March 2, 2004
IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE FEDS TO CALL YOU UNEMPLOYED
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTHE experts claim they are surprised at how low the nation's unemployment rate has remained. But if you look at the generous definition of employment used by Washington, the real...
OHIO PLANS A 'NO' VOTE FOR EISNER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWith a crucial Disney shareholder meeting slated for tomorrow, another group of investors came out yesterday in opposition to the re-election of CEO Michael Eisner. The Ohio Public Employees Retirement...
NEIGHBORS FIGHTING 50TH ST. LIRR PLANT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amPROPERTY owners on a prime Midtown block are up in arms over a plan to level four buildings and build a ventilation plant for the new Long Island Rail Road...
'LIES & GREED' - RIGAS CLAN BLAMES OTHERS IN $2.3B SCAM
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amAccused of "looting" $2.3 billion from Adelphia Communications, the company they ran, the Rigas family blamed everyone else - from their employees to their auditors - for the financial fraud...
TAPPING INTO BREWER'S ART
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amGraffiti isn't vandalism anymore - it's a new marketing tool for consumer brands, in this case, Rheingold Beer. The brewery has hired up to 20 well-known graffiti artists to paint...
CURTAIN RAISER - LOEWS THEATERS CONSIDERING POSSIBLE SALE, IPO
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amBarely a month after putting merger talks with AMC Entertainment on ice, Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp. is screening its strategic options. Loews Cineplex, the world's fourth-largest movie theater operator and...
WARNER ARTISTS EXITING AS CEO BOOTED
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe backlash among some of Warner Music's artists has begun. Hip-hop star Missy Elliot, one of the biggest stars on Warner's Elektra label, told The Post she would be leaving...
GHOSTBUSTER - 'ODDPARENTS' CREATOR CONJURES SECOND 'TOON
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTHE creator of Nick's mega-popular "Fairly OddParents" is about to unleash his latest animated show onto kiddiedom. Meet "Danny Phantom." The show, premiering Saturday, April 3 (9:30 p.m.), follows the...
'MEATHEAD' BACK ON TV
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amROB Reiner is set to star in his first series since his days as Mike "Meathead" Stivic on "All in the Family." Reiner has cast himself and Mercedes Ruehl as...
ESPN'S 'IDOL' SPORTSCASTER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amESPN has a message for some "SportsCenter" anchor wannabes who think they can do it better: Here's your chance. ESPN's new, six-episode reality show, "Dream Job," now entering its third...
STARR REPORT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTony's roots showing Brooklyn native Tony Danza will find himself back in his old stomping grounds next season now that Buena Vista has announced that "The Tony Danza Show" will...
'DEVELOPMENT' IN SIGHT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00am'SEINFELD" alum Julia Louis- Dreyfus and a post "American Idol" timeslot are the potent, but temporary tools Fox hopes will give a boost to its ailing sitcom, "Arrested Development." The...
FAMIGLIA FACES
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amIT'S beginning to look like a mob scene. "The Sopranos" returns for its fifth season Sunday (9 p.m. on HBO) with a new gang of gangsters. Just out of jail...
SCHOOL'S OUT FOR 'BOSTON'
March 2, 2004 | 5:00am'BOSTON Public" star Chi McBride has joined the cast of a new cop drama which chronicles the final 43 minutes of a crisis through the eyes of a S.W.A.T. team....
TAKE ME FOR A RIDE - EVELYN KANTER VISITS GERMANY'S AUTOSTADT, THE WORLD'S PREMIER AMUSEMENT PARK FOR CAR FANATICS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amMAYBE it's because we love them oversized and flashy. Or maybe it's because we love nothing better than to fill up our garages. Whatever the reason, Americans have a rep...
POUF! GOES UMA
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA GIANT doily." "The victim of an exploding kimono." "She looked like she was mugged by a Russian peasant." And those were some of the kinder things critics had to...
RUNWAY TO RED CARPET - OSCAR LOOKS PLUCKED RIGHT FROM THE SHOWS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThere was no time to spare for many of the Oscar gowns - several came straight from the runways in New York and Paris. It took a mere 20 days...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amAn Iowa paramedic allegedly grabbed a dead woman by the breast and yelled, "Honk, honk!" Authorities say Scott Kirkhart uttered the sick line as he transported the body to the...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amMANHATTAN * An Inwood man was shot dead in an apparent drug-related attack yesterday, police said. Percio Estevez, 32, got involved in an argument with an unidentified man at West...
GROUP THINK - WHY MEDIA MISREAD PREZ RACE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWARNING: Most of the analysis and reporting you are now reading, watching and hearing about the presidential race is wrong - and it will continue to be wrong. On the...
GRIEF, GUILT IN 'HIT' THAT GOT PAL INSTEAD
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWhen Long Island fitness club owner Paul Riedel learned his co-owner and best buddy had been gunned down right outside their club, he turned for solace to his gorgeous wife,...
ATKINS DIET CARB-CURBERS CRABBY: STUDY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe Atkins Diet and other weight-loss plans that limit carbohydrates can turn you into a sourpuss, a new study shows. Scientists found carbohydrates help boost the production of serotonin which...
BOOZE WOE IS PRICE WOMEN PAY FOR SUCCESS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amFemale executives are more likely to develop alcohol problems than their junior female staffers, new research reveals. They're also more inclined to turn to booze than men in similar positions,...
BUCKEYE BALLOT BAILOUT?
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amFOR a sense of how lost jobs are playing out politically, watch how Ohio votes today - and in November. New York and California are the big prizes today, but...
'94 BRIDGE TERROR KID HONORED
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTen years after the murder of yeshiva student Ari Halberstam, his family and friends gathered yesterday at the site of his slaying at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge to...
ABC COLLECTS ACADEMY REWARDS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amAmerica made a hobbit of watching Sunday's Oscars show - the telecast scored its best numbers in four years. The 76th Annual Academy Awards, dominated by Peter Jackson's "Lord of...
-TRAGIC QNS. HUBBY-SLAY RECALLED (M, S)-WIFE TELLS JURY OF '96 CABBY SLAY (LCF)
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA Senegalese woman who worked hard to bring her family to America was lying in bed on a cold 1996 evening when a pair of carjackers mercilessly gunned down her...
CITY BAA-SKS AS MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LAMB
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amNew Yorkers enjoyed an early spring fling as temperatures rocketed into the 60s yesterday. The mercury reached 63 degrees in Central Park during lunch hour - some 18 degrees higher...
HEAD & TORSO IN QNS. TRASH
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWhen staff members at a Jamaica housing development went to collect the garbage yesterday morning they got a ghastly surprise - a torso and head, apparently of a man, stuffed...
WIFE: HOW I SAVED JOHN'S LIFE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTeresa Heinz Kerry, who stood in for husband John to pick up a health-care union's endorsement yesterday in Washington Heights, said she saved his life by noticing early signs of...
JAIL CONFESSION IN BRIDE SLAY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA man accused of shooting his pal's newlywed wife confessed after his first night behind bars, a Queens prosecutor said yesterday. "Why did you leave me last night?" Lenwood "Smoke"...
EMBATTLED BLAKE HIRES LAWYER NO. 4
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amLOS ANGELES - Troubled actor Robert Blake yesterday hired a hotshot Northern California defense lawyer who recently sprang a wrongfully convicted man from a potential life behind bars. Gerald Schwartzbach...
SUBWAY NUT HAS HISTORY OF TROUBLE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe wacko who sparked a smoky blaze at the West Fourth Street subway station, forcing a massive evacuation, has caused trouble before - once sneaking into a Brooklyn Army base...
POLS OK BILL TO SHOO VENDORS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amALBANY - The state Legislature yesterday finally passed a new city peddler bill that officials say should clear the congestion that has clogged city sidewalks over the past year. The...
MAN TRIED IN 1984 DUAL SLAY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTwenty years ago, a Long Island boy found his mother and brother savagely beaten, raped and murdered - the victims of a "brutal, vicious and sadistic" man, prosecutors said at...
'HATE' COPS GO SEE MEL MOVIE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe cops at the NYPD's Hate Crimes Unit are passionate about their work - and they've all been ordered to watch Mel Gibson's controversial new movie about the last hours...
POLS WANT SAFER STREETS NEAR SCHOOLS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTransportation officials aren't doing enough to improve safety around schools, several City Council members charged yesterday in the wake of a tragic accident that left two boys dead. Ten-year-old Juan...
UNION-SCAM BOSS GUILTY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe former vice president of a powerful elevator workers union is going down, after a federal jury yesterday found him guilty of lining his pockets through an elaborate labor-racketeering scheme....
DAY OF VIOLENCE IN CITY SCHOOLS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA misbehaving Bronx teenager who had been told to calm down by her teacher instead flew into a rage and tossed a metal pole out of her classroom window, striking...
M'SOFT FOE BLASTS TYCO BIG AT TRIAL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amUber-lawyer David Boise once helped the government split up Microsoft; now he's helping sink Tyco's two allegedly crooked ex-honchos, with damaging testimony yesterday in their $600 million embezzlement trial. Boise,...
9/11 RELICS 'GARBAGE,' SAYS GHOUL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA retired fireman accused of stealing "souvenirs" while working at Ground Zero told a Manhattan jury yesterday that the items were all "garbage" - even the ID cards of two...
BASH-CASE BRAVEST FUMING AS CITY HOSES HIM AGAIN
March 2, 2004 | 5:00am'I'VE had it," says em battled former fire fighter Terry Sweeney. "Let them lock me up. "The city has demoted me, fined me $91,000, has ruined my résumé so I...
COMMEMORATIVE NEW METROCARDS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe first in a set of 12 MetroCards celebrating the subway's 100th anniversary will be unveiled today. The card will feature a picture of people preparing to board a train...
CULTURE SHOCK AS S.I. ARTS HONCHO FIRED
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe Staten Island arts scene is in a major uproar after the head of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was asked to resign - and nobody seems to know why....
ARIEL SLIDES DOWN POLL IN ISRAEL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amSupport for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government is slipping as the public grows weary of the long Palestinian stalemate, a new poll shows. The survey for the Maariv...
ROCKAWAY EDUCATION TO GET MIKE'S FULL MAKEOVER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amPeople wanting a glimpse of Mayor Bloomberg's reforms can look at the plan for the Rockaways approved last night: Failing middle schools there are being replaced by kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools, and...
LETHAL SHOT - PAL SAYS HE SAW JAYSON'S GUN GO OFF
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amSOMERVILLE, N.J. - Looking down at a cracked-open shotgun, Jayson Williams said "motherf- - - er" before flipping the weapon closed and shooting a man standing just a few feet...
NIX GAY NUPS NOW: BRUNO
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amALBANY - One of the state's top Republicans yesterday demanded Attorney General Eliot Spitzer shut down the renegade mayor of New Paltz's gay-marriage assembly line. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno...
STRIP-CLUB SLAY - QNS. TOPLESS-BAR WORKER SHOT DEAD
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe house manager of a topless club was killed on a Queens street minutes after leaving work yesterday when she got caught in predawn crossfire as two brawling gangs suddenly...
SHARPTON HEADS FOR DISASTER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWhen the Rev. Al Sharpton launched his presidential bid, analysts said his real goal was to enhance his prestige and replace Jesse Jackson as America's top black leader. So far,...
CITY GIS BAGHDAD BOUND
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amHundreds of National Guard soldiers from New York City were placed on alert by the Pentagon yesterday and told to get ready for likely duty in Iraq later this year....
HAMPTONS HORROR - WOMAN MISSING, CAR AND PAL ABLAZE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA Long Island woman vanished mysteriously on her way to pick up her son and her car was later found in flames. Shortly afterward, a co-worker who gave the woman...
UNION CONTRACTS ARE DISASTER FOR KIDS: POL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe city's school union contracts are a disaster for education, Council Education Committee Chairwoman Eva Moskowitz charged yesterday. Moskowitz said she's supporting Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's proposed...
'TRAIL OF EVIDENCE' - FEDS SUM UP WITH 6-POINT LIST OF MARTHA'S 'GUILT'
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amFiring a powerful final shot at Martha Stewart, the government yesterday gave jurors a six-point list of why the domestic diva is guilty of obstructing justice and lying to the...
THIS CRITIC PANS ACTOR BUDDY'S 'BROAD' SUPPORT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amSHE was the best of broads. She was the worst of broads. Circus Marthamus - Manhattan's premier location for spotting celebrities, taking in a live fashion show, or experiencing the...
IT'S COAST TO COAST KERRY - N.Y., CALIF. VOTES MAY SPARK LANDSLIDE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amDemocratic front-runner John Kerry today is aiming for a Super Tuesday super-sweep of 10 states - starring New York and California - in hopes of knocking out underdog John Edwards...
BERNIE ACHIN' TO GET BACK TO WORK
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - Bernie Williams didn't want a winter's work of sweat to strengthen his shoulders be obliterated by the appendectomy he underwent last Thursday. So the switch-hitting center...
COPS RAIDED JACKO VIDEO MAN
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amLOS ANGELES - Santa Barbara County authorities seized computers, videotapes, message books and various documents from Michael Jackson's videographer, according to documents released yesterday. Judge Rodney Melville, who is overseeing...
100 GUINEA-PIG KIDS - SHOCKING NEW NUMBER IN HIV TESTS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe Administration for Children's Services allowed more than 100 HIV-positive foster kids to be used as guinea pigs in medical experiments over the past 12 years, The Post has learned....
'DATE' WITH DEATH - KID LEFT TO SEE 'PASSION' WITH HER KILLER: POLICE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTragic Catholic-school girl Guilene Valcin excitedly thought she was going to see "The Passion of the Christ" on her first date with an older man Friday - but instead got...
B'KLYN HS IS CHESS AMAZING
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe kids from Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow HS are chess kings once again. The chess team from the prestigious public school won its fifth consecutive state high-school chess championship in...
ARIEL POLL-VERIZED
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amSupport for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government is slipping as the public grows weary of the long Palestinian stalemate, a new poll shows. The survey for the Maariv...
CLASSROOM EXTRA: THE LADY OF THE COURT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amBefore tennis champion Althea Gibson ruled the tennis courts, she had to break racial barriers. Read more about this champion who was born to win. Althea Gibson was born in...
GLOVE'S HAD FOUR THUMBS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amIF Gary Payton is so concerned about getting more minutes (and touches), he might want to reassess the value of being expelled from games; Little Noxious, it deserves highlighting, leads...
PROCTOR'S HEAT HAS BOMBERS BUZZIN'
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - The hardest-throwing pitcher here doesn't enter games to Metallica, answer to a "Moose" call or possess a mean streak from here to Macon. His name is Scott Proctor,...
IRON MIKE - YANKS NEED MOOSE TO ANCHOR THE STAFF
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - Bernie Williams, the primary cleanup hitter on four championship teams, left camp with appendicitis last week and the Yankees did not feel his pain. They could reconfigure with...
KIDD KO HAS NETS ON GUARD
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amA player as tough as Jason Kidd could wince his way through a bruised knee, no problem. But what if it were more than a bruise? If you listen to...
RIPPED REYES RIPPING THE BALL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - It's one thing to be impressive in batting practice or bullpen sessions. It's quite another to do the same in live competition. So maybe that's what...
KNICKER-BAKERS - SIGNING OF EX-CELTIC LOOKS IMMINENT
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amOn the brink of falling out of playoff position, the desperate Knicks are on the verge of adding Vin Baker to the roster. The 6-11 recovering alcoholic met with Knicks...
STORM'S HAMILTON BEGS FOR FORGIVENESS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amNext season can't come soon enough for St. John's fans. It certainly can't for freshman forward Lamont Hamilton, one of the six players who got caught up in the Feb....
TUNA WAS PHILLED IN ABOUT COUGHLIN
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amIf not for Phil McConkey, Bill Parcells in 1988 might never have hired Tom Coughlin. And if Coughlin did not have that Giants experience on his resume, he might never...
HOMER GETS 2D CHANCE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - When Homer Bush owned a secure job with Toronto a few years ago, he'd often notice the spring-training longshots yammering at their lockers. They'd break down different scenarios...
LEWIS A JET NO MO' - LB LATEST RELEASE, ALONG WITH SAFETIES GARNES AND CARTER
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThe Jets' aggressive offseason roster bloodletting continued yesterday with the unceremonious release of linebacker Mo Lewis, the longest-tenured player on the team. Lewis' departure was coupled with the release of...
RUSSIAN IS COMING - DEVILS GET CENTER KOZLOV FROM FLA.
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amMONTREAL - There had to be a catch to this catch. The Devils' latest acquisition, Viktor Kozlov, is coming back from a concussion. Otherwise, the price seems cheap for a...
ANDRE'S ALWAYS PREMIER PIRATE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amSTORRS, Conn. - Senior point guard Andre Barrett has become synonymous with Seton Hall basketball, in more ways than one. He is the face of the program, the leader on...
DEPLETED POLY PERSEVERES
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amNYSAIS 'B' TITLE: Poly Prep 61 - BWL 46 Bill McNally couldn't help but think irrationally after he saw one of his team's best players, Jabari Edwards, go down with...
RENNEY, RANGERS EYE DEADLINE DEALS
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amIn the organization where no executive wears only one hat - you'd think the Rangers couldn't afford to pay people - Tom Renney is not only interim head coach, but...
SORI SETTLING IN
March 2, 2004 | 5:00am"This is a new opportunity for me. I want to make the most of it." -ALFONSO SORIANOSURPRISE, Ariz. - His English is still fractured, his syntax is still measured and...
FUTURE'S NOW FOR METS - NO WAY AMAZINS' CAN DEAL AWAY KID K
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - I saw the future yesterday. And while everyone else is talking about his fastball, it was the knee-buckling changeup that was most impressive about Scott Kazmir,...
CAMP CALAMITY - CONTRERAS JOINS LIEBER IN SICK BAY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - The only question in the Yankees' universe is a little bigger today than it was yesterday. And while it's certainly too early to be concerned over Jon Lieber's...
HOMER GETS 2ND CHANCE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - When Homer Bush owned a secure job with Toronto a few years ago, he'd often notice the spring-training longshots yammering at their lockers. They'd break down different scenarios...
PROCTOR HEATS UP TAMPA
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amTAMPA - The hardest-throwing pitcher here doesn't enter games to Metallica, answer to a "Moose" call or possess a mean streak from here to Macon. His name is Scott Proctor,...
SORIANO TO SHEA UNLIKELY
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Texas GM John Hart was the latest to downplay an Alfonso Soriano-to-the-Mets trade, which doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon, if at all....
DEVS STILL HAB-NOTS - BUT DEAL FOR KOZLOV MAY BOOST FEEBLE 'O'
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amCanadiens 2 -Devils 1 MONTREAL - Help didn't arrive last night, and it may be weeks before Viktor Kozlov bolsters the Devils' offense that has gone missing again. Until the...
TOM'S ALWAYS REVVED UP
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amWant to know a little something about Tom Coughlin? Here's a story from Phil McConkey, the former Giants receiver when Coughlin was his assistant coach, that sheds light on the...
HUSKIES SLAM DOOR ON HALL
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amUConn 89 - Seton Hall 67 STORRS, Conn. - Seton Hall lost more than a game last night at seventh-ranked Connecticut. It may have lost a bye in the Big...
ISLES NEED ROAD CURE
March 2, 2004 | 5:00amThey will not have home ice advantage in the playoffs. So as the Islanders embark on a stretch that includes seven of the next eight on the road, beginning tonight...