December 19, 2006
Calling All Procrastinators
Attention: There are only five shopping days left till Christmas.My suggestion is to put on your pj's, curl up on the couch with your laptop and order online.Here's where to...
Illegally Blonde?
You gotta hand it to her…Mary-Kate Olsen keeps it real. Especially if you ate your Thanksgiving turkey at the Bowery Mission soup Kitchen.She’s not publicly falling out with the stylist...
Marbury finding his game
By MARC BERMANNate Robinson is out another nine games. Quentin Richardson has a bad back, Steve Francis a bad knee and said today he's still not close to ready.All Stephon...
SEE HOW IT'S DONE
By KEVIN KERNANI’ve asked two things of the Knicks, play team defense and improve the point guard play.They finally did that last night and look what happens, they put up...
Marbury's time to shine
By MARC BERMANNate Robinson is out another nine games. Quentin Richardson has a bad back, Steve Francis a bad knee. All Stephon Marbury has had is a bad head -...
BEST OF 2006: Day 1 - David Landsel
As travel writers, it is in our job description to get around, to be places, to see stuff. Just being on the road is a blast, but every now and...
FED'S PLAN IS CLEAR - AND CLEARLY WRONG
RARELY," said the Wall Street Journal the other day, "has the outlook for Federal Reserve policy been so unclear." Well, let me clear it up for my readers and for...
NOT TOYING WITH CONDOS - EYES SWITCH TO OFFICE SPACE
JOSEPH Chetrit, owner of the International Toy Center off Madison Square Park, has a holiday surprise for those following his controversial campaign to convert the buildings into condo apartments. He's...
HUFFPOST HIRES SMITH, GETS $
In another sign that the Huffington Post is evolving from a liberal blog into an actual business, the Web site said yesterday that it hired AOL advertising executive Jim Smith...
FANNIE CEO SUED
The regulator for mortgage market giant Fannie Mae filed suit yesterday against its former high-profile chief executive officer and two other executives for their part in a multi-year accounting scam....
FAIRFAX IN $39.5M OVERSTOCK RESCUE
Canadian insurance giant Fairfax Financial Holdings has once again come to the rescue of Overstock.com with its purchase last week of a block of the embattled Web retailer's stock, a...
HOME WRECKER ; SHAREHOLDER BATTLES TO CHANGE MANAGEMENT
A Home Depot shareholder looking to shake up the status quo intends to launch a proxy fight to create an independent committee to evaluate management and study strategic alternatives, including...
BONO, FORBES CUT MAG PENSIONS
Forbes Inc. has joined a growing list of companies cutting back future pension liabilities and blocking new employees from joining their plans. Chairman Steve Forbes told employees about the news...
ASSET SALE MAY FOLLOW REALOGY DEAL
The pending buyers of real estate giant Realogy may be looking to sell off some of its assets as soon as the real estate market strengthens, sources tell The Post....
ADS HIT BY TIME'S 'YOU'-TURN
Time magazine's "Person of the Year" was so top secret that even its biggest advertiser was kept in the dark. That is obvious from some ads that Chrysler ran as...
REGAN RANT BLAMED 'CABAL,' LAWYER SAYS
Judith Regan, the controversial head of Regan Media who was axed last Friday, was said to have lashed out against a "Jewish cabal" in the publishing world that was conspiring...
SEX, LIES AND UNDERWEAR IN DEAL
If the potential acquisition of American Apparel Inc. for roughly $360 million, by Endeavor Acquisition Corp. were a movie, it would be billed as "Wall Street" meets "Boogie Nights." American...
RAINES, GO AWAY - EX-FANNIE BOSS SLAPPED WITH ACCOUNTING FRAUD SUIT
The regulator for mortgage market giant Fannie Mae filed suit yesterday against its former high-profile chief executive officer and two other executives for their part in a multi-year accounting scam....
BOOK BUZZ BUILDS ON REGAN'S NEXT MOVE
The sudden departure of Judith Regan has the publishing world buzzing about where she will land next and whether any of her prize authors will follow her out the door....
SCIENTIST: DON'T WORRY, BE NAPPY
IT'S safe to say that the nap does not have a stellar reputation. After all, who naps? Children, old people, George Costanza. When the "Seinfeld" character customized a dozing zone...
'PHANTOM' FAN THE NEW CHRISTINE
THE Phantom has a new squeeze: Jennifer Hope Wills, the latest to play Christine, the lovely ingenue, in Broadway's venerable (19 years and counting) "The Phantom of the Opera." The...
THE TROUBLE WITH LARRY; WON'T REPLACE KING:CNN BRASS
WHEN Larry King retires, he won't be replaced, a high-ranking CNN exec says. "It's my hope that Larry works for another 10 years," said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide...
'PRISONER' BACK TOTHE VILLAGE; CLASSIC '60S SHOW RE-DO
CABLE channel AMC is reviving the classic '60s sci-fi series "The Prisoner" with a new version scheduled to begin shooting this spring. The new one-hour series, a co-production between AMC,...
'DANCING' ON TOUR - AFTER LIVE 'IDOL' GROSSED $35M
THE "stars" are taking the rhumba on the road. "Dancing with the Stars" is following the lead of "American Idol" and starting a live tour-first show, tonight in San Diego-that...
STARR REPORT
To Iraq and back Montel Williams recently returned from Iraq, where he spent six days visiting with U.S. troops aboard the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower and at the ABOT oil...
SEEKING THE DEATH PENALTY IS CRUEL HOAX
HIS gray-tinged mustache mirrored the majesty of his baritone voice. And then the quiet voice became suddenly deafening. "Sure, I would like to see him executed," Rodney Andrews Sr. was...
SHOPPING 'CLUB'; LIMELIGHT WILL BE A MINI-MALL
The former Episcopal church that once housed the sacrilegious Limelight nightclub will be born again - as a retail mini-mall. Now known as the Avalon nightclub, the legendary 12,000-square-foot venue...
TEEN DEATH SPURS ACTION
The death of a 15-year-old inside a state-run detention center led a group of advocates yesterday to demand the appointment of an independent overseer for the juvenile-justice system. Assemblywoman Barbara...
DEAD-TOT MA DODGES JAIL
A teenager whose 4- month-old baby drowned in a bucket of vomit and cleaning solution while the young mom was passed out drunk was sentenced to five years' probation yesterday....
TIMEOUT CALL FOR ARENA
Leaders of six groups asked state officials yesterday to delay a crucial vote on the Atlantic Yards project in Downtown Brooklyn. "We may have differing views on the merits of...
BESIEGED HEVESI SET TO LOSE SILVER LINING
ALBANY - If scandal-scarred state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is indicted, he will lose his most powerful supporter in his battle to hold on to his office - Assembly Speaker Sheldon...
COP WAS STABBED 'MAKING PEACE'
An off-duty Brooklyn cop stabbed in the chest early Sunday was trying to break up a fight between his friends and another group of men when he was knifed, prosecutors...
CITY LAUNCHING 'POVERTY' FUND
The city is creating a $150 million-a-year "Innovation Fund" to help fight poverty, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. The money will come from local, state and federal funds, as well as...
EX-BEAU STAB NAB
A ruthless Queens construction worker who was given the boot by his ex-girlfriend stabbed her to death in a fit of jealous rage, prosecutors said yesterday. Eric Johnson, 40, a...
IRAN 3-4 YRS. FROM NUKE: ISRAEL
WASHINGTON - Iran's nuclear program is further advanced than most governments realize - and the fanatic ayatollahs who control the country are three or four years away from being able...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
BROOKLYN *** Police are asking for help in finding a missing 12-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant girl. Destinie Roberts (above), a student at PS 138, was last seen at her Bergen Street home...
MENORAH VANDALIZED
A young karate-kicking vandal trashed a large menorah on Long Island - but left the Nativity scene right next to it undamaged, officials said. The apparent hate crime in the...
MISSING FROM GANG SUMMIT: GANGS
THE lure of the press release was irresistible: Members of the Crips and the Bloods - rival gangs that have drawn more blood on the streets of New York than...
SEX-ED TEACH IN GROPE BUST
A Long Island sex-education teacher has been arrested and charged with sexually abusing an 11-year-old student under the guise of demonstrating CPR in the classroom - and cops suspect he...
LIRR PLAN IS ON TRACK WITH RECORD FED BOO$T
Federal officials yesterday committed $2.6 billion toward building a connection between the Long Island Rail Road and Grand Central Terminal in what's being hailed as its largest mass-transit investment ever....
UNION SLAMS THE '100' ; POLICE GROUP WANTS 'BLACKS' NAMES
The union chief representing four detectives in the Sean Bell shooting is lashing out at a black police group that is calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's ouster and a...
'YELLOW BUS' KIDS' SIGN-UP
City students who take yellow buses to and from their public school have until Friday to register for the service - or risk losing it. The registration policy, the first...
VENDOR BIZ COLD FROM WARMTH
Most New Yorkers couldn't get enough of yesterday's balmy temperatures, but don't tell that to the street vendors. From Chelsea to Central Park, streetside salesmen hawking winter hats, earmuffs, gloves...
FRANKLY, MET THE TOP 'DOG' IN CART TRADE
Vendors have agreed to pay up to $326,000 a year to peddle hot dogs in and around Central Park in the latest contracts awarded by the Parks Department, The Post...
BADILLO LASHES LATINOS; RIPS HISPANIC VALUES
Herman Badillo has dropped a bombshell on the nation's Hispanics - charging that too many are mired in poverty because they don't value education. "Education is not a high priority...
BIZ SUIT VS. MTA GETS OK
A Manhattan judge has cleared the tracks for a group of business owners who are suing the MTA over millions of dollars they say they lost during last year's Christmas-season...
WARNER BROS. IN 'IDENTITY' CRISIS
A screenwriter says his role in the "Bourne Identity" is as hidden as the amnesiac spy's past - and is suing Warner Bros. for squeezing him out of the profits....
PROSECUTOR'S HEARTBREAKING WRAP; COLDBLOODED KILLER BLEW AWAY 'BEGGING' COP: FEDS
Alleged cop-killer Ronell Wilson fatally shot one undercover officer and then pulled the trigger on a second as he begged for mercy - for the sake of a few hundred...
YOKO ALIEN WOE; DRIVER AN 'ILLEGAL'
Feds yesterday busted Yoko Ono's turncoat chauffeur on immigration charges that could hand him a ticket to ride out of America - and bring fines against the Beatle's widow. Koral...
'ROCK' OF AGES PACKS PUNCH
ROCKY BALBOA (three stars) Wins on points. Running time: 102 minutes. Rated PG (boxing violence, profanity). WHEN they announced the sixth "Rocky" movie, I thought: Gonna flee now! But Sylvester...
'GOOD' CABS WILL GET A LONGER RIDE
Clean-air and handicapped-accessible cabs will be getting a boost, thanks to four bills Mayor Bloomberg signed into law yesterday. Yellow cabs generally have to be retired after three or five...
BAGHDAD ECONOMY STARTING TO BOOM
WASHINGTON - Iraq's economy is starting to blossom, providing an underreported success story for a war that has seen little else but bloodshed and chaos, according to a new report....
ASPCA COP'S RAPE COLLAR
An ASPCA officer probing a complaint by a 14-year-old Queens girl that a security guard had killed her pit bull puppy arrested the sicko suspect - not for animal abuse,...
MURDER RATE RISES 12%, BUT MOST CRIME DOWN IN CITY
Murders in the Big Apple rose nearly 12 percent as overall crime plunged 7 percent in the first six months of this year, FBI statistics released yesterday reveal. New York's...
JUDGMENT DAY FOR MISS USA
Forget "The Apprentice" - disgraced Miss USA Tara Conner gets grilled this morning in a real boardroom showdown with Donald Trump, who will announce an hour later whether the hard-partying...
BONO SLAMS DEMS' $1B AIDS DODGE
WASHINGTON - Even with Democrats poised to control the government's purse strings next year, U2's Bono still hasn't found what he's looking for when it comes to U.S. funds to...
BEG CLASS FOR COPS
The NYPD must provide new training to stop the illegal arrest of peaceful panhandlers - and must discipline any cop who continues to enforce a long-defunct law against begging, a...
HU$H, HU$H ON RATNER
Empire State Development Corp. officials, testifying before an Assembly committee yesterday, refused to divulge Bruce Ratner's expected profit on his nearly $4 billion Atlantic Yards project planned for Brooklyn. Citing...
QUEEN OF THE HILL; SEN. POLL VAULTS PAST RUDY, MCC
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has for the first time pulled ahead of potential GOP rivals Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain, according to a surprising new poll of the 2008...
PUTTING THE 'FUN' IN FUNERAL ; LAUGHTER & TEARS AS STARS SHARE MEMORIES OF BOYLE
Beloved actor Peter Boyle kept them laughing even at his memorial service in Manhattan yesterday. Humorous stories about the balding star of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Young Frankenstein" - who...
HOW TO INSURE EVERY NYER
New York can make sure all its residents have health insurance - if the government, business and individuals agree to kick in a combined $4.1 billion, a report to be...
CAR-INSURE $WITCHEROO
A group of con artists was nabbed yesterday for scamming car-insurance companies out of more than $1 million, authorities said. Eight taxi, limousine and school-bus company owners are accused of...
JURY SLAPS NYPD - '01 LOCKUP RULE ILLEGAL
A federal jury slapped the NYPD's wrist for an illegal written policy of arresting demonstrators in 2001 - but tossed claims that more than 300 protesters were wrongly cuffed over...
BADILLO LASHES LATINOS - RIPS HISPANIC VALUES
Herman Badillo has dropped a bombshell on his fellow Hispanics - charging that too many are mired in poverty because they don't value education. "Education is not a high priority...
BEERS & A SLINGSHOT FOR TEACH
A Brooklyn high-school teacher was sent home after he showed up for work drunk and got into an argument with a co-worker yesterday - then returned to the school with...
'HIT-RUN' PERP STILL IN JAIL
A Queens mechanic was held on a half-million dollars bail yesterday on charges he mowed down a 12-year-old boy and callously sped off. "I hope he rots in there," Jacob...
VANDAL WRECKS L.I. MENORAH
A young karate-kicking vandal trashed a large menorah on Long Island - but left the Nativity scene right next to it undamaged, officials said. The apparent hate crime in the...
EX-BEAU NABBED IN STAB
A ruthless Queens construction worker who was given the boot by his ex-girlfriend stabbed her to death in a fit of jealous rage, prosecutors said yesterday. Eric Johnson, 40, a...
TENN. MAN SLAIN IN B'KLYN
A Tennessee man who was visiting relatives in Brooklyn was found stabbed to death last night in an East Flatbush alley, police said. Justin Carney, 24, was in the passageway...
BX. MAN BUSTED IN SLAY OF 'MAURY' GUEST
A Bronx man has been arrested in the stabbing death last year of a woman who had appeared on "The Maury Povich Show" - and cops are eyeing him as...
THE GIFT OF LIFE; TINY HARRISON IN DIRE NEED OF MARROW DONOR
All this little boy wants for Christmas is a lifesaving bone-marrow transplant - but finding the right donor has become a race against time. The friends and family of Harrison...
A WHOLE NEW WAR - WILL AMERICA BACK THE PREZ?
PRESIDENT Bush will take to the nation's airwaves the first week in January with a speech announcing his new strategy in Iraq. His decision to delay the speech is, I...
'BOURNE' FORGOTTEN MAN SUES
A screenwriter says his role in the "Bourne Identity" is as hidden as the amnesiac spy's past - and is suing Warner Bros. for squeezing him out of the profits....
NETS, KIDD ARE GOLDEN
NETS 105 WARRIORS 97 There was the strange: Vince Carter was a role player and Bostjan Nachbar played meaningful fourth-quarter minutes. There was the familiar: Jason Kidd posted his fourth...
SURGERY FOR RJ?
Rest won't do it, Richard Jefferson said - making the option of surgery on his right ankle sound like a question of "when," not "if." "This is more of a...
HOT & COLD DEVILS WARM TO SUCCESS
The Devils have spun once around the sun since Larry Robinson resigned as coach. They're still on that strange trip, one wild year later. They stood 14-13-5 and out of...
A TOUCH OF CLASS
QUARTERBACKS A Chad Pennington (29-39, 339 yards, 1 TD, 1 INTs, 98.1 rating) orchestrated this victory. The ball was put in his hands against a Minnesota defense that is difficult...
STRAHAN MAY FACE SAINTS
GIANT NOTES Here comes Michael Strahan. After a series of starts and stops, false hopes and misinformation, the Pro Bowl defensive end, out the past six games with a mid-foot...
NO FINISHING TOUCH
QUARTERBACKS C- Accuracy not a problem for Eli Manning (28 of 40, 282 yards, two INTs), but not enough play-making and terrible decision on final in terception. His reluctance to...
GREEN CHRISTMAS ; JETS SEE THE LIGHT TO PLAYOFF HEAVEN
Who possibly could have fathomed when looking at the schedule at the beginning of this season, that Monday - Christmas night in Miami - would have such colossal playoff implications...
NO QUICK FIX IN OZO'S EXIT
Well, the Rangers have taken the inevitable step by placing Sandis Ozolinsh on waivers, but while excising the team's seventh defenseman will save approximately $1.55M in cap space, the move...
KNICKS STANDING BEHIND THOMAS
Isiah Thomas is the target of plenty of people, from George Karl, to Knicks fans and perhaps owner James Dolan. But his players are standing up for him. "We all...
COLLINS ABSOLVES COACH
Mardy Collins stood up for his coach yesterday, saying the hard foul he committed against Denver's J.R. Smith that led to Saturday's brawl at the Garden was not called for...
DESTINY'S WILD; GIANTS DON'T CONTROL OWN PLAYOFF FATE
Does anyone still believe the Giants will make the playoffs? "Yes I do, I think the New York Giants will be in the playoffs," linebacker Brandon Short said yesterday. Short...
MANGINI DISHES KUDOS
JET NOTES As he does after every win, Jet coach Eric Mangini yesterday announced his "players of the game," calling out receiver Laveranues Coles on offense, defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson...
INVISIBLE HEROES ; JETS DON'T STICK OUT ON NEW YORK RADAR
THE Jets don't gripe about touches and they don't snipe at their coaches and they don't generate hype by handing out contracts to sore-elbowed left-handed pitchers. They do not slip...
YANKS INK IGAWA DEAL
On the day Japanese left-hander Kei Igawa agreed to a four-year contract with the Yankees, and 24 hours before Andy Pettitte was slated for a team physical, GM Brian Cashman...
METS HIT ROAD FOR ZITO HUNT
The Mets must play well on the road to land Barry Zito. The Mets' front office will meet with Zito today, but the former Oakland ace apparently didn't want to...
SHAME OLD SAME OLD
IT'S ALL about the escalation, insisted David Stern yesterday, letting the instigator, Isiah Thomas, walk with only a $500,000 fine to the Knicks. That might be a lot to the...
COACHES FACING BANS AFTER BRAWL
H.S. HOOPS Yesterday's penalties, in the aftermath of the melee at Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and Nuggets on Saturday, weren't the only repercussions in the wake of basketball-related...
GOOD CHEER ; SPURRED BY FANS, STEPH STEPS UP
OVERTIME / BOX: P. 80Knicks 97Jazz 96 This is what Stephon Marbury desperately needed - a game-winning basket and wild cheers from the Garden crowd. Eight Knicks who did not...
KNICKS' FRANCIS: RACE A FACTOR
Steve Francis thinks there is a racial aspect to why the Knicks' brawl with the Nuggets has gotten so much coverage and why the penalties were so severe. "In other...
SOME 'STERN' PUNISHMENT - A SWING AND A MISS BY DAVID
IN ONE of his most critical at-bats in his nearly three decades as NBA commissioner, David Stern wilted under pressure and whiffed. Loaded with plenty of damaging concrete and circumstantial...
SOME 'STERN' PUNISHMENT - ISIAH DODGES NBA, BUT NOT DOLAN
Isiah Thomas escaped the wrath of commissioner David Stern for Saturday night's despicable Garden brawl, but not from Knicks owner James Dolan, whose club was fined $500,000 yesterday while four...
FLYING KIDD LIFTS TEMPO IN NETS' WIN
NETS 105 WARRIORS 97 There was the strange: Vince Carter in a role player's job and Bostjan Nachbar playing meaningful fourthquarter minutes. There was the familiar: Jason Kidd posted his...
JEFFERSON LIMPS AND NETS STALL
Rest won't do it, Richard Jefferson said, making the option of surgery on his right ankle sound more like a question of "when," not "if." "This is more of a...
COACHES FACING BANS
Yesterday's penalties, in the aftermath of the melee at Madison Square Garden between the Knicks and Nuggets on Saturday, weren't the only repercussions in the wake of basketballrelated violence in...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
A family in Midland, Texas, forgot one of the kids while they were Christmas shopping - and we mean forgot. They accidentally left a 3-month-old baby behind in a shopping...
HOTELS: In da club
Say hello to the only addition to the Relais & Chateaux U.S. collection for 2007 - Healdsburg, Calif.'s Les Mars Hotel.This kitschy (faux-Tuscan meets Medieval Times - really, it looks...