January 8, 2002
EARNINGS LOOK GOOD . . . BUT DON'T LET THE STOCK MARKET FOOL YOU AGAIN
FOR the third straight year, Wall Street is trying to sell you some January optimism. Investors know how the story ended in 2000 and 2001: early optimism sucked them into...
GAP BONDS FACE DOWNGRADE TO JUNK
The term junk has been used by some lately to describe Gap's merchandise - and it may apply soon to the retailers' bonds. Wall Street watchers are speculating that the...
TRADE SHOW'S GOT GADGETS
LAS VEGAS - A few too many burgers and fries pushed David Mansbery over the fast-food edge, and now he wants to strike a blow for home-cooked meals and against...
NERVOUS INVESTORS LOSE TASTE FOR STOCKS
Stocks snapped a three-day rally, falling yesterday on short-term profit concerns. Earnings reporting season starts next week, and although there have been far fewer profit warnings than in recent quarters,...
SEPHORA BOWS OUT OF BOW TIE
SEPHORA, the LVMH-owned beauty and cosmetics chain battered by losses worldwide, just sounded the trumpet of retreat in Times Square. The retailer has backed out of a deal to expand...
SAVVY TENANTS STALL DOWNTOWN LEASES
Potential tenants are stalling on signing leases Downtown in hopes of getting relocation benefits that haven't been approved yet. For tenants who want to relocate or renew below Canal Street,...
EARNINGS LOOK GOOD : POSITIVE PREANNOUNCEMENTS BY TECH FIRMS JUMP
Analysts are predicting an end to the crippling shortfalls in corporate earnings that plagued companies across the board last year. And that could mean the recent market rally could have...
CNBC WILL STAGE BIG SHAKE-UP
A shakeup is under way at CNBC to rearrange its faces on the screen in a bid to boost ratings. At least one anchor will be signing off - Bob...
IT'S ALL HAUTE-VER: SAINT LAURENT EXIT ENDS BATTLE WITH PINAULT AND GUCCI
The long-running feud between design legend Yves Saint Laurent and his new corporate masters is over. Saint Laurent announced yesterday that his couture show in Paris on Jan. 22 will...
ABC ENTERTAINMENT BOSS BLOOMBERG FIRED
The ABC honcho who over-used "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" ad nauseum got the boot yesterday. The Post had first reported the impending demise of Stu Bloomberg from his...
FAB 'SAM' JAM
VARIOUS ARTISTS "I Am Sam" V2 Records After The Beatles topped the charts last year with "1" - featuring all the band's No. 1 hits - the soundtrack to the...
TWO PREMIERES KICK OFF SEASON OF N.Y.C. BALLET
NEW YORK CITY BALLETAt the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, (212) 870-5570. Season runs through Feb. 24. THOSE who've called the New York City Ballet uninventive should look again....
BUZZ
Guitarist wanted Attention, rock star wannabes: Limp Bizkit's 22-city "Putting Your Guitar Where Your Mouth Is" tour hits New York's Guitar Center in Queens Jan. 28. The rap-metal band is...
KNIVES ARE OUT ...IN H'WOOD AND THE KITCHEN
"Hello, He Lied" Tonight at 8 on American Movie Classics 1/2 "A Cook's Tour" Tonight at 8 and 10:30 on Food Network Network 1/2 IN the '80s everyone wanted to...
STARR REPORT
And the 'Moral' of this story is . . . The TV industry is unbelievably predictable - until the unpredictable happens. That seems to be the case with "Moral Court,"...
DEAD DOGS HAUNT MOUSE HOUSE
AT least one animal-rights group wants Disney's family movie "Snow Dogs" to mush right out of theaters. The Sled Dog Action Coalition - ironically based in sunny Miami - has...
TRAVELER'S UPDATE
Twin peaks Getting to the slopes has never been easier or more affordable. Hunter Mountain, in conjunction with Amtrak and Saranac, a micro-brewery, is offering 20 percent off train fares...
AND THE WINNER IS... NOT HERE: WHY EVEN STARS ARE BORED OF COLLECTING TROPHIES
WHEN diehards like Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg fail to show up to accept awards for their pet projects - and millions of TV viewers follow suit - you know...
SWEAT LIKE THE DEVIL
To kick butt on the futuristic TV drama "Dark Angel," Valarie Rae Miller has to stay in shape. Really amazing shape. The 5-foot-5 stunner plays Original Cindy, the athletic lesbian...
MARY JO SEES FEW 9/11 TRIALS IN U.S.
So-called "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui may be the only person ever charged in the United States with a direct role in the Sept. 11 attacks, former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary...
MIKE'S 1ST HIT - & 1ST ERROR
READ his lips: No new stadiums. Michael Bloomberg yesterday said there would be no city money this year for the construction of new facilities for the Yankees and Mets. "At...
HOW MIKE CAN DIG OUT OF $4B HOLE
Mayor Bloomberg has enough fiscal power to blow away the $4 billion cloud that looms over City Hall, but it will force him to make some politically unpopular decisions. Several...
CRITICAL CARL GIVES GOV FAILING GRADES
ALBANY - State Comptroller Carl McCall yesterday proved a tough grader of Gov. Pataki, giving him a "report card" filled with "F's" and "D's." McCall, seeking the Democratic nomination to...
BLOOMY TAPS BUDGET BOSS TO PLUG THE GAP
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday named five more agency heads, including a 24-year government veteran as the city's new budget director. Bloomberg said the appointment of Mark Page, deputy director and general...
BUS STOP: QNS. DRIVERS STRIKE BACK
A brief wildcat strike yesterday by workers at three private Queens bus companies left thousands of passengers stranded - and set the stage for tense labor negotiations tomorrow. Hundreds of...
THE REAL WEST WING
WASHINGTON - Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz got just 10 minutes to shoot this historic photo of President Bush's war Cabinet for the cover of Vanity Fair's February issue. And if...
OKLA. BOMBER COULD FACE DEATH TRIAL
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court yesterday dealt another blow to Terry Nichols, clearing the way for Oklahoma prosecutors to try him in a death-penalty case on 160 counts of murder...
U.S. WARPLANES WALLOP BIN LADEN ARMS DEPOT
WASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes destroyed a huge cache of weapons belonging to Osama bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan as the Pentagon intensified efforts yesterday to take down the remnants of...
GROUND ZERO PANEL STILL 'LISTENING'
The head of the ground zero redevelopment panel yesterday said the group won't make decisions about rebuilding for at least "a month or two," as he heads to Washington today...
IT'S MILLER TIME AS RIVALS QUIT SPEAKER RACE
Gifford Miller won the race for City Council speaker yesterday after two rivals unexpectedly dropped out and threw their support behind him. After a flurry of late-night meetings and phone...
KELLY PEP TALK BOOSTS MORALE
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly held his first closed-door meeting with top departmental brass yesterday - mixing criticism about 11th-hour promotions by his predecessor with words of support for the task...
9/11 SCHOOL GHOULS - BOMB HOAXES SOARED AFTER WTC ATTACKS
Callous pranksters terrorized New York City schools by calling in a flood of bomb threats following the World Trade Center attacks, police crime stats show. The NYPD reported 307 bomb...
RUDY'S TAKEN MANHATTAN, NOW IT'S TIME FOR STATEN
Rudy Giuliani may soon be commuting to work on the Staten Island Ferry. The former mayor - who's now making big bucks in the private sector - has been house-hunting...
TEEN RAN $1M WEB SCAM: COPS
A 17-year-old high-school student was busted yesterday for ripping off $1 million from gullible investors in less than two months through an Internet scam, and pouring his earnings into a...
NUDE CORPSE FOUND IN BRONX
A man's naked body was found stuffed into two plastic garbage bags in The Bronx, police said yesterday - and an autopsy did not immediately reveal how he died. The...
KAMIKAZE TEEN 'WAS NO LONER': TEACHERS - DENY 'OUTGOING' KID'S OUTCAST IMAGE
Teen suicide pilot Charles Bishop was not the unpopular loner portrayed in the media, his teary-eyed teachers told reporters yesterday. The 15-year-old budding pilot who crashed a Cessna into the...
HOPE FOR PEACE AMID OUTRAGE - OTHERS RELIEVED BY COURT DECISION
The latest twist in a jagged trail of justice for a Jewish scholar killed during the 1991 Crown Heights race riots sparked shock and outrage for some, relief for others...
TWO FAMILIES HAVE FOUND REDEMPTION
PERHAPS they didn't see the photographs, the poignant pictures of peace, where the two men who lost the most stood arm-in-arm in friendship, and found a way to give. If...
MIKE BLOCKS THE PLATE ON NEW STADIUM PLANS
No matter what happens to the city's economy, no one will be breaking ground for new Yankee or Met baseball stadiums this year, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. "It's just not...
CAPTAIN OUTRAGEOUS - SEIZED SHIP'S BOSS DEFIANTLY PRO-MILITANT
JERUSALEM - The captain of an arms-smuggling ship seized by Israeli commandos said yesterday he's "proud" to take part in the "struggle" for Palestinian statehood. Omar Akawi, a PLO member...
PREZ IN NEW PUSH FOR ECONOMIC PLAN
WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday vowed to keep fighting for his economic-stimulus plan and its accelerated tax cuts - and challenged Democrats to stop "partisan bickering" and pass it. "America,...
CHALLENGE MAY BACKFIRE ON FEDS
If Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad appeals yesterday's Crown Heights decision to the Supreme Court, he'll risk opening the door to another issue that could scuttle the case completely, sources...
FEDS FIND $3M IN STOLEN ATM LOOT
FBI agents, searching for $5 million an ATM manager is suspected of stealing, have found $3 million in a deserted Florida house, an agency spokeswoman said yesterday. The cash, all...
HIS KILLER WAS JUST FOURTEEN - YOUNG ASSASSIN IS HUNTED IN 1ST U.S. COMBAT CASUALTY
WASHINGTON - Army commando Sgt. Nathan Ross Chapman, the first U.S. military casualty in Afghanistan from hostile fire, may have been killed by a 14-year-old boy in an ambush staged...
CROWN HTS. APPEAL COURT SHOCKER: JURY WAS RIGGED - NEW TRIAL ORDERED IN RACE-RIOT CASE
The two black men convicted in the death of Jewish scholar Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 Crown Heights riots won a new trial yesterday after a stunning federal appeals court...
CITY SCHOOLS' 'SHAME LIST' SHRINKS
A dozen low-performing city schools have been added this year to the state Education Department's list of failures. But the good news is that 19 other city schools have improved...
RULING MEANS MOE MONEY FOR STOOGES' HEIRS
WASHINGTON - As Curley used to say, "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk." A U.S. Supreme Court decision yesterday handed a sweet victory to the heirs of the Three Stooges. In yesterday's action,...
YSL ALWAYS A CUT ABOVE
It's one thing for a designer to have women love to wear his clothes. It's another for one to have outright disciples - especially when some of them are designers...
POLS DETERMINE IT'S MILLER TIME FOR CITY COUNCIL
Gifford Miller won the race for City Council speaker yesterday after two rivals unexpectedly dropped out and threw their support behind him. After a flurry of late-night meetings and phone...
MAN CHARGED WITH SECOND ROAD ASSAULT
A Long Island man has been charged with his second road-rage attack in a year - this time on a woman and her 13-year-old daughter, police said. But the man...
PICKING KILLER-MOM JURY COULD LAST MONTH
Texas lawyers yesterday began the painstaking process of picking 12 jurors who will decide whether killer mom Andrea Yates "had a heart filled with hate or a heart filled with...
MAG SNUB FOR HILL & CHUCK
WASHINGTON - Where's their power? New York senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer were left off a magazine's new rankings of the influential "Emerging Players" in Congress. The Congressional Quarterly...
YOUNG ASSASSIN IS HUNTED IN 1ST U.S. COMBAT CASUALTY
WASHINGTON - Army commando Sgt. Nathan Ross Chapman, the first U.S. military casualty in Afghanistan from hostile fire, may have been killed by a 14-year- old boy in an ambush...
BRASS SEES KNICKS HIT A NEW LOW
Spurs 90 Knicks 79 SAN ANTONIO - Cablevision's James Dolan said he's just on the trip to schmooze with the players, even got in a little golf before the game....
EXORCISE EDWARDS: THE SKY'S THE LIMIT - COACH SAYS THERE'S NO REASON GANG GREEN CAN'T GET ON A ROLL
This was a private moment in the euphoric moments following the Jets' scintillating 24-22, playoff-clinching victory over the Raiders on Sunday in Oakland. Vinny Testaverde approached Herman Edwards and congratulated...
A CASE OF SACKS-UAL ABUSE: LEAGUE: MIKE MARK SHALL STAND
Despite so much evidence that Brett Favre made like Denny McLain - who grooved the pitch for Mickey Mantle's 535th career home run - the NFL will not intercede and...
ISBISTER'S RESURGENCE KEEPING ISLES AFLOAT
Brad Isbister is as crucial to the success of the Islanders as any one on the roster. Riding shotgun on the top line with Alexei Yashin for most of the...
ARNOTT TAKES WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH
The issue was aired, but the air may not have been cleared. Jason Arnott will take Larry Robinson at face value when the coach says benching will apply to every...
FASSEL: I DIDN'T QUIT ON THE TEAM
GIANT NOTES Did Jim Fassel quit on his players when he decided not to call any time outs in the final three minutes of the Giants' 34-25 loss to the...
BANNED KENYON DOES THE CONTRITE THING
First Kenyon Martin accepted blame for his suspension. Then he refused to take Tracy McGrady's bait for verbal war. In his first practice since drawing a two-game ban for a...
WIZARD, KID AWAIT HALL'S CALL
THIS will be the day The Wizard and The Kid reach baseball immortality. This will be the day the Baseball Writers Association of America recognizes the role defense plays in...
A CASE OF SACKS-UAL ABUSE: NO INTEGRITY LEFT FOR FAVRE, STRAHAN TO SULLY
THERE are a lot of reasons to hate what went on in the closing gasps of Sunday's Giants-Packers game at the Meadowlands. But violation of the "integrity of the game"...
HERM SAYS HIS JETS OVERCAME A BUNDLE
Jets coach Herm Edwards met the media yesterday at Hofstra, still clearly emotional a day after Sunday's improbable 24-22 win over the Raiders that was as atypical a game as...
RILEY DREAMING OF SLAM-DUNC
IDEALLY, the best the Heat can hope to do this season is to repeat being swept in the first round of the playoffs and straggle to within one year of...
EVEN IN HOOPS 'CANE IS ABLE
If St. John's goes into tonight's game at Alumni Hall against Miami thinking the 'Canes will crack, think again. Over the last three seasons Miami (14-1 overall, 1-1) has played...
JUAN'S LEANIN' TOWARD O'S
Going . . . going . . . Juan Gone? Juan Gonzalez was expected to choose his new team last night, and it doesn't look good for the Mets. Despite...
SEE YA NEXT YEAR? QUESTIONS LOOM FOR BIG BLUE IN 2002
Early yesterday morning, Jim Fassel arrived at Giants Stadium and began the mental agony of replaying, in his mind, every game of the past season. One by one, Fassel thought...
LINCOLN COACH'S BAN: 1 GAME
Lincoln High basketball coach Dwayne Morton sat outside the High School of Telecommunication Arts & Technology in Bay Ridge in his SUV yesterday while his team went inside to play....
JUAN MORE DAY OF NO DECISION
It was another hectic day in the Great Gonzalez Chase yesterday. Sources told the Post that Baltimore jumped back in the mix, Texas fell out of favor and Juan Gonzalez...
DOLAN: I'M JUST HERE TO HELP
KNICK NOTES SAN ANTONIO - During this Knick crisis, Cablevision's James Dolan has actually shown leadership. Dolan, who joined the club for the first two days of this Texas swing,...
DEVS LOSE; TRADE NEAR
Kings 3Devils 2 Grading his underachieving Devils with a generous "C," coach Larry Robinson spoke as if he meant to flunk them in their midterm report. With a trade said...
GANG GREEN RETURNING TO 'BLACK HOLE'
JET NOTES Sunday morning, in the hours before the Jets' victory over the Raiders in Oakland, Vinny Testaverde told Herman Edwards he was willing to go to Japan to play...
LB LEWIS BRINGS MO TO TABLE IN THE CLUTCH
JET NOTES One player who's play has been rising with the stakes for the Jets this season has been linebacker Mo Lewis, who was all over the field making big...
DOLAN: I'M HERE TO HELP
SAN ANTONIO - During this most-recent Knick crisis, Cablevision's James Dolan has actually shown leadership. Dolan, who joined the club for the first two days of their Texas swing, has...
SINKING CHANEY TRYING TO WEATHER STORM
KNICK NOTES SAN ANTONIO - Don Chaney has urged his players to stay together during these trying times, otherwise they'll have no hope of getting out of what he termed...