CLIENTS 'DATED' INFO
The performance statements that fallen Wall Street big Bernard Madoff's firm sent to clients appear riddled with inaccuracies and other suspicious signs that should have raised red flags, according to...
DOLLAR TO DONUTS
Ben Bernanke's wild bet to flood the economy with even more cash than ever recorded could possibly drown the economy by springtime, some worried investors fear. The Federal Reserve chief's...
. . . WITH ONE SMALL STEP AHEAD
Meanwhile, it's good, at least, to see Gov. Paterson call for a long-over due rollback of New York's absurdly generous public-employee-pension regime - even though he doesn't go nearly far...
BUSINESS AS USUAL . . .
Gov. Paterson delivered a grim mes sage yesterday. "This is the worst fiscal downturn since the Great Depression," he said - warning that New York is facing its "largest deficit"...
MADOFF FAMILY TIES
An embarrassed Christopher Cox said his Securities and Exchange Commission is probing whether the agency's staff allowed confessed swindler Bernard Madoff to walk away from numerous fraud complaints filed against...
COUNCIL ASSAILS RAVITCH OVER TRANSIT REVENUE
Former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Richard Ravitch answered a barrage of questions by City Council members Tuesday about his committee's suggestions for rescuing the MTA from financial straits. He said...