March 10, 1999

BILL READY TO BLINK IN ANTITRUST CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - After being dragged over the coals for five months, Bill Gates may be ready to settle the government's antitrust case against Microsoft. Lawyers close to the case...

TINA'S NEW STAFF: LESS BUZZ, MORE ZZZ

The biggest name in Tina Brown's Talk magazine will be, er, Tina Brown. The Queen of buzz is unveiling her team of in-house writers today, but despite her $50 million...

ICAHN WINS: RJR SETS BREAKUP PLAN

After four years of badgering RJR Nabisco to break itself up, investor Carl Icahn finally got what he wanted - but he may not be happy with it. The $20...

WETHERELL IS STORM CLOUD OVER THE DEAL

The card shark is betting that Diller will blink and raise his offer - something Diller says he won't do - or a higher bidder will step into the breach....

NO BIDDERS SURFACE AS LYCOS RISES 15%

Lycos shares jumped 15 percent yesterday on hopes that a bidding war might erupt even though no new suitors appear to be rushing in. The new-found optimism followed the resignation...

EX-CFO CLAIMS IVILLAGE DOESN'T ADD UP

Court case puts iVillage IPO in limbo. iVillage is defending itself from allegations the women's website had used "marginal" and "inappropriate"' financial practices to boost revenues and make itself more...

GO FIGURE! EX-SPICER TO PEN MEMOIR

EX-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell just snagged an estimated $500,000 book deal to write her memoir for the Delacorte Press imprint of Random House. The bubbly, 26-year-old redhead formerly known as...

NBC TAKES SHOT AT DILLER'S TCHOTCHKES

As if Barry Diller didn't already have enough headaches. NBC's announcement yesterday that it is going head-to-head against Dillerby buying a home shopping network of its own is sure to...

RICH FLAVORS AT BARGAIN PRICES

IMAGINE you're the waiter and it's the height of the dinner seating Friday night. A demanding diner, well on in his meal, asks: "Could you chill this bottle of wine...

GREEN, BUT A HIT

'DO you have a good baby nurse?'' the young mom with her toddler asks my friends Andrea and Mark while they wait for my wife, Jane, and me downstairs at...

COUNTDOWN TO THE OSCARS - BEST DIRECTOR

OUR ODDS Steven Spielberg, "Saving Private Ryan" (2-1) John Madden, "Shakespeare in Love" (4-1) Terrence Malick, "The Thin Red Line" (8-1) Peter Weir, "The Truman Show" (80-1) Roberto Benigni, "Life...

BROADWAY SHOW IS 17 MILES LONG - DAVID HARTMAN HITS THE ROAD AGAIN

"A Walk Up Broadway" Tonight at 8 on WNET/Ch.13 PUT on your couch potato walking shoes and tag along as David Hartman and Barry Lewis take a 17-mile "Walk Up...

TV TICKER

NBC news CNBC's coverage of President Clinton's joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema last Friday gave the network a business-day ratings victory over CNN. CNBC says it...

'RUBY' NEEDS POLISH

THERE'S a scene in ''Everybody's Ruby,'' Thulani Davis' new play set in Florida in 1952, where Viola Davis, playing Ruby, a rich black woman, is in the office of her...

NBA FANS CONFOUND EXPERTS

DESPITE the experts' predictions that fans would abandon the sport after its recent labor troubles, more viewers are watching the NBA this year than last season. For the first 10...

KILBORN PLAYS BALL AS NCAA 'MASCOT' - HE'S SHOOTING FOR YOUNG AUDIENCE

CBS has cast Craig Kilborn - the smirky, young host-to-be of the "Late Late Show" - as the unofficial mascot of its NCAA basketball tournament coverage starting this week. In...

TED GIVES NOD TO 'TODAY' SHOW - SLEEPY SLUGGER WILLIAMS 'NAPS' DURING INTERVIEW

RED-faced NBC brass were reeling in embarrassment last night after airing a tribute to Joe DiMaggio in which Red Sox legend Ted Williams appeared to be sound asleep. Tom Brokaw...

GAS KING WON'T PAY WITH HIS LIFE

A millionaire gas-station mogul, convicted last week of two contract murders, was spared the death penalty yesterday by a Brooklyn jury that deliberated for just an hour. One juror who...

CARDINAL: MY FATE RESTS WITH POPE

ALBANY - An amused John Cardinal O'Connor said yesterday reports of his retirement are greatly exaggerated. In his first comments since circulating a letter to priests of the archdiocese hinting...

GRANNY GETS 25 YEARS FOR BEATING SLAY OF 4-YR.-OLD

A Brooklyn grandmother convicted of beating her daughter's 4-year-old foster child to death with a broomstick while the child was tied to a chair was sentenced yesterday to serve up...

BUDDY OF CALVIN MODEL STABBED

A friend of Calvin Klein skivvies model Antonio Sabato Jr. was stabbed in the stomach during a fight at the China Club early yesterday. Sabato accompanied the victim, Robert D'Angelo,...

O'CONNOR BOOSTS DRUG-TEST PROTESTERS

ALBANY - Hundreds of advocates for the mentally ill protested at the Capitol yesterday against state-sponsored drug experiments using vulnerable people as "human guinea pigs." The protesters got a big...

$UIT DU JOUR IN ELAINE'S CLAW CASE

Sassy society saloonkeeper Elaine Kaufman is scratching back - with a $3 million suit - against charges she clawed a customer in the face. Kaufman, who owns the famed Upper...

TWO LIVID LEWINSKYS: BUBBA IS 'A BUTTHEAD'

Monica Lewinsky's dad yesterday came out swinging at President Clinton - branding him "totally irresponsible" for his steamy affair with the portly pepperpot. And Monica's bitter stepmom labeled the scandalized...

DIALLO-SLAY COPS WANT OWN EXPERTS TO TESTIFY

The witnesses would include experts on ballistics and police tactics, and provide a picture of what happened the night of Feb. 4, the sources said.The cops who killed unarmed immigrant...

STOP BICKERING, AND GIVE OUR KIDS A CHANCE

IT WAS a formidable task. Standing in the lobby of her South Bronx apartment building with eight plastic bags full of groceries, Barbara Colon looked at the stairs with disgust....

SWEEPSTAKES MAILINGS PUSH ENVELOPE ON TRICKERY: POLS

WASHINGTON - Senators yesterday charged the sweepstakes industry with fooling the elderly through glitzy come-ons and vowed to impose tough new restrictions on future giveaways. During a three-hour hearing, executives...

POLL FINDS NEW YORKERS GROWING WEARY OF RUDY

Mayor Giuliani continues to take a pounding in the polls in the wake of the Amadou Diallo slaying - but at the same time, New Yorkers think the quality of...

D'AMATO THINKS JOHN JR. COULD FILL RUDY'S SHOES

Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato played political troublemaker yesterday, telling a roomful of reporters that he thinks John F. Kennedy Jr. would make a great mayor. D'Amato's playful prodding came at...

DEATH SENDS DIMAGGIO'S MEMORABILIA $OARING

Joe DiMaggio's death jolted the market for his memorabilia yesterday, raising some prices by 50 percent. Joltin' Joe's signature on a baseball went from $300 to $400 overnight - a...

ARAB MAKES HISTORY BY BEING NAMED MISS ISRAEL

JERUSALEM - The new Miss Israel is an Arab. Ranah Raslan, 21, became the first Arab Israeli to win the national beauty pageant, in a ceremony broadcast live last night...

MAJOR'S FANS: GOV PLAN'S HIGHWAY ROBBERY

Gov. Pataki's proposal to rename the Major Deegan Expressway for Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio is striking out with the World War I vet's relatives and his American Legion successors. "Of...

PEGGY CASS, B'WAY, FILM AND TV STAR, DIES AT 74

Peggy Cass, who won a Tony and was nominated for an Oscar for her stage and film portrayals of "Auntie Mame's" secretary, Agnes Gooch, has died, her agent said yesterday....

MADMAN HUNTED IN B'KLYN STABBING ; WOMAN, 26, LEFT TO DIE ON SIDEWALK

Police last night were hunting for the Brooklyn madman who plunged a knife into a selfless social-work student from Kansas before fleeing with her bag and leaving her to die....

WELFARE CHEATS NEW YORK ; FEW NAILED FOR RIP-OFFS - ESPECIALLY IN APPLE: PROBE

The state's courts are letting welfare cheats off easy by not punishing offenders who plunder taxpayer-funded benefits, a new report charges. The city has a lower prosecution rate for the...

ZOOM LOOMS FOR AMTRAK ; 150-MPH BULLET TRAIN IS UNVEILED

"I'd pay 30 percent more. I have relatives in Boston and often come to New York."MICHAEL COLOP Amtrak wants commuters to ditch shuttle jets and climb aboard its new, luxurious,...

FRISCO FUNERAL WILL BE A SMALL, FAMILY AFFAIR ; NO FANFARE AT FUNERAL

Joe DiMaggio, who insisted on privacy during his life, will have it at his funeral tomorrow. Only 30 to 40 of Joe D.'s relatives will be allowed to attend the...

ED. BOARD TO QUESTION CREW ABOUT JOB STATUS

The Board of Education is meeting privately with Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew today to find out whether he's on his way out. "We are going to talk about the chancellor's...

HUNDREDS OF TIPS FUELING PATAKI PROBE OF CITY'S SCHOOLS

Hundreds of whistleblowers have given tips about fraudulent attendance and shoddy construction jobs to Gov. Pataki's new probe of city schools, an inquiry political foes want to kill. Pataki's 2-month-old...

FEAR STALKS STREETS OF PROSPECT HEIGHTS

Fear has overtaken the place Amy Watkins left behind in Prospect Heights when a cold-hearted killer plunged a knife into her back. "It's very scary to know that the monster...

DEMS MIGHT EMBARRASS CLINTON IN KOSOVO VOTE

WASHINGTON - President Clinton risks a symbolic "no confidence" vote in his foreign policy this week unless House Democrats line up solidly behind his plan to send troops to Kosovo,...

VICTIM RECALLED AS 'BEAUTIFUL INSIDE AND OUT'

Slain social-work student Amy Watkins traded the safety of America's heartland for the streets of New York because she believed she could do the most good here. Friends and family...

M0ST F0LKS DIG THE DEEGAN: POLL ; PREFER RENAMING IT OVER W. SIDE IN JOE'S HONOR

New Yorkers would rather honor Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio by renaming The Bronx's Major Deegan Expressway after him instead of the West Side Highway in Manhattan, a Post bullet poll...

'STALKER' WAS DENNIS MENACE

A Chicago-area woman stalked basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman and threatened to kill three people who work for him when they wouldn't pass along her requests for a date, California...

CATHOLIC GROUP WANTS BASEBALL TO TOSS TURNER

Baseball officials say they are looking into a Catholic group's demands that Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner be barred from the sport for a year because he told a Polish...

RUDY FIRES ZINGER AT HILLARY ON RESIDENCY

ALBANY - Mayor Giuliani took a swipe at First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton last night, saying the next senator from New York should be a New Yorker. "I think, and...

SCALDED TOT LEFT TO SUFFER: COPS

A year-old Brooklyn girl suffered a week without medical treatment for burns from being dunked in a tub of scalding-hot water, police said last night. They rushed the toddler from...

KOVALEV HELPING PENS ON BACKLINE

PITTSBURGH - Odd things happen when some people leave New York. Few cases are more curious than Alexei Kovalev playing defense. Not just playing defensively, but playing the backline. Like...

MORE DOGS WITH SOME BITE

THE SLEEPERS The black and white snapshots of March are always of the underdog: A sobbing Jim Valvano running wild through a thicket of bodies looking to hug somebody in...

NETS NEED TO BREAK OUT OF COLD SWEAT

CHICAGO - When you are next to last in the league in shooting, there is only one thing you want to see when you walk on the basketball court -...

BRUISED KNEE KOS BONILLA

MET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Bobby Bonilla skipped workouts yesterday with what the Mets are describing as a bruised right knee. Bonilla said he does not foresee missing significant...

SAMFORD BRACED FOR COMING STORM

ORLANDO - Samford basketball players were glued to their TV sets two months ago, like hundreds of thousands of fans across the nation, watching St. John's and Duke play the...

SMOOTH SAILING FOR EL DUQUE

YANKEE NOTES KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Outside of the Legends Field clubhouse buffet table and an occasional sad moment about what he left behind in Cuba, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez' initial...

ANXIOUS STRAW SET TO RETURN TODAY

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Less than six months after listening but not believing as a doctor told him he had colon cancer, Darryl Strawberry returns to a batter's box in a...

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU

THE early part of the ski season in the Northeast was a bust for most ski resorts, especially the important holiday period in December. The second half is almost making...

JORDAN RIPS LA RUSSA

ORLANDO - Now that he is an Atlanta Brave, Brian Jordan says he is looking forward to playing for a team that wants to win, not set individual records like...

SANTA ANITA BACK AT OTB

New York City OTB today will begin taking bets on races from Santa Anita for the first time this year. N.Y. State Racing and Wagering Board chairman Michael Hoblock approved...

MATHIS PLAYS GARDEN AGAIN

It was his only game at the Garden, but for Johnny Mathis it helped seal the end of a potential NBA career. Having to guard Earl Monroe will do that...

HOFSTRA'S NOT AWED BY RUTGERS MATCHUP

Rutgers had hoped to make the NCAA Tournament, and heading to the NIT was initially a letdown for the Scarlet Knights. But first-round NIT opponent Hofstra couldn't have been happier...

DOC PULLING FOR DARRYL

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The cliche that applies to an athlete battling a serious disease says that life is all that matters, and playing sports seems trivial by comparison. Balderdash,...

ALLEN'S STAR ON RISE

"George [Karl] is not afraid to stir things up and put some fire under our feet." RAY ALLEN You walk into the visitors' locker room at the Garden and strike...

STEWARD TO LENNOX: HIT MORE, THINK LESS; TRAINER IN WRONG CORNER

LENNOX Lewis is not Emanuel Steward's kind of fighter. For one thing, he plays chess in his spare time. "Too much thinking," Steward says. For another, he has to be...

ISLES TRADE LACHANCE TO MONTREAL

The final straw came on Saturday when Islander defenseman Scott Lachance and coach Bill Stewart had an incident on the bus ride home from Philadelphia. The Post has learned that...

EVANDER STANDS BY HIS PLAN - KO IN 3

The clandestine room in the basement of the Church Street Gym had the feel of a survival bunker for the millennium, sweaty and overcrowded, Christian funk echoing off brick walls...

EWING ASKS OUT - SORE ACHILLES SENDS PATRICK TO HOSPITAL

Patrick Ewing is hurting. After just one trip up the floor last night, Ewing pulled himself out of the game against the Bucks at the Garden because of a sore...

FLEDGLING ST. EDMUND ONE WIN AWAY FROM GLORY

CHSAA 'B' SEMIS St. Edmund 52 St. John's Prep 36 "It was a struggle in the beginning. We knew we'd eventually get better." ST. EDMUND'S AARON MILES When it started...

VAN GUNDY STANDS BY THOMAS AND CAMBY

KNICK NOTES The Knicks went into last night's game having been out-rebounded in 10 of their previous 11 games. Yet coach Jeff Van Gundy made it clear that Kurt Thomas...

REMEMBER THE MAIN!

Winter unofficially becomes spring today with the return to Aqueduct's main strip after more than three months of racing over the inner dirt track, and a big change is in...

FLORIDA DERBY DRAWS CROWD

A full field looks likely when entries are taken today for Saturday's Florida Derby at Gulfstream, including the filly Three Ring. Other possible starters are Vicar, Cat Thief, Certain, Grits'n...

BRODEUR'S 30TH STOPS PENGUINS; BRODEUR IN ELITE CLUB

Devils 3 Penguins 2 PITTSBURGH - It's been 20 years since anyone did it, and that last one was Hall of Famer Ken Dryden. In a season when the rest...

CAL CAN'T EXPLAIN HORRI-BULL LOSS

Bulls 103 Nets 87 CHICAGO - So what is worse? Losing at home to the Hornets or losing, period, to the Bulls? But it doesn't really matter, the Nets have...

KNICK NIGHTMARE - LIMPING PATRICK MAKES EARLY EXIT IN LOSS TO BUCKS

Bucks 87 Knicks 86 Patrick Ewing is hurting again ... and so are the Knicks. After just one trip up the floor in the 87-86 loss to the Bucks last...

STEWART LIKES THIS FLYER TIE

Islanders 2 Flyers 2 This Philly tie was acceptable. Four days ago, the Islanders held a 3-0 lead vs. the Flyers before allowing three goals in the final 3:06 to...

LATRELL GETS CURRIED

"I feel like I let the team down. ... It was totally my fault." LATRELL SPREWELL Disaster, wearing No. 30 in a Milwaukee Buck uniform, was waiting for the Knicks...

'RUSTY' DUDLEY PILES UP THE MINUTES

KNICK NOTES After averaging only 8.2 minutes a game, Chris Dudley again finds himself in a vital role. Dudley played 24 minutes after Patrick Ewing left the game in the...

CHILDS BLASTS REFEREES AS 'TERRIBLE'

KNICK NOTES Chris Childs made a critical turnover with 40.6 seconds left last night, losing the ball under the Bucks' basket to Michael Curry as Childs was swarmed by three...

DEPLORA-BULL LOSS COULD KO CALIPARI

CHICAGO - You thought that embarrassing defeat at home to Charlotte was the low point for the Nets. Think again. What's more wretched, losing at home to the Hornets or...

MATHIS WARMING UP FOR GARDEN ENCORE

ABSTRACT: It was his only game at the Garden, but for Johnny Mathis., it helped seal the end of a potential NBA career. Having to guard Earl Monroe will do...