May 4, 2005
AT COSTCO, A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY 'URNED'
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amEvidently, you can take it with you. Costco Wholesale has quietly added travel funeral urns to its retail lineup, and the lightweight, silk-covered $64.99 boxes appear to be a dead...
BEST BUY SNARES FIFTH AVE. LOCALE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amIF you've got a jones for a plasma TV, you'll soon get satisfaction in Midtown. Following the urbanization of Home Depot, category killer Best Buy has just inked a 15-year...
NIKE DROPS ITS SHOES AT SEARS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amNike will no longer sell its sneakers and other Swoosh merchandise to Sears Holding Corp., partially as a result of Sears' acquisition earlier this year by Kmart Holdings. "As of...
EX-POSTIE IN 'SAVVY' MOVE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amSIDNEY Frank, the one-time Grey Goose vodka liquor baron, has tapped former Avenue Editor Jill Brooke to relaunch Travel Savvy. His boutique publishing firm, Franks Media, purchased the travel title...
ADS RIP GAP'S TIES TO AH-NOLD
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amGap Inc. is coming under fire from student groups in California for the fundraising efforts of its founder and former chairman Don Fisher and his family, who have contributed nearly...
SPORTS NETS DUKE IT OUT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amESPN is playing a game of hardball with its upstart rival the 24-hour college sports network CSTV. ESPN, which in March launched its own college sports channel, ESPNU, has taken...
'O' NOT AS STIMULATING AS FRENCH SAY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTHANK heaven for dirty books. What would 13-year-old girls whisper about otherwise? But France's 1954 erotica best-seller "The Story of O" (published in the U.S. 11 years later) is just...
MYSTERY OF 'MARS' UNRAVELING
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amLAST night's episode of "Veronica Mars" finally revealed the identity of Veronica's rapist. Well, sort of. Veronica (Kristen Bell), the teenage private eye who's been solving cases at her school...
'MONDAY' TIME FOR SCI-FI FUN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amWELCOME to a futuristic New York - a rather frightening one - as envisioned by Hal Hartley in his sci-fi fable "The Girl From Monday." Evil corporate types are in...
GERALDO ON LOOSE THE - EYES JOBS AT OTHER NETWORKS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amGERALDO Rivera appears to be trawling for a new job. The war reporter and news-show host, who reportedly took a $3 million pay cut in 2001 to join Fox News...
STARR REPORT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amNice to see a couple of TV veterans like Peter Horton and Frank Spotnitz still making lots of noise behind-the- scenes. Horton, who starred in "thirtysomething," is now executive-producing ABC's...
BASHING BUSH ON 'TONIGHT'
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amAN incendiary song that attacks President Bush and God in equal measure was performed on "The Tonight Show" with the wholehearted approval of the show's producers. Here's a sample of...
'PAULA COACHED ME' - TATTLETALE 'IDOL' KID SAYS SHE WAS 'SPECIAL FRIEND'
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA booted "American Idol" contestant says Paula Abdul slipped him her phone number early in the competition and offered to be his "special friend." Corey Clark, who was disqualified from...
THE KOI POLLOI
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amKOI is just what the swinging Bryant Park Hotel needed: a high-decibel, Japanese/Modern American commissary transplanted from L.A. for 20- and 30-something party animals. But how many preening, Asianesque barns...
MOTHER OF ALL COOKS - WHY COPYING MAMA IS A RECIPE FOR FAILURE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amONE of life's great wonders is the staggering number of mothers who make the world's best meatloaf. The same goes for potato salad, Thanksgiving stuffing and mac 'n' cheese. Think...
RESCUE TRAGEDY - L.I. AMBULANCE CRASH KILLS TWO CREW MEMBERS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA paramedic and a volunteer were killed when their ambulance slammed into a tree yesterday while en route to a Long Island hospital. The Riverhead Town Volunteer Ambulance had just...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTwo intrepid brothers - ages 3 and 5 - sneaked out of their house and took their mom's van on a five-mile ride through northern Indiana before crossing a four-lane...
40 YRS. TO LIFE IN ROAD-RAGE SLAY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA Queens judge yesterday hit an ex-con with a 40-year-to-life sentence for the road-rage murder of the son of a candidate for president of Liberia. The murder took place in...
DA PADLOCKS TOPLESS 'DRUG' CLUB
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amFive employees at a Sunset Park topless club were busted for peddling drugs to undercover detectives in a probe launched last year after a manager was accused of raping two...
VISITORS TO THE INTREPID SEA, AIR & SPACE MUSEUM ...
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amVisitors to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum no longer have to confine themselves to checking out the military artifacts on deck - now they can join the history...
SLOTS O' LUCK FOR N.Y.
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amALBANY - In a jackpot ruling for gamblers, the state's highest court yesterday upheld the constitutionality of video slot machines and the multistate Mega Millions lottery game in New York....
CITY INSPECTORS TOOK GRAFT: COPS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThree Buildings Department employees have been busted for taking bribes, officials said. The Department of Investigation said Enrique Cortes accepted $480 for advice on how to cover up illegal construction...
CHOP-AHOLIC TYCOON IN TREE SPREE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA wealthy Long Island businessman has been charged with arranging to have more than a million dollars worth of his neighbors' trees cut down or radically slashed while they were...
W'CHESTER WAR HERO BATTERED IN BAR BRAWL
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA National Guardsman from White Plains whose unit was to be honored over the weekend for its Iraq duty was severely beaten after an upstate bar brawl with racial overtones,...
BID TO RATTLE 'SNAKE' - CITY: AX 'SEX' TEACH
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe city is moving to fire a Queens music teacher known as "Snake," after city investigators charged yesterday that he had an inappropriate relationship with a female student. Barry Schenker,...
COMPUTER GRANNY CRASHES
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMeet the world's oldest computer virus - Estella Harris. That's how the 57-year-old grandmother, an Empire State College student, says she feels since being barred from the downtown Manhattan campus...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMANHATTAN * Police yesterday released a sketch (above) of a woman found dead of an apparently self-inflicted knife-wound in Central Park on Monday, hoping someone can identify her. The woman,...
SINATRA'S MOB ROLE: JERRY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe Chairman of the Board a Mafia bagman? That's what Jerry Lewis - Frank Sinatra's longtime friend - told Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of "Sinatra: The Life," a...
MET CABLE TALKS BACK IN THE SWING
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amCablevision and Time Warner Cable have returned to the negotiating table to get Met games back on the air, officials said yesterday. During an oversight hearing at City Hall yesterday,...
L.I. FIRM IN SEX PROBE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTwo federal agencies are investigating charges by an anonymous whistleblower that Long Island's largest company is "run like a frat house" by employees who gamble, have sex and smoke pot...
GEN-9/11 BORN TO STRESS - TOTS LEARN PANIC IN WOMB
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amPregnant women who were traumatized by the 9/11 attacks may have passed that stress on to their babies before birth, a stunning new study has revealed. Released yesterday by Mount...
LOEWS WILL POST 'REEL' START TIMES
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amComing to a theater near you: movies that start when the listings say they will. Loews Cineplex, the world's third-largest movie chain, says it will now publish the time the...
MISSING STUDENT'S DAD BACK HOME
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amAfter combing the city from dawn to 11 p.m. for four days in search of his missing college-student son, a despondent dad yesterday headed home to Maryland with no leads,...
CHUCK RIPS WTC STALL
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amBuild the Freedom Tower now - or lower Manhattan will languish, Sen. Charles Schumer warned yesterday in a blistering attack on the slow-motion rebuilding at Ground Zero. "We have not...
LITTLE $KIM BY LIL' KIM - SINGERS SUE FOR 200G
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amRapper Lil' Kim stiffed two backup singers out of $100,000 each for work on her most recent record - and even sent a beefy goon to take back an expensive...
VALLONE ENDORSES GIFFORD
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMayoral hopeful Gifford Miller got the backing of his City Council predecessor yesterday and was feted by the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore. Former City Council Speaker Peter...
GIMME A $CAM ON RYE - DELI ATMS A TOP ID-THEFT TOOL: CITY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe next time you need quick cash from an ATM, make a bee line for the bank - not the bodega. That's the bottom line from a City Council report...
DRAGNET IN PRIEST PUMMEL
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA manhunt is on for two teens suspected of brutally beating a popular Bronx priest - and investigators are also looking into whether their crew was involved in several other...
TYCOON'S DEFENSE IN SLAY: SHE JUMPED ME
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA millionaire accused of stabbing his wife inside their Upper East Side townhouse last month acted in self-defense after she came at him with a knife, his lawyer suggested yesterday....
KNIFE CLUE AMID BERKSHIRE 'SCREAM' TEST
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amSTOCKBRIDGE, Mass. - Cops in this Berkshire village yesterday confiscated a hunting knife outside a home 100 yards from where the body of a Brooklyn woman was found - and...
BOOB OF A BRIDEGROOM GOSH-DARN HAPPY - & HE'S PLAYING IT TO THE JILT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amJENNIFER Wilbanks hails from a slice of the South where 32-year-old never-married women are either insane, in prison or gay. But while her mental fitness is currently up for debate,...
RED LIGHT ON ROBO-SUBWAY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA plan to revamp the transit system with computer-driven subway cars should be derailed until authorities can assure the public that the idea is safe, City Council members said yesterday....
BATTLE OF BRITAIN - BUSH BUDDY BLAIR LOOKS SET FOR BIG WIN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - The Iraq war keeps haunting President Bush's best friend overseas - British Prime Minister Tony Blair - as he heads into tomorrow's election. "Blair's insult to our dead...
PROWLER SLASHES MAN AT HOME
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA 24-year-old man was slashed during a possible home invasion attempt in a ritzy Westchester community yesterday. The victim - whose name was withheld - was getting a late-night drink...
TRAGIC BABE IN ARMS - GI'S HEARTBREAK AS IRAQ THUGS KILL CHILD
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThis dramatic picture captures the awful human toll caused by latest upsurge of terrorist violence in Iraq - and the American effort to help. This was the horrifying aftermath of...
RANGEL WRINKLE: NOW HE DOESN'T BACK STADIUM
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amRep. Charles Rangel - the most prominent black elected official to come out in support of the West Side stadium - has flip-flopped and is now saying he's against the...
'SICK' DWI SLAY - KILLER: I'M ILL, NOT EVIL
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amI'm not a murderer - I'm just a sick drunk, a killer driver argued in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday. The defense - that the driver suffered the disease of alcoholism...
JACKO WIGS OUT - TRIAL BARES $$ WOES - AND A 'FAKE' HAIRLINE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA cash-strapped Michael Jackson was wildly overspending up to $30 million a year - leaving him with a measly $38,000 in the bank and nearly $300 million in the hole,...
CHEEK TO CHIC - STRIP JOINT TURNS HIGH FASHION
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTalk about an extreme makeover! Famously refined fashion designer Nicole Miller replaced the less-than-classy lingerie typically worn at Scores with her first-ever line of high-end underwear for a fashion show...
SMALL RENT HIKE IS LEASE THEY CAN DO
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amNew Yorkers in more than 1 million rent-stabilized apartments got good news last night from the city Rent Guidelines Board. The board kicked off the annual battle over rents by...
SMOKING GOWN VS. JEN - FLEEING FIANCÉE TOLD LIE ABOUT DRESS TO COVER HER TRACKS ON RUNAWAY DAY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amDays before she disappeared, bolting bride Jennifer Wilbanks lied to her boss that she needed time off to fix her wedding dress, in an apparent effort to cover up plans...
BEEFCAKE BRAVEST BEATS 'ROID RAP
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA Manhattan jury yesterday cleared a body-building, nude-dancing ex-firefighter of steroid-dealing charges. The verdict had Rodney St. Cloud so overjoyed, he threw his tree-trunk-sized arms around his lawyer and squeezed...
BEATEN PRIEST PRAYS FOR ATTACKERS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA beloved Bronx priest savagely beaten by a gang of teens spent part of yesterday praying that his attackers turn their lives around. Cops have arrested one youth who admitted...
'MUM TO MIRACLE' SETBACK
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA Buffalo firefighter who made a sudden recovery after spending 9 ½ years mostly blind and all but mute has lost some ground, a nursing-home spokeswoman said yesterday. It has...
SCHOOL CRASHES COMPUTER GRANNY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMeet the world's oldest computer virus - Estella Harris. That's how the 57-year-old grandmother, an Empire State College student, says she feels since being barred from the downtown Manhattan campus...
BATTLE OF BRITAIN - BUSH BUDDY BLAIR LOOKS SET FOR A WIN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - The Iraq war keeps haunting President Bush's best friend overseas - British Prime Minister Tony Blair - as he heads into tomorrow's election. "Blair's insult to our dead...
BODEGA COLLAPSE VICTIM STRUGGLED VAINLY FOR LIFE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA young woman killed when a wall fell onto a Brooklyn bodega lay fighting for her life with the door handle of a food case pressed against her throat, according...
THRILL IS ON FOR CONEY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe city unveiled a sparkling future for Coney Island last night, in a sweeping proposal that includes ferries, the revival of a historic merry-go-round and new thrill rides and theaters....
THE INDELIBLE WONKNESS OF WEINER
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTHAT great political seer known as Conventional Wisdom has decreed that Rep. Anthony Weiner has become the Democratic mayoral candidate to watch, now that Freddy Ferrer seems to have jumped...
L.I. FIRM IN 'SEX' PROBE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTwo federal agencies are investigating charges by an anonymous whistleblower that Long Island's largest company is "run like a frat house" by employees who gamble, have sex and smoke pot...
JERRY LEWIS: SINATRA WAS MOB $$ MAN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe Chairman of the Board a Mafia bagman? That's what fellow entertainer Jerry Lewis - Frank Sinatra's longtime friend - told the authors of a new biography on Ol' Blue...
BENSON TO PITCH VS. PHILS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES Kris Benson will make his season debut tomorrow afternoon. Benson will be activated from the DL before the series finale against Philadelphia. The Met righty was eligible to...
BERNIE 'DEBUTS' ON BENCH
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - Joe Torre expects to see Bernie Williams in center field again at some point this season. Williams feels certain he hasn't played his final game there. Yet,...
YANKEES REMAIN BROWN IN DUMPS - 'SHAKEUP' FAILS; KEVIN'S SHELLED
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amDevil Rays 11 - Yankees 4 ST. PETERSBURG - During his bullpen warm-up last night, Kevin Brown told pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre he needed medication to quiet a stormy stomach....
HOPKINS TAKING FIGHT PERSONALLY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amIt's hard to figure out what would be the better fight: Bernard Hopkins versus Jermain Taylor or Hopkins versus Lou DiBella. Certainly, come July 16 it will be Taylor in...
'AFLEET' MAY BE 'SMART' MONEY
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amLOUISVILLE - No horse goes into the Kentucky Derby with better credentials of speed, seasoning, durability and consistency than Afleet Alex, the Delaware mauler, who poses a major threat to...
FULL STEAM AHEAD - BELTRAN TRAIN RIGHT ON TRACK
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amIt was early Tuesday morning, and Doug Mientkiewicz was describing the greatness of Carlos Beltran in mesmerizing fashion. Only a little while earlier, Beltran had smashed a 460-foot homer halfway...
TEACHING REYES PATIENCE IS NO WALK IN PARK
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amJose Reyes might run like a deer, but when it comes to walking, he has a bit more difficulty. In Monday's 5-1 win against the Phillies, he again flashed his...
ROCKER, FAN TRADE TAUNTS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amATLANTIC CITY - John Rocker had control problems on and off the mound here yesterday. The Long Island Ducks reliever struggled on the field, picking up his second loss, then...
CASHMAN SENDS MESSAGE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTHE STRONGEST purpose pitch by a Yankee this season was hurled Monday by Brian Cashman. The general manager, in conjunction with Joe Torre, ordered a restructuring of the roster and...
BENSONTO PITCH VS. PHILS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES The Mets aren't leaving town without Kris Benson. Benson will pitch tomorrow afternoon in the series finale against Philadelphia after being activated from the DL. The Met righty...
JAX CLOSER TO LA RETURN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe Lakers are moving closer to rehiring Phil Jackson, sources have told The Post. One person with knowledge of the situation expects Jackson's official decision "soon." The Knicks have not...
BERNIE AT CENTER OF YANKS' CHANGES - WILLIAMS: I'M NOT FINISHED PLAYING FIELD
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - Joe Torre said he expects to see Bernie Williams in center field again at some point this season. Williams said he feels certain he hasn't played his...
BUYER BE BARE - BIG PAYCHECKS CAUSE METS' PAY WRECK
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amTOM Glavine went to the hill last night in another attempt to prove he's not over it. "Hey, I don't worry about Tom Glavine," said Willie Randolph yesterday afternoon. "He...
LOTS OF CHANGES ON ROSTER
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES ST. PETERSBURG - The Yankees need to delete a player from their roster to make room for pitcher Sean Henn tonight. And they will make a change tomorrow...
BIG UNIT WON'T GET HIS START VS. RAYS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - Randy Johnson didn't have a lot to say about his scheduled start against the Devil Rays being skipped tonight due to a left groin problem. What the...
'FLY'-ING UNDER RADAR - BAILEY'S MOUNT IS ONE TO WATCH
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amLOUISVILLE - If someone told you a colt who won five of six starts, including the Fountain of Youth Stakes and Florida Derby, trained by two-time Kentucky Derby winner Nick...
A CASE OF BERN-OUT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - This was the spring of 2003, inside the Yankees' clubhouse at Legends Field, and Bernie Williams was fresh from a workout in the Florida sun, eager to...
'ALEX' BLAZES IN WORKOUT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amDERBY NOTEBOOK LOUISVILLE - Afleet Alex, who's been building up a head of steam this week as the one to fear in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, did nothing to dispel that...
NBC HOLDS ITS OWN
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amThe announcement that the Kentucky Derby and Preakness are remaining on NBC for five more years has ratcheted up the rancor between NBC and ESPN. Churchill Downs CEO Tom Meeker...
PAT TRICK - BURRELL'S 3-RUN BLAST BURIES GLAVINE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amNO nibbling by Willie Randolph when asked just how far off has been a pitcher who has won 262 games throwing the ball with utter precision just off the plate....
TOM BOMBED - FANS, PHILS LOWER BOO-M ON GLAVINE
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amPhillies 10 - Mets 3 By the time Tom Glavine's videotaped face appeared on Shea Stadium's gigantic TV screen in the middle of the first inning, he had already been...
NEW LOOK, OLD STINK
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amST. PETERSBURG - Joe Torre didn't raise his voice, didn't furrow his brow or rub his temples or look all that terribly consumed by angst and anxiety. A lifetime of...
MAKING NAMES FOR VISITING BATTERS
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amChipper Jones named his son after Shea Stadium because he's had so much success there against the Mets. So Pat Burrell might want to do the same, or at least...
HAPPY HUNDREDTH TO HORSE HEAVEN - A CENTURY OF LEGENDS AND LORE AT HISTORIC BELMONT
May 4, 2005 | 4:00amA racetrack is not generally esteemed a national treasure or a symbol of cultural heritage, but that will change dramatically today. For on this day, exactly a hundred years ago,...