July 5, 2004
BLACKSTONE GROUP TO BUY PLASTICS BIZ FOR $1.2B
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe Blackstone Group is nearing a deal to acquire the plastics-container business of Owens-Illinois Inc. for about $1.2 billion, The Post has learned. The New York buyout firm, headed by...
EXCESS BAGGAGE - SECOND SEASON OF 'AIRLINE' FLIES IN THE FACE OF REALITY
July 5, 2004 | 4:00am"Airline" [] (One star) Tonight at 10 on A&E MAYBE IF I'D NEVER BEEN IN AN AIRPORT, I'D FIND WATCHING THE SHOW FASCINATING. MAYBE they used up all the human...
METROCARD RIDING HIGH - 'UNLIMITED' SALES AT RECORD
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amSales of unlimited-ride MetroCards are soaring to record levels, as more straphangers than ever try to cut down on the cost of their bus and subway fares. Weekly cards account...
STATE SENS. CALLED BACK FOR VOTE ON DEM BILLS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amTHE Republican-controlled state Senate's transformation into a bastion of Democrat-like liberal politics may be completed July 19, insiders predicted yesterday. Senators were notified late last week to return to the...
EACH OF US IS AT A LOSS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAMERICAN Muslim Elbert Shamsid-Dean was asked if he lost anyone on the day tears fell all over the world. With the simplicity of a line drawn straight, he told me,...
RETURNING GIS IN STRESS CRISIS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAn alarming number of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering psychological damage due to the horrors of war, according to a new report. A study conducted by the...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe owners of a London eatery are offering free meals to anybody who's descended from notorious Mongol leader Genghis Khan - and even giving free DNA tests to help them...
TEEN SHOT DEAD - B'KLYN STREET HORROR
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA 17-year-old boy was killed yesterday - the victim of a gunman who began firing wildly at people on a Brooklyn street after announcing, "I gotta shoot someone," the youth's...
'FREEDOM' RISES: WTC FUTURE CAST IN A STONE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amIn a ceremony overflowing with symbolism, a 20-ton block of granite was lifted into place yesterday as the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower - designed to become the world's tallest...
EXPLOSION REVEALS SECRET AFGHAN BOMB FACTORY
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA clandestine bomb factory was discovered in Afghanistan when an explosion at the site injured six people, international peacekeepers said yesterday. Three men were arrested. "It is believed that the...
MARINE BEHEADING DENIED
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe family of a U.S. Marine was clinging to the hope that he might still be alive yesterday after an Iraqi guerrilla group denied an earlier statement claiming responsibility for...
BREMER URGES PATIENCE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAmerica's former top administrator in Iraq said yesterday the country is headed in the right direction, despite security issues and a new democracy that will at first be "sloppy and...
TEENS: GOV'T $ TO GET PREGNANT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amBritish girls as young as 14 are so desperate to have babies that many are seeking fertility treatments from the government to become pregnant, a London newspaper says. One clinic...
WIENER WINNER ROLLS TO NO. 4
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA champion Japanese eater made history twice at Coney Island yesterday, when he become the first competitor to win the Nathan's hot-dog eating contest four years in a row -...
HOTEL HUNK A 'BRONZE' STAR
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amMeet the man with the world's greatest job, no ifs, ands - but some butts - about it. He's Michael Sheehan, who spends every day rubbing suntan oil on some...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amBROOKLYN * A 43-year-old woman found dead in her Bedford Stuyvesant apartment was strangled with shoelaces, law-enforcement sources said yesterday. The partially nude body of Elizabeth Gonzalez was discovered by...
CRASH DAD'S PRAYER - 'MY GIRL NEEDS MIRACLE'
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA heartsick Westchester dad says "only a miracle" will save his beloved 4-year-old daughter, who suffered massive head injuries in a horrific highway accident. "I don't think my little girl...
APPLE'S COST: $19 MIL
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAdded security at Penn Station and street closures around Madison Square Garden during the Republican National Convention will cost the city $19 million in economic activity, says a Boston think...
GREECE IS THE WORD AS COUNTRY WINS SOCCER TITLE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amNew York's Greek community had more to celebrate than the Fourth yesterday - their country won a stunning victory in the Euro 2004 soccer championship. During a breathtaking final in...
WTC GUARD DIES IN BX. SHOOTOUT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA World Trade Center security guard who avoided the 9/11 attacks died in a hail of bullets on a Bronx street before dawn yesterday. A second man shot in the...
RAGING AT KID-KILLER NEXT-DOOR
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amWeasel-eyed murderer Joel Steinberg wouldn't step outside his Harlem halfway house to attend its holiday picnic yesterday - but that didn't stop him from killing appetites there. One tenant of...
GOOD SAMARITANS SHOT IN BRONX 'GANG HIT'
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amTwo good Samaritans were recuperating from gunshot wounds yesterday after they were shot in The Bronx. The attack may have been in retaliation for the pair stopping a street gang...
FRIEND IN NEED DRUNK INDEED
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA 63-year-old man who went to pick up a pal from a Long Island police station after she left his party and was busted for DWI got a sobering shock...
'BANNER' SEASON FOR CITY - ADS TARGET GOPERS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAs part of its effort to encourage Republican delegates to shop and spend while they're in town for the national convention, the NYC Host Committee will fly 11 different banners...
VICTIM SUES CO-OP - BEATEN & STABBED
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe Queens co-op apartment complex where a delivery boy was brutally murdered in February is now facing a $1 million lawsuit stemming from a separate 2003 attack on a resident....
BIZ DEAL EYED IN USED-CAR MAN'S MURDER
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amPolice are probing whether a Brooklyn used-car seller whose body was dumped on the side of a New Jersey highway last week was the victim of a business deal gone...
M-80 KID LOSES FINGERS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA 12-year-old Bronx boy lost parts of three fingers yesterday when an M-80 firecracker detonated in his hand, police said. The boy, whose name was withheld, had tried to extinguish...
PARTY TIME FOR PATRIOTS - FOOD, FIREWORKS & FUN PUT APPLE INTO FOURTH GEAR
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amNew York staged a spectacular celebration of the nation's 228th birthday last night - lighting up the skies over the East River and New York Harbor with a pyrotechnic pageant...
CHENEY AXES HIS RX-ABUSING DOC: REPORT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amVice President Dick Cheney has fired his doctor after learning the physician abused narcotics, it was reported today. The doctor, Gary Malakoff, had treated Cheney for nine years, The New...
FIRECRACKER BLOWS OFF BRONX KID'S FINGERS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amA 12-year-old Bronx boy lost parts of three fingers yesterday when an M-80 firecracker detonated in his hand, police said. The boy, whose name was withheld, tried to extinguish the...
KEY NEW CLUE TO 'THRAX MAIL
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe FBI might have a break in its investigation of the anthrax letters of 2001, it was reported yesterday. Scientists have discovered that the anthrax was a mix of two...
ATTACK VICTIM SUES QNS. CO-OP
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe Queens co-op apartment complex where a delivery boy was brutally murdered in February is now facing a $1 million lawsuit stemming from a separate 2003 attack on a resident....
IRAQ'S LIFELINE HIT - REBELS BLAST OIL PIPELINE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amSaboteurs blew up a strategic pipeline linking Iraq's northern and southern oil fields yesterday and attacked an American- escorted convoy near Baghdad. Plumes of thick smoke filled the air in...
SPIDER'S GOT LEG$ - BOX-OFFICE SUPERHERO SET TO WRECK 'SHREK' DEBUT MARK
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAmerica's top superhero appeared poised to shatter box-office records today, as "Spider-Man 2" continued spinning a web of gold over the holiday weekend. Unofficial estimates from several studios yesterday placed...
NO [LOVE] LOST FOR DUBYA
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe creator of the "I [LOVE] N.Y." logo is organizing a campaign to rally against this summer's Republican National Convention, and for his kind of protest, no permit is required....
MASSINO BACKSTABS PAL GOTTI
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amJohn Gotti has loomed large in the mob trial of his longtime pal Joseph Massino, who has a reputation for being as secretive as the "Dapper Don" was flashy. "They...
HAMPTONS DIARY
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amSCREEN legend Lauren Bacall paid homage to Marlon Brando at Jerry Della Femina's annual Fourth of July bash Friday night, lamenting that the two never worked together on the set....
BUSH, KERRY SALLY FOURTH ON TRAIL
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush flew to West Virginia yesterday to defend the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while John Kerry marched in a parade, ate barbecue and watched fireworks in...
NO [LOVE] LOST FOR BUSH
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe creator of the "I [LOVE] N.Y." logo is organizing a campaign to rally against this summer's Republican National Convention, and with his kind of protest, no permit is required....
CONVENTION TO TAKE $19M BITE OUT OF THE APPLE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amAdded security at Penn Station and street closures around Madison Square Garden during the Republican National Convention will cost the city $19 million in economic activity, says a Bostonbased think...
THUGS DENY BEHEADING U.S. MARINE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe family of a U.S. Marine was clinging to the hope that he might still be alive yesterday after an Iraqi guerrilla group denied an earlier statement claiming responsibility for...
M'STARS' GAVEN IS OUTDOING ADU
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amThe MetroStars' humiliating 6-2 loss to the United at RFK Stadium Saturday was not only a game between the MLS' bitterest rivals but a showcase of its two brightest young...
RED GETS RAVE REVIEWS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amL. I. CLASSIC NOTES The real star of this weekend's $1.5 million Commerce Bank Long Island Classic was the Red Course at Eisenhower Park, which all the Champions Tour pros...
GHOSTZAPPER ROLLS TO TOM FOOL WIN
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amGhostzapper, making his first start since a 6 1/2-length romp in the Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park last September, turned in an eye-popping performance here yesterday in the Grade 2,...
'WONDER' EYES SUCCESS IN N.Y.
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amExactly two years and nine days ago, trainer Jimmy Toner's filly Wonder Again, then a 3-year-old, burst on the scene with a 3 1/4-length maiden victory under Edgar Prado on...
THORPE TAKES CLASSIC AGAIN
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amWith the field tighter than a hangman's noose, it was a wild finishing day to the Commerce Bank Long Island Classic that saw four men tied for the lead of...
GIAMBI MAY DH TONIGHT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amJoe Torre hopes to have Jason Giambi available to DH tonight or tomorrow night when the Yankees face the Tigers for a three-game series at the Stadium. Giambi has been...
HAMMY'S NO WORRY FOR REYES
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amMET NOTES It doesn't appear to be anything serious, but Jose Reyes' hamstring is acting up again. Reyes did not start yesterday after experiencing tightness in his right hamstring during...
BOMBERS PLAY BIG UNIT POKER
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amYANK NOTES According to several clubs the Yankees have been talking trade with, they are holding their limited chips until they are convinced the Diamondbacks won't trade Randy Johnson, the...
METS COMPLETE SUBWAY SWEEP - POWER SURGE SENDS YANKS HOME EMPTY
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amHappy birthday, George. Hell has frozen over here in New York and pigs must be flying around Gotham. Believe it: The Mets have swept the Yankees, and, for the first...
THIS TY LOOKS LIKE A GREAT GIFT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amBRING him up, they say on the No. 7 train, in the newspapers, on the talk shows. You can't listen 15 minutes without somebody bringing up how David Wright, 21...
A-ROD SHRUGS OFF COLLAR - WON'T STRESS OVER GOING 0-FER AGAINST METS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amBy the time Alex Rodriguez grimaced after taking an awkward swing in the seventh inning yesterday, his weekend was already lost. Now, Rodriguez hopes the twinge he felt in his...
POSADA RUES THIS BOUNCE
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amJorge Posada had a tough weekend with the umpires. Saturday he argued with Chuck Meriwether's strike zone. Yesterday, he disagreed with Mike Cooper's ability to judge the distance. After singling...
MEG-NIFICENT! - MALLON'S OPEN WIN ONE FOR THE AGES
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amSOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - The talk of this U.S. Women's Open as the week began was about the talented youth invading the LPGA Tour, poised to start winning major championships....
ROSALES' DAY ENDS IN TEARS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amOPEN NOTES SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - The scene just beyond the 18th green was heart-wrenching. While U.S. Open champion Meg Mallon was being feted on the 18th green to the...
SIX YANKS, TWO METS ALL-STARS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amTom Glavine had been selected to eight other All-Star Games in his career, but yesterday's nod was one of the most meaningful. The message it sent was powerfully simple: Glavine...
YANKEES: SWEEP IS NO SWEAT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amGeorge Steinbrenner spent his 74th birthday in Florida with his family yesterday. You didn't have to be with The Boss to know he was peeved about the Yankees being swept...
METS TURN THEIR EYES TO TOUGH TREK
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amEven though they had just pulled off an improbable sweep of the Yankees, the Mets weren't doing any cartwheels in the clubhouse yesterday. A seven-game road trip to first-place Philadelphia...
HE'S HOMER-HAPPY - HIDALGO GOES DEEP - AGAIN
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amOf all the Mets, Richard Hidalgo is the one the Yankees are happiest to see the last of. So naturally, the Mets couldn't be happier Hidalgo came to New York....
JUST A PERFECT FINISH - METS SHAKE PINSTRIPED MONKEY OFF BACKS
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amTHE weekend ended exactly where it should have ended, with the tying run on base in the ninth inning, with a boisterous throng of 55,437 baseball fans on its feet,...
BOMBERS WAITING ON THE BIG UNIT
July 5, 2004 | 4:00amYANK NOTES According to several clubs the Yankees have been talking trade with, they are holding their limited chips until they are convinced the Diamondbacks won't trade Randy Johnson, the...