March 16, 2002
STOCKS FINISH WEEK STRONG AHEAD OF FED'S MEETING
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amStocks ended the week on an up note after two more reports provided evidence the U.S. economy is quickly recovering from last year's recession. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied...
SCAVENGER HUNT KPMG, OTHERS PICK OVER ANDERSEN CARCASS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amAs Arthur Andersen scrambles to survive in the wake of its criminal indictment this week, conversations with KPMG and other rival firms continue in hopes of salvaging parts of the...
RFR PAYING $160M FOR 450 PARK
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe German-American wonder-buyers, Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, are laying out nearly $160 million to tuck 450 Park Avenue into their bulging portfolio, The Post has learned. It also means...
DISNEY BIG CHEESE: DAVE WAS OURS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amABC was thisclose to stealing David Letterman away from CBS, Disney chief Michael Eisner said yesterday. "They thought we were going to get David Letterman," Eisner said of his ABC...
MERCEDES TAKES THE A TRAIN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amTo the world he was the Duke - one of the greatest bandleaders, composers and arrangers of his time - but Edward Kennedy Ellington asked his granddaughter to call him...
SOMEONE'S IN THE BASEMENT WITH PORGY
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amOpera: It's not just for rich grown-ups anymore. It's not even just for grown-ups. Ask anyone at New York City Opera's family workshops, where inspiration costs $5 a ticket. Better...
LORD OF THE RINGS: MEET THE FOLKS WHO RAN AWAY AND JOINED THE CIRCUS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWhat has more than 450 legs, three rings, 500 tons of equipment and five gallons of liquid nitrogen? The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, of course. (And if...
HAVE A GOOD EIRE DAY: BUY INTO THE BEST OF IRELAND AT THESE LOCAL SHOPS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amEverybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. But these shops stoke the Celtic flame year 'round: When Liam and Nehama McCormack decided to start a business, he "knew just what I...
VIVE LA DYMPHNA'S!
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amAnother booze-related holiday - and so soon after New Year's! We'll co-opt some Gaelic heritage, thank you very much, and down our pint of Guinness far from the liquor-maddened crowds...
LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT :WHERE TO GET THE REEL DEAL ON THIS YEAR'S OSCAR-NOMINATED SHORT FILMS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe average moviegoer usually doesn't get the chance to see Oscar nominees in the smaller categories. So it is good news that the short films nominated in the live-action and...
DINNER PARTY CHEAT SHEET
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amYou may know which spoon to use, but unless you're up to date, you'll end up - gastp! - a ghastly dinner-party bore. Here are the current events to study...
THE NATURAL: HISTORY MUSEUM PITCHES 'BASEBALL AS AMERICA'
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWHAT'S a baseball exhibit doing at the American Museum of Natural History, best known for its dinosaur fossils? Let's let Ralph Kiner explain - he's one of 26 Hall of...
FLOCK BIDS SLAIN REV. GOODBYE
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amCalling him "forever larger than life," more than 1,500 mourners flocked to a Long Island church yesterday to bid a tearful farewell to a popular priest slain on the altar...
PAN AM BOMBER IN POSH PRISON
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 will serve his life sentence in a spacious six-room suite at a Scottish prison, with...
NEW 'ATTACK' SO MUCH NOISE
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amA man threw two sound grenades at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen yesterday, creating a terror scare hours after Vice President Dick Cheney visited the country. There were no injuries...
POL CLAIMS BLOOMY ONCE EYED CONGRESS RUN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amLONG before he set his sights on City Hall, Mike Bloomberg was thinking of running for Congress in Westchester. At least that's the story Rep. Sue Kelly is spreading. During...
SEN. HILL TO TIPPER: FOLLOW ME
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun boosting Tipper Gore's plans to possibly pull a "Hillary" and run for U.S. Senate. The ex-first lady said she spoke to the...
LET ME RAISE A GLASS (OR TWO OR THREE) TO THE KELLY GANG
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amGENERATIONS ago and thousands of miles away in Australia, "The Kelly Gang" was feared as Ned Kelly raged against the authority that was British. He was the boss of The...
RISKY BIZ: INSURERS $LAP MORE DRIVERS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amALBANY - The number of drivers forced into the expensive state high-risk insurance pool has skyrocketed for a second straight year, officials revealed yesterday. Last year, 423,967 drivers applied for...
RAFAEL'S MURDER SHATTERS FAMILY
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amEvery day that Rafael Aquino went to work as a livery cab driver, his 3-year-old son would cry and shout: "Papa, don't go." Yesterday, the small boy was crying "Papa"...
TALI-YANK WANTED TO DESERT AFTER 9/11: LAWYERS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00am"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh was so upset about the Sept. 11 attacks he wanted to flee the Taliban, but was afraid he'd be killed by them, according to new...
SACKED PSYCHICS JUST DIDN'T SEE IT COMING
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amALBANY - Miss Cleo's embattled telemarketing company has told its psychics it has fallen on hard times and urged them to find additional employ- ment, The Post has learned. In...
RUDY KEEPING OUT OF PAL'S N.J. SENATE RUN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Fresh from helping one former assistant win a big Republican primary in California, ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday sent word he won't try for a repeat in New Jersey...
LIFE IS A DRAG-A-RET: GROOM PUTS GEST FOOT FORWARD WITH LIZA LOOKALIKES
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe groom was not pleased when three Liza impersonators turned up at his bachelor party. But David Gest was a good sport - subdued, but gracious. After recovering from his...
COURT OKS SPECIAL PROMOTIONS OF ELITE COPS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe NYPD has every right to reward members of its 9/11-decimated elite Emergency Service Unit with promotions, a judge ruled yesterday. As The Post first reported last month, the city's...
AIRING DUE ON SEWAGE $TINK
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amA city councilman yesterday branded the ever-expanding budget for the Brooklyn sewage-treatment plant upgrade "unacceptable" and said he plans to grill officials about the rising costs next week. Councilman James...
'REAL KILLER' TESTIFIES TO AID JAILED BROTHER
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amLamont Branch has been in prison for 13 years for taking the life of Danny Josephs. Yesterday, Lamont's brother Lorenzo took the stand in a Brooklyn courtroom and, through a...
GORY 24 HRS. IN BIG APPLE AS CABBY, 3 OTHERS SLAIN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amA livery driver was slain in a cab early yesterday in Brooklyn - one of four slayings that took place in the city in a 24-hour period. Cabby Rafael Aquino,...
SPITZER WEIGHS AID TO CHURCH SCHOOLS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amState Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is exploring whether it's possible to provide taxpayer-funded remedial services to parochial-school students, The Post has learned. Spitzer's staff has been quietly examining the explosive...
THERE WAS A SECOND PSYCHO IN THAT HOUSEHOLD
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amRUSSELL Yates makes me wonder who was the biggest psycho in the Yates household. Minutes after a Texas jury spared the life of Yates' murderous wife, Andrea, Rusty Yates leaped...
COPS HUNT ARTIST'S KILLER
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amPolice are questioning Brooklyn neighbors of aspiring rock musician and artist Jerry Bacasa in hopes of turning up information that will lead them to the two men who killed him....
TIGHTEN COLLAR ON PERV PRIESTS: EX-FED
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe city's district attorneys should subpoena Catholic Church records of priests sexually preying on kids - or step aside and let less politically conflicted prosecutors do the job, a former...
DRUNK DAD TRIED TO TORCH TOTS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amA Brooklyn man upset over his taxes barricaded himself in his apartment yesterday and tried to kill his four sleeping children and himself by setting his home on fire, but...
CLAM-UP HURTS WORSE THAN CLEANUP
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amTHE former Brooklyn priest didn't want his name published, fearing retribution would cost him his lay job. But the "anger and disgust" he feels about the growing sex scandal in...
STRAPPED SCHOOLS FEEL TIGHT $QUEEZE
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThe budget crisis is about to hit the schools - hard. Sources yesterday said Schools Chancellor Harold Levy ordered the city's 33 school district superintendents to prepare to chop their...
PHONE SAVES RAPED GIRL: COPS TRACK HER DOWN BY CELL AND NAB FIEND IN B'KLYN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amA cell phone became a lifeline yesterday for a 14-year-old Brooklyn girl who was abducted off the subway, raped on a rooftop and held captive until cops dialed her number,...
PREZ'S POWER RANGERS: CHEERS TROOPS DURING MANEUVERS AT FORT BRAGG
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush watched Army Rangers swoop in on helicopters yesterday to stage a dramatic mock rescue at a U.S. embassy and then declared: "I'm glad those soldiers are...
PEACEFUL FEELING BUSH SEES 'PROGRESS' IN MIDEAST
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - President Bush hailed "good progress in the Middle East" yesterday as Israeli forces continued to withdraw from the West Bank and Bush's envoy completed his first round of...
'SENSITIVE' ISSUE: 800G FOR TRAINING
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amSchools Chancellor Harold Levy has proposed spending $800,000 to provide sensitivity training for school security guards on how to treat students, The Post has learned. The goal, Board of Ed...
4 INS BIGS DEMOTED OVER PILOT VISA BOTCH
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The first heads rolled yesterday in the hijacker visa mess - including the man in charge of overseeing visa processing. Four career staffers appointed while Bill Clinton was...
I'M NOT SURE I CAN FIX SCHOOLS, MIKE ADMITS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg yesterday admitted he can't guarantee the city's schools will be any better - even if he's in control. The concession came just hours before he argued for abolishing...
STANFORD SATISFIED WITH UNDERDOG STATUS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amST. LOUIS - A star from the moment he began his college basketball career, Stanford junior Casey Jacobsen played for a No. 1 seed in his first two NCAA Tournaments....
HATTEN'S VOW: I'LL BE BACK
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - He repeated himself twice, lest anyone not hear him the first time. "Oh, yeah," Marcus Hatten said, when asked if he were coming back to St. John's. "Oh,...
THEY'RE THE GONE-IES
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - St. John's came to our nation's capital lobbying for respect. It didn't stay long enough to make that happen. In a game that resembled so many Red Storm...
UCLA BOOTS OLE MISS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWESTUCLA 80Ole Miss 58 PITTSBURGH - UCLA, despite entering the NCAA Tournament riding a two-game losing streak thath included a first-round ouster in the Pac-10 Tournament, crushed Mississippi 80-58 in...
YASHIN SET TO IGNORE BASHIN'
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amKANATA, Ont. - This game is no longer about Alexei Yashin. The first time the Islanders visited Ottawa this year, the night was one of "Yashin Bashin'," in honor of...
CAL INKS WIN OVER QUAKERS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amSOUTHCal 82Penn 75 PITTSBURGH - Bad memories can sometimes haunt teams, but they, too, can serve as motivation. For the University of California, last year's 82-70 loss to Fresno State...
DON POINTS TO EISLEY AS MAIN MAN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amIf Don Chaney could, he'd go Frankenstein, mixing the talents of his three points guards - Mark Jackson, Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley - into one player. "You'd like to...
LONGTIME PALS SQUARE OFF IN PSAL FINAL
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amH.S. HOOPS In the city that prides itself on great point guards, today's matchup has been in the making for eight years. "When we were younger, Sebastian [Telfair] used to...
ARGUMENT WITH MIKE PUT SHAW ON OUTS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - While St. John's was readying for last night's game against Wisconsin, Storm coach Mike Jarvis was engaged in several emotional phone conversations with Willie Shaw's mother, Francine. Sources...
IRISH PUT UP THEIR DUKES BREY LEADS ND TROOPS VS. MENTOR COACH K
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amGREENVILLE, S.C. - Notre Dame coach Mike Brey first met Mike Krzyzewski in 1984 when the former was an assistant at powerhouse DeMatha H.S. and the latter came there to...
PITT STAMPS ITS BRAND ON CCSU
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amSOUTHPitt 71CCSU 54 PITTSBURGH - All eyes were on Pittsburgh star guard Brandin Knight yesterday. Many questions begged answers. Was his injured right leg going to hold up to the...
PETTITTE MAKES HIS PITCH SUCCESSFULLY TESTS ELBOW IN SHORT STINT
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amYankees 10Royals 6 TAMPA - A bullpen session with fielders behind him and batters taking live hacks. That's the best way to describe the exercise Andy Pettitte went through yesterday...
KNOBLAUCH MISSES HIS NYC YEARS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amYANK NOTES TAMPA - If things had worked out better, Chuck Knoblauch would be in the first season of a two-year contract worth $18 million and still wearing the most...
CREIGHTON SAYS LATER TO GATORS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amMIDWEST (2 OTs)Creighton 83Florida 82 CHICAGO - The second he laid eyes on the United Center and saw the famous statue outside on the east end, Terrell Taylor was walking...
DEVILS PUMPED FOR SHOWDOWN
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amThis is the great rivalry defined in desperation, the Rangers' and Devils' mutual venom crystallizing in their final battle this season, each humbled operation frantic just to make the playoffs....
HODGE SPARKS WOLFPACK TRIUMPH
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amEASTN.C. St. 69Michigan St. 58 WASHINGTON - Go figure. When Anthony Grundy took a seat with his fourth foul, the situation appeared grim yesterday for N.C. State. The Wolfpack trailed...
UCONN DASHES HAMPTON HOPES
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amEASTUConn 78Hampton 67 WASHINGTON - The joint was jumping and the growing, pervasive sentiment from everyone but those who hail from Storrs was this: "Beat UConn." That was in the...
TECH HAS KNIGHT TO FORGET
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amEASTSo. Illinois 76Tex. Tech 68 CHICAGO - Bobby Knight's Season is no longer On The Brink. It's over. Knight raged and roared, at his players and at officials, his face...
BEARCATS BATTER BU
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWESTCincinnati 90Boston U 52 PITTSBURGH - Cincinnati did what a No. 1 seed is supposed to do to a No. 16 seed in last night's NCAA Tournament first-round game at...
NETS LOVE HOME COOKIN' KO HEAT FOR 7TH STRAIGHT IN SWAMP
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amNets 97Heat 78 Byron Scott took one look and knew in the morning. He saw his team loose but focused. They were aware of the importance of the task at...
HATTEN: I'M NOT READY FOR PROS YET
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - He repeated himself twice, lest anyone not hear him the first time. "Oh, yeah," Marcus Hatten said, when asked if he were coming back to St. John's. "Oh,...
'HIT DOG' GETS BACK IN THE SWING
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE -Mo Vaughn stood at home plate with his bat raised like a sword. The lefty slugger had struck a baseball about as far as humanly possible in...
REELING NETS FEEL THE HEAT: MIAMI'S VISIT PUT SCOTT'S GUYS ON ALERT
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amByron Scott took one look and knew. The Nets knew. There was no denying that his recently reeling and stumbling team was fully aware of the importance of the game...
JOHNNIES SAY, EN GUARD! BATTLE VS. BADGERS FIGURED TO HINGE ON DUEL OF POINTS
March 16, 2002 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - March Madness is dictated by the little men, the point guards, the players who run their teams and often engage in titanic tests of will that belie their...