August 20, 2005
NORTHWEST HIT WITH STRIKE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amNorthwest Airlines Corp.'s mechanics went out on strike early this morning, after refusing pay cuts and layoffs that would have cut their numbers almost in half, a union official said....
SITH A MYTH, SAYS MILKEN
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMichael Milken is not the Sith Lord. That's the legendary trader, white-collar criminal and philanthropist's response to rumors that he is the financier behind a campaign to slaughter shares of...
MERCK SLAMMED ; JURY AWARDS $253M DAMAGES IN VIOXX SUIT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA Texas jury ruled that drug giant Merck has to pay a staggering $253 million to a widow whose late husband used its one-time blockbuster painkiller, Vioxx. And while many...
BARBARA CORCORAN QUITS HER FIRM FOR TV
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amResidential real estate magnate Barbara Corcoran is resigning from the sprawling company she founded to produce television shows full time. Her new company, Barbara Corcoran Productions, has already begun creating...
COMING SOON - PENTHOUSE DOME-ICILE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA new luxury building in Manhattan is no big deal; it seems like one up every time you look. The O'Neill building, though, has a touch of old mystery. When...
HOME SHOPPING - CLUB GONE TO POT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amLiora Manne 91 Grand St., between Greene and Mercer streets (212) 965-0302 Sale: Aug. 25-Sept. 6 Open: Sun., noon-6 p.m./ Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Colorful home collections up to 65...
VEGAS GETS ITS OWN ICON - STARCK ISN'T INVOLVED, THOUGH; PLUS, HERE'S THE LATEST FROM A BUNCH OF BIG NAMES
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amTHE slew of condo projects in Las Vegas is as dizzying as what's happening in South Florida, and familiar names are at the center of the frenzy. For starters, there's...
A POLISHED DIAMOND
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amNEIL DIAMONDHe concludes his three-night series at the Garden tonight. WITH Mick Jagger and his Stones rolling back for another go 'round this weekend, Paul McCartney currently in rehearsals for...
COUSIN BRUCIE'S BACK!
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amLOCAL radio legend Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow kicks off his Sirius Satellite Radio career Aug. 27. "Cousin Brucie's Saturday Night Party" will air every Saturday (8 p.m.-midnight). Brucie will also...
GIRLS ON 'TOP'
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMEET the latest bevy of babes taking on Tyra Banks on "America's Next Top Model." The fifth cycle of UPN's most popular series kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 21. This batch...
WE LOVE THE 80S - GNARLY WAYS TO GO BACK IN TIME; THAT '80S SHOW
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amIT'S been nearly 20 years since the release of her cover of "I Think We're Alone Now," but Tiffany still has an affinity for her roots. "I'm in the mall,"...
WE'VE GOT GAME
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amFLATOUT Format: Xbox, PS2, PC Multiplayer: Yes. Rated: Teen (violence) What's it about: "FlatOut" is one big demolition derby, thinly disguised as a typical racing game. The more races you...
TALIBAN NIXED BID TO TURN OVER OSAMA
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amU.S. officials held secret meetings with the Taliban in 1998 in an ultimately futile effort to have Osama bin Laden arrested or assassinated, newly declassified State Department documents show. Alan...
LOVE DRIVEN TO TEARS AND REHAB
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amLOS ANGELES - A judge reduced Courtney Love to a sobbing, trembling mess yesterday after the drug-plagued rocker confessed to her latest fall off the wagon. L.A. County Superior Court...
GREAT GUNS FOR GONZO AT HUNTER'S SEND-OFF
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amASPEN, Colo. - It's hardly a canonization in the Vatican sense. But Hunter S. Thompson indeed will be canonized in a style worthy of the wild man. Tonight, the gonzo...
FREE-SWINGING 'YANKEE'; COLORFUL ANTICS OF BATTLING BLUEBLOOD
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amHe quotes the Grateful Dead at length, writes page-turner thriller paperbacks and reportedly got soused on one of the most important nights of his political career. But William Weld, the...
BUST IN MURDER OF BURNED BX. WOMAN
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amCops have cracked the case in the mysterious death of a Bronx woman whose body was found charred on the Mosholu Golf Course earlier this week. The woman, who was...
SYNAGOGUE COUNCIL SETTLES UNION SQ. HOLY WAR
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA fierce real-estate fight that pitted the National Council of Young Israel against a synagogue in its Union Square headquarters has ended after three years, officials said yesterday. The council,...
ABBAS REJOICES AT GAZA PULLOUT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amJERUSALEM - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a jubilant Gaza Strip crowd yesterday that Israel's withdrawal was due to Arab "sacrifices" and "patience." Abbas said his people are experiencing "historic...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amGoats to the rescue - no kidding. Officials in Peachtree City, Ga., are spending $10,000 on some butt-in-skis in hopes they'll gobble up the invasive weed kudzu that's been killing...
UNHOLY 'ASSAULT' IN B'KLYN; TEMPLE-FOTOG FUROR
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amAn elderly civil engineer and orthodox Jew says he was viciously assaulted and robbed of his digital camera by a Hasidic man while taking photos in Borough Park - but...
SENATE PROBERS TALK TO 'PRE-9/11' WHISTLEBLOWER
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON -The military intelligence official who recently disclosed that a secret Pentagon computer unit was blocked from alerting the FBI to the presence of the 9/11 hijackers in the United...
TOUGH RIVAL MATCHES WITS WITH SPITZER BLITZ
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amEliot Spitzer's cakewalk toward becoming governor just hit a big speed bump - William Weld. "I wouldn't take him lightly at all," says former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat backing...
'PERV' SCOUTMASTER NABBED
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA Long Island scoutmaster sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in his troop and forced him to pose for obscene photographs, prosecutors said yesterday. Ronald Occhipinti, 45, of Bayside, was arraigned...
WEINER FLUNKS FERNANDO OVER STOX-TAX $HOCK
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amRep. Anthony Weiner used a low-key TV round-table discussion yesterday to repeatedly pound the front-runner in the Democratic mayoral primary, Fernando Ferrer, for his "wrongheaded" tax plan to save city...
CHILI FINGER HAD TRIPLE-DIGIT PRICE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe famous severed fingertip planted in a bowl of Wendy's chili in a failed fraud was sold to the scammers by a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas man for $100, it was...
HE'S NOT THE ONE! BOAT SIS: COPS GOT WRONG PILOT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amDanyelle Lieneck - the courageous 13-year-old Long Island girl who heroically struggled to save her dying sister during a tragic boating accident - has told her family that the man...
WELDING A GOP COALITION; PATAKI BOOSTS POL
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amALBANY - Colorful former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld won warm praise yesterday from Gov. Pataki as he jumped into the race for New York governor and a possible powerhouse showdown...
FAT NICK HAS FAT CHANCE OF BAIL
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA Queens judge again refused yesterday to let Nicholas "Fat Nick" Minucci, accused batsman in an alleged Howard Beach hate crime, make bail. His bail is $500,000 in connection with...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amBRONX *** A mystery gunman opened fire with a pellet gun behind a Morrisania building, injuring a 10-year-old boy and a 31-year-old woman, police sources said yesterday. The victims were...
BANK-ROB LINK IN BAD DOPE OD CASES
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amOne of the six people whose drug overdose is being probed by the NYPD robbed a bank the night before he died - apparently to get money to buy his...
TOUGH MASSACRE KID; HELD OFF SEX MOVE BY 'KILLER'
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA terrified Brooklyn teen, held captive by the man who allegedly killed her mother and dismembered her kid brother, held off the murderous fiend's sexual advances during the five-hour ordeal,...
NEW LAWYER FOR ST. PAT'S SIREN
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe woman at the center of the St. Patrick's Cathedral sex scandal has hired a new lawyer famous for representing high-profile divorce clients such as Mia Farrow, Ethan Hawke and...
N.J. TO 'CHECK' SLURS; 'JEW' EATERY SUBPOENA
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe New Jersey attorney general will subpoena computer records from the Jersey Shore restaurant that printed "Jew Couple" on a bill, a lawyer for the slurred diners said yesterday. The...
CON FINALLY CLEARED OF '91 CLUB KILL
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amTears and applause broke out in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday as Olmado Hidalgo was formally cleared of the 1990 murder of a bouncer at the now-defunct Palladium nightclub. Hidalgo, 39,...
CAMS TO KEEP TRACK - SUBWAY SECURITY RUSH
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe MTA will soon install hundreds of surveillance cameras throughout the city's subway system, Mayor Bloomberg and transit officials said yesterday. It's a safe bet that at least some of...
DETENTION AGAIN; TEEN-SEX TEACHER BACK IN SLAMMER AFTER DWI ARREST
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amALBANY - The randy former upstate Catholic-school teacher accused of bedding her students was back in jail yesterday after being busted for drunken driving. Albany County Court Judge Stephen Herrick...
ACTING A BIT SILLY; COP-COSTUME SNIT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe union representing film and TV actors is warning members not to carry or wear NYPD uniforms - because of a new policy that it says puts them "at risk...
NYPD DIGS INTO A CRATER ; HUNT BEGINS FOR FAMED JUDGE - IN FILES
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amPolice yesterday began digging for the skeletal remains of Judge Joseph Force Crater - in dusty, long-forgotten files. The painstaking search was triggered by a letter written by a now-deceased...
MAYOR PUTS SUBWAY CAMS ON FAST TRACK
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe MTA will soon install hundreds of surveillance cameras throughout the city's subway system, as Mayor Bloomberg holds the MTA's feet to the fire to get the all-seeing eyes put...
'DRUG LORDS' SEIZED WITH $27M STASH
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amTwo Colombian drug kingpins were nabbed with more than $27 million worth of cocaine and heroin bound for the United States, authorities said yesterday. Alvaro Ardila-Rojas and Andres Cajiao-Barberena were...
HARDHAT KILLED IN MISHAP
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA construction worker who was horsing around during a break was killed by a co-worker yesterday when the forklift he was riding slammed into a cement wall at a Far...
FINGERED LOSER TOOK TRIPLE-DIGIT PAYMENT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe famous severed fingertip that was planted in a bowl of Wendy's chili in a failed fraud was sold to the scamsters by a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas man for $100,...
HARDHAT IS KILLED IN MISHAP
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amA construction worker who was horsing around during a break was killed by a co-worker when the forklift he was riding slammed into a cement wall at a Far Rockaway...
UNIFORM ACTORS' FLAP OVER REEL COPS
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe union representing film and TV actors is warning members not to carry or wear NYPD uniforms - because of a new policy that it says puts them "at risk...
CHAD SHOWS HE'S OK
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amJets 28Vikings 21 All is right in the Jets' universe today. The quarterback is all right. Chad Pennington, playing in his first game since having major shoulder surgery, performed well...
3RD-DOWN TROUBLES PROBLEM FOR DEFENSE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amJET NOTES Hidden somewhat by the way Chad Pennington shined in his return to game action last night in a 28-21 win over the Vikings was the one glaring negative...
EMPIRE MIKES BACK VS. SOX ; MOOSE PUTS NOOSE ON CHICAGO BATS
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amYankees 3White Sox 1 CHICAGO - Being the elder statesman of the Yankees' revamped rotation, Mike Mussina is in the position to dispense advice. Last night against the White Sox...
GORDON'S 'DEAD ARM' SHOWS LIFE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES CHICAGO - As long as he doesn't feel pain in his right shoulder, Yankee reliever Tom Gordon isn't concerned. Not even when it took him as long as...
SIS CITY ONE TO BEAT IN ALABAMA
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amSARATOGA SPRINGS - Heading into this meet, today's 125th running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Alabama Stakes - one of America's premier events for 3-year-old fillies, at a testing mile-and-a-quarter...
'ROYALE' TAKES LAKE PLACID
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amSARATOGA SPRINGS - Naissance Royale, a 3-year-old filly making first start for Christophe Clement since shipping over from France in July, tucked in behind furious speed duel between 2-1 Ready's...
GIANT STRIDES ; THIRD YEAR'S CHARM FOR OSI
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThere was a time when Osi Umenyiora took a look across the line, spotted Luke Petitgout and thought to himself: "How am I ever going to beat this guy?" It...
COUCH NOT SITTING AROUND
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amGIANT NOTES Since having rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder in February, quarterback Tim Couch has mended at Sportfit Rehab & Training in Miami. Helped along by trainer Lisa...
SOUR REUNION FOR COTTRELL, COWART
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amJET NOTES Last night's preseason meeting between the Jets and Vikings marked the first time Herman Edwards and his former defensive coordinator, Ted Cottrell, had seen each other since Edwards...
CYCLONES THINK WILD
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe dog days of summer are coming to a close, and as the traffic on the Coney Island boardwalk grows thinner, Brooklyn's baseball club finds itself in a playoff race...
BREAKING DOWN ; HAND INJURY LIKELY TO LAND PIAZZA ON DL
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMike Piazza was frustrated by how slowly his broken hand is healing, while Mets manager Willie Randolph sounded uncomfortable about being short-handed. Piazza was not put on the disabled list...
SIX MINUS ONE ; TRACHSEL RETURN MAY ALTER ROTATION
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES The Mets haven't made a decision about their starting rotation, but Pedro Martinez has a solution for the six-man logjam. "They're going to send me on vacation," Martinez...
NUMBERS CAN'T SAVE MARTINEZ
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amIt's a seductive trap Willie Randolph has watched many teams fall into over the years, and one he senses going on in his own clubhouse. They keep trotting their ace...
BOMBERS: IT'S ON US, NOT JOE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amCHICAGO - The best way for the Yankee players to support Joe Torre is to play better. Rip off 15 wins in 20 games, and Torre's job security won't be...
TORRE: IT'S TIME TO FOCUS
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES CHICAGO - Joe Torre's postgame meeting with his club following Wednesday night's despicable 7-6 loss to the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg was quick but not without emotion....
GORDON, STURTZE ON FUMES
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amCHICAGO - Tom Gordon was hoping two days of inactivity were the tonic his right shoulder needed to feel stronger. "It's a dead-arm thing - I go through it a...
CYCLONES HAVE TO THINK WILD
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amCyclones 5C'cutters 2 The dog days of summer are coming to a close, and as the traffic on the Coney Island boardwalk grows thin, Brooklyn's baseball club finds itself in...
CASTRO SHINES IN SUB ROLE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amOn a night when Mike Piazza looked and sounded like a catcher bound for the DL, Ramon Castro showed why the Mets would be in good hands while he's gone....
BEAUTIFUL JAE ; CEMENTS ROTATION SPOT WITH GEM VS. NATS
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMets 1Nationals 0 Late last night, a member of the South Korean media asked Mets manager Willie Randolph if Jae Seo was about to get traded. "You got a scoop...
A BAD BREAK ; PIAZZA LIKELY HEADED FOR DL
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES Mike Piazza is frustrated by how slowly his broken hand is healing, while Willie Randolph sounded uncomfortable about being short-handed. Mets GM Omar Minaya met with Piazza after...
SKIPPER'S WORDS: GETS HEADS IN GAME
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES CHICAGO - Joe Torre's postgame meeting with his club following Wednesday night's despicable 7-6 loss to the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg was quick but not without emotion....
YANKS LINE UP BEHIND TORRE - BOMBER VETERANS: IT'S ON US, NOT JOE
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amCHICAGO - The best way for the Yankee players to support Joe Torre is to play better. Rip off 15 wins in 20 games, and Torre's job security won't be...
OTHER JETS ON THE SPOT
August 20, 2005 | 4:00amThe strongest, brightest spotlight last night was focused squarely on Chad Pennington, who was playing in competition for the first time since the Jets' Jan. 15 season-ending playoff loss in...