February 24, 2005
MARTHA MUDDLE - FIRM SOAKS IN RED INK, WHILE SHARES SOAR
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMartha Stewart Living Omnimedia posted another loss in the fourth quarter - but said it is banking on a pickup in advertising at the flagship magazine after Martha herself is...
EBBERS MAY SKIP HOT SEAT
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWill Bernie Ebbers take the stand? After sitting quietly and hearing 14 witnesses over 17 days testify about how he directed the $11 billion WorldCom accounting fraud, the former CEO...
DIVA'S COOKING UP SEC DEAL TO RECLAIM JOB
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMartha Stewart may strike a settlement with federal regulators that would allow her to return to the helm of her company, according to a new report. While she is nearing...
PROBE: FANNIE KEEPS COOKIN'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFannie Mae's house is still not in order. Federal regulators continuing to pore over Fannie Mae's books have uncovered additional accounting irregularities, the government-sponsored company said yesterday. The questions on...
PROBE: FANNIE STILL COOKING
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFannie Mae's house is still not in order. Federal regulators continuing to pore over Fannie Mae's books have uncovered additional accounting irregularities, the government-sponsored company said yesterday. The questions on...
N.Y. CITY INFLATION ON RISE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWhile some say inflation's in check - prices are soaring in metropolitan New York six times faster than in the rest of the nation. Officials blame New York's strong inflation...
50 CENT TAKES 'A-GAME' TO BIG SPENDER SIRIUS RADIO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amGangsta rap superstar 50 Cent is joining Sirius, following his mentor Eminem to the unregulated world of satellite radio. 50 Cent - whose real name is Curtis Jackson - will...
DOLANS PLOT CABLE SALE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amCablevision is expected to put its valuable cable systems up for sale later this year, sources told The Post. The decision is not surprising, given the rampant speculation on Wall...
APPLE HOPES NEW LINE KEEPS IPOD BIZ HOPPIN'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amApple, looking to keep its dominating grip on the market for digital music players, yesterday rolled out new and upgraded iPods. The new players feature lower prices, more memory, improved...
LABOZ CLAN'S $34M BUYS A LOT IN SOHO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe Laboz family has closed on its $34 million purchase of a current SoHo parking lot. City Landmarks unanimously approved a twin-towered condominium designed by Gwathmey Siegel on Feb. 15....
50 CENT TAKES 'A-GAME' TO RED HOT SIRIUS RADIO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amGangsta rap superstar 50 Cent is joining Sirius, following his mentor Eminem to the unregulated world of satellite radio. 50 Cent - whose real name is Curtis Jackson - will...
IVANA BE IN MOVIES - TRUMP FLICK CASTS HIS EX-WIFE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amABC has found its Ivana Trump. Actress Katheryn Winnick has been cast as Donald Trump's ex-wife in ABC's upcoming movie about Trump, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The movie is...
EMPTY-HEADED
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTHEIR name notwithstanding, Futureheads are an act out of the past. At the Bowery Ballroom for a one-night stand Tuesday, the quartet from Sunderland, England, mimicked the herky-jerky vocals of...
JAY CATWALKS AWAY WITH 'RUNWAY' TITLE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFLAMBOYANT Jay McCarroll, who never won a challenge in nine episodes of "Project Runway," wound up winning the whole thing last night. "Jay, congratulations, you are the winner of 'Project...
GRAMMY'S GOLDEN
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTHE Grammy effect hit the charts this week, as the late Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" earned the top slot the week after winning the Album of the Year award...
STARR REPORT
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amOf mics and (wo)men Forget all the designer-this and designer-that during Sunday's Oscars - no one else but TV Guide Channel's Joan Rivers and daughter Melissa will be able to...
HIP SHOTS - FOLLOWING PR GURU'S 'GIRLS AND THE CITY'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTHANKS to the topsy-turvy world of reality TV, now even power publicist Lizzie Grubman has a publicist to help promote her new MTV show, "PoweR Girls." The series follows Grubman...
J.LO SHOWS OFF HER SWEETFACE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIF you're a J.Lo fan, and even if you're not, MTV's new documentary, "Jennifer Lopez: Beyond the Runway," shows the much-married singer/actress in a role we're not used to seeing...
TUBE-TIED - NEW SIX-HOUR-A-DAY TV JUNKIES: THANKS, TIVO!; ALL-YOU-CAN-SEE TV
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFOR Manhattan executive David Levin, the digital video recorder is a cruel mistress. "I have to watch the reality event shows when I get home, the night they aired, because...
GONZO, NOT FORGOTTEN - INTRODUCING THE OFFICIAL HUNTER S. THOMPSON MEMORIAL PUB CRAWL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amLEGEND has it, one alcohol-fueled night at Elaine's, the literatirich Upper East Side celeb hangout, "Doctor" Hunter S. Thompson was ordering shots of 151-proof rum - but not to drink....
BUSH BOOSTS BIG APPLE OLYMPIC BID
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amNew York's Olympic dream got a much-needed boost from President Bush, who sent a videotaped message to the International Olympic Committee's evaluation team here, pledging his full support for the...
'SANDWICH KILLER' DAD HAD RECORD
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe Rockland County man charged with killing his 3-year-old daughter be cause she refused to eat a peanut butter sandwich has a history of domestic violence, police said yesterday. Etzer...
UNKOSHER KISSES - NATALIE'S SCENE ENRAGES JEWS NEAR WESTERN WALL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMemo to Natalie Portman: It's called the Western Wall, not the Kissing Wall. The Oscar-nominated star was chased off her Jerusalem set by a large group of Orthodox Jews who...
A BLIZZY SIGNAL FOR BIG APPLE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWinter is coming back with a blast. Forecasters have issued a storm watch for this afternoon and are predicting accumulations of 6 inches to 8 inches by daybreak tomorrow. And...
TRAGIC OLD PARENTS STABBED
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amA mentally troubled New Jersey woman who lives with her elderly parents yesterday plunged a kitchen knife into her father's chest as he watched TV before stabbing her mother, authorities...
BRIBER ADMITS TRIAL FIX - GARSON-CASE SURPRISE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amOne of the central figures in the bribery case against a disgraced Brooklyn judge entered an 11th-hour guilty plea in which he admitted to trying to fix cases. Nissim Elmann...
BEAU EYED IN SLAY - PREGNANT GAL FOUND IN TRUNK
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe boyfriend of a pregnant woman found slain in a car trunk in Queens has been taken into custody and is the prime suspect, police sources said yesterday. Susan Ambrosino,...
DEMS' FOREIGN-POLICY SILENCE DEAFENING
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFUNNY how Democrats seem to be struck dumb by the success of President Bush's trip to Europe. The central tenets of Democratic foreign policy are now falling like dominoes. Dems...
TEACHER'S MAIL-CALL SURPRISE - KIDS DIDN'T KNOW GI WOULD GET LETTERS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amBrooklyn sixth-graders who enraged a GI with insulting letters they wrote for a social-studies class had no idea when they got the assignment that their missives would be mailed, parents...
'SUBWAY LIMBS' TORSO FOUND
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWorkers at a Brooklyn paper-recycling plant yesterday discovered a human torso, which police believe belongs to a man whose other body parts were found in a plastic bag left on...
SURPRISE WITNESS TELLS OF SEEING ZONGO FLEE PURSUER
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIn the moments before he was shot dead by a cop, unarmed West African immigrant Ousmane Zongo ran down a hallway of the cavernous Chelsea Mini Storage building looking "fearful"...
TRAGIC CONN. CO-ED'S DRUGGIE PAL THROWN BACK IN JAIL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amJavier Tamez, the druggie convict on work release who was the last person to see Connecticut college student Veronica Hagman alive, has been thrown back behind bars. Tamez, 27, was...
HIV WOMEN NO. 1 THREAT
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amBOSTON - HIV-positive women in New York City are more likely to have unprotected sex than infected gay or heterosexual men, a new Health Department survey has found. The anonymous...
WAL-MART'S A NO GO IN REGO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFacing intense union and community opposition, retail giant Wal-Mart has scrapped plans to open its first New York City outlet in Rego Park. "It's over," said one insider. "They were...
I HOPED TO BE PRINCESS 'DIE' - SCAMMER'S 'SUICIDE' SHOP SPREE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe phony princess who ran up a $1 million American Express bill says she was trying to shop until she dropped dead. "I went on a spending spree. I went...
EMPTY GRAVE ARE ALL THAT'S LEFT AS 9/11 KIN BEAR UP
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIt's a grave without a body - a searing reminder of the violence of that day and the enduring heartache of those whose loved ones were taken from them on...
JACKO'S JURY WOE - OH, BOY! HALF THE PANEL IS MADE UP OF MOTHERS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMichael Jackson will face any thing but a jury of his peers - he will be judged mostly by women, many of whom are mothers. The panel of 12 jurors...
JEWELRY THIEVES' $1.9M SPILL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amBandits snatched $1.9 million in booty from a Connecticut jewelry store yesterday - then began tossing the stash from the window of their SUV when they realized cops were chasing...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMANHATTAN * Police yesterday released a photo of a second man wanted in a double murder at a Washington Heights apartment last month. The suspect, Jarvis "Taz" Cromwell, 25, (above)...
VIDEO IN SUBWAY SLAY NAILS HUSBAND
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amSecurity cameras near the scene of a slaying in a Chelsea subway station provided cops with the evidence they needed to arrest a jealous husband for the slaying of his...
'SECOND LOSS' TO HIT KIN HARD
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amRelatives of Sept. 11 victims who have no remains of their loved ones will be hit with a new, intensely painful stage of grief now that the identification process has...
NEW TECH COULD RELAUNCH ID HUNT IN THREE YEARS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amForensic scientists say they're three years away from developing the new technology they need to continue trying to identify the remains of 1,164 World Trade Center victims. The work of...
ANNA TELLS OF STALK ORDEAL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTennis star Anna Kournikova told a Miami judge yesterday that she "started to look at the whole world different" after a homeless stalker tried to swim naked to her estate....
SISTER REVEALS SLEAZY SCOTT'S WEIRD WAYS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amScott Peterson worried about how his goatee looked on TV, flirted with a baby sitter, griped about gays not hitting on him, and bragged about airplane sex - all while...
FEUDING EX-FRIENDS END WACKY DOG FIGHT
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amA Brooklyn family yesterday settled a bitter custody fight with their 10-year-old daughter's godfather over her pet dog. "I decided to give back the dog," said Frank Asomoza about Bugie,...
NJ TRANSIT EYES CASINO TRIP BY RAIL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amNew Yorkers could someday hit the slots by riding the rails. NJ Transit is looking to create a new rail service that would connect New York and Atlantic City, officials...
HEARTBREAKING EMPTY GRAVES ARE LEGACY OF 9/11 LOST SOULS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIt's a grave without a body - a searing reminder of the violence of that day and the enduring heartache of those whose loved ones were taken from them on...
NYPD ANSWERS WAKE-UP CALL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIn a wide-ranging internal move to police itself during the wee hours, the NYPD is beefing up its inspection units and adding dozens of supervisors to the midnight shift, law-enforcement...
FAKE-COP FEAR SPURS 'BAD' BUST
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amA Long Island businessman says he was tackled, beaten and arrested in his driveway after fleeing Suffolk police officers who he feared might be impersonators. David Beauchamp, 32, said he...
BLOOMY GOES FOR THE GOLD - HOSTS OLYMPIC-CELEB BASH
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg wined and dined International Olympic Committee members in a celebrity-studded dinner at his townhouse last night, as he made his final pitch to host the 2012 Games. The...
BIAS-RAPE ORDEAL IN B'KLYN
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amAn Asian woman was dragged several blocks and raped in Brooklyn by a Hispanic man, in a crime being investigated as a bias attack, law-enforcement sources said yesterday. The 19-year...
WEIGHT NOT: GUY SUES CASINO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe first lawsuit against an Atlantic City casino's policy to can hefty cocktail waitresses has come from an unlikely source: a man. James McNally, who said he has applied for...
TA ON TRACK FOR TROUBLE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWorkers put the safety of riders at risk by failing to perform mandatory daily inspections of switches along subway tracks, a new report says. The MTA's inspector-general found that signal-maintenance...
EX-MET MO A HOUSING HERO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFormer Mets first-baseman Mo Vaughn scored a huge hit yesterday in The Bronx by rushing to the rescue of two dilapidated housing projects. The projects were facing foreclosure before he...
SORRY $5M LOSER - BOOKKEEPER FILCHED FUNDS FOR GAMBLING
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amA compulsive gambler who fed her habit by siphoning $5 million from the elevator-repair company where she was a bookkeeper apologized to a Queens judge yesterday for her sticky fingers....
TRUMP'S STADIUM WARNING - CITY NEEDS PLAN B
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amDonald Trump, the city's best known deal-maker, suggested the city may need a backup plan for an Olympic stadium now that the West Side rail yards are embroiled in controversy....
GROOMED FOR TERROR AT SHEIK'S 'WEDDING'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amJurors at the terror-financing trial of a Yemeni sheik viewed a video of a mass "wedding" that he allegedly hosted to prepare young men for "jihad" - an event where...
TOURISTS PONY UP FOR 'GATES'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00am"The Gates" have meant hansom profits for Central Park's equestrian community. Hansom-cab drivers say their cash flow has more than doubled since the public art project sprouted 11 days ago,...
COMMISH'S PLEDGE - FDNY'S $10M FOR LIFESAVING GEAR
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe Fire Department vowed to spend $10 million on safety training and equipment after two of New York's Bravest were forced to leap to their deaths from a burning building...
DEUTSCH UNCLE - BUSH AND GERMAN PM PALS AGAIN
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amPresident Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were all smiles yesterday as they buried the hatchet and said their feud over Iraq is now kaput. "Nobody wants to conceal that...
ARIEL RIPS FRANCE AS 'PRO-ARAB'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amJERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged yesterday that France refuses to declare Hezbollah a terrorist group because "the French are pro-Arab." Both Israel and the United States have...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amHey, kids, watch out for that mystery meat! Parents of students at the Eaton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., were furious after learning that the principal let animal-welfare workers use...
GOURMET GROUP GRABS GRUB GURU
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amJames Beard, meet All You Can Eat. After being financially fried by its former president, the James Beard Foundation has chosen an interim executive director with a chain-restaurant past to...
SCHUMER TARGETING 'TERROR HS'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday called for a full-scale probe of the controversial Islamic school where the man accused of plotting with al Qaeda to assassinate President Bush was...
SCHUMER TARGETS SUSPECT'S 'TERROR HS'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday called for a full-scale probe of the controversial Islamic school where the man accused of plotting with al Qaeda to assassinate President Bush was...
ARMANDO STARTS OVER WITH GIANTS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amSCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - In the next few weeks, as the San Francisco Giants get deeper into spring training, Edgardo Alfonzo knows the question will come up. His teammates will sidle...
GIAMBI CALLS BONDS 'A FRIEND ... THAT'S IT'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - Jason Giambi called Barry Bonds his buddy yesterday, but Giambi didn't want to comment on Bonds' wild press conference held Tuesday. "Barry's a friend, and that's...
SANCHEZ ON YANKS NOW A CUT ABOVE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - If you Google the phrases "Rey Sanchez" and "haircut," you'll get about 500 responses. Not a ton, certainly, but enough to link Sanchez with a pair of clippers...
'HOMECOMING' FOR MARV
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amAfter being exiled from the Garden following a dispute with Cablevision boss Jim Dolan, Marv Albert tonight returns for the first time since he quit - or was fired, depending...
BOEHEIM'S BIG GUNS NEED MORE AMMO
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amSYRACUSE - Jim Boeheim has his 20-win season and a guaranteed at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament if the Orange don't win the Big East Conference Tournament. He has a...
'NOVA HAS WRIGHT STUFF
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amVILLANOVA, Pa. - Don't think Jay Wright and his beleaguered Villanova Wildcats hadn't heard the talk. Overrated and underachievers. Big names with small results, that they didn't have what it...
ALMONTE FIASCO RAGES ON
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMonroe's Mike Turo is less than a week away from the start of baseball practice, but the coach of the defending PSAL champions still doesn't know if his former ace...
KURT TWEAKS MARBURY
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES If he's gone by today's NBA trade deadline, Kurt Thomas will have exited swinging. The Knick forward - who got into it verbally with Stephon Marbury during a...
SAMMY: MET DEAL WASN'T GOD'S WILL
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amFORT LAUDERDALE - For now, all is copasetic in Sammy Sosa's loud, colorful world. For now, the manager loves him, his teammates are in awe of him, and no one...
NETS: NODEALS ON HORIZON
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amNET NOTES MILWAUKEE - The Nets figure to be done dealing. Finally. At least for now. There is a whole off-season approaching when the Nets likely will be active. But...
DON'T EXPECT KNICK TRADE
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amIsiah Thomas and team "capologist" Frank Murphy were holed up in the Knick president's Penn Plaza office yesterday, doors shut, waiting on a miracle. With the NBA trade deadline at...
CAMERON'S DEBUT 'ALL RIGHT'
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Early yesterday afternoon, Mike Cameron turned to assistant trainer Mike Herbst and said, "Here I go: the debut." Then Cameron headed out to right...
ENERGY CRISIS BOTHERS KIDD
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amMILWAUKEE - So what's a day without crisis and distraction? Certainly, not a typical Nets' day - they are becoming downright accustomed to chaos. The latest distraction in a season...
MARLINS' GAINS ARE METS' LOSS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amJUPITER, Fla. - There was the one who was sent away, Al Leiter, and the one who got away, Carlos Delgado. The Mets' loss is Florida's gain. In Delgado's first...
IT'S D-DAY FOR NBA DEALS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amThe plot clots: Today we find out who's all talk and who's serious about rehabbing their roster. When the NBA's trading deadline expires at 3 p.m. (ET) Michael Redd, Baron...
KIDD'S ANGER NETS NO GAIN
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amBucks 100 - Nets 81 MILWAUKEE - This was, in Net coach Lawrence Frank's estimation, a "gut check" game. One night after captain Jason Kidd blasted the team for a...
ORANGE LOOKS BLUE IN ROMP VS. STORM
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amSyracuse 83 - St. John's 69 SYRACUSE - This should be a time of great joy and expectation in the Orange Nation. Instead, the fans and coach have the disposition...
'NOVA CLIPS EAGLES
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amVillanova 76 - BC 70 VILLANOVA - Overrated underachievers no more. Irrelevant relics no more. For the first time in years, Villanova basketball matters again. The Wildcats are players again....
ROD: NO DEALS ON HORIZON
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amNET NOTES MILWAUKEE - The Nets figure to be done dealing. Finally. At least for now. There is a whole off-season approaching when the Nets should be active. But for...
THE FALL GUY THE FALL GUY - WITH OCTOBER IN MIND, BOMBERS WILL LIMIT RANDY'S WORK EARLY ON
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - Randy Johnson has yet to unleash a pitch in a game that doesn't count and he already understands the Yankees don't move through spring training hoping to have...
NO BIG DEAL: YANKS WILL SEE SOX GET RINGS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - The Yankees acted in lockstep politeness regarding news that the Red Sox will hand out world championship rings in front of them on April 11. The Yankees, from...
FIRST PITCH - TRYING TO EARN HIS PINSTRIPES, JOHNSON TAKES ONE IN A LONG LINE OF STEPS
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTAMPA - Randy Johnson delivered fastballs that he wryly quantified as "62 3/4" percent of his maximum effort. In Jorge Posada's determination, Johnson "flipped" his sliders toward the plate rather...
GETTING TO WORK - BELTRAN WANTS WRIGHT, REYES TO JOIN HIS TRAINING PROGRAM
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - They reportedly were called "The Breakfast Club" workouts, Michael Jordan's morning get-togethers when he and certain teammates would gather for a training session. Here with the...
D'BACK TO BASICS - VAZQUEZ LOOKS TO REDISCOVER HIMSELF
February 24, 2005 | 5:00amTUCSON - The last time Yankees fans saw Javier Vazquez in pinstripes, he played a central role in the team's ALCS Game 7 loss to the Red Sox, giving up...