January 15, 2002
DOWNTOWN PROPERTY VALUATIONS TAKE DIVE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amVulture investors are circling Downtown for fast and cheap buys, but so far most owners are holding out. Still, the swift drop in asking rents since Sept. 11 has brokers...
SLAP ON THE WRIST - 'CHAINSAW' AL SETTLES LAWSUIT FOR $15M
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amIn the notorious cooked-books scandal of Sunbeam, its ousted chief "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap has received a slap on wrist to get off the hook. At least for now. Dunlap agreed...
WASSERSTEIN SNARES ROSEN
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amLazard chief Bruce Wasserstein has lured former top lieutenant Jeffrey Rosen from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in the latest coup by the veteran dealmaker to poach talent from his old firm....
S.I. EDITOR SWEARS OFF PRIZE, SAYS HE'S LEAVING
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amBill Colson stunned the Time Inc. brass yesterday by walking away from the Sports Illustrated managing editor's job that he had to battle tooth-and-nail to obtain six years ago. At...
BUSH INSIDER TALKS ABOUT THE U.S. RECESSION
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amBACK when he was just a run-of-the-mill economist, Larry Lindsey was concerned that the stock market bubble would have a lasting detrimental effect on America. Now that he is President...
BROOKS BROS. COURTING BERGDORF PRESIDENT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amBrooks Brothers Chief Claudio Del Vecchio is looking to raid retail veteran Peter Rizzo from Bergdorf Goodman, The Post has learned. Rizzo has met with Del Vecchio "a couple of...
IT'S A DEBT THING; KMART DOWNGRADE COULD MEAN NEW HOME FOR MARTHA
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amMartha Stewart may be looking for a new home - and it could be Target, Sears or J.C. Penney, experts said. As the picture continues to grow more bleak for...
ROGERS GIVES BRIDE AWAY ; CONDE NAST BID TAKES THE CAKE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe divorce is official: Tom Rogers, the CEO of Primedia, is splitting up with Modern Bride, one of the cash cow magazines that he is now selling to Conde Nast...
ENRON MESS BURNS MORT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amTHE Enron debacle's tentacles reach all the way to Times Square, where Mort Zuckerman's flashy new $625 million skyscraper could end up without a tenant. Times Square Tower, now rising...
MART MIXED ON MERRILL GETS NO RESPECT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWho's more powerful: Merrill Lynch CEO David Komansky or Richard Bernstein, the company's top strategist? Komansky might make more money, but the markets say Bernstein is the man to believe....
ENRON WOES DOG ANDERSEN MERGER
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWith all its woes related to its role in the Enron Corp. bankruptcy, Arthur Andersen LLP will likely emerge as one of corporate America's next possible takeover targets. But the...
ON 'THE JOB' IN NY SEEDY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amCAUSTIC comedian Denis Leary, who plays a hard-drinking, pill-popping, womanizing cop on ABC's "The Job," has a soft spot for New York - his home and the city where the...
BUNCH OF COURT JESTERS; THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW AGAINST CBS SUPREMES
January 15, 2002 | 5:00am"First Monday" Tonight at 9 on CBS CBS should stick to sending bartenders to remote and dangerous locations where they can get on each other's nerves. They should leave the...
SHE SINGS & THE EARTH STANDS STILL
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amMOSTLY SONDHEIMThe Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, 150 W. 65th St., (212) 239-6200. Sunday and Monday nights only, through Feb. 11. SHE sails onto the Vivian Beaumont stage like a...
TRICKY QUESTIONS FOR 'MILLIONAIRE'
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amABC has laid off a number of New York-based staffers from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." ABC confirmed the layoffs, but said the show is "on hiatus" and doesn't...
A WET KISS; KATIE MEETS CHIMPAN-PEE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA mischievous diaper-clad chimp "christened" yesterday's "Today" show 50th anniversary special. Jonah, a six-year-old chimpanzee, appeared to fill his diaper while sitting on host Katie Couric's lap - and then...
HONG KONG HIKE ; WITH A MAP AND HEADPHONES, GET TO KNOW THIS GREAT CITY ON FOOT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amDESPITE the allure of its double-decker buses and trams, Hong Kong is a great walking city. But where do you walk when you don't know what to see or what...
TRAVELER'S UPDATE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amCan u-kulele? On Feb. 2, the Stamford Museum and Nature Center will present the first exhibit ever to examine the influence of the ukulele on U.S. culture, "Ukulele Fever: the...
'DRIVE' IN THE COUNTRY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amALAN JACKSON "Drive" ½ Arista Nashville There's an intelligence to the music of Alan Jackson that shines through every song of "Drive." It's soft-spoken, it's gentle, but it's there. The...
STARR REPORT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amMarch(ing) orders - 'Iyanla' is done Buena Vista has cancelled "Iyanla." The freshman talk show, hosted by Oprah Winfrey disciple Iyanla Van Zant, had been a victim of low ratings...
WHAT MAKES SPARKS FLY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amYOU may not think of Hal Sparks - who plays the homosexual heartthrob of Showtime's "Queer as Folk" - as a ripped, fit and disciplined martial artist. But you'd be...
WHEN LAWMEN FIGHT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWHEN Maryland State Trooper Joseph Catalano pulled over a red Mitsubishi Gallant for doing 90 mph in a 65 mph zone, he hadn't a clue who was driving the car....
'MOST WANTED' DAD NABBED IN SLAYINGS OF WIFE AND KIDS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amJust 48 hours after being placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, a man accused of murdering his wife and three children in December and dumping their bodies in the...
INSURERS PUT WTC LOSSES MUCH LOWER
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amALBANY - Insurance losses stemming from the World Trade Center attacks will be far less than first anticipated, state Insurance Superintendent Greg Serio said yesterday. Speaking before the Senate Insurance...
COMMON PROBLEM WITH A FRIGHTENING NAME
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe first presidential health scare of the 21st century appears to have been little more than a fainting spell that could have happened to anyone, doctors said yesterday. Medically, the...
BIG-BRUISER BUSH - BLACK AND BLUE AND IN A JOKING MOOD AFTER HIS FAINTING SCARE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday declared, "I'm feeling great" - a day after swallowing a pretzel the wrong way and fainting in the White House while watching a football game...
OH, MO.! CHRISTMAS CROOKS TRASH CAGE'S CAR
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amNicolas Cage was "Gone in 60 Seconds" when he stole cars on the big screen, but it took four Missouri men 15 minutes to swipe the star's $100,000 Porsche on...
SUSPENDED KID ON RAMPAGE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA social-studies teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. HS said she fears for her life after a 15-year-old girl booted from the school for threatening her barged back into her...
HUGH'S SON TO CAREY ON AS BLOOMY'S SPECIAL ASST.
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amMichael Carey, son of former Gov. Hugh Carey, will be named a special assistant to Mayor Bloomberg today as part of a group of appointments to bolster the administration's economic-development...
'PHONY' PILOT'S DAY IN COURT - EGYPTIAN TRIED TO BOARD JFK JET: FEDS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amAn Egyptian man nabbed at JFK Airport on Sept. 19 with a fake pilot's uniform and documents - and a bogus certificate from a Florida flight school where a terror...
'MISSING' MIKE PLAYS HIDE-&-SEEK IN BALTIMORE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWhere's Mayor Mike? That was the question of the day at City Hall yesterday as the mayor went missing from his 2-week-old job. It turned out Mayor Bloomberg was off...
JUDGE DENIES FIRE HERO FULL DISABILITY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amHe was injured on the job 19 times and has problems walking, but hero firefighter Gerard Jackson isn't entitled to line-of-duty disability pay, a Manhattan judge has ruled. Manhattan state...
FURY OVER GIULIANI'S BALLPARK FIGURE$
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amFormer Mayor Rudy Giuliani locked his successor into a last-minute deal with the Yankees and Mets that slashes their rents for the city-owned stadiums until 2005, it was revealed yesterday....
TRIBUTES MOVE MARINE'S MOM
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe mother of Scott Germosen, the Marine killed in a Pakistan plane crash, said yesterday the outpouring of public support and honor for her son has made her terrible loss...
PLAYING FOR THE ANGELS, ROOTING FOR THE YANKS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amI PROBABLY should be writing about momentous matters like Enron or Afghanistan or maybe George Bush's esophagus. Done that, seen that, waiting for the T-shirt. Today, I have a Bronx...
DETECTIVE HELD HOSTAGE IN STATION HOUSE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA criminal suspect was holding a gun to the head of a detective and demanding to speak to a reporter in a bizarre hostage drama being played out inside an...
GOV REJECTS COMMUTER TAX
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amGov. Pataki ruled out restoring the New York City commuter tax yesterday, saying it would be "counterproductive" and "destructive" to the city's economic interests. "Raising taxes is not the way...
CLINIC GIVES 9/11 CLEANUP WORKERS LUNG-TERM CARE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amDoctors opened a mobile clinic near City Hall yesterday to give health exams to day laborers exposed to toxins while cleaning buildings around Ground Zero. Hundreds of laborers, many of...
IT ADDS UP TO PANIC FOR ACCOUNTANT MOM
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amSHE is an accountant, but she's thinking seriously about going postal. Professional, attractive, and in her 30s, she accepted a job at Arthur Andersen, the stately old international accounting firm,...
RADIO MAN'S CELL TALE BOGUS: FBI
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe Egyptian grad student who stashed an aviation radio in a hotel room next to the Twin Towers claimed he used the device to eavesdrop on random cell-phone calls -...
'TERROR' SUSPECTS INDICTED FOR FRAUD
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amTwo Indian immigrants taken off a train Sept. 12 carrying boxcutters, hair dye and $5,500 in cash were indicted yesterday on credit-card fraud charges. The indictments of Mohamed Azmath, 38,...
DEATH OF A SCANDAL
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amYOU may not know it yet - in part because the mainstream media doesn't exactly know it yet - but the Enron scandal died over the weekend. Certainly, the details...
POLITICS SITE HAS WEB OF INTRIGUE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA new Web site devoted to local politics is breaking one scoop after another - but the one story it won't report is who's behind the effort. PoliticsNY.com, launched Dec....
RUDY'S LAWYER WANTS ACTOR'S $ILVER
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amHe hasn't charged Rudy Giuliani yet, but Raoul Felder doesn't work cheap. The outspoken divorce lawyer - who has yet to bill the former mayor for his ongoing court clash...
EYE FOR AN EYE IN NEW MIDEAST KILLINGS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli solider yesterday and a militant group declared it would no longer observe a cease-fire after a commander in Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction was...
EX-BISHOP IN MIDDLE OF GOD-AWFUL MESS - FIRED PRIEST SUES HIM AS HIS WIFE SAYS HE STRAYED
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA New York Episcopal bishop, accused of trumping up false charges against a priest so his "very close" female friend could take her job, cheated during his marriage, his estranged...
WTC OWNER SETS ASIDE TOWER 'FOOTPRINTS' FOR MEMORIAL SITE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amLarry Silverstein, the real-estate mogul who holds the lease on the World Trade Center site, has told architects working on a rebuilding plan to set aside the land where the...
BAGEL TEACHER IS IN A 'HOLE' LOT OF TROUBLE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA Staten Island teacher was busted yesterday for allegedly selling bagels when he claimed to be instructing students at their homes, Schools Investigator Ed Stancik charged yesterday. Board of Education...
RELICS FOUND IN THE RUBBLE - S.I. LANDFILL YIELDS TRAGIC TOKENS OF LIVES LOST AT WTC
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThere are watches and bracelets from their wrists, loose change from their pockets and credit cards from their wallets. They were the everyday items that were worn or used for...
COPS: MAN STOLE FOR AIDS LOVER
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA self-styled Robin Hood stole $3 million from his high-powered employer, Alliance Capital Management, to pay the soaring medical bills for a lover who was dying of AIDS, police charged...
POLS BARE ENRON'S SMOKING GUN
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA smoking-gun memo in the Enron case reveals the energy giant's top executives were warned that the company's "funny" accounting practices could trigger a massive scandal, U.S. lawmakers said yesterday....
TRIBE MAY BE HIDING OSAMA - NEW LEADS IN MANHUNT AS U.S. SMASHES CAVES
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes wiped out a vast al Qaeda cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said yesterday - as more evidence surfaced that Osama bin Laden has flown...
YANKEL'S KIN FIGHT RETRIAL
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe men convicted in the death of Yankel Rosenbaum during 1991's Crown Heights riots should not be given a new trial, the victim's brother said last night. Norman Rosenbaum arrived...
HARRY FELL RIGHT OFF THE WAGON
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amPrince Harry was seen boozing less than three weeks ago - months after he tearfully pledged to lay off alcohol until he turned the legal age of 18, it was...
TYCOON'S EX GOING FOR BROKE IN KID SUPPORT
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe sexy ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian has demanded a whopping $320,000 a month to raise their 3-year-old daughter - including $436 to care for her pet bunny. The $3.8...
UNION BIG PRODS ALBANY FOR BILL TO BOOST HOSPS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amALBANY -Hospital workers union President Dennis Rivera got the red-carpet treatment at the Capitol yesterday as he made a last-minute push for a massive new health-care plan. Rivera, who plans...
STUDY: WINE EXPERTS ARE POUR JUDGES
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amSo-called wine experts don't know any more than the average Joe about the bottles they review, a new study says. Their expertise is little more than self-delusion, says Frédéric Brochet,...
WRONG-MAN SLAY CHARGES ARE DROPPED
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amManslaughter and weapons charges against a Long Island man wrongly arrested for murder were dropped yesterday - but he says he is out of work because of his arrest. José...
FIRE HERO IS DENIED PAY FOR INJURIES
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amHe was injured on the job 19 times and has problems walking, but hero firefighter Gerard Jackson isn't entitled to line-of-duty disability pay, a Manhattan judge has ruled. Manhattan state...
BALLPARK FIGURE$ IN FUROR
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amFormer Mayor Rudy Giuliani locked his successor into a last-minute deal with the Yankees and Mets that slashes their rents for the city-owned stadiums until 2005, it was revealed yesterday....
JURY SPARED XXXTREME FILM
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amEmbarrassed Queens jurors were spared viewing hard-core porn in court yesterday when an elderly baby-sitter accused of sodomizing a 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to his crime. The X-rated film was...
NEW CNN PACT PUTS KING IN COURIC'S CLA$$
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amGravel-voiced talk-show host Larry King has become one of the highest-paid personalities on TV with the signing of a new, multiyear contract with CNN worth an estimated $56 million plus...
SADDAM MUST GO: SEN. JOE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Sen. Joseph Lieberman, in a foreign-policy speech to make him appear presidential, said the United States should topple Iraq's Saddam Hussein - even if it's without allied support....
CAVES OUT OF COMMISSION: U.S. WILL TAKE OSAMA HUNT TO OTHER AREAS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON -The Pentagon reported yesterday that U.S. warplanes have wiped out a vast alQaeda cave complex in eastern Afghanistan and U.S. forces will search in other parts of the country...
METROCARD PIONEER DIES
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amLongtime transit advocate and subway buff Stephen Dobrow, a key proponent of the unlimited-ride MetroCard, is being mourned today by friends and allies. The 58-year-old electrical-engineering professor collapsed and died...
YANKS INK EX-MET ALEXANDER
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amOne-time Met Manny Alexander, who was investigated for steroid possession less than two years ago, has signed a Yankee minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. On June 30,...
ISLES WANT MORE FROM MATS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amIslanders coach Peter Laviolette hopes the performance he got from virtually his entire roster in the 5-4 win over Boston Saturday lingers for a while, or at least through tonight's...
VINNY'S MESSAGE: I'M NOT DONE JET ; QB SAYS HE WANTS TO FINISH HIS CAREER WITH GANG GREEN
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amVinny Testaverde made it as clear as he could yesterday that he wants to remain with the Jets. "I want to finish my career here," the Jets' 38-year-old QB said...
COTTRELL GETS JETS' OK TO TALK TO INDY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThe Colts yesterday asked the Jets for permission to speak to defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell about their vacant head-coaching job. Jet general manager Terry Bradway said yesterday he granted Colts'...
JACKSON WON'T TALK TO BYRON
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amNET NOTES Stephen Jackson, the Nets' rags-to-riches story last year now residing on the Spurs' bench, was going to say hello to his old coach, Byron Scott, last night. Then...
BLUESHIRTS CAN'T PLAN ON HAVING MESS BACK
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amThis is how close Mark Messier - whose left rotator- cuff injury has forced him to miss five straight and nine of the last 12 games - is to returning...
NETS SHOW DOUBTERS THEY STAND WITH BEST
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amNets 99Spurs 97 If you aren't convinced yet that something special - very, very special - is happening in the Meadowlands this season, then beg, borrow or steal a tape...
MAKE ROOM FOR TUNA! BUCS AX DUNGY - PARCELLS IN WINGS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amWhy wait to fire Tony Dungy with Bill Parcells waiting off stage? No reason to wait. That obviously was the thinking of the Buccaneers, who last night dismissed Dungy merely...
BRAVES ARMED & READY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amA few weeks ago, when Mets GM Steve Phillips said that the Braves were still the team to beat in the NL East, Braves GM John Schuerholz concurred. Make no...
IN TODD THEY TRUST
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amTHE words "Nets" and "long" have been used in tandem only to describe post-game faces, or Sam Cassell attempts at threes, or how fourth quarters opening with a 10-point New...
AMAZIN'S AIM FOR ASTACIO, BURNITZ
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amIs Pedro Astacio worth the risk? For that matter, is Jeromy Burnitz worth the money? As far as the Mets are concerned, the answer appears to be yes on both...
SPOON'S RETURN LIFT FOR KNICKS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amYesterday the Knicks got something they hadn't received in nearly two weeks: Good news. It came in the form of Clarence Weatherspoon, who survived his first strenuous practice and, according...
NBA'S 'MAIM GAME' OUT OF CONTROL
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amHAVE I mentioned lately my loathing for the NBA's virtual acceptance of "hard" fouls, my craving to see the longstanding crudeness essentially eradicated and, if it's not, what will happen...
FRUSTRATED HATCHETTE CUTS RIGHT TO CHASE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amJET NOTES These were the words from Matthew Hatchette in assessing his season: "There's not a lot of positives I can talk about. I didn't meet a lot of expectations."...
FOX MEETS WITH PANTHERS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amGiants defensive coordinator John Fox will have plenty of high-profile competition for the Panthers' head coaching job. Fox met yesterday with Carolina owner Jerry Richardson and other team officials, but...
RANGERS DON'T GET POINT IN TIE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amRangers 2Blue Jackets 2 The Garden was a House of Pain last night, all right, but for the Rangers, who not only lost a point by blowing a 2-0 lead...
CURTIS & VINNY LAUD TUNA MOVE
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amCurtis Martin and Vinny Testaverde do not feel betrayed by Bill Parcells' imminent return to coaching, with the Bucs - and they're hardly surprised Parcells is coming back. "Things change,"...
BUCS' AX STILL AIMED AT DUNGY
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amTony Dungy is still coach of the Buccaneers, for now. Dungy's fate likely will be decided tonight or tomorrow at the earliest, and it remains more than likely he will...
MAYBE TAMPA WILL HELP
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amNeed an instant losing-streak remedy? Try the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Devils (19-18-5-2) will need a large serving of that medicine as they look to avoid a third loss in...
HOPE LIVES IN SWAMP
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amIT USED to be a reach to call any Nets game in January big, but that was the case when the Spurs came to the Meadowlands last night, both literally...
NETS TESTIN' METTLE VS. WEST'S BIG SHOTS
January 15, 2002 | 5:00amRemember when the Western Conference in the NBA meant non-stop running and fastbreaks and setting land-speed records? Remember when the Eastern Conference meant behemoths plopping in the middle and bruising...