March 27, 2003
IRAQ WAR BOON FOR FAST-FOOD NATION
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWAR may be good for TV viewership, but it's bad for just about every other business. And with the first quarter now drawing to a close, we'll soon be hearing...
BAND ON THE RUN ; ROCK-OBSESSED HEALTHSOUTH CEO FACES THE MUSIC
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe latest CEO to crack up in a multibillion-dollar, cooked-books scandal went over the edge from his obsession with rock-and-roll glamour. Richard Scrushy, 50, was a legend in the health...
ANTI-ARAB EXCHANGE: NASDAQ JOINS NYSE IN BANNING AL-JAZEERA
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNasdaq denied the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera credentials to broadcast from its offices yesterday - just two days after the New York Stock Exchange booted the network from its trading...
DUTCH PUBLISHER VNU TRIMS STAFF AT TRADE MAGS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThere is blood on the floor again for Dutch media giant VNU. The company said yesterday it is slashing its business trade magazine group in the United States by 2...
HUNGRY FOR CASH, MCDONALD'S TO SELL ITS RESTAURANT CHAINS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amCash-crunched McDonald's is looking to raise $1 billion by selling its three sister chains, including Boston Market. The world's biggest chain restaurant has been struggling to hold back damage from...
STYLISH SCAASI CUTS APT. PRICE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amARNOLD Scaasi's name isn't the only thing that's gone backward. Now the famed designer - originally Arnold Isaacs - has rolled back the price of his 12-room duplex apartment on...
WHY IS IT ALWAYS QUEENS?
March 27, 2003 | 5:00am"Regular Joe" Friday at 9:30 on WABC/Ch.7 1/2 RIGHT off, when you see a show is named "Regular Joe," you know that it must be: 1) set in Queens or...
OPERA TALK
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amYOU'VE seen them on "Frasier" - now hear them with the Phil.David Hyde Pierce and Harriet Harris, best known as Dr. Niles Crane and Frasier's bloodthirsty agent, Bebe, will make...
PORTRAYAL OF ISRAELI LEADER GOOD AS 'GOLDA'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amGOLDA'S BALCONY Manhattan Ensemble Theater, 55 Mercer St. Call (212) 239-6200. Through April 27. THE theater of celebrity impersonation grinds on. George Burns, Katharine Hepburn - and now Golda Meir,...
READY FOR A FIGHT; 'IDOL' MARINE TRAINS FOR ACTION IN IRAQ
March 27, 2003 | 5:00am'AMERICAN Idol" favorite, Lance Corp. Josh Gracin, is on 24-hour notice to be called up for active duty in the Iraq war. "Joshua has been very up front with us...
LAST HURRAH
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amHis album is called "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " - and the sales charts say 50 Cent has plenty to live for. He tops this week's album charts, while...
URBAN ROUGH RIDER; REPORTER BRAVES BULL
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amIT'S all about the bull. Anyone who's seen the movie "Urban Cowboy" remembers how Debra Winger looked riding that mechanical monster to a flushed, sweaty finish. Now the bull is...
WHAT'S LEFT FOR CONNIE: PBS?
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amSO what does Connie Chung do now - after walking away from $2 million a year? Chung, 56, left Monday after less than a year at CNN after new network...
DAVE'S BEEN OUT SICK FOUR WEEKS. HMMM
March 27, 2003 | 5:00am'LATE Show" viewers held hostage - Day 14! Fourteen guest hosts (counting Luke Wilson last night) have subbed for David Letterman since he took ill with a bad case of...
STARR REPORT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amBlitzer phones home on 'ET' CNN's Wolf Blitzer has developed a warm relationship with "Entertainment Tonight" while on assignment in Kuwait covering the war with Iraq. Blitzer has given "ET"...
THE KEYBOARDIST: RAP-LOVING BRODY IS PRETTY FLY FOR A WHITE GUY - AND A HELLUVA DEEJAY TOO
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amJUST call him A. Ranger. Adrien Brody's surprise Oscar triumph Sunday night will certainly transform his acting career, but the 29-year-old Queens native - who's long been moonlighting as a...
LANDING SCARE AT LA GUARDIA
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNine people were slightly injured last night sliding down an airliner's emergency chute at La Guardia Airport, Port Authority police said. A PA police spokesman said passengers aboard Air Tran...
FEDAYEEN FERRETS - DIRTY BAND DUBBED 'WAR CRIMINALS'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAngry U.S. officials accused the Iraqis yesterday of committing war crimes and employing an arsenal of dirty tricks on the battlefield - even using wounded children as a ruse to...
ANTIWAR OBSCENITIES
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amBULLETIN from the fever swamps of the Left: The administration might just plant weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Oh, and President Bush may cancel the 2004 election. These were...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amGeorgia lawmakers want to lock up restaurant owners who don't serve sweetened iced tea. A bill sponsored by Rep. John Noel (D-Atlanta) and four other pols would make it a...
OH, THAT HELP$: POLS 'TRIM' 1%
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAmid the most severe fiscal crisis in a quarter-century, the City Council announced yesterday that it plans to cut its own budget - by just 1 percent. "We're doing our...
TRIAL OPENS IN DEADLY COLLAPSE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amA construction-company owner went on trial for manslaughter yesterday, accused of greedily - and fatally - cutting corners on rehabbing an Upper East Side townhouse. Worker Antonio Romano, 40, died...
'SUNSET $TRIPPED'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe feds busted a high-profile bean-counter yesterday and charged him with embezzling $11.4 million from swanky Hollywood hotels owned by New York real-estate tycoon Andre Balazs. FBI agents arrested Kelly...
DOC ADMITS VEGANS' DIET 'STRANGE'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe diet that two vegans fed their baby was "very strange" and "not balanced," a doctor testifying on behalf of the Queens couple admitted yesterday. "I think it would be...
PEACENIKS PLANNING MEDIA BASH
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThousands of anti-war protesters promise "massive civil disobedience" in rallies around Rockefeller Center today - targeting corporate and media headquarters and forcing police to beef up already heightened security. Organizers...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amBROOKLYN * A father and son have been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a man in Brighton Beach, and cops are searching for two other suspects. According...
COUNCIL NAILS BILL-POSTING TREE VANDALS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amYou've got to be a sap to deliberately harm a tree, which is why the City Council passed a bill yesterday doubling the fine for nailing or stapling posters onto...
IBM BIG SON-BURNED - 'SCAM' DAD HEADS CYBER SECURITY
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe father of the 17-year-old alleged hacker arrested on Long Island in a $100,000 credit-card computer scam is a security maven for IBM - who specializes in fighting hackers. Suspect...
MIKE IN NEW BID TO KO PARTY VOTES
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg is taking another stab at pushing through nonpartisan elections in New York City. The mayor yesterday appointed Frank Macchiarola to head a new Charter Revision Commission to revise...
'FAKE LAWYER' CHARGED IN 50G SCAM
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amA phony Bronx lawyer exposed by The Post was slapped with grand-larceny, fraud and impersonation charges yesterday. Latrice Grant, 33, faces up to 15 years on charges she duped two...
GIS KILLED WITH HANDS IN THE AIR
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. officials are carefully studying reports that at least three GIs were "executed" - shot between the eyes - after surrendering with their hands in the air to...
YANKS IN MAJORS OF ALBANY LOBBY $$
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amALBANY - With help from the Yankees and the city's teachers, New York saw a record $92 million spent last year on lobbying state lawmakers, a new report shows. As...
DESIGNATED DRIVER IS GUILTY IN DWI SLAYS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe designated driver in a group that partied in Manhattan last year has been convicted of manslaughter for killing his girlfriend and another woman in an alcohol-fueled crash on the...
MAN NABBED AFTER HOSPITAL STANDOFF
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amIn an emergency room standoff out of the Hollywood movie "John Q," a Long Island man - distraught that his beloved 87-year-old aunt was critically injured in an operating-room accident...
GROUNDING SOLDIERS WHO DEFENDED THEIR HOMES WITH GUNS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAIR FORCE serviceman Manuel Falquez wants to join his comrades in Iraq - but if called to duty, he'd be held back for putting a bullet between the eyes of...
SAND-BLASTED SOLDIERS CIRCLE THEIR WAGONS TO SIT OUT STORM
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWith the 54th Engineering Battalion, on the road to Baghdad, south of An Najaf THE war rages nearby but they can't do anything about it. They're bogged down in a...
POSTWAR REVENGE WILL MAKE THE FRENCH TOAST
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWHEN President Bush flew to Florida yesterday, Air Force One's menu featured "stuffed freedom toast" since F- - - -h is now a dirty word, but the broader question is...
LOOPHOLE'S THE WORD FOR FREED HOAX GUY
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amA carpet salesman facing a possible life sentence for sparking a fake anthrax scare was let off the hook yesterday because of one word in his threatening note. Bharat Dewansingh...
17K KIDS WANT OUT OF POOR SCHOOLS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amSome 17,000 parents of kids stuck in low-performing city public schools have demanded transfers to better schools, and 33,000 have requested free tutoring services, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's office reported...
KNIFE FIGHT - BUT THE 7TH CAVALRY'S KNIVES ARE LONGER
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNO unit in the war thus far has fought longer and harder than the U.S. Army's 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry. They have been in constant combat for three...
2 MIGHTY U.S. M-1A1S KNOCKED OUT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Iraqi paramilitary forces destroyed two U.S. Army M-1A1 Abrams tanks in a ferocious battle southwest of Baghdad this week, marking the first time ever that the United States...
UNDERCOVER COPS LEAVING IN FORCE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNearly 200 city undercover cops - more than half the elite force - have told Police Commissioner Ray Kelly they want out and are being reassigned. The mass exodus comes...
PUFF-SNUFF HUFF - STATE'S SMOKING BAN NIXES CITY'S EXEMPTIONS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amGov. Pataki yesterday reluctantly signed a stringent statewide ban on smoking in public places - just minutes after the Legislature overwhelmingly passed the controversial measure. The statewide ban will supercede...
CITY, MTA ON ROAD TO A DEAL
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe city is expected to "gradually hand over control" of the private commuter bus lines to the MTA, sources said yesterday. City officials and MTA reps have not finalized the...
POWELL TO U.N.: BUTT OUT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday vowed that America won't turn over control of Iraq to the United Nations - and a French veto - after Saddam Hussein...
LAPTOP LARCENIST HUNTED ; CAMERAS SPY BURGLAR ON SPREE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPolice are hunting for a man who has made off with thousands of dollars worth of laptops and other computer equipment in a string of daring Upper West Side burglaries....
$13M CITY TEACH-HIRE PROPOSAL
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amDespite the fiscal crisis, the city plans to hire 272 new teachers to help reduce class sizes in its trouble-plagued middle schools, according to a report released yesterday. Mayor Bloomberg...
LOGAN ALLY PEPE RUNS OUT OF TIME
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMichael Pepe, the Time Inc. executive who engineered the company's $1.6 billion acquisition of British publisher IPC, is leaving the company in April. Pepe was a close ally of Don...
PSYCHO KILLER REWARD NOW 20G
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe reward for the capture of the psycho killer who has coldly executed six shopkeepers in Brooklyn and Queens in two months has been boosted to $20,000, Police Commissioner Ray...
FEEDING THE INNOCENT - ALLIES START HANDING OUT FOOD AND WATER
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The first trucks filled with food and water rolled into Iraq yesterday as American and British troops helped relief workers hand out tens of thousands of CARE packages...
CYANIDE TERROR ALERT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The FBI warned field agents yesterday that terrorists could try to poison Americans with a milk container or paint-can full of cyanide or chlorine gas. In the same...
CAPITOL HILL AND HELL'S KITCHEN NEVER KNEW A FINER MAN
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Pat Moynihan was one of the greatest senators in American history, a citizen-intellectual who could be the gentlest of men but also tough as nails - as befits...
JOEL GETS TOUGH ON 'PRINCIPAL'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amSchools Chancellor Joel Klein wants the power to transfer principals and other administrators to any school in the system - a proposal that immediately drew fire from their union. Last...
THE GRAND N.Y. TRADITION
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPAT Moynihan knew the Thomas E. Dewey State Thruway better than most New Yorkers know their subway stations. Once the senator stopped by The Post, as he did occasionally, and...
SARS DEATH TOLL AT 34 IN CHINA
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amFor the first time, Chinese government officials revealed yesterday that 34 people have died and 792 became ill from the mysterious flu-like ailment known as SARS. The new numbers raised...
AMERICANS MOURN THE LEGEND WHO WAS SENATE'S CONSCIENCE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amFormer Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the brainy, iconoclastic politician who became the dean of New York's congressional delegation, died yesterday in Washington at age 76. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who...
RAP POP'S POT GETS KID BUSTED
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amThe 11-year-old son of rap impresario Damon Dash was busted after bringing what he said was his father's pot to school and showing it to his teacher, his mom told...
AIRBORNE GETS DROP ON SADDAM: REPUBLICAN GUARD RACING TOWARD SHOWDOWN
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - More than 1,000 American paratroopers dropped into northern Iraq last night to open up a new front, while a column of fierce Republican Guards desperately rushed south from...
U.S. TROOPS TAKE NORTHERN FRONT: SEIZE AIRFIELD IN KURDISH REGION -- ALLIES WIN KEY CITY IN SOUTH -- 16,000 MORE TROOPS GULF-BOUND
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMore than 1,000 U.S. paratroopers landed in northern Iraq last night to open up a new front against Saddam Hussein. The paratroopers, from the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy, seized...
CITY WATER CUP RUNNETH OVER
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNew York City is all wet. City reservoir levels have reached 100 percent, marking the first time since April 2001 that the reservoir system has been full, according to Christopher...
FEDS: B'KLYN DUO WERE 'MOVED' TO EXTORTION
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amTwo moving-company operators brought their customers' nightmares to life by holding their belongings hostage until they paid wildly jacked-up rates, federal prosecutors told a Brooklyn jury yesterday. Avinoam "Avi" Damti...
UNDERCOVERS COP OUT : HALF OF OFFICERS ASK TO BE REASSIGNED
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNearly 200 city undercover cops - more than half the elite force - have told Police Commissioner Ray Kelly they want out and are being reassigned. The mass exodus comes...
FEDAYEEN FERRETS: DIRTY BAND DUBBED 'WAR CRIMINALS'
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAngry U.S. officials accused the Iraqis yesterday of committing war crimes and using an arsenal of dirty tricks on the battlefield. They charged Saddam Hussein's troops had feigned surrender and...
U.S. TROOPS TAKE NORTHERN FRONT : SEIZE AIRFIELD IN KURDISH REGION ALLIES WIN KEY CITY IN SOUTH MISSILES HIT BAGHDAD CIVILIANS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAbout 1,000 U.S. paratroopers landed in northern Iraq last night to open up a new front against Saddam Hussein. The paratroopers, from the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy, seized a...
KIDD'S SHOT AMAZES
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNET NOTES The shot was probably harder than those "Win a Free Trip to Ecuador" contest attempts. Jason Kidd drove the left side after one of the Knicks' fourth-quarter turnovers....
STRANGERS ARE BAD FIT: BLUESHIRT OFFENSE NOT WORTH A DIME
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amEIGHTY million dollars couldn't buy the Rangers more than one goal last night against a team that had not won in 16 games. They faced a better lineup in Mystery...
KNICKS KEEP EYE ON HOUSTON, KURT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAllan Houston had his right leg outstretched on a locker-room bench, ice under his hamstring. On the other side of the room, Kurt Thomas got edgy with reporters asking about...
VELAZQUEZ BRACES FOR DUBAI TRIP
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amJockey John Velazquez was full of apprehension yesterday at Aqueduct about his trip to the Middle East, where he'll ride Harlan's Holiday in Saturday's $6 million Dubai World Cup. But...
IT'S A SCHLOPY ENDING
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amERIK Schlopy, a Burke Mountain Academy grad who was born in Buffalo and now lives with his wife in Manhattan, put an end to Bode Miller's bid to become the...
TIGER-PHOBIA GRIPS TPC
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPONTE VEDRA BEACH - The gap was supposed to be narrowing. It wasn't that Tiger Woods was falling back to the rest of the world golf pack; the players chasing...
KRAUSER GIVES PITT FIGHTIN' CHANCE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPittsburgh's backup point guard Carl Krauser was willing to fight his way out of the north Bronx - literally. He laced up the gloves, won his first two amateur fights...
INJURY KOS MADDEN
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amTAMPA - The timing is terrible for the Devils. Again. Last year it was Scott Gomez who, burning up the league in the second half alongside Bobby Holik, broke his...
DON'T WORRY ABOUT ALOMAR
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - He's been told there will be no contract extension put on his table. He's heard his name in a variety of trade rumors, including a blockbuster...
MEMORIES OF MCGUIRE NEVER TOO FAR AWAY
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMINNEAPOLIS - Sometimes, Hank Raymonds can still hear the voice, still so full of Rockaway Beach, still so full of Irish wiseguy, and his old man's saloon, and the playgrounds...
YANKS: IT'S JUAN & DONE ; LONGSHOT ACEVEDO GETS CHANCE TO BE THE CLOSER
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amST. PETERSBURG - Two months ago, Juan Acevedo's options were: 1) Sign a major league deal with the White Sox to be a set-up man; 2) Take a minor league...
STORM PUMPED UP FOR SECOND SEASON
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amLast week St. John's insisted it was taking the NIT seriously, that its goal was to bring another championship to Queens. Tonight, the Red Storm are just 40 minutes away...
NO PITT STOPS YET ; PANTHERS VOW TO MOVE ON
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMINNEAPOLIS - Teams sometimes console themselves with hollow mantras of fate: We weren't ready to win this year. We were missing something. It wasn't our time. It wasn't our year....
YASHIN'S EMERGING ; RIGHT ON TIME
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amYou've got to hand it to Alexei Yashin. His timing is impeccable. But you have to wonder where the Islanders would be today had No. 79 sooner discovered whatever has...
GM KNOWS SCORE ON PIAZZA APPEAL
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMET NOTES JUPITER, Fla. - The word "snafu" entered the English language due to situations like the Mets had on Tuesday night. GM Steve Phillips optioned catcher Jason Phillips to...
KY., WISCONSIN MAKING NOISE AT RIGHT TIME
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMINNEAPOLIS - In their own worlds, in their own ways, they are twins, having taken similar paths to the Sweet 16, to the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Regional. Wisconsin was picked...
TORRE'S RIGHT MAN TO HANDLE TEAM TURMOIL
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amST. PETERSBURG - During Old Timer's Day in 1998, David Wells, in full uniform, went to George Steinbrenner's Yankee Stadium office, walked in with a dozen baseballs to be signed...
SEAVER SAYS CONE SHOULD START SEASON IN FLORIDA
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amMets 11 Cardinals 0 JUPITER - The Mets' opener is only four days away and David Cone still doesn't know where he is going to the start the season. Tom...
LEBRON GIVES GUND EARLY NBA PREVIEW
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amCLEVELAND - It now seems to be just a foregone conclusion. After starring in last night's McDonald's All- American Game at Gund Arena, LeBron James was asked if he could...
JOE PLAYS IT SAFE WITH MO'S INJURY
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amYankees 15D-Rays 3 ST. PETERSBURG - Mariano Rivera reported his right groin felt better yesterday than it did Tuesday and that it was nowhere near as serious as last year's...
JERSEY STEPS UP
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amFOR nearly 3½ quarters of last night's game at the Meadowlands, you couldn't tell the team that was firmly in the playoffs from the team that was trying desperately to...
GARDEN DISGRACE
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amPenguins 3Rangers 1 It will stand as one of the most ghastly losses in franchise history, of that there is no question. There is no kinder, gentler analysis of the...
DESPERATE DAYS ; NETS PILE MORE DIRT ON KNICKS' PLAYOFF HOPES
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNets 101Knicks 95 With the games dwindling to a precious few and the noose on their playoff chances growing ever tighter, the Knicks came to the Meadowlands last night desperate...
EX-RANGER SINGIN' THE BLUES IN PITT
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAnd then, down at the other end of the locker room corridor, we find Mikael Samuelsson, once a Ranger and now a Penguin, one of four Blueshirt$ sacrificed in the...
CROSSROADS FOR NETS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amWHILE losing 13 of 21 games since the All-Star break before last night's game against the Knicks may have shaken the Nets' firm standing atop the Eastern Conference, it hasn't...
ALLAN'S NIGHTMARE : KITTLES D-PENDABLE VERSUS HOTSHOT HOU
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAllan Houston explained that you have some of those nights, you know? Only the third Knick ever to have multiple 50-point games in the same season, Houston said you have...
KOVALEV'S RETURN A BIG OLD BUST: ALEXEI IS PLAYING SAME OLD GAME
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amALEXEI Kovalev has come back to the Rangers almost exactly the way he left them. With airheaded passes along both bluelines that too often send the puck the other way....
COLLEGES BACK OFF ON LEBRON
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amCLEVELAND - Dru Joyce II used to get the calls quite frequently. Some of them came from agents, others, he wasn't quite sure who they were. But as the days...
SKED COULD FAVOR KNICKS
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amAfter last night's game at the Meadowlands, the Knicks still have 10 to go and the schedule, compared to those of Milwaukee and Washington, appears to work in their favor....
MUTOMBO WILL START
March 27, 2003 | 5:00amNET NOTES Dikembe Mutombo is coming back, likely on Saturday night. And eventually, he will start again. Net coach Byron Scott says that's the way it should be. So does...